I met Leigh in 1994 when we both worked at a stamp store in the mall during the Christmas season. She's always been a force of nature. Speaking her mind, standing up for what she believed in and jumping into something head first, flying fast. She had charisma, people automatically liked her the 1st time they met her, and learned early on not to cross her. It was very easy for me to be friends with her because she was straightforward, so I knew what her plans were and the direction she wanted to go. We were opposites, really, but we got along very well. She knew how to push me to motivate me, but knew when to stop. She understood that I have buckets of tolerance and patience, but if I'm right at the edge, to back off because I'll burst. She pushed me creatively, had a lot more faith in my abilities than I had in myself, and trusted me more than I thought I deserved. I was lucky that I was friends with her before I started working for her, because I never felt like I had to tiptoe around the boss. I could speak with her candidly.
Grand opening of her store, 1996.
In 1998 she had to close the store because her manufacturing company took off and she needed the space for warehouse and shipping.
Company photo, 2000.
Company photo, 2001.
At a temple in Bali.
She bought that big yellow dragon kite above her for her son.
Another temple in Bali.
At a Hindu temple in Singapore.
I finally got to meet my grand niece! She's 14 months old. My niece drove over an hour just to have lunch with me and my SIL. Also got to see the nephews for a brief moment. And spent an evening and the next morning with my BFF and her kiddos.
Jimmy had to work. He was recruiting at his alma mater. I went to college 15 minutes from here, at Cal Poly Pomona. So I spent a lot of time here, too.
Jimmy was really into car races back then. We went to the Winter Nationals in 1988 at the fairgrounds. It's hard to tell, but we're posing in front of the Grand National, not the moving truck. It was Jimmy's favorite car back then. I used to love the Saab 900 Turbo. Random.
Our 1st selfie before 'selfie' was a common term.
We treated ourselves to the best fish tacos in California...at a little hole in the wall in Pomona. Two nights in a row. We lamented that Jimmy didn't like Mexican food in college. I remember hounding him for Mexican food all the time but his version of Mexican food didn't extend beyond Del Taco. Now it's probably our favorite style of grub.
Before leaving Southern California, we stopped at another favorite, Bob's Big Boy.
There's a whole hockey store down there that sells just goalie equipment. Not even regular hockey skater gear, just goalie! It's huge and Jimmy's version of my craft store. Couldn't resist a snapshot of these King-kong sized goalie pads.
Jimmy actually went to work this way one day last week. The day before, he won a bottle of "Gorilla Snot Hair Gel" and was told to come into work with spiky hair the next day. One of their mottos is to "Be Unboring". Nailed it.
Apparently you're suppose to change the strings on your guitar every 3-6 months. Who knew?? The strings on my guitar were over 5 years old, but only used consistently for the last year or so. But they were due for a change. I was nervous changing them, but I did it all on my own. My guitar has never sounded better and motivates me to play even more.
Christmas with my sister-in-laws. I have 6 sister-in-laws, so 3 are missing here.
Christmas eve.
Christmas party at Stanford for Jimmy's work.
At my mom's house, the house I grew up in, with my best friend.
Today's Christmas Tree of the Day. I was almost home and I realized I hadn't taken a snapshot of any trees today. I thought I was out of luck, especially since I had a hard time yesterday. But this tree was right across the street. One of my crafting friends used to work in this office building.
My bbf of 30+ years nominated me, who of course, I am so thankful she's been a huge part of my life all these years. We're lucky if we see each other every other year (I haven't seen her since 2012), but we text at least 3-4x a week, just to say hi and that we're thinking of each other.
1. lots of nieces and nephews and friend's kids, who are like family. Their parents are pretty awesome, too.
3. finding whole sand dollars at the beach. They're so fragile that 99% of the ones you see are broken. So it feels like you've found a real piece of treasure when you find a whole one.
Miss A and her dad, 1st time on a floaty.
Miss A and her mom, picking up a little bit of speed.
Mr. W with his dada.
Middle nephew, 5. Slow but sure.
Youngest nephew...not quite ready for the floaties, but so adorable posing on his dad's boat.
Oldest nephew, 7, figuring out his balance.
Smores are such a treat!
Oldest nephew used to love them burnt.
Graham cracker face!
Middle nephew prefers marshmallow-less smores. Just like his Uncle Jimmy.
Tired eyes. Ready to call it a night after a day on the lake and a belly full of smores.
It was the summer of 1983, between my freshman and sophomore years. My mom and I went with my best friend and her mom. We were inseparable from 3rd grade till graduation. After high school our paths went in different directions, but we still keep in touch by texting each other ever few months just to say hello. Her mom and my mom had become close friends as well, so it was a good mother-daughter and friends trip.
It was a 3 day trip, leaving from Los Angeles, stopping in San Diego, Ensenada then back to Los Angeles. I think it was a pretty good starter cruise vacation, especially for a 15 year old from the desert.
Our cabin had a small little porthole. The room was tiny and I'll admit that I would never travel in such a small room nowadays. I didn't know any better and was thrilled that our room had a little window that looked outside. At least we didn't have an inside berth with no windows at all.
Cruising nowadays has gotten a lot more luxurious. Of course, in the early 80s, this was pretty nice, even though this cruise line was considered as an 'economy' vacation. But all 4 of us were pretty impressed with everything. After all, there were cloth napkins on the tables. And we came from the desert and lived on a dirt road, so we were easy to impress.
The paper tiara's really classed things up. You can tell how impressed I was.
Sunday started out as a typical lazy day at home. Around 3pm, I logged onto facebook to see what was up and I saw lots of postings about the sudden passing of someone I knew. I couldn't believe it, and actually thought that surely, this was wrong information. It was facebook afterall, and who knows what's true till you get the information from a trusted source. She was only 2 years older than me and at first I honestly thought it couldn't be true. Unfortunately, it was.
She wasn't just an old high school friend, which would have been tragic in itself. But I have known her all my life. She was also an only child, we were somehow related (it all gets mixed up in our culture sometimes how we're related but we were). I think our mother's were cousin's in some way or another. Her parents were my godparents, and up until we went to school, I probably spent the most time with her growing up. Back then, we thought of each other as sisters. I looked up to her and wanted to be just like her.
This was Christmas 1970. I was 2 1/2 years old.
She had 2 boys, the youngest just graduated high school last year. Her oldest got married within the last couple of years. Her husband of almost 30 years is inconsolable. My heart breaks for my own loss, but can imagine the heartache her family and her closest friends are feeling. It's not suppose to happen at 48, it's impossible to wrap my head around it.
When I got a call Sunday evening from the oldest one in this photo, who is 6 years older than me, there was no escaping the truth. She had just returned from the hospital and gave me the details. She was considered the oldest "sister" of all of us. I could always count on her the most, as I'm sure she was the one who always had the most responsibilities. After my mom died, she gave me the most help when I had to go back and forth to the High Desert every few weeks to sort everything out. She was always there and helped the most on arrangements. Once again, she's there to step up the responsibilities as oldest 'sister' with the passing of one of our own.
