August 24

Let me tell you about my day:

About 2:00 am - finally got to sleep, been having stomach problems. There's stomach virus going around.

About 3:20 am - the whole house shook, quite long. shaken enough to open eye and hold husbands hands wherein we both declared rather loudly in a darkened and quiet room, EARTHQUAKE!!!! I was more asleep than awake so the length of the shaking and the strength didn't bother me. Thankful it happened that way because with a bad stomach I don't think I could handle lack of sleep.

About 8:00 am - went downstairs to check on the house. Nothing fell on the floor, the paintings and photos are still on the wall, the house looked intact. Outside is a different story. Driveway has three new cracks in the cement and backyard has a crack. Thankful for the very minor damage.

About 9:30 am - church.

About 12:00 nn - joined family at the park. Nephew's partner planned to propose to him via a mob flash. Their friends and colleagues organized the bbq, the dance, the proposal. I was happy to be there.

About 2:00 pm - trying out shoes at a shoe store in Berkeley and getting a bad customer service by a Filipino employee. If I was to shell out $200 for a pair, I'd like a little smile with my service and to be treated well.

About 3:00 pm - enjoying Ikea shopping. Went to get a side table for guest bedroom, went home with a lot of stuff and no side table. It's always like that isn't it?

About 5:30 pm - Macy's shoe shopping and clothes shopping. Nothing I liked in the shoe department and decided to leave the clothes I pick on the rack and went home.

I am thankful for this day.

Well....

Obviously nothing comes to mind lately if we're basing on the frequency of post here is concerned. I know it's been 2 weeks since the last entry and somehow days just went by and the appeal to put into paper thoughts have decreased tremendously this year. I checked earlier today and I was shocked. This year 2014 it's already mid August and the number of posts of I have is........23!!!!!

Two-wen-tee three!!!!!

That's right! A measly 23 posts. Around 3 posts a month!

I could not believe that. I'm quite surprised at my paltry output here. Was I too busy, too uninspired? Whatever it is, it's no use looking back. Best look forward to racking up posts in the coming days.

While I was on silent m ode, I celebrated my birthday. Birthdays are a blessing, but some more than other bring great joy to the celebrant. This isn't the case with me this year. Oh no, don't get me wrong. I am not feeling depressed, sad, or lonely. As a matter of fact, I feel extremely blessed.

Still this year I was not feeling the birthday vibe. Case in point, I went to work on my birthday. Surprised the hubby and co-workers who worked with me for a long time and know and expect not to see me around my birthday, but there I was at work. And it's not as bad as I feared it to be, especially this being the first time in so long I can't even remember the last time I was at work on my birthday.

I thanked God for another birthday and the shower of blessings I received throughout the year. Yet I was in no mood to whip it up. Maybe next year.

I got sushi for dinner on my birthday. We cannot let a birthday pass by without cake and dinner. Tried the new (to us but I believe it's relatively new) sushi place along San Pablo Avenue in El Cerrito. Small place, intimate setting. My birthday fell on a Wednesday so I was pleased to see that people were eating out on weekdays too. Good for business. This is what we had: two special sushi rolls, grilled squid, takoyaki (sp) or squid balls and grilled bacon-wrapped okra. Looking at the items we ordered, I didn't think it would fill us up but it did. I was full to the gills when I walked out of the restaurant. I would go back there someday.

Also, I am so busy right now prepping for the big vacation that's only 2 months away. How could that be so close? We booked this about a year and a half ago and here it is finally nearing. To say that I'm excited is an understatement. In addition, I look forward to separately meeting up with a blogger pal in Barcelona and a high school classmate also in Barcelona. My excitement is high up there I am so close to losing sleep over it.

Before I close let me say how much I enjoy getting snail mail from a blogger pal. It brings back a lot of memories of days gone by when waiting for mail occupied my days. I just received another snail mail today from her. So much fun I tell you.

Talk you all later.

I was thinking about curve balls and other things......

Well on Friday I was so keen on blogging here that I started to write the post in my head. It was about life throwing me another curve ball. But as usual before I can even put thoughts in paper or in this case in my draft folder, life righted itself and curve ball wasn't thrown at all. Again, it's just me reacting first before thinking. Heavens! When will I learn to read everything first before reacting violently and panicking for no reason.

If you want to know this is what happened. We are on the process of planning for our trip in the fall. We are actually doing 2 cruises, yes I know too much noh? The thing is though when you go to Europe it seems a waste to just stay there for a week, after all you paid that much for the plane fare and traveled all that way just to stay for a week? Or in this case cruise for a week?

The planning for a cruise involves mostly excursions or day trips during port days. This was what I was planning on doing, getting really serious about research and all. And THEN all of a sudden I looked up the dates of our second cruise and voila, I couldn't find the cruise anymore? Instead there is one for the cruise ship but with a different cruise date. Major panic button pressed and bells started to ring in my head.

By the time I had the hubby know of my concern, he said I must be mistaken because well, I'm always mistaken. I don't read everything well, I always skip paragraphs when I read, etc etc.

Turned out the husband was right, as usual I was wrong. Well, I was so relieved to find that I was wrong. Now back to normal programming of research and such.

Also this summer we have finally gotten the time and courage to enroll in swimming lesson at the local swim center. Aside from the husband there are two friends of ours who joined us to learn swimming. There were more people interested in getting lessons when we were talking about it, but in the end there are just the four of us. It comes as no surprise that of the four I am the one that is lagging in progress. I still have to master my courage and curb my fear. I'll get there. I told the college-aged instructor that my goal is to learn how to float and to kick. Simple right? Then my husband told him that it would be the instructor's major achievement if he can teach me how to swim. Yes, I admit I find it really really tough. One more week of lessons to go.

In addition to all these things, last weekend we had our church camping at Samuel P. Taylor State Park at the Madrone Group Campsite. Despite my apprehension of not enjoying it, I did. After all I like everyone who came to camp with us; they're my church family. Someone from church loaned us her bigger tent so there was plenty of room for the two of us, except that we were sleeping the wrong direction and I was rolling off to my side. Also by the second night the air mattress was losing air :)

Summer is nearly at its end but the weather around here is starting to get hot. OMG hot! I cannot stand heat. And by the way we had humidity here, not too much now, but last week I believe it was. Another thing I cannot stand.

Since I'm writing, yesterday to beat the heat we decided to watch a movie when it was the hottest time. We went to see Mark Wahlberg (love him)in the new Transformers movie. How can he be playing a dad to a 17-year-old hottie, he's far too young. Plus, how come he has no love interest in this movie?

Oh I spent today (Sunday) bingeing on tv via ON DEMAND. I've seen the first 3 episodes of the Halle Berry starrer EXTANT, really interesting and good casting. Also in my menu for today was THE STRAIN, watched 2 episodes. I was very interested in both shows which only mean that I am a big sci-fi nerdie now :)

Okay I think this is all for now. This blog is like an old friend that I wanted to share things/activities with.

6-month Review

A 6-month look back is not something I've done in the past. At least I don't think so, or don't remember. But I'm compelled to do one this time because I have had an unproductive blogging record here the first half of the year. Perhaps doing a recap or review would compensate for the lack of regular posts lately.

So the first half of the year went this way:

A Vegas road trip in January was what the doctor ordered. The long road trip was enjoyable for the most part, where I indulged in wool gathering while soaking up all the roadside sights. However, it was very long and eventually at some point I got bored and just wanted to get there. While in Vegas, we took day trips to Zion and Valley of Fire SP. All in all, it was an enjoyable break from the daily routine.

Got the scare of my life when my wallet went missing and I scampered to replace all the credit cards and driver's license, only to find the missing wallet in my car a few days later. The same car that was thoroughly searched, not once or twice, but four times.

Baby sat our friends' kids overnight as our gift for their wedding anniversary. The younger kid was so excited because we have the video game he liked and he's enamored with my cats, especially Buster who he kept begging the cat sleep with him.

I won a Coach bag from a blogger that I read religiously. The blog is based in the Philippines. It is my first brand name bag and probably the last.

Hosted bbq for friends on two different occasions.

For our 7th wedding anniversary we took a road trip to Lake Tahoe, Yosemite and on our day 3 we stayed at our friend's cabin near Yosemite, in Groveland.

Had a house guest from Bangladesh. He's visiting here in the USA with his group, they are stage actors and their theater group was invited (with 13 other countries) to a conference in Tampa. He invited us to see his play, but it would be cost prohibitive for both the hubs and I to travel so we asked if he had time to come stay with us for a few days. Luckily he had so we took him to do a lot of touristy things in San Fran and Monterey. I like being a tourist guide.

That's how my first half went. Although sadly I've done a lot of procrastination during this period. Likewise there's too many things going on that bogs me down, probably why I was unable to blog here too, because this blog make me write about my life unlike this blog where I only recount my trips and day trips or this blog where I write about my cats.

Looking ahead I hope that I'll be able to blog more. In addition, I have a big trip coming up in the fall that will tie me up in research about places to see, food to try, souvenirs to buy.

Sports

Sports.

That's whats on my mind. Sports. Soccer to be specific. The World Cup. I'm not a soccer fan. But every time the World Cup comes around, I'm there watching. Talking futbol to people. A co-worker asked if I talk futbol too or I just talk baseball.

The fun thing about the World Cup is the passion that oozes out of the teams. The pride of representing their countries is palpable through the tv screen. I root for teams without knowing a single player. I root for teams who live and breathe futbol.

This is why despite the obvious reason to root for team USA at the back of my mind I thought they should not/could not be successful at this sport. A sport that the majority of its residents don't care for. That is why I was really torn when they beat Ghana. They deserve to win this year after being beaten by the same team for two consecutive World Cups. However, a win in this tournament means so much more to the Ghanians (?) than it does to the Americans.

I don't know the rules of soccer. I'm learning slowly. But even to a casual observer, I can appreciate all the drama of these games. It's fun!

In other topic, a few hours ago I was contemplating on writing here since I haven't been regular in posting lately. I remember the name of this blog - Whatever Comes To Mind - and thought why not write whatever comes to mind right there and then. That's what I would like to do with this blog. Of course I wouldn't completely dismiss writing recaps of my daily/weekly happenings.

I was going to post this on Monday, but I got lazy.

As the heat(wave) was descending upon the valley by the bay this weekend , I was having another whinefest. It did not help that days prior I learned for the first time that we were having another cook-out with the neighbors on Sunday afternoon. Not that I don't like the neighbors. In fact I like them very much. They have been very welcoming when we first moved in 5 years ago and we have maintained a very good neighborly relationship since then. It's not even the entertaining and the things one needs to do before the said day - like cleaning the house for instance - for the record it's the fact that I wasn't even consulted. Yes, not consulted. I overheard the phone conversation between my husband and the neighbor about what they're bringing and what my husband is grilling.

My husband is wonderful but sometimes his timeline and time table don't coincide mine. Is it too much to ask for a quiet Sunday? The cook out turned out wonderful by the way. We ate slowly and savored every juicy bite of the chicken and the ribs and the sides and the chatter was continuous throughout the afternoon and evening. While that was really enjoyable, by the time the thing wrapped up it was nearly 8 pm. Yes I know there's plenty of light outside at that time still; however, my "chill" time on the weekend was considerably cut very very short.

The neighbors came after 3 pm. Before that I was at church having a meeting. I have probably mentioned once or twice that I am a member of the church "governing group" like a student body officer in school. Anyhow, it was one of those long quarterly meetings. One of the things that I took from that meeting was nothing to do with taking care of business at hand, but one of the sharings that happen before every meeting. Since yesterday was Pentecost Sunday and how the Holy Spirit inspires us, we were sharing our passions and inspirations to do what God calls us to do. I shared how this year I have been uninspired to do anything. I feel rushed, I feel burdened, burnt out. And so I have no inspiration to do anything. This by the way was seconded by a guy in the group, who felt that there's too many thing on the plates right now that taking on another thing is not doable. Cannot blame him, he got two kids under 13 years.

However what was inspiring to me was another lady who shared that while most of us are hellbent on helping other people (the needy, the hopeless, the homeless, the hungry), she doesn't care for all that. Her passion is calling her to help the birds. And so she volunteers to take care of birds.

I thought that's wonderful. I have a similar passion with cats, feral cats. Although unlike her my passion is limited to feeding those that frequent my backyard or those that once in a while find their way in my backyard. I hope I could do more and I vow to do more in the future.

Some random updates

How can I let this blog lay idle for three weeks? Was I that busy? That uninspired?

Anyway, some of the things that happen between the last post and today:

We had another bbq at home with friends from church. There were 12 people who came, 10 adults and 2 kids. We are getting so good at this, because at the end of the day there was only a little bit of food leftover. Usually we prepare way too much food for grilling and no matter how much people eat, we always end up with so much food to freeze. And I'm not one to enjoy eating leftovers from 6 months ago.

After months of toying with the idea of having girls night out, we finally did it. I organized a women's happy hour at Chevy's. Four of us gathered after work on a Friday and chatted our way through margaritas and chips and dips, quesadillas and tacos, chili rellenos and tamales. By 10:00 pm, my phone was ringing. The hubby was inquiring what's taking me so long. This was my first night out with the girls since I got married.....7 years ago!!!!

Speaking of 7 years, we celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary by taking a road trip to Lake Tahoe and Yosemite. Until this trip, I didn't realize that all I know of Lake Tahoe was the Southern part. This time we stayed in North Lake Tahoe and enjoyed the pleasant weather and blue skies. We stayed in a charming little cabin, watched sunset by the pier, walked the private beach, ate late dinner at a kitschy restaurant, grabbed snacks and beer at a local brewing company restaurant and drove around the lake stopping at different points. It was a wonderful vacation.

Two days in Lake Tahoe, then we retraced our 2008 road trip to scenic Highway 395. The difference this time we stopped at the south Mono Lake site where we saw the larger tufas, such a joy to see.

In addition, we took Tioga Pass to Yosemite. Compared to 2008 (we also visited on Memorial Day weekend)there was less snow on the mountaintops, which was quite disappointing but did not detract from the overall beauty of Yosemite. Took a day trip to Yosemite stopping at Toulumne River, Tuolumne Meadow, Olmstead Point, etc.

For the night we stayed at a friend's cabin in Groveland. They invited us to stay over so we can assess the cabin's rental worthiness. They are planning on putting it up for rental when they don't use it. According to them, they get plenty of usage, sometimes driving up there (3+ hours from bay area) 2 weekends a month. What we saw was more of a second home. It was set up as a home, not a cabin that is rarely used. It's big and the location is perfect, about 30 minutes from Yosemite. It has 2 br 2ba and a huge deck that is shaded by oak and pine trees. Deers roam around freely.

Lastly, I got to see the new X-men movie. I thought it was good, I enjoyed it fully.

So there, I think that's all that has happened since the last time I signed in here. Hopefully I will find something interesting to write about and share.