JustMeAgain

Peachy Thursday but no time for lunch!

Well, today turned out to be a productive day, for the most part. I was able to get a lot of stuff done at the office. Nothing better than to cross things out of my to-do lists. In fact, this week has been so insanely busy that usually around 2:30 or 3 I realize I'm hungry, look at the clock, and see that lunch time has been way over! I haven't been drinking as much water as I should either. Haven't been eating the right way nor have I been exercising. I guess it's time to start putting things in perspective and get back on a healthy routine.  We'll see if I have time to schedule it all in. 

And talking about lunch, Linda has a really good giveaway in her blog today for those good people that add their votes to our new favorite singer Jen Foster. Go check out the giveaway and tell Linda what you had for lunch. As for me, I had a bag of multi-grain Sun Chips and a peach.  Yes, yes, I know. Don't even go there. Pretty unhealthy.  The fact is, when I noticed lunch time had been here and gone, I did not want to interrupt what I was doing, so I just looked through my drawers at my work desk and luckily there was a bag of Sun Chips. Sitting there like a gift from heaven. Hubby did make me a healthy sandwich that was still sitting at the fridge at work by the time I left.  I may not have had a lot of time to eat, but I did get a lot of work done!  I get a brownie point.

So don't forget, go vote for the lovely Jen Foster who is about to be singing at City Austin Limits! 

You can vote here.

To be awesomely delighted, you can hear Jen's music on  the Dell Lounge voting page and at her Myspace page. Isn't she brilliant? I'm just glad I found a new favorite singer to add to my list.  Josh Groban, Neil Diamond and Brandi Carlile were getting lonely in my list of favorite singers.

A screaming fest!

First, I Loved reading all the comments from the last post!  Thank you guys!

Last night we took my daughter, and one of her friends, to see the Jonas Brothers in concert. A few things I need to remember for the next time:

1. Bring ear plugs!

2. Sneak in the big lenses.

3. Try to get in earlier...and perhaps, if possible, leave just a tiny bit earlier to avoid the crowds.  Well, I must admit, the leaving earlier part just might not work! 

4. Did I mention ear plugs?

The 11 year old in me loved the Jonas. The other 27 years of me have been in ringing mode all day from all the screaming. I'm surprised I'm not deaf. What I don't get is why this multitude of girls would want to scream so loud.  And I would get it easier if they would have screamed at the end of each song, but all throughout the concert?  My goodness! I couldn't even hear the music with all the screaming!  The good part was watching my daughter have so much fun.

All in all the Jonas are the cutest group of young kids ever. They write their own songs (and I thought they were mostly good lyrics), they play their own instruments and their voices are not half bad at all. I'd say my daughter, and the friend she invited to come with us, have really good taste.  As well as all the other thousand of screaming fans there. If I was 11 I would be in love with Nick! He is the youngest kid in the group and has diabetes. There is something about his spirit that just sparkles. Gotta love that.

A few good reminders and a few wishes...

The reminders are mostly for myself because I tend to forget these important things:

1. Always remember your good friends and say a prayer for them. Send them happy thoughts even when you can't stop what you are doing to write them a letter, or you are too tired to do it. They'll feel your happy thoughts even through the distance!

2. It is okay to feel pain sometimes. Be bold. Create art with the broken pieces of your soul!  It's a good thing to get it out so you don't have to deal with the pain inside.

3. Do not ever worry about what others think of you. Don't be afraid to let the beat of your heart guide you in the journey of life because despite some sad preludes, and a few broken cords, its beautiful sounds MUST be  heard.   

4. Learn good things from your wise friends.

5. Kick away your fears. They are silly stupid things.

6. Do not go out of your way to help the mean people of the world. There is so much goodness to share with the GOOD people in your life, why waste the energy and time with the ones who won't appreciate it and don't deserve it anyway? Or like my friend Linda would say it, no more being nice to fucktards.

Okay, now a few wishes for good measure:

1. I wish Starbucks did home deliveries at midnight! I so want a Chai right now!  Work was so busy today that I realized by the time I got home I had never even stopped at Starbucks!  OMG,  a day without Starbucks?  I bet that's why I have a headache right now.

2. My hubby needs a hobby. Hey, it even rhymes! 

3. It would be nice if time could have stretching possibilities. I'm still hoping for that technology to suddenly appear! Heck, I would be happy with a blue tooth to start with! 

And I'll leave you with one of my favorite photos I have taken of Linda Woods.

I love it because in here she was facing her fear of balloons (talk about silly fears!) And yes, I'll share my own silly fears in another entry.

I also love it because when I took this picture I knew she was giving me the "fake" smile just for the picture.  But now her fears are a funny moment shared by two friends. 

So, let's all go out there and face our fears. Who knows? We might end up with a funny memory to share!

Happy Monday!

And since here it is, let's make it a good one. And a great week, too!

As I head out to my morning traffic jam, I am thinking of the many things I need to get done this week. Wish me luck guys! I will make blog rounds in the evenings now that my laptop life has been renewed!

I'll leave you with my hubby's dream car. We got a chance to see a car show this weekend, just briefly before we headed out to San Francisco on Saturday. I don't get as amused with cars as the hubby does. So it was interesting to see how this time, at least, he was very happy to see me snapping pictures. That response doesn't happen very often! Ha. Now I just need to find something that will amuse the daughter enough, too. I'm afraid that might involve monkeys and a jungle though! Here is to a GREAT Monday for everyone!

Off to drive now...

The good and the not so good.

It's always nice to remind myself that life is much like a roller coaster with the ups and downs. 

On the upper side of things:

- The insanely awful weather we were expecting this week was tolerable, for the most part, and it was even better today.  Specially since we spent the day in San Francisco where it was about 10-12 degrees cooler than where we live.

- My pretty hydrangeas kept looking totally cute for me this week!  I've been loving every minute of their life in my front yard!

- After having had several days without my personal laptop (I hate it when things brake), I finally got an improved version! The hubby gets extra points for getting it ready for me and downloading all the programs I use in it!  And, he has even helped backing up all my recent pictures and saving them into discs; something I hardly ever get the time to do! 

-I slept in on Saturday morning! Can you hear my excitement? And I woke up to receive the most delicious peaches I could have ever imagined existed!  Thanks so much Moling! 

- We got to see family and celebrate a birthday in San Francisco.  Always a good thing to see the people we love that we don't often get the chance to visit.

-I received the most thoughtful, caring little package, all the way from India!  So very grateful!

- Nothing better than to receive exciting news for future plans and trips in the horizon.  Always too much fun to know where I'll be in future months.  It's funny how all the good stuff in my life happens in every month of the year, just not July yet.  I'm still trying hard to make this the best July ever.

-I am so blessed with some of the BEST friends anyone could ever hope for!  My friends definitely make up for the few fucktards I run into from time to time. I have to thank Tod for finding such creative way to say a bad word that I don't feel at all bad to use sometimes.

On the down side:

- I had an insanely busy week (which in itself is not a bad thing, but in combination with the following things, really was), my computer at home wasn't working, the Internet was messing up and I was too tired to blog from my cell phone (since I don't have an iPhone, the little phone I have can technically work for blogging, but I just don't have the visual capacity for such a task with such a little screen) and so I have not blogged in days!   

- Saturday morning on our way to San Francisco we saw a dead dear on the road. The saddest view ever!

-I've had a bad headache since Thursday morning! 

- My MIL* announced that "people who blog" are merely "weirdos without a life who don't have anything better to do with their time." She said that immediately after I had said that I couldn't wait to get back home so I could update my blog because I hadn't done so since last Wednesday. I would imagine my MIL must have had a good idea that I belong to the group of "people who blog." Nice to find out my new nickname.

-It's 2:45 a.m. Sunday morning and I'm supposed to be up in about four hours so I can make it to church in the morning!  It's a good thing I slept in on Saturday!

* MIL stands for mother in law, in case you were wondering. 

Photo by Maria Hammon.

Somewhat of an update

This week I am on a bit of a tight schedule and will not be able to blog as much as I would like to.

I do, however, want to say I hope you are all having a good week and hopefully, in your area of the world, you are not having to deal with 105-107 degree weather conditions like we are around here! 

I'll leave you with a picture of my garden hydrangeas.  Aren't they just pretty?  They keep greeting me each morning and evening as I pass by the front door. 

Longing

Okay, before I go into the entry for today, first things first. Thanks to everyone who commented and shared fourth of July traditions. I loved reading all of your comments.  I will make some time today to visit everyone of your blogs. I've decided that everyone who commented on that entry until now, should get a card.  I already have the addy for Katie, Tiffany, Moling and Jennifer, but I need the mailing address for Kam, Marie and Margaret.  Shoot me an e-mail when you get a chance please so I can send these off to you. 

Okay, now back to the post of today about the longing.  Linda had a post entry recently in which she asked people to share their longings. Her post from today explaining her It's It longing was very touching to me. It made me realize exactly was I was longing for yesterday.  Let me explain. Somewhere in the middle of the day, I had to take a run to Safeway to get a few things...okay, the only thing I really needed was my Starbucks Chai while I was waiting for a phone call. As I was parked in front of Safeway, I sat there for a minute and saw the cemetery across the street.  When Linda was here a few weeks ago, we thought about going there to take a few shots, but never got the chance to, so I thought why not go now and take a few pictures? So there I went. And while I was walking in there, one grave space caught my attention because it had a little statute of the Virgin of Maria Guadalupe holding an American flag.  Since I was named after her, that view seemed so symbolic of my Mexican-American heritage. And that's when it all started. The memories of my childhood came all rushing through. When my brother passed away I was 12 years old and for many years after he passed away, our family tradition was to go to the cemetery every Sunday after church to bring him flowers. So walking through the cemetery yesterday, I had my own little penny from Somewhere in Time moment that Linda talked about.  In an instant I was 12 again standing in front of my little brother's grave; feeling my dad's arm next to me, holding tight, as if with his embrace he was embracing his dead son, too. And I could see my mother's tears and my two younger sisters running around asking if we could leave because we had been there too long and they wanted to go home and play (they were younger in age and those trips to the cemetery never really appealed to them.)  And then, my dad's words came to me as I saw the word "mija" (my daughter) in one of the other graves I was walking by, he is not really gone, he never will be gone as long as we always think of him, he used to tell me. And my dad was right. Now that my father is gone, too, and I long to see him and talk to him, his words and memory always find a way into my life. He was certainly right then and now...he will never be gone.

Happy 4th!

July 4th is such a joyous holiday! I hope you get to spend the holiday doing something FUN! I am getting ready to work on some projects today and get caught up with some fun photo shoots I've been intending to do for some time now. Later tonight we might go watch some fireworks with the neighbors.

The weather is very nice around here today, although we expect some heat waves for next week.  So we better enjoy the good weather while it lasts! 

To celebrate the holiday, I want to do a little giveaway today. Leave a comment on this post to share your 4th of July traditions and I will pick three random commenters to get one of my ImageKind greeting cards (ready for you to use and give away to your friends.) I will have the following cards to choose from: It's time for cake (perfect to give away as a birthday card), a single sun bean (perfect for any occasion) or always hopeful (just the right card to send someone a little hope.)

 

A fur ball of love.

Isn't she lovely? She just sits patiently on the bed, waiting for me, while keeping me company as I get ready for work in the mornings.

And she gives me the sweetest looks of unconditional love.

She is the reason I may, sometimes, run out of the house a bit late in the mornings. It's all her fault! She makes me stop every two minutes to tell her how CUTE she is! Okay, every 10 seconds. And how could I possibly not?  She is the cutest fur ball in the entire universe!

Originally downloaded here. 

Welcome JULY!

I really want to begin this month on a good note because I want this month to be the best July EVER. I need a GOOD JULY for a change. Historically, or at least for me in the last 16 years, this month seemed to have had some less than stellar days in my life so this year I want to change this around.  My plan is to make this July be the best month of the year.   I'll report results at the end of the month, wish me luck!

And so yesterday was the first day of the new cellular phone laws while driving in California. The good news for me were that I managed NOT to get a ticket! I wasn't expecting to get one, of course, but my husband was convinced I would forget all about it and start chatting on the phone on my way to and/or from work. My trick was to leave the cell phone inside my purse in the trunk of the truck.  That way, no matter who called, or how much I wanted to call anyone, I would have no access to my beloved phone (okay, it would be MORE beloved if I had the iPhone, but oh well.) I know, it would be even better if I could find the blue tooth piece I bought about a year ago and start using it. Trouble is, I have no idea where it is! Until I find it, I won't be able to make any phone calls while driving. There goes my social life for a while.

And this next picture is not mine. It's from my friend Tiffany. Her daughter, Lily, just turned five last weekend and I believe the first fifth birthday in every child is somewhat magical. Lily's truly was, thanks to her adoring parents who did an amazing job at making her birthday weekend be the best EVER.  Go to Tiffany's blog and wish Lily a happy birthday...and while you are at it, check out the rest of their fun pictures! Any birthday party that includes a real life Captain Sparrow  ROCKS! Can my next birthday have one?

So much fun

Well, this weekend turned out to be very fun. My daughter had a dance recital on Sunday and it was so exciting to see her on a stage finally!  Since she was little, she always avoided it. There is something about being on the spot that has always scared her. I still remember the time in Kindergarten when my husband and her great-grandma had shown up at the school for a little play presentation she was supposed to be a part of and they sat patiently for a while waiting for her class to show up on the stage and when it did, they kept looking for her and she wasn't any where to be found!  She had returned to her classroom because she was afraid of the crowd! Since then, we have never been able to convince her to go in front of any audience. She has taken dance classes before, but has never actually been to any big recitals because of her stage fright.

And yesterday, she nailed her dance routine in a huge audience and smiled the entire time. She looked fabulous in her hip hop outfit. It was such an amazing thing to watch because she truly had to conquer her own fears; and she shined!  We are so proud of her! After the recital we went out to a favorite spot for Pizza.  The cutest little pizza place and I liked them even more because they did not mind my camera!  Any place that lets me use my camera and does not complain, gets my sincere adoration.

Oh yes, and this weekend I finally posted my review of Brandi Carlile's concert at the Rev It Up. Check it out when you can.

Catching up a little.

Another intense day at work yesterday, catching up with things and working on some projects. Friday night couldn't come fast enough! We went to see Hulk and had popcorn for dinner. Sometimes it is fun to improvise. With my work commute, we are lucky if I can make it home by 7:00, on most nights I get home by 8:00.  That's why dinner and a movie, for us means, just a movie and you gotta eat while you watch it. Thankfully, I am not too picky. I could quite possibly eat cereal for dinner, or skip it altogether if there is chocolate involved! 

Hulk was okay. I am not a huge fan of action movies, but I can watch a few action heroes, specially if they were Wonder Woman or Cat Woman. When will they make a Wonder Woman movie by the way? I think it's well over due! Okay, back to Hulk. The main reason I really wanted to see this movie was because of its promising good leading actor, Edward Norton. He is a great and a smart performer, for a change. I like him also because he has never been someone who believes himself to be a celebrity, even though he is. My husband likes him only because he is a Laker's fan and that's why this was a movie we both agreed to watch. I can say, his acting was great and the movie animation was fantastic, but I felt like all I watched was non-stop punching and shooting, as if I was in the middle of a giant video game.  I guess if you like video games, this is a movie to watch. I would have much rather stay home and watch again Keeping the Faith, one of my all time Norton's favorite films.  I think he should do more romantic comedies if you ask me!

  Okay, enough movie talk. I had promised to continue updating on our adventures last weekend while Linda came into town for a visit and some fun photo shoots. I'm currently editing several hundreds of pictures, but I just came across this one of Linda and Priscilla Ahn, the young and talented singer who started Brandi Carlile's concert on Monday night. Priscilla, a 24 year old singer, writes her own songs and has a very sweet voice with a very entertaining way to present the stories behind each song. I loved her!

Yes, I know, the concert. You probably have heard me talk about it all week, but what can I say? It was amazing! I loved every second of it and thankfully, I have a picture for almost every one of those seconds! 

About the events prior to the concert, I can say we had an awesome time catching up with Beth, Terry and my friend Moling, to name a few. Busy, busy, weekend. Linda wrote an entry here about the happenings.

There are plenty more pictures coming, now I must go get back to the editing and to get some much needed caffeine to get this Saturday going! Where is my Chai?