You know what's Awesome?

Awesome is having your roommate wake you up 2 hours earlier than you normally wake up to help her jump start her car only to find out that she decided to use your other roommate's car because it's parked next to hers.

Awesome is fighting the urge to go back to sleep and going to the Rose Bowl instead to enjoy the rising sun.

Awesome is coming back and having a delicious breakfast of quinoa, edamame beans, shitake mushrooms, taiwanese style eggs and tomatoes. Plus chili garlic sauce of course.

Awesome is getting on your vintage bike which is a little too tall for you even at the lowest seat setting and riding to the local Episcopal church to pray in the open sanctuary.

Awesome is getting back on your vintage bike and riding to Europane, your favorite local bakery, only to trip up on a curb and fall over into a side plant on the pavement in front of a shiny new BMW whose driver is trying not to be embarrassed for you but clearly is in the way he looks away.

Awesome is rubbing your knee, laughing at yourself, and walking the rest of the crosswalk.

Awesome is deciding beforehand that you will only eat half the massive blueberry scone and packing the rest away...and actually keeping it that way.

Awesome is enjoying that deelicious coffee of yours and 2 hours later, realizing you spilled a whole bunch in the middle of your fitted tee chest. How did I not notice that?

That's my awesome day so far. Awesome.

Photographs from Bali

I thought I'd peruse my Bali photo album and post my favorites. I loved Bali. Looking at these pictures brings it all back for me.

breakfast at Sri Sunari

holy day festivities with the barong

a traditional balinese dance on an outdoor temple stage

roast pig (babi guling) from ibu oka....i'm salivating looking at it

the view from my room

the lovely students at Ubud vocational tourism high school

fruit salad at Putu's Wild Ginger

in the rice terraces

An Awesome Idea

cycling across europe and staying in monasteries.

It Runs in the Family

In my brother's room, there are books stacked in three columns around one corner of his desk. The rest of the desk is littered with headphones, cd covers, an alarm clock, a lamp, a bottle of lotion and aspirin, a bell souvenir from Jerusalem, an Israel Army wallet, a standing calendar, business cards, a bag of Goldfish, postits, a box of kleenex, a lint remover. The Israel stuff are gifts from my dad's recent trip. But the thing that makes me laugh the most is the half open plastic Dr. Scholl's Dual Action Freeze Away box For Large Warts. My brother is avidly fighting away his warts with freeze away action, while I slave away at my plantar warts with podiatrist visits and a bottle of salicylic acid, and my dad just clips his away with his nail clipper. Warts...they run in the family.

WTF

"Increased African-American turnout is all the more important because of Obama's tougher challenge in more conservative, rural areas. In the Missouri Ozarks, a roadside billboard shows a cartoon of Obama with a turban, his middle name "Hussein" in bold red letters."

from "African-American enthusiasm could tip scales toward Obama," CNN.com

"Make sure you have something for yourself"

 'Make sure you have something for yourself,' she'll say. 'Make sure you are not always at home, waiting. Make sure you feel independent financially and emotionally.' I listen and I learn. I took a couple years off with the kids, but now I'm back to work."

--Hallie Biden quoting Jill Biden in a Nov 2008 Vogue feature article "Jill Biden's All the Vice President's Women"

Good things October

Running on the beach, watching the sunset, and giving yourself a pep talk at the same time

Eating pizza by the slice and then getting another one after you're done.  Stealing sips from another person's beer.

Buying a notebook you love.  Even if you had to drive to 4 different stores to get it.  SIGH!

Eating French-Vietnamese food in Garden Grove, CA and singing along to the music overhead.

Attending an art exhibit entitled "Just How Does A Patriot Act" at the OCCCA

Getting buzzed on a Friday night.

Missing your stop on the Metrolink, making the car laugh when you ask "Did I just miss...", and incurring the endearing wrath of your boyfriend who is at the other stop.

Finishing The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao past midnight and exhaling, "WOW..."