Jampacked

The Bay is full of activities this weekend. The Giants are hosting the Reds for the NLDS, the 49ers are home against Buffalo, there's music in the streets at the Blues Festival, boats race in the bay for America's Cup, then the Blue Angels show their tricks in the sky. It's going to be a gridlock in the city and any attempts to go for any reason must be given much thought and planning. No driving should be considered for many reasons, among them that traffic in and to the city would be horrendous, parking spots would be ten times harder to find and of course that gas prices spiked 40 cents overnight. It's best to just take public transport instead of getting stuck in the middle of the freeway and miss all the action.

I have insanely scheduled something in the city for Sunday pm. I would have to cancel that.

I got a text from my friend; it actually went to my husband's phone, because we swapped phones right after coming back from our vacation in Asia. The message said (it was in Tagalog): Maria my mother has passed away. I will let you know of viewing times and dates. That's all. She/he did not say who was sending the message. The phone number was not familiar to me, although it's in the same area code as mine. I read the text as we were driving home from visiting an elderly friend of ours; she fell and was bruised all over. She lives alone and had to yell for her life. Luckily she lives near the golf course and golfers heard her screams from the backyard and she got help immediately - also there is a fire station at the bottom of the hill.

And so after the emotional visit to that elderly friend, I got another shocker. First off, I couldn't really tell who was sending me the message. Then by the process of elimination, I called the first one that entered my mind. I called not send a text. She replied and I couldn't recognize her voice for an instant and then I called her name. I was lucky I guessed right.

Her mother got beat by lung cancer, which metastasized, according to her. Boy I really hate that word, metastasis, metastatic, metastasized, in all its form. Anyway, the call was short and she was planning on the viewing and the funeral. Four days later I got another text informing me of the viewing time and date. It's going to be this Sunday evening. So many things happening this weekend.

Most Productive Weekend, Etc

I'm compelled to write about my weekend, just because it was productive. A far cry from my usual weekends.

This weekend I participated in a 2-part planning session for church we cleverly named Dream and Dine. It's actually a program that the leadership group of our church, of which I am a member, came up with to get the congregation involved in dreaming up projects that the church could undertake in order to foster relationship within the church congregation and the outside community in which we belong.

The Friday night session was aimed at family friendly activity. It was our Ice Cream social night. Ice cream of various flavors were served. As you know when sweets are involved, especially ice cream with nuts and sprinkles and chocolate syrup and whipped cream, people get more relaxed and more inspired to dream of activities that they would like to be personally involved in.

What I found really inspiring about this is that people I did not think would attend such events came. Of course the kids that we pumped with sugar in their system were loud and active, but very fun.

We were able to brainstorm a bit that night after the ice cream tubs were back in the freezer. It was a successful Friday session.

Session 2 was longer, on Saturday from 9 till 2. Breakfast and lunch was provided. As expected my eyes were bigger than my stomach as a piece of uneaten muffin was sitting on my table all throughout the brainstorming session.

Lunch consisted of Kinder's bbq, a feast. I have tried one of their sandwiches before, but not their bbq. The chicken was really good and juicy.

Anyway, the Saturday session was more into making concrete plans for our projects. The entire group chose about 4 projects to undertake. The people were asked to choose which project they would like to participate in and guess who chose parties/music and entertainment program for church and community? Me and hubby both chose to be involved in it.

What was very encouraging about this whole project was the very enthusiastic response we received from church members that came. I hope that the joy they felt at planning would continue to guide them/us throughout the year.

Also happening this weekend was the annual Eat Real festival, more popularly known as food truck fest in Oakland at Jack London Square. I've gone to three of these now. It's only in its fourth year.

Hubs and I went after our webinar on Sunday afternoon. There were quite a few logistical changes this year compared to the two previous years. For one, they kept the entrance to the festival by the hotel free of food trucks. All the food trucks were farther in.

Sunday was the third day and so there wasn't as much people as the previous years. There were newcomers, but some old faithfuls were there. We tried braised pork belly slider and beef pho roll from RICE, PAPER AND SCISSORS. Both are very good, especially the pork belly. We also tried the mac and cheese, where they used garlic gouda cheese. Definitely adult flavor, it doesn't taste anything like it came from the blue box. There was this thing they call knish, which is a spinach potato filled light wrapper or light dough, I cannot determine, but it's definitely fried. It came with two sauces, one is garlic, parsley and green chili and the other is I think something like cilantro and roasted garlic. I preferred the former. It's not my fave.

Also we had the lamb poutine, which is okay. My first time to try a poutine. Anything with french fries is good.

We all washed these down with black currant kombucha.

We got full from eating those but still we wanted to try some so we opted to take the following home: a rice plate from Seoul on Wheels, Korean bbq with steamed rice and vegies with gotchujang, or Korean chili sauce, Argentinian chicken empanada, Acme bread grilled cheese panini. Those we had for dinner at home while we watched the Emmy Awards.

Speaking of Emmy Awards, I'm quite disappointed that the shows I follow didn't get any wins, I think. Well I was tuning in and out but I know that Big Bang Theory didn't get anything. It's all HBO that gets all the good stuff. Why?

Well, I've said too much. Hope all our work week goes well for everyone.