Quite Simply Put; My Life

I was born in Santa Clara, CA and grew up about twenty minutes from there in San Jose until we moved out of the area. I still have fond memories of visiting my Grandma on my Mom's side who still lived in the house that my Mom had grown up in on a weekly basis.

I recall the many Christmas's and Thanksgiving's that we had at my Grandma's house. Not to mention the Christmas cookies that we baked.

This is a picture of me and my cousins at my cousin Katie's wedding in San Francisco, CA. It was held at the Botanical Gardens. Great food and we also were able to see relatives and meet some of my cousin's friends.

I was in Girl Scouts for about 10 years and I went through all the levels (except Daisy). From being a Brownie to a Junior and then hopping over to Cadettes and finally a Senior. My troop was located in Japantown, which is a few blocks from SJSU. We had fun times when it came to completing activities (community service, camping, building upon our selling skills) to earn badges.

Here we are at one of our troop outings. If I remember correctly we had a picnic somewhere at a park and then went over to the Teddy Bear Factory. We were able to get a tour of the factory and heard a short history of the beloved stuffed bears. We even picked out outfits for our bears. Mine was a pink gingham dress with ballet slippers.

My Girl Scout Troop was supported by a local church. We were very fortunate to be able to participate in certain activities. Even camping was "glamping" and we had steak, cesar salad, "box oven" cake. We ate delicious meals and were spoiled!

Here is just a picture of 1 of 3 vests. The triangles are called "Try-It" badges. We completed activities to earn them. I can't count the number of Girl Scout Cookies (!) that I sold (or have eaten) over the years. We also sold Nuts and Magazines in the Fall.

Here is a short video on the top 5 reasons to be a Girl Scout.

I also remember visiting my Grandparent's and my Aunt and Uncle on my Dad's side and they all lived in Mountain View about 10-15 minutes apart from one another. I recall many birthday celebrations, random weekend get-together's & the pre-Christmas and Thanksgiving 's.

The city of Mountain View, CA where I hung out with my cousins and had delicious Mexican food prepared by my Grandma.

Here is a picture of all 11 grandkids and 1 great grandchild. The party was held at a restaurant near my house and it was just our immediate family. After the party everyone went to our house and played games.

Eventually, both my grandparents and my Aunt & Uncle moved to Los Banos. My grandparents had retired and wanted a smaller home and my Aunt & Uncle had wanted a bigger house. I remember the days of when we make the trek from our new house to Los Banos for birthday's etc. Eventually as time passed, we stopped visiting.

We spent many holidays, birthday's etc visiting relatives in the area. I was also there for my cousins high school graduation parties.

This was a picture taken at my Aunt's "She Beat Cancer" Party. This is just some of my cousins. The guy in the hat is my cousin-in-law and the little girl that is being held is my cousin's daughter.

I have been fortunate enough to be apart of two additional families that took us in as their own. When both sets of my grandparents passed away we were adopted and considered to be the extended grandchildren. In addition, I also gained Aunts, Uncles & more cousins. My Mom's best friend who she has known since childhood, is who my brother and I refer to as Auntie and they also went to church together. In fact it's the very same church that I went to for Girl Scouts.

We also went to many birthday's, Christmas's, Thanksgiving's and general visit's to both Grandparent's houses.

I also recall having many Easter Egg hunts with my cousins. Of course that includes the ham dinner and all the Easter trimmings.

In pre-pandemic years, I have had a blast volunteering and working for different comic conventions around the area. From working at Silicon Valley Comic Con at the McEnery Convention Center in DTSJ before it changed to a different handler as well as working at Heroes & Villains also at the Convention Center. I also helped out with Alien Con in Santa Clara.

I enjoyed working at both of these places. It can be tough to get up so early and drive over there but in the end, we get to meet people who are interested in the same TV shows.

This was the first year that Heroes & Villains was first introduced. Some of the cast from the television shows such as: Arrow, Once Upon A Time, Agent Carter, Guardians of The Galaxy & Man Of Steel. There was also an artist in attendance, named Lord Mesa.

Here I am with some volunteers at a Heroes & Villains booth. Being a volunteer was mainly guiding the fans in and out smoothly, refereeing any questions and blocking the attendees who wanted to take any unwanted photos of the talent.

This is a picture of the front of the Convention Center for the Silicon Valley Comic Con which was a pop culture & technology convention. This was founded by Steve Wozniak and then a few years later he appointed Adam Savage as the new creative director and it was re-branded as SiliCon.

For so many summers, I recall taking summer vacations with my maternal grandma. They were at a Time-Share located in Sparks. There were many amenities including a pool, a gym, barbecue areas and a walking path. Of course there were fun activities outside of the resort such as, shopping, movie theaters, bowling and mini golf! Although, it wasn't Vegas, there is a plethora of Casinos in the city of Reno and things to do.

The cities of Reno and Sparks in the state of Nevada are about 4.1 miles away from each other. In Sparks there is a water/family fun park called Wild Island and it also featured a mini golf course, water park, and a go-kart course.

In the city of Reno, there are many Casinos and the University of Nevada, which I have visited. They are also home to Hot August Nights, which is a classic car show and has expanded over the years to include more modern cars.

I remember going to Circus Circus in Reno and getting to see the Trapeze Artist and all the fun Carnival games. Of course I always wanted all the stuffed animals and fun prizes.

In October of 2018, I was hired as a CSA for Alaska Airlines and had the opportunity to go to Seattle, Washington to train for the job. Of course, since it's a rainy state we had the fun of encountering that but when we weren't in school AKA training, we went and explored the area. We went to Pike's Place Market. I got to visit the original Starbucks, along with the Wharf and Bubblegum Alley.

This is a picture at Pike Place Market in Downtown Seattle. This is just one of the stalls of that are featured in the Market along with fresh fish, different foods such as honey and jams, cheeses.

This pier had an incredible view and there is an aquarium that we didn't get to see. Sadly, at the time the Space Needle was under renovation/construction so we weren't able to visit it.

Here is a photo of the original Starbucks in Downtown. I did crop out one of the San Diego employees and it would have been nice if the van wasn't there.

There is an International Film Festival called PJIFF or Poppy Jasper for short. I volunteered in April of 2019. My job was to be the person at the door who sold tickets, distributed brochures, and offered assistance.

Due to being in school this semester, I was not able to attend or volunteer which was a bummer. It's pretty cool to go and see all the films that were made.

These cities and countries are just a small list that I have compiled that I would like to travel to. I just think that it would be awesome to go and experience the different cultures and immerse oneself in everything from the food to the environment.

Thanks for hearing about snippets of my life... it was fun to go down memory lane.