A day I will be celebrating my whole life

Today is a great day.  A very special little girl will be born today (any minute).  To add to that special-ness, it's Janet's (Steve's Mom) birthday too!  Samantha, I can't wait to meet you and love you forever!   I am very eager to celebrate both lives in the next week or so!

 

This week we got to see our engagement pictures and they are beautiful! 

Things have been coming together so nicely and it makes me feel very reassured about our big day.  We still have to plan our honeymoon and once that's done, there will be nothing more to stress about! 

I should have documented all the vendors I've hired and when just to see the timeline.  Just this week, I ordered my shoes, made an appointment to get my dress altered, hired a make-up artist, and hired another Etsy artist for something I can't disclose yet.  This wedding stuff just fascinates me.  It is such a money-making, detail-oriented, feeling-stirrer-uper event!  I tell myself I need to keep focused on Steve and myself....work on our relationship and making the best out of our time together.  All the wedding details are materials and it's US we are celebrating.  No fuss!

"Do you want me to tell you something really subversive?

Love really is all it's cracked up to be. 

 That's why people are so cynical about it.

It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for,

and the trouble is, if you don't risk everything,

you risk even more."

Erica Jong

 

 

 

I had a great drink while watching the sunset with my Mom in Newport beach. 

Caipirinha

Ingredients

• 2 limes, ends trimmed off and cut into medium-sized wedges
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons cachaça (adjust amount to taste)
• Ice cubes

Directions

Using a muddler, or the end of a wooden spoon, mash the limes with the sugar, making sure to squeeze all the juices from the lime and to dissolve the sugar in the juice.

Transfer the lime mixture to a shaker. Add the cachaça and ice cubes. Shake well (8-10 times) and pour into a large, but not tall, glass.

Cheers to new life, another year, a new beginning and many precious moments to come!

one of those days

Seven days, seven more days she'll be comin'

I'll be waiting at the station for her to arrive

Seven more days, all I gotta do is survive.

She been gone ever since I been a child

Ever since I seen her smile, I ain't forgotten her eyes.

She had a face that could outshine the sun in the skies.

There's kissing in the valley,

Thieving in the alley,

Fighting every inch of the way.

Trying to be tender

With somebody I remember

In a night that's always brighter'n the day.

Seven days, seven more days that are connected

Just like I expected, she'll be comin' on forth,

My beautiful comrade from the north.

I been good, I been good while I been waitin'

Maybe guilty of hesitatin', I just been holdin' on

Seven more days, all that'll be gone.

There's kissing in the valley,

Thieving in the alley,

Fighting every inch of the way.

Trying to be tender

With somebody I remember

In a night that's always brighter'n the day.

Seven days, seven more days she'll be comin'

I'll be waiting at the station for her to arrive

Seven more days, all I gotta do is survive.

"I am an excitable person 

who only understands life lyrically, musically,

 in whom feelings are much stronger as reason. 

I am so thirsty for the marvelous 

that only the marvelous has power over me."

— Anaïs Nin

If my heart could explode into a tiny billion pieces

and scatter themselves all over the world.

If I could live on sunlight and the city sounds,

and fall asleep in those thousands of lighted windows.

I wonder if this world would make sense to me,

if I will ever truly understand anything,

if there is anything to understand at all

"This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.”  -Dalai Lama

“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination, full of hope.”

~ Maya Angelou

 

"If you're listening, if you're awake to the poignant beauty of this world, 

your heart breaks regularly.  In fact, your heart is made to break;

its purpose is to burst open again and again

so that it can hold ever more wonders."

-Andrew Harvey

"What should I do about the wild and the tame?  

The wild heart that wants to be free,

and the tame heart that wants to come home.  

I want to be held. 

 I don't want you to come too close.  

I want you to scoop me up and 

bring me home at night. 

 I don't want to tell you where I am. 

 I want to keep a place among the rocks 

where no one can find me. 

 I want to be with you."

-Jeanette Winterson

Let us Celebrate the Irish in us all

Saint Patrick's day may be the same day every year but my, does it change!  It used to resemble such a fun day of drinking with friends.  Green beer, beads, tongues and shots!  Some of my fondest college memories are those that took place on St Patty's Day.  I wish I could be with all my friends right now, at the bar with healthy buzz and a green tongue.  Instead, I'm at work.   Today I had some huge, ghetto lady in my face do her head twistin' intimidation skit.  It worked.  She scared me.  I had to perform an exericse test under the most uncomfortable terms ever.  Some St. Patty's day....

I will remain optimistic though.  The day is not over, Steve and I are heading to good ole Bobber Down after work for some cold ones.  Brings a smile to my face just thinking about him, me and our St. Patty's day celebration.  It may be a little different than the CMU days but it will do for now.

Cheers to CMU on Saint Patty's day, circa 2002

Sweet emotions

I'm having a mixed emotions day!  Last night, a tsunami hit Japan and caused terrible damage and loss of life.  The storm made it's way over to Hawaii and California.  When I read the news that it was headed towards where my parents live, I was so scared.  I got in touch with my Mom right away to ensure she was safe and out of harms way.

On the other hand, I feel so grateful for all the people I have been blessed with.  I'm not sure if I'm feeling this way because of the fear or the knowledge of this tragedy, whatever it may be because of, I am aware.
I know that I am extremely blessed for so many things.  I do my best to never take advantage of my family, friendships, privelages, health, job, freedom.  I've learned a lot over the past couple of years.  Maybe sometimes we learn from the devastation of others, maybe that's why tragedies exist...so that we can learn from them and appreciate what's left when they are gone.

"So this is my life.
 And I want you to know that I'm both happy and sad 

and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be."

-Stephen Chbosky

your black and white needs a little bit of red

"Be a best friend, tell the truth, and overuse I love you

Go to work, do your best, don't outsmart your common sense

Never let your prayin' knees get lazy

And love like crazy"

"When I looked at you my life made sense.  Even the bad things made sense.  They were necessary to make you possible."

-Jonathan Safran Foer

You know who wears sunglasses inside? Blind people and assholes.

-the Great Larry David

"There’s three ways to do things, the right way, the wrong way and the way that i do it

-Casino, 1995

Scorcese, you are genius.

"There are four questions of value in life… what is sacred? of what is the spirit made? what is worth living for, and what is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same. Only love.

-johnny depp 

"It's not just other people we need to forgive.
We also need to forgive ourselves.
For all the things we didn't do.
All the things we should have done."

-Mitch Albom

Going to California with an achin' in my heart

We came...

We saw...

We Conquered

California was amazing per usual.  Thanks to my wonderful parents, we had a ball!  We had great food (In & Out Burger), saw some gorgeous sunsets (even in San Diego), boozed it up with great Friends.  I am so blessed to have parents that I consider some of the coolest people I know.  They are such a joy to be around even when they bicker at eachother.  Wouldn't trade em for the world.  Thanks for the good times in California, Mom & Dad.

Home is wherever I'm with you

I'd like to pass on a few things that have been passed onto me.  I hope they brighten your day the way they brightened mine!

A father and his little girl singing "Home", original song by Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros.  Melt my heart!

Do you ever hear something so beautiful it brings tears to your eyes?

This site is super sweet:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/

If I had a time machine this is where I'd go:

http://pass-forward.blogspot.com/2010/04/8-harsh-truths-that-will-improve-your.html?spref=bl