The Big 2-9

Yesterday was my birthday. The big 2-9. The last and final year of my 20's! I actually hadn't thought of it that way, but a lot of people pointed that out! I tried taking the day off work, but it seems like even if I am physically not at work, I still get enough emails and phone calls that I might as well have been. Work aside, it was a fun day.

My mom had been in Finland the last couple weeks visiting her family and arranged the trip so she could fly home into LAX and spend a day with me. We went shopping, had lunch, got mani/pedi's and enjoyed a nice, sunny California day.

Once we got home, Mom made me a pie. Our family has never been huge on birthday cakes. We usually had brownies or something along those lines. Just not big fans of frosting, I guess. This year, I got a french silk pie made from scratch. We kept cracking up trying to make it because I'm not exactly someone who knows their way around the kitchen. Even my own kitchen. So mom would ask "Do you have a rolling pin?" and I honestly had no idea. We ended up using a thermos. Then she asked for a cheese grater. I knew we had one somewhere, so I began digging around. And accidentally knocked a glass of old Diet Coke onto the pie crust. So we had to start that over. You get the idea - that's why I don't cook! But the pie turned out so sweet and delicious. Definitely a hit!

When hubby finally got home from work, he had big plans to take me out for a nice dinner, but I was already so tired that I convinced him to order a pizza. Usually I'll take any excuse to go eat sushi, or something equally delicious. But I just couldn't bear the thought of leaving that couch! The pizza was yummy anyway. Deep dish from BJ's Brewhouse. No complaints here.

Oh and for my gift, he gave me the best & prettiest bracelet from Tiffany's! A total surprise. I pretended I was mad at him for spending that kind of money, but I absolutely love it.

Cheers to the last year in my 20's. And get ready because next year is my Golden Birthday (turning 30 on the 30th) and it is going to be MAJOR! I'm already looking forward to it!

A Birthday Engagement

One of my girlfriends and I share a birthday really close together. So it has become a tradition over the last few years to celebrate together. The friends arranged the party for last night. And honestly, I wasn't really up for it at first. I have been sick with the flu this last week, so it sounded more like work than fun. I'd have to get ready. And I'd have to drive to a restaurant. It would be exhausting! But once we got out there, I ended up having a good time.

We all met for dinner at Casa Vega - a tasty and popular Mexican place in the Valley. So popular, that the wait was over an hour. But with 12 people on a Friday night, pretty much anywhere in LA will be a minimum of an hour wait. So we waited and finally got seated at a tight corner table near the bar, which meant it was LOUD. The table basically got divided in half because we couldn't hear what one side was talking about, and they couldn't hear us either. We'd wave to each other once in awhile to confirm we knew they were there, but until the bar cleared out a little, there wasn't a lot of conversation happening. Once it DID quiet down a little, my girlfriend and her man announced their engagement! We were all so excited!! This is a couple who has been together for 10 years. High school sweethearts. And we always make fun of the guy for being too chicken to propose. But he finally did! Thank goodness.

After dinner started winding down, we went to our friend's house and - the crazy party people that we are - played ROCK BAND for the next couple hours. Best video game of all time, if you ask me. I won't lie. I'm decent when it comes to the guitar and the singing. But the drums kick my butt.

So anyway, that was our wild birthday night on the town. But it never fails. We can be out rockin' with the best of them, but we usually have our funnest times and our biggest laughs when we are just hanging out being dorks. I think that is the basis for a good and long-lasting friendship.

Old Family Videos - Priceless.

So I pretty much have the best nephew ever! He is just perfect in every way. Beautiful blue eyes, perfect skin, and cheeks I could munch on all day. He is consistenly a happy baby and even when he's not, his cry is still cute! (I'm sure I only think its cute because I hear it like once every couple months, but really - it's not bad!)

He was here visiting with his Mama Krista and Uncle Markus over the weekend. The hubby and I just loved having them here. We kept them busy hauling them around to different places and having lots of visitors who were excited to see them. I'm pretty sure we wore all of them out (well, except Markus - he usually can't wait to get out of the house). But Krista and Jorel are not exactly used to the city life! In fact, they don't get out of the house much at all. Krista was a little concerned that we overwhelmed the little one, but I think its good for him to get out and about!

We enjoyed the quiet times we had at home too. Jorel is very content sitting in his crib and talking to us. He can goo-goo, gaa-gaa all day and we happily sit around, gooing and gaaing back at him. There were times when he would just lay on a blanket in the middle of the living room and we'd all sit in a circle around him, watching. That's how it goes with the first nephew in the family! We haven't seen a Nugent baby in about 16 years, so it is very exciting.

Another thing we did during our downtime was watch old family movies. Krista took the time over the last month to transfer our VHS tapes to DVD so they can be preserved a little longer. There was one tape that has been broken for many years that she was able to fix, so it was the first time we ever watched it - 1984. The hubby was loving watching me as a 5 year-old and hoping we have three just like me. I was loving the fact that Jorel at 3 months old looks SO MUCH like his Mama at 3 months old. And when we saw Markus at about 9 months old, we realized Jorel would look just like him! It was awesome.

I kept telling myself to never take those family videos for granted. Even though they are really obnoxious 1/2 the time, it really shows everyone's personalities and honestly, they are just priceless. I also got a little emotional watching Markus as a baby. It brought back a lot of memories. He was always my little guy and its just crazy to think how quickly the time has gone. I can't imagine what it will be like to have my own.

Road To Recovery

I got my wisdom teeth out yesterday. Some people warned me it would be awful, but most said it was no big deal. Let me tell you, it is a big deal! Hubby couldn't take me because he got called into jury duty. So a girlfriend of mine drove me to the dentist and waited to take me home.

The surgery itself was bizarre. I felt like I was awake the whole time and that the surgery only took 5 minutes. As I walked out, they told me I had been in there for about half an hour. It seemed impossible to not even REMEMBER that I had fallen asleep. But I was relieved I had woken up! I'd never been under anesthesia before and I was terrified. As we drove home, I was very aware of what I was saying because I didn't want to seem like I wasn't making sense. I've heard some people coming out of surgery say some really funny things so I was trying to control myself. One really weird thing was trying to sit down. I kept feeling like I was falling. I'm pretty sure that's as close to being drunk as I'll ever be.

The first few hours I was at home, I didn't feel too bad. The anesthesia was still in my system, so I wasn't really hungry or anything, just wanted to relax. And my girlfriend took really good care of me. Got me mashed potatoes and Jello and just hung out at the house and watched movies with me to keep an eye on things. Very sweet. But as the anesthesia wore off, my gums started to hurt REAL bad. I couldn't swallow anything. Even with the painkillers, it was just really awful. Later in the day, the pain seemed to calm down a little, but every time I tried to eat, I would throw up. So let me tell ya, I was not a happy camper. Hungry and hurting is not a good combination for me!

Thank goodness I felt better when I woke up this morning. I'm definitely not 100% and my cheekies are still swollen (not that they could get much bigger than they already are) but I have been able to keep down a few small meals, so I am on the road to recovery! After the way I felt yesterday, I didn't think it was possible. But its really, truly amazing that your body knows what to do and how to heal itself. I'm impressed!

Hair 'Do or 'Don't?

Whenever I get my hair cut, I always have this amazing image in my head of what it will look like - funky, modern and FABULOUS! Then as I sit in the chair and get it chopped off, I start getting nervous. The short hair will make my cheeks look chubby! What was I thinking? Oh and now my double chin is really obvious! I carry on a normal conversation with my stylist and try not to look panicked, but all the while I'm doubting my decision. After processing the look and having all the people in the salon tell me how amazing my hair is looking, I start getting used to the idea. Yes! This will work. Its going to look great. As I drive home, I look in the rear-view mirror about 30 times and start to enjoy it. Then when I get home and look in a real mirror one last time, I think oh well. Its fine. Not exactly fabulous, but its alright. Next time I will grow it out.

This is a typical thought cycle for me. After my hair grows out a couple inches, I'm like NEVERMIND! Let's cut it again. Its so fun when its cute and short! And here we go again. It is hard being me. HAHA!

The Sky Is Falling

Today I finally gave in and put away all my Christmas decorations. I was delaying it a bit partly because my brother, sister and nephew were supposed to come into town this weekend to celebrate a late Christmas. And partly because I just wasn't ready to let go of the season yet! I swear, this year was so busy and went by so fast that I got into the spirit of things pretty late and therefore have had a hard time getting back to the normal routine.

Whenever I drive by a house that still has lights up, I feel better because I'm sure they don't want to let go of the season either. Although, its most likely that they are probably just being lazy. But either way, it has been a strange transition. My hubby is happy to have things back to normal, but let's be honest. He's not one to really be all that excited about Christmas anyway, so its sort of expected.


My brother, sister and adorable nephew didn't make it into town either. The weather was crazy out here - the most rain we've seen in awhile! Which actually has been really refreshing. We are definitely enjoying the wet weather for a change. We stayed inside most of the day, but ran a couple errands and it was fun being outside with the sky falling. We ran around, trying to stay dry knowing that we really couldn't. But yeah, we figured it would be safer for the kids to come another weekend. Hopefully within the month.

Sometimes it is really hard being away from your family for months at a time. And when we do see each other, its always these very brief visits. But whether its for a day or an hour, I love to see them whenever possible. Especially the nephew. He's only 2 months old and each picture I see he looks different. I want to squeeze him every day, but I'll make up for that when they get here!

The Average Man's Brain Weighs 3 Pounds

Today was weird. First of all, it was strange going back to work after a 4-day weekend. I haven't had that many days off in ages and it felt like I hadn't worked in about 2 weeks. After a few hours in the field, my co-worker and I decided to grab a bite at Carl's Jr and do a little paperwork. Some random guy came up to us as we were eating and basically told us his life story. It went on for quite awhile. Then he told us to have a Happy New Year about 7 times.

Once he finally left, another man walked in. He looked a little banged up. Possibly homeless. Most likely drunk. He was muttering to himself as he made his way to the bathroom - where he made quite a scene. Cursing, yelling, the whole works. We sat and tried to ignore it as much as possible, but it was slightly disturbing. Part of me wanted to laugh and the other part of me just wanted to get the heck out of there! So we polished off our snack and decided we'd probably never come back to this particular Carl's Jr. Yikes!

After hitting a couple stores, I decided I better get to the gym before it got to late. I sure do write about the gym a lot. It never fails to amuse me. Today was stupid Wacky Wednesday. I don't know why they have to call it that. I suppose its extra wacky because we go around the work-out circle in reverse! Lame.

Anyway, one of the "personal trainers" decided to give us some trivia while we worked out. The first question was How much does the brain of an average man weigh? All the man-haters (there are a lot of those at Curves) yelled answers like "Which brain?" or "Is it weighed in ounces?" Clever ladies.

The next question was True or False: A humid climate has relatively little moisture in the air.

Seriously. That was the question. Do they think we are retarded or something? Everyone shouted out "False!" and seemed pretty proud of themselves. I just thought "Should I write about this in my blog, or am I playing out the Curves thing?" I decided to write it anyway and hopefully something more interesting will happen to me soon so I can write about something good. :)