The service was really beautiful tonight. My mom and I got there early because we knew that parking would get insane. Because he was a former Eagle Scout, there were Eagle Scouts standing around the entrance directing you to the tables to fill out the condolence cards. And even a bunch of local rugby players, that he was once part of, all dressed in their jerseys helping out where needed. There was almost a full room off people (in the seats) already when we got there. But as it got closer to 5pm, the room filled up significantly. And they even took out rows of long tables inside that had food on them to accommodate more standing room. There were about 6 speakers who pretty much just told personal stories from the hilarious, to the moving. They were co-workers at the Rec Dept in Piedmont, one of his best friends from high school, family friends and even a fellow officer and roommate who was the first one to make me cry when he broke down. But for the most part it was very uplifting and very much a celebration of his life.
After the service we walked outside and I was surprised to see the courtyard filled with hundreds more people, including probably 40 or so police officers. Some officers came from as far as Las Vegas to show their support. They had set up speakers outside so everyone could hear the service whether they made it inside or not. I wiggled my way back inside just to go give his sister (and my friend) Anne a hug and let her know I had come to support her. It was good to see her, but under the wost of circumstances. I knew I would have regretted not going, so I'm happy I went to show my support. There were many other former schoolmates and even a former teacher of mine there as well. So it was very nice to see support that her whole family received.
So not only was this incident upsetting and sad in it's own right, but now I have a more personal connection to it. A friend's husband was friends with and had worked with several of the officers. I had touched base with my friend over the weekend to see how they were doing. Which wasn't so well at the time, which is to be expected. Then tonight an old Middle and High School friend of mine said that John Hege was her brother. Why I never saw his last name and put 2 and 2 together I don't know. But now I feel a more personal hurt after hearing this news. It's awful. If I can make it work, I am going to try to make it to his memorial service tomorrow evening to pay my respects.
I had a great time in San Jose this last weekend. Although only an hour away, I didn't think about home and it truly was a vacation. So I'll try to not make this a novel, but here goes....
So I drove down to S.J. on Friday to pick up Desiree at the hotel. Which was beautiful by the way (see below).
She and I, and many others, had made plans to go see a Sharks practice at Sharks Ice. Well, once we got there, a woman saw us carrying jerseys and asked if we were there to see the Sharks, which we were. So she told us they weren't practicing there that day. Bummer!! So as the other 8 or so people showed up that we knew, we broke the news. Then just ended up there chatting out front for like an hour. Now with some free time on our hands, Desiree, Bre and I hit the mall for a few hours and grabbed some lunch. About the time we got back to Sharks Ice to drop off Bre, I received a phone call from our friends (Deserae and James) who headed to HP after we saw them last. Well, they ended up going out back to wait for the guys and got a ton of pics and autographs. So jealous!! Here are 2 of her pics...
Milan... *SIGH* And Stubitz (left), what a hottie!!! But after all that we headed back to the hotel and just sat by the pool and chatted for a few hours. Then our friends (Tina and Dave) who had just flown in from Ohio, showed up and chatted with us for a while. And they, and Deserae and James (who had just driven up from L.A. that morning) were too tired to go grab dinner. So Desiree and I went on our own to Teske's. This is a German restaurant that was featured on a Shark Byte episode (see below) because Ehrhoff and Goc frequent it. I love German food, so had been dying to go. Because of one way streets we got a little turned around in looking for the place, but eventually found it. And YUM!!! The place was awesome. Great ambiance and great food. I had my meal picked out from months ago while looking at the menu online (potato pancakes and the rouladen) and it was fantastic.
Then on Saturday we grabbed the breakfast buffet before heading to the Tank to see the Sharks play the Stars. It was a great game with 2 sets of back to back goals within 20-30 secs of each other and an empty net goal. Nice!! Afterwords, 8 of us went to the Tied House and then to The Brit for drinks afterwords.
On Sunday, a bunch of us had planned to meet up At The Brit for a late lunch before the game. So about 17 of us took over 4 tables, and kind of talked across the restaurant at each other. Then headed to the game against the Avs. We had one token Avs fan with us (Dave), so when we saw Sharkie outside the tank when we arrived, we knew it would be a great photo op.
And because 25 of us got group tickets, we were able to get something put up on the jumbotron. So we decided to plug the Arena :-)
It was another great game and win for us (sorry Dave). We headed back to The Brit for one quick drink, because it was freezing out to start and a bunch of people were flying/driving home early Monday morning. A few of us ended up at the hotel lounge for a drink and some yummy sliders (since it had been since 2pm that we had eaten) and closed the place down at 11pm. Deserae and I spent a few hours down in the lobby on the computers and drooling over all the awesome pictures she got of the players. When I went back up to the room around 2am, Desiree (and yes, 2 Desiree's, only spelled different) was nodding off. But since her taxi was coming at 5am, she wanted to stay awake until then and just sleep on the plane. So she and I just stayed up talking until 5am when she had to leave. Then I crashed until I had to check out at 1pm and drive home.
It was an awesome weekend and I can't wait to do it again. I got to meet more people in person that I had been chatting with online, and they are all the nicest people. I don't think I'll ever go to a game again where I don't know at least a few people who are there.
So, I'm still not a fan of the movie in the entertainment sense...
But I just had to add that I was able to flip through a friend's copy of the graphic novel this past weekend. And I have to say that just skimming through it for about 15 mins, I was surprised at how many dead on scenes I was able to recognize. So for the fan of the book, this is probably a great movie for them. I was even shocked at how well they cast the movie, especially Rorschach and The Comedian. Great job they did there.
So I'm prefacing this with saying I haven't read the graphic novel, nor had I heard of it, and I'm not a fan of this genre of movie in general. But I went with someone who wanted to see it, so here is my opinion anyway...
It was WAY long to start. It's like they had to give each character their own 30 minute bio or something. The intro, although a bit long, was pretty cool in the way they did the snapshots of history. I liked that a lot. Having no prior knowledge of the story, to me the story was all over the place. While the back and forth of present to past wasn't necessarily hard to follow in the time sense, it was more of the jump from character to character. It wasn't until the end of the movie that all the characters seemed to come together in a single storyline. The gore however was over the top. I mean you can only see so many arms broken, bodies exploding and blood oozing in one movie. My personal opinion. I know that this was in no way a realistic storyline, in the sense that it could never happen in real life. But that kind of gore is why I shy away from Freddy and Jason movies... it just makes me roll my eyes at the unbelievability of it all. Again, I know it's a comic book movie and completely fictional. But I like gore when it comes with the suspense of a real life situational movie. That get's me going.
On the bright side... the costumes were amazing, the action in general kept you interested, the acting was pretty good, and all the computer technology that went into this was outstanding.
So this is an opinion of someone who would never choose on their own to go see this movie. I can however see how anyone who was a fan of the graphic novel would like it.
So as I'm watching The Real World tonight, yes I still watch it, I get more teary and teary as the episode goes on. One of the "Real Worlders" is an Iraqi war veteran at the age of 23, and even though this is known, the whole episode focuses on that. He visits veteran centers, walks in a Veteran's Day parade, goes to a gala for soldiers... and at the end gets the dreaded phone call that he has been called back for active duty. Boy did I bawl. The episode that aired was filmed back in November after the elections, and he had just shy of 2 years left where he could be called back. And he did. I think I only know one person (to my knowledge) that has served in the Middle East, and we have never really talked about the experience. He had a friend who wrote a book that I purchased (Link) about some of his experiences, but have yet to read. But now I think I want to start it. Getting to know this person on the show was a pretty close connection to understanding personalities and emotions revolving around this topic. To someone without close friends or family in the military, the topic can be so abstract at times and you don't really let the emotions in. I did tonight. It's just awful. I 100% support those that serve... I just can't wait for the day that they don't need to anymore.
This is a current interview with Ryan about what happened.
Last Thursday, Sarah and I picked up Desiree up at the airport, just in from Canada. Then we spent the day in the East Bay going up to the Lawrence Hall of Science to see the view, stopped in at my Mom’s house briefly, had dinner at Barney’s (YUM!), went to see the USS Hornet in Alameda and then back to San Jose.
Then I drove down to S.J. yesterday afternoon to pick up Jeremy, who was in town to see his Kings play the Sharks. So got him at the hotel, then headed to The Brit to meet up with Desiree and Rick (who had just come from the S.J. Stealth game), and Heidi and her friend Anne. We had a nice dinner out on the patio, even if it was a little chilly. And if I say it's chilly, it really is. The outdoor heaters weren't cooperating. Then we walked down to the Tank and met up with Sarah. The Sharks squeaked out a win at the last minute in the shootout. WooHoo!!
Afterwords we (Desiree, Sarah, Rick, Jeremy and I) checked out O'Flaherty's, but the people were packed in like sardines, so back to The Brit we went. Got a spot at one of the nice new outdoor tables they have, which are awesome. And had a few drinks and laughs until about 1:30am. Then back to the hotel to hop on the lobby PCs for a few minutes. I stayed up up until about 3:30am in the room watching some Rick Steves' Europe video podcasts I have never gotten around to watching. This morning I just slept in until Check Out, since Desiree and Jeremy flew out to San Diego this morning.
Next weekend will be even crazier as we're meeting up with a ton of people on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for a Sharks practice, dinner, lunch, 2 games and drinks. Can't wait.
So Nala had a vet appointment today. All went well, she just needed some shots. The vet said there is a slight irregularity in her heartbeat, but said it wasn't a murmur. He didn't seem too concerned right now, so neither am I. She is starting to show her age a bit. Her hearing isn't what it was, and I can tell her hips bother her when she jumps on things. But she is a very active 13 year old. Her favorite thing (besides playing ball and getting treats) is to sit in the windowsill of my front window. To do this, she had to first jump up on the couch. After that, she has to scale the back of the couch. Then she lays down in the windowsill behind the couch and watches the world go by. Silly dog. So I figure she isn't all that old yet since she can do that. However, she is 13, and I have never altered her diet since she she switched from Puppy Chow to Dog Chow. So figured that I would consider her a senior now and bought some new food today. I was already giving her a vitamin every day as well as a joint supplement, but just replenished the supply as well. So all is good with my 13 year old puppy :-)
And here she is, partially in the window. She wouldn't lay down in her spot on command however.
So this may be short since it’s all I remember. But I was at my Mom’s house and in my Step-Dad’s office. Although I wasn’t sitting at a desk, I was sitting at a short table while sitting in a bean bag chair. Strange, I know. I don’t even own a bean bag chair. But anyway… I was on the phone with one of the old Regional or District Managers from when I worked at Discovery Channel. I was helping her out with her PC/laptop. It was as if it was summer and we were getting it ready for the beginning of school or something. Because I remember telling her we’ll have it all ready in time and not to worry. Even if in reality, we were a year round business. But the discussion turned a little to chit chat and for some reason she mentioned that it had been forever since she had sat in a bean bag chair. And we both had a good laugh when I told her I was sitting in one.
At that time I heard a car door close outside so I peeked out the window and saw my friend Heather. She was wearing the bridesmaid dress I wore to her wedding, and had her dog Lea with her, on a leash. So I was still on the phone when she rang the doorbell. So I ran downstairs to answer it and let her in, and mentioned who I was on the phone with since she worked with her too. So I hurriedly got off the phone as the dogs were sniffing each other, since they have never met. Then Heather pointed out to me that my dog had had an accident in the dining room, which she never does. And then I woke up. So I never did find out what she was doing over there, with her dog, and especially in a bridesmaid dress from her own wedding.
So my friend Sarah finished the painting of her gnome and just got it back today, after it had been fired. How cute is he? I just might have to steal him when I see him in person ;-)
But that made me want to go do a project too. It's called Petroglyph and is one of those places where you buy an item, then you just pay for the sitting fee to paint it. Then they fire it for you. Back in high school I took several ceramics classes and won several awards for some of my stuff. I know it was only high school, but it was nice anyway. I've often contemplated getting back into it for fun. Whether I go to a studio to work on it, or set up a place around my house to do it. So I was thinking this may be a good first step to get me back into the hobby. So she and I might go in a couple of weeks. I can't wait!!
