Asparagus!

I love asparagus. The green spears have recently become my favorite vegetable. And apparently, I'm not alone.

The lovely city of Stockton has an annual Asparagus Festival. And when my friend Jenny invited me to meet her there, I jumped right on board.

I drove to Stockton on Sunday, not really sure what to expect. Something like a farmers market, maybe. But what was there was much bigger than what I expected.

Jenny and I got in line to pay our admission. Then we waited in line to buy tickets so that we could use those tickets to purchase fried asparagus and an aspara-margarita. Then we waited in line so we could show our IDs so that they would give us said aspara-margarita. There was a lot of planning involved in getting things done at the Asparagus Festival.

It wasn't only an asparagus fest, but also a mini-reunion of my dormmates from my Sac State days. It was good to see some familiar faces and reminisce about times that were waaay too long ago.

One of the highlights was seeing what asparagus looks like if it is allowed to grow. (This is how I know I'm getting old.) It's actually a pretty plant. And I admit I was tempted to take a bite out of the tree-like plant to see what it tasted like.

The other highlight of the day was Jenny and my's paddle boat adventure. We paid our five dollars and waited in line to paddle around in brown water. Jenny made some new friends while we were in line and while I pretended she wasn't one of mine.

We had our fried asparagus, which we wisely decided to share and couldn't even finish it. I guess there actually is too much of a good thing.

By the end of the day, I had seen my lifetime's worth of asparagus and had gotten a little fried myself (by the sun).

As far as friends and asparagus goes, I'd say it was a pretty good day.

Scaling back

I bought a scale tonight.

Realizing that in three short months I'm going to be on holiday and hopefully lying on a beach in Italy, I've decided I only want to bring about 75% of my current self with me.

That being the case, I've been waking up early enough to dance to my cardio cabaret DVD, led by two yoga-loving ladies who show me stretches that are perfect "moodras for my lower shakras." Whatever that means.

I'm trying to eat less too. Emphasis on the trying. Before each bite, I try to picture myself in a bathing suit, which is usually enough to scare me away from the fridge. Sometimes not.

But back to the scale. I had a scale, but with this new one, instead of rounding it will give me my weight to the tenth decimal. So any bit of progress will hopefully show up and keep me motivated.

As soon as I arrived home, I unwrapped it and tentatively stepped onto it.

And quickly stepped off.

I have a lot of work to do.

Sunshine

Every winter I forget about my wonderful friend The Sun. He doesn't write. He doesn't call. Maybe he peeks through every once in a while, but doesn't bring the heat with him.

He's such a tease.

And just when I'm in the depths of my winter depression and Vitamin D defiency, he comes back full force.

And that's what he's done this week. Out have come the skirts, shorts, flip flops and I've already spent a day at the lake.

I love the sun.

Welcome back, buddy.

Home sick.

I thought if you had a cold, you were in the clear for a while. Apparently not.

I suffered from a cold about two weeks ago and it went away fairly quickly. And then all of a sudden another one struck. Boo.

So what to do when you are home sick?

This is what I've done:

1. Wake up really early, because I fell asleep super early the night before.
2. Debate whether or not I could survive a day at work.
3. Call in after I decided I couldn't hack it.
4. Turn on the TV.
5. Flip through channels.
6. Listen to the ladies on the View talk about Twitter.
7. Hmm... maybe I'd like to join Twitter.
8. Nah... too confusing. Don't get sucked into a trend.
9. Start to watch Twilight.
10. Will myself to take a shower and go to the store.
11. Join Twitter.
12. Wonder when Twilight will end.
13. Check Twitter to see if friends have found me.
14. Blow nose.
15. Write blog.
16. Think, I really should take a shower and go to the store.

That's about it. Exciting, no?

There is an 'I' in Italy

It seems that the rain is gone and summer is nearly upon us.

With that comes the excitement of swimming, a suntan and flip flops. And the best part of all...

Vacation.

Thanks to Uncle Sam I have some money to invest in a nice, but modest, trip. At first I was debating between saving that money, but then the world called and invited me to visit again.

Visiting the U.K. again is definitely high on my list. But for some reason, I feel that somewhere a little more south is beckoning.

It all began with the book "Eat, Pray, Love." I checked out the audio book when I drove down to L.A. a few weeks ago. The author spent three months in Italy; eating the food, drinking the wine, meeting the people. Those are three things I like to do!

Italy called again last Saturday. "Under the Tuscan Sun" was on television and once more the idea of basking in the Italian sun stirred in me. Just a few hours later, I had Italian food for dinner, which sealed the deal.

I want to go to Italy. More than that, I think Italy wants me to go to Italy.

How can I refuse?