3 posts tagged “beachy goodness”
I was out biking the other night, and thought (as I so often do on my boardwalk travels), that the scenery (minus people) really can't be beat. The expanses of sand, palms, waves and various beauty still take me by surprise sometimes... it's such a far cry from the familiar urban sights of my hometown.
Sharing is caring. Here are some a few shots of my evening adventures, there is a "SoCal Scenery" album over on my Myspace photos if you care to see all of them. I have about 30 in there since I'm doing a new painting and want some references.
Oh yeah, I thought I'd take some shots to display The Shiny as well. The textures came out pretty nicely, although I'm sad that one of the shots blurred a bit. My favorite was originally the first one, now I think it might be the third.
I'm in a weird place at the moment. Jason has headed off to visit the family until Saturday night. The outlook seems favorable, as always. Speaking of favorable, it's not too shabby over here either.
It would be so nice if my neighbors just let me enjoy this view, and kept it nice and quiet. But they don't. They are obviously not the types who just sit still and enjoy life.
You know why we pay $1250 a month for six hundred square feet of cat-fluff-covered space (plus one cramped parking spot)?
Because when I step outside my front door and turn right, this is my front yard.
I want to love it. There are times when (like now!) the waves just compliment the ambient-electro soundtrack playing from CafeCody or Live365 or SomaFm. Or even falling asleep, it's a very nice hypnosis.
What sucks is the cookout that occurs right outside my window (no, they're not double-paned), or the drunken after-bar conversations (almost every night), or the construction that's been going on for WELL over a year. Do you understand where I'm coming from? Why can't people just enjoy what we've got? Are you really that numb to where you can't enjoy this without alcohol?
::breathe::
--- --- ---
I never want my blogs to be those that just give you the laundry list of chores and activities, but that's what happens, isn't it? My year so far has been going pretty well, so why not chronicle it? I suppose it's all the fault of Leo Babuta. The day when zen through minimalism truly turned my head seemed to be late September 2007. ZenHabits had been one of those sites that my monthly need-for-inspiration websurf took me to. It had been quite awhile since my last visit, but shortly after posting about The Entertainment Beast, I wandered over that way, and this article cropped up.
There may have been a random link somewhere, but it led me over to Unclutter's Workspace of the Week... and the lightbulb came on. It was more of a buzzing, bare, swinging, slightly bug-filled lightbulb, but hey! It was on! That article prompted me to go on a mass cleaning spree, and actually start taking care of myself again. I was so excited about all this, that I tried to joint the October Zen Habits challenge. However it didn't work. Technical difficulty foils me again! However the habits and inspiration stuck with me, so I feel that my 2008 has started off on a nice solid foundation. Down the road will be a self-interview of sorts, that allows me to go on a bit in more detail on all this, and hopefully inspire someone as I was.
What's really tough about trying to keep things clean is this: I Own A Cat. Not just any cat, but a mediumish-kinda-long-haired White Fluffy Cat.
I love my cat.
I hate his shedding.
I hate his litter.
I love my cat.
It's like a mantra. Something to keep me sane in the impossibility that is Dark Wardrobe Versus White Cat.
Also: you may have noticed I'm a fan of links. There's really nothing to fuel the fire of my OCD-ADD like de.licio.us. That site caught my attention a long time ago, but my sign-up was pretty recent. In saying that, I'd like to present:
http://del.icio.us/larissayoung
That should give you something to do while I'm out payin' the bills. [No seriously, I have to go to the bank and then to AAA.] Next time on Vox, we'll cover why you should never sign up for anything EVER, and why I had to get a new bank account. Woohoo!
Hearing:The Waves,
SomaFM - Secret Agent
It feels like this past week has taken much longer to get through than preceding weeks. For those of you who've been paying attention, my Mondays are like your Sundays, so I usually spend them just chillin' here in front of the PC. After this entry it will be oatmeal time, and then probably work-on-the-apartment time. Things are going well with that and it's starting to look decent.
So.... a week ago. Monday. I went to visit Ivonne and saw her beautiful bebe, Miss Princess Reza. That kid is just too much, goodness gracious. Then it was time to meet with Teresa to play catch-up over food. Ivonne convinced me to go to Tajima but between my car acting up and Teresa not wanting to go, we went somewhere much closer: Rancho's. So a trip to Tajima is in the works, and whoever wants to go, hit me up.
After Rancho's my car was dropped off at the shop to the tune of a new light panel/headlight, 2 new tires and some front-end alignment. Scratch that, I didn't have a ride home so I came back on Tuesday to drop it off in the morning. Around 430 my coworker helped me out and gave me a ride over - however they didn't have the paperwork done so they let me just take the car, and said I could do the paperwork and pay when the light panel came in. SWEET! Free stuff is nice. It came in sometime on Friday, so I swung by on my lunch to have them install it.
They then discovered that one of the gasket valves was leaking some uber-flammable sh*t all over my exhaust, which apparently meant they were surprised my car hadn't caught on fire like... last week. Not sweet. They were going to have to order a valve and steam-clean my engine, which brought my total up from 250 to 370, and you know.... that sucks but I don't want to get blown up. Anyway, 90 minutes later they gave me a ride back to work and I stayed until 6 to make up the time.
Saturday I biked to work at 1130, and discovered that it was pretty freaking dark out an hour or so before I had to go home. J gave me a ride home, and managed to walk in during the middle of a screaming match in my office... between an autistic security guard and one of our event coordinators. SWEEEEEEEEEET. Got home right around 8 and prepared to go see Flight of the Navigator (DER FLUG DES NAVIGATORRRRS) with Mel. The original plan was to go to LA with her and Teresa on Sunday for a day of girly tourism, but my car being out of commission sort of stopped that. Since she lives Way The Hell Up In Carlsbad, and Teresa didn't really feel like going out much, the plan was for her to roll to the movies with me, crash overnight at my place, and then just hang out Sunday (yesterday).
Things worked out very well. The movie was great, we passed out immediately after getting home, and woke up somewhere around 11 before heading out to breakfast. Then it was a quick trip by my work to walk around before heading to my favorite beach. We hung out for a good while there, marveling over how we can never see the forest for the trees and watching a cute little family enjoy the day. We made a quick stop at my other favorite mediation spot, and although they've fenced in the houses and planted more shrubbery (NO HERRINGS THOUGH), the bench is still there and the view is still spectacular.
On the way back we picked up A Steak and some salad-makin' ingredients, then went to hang out on my roof with the food, seriously enjoying the remainder of the day. There were no neighbors out, the weather was gorgeous, and it was just like a little tiny bit of heaven.
In summary, I love George's (and totally have that same umbrella), but...
Salad of Justice, including leftover ingredients which will last me several days: under $20
Steak of Doom for Two: $6.50
Recreating a George's experience in the comfort of my own home basically for free: PRICELESS
In summary, yesterday was a very very fantastic day, and it made me really appreciate living here.
