12:32p

naks naman!
wow wow wow...I finally finished both Bev and Gary's versions of their
engagement.
I don't feel anything but pure, honest joy for the both of them.
it's one of those things where you just shake your head,
cover your mouth in awe,
and continously feel uplifted for the rest of the day.
..and the whole thing couldn't have happened any more perfectly.
it was just...wow.

again, I'm so incredibly happy for the both of you.
Thanks for sharing your story with the rest of the world...
it totally made my day. :)

reunited
yesterday was most definitely a great start to a long work week.
I was so happy to finally get to see my ex-co-workers again.
It was so great to hear that the crappy situation we went through
together in our work place has gotten much better, much easier to tolerate.
they sooooo deserve the break from the craziness.
and any little respite from that drama goes such a long way.

hearing their stories simply made me smile.
it lifted off such a humoungous load from my shoulders.
maybe I won't have anymore nightmares about that
god-forsaken place and be able to truly move forward.

I'm just looking forward to continuing to build the relationships
we started as friends. I'm gonna see about maybe making this get
together a regular thing. Maybe once a month or something -
just like I do with my other set of ex-co-workers.

The other cool thing was that I got a chance to hang out
with my brother last night.
I took him out for dinner and we catched up on lots of stuff:
his graduation, his friends, future.
It was good to laugh with him and hear all about the
crazy stuff that had been going on with him during his final semester in school.

My bf and I finally gave him his graduation gifts last night, too.
We were kinda getto-fabulous with our wrapping and home-made card, but
it was fun putting everything together.
We got my brother four books that reflected some of the things
he probably wasn't taught about in college:
- Rich Dad Poor Dad
- What Color is Your Parachute?
- The Food Revolution and...
- Personal Finance for Dummies

At the bottom of the bag was his "real" graduation gift:
A homemade gift certificate worth a plane ticket anywhere in the U.S.
Well, it wasn't a limitless airfare, but just enough so that he wouldn't
have to spend a fortune to take a nice trip somewhere.
I'm hoping he uses it soon.
His R&R time is long overdue.

Later on that evening, my friend, D, from L.A. called and we chit-chatted for a while.
He just got laid off from his job of 7years.
He as doing quite well, though. In fact, we talked about all the short and long term
plans he had goin' on in his noggin.
It was exciting to hear it all.
In fact, I couldn't help but think how there are
so quite a few people I know who are in the same state of reflection and
evaluation about their lives.
I guess it's just that time.

In any case, I found it totally inspiring.
It made me think more about the short and long term
goals I wrote down and have been trying to implement
over the last month.

Contrary to my feelings of being uncomfortable with
totally and completely planning one's life to a "T",
I do believe that it is a good thing if done practically.
At the very least, it serves as a nice guide, even if you don't follow through with everything
(since life changes so frequently).
It's just nice to have some kind of direction, goal to strive for.

Oh yeah, and along these same lines,
I started reading passages from this book my friend gave me a long time ago.
It's called, Daily Meditations for People of Color. (I forgot the name of the author)
Anyhow, despite the hoaky sounding title, it's a cool thing to read
every once in a while.
Each page has a date with no year, cause, deally, you're supposed to read one passage a day.
And each passage is a quote or saying from someone or a from a particular culture or spiritual tradition.

It's been nice to get perspective from it every once in a while.
I'll try to post one of my favorite passages here
when I get a chance.

back to work
ok, i guess that's all for me for now.
gotta get back to the grind.
I'm still kinda wired from the mocha frapuccino I bought from Starbucks this morning,
so I might as well take advantage of the extra "energy"
while it lasts.