10-Year High School Reunion

Tomorrow Sam and I on our way to the airport and flying up to NorCal for our 10-year high school reunion.  We're making a vacation weekend out of the whole trip and will be staying at my grandparents' time share in San Francisco for the weekend.  

I was supposed to be "helping out" with the planning after one of the two girls who planned our 5-year couldn't reprise her role.  The remaining girl said she couldn't do this alone and so I offered to assist her.  

Then said girl got pregnant- congrats to she and her hubby and their young son on the new addition!  So she asked me if I would please step up and be the lead planner in case, like with her first pregnancy, she delivered a few weeks earlier than her due date.  

Anyway, it turns out that planning a reunion is not so hard in that Facebook is amazing and the other two girls had already created a group for our classmates.  On the other hand, prepping for a huge event like this does take time and energy.  I definitely am going to have a sign-up sheet at the registration table for people to volunteer to help out with our next one.

What did I do?  I filed for an EIN number so that, at some point, I could easily pass the accounting on to another group of people.  I still need to file a "Fictitious Business Name" with my home county and then run it in a newspaper for a couple of weeks.  But I will worry about that after this weekend is over.

Right now I am focused on throwing a fun party for about 90 people at a Mexican place in San Francisco where we're hosting a taco bar with the funds we raised through ticket sales and also making a cash bar available to patrons.  It will (hopefully) be really, really fun.  

I can't wait to catch up with some of the classmates I haven't seen since I moved down to SoCal after college.  I am even more excited to see the friends I haven't seen in the last 18 months.  I just hope I'm not so exhausted (mental and emotionally) from the stress of planning that I crash and burn with a cold when it's all over. 

And while I am potentially excited to do this again, I am not sure if we really need 5-year intervals for our reunions... I am going to poll the class next week and see if people a) liked the reunion and b) how often they would like to do them again.  Truthfully, this was actually Liz's idea.  She is going to help me planning the next one, so it's a bit of a passing of the torch situation.  

Wedding Season 2013

Wedding Season 2013 kicks off this weekend with the Kishmirian-Airoso nuptials.  I am flying up to Oakland tomorrow morning and will get to see Nonna and Papa on the way home from the airport to pick up the MDX to take up to Sacramento for the weekend.

Thursday night will be the rehearsal dinner and I'm so excited to see all my college girlfriends and the ladies from the bachelorette party again.  I think after dinner we're going to head into downtown Sac to do a little celebrating.  Lena, Heidi and I are sharing a hotel room that night so it will be quite the college sleepover!

Friday we'll be spending the day decorating Joe's parents' house and making our bouquets.  I think Jackie has appointments set up for us to have our nails done that evening as well.  She wants to do a bit of a girl's night out (GNO) at the hotel on her last night as Ms. Kishmirian so I think we'll all head back to relax after the mani-pedi experience.  Who knows, we might all need to get to bed earlier than expected after all our setting up!

Thanks to 2nd Year of Residency, Sam flies in late Friday night (he arrives in Sacramento at 11:40 PM) and my guess is I may need to skip some of the festivities that evening so I can take a nap before picking him up.  Hopefully he'll nap on the plane so he is a little bit rested before the big day arrives.

Saturday morning will be interesting.  I think we're going to head over to Joe's parents house around 9:30 or 10 so we can finish setting the tables and putting out the center pieces.  I'm a little nervous about getting all of that done the day of the wedding but that's why Jackie's the bride and not me!  She's so cool, calm and collected about the whole thing!

Anyway, the wedding will be Saturday evening after our hair and makeup team concludes the beautification process.  I was able to see Jackie's dress when I was in town for the bachelorette party and it's absolutely stunning.  She is going to be freaking gorgeous- although that would have been true regardless of the dress she had chosen!

In any case, here is the beginning of the 2013 Wedding Season!

Here we go...

So I'm sitting at the John Wayne Airport in Orange County, waiting for my flight to Oakland to board.  It would seem my Super Bowl 47 NOLA weekend is underway!  I am here over an hour early, per usual, because that's how I roll.  Gotta love flight-induced anxiety... I am always worried I will miss my plane!

I worked from home this afternoon so I could soak up every last minute with Hunter Puppy before I left tonight.  We cuddled, he napped, we took a couple walks.  He was so bummed when my suitcase came out last night, and today he tried to lay in it while I was packing.  It was like he wanted to come too.

I said goodbye to Hunter about 45 minutes ago, and left him in his crate, which is when the guilt set in.  Our new pet sitter (recommended by dear friends who love their pets as much as we love Hunter) should be arriving in about an hour give or take to spend the night with him.

I am so worried he will be restless and up all night because everything is so unfamiliar.  I am worried he will bark or scratch at the door and keep her up.  I am probably over-thinking everything because she as assured me several times after meeting Hunter that while I may be convinced I own a little terror, he is really a sweetheart.  And she's really good about texting and checking in and letting me know how he is doing so that I don't have to suffer through 'not knowing'.

But it's Sam's Golden Weekend.  I feel like I should be spending my time with the boys and not going off on this amazing trip.  It feels horrible to leave them behind!

Hopefully once I land in Oakland and get some food I will feel better.  Good God I am so hungry!  I told Dad I would like to grab dinner with he and Mom since I am flying during the dinner hour, but that might have been a mistake.  Or I should have at least had some kind of snack before I left.  But again, I was maximizing my time with my puppy.

Mom and Dad are really jazzed, and I am sure I will feed off their energy.  Dad keeps telling us that this is "going to be an adventure" and we're going to have to roll with the punches because it's unlikely we'll have an uneventful experience.  But that is exactly what this will be, an experience.

Papa called me a two nights ago to ask if I was excited yet and I told him it still hadn't sunken in.  He promised me that this will be something I remember for the rest of my life- my first Super Bowl.  Just like my Dad and Uncle Mark had their first Super Bowl experience with Papa.

Tomorrow our charted Southwest plane takes off from Oakland at 9 AM and we land in NOLA around noon PST.  I can't even imagine how that is going to be- a 4 hour flight with a bunch of Super Bowl 47 bound 49er faithful on the quest for six and to extend our title as team with the longest winning streak at the Super Bowl.  It could be the beginning of a very alcoholic weekend.  I wish Carina were coming with us, but she flies in from Denver on Saturday because she has class tomorrow she can't skip.

I will leave you with the packing advice Dad gave me last night: #1 Bring every piece of 49er gear you own.  #2 Pack lots of hangover remedies.  Check, and check, Dad.  I am as ready as I will ever be.  And I am vaguely aware that this is going to be something unlike anything I have seen before.  Something I cannot even imagine (which is saying a lot for me).  And like all great adventures seem to start out on page one:

So it begins...