Public Apology

February 2010: Oceanside, CA

December 2010: Malibu, CA

On many occasions I declared a strong dislike for LA and swore I'd never, ever travel north of there. In my head it was crowed, and cold and lame. In my head, it was just as bad as Kansas. Not this Kansas:

This Kansas:

But I digress. The good news is, I was wrong. LA is awesome. Places north of LA, like Santa Barbara, are beautiful. So California, I apologize, I was wrong for judging places I have never gone. You were right, you (no matter who you are), can find yourself in California. I look forward to more visits to more places I've never been. Thanks for being way better than Kansas.

California Love

I woke up in Santa Monica, CA today and although the sound of my phone ringing was my alarm clock, I did't care all that much. The sun is shining through my window and its the legit warm kind. Not the tricky midwest kind that lures you outside with false pretenses of warmth.

What adds even more to the experience is that as me and the hubs venture to Santa Barbara for the first time, our trusting tour guides will be our great friends Jenny and Aaron. Mostly, I'm excited about all the food. All the eating. All the consupmtion. It'll be difficult to top In N Out Burger yesterday but Aaron assures me that a local wonder called Amandine will deliver a solid effort by way of breakfast and most importantly, coffee.

Getting up, moving out.

Christmas at 801

I'm a fool for Christmas decorations.  The tiny twinkle lights. The glittery baubles, even the fake snow flocked on trees and padded around vignettes. The rule in our house is firm, no leanings toward Christmas decorations, music or otherwise until Thanksgiving has been fully celebrated.  

This year we returned from visiting my mom in Seattle and almost immediately went out and purchased the largest Christmas tree I've ever owned. lovingly called, "The Whale."

Hubs rigged up the star to kind of balance in front of the top branches on The Whale since there was no room between the top branch and the ceiling. The Whale holds 600 mini multi-color lights, which seems like an obscene amount but it's just right. And we did learn that the generic version of the "magic eraser" will in fact clean the skid marks from a tree that is too tall off the ceiling. Its like nothing happened.

Joy to the World, part 2

Today is my birthday and while I realized that my introduction to the world did not have the weight as Jesus but I like to think I've done more good than harm with my time on this earth.

I'm not sure what all one says in a birthday blog. I just thought it was an occasion worth noting. I have no wishes because the life I live is cooler than my wildest dreams. I picked out some notable moments from the past year in no particular order:

Martinis and Manicures @ Room 38

My first LV bag hasn't left my side since then

Graduation night I came in a Bachelor and left a Master

I said goodbye to some friends

Had one of the most legendary vacations ever

Bought a house

Provided housing for an undocumented Mexican-Italian

Represented on The Nationwide Leader in Sports

Joy to the World

I appreciate Thanksgiving and all but I admit it is also in many ways merely a gateway to Christmas. The very first order of business by way of welcoming the Christmas season is to watch the classic movie Christmas Vacation.  After that I'll start with a regular rotation of other favorites like The Holiday, Love Actually, Elf (the one Will Ferrell movie that does not make me want to punch him in the face), and A Christmas Story. Not because I like it all that much but because its what you do when its Christmas, you watch a Christmas Story. If you're really serious about it, you watch some portion the 24 hours of it on TBS because its awesome.

Nothing Changes but the Seasons

When I was in college a movie called Beautiful Girls was one of my absolute favorites. Its sort a grown up coming of age story from the perspective of a man who returns to his home town for a high school reunion. It's got laugh's, it's got drama, it's got Rosie O'Donnell and it's got an awkwardly realistic ending where one of the high school buddies offers the main character a farewell along the lines of "Come back and see us, nothing changes here but the seasons." 

Day to day living feels very much the same, I'd even say it seems boring most of the time. Then a big change happens and a friend moves away. All of a sudden I'm engulfed by the minutia, the tiny bits of life and relationship with that person that overtime became overlooked and unappreciated.  Game changed. Now, in my head, its all changes all the time. Nothing is the same. And I'm not convinced that this upside down world will ever right itself. Why did I not appreciate those little bits more while I could?


I've said a lot of goodbyes in my day. Its an geographical hazard when you live in a college town where residents tend to be more transient than most places. Whenever that happens, that scene from Beautiful Girls comes to mind because in my experience its so real. The leaving is such a big deal in the moment but there will come a point, and it's always sooner rather than later, when the change will feel less big.  And the distance will settle in. And equilibrium returns. And this becomes part of the story I tell about back in the day when those friends lived in that house. And the only thing that seems to change, is the season.

Working for the sake of my sanity

Its Sunday and I'm working. I'm not a holy roller. I don't even know what that means but I invoke it here to point out that I don't work at a place of worship. Although you would not have believed that a few weekends ago when the worship of all things Homecoming was upon us.  So maybe I'll say, I don't work at a conventional place of worship. That being said, there is some hope that working this morning will save me some stress come tomorrow and the rest of the week. Not eliminate, I'm not an optimist and the glass is solidly still half empty, just reduce the chances that I go off the deep end, punch someone in the face and walk out on my job.  That seems to be the most logical alternative. So to avoid that, I work. Which is what I should go do right now.