Can I Have Your Number? Can I Have It?

So, funny story...while I was waiting to get into Monster Jam tonight, a similar incidence happened to me! The guy had a full on gold grill, as in his whole row of front teeth were gold! He was totally gangsta! My roommate Jessica and I were waiting to meet up with some of her friends from Berkeley so we could get all our tickets together. We needed to get some from scalpers cause they were pretty much sold out. So while we were waiting this guy came up and started talking to us. I initially thought he was a scalper. But no! He said, "So, um what are you ladies doing tonight?" I told him, we were waiting for some friends. He said, "Um, okay well, what are you doing this fine night?" Me, "waiting for our friends to show up." Him, "Oh, well can I hang out with you ladies?" Me, "Well do you have tickets to Monster Jam?" He replied, "So I can hang with you if I have tickets? So where you're friends at? Are they your boyfriends?" my response, "Well, they're boys, and they're friends." He replies, "Oh really well, where you're friends at? Are they coming back? Are they you're boyfriends? Are there other girls with you?" (You've probably noticed a lot of repetitive questions, just like Darrell! :) Well, that's cause he kept asking the same questions. I was trying to give as little information out as possible. I really only started talking to him cause I thought he was a scalper.) Me, "Yes, they're coming right now." Him, "Um, so listen...can I have your number?" Me, "No sorry." Him, "Oh come on girl, can I have it?" Me, "No, I don't really know you." Him, "Oh, but that's how you get to know someone. Come on girl, can I  have your number?" Me, "I'm sorry, but no." Him, "oh come on girl can I have it, that's how you get to know people, become friends." My response, " No, you really can't have it! Have a good night though."  Then he finally he walked off! I just loved that he asked if we had boyfriends, and if they we're coming back! I wanted to ask, "is your name Darrell? Spelled like Darrell, but pronounced Da-Rell" Hahahaha! Love it... I never thought something that hilarious would happen to me!

On another note: Monster Jam was really cool! Some of the stunts these guys pulled off were pretty amazing! They've got to be insane to do this! Here are some pictures!

This is the stadium

 So basically this was a competition, the drivers come out and have to last for 90 seconds and do as many stunts as they can in that amount of time. There were guys jumping up the mounds, and over the other smaller cars, the coolest stunt they did was where they would jump onto a mound and then go up on there back wheels and the drive across the mound pretty much standing vertically! It was pretty amazing!

,

 I got to see cars completely airborne, others get toppled over, wheels popping ,wheels coming off, and cars flipping over completely after doing crazy 360 spins! It was a pretty exciting event!

Here's my roommate Jessica!

and me in front of the arena

In this pic the car is airborne! He jumped up the mound and almost made it all the way across!

more monster cars driving around, they had great names like, the Patriot, Captain USA, the Bone Crusher, and Grave Digger, that car was actually a Hearst!!

Me with my ticket!

So we had to buy our tickets from scalpers, cause they were only selling separate tickets at the box office, by the time our whole group was there some of the scalpers were selling them for $40! We got ours for $25! We're good bargainers! :) (I gave the guy my number! ;)) *

Oh, and Grave Digger won! He was pretty amazing and drove around until he pretty much demolished his car! He was doing tons of jumps and then ended up flipping completely over! Captain USA did pretty good too, he held the top spot for most of the event! Way to go with their crazy selves! :)

*Fabricated- this event did not really take place.

A Christmas Carol...belated...or early- it depends on how you look at it...

Well, I wrote this blog post up I think in November of 2009, so it really is belated! Well, I guess I never finished it...I decided to post it anyway. ;)

So I realized I haven't even looked at my blog in a few months! That is sad, so I decided to change that right now and write a post! On Friday I got to see the musical of "A Christmas Carol" at the Hale theater, it was so great, and made me want to go right home and watch the movie! I love these feel good Christmas movies, they're so cheesy, and fun and they just make you feel so good! The play was so cute, and Tiny Tim stole the show! He was this adorable little boy, and when he came out all you heard was, "aww!" all over the theater! Besides the cheesiness this story has a great moral, don't be a scrooge! No, really it was about the importance of looking beyond yourself and creating loving relationships with those around you. One thing that really touched me was when the Ghost of Christmas present said," Man might change... but doesn't!" That really made me think about the importance of taking control of our life and changing for the better.

I remember writing this, it was a while ago, but it really got me thinking about the power that we as individuals have. That power is agency. We all have it, everyone of us! We all have the power to make decisions for ourselves, and to choose how we will act, what we will think, or how we will respond to our circumstances. We don't always have control over what happens to us, but we do have the control to choose how we want to act and re-act to any situation we're in. This quote is about human nature, and, in my opinion, how tragic it is that, "Man might change...but doesn't!" I think that's due to laziness or pride really, change is a hard process. It takes self-reflection and repentance, and most people don't take the time for that, or have too much pride to admit that their ways might be wrong! But really, we have a choice to change or not! If we don't like something about our lives, or if we're not happy, we can change that, we can improve ourselves. Yes it takes effort, yes it takes patience with ourselves, and diligence! Yes it takes repentance! And when I say repentance, what that really means is making a decision to change, for the better! That change can be as simple as deciding to eat less chocolate! Haha, or making a goal to say "Hi" to 3 strangers a day, if you want to be more friendly. These small changes are a part of repentance, which helps us to progress, and become better people!

So the good thing is that we can change!!! Yay! Shout up and down! We can improve, we can progress! That's one of the greatest gifts we have, and thankfully in the end of this Christmas Carol; Scrooge, our meiserly, grump, did change! He made that step, and began to open his heart and change for the better, and I like to think that he was a great influence for good!

So let's change this quote to "Man might change...and will!! :) Cause we have the choice to!

Oh the things we do...It's ridiculous!

I found this picture the other day while I was online!

I just think it's really funny, the poor thing!

That's all.

Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco!

Last weekend I got a group of great people together to watch the Chinese New Years Parade here in San Fran!  Although it was freezing cold and raining we had a stalwart group that were willing to make trek downtown, and it was really fun, It was really great to have Henry there, he really explained a lot of the traditions and symbolism of the New Years parade!

Look at these guys! There just too cool!

Shaina and Akio, enjoying the parade!

 

I love his expression! :)

 Okay, so those were the awesome people that came, and here are some of the highlights of the parade! Apparently this float is of a really popular website in China. I don't know, I think it's some gaming website or something.

 I thought these guys in red looked pretty neat, they were waiting to go up to perform in this picture.

 These guys were really neat, the were all on stilts and had some interesting costumes. In the front you have the royalty and then it gets lower, to the middle class and then the peasants in the back. It was interesting.

 Here's another group of people, with a dragon, I think.

I just really liked this heart, it wasn't in the parade, but I thought it was neat.

Here's a group of people, carrying another dragon.

 So the Dragon is symbolic of the Emperor, in China the dragon is the most powerful, as is the Emperor, he is like God, and all the dragons in the parade were chasing a ball, that looked like a lollipop! :) But it is symbolic of wealth or prosperity, which is what the New Year's Parade is all about, wishing wealth and prosperity to everyone!

Look at this float! Simply covered in gold glitter! Shaina, is that enough glitter for you!

So we were absolutely freezing by the end, and actually decided to just walk down to the end of the parade, cause honestly I couldn't feel my feet by the end! I was jumping up and down just to get warmed up! Anyway we passed Brytex, and they had a whole display of antique singer sewing machines, it was so neat, and I had to get some pictures! These are for you mom! I'm gonna have to go back and get some more pics!

Here's another picture of the sewing machines

 Here we were at the end of the parade, and we finally got to see the huge dragon! It was so big, and really beautiful all lit up! They were lighting firecrackers in front of it every few feet, and one actually hit me in the face! It was kinda scary! Anyway, I got some pictures, but they're kinda hard to see.

Here it was right in front of me! It was huge!

Right after it passed

Here's part of the spine of this beast! Apparently it's one of the largest parade dragons in the US!

I have to end this on a cute picture of Shaina and I, I had so much fun and I'm glad my wonderful sister could come up! After the parade we went to find a restaurant, we were going to go to Jollibee's! It's a Filipino fast food place, and I was so excited, I haven't been there since my mission! And I love that place! But it was closed!!! It was such a sad moment...but I quickly got over it and we went to the mall for dinner, it was fun getting to know everyone that came a little better!

What is Confidence? How the heck do I get this elusive quality? :)

So lately I've been thinking a lot about confidence. I've been told several times in my life and by several people that I need to be more confident in myself. And it's true, it's something I've been striving to be better at for some time, and I feel now that I'm finally beginning to understand what they mean, when they say I need to be more confident. Now, usually it's my friends or family telling this to me in relation to dating, and I would get so frustrated with them telling me this because honestly, I do have a high opinion of myself, and so I didn't know how to correct this deficit that they were seeing in me! I kept thinking, what more can I do? What more can I be to portray this confidence? How do I become more confident?

That questioning just led to more stress and feelings of inadequacy, because I couldn't figure out a solution.

Warning: if you don't want to read about someone going on about how amazing they are, please skip this entire paragraph. :)

Now, I'm going to be completely honest, I do know I am a great person; I work hard, and I'm striving to become better and care about others. I know that I have a lot of great qualities, for example, okay, why are you still reading this? YOU were supposed to skip through this section so you didn't actually see that I'm just writing as much as possible so that it looks like I have an extremely high opinion of myself! I'm really laid back and accepting and kind towards others. The simple things in life can make me extremely happy, like a sunny day, or a smile, or playing a silly game of cards, or even a pillow fight! I love people, and try to make others feel welcome. I feel that I'm very discerning and understanding of people. I have strong morals and live by them and have a great understanding of who I am, and what the gospel is about; that it's truly about Jesus Christ atoning for our sins, that we can be clean and live with him again. I think I'm a pretty fun person to be around, most of the time. ;) Seriously, why are you still reading this section, it's the most boring part of this post, there's so much more meaningful words later on. ;) I mean, I'm hilarious! I also know that I have a lot of pride, and I can become bitter easily, and fearful of meeting new people. I am sensitive and take things too personally sometimes. I feel that I am intelligent, but sometimes that leads me to thinking I'm better than others, or above the pettiness of what is popular. Let's just say I'm a complicated woman, and I can get a little moody. :) This is where I'm trying to show my humility. Haha! But we all have our flaws, no one's perfect, I understand and accept that about myself, most of the time. I am extremely lucky in this life. I have a loving family, and wonderful friends who I'm so grateful for. I'm healthy, and I work hard to accomplish what I want in this life. I feel like I have a good head on my shoulders and it's so important to me to strive to live my dreams and not just sit around being afraid to try for what I want out of life! So, yeah, I'm pretty much awesome! :) Ok, moving on... I feel that was sufficiently long enough...

Obviously I shouldn't be having a problem with confidence! Do you see how long that paragraph is! And I could go on! :) I know that I have a lot of worth! But what is it really that I'm lacking then? What is confidence in the first place? How do you show it? I 've often wondered about this elusive quality and I'm realizing that being confident isn't just having a good opinion of yourself. And this post really shouldn't be about me at all, or at least it shouldn't if I can get my thoughts out clearly.

Being confident is about having the courage to reach out to others, to share your qualities and love with those around you. It's being comfortable with yourself, and what you have to offer to others, and knowing that what you can offer is enough! Confidence is the ability to overcome your fears, and let others in, so it's really not about you! It's about sharing what you have with those around yourself! This is what I was lacking a few years back...I feel I'm doing better at letting others see who I really am, but it's still hard! Some days I can reach out and meet others with a smile of friendship other days I struggle a little more with my fears, I hold back. But I think this leads to another point. And this is the "material point". (Note the Jane Austen reference.)


The confidence we really need to have is in the Lord. He needs to be our foundation, of strength. We should gain strength in knowing that we are good enough, because of the atonement! That through Christ's sacrifice, we can be made into instruments to help others, if we can get over ourselves and have humility. So I think the real problem isn't that I need to have confidence in myself, but that I need to be humble enough to realize that I need confidence in the Lord! That he will heal me and help me to have an open heart, one that is willing to reach out to those around me, to those that might be struggling. Once we have the love of our Savior in our hearts we won't hesitate to strive to share with others, to reach out, accept them, and befriend them. We will be confident in that we are enough and we can reach out and help others to have happiness in this life!

In our relief society lesson this Sunday our teacher told about this 90 year old man who her brother and parents met in the temple right before her brother left on his mission. She told of how this old man has been writing her brother and mother letters for almost 2 years now! She showed us a handmade envelope, (out of newspaper) with a letter that was 2 entire pages, printed! The effort that this man, a stranger, took to reach out and offer himself as a friend is astounding to me! He took the time to truly care and to give advice and comfort to a young man he didn't even know. This just touched my heart so much, I can't imagine the life this elderly man has lived, he has such wisdom, and knowledge, has probably endured so much in his lifetime, and he was willing to take the time...to give of himself. Why are we so afraid to let people in? I know I am sometimes. But through trusting in the Lord, we can have the confidence we need to reach out to others and offer what we can to help lift those around us.

So after all this, I need to back track a little bit. Yes...I do need to be more confident...not in myself- that's really just pride, but in the Lord! That he will give me the courage to reach out, help others, and create loving friendships and relationships in this life. Cause that is really what the Savior taught when he was here on the Earth, he taught us to love one another, and as cheesy as that sounds, it's completely true!

Oh...The Good Old Times...(Well Actually New Times) In The Office

 My cubicle! And look I have my own name plate! I was so excited when I got that! Silly, I know, but that's me! This is my office at MyNewPlace.com, so far it's been a good experience working here. I've made quite a few calls to property managers helping them with their accounts. Recently I've been working on a project where I'm writing up property listings for Craigslist. So the company is starting up a new writing service where we write up about 20 listings per property for them to post on Craigslist. Now it's kinda challenging coming up with unique listings about the same thing 20 times over, but I'm kinda enjoying being able to experiment with word order and finding new adjectives to use. It's made me realize that I do enjoy writing and that it's all about making connections with people. That any successful writing, whether it be a novel, an advertisement, poem or even a blog post has to be able to connect with others in order to draw someone in. So yeah, I'm enjoying my job, for the most part. :) Except in between projects when I don't have anything to do. I hate being unproductive!

 On another random note: Here's the latest post-it art in the office. A raincloud. :) I love it!

 Here's a Valentine one of my co-workers gave me! It's so cute, she made everyone these hearts with different styles of mustaches, and one was even a pirate, with an eye patch and a sword. I think they are adorable.

My mug (I painted this at Color Me Mine) and left hander's calender (thanks mom) at my desk. :) So I got a little bored this afternoon, I had finished all my projects and so I was kinda just sitting there waiting for a new assignment, that happens occasionally. I just work too fast! They just can't keep up with me! ;) I'm sure that pretty soon I'll have so much to do that I won't be able to keep up! Haha, so I better enjoy this while I can! So if I randomly chat with you uncontrollably just know that it's cause I'm desperate for human interaction. JK, Hahaha! Well, it's so quiet in my office sometimes. :) But I really do like my job. I promise... :)

Pillow Fight!!! San Francisco's Annual Valentine's Day Pillow Fight to be exact!

 Every year in San Francisco for, well, I don't know how long, there is an amazing thing that happens. Hundreds of people gather together in downtown San Francisco on a day of love to enjoy an endearing, magical, and bonding moment together. A gigantic pillow fight!! This was the calm before the storm. Look at that beautiful peaceful scene, a huge group of people just waiting patiently before the battle begins!

This guys getting ready! He's got his pillow raised for action!

 The Pillow Fight officially starts at the strike of 6pm by the Embarcadero Ferry Building clock. Once that chime rings in 6 o' clock the pillow thrashing begins!

 This is my new friend Charity and I, we were trying to get a good shot of us with the fight in the background, but it didn't work very well.

More pillow fighting action!

Even more pillow fighting!

 I have to say there were some pretty crazy characters out there. There were some guys dressed up as gladiators, they had cardboard helmets and maybe a shield, unfortunately I didn't get a shot of them.

 I think I got hit over the head at least a hundred times, it was pretty crazy everywhere you turned people were ready to go! I got in some pretty good shots too. It was amazing how fun and exciting it was! I mean, pillow fights are always fun, but they're even fun with complete strangers! There's just something about hitting people with a plush feather pillow that's so satisfying! :)

 This was after being hit tons of times and towards the end I became the victim of a feather pillow that had seen it's last day, there were feathers everywhere, and yes a ton in my hair!

 Here's some of the group that went from the ward, it was so fun to meet up with them, definitely a bonding experience. Haha!

I love this one, it's so funny!

The battle continued until around 10pm! Can you believe it! I was probably there for an hour or so, and I was tired! Pillow fighting is a good workout, I think I'll have to suggest that as an exercise class! :) Anyway, this is one experience that everyone should try sometime in their lifetime. So if you're ever in the San Francisco area during Valentine's Day why don't you make a trip out to the largest pillow fight in the world, or maybe you should even plan a trip out here! It's amazing!

Beautiful Santa Rosa!

I went on a run a while back while I was in Santa Rosa, and I happened to stop and take some pictures. Since it was so beautiful I wanted to share these photos so other people could enjoy how beautiful Santa Rosa is, I mean, it's really beautiful! Is it not? I mean look! It's days like these that I'm just amazed at the beauty around us and so appreciative... I mean this place is gorgeous!

Look at the colors in the sky and how green the grass was!

Yeah, it's just beautiful!

I liked the silhouette of the trees

Look how blue the sky is in this one!

It was getting kinda dark by this point, but it's still pretty.

I'm just amazed, it's simply beautiful!

So yeah, this is what I got to grow up with! Aren't you jealous? Well, too bad I didn't really appreciate it till I was older, I guess I just didn't realize how good I had it cause I hadn't been many other places in the world yet, but in coming back home I've been struck by how awe-inspiringly beautiful this area of the world is and I feel so blessed to live in such a beautiful place! I can't say it enough!