Santa Came To Town

Merry Christmas!  I hope Santa treated you well this year.  I know he treated us all well.  Mom scored with a Kindle, Becca got lots of gift cards, Dad was super excited about chili verde that was brought to him from Dos Carlitos, and I got a new iPod!  Of course we all got other really good loot but those were kind of the star gifts this year.

After breakfast, stockings, and gifties we played some fun games as a family.  We started with regular Trivial Pursuit (made in the 80s) but I was doing so bad that we had to bust out the easy Disney edition questions.  I was then able to get two wedges but Dad won that game.  Next we played Apples to Apples, one of my new favorites.  I ended with the most cards (the goal) but Dad did get to the goal number of cards first.  So I figure that I won, Dad’s just the first loser.  Hehe.

Then last night we played Wits and Wagers, another fun one.  Mom and Becca we doing so good that we ran out of chips to pay them out just before we finished the game.  Dad and I finished at 8 and 4 chips respectfully.  Mom and Becca were close to each other as well but Mom came out the victor on that one.

I also brought my Wii down so we’ve been playing Wii Sports a bit and I even got Dad to play MarioKart with me.  He did surprisingly well considering he’s not one to play video games.  Though I did take off the items so he wouldn’t get attacked or have to worry about throwing items at others or me.

Tomorrow night I’ll be hanging out with Mike, Lauren, and Lindsay and we’ll be trying out two new games.  After going to Tom’s Burger for dinner that is.  I’m excited for tomorrow!

Hope you all have a great end to 2010!

Loves.

Super My Butt…

For those of you who don’t work retail I’ll update you on what today is.  It’s “Super Saturday”, the last Saturday before Christmas, when people that are not quite waiting until the ultimate last minute (I’m talking about men that shop on Christmas Eve) will go crazy shopping.  Both crazy while shopping and shopping like crazy.  It’s super for businesses that want to make lots of money but very not super for people who are trying to get to the mall or find parking.

It usually only takes me 15-20 minutes to get to work but I knew that today was going to be a hard day to find parking.  So I gave myself 40 minutes.  I was 15 minutes late.

It took me 30 minutes to go the 3 blocks closest to the mall.  Then I still had to find parking!  /faceplam

I finally found parking behind the mall in the tiny parking structure on the top level.  Oh, did I mention that it was raining today?  I love the rain, but not when I have to park on the top level then walk slightly far to get into work.  I almost was one of those really rude people that ninja a parking spot from someone else but the car way behind me was waiting for someone else.  So as I was sitting, plotting my next move to find a vacant spot I see a man walking up the ramp with his shopping bags in his hands.  I give him the “Are you leaving? Can I have your spot?” face and he points at the truck that I’m idling next to.  Jackpot!  So I back out of his way (told you the guy behind me was far back) and wait for my spot to become available.

Recently Penn State did a study about how as primal, and thus territorial, beings we tend to take longer to pull out of a parking spot if someone is waiting for it compared to if nobody is waiting.  Well, this guy was quick so I appreciated his not hesitating to relinquish his claim on that temporary territory.  (If you were wondering it’s about a seven second difference.)

After work it was pouring.  That’s right, it upgraded from raining to pouring.  I managed to cut through one of the bigger stores to save from walking in the rain for as long (though wet is wet so it didn’t matter all that much) and made my way towards the parking structure.  I also unintentionally made my way through quite a few puddles…not as much fun when you’re wearing cute slip-on shoes.  When I got to the stairs that I used earlier this afternoon I found a waterfall!

Like this, only on a much larger scale.  I was not going to be using those stairs.  Turns out that the genius who designed this particular parking structure decided that all the stairs should be located on the lower end of any given parking level.  Because it never rains in California, right?  So I had to walk to JC Penney and use their escalator to get to the top level since it had a connection from their store to the upper level of parking.  And then I found yet another giant puddle to step in.  Sigh.  I got home and I was wet up to my calves.  But at least my jacket’s hood is nice and big so my head was dry!

Here’s hoping your rainy days are filled with hot chocolate and fun movies!

Loves.

Not Learning My Lesson With Smoke Alarms

Yesterday I did my yearly check to make sure that my smoke alarms are working.  You may remember my first check that I unintentionally performed.  Well I checked it again in nearly the same fashion.  Hehe, get it?  I totally wasn’t planning that but when I typed ‘fashion’ I knew that it’d be comedy.  Those are my skills people.  And managing to be slightly in the way.  I’ve determined that’s my superpower.  But that’s not what this post is about.

Yesterday I took a shower, listening to my music and singing along to Maroon 5 but this time I had the door open so that the warm air could freely escape.  Apparently I didn’t have the door open wide enough because it was still funneling out while focused at the smoke detector.  I’m nearly done with my shower but still have conditioner in my hair and soap suds all over when I hear the magic little chirpy beep starting.  Great.  At least this time I knew that I was the cause of the alarm going off and didn’t panic.  And neither did Dixie, so either she learned from my first lesson or I check the alarms more often than I realize.

Which brings me to my next smoke related story.  Not often I get to segue, most of the time I just change my ramble.  You’re welcome for a slightly more coherent post.  :)  I bought this super cute luminary from work for the holidays and have been burning either my Twisted Peppermint or Caramel Apple candle in the evenings when I get home from work.  It glows so pretty!

Well last night I got home and lit my super yummy smelling caramel apple candle (seriously smells like you’re baking caramel apples, which I know you don’t actually bake) while I relaxed and caught up on my Tivo’d shows.  I went to bed around midnight and read a little bit before I tried to get some sleep.  My sleep schedule always gets a little (ok, a lot) off during school breaks.  Well, just as I was thisclose to sleep I suddenly realized that I didn’t remember blowing out the candle.  So I crawled out from under the toasty blankets and snoring (excuse me, musically breathing) cat to check.  Sure enough the little house’s lights were softly flickering.  Oops.  I told them lights out and went back to bed.

I promise to be better about checking the house lights in the future.

Loves.

Scholarships For Me!?

The other day I received an email from a website I use for graduate school information letting me know that I qualify for some scholarships.  Most of the time I just delete these e-mails because I don’t actually qualify (apparently the initial criteria is that I’m alive and registered with their site) but I opened this one to take a quick look-see.

I qualified for both scholarships based on my religion.  This I found interesting because I don’t recall informing the site of my religion.  Maybe somebody there is psychic?  Anyways, the first scholarship was for Baptists and the second was to Muslims.  So….apparently I have a really cool, new hybrid religion.  Go me!  I think that totally warrants me the honor of naming this religion.  Now I don’t think that I can compete with that Flying Spaghetti Monster (or whatever) one that some people made up.  But it’d still be pretty spiffy.  Oh, that gives me a good idea.  I’ll call it something like “awesome” so when people ask your religion you could answer “I’m awesome!”  I’ll ponder this and get back to you on my final decision.

Then I got another e-mail so I had to open it.  I qualified for a scholarship based on something silly but it’s for international students studying within the United States.  I wasn’t aware that currently residing at the gateway to hell would count as international especially since I’m not from here.  Guess there are benefits to Bakersfield!

Loves.

Soliciting Donations

When I go to PetCo to buy more food for Dixie they always ask me if I want to donate money to help feed and find homes for local animals.  Is it wrong that I want to reply “that’s what this is for” while gesturing to my purchase?  Sure Dixie has found a home with me but she still needs to be fed!

Quite often when I’m going to work I get stopped at the mall entrance by teens and adults asking me if I can spare change so that they can catch the bus home.  I just want to ask them why they came to the mall if they cannot afford the 90 cents to go home?  And if you arrived at the mall with money but couldn’t even save less than a dollar for bus fare then maybe you should get some sort of shoppers anonymous assistance or stop eating so much in the food court, it’s not that good of food.

But if you’re willing to donate to me I won’t argue.  ;) hehe

Loves.

The Experiment: Find a Penny, Pick it Up?

In my Social Psychology Lab we had a group assignment to develop an experiment, collect data, and perform data analysis for our final.  Or if you’re really bad, you do it on your own because you got kicked out of a group.  Luckily nobody got kicked out of a group though a few people were close to being “fired”.  My group wanted to examine how social norms of luck and superstition can play a role in behaviors.  More specifically, if people are more likely to pick up heads-up “lucky” pennies than tails-up pennies.  We predicted that a significantly significant difference in the number of lucky pennies picked up compared to unlucky pennies.

To try to manipulate the situation and to bring luck and superstition to a salient state in our subjects’ minds we handed out fliers that read “Good Luck on Your Finals" half the time and a non-luck related flier the rest of the time.  We had two experimenters handing out fliers and one to record any data and to replace any pennies that had been picked up.  The two of us handing out fliers stood on either end of a section of pathway on campus and in between us was the “penny drop zone”.  Within this drop zone two pennies were placed about three feet away from each other, one heads up and the other tails up.  The pennies were placed close enough that people would see both but far enough away from each other that they could easily pick up one and exert themselves to grab both.

After three hours, nobody had picked up a penny.  Not one person.  Nothing.  Nill.  Nada.  Zip.

We felt there were a few factors working against us that day and came up with a second experiment to try to get some data.  For the second experiment we would set up at the main vending machine location on campus.  We placed the pennies in front of the vending machines in locations that would be visible by subjects collecting their purchase and change.  Rather than hand out fliers this time we had the fliers taped to the machine at eye-level.  As observers we were sitting at a table nearby but not so close that it was obvious that we were watching if the pennies were collected.  Again we stayed for three hours and only one group of people picked up the pennies.  One guy stopped and stared at it for a while, considering the penny, but did not end up picking it up.

Here’s what happened with the only penny collection from the two days: a group of three girls came to the vending machines to buy a water and one of the girls saw the tails penny and picked it up.  “Scha-weet, a penny!”  (Most likely not a direct quote.)  But her friend noticed that it was not heads-up and urgently prompted her to put it  back because heads-up is for good luck.  So she puts the penny back as a heads-up penny.  Her friend then picks up the newly lucky penny and the first girl spots our heads-up penny and grabs that.  Follow?  Grab tails, put tails down as heads, grab new heads, collect original heads.  Excellent.  That’s the way to make your own luck!

I’m sure that you’ve assumed that we found no statistical significance in our data.  Hard to when you have basically no data!  Oh well, it was fun either way and we even came up with more ideas of how we could continue to improve our experiment.  Such psychology nerds.

Loves.

Three Months, One Post

Ok so it is obvious that I am incapable of keeping my blog updated and concentrate on school at once.  You’ll notice that the majority of my blog postings are either during winter or summer break, or right at the start of the quarter when there is significantly less homework.  It’s not that I don’t think about posting, it’s just that by the time I’m done with homework I would rather do something besides continue to stare at my computer screen.  Maybe I can train Dixie to post for me…she’s got long toes, I’m sure they’d aid her in her typing…

So I am going to try to engage my brain and quickly go over fun things that I’ve missed posting about.  After the Hollywood Phoenix concert we meandered around Universal Way for a while and I found the most amazing candy store in the world!  It is seriously gianormous!!!  And they have everything there and crazy versions of the best candy.  Take this multi-pound gummi bear:

I think the big orange one is five pounds?  I can’t remember, I just know that it’s so much sugar that it’d take a year to eat it or you would be put into a sugar coma.  So if you want to see more candy than you’d know what to do with and some really cool imaging then check out It’Sugar.

Then in October was an even that I’ve been very (and I mean VERY) excited about: Maroon 5 concert.  Really, need I say more?  I am in love with them, have been since the beginning and forever will be.  This was the second time that I was able to go to one of their shows and it’s always a great show.  They get onstage and perform for you and sound great live.  Bruno Mars and then One Republic were the opening acts so really, it was like three concerts in one!  I went with a friend from work and we had really good seats (within the first 20 rows), there was no general admission-first-come-first-serve-standing-room-only area which was nice because I don’t like having to fight for my life while singing along to Give a Little More and Stutter.  Some shows I’m fine with getting there early and using my boxing-out skills from years of basketball but that can take a lot of energy.  Especially when people are trying to get closer to Adam Levine in the hopes that he’d spot them from a distance, mid-song, and fall in love with them.  Not gonna happen girls, at least not to you.  Maybe me, but not you.  haha

Halloween was exciting.  I worked.  We had a floor-set so I was there until midnight.  I dressed up as a college student who had too much to do with too little time to do it.  That was about the time that the second set of mid-terms was coming around and term papers were due soon too.  So I was all school all the time with less sleep than I normally like.  Until that next weekend.

Friends from back home came to visit for the weekend and it was nice to hang out and check out some places around town that I hadn’t yet.  And Lindsay was craving Sonic so we went there about five times.  No joke, and they got here Friday night and left Sunday.  The girl working at the Sonic closest to my house (we went to a few different ones) was recognizing us because we visited that often.  Aside from there we also went to a place called Monster Mini Golf which is an indoor mini-golf course that is completely lit by black lights.  Very fun and very cool!  Lindsay’s shirt was a bright yellow and glowed the best, mine was pretty good too because it had yellow, purple and white stripes.

It was a very fun weekend, a good intermission before the craziness of finals and term papers.  But I really need to learn to better budget my time so that I stop procrastinating and don’t get stuck with 16+ pages of term papers to write in one weekend.  Yep, I didn’t get much of any sleep one very long weekend because I was glued to my research and term papers.  I did find it funny that a nice break from my homework was an experiment I was working on.  Not as a subject, though I’ve been one before for a study on false memories, but as a researcher.  I’ll dedicate a better post to that one later and it should be soon since I’m on winter break now.  Which means that I can finally catch up on my giant stack of books that I keep thinking that I’m going to read much faster than I do.

Loves.

Went to Hollywood for Phoenix

The first weekend of fall quarter (classes started Sept 13th) was a girls’ weekend.  An amazing and fun band that I’ve recently fallen in love with (thanks for the intro Nicole!), Phoenix are touring and my friends Lauren and Lindsay (and myself as well) really wanted to see them.  We knew that they were going to have a show in Santa Barbara at the bowl but it would not be a possibility for me because it was a Sunday night and I have school Monday mornings.  But then we realized that Saturday night they were going to be performing at the Hollywood Bowl and that would work perfectly!  So we bought tickets for the Hollywood show (first show of the tour as it turned out).

We decided that we needed to go ahead and make it a girls’ weekend since we’d all need to drive a few hours to get there.  And nobody wants to drive home after a concert, especially when you’ll be driving separate ways.  So we booked a hotel in Burbank near a big shopping center and located conveniently for us all.

I got down there earlier than Lauren and Lindsay on Friday night because they had league bowling.  So I got to check in and take over the room for a few hours.  Muhahaha.  I drove down earlier in the evening because I hate driving in Los Angeles (and yes, this trip just reinforced that) and didn’t want to be trying to find the hotel too late or be driving the 5 after any possible fog rolled into the grapevine.  When I got there I grabbed some dinner and then made sure that the television was functioning properly.  Though don’t think that I only goofed around, I did do a smidge of homework by reading an article for my Monday class.  Gotta do the work if you’re gonna have fun all weekend!

Saturday morning Lauren and I walked over Target to buy me a swimsuit since I forgot mine and then to Kispy Kreme and bought a few donuts.  I love watching the donuts being made, the icing waterfall is my favorite part.  Wouldn’t you love to go under it, mouth open?  Yeah, me too.

(Sorry the photo’s not great, it’s from my phone)

After our donut run, and hanging out a little more chatting in our room Lauren and I wandered down to the pool area to take a little swim.  Lindsay wasn’t feeling super hot so she was relaxing in the room but ended up coming down later.  After spending a few hours at the pool we got ready for the concert.  After a quick but yummy dinner at Sharky’s we made our way to the Hollywood Bowl, at some points moving much slower than others.  It’s amazing how many cars can converge in one area at one time out of nowhere.

Once we finally got to the Bowl we bought our concert shirts (a must if you want to be sure to get the one you want and in your size) then made our way to our seats.  Now, I’m going to be open and honest here, we had to ask where the heck we were going a few times.  It felt like we were just walking up and around and we were sure that we’d get there someday but we wanted to be sure we didn’t go too far.  I know that makes it sound like we had bad seats but in actuality, they were pretty good.  Plus the jumbo screens help when you can’t see through the head of the moron in front of you who keeps raising his hand like he was hoping to be called in.  Raise hand, count to two, lower hand, bob around a bit, drink more wine, repeat.  One of the perks of where we were sitting would have to be the guy behind us.  He had some of the best one-liners ever.   When one of the opening bands took the stage: “I’m not drunk enough to ‘woo’”  When an interestingly attired man was walking past our section looking for his seat: “Dude, it’s a pirate!”  (Which was exactly what we were thinking)  When the guitarist were playing as silhouettes within two spotlights on a white curtain: “It’s like they’re playing in giant butt-cheeks!”  Yep, we were laughing pretty hard at that one.  Here’s what I’m talking about:

Phoenix’s show was pretty short but we weren’t too surprised by that since they’ve only had two hit singles in the States (they’re from France) so far: 1901 and Liztomania.  In fact, I’m willing to bet that you’ve heard 1901 without realizing it.  Seen any Cadillac commercials recently?  Yeah, that song that’s playing is probably Phoenix’s.  But don’t be assuming that since the show wasn’t very long that it wasn’t good.  Because it was great!!  There was a lot of light work so there were a few songs that you could hardly see the band but that didn’t matter because they sounded amazing live and the lights really went well with the music.  But when the lights were on the band I loved watching the drummer, he gets so into the music and plays so large that it’s fascinating to watch.  You can see him a bit in this video from the show.  This is also a good example of the light work.

So to sum up the show: fantastic!

I’m just going to leave you with that and next time fill you in on the rest of our girls’ weekend.

Loves.

Beginning of the Last

School has started again and it’s the start of my final year at CSUB.  I am taking three classes this quarter, one of which is a lab.  This lab, social psychology lab, is turning out to be my favorite class this quarter.  Though I’m not surprised since I enjoyed the corresponding class when I took it and this professor is one of my favorites.

One of my other two classes will not be making any sort of appearance on a favorite list.  I am only taking this particular class because it is a requirement for graduation.  It is a science class—energy and technology—and I take about three pages of notes (front and back) per class.  I may end up needing another notebook at the rate we’re going!  One thing that is making this class tolerable is that I’m taking it with my friend Dina.  You know what they say: misery loves company!

My final class is doing double duty.  It counts towards my major and fulfills yet another requirement for graduation: gender, race and ethnicity.  The class is psychology of women.  It’s…interesting…not exactly what I expected, it’s taught from a feminist point of view and well…it’s interesting how some of the theories look at the differences or implied differences between men and women.  There are four guys in the class and they are pretty comfortable speaking up in class so I’m proud of them for that, especially since our professor is a self-identified feminist.

So far I’m three weeks in of my ten weeks and it’s going pretty good.  But don’t expect that same response in four weeks when I’m in the middle of my term papers!

Loves.

And OR Fun

As I mentioned previously I recently went up to Bend, Oregon to check out the OSU-Cascades Campus.  I had Dad drive up with me so that we could do the drive in one shot, it’s about a twelve hour drive.  He drove over here on Wednesday then Thursday morning we hit the road for the long haul.  We then drove back down on Tuesday.  Luckily we had a rather uneventful drive up and we really only hit construction once while I was driving but we only had to slow down to about 45mph.  The drive back down was equally smooth though we did have to slow to 25mph for about a quarter mile at one point.

I love being able to ride shotgun through beautiful areas because I don’t have to watch the road and I can take about 20 photos with my phone so that I can get one pretty good shot of Mt Shasta.  We ended up getting a lot closer as we drove the 5 but by that time I was tired of getting photos of the trees along the side of the road.

Friday we checked out the OSU-Cascades campus and then did a tiny bit of scoping out of where the nearby apartments are and what the areas look like.  We didn’t do too much looking since there’s no need to do too much until I get in for sure!  (Here’s hoping!!)

That evening we then went to Bend’s 6th annual Brewfest for a few hours.  Over thirty breweries were represented with two brews each available to taste.  Of course there was food too and apparently an area had foosball and ping-pong but I never did see that area.  I think they were misleading us.  I had four 4oz tastings and my favorite by far had the best name: Skip and Go Naked, and it was brewed by Mt. Shasta Brewing Co.  It was a light, strawberry ginger ale.  I also chose to snack on a super yummy blueberry lemon crepe.  Sure I ended up with powdered sugar on my jeans but that was a badge I was proud to wear.  I would have bought another if we were there long enough.

The beer in the photo was not Skip and Go Naked, but one I didn’t care for very much, Moose Drool a brown ale by Big Sky Brewing Co.   And if you were wondering, yes I do get to keep my mug.  In fact, it’s chillin’ in my freezer now.  Ha, get it?  Chillin’ in my freezer?!

Sunday we got to really hang out with my uncle Kris.  We went out to his place and then Kris, Jan, Dad and I went to Three Creeks Brewing for drinks, food and to play pool.  I was going to be driving home so I sampled their soda selection and enjoyed the Pepsi that they had on tap.  One of the things that we ordered was a starter, Cheese & Crawfish Dip, and it was so good!  I’ve never had crawfish before but the flavors in this dip were to die for.  After our food we relocated to the pool table and Kris, Dad and I played quite a few games.  Turns out that despite some really good shots I’m not good enough to beat Dad.  We would play winner and Dad never lost but I always beat Kris.  Sure quite a few games were won thanks to a scratch on the 8 ball or calling the wrong pocket but hey, we were having fun so it didn’t matter!  I have no photos of this because I was silly and didn’t take my purse which had my camera inside.

Our last day in town the Grandparents drove us on a very large loop of the mountains and lakes to the west of Bend and it was beautiful!  We stopped at Elk Lake to stretch our legs and have some ice cream (I opted for blackberry) and I was able to get some photos.

Doesn’t this seem like a beautiful place to spend a summer day?

It’s ok, take a mental vacation here for a moment.  There’s plenty of seating available!

Loves.

Summer Homework

Nobody on summer break wants to have homework.  Especially when it’s self-assigned homework.  That is what I’ve been slowly but surely working on this summer.  Two different self-assigned tasks.  The first one was by far the most fun and the second one is much more time consuming and important.

The first was working on a “Best Of Santa Barbara” guide for a friend at work who is transferring to UCSB this fall.  I thought that it’d be nice for her to have a quick cheat sheet for finding the best hangouts or restaurants.  I think that every school should have a welcoming committee for transfer students with a best of guide.  I know that I would have found one useful transferring to CSUB.  For the longest time I was driving to a post office 3.5 miles away when there’s one 1.5 miles in the other direction.  Oh well.

Today is her final day at work before she moves to SB so I gave her the guide yesterday when we both worked.  It ended up being about 10 typed pages which I broke up into different categories such as “Food & Drink”, “Going Out”, “Hobbies & At Home Entertainment” and “All About You”.  Then I had some fun with stickers.  So in the end it ended up being pretty cool looking and she was so surprised that she ended up tearing up a bit.  Go me, mission accomplished!  Not that my mission was to make her cry, more of to surprise her with something that she’d really like and be able to use.

My second homework assignment has been to investigate graduate programs for my masters degree in counseling psychology.  Quite a few graduate schools have psychology programs but about half of those are doctorate programs or are research based degrees.  So right there, I lose a lot of options.  Then I don’t want to live in Los Angeles so again, a reduction in options.  Anyways, I’ve been trying to determine where I want to go to school next and then potentially begin my career.

Right now my number one pick is Oregon State University’s program.  Their program is not on the main campus in Corvallis, Oregon (south of Salem) but in Bend, Oregon (east of the mountains).  Last week I was able to check out the campus.  Dad and I drove up in one day to my grandparents’ place in Bend and stopped by the school the next day to check it out and talk to a woman on campus about the program.  I was surprised at the size of their campus.

That’s basically it.  One big building.  But it is on the Central Oregon Community College campus so they apparently share resources such as the student union, library, and bookstore.  But the plus about there just being one big (and did I mention nice?) building is that in the winter I won’t be schlepping from one building to another.

Hopefully this will be a common sight this next school year.  And my “Don’t Be Trashy, Recycle” bumper sticker would be more congruent with the attitudes of Bend than those of Bakersfield.  But I won’t get into that now.

Loves.

A Casual 4th of July

I hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July.  I didn’t have any real plans for two reasons: 1) I had a call-in shift at work and 2) I didn’t make any plans.  The extent of my planning for the 4th included me thinking “well, if I don’t work I can do whatever I want…maybe I’ll have some barbeque…”  Ended up they used my call-in at work but then it was so slow they sent me home an hour early.  Déjà vu from last year when they sent me home early on the 4th because it was, shocker, slow!  Actually, slow isn’t the correct word here, dead is more accurate.  But I didn’t mind either way since I didn’t have any plans to get messed up and I was getting paid overtime since it was a holiday.  Woo-hoo!!

Once they sent me on my way I figured that I might as well have some barbeque or at least something with barbeque sauce.  Gotta stick with my semi-plan from earlier and it’s only appropriate on the 4th to have barbeque.  So I went to Wingstop.  Their boneless chicken wings are so yummy and their fries are always perfectly salted/seasoned.

After dinner I had a mini-marathon of Cheers while waiting for the sun to go down and the fireworks to begin.  I’ve always enjoyed Cheers but I recently discovered that Hallmark channel airs about 6 episodes a night and they’re running through the entire series in order.  So I’ve been Tivo’ing it and watching it when I have lunch or before bed.  Though sometimes I feel guilty when I’m watching late at night because I laugh really hard.  Especially to the intro from this episode:

Seriously hilarious.  I was crying from laughing so hard.  And then once I mostly recovered, I rewound it and watched it again.  And again.  And again.  Then when mom came to visit me I made her watch it.  And then I rewound it and we watched it again and again.  Still funny.

Ok, so I’ll pause on my love of Cheers and get back to the 4th.  Fireworks are legal here (um, hello emergency personnel who’ll never get the 4th off) so I was thinking I’d just walk out to the street to enjoy the show that my neighbors would be putting on with their purchased exploding devices.  It was pretty cool and they’d loaded up the street so there was no shortage of sparklers, screamers, whizzers, sparkers, wing-dingers, and whateverers.  Shortly after I headed out the big fireworks show that the near by country club hosts started.  That’s the show that last year Jaslynn and I watched from a nearby neighborhood.  Turns out, I can see it from my mailbox!

Someone even had AC/DC playing and it was a much better soundtrack to fireworks than the normal patriotic fare.  Not that I have anything against being patriotic, but a slow version of “God Bless America” doesn’t have the same punch as “T.N.T.” or “Thunderstruck” when paired with fireworks.

At the end of the night, it was a nice, causal 4th of July.

Loves.

It’s So Close I Can Taste It

Finals are next week, summer break right after that.  I know it’s so close, and I’m more than ready for it, but at the same time I almost want just a smidge more time before my finals.  I have one paper to do and one six-ish page take home final to do and it’s always good to have too many than too few hours to write.  Though I must admit, sometimes the caffeine fueled late night writing juices are pretty good.  But the late night writing juices mean that I don’t get as much dream time in.  And I love my dream time.  Especially since daydreaming in my class has more distractions that good old fashion sleep dreaming.

Here’s the one part of this quarter that I am ready to be long, long over: sitting through Health Psychology “lectures”.  Basically our instructor stands behind the computer reading the slides of the powerpoint word for word in a voice that’d be perfect if she were a preschool teacher.  Three minutes in, I check out.  But don’t worry, I’ve found a few solutions to my boredom: 1) write letters 2) draw 3) ditch.  Option three has been my favored solution, especially since she posts the slide shows on-line so I can review them on my own and still kick butt on the tests.  Seriously, I won’t go for weeks and still manage an A on the tests.

You can’t tell, but I was totally doodling all over my paper.  Right below where I wrote the date and all of one sentence of notes.  I just was hoping she’d give us a five minute break so I could leave and read.  Not that she’d notice if I had read in class…at least one person was reading and probably five people on my side of the room were texting.  Yeah, it’s that engaging.

So until Thursday here’s hoping for good writing juices so that I can enjoy summer break sooner.

Loves.

Serena Ryder, Mary Ellen, and Me

As promised, here’s the photo from the meet and greet at the end of the Kelly Lounge Friday night.

When we were standing there for the photo they had the slowest count down from 3 that I’ve ever heard.  Someone could have counted to ten in normal countdown speed.  I’m surprised everyone isn’t blinking.

And man, do I need a tan!

Loves.

Serena Ryder at Kelly Lounge

As I posted the other day I’d “won” tickets to the Kelly Lounge to see Serena Ryder perform.  I went over to the Fox Theater right after work and got there about five minutes before Serena hit the stage.  My friend from work, Mary Ellen, met me there and we sat pretty close to the stage.  Not that getting a good, nay, great seat would be too difficult, they only gave out 150ish tickets and not everyone that “won” even showed up.  Idiots.  It’s a FREE show!

She came out, chatted a bit, and then opened the show with her current single All For Love.

I took videos of parts of the show.  This video is the first verse and chorus of All For Love.  She sounds so good live, definitely not an artist that needs any assistance in the recording studio.

(Sorry if the photos may be a bit blurry, I didn’t use flash so I had to use a longer exposure time.)

I liked the fact that she would stop between songs and chat about her songs or her boots.  A kid in the audience said that she liked her boots and that she was wearing boots too.  It was pretty funny.  She seems like a really cool person and I hope that she is very successful.

Serena played about 5 songs (the Kelly Lounge is short but intimate) before the meet and greet.  While standing in line to meet her I bought one of her cds for $10 so I could get her to sign it.  Plus after hearing her live I would totally buy her album anyways.

Afterwards Mary Ellen and I went to dinner at this little joint called Happy Jack’s.  It’s been in Bakersfield for 30 years and the food is scrumptious.  You walk in the front door and there is only counter seating and about 16 seats.  They are known for their burger and pies and let me tell you, they deserve it.  The burger was yummy and yummy with a bunch of delish thrown in for good measure.  Then we had pie.  I died.  Sooooo good!  Pineapple coconut cream pie, dead.  Apple crisp a la mode?  Killer.  I wasn’t sure if I would recover, but I came back to life just so that I could die again at a later date.

Loves.

A Little Luck and Some Major Skill

There are two radio stations that I listen to regularly here in B-field.  The first is KLLY (Kelly) 95.3, a top hits station and the second is KRAB 106.1, a rock station.  Kelly is home of the “world famous Kelly lounge”, a intimate concert held at the Fox theater which has featured over 90 artists and bands since it began over 8 years ago.  Previous artists that have appeared include Michelle Branch, Ben Folds, Phantom Planet, Jason Mraz, Collective Soul, Gavin DeGraw, Josh Kelley, Ok Go, Augustana, Gavin Rossdale, and Adele.  Some artists play a show before they are very popular and others (Adele) appear after their song is regularly making radio play.

Over the weekend Kelly kept playing a teaser that the next artist to visit the Kelly Lounge would be announced Tuesday at 2:25 in afternoon on Facebook.  They also were saying that the first 100 people to RSVP would receive free tickets to the show.  I don’t have class on Tuesdays until 3:10 so I was able to have my laptop out to try to “win” some tickets.  The concert date and artist appearing were posted and I was number 88 to RSVP, earning myself free tickets to the show.

Tomorrow I’ll be stopping by the studio to pick up my tickets for Friday night’s Kelly lounge featuring Serena Ryder.  Her current single is All For Love, it’s pretty good and her voice kind of reminds me of Melissa Etheridge.

I’ll post any photos from the show this weekend.

Loves.

Reasons I Smile

Today on my way home from work I was thinking about the little things in life that I love.  I thought that I’d share some of that here.

• When Dixie stands behind me on the couch purring and kneading my shoulders.

• Driving with the windows down and radio up.

 

• Celebrity Jeopardy! because I can play along and do really well.

• Customers who chat with me while I ring them up rather than talk on their cell phone.

 

• Snail mail.  (As long as it’s not a bill!)

• My favorite song coming on just as I’m getting in my car to drive somewhere.

 

• Farmer’s markets and all the great produce I come home with.

• Cooking something for the first time and it tasting amazing.  (French toast last night)

 

• Free samples.

 

• Getting lost into a good book.

•   Movie previews.  I saw one today for You Again that looks promising.

Here’s hoping you found a little something to smile about today.

Loves.

Reaping the Rewards

I have some exciting news!  This morning I received a response to a request that I made which included a turning in of an application.  Got you interested?  Good.

I applied for and was accepted into Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology!  I will be inducted (as well as my friend Dina) on Friday, May 21st at a dinner and after that will be a lifetime member.

 

 

That’s wonderful, but what all does this mean?

• A record of my membership is maintained at the Psi Chi Central Office and can be used for reference purposes
• I receive a certificate and membership card
• I can graduate wearing the Psi Chi honor cord
• Copies of Eye on Psi Chi, Psi Chi’s magazine
• Eligibility to present research papers/posters at annual and regional conventions
• Opportunity to participate in Psi Chi’s undergraduate and graduate research award and grant programs
• Opportunity to submit my research for publication in the Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research
• My name published on the Psi Chi website as record of my membership

So if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go do a happy dance now.  And when I’m done dancing, work on my homework to keep my grades high.

Loves.

Forget Controlling My Destiny, I Want To Control My Universe

Occasionally I wish that I had a universal remote.  You know, a real universal remote like in that Adam Sandler movie Click.  Only I would be responsible with my new found power.  I’d just use it for important things.  For example, pausing time so that I can sleep in.  Or doing a quick rewind to catch information that I missed.  And I wouldn’t fast forward through homework, I’d pause time so that I would have even more free time when I finished!  I think the only time I’d fast forward through school would be my health psychology class because it’s so slow and boring!  We could do in half an hour what’s done in two hours in this class.

Sometimes when I have too much homework or too little sleep I imagine how wonderful it’d be to have the power over time.  That’d definitely be my superhero power if I could pick.  Though flying would be a close second.  I think that’d be fun, though slightly impractical if I needed to take anything with me.  Ugh, flying home for the weekend with pillow under one arm and suitcase in my other?  No thank you.  But that’s ok, I enjoy a good drive with fun music blaring.

Loves.

Oh No They Say He’s Got To Go, Go, Go Godzilla

I think that spring is my new favorite season.  I used to love summer but since I’ve moved to the gateway to hell I’ve changed my mind.  Spring is green and warm (but not crazy hot) and just as good as a Santa Barbara summer.

After a few weird weather days (clouds, wind, night rain) the weather has gotten warmer and this week two moths have made their way into the apartment.  I’m expecting many more this spring and summer, something I’m not terribly excited about, but they’re not hard to take care of.  In fact, it’s really easy now.

Godzilla watch your giant scaly back, Dixie, make that Dixilla, is on the case.  Mothra and Mothra Jr. went down!

The first moth was flying around the living room which made the capture quite the challenge for Dixie though she didn’t let that deter her from jumping over the couch in one giant running leap while tracking it.  After a while we lost it when it tried to fly through my head and I showed of my cat-like reflexes by quickly ducking.

A few hours later I found it hiding in the bathroom so I called Dixie over and closed us in.  I had the flyswatter but Dixie had so much fun hunting the moth earlier that I though I’d let her try to catch it.  Turns out that for having been a “fuller” cat she’s really agile!  (She’s lost weight since I’ve taken her in, probably because I don’t allow her to eat off my plate, and is now 12 pounds.)  This cat can jump and move super fast.  There was a point where she was standing on the edge of the sink when the moth tried to fly over her.  She leapt into the air, clapped the moth between her front two paws, then when she came down to land her one foot missed the edge of the sink so she released Mothra to spot her landing with her front feet.  I was totally expecting her to fall but very impressed by the catch even if she didn’t land.  She did catch and play with the moth a bit before I removed it.  I wish that I’d had my camera to try to catch some video, maybe next time.

Then last night I heard Dixie scratching about and moving stuff so I got up to investigate.  She had found another (slightly smaller) moth, Mothra Jr.  This one was less exciting, it either couldn’t or wouldn’t fly so it was trying to walk away and hide.  It was dead shortly after I realized what Dixie was up to behind my VCR (yes, I still have one!) so he got to join his buddy from two nights earlier.  Hopefully this won’t become a very regular event, not that Dixie would mind.  Ha!

Loves.

Getting Antsy For That Cap and Gown

Great news!  Today I met with my academic advisor to discuss my progress and my picks for classes for Fall quarter and she told me that I’m basically 20 units away from graduation!  Woo-hoo!!

Basically I need to take 10 units in my major and 10 units in my minor (sociology) to earn my bachelors degree in psychology.  I don’t even need to worry about taking any electives or filler unit classes since I’ve got tons of units under my belt already.  I’ve been a senior (according to the amount of units I’ve completed) for quite a while now.  In fact, last quarter I had 180 units, that’s the minimum required to graduate!  That’s the nice thing about taking about 4 years to get your associates degree, you can fly through your next degree.

Other benefits to a long community college career?  1) Getting to take a large variety of classes for relatively cheap.  Astronomy?  Check.  Black and White Photography?  Check.  Modern American Literature?  Check.  American Film?  Check.  Marine Biology?  Check.  Cardio Kickboxing?  Check!  2) Figuring out what the heck you actually want to major in before you get into the “big leagues”. Hmm…after writing all those papers maybe I don’t want to be an English major after all…I just want to read it, not pick it to pieces!  3) More graduation ceremonies!  And who doesn’t love celebratory dinners?  I love celebratory dinners so much that after this one I am planning on yet another one in another 2-3 years.  Not sure what city that dinner will be held in yet but I’ll let you know.

Loves.

I Love Large Towels

Since it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted, I have decided to come back with a fun story.  It was one of those events that immediately registered as a good story, once I recovered from the adrenaline rush that is.

It was kind of cold a couple of weeks ago and, as everyone knows, the best way to warm yourself up is by taking a nice hot shower.  One night I forgot to turn on the fan while I showered and I can’t leave the door cracked because Dixie will pull it wide open and let all the cold air in.  So when I stepped out of the shower I flipped on the fan and cracked the door since Dixie was meowing and I didn’t want to lock her out of her bathroom if she was needing it.

Now I’m sure that you can see where this is going…Since I’d taken a hot shower and hadn’t been aiding the resulting stream from escaping it all came billowing out as soon as I opened the door.  The steam then immediately hit the smoke detector in the hallway and my bedroom causing them to go off.  I have a clock radio in the bathroom so sometimes I listen to (and sing along with) it while I shower.  I’d been listening to the music that evening so wasn’t sure if the alarm had been going off before I opened the door or only since I opened it.

So here I am, wearing only my towel trying to figure out if I need to be evacuating the building.  And not only if I need to evacuate, but if I’d have time to get dressed and how I was going to get Dixie out with me.  I didn’t have a cat carrier at that point (don’t worry, I have one now) so I was not only concerned with getting her outside but also with not getting impaled by claws in the process.

As I’m sure you’ve figured out, the smoke alarms were triggered by the steam from my shower, there was no smoke and no need for me to run into the parking lot wearing only a towel (and hopefully flip-flops) with a scared cat clutched to my chest.  Yeah, that’d have turned out well.  Though that would have made a really good story.

Loves.

Recycling and Reusing

Earlier today Dixie was sticking her head into my practically full bag of paper recycles and pulling layers out...well she decided to do it again later tonight after I had just made sure it was full so I could take it over to the recycling dumpsters tomorrow. Totally my fault for leaving it laying on it's side, I know. After this second effort to empty the bag I thought that maybe she wanted to play in the bag or just hang out in it, after all she loves her cardboard box from Amazon. So I grabbed a fresh bag and propped it open for her (laying on it's side of course) and what do you know, she immediately goes over and sticks her face in it. About 3 seconds later this is what I see...



And here's the Amazon box I mentioned:
(Sorry, image issue, will fix soonish)

Oh, and have I mentioned her shoebox?



Yeah, my cat's all about the high-tech toys. Well that is if they come in a good box or bag.
Loves.

Consider Yourself Warned

I have become one of those pet owners. You know, the ones that take way too many photos or videos of their pet doing "cute" things. I blame Dixie, afterall she's just way too cute.

I still feel like our relationship is fairly new so I am learning her quirks and normal behavior as she fells even more at home with me. For example, she'll sleep next to me nearly all night but when she wants a little attention in the morning she'll sit on the edge of my pillow and gently knead my hair. And I've learned that if she meows while playing with one of her toy mice then I am not to pay attention, she's talking to the mouse and my talking to her interrupts her concentration.

In the nearly two months that I've had Dixie I still hadn't figured out how to get her to scratch on one of the two scratchers that I've got for her and not the carpet. That is until I bought one of those cardboard scratchers (yes, a third scratcher) which has catnip. Apparently Dixie enjoys catnip.



And yes, she now uses the scratcher.

Better Than The Wedding Singer

I recently got a phone call from one of my close friends, Ashley, letting me know that she's engaged. I was, of course, very excited for her. After getting over the girly excitement she asked me if I would be willing to photograph the wedding for them! I don't think that I hesitated in giving her my answer of a big fat yes. I've been itching to bust out my SLR camera and it'll be nice to be able to utilize a good film camera along with my digital one. I am very honored and excited to be Ashley's wedding photographer. I am sure that I'll be looking into more unique wedding shots to mix into the more traditional photos for a while now.

Are there any favorites or fun takes on traditional moments that you've seen?

Forget Rain, I'm Poolside

This morning when I woke up it was raining and by mid-afternoon I was poolside. Not literally, California is being hit by a storm, but I was mentally there, enjoying the warm rays of sunshine in my mind. You may wonder what prompted this or you may just assume it's the rain, well it's not. I received Victoria Secret's catalog dedicated to bathing suits in the mail and was flipping through it. Turns out I have found my next bathing suit. It's the perfect blend of adorable and retro, plus it's affordable.



I figure that the desire to own this bikini will help to motivate me to get myself to the gym on a more regular basis. Now I know better than to just go ahead and order it, though it is super tempting... What good is rewarding yourself before you've earned it? So until then, I'll just have to decide what color I want it in.

Loves.