Its not even Wednesday yet???

• Took Luis' car to the shop.... 2 days and $944 bucks later its working great =/

• Didn't go to the gym Monday or Tuesday.... Luis had my car (see first statement)

• My laundry pile seems to be growing exponentially

• I am exhausted and heading for bed

• Hopefully 7am takes it's time getting here

Itzhak Perlman

On Saturday night, Luis and I were so lucky to attend a concert by world renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman accompanied by Sri Lankan pianist Rohan De Silva at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex in Los Angeles.  To be honest, I didn't know much about him, besides that fact that he was my grandfathers favorite musician, but a few weeks ago when my cousin Mo told me she could get tickets from her brother Nick, who is the Marketing Director at the Luckman, I started doing my research on him.  Perlman has played at Carnegie Hall, studied at Juliard and has played with nearly every Philharmonic ever.  He was the violin soloist for the movies Schindler's List, which won an Academy award for best score, as well as for Memoirs of a Geisha.  He is basically amazing!  So Luis and I, along with Mo and her best friend Joanna and her boyfriend and a TON of our family got dressed up and headed out for a fabulous night!

As if our luck couldn't get any better, Nick was able to upgrade our seats in the orchestra, 6 rows from the stage and the incomparable Itzhak Perlman!

We sat next to Mr. Perlman's son and several seats away from actor Alan Alda and Matt Dallas from the show Kyle XY, but once the concert started, I couldn't take my eyes off the violin.  It was incredible to see how quickly yet effortlessly he played and with so much love in his face.  He played for over 2 hours and I could have listened to him for hours more.

Nick and Vlad <3

Afer the concert, (thanks to Nick and our VIP passes) we got to attend a very intimate reception with Mr. Perlman and enjoy some drinks and appetizers.  It was a truly memorable night!

My love and I

A Few Random Facts about Me

1. I make lists for everything.  To-do lists, grocery lists, lists when I pack for a trip, weekly workout lists, budget lists, etc... I like order in my life ok! LOL!
2. I FB chat with my cousin Mo almost every night
3. I never sleep with any part of my body hanging off the bed.
4. When I drive at night, I will blast my radio and sing as loud as I can and imagine that I am just as good as the artist =)
5. I have a slight obsession with scarfs and knitting them, and then I end up giving them away.
6. I have developed a severe addiction to Guitar Hero... I might consider rehab.
7. My favorite weather is really really cold days with a clear sky! Perfect scarf weather =)
8. My favorite expression in Spanish is "Me vale madre!"
9. I have a very strong desire to learn Portuguese.
10. I will wear heels whenever humanly possible.

 I may add more as I begin to notice more random things about myself =)

Avatar

Tuesday night Luis and I went to see Avatar, which we were both really excited about!  We had heard so many great things about it and we couldn't wait to see it.  I really only knew the premise of the movie, which is basically humans trying to take over another planets resources in order to take those resources back to Earth since the humans had used up all their own natural resources.  We saw it in IMAX 3D which was visually amazing! It had been a long time since I had seen a 3D movie and Luis had never seen one!  It was really cool to see the look on his face when things were flying off the screen at us.  After getting over the initial shock of how realistic the 3D effects were, I was in awe of the graphics and just the incredibly imaginative mind of James Cameron.  


About halfway through the movie (its nearly 3 hours long) I started to get a Dances with Wolves meets Braveheart flashback.  But despite this, it was still so imaginative and like nothing I had ever seen that it didn't matter.  I couldn't help but think how much this movie related to events in Colonial America when the settlers stole land from the Native Americans which such disregard for their homes, traditions and culture.  I felt myself wanting to be part of the Na'vi tribe as I watched.  I wanted to live amongst people who appreciated the things they had, who had respect for everything around them, who acknowledged that everything has a spirit.  I think it's something we often forget.  We kill bugs without even so much as a second thought, we pluck flowers and kill acres and acres of trees with such thoughtlessness for the forest and the animals that inhibit it.  Now, don't get me wrong, I am far from a tree hugger but I do think we should only take what we need.  In Avatar, the Na'vi kill their food with such respect.  They thank them for their death and their contribution to the cycle of life and pray for them to reach their version of heaven.  It was really inspiring.  


Avatar also reminded me a lot about the War on Terror.  These humans (Americans) come to a foreign land to liberate the natives (Middle East) and by doing so, can manipulate them to steal their most valuable resource (Oil) without any regard for their thousands of years of traditions because the humans have this insatiable superiority complex.  Hmmm... James Cameron, you are a smart and sneaky man.  But regardless of what you get from the movie, it was absolutely the best movie I had seen in a very long time.  There were points where I would just get chills thinking about how amazing it was.  It really is a must see... plus you get to wear these super cool shades =)

Friday night in the ER

Soooo, Friday night Luis went to train at a gym in Hemet that he sometimes goes to if he's out there working late and can't make it to Team Quest.  It was a pretty typical day for me.  I worked, went to the gym and was looking forward to my 4 day weekend and absolutely nothing to do.  I'm laying in my bed and I hear a bunch of male voices in my house and my dogs bark, a sure sign that someone out of the ordinary is here.  And then my mom says "Aye, Luis te que paso?"

I ran out of bed and saw Luis holding his back and walking like an 89 year old man.  He told me he pulled something in his back and was in A LOT of pain.  Apparently, they guys at the gym had to pick Luis up and carry him out of the cage and they even drove him home from Hemet!  (I'm bringing them cookies today to thank them).

We were worried that he could have slipped a disk or pinched his sciatica so we decided that it was worth a trip to the ER, especially since he has a fight in 5 weeks.  He could barely move and I had to put his shoes and socks on and put his sweatshirt on for him.  Poor guy couldn't even get in the car without help.  I packed up my usual ER necessities (I'm used to this remember?) like a few magazines (thank goodness I had just gotten my new Glamour), water bottle, cell phone and a warm sweatshirt (the hospital is always freezing!) and we headed to Inland Valley.

We pretty much know the routine there but when we pulled up they were extremely busy and had someone taking vitals (temp, blood pressure, etc) pretty much right in the lobby in front of everyone.  So when this hilarious little Philipino woman who had way to much energy told Luis to take his sweatshirt off so she could take his blood pressure, Luis quietly told her that he didn't have a shirt on underneath it.  For those of you who don't know Luis, he is very self counscuious about his body (which is amazing IMO) but he doesn't like to "show it off" as he puts it.  Well, this woman laughed and maybe even shreaked a little and said very loudly "WHOOHOOO, we get to see those six pack abs now!" OMG poor Luis was mortified! But I was laughing sooo much, as was everyone else in the waiting room.  Luckily for Luis, she pulled out a blood pressure monitor designed to go over clothes =) Here is Luis just waiting....

So after maybe 2 hours of waiting for x-rays to come back, they moved us into this room with about 8 other patients and an amazing nurse named Aaron.  If you ever have to go to Inland Valley, this guy is the best!  He took the time with each patient and really got to know them and he made the additional 3 hours there fly by.  He gave Luis some muscle relaxers and and injection of dilaudid which Aaron referred to as "morphines big brother".  I think Luis was out before Aaron even left the room and he slept for 2 of the 3 hours we were there.

He woke up just in time to hear that his disks and nerves were fine and that he had a severe lumbar strain in his lower back, similar to an injury that occurs from a car accident.  So they sent us home with some prescriptions for muscle relaxers and pain medication, and instructions to do nothing physical for at least a few days. We never even filled the prescriptions because Luis said he was gonna tough it out, and hes at the gym swimming (no impact on the back) as we speak.  When will that boy ever learn???

DIY Wedding

So with my wedding planning underway, it has become very apparent that many parts of my wedding will be DIY.  My family is rich in love but our richness pretty much ends there LOL! But to be honest, even if they did have a ton of money, I really don't want them to spend so much money on things that we can do ourselves.  Being that my wedding is 18 months away, I have plenty of time to do all my DIY projects and I have a bunch of great women to help me.  I was totally inspired by my friend Nancy's wedding invites and she has proven that you can make absolutely beautiful invitations all by yourself, with the help of bridesmaids of course =) So thats my plan!  We are going to make our invitations!

I am also lucky enough to have a very talented Maid of Honor who is a flower arranging genius! This is a bouquet she made just for fun! BEAUTIFUL!

So I am gonna take advantage of her talents and the talents of my wonderful bridesmaids and we are going to make all the flower arrangements, bouquets and centerpieces.  So my plan is to go to the Farmer's Markets and the Flower Districts in Los Angeles in June of this year to see what flowers are in season and what flowers will give us the best bang for our buck!  Then, we can do a test run on all the flower arrangements and  in June of 2011, when we are making them for THE big day, it will be a piece of cake!  I'm thinking we will also have DIY programs for the day of the wedding as well as favors (if we do any at all) and we will decorate the pews of the church too.

While it seems like a lot of work, I am actually really really excited to be so hands on with all the little details!  It will truly be a labor of love and it seems so much more fun than just walking into a flower shop and pointing at things I like.  I also think its gonna make for a very special day and some very special bonding with my greatest friends!

24 weeks

I have 24 weeks of school left! OMG!  I need the strength to get through it! Just 5 more months... I can do this (and stay on the Dean's List *knock on wood*)

It wasn't a fluke!

Yesterday I ran 4 miles again! I beat my best (and only) time of 49 minutes and finished in 46! I am going to try and run 4 miles about 3-4 days a week and hopefully I can get to a 10 minute mile before I attempt to run a 10k in May/June! Oh and this was all after a full body weight workout!  *Pats myself on back*

I CAN RUN!

Holy crap I can run! Not fast, not slow but nevertheless I can run!  Friday at work I started thinking that today would be the day that I would run 4 miles.  Why? Who the hell knows, but I just decided it was gonna happen and that was it!  Have I ever run 4 miles before? Nope! I've never even run 3! But I was actually excited about going to the gym on a Friday night (for some reason, Friday is mentally the hardest for me to get to the gym) and I was ready to push myself once I got there.  I ran at a 1.0 incline (because no road is ever compltely flat) and started out at 5.0 miles per hour.  I was doing really good a little over 2 miles into my run and I couldn't believe that I had never pushed myself beyond my comfort zone.

My endorphines were just rushing through me and I was feeling amazing.  My pace was good but the last half mile I pushed myslef a little harder and increased my speed to 6.5! I saw the treadmill monitor reach 4 miles and I was so unbelievably proud of myself!  I ran it in 49 minutes, so about a 12 minute a mile pace.  I've never run that far before and I always thought I couldnt run.  So now its time to keep pushing myself.  Today I'm gonna try and run it in less than 49 minutes, maybe 46!  And I'm gonna start training for a 10k (6.2 miles) and see how well I do =)

Chocolate Chip Belgium Waffles

I really love to cook, but what I love more is cooking for my loved ones.  We have had a professional Belgium waffle maker in our house for almost 4 years and it was never used!  Last week I decided to pull it out and make breakfast for my family.  My mom and dad work very hard and either one of them (usually my mom) cooks dinner every night so I thought I could make a good breakfast for them on their one day off.  They turned out really good and were a big hit!  So this Sunday, I woke up with a sweet tooth and planned on making breakfast again for the family.  I LOVE chocolate chip pancakes but the one thing I do not like about them is how soggy they get with the whipped cream, so I decide to try waffles instead!  Plus Luis really wanted some too =)  I am not a cook from a recipe type girl at all.  I learned to cook from my grandmother and mother who never use measuring cups or recipes.  They have this ability to be able to just know what the meal they are cooking needs by tasting and smelling it and it is something that I am slowly being able to do. So don't expect a recipe in this blog! lol!

My waffles started out with just a basic batter recipe.  I mixed Bisquick, eggs and milk together until it had a good consistancy, not too thick and not too liquidy.  I wasn't sure if I should add the chocolate chips to the batter or just add them to the waffles after I poured the batter so I just added them on top.  Next time I make them, I might try them in the batter.  If anyone knows which way is best please let me know =)

Here is my beautiful waffle maker!  I really love this thing!

This is some of the ingredients I used... pretty self explanatory =)

I just poured all the batter in.  I tried to do it evenly so the waffles don't have any missing pieces, but not too full so it doesn't overflow out of the waffle maker

Then I just sprinkled a handful of chocolate chips on top of the batter

The finished product!

I topped them with some whipped cream and a couple extra chocolate chips.  I was surprised how yummy they were!  They definitely didn't get soggy the way pancakes do and I think it was because the waffles are crispy on the outside.

Luis gave them them 2 thumbs up!  I'm thinking next time, I'll try them with blueberries and a mixed berry sauce on top!

The Last Injury of 2009

The year wouldn't be complete without some kind of injury from Luis' training.  The other day he came home with a cut on his lip from biting himself while training.  Apparently he was training without his mouthpiece in (he already got scolded for this) and he bit himself.  But it wasn't until he got home that we realized he had bitten entirely through his lip!  The cut on the inside went clear through to the outside and this is what it looked like when he got home.

Its healing pretty good now and no stitches were needed =)

Stitches from the Heart

Its time to give back!  I initially had thought about starting my own non-profit organization but to be honest I had no idea where to start and when I did start researching it, I felt completely overwhelmed.  My Aunt Gaby emailed me regarding a charity organization called Stitches from the Heart.  Based out of Santa Monica, Stitches from the Heart is an organization started by Kathy Silverton.  After hearing about premature babies going home from hospitals with very little, Kathy started knitting booties, blankets and hats to donate to hospitals.
Stitches from the Heart is now celebrating its 4th anniversary and has 12,000+ volunteers and has donated over half a million items to over 1,088 hospitals and charities around the country!  When I read about this amazing charity I knew I had to be a part of it!  Luis was born premature,  weighing just 3 lbs, and his parents were so incredibly poor so this charity definitely hits close to home for me.  I could only imagine how grateful his parents would have been for someone to give them a knitted blanket or hat handmade with love for a perfect stranger.  I cannot wait to start and I am looking forward to making someones first trip home with their baby a happy and warm one!

If anyone is interested in helping you can contact Stitches from the Heart through their website http://www.stitchesfromtheheart.org/.  Even if you don't crochet or knit, you can still contribute some way so I encourage you all to check out the website!

New Years Resolutions

I love New Years!  Its a fresh start and an excuse to get reorganized and rejuvenated about life!  Last year was the first year that I can remember where I actually kept a New Years Resolution (which was to lose 30 lbs).  I have several resolutions for 2010 and I'm hoping to at least keep most of them:

1. Lose the last 20 lbs!

2. Not sweat the small stuff.  I have a tendency to get my feelings hurt about insignificant things and/or the way people treat me.  I'm thinking that I should start letting some of that roll off my back and not let it bother me =)

3. Contribute to Stitches from the Heart (a blog about this is coming!)

4. Make more time for my friends.  I am such a routine kinda person that I get stuck doing the same thing everyday and before I even realize it, it has been months since seeing my friends!

5. I will also gossip less and I will not gossip about people when I hear they are gossiping about me.  It kinda goes back to resolution #2.  If people wanna talk about me thats great!  I'm glad to provide them with some entertainment =) but I will not lower myself to anyone else's level by speaking badly of people.  If I don't have something nice to say, I won't say anything at all!

I'm sure there are many other things that I could work on, but I think the list I have is pretty good.  I'm looking forward to being able to cross all these off my list!

Happy New Year!