Queenkv’s Brainpickings

IXTAPA — Feeling stuffed and full from lunch. We decided to walk down from our palace on the hill to downtown Ixtapa. A beautiful walk - but the sun was hot. I got a bit exhausted, from lack of breakfast and icky feeling, thanks to that lingering cough.

I had my first fish dish here in Inferno. It was baked in foil with veggies, garlic and butter. It was also de-boned. Yummy! So nice and buttery. I also sampled their tortilla soup - another buttery masterpiece. I made the mistake of eatin one of chopped pieces of jalepenos….another round of coughing hit me and well, I spit up some of the soup.

In any event, we got some free time on their computers after paying off the bill. Nice.

Another note about yesterday….it sucks being American when you´re shopping. We hit the markets in downtown Zihua because I wanted to get a back to replace my little backpack that´s flaking paint all over my sweaty arms. One vendor quoted us a leather backpack from 1200 pesos. Dude, I bought my current bag for 5 pounds in a London market. I told him my price range was 200 pesos. He scoffed at the price. So I left. Other vendors quoted 400 to 500 pesos for their bags. I refused to budge from my price range. One woman started at 300 pesos for her black backpack. But it was thinner and it looked in worse shape then the other bags. When I left the store, she called out a price for 280 pesos.

Nice try. I may be American, but I´m not that loose with the greenbacks.

Off to the beach. Don´t you wish you were me ?

ZIHUATANEJO — It´s hot and humid. We love it in this little beach-side town. We just got back from lunch….and me being el stupido. A dude in a red shirt offered up a Mexican edition of the Miami Herald…30 pesos. I told him all I had was a 200 peso bill. He took it out of my hand and said he´d be back in 5 minutes with change. After he disappeared around the corner…Mark and I looked at each other. I groaned,¨I´ll never see him again.¨ After ten minutes, we gave up and left the bar. Grrrrr…..I know it´s only $20 USD….but damn, I hate feeling stupid.

OK - on to the nice things about our honeymoon. We´re staying at Las Brisas Ixtapa. It´s beautiful. Most of the building is opened up - very natural like. Our room is a gorgeous view of the Pacific Ocean. I did yoga on our private balcony, this morning. It felt good to have the sun on my back and to listen to the waves.

Last night, we attended a Mexican Fiesta at Hotel Pacifico. All you can eat buffet. Yummy yummy fish ceviche. Yummy yummy margaritas. We sat at a table with another couple from LA. In fact, when the MC yelled for Los Angeles, a lot of Angelenos cheered back at him. Hmmm…Mark said the churros and the rice pudding had little ants crawling over. He said he must have eaten a dozen of them before he realized it. Ewww….otherwise, it was a fun fiesta. Before dinner, we had to use three darts to hit three ballons. For each miss, we had to a shot of tequila. We did a lot of tequila that night.

We had a lovely Marachi band from the Czech Republic. A few male diners with cajones joined the band on lead vocals of their songs. They had such lovely voices.

Then we had some folkorica dancing. It´s similar to Filipino dances, just with some loud wooden shoes. The stomping reminded Mark of Irish dancing. It´s interesting how that´s all conected. Mark also got on stage for a male dance competition. He won a bottle of tequila. What a good husband! Don´t worry - I have pix of that as well.

This morning, we took a cab to Zihuatanejo. We had the cab drop us off by the church. So many little shops - everything cheap. It´s about 10.82 pesos to $1 USD. So, just move the decimal point over for the Peso prices. Much better than London and the damn pound. One vendor said, ¨Buenos Dias¨ to us. Since it was after Noon, I replied ¨Buenos Tardes.¨ He laughed and said I was right.

Too cool.

We walked a lot. Up to the fish market. Boats were still dropping off fishermen with their catches from that morning. I was impressed that locals could pick up fresh fish for their noon meal. A lot of stores were closed for siesta - they´re opening up about now.

Poor Mark, he´s tapping his fingers on the desk, waiting for me to finish blogging.

Back to being newlyweds. Back to life in Zihuatanejo.

LAX — We’re heading to Ixtapa this morning for our honeymoon. It’s damn early this morning - we got here before the boaring gates opened.

After the ceremony, we stayed at the Marina Del Ray Marriott. Family and friends joined us for a lunch at Islands, yesterday.

Then we watched the sunset over the Pacific from the 8th floor lounge.

Thank you to everyone who made it out to our wedding. We had a blast. Thank you for such kind words, big hearts and the best of wishes. Thanks to folks who couldn’t make it. We missed you and appreciate your support.

After we exchanged the rings and did our blessings…Monsignor whispered to us, “So, how do you feel? You’re married now. Congrtulations.”

Then I winked back at him

Still recovering from the cough and sniffless…slee[y beacause of the early morning hours…but happy, because I’m with my husband and we’re traveling to our honeymoon!

Wow. We looked great. We’re happy. We’re exhausted.

We had a beautiful collection of people from all of walks of life - intersecting at this amazing, beautiful moment in our life.

Yeah! I’m a Mrs!

On to the Honeymoon!

Not sure if I know what I’m doing….I do know I love Mark. His family’s staying in Ontario. Andrea’s came all the way from Mobile and she’s staying at my house…

For some sick reason, I’m still up - blogging my little heart out about my brainpickings…..my last few hours of being single. I’m exhuasted, my nose is stuffed….but I’m not freaking out. This is a good thing.

Being single is not all that it’s cracked up to be.

The dating game is rough. Guys could be such pigs.

There are rare moments when you find somebody who completes you. I found Mark. Our life will be cool. He will make a fine hubby.

I asked Betina if it get’s easier towards the last days before the wedding. “No honey, that’s crunch time. It get’s crazier,” she told me. She was right. Between family drama and wedding planning - I’m on the brink of getting sick on my wedding day. I took a mess load of Airborne pills. I’ve switched to alka seltzer. Damn, I hope my nose isn’t stuffed up during the ceremony.

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Today - we ran around finishing up errands and checklists. My dry erase board is almost empty of my to-do items for the wedding. We managed to find a cafe that served bobba drinks. Yum! I had a green tea bobba drink over ice.

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I nearly freaked out during our church rehersal. Catholic ceremonies are so damn complicated. My maid of honor and her honey flew into ONT thirty minutes before the rehersal. They made it for the tale end of the rehersal.

Then….we found out we locked my car keys inside the car. Grr - I was late to my own rehersal dinner at Oaktree Lanes. But, it was just a funny situation - so I managed to roll with it…instead of freaking out. I think the church rehersal freaked me out a little more….

“Something always goes wrong during a wedding,” people kept telling me. God, I hope that’s the end of it

Mark’s dad and best man tried to use a recycled hanger to pry open my Corolla. No such luck - which is probably a good thing.

We got AAA on the cell and a dude from “Bob’s” - came to our rescue.

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We made it to the bowling alley - eventually. People shared their wedding horror stories with me and I got a chuckle out of each one. The bride’s team played against the groom’s team in a round of bowling.

The Team Score for the all the players:
My bridal team - 625
Mark’s groom team - 621

Yeehaw!

I bowled a 145. Wow. Not bad. Since I don’t have a job getting in the way of my practice, all that dedication paid off!

My God. I’m going to be married at 9 AM - Today. My girlfriends and friends keep saying: “I can’t believe you’re getting married.”

Watch out world. Queenkv’s getting married.

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It took about six of us to make it through these drinks - one Borg Sphere (the purple drink) and one Warp Core Breach (the green drink). Mark and Susan had a bad reaction to the Borg Sphere

I think this is the first visit to Quark’s for our family and friends.

I carried this little scepter around Vegas - the other side says “Bad Girl”

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CLAREMONT — Currently trying to stay awake at the station. I skipped lunch and my body’s paying the price….I want to chew some gum, but I’m worried about the chewing getting picked up by the mic. Grrrr….the sugar will help though…

Sweet people calling in - digging the random mix of Indian sitars and Japanese noise rock. We got the Sharp Ease playing later today - live…I dig their sound. They remind me of All Girl Summer Fun Band - one of my favorite bands who were featured at KALX….

Still taking requests with ten minutes to go…

then…nothing else to worry about but the wedding. Oh….how about…THE WEDDING….in caps…

Some folks don’t understand why I would add a radio show on-top of wedding planning - details details details…but it’s an escape…it’s a valve…release…it’s necessary to staying sane and keeping a sense of humor.

it feels good…and it’s cool when folks are listening…

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

Mark and I hosted an engagement cocktail hour at Quark’s - last Saturday. A few folks couldn’t get over the geekiness of the Star Trek-themed bar.

My maid of honor made it her mission to show me a good time and to get drunk without passing out. Yeah, I hate when I do that. I reminded her to take all electronic equipment out of my pockets if she felt the need to toss my clothing into the washer…one more time.

My matron of honor decked me out in a Bachelorette veil, scepter and tatoo. Oh, I got inked :0

Jennie, my favorite bridesmaid cousin, took on photographer duties with this snazzy Bachelorette camera - complete with captions. Good grief, when was the last time I developed pix that were from film and not a digital camera?

Tom had a craving for balut. My dad satsified that craving. He brought in a paper bag filled with the smelly eggs - into Quark’s. When you think about it, it actually makes sense to be eating this exotic Filipino delicacy, inside the space station. Plus, there were plenty of Filipino workers at the bar - I’m sure they’d understand.

Mark and his groomsmen gobbled the eggs down. Betina looked a bit sick watching….I admired them….I haven’t tried balut - don’t have the guts to do so….my dad said my mom loves the stuff. A while go, at a party, my parents said she ate about 8 balut eggs in a row. Wow. My dad said he needed beer first, before he ate balut.

Mark offered balut to the Klingon. She ate it. Talk about staying in character! My dad said it symbolized new life. “And then you eat it,” Mark said with a smile.

Balut Balut Balut.

I’ll post more pix of our Vegas adventures in a bit….now back to the task of doing this wedding thing….

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My family, our bridesmaids and most of our groomsmen met in Vegas for our bridal shower/engagement party/bachelorette/bachelor party. It was an action pack weekend. It was fun, crazy….it got smelly…and most importantly, we had a blast.

My Ate Gigi hosted th bridal shower at her new house.

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I know tradtional bridal showers tend to exclude the men. Since my parents ordered so much food, we decided to let the guys stick around for the festivities. Our first game was all about designing the perfect bridal gown - with toliet paper.

Betina tapped Tom and my Dad to serve as our models.

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My Mom, Ate Gigi and Tita Chita were on one team and worked on my dad’s outfit. My attendants worked on Tom. Mark and I got to do the judging.

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Don’t our male models look great?

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My parents ordered plenty of lumpia and other Filipino food from a Vegas store. My dad made the pancit and the fish. All the food was yummy. We did a lot of eating this weekend.

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We also had a quiz - to see how much our friends and family knew about Mark and myself. Betina had some tricky questions. Mark got a perfect score - but we figured it wouldn’t be fair for him to be eligble for the prize. My mom got the most questions right. She got to choose which prize she wanted. She picked the orchids. They’re native to the Philippines. Then she gave the orchids to Tita Chita. Spread the love!

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Then we did some Karaoke Revolution on Ate Gigi’s Playstation 2. Tom chose Billie Jean. I think that his turn was the fastest I ever saw a song fail in this game. Everyone moaned in sympathy as his character sunk to the floor.

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My Auntie Eveyln wished they had more classic rock selections in the game.

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My dad took a bunch of pix with his fancy camera.

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Freddie was a big star at the bridal shower. Everyone loved him. He held up well for being surrounded by strangers.

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Then we opened up bridal shower gifts.

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I’d loved having family and friends at this bridal shower. Betina brought her daughters and her hubby to the party. It was fun. I felt blessed to be surrounded by such cool people.

Later that evening, we headed to the Las Vegas Hilton. We kicked off our engagement party at Quark’s.

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Yeah! Family and friends will joing us for our bridal shower/engagement party/bachelorette party this Weekend. I can’t wait. This should be a blast.

I’m closing up comments on the blog to avoid the spammers, stalkers and idiots who lurk out there.

I’ll turn on commenting when we get back.

One week and one day till the Wedding. I’m thrilled, Mark is excited and my family is happy. Spread the love!