Occupy Wallstreet

Today I thought I'd go see in person what all the hubbub was about in the news with the Occupy Wall Street protests. The general sentiment of the nation on these protests I think is best summed up by this picture circulating on facebook:

I can't say I agreed with everything the people were protesting- but I do feel strongly we need further government oversight of our financial sector. Rachel Maddow had a great perspective in her October 13th show. Right now, Obama is trying to get a "Jobs" bill through that would create jobs by putting people to work on our decaying infrastructure. However, what are Republicans working on? Federally they spent the day putting a THRID ban on abortion funding. It's already stopped, twice in fact. But they spent today putting a third ban in place, yes, the entire day. At the state level? Well Wisconsin has made it more difficult if not impossible for the next election cycle. In the words of the poll workers who did a test run "It's very, very confusing". At the local level? Well in Florida, Republicans have pushed through a change with the drinking water so that Fluoride will no longer be added to their water supply. Because as we all know instead of reducing tooth decay by an estimated 40%, Fluoride actually is a form of government sponsored mind control... oh please!

At a time when our nation needs to be focused on the economy and the President is encouraging this, these are the things Republicans are working on. I was very glad to be in attendance and stand in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement in San Francisco.

iPhone 4S

Today I went into work as usual... and promptly went home! My new iPhone 4S was on it's way to my house and I couldn't stand the thought of missing it! I actually was rather productive in the morning, but as the day wore on I was more and more anxious that perhaps it was delayed or shipped to the wrong address. UPS made me wait until 5:15PM before they delivered it. Well, it's here now and I'm THRILLED!

White, 64GB, 8 mega pixel camera, 1080p HD, iOS5, Siri (voice command and recognition software), Dual Core A5 processors, iCloud, iMessage, Notification Center and tons of new features. Yes, I'm in geeky iPhone heaven. ^_^

Sonoma County Harvest Festival

This weekend was the Sonoma County Harvest Festival at the fairgrounds in Santa Rosa. Pictured above is Emily, Michelle, Peter, me and Emma. Michelle drove us up so the rest of us could enjoy the wines! There were so many things to do! There were booths with fresh honey, wine sauces for desert, cooking, everything you could think of. I ended up buying two desert wine sauces and a chipotle barbecue sauce.

We all had a great time sampling the different wines available to us; especially the booth that Emily knew the hostess! They just kept pouring and pouring and pouring... we all REALLY enjoyed that booth! ^_^

After the Harvest Festival in Santa Rosa, Emily and me went to the Sonoma State University Harvest Festival put on by Prelude at the Green Music Center. There was a nice spread of appetizers to enjoy and we each got our own collectible Lagunitas mug complete with Lagunitas beer.
It was a nice event and fun way to ring in the Harvest season!

Folsom Street Fair

This weekend I drove down to San Francisco with Melissa and Bianca for the annual Folsom Street Fair. We met up with my friend Brandon and then ventured out into the city. We were lucky enough to get amazing parking at the Costco nearby (that membership card came in handy!).

We walked around the crowd, checked out the booths and as usual with the FSF kept to ourselves! It's always a crazy, crazy event. Definitely "more out there" than San Francisco Pride. But it's always been fun to go and see the sights and people of the city. It was a lot of fun with my friends Brandon, Melissa & Bianca; Thanks!

Sonoma Serves

This weekend was the annual Sonoma State Serves event where Students, Staff, Faculty and Administrators volunteer their time to give back to the local community. I was assigned to the Honey Bee Pool crew. I was excited for this group because the Honey Bee Pool is only a few blocks from my house; so I'd be helping give back to my neighborhood. When we arrived the local program coordinator showed us all the brush, trees and bushes that needed to be trimmed back and hauled away. It looked like a massive job. I was surprised that with twenty students working away it only took us a few hours to clear most of the underbrush. By the time we headed out there was a new picnic area for the pool patrons and the shrubbery was trimmed up looking very nice. It was a great way to give back and also work with the Students of Sonoma State!

Seafood Boil

This weekend I flew up to Boise for Matt & Jim's bi-annual Seafood Boil. The weekend started out great with a ride from the airport from Jami and then meeting up with Denise, Regan, Michelle and Ashley for lunch at PF Chang's. Then my Dad picked me up and I relaxed at home for a bit with Mom and Dad before meeting up with Chelsie, Andrej, Aida and Kam at Old Chicago. Then we went out dancing and had a great time.

Saturday morning came early with a 7am jog from Boise State University up the greenbelt to the Parkcenter overpass and back. It ended up being ten miles and it was a great jog to get in over the weekend. Then I went to my house and spent a few hours deep cleaning the kitchen. Still more to be done, but at least the fridge is sparkling clean!

That afternoon I picked up Gess and we went to Matt & Jim's house for the Seafood Boil. There were several familiar faces and friends as well as some new people. They served up three tables; one mild, one medium and one hot! Of course I was at the hot table enjoying the shrimp, scallops, asparagus, potatoes and sausage. It was very good- it always is!


Later that night Kam, Gess and I went to the Balcony. Chuck and Skyler met up with us there and we had a good night.

Sunday I spent the afternoon as usual with my family; playing cards and cooking food. Another nice weekend with my friends and family in Boise.

MARATHON 26.2 Miles

Finally, after several years of jogging and training for long distance running I was able to run my first Marathon! I had been training with Trisha and Irene last year to jog the Santa Rosa Marathon, but in the month prior I got severely painful shin splints and had to stop jogging for almost six months. In anticipation of the event Amanda and Trisha got me a gift certificate to iTunes which I'd never used before to actually buy music. It was perfect- I was up late the night before the marathon downloading all my "must have" favorite songs. My playlist was ready to go for my jog!

Chuck was actually here earlier in the week, but he and Emily had to head to central California for her sister's wedding. My Dad drove down Friday from Boise, straight through! It was definitely too much driving for one day, but he did it. Dad stayed the night in the spare room and the next day Mom flew in from Salt Lake to the Oakland airport where I picked her up.

Sunday morning came quick. I grabbed all my gear, made sure my iPhone was charged up and headed to Santa Rosa for the marathon. I was pretty anxious and nervous. I started out jogging with Jeff, but he was going about a 9 minute 30 second pace per mile and that was about a minute faster than I wanted to go. So I slowed up and jogged my own pace. About mile 3 I came across my friend Irene who was doing the half marathon. It was perfect- she was doing a slower reasonable pace so we jogged together until about mile 9. It was really nice having a jogging friend to keep me on track. After mile 9, it was just me and "Sheila" the name I gave my iPhone's "Runkeeper" voice that tells me audibly my distance and pace every mile. I was worried for Sheila, I wasn't sure her battery would survive a full marathon!

The end of the race was awesome. As I rounded out mile 25 I saw my Dad up on the overpass and my Mom was down on the path with camera ready. As I approached they cheered me on and gave me encouragement for the last mile. Then I looped back towards the last bit only to see my Mom running ahead trying to beat me to the finish line so she could get a picture, I yelled over at her "Good Luck!". As I came through the finish line area on my left was Amanda, Trisha, Maureen, Jeff and Trisha's boys Lance and Dominick yelling for me. Immediately after on my right was Jaime with her boys Cooper and Chace also cheering me on and prepared with refreshments for me, too! It was such an awesome experience; I can't thank all my friends and family enough for showing me such support! Amanda had a goody bag with a head lamp (because I've been jogging at times where there isn't light and I needed one!), new jogging shorts a congratulatory card and some gel packs for jogging. Way cool!


Jogging for over four hours gives you time to think. And one of the things I thought about a lot of this jog was the quote I posted to facebook from after the jog. "For me, in life as in jogging, it's not about the distance, the speed, or even if you finish the race, it's about the people you spend it with." While I'm thrilled that I'm now a "Marathoner" and I ran it in just under ten minute miles on average, and I finished the race in four hours twenty three minutes, the best part of it all was when I was jogging with my friend Irene.

I'm so lucky to be able to do so many different activities, whether it's traveling, jogging, video games, motorcycle riding, whatever it is I'm doing - for me it's all about the people I spend my time with.