You were so much better than 2008 and I didn’t expect for things to go from so bad to so good in only a year’s time. I wrote to 2008 a little less than a year ago and I’m honestly struggling to write my letter this year. It is odd but when you are going through tough times the words seem to flow easily but when things are going well it is much more difficult to write about life. Instead I just want to share the good times and hope I accomplished that in the video below.
In 2008 and 2009 I’ve spent a considerable amount of time on my blog sharing my life, what I found interesting, my thoughts, and I hope you have enjoyed it thus far. My first post was on 4/10/2008 which means I have had my blog for 619 days (1 year, 8 months, 10 days). That means I am averaging 1.7 posts per day. I thought this year it would be fun to put together a video which takes you through the entire year instead of having to explain it all via writing.
My favorite quote for the year was from Robert Schuler who said “Tough times never last but tough people do.” Note, you may want to start playing the video and let it buffer for a minute since it is enormous (43 minutes long). Before you watch the video you should know that the girl in the blue dress was a painting in my hotel room in San Diego (creepie), and you are going to see lots of ice cream, coffee, Tyler, me, and Christina…so be warned! Thanks to everyone who helped get me through 2008 and turn things around in 2009.
I think this video came out pretty well and hope you enjoy it…
Kurt has the really good camera so I don’t have the group photo yet. Hope everyone had a good time, I did. Here are all of the pictures (not just the ones above) from the luncheon.
Christina and I went to Gayle and Bill’s house out in Forrestville, CA on Saturday. Christina was a good sport and I still owe her big for walking in what turned out to be a downpour of rain on our hike. Their home backs up to miles and miles of woods so we hiked down to a stream and up to a lookout which was beautiful but the rain prevented us from going any further. Maybe in the spring or summer we can go back and see it all with better weather. The house is gorgeous and is being remodelled very nicely. Gayle even made me a birthday cake (three green candles and two pink ones on the bottom for 32) which was super nice!
We went to Deacon Dave’s Christmas Lights last night in Livermore which was amazing! In total this year he has 325,530 lights and I have never seen a residence decorate for Christmas to this extent. Below is some background on his display from this site.
What is Casa del Pomba?
Portuguese for “House of the Dove”, this is the private residence of Deacon Dave Rezendes. On December 4th, 1982, Deacon Dave was ordained a Roman Catholic deacon. When he was ordained, he dedicated his home to the Holy Spirit. The symbol of the Holy Spirit is the dove. Deacon is one of the clergy of St. Michael’s Church in Livermore. He is also the Bishop’s representative to the Deacon’s & Director of Deacon Personnel in the Diocese of Oakland. He also owns a security business in Livermore. A busy man!
Does Deacon Dave plan the display himself?
Heaven’s no! The Deacon names the theme each year, and does some planning and design. A team of advisors, who are specialists in various fields, takes the theme and runs with it! They are dedicated volunteers who share Deacon’s excitement for Christmas. They often have to be reined in because they come up with some humdingers of ideas!
Can we tour the inside of the home?
No, this is Deacon Dave’s private residence. He does have parties for St. Michael’s staff, his Christmas Crew, and families and close friends. Inside the home, there is at least one tree in each room, including the laundry room and bathroom! There are over 20 trees in all, all decorated by Deacon himself. Each one has a theme, either relating to the room it’s in or a favorite hobby of Deacon’s. Some of the themes are trains, Daffy Duck, religious, dove, teddy bears, peacocks, and Native American. The living room tree in the front window changes each year, to either represent the area or display theme.
Where did the Nativity Scene in the front window come from?
Deacon wants to remind people of the real reason for the season, so he has a lavish nativity crèche always in the front window. New pieces are collected each year. The angels hanging above are imported from Italy, and are handmade papier mache. Very delicate, they appear to be flying over the display.
How do you get the lights up in the trees?
The lights are placed in the trees using extension poles with hooks on the end. The lights in the trees in the back yard are placed in the trees using the same poles, but also standing on step ladders on the roof of the house.
I’ve decided to keep a dream log/blog and you the world can help me decipher each dream. Has anyone ever done this? I find dreams fascinating. The interesting thing is they make sense when you first write them down but then when you go back and look at them they seem very odd don’t they? My all time favorite dream is when I was suddenly able to fly. I flew over Disneyland (I was a kid) and flew through the Matterhorn. I woke up and I had fallen asleep in front of a fan. I’ve had lots of dreams as a kid that I have fallen down a cliff or ledge (has been years since I’ve had that dream). I’ve had reoccurring dreams and again as I kid I had lots of dreams of chasing the school bus because I was late to the bus stop. Even as an adult I still have dreams I didn’t study hard enough or didn’t’ get enough time to study for a test. I’d say I have more dreams than nightmares (90% are dreams and 10% nightmares). I also think I tend to dream more after going through something traumatic or during a stressful time. Have you noticed any patterns in how you dream?
November 11th:
Video arcades were in my dream last night several times.
I was walking down a path and it was raining really hard. There were boards covering the walkway that let the rain through. As much as I kept trying to get out of the rain I couldn’t.
We went to San Francisco yesterday and started things off right by going to Taylor’s which has awesome burgers and sweet potato fries. We surprised our birthday boy at the Motown Madness musical. Motown isn’t my favorite music in the world but I mentioned before going in that as long as I’m not the one singing I’m sure I’ll enjoy it. Little did I know almost half way through the musical they would pull me up on stage to sing and dance. Let me tell you I put up a good fight to try and keep from going on stage but the crowd was applauding so what can you really do at that point.
As you can see I have some awesome moves and even decided to do a move out of turn. Yeah I’m the dweeb who turns when nobody else turns! We got some of it on iPhone video which isn’t the greatest quality but you aren’t supposed to record in the theater so we are lucky we got what we have.
Then after they humiliated me the first time after intermission they came back for more by asking “hey where did that guy from Livermore go?”. They came and made me stand up again and ask what my name is. They said they have never had someone so shy come up on stage so they decided to keep after me. They then asked who was sitting next to me and pulled her up so we could slow dance in front of everyone in the theater. For a wallflower like me it made me turn bright red I’m sure but I kept smiling and tried to make the most of it.
After the musical we went to North Beach for some italian food and decided on Tony’s Pizza. We didn’t know it at the time but it was Tony Pizzano’s restaurant who is the world pizza making champion. Tony was there and we sat right next to the kitchen so we were able to get a few exchanges in with him. Tony was really nice to us and made sure everything was good. We then went to the Mark Hopkins Hotel to see the birthday boy’s hotel room which was very nice. We went up to the Top of the Mark in a sweatshirt and tennis shoes but for the most part they were nice about letting us quickly look around. We then went to get some coffee and then headed back to BART. It was a really nice day, even if I did make a fool of myself.
I’m not sure if I have blogged about this yet but I have my own way of measuring the success of a day. I say if you will remember the day on your death bed it was a good day. So many days pass us by and we simply live them day to day not really making the most of them. I can tell you yesterday was a death bed day!
OK here is the first video of me getting moved to the center of the stage because they were worried about me running off. I’m in the middle of the stage which is good because one of the singers blocks me most of the time.
Oh and last but certainly not least, here is me turning when nobody else turned. I rule at this if you can’t tell. Oh and a little singing.
