What a busy couple of months in my world and I haven’t had a chance to really sit down and blog about life, LUSO or anything at this point. The year started out with a major stomach bug that flew around our family for a few weeks and finally settled out. Our family business moved our entire operations to our Alameda location and underwent some changes; we celebrated my niece’s baptism and began our LUSO activities again. So yes a very busy first few weeks of the year.
January 16th, my first visit of the year was Watsonville. What a gorgeous day it was to go up into the mountains and near Santa Cruz. You would have thought it was a beautiful summer day. As usual my partner in crime Brienne (as I call her my secretary. The girl has a better grasp of when all the visits are then I do) and my parents joined us this time and we headed out to Watsonville to meet up with all of our LUSO Family. I am sad to say that I have not been there since my presidency in 98-99 but they have been forever etched in my mind and heart. I was excited to see Mr. & Mrs. Machado and to taste their delicious tuna that they serve. We arrived around the same time as our 20-30’s president Anthony, our Queen Nicole and her mother Anna, my cousin Monica who is running for Luso Queen from YC #1 and her mom Linda and Sister Lindsey. Seeing familiar faces or family is always great but it was nice to know that once you walked in the door that no matter how long it’s been since you’ve seen someone they open their arms and hearts to you and make you feel completely welcome. That is exactly how they make you feel in Watsonville. We had a good time, great food and some great laughs.
January 23rd was the Hilmar/Turlock and I’m sad to say that I was unable to attend this one due to my Convention Committee having their first official meeting. I had an amazing turn out and I’m so glad to have them all behind me. I can’t wait for our convention in 2015…and to work with all of them over the next few years. I think I have one of the best team of people ever! We have our first couple of fundraisers coming up in April and June along with our raffle and I’m extremely nervous but I know that without a doubt they will be great!
January 29th, was our first Luso Fraternal meeting day in Dublin. We spent the day in meetings, lunch and then got ready to head out to Beach Blanket Babylon in San Francisco. I’m so glad that the 20-30’s Administration put this social activity together for all of us. What an amazing night filled with laughter, good friends, old and new, Frank Rosa’s Pomegranate Aguardente (don’t know how to spell this..lol). With the Bus Ride (Thank you Rosie’s Tours) and the fabulous show, I commend the 20-30’s Board for doing an amazing job! I look forward to your next social! After the show we all headed to Pier 39 for dinner, drinks or just walking around and enjoying our SF Wharf. Many stayed on the pier but me, Anthony, Frank and Julianna headed to the wharf and had some of the best tasting chowder and shrimp. YUM! I was absolutely stuffed although it didn’t stop us from going into the chocolate store and getting chocolate. Hello Mr. Chocolate covered honeycomb!!! My weakness. Even in the rain and cold weather we all managed to have a great time. We ended our evening at the holiday inn in Dublin and still managed to have the front desk come up to the lobby of the 2nd floor and tell us “please quiet down”.
February 13th, the Martinez Visit. I had not been to the Martinez Visit “the cow palace” in years but looked forward to heading out there and seeing some old friends. We had some delicious tri tip, omg it was so good. We laughed as usual with Jose Da Rosa and enjoyed a nice beautiful afternoon.
While we had a good time there was a black cloud over our Luso Family that day. We lost a member of our society. Our youth director for San Joaquim Michelle sadly lost her husband in a tragic accident the night before and it our hearts were broken for her.
Our sadness did not end there. On Tuesday, February 15th we lost another dear member of the society, she was a past youth director and director of the fraternal board. Margie lost her battle with cancer that week and it was another huge loss for our family.
We also had two of our past presidents Liz Alves and Jr. Correia who lost a grandparent as well.
It was with great sadness that we went through the week with such tremendous losses. My thoughts and prayers to the Morris/Rocha, Correia, Meirinho/Alves and Silveira Families.
While it was a great start to my Luso Journey this year, it was also met with some great sadness.
So I end my blog with this: Remember to take each day as it comes, remember to say I love you to those you care about, remember to forgive those you felt hurt you and remember to smile and enjoy your life. Life is far too short and you never know what tomorrow will bring you.
Till my next blog
