I just scored tickets to go see the Lakers tomorrow night! Supposedly the seats are 2nd row from the floor, right by the Laker’s bench! We shall see! Barry has never been to a Laker game so we’re going to do it right! Last game I attended was the NBA Championship, final game in 2000 that the Lakers won. The seats were 5 rows back on the floor, right behind Magic and Diane Canon! What a game that was! I don’t think any other game will top that one; my friends and I had a blast! We were right behind LeVar Burton (Star Trek,) who was friends with Shaq, so Shaq went to talk to him a few times and we got a close up on him. I saw Andy Garcia, Whopee Goldberg, and I had better seats than them! Don’t have to be a star to get good seats, just lucky! After the game we couldn’t get out of the parking lot so we joined the celebration in the streets…………uh, I mean riots. It was all fun until a trash can flew over my head on fire and they started jumping on a news van along with a limousine. It got quite scary at that point! No place for a mini-skirt, high-heel wearing female! We made it out of there safely but it took awhile. People (idiots,) were hanging off of telephone poles, streetlights, anything they could climb on. Well, at least inside the Staples center I had the best basketball game experience of my life! Nothing like being covered in purple and yellow streamers as the Lakers won! Okay, being covered in red and white streamers signaling the Angels had won the World Series in the final game last year was a close second! And yes, there’s the Stanley Cup Finals this year at The Pond, suite center ice (my first hockey game!) Only in Southern California. Look for me on TV!

That rain we had was horrible in certain areas! It actually hailed in Watts! They were making snowballs on TV, well; I guess it would actually be iceballs-ouch! Crazy things continuing on in California! Floods damaged homes; electricity went out, what a mess. Luckily where I live we only received a little rain.

My friends are having their BLT party again (Black Tie, Lingerie, or Toga,) but I’m so tired and have so much paperwork to do I just can’t make it tonight. Hope they understand; Jeff and Gary are just two of the nicest people! Gary actually just got back from flying injured soldiers out of Iraq over to Germany for medical treatment. He’s a commercial pilot as well as an Air Force Reserve. I received a letter from Gary last month from Germany; I didn’t even know he was there. I usually get postcards from all over the world, but this was a well written, heart felt letter about how happy he was to safely get those injured soldiers to safety. Nice guy.

Well, back to searching for the surface of my desk!

I just turned on the news and now we are being flooded out here! Well, not me, not yet, I’ll keep my fingers crossed! It’s funny to watch the news; they are explaining to southern California how to act in a thunderstorm. Being from Ohio, I know what a thunderstorm is, and this isn’t anything close! The Red Cross is telling people to stay away from the windows (duh!) A little bit of rain out here just sends everything out of whack! The streets are flooded because we do not have proper drainage, power is out in some places, and people are walking away from their cars on flooded streets. Amazing! Now there are flood watches for the burned out areas from the wildfires. What next? Nobody say earthquake! Southern California……………what we put up with to live here!

http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=1483260750

Thankyou to all the Veteran’s out there! Thankyou to all our Soldiers!
The previous link is to a wonderful animated card that I received; check it out if you have time! Marine Corps birthday was on Monday, the Marines aat deva’s had a good time! I’m sending several packages to the 82nd Airborne today. I hope they get them by Christmas! You can read some of the letters from my friend Shonda’s brother Bart at the following address:

www.wpfx.com

Back in Ohio they are really trying to get people involved to send the troops much needed items. I’m sure there are many people trying to help all over the country, unfortunately this is the only drive I know about at the moment.

I’ve started reading a book that I received during the campaign from Archer Muncy, the curator of LST Brothers Library and Museum. He also has joined with the American Museum of Military History, which is planned for presentation in one of the WWII blimp hangars, which stand at the former United States Marine Corps Air Base in Tustin, (actually, not too far from deva’s.) Anyway, the book, “Total Power of 1 in America,” by Fred Holden, is so interesting! I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to get involved and be a good citizen, learn about economics, government, politics, and business. I’m not very far in the book, but it looks like I will learn a lot! What a nice person to send the book, Archer even signed the book, thanking me for being a caring Orange County citizen.

I have to go shopping, I’m cooking all day tomorrow for deva’s dart banquet. I always make rigatoni with chicken in a spicy tomato cream sauce, with mushrooms and broccoli. I’m getting hungary just thinking about it! I’m off to Smart & Final!

The meeting was terrific! Todd Spitzer had a great message in his speech for to the group. He even pointed me out as he suggested that there is a new sort of politics evolving in California and we need to get more young people involved. I talked with him briefly afterwards, reminding him that we had met a few years back at the charity golf tournament. Todd is a real down to earth, funny, intelligent guy. The other speaker was Rosario Marin, recent Treasurer of The United States. She gave a wonderful speech about how she came to America at the age of 14 and didn’t know any English, and worked very hard to get where she is today. Rosario also told of her experience on 9-11, as she was only about a mile from the Pentagon. There weren’t very many dry eyes in the room by the time she was finished. Rosario resigned as Treasurer in June so that she could run against Barbara Boxer. I have several of her bumper stickers that say, “Adios Boxer!” Hey, we had the “Hasta la Vista Davis,” stickers, so it sounds good to me! Rosario will be the main speaker at our Tustin Area Republican Women Federated fundraiser on the 21st of this month. I hope she kicks Boxer’s butt in the Election!

Well, I haven’t heard back from the Chuck DeVore campaign, maybe I’m not conservative enough for them? Maybe they are just really busy, after all one of his staff asked me to join their team. We shall see, there’s a fundraiser for Chuck on Veteran’s Day on Tuesday, I’m not sure if I should go or not.

It’s Marine Corps birthday tomorrow! Happy Birthday! I’ll have to do something to honor the Marines tomorrow at deva’s.

I went to a baby shower yesterday for my best friend’s daughter, Courtney. It was cute, with all the games and baby stuff. Of course I didn’t come close to un-scrambling “baby” words, and it was worse when it came to naming the foods in the baby food jars! Oh well, at least there was plenty of Chardonnay and good appetizers! Courtney did get a lot of needed baby items, so it was a successful shower. She is naming the baby Shamus (I’m sure no one will tease him in school!)

One of my cats is driving me crazy! Either she is going senile, or there’s going to be an earthquake in California soon! She is 16 years old, so I’m guessing that she’s losing it. We almost always have an earthquake when she acts like this; she yells continuously and wants me to go hide in a closet with her. Today she wants to hide in draws and boxes mostly, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed!