Getty Me Back to L.A.

 Lifestyle: Approximate time reading this post: 7 minutes

If you clicked on this post out of sheer curiosity for its bizarre title then I apologize in advance for my terrible puns (not really, because they won’t stop). While these excruciating summer days drag on in the 100’s, I wanted to talk about one of my favorite ways to escape the heat: museums!

At the end of May I vacationed to Los Angeles with my mom, Claire, and our wonderful friends Kia and Jason. We completed a long list of fun touristy things but one of the most memorable was visiting the Getty Museum of Art and its sidekick, the Getty Villa. I really can’t get enough of these two museums. It was my second time visiting the Getty Museum and my first seeing the Getty Villa.

Brief background: The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center in L.A. “houses European paintings, drawings, sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, decorative arts, and photography from its beginnings to the present, gathered internationally.” The Getty Villa in Malibu “houses approximately 44,000 works of art from the Museum's extensive collection of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities, of which over 1,200 are on view.” The Getty Museum in L.A. is made up of 1.2 million square feet of spectacularly bright but calming Travertine stone which makes the gardens and outdoor sculptures stand out.

But these museums are really something you need to see to believe. To tide you over before your own visit to the Getty, here are my top favorite parts of this museum from the architecture, framed artwork, to sharing it with someone else.

Architecture and indoor artwork

Your view once you step off the Getty Tram, a futuristic looking train that you ride up the mountains of Los Angeles.

These four were the absolute best company while exploring this travertine covered building and throughout L.A.

I encourage you to look all around while at the Getty and spend an entire day there to take in every incredible detail.

We spent so much time outside of the museum and in the gardens that I almost forgot there was art inside too.

My favorite painting in the museum by John William Godward, "Mischief and Repose."

The Getty Museum of Art is designed to show off the angles of the city. Surrounded by sky and buildings down below, there is no such thing as a bad view here.

Getty Gardens

The weather was just chilly enough for pants and a light jacket. (But you know me, always trying to make a statement in oversized clothing.) We spent most of our time in the Getty Garden circling the maze, sniffing flowers, and taking photos because we just couldn’t stop smiling.

Not pictured in the Getty garden is a little duck who swims throughout the maze.

We were all obsessing over the color combinations throughout the garden- especially Kia!

One of my mom's favorite scents and plants is lavender, so she immediately stopped to smell this huge display.

The Getty gardens contain numerous flowers, other plants, fountains, and quotes engraved on some stepping stones.

Kia snapped a photo of Jason, my mom, Claire and I soaking up the garden.

We could only look and not touch a beautiful but possibly deadly cacti garden while looking out into the city of Los Angeles.

It seemed like there was more free admission into the California museums compared to those in Arizona. A huge bonus to both Getty Museums is that admission is FREE, you just pay $10-15 for parking depending on the time of day. The admission at AZ museums might make them seem less desirable, even in the summer, but they usually have free admission days at least once a month and other discounts- for students especially. Maricopa Community College students can bring their ID's to the Phoenix Art Museum for free admission and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art is free on Thursdays.

My little slideshows just include our trip to the Getty Museum of Art and not the Getty Villa because there is just so much to explore at both! Go find out for yourself what the rest of these beautiful buildings hold and let me know what you think :) But if you have been to the Getty's, tell me about your favorite part of the museums in the comments below. Enjoy the rest of your summer vacations and your Monday with a few trips to your favorite (air conditioned) museum.

View fullsize

View fullsize

Outfit details: Zipper body suit, high waisted skinny jeans, and mini pink backpack (Forever 21). --Consistency is a good thing right?

Still Leah: Let's Talk Mental Health

Lifestyle/Insight: Approximate time reading this post: 5 minutes

As a nod to last month being Mental Health Awareness Month I thought I would touch on my personal realizations of mental health this summer. Since my last blog post, which I mentioned I would write a follow up once I had the information, I visited my naturopath a few weeks ago which required me to get my blood drawn for the first time (SIX VIALS). To recap, I originally went to see a naturopath because we don’t have a family doctor and my family has just grown around homeopathic remedies. So during my consultation regarding immense anxiety, vomiting blood and a strong abdominal pain, my naturopath came to a few conclusions that read true in my blood test.

I most likely do not have an ulcer *happy dance* and the vomiting blood resulted from the stomach flu and an irritated esophagus, which can heal easily with some slippery elm powder to soothe these tissues. But I still have an immense amount of anxiety built up starting notably in my early college years. Maybe this feels like an unnecessary amount of my health details, but these results lead up to important mental health discoveries.

Now I don’t want this post to sound like one long doctor’s note or a pity party because that is not my intention at all. Before my naturopath requested that I get a blood test, I had no idea an insufficient level of these natural chemicals and vitamins in my body could affect my mental health. Maybe that sounds silly and maybe some of you didn’t know either and have experienced the same symptoms.

My blood test shows that I have a Vitamin D and Iron deficiency as well as way too much Estrogen, resulting in an overall treatable hormone imbalance. While receiving my blood test results from my naturopath, she asked if I was a vegetarian or vegan due to my below minimum Vitamin D and Iron levels. This is caused by a couple of things like not eating red meats and results in unexplained fatigue, especially trouble getting out of bed in the morning (which I have all three symptoms), and often leads to levels of anxiety and depression.

Good news: I am an otherwise healthy 22-year-old when it comes to cholesterol and all that other stuff.

Being a smaller individual, I can’t skip meals and snacking is encouraged in my diet. Otherwise I feel anemic, which means that I feel extra weak and grumpy when I don’t have the proper amount of protein- especially due to a low level of Iron.

Then the high level of Estrogen is pretty much what makes individuals emotional and is most commonly found in women. A few signs of estrogen dominance that I found I relate to include constantly cold hands and feet (poor blood circulation), mood swings, poor memory, fatigue and constant headaches.

But in conclusion to my new discoveries, I felt both a sense of relief knowing that yes, I feel anxious most of the time and this is a natural and treatable occurrence. But I also started to let this take over my mindset even more. I can say that because of my anxiety I have trouble with fatigue, stress-induced abdominal pain, starting things, committing, confidence, and a number of small details that occur often because of my hormone imbalance.

I found this very fitting and adorable "Peanuts" pin at The Last Bookstore (one of the top bookstores in the WORLD) while in Los Angeles this summer. It is by "Heartificial," which I highly recommend checking out if you have a love for pins.

Some days are harder than others and summer vacation is especially difficult for me. After going 110 mph as a journalism major to being able to sleep in and enjoy having spare time, it takes me awhile to accept the slower speed and not equate this with an imaginary lack of success. But I am starting to take a handful of vitamins in everything my body is lacking, so within three to six months I will be able to handle stress and anxious feelings better.

I am definitely not a qualified health professional of any sort but I wanted to share these results on my blog and if any readers out there have questions about similar feelings, you can reach out to me. I also recommend getting a blood test for hormone levels if you are curious where you land on the scale and so you can then work on your next steps to level out if needed.

After a minor breakdown in front of my sister Claire while I attempted to reach out to a source for my freelance job, she reminded me that this is a process. She gave me some of the most needed advice in this past week and said that regardless of my anxiety I am “still Leah,” and she is right.

If you would like more details on my visit including how to contact my naturopath or how to set-up a hormone balance blood test, feel free to send me a message on my “Contact Me” page. Thanks for listening and happy Monday!

Brew Your Success Carefully

Photos by Kayla Koch

Fashion/Insight: Approximate time reading this post: 5 minutes

I have probably started this post at least five times and I guess that just goes to show how much change I have had in these past five months. I have been pretty occupied by my second semester in my first year at ASU’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication

I don’t think I have felt so many emotions in such a short time frame than I did especially in these past few weeks. I laughed until I cried out of pure exhaustion, but happiness, and teared up in interviews that broke my heart. If this is what the rest of my life looks like, I’ll take it.

As many of you know, because of my Thursday Instagrams story outings, I took the most difficult required class for a print major this semester, Intermediate Reporting. In this class we wrote 12 articles, one each week with assigned subjects from profile, business, crime, legislative, and more. In this class, we had to publish half of our stories in a major publication, and for every story not published, you lose a letter grade.

Needless to say, this class consumed my life for a good four months. I set aside a lot of good friends and some unnecessary relationships in order to pursue this course to the best of my ability. I started to get distracted but I reeled myself back in. And I don’t regret this because I think this was great practice for what my life is going to become.

So about five months later now, I don’t think I need to explain my lack of blog presence.

Now that my first year at Walter Cronkite has officially come to a close and I am moving onto my senior year, I can say that this is truly the school for me. I almost made this post for last Monday, the week of when I was supposed to have my last final exam. But Tuesday night, the day before my editing final I started throwing up blood and continued to get sick for the rest of the night. This was also the day before my first interview for my freelance writing gig, so it pretty much threw off my whole week.

(I will probably never get the pitchfork thing right on a first try.)

Outfit details: long slit shirt (Forever 21), ripped low jeans (Hollister), layered chokers (gift- Free People), penny necklace (gift- Francesca's), turtle sunglasses (gift- Free People).

I am feeling much better now and I aced my exam as of yesterday- thanks to Cronkite for being so gracious and my professor for coming all the way back to school to watch me take my last exam. But this was a wake up call for the amount of stress and caffeine I consumed this year.

It's highly possible I have an ulcer, which is treatable but this also interrupts my current and future lifestyle. I am scheduled to meet with our family naturopath this Thursday so “Operation Repair Leah” is enroute.

What I really just want to say is how grateful I am for this school and the opportunities and friends it has brought me. But health cannot sit on the backburner while you are brewing for success.

I am going to continue to work tirelessly and with full focus, but keeping in mind diet, caffeine intake, and unnecessary stress I can reduce by the things in my control.

I plan to keep my blog updated throughout the summer with updates of my freelance position, other publishings, as well as lifestyle and fashion things. Also, huge congratulations to all the graduates this year! Check my blog post here from last year when I graduated with my associates and wrote a graduation speech that still very much applies today.