It's all in who you know

I live a charmed life. I'm convinced of it. After spending excessive amounts of time searching for a decently priced hotel in San Diego we came to the conclusion that we would be spending our nights parked in a Walmart parking lot in the buggie. Two hundred dollars for a Motel 6 just didn't seem right. Long story short, Cyn pulled some strings and we ended up crashing at John's condo Friday night and then staying at Lisa's brother's house Saturday night... FREE!

Friday: 1:30 p.m. We arrived at Mission Beach to join the masses of beach goers and immediately scored a front row parking space while the people walking by us have just lugged their coolers across five crowded parking lots and three different intersections. A charmed life, I say.

5:00 p.m. Bill & Maxine invited us to join them for grilling at Ski Beach. After a delicious feast that included homemade ice cream, we hopped in the boat for a sunset cruise around Mission Bay. Who's spoiled?

9:00 p.m. We crashed the party at John's. Perfect way to end the day.

Saturday: Caro called so we met her at Horton's Plaza for breakfast and some shopping. I couldn't believe that it had been 3 1/2 years since I had seen her! BCBG had a fantastic sale going on. Sadly enough, it wasn't fantastic enough for my budget. One day...

With our shopping fix taken care of, we headed for the Fish Market expecting to have to wait at least 30 minutes if we were lucky enough to get a parking spot within a mile of the restaurant, however; being charmed makes things a lot easier. Parking spaces magically appear and restaurant lines disappear. We practically walked into the restaurant without having to stop until we reached our table (outside overlooking the water-glorious!) Caro paid which was ultra-sweet of her. After the delectable meal of smoked fish for me and shrimp & scallops them (eww), we jumped on a rickshaw to SeaPort Village. After a short stint there we said goodbye to Caro and headed back to the car. Here's where the charmed part of my life ends... a parking ticket. Sick.

The beach was calling our name again so we headed to pacific beach with Lisa. Swam, sunned ourselves, and tried to avoid jelly fish. That evening we went to an amazing Indian restaurant in Hillcrest and gorged ourselves unintentionally. That night John bought us tickets to The Comedy Store in La Jolla so we met up with everyone there for a few laughs. (and some yawns too)

Sunday: Farewell to Jeanna which is always my least favorite part of friends being on vacation.

Today is the start of the interpreting insanity. A fabulous combination of a headache and an ear ache have showed up to make the day a bit more challenging. Oh well, life goes on.

Currently: Creatively zapping away 10 hours a day
August 20: Flying fingers furiously working

Rain

Today started out by way oversleeping, rounding up Monti from his gleeful morning gallivanting, dropping peanut butter toast on my skirt, running into rain half way to work just to find out that the wiper blades on my buggy are completely shot and then trudging up the hill to work two coffees in hand and getting soaked. Perfect day for a white shirt. All that said, the day has been decent. The pleasantness of the day can be attributed to the fact that this is one of the 3 days a year I have the opportunity to see rain, hear thunder and feel what it's like to be outside of the oven.

Apparently I am incapable of keeping food and drink off of my clothes today. Peanut butter on the skirt and as of 2 seconds ago, coffee dribbled down the front of my nice white shirt. Lovely.

healing power of chocolate

I am struggling through a 10 hour day at work thanks to the grip that reality TV has on me. The extra caffeine kick (peanut M&M's) at 11:30 p.m. didn't help either. Self control? Never even heard of that or so one would think.

In an attempt to ease the things weighing heavy on my mind, Jeanna and I headed in to town for some shopping therapy. Just a temporary fix but so worth it! I've got to accept the fact that this will be another trip through the all too familiar process of remembering, reliving, forgiving and moving on. It can be done and I will do it.

Most of my family seems to think that I'm caught up in pessimism and that I'll fly through the NIC as though I was born interpreting. How can I explain that it's not about believing in myself; it's about good interpreting and bad. I definitely succeeded at the latter. Oh well, I can attempt to explain myself til I'm blue in the face... for now I'll take Ty up on his bet and wait for the ominous month of October to either make me $100 richer or make me a very surprised and relieved certified interpreter.

The lovely Laura just slipped me a decandent dark chocolate bar with raspberry from Dean & Deluca. What problems? What heartache? The world is right again... as long as the chocolate lasts.

Me? A blogger???

So, about this blogging thing... why do I feel the need to do this? Self expression is great; however, the written word tends to be an outlet for anger and ugliness for me... not really something that I would want anyone else to read. Here I am a decade behind the first to take the blogging plunge with so many reservations that I doubt my blogging will evolve much past what it is in the here and now. Who knows...

Thursday at last!

5:00 a.m. : Definitely a 'sweet spot' in my sleep cycle and the exact time the alarm went off. An overly ambitious guest in my house was up and ready for a morning jog through the endless desert. I almost convinced myself that I needed the extra sleep and then remembered mi amiga Imelda was making enchiladas tonight. No doubt about it; I must move this body in order to guiltlessly indulge in the p.m.