leaving the nest

Our 17-year old is leaving home for Berlin. She had early graduation and is now heading off to her father’s birth town. For the past year when she started driving, she willingly took over preparing breakfasts and making family dinners during weekdays. We spent years with an au pair helping us with this. I must admit that my 17-year old did phenomenal with this job.

She will be missed. With all her silly jokes and crazy dancing. Her impassioned beliefs about gender equality and religion.

Thanks to Face time, Skype, email and Facebook. They will make it easy to keep tabs on our grown-up.

a 10 year old’s take on Love

My son had to write this for valentine’s. My son who still cringes (or covers his eyes) at the sight of two people kissing. So I was bemused when he I read what he wrote for class… and goes like this.

Love (the end of the essay!) just joking! Love can torture, destroy your life or give you happiness. Let’s stay on the positive side of love!

Love is a feeling of attachment to another. Love can make you feel like you are the happiest in the world. And can also tear someone else’s world apart. If one person likes another and the other does not like them back it can tear him/her apart. Love is cruel and some times the Complete opposite. Love can make one as happy as can be or as sad as can be. Hit or miss.

Some people have never been loved and it tears their life apart never feeling the sensation of being loved. People have committed suicide because they were never loved. People have gone mad. Love is strong force. Never being loved would feel terrible, like being slapped. (Yes, I said I will look at the positive side but you need to know some down falls too!)

People who have been loved, you are lucky. Love has inspired many people. Love boost confidence. Knowing that your family supports you every day is good. I could not get through a day without the love and support of my family. When I did my discovery quest I remembered my parents and siblings support.

I think it is possible to have love without hate. Hate is what destroys love. Rage separates, it creates a barrier in between you and the person you are mad at. Anger is an ocean, uncontrollable.

Love, it helps you get through life. Without it, life will start falling apart. If someone breaks your heart, that’s okay! Move on. Don’t let your life fall apart just because of one person. Your family is there to comfort you too if someone breaks your heart! You won’t die because of one rejection (I hope.) Now bye! (I’m serious it’s the end. Don’t shoot me if you want it longer.)

Not a Twitter

After my last one-liner blog entry, why not twit?

In reality, I have very little clue what twitting is all about. I heard it’s one-liner and I heard Paris Hilton is doing it. Not quite sure if that is a good sign. Come to think of it though, this might be ideal for me. I really don’t have a lot of time to blog. If you look at my entries, they’re about 4 months to a year apart. As my son would say…EPIC. I’m not a consistent blogger and I’m not even sure what prompted me to write today. Probably, Michael Owen. There are actually people reading my blog?! I somehow think of blogging as an extension of my journal. My journal is where I express my frustration and angst…at least my private ones. My blog is the public face.. my tempered angst and toned-down frustration.

I’m not good with transistions. Given my one-liners and lack of time of write consistently, it sounds like twitting is good for me. Don’t you think? But I’m not good with transitions and I would let something as easy as signing up for a new account, a hindrance. Which is why I still have a Kindle and not an iPad. Which is why I’m still not using my husband’s fancy new coffee machine…

To twit or not to twit?

No, thanks.

what happened today

24th of August 2010, I became an American.

Ski-sensation at Mammoth

This year we decided to head for Mammoth again for skiing. While last year’s ski season was like a bad aftertaste after staying at Mammoth Mountain Inn, the slopes and snow at Mammoth is just unbeatable.

With Janine in daycare and Eon in ski school, we decided last year that it would be better for us to stay right at the foot of the slopes. We choose Mammoth Mountain Inn. The pictures were deceivingly clean and description was inviting. Little did we know. After 9 hours of driving (due 4 hours of to LA traffic), we finally arrived. The Lobby looked nice but once we head to our “suite” we were greeted with a smelly and stained carpet on the hallways. The elevated was in a similar state of neglect. The 2 bedroom “suite” with kitchen was an equal let-down. The sheets and curtains were worn and old-fashioned. The beds were squeaky… and my litany of not-so-great things about this place goes on and on. The only highlight was that it was on the slopes. But what is that worth if you go home exhausted from a day of skiing to a dump?

We decided to explore the village and found that Westin was at Mammoth. We looked around and decided that we have been…screwed!!

This year, we learned. We stayed at Westin and the brief gondola ride to the slopes was a breeze. Westin and their Heavnenly Beds was such a great upgrade from tawdry Mammoth Inn. This time around, I actually felt like it was vacation.

We ate, skied and went to the jacuzzi to soak our tired muscles. Everyday was a routine… in a nice way. It was Janine’s first year of ski lesson. It was a horror morning on the first day but somehow things worked out. Eon is out-skiing me but on our last day chickened out on a blue slope, fell and we had to make a trip down to the main lodge with the ski patrol. Eon was fine and back skiing soon after the ski patrol dropped us off at the bottom on the slopes.

I was up for more challenges and decided to cajole my littlest one to ride Chairlift 7 with me and Eon. She was fine on the lift but started freaking out as soon as we got off. She started crying and declaring that she was NOT going done the hill and “skiing was ugly.” After some threats of abandonment, we finally skied downhill. Call me a despot but that was actually quite fun.