Kapoy...

The question isn't what to do, but what to do first.

Event invitations: check.
Postage for mailing: check.
Supplies purchase: check.
Email replies: check.
...all 116 of them: not quite.
Bills: check.
Bookings: check.
Sanity: Well... Still there, but dying a slow death.

I don't think I'll ever run out of things to do. Should be a good thing, except that there is just way too many things on my plate right now. So much so that I had to forego lunch just to get all of the above squared away. Third meal I've missed now in lieu of that four letter word: work.

Come to think of it, I have been missing out on a lot lately... rest, sleep, sanity, joy. Eight hours of work doesn't seem to be enough anymore. I'm not even counting obligations at home yet.

Ugh. I've become that kind of person.

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Bharwanis in Napa

It was the perfect time to whisk the visiting Bharwanis away from their shopping marathon and take them to Napa for some wine and cheese. We took them to two of our favorite wineries, Vi Sattui and Niebaum Coppola, and spent a relaxing Saturday enjoying the scenery.

Check out ze pics

Happy birthday babe!

My Bebster turns 31 today. Woohoo! I just succeeded in pulling off his surprise party last Saturday, with the help of family and friends. I've actually thrown him two other surprise bashes in the past, but he always seemed to find out about it before they happened. Since then, I swore I'd pull the ultimate surprise on him, and hoped against hope it would be this one.

He seriously had no clue. Hee hee. I had Pastor Ed call for an "urgent meeting" at the new Center, and got all our friends to gather before we arrived. Everyone who dearly mattered to him was there. His bestfriends honored him and his mom gave a few touching words.

It was perfect. They were all so generous too; they brought so much food, while my inlaws prepared their Indian specialty dishes. Yum. I gotta learn how to make those Kebabs and Curry.

I was worried he might have gotten suspicious with his mom and sis constantly poking me and whispering about the plans. Not to mention all the cooking we were doing, and the fact that it had to be done before Saturday. A lot of other details came into play that made the surprise a little more complicated (and STRESSFUL) than I had hoped, but in the end it all worked out. Thank God for all that event management experience from my PR days.

Unfortunately, I was too exhausted to take pictures, so I'll leave it to the others to send me what they have. Will post them when they come.

Coldplay LIVE.

Watched Coldplay a few hours ago at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, and they were absolutely ROCKING. I love this band. The concert was just excellent. Awesome video direction, impressive gimmicks, and that Chris Martin... Oh man. Great falsetto, wonderful singing, and oh, so funny. Quite the charming Brit.

Downsides:
- The concert was pegged to start at 730pm, but Coldplay came out at 930pm. Concerts don't usually start that late here, so the wait was loooooong. And chilly (The gig was outdoors).
- Who was that horrid opening act? The male vocalist was alright, but the chick was a disappointment. She must have been nervous, I don't know. But her vibrato was all over the place. Then again, they just opened for Coldplay, so that must count for something...
- I didn't bring my camera. Sniff. Terribly missed out on SO MANY photo opportunities. The night sky was clear and beautiful tonight too. Tsk, tsk.

Nevertheless, the concert was awesome. I totally enjoyed it.

Come on, yeah
Oh, oh yeah
Come on yeah
You know everything's not lost

Gotta hit the sack now. It's a big day tomorrow, but I'll tell you all about it later. ;)

The Bharwanis invade California.

Hey ho people,

Quite delayed, but here are pics of the Bharwani vacation-cum-reunion (all over) California.

Just a warning: It's four pages worth of images, AND I'm hardly in half of them, seeing that someone's gotta be the official photographer.

I know some of you are already disappointed. Haha. ;)

Click on the pic to view the rest of the album.Bebs and me at the Kodak Theater in LA.

We're currently on the road back from LA, my third trip this month. This time though, it was for the benefit of my inlaws who wanted to meet up with the Bharwani clan based in Southern Cal.

Ironically, in Bebo's five years of residence here, he's never once hooked up with any of them. And so this trip was both our introduction to family we never knew we had.

Pretty cool. And all this time we thought we were alone.

Anyway, still an hour to go before we reach home. I'll post pics from our weekend soon.

On family, and that second wind.

My inlaws are in town. Arrived last night and are bunking at the Bharwani pad for the next three weeks. That's Bebo's mom, aunt, sis and four-year-old niece, along with their sangkatutak na maletas, kikay kits and pasalubongs.

Based on last night's living conditions, I can tell you that we have temporarily junked form over function to accommodate two queen aerobeds, luggage of all colors and sizes lining up our walls, and the wide array of shoes tiling the kitchen floor. I seriously have never seen so much stuff in our studio before.

And it's absolutely great.

You see, I'm one of the fortunate few blessed with a wonderful extended family. You always seem to hear about inlaws invading your married life and making it their goal to make you miserable. Not the case with me, though. Bebs' family is a kind-hearted, supportive and generous bunch. Not to mention FUNNY. His mom is a riot. She cracks me (and everyone else) up, and she doesn't even know it. Amazing. She's definitely a keeper.

And I'm glad they're here. Both our families have been such an encouragement these past few weeks, I'm just truly grateful for the support. This "crazy stuff" that's happened really dampened our spirits for a while, but the Minister of souls pulled through for us--as He always does. He spoke His Truth, comforted us in our time of need, and now he sends family to root us on to continue the race.

As for me, I'm back on my feet again. Got my groove back, and raring to have a go at it. This year ahead will be an amazing ride. I know it. I'm not sure where it'll take Bebs and me, but I'm at peace with that now.

Besides, I really already have everything that I need.

Stress on high doses.

Man, this week has been crazy. And I notice I seem to keep saying that lately. The days have just been getting faster and faster. Busier and busier. One after the other. All of the urgent and important you can possibly think of, piling one on top of the other. Like it's not going to end.

It's like life throwing curve balls at you. On fast forward.

And it's not like you can put any of them off. Everything demands attention; everything needs to be done. You'd think Friday would serve as a pause button till the following work week arrives, but no. Something had to have a deadline today. In fact, everything's got a deadline. Everything's a deadline.

Man. When it rains, it sure pours.

And sweet, sweet
sweet surrender
is all that I have to give...

Capping off the SoCal experience.

The bad news is, my camera died on our last day in San Diego, so there was no documenting our final hurrah. Nevertheless, here are visuals of our SD trip...

Click on photo to view album

The good news: I still have a few shots from last week's trip which I had forgotten to download from my camera. Click on the photo below to see them.

All photos of our SoCal trip can also be accessed HERE, just choose the Southern California album.

I'll blog more decently later, right now work is calling. Enjoy the pictures, I'll be back...