Weekend Update

Thankfully, I'm feeling better after being in Atlanta. This weekend was interesting to say the least. Friday, a friend of mine who I used to teach with in Atlanta flew in from NYC with her friend. It was great seeing her again! We went to a nice jazz club up in Seal Beach and then down to Main Street in Huntington Beach. I don't drink anymore, so going to clubs and bars are not my thing (so I don't know many key "California" places to hang out). Nonetheless, it was fun to hang out with her!

Saturday, I recovered from the night before (we didn't get in until 3am) and then decided to go to Laguna Beach for lunch. We ate at a great little spot right on the beach. I love that I'm so close to everything here in SoCal. I definitely need to take better advantage of what I have access to these days! After lunch, I came home and took a nap then met Robert for a date to the movies. We went to see "Lakeview Terrace." A good movie, suspenseful ending, but probably nothing I'd buy for my DVD collection. I think my favorite thing about going to the movies is being able to sit close to Robert anyway, so that was definitely accomplished! :) We headed to a frozen yogurt stand afterwards that was giving away free yogurt (can't beat that!) and then went back home.

Sunday, Robert and I went to church. We're in the middle of our "40 Days of Love" series. Robert had to leave soon after church to go take his son to his baseball game. Normally I would have gone to watch, but we were going to meet up later that afternoon to go to a hockey game at the Honda Center. I wanted to catch up on my laundry. The Anaheim Mighty Ducks were playing the Vancouver Canucks, and after three fights on the ice, tied score at the end of the game and still tied in overtime, the Ducks lost to the Canucks in a shoot-out. Very entertaining night!

We got home just in time for me to catch the series premiere of Desperate Housewives. Should be interesting this year! I gotta give props to Eva Longoria for being willing to gain weight for her role. I wouldn't do it!

I woke up last night to the sound of thunder. That rarely EVER happens out here... thunder. It was definitely an odd sound to hear. It's our first rain of the Fall and has been cloudy all day (after a beastly weekend). I just pray the fires don't come again this year, so hopefully this helped "wet" things down a bit.

That's the update on me for this past weekend!

Can you please pass the Kleenex?

Well, I haven't gotten better yet since being sick in Atlanta. For a moment I thought I was getting better, but I guess not because I had to run to Wal-Mart tonight to get medicine. Ugh. I hate being sick. It's been a good minute since I've been sick. I'm now thinking the reason I was able to ward off so much sickness this past year is because I had been taking Xango, a dietary supplement juice made out of some exotic berry found only in Southeast Asia. I stopped taking it during my cleanse, so I've been off of it for two months now. I honestly believe now more than ever that it aided in keeping from getting sick, because look at me now. :(

I slept in today, cooked some eggs and toast, but fell back asleep on the couch. Now here it is almost 7:3pm and I don't feel like I accomplished much today. It was nice to have Robert over at the house. He's such a sweetheart and did all my laundry for me while I slept. He was busy watching football... the Georgia game (I've turned him into a Georgia lover!) and now the USC game against Ohio. I could care less about football today. Just that kind of day I guess. The air out here as gotten cooler, and I love it. It's crisp enough to still be able to sleep with the windows open but need a comforter to keep you warm. Reminds me of sleeping out under the stars in Yosemite. Got my hair cut yesterday. I started doing my own self-home job on Thursday night, and uh, yeah... didn't go so well. I used to be able to do it when it was longer, but now that I've started wearing it slightly shorter, I'm not able to cut it, I guess. Thankfully, I stopped only 5 minutes into my butchering, so it wasn't too bad. However, I did have to make stop to my hairdresser yesterday for her to do a real hair cut. Dang. There goes another $60. But it's cute. I got it cut right at my shoulders. I'm sure I'll take a picture sometime soon so ya'll can see it. Mom called me yesterday to tell me about the gas increase and informed to go directly to the gas station and get gas. I paid $3.71 out here in Orange County, but that's fairly normal for the moment. It hadn't gone up today yet, so not sure if we're going to feel any of the effects of the Hurricane in that regard. I can't believe Atlanta is paying more for gas than we are! That's unheard of!

The rest of the night looks like it's going to be me and my couch with a box of Kleenex. I'm quite the date tonight.

Common Sense

Have you ever noticed how common sense really isn't so common to some people? Seriously. I've noticed it more and more the older I get. Moreso this past year. I really don't claim to know everything about life, but I would say I'm pretty smart. Not the smartest in the class, but I'm up there with the best of them. Still, some of the things I've witnessed as of late just seem as simple and well... common, as knowing that grass is green and dogs bark.

For example, my roommate called me up one day to ask if a phone number was long distance. (I don't have a good long distance plan on my home phone, so it costs like 25 cents a minute or something outrageous like that.) I told her to call me anytime if she didn't know if an area code was a local number. (We have two or three area codes that are consider local in Orange County). So I get a phone call from her one day wanting to know if a number was local or if it was long distance and would costs her money to call from the landline. "Ok," I say, "what's the number?" She replies with, "I-800-something, something, something." I immediately stopped listening after I heard "1-800". For a moment I thought she was kidding, but no. She was serious. With a confused yet annoyed look on my face, I said, "No, it's free. Anything beginning with 800 or 888, or sometimes even 877 are all free." She had not known this until now... and she'll be 30 next month!!!

Another thing that I guess is not so common to some people is that when you're cooking and you have to open a can that has a pop-top lid, there is no reason to use the can opener!!

Have you ever called someone up and prefaced the conversation with "I'm just calling to complain"? If someone told you that, do you think they really are calling for advice, defense, or an arguement?? No. They just need you to listen. Especially if they already told you at the beginning of the conversation that the only reason they called was to complain. Translation: They just need to vent! No words necessary, really, except to maybe throw in a "I can only imagine how it made you feel" or "that must really stink". Just a little affirmation. But seriously, don't start trying to defend the reason why they called to complain! Don't try to help them see the other side of things. It's not the time right then. That's only going to make things worse!! Just listen. That's all. Listen.

Water is not free. Yes, we pay for water people. Don't ask me why we have a water bill. We just do. So, the more loads of laundry you do, the more dishes we wash, the more frequently you take showers, the higher the water bill is going to be. So if it jumped in price all the sudden, don't assume we must have a leak somewhere in a pipe. You probably just ran the water more!

*seriously starting to roll my eyes at this point*

If someone is trying to walk away from you while you're talking, they obviously want to end the conversation. They don't want you to follow them. Leave them alone!

Common sense is not so common to some people. I hate the thought of having to assume everyone is dumb, but I think it might be coming to that point. Am I just more "grown-up" than my friends? Maybe so. But really, I don't think that some of these things take that much brain power to figure out. Don't be "one of them."

Travels to Atlanta

This past week, I was in Atlanta, GA for the Network 21 National Leadership Convention. What a great group of people! I met Jim Dornan and his wife, Nancy, a little over a year ago when I joined Free Wheelchair Mission. Jim Dornan (l), me, and Don Schoendorfer (r) Me and Nancy Dornan

They are amazing people! Over time, we eventually grew the relationship into a partnership of which we are all excited about. Network 21 is currently distributing wheelchairs to people in need in South Africa, and currently, we are working on providing aid to those in Ukraine through their help!

Me and Oleksii Mautanov of the Ukraine

Saturday night, the President of Free Wheelchair Mission, Don Schoendorfer, and I were asked to speak on stage to a group of almost 3,000 independent business owners.

I got to do what I love best... speak. I love being in front of large crowds of people. It's so energizing to me! The worst part of this past weekend, though, is that I got sick immediately afterwards. I've had a headache, really bad sore throat, and achey all over.

I'm sorry for those of you I didn't get to see again this time while I was in Atlanta. It simply is so difficult to manage one on one time with all of you, especially while working. Perhaps I'll have to have one big party when I go back next and invite everyone to that one event. :)

I'm headed next month to Wisconson for my cousin's wedding. That's another story in and of itself of which I'll save for later. Oh, and I I'm almost done with my cleanse! It will be two months on Friday. I'm in a new mode of wanting to get physically more fit, so I'm trying to be a lot more concious of what I eat and my activitely level. However, being sick doesn't allow for much physical exhertion.... so, soon I'll ramp it up. Pray I get better quickly!