Coast to coast

Yesterday after flying back to Los Angeles from Florida, driving home to San Diego, a quick lunch and a shower, instead of taking a nap, I had to go to rehearsal! I have already missed the three allowed each season and although I was tired, I could not miss another one. We practiced from 1:30pm to 5pm and I actually felt alright. We have a little more than one month until we go to Miami for GALA 08 and as we get more familiar with the music, the excitement for our trip also grows. I still have a lot to learn and need to memorize my lyrics by Wednesday. I know what I will be doing for the next three days.
After rehearsal yesterday, Matthew and I and some of the boys went to Baja Betty for cocktails. That is a thing I have not done in a long time and I am glad I went. Usually after a trip, I just need peace and quiet. At work I am in an enclosed environment for hours with passengers. At home, I try to avoid crowded places. I would rather spend a quiet afternoon or evening with a few close friends.
For some reason yesterday, I felt like being with the "boys". We had a couple cocktails and lots of laughs while eying cute guys passing by us.

Back at home Matthew prepared a healthy dinner and we ate sitting down at the table while having a great conversation about religion. We rarely have meals together because of our schedules but even when we are both home, we usually take our food to the living room in front the TV. It was nice to eat dinner and not have our minds wandering while watching meaningless stories on the screen.

Trip Down Under

I think everyone is over me bragging about how great Sydney and Australia are. I just had another awesome trip down under. I was afraid the weather would not be very cooperative since it is the beginning of Fall for them, but I got lucky. We had sunshine and blue sky and a temperature in the high 70s the whole lay-over until the day we left.
The second day of the stay, I walked all over town with Christopher. We also took the bus to the little town of Coogee and did the walk to Bondi Beach along the ocean. It was once again absolutely gorgeous. This was my 4th or 5th time doing the walk and it is still breathtaking. We had a lovely lunch at the Bondi Iceberg and walk around the beach before heading back to Sydney.

Kid For A Day

We all live crazy lives. Fast-paced, busy, stressing lives. We try to keep up with work, with our bills, with our commitments and we rarely have time to ourselves anymore.
Being able to spend an entire day, with no worries, not thinking of anything but have fun and enjoy the moment can be quite an endeavor. Fortunately I have the luxury sometimes to spend my lay-over doing NOTHING if I choose to. At home there always is something to do; laundry, house cleaning, bills, etc... On lay-overs I can just rest and be lazy although most of the time, I try to do something. Visit the city, a museum, go to the movies, or just walk around town.
This last trip, I was flying with my friend Joanne and because we had a whole day in Orlando, we decided we would go visit one of the parks. She has never been to any of them so we decided to go to the Magic Kingdom. We worked all night from Los Angeles to Orlando where we landed around 6am. We got to the hotel, took a shower and were ready for the 8:20am shuttle to Disney World.
We were there for the park's opening and spent the entire day there. The lines were not too bad, the longest was 45 minutes, and although we did not do all the rides, we did most of the ones we wanted to. We caught the 6:15pm shuttle back to the hotel.
Since we had had a late lunch in the park, we sat outside in the hotel patio and ordered desserts. A perfect way to end a joyful, carefree day.




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Earth Week

In this time when more and more of us become aware of the impact that we have on our planet, I realize how selfish of a species we have been. There is a line in the movie "The Matrix" when one of the "Men in Black" says: "Humans are like a virus. They multiply and destroy everything around them" (or close to those words). That line always struck with me. How did we get to this point? Did just the ability to think, lead us to this behavior? Why do we think that we are not One with Nature but above it? All other aspects of our world seems to live in synergy, taking and giving back in a balanced act. We just keep on taking and do not think one second that we have to give back anything. And despite of a mountain of scientific evidence, still some think that most of us are just overreacting and that the planet will regulate itself. What if it does not. Do we really want to take the chance and find out when it is too late that we could and should have done something? The planet could get rid of what is destroying it altogether. We think that with our technological advances we can control our environment when Nature has shown us time and time again that we are powerless against it. We still cannot predict tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes...etc. We have warnings that we can read better now, but is that enough? We do not measure up against the formidable force that is Nature. So instead of trying to find ways to harness something that cannot be tamed, it seems more logical to me that we learn to live in harmony with it.
It is sad that we need Earth Day or Earth Week to have people think of the planet. Everyday should be Earth Day. With everything we do, we should think "What impact will my actions have on the world?". The problem is that we see ourselves as individuals. "What damage could little me do to the Big World?" We forget that there are now billions of little me thinking the same way and affecting our climate and the world we live in, like never before. So I have to start with the little me and hope that all other little me in the world will do their individual part. I cannot expect to make a big change on my own. It is the sum of all little changes that will make a difference.
A Native American proverb says: "We did not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children".
Would we like it if someone gave back to us something that they borrowed, after they broke it?

Too much

The Pope arrived yesterday in Washington DC. He flew from Italy on Shepherd One and landed at Andrews Air Force Base in the afternoon. He brought over several of his Popemobiles which he will be using during his six day visit..... I don't even know where to go with that. This is just too funny.