Happy Birthday to me!!!!   Congratulations to Joel and Tiffany today, their wedding day!

(pictures to be added soon!)

I’m 25.  A quarter of a century.  But probably happier than I’ve ever been in my entire life thus far….

I’m not married and I don’t have the “perfect” job or house and I don’t even really have that much money, but doing 25 simple things taught me a lot about myself and life in general.  For example, being reintroduced to sushi taught me that I really ought to try new foods now and again.  And that I like a variety of music as I now find myself flipping through radio stations after work instead of listening to the same old one.  Oh yeah…and that I’m pretty uncoordinated and will never be a dancer or a turbo kickboxer. More so, that I love bringing food/things to work or wherever else for people and that despite my weakness in public speaking, that I can overcome it for one moment to try to do something I deem important like lead a Bible study.  And perhaps even more so, that something as simple as a belly button ring can turn a perfectly ordinary day into a spontaneous one for even a boring and simple person like me.

I almost decided not to do the 25 things before I turned 25…it seemed like too much work and too lame and even simply writing about it seemed painful.  But now, I realize that I still love writing.  And even more than that, I like doing new things and am going to try to do something quite new at least once a month.

The year ahead doesn’t seem bleak.  I think it’s going to be a great and that random and fun things are yet to come as long as I remember to go outside of my box and spice things up once awhile J

Hello World………I am officially 25!!!!

For some reason, it’s amusing to me that you have to rehearse for a wedding.  It actually reminds me of Songfest practice, the getting ready to go on stage and figure out the spacing and timing and all.  Not to say that Tiffany and Joel’s wedding is just another Songfest or something, but simply to say that there’s something exciting about figuring out where you need to walk, the timing, the whole thing after talking about it for so long.

We waited around for everyone to show up and since the Tiff/Joel wedding included at least 15 people actively participating in the ceremony, we did wait around for a bit of time and chat and stuff.  It was actually quite exciting to see it all come together.  I was made fun of for not getting simple movements down and turned red.  I also messed up on the spacing, but hey, these are what practices are for.  I got to watch Tiff’s brother-in-law go through the whole rehearsal and explain what they would be doing while they were up there on stage.  We only had time to go through the whole thing once before the next wedding rehearsal with an entirely different party showed up, but I personally figured that as long as none of us tripped while walking down the aisle, we were all good to go.

Tiffany’s sister and brother-in-law treated us to dinner and the 15+ of us packed into El Cholo, a Mexican restaurant.  I felt honored to be a part of something big, the impending union of two people as well as the fact that I got to see the interaction of the two families come together.  

It was a great way to end my last day of being 24. 

1 day until B-day.

"What??!"  my trainer answered.  "We don't do that here.  We're too old for that!"  I looked around and realized then that I was surrounded by the majority of 50 year old plus women.  She looked at me seriously and I just responded with an "oh."

It was true. There weren't massive departmental or team gatherings or outings of people getting together to sit and chat for lunch except for birthdays and the obligatory potlucks for major holidays, and people would grab birthday food or holiday party potluck food or whatever we were celebrating and go back off to their desks and eat.  I asked what people wanted to do for their birthday (since I'm birthday event coordinator) and one guy said he didn't care as long as we didn't go out as a team.  Wow...interesting.

So on Thursday's we celebrate birthdays if someone's birthday (like mine!) happens to fall on a weekend as most people are off on Friday.  So I did the unthinkable - I requested that we have an extended lunch and all go out together.

My supervisor recommended a Mexican place called Las Fuentes and it sounded fine to me.  So we all carpooled over, stood awkwardly in line and ordered one by one, and then found a place to sit together where we proceeded to talk about the meal, the long wait, and food in general.  It was a nice lunch and added a random touch to an office job that can become (and has become) quite monotonous. 

It also proved that maybe a bunch of 50 year old plus women could sit together and have a nice lunch together :-)

2 days until B-day!!!

Although I am the “event coordinator” for birthdays and the like at work, I have never brought any food in on my own accord.  Other coworkers have brought donuts, cookies, chips and salsa, pastries, etc., but in between lack of money, time, and laziness, I’ve just never simply decided to share food with other co-workers.  I decided it was time to change all that.

If you know me, then you know I am a major carb lover.  Friends have bought me a shirt that says “I love carbs.”  If I had to go on a no carb or low carb diet, well then, you might as well just shoot me now.  Carbs are wonderful.  However, I do not like bagels.  I don’t know what it is about the bagel…perhaps the texture?  Perhaps because I am not a huge cream cheese fan or perhaps I have not met a bagel I am truly intune with? Anyhow, I do know for a fact that the people I work with LOVE bagels, so I brought in bagels and cream cheese and pastries along with orange juice.  Breakfast is definitely my favorite meal of all time, so I decided to share that with everyone.  People on my team love free food (I mean, who doesn’t?) and I was actually surprised that there was one bagel left at the end of the day.  I must also admit that it was nice to be thanked for bringing in some free breakfast, although I’ve also eaten free food that others have brought in.  Perhaps it’s simply my way of continuing some kharmatic kindness involving food? :-)

Anyway, 3 days until B-day

I went to a place called the Melting Pot for the first time, a fondue restaurant where they provide you with an assortment of different fruits, vegetables, and bread to dip into cheese and chocolate fondue.  A part of me hoped that it would be some nasty tasting cheese and chocolate so I would not want to sample every type of food they provided us, but is there really a bad cheese or chocolate?  We were even provided with small sizes of chicken, shrimp, broccoli and pasta to cook ourselves (nothing under a minute and a half!) and provided with a plethora of sauces to dip them into.

The Melting Pot was certainly a welcome and wonderful experience that has helped to continue to open me up to a new and exciting restaurant – and waistline ;-)

4 days until B-day

Downtown Los Angeles is an almost completely foreign place to me.  There’s Skid Row and the Greyhound Bus station, both places that I would prefer not to be in after dark.  However, I hear it’s a thriving business place where there’s the fashion district and the jewelry district and the flower district and the like.

Since Joel (groom to be) was being artsy and trying to save some money, he decided he wanted to buy some flowers to attempt to make a bouquet for his bride to be.  So off we were to the flower district, my first time, where I got to see a multitude of beautiful roses and the like.  As I understand it, the “districts” open early in the morning like at 5am or something crazy, so by time we arrived at 9ish, most of the “buyers” had come and gone.

For all you guys out there, next time you need to buy the “perfect” flower to make up for any way you may have wronged your women, take a trip to the flower district at like 5 in the morning.  I’m sure you’ll find something that says “I’m sorry.”  ;-)

5 days until B-day!

I’m usually good at keeping in touch with people and I have felt some sadness of letting a person who helped me through some of my most difficult and awkward moments in high school just…go….I’m sure this is the way it is sometimes.  We lose touch with people, we go on with our lives, we meet other people….and I wasn’t exactly looking to reconnect necessarily, but simply to let her know that I hadn’t forgotten what she had done and how much she had meant to me.

So I sent her a myspace message…

It isn’t really important or necessary if she responds.  I guess it’s just important to me to let people know, past and present, that they’ve made a difference in your life even if it does seem like it all happened eons ago.

(oh my gosh….I’ve almost been out of high school for 10 years….I’m old!!!)

6 days until B-day

In the past, I used to be much more of a list person.  I loved the satisfaction in making a list, and then crossing off the completed item or times. Maybe it’s because I hang out with mostly a bunch of P’s (spontaneous people) or because with age, I’ve realized that not everything can be followed to the T with a list, but I decided the joy in making a list was in order.  The following list includes 25 of the things I want to do in my lifetime.  Unfortunately, due to money, time or some other constraint, I could not do any of the things mentioned in my current 25 before 25 list, but it will definitely go in my "I will try to complete before I die list.” 

Also, something else I decided to do was make prediction based on where friends will be in five years when most of us are or are turning 30.  I have also wanted to do this just to see, from my perspective, how we end up changing.  Since no one is going to see the “predictions” for five years, I’ve emailed the list to two of my email accounts and will be able to identify by the subject headline and using today’s date.  I might also include a paper copy in one of my photo albums as well….

Things I hope to do before I die:

1. Get an eyebrow ring (not sure if and when this can happen as workplace professionalism would limit me as well as how old I was and how wrinkly I become)
2. Visit Australia          (I hear it’s amazing!)
3. Visit Japan (another amazing place I hear!)
4. Go bungee jumping!
5. Go to Wisconsin to tour cheese factories
6. Get GPS for my car (I get lost…all the time)
7. Someday save enough to buy a house or a condo (doubt if this will be in LA)
8. Go on a road trip of the United States!
9. Buy some very expensive, ah-mazing shoes
10. Go to an Avril Lavigne concert (I just really enjoy her songs and they speak to me, ya know?)
11. Put a skit/play/documentary on youtube with an amazing camcorder I happen to have!
12. Milk a cow
13. Get married someday (notice how I put this at number 13?)
14. Cook a five course meal (right now, I’m starting on toast and working my way up J)
15. See the play Wicked
16. See the play Mamma Mia (gotta love Abba!)
17. Go to Yosemite!
18. Go to Niagara Falls!
19. Learn sign language
20. Go back to school to get either a master’s, a certificate, or something to that effect
21.  My childhood ambition – write a novel
22.  Go see Oprah in Chicago!
23.  Paint something (or at least learn how to paint/draw)
24. Go to a fancy spa for the works!

 Last year, I purchased an annual pass ticket from Universal Studios because I went with a friend from out of town and discovered it was only a $10 difference, not because I adore Universal Studios or anything.  If anything, all the other theme parks like Disneyland, Knottsberry Farm, and Six Flags come before it, but I figured I might as well purchase it in case I ended up going again....and I did....so it paid for itself.

So I was delighted when I heard that the Simpsons ride was complete and that my annual pass, about to expire in July, meant that I could check it out.  Pretty much everyone from the very young to the very old (like me) knows what the Simpons are as they have been on the air for the past twenty years or so.  Despite the annoying $12 parking fee, I figured it wouldn't take that long to try out the ride and give it my own rave review.  And let me say, despite the Back to the Future ride being a classic and all, I was glad they got rid of it.  I can still remember that ride from my visit to Universal 15 years ago (ouch, that hurts to say).

First of all, they showed clips from the Simpsons while everyone waited in line, clips that kept me laughing and entertained throughout my 20 minute wait.  Apparantely, "Sideshow Bob" has escaped from prison and wants to kill the Simpsons in Krusty's amusement park.  I didn't even mind waiting in line.  Anyway, the ride is a simulator and the graphics are amusing.  When the screen opened up and we began our rollercoaster journey to outrun Sideshow Bob, the Simpsons characters looked amazingly real and I had to refrain from reaching out and touching them...man, all this and none of those annoying 3-D glasses?!   There was even a part in which our rollercoaster is chasing the Simpsons into their house and onto their couch which turns into a coaster...amazing!  Okay, not that Universal has that many super exciting and awesome rides, but this ride ranks up there with the Mummy in cool factor!

Anyway, it was still worth it despite the $12 fee, not being able to find my car for 20 minutes in the parking garage, and getting on the freeeway going in the wrong direction.  Check it out!

12 days until B-day!

A simple act of kindess can make someone's day and change their mood from negative to positive.  Inspired by a Starbuck's customer's kind gesture to pay for the order for the car in back of him (here's the link to the article http://www.nbc6.net/news/14850129/detail.html?rss=ami&psp=news), I figured Sunday was the perfect day to attempt to spread a little kindness to a stranger myself.  It's easy to give to family and friends, but how about giving something, even something small, to a perfect stranger?

I rarely go to Starbucks because it's expensive and mainly because I don't like coffee.  So I drove up to the drive-thru at 1 in the afternoon and lingered right before the ordering menu for about 5 minutes, waiting for a car to pull up behind me.  When a car finally did pull up, I pulled up to the menu and ordered a "bottled water." 

"Is that it?" the barista asked in disbelief.  "Any coffee or pastries?" 

"Uh...no," I answered and proceeded to the cashier.  I looked behind me.  It was a red van and I first I thought there was a guy, a girl, and about three kids in the backseat (oh man...this is going to be expensive!) before realizing that the "kids" were boxes and that there were only two people in the van.  Doable, totally doable.

"Bottle of water," the cashier said when I pulled up.  "That'll be $1.80." 

"Can I pay for the people behind me too?" I asked as I handed her a $20 bill.  She seemed to have been used to things like this, as she nodded her head yes, took my money, and then handed me my water.  I thanked her and proceeded to speed off before the people in the red van behind me could thank me or tell me how uncomfortable they were at the fact that I just paid for their grande frappucino's with whipped cream and pumpkin scones or something.  I can only hope their day was a litle brighter although I'm sure they probably spent more in gas driving around that big van and waiting in line at Starbuck's than on the amount of items they ordered, ha ha.

Anyway, only 13 days until B-day

When I hear of sports, I almost yawn.  Unfortunately, I'm never excited to hear about who the heck the Lakers are playing against and the only unread part to any newspaper I happen to buy is the Sports Section.  I guess I've just never been programmed to fully throw myself into sports.

I can watch two things sports wise on TV: bowling and pool.  Those things actually hold my attention and years ago, I happened to come across bowling on TV and watched it for nearly an hour.  However, I was informed that these things were "not actual sports."  So, I decided that I would watch something that someone deemed an actual sport.

All I had to do was watch some type of big sport for half an hour.  I flipped through the channels until I found a UCLA versus USC football game and began watching that.  My first thought was amusement at a bunch of guys piling on one another to prevent a football from reaching a certain destination.  

My next thought was, "Boy, those outfits are very form fitting."  As you could probably tell, I appeared to be watching everything else but the actual game.

Let me just saythat  those supposed simple thirty minutes of watching the game turned into 15 minutes of watching the game, 45 minutes of napping, and then waking up and watching another 15 minutes of the game. Perhaps beer and chips would serve as an incentive, but I could not for the moment see myself get into the football craze anytime soon.

I guess for the time being I'll have to stick to watching the "nonsports" like bowling.  (really, it's interesting to watch!)

19 days until B-day