isn't it nice to be home again

I checked out April 27th, from Oklahoma City after being deployed for 37 days. This allows me a bit more time home. Otherwise I would have been up for my rotation which can only last 14 days before I must return to the disaster site. With so much happening at home I'm very happy to be here and take this precious time to get much done!

The first of which was the Red Carpet Premiere of the Mo' Diaries on April 29th. My friend Tony Wilkins created this Mockumentary and I was very happy to support his endeavour. My sister Yolanda, and friends Laurie and Rob attended with me....and they are what made the evening so incredibly special!!!

In addition to the gala event, I had a couple of my own personal gala events with my children. I spent my first day back with Chelsea and her friend Noel, hunting for bargains and a good time in the Galleria in SF. We laughed as we played dress up all over that mall. We topped the evening off with a delicious meal at our fave food court stop, The Thai restaurant there. Yummy!

A special treat was having my friend Eric, come to the rescue last Friday and help me with my laptop. He's my computer guru and blogger extraordinaire. He graciously spent too much time moving my files to another hard drive and getting me situated, so I can either toss this thing or attempt to fix it. I'm going for the former. We spent catch up and chatted and laughed about our lives over killer tacos at my local fave, Taqueira El Gordo.

Sunday found me racing over to Holy Names University off Hwy 13 to see my darling young friend, Lauren in a drama titled Learned Ladies. Suffice it to say that Puna, her grandmother and I agreed that she was the best!
She was the most at ease on stage and she took the middle age dialogue and made it her own, modernizing it for the audience to capture the essence of her character's dilemma within the play. Her parents, Gina and Randy have been my friends for more than 25 years and live so close by. She feels more like a niece to me and they are just like family. I've been invited to some shindig at their home this Saturday...and that is going to be hard to turn down, but I'm signed up to volunteer at KFOG Kaboom. More than likely, the friends will win out. (^_^)

Yesterday found me spending the afternoon with Nick and his girlfriend Samantha, and our dogs hiking the Cataract Trails uphill both ways on Mount Tam in Marin. We trudged along the Trail and through Laurel Dell along the Waterfalls and Creek in the pouring rain for two and a half hours. The Creek was full and running cat 5 rapids in some sections! The water was pouring down the canyon and all of the falls were breathtaking!

It was so beautiful and really a much more humane way to get an aerobic workout. Nick reminisced about all the hikes we took while he was a cub scout and truly enjoyed hanging out with his "gurls". I could not have been happier!

Afterwards, I treated them to a nice meal at the Sand Dollar in Stinson Beach, where we attempted to dry off while filling our bellies with some Clam Chowder and their hearty Chicken Avocado Sandwiches. We topped it off with their homemade cheesecake drizzled with chocolate sauce. Ahhhh we were finally sated!

It is the fact that my time here is so limited that truly makes me appreciate it even more so. I'm happy to be able to sleep in my bed surrounded with the things I've picked up along the way that make me comfortable. Yes this is true....but my hearthrob is to spend these days with my children, having outings with my sister, walks with Molly the dog and long talks with Kitty Kat, and laughter and libations with my dear friends!!!

As i write all I can hear is James Taylor singing...isn't it nice to be home again...and the smile on my lips gives way to the wrinkles around my joyful eyes.