OakMonster’s Den

First, regrets.

Zidane apologizes for his behavior, but has no regrets.

I don’t blame him. With all the dramatics those Italian boys put on, I’m sure they hold no punches when it comes to smack talking. But, it’s unreal to see a guy lost it like that in such an important game!!

Second, lack of sleep.

Nhien and I were at work at 10 p.m. last night. No dinner break. A few handful of Cheez-Its sustained us for a while. We were prepping for the event we had this morning which included moving 4 car loads of gift bags and other meeting materials by ourselves.

I got home close to 11 p.m. last night, at which point I was so hungry I couldn’t even eat any more. So, I had a slice of prosciutto…by itself…yes I know…and one half of an apple and a small bottle of Gatorade Rain. I laid out my suit and went to sleep.

I was up at 4:30 a.m. And Nhien also made sure that I was up at 4:30 a.m. LOL. We trudged back out to work. AND then we were back at the office at 6 a.m. to move some more stuff and set up the place. Once again, we were sustained by half a bag of banana chips. Neither one of us got to the food, and by the time the event ended, there were only fruits left.

On that note, the event went swimmingly. Sure there were some hiccups behind the scene, but for those attending, they seemed to really enjoy the show.

One down. Next up is the newsletter.

Eeeeeeeeek! It NEVER ends!!!!

So, with all the time I put in last night, I left with even emptier stomach at 12 noon with some 3 hours leftover of comp time to be used later in the week. I practically ran through the Farmers’ Market, picking up the BACON WRAPPED HOT DOG (oh the scrumptious artery clogging feast! My fist meal of the past 18 hours!!), strawberries, and some nuts, and headed home.

I managed to doze off on the couch for a while when Nhien called. And now I couldn’t go back to sleep. The apartment hit its afternoon heat shift. You know the place got hot all of the sudden around 3:30 everyday. And I’m wired.

I’m dead tired. But sleep is just not for me. Yet.

But all this busy work is keeping my mind off of thinking about my mom. Will update about that tomorrow when I’m more coherent…

Italy. You rock.

Technically, your defense did not let up. Sure, Zidane got the penalty kick for what many of us thought was a bad call. But that wasn’t because you, the great wall of Napoli, failed. Materazzi’s header was indeed spectacular.

But to tell you the truth, France did play better in the second half. Italy was hanging back, holding down the fort but never really makes the good move forward. France kept beating down the door but didn’t get very far, obviously. Half way through the overtime, with Zidane in the game, I thought for sure France would beat Italy in the shootout. But then, Zidane lost his mind. And at that moment, I knew Italy was going to win.

Was France robbed of victory in the penalty kick shootout? If you consider Zidane to be the robber, then yes. WTF was the guy thinking??? (As some may say, he should’ve gone for the face…)

Here’s a “clip” courtesy of Frenchy who got it from somewhere else…

[lost image]

Anyhoo. Back to the normalcy of Sunday. Actually, it’s not very normal. Brandon is out with Erik. For a change, I’m the one alone in the house. This is very odd…

yarrgh
Originally uploaded by theoakmonster.

Yes. I dressed up as a pirate to go see “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”.

Yes. All of that came out of my closet.

Yes. I was the only one in the theater that dressed up.

Review of the movie? I LOVE it. It was a lot of fun. I wish we can see the second one right after and keep going. No spoiler here, but y’all HAVE to stick around for the extra scene at the end after the credit. It wasn’t crucial that you see it, but it’s cute.

And former Commodore Norrington is suddenly HOT. He is a good lookin’ tall drink of water from the first one, but in this, he’s just smokin’ hot. The proper prissy pretty boy is no more. Helloooo angry bitter scheming rugged tanned sailor who’s proven to be quite a bad ass. I [heart] Jack Davenport!

It’s truly been an old friend reconnecting weekend! Saturday was Frenchy. Yesterday was high school reunion of sort. Heh.

I spent almost an entire day down in the OC yesterday, visiting my host mom Bonnie and host dad Bob, and then hung out with my best girl Nora.

I haven’t seen Bonnie in quite sometime. The Wilkinsons are pretty busy bunch with grand kids and family in Northern California, Utah, and Arizona. Her younger daughter Jenny, husband Mike, and son Eli live in the same house. And man, Eli is growing up too! And he said he remembers me. What a charmer!

Bonnie shows me pictures of the San Jose’s grandkids. I couldn’t believe it that her granddaughter Caitlin just graduated from high school! I remember Caitlin as this little blond girl we had to take to the emergency room on the night before Halloween because she had a fever. Ryan, the younger brother, is 6′ 4″ at 15. Not the same boy who woke up with Bat Mobile’s tire threads on his cheek because he went to sleep with it the night before. Then, there’s Sarah. The todler with a head of golden curls is taller than Caitlin. The rest of the gang, Jenna and the new baby boy I don’t remember his name, I haven’t really gotten to meet.

This is when you REALLY feel the time passes, y’all.

Bonnie fixed us some lunch, and then we chatted for some longer time. Then I headed down to see Nora. We chatted at the house for a while and then we headed down to Wing Nuts, a wings specialty restaurant/bar thing. Kind of fun, actually. And the wings were good.

And of course, a trip to Nora’s always ended at the Beverage and More. I stocked up on sake for my summer brewing of strawberry sake, and found my Chaucer Mead. Yey! Nora experimented with a few bottles of fruity ales.

The weekend fun is not yet finished. We ARE going to the Tolers’ this afternoon for Fiesta and Fireworks. As much as we wish we are in New Mexico with Brandon’s folks and the entire family right now–Stephanie, Lauren, and Morgan Claire are out there too along with Jacqueline, Jim, Cheyenne and Sierra–but we’ll settle for hanging out with our extended “family” locally.

Friends = Family = Fun. Happy Fourth, y’all. Be safe. And hopefully, have a quiet night sleep.

I blamed England and Brazil’s losses on Chris Frenchy. He turned 30 on Saturday and of course his wish was for France to win. He got his wish.

I know, I know. In that case he’s only responsible for Brazil’s loss. But I’m just going to overall blame him anyway. J/K. You know I love ya, Froggy! Muuah!

We spent the entire afternoon on Hermosa Beach with Chris, his wonderful fiance Brandy, and his crew. I’ve met all these new folks and made all these new friends. It was terrific!

This also marked the first time in 13 years in California that I actually got into California water. As in, I was completely submerged in it!

Yes, kids. It was THAT hot that the cold ass CA water actually sort of warm up. Haha.

Anyhoo. I started by just slowly wading in. My hat and glasses intact. Chris was with me and encouraged me to go further out. I was wiped out yet managed to hold on to my glasses. So he took my hat and glasses back to the tent. But I can’t see without them!

“You don’t need to see,” he said. That’s true. I trust Chris with my life. He would not let me run into anything or, in my worst fear, drown.

So here we were, hopping into the waves. I was squeaking and squealing like a little girl…and had soooo much fun, y’all!

Then Brandon came running out to the water with my glasses, yelling for me.

“Dolphins! That way!”

And sure enough, there were fins. And spray from then they came up to breath. So very close! Chris took off into the water and headed for the dolphins.

“They didn’t want to play with me,” Chris said sadly when he returned minutes later.

Brandon and I helped the gang packed up the beach party around 4 p.m. and we headed out as the gang stayed and BBQ’ed.

B and I had other plans. A plan to stop at our favorite Mexican restaurant where we haven’t come by in a very long time. Las Brisas on Artesia Blvd. LOVE their margaritas. LOVE their food. Albondigas, the Mexican meatball soup…my god…it was hot out, but it was sooooo good!.

We got home and crashed out pretty much all through Sunday as well. We did get up to go see Superman Returns though. It was a fun popcorn movie.

And today, I’ve been up since 7 a.m. with Brandon, and been doing laundry all morning. Heh. I am heading out to the OC later on to have lunch with Bonnie, my host mom, the lady I stayed with when I came over here for high school 13 years ago.

13 years. Damn. It’s been that long…