11/11/11

To all the men and women who served and continue to serve our country, THANK YOU!

Happy Veteran’s Day!

Today, I was able to sleep in until about 9:27am! Of course, I woke up a few times before then at 5:00, 5:30, and 7:00, and 8:00am. I don’t remember the last time I woke up later than 7:15am, but I think my body really needed this “rest.” Another reason to give thanks to the Veterans!

Today also begins my week-long vacation from work. I’m not really going anywhere since the plan had to be squashed due to circumstances at the Boyf’s workplace. We might still go to Disneyland for a few days though! We shall see.

Speaking of Boyf, we celebrated our 5th year anniversary last weekend! We went to Reno, NV for an overnight getaway. It was snowing on our way up, and was extremely cold by the time we got there. Surprisingly, the drive only took three hours even with the slight traffic and some slow-downs on the road. I wish we were equipped to actually stop and play in the snow. Instead, we played some slot machines and a lot of arcade games. We ate at a buffet (it’s Reno, duh) and got coffee and delicious pastry the next day. When we got back to the in-lands, we ate a late lunch at Cafe Capricho. My tacos were so delicious… I got two kinds: baja style cod and potato & cheese. Yum!

Then, it was back to work. My body must hate me right now for not taking good care of it, which leads us back to today and my “sleeping in.” For now, let me enjoy the sound of the rain, and hopefully later, I can satisfy my craving for a cupcake. ;D

11/1/11

One year ago today, my favorite baseball team won its first World Series title as the San Francisco Giants! That day will forever be embedded in my mind and in my heart. I was thankful that I did not have to go to work the next day because I was overflowing with joy and excitement. I couldn’t sleep through the night, in fear that I might wake up and everything was just a dream after all. I used the following day to gather myself, and soak in what just happened. IT WAS PURE BLISS. One of the best gifts in life, ever! Fast forward one year later, and I am still as elated, grateful, and emotional.

Halloween this year had me on candy duty, sort of like last year minus watching Bumgarner beast on the Rangers in game four of the World Series! ;D Over the weekend, I broke in my new Disneyland Annual Passport! Boyf and I had such a blast; we drank multiple cups of mint juleps, ate lots of Mickey-shaped beignets, had breakfast at the park with Minnie and friends, and looked into our “future.” I want to go back already!

I love that today actually felt like FALL! The wind was blowing, golden brown leaves were falling off trees, and the air felt very cool. The foliage is looking a lot nicer, and the holidays are starting to creep up.

Yes, I do understand that I should update more often. He-he.

Midnight Snacking

Last week, I cried for the very first time at the new location. It was brief, out of frustration, and I felt stupid afterwards. Naturally, I talked my butt off until I could genuinely laugh again. My coworkers made it pretty easy to do, so I was very grateful.

So remember when I mentioned that I renewed my Disneyland Annual Passport? Well, I was super impressed when the passes came three days later as opposed to “up to two weeks.” Two thumbs up, Annual Passport personnel! Because we were so excited, Boyf and I booked our hotel and car rental for our next visit! Not just that, we also bought the World of Color Picnic Meal just to save a little bit of time and running around. Hehh. Countdown: 10 days!

Also, remember when I asked what I was doing “next Sunday” aka October 9th? I’m going to talk about it now, kind of. I went to the 49ers & Bucs game at Candlestick Park! It was the first time Boyf and I went to a football game together (we’ve gone other times, just not together), and what a “first” game to go to! I’m pretty sure you can Google the outcome of that game, so I’ll let you do that instead. Hint: One of the teams had 48 points, and the other 3 points. ;D

Funny because I have so much more to talk about, which is what happens when one does not update for one and a half weeks. Things like I watched the remake of Footloose, satisfied my craving for papaya salad though I want more, and am super excited for next weekend and the weekend after! However, there is a bag of Hot Cheetos, a slab of cream cheese, and ice cold water waiting for me.

Renewals

It is totally that time of the year when my memberships must be renewed. I can’t really say I totally love it, but I’m (forced to be) fine with it. Yup.

Renewal #1 — Costco! I enjoy push-carting (I’m sure that’s not actually a verb) around in that huge place, especially after I learned NOT to grab everything in sight. Their food samples are pretty yummy, although I’ve sort of grown out of that place. I used to live for those when I was younger! I haven’t bought a lot of electronics from there, but extended warranty and return policy are fantastic! And if you’re ever tired of roaming around the warehouse and did not have enough food samples to fill your stomach, they have a food court with cheap but good selections.

Renewal #2 — Disneyland Annual Passport!! I renewed not only mine, but the Boyf’s as well. This will be our third year as Annual Passport holders. Yay! Also, because they have expanded the monthly options to Northern California residents, we upgraded our passes from Deluxe to Premium! Double yay! What this means to us and our bring-along friends are 20% discount at merchandise locations (previously 10%), 15% discount at restaurants within the parks (previously 10%), and get to keep all the other cool discounts likes 20% off on tours and 10% discount at restaurant and shops Downtown Disney District! Ohhh, and best of all… FREE PARKING!! We no longer have to walk to our hotel or use hotel and ART shuttles to get to the park. I don’t know how to explain the convenience of this, but it will be, especially when we go with kids!

Renewal #3 — WW. — We’ll leave it at that, initials. ;D I thought about cancelling this one since I rarely use it now, but instead I opted for the monthly membership. Maybe I will start using it more and renew for a longer term, or simply cancel it next month when I stop completely. I’m hoping for the former.

Yes, I love being a member of things I love. I wish I could afford more memberships that I have been eyeing, but unfortunately I don’t have that extra money lying around. Someday.

P.S. Costco and Disneyland should totally pay me for my testimonials above! I think it was pretty enticing. Hahaha.

P.S.S. There’s an ugly red mark underlining “eyeing” in favor of “eying.” I refuse to change it, so if it is in fact eying and not (also) eyeing, I’m sorry.

Momento

I am so excited I finally downloaded the Momento app on my iPhone for FREE (a $2.99 saving) — all thanks to Starbucks’ Pick of the Week card and my friend, Diane, for giving me one of the three download codes she picked up. I’ve only had the app for two days, so I haven’t had the chance to fully play with it. So far, I’ve been enjoying it, and I am already finding good use for it especially with my busy days!

Yes, very busy!

Work has me extremely tied down. I’ve done quite a bit of traveling the past two weeks including a week-long commute to the East Bay that had me sitting in morning traffic for two hours each day (bleh!). Last week, my sick little self flew out to Orange County for a one-day training. Lucky me, my colleague-turned-friend Josh was going on the same trip too! Because I had a full afternoon and a car rental (Hertz-SMF is better than SNA) to myself the day before the class, I went to Downtown Disney and Disneyland for a brief moment to grab two bags of peanut brittle (as requested by my dad), Pineapple Dole Whip float, Disneyland corn dog, and Vinylmations for my growing collection. I must say that it was very refreshing sitting alone on Main Street, U.S.A., enjoying my float while watching passersby.

After my sweet moment at my home-away-from-home, I drove to the hotel to check in and take a nap. I opted to stay at Embassy Suites because of their awesome hot breakfast (haha), so I had an entire suite to myself. I turned on both TV’s to ESPN for the last day of regular baseball season. The wildcard races were intense, and I was certainly entertained the entire night! The Yankees-Rays game was my favorite, with the 8-7 comeback by Tampa Bay. The other games were very exciting too. I am still sad that my Giants did not make the playoffs, but we made a pretty good run despite all the injuries we suffered. ;D

So back to work — the training I went for turned out pretty fun. The facilitators were comical, and I met colleagues from all over the West Region, as I did in my first series of classes. Two of the guys at my table looked like Shia LaBeouf and Derek Kosinski from Road Rules. They were cool people, as were everyone else. After the training, Josh and I drove to the airport, dropped off our rentals, printed our boarding passes, ate dinner, and waited for our flight. Some BMT dude hung around too. And finally, home at last. LOL. And back to work bright and early the following day.

As far as my current branch, let me just say… I miss Monique and Olivia! Yeeeah. -___-

My left eye has been twitching A LOT these past few days. I searched possible causes on Google, and I found a website that suggested stress, lack of sleep, caffeine, eye strain, and computer screens as the likely causes of the twitch. Unfortunately, I can’t do much about my computer screens usage since majority of my work is in front of a computer, the stress factor, or eye strain (I just got a new prescription six weeks ago!). I’ll try to cut back on my caffeine intake and get more sleep when possible. Hopefully, this will stop my eye twitches, which I find very bothersome and weird.

Well, it’s pretty late, so I guess I should try to get (more) sleep!
I want to travel alone some more!
& guess what I’m doing next Sunday! ;D

Hakuna Matata

Friday was a good day. Actually, the weekend was a generally a good weekend. However, on Friday, I got to relive my childhood all over again by watching the Lion King on the big screen. Of course, this time it was in 3D. And I was with the Boyf and my niece as opposed my mom and dad. Nevertheless, IT WAS (STILL) AWESOME! My eyes overflowed with tears as usual (yup, same scene and everything), I sang along with the songs, and the laughed at the jokes a little bit harder. My dad bought me the DVD when it came out for the movie’s tenth year anniversary, and of course, I busted that out just in case I want to watch it again.

As for the rest of the weekend, well, it wasn’t so bad. I was very delighted that the SF Giants swept the Rockies to help keep themselves in a more favorable position to keep striking for the post-season, I caught a couple of pretty good NFL games (very upsetting, 49ers, very upsetting), and watched the Mayweather vs Ortiz “fight.”

Today, I drove to Woodland for work, and to my surprise, I actually didn’t mind the drive — it was lengthy yet very easy with a lot of farmlands and no highway patrols to monitor my speed along the way (not that I was going super fast or anything). It’s too bad that I will no longer be driving that way, boo!

Thursday Off

Hi! I’m blogging early because it’s my day off. I have a few things on my plate, like buying “thank you” and “this is for your early it’s-a-boy” gifts, and thinking of what to bring as my, “farewell, it was great working with you all” edibles. Oh yes, I am thinking of work on my day off, which is really nothing new. Speaking of work, I will be reporting to a different location starting Monday, which you might have already figured out. Next week, I will be driving to East Bay and back four out of five days. I’m not excited about the traffic, hour-long drive each way, or the toll. But I am excited about the new things I will learn and the people I will meet though! I also finally booked my one and a half days solo travel to Orange County the week after. The airfares, the hotel, the rental car… oh my! I think I received an “approved” e-mail yesterday, I THINK. I should check again tomorrow. Ha!

The Lion King 3D comes out tomorrow! I’ll also save my love for the Lion King after I see it in 3D, but I’ll let you in on a secret: it’s my favorite Disney movie!

Pumba: It’s our motto.
Simba: What’s a motto?
Timon: Nothing. What’s a motto with you?

Knee slapper, isn’t it? HEHE!!

Remembering 9/11

We shall NEVER FORGET the heroes and victims of 9/11/01.

Forever they and their families are in our hearts, memories, and prayers.

Disney Labor Weekend

This gallery contains 9 photos.

Another late night shower means another long night of waiting for my thick hair to dry. It also means some time to blog! Last weekend, I went to the Happiest Place on Earth – Disneyland! I love that place, no matter how many times I’ve gone. It is seriously my go-to mini getaway destination. =) …

Sheer Delight

In a span of four hours, I found quite a few things that are delightful to me.

Great customer service! Eric of Hertz at Sacramento International Airport gives a consistent awesome customer service. This weekend’s car rental is the second one that I have reserved at the forenamed place, the first time back in April. On both occasions, Eric helped me (us, boyf and myself). Also on both occasions, he made decent and comfortable conversations, upgraded my rental, and included free GPS. I’m getting a 2011 Camry this time. Yes, I’m a sucker for awesome customer service. He explained my policy well and wished us a safe, fun trip. He’s part of the reason why I decided to go back for my next rental; the pricing wasn’t too bad either.

The perfect water temperature. My shower earlier tonight was blissful, thanks to the water temperature. I wish showers had water temp control like the ones for the air conditioning in cars. I am not a fan of fidgeting with the handles for minutes just to find that perfect water temp, and presets would make me happy. Is this TMI? But don’t you hate it when the water is either too cold or too hot or just not the right type of warm? I’m pretty sure I’m not alone on this one! I’m also certain that someone somewhere has bathrooms in their mansion with temperature control for the water… share the wealth, please!

Holiday weekends. Guess what I’m doing tomorrow after work? Driving to Anaheim! Boyf and I are both proud and diligent workers of America, and that makes us happy that Federal holidays such as the upcoming Labor Day exist to help suffice our mini getaway withdrawals. The last time we had one was Memorial Day weekend, and we went to the same place — our home away from home, Disneyland! People say we waste too much money going back again and again, but we think otherwise. This weekend was a bit more expensive than others when it comes to hotel and car reservations, but I understand that that’s the price one pays for going on holiday trips. *shrugs…* If not now, then when? ;D

Ok, it’s time for me to finally start packing my weekender. I am super excited for tomorrow afternoon to come, but even more for Sunday and Monday!

Your turn! What are you doing for Labor Day weekend?