Birthday Bash for JuJuBeez

Hoops and Yoyo singing a birthday song~!

I had never heard of Hoops and Yoyo from Hallmark until Casey showed me these characters last week. We had been to Claim Jumpers for Happy Hour and had to walk it off, so we went to Target and Hallmark. We tortured the poor employees by listening to at least 20 of these cards and laughing our asses off. Maybe Jack Daniels made us a little louder than normal. The guy working there did not seem to mind though. Hoops and Yoyo are hysterical and I wanted to buy all the cards.

On Mother's Day, JuJuBeez asked my mom if she would make her famous chicken tacos for her birthday. My mother does nothing half way and it ended up being a great party. My mom has a neighbor to help her. I have known her for most of my 50 years. I will call her Me Too and I love her to pieces. She is 81 years old and funny. She loves to dance and she will talk to anyone and people for some reason talk back to her. When we go to Vegas, she will talk to the people in the elevator. She is my role model for breaking out of my comfort zone and talking to people. She is a natural flirt, kind of like a baby is. They look you right in the eye, all interested like, smiling and fascinated. She is short, barely 5 foot tall, big brown eyes, salt and pepper hair and smiles all the time.

Me Too recently flew to Oregon to help her 88-year-old brother settle some family affairs. She said he lived in a swank assisted living facility and thought it was a pretty cool place, but said it was like living in an army of walkers. HAHAHA. My mom had sent me and Me Too to the Chinese bakery to pick up the cake. The east side of the valley is like being transported to an alien place. I really like my little bubble here in suburban Temecula. I drove down Roscoe Blvd. to get to the bakery on the corner of Sepulveda and Roscoe. Some homeless guy, scruffy, slightly wobbly on his feet, tried to direct me to a parking spot. Say what? I pulled away from him and found another spot. The bakery had mostly empty display cases and the food on display was kind of sad and seemed out of place. Pretty pastries in a slightly run down bakery, next door to the liquor store with the Spanish language everywhere, and numerous other off beat stores with the homeless guy in the parking lot trying to direct traffic for tips.

We skedaddled back to my mom's and helped her get ready for the party. My parents have a huge backyard that my dad has fixed up through the years, and even though the 170 Hollywood Freeway is a couple of hundred yards away, it is a nice place, especially since they finally put the sound wall up. I will post pictures as soon as I upload them.

Shasta and Lop spent the day with JuJuBeez and BB touring Hollywood and then they came to my mom's. JuJuBeez's brother and SIL and their 2 kids came-kids, heck, they are 26 and 23. Teddy Bear and Killdozer made me bring Rock Band. I suck at that game. They let me play bass on easy and I still failed twice. Living on a Prayer was the only song I managed to play fairly well.

Lop and BB helped my mom make the chicken tacos because they wanted her recipe. Okay, getting a recipe from my mom is an ordeal. She will tell you what's in it, you think, until you make it and it never tastes the same and then when you call her and tell her, she says, "Oh, if you want to add flavor, you need to add so and so." D'oh! No, mom, I didn't want it to be flavorful. If you follow her every move around the kitchen, as soon as you turn your back, she will add something and not tell you. It's like a game and we tease her endlessly about it. They were great helpers with Me Too. One warmed the tortillas, one filled the shells, one helped load the tacos into the dish to keep warm.

It really is nice to be a hermit but still be able to get out there and laugh and be with people you love. JuJuBeez is a great person. She does a killer impersonation of the Queen of England, is very sentinmental, yet slightly cynical and always, I mean always, has something fascinating to say. It must be being a writer. I am so happy to have her in my life. And, it is totally unfair that she really does look 29 even though she is not anymore.

Happy Birthday, JuJuBeez~!