Browse Category: outta here

Christmas Roundup

With only 2 full days left of my vacation in Southern CA, it was pretty crazy trying to squeeze in some quality time with my loved ones.  It was fun but felt more like a buffet where I got a taste of everything but nothing was totally satisfying and made me want to have more of the real deal.  In other words, I’m already trying to figure out how and when I’ll be able to make another trip down to LA to hang out with the locals and make a trip to the east coast to visit the out-of-towners for some REAL quality time.

Here’s what went down…

**FRIDAY**

I felt ill that morning and had a really hard time getting up.  The body aches and chills were so bad that I ended up canceling Koa’s vet appointment that morning.  Dog totally lucked out.  For lunch, we had Jes’ favorite ramen at Mitsuwa in Costa Mesa.  Afterward, we headed over to the BMW dealership and purchased a little somethin’ for the ride back to SF.  More details about the car later.

In the afternoon, I met up with my old PTN Pals at the Starbucks next to our Irvine house.

For dinner, we had Chinese food with the old gang.  Aw…I love group photos.

After dinner, the Agustins met up with us for drinks and a truly unique Cerritos experience.

——————-

**SATURDAY**

I woke up feeling a little better and headed up to Beverly Hills to meet up with my UCLA girls for brunch at Campanile. Catching up is so much fun but makes me miss them even more when it’s over.

In the afternoon, I went to hang out with the parents and it’s always nice to be home. It’s just too bad that it only lasted a couple hours. I had to head back to BP to get the CR-V tidied up and deliver it to it’s final destination.

For dinner, I met up with my Whitney girls at Cafe Hiro.  It’s a cute Japanese/Italian place in the middle of suburbia.  We got to chat over tuna tataki and risotto.  I had so much fun, girls! I miss our monthly dinners!

The final stop for the night was my auntie and uncle’s house in Cerritos where Marie and the gang were waiting for me.  The boys are getting so big and I miss them so much.  Unfortunately, by the end of the night, I had lost my voice and went straight to bed.

On Sunday morning, we went to church, said our goodbyes to Jes’ parents, aunt, uncle, and family friends.  We swung by my parents’ house to pick up Koa and said our goodbyes to them too.  In what felt like a flash, we were back on the road for another 7-hour car ride.  Phew.

Here are photos of my entire Christmas season.  Enjoy!

7 hours later…

…we arrived in Southern California.  There were rumors of possible snow along the Grapevine so we decided to take it easy and drive down Hwy 101.  It’s such a beautiful drive but takes a tad longer than I-5.  Koa also came along and got to ride in the back seat and then in Jes’ lap in the front seat.  We stopped several times along the way for some shopping, pee breaks, and food.  The drive went smoothly with no traffic and just a little bit of rain here and there.  Now it’s time to go to bed.  I’ve got a whole line-up of appointments, meet-ups, lunches, and dinners for the weekend.  Let the holidays begin!!

Phoenix Photos

With all the craziness of getting paperwork graded and fina exam questions written, I neglected all of the photos I took in Phoenix.  I finally went through and uploaded a few.  For being the 5th largest city in the U.S., Phoenix certainly needs to grow just a little more for me to return.  My visit felt similar to my visit to Charlotte where downtown wasn’t much more than a few tall buildings and anything outside of that was residential or rural-looking.  Their Children’s Hospital is beautiful and brand-spankin’ new.  So was the Sheraton.  The 2-day workshop was helpful and it was a lot of fun catching up with Elaine and Arlene who also attended the course with me.

Here are the photos from my weekend in Phoenix, Arizona.

Friendliest Airport

I got to the airport really early this afternoon so I booted up the laptop and discovered that PHX offers free wireless internet!  Woohoo!  They call themselves the Friendliest Airport and this certainly has me agreeing with them.

I also must compliment Southwest Airlines’ new gates complete with workstations with plugs.  My macbook as a broken battery that doesn’t hold more than 5 minutes of charge so this is certainly a lifesaver.  I have a bunch of homework to grade and I’m hoping to get through them all before I board my plane in 2 hours.

Anyway, I learned some new things in my 2-day course this weekend but the best part was just hanging out and catching up with my old friend and co-worker Elaine.  Whenever I hang out with her I miss Irvine.

OK, back to grading papers!

First Friday

On Friday afternoon, I flew to Phoenix to meet up with some old friends and to take a 2-day workshop for work.  Once I checked in to my hotel (a brand-spankin’ new Sheraton), I got online and found out that there’s an art district nearby AND they’re all free from 6-10pm on the first friday of every month.  Yay!  So, I hopped on the bus nearby and went to the Phoenix Art Museum to check it out.

It was certainly a find.  They had a variety of exhibits from artifacts to photographs, to modern art sculptures and mobiles.  Afterwards, I had a little Tex-Mex across the street from the hotel and finally got to dig in to the book I started 2 weeks ago.  Phoenix isn’t exactly a wild and crazy town but had enough to entertain me for an evening on my own.

Surprise for Mommy

This past weekend I flew home to Cerritos to surprise my mom for her 60th birthday.  On Friday, Brother picked me up from the airport, took me out for dinner and drinks, and then surprised (and woke up) my mom at about 11:00 pm.

On Saturday, we went to the Cerritos Library to check out the ballroom on the top floor.  It’s the site of Brother and Joy’s wedding reception and I got to see the dinosaur in the Children’s section.

Afterwards we went to Costco to buy some really fancy disposable plates and utensils for the reception.  Later that evening we had dinner with Marie and the rest of the family.

Overall, it was a fun and relaxing weekend with the family.  I had a little cold so it was nice to be able to sleep in and not have to worry about walking the dog.