Holidays at the Parents'

Thanksgiving with my family was awesome this year. Of course, we can't go two holidays in a row without my dad getting in some sort of dispute with someone in the immediate family. This year he's mad at my sister for not coming home early enough on Christmas Eve. On the surface, it would seem that he is in the right because family should be together for this holiday. However, my sister has a grand total of 48hrs to spend in San Jose before she has to work another shift at a department store, and she wanted to see her best friend too. Her best friend's family invited her to their Christmas Eve dinner, so she accepted. My dad told her that she should do what she wanted (in a very nice, sincere-sounding tone). Then, come 10pm, he started saying loudly, "If they're more important to her than we are, then she should just stay there!" He then proceeded to storm off to bed without so much as a 'goodnight' to me, and leaving my mom to call my sister and tell her to come home.

Great.

Well, she came home and at first was just angry. After she and I talked for a bit she calmed down and now I think she sees why our dad was hurt that she wasn't here. He wanted her to want to be with our family more than with another family. Yes, he should have told her that he preferred to have her here, but if she even had to ask him what he thought in the first place then she should have shown more consideration and come home early.

Now I am going to try to sleep, knowing that Christmas this year is unlikely to be very Merry at all.

Mmmm parfait

Yes, I know. 2 posts in 1 day is a bit much, but hey, I'm on a roll.

This evening I went out on my first run in ages. I learned a couple of things. 1. I really really need new running shoes. 2. Running isn't as bad as I remember it--it's actually kind of fun.

I'd been wanting to run around the local park for a while. It's about a mile away from my apartment, and roughly a half-mile around so in total I ran 2.6 miles. I only did a 10-minute per mile pace, but it was nice to run in the evening air, especially since I was sore from my workout yesterday. (Zumba is killer, man.) I figure if I run 2 or 3 evenings per week I should be able to work up to running further and faster pretty quickly. Last time I ran with any frequency I was doing 4.1 miles with slight hills, albeit at a slow pace.

Now I am sitting down to a tasty parfait that I made before I left as incentive to get myself out the door. Fresh berries and greek yogurt with just a little bit of sugar on top. Mmmm. Success!

One down, a zillion to go

Ever seen those YouTube videos where music comes on in a crowded public place and then random people start to do an elaborate choreographed dance, otherwise known as a flash mob? (If not, take a look at this)

Well, just a few weeks ago I was watching as many flash mob videos as I could find, just to see the astonishment and joy on people's faces when the seemingly normal stranger next to them started to dance. It is beautiful to me that people would put so much time and effort into an event like this where the participants get no pay or recognition. It's just a burst of fun in an otherwise ordinary setting.

As luck has it, less than a week after my flash mob video binge one of my salsa instructors approached me and asked if I would help her with a project. I agreed, figuring it was something for an upcoming showcase. However, when I asked what I'd be doing she told me that she had been invited to choreograph a flash mob to be performed on Cinco de Mayo in downtown LA! Woohoo!

So, practice ensued and we performed a flash mob dance made up of salsa, casino rueda (salsa in a circle), cha cha, samba, hip hop, and reggaeton in the middle of Nokia Plaza at LA Live. We performed twice that evening and both times went off well (although a TV reporter did try to stand in the MIDDLE of our dance). That was definitely one to check off of the bucket list.

My friend Stephen and I started off the first flash mob doing some lead-follow salsa.

It's been a while

I haven't written a new post in months! In some ways, this is because it's been a while since my life took any very exciting turns, which sounds depressing. However, I am enjoying the complete and utter lack of drama in my life. I am in a routine that I stick to by choice more than by obligation. I have different groups of friends associated with my various interests. I am single.

Well... ok that last one is somewhat less than true. I just started seeing someone recently. I've gone on a few dates in the past couple of months, but this is the first guy that I can honestly say I like. The others had many promising attributes (one was a lawyer, the other a handsome aspiring actor), but I didn't connect with them. I was starting to think that since I've grown up so much since my last relationship, maybe the initial attraction just wasn't going to feel the same way anymore. I was partially right. I don't have the same butterflies that I used to get, but that's not such a bad thing. Now I'm more confident in myself, so I'm not anxiously waiting to see if he'll call. So far so good, but I'm very wary of putting myself at risk emotionally. Also, I like my life the way it is, so I don't want to make too many concessions for him. Oh wow, it's been a while since I've had to deal with all of this, and I'm not completely sure that I want to go through it.