Sunday, September 28, 2008

Poly Sci 101




I was surprised at this:

What's a Centrist?


Your true political self:

You are a

Social Liberal
(66% permissive)

and an...

Economic Moderate
(41% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Centrist

You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness. loc: (62, -32)
modscore: (25, 40)
W
w
Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid

Monday, September 15, 2008

Leaving me angry and bleh


The Boy has been off to the dorms for 2 weeks now. At first it bothered me more than I would have thought - there was an odd emptiness in my solar plexus and a lurching of my stomach. But he really is a considerate boy - before he left he did something that made me SO mad at him! I haven't told his father, because he was right and I was wrong, and I hate hearing that.

But K knows I am angry with the Boy, and that it helps me not miss him, but he never asks what I am angry about. On some deep intuitive level, he must know that he really, REALLY, doesn't want to know. So instead of asking, he just suggests something, like, "About what, his life?" and I say "Yes, that's it."

Right now I'm not feeling the love. I feel like "bleh."My immediate family is very nice, but the rest of my family kindof sucks. I called my three sisters yesterday, and only one called me back. I guess I should just be glad about that. I send people emails, and people don't bother to respond. People change their blogs and take me off their list. Bloggers I read are quitting or taking breaks.

So I'm admitting to myself that I waste far too much time on the internet, and I should focus my energies on projects that might somehow make me some money. Or some friends. I guess I just keep this blog for myself, but I'd save some time if I just wrote it and didn't post it. Someday I'll print it all out for myself.

Bleh.

Friday, September 05, 2008

Trip Highlights


Summing up our 2-week trip to Colorado is not easy. We did many of the usual things - lunch at my favorite Vietnamese place, a party at our friend Sal's house. We visited more people than usual - a sister in law had moved to town, and my cousin had a baby girl I wanted to see.

In Estes Park - Olympics = food + TV! Opposite of the usual.We sortof hung out and were scared to go back to Denver. See below.

My sisters and I took out my parents for their 50th Anniversary dinner. We celebrated while we were in town, but technically their anniversary is this month. There was a lot of fighting surrounding the choice of restaurants, but the dinner itself came off without any drama.

Rage against the Machine Concert
My sister E got two tickets, and took another sister, M, to this free concert on Wednesday. The band got the Coliseum all riled up against the war, and wanted everyone to to follow them in a march to the DNC. My sisters didn't march the 3 miles down there - they said they didn't want to go to jail. I said, "You didn't want to go to jail WITH THE BAND?"

Thursday we dropped in at the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver, to get a glimpse of the political activities down there. It was good to see people expressing themselves. Also we found some cool t-shirts. The Girl declared herself to be tired of visiting people and started to have a meltdown until we distracted her with lunch. My sister M met us at Chili's for lunch - we shared a fajita dish.

Then we drove to Longmont and K tried to fix a few things at the duplex. We went to see our friend JD's boy Pete playing soccer. That boy is so good looking and just plain nice, and good at soccer too. We went to see our friends practicing with their band, and I was really glad I went. They were really good and we had a good time.

Football game
On our last day there, we went to Colorado Springs to see our friend's son, a Senior, play football. It was the first game of the year.

On the way there we stopped to visit my cousin, C, who is so cool and has the coolest family. It's the kind of house where friends and neighbors just walk in. While we were there an older (than me!) man came in with a teenage boy and girl. It turned out that his son, the boy, was playing for the other team in that same game! So we told them they should come to the game too.

Then we went over our friend's house, and our friend McNeal had come out too for the game. He just got a new job, so he was feeling good. We ate some pizza, drank a few beers, borrowed jackets, and loaded up for the game.

The game started badly, with other team scoring 3 touchdowns in the first quarter! At least our friend's son played really well.Then there was a fight and "our" team's best player was kicked out! Not anyone from the other team, tho not our friend's son either, and I think he was in the thick of it.

My cousin and her family showed up, so that was fun. Then the team started to come back after halftime. After their second touchdown, a player on the other team went down hurt. We waited and eventually they brought out a stretcher for him. Then we noticed it was starting to sprinkle, altho it looked like it was raining much harder on the other side of the field!

Then it moved over to us, and everyone ran for cover. It was raining HARD! I kept thinking it would move off as quickly as it came, and my cousin threw her blanket over me, and I held my plastic seat cover over that! Her husband and son had run under a tree, but that didn't seem to help at all.

After awhile I looked out and we decided to run for the car. We felt much better in the car, but our clothes were soaked! My cousin left with her family, and the Girl and I waited for K to get back. The Girl was cold and soaked and wanted badly to leave. Finally we got enough people to leave, but the guys wanted to stay and see what happened in the game. It turned out they let them play one more play, where our team tied the score, and then they called the game because of lightening.

That's one thing I remember most about Colorado Springs. The sudden cloudbursts, flash flooding, and lightening.

And although I've always loved the mountains, I'm now developing a new love of the soft colors of the plain and fields around Longmont.

I wish I could post pictures, but my photo card has gone kaput. Now I need a way to "rescue" about 300 pictures off that card!

Wish me luck...

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

DNC

We just happen to be in Denver during the "DNC" as it's being called locally. I told my Mom I wanted to protest, and she said they had a special place for protesters. I told my friends in California, and they said, "Yeah, it's called JAIL!" Ha. They've actually cleared out a large warehouse to use as a large temporary jail. Expecting trouble, anyone?

This trip, we spent only a day in Denver before driving into the mountains for a few days. I had a lot of trouble with headaches from the altitude there. Usually I get used to it in Denver before I head to the mountains, so I had more migrains than usual. Luckily I have medicine that works.

So, back in Denver, I was talking to my sister, and she mentioned that she heard that 40,000 hookers were coming to town for the convention. There are 50,000 politicians, and there are groups of hookers that evidently follow conventions around.

I was telling them about my problems with the altitude, and then it occured to me - There are going to be a lot of hookers with headaches in Denver this month!

Ha.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Drama for your Mama

The day before the soccer tournament this weekend, K asked The Girl to get her soccer uniform together. She looked in her room and announced it wasn't there.

What???

When K gets frustrated, becomes sort of like a whirling dirvish, and the whole house heard about it while he searched in various places. It seemed to me that it should have been clean by now, as she'd last played a game around 4 weeks ago, but she claimed to have put it into the laundry, and never seen it again.

I'm in charge of washing the laundry, so I was feeling a little blame and pressure. K, who folds the laundry, claimed to not have seen it come through the laundry either. So we searched the entire laundry room several times, but couldn't find it!

Meanwhile K kept walking around, saying, "Where is it? Where is it?" He was really getting frustrated. I kept saying that the house just isn't that big - there aren't that many places it could be!

The girl looked at me with big brown eyes and asked in all innocence, "Mom, why does he keep asking ME? Why does he automatically blame ME?"

I finally replied, "Because it's YOUR uniform! You are in charge of it! Because it was probably you that had it last."

No, no, she swore she didn't have it. I was trying to diffuse the situation and calm everyone down, and not feed into K's upset, or my perception of blame. K went into her room, and found the shorts to her uniform.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "I thought you only meant the shirt!"

ALL of it! We need ALL of the uniform! Together!

We sent the Girl to the van, which had a bag of clothes for Goodwill that the Girl keeps bringing out of her room. She came back with her old jerseys, which we now would need. K was a little mad that she had been getting rid of those.

We searched everywhere. I even looked in The Boy's room, in case it had accidently gotten in with his clothes. Nope. Finally I sent K to the van again, thinking maybe she took it off in the van on her way back from her last game, and stuffed it somewhere in the van. I couldn't understand how it hadn't made it into the laundry toom!

K came back with the red jersey, which he found in the Goodwill bag! Of all places! Usually I go through her things before I get rid of them, but K had grabbed this bag and had nearly taken it to Goodwill the day before!

K was SO mad. The Girl came to me for protection, and I took the opportunity to remind everyone that the uniform was CLEAN!! It had indeed gone through the laundry and come out the other side, so everyone was a little wrong.

I couldn't understand why she hadn't found it in the bag the first time she looked, though, so I asked her, "Are you color blind?" and she answered, after a pause, "I love you!"

I told her, "Honey, if you want to quit soccer you can just TELL us! You don't have to give away your uniforms and sprain your ankle!" But she claims I'm taking her actions too literally.

I know exactly how it happened, too. She was so excited about getting new clothes for school, that she probably took an entire drawer and just dumped it into the bag. She can't have looked at the clothes at all, or she would have noticed the uniforms.

After she went to bed I told K, "Why does he think I know where it is? Why would anyone think that I would know where it is?" And finally we could laugh about it. We laughed until we cried. That was a classic.

But we still haven't found the white uniform.

-----------------------------
Then we went to a soccer tournament in Irvine.

Saturday we played a team from Las Vegas, who were the champions last year. They were really tough, and finally beat us 2-1. I think we only scored because we got a penalty kick right in front of the goal.

The second team we played was from Carona. We beat them pretty easily 2-0, but their coach was really mad and complained to the ref for awhile after the game. They were saying bad things to our girls, so I didn't like them too much. They ended up not winning any games.

Sunday played a team from Santa Clarita, and lost 3-1. One of their goals was just a mistake by our Goalie we'd had to borrow from another team because our substitute goalie had gotten sick. So basically she was doing us a favor. We felt a little badly about that, and tried to make the girl feel OK about it. And again, we only scored because of a penalty kick right in front of their goal, but I thought the game was closer than the score would suggest.

So we were out and didn't get to play the Las Vegas team again, like I had hoped. I stayed to watch a little of the next game, and a team called Madrid started setting up in front of us. The coach looked at me, and I saw him get a look in his eye like he recognized me or remembered something, and then he looked at The Girl. He knew her name, and called her over.

She went over and talked with him for a few minutes, and I could feel a few of the parents from that team looking at me. When she came back, she said that he'd told her that she looked like a good player, and was impressed that she was a leftie. He asked where she would go to high school (in 4 years!), and told her if she still played in high school, that she'd probably play his team in Sherman Oaks.

Hmmm. Then that team ended up winning the tournament! I was really surprised.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Dodger game

The Girl got to go to camp as planned, and she had a really good time there. While she was gone, K's cousin came to visit. We hadn't seen her in about 4 years, so it was great to see her.

We picked her up at the Burbank airport and took her to a Dodger game. Manny Ramirezz had just been added to the team, so the game was sold out and excited. He had two hits, but no home runs and the Dodgers lost 1-2. Very low scoring game. He had home runs on Sat and Sunday, but not on Friday night.

You can see the crowd standing up in excitement and support when Manny came to bat.

We had a great visit with her, and hopefully we'll be able to go see her during the glass pumpkin festival in Half Moon Bay in October.....

Last nite the Boy dropped orange juice into the keyboard, so now it sticks. The space bar and 000000000000000000 seem to be the worst.....


In TV news, Sherri Shepard wasn't' on the View theother day, and Whoppi announced that she was out for personal business, which I already thought was weird. Those girls are out all the time and it's no big deal. Then Joy and Elizabeth added that they like Sherri and she'sfunny.. I thought that was odd.

Then K told me he was listening to Rick Dees and they said Whoopi hates Sherri andthat she's a worse problem than Star or Rosie ever was. I can see why Whoopi might not like her, but Sherri brings anice balance to the show. She gets along w/Elizabeth and has become somewhat of an ally even tho she doesn't necessarily agree with her politics. She isn't the most intellectual, and not always funny, but she lightens themoodthere....

Oh, forget it.............

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Last Week

Weekend before last we attended a soccer tourney in Irvine - spent Friday nite as the game on Sat was a record 7am! Yikes! K wasn't sure about spending the money, but it was really nice. Like a very little vacation.

There was a mixup with the Marriott reservations, but we ended up liking our location by Avenue of the Arts. Nice suite, big bed, two TV's. We ate at Macaroni Grill, where K shared a Penne Rustica with me. It was just the right amount of food for me. I think K got soup too.

The first game on Sat we played a team that supposedly consisted of half of J's stolen team - we barely won with The Girl's left hook shot into top corner of goal! won 1-0.At 10:15 we played a black-uniformed team, they scored first (from midfield!) and I was scared. But then we were able to score 3 times. We went to the hotel again to hang out, check out. Then to Mac Grill again for lunch. (Love that place! Good lunch special.)

Sunday's game was at 10 - we played a Gold level team, and lost 1-3. After their first score it took a long time, but finally we scored! But then they scored 2wice more, so we lost. We took some good shots on goal, tho, so the game was actually closer than the score reflects. The coach on the other team got a yellow card!

The Boy went with us for a nice change, so we went out to lunch again at the Mac Grill, where we found we still had a gift card from Christmas for $25! Yay! We took the dog that day too, and he LOVES to go "bye bye" with us. He was able to sit with us outside at the restaurant.

Monday - The Girl went to yoga class with me. She liked it. We're trying to make it a routine now - Yoga on Mondays, Pho on Wednesdays. Finished reading "Easter Island." I thought it was very, very good.

Tuesday - sore from yoga! Swam with The Girl. The Boy went to CSULB for overnight orientation. Stayed up too late. Said it was a lot like day camp.

Found out a friend who had been very sick died Monday.

Wed - The Girl invited to museum. Forgot I was supposed to work. Pho for dinner instead of lunch.

Thurs -Met my friend R for lunch at New Moon Cafe. That evening went with The Girl to orientation for her first week-long sleepover summer camp. I'm jealous! Sounds like so much fun.

Fri - Found out our mechanic Ken died last week - he's fixed our car for years & K says he's the reason we can afford to help The Boy with school. It's shocking to think how one little mistake can cost a person their whole life! Seems like if you're not truly appreciating your life (i.e. drinking too much), it's easy to lose it. We really miss him already. It was just a few weeks ago he was smiling at me, helping me with the car.

The Boy stayed up to see Dark Knight at IMAX at 3am! Went an hour early and thought there'd be no one there. Instead there was a long line! He loved it so much he went to see it again on a regular screen the next day.

Sat - work. Forgot phone.

Sun - went thru stuff from garage.

Mon - Service for our friend who died. We had to stay outside because chapel was too full - there were easily 200 people outside, standing in shade. So many people whose lives she touched. Playing songs she loved, the service took a pretty long time. But it was celebrating her happy life, so they played some songs she loved. The minister mainly talked to her twin girls who are The Girl's age (11). About how their Mom is in a better place and now they have to go forward.

The day was a lot like her - sunny, warm, with a soft and gentle breeze.

No yoga today.

Tues - Soccer practice, the Girl twisted her ankle! She's in tears at the mere IDEA that she might have to wear a cast in camp, or possibly not go at all. As of now, she can't put any weight on it.

Let's all hope she gets MUCH better by Saturday.