A day in L.A.

'Tis the Season!

With Summer comes...wedding season! This year Jeff and I are fortunate to be invited to two weddings, both of which I'm excited for and honored to be invited to (and be a part of!).

This Saturday, my amazing friend Katie gets married. We met in law school, after finding out that we had both been to Guatemala. I literally just realized that the two roommates I ever had (other than Jeff), I've gotten to know because of our initial connection with Guatemala: my freshman year in college someone told me there was another girl in our dorm hall that was from Guatemala...I think I left a really lame message on her door with something to the effect of "You're from Guatemala, I'm from Guatemala, we should hang out!" Lame, but it worked. We became great friends and shared a one bedroom apartment for three years. And then my first year in law school we had to introduce ourselves in Torts and say something "interesting"; Katie mentioned she had just traveled to Guatemala, and I mentioned that I was half Guatemalan and spoke Spanish fluently (what can I say, it's the only really interesting thing I got going sometimes). We sat next to each other in one class, and before we knew it, we were trying out for the ADR competition team together, traveling to cities near and far, sharing an apartment, and eventually sharing a hotel room during the bar exam (let me tell you, sharing a hotel room during the bar is EXTREMELY frowned upon--we were advised multiple times by multiple people not to do it...it worked out great :) ). Anyhow, Katie's friend Lauren made her invitations, and they're absolutely adorable (vcm1313@cox.net).

And next Saturday is Shirley's wedding! We also met in law school. Shirley might be one of the craziest girls I know, and she's absolutely amazing for it. She's incredibly smart, and has more passion for public interest than anyone else I know. She currently works for a legal aid in Nebraska, and is kicking ass at her job. I wanna be her someday :) Her sister, Wendy Peng, designed and made her invitations, which look awesome (pendyweng@gmail.com).

I should mention that both of these fine young ladies are marrying amazing gentlemen. Katie met J, and it's the first time ever I've ever seen a couple that is more lovey dovey than Jeff and I :) And Shirley is marrying Seth, who she met in Nebraska while doing an internship out there during law school. Things worked out well enough for her to move to Nebraska (yep), and now they are happily engaged and....homeowners!

Ladies: I can't wait <3

Charity of the Month: Isabella

It's been less than four years since I drove down Twinberry to meet the new members of Giselle and Lucho's family: Santino & Isabella! Grandma was beyond excited, and Giselle looked like any new mom of twin's would look: tired! :)

Since then, I've seen them grow up through their Tia Erika's stories and pictures, and tried to win over their affection whenever I see them. It's hard to win over their affection when they really only have time for each other: Santino lives for Isabella, and Isabella lives to defend Santino!

On a Sunday, less than a month ago, Isabella was complaining about her tummy, and although initially thought to be just a tummy ache, Isabella's complaints were enough to worry Giselle. They ended up at the hospital and finding out that same day that Isabella had a sizeable tumor in her kidney. The diagnosis after the initial biopsy: Stage 3 Wilms tumor. Isabella started chemo that Friday. Since then she's acquired a new haircut, as have her barbies:


What amazes me about this girl is that she's dealing with all of this better than I think most of us would, and definitely better than I would. Part of it is probably not even being aware of what's going on, but another part is just how resilient and full of life she is. I imagine myself in her situation and I think I'd be sitting in that hospital bed with a frown and throwing a pity party for myself. Not this girl. For example, a little snippet of the updates we get from her mom: "One thing this tumor can't take away....my daughter's great taste. When asked what she wanted to watch before bed tonight...she chose "Clash of the Titans" over Hannah Montana....that is MY girl."

A family friend started a fundraising website, and the response has been absolutely amazing and heart warming. In the span of about three weeks, they reached their goal of $10,000, and have increased their goal to $15,000. To the average person such as myself, this seems like a lot of money (which it is, and it truly is awesome that the love of family, friends, and strangers alike were able to raise this kind of money--thank you to all of you who have already donated!), but when you think about the overall cost of what they're looking at, it feels like a drop of water in the ocean. If you feel so inclined, please check out Isabella's website to help them out with whatever amount you can.

Most of all, please keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers.

Accountability Updates, Pre-Memorial Day Weekend

I did yoga this week! Not the most intense of work outs, but still better than not doing anything (maybe that's just my excuse). On Tuesday I did a yoga workout that was recommended on Netflix instant watch: Crunch: Candlelight Yoga! Haha, yeah, I thought it sounded pretty lame too, but there were several reviews raving about how great it was, so I thought I would give it a try. It was actually really soothing, and just what I needed after my self-induced stressful day at work. Candlelights, mellow background music, aaaaaand I almost fell asleep a time or two. It definitely wasn't an intense workout, but I think it's a good introduction to yoga if you've never done it.

On Wednesday I decided to try another recommended video that was on youtube, and that looked a little more intense. This one lacked the production and editing of the first one, including a lack of soothing music and candlelights. And this is where I stepped things up a notch: iPhone APP TO THE RESCUE! Cue ambiance. I was gonna go with "Portuguese Forest," but the toad or frog or whatever it is was a little distracting. "Bright Sunny Morning" worked out pretty well. (Wow. Yep. I put soothing background noise while doing yoga. Who am I??)

So that was the extent of my activity for the week.

We didn't cook anything too exciting this week. We made pasta the other night and both realized we got really used to having veggies with our meals. It felt weird not eating veggies with our dinner. I think that's a good sign.

I've been eating way more fresh fruit than I used to. Usually a banana and orange/cutie for breakfast with granola and yogurt. Speaking of yogurt...I usually buy the strawberry yogurt, until I realized that plain is probably a better way to go. I didn't wanna quit strawberry cold turkey though...so I'm trying out vanilla for now (baby steps). Not a huge fan. Also, who knew you couldn't even buy yogurt without checking labels and researching? Eating healthier is more time consuming than it should be.

I mentioned before how Jeff and I bought stuff at the farmer's market a few weeks ago. I realized the problem of shopping at the farmer's market is that stuff is WAY fresh, as in...it doesn't last very long. For a household of two...it's almost wasteful to buy a bunch of stuff at the farmer's market only for it to spoil before we get a chance to eat it. Not sure how people make that work. I'm thinking we just have to buy on the day of, which means going to the store more frequently. Hmmmm.

Books Galore...and my dream job.

A few years ago I distinctly remember making fun of our friend Pat for having a half dozen half-read books around his room. This came up specifically because he was still only half way through the second or third book of Stephen King's Dark Tower, and I couldn't believe he hadn't finished reading it yet. What I couldn't believe even more was that someone could start reading a book, while still having another book unfinished. WHAT?! This made no sense to me...I just didn't see the logic in starting another book when you still hadn't finished another one.

Here I am, a few years later...and here's where I'm at:

• Currently reading In Defense of Food, page 160 of 201
• The White Man's Burden, I'm about half way through...partially lost interest, partially found more exciting things to read (it's a little dense for me, but I plan on finishing it up soon-ish)
• Half the Sky, about two-thirds of the way through--great read, and probably would've finished it by now if I hadn't gotten distracted by the first book on this list.

Not to mention all the books I already have a list of that I want to read next:

• Letters from Burma was a Christmas present from my brother in law and his wife, and I'm really looking forward to that
• The Idea of Justice by Amartya Sen
• Uses of Haiti by Paul Farmer (not sure I can actually make my way through this one, but I want to try)
• Hope in Hell: Inside the World of Doctors Without Borders
• Poor Economics
• Armed Humanitarians: the Rise of the Nation Builders
• Stranger Things Happen (short stories)
• Getting Better: Why Global Development is Succeeding--and How we Can Improve the World Even More

So much to read, so little time.

Which brings me to something I've been thinking about quite a bit lately--and of which I'd like to write a longer blog someday, but that hasn't happened yet so here's the short and sweet of it all. What do I want to be when I grow up? Honestly? I want to get paid to research and write (um, not sure blogging is "writing" per se...) about things I'm interested in (I have a never ending list of things I want to write about on this blog, but some are subjects I actually want to research and write something half intelligently about, alas the time is seriously lacking), and I want to get paid to do the kind of volunteer work I really enjoy doing, ranging from hands on stuff like going to Mexico and building houses, to more office/admin/legal stuff like helping non profits get incorporated, grant-writing, fundraising, etc. I just need to figure out how I can get paid to do those things :)

Accountability Updates: Workout #fail.

Food wise, we're still doing pretty good. I've been really good about having healthier snacks...trail mix (the real kind), and lots of fresh fruit in the mornings at work. Lunch is a little more difficult, since it's either a sandwich from home (which gets boring after a while) or eating out...I will say, and this is pretty impressive for me, that I haven't broken down and gone to McDonald's or Carl's or Jack's in quite a while (I believe In n Out is a whole different ball game...and even that has only been once recently), so that's something to be proud of.

So...ranch dip isn't the best, but it's better when you have it

with veggies instead of chips!

One of our dinners last week.

Fixed green beans for the first time (yeah, seriously): so easy and delicious!

Thanks to In Defense of Food, I'm starting to get a little paranoid about the food we buy. No more white bread for this household. I might even start looking at the ingredients in stuff before I buy it...crazy talk I tell you!

As for working out...or any sort of activity really...the busyness has started to encroach on that. April was great because every weekend was free and available for Jeff and I to go and do our own adventures. May has been plagued by busy schedules on the weekends (my own fault...I blame no one but myself for constantly booking my calendar more than I should), and June has weddings and birthdays and other such celebrations which I'm really looking forward to. What this means is that I need to grow a pair and either go to the gym in the mornings before work (but my bed is soooo comfy and warm!) or workout after I get home from work (but I'm sooooo tired after staring at a computer for 8 hours!). So yeah....I need to figure out the right balance here. I know I don't need to work out for a long time each day...I just need to start setting aside at least ten minutes every day to do SOMETHING. But I always forget to find those ten minutes in my day...

Andre the Giant.

So what are blogs for, but ranting and venting about pointless things that these days are now immediately pointed out as first world problems or white whines? Exactly.

We met up with some friends, had some food, had a couple drinks, and decided to go watch that movie that Courtney told me I had to see (I'll ask Courtney's permission to use her name next weekend when she's in town): The Bachelorette (which from what I saw was indeed, hilarious).

Little did we know it was still packing theaters, so we ended up sitting in the reject seating all the way up front. So...you know when you're sitting at a movie theater as it's filling up....and you put your feet up on the seat in front of you...and then someone sits in that seat in front of you and you're all bummed that you have to take your feet off the seat? Has it ever occurred to you to just never take your feet off the seat? Or to push back when the person wants to recline their seat? Or to kick the seat constantly throughout the whole movie? The W-H-O-L-E movie. Minus the last half hour maybe, because you eventually chose to walk out of the movie theater (thank God--speaking of whom...rapture anyone?).

Well, the girl sitting behind me did all of the above. It takes quite a bit to get me angry enough to say something...I said something's to this girl a lot of times tonight. And kicking my seat apparently wasn't enough, so she was also pushing in the middle divider that Jeff and I had lifted...and then moved on to kicking Jeff's seat. Her defense when Jeff asked if all of that was really necessary? "What, you have something against tall people?" Um, what?! a) She wasn't that tall. b) Even tall people have common courtesy. c) Tall people don't do the kind of crap this girl did or require that kind of leg room. So no, Jeff doesn't have anything against tall people.

The whole time I just couldn't wrap my head around what was happening...and I was really frustrated that out of common courtesy for everyone else in the movie theater I couldn't get up and physically remove her Andre The Giant feet from my seat. Obviously this would have been the point where I get all my friends involved to physically defend my honor because I've never been involved in anything other than a hair pulling contest with my cousin (she won, I'm sure).

A security guard came in to see why we were causing such a ruckus. At one point I seriously thought we would be the ones to get kicked out, and wouldn't that be ironic?

After the movie was over (of which I'm pretty sure Jeff and I missed some good laughs thanks to Andre), and after Andre had bailed, her friends tapped on Jeff's shoulder and apologized for their friend, explaining that she was drunk and angry. My natural reaction was to laugh it off and say "hey no biggie, sorry we were so vocal about her being a bitch," but then I thought, I'm not sorry at all. But their gesture was still appreciated.

Mother's Day: DIY Project

My family kind of skipped Easter this year. No one really wanted to drive the hour-and-a-half one way or another, so we ended up just calling it a day and everyone stayed in their respective cities. So the cousins took it upon themselves to make something happen for Mother's Day. I'm sure my mom and aunt's would've figured something out on their own, but where's the Mother's Day grace in that? So we organized brunch at a restaurant located along the lake, and I requested outdoor seating with our reservations. Unfortunately, it was gloomy and sprinkling on Sunday, so we got sat inside anyway. Good thing we had thought of decorations to make our table extra pretty :)

After being made aware of the fact that Target no longer has garden centers, Adri and I headed to Home Depot and after much looking around, settled on simple little pots and multi-colored flowers, the name of which I can't remember, but were super pretty.

Add a little ribbon, and voila!

After brunch we walked around and took some family portraits:

Mom and I.

Las primas.

La Familia.

Some of the extra flowers ended up permanently relocating to our balcony:

Accountability Updates

So I still think Jeff and I are doing pretty good. We have a lot of cooking to explore, especially with vegetables we're unfamiliar with. We finally made it to the Farmer's Market in Irvine last weekend which was great, but it definitely made me realize how much is out and that I have no idea what half of it is. We walked around with Mason and Jasna, bought some fruits and veggies, and the most delicious (and sweet) cake I think I've had in a while. I also bought a dozen eggs without realizing that I already had a dozen at home. Oops.

Jeff looked up a great recipe for chicken kebabs with tzatziki sauce. After he finished prepping them (pictured above) it dawned on me that he put cucumbers on the skewers....and I thought to myself "huh, I don't think I've ever tried to cook cucumbers before." In my most innocent-not-trying-to-be-shitty-or-criticize-your-cooking-because-you're-already-doing-all-the-cooking voice I asked him if the recipe called for cucumbers or zucchini's on the kebabs...his face turned to one of panic and I felt like I had just crushed all his cooking illusions. Alas, the recipe did call for zucchinis...but you know what we found out? Cooked cucumbers aren't all that bad. They don't quite "cook," per se...but they weren't bad...still edible :) And the chicken and tzatziki sauce was AMAZING.

On Wednesday night I really wanted [Jeff] to make salmon. We need to up the amount of fish we include in our menu. But the store I went to only had salmon for $20 a pound. As delicious as it looked...I couldn't bring myself to do it. So I bought steaks instead. You can't win them all. I did fix corn and asparagus to go along with it, so I think that upped the healthy factor in that meal.

Yesterday I was in Tecate, Mexico, working on a house build with Corazon, and on my way home I was tempted to just stop by and get something quick. Instead...I made some quick tuna lettuce wraps at home. Not the most filling, but still better than a hamburger.

A couple random tid bits:

• Our friend Abby gave up coffee, and she was telling me how she feels like she has so much more energy NOW then before. It got Jeff and I thinking on whether we should try the same. We don't drink the quantity per day that Abby does, but we still heavily rely on our cup of coffee in the morning to get us going. To the point that we WILL get headaches later on if we don't have it. I'm not sure we're ready to give it up yet, but at least we've started the process of thinking about it :) I'm also trying to at least cut back my creamer and sugar intake in my coffee. That's a good enough challenge for me, for now.
• This is completely random, but kind of in tandem with the whole coffee thing: I now have toothpaste and a toothbrush in my desk at work, and I'm using it! Hopefully I won't end up going from one extreme to the other and scrubbing my gums until they bleed like Cate Blanchett's character in Hanna (that scene gave me the heebie jeebies (thank you to Jeff for correcting my previous ESL spelling of 'heevie jevies')).
• I'm currently reading In Defense of Food and it's been getting me to really think about what we eat and why we eat it. It's exciting.

As far as physical activity, I did a couple mini-work outs at home, nothing too crazy. It seems that I'll be doing some yoga in the coming weeks though, which is exciting.

Movies of Interest

A few movies that I never or barely heard of before I watched them, and think they're worth watching.

Apparently it had better than expected results at the box office, but I still don't think Hanna got enough viewers. Sure...not a great movie for the kids considering the violence and all, but it's such a great FILM. I'm not a film expert or anything, but I thought it was an artistically shot movie, not to mention the soundtrack by the Chemical Brothers: awesome. In the day and age when people laugh at other people for actually buying movies, Jeff and I plan on buying this one when it comes out on DVD.

If there were bumperstickers that said "I <3 Hanna," I would totally buy one. #badass

Then there's City Island. My likes for this movie, starring Andy Garcia (which Jeff wasn't too excited about but ended up liking quite a bit), are that it's just the story of a family, with all the realities and complexities that families have to deal with: lies, deceit, frustration, love, forgiveness, etc. The son's feeding thing was a bit weird, but comedic relief nonetheless. I wouldn't buy it, but it's on Netflix instant watch!

Finally, this weekend Jeff came across Four Lions. I'm still processing this movie. It's a satire on the quest of four British jihadists. Definitely a funny movie, but most of the funny parts are given away in the trailer and I think I missed out on a lot with the heavy British accents and lack of subtitles. I think it's worth a watch if you're not easily offended by this kind of stuff, and have a good sense of humor. I did find it culturally interesting--whether accurate or not, I honestly don't know--seeing how the wife and child were so okay with the idea of their father planning on blowing himself up. There was no sense of sadness or loss (except for one small scene between the husband and the wife towards the end), which I found really surprising and revealing. It's an interesting perspective on such a sensitive and inflammatory subject. Again, Netflix instant watch it.