Meeting with Friends

This weekend started out as kind of a drag--I was so tired I had to leave my bible study an hour early because I was falling asleep! I slept in on Saturday to catch up on sleep I've already gotten since this past week I've gotten more sleep than I have in months. I started drinking nutritional shakes and I think they are helping my sleep out. Added bonus. :-)

Angie and I met a Redondo Beach Pier to have lunch at El Torito Grill and then we walked from the pier to Avenue I and back (about 3 miles). We had a great time catching up. After meeting with Angie I went back to get ready for working in the nursery at church.

It was a crazy time with only 4 babies, but we had a few criers. I had a great time, though, talking to Heather Nesbit, who I've met before but hadn't really gotten to know. The crying and the shakes must have gotten to me because I was asleep by 10pm (never happens!)

I had to get up early this morning to attend a children's ministries training session. We had to write our name on a cardboard puzzle piece and draw things that define us. Then we had to talk about "serious" stuff. It was nice to meet some new people.

After that I went to get gas and wash my car--it was so dirty! From there I drove to Berri's Playa Cafe in Playa del Rey to meet with my old friend, Jenn Yale, pictured above. She and I have known each other for about 10 years. That is unbelievable. We met in Boston, while working at Boston Medical Center (she was a consultant). I helped convince her to move to California to persue her writing career and she is doing just that. I am very proud of her. Now she's the one that bugs me about my writing. :-P Apparently, after writing this post, I need to do some. Ta for now.

Rudolph's Nemesis

Yes, that's right...the truth is out--I am Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer's nemesis: Alexis the Beige-Nosed Accountant! Here's my mug shot.

I had a procedure done at the dermatologist's office this morning. First off, I went all the way to work and one of my staff said "I thought you had a doctor's appointment this morning?" Ack! So I rushed out and drove all the way back to the Southbay (Palos Verdes specifically) to try and make my appointment--I was only a couple minutes late.

I decided to get rid of the little mole I had at the tip of my nose. The first shot wasn't painful at all but I could still feel the procedure a little bit, so Dr. Fein gave me 2 more excruciating shots, which caused my eyes to tear up--which for me means several tears popping out of my eyes, as well as some falling down my cheeks. Involuntary reaction! The procedure itself was a piece of cake. I have to keep a bandage on my nose for another day or so.

I actually went home early because I am having annoying jolts of pain...I was too distracted to work. I feel a little better now...it's really not a big deal. I told my boss, Arcy, that I needed to go home because my nose hurt and her response was "I've never heard that one before!" I said "It brings new meaning to the phrase 'Cutting my nose off despite my face'." and she said, "Well, it's no skin off my nose!"

Back in the Pool

Look at those HUGE goggles!!!

In a further attempt to get back to things I once loved, I decided to start swimming again. It has been awhile since I wore the racing suit, goggles and swim cap, but I figured I'd do as well as I usually do after a break from the sport. Well, not this time.

Generally, if I haven't gone swimming for months or even over a year, I have no problem getting in the pool and leisurely swimming a 100 yard length as a "stretch/warm up." This time I had a hard time doing a 50! But I carried on and was able to do about 1,000 yards altogether-in 50 yard incriments. Just to illustrate how I felt today, go to this link: http://kr.blog.yahoo.com/funnyblog/1281162?c=3

Back in high school, it was a different story: I was in shape and was quickly conditioned for "swim shape." I started out in lane 7 during practices when I first joined Banning High School's swim team, coached at the time by Mr. Ambrossi. Lane 1 was for the fastest swimmers, usually juniors and seniors and each lane after that was for the slower and slower swimmers. Because I was a sophomore, I was assigned lane 7.

We all swam circle patterns, counterclockwise swimming in the lane. We were separated by 5 second intervals. Soon, as in maybe two days later, my competitive nature came to the surface (ahem!) and I was passing people in my lane. This can be difficult considering the timing to pass someone and not collide with someone swimming in the opposite direction. This need for speed built up my endurance and I was soon moved to lane 6. Then lane 5, 4, well, you get the picture. I made it to lane 1 before our first meet and was able to meet the fast swimmers. That's when they introduced me to the butterfly stroke.

I had never done it before, but the dolphin kick and timing was taught to me and I was never the same. It became "my" stroke, along with freestyle, the old standard. I did the 50 yard butterfly that year and Mr. Ambrossi had me do the 100 yards by the end of the season, even though I didn't think I was ready. Because we were a small team, I competed in an average of 7 races each meet--Michael Phelps eat your heart out!

Mr. Ambrossi was a great coach--he pushed us hard and that leadership led many of us to make it to league finals. I was able to get a medal in the consolation heat...someday I'll try to dig it out of my parent's house.

I really love swimming and remembered how hard I worked, so I figured why am I not doing it now? So, I'm going to swim on a regular basis and get back into swimming shape. Who knows--maybe I'll join a masters swimming group and compete. Wouldn't that be fun? I'll keep you up to date when I think I'm ready for that step.

This is my junior year swim team photo. The coach pictured is Coach Flack, not Ambrossi.

Colorado Trip August 2008

I flew to Colorado Springs on Tuesday, August 12th. My flight was delayed, so I had to take a later flight for my connecting flight in Denver. The security line was 2-3 times longer than it usually is at LAX. While I was getting initially screened (just the ticket and ID check) a supervisor with a bad attitude said I had too many bags. I did, but only because I have a CPAP machine and the old rules allowed one more bag if it is medical equipment. I tried to consolidate, but she said in an extremely hostile and rude tone, "That's not consolidating, go over there and do it!!!" So, I had to get out of the line and open my bags to consolidate some things in front of about 100 people.
I was not a happy camper. So, when I went over again to get checked, I asked the man who was checking my ID if it was now OK, he said he had to check with HER. So, with a satified and superior attitude she answered, "Yes, it's fine." I looked over at her badge to get her name and due to that she said irately "Do you have a problem?" I thought she was going to put up her dukes! I said, "No, no problem" and then thought to myself, "But you're going to have a problem in a minute."

After getting through security I went straight to the TSA security desk to talk to a supervisor. Turns out this woman wasn't part of their division but was helping out from another. The TSA supervisor called this woman's supervisor and I had to explain it to her and then to her supervisor's boss. They were both courteous and apologetic and said that they would talk to her. They better!

The flight from Denver to Colorado Springs was the most turbulant that I have ever experienced, but I survived!

My sister's kids weren't told that I was coming, so the next morning the kids were told to go downstairs for a surprise. I put the covers over me and said "Surprise!" when they came in my room. They all looked so surprised and said, "Auntie Alexis!!"

That night we had dinner and I gave them some gifts from my trip back in June. I also had 2 gifts for Sebastian for his 3rd birthday, which was the previous Sunday. We also had chocolate chip cookies, as you can see from Sebastian's lovely smile!

That night, Erika and Brian and I were watching the Olympics. Go Phelps! Gymnastics was also one of our favorites. While we were watching, I turned to tell Erika something and she had a suprise for me--hilarious!

Here is Brian and his blankie.

One of the nights I was there, we all went to Outback restaurant and had excellent service. Here's me with Kaylen--isn't she a cutie?



Here's Lauren and I after dinner!

The first day I was there, I fell on a small flight of stairs in my sister's house--here is one of the bruises (the one I can show you) that I got from the fall. The other one is where the sun don't shine! Erika and Brian usually joke that I have graceful falls ("And-one-and-two" is what Erika will say while doing a nice reach on her toes and down to ground) but this one was more like "Bam-bang-ouch!" I was ungracefully spralled across the stairs.

I've never spent so much time sleeping, as the kids and Erika take naps every day. For an insomniac, this was unusual for me. Of course, we stayed up late watching the Olympics, so we needed the sleep. The first nap we took was an interesting one: Lauren sleeps in Erika's bed and we were all lying there, waiting for sleep to come. Lauren looked over and told Erika "I have a bugger." Erika said, "You mean a booger?" Lauren nodded her head, "Yeah, a burger."

On Saturday we spent time running errands in the rain. We went to JoAnn's and then to JCPenney. We stopped and picked up Chick-fil-A and took it back home to eat. While we were eating, Erika asked Rebecca how she was doing. In an exasperated tone, she said, "I had a rough day." Erika asked her why and she said "It was raining and we had to run errands."

Sunday after church, we went outside to jump in puddles! Here is Rebecca and Sebastian having fun!

Gretchen's Birthday Dinner

A group of us went to the Red Onion in Palos Verdes to celebrate Gretchen's birthday. There was about 10 of us.

Afterwards, Tara, Angie and I went to a yogurt shop while Gretchen and Tania went to see a movie.

Tara-- enjoying her frozen yogurt.

Angie--camera shy as always!

Tara's Visit

My friend, Tara, is visiting this week and I'm so excited! A group of us went to El Pollo Inka to catch up with Tara.


As you can see, Jazz is the token male.

From left to right: Wendy, Tara, Annie, Jazz, me, Angie, Sirena and Beth.

While we were there, Angie bumped into someone she knew--who happened to own the restaurant! Every time I've ever been out with Angie she runs into someone she knows. She's even done so while in Hawaii.

Tara claims that she came to California for two reasons (in order): the food and her friends. Here's a picture of Tara enjoying her food. El Pollo Inka is one of the places she missed. Apparently she went there alot because she didn't even need to look at the menu --it was no question--#20 for her.













Most of the dinner I caught up with Jazz, Annie and Angie, since we were all sitting together. It really amazes me that Jazz is still single! He is such an amazing, godly man.





After dinner, Jazz, Sirena, Tara and I went to Starbucks to catch up some more.
I wanted to take a picture with Tara and we were laughing so hard it took a couple of times to get it right!


I've missed Tara! The last time I saw her was when I was in her wedding in August 2005. She had moved to Maryland, so she is very far away. I need to make sure I visit her more often.

Of course, she can be considered a bad influence--to the bitter end she tried to convince me that I must be coming down with something...she and a couple of girls are planning on going to Burke Williams (for those of you don't know it's a day spa) tomorrow!

Fun Sunday

Okay, so rollerskating wasn't all I did this Sunday. I went to church and got a great message from Pastor Jeremy Anthony who is a super nice guy and the youth pastor, so he's got a lot of energy! He talked about having a relationship with God and being consistent with it. With that, you can have peace, or less struggle at least!

I was able to catch up with Scottie, my sister, Erika's mother-in-law. We are very similar in a lot of ways...

I met my friend, Taylor, after service so that we could go to lunch to celebrate her very belated birthday (her birthday is June 27th). We had a great time with great food at the Lazy Dog Cafe. Our waiter was also a chef there a couple days a week, so we got more than the usual explanation of how things were prepared. Taylor and I had a blast catching up!

As you can tell from the pic that I was having difficulties centering it! Okay, last comment--I have a huge head!!!

Rollerskating

To add some excitement to my life, I bought rollerskates this week. I used them briefly in the store, but today was the first day in probably 15 years that I really went out there and did it. The last time I had done it was with my college roommate, Lynn, on a windy fall day. It was a lot of stopping and starting for me (the rollerskater) because the wind had kicked up a lot of twigs and rocks. Lynn was on rollerblades, so her independently suspended wheels had no problem going over the obstacles.

Because of that experience, after college, when I was in Boston, I bought rollerblades thinking this would help me. Much to my dismay, it did not. For the life of me (and of others) I could not use those blades!!! I had to yell for people to get out of the way when I was on them!

So, I decided to get reacquainted with rollerskating this time around. I thought I was being smart by driving to Manhattan Beach at 7am on a Sunday morning thinking hardly anyone would be around. Well, I was surprised to see quite a few more people than I had imagined to potentially witness my humiliation.

I put my skates on right next to the bike trail and was on my way. I was quite spastic at first, but I started getting a little more comfortable. One thing I realized, which I think is partly due to getting a little older, is that you really need strong ankles for this! My ankles ached almost immediately, so I had to rest a few times. Rollerskates are pretty heavy and it takes some practice picking them up.

I turned around at the end of Manhattan Beach by whipping around and sitting on a retaining wall. This would have been slick if I didn't have to stop with a hard plop on my rear. My first thought, "Well, there goes a bruise!" But I hadn't fallen so I was feeling pretty good.

The way back was a little easier, but being on skates, I still had to navigate the cracks of the strand cement segments. All the while thinking "Step on a crack, break your mama's back." How's that for putting on the pressure.

Finally I was coming up on the end of my trial run. Only a few more glides....only a few more glides....that's it...wham!!! My arms went flailing and my right foot went up and suddenly I hit hard on the cement. Only a few feet to go and I had fallen!!!! At least I had only fallen once, I consoled myself.

A guy asked if I was alright and I smiled and said I was fine. So, I turned around and got up and immediately put my regular shoes on. I walked up the steep hill at the pier giving myself a peptalk--not bad for not doing it for 15 years. My right hand hurts, however. Backside is fine for now--good thing I have padding!

I'm still happy because I tried something new (well, not new for my life but new in recent years) and that even though I was only out there for a half hour it was quite a workout!