Low on Funds, But Not Fun

I really have an amazing fiancé! Although we are limiting our spending, Gabe doesn't think we should entirely rule out having fun.

We got flights super cheap and planned a trip to Sacramento in early October. At the beginning, I took a one and a half day detour to visit back home. Saw the family and some old friends. It was a quick but nice trip. Then, sissy and I met Gabe and friends in Sac. We decided to show our alumni spirit and catch the homecoming football game against Northern Colorado. From what I remember when we attended Sac State, the only good teams we had were men's basketball and women's volleyball. Football was always a wash. However, this season is a different story. They aren't the best in their league, but they are decent. They won 42-7!

For my birthday, Gabe bought me tickets to see my favorite artist in concert, Shakira! He got us great seats at the Staples Center in LA. Shortly after the purchase, we found out there was a San Diego show, oh well. The concert date finally came on October 23. The show was fabulous! She honestly sang beautifully live! Gabe of course liked that Shakira moved her hips a lot. I LOVED that she sang songs from her new album, but also hits from previous albums, including my favorites in Spanish! 

Many of you know, Gabe and I have relied on carpooling for about two years. We work about one and a half miles apart, so it seemed fit to save gas and money. It has been pretty tough considering Gabe works overtime a lot. I took advantage of the extra time when I would wait for him to get off work and went grocery shopping or to the coffee place to read. Now, after careful consideration, Gabe has made a wise investment. Gabe bought a car! He is in love with his 2011 Mazda 3 hatchback! I admire it just as much. I really missed driving an manual, and now we have one! Yay! However, this doesn't mean we will be wasting a ton more gas. As our work schedules allow, we still carpool 2-3 times per week. :)

Halloween was quickly approaching. We decided we wouldn't spend any money on costumes and made no party plans. Just to relax. A few days prior a friend invited us to tour the Haunted Trail in Balboa Park. There was a deal to go through the Clown's Maze AND the Haunted Trail. Of course every wanted to get their money's worth, except me. I am terrified of clowns. Especially after seeing the move "IT" at 8 years old. Well, peer pressure works and I got suckered into it. There was a group of 5 of us. We went in the maze then got separated from all those mirrors and dark hallways. A couple of clowns jumped at me but not with the eerie evil laugh. It wasn't so bad, but Gabe and I kept doing circles to find our way out. It felt like we were in there at least 30 minutes, but only turned out to be about seven, if that. 

The Haunted Trail was a different story. I knew everything was fake, but man... some of the actors totally get into it! I supposed it is their job to do so. They were super creepy! One of them even called Gabe out, in his zombie voice, for pushing the woman to go first. Ha ha.  Somehow our group got separated, again! Gabe wanted to hold up to wait for them, but I just wanted to hightail it out of the eeriness. I'm such a scaredy cat. I have nightmares if I watch horror flicks. So, I tend to avoid them. Yet, I don't know how I can watch those ghost hunter shows, but only in the day time. There were so many scary things, I can't even remember them all. Vampires, ghosts, zombies, Jason, clowns, etc. Being in the dark for too long was starting to get to me. We made it through the trail, then waited for our group. In the end, it was definitely worth the scare to go once. 

Finally, I decided to run for a good cause. Not only to benefit my health and jump start toning my body for the wedding, but to benefit breast cancer. With the help of my family and a couple friends, I raised funds for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. I ran the 5K in Balboa Park just this morning! This was my third 5k race. I hadn't found much time with work and planning the wedding to train well enough. So, I didn't push myself to the limit. I had also begun feeling under the weather. Yet, I didn't do too bad on time. Considering the fact that I had to walk part of the way due to calf cramps, I actually ran about 20 minutes faster than my last race. Then again, I was also 10 pounds pudgier at the time. Gabe proudly supported me even though we had to be there at 7am.