The low down of my new position

I normally give myself about 3 to 4 weeks to get my feet wet in a new job/position and determine whether I like the job or not. On June 29th my previous boss retired and I transferred over to the Sales Dept. It's the same position title, but different department.

I have to say, I am not a fan of the transfer. I am super busy and I haven't even started all my "roles" yet. I will be traveling for work again, which is not a bonus for me. That means I have to find a kitty/house sitter, travel on weekends and do A LOT of overtime.

I don't see this position fitting into my schedule. This position demands a lot of overtime and my priories is school and my health. My bosses work 12-14 hours days on the regular.

The work environment is not as friendly and pleasant. People's best foot used to be forward with my previous boss, but over here they tend to be negative.

Overall, it just doesn't feel like home!

My plan is to get my Father's Estate completed and Probate closed, put myself on a budget, move to a less expensive place (possibly a room for rent situation), and hopefully be ready to quit come Spring 2008. That way I can go to school full time and focus on my education.

Crowd cheers "speech, speech, speech!"

Since it's my first time being a maid-of-honor, I looked up my responsibilities online and kinnda panicked when I read that I have to do a speech/toast. Oh my... HOLY MOLY!

I'm just a little nervous, can you tell?

I feel the butterflies in my stomach like when I used to do public speaking competitions in high school.

Lucky #33 on a 3.1mi course

This Saturday I did my second 5k ever! The event I ran was the City of Cypress 26th AnnualCypress 5K & 10K Run/Walk. This is all in preparation for my 1/2 marathon in September.

Honestly, I almost didn’t go. I was super exhausted and when my alarm went off I laid there and debated whether to go or not, but I finally got my little tooshie out of bed and got ready. Walking Tobi and Trigger was a good warm up. I watched the sunrise and felt good to be out and about.

When I got there I checked in, grabbed my goodie bag and headed back to my car to put on my timing chip & race number, checkout my goodies and stretch. My goodie bag came with tons of cool stuff! In the bag there was 4-5 Soy Joy bars, Snickers Marathon energy bar, T-shirt, hot and cold compress, drink holders and a mini Mitsubishi collector car.

The race started promptly at 7:30 and I was done a little before 8am. I came in 180th overall, 47th female and 9th in my division. My time was 28min, 50s to run 3.1 miles. There were a lot of “Elite” athletes running this race and when they post the results there was a page of people who finished in 17 minutes. WOW! And there were some that were doing the 10K (6.2 miles) that finish right after me, now that is some VERY fast running.

The course was flat and was set through beautiful Cypress neighborhoods, finishing in front of the Civic Center. Neighbors were out with their lawn chairs cheering us on and one person even had a mister out for us. I am not sure why but running sometimes makes me emotional. I think it has to do a lot with I don’t like running, but I am out there doing it anyways and I have moments where I fight my fatigue and don’t stop. It's like a prideful & motivational moments. Also, when I am running I think a lot about life, so maybe that has to do with it too.

I hung out afterwards and enjoyed some refreshments and headed home to catch up on some zzz’s.

I am so glad I went and didn’t sleep in! *grinning* proud moment for me!

Sleepless night

Last night was my first night of house/dog sitting for Santa. I had a rough night. My evening started a little rushed as I remembered during lunch that my sister had invited me to a Flamenco show that her instructor was putting on. I rushed home after work to get things prepared for me spending the night at Santa's and headed down to the theater in the Art Village in Santa Ana. The show was great, very artsy and filled with passion. Time Warner was taping it, too, so it must have been a VERY big deal for the school.

I headed down to Santa's late in the evening. Her two doggies have had a traumatic day. They were boarded for 3 or 4 days because Santa's cousin is allergic to them and since she was in California before there cruise, the dogs (A.K.A. the boyz) couldn't be home. After being pick up from the broading location they went off to the groomers and then home. I'm used being bombarded with love when I come in and instead came in to two slowing moving doggies. They must be so exhausted. Their tails were wagging, tho, which is a good sign. I fed them and we headed off for a 30 minute walk to make sure they go do-do before heading off to sleep. I was exhausted, too! I took a shower and laid down to sleep.

It's hard for me to fall asleep comfortably in someones else home (unless it's Cindy's guest room, where I had the BEST sleep ever... and even drooled!) so I was already having difficulties falling asleep. Go figure right when I finally start getting some good REM sleep I am woken up by a hacking sound. Trigger was hacking up a lung. I rubbed his back and comforted him, but after a couple minutes of it I started to panic. I got out the 24 Hour vet emergency number and started to get direction just in case I needed to make a visit. After 10 minutes or so Trigger stopped coughing and went back to bed. Not sure what it was, but glad he clear whatever was bothering him!

Since Santa lives 3 cities north of me, I had to wake up an hour early to make sure the boyz got a walked to do their business and allow me enough time to head home and get ready for work. I am so thankful that I am splitting the house sitting roles with Jay, because it's a little overwhelming... but that's what friends are for, right!

I better get something good from Puerto Rico, Santa!!!! :)

My head is spinning!

Friday I received an email from my older sis inviting me to a Flamenco show at the Gypsy Den in Santa Ana. The Gypsy Den is a relaxing coffee house in the Art Village in Santa Ana. It has all different types of cloth hanging as window blinds, mismatching furniture and art all around. When I lived in Santa Ana I used to go there quite often to read and have a Chia Latte. They serve one of the best Chia Lattes I have ever drunk! It always cracks me up that they have a bumper sticker at the register that says “friends don’t let friend drink at Starbucks.”

My sister had a beautiful Flamenco dress and is well on here way on becoming one of the top students, you can just tell. She mimics her teacher very well. I sat with a bunch of her friends that I have know for awhile and one commented on how great my sisters back looks.

(I know the picture is really dark and doesn't give my sis's back justice. Nonetheless, here is the pix)

I remember when my sister was going to get married she wanted her back to look good for her special day and ever since has been working it out. I got a great shot of it, too.

During the dance I got into with the ex (“roomie”). It was all through texting and one phone call, but I was livid! He doesn’t see anything wrong with the fact that he told details of our break-up to many of his clients, one being Rita who was sitting right me and decided to tell me what he had said. I text him that I was upset that he said anything at all, that I was embarrassed and in his next relationship to confine in a few friends to vent to and not his entire client base. He had patched the holes that he created, but still needs to paint. I told him I would take care of that. I really don’t want to see him. He is a negative force field and I don’t want to be around it, even if it’s by phone. I’m glad that he broke up with me. It was one of the best gifts of this year!

Any who… other then that little drama, the night was great!

Saturday I had to wake up SUPER early to make it to the Avia OC Marathon shoe pick up. They made it into a huge event. It started off with a 3.8 mile run, which I almost missed! See, what should have been a 20 minute ride to Aliso Viejo took 45 mins! A motorcycle had gotten into an accident and 4 lanes were closed on the freeway. I got there right when they were reviewing the run. I ran in quickly, got my hand stamped, grabbed my goodie bag and ran back to my car to drop it off. Suddenly I realized I had to go to the restroom and didn’t think I could hold it for a 4 miles run so there I was off running to the restroom. When I came out, all the runners were already off. I made a mad dash to catch up and fortunately found the group.

When we return I picked up my new shoes, got two shirts, listened to a shoe expert and an Olympic medalist, ate lunch and was off to martial arts practice.

These are my new shoes! :)

Never heard of the brand before, but they are sponsoring the Marathon. I tried the shoes on at the location and they are very light and are a good fit.

On Sunday was a Bon Voyage/Friend get together. The two girlie that are taking off to Puerto Rico tomorrow didn't want it to be an official "bon voyage" so we changed it to a friend BBQ get together, which just meant that they now had to bring something. The boys played basketball, I almost went swimming, but it started to rain. The food was endless! We had a fruit salad, chicken sandwiches, chips, turkey burgers, rice, veggies, potato salad, brownies, fried chicken rolls and chili.

Hope you two have a great trip!!! Make sure to bring me back something! just kidding...kinnda!

I was set up on a blind date!

The other night I got a call from Santa asking if I wanted to go out and I took a rain check for the next day. It was going to be Santa, Dennis and myself or so I thought. Somewhere along the lines of getting ready I was told that I was being set-up on a blind date. Dennis has been telling me about a friend of his that is a great guy and I guess this night we were supposed to meet casually and see if there are any sparks.

Even though I have gone on a few dates since my break-up and have talked to guys, etc. I really am not ready to start dating! Don’t get me wrong, I love the attention but most guys want to take it to the next level and I don’t want to be in a relationship, and heck I can’t imagine finding time for a love in my life right now. Nonetheless, I went along with the setup.

Good thing Santa told me about it plan before hand, because there we were at Dennis house pick up a few clothing items for Santa and cooking dinner when we get a call that both Dennis and Ivan are outside….AAHHHH!!! We were in panic mode. Both of us had just finished working out and were not looking our best, so we turned off the rice, took the salmon out of the kitchen, grabbed our stuff and ran out to my car. Fate is a funny thing. You see there was a car stalled right behind my car and I couldn’t back out. Santa ran to Dennis car and said a quick hello and we rush out, barely missing Ivan.

*wiping eyebrow*

Thank goodness!

We got ready at my house as the salmon finished cooking and met the guys at Rumba Room. One of their friends, Danny, also met up with us.

Both of Dennis’ friends were very sweet the entire night and were kind enough to buy us drinks. Ivan was the guy they were trying to set me up with and I could tell that I was the only one that was kept in the dark about it until the very end! Ivan was a cool guy. Ivan is very engaging, attractive with a clean cut look, funny and dances, too. The only two down falls is that I probably outweigh him by 20lbs and I am slightly taller then him, so it wasn’t a perfect match. Beside the fact that I DON’T want to get into a relationship, he don’t fit what I am looking for, so sorry guys it’s not a match from this end! But I did feel special when he was interested in me.

We had a fun night dancing on the dance floor. I had to get a lil ninja style with two guys. Haha! I kicked for grabbing Santa’s behind and another I elbowed another guy for grabbing me. MEN?!?! What is wrong with them?

We had a little detour on the way home, I accidentally went on the 5 FWY North instead of South and almost ended up in Central Coast of CA. We debated on whether to stay the night in Camarillo and possible go to Hearst Castle the next day or just turn around and go home. We turned around, got breakfast and then I dropped her off at her honey’s place. I got home right when the sun was rising.

I found a Puttie Kat!

There has been this cute kitty meowing around my apartment for a week or two. The kitty looks like an Egyptian Eau and had been crying for attention. It doesn’t act like a stray cat at all. I wouldn’t be surprised if it once had a home with a resident of my apartment complex and was abandoned during a move.

I let my two kitties, Angelina and Maxwell, outside to see if they would like to become friends with this kitty. Maxwell, being the scaredy cat that he is, ran back into my apartment once he saw the kitty and hissed at it from behind the safety of the window screen. Angelina was snooty and started eating leaves from a palm or pretending to and turning around every so often to hiss at the kitty. I saw no hope of my spoiled kitties inviting this abandoned one in, so I left food out for it.

I knew my little niece has been asking for a kitty, so my older sis said if I could catch it then to bring it on over to see if it was a match with her and her family…oh and did I forget to mention they have a Doberman, too. I had a feeling that I would be my little furry friend when I got back on Sunday, so I stopped by the store a bought a starter items for the kitty and sure enough when I got home it was there waiting for me. I went inside and got the carrier case and would you know the lil kitty just walked right in!

When I got to my sister’s house we told my niece that she had a friend outside. She heard the kitty meowing but wouldn’t open the door. She peeked through the door and then through the window and finally opened it, or was it me that finally open the door (suspends kills me!). She laughed and said “I thought you brought me a baby!” Obviously, she hasn’t learn about the “birds and the bees.”

The kitty wondered throughout the house as if it was home. We turn it around and it’s a girl!

Then there was the official introduction of the Doberman, Diego and the new kitty and it went surprising well. Diego was eager to greet the kitty, his tail was wagging and no barking and the kitty didn’t hiss and kept smelling Diego.

YIPPEE!!! A purrfect match!

Wedding bells sub for IPod

Yesterday I had a call with all my sisters and during the call I found out great news, my lil sis is having a wedding ceremony! Her first semester in college she fell in love and the two love birds went down to the court house and got hitch and now 5 years later she is have her wedding ceremony. HOORAY!

Not only am I going to be in the wedding, but yours truly is...
*dramatic pause* ....
*drum roll*

her maid-of-honor! I am so excited for her and later on that night we caught on details, things that need to get done, etc. Her wedding is in February 2008, which means I will be in great shape for the wedding because my marathon is the month before, which mean that I will have been working out.

After the call I went to Jay’s side of town and went running with Jay on a fancy track. It’s the San Clemente High School track and it so nice that they do not allow you to run on the first 4 tracks to keep looking nice. You should have seen me when I realized I forgot my IPod. I felt doomed because we were running 4miles, that’s 16 LAPS with only me and my thoughts to keep me company. I literally fell to the floor we I saw Jay with his IPod and remembering that mind was on my table. I know what you are thinking, I am so dramatic! haha! I made it through the run, though. My sister’s wedding kept my mind occupied for the first mile.

After my run I could notice the bounciness of the track. It’s definitely worth the drive.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

I hope you are enjoying for first b-day in heaven. It must such a treat! I can only imagine how they celebrate your earthly birthday.

I remember last year on this day, I was out on the ocean with my sisters, my Mom, and your buddies. I scuba dived down to a spot we have dove before and release your ashes, just like you requested. That it the last birthday gift I will ever be able to give you. I miss you dearly!

Love, your daddy's girl,

Nessa

Lessons from under his wing

Marital arts practice has been growing in students. It’s a nice change of pace to have my one-on-one practice time with Sensei T and then have a group of student come learn the basics. It’s a great review for me!

Yesterday three students came and two prospective students watch as we learned a new form and reviewed rolls and falls and covered some grappling techniques, as well.

Every week we meet at the same park, so there are some regular onlookers. One of them was a group of “gangster” looking folks that live on the corner. While Sensei T was grappling with one of the kids one of the “gangster” came up and told Sensei T that he wanted to wrestle with him and would be back in a few.

Sensei T has had a lot of experience in both school setting and real-life fights. He has four black belts and is up for another one, has over 18 years of martial arts experience, was a bouncer, used to cage fight and wrestle professionally, so the only thing this young kid had on Sensei T was endurance.

This gangster came over with a bunch of his buddies, took off his shirt, was very cocky, and was showing off his muscles as he stretched. Sensei T and all his students just sat in seiza and waited for his opponent to be done with his showing off.

Watching them wrestle was a great learning experience for all Sensei T’s students. We watched as he humbly hand this kid his a#%. It was great to point out moves, see where I could improve and areas to focus on.

After the wrestling matches Sensei T did not boast, he shook the guys hand, told him good job and invited him to learn with us then came back to the group and instructed the students to start back up with their rolls.

It was funny, one of the students commented to Sensei T “Man! You were easy on him! You are a lot harder on us.”

Honestly, I felt very proud of Sensei T! It was the first time that I had seen him grapple/”fight” anyone besides his students. He handled it so well and was a great model for the students on how to handle a situation like that. I feel honored that he has taken me under his wing.

I'm a reptile!

I'm shedding! I'm shedding!

Part of the tattoo healing process is that the top layer of skin that heals over your tattoo sheds. It's has some ink on it, too! You're supposed to put lotion or A&D ointment on it through out the day, so these black pieces of skin keep coming off on your hand as you lather yourself up.

Today is my first day of shedding. For whatever reason the tattoo artist does not tell you about this! When my first tattoo started to heal and my skin started to shed I though the ink was coming off and my tattoo was ruin. Later Later I learned that nope, it's just part of the process! Glad I had gone with Roomie at that time and he got one too, so when it was happening to him to we knew that it was "normal" or part of the process.

Amazon preorder shopping

I am a FANATIC! A co-worker of mine stopped by and told me that he preordered the 300 DVD. I didn't know you could do that, but know I do. Do you know what I did, right???
I preorder it and300 got the combo HD DVD and Standard DVD set. It only cost $6 more and you never know, I might just invest in a HD DVD player one of these days. I just can get myself to spend $800 bucks on one. I do have a friend that has one, tho. I might just go to her house and watch it there. It arrives July, 31st... the release date! YIPPEE!

HOLY MOLY!

I’m baaccckkkk!

Were have I been you ask? My work had a mandatory shut down for the week of 4th of July, so I have been on vacay (kindda)!

Last you heard from me was last Friday on Cindy’s birthday, so I will update you from there. That day I came home and wasn’t feeling so well and crashed on my couch from 6pm to 10am the next day. I had a slight intermission from my sleep when I spoke to the b-day girl herself for a little while. I pretty much slept the entire weekend. I was extremely exhausted, had a slight fever, my body ached and my poor throat was super scratchy. I cancelled pretty much everything on my schedule and was a couch potato.

Monday was errand day. I took my car in for an oil change and had the starter changed, went to the dentist for my routine 6th month cleaning and went to the eye doctor for an exam. I know what you are thinking… I am such a GOOD GIRL! *patting me on the back*

Tuesday I woke up early and headed over to Jay’s house for a mini boot camp workout. Even though I want to try and fight off my cold all by myself I thought I better bring in some reinforcement and started a round of antibiotics. Good thing too because I am sure that working out that hard wouldn’t help me on my way to recovery any faster. During our workout Jay’s daughter, Jayla, did a workout on her own..kindda…she is only 18 months, or so. It was the coolest thing to see her hang from the monkey bars all by herself. We ended the workout with 3 sets of bear crawls up a steep hill and some upside down pull-ups. Then we headed over to the local Trader Joe’s and bought fajitas stuff and made a yummy lunch. Actually, Jay made them and I watched as I snacked on grapes and bell peppers. I did the clean up tho!

Afterwards, I head home for a shower and Santa and Melissa came over. We hung out at my house for a little bit and headed off to the Brea Mall. I grew up going to this particular mall and love going there since I know the layout. We did some damage there and one of the items I took home was this cute, white dress.
Jay met up with us and we all headed to Lucille’s BBQ Restaurant. It was Jay and Melissa’s first time dining there and they were not let down! Jay had the BBQ chicken sandwich (one of my top two favorite choices) and Melissa had the ribs. They even took home some of the drinking jar mugs as a souvenir.

Wednesday morning was Fourth of July… Happy Belated 4th of July!!!

I called my sister who lives in the central coast of California and invited myself up there. I really wanted to visit and she was glad to have the company. The drive up is on the 101 FWY and it’s along the coast. It’s a beautiful drive and reminded me of high school when we used to make the drive for competitions. I arrived to a warm welcome! My sister, her hubby and their American Bull Dog, Fang greeted me.

In her city all the neighbors have tons of fireworks, so small that you light on the ground and others were like the ones at Disneyland! We went to bed early because Thursday we had to wake up bright and early for a SPA DAY!!!

Thursday we had a massage appointment at Sycamore Spring Spa. An hour before you get your private Jacuzzi filled with mineral spring water. It's hidden away in the forest and had a great relaxing and added a natural feeling to the experience. Afterwards, we went for a hike. My sister had done the hike before and forgot to mention that it was uphill, so half way up I kindly reminded her of that fact, haha!

This is the view from the top of the hill we hiked.

The focal point of the Spa is a Cairn. You can read the sign for more info on what it is.

I added a rock on the top as and said a prayer like the sign instructed me to do. Do you see my rock on the very top???
We walked the garden and just pass the Carin was tire swings, so we relived childhood memories as we swung on them. Here is my sister relaxing on one of the tire swings.

We also did a mediation walk through the rock Labyrinth. You are supposed to walk and see what comes to mind, but we mainly just chatted about life as we walked together.

After the spa we went into town and ate at Palazzo Giuseppe where my sister's husband works as the Su Chef.

My bro-in-law made me a meal that was not on the menu, delicious Ahi! My favorite!
And then we tried a fresh cucumber sorbet.

You know us girls, after a great meal we have to shop! We went to a couple of stores and then headed home.

We carpooled back to Southern California on Friday. Too bad we didn't calculate Friday afternoon traffic. We had quite a drive, but we made it in time for my sister to attend a wedding rehearsal for her friend.

Saturday I headed to work to move my stuff from my old cubicle to my new one. Monday I am supposed to start supporting the Sales Department, so I wanted my home to be ready first thing when I got in. I went to practice martial arts with Sensei T and was surprised to see 5 additional students. Normally it's just us two, but he is expanding. I was able to practice grappling and it felt good to see that I still remembered some moves. Afterwards, I headed off to the gym for workout and soaking in the Jacuzzi and sit in the steam room awhile.

Sunday was my final day of my vacation. I am not looking forward to going back to the grind. I'm really enjoying not working! I can’t wait until I quit and go to school full-time! Sunday I headed off to see my trainer and we worked out for an hour and then she stretched me out for about 45 minutes.I raced off to see Sensei T because our practice would be short today. We went over a new form and I was off again… to get my tattoo!
I must say the first tattoo I ever had done was not painful AT ALL. It was like a massage and at times ticklish. This one on the other had was painful! At one point my big toe went dumb and at another a nerve he was touching made my butt cramp. Or maybe that was from all the tensing I was doing. But here it is….

After 8-9 years of thinking of it, I finally got it.

You would think that I would go home and rest after getting this done, but no I went to the 5pm martial arts practice and worked on my martial arts form for about an hour. This time there was three other kids from Saturday’s practice. Sensei T had me demonstrate the Snake Form I learned and later told me to sharper up the form because I would be teaching it to the class when they are done learning the current form they are on now. I was honored! It motivated me to practice, so I came home and started taking notes and learning the names of all the moves, something I probably should have done back when I first learned it.