Birthday Weekend!

My 2011 birthday marked:

1) My first year of married life and living in the U.S. (it's our anniversary next month!)

2) Two moves, one to an apartment in the U.S. and last week, to a townhouse!

3) My first Thanksgiving in the U.S. and Black Friday Sale! Scored a super affordable drafting table from Michael's.

4) My first Christmas with my in-laws and away from my family. But I'm going home twice this year!

And that's all I've got off the top of my head.


And now for my birthday weekend:

A humongous chocolate cake from Costco to kick it off

A delicious dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse (I am now a sweet potato casserole convert) 

and a movie The Adjustment Bureau

Gorgeous flowers from my family delivered by my cousin

A drive down to Half Moon Bay and yummy lunch at the Ritz Carlton

And shopping at the Sears Outlet. We were looking for a Dryer but ended up with a bag of clothes because everything, I literally mean everything was $7 or less. Clothes and shoewise at least.

Now if only I could get this placed cleaned up enough to invite people over for dinner!

I fondly remind Gerard, next month is our first year anniversary. Teeheee!

Today is my sister's birthday too! (I miss celebrating with her.) And if I'm not mistaken, the birth of my new nephew, Lael, as well! Can't wait to meet him!

On Internet Connections

We've been internet-less for a week since we moved, aside from sporadic bouts of wifi and mobile use.

When Comcast finally gave us the green light, and I literally mean the green light on our modem, I cannot begin to express the joy I felt at being connected. Then it took a good hour to get our wifi up and running for some reason. Mind you, this is with a techie-geek couple both working on it and arguing about what we weren't doing right hahaha. Oh the stress of no connection.

When did I become this person? I can't help but chuckle and shake my head in wonder.

Now that we're finally back online, I can't seem to remember what I used to spend hours doing. 

It'll come back to me.

Let's start with a birthday weekend post!

On Riding Trains

I’m sitting on the BART as I write this and I can’t help but marvel about how my life has changed.

My wedding ring winks at me from my left hand and from my window I can see the sun setting over San Francisco, where I’m headed to for my first graphic design class.

Growing up, I could never have fathomed that this would be my life someday.

In fifteen weeks (I only know that because I’m headed home as soon as this class is done) I will be on a plane headed back to the Philippines, for the first time since I’ve moved to the US. I will have been gone for a year and I wonder how things will have changed there.

Life’s a funny thing like that. Never thought I would become a teacher. Never thought that I would marry Gerard and we would end up living in the Bay Area. (Ok fine, maybe I did have thoughts of marrying Gerard haha.) Never really thought about what leaving home would be like and how much I would miss my family every day.  (Working in media and design, not so shocking since I did major in communication.)

Yet, here I am, on a train, amazed by my reflection and location, in the window.

I guess sometimes, it’s when you’re forced to sit down and wait to get somewhere that you realize how far you’ve come.

On another note, poor Chocolate, Vanilla, and Then Some has been sorrily neglected in favor of hellowhimsy and etsy! I’m hoping that once life settles down a bit, I’ll have more time to write here again.

But on the other hand, I have loved the fact that I’ve been living life offline, and not just writing about it.