Just Another Friday...

As you already know, in this household, Fridays start really early... The alarm goes off at 5am and the car leaves the garage at 5:35am to head to the gym. Of course, the best part of our Fridays is the 30-minute breakfast right after a rigorous workout. And every Friday, it is hard to leave Red's Java House to get to work!

This Friday wasn't any different than any other Friday.  We left Red's Java House with the same feeling of not wanting to go into work.  It was a long week - work wise - and it was expected to be a difficult Friday especially for Derek (due to work).  For me, on the other hand, the stress was driven mostly by the dental appointment that I had at 2pm.  I never enjoyed going to the dentist and I still don't like it- what can I say, years of braces and fillings regardless of how much I pay attention to my teeth kind of deterred me from the dental offices in general.

Around 1pm, I left my office, letting my team know that I would work remotely for rest of the afternoon following my dental appointment.  As planned, I caught the BART at 1:05pm.  As soon as I got into the BART, I took my book out and started reading.  For some reason, I got very sleepy all of a sudden.  I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open.  I tried to find ways to keep myself alert but nothing was working.  I finally decided to play "Angry Birds" on my phone.  Believe it or not, that is the only game that keeps me awake.  Before I knew it, we made it to the city.  Thanks to "Angry Birds" I didn't even realize how the time went by.  Right when I was getting ready to leave the train, a stranger came by and sat next to me.  For those of you who know me well, he did startled me and in return I startled him back! :)  He sat next to me to let me know that he drew me during the ride and he wanted to ask me if I would let him post my picture on his blog.  Apparently as some of us play stupid games, others create art during their train ride.  I gave him my permission and now I am hoping to get his blog so that I can share it with you all.  This 5 minute interaction with him made me think about my own blog and I decided to be better with the small fun moments in our lives.  After all, the whole purpose of "what's up" is to talk about those fun moments.

So... already my Friday started to take a different turn.  It was not "just another Friday" anymore.

My dentist appointment ended up being very smooth, unlike my expectation.  As a result, I left the dental office with a smile.  I texted Derek to let him know that I would be at the coffee shop right under his office and be working there until the end of his day.  Even my walk through famous Chinatown was not as painful as I expected - except my shoes digging into the back of my foot.  Within 10 minutes, I was in the coffee shop, ready to login and start working.  To my surprise, Derek was at the coffee shop too.  I thought he just arrived there from his meeting. I was still ready to login to start working...

Well... He was actually ready to drive us home...

We got home right around 4pm.  Sun shine in our garden, on our flowers, filling our kitchen. We actually sat on our two chairs in the garden and enjoyed the sun before the fog took it away.  I still did some work but being at home and being with Derek was enough to make me feel "ok" about work.

Regardless of how hard the week was, these little fun moments and surprise extra hours at home were enough to make this Friday different than "just another Friday".  Now let's wait and see my picture in the BART while playing Angry Birds...

Colorful Day!

Today was supposed to be a yucky day in San Francisco... Well... either the forecast was VERY wrong or a "yucky" day definition got changed!  Here are some pictures from our yard:

Hopefully our colorful garden will continue to survive with two people who has no clue what to do when it comes to yard work!

Just 1 More Day...

Yesterday was the day for the painting. It was grey all over the city so I was sure to arrive to our home all hidden under the fog. Well... I was wrong. I got home, opened the door and there it was: the bright orange legs of the Golden Gate Bridge. The photo doesn't do a justice but I still want to share it with you.

Our painter, really nice Irish guy, said "when you first stepped into the US, did you ever expect to own such a view?". I replied "Eamon, I dream BIG but honestly I didn't expect THIS" :) I guess, the view was never in my mind.

The Waiting Game

I first learned about the Waiting Game at the age of 10.  At first it felt a torture but then I realized that it was just another game - kind of like who can hold their breath longer!

So here is the game:  All summer long, you windsurf on old equipment to make sure that you are getting better and that you are interested in the sport.  At the end of the summer, your parents take you into a store full of used windsurfing gear (for a windsurfer that store is much better than a candy store).  You pick you gear - bright colors, all in great conditions...  Then you bring the equipment home, into your bedroom and you watch it, touch it, dream about it for about 9 months!  At the end of 9 months, you strap it on your car and drive for about 10 hours to finally put it in the water.  

Now how does our Waiting Game relates to the picture below? Well...  Our waiting game built the necessary patience that we needed over the last 1 month!  After a hectic year of: putting our old place on the market, moving into a shoe box, spending 6 months worth of weekends at open-homes, putting total of 11 offers, finally getting the acceptance on the last offer, letting the sellers live in the house for an additional month - WE NOW HAVE THE KEYS!  If it wouldn't be for the Waiting Game, I think this last bit of the wait would have been miserable!

 

So yet again... WINDSURFING - thank you for keeping us sane even though in a normal person's eye you make sure to make us look INSANE!

Our new address is: 528 Lawton Street, San Francisco, CA 94122 :)

See you all in our new place!

 

3 years going for LIFETIME

We are very lucky to have found each other and being surrounded by such wonderful people.  As we roll down our third year, our love only grows BIGGER and STRONGER.  We are looking forward to years full of our crazy adventures and we are looking forward to sharing all those happy memories with all of you - our wonderful family and friends.

Askim - I LOVE YOU! Happy 3rd (not 4th) Anniversary! :)

First of 2012

Almost half a year later, I am back…  

Every month since the end of 2011, I attempted to post.  I got excited about topics, started typing and then… never finished!  Now that I am in the plane and have absolutely no place to go (since I am in the middle seat), I realized this would be a good time, to start AND finish at least one blog, my first blog of 2012.

Our year started with an ambitious decision of selling 1261 Grove Street apartment.  Our plan was to put our house on the market by mid January.  Well… we didn’t quiet realize how much work needed to be done to make that happen especially when we had very demanding jobs.  Therefore, our plan shifted a little and we ended up putting our place on the market by the end of February.  The difficult part is NOT emptying the house to get it ready or living in a staged environment.  The difficult part IS having to live in a super organized and uncertain world – not in terms of physical organization but more in terms of not knowing the next steps.

Uncertainty and the constant willingness to move forward to the next step turn the whole process into a test – test of patience, test of support to each other, test of being realistic, test of objectivity… At every step of the process, one needs to step back to see the full picture from an outsider’s point of view…  When selling, you try to find the right person and the right amount.  When buying, you try not to jump into the first thing you see so that you have a place to call “home”.

1261 Grove Street found its new owner at the end of March and we officially shut that door on April 12^th, capturing all the great memories and leaving behind all the sour ones…  We moved into our tiny little “shoe box” on April 8^th and since then we have been looking forward to our next step – our new home.  At this stage, we are even more challenged to get A’s on all those tests that I mentioned earlier!  We want to find THE place, we don’t want to be in a fierce competition and we don’t want to be in our shoe box for too long…  Given all this, we constantly need to step back and tell each other that the right place is out there and we will find it.  Believe me… it is really easy to say but VERY hard to apply… Especially in such a competitive market!

As stressful as it is, we are making sure to get the best out of it.  Our trip to Mexico was definitely great where we were able to relax and “check-out” from the world to “check-in” to our little bubble.  When life gets so busy with all the outside events, days go by without you realizing…  You want to stop time, but it doesn’t listen to you.  So these trips where we have no connection with the outside world give us the best opportunity in slowing down that pace.  I have all these plans for this year and we are almost already half done with the year.  Pretty crazy, if you ask me!

One of my goals for this year is a steadier blog site…  So some of the topics that you should expect – and that I would hopefully deliver will be:

·         Energy has its limit!

·         Stress – Our friend or our enemy?

·         Finding time to be creative

·         Taking care of your most important asset – YOU

Let’s see how well I will do with the execution... :)

Oh and... here is a fancy night from this year:

My New Look...

As we approach to the new year, I decided to give my hair cut yet another chance and VOILA!

Here is new me, walking out of my hair cut...

Teresa spent 1.5 hours playing with my hair and I think the result is great!  Derek is loving it too...