AMA DE CASA

As the first month of this (awesome) year draws to a close, I have to say life is good. Our wedding was amazing - though I won't go into details because the majority of people who read this blog were there and already know that for themselves. I am now Amanda Santana Liang and I have the documents to prove it - though changing one's name can get a bit tedious, especially when you're trying to train yourself to write a new signature, but some cards still require you to sign the old one. Tough life, I know. I'm back to being an "ama de casa" as my marriage license clearly points out. No more Gap for me. It was a decision I made while in Mexico (is a decision to stop working that hard to make when vacationing in Mexico?) and since no one called me into work when I got back, I easily fell back into my "ama" ways. I've been cooking! I've been reading! I've been photo-albuming! I need to get back on the treadmill! This weekend, Adrian and I will do our yearly jaunt as tourists in the city we love and stay in a hotel in Union Square. We're trying out the Pan Pacific Hotel and having brunch on Sunday at the Hotel Nikko. But, alas, not everything in my life is frivolous - my goal for February is to find a volunteer organization that I like and get involved in my community.

OVERRATED

Having just read Taj's blog about his wonderful New Year's Eve, I was reminded again about how much I despise this overrated holiday. All I wanted to do this year was similar to what Taj did - spend the day with Adrian and go to a nice dinner and then spend the rest of the night alone hanging out. Instead, I went to a lounge/bar with Adrian and four others that was full of very drunk, annoying people. The best thing about it was that our group had a reserved booth, so I was able to sit all night instead of standing in high heels. Except that the part of the booth that I was sitting on backed up to the dance floor - resulting in my head being hit by drunken dancers, my clothes and jacket being spilt on with sticky drinks, and our table being piled with other people's half-finished glasses. Plus, the music was so loud (and so bad) that you had to yell at the top of your lungs to even talk to the person next to you. The person across the way from you - forget about it. Not even close to my idea of fun. At 12:05 a.m., I was ready to go home. Unfortunately, that didn't happen for another few hours. The one thing I did manage to yell into Adrian's ear while we were there was "I'm too old for this - next year, I will NOT be coming to a bar, no matter what!" And that is one resolution I plan to stick to.

2005 BEGINS

We're three days into the new year and so far, it's been as amazing as I hoped it would be. Having adopted the 2005 motto of "Live Large," Adrian and I had lunch on the 1st at the top of the Grand Hyatt in Union Square. The restaurant is called Grandviews and it didn't disappoint, even on a rainy day. It was quite spectacular to see our beautiful city all around us. We then spent the day watching two movies ("Phantom of the Opera" and "Ocean's Twelve") and having dinner with Slaven. On the 2nd, we worked out (because we want to live large in a healthy way) and then spent the day in West Portal. Lunch and a movie ("House of Flying Daggers") - what can beat that? We then came home and watched "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" - definitely the best movie of the bunch from the weekend. I'm getting spoiled having Adrian here with me all day. We have so much fun together - even doing something as simple as walking to Best Buy today to look for a new video game, which I can't believe I'm even supporting. He has four days of work left and then it's back to play time for us - and in Mexico, no less! This living large is so great.