Today is my second anniversary of my first date with Jeff. Two years ago today we went to dinner at the Oasis Cafe and had the best first date ever known to man. Everything went right on that date. Our conversation was immediate and never waned, he was a perfect gentlemen and very refreshing to talk to. We stayed so late talking at the restaurant that were asked to leave as they were closing. A good sign that I noted as we headed to a coffee shop to continue talking. We ended the night with a hug and have continued our relationship from there.
Last year on this day we had confirmation from my doctor that I was pregnant. That came as a bit of a shock. We were engaged last May and had talked about having kids but not in the near future. Both of us were a little freaked out and that dinner at the same restaurant didn't go as well as the first one. Needless to say that Zari is the most amazing gift to us.
As I was out walking Lola this morning in the bitter cold I was pondering my gratitude for Jeff. Jeff is the kindest most generous man that I know. Jeff is full of compassion for all people and is very giving of his time and energy. I am constantly amazed and inspired with the brilliance of Jeff's mind -- he is a marketing genius and by far one of the smartest people that I know. Jeff is an incredible father. He is very engaged with his sons and has been a delight to watch with Zari. I am thrilled that my daughter has Jeff as a father; a father who adores her and thinks about her with every decision he makes. Jeff is a family man. I know that Jeff puts me and the kids first. He is a wonderful partner, a gifted lover, and my best friend.
I look at my daughter's shining face this morning and I can see her father. I can't imagine going through this experience called life with anyone else. I'm in for the long haul here. I cowboyed up quite a while ago.
Tonight we will go back to that same cafe and recreate a little of the magic that flowed so abundantly two years ago. Zari's going to be at Grandma's so maybe a little of that magic can carry over when we get home too. (wink wink)
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Eyebrows... the key to the face.
I awoke this morning a bit peeved. This is not usual for me as I am quite a morning person and usually look forward to the possibility that each day brings. Not today. I rolled out of bed early to head to pilates and when I reached the bathroom I was rudely reminded of my loss. Yesterday, sadly and to my complete dismay, I was butchered.
Let me explain. You see yesterday afternoon I went to my monthly wax appointment to get a little trimming done on the face. Yes, I said face. I am now openly owning up to the fact that I wax my eyebrows and lip. If you've ever seen my Hawaiian father, and the abundance of hair that covers his body, than you understand. I've kept up this practice since early junior high years, yes a little while now. I personally hold great value in perfectly shaped brows. I feel they are the key to the face and can really make or break your expression. They show surprise, disbelief, or mild disapproval in a way that no other facial feature can quite capture.
The woman whom I would normally call a waxing goddess completely slaughtered my brows yesterday. For some reason only known to she and Buddha, she took a step back into the year 2000 and gave me an anorexic brow! Argh!!!! I absolutely hate this look. And the hardest part? My eyebrows are not of the extremely furry vintage. Oh no, they are sparse and take FOREVER to grow.
Eyebrows are very important. I recall a fond memory of my dear sweet Grandma when she had just recently had her eyebrows tattooed. Now while I am not interested in this permanent procedure because of the ink -- again my Hawaiian Father: my hair is DARK, all of my hair is DARK. I've seen girls with dark brows get them tattooed only for the ink to fade into a lovely lavender color. But my Grandmother doesn't have the same dark hair that I do and over the years her tattooed brows have proven to be a pretty good investment. One specific afternoon while she was still in the healing process (this means that she had to goop them up and they were quite bold) we caught her watching Fear Factor with my brother. She then inquired about a certain item the contestants were ingesting, and with her goopy angry brows the emphasis came at quite a shock. "Buffalo testicles?" Needless to say that this statement still illicits a laugh.
Now Jeff, lucky guy, has the opposite problem. My how his brows groweth! In fact I found one aforementioned brow hair that had decided to hook up with one of his ear hairs. (they groweth abundantly too.) I'm not kidding you this one hair was about two inches long. Lucky guy. He could change the shape every couple of weeks. A browhawk one week, anorexic brows the next.
I guess this experience is to teach me humility. Or to find a new wax goddess. Maybe both...
Let me explain. You see yesterday afternoon I went to my monthly wax appointment to get a little trimming done on the face. Yes, I said face. I am now openly owning up to the fact that I wax my eyebrows and lip. If you've ever seen my Hawaiian father, and the abundance of hair that covers his body, than you understand. I've kept up this practice since early junior high years, yes a little while now. I personally hold great value in perfectly shaped brows. I feel they are the key to the face and can really make or break your expression. They show surprise, disbelief, or mild disapproval in a way that no other facial feature can quite capture.
The woman whom I would normally call a waxing goddess completely slaughtered my brows yesterday. For some reason only known to she and Buddha, she took a step back into the year 2000 and gave me an anorexic brow! Argh!!!! I absolutely hate this look. And the hardest part? My eyebrows are not of the extremely furry vintage. Oh no, they are sparse and take FOREVER to grow.
Eyebrows are very important. I recall a fond memory of my dear sweet Grandma when she had just recently had her eyebrows tattooed. Now while I am not interested in this permanent procedure because of the ink -- again my Hawaiian Father: my hair is DARK, all of my hair is DARK. I've seen girls with dark brows get them tattooed only for the ink to fade into a lovely lavender color. But my Grandmother doesn't have the same dark hair that I do and over the years her tattooed brows have proven to be a pretty good investment. One specific afternoon while she was still in the healing process (this means that she had to goop them up and they were quite bold) we caught her watching Fear Factor with my brother. She then inquired about a certain item the contestants were ingesting, and with her goopy angry brows the emphasis came at quite a shock. "Buffalo testicles?" Needless to say that this statement still illicits a laugh.
Now Jeff, lucky guy, has the opposite problem. My how his brows groweth! In fact I found one aforementioned brow hair that had decided to hook up with one of his ear hairs. (they groweth abundantly too.) I'm not kidding you this one hair was about two inches long. Lucky guy. He could change the shape every couple of weeks. A browhawk one week, anorexic brows the next.
I guess this experience is to teach me humility. Or to find a new wax goddess. Maybe both...
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Religulous, Chocolatier Blue, and other indulgences...
Jeff and I saw Bill Maher's Religulous last night at the Broadway Theater. This is a great little artsy theater that shows my kind of film -- independent, foreign, political. I enjoy Bill Maher and Religulous was exactly what I would expect of he and Larry Charles (the producer of Borat.) A very in-your-face, button pushing, right/wrong expo about religion. I personally agree with Bill in his train of thought with the "I don't know" question/answer about God, Jesus, etc. but I do not agree with his method of interviewing. He likes to belittle and make fun of everyone's view who differs from his. The film was entertaining as it berated a good handful of organized religions from all over the world, including the Cannabis Ministry in Amsterdam, but that's all I saw it was.
As I stated in a previous post I don't feel that peace will ever be achieved through right/wrong games. While it is entertaining, and it is very entertaining with the comic splicing and background music, I don't see it as anything more. Bill attempts, very poorly in my opinion, to make a political statement at the end that in order to save mankind we must eliminate religion. I don't entirely agree with this. I think that religion has helped a good many people. I think that hope is a wonderful thing that is often a gift of religion. I do agree that we could stop fighting for religion and by that I mean proving that a certain ideology is "right" through war. Just as the bible so beautifully articulates, violence begets violence.
This film got me to thinking, well actually it furthered a train of thought that I've already had for the past little while. Probably since I had Zari this July. I don't want my daughter raised in any religion. I want to give her the gift of love, whole-picture thinking, and openness. She gets to determine her path and it is my honor and responsibility to create an environment where she can do just that -- discover.
I really struggle with the right/wrong thinking that accompanies most religions. I like to think that good people exist in most religions and that people are people regardless of where they come from or how easily they tan in the sun.
Enough religion for this morning, I haven't even had my chai yet what am I thinking raising such a hot topic without being properly caffeinated??? Let's talk about chocolate, and by chocolate I mean none other than Chocolatier Blue. All other chocolates are dead to me, I only have eyes for you Chocolatier Blue!
Don't feel bad if you don't know what I'm talking about. I only recently discovered the world of Chocolatier Blue. I took a chocolate tasting class at Caputos with a friend, which I highly recommend to anyone who even remotely likes chocolate. I learned about the different cacao beans and the process of making chocolate. At the end of class we were introduced to the best chocolate that I've ever experienced in my life. And note that I am not a novice. The passionfruit caramel truffle is a truly sensual experience.
As for other indulgences I'm thinking of ideas for Jeff for our anniversary which is this Thursday. October 23rd marks the 2nd anniversary of our first date. Tada! And baby makes three... what a crazy two years it's been.
As I stated in a previous post I don't feel that peace will ever be achieved through right/wrong games. While it is entertaining, and it is very entertaining with the comic splicing and background music, I don't see it as anything more. Bill attempts, very poorly in my opinion, to make a political statement at the end that in order to save mankind we must eliminate religion. I don't entirely agree with this. I think that religion has helped a good many people. I think that hope is a wonderful thing that is often a gift of religion. I do agree that we could stop fighting for religion and by that I mean proving that a certain ideology is "right" through war. Just as the bible so beautifully articulates, violence begets violence.
This film got me to thinking, well actually it furthered a train of thought that I've already had for the past little while. Probably since I had Zari this July. I don't want my daughter raised in any religion. I want to give her the gift of love, whole-picture thinking, and openness. She gets to determine her path and it is my honor and responsibility to create an environment where she can do just that -- discover.
I really struggle with the right/wrong thinking that accompanies most religions. I like to think that good people exist in most religions and that people are people regardless of where they come from or how easily they tan in the sun.
Enough religion for this morning, I haven't even had my chai yet what am I thinking raising such a hot topic without being properly caffeinated??? Let's talk about chocolate, and by chocolate I mean none other than Chocolatier Blue. All other chocolates are dead to me, I only have eyes for you Chocolatier Blue!
Don't feel bad if you don't know what I'm talking about. I only recently discovered the world of Chocolatier Blue. I took a chocolate tasting class at Caputos with a friend, which I highly recommend to anyone who even remotely likes chocolate. I learned about the different cacao beans and the process of making chocolate. At the end of class we were introduced to the best chocolate that I've ever experienced in my life. And note that I am not a novice. The passionfruit caramel truffle is a truly sensual experience.
As for other indulgences I'm thinking of ideas for Jeff for our anniversary which is this Thursday. October 23rd marks the 2nd anniversary of our first date. Tada! And baby makes three... what a crazy two years it's been.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Do I have to listen because we're related?
I am inundated with emails from various family members. Said emails are often spam, or worse, containing political/religious messages. My least favorite being the "world-is-going-to-end" variety that has been spurred by our financial crisis. I recognize freedom of speech, in fact I will fight to the death for the right for you to say what you want to say when you want to say it. However, do I have to listen to your opinions just because I'm on a family list? Would it be uncooth and downright barbaric to send a reply with the subject "unsubscribe?"
With that said I need to state that I love a good debate. I also love learning varying points of view. For the record my viewpoints are often the varying viewpoint -- varying from what is the majority thought for my family. I think this differs from an unsolicited email chalk full of blabber. I wonder... are you trying to pass along some cyber salvation? Are you honestly concerned for my soul, or wait a minute, is it possible that you just like to be "right" and want everyone to know exactly how "right" you are? To that I say get a blog! Ha!
Should we send our deepest darkest thoughts to everyone in our address book just because we can? I just don't feel right about sending sweet Auntie Kay religious or political banter. Maybe I'm a very private person, maybe I'm a reclusive cyber freak. I'm open that this issue is with me and not the sender. However this is my blog and therefore I may carry on as I please.
In my experience, I've never won an argument by proving someone else wrong. I find this to be especially true in things that people are invested in; i.e. religious beliefs, behavior, politics, etc. Oh come on, this is true with everything. But don't take my word for it, that would just make me "right" and that's not what I'm about here. :) A great book illustrating this point is The Anatomy of Peace by the Arbringer Institute.
I'd love some thoughts here...
With that said I need to state that I love a good debate. I also love learning varying points of view. For the record my viewpoints are often the varying viewpoint -- varying from what is the majority thought for my family. I think this differs from an unsolicited email chalk full of blabber. I wonder... are you trying to pass along some cyber salvation? Are you honestly concerned for my soul, or wait a minute, is it possible that you just like to be "right" and want everyone to know exactly how "right" you are? To that I say get a blog! Ha!
Should we send our deepest darkest thoughts to everyone in our address book just because we can? I just don't feel right about sending sweet Auntie Kay religious or political banter. Maybe I'm a very private person, maybe I'm a reclusive cyber freak. I'm open that this issue is with me and not the sender. However this is my blog and therefore I may carry on as I please.
In my experience, I've never won an argument by proving someone else wrong. I find this to be especially true in things that people are invested in; i.e. religious beliefs, behavior, politics, etc. Oh come on, this is true with everything. But don't take my word for it, that would just make me "right" and that's not what I'm about here. :) A great book illustrating this point is The Anatomy of Peace by the Arbringer Institute.
I'd love some thoughts here...
Intro
I'm nursing Zari and finally remembered to get this thing up. It's not that I haven't known how to post a blog, or haven't had anything to say for that matter. It's just that this has been one more thing on my never ending to-do list with a low priority. You see, I never wanted to create one of those blogs where you see glossy pics of what I had for dinner last night. I think nothing is more mundane than boring the cyber world with daily info that no one really cares the least bit about.
I've had many thoughts of late: politics, world economies, religion, family stuff. I'm not writing this to entertain anyone else, but merely to have a voice. I will probably offend everyone, although that is not my intent. Now a little background:
Jeff and I are liberal democrats in a state of cookie cutter republicans. Actually Jeff is more of a republicrat, he's a banker which explains A LOT, but he is voting Obama. We are not religious, in fact I think that we've become more and more agnostic as life unfolds. We are also not conventional. Enough said.
We have interesting family backgrounds, but then again doesn't everyone in their perspective? Jeff has two boys, Cam and Ben, and we just had our first child Zari this July. Zari is a brilliant baby, of course, and quite possibly the most beautiful child ever conceived. :)
I've had many thoughts of late: politics, world economies, religion, family stuff. I'm not writing this to entertain anyone else, but merely to have a voice. I will probably offend everyone, although that is not my intent. Now a little background:
Jeff and I are liberal democrats in a state of cookie cutter republicans. Actually Jeff is more of a republicrat, he's a banker which explains A LOT, but he is voting Obama. We are not religious, in fact I think that we've become more and more agnostic as life unfolds. We are also not conventional. Enough said.
We have interesting family backgrounds, but then again doesn't everyone in their perspective? Jeff has two boys, Cam and Ben, and we just had our first child Zari this July. Zari is a brilliant baby, of course, and quite possibly the most beautiful child ever conceived. :)
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