Tag: birthdays

Oh, Vacation!

I knew I had started an entry about my upcoming vacation(s), but it didn’t appear on my actual site and lo and behold, it’s simply an empty draft with the title picked out.

You know what’s amazing? Managing almost 40 hours of work this week. I closed Saturday & Sunday nights, worked an 8 hour mid on Friday, picked up a shift on Thursday and then my usual Monday & Tuesday, minus being let to go home early on Monday since it was slow. Had I not gone home early, I would’ve/could’ve1 gotten to that 40 hour point. Maybe. If they let that happen. I’m not savvy on the rules of my company’s labor hours…

Anyway, I have some decent time off coming to me2. The weekend of the 25th is my step-sister-in-law’s wedding followed two days later by the husband’s 24th birthday. Who knows what he’ll end up planning for that.

A mere few days after that I’ll be making my way up to Silver Lake Resort for the week over 4th of July. An annual family vacation that’s been occurring since before I was born. I absolutely love it up there, spending a week in the June Lake Loop, just east of Yosemite… It’s where we reconnect with distant cousins and old family friends3. I plan on taking time with my camera and trying to take some good pictures of places like Mono Lake and Bodie ghost town.

I took some decent, if not good, pictures of Bodie last year with my parents’ camera, however I forgot to keep track of which buildings were which. I don’t think I’ll ever get to even the “amateur” stage of photography since I just don’t do it enough, but I like to take pictures of stuff that I love and want to be able to do so in a … good way? Not to mention, I don’t think I’ll ever learn enough about it to go beyond the camera I have now. For a point & shoot, it’s got some nifty settings to mess around with, but I won’t get myself a DSLR. As much as it’d be awesome to have talent and use for one, I just don’t see myself as one of those people. I lose steam in hobbies much too quickly. Yup. I’m one of those people. I try a bunch of different things and end up putting it to the side to never4 be picked up again.

Anyway… The parents and I are still trying to figure out exactly how I’ll be getting to & from since they’re staying two weeks and my brother nor the husband won’t be going up this year. It’s just a matter of figuring out the preferred logistics. One way is taking one of the family cars and driving myself, following my parents and driving myself back to L.A., or riding with my parents and coming back with my uncle5 or a couple of other ideas. Initially, there was a possibility of my flying out of Mammoth and back down to San Diego, but I don’t think that’ll be necessary.

After all this hubbub will be my quarter-of-a-century-old birthday in August. I have no idea what I’ll be doing for it, but I did take time off to cover that, my parents’ 28th wedding anniversary and my dad’s 55th birthday. All of that is between the 19th & 23rd.

Needless to say, I’m kind of excited for the majority of summer, even if I do hate the season itself. *squee* *party*

  1. Why does the Chrome autocorrect not recognize “could’ve” as a legit contraction? Is it not? I’m confused :( ↩
  2. I put in for this shit MONTHS in advanced just to be sure I got it! ↩
  3. Most of whom I seem to hardly remember from my days as a kid, which is when I was a LOT more sociable. ↩
  4. Almost. Some things I might come back to time & again… like video games. ↩
  5. I’ll have to ask first, of course. ↩
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Taking on the Responsibility of Legal Binge Drinking

My brother turned 21 last week. He was the last one of us kids to reach that milestone. This past weekend, my parents brought him and his girlfriend down to Escondido for a weekend of golf and relaxation. I dropped the husband off up at the resort so he could enjoy the day golfing on Saturday while I worked. Before I left, he showed a rare moment of affection by putting his arm around my waist and stroking my side & back. It was amazing *lol* Now if I could only get him to hold my hand once in a while like he used to…

I drove the 30 minutes back up after getting off work, changing and picking up some clothes for the husband so we could spend the night, and of course making sure Gunny had enough food for the night and next day. We ended up having dinner at the Yard House in Temecula after failing to secure a reservation for another restaurant they had discussed prior to my arrival. We all had a variety of drinks and while most of the food was apparently mediocre, mine and my brother’s were great. Let me say, they’re seared sea scallop dinner with ouzo pasta & mushrooms is divine. Very savory and flavorful! On the way back to the resort, the husband, brother, his girlfriend and I made a stop at an actual Dippin’ Dots store to get some dessert1 followed by a quick beer pick-up at 7-11.

Sunday, the boys went out golfing nice and early, coming back to all of us ladies still in bed around 11am. We headed back up to Temecula for some lunch and wine at Longshadow’s Cowboy Bistro where my parents enjoyed their sandwiches, salad & soup very much. Their bistro is located in Old Town and they were apparently having an Old West and chili cook off weekend, simply driving down Old Town Front Street was not going to happen. Afterwards, we ended up at the actual winery, introducing my brother to our two favorite wine pourers. It was good to see them both there at the same time!

The other two stops on our wine tasting adventure was Wiens & Mira Monte. It was discussed that the only gentleman pourer at the former was quite stingy with his portions. The chocolate they provide with their red port tasting is heavenly. And I thought Longshadow’s Belgian chocolate boot was awesome… At Mira Monte was when the two youngins definitely gave in to the alcohol. They were giggling and acting as one would when you’re just beyond buzzed and entering into drunk territory. Brother’s girlfriend was definitely drunk *lol* We were making fun of the both of them.

To save money, we picked up groceries and decided to grill for dinner, but by the time everything was finally cooked and ready, we were all tired and definitely not up to eating all the food that was cooked. The husband and I ended up bringing the leftovers home with us, which we have eaten thankfully. They were good!

One of these days, I’ll have the brother and his girlfriend join us for Porn Star Karaoke ;) However, who knows when that’ll be since the husband’s days off will change, but not back to the Wednesday/Thursday he had before. *sigh*

This coming week, I’ll be going to the 2nd day of the Scottish Festival in Orange County and then heading up to LA to see my Marinara group of friends and our friend visiting from D.C.!! I can’t wait. I’m just surprised and disappointed with myself that I didn’t request this holiday weekend off like I swore I did over a month ago. Talk about one big FAIL. XP

  1. Banana Split ftw! ↩
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I Remember You, Sort Of…

Time for an update on life!

  1. Saturday was my grandma’s 80th birthday celebration. I love spending time drinking, eating & talking with my family. They’re awesome!
  2. Today, I participated in my company’s annual Southern California bowling tournament for the first time with 4 other of my coworkers. We bowled fairly well, but not well enough to bring home a trophy, unfortunately.
  3. There has been a lot of driving back and forth from SD to LA. Sometimes together with the husband, sometimes alone for either of us.
  4. Saturday of last week, I played a good game of capture the flag with about 161 of my friends from high school. I ruined a new pair of flats, but my team won and it was great fun! I miss and love my high school friends.
  5. Wednesday, the husband will be leaving for Costa Rica for a week for his dad’s wedding. I’m not going due to the last minute decision that he WAS going, since it would’ve been double the hassle to try and get both of our passports replaced and costly, because they’d have to be expedited.2
  6. Mid March, I’ll be going to the Zinfandel Festival with my parents, specifically the party at Tobin James. It’ll be 3 years since my parents took the husband and me for our first official foray into wine tasting. I’m excited :D
  7. My mom is making it her mission to get me down to see Costa Rican, and since I’m not going with the husband this time around, she’s planning on a family trip during December(?) of 2012. I love my mom :)

There are still two more LA trips due in the next two weeks, primarily to drop the husband off at the airport & pick him up… I’m eager to not go anywhere soon, though. Also, there may be a month in the near future that I’ll be spending up in LA, at my parents’ house, spending more time with friends since it’s pretty damn lonely down here with just the husband and I. There’s a lot of tension and we both need some space, but I’m finally looking at it as a good thing for me as well, and not just the whole giving him space part. I need some too, and there’s no better place to do it than with my awesome parents and family and friends :D

In other news, things have slowed down at Veracity, but I think it’s because it’s a new board and there’s so many things going on and we’re still working out kinks and the growing pains, and all… There are still some great activities and topics to take part in so, come and join! Tell ‘em Mika sent you ;)

  1. Give or take ↩
  2. I don’t know how the husband didn’t learn this lesson after our passports showed up last minute before our trip to Vancouver to take an Alaskan cruise back in ’08. ↩
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Birthdays and an Anniversary, Oh My!

It was my birthday yesterday and I’m now one step closer to being in my mid-20s. Although, some might consider 24 mid-20s, right? Do you split up a decade in half or in 3rds as far as early, mid and late ___s go? Curiouser and curiouser…

My day was an average, as I went to work like normal. I did bring in some mini-cupcakes for my coworkers to enjoy. Anyone that knew or found out it was my birthday kept asking me questions about how come I didn’t request it off? To be honest, it was a Thursday and the husband worked, we’re in a relatively new city without friends or family close by, so why not make money instead of sitting at home doing nothing? Not that I went into that explanation! *lol* “It’s my birthday, and I’ll work if I want too…” is pretty much what I went with ;) Afterwards, I just came home and sat on my computer looking at the tons of messages left for me on Facebook and the handful of phone messages. I managed to leave “thank you”s for half of the people who sent me messages on FB, but I don’t think I have the energy to do the rest and make my thank you sound personal. I know some people just wish people happy birthday because they pop-up on their list of “Birthdays Today” list and figure why not? Either way, all the messages were so awesome to receive :)

The one thing I treated myself to was dinner from Pick Up Stix. I bought a family platter so the husband could partake and I could get some of everything I wanted AND have left overs ;)

Today I’m working my first closing shift at work. I’m half dreading it, half excited. Closers & clean-up crew have their own camaraderie different from your everyday crew, so I think it could give me a foot into making better friends at work. I’m going to have to find a different way to make friends, as well. Angel brought to light the website MeetUp.com and I think it could be a good way to meet people who enjoy doing the things I do (hello, karaoke friends!). I really wish, though, that all of my current friends were at LEAST 3 hours away! It’s kind of a real bummer, ya know. I go into work in about 45 minutes.

My parents are coming down for the weekend tomorrow. Today is their 27th wedding anniversary and Monday is my dad’s 54th birthday. August is a clusterfuck for occasions in our immediate family. I was pretty much my parents’ 3rd anniversary and dad’s 30th birthday present ;) We’ll be wine tasting Sunday and, apparently, my mom and I will be going to a spa Monday morning while my dad and the husband go golfing.

Now, it’s time to get ready for work and head off… It’s about time I posted a regular entry, though. :)

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