I Love My Life Post California Trip

So I'm back from my lengthy trip from California. I actually got back on March 27th, but it took me about a week and a half to recover; thus the late entry! LOL! Anyway, today is April 5th, already, and 2006 is just whizin' on by-but so far, it's great!

The highlight of my trip was seeing ALL of my friends and some family too: I started with one Grama (Joni), mixed in A LOT of friends, and ended with the other Grama (Elizabeth) and her husband! I went 3,000 miles (again) and had a wonderful time: here's the rundown!

Grandma Joni's 70th birthday party was a total blast-TONS of poeple, even more food and lots of fun! I got to spend some quality time with my grama the night after her party-and that was great, and see people I hadn't met or seen in 15+ years-very cool! My grama hauled in on the presents, loved every one of 'em and I got the chance to meet some great people! Grama Joni is one very popular lady, there were about 75 people there-whew-and all of her family and other grandkids are just wonderful--especially little 7 year old Marina and 26 year old Casey-the three of us totally bonded! It was awesome to see grama, feel the love around her and be a part of a real celebration! What a party!
I hope someday I have that big of a blowout with all of my family and friends in one place to love, honor and celebrate ME--I'm sorry if that sounds egotistical, but come on, who doesn't want that at least once in their life? I know I do! And it'd be even better if/when they all come to ME-instead of me always going to them-which I don't mind, but you know....it'd be nice!

From Hemet, I took I-5 up through to Sacramento: I drove through Burbank (close to Hollywood/L.A), Vaness, San Bernadino (UGLY city), Fresno, some nice small town called Buttonwillow (no, I'm not making that up-I took a lovely little nap there and orderd a vanilla latte' too-yum!), Stockton and on into Sacramento....

there I dropped (and I do mean dropped) in on my Aunt Patti and Uncle Gary and had a quick dinner and a much needed shower.....it was great to see them, I just wish it'd had been more planned! Thank God they were home and "ready" for me, now those are true friends! :)

then I took I-80W on into San Francisco where it was raining when I finally arrived 12.5 hours after I originally left Hemet, CA. Oh well, it was worth it!

In San Francisco, I stayed with my friend, Judy, in her lovely, perfect, so peaceful and beautiful cottage on Judah St near UCSF--it was so awesome to be so close to the hospital, but not have to go in it! Beyond awesome actually! Judy and I went to the newly refrubished DeYoung Museum, China Beach, Golden Gate Park (absolutely beautiful and lush, lush green), the ocean and to lunch at the Challet on the beach-so indescribably awesomely delicious I can't even tell you! I had the crab cake, she had the spinach salad-and we split it-to die for-seriously! So good!Anyway....Judy and I had a blast-her home is wonderful, she's quite the hostess and I had some of the meals of my entire life while with her!
Today's Link is the place where we ate breakfast on the morning of my depature--it's a litlte place called Gratitude Cafe and it's a delicious little vegetarian/vegan restraunt (I am a vegetarian you know!) and it was so good! The food took a while to arrive, but the service was very nice and friendly and the place had an overall good vibe!

When you leave Gratitude Cafe (where all their plates have the phrase "What are you grateful for today?" inscribed on them) they give you this card that says:

Have you always had enough to eat?
Have you always had a place to sleep?
Have you always had clothes to wear?
Can you see you have always been provided for?
Now say outloud: "I trust _____ as my source of supply."
Notice if you are an argument for "not enough," or "I work hard to
make it," etc.

If you are not trusting "Spirit," whom are you trusting?

Now, I know this all might sound a bit hippie chick/bohemian/new age/Christian like to you all, and it is to a point--but it's great! It's a lovely, positive place that I would go to again and again and again--delicious food and a wonderful atmosphere! That card at the end really made me think, I hung up on my new desk when I got home--and ever since it's been up there, my overall life has gotten a better outlook! So, thank you Gratitude Cafe, and thank you Judy for taking me there!

Anyhow, after Judy's, I went onto Redwood City, CA. to see Nancy and her adorable son, Ben, who's now 9!!! Kids grow up SO damn fast! Anyway, we had a wonderful time as well, very relaxing and comfortable! Judy's great, but she is a go/go/go/go type of person--I had a wonderful time with her, but it wasn't exactly a restful time, but with Nancy, I got the chance to just hang out, relax, sit on my butt, chill and chat--it was GREAT! Nancy's son told me all about his movie making adventures, his love of rocks and crystals (I love cyrstals too) and Nancy made some delicoius Banana Bread!
Yeah, I know, the theme here is: the best part of my trip besides the fantastic company and good friends I encountered: THE FABULOUS, DELICIOUS, AMAZING FOOD!!!
Nancy, Ben, her friend and I all went to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen where I ordered the Italian Pizza Salad-so good-so yummy-so scrumptiously delicoius! I'm tellin' y'all, I had some of the best meals in my entire life--ever-and that's sayin' somethin' 'cuz I eat a lot of amazing food! Anyhow, on Wednesday, Nancy and her friend and I went to Half Moon Bay, one of my favorite places on earth and just sat on the beach and ate hummus and pita chips! THAT was a vacation!

On Thursday, I had lunch with my friend, Matt, then went back into SF and to UCSF to see, Claudia-where we went down to Market/Powell Street to the 7 Story Mall and just hung out and laughed and gabbed! Claudia took me to Twin Peaks and I got some really incredible views of the city! THat night, we attended her sons' High School Play (Pirates of Penzents) and it was pretty good!

Friday wasn't so great, it was raining cats and dogs when I left San Rafael, CA. (Claudia's house), my cell phone broke and it was just one thing after another, but I made it to my grandma Elizabeth's and Henry's in one peice! They were kind enough to come and get me out at Boomtown and Friday night I proceeded to set up my new TrakFone (they suck!), give myself a manicure and just relax! It was great! Saturday I did more of nothing, downloaded pictures from the previous week or so, ate Grama E's out of this world, legendary spaghetti-so freakin' good and yummy and just chilled! Grama and I hung out, meditated together, she made me two book covers and I saw all of her latest crafting projects-very neat-she's so talented it's sickening!

Sunday, I got the chance to go see Mark Towell and his family--what a lovely bunch they are! Aspen is almost one year old and Candace looks great! Mark took me to lunch at another vegetarian restraunt in Reno which apparently used to be a bar when my mother was growing up there! LOL! Anyhow, I really enjoyed my time with Mark, it was a great lunch and he's a good friend--I wish his wife and daughter could've joined us, but maybe next time! After Mark's, I headed on over to see my lifelong friend, Donnie and his wife, Erica and her son my "newphew," Ashton-who took a total liking to me! LOL! He's so cute and cuddly! Anyhow, Donnie, Erica, Ashton and I hung out together at their place for about five hours; talked, laughed, had strawberry shortcake and then I headed back to Grama's!

I departed Reno, NV on Monday the 27th of March and unforunately, ended up slidding off the road at 70mph between Tonapah and Goldfield. It was really rather freaky--although I wasn't scared as it was actually happening-I went for one heck of a ride and 4 cars immediately pulled over and lent me cell phones and made sure I was okay-that was very nice of them seeming as how I was in themiddle of nowhere-and I do mean NOwhere! The cops came, so did the NHP, Firetruck, and Ambulence--I was fine and suprisingly, my car only had 3 flat tires-luckily, I signed up for Triple AAA before I left Vegas so they sent a tow truck out and I had my tires fixed before 8pm that night when my mom and her boyfriend came to get me (I was no longer in the mood to drive) and escorted me back home. I was NOT drinking, nor sleeping, nor not paying attention; it was extremely windy in the valley that day and the wind won the battle--I'm very lucky and completely blessed to not have been injured, rolled my car or killed-thank you Lord, seriously, PRAISE GOD!!!

Anyway, I FINALLY made it home safely Monday night and it took me litearally a week to get my energy back! But what a totally awesome, compeltey fun and amazingly wonderful trip it was!!! Although, no more road trips for me for a while, if people wanna see me, they can come to me, Vegas is a great place to visit anyway!!! :)

Last night, my mom and I hung out and talked on her bed for like two hours and it got me thinking that although I didn't miss her that much while on my trip, I totally love her and enjoy her company-still, to this day! My mom and I always have so much fun and can totally be ourselves around eachother-it's great! We haven't had a late night talk like that in a long time and it was really great, and a lot of fun, thanks mom, I love you!

So, I have a paper due today for my poetry class, it's on William Wordworth's poem, "I Wandered Lonley As A Cloud," I'm not sure what grade I'll get on it, but I tried hard and did my best and that's all I can do-let us pray!!!

On a sidenote, my mom rearranged my room while I was gone and put my brand new desk in here, it's great--I actually like the way my room is now better than I did before! Much more fung-shuei compatable (okay, I don't really know anything about fs, but hey) and accesible, I really like it a lot!!!

There's a bunch of movies coming out on DVD that I want to see: Goodnight and Goodluck, Crash (again, for the extra's) and Fun with Dick and Jane--looks like I'll be at Hollywood Video this weekend! LOL! Last weekend mom and I faced the madness and craziness of the crowds and saw "Ice Age 2" it was funny and cute, not as good as the first, but good none the less-we enjoyed it!

(DEEP BREATH)-so that's all I have to say for now, this is what happens when I don't write for months at a time!

Oh, one more thing; the movie Flight 93 (about 9/11/01) is coming out on April 28th and I watched the trailer for it today on msn.com and it looks freaky. I honestly still think about 9/11 at least weekly, I haven't forgot about it (almost five years later) and it still affects me deeply....I'm not sure if the country is ready for a movie about it that is so real and honest--but I think I will go see it. I can only imagine what all those innocent passengers felt that day in and on those planes-I didn't actually understand or grasp the magnitude of it until I was on a plane in the middle of the night headed for Nashville, TN in July 2002-that's when I got it, as much as I can, and quite frankly, as much as I want to. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see what the new movie Flight 93 does--if it'll up Bush's approval rating (I doubt it), stir up old wounds (probably) or be boycotted all together (possible). The director says he got all of the families' permision to make the movie, so that's good at least, but I'm stil not sure what to think. On opening weekend, 100% of the profits from the movie will be donated to the honorflight93.org memorial fund, so that's good-I might see it just to contribute to that. Anyway, it made me realize, again, while watching the trailer today, that life is so fragile and unpredictable...I know I say it ALL the time, but we really have to stop and enjoy our lives while we can because we just never, never know what will happen next!

And with that, I bid you farewell and goodnight, at least for now, Thanks for listening to my ramble! Take care!

Many Blesings All Around to EVERYONE!

In Light & Love,
-Sarah Liz :)