The Great San Diego Blackout of 2011

Oh, I feel so excited to have made it to San Diego in time for this. Last thursday I was at work, and about half way through my shift, taking an order and all of a sudden the hum of electricity faded suddenly as all the power went out. It was kind of funny to me. All I could do was laugh. I was already complaining about San Diego being too much like Ohio because it had been crazy humid (for San Diego, and let's face it, any kind of humid is too humid for me.) but then the power goes out! The power used to go out at my Marysville Starbucks all the time. So much so, I'm kinda shocked we didn't have a backup supply of candles and lighters. ;) So anyway, I was not feeling homesick this week. Needless to say, we closed early. Which was good, because it was 90ish out and our store turned into a sauna with no air conditioning. So, at the time we had no clue what was going on. There was speculation about terrorism and what not. But it was really a mistake in Arizona that caused the power to go out for almost 1.5 million people in Souther Cali, Arizona, and Mexico. So, the girls had another 3 day weekend, and camped out on the patio. It was kind of cool because with all the lights off, you could really see the stars. :) The power came back on around 2AM.

San Diego Livin'

I've been in San Diego for 2 weeks. My new normal life has set in. The girls are home and about ready to start school, and I have started work. It may sound boring, but I'm really excited.
Last week my friend Valerie from Ohio happened to be in town visiting some friends. We hung out a couple times, and I got to meet some really cool people. Last wednesday, Val, Evonne and I went to Coronado. Which is a little island thing off of coast of San Diego. We took public transportation. Which was kinda cool. It was $5 for a day pass. We got to Coronado and went to beach, and then walked around the town a bit (and found a Starbucks ;) It was pretty cute. We got back to La Jolla and had dinner with some more of Val's friends. It was really nice.
I also started work this week. It was pretty intense. Mornings are crazy! but it's been pretty fun and everyone is pretty awesome.
Sunday Val and I met up and she let me use her laptop to skype my house church in Ohio. It was pretty cool. I had never skyped before. It was so good seeing everyone. I miss them bunches. That night we went to church and a place called the Flood. (we went with her friends we had dinner with the other night) It was really awesome. I'm really excited to get more involved and get into a church here in San Diego.

Time in L.A.

I've decided to go back and go into a little more detail about what I did while I was in L.A last week. So, let's see, I got there on Saturday, July 29. I left San Diego around 9AM. I was a little nervous about driving in/around LA (and San Diego for that matter) because the rush hour traffic in these cities are epically terrible. But really, if you pay attention, and don't do anything stupid, it's really not that bad. Now, if you're like me, it's hard to not get distracted when you have the pacific ocean on your left side that is within spitting distance. But if you ignore that, and pay attention to the road it's really not that bad. Well, until I got off the 5 in L.A. I think it was the 405. It turned into stop and go traffic for about 20 minutes. There was a really bad car wreck on the left hand side. As soon as I got past that traffic was alright again.  I finally got to Cindy's (my cousin) around 12:15. It only took me a extra 30 minutes or so to get there. For lunch Cindy took me to this place in Redondo Beach called Tony's on the Pier. It was an awesome restaurant. One of the best meals I've ever had. Then we went down to the water and walked around for a bit. The ocean was gorgeous. I can't even explain how seeing the ocean and being on the beach made me felt.
Sunday Cindy took me Hollywood and Highland. This is where the Kodak theater is, The Roosevelt Hotel (Which looks really awesome inside, BTW), Graumen's Chinese Theater. Oh, and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was pretty cool. We also went on a tour to see some famous people's homes and the Hollywood sign.
Monday I went to Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier by myself. I don't really know what I was thinking. I do not recommend going there by yourself, especially if you are a girl, and especially if you are a short girl who looks like she's maybe 16. When I first got there I went to the beach. It was quiet, about 9am, and hardly anyone on the beach. Amazing! I staying there for a bit then started walking down the beach. There was a pier really close by so I took a stroll down that. Then I decided to walk down Venice Beach. (Which is a bunch of little shops and stuff. I emphasize stuff.) It was interesting. I basically walked through it as fast as I could, then went to the beach again. I hung our there for a while, looked for some seashells, then decided to try to find a Starbucks. There was one a few miles away (which is the norm. in L.A. I think they believe if you go more than 2 miles without a Starbucks, a coffee tree in South America dies) I decided to walk most of it on the beach, then went into town. I ate lunch and sat for a bit. I knew I wasn't too far from the Santa Monica Pier so I decided to walk to that. It was really pretty, but really busy. I walked around the pier and got some pictures. Then, I looked up on my phone how far away my car was parked: 4 miles. Which really would not have been that bad if I hadn't been wearing flipflops. I walked back and I was almost to my car when this lady out of no where came up to me and grabbed my arm. She stares at me for a moment before speaking, and I'm staring at her like "Wow, lady, you managed to pop my personal bubble faster than anyone in my entire life!" Finally she says "You, you don't have to be looking down all the time." I had been looking down, but only because I had just walked 8 miles and I just wanted to get back to my car. Then she proceeded to tell me that my positive aura drew her to me, and that I just hold so much tension in shoulders (doesn't everyone in America do that?) and then when I was looking at her like she was completely nuts, she laughs and says that she had just gotten back from Mexico, and had had a few beers and was a little tipsy. The entire time this conversation was going on, she had not let go of my arm. She finally did let go of my arm, and I pretty much ran back to my car. Then I went back to Cindy's and passed out. I was tired!
Tuesday I really didn't do anything during the day. I just hung out and was lazy. Tuesday night Cindy took me to Pasadena and we had dinner with Hannah Kelley. It was so good seeing her. We ate at a place called Tender Greens (really, really good!) and then went to a place to get some Fro-yo, and walked around Pasadena for a bit.
Wednesday or Thursday I went to the Natural History Museum in L.A. It was really cool. I loved to Dinosaur exhibit. I had never seen Dino Skeletons in person before. After the NHM I drove around for about an hour trying to find a Starbucks. It's not that I couldn't find one, it's just that the roads in LA are kinda confusing and it took me a while to get unlost. But I found one eventually, don't worry ;)
Friday Cindy took me to the beach at Marina Del Ray. We had lunch there and then went to a place called the Venice Canals. It's really close to Venice beach and it's basically a play on Venice, Italy. It was really prettying. You can just walk around and look at the water and houses (which are really nice).
Saturday morning I left to come back to San Diego. I tried taking the 1 after Long Beach, and I did till Huntington Beach. I got out there and walked around for a bit. But the 1 is a road that runs right next to the coast and runs through all the little cities along the coast. It's nice, but something must have been going on (plus it was a saturday in the middle of the summer) because it was packed with tourists. So I just found my way back to the 5 and went home. It was a pretty cool week altogether ;)

Life in Cali so far...

Well, I'm still in vaca mode hanging out in LA. It's been a blast so far. The trip out here was harder than I expected it to be. I left last Monday for my Dad's in St. Joseph, MO. The first part of the trip was fine. I got to St. Louis around 12:30 and decided to hang out and check out the Arch since I hadn't been there since I was in first grade. It was pretty cool. Inside is a free museum (sa-weet!) And you can also go up in the arch for a small fee ($10).  I decided to be brave and go up in the arch. (I am so afraid of heights!) But surprisingly, my fear of heights did not come into play at the top of the arch. I was kinda shocked. But even looking out the windows I had no sense of vertigo. That being said, I am not claustrophobic, but if you are, beware, because the top of arch, and the pods used to get up there are SMALL. And they like to cram as many people on the top as can fit. I left the Arch around 2-3pm and headed to St. Joe. Longest 5 hours of my life! It seem to take forever. I felt like I would drive an hour, and only get 30 miles. It wasn't that busy for the most part. Major cities aside. But for some reason time just drug on and on and on that day. I finally got to my Dad's house around 8pm.
Tuesday I just hung out at my Dad's and got to spend some with my oldest niece, Mac, who I am going to be living with, but hadn't seen in 2 years, so I was pretty excited to see her. We decided to go to this mini water park thing by my Dad's. For the price we paid to get in, it was a pretty awesome little park. And I got sunburned. On my legs. And they're still white. Awesome.  Because of flooding north of St. Joe, I wasn't able to go visit my friend in Omaha. So I got up bright and early Wednesday morning and headed south/west-ish to pick up 40 in Oklahoma City. Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas were really hot but super windy! It was odd. For the night I stayed in a little town called Tucumcari, NM. Wednesday I planned on driving all the way to San Diego. Mostly because I just wanted to get it done with. That was the plan, until I got to Albuquerque. Within a half hour of driving past Albuquerque, I got hit in an intense migraine, followed with some Major dizzyness and nausea. I get those symptoms often enough on my own, but out of where like that it was a bit odd, even for me. I passed a sign sometime while all this was started that said "Elevation 4500 ft." or somewhere around there. So I googled elevation sickness. All my symptoms fit. The best part though? Most people get "altitude sickness" when they are at 8000ft or above. But really sensitive people can be affected at 4000ft. Ga-rate. Also, the best part really, is the only way to really alleviate your symptoms is "to get off the mountain". Since it normally affected skiers and mountain climbers. Well, I wasn't on a mountain, and the entire state of New Mexico for the most part seemed to be 4000ft above sea level and higher. So, I really had no option but to keep driving till I got below 4000ft. Which wasn't until a place called Kingmen, AR. I ordered pizza and went to bed about 7.  The next morning I felt so much better! And I was only 6 hours from San Diego! I started driving and about an hour into my drive I got to the Cali border. And there was a border check. It was interesting. When they found out I was coming from Ohio they said they needed to check my car. Which consisted of them looking in my trunk, which was so packed with stuff, they didn't even bother to remove any of it. Then they gave me a paper saying my car had been inspected and I was in Cali! The desert was really pretty, but my favorite (and scariest) part of the drive was when I got on 15. It was all downhill (err---mountain?!) The mountains/hills were beautiful! but you couldn't really take time to look at them, cuz like I said. It was all downhill, the speed limit was 70 (but you had to break practically the entire time) and it was lunch time so it was rather busy. Oh, and this wasn't a straight downhill road. No. Well, a few hours after that, I finally made it to San Diego! Granted, I was only there one day before coming to L.A. but it seems pretty awesome so far.
It's going to take some getting used to. Everything is so different from small town Marysville. (and even big-ish city Columbus) For one, Jay walking is a big deal here. Which I guess makes sense considering most roads are a least 4 lanes wide. It's just odd, considering people don't bother to use cross walks in Marysville. They also have traffic lights on on-ramps to regulate people getting on the highways. Crazy! They also clean to streets. And you have to get your car off the street, otherwise you get a ticket. Again, strange. I know they (occasionally) clean the streets in Marysville. But they move around the cars.
The beach is by far my favorite place so far. We checked out Hollywood. It was interesting. Really crowded. Um, Oh, I know another thing that was interesting/different from Ohio. You know how downtown Columbus has tall buildings, and that's downtown, right? and you don't see tall buildings like that till you get to the next major city that is at least an hour or so away. Well, there seems to be a least 2 or 3 clusters of tall buildings in the L.A. area.
Next week starts my "normal" life in San Diego. :) Can't wait!