CRAZIEST....

KICKBOXING....

CLASS....

E   V   E   R  !  !  !  !  !  !  !

I can't wait until I go again. 

Motivée

Well, I canceled my LA Fitness membership and decided to go to 24 hour fitness instead. I pay half the price, have newer equipment, kickboxing classes as well and on the way home from work - exactly halfway too, so I pass the major traffic and it's smooth sailing home when I get out.

Win?

Win.

No Beach Vball today - we did yesterday instead. Today was a fun day of relaxing, cleaning the apartment and looking for birthday presents for my darling younger brother and sister who will be turning 14 in about a week! I miss them very much and they will be entering their last year of Junior High. Almost like Freshmen. As Lois Griffin would say, "Get the Freshman!"

Martinique, summer 2006

I'm proud to say that I've been to the gym every single day this week except today. Tomorrow I have a free session with a personal trainer, Tuesday and Wednesday night is kickboxing, and Thursday night I fly out to Salt Lake... and embark on a wonderful journey filled with family, good friends, fun, and 10 days off work. Hurray!

Last night we celebrated Oak's birthday, our youngest volleyball player (only a year younger than me). We went to his parent's Thai restaurant for dinner which was a lot of fun - good food and good company. I carpooled with Lillian & Erin, who showed me downtown Los Angeles... and I saw where L.A. Live is going to be, as well as the JW & RZ that have started to build. They're huge! 

Tomorrow night I'm going to a labor day BBQ. What a fun weekend! Although I'll be working tomorrow, I'll be doing so from home and ending early. Have a great night everyone!

La Chance

Well, LA Fitness is darn lucky.

Despite the fact that the oblique muscles ab machine was broken yesterday, all machines are slightly older and and I'm just not feeling that gym yet, tonight's kickboxing class was actually pretty decent. 

It felt so good. Half the moves were the same as Gold's gym on Van Winkle, and the other half were new but with the same basic moves. It's been almost a year since I've gone and I'm pretty proud of myself, even though I'm absolutely sore everywhere, I was able to stay the whole time - didn't mess up too much (I couldn't, I was in the front row. I always go in the front row because I'm motivated to do better there).

I'd love to get into kickboxing again. And I have to say, if it weren't for that class I'd probably cancel my membership. I think I'll try it out for a few months though (luckily I'm on a month-to-month membership). That way I can get back into weight training too. My workout videos at home can only do so much.

I know, I know... some of you might say "but you've got a beach right there where you can walk, run and breathe beach air and you play beach Vball 1-3 times a week." Very true, my friend. But here's the thing, Beach Vball is fun but unless I'm playing 2 on 2, it's really not working my endurance much. Running on the beach? I tried it and... somewhat gave up. Running's not my thing. Walking - sure, I like to walk, but again, no muscle toning or real endurance building.

I want to be able to kick some butt... oh, I dream of the day that I will be able to beat Babe in an arm wrestle. 

It must be late, I'm hallucinating. Babe's stronger than he looks. 

Good night all!

Papillon Social

Well, it took about 8-9 months, but I finally feel like I have a life outside of work now besides the casual beach volleyball game & holiday BBQ's.

Last Wednesday I went over to Lynn's house who invited me over for dinner because she felt like cooking a bunch of new things or things she hadn't cooked in a while (in other words, I knew I'd be a test subject... which I have absolutely no problem with!!!) and she made delicious dishes of curry, eggplant with chili sauce, some kind of spicy beef and pork and deep fried prawns. Everything was absolutely delicious! She's from Singapore and her husband's German. She also invited Lillian who's from Malaysia I believe -and her boyfriend who's very American and I swear has the same facial hair as a Backstreet Boy. A fun Wednesday evening.

Friday - round 2 - Lynn wanted me to try her apricot glazed salmon that she learned from a past Argentinian neighbor, and so the same gang was invited over for dinner... it was fantastic too. Easy to make too. Maybe I'll try it someday.

Saturday was Volleyball at 11am with a very "different" crowd. Instead of the really nice and gentle same-sex couples I regularly see on Sundays, these were hard-core tatooed 250 pound 40-50 yr old hockey players shouting & swearing like there's no tomorrow. I was laughing so hard inside. "COME ON! YOU'RE THE STRAW THAT STIRS THE DRINK! F*** I'M SWEATING. OH F***, I'M SWEATING REAL BAD. F*** I GOT SUNSCREEN IN MY EYES DAMN IT!" A little too much swearing for my tastes... I don't think I'll make Saturday vball a new weekly thing.

Saturday night was a Filipino friend's birthday party in Orange County, where at least 10 different nationalities were present, including another Frenchie. We had awesome food, even French cheeses that I can't believe when I went for it it was gone - but there was foie gras leftover so I thought I might have a little taste even though I'm not a huge fan.

Sunday was usual Beach V-ball, cleaning the house, dinner at an Italian restaurant, and last night Lillian invited me over for dinner because she "felt like cooking" so we had a ladies night in (4 of us) and had yummy spicy food.

Also - I got a gym membership to try out LA Fitness for the week - I'm not uber impressed yet (went to pilates tonight and it was boring as heck) and yesterday they spent over an hour convincing me to join that I barely had time to work out. I'm going to go everyday this week though and can cancel by Saturday if I choose to do so.

Today I'm grateful to be in a state with so much diversity. Also for friends I get to see and for trying all these delicious new foods. My heart goes out also to those who have lost their homes in the SoCal fires. For those who wonder, these fires are north of LA and are at least 25-30 miles away from me thus are not affecting me directly, so I'm fine. The fires in Palos Verdes were a lot closer (5-10 miles) but those were extinguished pretty quickly.

I wish everyone a fabulous week - and hope to see some/most of you on my next trip to SLC in two weeks. Yeah, baby!

Best things

Best things today:

*Got an email from my dad telling me about his vacation - miss you Daddy!

*Finished my analysis at work and I actually think it holds water. Can't wait to present to boss tomorrow and GM on Thursday.

*Drove home listening to my favorite song

*Am currently having great conversations with my favorite texting buddy :)

Happy Tuesday!

Les Russes

Played Volleyball briefly with some Russians today.

"What's your name?"

(I say my real name)

"Hor-e-ny?"

So that's a first. My name sounds like "Oh Really", "Orally", never heard "Horny". Hope he wasn't just asking. Or maybe I just need to speak up more.

Ca fait drole

It's such a weird feeling, when you go from 3 people living in your apartment for 5 days... then 5.... then 2 en amoureux... and then it's just me again.

Sigh.

Well, at least I had a blast these past few weeks! My best friend from elementary in France, Laure, came to visit with her boyfriend, Maxime. I hadn't seen her in at least a couple of years and it was my first time meeting him. They discovered LA, Malibu, took a day trip to Vegas (yes, a DAY trip... I told them they were nuts and should just spend the night there...), Hollywood and Orange County. Not bad for 5 days and crazy 9 hour jetlag!

I wanted Maxime to try something very American: a root beer float. Problem is, from past experience, I know that most Frenchies do not like root beer. "It tastes like Coke that tastes like medicine." That's what I used to think ages ago... but I'm pretty americanized now. However, Max likes Mr. Pibb. So I told him to try a Mr. Pibb float when we stopped for ice cream. When they first saw it, dropped the ice cream in the soda and saw the chemical reaction, the look on their faces was priceless. He loved it! Laure also tried some kind of shake with melted marshmallow cream (also very American) and loved it. It was really fun. It was a really hot day in Hollywood/ Here's proof, because I usually never wear shorts unless I'm on the beach...

Babe and I had a few days to ourselves and we always try to make the most of it. To give you an update, he decided to start school in the spring. I was a little pissed at first (ok, really pissed because I'm like that), but all of his counselors highly, highly encouraged him to start in the spring because a) all the good classes for fall are pretty much taken b) he should start job shadowing to see what he wants to do and start doing some volunteer work because the college of law and other fields he's thinking of going into really look at that stuff c) it's important for him to get good grades and get in classes he's interested in. Well, whatever works best for him... I trust him to make what he believes is the best decision. It'll just take a little longer than expected to graduate, but that's ok. Many people get married and have families while going to school. I know he wants to be better prepared for everything and I know he'll do very well and make me proud :)

August 13th was Babe's birthday. His younger brother, Ty-Dogg, came here for the week so that they could spend some time together on days when I was at work. On his b-day, we went to "Spark Woodfire Grill" (Right by the RI Beverly Hills) and he had the best kobe burger ever. I had a tasty shrimp pesto pizza. We then ventured through L.A. and visited the automobile museum, wanted to go in, and it turns out we got in for free. We got tricked by the Johnny Rockets waiters who told us we could go in through the restaurant, and suddenly we're inside. It wasn't until we were finished that we passed the admissions office. Oops! Well, we were only able to spend about 45 minutes anyway because of parking. It was really interesting. We saw really old cars and such. Something different. Always up for that...

Happy birthday to my man who doesn't look a day over 22.

That's about it! Getting really excited for my next trip, which will be a Salt Lake/ New York combo the week after labor day. Meanwhile, I've got a month to do the following; We'll see how I progress every week. How's that?

*balance checkbook

*eat healthy

*exercise at least 5x a week

*try either bikram yoga or 7 day complimentary gym pass

*enjoy the last few weeks of summer.

By the way, I haven't been to volleyball in a while - been spending time with the man and letting my left wrist rest a bit. I'll start it up again this Saturday, followed by a great BBQ with friends.

Today I'm grateful that even when I'm lonely, I still get phone calls, sweet emails and quirky text messages. Thanks for those who are thinking of me. I think of you guys too :)

Have a great evening & a la prochaine.