A Day in the Life

/ jane in training / 3 Comments

It’s my birthday today, and I am super thankful.  Instead of writing a novel, I’ll let the photos do most of the talking:

Birthday Breakfast

Started out my morning at a local coffee shop to have my power breakfast and do a little job hunting.

Jewels

Next stop, the beach.  I took a moment to admire all the jewelry out there.

Gifts From the Sea

More jewels.

The View

I went home, suited up, and went for a run along the beach.  See the egret?  Cool, huh?  BTW, all this running seems to be shrinking my badonkadonk,
but at the same time, it’s making my thighs meatier.  What’s up with that?  No, I didn’t take a photo of either.  That’s sick!  Yes, I’m talking to you…you know who you are!!

Que Bueno!!

Next stop, this place called Costco.  My mom and I dined on the amuse bouche that they had to offer.  It was quite delightful.
Then I contemplated buying these poor, dented containers of Que Bueno.  I felt sorry for them.

Birthday dinner

From amuse bouche to dinner!  I know, not the greatest photo, but believe me now and believe me later – it was #*!#%!* delicious.
I had (cover your eyes, veg heads) duck leg and duck ravioli.  Sooo good!

Hey, a present from my friends in L.A.!!  It was so sweet of them to send me something!

The Present

The Contents of Pandora's Box

This is only about 1/8 of what was in that box.  My friends are special.  Oh, so special.
And I miss them very much.

The Slacker Gets Schooled

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The scene of Slacker's disappearance

The scene of Slacker’s disappearance

I had been possessed by the Slacker for weeks, only exercising three times during that period.  After my move from Los Angeles, I felt it continue to circle around me, tempting me to take it easy…it’s the holidays, after all!

I was channel surfing one morning and stopped on “Sweet Home Alabama”.  As Slacker was momentarily distracted, I quickly changed into my running clothes.  Unfortunately, it recognized my motivations pretty quickly and immediately started to try and turn me:

Do you realize it’s 20 below out there?

Running doesn’t make your face look very good.  

Watch the movie with me!  Reese Witherspoon plays a fashion designer and both Patrick Dempsey and Josh Lucas are in love with her…this can be your life if you just –

I started to stretch when I realized how evil its arguments were, except for PD and JL falling in love with me.  It could happen in a parallel universe.

I blared music through my earphones to drown out any further comments and started walking over to my old high school.  I headed towards the newly built football field and as I started jogging, I saw him.

Dad, meet Slacker.  Slacker, Dad.

My dad had already left the house an hour before I did, and there he was, walking backwards along the outer edge of the track.  I don’t think it’s the safest thing an 89 year-old should be doing, but he says it’s good for his muscles.  He walks frontwards and backwards for about two miles, five times a week.

Slacker slinked away pretty quickly when it was faced with a person with no slack at all.  I was appropriately humbled and waved at my dad as I ran by him.  I thought about all the things my dad has been through in his 89 years:  growing up in a poor farming family, unable to start college when individuals of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated in camps during WWII, weathering the death of a daughter, starting and running his own business for thirty years, surviving a stroke…

There is simply no excuse for me not to try.  I have no good reason not to be the best (and healthiest) person I can be for myself and others.

I thought about all of this, put my head down, and ran harder.

I’ve run three times this week.  Thanks, Dad.  And Slacker?  With all the farewells I’ve been a part of this month, I have to make sure this one lasts a long, long time.

Home

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My parents' house

My parents’ house

Los Angeles was my home for over ten years.

Now my home is where I spent the first 21 years of my life.

The differences between the two cities are immense.  The city of Los Angeles has well over 3.8 million people living within its domain.  The county I’m living in now has about 450,000.  The town I’m in?  About 15,000.

But this isn’t a lesson on demographics, it’s a lesson on how to adjust, and I don’t have the answers yet.  Instead, all I have are questions:  How come there aren’t any store employees checking my receipt as I exit Home Depot?  Why are cars stopping to let me walk across the street?  Where will I get my milk tea fix?  Will I lose my edge, my street smarts?

Okay, I have to confess, I never really did have street smarts.  Maybe I’ve always been small town all along.

 

 

Farewell

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2000 - 2012

2000 – 2012

I seem to be saying a lot of farewells this month.

We had to put our cat to sleep a few days ago.  The tumors in her throat began to hamper her breathing and her ability to eat, and her already petite frame began to shrink more rapidly than it had in the past month.  It was difficult to say goodbye, because this would be forever.

My ex and I have been talking about her, sharing many memories of what a good cat she was, despite the numerous animals, reptiles and insects she brought into the house.  Birds, lizards, mice, rats, crickets…  I started to get used to seeing these creatures – I wasn’t even too shocked when, one morning, I found a live mouse curled up in one of my running shoes.  Prolific hunting seemed to be in her DNA, so she was just doing her job.  Granted, she took it too far sometimes, like the time she dropped a dead rat at our feet while we were entertaining guests (I guess she had gotten the memo that it was a potluck), and another time when she attacked one of our friend’s dreadlocks as it hung over the back of the sofa.

She was the boss of me.  She would use her Jedi mind control to get me to feed her, and sometimes I would find myself opening up another can if she turned her nose up at the first one.  I would wonder, she will eat a rat’s ass but not this delicious tuna and chicken medley??  But I obeyed because her will was stronger than mine.  To keep me in line, sometimes she would raise her paw and hit me on the back of my calf as I walked by her or even sprint past me and do the same if I was standing still.

Animals never live long enough.  But the joy of having her in my life is something for which I will always be grateful.

Forever.

 

I’m Leaving You – Part 2

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Good night, sweet desk.

Good night, sweet desk.

Last night, I cleaned my work desk for the very last time.  Some might argue that it’s the first time I’ve ever cleaned my desk.  Details, details.

If you’ve read I’m Leaving You – Part 1, then you know my plan of leaving my job with hardly any plan at all.  I would say I’m still in denial, but you know what…I don’t think I am.  I was lucky enough to leave on my own terms and I had the opportunity to say all my farewells and thank yous to all the fantastic people I’ve met and worked with.

Months ago, when I first made the concrete decision to leave, I burst into tears.  I was overcome with the realization of how much my identity was tied to my workplace, and I wondered how I was going to do without some of the best co-workers and friends I’ve ever known.  As the weeks flew by, I began to feel more at home with my decision.  Having that time allowed me to appreciate the people around me all the more, knowing that I was incredibly lucky to be in the presence of such…greatness.  I did my best to tell them, although I cloaked some of it in what I call my sense of humor.  If I had the money (and a business plan), I would steal some of them away and create an empire by investing in their brain power and creativity.  We would be unstoppable.

I’ll be having a farewell dinner with some of my girlfriends in a few days.  This is where I’m truly in denial, because I refuse to think about it.  In fact, I’ll stop right now.  Can’t go on.