Wedding and Birthday Bash in Seattle

At first I was apprehensive about it. My cousin's wedding in Seattle coinciding with my birthday. I don't like to make a big deal out of my birthdays, so I thought my celebratory-loving cousin would try to make a big deal of it. In actuality, it turned out that David and Shelly mentioned it along with a few other birthdays of wedding guests. I wasn't the only one.

Seattle was a welcome respite from the routine of school. I took Friday off so I could make the rehearsal dinner. The area has so many trees and green foliage, it makes the Monterey area look quite dry in comparison. We were lucky to get some sunshine on the day we arrived. It was forecast for rain on the other two days of the weekend. That never panned out though.


We did the major tourist things in our free time away from the festivities: Pike Place Market, Space Needle, and Westlake Center. It was Gilda's first time, so we did those things as her introduction. I just happened to take this quick snapshot as we were passing by the skyline on our way home. JK! I'm too lazy to upload my pictures that I borrowed one from another site. Visit the School of Law at Seattle University as a courtesy for them letting me link to the photo!

Going Back to Monterey

Gilda and I went back to Monterey for the long weekend. It was great to get out of crowded LA (although it was loathe to let us go with heavy traffic on our way out). Monterey was colder, quieter, and less congested by far. Such a welcome relief! The town is a popular vacation spot, but Gilda and I had the distinction of having lived there for two years, so we knew all of the local spots to visit: Old Monterey Cafe, Point Lobos, parks, and old classmates and professors from the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

It was wonderful to sit on a dune above Monterey Bay, watching the waves crash down blown by winter winds from way out in the Pacific. It has only been a year and 4 months since I lived there, but so much has happened since then. I'm just getting started to put roots in Long Beach. Revisiting Monterey made me want to pick up those roots and transplant them in Monterey. But Gilda would have to coordinate the same thing. It seems that moving so often gets harder and harder. That's why it counts so much to plan ahead and decide where to live. But sometimes it decides for us based on what's available at the time.

We grow up with horizon-less dreams but eventually we have to deal with the mountains, trees, and other landscapes that shape how those dreams will become reality. But then again, who am I to say that I know best? There's Someone who knows a lot better than I.