Fun in February

Well, as promised, I tried to have more fun in February. I think it went pretty well!

First off, I joined two of my fellow post-docs at work, Connie and Audrey, on a trip to Los Angeles to visit Universal Studios - Hollywood. Now, this is the first time I have ever visited an amusement park that is connected to movie studios. Yes, this does mean I have never been to Disneyland. Happily. :)

I didn't really know what to expect. I'm used to the good old fashioned rollercoaster-containing sort of amusement parks, so I was pretty excited about doing some screaming on stomach dropping hills, or going upside down and such.  Alas, I was mistaken. There were only even 7 rides or something.
A number of the rides were well done, like the new Transformers ride and The Mummy ride. But they weren't the rollercoasters I expected. A lot more wearing of 3-D glasses and watching screens! Jurassic Park, however, was a water ride and didn't have screens, and it had big motorized dinosaurs. It was pretty freaky at the end. You totally thought the T-rex would get you before the raft went plunging down the waterfall. And the Transformers 3-D stuff was pretty awesome. I think I was actually convinced a few times that I was moving, even when I wasn't! One of the neat things is that there is a tram that will take you on a tour of the Studios and the backlots where all these sets are located for filming. Like the Europe sets. Or the New York city rows of Brownstone houses. Or the City Hall that some years and a few makeovers ago was used in Back to the Future! Pretty neat stuff, actually. Anyway, now I can say I've been! And of course, I had to be the tourist and get the picture with the Universal globe.

The next weekend I took advantage of the fact that I live next to the ocean and went with a couple gals from church  (Eileen and Esther) on a whale-watching adventure! We did get lucky on our boat and we found two California grey whales, apparently on their southward migration to Mexico. They would come up for air and surface 2 or 3 times quickly and then dive back down  for a longer period of time - like 4-5 minutes. We got to hang around and watch this for a few rounds before we had to head back. It was cool, however we weren't nearly as close as we were in Hawaii. Not the best picture opp, but here is a tail of one of the whales!  We also saw dolphins, and pelicans, and seals, so I'd say it was a pretty good trip. Additionally, when we were coming back the Bay from the Ocean, there was this awesome boat with all the sails and such as you imagined one would have seen, say about the time they were exploring the new world. It just happened to be sailing past Point Loma when we passed it, which is this area of land that separates the Bay from the Ocean (I suggest looking at a map to get the idea!). It is the spot where Juan Cabrillo, an explorer in the 1500's, first set foot on land on the US West Coast. Therefore, the really cool old-looking ship passing Point Loma seemed rather perfect.

January Ups and Downs

I'm sorry for not keeping up on this better! I have so much to catch up on. But I have a few free hours since it was President's Day and I sort of had most of the day off. So here's some catching up.

I did eventually get over my Christmas break sickness, just in time for my January up! Which was my friend Katya from Iowa City visiting San Diego for a math conference. Oh, its nice living in city where your friends travel to for conferences. :)  'Cause it means I get to hang out with them!  Katya stayed with me and commuted down the conference center and we had quite a nice time sharing our evenings and most of a Saturday together. We saw some of the sights of San Diego. Below is a picture of us checking out La Jolla Cove. And I even got to sneak in and see Katya present her research too!  We had such a nice time chatting and learning that we had more in common than we knew!  Including the fact that we have coordinating rain coats! :)  Thanks for coming Katya!

But some of the month was rather down. I know that I just got to see a lot of my friends and family over Christmas, and had one friend had just come to visit. But nonetheless, I was really really missing friends. I think it was mostly because I'd been having some frustrating weeks at work trying to push things forward and feeling like I was getting nowhere. And making mistakes. And in the midst of the frustration, I just needed a close friend's couch to cry on. And that couch (or a varied possibility of a few peoples couches) is 1500 miles away. So I was feeling quite lonely.

But February will be better!  I'm taking some good advice from a friend and trying to get out and have some fun (with people). And trying not to let the frustrations at work get me down. And I can look forward to visitors again in March!  I think I have truly been blessed with the best friends ever.

One of the neat things that I did get to do already in February is to go with a gal at my church to an orphanage in Tijuana with a group of others from San Diego. It certainly helps me put the frustrations of my life in perspective to spend a day with some kids from two years old to teenagers who don't have any family and have it much worse than I do, and who can still smile and have fun playing jump rope. Hopefully I can make it down sometime again. Maybe it will be good motivation to try to brush up on my high school Spanish :). 

The Christmas Update

Perhaps a bit belated, but better late than never!

So, last post I said was, and I quote "hoping for a bit of snow" when I went home for Christmas. I just really wanted to point out the part where I said a bit of snow. Because it dumped 7 inches on Omaha the day before I flew home for Christmas, and I got blamed for it because of that comment! :)

Despite the snow, I did make it home okay, and it was quite lovely to see all the white for Christmas. I had quite a good time, and spent a lot of time in a car getting to one place or the other! I made it to Grand Island, Nebraska - 2 hours west one day to see some dear old friends there. Then the next day found myself in Des Moines, Iowa,  - 2 hours to the east to meet some of my Iowa City friends there as well.  Of course I got to see a few wonderful friends in Omaha as well, and was there just in time to celebrate my brothers birthday.

My friend Ester here asked for some pictures of snow, so I got some in Des Moines. Even though most of you know what snow in the midwest looks like, I'll post them anyway (since I don't have any pics of people from the trip)! It was quite beautiful to see the snow hanging on the boughs of the trees. I'm glad I got to see snow, but I'm even more excited that I only had a 12-day winter and got to come back to Southern California!

Other highlights were that the Cranberry Swirl Cheesecake from Thanksgiving made a debut at Christmas dinner as well! Yum, Yum. Christmas was just the four of us in Nebraska City this year. But we got a Christmas evening tour of the powerplant Dad works at. I've never liked walking on grates on the sidewalks in big cities. I didn't like it any better when the grated metal floors we were walking on were about 28 stories up! Not my cup of tea. But it was neat seeing how it all works.

Lastly, the Christmas trip home ended up in a trip to Kansas to see all sorts of family from both sides. We had a bit of a Christmas celebration with Grandma and aunt on my mom's side, until I started feeling horrible and we had to end it! We also got to see an aunt and my awesome cousins on my Dad's side. But sadly, I didn't get to see as much of anyone as we usually do after I got sick. That was a huge bummer.

I did spend New Years Eve in Omaha though, with my general New Years Eve peeps - Katie, Danielle, and Nick (although we were minus a Jon). It was great to continue the tradition! Early the next morning I flew back home, ready to leave only because I wanted my own bed! I was sad to go. It was so good to see everyone I got to see, but sadly I missed seeing a number of people I had really hoped to see. I guess it gives me a good excuse to come back as soon as I can! I miss you all already!

December in San Diego

Whew! It has been a busy couple of weeks, as the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas often is! I thought I should get on here and post something before I'm back in Nebraska for Christmas!

So, December in California feels quite different. The first few weekends, I was running errands on the weekends in a short-sleeve shirt with my car windows down. Rather warm, I must say :). We actually just had a cold front though. I think it was only like 58 degrees during the day and it rained (proper rain, not the misty stuff these San Diegans seem to think is rain). :) Oh so horrible.  It does really cool down at night though. Once the sun is gone, it can get down to the low 50's and maybe 40's. Which is chilly if you have forgotten your coat! But yeah, I know. That's nothing. I'm not complaining, believe me!

So, just like fall, without the cold in the air, it really doesn't seem like December! There are Christmas lights up, of course, lots of lights wrapped around the trunks of palm trees and such. And lights on houses of course. I even got festive and decided to decorate for Christmas! (see the picture below).  I got out ALL the Christmas decorations I own, and it fit all in one picture! Hehe. And yes, that is a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. Hehe. Just for the record, the purpose is to look sad. So please don't go make it your goal to buy me Christmas decorations (Melissa already threatened such things). I really just put this up so I can smirk at the thought of the expressions on the faces of all those of you who usually give me a hard time about my lack of decorations!

So what have I been doing?  Well, for Thanksgiving I ended up celebrating at my pastors house with a bunch of random people. I even met a couple from Nebraska! How bizarre. It was a lot of fun. I made this Cranberry Swirl Cheesecake, which was so awesome!  Good riddance pumpkin pie! Cranberry cheesecake is the new awesome! I also have now hosted the first ladies game night at my place with some gals from church. We had a great time playing Crazy UNO. I lost quite badly. But it was fun. And it turns out that they have Ugly Sweater Parties in California as well, so I attended one of those. I don't really have an ugly sweater, so I just decorated this red sweater that I have. I put silver tinsel around the neck and bottom. I got out of the car at the party, and another one of my friends pulled up, got out of the car, and we realized that (without trying) we matched. Great minds think alike! But she did have better socks. Red and white stripeed ones. Next year. . . next year. . .
Additionally, I went up to Escondido one weekend to meet a great aunt (by marriage) that I'd never met before. She and her husband took me to the Safari Park up there and we all had a good time. They were both so sweet. And the Park was really cool. They had baby elephants, and baby gorillas, and it has a whole different feel than the normal Zoo. So, next visitors who want to go the zoo, I may try to convince you to go the Safari Park instead!

Despite all this lovely weather, I am looking very much forward to coming home for Christmas. I really am hoping for a little bit of snow, but am mostly just glad to see my family and whatever friends I can! Merry Christmas!

Two friends and a birthday

Wow, it has been a busy couple of weeks since I've posted last. Here's some updates!

First of all, I did celebrate a birthday. And for all the stink I made about turning 30 (I wasn't exactly excited about it), I did survive and quite honestly don't feel any different at all than I did at 29. Oh so anticlimactic. 

It turns out this is actually the second birthday that I have celebrated in San Diego. I happened to be here at a conference 5 years ago over my birthday. And sadly, I think that makes these two birthdays in San Diego the farthest ones spent from my mom, whose birthday I share. Well, at least we had a great time celebrating last year!

The really great part about my birthday was that my wonderful friend Melissa flew all the way to California to spend it with me! It was truly fantastic. We had as many adventures as we could, and it was a great chance to explore San Diego. We had coffee and lunch on the beach, ate incredible desserts at Extraordinary Desserts, watched the sunset over the Pacific Ocean, saw seals at La Jolla Cove, went to the San Diego Zoo, ate some really good food, and drank lots of Peets coffee! It was just good for my soul to have a close friend nearby. I do miss everyone so much!

And here we are, drinking our Peet's Coffee on La Jolla Shores beach!

And just days after Melissa's visit, I was lucky enough to get another visitor, as my friend Erin came the next weekend. Yay for friends who also get Veterans Day off! Erin and I did some hiking at Torrey Pines Reserve which has some great ocean views, also watched sunsets over the Pacific, spent some time hanging out on the beach, saw the Zoo, took a Harbor boat tour, drank more Peet's coffee, and had a great time. So sweet to have a second friend come and visit and get to do more new things around the city.    

Here's a pic of us from the back of the boat from our Harbor cruise overlooking Point Loma and the entrance from the harbor into the Pacific Ocean.

Thanks ladies for coming all the way out to see me!

Balboa Park

I think I'm a bit overdue for a post! I have been putting in some effort to get out and do things with my new friends here, which has been good. Two weeks ago, I ventured with my new friend Grace to Balboa Park, which is a beautiful park here in San Diego. It is home to the famous San Diego Zoo, but also a number of museums, some beautiful buildings, green grass and beautiful flowers. We had a nice time walking around through the botanical garden and the rose garden.

The coolest stuff in the botanical garden were the beautiful orchids (of many amazing colors), and the carnivorous pitcher plant!

 The rose garden was quite extensive and so pretty! I thought the colors on this one were so astounding. So bright and stunning that it was hard to believe it was real!

The architecture is very picturesque. I love it. Very Spanish/Mission style; some of it with amazing detail work. It makes me wish I had hours to spend there (and a really cool camera) with which to get the most artistic shots possible! I think it would be fun.

 

Love the tiling on the roof of this building! There is also an amphitheater at Balboa Park with a large pipe organ, and a free organ concert every Sunday at 2pm.  Who wants to go?  I really want to check it out sometime!

Grace and I topped off our morning at the park with lunch at an Afghani restaurant (delicious!) and pumpkin gelato. Yum.

Since this fun weekend adventure, I caught a virus that was going around at work. I spent last weekend feeling pretty sick, and spent all this week trying to recover. I'm still working on that. I really hate being sick. However, this coming week, I have some fun to look forward to! The first of two back to back visitors!  My dear friend Melissa arrives later in the coming week to help me celebrate my birthday! I am very excited about this.

It's beginning to feel like fall . . .

Being in California has really thrown me off my seasons. Really, it seems like its still summer. It has still been rather warm, which is nice. The days have gotten shorter, along with still being warm, so that's confusing. And I've overheard conversations about how it is starting to look like fall. I think I need to open my eyes wider! I don't really see it! I have noticed some trees loosing their leaves. I just feel so far from fall because it is everywhere in the Midwest! So many trees turning colors, the snap in the air, the start of school, and college football season.  (even if I didn't pay attention to the games, it was still hard to miss!)

I'm so off here because I don't feel that snap in the air yet, I'm very far from college football (I can't believe it is several weeks in!), and the schedule at UCSD is a bit off. The students started last week. I'm pretty sure that still means summer! (doesn't it?) The church I attend had a kickoff for their college ministry for the first week of school last weekend. It was fun! (they invited the church too. That's why I was there. No, I'm not trying to pass as an undergrad!)

We went out to this area called Fiesta Island. It is in the bay, so one can do boating and such, and it is as if one is a lake. Just a saltwater one :). They rented a boat and jetski and we got to go tubing and hang out on the beach. Not such a bad way to pass an afternoon!

I then went home, bought Honeycrisp apples, and baked a pie. Because that helps me feel like its fall! And the pie was greatly enjoyed by a number of people. I'll have to make applecrisp soon. I think its my second addiction (i could eat a whole pan of it myself). And goes quite well with my primary addiction (coffee, of course). But doesn't all dessert?   

One last story - today I had one of those moments, where if you aren't being patient in the traffic, you will be made to wait even longer!! We had church in downtown San Diego as all the associated church plants in my church's network all met together. So I was driving home from downtown, and was trying to turn right. But traffic was all stopped up (due to a trolley track crossing). So I decided to be impatient with some other people and went straight. I passed the street I was trying to turn onto just as traffic started moving. And then I only made it a block forward before a policeman on a motorcycle blocked off traffic for a 10 minute parade toward the harbor. So there I was. Stuck waiting even longer because I wouldn't wait! Oh the city.