Be Free Kenedy, We'll Miss You

Death is a horrible thing. Last Wednesday (I guess a week and a half ago now), I spent the day at Disneyland, you know, the happiest place on earth. Well, all was fine an dandy until I got home around 12:30 in the morning and signed on to the oh so addicting Facebook. I scroll down the status updates and come across an update stating 'RIP Mike Kenedy'. WHAT?!?! HUH?!?! NO?!?! First of all I have to thank Facebook for even giving my the opportunity to receive this information, and I have to criticize our technological world for making that be how I find out that a very good old friend has died. I then spent the next 30 minutes going from FB page to FB page trying to piece together information. I unfortunately ended up with no more information that I stared with; 'RIP Mike Kenedy'. The next day, I spend even more time scouring the internet, Facebook, and trying to get a hold of other friends to find out what happened. Nothing...so in this world of technology I can find out my old friend has passed away, but I can't find an obituary, any news, I can't find a damn thing, except that he has died via facebook.

Slowly more information passed through the grapevine, but I'm still unsure of what happened and am left to assume the worst. These scenarios make me incredible sad. I may not have spoken to Mike in 10 years, but I hate to think that he could have needed a friend. I hate to think that he may have felt alone...and ultimately died alone.

I hope any and all of my friends know that I don't care if it's been 10 minutes or 10 years, if you need a friend...I am here. I am here and I'm willing to bet that most people you know would be there for you.

In the past week I feel like I've been on an emotional roller coaster. Again, I hadn't talked to Mike in 10 years, and even the last couple of those we had grown apart. When I first saw the news I was shocked, hoped it meant a different Mike Kenedy, and overall felt sad but not overly so. The next day I again dealt well, until I got a message from another mutual friend stating that she meant to call me because she remembered how good of friend Mike and I were. For some reason the confirmation from an someone else, that never even hung out with Mike and me together, is what opened the floodgates. It was like I could convince myself that we weren't really that close, even though we hung out all the time, but as soon as someone else acknowledged our closeness I knew I was kidding myself.

Since then I end up in tears periodically. I went through all my pictures that day, every single picture, sure that I would have tons of pictures of Mike and all of our friends together. I became even more sad realizing that I have one stinking picture of him. ONE! I've spoken to a few others who seem to recall that Kenedy did his best to stay out of pictures, how do I not remember this?!?! I guess I'm grateful that I have the one at least. One final memory from our Chico days.

I'm not sure what it is with me and Disneyland...but I went again the Saturday after I found out, and on the way home Pink Floyd came on the radio. Now...I used to hear PF all the time...but I literally haven't heard them in about 10 years...I totally associate Pink Floyd with Kenedy. So there I was driving home from the happiest place on earth....crying.

So, Kenedy, we may have grown apart, but I'll miss you. I wish you would have known how many people have been affected by your death. I'm left with memories of fun times in Chico, memories of your huge smile that was always on your face, and memories of your giggly laugh. Be free and happy my friend. XOXO

http://obit.struveandlaporte.com/clients/struveandlaporte/video/816254/12651.asx

Chico

So...after our night in Paradise, Kendall and I stayed the night at the wonderful Hotel Diamond in downtown Chico. Sara, Kendall and I wandered around downtown and had lunch at Upper Crust...so good! Sara had to head back to Paradise and Kendall and I then went to get a little Fro-Yo, we considered doing the classic Jon N Bons, but decided to venture out to a new place a little further away. It was great...one of those places that you 'do it yourself', which Kendall thought was just fabulous, because in her words, 'you get all that stuff for free', meaning the toppings. haha! (This became a common quote over the next day or so!) We then stopped by our hotel for few minutes while Kendall made our itinerary for the night!


(Okay so I know that's hard to see, but it says, "see whats on tv, robes and slippers' and the other says 'hulas for dinner'. Our hotel had a robe for each of us as well as slippers, which Kendall thought was awesome...I mean...it was free!!! Once we had our night all planned out we met up with my friend Becky for a few hours which was great. I hadn't see her forever either!

Dinner was at Hulas...I had to do Chico right for Kendall and introduce her to all the yummy-ness that is there!





She liked it...and she loved that so much came 'free' with it! LOL! Hula's is a Chinese BBQ place and with your dinner you get soup, won ton chips, your regular food, and a drink...to Kendall this was a GREAT deal!

After filling up on our wonderful dinner we went back to lounge at our hotel! Hotel Diamond is new since I left Chico and it's known as being the 'posh' place. It's a really old building that has been renovated and is very cool now! We put on our robes and slippers, crawled into bed, ate candy and watched Monsters vs Aliens. The best part of the night was that throughout the movie Kendall would turn and look at me and say, "This is the BEST girls night EVER!" and "How many girls to you think are jealous of us?" We decided that we should make our girls weekends happen once a year...we discussed where our next should be. Kendall thought Montana would be a good place. Montana?!?!!? Uhm...Kendall...no. I explained to her that our weekends would be near her house, my house, or grammies house...NOT Montana! Good grief!


The next morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel (which according to Kendall was great because it was FREE!--notice the trend of free!!!). We walked over to the CSU Chico campus and I showed Kendall around. It was great to be back on that campus! I really do love Chico State! I, of course, had to go to the bookstore and stock up on Chico State goodies! I ended up with capri sweats (love them!!), a hoodie (love it!), a canvas bag (great for the pool/beach/work!) and a Klean Kanteen (it's okay...it squeaks when you drink!) and blanket for Kendall. She almost chose a stuffed animal, but then she saw the blanket and decided that a stuffed animal she would be tired of in a few years, and a blanked she could keep until she is a gramma! Wow...way to think long term little one! She became obsessed with that blanket. Mind you it was like 90 degrees, and Kendall is used to HMB which never is over 65 so she doesn't handle the heat very well, but girlfriend wrapped herself up in the blanket for the entire drive home to the bay!

Kendall with the Chico sign




Kendall giving a 'High 5' to the 'hands'


Kendall with her new blanket




Sharing her blanket



Overall we had a great time. I loved being back in Chico and seeing the changes and the familiarity. I really do love that town.

Paradise

As our time came to an end at Lake Almanor my sister, bro-in-law and Jared went back to the bay and Kendall stayed with me for one last day and night at the Lake. I then got to keep her and take her with me to Chico for, our 'Girls Weekend', nevermind that fact that it was during the week.

Our last night in Almanor was Lisa's (Brandon's mom) birthday, so we boated across the lake for dinner. Now, my family does not consist of huge meat eaters, so I could only laugh at Kendall as she looked at the menu and exclaimed, "Ribs, I want ribs for dinner!!" Uhm...okay...(gross!!)

Hungry, messy girl


All finished



Kendall and I drove from the Lake to Chico just in time to meet my friend Cory (who I hadn't seen in a LONG time!!!) for lunch at Burger Hut. Here's a picture of Kendall devouring her burger. Brandon, loves Burger Hut so kept teasing Kendall that she couldn't go there. She, of course, loved it!



The next part of our trip consisted of visiting my friend Sara and her brand new baby (he was 6 weeks at our visit)! We got to relax and just hang out, catch up, and of course love on Baby Ben! Sara's parents have horses, so we also took Kendall over to see the horses (Kareem and Lulu).
Baby Ben


Kendall brushing Kareem

More Pics from the Lake

Me, Michelle and Kim on the 4th of July out on the boat



The best picture of the week, this is a total candid, not posed shot, of Michelle and Brandon. They aren't in love at all...haha



All the girls on the boat




The Granberg Girls


The dogs: Milo-black lab/Michelle and Brandon's dog; Maggie-chocolate lab/Mansukhani's dog; Tucker-yellow lab/Cline's dog


Me wake-boarding



Enjoying a nice cold drink on the boat, heading out to watch fireworks on the lake

Lake Almanor

Next update! Be prepared for a lot of pictures for this one

For my vacation this summer I spent some time in Salinas, Lake Almanor, Chico, Half Moon Bay, and back to Salinas. I ended up heading to Salinas about 4 days early because my nephew made the Half Moon Bay (HMB) All-Stars baseball team. I'm so far away that I've never even seen him play. I decided that I could drive up early and make the first two All-Star games. It was great to see him play, even though they lost both games of the double elimination. Those first few days in Salinas were pretty mellow, I spent a few days at the pool and basically just seeing family. Our whole family went to Lake Almanor, a day early again due to an All-Stars game. (Just didn't seem to make sense to drive from Belmont back to Salinas just to drive north again the next day). We had quite the caravan of 4 cars from Belmont to the Lake.

We had a great time at the lake! It was beautiful weather, and while the water could have been a little warmer it was perfectly fine to jump into without freezing. We all spent a lot of time on the boat and Jared even got up and stayed up wake-boarding (on an adult board!!!). Way to go little man!

I accomplished actually getting over the wake this time around, which for me was a major thing. I've been able to get up no problem for the most part, but I just stay right in the middle...and couldn't move the board where I wanted. I finally decided to give it a try and managed to get out of the wake, and even back inside...kinda!

Michelle and me on the boat trying to get a little sun


Me hanging out on the boat



Jared getting ready to wake-board for the first time


Look at him go!



What girls do on a boat


I think I'm running out of room...more to come

I'm not even going to bother saying, "I lag"

Okay...there is so much to say since my last post. I'll do separate posts though so you don't have to read a novel! Read at your own pace...please.

RACES

I last left you with the 'cliffhanger' of what my SD Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon time would be...I know I know, you've all been anxiously awaiting this information. My goal was 3 hours exactly...and I disappointed myself and finished in 3:03! F-ing 3 minutes!! The one nice this is that I did manage to shave 3 minutes off my OC 1/2 Marathon time. So...good and bad on that front.


Here's me with my finishers medal after lagging by 3 minutes!


The next race I did was called San Diego City Chase (CC). I got to do this with multiple friends and loved it! My friend John talked on his blog about doing this type of race as part of his bucket list. I always thought this type of race looked fun as well and when I heard he was doing this race, I started recruiting for my own partner. So...City Chase is a scavenger hunt sort of race. I teamed up with my friend Brook and then had a co-team of my friends Amy and Crystal. We also managed to meet up with John and his friend Cartman for parts of the race. This race was hilarious, fun, and while some people take it seriously we did not.

How CC works is that you are first given a list of tasks to do before you are even given your list of clues. The tasks included silly things like: turn your clothes backwards, sing the chorus of Bad Romance, find a live animal-not a human, have a 2" stain on your clothes, etc. As you can tell these were fairly easy...okay okay...singing Bad Romance was tough...I can sing GREAT along with the radio (not in tune, but know all the words), but make me do it solo and I'm a freaking disaster!

Next...we were given a page of clue locations...each location (chase point) has a task for us to complete. Some of the locations/chase points we found were lame-ish...but silly still...and some were awesome!

Example of an awesome Chase Point-learning to Pole Dance in a gay bar! Classic!


Toward the end of the day we were quickly running out of time, and all felt it was important for John to finish the race...we knew we wouldn't complete the required 10 points so we all just tried to help John and Cartman. Their last point was disgusting. When I say disgusting...I don't mean a girly 'eewww...gross'...but a true absolutely disgusting task. They had to transfer dead fish, with their mouths, from one bucket to another about 20 feet away. Mind you...these are the SAME dead fish that have been out there in the hot sun all day...and have been transferred by an unknown number of people. By the time they go there the guts were hanging out and the fish were literally rotting. But...they prevailed...or John prevailed...Cartman dry heaved the whole time. I wish I could post a pic but all mine are videos and they just take too long...go check out my youtube and you'll find them!!

As for completed races, that's it for now. I'm signed up for 3 more....

The Long Beach International 1/2...I'm signed up as a walker, but am seriously considering switching to the biking event and doing the 26.2...on my bike.

The Silver Strand 1/2...this one is going to be awesome! We are doing the 'skate' event! Yup...13.1 miles on roller blades/skates...and...just to make it even more awesome...we are dressing 80's! As of now I think we have about 15 people...if YOU are interested let me know and we'll get you signed up!!

The Carlsbad 1/2...this is a walker. It is also #1 of the Triple Crown...which I hope to do. I need to get under 3 hours for it to count...well...I need to complete in the alloted time for all 3 races of Triple Crown (Carlsbad, La Jolla, America's Finest)...Carlsbad actually gives like 4.5 hours (no problem!), but the other 2 are 3:00 time limits...and La Jolla is BRUTAL! So...we'll see! My goal is Triple Crown...and if I don't make it this year...then maybe next.