The Commoners and the Getaway Car

I am going to tell this story in pictures and bullet points.

This is my new camera and I took it with me to Maggiano's for Our Christmas Dinner.  I was Lois Lane.  It is a lucky camera because lots of things happened

This is the horse that lives behind Kristen's house.  What's important about this horse is that is sparked a conversation as to the difference between mules and donkeys.  We're still confused .

We got a late start because Super Model Sosa took a long time to get to Kristen's house.  It takes time to be this beautiful.

 Sosa is bossy and made us walk the back streets of Santana Row to get to the restaurant but that's okay because we noticed that Vernon Davis was doing a signing.  My big camera made us look like paparazzi and we got in.

He has a foundation for the arts on the backside of Santana Row.  He's a sensitive good guy.  He's a 49er too.  I don't know where this is but Sosa might be able to get you there.

Finally we made it to the restaurant.  We were hoping for Carolers outside because Santana Row is like that.  There was only bad Karaoke of some sort.  Turns out -according to Sosa if you shop on Santana Row-which I do occasionally -you are rich.  Who knew that's all it takes.

The food is so good here and served family style.  My favorite thing is the fried cheese squares.  You know big cheese sticks.  So good.  This is the cheese cake-it's like silk.  We ate a lot of food.

We had to pull the table out for this picture because we ate so much.
Speaking of which, I asked the busboy if our plates of big food could possibly fit on the is table.  He looked at me like I was speaking a language he didn't understand.

Later we caught him speaking english when he asked if we were through with our coffee.  What ever.
We were finished and we couldn't eat anymore so we left.  Beth had 3 full bags of leftovers because the trick is -you can ask for seconds and then you can pack it for home.  We feed all the Matsuis.

On the way home we noticed a car drive by really fast.  Then we noticed cop car after cop car silently blasting past us.  What could this be?  Turns out it was a car chase.

Finally 10 cop cars later we noticed one was coming by slowly and was going to do that zig zag thing so we got off the free way.  As we went on the over pass we saw a fire-caused by tires and men with flashlights in the bushes.

I was there with my camera and my flash.  But then we got scared that the cops would think we were the get away car.  OR the bad guy would car jack us.  So we got out of there.

Finally we were back at Kristen's house where we met her cat Tony.  Tony is named after Tony Soprano because his job is to whack the mice.

And that was it.  Our last commoner trip of the year.  We all wish you a very Merry Christmas-and if you need something?  Lois Lane and her camera will be on the spot.

The Commoner's Favorite Commercial

I've told you how much I love TV.  When Rob watches tv his method is you change the channel until you get to a commercial.  Then you watch the whole commercial until you see what's on and then you change to another channel and start again.  Not sure why we do this but we do.

So I see a lot of commercials.  Plus I'm very analytical about them because I always wanted to (and did for a short while) wanted to work in advertising.

Christmas advertising is my favorite because they try really hard to sentimentally hit you over the head with a feeling of Christmas.

My favorite commercial this year is Lexus-A December to Remember

I love everything about it.  The song, the car, the BIG GIANT BOW.  But mostly I love the house or castle at the end.

I'll never buy a Lexus because I really want a cadillac.  But I would love to drive down those roads to this big beautiful  house.  You know where it is?

Prague.  Go Figure!

The Commoner and the Lucky Numbers

This is my winning lottery ticket.  Kidding.  I didn't play the Mega Millions tonight.  I don't really know how to play the lottery. Which is odd since my grandfather played millions of tickets.  

It turns out the winner is right here in San Jose

So if the winner is someone special like my son, or husband or orthopedic doctor -remember him?  Here are three things I would like them to get me.  You know because it's the season of giving and all...

I don't want a private jet because people die in those.  I want to be able to hop a flight first class whenever I want where ever I want.  My city list could expand beyond the United States.

I chose not to have a big birthday party this year and fly to Chicago and run the marathon instead.  But if I won mega millions I would throw the biggest party right here someplace fabulous in California and fly Pitbull in to entertain us.

This is my family.  I would share my winnings with them and buy them things like houses, cars, and paid off student loans. 

So if I win-I mean you win-this is what I will do with the money you give me.

Pants that fit-The Commoners Favorite Thing That Doesn't Exist

I've written about dresses being my favorite thing.  They are comfortable and you always look put together.  

But I like jeans.  When I was a kid wearing a uniform everyday all I wanted was to wear jeans.  I wanted to wear Calvins like Brooke. I love them I tell you.  (I never owned Calvin's-mine jeans came from Korvettes).

(I kind of wanted to be Brooke Shields when I was younger-is that weird?)
A few years ago I lost a lot of weight.  Then I became a serious marathon runner.  

Okay whatever.

The point is -is that even though I'm  a respectable size 6-I can not find a pair of jeans that fit me.  I want to wear skinny, stylish, pair of jeans like all the other cool girls.

To find a good pair of jeans they have to say curvy.  Then to be comfortable on my legs they must be a size 12.  To be comfortable on my legs the butt area will sag and I will need a belt. I've read this before in Give a Mouse A Cookie

 My friend's son is a professional hockey player-he gets his jeans custom made so they fit.
 I'm a teacher-I get my jeans at the gap-when they are 40% off.  Better yet Target.

Turns out I'm not alone in this endeavor as women (and some men) of all ages felt the same.  It was even suggested I get Not Your Daughter's Jeans because seniors like them.

OUCH-that hurt more than the tight jeans.

Anyway the commoner's favorite thing that doesn't exist?

Jeans that fit 

Crayon Lipsticks-The Commoner's Favorite Makeup

Everyone knows that I love makeup.  You knew that right?  As I've gotten older it's actually become a necessity.

So I've become a makeup person.  I'm a VIB at Sephora  (Very Important Beauty) so I get special deals to fuel my addiction.  It now takes me two hours to get ready for work.

This year I discovered my favorite make up of all.  The lipstick crayon. 

I don't know what brand this is and I've never used it.  All these look alike and they are pretty great.  Nars makes my favorite actually.  

You can get cheap ones at Target or Walgreens and those are good too.  But if you are going to invest the money to be a VIB like me . Chose Nars.  You  won't be disappointed.

Donuts -The Commoner's Favorite Food

I have a thing about donuts.  What?  That's news for you?  

It used to be just Dunkin Donuts.  But I've moved on.  Any donut will do.  Today a friend of mine said she was bringing donuts and I could have one -this made me really happy.

Just like this!

Tonight a friend face booked me with a picture of donuts they were eating and said one of them was calling me.

That snowman will be mine
I was lucky to be in Chicago twice this year.  That meant lots of gorging on Dunkin.  But I'm okay with regular donuts too.

I found this on Pinterest today.  I'm going to use it for all of my favorite things from now on.

Blog Photos-A Commoner's Favorite Scrap Book

I was looking for pictures to post about how I love running.  Then I saw some great pictures and decided to post those for pretend tomorrow is throw back Thursday.  Here go some random photos and the story or thought behind them.

This picture is from my first ever blog entry.  This is a chocolate store that had just opened in Napa or Yountsville (I think).  They had just opened and I told them I was a blogger -well I was going to be anyway.  They posed for a picture and The Commoner was born.  Chocolate is one of my favorite things.

Sometimes it rains a lot.  I hate the rain.  It's cold, it's dreary, it will last for days and it makes work really hard.  It was weird to see a rainbow over the house across the street.  Of course I clicked my heals together but I still was not in NY when I opened my eyes.  Rainbows are one of my favorite things.

This is my dog Bella when she was little and actually didn't turn her back on the camera.  She is a true blue faithful dog who will protect you with her silent brilliance.  Bella is one of my favorite animals.

This is AT&T Park and McCovey Cove.  If you look closely that is one of the famous kayakers. They stay in the water and try to catch any balls hit into the bay.  I think that sounds a little boring actually but it's part of the traditions of this great place.  Giants Baseball games are one of my favorite things.

This is a Jet Blue Plane.  For awhile I was flying to NY a lot.  I haven't been there in two years almost.  But I flew on Jet Blue last time and I really  like them.  They are cheap, they have little tvs and they flew non stop.  Flying to NY is one of my favorite things. 

This was fun.  I may be doing this again in the future.

City Trips-The Commoner's Favorite Place or Thing or Soemthing

I was born in a city.  That's right Queens, New York.  I lived the first 35 years of my life really close to New York so I'm a city girl at heart.  

A few years ago I seemed to be making a lot of trips to New York when it dawned on me there are a lot of cities right here in our country that I need to see.  Rob and I started the city list.

I'm not really a beach person.  Although I did really love New Port Beach this year.  I don't ski and I don't really like to relax.

I like that when you go to a city you really only need a few days.  You don't need a car, there are great places to eat, and lots of things to do.  There's energy.  The rule is that you have to play tourist.  I don't like to be a tourist but you have to.  This is the rule.

This happened to be a year that included a lot of city trips for some reason.  In the future there will probably only be one a year.  So let's visit the cities that I saw.

I love Dublin!  It's old, it's quaint, they speak English, and we have family there.  2013s first city of the year.

Next was the original planned city-the first on the list-Seattle.

I loved everything about Seattle.  It was like a really tiny San Francisco.  I liked the food, the coffee, the sties, the waterfront.  You should definitely go to the fish market and watch the hawkers.  

    We had two trips to Chicago in two months so we made it a city pick.  I love Chicago too.  I had been there many times before and it's great.  The first trip for Danny's boot camp graduation we played tourist and went to the Navy Pier.  Fun.

The second trip we spent a lot of time on Michigan Avenue but we saw THE ENTIRE CITY and we saw it on foot.  That marathon was great and I loved it a lot.  Chicago my friend you are not the second city -you are just as good as anyone else.  Except for your weather.  No offense your weather kind of sucks.

I love cities because they all have the same blueprint.  A waterfront district, a financial district, a theater district, and a shopping district.  Think about it-it's true.

This year it's city number two not the list.  NEW ORLEANS!  I've always want to go there.  I love the music and the constant parades.  I don't love seafood so that might be problem but I Can't Wait.

Friends -The Commoners Favorite

I'm lucky enough to have friends all over the place.  I have lived a lot of places plus I'm old so that's a lot of friends.  Even some family that I count as friends since those pretty much were my friends growing up.

But my Hollister friends right now are the ones I spend the most time with.  We are all really busy so when we are lucky enough to have the chance to dress up and go out it's usually a pretty good time.

You will recognize some of the commoners in this picture.  Kristen was the smart one who bought her flip flops.  Beth and Lesli are always fun.  Bill Parcels former coach of the New York Giants (He loves when I say that), his wife Debbie and on top Tracy our new secretary and energizer bunny.

Bill and Debbie hosted a pre party which I didn't make it to.  I should have though because they bought everyone in an RV-well maybe it's good I didn't go in the RV after all.

You can't appreciate Tracy's Flintstone inspired knockout of a red dress in this picture.  You also can't appreciate the fact that she is really tall and thin and lots of fun.  She started dancing at the beginning and never once stopped.  Not even once.   Not at all.

Then there's my husband Rob.  We decided we needed some men at the party and so Rob, Beth's husband, and our boss were forced to come.  My husband is the only Irish Man that I know who doesn't drink anything.  The fun thing though is it seems like he does.  He cuts a rug with anyone and will even sing Karaoke.

You didn't have to worry about gaining weight at this party because the food was scarce.  The bar was great though.  We danced all night and had so much fun.  I woke up this morning with no voice and still dancing.

This morning I woke up at 6 anyway so that I could go shopping in San Jose with another one of my local friends.  

So today I salute the commoner's favorite-FRIENDS!  

The Commoner's Favorite Sports Agent

It's super late and I'm tired.  But he's pretty much king of the world and all he choses to conquer.

Mackelmore- The Heist-The Commoners Favorite Album

Training for a marathon means I needed to listen to a lot of music.  JayZ is my favorite when I need to feel tough.  You need to feel tough to run a marathon or you'll never make it and if it takes JayZ's brand of success to get through mile 19 than that's okay.

In fact this morning I needed a little kick in the pants snap out of it to get to work and there was Jay.

But sometimes you just need a good beat.  A song that is really up tempo and fun to listen to and that came from Macklemore

Thrift shop was a fun song with a great beat (Channeling my inner Dick Clark) but whenever I go shopping I say -that's $50 dollars for t-shirt. Also I used to wear my grandfather's cardigans because they were cool.

And who didn't love that summer song Can't Hold Us.  Every runner I know has that song on their playlist.

I'll admit Macklemore is super tall and it scares me a little bit to watch him actually perform with super long arms and legs.  But the songs on The Heist are really good.  Every single one of them.

They even sing a song about a Cadillac.  Did you know my next car is going to be a cadillac?  I'm not even joking about that-it may be my graduation gift to myself.

What I like about them besides the beats they drop  (Rap talk) are the words they sing.  You have to listen past the curse words if they offend you because the songs they sing are pretty inspiring.

And they are from Seattle-I really like Seattle.  I had a great time there -

So my favorite album of the year is The Heist By Macklemore and some other guy.  Listen when you work out and remember 50 dollars is too much for a tshirt.