The Attitude of Gratitude

A week ago, this little blogger of yours turned 32. It's been a while since I celebrated my birthday locally. I'm normally always getting to or jetting to. This year, I stayed put and had a super-duper great time with friends, family, beloved, my neighbors pets and just about anyone who was at the Cat Club last Thursday :D


So first off...what's up with the weather! Is it always like this? I normally go to warm, tropical places so this is somewhat shocking to me. My heater is still on all night at home and my Hello Kitty pajamas are working overtime.


The festivities started on Wednesday night with my family. It was a double celebration. My niece had her Church Confirmation and I was her sponsor. Afterwards the fam had a delish dinner...

Then on the actual day, I spent a glorious day with my mom running around like kids in the city. I loved every minute of it! The highlight of my day was definitely the Peter Pan show. How ironic right? My mom took me to see Peter Pan and I never want to grow up and be a boring adult :D

The show was uber cool. They have a tent at the Ferry Park right across from the Ferry Building at the Embarcadero. The set up is much like the Cirque du Soleil show. Inside were bleacher seats. They had scenes projected up on the dome part of the tent. The flying scene was my favorite. The projection was that of Peter Pan and the Darling's (Wendy, Michael and John) flying above London then Paris and finally Neverland. They had to pretend to dodge the walls of L'Arc de Triomphe, fly under the Tower of London and swim under water to get to Neverland. The actors were harnessed on this super thin rope which was hardly a distraction. It was perfect and SO, SO Cool!

Afterwards, my bestest girlfriends and I partied it up at the Cat Club. It was Thursday night hence it was Retro in the Metro with 80's music, Yeah! I had such a blast ending the day/night on a high note.





Complete pics here:


http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0MaMmTZy3YshY&emid=shareprintsharer&linkid=link5&cid=EM_sharshar

Life is full of little moments. I want to be immersed in the present for only then can I be present for you.

Live a life of appreciation versus depreciation. Embrace what you have and ask for nothing more than you need. Enhance life's little encounters by conciously deciding to be in the moment.

I thank the Powers be that I am exactly where I need to be at this moment. To be present for my beloveds.

When all is said and done, now is all there is, and all there ever has been.




Peter: Forget them, Wendy. Forget them all. Come with me where you'll never, never have to worry about grown up things again.


Wendy: Never is an awfully long time.



In Joy, In Spirit, In Love,

Baywatch to Bay2Breakers

Last Sunday I took part in probably one of the craziest event in the City - Bay to Breakers. It was a lot of fun. The girls and I joined the Baywatch float. For a mere $15, we got 10 canned beers, 6 jello shots, a back-pack full of goodies and countless laughs along the way.

We started at the corner of 1st and Howard and walked all the way to the Pan Handle and finally to Golden Gate Park. Since the parade went through my neighborhood, we also stopped at my humble abode for a pit stop :)

Up and at 'em at 7:30am



Amela, Nancy, T & Me






The outfits posed a lot of hilarious lines -

"I'm concussed, can you CPR me?"

"You took my breath away, can I have it back? "

"I think Baywatch is such a hit here because of the weather"... lol! it was cloudy and windy that day :D

Complete pics here:

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0MaMmTZy3YseK

I heart Ringpop!

May the 4th be with you...

Two months ago, I went on a mini road trip with my dear friend Marge and her little one, Ginger. We drove from California to Oregon and finally to Seattle. I like Seattle. I've been there a handful of times and it's definitely a city that I don't mind going back to again and again.

I also had the opportunity to visit Victoria, British Columbia again. I love it up there. It's so beautiful! It reminds me so much of Bath, England.

We took the ferry from downtown Seattle to Victoria, B.C. Due to time constraints on my end, we were only able to do a day trip but it was still so much fun none the less.

Jaywalking in Seattle is deadly...

Ferry Terminal in Seattle. That's the Victoria Clipper boat that took us to Canada.

The Empress Hotel - I stayed here with my mom a few years back. It's so beautiful inside and its definitely worth shelling out the extra bucks to stay here. So pretty!

Complete pics here:

http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=b02fe034f0174101bcfd7207a7b1fe91&sid=0MaMmTZy3YscC

It has been a glorious couple of weekends in the city. I am thoroughly enjoying living here. Pretty soon, I will enjoy working here as well. I have a transfer in the works. Wish me luck bloggies!

Hung out at Washington Square park after my Farmer's Market walk on Saturday -

Azmeera's hood has the best cupcake place called "That Takes the Cake"

I got 3 cupcakes for myself - Orange Zinger, Green Tea Cherry Blossom and Neopolitan...Yum!

We love cupcakes but We love each other more...

May the 4th be with you,

Wedded Bliss

The minute I heard my first love story,
I started looking for you,

not knowing how blind that was.
Lovers don't finally meet somewhere,

they're in each other all along.


From Essential Rumi


What an amazing weekend. I have been putting off publishing this post for the past couple of days because I could not come up with anything eloquent or articulate to describe how wonderful Saturday's wedding was. I am humbled and moved by all the love and positive energy reverberating from every person who attended the wedding.

So I've decided to just post photos in hopes of conveying the most beautiful wedding I had the honor of being a part of.


Friday - 04/23

Off to the flower market to buy the flowers for the bouquets and center pieces.




We were running around pretty much all day and finishing up last minute details. In the afternoon, we all had our mani/pedi done. We also had a psychic do a Tarot and Palm reading.

That was interesting...She told me that I will be meeting someone or have met someone already and it will be fate that will bring us together.....hmmmm...maybe I did meet that person already....more of this in future blogs...








Saturday - 04/24

Rise and shine at 6:30am to get all dolled up for the day. My super talented girlfriend Bobbie who is a Make-up Artist extraordinaire /Photographer/Awesome Mom, did everyone's make-up that day.






The weather was perfect. Sunny with a cool breeze coming from the bay. It did get a little too hot at one point and everyone got burned including myself. I'm already naturally tan so I did not think about putting on any sunblock. My shoulders were burned crisp for the next two days. Its in the itchy stage now so in about a day or two, it should start peeling :)




Limo ride from the apartment out to Crissy Field

The leaning tower of Groom and his men...

The cake turned out so beautiful!

Flavor - lemon on the bottom 2 and raspberry on top.

During one of my Farmer's Market Saturday walk, Azmeera and Tanya joined me. We saw these kids performed and we were completely enamored. Azmeera ended up hiring them to play the drums for about 15 minutes. It was the neatest thing. These kids are uber cute. They also do a little dance routine as they rocked out with their drums.

This chick did 3 dances - 2 Hula and 1 Tahitian. I had so much fun! I've danced in a lot of wedding, b-day parties and anniversaries before and this tops off everything. If this was the last time I would have performed, then I am perfectly content in retiring :)

They also hired this band to play rock-a-billy songs and other folk/country music. I still have grass stains on my feet from dancing to their music. They also found them at the Saturday, Farmer's Market.

The evening after party was held at 111 Minna (Art Gallery by day and Awesome club at night). The theme for the evening was 80's music...Yeay!

They had a free photobooth set up at the club. So fun!

Sunday - 04/25

Azmeera's parents hosted a luncheon the day after the wedding. More yummy food and good company to be had.

I know what your thinking.....

"The Hangover", It's the dude from the movie right? I know, but no!!!

His name is Joel. He's just as hilarious as Zack Galifianakis. At any given moment he would just bust out with songs or say the funniest things. If all goes well between him and Tanya, which I hope it does, we might have another wedding coming up pronto ;-)

His Wolfpack has grown by one... lol!

Complete wedding photos here:

http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=d6349aba0d7bcdfc&sid=0MaMmTZy3YsYw

Dance videos here:

http://s760.photobucket.com/albums/xx248/smlwndr520/?action=view&current=IpoLeiMomi.flv

http://s760.photobucket.com/albums/xx248/smlwndr520/?action=view&current=TropicalBaby.flv

http://s760.photobucket.com/albums/xx248/smlwndr520/?action=view&current=Otea36.flv

Hang Ten,

Half Pint

Back in college, I had the most awesome opportunity to study abroad for a semester.

Destination: Pub Crawl heaven aka Great Britain.

Now, don't ask me what I learned over there, it's all a big giant blur. Somehow, in between the pub crawls, skittles, quiz and karaoke nights, I also managed to earn a Minor Degree in Area Studies specializing in British culture.

So the moniker half-pint happened on one of my first few visit to a local pub:

Me: I'll have a pint of Strongbow please... (English cider)

Bloke: American?

Me: Yes

Bloke: Well lass, here in Queen's land, a lady is only supposed to drink out of half pint glasses

Me: Fine, then I'll have 2 half pints please...

Bloke: Laughed his arse off and proceeded to pour me 2 half pints

From that day forward, he always comped my first half-pint :D

I admit, I've been such a poop excuse for a blogger.

It's not enough to just be Alive...One has to Live. And that's what I've been doing.

It has been a very eventful couple of months. Full of funtivities and cheers, connecting with friends and making new ones as well. There's been love lost and lessons learned.

Since I moved to the city, I have had maybe only one quite weekend at home.

Towards the beginning of the year I was asked to be a maid of honor for a dear friend of mine who's wedding is going to be this weekend. It was so fun to be a part of the whole process. From the dress input to the cake tasting. She is going to be the most beautiful blushing bride ever.

Bride + Maid

These are not the dresses we ended up getting. We were just having fun being girls and trying on as much dresses as we can before committing to the 'One'....Yes I'm still referring to the dress ;-)

There's nothing more fun for me than trying on dresses. Ooohhh, except for maybe trying on dresses while I stuff myself with Star Anise & Pink Peppercorn chocolate from Recchiuti and not gain a single ounce of weight. Now that would just be so heavenly divine!

And of course the obligatory Bachelorette Party. Craziest night of my life and I was sober for it :D

The game is called "Pin the Macho on the Man". It was so hilarious!

Pre-party at the hotel (Sir Francis Drake)

We hired him for 1/2 hour and he stayed for 1 1/2!!! Craziness!!!

Iluna Basque - this restaurant is off the beaten path in the otherwise busy neighborhood of Northbeach. The owner, Mattin Noblia was a recent Top Chef Las Vegas contestant. Although he got kicked off early in the show, his restaurant is worth checking out at least once. If the food does not inspire to go out and save the world, you can at least enjoy the eye candy that is Mattin!

Sorry ladies, he's taken...

One of the games we played was to ask dudes what they call their "Unit". Check out what this guy had to say....LOL!!!

Danced the night away at Infusion Lounge aka Confusion Lounge

Onward and forward has been my mantra these days. I continue to keep the positive energy in my life. Getting back in touch to the part of myself that was somewhat placed in the back burner for a bit.

I am back disporting and thoroughly having a great time. I am thanking my lucky stars for all my experiences because it has taught me valuable lessons. To never give up. To stand up and fight for what I believe in. To keep the hope that someday, someone will hold my hand and walk through life with me.

I laugh... I dance.... I live... I love...

Inspired,

Jakey