The start of another week

Happy Monday, darlings!  How was your weekend?

I had a surprisingly lovely and fun-filled weekend. My brother and dad drove to Phoenix for two days to see the Clippers v. Suns game, so Friday night was just me and my mom hanging out. We went to dinner and grocery shopping (something I normally hate, but having my mom there was fun -- and we were at Trader Joe's, which is like Heaven to me) and had a generally easy-going ladies night.

Saturday I went to the Wild Animal Park! Even though I've lived in San Diego for 12 years, even had a Zoo membership for 2 years, I've never been before! My brother's girlfriend has a membership, which allows her to bring in a guest for free; so she was nice enough to let me accompany. And I have to say, it was a ton of fun!  A pretty good work out too, because it's super hill-y and you have to walk along a ton of trails to get everywhere. It's a massive park (bigger in acreage than the World Famous San Diego Zoo!), but it seems very...accessible. You don't leave feeling like you missed dozens of animals.

I'm crap at taking pictures and the above is literally the only one I took: a rhino and her baby!  Adorable (and I swear they are there, just look for legs right at the center). I really recommend going to the Wild Animal Park if you're in the area and have the time. It's so much fun and you learn a lot of really interesting things. Plus, I got to see a Cheetah run! And a lioness yawn literally 2 feet in front of me! And a mini-Buckbeak-like bird (they exist!)! Three of the grander things in nature, I think.

The park closes at 5, so after we wasted time in Target and had a fabulous time. We cooked dinner at my house and then met up with a few of our other friends to hang out and get boba. Delicious.

Sunday was a beautiful day in San Diego: 85*, blazing sun but not the stifling heat. It was perfect, and I spent it sitting outside my beloved Coffee Bean, a book in hand and drink on the table. I didn't open my computer, I tucked my phone away in my purse, put headphones in on low volume...absolute bliss.

This week is a bit unknown, as I finally finished the majority of the project I was working on for work last Thursday - and I don't know if I'm being asked to stay to finish up the smaller parts. So uh...I may be unemployed? I really don't know. But that's ok, because I have a massive stack of books calling my name as well as a resume to finally finish up to find a more permanent job.  I've also gotten some ideas for blog posts, which I'm excited to write up and share!

Tell me, what was the best part of your weekend?

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December 26...is it really all over?

I think the most depressing thing about Christmas is when you turn on the radio the day after and it's back to regular music :(  No more Christmas carols.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday! Mine was stressful and rushed and a bit exhausting, but definitely one of the better ones in my recent memory.  Spent Christmas Eve last minute wrapping gifts and then went down to South Bay to have our Annual celebration with all the family. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, lolas, lolos...it's always a chaotic mess. But one I love deeply.

Christmas was wonderful for me, the family had a really great day together - which has been increasingly rare unfortunately, so it's like the day was a special treat. We all woke up on our own time and had a relaxed morning; opened gifts at noon; went to Denny's for a late brunch; ran around to different grocery stores to grab last minute forgotten ingredients; and spent the rest of the evening cooking, napping, and watching X-Men: First Class (amazing movie, sad I didn't see it sooner!).

Nothing spectacular, but still lovely. I mean, something happened at brunch that had us literally laughing until tears came out our eyes for minutes - that's a wonderful feeling.

This week gets to be spent doing a little Winter cleaning, celebrating my mom's birthday, and figuring out New Year's Eve plans! I'm also working on some changes here and on the debut of my book blog, all of which will hopefully happen on January 1.  Oooooo...

I didn't take many photos this holiday, but I leave you with some lingering holiday cheer.

Mom's M&M tree :) We didn't put up all the ornaments this year.

How cute is that snowman decal on my Sprinkles cupcake?!
(And it was a free cupcake, which makes it all the better!)

The aftermath of gift opening. We're a surprisingly organized unwrapping family.

Our tree :)

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Time to celebrate

Happy Birthday, Brother Bear!
you always did rock. (yeah i said it!)

 Today is my brother's 26th birthday.  I cannot believe he's 26...where's the time gone?!  I understand I'm the younger one, but it's still terrifying to know he's getting older.  Seems like yesterday we were having water gun fights with our neighbours in Belgium when I was 5 and he was 8, or we were playing Scattergories in the TLA while we waited for our permanent housing in Italy when I was 9 and he was 11, or we were facing off in bowling league when I was 11 and he was 13...

So far the plans are unknown, but we know it involves cake--which really, what else could one need?!

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After last week, this week can only go up.

[via]

After spending Wednesday in a hospital making sure my grandpa was all right (he is, thankfully), I thought the week couldn't get much worse. I mean, being afraid your grandfather is going to die is a pretty shitty week in itself.

And then Thursday came, and I woke up, and all of a sudden the floor beneath me started to drop. And then rise. The only way I can describe it is that it's the sensation of being in an elevator - you know when it starts and the floor drops down before you get there, and then the floor comes back up a bit too fast?  It was that feeling, constantly, no matter where I was or what I was doing. Since that's not ideal for driving, I had to call out of work and my mom took me to Urgent Care. Thankfully it wasn't an inner-ear infection, but I was diagnosed with mild vertigo and sinus problems.  Friday the dizziness had gotten worse, so I had to call out of work, again. Having to miss two and a half days of work is not good when you've only been working there for 3 weeks.

And then Saturday happened.  The weekend! Good times! Time to relax, kick back, enjoy the fact that the next day you won't have any responsibilities, either. It's been such a shitty week, I'm glad for the weekend!

Except.  I was running errands with mom, having a good time just spending time with her after the stress of her dad being sick. We're in her brand new shiny Honda Civic, stopped behind a truck at a stop sign, waiting to turn out of the parking lot we were in. Making a comment about the song on the radio, laughing...then the reverse lights of the truck in front of us turn on. And he's backing up...and not stopping. Still not stopping. Mom honks the horn. Still. Not. Stopp--CRRUUUNCHHH.  Metal on metal is a terrible sound. My mom is stunned, I'm pissed off...the entire ordeal was in less than 2 seconds, and it is crazy how 2 seconds can alter a day.

And then the truck puts it in drive, and inches forward, and the next thing I know the truck is turning out of the parking lot.

Yeah. THE ASSHOLE DROVE AWAY.

Luckily, the only thing that flashes through my head are all the news reports and press releases I've ever written about hit and runs, and I know I need to get the plates.  All I'm doing is yelling, "Holy shit the fucker is leaving, get the plates, get the plates!"  So, luckily, I was able to get the plates.

Both my mom and I are not hurt. We're perfectly fine. Her beautiful shiny new car has a smushed front, the hood crunched accordion-style and the right panel of the car is dented in 3 places. We think the fanbelt was affected because a small drip was happening, too.  But she and I are fine aside from the bumped elbow I have when I tensed up as I realized the truck was going to hit us.  We were even lucky in that the car behind us at the stop sign saw the whole thing, wrote down the plates, watched the truck actually drive off, then stayed behind with us as our witnesses and called in the accident for us.  In terms of an accident, this is the ideal situation.

Doesn't make it suck any less, but it's pretty good in the grand scheme of things.

Everyone told us we're lucky to have gotten the plates on the car.  Even the police man told me I was smart for scribbling it down because, and I quote, "then the asshole is goin' DOWN."  Our tow truck driver gave a kind-of-scary laugh and said, "the jerk has no chance now!"  I want to get the fucker as much as the next person, but I feel as though my vengeance isn't as strong.


....so yeah. Worst week I've had in a really, really long time.  I'm almost looking forward to how mundane it's going to be going to work from 8-5.

I said almost!

This week had better go smoother, or I am going to kick some serious ass.  I don't know whose ass, but someone's.  Plus, I have a ridiculous amount of plans and can't afford to have it not go smoothly.  Which inevitably means something will come up, but I surely hope it has nothing to do with accidents or hospitals (please Lord hear my plea...).  And thankfully the elevator sensation and my dizziness has gone away, so at least that's an improvement over last week.

*sigh*

How's everyone else been?

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I don't know what to title this. So...uh...Life Right Now.

The cliffs at Solana Beach, in a semi-remote spot we found. So beautiful, so peaceful.

It feels like years since I've done a normal post. Not a specialized event post, no memes, just plain "this is what life is."  So...this is what life is at the moment:

• I'm incredibly psyched for football season to start up. I think I'm going to head out to one of the open Chargers practices this week or next. Anyone in the area want to meet up there, I'm down!
• Not so psyched on the lack of job. Discouraged a bit, but...working on it. As much as I don't want to do it, I think I may apply for an editorial internship (unpaid). Money is nice, but experience needs to count, too.
• Unfortunately, one of my Lolos suffered a heart attack and had to undergo emergency quadruple bypass surgery. But the good news is that he responded well and by the second day out of surgery was already up and walking around the hospital! He's always been spry for his age (which is only the early 70s anyway), so it's nice to know he's getting back to his old self. Hopes and good thoughts his way are appreciated!
• I started playing tennis about 2 months ago and am proud to say that, in the words of my brother, I "do not suck"!  Hurrah!  The family used to play a lot back in Belgium, and I did it for my PhysEd requirement in 10th grade, but it has definitely been awhile since picking up a racket. I forgot how much I enjoy it, and I like that I did not die yesterday while playing 1-on-2 against two of my guy friends. I actually held my own relatively well!
• I think I may actually have time to do the redesign I've been talking about for months now--so if in the next few weeks you find my blog to be a bit...um..rough around the edges, pardon the construction dust!
• I got up to grab lunch in the middle of writing this post and accidentally dropped the pizza slice. Of course it landed face down. Boooooo.
• Not too much going on aside from prepping for my dad to be leaving for the Philippines next month. He's returning to Cebu (where his family is from) to deal with the property we own there and will be gone for over half the month. We haven't had an extended absence from dad since before he retired from the Navy over 8 years ago.
• It's getting harder and harder to ignore this travel bug. Even something small, like going to San Francisco, would help me. Ideally, I'd head to Denver to visit my Uncles, New York City to visit a few of my aunts and cousins (and Vivian soon!), or Louisiana to visit bestest...est Brit who I haven't seen in 11 years.
• One of my best friends was recently hurt by a friend. Pretty badly.  Not physically, I mean emotionally (which is arguably worse). She' sad, and I really wish there was something I could do. I suppose it'll have to do having her know that I'm here for whatever she needs, if ever she needs...but I still hate seeing her hurting.
• I've only been to the beach once this summer.  How pathetic! But the one day I did go was absolutely beautiful.

Life doesn't seem too exciting based on that, does it? But I'm kind of glad it's low-key right now because the last month feels like it was full-speed ahead. I'm finally breathing.

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Happy Father's Day

In this post about an effing awesome day, I mention that there were some not-so-effing-awesome parts. The super not awesome at all part was that my dad was in a car accident while we were in LA.  He's fine, don't worry.  The short story is that he was t-boned by an SUV at an intersection.  Dad never saw the other car coming, which may have saved him from a lot worse of an injury; his body never tensed, and therefore did not resist any of the movement he was forced to endure.  It is a miracle that he escaped with nothing more than a re-aggravated back injury.  The car is totaled, unfortunately, but we recognize it is a small price to pay.

My father is the world to me.  We don't often see eye-to-eye, but it doesn't change how I feel for him.  I recognize what a strong man he is.  Not just a father, but a man.  He's the most responsible man I know, taking care of things the moment they need to be done, regardless if the task is favourable or not.  He's incredibly honest, but still maintains the right amount of sympathy.  He works hard and sacrifices for the family.  My memories of him are dotted with late nights in the NATO office or overnight duty or training to become acting managers or Master Chief.  My father works hard and earns everything he's ever been given.

More than that, my father is my dad.  He kills the spiders on the wall.  He Raids the beehive hanging from our roof.  He tucked me into bed when I was little, kissed the boo-boo on my knee when I fell running down in the courtyard, held the camcorder at every dance recital and awards ceremony I ever had.  He immediately told me I was welcome to move back home when I was laid off my first post-college job.  He taught me to hold strong to my ideals, to be remember who I am, to learn and grow as I need to.  My mom gave me the environment to grow, while my dad provided me with the tools to learn.  He is the backbone to my world, the one who I will always be able to fall back on when I'm wavering.  He isn't perfect, and we fight much more than it probably seems; but he'll always be the man I can look up to and depend on and know that he will open his arms up to me with no questions asked, support me with a faith I work every day to be worthy of.

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers, and the mothers who are also fathers, and father figures in our lives.

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blackberry-less but still having a lovely time. with a bloggy award, too!

I was trying to find a pic of my phone to put in here, but then I ran across this and became obsessed with the straw and had to post it.  It still counts because there's a BB in the picture!

01. My BlackBerry has met its end (insert extreme sad face here).  We're not actually sure if it has officially died; there's a chance it's just the battery, but two of the three test batteries we managed to procure did not work.  So, new battery is being shipped, and come Monday I shall know if my BB has returned to me.  On a related note, did you know neither Best Buy nor AT&T sell BlackBerry batteries in store?!  What is wrong with them??  Verizon does, but at the lovely cost of $40.  Um, that's literally quadruple the amount of the replacement phone I'm using (I actually mean literally.  And before people go on accusing me of having such a cheap phone, hey man...it's the family spare, and so far it's held up for at least 2 years total time of use.  That's more than my BlackBerry did).

02. I am watching Bring It On (thanks USA channel for airing turn-of-the-millennium movies!)and still laugh that my high school's cheerleaders are in it.  Their part is so comical to me (even though it's really not).

03. One of my local libraries had a large book sale these past 3 days and it has been detrimental on my bank account.  But how could I possibly turn down books for 50 cents or $1?!  Five new books have been acquired at my house for the fee of $4.50.  And I may go back tomorrow. And yeah, $4.50 is classified in my world as "detrimental to my bank account."

04. Remember the two outfielders mentioned in my Shadowed By A W(ang) post?  In an odd coincidence, I ran into both of them yesterday!  Not surprisingly, both were smoking at the time.  But I have to say, it's kind of nice to know some things don't change.

05. My mother and I spent 3 hours reading on a couch in Borders, and it was an absolutely lovely time.  We also thumbed through a "What Your Birthday Says About You" book for shits and giggles, and it was a surprisingly accurate account of us (plus my dad and brother).  I'm not saying my mom and I really do believe in astrology and numerology and all that stuff, but...when I hit on you and ask hey baby, what's your sign, I probably actually want to know.

06.  Saturday is my grandfather's birthday: Happy Birthday Grandpa!  A celebratory birthday dinner is happening at my grandparent's casa, so I get to see my family again.  This may be more of the extended family though, so it should be...weird.  12 people is manageable, but when it extends past 20, it gets kind of crazy in the house.  As entertaining as my aunts, uncles and other cousins are, I'm not sure I'll be in the mood to handle it all.

07.  Lastly but never least, the amazing Tasha has given me a bloggy award!  I implore you to check out her blog; I remember the first time I ran across it, I immediately saw pictures of books and yummy pizza and then a whole post devoted to the Google logos (which I happen to love as well!  Did we all see the interactive Pac-Man logo for yesterday? So awesome).  I mean, if that is not entirely endearing and an instant follow, I don't know what is.  And ever since, I've grown to love her even more.

The award also dictates that it has to be passed along to 12 people, but I've seen the award on others' blogs and the number seems to change.  So, because I'm lame like this and did this for the other award so nicely given to me, I'm deferring passing along until I can properly interact in the blogosphere again. 

And secret sneak-up number 08. Happy Weekend everyone!  I hope it's absolutely fantastic :)

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A Month-Old Infuriation, or UGH.

During our Christmas Eve celebrations, one of my little cousins (I guess I shouldn't call him 'little' since he's 17 now, but he's always going to be that gangly 10-year-old to me) brought his girlfriend to meet the extended family.  Chaos ensued.

First, my relatives are...um...how to put this nicely?  We're relentless.  We are nosy, we are kind of rude, and when we want to know something, we stop at nothing to know.  I mean, I knew VarsityB (as I shall call him) and his girlfriend were in for a tough night when I took literally two steps into the house and was accosted by my 70-something-lola (VarsityB's grandma) with: "VarsityB brought his girlfriend you need to find out what's going on go talk to her!"  And she actually shoved me in her direction.  I think that explains us very well.

VarsityB and the girlfriend didn't really handle it well.  I mean, I know it's rough to deal with an interrogation, but you can at least be graceful about it.  His girlfriend refused to speak, and VarsityB just darted his eyes around the room and said, "Uhh...I don't know..."  Please, yes you do know how long you two have been together.  It shouldn't take fourteen people and 2 hours of asking to learn you've been together a month and a half.  You're really only making it harder for yourself.

Dinners at relatives' houses are not like the movies.  There's far too many for all of us to sit at one table nicely together, so we all simply spread out around the house and eat wherever we can find space to park our asses.  Or even just wallspace to stand.  But I found myself on the couch in the living room, and on the loveseat was VarsityB and his girlfriend.  I got to spend my entire meal watching them curled up into each other (hello, inappropriate: you're at a family function, don't be practically making out on the couch the entire time!) and trying not to vomit.

But I almost lost it when I saw...he was cutting her meat.

I was horrified.  I'm pretty sure there was a double-take.  Perhaps a triple- or quadruple-take.  I dropped any and all formalities and flat out stared at them, making sure I was seeing it right.  And yeah, I was: VarsityB was cutting up her meat into small, manageable pieces while she just sat there and watched him.  I even checked to make sure it was her meat (since they were sharing a plate, naturally)--and it was.  He handed her the fork after he was done, she kissed him and started eating it.

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

What self-respecting woman in this century lets her man cut her meat?!  If you have two functioning hands, you damn well better cut your own fucking food.  Hell, even if you only have one I'm sure you can manage it.  When she wasn't lip-locked with my cousin, she was texting on her phone, so she obviously has the motor functions needed for slicing food.  I understand perhaps all the texting tired out her hands, sure, I get it.

But VarsityB, boy, you are not off the hook either.  What kind of pompous asshole man lowers himself to cutting his girlfriend's meat?  Don't you feel a bit...used?  Kind of like her servant?  Somehow, the picture of her reclining on a chaise in a long ballgown while you stand over the chair in a tuxedo holding out grapes for her to eat enters my head.  Don't you think you should give your girlfriend a little more credit?

Ugh.  Obviously, this entire scenario still irks me out since it's been almost a month since said incident occurred, but really...I couldn't believe it.  I mean, does that really happen?!  Evidently so, but...I can't...it's just...how...

UGH.

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I can tell you what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

The summer when I was 9 years old, my family and I moved from Belgium to Italy. It was difficult, as I'd just spent 5 years in Belgium (the longest I'd been in a country) and was inconsolably sad having to leave my friends. I was adjusting to my new life in Italy, missing my friends, trying to figure out what was going on in my life; all during that odd, awkward adolescent stage. Additionally, in late November we decided to move from the house we were in to an apartment building in Caserta, moving farther away from Gricignano and Pinetamare and Lago Patria and all the few friends we had made since.

This Christmas was also different because my father was assigned overnight-duty at work from December 24-25. Having always lived in Europe and never been around relatives for the holidays, it was normally my parents and brother all together for Christmas Eve, having a special dinner and watching movies and playing board games - only once was he ever away on a ship for Christmas, but I was too young to remember it. For the first time that I could remember, my dad wasn't going to be there.

Everything was set up to be a devestating Christmas for a 9-year-old girl: no friends, no dad, changed routine, most of our stuff was still in boxes. We hadn't even done St. Nicholas day that year! (Apparently it's celebrated differently and on different days in Italy.)

But that Christmas is actually one of my favourite memories.

We made do with what we could; we set up a small, sparse tree behind the couch in the middle of a bunch of boxes. We turned on the TV to any english-speaking movie we could find (it was Wizard of Oz). I remember my mom wrapping some of my dad's gifts, sitting there watching with my brother and I. And I especially remember the bean bag game my mother had made stitching pieces of felt together with beans in the middle. We used an empty Tide box and spent hours tossing the bean bags into the box across our massive living/dining room area, making up games and challenges. My mom said we could stay up, even though Santa was coming, because we could wait for dad to come home. Santa would work around us, it was no problem.

I don't remember what gifts I got that year, I don't remember playing with toys, I don't remember all the things a kid would probably remember about their Christmas. I do remember falling asleep way before dad got home, and way before Santa came to the house. I do remember waking up at 8am to the sound of my dad coming home from work, and my brother and I running out to the living room to wish him a Merry Christmas and being delighted to see a mass of presents magically under our tree. I remember having breakfast together as a family, knowing that I made it through my first Christmas in Italy, and it was different--but wonderful. Because my family makes it so wherever we go, whatever circumstance we're in.

That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

apologies for the rudimentary "colouring" going on in this - i only have the touchpad mouse, so Photoshopping for colour was a bit...harrowing.

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