Earthquake!

I concede that Riverside was a little further from the Orange County epicenter of the earthquake last night than Kathleen's horror of being at work in Anaheim when it happened, but I for one was incredibly unimpressed by it. Sorry if that sounds callous, but it just really was not a big deal where I was when it hit, and on top of that... I like earthquakes!

I know I sound callous, but realistically, how many of them cause any significant damage compared to how many occur all the time, and even out of the ones that we can feel? Ugh, I'll probably die by earthquake now after I've said all this. It was Friday night, and I was at my friend's place in Riverside, we were in his room on the second story of their house, drinking beer and mixing tracks (I'm not even kidding, although I should be for that kinda pretention) when it hit. We both froze and waited. I was hoping it was an earthquake - you know sometimes the house is just settling and you wait to see if it is or it isn't?- but there it went again, and I just love that feeling of the shaking and the ground rolling, like it doesn't seem possible, but it went one more time - and then it was over.

I was really surprised to find out that it was a 5.1, it just didn't feel like it where we were! But there you are. Hope the rest of you are okay.

Breaking Okay

I started watching Breaking Bad in fall of 2011 as a funtivity with my then-roommate in Harlem, but he quickly went off on his own and didn't wait for me to watch more episodes, so I got through them slowly by myself. I'd been waiting for the last half of season 5 to come on Netflix, and even though that happened a little over a month ago, I hadn't had many opportunities to get on it...

...til today. Well, last night. I finally finished it, and I have to say, I was a little disappointed? I don't know what I was expecting, but considering how intense and awesome that show can be, it was a little lacklustre considering it's potential, in my humble opinion. It just turned into a bloodbath... I guess that's one way to achieve closure.

The big surprise came when my sister informed me (and sources confirmed) that Breaking Bad was originally intended to be shot in Riverside, California!!! They went with Albuquerque because producers on the show discovered that the State of New Mexico offered a huge financial incentives and rebates for filming there, something that California didn't do. So their cheap selves went there purely for tax purposes. Imagine where our city would be if that had happened! On the map, famous, and maybe would have even spotted Bryan Cranston downtown a time or two. Ohhh, the possibilities.

The Alphabet

I was subbing for some art classes and was getting bored. Why not join in? It made the day go by faster, plus I really do like art and working with my hands, so I was really enjoying it.

The student's assignment was to draw the alphabet with something that began with that letter, and I upped the ante by doing mine in French.

I didn't get to finish but was really into it, so I brought it home to finish it up. My French alphabet (and drawings) were...

A - Arbre de noël (Christmas tree)
B - Baguettes (Baguettes!)
C - Chaton (Kitten)
D - Damier (Checkerboard)
E - Electricité (Self-explanatory)
F - Fleur (Flower)
G - Gâteau (Cake)
H - Herbe (Grass)
I - Imperméable (Raincoat)
J - Jouet (Toy)
K - Kilomètre (Kilometer)
L - Légumes (Vegetables)
M - Musique (Duh)
N - Neige (Snow)
O - Oeuf (Egg)
P - Parapluie (Umbrella)
Q - Quiche (Exactly what you think)
R - Raclette (A cheese fondue contraption)
S - Serpent (Snake)
T - Tapis (Rug)
U - Usine (Factory)
V - Vin (Wine)
W - Wagon (Stack, pile)
X - Xylophone (Same in English)
Y - Yaourt (Yogurt)
Z - Zebré (Striped)

As Pam reminded me... my art, is the prettiest art, of all the art.

Birthday Surprises

This week has been spent recovering from Vegas and the birthday weekend, but I've still had some birthday surprises since! Like on Monday, I got a mystery FedEx package delivered to me, which included some inexplicable horse stickers decorating it around the side. That's how I knew it was going to be a real gem, and I was not disappointed!

My old coworkers at Columbia threw together the best, most random birthday box for me, a lot of which included people's random desk trinkets and old things in our storage closet that we had no idea what to do with... yep, that Feminist Ryan Gosling book, the Happy Birthday centerpiece, that small baby jacket... and now it's here with me, which I can certainly appreciate for the nostalgia. They also included the good ol' Office of Career Services chocolate bars, a load of Office of Admission pens, a Tom's Restaurant box (famous from Seinfeld), those printed flyers and signed cards, andmore horse stickers. I was dyyyying while opening it, I'm so surprised I didn't wake Vinny the Sleeping Kitty!

I don't think I've had a chance to mention it, but I now teach ESL to adults two evenings a week in Riverside, and my cast of characters includes a Spanish lawyer, a Nicaraguan girl about my age, and an older Iranian woman working on a masters in women's studies at UCR. They are awesome. But there I was teaching last night and at the end of the class the center director walks in with cake and they are all singing happy birthday to me! Apparently when she was entering all my employee info in, she noticed that it had just been my birthday and got everyone on board. It was so unexpected and sweet!

Yesterday was also Marisa's birthday, so after our yoga class we went to a pretty neat little spot in Redlands and got some frozen yogurt to celebrate ourselves. We have been getting surprisingly into yoga, we're both getting pretty good at the crow pose and never want to miss! Plus we have our yoga mats and fancy straps and getting yoga towels and stuff too. Nothing like a groupon to kickstart a new habit! Or maybe kickstarter would be better for that...

VEGAS BABY!

Another birthday, another successful Vegas trip to ring in my day and take in the SDSU games. On Thursday I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off getting breakfast with my mom, working, running errands and trying to squeeze in a pedicure before going home to pack and getting picked up around 5p. Pam and Doug got me right on time, we hit up Taco Bell for our usual heavy order of burritos to have on hand, and were on the long desert road of the 15 freeway past Zzyzzx Road to Vegas Baby! The view of the Strip never gets old!

We had perfect timing to go pick up Luke from the airport who was flying in from Northern California, and then went to our room. Priya had flown in earlier and already checked into our room. We were at the door knocking for awhile because she was asleep and really got a Vegas welcome! While we were out there, there was clearly a party going on next door, and at some point, the door opened, the music blasting and they pushed out a guy into the hallway and locked him out and he was... completely naked. He was Austrlian and very friendly and talking to us like nothing was wrong. I asked him if he was in the Thunder From Down Under show, and then his friends let him back in, just as Priya unlocked the door for us!

It was just past midnight and I had to take a screenshot of that beautiful March 14 date!

We got changed and geared up with some shots to head out to the strip to celebrate the start of my birthday!

As we left, there was an electric scooter parked outside. I tried to ride it but it required a key. Probably for the best.

Meep meep! Everyone aboard the birthday bus!

Just off our elevators as we entered into the casino there was a giant slot machine that Luke offered for me for my birthday. It didn't exactly work out the first few tries...

Long story short, I didn't exactly win anything... but the fun was priceless!

Ironically enough, my first trip to Vegas after not living in New York anymore, and we stay in... New York New York hotel all the same. We stopped into a store for some liquid ammo and I couldn't resist picking up two PBR's (whereas everyone else was getting Heinekens or something else a step up) and being nostalgic over NYC and representing it! This is me with my PBR's in front of New York New York hotel

And inside was even a Knicks player! Please don't ask me who... assuming it is someone "real"

Me and Priya waking up the next morning, mentally gearing up for morning shots!

Doug's parents had arrived the night before but not surprisingly did not join us out on the strip at 1 in the morning, so first thing in the morning stopped by and gave me a birthday present! It was so sweet!

We all got ready and then hit the strip yet again...

Doug and Luke taking a picture of what was supposed to be us...

Us 3 in front of the Brooklyn Bridge knockoff

We stopped in to Monte Carlo to meet some people and get lunch. Pam ran to the sports bar to place a bet on the SDSU game that we were about to go to, and the rest of us were waiting. Priya and I took a seat on the slot machine chairs, and then Priya noticed that the one next to me was titled "Four Chinese Beauties" we both thought it was so ridiculous and hilarious, that she insisted on playing it. This was Doug trying to help her out with it.

The Blue Man Group plays at Monte Carlo and we found this fun light wall on the entrance to their theatre. No one knew what to do to pose, which was why this picture was so funny. Doug was counting down to taking the picture and at one Priya just threw up her hands and Pam just shrugged her shoulders.

We picked up a bottle of champagne for later that night that was some fun Las Vegas theme bottle

We walked to the Thomas & Mack UNLV arena for the SDSU game against UNLV, which SDSU thankfully won.

We have a tradition of hitting a liquor store just outside the UNLV parking lot, and then walking to the Hard Rock Cafe for a drink or two before cabbing it back to the hotel.

Getting ready for night 2, my birthday night out! We even recruited more friends with us for this night, Doug's coworker and his girlfriend.

We usually have so much fun in the hotel room that it's hard to get us out! We made it up to a rooftop bar that was so fun, we pretty much shut the place down and didn't leave until 5 or 5:30. It was all such good dancing! Here was Priya with a super fun breakdancer, although not breakdancing right now...

Aaaand I may or may not have gotten up on the stage with a Birthday Girl Permission to dance! I would also like to point out that they played an inexplicable amount of birthday songs, and who would have thought that Trey Songz' Say Ahh was so appropriate? It came on and we all LOVED it! Some of the lyrics included:

Go girl, it's your birthday...
And we don't buy no drinks at the bar
We pop champagne cuz we got that dough
I'll make ya say ahh just like I'm your doctor
All I prescribe is cranberry and vodka

...and it was my birthday, and we didn't have to buy drinks at the bar (my dress kinda got all my drinks free), and we had popped champagne just before going there, and I was in the middle of drinking a cranberry vodka (Uncle Carl!) when that song came on!

Leaving at 5am gives you great ideas, like thinking a picture in front of trash cans is nice (but it's not)

The next day we were slow moving, but we got going. It was the finals game of SDSU against their arch rivals UNM, which is awful because they are the Raiders fans of college basketball. There may have been an altercation or two, but we made it through... even though it was a super close and tense game (and SDSU fans were sorely outnumbered) and we lost, but we had our faithful liquor store and Hard Rock afterwards to console us

We cabbed it to Bellagio after the game cause there was a special Tiffany's trip in it for me!

We stopped for dinner before going back to the hotel room to rally up for the night. Luke got a stromboli from Sbarro's but was still hungry. He said he wanted another. When he sat back down at the table he said he got something even better than a stromboli... TWO strombolis!!

Night three we were having SO MUCH FUN in the hotel room we really almost didn't leave. Music, drinks, pictures and tons and tons of jokes. We got a lot of great inside jokes from that night that will really live on for awhile. We were all dying of laughter and almost didn't want to leave... but we did eventually. We started out at the hotel bar, Priya and I dancing it up and getting quite a few drinks, and then I even made friends with some French guys FROM BORDEAUX, and they had needed me to translate a lot for them between us and them, and I thought I was doing fabulous, but waking up sober the next morning and reflecting on it... I have no clue if I really made any sense.

This is typical Priya, and one of the reasons I love her. She and I were playing craps with Doug and Daniel and up a few bucks, but then decided to sit out a round. I was asking Priya if she was reading to put down some bets again when instead she shouts out "LOBSTER MANIA!!" and runs off. Right behind us was a slot machine called Lobster Mania and of course we ended up playing and anyone who came by to talk to us, we made them do a lobster impression for us. Can you believe that they did it?

We had an adventure off the strip that night but oh boy was it an adventure! It was sad to be our last night, but we partied it up right nice.

And then of course, the painful hungover ride home. HOWEVER, we were revitalized after a stop at Taco Bell and Dairy Queen, and had yet again a sidesplitting good time in the car that actually makes me enjoy the car ride home and not want it to be over.

And now of course I've been recovering. It was a smaller group than last time, but oh man just as fun. It was such a fun combination of our group, and a good welcome into my next year. Countdown's on til Vegas next year...!