Itte Rasshai

"Don't be so humble, you're not that great," said Golda Meir to an esteemed dignitary. And so, with no shackles too great to bind me by cloaking my blessings for the sake of being modest, I give you the reasons why I am so tenderly fortunate:

I have:

…swam in waters of the Philippines
…driven up and down the coast of California
…peaked into the Crater Lake of Oregon
…ran upon the highest peak of Seattle’s space needle
…eaten fresh mangos on the island of Maui
…yelled into the Grand Canyon
…stood beneath a Yosemite waterfall
…sailed a boat in Lake Tahoe
…laughed in the rain in Orlando
…floated down the Colorado River
…danced at A Tribe Called Quest concert in Arizona
…pretended to know how to gamble in Las Vegas
…lived in central London for a semester
…visited Buckingham Palace twice
…danced on the street with strangers at Notting Hill
…taken a boat ride down the River Thames
…visited Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and St. Paul’s
…purchased something from Harrods
…ran on green and grassy Irish fields
…drank authentic Guinness in Dublin
…made a wish on a real Irish rainbow
…been tattooed in Camden Town
…embraced a stone at Stonehenge
…put my finger in Roman Baths in Bath
…walked down the isle where Princess Diana got married
…spoken Spanish to a Spaniard in Spain
…watched a bull fight & futbol game in Madrid
…drank sangria and ate tapas in Barcelona
…devoured gelato on the set of Casanova in Venice
…ran around the perimeter of Lake Como at 5am
…attended mass at the Vatican
…visited the Pantheon, & climbed the Coliseum
…ice skated at the Somerset House
…got on a plane to France after sleeping at a closed airport
…climbed the Eiffel tower with my favorite roommate
…been to Euro Disney, Notre Dame, and the Louver
…watched Sarah be attacked by pigeons in Amsterdam
…cringed at knotties of the Red Light District
…had high tea at Fortnum and Mason’s
…straddled the prime meridian at Greenwich
…attended a movie premier at the Odeon

Now to add something pink to that list…

As they say in Japanese, Sayonara! Itte rasshai! I’m leaving for Japan! This trip has been a long time coming, and it’s off to backpack through Gifu, Tokyo, Yokohama, Shizoka, and Nagoya. I promised Helen in November that I'd visit her in Spring, and after purchasing a $1000 ticket in January... the sun is out and so am I. It’s going to be cherry blossoms and kite festivals galore! God is good. More after the jump...

Open Letter to Me from Traco

"You gotta find a good guy Ro, because even if you're happily satisfied with life, some poor guy out there is living an empty existence, waiting for the love of his life to spring him into normalcy :-). And I have a suspicion it's you! And it's so fun being married, even with all the troubles and bumps I wouldn't trade it for the world.

It'll be like 6th grade all over again, except at the right time, right place, right dude. Maybe even blonde :-)! Haha, but for real I think you'll find somebody in a little bit. Once you get God in his place, it's amazing how things start to drop into place right alongside. The puzzle begins to come together, and satisfaction is guaranteed when he orchestrates things. So good luck in love, I'm pulling for you."

I’ve come to, possibly, the greatest realization I’ve had in quite some time: perhaps I have yet to experience my next great love because he has yet to develop into the only type of man that I can truly love and respect.

Easter

Versailles

I'm not picky with food at all, so when Dan suggested we eat at a mom-pop Cuban restaurant in his hometown, I jumped at the chance to try something new. I figured it'd be best to make note of this while the flavor still lingers on my palate.

Who? Dan, Vineet, and Rowena
What? Versailles Cuban Restaurant
When? Lunner
Where? Culver City, CA
How? By way of company car!
Why? Because I'll try anything AT LEAST ONCE.

I'm pretty grateful that food "in general" turns me on. From Lebanese to Cantonese, and everything in between. And I suppose that I have my mom and dad to thank for my non-picky take on food... all those years of telling me to appreciate what food I had because my "cousins in the Philippines are probably starving" sure paid off.

So back to Versailles...

The good? Garlic chicken served with rice, beans, and fried plantanes. They literally chop a chicken in half and serve it to you. The garlic sauce was to die for. The mom-pop environment was reassuring; it's usually the ones that look shady on the outside that totally make love to my palate.

The bad? I suggest that they serve the plantanes atop the rice, instead of next to the chicken. Something about garlic covered bananas just doesn't sit well with me.

The rating? 7/10, because it aint Mexican food.

Website: http://www.versaillescuban.com/

Magnificent

Someday, after we have mastered the winds and the waves,
the tides, and gravity, we will harness for God the energies of love,
and then for the second time in the history of the world man will have discovered fire.
Teilhard de Chardin