I'm back

I got back Friday. Now I'm going through my photos to present the true gems. Basically, I'm putting all of my photos on flickr, about a thousand or so on Facebook, printing off about 70-80, and put about 20 on here, so it's a long filter process.

And I really want to go see The Blind Side, New Moon, and a couple of other pictures that have come out since I've been gone.

I'm leavin' on a jet plane (then a cruise ship)

Well, I'll soon be boarding a jet just like this and head out to Rome


I wish this was our Lufthansa pilot, but he's a bit too busy these days to do that anymore.


Then I'll be boarding this ship for a couple of weeks. After my 7 night cruise in Alaska, I really felt like the Celebrity Infinity was my home, even going so far as making a special trip to San Francisco just to see it as it was repositiong and had a stopover there, so I can imagine after 10 nights I'll be even more attached to this ship.

States I've Visited

create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide

Just for fun, here's my list of states I've visited. I need to have an east coast trip sometime soon.

I like maps

This is my list of countries I've visited now:


create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide


and this is my map in two and a half weeks:



create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide


I could almost count Germany, but I'll only be in the airport for that, so I won't count it. I've got to actually touch un-airported ground.

I can't wait! Tons of pictures when I get back!

A much needed (almost) Girl's Night Out

One of the best things about going to the Halloween Dance last Friday night was reconnecting with my friend Amy. She invited me to her 25th birthday party going to the Cheesecake Factory in San Francisco. I just really enjoy going to San Francisco. We had such a great time! It was almost a girls night out, except for Amy's brother that met us there.

We met in Napa and decided we needed to take two cars, so I went with Jill to go pick up our friend Monica at her home. That was really good, because we got to talk a bit, which I really needed to talk to someone who has certain things in common with me. It was really great talking to her. We picked up Monica and drove into the city, then got lost first trying to find Union Square, then when we found it, trying to get back to it to park. Crazy San Francisco streets! And crazy people almost walking in front of Jill's car. We ended up parking a few blocks away and walking over to Macys at Union Square. The Cheesecake Factory is on top of Macys.

We had fun going up the escalators of each floor - everybody wanted to shop on different floors. We finally ended up at the Cheesecake Factory and had a short wait until our tables were ready. We ended up sitting at two tables side by side to allow us to move in and out to the bathroom. Jill, Monica, Christina, and I sat at one table, with the Hansen family and Sara sitting at the other. We decided just to get the appetizer sampler and then later get cheesecake. It was good! And I got the Snickers cheesecake. It was good, just not the best I've ever had there.

When we were done, we posed for pictures out on the balcony, then everyone else left and Monica, Jill and I walked over to the Westin St. Francis to go up their elevators. They have the elevators that are on the outside of the building. We rode up the elevators about 10 times, flirting with the guys that would get on occassionally and taking pictures in various poses. It was such a blast.

We finally walked back to the car and Jill drove us back. I really tried to stay awake, but it just wasn't happening, and I had a nice snooze (judging by my dry throat, I think I seranaded Jill with my snores) back to Monica's house and then back to Napa. Luckily by then I was awake enough to drive home, although Jill did offer her place if I couldn't make it.

It was such a great night - just the type of night that I needed. (More pictures of the fun in the elevator when my friend posts them)


I like this picture other than I look huge.

My friend Jill. She is such a fun person! (and I don't just say that because she reads my blog).

The birthday girl herself!

Sara and I

I don't have pictures with Monica, and I love her! She's so very entertaining! So I'm sad I have no pictures with her.

This is Halloween

This past Saturday was Halloween, and I decided I wanted a new costume this year. It started when I was at Disneyland. I really wanted to dress up as Goofy after seeing the big Goofy hat at Disneyland. So I thought about getting the hat and the gloves, then saw the price tag on them and realized I'd be spending $50 just on that, and still would need the rest of the costume. So I said no.

But when I came home, I still wanted a costume, so after checking the local Spirit store, and not finding anything I liked, I stopped by Party City and found the costume I wanted. It wasn't built for larger people, so I had to try it on. I loved it, even though it does kind of show my love handles... er, love handlebar, or love roll? It was fun to dress up and I enjoyed seeing everyone at a Halloween eve dance where 95% of people were dressed up, and on Halloween where I went to two ward parties, had dinner with friends, and went to another dance. It was good to be queen, as I was the Evil Queen from Snow White. After feeling down last weekend, it really helped lift my spirits.

Some of my friends before the dance

Having fun dancing

Michelle, Amy, Sara, Me, and the safety handle

I don't know these people. They just wanted a picture together. I don't know if Snow White and Prince Charming even knew each other.

These girls are so cute, and thanks to Lauren for letting me use her arm to hide an embarassing salsa spill

I like this shot because it makes my head seem smaller

I have a feeling I'll have a real disagreement with her later in life. Oh stepdaughters! Actually, I don't remember who's baby this is, but she really wanted me to take a picture with her daughter.

Trying to give an apple to a friend at Ward Party #1

Hey, I'll take anyone who's interested. Oh wait, he doesn't exactly look excited. :(

Don't Stop Believing

Darn Glee cast can cheer me up so much! Halloween was fun and helped me at least temporarily get out of my funk.

Glee - Don't Stop Believe
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What's the word to describe how I'm feeling?

I'm not quite sure how to describe how I'm feeling these days. Depressed isn't the word. I'm generally happy, and realize I'm lucky to have the things I have, a new house, some great friends, and a wonderful family. But I think as my 35th birthday gets closer it really hits me that not only am I not married, I haven't ever really been in a relationship. That just sucks. Right now, the prospects aren't good. I tried checking out a singles ward, but although it seems like a fantastic ward, it's a little old for me. I just don't think I want to hope to date someone that might have served in Vietnam with my dad.

So, I'm going to check a mid-singles ward in Sacramento. Supposedly it's pretty big. That's what she said (dang Office quotes going through my head). I hope so. I decided to move in part to hopefully help jump start my social life. But I've found making single friends to be quite difficult when you don't have a YSA ward to meet them in. That's also part of my funk. I in general don't have a lot of friends calling me wanting to hang out. It's led to a feeling of nobody wanting me around. It's difficult when a lot of my friends are twenty miles away for them to just call and want to hang out. That's part of the reason I moved to Fairfield, to be in more of the area where people my age might be. In Vallejo, all my friends were either in Benicia or Napa (places I couldn't afford), and back when I went to Institute, in Fairfield. So now I'm here, but too old to go to the YSA ward (well, I could go, but as I get more and more 18 year old friends, I realize how that's not really helping me to grow).

I'm kind of embarassed to put this on my blog. Especially because I have really good friends who read this. I hate that sometimes I feel like such a loser. Right now I feel like I live in exile from my family and my friends. As much as I'd love living closer to my family, I just know that if I did, I'd only hang out with my family and wouldn't meet anyone else other than friends of theirs.

I hope this doesn't come across as whining, and I hope this doesn't make anyone worried about me. Like I said, it's not really so much a depression, although I am worried about getting out of this funk before it becomes one. So, although I'm somewhat embarassed to put this up, I'm curious of what my friends think. Maybe I'm just fishing for compliments (I wouldn't mind :). As my post below mentions, I'm also somewhat worried about my job. I might very quickly delete this post, but for now, I'll do it.

So, what would you do if you found yourself in my funk? I appreciate your help. Oh, and have a Happy Halloween!

Just trying to get by

Sorry for not posting much recently. It's been a bit stressful at work. The economic conditions are so bad in California that even relatively conservite spending counties like the one I work for are having a real hard time trying to stay balanced. We just were alerted to layoffs. How they do it with our union is by seniority. I was tied for second from the bottom. If the union doesn't make concessions and the cuts go through, I'll now be tied at the bottom, which of course is pretty dang scary. The good news is that it doesn't look like the department that's paying for my position plans on giving it up anytime soon, so hopefully things will be just fine. But I think I'll be getting a couple of more gray hairs along the way. Thank goodness for hair dye!

Disneyland on my own

I got a season pass to Disneyland last Christmas time, and had gone twice, one right after Christmas, and for my birthday. I had planned on going either in April or September, let alone in the summer, but then I bought my house and had to deal with all of that. So, as I'm getting close to the end of the pass, and not sure yet if I'll renew it (I want to, of course), I decided I really wanted to go two more times, once for Halloween, and once for Christmas. So I took a couple of days off of work last week, in addition to the Columbus Day holiday I got to take, and went down to Disneyland. It was just by myself, but I'm good with that. I went by myself for Christmas, and it can be a great way to go - I could do whatever I wanted to! But I definitely want to go again soon with friends or family.

The bench where Walt Disney came up with the idea of Disneyland

Walt and Mickey surrounded by pumpkins

Haunted Mansion Holiday

Having fun at the Giants game

My nephew Nathan's birthday was on Thursday, and for his seventh birthday, my brother took him, myself, Nathan's brother Dillon, and his cousin (my sister's son) Jeffry to the Giants game. They stayed with me and we had a great time. The Giants lost 9-1 to the Dodgers (Dillon's team), but we all had a great time. It was such a great experience. I love those boys!


Having fun at my place with my NERF gun

Showing off his bat, Nathan had a blast

Those cute boys!

Nathan didn't want his picture taken (big surprise)

So he even acted like a vampire to my brother. It was funny.

Dillon with the catcher's style backpack, which was the promotion for the game. The boys were all excited to get it. Great time to go. I wanted one (but only 14 and under got one)!


My brother and I. I'm wearing my BYU tshirt, since I didn't have a Giants one. Go Cougars!!!


Absolute cuteness!!!

They're so cute! Jeffry was a Dodgers fan, but decided to be a Giants fan for the day. Notice the orange?

Another shot of the Catcher's backpack. Of course, they wanted it more as a frontpack since it looked like a catcher's shield.

Them boys were tired after the game. They were so out of it by the time they got back to my place, that they didn't get up when we got them out of the car.
So, happy birthday Nathan. I'm glad you had a good time.

Never forget.....

Never forget September 11th, 2001

Having fun with Robbie and Friends

I had a lot of fun this weekend. My friend Robbie came to visit from Utah for his father's memorial service (he died in May, so there's been some time to make this a fun visit besides the somberness of a funeral). He brought some friends of his, and some other friends came to visit that I knew when they lived here. We went to see Wicked (yep, second time in a month and a half - but it was definitely worth seeing again) and then eat at the Cheesecake Factory. We got home Saturday morning at 4 am. It was awesome to see Robbie and Caitie again and fun to meet the new people. The musical was great again. The two main parts were played by the same people, which is interesting because the woman playing Elphaba is the standby. And I think she's great! The t-shirt vendor said she's actually better than the actual regular performer.



Saturday, after the funeral, I invited myself to lunch with everyone. I wasn't the only non-family there, so I wasn't too worried, but felt bad when Robbie's uncle bought lunch for everyone. I didn't mean to mooch off of anyone, but am very greatful for lunch. It was pretty dang good. It was at Compadres, a place I got to experience before with a group of my friends. It's got a great view of the Napa River, so it makes for a nice backdrop. After getting home after lunch, I was so dead I had to take a nap, as did Robbie.

But we got up in time to have dinner at a family Robbie basically grew up with. We had an awesome dinner (that I was so full I didn't even get to finish eating) and awesome dessert. And I found out they live in my ward, so I now know another couple in my ward. It was great.

Then we went out and about to Napa. They wanted to see the grave of Lilburn Boggs, the former governor of Missouri who signed the Extermination Order that authourized Missourians to remove the Mormons any way possible, including killing us. They wanted to .... uh, pay their respects, we'll just say. We then drove to Watson Lane in American Canyon and drove somewhat fast over the railroad tracks, enough to get some air. That was out of respect for Robbie's dad, who used to do a bunch of crazy stuff there and wrecked a few cars (not by doing what we were doing, but by being a lot crazier, evidently). It was crazy. We tried to do it going back, but it didn't work as well.


And finally that night we drove around until we found the train bridge. We had a little excurision and got to see the bridge up close and personal. I can't quite say what we did, but we did get plenty of good views of the bridge. I have to give a big thanks to Robbie and his friends for helping me to be able to get the good views I got.




Here's a picture from back in the day when the bridge was actually used as a train bridge.

After getting home and going to sleep, we all went to the singles ward the next day to welcome home another friend from his mission, then they went off to continue their adventures at Dillon Beach and the Redwoods National Park, before heading back to Utah. Actually, Robbie stayed another couple of days, and after Institute Tuesday, we reenacted an old tradition and went to Dennys.

It was a lot of fun, and with some of the adventures mentioned above, I got some bruises and scratches, but it was all worth it. I kept telling anyone who noticed my big bruise that I have an abusive boyfriend.

Thanks Robbie for helping cheer me up. It's great to hang out with friends and have good times. And to reawaken me to realizing how great it is to live here, and how much there is to do within a few hours of my house.