Note to self: Do not travel during hurricane season...

So, I had big plans to travel to a newly opened resort in Jamaica and it was going to be glorious! An all inclusive resort that was opened to the public for the first time in September 2008, meaning I would have been the first person to sleep in my room! Anyway, the weather frightened us away since there was Gustav near it and Hanna and Ike were following closely behind. After a bit of scrambling I came across a really good deal on a 5 night cruise that would stop in Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada (Tami and I had agreed we would stay on the ship in Ensenada).

We were set to leave on Saturday, September 5 so we decided to stretch it out by spending the night in San Diego:

It was a very nice start to the whole vacation. Becky came down and we all had smores and hung out, it was lots of good wholesome fun!

We then went to the Port to meet up with our ship, The Elation:

After a little while on the ship I realized it was the exact same one I went on with my family when I graduated from High School...kinda neat.

Overall it was a lovely trip, but it does have a good punch line...Remember what I said about not going to Jamaica because of the weather? Well apparently the weather was in the Pacific also making it impossible for the ship to make it down to Cabo San Lucas! Tami and I simply found it amusing, OF COURSE we aren't going to Cabo, why would we??? So we decided to get off at Ensenada which was an exciting one hour jaunt through a Girls Gone Wild audition. It is so depressing to see the behavior of some people. So, Tami and I each bought a souvenir and made our way back to the ship for some more tasty food and relaxation!

Here are some highlights:

No Title Needed...

(http://xkcd.com/197/)

Things I Want to Do

I know it has been a while, so I thought I would do a quick post with some visual aids. You know what they say...a picture is worth a thousand words.

The pics link to more relevant sites with more words...why reinvent the wheel?

Hopefully I will be back again soon!


i - Visit Matt in Shanghai:




















1 - Visit India:



2 - Finish My:



3- See all of the movies I have been missing:



4 - See more bands:




















5 - Move to Silver Lake:










6 - Sleep:















7 - Experience more LA Art:

Read like you mean it

Adrienne found a list of 1,001 books a person should read before they die on listology.com. It was fun to see what I was missing and to assess how well I have done thus far. While reviewing my completed books I realized that I have read many "cliché classics" (for lack of a better phrase). Overall I have read 72 of these books....I have waaay too many to go! Perhaps someday I will be allowed to return to the land of leisure reading

Edit:

At Katie's request I am posting the books from the list that I have read (which is 74 on recount):

33. Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
93. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
143. The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides
166. American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis
181. A Home at the End of the World – Michael Cunningham
203. The Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie
238. The Cider House Rules – John Irving
241. Contact – Carl Sagan
246. Queer – William Burroughs
256. The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Milan Kundera
294. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting – Milan Kundera
301. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
320. Interview With the Vampire – Anne Rice
335. Ragtime – E.L. Doctorow
348. The Black Prince – Iris Murdoch
358. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter S. Thompson
367. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou
375. Slaughterhouse-five – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
427. Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut
436. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey
437. A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
445. Franny and Zooey – J.D. Salinger
451. Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
456. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
461. Naked Lunch – William Burroughs
472. Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe
484. On the Road – Jack Kerouac
492. Seize the Day – Saul Bellow
494. The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
496. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
508. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
521. The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway
529. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
539. I, Robot – Isaac Asimov
547. Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell
559. The Plague – Albert Camus
564. Animal Farm – George Orwell
565. Cannery Row – John Steinbeck
574. The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
587. For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
592. The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
608. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
619. Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
649. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
663. A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
667. All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque
671. The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner
676. Lady Chatterley’s Lover – D.H. Lawrence
717. Siddhartha – Herman Hesse
723. Ulysses – James Joyce
767. The Jungle – Upton Sinclair
778. The Immoralist – André Gide
780. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
781. The Hound of the Baskervilles – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
790. The War of the Worlds – H.G. Wells
794. Dracula – Bram Stoker
808. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
809. The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
820. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson
825. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
840. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
863. Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
868. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
873. Les Misérables – Victor Hugo
876. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
883. A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
889. Walden – Henry David Thoreau
895. The House of the Seven Gables – Nathaniel Hawthorne
897. The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
913. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
931. Frankenstein – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
983. Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift
992. Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
1001.Aesop’s Fables – Aesopus

A Grief Observed

When addressing the issue of death it seems that the default coping mechanism is religion. I have a great respect for the power of religion and the peace of mind it can offer to so many. Though, the ability for religion to alleviate the grieving process is generally where my respect for it ceases. I have been fascinated with religion since I was fairly young and have had the opportunity to learn about and experience a variety of churches in different faiths. During this process I never found anything that spoke to me deeply. I would be momentarily moved during a Hindu mantra, a Christian sermon, or a Buddhist prayer, but I think I was mainly feeding off of the spirituality of the followers especially since some of my experiences would be in languages I could not understand. The depth with which those around me were experiencing their religion would touch me. I have some fundamental issues with all religions I have experienced which can loosely be summarized in one word: Hypocrisy. Anyway, this is simply meant to illustrate that I have chosen a path without religion to comfort me, although it is not from lack of effort on my part. So, how does one without the support of their faith cope with death?

I searched the ever useful internet to see what others have said in this arena. It seems to me that even the most nonreligious attempts to offer insight still refer to verses in the bible. How can this be a comfort to everyone all of the time? I guess it doesn’t need to be everyone, but simply most. I have however, found snippets here and there that are somewhat helpful. Of course, there is no real answer as everyone experiences grief differently and no one can ever fully understand exactly what you are going through. The most important tool in our box is the support of the living. We don’t need them to understand what we are going through or even try to, but simply letting us know that they are there and that they exist in this world as someone who cares about you and your wellbeing. I would think that in the end this is the ultimate comfort.

I am not entirely new to loss either, yet I continue to struggle with it. I have been to about 6 funerals now and not a single one is easier than the last. It seems a bit strange that experience with loss does not make losing any easier. Anything else we do in our lives gets easier as we do it more often. I find that when I am reminded that our time here on Earth is limited my mind wanders to those who are still living and who are so important to me that I could not imagine trying to live without them around. This group of people is actually quite large. How do you ever get used to not being able to pick up the phone knowing that the person on the other end is the only person that could solve the particular problem you are calling about or the only person that could relate to what you want to share or the only person that knows you well enough to even want to listen to your silly story? Does time truly heal all wounds? Or do we learn to embrace our wounds with time?

“A life remembered in the hearts of the living is not lost” ~A headstone at Rose Hills I saw yesterday

With that sentiment I wanted to remember our recent losses

Grandma Rose (Matt’s Paternal Grandmother)
She was an amazingly kind and open woman. I was immediately welcomed into her home when Matt took me there to meet her as his girlfriend. She had a full life and actually received her BA in Social Work in 1946 which is an impressive feat in itself! She has three daughters and one son who will all hold her close to their hearts. I feel privileged to have known such a wonderful person and honored that she was able to make it to my wedding last year. I got this email from her the day after the wedding “The wedding was so nice. I'm glad I was able to be there. Love, Grandma Rose”

Jack
Although not on the same level as the loss of a person I feel the grief experienced from the loss of a pet effects us a great deal. My friend had to make the very difficult decision to put his cat to sleep today. This kitty was extrememly young but had a terminal illness (FIP) that has no cure. The vet thinks he probably already had it when he was adopted. As any pet lover will know this is the most difficult thing to go through and my thoughts are with him.

LOL

see more crazy cat pics


see more crazy cat pics

Black Dog

I can't believe how long it has been since I have updated this little blog of mine. It isn't exactly like nothing has happened I think it is more along the lines of too much happening. I don't have a well thought out coherent theme today so I will just go with the flow...

My cousin, Brandon, sent me this picture from his First Anniversary trip to the Grand Canyon. I guess what they say about the first year being the hardest is true as demonstrated here by Whitney's desire to throw Brandon into the canyon. Good thing Brandon was strong enough to catch himself on the edge. I hear she regrets doing it, but I am not so sure I will ever trust her again!
















Now you have to watch this video that Brandon just sent me:




On a less amusing note, I would really like to be at the beach today. This office exhausts me, especially being alone in it most of the time. Here is the torturous view from my office (a little blurry):

Pi Day

I just got off the phone with Becky who called to wish me a happy Pi day (3.14). I got her this Pi by numbers sweatshirt a couple of years ago, and although Pi is infinite it uses many, many of its numbers to create the shape. Anyway, she works with a 7th grade math class and wore it today in celebration. I was honored :) The class got to celebrate by measuring things and dividing by the diameter, along with eating pie that they brought for themselves. Becky was a little nervous about a potential food fight mainly because it was just herself and a sub. I am really excited that Becky is pursuing this path, whenever she talks to me about her time in the classroom she sounds so jubilant. I have felt that she would make a great teacher for some time now and it is neat to see someone embark on a path that is so perfect for them.

In other news, my brother-in-law is in a band called Buffalo Beard that just released their first EP. I ordered the CD from here and it just arrived on my doorstep today. I immediately opened it mainly because I am so excited for them, but also because I really have not seen a new CD in a LONG time. Any new music I get is in mp3 format. I forgot how much fun it is to paw at that tight plastic wrapping trying to get at the juicy goodness as quickly as possible but it is never fast enough! I am listening to it as I write and really it is so so good. I know I am probably biased but hey at least I get to say I knew them back when...I knew them way before YOU! Oh that reminds me of this shirt from boingboing:


I also have a meeting with my thesis chair this afternoon at approximately 2pm which I am really not looking forward to. I am still in the beginning stages of this entire process and the frustration of wanting to be done with this stage of my life is really starting to get to me. I still cannot see the light at the end of tunnel which makes it difficult to continue to trod forward in the dark. The draft that we are going over today is not even close to as long as it is supposed to be but I hope she will be able to inspire me to complete a larger chunk of it for the next go. It is sad how disappointed in myself I am in regards to this whole process. Perhaps this will be another step in my ongoing growth that will make me a stronger and more effective human later in life.

In more exciting news, today is Vickie's birthday YAY! Also, Shannon is celebrating her own birthday tonight with a little Phil Shane at Alex's down here in Long Beach which should be fun and tomorrow I get to celebrate Meishya's birthday at the Blue Dalia Cafe in LA. So many March birthdays! I am a little sad that I don't have any awesome St. Paddy's day plans this year. Since Meishya's birthday is actually on March 17th it has been quite nice to go where she tells me and essentially celebrate both events. I suppose it will be nice for her to not have to wear green at her party this year, but I will still miss her on St. Ps!

Ok I think I have done plenty of procrastinating for one day, time to prepare to get scolded by my chair for not doing well!

Two things

1 - I got a new shiny phone that rings and plays music and other cool stuff, but the key here is that it rings which my other phone has not done since August 2007. I was waiting until I was eligible for a free phone upgrade and I finally was this weeked so I got this: The first thing I did with it was take a picture of Layla, of course:

2 - I love the change in time. Now when I leave work a little late I don't feel like I have lost my entire day; look how bright it was for my drive home yesterday at 6:30 :)

Something I Look Forward To

On April 19th Matt and I are embarking on a week long getaway to enjoy each other with no distractions before he begins the academy for a not-yet-allowed-to-name city. We have decided to do something simple and relaxing while trying something that neither of us has done before. We find that doing new things together is actually difficult, especially stateside, because I have apparently been EVERYWHERE with my family at some point.

Anyway, even if no one is interested I am so excited I really wanted to share our itinerary! The first three days we will be in San Luis Opisbo. I am not sure how many of you are aware of a spectacular little place known as the Madonna Inn but it is somewhere I have always wanted to stay and now it is finally happening! We are torn between the Madonna Suite with its custom made carpet and rock bathroom:

Our other top choice is the Old World Suite which also has a Rock waterfall shower and fireplace:

I think the overall appeal to this place is fairly self explanatory but in case you are not yet convinced here is a picture of their Steak House:

Once we have spoiled ourselves in the lap of over-the-top luxury and kitsch we are heading a little further north to Big Sur. I have driven through and admired the beauty there many times, but I have never had the chance to spend the time required to truly appreciate it. We are staying at a super cool place called the Treebones Resort which has walk in camp sites and things I have never heard of before called Yurts. They are round little hut like structures that are a cross between a tent and a cabin. We will be here for two nights:

How amazing is that view?!? There is a dome on top so you can stargaze while lying in bed. The resort itself is pretty amazing as well. It is off the grid using propane fueled turbine to power everything and drinking water comes from a well. Here is the layout of the site:

We are staying in Yurt #16 which is the farthest one on the right. Although it is farther from the showers and restrooms the added privacy and full ocean view will be entirely worth it!

We will be heading back down to Long Beach on the 24th just in time to get ready to head to Coachella! Not a bad way to spend a week if you ask me!