The Final eight lessons

Again, another late entry! So I am happy to report that we finished building our shade structure in the patio! It came out so nice! I like how we finished it just in time for another heatwave. Side from it not being so hot on the deck, the shade structure has helped with bringing in less sun inside so it’s less hot there too.

As September is about to end, here are my final eight lessons. I can’t believe we made to 35 lessons for my 35th year. It’s been good to reflect on what I’ve learned and where I grew and where I hope to grow out of.

Decorative Paving (PPAC #64)

More art from the Getty Villa in Malibu. Admissions are free and you will find art in every part of the building — even on the ground.

My idea of an easy weekend is…

We thought this weekend it was best to stay in town and take it easy by finally starting our pergola project. We’ve had the supplies in our garage — we just haven’t gotten around to building it because it been too hot to work outside…maybe if we did work on our project in the summer, we would have waited until the sun went down to do the work.

September 2022 reads

I’ll keep this month’s reflection reads post simple. I’ve been pretty tired all week. The last two weekends we’ve been out of town — one weekend was recreational and the weekend after was volunteering where I was one of three chaperons handling 30 high school students. This weekend we decided to relax at home…and finally begin work on our pergola project. It’s funny how we are working on our pergola after the SoCal heatwave.

Let’s paint the neighborhood (PPAC #63)

I took a photo of this utlity box art when I was sitting traffic. I left work a little later because I had to add air to tires. I left late and it took me a longer time to get to daycare to pick up my kid. Thankfully, I arrive before it closed so I don’t have to worry about a late fee.

How are you dealing with this heatwave?

The past weekend we spent Labor Day weekend in San Diego. Believe it or not, the weather in San Diego was much hotter and more uncomfortable than the Los Angeles heat. Due to the high humidity in San Diego, it did not matter what time we left the house — it could be 6 am or 8 pm — it was still hot. In LA as long as the sun wasn’t high… the weather was more bearable. That is why I enjoy my 6 am walks with my dogs and my 9pm pre-bedtime ritual of sitting in the backyard reading a book.

Choose what helps you bloom (PPAC #62)

Another piece of art on a utility box.

35

Yesterday was my birthday and I am now 35 years old.

I was about to share 35 lessons I’ve learned over the years in honor of my 35th birthday but it’s not quite finished yet. Instead of having one big post of 35 lessons –which would have been a very long post — I’ll break it up throughout the most. Keep in mind, these are just how I feel at the moment. Some are a little cynical and some of them I hope I outgrow someday. I may be 35, but I’m going through some growing pains so some lessons may not be so feel-goody…anyways here are my 35 life lessons and observations:

A light show on the beach (PPAC #61)

I found a really, really old cellphone photo. In fact, this photo was taken from a flip phone back in 2008. I was in college and I could not afford an iPhone. I recalled going with my friends and our new neighbors who were in a summer program sponsored by the university. We went out to a free night light show in Santa Monica Beach called Glow. Unfortunately, it only ran for three summers. The first show being in 2008, the second being 2010, and the last one being 2013. I remembered at the time thinking I took a photo of the coolest thing I’ve seen — and it’s on my cellphone! The phone before that had no built-in camera so I believed the phone I had at the time was such an upgrade :-P.

Vision boards for travel planning

Yesterday afternoon I was cleaning the deck and it now it looks good as new. I’ve been meaning to clean the deck for some time.

I’ll be honest, I actually cleaned most of the deck. So most of it does look nice. I did not clean that small part BIL occupies with his lawn chairs, sidetable, etc. It’s a mess and I don’t want to pick up after him. When he moves out I’ll clean that part of the deck too. I’ve given up asking him to help out long ago.

Let’s escargot around town (PPAC #60)

We’re going to Le Mans, France — home of the famous racetrack, Circuit de la Sarthe, which hosts the 24-hour auto race in every summer. It’s funny to find a sculpture of a giant snail in the center of town rather than say…racecars? In doing some digging, I learned this snail sculpture came from a group of artists called the Cracking Art Group. They create these large scaled animal sculptures made from brightly colored recyclable plastic. In the Cracking Art Group gallery, you’ll find they’ve made sculptures of birds, rabbits, wolves, cats, meerkats, etc. It’s all really cool!

Sublimation

It’s been a busy Saturday. Aside from the usual gym to the gym, my daughter’s dance class, budgeting, and cleaning up the house, I met up with some friends planning our upcoming trip in October. Initially, we were planning on going somewhere in Europe but we’ve been hearing about a lot of flight nightmares around cancellation and delays. Plus we decided to keep our trip down to a week since one of our friends has been very busy with work. Our trip choices are narrowed down to anywhere in North America which also includes the Caribbean — how broad. This week each of us will be creating itineraries and we’ll vote on the best itinerary (of course factoring in our budget and what kind of weather we’d be willing to tolerate). It’s been such a long since I’ve done any trip planning, so I find this assignment quite exciting!