cindy's world

Being in an exhausted, bad mood this evening, I called my childhood friend for a reason to ditch jujitsu again, for the 3rd month in a row. She said she was getting off work at 8:30-ish and wanted to meet up for Korean tofu after that so I can meet her new boyfriend. She said if I don’t feel like going to class, just relax and do whatever it takes to make me happy and she’ll call me after work. I must’ve been too relaxed because I fell asleep in front of the TV and even tho I assumed the house phone ringing would wake me up, it didn’t. I woke up on my own at just before 11:30p and was shocked I didn’t hear my phone ringing, and went upstairs to check my cell phone. I’d missed 3 calls from her. I called her back and she insisted on still meeting up, since the Korean tofu place is open 24 hours, and I finally agreed after lots of persuading from her even tho as I told her it’s late and I need to work the next morning. She said she was gonna finish making out with her new boyfriend and she’ll call me when they leave, saying they wouldn’t be too long. It’s been an HOUR. I’ve changed, put my face back on and I’m sitting here, and I’m thinking I’m gonna call her back and tell her I’m going to bed. She probably fell asleep, considering she was complaining about being drunk while on the phone earlier.

Ya know, when it rains, it pours. When work goes crazy, this would be the day that random stuff gets assigned to me to overlap the existing stuff, and the jury hangs but then changes its mind and decides it has a verdict at 4pm so that we’re totally running late (court normally recesses at 4p so we have an hour to get our stuff done), and this would also be the day I’m trying to juggle 2 jury trials. And to really put a nice spike into the shoe that’s kicking me already, this is also the day I get my feelings hurt by someone who could’ve made my day had things been done differently. Instead, I’m kicked and then left alone to bleed.

Hmm. Why does this sound familiar? Men are so oblivious to how far a little comfort and commiseration could go in their favor. Aren’t we entitled to getting upset over something small when we’re having bad days already? Can’t men just give us a hug and stroke our hair and tell us it’s going to be better soon, instead of getting all touchy and adding to the stress?

At least I got a 3.25 mile run in during lunch, despite the fact that court ran late into lunch, too.

Despite having a lazy workday, I was able to be productive after work. With my judge’s and my bailiff’s Bed, Bath & Beyond gift cards that they got for my birthday, I purchased a new Hoover bagless vacuum cleaner. My Fantom Fury had finally had its last suck before the roller fell apart. Oh, and all 4 rubber bands I’d bought for it last year broke, too. I was saddened to replace the Fury, the best vacuum cleaner I’d ever used, but was happy that the new one was lighter, more compact, and had the same amps of suction. I was finally able to do the stairs easily, because the Hoover has a stair cleaner handle grip that allows for better leaned-back manueverability. Oh, and the suction on the hose attachment was shockingly strong. That’ll suck up ants no problem!

After vacuuming the house, I went to belly dancing, week 2. Vanessa was there, having missed last week’s first class, but she did fine; the choreography wasn’t difficult, and we caught up with each other and had fun. After class, we went to get chicken rice soup to go at one of my favorite Thai restaurants, and upon returning her to her car, Vanessa gave me my birthday present. Yay, more presents! She got me a pretty journal, a white Happy Bunny wifebeater, and a teal and pink Happy Bunny tank and boxer set. Happy Bunny on the pajama set says “You’d be cooler if you were me.” I love Happy Bunny!

When I came to work this morning, there was another present on my desk from a coworker, another Bed, Bath & Beyond giftcard (I love that store, it has EVERYTHING). Birthday months are great! I should drag it out more often. The celebration begins right around the birthday and if I don’t do an event until weeks after the date, then it goes on till then! This Saturday: Disneyland! Yay!

I am so lethargic. How do I wake up? Aside from taking drugs, I mean. I got enough sleep last nite, went to bed about 10:30p, and but I so did not want to get out of bed. Didn’t drag my butt out until almost 7a. And at lunch my legs were too heavy to work out at the gym, so I went and got a salad, after the consumption of which I took a 2o minute nap. Now I want to sleep again. I wonder what it is. Maybe it’s just hormonal. Maybe I’m just bored, listening to this petty theft trial while doing overcomplicated divorce cases at my desk.

(cameraphone pic)
I had a low-key July 3rd evening. We watched a city firework show from the rooftop of a building, just me, Mr. W, his daughter and her girl friend, my gym trainee and her son. Later on, a coworker of Mr. W’s showed up with his wife. We laid a couple of sturdy army blankets on the edge of the roof and laid on it on our stomachs, peering over the edge at the many many people at the Independence Day event below, and sitting up staring into the night sky for the fireworks show. We brought fold-up chairs, cheese and crackers, wine, chips and dip, and a sushi platter. There was oohs, aahs, and inappropriate jokes. Okay, the inappropriate jokes came largely from me. All right, exclusively from me. I had a good time.

Happiness is…

* great lunch at a favorite Japanese curry restaurant
* dessert at Golden Spoon: peanut butter and Heath chocolate frozen yogurt
* feeding brine shrimp to fishies
* a 4-mile walk through parks, a beautiful neighborhood and a gorgeous fountainesque golf course
* all-natural homemade smoothie and popcorn for dinner
* dinner while watching “Friends” on DVD
* all of the above while laughing with your boyfriend, who put up a photo collage of you in a frame and hung it in the hall this afternoon

At dinner w/my parents earlier:

Me: Look, this is my new phone! (handing her my new Nokia 6102i)
Mom: Ooh, how pretty! See my phone. (showing me up with her Motorola Razr)

Just now w/W:

Me: (handing him newly-developed photos of me that he’d wanted) What’re you gonna do with these?
W: Play with myself with ’em.
Me: …Aren’t you afraid of papercuts?

Yesterday after work, I went to meet up with a couple of my coworkers who regularly have an Outback Steakhouse happy hour on Fridays. It turns out that they actually invited the courthouse to a surprise birthday party for me on the outdoor patio deck. There was a huge cake, flowers, those blower noisemaker things (except they didn’t make noise), presents. Bailiffs, reporters, courtroom clerks, clerks’ office clerks, law clerks, family members of people were in attendance. I felt special. Except for the fact that Mr. W refused to attend because he wanted to sit around the house all day and night, even tho he was off from work the whole week. Aside from that breaking my heart, I felt truly special. It has really been a great 29th year for me. My life had taken a 180-degree turn for the better, and I am so grateful for the people around me. The old friends who continue their support and whom I’ve gotten closer to, the new friends I’d made in the last year who’ve become my close friends today. It’s enough to make me shed a tear, man. *sniff* Thanks for putting that together for me, coworker Sandy!

Tonight: birthday dinner with my parents at Chomp sushi.

My mom wrote me an email at 9am this morning, saying that at that time 30 years ago, I was 15 hours old.

I must’ve been ugly. But I bet I had 10 fingers and 10 toes! And I bet they counted them!

Did you guys ever count your own toes, after realizing that you’ve never actually counted them before so maybe you’ve been an eleven-toed freak all along but you never realized it? I did, when I was 10, and I’m glad to report, I have 10 li’l piggies.

When my childhood friend Sandy was turning 30 last month, I called her to wish her a happy birthday. In the conversation, I asked what time she was born, and then noted that she wasn’t actually 30 yet, she technically had a few more hours. She said, “But I was born in Taiwan so technically, I turned 30 yesterday.” “Oh yeah!” I said and laughed at her for being old already. And then it hit me. I was born in Taiwan, too! Damn it, I’ve been 30 for 3 days already, then.

That title up there was for all the confused blog readers. =D I didn’t realize I was vague about my birthdate.

I picked up Mr. W and his friend at the airport last nite. They really didn’t catch any fish. “YOU explain it to my dad,” I told him.

It was a great day today. A couple minutes past midnight this morning, Navy Girl Vanessa called and left a voice mail to say happy birthday, and then early this morning, at like 7am, my childhood friend Sandy called and sang Happy Birthday to me. Mr. W rolled over in bed and said, “Someone beat me to singing happy birthday to you?” After I hung up with Sandy, Mr. W sang happy birthday in my ear while hugging me in bed. It was soooo cute. And then my friend Erin called, sending me birthday wishes. And then Vicky called and we chatted, but she didn’t realize it was my birthday, altho she did later and called back and left a voice mail apologizing for being a crappy friend. Haha, I didn’t even realize it until then that she didn’t say happy birthday. Hee hee, I just got a call from Edgar just now wishing me a happy 30th and remarking how old I am. He’ll get his…in October. And I got the birthday voice mails from Diana and my mom. All day long my phone was ringing and it’s about to die on low battery right now. I’m unexpectedly happy for someone who just turned 30 and has become *gasp* a GROWNUP.

Lemme backtrack some. Yesterday evening was my first bellydancing class. Man, there are a lot of fat women in that class. I’m glad they’ve taken the initiative to get some exercise in a fun way. I realized that since I can already do dancing that isolates my upper body and my hips, bellydancing was not that hard for me on the first day when we went thru 7 or 8 basic moves/steps. The only thing that was hard for me was the shimmying, because as a fat-conscious chick, I’ve spent most of my time trying NOT to make my fat shimmy. I did work up a little sweat in the end when we were doing moves nonstop. It’s gonna be fun.

Before bellydancing, I got online to check Mr. W’s flight status, since I had to go pick them up right after class. As I was doing that, I got an email notification that Jordan had just written me. A line in her email said something about hoping a package she sent gets to me on time. Package? I stood up and walked out the front door to check the gate (my ingress and egress are usually done through my garage, so I don’t go by the front door), and there was a big white box sitting just inside my gate. Inside was an awesome care package of a comedian DVD she’d told us about when we first met on the cruise, a relaxation CD, a Jimmy Buffett CD (she was making fun of me on her blog for not knowing who Jimmy Buffett is), a book of love coupons (no, not the raunchy sex shop kind, the nice Hallmark kind), body scrub, and body butter. A bunch of confetti metallic stars fell out of the box also; I recognized them from the handfuls of them she put in my birthday card, which she mailed separately and I received the day before the package. I listened to Jimmy Buffett all the way to the airport picking up Mr. W and friend, and then I had to turn it off cuz it turns out Mr. W hates Jimmy Buffett. Haha.

So today, Mr. W and I got up early and headed out to my birthday treat. He’s so sweet, we first stopped by McDonald’s and he picked up 2 Fruit n’ Yogurt Parfaits, and then by Starbucks where he got me a chai tea with soy (I didn’t even tell him my order, I was on the car on the phone with Vicky, he did really good). And then at Glen Ivy, we got to hang out all day in the pools, bake in the red mineral clay, and watch turtles eat leaves and swim with koi fish. After our treatments (where my therapist gypped me 10 minutes on a supposedly 80-minute treatment), we changed and went to the local Tom’s Farms, bought a ton of fresh organic fruit, and came home and he just made papaya/watermelon/apple/carrot/rhubarb smoothies. Yum!

After I hung up with Vicky earlier today on our drive to Glen Ivy, I remarked to Mr. W how nice it is that all my girls had called (I designated the caller group “my girls” with a Beyonce song ringtone, and that was all we heard all morning), and they/we are all happy in our love lives finally. Everyone’s getting somewhere or are at a really good place. Man, we’ve all had our tough times in romance, walked through hell and back. Now, everyone’s glowing all over the place. Yay for all of us! I don’t even mind turning 30 cuz I’m having such a good time. I mean, it helps that everyone around me are at least 10 years older than me at work, but I’ve also been feeling 30 for almost 2 weeks. People would ask how old I am and I’d say 30, or I’d refer to myself as a 30-year-old, and then I’d kick myself for prematurely aging myself. But generally, I think it’s okay being 30 if you’re happy with your life, content with where you are, and are surrounded by good friends.

Oh. And people tell me I don’t look 30, either. That helps. Haha!