The Alameda Holiday Walk!

On a beautiful, clear sunny afternoon, I met with a group of around 28 people for a walk with a meetup group called "Walking for Health and History in and Around San Francisco." Now, I had participated in another walk with this group last June -- "March to the Sea."

We literally walked from one end of San Francisco to another -- it was rigorous, challenging and FABULOUS all at the same time! I knew that the guy who coordinates and sets up these walks, Howard...doesn't mess around. When he says we're walking, we REALLY walk!

This particular walk was supposed to take place a week earlier, but it was rescheduled due to bad weather (as in loads of rain). But this day could not be more perfect walking weather! I didn't know about the Christmas Display thing - just wanted to walk around Alameda. The "day" part of the walk lasted around 3 hours walking at a leisurely pace...when all was said and done at the end of the night, we had walked about seven miles according to my pedometer. It was all flat, so the walk wasn't bad at all. We took a break between the day walk and the night walk (about 45 minutes)...some people actually left after the day walk, and they really missed out on the coolest light display I've seen in years, if ever...we walked all the way through the neighborhood that was lit up like a beautiful wonderland...even the trees had lights on them and one house had music coordinated with their lights -- from Nightmare Before Christmas! sooo cool. BEST seven mile walk I took...met really cool people...after the walk I met with my older daughter Melissa and she was amazed that I'd walked seven miles with a whole group of people I didn't know before! I'd say it was magical...I'm ready for the next walk...most are in San Francisco, some in Oakland.

I walked almost 20,000 steps (according to the pedometer)...and it felt great!

Happy 30th Birthday Melissa!

 I can't believe you turned 30 years old today Melissa...Wow! You were born at Madigan Hospital at Ft. Lewis, Washington 30 years ago...! You were supposed to arrive way before Christmas but you held out! I had no idea if you were a boy or a girl before you were born but the doctor and me placed bets during delivery...he was convinced you were a boy...I said no, you're a girl and you were. You came home to your older brother Stevie...and you were always my little helper while growing up...always filled with spunk. Luv you lots Melissa, happy birthday!

1986 in Newport, OR (Mommy and melissa...you were three years old

The Christmas Weekend Adventure

Some of our SF Uke Rebellion People (me, Margaret, Nancy and Sue with another group merge to play ukes and sing for the Fire Fighters at the Stanyan Street Fire Station in San Francisco on a very blustery rainy Dec. 23rd, 2012! it was really fun!

Today I awoke to a blustery rain storm. I guess when the weather forecast says 100 percent chance of rain they're usually right! Not gonna stop me! Last night I had fun at the South Bay acoustic open mic in Campbell. Hung with friends I hadn't seen in a while sang Xmas songs but the most epic moment was when I joined Rick Duncan on ukulele and sang the who's squeeze box with him. Sometimes the most spontaneous thing can be the coolest ever... He rocked a guitar solo and well it was cool! 

my friend Mike H. was there and he caught me on video!

Dec. 22, 2012 Acoustic Jam at Snake and Butterfly in Campbell -- me on guitar and ukulele!

Today I meet my friend Margaret at the BART station and head for San Francisco for a day of uke playing and Xmas caroling after with ukes in tow! Yea it's stormy but I don't have to drive and as long as we keep our ukes dry we are golden! We went to our host and hostesses' flat on fifth avenue off Irving Street afterwards and partaked in merriment and snacks and when Sue drove me and Margaret back to the BART station, I pointed to the corner of Fifth and Irving and said I used to wait for the SF Examiner newspapers every day as a kid -- and I experienced my first kiss on that corner...! 

One of the biggest highlights of yesterday was when we sang Christmas songs for the firefighters working at the Firehouse on Stanyan St. in San Francisco between the rain storms! in my old neighborhood where I grew up in San Francisco! It was perfect.

Evidence that Santa ate some of the cookies left for him!

Santa ARRIVES!!! I believe!

Ask the cat -- Guinness...he saw the whole thing!

Christmas came and went and this year as Christmas Eve slipped into Christmas, no MAJOR crises happened. I did not have to bail anyone out of jail! Of course there were those frieghtening moments when I was hopelessly lost in the Berkeley Hills on Christmas Eve in an attempt to pick up daughter Megan...and the all GPS's failed me! but we still had a nice visit with my Dad and as we drove the 140 miles home, Christmas music played on the radio...Sacramento 93.1 -- then we listened to Fab Four Christmas and of course Jimi Hendrix...and as we sailed through Sacramento, I thought...last year at this time we were all here...for Chirstmas! 

Visiting Dad in Placerville on Christmas Eve! (me, Megan, Liezl, Stevie, Jennifer and Dad)

Visit with Dad christmas Eve!

This morning Jeremy got up before his son...because he said he was "excited" about Baby Jeremiah and Christmas...this kid is grown with a son of his own and some things NEVER change...! Baby Jeremiah was the hit of Christmas...he was delighted by all the toys and especially LOVED the task of tearing open the wrapping paper! Liezl cooked an AMAZING breakfast FEAST for us all!!!! then I got out of my ukulele and played and sang holiday songs cuz Stevie said "Happy Christmas' was his favorite and of course I had to agree. and Melissa loves Mele Kalikanaka and well, I played and sang a bunch of songs...Baby Jeremiah LOVED it the most! he wanted me to keep playing whenever I stopped...followed me around yelling "ullele!" I have a major fan! (and Beatles music is his fave of course)...yes, it was a good day and it's not over yet...the movie "Home Alone" is on (We watched A Christmas Story about four times today!)...Melissa, Stevie and Liezl have left...and Baby Jeremiah is almost ready for bed...

Oh and we had a Chinese food FEAST for dinner!!!! hehehe!Christmas came and went and this  year as Christmas Eve slipped into Christmas, no MAJOR crises happened. I did not have to bail anyone out of jail! Of course there were those frightening moments when I was hopelessly lost in the Berkeley Hills on Christmas Eve in an attempt to pick up daughter Megan...and the all GPS's failed me! but we still had a nice visit with my Dad and as we drove the 140 miles home, Christmas music played on the radio...Sacramento 93.1 -- then we listened to Fab Four Christmas and of course Jimi Hendrix...and as we sailed through Sacramento, I thought...last year at this time we were all here...for Christmas! this morning Jeremy got up before his son...because he said he was "excited" about Baby Jeremiah and Christmas...this kid is grown with a son of his own and some things NEVER change...! 

Baby Jeremiah was the hit of Christmas...he was delighted by all the toys and especially LOVED the task of tearing open the wrapping paper! Liezl cooked an AMAZING breakfast FEAST for us all!!!! then I got out of my ukulele and played and sang holiday songs cuz Stevie said "Happy Christmas' was his favorite and of course I had to agree. and Melissa loves Mele Kalikanaka and well, I played and sang a bunch of songs...Baby Jeremiah LOVED it the most! 

he wanted me to keep playing whenever I stopped...followed me around yelling "ullele!" I have a major fan! (and Beatles music is his fave of course)...yes, it was a good day and it's not over yet...the movie "Home Alone" is on (We watched A Christmas Story about four times today!)...Melissa, Stevie and Liezl have left...and Baby Jeremiah is almost ready for bed...oh and we had a Chinese food FEAST for dinner!!!! hehehe!

A Beautiful UKULELE Rebellion Day in San Francisco!

It was one of those rare, warm beautiful San Francisco nights at Alamo Square Park...one of the few times I can recall when that song that goes, "On a warm San Francisco night!" REALLY does apply...with Dean and Steve with those buildings behind us called the Seven Sisters..think of that show, FULL HOUSE!!!

Today I traveled to San Francisco yet again via BART and muni bus...where I met around 25 people at the Oakside Cafe on Divasadero and Broderick...we took over the coffee house -- us UKULELE REBELS! (actually we are revolutionaries because I think we're succeeding and definitely coming out ahead!) I never get tired of the adventure...never know exactly what will happen afterwards.

Tonight after the Ukulele Rebellion, I walked with Steve and Dean up the hill to Alamo Square Park...because it was just so beautiful out...and Dean said this was the place to go. He was so right! We had our ukuleles with us, so of course...we got them out. I remember we sat on a green bench and jammed for a very long time on that song, "Evil Ways." I always laugh when I play it because when we played it at Uke Rebellion earlier and Steve was on the U-Bass, I mumbled, "Chauvanist!" under my breath because that one part where the lyrics say, "When I come home, baby, my house is dark and my pots are cold, you hang around baby, with Jean and Joan and who knows who, I'm getting tired of wait and fooling around..." etc. I mean, c'mon. That has gotta be the most chauvanistic song ever! So Steve laughed when I said that...

but the song is sooo fun to jam on and it sounds good and it's only three chords, mostly the Gm7 and the C7 chords over and over again with that rhythm going on...adding a D7 in every now and again...

So we jammed on ukuleles sitting on those benches as the sun set over Sutro Forest and UC Hospital which overlooks the neighborhood where I grew up and where my childhood memories reside...I get really nostalgic when I'm in san Francisco. I just cannot help it.

A beautiful sturdy oak tree awaits us as we trudge up that last hill in the park...reminds me a lot of my "favorite" tree over at the Greens...but a little bigger. Luckily, although many of the trees are no longer at the Greens, my favorite tree still lives!!

Hmm...shall we play ukuleles? Or not? Yes I think we should!!! say Steve and Dean!

The sun setting over Sutro Forest...

Even the evening was warm!

Why is it that whenever I hang out in San Francisco I never want to leave? But eventually Steve and I must make the journey home on BART...which we usually don't do until close to 10pm at night after we've hung out and jammed for a few hours on ukes...

Yay, says Steve! I finally get to play leads on my little Sam Chang ukulele from  the 1920s! (Steve usually plays U-Bass at the Uke Rebellion)

Best snail mail ever!

Imagine that! I hit the snail mail jackpot tonight BIG TIME!!!! for some reason we hadn't checked the mail for a few days,so tonight when I got home, I pulled out loads of mail -- including those obnoxious advertisement newspapers that always go right into recycling...a couple of annoyingly important items like the IRS bill...thanks for the reminder, luv you too... but amid all that, I found a treasure trove of mail which delighted me to no end and made me smile...I'm still smiling! I received FOUR Christmas cards from fabulous friends from afar and one came with a teabag! Also, I received my fabulous peace ukulele postcards from Danielle Herreid who designed them herself...the ones I'd ordered last week! They're wonderful and I made a mental note that I must order more...and then...wow, there's a postcard from my good friend Margaret who is on a Hawaiian cruise right now...she's a fellow ukulele player who also travels on musical adventures...right before she left for her cruise, we went to Ukes on the Loose together... Anyway, Margaret wrote a lovely note on the back sharing with me that she and her sister took three ukulele classes on the cruise...that were okay because they met some interesting, cool people...as a matter of fact, one of them actually knows me from the Silicon Valley Ukulele Group! WOW! talk about a small world. So, Margaret writes, "The chick with the ukulele was talked about and is known on international waters!" Now wouldn't you agree that I hit the snail mail jackpot today? -- filled with peace, love and ukuleles. For real. G'nite.

Now I can blog from my iPhone!

Is there anything an iPhone can't do?

Abbey Rd. On Ukuleles Lives!

Earlier this evening, on December 3, 2012, history was made at the Poorhouse Bistro in San Jose when a group of us played the last 11 minutes of the Abbey Road medley on ukuleles – with a little help from a guitar and some percussion! This all happened because James Johnson who frequents the Poorhouse Bistro ukulele open mic jams came up with an idea to do this!!! This was all put together in a couple of weeks – James and I practiced a couple of times together, but most of us had never actually played together.

As James shared with all of us, "This performance was also inspired by the unreleased Jake Shimabukuro track from Jake's latest album "Grand Ukulele" (produced by Alan Parsons).."

Of course this is not perfect by any means and it is not professionally done (this was shot by my friend John Chen on my new Canon Powershot Elph 110 camera, a wonderful compact little camera with HD video)…and yes I admit I blew it a little on the vocals at a couple of times, but somehow managed to get back on track…but I will say that the experience and the opportunity to do this was amazing and magical for me.

Never in a million years did I ever believe that (a lifetime Beatles fan who listened to the Abbey Rd. album so much when it came out in 1969 that I pretty much wore out the record) it would be possible for me to play this medley – I figured it was way beyond my reach musically and I was okay with that, but that didn’t stop me from dreaming…

But tonight my dream came true… !!! and I am thrilled and honored just to be a part of this most wonderful experience…and a part of me is still that 12-year-old girl singing along with the Abbey Rd. record at the top of my lungs and playing it over and over again in the living room of our flat on 2^nd Avenue in San Francisco, driving my whole family nuts… HER dream came true!!!

I was around the same age as James’ lovely daughter Kat who sang Octopus’ Garden with me and announced that we should sing it with a British accent, like Ringo!!! (the video of that is on the way).

Kat and me play and sing Octopus' Garden at Poorhouse Bistro!

and Here it is:

Abbey Rd. on Ukuleles at Poorhouse Bistro!

“and in the end the love you take

Is equal to the love you make…

Ahhh ahhh, ahhh ahhh ahh!!!”

Me and James at my house on Saturday practicing for the big night!!!

Me and Kat singing Octopus’ Garden! What fun we had! Kat said we should sing this with a British accent! and we did!

Kat, know that when I was your age I listened to the Abbey Rd. record practically every single day. J This is what it’s all about, passing the music to the next generation.