Crashing California

So, I was going to blog last night, but was too tired, and now, even tho it's after midnight here, I simply MUST begin posting on my trip "home" to Canada, lest I begin to forget all the emotions, thoughts and wonderful times that I am experiencing. My flights in were pretty decent, altho the fellow sitting beside me ALMOST chucked his cookies on the way into Salt Lake city (the turbulance was terrible ~ I was praying!) I arrived into Edmonton Intl. airport at exactly 8p.m. -- and NO hassle at the "border", tho security there was pretty intense (they had drug sniffing dogs and everything!) It was so neat to see my mom again, who, I admit looks pretty much the same as I remember, though, I can see a bit more age in her face. In a nutshell, everything here seems the same but different, like the shell of something I once knew, only to look closer and find that things are so very different. There are new roads (the Anthony Henday Ring Road is complete) and new stor...

It was my 30th Birthday yesterday ~ and I don't feel any older, or different ... k, actually, that last part is a bit of a lie. I do feel different, but not in the way that I expected myself too. I spent my Birthday in San Diego, out to dinner with some friends from San Diego Church, it was really fun, a "girls night out" sort of. I forgot my camera (roar) so I didn't get any pics of the restaurant, which was COMPLETELY cool. But we did snap some pics of the "after party" (k, I know that was cheesy) Andy (who WAS in fact a pastry chef) made me this cake that was truly AMAZING. (and probably very fattening, so I'm not thinking about that part) and we stayed overnight and stayed up till 3:30 a.m. chatting and playing "Uno-Stacko" (which was pretty challenging, but I can safely say, yes, i did hold my own against Andy) Yesterday (which was my actual Birthday) we hung out with the "Mac's" and then went to Seven24 and worshipped ~ and ...

Well, the last week has been incredibly busy for me, which will explain my lack of being in blogger land, for which, I apologize =) The last week has been a rainy one here in Southern California, and altho we did escape MUCH of the havoc that those north of us received, we did get alot of rain. (this photo is our beach access, which is now colored a beautiful "muck black" from the runoff) Being so close to the beach now, and esp. near to a "storm drain" (the lagoon we also live on) this winter season of "storms" is proving to be rather depressing. (our "strom drain", yes, EVERYTHING DOES run to the ocean, people) Going down to the beach, which is storm by storm, being eroded away, now smells rather peculiar -- not good or bad -- just peculiar . And colorful crinkles of garbage washed upon the sand replace the sea shells and rocks. The seagulls do seem to like it though -- I miss the REAL ocean for now. On some personal notes: I finished one deadl...

Tho we spent New Years Eve rather "under-the-wire" ... just watching Dick Clark's New years' Rockin' Eve 2008 and playing music, New Years Day was the fanfare and ringin'-in for us both. It was unseasonably warm, yes, even for here and we basked in the 70+ coast weather, Jay did some surfing and all was well with the world. Sorry this is a bit short ... I've become incredibley busy as of the last three days, and my brain is there, not here =0) but here are the pics ~ enjoy! (Pacific Coast Sunset, Jan 01, 2008)

So, I thought I was sort of done blogging about Christmas stuff, but we got an AMAZING present yesterday and, ofcourse, I have to blog about it! We were invited by Mike from church to the "Pacific Life holiday bowl" with his girlfriend Alyssa and a group from church who had tickets. This is College Football, I'm not sure if it's a championship or what ... but it was Texas against Arizona State. It was certainly exciting enough to go to Qualacomm (neither of us had been yet) to see a game, but we had NO idea what was in store! There were so many people going, we had parked and taken a trolley but it took SEVEN trains till we could actually get on ... they kept showing up to our station FULL of people who had boarded stations before us ... crazy. Finally we got to the game JUST at the right time! Now, the display of patriotism was def. something else. Not only did they have a troop of marines run across the field with a GINORMOUS American Flag, but then they had a young...

Well, Christmas time is done! I've been feeling like, even though this is technically our second Christmas here, it def. feels like our "first official". We had our own little home, all on our own. Our holiday was spent mostly with friends and each other Jay scored big time with his gifts =), well, in my books anyways. I got him the standard "clothes for the man" since boys don't shop well -- and I think he liked his gifts. His presents to me where three-tiered. The first -- a little stuffed bulldog that holds CD's -- (man's dream, a stuffed animal WITH function). The second gift was a tambourine -- with which I can full fill my eventual dream of being one of those "crazed-tambourine-ladies" at church, except hopefully I would be in time with the music ... in all seriousness, I'm totally excited about it, and hope to use it in church and when we play shows too maybe. And the last and final gift that will keep on giving?? Jay bought me a...

So, it's Christmas Eve ... I can't believe how time has flown by this year. This morning there was a full moon and I ran out and snapped some pics of it's chilly light reflecting off the ocean at 6:30 a.m. Since I've got this new camera I've kind of gotten a wee bit camera crazy, so for those who care, you can visit: http://picasaweb.google.com/ammeepearl it's an online photo album that I've been uploading my pics to. I'm still learning soooo much about the camera and what it can do, and I totally need to get a new CF card, since the one I have from my old camera is 64 Megs and in this new camera that holds about 16 high res. pics (!!!!!) so, yah, new CF card in the new year forsure =) This morning I did some work (NO, I'm NOT a workaholic -- I'm just trying to stay on top of stuff) and listened to my entire Christmas music library on iTunes, boy the Christmas songs sure cross a gamut, from downright silly and sappy to achingly eerie and haunted...