Redefining Happiness

I met Tyler when I was 15 years old.

It was the summer before my junior year and his senior year. We met through our mutual friend Michael, who at the time we called "Wookie" for reasons that I can't remember anymore. Tyler knew Wookie through boy scouts and I knew Wookie from computer programming class. Tyler and I had known each other as acquaintances from track & field, where we both ran hurdles, but we'd never said more than, "hey."

The day I really remember getting to know Tyler, we were zipping around our hometown in Wookie's bright blue Subaru. I was riding shotgun, and I kept peering into the backseat at the lanky boy who kept shyly smiling at me.

He gave me his number when we parted ways that evening. I must have given him mine, but I can't remember and neither can he.

We dated for a year and a half back then, and then he graduated high school and that chasm that opens between those who have left high school and those who were still there opened up and we broke up.

I cried for months it seemed like.

For a couple years, he attended the junior college in the same Central California town where I went to college, and we hung out, made mutual friends, and were tentative friends. He left that town and moved north to Mount Shasta.

Almost two years after that, I ran into one of our mutual friends, Phillippe, at Jamba Juice. Phillippe -- most likely for lack of anything better to say -- asked me, "hey, how's Tyler?" And I said, "you know, I haven't actually talked to him for a while, so I don't know!"

I called Tyler that evening to see how he was.

One thing led to another, and we decided to try the whole dating thing again. It was going to be tough, because it was going to be long distance for a while, but we both had loved each other once and seemed to still have those feelings floating around.

Yesterday, a little more than four years later, we're still together and Tyler managed to (almost) surprise me with something special.

He asked me to marry him! And I'm a tough girl to surprise.

I might have said yes.

Actually, I did.

It's because I really like him.

I can't believe it.

I'm gonna get married!

Excuse me while I go get girly and mushy. I deserve it.

Ciao,
kc

Boston

Once upon a time there were two little girls.

They were pretty cute back then, and they're still pretty cute now. They both grew up and went their separate ways. One stayed in the West, the other wanted to get as far away from home as humanly possible without leaving the U.S.

So she moved East.

And then she did something really cool.

She graduated from grad school.

That, folks, is my little sister wearing that funny hat. She's got a Master of Science in Genetic Counseling. It compliments her Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences.

Yes, she's kind of a brainiac. We love her for it and in spite of it.

We got to watch her get hooded.

It was fun, and long, and we were all very very hungry. But it was still worth it.

Her graduation also gave my family a great excuse to visit Boston, Massachusetts and do the touristy thing. And spend time with each other of course.

Because as a family, we're kind of close.

We wandered around.

 We went to the aquarium.

Boston is a really cool mixture of old and new. They have a requirement that any historical building cannot be changed in any way, even if the business that goes into it is different. So you have these really beautiful old buildings surrounded by skyscrapers.

 

 

We walked. A lot.

And we went to Fenway.

Tyler really liked Fenway. 

We missed the tour, but we went to this nice bar called the Bleacher Bar instead, that's situated underneath the outfield bleachers, and it has the nice view seen in the photo above where we sat and had a beer. Really, it was better than walking around in the hot sun listening to facts we didn't really care about it.

Unfortunately, Tyler and I didn't get to see a Red Sox game there, because they were playing in Philadelphia the weekend we were there. But everyone else got to go the following weekend. It was all right though.

We still had a really fun weekend.

Ciao,
kc

Big Word Wednesday: Sordid & Torrid

So there's the commercial on the radio about this old private school in this area that's celebrating its 75th anniversary or some such and on it they say something like "torrid" or "storid" or "sordid." Now in the context, "torrid" and "sordid" don't make sense and "storid" is just plain not a word, so I have no idea what word they were actually aiming for.

But anyways. Since I missed last week, due to the Boston trip that I have yet to tell y'all about, I'll do both!

sordid: adjective. [sawr-did] morally ignoble or base; vile. meanly selfish, self-seeking, or mercenary. dirty or filthy. squalid; wretchedly poor and run-down.

•  He used some rather sordid methods to get the job done.
• The sordid housing of the slums...

torrid: adjective.  [tawr-id] subject to parching or burning heat, especially of the sun, as a geographical area. oppressively hot, parching, or burning, as climate, weather, or air. ardent; passionate.

• We hiked for miles across the torrid sands of the Sahara.
• Romeo & Juliet is certainly a torrid love story.

Enjoy!
kc

Movie Reviews: The Avengers

Tyler and I went and joined the bandwagon masses in seeing The Avengers on Saturday night.

And I do mean masses...when you're in the habit of behaving like an elderly married couple, you forget that Saturday night is a night that people actually go out. Between the parking in Old Mill District for the Tenacious D concert that was happening just over the hill in the amphitheater and the standard Saturday night hooligans, parking was interesting and so was the line for the movie theater. Ah, well.

The synopsis is as follows: "...The Super Hero team up of a lifetime, featuring iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins..."

 Does anyone else see an overloaded lineup as a recipe for mass confusion?

Every single one of these super heroes had their own movie...so now we're going to mash them all together and not expect them to be all overwhelming? Even on the big screen?

I'm sorry. Let's reverse.

Tyler and I went to see The Avengers on Saturday night. My expectations were understandably low, as (a) it's a Marvel movie and two out of every three Marvel movies are flops and (b) the preview was entirely pyrotechnical CGI. But it bid to be a decent movie for the big screen on a Saturday night.

Unfortunately, it held true to expectations.

When I go to see a movie, unless I am made clearly aware that it's a part of a series and I'm the idiot who saw number 3 before seeing numbers 1 and 2, I want the entire plot to be standalone. Self-sufficient. Fully internally supported. With Avengers, I spent most of the movie thinking to myself that clearly, I missed something and had been expected to shell out to see all of the other supposedly standalone Marvel movies featuring the characters listed above in order to make heads or tails of certain plot insinuations, relationships and where the hell the villain Loki came from and why the hell aliens are invading the planet using a scifi thingamajig that came from an unknown place.

Because again, I didn't see any of the other movies.

Well, that's not true, I saw Ironman, both of them, so I know who Robert Downey, Jr.'s character is and his relationship with Scarlett Johanssen's character (Black Widow). But the Black Widow's relationship with Hawkeye is only sort of kind of explained in a backwards itty bitty sorta way, and who really knows where everyone else came from. And when did Super Heroes suddenly become involved with Norse demi-gods (Thor and Loki) one of which has some unexplained, random vendetta against the planet and brings unexplained aliens to conquer it?

So issue one, to review, is that the plot makes no sense.

You know what? I'm going to stop with that. Most everything else was decent. It was midly funny, Ironman took the cake for coolest and pretty much stole the spotlight in true Tony Stark style. Which is good, because he carried the movie. But no matter.

We're moving on. If you've seen The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Iron Man 1 & 2, and whatever movie features the Black Widow and Hawkeye, then you'll love The Avengers. If you haven't, you should probably catch up on those before you catch the flick.

Ciao,
kc

Losing Ground

The nature of life is to be touched at times by sadness, loss and most poignantly, death. Those we lose in life do not necessarily grieve for their own loss as much as those who they leave behind grieve. I say this because my dear dear friend passed yesterday morning after a long battle with leukemia that began two years ago.

I was emailing with him about a month ago when he told me of his decision to not accept further treatments, as they were no longer helping. At that time he told me something along the lines of how he had chosen to put his faith in God to either see him through or take him home and that he was at peace with whatever may happen. It is times like these where I think any of us with true human hearts search them for the expression of God and wonder and rage at why such a God would choose to visit such a hard disease on such a wonderful person. So when he told me that, I was not at peace. I was sad, angry and very much cynical.

I am still cynical, though my grief today is tempered with the knowledge that while his ending was somewhat unexpected (he developed an aggressive infection that gave way to pneumonia, which his body just couldn't handle) and was by no means easy to watch for his family and the friends who were with him, it was Daniel's choice and he was at peace with his probable death long before any of us who loved him were.

Daniel was one of the first people I met at college, and with all the care and good-heartedness in him, he invited me to go salsa dancing lessons with him and some friends. Daniel and I had many great conversations over the years, about life, love, politics, religion, and the wonder of the world -- as well as about more trivial life-courses like school, friends, and run-of-the-mill drama. Through it all, he was a steadfast, loyal friend to me and to anyone else he met. He was genuine, good-hearted and wonderful.

There was one night my fourth year of college, when I was in one of my bouts of relentless tonsillitis that I suffered that year where all of my roommates were out of town or gone for the night for one reason or another and I was just so sick, and so alone that he valiantly offered to stay with me in a sleeping bag on my couch, just so that I would know that I wasn't alone if I needed someone. It was just one example of how caring a person he was.

He got me a job with his dad's printing company the summer after my third year of college. I ended up leaving after only about a month of employment, which both he and his father forgave me for.

He and a friend made my hometown a stop on their motorcycle trip to spend two nights and days with my family. I had to work while he was there and he hung out with my parents and my aunt and my sister and took in my hometown with them.  Such a great guy.

When we lost Daniel yesterday morning, the world lost one of its finest people. It's very sad, but its also a good feeling to know that after two years of hardship and suffering that he endured with grace, optimism, and strength he is finally at peace.

Choose today, tomorrow, and forever to celebrate life and take joy in the little things for those who no longer can. I will always keep him fondly in my memory. Saying "he was a great guy" just doesn't do him justice.

Ciao,
kc

Adventures in baking

So after I recovered from the arduous run I did on Sunday, I tried something I'd been wanting to do for a while. I took my oh-so-classic pumpkin muffin recipe (a la my mommy) and added some mango to it. Like mango fruit, not mango flavor.
 
The combination was interesting.

But I liked it, a lot. So, if you're feeling adventurous like I was, use my standard pumpkin muffin recipe and then add frozen mango chunks (which I found at Trader Joe's). Delicious!

Ciao,

Kc

Runstar

It's like a rock star, only for running. Which can be applied to anyone who runs a mile or more at one time on purpose.
 
I add those qualifications as my neighbor always asks, "in a row? On purpose?" when I tell him my mileage for the day.
 
Today I ran really far. Ten miles to be exact. And I was dumb and waited to leave the house until 11:30, which was dumb because at 9 am it was already 65 degrees outside. Beautiful day, dumb me.
 
It was so stinking hot.
 
Summer's here.