My fears (repost from MySpace)

I don't normally do a lot of these, but this one seemed interesting. It's more profound than the "what color t-shirt are you wearing" surveys. =P I fear 27 out of 69 things. Mark with an X which ones you are afraid of!!...Be honest! I fear... [ ] the dark [ ] staying single forever [ ] being a parent [x] giving birth [ ] being myself in front of others [ ] open spaces [ ] closed spaces [x] heights (only when there's a chance of falling- inside a tall building is okay, but not on the balcony or roof) [ ] cats [ ] dogs [ ] birds [x] spiders and/or other insects [X] driving or being in cars (I've had two very vivid car accident dreams, both of them going off the side of an interchange, since then I prefer to drive rather than be passenger) [ ] flying [x] being put to sleep [ ] flowers or other plants [ ] being touched [x] fire (I don't mind fire when it's controlled, but I have a fear of death/destruction by fire- at least floods and earthquakes you can recover from, fires take everything) [ ] water [x] the ocean (when the waves are high) [ ] pools (wouldn't it be funny if I was...) [x] failure [ ] success [ ] germs [x] thunder/lightning (not as much as when I was a kid though- just fear it at work now!) [ ] frogs/toads [ ] rats [X] jumping from high places (It's not the jumping that's bad, it's the landing, especially with knee and ankle issues) [ ] snow (brrrr, wouldn't call it a fear, but I wouldn't want to go in the snow barefoot or anything... I am from California, after all, and wear flip flops every day) [ ] rain [ ] wind [ ] cemeteries [ ] clowns [ ] large crowds [ ] demons or evil [x] crossing bridges (overpasses, depending on who's driving, see above) [ ] death [ ] Hell [ ] Heaven [x] being robbed [x] being sexually assaulted [ ] men [x] women (some women can be sneaky and devious, admit it) [x] having great responsibility [ ] doctors, including dentists [x] tornadoes (I mean, I would be, if we got them here) [x] hurricanes (same as above) [ ] being punished [ ] diseases [x] snakes [x] sharks [ ] Friday the 13th [ ] poverty [x] ghosts [ ] Halloween [ ] school [ ] trains or railroads [ ] fear [x] being alone [x] losing all my friends [x] being blind (my eyesight in one eye is really bad... sometimes I cringe at what it would be like to always see the world like I do at the DMV when they make me close the other one) [ ] love [x] being deaf (getting a taste of this too, with ear infections and such- couldn't hear out of my left ear except for ringing for several days) [ ] growing up [ ] monsters under my bed [x] creepy noises in the night (one time I saw the silhouette of a person jumping over our back gate through my bedroom window and parents didn't believe me, thought I was dreaming...) [x] bees (don't know if I'm allergic or not, don't want to find out) [x] not accomplishing my dreams [ ] oompalummpas (why would you be afraid of them? they're cute and they sing!)

Marriage Retreat

Charles and I went on a marriage retreat/conference this weekend in Valencia. I want to say thank you to everyone who encouraged us to go and/or helped us out so that we could go. It opened up a lot of communication on topics that we don't always talk about. I think that our relationship was already very strong, but we came out of it knowing each other a little better and understanding how the other thinks and operates. We also picked up several books that we'll be going over in the next couple of months (I won't deceive myself into thinking we have time for all of them right away!) for even more information. There are still some homework things that we need to go over together, but this week and weekend are busy for us both, so I would say within the next month or so we'll have finished the conference handout books. It was a lot of fun overall, and definitely worth while. =)

String of car break ins at work

So, I was at work on the 18th, the only person in the whole building, when a jogger (not a customer of the aquatic center, but someone jogging the perimeter trail) came to the front counter where I was to tell me that there were a couple of cars broken into in the parking lot. She described the color and model of the cars, and one of them was the car that I drive. Her post-it note with the license plate numbers confirmed it. I couldn't find the non-emergency dispatch number, so I called the administrative phone number for the PD, who then transferred me to dispatch. I let them know that I was in the aquatic center, and to please have the responding officers come get me there, as I would not be waiting outside the car for them. They came about an hour later, which I find is about average for a non-emergency call. The other person was missing a purse, with credit cards and such, so they took her report first. Then they came to get my report. Good thing the other person just got there, because I opened that morning, so I had like a 6 hour window where I hadn't moved or seen my car. I was missing the bag that my husband got me for Valentine's day two years ago (two Valentine's days ago, that is, we haven't known each other two years =P). That made me really sad, because I really liked the bag... I used it as a swim bag or carry on luggage (most recently on my trip to Texas) or girly-briefcase. I don't remember exactly what it had in it besides some pens and my old work clipboard (that had my name drawn on in paint marker and a pen tied to it with fishing cable). I had taken out my organizer thing when we did our taxes, I'm thankful for that since that had W2s and I think a checkbook. Anyhow, I'm sure they thought it was a purse. Two days later, on Thursday the 20th, someone broke into another two cars- one jogger for a purse, and one (belonging to one of my employees) for a CD wallet. It's really a prime location for that kind of stuff. Near the freeway, people jogging who leave their purses in the car... I hear tell that both the times they took purses, they had filled their gas tanks and purchased stuff at a major chain store within 10 minutes. At least that gives them something to go on, I would think, since both of those places have security cameras. I mean, it's like taking a stolen ATM card to withdraw money, except they don't normally sell you stuff at the store if you're wearing a ski mask. (But on the other hand, the ATM cameras are closer and thus better quality images assuming you're not covering your face.) The employee had glass coverage on her car, so it didn't cost her anything to get her window replaced. Our mechanic says we'd have to leave our car at least a day or two, and my husband is going to call him back to see how much it'll cost us. Turns out every single month we have some kind of car issue. =P

Posted some new pictures...

Just a quick note to let you know that I posted some new pictures to my Yahoo pictures site. It's under 06 Uncle's Anniversary, some pictures of my family. Dad was telling me over Easter/birthday dinner yesterday that there is not a single picture of my maternal grandmother... that she was an only child, and they checked with any known family they had at some point. He said that in response to us taking pictures at the dinner table, mentioned how it's good that we take more pictures now than we used to. Anyhow, go check it out here.

Been a long time...

My husband and I went out on Sunday with some old friends of mine from high school. Julio I had seen from time to time in town, but Bill and Stephanie I hadn't seen since graduation in 2001. Almost 5 years! Everyone is doing well, and Bill and Stephanie are now a couple, which I think is awesome. They're all good people, among the best I know. I'm really, really happy that we got together. Personally, I think MySpace did us a great service there getting me back in touch with Julio, who I didn't have an email address for. Bill and Steph it's my own fault I didn't contact them more often. (That and Bill moved away, but he's back now!) I love you guys. Charles likes you too! :) Julio, Charles, and I went to the Queen Mary. It's a long story, having to do with daylight savings time, and the Long Beach Grand Prix, and parking lots... but let's just say we had no idea that we were going to go to the Queen Mary until we found ourselves in the Queen Mary parking lot. We had changed our plans from Catalina, to Sea World, to the Aquarium of the Pacific, and in trying to get there we couldn't park anywhere near it because of the Grand Prix. The Cirque du Soleil (which I love) was in the QM parking lot as well, but the only seats available for that day were in the $80/seat section (the most expensive of three brackets) so we didn't do that. We went on the Ghosts and Legends Tour, the one we missed last time. Then we went up on the ship for a while, Julio had never been. Then we drove back to El Monte to meet up with the others. We went to the mall, but it was closing practically as soon as we got there so we watched a movie. A couple of pictures from the Queen Mary. I kind of regret not having someone take a picture of all of us together, but that just means we'll have to all get together again. =)