Baby Shower

Two weeks ago I took a trip up to the PNW (aka Pacific Northwest) and had a ball catching up with family and friends. One of my dear friends brought two beautiful twin girls into the world this past December and my other close friend is expecting her own little bundle of joy to make her appearance in May.  Here are some pictures from the day:

Pink Sweets Bar - Cake pops, sugar cookies, donuts, apple fritters, rock candy, taffy, gum balls, and pink chocolate kisses (red velvet cupcakes were added later)

Cuddling with the beautiful girls

Boys and their toys

D's childhood friend and best man in our wedding, C, was in town a couple weeks ago for a business trip.  We sat around our apartment, reminisced on old stories, snacked on chips and salsa, and sipped on brews. Their friendship spans more than 20 years, but they both have always had a slight competitive edge around each other, and this last visit was no exception. D busted out the Wii Sports Resorts and a fierce battle between the buddies ensued.  Pretty soon, it got to be so heated that they forgot I was even in the room.  Thank goodness for sneaky digital cameras, they really do help to capture those special moments.

Farmer Hoggett

www.imbd.com

This last weekend, D and I both had the WHOLE weekend off!  What a concept!  One day, we too shall lead our lives filled with weekends off, but in the mean time, we'll deal with the sporadic few that do happen.  I bought us tickets to go see the play "Elevator" in a small theater in West Hollywood. We intended to grab dinner ahead of time and just happened to stumble across Hugo's while parking our car.  As we sat down at our cozy table for two inside the restaurant, I looked at the menu and became instantly concerned. We had just stepped into the stereotypical Socal hippy/sustainable/organic/vegetarian/vegan restaurant. Although I'm open to several of those items, D tends to be little bit more skeptical in experimenting in that arena. Luckily, we agreed to stay and give it a try.  Always fun to try something new!  I took a sip of my water and gazed casually around the restaurant before locking my eyes on an elderly gentleman sitting at a booth by himself.  I slowly turned to D and whispered "That's the guy from 'Babe'!"  On a side note, I am fairly talented in remembering and placing actors from different movies, but I don't always remember their real names.  After a quick search on his smart phone, D whispered to me, "His name is James Cromwell," and then proceeded to tell me a quick recap of Mr.Cromwell's theatrical career. He has an extensive past in movies and it is rather silly that my first connection of Mr.Cromwell was of his role as Farmer Hoggett in the mid-90s family movie called "Babe."  You know . . . the one about the pig, who wants to be a sheep herding dog?  Haven't seen it?  Oh well, nevermind then.  He was the warden in "Green Mile," does that ring a bell at all?  Well, either way, we had a delicious meal and enjoyed our first "star" sighting together.  The play was a lot of fun too!  Perhaps D and I need to start hanging out more in West Hollywood?

Non-fiction

I've been on a non-fiction kick lately in the book department. I typically stay within the fiction category, but lately I have been venturing more and more into the non-fiction realm. It started with reading a book written by one of my idols, Jane Goodall. She wrote "In the Shadow of Man" in 1970s and it has been re-released in various different versions since. This book talks about her first observations and experiences with researching Chimpanzees in Africa. I first read her book when I was in high school and I was lucky enough to attend several of her lectures and even meet her in person! Its amazing to me how such a strong powerful woman can be contained within her demure English-sized stature. My most recent book is called "Half the Sky - Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide," written by Nicholas Kristof and his wife Sheryl WuDunn. I'm only half-way through and it has already stirred and awoken my awareness and interest in international human rights. I studied international human rights in graduate school and also in various other stages of my education, and find the topic fascinating. In this stage of my life, I want to make a difference and actually do something for the world. Although I can't at this point travel the world tackling international human rights issues, I can certainly help with things locally. After my stint with Team in Training is officially finished for the year, I'm interested in getting involved with Homeboy Industries, which helps to provide education and job training for at-risk youth in the LA area. I'll keep you posted on how it goes!  Any other non-fiction reading suggestions?

Life Changes

What a crazy couple weeks!  I celebrated my birthday on Monday, and perhaps with this new age, its made me rather contemplative on life in general. I recently found out about a sorority sister from college, who currently has three children under the age of three, was diagnosed with a brain tumor.  They just finished surgery to determine the severity of the tumor and I just pray for her and her family that it is benign. Then the tsunami in Japan hit.  Luckily we weren't affected by any of the aftermath, but I know several areas in Hawaii were affected it.  All of those people in Japan, their life changed instantly with the tsunami. Same with my sorority sister with the brain tumor, everything you know can be flipped upside down in a heart beat. I want to live in the moment as best as I can. It is so easy to get caught up on the everyday blah blahs, but I'm thankful for where I am in my life at this very moment.  I look forward to the happy times to come and I also feel at peace with the inevitable not-so-happy times.  Until tomorrow comes, carpe diem!

Whoops

Has it really been over three weeks since I've last posted?!  Sorry for the delay, have had a hard time focusing on blogging and even knowing what exactly to write about.  So here are a list of some of my jumbled current thoughts:

• I read this quote today and it really stuck: “Risk is a huge part of achievement. We have to fail forward – that’s how we learn.” I'll have to remember this when things with work get icky.
• Went to Billings, Montana last week and had a lot of fun.  Definitely want to explore more of Montana and not in 20 F weather
• D and I celebrated our 1st year wedding anniversary on Sunday!  Went out to a lovely spot called "The Lazy Ox" in the Japantown part of downtown LA.  Drank some great Belgian beer, snacked on a few appetizers, and reminisced on how much has happened in the last year.  We also talked about our future too.  We concluded that we'll stay in LA for at least another 5 and a half years for D to finish up his medical thangs, then after that we don't know.  I told him I do want to live abroad one day.  Whether it be in 6 years, 16 years, or 26 years (yipe!) I really want to do it one day.  His request was that we live somewhere that speaks English and that it not affect the schooling of our future children.  I'm already researching where we could go!  Right now Australia and New Zealand are high on the list.

All for now!  Happy Wednesday!!