Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

I’ve had several conversations with different people about how it doesn’t feel like it’s the holidays, even though Christmas is right around the corner. Maybe it’s because it’s been a warm winter in LA so far; perhaps it’s the slumping housing market and possible recession (hey when you hear it almost every day on NPR you start believing it). Or maybe it’s because we didn’t decorate our house this year?

Well, it finally began to feel like Christmas to me last week. It all started with my book club meeting last Wednesday, where I had saw people I haven’t spoken to during the past year (I have been MIA for most of the year due to work travel and general laziness). When you haven’t seen people for that long it’s almost like making new friends again; so much happens over the course of the year that just catching up can take half an hour. It was a lot of fun catching up with all the lovely and smart ladies from the book club, women full of great insight and opinions.

This past Saturday I had lunch with my old co-workers from BDO. We all started at the same time and kept in touch even though we’ve all left the company except for one person (partner track!). Again, it was fun seeing all of them and listening to what they’ve been up to.

Lunch at Il Tiramisu

After lunch, I went Christmas tree shopping with my mom, my sister, and Rene. It was a pretty quick trip at Home Depot – we ended up buying the first tree we saw. After hauling it home, we placed it on the stand and decorated it. Here are some pictures:

My sister and mom hamming it up while shopping for a tree

Finding a place for the tree and setting it up

What I do to help out: pose with tree cuttings to imitate a turkey

Pretty colors

Tree decorations are hung and the lights are on

Chuy admiring the tree

Now that the tree is decorated and the presents are under it, I'm beginning to feel the holiday spirit. It's amazing what a tree, lights, and fancy wrapping can do.

Cupcakes - yum!

I've gotten tired of looking at my old post but I'm not quite ready for my next entry, so here's some food for thought courtesy of Blogthings.com (you should visit, they have some fun quizzes):

You Are a Cupcake

Cute and fun, you never take life too seriously. People are constantly surprised by how delightful you are.

What Dessert Are You Most Like?

What's in a Name?

A pregnant friend recently found out that she's having a boy. She and her husband both wanted a girl this time, a sibling to their adorable three-year old boy. Until now, she had been thinking of girl names: Sydney, Peyton, and Sophia. Since she's having a boy she wanted to know if I had any ideas for boy names and I told her I’d think about it.

To start, I looked up the most popular boy names of 2006 according applications submitted to Social Security. Here they are, in ranking order:

Jacob
Michael
Joshua
Ethan
Matthew
Daniel
Christopher *
Andrew
Anthony
William

For the most part those are nice, solid names for a boy. Of all of them I like Christopher the best because it’s versatile (the boy could be called Christopher or Chris) and also because I have a cousin who's always made me laugh with the same name. On the other hand, I’d be hard-pressed to name any kid Anthony because it’s such a common name and also because I had a really lousy manager named Anthony who made me cry at work (not in front of him, thank goodness, because it might have freaked him out; I cried in the ladies’ restroom). It’s amazing how our choice in names is influenced by people we’ve had in our lives.

On my drive home from work the other night, I thought about all the names that I’ve liked throughout the years. Oh, there were some horrendous ones:

Tzeitel Anastasia - During 8th grade, we read and watched Fiddler on the Roof. Tevye's (the main character's) oldest daughter was named Tzeitel: the one who was in love with the tailor named Motel Kamzoil. Anyway, she had been promised to a fat old butcher named Lazar Wolf in the beginning of the play, and when Tevye found out that she was in love with Motel Kamzoil he broke off the engagement by making up a dream where his dead mother came to him told him that Tzeitel should marry a man named Motel Kamzoil. The fact that I can spell all these names correctly is a little scary but I really loved that musical. With songs like If I Were a Rich Man and Matchmaker Matchmaker, how could I not? I added Anastasia as an extra flourish.

Chantal Giselle - There was a period in my life when I was obsessed with French names. Of course, I always like the unique ones, ones that you didn’t hear too often, hence Chantal. Sounds tragic and romantic at the same time, no? I also liked Chloe but only the way it’s spelled and not the way it’s pronounced – like Zoey, a name I don’t like.

When picking out these names I wanted them be unique, but now I realize that names should symbolize something and be unique, but not so unique that they get teased in school. I mean, can you imagine the horrible teasing Tzeitel Anastasia would get from other kids and the number of teachers and principals that would mispronounce the name? Unless you lived in Russia before the Cultural Revolution, of course.

Speaking of weird names, I have come across some that have either grated my nerves or made me laugh:

Nimrod - Seriously, someone had this name at a company I used to work for. I don’t even want to know how many jokes were told at this poor guy’s expense. His last name was Johnson – I kid you not!

Tolu - A girl from Peru (named Tolu – hey that rhymes) was in my third grade class. She sat next to me and liked to talk but I always got into trouble, not her. She had a thick accent that sounded like Penelope Cruz.

Priscilla - Only drag queens should have this name, plus the nicknames are horrible - Prissy or Cilla, anyone?

Cherry/Apple: It’s only recently that fruit names have become acceptable (or have they?). Gwyneth Paltrow naming her daughter Apple didn’t come as a big surprise to me – I once had a neighbor named Apple and friends from school named Cherry (Cherry is a pretty common Filipino name). I like both names but Cherry bothers me, only because teenage boys can be crass and might joke about “popping the cherry.” Gross!

After all that, I'm probably the last person she wants to consult for a baby name, but there's a few months left to think about the right name for her new baby. Good luck!

'Tis the Season for Gifts

According to Blogthings.com, I am a

Practical Gift Giver

Your gifts are useful, appropriate, and custom tailored to each person. In your opinion, the best gifts are gifts that someone will actually use. Your gifts may not be the most glamourous, but they are always appreciated.

What Kind of Gift Giver Are You?

I only have a few more gifts to go...

Upper Las Virgines Hike with Chuy - A Photo Essay

Rene, Chuy and I went for a hike last Saturday. After a brief stop at a donut shop (for some reason I was fixated on having a donut for breakfast), we made our way to the Upper Las Virgines trail in West Hills and sat down for a breakfast of donuts and green tea. Chuy ate half of my glazed donut. We started our hike soon after, amid sunny skies but cold temperatures. It had rained the night before, meaning all the ugly gray clouds and air pollution had been burned off, leaving only beautiful blue skies and fresh air.

Chuy and Rene at the start of the hike. Check out that lovely blue sky!

Chuy running ahead to meet us on top of the hill. I love how the picture captures the lone oak tree, blue sky, dry brush, and red dog - it all looks great put together.

Close shot of Chuy - what a poser.

Chuy surveying the valley.

Posing with Chuy - notice how the oak trees on the right-hand side line the valley? There must be a stream or creek down there providing water to the trees.

Two guys posing for a picture - finally, both of them are looking at me!

Looking away and checking out other things...

We sat in this hill for about 20 minutes while Chuy roamed nearby, checking out the large oak tree and bushes and making sure that he peed everywhere he needed to. Chuy started to get bored and was sitting down when Rene started throwing rocks towards to tree; Chuy likes to chase things, so we entertained ourselves for a few minutes by watching Chuy chase rocks we were throwing around. While chasing the rocks we were throwing, Chuy found a big rock that he mistook for a turtle (remember Mr. Turtle?) and started pushing it around with his paws and trying to get it into his mouth. This lasted for about half an hour. Here's a short video of my crazy dog:

We called it a day after Chuy got tired of chasing the rock around. We started hiking down the hill when Chuy saw something shiny and bolted. We continued hiking down the hill without him, thinking he'd hear us talking but he got lost soon after and bolted downhill in the other direction after seeing other hikers (probably thinking it was us), so Rene went after him. Chuy was tired after charging up the hill full-speed to catch up with us:

Reunited and it feels so good!

How to Avoid Food Poisoning

Last weekend my cousin came down with food poisoning. She had a horrible weekend: there was probably a lot of throwing up, dry heaving, and hanging around the toilet. When not retching, she was sleeping it off, hoping that the feeling would go away and magically wake up without the throbbing in her head or nausea.

I’ve gotten food poisoning once before and luckily for me it was a brief experience, lasting only one night, but I remember it vividly.

It happened in early 2003, and I was working for a national accounting firm for a little over a year. The firm was short-staffed and I was asked to lead a complex project that was way over my head. During this project I sometimes had trouble breathing and my heart would race because I was learning things as I went along and doing my very best not to show the client my shortcomings. As an auditor, the worst thing you could do was appear stupid or clueless, and your biggest fear was the client committing fraud without you catching on. Fortunately that was not the case and I got through the experience. The project taught me a lot about myself and about getting the job done no matter what. It also taught me that whatever doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.

(Let me clarify here that I was an auditor for a public accounting firm, and not for the IRS. My job was to make sure that a company’s financial statements were presented fairly and in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Public accounting firms are hired by companies whose stock is traded on the stock market or by companies that need to present financial statements to their lenders. Whenever I told people I was an “auditor” they recoiled in horror and probably imagined me grilling them over their tax returns. For the record, I only know enough about taxes to prepare and file my own returns. That being said, I tell annoying people that ask what I do for a living that I am an auditor and that is usually enough to shut them up.)

Towards the end of fieldwork, the project manager took the team (meaning me and another person) out to lunch. It’s customary for the manager to take the team out to a nice lunch every time he/she comes out to visit as a way of showing their appreciation for the hard work. We went to an Italian restaurant and sat down for a fancy meal. I ordered a nice salad with dry cheese (parmesan?) and a pizza. I made small talk with the manager about lots of things, like how the work was coming along and how the client was treating us (only a few more loose ends to tie up, the client was pleasant, etc.). Then I told the manager that the restaurant decor (bright yellow walls with terracotta tile flooring) reminded me of the bathroom I was renovating at home. What a weird comment – I was basically juxtaposing food and toilets – and I could only imagine what was going through his head. I blame it on stress and lack of sleep; I was so tired during that time that the mechanism in my head that filtered these comments was on strike. Little did I know how much that comment would later come back to haunt me.

After lunch, we went back to work, focused on getting the job done. Around 4 pm I started getting a headache and a funny feeling in my stomach but I ignored it and soldiered on: THERE WAS SO MUCH WORK LEFT TO DO. I continued ignoring the pain until 6 pm, at which point it started to feel like someone was hitting my head with a sledgehammer, and it was impossible to concentrate. The pain was so bad that I left work early (6 pm was considered early back then, even if you started at 7 am) and collapsed on my bed an hour later. That’s when the nausea hit, forcing me to get on my knees and worship the porcelain god. I held that position for at least an hour; in between episodes I lay on the bathroom floor and begged my stomach for mercy. After the dry heaving stopped, I took a shower and went into a coma for the rest of the night.

Amazingly, I was fine the next morning and ready to go back to work. It was as if the painful episode from the night before didn’t happen. I got dressed, pick out something to wear and was putting on my makeup when I noticed the sunny yellow wall in front of me and the cool terracotta tiles under my feet. It all came rushing back to me at that moment – my comment about the restaurant décor matching my bathroom, and the realization that the food was contaminated. Euh! Euh! Euh! Yuuuuucckkk! Thoughts of the chef preparing my salad and pizza in an environment like a bathroom, where the most revolting germs live, danced in my head and almost made me sick all over again. I had to sit down for a few minutes and drink some green tea to settle my stomach. Never ever eat in restaurants that match your bathroom décor! My comment should’ve been a warning to me that the food I was going to consume was tainted – why else would I have made such an observation? I should have put it together somehow.

The next time you’re in a restaurant, even a posh one, think to yourself: does this restaurant look like my bathroom? If it does, back away from the table and find another place to eat. This may spare you from the pain and anguish of food poisoning.

An Attempt To Eat Healthy Snacks

In an effort to snack on healthier foods, I bought organic cookies last night called Healthy Handfuls. These cookies are organic, nutritious snacks with no trans fats, no preservatives, no hydrogenated oils, no corn syrup and no GMOs (whatever those are). In theory, it sounds great - all the flavors of chocolate chip cookes and good for you - everyone's a winner.

The cookies are made out of organic whole wheat flour instead of enriched white flour. I was expecting them to taste like Famous Amos cookies but what I got instead is a cookie that tastes like bran muffins. Or a sweet piece of cardboard. After eating a handful of these, I've probably met my daily fiber requirement. They're not good at all - so why do I keep eating them?