Friday, May 31, 2013

Sixty-Minutes in an Hour


"The only reason for time is so that
everything does not happen at once" -Albert Einstein

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Things On A Big Scale



"I'm not sure what I'll do,but, well, I want to go places and see people. I want my mind to grow.  I want to live where things happen on a big scale."  - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

"Vitaly" Caffe - Costa Mesa, California


Last Friday, my italian study group took 

a little field trip with our teacher to "Vitaly". * 



This place is a sparkling little jewel in the midst of a  fun 

treasure box of shops called 

"The Camp".


Our group arrives (plenty of parking available)

 and we begin to explore "The Camp" with 

several great little shops and food choices.




At the end of the path lined with these little shops

 you will find "Vitaly".


The moment you step into Vitaly you are transported to Italy.







You will find wonderful baked pastries and an assortment of cookies.


You can order coffee just as you like it  

 One sip and you will feel as though you are in
  Bella Italia!



You will also find a wonderful assortment of "Gelato"

 It's  made right here at Vitaly.


If you have trouble choosing which flavor they offer options like  cute little wafer cones for a tasting treat.


You can get a "flight of five cones" and try a few flavors.  I loved them all but 
fell in love with the salted caramel gelato.  Delizioso!!!


I'm so excited to find they also make "Granita" here. 

 On a hot summer day there is nothing for me more refreshing than an icy cup of granita.  


Sorbets of many kinds and a selection of 
specialty desserts. Oh so many choices!






They have a wonderful menu here. 

 The traditional italian "Piadina" Piadina or Piada is a thin Italian flatbread, typically prepared in the Romagna region of Italy) can be found here.  Filled with meats, cheese and veges you can choose from several variations.  They are so good and so reminiscent of the true taste of Italy.

Daily specials and wonderful soups are also featured.



 The place has a wonderful friendly and inviting vibe 

 The cool interior design is beautiful.






  


Vitaly's grand opening was this month.

We are so thrilled to welcome this wonderful authentic cafe

 to Southern California.  


Here are the owners of Vitaly, Maurizio Cocchi 

and his wife Barbara.  They and many of their staff are

 from Italy.  

My italian language teacher on the far right sits with all of these beautiful italian born women. Vitaly makes you feel like you are back home in Italy for sure.


This is my little "gruppo italiano" with our teacher.  We loved our trip to Vitaly and can't wait to bring our family and friends.


Thanks to Maurizio and Barbara for bringing Vitaly to Costa Mesa.

 This is truly a little bit of Italian heaven. 

 A real treasure for us all! 


*Vitaly Caffe
2937 Bristol Street
Costa Mesa, California 92626
tel. 949.735.8997
www.vitaly.net



Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Monday, May 27, 2013

Karen's Graduation Party May 25, 2013

On Saturday we were invited to a Graduation Party for my friend Karen hosted by her husband and three children.  For the last six years Karen has worked full time as a school librarian while taking courses towards her Teaching Credential and a Master's degree.  This week she graduated and received diplomas for both of those degrees.  We were so happy to be among the family and friends who joined together to celebrate Karen's huge academic accomplishments. We are all so happy for her and so very proud of all the hard work and dedication she has shown to persevere to achieve her goals.

                                Well done Karen! So proud of you! 


Here's a little slide show of the festivities. It was a wonderful party.  A huge thank you to her husband Alan and their children Madeleine, Adam and Michael.

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Saturday, May 25, 2013

An Important Lesson

I wanted to pass this incident along because I think it's an important lesson for all of us.   

A Reddit user going by the handle "european_douchebag" posted a surreptitious photo of a Sikh woman with the caption "i'm not sure what to conclude from this." The user's apparent confusion stems from the fact that the woman—bound by her religion not to cut her hair or alter her body—has an abundance of dark, untrimmed facial hair. The mind of european_douchebag was SO INCREDIBLY BLOWN by the fact that women have hair on their bodies—and, yes, faces—and that some women are bold, self-assured, and pious enough not to cave to western beauty standards (and gender expectations), there was nothing for him to do but post her photo online and wait for the abuse to flood in.
But then something totally lovely and unexpected happened. The woman in the photo responded:
Hey, guys. This is Balpreet Kaur, the girl from the picture. I actually didn't know about this until one of my friends told on facebook. If the OP wanted a picture, they could have just asked and I could have smiled :) However, I'm not embarrased or even humiliated by the attention [negative and positve] that this picture is getting because, it's who I am. Yes, I'm a baptized Sikh woman with facial hair. Yes, I realize that my gender is often confused and I look different than most women. However, baptized Sikhs believe in the sacredness of this body - it is a gift that has been given to us by the Divine Being [which is genderless, actually] and, must keep it intact as a submission to the divine will. Just as a child doesn't reject the gift of his/her parents, Sikhs do not reject the body that has been given to us. By crying 'mine, mine' and changing this body-tool, we are essentially living in ego and creating a seperateness between ourselves and the divinity within us. By transcending societal views of beauty, I believe that I can focus more on my actions. My attitude and thoughts and actions have more value in them than my body because I recognize that this body is just going to become ash in the end, so why fuss about it? When I die, no one is going to remember what I looked like, heck, my kids will forget my voice, and slowly, all physical memory will fade away. However, my impact and legacy will remain: and, by not focusing on the physical beauty, I have time to cultivate those inner virtues and hopefully, focus my life on creating change and progress for this world in any way I can. So, to me, my face isn't important but the smile and the happiness that lie behind the face are. :-) So, if anyone sees me at OSU, please come up and say hello. I appreciate all of the comments here, both positive and less positive because I've gotten a better understanding of myself and others from this. Also, the yoga pants are quite comfortable and the Better Together tshirt is actually from Interfaith Youth Core, an organization that focuses on storytelling and engagement between different faiths. :) I hope this explains everything a bit more, and I apologize for causing such confusion and uttering anything that hurt anyone.
And then, THEN, something even more miraculous happened—the original poster apologized:
I know that this post ISN'T a funny post but I felt the need to apologize to the Sikhs, Balpreet, and anyone else I offended when I posted that picture. Put simply it was stupid. Making fun of people is funny to some but incredibly degrading to the people you're making fun of. It was an incredibly rude, judgmental, and ignorant thing to post.
/r/Funny wasn't the proper place to post this. Maybe /r/racism or /r/douchebagsofreddit or /r/intolerance would have been more appropriate. Reddit shouldn't be about putting people down, but a group of people sending cool, interesting, or funny things. Reddit's been in the news alot lately about a lot of cool things we've done, like a freaking AMA by the president. I'm sorry for being the part of reddit that is intolerant and douchebaggy. This isn't 4chan, or 9gag, or some other stupid website where people post things like I did. It's fucking reddit. Where some pretty amazing stuff has happened.
I've read more about the Sikh faith and it was actually really interesting. It makes a whole lot of sense to work on having a legacy and not worrying about what you look like. I made that post for stupid internet points and I was ignorant.
So reddit I'm sorry for being an asshole and for giving you negative publicity.
Balpreet, I'm sorry for being a closed minded individual. You are a much better person than I am
Sikhs, I'm sorry for insulting your culture and way of life.
Balpreet's faith in what she believes is astounding.

The above article was posted here:  http://jezebel.com/5946643/reddit-users-attempt-to-shame-sikh-woman-get-righteously-schooled

Friday, May 24, 2013

Tell Him

This was one of the first 45 records I bought. Danced like crazy to this song!







"I know something about love.
You've gotta want it bad
If that guy's got into your blood, go out and get him
If you want him to be the very part of you
That makes you want to breathe, here's the thing to do...
Tell him that you're never gonna leave him
Tell him that you're always gonna love him
Tell him, tell him, tell him, tell him right now ..."






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