A Reflective Post..

With the exception of Nate and my family (SD family and immediate), most people don't know that I am contemplating returning to school. It scares me to death. Questions arise: How will I pay rent? What about food? Will I be able to afford health insurance or dental? My heart is racing just typing it out right now.

These questions have been in battle against my love for literature and my need to know MORE. When people ask me what my major in college was, I smile and say, "English." The question that follows, "How did you end up in TV Sales?" I haven't a clue. The desire to make money, I suppose. Money. The fuel that drives the questions keeping me from doing what I love, that's money.

It is in this state of mind that I drove myself to work today, turned on my computer, did the work on my desk, and inevitably began surfing the web. As I was wasting time on the Internet I "stumbled" on to a Commencement speech given by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers in 2005.

Resolution found on the Internet...

I encourage everyone to click the link at the bottom of this post, but for those of you who don't have the time, below are 4 quotes from his speech. They offer guidance to anyone having questions about their future. Maybe even some reassurance that everything will be alright.

"Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

"Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

"Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."

Here is the full text, Commencement Address by Steve Jobs

Stevie's Fun in the Sun..

Hey guys... Stevie here.  I thought since my mom is drawing a blogging blank lately I would take over and tell you a little about my Day O' Fun on Saturday.  I don't know how to put this delicately, but we've been having some awesome weather in San Diego.  It was in the 90's this weekend!  Anyways, Saturday I got to go over to Anga's house with mom, Nate, Erin and Andrew.

Anga's backyard has flowers and bushes all over.  I was investigating those for a good hour...

Everyone pitched in on throwing the ball to me too!  I didn't stop running!  This is when my tongue started to hang out...

I played and played until I was exhausted.  

Another pal of mine, Hank (the puggle), came later.  Mom forgot to shoot any pics of me with him.  Saturday was one of the best days I've had in a long time.  

Welp, that's it... Hopefully mom will have more luck with blogging ideas soon!

Water For Elephants

Okay, time for another book review. Once again I will try not to give anything away.

This morning I finished Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants. This book was very different from anything I had read before, mainly because it is majestically set in a circus. I actually hesitated about reading this book initially because I thought, 'Am I really that interested in the circus?' Soon after I started reading it I realized that 'yes I am.' So kudos to Gruen for going outside the box and creating a world that keeps the reader dazzled. Water for Elephants also kept me interested. It was fast-paced and you not only become close with the human characters, but you also grow fond of the animal characters as well - the animals were very humanized.

That being said, I had a couple complaints too. First, the story is told by a 90 year old man reminiscing about his life. Throughout the book the reader goes back and forth between past and present. The issue I had was that the 90 year old main character's personality didn't seem to line-up with the younger "Joseph." I understand that aging can cause bitterness, but I almost disliked the older "Joseph" deeming the whole reminiscing technique unnecessary, in my mind.

My second critique should be taken with a grain of salt;I am probably 1 in 100 that would ever pay close attention to this. BUT, I always take note when an author's main character is that of the opposite sex. Gruen wrote her story from the point of view of a man, Joseph. Unfortunately, I just wasn't buying it. His emotions, thoughts, and actions just weren't masculine enough for me (note - a great example of an author writing convincingly in the opposite sex is Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone).

There you have it. I enjoyed this book very much, but it was not 100% praise-worthy. Am I being harsh?

If anyone actually read this review and has a suggestion for my next "read," please let me know. I am thinking of reading Austen's Pride and Prejudice (I can't believe I've never read it!).

What I've Stumbled Upon..

Recently I was introduced to StumbleUpon and I love it! It is a great website where you give your interests and it will provide you with websites or articles that fall into your categories. I've been "stumbling" throughout my day (when I have nothing to do at work, of course). Oh, the treasures I've stumbled upon!

One of the first sites I found was Read Print. You can read great works of art from your computer FOR FREE! What a find for a girl with a love for the written word. I enjoyed Dickens' "Doctor Marigold" this morning ;)

I stumbled some more and found another site, this one to stimulate my right brain. It's called Musicovery, go ahead and check it out. You can choose your music by your current "mood." I love that! Right now, I'm listening to Rock, but feeling Calm.

Why not create a Mr Picassohead while you're at it?

Or if you want to work on being a better person, go over these 21 Suggestions for Success. I think Mr Brown is onto something here...

Also, if you click on Humor or Animals as your interests, you get cute pics like this one... hehe



These are some things I've Stumbled Upon, what about you?

Marathon Update

I haven't written about what's going on with my running lately so I thought I would catch everyone up. As of right now I'm not running. At all. I was having major pain around my left knee and it would keep me from going the distance I needed to run. I kept running on the pain for over a month, but by the end of it I wasn't getting much farther than 3 1/2 miles. When I had to call Nate to pick me up after my 7 mile run had been cut painfully short to 3, I decided it was time to get it looked at. After talking to a sports med chiropractor (I know what you are thinking, but i was really impressed by the guy) it looks like I have a nice case of shin splints and patella tendinitis (runner's knee). Basically my whole left leg has been inflamed. The interesting part is the shin splints. My shins were hurting bad in Feb or March, so I switched shoes (NEVER WEAR NIKE , especially if you have a wide foot). I got Brooks and the pain seemed to have gone away. Little did I know, it was still there and probably making other parts of my leg work harder.

The good news is that I haven't giving up on my marathon. I'm not running for 2 weeks, but I am keeping myself busy with low-impact cardio. Actually, Nate and I went swimming at the gym yesterday and I am feeling nice and sore today. So although there has been a glitch in my training I still think I can do it. I definitely need to feel 100%, but I think with a little rehab, rest, and a positive attitude I could still do this thing.

I'll keep you updated!

Our Trip to NY - Part 2

On to the rest of the trip. Okay, I last left you on Thursday night when we went to "Young Frankenstein." Continuing on to Friday..

Friday we decided it would be a good idea to check out Central Park, which happened to be 2 streets away from our hotel (Thank you Lindsay!). We woke up and had a wonderful breakfast at a diner nearby. I had wheat pancakes, Nate the french toast (do you guys even care to hear those details, oh well). With full, happy bellies we headed to Central Park. A note about central park if you've never been, IT IS HUGE! There is a road that runs the perimeter of the park - it's 6 miles!



We just walked around awhile, seeing the many things the park has to offer. Nate came up with the idea of renting one of the row boats for an hour. Best $12 we spent. We had such a good time. I'm pretty sure we didn't stop laughing once.



ESPECIALLY when it was my turn to row. Nate even took video (didn't want to bore you with it, just a lot of me rowing and Nate laughing). Let's just say it was my first time rowing and it didn't exactly come naturally.



From there we headed to the Natural History Museum- also HUGE! We saw the 4 shows/exhibits that were showing at the time. The first one we went through was the butterflies exhibit. I don't know what happened, I went picture-crazy! I took so many in fact, they probably took up 20% of our trip's photos. Maybe because I wasn't expecting to basically be walking through Butterfly World with live ones just going on with their business. This one, in fact, used me as a taxi and walked with me through the exhibit...



And this one... HUGE, right? Did you know butterflies came in that size?



After the Museum we headed to the Lower East Side to have dinner with my cousin Marty and his wife Mary Beth. Where are THOSE pictures you ask? Well there was 1 and it wasn't great... but those butterflies! I'm a nerd.

Saturday we had plans to have brunch with one of my childhood friends, Lana. She lives in Brooklyn so we thought it would be a great opportunity to see New York from outside the city and also to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.



The bridge was an amazing structure! It took around 13 years to build and has definitely stood the test of time. I recommend taking the walk if you are heading to NY any time soon.



This is a picture from the bridge, the Empire State Building is the dominate building you see...



For our final dinner in NY, we went to Churascaria Plataforma (http://www.churrascariaplataforma.com/) it is a rodizio that my Dad suggested we go check out. For those of you who don't know what a rodizio is (I didn't before this), it is a Brazilian Steakhouse that is all you can eat meat. The servers come around with different meats from rib eye to sausage to bacon wrapped turkey. It was amazing! Nate and I both agreed the rib eye was the best. Best rib eye we have EVER tasted. This is Nate taking a piece of sirloin, I believe.



haha. After I took that pic Nate said, "I know I looked like a TOOL" haha. Nate was a happy boy at Plataforma..



After that we hung out quickly with another childhood friend of mine, Serena. And then it was time for sleep. I don't know if you can tell, but this trip was action packed. Nate and I were go-go-go the whole time and I'm so thankful we were :)

Sunday we were sad to leave...



We had such a great time. Nate was my perfect traveling partner - he can even deal with a grumpy Nikki when I get hungry. Lo, Kerry, Linds I know you know what I'm talking about :)

The only thing left to say is thank you to Nate for being so wonderful and I can't wait to go back!

Our Trip to NY - Part 1

Well, NY has come and gone. We had SUCH a great time. We did just about everything we planned on doing, with the exception of seeing the Statue of Liberty - we just waved at her from Brooklyn.

Because we had a trip of many events I thought I would do the blog in 2 parts. This one will be the first couple of days we were there. So here we go!

We luckily had no flight issues at all, which was wonderful considering we were walking by hundreds of unhappy American Airlines customers. When we arrived in NY on Wednesday it was already nighttime. It was slightly misting, but that did not hinder us from walking around for HOURS that night, checking everything out including Time Square. Here is a pic of Nate and I that night. One of the many pictures we took of ourselves (one of the downfalls of traveling in a pair).



We were a little wet, but happy to be in NY. Another thing to mention is how lucky we were with weather. We were expecting rain and cold, but instead got some of the best weather that has hit the city in a LONG time. Not only did that make us happy, but my friend Lana pointed out that all the New Yorkers were happy as well. We didn't get any of the "rude new yorker" feel from anyone.

So the next morning (Thursday), we headed out to the West Village to have brunch at the Tartine, a cafe suggested by my friend Lindsay. It was delicious! Our first of many great meals in NY. After, we walked around some more, just checking out the area. This was one of my favorite areas.



These trees were beautiful, and they were everywhere! I asked a couple of people what kind of tree it was, but no one had an answer.



From there, we hopped the Metro and headed to the Empire State building.



As Nate would tell you, this was not my favorite part of the trip. In my defense, who knew it was such an ordeal?! It was $38 for Nate and I to go up and see. And the lines! When you are on your way up, you are in a huge line similar to an amusement park ride, except 10x as long (okay, slight exaggeration).



I do have to say, the pics came out pretty cool. Oh, and by the way, are you noting the weather? Were we lucky or what?



After the Empire State Building I somehow talked Nate into going to the huge Macy's. He "pretended" we weren't going and then veered into the building at the last minute :) It was HUGE! It was almost suffocating it was so huge (an oxymoron!). There are 5 Starbucks in the 1 Macy's, yes 5! It was too much, so we did an extremely quick tour and got out.

Thursday night was "Young Frankenstein" night. We were cutting it close, but decided to try a Chilean restaurant close to the theatre. It was called Pomaire and it was BY FAR my favorite meal. It was soooo good. Here is a pic of my Salmon (I'm still dreaming about it), in the background you can see Nate's Chilean sea bass. We argued about whose was better because we both liked our own best. It was a win-win situation really.



Dinner ended up taking the perfect amount of time. We made it to the play with time to spare. "Young Frankenstein" was hilarious. If you grew up watching Mel Brook's like me, you will love it. The actors were amazing too! Seeing the "original" cast is what makes NY Broadway what it is. It was a pleasant surprise that Megan Mulally, Karen from Will & Grace, was in it. My favorite had to be Andrea Martin. She is well known on Broadway with many Tony Awards on her shelf, but for those of us that don't see many Broadway plays we might remember her best as the funny aunt from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding."

To be continued...

Start Spreadin' the News...

I'm leavin today,
I want to BE a part of it,
New York! New York!

New York!!!

2 days until New York!!! I am so excited. I've never been to NY and I plan on being a full-blown tourist. Can't wait! Nate and I don't have too much "planned" per say, but when you list out the basics your days pretty much fill themselves up.

Here is a short list of what we plan on seeing/doing while we are there:

• "Young Frankenstein" (my first REAL Broadway play!)
• Central Park
• Statue of Liberty
• Empire State Building
• Metropolitan Museum of Art and/or Museum of Natural History
• Dinner with my cousin, Marty
• Brooklyn Bridge
• Times Square
• Eating in delicious restaurants
• AND (don't tell Nate) shopping, shopping, and more shopping :)

See our days are already pretty filled, right? I really don't plan on doing too much shopping, but people keep telling me it's inevitable... it will happen. I have to, at least, visit the ginormous Macy's!

Now all I have to do is laundry, pack, and get through these 2 excruciating days of work. Isn't work so difficult when you have such extraordinary plans for later in the week?

Andrew Gil Ladies & Gentlemen, Andrew Gil!

For those of you non-San Diegons, you may have never heard of Andrew Gil. He is a local favorite in these parts. Andrew just so happened to be our neighbor when we moved into our (first) place on Loring Street. I'm not sure which we met first, Andrew's music or Andrew. By that I mean, very often at night Andrew would go outside to play guitar and sing. Erin and I were floored by his talent the first time we heard him. Soon the Loring "family" developed and we got to be better friends with "Gil". Throughout the past 3 years we've seen Andrew perform multiple times. We love being his loyal fans. There are always comments made about how Andrew doesn't have a Myspace page for his music, or even a CD out, but he has the most fans at every show he plays.

Last night was no exception. Gil was the headliner of the night (see below). And, once again, he did not disappoint...


For those of you who are now sooo curious you can hardly stand it, you're in luck. I took video on my camera of one of the songs he performed last night. Given, it was my camera so the video isn't great, but the audio came out surprisingly good. Without further ado, this is Andrew Gil's "Galway"...



One sad part of the performance was the realization that this could quite possibly be Gil's last San Diego performance. He plans on moving to NY as soon as possible. He and his music will be missed in San Diego, but we wish him nothing but luck in his endeavors!

Our First Game Of The Season

Just about every year, Andrew gets a big group of us together to go to a Padre's game.  His work blocks off a section and in the end our friends take up a good portion of the designated area.  Tuesday was officially our first game of the season... and we had a great time!

Here are our friends, Brian and Clare (the Merritts), getting psyched for the big game.

Our seats were just up from first base.  From this pic you can see the true dedication of San Diego, coming to root on the Padres in their 2nd game of the season.... hardly a packed house :(

Pic of Nate, Erin, and Andrew.  They weren't bundling up for fun.  It was genuinely COLD that night!

Okay, the highlight of the night was during the 7th inning stretch.  Some music started playing and we all got up to shake out our legs a bit.  Andrew, being silly, said, "Dance! So we make it on the Jumbo-tron."  We all thought this hilarious, and started dancing around like we were 10 yrs old.  All of a sudden Erin is screaming, "We're on TV! We're on TV!"  I turned to look... and there we were... on the Jumbo-tron!!  I don't know about you, but I have ALWAYS wanted to make it on the Jumbo-tron.  When it happened I felt so unprepared.  Thinking of you, fine readers, I grabbed for my camera as quick as I could to try and snap a shot of us on the big screen, but of course that didn't work out (how cool would THAT have been?).  So instead I snapped a pic of us immediately afterwards, in all our giddiness.

(re-thinking taking that pic with gum in my mouth... oh well!)  So that was our first Padre game of the season.  I can't wait to go to more.  Especially if they are as fun as this one was :)

Some Sad News...

As you all know, I've been training for my very first marathon in June. What some of you don't know is that I started having a knee problem a couple of weeks ago and my training has been very touch and go. The pain makes me stop in the middle of my runs and now the pain isn't going away (like early on in the injury).

Finally, I saw the doctor today and he told me my condition has worsened to a point that I can not continue my training. I will not be running my marathon this year. I'm very upset about it and, to be honest, I don't see myself trying to run one again. The pain has been too much.





Oh, yeah.... April Fools ;)