Drama Queen!

OMG! Can you believe this girl?! She is soooo drama!

So, I'm just chillin' here with Tom's sexy ladies and this dude shows up like, what is he doin' here! Like OMG! Who do you think you are? I mean...who is this chinkeeyes among white people and 1/2 mexican girl. Gosh, he is sooo cute. I love the way he dresses and love seeing him in those Jeans! And his jacket with the fur! Makes me weak in the knees...I mean, even my toes are hurting.

Not to mention my foot almost got ran over tonight...who IS this driver...I mean who taught her how to drive? I'm never riding with her again. And these girls totally cheated at spoons tonight...who keeps scooting their tushies closer to those spoons? And this one girl..OMG...she kept grabbing all the spoons in one reach...I mean there are other players, PLEASE! Then she thought she was WAY kool and did Michael Jackson's toe pose with converse on. C'mon, get the real shoes, WOMAN!

I totally pigged out at Winger's tonight. Ohhh, those chicken wiiiinnggs....mmmm....so delicious. I'm drooling just thinking about 'em. Can you see me drooling...I mean I thought I'm a sophisticated woman with class, right? I mean, just look at me!

So, do you think I'm a drama queen or what? I don't think I am at all. So don't answer that question.

"Hello! It was his 50th birthday!"

(Name that movie.)

So a couple weeks ago I awoke to the startling sound of my cellular. I answered the phone and heard an unfamiliar voice say "Alina?" me- "yes?" unfamiliar voice- "This is your Aunt Lupe." me- "Oh hi." (meanwhile my brain is thinking "My Aunt Lupe? Why is she calling me? She hates me. Someone must have died.") Aunt Lupe- "Sylvia wants to know if you are coming to your dad's 50th birthday party and why haven't you answered her emails." me- "Sure! What party? What emails?"
Here is Aunt Lupe...Doesn't she look pleasant? Actually this trip wasn't that bad and she did take a keen interest in me, meaning that she insisted multiple times that my hair is too dark and I should dye it blonde, BLONDE! This means she cares! Ahhh.

To make a long story short... Sylvia (my dad's wife) decided to throw my dad a surprise party for his 50th birthday and to add to the surprise she had me fly down to California. The party was at Sylvia's parents house so on Saturday we all gathered there to wait for the birthday boy. Then Sylvia called him with some story about her mother's toilet breaking and that she needed him to come fix it asap. As soon as he showed up she had me open the door. It took him a few seconds to register (he is 50 after all) then boy was he surprised to see me. Overall it was a kickin' good party.

Me and my grandma with the Birthday Boy...
Me enjoying some birthday cake (my dad's left eye)...
Tones and Mateos enjoying themselves as always...At least Matt was enjoying himself until I announced that I would be sleeping in his bed. Then he was mad. What are sisters for?

Mid-life Crisis!

So recently have been experiencing a mid-life crisis and for all you math whizzes out there, Yes apparently I am assuming a life expectancy of 58. I have all the symptoms of a mid-life crisis:

1. Buying a fancy, yet sportier car...2. Fulfilling my childhood fantasy by taking a flamenco dance class...3. Fulfilling my rockstar destiny by taking guitar lessons...

(future me)

4. Finding my inner chi by taking Tai Chi...
5. New hot young boyfriend... (ok not really but I think that is naturally next on my list;)

All of these things I decided to do in anticipation of being bored once I finished my Master's Degree. So have I finished said Master's Degree? Oops. Not yet and now I can't find the time to do it (wink, wink). Ok really I just have one chapter left on my capstone project and I have until the end of November to do it. But in the words of Rihanna "So live your life, ay ay ay. Instead of chasing that paper." Because really... what paper?
F.Y.I.~In hip-hop lingo "paper" means money.

The Real San Francisco Treat

Fact: There is no Rice-a-Roni in San Francisco.
Last weekend I went to San Fran with some friends as a random romantic getaway. Ok so it wasn't really that romantic considering I slept on the floor. By myself.
Anyways. It was a lot of fun even though there was no rice-a-roni to be had. Here are some pics from the trip:
Riding the cable car...Here we are at the Japanese Tea Gardens...Here we are eating a plout at the farmer's market. A plout is a cross between a plum and an apricot. Very tasty...
Sunday was Ukrainian Independence Day. Privit! We stumbled upon a celebration happening in Golden Gate Park. Did you know that the Ukraine has only had independence for 17 years? Fascinating.
Some people were not so enthusiastic about the event...I don't know why not. What's not to love? Singing, dancing all kinds of merriment. This lady with the red hair was apparently in charge and she was very entertaining. She would give a little intro before each number. The best was when she was introducing the choir (her choir) she called them on to the stage. "Now we will hear from the choir...Choir please get on the stage...Choir?!... CHOIR!!!" I couldn't control the giggles. Too bad we were on the second row.Red also introduced the dancing by describing their high steps and intricate stomping...Since we are such good girls... on Sunday we decided to go to church only too bad for us because street numbers aren't so organized so what looked like a one block walk from the cable car stop turned out to be an 11 block walk. This is my favorite pic of Tara because she was wearing pants under her dress and was going to change right outside the church...

I heard you shred the cello, and I'm jello Baby!

Saturday night my brother Jordan planned an event he advertised as "A Night of Mayhem". He and his friend Alyssa performed cello duets in the middle of the cul-de-sac. He passed out flyers around the neighborhood and provided refreshments. Our neighbor put up this sign...Jordan asked me to help him make a grand entrance. Here is what we came up with...

I had to explain to Sandor that this is NOT typical American behavior but it IS typical Ripplinger behavior!

Who's our German Bruder comes from Germany...

He's here!!!
This year my family is hosting a foreign exchange student from Germany. Sandor is his name. Pronounced "Zandohr". He is one cool kid. He speaks English very well, plays the electric guitar and he is super friendly and outgoing.
Here we are making our final preparations. We were running a little late. Clark and I were working on the welcome poster so Jordan was working on my hair.
Here is Sandor's American room. Very festive.
And here we are at the airport.
When Sandor got to our house he said "Wow it's just like being in an American movie". So far Sandor has been introduced to 3 liter soda (fan), squishy bread (not a fan), rootbeer (not a fan, you should have seen his face. I wish I would have captured it on film) and peanut butter (fan). He thinks that we are hilarious. He loved his room, our welcome song and he said I had good German pronunciation when I asked him if he wanted some gum (in German).

Big Winners!!

Yesterday my sister Mona and I went to Smiths to do a little grocery shopping. Little did we know it was "Founders Day" at Smiths. OK so we really don't know what that means except that when we walked in they offered us some cake and gave us some tickets for a drawing they were having. We bypassed the cake (it was white with lots of colorful frosting ..ew..),took the tickets and sauntered on to the produce department. Whilst in the produce department they called two winning ticket numbers over the loud speaker and the winner was.... Me!Can you believe it? I couldn't and I was by far the most enthusiastic person there (except for the 16 year old bagger boy. He seemed to be the only one who noticed that I was jumping up and down with excitement.) Anyway, I spun the wheel and won... a pie? Oh well, still a prize and I like prizes!We continued shopping and we were just about to check out when the oh so enthusiastic store manager got back on the pa system to call out two more lucky numbers. I stood in front of him trying to catch his eye and motion the number 166 to him (that was Mona's number) He called "1-6" and glanced at me while I motioned another 6, "6?". Yay!! We started jumping up and down again. He looked at us and said " You guys won again? You must have cheated." Us cheat? (no comments please) So he checked her ticket and Mona spun the wheel... She won... a brand new DVD of $9.99 value or less!
Overall it was a very successful shopping trip!