Cross number 38 off The List

On Sunday (8/30) the fam and I walked the Barbary Coast Trail. Seeing pictures and video of myself dance on Saturday night, although beautiful, seemed to indicate that I am a little "Rafaelite". Little Miss says I am huggable like a Fairy Godmother. God bless Little Miss. I figured a day of being active (followed by many more days of being active) was the thing to do. We had perfect weather. It was a little chilly if you were standing still but quite nice, and even a little warm while we were walking. We drove down to the garage on Mission St. And started our journey in front of the Old Mint. I thought it would be fun to take pictures of all of the street markers point the way. Hubby humored me and took pictures of the first 5 or so. We zig zagged though the downtown streets of San Francisco. At one point we realized we were just going on a nice walk rather than learning about bits of history. We had no guide, no guidebook. So that's what it was, walking a premarked trail. I did see some parts of SF I'd never seen before. I have walked down Grant Avenue through Chinatown, but never any streets parallel to Grant. I took the time to look at the really amazing designs, carvings , mouldings and inscriptions on many of the buildings. About the time we got to the Kearny and Bay intersection we were hungry and tired. We decided to call it quits, walked to Fog City Diner for some Truffle Fries and Asiago Cheese and then took the #10 to Market and walked back to the car. On the way home the Kiddies fell asleep in the car.
When we got home we hung out a little bit, then made dinner. After dinner, and after the Kiddies were in bed we watched "The Cheese Nun" on netflix; a documentary about Sister Noella. Nice Day.

Kumu Robert

Last Saturday (8/22) I was given a gift. I liked the gift but I didn't quite grasp how valuable this gift was until a day or so later. I attended a workshop at my halau (hula school). Teaching this workshop was my Kumu's Kumu Robert Cazimero.
First and probably the most important part of this gift, to be taught by one's Kumu's Kumu is special. Great leaders beget great leaders. My Kumu trusted me (well, all of us, not specifically me) to show his Kumu that I/we had learned well, and not just learned well, but that Kumu had taught well. Just as I go to class every week to show Kumu that I'm taking to heart everything he's taught, he's showing his Kumu that he's done the same. Everything I did that day in the workshop was a reflection of what I'd been taught. Had I done poorly, or had I been disrespectful, it would have shown negatively on Kumu.
The second part of this gift was Robert Cazimero. Not only is he my Kumu's Kumu, he's also a multi-Na Hoku Hanohano-award winner. He has a beautiful voice. The type of voice where you can put your earbuds in, turn up the volume and no matter what's happening, his singing will lull you into a trance, thinking all is right with the world for the next 3 minutes.
In addition to being a popular, award winning and influential recording artist, he's also a Kumu Hula with a hula lineage reaching back through Maiki Aiu Lake to Lokalia Montgomery. Since he is my Kumu's Kumu, my hula lineage, if I may be so bold, stretches back to Ms. Montgomery as well.
I am very thankful and honored I got to have this experience.

More Dreams

Last night I had a dream about my friend P's sister J.

P called me and said that his sister was coming to town and was wondering if I had an empty office at my work that she could use for the day. It turns out I didn't but I got her an office space to use at the company who occupies the floor beneath my floor.

When our days ended we got into my car. Sometimes I was driving and sometimes she was driving. When she was driving I told her that I had heard that she was embarking on a new adventure. I asked her if she was excited. She told me she was. Then she asked me if I wanted a popsicle. I already had some so I didn't but she gave me some anyways, about 50 of them she poured from a big box right onto my feet. I was thinking, gosh, I can't eat that many popsicles.

Someone had a Dream about ME!!!

I don't think this has happened before.
Well, it's probably happened before but no one has ever told me about it as far as I can remember. My co-worker K came up to my desk as soon as I got to work and told me all about the dream she had about me. Here it is . . . . . .

I had two pet hamsters that I put K in charge of watching. She kept them in the pockets of her hoodie. One kept escaping and she was freaking out that she wasn't doing a good job taking care of my hamsters and that I would be really upset if I found out that she lost one of my pets.

yay.

Dream the other night

The other night I had a dream that we were moving into a new house. The road between our current house and the new house was curvy and windy with redwoods on both sides of the street. There were mailboxes along the street and you could catch glimpses of houses off the road.

Our new house was a three bedroom house but for some reason we could never find the 3rd bedroom. We did happen upon a really big room just off the kitchen. It had 4 walls, a nice floor and bunkbeds lining the walls, with 6 beds on each side. The room had no ceiling, just some trees for shade. I thought it was silly to call this room the 3rd bedroom because it didn't have any ceiling but everyone sleeping in the room thought it was a great room.

I was driving back to the old house through the windy road. There were some kids playing a game. They would put on some flip flops, wrap towels around their feet and step into buckets of milk, get all the milk absorbed into the towels. Then they would run across the street with their feet wrapped up with milky towels, unwrap the towels and squeeze the milk into a waiting glass on the other side of the street. There was a lot of talk about the variables surrounding the person's weight, the type of towel used for soaking, the kind of milk used (non-fat vs whole raw milk), the condition of the road, etc.

When I got home the guy who plays Tom from The Secret Life of the American Teenager was sitting in front of the TV playing video games and eating a lot of candy. In my dream his real name was Frank. I made some finger guns at him like Leather Tuscadero and said "Hey, it's F to the rank". He laughed and laughed.

The 5th Grade, Home Depot and Teacher Ming

Today Little Miss started the 5th grade.

Oh my gosh you guys she's getting so old. Just yesterday I was picking up my little girl from preschool. I remember when she'd come home from her preschool with new phrases that she'd learn, some of which were in a thick Cantonese accent. Our conversations would go something like this.

Her: Mommy, will you buy me some O-lee-os?
Me: What are "O-lee-os"?
Her: Cookies we get at school.
Me: Hmm, "O-lee-os" are they chocolate cookies with yummy white stuff inside?
Her: Yeah.
Me: Baby those are called Oreos.
Her: No. Teacher Ming calles them O-lee-os.

I tried to explain to her that Teacher Ming was saying Oreos. I tried to explain to her that when one grows up speaking one language, and then goes to learn a new language, it's hard to get the accent just right, or it's hard to make certain sounds. Then I demonstrated that I can't roll my Rs and told her that I did horribly in Spanish class because of it. I think it took a little while for it to sink in because she still called them "O-lee-os." I think it's also because she loved Teacher Ming. Teacher Ming was a nice lady. I hope she's still there when we send The Little Mister to preschool.

Anyhow, last night we were talking about starting the 5th grade and teachers. I asked her if she had a favorite teacher. She did. I asked her if she ever had a teacher she really didn't like. She did. I told her that she was always going to remember her favorite teacher and she was always going to remember her worst teacher ever.

Then I told her that my 5th grade teacher was my least favorite teacher, ever. By the way she treated me I think I was her least favorite student. In all fairness other people had an experience with this person that was the exact opposite of my experiences with her. She's probably remembered as the best teacher someone has ever had by someone out there in the universe, but it isn't me. Not all personalities blend together nicely. Ours certainly didn't, but I was 10 and she was the teacher. It was her job to take the high road and she chose not too. She just wasn't nice to me. If you want to read about it go here. (I think I might have "issues" surrounding this because looking back on my blog I've mentioned it a few times).

Anyhow, my Little Miss is growing up. She's a 5th grader. Congratulations Baby. I love you.

Grammar in all its glory.

I hate when people screw up grammar. It hurts my ears. It makes me cringe to see how stupid society is getting. The one that screws with my mind the most is when people misuse "I" and "me". It also chaps my hide when people misuse "compliment" and "complement", but that's another story.

I - "I" is used as the sentence's subject. "I" must be used with a verb. "I" is the subject of the verb.

Me - "Me" is used as the object of the sentence. "Me" is usually not followed by a verb. "Me" is the object of the sentence.

Examples:
You and I are going to eat a cheeseburger with David Hasselhoff tonight.
You and I love to hula.
My co-worker gave a can of v-8 to you and me.
Haupia is delicious but not very good for you and me.

Today on thingsIwanttopunchintheface.blogspot.com, the blogger discussed the misuse of "its" and "it's". Enjoy.

Survey

I got a new gig.
I'm still a Worker Bee at the same company. I even still sit in the same spot. I am on a new team and have a new set of team workers and responsibilities.
One of my new responsibilities is to get familiar with Survey Monkey.
To learn the program I created a free account and created my very own survey.
I would be pleased as punch if you would take a few minutes to answer 10 simple preguntas.

Thanks.