33

I had an amazing birthday yesterday! And 33 is very special to me. Not only do I like numerical alliterations, but Bordeaux, France is sort of known by it's postcode 33, so it's a special number for the city, so I've always liked it.

Anyways, inbetween all the work trips, I've been very happy to be home and even more happy to get to celebrate my birthday with my husband! I had the best day, thanks to him.

On my idea, we both took the day off work to go to Disneyland together. We had morning shots and I cashed in on my Starbucks free birthday reward. Then we did Disneyland! I insisted on getting my birthday button so I got lots of attention (yay!) and a few front-row seats on rides too. We took care of a lot of rides we haven't done in forever (Peter Pan) and then one we had never done (Enchanted Tiki Room!) It was weird doing something I'd never done at Disneyland before, it's quite rare, but was fun.

AJ surprised me with this birthday donut!
Vomit @ the strawberries though

My mom and Jim were able to meet up with us and join in, including dinner at Cafe Orleans and my own birthday beignet! (SER. GERD.)

My mother-in-law gifted me a Disney gift card to go along with our trip to Disneyland, which went toward my Minnie ears (if you knew the agony of trying to choose the ears... zomg so bad. AJ would not have put up with that shit if it weren't my bday hahaha and I still just landed on the rose gold ones #basic) and by the end of the night I was insistent on (finally!) buying a Heihei! I am obsessed with this rooster from Moana, he makes everything amazing, so I got that courtesy of my Disney dollars too!

I also got a penny-pressed Moana, and AJ and I ended the night with Gibson girl ice cream (drool). I was hopped up on sugar, it was a rough morning having to get up and come into work today. At least it's Friday! And we're going to go celebrate my bday down in San Diego, the usual Plan B if Vegas doesn't pan out.

I still have so much to share from Myanmar, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Vietnam. One of these days...

With a Nighttime View of Hanoi, Vietnam

Part of me feels almost insensitive saying this, but knowing that life is nothing but riding the waves of ups and downs, and knowing that I have hard times yet to come... this season of my life is as close to perfect as I feel I can expect.

I love AJ. We had the most amazing wedding that I still can't get over, and I'm still taking in the fact that I'm married, and how happy I am to have found him and how wonderful he is.

I love where we're currently living and our little home with our little pets.

I can't believe my luck in my job. I can't believe that I get paid to travel the world and share education and meet the youth around the globe and see all these beautiful cultures and the people we share this world with. I can't even believe I'm writing this from Vietnam.

Of course, one of the best things about traveling, is going home. And I can't wait to get home this Sunday.

From A Hotel Room in Southeast Asia

Well good afternoon there... it's 4:45a here and 2:15p back home. Reporting for duty from Mandalay, Myanmar, it's moi.

I just want to say that, despite the rough start this trip got off to (which I'll have to relay later because it really needs the visuals!) I am really loving Myanmar. As my second venture to southeast Asia (the first being India) I am enjoying Myanmar more. The people are kind, it's not too overwhelming, people are helpful, and they also take 'no' for an answer lololol.

The trek out here was long, but it didn't feel as rough as India, maybe just because I had done it before. My layover in Shanghai was pretty miserable though. I couldn't keep my eyes open, the airport wasn't that big or impressive, and I was freezing.

Despite the 24 hour journey, you would think that I could understand how far I was, but it didn't really sink in until I checked into the hotel and it smelled just like India. And I remember how distinct that smell was and how foreign it was and how far I felt. Smelling the hotel was like oh yeah - I'm really far away from home!

Anyways, couldn't sleep but need to start getting ready for the airport anyway, flying to Yangon today!

Happy Valentine's Day

My first Valentine's Day as a wife... and I don't even care! Ha. AJ and I have never been really into Valentine's Day. I've just never really been into the mushy stuff, and with AJ's birthday the day after, I think we like to focus on just celebrating him instead.

That being said, this is my favorite Valentine's Day meme that makes me laugh every year...

And I'm still looking forward to today because after work we're going to go get pedicures and then make s'mores! Mmmmm no counting calories today for me!

Rainy Weekend

I don't like being out in the rain, but I actually have been enjoying all the rain this winter. I love seeing the hills in the distance get green and grassy.

On Saturday the rain cleared up long enough to really enjoy the baby shower for my old neighbor/friend Jackie. She was the big preggers belly at my wedding! Their little man is due early April but probably coming late March.

I thought Baxter was being cute and guarding her and his
upcoming baby brother, but when Jackie relocated to the shade
he didn't follow and just stayed in the sun haha! What a jerk

During the shower, the guys were supposed to golf but when the rain hit in the morning they changed it to bowling and showed up after the shower clearly having had a good time... I was thankful AJ was sober because I had gone to town on the mimosas and wasn't able to drive. We went to Target before we went home (aww yeah!) and then AJ had people over for poker.

On rainy Sunday, I had dozens of coffees, watched movies, read, and straight up attacked the new puzzle that AJ and I bought at Target. I love puzzles. I'm already ready to go home and start working on it again...

Waitangi Day

On Sunday we hosted the Super Bowl. We thought it would be a good time for people to come see our new space. We're not fully moved in, but we're closer than we've ever been and pretty much no one had been over to see it yet. It was fun, but man did that game suck and man do I not like Tom Brady and man do I hate the Patriots! (RIP Rams!)

I was blowing up our little mini-football field
snack ice chest thing. If you've watched Black
Mirror's Bandersnatch episode, this might mean
something to you...

Nanners going for the Rams! Debbie and AJ
went in on season tickets as an investment
this year and got a lot of swag from that. They
were insanely sad the Rams didn't win

My favorite commercial was the Stella Artois one with SJP and The Dude. I had actually JUST watched The Big Lebowski for the first time on my flight to Europe last month, so perfect timing to get the reference! Zoe Kravitz's commercial for Michelob Pure Gold was also pretty mesmerizing. And that's about all I remember from Snoozer Bowl Sunday 2019.

Yesterday I had to drive up to Los Angeles to go to the Myanmar consulate for a visa for my next trip. Sad fact: it's in the same building as the Philippines consulate general, and that one had signage all over and people visiting it. The Myanmar consulate... not so much. I walked up to a completely empty room, with the one guy at the window just on his phone. Haha. But hey, I got help quick, got in and out of there in 20 minutes (even accounting having to leave for a money order!) and he was soooo nice and friendly.

The ride to LA, while it took way longer than it should have, was actually beautifully breathtaking. After all the rainy storms, it was sunny out. Not clear skies though; around the bright blue there were animated clouds framing the sky, and the mountains were crisp and more snowy than I had seen in years; as a matter of fact, I was seeing different mountains and dimensions all around than I had ever noticed before because the sky was clear and they had had the heavy dusting of snow even down pretty low. And, out my windshield in the middle of it all was the downtown Los Angeles skyline and the Hollywood sign, clearer and closer than I had ever seen it! I have a love/hate relationship with LA, and even though it's far from my favorite city, I like the buzz of energy from metropolises.

Not Los Angeles, but Riverside
on this same morning

And, I learned on Tuesday that yesterday, February 6, is Waitangi Day, New Zealand's national day. So that was fun and I felt like I got a good proper celebration in!

Happy February

I spent time trying to make the anime versions of me and AJ today. Here's what I came up.

There's two versions of myself because I couldn't decide which better matched my hair and also if I should look more like a bride or like myself.

Also, there were all feminine so it was really hard to try to create an AJ from that. This was the best I could do, I know it doesn't really look like him lololol.

Go Rams on Sunday!