What a great day to go to the races! We went to Santa Anita yesterday out in Arcadia, it’s beautiful there against the mountains. This was my first experience with horse racing. It didn’t take long to figure out how to bet. What takes longer is figuring out how to actually win some money! Luckily, “Jazz Ya,” in the 6th, and “Lucky in Love,” in the 7th came in first so I won a little under $100.00! Never mind I bet a little more than that before hand. It was a fun experience to see the horses live right in front of you. They are such amazing creatures to look at! We went with several friends, which made it more entertaining then if we had gone alone. There really weren’t many people there, I guess since you can bet on the horses from so many locations; people don’t actually show up at the track. We did see a famous trainer there; he was posing with a winning horse, of course. Bob Baffert, with his all-white hair, isn’t hard to spot. I’ve just been reading up on him, wow! I didn’t realize he has gone for the Triple Crown so many times, the last time being in June 2002, when "War Emblem " stumbled out of the starting gate at the Belmont Stakes in New York. Sounds like a nice guy from what the reporters write about him. I did catch his eye for a moment, probably because I was dressed up in high heels and standing right in front of the winner’s circle! People seemed a little surprised to him there, I didn’t know who he was until Barry explained it to me. I hope he does well in the future, sounds like he’s had a lot of tough brakes!

I was standing there watching a race and I hear from behind me,”Hey, we voted for you!” It was two reporters that had interviewed me from the Purple Cow before the Jay Leno Show, while we were in the park. Once again, small world!

The guy, Dave, at the window where we were placing our bets was thrilled to meet a candidate! He was so funny; he suggested we come back next weekend when all the stars would be there for the Breeder’s Cup. It took forever to get out of there, I can’t imagine going when the place gets full! I bet it would be a crazy day!

We are having deva’s 5th Anniversary Party today. The Anniversary was officially on Election Night, but one party at a time! Barry is cooking Indian food, and it smells wonderful! It’s so spicy, I love it! Now I’m really hungry………..maybe I’ll just go sample it to make sure it’s hot enough!

I find it amusing that Arianna Huffington dropped out but her campaign just sent out 29,000 e-mails asking for donations to cover the bills she racked up! At least according to the OC Register today. Isn’t she the one that was going on and on about campaign-finance reform? She owes $235,000. Good thing she didn’t win, she couldn’t even stop spending herself into debt! What do you think she would’ve done as Governor?
President Bush was here in California today, good to see him and Arnold together! Hopefully we will see more of President Bush out here since apparently the state is gaining support for Republicans! Okay, so not in San Francisco!

Tonight is dart night at deva’s; we have an in-house league that is a lot of fun! Gotta run!

The world just keeps on getting smaller! I wrote earlier about the 82nd Airborne in Iraq because my best friend’s nephew came into the bar and autographed a flag for me. Well, I also wrote how my friend Shonda had a little brother named Bart who is a Captain in the Army stationed in Iraq. It turns out they are both from the same 82nd Airborne!

The nice people from Effen Vodka sent me a package today full of T-Shirts, cards, and neat pens! That was so nice of them; they thanked me for mentioning their Black Cherry Vanilla vodka earlier in my Blog. It’s definitely my new favorite drink, not too sweet like most flavored vodkas.

My entries are getting shorter I know, not as much happening since the Election is over with. I’ll have to start writing about the crazy things my bar patrons are up to! Well, I’ll have to think about that one.

Barry seems to be doing better this week. He knows he needs a knee replacement. He needed one a year ago but he’s trying to hold onto as many original parts as possible! The pain must be terrible for him to finally admit he needs to go through this operation. At least we can go from there and relieve some of his discomfort! Everyone I’ve talked to that has had this surgery is so happy with the results. You can only numb the pain for so long with pain pills before it starts taking a toll on your mental health.

It’s been a week already from the Election! I can’t believe that it a week has gone by already! I still have a ton of work to do to catch up on my business. Davis signed a bill that bans the sale of products containing ephedra, good thing I lost a lot of weight during the election. I’m putting it back on already since I actually have time to eat now. Today I have been bad, I had roast beef, green beans, and mashed potatoes for breakfast, M&M’s and a hotdog covered with habanera mustard with jalapenos for lunch. Quite a change from living on Yogurt Whips and Sugar Free Red Bull!

I received an e-mail yesterday that just made me tear up. A wonderful lady, Shirley Fritz, sent me her diary excerpts from when my parents got married, when I was born, and until my family had moved away. Her husband, Keith, was my father’s good friend and High School buddy. Apparently a few days after I was born there was a big funnel cloud and my parents, my grandma, and aunt Mary all hid in the cellar of these good friends of my father. My poor mother wasn’t very comfortable sitting on cement waiting for the tornado to go over. We lived in a mobile home at the time in an extremely small town. I sent the e-mail to my Aunt Mary who then filled in the details because she remembered it very clearly; she was touched as well. Amazing things have come out of this recall election. Who’d of thought it would lead there?

I am still trying to catch up on everything! I’m doing laundry now, only three weeks worth! Paperwork from deva’s has piled up! My worker’s compensation just went up again! My landlord is trying to charge me an increased rent from 1999! He actually sent me a bill for over $8,000 the other day! Guess I need an attorney. Landlords are so difficult to deal with; I hope someday to own the property where I eventually have my restaurant/ bar! Life would be so much easier. The last words my landlord said to me were, “You women are all a like, you’re so emotional.” You bet I’m emotional when it comes to my livelihood! Nice guy huh? Guess I don’t have to say anything else, you get the idea of how he feels towards women.

It’s the end of the quarter, still working on all that paperwork as well. I bartended on Saturday for the first time since I flied papers to run for Governor. It was good to be back, but what a change! Much different than only a week ago where every time I walked in the bar I was trailed by a camera or reporter. I’m going to have withdrawals! Two older gentlemen came in deva’s and asked if I was Reva, they were from Findlay, Ohio, my hometown. They wanted to meet me and they bought T-shirts and got bumper stickers and buttons. They were so cute! They said” We were Trojans before they were condoms!” (Findlay High School’s mascot is the Trojans.) They had a couple of beers and told me I was the most famous person from Findlay. I gave them both a big hug and they went on their way, nice people!
My best friend, Leisa, had her nephew come in on Saturday night; he is home temporarily from Iraq. He signed a 82nd Airborne Division (hope I got that right) flag thanking me for all the items Leisa sent to him over in Iraq (autographed postcard, calendar, T-shirt, etc….) We had a fun evening. Leisa’s husband Herb was off deer hunting up north this past weekend. Poor Bambi. Hopefully the only thing he will kill this time is a bottle of Jack Daniels! We like to make fun of him because one time Herb went hunting for some type of bird and didn’t kill a thing. In the meantime, I was on the golf course and killed a bird on my drive off of the 10th tee! I felt so bad, I was ready to take it to the vet but it died quickly. That was the worst day of golf ever! Anyway, so we teased him I killed more birds than him and I didn’t need a gun.

I guess I’m going to have to change the name of this blog here pretty soon. I have no idea what to rename it, but I’m sure something will come to mind.