(Last) Weekend Update

I just realized that I didn't say what I did last weekend. It was quite busy! Here's a somewhat brief write-up of what happened:

Friday/Saturday
After work, went to FAFC in Santa Fe Springs to attend their Women’s Holiday Heart and Home mini-conference and brunch. I was invited to attend by Geoff’s mom (Ginger) and sister (Erin, who is a youth pastor at the church). It started with a woman guest speaker giving an evening lecture on Friday night and continued the following morning with a hosted brunch and two additional morning lectures, given by the same guest speaker. I went to this event last year, which they called a women's holiday tea. Like last year, Ginger and Erin hosted a table again. It turned out very pretty...

To host a table, you're responsible for decorating the entire table, provide dinnerware, dessert, and a party favor for your guests to take home. This is always my favorite part of the event because you get to see what everyone else came up with for their tables...



(This one above had a real bird in it)


These were just a few of the many tables there.

Though the brunch was wonderful, the guest speaker was not. She spoke on 3 occasions, Friday night, during the Saturday morning brunch, and again after the brunch. She gave very “messy” lectures. It was all over the place. She would have her nose in her Bible, reading an excerpt in a monotonous tone, then all of a sudden be all over the stage, animately talking about random things. It was like ADD, but on crack. I mostly tuned her out, except for one part where she said something that actually offended me (I won't go into it though).

After the brunch and lectures were over, Ginger, Cassie and I went outside and thought it smelled like fire. We looked up at the sky and saw there was smoke nearby. We thought it was just a house or building that caught on fire. Turns out, it was bigger than that. Much bigger. We went back to Erin's apartment and turned on the TV to see that excessive fires had broken out in Yorba Linda, Corona and Brea. There was thick smoke covering the sky and there was a strong wind that day, which made it worse. The next time I went outside, I could see the smoke blowing it's way over to Long Beach.

Despite the smoky air, Cassie and I went shopping at Lakewood Mall so Cassie could buy some Uggs. We also went to Cost Plus World Market. I love that store. They have such cool stuff there. When we got to Lakewood, the sky was so dark that it looked like it was going to rain. Well, technically, it was raining -raining ashes. It was gross. We didn't stay out long and, after I dropped Cassie off, I went home to change out of my smoky clothes, take a shower and clean my house.

Sunday
I went over to Geoff's in the morning and we originally we going to try to go to Disneyland. But, because the air quality was horrible from the fires, we cancelled. So instead, we decided to save Disneyland for Christmas and ended up spending the day in Irvine, near Geoff's house and Costa Mesa, since the air was clean and clear in those areas.

We went to several stores, including Borders, where Geoff bought me "Twilight" to read. After shopping, we went to see a movie. We ended up seeing "Quantum of Solace" (James Bond). It was okay. I liked "Casino Royale" better. After the movie, we grabbed Chinese for dinner and, after a phone call to see if the coast was clear for Geoff to come home, we went back to Geoff's to eat and play Guitar Hero.

And that was my weekend.