GOOD FRIDAY.

Cute journal at Cotton On in Santa Monica.

Being inspired by 'Good Friday' and being super hungry, I decided to cook up a good meal for Victor and I. I got off work a couple hours before him so I had enough time to run to the grocery store and buy a few ingredients. I'm not the best cook, but I actually took the time to make this happen. I thought of the recipe in my head. I bought chicken breast and stuffed them with diced 'Italian style' tomatoes (they were seasoned with garlic, basil and oregano). I let the chicken breast marinate in the tomato sauce, and added a bit more garlic salt and basil with a few crushed red peppers. I grilled it all together along with fresh garlic and BOOM! I had two flavorful chicken breasts! I paired this with a light salad, some wheat pasta and garlic Texas toast. After dinner we headed down to Santa Monica and walked around the 3rd Street Promenade. We finally made it to Santa Monica, for the past 3 weeks I've been bugging Victor about going haha. We ended up leaving after about an hour and a half and stopped by Victor's favorite doughnut shop: Krispy Kremes.

HERE'S A VINE ROUND UP OF OUR 

GOOD FRIDAY:

(if you have vine follow us, @J_Hdez//@Victor_Go)

D - LICIOUS.

This Friday Victor and I got off work pretty early and with a pretty big appetite so we  took a drive down to Hollydale, (his childhood hometown) and went to the mom and pop burger joint "D's". Victor introduced me to D's a couple months after we started dating and shared the history of the burger joint with me. His mom had actually been coming to D's in her teens and even when she was pregnant with Victor and his twin sister Valerie! I thought that was so cool, I love going to places with history, places that have stories. It's also fun just how (I am going to use some of Victors favorite words when describing classic places) 'stuck in time' this place is. It hasn't changed a bit according to Victor and you can pretty much see that in the photographs. We ended the night by going to the mall and Victor was able to find some great buys at the crazy sale Forever 21 was having that day.

FAVES.

* the title photo is a view from our apartment, with the font it really looks to me like an album cover art and I LOVE it! You can see the Downtown LA skyline just below the 'A' *

With this blog post I felt like sharing a few favorite photographs of mine: favorite photographs that I've taken, and favorite photos of Victor and I.

CIRCA 2009 PHOTOGRAPHY:

Favorite shots of Victor and I :

2013 has been pretty good to me, it actually doesn't feel too different. I just feel something inside of me wanting to experiment more, experience more, and try new things as well as go back to a hobby that I loved growing up. I've been getting into videos and video editing. I would like to practice more on that, and hopefully start making videos soon. I'm feeling very inspired by the city, sky scrappers, and sun glares. I've also been wanting to get back into photography. Straight out of high school that was one of my favorite things to do (I received a Nikon coolpix p80 as a graduation gift from my parents). I loved playing with my camera, setting up photo shoots with my sister Julie, and taking my camera wherever I went. At times I revisit my flickr account and think back to the boy I was back then. This past year I've been relying wayyyy to much on my Iphone for photography, and I'm going to try and change that this year. 

ONE PHOTOGRAPH AT A TIME.  

LOS CHOLOS.

*photos taken from my phone with the NEW filter/effects case that Victor gifted me this xmas*

QUICK POST:

Victor and I went over to have dinner at 'El Cholo' restaurant Saturday night after debating where to eat. I'm very indecisive when it comes to eating (I just love food too much) and I hate choosing where to eat. I don't want to choose a place and only be the one to enjoy it. Victor is good at putting up with me in these cases. I ended up choosing 'El Cholo' since its a couple blocks away from our apartment. This was my second time going and Victors first. I loved my plate, and my chicken tortilla soup was amazing. Victors albondigas soup: not so good. My soup had tons more flavor and a bit of spice which I loved! Definitely will be coming back again!

Victor is now on Instagram: 

@GOVICTORGO

@VICTOR_GO // @J_HDEZ

LIBERTY WALK.

Today I had the day off and decided to take a walk around Koreatown. There is still many streets and shops that I am not familiar with and it seems like every time I go for a run I end up discovering either beautiful homes, or cool little shops. It felt good to just walk around the city without anything stopping me, without any time restrictions. I just walked, music blasting from my earphones, and enjoyed the fast pace city life.

DOS.

This past Wednesday Victor and I reached our 2 years anniversary! That is so crazy. I can still remember meeting him back in October of 2010, having lunch at Johnny Rockets in Melrose, and slowly learning much more about each other. I thought about what to get him since the start of the year, and finally decided to gift him a watch. He has 2 watches that he uses, and the gold one that he's had for a while is in a not so good condition. I remembered him talking to me about wanting a GUESS watch, so naturally I was going to get him a watch from GUESS.

 The watch I bought him.

I always try and give gifts with a personal touch, either a card I personally made or a note I wrote, but for this I decided to make my own wrapping paper. I used an old shopping bag, and summed up our 2 years by way of doodles!  Take a look at it below:

We decided to open the gifts at midnight, and I was so excited to give him my gift. I will admit though, in typical Jose fashion, I knocked out by 10pm and once Victor woke me up at 12:00 am I was dazed and too tired to even grab my gift! I took a nap and minutes later I had the energy to get up and exchange gifts! I'm such a grandpa, and felt terrible for being a sleepy mess! Anyway, Victor loved my wrapping paper, and loved the watch even more! Here he is looking at my doodles, and finally trying on the watch:

When it came time for me to open my gift he directed me towards our green table. I had no idea what was waiting for me. I walked towards the table and was so happy to see a blue fishy! I have been bugging Victor telling him how much I wanted a fish and he got me one! All my life I've had pets, since I was a child, I had dogs, cats, birds, turtles, baby chicks, so naturally I wanted something small for our apartment. I wanted something to look after, something to take care of. 

I kept thinking of names, I thought of naming him Rupert, or Hershull, but ended up with something small: Fishy. This honestly was the best gift, I love my new pet, and can't wait for many more anniversaries to come! (now to plan next years gift/idea...)

I'm off to prepare dinner for the boy I love.