Motivated

It's been awhile since I've posted, been really busy working on our Courage Against Cancer website. (http://www.courageagainstcancer.com/) We've been trying to raise awareness about ovarian cancer for the past 8 months and have come along way. Then a month ago a co-worker/friend of mine is diagnosed with Breast cancer. Why is it all around me? I went on a ride with her last week, she literally said "I want to get in a workout tonight because I don't know how I'll feel after chemo". I was motivated to ride tonight, because I didn't have to go home and worry about my hair falling out, worried about getting sick, worried about being able to eat, worried about everything..When I left work today, I didn't hesitate to get changed and start riding. I felt blessed as I was able to ride today, I was thankful for being healthy and I was riding for those who couldn't. I'll continue to do my best to help bring awareness to all about these terrible diseases. Women out there please keep getting checked, pay attention to your body.. don't think "it's nothing" and don't be afraid.

peace and love

Eating Raw..feeling raw

Let me start by saying.. I really do love my life, I like my new job, I enjoy spending time with my family and friends. The people in my life bring me so much joy.

However, the past few months have been harder than I had admitted to.. I tended to suppress my feelings by drinking and eating or whatever I felt like. I think I was more vulnerable than I realized, more "needy" than I wanted to be. And to be honest I'm not very proud of some of the things I did. I'll just leave it at that..


So I wanted to cleanse myself both emotionally and physically. I was talking to a good friend of mine who is a raw vegan. Yep only raw fruits and vegetables.. hard right? Nope, not at all, at least not the eating part.. the feeling part was a whole different story. It's weird when you don't have "comfort" food or alcohol to run to when you're feeling down, something to numb you to "get you through" that rough patch.


I learned some things in those 13 days.. (random number of days that I did it before going to Omaha) I learned that I had so things that were blocking me from moving on, things maybe I knew but didn't want to admit. So I challenged myself to work through it and continue to do so every day.

Oh yeah now I'm a vegetarian.. Except for sushi, but really the whole experience of eating sushi is more spiritual than a meal right? So this is how I feel today.. who knows what tomorrow will bring??

Oops...

I let it happen.. I let time pass and now it's just been awhile since I've posted anything. But I have been busy with baseball games, following Cal State Fullerton where my newphew plays. From Sacramento to San Luis Obispo to Omaha, NE where the baseball college world series is held. What a ride it's been, I love sports, love baseball, and love my family. A great combination and so much fun along the way. And although I'm fortunate to be so close to my given family, I miss my "chosen family".... my friends.

Sometimes it's hard because we are spread out geographically. I miss the luxury of just stopping by to say hi.. or going to dinner. But now that baseball is over, my weekends are free again to schedule some new adventures. I like being spontaneous and it's summer time.. which means, 4th of July parties, boating weekends, BBQs, rides, runs etc. Man I love my life and look forward to the good times ahead.

peace and love to all

Is today Great?

A friend if mine asked me "Is today great?" And to that I say yes! Even the days that are hard, days where tears fall, days were nothing seems to go my way, those days could be just as great as the happy days. Because to me, even though it feels like hell, situations seem hard, or I have a heavy heart.. it does get better, and it's those feelings and that process that make the day great. If I never felt anything , was numb to the world, or going through the motions how would I ever know if I had a great day?

Remember you can't turn back time, "so how do you want to spend your day?"

Is today great for you?

One of those people..

I use to live in Long Beach and loved driving down PCH to go to work in Newport. Every day I would look at the surfers, the cyclists, the runners, walkers, talkers, everybody that was outside and wonder.. how do I become one of those people? What do they do for a living?

Within the last 6 months, my partner and I split, I moved, I lost my job and I lost a good friend. Silver lining?? I was able to become "one of those people". Someone who was able to ride their bike every morning, meet friends in the middle of the day just because and spend quality time with friends and family.

I've met some new people along the way, got to know others better, worked through some challenging times and feel very fortunate to have had this time. I start a new job on Monday and am excited to learn something new. Although my schedule won't be as flexible, my time with friends and family will still be a priority. Because at the end of the day I don't think anybody says.. I wish I would have worked more..

Happy Birthday Katy!

Jackson Adventure

I've been asking my friend Subrina to go on a road trip with her jeep. I love jeeps, the open air, the off roading (if needed), for some reason I just feel more adventerous when I'm in one. So she got it ready and drove up to Sacramento, where we were going to kidnap Lisa and hit the open road. With it being Katy's birthday on Wednesday we knew the three of us had to be together.

It had been beautiful, sunny, blue skies and warm. Needless to say, Tuesday happened to be one of the coldest days of the week. But hey it's an adventure so off we went.. Of course Lisa said, she was only going because it's what Katy would have wanted her to do. And by looking at her bundled up I'm sure she wasn't kidding;)

Lisa and Kirby

Amador county has several wineries, but we stayed in Jackson which is a about 25 minutes south of all of them. Hey no worries, let's go check out downtown Jackson.. that took all of 2 minutes to drive through. And we learned that most things are closed, Mon, Tues, Wed.. how do people stay in business??

Downtown Jackson

Off we went to Sutter Creek, a cute little town , 10 minutes away. Had some lunch at the Palace, then walked down the street to wine taste at the only place that was open for wine tasting. However before the wine tasting we had stopped at a few Antique stores, Subrina is a big fan, it's something she and Katy shared and appreciated together.

As we were looking around, we started talking to a local, we were telling her we are going to walk to downtown Jackson and check out the local bar. She was adamant about us not going.. that we should drive 15-20 minutes away and go to St. George in Volcano. She had lived there all her life and had never gone in. What?? Well then for sure we have to check it out right?



In town, Lisa and Subrina stopped at a book store. Lisa likes to check out books, pick up ones that she needs to replace in her library. Odd thing is as she went inside Subrina was looking at the books outside, okay Subrina looking at books isn't the odd part :) It's the book that Subrina finds, "What Katy did at School".. throughout the day there were signs that Katy was with us.










The Main Event Bar, with the tourquoise door was nothing to be afraid of. I think most people are friendly if you give them a chance. We met a few locals that day and their stories were very interesting. However they did think we were with the FBI because Subrina was asking so many questions.



All in all it was a good trip, we created new memories and have more stories to tell.. isn't that what life is about? Take adventures.. whether it's an afternoon, a day or a week go out there and make new memories with your friends and family.