This past Monday, I celebrated my golden birthday--I turned 26 years old on July 26th! Although Andy and I didn't go BIG on this birthday celebration like we did last year in Vegas for my 25th, this year's birthday celebration will go down in my books as one of my favorite birthdays. Although my family couldn't be there, except for my little sister Eliza, I was surrounded by my dear friends who I love and some who I consider family.
It started on Saturday when we all met up for Bingo at the San Manuel Indian Casino. Those who know me know that I am a Bingo fanatic! Half of my friends who were there have never played before, so it was a hectic, yet dramatically wonderful time. One of the girls won $1,000 dollars! The rest of us pigged out on Bingo "Snack Shack" goodies and groaned everytime someone yelled "Bingo!" There were 15 of us all together and it was a fanastically fun three hours. After bingo, we proceeded to eat dinner at Two Guys Pizza & Pasta in Highland, a nice and tasty Italian restaurant that we never knew existed. We were a big, loud, and fun table. I unexpectedly received wonderful birthday gifts, most of which were Barnes & Noble gift cards that will buy me eBooks for my new Nook eReader than Andy bought me for my birthday!
On Monday, my actual birthday, Andy, Eliza, my soon-to-be-parents-in-law (Joe and Sharon), a couple of friends, and I went to Boiling Crabs and Crawfish in Ontario. I ordered half a pound of king crab, a pound of shrimp, oysters on a half-shell, and corn on the cob! If you didn't notice, I LOVE seafood. It was a big messy delicious feast! Later that night, we met up with some more friends at Yardhouse where we took advantage of their happy hour and had more laughs and good times.
Although this year's birthday celebration was simple (but not inexpensive by any means) and we didn't travel anywhere, the super fun experience left me smiling to bed and feeling thankful for my friends and family who I love and care about.
Okay, enough with the cheesiness. Peace out!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Who Is Erica?
How do I define myself? I'm a 25-year-old Christian and soon to be wife who loves her friends, family, and almost any kind of food. If I had to choose between not having a TV or only being able to eat at one restaurant, I'd happily give up my TV. Of course, my fiance Andy would kill me if I handed over his 55" Samsung, which sits overwhelmingly in our teeny-tiny living room, but he doesn't understand the beauty of food. He only eats so that he can survive and considers it a major inconvenience. On the other hand, I survive so that I can eat! We'll come home from dinner a lot of times, and I'll start looking for something to snack on, which gets me the question "Aren't you full?" "Yes, but I just want the taste," is what I always reply with.
My parents are still together after about 30 years and I have two sisters (one of them four years older and the other four years younger)--all of them still live in San Diego, CA, along with the rest of my absurdly large family. My dad is one of 14 kids and my mom is one of five and they all (except about 5) live in the South or Southeast side of San Diego. My sisters and I are more alike than we'd like to admit, and in addition, we're are our mother whether we like it or not. We are major control freaks who always think we're right and get annoyed when others don't do things the way we do. I'm not saying it's okay to be like this, but everyone's got their issues, right? Thank goodness Andy is patient, calm, and always willing to compromise. After meeting my large family a few times, he's concluded that our children will be bald, blind, loud, yet attractive and very social. What will they get from Andy? The obnoxious ability to play video games well and frequently. Oh, and also his cool and friendly personality. God, I hope they inherit my taste for food.
Being a Christian is one of my primary identities. My sisters and I grew up fake Catholics; fake because we never really wanted to go to church, but we were always forced by our mother and sometimes our then live-in aunt. We spent the hour at church gossiping about what that girl was wearing or whether this boy was cute. We would sit, stand, kneel, etc. out of robotic habit and didn't know what in the world we were saying as we read from the script. Often times, you would find at least one of us dozing off during the sermon portion or staring off into space, probably day dreaming about what we're going to eat for lunch after mass. Then at one point, to my mother's distress, we began refusing to go to church and my older sister declared herself an Agnostic.
In my sophomore year of college at UCR, I began meeting key people who would eventually become factors in the life change I would soon experience. I started to accept invitations to go to church (Christian Protestant churches), at which I would always feel a deep connection to what the pastor was saying, along with a physical tug on my heart that I couldn't ignore. It was telling me to give God another chance and to let go of my doubts and just go "all-in." I ended up giving my life into the hands of Jesus, who promised to forgive me of all my sins and to shower my life with blessings. Since then, I've graduated from UCR with a B.A. in English, I've finished my Masters of Education from The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (Go Illini!), got my first professional job here at UCR, met my God-given fiance, and my younger sister, Mom, and older sister have all given their lives to Christ (in that order, Hallelujah!). I love my life and feel blessed beyond all measure. I owe everything to God and couldn't ask for a deeper kind of faith.
That's who I am. I don't define myself by my job or by my looks or through the materialistic things that I have. I am a believer in God, a soon-to-be-wife, sister, daughter, best friend, and expert buffet-goer and food eater. I live for five things: Faith, Family, Friends, Food, and Fun. That's who I am, and I'm loving my life!
My parents are still together after about 30 years and I have two sisters (one of them four years older and the other four years younger)--all of them still live in San Diego, CA, along with the rest of my absurdly large family. My dad is one of 14 kids and my mom is one of five and they all (except about 5) live in the South or Southeast side of San Diego. My sisters and I are more alike than we'd like to admit, and in addition, we're are our mother whether we like it or not. We are major control freaks who always think we're right and get annoyed when others don't do things the way we do. I'm not saying it's okay to be like this, but everyone's got their issues, right? Thank goodness Andy is patient, calm, and always willing to compromise. After meeting my large family a few times, he's concluded that our children will be bald, blind, loud, yet attractive and very social. What will they get from Andy? The obnoxious ability to play video games well and frequently. Oh, and also his cool and friendly personality. God, I hope they inherit my taste for food.
Being a Christian is one of my primary identities. My sisters and I grew up fake Catholics; fake because we never really wanted to go to church, but we were always forced by our mother and sometimes our then live-in aunt. We spent the hour at church gossiping about what that girl was wearing or whether this boy was cute. We would sit, stand, kneel, etc. out of robotic habit and didn't know what in the world we were saying as we read from the script. Often times, you would find at least one of us dozing off during the sermon portion or staring off into space, probably day dreaming about what we're going to eat for lunch after mass. Then at one point, to my mother's distress, we began refusing to go to church and my older sister declared herself an Agnostic.
In my sophomore year of college at UCR, I began meeting key people who would eventually become factors in the life change I would soon experience. I started to accept invitations to go to church (Christian Protestant churches), at which I would always feel a deep connection to what the pastor was saying, along with a physical tug on my heart that I couldn't ignore. It was telling me to give God another chance and to let go of my doubts and just go "all-in." I ended up giving my life into the hands of Jesus, who promised to forgive me of all my sins and to shower my life with blessings. Since then, I've graduated from UCR with a B.A. in English, I've finished my Masters of Education from The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (Go Illini!), got my first professional job here at UCR, met my God-given fiance, and my younger sister, Mom, and older sister have all given their lives to Christ (in that order, Hallelujah!). I love my life and feel blessed beyond all measure. I owe everything to God and couldn't ask for a deeper kind of faith.
That's who I am. I don't define myself by my job or by my looks or through the materialistic things that I have. I am a believer in God, a soon-to-be-wife, sister, daughter, best friend, and expert buffet-goer and food eater. I live for five things: Faith, Family, Friends, Food, and Fun. That's who I am, and I'm loving my life!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
