This weekend I had a great adventure! I met about 20 cousins I have never seen before, and went to parts of California I have never been to before...including the infamous Rock!!! That's right...Alcatraz.
Pictures and details are forthcoming! (I just need to download them). I got back into town tonight and was welcomed by my two sweet kitties, Bundles and Leo.
I missed my bed and my guitar so much. I played on my guitar until my fingers ached. Only 2 1/2 weeks until I head home for Christmas- back to Georgia. Thanks to my wonderful family (Robin) for the ticket!!! It's one of the best presents I could receive. I've never been five months without seeing my family, to my knowledge.
I'm curious as to how others spent their Thanksgiving. Robin, how was Mississippi?
Showing posts with label Miscellaneous. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Miscellaneous. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Aging Together
An interesting and cool element of social networking sites, such as Facebook, is finding those we went to school with or hung out with as kids or teenagers- specifically, those who are our age. One thing I was realizing today, after finding many friends recently who fit into this category, is that these people have a kinship with me that others don't. They know what I'm going through with this whole aging thing. I have many friends and family members who are closer to me than these old friends are now, as time and distance have estranged most of my old schoolmates. But though I have closer friendships with them, they may be quite far from my own age. Even if they are older and have been where I am now, they are not going through it at the same time.
Sometimes I feel a real connection to these old friends because of this, because, as I've recently found out, aging ain't easy. We hit the same milestones around the same time. We have varying degrees of the same wrinkles, and we have the same basic bodily challenges. Many of my old friends are raising their kids right now, and I see them commenting to each other about their kids and relating to what the others are going through. We'll be hitting our mid-life crises (is that the right word?) around the same time, theoretically. And then, I suppose, one by one, we'll drop off. Sorry- this isn't meant to be morbid, but that IS part of the point. We are on the road travelling at the same rate. We share a special knowledge of what each other is going through right now.
Thanks to the internet, we are able to connect in a way that previous generations of estranged childhood friends could not. And that connection can be helpful if we use it to support each other. What a fascinating age we live in, as the world continues to shrink!
Sometimes I feel a real connection to these old friends because of this, because, as I've recently found out, aging ain't easy. We hit the same milestones around the same time. We have varying degrees of the same wrinkles, and we have the same basic bodily challenges. Many of my old friends are raising their kids right now, and I see them commenting to each other about their kids and relating to what the others are going through. We'll be hitting our mid-life crises (is that the right word?) around the same time, theoretically. And then, I suppose, one by one, we'll drop off. Sorry- this isn't meant to be morbid, but that IS part of the point. We are on the road travelling at the same rate. We share a special knowledge of what each other is going through right now.
Thanks to the internet, we are able to connect in a way that previous generations of estranged childhood friends could not. And that connection can be helpful if we use it to support each other. What a fascinating age we live in, as the world continues to shrink!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Something Flows Freely in LA, and I Don't Just Mean Opportunity
*****WARNING: SOME 4-CHARACTER WORDS MAY FOLLOW**************
So, culture shock is a real thing. Share with me some of the often crazy differences between this world and the one I left in Georgia.
-Motorcycles can apparently legally ride between lanes. Like when traffic is moving slowly, they can zip between cars. I thought at first I was witnessing some rogue riders doing this, but it happens a lot, so I assume it's legal. This is strange, and increases the potential of swiping one of them with my car.
-Pedestrians are everywhere and I am having to try to be diligent to watch out for them, and the bicycles all over the place.
-The grocery stores sell liquor- not just wine and beer, but liquor.
-The apartments do not generally come supplied with refridgerators. Thankfully my roommate had one.
-People "curse", or as we call it back home, "cuss", in the course of a normal conversation just like they might be discussing a vegetable garden. I noticed the word s%!# being thrown about by a few people shortly after I got here. I did not see this as a big deal, though- I just thought maybe these people had a saltier vocabulary than most people. Then, however, my boss used it when we were talking about pigeons, and a massage material supplier whose store I was in used another expletive while on the phone with someone. It was a small store, but she did not seem the least bit concerned about my hearing her. This was a surprise. Certainly in Georgia, I know a lot of people who use strong language on a regular basis, but in the South, most people will get to know you before breaking it out. In a business setting, it would be considered, in most places, highly unprofessional to speak like that. But I'm not in Kansas- or Georgia- anymore.
-The parking is amazingly complicated here. I would say the majority of parking is done on the street in the LA and Santa Monica areas. But there are problems. Some of it is free, and some is metered, but even the metered parking is usually only for a max of two hours. Street cleaning is a common interference, in addition to busy times of day when parking is forbidden. So, you may come upon a sign that says: "NO PARKING EXCEPT 2-HOUR PARKING MON-FRI BETWEEN 8AM AND 6PM AND NO PARKING MONDAY BETWEEN 10AM AND 12PM." I need a mathemetician to decipher these instructions- they are word problems. "If you can park here between 8 and 6, but cannot between 2 and 4 on Thurs, and 9 and 12 on Mon, Wed, and Fri, what is the likelihood that you will escape without a ticket?" I'm thinking, not good. Although, amazingly, I have not gotten one yet. Let's see how long that lasts!
So, culture shock is a real thing. Share with me some of the often crazy differences between this world and the one I left in Georgia.
-Motorcycles can apparently legally ride between lanes. Like when traffic is moving slowly, they can zip between cars. I thought at first I was witnessing some rogue riders doing this, but it happens a lot, so I assume it's legal. This is strange, and increases the potential of swiping one of them with my car.
-Pedestrians are everywhere and I am having to try to be diligent to watch out for them, and the bicycles all over the place.
-The grocery stores sell liquor- not just wine and beer, but liquor.
-The apartments do not generally come supplied with refridgerators. Thankfully my roommate had one.
-People "curse", or as we call it back home, "cuss", in the course of a normal conversation just like they might be discussing a vegetable garden. I noticed the word s%!# being thrown about by a few people shortly after I got here. I did not see this as a big deal, though- I just thought maybe these people had a saltier vocabulary than most people. Then, however, my boss used it when we were talking about pigeons, and a massage material supplier whose store I was in used another expletive while on the phone with someone. It was a small store, but she did not seem the least bit concerned about my hearing her. This was a surprise. Certainly in Georgia, I know a lot of people who use strong language on a regular basis, but in the South, most people will get to know you before breaking it out. In a business setting, it would be considered, in most places, highly unprofessional to speak like that. But I'm not in Kansas- or Georgia- anymore.
-The parking is amazingly complicated here. I would say the majority of parking is done on the street in the LA and Santa Monica areas. But there are problems. Some of it is free, and some is metered, but even the metered parking is usually only for a max of two hours. Street cleaning is a common interference, in addition to busy times of day when parking is forbidden. So, you may come upon a sign that says: "NO PARKING EXCEPT 2-HOUR PARKING MON-FRI BETWEEN 8AM AND 6PM AND NO PARKING MONDAY BETWEEN 10AM AND 12PM." I need a mathemetician to decipher these instructions- they are word problems. "If you can park here between 8 and 6, but cannot between 2 and 4 on Thurs, and 9 and 12 on Mon, Wed, and Fri, what is the likelihood that you will escape without a ticket?" I'm thinking, not good. Although, amazingly, I have not gotten one yet. Let's see how long that lasts!
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Do Not Panic, This is Only a Test
I've been working on getting all the features into the new blog (whew!) and decided we needed a test post. If you read this, please test the comment feature so we can see if that works. There is still much to be done but I'm out of time for now.
How do you think the site looks so far? Yes, Kristi's picture is much smaller than mine, but I can't seem to find any way to resize the photos. Oh, darn. And it makes me appear as though I'm the star, too. What a shame. Tut, tut.
How do you think the site looks so far? Yes, Kristi's picture is much smaller than mine, but I can't seem to find any way to resize the photos. Oh, darn. And it makes me appear as though I'm the star, too. What a shame. Tut, tut.
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