M.I.A.

My laptop is broken. I dropped it. It was in a cushy protective sleeve made of neoprene or some other cool substance, but the angle of impact still wreaked havoc on my little silver baby. It is in the Apple store as we speak (as I type? as you read? whatever) being worked on by the "Geniuses". (Seriously, that's what they're called. Apple doesn't have tech support, they have geniuses.) So that's why I have been so Missing In Action the last few weeks. I have to steal moments on Johnny's laptop to check up on all of your blogs, check my email, pay some bills, etc... and his fingers get twitchy and his eyes glaze over and he starts sweating and reaching for his laptop within fifteen minutes and then there's no time left over to write on my blog. So, my apologies, ladies and gents! I have discovered a few cool things in the last little while that I'm excited to blog about. But right now I'm late for a real life (second!!) date with Casey, so I've gotta go!

Living a better life

I've been such a slacker about posting recently. I have been settling into my life again. John and I have made a commitment to each other to stop living life on "emergency mode." We feel like we're always putting things off until the end of something ("we'll clean the house after the election," or "we'll start going to the gym as soon as work settles down".) It's this "just get through it" mentality that really diminishes our quality of life. True, things have been super hectic because of my 70 hour work weeks, but now we have a chance to recommit to living a rich life! I'm actually really looking forward to slowing the pace here a bit. So I've spent some time registering for classes, taking naps, making cards, hanging out with my niece and nephew, catching up with friends, and slowly tackling the monster mess that is my house. It really feels good to pause and take a look at what I can eliminate from my house and life and what I feel is missing that needs to be added in. Knowing my personality, I'm likely to get involved in another huge project at some point, but my goal is to not let that project take over my life. It may be time consuming, or stressful, but I need not let it overrun every other aspect in my life.

Let Barbarakah commence!

So, we lost the election (sucky) but we worked hard and I feel good about our efforts. It really was such a pleasure to work with Dave and I met some really incredible people!

BUT, yesterday was my (gulp) 25th birthday, so I've moved onto the fun of celebrating! My cousin John, started a tradition with his wife called, Jennakah, which is like Hanuakah- 8 days of celebration! John and I have adopted this fun tradition and we celebrate our bdays for at least a week. Yesterday, Dave took the staff out for lunch and last night my mom, dad, John and I had dinner at Happy Sumo and saw Dan in Real Life, with Steve Carell (very sweet, touching and funny)!

Tonight I will continue the fun celebrations and erase the sting of an election lost!

Thanks to many of you for your kind wishes!!

T minus 3 hours and 19 minutes...

until the polls officially close and this campaign is over. So many mixed emotions... relief that the grinding, grueling work is over, despair because I'm out of time to convince voters, joy in the idea of sleeping in on a Saturday, sadness because I will miss all the friends I have made...

Go vote today, wherever you are!

Halloween day!

We didn't want Halloween to be a lost campaign day so I came up with the idea of having a booth at Foothill Village's Trick or Treat event. Kids come to the strip mall and every store has candy for them. We handed out candy and "I Like Dave" balloons. It was so much fun to see all the kids in their costumes and talk with neighbors and friends (like Liz and Kristin Fowles!) We have so many supporters in that neighborhood and it was great to talk with them about the election on Tuesday. One family dressed as the Incredibles jumped out of their minivan and asked if they could take a picture with Dave the Doer! It was so cute! I saw a lot of pirates and a few Harry Potters and Hermiones- I always got the biggest grins from those kids!




Then, we tracked down our favorite family, the Wrights. We have made a tradition of always seeing each other on Halloween. L-R Nai Hola (their friend's kiddo) as Superman, Emma as Cruella Deville, John as Harry Potter, Thomas as Batman, me as Hermione and Kate as a witch.



After that, we stopped by Mom and Dad Thornton's house. Sam, Sue and Rick were carving pumpkins on the kitchen floor. Here's some of their handiwork.

Next, we went to Steve and Kerry's house where my mom's tradition of AWESOME Halloween decorations lives on with the next generation.




Sam and Lily went as dragons. Lily was already in her pj's though, so we got a pic with just Sam.



Hope you all had a great Halloween, too!