December is always a busy month. Not only is it the holidays but also a month for my mom’s and my own birthdays. My birthday was a fairly quiet one and marks the tail end of my 20’s. Both Jason and me are sick, but we managed to go out and have a nice dinner to celebrate. It was all very last minute as the original restaurant I wanted to go to called just days before to tell us they had a fire and had to cancel the reservations and will be closed for months! Thankfully I found a great recommendation on a foodie board and we went to a quaint little bistro.
Jason got me a fancy shmancy fitness monitor which monitors my heart rate and tracks my calories burned. So with this new toy and my existing bodbugg, I’ll be totally strapped up when I’m at the gym. And then there is my bestest friend who always has to go crazy for my birthday and Christmas. I opened up like 8-10 different presents! And one of the gifts that I didn’t realize that I would have to fight with Jason to play with is the Aerosmith Guitar Hero for the Wii! Yes…she is the bestest for a reason.
My mother’s birthday is just two days before mine, but this year we celebrated a little early. And her birthday is a story of just how adorable my father has become as he’s gotten older. When it comes to my parents’ birthdays, Mother’s day, and Father’s day, we ALWAYS do the same thing every single time every single year. There is a Chinese buffet that my parents love and that is just what we always do.
But not this time. Oh no. My dad wanted to surprise my mom and he started planning a month early. Who are you and what have you done with my dad!? It was so cute. On Thanksgiving he snuck around and passed us the business card for the restaurant and told us to not tell our mom. Then when it came time, he made my sister tell my mom and when she let him know he pretended that it was the first time he ever heard about the dinner! Then the day of, as we all drove to the restaurant he snuck around once again to go get the birthday cake. Too adorable and not something I would have ever expected my dad to do. I hope we’re that cute years from now.
Fires are long gone and everyone that I know that were affected are fine and safe. The fires came real close however. Here are some pics taken on the side road I take to get on the freeway from my workplace.
The last photo is of what once was a brightly lit cross that you couldn’t miss as you drove on the 91 freeway. Ever since I started going to Disneyland regularly 10 years ago from Riverside, I always kept an eye out for that cross to know how close I was to the happiest place on earth. I hope someday it will shine brightly again in the night sky.
As I slept, the fire has shifted and my workplace as far as I know is okay. I hope Angela will be allowed back soon to check on her home abode. Now the fire is creeping into Diamond Bar, so I woke up to wondering if my sister is going to be safe. She’s just outside the red zone on the map which is mandatory evacuation. My mom says my sister can see the mountains burning. She’s packing up right now and will be heading to my folks with my niece and nephew as soon as she is told she has to leave.
Yet again Southern California is up in smoke and fire thanks to the Santa Ana winds. I woke up this morning to find out that a fire started up in Anaheim/Corona. It’s something I’ve gotten used to. I’ve worked in Anaheim Hills for 3 1/2 years now and every year, there is some kind of fire that will occur. This is the worst I’ve seen. They’ve completely shut down the freeway and as I am watching the news now, they are showing smoke from the freeway just an exit away from my work. I checked with my co-worker at 1:30 earlier today who supervises our weekend support staff and he texted me to let me know that they were told to evacuate and that the office will be closed until further notice from our boss. Will I have something to return to come Monday morning?
On top of that, I have friends, co-workers, and relatives that live in the area. I hope that everyone is safe.
Update: The riverbed by the Honda dealership that is ohhh, 3-4 blocks away from my work is on fire. My friend Angela lives near the dealership. I know she was able to evacuate and I hope that they are able to keep the fire away from her home!
I live 20-30 miles away and found a photo online of the fire from where we are…
My luck the day I wanted to blog, my host had server issues for 10 hours. 10 HOURS!!! So time to move the rest of my stuff to Godaddy. Hopefully I can get that done today before things get hosed again. I’ve got a few real posts in the works. Until then…enjoy this crazy cat
