Photo of the Week (February 24, 2008)

Greetings from Huntington Beach, California, USA!
Photo taken on Sunday, February 24, 2008.

I am revisiting past topics to address loose ends. My distribution list has grown gradually thus people started reading with different emails making older topics completely new for some. I will navigate through this conundrum but ask me questions if you get confused.

After 3 weddings in 2007 and 8 (not 9, I miscounted) in the last three years, I have been invited only to a bachelor party so far in 2008. The groom, an acquaintance, is marrying in Dallas and, if invited, I can not afford to go anyway. By the way, with over 189,000 miles of travel, my Jeep had its decennial (10-year anniversary) last Friday. Speaking of traveling, any taken will be domestic, as I still have not renewed my passport. But angst about the 10-year lifespan of a passport photo has eased as I have lost weight.

The weight loss and these emails both started last July with the end of my last job. Neither is a coincidence and I do not intended to stop either upon returning to work. The job search and the baseball references continue with more strikes. I want a base run (any job) or a homerun (dream job!) soon. Money is low but, while having done many things, I was frugal. For example I carpooled to the Mexico wedding, had a discounted pass to Universal Studios and got comp luxury seats for the Chargers game.

Free too was a second lunar eclipse within a half-year. Luckily I saw the August one because storm clouds obscured the recent one and the next one visible in North America is in 2010. No more wildfires but we have had plenty of rain. That inclement weather and odd operating hours makes scheduling another Great Park Balloon ride a challenge.

In the politics of entertainment, Hollywood writers prevailed and stopped striking just in time for the Oscars (Did you watch?). In the entertainment of politics, primaries, etc. have thinned the crowd of presidential hopefuls. The Democrats’ top two, Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama, are no surprise. John McCain and Mike Huckabee are their GOP counterparts, while my predicted Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, bowed out. The journey to Election Day 2008 will be interesting.

Keeping with the “revisiting” theme, I was back in Huntington Beach at the Hilton Waterfront Hotel last Sunday. I volunteered at a fundraiser held in the Cielo Mare ballroom (Italian for sky and sea). Its ocean view makes it a popular event locale. I have been there several times previously for three diverse occasions: a wedding reception, a memorial service and my 10-year high school class reunion. The wall mosaic with seahorse fountain, this week’s photo, is by the hotel’s swimming pool. Well, I’ve tied up some loose ends and made other ends less loose. Now to deal with my own loose screws.

Angelo

Photo of the Week (February 17, 2008)

Greetings from Irvine, California, USA!
Photo taken on Friday, February 15, 2008.

Be it two-man outdoors on the soft sand or six-man indoors on the hardwood, my love for volleyball is apparent. In college sports, I’m 100% USC Trojan in football but, come volleyball season, I’m a UCI Anteater from toes to nose. I have mentioned previously that my undergraduate alma mater of UCI won the 2007 national title for men’s volleyball. This being college, the student athletes inevitably graduate and the coaches hope the team’s successors continue the work of their predecessors.

Last season the Anteaters had a near perfect record. In the midst of the present season, the ‘Eaters have been less fortunate. Currently the team is ranked #7 and have an uphill battle to move up to #4 or better in order to defend their title in the conference and national finals. As of last Thursday I had gone to three matches and UCI was triumphant at each. On Friday was another match – this one against the undefeated and top-ranked Cougars of Brigham Young University (BYU).

The matches are a best 3-of-5 series and the games are won at 30 points or more with a 2-point lead minimum. The Cougars took game 1 with a tight 30-28 victory. Game 2 was just as tight but more intense and the Eaters eked out a 32-34 win. But the Cougars bared their claws, humbling UCI with a 30-22 score to win game 3. Game 4 saw both teams amped again with the Eaters triumphing in another 28-30 win, tying the series at two games apiece.

To win game 5 and the match, the teams still need the 2-point lead but only 15 points for victory. But you would have thought that it was still a 30-point game upon seeing the final score of 28-26. The victors? The BYU Cougars remain undefeated. In fact by the powers of the scheduling gods, BYU and UCI had a rematch the very next night. I could not attend the second match but, based on the final scores, it did not top Friday’s excitement. The Cougars won again 3 games to 1 (28-30, 30-22, 30-24, 30-27).

I end with the photo of the week – a statue of the UCI mascot in the front courtyard of the Bren Events Center, home court for men’s and women’s volleyball and basketball teams. The inspiration for the mascot was the character Peter the Anteater from the comic strip “B.C.” by Johnny Hart. UCI Pete owes his battle cry to the strip too. It’s the sound made when the anteater’s tongue shot out and got an ant. “ZOT!”

Angelo

Happy Valentine's Day!

Greetings from Newport Beach, California, USA!
Photo taken on Thursday, February 14, 2008.

The day is still February 14 in my time zone but not for much longer. I'm madly typing this email and I will need to forgo the normal proofread and self-edit. Then again I don't expect this message to come anywhere close to the 500 words maximum to which I limit myself. In fact I intend to keep this short and sweet.

Doing these weekly photos has been a great way to go places and do things that I may otherwise not. In some cases I finally get around to something that I have put off for a while. The location of this bonus photo is Roger's Garden. I've driven by this place countless times before but never stopped and gone in. I still haven't. Both a nursery store and garden, Roger's was only open until 5:00 PM. Nevertheless the gazebo was easily accessible outside the store walls.

Back home I checked out the garden's website (http://www.rogersgardens.com/) which piqued my interest. Guess where I am going on Friday. One last thing... It's safe to assume that I had no plans this Valentine's Day. If I did, I wouldn't be writing and sending this out in the final hour before midnight. And you should not be reading this any sooner than sunrise on Friday morning. That said I hope you all had a great night of _____. You fill in the blank.

Angelo

Photo of the Week (February 10, 2008)

Greetings from Huntington Beach, California, USA!
Photo taken on Sunday, February 10, 2008.

Last week I did it at a bowling alley with a group mostly of women. Previously I did it at the Relay for Life Kick Off with an acquaintance. Before that I did it at a party with two ex-coworkers. I did it at practically every Taste of Newport festival for the last 10 years with various people, at the Nixon Library with a high school classmate, at a South Coast Plaza store with a college classmate and even at my last job with an ex-roommate’s wife. But I never did it on an airplane or airport (yet).

It happens to all of us with someone somewhere sometime. “It” is unexpectedly running into people that you know, especially someone you hadn’t seen in years. What did you think “it” was? Yet I never realized the high frequency that it happened to me until a friend pointed it out. I wondered why and came up with two reasons.

First I go out – a lot – and not just to the end of the driveway for the mail and newspaper. My weekly emails prove this point. In the past half-year I went to Universal Studios, SeaWorld and the Aquarium of the Pacific; played volleyball at Corona del Mar Beach and watched volleyball at the UCI and USC campuses; and went to birthdays and other social occasions at Goat Hill Tavern, Tom Bergin’s, El Torito, The Wine Cellar and other restaurants and bars. Then there are the places that I didn’t have the space to mention.

Second I have lived all but two years of my life in California. Almost all my studies - graduate, undergraduate and grade school - have been here, as have all my past jobs too. This translates to numerous neighbors, roommates, teachers, classmates, coworkers and business contacts in addition to relatives, family friends, my own friends, acquaintances and one person I wish that I never met. Added up, a total of over 1000 people may be a gross understatement. With so many people and places, I’m surprised that I don’t run into someone that I know more often.

In fact the Photo of the Week prompts me to go out more. I could have stayed home last Sunday but instead, still needing a picture, headed to neighboring Huntington Beach. The water near the pier is a popular spot to ride the waves. The view from the pier is a perfect spot to watch the surfers. In the shot one man stood out literally as he paddled out with an oar and surfed, always standing, never falling into the water or lying down on his eye-catching yellow surfboard. While there I didn’t run into a cousin’s brother-in-law or the dorm mate of the coed that I dated for a month, fall quarter of junior year, although I wouldn’t mind doing “it” with her (again).

Angelo

Photo of the Week (February 3, 2008)

Greetings from Newport Beach, California, USA!
Photo taken on Saturday, February 2, 2008.

Football is the biggest sport in the world but the game varies from place to place. In the United States we call the most popular version soccer, which uses a round black & white ball while the Australian and American versions of football use an oval brown one. Everything else is different – rules, point system, clothing. I’ve watched these three versions and one thing does stay the same. For one day all attention in the respective countries is focused on that last game – soccer’s World Cup, Aussie-rules footie’s Grand Final and American gridiron’s Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl is the USA’s biggest event in sports and television and last Sunday I was one of the nearly 100 million or one-third of all Americans watching it. But it’s not just about the game. Only true football fans remember which teams won and lost. The rest of us look forward to the big game for other reasons.

Many people have money in a betting pool – that 10-by-10 grid of numbers and names. During the game, these living room gamblers are figuring out how many points each team needs for the score to match their squares and win the end-of-quarter jackpots. Some like the parties and the table full of guacamole, buffalo wings and beer. For others it’s all about the half-time show. We remember Janet Jackson and her “wardrobe malfunction” but do we recall which year or what songs she or anyone else performed? Many watch the ads more intently than the game itself. My favorite had a cocktail party with men in the kitchen covertly watching football on a mini tv and drinking beer hidden in fake food and gift baskets that they brought. Now you know why I watch.

The Super Bowl is about the game as well as the commercials, half-time show, parties and betting pools. Just like the Oscars is about the award winners as well as the dresses, best song performances, parties and betting pools. The similarities are almost scary.

Not Super Bowl-related is the weekly photo. The American Cancer Society’s signature fundraiser is the Relay for Life (details in a future email). To launch this year’s event, the organizers hosted a Kick Off – the football connection is coincidental, I think – which included the city’s Police, Fire and Lifeguard departments displaying their vehicles and equipment. The boy on the water-ski was too cute to pass up.

Angelo

PS x 3: 1) The New York Giants won the Super Bowl, 17-14, upsetting the season-long winning streak of the heavily favored New England Patriots; 2) Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers performed at half-time; 3) Check in a year if I remember either of these.