September 30, 2011

Lately I’ve seen a few people talk about how they met their boyfriends/husbands and I thought I’d get in the game. Most recently I read Two Martini's post about meeting her husband on OkCupid so I wanted to share my story – although it’s not as hilarious as hers (so go read hers!)

All my dates came from meeting someone online. Okay, no, that’s a lie. I once dated a waiter but that was short lived – maybe 2 dates. I used all the dating sites, including OkCupid (actually, I think that was my second favorite of the dating sites).

I met my husband on Craigslist. Yes, you read that right. Craigslist. The site that people are afraid of, that is thought of as a place that people meet murderers or rapists. The place people joke about when they buy something off of it. But it worked for me and I was never afraid.

I know many people don’t know that you could even meet people off of CL (that’s the short version) but you can. There is a personals area where you can either post an ad looking for a date or you can reply to others ads. There is plenty of spam posts and you will surely receive a lot if you post, but they are pretty obvious so it isn’t a big deal.

I had done the replying to posts however I found that for me it was easier to post and have people reply to me. Sometime in the summer of 2010 I posted and got a reply from a guy who seemed pretty neat. I replied to him inquiring about where he lived and a picture. He replied that he lived in Compton and with his picture. I didn’t reply back to him.

Apparently this guy turns out to be my husband. I don’t remember this and I don’t have any of the e-mails saved and he hasn’t shown me proof, but I suppose I’ll believe him. He says that I didn’t reply because of the picture he posted, I tell him that I’m sure that it was because of him living in Compton. Not only a bad neighborhood, but probably 40 minutes away from where I lived.

That's Thomas in the background. This was our first date. 

Fast forward a year and I get another reply to another post. We start talking. He seems familiar and I ask him if we had met before (sometimes that happens in the online dating world) and he tells me no. LIAR! He replies with a picture and that he lives in a neighborhood only a few minutes (7 to be exact) from me. I reply back proving that it wasn’t his picture but where he lived that turned me off the first time.

Our first Christmas (a few days before) together. 

Our first 4th of July together (2012)

Our first camping trip 8/2012.

Thomas accompanied me to my 10 year HS reunion.

I'm sure you can figure this one out.

We texted back and for the for a few weeks before we had our first date, which was 3 years ago today – the day before my birthday!

It's Okay Tuesday...

It's okay that....

... I have had zero will to blog. 

... I feel overwhelmed with everything I have going on in the next 6 weeks. 

Let's write it all out, maybe that will help?

• 9/23 - Pick up my car at the dealer after dropping it off to get some things taken care of. Plus I'll be picking up some lamps that I found on craigslist tonight. The good part of this? I am getting 2 for the price of 1! I was going to buy it at IKEA, but I found them online last night and I got the guy to sell them to me for much cheaper!
• 9/27 - FunMania: our company picnic, it's an all day thing with tons of events including our offices competing against other offices in different sports. The night before I have to pick up a pop-up tent and tables from my in-laws. 
• 9/27 - in the afternoon there is a game day. We will likely do the 50 mile drive to go to that. 
• 9/28 - I have to put together 2 Shutterfly books for my wedding. I have 2 codes that expire on 9/30/14 so I need to get them done on Sunday. 
• 9/30 - My father-in-law's birthday!
• 10/1 - MY BIRTHDAY!!! I'm assuming we might go out for my birthday, I don't know. We haven't really discussed it. It's also my dad's birthday.
• 10/3 - My sister and her family drive down for the weekend. My sister and her husband are staying with us, their kids will stay with my brother.  Also I have to start decorating for Saturday.
• 10/4 - My dad's surprise birthday party! Depending on how long this lasts, I would like to take my niece to Hollywood to see BSB's star on the walk of fame. 
• 10/7 - my niece's 10th birthday! 
• 10/11 - my niece's birthday party! a dentist appointment (for both of us!)! and at 7 we're going to a Jack O Lantern event.
• 10/13 - a couple of co-workers are coming over to bake for an event at work on 10/16.
• 10/14 - Disneyland! I'll be going in the afternoon for Mickey's trick or treating night event. 
• 10/16-10/19 - We'll be going camping in Carpenteria. It'll be many members of Thomas' family, maybe 20-25 people. 
• 10/24 - my brother's birthday
• 10/31 - Halloween! 

Okay, it's a lot. I'm not sure if writing it out helped or not. Either way - all that is on my mind. On top of it, my house is still a mess and I want it to be cleaned up before my sister gets here. I'd also love to get it into Fall decorations. I did buy some small pumpkins over the weekend, but this place needs someone to come in and to organize it for me, because obviously I'm not good at it. 

And all that is not mentioning that the weekend before last I worked the Green Fest and then went on a bus to the Chumash Indian Casino with my parents ALL day. I was out of the house for 13 hours each day. Then this weekend I went to the LA County fair with Thomas and ran errands on Sunday. 

... I'm making lunch for my hubby. Hopefully it's acceptable. 

So if you don't see me around these parts, you can see why. I'll try and post, and I do have some definite posts coming out (For example What Makes me Quirky? I was tagged by Amanda and Melissa for that!) but it might not be every day. Okay, it will definitely not be everyday. 

Have a great Tuesday! 

So... We're All Talking About Fall, Right?

Friday, Sept. 19: What's your favorite season and why?

This is not as easy to answer as you might think. I live in Los Angeles which has amazing weather 95% of the year (okay, maybe 99%). In the past week we endured a heat wave that took temperatures soaring to 115 and only brought them down to the mid 70’s at night. Which to me meant AC on constantly and windows closed.

Before this heat wave we had an amazing summer with temperatures going up to 90, but not much more than that. Nights were cool and dipped into the 60’s. It was an unusually not-hot as hell summer.

The rest of the year is mostly the same. The temperatures stay between the 60s and 80s. Very little rain. Never any snow.

But still, it’s hard to pick which season I like the most. Right now I am thinking Fall, mostly because I like the spirit of fall. I love the cinnamon smells, the potential leaves (because a lot of the trees around here are evergreens) on the ground, the salted caramel hot chocolate from Starbucks, and pumpkin. I LOVE pumpkin flavored things and specially Costco Pumpkin Pie. If you haven’t tried it, you should. It is great AND cheap ($6 maybe?).

I also love the idea of being able to put on sweaters and boots. Usually it’s too warm for this, but sometimes we get lucky and the days cool down enough to allow a sweater for at least the morning and late evening. I’m hoping that after this heat wave it will be possible again.

Maybe I like fall and winter because we don’t really have them here and if we did I would prefer the summer. Here’s to hoping we have a cool streak beyond this heat wave!

Dear Me: 13, 18, and 21

Thursday, Sept. 18: Write a short letter to yourself at ages 13, 18, and 21. 

Dear Kathy (Age 13):

You are rocking that bikini! Don’t stop wearing it and don’t be afraid to just because of your weight! I love that you weren’t worried about what others thought about you. I wish, though, that you would have known to be nicer and a better listener. It would probably have helped you through the rest of middle and high school to make more friends and maybe keep them around. Don’t worry about it, though. You’ll turn out great!

Dear Kathy (Age 18):

You’ve made it to college!  The next few months will be hard. Your sister will go back on dialysis and your mom will need you at home. Moving back home is the best thing you can do for your sister, your mom, and yourself. You are a family girl all the way through, so living a couple of hours away isn’t for you. You’ll decide your major this semester, and it’s the right one for you at the time. Don’t worry if your ideas and needs change – that’s normal! You’ll turn out great!

Dear Kathy (Age 21):

You’ve found what you think will be your lifelong passion: teaching. But you still have to finish your BA in Journalism. Next you’ll move on to the teaching goal, in the mean time you work at a school. You love it (most of the time). You’ll go on your first date with a guy named Aaron! He will be a really sweet guy who will treat you nicely and who will be the gateway to many many MANY more dates with many many MANY different guys. You’ll lose count. But that’s what you’re supposed to do when you are in your 20’s! Even if your mom disagrees. Don’t worry, you’ll meet the love of your life and you’ll turn out great!

Why I Do What I Do

Wednesday, Sept. 17: Tell us about why you started blogging. What is your favorite part? Least favorite part?

I began blogging long, long ago in the good ol’ days of  LiveJournal. I began somewhere in the late summer/early fall of 2002 when I graduated high school.

I was away from home for the first time and didn’t have any friends. I wanted some sort of outlet. This was prior to the Twitter days, so my blog sounded a lot like Twitter does now.

For example:

November 30th, 2002 (click on the link if you want to read my old, old, old posts)

• Nov. 30th, 2002 at 11:47 PM

• 11:57 PM

My First Post on LJ

Oh! I got my very own Live Journal! Kel offered me a code... and so here I am. I'm really excited about it. I might try to make this work with my other blogging site. But if I can't... then that's cool to. I won't have to pay for the domain, and this is much easier to update. From anywhere! I don't have to be on my computer or have FTP or anything. Yay!

Well, I'm going to post and see how this works... and if it's how I want it! Thank you Kel! MUAH!

 

I jumped over to my sisters’ server at some point (and I’m not sure that I still have those posts L) and then to WordPress. I tried Blogger for a while and didn’t like it, so I quickly went back to WP. However I never wanted to spend money on getting a design, so I always had the templates. I tried going about it the cheap way and it didn’t work out. Eventually (okay, this past spring) I decided to just go for it and pay for a layout and go to Blogger – since the designs for blogger are so much cheaper!

My reason for restarting my blog life was simple. I was in the middle of wedding planning and it was stressing me out majorly. My husband and I started arguing quite a bit and I knew I needed an outlet for my frustrations. I think it worked. It also became a lot more fun this time because I began to spend time commenting on others’ blogs and becoming active in what I was doing blog-wise, which has been great. I’m impressed with the number of visitors my blog has received on a daily basis and that I have 110 BlogLovin followers.

I think most bloggers will say that their favorite part of Blogging is the community that it builds. I would agree I’ve met some great people in the last few months and I feel like I am a part of some people’s lives and that they are a part of mine. I also love that it does allow me to talk about whatever I want to talk about – and so far without any negative responses.

My least favorite part of blogging, I think, is the amount of time it takes. I don’t even put as much time into my blog as many other bloggers do (those who are much, much, MUCH, bigger than me) but I do dedicate quite a bit of time to writing my posts, reading others, and commenting. I don’t have internet access at work so I have do all my commenting after work, and sometimes I really don’t want to. I come home tired and it’s the last thing I’m thinking of doing. But I do want to and it’s essential for my blog.

Day 16: Where Would You Go?

Tuesday, Sept. 16: If you could drop everything and get on a plane for a two week vacation right now, where would you go and why?

My answer for this always seems to be Argentina. I just adore the country and even though I’ve been there 7 times I keep wanting to go back to see the things I have yet to see. I want to travel to Ushuaia which is the southernmost tip of any country before reaching Antartica. I would love to go back to Mar del Plata and go swimming in the Atlantics warm(er) waters. I’d love to go to Mendoza and see the vineyards (even if I don’t drink wine). So many options!

But I have been there 7 times and I should check some other parts of the world out.

I would then love going to Europe. My ancestors originate from there and it would be amazing to be in the same streets they were all in. My maiden name, Lacabe, is the name of a town in northern Spain – what people call the Basque Country. It has a long history and I would just love to visit the area. My brother went this past spring with his kids and wife.

My niece and nephew in front of the city sign.

Another branch of my family comes from Lago di Como in northern Italy. You might recognize the name as the lake that George Clooney has a house by.

My mom was able to go 20 years ago and visit the home her grandfather lived in. She also got to spend time with her cousin and his mom (who has since passed away). I have met her cousin, but only while we were both in Argentina.

I think it’s amazing that she got the chance to be there and I would love to do the same. While there I would love to visit Rome and take a picture with the pigeons as my grandfather did many years ago. I’d also take the time to go to Venice and take a Gondola ride with my babe. It would be super romantic, I just know it.

I suppose it would also be nice to visit Paris someday, but it’s not at the top of my list.  The same with London. I would like to visit Germany, since another branch from my family tree comes from there, but I don’t feel the strong connection to it as I do the other countries.

Where would you visit?

My Conversations: Jonathan Style

I’m linking up with my blog bestie Amanda Nicole today to bring you the cutest/funniest/strangest things my nephew has said.

I had just had a text conversation with Amanda and Melissa about this link up Amanda is doing  the day before when my nephew just made laugh out loud.

Jonathan is 6 and has some autistic tendencies (he is being provided services for autism). I was reviewing his homework with him and had him re-write something. He had to write a D but he wrote it backwards, so I asked him about it.

Me: Which direction should that go?

Jonathan:  Knowing what I meant But the small d faces that direction. Why doesn’t it face the other way?

Me: You are right, but if it did then it would be a “b”.

Jonathan: Why did God make the D’s face one way and the B’s face another way?

Me: Trying to not laugh, I tell my mom who was sitting a few feet away. God didn’t create the alphabet.

Nikki; Jonathan’s almost 10 year old sister: The Greeks came up with the alphabet.

Jonathan: Ignoring his sister. Well then who did?  President Clinton? Bob Dole?

Jonathan also, on various occasions at restaurants has said the following to waiters after they take his order:

“Thank you my good man!”

I was going to include a video that I made of Jonathan regarding his new found passion for hot dog making - but I was out of my house for more hours than I was in this weekend and didn't have time to upload it. Come back for it on the 30th! It's worth it! 

Relationship Status: Married But Alone

Sept 13th: Your current relationship status. If dating/married, give us a glimpse of your story! If single, share about this special season.

If you aren’t new around here you know that I am married. Even if you are new, you’ll probably figure it out by the pictures of me kissing my new husband. This post is supposed to be about our relationship status, but since I’ve spoken a lot of about my wedding over the past months, I’m going to talk about something similar.

As of today I’ve been married 4 months, 2 weeks and 4 days. And as of today my husband has been gone for 23 days all together since we got married. And he’ll be gone for the next 5 days as well. Twenty-eight days. That’s basically a whole month out of our 4 ½ month period of being married.

My husband travels for work. Currently he is in the DC area – okay, he’s been in that area the whole 23 days he’s been gone (let me clear up, it’s not 28 consecutive days). We talk just about daily and will Skype video chat when we can, but with the time difference it doesn’t always work out. When I wake up he’s already working, when I’m at lunch he’s working, when I get home he’s eating dinner and/or going to sleep.

While he’s gone I will spend a lot of time with my parents, niece, and nephew. During this last trip I actually spent two nights back in my bed at my parents’ home. But I was uncomfortable. I felt like I didn’t belong there anymore. My niece has taken over the room and changed everything, So it just felt weird. I didn’t sleep well and by the 3^rd night I went back to my place (which by then had a fixed and working A/C! Hello 109* tomorrow!).

At home I miss him. When it’s time go to sleep I miss kissing him good night. Normally he stays up later than I do, but I wake up when he comes to be and gives me a kiss good night. As I lay in bed I miss just knowing he’s across the house from me. I can’t even say that I enjoy having the whole bed to myself, because since we have a California King it’s so big that we barely ever bump into each other at night.

However, I do not miss cooking every night or worrying about him liking what I cook. I don’t miss feeling guilty about spending time with my parents instead of him (he doesn’t make me feel guilty, I just do).

I can’t wait to have him home in a few days!

Now! Before you leave my blog please click on over to Amanda’s Knock On Wood blog and read about her new link-up! It’s all about conversations! The first one is this coming Monday so you still have time to participate! I can’t wait for you to read my conversation with my nephew!!

Have a great rest of your weekend!

My Traditions

I was definitely drawn to this topic.

I love traditions.

That being said I don’t know that our family has many of them. My parents were never big into traditions – everything was done whenever we wanted it done. Everyone made their own meals, no dinners at the table.

A tradition that did have to end was that I spent every Christmas at my sisters’ house. It started in 2000 or 2001 and continued until 2012. Beginning with last year it has become impossible for me to get Christmas Eve or the days after off of work, so I’m unable to make the trip north.

I would like to start traditions though. I am hoping to start a 4^th of July tradition of throwing a BBQ party at our place before heading out to catch some fireworks.

Thomas’ family has their own traditions for Christmas. They spend Christmas Eve at his parents place (with cousins, aunts, uncles, everyone there) and eat a pot luck before exchanging presents via a game. They also spend Christmas day at a different family members’ house.

While I love his traditions, we will have to learn to compromise and split them between both our families. In 2015 Christmas day falls on a Friday, which means that we could either fly up or drive up on Christmas Eve and spend the weekend with my sister and her family.

We will see if I can get him to agree to that.

However, I am sure that once we have children I will want to spend Christmas Eve’s close by and to be home early to open a present of new pajamas and then going to bed so that Santa can come and leave presents for the little ones.

What are your traditions? Or which ones would you like to have?

My 9/11 Memory

I’m deviating from both Blog-Tember activities because I wanted to take today to remember the happenings of September 11^th 2001. I’m pretty sure I wrote about this in previous blogs, but I wanted to document it on this one as well.

On 9/11/01 I had just started my senior year in high school and I was couple of weeks short of turning 17. My mom would always come wake me up at 6am because I had to get to the bus stop by 6:40 (I was quick at getting ready!). This particular morning she came in a few minutes before 6am. I grumbled as I looked at the clock, it wasn’t time to get up yet. Then she told me:

“Un avion choco a un edificio en Nueva York”.  You can imagine what that means.

I got up to get to my computer and turned on the TV. As I was bringing up my e-mail, I looked toward the TV and saw the 2^nd plane fly into the tower. In my sleepy state I still didn’t quite comprehend what was going on until that moment. I think that at that point I rushed to get dressed and ran downstairs to continue watching the news. My mom wouldn’t let me stay home, but I grabbed my walk-man (remember those?) and continued to listen on the radio.

When my (school) bus arrived my driver greeted me with a smile and I knew she hadn’t heard. I usually sat in the back of the bus except the days that either she or I were particularly talkative. I immediately took the very front seat and told her what happened. She immediately (with her long acrylic nails – I mean it, they were like an inch long!) turned to a news station on the bus’ radio.

Once at school the talk was about what was happening. The classrooms all had televisions in them but they told us we couldn’t turn them. I went to a school that had 4^th through 12^th graders in it. The administration was afraid of the younger kids seeing what was going on. I was upset because they kept telling us that soon we would be in the “real world” but they wouldn’t let the older kids see what was happening in that “world”. Regardless, they let us listen to our own personal radios to hear what was going on.

Like many, if not most, Americans I was glued to the TV in the hours, days, weeks, and even months that followed. I wanted to see what was going on. I wanted to know all the updates. I wanted to be informed. I didn’t mind that the TV stations played 9/11 programs or the news on a constant loop. I was drawn to it.

As the anniversary neared this year I still was drawn to it and I’ve set my DVR to record as many shows I could find.  

A month or so later my school set up a blood drive with the American Red Cross where I donated blood for the first time. I now, as I mentioned before, help to organized the blood donations at my office 2 to 3 times a year.

Where were you?

I Love Myself!

Sept 10th: List 10 things that you love about yourself! Let's kick that negative self-talk outta here!

I immediately knew I wanted to do this topic for today. I just wish it was yesterday for Listed Tuesday! 

Although I don’t think I’ve ever been huge on the put myself down department and I never went on diets or felt fat when I was a teenager, I am human and so I do get thoughts of being fat, ugly, flabby, dumb, and whatever else throughout my life. 

Lately it has definitely been the fat thing. I’ve gained 10lbs that I just cannot get myself to shake. I’ve been trying and something always comes up that throws me off my game. With all the holiday’s coming up (as well as the Fair and my birthday!) I know it’s only going to get hard to lose, and might be a struggle to not gain. 

With that in mind, let me tell you all the fabulous things about myself:

1. I have gorgeous brown eyes. I was once told they look like a tree trunk when you cut a tree down – with all the rings. 
2. This one had to be in the top – my chest. I have a large chest (34DDD to be exact) and I love it. I would never want to have a reduction (or bigger). My husband likes this too. 
3. I’m compassionate. I sympathize with people and feel their pain and I try to make them feel better whenever I can. This is sometimes viewed as being emotional, which I’m okay with. Being emotional is not a bad thing. 
4. I don’t usually break out in pimples. I’ll get one here and there (currently there is on right over my right eyebrow). 
5. I’m motherly.  Although I don’t have kids of my own yet, I’ve had 3 nieces and a nephew to practice with and I know that I have the inclination to be a mom. 
6. “You are a thoughtful and considerate person.” That is a fortune that one of my co-workers got and gave to me because she thought it described me. I suppose I am both. Even if not all of the time. 
7. I asked my mom what she loved about me the most, and she said because I look just like my mom. When I was little my mom would ask me what I was and I would say “lila y osa” meaning Linda (pretty) and Hermosa (gorgeous).  She would then ask me why I was lila y osa and I would say “por que me paresco a mi mama!” – Because I look like my mom!
8. I love that I am determined. I don’t give up on something when I believe in it. 
9. My love for reading. I love that I am a reader, even if I go through periods of time in which I do very little of it. I love to read and to get lost in the stories. 
10. I asked my husband to answer the question of what he loves about me and he said "your left eyebrow". I asked him to be more specific, his response "the right most hair of your left eyebrow". Yea, I don't know either. I love him anyway. 

Blog-Tember & Listed Tuesday: Who Am I?

Sept 9th: Let's talk personality types. Introverted? Extroverted? Unsure-troverted? ;)

I'm an introvert. I didn't have to take a test to know it, but I did. My results were:

Introvert(44%)  Sensing(88%)  Feeling(62%)  Judging(56%)

• You have moderate preference of Introversion over Extraversion (44%)
• You have strong preference of Sensing over Intuition (88%)
• You have distinct preference of Feeling over Thinking (62%)
• You have moderate preference of Judging over Perceiving (56%)

Then I started thinking that maybe I'm more of an unsure-troverted - and here is why:

1. I want to be social, so I spend time trying to talk with people and be friends with them. But I usually fail miserably at this. Not long ago I posted about how I tried to fit into with a group of girls at work and how it failed.  
2. At the same time I prefer to spend my breaks and lunches on my own in my cubicle. I'll use the time to read a book or to blog or to read blogs. 
3. However, sometimes I can't take it and just have to talk to someone. That someone is usually my supervisor who sits across from me or from my best work buddy who works just a cubicle over. 
4. Then, there are some co-workers who make me feel uncomfortable and whom I can't really speak in front of. It's like they intimidate me. 
5. Around my husband's family I am particularly an introvert 100% of the time. I am always in fear of them judging me. I don't think that logically they've given me a reason to feel that way, but... I do. And as you can see from the results above... I'm a feeler over a thinker. 

What about you? Are you an introvert? Extrovert - or middler of the road-vert like me?