The Angel's Flight railway was one of the highlights! The operator-and-ticket-concessionaire person was nice. When I told him I only wanted a single ticket ride, he dead panned, “so you're not gonna say goodbye to me?” haha. What made it so funny was he didn't crack so much a smile before or after! Then I asked if I could get a ticket, basically for souvenir purposes because I mean, cmon, there isn't going to be anyone checking your ticket on this ride. And he gave me one! I looked at if afterwards and realized he gave me a ticket for a round-trip, I guess you only get tickets if you buy a round trip fare. His kindness made me happy.

Guide for Meeting People/Getting Out of the House When You Don't Know Many People

1. Public library
2. Universities for free events, lectures, activities such as runs/walks, shows, musical guests
3. University/Community college/continuing education courses
4. Book clubs
5. Nearby concert halls, concert venues, event spaces, comedy clubs, TV taping venues
6. Eventful, eventbrite, meetup, localist, upcoming, yelp.com/events
7. Craiglist – activities – volunteers – nonprofits
8. Touristy stuff: TripAdvisor, use google, yelp
9. Yelp for new restaurants, places of interests, events
10. Community/neighborhood assn's: archery, neighborhood councils, networking business associations, toastmasters
11. Parks: community soccer teams, baseball leagues, basketball games, events/festivals, just to walk around, enjoy nature, walk barefeet in the grass
12. See neighborhood newspaper for culture festivals, block parties, community events free to the public, flea markets, book sales, grand opening celebrations, fundraisers, gardening workshops, community gardens, street fairs
13. Local gym, YMCA, community center
14. Attend movie nights, sports nights, birthday celebrations, graduation parties
15. Historic parks or sites of interest or museums
16. Nature walks
17. Sporting events
18. Also twitter the orgs you are interested in, see who they are following, who follows them
19. Movie theatres, indie movie theatres, outdoor/fancy malls, or malls
20. Sign up for Groupon or LivingSocial coupons in your area
21. Meet your neighbors
22. Amateur sports
23. Religious groups
24. http://findlocal.latimes.com/ or your local newspaper for events
25. Sites like mydailyfind for SFV stuff
    Added 1/10/11:
26. Classes with recreation centers like https://raponline.lacity.org/larap/
27. Firing ranges
28. Racetracks
29. Free museum admission evenings/days
30. Meetup.com (deserves a separate listing)
31. Did I mention Yelp?
32. Ice skating rinks

Volunteering

1. Nearby orgs: to help developmentally disabled, therapeutic horseriding, for autistic children, hospice care for seniors, for military overseas/veterans, for homeless children/families/adults, food banks/rescue missions/clothing banks, hospitals, animal shelters
2. Idealist, volunteer match, google
3. In SFV: TreePeople, Environmental Relief Foundation, Chatsworth Community Garden, The Village Gardeners
4. Op Gratitude, HFH, United Way, LAPL Adult Literacy Tutor, AARP Tax Aide Volunteer

Tip from eHow:
Make three lists: Things I Love to Do, Issues I Care About, Things I'd Like to Learn with quantity as the goal. Try to match one item on each list, even if you don't stay with all of them at least one will be a keeper.
 

What item(s) would you add to this list?

Raindrops on roses and...hamsters.. in airports!  J/k about the lyrics.  But those are a few of my favorite things.

I'm also a fan of Melissa Joan Hart   Over a year ago she opened a candy / froyo / gelato sweet shop in Sherman Oaks, CA.  I read about it in a People magazine while sitting at the dentist's office.  Go figure   Didn't visit it until... yesterday!

Expectations
This postcard is on this week's Postsecret.

Expectations can weigh a person down.

Empathy
"At times like this, I find myself wanting to sense God so badly, so in need of proof that He’s here and notices me, so thirsty like the deer is for water, that I get angry with God for not being more tangible, for being what seems like aloof. I ask for God’s comfort, joy, strength, and demand to immediately or very quickly receive it. I want a miracle, a supernatural encounter, an epiphany, a burning bush or blinding light and what I get instead is steady silence under the trees in the front yard." -Shaun Groves

"Hoping to find my way back soon, but right now, at the risk of sounding bitter (which I am), I feel like God’s flipped me the ‘ole bird. So I’m processing." -a commenter

I can relate.  Maybe I needed to abide in love more?

But, I wouldn't mind having this conversation.

Dan the Theologian at TheTheologiansCafe just wrote a blog post on "Suicide."  The comments are interesting to read, and got me thinking about my thoughts on suicide.  I think most of the negative things I hear about suicide is that it's selfish, I guess because it's taking away your life without thought of how it'll impact the people you "leave behind."  I used to agree with it, that even if the person is having a really terrible life, that it ultimately is self-ish, because they are doing it to make themselves "happy," which is self-oriented.  Then in my suicidal thoughts (CIRCA 2003), I've also emphatically disagreed with my previous assessment because I thought, no way... if I'm so (insert long string of unkind adjectives), I'm actually doing them (whoever "they" are) a favor by ridding them of me.  So it's not selfish, it's... good.  The jury's out on this one.

Dan wanted to know if a person was suicidal, do you think the person would cry out for help first?  In a way, if you were going to kill yourself, and it was decided, it makes sense you'd just do it... because saying you're going to do it opens the possibility someone will stop you.  But is it fair to say people who threaten suicide aren't really going to do it, they just want attention?  I would still take any comments seriously because are you really going to challenge someone to kill themselves - and what if they do ?

Then there was this one comment, "suicide is the final exaggeration, so probably [they'd cry out for help]."  I guess some people cry out for help more tangibly than other people.  But about the "final exaggeration" part, ultimately the biggest insult to someone who is suicidal, or one of.. is to say "you think you're so important but <news flash> you're not!" There are better ways to be a friend, even if being suicidal is probably making a big deal of things that aren't that big.

---

I found an article on the New York Times by Errol Morris, it's a 5 part series about anosognosia, which is basically not being able to recognize what you don't know and therefore, not being able to fix it.  It's funny how one of the commenters says Sarah Palin might be affected by this since she has no idea how much she doesn't know, and therefore dismisses whatever doesn't fit into her line of thinking while remaining ignorant.  I think I have/had an overly active fear of anosognosia.  I prefer to have been "aware" of what I didn't know rather than have been completely ignorant.

   Apparently, I only consider movies with animated characters/costumed characters worth watching in theatres (not really, but it just turned out that way).  That said, I think the next one I should watch is....Toy Story 3!  *dun dun dun!*

---

    One of the "best" days of my life happened last week.  Thus, I concluded:

    Ingredients for One of the Best Days Of My Life

1. cook something grand
2. dance SO MUCH FUN
3. watch a good partido
4. good chats w/friends
5. learn a language
6. play musica

---

Quiz!

You Are Driven By Self-Improvement

You believe that if you're too satisfied in your life, you're doing something wrong. You are always trying to better yourself, and that means putting in a lot of hard work. You want to be the best you can be, and you hardly ever rest. You are a type A person for sure. You are always trying to make your strengths more robust and your weaknesses disappear.

       

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Predeparture story (re Shanghai)

    I had such a great time in Shanghai.  I would almost go as far as to say I knew instinctively that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity when I first heard about it.  My grandpa giving me a personal tour of his hometown?  Heck ya, I wanted to go!  But I knew that the dates were set and I would not have any vacation time before I had been at my job a year.  So it got shelved in the back of my mind.
    Then February rolled around (trip was in April).  I was telling Teresa about my mom's trip to Shanghai, but how I really wanted to go, and she said something along the lines of, "It doesn't hurt to ask.." which got me thinking seriously about going.  I decided this was something I really wanted so I made up my mind to ask.
    Waiting for the right moment to ask my boss was nerve wracking.  I looked at my computer clock, "Okay...when it says :40 you will go and ask..."  But a phone call came in.  Finally, I walked into his office.  "Okay," was his answer.  Freedom!!  In one simple word!  I bit my knuckles in excitement when I got back to my desk... I wanted to scream for joy.
    (Two months later) I started having pre-trip jitters before the trip.  Am I too excited?  What if my grandparents get picky and disapprove of my behavior or we have to bear with each other's cultural and generational differences?  What if it's a lot of meeting strange faces and discomfort?  I was eating at a restaurant some time before the trip and bit down on something that made my tooth hurt.  Ouch.  What worst timing before the trip.  It didn't last, but then I thought, you know what.  As long as I'm healthy, not sick or hurt, I'm grateful.  I'm going!

I went to the Bianchi Planetarium show on the CSUN campus Wednesday.  I thought the professor who took us on our "journey" through the spring night sky knew vast amounts of physics and astronomy.  After the show was over, I walked through the campus to the orange grove, where we had been told any of the trails would lead to the observatory.  I saw a dirt path and strode right on in...

It twisted and turned and I would have walked in darkness if the lamps didn't light the edge of the path.  Here I was, wandering in a dirt trail surrounded by orange trees in the middle of the night by myself.  I spotted the metallic gray structure of the observatory and its dome ceiling.  It was only until I came to the end of the path that I saw if I had just walked straight and taken a quick left, I could have saved myself the trouble.    Ha, ha.

The observatory had a telescope with two different eyepieces.  One of them was connected to a joystick which steered the image in whichever direction you wanted.  The telescope was connected to a computer which located the prominent stars and points of interest in the sky.  The domed ceiling had a rectangular opening and moved to provide the telescope with the view it needed.

What made my night was that I got to see the planet Saturn.  Although it looked like an ordinary star in the sky, through the lens, I saw the rings and everything.  It looked like a picture from a textbook, but felt much more amazing. ¤

I wanted to make pistachio cardamom cupcakes after seeing them on Silverkeys.writes.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find unroasted, unsalted pistachios, so used almonds instead.  I also substituted cinnamon for cardamom.  Ha!

Last weekend I made crepes for the FIRST time.  Ecstatic they came out the way they did

I've been getting into the show, The Office, recently.  Sometimes at work I like to pretend that I'm Jim or Pam.  Today, A. wanted to eat sushi but M. doesn't like sushi.  So A came up to us (the assistants) and announced he was going to try to get M to get sushi for lunch.  15 minutes later, A sees M, so he starts by asking, do you have any expectations for lunch.  M says yea I'm going to take lunch.  A says do you have any particular expectations for lunch.  M goes, no whatever is fine.  Then A says what about sushi?  It was funny for me because it was like I was pretending I had no part in, or any idea about, what they're having for lunch.  I guess you really had to be there.

We have a new person in the office, and she's actually doing phones, which takes a lot of the burden off.  I felt 'a quiet happy' when I took a break... that everything was going to be okay.  Driving takes a lot out of me, I don't know how people manage to drive to 3, 4 different places in a day.. left turns, u-turns, parking, exiting, parking again, yikes.  (Managing to make it to work and back is enough for me in a day .)

I don't do very much, and then it's time for me to sleep.  I think I like it this way, quiet and calm.

I am trying to live more in the present, instead of always planning and figuring.  If I can manage to slow down, I can savor the moment and be where I am, instead of fretting and being anxious..