I hope....

I can eat ice cream with the same reckless abandon as that of a child.

A lot of things happening lately. Will try to write.

Sad Day

I haven't been posting here lately, but I thought I'd put my feelings into writing. Except that I really don't think I understand my feelings. I know I am sad and shocked, but other than that I have no idea.

You see this morning an hour or so after my shift, my husband called. Now this is a routine call, every morning he calls to check if I get to work okay and on time. He leaves home before me. But this time he said he had bad news. Our friend and realtor died last night.

When my husband was single and working in suburbia (he's still working in the 'burbs), he rented a room with a childless couple. The house has 4 bedrooms and at one time all 3 bedrooms were rented. Finding a place to live in is quite difficult. Getting an apartment is not easy on the pocketbook. My husband being a quiet guy, shuns partying, found the ideal place with this elderly couple. They doted on him like a son they never had and in return he helps out with little things the couple couldn't do themselves - the husband being handy around the house.

This relationship grew stronger and even after we got married we remained close to them. They treated me as the daughter-in-law they never had. We take them out to dinner occassionally, or invite them over for supper - and they do the same for us.

The woman has a sister, D, the realtor. We became close to her as well and treated her like family. She was the one who got us our house. She was very patient with us when we were looking for a house. She used to tell me I cannot get a house because I like every house I saw. As a matter of fact, the house we live in now is one of those very few that I didn't really like. But my husband drilled some sense into me and I saw the potential. I'm glad I listened. I love our house and always think of D as the reason why we have the house.

When we closed escrow and I got the key to the house, she didn't want to accept her commission. She said we could use it to buy stuff for the house. After pointing out that she earned the commission, she then gifted us with a new laptop as a housewarming present.

D was a good friend. She and her husband, like her sister and her husband, are childless. Her sudden death raises so many questions. Who will look after her frail husband? What will happen to their house?

It's just a sad day.

In other news:

.....I'm still going to zumba (yay!)

.....I think I'm getting arthritis (no!)

.....We had friends over last Friday night and had lots of fun. House was shaking with laughter. Hubby drank too much, got sick all night long. Was hung over the next day. Glad he was at home when all this happened.

.....I'm going away for a night at a cabin near Sequioa National Park. However I will miss two parties because of this - my niece Ashley's 2nd bbq at the park birthday party and Tempest's Oscar night party. Oh I so wanted to go to both of those, especially Tempest's party because her husband is a professional pastry chef or is it chocolatier. Oh boy he makes really good chocolate yummies.

That's all for now.

Disappointments and Hopes

I started to write something here about what happened earlier in the day about someone's alleged prejudice against the third sex. Then I deleted it. What if he was only joking? However, he doesn't joke around that way. It was simply too jarring an incident. Why would he say things like that? I'm disappointed with him. I'm disappointed with me because I always thought he is an upstanding guy.

Even if he's only joking, I'm afraid I'm never going to see him in the same light again.

Now to more rosy thoughts.....

The Golden State Warriors are unbelievably good this year. Many are hopeful - and confident - that they would go past the first round of eliminations. I join the multitude of #dubnation who's wish is to see them win it all this year.

Vacation can't come soon enough.....

But I won't be taking one in another 4 or 5 months. I think a week-long beach holiday is due. I'm starting to get things done, like booking the resort, and the flight. For the most part this year will be quiet in terms of travel because we plan on visiting family in Bangladesh for Christmas. My husband didn't have Christmas with his family in 20+ years, so I say it's overdue, don't you think?

With this in plan, most of our vacation time would be used for this trip, limiting the budget allotment and time allotment for any other destination.

Meantime, my Christmas tree is still up and the so are the decors. I am plain too lazy to do anything. I've been having major headaches lately and when I get them I just wanna lay in bed with the cats and do nothing. I really should go to the doctor - again ask for diagnotic test even though the ones done on me before were all negative.

By the next post, I would have definitely packed all the Christmas decorations and to the garage they will reside until I fished them out again in 11 months.

First Week of 2015 in the Books

That is right, the first week of the new year is down the drain. Pretty soon February is here. So what new things happened in this young new year so far? Let me tell you:

• I am doing Zumba, 2x a week.  I am loving it, but my muscles don't.
• Veggies and fruits dominate my diet.  Trying my best to make 2015 the year I finally lost weight and excercised.
• Bye bye cable.  We're doing Direct TV now.
• Reading, reading, reading.  I have read about 3 since the last week of December.  Yay me!

Projects that are still pending are:

• Sewing.  I have lots of them.
• Cross stitch project that has been on the shelf for a couple of years at least.
• Want to do greeting card from scratch.
• Scrapbook of my travel souvenirs - like all the train tickets, museum pass, knick knacks and paper and coin currencies from different countries I've visited.  Somewhere in my box is the makeshift 4 x 4 cardboard with handwritten Arabic stuff that became our train ticket from Alexandria to Cairo when the computer system went down in Alexandria and no real tickets could be issued.  I saved it.

I think that's good for now, project-wise.  That is plenty and I'm going to dance the dance of my people if I got to 80% of my goal. 

In the meantime, let me eat my fruit and push most of the carbs out of my plate.  I'm trying here.  Really trying.....hard.

Food Craving Wednesday

Resuscitating this series of Food Craving. On my last vacation in October/November, I made sure that I have chocolate con churros in Barcelona. Otherwise, the Barcelona experience wouldn't be complete.

Tony Says.....

Tony Bourdain was asked:

What do you think of people who Instagram their food?

His answer:

Look, I'm guilty of it, too. I think it's worth making fun of. We deserve to be mocked. It's a dysfunctional, even aggressive practice. Why do we Instagram pictures of our food? It's not to share. It's to make other people feel really bad. … It's basically a f--- you. You say, "Look what I'm eating, bitches." You don't want people to be eating dinner with you when you Instagram a picture of your food. You want them to be eating a bag of Cheetos on their couch in their underpants. It's a passive aggressive act.

Oh those lyrics.

I finally realized I needed to google the lyrics of a song by Meghan Trainor.

I was singing it as.....

It's all about the bitch, about the bitch.

Hahahaha!