I'm starting to wish I was a man only for the fact that I could dress in drag.

I went to my first drag queen show at IBT's in Tucson, Az and it was amazing!  It was fun and drastic! These ladies are full of wit and fabulousness!

I'm addicted.

It's all about fun and being you and being comfortable in your own skin. No rules you just live your life how you want. 

Just do you being you!

I was not quite sure what to expect.  How gaudy would the outfits be? How obvious will it be that these are men in dresses? I left all of that go and just watched the show.  These ladies had amazing legs! I was jealous.  

You could totally tell they were amazing performers and loved what they did!

My sister-in-law who took my friend and I out, and told the "hostess with the mostest" about how we went to Catholic school, and this was our first show.  They loved it and poked fun at un-sheltering us to society.  I loved the engagement with the crowd and they worked every angle! With the occasional audience participation, shock value sells!

It was tons of fun, with lots of dancing afterwards.  I will for sure be going to more shows and hopefully making a traditional night out and about with it!!

I am over being self-conscious.

I “officially” decided this when I went to Boston.  My friends took me to a beautiful beach in Rhode Island. 

However I am finding that self confidence is a difficult thing to maintain!

This is most often seen in the questions most women (and men) ask themselves when they get ready for the beach.

• Which Bathing Suit should I bring?
• Should I bring a one- piece? and if I don’t should I bring shorts?

Once I had arrived at the beach I was nervousness and had to pep talk myself into taking my clothes off and leaving myself wearing only my bikini.

I had finally won the war I had been having with myself and society with these three arguments.

1. I know no one here, and seriously no one is going to pay attention to me, they are busy with their own life as I am mine. Those who do pay attention to me and judge me harshly (which is ultimately what we are all afraid of) are not worth my time.
2. There are all sorts of body shapes, styles, colors, heights and widths. Of course there are going to be people in better shape than you as well as “less socially acceptable” than you. Our bodies are constantly changing! So love your body because it’s yours, and if you can’t love your own, then who else can?
3. I will have more fun once I am able to just let go and not worry.

We’ve all heard this before, But these are the things that always stuck out to me, and have really planted themselves in my brain.
These points are the most realistic and simple.  Making them the easiest to follow.  I try to apply this to everything, and it’s becoming easier!

I’ve spent time with friends who are constantly concerned with what they were going to look like because of what everyone else thought of them, not even paying attention to what they think of themselves.  In the end, They didn’t think anything of themselves! I was noticing that when I was around specific people, their constant worry, and their concern with looks was rubbing off on me when I was with them.  It felt like a competition more than a friendship.
Sadly those friends are no longer. 

I am not going invest energy and time into people who are constantly judging me. I am confident in myself I don’t want someone who is going to take that happiness away from me.

I am not perfect, no one is, and never will be.  Why is it that we keep striving to be?

In the end I had a Blast! and was able to relax and I was present in mind and body!

So next time you go to the beach, or get ready for a night out, or are simply going to class. Be yourself so you can have fun!! Because you’re already amazing.

Hi I’m Ann and I think I may be addicted to Video Games,

Now I should distinguish that I think I’m more of  a “recovering” Video game addict. I have spent countless hours playing WoW, Little Big Planet, Metal Gear, Star Wars Battlefront, and more.  Not to mention I too, was sucked into farmville and all those silly Facebook, and flash games. Of course it got in the way of my life! I was doing no good in school (although that the video games were a direct link is still under investigation) and my friends would have to physically pick me from my room for me to leave. I played ALL the time.

I have always enjoyed simply sitting there and watch people play game as well.  I love watching people play! To me it's almost as good as playing myself.

Once I graduated High School I aimed for a change, that I would not spend 15/24 hours a day playing games. I succeeded. I hardly played anything for a long time. I still kept up with reviews and the latest.   And I still watched people play games while I multi-tasked, cause I thought I could attempt to get something done while still enjoying them.

Here is where my realization of game addiction occurred.

My friend Gary was not feeling well, and went to lay down.  Now as a lot of people know there was the Sony fiasco with hackers and down servers blah, blah.  So once that was over along with the Welcome Back program I needed to change my PSN password and download some games! (I never turn anything down that’s free!)

My friend who was online at the time just got Killzone 3, and was not leaving it. So I thought hmm Killzone does sound pretty good, and I played #2. My aiming was bad, and I had to get used to it, since I haven’t played (especially FPS) in a very long time.  Even then I thought I was unstoppable.

I did this for hours.  It’s like nothing else in the world is happening.

So Gary had gone to the store for.. I don’t even know how long.  I didn’t even notice he left! HA! All I know was I was still playing and he walked in through the front door. When I said "Umm Where did you go??" He responded with he had went to WalMart three hours ago.

For the next few days I was obsessed with wanting to finish the game! It's all I would think of.

I started thinking, maybe myself playing video games is a problem.

I have to try super hard not to let games consume my time! I don’t think they are bad, obviously I love them.  However with my super busy hectic school schedule I cannot afford to get sucked in.

This is very common that once you start a game you have to finish it, and there is much time involved, it’s the nature of video games. I am not nearly as bad as some people I know… But the potential for me to become just like them is strong.

So now I have to take a different approach to gaming.  I cannot simply run out buy a game and beat it.  I have follow some rules.

1. I cannot have anything going on in terms of school. So no games while classes are in session.
2. I have to give myself a time limit. (Usually about 3 hours per day. but this depends on what is going on.)
3. I have to have the available funds. (No favors for games! :P )
4. I have to remember there is more to the world than games.

I tested these rules with Portal 2, and was successful!! I just set aside a weekend and knocked it out.

So now I am following these rules with Diablo III.  Although in a multiplayer setting these rules are much much harder to follow!

It takes the support of you friends while I am still fighting the battle of addiction.

How much time do you spend gaming?

Gary and I (along with Sally) went hiking at Catalina State Park!

It was so fun and it was awesome to spend time in the beautiful outdoors with Gary.  The day was amazing just the right amount of cloudy, and not too hot, but not too cold.  We had a bit of a problem finding somewhere to go hiking… seeing as most places don’t allow dogs anymore.  There were issues with mountain lion attacks among people hiking with their dogs.

I originally wanted to go to Pima Canyon trailhead, it’s my favorite place to hike! It’s mostly kinda uphill and places you at a little higher elevation so you have this panoramic view of Tucson worth more than one thousand words.  You can see from NW to east.

Upon arrival the sign read, “No pets”  :(

So the search began! We went a couple places and finally I called my Sister-in-law Colleen, she took her dog hiking all the time. So she Googled away! and we settled on Catalina State Park.

Not that this is anything short of expectations, it was still a wonderful park. There was the one trail, that split into two. The one that forks to the right didn’t allow dogs after 1 mile, so we went on “The Canyon Loop” I haven’t taken this trail before.

It looped back to the parking lot. It went flat then downhill, and back uphill slightly to the parking lot level. The trail lead to a stream, and Sally had so much fun! She loves the outdoors more than I do, and likes to play in water 

We took a break and Sally went running through the stream.

We hiked about 3 mi, and then had a nice lunch at Nico’s. It was super windy at times!

This is a good hike for people who want something easy, short, and quick, especially if bringing their dogs is super important to them!

Anyone know of other trailheads in Tucson/ Southern Az that allows dogs?