A couple of days late. My apologies. I had a rather hectic weekend.

Photo 1 (from left): This was taken at roughly 7 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 11. I was on my way to San Francisco State University for Renaissance Journalism’s LearningLab. Once upon a time (a year or so ago) I was their web producer, and they asked me to help organize it again this year. Even though I was grumpy from waking up at 5 a.m. to get ready and ride the bus to campus, I had to stop and take in the gorgeous morning sky. I don’t often enjoy sunrises, as I’m a night person.

Photo 2: I snapped a quick photo during the Launch a Web Site in a Day: A WordPress Intensive workshop with Jesse Garnier of SFBay. I was supposed to “assist” but Jesse had it all well in hand. Jesse is a former instructor of mine from SF State and I learned a lot from him back then. LearningLab 2013 was pretty successful; many of the participants asked about the next conference.

Photo 3: Treasures from home, also known as Carson, CA. It’s where I spent most of my formative years, and it took moving to make me appreciate its role in my growth as a person. Unfortunately, this past weekend was not the usual happy homecoming. My maternal grandpa is in the hospital, and as of now he’s been there a whole week. He has had a host of health problems since September, but the man is fighting for his life with a grace that leaves me in awe. If not for his debilitated appearance, I would never know he was ill. He is still all jokes and smiles, the way he has been since I can remember. For instance, as I held his hand in the hospital, Grandpa cautioned me to drink calamansi juice to battle the cold and flu, and he told my husband to eat enough at the buffet for the both of them.

But I digress. My grandpa is another post. I can report that he’s stable and under observation right now.

Photo 3 shows the Filipino goodies my grandma foisted on us for our road trip back to San Francisco. The larger ones are chicken empanadas, and the smaller pastries are hopia. They didn’t last very long.

And that was Week 2 of 2013. Onward!