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!

Jaywalkers Are Not My Friends

I enjoy living in my new place, but there a few inconveniences that arise when living on-campus, off-site. While it helping me to remember to write lists of everything I need, so I don't forget my homework at home, and think that it fantastic to actually live on Pacific Coast Highway, it is getting to campus that's the trouble.

1. The Shuttle, which I understand is working out it's kinks, is often late, and which makes me either very early or slightly late to my first class.

2. Biking. Fantastic during the day, not so premium for my sight in the nighttime.

3. Walking. Fantastic during the day, not so premium for my general safety and well being in Long Beach in the nighttime.

4. Driving

A. Driving. People are crazy drivers here. No one signals. I don't understand that. I appreciate the pleasant and familiar tock-tock of my blinker. Plus, it's one more button to push. Fun! And, to all of you tail-gaters, you make me drive slower, not faster, so there.

B. Driving Part 2: Jaywalkers like to frequent Atherton, just past the grocery store. I don't know why they congregate right on that quarter-mile stretch of road, but it's not ok. You stress me out. You too, bicyclists. You know what? I waited to get my driver's license, and that gave plenty of time to study. I know the rules of the road. I knew them when I was a pedestrian, AND I followed them. They aren't difficult. The general idea is to know when you have the right of way, and if you don't have the right of way, don't step in front of a very quickly moving vehicle that is at least 5 times your size. Thank you, pedestrians and bicyclists that stop at red lights, I value your patience.

C. Parking. Parking lots are not pretty, and parking structures are way sketchy. But, I need to get to class, and it's not fun to have to drive to class just to find out that I have to walk from Lower Campus to the South Turnaround, which takes almost as much time as walking from my apartment, so more parking options might be better. Shows me for smogging up the air to drive to school.

D. Hit & Runn-ers. They are bullies and though I know that accidents happen, I do not appreciate their antics. Oliver is still embarrassed about the dent and hole you left in his bumper. A band-aid will not fix this booboo.

Detail of the Day II

I was sitting on a concrete bench outside one of my classrooms, reading and studying, when the song "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast came on my i-pod. As the song went on, I began assigning the different lines and townspeople characters to the passersby. It was frighteningly easy to find people to play the Bimbettes, and the different townspeople like the baker or barber. I even found a Gaston and Lefou crossing the lawn by the Outpost. I was thrilled that without even trying, I was the one sitting in the middle of the crowd reading, because, guess who that makes me!

"Look there she goes that girl is strange no question. Dazed and distracted, can't you tell?"

And I Shall Call Him Lumpy, The Wall Licker

Detail of the Day

Today, while driving past a Home for the Elderly, I saw two women crawling through a chain link fence. The fence guards an open sewer that divides a pretty busy road from this Elderly Apartment Complex. One, who looked to be in her early twenties, was wearing a baseball cap and carrying an umbrella, even though it was reported to be 105 degrees today. The other woman, who was probably in her fifties, was wearing an Amish dress and cap.


What do you suppose they were doing?

A Pleasant Summer

A month ago, I moved to a new on-campus complex called Parkside. It is a fun studio apartment that is literally split into two halves, one on each side of the hall. While the kitchen is huge and the location is perfect, I have not even started to really unpack. This is because I thought that I was moving again at the start of August to another new apartment. However, this second move has been postponed a few weeks, and now I am really feeling the nomadic life.

This summer, I have been enjoying the freedom that a car of my very own provides. Before, I never would take the bus by myself past sunset. That just seemed to be asking for trouble, however short the ride would have been. When the sun would start to set, I would, as if I lived in a world where vampires and other things that go bump in the night really existed, ride my bike home as fast as my legs could pedal. Now, if I need to run a small errand, I can go to the grocery store, or wherever. Amazing! I do still love to ride my bike, and I have found that going to the library or buying flowers isn't as satisfying when I drive there. There is something so pleasantly antiquated about that combination, that I don't think that I will ever become a content driver. Plus, I still hate changing lanes.

To continue with the old fashioned summer theme, I went to the Orange County Fair, enjoying the small but terrifyingly rickety roller coasters and the simplicity of a photo booth. Mama received an honorable mention in the professional photography contest, so we were all very proud! My family and I went to the circus, where two women where simultaneously shot out of side-by-side canons and tigers jumped through hula hoops of fire.

Unfortunately, though, it was tainted with modernity for which I was most definitely not prepared. The circus was not in a tent, but a huge indoor concert arena, and the vendors outside used obnoxiously loud microphones and speakers trying to sell their programs, popcorn and cotton candy. I can accept that being yelled at by the calling salesmen is part of the experience, but at least before the technology invasion, there was a technique and a near musicality to the way they threw their voices. Maybe not. I wasn't there in that time period, so I can't say for sure if that's how it was, but my imagined version of a three-ring circus in a tent with fire-breathers and clowns in striped pants seems much more appealing. It is just so less intimate with laser shows and overwhelming crowds and overly rehearsed lines. I guess my imagined circus, my imagined anything, really, will always be my ideal, so how can I fairly compare the two?




Auntie Colleen posted something that asked which fifteen books will always stick with her. (I know I cheated and put 17, but she listed 24!) Here is my list:

1. The Giver
2. A Separate Peace
3. Dove Isabeau
4. Daughter of the Forest
5. Flowers for Algernon
6. The Things They Carried
7. Tuck Everlasting
8. Bridge to Terabithia
9. Fahrenheit 451
10. The Harry Potter Series
11. In My Hands/The Hiding Place
12. Pygmalion
13. Pride and Prejudice
14. The Picture of Dorian Gray
15. Ella Enchanted
16. Beloved
17. Romeo and Juliet

Started May 17, Published June 11. How Time Flies.

After four years at CSULB, I was able to see my classmates take part in their respective Graduation ceremonies. (Congratulations all of you!) However, I am not among those dedicated and accomplished students. Having committed to my position as a Residence Hall Coordinator, I will be here for one more year. Linguistics, Creative Writing and French will have to keep me busy as usual.



Although the semester seemed to fly by, week by week, each homework assignment to the next, it dragged. I am sure there were times when I could have committed more of myself, but I'm always wiser with retrospect. Looking back, I can't remember a time when I wasn't completely booked with meeting with usually crazy and occasionally frustrating, but always interesting and entertaining residents. RA's always had projects going on, all of which were impressive, as usual. We danced in the Japanese Garden, listened to Mariachi music, watched plays, and a million other things. I attempted to attend all of my club meetings on campus. I even started writing my first novel. (Someday, sure, but no, you can't read it yet.) Day by day, I tended to feel more and more guilty sleeping when there was still so much to do.

All the same, life continues. I had a roommate for a while, Paula, who came from Holland and experienced her first earthquake here! We've had a couple recently, actually. I think I might be developing a psychic ability for predicting them, but Jenette used to think she could hear earthquakes coming by listening to the floor of Auntie Freda's pool. Who knows. I still go to physical therapy, which I love. I'd heard from other people that it's horrible and painful, but I look forward each week to the exercise. I danced again for the first time last week, and while my legs were stiff and heavy, they welcomed the movement. My knee hardly ever gives me trouble, and my goal is to get into shape well enough to dance a championship hornpipe and reel without feeling like I'm going to collapse. I think I'll manage... in a few months... Baby steps.

I've taken a pretty huge step this week, though. I bought my very own first car! It is green and small. It has a tiny black steering wheel, and the dashboard lights are green and red like Christmastime. The blinker tocks more than it ticks, and it still doesn't have a name. I'm thinking something insect-y. Whatever I call it, after three days, I am already fiercely protective and completely committed. I woke myself up in the middle of the night last night, just to look out my window and make sure it was still waiting for me in Lot 20.

This summer has had a serious case of June gloom, and I am ready for some sun! I am moving this August to help CSULB start up a new Residence Complex about a mile off campus, and right off PCH. It's all very exciting and I can't wait to get everything started, but my new apartment won't have a backyard, so I am hoping the sun will come out to visit soon! Either inside or out, I still plan to read a lot of books and finish lots of projects. So far, I've read Flowers for Algernon, Where the Red Fern Grows and World War Z. Next up is Persuasion, The Sun Also Rises, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Any other recommendations, or invitations to book clubs, please send them my way!



After a short conversation with Chad, this entry's lesson is the following. According to The Phrase Finder, "to "play it by ear" initially referred to the playing of music without reference to printed notation. More recently, it is also used figuratively to mean 'handle a situation in an impromptu manner'" Now you know.