Cruisin'...

Mid-January, Robert and I took off for Miami for a cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. We had a blast! We arrived in Florida early the morning of the 13th and spent the day tooling around Miami and took a taxi down to South Beach for lunch. South Beach looked like an upscale version of Venice Beach - lots of street vendors and performers with a TON of upscale shops and restaurants. We boarded the Carnival Valor the next morning and headed out. We arrived the next morning in Nassau, Bahamas where we went on (and actually piloted!) one of the Americas Cup racing boats. That was SO much fun! Our next stop was in St. Thomas. We took a ferry over to St. John and spent the day at the beach. The sand there is so incredibly soft (like walking in talcum powder!) and the water is a gorgeous turquoise color. After a day at sea, we went to our final stop in St. Martin, where we went scuba diving. The water was warm and clear. We did a 40 foot dive to a shipwreck where we saw lots of sea life and artifacts. We then had two days at sea as we headed back to Miami. They had two "formal" nights for dinner (the food on the ship was amazing!) so we got dressed up and had our picture taken. Not that we do a great deal of hanging around petal-strewn pianos with Robert drinking martinis and me smelling roses but... what the heck... we got the picture anyway!
We arrived the morning of the 21st, rented a car and drove to Hollywood, Florida to have lunch with some new friends we had met on the cruise and then went to Ft. Lauderdale where we took a water taxi past the most incredible mansions on the waterway and went into the shopping district. Then it was back to the airport to head home. :-(

Another One Bites the Dust

Well, here we are at the end of another year. Tough to believe!! Fortunately this has been a year of good happenings with good friends.

To recap...we started out last January celebrating Robert’s big 5-0 birthday with a bash at the 94^th Aero Squadron restaurant in Van Nuys. It was quite the shin-dig! He had friends there whom he has known since kindergarten!

In March, we got away for a little bit of local skiing with my sister, Toni; nieces, Kathleen and Kimberly; and friends Genine and Bill and their daughters, Breana and Serena. The younger ones really showed up all of us old folks! Darn them and that lower center of gravity (at least that is the story we were sticking with!). We also got away for a weekend down in Mexico to visit our friends Robert and Irene, who are real estate developers for an incredible housing project right on the ocean in Ensenada. Were we ever surprised how Ensenada has changed now that Mexico has changed its regulations regarding American-owned property! Quite gorgeous and extremely affordable.

In April we caught a Billy Joel concert with friends Beth and Tim at the Staples Center. Thanks to Beth’s cousin, Peter, who works with various concert venues, we were able to score some incredible seats down on the floor for the show. GREAT concert!! Also this month we took a Ballroom Dance class. We had more fun – and learned rumba, waltz, swing, and salsa. Of course can we remember all the steps now?? Time for a refresher! I also got to visit with friends Michael and Stephanie and their twins, Harper and Caden, when they were out here from North Carolina. It was so great to see them again.

May found us taking another long weekend and heading back to Mexico with Robert and Irene for a bit of furniture shopping as they decorated the home they are renting down there – and also feasting on fish and steak tacos. We loved the looks the four of us got strolling through Mexico because, guaranteed, we were the four tallest people in town. At “only” 5’11”, I was the short one of the group!

For the last several years, Toni and I have participated in the Revlon Run/Walk, a fundraiser for cures for Women’s Cancers. Every year we are fortunate enough to be joined by various friends and family members. This year, we were joined not only by a few two-legged supporters, but also by our four-legged family members. Toni, Kathleen and Kimberly brought their two Labradors, Kovu and Angus, and Robert and I brought Robert’s two Labs, Magic and Milo (who have adopted me as their “mom”). We dubbed ourselves “Team Lab” and away we went. Between the bathroom pit stops for all the dogs and the time outs for most of the other attendees to pet our gaggle of canines, the walk took quite a while to complete but we had a great time and were glad to be able to contribute to such a worthy cause.

At the beginning of summer, we took another long weekend away – this time to Laughlin, Nevada with Robert’s daughter, Jennifer, and her husband, Scott. We ventured out to see the London Bridge at Lake Havasu and then, as the temperature rose up to 118 degrees, we cooled off by renting jet skis and riding up and down the lake.

I had another weekend get away with Jennifer the next month as the two of us took off to a scrapbooking event Oxnard. Jenni and I are both into making creative photo albums and we really loved having so much time to get lots of pages done. (That was when we weren’t sitting in the hotel’s hospitality suite, eating munchies and working out all the world’s problems!) Also in July, I had my birthday (the 25th anniversary of my 21st birthday!) and Robert took me out for a lovely dinner at the Magic Castle (for the few of you who may not know, Robert is a 29-year magician member of the Castle and loves to perform there).

I began the Fall with coordinating a wedding at the Almonsor Court in Alhambra. My wedding coordination company, Perfect Beginnings (which I originally started with my friend Beth), hit its 20 year anniversary in September! So, if you know anyone getting married, have them give me a call…

Speaking of anniversaries, I began my 17^th year at USC in October. Also in October, Robert and I joined Toni, Kathleen, Kimberly and their dog, Angus, bright and early one morning to do a fundraising walk at Disneyland for the Children’s Hospital of Orange County. We walked with the Guide Dogs of America group (Toni and her family are puppy raisers for the GDA). Then I rounded out the month by taking a Latin Dance class with my niece, Kathleen. We now meringue, cha-cha, cumbia and salsa with the best of them! For the last class, we went to this great Latin dance club in Studio City called Mama Juana’s and just danced like crazy!

To wrap up the year, Robert and I bought a Christmas tree... at 11pm on Christmas Eve! There had just been so much going on in December that suddenly we found ourselves in the week before Christmas with no tree. We looked around but everything we found was either quite dead or outrageously expensive so, sadly, we resigned ourselves to the fact that we were going to be tree-less this year. But then, as we we driving home from my aunt and uncle's house on Christmas Eve, we saw it! Off the freeway, like a beacon in the night, was a lone tree lot still open at 11pm. We pulled into the lot and made our way - in an evening gown and tuxedo, mind you - through the lot. And there was our tree! So after a bit of maneuvering, we managed to get a good portion of the tree into the trunk, tied it down and took it home. We had a grand time decorating it Christmas Day and then left it up until the end of January!

And, as is tradition, we spent New Year's Eve at Toni's house with various friends and family eating, drinking and playing great board games and lots of Poker!! Now off we go into 2007! See you all there!

The end of an era

(Our buddy Jason, me and Elijah)

Change is sometimes tough, but always inevitable. After having worked together for almost 9 years, Elijah, my senior production manager (and good friend), had his last day at USC yesterday. He and his wife Jessica (with their 6 month old daughter Jordyn in tow), decided that the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles (to say nothing of the near-impossibility of buying a house in this state!) was not what they wanted, so they packed up and moved to Austin, Texas. As happy as I am that they are starting a wonderful new life out there, I was sad that I did not really get to say good-bye to him. Elijah had gone back to Texas to wrap up things on the purchase of their new home, fully expecting to be back in the office on Monday to wrap up work issues. But, the day before he was supposed to fly back to LA, he ran into problems with escrow, house leaks (found the first day they moved in - which the previous owner claims no knowledge of!)and could not come back. So, we will have to postpone closure until he makes his way back to LA again.

I was very fortunate to have met and worked with Elijah all these years; he really was a driving force in making the department as successful as it is. And beyond that, he became a good and trusted friend. We got to laugh and cry with each other through a lot of ups and downs in both our personal and professional lives. I will miss him... a lot.

Forget those Fall leaves...

... Go with the hair color method of determining seasons! Once September rolled around, it was time to go back to Auburn. See you next month for Winter Brown. And who says California has no seasons!!

Puttin' on My Dancin' Shoes...

I can't believe that it has been so long since I have written anything. Somehow September AND October just whizzed past me! But here we are in November. Fall is starting to creep in little by little... it feels nice. And nothing says Autumn like... Latin Dance! Well, OK, maybe there are a few other things that say it better, but since I am not taking a pumpkin pie-making class, we'll have to go with it.

A few weeks ago my niece, Kathleen, and I started taking Latin dance classes and it is SO much fun. I'm not sure which is more fun - actually doing the dancing or just being able to hang out with my very cool niece! It is great fun dancing with her (since there are so many more women than men in this class, we dance together). Unfortunately, I have found that my leading skills lack a bit of finesse; I can really sympathize with all you "real" guys who are given the unenviable task of making all those tough dance decisions ("should I turn her now?, is this a cha-cha or a salsa? was it forward with my left or back with my right?) and look debonair all the while.

But nonetheless, we have a good time. We have learned the meringue and the cha-cha and have begun working on salsa. It is quite the workout too! We leave class out of breath but with happy (albeit sore) feet! There is just something about Latin music that just makes you want to get out there and move those feet and wiggle those hips (OK, maybe not so much hip wiggling for my straight guy friends reading this!) but it is pure passion put to music.

So as Kathleen and I dance our way into Fall, we figure that by the end of the class we will be ready for "Dancing With the Stars"!! (Watching it on TV, I mean...) ;-)

Syndromes and Helga's House of Pain

I have a "syndrome". I feel so medically official. This isn't one of those bad "syndromes"; just a mildly annoying one.

Several months ago I tweaked my shoulder while working out. I thought I had just pulled a muscle but it just wouldn't heal up and, as time went on, the range of motion in my right arm kept getting smaller and smaller. When it got to the point where I could not reach over to the passenger seat of my car without getting nasty shooting pains from my shoulder to my finger tips, I figured it was time to get it checked out.

So, it turns out that I have "Shoulder Impingement Syndrome". A fairly common ailment, as I understand it. Basically it is an injury to the tendon under the rotator cuff in my right shoulder. And, because tendons are connected to muscle, which are connected to nerves, whenever I overextend my shoulder, I feel the pain all the way down my arm.

So, once I found out that this pain, or "discomfort" as they like to call it in the medical field, had a name - what do we do about it?

The answer was Physical Therapy. Welcome to Helga's House of Pain! For all of you who have undergone Physical Therapy, raise your hand if you ever got to the point where you were pretty sure that the cure was worse than the malady! When Erin (who actually is a wonderfully sweet physical therapist, despite being in a rather sadistic line of work), did my initial testing to find the points at which I would feel "discomfort", she queried out loud, "Wow, what is your shoulder blade doing over there?" A rather odd question. Had I suddenly grown a dorsal fin? I was glad to find out that shark-dom was a ways away but surprised to hear that my shoulder blade had moved about an inch to the left. So, how does one coerce a wayward blade back into its proper position? You massage the over-tightened muscles around it until they release the captive scapula. So, when Erin said "massage", I envisioned a lovely day at the spa. But, in a word... no. I am pretty sure that Erin is trying to actually reach through my entire body to massage the muscles on the other side!!

So, in keeping with that "everything is connected to everything else" theory, Erin is trying to release the muscles that, in turn, will release the shoulder blade, that will pull back the muscles that attach my arm to my shoulder, which will pull my arm bone off of the poor little tendon in my shoulder that is currently getting squished.

And actually, so far, so good. I have gotten back 10 degrees more range of motion than I had a week ago, so I will continue to take my masochistic self back for more therapeutic abuse with sweet, sadistic Erin. But if she pulls out the whips and chains, I'm outta there!!

They're baaaaaack!!

Just when I was getting used to the fact that I could roam around campus in my snazzy little electric cart without having to utter the continual mantra of "Excuse me, pardon me" - they came back.

Just as I was getting used to be able to film all over campus - including classrooms and lecture halls - even in the middle of the day - they came back.

And just I was oh so used to not having to wade through countless bodies when going to get lunch at the cafeterias or in the food court - they came back.

Yes, you guessed it - THE STUDENTS! OK, yes, I do realize that USC IS an institution of higher learning and that, in and of itself, would lend one to assume that students would be part of the equation, but I gotta tell ya, it certainly was nice to have such a slow-paced, quiet campus the last few months.

And another thing - do these kids' parents know that their youngsters are hanging out on the campus of USC?? I look at these kids - especially the freshmen - and wonder is it just me getting older or do these kids just look younger and younger each year? They are babies!! But, looking at them does take me back to my first year of college. How exciting was that?? A first foray into real independence. And that sense of hopefulness and idealism that only an 18 year old can experience.

So, even though these kids are no doubt going to have wonderful and life-changing experiences while at USC, I do miss the sleepy campus. But maybe I should look upon the now-highly populated campus as an opportunity to hop in my little electric cart and practice some slalom maneuvers through the quad!!