Santa Monica Beach

Recently, I volunteered to lead a student activity group to Santa Monica beach. I wasn't particularly looking forward to it. My weeks are so busy, that I am so exhausted on the weekends, and didn't feel like playing mother or babysitter to 60+ college students in Los Angeles, but it seemed that no one else was available to do it, and I really wanted those comp hours.

So this past Saturday morning, I was waking up at 6am to get ready and pack for the beach, to be at work at 7am, to get everything in order: waivers, lists, contact information, wristbands, and then check students in, manage our waitlist check-in and quell the general calamities.

Well, it ended up being a great day, and so much fun! I had no idea it would be that much fun. I thought I might end up with a few socially awkward students and need to make small talk all day, but not the case at all. First of all, we were able to get EVERYONE on the bus, which I was so thrilled about! We had a huge interest, and a lot of waitlisted students who showed up just in case, and we fit them perfectly to a T! The ride down there was nice, I spent a lot of it organizing the waivers and getting everyone checked in an accounted for, and then talked with some of the IPA's near me, and a Ukrainian student who told us about the Black Sea, where he would usually go for swimming.

When we arrived, I told the students that this bus was LEAVING at 4p, so they better plan to be here by 3:30 or 3:45, and if they weren't here, I would assume that they had met the loves of their lives on the beach and were on their way to get married and live in Santa Monica forever. I gave them directions to Venice, the promenade, the pier, and told them that I was parking myself at the beach all day, so they could find me there, and then told them to have a good day and we all disbursed. 

Well as it turned out, a lot of them also planned to sit at the beach and we had a great group that planted on the shore, and others came and went throughout the day. Someone rented a surfboard and they took turns passing it around. I brought beach toys, someone else brought a football and we taught the international students how to throw it. Some IPA's bought some sand toys and we built sandcastles. We talked, read, played games, went swimming, and overall it was just a really fun group.

It's been really fun being on the other side of studying abroad, I love being able to show these international students my home. For some of them, this was their first time at the beach EVER! (At least one of the students I spoke with from Iran.) And our IPA's are such a great group too, it's been such a win-win.

It was a longer ride back with the traffic, but those of us in the front seats played some trivia games on phones and were having so much fun, we were back before I realized it.

Of course, now I have my first sunburn of the season, and it has those awkward fingerprints of where I tried to reach with sunscreen and didn't quite make it... oops.

Yoga Schmoga

Marisa and I were on the road to our twice-weekly yoga class. We had both had irritating days and were venting it out. The traffic was insane and we were stressed and realizing that we were going to be pretty late. So we agreed - screw it, let's get a drink.

And we spent 3 hours at Romano's, eating garlic bread and salads and downing beers and watching the Giants / Redskins game.

Namaste indeed.

The Kooks!

Wednesday night, schmednesday night. It was payday! So I went down to the Santa Ana Observatory to see The Kooks. This was actually my third time seeing them, which I find a little bizarre. I do love them, truly, and they are great indie rock music who always put on a good show, but it just seems like there are other bands I am more obsessive about that maybe I haven't seen at all. I don't know how I've racked up three times with them. I guess it's cause they always seem to come to town, play at good venues, have reasonable ticket prices and always have great music for shows.

ANYWAY... it was my first time at the Observatory, and what a peculiar little place that was. There are apparently two rooms/stages, so everywhere you went you were asked which show you were there for and corralled to one area or another. The other must have been some crazy heavymetal band, cause there was a questionable crowd on the other side. Inside, it was all standing general admission, which is great, but it also had stadium levels and a stair entrance through it all that bottlenecked and was a constant source of frustration for everyone trying to get down to the front and also to leave.

I was verrrrrrrry impressed by the opening act, a girl who goes by Halsey. She's from New York and sings about "a boy in Bed Stuy" so I can only imagine the name "Halsey" is a Brooklyn reference as well. But, she was great. She was some sort of mix of Sky Ferreira's moodiness, Ellie Goulding's voice and beat and Lana Del Rey's poeticness. I was pretty sold, and definitely a fan. Her album hasn't come out yet, so I could only find her song Ghost online. She was all hyped up on her first show in California and took pictures. I'm somewhere in that crowd...

Aaaaand The Kooks - amazing as always! They have such great music for live shows. Upbeat, rocky, feel-good and fun! The lead Luke Pritchard is a great entertainer, and he just reminds me of some little punk twerp kid. He's gangly with his little curly punk hair and wears skinny jeans and is always all dancey and energetic, and he's just so fun to watch. He just seems like some British kid who probably knocks bicycles over or something. I don't know why that's so endearing, but somehow it is.

They played a lot of songs from their new album Listen, which is great, because they are one of very few bands that I can actually look forward to new and unknown songs, because they all promise to be catchy and awesome. By the chorus you're already hooked, such as this gem It Was London.

I am definitely struggling at work today, but it's a small price to pay.

Seven Devils

I am running out of ways to title these posts. I literally just copied down the title of the song that is on right now.

Here's what you've been missing out on in my life:

Neighbor Dave decided to beat the triple-digit heat wave by checking into the Mission Inn for a few days, and invited the neighbors out for drinks and night swimming

We celebrated Aunt Jann and Aunt JoAnn's birthdays at an Elvis brunch in Orange County, where Sebastian was absolutely mesmerized.

Grandma is going to start reviewing all the chile rellenos she eats everywhere. The grade on this one was "just okay". Watch out, Zagat's. There's a new reviewer in town.

My mother and I went to grandma's afterwards and I fell right asleep on the couch. (Morning mimosas tend to do that). I woke up to a text reading "while you were sleeping" with this picture attached. They wanted me to believe it was something delicious.

Work was crazy last week with the new student orientation. Four days of presentations... but also fun! Our fabulous and adorable peer group in blue, the international students, and mascot Scotty!

I celebrated the end of orientation week with a Friday night concert in Hollywood... Chvrches! It was such a great show, I had a wonderful time, and even made some friends. They were SUCH good performers, there was great energy, and all the effects were magnificent.

The weekend was spent recovering, which was easy because the weather was beautiful. Breakfast on the porch complete with Cackalacky sauce from North Carolina (courtesy Jayna), hummingbird visitors, watching Khaleesi make friends across the way, and even walked down to the library to get a library card, as well as check out the local history section that Dave had told me about.

Just trying to make it through these very busy weeks ahead!

Dave's Neighborhood

I've slowly been getting to know my neighbors more and more, and can I just say that Dave, who lives in the apartment next to me, is the best? He is so friendly and nice and seems to know everything about Riverside, and everyone in Riverside, and is just great. I told Jayna that it's Dave's neighborhood and the rest of us are just living in it.

So Thursdays are usually Yoga Thursdays, and it was Marisa's turn to drive and we were going to go to the later class, so I went home first, played with Khaleesi, changed, and was doing some things around the house when Marisa texted me that she got a flat tire and wasn't going to be able to make it. The weather was perfect so I went outside and was wondering if I still wanted to go to yoga myself when one of the neighbors came out and started talking to me, and then offered me a beer. And that became my night.

Shortly after that, Dave came out, as did other neighbors from next door, and we were hanging out on the porch, talking and drinking, and Khaleesi stood at my screen meowing so I eventually let her out and we all watched her running around the front yard chasing crickets and exploring, and then Dave went to the store and came back with a smoothie for me, totally unprovoked (he's so nice!) and then made everyone pizza and brought out more beers and it was just a nice little neighbor nighttime front porch funtivity.

Alarm Clocks and Survival Kits

The beast that is a spoiled child has begun to rear it's ugly head. Because I obsessively love and dote on my Khaleesi Bug, that little brat has discovered that she can just meow meow and meow whenever she wants to play and I will do it. She used to be so quiet! She is now waking me up before my alarm clock, and dropping her favorite rubber band on me so I will throw it for her to fetch. It's something of a Catch 22 because I don't necessarily want to engage in that at 5 in the morning, but throwing it off of me does get her and her yapper away from me. The bright side is that I can suffer an alarm malfunction occasionally now since I have a back-up.

In other news, work is getting hectic and ca-ra-zay as we gear up for orientation, and in our staff meeting today we were surprised with some survival kits, which were so cute!

The staff and my coworkers are pretty great, and I especially enjoy our leadership, just another reason why!

What Day Is It?

I'm trying to say that à la Jumanji's WHAT YEAR IS IT meme. (I still miss Robin Williams!)

I'm in a timewarp trying to figure out what day it is and what's going on. I had last Monday off for Labor Day, but then I had to work this Saturday. Then I went out to a show last night, which is decidedly not a Sunday-night thing to do, so I have no idea what's happening today. I feel like I'm working on Sunday.

But anyway, my coworker was very generous in hooking it up to see We Are Scientists and The Rentals at the Glass House last night, and we had a lot of fun! It's just tragic that today is Monday.

Also: Crazy! To think I've basically been here.

Come And Knock On My Door

But actually, please don't do that in the middle of the night, or without a housewarming gift, like wine or ice cream.

So I finally gots my own place, and what I really mean by that, is that Khaleesi has found her kingdom and I'm paying the bills.

Since I had zero furniture, it's going to be awhile before I accumulate more, so it's pretty sparse and bare right now. Normally my favorite part is putting up the pictures and all, but without all my furniture and knowing where everything will go and how it will be set up, I'm a little behind on all that. I'm very excited for my charming historic one-bedroom, circa 1903. I was always sad to leave my Sunnyside apartment in Queens because of the 1930's charm, but I found it again! The wood paneling and heavy old doors with original keyholes, plus a big front porch with plenty of room for chairs and a table. Plus I'm walking distance to all that is good and love the community down here. If you want to know how much charm the apartment has, I'll tell you: there are basically no cabinets or counters, only one big massive pantry.

Oh, and also a Roman tub still

A sun room or patio that became enclosed and is now my wash room

Can you find the Khaleesi?

Walk-in closet!

Kitchen

Living room

Khaleesi really likes the long layout of the apartment, because I can throw a rubber band from the kitchen, through all the doors into the living room, and she goes slipping and sliding and crashing into the walls in her pursuit to catch it. Sometimes she gets so excited that she can't even run right and is running in place on the wood like a cartoon kitty. There are a lot of crickets in the backyard though, so her job is to eat them all before they come inside. She's gunna have to earn her keep!