Happy Brexit Day (?)

Well, I certainly didn't plan this, but somehow I ended up in Brussels, Belgium, the capital of the European Union, during the official Brexit.

I was in a taxi on my way to my hotel from the airport yesterday evening, and my God the traffic was horrific, just straight up stopped. I did some Googling and apparently Brussels is notoriously bad with traffic, but my taxi driver told me it's all this Brexit stuff that was really making everything worse. I did see some buildings in the Union Jack colors and had a lot going on. That being said, the traffic was SO BAD I actually got out and walked some ways to my hotel.

I spotted this on the drive in. Can you recognize
my birthday in European format??

The usual problems ensued: hungry, but no energy to leave. Falling asleep at an okay time and waking up at 3am, unable to fall asleep again. Up early, battling breakfast at the hotel, and mentally crashing in the middle of the visit. That being said, it went really well and I really loved the staff and students at that campus.

On the walk to the metro (I barely had like a block to go) I was approached by a man who wanted me to join in their protest of solidarity with the 3 whistleblowers. Apparently they were going from capital to capital with this statue and asking people to take a picture standing on the 4th chair. I never told him I was from the US, but I LOL'd that I had barely been in Brussels for like 12 hours, it was my first time outside seeing the light of day here and already getting roped into things like this, but whatevs!

Because my school appointment was in the Ixelles neighborhood, I made sure to walk by a certain landmark I have been dreaming of seeing since I was around 12...

Audrey Hepburn's birthplace! This is all it is (the plaque), but while I was there the postman went by and delivered mail and I wondered what it must be like to live in the very same place where Audrey Hepburn was born.

I walked back through the inner Grand Place back to my hotel - it was quite bustling and cute!

Brussels is such an interested mix of cultures!
Some neighborhoods look lifted right out of
France, and others look straight Dutch

Have I ever mentioned how much I love clocks?

I have no Instagram accounts left for my devices
but if I did, I might create a clock account
and this might be the first post...

Mmmm Belgian chocolate (even that mailbox!)

I went straight back to the hotel and crashed, and it's now almost 11pm, where I am just chilling in my hotel and watching the BBC with the Brexit countdown. Apparently all of Brussels' Brexit work was done yesterday, and Brussels isn't looking to celebrate Brexit, all the crazy parties are in London.

Funny story, I absolutely remember that initial Brexit vote years ago. AJ and I were dating, and I was over at his place and it was showing on the TV in his room and I gasped and was like say whaaaa? And now here we are, 4 years later and it's officially happening, and AJ and I are over a year married. What a difference a Brexit makes!

K is also for Kobe

Man, came in to talk about my weekend and Kobe, and saw my last post was K for Koalas (and kangaroos!) and now Kobe.

AJ and I had our yearly trip up to Big Bear yesterday to take Nannerz up to the snow. We were still driving on the mountain when Kathleen texted me that Kobe Bryant died, which I thought was a weird joke to make. She said something about a helicopter and I was like nah, this is a weird hoax. Of course I started looking it up, and the texts were pouring in from all over, but I was getting so sick on the winding mountain roads I couldn't look at my phone anymore, so AJ and I had to just not know what the heck happened for another hour or so.

It's just so devastating. Growing up in the LA area, of course Lakers were everything, and of course Kobe was every guy's idol, and even I would shout "Kobe!" in high school when throwing trash into the trash cans across the room.

I'm not a huge basketball fan, but I always considered Lakers to be the team that I was for, and I will never forget the magic of their threepeat season. Those were the years just after Mat had his accident, and we would all hang out at his mom's house every evening of the Lakers games to watch the dream team with their amazing shots and buzzer beaters. Ryan and Rachel were die-hard Lakers so it was so easy to pick up on the energy and excitement from them.

And even now, Kobe lived in Newport Coast and did have some connections with UCI, and was seen at their gym facilities playing basketball. And to think his daughter was in the helicopter too, AND the OCC baseball coach and his wife and daughter. It's just so damn tragic and unbelievable. I STILL feel like it's a mistake, like someone got it wrong.

So, while we still had a nice time with Nannerz in the snow, I couldn't stop thinking about Kobe...

I also had a really fun Friday and Saturday too... I went up to LA on Friday cause Jessica got us concert tickets. We pregamed at her place in Silver Lake, then went downtown. The concert was Michael Kiwanuka and was at the Ace Hotel. We ate a pretty sweet restaurant nearby (I was on celebrity watch the whole time LOL) and then walked to the concert. Man the Ace Hotel theatre is beautiful! It's practically a medieval cathedral! We had great seats and he was fabulous live! After that we went to Seven Grand where I, for the first time in my life, lost my credit card LOL. I noticed it when we got back to Jessica's place, which, by the way, the Uber ride was amazing, he had his iPod on shuffle and Prince Ali from Aladdin definitely came on haha!

In the morning, we walked around the Silver Lake neighborhood to get coffee and then breakfast tacos. It was a nice, warm walk and her neighborhood is pretty cool! You get a great view of the Hollywood sign and Observatory from around the place. After eating, we went back to her place and she introduced me to my new favorite obsession: the TV show Flirty Dancing. It is everything!!!

I wanted to stay and watch forever but I had to get home in time to make it to our friends dinner at a dope Korean restaurant, where I learned one friend is pregnant with baby #2 and another is getting ready to take the plunge to do IVF! AJ and I continue to be the only childless couple nearby womp womp!

Anyways, the best part of Silver Lake was walking back, we passed by the Vista theatre, and I was enjoying checking out some handprints when I saw the one that took the cake: the cast of SHOWGIRLS!!!!

This really completed this LA trip for me.

And I'm off for my next work trip on Wednesday. It starts...!

K is for Koala

And also, K is for Kate Middleton screwed me! I'm convinced my lunchtime walk in the chill is what caused me to, that night, come down a severely intense flu that had me bedridden for the past 72 hours. I probably shouldn't even be at work right as it is! It felt nice to get out of bed andbe normal again, but now I am crashing hard and so tired and so ready to just go to sleep.

On a better note (I think?) I adopted a koala through World Wildlife Fund. It was just the best way I could think to help with the Australia fires.

You pay $55 and can adopt a koala to help with its rescue and recovery. They also do monthly adoptions things too so I may look into that later...!

Happy Kate Middleton Day

It's January 9, 2020 - Kate Middleton Day! I don't know why I still do this, but it's in my phone calendar so it's just a tradition at this point. And it gives me an excuse to use my royal wedding commemorative mug, finally drink some of my huge tea collection, and wear my Kate Middleton replica ring (which by the way was my something blue at my wedding!).

I used to do this with Palak but she's a new mom so wouldn't be surprised if it's completely slipped her mind.

And speaking of Kate Middleton... the heat in the pressure cooker of the English monarchy still is heating up, eh? Man, I live for it.

Day 2

I'm working from home today and I spent the morning cleaning up all the holiday decorations, including all the pine clippings which have made the home smell so good for so long!

Some years I can do it just fine, with no emotion, but this year I was really sad cleaning it up - our house felt so cozy and beautiful in the holiday décor. I think we need to start instituting some form of January holidays, whatever they might be, to help take the sting out of leaving the December holidays behind.

I do have a trip at the end of this month to look forward to though... just gotta get through these depressing post-holiday January days!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year friends! We welcomed in 2020 hosting friends in our own home. It was a good time! We had games and boomerangs and balloons.

Khaleesi enjoying the sunshine during the
day while we cleaned up

Our first guest to arrive was Jon, I asked him
to model the Raleigh glass so I could take
a picture and send to Jayna

AJ's best friend is very physical with his love
for AJ LOL

Notice Nannerz coming to AJ's rescue?

 

I don't remember what the situation was here

Mine and Jon's "Milking It" inside joke goes back to 2016!

Snerpchert

Clearly at the end of the night!

Of course, the tradeoff for not having to go anywhere is that you're left cleaning up the destruction the next day, so that was mostly what I did today, but I had plenty of time to also have a latte and journal and relax with the fur babies while AJ was out golfing.

Do we go back to reality now?

Hope you all have a merry and sparkling new year!