House of Horrors

Ok, so I thought this story was funny enough to print, although it is funnier to actually see and hear me tell it:

Because my company plans proms for high schools, this weekend, I had to work at a prom that was at Universal Studios. I was leading it, and hadn't been to a prom there before, so I made sure to get there early. It was just as they were closing the park and shuffling everyone to the gates. I asked around and they told me to go to these green gates on the side, to be let into the Prom area.

I find the green gates and flag down a guy that is vacuuming. He comes over and I tell him I am there for the prom, but he informs me that since I'm early, the gates haven't been dis-armed. He told me that I could enter through the loading dock, however, so he told me to go downstairs one level, and then come back up in the elevator.

I head downstairs, find the loading dock and don't see the freight elevator. So, I head to the door of the building. I walk through this winding hallway and pass a few people, but they don't seem to stop me or think I'm out of place. Then I arrive in this dressing room with costumes for the Universal Park Characters staff. A couple of people are in there, taking off their masks, but they don't question me, so I see an elevator and decide to head upstairs. I'm on level "K", so I go up one floor to "LL".

The elevator doors open to pitch black. I peer out. Is this the right place?! He said one floor? I hear lots of sound effects, as if I'm in the back of a movie theater... I can't see a damn thing, but there are some stairs to my left, so I go up a few until I get to a landing, and then I can't see where they turn. I decide this is the wrong way, so I go back downstairs and contemplate getting back into the elevator. Just then, a maintenance looking man comes out of a curtain ahead of me. Beyond the curtain, I can see some glowing exit signs. He doesn't stop and continues up the stairs. I draw back the curtain and head into the next dark room. I see 3 glowing exit signs, but am unsure whether I should use them, for fear that they are emergency exits and alarmed! So, I follow this dark plywood path. It makes a turn and suddenly a werewolf jumps out and tries to grab me!!!! I scream because I'm startled and realize that I'm in the middle of Universal's newest attraction: The House of Horrors.

With my heart still racing and still not being able to see anything, I decide to try and leave the exhibit as soon as possible, but soon another monster jumps out at me! I scream, again, and cling to my binder. I decide that they should know that I'm not a visitor, but when the third monster jumps at me, I scream and whine, "No, I'm just trying to leeeave!!!" To which the monster replied, "Rawwwrrr, Nooo, STAAAY" in a scary voice. I see the next monster waiting for me, so I plead to him, "Nooo, please, don't... No!!" I think he took pity on me and didn't jump out at me as much, but he still tried to grab me, which made me scream again. One more monster tries to get me and by this point I'm saying in a very scared, shakey voice, "No, stopp!!!" Then I see daylight, and am very relieved. I start laughing at how ridiculous it was to have been so frightened and how on earth I ended up in the middle of that attraction!

By the time my co-workers arrived, the gate was unlocked and they didn't have to get lost. Next time, maybe I'll see what other rides I can sneak into before the park closes! (Just kidding)

CADA Convention 2007

Last weekend, my company went to the 2007 CADA Convention. It's the Association for California's High and Junior High School Activities Directors. Since the company I work for plans proms, it was the perfect opportunity to market ourselves and build relationships with clients.
Our booth came in FIRST place:



The bikes were hand-built by Kelly, one of the guys in our office. BMWs and beautiful!



My favorite was the side car! He did a really good job and they were the gems of our booth!



Here are the owners of my company, Tiffany and Yvette.


This is Karah on a Segway.


Kaelin was in charge of putting together the booth. The first place plaque now hangs on her wall! Good job! We also shared our booth with some DJs. This is Derek and Kaelin.


Here is the rest of the DJ posse: Michael, Alex, and Tyler. (Kyle not pictured)


This is all of us "Wow Girls": Nicole, Tiffany, Karah, Yvette, me, and Kaelin.


The 2nd night, we all dressed in black cocktail dresses and white boas. Unfortunately, I don't have a shot of all of us matching.

Sun Valley Pictures (Thank you, John!)

My Sister and John....



At lunch on the mountain. Chris, me, mom, Ginny. (John taking photo)


At fancy dinner, Chris and me


I'm trying to flip off the camera, but water glasses got in the way.


Is it just me, or does my sister have the exact same expression on her face as the last photo of me?


I remind myself of my mom in this picture. =(


Ginny modeling on Santa's Lap


Classic Picture: Mom explaining some long-winded story, my sister staring at her like "When is she going to stop?", me about to interrupt with a critical remark, and Chris: the only one who is aware of a picture being taken....


While we were bowling, my dad was playing Pool with John. Great photo, John!


The whole gang for Sun Valley 2007: Chris, Me, Center of Attention (Ginny), John, Peter, and Teresa


Had to take one in front of the sun... Tradition.

Sun Valley 07

Over the holidays, I found out that my parents were planning a trip to Sun Valley, ID. Assuming I was invited (because I have been every other year), I asked when it was. To my dismay, my mom told me that it was a trip for only she and my dad. After a little convincing (read: inviting myself), my mom decided to make it a family trip with my boyfriend and my sister's new beau... Since none of us are in school anymore, we scheduled it for Jan 18-23.

Jan 18th
Left at 6pm, stopped in Reno. I was tempted to play the slots - $1 to win $13 mil!!! But I didn't want to waste a dollar. We got into Boise at 10 and then had to wait 30 min for the rest of my family, who was meeting us from Oakland. We took a private shuttle 3 hours to Sun Valley and got into bed around 2:30am

Jan 19th
Woke up early, ate breakfast and then hit the slopes. There was less snow than usual in Sun Valley, but still gorgeous to ski on. I'm so spoiled because I'm used to such good snow and long, empty slopes. If the snow is the least bit icy or lumpy from being skied on too much, I hate it. My sister had a melt-down on the slopes and for the first time, I wasn't the one annoying her (usually I'm the first to start annoying her). She felt frustrated because she hasn't been skiing in a long time and we were going at normal pace, not taking it easy for her. We were unfair, so I talked her into taking a lesson in order to feel more confident. We took it easy, and left pretty early to get into the jacuzzi. Then we got dressed for dinner at the nice restaurant in the Lodge. My mom insisted we play her favorite game during dinner: Table Topics. It's a game with questions to promp conversation, but my mom uses them to get to know our boyfriends and make judgements about their worthiness of dating her daughters. My sister's boyfriend bought her the "couples" edition, so she was thrilled to get the opportunity to learn about our relationships. We answered questions like "What do you think makes a good parent?" and "What patterns do you repeat in every relationship?" etc. I guess both guys answered the questions pretty well. Then we went to sleep.

Jan 20th
Woke up and went skiing. My dad took the day off, so I went with Chris and my sister's boyfriend while my mom and sister took a lesson. We came back fairly early, so Chris and I walked around the village. My family decided to go to a comedy show. My mom already had 2 drinks (her limit) in the bar, but of course we all drank more at the show. It was pretty empty, so the comedians had a tough job, but they were pretty funny. They ended up teasing my mom a lot, since she was loud and drunk. My sister and I were especially embarrassed when the comedian asked who in the audience had used viagra and my mom cheered! Afterwards, we went to pizza, then back to the lounge to play some games before bed.

Jan 21st
Chris and I decided to sleep in and do a half day of skiing. I called my mom and told her, and didn't call my sister because I was scared she would yell at me for waking her up. When I finally did she was mad, because everyone would've done a half day and she had just had some coffee. My sister borrowed my helmut and we all agreed to meet at the base at 1pm. My mom skiied down with my helmut, but even though she took the "easy way down", a road, she got going too fast and fell. She thought she broke her wrist, but she didn't. Instead, she just got my helmut soaking wet. =( We skiied for the afternoon, but I wasn't doing very well, so we stopped, came home and then watched some football. We went to the bar and watched the first half of the 2nd game, until we had to go to dinner. We ate at an italian restaurant and it was only OK. Then we came back and played more games in the 2nd floor lounge.

Jan 22nd
Chris and I decided not to go skiing after a late breakfast, so we played scrabble in the lounge and relaxed, until my family got back from skiing. They played more scrabble in the bar with us, and then we went to the lodge bowling alley for some bowling and pool. My dad and my sister's boyfriend played pool and Chris beat the girls at bowling. My mom was drunk again and ended up DIVING for a falling glass, only to end up face down on the floor. We went to the only bar in town that had a real size pool table (Lodge only has mini pool and mini bowling). The food was greasy and two guys were all over the only pool table, so we left, played more games in the lounge and then packed...

Jan 23rd
Woke up, ate breakfast, finished packing, and rode the bus back to the Boise airport. My sister, who has the smallest bladder in the world, of course had to stop. She got pissed at my mom and swore her out of her life (she does this approximately every 6 months). Anyway, then we flew to Oakland and Chris and I went on to LA.

Beautiful Vancouver!

View from our Hotel in Vancouver

Float Plane to Victoria

Butchart Gardens in Victoria

The Twelve Days of Christmas... Here are "Five Golden Rings" and "Eight Maids A Milking"

Totem Poles at Butchart Gardens

Kissing my frog prince, or just drinking from his fountain?

Dorky pictures of my sister and I on some Brass Donkeys and my mom in front of a Poinsettia Display

"Art Shots"

A Very Vancouver Thanksgiving

Thursday:
I woke up at 3:30am to catch my 6am flight. That's what happens when you let your mom book your plane reservations. Good thing I was beating the holiday rush! I was even there before Starbucks opened, though it still had a line waiting for their necessary morning coffee.
I arrived in Seattle and met my parents and sister, who flew in from Oakland. We drove in a rental car to our Thanksgiving lunch at the Barking Frog restaurant. It was at a nice hotel, and the food was OK. My mom left feeling very unsatisfied because her turkey dinner lacked the canned cranberry sauce. I drove the car from the restaurant to Vancouver. We hit rush hour for working Canadians, so what should have been 30 min from the border, took an extra 2 hours.
Finally at our hotel, we sat down to a 2nd dinner, and my mom and sister were pleased to see that they were offering a more traditional American dinner, cranberry sauce and all. We finished off the night with a movie, The Devil Wears Prada.

Friday:
We scheduled massages for our first morning in the hotel. A relaxing way to start the vacation. Our hotel was in downtown Vancouver, so we were able to walk everywhere in less than 10 blocks. We walked to an art museum, then while my sister got a haircut, my parents and I went down to Canada Place, which is really just a posh hotel on the water with big sail-like architecture (think: Denver Airport). We headed up to a tower where we could see the whole city, then back to our hotel for cocktails. We decided to eat Chinese for dinner, and I tried Abalone for the first time. It was very rubbery and didn't taste like anything.

Saturday:
We decided that the weather was good enough to head to Victoria, but we didn't want to spend the whole day traveling there by ferry, so we took a float plane (those planes that land on the water). It was really fun to fly over Vancouver and the landing was surprisingly smooth. We went to Butchart Gardens, which we loved. They were decorating for Christmas, so they had set up the 12 days of Christmas (a partridge in a pear tree, seven swans a swimming, etc), so it was fun to seek out each one. We headed back to Victoria to have high tea at the Empress Hotel, but didn't have enough time before our plane was scheduled to take us back to Vancouver. So, we had tea in Vancouver instead. Then we went shopping for the rest of the afternoon. We went to dinner at a nice restaurant near our hotel. It had started to snow, which made my mom pleased (she loves a white Christmas), but all of the locals told us that it doesn't usually snow much, nor would it stick to the ground...

Sunday:
We woke up to snow on the ground, and white, lacy trees. Beautiful. We decided to head back to Seattle, so my sister could see a friend and possibly sightsee or shop. When we got to the highway, it was snowing pretty hard, and there were vehicles strewn all over the road, from spinning off into piles of snow. The traffic slowed as the roads got icier and whiter. Trying to keep things light, I reminisced about a fallen tree, and just then, ahead of us, a couple of trees fell under the weight of the snow, into the road, blocking one of the two lanes. I'm sure it caused quite a backup later. At 4pm, we reached the Canadian border. When we crossed a couple days earlier, there was a beautiful green park next to the ocean.. This time, the only thing we could see was white, blizzard, tons of snow, as if that's the way it had always been.
Across the border, the roads got worse, we stopped being able to see the tracks from the cars in front of us, only white, packed snow, not quite the type of terrain for our meek Hyundai. It was starting to get dark, as we kept our eyes glued to the small piece of windshield that was not iced over. It was then that I realized we would go off the road; it was just a matter of time. My sister began to complain loudly about her tiny bladder, which had already waited 4 hours. So as it got dark, and the snow seemed to be worse than we'd ever imagined, we tried to exit the freeway. I suggested we find a place to spend the night, but instead we took a quick bathroom break at a grocery store, and bought lunchables for the unknown length of time left to go. Halfway to Seattle, we realized I would not make my 7:40 flight, so we canceled it, with no end to the snow in sight. All traffic reports told people to stay off the roads, especially I-5 (the road we were on). Closer to Seattle, the roads got a little better, but traffic was still slow, so the rest of my family changed their flights to 9:55pm (the last flight to Oakland). Snow turned to rain, and the snow melted from our car as we passed Seattle. We got to the airport just in time for our flight, and arrived in Oakland after midnight. Now, mapquest, says that it only takes a little over 2 hours to get from Vancouver to Seattle. We made it in a grueling 9 hours.

Favorite Quotes of the Weekend:
Ginny (my sister), in a particularly sappy moment at our first Thanksgiving dinner: "God, I'm glad I was too hung-over to put on mascara this morning." Classic Ginny.
Mom, reminiscing fondly: "You guys don't remember when I used to treat you like the dog, do you?!" Thanks, mom.

Preview for an upcoming entry: For the 3rd year in a row, my mom did not consult me on the Christmas tree. Unfortunately, this one lasts.

I recently placed pins in a world map to display all the places I've been. I thought that as a person who has been to more places than the average person, I was a traveler who'd seen most of the world. A cosmopolitan in the truest definition. I've seen Stonehenge, Yosemite, Buddhist Temples, the Berlin Wall (or where it used to be), Aztec pyramids, etc, etc.

But when I stood back from my map, I realized with a few pins in the back countries of Europe, and a couple pins in Hong Kong and Japan, I haven't really been anywhere! In actuality, I have only been to half of the traversable continents. And I haven't even been south of the equator for goodness sake!!

It is humbling to say the least. But also inspiring, as my life goals still stand: To travel to all continents (excluding Antarctica), to see the Seven Wonders of the Ancient/Modern/Medieval/Natural World, to travel into Space.... What can I say? I'm a Sagittarius, a traveler at heart, always looking for the next big adventure.

So, my map continues to sit in my room, challenging me to place more pins!

Poker Game of Life

I have just realized that business is a lot like poker.
Due to recent laws, I feel I must add this disclaimer: I do not mean to justify the legality or morality of gambling through this statement. I'm using it purely as a metaphor.

Both are about strategy. Luck helps or hurts occasionally, but generally a smart businessman can play anything.
In poker, as with the business world, you must know exactly what offer you can make that others will accept (or fall for), and you must be able to sell this offer, make it believable.
The major similarity comes in the number one rule: Know the opportune time to get out!

I have recently gotten accidentally put into a position of great decision and power, with the ability to make demands. If I had done this purposefully, I would be a great businesswoman. I already know I'm a good poker player (with almost any game except Texas Hold 'Em, which I cannot stand. And I know better than to try my luck in Vegas), but I have much to learn in both sides of the metaphor.
There is one caveat, however, and it is: In the business world, you can't burn bridges, but somehow people will keep coming back to lose everything in gambling. I guess gamblers are forgiving people.
As with all of my poker games, I will quit while I'm ahead...

SF Opera

I went to opening night at the San Francisco Opera the other week. It was one thing I always wanted to do, so now I can check it off that list of Life's Goals. I went with my dad. It was A Masked Ball, which was only OK, but I went for the party anyway! I wore a black velvet dress with ivory satin that drapes in a scoop neck and a low back. It was beautiful (Thank you Ginny for letting me borrow Rachel's dress). My dad wore a tux of course. My hair took forever, but we finally got it right (twisted low in the back with orchids). That made us late to the cocktail party, so my mom snapped a few pictures and then we dashed off.

We arrived at the Valet, in front of the red carpet. Out of the car in front of us came this fragile woman in her 50's in this brick red dress with tufts of feathers coming out everywhere! Even her shoes had a tufts of feathers on top! It was rather rediculous! The papparazzi of course wanted to shoot her picture and completely ignored me, which was fine, I walked right past anyway. As soon as you got behind a hedge of bushes, there were tables to check in, but all they asked was our table number. I said 3, and they let me right through! Amazing. Then, just past the tables were waiters with trays of wine and Cosmopolitans! I took a Cosmo and we continued up the carpet. There were more paparrazzi which bumped me out of the way and spilled my drink in order to eagerly shoot another woman in front of me! =( Ugh. Inside the tent was a TON of people. My dad said that it looked like a sea of penguins with flowers in between... So, we ate (my dad some caviar, and I some delicious pork appetizers). We didn't know anyone, so we just sat and watched the dresses walk by. Some were nice, most were over-the-top or ugly, or looked like they paid too much for something very so-so... ALL of them looked very expensive! But, I think mine was one of the best - classic and looked great on! I got lots of compliments, and gave out just as many. Then it was time for the opera to start, so we hiked up a gazillion stairs to the top balcony. I can gaurantee no one else from the party was up there (they were all in the bottom seats), but that doesn't matter because no one knows where one sits. And we got to sit in the middle, right in the first row, which means I could lean over the railing!

After the opera, we all shuffled back to the tent where the cocktail party was, which was now transformed into dinner tables and a dancefloor. Again, the only thing they asked was our table number, 3. Then, when looking for our names at table 3, we discovered we were table 5!!! So, basically anyone could go into the party by just saying some bogus table number!! Weird. We thought table 5 meant a good table, front and center, but really it was 5 of like 70 tables, so we were at one end of the whole thing, shoved in a corner! Oh well, it was still fun! They gave us champagne at the door and on each seat there was a gift bag with a Burberry scarf in it! For every person attending! Jeez. I got a red tartan and my dad a black one, which we promptly traded.

We sat next to a couple who was on a blind date. Who takes a blind date to the opera?! And she talked through most of dinner about her ex husband, which is a big no-no.. Oh well. Dinner was a series of small courses. Here is the complete menu:

Duo of Carrot essence - Carrot and Cream soup, and carrot and ginger soup

Smoked Trout Nicoise Salad, Spiced Poached Apple with Prociutto, Baby Beet and Micro-green Salad with Humbolt Fog - When they say micro, they MEAN micro. I gave the piece of trout to my dad. We couldn't figure out what the poached apple was. Someone said potato, someone said mango... It was good, though

Poached Maine Lobster on roasted Butternut Squash with fresh corn polenta Cardinale Sauce - I don't care for lobster. I like crab, but NO other seafood AT ALL. So, I choked this down.

Dessert was Marquise au Chocolat with Porfiteroles and Autumn Berries - VERY rich and excellent presentation on ALL dishes

Then there was dancing, but by the time we finished dinner it was midnight, so I was tired and we just went home... That was my night at the opera!

No pictures because my mom said they all came out black! I don't understand how this happens with a digital camera. The whole point of a digital camera is that you can check to make sure you are getting good photographs!!! Oh well. Good thing I have an excellent memory...

Point Vicente Lighthouse

After a dreadful, busy week of work, Chris took me to the PointVicente Lighthouse.
Here are pictures of beautiful Palos Verdes and the Point Vicente Lighthouse: