Happy Birthday!

Today is my beautiful, witty sister Maya's birthday. She is 13! I think this is a great age (contrary to popular opinion) because you are old enough to do lots of fun, interesting adult things but are young enough to be still more involved with family life (as opposed to older teens who do so much at school).

I was thinking of my favorite Maya quotes, and really there are too many to list. Like I said, she is clever girl. One that sticks out in my mind is when she was young, around 4 years old. Mom said I couldn't take her somewhere and Maya turns to me and says, "She's not the boss of us!" Au contraire, mon souer! She actually is the boss of us. Or I should clarify, she is still the boss of YOU! Haha!

Another funny time was when she called me an "adultish type thing". I think that sums it up quite clearly actually, I feel like an adultish type thing!

Another interesting thing about Maya is that she is an innately good dancer. I am not. When she was really young, I was at my mom's house with my friend Margaret, and when we turned on the music she started dancing really well, with rythm and hip shaking moves and like an adult not a child. Margaret and I looked at eachother and went "Whoa!"

According to my sister Malini, Maya will be getting her ears pierced for her birthday. Very exciting!

8 Random Facts About ME

I was tagged by Julie to write 8 random facts about myself. This has turned out to harder that I thought. What exactly is included in "random"? Anyway, here goes...

1. I am really frustrated by the whole "wedding ring" thing. I am supposed to pick one out, and I have sort of come to the conclusion that I don't really want one. I am sort of a plain, simple person, and jewelry isn't really my thing. Don't get me wrong, I do like jewelry...I have been wearing a silver om necklace everyday for years that I bought on my first trip to India years ago, I have a silver CTR ring that my aunt Maria gave me and a silver ring that my Grandma Yeckel gave me when my great Aunt died. I wear these things everyday, mainly because they are simple and they remind me of my family. I also have other special jewelry that people have given me, but they seem too precious to ever wear. I will always keep them but I probably won't wear them very often. So, when it comes to the wedding ring, I feel like I should wait until I see something that I am in love with. I know this will happen some day. But currently, I feel pressure to find an engagement ring. This is the first thing that people ask about when they hear you are engaged. Plus, you need a ring for the wedding ceremony. The other thing about rings is that I will probably never wear a ring that has color...just because I like things simple. So, I guess I could get a plain white gold/silver/platinum band until I find a ring I am in love with? I don't know. Plus, the whole wedding ring industry sort of makes me sick. We have only been into one jewelry store and we got the "high pressure sales" thing which scared me and we haven't been shopping since! The marketing of engagement rings is omnipresent and manipulative. I want to take a stand! But on the other hand, I do like tradition. But, at this point, wedding rings are the least of my worries.

2. I used to eat oatmeal, apples and soy milk every day for breakfast. (For like, 3 years!) Then I ate it one morning and said, "Hmmm, I don't want this for breakfast anymore", and I haven't eaten it since. The problem is that I have no good replacement for it and I still have a costco pack of Quaker old fashioned oatmeal. I have tried smoothies for breakfast but they make me sort of hyper and they don't really fulfill me. I think they have too much sugar. I don't add any, but fruit is so sweet naturally.

3. I want a baby. But don't worry, I am going to finish school and work for a while before I have one. And besides, Matt isn't ready yet. And to Sam (Matt's brother, not that he reads this blog) don't worry, I would never be sneaky and try to have a baby before Matt is ready. Sam has this strange idea that girls like to trap men by going behind their back and "accidentally" getting pregnant. I am not sure if he knows a whole bunch of bizarre women or if I only know strong, independent women, but I think that it is extremely rare for a woman to try to do that.

4. I love California and I want to move back because my family is extremely important to me. But, I am worried I can never move back because I hate spending so much time in a car. It is insane to me that people are willing to spend so many hours per day in a car. But I guess if you are used to it, you don't notice. It used to be normal for me. I am not sure how California can change things though...and I don't think most Californians want to change things. Different stroke for different folks I guess!

5. This is what I look like after drinking hard alcohol. This is also why I don't do it very often!

6. One of my life goals is to study ashtanga yoga at AYRI with Pattabhi Jois. It will happen. I don't know when, but it will happen!

7. I have three positive thinking role models: Camber Hardy, Kelly Berlin and Betsy Clapp Lewis. It is so important to stay positive, not only for your mental health but also your physical health. The more you try to see things in a positive light, the more things will actually be positive. The world is only what you perceive it to be, so might as well perceive it in a positive way. Strangely, it has been much easier to see the world in a positive way since I was diagnosed with MS. Even when people hurt my feelings really badly, I have no choice but to think, " I have no time or energy for negative feelings. I am going to disregard this and move onto more positive feelings and actions." This is not to say that my feelings don't get hurt.

8. I am running out of random things. Hmm. Let me think of something funny. Oh, ok, I am not very funny. I don't know why...it just happened like that. Maybe I can blame it on the MS? Matt is really funny. My family is funny. When Matt visited my family in San Diego last summer, we were all sitting at the dinner table and everyone was having witty banter, even my little sisters Maya and Marissa and Malini! I was just laughing, but not contributing otherwise. Then I thought, hmm, why am I not funny? Then I thought, "Oh well, everyone seems to like me anyway". :)


The rules - 1: Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves. 2: People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules. 3: At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names. 4: Don't forget to leave them a comment and tell them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

(I can't tag 8 people cause I only know 4 bloggers!)
TAG you're it:

Linda
Maria
Grandma Janet
Crystal (Vivacious Vegan)

Camping in Cape Cod

Last weekend Matt and I went camping with our friends Greg and Mekayla. It was so much fun! Cape Cod is very cute, with lots of little "clam shacks" and restaurants and stores.











We went on some nice day hikes. It is great to be able to get out of the city every once in a while. I hadn't been camping for a long time, so it was lots of fun. We went out to dinner at night, but then we came back to the camp site for a camp fire and we roasted marchmallows. Greg and Mekayla even sang folk songs...it was very festive, but I feel like we let them down by not singing with them. Matt did sing an Irish song about Tipperary (or something like that), and I was impressed. Alas, I knew no songs and did not sing!












This is a picture of Matt and I one of our hikes. I am wearing a pink fleece that I bought in China...it is perfectly functional and warm, but Matt hates it. He wants me to get rid of it, but frankly, good fleeces here inthe US are expensive, and why should I buy a new one if the old one is fine? I admit, hot pink is probably not the best color for a fleece, but in the end I just don't care.

I love the colors in this photo. I think New Englanders are used to the beach being cold...we saw people bringing a down comforter out to the sandy beach to cover up with! People were laying out in beach chairs while all bundled up!

Also, these pictures came out really small...I was experimenting with bloggin directly from Picasa, and this is how it turned out. I am too lazy now to go back and try to repost larger pictures! If you click on the photos, they will come up in a new box in giant size.

Matt's 29th Birthday

Matt's 29th birthday was definitely less exciting than it has been in the last few years...but it is so much easier to have big, fun parties in Hong Kong than it is in the US! Plus, Matt has been crazy busy at work lately, and he didn't even get home from work until late. So, we went over to this neighborhood restaurant that is amazing. It is called Chez Henri, and they have the best Cuban sandwiched and yummy, not-too-sweet mojitoes to wash it down with. It is a really romantic place with delicious food...even Oprah agrees, it was listed as "Best Neighborhood Restaurant" in her magazine, and I think she is right.
I made Matt a home made German Chocolate birthday cake. We both agreed that it is the best cake that I ever made (although not much to look at)! It was so rich that my second slice made me feel sick...but every bite on the way to the sick feeling was delicious! I credit this cake to Grandma yeckel, who told me that the best recipes are on the back of food containers because they want you to keep buying their products so the recipes are really good. Any way, I got the recipe for this off the back of the shredded coconut container. I will definitely make this again, but only if there are more people to share it...it was so good that Matt and I ate way too much of it!