Merry Christmas!!

Friday, December 24, 2010
A part of me feels like I'm supposed to be at work today, but thankfully we got today off. Of course, I woke up with my head pounding and a runny nose, but after popping 3 excedrin and blowing my nose, those symptoms are dissipating. Now I'm sitting on the couch eating yummy ginger cookies a co-worker made while playing bejeweled on facebook and watching tv. Laziness has takes root. Thank goodness I wrapped all my gifts last night.

Well, not all of them. I still have to get something for my brother's girlfriend, but she was supposed to go home yesterday for Christmas, so I have more time. I say supposed to because I got a text message from her this morning asking if I bought a case for the kindle I got for my sister because my brother wanted to get a case for it if I didn't. So, again, I say supposed to because my brother didn't text me himself, and he was supposed to be home yesterday since she was leaving and he's been at her apartment while she's been here, so if she left, he was supposed to come home. Crap, I hope she left, that way I still have time to get her something.

Oh man, I still have to get my cousin's girlfriend's gift too. She got me the Despicable Me Minion Madness double dvd's and I have no idea what to get her.

Christmas came up way too fast. They year just flew by. Time got away from me. I haven't even done my Christmas cards. I just don't know where it all went.

I had thought of writing a year in review letter to go along with the Christmas card, but all I could think of to write was, "Young Variety. 'Nuff said."

I think that pretty much sums up my year, no? Everything I did had to do with Young Variety or Variety itself. If we're friends on facebook, you saw that in all my fb status messages. Even on twitter.

And now the year has come to an end, but I don't really get a break. I have to start getting the January board meeting together and our big event of the year, the pool tournament, is coming up quickly and I need to get volunteers and photographers for it. So my last official event may have been the luncheon on the 16th, but there is still no end, no break.

Sunday, December 26, 2010
Christmas has come and gone. Friday night was spent at my uncle's house with the family. Damn! there are a lot of us! Too many. It took us 2 hours and 15 minutes to give open all the presents. It was less time than the last time we were all together for Christmas Eve in 2007, but it still felt like it took forever. And not all the little ones made it. I really think we need to start opening gifts earlier.

I came away with a handbag (one of my aunts just won't let it go and stop giving me handbags), an evening purse, a Starbucks gift card, a tunic with scarf, a sweater and a Hershey's pot to make hot chocolate. From my immediate family I got a new tv that's currently hooked up in the living room, a closet cube organizer, and 2 pillow pets (a ladybug and panda!). Dude, I can't deny it, I was so excited when I opened the pillow pets. :D

Technically, I also got the Despicable Me Minion Madness Double dvd from my cousin's girlfriend (as mentioned above) and another handbag from another friend. Though, is it still considered a Christmas present if while shopping, you hold two handbags up to your friend and ask, "which one are you buying me for Christmas?" ;-D

Overall, a good time was spent with the family on Christmas Eve. I spent most of the time playing with the little ones or my uncle's tiny pups. Apparently, attention was paid on Friday to the fact that I'm always playing with the little ones or dogs, so I'm either going to have kids or pets when I "grow up." Not sure how my family didn't realize this earlier.

Here's a little video of my niece dancing when they put music on. She's too cute. She'll be 1 in January, but she's already so big and has such a great personality.

Christmas Day was spent at home not doing much. I spent the better part of the day and evening online playing games on facebook and watching tv in mom's room since everyone else (mom, sister and brother) were watching basketball and football in the living room on my brand new tv.

Why is my new tv in the living room, you ask? Well, we had a really old tv in the living room. It still works great, but it's so old that even though we have dvr through direct tv, i can only record one show at a time and I can't change the channel while it's recording. So my new tv is in the living room for now until a new tv is bought when the living room is remodeled. (Our kitchen is currently being remodeled and we're working our way through the house.) My sister spent all day trying to hook up the tv and receiver to record multiple shows at the same time, but we couldn't get it to work. She's going to try again tomorrow. She gave up and just watched sports instead.

And now that it's 2am and everyone else is asleep, I figured I'd finish writing this post. And now I'm sleepy, so I'm going to take my pillow pets and Dorsey and go to bed. He's been sleeping with me these last few days. I'm a little worried, he seems sad. But it's nice to have him to cuddle with.

I'll end this post by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and hope it was filled with love and laughter.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Last week, an e-mail went around on Facebook letting people know the Youth Commission was bestowing a Lifetime Achievement Award to our Key Club Kiwanis Advisor. He's been the Kiwanis Advisor since the 70's and has devoted his life to children.

I received the e-mail from the class of 95 KC prez and she received it from the class of 94 KC prez. I forwarded it on to the 97 and 98 prez' as well as other key clubbers on facebook.

Voila! Instant reunion! :)

There were former key clubbers from the 70s, 80s and 90s, as well as current key clubbers. We took a group pic, but I still need to get a copy of it.

It was so great to see people I hadn't seen in a really long time. And all my favorite Kiwanians were there, too. They looked exactly the same! The memories just flooded back and I was transported back to high school.

One of the alums from the 70s is the general manager of the local Chili's, so our faculty advisor, Mr. Putnam, suggested we meet there after the dinner. And so we did. Mr. Putnam was a hard ass, strict and tough, so it was crazy weird to see him relaxed and drinking. It was so fun! He was spilling the beans, revealing information. It was great! We kept passing him drinks. ;)

It was just super nice to see old friends and get reacquainted. Now there's talk of nominating Mr Baum for the highest award that can be given within Key Club International and holding a special banquet for him and this time, getting as many former key clubbers as possible together.

Key Club is the foundation of everything I do. Everything I do, who I am, is all because of Key Club and the Kiwanians.

I'm beginning to think it's time to go back to my roots....

With the honoree, Mr. Baum

With one of my favorite Kiwanians, Joann

With my other favorite Kiwanian, Amalia

Key Club Presidents - 1977, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2004?, current & Mr. Putnam

Drinks at Chili's

My Life is Complete

I've hit the pleasure trifecta!

One corner has everything I need to make me happy. Just a couple of miles down the street, in the next city, there's a Fresh & Easy, the brand-spankin' new Porto's kitty corner from the Fresh & Easy, and just behind the Porto's, the movie theatre. Everything I need. OK, if they added a bookstore, then it would have everything I needed, but I'll take what they have.

The line to Porto's is crazy long. Depending on what time you go, you first have to wait in the line that starts at the door and wraps around. Once inside, you go to either the bakery line or the cafe line. The cafe line is supposed to be the express line and the Porto's worker at the door will come out and ask if anyone is getting just drinks and sandwiches and/or under 6 bakery items and they'll let you ahead of the people in the outside line.

I went to Porto's twice today. I met Tiny at there at 11am for lunch and there was no outside line. After lunch, we went to the movies and saw "For Colored Girls." I will never see Michael Ealy in the same way again. :(  Yes, I cried. I cried a lot.

After the movie, Tiny caught the bus back home because she had to go babysit, and I went back to Porto's and this time, there was an outside line. It was so funny, though, because a couple in front of me tried to sneak into the bakery line inside and they got caught. The husband tried to argue, but you could tell the wife got embarrassed and walked back out to the outside line. We were standing outside laughing.

All in all, the second time I went today, it took about 50 minutes to wait in line and get all the goodies I got. I bought enough for my sister and mom to try their popular dishes. Except my mom can't have the cheese rolls because she's lactose intolerant.

Man, Porto's is yummy in my tummy. My mom enjoyed it too. My sister hasn't said anything, but I'm sure she enjoyed them too. She's been giving me crap all week about Porto's and the long-ass line.

And now that they've extended their hours, I can actually make it during the week and not wait until the weekend.

So, for now, my life is complete. :-D

Juggling a lot right now; laziness and procrastination are huge chunks of it.

It doesn't mean a thing if you don't do it

I'm not crazy. I wasn't the only one dishing it out. He was dishing it right back.

So why can't he just say it now? Why does he have to hide it?

He's clearly seeing someone and has clearly been seeing this someone for quite a few months.

He's not a part of my life, so it's not like I care, but it bothers me because he keeps saying he misses us hanging out and wants us to get together more often...blah blah blah

Terribly annoying

We have very little in common. We have different outlooks on life. I'm a heck of a lot more generous than she is. Yet, week after week, I go to the movies with her. Yes, she's the one with the car, but I'm the one with the free movie pass. Do you know how much it costs to go to the movies nowadays, especially if it's a 3D movie? A lot!

My cousin, his girlfriend and I went to the movies a few weeks ago. We saw Resident Evil 3D at one of our theatres so I was able to use my free pass, but then they wanted to see Pirahna 3D and we didn't have it anymore so we had to go to the Regal theatre and it was $46 for our tickets. FORTY SIX DOLLARS!! And that didn't include concessions.

So imagine how much she's saved on movies since I've gotten my free pass. On average there's 2 new releases a week, occasionally 3 or more, and she's gotten to see them all for free.

I don't ask for anything in exchange. I'm just happy to go to the movies since I don't like going by myself.

But I'm more than irritated at how demanding she's getting. No concern for my schedule. It's when she wants to go and the order she wants. She complains about everything and is so friggin' cheap. Arg!!

And yet week after week, there I go. Why o why?

Who else am I supposed to go with?

Feel like myself

I'm not 100% yet, but sooooooooooooooooo much better. I have a lingering cough, but wake up better every day. Last week, even on Sunday, I was still feeling crappy, but this week I feel like myself. Better. :-)

I'm writing this blog while my phone is tethered to my laptop. Way cool, huh? I just hope I don't go over on my data usage. I do tend to use a lot of data as it is. And yesterday I downloaded a bunch of songs from iTunes. I had a really long list of songs to download. eek! Now I have to start building my list back up. I'm in desperate need of some new music. There's not much out there that's catching my attention. Even old faves are wearing thin.

Ta-ta for now....

WTF?!?!?

What happens the second I hit publish on the last post and logged out?

I had a really bad coughing fit - the kind where your throat closes up for a second and you feel like you can't breathe.

Of course I would jinx myself with that last post. :(

Sick as a dog

I can't remember the last time I was this sick. I started feeling bad right after my birthday outing in Pasadena Labor Day weekend and it progressively got worse with the height of it last week.

It was mostly just a cough. No fever, even though I was sweating more than usual. My skin would be cold, but I'd be sweating like it was 115 degrees out. It was gross man. Aside from the cough (and incessant sweating), I was mostly sluggish. Walking the 2 blocks to the bus wore me out. And the stairs here in the office, oh man....not only did it take everything out of me, I'd go into a coughing fit for like 20 minutes.

I was taking everything you could imagine and that's saying a lot considering I'm a "let it run its course and suffer through it" kind of girl. Between Walgreens and the Albertsons pharmacy, I was buying pharmaceuticals every day. Some things helped, some temporarily, others I was just taking just to take them.

This past weekend, I detox at home; trying to get everything out of my body that I had put in during the past week, hoping that maybe then, some of the medicine would start working again. And I slept and tried to get as much rest as I could.

Unfortunately, it also meant that I missed my niece's baby shower and I didn't see any of the three new releases. :(

I took one extra day at home on Monday. One last day to recover. I even gave my body a little talk. Told it enough was enough. I had too much going on to let it keep me down this long. It didn't really work, but at least I felt much better Tuesday morning than I did Monday morning. And even though I was still grossing out my coworkers with my incessant mucus hacking, at least I didn't let it keep me down.

Nights this past week have been horrible with all the coughing, but each day I've awoken better than the day before. Today, my voice sounds worse than I feel and I'm not sweating as much as I was. Most importantly, I got up the stairs without the coughing fit and I'm not as tired. There is still a lot of crap in my throat, but it's easier to get out now. (eww! GROSS!!!)

I'd say I'm at 85% now. Can't wait til I'm back to 100% - there are lots of things I want to do. Too many movies to see!

8.31.2010

Gift from my sister - Burberry wallet - I LOVE IT!!!YUM! Chocolate cake!! :)
My mom (forgive her, she had 2 glasses of wine), me, my sister