What Can I say

So I am a slacker, what can I say. But I am going to try to be better at writing on this blog. What better way to re-confirm my efforts with pictures of me and my new best friend Rob. Ok well there aren't actually pictures of me and Rob, just Rob... through a window. A couple of friends and I went to a grand openeing of a DC Shoes store on Melrose in Hollywood, Ca. yesterday to see Rob Dyrdek (a professional skateboarder and reality tv star), but all we got were these pictures. They are great pictures from on the other side of glass if you ask me.

Isn't he cute! Ok not exactly my type, I prefer Big over Rob. Ok not really. I wish big was there but he wasn't. So we decided instead of waiting in the line we were sure would take us nowhere we would go find Rob and Big's house because if Big wasn't with rob he was surely with the dog and the mini horse. Well gas is expensive these days and I was running out of it, so we decided to call it quits. Overall I would say it was a pretty grand adventure!

No Body puts Alaska in the corner

Alaska!

So my parents and the single sibs went to Alaska just recently. Is was good times. The weather was fabulous (well most of the time), the almost 24 hour sunshine is very cool but kind of hard to get used too, the people are very friendly, everything is pretty much slower there, even more so than little Agoura hills.

So here is the fam, hanging out at the visitor center in Denali national park. We stayed at this place that reminded me of Dirty Dancing. No body puts baby in a corner. Lets see, from here we went on a little nature walk, where we ate wild blueberries. It was cool. We Walked around with our little volunteer ranger. He told us all sorts of stuff I can't really remember. The visitor center was pretty cool. Who knew that when a mosquito bites you in Alaska you become part of the Alaskan Eco-system. Man, that's why you write this stuff down.

Ok, but that isn't even the beginning. We started in Anchorage Alaska, and we took a train to Denali. It was a cool train. My brilliant mom decided to upgrade us to the deluxe train where we sat high above everyone else, and below us was our own little dining car.

We ate ridiculously over price food. But for train food, it wasn't half bad. In fact I was thinking about good hamburgers and I had to think about the one I had twice on the train. Here is us in our fancy train car with real cloth napkins. So I'm thinking this will have to be the sweetened condensed version of the Alaska trip.

Maybe we can call it the best of. So man, we went on the Tundra Wilderness tour. Fabulous! Basically 8 hours on a bus, driving through the Alaskan wilderness. Yes, you into the wild fans, we went there. Of course when we go there we had hot chocolate and box lunches, but we went there. A highlight of the trip was when we got to try on antlers of all sizes at the ranger station of the halfway point in our tour. My brother Joe actually tried on a bear skin and we had a little mock Bear v. Moose fight. We also went Moose v. Moose too. Very fun. Our tour guide lived off the grid. She was a nice lady.

I think Joe won. On our wilderness tour we saw moose (mommy and baby), and bears, eagles, and lots and lots of beauty. We saw the Alaska state bird that looks a lot like a chicken. Who knew. We took a lot of trains on this trip, but that was kind of the plan I think. The trip from Anchorage to Denali was like 8 hours long. We saw some cool stuff on the train too. Alaska is a beautiful place.

We also went on a boat trip to see fjords, and ice bergs, and glaciers. It was really cool. I was really afraid of getting sea sick. I went whale watching once, and it didn't turn out well. But I was really fine. Right away we saw Orcas! Killer whales! That was really cool.

So our boat trip was to see a glacier. That was very cool. We heard it calving. Where the ice falls off in big chunks. Jill says she saw a crack open in the glacier. We named it Jill's crack. That was very cool. I like Alaska!

The glacier was 70 stories tall and over a mile wide! We also got to see another glacier called Spencer glacier up close and personal. We rowed a bout out into a lake. There were huge ice bergs that had broken off the glacier. We got all dressed up for the occasion.

Oh, that's us sumo wrestling. Thats what it felt like after we loaded up on the outer wear.

We ate yummy soup and sandwiches. They had brownies too. It was cold and rainny, but very cool. We got about half a mile away from the glacier.

Well, I think this blog is long enough. We had a fabulous time! I would go back in a heart beat. We got to see some cool stuff. Crazy wildlife, and cool flowers.

Where have I been all my life?

I am a little embarassed that it has been years since I have written anything on this blog. I am going to try to make a renewed effort to write something... at least once a week or so. You know, just what's going on and such. Nothing special or anything. A lot has happened since the last time I wrote. I graduated from College, finally. I have had some job changes. I started working with pre-school aged children at a special ed pre-school. I decided I wanted to go to graduate school. Oh, and on a sad note... Kittie died. Yeah. It is sad. We took a little family vacation to Alaska, and that is where we heard the news. Since it was only the single sibs and the parents on the trip, My brother was home to tend to kittie in her final days.

Well... Again, I hope to be more regular at writing in the blog. So really, if you see something, say something.

If You See Something, Say Something

My Dear friend Lizzie brought this artist and painting to my attention...... How perfect is this?



Artwork by: Jules de Balincourt
If You See Something Say Something,
2004 Oil and enamel on board
24 x 34 in./61 x 86.4 cm
Courtesy Deitch Projects,
New YorkAll Rights Reserved

A Lifetime of Lies

This Saturday I was getting ready to watch the UCLA /USC game and my brother asked me if I knew that my dad was a USC fan, and my grandma, an even bigger USC fan.... As you all could imagine I was in a state of shock. My whole life I believed my family to be UCLA fans. A third of my lifetime spent thinking that we liked UCLA. We practically lived next door to UCLA. I feel so conflicted now, so confused...... We went to UCLA football games, we forged friendships with other UCLA fans, we wore baby blue and yellow after victory and loss, while the USC fans wore cardinal and gold. So what am I supposed to do now?! I am not sure I can just forget everything I have ever thought, abandoning the Bruins..... No, I cannot!

"Mighty Bruins”
We are the Mighty Bruins,The best team in the West.

We’re marching on to victory,To conquer all the rest.
We are the Mighty Bruins,Triumphant evermore.

You can hear from far and near,The Mighty Bruin roar!
U! C! L! A!

U-C-L-A! Fight! Fight! Fight!

New York City!

So I thought because this blog was inspired by NY, it wouldn't be right if I didn't include some the pictures I took there a couple of weeks ago. I had a fabulous time.... The weather took some getting used to, and so did the quick pace of the city...

Some of my favorite moments were making enchiladas with my BF Q... we invited over some of her NY peeps for dinner and cookies. Doesn't this look appetizing? Add a couple pounds of cheese, and you have a good time!

I loved seeing the NY stock exchange, the huge American flag is beautiful!! The craziest part was the man with the machine gun who was hanging out in front!! My friend warned me they would be out there, but I didn't believe her, but just as she said, there they were....

I also loved taking the "tram" across to Roosevely Island. If you are having trouble with what the tram is, think of the people movers at Disneyland (pre-death) before they took them down.... This kind of concerned me, but my friend said that no one had died on them yet, and if someone did die, then surely they would take them down. I was comforted. We affectionately named it "a piece of ghetto hanging on dental floss" that might give you more of a picture....

We also played frisbee in central park, which was wonderful, the only place I really played frisbee is at the beach, but because we were in the city, central park is as close as we were going to get to the beach.... People were sitting on park benches watching us. That was kind of wierd!

Okay, so I know that this is not the most flattering picture of me, but I couldn't resist! This is a picture of me with an "I love NY" shirt, but if you can't tell (and all of my BF should be able to tell, in fact that will be the test) the shirt is printed in Hebrew! Shabat Shalom!

Fire update

So as many of you know by now the fires that were blazing, have simmered down... On sunday I went to brunch at a families house that was right up the road from the fires.... Did they get evacuated?? Nope! I am stilled amazed that our neighborhood was evacuated, while homes right in the thick of it were only voluntarily asked to leave!! I have heard from other people that were close to fires, that they were not evacuated... Oh well, it really did make me think of what I would bring in case of emergencies...

I have a cat!!

Apparently, there has been some debate as to whether or not I really have a cat...
Well, here she is. She actually belongs to my sister, who named her Amos, but we just call her kitty... (here kitty, kitty). She is an outdoor cat which might explain the infrequent sightings... She just hangs out, chillin in the garage, or under one of our trucks. Now I suppose if you were a real skeptic you could just think that I pulled this picture off the internet somewhere, but I can authenticate the picture, and show you the spot on the carpet in the garage...
Kitty is probably close to 18 years old, so she doesn't get out much. So hopefully this will put to rest the kitty debate....

Surprise, Surprise!

Are we all that surprised that the first day we have heavy winds, we have fires too! I'm not. Scary, yes; sad, very..... but shocking, not really. We actually got evacuated early this morning. It happened once before, but I wasn't home at the time. We, fortunately, had a place to go, and we brought a couple of our neighbors with us (hurray for the mo mo's). Did I know what to grab out of the house? No, not really... I grabbed all my bling! how shallow am I? I also wanted to bring the hot shoes I had just bought and the pants to go with them, but if it came down to it I wouldn't be very comfy in heels, so I opted for my black flojo's. I got the cat too (and yes she does exist), just in case you were wondering. I am pretty sure we will be back in the house later today. We were watching on the news, and there were people still in their houses with the fire right up close. I am honestly not sure why we got evacuated, but we left... I guess it is the price you pay for living in California....

If you see something, say something

On a recent trip to New York, I was introduced to Subtalk, the New York subways way of hinting things to you while on the subway, like giving up your seat for older people and pregnant ladies, and buying tickets as apposed to sneeking on.... Well one of the favorites is, "if you see something say something"... which actually fits nicely into the purpose of many blogs including this one......