My welcome into the 30's

I have white hair........

What a weekend.....

Saturday:

Took the bike up to Oakland for the Barack Obama rally. It was about 30 minutes before the speech and Ray and I were just hanging out when a lady approached Ray. She apparently was a rally volunteer and invited us to sit on the grandstand located behind the podium. We jumped at the opportunity and got to sit up close and personal to where Obama was going to speak! We got to shake his hand and listen to his empowering speech.



After the rally we headed over to Marie's for her Murder Mystery dinner. I was assigned the character Bogus Fortunatas and Ray was Harangus Adnauseum. It was a fun and interesting evening. We enjoyed some "lasagna," spinach dip, soup, and ginger cake. And, I was not the killer! Woo-hoo!

Maturity Revelation

As the years went by I started to realize that I don't need a million people surrounding me to make me feel whole or important. I can remember five, eight years ago when I would do things solely to make others happy in order to keep them around. I used to measure my worth by how many phone numbers were in my phone or how many "friends" were on my friendster profile. I prided in being the center of attention, the "it" girl. Although I still have a bit of those feelings left inside of me, I now have the maturity to truly understand that I'd rather have a few genuine friends that lift me up and make me a better person.



In the past few years I have slowly shedded "toxic" or "useless" people in my life. Toxic as in I go through more downs than ups with that person. Useless as in I'm not learning or gaining anything from the friendship. There is not one person but many that I have found through the years have not been a real friend or just not the right friend. It's taken me a while but through this maturity I am finally getting to that point in my life where I can look at the people around me and smile. Now, when I look around I see friends that I know will last a lifetime. Friends that I consciously make an effort to nurture and love. So, to end on a positive note. I want to make a shout out to my homegirls you know who you are!

It's so bad to say this, but I will.....

One of my lowest students with the worst personal issues is transferring!!!!!!!!!

Running around, running around......

....thoughts keep running around in my head. Every quiet moment I have I'm constantly thinking about the wedding. And while I'm thinking about a certain detail I start to think about another and another and another. Next thing I know I have the internet, Word, Excel, and my wedding book all in front of me and now I have to try and remember what I was thinking about! Argh!



I had decided to do a bit of gardening today. I got sick and tired of the wildflowers that were wildly (go figure!) growing in the front so I hesitantly pulled them all out. I have pain that I caused them pain. And I began planting lilum, gladiolas, and many other pretty flowers. This long, arduous activity helped keep my mind away from wedding-related stress. Who knew that I would find gardening somewhat enjoyable. Considering the fact that I've never thought much about gardening and always boasted about having a black thumb! Well.....get back to me on the black thumb comment in a month or two and we'll see!

Finally!

Our couch is finally here! I can kick my feet up and get lost in the squishy pillows!

That's not how we count

I'm sorry but if you don't actually say the number 110 like this, "one-ten," then don't teach the kids to say it that way!

Oh happiness......

Went to the bridal shop to drop off my dress to get the bustle attached. Found out I had lost enough weight/fat to require alterations. Woo-hoo!

Take it between the legs

Saturday afternoon and evening was spent in SF. We first started out at our photographer's to pick up our signing board. Looks good! We then met up with Shirley, Winnie, and Lorena at the Nordstrom mall. Had lunch at the new addition to the mall and ran into Lucille. The food court area had a store there called Bristol Farms. Although there were picketers outside against this store (looked like they don't have union workers working there) the store was great! There was a huge selection of food. Hot food like mashed taters, meatloaf, asian stuff like rice bowls and sushi, salad bar, ahi poke, and a variety of soups and sandwiches. We eat well!



After lunch we did a bit of shopping, but by 5ish we went to a street corner and sat on the sidewalk to watch the Chinatown New Year parade. It was my first time watching the parade in person. It has some goods and some bads. Goods were the "drumline-like" band and the piglets. Bads were the long stalls and people in cars that you don't know waving at you. Two of Winnie's friends met up with us and Marie came along halfway through the parade. We bailed around 8 to head to dinner in N. Beach where we met up with Rick and his friend. Had dinner at Panta Rie Cafe. It was very loud and very fun. It was some girl's bday so they did the usual bday singing. The only difference was that she was pulled up onto the bar as they sang, was fed cake by one of the waiters, and took a shot of something in between the waiter's legs! Or, at least I assume they were waiters. The waiters reminded me of these guys that worked at a pizza place in Brindisi, Italy when I was last there. Very loud and passionate.



Food was good and the company was great. I wish we could do this more often.