This weekend Chris and I went to Monterey to celebrate the marriage of our dear friends Jimmy and Yazzy. Down 17-mile drive on a little beach, we stopped and braved the wind to witness their vows (which we couldn't actually hear due to the waves crashing on the beach, but Jimmy and Yazzy heard each other, which is what was really important). I was honored to watch my dear friends cement their commitment to each other on the shore of the mighty Pacific. It was beautiful.
We arrived at the rental house in Del Rey Oaks at around 9pm on Friday night and left Sunday evening. This place was huge. I put pictures up on my facebook for my friends who want to see it. Maybe when I get around to it, I'll post them on my Picasa. There was a spa in the back that we relaxed in after our long drive. Saturday morning I woke up and jogged to the beach down Canyon Del Rey and back up to the Breakfast Club for a total of three miles.
After a yummy breakfast with Chris, Morgen and Lindsay, we all went back to the house to finish centerpieces and pack up for the reception hall. Chris had to set up the stereo equipment and I was left in charge of delegating tasks to set up tables and decorate. I don't think I'm exactly a born leader, but my friend sees something in me I don't and everything went fine. The place looked gorgeous and Yazzy and Jimmy's families were super-duper helpful and very, very sweet.
We went back to the house and got ready. After the ceremony, the sun came out, which was nice, because while Yazzy and Jimmy were doing pictures, some of us (Lindsay and I especially) had decided to frolic on the beach. We got stuck on a rock as some higher waves came in with the tide and we subsequently got our dresses wet as we leapt to shore. Finally, pictures were done and we headed to the reception.
The toasts were beautiful and the dancing was lively and the entire evening was the stuff that life is made of: joy, laughter, dance-offs, cake, delicious food, and of course, love. Oh, and of course, more spa time afterward, back at the house. The next morning we cleaned up and went to First Awakenings, which also has some really awesome food. I had the Acapulco Express, an omelette with chorizo and other yummy things, which I would highly recommend to anyone. Also, the kids' menus are coloring pages and they will give them to adults who ask for them. We all colored, it was great.
We parted ways after that, wishing Jimmy and Yazzy bon voyage on their Hawaiian honeymoon. Mo and Lindsay joined Chris and I to go exploring Cannery Row and playing by the beach. They followed us back up Highway 5 (we took 5 back to avoid the Benicia toll. The difference in gas is negligible but the toll is usually cash-only and at least five dollars). We stopped by Split Pea Anderson's for dinner because Mo drove up next to our car and started yelling that we were stopping or else.
After we got back on the road, Chris missed the 5 at the 580 split and before we knew it we were on the Altamont Pass. Woops. We could have kept going, but we still would have hit the Benicia toll, so we doubled back to 205 and finally got home at 11:30 last night. Good times. I'm so tired I can't even really see straight anymore. I think I broke some laws getting to work on time this morning after stretching my snooze-button time longer than was safe. It was a really good weekend and I am extremely happy for my two friends, who are in Hawaii right now as we speak, hopefully having the time of their lives. Life is good and beautiful and wonderful as always and it's just about time for bed.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Headache
I've had the worst headache I've ever had since yesterday around 11am. I am not going to work today. I called in and tried going back to sleep, but the garbage truck and now the lanscaper leaf blowing is getting to me. I've made myself a pot of coffee and can't seem to find the energy to get off the couch and go make a cup. This is miserable and I don't know what I did. It's like all the energy has been drained from my body.
If I don't feel better by this evening, I'm not going to be doing any running. I did a mile on Sunday night after taking time off to let my legs heal from Cross Fit. I went on the treadmill at the apartment gym because it was already dark out. I had no motivation to keep going, though. When I run outside and I hit a mile, I at least have to come back, right? Not so on the tread.
I really hope I feel better soon. This gas leaf-blower guy is driving me nuts. I wish Davis would go through with the ban on those already. Ugh.
If I don't feel better by this evening, I'm not going to be doing any running. I did a mile on Sunday night after taking time off to let my legs heal from Cross Fit. I went on the treadmill at the apartment gym because it was already dark out. I had no motivation to keep going, though. When I run outside and I hit a mile, I at least have to come back, right? Not so on the tread.
I really hope I feel better soon. This gas leaf-blower guy is driving me nuts. I wish Davis would go through with the ban on those already. Ugh.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Racist and Audist Women in an ASL Class
It's been a terribly long week. Thursday ASL class was great, as always, minus the girl (I'll call her Helga) in the hallway before class talking over me and trying to belittle me while I was asking another girl (I'll call her Charro for sake of clarity), why she thought that the faults of Affirmative Action were worse than the conditions that cause the need for it (which Charro couldn't answer and only could give a, "it's my right to complain" spiel while admitting that as a woman and a Latina she would be getting the short end of the stick). She also didn't know the first thing about Affirmative Action, not realizing that California doesn't even have Affirmative Action in place anymore and that Affirmative Action is not a "quota," but the quotas were put in place as one way to uphold Affirmative Action. Boy did she look dumb.
She looks white, talks white and is light skinned enough to "pass" for white, so I could see why she had a problem with Affirmative Action "treating her special for being Latina". If Affirmative Action gave her a better chance at fighting discrimination or getting into a better college, she would then have to admit that despite her and her family's hard work to be like the majority and forget their roots, she did have a history that didn't fit in with the White-All-American stereotype that minorities have been forced to conform to for so long. It's sad though, because I know so many people who do enjoy their heritage without the pressure to conform.
It was really hard to state my position clearly as Helga (who is, in fact white, and very angry about Affirmative Action possibly hurting one white person out of millions who constantly get treated better than their counterparts of different races) was talking over me. I finally told her to read a book. She was frustrating me so bad, I felt my tongue slipping over words. I started feeling shaky every time she interrupted me. I think ten years ago I probably would have just slapped her.
What wasn't surprising is that before this exchange, she and Charro had been complaining about having to write full paragraphs in their responses on the D2L posts for class. Helga even stated, "I wish he would have explained that in the first place," despite the fact that the syllabus we read out loud in class clearly laid out the guidelines for posting. These two have pretty clearly stated before class that they don't like the teacher. Helga felt the quiz was too hard with the teacher putting six blank spots for five possible answers (you know, so the last one isn't a freebie), because obviously she has some kind of trouble with multiple choice.
Later in the week, I went back on D2L and Charro had posted a response in that know-it-all, defender of rights way of hers to another classmate. The original classmate was responding to an article written by a political pundit that was very anti-Deaf and anti-ASL. The classmate used a rhetorical question to make a point, saying, "What right does he have..." Well, Charro thought that the classmate meant to take away this pundits right of free speech and had to mention something about that. She finally found a whole paragraph to write, though, so good for her.
Later in class, one of their friends who we'll call-what's a good crack-head name? She looks like she's been torn up by some kind of stimulant in her past-well, we'll just call her Cracky. Cracky, before class, is constantly loud and tells the entire hallway all her personal details and opinions because she needs the attention. I wrote about her earlier on this blog. Remember the girl that thought the teacher made up the No English in Class rule because he was worried about what we were saying? Yeah, her.
Anyway, she was talking during class Thursday while the teacher was teaching a lesson. So rude! So I told on her. Because she wasn't just talking to someone next to her or whispering for help from a neighbor. She was talking out loud because our teacher is Deaf. Her neighbors (Charro is one, though I don't know if she participated) were laughing at her antics.
Yes, I'm a tattle tale. I mentioned it to a classmate who pointed out Cracky's D2L post where she wrote a response to another student that said, "Wow, you really stepped it up a notch with the boring and quotes," incorrect grammar is hers. Three women in my class too stupid to live. How does this happen?
So what do I do about it? I have to go to class and be with these people until December! Well, I decided that I'd just continue tattle taling because I've never done it before (my motto in High School was 'snitches get stitches'), and it actually felt good.
Second, I decided that I'd use it as fuel. This week at Cross Fit I'm going to kick some ass. Also, I decided to write a very well researched post for this week's discussion topic. I already posted it. It's about four paragraphs, so I know Charro and Helga probably won't even read it, but I had a great time writing it.
I also should probably do some meditating, just for good measure. Eventually, I'll just forgive these three because there's really no other way they could have acted. I'm a hard determinist and they are hard wired to make the poor decisions they make. Nothing I can do about it.
So that's that. Long work week, long school week. I'll have a weekend update later.
She looks white, talks white and is light skinned enough to "pass" for white, so I could see why she had a problem with Affirmative Action "treating her special for being Latina". If Affirmative Action gave her a better chance at fighting discrimination or getting into a better college, she would then have to admit that despite her and her family's hard work to be like the majority and forget their roots, she did have a history that didn't fit in with the White-All-American stereotype that minorities have been forced to conform to for so long. It's sad though, because I know so many people who do enjoy their heritage without the pressure to conform.
It was really hard to state my position clearly as Helga (who is, in fact white, and very angry about Affirmative Action possibly hurting one white person out of millions who constantly get treated better than their counterparts of different races) was talking over me. I finally told her to read a book. She was frustrating me so bad, I felt my tongue slipping over words. I started feeling shaky every time she interrupted me. I think ten years ago I probably would have just slapped her.
What wasn't surprising is that before this exchange, she and Charro had been complaining about having to write full paragraphs in their responses on the D2L posts for class. Helga even stated, "I wish he would have explained that in the first place," despite the fact that the syllabus we read out loud in class clearly laid out the guidelines for posting. These two have pretty clearly stated before class that they don't like the teacher. Helga felt the quiz was too hard with the teacher putting six blank spots for five possible answers (you know, so the last one isn't a freebie), because obviously she has some kind of trouble with multiple choice.
Later in the week, I went back on D2L and Charro had posted a response in that know-it-all, defender of rights way of hers to another classmate. The original classmate was responding to an article written by a political pundit that was very anti-Deaf and anti-ASL. The classmate used a rhetorical question to make a point, saying, "What right does he have..." Well, Charro thought that the classmate meant to take away this pundits right of free speech and had to mention something about that. She finally found a whole paragraph to write, though, so good for her.
Later in class, one of their friends who we'll call-what's a good crack-head name? She looks like she's been torn up by some kind of stimulant in her past-well, we'll just call her Cracky. Cracky, before class, is constantly loud and tells the entire hallway all her personal details and opinions because she needs the attention. I wrote about her earlier on this blog. Remember the girl that thought the teacher made up the No English in Class rule because he was worried about what we were saying? Yeah, her.
Anyway, she was talking during class Thursday while the teacher was teaching a lesson. So rude! So I told on her. Because she wasn't just talking to someone next to her or whispering for help from a neighbor. She was talking out loud because our teacher is Deaf. Her neighbors (Charro is one, though I don't know if she participated) were laughing at her antics.
Yes, I'm a tattle tale. I mentioned it to a classmate who pointed out Cracky's D2L post where she wrote a response to another student that said, "Wow, you really stepped it up a notch with the boring and quotes," incorrect grammar is hers. Three women in my class too stupid to live. How does this happen?
So what do I do about it? I have to go to class and be with these people until December! Well, I decided that I'd just continue tattle taling because I've never done it before (my motto in High School was 'snitches get stitches'), and it actually felt good.
Second, I decided that I'd use it as fuel. This week at Cross Fit I'm going to kick some ass. Also, I decided to write a very well researched post for this week's discussion topic. I already posted it. It's about four paragraphs, so I know Charro and Helga probably won't even read it, but I had a great time writing it.
I also should probably do some meditating, just for good measure. Eventually, I'll just forgive these three because there's really no other way they could have acted. I'm a hard determinist and they are hard wired to make the poor decisions they make. Nothing I can do about it.
So that's that. Long work week, long school week. I'll have a weekend update later.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Crossfit, Week 1
Monday I decided to start using my Groupon. I got twelve classes for twenty-five dollars, which is a small portion of what they usually charge for that many Crossfit classes, which I can't find rates for on their website here, but it was close to my last car payment if I remember correctly.
I went in and we started with a warm up in three lines down "the track," which consisted of many different types of lunges, squats and hop-scotch like jumps. Next, he showed us different exercises that are included in Crossfit and explained the process of a Crossfit exercise. There were two sets of exercises that were done, the second being more intense than the first, which was mostly pull-ups and such. The second part involved throwing a weighted ball at a target on the wall while doing squats, doing squats while swinging a kettle bell, and doing these crazy, backward push-ups on a rigged-up PVC pipe. I don't know what these exercises are called and I have a bad memory anyway, but it doesn't really matter. I call them hard. We did as many of these reps as we could in ten minutes.
I really, really liked it. Afterward, the top of my thighs burned like crazy (what are those muscles called? I have no idea), and the next day I almost couldn't walk. I was really excited about it, and felt better today, so I went after work.
This time, there was a different trainer and, yes, there were a lot of people in the class, but I didn't think there were more than on Monday. So he felt that it was necessary to not actually have a Crossfit class and to do a basic Tabata instead. He didn't tell us that, I just overheard him talking to one of the "regulars" after he ended the class fifteen minutes early (I decided to use that fifteen minutes on their elliptical, because even though I got a discount, I still think that I deserve a full workout). The "regulars" were saying things like, "So you're not doing a real workout today?" and he glanced at me watching him and said, "Yeah, it's a real workout, we're just short on equipment." Tabata is 20 seconds of an exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest for 8 cycles.
We did squats, pushups, sit ups, and some running/walking intervals. I asked him when the morning classes were so I could come when there were less people and possibly do some more exercises that I can't just do on my own in my own living room. After all, that's why I'm going to a GYM. In other words, I was kind of pissed off a bit. He said he never does morning classes, so I'm thinking that maybe I should start going on the Tuesday/Thursday 6am classes. That means waking up at 5am and driving to Sac, but I can do anything just 10 times, right? I got through the sit ups, didn't I?
So that's the end of week one. I hope that my next ten classes are a bit more serious than Jay wanted to take them. If not, I think I might write a strongly worded blog about it (that'll show 'em). One class was good, one not so good. I'll update more later.
I went in and we started with a warm up in three lines down "the track," which consisted of many different types of lunges, squats and hop-scotch like jumps. Next, he showed us different exercises that are included in Crossfit and explained the process of a Crossfit exercise. There were two sets of exercises that were done, the second being more intense than the first, which was mostly pull-ups and such. The second part involved throwing a weighted ball at a target on the wall while doing squats, doing squats while swinging a kettle bell, and doing these crazy, backward push-ups on a rigged-up PVC pipe. I don't know what these exercises are called and I have a bad memory anyway, but it doesn't really matter. I call them hard. We did as many of these reps as we could in ten minutes.
I really, really liked it. Afterward, the top of my thighs burned like crazy (what are those muscles called? I have no idea), and the next day I almost couldn't walk. I was really excited about it, and felt better today, so I went after work.
This time, there was a different trainer and, yes, there were a lot of people in the class, but I didn't think there were more than on Monday. So he felt that it was necessary to not actually have a Crossfit class and to do a basic Tabata instead. He didn't tell us that, I just overheard him talking to one of the "regulars" after he ended the class fifteen minutes early (I decided to use that fifteen minutes on their elliptical, because even though I got a discount, I still think that I deserve a full workout). The "regulars" were saying things like, "So you're not doing a real workout today?" and he glanced at me watching him and said, "Yeah, it's a real workout, we're just short on equipment." Tabata is 20 seconds of an exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest for 8 cycles.
We did squats, pushups, sit ups, and some running/walking intervals. I asked him when the morning classes were so I could come when there were less people and possibly do some more exercises that I can't just do on my own in my own living room. After all, that's why I'm going to a GYM. In other words, I was kind of pissed off a bit. He said he never does morning classes, so I'm thinking that maybe I should start going on the Tuesday/Thursday 6am classes. That means waking up at 5am and driving to Sac, but I can do anything just 10 times, right? I got through the sit ups, didn't I?
So that's the end of week one. I hope that my next ten classes are a bit more serious than Jay wanted to take them. If not, I think I might write a strongly worded blog about it (that'll show 'em). One class was good, one not so good. I'll update more later.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
I've been running two miles since last week. I ran friday night, monday night and tuesday, thursday and friday morning. I dropped to 154.8 this week after being stuck at 157 last week. I upped my water intake as well; I had been slacking a bit and started taking a refillable water bottle to work again. I still have free calorie saturdays, which is nice because I don't want to have to worry about calories tonight at my friend's bachelorette party. It's going to be an awesome party, even if I'm missing the Capitol Air Show for the first time. Chris will take pictures for me.
So, in summary, I'm eating healthy and exercising and it's still working. Down seventeen pounds now. Have a good weekend, everyone.
So, in summary, I'm eating healthy and exercising and it's still working. Down seventeen pounds now. Have a good weekend, everyone.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Thank You
My pageviews over the last month shot up from just over 700 to 1,795. Often, the traffic source is from facebook, so I'd like to thank you all for coming onto my blog. If you'd like, please leave a comment in the comments section letting me know what you like about the blog, what drew you to it, what could be improved, etc. I'll turn on anonymous comments for those who wish to remain unnamed. Thanks again for reading!
Monday, September 5, 2011
Friendship
I have the bestest, most awesome friends in the whole wide world and I already miss them. Yay for hikes and burgers and quarantine 2, and YouTube and Wal mart and coconut ice cream and jumping in pools with all my clothes on, and waterfalls and nail polish and bling and aquatic hiking shoes, and moms and stirring soap and singing loud and having the three best men in the world, and sprouts and cacao nibs and pugs and Pennie Lane cat and sleazy psychic tv detectives, and and and, just being the awesome women we are.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Morgen Day
Lindsay is not feeling well and Mo was sad that I said today was a Lindsay day, thereby excluding him, so now today is a Morgen Day. We went to Wal-Mart and now we're playing Scene It. W00t!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Friday, September 2, 2011
Friday Update
I ran two miles today. Nonstop. Sometimes slower, sometimes faster, but I ran the whole time.
Tomorrow is Lindsay day. Sunday is Yazzy day. Labor day comes afterward.
I ride over the overpass instead of taking the tunnel to get to class. My lungs burn, but it is awesome.
I'm on book two in Song of Ice and Fire. Michelle was right about George R.R. Martin.
I have a great, comfortable pillow waiting for me now. Goodnight.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Tomorrow is Lindsay day. Sunday is Yazzy day. Labor day comes afterward.
I ride over the overpass instead of taking the tunnel to get to class. My lungs burn, but it is awesome.
I'm on book two in Song of Ice and Fire. Michelle was right about George R.R. Martin.
I have a great, comfortable pillow waiting for me now. Goodnight.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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