cindy's world

It was 95 degrees Fahrenheit at home today, and triple digits in the previous hometown. Ah, autumns in Southern California. Hot days like this remind me of an email I’d received in college from an advertising ex-coworker who’d transferred to Cal. He wrote of the warming of the weather, his excitement in sensing the approach of summer, and then, “You know what it means when it gets hot, don’t you? The girls, man, the girls. They wear less.”

I was sore before I even worked out at lunch today. It dawned on me that the tight muscles are due to the furniture rearrangement Mr. W and I did last night. His son moved in on Sunday night, so we cleared out the downstairs bedroom which had been serving as a computer room, and hauled a giant solid oak desk from the garage into the dining room. We put the desktop computer on this heavy desk in the dining room, then changed the dining room into a sitting room/den. We then arranged the dining room furniture in a diagonal in the previous den, which was intended to be a breakfast nook anyway. Dodo walked downstairs after the two rooms were rearranged, and inspected the new nooks, crannies and hideouts. He seemed to approve.

Speaking of Dodo, Mr. W has already spoiled him. Because of the warm weather, Mr. W had taken to popping a few ice cubes into Dodo’s water bowl. Dodo loves this and will lap at the water and ice for 10 minutes, not even coming up for air. And now, Dodo will yowl, lead you to the water bowl, look discontentedly at it and then up at you, and yowl again, demanding ice. It’s gotten so Dodo won’t even drink tepid water anymore. He’ll probably break from this habit in the winter, and forget about the ice until Mr. W spoils him again next summer.

It struck me as odd that moving furniture around for half an hour could make me more sore than I had been weight lifting at the gym. And then I realized that sustaining heavy furniture in an elevated and balanced position while moving is way more taxing on my strength than the few weights I’d use at the gym, because when I drop the furniture, I’m completely spent, whereas at the gym, the weights I use are “light” enough that I could do a full range of motion with them for 10-15 reps. No wonder people lose weight when they’re moving, leaving drops of sweat stains on furniture and floors.

My poor tenants are moving into my house this week. Mr. W and I stopped by today to give them mail keys, and they had A/C on full blast. It must’ve been torturous straining and sweating moving heavy furniture in 105-degree weather.

This Saturday, I went to a Garden potluck hosted by a retired coworker. (I made a spinach veggie dip and brought Ritz crackers.) It was nice to catch up with my coworkers, old coworkers, and make new friends. These are the new friends:

This is TK. As a skinny stray, he’d wandered by the house when the hostess was nursing her ailing husband, and the two decided to keep him because all he wanted to do was cuddle with the husband and purr their worries away. TK walks around the house purring, kinda reminds me of Dodo.

When I opened the door to exit the bathroom, TK was waiting for me on the other side. I’ve never seen a 20-lb cat leap straight up in the air so gracefully, but that’s how he ended up on the sink, urging me to give him a drink with the faucet. So I did.

I forgot this big boy Himalayan’s name, but he was a sleepyhead. He’s also at least 20 lbs.

At the end of the evening, he looked up.

He wasn’t as crabby as he looked. I think.

The hostess’s gorgeous fairlyland back yard was full of planters that depicted fairy scenes, like this:

All her fairies had pets, like bunnies and deer and kitties. Some of them were fishing in a pond, others had friends, like the girl fairy above with the boy pixie looking in. I don’t know why the garden photos turned out so blue. All these photos were taken with my new enV2 cameraphone, maybe I haven’t figured out the setting quirks yet.

Today’s “lawyer joke of the day” that my judge put on my desk could’ve been a page out of a certain somebody’s certain psycho ex’s personal handbook. I’ve certainly been on the receiving end of such sophomoric behavior:
“At one time there was not only an etiquette of greeting people but also an etiquette of not greeting them. This ranged in degree from the coldly formal bow to the ‘cut direct.’ The cut direct was delivered by looking right at a person and not acknowledging his acquaintance or even his existence. This is no longer done. It has been replaced by the lawsuit.
-P.J. O’Rourke”

I have been text-messaging and checking internet sites through my Verizon Wireless phone in my courtroom. YAY! I don’t have great reception all the time, but it’s 100% better than what AT&T Mobility was giving me. It’s still a pain in the butt to do much typing or web surfing through a text cell phone, so I still leave much of the emailing, blogging, etc. for my home laptop, on which I have learned to truly appreciate the use of a mouse.

After work Mr. W and I went to Costco, where he was stopped by some guy demonstrating and selling his company’s vitamin energy drink. It’s in powdered form contained in cool little portable vials, and you simply pour the premeasured powder into a bottle of water, shake it up, and it supposedly replaces your daily multivitamin as well as your semi-toxic energy drink. It’s a cool concept; too bad the young sales guy was an ass to me. There was already an older white lady in front of him he was talking to about the product, then he got Mr. W to stop. And so I wandered by, joined him, watched the lady and Mr. W get handed drink samples in a little cup as the sales guy talked up his product some more, all the time totally ignoring me. He then opens up another flavor and pours the powdered contents into an entire bottle of cold water, giving a bottle to the lady and to Mr. W. By this time other people had walked by, all of whom received samples and if they like it, he does a full bottle for them. I got annoyed and tried to walk off a few times but Mr. W wasn’t following so I always ended up around the table again. The guy started citing some recent study done by UCLA about sugars and energy drinks or something; I was likely the only person within a 20-foot radius of the table who even went to UCLA. Mr. W didn’t end up buying the stuff, but he also noticed that I had been totally ignored. He brought it up in the car by asking, “Do you think it was racism? Or what was it?” I dunno. But I do know that I can still stand by Mr. W and have people confused about who I am to him, or flirt with him in front of me, thinking he’s alone.

I’ve taken advantage of some of these racist assumptions. I usually don’t get mistreated or anything, people just don’t automatically register that we’re together the way they do when he’s with a white woman, especially one closer to his age. For example, our Lake is private gated residents-only access. We both have a photo-ID card. Guests may enter with a resident, but are supposed to pay $2 per guest. Mr. W had driven up with his white friends before, flashed his Lake ID and been waved through. When he’s with me, if they look in the car, they’ve nodded at his ID and then asked if I had membership as well, so that I have to show my ID also. Well, last weekend we had enough friends over for a lake and boating outing that we had to take 2 cars to the Lake. I did it the easiest way possible to not have to pay: I had Mr. W drive his car with a carload of his white friends, and I sat in another car with his Korean neighbor and Gym Trainee (who’s black). After flashing his Lake ID, Mr. W was waved in with his carload sans question, as I knew he would be because the gatekeeper assumed everyone was family in the car, and when we were stopped, I waved my Lake ID, predicted correctly that the gatekeeper assumed Mr. W’s neighbor is my husband or some other relation, and he simply asked, seeing Gym Trainee in the back, how many guests are with us today to not sound TOO presumptuous. I lied and said one, so we only paid $2 and got 6 guests in.

Maybe I shouldn’t be admitting this publicly. But karmically, it rounds out. I get ignored and not offered energy drinks, my friends get free entry for the day to our Lake. We’ve certainly paid enough guests entries for half-hour strolls to have earned some free entries, anyway.

A normal and pretty girl, much like you and me (:P) if you happen to be a girl, made her choices of what men to date and what men to turn down as she went through life. In her early 30s, she finally settled on a nice, stable man and married him. They had a normal life, a nice house, a couple of kids, and every time someone asked her how life was, she shrugged and said “Fine.” Because it was.

One day, a magical woodland creature popped out of this girl’s morning smoothie, shook the frosty berry goo off her shimmering wings, and said, “Thanks for releasing me from this smoothie! I’ve been stuck here for awhile, I really shouldn’t have fallen asleep inside that banana. To thank you, I’m going to satisfy your curiosity. Was there any what-ifs you’d ever wondered about your life? Tell me one and I’ll show you the alternate reality of that what-if.”

The girl knew exactly what she wanted to see. There was a guy she’d considered dating before she’d met her husband, but had ultimately decided not to date him because at the time, it didn’t seem like they were on the same track. He was attractive and she was certainly attracted to him, they found each other to be fabulous company, but it just seemed like they wanted different things out of life. So looking at long-terms, she had reluctantly turned him down after getting to know him a little better. “I want to see what my life would’ve been like, if I had dated him,” she told the magical sprite.

With a wave and twist of a magical wand, shimmers appeared and faded as the girl saw herself years ago as if she were watching a high-definition plasma television screen. She watched herself laugh and play with the guy, watched them share serious and silly things with each other, attend sophisticated grande operas and jog through nature. It was the relationship she’d always wanted, and it was a relationship she didn’t have with her husband. And then, much as she’d been afraid would happen back when she made the difficult decision to not date this man, she watched the relationship end in the enchanted projection. He didn’t crush her heart, she didn’t cheat on him, they didn’t stop getting along. Their paths just diverged, much as she knew they would. Their ships had passed each other in the night after a relatively brief but perfect interlude. The girl watched herself then meet her husband, get married, and have the exact same kids she has now.

“You look sad,” the sprite observed with concern as the girl looked up from the fading projection and impatiently brushed a tear from her cheek. “Your life is in the same place now as it would’ve been if you had dated that other man. Is that not reason for relief?”

“Even so, I feel like I’ve lost something,” the girl sighed. “Even if there could never have been a future with him, I almost wish I hadn’t known of that perfect relationship.”

“Your people have a saying, that ’tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.’ At birth, you are given a string, and each of your experiences is a pearl or another precious stone to add onto that string. The totality of it is the valuable necklace you get to wear proudly as you age. All of your people’s necklaces are different, and they all uniquely identify you as who you are. But you look so sad that I can give you another alternate reality if you’d like. I can put you back to before you saw all of this, and you would have never known. Would you like me to take this pearl back?”

What would you do?

“OR…” the sprite interrupted with a glint in her eye, “OR…I can go farther back in the alternate reality and GIVE YOU that relationship with that other man. You know how it’ll end up, but you can experience it yourself. Would you like that pearl?”

Would you?

[written at 3:50p today at work, emailed to myself to post at home]

My judge is driving his son to UC Davis this weekend, so since he took the day off, I was floated to another courtroom that’s doing a civil jury trial. As I am so interested in this root-canal-gone-wrong dental medical malpractice lawsuit, I am simultaneously reading a magazine. And I JUST learned…

* Eating 5 servings of fruits and veggies a day, being active, not smoking, and drinking in moderation could add 14 years to your life, according to a new British study. Even just exercise helps a lot; a recent study by the Nat’l Cancer Institute found that older people who got at least 30 mins of moderate exercise most days of the week were less likely to die over the next 7 years than those who didn’t.

* A plain large soft pretzel with a little cup of cheese sauce (like the kinds you get at the movies) is 610 calories, and has 15 grams of fat. This is the SAME CALORIE AND FAT CONTENT as having a hot dog on a bun with a packet of mustard plus a 2-oz serving of cotton candy plus a 12-oz draft beer! How many girls, thinking they’re being good, would do the former and shake their heads at their men who pick the latter?

* My gym trainee is a genius, as you can see from the following email exchange:
Me: “There is, like, nothing to do here except eat chocolate.”
Gym Trainee: “should I come get the chocolate? I’ll just tell you a little story instead. Once upon a time the person who placed that bowl of chocolate on that desk was small. Then one day they realized that their clothes didn’t fit. So the person decide well what the hey they make bigger clothes. The End.”
Me: “oh.my.gawd. I’m gonna eat my apple now. =P”
[Cuz we know whose seat I’m filling in here, and small and pleasant would not be adjectives to describe her.]
Gym Trainee: “I was gonna remove the bowl but I figured the story would be effective. That and tell you your goal is to prove all the people who think you are gonna sit around and get fat and let yourself go wrong. As your friend it’s my job to help you.”
[Proving people wrong; something else I love to do.]

* It’s a good idea to make a list of non-food stress-busters, and resort to something on that list to do instead of eat, if you’re a stress-eater. My gym trainee told me at lunch that she used to keep a coloring book and crayons in her drawer. It was soothing to sit and color a page if she’s angry or stressed, and she also said that if she had to draw her own pictures to color, she’d be taken away to the psychologist, so the coloring book worked well for her. Some other examples: reading, hugging your dog/cat, a chair massage at the nail salon, and for me, blogging, emailing my friends, and playing a round of Bejeweled. Right before you go for the food, ask yourself, “Am I actually, physically hungry? Or just bored/stressed?”

* Apparently the big fashion trend this summer was “anything Asian.” Well then my bridesmaids were just right en vogue! Yay, me!

* A wedding speech by a man of the cloth could be inappropriate, as relayed by one wedding guest:
“During my friend’s ceremony, the priest explained that a man has to love himself before he can love a woman. ‘That’s why I can’t take a 5-minute shower,’ he said. ‘I’m a 20-minute man. And when I’m towel-drying my smooth, chocolate skin, I look in the mirror and I ask, Can anyone resist me? And the answer is no. No, they can’t.’ ”

* A wedding toast by the groom could be funny as relayed by another wedding guest:
“The groom stood up and announced, ‘The bride is now off the market, and if anyone has the keys to her place, now’s the time to hand them over.’ Then he put a bowl in the middle of the floor, and all the men started coming up and tossing keys into it. Obviously he had prearranged it, but it was still hilarious.”

* A wedding toast by the father of the bride could be touching, as told by this relative:
“My uncle said to his son, ‘When I came to this country as an immigrant, I wanted to give you a better life than I had. And I know today that the woman you’ve found is going to do that.’ ” Awww.

You can learn a lot sitting through a trial.

I caved and bought the new LG enV2 (in maroon) after switching to Verizon Wireless. Having been a loyal and avid Nokia fan for the last, like, 5 cell phones, I was leery about different organizational layouts of other phone brands. LG is a relatively new company to enter into the cell phone market. This is also the first time I’ve changed cell phone companies since my first phone in 1995, although in the interim my LA Cellular service was taken over by AT&T Cellular Services, then by Cingular Wireless, and now by AT&T Mobility. But I just get too many dropped calls and dead zones with AT&T Mobility to stay loyal anymore.

So far I’ve been impressed with Verizon Wireless phone service. I got the premium package cuz what’s the point of getting a texting, internet-capable phone without getting unlimited texting and internet? I didn’t realize it also came with an excellent roadside navigation program that incorporates traffic conditions. We were considering buying a portable navigation, because having the navigation in both our cars have made us kind of, well, street-dumb. I now can no longer imagine traveling to unknown parts and getting around without a navigational crutch. I’ve heard that AT&T Mobility covers a wider area than Verizon Wireless, so now when we travel, I guess we’ll have the benefit of both since Mr. W hasn’t switched out of AT&T.

I do have several complaints about the LG phone format, though. It surprises me that for such an integrated phone, the address book doesn’t let you enter addresses or notes. It only takes phone numbers and email addresses. No websites, no extension numbers, contact names, street addresses. That kinda sucked, cuz I didn’t want to lose so much contact information. It also only allows 10 contacts per Group. What if I have more than 10 people belonging to a Group? Too bad. I guess most people don’t have contact numbers for more than 10 coworkers, friends, family members, business affiliates…? Oddly, it also doesn’t allow a group ring tone. My complaint with Nokia before was that it wouldn’t allow individual ring tones, only Group ring tones, but then I simply created a group with just 1 name in it. Mr. W was in a group all by himself called “The Man.” And his ringtone was Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby.” (Which I realized after putting it in place, that the lyrics were kinda stalker-ish, but oh well.) Another odd thing is that the instruction manual does not explain what the various symbol displays on the screens mean. The phone itself has an Icon Glossary you can bring up, but it tells you things like, the icon of the antenna with EV next to it with reception bars is “EVDO” and the antenna with a 1X next to it with reception bars is “1X”, and S is “SSL”. Well what the hell is EVDO and 1X and SSL?

The biggest downfall with the LG phone that I’ve discovered so far, though, is that there is no ringing profiles that I can set. This was very important to me in the Nokias. I had a “Meeting” profile that I’d put the phone on when I’m at work (which I hardly used because I didn’t have reception) or when I wanted to be discreet but still be notified when I get an incoming call, so calls would beep once and the phone would light up. I had an “Outdoor” profile that I’d use when I’m in loud places, and the phone would ring especially loudly and vibrate when I’d get a call. My “Normal” profile rang increasingly more loudly until I heard it picked it up. This LG only has the “Normal Mode” with sound at a volume you set manually to impose over all ringtones, and a “Vibrate Mode” to turn off all sound. The switch between the two is an easy 1-button operation, but I’d like other options.

I think the extra Verizon features override the LG programming shortcomings, though. I had just finished manually entering all the contacts from my Nokia into the LG, draining half the battery of both phones for the constant light-on, and I’ll have to invest more time in organizing and dividing up my Groups and assigning ring tones to each individual contact. Maybe that’s something to do tomorrow while I lay on the white sand of the Lake.

Gravity is especially strong for me today. I had a hard time getting out of bed and had to be re-woken a second time by Mr. W. I oozed over to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, washed my face, popped in my contacts, then oozed back over to the bed, where I was again pulled into horizontal position for about 10, 15 minutes. Finally, fearful of Mr. W’s reaction if he happened to come upstairs again to see me still in bed, while I try to explain to him that I’m not STILL in bed, I’m AGAIN in bed, which is probably equally alarming to him, I oozed over to the closet and picked out work clothes. Zomboid, I trudged downstairs and sank into a chair while Mr. W handed me a plate of tomato and jalapeno hummus omelet. From there, how I got to the car was a blur.

Then shortly before leaving for work, Mr. W trotted over to the side of the house and returned to the car, where I sat waiting for him, with a little white rose bud from our yard. It woke me up a little, because when I poked around inside the rose petal and peeked in, about to shove my nose in there and inhale, I saw a fat green worm curled up inside snoozing away. I did the ew ew, gag gag thing and Mr. W snatched the rose from my hand, stuck his fingers into it, and pulled the worm out. Then he opened his side of the car door and deposited the worm on the street. So I did the ew ew, gag gag thing AGAIN cuz now he TOUCHED it. He returned the rose to me and I gingerly and suspiciously moved around other petals, and saw another greenish grayish blob that resembled a tiny shell-less oyster. I decided I had enough of the rose even after Mr. W once again dug out the gray matter and flicked it out the car, so he put the rose into his cup holder instead. I know, I know, that’s gratitude for a guy trying to be romantic with his newlywed wife.

Gravity took over again, so instead of resisting, I lowered the car seat back all the way and went to sleep. After Mr. W went to work, I had the car to myself and instead of going to work myself, I instead lowered the car seat AGAIN and napped in the parking structure outside the courthouse for another 40 minutes.

But I DID have enough presence of mind to call both Dwaine AND Andrae to wish them a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! As usual, crazybusy Dwaine didn’t pick up his cell phone, but Andrae picked up and after I pretended like I was all awake and chirpy and stuff in calling him on his special day, he said, “You are a sweetheart! I can’t do stuff like this. The only birthday I ever remember is Dwaine’s.” I wish I had a twin so I could make twin jokes like that. Hippo Birdie, Dwaine and Andrae! You’re now MY AGE! MUHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Here’s a meme I filled out earlier at work for anyone who’s bored, or looking for a blog post topic. If you fit in either of these categories, I tag you!
~ * ~
44 ODD Things about you!

Okay – Copy the body of this meme, paste it into a new post, FILL IT OUT with your own answers and pass it on! Learn 44 things about your friends, and let them learn 44 things about you!

1. Do you like blue cheese salad dressing? I love chunky bleu cheese. With tabasco stirred in. and fries dipped in.
2. Do you own a gun? not me, personally.
3. What’s your favorite drink at Starbucks or other specialty coffee shop? UCLA – iced cappuccino royale. Starbucks – caffe mocha with soy or hot chai. that specialty peppermint one they have during the holidays.
4. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? not unless it’s surgical or invasive.
5. What do you think of hot dogs? Eh. Kinda phallic.
6. Favorite Christmas song? Sleigh Ride, instrumental version w/all the bells and whistles, like Leroy Anderson’s. But that’s only if Wham!’s “Last Christmas” doesn’t count cuz they’re looking for a “traditional” song.
7. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? nothing.
8. Can you do push ups? yeah.
9. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry? I don’t really wear jewelry. Favorites change seasonally. Currently, my wedding band.
10. Favorite hobby? blogging, I guess. Especially reading everyone’s comments! *nudge*
11. Do you have A.D.D.? No, so if I tune you out, it’s intentional.
12. What’s one trait that you hate about yourself? I’m not gonna even think about this question.
13. Middle name? my phonetically-translated (poorly) Chinese name.
14. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment.
1. “Arrrgh.”
2. “I’m glad my staff is open-minded to try fresh longyans.” (dragoneye fruit)
3. “It’s freakin freezing in here.”
15. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? water, iced tea, the occasional protein shake
16. Current worry right now? Am I gaining weight?
17. Current hate right now? annoying people. and when people don’t know when to shut up and/or defend me and/or leave me alone.
18. Favorite place to be? under the covers with Dodo. Not that we’ve ever done that. But I used to lay under the covers with my arm sticking out, and Dodo would curl up on top of the bed in between my arm and my side.
19. How did you bring in the New Year? Dude, it’s SEPTEMBER. I guess I’ll have to check my blog diaries.
20. Do you like to travel? In small doses.
21. Name three people who will complete this? a bored person; a person looking for a blog topic; a person who loves me.
22. Do you own slippers? lots.
23. What color shirt are you wearing? white knit top.
24. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? that stuff scars too easily and slides off all the time. annoying.
25. Can you whistle? yeah, but just the one note.
26. Favorite color(s)? yellow.
27. Would you be a pirate? sure, I’ll be Corolla Slayer.
28. What songs do you sing in the shower? whatever’s in my head. Most recently it was Michael Buble’s “Home.”
29. Favorite girl’s name? Hildegarde.
30. Favorite boy’s name? Billdegarde.
31. What’s in your pocket right now? no pockets.
32. Last thing that made you laugh? Last nite, one of the comments on Flat Coke’s MySpace photos.
33. Best bed sheets as a child? smurfette sleeping bag that I was allowed to use in bed during cold winter months.
34. Worst injury you’ve ever had? I don’t want to think too hard about this one. I’m just gonna say the broken heart.
35. Do you love where you live? sure.
36. How many TVs do you have in your house? 2 big screens. And one little hand-held packed away somewhere.
37. Who is your loudest friend? My husband. Yesterday while he was roaring I even said, “Ow, ow!!”
38. How many pets do you have? One, but he’s really a roommate and therapist. In a batman mask.
39. Does someone have a crush on you? That is not confirmed.
40. What is your favorite book? There are lots. Cecilia Ahern’s “P.S. I Love You” isn’t bad.
41. What is your favorite candy? San Francisco Brickle, See’s. Or a Lindor’s mint truffle.
42. Favorite Sports Team? Uh, Bruins, hello.
43. What were you doing 12 AM last night? trying to convince myself to ooze from the downstairs couch into the bedroom upstairs to brush my teeth and go to bed.
44. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? “My arms are asleep.”

We had Mr. W’s male best friend/ex-bro-in-law, his adult son and the bro-in-law’s wife over Saturday night to see our house for the first time. Daughter came by, too, with her friend in tow. We all went down to the Lake for a jazz festival and a Taste of the Lake outing. Lots of local restaurant vendors had their best appetizers, meals and pastries available for tickets, which you buy at the front entrance. It was a lot of fun sitting on a blanket, hanging out with everyone, listening to various live jazz bands play. We also got to see the Lakeside clubhouse for the first time, as they had an art exhibit going in there. Daughter got some information about hosting her 18th birthday party there. All I can say is, if we’d had our wedding there, we could’ve cut costs in almost half.

Sunday being moon festival, my parents brought my maternal grandmother over and pretty much made it a potluck. My grandma made a pork hock dish and bought some other little dishes of chicken wings and sea kelp; my parents marinated and skilleted Korean sliced ribs; and Mr. W made a salad and a fruit salad. My contribution was just my appetite. Yeah, I’m pretty useless around here. But I supplied the parents who supplied most of the food, so that should count for something. After eating in the back yard, we all took a drive down to the Lake and ate moon cakes watching the full moon reflect off the water surface. Aside from the family letting their young boys kick red-hot coals around and into the lake (which was very annoying, I wanted to call the lifeguards on them), it was a nice evening. If you ignore the insulting presumptions my grandmother would constantly banter about me.

Moon Festival is this Sunday. My mom emailed me to make sure Mr. W and I would be going to visit them. I reassured her that I would, and got this email in response:

“Remember the Moon Festival night last year? me and your dad at Diamond bar senior club park enjoy the moon light and You were on vacation in somewhere, talked about the ring over the phone with me and end up I paid for it. it’s been a year already, don’t forget to wear that ring Sunday. I think after dinner, maybe we can bring moon -cakes and tea there to enjoy the moon light for a while.”

The “on vacation somewhere” was on the Big Island of Hawaii for Mike (Wilco) and Christi’s (Flip Flop Girl’s) wedding. That ring was my birthstone, an incredible quality of natural color-change Alexandrite set between diamonds on a white gold band. I just got the ring re-rhodiumed recently and picked it up with Jordan when she was here for OUR wedding. How funny the things that link together.