Christmas

Home again from a three week tour of Texas -- without a car. As most of my readers participated in the trip, this post will be less a description of events and more a list of thank yous.

Thank you for...

...opening your homes and cars to me.
...driving far out of your way, twice.
...going back to Target for a jacket.
...teaching David cribbage while I was there.
...sharing the pilot of Bones.
...Season 2 of Fringe.
...pastistio.
...your generosity....Lego Star Wars.
...hugs.
...getting me into the zoo.
...a post-season sweet potato casserole.
...Pride and Prejudice....Disney Princess card games
...teaching me to aim and making me use the .38.
...Chick fil A milkshakes.
...big Christmas surprises.
...the flights....reading the book first.
...sharing French fries at Five Guys.

Thank you for being a great big loving family!

Thank you for a Christmas worth waiting for!

Let Me Entertain You

Hello.  I know it's been forever since I updated, so I want to check in.  This last weekend I was blessed with a visit from my mother as she was making her way to Texas.  She was able to see one of my shows for the first time since early sophomore year and I was able to entertain my second guest in my new place.  

My explorations of this place have been pitifully few (hence the lack of posts), but we achieved a fair amount of Christmas shopping, spent some time dressing up my place for Christmas, went on a few outings, and wandered through a few antique shops in downtown Pomona to find a surprising number of treasures.  One of the best features of California is that you can visit the beach and the mountains on the same day if you wish.  We decided to break it into two days and went to the mountains first.  We drove for a while enjoying the scenery and jumping out at various scenic outlooks.  The sun was shining and the weather was perfectly not-cold and not-hot.  I've been looking at these mountains every day since I moved here, so it was a wonderful thing to go into them.  The next day, we planned to go to the beach.  Unbeknown to us, winter arrived over night.  We went down the water, took a couple photographs, and ran back to the car.  But, we still got to wander along the coast and enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of beach towns.

It was a short visit, but really great to show off this wonderful city and the amazing job that I get to do out here.  And the good news is, I'll get to see her along with the rest of the family ten days from now.  Who could ask for anything more?

Mountains!  A very new experience.

My Christmas decorations.  This is how I get away with not having a tree.

Overheard

Part of a conversation between the oldest niece and nephew (9 and almost 9-yrs-old):

"That was in the 1900s... before we were even born." -N

Skunked!

In the game of cribbage a 'skunk' is when you get two corners ahead of your opponent.  In our family, we have a small figurine of a skunk that is kept in the possession of whoever was skunked last.  This skunk is mainly kept between me and my mom by this point, but my sister and I play a lot now, so two years ago my sister printed out and framed a picture of a skunk to pass between us.  I had seen and commented on the skunk at every visit, but had no idea what it was really for until a few nights ago when she skunked me for the first time in two years.

I made a vow not to leave with the picture and last night, my vow was fulfilled.  I had died one point away from turning the corner and I killed her in exactly the same fashion.  The skunk has been returned to it's rightful place on top of the piano and all is as it should be.  Of course, my sister will be out for revenge and of course, anything can happen, but for the time being, the skunk is hers.

The final board:

The skunk back where it belongs:

If you want to see what my sister had to say when she won look here.  As for me, the tables have been turned.  That is all.

 

Shopping and Frog Juice and Other Diversions

This year's Christmas adventures began with a trip to College Station to pick up my mother and take her to Waco where we had a wedding to attend.  Mom had been back for a week and staying with my sister Rachel in Houston.  We had agreed to meet halfway, so that neither one of us had to drive excessively far in a single day.  The wedding was simple, but very lovely and followed by a trip back to College Station for the night.

Sunday was church and hang out in College Station, then Monday was the trek to Houston.  We had the afternoon and evening with just Rachel's family, then around 9:00 my sister Julie's family arrived.  There will be a few more on Christmas evening, but the stats at the moment are 6 children in the single digits (4 months to 9 years) and 6 adults.  The kids generally get along and there are enough people and activities that they are fairly content (although we are certainly not lacking in tantrums).  Rachel's new house is filled with air mattresses, toys and games (frog juice is a card game), and piles of shoes.  There is of course the occasional game of musical cars as teams are picked for the last minute shopping.  

I've already been called "Rachel" more times than I can count, especially by Julie's husband and the middle niece.  How often has she been called "Sarah?"  Zip.

So the last couple of days I've been immersed in the standard family meyhem, but I love seeing everyone again.  Even if they don't know who I am.

Evelyn

THIS JUST IN:  First time meeting the new niece :)

Black Friday

I have never intentionally participated in a Black Friday and certainly not in the madness waking up at 4am to shove my way through too many people in too small a space.  But midnight--that's a different matter.

This Thanksgiving we heard of a nearby outlet mall that was opening at 12am (actually, some stores opened as early as 10pm).  My sister, Rachel, and sister-in-law, Snow, and I tossed it around for so long that it finally became absolutely necessary for us to check it out.  If it was awful we could leave without putting much of a dent in our schedule and say to each other "remember that time we tried Black Friday and it was a bad idea..." which is of course preferable to that nagging question of "what if?"  We left just before 4am.  

We didn't cover a lot of ground, we didn't buy a whole lot, but we walked out quite pleased with ourselves.  We each left with a few useful purchases and a few indulgances and many laughs over the ridiculous situation and some outrageous merchandise.  One of the best laughs came from our photo booth experience.  Rachel and I had never used one, so we decided that it was high-time we did.  We barely managed to squeeze in -- Snow actually poked her head in from outside the booth -- and took our awkward pictures.  Then we used my camera to take a picture of us outside the booth and it turned out to be more epic than the one inside the booth.  Oh well.  It was still an extremely worthwhile first photo booth experience.

So...remember that time we tried Black Friday and it was legendary?  

A snapshot of our photo booth pictures.

Post-photo booth snapshot.

Leaving.  My camera unfortunately only has a date stamp, not a time stamp, but notice that it is the day after Thanksgiving.  Also, notice that Rachel and I are sporting hats that were not in the previous pictures.

   

Photo Hunter: Low

My niece at Christmas three years ago.  (Note: puffins = pumpkin muffins)

'Putting the puffins out of my reach?  That's just low!'

Photo Hunter

A New Den for the Salazars

First day in the new home (please forgive the backlighting):

Miguel found for himself a nice place to lounge...and roar.

In such a crazy day, David kept finding things to hug.  As he told me, Guanabana was his "secondary huggie" and Coke Bear was his "firstendary huggie"

"I'm not even tired!"

Alex found a quarter and wanted to play with it, so he asked for "Heads or Iowas"

We went to Texas Roadhouse for Andres' birthday and, no, we didn't make him sit on the saddle and have it yelled out to the restaurant that he was turning 25.  What we did have was Rachel drawing on a box.  You decide for yourself which is more entertaining, but I think we know where the boys stand.

Photo Hunter: Stripes

This is one that was so painfully obvious I wanted to look for something out of the ordinary (ie, not a striped shirt). I was pleased to find this picture of my mom in front of her university for language school and for this exercise we want to focus on the traffic stripes. Mom said she had to cross the street so quickly, with such broad strides that she felt like she was on Abbey Road.

Photo Hunter

Holiday in The City of Lights

Hello again from Hong Kong, the city of lights! The advantage of coming to Hong Kong instead of other major world cities is that my sister-in-law grew up here. Before I left, she gave me a list (front and back on a piece of computer paper) of things to see and do here. Most of these things happened to be on Mom's list as well, so armed with expert advice we set off the explore the city.

My first full day in the city, we took the tram to the Peak. The peak is a wonderful place to see most of the city at once and to catch all the shining lights at night. We spent several days hanging out around the harbor (Mom said I misspelled this last time--it should be 'harbour'--thanks England). There is the Avenue of Stars with the names and hand prints of famous Hong Kong actors and a series statues with a cinematic theme. I was excited to find three names that I recognized--Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, and Jet Li--now ask me if I have actually seen any of their movies.

Every night at 8:00 there is a light show in which tall and important buildings on both sides of the harbor participate, spinning and flashing their lights in time to music. We watched it one night from the harbor and one night from the water. Both provided very interesting viewpoints and were quite fun. The ferry that we watched from the second time took us on a one-hour tour around the harbor and showed us a large part of the city but there were still buildings spilling out beyond the boundries of our tour.

We took a couple trips to a market with an often beautiful and sometimes exhilirating bus ride that was a treat on its own. On New Year's Eve we spent the day at Ocean Park, a sort of amusement park/aquarium and took the tram to see a different part of the city (and ride a different subway line). New Year's Day was a lazy day of reading, strolling through the very well-designed History Museum, and drinks at Starbuck's.

This past weekend we had a chance to meet the "in-laws." We made plans with my sister-in-law's mother and sister to go to one of the outlying islands together (Cheung Chou). We had a wonderful day walking along the beach and beside what was advertised as "The Mini Great Wall" much to the amusement of everyone.

I feel like I've always known my way around Hong Kong and living here is as natural as living in Florida or Texas--then I realize that I have only seen maybe 1/8th of the city! At the same time, the Master List is almost completely checked off and the time with my mom has been wonderful. Time is running out, so I'm getting the most of the vaction I have left. I leave Thursday and school starts Monday, so it's either 4 days til Chick-fil-A or 7 days until class and rehearsal--personally, I'm counting down to waffle fries and a chicken sandwich.

This is what Hong Kong looks like when riding the peak tram :)







This was taken on a bus ride and is a rather typical street scene. What a brave/crazy soul!







This is the corner just a few stores down from Mom's office. Yikes!

Part of the Harbor during the light show. This was the night we were on the ferry.

Mom hiding on the ferris wheel at Ocean Park.

The in-laws :)

Random skyscrapers.

Photo Hunter: Wide

For me the most wondrous and widespread thing on earth is the ocean (specifically the Atlantic). So here is my niece and I standing at the brink of the greatest Wide I know.

Photo Hunter

Photo Hunter: Family

For me the term "family" is quite expansive. I was terrified by the thought of digging through the hundreds of pictures of my family and having to choose only one. Or two. Or thirty. However, somewhere in the course of my weekend, although I can't be sure if I was waking or sleeping, I was struck with inspiration. Baseball. When I was a child, we went from Florida to Texas to my aunt and uncle's house where all the family that could met for Thanksgiving and each year we would all get together and play baseball in the back yard. We do not meet like we used to, but my nephews are completely enamored of the sport. This is a picture of my nephew, David, and my cousin, Ben, playing baseball together last Christmas since baseball has been my family's sport for as long as I can remember.

PhotoHunt

Photo Hunter: Lazy

This was the HARDEST subject for me! "Lazy" simply does not exist in my vocabulary (not in a positive way at least). I found examples of "restful" and "relaxing" but still "active." I did manage to pull out two pictures that could represent lazy. The first is of my cat, Hanes, who is staying with my brother and sister-in-law. Generally, she only plays with toys she does not have to chase and even in this shot the squirrel is almost too far away.

The next picture was taken at a Christmas party I went to last year. We arranged the candy canes artistically, but still wondered about the presence of a pumpkin at a Christmas party. Apparently, someone was too lazy to go to the trash can!

PhotoHunt

Missed Calls

Tonight I as I was digging in my purse I discovered something that made my heart skip a beat: I had left my cell phone at home. After the initial and terrifying discovery, I reminded myself that it probably healthy for me to be without my phone every once and a while. After all, I had spent the previous three hours without it, I could leave it a couple hours more. If anyone called or texted I would be able to see that when I got home and respond then.

When I walked into my apartment, there was my phone sitting on the coffee table. In an effort to detach myself further from the Compulsive Cell Phone Disorder, I refrained from checking it immediately. A minute or so later I heard the satisfactory beep altering me to two missed calls. Both were from the number Unavailable which I knew immediately was my mom. She is the only person I cannot call back since it is actually a Skype number. I won so much ground in my fight against cell phone addiction and I actually missed the call I needed to answer right away and on a rare occasion when I could have talked to her. Sad.

This story does have a happy ending though! I emailed my mom right away to tell her what happened and a few minutes later I received a call from Unavailable. She has the day off today (tomorrow?) for the Midautumn Festival and was able to call later in her day and talk for a while. How long? 40mins 54 secs. When does that ever happen? I am the luckiest girl in the world.

Labor Day's Labors

After one whole week of school, we have a day off! Good 'ol Labor Day. Somewhat miraculously, I went the entire week and weekend without rehearsal, so naturally the best thing to do with my time was visit family. My sister graciously let me come spend a couple day with her and her boys (David 7, Alex 4, Miguel 2 this month). It was a nice time of normalcy -- baseball, Cars video games, and shopping (much to David's lament) -- and the kids were entertaining as always. Here is one particularly amusing conversation that happened while we were trying to cross a street:

Rachel: Do you see any cars?
Alex: No.
Rachel: (pointing to a car coming our way) What do you think that is?
Alex: I think it's a Honda.

He was right; it was a Honda.

I came back home for the day so that I could clean up my apartment and get some work done. I had a chance meeting with my friend, Anna, at Common Grounds (Baylor's coffee place of choice) which led to a pleasantly long lunch and several hours of reading plays for class on my porch and in my living room. It would have nice if I did not need to read the plays, but it was more enjoyable to have a good friend sitting on the ridiculous and brightly colored patio chair next to me. I even pulled out the taco salad for dinner, which should have been delicious except that we found sugar ants in the Tostitos. My roommate, Christina, and I have been fighting the foul intruders ever since we moved in and have built up an arsenal of complaints against the unpleasant trespassers. Anna said I should share this one more often:

One day Christina made dinner for some friends then they went out to a movie afterward, so she did not have a chance to clean up the kitchen. I came home and found the counter absolutely crawling with ants, a whole colony. Some of the ants were moving spryly as usual, but some were sluggish, almost stumbling. I finally realized that a purple spot on the counter was some wine that Christina had used for the sauce and that the ants looked sick because they were drunk! You learn new things every day and that day I learned that even ants can become inebriated.

So the long weekend turned out to be a simple and cozy weekend with family and friends. A great time to take it easy, but get some work done too!