Ramblings of a Crazy Woman

I never used to be the person who voted in every election but that changed for me a few years back and I made a commitment to change. Yesterday, only 7% of voters casted a vote for LAUSD School Board Representative. 7% of the people spoke up about education in Los Angeles.   This saddens me and makes me scared about the future.  There is a lot at stake and we need everyone’s help. I voiced my concerns to a friend today. How do we change things? What do we do personally to change? You know what she said? It’s the little things. It’s the volunteering. It’s making small changes. All these little things each person does adds up to big change.   I keep waiting for some superhero to fly in and make it all better but I realized my friend is right.  It’s the little things we each can do that add up. There is a big election coming up people and even if you think your vote doesn’t matter, it does.  Your vote adds to the group collective.   We may not ...

So the other day we were at the park and this dad came over to me and told me that his 4 year-old son thought my daughter was beautiful and wanted to tell her but got shy.  So I called kiddo over and told her a little boy wanted to play with her. Kiddo and her pal played with this little boy and had a good time.  It came time for everyone to leave and the dad said the boy still hadn’t told her what he wanted to tell her. So I told kiddo that the little boy wanted to tell her something.  The dad and I encouraged the little boy to tell her what he wanted to say. He wiggles about and tells her she was beautiful. She smiled and told the little boy thank you and told him he was so handsome.  I think it really made his day. Anyhoo, today after swim we met up at an ice cream parlor and the two shared a banana split.

5 years ago, hubs asked me if I wanted to take kiddo to the circus, this was just about the time when circus' with animals were ending. I had grown up with elephants, lions, tigers and bears, oh my! So I wasn't sure I would be down for this new style of circus which came to town for Mother's Day Weekend.  Well, I found out I did like it.   The acts were amazing! The clowns still funny.  The food was still horrible but the circus could survive without animals.   We have been going for every Mother's Day since 2014 except this year, the circus came to town early, in January!   So our annual tradition happened a little early this year.  

Going to Indonesia did wonders for kiddo’s palate...she picked out this never-before-seen-to-us friend of the cauliflower to cook and eat.

Kiddo had the day off from school and for once we couldn't find anything to do!  We have been to all the museums a million times and gone to the mall even more.  So I called up my friend, who is always doing fun things with her granddaughter on Monday's and she invited us to come to Ventura with them. We drove over to to their house, hopped in the car with them and took off for Ventura.  Kiddo had so much hanging out with "little sister," whom she has know since she was born.   We stopped for a great seafood for lunch.  Discovered some really tasty fried shrimp that Little Sister's grandpa swore by.    It was a really cold day but we went to the beach and enjoyed the sun and the waves.  The kids had fun dipping their feet in the water but the air was crisp and they got very cold quick!   We didn't last too long at the beach that day but boy was it ever a gorgeous blue sky day!    A quick stop to good ole McD's for some hot coco warm...

A rare celestial occurrence of a Super Blood Wolf Eclipse occurred tonight at about 8pm PST and of course we had to go outside and look at it.  It was pretty cool to watch the moon transform into a red moon!   Suffice to say, it was a fun and interesting night of star gazing!

P and I participated in some awesome community spirit this morning at All Saints Episcopal Church in Highland Park!   I am on the PTA and we arranged for parents and children to make and serve breakfast and assemble to-go lunch bags at NELA’s Winter Shelter.  It was really a great way for the children of LFCSA to partake in service that Dr. King advocated.  P was part of a crew that made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the to-go lunches and I did a lot of set up.  I’m always amazed at what people can do for others when they put their mind to it and it was fun watching the kids eager to help.  One woman pulled me aside as she ate her plate of food and said to me that she never expected to be in her situation but she was grateful for the outreach of kindness. I witnessed that great American spirit weaving itself through that room this morning and that was awesome!!!  🇺🇸

With the LAUSD teacher strike in full swing, I decided to pick up kiddo early from school.  Even though our teachers at our charter were not striking, I just felt like I needed to go get my girl and spend the end of the week having a bit of fun.   We headed to the theatre to catch a movie.  We arrived a bit early so we did a bit of shopping. Kiddo wanted some jeans so we hit up the GAP outlet and got her a few pairs of cute jeans.  Then we grabbed some yogurt and then watched A Dog's Way Home and cried our eyes out thinking about Moses.   Afterward, we grabbed pizza at PizzaRev which we hadn't tried before.  Everyone raves about it but I couldn't see what the hype was about.   The pizza was just okay for me.  I think BLAZE chain is a lot better for this build-your-own type of place.  

After 35 hours of travel, including Uber to LAX, LAX time, Flight to China, layover in China, flight to Bali, wait for cab and an hour and a half drive to Ubud, we were pooped! We arrived in the airport at 8am in the morning.  It was a pretty view of the ocean as we flew in.  P was excited to see land as she knew we were close to our destination. The airport was nicely decorated for the upcoming Hindu holiday.   Immigration was pretty easy.  When we collected our luggage we found our driver. Well, we thought he was our driver,  he was the guy who worked for the company we hired and he was waiting for our driver to come.   So we waited with him by the curb while our driver got to the airport. One thing was immediately apparent upon going outside, the humidity.  For me, it was being back in Michigan on a summer day.   We immediately wanted to start shedding our clothes which were heavier due to flying cold planes. Our driver, was a young guy...

So we boarded a plane on December 21st and we landed on December 23rd, thus skipping over December 22 which just so happened to be hubby's birthday.   I think he was okay with it being that he was going to Bali for his birthday and for Christmas.   On our way to China we did pass the North Pole which was pretty cool. Actually, when we landed in China for our 7 hour layover we were able to celebrate his birthday with a beer in one of the lounges.  I have to say lounge life is pretty nice.   The lounge was decorated for Christmas so it was festive.  It also had clean bathrooms, free food and big comfy chairs to lounge in.    You could even take a shower and get a massage.  Just no Facebook.  There was free WiFi in the lounge but no access to social sites except SnapChat.   Even some news agencies were blocked out, a sign that you were in a democratic state anymore.  Our pal, Toby had suggested we get a certain travel credit card for...