Pet Peeve #2 - Littering

Okay, I am on a roll tonight!

This is something I truly truly cannot stand. People LITTERING!!!! I was never aware of this extreme pet peeve until one day, I was stopped at a light behind another car. That driver opened his/her door and dropped a bag of garbage on the road. Oh my god! I was shocked and, surprisingly, absolutely furious! I was so tempted to follow that person to his/her destination and let him/her know how bad littering is. Gosh. I sound so uptight, but that's what a pet peeve is, I guess. I didn't follow him/her. What would I say? "Hey! You littered back there! Couldn't you have waited to throw away your trash later? In a trash can???" That person would have totally thought I'm a wacko. Okay, so if you don't want to piss me off, DON'T LITTER!!!!

Our Beautiful Planet

I haven't written in a while so decided to do two in one night. Woohoo! (I wasn't lazy, just really really busy.)

A couple days ago, on Memorial Day, my friend and I planned on going for an easy hike along the coast. For reasons I will not disclose... heh heh... we never made it to the trailhead. Instead, we drove down Highway 92, made a left on 35 or 1 or Cabrillo Highway... whatever it's called, and just drove and drove and drove. Sorry, environment. I was driving my SUV. Yikes! I don't remember the last time driving down Highway 1, but I don't remember it being so beautiful. The coastline, the beaches, the wildflowers, the bluffs, the waves crashing against jagged rocks, the honeycomblike sandstone, and the vast Pacific were absolutely amazing. Everything looked so perfect. We turned off Cabrillo Highway and got onto Pescadero. We were soon driving on a tight windy road with beautiful redwoods towering over us. Everything was so green and incredibly gorgeous. It sounds weird, but my heart felt so light. I was really happy.

We are all aware that due to global warming, huge changes are happening. I really wish more people would appreciate the beauty and life of our planet to try to do something about it. I'm not saying to stop driving and live in the woods (cuz heck, I still drive my SUV - but I've had it for 10 years in Sept. - and my next car will definitely be a hybrid.) but doing simple things like throwing your empty cans and bottles and papers in the bin that's sitting right next to the garbage or replacing your bulbs with energy efficient ones. Or turning off lights that aren't needed. Oh! I can't stand it when people blast the AC when it's not even hot! They can simply open the window. Saves them money AND saves the planet. I sometimes want to leave notes on neighbors' doors suggesting that they turn off their AC! Ho ho... Okay, I won't.

Our planet is remarkable. Beautiful. All of us should contribute in saving it. It is so easy. It's sad to know that many people just don't care.
I want to say thank you to all who have pushed to pass laws and restrictions to save our planet, and thank you to all who have made us aware of Mother Earth's dire need for our help. You are everyone's heroes - including the plants and animals!

Pet Peeve #12 - Bad Driving

I encounter this on a daily basis - drivers who don't signal and cut right in front of you. I HATE this. If you were to shove your ass in someone's face, it's just common courtesy to say "excuse me." And it's worse when I see that they're on a cell phone! So rude! If they would even give me just one click of their signal, I wouldn't be yelling bad things about them that they are oblvious to... or are they?? Anyway, SIGNAL!!

Dream 6 - Lasting Love?

I was sitting in a dark room with a fortune teller and a few others. A few faceless friends/family members had their fortunes told and seemed to be amazed at the accuracy of this man. So I sat myself down in front of him. He told me a few things (which were all accurate), and I asked him, "When am I going to get married?" He replied by telling me I'll be dating a great guy next year. "But what about marriage?" I continued looking at him waiting for an answer. He just reassured me I'll be dating a good guy soon, but averted eye contact, indirectly telling me marriage isn't in the cards for me.

That was a disturbing dream. One of my biggest fears is not finding a special person to share life with. Well, I actually found him but had to let him go. I hope my next find will be a bigger gem, and I hope my dream doesn't come true!

Dreams 1-5

As of late, I haven't been able to remember my dreams. It was very common to have very strange or at least memorable dreams. I'm going to try to keep a record of what I can remember and interesting ones I may have in the future. You can be the judge of how "interesting" they are.

Dream 1 - First Nightmare
This is the earliest dream I can recall. That night, I slept between my parents, something I don't remember doing, other than that one time. This dream is really short, but frightened me so much, I screamed and woke up my parents. (Remember, I was really young then.)

I was standing in a pitch black cavern with my parents standing on either side of me. My dad was holding a torch, and he brought it closer to my mom. He was getting closer and closer and was about to burn my mom's face. Then I screamed and woke up.

Dream 2 - Lady Spirit
This is the scariest dream I ever had.

I saw myself sleeping in bed. I felt a presence, so I lazily opened my eyes. Sitting at the foot of my bed was an old Chinese woman. She had gray hair tied in in a bun, glasses, and a cheung-sam. (I think that's what those things are called.) She was just staring at me. I tried kicking her off my bed - frantically - but she just sat there.

Dream 3 - Pregnant Monkeys
The night I had this dream, I watched "Black Hawk Down" and went to Denny's with my friends...

I was on my way to a concert with B and S. We ran into one of our friends, K, so we invited him to come along. We were looking for parking, and found a FREE parking spot. So lucky! During the concert, which was held in a cafe, a group of Somalian soldiers marched in the door, yanked my friend, B by the collar, and said, "YOU! You did not pay for parking! We will punish you!" We were so scared. Are they going to kill him?! As punishment, they threw a beaded hat on his head. But B wouldn't have it. He said "NO," grabbed the hat, and threw it on the floor. I guess the Somalians could care less, because they just filed out the door. Whew!

A few minutes later, friends of ours, D and L barged into the cafe with machine guns. D thought K and I were dating so wanted kill everyone! In disbelief, I yelled, "No! Stop it! Stop it!" But D started shooting. Panicked, I grabbed S' hand and dragged her to safety. We managed to find a hidden corridor. Still not feeling safe, I found a vault. I pushed the heavy door open. Sitting inside were three pregnant monkeys in wedding dresses and veils, saying in unison "I'm pregnant. I'm pregnant." This strange picture didn't phase me. My adrenaline was pumping, and I just knew we had to find a safe hiding spot. Above the monkeys was a small ledge covered with straw. We pulled ourselves and hid.

We hid for three years. At the end of the third year, I finally said, "I'm getting hungry. You think they're gone now?" S and I finally left the vault (don't know what happened to the monkeys) and walked slowly back to the cafe. Once we opened the door, a roar of applause greeted us. It was our welcome back party.

Dream 4 - Subtitles
I had a dream of a Mongolian man perched on his horse in the Gobi Desert wearing leathers and furs. I think he was royalty. He was speaking what I think would be Mongolian? But I didn't have to understand the language, because in my dream, I had subtitles! No kidding!

Dream 5 - KFC in My Skin
I was looking at my wrist and noticed a hole. I peered inside and saw that there was actually empty space inside of my wrist, so I started digging into the hole a little. I started seeing kernels of corn. Wha! I pushed the hole wider and saw more corn, rice, and bits of chicken! Scared, I told my dad to look at my wrist. He was really curious. He took my wrist and started pulling my skin apart. It didn't hurt, but it certainly LOOKED like it should, so I started pulling away, and screamed "STOP! STOP!!!"

I have many more dreams, but will continue another day... Hope you enjoyed at least one of them! Thanks for reading.

Kuli Ou Ou Ridge Trail

Anyone who knows me knows I like to hike. So before going on my recent trip to Oahu for a friend's wedding (will post about this later), I did a lot of research on hikes near the Waikiki area. I found the perfect one, the Kuli Ou Ou Ridge trail. You go through a forested area (so that I'm in the shade. Anyone who knows me should also know that I hate being out in the sun for too long.) The trail was quiet, beautiful, steep, and had an excellent reward at the end. It was only a few miles round-trip, the perfect length since we all had to head back to Waikiki for a rehearsal dinner.

The beginning of the trail was nice, nice dirt path with a manageable incline. We then came upon an area with a lot of pine trees? Have no idea what they're called. Anyway, the needles carpeted the entire hillside and made hiking much more pleasant.

The next set of trees worth mentioning are, I think, ironwoods. The color of these pines are so saturated. Absolutely beautiful. My pictures don't really capture their beauty.

This entire time, there are areas of really steep terrain. They've built steps in some parts, but some of them are higher than my knees. I had to hoist myself up! Oh, and I forgot to mention that I brought my hiking sticks, but stupid stupid me left them in the car! They would have really helped!! Near the top, we walked along the ridge. This is about two feet wide and a LOOONG way down. If you're afraid of heights, this may not be the best thing to do. Actually, I'M kinda afraid of heights. Ho ho... It didn't bother me though. My eyes were focused on the summit.

The final part was steep but exciting. By this time, we were all huffing and puffing and have somewhat forgotten our competition with each other... kinda. (Oh yeah, only Jim and I were involved in this.) I was really excited to see the view from the top. Oh! It was absolutely breathtaking! We could see the rugged lush cliffs, the cities and farmland below, beautiful blue skies with soft fluffy clouds, and the sparkling blue and green Pacific. If it wasn't for our time crunch (had to make it back for a rehearsal dinner), we would have stayed a little longer.

In conclusion, I would totally recommend this hike to anyone who wants to do a quicky. It's challenging and beautiful and close to Waikiki! I'd say this is one of the best ones I've gone on. Good job researching, Josephine! Thanks!! =D

Mojimbo

This morning I woke up with the name "Mojimbo" in my head. It was really odd. I must have dreamed about the name... I did a search on the name and didn't really find anything. It might mean something really cool in another language, or maybe something not cool at all! Anyway, I like the name "Mojimbo." It's a cool name. He can be my new imaginary friend. "Hi, Mojimbo! How's the wife and kids?! It IS a little hot to go harvesting. Why don't you have some cold water?"

Yes, I know what you're thinking. She's crazy. Told ya!! =D

My Face Smells!

I use sulfur masks regularly to regulate the oil production and clean my horrible acne prone skin. Anyway! It's a fun experience every time! That's because after I wash off the mask, I apply this cream - and my face smells like ROTTEN EGGS - on contact! It's like someone stuck their butt right up against my face and farted and my pores sucked in all the wonderful aroma. So I'm walking around with a rotten egg smelling face! HO HO HO!!! I think that's hilarious. I have a good laugh every time I do this. Some people may think it's gross though... Oh yeah, the smell doesn't last too long. =)