The Flan and Tickets That Made Me Cry

October 22, 2017

This has been a stellar Birthday weekend although not totally birthday related. We kicked Friday off with the Banducci's Toy Drive at Oakhurst Country Club. All of the people of Clayton were there that we've known since the kids were in Kindergarten. Lovely dinner, lots of wine and lots of dancing to the music of Fred Freeman and the band, Plan B.

Then Saturday, we did our FREE Zumba Master Class for the City of Concord at Todos Santos Plaza. Great turnout! Great fun!

Then some of the girls came back to the house and we couldn't stop dancing.

Elisa brought a delicious Tres Leches. AND my sister, Boobie, surprise showed up with my nephew, Lexi. What a delightful surprise. They sang Happy Birthday to me in 3 different languages.

But the Flan. Zelia asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I told her, "Make me a flan." She's like, "OK." So she made a flan and when I ate it, it made me cry. My mother used to make a flan that I LOVED but I never got her recipe. Thinking back, she probably didn't have a recipe. Like Zelia. Zelia was just adding this and that and not a measuring apparatus anywhere in sight. So, probably, my mom did the same thing. Anyway, I make it a point to try every flan I can in hopes of finding one with the taste and texture of my mother's. THIS WAS IT! I literally cried eating this flan. Thank you, Zelia, for bringing my mother home to me on my birthday.

Lexi's family came to pick him up so we got to have an impromptu dinner. I got to meet his youngest son and their goofball dog, Jose.

My Little Honey Bunch had given me my present on Saturday, too, but I didn't open it until this morning. And then I cried again when I did open it.

When his job was eliminated, we cut back on some things. One of the things I said I would cut out was going to the San Francisco Ballet's Nutcracker. I was sad that I wasn't going and was going to try to find a local, cheaper one.

When I opened the present, I was shocked, delighted and burst out into happy tears! Hugging my Little Honey Bunch, trying not to mess up my face too much as I was on my way to a Zumba class! THANK YOU TO MY LITTLE HONEY BUNCH AND EVERYONE ELSE WHO MADE THIS WEEKEND SO SPECIAL!

Before being totally lazy and catching up on Housewives, Zelia and I went to a Zumba Class at 24 Hour Fitness in Antioch. Lecille (right) had just been hired at 24 and she was teaching her very first class there so Zelia and I went to support her. We brought lots of energy and helped her shake her nerves. Always great to have fellow instructor's support!

Life is good! I'm off to have a Birthday Eve Champagne!

The Dead

October 9 & 10, 2017

So today, when I went to teach my fabulous class at 24 Hour Fitness Walnut Creek, I get to the stereo equipment, open the drawer to get the mic and I see a penny. I can't see for squat (old eyes), so I put it in my pocket for later.

It's a 1964, the year my brother Baby was born. Later, I was at a class in Livermore with Mia and Zelia and we're standing outside gabbing for about an hour. I look down and see something.

It's a silver feather. Feathers are one of the ways my mom has of saying, "Hi!" Then I'm at Trader Joe's, about to get into my car, and I see what looks like angel's wings.

Hello my Angel Baby, Nene!

I'm really excited about all this activity because I'm going to see Theresa Caputo tomorrow! You know, the Long Island Medium? She talks to dead people. She talked to me about my brother, Baby, the last time I saw her! (click here for post).

I also didn't want to post the above before we saw Theresa so people couldn't accuse her of googling me for info!

Me, Kathy and Boobie went.

I thought it would be too crazy if she ended up talking to my dead people again. She never quite made it to us. She was about 10 feet away at one point but she was dealing with a bunch of dead people who had hanged themselves. It was really strange. She said, "Who here has someone who hanged themselves?" About 20 people in one section raised their hands! It was surreal! She ended up focusing on a family who's son had accidentally hung himself after threatening to, when his girlfriend broke up with him. The poor guy didn't mean to actually go through with it and accidentally went too far. So very sad.

Even though she didn't talk to us directly, there were many references from the other folks that made us KNOW that our dead people were there with us. There was a reference to a motorcycle wreck (Baby), there was a reference to someone who had an infection through their body and died on Friday (Nene), there was a reference to the mom who could not communicate verbally at the end (Mom) and there were references about not having seen or having said goodbye (Dad).

It was fascinating as always. I can't wait until the next season begins! Oh and Kathy and I were hungry at 11:30 pm so this happened.

Yum!