Making the most of my Monday

While it is true that I grew up on the East Coast and consider it to be my real "home," I am originally from the Bay Area. I lived here as a little girl and still have significant family who live within a reasonable distance. I can get to an aunt, cousin, or grandmother within an hour in almost any direction. For the holidays that I wouldn't be spending with my immediate family, I feel like I always have an option to be with family here and I know that I'm always welcome to drop by and visit whenever I want or need to. The only bad thing about being so close is that I often feel guilty for not spending as much time with my Grandmother as I ought to. I mean...she's 94 and although she still lives on her own and is in good health, she's not going to live forever. I definitely feel like I need to make the most of the time that I have with her.

Since Monday was a holiday and I hadn't seen Justin and Silvia since their wedding last month, I decided that it was high time I went to visit. I also felt bad since the last time I'd been to Vallejo to see my Grandmother was in October. So, after a good suggestion from a friend, I decided to take my Grandma down to Santa Cruz with me to spend the day with Silvia. The weather was the pits, but like any good day with Silvia, we talked, ate, talked, and ate some more. And as an added bonus, Silvia has been going to massage therapy school, so she was able to give me an awesome massage and I got an adjustment from Justin who is just starting his chiropractic business! We had manicotti for dinner, which is Silvia's favorite, and it was really nice to just sit and talk about whatever was on our minds.

Gotta love that - killing two birds with one stone, even if I had to drive 6 hours in the rain. What's the last time you got a great deal on spending time with multiple people you love?

I had so much fun, I can barely walk.

I've heard it said that cross country skiing is hard. I've never heard though that it will rock your body like Steve Perry rocks a mullet. Seriously. Ouch.

I guess I should have known that my recent running adventures would in no way prepare me for the workout that my body was about to receive. My downhill skiing abilities aren't exactly expert (ha ha) and so you can imagine how thrilled I was to learn that snow plowing doesn't really exist (at least in my realm of ability) on cross country skis. And apparently, neither in someone else's...

My trip to Yosemite was so much fun though. I can't remember when I've been invited on a trip with such an amazing group of people. Really, everyone was so much fun and great to be around.

I've also learned that cross country skiing may not totally be my thing and maybe I need to look into snow shoeing. I mean...if the path is flat, not too much of a problem. When the path starts going up over a mountain and I'm expected to SKI up and over it, well, thats when I take my skis off and walk over the darn thing. Up hill? On skis? Seriously?

Here I am at the top of the mountain, looking all not-sore-yet and pretending that I'm not scared to death that I'm going to slide right off the ledge that was literally a foot behind me. PS. Do you see the amazing view that I'm blocking from you?? Here, let me give you a better picture.

Dude. This and all the Mormon-style free love I got this weekend totally make the total body aching worth it. Can I have an "Amen?"

Amen.

Snow Bunnies

This afternoon I take off for a weekend of fun in Yosemite. I don't know everyone who will be on the trip, so it will be a good opportunity to swear like a sailor in front of people who I may never see again! (not really, mom!)

I found this picture from the last time I went cross-country skiing. It was in Island Park, Idaho, a few years ago and it was more like ice skating with skis strapped to your feet, so I don't have a whole lot of real good experience. I mean...unless you count this, but I sucked at that too. Hopefully the snow in Yosemite is better so that we don't just lie in the snow and make snow angels all day. Not that I'm against that, I'm just sayin'...

I am your brother, your best friend forever.

I loved this. Especially Paula at the end. Classic.

They were the best of times, they were the worst of times.

How happy was I that American Idol Season 7 started tonight? SO HAPPY! Its true that my love for Ryan Seacrest lives on.

How sad was I that I was watching an episode without Rick Buck by my side? SO SAD!

Some of my favorite quotes from tonight:

"If she were a blackboard, I would chalk her"

and the best song lyrics I've heard in a while (sing with me!):

"No sex allowed. I don't want to be part of your crowd. If you don't like it, get out of town!" Here's a real crummy video so that you can watch for yourself:

Buck, I miss your guts.

Madrid in March

Last Friday I was sitting in my room waiting for my friend to come over so that we could go out to dinner. I was dinking around on the internet when suddenly, I felt the urge to get on a plane and go on a bonafide vacation. Yes, I travel a lot, but as I've learned in the past few years, travel does not = vacation. I have been to Duck Beach and to various weddings around the country over the past few years, but I haven't been anywhere adventurous since my summer in England in 2003. (Well, my weekend in Boston was pretty adventurous, right Uzi?)

Lucky for me, I was able to persuade my friend to come to Spain & Portugal with me over a bowl of Calamari. From idea to purchasing tickets, 3 days. Any suggestions for where we should go? We'll be there for 9 days.

Have I mentioned that I am SO EXCITED???

Need A Laugh?

Warning - Not so family friendly.

By Request

And now here is a list of some of my favorite books of all time. Keep in mind that I was an English Literature major in school and so some of my selections may not be the most interesting.

The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
London is the Best City in America - Laura Dave
Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
1984 - George Orwell
Like Water for Chocolate - Laura Esquival
In the Time of the Butterflies - Julia Alvarez
All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten - Robert Fulghum
Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
Sister Carrie - Theodore Dreiser

After making this list, I realized that some of these are really intense books, so be warned. A few of them are light reading, but most of them draw some type of strong emotion out of you, so be ready for that. Maybe I can actually make it through Don Quixote this year or Anna Karenina. Seriously, that could take the entire year. Cheers to that. Enjoy the list, Shelley.

Reviews For One and All

The last few weeks I've been into movies. Maybe this weekend I can continue the tradition since 27 Dresses opens tomorrow! Anyway, last week I read "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeline L'Engle, which I had never read before. Not sure how I made it out of grammar school without having read it, but my sister read it and liked it, and since she tended to prefer books called "Before Dishonor - Star Trek the Next Generation" and I typically preferred to read books called "Dear Mom, You're Ruining My Life," I probably thought I wouldn't like it. The other day I picked it up off my shelf since the power was out and I couldn't do much of anything else and I read the whole thing. Pants down one of my favorite children's books of all time. Is there a good movie of this out there that anyone knows of? Let me know if you do.

Moving on to movie time. I saw Juno and P.S. I Love You. I read the book of the latter and while I enjoyed both in the theater and both made me cry, I wasn't as impressed with Juno as many people led me to believe that I would be. While I thought it was a realistic approach to teenage pregnancy, I also thought it was a abnormally casual way to approach it. If you haven't seen it and you're interested in it, check it out. If not, I don't think you're missing a whole lot other than a small piece of pop culture. P.S. I Love You was different than the book, which was expected and in a good way. While I really enjoyed the book, I enjoyed the movie for what it was and left me feeling really good and optimistic about love in general. Go see it. You won't be sorry.

Runs In the Family

While I was in Utah over the Christmas break, my dad bought a scanner and started scanning slides that my parents have had for 30-40 years so that our entire family can all have digital copies of them. What a treasure! I was looking through a set of them tonight and I had to laugh when I saw this picture of my grandfather. It was taken in about 1975 if I'm guessing correctly.

This picture was taken of me in 2006. He'd be so proud.

Are you sure its only Tuesday??

...Because it feels like Friday.

Usually when I travel for work I walk around a ton and have extremely long days. I also usually have a very nice hotel room and a maid to make my bed and clean up after me. This week I'm working as though I'm out of town when I'm actually sitting in my bedroom as I type this. Basically that means that I have: A) no maid and B) a 30 minute commute to/from my destination every morning/night. When I'm done with this week's work though, I should be able to tell you from first-hand experience about most any hotel in San Francisco (well, any that are close to Moscone).

Its definitely time for me to go to bed, but before I go:

1. I'm still going camping and I'm happy about it. I might not have known that it was camping, but dude. How often am I a party pooper?? Yeah, that's what I thought.
2. I just got some really exciting news that I'm going to have a foldyover reunion in LA in a few weeks. Holla!
3. My condolences to Andrea the Italian Stallion who lost his beloved Giulietta last night. I'll hopefully post some video footage of her last hours by this weekend.

Conversations with Uzi

Conversation I had tonight with Kristy:

Stephanie: So I signed up to go Cross-country skiing with a girl I know and some of her friends over MLK weekend. She said it was $50 for the cabin and there would be some guys that we know in another cabin, etc.

Kristy: sweet!

Stephanie: Yesterday she sends out an email and turns out that we're camping...and the bathroom/shower is shared with all the other "campers." I want to email her and be like "I want my money back!! False advertising!!!"

Kristy: ABORT! ABORT! ABORT!

Stephanie: hahaha
PINEAPPLE

Kristy: Seriously!
haa haa haa
A. You don't camp
B. You don't ski
C. anything that is going to involve you and "cross country" is going to give you sky miles, peanuts and a beverage.

Stephanie: amen.

Post Holiday-ness

The first few weeks after the holidays are always great. Nowhere to be, nothing to really stress about. This has resulted in my room/house staying very clean and me spending a lot of time doing whatever the heck I want to do. Since I decided to give up sugar and shopping as part of my new years resolutions, I've been filling my time with other random things. Mainly, embarrassing my friend at dinner with an innapropriate ice cream sundae, reading a lot, hanging out with Tiff, seeing Juno, studying, sleeping, and spending Q.T. with other miscellaneous friends.

This week at work is going to be a busy one. I'll be walking all over San Francisco and trying to stay out of the rain as much as possible. We'll see how that goes. With that said, I probably won't be online much at all. I've really sucked at blogging lately, and for that I'm sorry. I really don't feel like much is going on though right now in my life that is worth blogging about, but I do want to discuss "Juno" and "A Wrinkle in Time" as soon as I have a few minutes. Also, partially thanks to Emily, I've found some new music that I'm really digging. As for now, I'll just have to listen to their myspace pages as much as possible and buy their songs in June when I can finally be a real consumer again.

And last but certainly not least, I want to wish my friend the DLL (Daddy Long Legs) a very very happy birthday. Oh, if only I were there to celebrate with you.

Back to life, back to reality.

Dude. Life is weird when you don't have electricity for approximately 36 hours. I read "A Wrinkle in Time" in its entirety with the help of a flashlight and today I saw "Juno" at the theater down the street. Loved the book and am more ify on the movie. All in all, it was a great way to spend a Saturday. And I didn't even mention the good times I had with friends. Now that I can actually get online, expect a real post coming your way shortly.

Make it Great in 2008

Right now I'm sitting in my bedroom at oh, 10am, waiting for the couch replacement to arrive and checking my email every few minutes to make sure that I'm not missing out on much at work. Good times.

On Sunday I drove back from Utah and made it in about 11 hours. I thought that on my drive I'd be able to think about what resolutions I wanted to make in my life, but all I ended up doing was going through about 600 songs on my ipod. hmm. I still haven't really sat down and written down my real resolutions, but I have decided to make some small but positive changes in my every day life. Somehow I decided at 11:45pm on New Years Eve to give up candy for the year. Its day two and so far, so good. As long as I can stay away from the candy counter at work, I should be fine. Other resolutions include making habits of things I slowly had stopped doing over the past few years. Unfortunately, this hasn't yet included hitting my snooze button in the morning. I just want to be better in all areas of my life.

I started off my new year with some really good things: fireworks, chatting through the night with good friends, sleeping in until 11:30, cleaning the house until it sparkled, going to dinner with a good friend, and watching a movie on the infamous couch. Last night when I was saying my prayers, I was consciously thinking of all the people that I wanted to keep in my prayers and I feel like I was on my knees for about 10 minutes just thinking of more people that I love and care about in my life.

I'm not sure what is in store for me this year, but I'm sure that whatever it is, I'll have a good time and make new friends along the way. Hopefully some good changes are coming my way; I'm feeling like I need them.

Happy New Year, everyone. I'll be back to regular blogging very soon, I promise.