Sweet ’16

2016 has definitely been sweet so far.  I wrote about my birthday trip to London and Paris earlier.  While that currently is the highlight of my year, I have other experiences to be thankful for, including:

• Ringing in the new year in Los Angeles
  

  

  
• More productions at the performing arts center: Chicago, Phantom of the Opera, and Mamma Mia
• Macklemore and Ryan Lewis at the Grand Ole Opry

• Country Music Hall of Fame                                                 
• Tedx Nashville

    

• A Floral Centerpiece Design Class

• Way Late Play Date at the Adventure Science Center – Dystopian Worlds

    

• New haircut (the shortest I’ve had it since early childhood)

  

I continue to explore Nashville, try new restaurants, learn new things, and meet new people.  Upcoming events I’m looking forward to are a production of If/Then, playing the Escape Game, trips to Orlando/Disney World, Seattle, Vancouver, and LA, seeing Beyonce and Adele, and my sister’s wedding (in which I’m a bridesmaid and the wedding coordinator).  Here’s to life only getting sweeter!

Better Late Than Never

As I mentioned in my previous post, I neglected this blog last year (and looking at my archives, the year before that too).  I let life and laziness take over, but just because I didn’t write about it, it doesn’t mean nothing happened.  2015 was full of many blessings and adventures, and although we’re more than a quarter into 2016, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on and express gratitude for 2015.

THANK YOU for:

Theatre: As a volunteer for the performing arts center, I’ve seen numerous productions – Once, Camelot, Book of Mormon, La Boheme, Kinky Boots, Pippin, Dirty Dancing, Nutcracker, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Going Local (Exploring Nashville): Belle Meade Mansion, Christmas at Cheekwood, Nashville Zoo, East Nashville, Bicentennial Mall, Jellystone Lights

                   

Concerts: Janet Jackson, Ed Sheeran, New Kids on the Block with Nelly and TLC

   

  

  

Education and Inspiration: Cooking Homemade Pasta, Wine Tasting and Pairing, Creative Mornings, Painting

     

Family: Sister getting her Doctorate and planning her graduation party, attending a wedding convention with another sister, my mom retiring

Career: Getting a raise and then my own office and an assistant

Health & Fitness: New gym membership, completing a 3 day juice cleanse

Travel: Jack Daniels Distillery, Smoky Mountains, Memphis, Boston

  

            

 

Listen to Your Elders

Something I saw on Facebook:

Written by Regina Brett, 90 years old, of Cleveland, Ohio

To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 42 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I’ve ever written.

My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short – enjoy it..

4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don’t have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.

7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.

8. Save for retirement starting with your first pay check.

9. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

10. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.

11. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.

12. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

13. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.

14 Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

15. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful. Clutter weighs you down in many ways.

16. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.

17. It’s never too late to be happy. But it’s all up to you and no one else.

18. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.

19. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

20. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

21. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.

22. The most important sex organ is the brain.

23. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

24. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ‘In five years, will this matter?’

25. Always choose life.

26. Forgive but don’t forget.

27. What other people think of you is none of your business.

28. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

29. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

30. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does..

31. Believe in miracles.

32. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

33. Growing old beats the alternative — dying young.

34. Your children get only one childhood.

35. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

36. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

37. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.

38. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have not what you need.

39. The best is yet to come…

40. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

41. Yield.

42. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.”

Pinot’s Palette

I love wine and art/creativity so spending last Sunday afternoon painting while drinking was fun.  I’ve taken a sketching class with champagne before, but this was my first time taking a wine and painting class.  I opted for slightly different colors than the instructor’s piece, and it’s not perfect, but I’m happy with it.

New Years Message from Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

I read this today, and it really spoke to me.  I hope it strikes a chord with you as well.

Source

Today is the dawn of the New Year. So you’re probably working on a list of things that you’d like to get done in 2015. Well, I’d like to ask you to forget about making these resolutions. Forget about deciding on the first day of January how you will be conducting your life in September, some nine months later. Any resolution that involves making decisions about future behaviors is a waste of time. It also reinforces the self-defeating notion of living in the future.

For 2015, wouldn’t you rather live in the present moment?

This day that you’re living right now is the only day you get. Period. You can resolve to be skinny when next July rolls around, or to quit smoking next month, or to write that book you’ve been meaning to, or to embark on your overdue exercise program by the end of this year. You can go about resolving until the cows come home, and you still have to live your life just like everyone else on the planet: One day at a time.

You can only live minute to minute. You can certainly use up your present moments thinking about what you’ll be doing in the future, but that doesn’t change the fact that you can only live in the now. The important question to be asking yourself is:

How am I going to live in the present moment this year?

Will I waste these moments reviewing the way I used to behave? Will I waste these moments reviewing how I would like to behave in the future rather than resolving to live each day to the fullest?

The New Year is a good time to initiate a plan so you can make some changes and help live your life to the fullest. See if you can practice thinking differently. Decide very specifically what it is that you would like to change about yourself in 2015. If you have some goals in mind, vow to work on them day by day rather than making them a year-long project.

When you set up day-to-day goals for yourself, you can begin living this way for the rest of your life. Remember this little piece of advice, which will be extremely helpful to you if you can incorporate it into your life: When you go for one entire day without eating sugar (or not smoking, or being assertive, or any other new behavior), you are a totally different person at the end of that day. What you must learn to do is let that totally different person decide on the second day whether to do it again on this new day, rather than letting the same old person decide today that it is going to be difficult in a couple of days anyhow, so what’s the use. Always let the New You make the decision, and then you’ll be living your present moments.

Remember, you are in control of all thoughts in your head. When you are using up your present moments to worry about the future, constantly reviewing the past to come up with how you should have done it differently, or contemplating disaster, remind yourself that you are wasting this particular present moment.

Practice cancelling out negative thoughts for a few minutes at a time. Vow to enjoy the next five minutes regardless of what has previously transpired or what you think is about to happen. Remind yourself of the folly of wasting your present moments on mental activity that focuses exclusively on your past or imagined future. All of your thoughts about what you should have done, or how terrible things were in the past will not change one tiny slice of the past.

As you celebrate this New Year and each precious present moment, here are 10 reminders to help you live in the Now:

1. Remember that habits are changed by practicing new behavior. By practicing new thinking every five minutes, you’ll soon begin to master the art of present-moment living.
2. Do an honest assessment of your “problems.” You’ll very likely discover that almost all of your problems are really in your head and not located in reality.
3. Take time to be mindful of everything around you. Begin to look at your entire surroundings in a new light. Observe every detail on every face, every building and every object. If you do this often enough it will become a habit that will facilitate your being alive in every moment of the year.
4. Change your attitude. Begin an attitude-redevelopment plan. That means practice enjoying everything you do.
5. Be specific about what you want and take action. Decide on one thing that you would like to work on and do it today. Work at it daily, rather than making it a long-range objective.
6. Create a self-improvement agenda for yourself. Put on your agenda whatever activities you’ve always thought about but never had time to do. Do them now.
7. Rid yourself of mundane chores that are not really that important. Spend more time making your life a pleasure.
8. Eliminate procrastination as a lifestyle. Instead of talking to yourself about what you are going to do next week or even tomorrow, use this time to start a new task.
9. Don’t give up control of your life to others. You cannot enjoy the present moment if you are busy trying to make everyone else like you. People respect you more when you operate from a position of strength and self-reliance.
10. Feel good about yourself. You are a magnificent human being. Always feel good about that self that you are always with.

For 2015, as I have for many other years, I vow to be fully alive and see the world the way Walt Whitman described it to be many years ago: “To me…every cubic inch of space is a miracle.” I really believe that.

I wish you a New Year filled with many miracles. May you live a long and productive life—one present moment at a time.

Love,
I AM,
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

Music City

Grateful for all the live music I witnessed in 2014:

The Ben Folds Project

Tegan & Sara

Nico Vega

Imagine Dragons

CMA Fest

  

Sarah McLachlan

   

Katy Perry

Ed Sheeran

Justin Timberlake

Thank You 2013!

The last months of 2013 were filled with more firsts and adventures as I celebrated a decade out in Los Angeles, prepared for a “life reset” (more on that later), and drove from California to Tennessee.

Katy Perry & Friends: We Can Survive Tour

Katy Perry, Bonnie McKee, Ellie Goulding, Kacey Musgraves, Tegan and Sara, Sara Bareilles

  

Happy Halloween

Naples (CA)

 

Venice (CA)

  

Morro Bay

.

San Simeon

  

Hearst Castle

      

Palm Springs

       

Hiking to the Hollywood Sign (from Behind)

 

Justin Timberlake 20/20 Tour

      

Celebrating 10 Years in LA at Griffith Observatory and The Standard Downtown

  

Love to Go Cafe

Painting Class 

 

The Nutcracker

Baldwin Hills Overlook Hike

 

Randy’s Donuts

Natural History Museum

   

Shuttle Endeavour

 

Lake Hollywood Hike

    

Long Beach Aquarium

    

Macklemore Concert

Phoenix

     

Flagstaff

 

Albuquerque

Breaking Bad!

Location for Los Pollos Hermanos

 

Roswell 

  

        

Dallas

     

 

Texarkana

 

Little Rock

Former Clinton Home

Memphis

  

   

 

Leaving my mark!

Nashville

    

  

Chattanooga 

    

Singing Ladies

Another set of firsts:

Lisa Marie Presley

I’ve been a fan of hers since her first album came out a decade ago.  Cameras weren’t allowed inside, but it was great show. The highlight of the evening was when she let a little girl and her brother perform one of her songs. The brother-sister duo have done covers of Lisa Marie’s music (sister sings, brother plays guitar) and posted videos on YouTube.  Lisa Marie recognized them in the audience and gave them their moment to shine.

Katey Sagal and The Forest Rangers

I grew up watching Katey Sagal on Married with Children, and now I’m a huge fan of Sons of Anarchy.  The concert featured songs from Katey’s upcoming album as well as music from the show.

                   

Carmen

I dressed up and saw my first opera last weekend.  Carmen is running at the famed Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.  Including intermission, the performance lasted 3.5 hours, but it didn’t seem like it.  I really enjoyed it (and it helped that there was a screen above the stage with the English translation).

        

Summer Fun & Firsts

August was a busy month filled with fun and firsts.

626 Night Market                                                                                                                   I never heard of a Night Market till I read about this in LA Weekly.  It was a great assortment of food and merchandise vendors, predominantly Asian, but me being me, I mostly had desserts.

   http://626nightmarket.com/

Great Gatsby Party                                                                                                         (and pre-party dinner at Chaya Downtown LA)

I always wanted to go to Chaya and a 1920s themed party.

Blondie Martini

Kobe Beef-Porcini Mushroom Bolognese

 

   

  

   

                             http://www.drinkeatplay.com/ 

Shakespeare in the Park

I always wanted to see a Shakespeare play performed in the park, but I was always busy on past performance dates.  I went to see Macbeth in Griffith Park.

http://independentshakespeareco.org/ 

Murder Mystery Company: Noir She Didn’t!

Attending a murder mystery dinner was also on my list.  The theme was 1920s noir so I got to make use of my flapper costume again!

http://www.themurdermysteryco.com

Halo Halo, Sari-Sari: The Filipino Show Remixed!

During the summer, there are free performances sponsored by Grand Park.  I’ve been to a couple, but this was the first time I attended one featuring Filipino-Americans.

Riding Metrolink / Beer Pong 

Riding an Amtrak train is on my list, but for now riding a Metrolink train (smaller, cheaper version of Amtrak) will do (never rode Metrolink before either).  Had a girls weekend in Oceanside, and us LA girls decided to relax and ride the Metrolink (only $10 each way).

Another first that weekend was playing beer pong, or rather margarita pong as none of us like beer.  Most of us are in our 30s and went to college before the beer pong craze, so it was our first time playing.  The baby in our group (25 years old) was the only one who played before and explained to us the rules.  I was proud of myself – made 5 or 6 shots (without having to bounce the ball, which we allowed). Although, the person I played against made the same amount of shots so I still had to drink up.

         

Pageant of Masters

Ever since an episode of Gilmore Girls featured “living art” (recreations of artwork with real people posing), I wanted to see a similar show.  Laguna Beach sponsors the Festival of Arts every summer, and the Pageant of the Masters is its highlight.  This year’s theme was The Big Picture, and it saluted classic art that inspired legendary films and filmmakers, including Modern Times, Citizen Kane, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

    

http://www.foapom.com/  

Legends of the Summer: Jay Z & Justin Timberlake