Spring is Here !!!

Spring is my favorite season of the year. I love it for a couple of reasons, first the weather is perfect – not too hot and not too cold, and another reason is the blossoming of ALL nature – the beautiful flowers( the above photo is the picture I took of flowers from our garden) , the trees turning green and including human beings growing and enjoying life after hibernation during the winter.

2010 – A new year and a new decade. In the beginning of the year I have written 10 goals in the different areas of my life (spiritual, mental, emotional and physical). It is also a year that I decided to be open. Be more open to new experiences especially with regards to my personal life specifically dating.

My dating life maybe considered simple, inexperienced or even boring in other people’s standards. But to me it was one of the great lessons in my 20’s. Honestly, I did not even really date because by definition dating is “a form of courtship, and may include any social activity undertaken by, typically, two persons with the aim of each assessing the other's suitability as a partner in an intimate relationship or as a spouse.” I only had 2 romantic relationships in my entire life and did not go on any other dates. My first relationship, he courted me for 4 years in college before I finally said “yes” on the last 3 months of our senior year that lasted 20 months and we just spent 5 months together since I had to move to the States. In my second relationship I wanted to be his girlfriend after our first date. I have a checklist of the qualities I want in a man, the non-negotiables, the must-haves, and he had them all. The relationship lasted for almost 8 years. That relationship was when I learned a lot about myself. I learned about commitment, unconditional love, trust, growth, surrender and letting go.

As winter comes to an end, I am so grateful for all the lessons and new experiences I've had. It was a winter that was pivotal in my life and I will always remember. I get to “be” in touch with my emotions from both ends of the spectrum. The happiest experiences are: to be at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and watch inspiring athletes especially JR Celski, learning to snowboard for the very first time and Women’s Getaway in Lake Tahoe. The most challenging is to really “let go” of a relationship.

Spring is here …. I am so happy, excited and optimistic. I am going to savor each day, every moment since there will never be another 2010 Spring season.

Carpe Diem,

Kaye

Women's Getaway

As my first entry on my blog, I want to share the 3^rd Women’s Getaway (WGA )that we just had in Lake Tahoe with my amazing, powerful, beautiful, smart and more great adjectives to describe sister / sister-friends. The group of women I am so proud to call my sisters / sister-friends are: Karen Retardo, Kim Retardo, Geraldine “Den-Den” Alano, Genevieve “Genie” Torcende, Giannina “Ninay” Torcende, Charlene “Bonz” Abdon, Christine Carnal…. Meg Bayquen-Bray and Chiari Ringor (not in attendance this year) and new friends Christian “Tan-Tan” Fajardo and Kristie Agbuya.

The idea of Women’s Getaway came about 3 years ago when I was going through a challenging time in my personal life – a break-up with my boyfriend. Like many people, the break-up felt like the end of the world at that time.

As they say, with every breakthrough comes first a breakdown. So I decided , instead of crying about it and suffering, I talked to my bestfriend, Geraldine and we started planning our 1^st getaway in Yosemite. We called our sisters and childhood friends that we will now be having Annual Women’s Getaway.

The mission of this Annual Women Getaway is for life-long sisters /sister-friends to spend 3-4 days a year to have fun, bond, rejuvinate, cry, laugh or simply keep each other sane through life’s peaks and valleys. A time to be ourselves, to support each other, to vent out our pains, to celebrate our victories, to honestly give each other feedback if we are not being the best woman that we are and “laglagan” times. Or simply, to LOVE each other.

On our first getaway we went to Yosemite in October 2008. The second getaway was in Catalina Island in May 2009. This year was in Lake Tahoe.

Our WGA in Lake Tahoe

Day 1 - started with our snowboarding and ski lessons. There were 4 of us that snowboard while the 6 other gals decided to ski. It was snowing and that did not stop us. Go! Go! Kah jah!! Most of us even took the lift and thankfully we did not cause a domino of falling skiers and snowboarders while getting off. The skiers learned the new meaning of the words “pizza” and “french fries”. And the snowboarders learned that lifting your toes is very important to avoid breaking your bones or colliding with other snowboarders. I was so happy too coz I did 8 runs and the last 3 runs I did not fall. Yeah!

The excitement did not stop there. Driving back to our cabin which is 20 miles away from the ski resort was a lesson in itself. It was snowing, and one of the cars did not have any snow tires and I was the driver. I have never driven in the snow ( I am from the Philippines – what snow?!?) So we were brave and followed the SUV truck that Genie was driving very closely. Finally we got to our cabin.

We celebrated Kim and Tan-Tan’s birthday. And lots of karaoke singing and dancing. We also had a 30 minute of silence ( this was a miracle in itself since our favorite hobby is talking, talking, talking like we all swallowed a sound system). During this silence, we all wrote a letter to “oneself about what life is in 10 years”, Kim will keep these letters and will be mailed to each woman in 10 years.

Day 2

Half of the group decided to snowboard and ski again. While the rest of us, went to enjoy the view – gandola ride and walking around downtown. We also went iceskating.

Day 3

We played Taboo. It was so funny! The group was divided into 2 teams. The “winning team” : Karen, Chistine, Genie, Ninay and Tan-Tan. The “losing team”: Kaye, Kim, Den-den, Bonz, Kristie The game lasted for 1 hour – lots of laughters. Remember ladies “ Use your words !” and “Please speak in English, not Tagalog !” In the end, the “losing team” won and the “winning team” lost.

The “winning team” treated the “losing team” for lunch. After lunch, we bought similar “Lake Tahoe” sweaters. Den-den negotiated with the store owner and she was able to lower the price of our sweaters from $32.50 to $20. That’s the power of negotiation – ask and you shall receive.

As our getaway comes to an end, we did our trademark jumping picture by the lake. We had so much fun jumping almost 30 times to get the perfect "up in the air" jumping photo.

To all the ladies, thank you very much for the great times. All the laughters and sharing who you are. Until the next WGA! Be the best you….

Here’s to -- ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES!!!!

-- Kaye