Work has been very busy recently but it's been fun too. I've been hanging out at New Start 2 where they only have one manager right now and I'm getting to know everyone out there. This morning though was great. Tina was out of the office and I was doing an intake. The phone rang and it was this guy who comes in a lot and is basically just a big pain. A little background, he is very arrogant and thinks he knows everything about everything and likes to lecture everyone about money and the likes. He's clearly not all there. For example, he has been in the program a few times and the last time, he got arrested for public drunkeness and while arguing with the managers about why he shouldn't have been kicked out, he was rolling a joint in the office.

So this morning, I talked to him for a minute the first time and he was asking for someone to go get him from the hospital. I told him that we don't do that but he kept talking so I put him on hold. He called back after hanging up and started talking again. This time he was a little angrier that he had been cut off and I told him that I couldn't talk that I had to do an intake and hung up. The next time he called back, he told me that he wished I would f*ing die and to that I said, thanks! He's such a pleasant man and it made a great and entertaining start to my day!

Karakoke

Last night, we went to dinner at Andrew's house (the ex-MV) and then out to Pine Cove, a little bar near us. We like this bar because it's not too far from us and it's usually a good age group, not too old but not really college age either. Pretty much our age which is great. We went there on Valentine's day also and Jenny, a JV, sang karaoke. I was going to but got to nervous so I didn't then but last night I sang Man, I feel like a woman by Shania Twain. I sang it with Jenny because I was still to nervous to do it myself but maybe next time it will be just me. I'm moving forward with little steps.

Mercy PRN

Last night, I went to a dinner with some Sisters of Mercy for the Mercy Perinatal Recovery Network. The program works with women who are either pregnant or have young children and are addicted to either drugs or alcohol. It's a great program and the night was fun. They had people singing and impersonating more famous individuals, the Sacramento Ballet performed and there was this artist named David Garibaldi who made two paintings in the matter of just a few songs. It was great to watch and made what could have been a rather slow night very exciting.

Babysitting the Baby!

Last night, I got to babysit for Tina's baby. Tina hadn't been able to go out on Valentine's Day so she wanted to celebrate and I said I would watch the baby. She's so cute. Her name is Katt and she was really good for most of the night. She laid on her little play mat and talked to herself in baby talk. The last 20 minutes of the night however, she just screamed. Luckily it was only the last 20 minutes and it was a combination of her tummy hurting and her nose being stuffy. After being attended too by her parents, she went back to being the cute little baby again. Here she is.

Flowers and McKinley Park

This morning, I picked up some donations from Trader Joe's for work. They generally have flowers for us but because it was Valentine's this week, they had tons so after bringing them to the programs and into the dining room at Loaves and Fishes, there were some for me too. I put them in a few vases around our apartment and they look so pretty. They really just brighten the whole place up and they smell good too!

On another cheery note, I went running at McKinley Park today. This park is great! It's about a 1 1/2 miles from our house and it has everything. There's a dirt path that goes around the whole thing, about a mile around, which is where I run. There's also tennis courts, a baseball field, large open fields, a great playground, a duck pond, and even a library. There's also a pool, which I went to once in September. It costs a dollar for adults to go and it's pretty big so it's great to do laps or just lay out around. I can't wait for the weather to get warmer so I can hang out at the pool or just at McKinley Park.

Dinner

Today at New Start 1, one of the resident's brothers, who owns a restaurant, brought a bunch of food over for dinner. It was a bunch of delicious Mexican food and although I couldn't eat a lot of it (because I really try not to eat meat on Friday's during lent) it was still delicious. It was a great community event and lots of fun, especially because I was lucky enough to be invited:)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Today I was in the spirit with my pinkish-reddish shirt and my heart socks. Tonight, we went out to a bar nearby to watch some karaoke. A fun day overall, I hope everyone else had a good one too!

Egg whites

While in Chicago, I was told that I don't post enough stuff on my blog. I said it was because I didn't have anything interesting going on to which my sister said, neither do I, I just post random things. This will be the beginning of my effort to post more often, whether anything is really going on or not.

As for the egg whites, last week, I was making breakfast and I had cracked some eggs. I crack eggs into a cup because we have lots of cups and not many bowls so it makes more sense. Unfortunately, this particular morning, I was not completely awake and was trying to do several things at once. I went to drink some of my orange juice but instead, took a nice gulp of raw egg whites. It was terrible, the texture and taste are both revolting and had I eaten anything that morning, I would have definitely thrown up. Luckily, the eggs were my breakfast so there was nothing in my stomach but it was still a completely disgusting experience.

Back from the cold

Last Wednesday, my Uncle passed away so I went to Chicago on Saturday for the services. Both the services were really beautiful and I was glad that I could make it out there. Despite the sad circumstances, it was really nice to see the Chicago part of my family. We don't see them very often (like once every 5 years or so) and it was good to be able to spend some time with them. We decided that we will have reunions more often for no reason at all, just to get together. Despite having a nice time in Chicago, it's good to be back in Sacramento, if for no other reason than the weather. Chicago was freezing, I think the high was 4 degrees when we were there. Today, I flew into a nice 60+ degree day. Hopefully, the weather out here will continue to be so nice!

Back from retreat

This weekend, Meghan and I went down to Moss Beach for our Mercy retreat. It was a pretty good weekend but had I not been sick, it would have been much better. We left Friday afternoon where I moved from my bed where I had been laying with a fever into the car, where I spent the trip down trying to sleep. When I got to the house, I got back into bed and slept for a few more hours. I made it down to some of the activities on both Friday and Saturday but this morning was really the first day I was feeling better. The house was beautiful though, right on the beach and I had the chance to go down to the beach for a little bit this morning before leaving. I'm now feeling better, although it still feels like someone is kicking me in the head so I'll be taking it easy for the rest of the day. The superbowl starts in just an hour and a half so I'll be parked on the couch watching that. Go Pats!