“Many Years”

A lot has happened since I last posted so I’m not sure where to begin. (I’ll warn you now this is long)
First off, I suppose I should say that my trip up North was very pleasant and I enjoyed the jaunt from routine. Visiting with family that I hadn’t seen since my elder brother’s wedding and visiting my “home country” was wonderful. The rolling hills of Marin County to the crowded streets of the Bay Area were all my home once upon a time and seeing it all again was superb.
Going to Point Reyes, I honestly didn’t want to leave. Watching the waves crash upon the shore far below… watching the cows graze quietly on the cliffs… I could have stayed much longer simply gazing to the horizon and simply standing in awe of God’s marvelous creation.
My parents also allowed for a few “drive-bys” which I enjoyed. One such “drive-by” was Skywalker Ranch. You see the joke in the area is that “George Lucas owns Marin County.” (He owns most of west Marin County) There nestled in the rolling green hills of Marin County is the heart of Lucas Film, Industrial Light and Magic, Skywalker Sound, THX, and all of Mr Lucas’s other companies.
We also drove by Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, which unlike Skywalker Ranch is located in the heart of the Bay Area. It’s not quite as scenic as Lucas’s place but it was still impressive to drive by.
Then of course there is the wonderful {note sarcasm} streets of the Bay Area. They have the crazies lay out you’ll ever see. At some point I’ll update my Flickr with the pictures and you can see what the navigator map was showing. It was ridicules. Driving in LA is so much easier than the Bay Area! Of course, not only are the roads configured in strange ways, they can also be at near 45-degree angles (or greater). Yeah, the van we were in was having a hard time getting up those roads.

After returning from our trip we immediately jumped into the finally preparations for the 90th Anniversary of St Mary of the Angels. Yes, Fr Neal Dodd, the “Padre of Hollywood”, founded our church in 1908 as they called him. The more I learn about Fr Dodd (which I will discuss in another post) the more I’m amazed. At some point, I will place the video of the sermon from February 3 online so you can see. Amongst the people there, was none other than Bob Mitchell of the Robert Mitchell Boys Choir who sang in 100 films such as the Fr O’Malley movies with Bing Crosby and other such films. While Mr Mitchell is 95 years old himself, I was amazed by the fact that despite his hunched form, when he saw our pianos in the parish hall he immediately went over to one of them and began playing. He played a multitude of songs, from hymns to Hurray for Hollywood, and all by memory. His fingers flew over the keys with the agility of a young man and I it makes me wonder… what was he like as a young man?

The next item on the docket was of course my niece’s baptism. The family arrived the Friday night before and it was the first time in a very long time that we had all been in the same room. Of course, I had just seen my aunt, grandmother and my aunt’s dear friend (who is an adopted member of the family, so to me she is an aunt) when I was up North, but to have Wes, Sundown and Haven here as well, in our little cottage was wonderful. It almost felt like old times, granted things are different from what they were when I was growing up, but for a brief moment in time, I was a little girl again, surrounded by my family that I love so dearly.
Anyway, the baptism went well, and I am now one of Haven’s Godparents. Sitting next to my elder brother at church is something I haven’t done in some time, for that matter I hadn’t been to Solemn High Mass much in the past months due to my job in the nursery (I attend “8 o’clock” which is a Low Mass at 8 am on Sundays). That being said, I don’t normally end up seeing my dad do Mass and such (except for the Sundays that he does 8 o’clock) and it was nice to see him “in his element”. The organ, the choir, the incense are all things that are dropped for a Low Mass so it was a nice change. There’s something powerful about a High Mass that just leaves me in awe.
I spent Monday with my immediate family (Mom, Dad, Wes, Sundown, Drew and Haven) and it was a pleasant day (it also was my elder brother’s birthday). I enjoyed that last day with them, though I didn’t want to see them leave. Of course when do I ever want to see loved ones leave? It always tears at my heart when I watch some one I hold dear in my heart leave, especially when I’m not sure when I’ll see them again.

After all the family was gone, I received a call. I have been officially accepted at the Art Institute of California – Los Angeles and will be starting classes on March 31st. The call from my Admissions Advisor was a welcome one, since I was being to wonder what was happening with my application. She called and said that she was quite excited to hear that I had been accepted because “we were her favorite family” (since my parents and younger brother had met her by this point). She also told us that they had accepted 12 of my credits from Regent University, which meant that I got to skip three classes, which included College English {Yippie!}

Anyway, some might be wondering about a particular day that followed these events and well, it started out as any normal day. I got up and went to the store with my mom to get the ingredients for my cake and on the way back I noticed a couple in front of the church. This couple just happened to be some of my new very dear friends in LA and it was nice seeing them. Well, then my mom explained the groceries in my hands and I of course received the standard message. “Happy birthday!” For some reason I can’t explain completely I felt somewhat embarrassed to have attention drawn to me. Fr B was also outside at that point and upon hearing that it was “my big day” expressed his well wishes as well.
I then proceeded to go to Trader Joes (a very cool organic grocery store for all of you outside of California) with my mom and upon returning about an hour later, I found myself once again in the presence of my new friends (who happened to be the second and third people I met when visiting LA a little over a year ago). They were beginning to leave and I started to say my good-byes, when one of them asked me if I would like to go to lunch with them. I sort of hem-hawed a moment or to before finally accepting. So I went off with them to a trendy outdoor café down the street where I enjoyed a fun filled lunch with them.
They asked me “What are the highlights of last year and what are your dreams for the coming year?” I contemplated this a moment (as I had been doing for the past several days) and then responded: “I think you know the highlights from my last year. It was around this time last year that I found out for sure that I was moving to LA, and I spent the majority of the year getting ready to move. I came out last summer for a visit and then I actually made the trip to LA to stay.” Or at least I said something like that to the first part of the question. The second part I responded that I was headed to AICLA and well, that pretty much encompassed my coming year.
Later I went to JoAnn’s with my dad, and afterward he took me by the local Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf for a cup of coffee (in honor of my birthday, of course). Yes, folks, I drink coffee now (big surprise, even to myself). My mom says, “You’ve grown up now and decided that coffee isn’t a bad thing”. I guess she’s right about that, because I don’t mind coffee and I do frequent the coffee shop up the street. Granted I’m not drinking espresso like my parents, but who knows, at some point I might just decide to try it.
That folks, was pretty much how my birthday itself went. (I did get another promise for lunch sometime from another couple [can you tell these couples like me?] which at some point will end up happening, it doesn’t particularly matter to me) Sunday, I spent at the church (as normal) but of course, since my birthday was the previous day, I got doused… I suppose I should explain that shouldn’t I? As per the tradition of SMA when someone(s) has a birthday around a Sunday, they come up during the Parish luncheon (which is every week), and they are blessed by the priest, both spoken and with Holy Water. Well, my Dad is the priest… so; I got quite wet, though I didn’t mind. But that is not all of the tradition. The parishioners (and the priest) then sing: “Mnogaya Leta” well that’s the Russian name. We sing it in English, which is known as: “Many Years”, literally, it’s “God grant you many summers” which are rather important in Russia.
That evening, I had my birthday dinner. My family (plus Fr D, who we have adopted into the family) spent the evening chatting and eating spaghetti and later my German chocolate cake.
That my friends, was my birthday weekend. (I did do some things while my family was all out here, such as the Red Robin crew did their rendition of “Happy Birthday” and they (my aunts, Grandmother, and elder brother) got me all up-to-date on my Mac (which was wonderful).
I didn’t really mind that my birthday wasn’t a big thing, in fact at times I felt shyer having attention brought to the fact that it was. I’ve come to realization over the last year that what’s really important is not the attention or even the gifts. It’s the little things, like friends who let you know that they are thinking of you (via text, FaceBook or eCard). As one friend said via email today: “Its funny how when we get older, it no longer matters about a big party or even the gifts but you can truly see the beauty of friendship or family, and you can just be so blessed by thoughts or words.” That surmises my thoughts on the matter and I do believe that it is time that I end this post :-p