Ever-giving Box

First, I cannot believe it has been over a month since I have blogged...Okay, that is a lie, I can believe it and I apologize but there just hasn't been the drive to blog about anything lately, and even my challenge that I gave myself doesn't seem to be working.

Second, I had the nicest thing happen to me last night, hence the blog. I have been having a rough couple of weeks between work project that is going to cause me to go gray first and then have all of my hair fall out and then there have been some family things going on that have not necessarily been a positive distraction from the work stuff. Anyway, last night I had my meeting with my Wellspring group. My co-facilitator knew that I had been having a bit of a tough time so she said she had something for me:

It is called an Ever-giving Box:

And she filled it with things that she thought we make me happy:

And, I have to say that all these will make me happy. It was a wonderful thought and something that I will definitely give forward.

I Got Flowers

First the guard at the gate called me and asked which lobby I was closest to so that the delivery person would know where to bring my flowers. When I got this call, I hung up thinking they probably had the wrong person, but whatever. Then, the guard at the front desk called and said that I had flowers, so I was convinced that it was really for me and had to walk down there to get them.

As I'm walking down, I was thinking "what could these be for? who would have sent me flowers? do I FINALLY have a secret admirer or stalker?"

When I get to the front desk and read the card, it says "Thank you for all your wonderful hospitality!! Melissa"....Being the lack of short term memory person that I am, I'm thinking "what?!?" Then it dawns on me....Melissa.... My friend who came down and stayed with me and went to Texas Renaissance Faire with me.....duh!!

Now I have lovely fall flowers in my office with a big reminder: ADD WATER NOW!! I'm lucky to have folks who remember me with such kindnesses. 

August Blog Challenge Day 5

Today's Challenge: A Picture of You and Your Friends

Well, this was very difficult as 1. I dislike pretty much any picture that I am in. 2. Which friends do I choose and more to the point which friends do I have a picture with? 3. Is there a time frame? With that being said, here is a montage of pictures through the years and in no particular order....

My friend Anna Marie and me in Nuevo Laredo. The tall skinny guy is actually a friend of her little brother who was with us. We took a day trip there from San Antonio in 1990ish....

Long, long ago on the campus of Texas A&M there was a tradition called Elephant Walk whereby the Seniors would all tramp through campus and the Juniors would "kill" them by throwing shaving cream and mud, etc. The walk started at the site of Bonfire and went all over campus, through fountains and mud fields and where ever and would end up in Kyle Stadium for a Senior only Yell Practice. This always occurred the week of Bonfire, which was the week of the Texas A&M vs. t.u. game. It was our way of having one more moment with our friends before going off to face the real world.

A couple of years back, some of the HCBC ladies all gathered in Southern California and visited The Queen Mary. It was the first time that some of us had ever met in person. Can you believe how time has passed?

While out in California, it was a semi-regular occurrence to head up to Sonoma for a day trip. On this occasion I went with my friends Jennifer and Vanessa.

For my birthday this past Spring, I went to Scarborough Faire with my friend Angelia. She is a magical wing-maker and always dresses the part of a fairy. This trip, she loaned me a pair of wings and I had the privilege of participating. 

Another Texas A&M tradition is the christening of the Senior Rings. This would be me with my roommate Kim (on the right), a friend of hers, and some random guy. I can't believe how skinny I was back then and yet thought that I was overweight....

So, I'm not actually in this picture, but it is one of my favorite pics of Samantha and Sara.

Lastly, a picture of Sara and Gauri before we took the big skydiving plunge.

First, I really need to get more pictures of me with friends. Second, I have a whole lot of really great friends that are spread all over the place and each teach me and challenge me in new and different ways. 

Merry Christmas!!

I want to wish all of you out there a Very Merry Christmas!

This is the first year in a very, very long time (probably 15) that I put up a tree, and it made me very happy to do this. Next year I'm shooting for putting up lights outside. I also made enough cookies to feed a small army of elves, which I'm dumping on my family....they are so lucky!

I want to take this time to express how much I love all my friends out there. You have all enriched my life immeasurably and continue to do so daily. Thank you for embracing me as a part of this cyber-community. I send out cyber-hugs and very real Christmas wishes for a blessed and joyous season and that each and every one of you spends this day in the manner and with the people that give you the most joy.

Update on Weekend Activities

I was putting off documenting my weekend until I had some pictures to go with the story, but my pictures are on my other computer at home and I'm on my computer at work and it is just a whole hullabaloo to get it coordinated, so I'm just going to write here and if you REALLY want to see pictures, you can either go to my Facebook page and see pictures or ask me and I'll send them to you!!

So, Friday night I had plans to go stay at a hotel down in Santa Cruz. Not the best hotel by any stretch of the imagination, but it is what I could afford and I figure I just need a place to lay my head that has clean sheets, a shower, and a locking door. I was planning on staying there on Saturday night as well. Well, during the day I was chatting with my friend Angie who lives down in San Jose and she invited me to just come hang with her and her husband for the evening and spend the night with them. I figured "what the heck, that'll be fun." I called the hotel and tried to cancel my reservation for one night, but they were being all squeaky about it so I just cancelled for both nights and figured something would come along. As I was telling my boss/friend, Terri, about my hotel situation, she offered to let me stay with her and her husband on Saturday for the low, low price of a bottle of Tequila. Yippee!! I now had a place to stay for both nights!!

I get to Angie's Friday evening and it is a pretty low-key evening, with her being VERY pregnant and just put on bed rest by her doctors. We hang out, have some dinner watch a movie and chat. We get up Saturday morning and in my head I'm trying to determine what time I need to leave in order to make it down to Pacific Grove in time to be early for class so that I can get set up. I figure class starts at 10:30, if I'm there by 10:00 that would be good, so I need to leave about 9:00 - 9:15. As I'm standing in the kitchen talking to Angie and Seamus (her husband), I'm telling them this. Seamus, who grew up in the area, looks at me and asks "Where is this class?" I respond, "Pacific Grove, why?" He responds with "That is about an hour and a half drive, you need to leave a lot earlier." It then dawns on my that my original plan was based on me spending the night in Santa Cruz....Ooops!

I get myself around and out the door and on my way. I still make it to class with time to spare and get all set up. I won't bore you all with the details of the class, but here are a couple of highlights.... The class was sort of a kaleidoscope quilt class, but called One Block Wonder where you take your fabric and find the repeat and the cut 6 triangles of the same image, blah, blah, blah. It is a very cool technique and I'm definitely going to do it again. However, the fabric that I chose was of these round, cartoony Indian faces with feather headdresses which when I cut it all up looks like just a bunch of screaming faces to me. It is very disturbing, although I'm going to finish the top and see if it turns out better than I think it is going to. The ladies in the class were all very nice and the teacher was great. I'm definitely going to be going back there for more classes in the future, if my schedule allows for it.

Saturday evening, I head back over the Santa Cruz mountains, which by the way I had no weather problems due to the fact that the Queen was not with me. I arrive at Terri's house, with my bottle of Tequila and settle in for another quiet evening. Terri, Chris (her husband), and her 5 year old step-son and I have dinner, chatted, played some dominoes (which was a new game for me as my family only plays Chicken Foot when we play), and watched a movie, which I fell asleep about half-way through.

Sunday morning, I got up and around and headed over to meet the horse-riding group. We headed out, back over and into the Santa Cruz mountains. After driving up this dirt road, we arrived at the area where the Pacific Coast Gaited Horse Adventures horses were being kept and all piled out. We signed our wavers and got our helmets on...none of us novice horse riders were about to get on a horse without some head protection. (By the way, I can actually be seen on a horse on their website!!)

After some quick lessons (left, right, stop) and filling up the saddle bags with our snacks and drinks, we were finally off on the trail. I had the sweetest horse named Chico. He was an older Peruvian Paso with the most beautiful reddish-blond hair. I actually wanted to take a swatch of hair as that is the color of hair that I want. We first took off through the redwoods on some fairly steep trails and came out in this open meadow that over looked the ocean. It was truly breath taking. There were a number of other groups (horse people, mountain bike people, hiker people) milling around in the pasture as it is part of a state park. One group of uni-cyclists showed up and we were all quite amazed that there is such a thing as mountain uni-cyclists!!

Anyway, we all had some snacks, wine, cheese, crackers, lovely conversation, great views, and the horses got to have a little bit of a break, as did our legs. After about 45 minutes, we all mounted back up and headed off again. Since it was a nice day and we were all pretty relaxed, one of the trail guides asked if any of us wanted to take our horses on a slightly faster pace, although the walking was fine, the horses were feeling a little frisky and wanted to stretch their legs. About half of the group, myself included, decided that we did want to pick it up a little so we took off at a nice clip. My poor little pony really wanted to keep up, but she was sorta like me, could run really well for a bit, but had no real stamina, so we had to slow it down to a walk, but she sooo wanted to keep up with the pack.

Eventually, we all made it back to the barn and dismounting was the next challenge. We were all quite sore and had bruised sitting bones. But we all managed and everybody had a great time. We were happy that nobody fell off their horse and aside from the soreness we couldn't have asked for a better day.

I now know what I'm going to do with my sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew when they come out to visit...we will definitely be taking a horse ride through the Redwood forest and over looking the blue, blue ocean!!

ABBA at the Renaissance Faire....

I only wish I has some pictures to post along with this, but I only took a few on my own camera and haven't moved them to the computer yet, but here is the play by play, or a close proximity of a play by play.....

For those of you who aren't aware, my best friend from high school, Angie (and yes, she goes by Angelia but she will always be Angie to me) lives in San Jose. I was completely unaware of this until about 6 months ago when we found each other on Facebook (we had not been in touch in probably 20 years). She is married to a wonderful man, Seamus, and they both are very involved in the Northern California Renaissance Faire. They typically work at the faire, but this year they opted out of working as Angie is 7 months pregnant. They were nice enough to invite me to join them at the faire this past weekend and to spend the night at their house.

I arrive at Angie and Seamus's house Friday and they welcome me with open arms, which I promptly throw all of my stuff into and give Angie a big hug. Friday night we just hung around, did fun domestic stuff like grocery shopping and having dinner, and then we headed down to the basement, which functions as Angie's walk in closet and I am SOOO very jealous of, to pour me into a bodice and skirts in preparation of going to the faire in costume. After much hemming and hawing, we locate one that will work and Seamus cinches me in. We all agree with the look, I learn how to breathe (or not), sit, walk, and function while wearing a corset/bodice, and then we take it off and put on jammies to head to bed as we need to get a good night's sleep in preparation for the next day.

Saturday, we get up and dressed, get cinched and tucked and what not, we gather together all of the accouterments, grab the flasks (because believe me, you can't function out there without a little Parrot Bay in your system) and head off....all the way to Starbucks. The three of us are quite the vision as we stand in line for our mocha and carmelmachiotto, and whatnots. A few people ask, "Are you off to the Renaissance Fair?" and with humor in her voice and a glint in her eye Angie pipes up and says "What? We dress like this everyday!"

Finally, we are on the road. We arrive at the grounds, pile out of car, and finish putting on the final touches to our wardrobes. I get my final cinching up, belt, fan, flask, and flowers for the hair. Seamus puts on his belts, pistols, sword, flask, and god only knows what else he had on. Angie, puts on her wings (she makes beautiful fairy wings, check out her work at On Gossamer Wings).

Finally we are at faire, and this is where things become a complete whirlwind for me due to the sensory overload. But here are a few things that I recall that I liked and didn't like:

Things I Liked:

• Everybody was incredibly nice and welcomed me
• Black-Cherry hard cider
• I felt, almost, like I fit in there
• Meeting new friends
• Spending time with great friends
• Corsets/Bodices...These things are great. I never thought I would say that, but, This was the first time in my memory where I spent all day on my feet and my back wasn't killing me by the end of the day. The thing not only get the girls high and mighty, but it was wonderful support for my back.
• Steak sandwiches
• Dancing with some complete stranger, to no music besides our laughter, in the middle of the muddy path (me = sober, him = not so much)
• The cute boy that we never saw again....

Things I Didn't Like:

• It rained, not just a little spitting and sprinkling, but a complete downpour, luckily we took shelter in one of the clothing booths.
• Dealing with Port-a-potties in two skirts, a long chemise, and lots of stuff around my waste
• Mud, but only because I was slipping and I was worried about Angie slipping and I understand that the mud is better than the dust
• Not getting to see any of the shows. Darn it, I guess this means I'm gonna have to go back!!

At the end of the day, we were kicked out because we did not have passes to stay for the after-hours, and it is my understanding that the after-hours activities are when the real raunchiness begins. We went to a local restaurant for a bite to eat before we hit the road. Driving back, I dozed in the backseat and could only hear the faint murmurings of Angie and Seamus as they drove home.

That night I slept like a baby, basking in the glow of a wonderful adventure. While I've marked one more thing off my list of things to do before I die, I've added one more thing to my list of things I want to do again.

Angie and Seamus and all of your friends at the Faire, Thank you!!

Reflections on My Birthday

Tomorrow is my birthday.

I would say how old I'm going to be, but I don't feel like I should be that age, so I'm keeping mum. Everybody asks me "what are you doing to celebrate?" And I answer "nothing." I'm not sure why I'm not making a bigger deal out of it and forcing my friends to take me out and lavish me with presents. Part of me would rather it all just go away like any other day, and yet I keep announcing to folks "Wednesday is my birthday!"

I've had a good year.

1. I've built on and developed some great friendships.
2. I had a boyfriend and lost a boyfriend, which was probably a good thing.
3. I spent a week with my family and was given the chance to relax and not think about anything, although I did feel guilty for not visiting any of my friends while back in Texas, but if they love me they'll forgive me.
4. I spent a lot of time exploring the California wine country and have found a number of places that I really love to go to.
5. I found a quilt shop that I like to hang out in and a group of quilters that are a lot of fun and basic, good people.
6. I did more sewing in the past year than I had in a long time.
7. I found a great little place to move into in San Francisco and this has caused me...
8. To re-evaluate all of the ballast that I have in my life and I'm learning to let go of a lot of it after realizing that much of it has been weighing me down for years. (Who knows, maybe next year I'll get rid of the storage unit stuff.)
9. My sister came out to visit me and had a great time, she's my oldest and dearest friend so I need to keep that tie strong.
10. I've reconnected with my high-school best friend, which I'm very excited about since it turns out that she lives in this same area and has for many years...again, need to keep those ties to my past strong.

I've also been thinking about other more poignant things that have molded my life and brought me to where I am today, but that will be fodder for upcoming blogs.

For now, I'd like to thank everybody in my life that has made this past year a really good one. Thank you to those that I've met in person and to those that I only know through the Queen's connections.

You all have added much to my world. (I didn't realize that getting old was going to make me this mushy!!)

Four Things I'm Happy About

While there are a number of things that I am happy about, there are four things at this current moment that I'm almost giddy about....

1. I am the BEST shoe shopper in the world. As you may recall from a previous post (Kate Spade is Trying to Kill Me), I am a shoe-aholic. With that addiction being acknowledged, I went out on e-Bay and did a search on Kate Spade, which is the object of my current obsession. I found a multitude of her shoes and made bids on 2 pair, a lovely chocolate patent and a camel patent. Well, I won the bids and they arrived yesterday. Of course, I didn't pay anywhere near what the market price is for the shoes, even thought they were new and in the box. So, for those of you keeping score...in the past 2 months I have purchased 3 pairs of Kate Spade shoes for less than a single pair would be at the store at regular price. See, I AM the best shoe shopper in the world.

2. I have signed a lease and am picking up the keys on my brand new apartment in San Francisco tomorrow. This country mouse is finally moving up town!! I'm sure that I'll have more over the coming month, both good and bad, about my trials and tribulations of getting moved. But for now.... Woo Hoo!! I'm very excited!!

3. My big sister is coming to visit me in two days and is going to spend the WHOLE weekend with me!! I don't think the two of us have been out on the town together, just the two of us, for an extended period of time since I was 16 and went to visit her in her dorm room in college. The only other time I can think that we were on our own was when we drove up to visit our Grandmother, but we had my niece and nephew with us, so there wasn't a whole lot of party, party, party going on. We are going to do the wine country one day, and I even have another friend who is going to drive us so that I don't have to be designated driver this time!! And we are going to explore San Francisco and do all the fun touristy stuff together another day like Chinatown (where I'm going to pick up some chop-stick training wheels) and the cable cars and Fisherman's Wharf, and Ghiradelli Square.... I CAN'T WAIT!!!

4. Now I can't remember the last thing that I'm happy about. I had four things in mind as I was standing at the microwave heating up my Lean Cuisine, but this last one has completely slipped through the recessed of my gray matter..... If it comes back to me, I'll update the blog.

I hope all of you, my devoted readers, have happy thoughts and happy times right now as well. I like to share my joy when I have it!!

If You Can't Say Something Nice....

....say nothing at all.

How often have we heard that cliche? Well, it started playing through my head over and over again this afternoon as I was driving home from work.

Actually, it started earlier when I was chatting with a friend and discussing how much I really don't like my job, my company, my life at the moment. We were also discussing a mutual acquaintance who also was complaining about jobs and life in general. Basically, we were all just whining about our lot in life when she stated "if you aren't happy with your situation, then it is up to you to make it better." I totally agree with that.

Sadly, I'm having a little trouble making mine better. I have great plans and a couple of pots are simmering, so to speak, but nothing major is changing yet and I'm just a smidge discouraged. I know it all takes time, but I've joined the instant gratification world and I just want the new stuff to start happening NOW.

Okay, enough of the whining and moping around. From this day forward (at least for awhile), I'm going to make a concerted effort to not say anything, unless I have something nice and positive to say.

Gee, is my life going to be quiet.....

So I'm A Little Late

Sorry, I'm a little late in getting my post up today, but it has been a bit hectic.

First, I need to send a big THANKS! to Sara, my blonde, Aggie, Aries friend. Love the car-pooling. Not only do we lesson our Carbon Footprint (see me talking all Green and California-like) but we also get to enjoy the pleasure of one another's company in the morning. And, I have to say that talking to somebody else in the car is SO much nicer than conversing with myself; I tend to be a bit of a bitch!!

Second, I'd like to send her another thanks for going and picking up lunch for me. You Rock!! I LOVE Wahoo Tacos!! Although I don't actually like their tacos, per se.

Third, well, I don't really have a third. I have to apologize to Sara regarding NOT riding home with her, but she has to stick around for that blankety-blank Ops Excellence meeting and I'd rather go take a walk with Vanessa.

Okay, I have more that I'd like to talk about, but don't really have the energy at the moment and I have to go to another fun AND exciting training session.