Friday Lunch at Galatoire's

I can't believe that I let so much time pass without writing about my latest adventure.

My mom recently visited a friend in New Orleans, and went to lunch at the famous Galatoire's. There, she saw a table nearby full of women for a bridal luncheon, and she had the idea that she would like to do just that for my sister's Bridal Party! We live in California, so it isn't hard to see the gaping issue with this idea... However, my mom decided that she would use her free plane tickets to do this for my sister's bridal party.

Then, my sister and her husband-to-be, decided on having 8 groomsmen and 8 bridesmaids! Suddenly, the promise didn't look so appetizing anymore, but sticking to her guns, my mom invited all 8 of the bridesmaids, plus the bride, the mother of the groom, herself, and her friend in New Orleans, making a total of 12!! I have to be honest that a trip to Bourbon Street with my sister's friends wasn't really my cup of tea, but I decided to try it... To quote Miss Holly Golightly, "Besides, I've never been to [New Orleans]."

We rented the entire Guest House at English Turn...






My sister and I shared a room (the top right room with the balcony)



On Friday morning, just as my mom had planned, we took a limo to Galatoire's... Here is the entire group (Top Row: Me, Alana, Ginny, Dawn, Jenny(behind), Crystal, Meg, Natalie, Helena; Bottom Row: Deb, Debbie, Teresa)



Here are the Moms and Daughters: Me (bride's sister), Dawn (groom's sister), Debbie (groom's mother), Teresa (bride's mom), Crystal (groom's sister), Ginny (bride)



Ready to be confused? Here is my extended family of sisters: Jenny (my half sister through my dad), Ginny (my half sister through my mom), Me, and Helena (Ginny's half sister through her dad). Basically, I am related to the two on the left, my sister is related to the two on the right.


After lunch, my sister was given a Blue Dog pin (based on the George Rodrigue painting). The guys come for Friday lunch, every week and as a tradition, they always wear their seersucker suits.


After lunch, we walked across Bourbon Street, to the oldest bar in New Orleans: Old Absinthe House...


Then our party split. Half stayed at the bars on Bourbon, and the other half took a break to ride the Trolley through the Garden District. Here is what all of the houses in the Garden District look like:



After, we met back up with the group and bar-hopped until dinner. Most stayed out, but I went with the older crowd to dinner at Emeril's. Funny thing was: Emeril was THERE! He was overseeing the kitchen. Pretty neat.

The next morning, we had Beignet's which are like square donuts with powdered sugar... This was the view from the cafe...



The whole party couldn't decide to go to the Plantation, so the party split again, and half went to the above ground cemeteries, and half walked around New Orleans. I stayed walking around and we went to famous VooDoo shops and browsed windows before going back to the airport. Here is a beautiful church we saw in downtown, where 3 weddings took place in less than 3 hours, none of which were Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, despite the rumors that it happened the same weekend we were there.

CADA 2008

Another year, another CADA Convention!

Every other year, the convention is held in Reno, so this year, we packed up and flew to Reno! The hotel is much nicer than the one in San Diego, because it's a Casino, so it has it's own shops, restaurants, club, Starbucks, etc.. They are in the process of remodeling it, so half of it looks like a classy, dark, chic hotel, and the other half looks like El Torito. Nicole hooked us up with a great suite! No sharing of beds this time.

The theme of this year's CADA was "Field of Dreams". In a loong compromise, we ended up with a combination theme of baseball and dreams. Thinking outside the box, we made our booth into a baseball locker room, complete with a shower!

Here are the lockers, and benches with baseball equipment, there is even a jock strap dangling from the bench!


Here's the bathroom part, with Johnny in the shower and robes hanging from the rack.


And here's the "Coach's Office"


We ended up winning Runner Up in the Multi-booth award competition, which we were OK with. We didn't go over the top as we had in years before. And the booth that won, was our competition, who wore "A League of Their Own" outfits (old women's uniforms). We wanted to do that at one point. Anyway, our biggest competitor was actually pretty friendly to us this year, and I got to meet some of them.

Here's Nicole, who desgined the booth and coordinated CADA:


On the first night, we dressed up in robes to complete our "locker room" theme. Too many people had to ask, so either our booth wasn't obvious enough, or it was hidden in the corner... Then we cleaned up and went to the Area Suites and mingled with clients. On the second night, it was more mingling, and dancing in the Casino's club. I left early and watched some people play blackjack, even sitting in for them, while they went to the bathroom! I'm not much of a gambler, so that was the only betting I did...

All of us, in our robes (Jasmine, Nicole, me, Tiffany, and Johnny in the Shower)


On the last night, we host a reception and Josten's hosts a formal dinner dance. Wow has a tradition of wearing black cocktail dresses and color boas, each year being a different color. Last year was white, this year we wore purple!

Here is Brittany (with our DJ company, SOS Entertainment), and Nicole, Hani Yousseff (Burbank High School), and Jasmine.


Here we are at the dinner table. Nicole, Brittany, me, and Todd Arrowsmith from West Ranch High School, who snuck into the picture!


Next year, the theme is CADAfari, like Safari, jungle... Nicole is practicing her Monkey face:

Taos

My family decided to go skiing in Taos, New Mexico this season. Another family/couples trip. Chris and I met my parents, Ginny and John in Albuquerque. Chris got our bags off the main carousel and I waited for our skis in the "oversized baggage" section. Chris's skis and boots came, but there was no sign of mine. As I waited with another guy, I asked, "I'm waiting for my skis, what are you waiting for?!" He said quickly, "I'm waiting for my dog." Oh! I thought. I guess it could be worse. He joked, "Yea, top that!" and then must've found his dog in another part of the airport because I didn't see him again. Long story short, my skis were somehow left in Los Angeles, so they said they would pay for my rental skis.

We stayed overnight in Albuquerque and got an early start the next morning to Taos in our rented minivan. We arrived at the hotel fairly early (10:30am), and checked into our condo. But, when we walked in, the house-keeper hustled to get her coats, purse, fruit, and turn off the TV. We thought it was odd that it seemed like she was hanging out, but quickly dismissed it. My sister had to go to the bathroom, so she rushed in there, but found that it was completely clogged. We asked the owner to fix it a few times during our stay, but it never really worked properly. In the meantime, we realized that a condo with one bedroom, a loft, and a sofabed (and one broken toilet) was really too small for the 6 of us, so we asked for a 2nd condo. The guy warned us that the last guests had just left, so it had not been cleaned and that the 2nd unit was "colder". What he meant was "no heat". So, between the two condos, we ended up having one working toilet, one with heat, one working oven, one working hair dryer, one loft window that wouldn't shut, and one condo full of smoke. Admittedly, the last thing was my mom's fault, because she mistakingly assumed the dampers would open the same way, and they didn't, so one condo filled with smoke before she realized the damper was closed. Another "fun" discovery we had was during my first shower. The water was luke warm, so I turned it toward the red (heat). It got colder, so I turned it up all the way and got a shock when freezing cold water shot out at me. I shrieked and jumped out of the shower. Then, I turned it toward the cold (blue) and it got hotter!

We learned to live with all of the quirks of the cabin and wondered what other people would do if they just had one of those condos, with half working amenities. The same day we checked in, we decided to do a half day of skiing, so we changed clothes and headed to the slopes. By the time we got there, we were hungry, so we ate and I rented skis. Then it was 2:30pm and it was getting darker and colder, so we decided not to buy $50 lift tickets for only a couple of runs. We went to town instead and got some drinks and dinner.

The next couple of days, we went skiing and it was COLD! They told us it was 0 on the top of the mountain at noon! With the wind, it was almost unbearable. My toes froze so I had to take a break to warm them up. I went to the ski store to ask them if my boots were too small, but they told me that they were in fact one size too big! So, I got new boots that are custom-molded to my feet. The slopes were un-crowded and the snow was nice, but most of the runs were black diamonds and/or moguls. Compared to some of the other mountains we've been to, it was not worth returning to. Maybe Utah next year...

Mom's First Recycling Experience

When I went home for Thanksgiving, my mom pulled me aside and with excitement in her eyes she told me, "Did you know that you can turn in bottles and they are redeemable for 5 cents?! This whole time I've just been throwing them in the bin at home! I could be getting 5 cents for them!"
"Uhh, yes," I said and added, "You can do that with cans, too..."

She explained to me that she had been saving bottles and had them clanking around in her trunk. She wanted to find a recycling center. We went to the one at the local Safeway. She pulled up and got the bags out of her trunk, but the people told her that they were full for the day. She came back to the car highly disappointed and shoved them back into the trunk. "They told me to go to 51st and Broadway! Can you believe that?! How can they be full?"

Later, my dad was driving and we were near the other drop-off center, so we told him to pull in and park nearby. We rolled up in our silver Mercedes and he didn't park in a space. Instead, my dad pulled RIGHT up to block the recycling drop-off center. My mom got out and unloaded the Ann Taylor bags filled with bottles. Meanwhile, a bum strolled up with his shopping cart full of cans and started sorting them. My mom recieved help from the attendant who sorted and weighed her bottles, then gave her some bills.

I was appalled that she didn't give the pocket change to the guy next to her, who clearly needed some financial assitance. Instead, she popped back in the car and announced: "I got $2.50 for that!"

As soon as the initial elation wore off, she realized, "I don't think that the $2.50 was worth the gas it took to get here..."

Halloween

There is this house by my boyfriend's that goes ALL out for halloween. Last year their decorations were crazy and the music blasted down the canyon and we could hear it all night. Supposedly, they spend $300,000 on the annual party and it's not hard to see why. Their front and side yards (it's a corner house) had zombies and graves and lights and bodies. This year there were huge shipwrecks, one even had half a ship, being engulfed by large tentacles. Here is just a small part of the outside display:



Here is what it looks like during the day (This is only the front of the house. The other two sides had 2 other large, full ships!):


We got invited to it this year, so of course I was pushing to go. Chris did not want to go, but I convinced his friends to join me and then he decided to come, too. I RSVPed for six of us, just in case. We got costumes for ourselves and ate some pizza before walking up the hill to the party. Here are Tony and Laura, both dressed as Amy Winehouse!



Here is Blair (a Dodgers player), and Tony, who looks strangely feminine.


We walked in, and there was a large guest list. Good thing we were on it! I said the last name and th ey said "6?" I said, "Yes, but we lost one on the way. We only have 5." Once inside, we were directed around the side of the house, to the back yard. There were stippers and bars, Johnny Depp look-a-likes, and actors dressed as pirates. And, it was an open bar! The bartenders were naked, except for some strategically placed body paint.

We walked to the back yard, where the main party was. There were large set-ups that looked like parts of pirate ships. There were 3 bars, a bellydancer, 2 pole dancers, a fire dancer, a hookah bar, and a dancefloor over the pool! Inside the pool were fake body parts and baby alligators!! It was pretty amazing. In this picture, you can see a belly dancer and a pole dancer in the background.



Here is the Hookah bar, with gallows, prisoners, etc. The whole house was lit up in all kinds of colors, and the top of the picture, is where the fire dancer was.



Here is the dancefloor: re-inforced plexi-glass over the swimming pool. Floating in the pool is a severed leg. (We didn't get a picture of the alligator)


Here is me, and Chris (as Pirates), and Blair got into the background.



Chris and I with the Winehouses in the background.




Blair's favorite part of the night. Yes, that's only body paint...



Here are Blair and Chris:


Me and Tony (Amy Winehouse):


It was a pretty good party. There weren't many people our age. Most were in their 30's and 40's. Chris even saw a high school friend's mom. Sort of embarrassing... Anyway, despite that, it was still one of the best parties, I've ever been to, and we had a lot of fun, before walking back home.

Cats, Mo and the Worm

Aside: A month ago, there were 5 cats at my boyfriend's house. 3 were indoor cats, brothers: Larry, Mo and Eddie. The other 2 are from a different litter and spend their life outside: Boris and Tom. Tom was a tabby cat and always had the ruffed up alley-cat look. Toward the end, he drooled nonstop, and wasn't able to clean himself properly. After missing morning meals for a week, he showed up long enough to let my boyfriend's mom pick him up and take him to the vet. The vet said he needed lots of treatment, but that because he was 1 step above a stray, might as well call it quits. So, Tom was put down a few weeks ago.
For the past 3 years, Larry has been diagnosed with many problems: Diabetes, heart murmurs, Cataracts, Arthritis, constant diarrhea and dehydration due to some sort of liver or kidney failure, dandruff, etc, etc. Larry would be in constant need of medication - insulin injections twice a day, heart pills every 8 hours, powder in his food, etc. He was a good cat, though - just slept most of the day, reminded you when it was time for medicine in case you forgot, and followed you around, begging for food. But when he started refusing his favorite pastime and having to be force-fed, Chris's mom took Larry in and they said enough is enough. Larry is missed, though not all of the chores because of him. Meanwhile, I have taken to taming Boris, the other outside cat, for the past year or so.

Now, for the actual story: Mo, the runt of the litter and Larry's twin brother (both were all black), has always had a wild side. The other night, we noticed him running from one end of the yard to the other, pausing to lick himself, before tearing off. We knew something was odd. Must be running from an animal or hurt, or something, so we followed him inside and he ran through the house. Finally I was able to get him cornered and see what was the matter. He was laying on Chris's bed, so I started petting him. As I slowly rolled him over, I saw something wet on his side. My first thought was that it was blood from a fight, so I leaned closer to inspect his wound. Then I saw a worm, stuck in his fur. This was what he was biting at to try to get off of him. I called for Chris to bring a paper towel. He asked if the cat had thrown up, again, but I told him just to bring it and come quickly, as I tried to hold down the cat. While I was waiting, I realized this wasn't just any earthworm. It was very long, and dark. I waited as Chris tried to pick the worm out. The worm was not coming very easily. It was stuck with pretty strong goo to the cat. As Chris pulled on one end of it, we saw the head: It was a flat head, and it was moving slowly, trying to find it's way. Red flags went off in my mind. Flat worms are an entirely different thing and can be very dangerous. My mind flashed to things like tape worms, ring worms, and other awful things that live inside the bodies of animals. Chris also freaked and thought about Mo's vomit earlier in the day - did something come out of him at that time?! As Chris pulled firmly, the cat moaned - some of his hair was being pulled with the force of the slime. The worm came apart, and inside, was whiteness. Chris managed to get much of the worm off, as I held the cat to the bed. Luckily, the cat whined, but did not twist and try to get us off of him. I guess he knew we were trying to help. Chris flushed it, and we tried to wipe his fur down to get the stickiness off of his fur. We washed our hands thoroughly and then sat down to research the worm from our memories. We Googled: "flat headed worm". To our surprise, the very first picture was of the exact worm (it was also the ONLY picture of the correct thing). We learned it was a "Shovel-headed" worm, very rare to North America. It gets transferred over in pots to nurseries, from Asia. Their slime is similar to a snail's and they prey on common earthworms. Though, somehow related to other flat worms, this one is not dangerous to humans or pets, and is not poisonous (though it did say that it wouldn't taste good to dogs). We were relieved to learn that it was just picked up from the dirt and harmless. It was still one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen (the picture below is the image we found when we searched for it):

Transistions

Many changes since I came back from Italy. Work has been one long transition due to the loss of an owner. New roles and new people are getting defined. Hopefully it's all for the better.

My house mate eloped and now my living situation is in questioning. I'm worried if I'll be able to find as good of a situation as I've had.

Luckily, the one constant has been my relationship - thank god for that!

Italia

A few months ago, in the midst of my work's busiest season, I decided that I would need a good reward when vacation time came, so Chris and I decided on a trip around Italy. I've never been to Italy and Chris has never been out of country, so it was very exciting for both of us! Our trip was 2 weeks long and we started in Rome.

We were pretty jet lagged the day we got there, but managed to check out a few churches near our hotel. We also took a walk through Rome, recommended in our guidebook, to the Campo di Fiori, Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Piazza Colonna, Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps.


On July 24th, we went to the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum, and Capital Hill. It was pretty interesting to see all of the ancient ruins. We skipped the line (thanks to our Rick Steve's Guidebook) by going to the line at Palatine Hill instead of the Colosseum. It was extremely hot, but we were happy that there were lots of water fountains to fill up our water bottles.




On the 25th, we woke up early and went to Vatican City. The line to get in stretched around the block, but moved pretty quickly. But after, when we came out, we saw there was no line, so I guess we shouldn't have waited. We were impressed by the museum's big art collection and lots of painted, gaudy ceilings, but a little disappointed with the Sistine Chapel. It was not what I thought it would be at all. We seemed to stumble on it like any other hallway in the Vatican, when I thought it would be some grand cathedral. It was really hard to see the famous painted ceiling, because it was painted in lots of really small panels. Then, we went to St. Peter's Cathedral, which was as exciting as we thought it would be. In the afternoon, we went to the National Museum of Rome and saw famous statues, like the Discus Thrower, but many of them were copies, so I was confused whether what we were looking at was the real thing or not.

Our last day in Rome, we went to the Villa Borghese. The gallery there was gorgeous and we felt the ceilings were what the Sistine Chapel should have been. They were colorful, dramatic, and large! There were also some fantastic sculptures there with lots of emotion. There were no photos allowed and they were very strict about it. They wouldn't even let you in with a camera! Maybe this is why the art was kept in such pristine condition? We spent the rest of the day in the Villa Borghese, which is a big park (like Central Park in NYC), except with statues and roman columns scattered around. We rented a boat and rowed on a small lake there. Then walked back to our hotel.

On Friday, the 27th, we took a day trip to Pompei. We had to take a subway from Naples, which was very sketchy, and dirty. They kept announcing to beware of pickpockets, so we kept a close eye on our bags. The weather was predicted to be 95 degrees (and feel like 101!), so we prepared for the worst. But it wasn't as bad as we thought, except for the subway, which was extremely humid and made poor Chris sweat profusely. In Pompei, I was expecting just to see lots of plastered people, but there were only a couple. The more fascinating thing was to see how an ancient city was designed/run. We were shocked how large it was, it would be so easy to get lost!

On the 28th, we took an express train to Florence. When we got there, we ate lunch atop a department store in Piazza Republica (recommended by a friend), and went inside the Duomo. In the afternoon, we walked around the San Lorenzo Market and bought some leather souveniers. The next day, we went to the Uffizi Gallery (again skipped the line, by making reservations - Thanks, Rick Steves) and saw many famous Medieval and Renaissance paintings, and read through the tour in our guidebook to learn how art developed through the years. It saved us quite a bit of money not having to do the audioguides at every museum. We walked across the Ponte Vecchio Bridge and went to the Boboli Gardens in the afternoon.

On Monday July 30th, we went to the Bargello Museum. It was kind of a bust because many of the more famous statues were under restoration. We walked to the Santa Croce Church and saw quite a number of famous people's tombs, like Galileo, Michaelangelo, Dante, etc. From there we went to the Science Museum which had lots of mathematical tools and some of the first clocks. It also had the middle finger of Galileo. There aren't too many pictures of Florence, because most of the museums did not allow cameras!

On the 31st, we went to the Accademia in the morning, to see the famous David statue by Michaelangelo. We paid 13 Euros for that museum and the only thing there was the statue of David! What a rip off! The statue was HUGE, but a pretty good piece of art. They said no pictures, but everyone was taking them of the statue. Chris and I didn't break the rules, so we don't have any photos of it. After that, we decided to take a day trip to Pisa, which wasn't in our original plans. We went up the Leaning Tower, which until 2001 had been under renovation to partially correct the lean. They brought it back about 6 degrees, to the same place it had been 200 years ago. It still leans pretty badly, enough to give you some vertigo at the top! We had to wait a few hours because they only let a certain amount of people up at a time, so we ate a leisurely lunch and went into the Church there before getting to climb the tower. It was pretty exciting to get to the top and there were some pretty good views. Chris got a little nervous at the top (I just thought it was exciting).

On August 1st, we left Florence for an overnight in Siena. It was nice, with lots of winding streets and hills. We went to the Duomo there, and then relaxed in Il Campo, the main square for the afternoon. We walked to the San Domenico Church, with the Patron Saint of Siena (St. Catherine). It was not very interesting, so we walked back to the square with some gelato and waited for dinner pigeon/people watching.

On the 2nd, we left Siena and took a train to Venice. We had to change trains in Florence, it took most of the day to get to Venice. We rode the Vaperetto (Water Bus) from the train station to St. Marks Square. Then we attempted to walk to our hotel nearby. I say attempted, because we took a couple of wrong bridges! They tell you to get lost in Venice, but it wasn't so fun with our luggage! It ended up that we were on the right track and we found our hotel without getting too frustrated. After we checked in, we decided to get a good map of Venice that showed all the side streets and alleys.

On the 3rd, we headed to Saint Mark's Square, but it was drizzling a little. We were happy to see some cool rain after all the heat! Venice looked beautiful and I thought that maybe this is how Venice was meant to be seen: rising out of the fog, a gray, city from the past... Again, we got to skip the long line at the Basilica, thanks to tips from our trusty Rick Steves Guidebook! Then, we bought some birdseed and fed the pigeons. It was quite fun. and we finished, just before a big rain storm dumped on us and cleared the square. To get out of the rain, we followed everyone else into Doge's Palace. It was really neat to see the workings of Venice's (VERY) proud republic as well as the corrupt parts, like the covered Bridge of Sighs that took prisoners to their jail cells in secrecy, never to be heard from again! After Doge's palace, the skies had cleared up and we walked to the busy Rialto Bridge. For dinner, we went out to a very nice dinner (my mom's gift to us) and had some great wine.

On the 4th, our last day in Italy, we got a ride to Murano island, where they make beautiful glass art. We saw a quick and lame demonstration, then walked through the shops on the island. The glass museum was closed, so we went back to Venice and wandered around for the rest of the afternoon, getting lost (this time on purpose). But everytime we walked down some back alley, we'd end up back on some square that we recognized, so we wandered our way back to the hotel. Then we went on a gondola ride at dusk for our last views of Venice. It was definately not worth the Euros, but something that was nice and of course, mandatory for a couple's vacation in Venice.


On Sunday, the 5th, to complete our 2 weeks abroad, we left early for the airport to fly home. Overall, it was a pretty perfect trip. Good travel partners (though, we already knew we got along), and I really like the amount of time we spent in each city, as well as the order we did it in. It seemed to go from the beginning of western society to the end of the renaissance. Chris (a tomato-hater), even found a liking for Bruschetta!! Hopefully, he also discovered a passion for traveling, to keep up with me! =)

CADA Camp

As part of my job, I went to Santa Barbara a couple weeks ago to oversee some Student ASB Leaders at a Camp. My company doesn't put together the camp, but we do sponsor some events like a picnic and a couple of dances which showcase some of our vendors to them. During the first camp, my coworkers came up with me and it was my last chance to hang out with Nicole, who decided to leave our company. She will definitely be missed, as I felt that I was just getting close to her! =( For the second camp, we had hired someone on the spot and brought her along THAT day for her first day of work! Poor girl, getting thrown into the mix right away! Oh well. Then my coworkers all left and I stayed for the entire duration of the second camp. My boyfriend came to visit me because I had a free day in Santa Barbara with nothing to do. Here are pictures from the first camp:

We went out to dinner the night before. Suffice to say, I had a little too much to drink. Pictured: My Bosses Tiff and Yvette with Nicole and me in the middle.


The theme of the camp was Leadership Adventure (Pirates)


Here is our awesome Caricaturist, Don Flaws. He did a portrait of Nicole and me as a going away present and I have it hanging in my office, now.


Here is our Strolling Magician, Johnny Ace Palmer. I have seen his tricks multiple times and still don't know how he does it!


Here is the inflatable giant slide. It's pretty fun!


I know Nicole has been wanting to fight me since the day I started work. She finally got her chance on the Jousting. She pretty much kicked my ass.


Here's Tiffany and Yvette with one of our really cute DJ's, Derek!


We went out to dinner the next night, too. This is my favorite picture of my coworkers/bosses: