10 hours later....

For the first time since I moved to California I finally saw a "movie star" today. I was on my lunch break and having just completed my run I was on my way to pick up the manager's lunch from Panino. Still in my workout clothes, trekking up the sidewalk while looking at the ground (b/c I'm prone to falling!) I heard a voice that I recognized. I looked up in time to see a face that I definately recognized but COULD NOT PLACE!! Other than the fact that I KNEW he was in a movie I had seen, all I could do was describe him to my co-workers and then family. Ten hours later, I have finally realized who it was....



Drum roll....



Ok, don't get too excited.... really.... you might not even know who he is....

Do you recognize him?? The COACH from "Mr. Holland's Opus".....apparently his name is "Jay Thomas". I really don't like that movie (the Rowena character is evil) but it was DEFINATELY him.

And then I found five dollars.*

*A tag my friends and I used to add to a story when we had built it up to be really cool and it failed to live up to the hype. Finding five dollars makes any story better. :)

Serious Warm Clothing Shortage!!

Anyone who thinks that Santa Barbara, CA is warm all the time is sorely mistaken. I know, I know, boo-hoo- I'm not saying that it's anything close to what my family is experiencing in the midwest right now (ICE!!). I'm also not saying that I can't handle it or that it's TOO cold for ME (I grew up in the midwest, after all.) What I'm saying is that it's misleading..... When you look up the average monthly temperatures for Santa Barbara it's 70 degrees year round. Which would tend to make one think they wouldn't need to bring their sweaters, coats, and turtle-necks when moving from the midwest to Santa Barbara. One would be wrong to jump to this conclusion. For the past several days it has been in the 50's- which is not exactly COLD but also not exactly WARM- and which means that at night time, when people are heading out for holiday parties, it's very nearly freezing! Literally, in the upper 30's the past few nights.

Once again, I am not saying it is TOO COLD for me- I am a midwesterner for crying out loud. I'm just saying.. I shouldn't have gotten rid of all my lovely turtle-necks and sweaters!! :)

Hiking at Lake Cachuma

Lake Cachuma is in the Santa Ynez Mountains- An approx. 20 minute drive into the mountains from Santa Barbara. We took Steve and Anita up there to check it out one of the days they were here. Interestingly, there is no swimming or wading allowed in the lake... we aren't in the midwest anymore, Toto....

More Pictures at the Wharf

Santa Barbara Wildlife

With my mother and father-in-law in town we spent more time at the beach than usual and saw some AWESOME wildlife and got a few photos/video. The first day they were here we went down to Ellwood Beach (the beach three blocks from our apartment) and saw an amazing dolphin show! I didn't realize that they act like that on their own accord- jumping and flipping and such. It was getting dark but we managed to get one picture where you can kind of see them jumping:You can usually hear otters "barking" down at the beach, but at Ellwood Beach we don't see them that often. We did, however, take a trip down to Sterns Wharf and saw one little guy who was happy to swim up and show off for us! We got a couple pictures and a short video but unfortunately blogger is not letting me upload the video now, so here's a picture at least! Such a cute little guy!

It's been awhile...

We had the distinct pleasure of a visit from Justin's parents last week! That is my excuse for being lazy with the blogging!! I have been anything but lazy, let me tell ya! Started full-time last week at Softshare, the same week my wonderful inlaws were here to visit! Can you say busy? But sooo nice to see them. Can't wait for the holidays!!


Oh, I guess they're here, huh? We spent Thanksgiving at our friend David and JoAnn's place. Here are a couple pictures of that:


You might notice in the above photo that Justin's looking a bit shorter than usual. We didn't have enough dining room chairs so he had to sit in a camping chair!

This a picture of myself JoAnn and Katherine playing a game of Imaginiff... or should I say ruthlessly CHEATING at a game of Imaginiff.... We're bad!!

Possibly one of the funniest events of the night was when Dan put a glass pie plate on a hot burner and it exploded. He referred to himself as a terrorist for the rest of the evening and apologized 154 times. :) Here is a picture of JoAnn cleaning up the "shrapnel".

Just When You Think It's Safe!

Here I was, innocently reading my friend Emily's back posts on her blog (I've been bad about keeping up) when suddenly I was reading my name and discovering that I have been "tagged" and must now answer questions!! Just when you think it's safe to stalk a blog....

Name 5 things you were doing 10 years ago:
1. I was a Junior at City High School in good ol' IC.
2. I was driving a tan Pontiac 6000 with vinyl interior!!
3. I was working part-time at Mercer Park Pool!!
4. Singing in Show Choir.
5. Hanging with friends


Name 5 things you were doing 5 years ago:
1. Living on South Dodge.
2. Going to Iowa.
3. Dating Justin!
4. Hanging with the Davenport boys.
5. Managing the Iowa City Pools.


Name 5 things you were doing 1 year ago:
1. Teaching in Union City!!
2. Singing songs about Turkeys!!
3. Preparing to go HOME for Thanksgiving....sniff...
4. Helping Justin apply for PhD programs.
5. Enjoying being a newlywed!!

Name 5 jobs you've held:
1. Lifeguard/pool manager/lesson coordinator for IC Parks and Rec
2. Choral Director
3. Teacher
4. Nanny
5. Wife :)


Name 5 of your favorite snacks:
1. Diet Dr. Pepper!!
2. Grapes
3. Grapple's
4. Granola bars
5. Peanut butter filled pretzels!!


Name 5 things you did yesterday:
1. Worked at Softshare.
2. Read.
3. Worked with the Children's Choir.
4. Had a deep conversation with my husband about what happens when you cut brains in half and put them in other bodies.
5.Got promoted to FULL TIME at Softshare.

Name 5 things you'd do with a million dollars:
1. Pay off our school loans!
2. Help pay off our siblings/family's loans.
3. Give it away to those who need.
4. Buy lots of round-trip plane tickets for trips to Iowa and back!!
5. Buy the season's of Gilmore Girls that I don't have!!! :) (Justin suggested that one!)

Name 5 shows I like:
1. Gilmore Girls
2. Heroes
3. Grey's Anatomy
4. Brothers and Sisters
5. Private Practice

Name my 5 biggest joys in life:
1.Worshiping an all-powerful, almighty God!
2. My husband
3. My family
4. My friends
5. Working with kids.

Welcome to the 60 hour week!!

That's what Steve (the other director of the Santa Barbara Children's Chorus) said when I told him that I was offered full-time at Softshare. My DAD said "Welcome to the REAL WORLD!" He's referring to the fact that I had three and a half months of vacation and when I DID go back to work I was only working about 33 hours a week. It won't be 60 now- more like 50- but definately a shock to the system. It's a GOOD thing though. More cash, insurance benefits, paid time off....insurance benefits....insurance benefits....

Today I realized just how badly I need health insurance when I tripped and fell TWICE during my run this afternoon. Yes, fell to the ground (that was Justin's clarification). Yes TWICE. I went for a run after work at Softshare downtown- between work and Spanish class*. The first fall went unnoticed but the second time a guy was running towards me when I hit the deck (I would have been embarrassed if I wasn't so busy being confounded as to how I managed to fall TWICE). One of those times it felt like I jammed my arms up into my shoulder sockets....I'm probably going to be sore tomorrow. When do those benefits kick in??!!

*Softshare has set up a once-a-week Spanish class for any interested employees to attend. Hay muchas personas que hablan espanol en California y yo quiero hablan con ellos y entonces yo fui a la clase de espanol este dia.

EARTHQUAKE!!!

Haven't blogged in awhile because not much blog-worthy has been happening.... that is until last Friday! I went over to my friend Joanne's after work. Joanne cut my hair and then we enjoyed some wine and cheese (Trader Joe's, one of the grcocery stores out here, has an organic, sulfite-free red wine that doesn't give me hives!!) We were relaxing and chatting when all of the sudden the apartment shook! We stopped and stared at each other for a good 5 seconds after it stopped shaking and then we both started screaming- "Omygoshanearthquake!!!" It was a bit on the dramatic side (surprised?!) and we screamed and carried on for a good minute. I then suggested that we go outside and see if anyone else was reacting to the earthquake. Alas, no one had quite the reaction that we did, so we proceeded to turn on the radio to confirm that we had experienced our first earthquake, and then we proceeded to call everyone we knew who we thought might be impressed by our earthquake experience.

It was, in fact, a 3.4 and the epicenter was located 3 miles southwest of Santa Barbara. An aftershock occured minutes after, but it was weaker and we didn't feel it (probably because we were busy jumping around, celebrating our first earthquake!)

Bad Boys, Bad Boys, Whatcha Gonna Do??

My husband has been holding out on me. We just returned from a walk down on the beach and as we were entering our apartment we passed our neighbor from upstairs. I made a comment to my husband about said neighbor leaving his laundry in the laundry room for an unusually long period of time. My husband responded by asking me if I'd like to hear a "funny story" and of course, I said yes, and am now sharing it with YOU:

Justin was sitting on the couch in our living room with his back to the open window- blinds closed, window opened. He heard some noise outside and pulled the blinds back a bit to see three police officers heading up the stairs. They made there way to Apartment X (I'll leave the number out to protect the not-so-innocent) and knocked on his door. Our neighbor answered (after a little while) and the following conversation ensued:

Officer: Sir, there have been a number of complaints here in the neighborhood about you walking back and forth in front of your window NAKED.

Neighbor: Oh really? I guess I didn't realize there was a problem.

Officer: Yeah, there have been MULTIPLE complaints. If you're going to continue to do that, you're going to have to keep your blinds closed.

Neighbor: Oh, well I'm sorry. It won't happen again.

The officers then came back down the stairs chuckling and saw Justin watching the scene, also chuckling and said: "Did YOU call?" Luckily for Justin, the answer was no. Justin thinks maybe the reason it took the neighbor so long to answer the door when they knocked was that he had to get dressed first.

Today was the Softshare Pumpkin Decorating Contest. I submitted my entry (see 10/27 post) and soon learned that my "Pirate Pumpkin" was a bit sad compared to the competition. Below you can see the winners:

This first one was done by Robin and it was a spoof on Silence of the Lambs- it's hard to see, but she won the "Most creative use of the Pumpkin" award.

This next one was done by Christine- it was called "Jurassic Pumpkin" I know she got an award, but I can't remember what it was called - I think "Most Creative" or something like that:
And then there was Ray's entry. Ray's entry had scenery. Ray's entry had a soundtrack. Ray's entry had a motor, for CRYING OUT LOUD!! Ray's award was "Best Overall" and was entitled: "Raiders of the Lost Pumpkin":

The soundtrack was turned down low, but you can see in the video that he has his ipod in the dock and it's tuned to the theme song from "Raider's of the Lost Ark"......... unbelievable.

Not everyone was so extreme... here are some of the others that didn't win awards, but were still pretty funny.

I'm from Iowa City too!!

We went to our first live show in Santa Barbara last night. Our neighbors Mike and Shayna invited us to go and hear Jason Reeves- apparently he's from Iowa... Iowa City in fact. I thought it was rather strange that I had never heard of him and was now being invited by my neighbors in Santa Barbara to go and see him at SOHO (a club downtown). So we accepted the invite and went to hear him last night. Below is a rough video that I took:

So, after he played he was signing autographs so I decided to go and find out if he was REALLY from Iowa City (I'm very possessive of my hometown, just ask my brother-in-law Kyle- he and I always argue about whose hometown is better.....and I always win!) So I waited to speak to Jason and his handler looks up at me and goes "Did you want to buy a cd?" and I said "um, no, I just wanted to say 'hi' to Jason because I'm from Iowa City too!" Jason did a bit of a double-take and was like "no way!". So I asked him what highschool he attended and he said "City High" and I said "Really? I was class of '99" and he said "Class of '03"..... dang, I'm old!!! I'm kind of surprised they let a granny like me in the club! So I asked if he knew my brother and he did, and then I told him it was a great show and wished him luck.

So today I called up my brother to do a little "fact checking". My brother tells me that not only does he know Jason, but our MOM gave him a few VOICE LESSONS!! It's a small world after all. The kid has been in my HOUSE for crying out loud. And I paid 7 bucks to hear him play....

California Corn Maze

The first time I tasted corn in Santa Barbara I knew something was a little off. We were at the "Lemon Festival" with our neighbors and they bought corn on the cob from one of those vendor booths. There were all manner of spices and things to dress up your corn which should have been my first clue.... Apparantly the spices are there to cover up the fact that the corn (which is an unnaturally pale yellow) doesn't taste so much like corn... at least not to an IOWA girl!! I took one bite and exclaimed- "That doesn't even TASTE like corn!!". Most dissappointing, but not entirely surprising.

My next Santa Barbara corn encounter was something altogether different. My homegroup (group from church that meets once a week) decided to visit the corn maze and pumpkin patch tonight, since Wednesday is Halloween. Being from Iowa, I was a bit skeptical about a corn maze in the middle of Santa Barbara. But I was told it was actually quite difficult and fun, so we decided to give it a try. Even though it was dark out, I tried to take a couple of pictures, because I couldn't help but giggle at the palm trees in the background- not your average corn maze!!



The hay ride was pretty fun- although the hay bales were kind of hard (don't hay rack rides usually involve tons of fluffy hay that you can roll around in??) All in all it was a very fun night- mainly because I didn't actually have to EAT any of the corn!! (It's THAT bad!) Seriously, though, it was a really good time with some very fun new friends and the corn maze was actually VERY difficult.

Halloween!

I can't believe it's Halloween! It snuck up on me- I think because I was out of town helping with wedding preparations I sort of lost track of time! Anyways- Softshare is having a pumpkin decorating contest. We got to pick out a pumpkin from a batch that one of my co-workers brought in and next Wednesday we have to bring in our decorated pumpkins. Check mine out:

Stalkers Anonymous

A note to blog stalkers.... specifically Krista, Laura, Ashley, Leslie, Monica or Rachel.... You guys rock. Blog stalkers unite!! I'm so glad I've found a group of people who share in my addiction. :) Keep on stalking.... And don't be afraid to leave a comment here....KRISTA!!

Believe it or not, I think I'd prefer SNOW!

I thought orange would be a good color since I will be referencing the wildfires! I'm sure everyone has heard about the wildfires in CA. The closest one's to Santa Barbara are only 30 miles away, but we're not really in any danger. The problem here (which, I know, pale's in comparison to the horrible tragedy of the fires) is the the ASH!! The Santa Ana winds are stirring up the ash in the mountains and Santa Barbara is covered in it. It's wreaking havoc on my respiratory system, and just in case you think I'm being dramatic, I took a few pictures of what it looks like....

Since it is also unseasonably warm, we of course have the windows open (being that we don't have air conditioning). Which means, as you can see below, ash EVERYWHERE- from the windowsills to the floors.

So, really, I would prefer snow. It's pretty and white and it doesn't muck up your windowsills and floors like the nasty black soot. Since ash is basically raining from the sky, does that qualify it as precipitation? And if so, am I a precipitation racist because I prefer white snow to black ash???!!

A LONG Week

Don't get me wrong, I'm very glad that I got to spend the week with my best friend. Especially the week before her wedding, which included her birthday:

In this picture she is taking the first of 3 tequila shots on her birthday at "Don Jose"- the Mexican restaurant in Estherville, IA that looks more like a Shakey's buffet than a Mexican restaurant, but yet has impressively authentic food. Much later in the evening she received a phone call from her dad who asked for me three times before she finally handed me the phone in a fit of giggles over the fact that her dad would only talk to me (he wanted to make sure I would be able to get her home! Of course, being the friend that I am, we were already on our way). He told me that the last time she was out that late they brought her home in a bucket...

For most of the week April's mom was referring to me as "the sergeant". April and I made a list on Monday of what we needed to get done for the week and then I made sure we got it done- even when they tried to go to bed Monday night without completing Monday's list!! We took a picture of the list:

One of the toughest things on the list was putting together the favors, which were also the name cards with table assignments. They were little bronze airplane's that were also pencil sharpeners, and we hot glued ribbons to the back of them that had cards with the guest's names and table assignments.

The tables were all named with the aviation letter terms (ie. Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta etc.). Needless to say, I can do the entire alphabet now... (Echo, Fox-trot, Gulf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu). April got a kick out of the living room when we spread them all out to be alphabatized... it looked like an airfield!

Not too long after we got started on this task, April's dollar-store glue gun turned into a volcano and she ended up burning her finger so badly that it blistered. Unfortunately, it was on her left hand (bad for wedding ring photos). Fortunately, it was on her middle finger (good for a laugh when she showed it to people.)

Wednesday night we stayed in Chaska, MN (suburb of Minneapolis) at our friend Amber's new house (which, by the way, is AMAZING!) and then Thursday we checked into the impressive St. Paul hotel. This is where things started to go haywire....

We had called the hotel two days before to confirm that we had a room with two beds- so that we could get ready for the wedding there the next day. When we got to our room, we found one king size bed.... argh! We were NOT happy about this and quickly let the front desk know that. Luckily April was quite calm and nice about it (I was very hungry, and so, wisely, no one asked ME to talk to the front desk people!) After a frustrating 20 minutes we were upgraded to a 2500/night suite at no additional charge...

The suite was on the 11th floor and had a VERY impressive view:

It was the perfect place for the bridal party to get ready and take pictures, so all in all it worked out splendidly. The wedding and reception went off without a hitch- April was a beautiful bride of COURSE.

P.S. We're going on the cruise!

Wedding'd OUT!!

2 weddings in the span of a week- what a whirlwind! First off, Justin and I flew back to Des Moines to attend the wedding of our good friend Byrd (Mike) and his fiancee April. They were married in April's hometown of Perry, IA. We saw a bunch of people we hadn't seen in ages and despite the fact that most everyone seems a lot more mature and grown up, we had a really great time. :) Friday night we went to the rehearsal dinner at the local pizza parlor and then hit the "club" next to our hotel, which, considering the size of Perry, was actually pretty cool. Below is a picture of Justin and our friend Schade (pronounced "Shady").

The wedding was lovely- April was gorgeous and Byrd looked awesome in his Taupe tuxedo. I got a great picture of the kiss:

The reception was like a reunion- it was great to see all of our old friends.... we still clean up pretty nicely!

Quite Possibly the BEST P/T JOB EVER!!!

Good....no GREAT news: I may be going on a 3 day cruise in January courtesy of my new part-time employer. Oh, and guess what else? My husband gets to come too. 3 day cruise down to Mexico....I love my life.

They scheduled the cruise a couple of months ago so it's still tentative as to whether they can get cabin for us. I'm not getting my hopes up.... really....I'm not....ok, maybe I am. But come on... a CRUISE!!!

In other good news: I found a wonderful hairstylist!! I know, headline news- right?! Well, when one moves to a new city, one must find new hairstylists, mechanics, doctors etc. It took over two YEARS to find a good hairstylist in Michigan!! I got very lucky here in California- Joanne is one of Justin's colleague's wives. Not only is she a fab hairstylist, but a very cool girl that I am looking forward to getting to know better! Life is good.

Oh, one more bit of good news....
Rockstar was delivered TODAY!!

Accent??!!

Apparently, I have an accent. For the very first time in my entire life, I have been accused of having an accent. A "midwest" accent, to be precise. The accusation occurred at work yesterday (Softshare- not the Children's Chorus).

Yesterday afternoon at work I had my first "crisis management" experience in the "office work" setting. The Coca-cola delivery guy came, and at first, that seemed routine. (We have a cooler in our break room that is stocked full of sodas, fruit drinks, and energy drinks). Then, my co-worker Natalie (who sits at the front desk with me) noticed that something about our delivery was "off". Our delivery did not contain any of the EXTREMELY POPULAR soda, Vault. When asked why, the delivery guy said that none of the other buyers in the area are ordering enough of it, and therefore we would have to order extreme mass quantities of Vault, if we wanted it to be delivered to us.

News traveled fast around the office and we were in crisis mode. After the initial hysteria started to abate, we started to discuss our options...

Option 1: Go without.

This option did not seem viable as several of the employees were near panic-attacks at this prospect.

Option 2: Purchase it from the store.

This option seemed, well, very expensive and a bit irrational.

Option 3: Find a substitute.

Of our three options, this one seemed the most likely, even though it illicited a few sharp gasps. We quickly set about the task of coming up with a suitable replacement. Red Bull was volunteered, but then quickly shut down (I don't think Coca-Cola delivers it anyway). To pay homage to my favorite father-in-law, I then volunteered "Rockstar" as a solution. This got some raised eyebrows and a few exclamations, as well as an accusation that I HAVE AN ACCENT!!!!

When I recovered from this accusation, I assured my co-workers that Rockstar (and I do say the "ah" vowel brightly when I say this word- mom, you know what that means) has many many fine qualities that could stand up to Vault, if not surpass it.

Quality 1: MASS QUANTITIES OF ENERGY... here is where I shared the anecdote about my father-in-law and his first experience with Rockstar, during which he stayed up most of the night painting the foyer of his house.

Quality 2 : You can get DIET Rockstar.

Quality 3: It tastes like Smarties.

After my Rockstar lobbying (during which I became increasingly more self-conscious about my "accent") a conclusion was reached and Rockstar became the new kid on the Softshare block. I can't wait to see people bounce off the walls!!

Sunset at Ellwood Beach

Return to the working world....

I FINALLY returned to the working world! Today was my first day at Softshare! I am an internet researcher/receptionist. It's not rocket science, but I have to say it is a little overwhelming to learn who everyone is and how to transfer calls and take messages etc. I got to use the "training headset" and listen in on calls that my co-worker took. I have to say, those training headsets are pretty sweet- I need one of those for home so that I don't have to drive Justin nuts by asking him what he was talking about on the phone! I could just listen in!!

Last night I told my homegroup* that I was starting today and my homegroup leaders were like "That's a great place to work!!" Always nice to hear! They have a "Bring your dog to work" policy and Monday's are "Bagel Day", Wednesdays are "Fruit Day" and Fridays are "Pastry Day"- and on each of these days, said items are provided for staff!! I think I"m going to like it there! :) They also have a softball team and every Friday they do something active together as a staff (probably to work off the pastries!). Unfortunately, I probably won't get to do the Friday activity b/c I'm only part-time. I'll just have to go home and be active!

All in all, it's a pretty cool schedule. M-F 8:00-1:00, and then MW I work with the children's chorus from 3:00-6ish. So, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays I am off by 1:00- nice deal! Now, I just have to get used to going to bed at a decent hour again!

*Homegroup is a Wednesday night bible study that Justin and I are doing through our new church- Santa Barbara Community Church.

Stalking the UPS guy

You know you need a job when... April sent my bridesmaid dress last MONDAY!! When we tracked it on Thursday it said it would be arriving TODAY!! So, as I'm turning off of our street (to go and turn in a job application....ironically) I see the UPS truck entering our little cul de sac. I can't afford to miss the package (who knows how long it would take to get it!!) so I flip a u-turn (legal in California) and head home to wait. How many packages could he have in our little area??? Well, it's been 30 minutes and I'm still waiting. I've paced outside a bit, and even hopped in the car and drove around the block to make sure he was still in the vicinity. I might have too much time on my hands!! Ooh here he is!! Gotta go try it on!!! Yay!

Must be a California thing....

On our hike up Montecito peak Justin and I observed a variety of scenery from cacti, to lizards, from the ocean to to the mountain tops. Most of which you would expect to see when hiking in the mountains...that is until we saw some "wildlife." A boisterous middle aged man hiking the mountain with nothing more than a backpack, hiking boots, and a pair of "tighty blackies" as I termed them (after he had passed, and after I stopped giggling.) Below is a pair exactly like the one's he was sporting. Nothing like a nice hike in your underwear and boots I suppose. A little awkward when passing others on the narrow trail- but he just covered with a "Nice day!" and that said it all...

Go Cubs!!

Justin says I need to post about the Cubs- since we did go to two Cubs games during this playoff run this summer! (He is sitting next to me and telling me what to write!!!) Above are pictures

from "Iowa Day" at Wrigley. Below are pictures from a game earlier in the season when we sat

in the bleachers on a HOT summer day (hence our topless husbands!) Amy and Charlie

Zanayed were with us that day, and Charlie was there for Iowa Day too! Go Cubs!!!