Let go of what is gone; be grateful for what remains; look forward to what is coming...

NOTE: Written on March 2, 2020: Pre knowing just how big Covid was... I decided not to rewrite it because it was a simpler time then. 

Holy COW, we're in the 2020s!!! Where did the time go? I recall pondering how old I would be once it hit 2000... sheesh!

But before I dive too deep down that rabbit hole, I want to reflect on 2019. I don't write blog posts on the regular anymore, which is pretty evident by how many posts have been published in the last year. Though it's not because I haven't thought about it. For 2019, I have 4 drafts; 2018 and 2017, 1 draft each, 2016, 3 drafts... you get the idea. I'm unsure if I'll finish most of those, but I am guessing a few of them may see the light of day at some point.

Overall, it was a good year but not without several challenges. Nothing happened directly to me, but I was impacted (and still am) by some of the losses that were part of last year's journey. One of my best friends lost her father somewhat unexpectedly, while another set of really good friends lost their 2 year old daughter, also somewhat unexpectedly. If anything, the cliché rings true, we are not promised tomorrow. I don't tend to focus on the harder moments but I will say more about some of that a bit later.

Prior to becoming gainfully employed after a long hiatus, my friends and I went to the King Tut Exhibit in LA. From what we were told, it will be the last time that the exhibit toured because they were able to earn enough money to build a permanent installation in Egypt. It was truly amazing how much they were able to preserve, even with all the traveling throughout the world. I am glad I was able to see it. Even though I would love to go to Egypt, I'm not sure when that will become a reality.

We went on our annual trip to Mammoth, which, as always was a blast. That's one of the things I really appreciate about this fine state. An 8 hour drive will take us high into the mountains where the fluffy white snow is a stunning place for winter sports. As any GoT fan knows, last year was the series finale. And while we were awaiting it, my brain was going into withdrawals, which made me "see" dragon formations quite often. The ending was pretty disappointing, but here's hoping IF the books are completed, it will be told in a better way. I don't want to go into a rant about the finale, as I've already mourned and vented enough for the time being.

So, I'm still back among the working class. My "break" was WAY too long for my tastes, though if I were independently wealthy, I would have been pretty darn happy to not work. Unfortunately, this lovely state isn't cheap to live in, so back to work I went. I'm grateful for an awesome team, and how much fun we had for the Halloween contest. Not to mention the 3 escape rooms we got to do, and the gym classes that I'm a bit obsessed with now. LOL.

I was able to do a tiny bit of traveling aside from Mammoth, visiting friends in the Bay area and my family in Vegas. There is something tremendously fulfilling about having reunions with friends that are family. The laughter, the fun; how it feels like no time has passed, even though time sure as heck passes. We had some visitors come through as well, which was great too!

I saw my 4th Janet Jackson concert with my brother in Vegas. Even at 53, she could still move. Maybe not J. Lo at the Superbowl, but she still has game. #goalsformy50s That was very nostalgic too. I don't know a single new song, but anything before 2002, my brain recalled almost every single word.

I got to play softball again! The last time I played was back in 2017, so I was rusty. It was quite the experience, actually. Almost half the team had never played softball before and didn't know any of the rules. We played in a general city league, and to put it bluntly, we had our butts handed to us. There was only one team we were on par with, and when we played them, we tied. That tie, though... was our first non-loss. We were getting KILLED in each game, have the mercy rule of switching positions after 7 runs were made per inning, invoked on us in a good 65% of the games, if not more.

 

My silver lining to that is that if you see how the team started to how we ended the season, we improved A LOT! The batting was better, the fielding was better, we had some great innings and even whole games where the mercy rule wasn't invoked. (some...) All in all, we had a great time and spoiler alert, we just started the newest season last week in a new league where we won our first game, as a team, EVER!!!

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We had several visitors who were from Boston and we were able to go to one of the Red Sox/Padre games which was, wait for it... Star Wars themed! It was a lot of fun to get the swag and watch the Sox play. We used to go to Fenway Park when we lived in Boston and enjoy the games there. 

Disney was having a special where an Annual Passholder could buy $99 park hopper tickets for the end of summer. Just in time for my birthday. I had a pass when I was living in the OC and I had a blast! Growing up close to the Happiest Place on Earth, we were able to go somewhat frequently. I recently found ticket stubs where the ticket was only $22!! My very first annual pass was $99, so let's just say that Disney definitely increased prices much faster than inflation. Anyway...

As a treat, we got reservations for the Blue Bayou. After all these years, I had never been and it was not too bad! We should have waited to get a seat closer to the water, but I'm sure we would have been WAY TOO hungry to wait that long. Next time though.... we will be patient enough to get the table by the water. :) We got on over 15 rides in less than 12 hours, often taking single rider lines to make sure we could get on as many as possible. A few awesome people (who have passes) came throughout the day and though it was a HOT day, it was everything I had hoped for. Disney just has a way of making you feel like a kid again!

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We're almost in the last quarter of 2020 right now. What a crazy adjustment it has been and there are no signs that things will change any time soon. But... that's for another post.

2017 Year in Review (in August no less!)

Oh the blog neglect! I'm sure some people would just advise that I wait until next year and just roll it into one post. I thought about it, but nah...

My "annual" reflection post allows me to get back to this blog and also reminds me of how I don't keep up with it much. I've been "focusing" on the creative blog and started up #humpdayhaikus again, well frankly, because I have the time!

2017 had its ups and downs, but, I'll focus on and appreciate the good because, well, it just feels better. :)

As per my usual since returning from the east coast in 2011, I spent many an afternoon strolling along local beaches and capturing more sunsets in a year that most people see in a decade. This is my version of stopping to smell the roses since my sense of smell is pretty non-existent.  The locale changed from Newport Beach to Torrey Pines State Beach because, at long last, I finally made my way back down to San Diego. FINALLY! and couldn't be happier to be here.

My brother got me an annual pass to Disneyland for Christmas 2016 and boy did I take advantage of that, even though I moved down to SD in April. Life can't be all that bad if you are hanging out with good company at the" Happiest Place on Earth", right?

The great thing was, my brother and several friends also had/have a pass so I had several opportunities to relive my childhood and also have experiences with my friend's kids. I LOVE that! It reminds me of when I used to go with my cousins when we were all much younger and ticket prices were maybe around $20 pp. Those were the days!

With Nina and Brysen on the Mader ride at DCA

The cool thing about going with a toddler is going back to the kiddy rides. I stopped going to them if I didn't have kids with me, so they were forgotten. In fact, I went on the Peter Pan ride for the first time ever and it was pretty awesome! The Pooh ride was a bit psychedelic too. Snow White is a bit "scarier" than I would have anticipated for being a kid's ride, but I'm digressing...

EPIC RAIN

There was some epic rain in the beginning of the 2017 year. This prompted trips to Mammoth for snowboarding and adventures to local (and not so local) parks to see the insane wildflower growth.

Canyon Park

I haven't been snowboarding in about 6 years or so. I went once when I was living on the East coast and was excited to get back to powder. It just so happens that the weekend that we went (3rd week of January) was when there was a huge storm. There was already a ton of snow so that we sank as soon as we got off the lifts. All the black diamond slopes turned to blue black, all the blue black turned to blue, etc. It was like landing on a pillow, albeit a cold one.

On the 2nd day, it was dumping and the winds were so strong that most of the lifts were closed. Only one side was open and when we got there, we saw that everyone else was there too. Took almost an hour to get to the front and one set of friends got stuck on the lift for about 30 min. We took the hint and once we got everyone back together again, we called it a day. We were supposed to stay another night, but the forecast showed that the conditions would only worsen and that we might be stuck on the mountain for a full day just sitting inside the cabin. We also took that hint and headed back home.

Fairview Park

Elsewhere in the state, the plentiful rain allowed flowers (and weeds) to grow like something else! In my old local park, the wildflowers were easily clearing 6 to 7 feet! It was almost like a corn maze, but with pretty yellow flowers.

In some of these parks, the area was usually just dirt. Mountain bikes would race across the hills, blowing up dust and dirt in their wake. But the rains of early 2017 transformed the landscape.

Speaking of wild flowers, my good friend and I decided to wake up early on a Saturday to make our way out to Anza Borrego. Even Travel & Leisure had to comment on the desert blooms and for good reason. In different areas of the desert, flowers blanketed the horizon in seas of yellow and purple. I'm glad we left early because even in March, the weather was pretty darn hot out there. I practiced some of my DSLR skills and posted some of the unedited pictures here.

Anza Borrego

ROAD TRIP

Although I've moved across the US a few times in my life, I took my first cross country road trip from Southern California to Florida with my brother and his girlfriend. I got to see some family and sites along the way, which was pretty exciting.

As we drove through Texas, we kept seeing billboards for Buc-ee's. We came across so many of them that curiosity got the best of us and we looked it up. They boasted about their aware winning 83 bathroom thrones and something like 200 soda fountains. My brother's girlfriend kept seeing "Beaver Nuts" but that's another story.

We decided to stop and boy were we glad we did! They weren't kidding about how clean their bathrooms are. Though there may not have been 83 at this particular location, there was definitely no wait and it was immaculate. I think we counted a good 30 soda/ slurpee fountains, but we also saw that the store had a large food section of both prepared and packaged foods and a merchandise section for pretty much everything. Now I don't want to become a blogging advertisement, but it was a lot of fun! Buc-ee the Beaver merch was fun to look through as well. Ranging from stuffed animals to potholders to pajamas to towels, you could find that bucktoothed beaver on a great variety of things.

Bu-cee's assortment of items

We saw a lot of kitschy items, particularly if you are a fan of the country decor. They were fun.

We decided to get some t-shirts to commemorate the experience because, shoot, we got some beaver fever and were so tickled by this place, we just HAD to! I'm sure the locals thought we were ridiculous and while I may not have actually SEEN them laughing at/with us, I have no doubts they were as we posed in front of the store with our newly purchased Bu-cee's apparel with Bu-cee the Beaver himself.

obligatory shot with Bu-cee

For full disclosure, my brother and his girlfriend have returned to Texas in 2018 and have assured me that they will be revisiting this amazing place and that I shouldn't be too surprised if they bring back some Beaver goodness.

I can't wait!

With my eldest uncle on my dad's side

I have to admit, I was also pretty excited to see family as well. Some of them I haven't seen in a few decades. DECADES (plural!!)!! My cousins hadn't seen us in so long, they couldn't remember if we were cousins or if they were our aunts/uncles. I can't blame them. My brother and I are right in the middle (age wise) of the generations and it was pretty amazing to see the people my 2nd cousins have become, especially since I only had a picture of when two of them were babies in my collection of old photos.

some of my cousins

Considering there was a hurricane several months before, I was surprised not to see much damage there. They live in the Houston area, which was hit pretty hard.

My family told us what the neighborhood looked like during that time, sharing stories of others that struggled and some that didn't make it home. How they had to gut a lot of the walls downstairs and replace whole rooms because of the water damage. I'm grateful that they all survived it and have been steadily rebuilding.

I'm happy that my brother will be seeing them again while he's out there. We had a really nice time catching up with them and the extended family. I hope that I'll be able to make it out there to see them again soon as well. I have a lot of fond memories of them when I was young and it's always a good time to make new memories, if possible.

Next stop: NOLA. None of us had been there before and this will sound silly, but it felt super familiar because of Disneyland's New Orleans Square. The hurricane damage here didn't look too bad either, but I didn't really have much to compare it to. Only a few roads looked a bit messed up, but from what I could tell, businesses were open and even for November it was busy. No where near busy what it could be like during Mardis Gras, no doubt.

It was fun to look up different places to eat and enjoy Cafe Du Monde as it was meant to be. One thing I will say is that if you don't eat the beignets when they are fresh might as well not eat them. We brought some back with us and it doesn't hold up well once they are room temp. Fresh is where it's at!

Our main reason for taking the road trip was to help my brother's girlfriend move stuff from CA to FL for her uncle. Boy were we happy to unload the car and have some leg room once we did that!

It was great to meet her family who greeted us very warmly. My brother has been out there many times before, so he knew everyone. We had some good times, taking her niece and nephew to Miami though only the 3 of us ventured up to Orlando to go to Walt Disney World and Universal. Disney is always busy. We got on the People Mover to escape some heat. We played some games while waiting for Space Mountain (they should TOTALLY implement that at Disneyland; made the wait go by so fast!), and we went on the Snow White ride twice because it was something we didn't have at home and was so much fun!!

Minions!

Seems like there is no "down season" for Disney, but that definitely wasn't the case for Universal Studios. The longest we had to wait for a ride was 30 minutes. We were able to go on the Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts ride several times in a row with at most a 10 min wait in between. That ride was AMAZING!!! Diagon Alley was also AMAZING! Considering they are a movie studio, I would have been a bit disappointed if I didn't feel like I was fully immersed in the wizarding world and I'm so glad they made it happen!

When I'm in amusement parks, I feel like a kid again. I was "this" close to buying a robe, but thank goodness it was HOT out and it got me thinking "when would I wear this again?", which in turn, helped me talk myself out of purchasing anything. Not even a single minion!... even though THAT was really tempting! (Phew!) Didn't help at Bu-cee's though!

Overall, there was a lot of GREAT in 2017 and not much bad. I'm lucky indeed!

Book List
1.* Post Office - Charles Bukowski
2. We're All Damaged - Matthew Norman
3. The Caller - Karin Fossum
4. Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
5. *Another Brooklyn - Jacqueline Woodson
6. Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami
7. I am Watching You - Teresa Driscol
8. The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness - Sy Montgomery

* Virtual/Lazy Book Club picks

Concerts:
1. Garbage/Blondie
2. Ed Sheeran
3. U2
4. Bleachers
5. Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul
6. High Rolling Loners

By my rambling digressions I perceive myself to be growing old - Benjamin Franklin

I don't know about you, but as I've gotten older, time just whizzes on by. How can it already be close to the end of summer?!

I remember what it was like to be young. When problems consisted of wanting to have my favorite toy, and a bit later on, having sleepovers with friends, keeping up with some of the latest fashion trends, wondering if that boy I liked would ever notice me,  thinking of other opportunities to add to my college applications, and of course, waiting anxiously to turn a year older...

Now-a-days, I'm old enough to see styles that were big when I was young come back into style. The high-waisted jeans (ick), the crop tops... These days, instead of flocking to the "new" trends and trying them on, often times I pick up a hanger, inspect the item, and think, "What IS this?!" I move the article of clothing around, trying to picture in my head, how it would actually fit on a human form, often times without success.

I look in the mirror, and see subtle changes in my face. Though my complexion is better, I see age lines that weren't there not that long ago. I see silver strands in my hair and am waiting for that tipping point when I will start to dye it so that I can continue to pretend that I'm not as old as I am.

Though, just last week, I was carded, so maybe I can keep pretending a little longer. (Phew!)

By now, I'm sure some of you have seen this:

Source: http://9gag.com

I'm almost in the middle of this! Agghhh! (Without the kiddos though.)

I'm closing in on one of those "milestone" birthdays and when I think about it, it's surreal. My life may not be where I thought it would be by this time, but I really can't complain. After all, I've got great relationships with friends and family and I live about 3 miles away from the beach in my favorite city!

My birthday in 2016 (La Jolla, CA)

"The only way to make sense of change is to plunge into it, move with it and join the dance." - Alan W. Watts

So... yeah, change is a coming.

I am moving to the OC.

Egads!

I haven't "officially" lived there in 20 years! Two decades! Four lustra! You get the idea.

I recently took a personality assessment that says that I don't like change. I think there is a little bit of truth in there, but I feel like the nostalgia that brings about the reluctance.

I'll be honest, San Diego is the only place I've never complained about. I was even grateful to be unemployed there because I got rock star parking every time I went to the beach during work hours. And the museums were free to residents, so I took advantage of that too.

When I first moved to California, I mocked the weather ("What? No snow on Christmas?!" Give me a break, I was 10!); then when I moved to Boston for grad school, it wasn't the weather I complained about (I already had an idea of what I was getting into), I missed my friends and Mexican food. Not Tex-Mex, but California burritos stuffed with french fries (not sprouts!) and street tacos (cabeza, lengua? yes please!). When I got to Santa Barbara, I was totally surprised because I thought it would be like San Diego, OC, and LA. It's not. It's a quaint city of 90,000 and since Isla Vista isn't counted as a part of the census, it's diversity is pretty much non-existent.

The only place I have never been nostalgic for is the OC. The reasons for missing San Diego are too numerous to list. Boston? Boy, am I missing that excellent clam chowder and lobsta rolls! And the seasons? Fall is unbeatable. Unlike CA, if you drive for an hour, you can be in another state. After just one hour! I miss my friends there too of course. :)

Santa Barbara? It's like we're on an island of sorts. It takes about an hour just to reach a Target! Ok, not anymore, they have one in Oxnard now, so only 40 minutes, but it's still true to reach a decent Asian market that doesn't pillage your wallet!

Ok, so what am I going to be nostalgic for when I leave SB?

The same thing that most people mentioned when I told them... American Ale burgers. Some of the first words I heard were, "Oh no! That means I won't get anymore burgers!" Thanks guys...

The beach. Yeah, I know, So Cal has beaches a plenty. But here, even on the 4th of July and Labor Day, you can easily find a space on the beach. Parking may be a problem for some, but not for this gal who lives 1.5 miles away and usually just walks it.

The views. It's just darn pretty here.

Honestly, one of the biggest things I will miss here are all the great people I worked with. It took some time to get to know them, but it's always hard to leave good people. Especially when you have developed a really great working relationship and finally got things working somewhat smoothly.

The combination of it all is making nostalgic juices flow through my veins.

People ask if I'm excited about moving. I am. I have plans. Like piano classes, and salsa lessons,maybe even an art class or two. I even have a few friends in the area. (Family too!)

"Time is precious, waste it wisely" - Jan Jansen

There is no better way to start a New Year than by showing gratitude for the past year. Fortunately for me, it was filled with family, friends, travel, and good food.

And in no particular order...

Disneyland

I rang in the Year of the Snake with my brother and cousin at the "Happiest Place on Earth!"

Living in SoCal for most of my life, I was definitely not a stranger to Disneyland. After this trip, I foresee cousin reunions draped in Mickey Mouse ears and standing in long lines waiting for rides reminiscing about the days of old, when we would be standing in long lines waiting for rides.

At least I'm hoping for it!

Portland, OR

Another cousin moved up to OR about 4 years ago. Finally, after all this time I was able to get up there and visit her in Portland. 

(Side note, when she told her mom she was moving, her mom thought she was moving to Poland! Another side note, my dad actually moved to Poland for a while... go figure.)

Goonies House, Astoria, OR

While we were in the beautiful state of Oregon, we also took a road trip to get in touch with our inner Goonie.

Seriously, they don't make movies like that anymore. (sniff, sniff) Heck, hardly anyone lets their kids play outside unsupervised and who can blame them? I digress...

Seattle, WA

On to the Seattle area, where we met up with some of my grad school friends for some great grub.  Some people may consider me a "foodie" because I LOVE food and even started a food blog. Some might poke fun and call me a "fattie" if it weren't un-PC. Let me put it like this, my goal is to be healthy because life it just too darn short NOT to eat. So skinny jeans be damned! I'm going to EAT and just exercise to balance it out.

Speaking of exercise... we ended up snow shoeing in Snoqualmie.

If you have never done this before, it sounds easy. Strap on a contraption with spikes on your own shoes and away you go... In theory that's exactly what happened. I even got to test these suckers on a mini hill before we went up a bigger one. (I lacked faith...)

Snoqualmie, WA

It was definitely a bit more challenging that I thought it was. Part of that was probably because the only "waterproof" shoes I had were some Puma sneakers. Appropriate footwear is key! (And I didn't have it... fail!)

We had fun none-the-less, although, truth be told, we were shown up by several 6 year olds that went down a pretty darn steep cliff. My inexperience made me very wary of climbing down a mountain backwards, especially when there was a tree waiting there to "catch my fall"... I wasn't alone in not wanting to go that way, which helped my ego a bit. :)

Now if I were on a snowboard... I still wouldn't have gone down that hill. Just sayin...

Washington D.C., Cherry Blossoms

In April, we visited the nation's capitol. I have never been in a city where duck fat was so prevalent. Not that I'm necessarily complaining because I definitely had some! Duck fat fries, duck fat mussels, oh my! I seriously believe the "DC" stands for DuckFat City...

We were SO lucky. The last day we were there, all the Cherry Blossoms bloomed around the Basin. It is truly a site and I'm glad we were fortunate enough to see it in person.

Catalina Island

One of my good friends owns a boat and in May, she decided that she wanted to move said boat back down to San Diego from Marina Del Rey. Our "crew" consisted of Amy, me and her Mini Pin, Capt'n Louie.

We were going to take our time and take about 5 days to get down, stopping by Catalina, Dana Point and wherever else we felt like on our way to San Diego.

Capt'n Louie

I used to sail with her quite a bit back in the day. Before this trip, I could happily brag that I had never gotten sea sick. Let me just say, we can deeply sympathize with the Gilligan's Island theme song... What should have been a relatively easy trip from Marina Del Rey to Catalina was filled with 30 knot winds and "cresting mother-fing waves" to quote the Captain!

It was a relaxing trip, mostly away from all things tech related (although I got a little cell signal) but it put me off sailing for a bit. (I'm ready to go now if the opportunity presents itself, don't get me wrong!) Once I was back on land again, it took me a little time to get my land legs again.

San Diego

I didn't get down to San Diego as much as I would have liked, but every time I was there, it still felt like home. And how could it not? I am lucky enough to still have a lot of great friends that have made a life there and welcome me every time I am back.

There never seems to be enough time in a weekend to see everyone, so maybe this year I'll resume my once a month excursion down the coast. Most of these wonderful people I've known for over 13 years now, so there are many new additions to the family. (You should see all the family Christmas cards that are on my fridge!) :)

Mini Reunion, Boston, MA

Another place that will always be near and dear to my heart is Beantown.

Where, if you walk into Cornwall's, the bartender may not know your name, but he'll definitely know your drink!

Where clam chowda is freakin amazing even in some work cafeterias!

Where I've just been so incredibly lucky to have met some amazing people.

Cornwall's, Boston, MA

I'm looking forward to what 2014 has to offer.