Prez Day weekend was busy but good– we dogsat my friends’ rambunctious corgi and then I kinda overdid the exercising with walking, riding, and hot yoga. I started getting mild shin splints and knee sensitivity, so now I’ve cut back to 12k steps/day instead of 13k. Still leading the pack. Hee, hee. 😉

We also finished Entourage finally– goddamn, Sloan has got to be one of the hottest women on earth!! It’s just not right. Aside from that, the series finale was lame. They should have called it quits two seasons prior. Oh well, thank goodness I still have Nashville, with Deacon who’s landing a spot on my Freebie Five.

What else. Oh shit. On Monday, my beloved Remy nearly choked to death. Fucking A. She ate some food too fast and started choking. Holy shit. I was in the kitchen. I put down their food bowls then a minute later, she stumbled, lost her balance, and toppled over on her side. Her eyes went totally dead. I put my fingers in her mouth and started removing all the food, but I could see she couldn’t breathe. I started pressing on her chest, nothing. Tried massaging her throat. Nothing. Then John came over and lifted her up and kinda jostled her a few times. Nothing shot out, but she started breathing again. Fuck, it was so scary, because I knew we wouldn’t have time even to drive her to the vet. Afterwards, she just lay there in the kitchen totally wiped out, and I just started shaking and crying. It was really scary. She turns 15 next month, but shit, I just can’t lose her yet… ever. She’s been with me through EVERYTHING. Ugh.

So man, only like a fourth of the students showed up for mental skillz class last night. Fucking slackers. Valentine’s Day. Big f-ing deal, people. It’s not like it’s Chinese New Year. Sheesh. I’m shocked how many people get sucked into this Hallmark holiday. Hubs and I keep it simple: we exchange cards, and he got me a bar of fancy nougat and truffles. But the candy was more just because I’m on a nougat bender. Since my buddy P is such a nougat monster, last week I shuttled down some uber gourmet French and Italian stuff… it was gone in a matter of minutes, and now we’re all hooked. Do you know where I can buy the really good stuff in bulk? Otherwise, I may need to start a production line at home. Yeah, FitBit is making me ravenous. If I didn’t know any better, I would think I were preggers (Yikes!!).

LGB was a riot. Packed itinerary, as expected. No crazy stories like last time regarding nabbing phone thieves and such, but we had a solid good time. I was worried about clocking in my FitBit steps, so I overcompensated. But hell, after four hours of dancing at the salsa club, I ended up scoring a personal record of 14,500 steps!! Yippee! Still #1 on my FitBit leaderboard a month and a half later! Another friend at work just joined last weekend. Maybe now I’ll have some real competition. Either way, I’m gonna be needing new shoes pretty soon, because my soles are wearing thin, clocking 6 miles a day!

My friend G (who recently moved to Seattle) flew into LGB, and we hung with my Peruvian bud P. Well most of G’s wardrobe is still packed up in storage, so she brought this one dress for the salsa club. Well fuck. That dress ended up being the same length, similar color scheme, and similar color blocking as the dress I packed! Totally unplanned. And on top of that, both of us are Chinese with long hair and bangs!! As we started getting ready, my friend Pamela took a look at our dresses and said, “Oh hell no, I’m not showing up at the club with the bopsie twins.” Long story short, I was coerced into wearing one of P’s dresses. Fortunately, it was not super short and tight like her other dresses, but STILL. Fucking leopard print. Interestingly, I have never been asked to dance so many times in my life. Who knew? Guys (at least those at the club) have a thing for animal print. I feel like I just learned one of life’s little secrets. Haha.

Mental skills class was last night. On my way to the train station, some dude passed me on the sidewalk while I was listening to my Spanish tracks (without headphones). Later at the station, he started chatting me up (inviting me to happy hour in Palo Alto or something) and man, he reeked of booze. He insisted that he heard me listening to Chinese tracks.

No dude. I was listening to Spanish. But sure, I guess the two languages sound pretty similar??!! NOT! Bizarro.

My coworkers and I hit a local pool hall the other day. The place had a little bit of everything… food, drinks, fuss ball, pool, pinball, a jukebox, and a boxing stand! The only thing missing was a karaoke room. 🙁

It was a pretty interesting place… tons of pool tables and lots of big burly, Harley dudes. Also, there was a bad ass, tatted-up, tough chick wearing leather/chains… she spent about two hours punching the boxing bag. We were all watching her thinking, “Shit, don’t mess with that woman. She’s big time agro.” I had queued all my teenie-bop songs on the jukebox (Madonna, Carly Rae Jepsen, BBD, Pet Shop Boys), and tough chick kept going in and mucking the song lineup, moving her Metallica shit to the top. WTH? I know she was wanting to fight me!

At the end of the night, she finally left and a few of us were super intrigued. So we gave the boxing stand a try! I didn’t think I’d be into the violence, but hell, punching the bag was pretty goddamn liberating!! I only took two swings, but I got a pretty decent score. And my friend, man, he is a beast. He just walked up and plowed that thing. Long story short, I just signed on to a kickboxing Groupon at a boxing gym down the street. Haha. That’s right: float like a butterfly, sting like a bee…

I also busted out my henna on Sunday while John watched the SB. What do you think of this tat? Sorry to show you my foot. Just focus on the art. Can you tell what it is?? Yup, I’m getting into the zone for possible tats this weekend in LGB.

We got back from Tahoe yesterday afternoon. Solid weekend. We went snowshoeing for hours on Saturday!! The woods and water were pretty darn beautiful. And there’s nothing like that crisp, cold mountain air. But shit, our friends Jx2 are ultra marathon, triathlon, century cycling, Tough Mutter kind of people, so towards the end, I felt like I was on a death march. At least I clocked in 13k steps on FitBit that day. 😉

Btw, now that hubs and I have our own hot tub, other ones out there are pretty frickin’ gross. I mean, it didn’t stop me from enjoying the 250 gallons of piping hot water at the house we rented, but seriously, I had to look away, because I’m pretty sure I was soaking in a big vat of body juice. It was cloudy, frothy, and just plain nasty. Cringe. I know, living in the Silicon Valley bubble is making me soft!!

From Chaparral Ranch

What’s new? John has the flu. He came down this weekend, so I missed the U2 cover band (Zoo Station) at Slim’s on Saturday night. Bummer. And then the Redskins lost. So he’s sad. I still don’t get how people can condone the gladiator-style sport of football. And what is up with the different stories between the Redskins coach and the doctor? Sketchy.

I went trail riding Saturday. My horse Salem was jacked up! He galloped so damn fast, I felt like I was a stunt rider! At one point, my instructor and I were going head-to-head, and then Salem’s competitive juices really kicked in. We were racing down the trail like jockeys in the Derby! Mud chunks were flying everywhere, and I had to duck to avoid decapitation from tree branches! I’ve never ridden that fast for that long. It was a little scary, but oh so exhilarating. Shit, I’m hooked. Need to get my own horse so I can ride FAST all the time. I want a Speed Racer horse.

From Chaparral Ranch

What’s new? John has the flu. He came down this weekend, so I missed the U2 cover band (Zoo Station) at Slim’s on Saturday night. Bummer. And then the Redskins lost. So he’s sad. I still don’t get how people can condone the gladiator-style sport of football. And what is up with the different stories between the Redskins coach and the doctor? Sketchy.

I went trail riding Saturday. My horse Salem was jacked up! He galloped so damn fast, I felt like I was a stunt rider! At one point, my instructor and I were going head-to-head, and then Salem’s competitive juices really kicked in. We were racing down the trail like jockeys in the Derby! Mud chunks were flying everywhere, and I had to duck to avoid decapitation from tree branches! I’ve never ridden that fast for that long. It was a little scary, but oh so exhilarating. Shit, I’m hooked. Need to get my own horse so I can ride FAST all the time. I want a Speed Racer horse.

Oh man, my WWF obsession is getting slightly out of control. I just really like to win. Like at all costs. But whatever, I’m not going to apologize. Why? Because that’s how I roll: I’m all about binging and purging (but NOT in the eating disorder context). I’m just a dabbler at heart: I get into new stuff, go on a bender, lose interest, find something else that’s shiny/pretty, repeat. To be candid, it’s surprising that I’m still living in the Bay Area, still riding, still playing ukulele (which I started in August), still staying friends with you guys… haha, ouch!!

Speaking of losing interest, I finally came clean and admitted to myself yesterday that the Maroon5 Overexposed album sucks. I mean, maybe 3 of 12 songs on there are ok, (i.e. mediocre at best) but the earlier album is definitely much better. And now I have to listen to this crap at the concert in March? Will the Adam Levine eye candy be enough? Eh, not so sure anymore. It’s a new year: I’m going to have new tolerances, know what I mean?

I’m pleased to report that Buzzkill Betty has taken a break. Happy new year indeed! The sun actually came out this week, and I am feeling a gabillion times better. I know, seasonal mood disorder, anyone? Whatever, I’m just glad to be zooming around again.

So Christmas weekend went well though I guess I had neglected to mention it previously. We basically stayed in town (the sore throat kinda lingered), but we got lots of rest. Our good friends J&J came over, we hung out, went for a hike. I went riding at the ranch, went to a hot yoga class. Just low key, if somewhat “boring” (on Christmas Day) according to Bubbey. Yeah, it was just the two of us. I dunno: the holidays are always a little weird– either two chaotic or too sedate. Maybe it has to do with cultural expectations.

Anyway, New Year’s was similar but I was just feeling loads better. J&J came over again: we walked the pups, played board games, watched tv, hung out, cooked. Always a good time with dear friends.

So for the next year, I’m hoping to focus on a few things:

– I want to bring Spanish studying back into my life. Hopefully one lesson a week.
– I want to continue playing uke. Twice a week.
– I’m getting into this FitBit thing, which just means I hope to move around daily, like enough to sweat three times a week. 🙂 Last night, it was about 15 minutes til midnight (when the FitBit restarts), and I was under my daily goal of 8,000 steps. So what did I do? I proceeded to run in place right next to the bed. As if I was doing training drills– you know, kicking the knees all high and shit. I was breathing all heavy. John was making fun of me, but I don’t fucking care. 15 minutes later, I was well beyond my goal. Muuuhhaha. And today, while I was watching a Giuliana and Bill marathon (LOVE them!), I was exercising. That’s right baby, two birds, one stone. I am back in action!
– I want to work on professional development– build new skills, try new environments.
– I want to become a better cowgirl. Last Sunday, I rode a new horse, and well, it was a true test. My riding skillz are still lacking, because this horse just would not listen; in fact, he rammed my knee into the fucking fence. Oh no you didn’t, Chip!!
– I want to work on personal development– more classes, more positive thinking, more mindfulness, more awareness, more calm.
– I want to continue traveling and spending time with people I love.

It’s a lot but I have another year to do it, so slow and easy, right?