1 Week, 1 Photo & 500 Words or Less (November 23, 2008)

Greetings from Costa Mesa, California, USA!
Photo taken on Monday, November 17, 2008.

This week was a roller coaster ride with work providing both the high and the low. At a company meeting on Wednesday the big surprise was bonuses, in cash no less. With the current economic situation in the United States and worldwide, many companies are passing out pink slips, not greenbacks. The bigger surprise was that they were given to freelancers as well as permanent employees. To say the least I was stunned by this very magnanimous gesture but it was tempered by news that two of my fellow freelancers were let go on Friday. That decision was based on performance, not balance sheets, although the former can affect the latter. The entire experience left me with mixed emotions. I am far from secure in my job but, whatever may come, I choose to indulge in this moment.

Adding even more to the office bustle on Friday was a potluck in honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. I accidentally left my contribution to the lunch event at home but it was far from missed. We have plenty of food. I ate more than I should have but that did not stop me from snacking on leftovers throughout the afternoon. Even worse was bringing some of it home. I was practically the last one out of the office that evening and plenty of food was left unclaimed. The cleaning crew would dump it all so I took half of a cherry pie. I also took half of a chocolate cake but that should not even count. One of my roommates ate it all - within 24 hours no less - before I even had a slice. Fortunately I hid the pie in the back of the fridge.

The festivities continued with two birthday celebrations, the first on Friday, the other on the following night. The one on Saturday was at a couple’s house for the husband’s 40th. The place was covered in photos of the birthday boy from all ages of his life. Pictures were everywhere – from the front door to the bathroom and all points in between. I played poker with the couple many times before and we had another game that evening. In this round of Texas Hold’em, you could buy-in again if you lost all your chips and I had to do just that. The move paid off as I finished second out of seven. First place got $160 and the winner only had one $20 buy-in. I received $60 for second place less $40 for the two buy-ins, netting a $20 profit.

The holiday season is here. My weekly photo - a shower of lights and ornaments directly overhead – was a holiday decoration at South Coast Plaza shopping center. Wait, I hear someone in the kitchen. My roommate may have found the pie. I must stop him.

Angelo

1 Week, 1 Photo & 500 Words or Less (November 16, 2008)

Greetings from Irvine, California, USA!
Photo taken on Saturday, November 15, 2008.

A few months ago there was a weekend with plenty of events – an auto show, a rubber duck race and a sand castle contest among my choices – but the one and only thing I did was visit my folks. This Saturday I had no parental plans and five activities scheduled throughout the day. In theory I could do them all. In reality I predicted skipping at least one event. Here is what was scheduled and what actually happened.

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM Play Beach Volleyball. I woke up late but had a text message saying it was cancelled because of the extremely windy weather. These winds were also spreading another round of wildfires and would play havoc on my schedule again later. With my morning freed up, I was able to squeeze in a haircut between refueling my car with gas and myself with brunch before heading to my next appointment.

12:00 PM – 1:15 PM Watch UC Irvine Men’s Water Polo Match. UC Irvine was host to several sporting events. Crawford Field had a youth soccer tournament, Anteater Ballpark had a baseball game, Crawford Gym had a men’s volleyball invitational and the Anteater Pool had water polo where I watched UC Irvine narrowly defeated the University of the Pacific. I also watched a volleyball match between fellow UC schools. UC Santa Barbara defeated UC Santa Cruz 3-1. Lastly this week’s photo shows the wildfire smoke in the background of a soccer game.

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM Watch Concordia University’s Women’s Volleyball Match. I received another text message saying that this match was moved to 6:00 PM as the opposing team was delayed due to the roads closed by the wildfires. The new time conflicted with another event. I passed the time at MainPlace Mall in Santa Ana, which was in the general direction of my next event.

5:30 PM – 8:30 PM Attend Holiday / Farewell Party. Two coworkers are moving cross-country to work in the company’s new office in New York City. The wildfires delayed or prevented some people from attending. Nonetheless the party was lively. While the affair lasted until midnight, I made an early exit to make my final event.

9:00 PM – 11:00 PM Attend Art Underneath. The organizers of the Newport Beach Film Festival hold an annual fundraiser social which includes a lingerie show. Needless to say, this was the one event that I was not going to miss and I was not disappointed. I did get a few photos but my selfish side will not share them.

So 12 hours and 40 miles later, I was home again. My plans had a few detours but overall a very good day. Now I need to sleep for a week to recover.

Angelo

1 Week, 1 Photo & 500 Words or Less (November 9, 2008)

Greetings from Costa Mesa, California, USA!
Photo taken on Tuesday, November 4, 2008.

Last week - pumpkins, this week - politics. I wrote previously that this is the first presidential election since 1952 where neither candidate from the two major political parties previously held the office of President or Vice President. Current Pres. George H. W. Bush (Republican) had reached the two-term limit and V.P. Dick Cheney was not in contention. Bush’s predecessor, former Pres. Bill Clinton (Democrat) had also served two terms while former V.P. Al Gore had long ago ended Oval Office aspirations. My guesses were Mitt Romney (R), former Governor of Massachusetts, and Hilary Clinton (D), former Presidential First Lady. I was wrong.

A prevalent feeling was that something big was brewing. At one point several states considered changing the dates of their primaries, the calendar becoming a Chinese checkerboard with far too many players in motion. The mindset was that results of the first primary would set the direction for the rest and many states wanted that distinction. But that did not happen. For the Republicans the early primaries were won by different candidates but a definitive choice emerge soon enough –John McCain, Sr. Senator of Arizona. The Democrats had a different story as the top two favorites Hilary Clinton, Jr. Senator of New York and Barack Obama, Jr. Senator of Illinois, traded primary victories. But the latter slowly built a lead, becoming the first African-American from a major political party to run for President.

But something bigger was afoot. As a Vice Presidential running mate, Clinton would have been a definite candidate for the Democrats. To have either a black man or any woman as President or Vice President of the United States is unprecedented. To have both would have been beyond words. But Obama’s choice for V.P. was Joe Biden, Sr. Senator of Delaware. Perhaps capitalizing on his opponent’s missed opportunity, McCain chose a woman, Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, as his V.P. With that move, a White House “first” went from possible to definite but which “first” would it be?

Election Day is always the first Tuesday of November. Voters participated in record numbers and sampling polls projected Obama & Biden triumphant over McCain & Palin. While polling stations close at 8 PM, the media normally announces a victor after 11 PM Eastern Time as not to affect voting in time zones further west. Nevertheless shortly after the eleventh hour, Obama became the first African American elected as U. S. President.

My Election Day photo reflects the signs of the times literally as “Vote For This” and “Vote Against That” mixed with “Going Out Of Business” and “Everything Must Go”. Don’t forget For Sale and Foreclosure signs too. The economic downturn is global and bleak but remember a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr., “We shall overcome.”

Angelo

1 Week, 1 Photo & 500 Words or Less (November 2, 2008)

Greetings from Irvine, California, USA!
Photo taken on Thursday, October 30, 2008.

“It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” If you’re unfamiliar with this quote, I’d understand. If you’re unfamiliar with the cast of Snoopy, Woodstock, et. al. in Charles Schulz’s classic comic strip “Peanuts”, I’d assume that you live in isolation. My weekly photo shows the Great Park Balloon, its round and orange surface ideal for a jack-o-lantern face. Peeking over the hills that surround its flight pad, the balloon instantly reminded me of Peanuts’ Great Pumpkin, a Santa Claus-like character, who Linus Van Pelt would wax poetic about every Halloween.

My photo was taken on the eve of Halloween AKA All Hallows Eve, which precedes All Saints Day, which in turn precedes All Souls Day. The three occasions have religious origins but for most people, it’s all about becoming someone else for a day. For kids, it’s about the candy too. I had a couple of parties on Halloween but no new costume. Instead I went with an old favorite, Clark Kent, Superman’s secret identity. Essentially I wore a suit with the tie and dress shirt undone to reveal the blue Superman “S” shirt underneath. I also had a “press pass” for his job as a reporter for the Daily Planet newspaper.

My first stop was Park Newport Apartments, which has hosted a costumed party for the past several years. One friend was hosting a pre-party but I never made it to her place, as parking was impossible. Even worse, clearly present were police to issue parking tickets and tow trucks to haul cars away if necessary. I was already tight on time and decided to go directly to my other stop of the night.

The second party was at a rented house where 4 or 5 guys lived. One of them had the interesting idea of each roommate dressing as Tom Cruise’s character Pete “Maverick” Mitchell from different scenes of his favorite movie Top Gun but they did not all participate. The evening’s highlight was when the neighbors came home. A woman popped her head over the backyard fence to check out the party. A short conversation later, the festivities moved next door. Needless to say, I had fun.

The following night I went to a Red Egg & Cabbage banquet, a traditional dinner celebration in China to welcome newborn children. A cousin’s wife is Chinese and gave birth in late July to triplets (!!!) – one daughter and two sons. She claims no fertility drug use though eagerly wanted a child born on 08/08/08 as number “8” is lucky in China. If pregnant with one baby, she would have hit the date. But multiples almost never go the full nine months and she came a few weeks early. As to when I will have kids as well as get married, I quote an exasperated Charlie Brown in answering with “Good grief!”

Angelo

1 Week, 1 Photo & 500 Words or Less SPECIAL EDITION

Greetings from Orange, California, USA!
Photo taken on Saturday, January 10, 2009.

It’s back. Finally. After taking a longer-than-expect hiatus, my weekly emails return and I have added more people to the distribution list as well. For the newbies, my subject line nicely summarizes what this is all about. Nevertheless send me an email asking for a more detailed explanation if you want.

My last entry was for July 20, 2008, and I sent that out in the middle of September. I started a job that month – an ongoing freelance position – which consumes a good chunk of my time and energy. My emails went to the backburner. In November I was all set to send a handful of them when the holidays hit and, well, we all know how frenzied life gets between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.

I am following the path of various television shows such as “24”, “Desperate Housewives” and even “Lost” in a way by taken a leap in time. While my last entry was for July 20, 2008 (and sent on September 16, 2008), my next entry date is November 2, 2008. I hope to fill in the 14-week gap but how and when is still undetermined.

Of course this entry would not be complete without a photograph. The shot was taken at a restaurant during a friend’s birthday dinner. Making a return appearance in my weekly picture and partially hidden by the balloons is the appropriately nicknamed “Boo”. He was going through a bout of camera shyness so I never captured a full view of his face but in hindsight it makes this shot more playful. Sometimes you don’t realize until later that a photo was actually better than you thought or vice versa.

I’m looking forward to making these weekly entries a part of my life once again and I hope that you look forward to reading them.

Angelo