Super Bowl
Monday, February 5th, 2007Tony and Venezia had a great time watching the Super Bowl this weekend!
Here are the pics.
Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
Job Interviews
Monday, January 29th, 2007Had my first interview today. First years are looking for summer internships, and the process starts in mid January and lasts all the way to April. People who have been interviewing will start hearing about offers some time this week, and others might be struggling to get interviews at all. I’ve been lucky to receive a few interview invitations, but I’ve also been passed over a couple of times. It’s an interesting part of the Biz-school process that is nerve-wracking, exciting and humbling all at the same time.
My interview today went fine, I really didn’t get any feedback one way or the other. I should hear back within a couple of weeks if I advance to the second round. When it’s all said and done, I should have the opportunity to get in front of anywhere from five to ten of the top technology companies in the Bay Area and Seattle. Even if you aren’t hand-picked by a firm, Haas gives you a great opportunity to “bid” on an interview slot after the first invites go out. This gives everyone the opportunity to get in front of at least a handful of companies during the process.
The Name Game
Wednesday, January 24th, 2007Most mornings Venezia comes shuffling into my room to wake me up. 95% of the time she say’s “Mom, want to wake up?” 100% of the time, my answer is no. I mean, come on–do you think if I’m lying here all warm and cozy with my eyes closed that I’m miserable and WANT to get up?? Actually, I interpret her “question” as more of a demand. The reason I know this is because if I say “no” she will erupt into an early morning crying fit. So to avoid any unnecessary angst and noise, I simply roll over and accept the fact that that I actually have a really cute alarm clock–one that hands my glasses to me nonetheless so I can see when I get up!! Man, I have her trained well!!
This morning I heard her come shuffling in and I got that sinking feeling of…time to wake up! Instead she simply walked over to my side of the bed with this early-morning comment: “Mom. A perfect name for the baby is Trainee.” Trainee? I said–just to make sure I wasn’t still sleeping. Yes! she said.
Now, what struck me as funny here was, How long had she been lying in bed thinking of baby names before she thought of Trainee and said “YES! This is the PERFECT name for the baby! I must go and wake up mom IMMEDIATELY to tell her this GREAT name I just came up with!”
Later on that morning, I thought I’d test her to see if she remembered what she had told me earlier.
“Venezia! Do you remember what you told me this morning for a baby’s name?”
“Yes, Trainee!”
Sure enough, she had put some thought into it, and definitley remembered it!
So just for fun, if anyone else thinks they can come up with a better name for the baby than Trainee and would like to share their suggestion, please do so! Just please reply to this entry, and do not wake me up!
Ballet Class
Tuesday, January 16th, 2007When Venezia turned 3 years old, I was excited, because it meant a
whole new category of classes she was qualified to take because of
her “maturity and age”. As a SAHM, it’s important for her (and me)
to get her in classes where she’s interacting with other kids and
hopefully learning new skills. So, since she was about 1, those
classes have been music, and singing, and instruments, and music, and
instruments, and silly dancing. Now that she has mastered the egg
shakers, we’re ready to move her on to some major, serious training!
With this mission in mind, I headed straight down to the Berkeley YMCA,
where they offer lots of classes for 3 year olds. Perusing over the
schedule, I settled on doing a dance class and had a choice between
“Rhythm and Roots” a class which combines elements of Hip Hop,
African, Tap and drumming or Ballet–the foundation for almost all
dance styles. My inclination was to choose Rhythm and Roots because,
well…that’s what I like! But, that class was full, so I chose Ballet.
I was anxiously anticipicating her first class on Sunday, because it
would be the first class that she would do BY HERSELF. This was not
a “parent-participation” class. (Thank god!) Not that I don’t like
holding hands and skipping around in a circle, or singing The Itsy
Bitsy Spider REALLY loud, or playing the maracas with all the
enthusiasm and exaggerated facial expressions as one of those
annoying kids on Barney–but I was ready to sit back and watch
Venezia do her own thing!
When class started, the kids were asked to come sit around a big
drum and practice tapping it. Venezia did this readily without any
hesitation or looking back at Tony and me (sitting against the wall
with the other parents). The next exercise was for the kids to
introduce themselves by saying their name while hitting the drum at
the same time. Most kids weren’t able to perform this two tasks
simultaneously, if at all, or at least without needing some friendly
coercion from the teacher or their parent. But when it came time for
Venezia to introduce herself, she hit the drum proudly and said
“Venezia!” Tony and I tried to hold our applause as we looked at
each other with profound proudness over this huge demonstration of
mastery and talent!
Next the kids went through some warm-up exercises.
The teacher gave them simple instructions: lie on your back, shake
your arms, shake your legs etc. Venezia kept her eyes deadlocked on
the teacher, not daring to miss a commmand or item of instruction of
this all-important warm up! At this point, most of the kids weren’t
following along, or kept running back to their parents for comfort or
praise or encouragement. But Venezia stayed RIGHT on the teacher’s
heels waiting for the next activity–barely even glancing at Tony and
me, who were sitting there wiping our eyes and with the biggest perma-
grins on our face–from sheer enjoyment and amazement at our
daughter’s excellent following-directions-and-doing-everything-the-
teacher-says abilities!
The rest of class continued in the same fashion–Venezia doing
everything perfectly! (well…maybe a little proud parent
exaggeration here) and Tony and I holding back from wanting to stand up
and yell “YEAH!!! THAT’S MY DAUGHTER! WHOOO HOOO! SHE’S THE BEST
ONE HERE! DID YOU SEE THAT? DID YOU SEE THAT?” But my proudest
moment from class, came from the fact that she did the entire class
willingly and happily BY HERSELF and without me, the person that’s
been attached to her hip since birth! I felt like the mother bird
who kicked her baby out of the nest and she flew! she flew! She can
do it!! All by herself!! (Good thing girl, because ya gotta make room
for the new baby bird!!)
When class was finished, I used the restroom and glanced in the
mirror to find that my HUGE perma-grin from the last 45 minutes had
left deep smile wrinkles in my 35 year old face reminding me of my
age–thanks! But it was well worth it, and if this is any indication
of what’s to come, I better stock up on my tissue!
Photo links working now
Sunday, November 5th, 2006There was a problem with a couple of the photo links below… they should be working now!
the Golden Gate Bridge
Monday, October 23rd, 2006This past weekend Tony had a small break between his Fall A and Fall B semester and was able to grace us with his presence! I mean that in a good way! It’s rare we get to go out as a family and do something all together, so we opted for another San Fran excursion. We decided we should go see the glorious Golden Gate Bridge–up close and personal–in all of her splendor! Afterall, she is the landmark of this beautiful city, what one associates San Francisco with and what we still “oooh and ahhhh” over when we’re driving along the East Bay. It’s not often you see her because she’s so often covered with fog. But these last few days have been clear, and mostly fog free–so this is where we decided to go.
In addition to the surprisingly warm weather at the bridge, it was uncharacteristically wind-free. (Not that I’m an expert on the weather conditions on the Golden Gate Bridge, we had just heard, and assumed it was very windy). It was a beautiful day and we finished it off with a nice, romantic family picnic with a view of the bridge as our backdrop!
click link for all the pics.
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/medoraces/album/576460762330324932#page1
Excuses, excuses…
Thursday, October 19th, 2006So if you read my previous blog entry from a couple days ago, and you know my family well, you would have discovered that I made a pretty big error in counting the number of grandkids in our family. I realized I made this error while I was zoning out while reading a book to Venezia for the 600th time before bed. I mentioned that we now have 3 boys and 3 girl grandkids. That is SO not true. There are 3 boys and 4 girls! No offense to Claire, Sydney, Venezia OR new baby Shea. Somehow someone just slipped my mind! Which is the REAL point I am trying to make here.
But first, let me just make up another excuse for my lack of blogging. And then we’ll get to my point of today’s story. It use to be that in order for me to contribute to this blog (besides Tony’s urging. do you think I would have initiated this on my own??!!) I had to first sit down, with a glass of wine, after Venezia went to bed, and then let the creative juices flow to come up with some “interesting” story to write.
However, as of a few weeks ago…I cut off all wine consumption completely (including delicious microbrews) for a better cause. Our new baby!! That’s right–I’m pregnant! Or as some people like to say, WE’RE pregnant! Which goes back to my original story of my embarrassing error in family-member-accounting. At first I thought I would go back and edit my blog entry, but then I thought, hey! Why not just tell the truth? I have pregnancy brain which equates to forgettfullness, airheadedness, the inability to remember people’s names, forgetting why you went to the refrigerator, and basically walking around like a tired lazy zombie. Which again, explains the slow-down in blog updates.
So now you know!
And for your convenience, I have created a short list of FAQ’s:
How far along are you? based on an early ultrasound, about 10 weeks.
Have you felt any morning sickness? How do you feel?? Great! I have had pretty much no morning sickness or nausea at all!
Does Venezia know? What does she think? Yes, Venezia knows and she is EXTREMELY excited to “catch” the baby when it comes out, as she likes to tell me every day. She has also offered up her diaper changing services and would like to hold the baby and rock it. She also thinks we should give it a bath and put on it’s pajamas. I think those are all reasonable suggestions–don’t you?
Are you going to find out what you are having? NO, NO, NO we will not find out the sex. Tony and I LOVE surprises!
When is the due date? The due date right now is the middle of May (right during Tony’s finals! Perfect timing!!)
Will we choose another name that is difficult to pronounce? OK, nobody’s asked us us that yet, but I know that is what you all were wondering!! You will just have to wait and find out!
September-October
Wednesday, October 18th, 2006Despite my laziness, I feel pressured to write another blog entry so as to not discourage those who happen to frequent this blog looking for something new to read with pictures to look at. So, I will try to be brief, and let my pictures do the talking.
Venezia and I recently flew back to Portland to visit for two weeks. Although 2 weeks seemed like it would be a long time, it wasn’t long enough to really feel like I spent enough time with everyone. Venezia really enjoyed seeing her cousins–it’s funny to see how much she ADORES and looks up to Quincy! Sydney has become quite a ham–and she talks so much more now! Venezia was also SO excited to see her friend Olivia–it was funny to watch those 2 girls jumping up and down and screaming when they saw each other for the first time. Wait! That was actually me and Wisa!
A major milestone while we were in Portland–got Venezia potty trained (well–at least 95%) And she’s been doing great ever since! Now we can take all that extra money we’ll save in diapers and put it towards Tony’s school!
Another milesone–Mom turned 60 and we had a big party for her at her house with all her close friends. (this was actually one of my reasons to go back home to be there for the big 6-0).
While in Portland the Blazer Hip Hop team tryouts were held so I was able to be there to help teach and judge at the tryouts. This is the team I co-coached last year. Many of the girls and guys I have danced with and coached for many years so I call them my “dancing family”–it was so much fun seeing them again!
Shortly after our return to Portland, my oldest sister gave birth to her THIRD child–a girl–her name is Shea! I know Julia will have her hands full, but she is probably one of the most patient mother’s I know, so I know she’ll manage wonderfully! Now the grandkids have evened out in the family: 3 boys to 3 girls!
More updates soon!
Here’s the link for pictures!
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/medoraces/album/576460762326339047#page1
This Weekend
Tuesday, September 19th, 2006On Friday Tony took the opportunity to come up for air from school and take advantage of visiting some of our Portland friends (Dan and his wife Jess, a former co-worker of Tony’s from the Blazer office and his wife) at their parents cabin home near Lake Tahoe. Now, we were told, if you aren’t familiar with the area, then we would say, we went to Lake Tahoe. If you ARE familiar with the area, then we were actually in Soda Springs and close to Truckee. The weather forcast said a pleasant temperataure of 65 degrees. Nice, cool mountain temperature! But as we ascended up the moutains the outside temperature kept dropping, 70 degrees, 60 degrees, 50 degrees, 40 degrees, and finally when we pulled into their driveway: 39 degrees! Brrrrr!!! Pretty cold for flip flops, which is what I had on! And then, it ended up snowing!! I’ve included some pictures…from our walk, Venezia stomping around in the snow, and Tony and I sporting some SWEET vintage snow coats–obviously left for cabin visitors who forget theirs!
Since every day is a work day for Tony, every day is a mommy and daughter day for me! So, I decided to take Venezia to “the beach”. This is actually a lake up at Tilden Regional Park in Berkeley. But they have created a “beach” with sand and grass to play in. I think we have finally hit summer here in Berkeley (that is what we are told) so the 80 degree day was perfect!
These pictures show what a temperature difference we had this weekend!
Other minor notes; I FINALLY took my California drivers license test and passed! Whoo Hoo! And I only missed 1! That’s less than Tony made! That means I’m a better driver RIGHT???!!
Also, had my first hip hop class at the University Rec Center last night (I’ll be teaching there on Monday nights) and had about 60 + people in class! It went really well and was so much fun!
Finally, Venezia and I leave tomorrow night to fly home to Portland for 2 weeks. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone!!
Here is the link for the pictures:
Girl Time
Wednesday, September 13th, 2006This past weekend we had a really nice visit from Mom and Howard whodrove down from Portland. We had some good family quality time justhanging around the humble home…they watched V while I waited adreadful 2 hours to get my car registered at DMV (BTW cost us $272 here in California) and we had a nice visit into San Francisco to see China Town. We had a tearless goodbye three days later since we will beseeing them in a week and a half when Venezia and I will be flying back to Portland for a 2 week stay! (Did you get all those numbers??)
With Tony in probably the most difficult time of school (the first semester) I find myself pretty much being a single mom and finding things for Venezia and I to do for just the two of us. Thank goodness I have a lot of options for us to do around here! This past Sunday we enjoyed a nearby festival coined the “Mardi Gras of the East Bay”. Well….I’m not so sure about that, but we had a good time watching a parade, strolling the streets, buying a pair of cheap sunglasses (for me) and watching free Luni Toon Cartoons at the local movie theatre. (side note, EVERY single cartoon in these old Buggs Bunny cartoons involved guns…do they make cartoons like that anymore??!!)
I’ve included a picture from the parade showing Venezia in classic behavior form—which is she covers up her ears when something is too loud. Now, I’m sure a lot of kids do this, but Venezia’s idiosyncrasy about loudness is that it extends to situations like….oh, my mom and me turning the newspaper over at breakfast and she doesn’t want to hear the rustling sound. Or, me and my friend Wisa having a super animated conversation in which Venezia tells us “we’re too loud!” Pretty soon she’ll be telling Tony to turn down that damn rock-n-roll music!
Our most recent Girlfriend Outing was to the Oakland Zoo. I was surprised that it wasn’t that crowded, unlike my last couple of visits to the Portland Zoo—which was like dealing with crowds at the mall from the-day-after-Thanksgiving-day-sales. I’ve included some pictures, but I first have to say, I’m usually not one to take pictures of animals at the zoo, because, hey, if you’ve seen one camel, you’ve seen them all right?? However, due to the lack of people around, it made picture taking much easier, and lessened my embarrassment of looking like One Of Those People That Take Pictures of Random Zoo Animals. (Oh the HORRORRR!!!)
Finally, today I hosted a play day with some of the other business student’s wives and their kids. We had 6 kids (including Venezia who is the oldest). Maxime (she’s French so you have to pronounce it like this “Mah-Xeem”) Aika from Japan, Maumau from China, a little boy from Korea and Kelsey from Maryland. Despite the language barrier between all the kids, who I’m sure had no idea what the other mother’s were saying, the kids still managed to get along with each other using the universal language of playing; grab toys from each other, put toys in mouth, scream when hungry and be completeley mesmorized by Elmo doing the Hokey Pokey.
