Memorial Weekend Highlights

Mmm...it finally feels like summer. Sunny days, sweet evenings, soft serve ice cream cones, and putzing around-- these all remind me of why I love California in the spring and summertime. My weekend, which is sadly coming to an end as I face an early, early work day tomorrow, was actually perfectly eventful and peaceful at the same time.

Friday night, I watched Monster in Law with some girls from work. Actually, it was more like an Ode to Michael Vartan. For those who do not know, Monsieur Vartan used to inhabit my screensaver; my former cubicle-mate used to poke fun at me for his giant face staring out at the team from my desk. Anyways, the movie was suprisingly good! Granted, J-Lo and Jane Fonda stole most of the show and all the funny lines, but Michael Vartan did what he does best -- he looked dannggg good. Mmmhmm. "Teehee."

Saturday, I embarked on the longggg graduation ceremony at SFSU. Karen (my sister) graduated with a Masters in English (with an emphasis on teaching English as a second language to adults). I was proud of my sister and happy to attend her graduation ceremony, but her's was particularly exhausting. For the friends and family of 7,700 graduates, there was 1 main parking garage with very few entrances and exits, and 3 gates to the stadium where the ceremony was held. We waited a half hour to get inside the stadium and missed the processional. A tiny number of event staff workers milled around the campus, most of whom seemed overwhelmed by the throngs of frustrated attendees waiting in line in vain to see their loved ones graduate. Argh. In the end, all was well, despite a few strained moments with Mama Chen who gripped the side of my car in terror the whole time as I drove and muttered about bioterrorism being the cause for the long queues on campus.

Sunday, I went to church, and we finished a series on Revelations in the Sunday school class. It was really interesting, although I missed most of the beginning of the study on previous Sundays. The main service discussed husbands and wives with lessons from Proverbs, and at the end of the service, a couple who had been married for fifty years spoke to the congregation about their experience. They were hilarious. What I found neat was that they still discovered new things about the other person even after so many years of marriage. After church, went with some folks to Picchetti Winery in Cupertino; what a great find! The winery was situated in an open space preserve, so a lot of folks were just lazing about with their families and enjoying the sunshine while picnicking. Peacocks, oddly enough, were also everywhere as well as their high-pitched whining. A "live band" (two guys singing folk music to their guitars) played out the back of the winery. I had such a nice time relaxing and enjoying a lazy afternoon.

Finally, today, Memorial Day proper, I entertained some visitors from the Central Valley -- Lindsey and Megan. We had a little reunion to exchange our Europe photos and catch up. I don't get to see them very often, so it's always a treat to hang out with them. In honor of the event, I baked apricot scones (which didn't fully turn out -- booo!) and set out my myriad of teas. Lindsey brought finger sandwiches and Megan brought Pepitos, a chocolate cookie straight from the French supermarket! We visited downtown San Mateo, walked around, went to the Ichiban store, toodled about the Japanese Tea Garden at Central Park, and finally sat down for an early crepe dinner at Krazy Krepes. Hmmm. The crepes were good, but not as good as MINE will be someday when I open up my business...it's always nice to sniff out the competition ahead of time. ;-) Hah!

The end! Thanks for reading if you made it this far!