Random Story #1 So I have this philosophy about driving, "what is ahead is most important". I mean obviously I check my blind spots look around, look at my rear view ocasionally but mostly I am trying not to run into people who are in front of me because I figure most of the time you are driving you are looking ahead. I also apply this to walking which I guess is why according to Cookie during the time we are in L.A. I plowed through/cut off like a billion people. And I bet it's true, I run into walls and people all the time. Many times at work I run into the side of my cubicle cause I don't give myself enough space rounding the corner. Good thing I was grown short because apparently I am not cut out for the runway life.

So is there a point? Not really, but while we were at the Asian Mart yesterday about a billion people ran into me and Arnold said "Oh my God, it's in the blood." I'd like to think that my tendency to barrel through people in public places is some kind of genetic hand-me-down from my father but I"m not so sure. When I was in Chile people used to ram into me on the street all the time, but that could be attributed to the fact that there are way more people on the street in Chile.

Random Story #2 On the way out of the insanely busy Asian Mart parking lot this Indian lady cut us off, Arnold let her go first which is what she did but not without stopping to give us the most malovelent evil eye I've seen in the while. I mean it was so ferocious I coul barely supress my giggles. Arnold said "I feel sorry for her kids."

Random Story #3 At Arnold's graduation yesterday I was siting next to this Asian lady. I say Asian cause I can pretty much only identify Tagalog, after that it's hard for me to identify languages. Now here comes the part that has gained her entry into maghanoy.com. During the ceremony she took out a pair of nail clippers and started clipping dead skin from a blister off of her hand. INSIDE THE THEATER where he graduation was being held. I thought I would die of laughter, I mean SERIOUSLY! Then five seconds later she and her husband ploughed through me in an effort to jam out of the theater before the graduates came barreling up the stairs. Good grief.

Tip of the Day: Yesterday Arnold and I discovered the joy that is Vietnamese sandwhiches at our new favorite store Huang La. They have an awesome point and order by number menu and you can get your sandwhich for $2.00. I don't think I've orderd anything besides french fries for under two dollars within the past five years. The South Sac location is not super convenient, but I'll ride in the coche for 10 minutes for two dollar sandwiches and bubble tea.

Arnold just finished school!

I just came back from presenting at a conference in L.A.

Life is good!

it is now official. In celebration of our fourth year wedding anniversary the court sent us a special letter in the mail ordering our ex-landlord to pay up! I can't believe it's all over! I can't believe it worked, I was sure somewhere along the way something would go wrong and he would get off on some small technachality(sorry I tried like a billion times to spell that word right). But no, it really worked. I thought I would feel some kind of perverse triumph when we got the letter but ever since the court date my rage towards our ex-landlord has dissapated which I guess proves that the angry people are the ones who sit around on their butt and never do anything about their situations. Or at least some of the angry ones are that way. Now I just feel a sort of vague pity towards our ex, he has to pay us a lot more money than we originally asked for because he didn't have any common sense or heart.

In any case, it's a nice Sunday morning here in the new apartment. The apartment is still cool from the morning breeze, the sounds of the Cathedral of Praise Ministries are drifting through the windows and there is just one week left in this semester before the freedom of summer is upon us!

Today is Mother's Day - Did you call your Mommy?

Weddings Part 3 - Congratulations Sonia and Raj!
















Okay, obviously this is not a picture of Ms. Vega and Raj, it's me and Cookie, but let me tell you Raj and Vega were such a beautiful couple. She was like a sparkly jewel and Raj was like a prince! Seriously, he had a feather and a sword and everything! Unfortuantely we weren't able to get a picture of the happy couple, but as there were plenty of photographers I'm sure we'll be able to get some eventually. And as Vega is a loyal maghanoy.com reader I'm sure she'll be happy to provide photographic evidence of her and Raj's special day. And I assure you that all her friends that were privileged to be there can attest that it was wonderful to see Vega and Raj get married!

So here are my impressions of Vega's traditional Sikh wedding...

1) Obviously we borrowed some appropriate clothes from Vega. Here we are attempting to be appropriate with our head scarves and everything. Thing is, the fabric is really slippery, I was feeling a little worried about the whole "keep your head covered" thing except that we noticed that everybody else was constantly adjusting theirs too! Big relief for the non-Indians in the house.

2) All the women are dressed in beautiful, bright sparkly clothes. And as everyone should know, I am a big supporter of bright sparkly clothes. I think the outfits are called salwar kamis, but I'm not at all sure of that. In fact I might have totally invited that word myself, it wouldn't be the first time. Anyways everybody wears VERY pretty clothes and covers their heads and sits together in the temple and honestly the first thing that came to my mind was that it looked like rows and rows of yummy ice cream. I'm sure a jewerly box would be a more approriate metaphor, but seriously all I could think of was ice cream.

3) At a Sikh wedding you get both a breakfast/tea meal called milni and lunch! One wedding, two meals! What a deal! It was a veritable Samosa garden.

4) Also you get crazy aunts. I was trying to throw a cup away and I was intercepted by somebody who may or may not have been related to Sonia, I didn't recognize her, anyways she was trying to tell me something, but my lack of speaking Punjabi was a rather significant barrier. Finally she got irritated, grabbed my cup and walked off with it. To where, I have no idea! Anyways, people yelling at me in foreign languages is not a new experience, in a way I feel it was quite homey, and most importantly good blog fodder.

5) Did I mention how beautiful Sonia was?

Still no word from the court, but we should find out soon.

Arnold found out today that he passed the BCLAD test! What a man!

8 days left of this semester, praise be to God that it's almost over!

Weddings - Part 2 Congratulations RonRon and Jasmine!















Pics available in photo album

Last weekend was Wedding Number 2, with the Maghanoys adding one to their number. Welcome Jasmine! As the best man said my cousin Ron like to do things big... BIG! And I have to agree, there were 400 people at this wedding. I was seated at table that was all cousins, just from the grooms side. At the wedding there was entertainment a live band, hula dancers, but the best part was an impromptu serenade that Jasmine gave in the middle of the wedding. Good grief, she was amazing, like Wes said "It's like a movie!" Second best part of the wedding, when the live band played "Memory" from Cats as the first cha-cha of the night. I thought I would die, it was awesome! Even more awesome all my aunts and uncles jumping up to cha-cha to Cats. Other notable moments:

1) Jasmine's sister saying how in high school Jasmine was on the wrestling team and entered beauty paegents on the side

2) Nathan getting overzealous with the whole hitting the glass with the fork thing(photographic evidence avaialble in the pic section)

3) Anything involving my Dad who told Arnold that he couldnt come to Rodney's wedding because he had been busy "hunting commies" last weekend. Priceless.

And continuing with good news, today Arnold got a job teaching SUMMER SCHOOL. He got his first job before even graduating from the credential program. YAY! I'm so proud of him! And even better he's going to be teaching ESL. Rock on RockStar!