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!

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