O.A.R. at The House of Blues, Anaheim

Sam decided we needed a date night... and he was right!  So last month we bought tickets to last night's O.A.R. concert at The House of Blues in Anaheim.  Sam and I aren't HUGE live music fans... I mean we love a good concert as much as the next guy, but it's not something we do all the time like some of our friends do.  So this was a step a bit outside of our box, especially because we went on a Tuesday night and didn't have any friends accompany us.  It was really just a really wonderful date night without any work stress or wedding planning drama.

It was really good to get out, not worry about work and do something FUN for a change.  The new songs they played from their upcoming album were FABULOUS!  Absolutely fabulous.  I even bought a few of them I liked them so much!  I will try to upload some videos soon too!

Memorial Day Weekend 2013

This was one of the best weekends in a long time.  Sam had the entire holiday weekend off!  We spent all three days together as a family- Sam, Hunter and I.  And lots of friends.  It was perfect.  I am very thankful for all that I have and all those who have given their lives so that I am able to lead the life I live.

At The Olde Ship

Friday I went into work early so that I could get out and to the lab for my last blood draw.  Of course I got a nasty bruise which makes me think that I'm not doing very well following the "reduce bruising techniques" that Kaiser has provided me.  Oh well- the point is that I am back down into the normal range of WBC!

Armed with that news, we spent a quiet night at home on the couch just the three of us.  Both Sam and I were pretty exhausted from long weeks and he hadn't taken a day off in 3 full weeks. 

Saturday morning I woke up with Sam snuggled on my left side and Hunter snuggled on my right side. It was fantastic.  We had a lazy morning and met up with Nate who came down from Santa Monica to spend hang out.  We went up to The Olde Ship to watch some European Soccer and then took Hunter down to Newport Harbor to go paddle boarding for the first time.  It was a blast!  He did pretty damn well and I think we'll do it again.  The sweetest thing was when Hunter leapt off the front of Nate's board and swam to mine.  So cute.  He also jumped from Sam's to mine.  It made me feel so loved.  Eventually the boys got up but I slept until 9:30 and felt more refreshed than I had in days.  

Saturday night we hosted a BBQ for our friends.  Jenners, Aaron, Nick, Amy, Nate, Jen and Ryan came over.  We made salmon, ahi and halibut along with a bunch of grilled veggies and Amy brought appetizers and salad.  It was great.  We went to the hot tub after dinner and relaxed and vegged out.  It was so fun and laid back and one of the greatest evenings I've had in a long time.  No stress, just great people and great food and not a care in the world. 

At The Vortex in Manhattan Beach

Sunday morning we went over to Brugglers Bagels and picked up a dozen bagels for breakfast.  We ate, packed up our stuff and headed up to Santa Monica to check out Nate and Jazzy's place.  After we got settled in, we drove down to Manhattan Beach to meet up with some of Nate's buddies from dental school and participate in a big Memorial Day Block Party BBQ on 35th Street on the block called The Vortex.  

It was quite an experience.  There were tons of dogs around so Hunter was in good company.  He made lots of friends- what a freakin' adorable puppy we have!  So we had a great time eating, playing some games and hanging out.  Eventually, Carrie came and picked Sam and I up and saved our asses by taking us back to Santa Monica where we changed clothes and then picked up some food.  Just about the time we got back to Manhattan Beach, Nate was ready to go back to his place so Sam got us a ride using Uber (which is so freaking awesome).  

Sleeping in a strange place with Hunter is always tough the first night.  So needless to say, we didn't sleep so well last night.  We got up, had some more bagels for breakfast, and took a long walk through the beautiful Santa Monica neighborhoods.  

Then we dropped Nate off at his car in Manhattan Beach and headed home to shower and clean up.  Oh my God, the shower felt so freaking amazing.  We started some laundry and got things situated around the house before we headed over to Nick's place for a little more fun.  Ryan and Jen and Arya were there along with Nick's roommate and his girlfriend.  

5th Street in Santa Monica

Sam and I wanted to go down to Laguna for dinner and Nick and Amy were going to join us, but they backed out at the last minute.  Then, Sam decided he would like to hit up Bandera in Corona del Mar instead of going all the way down to Laguna Beach.  It was really nice.  We had mojitos (which I had been craving) and salad and salmon and their amazing jalapeño corn bread.  

After we got home we continued to do more laundry and decided to watch a Memorial Day movie... Black Hawk Down.  It's amazing how much respect I have for the men and women who fight wars for us.  I am so thankful for the land of the free and the home of the brave.  I am thankful for the people who have given their lives willingly so that I can live in a democratic country and support my family.  I am so lucky.  Part of that may be due to my family and where I was born but it's also due to the fact that we have people are willing protect those "rights".

Wine

Last week felt like it would never end.  I had two work events, and the culmination of a couple of big projects I had been working on since the start of the year.  Needless to say, I was so thankful when the weekend arrived.

This week has been completely different.  It's like I have jetlag from all the energy I had to exert last week.  I have no motivation and all I want to do is lose myself in mindless forms of entertainment- TV, internet, reading other people's blogs, drinking wine every night with dinner (one glass), and playing Roller Coaster Tycoon (please don't judge me too harshly).  

I have not wanted to blog myself at all.  Why not?  Because I am trying to ESCAPE my life of course!

It's all I can do to handle myself and Hunter (let alone Sam, who thankfully has been on call a lot) let alone relive the stress and drama.  Part of my problem is that little Hunter hasn't been sleeping through the night very well over the last two weeks- probably my fault because our walks have not been as regular or long as they should have been.

I did find time to make the ortho department cupcakes on Sunday.  I drove up to the hospital and met with Sam for dinner, leaving the cupcakes with his very sweet nurses.  For our on-call date night, Sam took me to the fish place in the mall across from the hospital and it was fabulous.  It was also expensive, but seriously it was scrumptious.  I had butterflied panko crusted shrimp and cajun halibut.  Mmmmm.

I am also a little overwhelmed by the travel coming up- Jackie's got her bridal shower, her bachelorette and her wedding two weeks apart for the next six weeks.  OMG.  I am so excited but simultaneously so exhausted.  I may end up having to take a day off after the wedding is over to relax and recuperate.  Plus, Sam will be off the week after the wedding so it would be good for us to relax and spend some time without so much distraction.

In between the wedding and the bachelorette party (which I get to throw- OMG I am so excited!) we get to see Sam's family for his Great-Aunt's 80th Birthday Party.  We have lots of family coming into town, and Sam's folks generously offered to get us a hotel up in Palos Verdes to hang out with the family.  I wasn't in love with the idea of staying up there on the weekend before the wedding, but I was looking forward to getting to see Sue and Rich and all the cousins (who I hope are coming down.)

Anyway, Sam's parents are going to stay in Irvine now, which is super thoughtful of them and I'm even more excited about seeing them now that I don't have to stress about the dog and getting my shit together before the wedding.  I am so excited about wedding season though, Jackie kicks it off and then we have Monique's and Dan and Tina's.

I'm also really excited about our 10-year class reunion, which I am co-chairing, in June.  And Papa's big 80th birthday party in July.  So many wonderful things happening in the next couple of months!!!

Playing For Keeps

Yesterday Sam and I spent most of the day cleaning the house: Spring Cleaning 2013 is completed.  I finished the vacuuming and cleaned the kitchen on Friday night, and when Sam got home he took care of the dusting while I organized the stuff on the table.  Unfortunately Sam and Hunter decided to take a nap right about the time I took on the bathroom, but that is pretty standard.  At least I didn't have a complete cleaning breakdown like I did a few months ago.  That was NOT pretty.

We celebrated with a trip down to San Diego and hit up the Stone Brewing Co for dinner since Sam was feeling up to the trip.  I tried to be as good as possible RE: the cleanse, but it was not easy!  Somehow I feel like the next couple of weeks are going to be tough... might be a good time to start surrounding myself with my health-conscious friends.

I spent today running errands- mailing the Fictitious Business Name documents to the Contra Costa Clerk, exchanging the propane for our BBQ, planning the first 7 days of meals for Making the Cut and grocery shopping to pick up all the ingredients.  It all starts tomorrow.  Oh boy.

The good news?  All the meals look really good.

The bad news?  It is going to be a lot of work.

So how am I spending my last night before the epic weight loss boot camp begins?  I am on the couch, blogging, updating my LinkedIn profile (I have neglected it horribly since starting my job), snuggling with Hunter and watching Playing For Keeps.

Gerrard Butler plays the main character, George, a former pro-soccer player who gets wrangled into coaching his son's team.  I can't lie, it's pretty cute.  I mean, there's a whole romantic storyline that's going on, but I just love how great George is as coach and mentor to the kids on the team.  And honestly, I can't help wondering what kind of coach Sam would be... will be.

Soccer is really not my sport.  So it's not likely that I can pick up the coaching slack there.  And frankly, I don't know how great I would be at baseball either.  But as I get older it really makes me appreciate how special it was to have my Dad so involved with all my little league stuff.  I mean he coached me from T-ball to 8th grade in softball and came to almost all my games when I played in high school.  Then, after softball was over, he did such a great job following water polo- even though it was a whole new thing for him.  I mean he didn't miss a single game my senior season, and his friends even came to watch me a couple of times too.  I really hope that I can give my kids that kind of support and those experiences some day.

10 Years Together

Today Sam and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary.

I guessed that Sam would be exhausted since he was on call over-night on Friday and Sunday.  I was prepared to make us dinner and relax on the couch together, but Sam completely surprised me!

He texted me that we should go out to dinner rather than me cook.  Then he walked in the door with flowers from my favorite florist- 30 minutes out of his way home!  Wow.  Aren't they beautiful!?!


We decided to go to 'our place' The Cannery.  We had drinks, we ate dinner and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.  It was like old times, before second year of residency, back when Sam had energy and spark!

He drove me to dinner and told the whole while how great he thinks I am and how much he appreciates that he gives 110% at work (where he gets so little appreciation) and then can only give 20% at home and yet I am so supportive and understanding.  I cannot even tell you how nice it was to hear him appreciate me!  And to his credit, his 20% estimation is probably a little too harsh.  I so appreciate being appreciated!  Sam is such a sweetheart and nights like this one make being a ortho widow so worth it!

What a great way to start off our vacation to Tahoe- although it doesn't technically start until next week and Sam is fighting off a cold!  What the heck, at least we have each other, a cold and a long rest of the week until our trip are nothing compared to that.  :-)

Veteran's Day

Today, Sam's schedule was really light at the hospital so he asked me to come up and go to lunch with him.  We took a short drive to Downtown Orange and split the shrimp tacos at Gabbi's.  So yummy!  Then we walked around and enjoyed the brisk fall weather.  We ended up in an antique shop looking at beautifully carved china cabinets, wardrobes, and liquor cabinets.  It was all so beautiful.

Then we went back to the hospital and Sam took me up to the Ortho department where I got to meet his day-shift nurses, who were all really sweet, and see his workroom (where we often FaceTime when he's on call).  Finally, we went up to the 7th floor and looked out on the landscape.  It was actually really neat, and a little surreal that I saw where Sam works.  The nurses totally call him Dr. Galle (which is so funny to me because they are so serious about it) and they told me that he's always very nice and does whatever he can to make their jobs easier.  I told them that if he gets out of line they just need to let me know.  :-)  Hopefully they will get to share the pumpkin muffins I brought along and left in the work room. 

 Then, in honor of Veteran's Day, I watched the HBO Documentaries "Alive Day Memories" about the day that 10 soldiers got a second chance at life when they should have died, and "Section 60" about the area in Arlington National Cemetery where they bury the soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Both were incredibly touching and make me so proud of our troops.  Whether I believe in the wars the US has fought or not, I have the highest respect for the men and women who fight for our freedoms so that I can live in the 'land of the free & the home of the brave.'

Here are some quotes I found that resonated with me today:

"Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die." -G.K. Chesterton

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." -John Fitzgerald Kennedy

"Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul." -Michel de Montaigne

"In war, there are no unwounded soldiers." -Jose Narosky