my trip to England

Now that I’ve been back from my English holiday for a whole week I possibly can just sort out highlights instead of you hearing every detail. But maybe you’re just wondering how the weather was. It was cold and damp but didn’t rain. So if that’s all you want to know you can stop reading.
I flew to London on a redeye after work one Thursday. I was equipped with my aunt’s Kindle

and a really good chocolate bar from my chocolatier (long story). There was no one sitting right next to me and the guy on the aisle shared his coconut M&M’s with me. Did you even know there was such a thing? I didn’t but I just Googled it and you can buy them on Amazon. Altogether it was a pretty great flight.
When I landed Keiz (one of my college roommates) and Aaron were there to meet me. Right when I got in the car my alarm started going off telling me to wake up for work. But guess what…I didn’t have to go to work! We drove around for a while with the aim of seeing Stonehenge. It was closed by the time we got there but fortunately it is right on the side of the freeway so we still got some pictures. Here is a bit of conversation leading up to the excitement known as Stonehenge…
“Oh I think that’s it”
“No, maybe that’s some trees”
“Wait, yes, it’s Stonehenge.”

We still don’t know what Stonehenge is but at least we know it is in England (news to me)
After Stonehenge we took the scenic route, passing lots of “tank crossing” signs and went to Winnersh to spend the night at Salena and Joel’s. Salena, Joel, Keiz and Aaron all went to high school together and somehow all ended up in England. Us girls all went to college together so it was fun to catch up.
On Saturday morning Keiz, Aaron and I took the train from Winnersh to London. We went on a walking tour and saw the palace…and Big Ben…and Westminster Abbey…and lots of other British looking things.

That night Salena and Joel met us and we went to see the queen. Or at least the musical based on Queen’s music, “We Will Rock You.” My boss recommended it and now I can’t quite look at him the same way.

Sunday we went to see the changing of the guard. We couldn’t actually see much so we left and went to Harrod’s department store, we spent most of our time in the food section. I will refrain from showing you 100 pictures of their food displays but I will tell you that you can buy lemonade with 24 karat gold flakes and that is cool.

We also went to the Victoria and Albert museum. I think we spent more time looking at Harrod’s food than this whole museum. After the museum we headed back to Keiz and Aaron’s house in Harrogate.
I love Harrogate. There are lots of surrounding farms but the town itself is metropolitan. From Keiz’s house you can walk to the downtown and I could have spent my whole vacation and savings account wandering in and out of the shops. I limited myself but I did get in one English tea and a few shirts.

At one of the used shops we bought the movie “Relative Values,” it was pretty hilarious. And although it’s in British the accents were manageable and the humor was actually funny. Overall I think my Spanish is better than British.
Tuesday we went to Fountains Abbey. It was freezing but beautiful.

Monks used to live there back in the day and when the monks got the boot it became a public garden, which it still is. In theory it would be a great place to spend the day and have a picnic. But like I said, it was freezing, so we kept moving. That night we went to Ripon. Every night at 9PM since 866 the town crier has gone to the town square to blow his horn and say that all is well in the town. Then he goes and finds the mayor and blows his horn some more and passes the message on to him. Since 866! Wow, that’s a long time.

Wednesday we went to York. We walked around, got some food, saw a local production of To Kill a Mockingbird and went to Minster Abbey. I liked York. We got to walk on top of the original town wall. The Abbey was having an auction selling off old stonework.


We didn’t get any. To Kill a Mockingbird was interesting. It was well done but you could see the struggle the actors were having trying to mask their accents and sound southern.
Thursday we went to a castle. It was cool but I don’t remember what it was called. We couldn’t go in because it was closed for the season.
 
The good thing about that is we saved $20 entrance and parking and were able to walk around the gardens for free. Then we drove to a dairy to meet the cows that made our ice cream.

Friday was my sad day of departure. We left the house at 4AM England time and I got home at 11PM California time. So yeah it was a long day and no one had coconut M&M ‘s to share with me.
Altogether it was brilliant. Now I am back at work which is less brilliant but change is in the air.

February Facts

Welcome Back! I missed you in January, but here is a little about what is going on.
I hear in parts of the US there are blizzards going on. San Ramon is not one of those parts. I’m sitting outside in short sleeves right now and not one bit chilly.
My newest nephew was born last week, Raymond Joel. He’s not a small baby I guess I wasn’t either. I think bigger babies are more human-like anyways. Here is our picture.

Another thing that was born was my salt and pepper shakers. I think the gestation period was about the same.

I’m going on holiday next week to England. I’m excited. Why?
1) I get to see Keiz
2) I get to see England
3) I get to take time off work

Work is fine. We’re having a Super Bowl celebration on Friday. Last year I won $25 so I hope that happens again.

This morning I was decorating the bulletin board for February.

While performing research I discovered something fascinating about conversation hearts. Every year they have add them with a theme. Like one year was “A menu for love” so they added things like “Table 4 Two” and “Honey Bun.” And another year was “Animal Attraction” so they had “Take a Walk” and “UR A Tiger.” When they first stated they said longer things like “Please send a lock of your hair by return mail.” I think I’ve found my calling.
Evidently you didn’t miss much in January

Merry New Year

I failed at sending out Christmas cards so I’m attaching pictures of what you could have received in a Christmas card from me.

And in that card I would talk about the kindness and love of God appearing to us by Him sending His Son to us. If you want you can print this all out and put it where you would have put a Christmas card. If you store your Christmas cards in the garbage you can save some paper and just read and delete. That said this is not going to be a summary of my year because you get those all the time.

I took today off of work. I thought I was going to die last night so I didn’t sleep well. This morning I woke up feeling better but realized that I did have a pretty valid excuse to take a sick day I didn’t actually have any work to do. Today was grand, the office only called in once and I didn’t have to wear heals. Actually not having to get dressed was one of the turning points in my decision to stay home. You know, I could get used to spending my day in bed reading and talking on G-Chat.

But instead of becoming a full-time loaf I have a new plan…getting my MBA! I was keeping this plan on the down low in case I fail miserably but oh well, now you know. I took my GMAT a few weeks ago and now I have to figure out where to apply. Writing application essays is kind of a pain, especially when I am supposed to clearly define my goals. For the most part I try to never set goals but I don’t think that is what they want to hear. If I ever call upon you to write a reference letter, please don’t mention that, or anything else I write.

Christmas was good. Poetry hasn’t been really been happening much because cooking has taken over. The girls still lost but Cristina did break into the winners bracket. The overall highlight of Christmas Eve was my grandpa presenting my parents host gifts. My dad got comic books and a car waxer and my mom got a broom with a mouse cover. Like my mom needs a new broom when I bought her a steam mop. Oh it was also cool when he pulled all the boys into his room one-by-one and gave them each a cowboy hat, except Billy who got some really nice white boots. Somewhere there are some amazing photos of that event floating around.

I hope your holiday season has been going well and that it gets even better.
Love, Joy

A...B...Christmastime

I really like Christmastime, it is only the first week of December but I’m already in love. Here are almost 26 things that are great about it. I mean the other letters are SO obvious you can fill them in yourself.
Amy Grant. I think I’ve mentioned this before but her “A Christmas Album” is my favorite.
Birth of Jesus, I know it seems kind of cliché but really everything in my life revolves around this.
Costumes. My sister has a costume party every year. Last year I, Peace on Earth, won. Also last year to work I wore an outfit that I thought was normal but got lots of elf comparisons. How can you not love a time of year when it is acceptable to wear red and green and, my personal favorite, GOLD all together?
Decorations. I think I just really like themes because they give order to life. And Christmas is a great theme to decorate around.
Egg Nog. The lattes or straight from carton.
Family Cook-Off. Last year we started a new competitive tradition on Christmas Eve. There is nothing like a little family competition to bring out Christmas Spirit.
Gifts. I’m not ashamed to admit it I like getting gifts (giving is great too)
Hot Chocolate. I petitioned that at my office we have hot chocolate available in the kitchen every Tuesday in December. Offering it on Wednesday was approved I think we will see a noticeable rise in office cheerfulness tomorrow.
I
Joy. That’s my name and the name of the holiday tea at Starbucks and an emotion.
K
Lights! I should be annoyed when people put out Christmas lights the first week of November. But once the time changes, and it starts getting dark early, I’m ready.
Music. I try to not overdo this one because I hear carols will lose their splendor but I’ve been sneaking them in since Halloween and now that is all I listen to.
N
O
Poetry Competition. I hate competing in it because there is just so much talent in my family and I don’t like losing year after year but for some magic reason it is worth it.
Q
Rain. Usually I’m not a big fan but add a roaring fire and a Christmas tree and I’m sold.
Sandwiches. Growing up every Christmas Eve we had a sandwich bar for dinner. To this day sandwiches are one of my favorite foods.
Trees. I just bought 35 of the little live glittered ones from Trader Joe’s for my boss to pass out instead of the classic poinsettia.
U
Vacation. Well I used to like this about December. Now I get one day off which is still better than nothing. More time off is one of the big drawing points of me going back to school.
We Three Kings. Last year this became one of my favorite songs and I still am into it.
X
Y
Z

Spring Hats and Headstones

Every once in a while some people connected to my work go serve breakfast at a community center in Oakland. I don’t really think the food service industry is for me and I’m not good at mingling so I decided to bring supplies to make fall wreaths with the kids. As I was recruiting I showed my example to this girl Diamond, and she asked if it was a hat. I explained it was a wreath to hang on the wall. Then I pointed to a tree that was turning colors and told her we’re using leaves to look like that tree. She said, “I know the trees change color because it’s spring!” Later on she put her wreath on her head while it was still dripping with glue. My helper said it was fine because glue dries clear.

Yesterday my cousin Anne (and her dog and her friend) and I went to Piedmont to visit the family gravesite. I took a picture of her next to my favorite headstone.

It was a gorgeous day and from the family plot you could see the Golden Gate. Then we went to Fenton’s for ice cream. Since I took a half-day off work and my office is nosey, there were some very awkward conversations. I mean we’re not an overly sensitive family, but how are you supposed to respond when people excitedly ask, “So are you doing something fun with your afternoon off?” My answer, “I’m going with my cousin to make sure our last name is spelled correctly on her dad’s headstone.” It was.

While I was there I picked up a postcard for my dad, they are expanding and you can start pre-ordering plots now.
I still haven’t taken the strengths quiz from the book by boss gave me. He’s been out of town the last few weeks but is coming back this weekend so I should take it soon before I see him again. Plus maybe defining my strengths will give me some ideas on what to do with my life.

Life begins when you do

After my recent boredom crisis at work I told my boss, Tom, that I am getting restless in my position and would like to have more responsibility at least while I’m figuring out something better to do with my life.  We met yesterday and so far he has given me the books Motivational Quotes (see subject line), The Success Principles and Now, Discover Your Strengths.  He’s really excited about the strengths one, there is a quiz at the end and then we can discuss my scores and figure out what to do with me.  He said, “Joy, the most important knowledge is self-knowledge, true or false?”  He thinks it’s true and I didn’t want to come right out and tell him I think that is bologna and depressing so I told him I‘d think about it.

The Giants are in the World Series playing the Rangers.  You probably knew that because you don’t live under a rock.  My company donated money for a pool that I am in charge of organizing.  After this morning when one of the winners asked me who won and where the Rangers are from, I decided that before collecting their money the winners need to tell me

What 2 teams are playing?
What inning did you win, with what score?
What was the final score?

Wow, people do not like those rules.  I’m not even saying they need to watch the game but spend less than 2 minutes researching on-line or ask a stranger on the side of the road and I will give them money. Still some people opted out of participating.  One of the other quotes from that book "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." --Bill Cosby.

In other news I am Grandma Phyllis sitting this week.  For those of you that don’t know Grandma Phyllis, she is my brother-in-law’s grandma.  So far she is still alive so things are looking good.

Every work morning I make myself a cup of tea for the road, this has been my habit for the last year.  Yesterday I forgot, what does that say about me?

What's going on with you?  I really do care and feel lame about being so one sided.

love, joy

Happy Friday

It’s been a while since you’ve gotten an post full of pure nonsense from me and I hope you haven’t fallen into a bout of depression. But really, the last one was annoyingly long.
Last weekend we had a family outing to look for tarantulas on Mt. Diablo. We found many, and a coyote, and a lizard. That is way more wildlife than I saw in Nicaragua and Mt. Diablo is only 15 minutes from home. Later we had dinner and I was in charge of dessert. I made this cake…

Yes I am quite proud of myself.

For the last few weeks my job has been terribly boring, last night I was almost in tears (literally) from boredom. So I’m sure I should keep attempting to be a cheerful worker but I don’t know how much longer I am supposed to stay around D&G. I don’t have any idea of what else I would do but I don’t want to be unnecessarily stuck if that isn’t where God wants me. Fortunately today I actually have work to do so I’ve been granted a little reprieve.

There are still some fun things I get to plan for the office, but even with those my creativity isn’t always appreciated. On October 1st we had pretzels, cider, and bottles of root beer in honor of Oktoberfest. I wanted hot dogs but that idea was rejected. Next Tuesday we’re having peanuts and Cracker Jacks for the Giants’ return to SF. We also can wear Giants’ colors to compliment our normal business attire. We cannot dress like Lou Seal, that suggestion was rejected. Yesterday we just started a project to make blankets for foster kids. That idea was received with concern but I was able to slip it past the powers that be. I also had the opportunity to post this really cool sign on the microwave.



Doesn't it seem a little China Town to you? If it is disregarded we will lose microwave privileges altogether. I don’t really understand that threat because I have very limited ideas of what non-food items people cook in the microwave.

I picked up saltshaker making again. I still have quite a ways to go but I have been learning to accept that sometimes it is probably healthy to take my time.

This all seems a little down, non-work life is going just swell, that just isn't as note worthy.

What’s going on with you?