Last Single Standing...

Holy Hell you guys!

I think I’m the last single left!

Honesty blog coming up…

Seriously!  The last of my single friends are getting paired off with significant others.  Babies are being born everywhere.  Marriages are happening all over the damn place.  I’ve been to more baby showers, bridal showers, weddings and engagement parties over the past few years I think I need to take out a loan for all the gifts!

After this last boy hurt my heart, I’ve realized it’s actually becoming comical and baffling to those around me.  It seems the last…oh let’s say 7 or so boys that have come in and right out of my life has started to bruise the ego a bit.  It goes like this:

Boy seems interested.  I get my hopes up and/or excited.  In some cases – actually have gone out with boy.  In other cases boy has kissed me (to my surprise mind you!) and I go home with butterflies in my tummy.  Boy totally blows me off.  Jami has this face:

WTF?

Do I have bad breath?  Do I talk too much? Swear too much?  Seem too bitchy?  What is it?  

Sometimes it’s timing.  This last one I have a feeling might have actually been something kinda cool but then I got the “Oh by the way I’m seeing someone” text message.  I do think it was honestly a crappy timing issue.  But ouch.  Seriously ouch.  So yet again – hopes up and smooshed promptly. 

There’s also another boy that I was introduced to via FB and we emailed a few times but now nothing.  I have put it out there a few times about meeting in person and he writes that it would be great to meet, yet nothing.  I’m trying to find the appropriate time to “unfriend” him and it not seem awkward because – DUDE!   I mean if the guy was actually interested he’d give a shit right? I don’t want to come off as desperate and keep emailing someone who is obviously not into me.

I was with a gal yesterday who was lamenting about online dating.  Apparently she has faboo convos with these boys, seem great, one date, bam – never to be heard from again.  She has one currently that has lasted more than one so she’s thrilled but still…WTF?

My friends are so hopeful about the whole thing.  I keep hearing “It’s so your time!”  “He’s right there!!”  “It’s going to happen any second I know it!!”  I appreciate the words of encouragement but I’m not gonna lie.  This last one was a real bummer.  I’ll play it cool though when I see him in passing.  I’m good at that too.  Hell, I’ve had tons of practice.

But honestly readers, what is it?  Why is it so damn hard out there?  My mom swears there’s more women than men and the odds are just totally against us.  I have a lot of friends who are in relationships say they would never want to be out there in the dating world now.  It’s so difficult with email and texting, etc.  There is a co-worker of mine who is much younger and also having issues with boys who text text text but never actually meet up.  I feel like Drew Barrymore in “He’s Just not that Into You”

Drew Scene 

Hell, this is even dated now!  Add to this Facebook, Twitter and now there's something called Tumblr?  Oh lord..

I miss the old days.  You met someone, you clicked, you were courted a bit, then you became boyfriend/girlfriend.  Maybe cute notes were written to each other.  Long phone calls at night.  But even back then I wasn’t very good at this.

I’m quite discouraged at this point.  The older I get the harder it is.  I thought I had game when I was in my 20’s.  Hell I thought I was pretty smooth into the early 30’s.  But I think it was just that I was heavily involved in a theater community and we all hooked up with each other.  It’s like shooting fish in a barrel for anyone in that circle really.

Now here I am in the real world, with no game, no mystery, no clue really.  Just totally confused and constantly blind sided.  I don't like games.  I've never liked games.  I'm very straight up.  Just tell me how it is, right off that bat.  I don't want to guess or try to figure you out.

I had another recent situation with a boy whom I'm friends with, we tried to date a long time ago, but I made one comment about drinking and poof - done.  We're the type that can blow stuff off pretty well so we're still good friends but he gets so bizzare sometimes and leaps to conclusions so fast my head spins.  Of course it's usually started from an unclear text message that goes awry and I try to call to actually talk like humans but this never happens.  This actually ruined a weekend vacation!  Again...here I am:

Is it the million forms of technology that is screwing it up for us?  Is it just a timing issue and my "time" hasn't happened yet.  (HURRY THE F UP THEN).  Is there something wrong with me that I don't see?  Or am I just so awesome men can handle the glow?  I'd like to think it's that.

I’m not depressed about this, or wallowing or whining.  I’m just honestly confused as hell.  I have absolutely no idea about it at all anymore.  It’s getting more difficult though being the odd man (er woman) out though.  I’m running out of friends to use as “Plus Ones”.  

So that's all for now I suppose. 

Confused, single, almost 40 something signing off...

Doheny Blues 2014...

Seriously this is one of my favorite times of the year!

Every single damn year it rocks our socks off!!!  This year was no exeception!

Dad got VIP tix for himself, Lori and I this year.  Then at the last minute Terri purchased a Gold ticket so she could join us.

Doheny has 3 levels of pricing.  GA, VIP and Gold.  VIP always sells out and it did this year as well.  When you get Gold, you get everything VIP gets (including sitting in the same area) but a whole bunch of other stuff too.  This was T was able to join us and explained that Gold was actually a good buy for what you get.  I have a feeling dad may go Gold next year.

We arrive at our usual early 8am-ish to make sure we can get a good spot in line so we can grab a good spot to sit.  Gold folks also get let in before VIP so T was our spotter.  The line up area was a bit different this year.  I think they have sold more VIP/Gold and I really hope they don't sell anymore than this because I do think they are at their max.  They also had a cafe open instead of the usual breakfast burrito cart and the lines were laid out a bit different.  I do have one concern - that this event may get too big for it's britches.  I know that happens all the time to festivals, I mean look at Coachella, and that's when it's not fun anymore.  I'm really hoping Doheny doesn't get to greedy/big but you never know.  Unfortunatley it's looking to move in that direction, but - fingers crossed.

We chilled and chatted and waited.  We wished T luck when her line started moving and crossed our fingers she would get a good spot.

When we finally got in we raced over to our area and there was a very stressed out T in a spot that at first we weren't too sure about.  It was next to a mini palm tree and not near an end like we prefer.  There didn't look to be an easy access to and from where we were and I saw the look of concern move across my dads eyes.  There is an art to grabbing the perfect concert watching spot.  You don't want to be too far deep so your climbing over everyone to get to and fro.  You don't wan to be near the walk way where you can't see and are getting beer spilled on you.  You want to try to be in a spot where people aren't walking through the middle of your area.  Etc. etc. etc.  They seemed to have the place laid out slightly differently and T did the best she could.  I put on a smile and said it was awesome and it'll work out.  We sort of had a path out and we're actually more center.  Dad seemed satisfied and T seemed relieved.  Later on though - was the perfect spot because that little palm tree gave us some awesome shade.  It kept people from rolling through our area too close and our surrounding fellow concert goers were never all there at the same time so the in and out access was perfect.

Here's our view from front and back.  I always love how colorful it is!

T headed off backstage to find out what kind of goodies her Gold got her and Lori, Dad and I got settled.  She returned later giddy saying it was an open bar due to the punch card thing not working and handing me a glass of wine.  Rad.

Dad and I headed over for some snackage and I grabbed some Pad Thai.  It was pretty decent last year and ok this year.  Dad opted for Crepes and of course we picked up our bag of Kettle Korn.  Dads crepes took so long though that I went back for seconds of my yummy lemonade!

Here's the group!

We returned as the 1st set had started.  Earl Thomas and the Rhumboogies.  They were great.  Perfect opener.  They had the crowd jumping and dancing and Earl Thomas was an amazingly energetic performer.  My only critique was he self promoted a bit too much.  He reached the point of annoyance when he said "One more plug!  Sorry"  I was pretty much over him at that point.

So after this, Lori and I decided to walk around and check out the vendors.  As I was standing in front of a place that sold handmade sandals and complimenting the handy work, my ankle rolled and my favorite pair of flip flops broke.  I knew it was coming but was so sad.  Lori was dying laughing at the fact that I busted my shoe in front of a sandal place and said it was a sign.  Too damn funny.  Since I couldn't afford the handmade ones I opted for a $5 pair of cheapies to get me through the rest of the day.  Lori got herself a cute little sundress and we paused a moment to watch a bit of Smokin Joe Kubek & Bnois King.

We got back in time for The Mannish Boys Revue.  Now these boys ended up being the favorite of the day for me!  I love when a band I'm not familiar with blows me out of the water and these guys did just that.  They also featured Kid Ramos and Sugaray Rayford.  Holy. Shit.  These guys were fucking awesome!!!!!!  They played THE BLUES.  Here's a link to them: The Mannish Boys - educate yourself!  I plan on purchasing the latest album because I want to hear them again and again!  Randy Chortkoff played the harmonica brilliantly.  Frank Goldwasser is a guitarist from Paris - ridiculous!  They tore it up.  Then when Sugaray Rayford came out, this man took the stage!  I mean it's hard not too - the man is like 6'5 an not a small frame.  He had on a purple-ish suite and blew me away.  Kid Ramos of course was fucking awesome as per usual as well.  At one point Sugaray, Frank and Kid sat down and played an acoustic set of raw, dirty, Cajun Blues.  Dad and I about died!  Just so fucking rad!!!  They played blues and they played blues perfectly.  I loved loved loved these guys!

FYI our palm frond made a great drink holder!!

After that, Lori and I headed off for round two of grub.  I got myself a Tri-Tip Sandwich and some garlic fries.  Yum!  Throughout the day T brought me about 4 or 5 total glasses of wine which was awesome, so I never did have to buy alcohol.  Next up was Buddy Guy.

This photo was when Buddy Guy decided to come walk down in the crowd.  He seems to do that all the time and it cracks me up how everyone freaks out and tries to see him.

Love this shot of Dad and Lori totally into it:

This was the third time now that I've seen Buddy and T's 1st time.  She was so very excited to see him!  Lori also had never seen this blues legend perform.  He took the stage in his famous black and white polka dot shirt and promptly tore that guitar up like nuthin flat!  His show was amazing of course, but I have to say the least favorite of the three times I've seen him now.  He did his usual awesome tricks with his guitar, but to me he just didn't seem as into it as I've seen him in the past.  T was none the wiser so of course loved it and I'm sure Lori did too.  Dad and I were rocking out the whole time and don't get me wrong - he was incredible - but I've just seen him better.  The show ended a bit anti-climatic as well too.  He sort of just walked off stage.  The band kept playing for a bit and I actually thought he was going to come back and they were doing some sort of musical encore but they wrapped it up and that was it.  Ah well - the man still rocked it.

These drunk folks kept dancing...comedy all through the day.

Lori decided she'd had enough sun and noise so she peaced out.  We had driven separately in case she wasn't able to stay for the whole thing.  She has a bit of an issue with the sun.  So T, Dad and I hunkered down for Mr. Gregg Allman.

The man rocked it.  I have to say, he didn't look very well.  He's been fighting some illness so I think it took a bit of a toll on him, but he played the keys brilliantly and belted out some great melodies.  At one point he brought up a guest sax player Mindi Abair.  She reminded me a Lita Ford.  Now dad loved her - but I wasn't impressed.  She just didn't have the breath power.  She was decent but that's it.  Decent.  (Seriously I'm becoming such a music snob!).  Jay Collins (Greg Allman bandmember) tore up the sax like I like to hear it.  He was incredible.  The lead guitar Scott Sharrard was also just fantastic.  He was probably my favorite to listen to the whole performance.  Outstanding artists.  All in all the show was rad.  Dad was rocking out and I'm sure re-living his youth in his mind.  I felt honored to be able to finally see Gregg Allman perform live!

So this year - Doheny Blues - killed it!  The weather was perfectly beautiful. The sun out most of the day and the smell of the ocean wafting across us was just bliss.  The drunkards were entertaining not annoying.  The music was perfection.  The crowd pretty chill.  A huge thank you as always to my dad who makes this possible for me to attend every year.  Good music just makes my soul shine and I can't imagine my life without it.  I am truly grateful to be able to experience amazing performances as I do every year at this festival!

Color Run 2014...

My 1^st race of 2014 took place last weekend!

I started the race year off with The Color Run.  I had originally signed up to do the one in Pomona in October but one of the Gladiators conflicted and since Fatima and I are going for the “Beast” medal this year I had to bow out.  I wasn’t even planning on doing it at all until my co-worker/friend Taylor mentioned he wanted to try out some of these 5K’s I’ve been doing.  So – he’s doing 4 with me this year!  Ha!  Suckered another one!

So he had his very 1^st 5K and I had my 2^nd Color Run.

This one was at the OC Great Park in Irvine.  Now I actually don’t care for races here, as you read in my ROC Race OC blog last year.  I think we have another one there this year too but what can ya do.  The location is just ugly and somewhat boring. 

The Thursday before Taylor and I went and picked up our packets at the Sports Authority in Tustin.  This gave me the chance to get D to make my T-shirt into a tank top!  Ya!  And of course get my fun ready for the race photo:

Taylor arrived at my place at 7:30 am Saturday morning and we headed out.  I opted for Leia buns hoping to keep some of the color out of my hair since I ended up with a greenish yellow streak in my hair for 2 months last year.

It was easy in, easy park, easy peasy.  We did our obligatory parking lot before shot. (The only ones on my phone were this one and the after.  Taylor used his iPhone in a protective case for the others and of course I have the ones I purchased.

We headed in both very excited.  Taylor was excited for his 1^st race and I was excited for him.  There were a few vendors but nothing of note.  The really cool thing this year that they didn’t have before was a fun little Kaleidoscope theme and with it came a couple of fun places to have photo ops:

It was a little chilly as you can see me trying to be cute but freezing in the pics.  But the sun came out before the race started and it turned into a beautiful day. 

The MC was already on the stage trying to pump up the crew by doing Zumba dances and throwing out free goodies.  They announced the 1^st wave which was us and we started a long parade like walk to the Start line.  Seriously the way it was laid out was so odd.  We walked for a good 5 minutes to get to the Start Line.  The lost a bit of momentum as we waited but finally got going.  They did the usual Color Run wave release by letting people out in chunks.  I’ve noticed the fun runs do this.  I assume since there’s kids and what not.

Of we went!

I trotted just a second and fell into my power walk stride.  Taylor jogged and walked along side of me.  We hit the Yellow Color group 1^st and Taylor got his 1^st does of powder.  Very cool.  We decided to take pictures of each other for future ones.  I got him in the blue one as you can see in this cute collage he made.  There’s also a video on here but I didn’t know how to upload it.  But you can see the pics!

Then he got me in the purple one.  I love the picture! I was trying to side swipe a woman who got in my way.

We finished really fast, I’m not sure it was an actual 5K or my power walk has gotten faster.  Anywhoo I love my finish line shot:

Then for some reason this picture just made me laugh.  It sums up the silliness Taylor and I have together.

Here are the rad Color Run before and after pictures that I also love:

Afterwards we hit the stage for the Group Color Bomb.  We stayed for 2 of them.  I don’t remember it being so crazy!  You can’t even see for a few minutes after everyone releases the color packs.  Super fun though and we were now completely colored.  Here’s our after parking lot shot. 

We headed out and got out rather quickly.  The line of cars coming in was ridiculous!  Ahhhh the benefits of early waves!

All in all we had a great time.  Taylor is a great race buddy!  I wouldn’t do this one again unless someone really wanted too.  Honestly trying to wash that crap off later is a bit of a task but I had a fantastic time! 

Cluehoo...

My friend/co-worker popped into my office one day asking if I may be interested in something that could potentially be totally lame.  Was I silly enough to do this with her?  There was a Groupon and it was only $20 for two people and you go on some sort of Scavenger Hunt in Laguna Beach.  Um of course I was interested!!  We each promptly bought one, her and her hubs, and at the time was going to be me and another co-worker friend.  She talked another co-worker and his girlfriend, and I of course asked my sister in law who is usually down for these sorts of random adventures.  After a lot of attempting to match up our schedules, losing some people and gaining another co-worker (a cute one *wink*) we were set for Mother's Day.

We're told it lasts from 3-5 hours and we figured we'll start in the morning and be done in time for Mama Day activities.  10:30 am was go time.

The day arrived and it was an absolutely, beautiful warm sunny day.  D and I arrived a bit early and found an incredible consignment shop.  D put an item on hold and I planned to purchase a darling Buddha if he was there when we got back.  We wandered around trying to find the address that was on the email and laughing at the fact that we were already not doing a very good job of "hunting".  I of course snapped a photo while we were waiting.

Colby arrived first. (*blush*) We introduced ourselves then shortly after Janna and her hubs and Max and Michelle joined us.  The Scavenger Hunt is all done via an app on the iPhone.  We read the 1st clue and found our starting point.  This is where we get our "Adventure Kit."

We then decide we are going to split into two teams, per the suggestion of the Cluehoo dude on the email.  As we were all reading thru the kit and laughing and chatting as we put on our "badges", assigned leaders - Janna was ours -  and chose the motivator to wear the "secret wristband" - guess who that was :). The guy came out to greet us.  Herr was his name and he was very European.  He told us to have fun and enjoy ourselves and to call him if we get stuck.

This was the last shot of all of us together, then of course the usual Jami/Danelle selfie:

We were off!

Our 1st clue had us fill up  bag of water.  Um ok.  Luckily we didn't carry it too long and we used it at our next location.  This had something to do with the Fire Station and some sort of flashy fire hydrant.  I think we crossed the street 4 or 5 times laughing and trying to figure it out.  The people at the restaurant watching us must have thought we were insane.  Anyway we finally find our fire hydrant and we're supposed to fill it with water.   The clue says something about when it's full we'll get our clue.  As we all watched Colby pour the water in and watch it come out the bottom he had the brilliant idea to plug the holes and sure enough up pops our clue - a fire truck.

Now it's a bit fuzzy since I didn't take notes, but basically the clues would lead us somewhere and it gave cute little hints as to what you would see.  You had the option to do these extra challenges at times.  It said it could take 5-7 minutes.  When our first challenge was nothing more than sort of showing us something, we opted not to do them in the future since we realized this Scavenger Hunt was going to take a while.  So our next part was a pretty long walk through a residential area.  It really was gorgeous.  The app mentioned something about you don't have to duck at the Legions.  We were pretty confused until we passed this:

Funny.

Then it lead us to a tiny little church.  It talks about how this is one of the smallest chapels in the area.  Along the way the app would give fun little tidbits of history.  We found another clue here that led us back towards PCH.

So our next stop lands us at a  Plumbing place that isn't currently open.  It tells us to find the ClueHoo meter which we do and we have to use our fancy token to activate it.  Trick is the token is in this plastic contraption with little silver beads that you have to maneuver it just right to get the coin out.  This is also about the time that Janna is on a mission to find a restroom to no avail.  The little note on the website about plenty of places to use a restroom is a lie.  We all take a stab at trying to get the token out.  This is becoming ridiculous. 

Then Janna gets the bright idea to use to little sticks to hold the beads at bay.  We're pretty sure that's not how we were supposed to do it but it worked. 

Yay!!!!  So now we enter the token:

And we're supposed to each watch a side while Colby watches the stop watch and at certain times we write down the letter.  Well, D goofed a bit here and we were looking at the wrong colors.  We had a little bit of an issue trying to get the last clue and D and I had a typical sister pissy moment but moved quickly passed when we figured out it was the jumbled version of water. Not sewer as I was dead set on.  Teamwork. 

We now had another destination.  But first a photo op.  I do need to learn not to hold the camera in front of my face, but I didn't want to keep everyone waiting while I tried to figure it out.  Still cool tho!







Next stop was the Riviera Hotel.  They had a bathroom!  Thank Jeebus.  We then were directed to go down to the beach.  It was a gorgeous walk with a lot of stairs (so got our work out in!) and we started wandering around the confused people laying out on the beach probably wandering what the hell these tourist looking people were doing down here.  Rad mural by the way:

 We also got an obligatory beach shot (and I apparently need an even tan):

Our next stop was a little shop that sold sea shell like goodies.  Now here is where it was kind of funny and unfortunately also when Janna's phone decided to start having issues.  So at this stop it tells us to stand where there's the peace love sign and look up in the sky.  In the back of the little kiosk was this:

The wristband wearer - that would be me - had to swipe the wrist band which then activated this weather vane thing.  The letters would flash and D would shout them out to Janna who was punching them into the app.  This is also where I took one of my favorite pictures because it kind of summed up how we looked most of the day! Ha ha!  I love it!

After this one we did waste a lot of time having to call the guy because the app and Janna's phone just were not cooperating.  We finally got our next location which was an ice cream shop.  We were not sure if we went in but found this thing:

It told us our clue was Clueberry.  It seemed we went in, so we did.  I waltzed up to the ice cream guy and asked "Do you guys do something with the Cluehoo?"  He smiled - what's the clue?  "Clueberry!" I said excitedly.  He then told us we all get a free ice cream cone!!  Yes!!!!  We had been trekking around for a while now and were all getting hungry.  I got myself a Kona Coffee cone.  Soooo yummy!

We figured we were done now because we were all starting getting to the "over it" point  and really wanted some alcohol and since the phone wasn't really working it was getting longer but we did manage to find another destination where we got a photo of ourselves from this secret camera (or so we thought):

But by this point we were done as was Janna's phone so we called the dude again and he said we just had one more stop so he came out and greeted us and led us to a cafe where they gave us free drinks (we all opted for waters) and a little magnet that D and I promptly made into something similar to our race medals of course.  Don't think I don't have it hanging right along side my race medals!







We met up with the other group who had a bad start but did a different adventure.  The only similarities were the ice cream and photo.  They finished about a half hour before us but we blame the phone.  Later we saw our pictures from the hidden camera and theirs was great - ours was hilarious because Colby and D weren't even in it, Janna is looking the opposite way and I look like I'm yelling at something and pointing to the camera.  It totally summed us up.  Too funny.  We laughed and shared stories and of course drinks and food.   Hell yes we celebrate with some snacks and a cocktail!



All in all it was a really fun day!  I love doing stuff like this because its something different and unique!  Our little group was totally fun.  I got to know Colby a bit which was nice (cuz, um cutie!)  It was also very cool to hang with Miss Janna outside of work and realize I have a fellow geeky adventurer.  I'm really familiar with Laguna but this little trip got me to see some sights I didn't even know were there.  We also realized Laguna has some awesome plant life and succulents!  We could not have asked for better weather.  It was such a fun adventure!  I actually may do another one of these with my mom since I know she would get a kick out of it.

We all took a group shot with Michelle's auto timer before we parted ways:



If you have the time (it was a bit long) and want a fun silly little adventure around Laguna, Cluehoo gets two thumbs up from me!