Check this out!

I stumbled upon this site a week or so ago; it's officially one of my new favorite blogs.

Stuff White People Like

Entertaining, funny, well written, and mostly true.

Enjoy!

I have a niece!

For some of you the subject line of this blog may be confusing considering I do not have any siblings. For those of you who have been involved in my life these past nine months, this will come as no surprise. One of my closest friends, Lizzie, became pregnant last summer and her way of breaking the news to me was by calling me and saying "Hi Auntie Casie." I have known Lizzie for eight years; we met in high school through Dance Company. I have always felt close to Lizzie and through the years we have managed to visit each other a few times a year along with calling and emailing- it is safe to say that of all my friends still living in Nor Cal, Lizzie is the friend I have best kept in touch with. The fact that she asked me to be an auntie to her daughter has meant so much to me, especially since I may never have a blood related niece or nephew. I was honored to throw Lizzie what turned out to be a very successful baby shower in Sonoma last month and I have been lucky to visit her a few times over the pregnancy (a challenge since she is in the Bay Area and I live in Orange County).

On Saturday, March 15 at 5:21pm Kadence Cacal was born; mommy, daddy, and baby are healthy and happy.

I am visiting Lizzie and peanut (my nickname for my niece throughout the pregnancy) in four weeks and I am SO excited. I have bought her the most adorable little swimsuit for this summer- I think it's fitting that she receive her first swimsuit from her Southern California aunt. :)

Why Swellegant?

The Urban Dictionary defines swellegant as: "nifty, witty, swank, and jazzy." I commonly use the word swellegant when speaking to Stephanie, one of my best friends; we use it to describe fun experiences and things we like. We first stumbled upon the word on a trip to Newport Beach over a long weekend in the fall of 2005. Driving on the peninsula to Sharkeez for Sunday-Funday we spotted a vintage clothing store, Swellegant. We loved the idea of creating a word that essentially combined the word "swell" with "elegant." Yeah, it might be silly that we got excited over a word, but that explains why we are best friends. A few weeks later, in a jazz music class at UCSD, I learned that Cole Porter first coined the phrase; being a fan of Cole Porter's music further solidified my love of the term "swellegant." So now that I have defined swellegant and explained how I stumbled upon it I will get back to answering the main point at issue being: why did I name my blog Thoughts on the Simply Swellegant Things of Life? I think that many things in life can best be described as "swellegant," and those things that are not such are simply components that come with living. Life invariably involves the good and the bad, but at the end of the day you are living, breathing, learning, and have the opportunity to make the most of what life throws at you; to me that in itself is swellegant.

Taking a shot at this blogging thing...

Ok, so earlier today I came across my friend Amanda's blog: Thoughts from a Twenty Something and not only did I love it, I thought to myself - "it would be great to write down my thoughts on the idiosyncrasies of life I run into daily and the experiences I am going through." Outside of the occasional myspace post, I have never created a blog...so in this sense I am popping my blog cherry I suppose. I am also a self-proclaimed dweeb...I am an avid reader, love learning, and relish a good debate (particularly ones involving competent individuals who are quick-witted and genuinely well-informed on the subject up for debate, whatever the topic may be). Additionally, I am slightly OCD when it comes to spelling (if you do not know how to spell a word open up a dictionary and look it up for goodness sake or else do not be offended when I correct you), and I love to write. Considering these personality traits, it made sense to begin an endeavor into the world of blogging. Whether I will be successful or not (i.e. submitting regular posts that keep the attention of myself and others remains to be seen), but I believe there is no such thing as a bad experience (everything we go through shapes us into the individuals we are meant to be). With that belief and the awareness that life is short, I am a person who is willing to try anything (well, almost anything) once. So welcome to the first post in my first blog, a blog I have titled “Simply Swellegant.” Why Simply Swellegant? I’ll let you know in my next post. (See how I’m ending with a bit of suspense…maybe I will be good at this blog thing after all? Hmmm…)