Another Day Up North

Now the story goes....the buffalo on the wall of this random breakfast place, somewhere between Morgan Hill and Half Moon Bay, actually talks. However when we were watching him he didn't utter a word. I am thinking he was probably worried about dropping his bow.

Bocce Time!

After a great birthday horseback riding we all rallied and went to dinner and to play bocce ball. I was so very tired but since the girls won the game and schooled the guys it was worth staying up.

After dinner and tiramibirthday cake I was still a hungry hippo.

Dreams

I have freaky dreams. They are always vivid and sometimes leave me feeling foggy and unsorted when I wake up. Last week I had a dream that there was a twig growing out of the center of my head. When I called to ask my mom if she remembered me getting hurt when I was little, or something that would account for a twig growing out of my head she replied, "oh yeah, when you were 5 you fell out of a tree, that must be what it is from." I woke up in the middle of the night and felt my scalp to see if it was indeed a dream - - obviously... it was. That same night I went back to sleep only to dream that my boyfriend's mom was Vanna White and he said she was a very private person and didn't like him to tell people about her or introduce them to her. Now I am not an expert in dream interpretation but I am sure there is some deeper meaning to these dreams beyond the fact that I am weird.

As a kid I always had terrible scary dreams. I would dream I was dying, being chased, losing my teeth, struggling to put contact lenses the size of plates into my eyes. All strange dreams and all very vivid. Recently I have dreams about spiders, swimming in a lake with alligators and the always popular trying to run but unable to stand up. I have now found a website that is dedicated to the interpretation of dreams and will help me to decipher what my subconscious is trying to tell me...beyond that I need a much less active imagination.

http://www.brilliantdreams.com/dream-dictionary/dream-dictionary-c.htm

DisneyTimes

The End of the Road

It is official, last week I accepted a job offer with Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach and will soon be moving back to Orange County. I thought this would bring only good feelings but it has put me in a moment of reflection and has made me take a good look at the tremendous amount of things I have to be thankful for that my stay in LA has blessed me with.

What I am thankful about from my LA stay:

1. I was part of something amazing - I worked at a tremendously stressful but nonetheless amazing place while in LA. Operation HOPE has a strong mission, a visionary founder and is changing lives throughout the world. Because I was blessed to be part of Operation HOPE I have been to amazing places and I have witnessed amazing things.

I have been to South Africa and went on a safari. Also while I was there had a chance to sit with former Civil Rights leader, Ambassador Andrew Young and listen as he told me stories about he and Martin Luther King's work during the movement. I have been on the trading floor of Wall Street and was part of the opening bell ceremonies at the NASDAQ. I have sat in President Clinton's foundation office in Harlem. I have met amazing people like famous sculptor, Tina Allen who sadly passed away recently. I have sat with Reverend Cecil "Chip" Murray the Chair of the Tansy School at USC and famed leader in Los Angeles while he talked to me about life and love. I have flown to and explored great cities like New York, Chicago, Washington D.C., Atlanta and Philadelphia. I have salsa danced with the Mayor of Los Angeles in Washington D.C. and I have met many other people who are a celebrity in their own right and doing their part to change the world for the good.

2. Entering the Comedy World - Had I not lived in the Pasadena area I don't know if I would ever of gone to the Ice House and auditioned to be a part of their stand up comedy show line up. One fateful Saturday afternoon almost 2 years ago, I went to the Ice House and joined 100 others as we auditioned to be in the show. I was armed with 3 minutes of funny and a whole lot of ignorance. I was lucky to have made the cut along with 7 others and began the fun and often times intimidating world of stand up. Had I never done stand up I wouldn't have signed up at Second City and started doing improv, something which I have grown to enjoy a tremendous amount.

3. My New Friends - I have made some great friends through my work that I will miss seeing every day but I look forward to making the trek past the orange curtain to visit them. Friends like Ilya, who makes me laugh and gives some of the best advice in the world, even though she prefaces it with, "Now although I have no personal experience in this area here's what I think..." And Rachael who is a great mother, a great listener and an overall amazing person and Emily who is so very fun, smart and great to talk to. She just moved here from SF and I am sad that I haven't had the chance to spend a lot of time with her now that she lives in LA.

4. Relationship Wisdom - Probably the most painful part of moving to Los Angeles was what it brought on the relationship front. For the first time in my life I went on dates with guys I barely knew (in the past I only dated people I worked with or was friends with before hand) which was so depressing. After casually dating a couple of guys I was left thinking, "If this is all that's left then I should just get to it and get my ovaries removed and get busy with adopting cats." Okay maybe a little over-dramatic but it was greatly depressing thinking that the dating pool was only filled with douchebags.

I began two relationships both which ended terribly. One with a guy who lied to me and had a fiancee on the side and the other who seemed like a great catch only to turn out to be an asshole and a coward. But in the end it forced me to face two of my greatest relationship fears; being betrayed and lied to and being left. Facing those two things has really taught me a lot about myself and about what I deserve from the person I am in a relationship with. I am better because of the pain I faced in those relationships and I have stumbled upon a great new relationship chapter that I am looking forward to growing.

I am excited and nervous as I begin to transition back to OC and out of Operation HOPE. But I can say whatever tomorrow brings, I welcome it with open arms.

Best Part of My Day

The best part of my day today is that I have met a great guy...and he seems to like so many things about me and not just my french toast and it feels wonderful and amazing to have someone feel that way about me. It's been too long! And the kicker is....he's pretty awesome too.

The publisher would like to make a public apology and clarify that while this story implied that the mystery person had just been met that day, he was in fact met much earlier than that day. He was actually met weeks before this post. We apologize for any confusion and blame it on the misinterpretation of the reader more so than the publisher. - Good Day

Happy Birthday Gammie!

This Sunday was Father's Day which is a great day, but I was most excited about the fact that is was also the same day as my grandmother's 90th birthday! My grandmother is one of my most favorite people in the world and I think that everyone should have someone as wonderful as her to bless their lives.

My grandmother - "Gammie" - is unique in every sense of the word. She had never been like other grandmothers. She drove a cherry red camero up until she was in her early 80's, she wore leather skirts and stiletto heels, she wore fancy clothes and would "burn rubber" in the school parking lot when she would pick my brother and I from elementary school. She never cooked, baked or sewed. She was the grandma who people would mistake for my mom because she looked so young and acted so vibrant....everyone always wanted her to be their grandmother but I was the lucky one!

Yesterday was an amazing day because a week ago she fell at home and broke her hip. The whole family was worried that she would spend her 90th birthday in the hospital. But true to her determined spirit she was back home where we celebrated her birthday. She was in great spirits and said it was her best birthday yet...happy birthday Gammie looking forward to an even better b-day next year!

I am HOT...HOT...HOT

My grandmother's 90th birthday is in June and my mom, brother and I thought it would be a great idea to create a picture album for her filled with family memories throughout the years. I was visiting my mom over Memorial Day weekend and we spent a few hours digging through old pictures to include in the album. In our picture hunt I came across an old school picture...which as you can clearly see is the early mark of my hotness.

I strongly believe the biggest fear for a child is the day they learn they need glasses or braces. These things are like the scarlet letter of elementary school. Kids who are cursed with four eyes or a metal mouth, no matter how easily they fit in before, find themselves cast out of the "in crowd" and quickly make their way to the end of the line at the polar opposite of "coolness". As a kid I was blessed with naturally straight teeth but horribly messed up eyesight. No matter how many carrots I chowed down on I saw the fuzzy lines of the blackboard grow even fuzzier until that fateful day when my teacher sent me home with a note addressed to my mom...which under strained squinted eyesight I knew read, "Stacy needs glasses".

The way my mom tells the story...I was the one who picked out my glasses and insisted on the huge pink frames. The way I tell it...my mom did not do her proper motherly duty in damage control. To add to insult my eyesight was so bad that my glasses were bi-focals and so thick that if I looked into the afternoon sun I would surely burn off all my eyelashes.

I wore glasses for about 4 years until the wonderful day when my wishes were answered and my mom allowed me to graduate from nerdy four eyes to a full fledged contact lens wearer. I couldn't ditch the glasses soon enough. The scars were almost healed although not forgotten. In those 4 years I endured countless name calling...suffered the brunt of many punchlines and was even asked out by the most popular boy in school as a result of a painful dare by his friends.

Being cursed with huge pink glasses...which over the years varied from huge pink glasses to huge navy blue glasses and varying shades between...actually brought me quite a few blessings. I wasn't ever one of the pretty girls that the boys wanted to go out with. I could never rely on my looks to get me by on anything. I couldn't bat my eyelashes to get my way...even though they were quite noticeable as they were magnified to ten times their normal size. I couldn't depend on the idea that guys would always be falling at my feet...that was my good friend Tania who held that curse. But I did spend those 4 years (between the tears of course) relying on my sense of humor and my ability to make people smile. I couldn't cherish my good looks so I cherished my good character and sensitivity. Looking the way I did forced me to dig deeper than what I looked like to others and focus on how I was to others. I didn't have the magnetism of looks to draw people in so I had to draw them in through other means. I got my friends through a far deeper connection.

No matter how many years pass between my "glasses years" and today I always feel like if I remember who I was back then...the little girl with huge glasses...I am able to see the world more clearly...and that is a blessing in itself.