A whole lotta shaking going on!

Around 11:40am California experienced a 5.4 earthquake, that had an epi-center of Chino Hills. For those of you from other areas, it is northeast of Los Angeles. I was on the phone with my sister, Erika and just told her "Op, we're having an earthquake. Gotta call you back." All of my staff made a bee line for the door, but it was pretty minor so most people rode it out. Our building swayed for a long time, even through the actual earthquake only lasted 15 seconds. We lost cell service for little bit, but it wasn't really too bad.

The Northridge earthquake, back in 1994 was the only earthquake that scared me. It was a 6.7 and I felt it all the way in Fullerton (50 miles away). I was almost impaled by an iron that fell from a high shelf. You can bet I keep heavy stuff low since then!

This quake is just a reminder to be prepared. I need to get more bottled water and store it in my apartment, along with food, flashlights and a first aid kit.

Hope everyone in California wasn't too rattled!

Goodbye Brunch

Shelley started staying with me on Thursday night, since she moved all of her things into storage and donated some things to the Salvation Army. It was great having her and The Beave (her stuffed beaver that goes with her everywhere she lands) stay with me.

Shelley went to the movies on Friday (I couldn't go because I had bible study). It was pretty hot when I got home and it didn't get much cooler when Shelley walked in. She ended up putting her head in the freezer! I have the worst luck finding apartments that are cool!

Saturday morning was Shelley's Goodbye Brunch hosted by her best friend from work, Marguerite. Marguerite's daughter, Makindae, was adorable and really took to me. She liked my turquoise necklace and my curly hair apparently. Angie got her stuffed animals and she had a great time playing with them.

The brunch was a potluck. I made watergate salad, because Shelley hates mayonnaise so I couldn't make my macaroni salad (my standard dish for this kind of thing). There were croissants, mini-quiches, brie and crackers, a salmon dip and so much more.

The afternoon was hot as heck! We all moved to the shade while we socialized. Shelley's friends from the South Bay, as well as her colleagues from Fairfax High, were in attendance.

From left to right: Shelley, Colleen, Angie, me, Jody, Kristin and Gretchen

After the party, Shelley and I went back to my place to drop off a few things before heading to her apartment to "put a few things in a box" as Shelley described it. Well! It wasn't that simple! Shelley had to pack her suitcases for her trip. While she did that, I organized the rest of her stuff into three categories: things to throw away, things to donate, and things for me to keep (I made out like a bandit on cleaning supplies!). I had to load the items to donate into my car, which wasn't parked all that close! Shelley's car had to also be organized. There was also a pile of trash in the yard that had to be hauled to the trash. Thankfully it wasn't far away! I was definitely chanelling Monica from Friends because I had a good time.

After finishing Shelley and I got ready and went out to P.F. Chang's with our friend, Alan. We all had a great time, since we hadn't seen him in awhile.

Shelley and I slept in the next day and got ready for lunch with Angie and Gretchen. We ate at La Creme de la Crepe. It is actually run by french people. Delicious hot chocolate or chocolat as the french say. I ran into my "stalker" as I call him, Jeff Williams. Jeff is good friends with my brother-in-law, Brian. I call him my stalker because month's ago he was driving besides me, honked his horn and took a picture. At the time, I didn't know it was him because it was too fast, but I figured it out because I recognized his car. Since then, he'll text me when he passes my apartment, asking me if I'm home.

After lunch, Shelley and I ran errands. We had to get her car to take it to the guy she was selling it to. Once the car thing was settled, Shelley and I went back to my place for a swim with Kristin before getting ready for salsa dancing. We went to Casa Escobar, which hosts dance lessons on Sunday nights for an hour and a half before the dance floor is opened up. There were a ton of people there and they were all friendly. I didn't wait more than 2 minutes before someone asked me to dance. Salsa is a fun dance--very similar to swing. Kristin, Autumn and Colleen met us and I think everyone had a great time. Alan ended up coming just as we were about to leave, so Shelley and I danced with him for a few songs--Alan is a smooth dancer. He is very proficient in swing, so his leading skills are top notch.

From left: me, Shelley, Autumn, and Kristin

Shelley left on Monday morning. I'm going to miss her!

Angie's Dessert Party

Thursday night I went over to my friend, Angie's, for a dessert party to say goodbye to Shelley with all our close church pals. There were a ton of desserts--cheesecake, chocolate mouse cake, tiramisu and a huge strawberry short cake.



Angie also served pink Martinelli's (non-alcoholic apple cider)with ice cubes in the shape of X's (for kisses). We all toasted Shelley's new adventure!



Shelley also got a framed picture of herself sleeping from our St. John trip--it's a truly horrible picture! She guffawed when she saw the picture. I had a similarly ugly picture of me sleeping as well, so I laughed loud too!

Shelley and I had been talking about how horrible those pictures were a day or so before the party and here she was in a frame! She also got bug repellant socks from Colleen, which I am sure will come in handy. I know I would use them!

We finished the evening with girl talk and having fun!

GMAT is over...Yippee!!!

I am so relieved that the GMAT is over!

I took the test from about 12pm to 4pm. To de-stress, I went for a run/walk from the Vons in Hermosa Beach to Hermosa Beach all the way to Manhattan Beach and back. It's about 5 miles.

Later tonight I picked Shelley up and we went to Fat Face Fenner's Fishack for a drink and appetizers. We had a good time!

Insomnia

As most of you know, I suffer from insomnia. It can be quite frustrating at times. Like tonight, for instance. I was dragging myself into bed this evening at 11:30, hopeful that I would fall right to sleep. No such luck.

After lying awake for the last hour and 40 minutes, I decided to do something instead of drive myself insane with my thoughts. I even tried my Chinese pain reliever oil that my coworker gave me to relax. I'm hoping it will kick in any second.

Other news...some of you were shocked to see that I became a blonde...Lynn didn't even recognize me when she and her husband, Tim, picked me up from the airport a few months ago! Well, I got sick of the blonde and went back to a more natural color for me.

Well, I hope you are all in dreamland as I write this. I'm going to try and get back to bed and when I write bed I mean slumberland...not just lying awake for hours!


This is my hair color before (pictured with Gretchen from St. John vacation)


This is my hair now (seems subtle from the picture, which was my plan...gradually go darker)

Better Now

Okay, I'm better now. I met my friends, Shelley and Angie, at Chicago Bar and Grill and hanging out made me relax and ease up. Yeah! Thank goodness for girlfriends!

I hate CIP Fundings Schedules

I have realized what the most frustrating part of my job is: the dreaded CIP Funding schedule I have to do monthly--but quarterly it is much worse where I spend 2 whole days trying to get one stupid number!!

I had more fun ticking and tying a legal entity chart that has over 300 legal entities against a listing of those entities!

Ahhhhh, I feel a little better. It helps to breath deeply. I had to do that before heading to my bosses' office because I've been dealing with this thing all day. I even went to our other floor to escape for a little bit (and I had to meet with our Tax group).

Every quarter I think that it will be better and I was almost fooled into thinking it was. Boy, was I wrong.

You should see the stack of work in my own group that I have to deal with that I haven't even touched because of this. And have I studied? NOPE! Am I too geared up to get any studying done today? Probably.

Okay. Phew. I've done venting. Thank you!

Psyching Myself Out/Losing Steam

Not sure if you all know, but I am going to be taking the GMAT on July 22nd. Prayers are much appreciated as I am having a hard time studying!!!! Go figure, I was able to study for 12 hours during my St. John vacation, but I can't now. I've tried to study, too, but my heart isn't in it.

I only have 7 days left of studying! Yikes. I'm a little stressed out. Mainly because I don't want to be shown up by one of the senior accountants that I manage. He got a really good score. Of course, he's very disciplined. A virtue I have yet to master when it comes to personal development.

To be truthful, I think I started studying for this exam because I'm bored out of my skull. I think I will look into different classes or something after I take my exam. I'm thinking about getting back into swing dancing, or maybe taking yoga classes at my gym--something!

I may join a writing club. That would be fun. Maybe I'll try to find my unfinished novel and finish her right up. I have no idea where the manuscript is. Oh well, it will turn up one of these days.

Finally Blogging

Hello and welcome to my blog!!!

After months of "hints" from friends who live far away (which is practically all of my friends since I moved away and the rest I've met in California have moved away from me--you know who you are!!!). Besides, most of my family live in different states as well.

So, I'll start off by telling you about my day yesterday. It started off with a snooze...I got up and procrastinated from studying until I had to run errands and be at my church by 5:30 to help out with kid's church. I stopped at the bathroom before heading to a classroom (I'm a sub). While washing my hands Leila Bradford, age 6, out of the blue said "You look really beautiful tonight!" I was taken aback and thanked her for the compliment. "Wow, kids are so refreshingly honest!," I thought to myself. ;-) He he.

Well, they definitely tell you what they think, because not an hour later two boys in the pre-K class I was helping in said "You're weird." Out of the mouth of babes....

I guess I'll take weird and beautiful.