The Library

On an hour lunch break, I decided to go for an adventure and find the Newport Beach Library. I like to think that if my wallet was ever to be stolen, the thief would take the time to at least go through it and notice the different items. If they saw that I had six different library cards, I might be wallet-less and poor, but at least the thief would think me to be well-read.

I drove down Pacific Coast Highway, ready to add a new card to my collection. Although I went directly to the library, and walked out with several books, I forgot to get the card. You see, the bookstore was having a massive sale of antique and used books. The sale officially began at one o'clock, and by 12:45, the bookworms and collectors were in a line that went out the door and around the corner. Even when the books were mostly falling apart and in languages most likely not understood by the people purchasing them, they were perfect. I could almost feel the written words around me and smell the decaying paper. It was divine, and the people around me all understood.

Today a group of oddballs came together, their grocery bags and weathered cardboard boxes in tow, ready to be filled, over-brimming with the works of Hawthorne, Bronte and Huxley. When he noticed me hold a copy of Kipling's Kim, a stranger dropped a copy The Little French Girl into my hands, and started telling me the story of Kipling's imprisonment. An old woman was nearly in tears in the corner, hugging a book she said she hadn't been able to find since she was twelve. Everybody held at least one book, and whether it cost fifty cents or three hundred dollars, we all had our own treasure. There was an instant connect with everybody else in that room, a way we could look at each other and know: we are the literature nerds, the romantics, the bibliophiles.

Lists

Dedicated to Nettie

The List of My Favorite Things (in no particular order)

Best Movie Outfits
1. Leisle's Edelweiss dress, The Sound of Music
2. Amidala's rainbow gondola dress, Star Wars
3. Cecelia's green dress, Atonement
4. Princess Ann's street clothes, Roman Holiday
5. Susan's warrior outfit, Prince Caspian

Favorite Parts of My New Job
1. Office supplies
2. Free blood tests
3. The Gross Women's Hospital
4. The old couples
5. Driving past the Pacific Ocean at sunrise/sunset

My Current Favorite Candy
1. Milky Way
2. Skittles
3. Milk Duds
4. Swedish Fish
5. Mike'n'Ikes

My Favorite Office Supplies
1. Highlighters
2. Stapler
3. Sharpie Pen
4. Desk Calendar
5. Roatary Pencil Cup

My Favorite Villains
1. The Wormwoods/The Trunchbull, Matilda
2. Malicifant, Sleepign Beauty
3. Dr. Horrible, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
4. Cathy, East of Eden
5. The White Whitch, Chronicals of Narnia

Best Parts of Being Rachel's Roommate
1. Midnight decorating
2. Harry Potter bedtime stories
3. Clothes
4. Party planning
5. The gnomes

Other Things that I Like
1. Being engaged to Chad
2. Photobooths
3. Hot cocoa mixed with coffee
4. Registery guns
5. Perfume bottles with spray bulbs
6. Eye droppers
7. The telephone playing Gershwin music while I'm on hold
8. That kid who thought he missed the school bus
9. Emails with pictures attached
10. My workout playlist & an open raquetball court

Also, the Terminator is no longer our governer, we have a wedding date and venue, and I am working at a medical lab at Hoag Hospital. There are only 22 days until Thanksgiving, and I love my new scalloped black high heels.

Thank You, TLC

Today, a light bulb burnt out in my house. I took the light bulb out , and got ready to go to the store where I could buy a new light bulb. Then, I realized, silly me! If I leave now, I'll miss Say Yes to the Dress. I decided to stay home, with the only the light of the television. That is how I know that I've got Wedding Fever.

As of Today....

I have completed my Bachelor's Degree!!!

Yes, George of the Jungle Did Just Walk By

Walking to class, I saw a man in a leopard-print loincloth holding a boom box playing Michael Jackson music on his shoulder. As I tried to think of any other places that such an outfit would be accepted and receive the welcome it was given, I realized how much I really am going to miss college.

This is a picture of the stress fracture in my foot:

What a Wonderful Week

So much has happened this week!

I interviewed for a camp counselor position at Camp Wayne last Wednesday, something that I have thought about doing for four years now. It was conveniently held on my school campus, and four hours later, I was offered a job on the spot. Woohoo! I have postponed homelessness and unemployment for another two months! I watched the instructional video they sent me home with, and now I am super excited because they have a Color War at the end of Camp like in Molly Saves the Day. I will be there with a smile and a can of worms.

Then, I went to the beach on Sunday, excited to wear my sunshine yellow sundress, and found some really cool holey rocks. Jenette said porous, but I did not concur. They were just holey. The boys immediately ran to the water as soon as we got there, and like the littlest bunny in Robin Hood, I yelled, "Hey guys, wait for me!" and ran into the not-so-terribly cold and surprisingly clear Pacific ocean. We eventually made it past the ocean floor pot holes and went out nearly past the surfers. When the other boys wimped out (yeah, you did) only Jacob and I were left.

"Wouldn't it be cool if a whole pod of dolphins came by right now? I asked.

Jacob laughed.

"I've seen it happen before," I insisted. We dove under another wave and kept bobbing along happily for about 45 seconds. Then, a fin came out of the water. A dolphin!

"Hello friend!" I shouted. I began tapping the water to encourage him that I was a friendly human, but then realized that there could be a shark if there was a dolphin and splashing like that was not one of my best ideas. The dolphin did not come closer, but his friend, dolphin Number 2 did! Then there was a wave, and Jacob and I saw the silhouette of an entire other dolphin through the water. Then more came and came until we were in the water with about seven dolphins. Or porpoises. Whichever, they were fantastic and close enough to see their eyeballs. It was one of those perfect moments in life where I just feel so thankful to live in and see the places I have been. All I could manage to say with those happy creatures around me was "Oh! Wonderful!" I kept repeating it, because it didn't need any more words. It just was perfectly wonderful.

Today, or well, yesterday, because I am up late again, I went roller skating. I didn't fall, which should be enough of a triumph, but that wasn't the best part. When I was waiting for more people of our group to arrive, an adorable four or five year old Chinese girl who could hardly reach her arms up to the ticket window translated for her parents so they could all go skating together. She was so excited, her light up tennis shoes were flashing more than a strobe light at a rave as she jumped around. I saw her and her mom and dad later on, each clutching the wall and slowly plodding their way around the rink in a single file line. I smiled at the and cheered the little girl on, who then look at me, smiled and ventured to slide two steps without the wall.

When I stopped to take a break about half an hour later, I found that same little girl flirting with a boy about her about. He tried to escape the girl cooties, but fell right on his bum while making his escape. She tip toed over to him, grabbed his wrist, pulled him up, and didn't let go. I watched as that determined little girl dragged her new boyfriend around the entry area. Eventually he gave up, and the two skated, no stepped on wheels, hand in hand for another ten minutes. She was definitely my character of the day.

Lots of other things have happened this week, like I finished a book called What-the-Dickens, walked in the rain, got an A on my Jazz midterm and certified in CPR, and I had the chance to dance in front of the chair of the CSULB Dance Department, but these three were my favorite.

This week, in preparation for camp, I am having a trial-run of seven days with no candy. Including chocolate. I will let you know if I am still alive at the end.

Easter Weekend

It must be Easter, because this morning, right after I finished eating my Honey Nut Cheerios, there was a real, live Easter Bunny outside our front door! We ran out to greet him, nearly tripping over several basket-toting children, and rushed to welcome the six-foot animal. He was very kind and high-fived Rachel and me.

Detail of the Day III

Yesterday, there was a naked man driving his RV down a residential street in Long Beach. I had hoped that maybe he was just topless, but at a stop sign, he proved his dedication to naked driving. Crazy man, it was cold outside yesterday!!!

Silhouettes and Lines

These are two things that I always like to take pictures of. (Yes, I know that ends a sentence with a preposition, but I'm not a prescriptive grammarian. I'm about to be a gradumacated linguist- I do what I want.) Today I have some lines for you.

Graduation is Approaching!

I filed to graduate from CSULB today, which means I have about two months to figure out what to do next. I have been at Long Beach State for five years now, so it will definitely be strange to leave the place that I have been living, go to school and working at the whole time, but I am looking forward to something new. The one thing that I will miss, though, is all the changes. Our school is seriously under construction, with new buildings popping up everywhere. (How they are building things, but can't afford to pay professors to teach enough classes so every student has a desk or chair to sit in, I don't know, but I digress...) I feel like if I leave now and come back to visit in a year, I won't recognize anything but the pyramid.

I had a wonderful birthday last month, and for the first time, I was able to visit Hearst Castle. Well, 2nd time, I think I remember Mom saying that I went there as a baby, but that doesn't really count. I love exploring the place, but even though the tour Chad and Kelly chose for me was through the library and the study, I was not as impressed with those rooms as expected to be. The Beast's Library sets an unrealistically high bar, but I can dream that I will find it one day. The rooms I really enjoyed at the castle were the guest rooms, especially this one called the jewelry box room. It was an up in the attic room, but with every wall made of colored glass windows half-way covered by curtains that absorbed the sun and colors and made everything look like it was made for Jeannie the genie or Princess Lollipop.

Also for my birthday, my family came over, and my mom, who is always up for a challenge, made a delicious purple cake. We redecorated my bedroom, played taboo and ate. A lot. Great birthday by my standards!

Now... here is my list of jobs that I will be looking into, in no order whatsoever. Please give your suggestions, advise and opinions, because right now I feel like I am playing a game to which I don't know the rules!

1. Dolphin Trainer (probably not gonna happen)
2. Librarian
3. Flight Attendant
4. English Teacher (more school!!!)
5. English Teacher in a Foreign Country
6. Disneyland Performer
7. Camp Counselor
8. Novelist
9. Work for American Girl Magazine
10. Chocolatier

A School Under Construction

Happy 2010!

The new year is here, and so far it looks like it is going to be a good one! I only have one more semester left as CSULB, so I am taking suggestions for what I should do with my life. Right now, I am thinking that I would like to travel again, so I am enjoying California as much as I can. Chad and I have been trying to explore cool nature-y places on my off weekends, which I've really enjoyed.





We played in the snow at Big Bear and found a small used book store by the lake. There were only two and a half rooms, but the walls were filled ceiling to floor with rows of books. Mostly it was a bunch of discarded Danielle Steele sap or the Left Behind series, but I found a small treasure: Eugene Field's Little Book of Profitable Tales (1896). It is now the latest in my small but lovely collection of antique books. The lake itself was outlined in a ring of ice, which I was more than happy to help destroy. Rocks (small boulders) thrown at the frozen lake fall with a surprising puff-like sound, like punching a pillow.

This past weekend, we hiked the El Moro Trail at Crystal Cove in Laguna Beach. I made friends with a squirrel, two blackbirds, four bunnies and a giant mushroom. Chad, proving that he did earn a degree in archaeology, found a bone in the ground. He says that it is a deer vertebrae. I like the idea of the adventure that might begin if we found the first clue in solving a mystery, but I hope he is right and that I don't have a human back bone sitting on my bookshelf. Because that's slightly more than creepy, it's how most Stephen King novels begin.





This year I have also visited a glass church on a cliff, met John Pinette, and had a tea party with dear old friends. I will try to write more often (ha ha...), and I will certainly let you know when I've decided what comes next. Hope that your 2010 (officially pronounced twenty-ten) is starting off as well as mine!