Festival of Lights

The best part of Riverside is now the downtown area, which is a bonanza fest for the Festival of Lights lighting ceremony of the Mission Inn for the holidays, always the Friday after Thanksgiving, and I got to be around for it this year. Of course we missed the entire firework show and whatever else, but a firework's a firework, and I just like being downtown in the crowds and hanging out and having a good time.

Kathleen and I went together, running into our old neighbor, going around and taking in the lights and surroundings and smells and we were both strong enough to resist funnel cakes and fried donuts!

 We spent a lot of time going through the four-story antique shop on Main Street, where we found tons of crazy things, and I got attached to this old poster advertising a fair in Bordeaux at the Musee d'Aquitaine, where I would go often when I lived there.

We met up with Kathleen's friends at The Hideaway Bar and proceeded to have a pretty darn fun night! Beers, syringe jello shots (is that a theme for me this holiday season?), pool (Kathleen and I won best 2 out of 3!) and even relocated to Pixels where we got to dance to Die Antwoord and make a lottttt of friends.

Pixels seems to be my shelter home. I mean, it's not the best or anything, but no matter what happens or what the plans are, I always seem to end up there at some point in the night, like a little lost kitten straggling back, whenever I'm downtown. I'm not really complaining though, it's fun enough and the music is Coachella-diggity. I'm even going back downtown tonight... will I end up at Pixels again? Well statistically speaking... yes.

Thanksgiving 2013

This Thanksgiving, Heather and her roommates hosted the dinner for us all, so we were over there. The plan was to be there at 9 for mimosas and to help prepare food, but I had gone out to Lake Alice with friends the night before in downtown Riverside (and omg, had my high school reunion unexpectedly, no need to go to that when it's finally organized, that was trippy) so when I didn't get up on Thanksgiving til 9:30, that plan was scrapped a little. Shannon and I got ready and were there by around 11ish, we all walked the dogs with Heather's roommate Tracy, started in on mimosas and then played a tonnnnnn of card games!

There was a nice meal, then a sister nap on Heather's bed, then more and more card games, my mom came over with pie, then coffee, magic tricks, and a perpetual stream of us all trying to scare each other as we went to the bathroom or ever left the room.

Kathleen tried to repeat my magic trick today, but alas... she failed.

And now it's the holidays. That is truly crazy to me.

Friendsgiving Round 2

What a great Monday night I had, down at Pam and Priya's condo in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter, where 22 of us were squeezed in for a Friendsgiving meal altogether! It ranged from Doug's parents Jack and Debbie, all the way down to Colleen's five-month old newborn Kylie. We had everything you could want at Thanksgiving, including Priya's yellow curry soup, and Jell-O shots that Jack made! It was so fun, and so nice to have so many of our friends together under one roof.

Debbie hand-made these for each individual person!

My second attempt at my blueberry maple pie, which came out much better this time!

Proud Jack and his Jell-O shots

As much of the group as we could fit in. 

I crashed with Rafael and Rob that night over in North Park, and Rob and I continued our morning tradition of coffee and talk at his breakfast table while Rafael was out early. I left to go have lunch with a friend, and made it to Coronado Island- so beautiful! If San Diego is heaven on Earth, then Coronado is nirvana.

Sand castles on Coronado Beach

On the way back home I stopped off at my friends' tanning salon in Temecula and got to see them for the first time in years, and congratulate them on their month-old newborn. The things that change while you are away...!

It was so nice to be around close enough to get to the San Diego Friendsgiving this year, but I still also super miss last year's Friendsgiving adventures to Annapolis, Maryland and making dinner at Palak's and exploring DC and Baltimore with her, Sri and Amy. Awww, memories! Off to hike that annoying C behind UCR!

It Feels Like A Perfect Night

Yesterday I got to spend the day chauffeuring Kathleen around for her big 22nd birthday. I didn't mind though, since I'm still excited to take Richard Richard, my new car baby, out for a spin at any opportunity. We slept in and were up with enough time to go by Starbucks for a birthday coffee round and then meet my mom for lunch at a sushi restaurant. We did a lot of snapchatting around the table.

After that we came back and watched Friends and had some hula hooping session, then getting ready to hit up a family tradition at Medieval Times for her birthday, and wouldn't you know it, our knight finally won.

A few Long Island iced teas and amaretto sours later, we were back home and then I joined Kathleen and her friends out in downtown Riverside for some birthday drinks. The original plan was to go to the Menagerie on University, which I was all for, only because Kathleen introduced me to the idea of calling it the Nicki Minajerie, and I just wanted to be able to do that, but we ended up at Pixel's with the Coachella DJ's (who refused to play Taylor Swift's "22" in her honor), and then good ol' faithful Worthington's on University & Orange for more drinks, pool, and dancing until we closed the place down.

Aaaaaand, see you next year, girl. Just a little over a week til Shannon's bday now!

What An Eventful Week!

First things first: on Sunday, November 17, I attended a Friendsgiving in Beverly Hills and signed myself to bring a pie - because I've always wanted to learn to make them and was too lazy or intimidated until now, so I made sure I would be forced into it. I bought a pre-made pie crust too, just in case, and started working on the dessert very early in the morning so I would know if I would need to stop by the store to buy an entire pie or not, depending on the outcome of this one. I went with a blueberry maple recipe (I didn't need the pressure of the pumpkin pie, and I like blueberries) and it turned out alright! Not bad for a first attempt.

Halfway through, the crust in order

My lattice-topped blueberry maple pie!

The next night, Monday, November 18, Shannon flew in, newly engaged, from England! I had an appointment that afternoon and my mom waited for me and picked me up to drive to LAX together. She sent me this picture of my cat while she was waiting at the house for me to get home.

Khaleesi del Creepy Laser Cat

Shannon's flight was on time, we celebrated with some chicken and waffles at Roscoe's in Inglewood, and headed home.

My LAX adventures always surprise me

The next day was another big day! After the priceless help from my best friend Alice and her husband Andrei, I had negotiated my way to buying my very own car. It's not my first car (hint Saturn hint) but the first car I'd ever bought myself, so my mom drove me down to Capistrano to sign for it and pick it up from the dealership (Shannon came too). Talk about intimidating. It was also very surreal, but I am now the title holder of a 2010 silver Mazda 3i Sport!

Waiting to get into the paperwork. On a scale of 1-10, this picture puts Shannon's jet-lag at roughly 11

X MARKS THE SPOT!

Officially a proud owner

Me and my salesman. There was a long story here. Suffice it to say he will probably be a source of stories for a few years coming

Me behind the wheel with my first passenger... Shanni!

There I go... vroom vroom!

The day after that (yesterday) and today, I had a 7:00am call time for a sub job at a middle school up in the Orangecrest neighborhood, so I was getting up at 5:30am (delighted to not have to tie my hair up and put multiple layers on to survive a morning drive in the open-air Jeep - and I could even hear the radio!) so that is why I still haven't had a chance to take any decent pictures of the car, but I've also been preoccupied with my days. The last I had heard, my former 6th grade teacher now taught at this middle school. He was, and remains to this day, one of the biggest sources of inspiration in my life, that I can hardly stand to express it. I was checking in with the office yesterday, nervous, wondering if he was around, when I heard his voice. I turned, he was across the room, and he saw me and his jaw dropped. I honestly don't know the last time I had seen him, maybe in high school, and our reunion hug was actually so emotional that the office workers all got quiet and stepped away, and the principal's secretary just let him show me to the classroom I would be in and fill me in on procedures. He told me that he had just been thinking about me - he carries around (the original!) copy of a story that I wrote in 6th grade, and reads it to his classes every year (I had no idea) and he had just read it to his class this week. We made plans to eat lunch together and I would spend my conference periods in his classroom as well. Now, the kids at this school were great anyway, and the teacher next door told me the usual teacher had a great hold on her classes and they were well-behaved, but these past two days, these kids were above and beyond any expectations I could ever hold for middle schoolers, and I'm thinking it had something to do with my 6th grade teacher. He has always been very well-respected wherever he went, and was even featured in the Inland Empire magazine as a teacher who made a difference, and the word got out very quickly that I was both his former student, and the author of the essay he reads each year. I have the feeling that the respect they had for him translated over onto me a little bit. When I was in his class during my conference period, I introduced myself and did a little question-and-answer with them. I felt like a celebrity. All from a dumb story I wrote when I was eleven. Watching him teach though, was eerie. First of all, he's hardly aged, and all his mannerisms were exactly the same. I honestly felt like I had time-traveled back to 6th grade. I think part of it is just that I haven't lived here in so long either, so much of my life growing up feels like a distant previous life, but being at that school yesterday and today was nothing short of joyful, and making me wonder if I shouldn't go back for my teaching credential.

And as if that weren't enough... tomorrow is Kittens' golden birthday! Twenty-two on the twenty-second. I don't know about you, but I bet she's feeling 22...

Hobby of the Month!

As I tend to develop hobbies like flu symptoms (numerous and often), I'd like to announce that the latest one is now hula hooping. Kathleen has a few in the house and out of nowhere we pulled them out and started going for it in the living room. Kathleen has had a lot more practice, but is showing me Figure 8's and how to get it up to your neck. I did my first Figure 8 today, but getting it to come up to my chest and neck are harder. Still, it's super fun and active and my latest obsession. That usually means I'll do it for a solid 10 minutes at a time, like 5 times a day. It will be a fun trick to pull out at parties, just like my ability to solve a Rubik's cube.

I had an interview for a job in LA on Monday. I should hear back within a week or so. WHAT WILL IT MEAN?! I don't even know. I am liking substitute teaching so much, it's hard to think about not doing it anymore! Wah wah wah. But, it felt nice to imagine a regular routine again, and I really liked the office and the staff. I am just hoping that the right doors open and close, because sometimes I think I am not good at making my own decisions, and Lord knows I've had a lot of practice.

And today was some sort of Throwback-Thursday, talking to both Jayna and Joe on the same day, it was a New York Embassy reunion! Now where's Jenny...?

Ten Days of November

These past ten days of November I have...

...attempted to hike the Box Springs mountain up to the "C" with my Mt. Rubidoux hiking partner, but we never could find it. We did about half a hike (still like 2 hours!) and came across some rebellious UCR-college student graffiti in it's natural habitat...

...and still had a pretty nice view from even halfway up

...started an Instagram for my conehead kitty, which you can follow at khaleesi_the_kitty

...and did a Color VIBE in Riverside. As Marisa and I leisurely strolled through a color-throwing station (I think it was the blue one), some of the workers yelled to us "Come on girls, it's a color RUN!" but we had noticed earlier that it WASN'T a Color Run but instead marketed as a "Color Vibe" so we said back in unison, "it's not a color RUN, it's a color VIBE" to which I added, "and I am vibing along." They responded by throwing handfuls of colored chalk at us.

I also went down to San Diego for a concert with my friends at the House of Blues (Coachella star Janelle Monae!) but she ended up postponing the San Diego, Anaheim, and Phoenix shows, so we were out the concert. We did go into North Park for dinner and drinks, I spent the night and got to sleep in, eat homemade pancakes and play with Rob's dog Diego until it was time to go. I got to have lunch with Priya around Del Mar and remembered how San Diego is basically heaven on Earth.

Tomorrow it's Veteran's Day but I don't even have the day off. Womp womp.

The Unicorn and the Conehead

My Halloween this year was characterized by eggs, middle schoolers, and my cat. I want Khaleesi to be able to go outside, for both her own sanity as well as mine so I can get rid of the litter box, and I was able to get her an appointment to get fixed yesterday, so I had to trap her, throw her in a carrier and drive her on the freeway in an open-aired Jeep to Norco. I felt so, so sad for her, and stayed with her while the clinic weighed her and did a few other preliminary things with her. I hate this part of owning a pet! I feel awful taking them in for surgery, they're so stressed and scared and confused, not to mention all the post-op issues. The receptionist was dressed up as a cat thought, so I felt Khaleesi must be in good paws.

I was working at a middle school science class and wore Kathleen's unicorn accessories, a unicorn ears & horn headband, gloves and tail, complete with a unicorn necklace and gold sparkly nail polish. The kids loved it, and I was surprised that none of them also had my costume. The best one I saw at the school though was a little Ron Burgundy, he looked perfect with the suit and mustache and hair.

The science classes were doing "Gravity Day", they had projects they had made beforehand and today was the day they received the egg to put in the project and we would go out to the front of the school to have them hoisted off the roof to see if their egg withstood the drop. So, I basically spent the entire day out in the sun, constantly wrangling uncracked eggs from the successful projects and monitoring all the egg handling when putting into projects and confiscating eggs from all those little minions who tried to sneak them back into the school to throw at people. It was pretty amazing to see them act like they had never seen eggs before. If you put anything unusual into their natural habitat, they freak out. It really is more like a zoo.

After work I had to go back to the clinic to pick up Khaleesi, only to find out that there had been complications with her surgery and there was reason to believe there could be internal bleeding later, so they faxed her information over to a vet in case I needed to go in the middle of the night, which was incredibly disheartening. So I ended up staying in last night, in my old Spartan costume to pass out candy to the trick-or-treaters (cute!) and be with Khaleesi, the poor coned-out kitty.

We had a few scares, I did think I was going to need to take her into the vet, and she is still pretty lethargic, but overall her appetite seems to be back and she appears to be doing much better, but also, still a conehead.