Back in the days of Santa Barbara, I remember the times my girlfriend and I went to a neighborhood coffee shop and wrote. Curiously, I was searching for something yesterday and came across an old notebook with writings from the past...
This entry makes me wonder what was going on in my life that I would write something so dark and sad.
"Tear. A drop slowly melting onto her face. Sorrows untold beneath hidden eyes. Hiding a terrible secret from herself, her friends, her lover. No understanding left in her world. Desperate, she cries alone in the corner, kneeling bloody prayers to a stir of echos. Stop and listen. The heartbeat of a lonely soul. It begs and please to be heard. Whimpering almost screaming but forgotten. Alone and afraid, the dreams come. Sweat awakens the mind, the body fighting non-existant demons. 'Help me! Hear me!' I'm lost to unspoken emotions. Colorless and empty, my sorrow moves my feet, draggin, falling, sand hitting my face. Who am I? I'm crazed with too many feelings left unsaid. I hide in my tears."
2.20.2008
10.25.2007
life happenings around nature, softball and fires...
Since my last post, I've been playing around with my new techie toy more. Before work one Wednesday morning, I paid a visit to the LA Arbortem. It was my first time there and I really didn't know what to expect. Walking through the doors and grabbing a map, I glanced up to see that the next "walking" tour had begun only a few minutes before. Missed that opportunity. Unfolded my map and grew a bit overwhelmed at how large the park seem. I only had a couple of hours before heading to work, so I had to get in as much as I could. Once of the first things that I ran into was:
I was told later that morning by one of the "regulars" that I had just missed them in their most regal form. I guess it was suppose to be impressive that they grew out their tails an average of 6 feet and pranced around the park during the summer months. Oh well, mental note for next year. The one place that I really wanted to see was the waterfall in the park. I love waterfalls. When I was younger, my family took a trip to Niagara Falls in Canada almost every year. There's just something about the rush of water that's both exciting and calming at the same time. I took some average shots of the mini waterfall at the Arbortem.
Although my favorite waterfall shot is still on my laptop at home and currently is acting as my wallpaper until something better comes along.
In the same week, I had mentioned to the boy that I had wanted to visit the Huntington Library. Mind you, I've lived in LA for over 5 years now and still haven't visited the Library grounds. I was told it was beautiful. That Saturday afternoon, despite the morning rain, we wandered to the Library. It was simply beautiful and peaceful even with the amount of people walking around. They were also hosting their annual plant sale as well. Our first stop was the Desert Gardens. Desert and Gardens didn't seem to belong in the same sentence much less be an attraction at the Library. But the pictures below should prove that wrong.
My favorite shot was one of cacti called "Living Stones" or their technical term "Lithops." I wanted to purchase one of these when I left for the day but decided against it as I would probably kill it with my non-green thumb.
We walked around the entire Library and through their impressive bonzi tree collection in the Japanese Garden. I can only imagine how much those bonzi trees would cost should they be available for sale. It was a nice escape from LA city life and so close to home.
This past weekend, we traveled to the Bay Area for softball. The tournament called, "Smash" is an "Asian" tournament featuring competitive men's, recreational men's and co-ed divisions. Our team, a mixture of north and south CA. Combined you get the "Nutty Cocks" Yes, that's their team name. They didn't do so bad, finishing 2nd out of 30 some odd teams in the recreational division. But if you were to ask them, they should have won it all. Thankfully, the visit wasn't just about softball. I played tour guide to my southern CA people in the city as well. It was a nice combination of sports and travel. Although, I almost didn't make it home. Somewhere between the rental car place and the terminal, I forgot my purse on the bus. Thankfully, my karma was good to me and it was found! I've got to laugh at it now but it wasn't all funny when it was happening. Pix from the weekend.
We're currently in day 5 of the fires here. Thankfully, we live in close to city and not near any of the fires. But the smoke and ashes are now a part of the daily life called LA. At least, I know that those closer to the fires are safe and ok and that the firefighters are making progress ending this disaster around us. Stay safe everyone!
I was told later that morning by one of the "regulars" that I had just missed them in their most regal form. I guess it was suppose to be impressive that they grew out their tails an average of 6 feet and pranced around the park during the summer months. Oh well, mental note for next year. The one place that I really wanted to see was the waterfall in the park. I love waterfalls. When I was younger, my family took a trip to Niagara Falls in Canada almost every year. There's just something about the rush of water that's both exciting and calming at the same time. I took some average shots of the mini waterfall at the Arbortem.
Although my favorite waterfall shot is still on my laptop at home and currently is acting as my wallpaper until something better comes along.
In the same week, I had mentioned to the boy that I had wanted to visit the Huntington Library. Mind you, I've lived in LA for over 5 years now and still haven't visited the Library grounds. I was told it was beautiful. That Saturday afternoon, despite the morning rain, we wandered to the Library. It was simply beautiful and peaceful even with the amount of people walking around. They were also hosting their annual plant sale as well. Our first stop was the Desert Gardens. Desert and Gardens didn't seem to belong in the same sentence much less be an attraction at the Library. But the pictures below should prove that wrong.
My favorite shot was one of cacti called "Living Stones" or their technical term "Lithops." I wanted to purchase one of these when I left for the day but decided against it as I would probably kill it with my non-green thumb.
We walked around the entire Library and through their impressive bonzi tree collection in the Japanese Garden. I can only imagine how much those bonzi trees would cost should they be available for sale. It was a nice escape from LA city life and so close to home.
This past weekend, we traveled to the Bay Area for softball. The tournament called, "Smash" is an "Asian" tournament featuring competitive men's, recreational men's and co-ed divisions. Our team, a mixture of north and south CA. Combined you get the "Nutty Cocks" Yes, that's their team name. They didn't do so bad, finishing 2nd out of 30 some odd teams in the recreational division. But if you were to ask them, they should have won it all. Thankfully, the visit wasn't just about softball. I played tour guide to my southern CA people in the city as well. It was a nice combination of sports and travel. Although, I almost didn't make it home. Somewhere between the rental car place and the terminal, I forgot my purse on the bus. Thankfully, my karma was good to me and it was found! I've got to laugh at it now but it wasn't all funny when it was happening. Pix from the weekend.
We're currently in day 5 of the fires here. Thankfully, we live in close to city and not near any of the fires. But the smoke and ashes are now a part of the daily life called LA. At least, I know that those closer to the fires are safe and ok and that the firefighters are making progress ending this disaster around us. Stay safe everyone!
10.08.2007
weekend here... weekend gone...
Sometimes it's best when you don't have plans for the weekend. I've been dying for a weekend, a free weekend of no traveling, no commitments, no nada.
Unfortunately, what I hoped would be a free weekend, turned out to be a busy weekend.
Friday Night... post work, the boy and I had no plans but to chill out at home and be vegetables. That was the plan. But in actuallity, we ended up going to the softball park to catch the end of our friends' softball game. They lost again. Post game defeat, we all headed out to one of the greatest hole in the wall mom and pop food places in Monterey Park. It's called Pearl's Place on Garvey. I recommend the fried dumplings and the pork chops and rice. Simple but good food. My friend J has been going there since she was a wee kid with her family. She took me and boy the there once and I've been a big fan since. After that it was post coffee drinks at Starbucks. Unfortunately, they don't have a Coffee Bean out in the Alhambra/Monterey Park area, only because all the boba places dominate all the streets. It was a great night of conversation, laughter and friends.
Saturday... again no plans for the day but it turned out to be a busy one. The boy and I started the day with brunch at Pat and Lorraines in Eagle Rock. It's across the way from my mother in law's shop. We swung by the shop and mom reminded us of the birthday party of our friends two children was later that afternoon. Ugh... sure enough the reminder message popped up on the Curve just moments later. I completely forgot about it even though their mom handed me the invitation at a housewarming just a couple of weeks ago. So there went the free afternoon. Pat and Lorraines' is fabulous. I love food but I especially love breakfast. The boy and I both had omelettes. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of how big the portions are. He had the fajitas omelette and I had Jose's Omelette Special. Yumm-mmie! It's more like a scramble rather than a traditional omelette served with a side of home fries and your choice of toast, biscuit or fruit. Took home enough for breakfast in the morning again.
After breakfast, we headed home to pick up the invitation and then off to Target for birthday gifts for both kids. The parentals made specific requests for no toys and indicate clothing sizes. I love that. Takes the work out of guessing sizes. Gifts in hand, it was off to the party. A roadblock on the major street made us take the sideroute but we eventually made it to the party. Filipino parties are just an excuse for people to stuff their faces with lots of fried this and fried that. But seeing as brunch was still settling in our stomachs, the boy and I shook our heads politely and said we'd grab a bite to eat later. See, there was still 4 more hours of party left. The kids had a bouncer which was great. It was not only just a bouncer but it also had one of those slides in the back attached to it. It was a super bouncer. Even though it was made for kids, the bigger kids couldn't resist taking a few jumps and slides of their own. It was comedy in person. The pinatas, yes there were two, were broken and candy and money gathered, cake was cut, good times had by all. I took tons of pictures that day as I had just purchased a new camera lense for the nikon. It's sooo purty. Here's a couple of shots that I can post...
The above is a picture from the park, a level down from where the party was happening. It was quite peaceful. Reminds me of the poem by Robert Frost called "The Road Not Taken." It's currently my desktop picture. I love being able to play around with photography. Still trying to figure out how all the features work on this camera but as you can see, I'm loving some of the results.
We're both so ready to have kids! The boy with one of my friends' new babies. He's gonna make a great daddy!
After the party, we headed out to dinner at Briganti's in South Pasadena. It's light Italian food. Yes, there is such a thing as light Italian. We were able to meet the owner/chef of Briganti's. My boss is actually his next door neighbor. He was fabulous and ended up sending us 2 desserts. I recommend this place highly. I've been there a few times and have yet to have a bad meal or experience bad service there. Reservations are recommended especially on a weekend night.
Sunday, thankfully, ended up being mellow. I'm rather said that I missed out on a blog party gathering. It looked like so much fun from the pictures. We stayed home and vegged, cruised the internet and read for a bit before heading to the softball park for his men's championship game. They ended up winning in the bottom of the 7th by 1. We celebrated by heading out to Applebee's for dinner with the team.
So for a weekend filled with no plans, it turned out to be a crazy busy but fun filled weekend. How was yours?
Unfortunately, what I hoped would be a free weekend, turned out to be a busy weekend.
Friday Night... post work, the boy and I had no plans but to chill out at home and be vegetables. That was the plan. But in actuallity, we ended up going to the softball park to catch the end of our friends' softball game. They lost again. Post game defeat, we all headed out to one of the greatest hole in the wall mom and pop food places in Monterey Park. It's called Pearl's Place on Garvey. I recommend the fried dumplings and the pork chops and rice. Simple but good food. My friend J has been going there since she was a wee kid with her family. She took me and boy the there once and I've been a big fan since. After that it was post coffee drinks at Starbucks. Unfortunately, they don't have a Coffee Bean out in the Alhambra/Monterey Park area, only because all the boba places dominate all the streets. It was a great night of conversation, laughter and friends.
Saturday... again no plans for the day but it turned out to be a busy one. The boy and I started the day with brunch at Pat and Lorraines in Eagle Rock. It's across the way from my mother in law's shop. We swung by the shop and mom reminded us of the birthday party of our friends two children was later that afternoon. Ugh... sure enough the reminder message popped up on the Curve just moments later. I completely forgot about it even though their mom handed me the invitation at a housewarming just a couple of weeks ago. So there went the free afternoon. Pat and Lorraines' is fabulous. I love food but I especially love breakfast. The boy and I both had omelettes. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of how big the portions are. He had the fajitas omelette and I had Jose's Omelette Special. Yumm-mmie! It's more like a scramble rather than a traditional omelette served with a side of home fries and your choice of toast, biscuit or fruit. Took home enough for breakfast in the morning again.
After breakfast, we headed home to pick up the invitation and then off to Target for birthday gifts for both kids. The parentals made specific requests for no toys and indicate clothing sizes. I love that. Takes the work out of guessing sizes. Gifts in hand, it was off to the party. A roadblock on the major street made us take the sideroute but we eventually made it to the party. Filipino parties are just an excuse for people to stuff their faces with lots of fried this and fried that. But seeing as brunch was still settling in our stomachs, the boy and I shook our heads politely and said we'd grab a bite to eat later. See, there was still 4 more hours of party left. The kids had a bouncer which was great. It was not only just a bouncer but it also had one of those slides in the back attached to it. It was a super bouncer. Even though it was made for kids, the bigger kids couldn't resist taking a few jumps and slides of their own. It was comedy in person. The pinatas, yes there were two, were broken and candy and money gathered, cake was cut, good times had by all. I took tons of pictures that day as I had just purchased a new camera lense for the nikon. It's sooo purty. Here's a couple of shots that I can post...
The above is a picture from the park, a level down from where the party was happening. It was quite peaceful. Reminds me of the poem by Robert Frost called "The Road Not Taken." It's currently my desktop picture. I love being able to play around with photography. Still trying to figure out how all the features work on this camera but as you can see, I'm loving some of the results.
We're both so ready to have kids! The boy with one of my friends' new babies. He's gonna make a great daddy!
After the party, we headed out to dinner at Briganti's in South Pasadena. It's light Italian food. Yes, there is such a thing as light Italian. We were able to meet the owner/chef of Briganti's. My boss is actually his next door neighbor. He was fabulous and ended up sending us 2 desserts. I recommend this place highly. I've been there a few times and have yet to have a bad meal or experience bad service there. Reservations are recommended especially on a weekend night.
Sunday, thankfully, ended up being mellow. I'm rather said that I missed out on a blog party gathering. It looked like so much fun from the pictures. We stayed home and vegged, cruised the internet and read for a bit before heading to the softball park for his men's championship game. They ended up winning in the bottom of the 7th by 1. We celebrated by heading out to Applebee's for dinner with the team.
So for a weekend filled with no plans, it turned out to be a crazy busy but fun filled weekend. How was yours?
9.25.2007
a recap of some much needed recaps
So, it seems that my last post was back in June. Oh my... forgive me blog.
What's been happening in my life?
July
I love July only because I get spoiled rotten (it was planned this way, at least one of the events was, I had no control over the event) July is an entire month of celebration for me. Why... my birthday and my anniversary fall in this wonderful month of July. How did we celebrate? Hmm.. (racking old brain for a memory) Oh yes... the boy reminded me that he had woken up with a painful wrist and spent the morning at urgent care. He did manage to make it out and watch the opening of "Harry Potter." Post Harry, came home and baked cookies for the softball park. It was a pretty mellow birthday. I like them low key and just me and the boy. Plus, the end of the month, we had already planned a nice little getaway to San Diego and to SinCity. The combo of beach and gambling... love it! We visited The Wild Animal Park for the first time and survived Vegas heat. Oh... and I got to finish the final Harry book.
August
I'll just say one word. "Wedding" Too much detail to go into. Just nice to see old folks from college again. Good to see some things don't change and some things do.
September
I started September pondering a purchase, either another luxury purse that I would drool over or an SLR camera. The shutterbug in me won out. I'm now a proud shutterbugging owner of a Nikon D40. I adore my new techie toy. It came in handy as we headed off to Phoenix for a softball tournament.
Phoenix was hot hot hot. Dry heat thankfully but still hot. No matter how much water you drank, you were still dripping sweat and even more sweat. That was just the fans watching, can't imagine what the guys on the field felt like. It was a nice change to hang out with people from my softball park outside of the regular softball park. It did rain in Phoenix, right before we left. That kicked the humidity factor into high gear. Crazy crazy heat turned into sticky, gotta run back for a cold shower heat. Ew. But, the sky rewarded me with the following shot...
and one of my favorites of my favorite player...
I think that's all for now... until next time!
What's been happening in my life?
July
I love July only because I get spoiled rotten (it was planned this way, at least one of the events was, I had no control over the event) July is an entire month of celebration for me. Why... my birthday and my anniversary fall in this wonderful month of July. How did we celebrate? Hmm.. (racking old brain for a memory) Oh yes... the boy reminded me that he had woken up with a painful wrist and spent the morning at urgent care. He did manage to make it out and watch the opening of "Harry Potter." Post Harry, came home and baked cookies for the softball park. It was a pretty mellow birthday. I like them low key and just me and the boy. Plus, the end of the month, we had already planned a nice little getaway to San Diego and to SinCity. The combo of beach and gambling... love it! We visited The Wild Animal Park for the first time and survived Vegas heat. Oh... and I got to finish the final Harry book.
August
I'll just say one word. "Wedding" Too much detail to go into. Just nice to see old folks from college again. Good to see some things don't change and some things do.
September
I started September pondering a purchase, either another luxury purse that I would drool over or an SLR camera. The shutterbug in me won out. I'm now a proud shutterbugging owner of a Nikon D40. I adore my new techie toy. It came in handy as we headed off to Phoenix for a softball tournament.
Phoenix was hot hot hot. Dry heat thankfully but still hot. No matter how much water you drank, you were still dripping sweat and even more sweat. That was just the fans watching, can't imagine what the guys on the field felt like. It was a nice change to hang out with people from my softball park outside of the regular softball park. It did rain in Phoenix, right before we left. That kicked the humidity factor into high gear. Crazy crazy heat turned into sticky, gotta run back for a cold shower heat. Ew. But, the sky rewarded me with the following shot...
and one of my favorites of my favorite player...
I think that's all for now... until next time!
6.24.2007
an overdue recap of life's ongoings
What's been up with me? Not that I have alot of readers truely committed to reading my blog. It's been almost two months since my last post. I lag.
Life is finally back to a pace where I "think" I can handle it. But then again, are we really able to handle anything no matter what pace we set for ourselves?
Do you ever find yourself in a drama situation after a while you forgot how you ended up in that drama situation? I've been currently caught up in one of those drama situations. It's been quite a tiresome process of watching, reacting and anticipating what's going to happen next. Thankfully, it's beginning to wind down now and things are somewhat going back to normal. I thought that I had distanced myself from everyday drama only to walk into more. I guess that's that pattern of life. No matter now much you try and avoid something, it's bound to sneak up on you when you least expect it to.
The boy and I have been house hunting in the area. Although we're not quite ready to buy yet, looking and figuring things out that we both like and dislike has been an adventure. We're still on track for around September to be buying a house. I can't wait for the chance to be homeowner, no matter what the headaches are that come with it, at least I know that I won't be losing money paying rent.
You know, I'm at a point where life is back to being ok. I've managed to walk away from a passion of the heart and pick myself up again with other things that I had forgotten were there for me before everything else.
I've come to find that life is full of circles, you go from one circle to the next, it may take a while to move from one circle to another but the one thing I will always have to remember is that each circle is there for a reason, good or bad.
How's everyone doing in my circle? Let me know!
Life is finally back to a pace where I "think" I can handle it. But then again, are we really able to handle anything no matter what pace we set for ourselves?
Do you ever find yourself in a drama situation after a while you forgot how you ended up in that drama situation? I've been currently caught up in one of those drama situations. It's been quite a tiresome process of watching, reacting and anticipating what's going to happen next. Thankfully, it's beginning to wind down now and things are somewhat going back to normal. I thought that I had distanced myself from everyday drama only to walk into more. I guess that's that pattern of life. No matter now much you try and avoid something, it's bound to sneak up on you when you least expect it to.
The boy and I have been house hunting in the area. Although we're not quite ready to buy yet, looking and figuring things out that we both like and dislike has been an adventure. We're still on track for around September to be buying a house. I can't wait for the chance to be homeowner, no matter what the headaches are that come with it, at least I know that I won't be losing money paying rent.
You know, I'm at a point where life is back to being ok. I've managed to walk away from a passion of the heart and pick myself up again with other things that I had forgotten were there for me before everything else.
I've come to find that life is full of circles, you go from one circle to the next, it may take a while to move from one circle to another but the one thing I will always have to remember is that each circle is there for a reason, good or bad.
How's everyone doing in my circle? Let me know!
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