A Little California Sun + Negra Modelo

I'm finally back home in California, and let me tell you, it feels SO good! Yesterday was the first time in over two years that I've had  sister time (and by the poolside to boot!) and it was so nice to catch up in person over a few beers. Negra modelo, one of my favorites! I wore my vintage bathing suit from the 1950's, which I found, rather unbelievably, for $20 ( I believe it was mislabeled as being from the 1960's, but my grandmother told me that it was most definitely from either the late 1940's or the early 1950's). 

I am also wearing my new favorite lipstick *drumroll please* MAC Lady Danger! My biggest little brother took me to get my very first professional manicure (thanks Stuboo!) and it perfectly matched my
lipstick. After living two years abroad with no MAC in sight, I had a few empties to recycle and decided to get Lady Danger, Ruby Woo, and Saint Germaine. Lady Danger is so wearable and I love the retro matte texture. It is pretty lightweight and doesn't dry out my lips at all. In fact, I wore it for about eight hours comfortably. Lady Danger is definitely going to be one of my summer staples. Here are a few photographs from yesterday:

Negra modelo!

Lounging by the pool

For an impromptu photograph, I really l ike this one :)

My bestie!!!

Reunited and it feels so good! I have the most beautiful sisters in the world!

Lipstick: MAC Lady Danger

Bathing suit: 1950's vintage

Just ride...

"Ride"

I was in the winter of my life, and the men I met along the road were my only summer.
At night I fell asleep with visions of myself, dancing and laughing and crying with them.
Three years down the line of being on an endless world tour, and my memories of them were the only things that sustained me, and my only real happy times.
I was a singer - not a very popular one,
I once had a dreams of becoming a beautiful poet, but upon an unfortunate series of events some of those dreams dashed and divided like a million stars in the night sky that I wished on over and over again, sparkling and broken.
But I didn't really mind because I knew that it takes getting everything you ever wanted, and then losing it to know what true freedom is.
When the people I used to know found out what I had been doing, how I'd been living, they asked me why - but there's no use in talking to people who have home.
They have no idea what it's like to seek safety in other people - for home to be wherever you lay your head.
I was always an unusual girl.
My mother told me I had a chameleon soul, no moral compass pointing due north, no fixed personality; just an inner indecisiveness that was as wide and as wavering as the ocean...
And if I said I didn't plan for it to turn out this way I'd be lying...
Because I was born to be the other woman.
I belonged to no one, who belonged to everyone.
Who had nothing, who wanted everything, with a fire for every experience and an obsession for freedom that terrified me to the point that I couldn't even talk about it, and pushed me to a nomadic point of madness that both dazzled and dizzied me.

I've been out on that open road
You can be my full time, daddy
White and gold
Singing blues has been getting old
You can be my full time, baby
Hot or cold

Don't break me down
I've been travelin' too long
I've been trying too hard
With one pretty song

I hear the birds on the summer breeze, I drive fast
I am alone in the night
Been tryin' hard not to get into trouble, but I
I've got a war in my mind
So, I just ride
Just ride, I just ride, I just ride

Dying young and I'm playing hard
That's the way my father made his life an art
Drink all day and we talk 'til dark
That's the way the road dogs do it, ride 'til dark.

Don't leave me now
Don't say good bye
Don't turn around
Leave me high and dry

I hear the birds on the summer breeze, I drive fast
I am alone in the night
Been tryin' hard not to get into trouble, but I
I've got a war in my mind
I just ride
Just ride, I just ride, I just ride

I'm tired of feeling like I'm fucking crazy
I'm tired of driving 'til I see stars in my eyes
It's all I've got to keep myself sane, baby
So I just ride, I just ride

I hear the birds on the summer breeze, I drive fast
I am alone in the night
Been tryin' hard not to get into trouble, but I
I've got a war in my mind
I just ride
Just ride, I just ride, I just ride

[Music video spoken ending:]
Every night I used to pray that I’d find my people, and finally I did on the open road.
We had nothing to lose, nothing to gain, nothing we desired anymore, except to make our lives into a work of art.
Live fast. Die young. Be wild. And have fun.
I believe in the country America used to be.
I believe in the person I want to become.
I believe in the freedom of the open road.
And my motto is the same as ever:
"I believe in the kindness of strangers. And when I’m at war with myself I ride, I just ride."
Who are you?
Are you in touch with all of your darkest fantasies?
Have you created a life for yourself where you can experience them?
I have. I am fucking crazy.
But I am free.