Marno loves Halloween

Halloween has come and gone and somehow it is already November 4th. What. I don't get time. It's not even a thing anymore.

This Halloween was not as eventful as last year's party-all-week-long-extravaganza, but it was fulfilling all the same.

Tuesday, my boss gave me two lil white squash for me to carve. Such a sweet lady. Luh her. So that afternoon I got home, pumped up some Nightmare Before Christmas jams, and got to carving...

Oogie Boogie (left) & Jack Skellington (right)

As a huge fan of the Nightmare before Christmas, Oogie and Jack were obvious choices to carve into the little white squash.

After carving those lil guys, I HAD to carve a normal sized pumpkin. So I ran up the street to Safeway, picked up one of the five pumpkins they had (seriously, their pumpkin selection was suuuuper disappointing), and ran home.

I then proceeded to take half an hour to decide what I would carve into it. I narrowed my choices down to Lock, Shock, and Barrel (from the Nightmare Before Christmas), a classic jack-o-lantern, a scary jack-o-lantern, the Deathly Hallows, or the scene from the Nightmare Before Christmas when Jack is on top of the super Tim Burtoney spiral hill thing. I went with the hill thing...

Oh Jack. So dramatic.

The process of carving this bad-boy was not easy. Like the idiot I am, I didn't buy any pumpkin carving tools. So all I had to use were regular ol' kitchen knives. That definitely made the small details much more difficult than they should have been. The large hole and the hill were simple enough. 

Carving Jack on the other hand, was as dramatic as he is. He is so skinny and dramatic! The first carving of him was so bad I just chopped him off and carved a separate one (pictured above) and stuck him into the pumpkin with a toothpick. That is why his left leg is much wider than his right leg; I had to make it large enough so I could stick the toothpick through it. Zero was also stuck in with a toothpick which had to be done since he's a floating ghost dog and all.

I feel super Halloweenie when I carve pumpkins. Something about the smell of the freshly carved pumpkin and the fear of slicing my hand off really gets me in the spirit of the season.

The other thing that I cannot go a Halloween without doing is dressing up. This year I made my costume all the way back in August when I had nothing to do. I figured, I'm usually scrounging around and making last-minute costumes because Halloween is always during midterms so I might as well have fun and make it when I have time. No regrets there. 

Also, totally not saying that my Halloween costumes aren't usually on point just because of the lack of time. My Dorothy costume last year was da bomb. I made the skirt and suspenders by hand out of a $3 mens shirt. Yeah. I'm a crafty bitch. DIY QUEEN~~~

Back to this year... I was Lumpy Space Princess from the ~mathematical~ show, Adventure Time. (If you don't watch the show, then you most likely did not get that reference. I'm sorry. Watch the show. You won't regret it. Unless you hate it. Then I'm more sorry.)

Fabulously lumpy, I know.

I made the dress out of a $5 dress off Amazon and a bunch of tulle I basically stole from Joanne's thanks to a super great coup. I hot glued it all on in about 2 hours. (I only know the time frame because I started and completed it while watching a movie. The Zodiac, if you were wondering. Available on Netflix. 9/10 I'd recommend. And no this is not a sponsored post. Pah. I wish.) I couldn't feel my fingertips for the rest of the day. Tulle is really hard to hot glue without getting it on your fingers! That shit just oozes on through!

I got the wig off Amazon for $16. Once again, highway robbery. A wig of that quality can reach upwards of $80. Absurdity. I cut the bangs myself. Definitely made the look. 

I topped the costume with a yellow star cut out of a Forever21 shopping bag. Sturdier than paper. Yeah, I know I'm a genius. You don't need to tell me. 

I'm also wearing my purple flats, but you can't see them in the picture. 

Halloween day, I had class from 9am to 10:30am and then another class from 6pm to 8pm. Bust. Also, I couldn't wear the complete outfit I had planned in the morning because I had to dress as a stupid news anchor for Media Performance. I did wear a cute outfit for my news report though.

SPOILER ALERT: 

I'm going to post this sometime this week as a #latergram #ootd post on Instagram. Don't tell. 

blazer & scarf: my roommate Kiley's closet
tank & skirt: H&M
tights: idk, Target?
shoes: pretty sure Target

After class, I went home, took off the blazer, changed from my tank into my Nightmare Before Christmas tee, and threw on my black cardigan. Sorry I don't have a pic.

After my night class, I went home and changed into my LSP costume. It was great. My roommates, my friend Vanessa, and I all dressed up and took pictures and then changed into comfy clothes (typical) and watched American Horror Story. It was a grand ol' time. 

Some pictures pre-comfy clothes...

(from left to right) Vanessa- squirrel; Boccia- cat; Cierra- biker chick;
 me- lump off, Mom; Kiley- Mary Poppins; Bailey- leopard

Overall, a pretty great Halloween. Costumes, candy, comfort, craziness, cackling (aka laughter... I'm really pulling for the alliteration right now guys). Some of my favorite things.

I hope your Halloween was as sweet as mine!

I would LOVE to hear about your costumes! Let me know in the comments below :)

P.S. I want to dye my hair lavender even more now. UGH.

Marno loves being done with midterms

My midterms are finally over! Except for a PSA group project...
But I'm not going to think about that at the moment because I've got these bad boys to eat...

 

And these shows to watch...

And you best believe I'll be drinking at least two cups of this deliciousness...

Happy Friday! 

Marno loves taking walks to brunch

Long story short: Dacia and I walked to The Village Grill in West Portal and ate brunch this morning.

The reason why is the long story.

It all started on Tuesday when we had lunch from the Señor Sisig food truck at school (I will write another post one day about my love for food trucks, I promise). After eating our humongous meals we both felt pretty poopy about ourselves/tummies/life so we decided we would go on a walk on Saturday. Our plan was to meet up after I got off work and walk to the beach (approximately 6 miles round trip from Dacia's house).

That is not what happened, as you can probably infer from the post title and the short story version of this post.

What did happen was I got off work, rode the bus home, started getting hungry, walked to Dacia's house, and then recommended we walk to go get brunch instead of the beach. Dacia approved of this idea and the deed was done.

So instead of being "athletic" (or at least attempting to be), we ate more. But liiiiike... Cut us some slack. At least we walked to brunch. We could have taken the MUNI. We could have just consumed more calories and felt poopy. Instead we consumed calories, burned some calories (although probably not enough to cover the brunch), and only felt a little poopy. But that poopiness was mainly from being tired from the walk so that's acceptable.

What I'm trying to say is, we are chubby girls that like to eat. And we aren't about to change our ways. What we will change, however, is the amount of movement we do to attempt to even out the calorie consumption to calorie burning ratio. We're trying, okay?

Now let's get to the part of the story that everyone has been waiting for... the goods.

As mentioned previously above, The Village Grill is located in West Portal in San Francisco. It is a ~ma and pop restaurant~ with a diner counter that guests can sit at. Dacia and I sat at the counter and it was a pretty fantastic experience. We were acting like total goons, as usual, which resulted in our lil baby waiter loving us. He lol'ed a few times. It was great.

The exceptional atmosphere and service was matched with some reeeaaal tasty foods.

I ordered an Irish Breakfast which consisted of two eggs (I got mine scrambled), Irish bacon (ham), sausage, pudding (little round meat things), beans, and potatoes.

This was my first Irish breakfast, but will definitely not be my last. I loved it.
The only thing I was not too fond of were the lil pudding patty thingies.
Not gross, but not my favorite.

Dacia ordered a Belgian waffle with fresh fruit and whipped cream.

Dacia: "I mean, it had a smiley face on it. How is not going to be good. Like, it had a banana nose.
Really, I mean, I could have gotten a regular Belgian waffle but it didn't have the whipped cream.
And like, this one had whipped cream and fresh fruit, but I was really only in it for the whipped cream.
So I tried to eat as much fresh fruit as I could so they knew I wasn't only in it for the whipped cream...
Even though I was."
Leslie Knope would be proud.

We also got a side of bacon to share that is pictured in both photos above. Obviously delicious. I dipped my pieces in syrup. Because... DUH.

To drink, Dacia got coffee and both of us got orange juice which was so fresh I am convinced they have an orange tree in the back. It tasted so fresh it was as if they squeezed the oranges right into my glass. I swear. Also, the inside of the orange on my plate was the exact same color as my oj. YOU KNOW orange juice is fresh and pure and perfect when it is the same color as an actual orange. That's when it's the real stuff. Real deal ~juice of the orange.~

Overall, brunch was a success. The walk wasn't too bad, either. We gazed at all the houses in West Portal and imagined the people that live in them and the kind of lives that they lead. The usual.

We walked by one house and we could hear the theme song from Indiana Jones coming through the window. We yelled, "YAAAYYYYY INDIANA JONES!" towards their house and ran away like little school girls. Another house was being decorated for Halloween. We complimented their large spider web.

So basically, we made people's days. No big. Dacia and Michelle, boosting the self-esteems of home-owners everywhere. And when I say everywhere, I really just mean West Portal. Okay, a small part of West Portal. OKAY. Like two streets. But whatever! We made people's days better while working off our food babies and it was great!

I loved it. I love brunch and I love walks with good friends.

After the walk home, I picked up my laptop and some school things and headed back over to Dacia's house. We've been doing homework/procrastinating/singing all day. (I'm currently in one of the procrastinating moments.)

I'm really enjoying Dacia's and my friendship. Also, I know Dacia is reading this, so... Hi Dacia! Yay friendship! Lolol but really. Today has been a really fun day (so far...) and I'm so glad we're becoming such good friends. I love friendship. I'll probably write a post about it one day.

For now, I'll just leave you with positive vibes about new friendships and the excitement they bring about future fun times.

BYEEEE!

Marno loves autumn

Okay. I get it now. I understand the Pumpkin Spice Latte craze. I am officially a ~white girl.~

Last night I went to Starbucks with my friends, Michelle and Dacia. Michelle (who is also my roommate and yes we have the same name, I'll discuss that at another time) had tasted the perfectly Autumnal delicious beverage before. However, Dacia and I had never even had a sip. It was our ~first time~ ordering ~PSLs.~

I ordered mine with soy milk because I wasn't really in the mood to shit my pants, but I still got whipped cream because I CAN, OKAY. Yeah, I know it's stupid if I get soy milk but still get whipped cream because whipped cream is dairy and so doesn't that affect my lactose intolerance and blah blah blah. Well actually, things like cream and cheese just make me gassy and I don't mind a few farts here and there. But drinking actual milk is what will keep me on the porcelain throne for hours. So it's all soy or Lactaid for me!

Back to my drink order... I actually ordered my #psl in these exact words, "Can I get a pumpkin spice latte with soy? And can I get whipped cream? Yeah, I'm going to be that asshole that gets whipped cream with soy." The barista laughed. I love making people laugh. It makes me feel powerful. Like, "Ha! I just MADE you laugh with my WORDS. You wouldn't have laughed if I didn't say those things, in that order, in that way." I'm weird. I know.

So after I successfully forced the barista to laugh at my words, my drink was made, and the fateful moment was upon me. They called my order. I saw my cup. I grabbed it, took off the lid so I could properly see the drink in all its beauty, and took a sip. 

It was so good. Like. SO GOOD. And I kind of hated how much I enjoyed it when I first started drinking it because like, come on. I know everyone always talks about it and waits all year for it and whatever, but it could not be THAT good. But it was. And it is. Such a quality drink. Even the after taste was good! I loved every moment that I sipped my PSL and if I could relive it, I would. I love pumpkin spice lattes. I love pumpkin spice lattes and I am not afraid to say it. I'M IN LOVE, I'M IN LOVE AND I DON'T CARE WHO KNOWS IT.

~my first psl~ 

I am now part of the cliché group of young women that "love Autumn" and can't wait to get our hands on our next cup of "PSL." But do you know what? I loved Autumn before I tried the pumpkin spice latte and before I was even aware that it was a cliché to enjoy the season. Autumn is just a really good season, okay? The weather, the colors, HALLOWEEN. I am an Autumn lover. An autumnophile, if you will. I am Marno and I love Autumn.

BYEEEE!

Marno loves blogs

Hello, all!

I'm Michelle Arno, nicknamed Marno by some of my friends (If you are reading this, you are probably one of these people. If not, woo! New friend. Since you are reading this, we are now friends so feel free to call me this or any other nickname if you please.), and this is my first attempt at starting up a blog.

I have been a dedicated reader to many blogs for about 10 years when I got my first laptop and became an internet fiend. 

So if I'm such a huge fan of blogs, why am I just now starting my own?

~To be quite honest~ I've never felt like my life, writing, etc. would be interesting enough to entertain readers. (Many of the blogs that I read have a substantial amount of readers and are top-notch quality blogs, so I guess you could say I was a little intimidated by my blogger idols.) That is, until I got some views on YouTube.

Last December, I started a YouTube channel that consists of videos of me hanging out with friends, discussing my interests, and other random bits of me. Really they were just things that I wanted to share with my friends but didn't have the memory capacity to remember for storytime later. I received some positive feedback from the few videos I posted, and that is when I realized my life can actually be pretty interesting/entertaining/weird/funny to others.

Another reason I decided to start this here blog is to practice writing and ~hone in on my skillz.~ I am a Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts (just a fancy way of saying TV/radio/electronic media) major at San Francisco State University and am currently taking a Media Writing class. I need all the writing practice I can get, so might as well practice while having fun with a blog, right? Right! Yay for multi-tasking!

About the name... I have a large variety of interests, so I decided to name my blog "Marno Loves..." with the hopes that each post will spread positivity about different topics. I've been told I'm a generally happy, positive person that maybe sometimes tries a little too hard to find the silver lining of every situation. So if you're looking for a stream of negativity, this might not be the right blog for you. However, I have been known to release some preeeeetty humorous rants now and then, so maybe check back in once in a while for those.

Well, I don't want to give too much away. What do they say? "Leave them wanting more?" "Less is more?" "Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off?" I don't know. Anywho... I hope you enjoy reading about the things I love and the series of oftentimes sitcom-esque events that is my life.

Until next time... BYEEEEEE!