Monterey/Pacific Grove/Carmel by the Sea

This past weekend, Amira's class was having an "optional" family field trip to Point Reyes, CA, which is located on the coast of California.

Due to the weather (rain), we opted to pass on the field trip, and instead headed to Monterey, CA to explore the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Figuring Amira would still be able to explore the oceanic sea life, but under drier conditions.

The weekend weather turned out to be absolutely perfect for the field trip, thus allowing us to take in so much more than the aquarium. We also ventured to Pacific Grove, which is noted for being the Monarch Butterfly capitol as well as to Carmel-by-the Sea, famously noted for Thomas Kincaid's work.

After visiting the breathtaking landscape of Carmel-by-the-Sea, I understood Thomas Kincaid's art much better-----for he depicts the actual beauty on the outside, but not the beauty on the inside of the town's people because there wasn't much beauty to capture upon. Although esthetically the little village on the sea was breathtakingly beautiful the people themselves were somewhat snobby and rude. Of course not all as we encountered some lovely people, but I would say as a general consensus the majority were snobby.

Here are some photos that captured our weekend.

Someone's Special Day

Today was my friend, V’s, 30th birthday. To some a mere number of years on this earth; to others a ‘landmark’ year; and to others a special day.

What I found interesting about this particular day was how this special day for my friend turned out to be about everyone else but her.

I could be wrong, but it seems we all feel a little special or desire to feel acknowledged on our birthdays. Narcissistic behavior? Maybe. V is no exception. She is not one that generally draws attention to herself, and generally goes along with pretty much anything anyone wants to do. However, anyone that knows her knows her birthday is special to her.

Now for the part that seemed rather intriguing to me. It seemed the people we worked with wanted to honor her birthday with a lunch gathering----great! However, no one bothered to ask V where she’d like to go for her special day. In fact, it was suggested we do lunch another day so that ‘so-and-so’ could join, and would V mind waiting until the following week to celebrate her birthday. What? Why couldn’t those that were able to, celebrate with V on her day, and then the following week meet up with so-and-so? Moreover, even some of V’s family members were suggesting that V make her famous ‘bunt cake’ for her own birthday celebration. What? I thought part of being an honoree for the day was you didn’t have to participate in the preparation, organize the event or even structure your own celebration. I found this rather interesting that everyone else’s agenda seemed to matter more than the one we were suppose to be ‘honoring’ for the day. Now, who exudes the narcissistic traits here?

Is it that we all desire to be in the lime light and can’t stand to set ourselves aside for one day to let someone else prance on the stage? Or, is it that we are too afraid to give another attention fearing it might make the other person feel uncomfortable?