Okay, well I'm finally back... from everywhere. To my knowledge I have no more travel planned for this year.... for work. And even though I'm tired... and well chubby, due to room service. I'm feeling better than I have in a long time. I've been a bad blogger lately, but I think I'll get back my groove back soon and as a teaser... I think I'll also have an announcement to make soon....

PS Chhimi, I know you are reading this and saying "Oh my God, a baby is on it's way!" Sorry to dissapoint but... no... if you saw how much I've been drinking lately you would know that I am absolutely not going to be announcing a pregnancy.

Live from D.C.

My cross-country tour comes to an end with this last trip to D.C. I wish I had something exciting to say about DC but so far I've spent most of the trip getting from Dulles to our hotel. Four hours to be exact. To be fair, this was not entirely the traffic's fault... there was a luggage snafu as well, but seirously? Seriously!

Anyways, enough whining. Today I want to give a shout out to my good friend Justina.

She was just accepted into the accelerated M.A. Nursing program at Fresno State. I am really proud of her and think she is a great example for everybody who is considering a career change.

Congrats Justy, you totally earned it!!!!

Rainy days

Well, after all the NASCAR hype, regular life seems to be a little, well boring. Although, maybe I'm tired, that's how I explain going to bed at 8 pm last night. I know 8 pm!

Even worse, I planned it... all day long I was thinking "I can't wait to go to bed at 8" I'm not even 30 yet, what's wrong with me peeps?

I wish I had some good stories, but I don't, I've been too busy sleeping!!!

Wow... and... wow!

Uhm, I am not sure how to sum up my time in Concord, NC except to say... BEST WEEK EVER! Usually when I work an event it's not really as fun as it sounds, I spend the whole day hauling heavy stuff around and talking to strangers while a thousand emergencies pop up. So... truth be told I wasn't really looking forward to the NASCAR race, but I gotta say, it was LEGEN-wait for it-DARY. The highlights...

1) Racing is v. cool, I've never thought of myself as a fast car -kinda girl, but when you see 43 cars rounding the bend at 180+ mph you can't help but get into it, the sound alone is amazing. It sounds exactly as if you are in the middle of a Star Wars space-dog-fight scene. If you go down by the track, it kind of shakes your insides up it's so loud.

2) I wasn't outside, I was in my company's luxury suite. I've noticed that these kind of perks are generally only available to people who are already rich enough to afford them so I was pretty blown away to be able to get in... there was another staff member there who also hails from the lovely city of Pittsburg, CA and we were kind of in awe. "How do two girls from Pittsburg end up in a luxury suite?"

3) I got to go down to the Pit and the garages which is the middle of the track where you can see the crews changing the tires and the drivers getting into the cars. Even though I had pretty much no idea who anybody was, it still makes you kind of starstruck.

4) I got to go IN A CAR! I can't believe I did it, I got to do 3 laps around the track with a driving instructor at 180 mph! It was AMAZING! If you ever get the opportunity I highly suggest it.

5) I met some cool people. For whatever reason I have always loved protocol and symbolism. I am the kind of person who loves Catholic masses because it is so rigidly structured. Where is this going? Well, as all 150,000 of us stood for the National anthem I confessed to the guy standing next to me that I am kind of dorky and totally love this ritual stuff. He leaned over and whispered "Sometimes when I hear the national anthem on tv, I stand up in my living room". Dorks united! I told him he is officially my new best friend!

Well, there are so many more stories, but I think this is good for now. The morale, become a racing fan, it is way too cool to miss out on.

NASCAR fans.... start your engines

Maghanoy.com is taking it on the road to Charlotte, NC! That's right my peeps, I am taking my second trip to the south and I'm doing it up right by attending the Bank of America 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Of course, I don't really know an-y-thing about NASCAR, but still it's kind of exciting. If I am not totally exhausted by the three day event I'll try to give you a report from the road. :)

Totally typical day at Casa Perez

Well now that the tree is gone we've been noticing some things in our backyard, like how we have more sunlight and headstones.... yup you read that right, headstones. Arnold disturbingly turned over one of the large granite slab/stone type pathway things that we have in our backyard only to find it engraved with someones name and the dates of their lives 1800-19something. Seriously, I am not even making this up.

As I sat there looking at a gravestone, wondering if there are people making their final resting place in our backyard I thought "Seriously?"

Luckily, my neighbor stopped by today to chat and allayed my "totally weirded out by headstone vibe" by saying "Don't worry, the prior owner was a little weird, he probably saw them as leftovers or rejects at a granite store, thought it was funny and bought them" Seeing as I found a different gravestone with totally improbably dates and a totally different last name on the other side of the yard, I am hoping that this is true. I wish I could say that I think this is weird, but after Mexican jumping beans, the squirrel fiesta, the raccoon and the general chaos that seems to be my life lately, headstones in the backyard are the least of my worries.

Arbol Interuptus - Our tree had a good long life, but now it is coming down... :)