My Cousin Donna

I found out last week that my cousin Donna died. I'm not sure exactly when, but I think it was a couple weeks ago. They are waiting on the results of an autopsy because she was a relatively healthy 40 year old. She smoked, I'm not sure how much, but I suspect it contributed to her death. The preliminary cause of death is due to an enlarged heart. Which, according to my aunt, may run in my family! I am going to schedule an appointment with my doctor to talk to her about it.

She's my favorite cousin and I can't believe that she died. I haven't talked to her in ages and I'm feeling terrible about that. It only emphasizes that you never know when someone is going to pass away. I keep imagining that she had no idea that she would just basically drop dead that day. What if she did know? What would she have done differently?

What should I do differently? I don't want that distance to happen with my other friends and family. I'm going to start reaching out to some that I haven't spoken with lately. To me, friends and family are important, but it's so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day events that happen in my life. That whole "out of sight, out of mind" in motion, you know? I have a tendency to procrastinate also, which doesn't help anything.

First on my list of people to contact when I get home next week... Donna's sister and husband. And recontact my Aunt Terry to called to tell me about it. She's the person in my dad's family that I'm closest to and it's been ages since I've talked to her...

I encourage you to contact that friend or family member you haven't called lately. I know why I didn't call her... She was living in Virginia with her husband and kids, then moved back to the OC into my grandparents' house. We exchanged Christmas cards, but then I was having all my marital problems with Jason and I didn't want to call her just to dump my problems on her and admit that my marriage was having so much trouble. After enough time had gone by, it got to a point where it was just kind of embarassing that I hadn't contacted her sooner and thus, time passed. She moved back to Virginia and then I never saw her. The last time I did see her was at my grandfather's funeral. Why did I let pride get in the way? She would've understood and she would've been happy to hear from me... *sigh*

Busy days ahead

I am home for Thursday, but have a TON of stuff to do, both work-wise, socially and to pack for my trip. For some unknown reason, I chose to leave LAX on Friday morning at 5:40 AM. Thankfully, I think Travis is going to give me a ride (thank you!!!), but that pretty much means everything needs to get taken care of tomorrow.

Things to do Thursday
Getting up early for hiking
Dropping off stuff at Travis' apt.
Eating/showering
Work, work, work - lots of phone calls
Dinner with Robert
Packing/cleaning

Yikes! I'm also trying to break my work down so that I have plenty of stuff to do on the plane so I can get that mundane stuff that I hate doing when I'm at home.

Once I land in Atlanta, we're going to Dragon*Con in Atlanta, a huge sci-fi/fantasy con. I am really looking forward to it since I've never been, PLUS I'll get to see Valerie & Tyler and Mark! It should be pretty fun. The first event planned in our evening there is finding Valerie in the Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog room!

Then on Saturday (and the next one), I get to go to my FIRST University of Georgia football games with Greg and 97,000 of his closest friends... I'm taking some of my "bacon-of-the-month" bacon with me as my peace offering to the tailgating gods! The Bulldogs are seeded #1 pre-season, so hopefully, they can do it and win it all! The whole town is obsessed with that college football. It's like straight out of the movies.

On Sunday, I get to see Greg sing (finally!) in the choir at church. He has a solo in the early service, so we'll be getting up early to make it to that!

Whew, I'll be ready for a holiday by the time Labor Day rolls around! It'll be nice to have nothing to do on Monday and have Greg all to myself. I'm really looking forward to seeing him. It's hard living across the country from each other!

I made it to Mississippi safely

I made it safely to Mississippi and so far am having a wonderful time! Carolyn and her husband Eric have been completely gracious hosts, staying up with me chatting with me until almost 1:00 AM! Their son, Gabriel is totally as cute as his pictures and was amazingly still awake when I arrived! They also have two dogs - Beatrice, a harlequin Great Dane and Chloe, a boxer-lab mix. Chloe loooooves attention, while Beatrice is sort of a bully, but I've been standing my ground. Not as easy as you'd think when you're face to face with a dog that could take a big chunk out of you with one bite! But so far, it's been working!

Tomorrow, I get to sleep in (yea!) and then Carolyn, Gabe & I are going to meet up with Eric for his lunch break at Mint Julep! Apparently, they have awesome fried chicken! Who would've thought I'd be interested in that?! Yes, pictures will be forthcoming. Of people AND food!

Good-Bye 2007

This year has been a really fun year. I've met so many people, went to so many gaming conventions (2007 was officially knighted the "Year of Cons" months ago!), and traveled more than I thought would be possible in one year.

My job has been great, but a little too busy for me...

The love life hasn't been wonderful (I'm still single!), but more than one friend has pointed out... at least I've been putting myself out there and trying. Not just sitting at home waiting for Mr. Right to come find me. Which, when I'm feeling down about not having someone special in my life, is what I have to remind myself. Plus, it's encouraging that 2008 is starting out with high hopes!

But I think the thing I have come back to again and again is that I really love my friends. I love spending time with them and going on crazy adventures. Thank you for being a friend (cue Golden Girls music here!)...

Resolutions for 2008 to come!

Belgium friend

I totally forgot that a guy I dated while I was in high school lives in Belgium! His name is Reinhold and he was staying with friends to visit the U.S. I think he was a little older than me, I just remember that he wasn't in high school anymore. He was terribly charming and a ton of fun to be with. I can't remember the end of everything... I think he left and went back home. I remember we exchanged a letter or two and he mailed me some photos of him and his friends. I wonder if I still have those somewhere... Here's what I do remember...

* He was in love with gangsta rap and took public transportation (BUSES!) from Newport Beach, CA to Compton. Why? Because Compton was/is(?) mentioned all the time in the rap songs. So he wanted to see what it looked like with his own eyes. I just remember that he wasn't impressed. And that it was like a three hour bus ride. One way.

* He was dying to see graffiti art and wanted so badly to be a graffiti artist. I had a friend who was kind of into that, so I think we took a car ride up to a spot where supposedly all the "good" artists did their work and he took some pictures. His street name was "Stick." And he'd take pictures making this "S" with his hands.

* He taught me how to dip my fries into mayonnaise. And I've been doing it ever since.

* He loved reggae and we'd spend hours hanging out and I learned to enjoy it quite a bit too. In fact, I never really listened to it after he left and when I met Jason, anytime he played reggae, it reminded me of Reinhold.

Maybe Ron & I can swing by Belgium for a day or two to check out his art shop that he has now. Apparently he had a band briefly too. That would be so cool if I could arrange that! I just sent off an email to the art shop, so we'll see if hear back from him!

Weekend Recap

This weekend was fun without being crazy, which is so nice. I felt relaxed even though I was pretty busy most of the weekend.

Since it has really cooled down, I've been making a very strong effort to exercise more. I don't actually hate exercising, I just hate being overheated and when it's 90-100 degrees outside, I just can't bring myself to do it!

Friday night - Met Erin at the park after work and we walked for about 45 minutes. Then we headed back to my place and I thawed some chicken and made us dinner while she constructed a super-awesome house for our Sims to live in! I bought Sims2 for the PS2 last year and have hardly played it, so I thought it was about time to crack it open.

Saturday - Woke up, exercised for about 20 minutes then headed over to pick up sandwiches for my games day I held ALL day Saturday. We had a great time! Played games, Guitar Hero and met some new peeps! We played two good games of Werewolf. I moderated both and kind of screwed up the first one, but oh well. Live and learn. I'll make sure to be better about it in the future. The second game, the seer actually stayed alive and was the key to killing the final werewolf. It was great!!

Sunday - Shane and I went to the park to walk and then I walked the mile to meet Erin at a nearby theater that was hosting the Valley Film Festival. We saw a short called "My Wallet" (which I wasn't crazy about, but I'm not into slapstick-y type "humor") and "11 Minutes Ago" which I really really liked. It's a romance and I liked the story a lot. The actors were actually pretty decent too. Then Erin & I walked down to Pit Fire Pizza to meet up with Liz and enjoyed the beautiful weather we were having yesterday! Sunny, 70s with a slight breeze. We sat outside and chatted about knitting, shoes (Liz recommends Zappos.com which I'm going to peruse today during lunch) and movies. After that, I went home to eat a quick lunch myself and headed over to Chris' for a pretty fun afternoon of gaming. I managed to win Traumfabrik for the first time ever(!) and On the Underground. I came in hilariously DEAD last during Ticket to Ride 1910. The five player game is just cut-off city!! It was great! Lots of cursing, flipping off and for me, drawing of tickets just hoping to get something useful! At least I ended with a positive point value!! :-) Yes, that's how bad it was!!

Overall, a pretty fun and relaxing weekend!!

Gift Central

My place was Gift Central yesterday!

First, I received a "thank you" gift from my friend that I helped pack all Saturday last month. It's a half membership to the Bacon of the Month Club!!! How cool is that!!! I'll be receiving one pack of bacon every month! I received my first one last month and it's some sort of apple something or the other. I'll take a picture of it to post when I actually get around to cooking it. But it looks like I can cross "bacon" off my shopping list for the next year! Bacon. Is. Good.

As I was saying "bye" to some friends, I noticed a package sitting on my doorstep that wasn't there when I got home. It contained a cute green package with a "get well" card! When I unwrapped it, it was Heroes Season 1 on DVD!!! Now I can watch the 73 minute uncut pilot before Season 2 starts on September 24th! How cool is that! If anyone needs a refresher... let me know!

A big "thank you" to my gift-givers! You guys are the best!

Can we just be friends?

Well, it's been a while since I've mentioned 23, the guy I was dating last year for a little while. I liked him for many reasons and then he broke up with me because he wasn't over his ex-girlfriend yet. Quite understandable. I was already concerned because I thought he was too young for me anyway, so it worked out quite nicely.

I was talking with my co-worker a couple days ago and she brought up the time that he had pulled my chair out for me when we were eating at the Great Steak and Potato Company one night. A memorable event indeed! That got me thinking... I wonder how he's doing? I know Erin ran into him at a Neko Case concert in February, but I haven't tried contacting him at all since we broke up. Initially, I was too sad about the whole thing and since I got over it, I've just been preoccupied with other stuff.

A couple nights ago, I was sorting through some pictures on my hard drive and ran across a picture of him. So I figured I'd just drop a line and say "hi!" We've exchanged a couple emails and looks like we'll be hanging out sometime, hopefully soon. I did truly like him and always thought that he was pretty cool to hang out with. I think we could actually be friends and not in a weird way, which is a great feeling to have about someone. He apparently feels the same way, so it looks like I will have a new friend.

This will be interesting for me. Over the last year, I've managed to stay "friends" with most of the guys I've dated, which is a totally new experience for me. I'd never really done that in the past. I'm looking forward to it. I have a good feeling about it!