El Matador

As I promised, here are some pics of the beautiful El Matador Beach! Enjoy!!!

The path down to the beach from the parking lot

A pool in between some rocks

One of the many large rocks on the beach

Under one of the rocks

*Stellar Photographs are Courtesy of Matthew Wright :)*

!!!crAzY LA DaY!!!!

Well, life is back to normal.....DRAT!!! :)
Last week was so much fun! My best friend from West Coast, Kayla Stone, was visiting me for Spring Break! Aw man I have missed her so much! We were inseparable last semester! Everyone thought we were sisters or that we at least had been friends before school. We met at work, WCBC Kitchen Crew. In my life, I have found 3 friends that I automatically clicked with. Where it didn't take much work at all to get to know the person, and an immediate bond was formed! Kayla was like that! One of the people I know I will be friends with all through my adult life. It was so great to have her here for a whole week. We had many adventures and funny moments! Too many to share, and I doubt anyone else would find them quite so hilarious as we did! Much of the time we were just hanging out at home, trying to work on the tan! But we were also able to take some really nice, long walks; go to the mall and try on crazy outfits and beautiful formal dresses that we would never be able to wear; walk around town; and on Saturday go to LA!

Ah, Saturday was THE COOLEST DAY!!!. . .maybe ever?! We went to China Town which was so neat! Haha, Asians are so.....unique! LOL! Some of the stuff they sell in the markets, pretty funny! But we had some good times! Went down to Malibu and got lunch at a really good place called Malibu Seafood (really original!). It was pretty yummy, and we jay-walked across the PCH and ate down at the beach.. Haha, we finished eating and turned our back on our little picnic for about two seconds and then turned back to find every Seagull in Malibu sitting on our blanket pillaging our picnic! Kayla and I had finished our food but Matt still had about half of his (ginormous) tuna burger left! Oh well!

I officially have a new favorite beach! After we ate, we drove a few minutes further down the PCH and went to El Matador beach! Oh my word!!! Oh my stinkin' word! I will have to post some photos of it for you all! It was absolutely incredibly beautiful! It's pretty deprived of facilities (although there is a charming porter potty at the top, haha!) so it's not where you want to go if you are looking to be pampered. There is a path that leads down to the beach and a bunch of stairs and the first thing you see is this HUGE rock! GINORMOUS!!! There are rocks all along the beach and in the water! Smaller ones that you can climb over to get to other parts of the beach, and then bigger ones that you can walk under, or explore the caves in them! There are also some caves in the sides of the cliff! We walked along it for such a long time and nothing was left unexplored or unpoked! LOL! We saw so many starfish and mollusc's and other creatures that I have no idea how to spell! And Matt found some hermit crabs so was carrying one around for a while! Wow, it was so neat! So secluded, too. I love the beach, it's my favorite treat but one thing I hate is the other visitors! It's like they are all entered in a competition to see who can where the least amount of clothing without getting arrested for indecent exposure (which is pretty darn naked these days!). It's offensive so if I happen to be at the beach with my family or any other guys, it's all strategy...finding a spot to set up camp where everyone seems to be the most clothed and walking back on paths that avoid the skanky females. But there wasn't any of that at this beach. . .well at least not for Matt to worry about. Although Kayla and I did turn a corner around a large rock to be face-to-face with an old skinny man in a very little speedo! And he just smiled and said hi. Our reaction may have been deemed rude by the friendly nearly-naked man. Kayla quickly turned her face and I accidentally let out a loud gasp before looking down! Ah, it was so awkward!!! But other than that, everyone was fully clothed! There were photographers (Matt was one among a few), and a painter and couples sitting and having a picnic! We saw people as we walked along but they were few and far between! It was so nice! And the beach was beautiful!

After that we drove to Santa Monica, where we went down to the Promenade. That was pretty fun. Matt and I got our hands stamped with a free peace sign stamp and we are now part of the Peace Club!! haha, thanks to a couple of old hippie men! They were high!! :) We had parked pretty far away and so on the way back it was pretty scary as it was now dark and we had to walk past many dark corners and many homeless people getting their beds ready! Kayla was especially freaked and I was scared, too and Matt was making jokes! Ugh, in case of an ambush we were going to throw him towards our attacker and make a run for it! He's buff, he can fend for himself!! But praise the Lord (and no thanks to Matt, our "protector") we made it safely back to the car!

We finished off the night by a search for an Olive Garden back in downtown LA but to no avail so settled for California Pizza Kitchen which is not one of my fave's but was still pretty yummy! I give a shout-out "thank you" to our benefactor for that meal! :) haha. Then we had the long drive home which was pretty quiet as we all started to settle down now that our belly's were full and our tired bodies were out of the cold wind and in the warm car. Overall, it was the best day of my whole year!!! =D

~I Don't Get It~

Things I just don't get:

~Soap Opera's. Even if you are lame and trashy enough to want to sink lower than anyone with the slightest bit of morals.....where's the embarrassment? No shame? I would no sooner turn my TV to As the World Turns than I would pick up a paper-back book.....or dine on my spleen for that matter!!!

~Why Goofy gets to enjoy all the luxuries of a respectable canine, whilst poor Pluto is doomed to walk on all 4's wearing nothing but a collar, eat dog food by plunging his face into a dish sitting on the ground, live in a dog house, poop in the yard, can't even speak besides *Ruff!*...the list goes on and on. Honestly....I neither see the logic nor the justice in this!!!

~Why dogs are man's best friend, and even though we take care of them....cats couldn't be more anti-social.

~Why anyone would actually like cold weather.

~Condiments. Ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard.....revoltingly disgusting! Why???

~Why the film industry insists on ruining what could be a good movie by pelting us with profanity and other offensive content.

~Horror and slasher films. Since when are the mentally disturbed THAT disturbed?! I mean, have you seen previews for some of these films? Demonic and terrifying!

~Why boys are so stupid!.......Need I say anymore??

Museum, 7-Seater and Banana Slurpee's!!!

It's getting late, but I still have energy from a super fun day and super delicious Samoans (thanks, Grandma!!!). I guess Robb was looking at blogs tonight and remarked that I hadn't blogged in a long time, which I really haven't. So I decided to try and burn a bit more energy before going to bed by blogging now. After all, today was stellar to the max, why not write about it!

First up was the church workday. Matt and Lauren picked Robb and I up at about 8, which was nice and early on a chilly Saturday morning. We did random stuff: washing walls, cleaning windows, mopping floors, vacuuming, taking out trash (YAY trash, Lauren!!!), and such of the like. Went to 7-11 and got a Slurpee which really snazzed up my day! I have not been to 7-11 in so long. And I remember when I was a kid we would go and I always got a banana Slurpee. The stores I have been to over the years have not had them, but this one did! Oh!! I was so thrilled! So utterly astounded and excited to see this flavor greeting me! It was like a warm hug from an old friend! So many childhood memories came flooding back to me as I happily grabbed a cup and filled it up! But then Matt so graciously pointed out that for 20 cents more, we could get really big ones! Honestly, why didn't I think of thinkin' of that?? So he grabbed a big cup for me and I took the lid off of my small one, which caused the sticky, runny, cold contents to poor out the side of the cup! Matt then jerked the cup he was holding up which caused it to spill more so I dumped the icy drink into the cup as best I could, but 'twas too late. Thankfully, no major damage was done besides sticky hands and saturated carpet!! Nothing like team-work!!!

After that exciting day at the church, a group of us went to the History and Art Museum in Ontario! If any of you are looking to be delighted with an enlightening and educational museum....don't go here! However, if you are looking for a fun outing that is free and interesting and wholesome (except for the picture of that chubby man in swim trunks.....shouldn't that be illegal, guys? Really!)....than this place is perfect! We had a jolly good time. 12 of us went and they had fireman suits and gear to try on. A bunch of photographs for their current exhibit which follows the modern day trail of Lewis and Clark. Then permanent exhibits on Route 66 and Earth. Over-all not the coolest museum I have ever been to, but we had a good time! And no! We did not try to open the big chest with a dead body in it, look in the well that turned out not to be a well, and go past the rope to see if the dark door was unlocked!!! :)

After that we went to the mall. Just wandered around, got ice cream, it was yummy! At one point, Samantha and I were walking slightly ahead of the group, and we got to a store we wanted to go into and turned around to tell the group that had disappeared!! AH! We had no idea where they were! We determined that they had been kidnapped, but didn't know they had been so it was up to us to warn them! However, that was slightly difficult because I didn't have my cell with me and Sam's phone had died! Drat! So we ran back to where we last remembered seeing them where a kiosk lady offered a lotion tester. Sam was laughing at me because I said yes, I wanted some! I didn't listen to any of her offers, I just mooched off her lotion but my hands were really dry!!! What's a girl to do, seriously?! :) So we ran back down to the end of the mall, and waited there for a few minutes. Finally, behold! There they be, blessed little lads and lasses!!! Phew! I thought we'd be lost forever! We were considering going to customer service and telling them we were lost, but decided to be brave and stick it out for as long as we could!

Raphael (5-seater car) and Matt (7-seater mini van) drove everyone up to the mall. But Raf had to leave for work before 5, so we could either send 4 people back to the church with him, or we could all pile into the van! We left the choice up to Matt since he was driving...his rules! He didn't care! Since he was driving, he was guaranteed his own, comfy seat and didn't care what we did! So sadly Raf had to leave for work and the rest of us hung out for about another hour before we went out to the car and piled in!!! Wow, 11 people in a mini-van! It was awesome!!! I think the only time I've beat it was in Mexico on missions trips! :) Matt and Lauren up front, Ashleigh and Chris each in a pilot seat in the middle. Robb on the floor between them and Ricky on the floor in front of Ash and John smashed down in front of Chris which left Samantha, Sandra, Chloe and I to sit in back! haha! We must have been quite a comical picture.....car sagging and everything! But it was fun! The day wouldn't have been complete without something totally weird but stellar like that (well, that and the amazing dance moves Matt was showing off with in the Earth exhibit!!!) :)

Shattered Glass, Mercy and Over-Sleeping

Not sure if this is an allowed activity, but as I am writing this Titus is noisily gnawing on the table leg. Wow, he is really going at it, grunting and everything as he chews. I told him to stop, but he just stared at me for a moment, and I swear he rolled his eyes before he turned back and again preceded his enjoyed act of attacking the leg with his huge mouth!

Today is my last day house-sitting for the Harvey's. I am kind of sad. Am I going to miss the cat....certainly not! Will I miss the dogs? Doubt it (I do have two dogs of my own at home). Am I going to miss being alone...so very alone? No, the house does feel pretty empty sometimes. But I am going to miss this freedom. I feel like an adult. Like I'm a little kid playing house! I get to be responsible to take care of myself and animals! I feed the dogs and the cat, and myself. I run the house....I feel so grown up! And tomorrow I go back to being a kid. At home I still feed myself, I clean up around the house, I feed the dogs and take them for daily walks and am even privileged enough to clean up their dung! But it's different, and I like being on my own. One day. . . .

I don't have my own car here. Mom and Dad (and Robb, don't wanna leave you out) said they would pick me up at 9:15 for church, since Dad needs to be there by 9:20. No problemo, right? I showered last night and put my hair in braids so no work necessary with it in the morning, and I planned to get up at 7:30 to give myself plenty of time to get ready, take care of the animals, do my devotions, and dog-proof the house before heading out for church. But I had the space heater on pretty high right next to me (I like to be really warm), and I think I got a little too cozy because when my alarm went off at 7:20, I tried to hit the snooze but couldn't find it (not my clock), and so turned it off and was back asleep instantaneously!!! Yea, I was out pretty hard, so was confused when Titus was barking. I was wondering why he was barking so early in the morning, and couldn't seem to remember what day it was. Oh, right. Saturday, work day today. Wait, no. That sounds too familiar, oh that's because I already lived that day! Today is Sunday! Sunday. . . .I have to get ready. What time is it? I fell back asleep. . . . .AAAAHHHHH! It's 9:35!!! Drat! So I realized that Titus was barking because my ride was knocking on the door! Gasp.....why did I have to oversleep! Ugh! I sprang out of bed and bolted for the door to find Robb there with his jaw hanging open when he saw that I was adorned in striped pj's, messy hair, and sleeping mask pushed up on forehead! I tried to speak, but my voice was gone and upon opening the door, it was all I could do to utter the words "oh no! Go get Mom! I need Mom!!!" So Mom comes to the door and is likewise puzzled and taken aback by my new look. No, I am not trying to start a "just-out-of-bed" trend. I JUST WOKE UP!!! And yet surprisingly, panic does not grip me. I remain calm...I don't know how....yes I do....God's grace! So I ran into the bathroom, put toothpaste on my toothbrush on began brushing while I ran into the kitchen and pulled down the dogs medicine so I could feed them. Titus takes a couple pills in his food, Calvin is older thus needs more (I mean a LOT more pills with each of his two meals) and so his pills must be stuffed into a marshmallow and thrown into his food dish. So I turn 'round and go to the jar that holds the marshmallows and grab the top to take the lid off. I give it a tug, but the lid stays in place and the front of the glass jar breaks and goes flying at me and across the floor! Ugh, not what I need at this hurried moment! So I bend over and start to pick up the fragments of jar, but Mom takes over for me while I finish getting the dogs food and she also helps by getting them water! Phew! Two down, one animal to go! I grab the cat food out of the fridge and throw some onto the plate and send Robb into the closet to lay it out for him. There is no way I would be able to jump the baby-gate that is in the doorway in my pencil skirt (I did change somewhere in there, no I don't sleep in a pencil skirt!). So I grab my makeup bag and the rest of my affects and scurry out the door, leaving the slobbery canines and hissy feline behind! Thankfully, God has blessed me with merciful parents and they were understanding and forgiving....I honestly think it helps that my voice was gone! People are so much more merciful when you sound like you're dying!~

Really Big Slide!!!

Well tonight I am on my own.....in an empty house in Pomona. Yep. But it's okay, the doors are locked and the doggy door is blocked off, but I honestly don't think those are necessary precautions. I think I may feel secure in this unfamiliar house all by myself in the middle of the night not because I have 2 amazingly humongous guard-dogs...no! Because I have the cat from, well, not heaven, that's for sure! For serious folks, this cat is not to be messed with! It is a hissing, innocent-house-sitter-mauling beast! Goes by the name of Fletch, but I think it's really Legion.

I am house sitting for the Harveys from this afternoon (Thursday) until Sunday night. Yep, 'tis pretty exciting. I have the place all to myself, and I am enjoying that so far, I guess. It does feel slightly empty, even with their 2 huge and overly friendly dogs Calvin and Titus, but it is kind of fun. And tomorrow night my lil' sis' and I are having a girls night, and I'm pretty stoked for that! Candy, soda, girl movie, games, the works! It'll be stellar!
And wow, these are the biggest dogs I have ever seen. Calvin looks more like a big, dopey bear than a dog, and supposedly he is quite small for his breed. And Titus is an American Bulldog, and is likewise HUGE, but I guess he is large for his breed. I don't know about all that, I just know I have never seen a bigger dog, well, not with my own eyes at least.

Hm, so last night some friends and I finger-painted, which was so cool! I haven't finger painted for about a year, and so it was fun to paint again! Oh and then we drove on the wild side and got lost, and then were really dangerously cool and went through the Jack-In-the-Box drive-through backwards, and covered in paint (how'd that happen?). Oh yea, we're bad. Then we watched Lady in the Water, and honestly I was disappointed. I've seen it before, and for some reason was remembering it as being scary. But I was not scared at all last night! And I only jumped once during the movie! It was still good, just not as thrilling as I remembered. It's like going back to your elementary school playground to see the "Really Big Slide", and the "Super High Fire-Man Pole" that everyone was scared to slide down, it was so high. But you go back and the slide lasts about 1 second, and you get no rush from it at all, and you have to scoot your way down it because you don't slide all the way to the bottom. Then you run over to the pole, and it's not all that high. In fact, by simply reaching your hand up (and maybe standing a little on tip-toe for some of us, including me!), you can touch the top! You try sliding down it, but your feet touch the bottom before you can even think about enjoying it! It's not that this visit to your old playground has ruined all of your child-hood memories there, but they are maybe not so exciting and adventurous as they were before. That is how it was watching the movie last night. I still enjoyed the movie, I still like it. But is it as cool as I thought? No, it's not. I am left slightly disappointed. Some things are better left remembered. . . .

Swords, Cookies, and ADHD

So I just took a quiz to see if I have ADHD. Just something random that Matt told me to take. And here is my result!!!


Pretty funny, I guess I can kind of see it. I mean I have a lot of trouble focusing sometimes, mostly with my train of thought. I always thought that I was just lazy and unmotivated, but that actually makes sense! It's a real quiz, too, from a psych care place! I scored 23, which is really high, since 16 and up is considered possibly serious ADHD, I am on the high end of serious! Haha! So according to them I could have a sever condition, but I have lived with it for 19 years and it's no big deal to me, so I think I can continue to cope. And it's not a diagnosis, just a fun quiz! I pretty much don't care! I would never put myself through the trauma of going to the doctors evil lair, just so they can stress me out with tests, and put me on some pills....as if I need another addiction!!!

So last night was super fun! Robb and I hung out with Matt and Lauren, and that was colossal as always!! They came to our house and we ate dinner then went to Montclair Plaza. We wanted to got to Victoria Gardens, but it was waaaay too cold! So we opted for an indoor mall. While there, we went to the Disney Store, and it was so exciting!!! We found THE PERFECT wedding dress for Lauren. It was a Giselle dress, from Enchanted, the wedding dress she has from cartoon world. It looked beautiful on her! And we found a really cute HSM cheer leading costume for Matt. Then we went to the back of the store where this lovely and huge mound of stuffed animals was piled high greeting us and screaming JUMP ON ME!!! I thought about it, but decided against the jump. Matt however couldn't help it, and leaped onto the mound, only to land on a hard surface and find out it was not a mound of animals, they were just one layer of them stacked on a platform, ouch! Haha!
Then we went into Elements of Earth, and that was pretty cool! I love those stores, they're so much fun! The swords are so cool, and I love the fountains, the aroma therapy, the odd figurines, and the random wigs and tassles! So much fun! The girl working there had quite the mouth on her and was hitting on Matt, although I don't know if he noticed, but it was pretty funny! Fun!!
When we first walked past Hollister, we were very abrubtly flashed by the male mannequins that had been, uh, de-pantsed!!! Yep, just standing there, modeling tops-only since the pants had been yanked down to the knees. Pretty awkward, but also hilarious! So our immature selves had a good chuckle at it! Then when we walked past it a second time, there was a teenage guy out front and he was pulling down the rest of the pants, including the female mannequins. So I stopped the group and went over to the kid and said in a mad voice, "Come here!" "What?" He said, and tried to look innocent. I kept telling him and motioning for him to come follow me into the store. "I saw what you did! I'm telling. That's not cool, let's go!". He just kept saying "What?" He was so scared, so finally I told him I was kidding! The relief that flooded over the poor saps face! So funny!! He said he was waiting for me to walk into the store so he could run away! The kid will never undress a statue again, at least not without looking over his shoulder! LOL!
So, that is my excitement! Tomorrow I am helping Lauren make cookies for the rescue mission-our parents Sunday School class is going Saturday night. I am not good in the kitchen, I have been known to cause many accidents and much harm, and my food isn't all that good. But I told her I could measure stuff and stir and clean up, and cheer her on!!! Haha!
That's my contribution!