The San Diego Letters

Motivation: Just surviving or reaching for the stars?

2011-04-21T20:59:00.001-07:00

One of the reasons I am so interested in being physically fit, nutritionally sound and studying martial arts is because I am interested in survival skills. Les Stroud, host of the tv show Survivorman, says in his book Survive! that one of the most over looked preparations for wilderness adventure is conditioning.
I personally am a conditioning coach; and yet I tell my students that I am out of shape. They look at me like I'm crazy and say, "yeah right!", but I say that because I have found that for me to stay motivated, I have to always be striving for a higher goal. Reach for the stars, and you won't come up with a handful of mud. One of the very real motivations that keeps me striving is the desire to be ready when disaster strikes. Yes, I said when, not if. Every day in the news we read of calamities. Wars, earthquakes, famine, disease. It's bound to happen at some point, and when it does, survival of the fittest will not just a euphemism for evolution. There's no time to "get back in shape" or "get back in the gym" once you are in survival mode. If thinking about that doesn't make you wanna work out, then I don't know what will!

Absynthe. One year gone.

2010-10-06T10:35:00.001-07:00

Abynthe 2005-2009

My dear friend Absynthe has been gone for a year now. Here are some pictures of her. I will never forget you baby girl!

Loving up on Laurel when Laurel got back from overseas...

Making funny faces...

Gettin snacks....

PLaying hide-n-go-seek

Gettin kisses....

Bringing me mice....

and rats.....

And here is my boy Bug. Miss you too buddy. Bug went missing in 2007 when I lived in a large forest.

Bug 2005-??

In the beginning... there was Victim, Bug, and Absynthe.

Helping with Laundry...

She learned how to relax early on...

Meeting Grandma

I am grateful for the time we had, and grateful for the important lessons that these dear creatures taught me. They have all left me, alone, but maybe that's because I'm strong enough to get along without them now.

This is how it all started... when I was 4 years old, we found this one among the blackberries and it was meant to be.

Katrina 1986-2003

Camo-kitty

Giving my leg a hug

The last picture taken, she died the next morning. She was "helping" me read...

defying gravity

2010-10-05T17:08:00.000-07:00

A new post- only six months later!
Hmmmm....

Perhaps this blog is on it's last legs. Would anybody miss it?

Well here I am in San Diego still. San Diego has brought me adventures, and skills, and friends. Lessons learned the hard way, and the easy way. Chasing a dream, and dreams chase me here too.

I am happy I am here. I do wish my family and friends from home were closer to visit but I like what San Diego is doing for me, or to me. I'm learning to make decisions. I'm learning to think about consequences.

I don't know what it all means, or where we're all going, but I'm enjoying the journey. I think I'll try defying gravity...

One year... and a brief explanation of my life.

2010-03-30T22:19:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends and Family!

Can you believe it will have been a year since I made my way to San Diego? The time has flown for me. Time flies faster now as I take on managing the only fight gear store in San Diego. I guess when I dive into something I really dive in... but that's good! Diving half-heartedly doesn't do much... so like I was saying I'm working about 40 hours a week at the fight store, OTM (On The Mat). I also work another 5 or six hours every Friday night cutting and garnishing pizza. Ironic that I refuse to take my foot out of the door of a pizza place, after having hated pizza and restaurant work for most of my life... but this place is different. I'm playing with food in the kitchen, not faking niceties at snooty dining tables. The tips are generous, the pizza is actually good (homemade sustainably raised sausage, local organic asparagus... you get the idea)... and most of all the people there treat me like family. They are no substitute for real family, of course... but it's nice to know you have people who would get your back no matter what living within blocks of you.

This time in my life here probably doesn't make sense to a lot of you. Some of you may think of it as "a phase" and in many ways you would be right. I won't be focusing on fighting forever in the same way that I am now. There are so many other "phases" that I plan to have as I educate myself in the things I feel that I need to know to be successful in the future world as I perceive it. I plan to go through a farming phase, a hunting phase, a wilderness survival phase, and many other 'phases' of learning. But that doesn't mean that martial arts and fighting hasn't truly sparked a love in me. It definitely has and I feel finally that I am on the right path. What an amazing feeling! I took a leap of faith when I abandoned my college degree and dreams in opera to pursue a ridiculous switch to martial arts with no former experience in my mid twenties. Fighting of any kind is hard to explain to people who don't fight; but my life is not so out of sync as it may appear sometimes... I loved ballet when I was young; ballet is the exquisite combination of beautiful music and the athleticism required to express that music. When I left ballet I went to opera... that was choosing one of those aspects that I had loved in ballet. The music, the stage, the applause, the focus, plus, screaming opera at people is quite glorious and relieves a lot of stress... It's much like getting to scream and cry at the top of your lungs and have everyone applaud for you and love you afterwards instead of look at you like you're crazy. But the drama of opera was why I loved it and also why I hated it. I love to sing... but opera is not the kind of music I like to listen to... I love classical music without any heart throbbing co dependant suicidal lyrics in other languages. And here I was providing the very thing about music that I dislike? Love of music and language is in me, yes. But I was clearly on the wrong path, there. When I left opera I went to martial arts... that is like the other side of ballet. But unlike ballet, fighting appeals to the utilitarian minimalist that I have become: in martial arts, you accomplish with your bare hands and body, no possessions needed, great acts that rival the athleticism and beauty of ballet but serve a distinct functional defensive purpose at the same time. But I digress...
I know that cage fighting can never last forever. I do love it, but i recognize that it has a distinctly young life, much like the early retirement of young injured worn out ballet dancers, and it has the power to use you up and spit you out if you're not careful. But Jiu Jitsu, my love, is forever.

Anyway as I was saying.... what was I saying. I was saying that it's been a year since I moved to San Diego and far too few blogs and visits and I'm sure you're all wondering what I could possibly be up to. I am building a future. I have accomplished more and faster than I ever thought possible. I am learning to believe in myself and create reality with my intention.

I miss my loved ones every day. I think of you far more often than I write. Life is going too fast right now to blog about it much. I'm so busy living it. But it won't always be so busy... it's just a 'phase'... ;)

I'll catch you all up when I can catch my breath. I love you, and you, and you, and you, and you...

2010. The journey continues.

2010-02-07T17:34:00.000-08:00

I've been building up the life I planned to build. I guess I am almost surprised that I can begin to taste some degree of success. I have been so busy I can hardly take a breath, boxed in on all sides with requests for my time and energy and emotions and even thoughts.

And now, it is super bowl Sunday. My phone is silent. I have been invited to a few parties but my social energy is a shallow reserve and was already used up for this weekend at the UFC party I went to. Suddenly I find myself home, alone, with a bunch of fresh fruits and vegetables to eat and a few hours to just do anything I want to do. And so, I will write you a letter.

This afternoon in yoga the teacher exhorted us to pick a dedication for our practice. I dedicated it to my Mother, my Father, my Grandma, my Sister. These are the people who I dedicated my practice to, because these are the people who are my A-team. They are far away, and yet they are with me everywhere I go. I am thinking of them and I know they are thinking of me. They are not just my family, they are also my friends.

There were other friends in the yoga room, today too. I could feel their energy. Candace in the corner, I met her at Crossfit and instantly felt like I had known her forever. It didn't take much to get her coming to yoga. Jen behind me, someone who I met while slicing pizza but who has become my accomplice in all things outdoorsy... we've been kayaking, hiking, and camping together and she has promised to teach me fly fishing. Up in the front, Bree, my new friend and massage therapist. She is here on assignment from me, since we trade her massage skills for my personal training skills. I can see her grin in the mirror. Master Dan, next to me, he is here for the first time today. He is a no-gi Jiu Jitsu instructor who has been taking the time to train me on Sundays to help me with my skills. He doesn't really go by Master Dan but his students come into OTM Fight Shop where I work every day now and drop his name as such. "Master Dan said to mention his name to you." *eyebrow wiggle* *pause* "He said you might give us discount...?" The yoga class has not started yet. I look over at Dan to give him a reassuring smile, as yoga can be a little intimidating when you are new to it. He needed no such smile. He was folded with his ankles locked all the way behind his head and his arms sticking out in front of his legs like a human slipknot. "Jzoooo jzeeetsu yoooga!" he whispered in his thick Brazilian accent.

I spent 40-eleven dollars today at the farmer's market, all on local, organic, small farmed produce. I got sun dried preservative free raisins, pink lady and honeycrisp apples, some fruit I can't remember the name of that's supposed to taste like custard, little organic strawberries and kumquats, which go well with the raw macadamia nuts I got last time. I got kale and broccolini, and sugar snap peas to dip in my favorite farmer's market item: fresh made jalapeno cilantro hummus. I got super green juice with flax and bananas to mix with my protein powder, and a sack of avocados (8 for $5). I didn't have enough money to buy any mushrooms, which are locally grown and looked worth the high price. I sampled cucumbers, pita chips and ceviche, baby heirloom tomatoes, and pepper jack cheese from my home-land, Sonoma County. I desperately wanted to buy more, but my bag was full, my time was running out and so was my money. I spent my last dollar on an organic coffee and ran to the car with a sack full of good health, and the satisfaction of a vote well spent with my money on the importance of good food and good farming. Ever since I got home from jiu jitsu and yoga today I've been snacking on raw, whole fruits, vegetables, and nuts. I feel blessed. I love Sundays.

I finally broke down and counted up all my hours from all three of my jobs and from my working out (which I consider a job as it is necessary for my desired career path to continue). It turns out that during the month of January I have been clocked in at work for approximately 47-50 hours per week and working out for approximately 13-15 hours a week. Considering that I still need to sleep for 8 hours a night to be functional, and the fact that there's only 168 hours in the week to begin with... the time flies by. Weeks seem like days to me.

All that time talk reminds me of a quote from a book by C.S. Lewis that my Mom and I are reading together. "...irreversible entropy gives time a real direction..." and yet I don't feel in in a state of entropy, I feel like I am finally opening up my petals. Slooooowwwwwwly, but surely, I am climbing, up and up, I can feel my momentum now as the path gradually becomes less steep and precarious, my footing becomes more sure, and the view becomes more rewarding.

Well my dear friends and family, I could keep writing and writing. I miss you and want to share the funny little details of my life. I hope you can begin to see the picture I am trying to paint. I am growing, I am learning, I am becoming...

the dawn of the next decade

2009-12-31T09:17:00.001-08:00

Well I've really fallen down on the job posting any blogs lately! The evil facebook has been eating me up. Also, my desire to communicate waxes and wanes, as the duties and temptations of real life press in upon all sides.

In times of transition I rarely write, as I want to let things fall into place without over analyzing them. I tend to over analyze things a bit anyway up in that brain of mine...

Recently I have been in a time of transition for me in many areas of life. My journey has many plateaus and mountains, valleys and even waterfalls sometimes. There are mirages too.... things are not always what they seem.

I feel like I am on a perilous journey through rough lands, and that over and over again some calamity befalls me that by all rights of nature ought to kill me, but I always pick myself up and dust myself off, battered but not maimed.

I continue forward, trying to learn and grow. I sigh as I notice that I do continue to make certain mistakes over and over. I must reach deep inside to conquer my self sabotage.

I want to be strong like an oak tree, solid, unmoved... but right now I am only a eucalyptus, beautiful and sweet smelling, but too easily broken and shattered in the wind and rain.

This New Year's Eve I think with love of the many people in my life. I think of what they mean to me, and what I mean to them. I haven't kept up with everyone that I love. I haven't treated everyone I love rightly. But I have loved them. I have a lot of love in my heart. In fact, my heart is so full of love that I think that is why it always feels like it is going to break, spilling bloody love all over the whole universe. People have told me that I am over sensitive ever since i can remember being alive, and sometimes I wonder if my sensitivity is just love, misplaced? Or misunderstood? Should I embrace it instead of striving against it? Why is it that I feel so much more than other people feel? Sensitivity is a gift in many ways, but a gift that is very painful for the owner to bear.

People say that love and hate are two sides of the same coin. I somewhat disagree... although I understand that what that saying means is that they are both the opposite of apathy, that both love and hate are, essentially, caring about something. I heard a line in a movie preview the other night, "I have very strong feelings for you, I just haven't decided if they are positive or negative yet." That makes me laugh...

I do venture, however, that joy and sorrow are two sides of the same coin. I feel a lot of sorrow today, but also a lot of joy. It reminds me of a line from a song my great grandma wrote, about turning your frown upside down. I'm going to flip the coin over today...

Well I'm off to have a lovely last day of 2009. I hope you do the same. Here's to you, my friends. Here's to you, my dearest family. Here's to 2010, the year of good decisions.

BUSY!!

2009-12-04T10:16:00.000-08:00

Who knew one person could pack so much in. And yet there are always many more things I want to do... Seems life is passing by and it's a race to do everything I want to do.

I intend to return to the blogo-sphere soon, but for now, hopefully a picture is still worth a thousand words.

Inspiration

2009-11-05T12:00:00.000-08:00

I have recently become interested in Amelia Earhart. I read an article about how her remains were possibly found on an island; she may have lived there for some time before dying. When I began reading about her, I discovered some quotes that I think are worth sharing.

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward."

There is an interesting article about her here: Amelia Earhart
Please be duly warned that the article is written in humorous form and contains a lot of profanity.

Here's the article that sparked my interest: Amelia Earhart's final resting place?

I hear there's a movie out about her but I haven't seen it. I bet it's all Hollywoodified.

Here's another quote I liked:

"Women must try to do things as men have tried.
When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others."

Cowles Mountain

2009-10-21T23:24:00.000-07:00

Just a short, few minute drive from my house is a small mountain, or a rather large hill as I like think of it. Cowles Mountain sits just north of sprawling suburban San Diego. If you're in decent shape you can get to the peak in less than an hour, and the reward if it's a clear day is a full circle view. It's especially nice to share with a friend or two. Click on the pictures to enlarge, and then click the back button to go back to the blog.

Looking South West, you can see Mexico.

And looking North:

And looking all around, 360 degrees. It's fun to get up out of the city and see where you are.

Like I said, it's nice to bring friends...

The Lioness

2009-10-21T20:43:00.000-07:00

I wrote this poem in December of 2007.

Chase it down and grab it.
Be strong: hunt, kill.
Love your mother and your honor.

Be exactly as you wish to be.
Become the fantasy.
Ask the Universe to reward your efforts.
Then remember the words of your childhood.
"I can do all things through him that strengthens me"

Take a breath, fall, soar.
Spread your wings.
Accept the gift.
Reach into the sky and take the wind.

Peace rests in the forest.
Joy crashes in the waves.
Laughter wafts through the canopy of the jungle.
Excitement thunders through hooves on the plains.

Blood and gore drip down from the lioness' lips.
As she licks her chops, she knows her place.
No remorse, only blood lust.
She savors the taste.

I see the true evil of human nature.
Why are we cursed so?
Why do I prove to myself again my weakness?

But fear is the enemy.
To be strong, I must learn from mistakes.
For all the evil in the world, there is good.

Learn from the forest and the mountains,
as Musashi the Warrior.
Take on the streams as teachers.
Take the rock as your guide.

And be as the lioness.

Jane of the Jungle

2009-10-18T00:53:00.000-07:00

Tonight L and I dug through our closets to see what we should be for Halloween. Who better than one of my finer alter egos: Jungle Jane!

Hunting prey in the jungle.....

Catching my prey!

I am Jane hear me ROAR!!!!!

To Read, To Write...

2009-09-25T10:57:00.000-07:00

To transfer a thought from one brain to another....

After more than 2 months of not having internet access at my house, I am back online. I have much to catch up on, it seems. But in the meantime I've been catching up on a different kind of reading than the internet... strange old contraptions known as "books."

I am currently reading my first Tom Robbins book, "Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates." While I suspect that plenty of people may find him offensive, I find him refreshingly realistic. So far, his usage of foulness seems not so much for blatant obscenity as it is for honestly mirroring our world. His descriptions crawl on my skin like invisible but tangible gnats, while his use of vocabulary makes me reach for the dictionary once every few pages.

Here is a short passage describing a night spent in the Amazon jungle:

"The shower water, predictably, was tepid at best, and the sheets, while clean enough, were damp and smelled pungently of elf breath. Since the ceiling fan only rotated between the hours of six and nine (the river was presently so low that Boquichicos's tiny hydroelectric plant could operate no more than that), the air in the room was thick and still. The air was like a flexed muscle, the bicep, perhaps, of some macho swamp thing showing off for a female swamp thing, green in both cases. So heavily did it weigh down on Switters that he felt he couldn't have gotten out of bed had he wanted to. Despite the bed's slimy texture and toadstool aroma, he didn't want to. He reached out from under the mosquito netting and snuffed the bedside candle."

I am also reading a book called "Reefer Madness" by Eric Schlosser of Fast Food Nation fame. Contrary to the title's implication, is not about marijuana. Rather, it focuses in on the underground economy in the United States, that is, the economy that people do not pay taxes on, including drugs, prostitution, and illegal immigrant labor. In hard times like these when the economy is such a focus, it is interesting to think about hidden economics as well, and how they tie in to the above ground economy.

Regardless of what you choose to read, somebody sat down and wrote it. That's what makes it most fascinating to me. Somebody took the time to write that down. Maybe I should take the time to see what they wanted to say. Here are some of my thoughts on why we read, and on why we write.

I always thought I’d be a good writer if I could just tape record the thoughts in my head. Unfortunately, as soon as I try to verbalize them out loud or write them down, they flash away, like the Millennium Falcon disappearing at hyper speed. Thousands of thoughts escape just out of reach as I laboriously type each sentence out. Focusing in on certain thoughts, to rein them in to the tangible form of the written word, I have to sacrifice other thoughts, letting them go as they speed by me. I wonder if they will catch me on their next orbit. I hope so.

But I don’t want to talk about writing. I want to talk about reading. It strikes me that in order to sit down and write a book, especially of the non-fiction variety, an author must have something important he or she wants to say. Therefore, certain types of books are in essence the messages and lessons that people from the past are trying to send to us. They wrote because they felt the need to tell us something. Of course not all writers are sending us a blast from the past don’t-repeat-history lesson with an eye to our betterment. But I am talking about books that are given to us by prior generations for us to use as tools. Histories, sciences, philosophies, recipes, diagnoses and cures, arts, tools, defenses; these are the kinds of things that separate us from other mammals on earth. These are the things that enable us to choose to live beyond mere instinct, a free boost to give us a head start on the ladder of knowledge, offered to us by the humans who came before us.

Unfortunately, even though our ancestors wrote these lessons for us, they cannot force us to read them. And even for the most avid self-educator, there are many other demands on time and many books to cull through. However, the more I read, and the more I learn in general in life, the more I am convinced that it is our sacred human duty to attempt to find these important messages left for us like a treasure hunt from the past. What an amazing one-way line of communication is opened between two individuals when a reader opens a book and allows the author to speak. Maybe our society’s communal lack of reading in lieu of video games is one of the reasons so many people are bad listeners and interrupt each other all the time. Just a theory…

When I was a child, going to the library in the summer with my mom and sister was one of my very favorite things to do. We would spend hours in there on a too hot summer afternoon, sitting on the orange carpet between the air-conditioned shelves of wrinkled books. The hours were not spent idly reading, but rather voraciously picking books out. If the title grabbed me I would pull the book out of the row and read the back cover. If I was still interested then I would read the first few pages to see if it grabbed me and if so I’d put it in the pile of books to take home. We often walked to the library, which was only several blocks away from our little yellow house, so I was constrained not just by the library’s limit on books you could check out at a time but also by the amount of books I could carry. I often stacked them to my chin. Once we got back home, things got as quiet as the first minute of eating at Thanksgiving dinner. A fresh trip to the library meant everyone had tasty new books to consume. I would retreat to the couch with my stack of books with the inevitable Popsicle in hand and my calico cat Katrina in hot pursuit. She liked to sit right in front of the book I was reading and lean on it. Very helpful. Katrina and I got a lot of reading done in those days.

I remember trying out Jules Verne, my interest piqued after hearing him mentioned by Doc Brown in the most awesomely radical movie of the 80’s, Back To The Future. I couldn’t finish Verne's classic novels, as I found them dreadfully boring. Around the World in Eighty Days, 20 Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, and Journey to the Center of the Earth bored me to tears. But I didn’t give up. I took up his lesser-known works, and quickly fell in love with Michael Strogoff and The Mysterious Island. Those two books had a profound effect on how I viewed the world around me. I can still see certain pages of The Mysterious Island in my mind’s eye. In that book there is a contraption that very much resembles what we would now call a helicopter, but it isn’t called that in the book. If you look at the copyright date I’m sure you will find it was long before the invention or appearance of any actual helicopters, planes or anything of the sort. Jules Verne really could see into the future. Thinking about these two books makes me want to buy them right now and read them again. I can't speak to Mr. Jules Verne. He can speak to me, but I have to pick up the book and read it to let him.

These days I read a little more slowly but in a more focused way. My list of books that I want to read grows longer almost daily, and I know I won’t ever be able to read every book I want to or ought to in this lifetime. But that doesn’t stop me from trying. Some is better than none. Anytime a respected friend recommends a book to me or I find out about an author or book I feel is useful, I put it on my Amazon.com wish list to keep track of books I feel that I should read. When someone recommends a book to you, they are trying to tell you something, just like the author was trying to say something. I want to listen. Some books may wait in queue for over a year but they all will get read eventually. I am on a quest: so much to learn, so little time. Life is passing like the seasons. I see that my fresh spring is falling behind me and I am entering the summer of my life. And someday, if I make it to my fall or winter, before I pass on to the fields of the afterlife, perhaps I will have a book to send back to the future. Perhaps I will have something important to offer to those who are willing to seek for those messages.

For now, when I write down my thoughts the words glare back up at me, confronting me with the harsh reality that these words are my own beliefs. The more I write, the more I sort out what those beliefs are. In the writing down and capturing of my thoughts, I hope to conquer the most un-listening heart: my own. I hope to send that message to the future reader, myself.

ROAD TRIP!

2009-09-01T16:37:00.001-07:00

SETTING OUT ON THE ROAD!!!
I forgot how much I enjoy driving up and down the California coast, with the windows down, singing to myself, sweating, thinking, smiling, on my journey to visit my dear family and some close friends who may as well be family, as I intend to keep them for the rest of my life. :)

Mid August I set out on a Wednesday evening. I called my one my my very best friends in Santa Barbara from the road. "So, uh, what are you doing tonight?" Luckily he is used to my spontaneity and knew that I would be coming on a road trip "sometime in August" so of course I was accommodated. After a fun night in SB that included Zombie movies and other such nonsense that harkens back to my college days, I headed on in the morning to San Luis Obispo. Arriving just in time for lunch and another best friend's 30th birthday, we went out to lunch and had the most delicious Arabic lamb dish and complimentary baklava. Chocolate strawberries, too! Then we walked through the town, through the Mission, over the creek, under the grapes. What a beautiful place to be in. All around you are lumps of hills and mountains and the sun is warm but you can still feel the nearness to the sea. Then it was time for our super-fashion-model-photo-shoot:

Trust me, there are many more like this, but you don't need to see them all. One of these days I'm going to put them all together into a movie. Obviously we had fun...

After that it was onward to Mom and Dad's! Wooo hoooooo!!! I arrived in time for a beautiful sunset. Click on any picture to make it bigger.

Over the next few days Mom and Dad spoiled me. They fed me delicious healthy food, including lots of vegetables and fruits from the garden. Mom bought me some AWESOME pants that I will not stop raving about. They are marketed as cycling pants but they are perfect for yoga, running, and martial arts too. They even gave me work to do, since I am perpetually broke. I helped Dad build a little rock patio, took a tour of the grounds to see how they've changed since I left this last spring, and marveled at Dad's guitar that he is making.

Also while in Monterey, I got to see some of my friends who attended the DLI (Defense Language Institute) there. They graduated and are on their way, so it was my last chance to catch them all in Monterey, although our paths will cross elsewhere later in life.

Then it was on to San Jose for a fight at the HP Pavilion! The arena:

This fight was an extremely important moment in the sport of women's MMA. There were two other title fights that evening (fights for a championship belt), but the women's fight was still the main event of the evening. The crowd went wild when it was finally time for the girls to fight. The fighters were Gina "Conviction" Carano, an American favorite, her record entering the fight was 7-0.

Carano

In addition to her undeafeated record, she is also popular due to her status as a "hottie". Now, I would usually go for the American competitor at least out of a sense of patriotism, but in this case I was rooting for her Brazilian opponent, Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos, who had a record of 7-1 entering the fight.

Cyborg

There are many reasons for this, but my main reason being that I feel that Cyborg loves the sport, whereas my personal opinion of Gina Carano is that she fell into the sport on accident and doesn't have the enthusiasm for it that her place in it would seem to entail. When the two fighters entered the arena, I'm afraid it was quite obvious to me that Gina had been spending too much time doing her makeup for her Maxim photo shoot while Cyborg had been spending her time in Brazil training hard with her fighter husband, also nicknamed Cyborg. The musculature alone on Cyborg was intimidating. Most of the guys in the audience said that Cyborg looked like a man and made all sorts of unpleasant jokes about her manliness while simultaneously making comments about how gorgeous Gina Carano is. I for one, would like to state for the record that I think Cyborg is gorgeous too. Her win certainly was. At any rate, I love both of these women for what they do, and what they did for the sport that night.

I tried to upload my videos from this fight, but it didn't work. I really wish I could show them to you because the entrance of the fighters was epic, and the fight itself even more epic. A glorious night for the sport of MMA.

That night after the fight, I drove all the way to my little home town of Sebastopol, and crashed around midnight at my friend T's house. The next morning I rounded up all my Sonoma County friends and we went to Lake Sonoma, where we joined more friends on a houseboat. We went tubing, wakeboarding, and slid down the slide off the houseboat into the lake. Altogether a perfect day.

Then it was on to Gramma's house to recover!! Gramma spoiled me rotten with cookies, strawberries, and trips to the pool. We had too much fun for not enough time...

By this time I almost had to be back for work so I turned around and headed south again. back to Mom and Dad's in Monterey, where I stopped for a quick hike with Sis, wearing my amazing new Vibram fivefingers barefooting shoes.

We had fun, in case you couldn't tell...

All in all I had a great time, but of course it was also nice to come home to my own bed and my own kitty kat. And now, it's time to go live some more, so I have some more to blog about!

Catch Up

2009-08-22T22:52:00.000-07:00

I pause to catch a breath and write a blog! Having no internet at my house for the last several weeks makes it difficult to find time to post. Hopefully the roomies and I will be getting online soon, but in the meantime, here I sit, after work at my noisy pizza place at the bar, with my laptop in tow. I have to pause occasionally as I write to juggle the various suitors for my attention. The music blares, people laugh and drink noisily, glasses clinking and tone deaf happy birthday songs bleat out from greasy tables. Invariably, when I stay after work and sit to eat my dinner, I must field multiple requests to flex my biceps from customers who have been watching me haul around pizza all night. It's only amusing the first few times....

So much has happened since I last wrote! I injured my elbow and had to take a few weeks off of my regular training regimen. This may be a good thing in disguise, because robbed of my martial arts classes, I had to stop procrastinating on my goal to start running. I don't know how far I can run yet, but right now I'm running for about half an hour. I don't suppose that's very many miles. My goal is to be able to run 8 miles without feeling tired by the end of this year. Right now, just the fact that I'm running at all is amazing, since I hate running on asphalt. I'm going to try to find some nice trails to run on in Balboa Park.

Since my last post I also went camping, and went on a road trip up north to see my family, which was great. My motorcycle broke down right before I left, but I got it running yesterday and was terribly excited about that! I also finally got the rest of my Nike photo shoot pictures uploaded while I was on my road trip.

Ah.... of course, as soon as I try to put my pictures up, the internet suddenly doesn't work here either... hmmm... I'll give up for now, and come back tomorrow.

OK! I'm back. It's tomorrow now... well of course now yesterday is gone forever and it's today. I am once again sitting at the bar after work, only this time, I'm at my other job, and it's daytime, so it's much calmer and nobody is bugging me.

So, I'll start with the pictures!

First, the rest of my Nike photo shoot pictures. If you didn't catch the first ones, they're in an earlier blog post. You can click on any image to enlarge it.

Whew! OK enough of all that. It was a fun photo shoot for me because it was more athletic and less "glamorous" than the other photo shoots I've done. I didn't even have to wear a stitch of makeup! Nice.

Next up, I've got camping pictures! I went camping with a few friends at Lake Morena just an hour east of San Diego. We bought fishing licenses and went fishing but I didn't catch anything. :( We had a nice time kayaking around the lake and I found some rocks to climb. It was pretty mellow "fancy camping" (the campsite had a bathroom) but I had fun and it was the first time I'd been camping in San Diego. Here's my pictures that I took myself. I may be getting more pictures from this trip soon from the friends that were there.

After my camping trip I started to get ready for my road trip up north to see my family and a few friends. Slowing me down a bit was the fact that my bicycle got stolen and my motorcycle broke down. Never fear. My boss at The Blind Lady heard that my bike got stolen and provided me with an extra one he had the next day. It may not be as nice as my old bike, but it sure is nice to work for people who treat me like that! Here I am with my kitty kat and my new bike (which I keep indoors now...)

Then I buckled down and took apart my motorcycle. I have rudimentary mechanical skills that were imparted to me by my dear friend "Mongoose" back home in Santa Rosa. My skills came through and I located the problem, ordered the parts I needed and had them sent to Santa Rosa so I could get them while on my road trip. I fixed the part while I was home and then brought it back with me and got my bike running again the first day I was back in San Diego. Success! Thanks Mongoose...

It sure is a satisfying feeling to fix something that is broken. In the past my mind was resistant to mechanics but I am beginning to get a grasp on it and feel more comfortable trouble-shooting.

My road trip was great! I had some trepidations about going because I am broke (as always) and I almost didn't go. I'm so glad I did go! It was great to see all my family and some of my closest friends. I have really missed my family since moving here.

I wound up getting to work a little at Mom and Dad's mixing concrete and making a few bucks there. I also got spoiled by everyone in my family buying me presents too, like my AWESOME new fivefingers barefooting shoes that my sister helped buy and my cool new moisture wicking yoga/running pants that my mom bought me. The barefooting shoes are the coolest thing since sliced bread. They are as close to being barefoot as possible while still providing protection. Using your feet this way helps develop the muscles in your feet and lower legs. You can use them for watersports, hiking, running, yoga, pretty much anything! I wore them on a hike with my sister and loved every step. Check them out here. http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/

I have lots of pictures from my road trip but they'll have to wait till next time! I have to go to work again. I mean.... I GET to go to work again... :)

The San Diego Zoo

2009-07-31T16:20:00.000-07:00

Phew! I finally got all these pictures uploaded! That took me so long that now I barely have time to write much about my zoo experience, but luckily pictures speak for themselves.

I entered the zoo on a tight schedule. I rode my bicycle from the gym and got there around 11:30 in the morning, and met up with my friend Jen from work, who was there babysitting our bosses daughter. I had to be back at the gym by 4:30, and five hours at the zoo is literally running around trying to see everything. I didn't have time to see the pandas, which were enclosed, and for which there was a huge line, like an amusement park ride. But I did have time to see almost all the other animals, although I didn't get to read as much about them as I would have liked to. Going to the zoo here in San Diego gave me an added appreciation for my childhood family trips to Marine World in Northern California, where not only do you get to see a lot of cool animals, but you get splashed, too! It was a hot day at the SD zoo and I missed the Killer Whale shows from Marine World. I guess I could check out San Diego Sea World for that next time, or maybe I'll just stand in the sprinkler and remember my childhood whale petting memories.

Here's a double decker tour bus near the entry of the zoo. There are great trees and plants everywhere here, in fact, I heard that the zoo spends two thirds of it's budget on maintaining it's plants, and only one third on the animals. Of course, the animals need the plants, too.

Some of the animals were not really enclosed at all. These wallabies and koalas seemingly could have left the zoo if they desired, but they didn't seem interested in getting away. I guess that's a good sign of their happiness...?

Look at this funny little animal I found! This my my bosses daughter. Her youthful enthusiasm for the animals really added to my experience.

Some of the animals are more enclosed and hard to take pictures of. This beautiful bird reminded me of my Grandma, since she loves birds, and the color red, and since I love her so much. I love the heart shape on this bird. I wonder if that's where we got it from?

There were, of course, the obligatory monkeys and chimps and orangutans, and gorillas. Some of them were quite happy and playing in the trees.

This one didn't look so happy. He was sitting right up against the glass wall, staring at the kids who were staring back at him. I felt vaguely nauseated, and wanted to get on the other side of the glass and give this guy a hug.

His friends were having a good day though:

Our bosses daughter insisted on taking me on the sky tram, which she had been on before I got there but wanted to go on again for my sake. The sky tram goes over the top of the zoo from one side to another. It's funny I can climb Half Dome, skydive, cagefight, and ride motorcycles with no problem, but getting on the sky tram made my stomach crawl up through my throat.

Pictures of our actual skytram journey to follow in a little bit.... first we had to make it to the loading dock for that, and of course on the way we saw more animals...

...like this rare "Jen-imal":

The aviaries were beautiful but hard to take pictures of...

But there are plenty of good pictures to be had. Balboa Park, which contains the zoo amongst other cool things like museums and archery ranges, is a gorgeous oasis in the middle of our city.

This one reminded me of my dad, who likes duckies.

And this one didn't remind me of anybody, thankfully...

I caught this guy taking a bath...

I caught this guy taking a bath too, but he looked like he wanted to catch me....

Disclaimer: Sorry Mom! There are snake pictures coming up!

I am scared of biting snakes, but I liked this big yellow boa constrictor. He doesn't scare me.

Ok, all done with snake pictures. Here's a pretty swan to make you feel better....

And we're on the sky tram! Ready, lift off!

Whew! I survived the sky tram. We made it to the other side of the zoo where the elephants and lions are.

The lions look caged in the the picture but they actually had quite a lot of space. Lions are quite understandably my sister's favorite animal. Noble and strong. I love the proud faces and the female hunters!

There are many strange animals at the zoo, and I'm sorry I don't know what this species is called:

This guy's tusks were growing dangerously long, so they trimmed them to keep them from breaking up too high. The helpful elephant-zoo-lady said that elephant tusks are like fingernails, it doesn't hurt to trim them, but it hurts if they break off too far up.

I liked the areas where multiple species of animals got to play and interact together. (Almost like the real world!)

OK, I admit, these hairy guys made me want to bust out my bow and arrows and go hog hunting!

These lovely animals would win the wildlife beauty pageant for sure:

Oh goody! One of my favorites were the crazy zebras. I can't even believe these creatures exist! These guys were having way too much fun, and hamming it up for everyone to see. Bite me!

Weeping Willow.... my favorite tree brings up a lot of good memories both from childhood and adulthood. I feel at home under any weeping willow tree.

So did these birds...

My bosses daughter pointed out to me that flamingos are pink because they eat shrimp. "You never knew that before?" She gasped.

This blue heron is not part of the zoo's collection. He just shows up and hangs out with the flamingos. I guess they must have it pretty good if wild birds want to come hang out too. He looked like the one boy at a bikini party.

After that we found another aviary, where this crazy bird was pecking around.

After I took a picture with a flash, he charged at me! Action shot!

These guys were to busy to show me their heads...
Most of the other birds were pretty shy too...

Except for Mr. Pretty Boy here who was happy to show off.

On to the bears! Also not caged in, these sun bears were alarmingly free to roam. They didn't seem interested in us weird people though.

After my friends left, I ran off to find the big cats. Unfortunately, the jaguars (mountain lions), panthers, and leopards were all sleeping, hiding in the cage. They all had small cages and I didn't like seeing them so cooped up. This was the best picture I got of any of them, this is a Black Jaguar (sleeping).

This is another sleeping cat, in a hammock:

Oh well. better luck with the tigers later. In the meantime we move on to the cutest rodents in the world:

These little guys are cute too!
The info reads: "A klipspringer can leap from a standstill nearly ten feet straight up and land with all four feet on a spot the size of a silver dollar." So that's how they do it!

This little dude says hi:

At this point I started literally running around the zoo snapping photos as my time was running out, so here we go: Run with me...

Oooh but then I had to slow down and hang out with the giraffes for awhile. Truly amazing creatures, they manage to be both adorably cute and majestically aloof at the same time.

The baby giraffe:

The cutest chewing face I have ever seen, giraffes chew their cud like cows.

After a sad goodbye to the giraffes, I resumed my sprint:

I absolutely loved these crazy long necked turtles!
I mean, how could you not love a face like this:

Hurrah, I found the tigers! They weren't sleeping, they were swimming. I wanted to get in with them!

This picture is hard to see, but this bird was literally several feet long:

The last animal I saw, and my favorite animal at the zoo, reminded me of my Mom, although I'm not sure why. I guess I just thought that she would appreciate the strange and mystical horse-like creature as much as I did. I took a picture of the info board so I would remember it's name:

The zoo reminded me of what a diverse, beautiful community we are here on earth. How lucky we are to be a part of it. Some of the cages made me sad, but I also appreciated the efforts to conserve dwindling species, and mostly the zoo did a great job of providing the animals with enough space. Many more thoughts are running around in my head right now, but I must run along to the next thing. Thanks for coming to the zoo with me!

Undisputed-ly

2009-07-30T23:15:00.000-07:00

Hello, all!

Well I know I am overdue for posting my San Diego zoo pictures which I have promised! Unfortunately my internet connection has decided to not work for the past 3 days (it does that sometimes, since it is a "borrowed" connection...) and right now I am on a friends computer and do not have my zoo pictures. There are more than 100 of them! I will still get them up though, if I have to go to a coffee shop to do it, well then so be it!

In the meantime, to tide you over, here are a few pictures of what else I've been up to! Here's me at the gym, wearing a full chest protector. HA ha ha! I look like the pillsbury doughboy. I don't usually wear this thing, but one day the only person for me to spar was a pro fighter somewhat bigger than me so the trainer had me put this on for extra protection. It definitely protects you! It's like wearing a full suit of armor. Not the most comfortable suit of armor, either.

Recently I attended a MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fight at the Casino Pauma. My gym, Undisputed, had 5 fighters participating and all 5 of them won their fights. A nice confirmation that I am at a good gym.

The fights were in a beautiful outdoor setting, with the sun drooping behind the mountains as they began.Here you can see the beautiful mountains in the background, and here I am with one of the other beautiful fighters who trains in MMA with me. She will be my first fight in a couple of months, but for now we are friends ;)

Here I am with our oldest Muay Thai (Thai style kickboxing) student, who also took the picture of me in the chest protector. He may be the oldest but he's certainly not the worst! In fact, his step-son is the head Muay Thai trainer so as you may imagine he's quite good. He helps me out a lot in class.

This week I'll be attending another fight, although this time it will be a Muay Thai fight, not an MMA fight. We have 3 fighters from my gym in it, and I have a special interest in these guys, since I got to teach them a yoga class to help them stretch out after all their extra training. So I'll be there to cheer them on and hope that their yoga stretches gave them a bit of muscle relief and injury prevention! I really enjoyed teaching the class. Since then I've had many fighters at the gym ask my advice about stretching and yoga, and I even went and took a couple yoga classes downtown to expand my repertoire of more basic yoga poses. Most of the yoga I have done is Bikram's (hot) Yoga, which is quite difficult, and I wanted to learn some more basic poses so that I don't scare the guys away from yoga by making it too advanced for them.

Well that's all I have for now. I will do my best to get myself to an internet cafe soon to share my zoo experience with you.

Much love to all who follow my bloggy-blog!

-Sarah Beth

Why is corn bad?

2009-07-22T22:57:00.000-07:00

Someone asked me today, "Why is corn so bad, anyway?"

Corn, maize, is not inherently bad, it is great! But unfortunately, corn is broken down chemically into separate components and reassembled to resemble food of all different kinds.

corn syrup and other corn products are bad for many reasons. It's true that they are in most products in a regular supermarket, which makes it that much more scary and hard to avoid. The easiest way to avoid them is to buy "whole" foods, ones that are not processed or packaged, for example fresh produce, fresh meats from animals that were NOT fed corn, dairy from pastured animals, and whole grains and legumes like plain oatmeal, rice, beans, etc. and whole raw nuts.

Here's the (very!) simplified version of why corn is bad, to my understanding:

1. most corn in the USA is genetically modified, which is not only very potentially harmful to your health (cancerous), it is also bad for the environment, bad for small farmers, and bad for the survival of the world's natural plant species. Check out this article about the accidental spread of genetically modified corn through the native cornfields of Oaxaca, ruining the indigenous strains forever.

2. most corn in the USA is subsidized by our government, which means that the government basically pays farmers to grow it, flooding the market with more corn than we need. With farmers being paid to grow more corn than we need, suppliers are forced to come up with ways to sell it in other ways besides corn-on-the-cob. It is chemically broken down into separate components and re-assembled or inserted into almost every item on the grocery shelf that is in a bag, box, or can.
And why does the governmnet pay farmers for corn? For reasons that sound good, like alternative energy. But it's silly to grow corn for alternative energy, because with current corn growing procedures, corn is fertilized with a PETROLEUM (foreign oil!) based fertilizer. It takes more energy to grow the stupid corn in the first place than the energy you can get out of it. Not only does that keep us enslaved to foreign oil, and continue to diminish the disappearing supply of oil, but it also causes nitrogen runoff that is killing off the ocean life in the Gulf of Mexico, by creating a "deadzone" that lacks enough oxygen to support marine life. The red zone in this picture shows the area of the gulf that because of current farming practices, no longer supports marine life.

3. you are what you eat. Another drawback of corn being subsidized is that it makes the price un-naturally low, and therefore corn syrup is a cheaper sweetener than sugar. That's why all sodas etc are now made with corn syrup, and that's another reason why corn derivatives wind up in so many products. All that extra corn that the goverment pays to be grown has to be gotten rid of somehow! So it is disguised as bread and juice and hot dogs to get us dumb consumers to buy it up. Not only is this bad for your health because it is empty sugars that your body doesn't need, but also, because so many food products are made with corn products, your body is inundated with too much corn. Corn by itself is not bad, if I eat an ear of corn, with a salad and a piece of chicken and some beans, great! But if I eat packaged generic products all day, like say an egg from a caged chicken, a granola bar, a soda, a hamburger from a grain fed cow, well then all I've eaten all day is corn. That's too much corn for your body. The granola bar is sweetened with corn syrup, the soda obviously, the bread had corn products of all kinds in it if you buy the regular sliced stuff on the shelf, the jam is full of corn syrup, the meat in the hamburger comes from a cow who was fed corn which changes the meat's actual composition a good deal. The ketchup on the burger is full of corn syrup, the pickles are bathing in it, etc. etc. Too much of anything is a bad thing. if I only ate broccoli all day, that would be unhealthy, even though broccoli is healthy. Too much of a good thing, is a bad thing.

4. Don't even get me started on the hideous tortured diseased life that a corn fed cow has to go through. I love meat, and am not against killing animals to eat them, but I think even an animal destined to be dinner should have a natural life and not be tortured before it's killed. All corn fed animals are tortured. cow's stomachs cannot process corn. it makes them get fat and reach slaughter weight faster and it also makes them sick. Then the cows are fed antibiotics because they are sick from the corn. But at least they are fat enough for slaughter, just like we will be after we consume them. The cows are also fed hormones, genetically modified corn, pesticide laced corn, and chicken waste, which is gathered by scooping it off the floors of chicken coops. The cows eat what they are fed because they are kept caged in and are hungry. All of these FDA approved practices also lead to another problem: the cow's manure, instead of being a natural biodegradable compost, is now toxic waste.

Here's a fun game: Guess which cows are grass fed and which cows are corn fed. I bet you will get it right!

Now guess which cows are happier....

I would like to add here as a side note that to those of who are concerned with animal torture and are vegetarians who so not consume meat but still consume dairy and eggs: please be aware that the laying hens that lay conventionally produced eggs are far and away the most tortured animal in food production, so if you include eggs in your vegetarian diet, be sure to choose free-range eggs.

Another side not: This doesn't have to do with corn, really... but if you avoid eating corn fed beef, you would by default be avoiding conventional hamburgers. By doing this, you are protecting yourself from eating the meat of over 300 hundred corn fed, antibiotic laced, hormone enhanced cows, in. each. bite. That's right, folks, the meat of up to 300 cows, which can be up to three years old before it even goes in the oven, is in your hamburger. Your chance of e-coli sickness and death by hamburger just went up exponentially. If you must have a hamburger or a sausage, buy a piece of grassfed meat and ask the butcher too grind it up for you, or find a restaurant like The Blind Lady Ale House in San Diego's Normal Heights, where the chefs laboriously prepare fresh sausage in the back on a daily basis, or The Linkery, in North Park, where you can get a hamburger from a pastured cow who enjoyed their life.

But I digress. Back to corn: The reasons I mentioned are only a few reasons why corn is bad. For further information I definitely recommend reading the book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan. The book is entertaining and easy to read, and fascinating and educational to boot. Just buy a copy on Amazon.com or better yet at a local bookstore, or get it at "the library" (I'm sure some of you have heard of libraries, right? It was this cool building I used to go to as a kid... they have books in there! for free!), and when you're done reading it, pass it along to your friends to spread the word.

So that, my friends, is a very short and sorry diatribe on why I think "corn" is bad. But don't take my word for it! Check it out for yourself. Or you could just stop eating processed corn products, and notice how great you will feel and how much energy you will have.

I am so grateful that my parents raised me on a diet free from fast food, coca-cola and other non-foods. I will never forget my childhood food memories. As a young 'un, from when I was born till when I was seven, we lived out in the country. Picking strawberries in the garden till my fingers (and mouth) were red, pulling up carrots from the sawdust, eating miner's lettuce in the forest, shelling walnuts down at the bottom of the hill, eating a bowl of freshly picked blackberries and fresh cream for dessert, or better yet, Mom's homemade blackberry pie... picking cherries perched high up in the cherry tree, gathering eggs from our chickens and ducks carefully in my little basket. Watching the asparagus poke their way out of the ground. Scooping out the insides of zucchinis that had grown too large and stuffing the inside with cheese and marinara sauce to bake. At our next house, later in life, in town and away from our big garden in the country, we transformed the ratty back yard into another vegetable garden and we had lots of fruit trees too. I learned to make applesauce and plum jam and how to can it to save for winter. I learned to grow squashes and beans and lettuces and potatoes and onions. I learned that having only one avocado tree means that you won't get any avocados... they need a boy tree and a girl tree! I learned that, while I hate persimmons, I love persimmon cookies (another Mom specialty) and that little white peaches from a tiny tree taste more like a peach should taste than any other peach I have ever tasted. I ate baskets of tomatoes, that TASTE like tomatoes. To this day my favorite way to eat a tomato is to just pull it off the bush and eat it. I ate salmon that was caught by my uncles that day and bar-b-qued over the fire pit Bar-b-q in the backyard. I ate homemade pasta, and even made homemade donuts. To this day I won't eat a store bought donut. You couldn't pay me enough money.

A word on donuts here is appropriate. Now, I HATE store bought donuts because I can strongly taste the dough-conditioner, which increases the shelf life, while simultaneously increasing your intake of chemicals. My taste buds and body is very sensitive to preservatives and chemicals. Yuck I hate donuts! But, Homemade donuts, however, Homemade with a capital H, are one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced. I feel about them the exact opposite way that I feel about store bought bakery donuts. Both Mom and Grandma made donuts with me. Sigh.

We also learned to make tortillas, and I even made homemade candy at Christmas time. Hey... I know candy isn't healthy but it's sure a lot healthier to make your own than to buy the food coloring and corn syrup and hydrogenated oil filled stuff they sell at the store. :) Dad made waffles from scratch, none of those packaged eggo craps at my house! Big salads of home grown spinach and lettuces from romaine to red leaf. Fresh squeezed orange juice for everyone was a special treat on some mornings when Dad was feeling ambitious. Eggs from our own chickens, my favorite chicken being Etta Leilani (named by me, I'm afraid) taste so much better than those silly white ones I see at the store. Egg yolks are supposed to be ORANGE, not yellow... And just thinking about a tall glass of fresh cold goat milk makes my mouth water... how many people would say that? :) Don't get me wrong, my parents fed me corn chips too... but they were organic BLUE corn chips... So, thanks to my parents, I got a foundationally healthy body, and a lot of tasty dinner table memories, too. What an amazing gift.

I am excited to find here in San Diego, or at least in my neighborhood of San Diego, Normal Heights, nestled between the freeways 8, 805, and 15, a surprising awareness of food, as well as in my neighboring community of North Park. Both of my restaurant jobs, (one in each neighborhood) feature local, seasonal produce, sustainably raised meats, and home-made everything. As icing on my cake of healthy food in my life here, a new popsicle store just opened up down the street from me! It is called Vivapops! and it makes popsicles from scratch with local, organic and seasonal ingredients. The mojito-lime-mint and the blackberry-chocolate one were great as well. They even have a super green foods popsicle that has kale and collard greens from our local farmer's market, how cool is that!

But I digress. My point is, wake up and decide what to eat. Whatever your opinion is about corn or cows or popsicles, don't the FDA choose for you. Choose your own food. Food is our fuel. Food is our life. Choose your life.

Summer in San Diego

2009-07-16T22:53:00.001-07:00

Today I went rock climbing, then swimming, then to the gym for MMA class and Jiu Jitsu class. How's that for packing it in on a day off? The days fly by, every second is scheduled.

I jump out of bed at 6 am and the sun is already shining on the off white stucco on the apartment across the street, reflecting into my room. I run to the kitchen where I grab my coffee, which I made the night before and left in the fridge overnight. I make a bowl of yogurt topped with my homemade granola, grab my vitamins and water and head back to bed to consume it all under the blankets. This is my one"cheater time" during the day; I watch TV online for about 20 minutes while I eat my breakfast. Then I fall back asleep for about half an hour. I jump back up at 7, shower, read the news, drink another quart of water, clean my room and get ready to go to the gym. I have to get up and eat at 6 so that I have blood sugar in my system, but not too much food in my belly when boxing class starts at 9am.
Staying hydrated is important too. Summer has truly begun and it's hot down here! I'm not complaining though, the hotter the better to me. Everything feels better when it's hot: I feel stronger, more flexible, and just generally all greased up and running well. When other people at the gym flag from the heat it doesn't bother me at all. My knees feel better in the heat too, and I ride my bicycle to the gym more often than not; the peddling helps warm up my knees before the jump-roping we do to begin each class at the gym. After boxing class is Jiu Jitsu at 10 am where I go upstairs and spend an hour and a half learning submission techniques. Then it's back downstairs for Muay Thai, my favorite class. Muay Thai is Thai style kickboxing, and it kicks butt! After Muay Thai is MMA techniques where we go in the cage and do specific MMA rules drills. By then it's 2 pm and I'm ready for a shower at the gym and another one when I get home. I wash my gym clothes out in the shower to save money on laundry and hang them up on the clothesline. Then I make a protein smoothie with the 100% whey protein powder that Mom sent me as a present and some yogurt and banana and super green veggie juice. After that I do my errands for the day: bills, laundry, bank, groceries, whatever. Then it's either off to work for the rest of the evening, or if I have a night off, I might go back to the gym to take a few more classes, or I might spend an evening making granola and healthy snacks for the week to come. I can really tell with all this exercising what foods are good for me or not. My body just tells me, "No!" if I pick up anything to eat that isn't good for me. Another way I spent a free night recently was teaching Yoga at the gym for the first time for some Muay Thai fighters who have fights coming up. The guys really seemed to like it and were very appreciative. Several of them told me that their knees had been bothering them but felt better after class! Now that's what I like to hear. Talk about a cool side job. I've also been spending a few evenings here and there practicing my guitar.

Today because I had the day off, I opted to go the nighttime version of all my gym classes and spent the day rock climbing and swimming. I felt like it was the first day I was truly able to soak up some San Diego summer. I think it's going to be a good one.

I feel more healthy every day. It's amazing how good it feels when you really put an effort into taking care of yourself. I'm inspiring myself every day to try a little bit harder. To drink more water, to eat more vegetables, to read more books, to break more sweats, to sleep more deeply, to remember my vitamins, respect my surroundings, protect and nurture my earthly coil, and the spirit within.

I am really looking forward to making a short visit up north this summer to see my family. I miss their smiling faces.

The Lion's Meow

2009-07-16T22:45:00.001-07:00

My furry friend is quite too furry. In the San Diego summer, the shedding was more than I could keep up with. So I took the plunge for my cat that I have taken twice myself: I shaved her... well I guess cats won't let you shave their head. Also, the paws must be left furry for cleaning themselves, and to top off the look, the groomers leave a poof on the end of the tail. I thought the poof was silly, but I let them do their work. Here's an official BEFORE picture: kitty is all stretched out to cool off from the heat.

And an AFTER picture: kitty all curled up, not too hot anymore.

And the silly poof:

RAWR. I mean, Meow.

The Next Lesson

2009-06-29T19:07:00.000-07:00

Someone once told me that anger is a drink we pour for our enemies but drink ourselves. I wish I knew who first said that. It must have been a very wise person. I want to know what else they said. Come to think of it I don't even remember who told me that. I try to be observant in life, but I still feel like I need to start paying better attention. I am missing some vital clues here. How is it that I learn so slowly?
That seems to me to be the main frustration of the human condition. For me death is not something to be feared, and yet it annoys me that I will die before I have learned everything that I want to know. Even if I live to be 120, I could not possibly have read enough books, or studied and experienced enough subjects, languages, cuisines, cultures, musics and customs. I suppose that is one of the allures of the concepts of eternal life and reincarnation. But if the ending of our life if finite, there is beauty in that too. There is beauty in having only this lifetime, to give us urgency and meaning in the now, in our choices we make regarding how to spend our precious little time here. There is poignant value in passing lessons along to the next generations. But regardless of the truth about the nature of life, whether it is just this life span or many, or an eternal life of reward or damnation, or an eternal enlightenment, there lies across almost all boundaries of beliefs the fact that we are here, now. This life is the only this life that we have. I was born as Sarah Beth. That's a life. I am living a life, in this body, with this history, this genetic makeup, in this time frame. Just that fact in itself blows me away. You might think it's funny how many times a day a thought like that crosses my mind. And when those thoughts cross my mind, then I worry less about beliefs, and learning and knowing everything, since I can't possibly ever know all there is to know. I can't reach out and pull absolute truth and knowledge out of the sky. So instead, I take a deep breath. I let go of my worry, my disappointment in myself, my impatience, my physical pain, my financial problems, my fear, my this or that complaint. Instead I pull in a breath. A breath of now, of today. I make a pledge. I endeavor to spend my time as wisely as I know. I endeavor to show my gratefulness for my life by respecting the time given to me. I endeavor to constantly rearrange my priorities if new wisdom or knowledge dictates. I endeavor to respect the time afforded to me from those who care about me and love me. I endeavor to not let my failures in these endeavors discourage me from getting up and continuing on in this pursuit. I am Sarah Beth. I am 27 years old. I want to spend my life well.
Anger is not a cup I want to drink from. Entitlement is not a cup I want to drink from. I want to drink from the cup of laughter, tears, family, joy, birth, death and life.
Thank you for being a part of my life, and letting me be a part of yours. I wonder what we will all leave behind us? I wonder where we are going? I have, at this moment in my life, a deep sense of peace. I love my family, I love this beautiful, magnificent universe, I love the mysteries and joys, even the tears and hard lessons in life. Here we all are, together.

June Gloom

2009-06-22T20:15:00.000-07:00

Hello Long Lost Blogger-Follower-People!

The weeks fly by in SD as I keep pace. I have saddled myself with a lot. It's all good stuff, but the balance must be managed carefully. I began my MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) training at the first of this month. Stumbling blocks instantly appeared, of course, as they always do when you try to reach a challenging goal. I got a nasty cold right before I started training, and although I wasn't in the throes of sickness at the gym, I did have a lasting cough and congestion that certainly did not improve my endurance... However in spite of my wheezing lack of cardiovascular ability, the trainers seemed impressed with my strength and several of them asked me if I had a wrestling background, which I took as a compliment to my fledgling wrestling skills. I think I need to go watch that movie VisionQuest again. For those of you who haven't seen that movie, it's an epic 80's high school sports tear jerker, complete with abusive father, first love, betrayal, the nemesis bad-dude wrestler, dramatic weight cutting until passing out from exhaustion, and all that. But it's actually a pretty inspiring movie if you can get past all that other stuff. In addition to wrestling, my MMA training includes Jiu Jitsu (submissions), Muay Thai (Thai style kick boxing), and American boxing. Boxing is entirely new for me. The first boxing class I went to was populated entirely by females, even though it's not a female specific class. I got punched in the face about 8 times that day by girls that make my muscles look spongy. I did my fair share of punching too. I decidedly enjoyed it all. The trainers are awesome and I feel like I'm at a boot camp run by people who care about my well being. Anyway. It does take a lot of time and energy though! I've already lost 6 pounds since I started, and I think that whole six pounds was sweat I left on the gym floor. No pictures of that yet - I have a lot of work ahead of me before I'll be ready to take fighter girl pictures.

In the meantime we've been having June Gloom which makes me homesick. The colder weather reminds me of Sonoma County weather. I like San Diego, I like my community and jobs, and will stay here and accomplish some goals for awhile, but I don't see it becoming anything super permanent as of right now. I actually prefer to jump around a lot at this point in my life... I get stagnant being in one place for too long. Funny that I am 27. I have been thinking about that a lot lately. 27 doesn't feel anything like I ever thought it would feel like when I was a kid. Funny how life goes by. Mistakes, joy, fun, sorrow, laughter, and success melt together in a pot of memories and lessons brewed slowly from life's bounty. What an incredible journey a span of years on the earth is. Whenever I am tempted to feel sorry for myself, I run across a story like that of the Iranian girl shot in the chest in the street recently. Tragedy happens all around us - this one only happened to be caught on video tape. But still... life amazes me constantly with lessons. Life is always asking me to step up and be stronger than I think I can be. So I continue to try to rise to the challenge, one day at a time. I meet life's challenges with a renewed gratefulness for the love of my family and true friends, the beauty of nature, and the mystery of life.

City Farmer's Nursery

2009-06-12T11:48:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine from one of my jobs recently arranged a day out for the girls from work. We went to City Farmer's Nursery. I forgot to bring my camera but my cell phone took semi decent pictures.

In addition to awesome grounds and great plants, the turtles were the first surprise.

Most of the turtles seemed happy, but this one was very grumpy.

Accidental flowers:

Purposeful trees:

The nursery was much more than a nursery. It had lots of fish; some of the biggest Koi I've ever seen, and also Tilapia babies for raising your own farmed fish to eat. There were also chickens and honey bees...

and my personal favorite resident whose face says much more than I could ever say with mere words.

The Human Condition

2009-06-09T16:13:00.000-07:00

Wow. Well I was going to write a blog today about a beautiful nursery that I visited; with fish and turtles and goats, and about my martial arts training which I've finally started; and my crazy trainers at the gym, but instead I'm sitting in a hospital with different things on my mind.

This whole last month has been quite the reminder of the frailty of human life, and also it's resilience. Last month I crashed my bicycle and cut my foot pretty badly on my way to the BodyWorlds exhibit. It was pretty amazing to look at the inner workings of our bodies while I was freshly wounded. To see both the intricacy and delicacy of human life while also comprehending our ability to heal was astonishing, and really got me thinking. I don't have any conclusions or morals, just been thinking. A whole succession of events has since kept me thinking. A few weeks ago my dad pulled a muscle hard enough to put him down for a few days, a suffering family member passed away, and an old and dear co worker was in a car accident that amplified the hardships in his life. These things add up and I've been thinking about all of it. We cant live in a cushioned room our whole lives. Life is inherantly dangerous. But we can be aware, alert, reasonably cautious. I do many "dangerous" things... but I feel like I am truly learning awareness, risk vs reward... and I am learning to strike a balance between living too stiffly and carefully and living recklessly... well, but I digress.

Last night after I got off work I passed the scene of an accident. I got a funny feeling in my stomach that it was my friend on his bicycle. I shook off the feeling, since I was on my way to his house anyway. When I arrived at his house, he wasn't there, and he uncharacteristically didn't answer his phone. I shot back to the scene of the accident to discover from the policemen that it was indeed my friend. After a frustrating night of trying unsuccessfully to determine his status from the hospital, I gave up and went to sleep. This morning, at 6 am, my friend called me to apologize for flaking out on me last night. His excuse: a broken neck. I'm beginning to learn that sometimes that's just how life is, and I am learning to be thankful for the good things. I am thankful that he is alive, I am thankful that he can move his legs and arms. I am thankful that I have the day off today so that I can be here to support him. I am thankful for my own relative health. I am thankful for the health and life of my family and friends. I have a heightened regard for life and health, and hope my friends and family are careful to take the necessary precautions in this world. Not to live in fear, but to truly appreciate the value of what we have and treat it with honor and respect. I make a renewed commitment to live a life full of fun and adventure and excitement, tempered with due reverence to the fragility of life.

Thanks for reading, caring, loving, and living with purpose.

Sarah Beth

The Shot

2009-05-31T23:14:00.001-07:00

Having not posted a blog in so long, I feel compelled to post a second one within a few hours. I'm had a Carpe Diem sort of day today, and it's seeping into the night. I can't seem to stop getting things done.

While on the bridge between San Diego proper and Coronado Island, I snapped this picture, but don't worry, I wasn't driving. Driving across that bridge was like going on a roller coaster for me. It felt like it was waving in the breeze over the bay. This is what a lot of "the beach" looks like in Southern California: Ports.

I was told that the hills in the background is Mexico.

Hello Friends and Family!

2009-05-31T17:39:00.000-07:00

Another busy two weeks has flown by. I have been working about 50 hours a week. I also managed to get a nasty cold that slowed me down quite a bit. I am starting to recover today, finally, and so I'm getting around to writing again.

On my day off the week before last, I had an opportunity to go ocean kayaking in La Jolla Shores. I unfortunately don't have any pictures because I didn't have a waterproof camera with me. I got to see a leopard shark swim by underneath me. Leopard sharks are bottom feeders and don't typically bite humans unless you step on them, so they don't present much danger to kayakers. I also saw a lot of brightly colored orange fish, which I learned are the state fish of California, the Garibaldi. They look like this:

I also saw lots of sea lions and kelp. Unfortunately, all the otters are gone in La Jolla due to overharvesting of abalone. I wanted to go snorkeling too, but the water was too choppy. So, next time I have an opportunity, I'd like to do some snorkeling. I had a really nice relaxing time on the ocean. Kayaking is actually a really easy sport, especially on the ocean. Once you cross the waves that break onto the shore, it's smooth sailing. Next time I go, I'll bring a waterproof camera for sure so I can share the experience better.

The next time I had a day off, I went sunbathing at the beach in Ocean Beach. My friend who was with me got pooped on by a seagull. Ooops... but I had a nice relaxing time and got a decent little tan (but no sunburn! I was careful and flipped over a bunch and wore sunscreen).

In other news, my room mate and friend Laurel has finished her classes at SDSU for her master's degree in ethnomusicology. She now "only" has to complete her thesis. We went out to dinner at one of the restaurants I work at to celebrate before she heads off to Bali, Indonesia to complete her research for her thesis.
Here she is putting together and then playing one of her Indonesian instruments, the Gender Wayang.

I love it when she plays it in the morning; it is like waking up in a monastery listening to morning prayer bells. Such a beautiful and peaceful sound.

Another project is in the works: since crashing my bicycle the other week, I decided to not just fix my bike, but to completely retrofit it. I am going to essentially convert it into a commuter road bike. I will get new rims and road tires. However, if I want to go mountain biking, I can simply pop the road wheels off and the mountain ones back on. I am also going to attach a little platform to it (whatever that is called) so that I can carry groceries and such home on my bike too. I have a bicycle-nut friend who is helping me with this project: he rides a fixed gear bike and just started racing in "alley cat" races. A fixed gear bike is one that not only has just one gear, it is also fixed so that if you peddle backwards, the bike goes backwards. You can't coast on a fixie, because if you stop peddling, the peddles keep going and will kick your feet forward. An alley cat race is a fixed gear bike race. Anyway, I am excited that the bicycle bug has finally bitten me, and I am enjoying learning about bikes and riding my bike more. I see Wilderness Trail bike gear all the time down here and it makes me miss my uncle Steve who started that company!

Speaking of missing people! I really really miss my family! I also miss my dear friends (adopted family, as I like to think of you all). I hope this summer brings forth the fruits of everyone's hard labors. Until next time...

Land of Opportunity

2009-05-15T15:17:00.001-07:00

PHEw!!!!!

What a crazy two weeks it has been since I last posted!! I apologize that it has taken me so long to write anything. That has to do with a few factors: I have been working 6-7 days a week at my two jobs, plus, I squeezed in a photo shoot. The internet that we "borrow" from the neighbors has not been working, and it was too beautiful outside on my days off to sit inside a coffee shop on the computer. But I have so much I want to tell everyone about. A mere two weeks has packed my head so full of stories, ideas, lessons, and experiences that I'm sure I won't be able to fit it into one blog post, or in the time I have now, a quick hour break between lunch shift at one job and dinner shift at the other. I'll try, though...

Firstly, I want to write a small tribute to the kind women of San Diego. Nowhere else in my life have I experienced so much genuine feminine kindness all in one place. I have several wonderful female friends in my life, but they are scattered over the United States. San Diego seems to have a concentration of fine females who are strong, independent, smart, and above all, kind. A good indication to me that I picked a healthy city. One of my new femme friends heard me talking about how I'd like some more plants and offered to give me a small tomato plant the other day. When I went to pick it up, I was amazed! It is nearly mature. It barely fit in my car. It goes nicely on the deck with the lemon tree that Mom gave me, which is already quite obviously enjoying it's new environs in sunny San Diego. Another female friend is a clothing designer and gave me one of her shirts. When I wear it I carry her business cards with me, and hand them out upon receiving compliments. So, here's to the girls!!

Secondly, I have been reading a lot. Continuing the reading of the book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" which is a life changer. I have been becoming increasingly aware of how what I eat impacts not just the health of my body, but the health of the whole world around me, environmentally, politically, and socially. Here are a few great quotes from the book.

"You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Don't you find it odd that people will put more work into choosing their mechanic or house contractor than they will into choosing the person who grows their food?" - Joel Salatin, owner of Polyface Farm in Virginia

"We have to battle the idea that you can have anything you want anytime you want it. Like, 'spring lamb'. What the hell does that mean? That's not its natural cycle. You want lambs to hit the ground in April. They won't be ready for eight to ten months after that - not till early winter. But the market's become totally out of sync with nature. We should eat red meat when it's cold, but people want chicken in the winter, when we don't have it!" -Art Salatin, brother of Joel Salatin

And finally, an quote from the actual author of the book, Michael Pollan:

"A global food market, which brings us New Zealand lamb in the spring, Chilean asparagus in december, and fresh tomatoes year round, has smudged the bright colors of the seasonal food calendar we all once knew by heart... for local food chains to succeed, people will have to relearn what it means to eat according to the seasons."

Speaking of reading, I also enjoy the author Michael Pollan because he sometimes throws in an interesting word that I have not heard or seen before. Some interesting words I have learned lately:

encomium en·co·mi·um (n-km-m)

n. pl. en·co·mi·ums or en·co·mi·a (-m-)

1. Warm, glowing praise.

2. A formal expression of praise; a tribute.

in·cho·ate (n-kt)

adj.

1. In an initial or early stage; incipient.

2. Imperfectly formed or developed: a vague, inchoate idea.

louche (lsh)

adj.

Of questionable taste or morality; decadent: "The rebuilt [Moscow hotel] is home to the flashy, louche Western disco Manhattan Express" Liesl Schillinger.
[French, from Old French losche, squint-eyed, feminine of lois, from Latin luscus, blind in one eye.

well, I'd better hurry along with my updating since I have to work in 45 minutes.

I mentioned that I squeezed in a photo shoot. Here are a few shots:

I really enjoyed doing this shoot. I enjoy modeling only when the images produced are ones I can be proud of, images that have a positive message contained within them. I like the healthy, strong image this shoot projects. My photographer, Priscilla Gragg, is an amazing woman from Brazil. You can read her blog, and see her post of my pictures (under Kricket, my nickname) as well, here:

http://www.priscillagragg.com/blog/Blog/Blog.html

Also in the last two weeks, I managed to squeeze in a trip to one of the two outdoor archery ranges at Balboa Park. I put 2 dollars in a little box, on the honor system, and proceeded to shoot several dozen arrows by myself in a field. Apparently, the other range there is a "walking range" akin to a golf course. I'll have to perfect my aim for a bit first at the stationary range before I hit up the walking one, as I don't want to lose any arrows. I love being outside, channeling Robin Hood or Peter Pan, encompassing memories of my Grampa Frank shooting arrows in my gravel driveway when I was a child.

Moving on...

I wished a very happy mother's day to my own Mom, and to my Grandma... but I neglected to pay a tribute to my other maternal friends and family members in a timely manner. I want to say how much I admire the sacrifices, energy, care and love that I see my cousins, my friends, and coworkers put into their children. That is truly the way to bless our future, with well raised children. I salute you for your hard work.

Well... what else have I squeezed into the past few weeks? I have been riding my bicycle everywhere! I was very proud to finally achieve a long-time goal of mine... to ride without my hands on the handle bars. I can ride all the way to either job without putting my hand on the handle bars more than once. Pride goeth before a fall, though... Don't worry... I am ok. But the other day, on my way to meet my friend Brandon to go see the Body Worlds exhibit, I was blithely riding along, practicing my new no handle bars thing, back upright in a comfy position, wind blowing through my hair, and I got too comfortable. Too confident. My backpack strap caught in my back wheel, jamming it and throwing me forward. My foot, in a
"Mary-Jane" type shoe, caught in the peddle, and I threw the bike backwards, snared in my foot, as I plunged forward. Lessons learned: Being overconfident, being careless, not wearing the proper gear. Hmmm. I am no longer invincible. I escaped with relatively few cuts and bruises, and a humbled spirit.

Speaking of a humbled spirit, after crashing my bike I continued on to the Body Worlds exhibit. Seeing the fragility and the magificent powers of the human body, while I was freshly injured, put in me a new appreciation of our bodies ability to heal. Makes you think, doesn't it.

Well, I miss you all, my dear friends and family. To those of you who read my blog, thanks for keeping up with me. I love and think of you all often.

-Sarah Beth "Kricket"

On being Grown-up.

2009-05-04T15:54:00.001-07:00

Hi Peoples! Just a quick update for ya. I've been working like crazies! Super fun stuff like outdoor rock climbing has been put on hold as I train at one job, work at another, and help out at a local farmer's market. Luckily, all this work stuff is not entirely un-fun. I am excited to get on track financially and be a responsible adult. :) I am really enjoying the evolution of the mind as I get older. Things that used to be a temptation for me (buying new clothes or shoes, partying, empty socializing, sugary foods, etc) just don't hold any interest for me at all anymore. So there isn't even a temptation to resist. I am happy to buckle down and work hard and try to accomplish my goals. This week I have 8 shifts, and although it is a little tiring, I am reaping the rewards of that all the way to the bank. I got my first San Diegan paycheck the other day... Soon, I will have a little cushion and enough to spend on things that are important to me, like martial arts training, yoga, and maybe, maybe, a new computer one of these days. On my day off I am going to go see the Body Worlds exhibit at the San Diego Natural History Museum. I am super excited to do that. I think is costs 20 bucks or so, but it will be twenty bucks well spent to see the inner workings of our fascinating packages laid out to see and understand. Hopefully it will much improve my grasp of anatomy. I really enjoy thinking carefully about how I spend my money these days, and spending it only on things that can truly benefit me or others. I sure didn't always think that way. Growing up isn't so bad after all.

Also on my "day off" I will be doing a Nike photo shoot... so I guess it's not really a day off anyway. I won't be getting paid for this shoot, but I'll get the photos. The shoot is for "stock" photos. Stock photos are bought for advertising. If you were to open a nail salon, for example, you might buy a stock photo of a manicured hand. So there's no way to know if my photos will get used or not, but I do get to keep them for my own portfolio. I've had a long, not-so-secret interest in fitness/sports modeling, and these photos will definitely lean my portfolio that direction, so I'm looking forward to that.

Well I've got to run, or rather bicycle, to work. Have a happy Monday!

RANT RANT RANT

2009-04-30T00:22:00.000-07:00

I feel that I need to rant just a little bit. Or maybe a lot bit.

Something is annoying me. I have encountered it a whole bunch since I began figuring out who I am, where I stand, what I believe, what I want, etc.

It is the response I get from people when I meet them, and they start asking me about my life and goals and whatnot.

9 times out of 10, I am told one of these things: that I won't do what I want to do, that I don't actually want to do that, that it can't be done, or that I'll change my mind. I find this to be insulting, or at least intolerant and ignorant.

I'll give you a few examples. Every example I'll use I have specifically experienced at least 5 times.

Let's say someone asks me where I want to be in 20 years. I say, "Being a hunter/gatherer in the jungles of South America and helping women there to learn self defense." Now, without asking me anything further, or knowing anything about me, the person says, "You don't want to do that," or "You can't/won't be able to do that." Now, believe me, I know that it is a far flung idea, dangerous, even ridiculous (So were the ideas of Columbus, Lewis and Clark, and the Wright Brothers, to name a few). I know that as I learn more, my plan may evolve or change entirely. However, I can't understand how someone ELSE, especially someone who doesn't know me, could feel it is ok to issue me a blanket statement that "You don't want to do that." How would that person know what I want to do, or why I want to do it? Especially if they don't bother finding out.

Second example: someone says, "Do you want to have kids?" I say, "No. I have decided to not have children, although I might adopt someday." They say, "You'll change your mind." The people telling me that I'll change my mind don't realize that I've actually put a lot of thought, even sacrifice, into that decision. In a world full of overpopulation, unwanted babies, teen pregnancies, pollution, food/hunger crisis, etc. I don't want to add another mouth to feed when I could feed one that's already hungry. It's not because I don't see the appeal in having children. It's not because I don't think I would be a totally cute pregnant chick, because I totally would. :) It's a personal, ethical, moral decision that I have made. I am old enough to decide to have a kid, and therefore I am old enough to decide to NOT have a kid. Now, I hope you lovely children bearing people don't take offense to this. Of course, SOMEBODY has got to have kids!!! I just don't think that EVERYBODY needs to have kids, and I'm opting to be one of those somebodies that doesn't. And yes, of course I might change my mind, but when somebody tells me, "I'm pregnant, I want to have a baby," is the proper response, "You'll change your mind." NO! Of course not. That would be so rude and hurtful. So I expect the same courtesy.

Next example, one of my favorites! I say, "I'll never get married." They say, "Never say never." or "You'll change your mind." Now, again, yes, I suppose it is possible that I could change my mind. But when a friend tells me, "I'm engaged," do I say, "You'll change your mind,"? or when a friend gets married, do I greet the newlyweds with, "You'll get divorced," or "Never say forever,"? C'mon... Do you see where I'm going with this? Of course they might get divorced! But people don't rain on their parade. So please, everybody, stop raining on my parade, just because it's different. Stop champing at the bit for me to forget about my dreams and goals so that you can say "I told you so." Again, I am old enough to decide to get married, therefore I am old enough to decide to not get married. Do you tell a nun or a priest, "You'll change your mind, your whole celibacy thing won't last." Of course, it may not last (we've all seen The Sound of Music, I'm sure) but one doesn't go around telling nuns that they should give it up and become a nightclub dancer. Again, this is not a slight to married people. I am not interested in telling other people what to do, only in figuring out what I should do. And there's plenty of people who I'm mighty glad got married!! My parents and grandparents! Obviously. :) My beautiful cousins with their beautiful babies and baby on the way! Everyone's meant to do something different, live a life that's most effective for them. So, each to thine own path be true.

And let me just say.... I know that I might and probably will change constantly throughout my lifetime, I know my beliefs, opinions, and thoughts will continue to evolve and change, I know that my current plans are dangerous, weird, difficult. But I also know that I am passionate, and I know that I truly care about other people. I know that since deciding I want to live my life with a goal of helping people, that I have found inner peace, that I fall asleep at night, that I like myself. That wasn't always the case. I know that I have a long way to go. I know that my opinions have hurt people because I didn't think them out, or didn't deliver them in a sensitive way. And so I ask the world: Please help me to better myself. Question me, debate with me, or even chastise me, but please don't just put me down. I'd appreciate your thoughtful feedback if you think I'm totally out of line here.

Of course, most of the people reading my blog are not those people who trash my decisions. So.... I guess I'm preaching to the choir. Thanks for letting me vent.

Well, I'm off to bed after a 6 day work week. One day off tomorrow to do laundry and catch up on chores, and then another 6 day work week, with double shifts back to back on Saturday and Sunday. I'm working at both my restaurant jobs plus a farmer's market. I'm so grateful for the work! It's helping me to achieve my goals! ;)

Earth Day Festival

2009-04-23T19:43:00.001-07:00

I recently went to an Earth Day festival at Balboa Park in San Diego with one of my roomies. Balboa Park is beautiful...

We looked at some artwork painted by elephants.....

And some artwork by humans too...

I liked this painting because it reminded me of someone I once knew...

And I like this painting because it reminds me of someone I still know!

Then we walked through this building, full of exotic plants, which I enjoyed, and which made me miss the tropical greenhouse at the estate I worked at in Monterey.

Now we get to the sad part.

There is a pond right outside that, according to my room-mate, used to be chock full of water plants and fish. Unfortunately, someone snuck in at night and poured a bunch of acid in it and killed all the life inside it. Now the pond is fenced in, while the park officials are slowly trying to build up the pond's ecosystem. I found this lonely fish in it:

That pond made me sad, that someone would do that. I started noticing a lot of other things that day that saddened me too. The hypocrisy of some of the vendors and festival goers was pretty lame, actually. This was Earth Day, after all! First I noticed a vendor selling snow-cones in styrofoam. I started seeing how many people were carrying around little plastic water bottles and chucking them in the trash, even though they could have recycled them, or better yet, brought a reusable bottle. I brought a small stainless steel bottle, and every time I ran out of water, a willing vendor filled me up again for free. People kept trying to hand me paper pamphlets on how to save the forest. But those papers are made of trees! And don't even get me started on how many people drove themselves there instead of carpooling or riding their bicycles. While I was buying an organic, local strawberry-basil popsicle from a local farm, I looked over and noticed that the line at Hot-Dog-On-A-Stick was stretched down the block. That's when a few boys/men my age walked by complaining, "This fair sucks."

I thought, "Yeah, it does suck. Because it's not supposed to be a fair. It's supposed to be a celebration of our planet, and a respectful way of learning how to preserve it." I miss the attitude of those "crazy hippies" from my hometown, Sebastopol. They're actually not so crazy there, and I'm proud to be from a town that cares. Being a "hippie" can mean many things. I get called a hippie a lot here in Southern California, and I take it as a compliment, whther or not it's meant as one. I get called that for many reasons, some of which are: I recycle, and don't mind letting other people know that they should too. I don't wear ridiculous amounts of makeup and high heels. I like yoga. I take my own bags to the grocery store. I rock climb. I make my own granola. :) I use stainless steel water bottles instead of incessantly buying little plastic (petroleum) ones. I read books instead of watching tv and going to the movies. I eat organic produce, and grass fed meats.

Speaking of grass fed meats... I have been reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma." I recommend this book to every American. In it, I have been learning about how beef is raised in this country. I already have a habit of trying to avoid corn fed beef and buying the much more expensive grass fed. But now, after what I have learned in "The Omnivore's Dilemma," I never ever want to put a piece of corn fed beef in my mouth again. Here's a quote from the chapter I'm reading. It references "ruminants," which, in case you don't know, is a mammal that digests plant-based food by initially softening it within the animal's first stomach, known as the rumen, then regurgitating the semi-digested mass, known as cud, and chewing it again. Here is the quote:

"Though the industrial logic that made feeding cattle to cattle seem like a good idea has been thrown into doubt by mad cow disease, I was surprised to learn that it hadn't been discarded. The FDA ban on feeding ruminant cow protein to ruminants makes an exception for blood products and fat; my steer will probably dine on beef tallow recycled from the very slaughterhouse he's headed to... ("Fat is fat," the feedlot manager shrugged, when I raised an eyebrow.) ...The rules also still permit feedlots to feed nonruminant animal protein to ruminants. Feather meal and chicken litter (that is, bedding, feces, and discarded bits of feed) are accepted cattle feeds, as are chicken, fish, and pig meal. Some public health experts worry that since the bovine meat and bonemeal that cows used to eat is now being fed to chickens, pigs, and fish, infectious prions could find their way back into cattle when they're fed the protein of animals that have been eating them."

The book goes on to say, that next to feeding cattle to cattle, feeding them corn seems wholesome. But the cow's rumen is not designed to process corn, and eating it makes them sick. So then they feed the cows antibiotics. And then they feed them estrogen too! Etc, etc.

I for one am willing to pay the extra dollar to not support this horrible industry. Cows should be eating grass. Unfortunately it takes much longer to fatten a cow up on grass, and so in the interest of quick money, they are stuffed full of corn, beef fat, and chicken poo. Money talks. Let's put our money where our mouth is, and support practices that aren't shameful. Supply meets demand, and if we as the consumers remove the demand, the supply will have to change to meet our standards.

I am so glad that the two restaurants I am working at care about these issues too. I don't want to be a part of the great machine anymore. I hope you all take the time to read this fantastic book.

Since I'm on my ecological/environmental/medical health rant now, I may as well bring up the trash thing again. I was talking with my room-mate the other day about how both of us were raised in the country, and so we had the similar experiences of accompanying our dads to the dump to get rid of our trash. City kids don't ever see the landfills.. and in fact, these days, they don't let you just drive up to the edge of the landfill and dump it off. But my room-mate and I both got to see where trash goes, and it made a big impression on us. Seeing those mountains of trash left a lasting image on my mind. Please, if you haven't already, join the effort to slow the flow of trash.

I took this picture at the Earth Day festival, where there were tons of recycling cans and compost buckets available. Sigh. What a sad time of history I was born in. I hope we can make a turn around in our attitude before it's too late. It's a lot of work to try to make my lifestyle earth-friendly, but it's worth it. The plants, animals, water supply, air quality, and future generations of humans deserve our hard work.

Thanks to my family and friends for everything they have taught me about these issues.

The Economy

2009-04-23T19:43:00.000-07:00

Well, I did it! I got another job... now I will have as much or more work than I can handle. Hurray!! I am so grateful that even in a recession, I can get great jobs, working with great people, and eating great food. I used to have a really bad attitude about waiting tables, but now I love it! This time I chose the restaurants carefully, making sure they are ones that I can whole heartedly support. Both places I work now use sustainably raised meats without hormones or nitrates or antibiotics, etc, from animals who get to graze like animals are supposed to. Their produce is fresh and often local and organic. They make their own bread and dough and even bacon! How cool is that. Also, I got an "attitude transplant" about working. Instead of saying "I have to go to work" I say, "I get to go to work." Who says the economy is bad?

20 Miles on a Bicycle.

2009-04-23T14:37:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday this week I rode my bicycle to Ocean Beach, about 10 miles away. On the way, I ran into this guy riding a horse....

Once I wound my way through the streets, I came to the bike path that goes in between the San Diego River and I-8, from I-5 to the beach. Although the freeway was on my left, to the right of me was this rewarding view of egrets and ducks and sandpipers and flowers.

Phew!! I made it! It was really hot that day, unseasonable warm because of the heatwave. I think most of California knows what I'm talking about. You can see how proud I was to have made it.

Once at the beach, I found this guy napping in a firepit. He actually looked quite comfortable, strangely enough.

I also found my best friend there doing some studying in the sun! :)

Here are some views of Ocean Beach. I walked down the pier so that I could get a good, eastern facing view.

I thought these seagulls were particularly picturesque.

One of the Seagulls was pecking at something that was not very picturesque. In fact, I nicknamed it "The Gross Thing." I scared the gull away and went over to investigate. When I poked it, it squirted out bloody looking water, thus earning it's nickname. Does anyone know what this is?

One small highlight of my day was when I met a young fisherman on the pier who let me watch him clean his tiny catch and showed me how to do it.

On the way home, I had to take more pictures on the beautiful bike path. I rode my bike the whole way and didn't even walk it up the hills on the way home. I was very proud of myself, because riding bicycles has never been my best sport, and making it 20 miles was a big deal for me. I am making a concerted effort to improve at it, since it is such a great, ecological way of using body mechanics to provide transportation.

Hope you enjoyed the ride as much as I did!!

Climbing at Mission Gorge

2009-04-19T11:12:00.000-07:00

Happy Earth Day!
Yesterday I got up early to go climbing at Mission Gorge before work. It's a good thing we went in the morning, because the climbing area is shaded till about 1 pm, but after that is blasted by UV rays.

It was just a short, 10 minute hike up, but it was a steep aggressive hike with tall steps.

Self portrait of a happy climber:

It was really crowded there. A whole group of Marines were learning how to climg so that they could negotiate the terrain on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. We also met some sport climbers who let us climb in on their top rope. Here are a few pics of me climbing...

This is what it looks like to be a climber, sort of. You can see all the Marines below me.

Made it to the top!

I conquered another mountain!

Speaking of conquering mountains, we shouldn't really conquer them, we should be caretakers of them. Remember when you hike and climb to leave no trace, or as little trace as possible. When on a trail, always use the main trail and don't cut across the switchbacks. If you shortcut the switchbacks, you can cause erosion and plant death. Make sure your food wrappers don't blow away out of reach. If you climb, try to not dump your climbing chalk everywhere, and be sensitive to the ecology of the area near the bottom of the climb.

Bring enough water, but don't leave your plastic water bottles out in the sun while you're climbing. The sunlight can cause the plasticides to leach into your water. I prefer Kleen Kanteen stainless steel reusable water bottles. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. People who don't recycle drive me absolutely crazy. I mean, really. Is it too much to ask? Maybe children should be taken on field trips to landfills to impress upon them at an early age that garbage does not ever go away. My parents raised me to recycle, to save things, to not buy things you don't need. We went to the dump in Dad's pickup truck, way back when you could just dump your trash off the cliff into the abyss of rotting, wasted, toxic stuff. I remember watching the bulldozers driving to and from over the rolling hills of trash that seemed endless to my young eyes.

Another good thing to remember when hiking or climbing is that if you get bit by a poisonous snake (in this area, diamondbacks), remain calm. The best thing to do is not speed up your circulation and heart beat, so you don't want to hike back down, rather you should call 911 and then have someone carry you down to the road if possible. Don't use suction kits or cut your skin. Also, if you stay aware of your surroundings and don't bother any snakes, they won't bother you.

I am learning to respect both the beauty and danger of nature.

Happy Earth Day. What have you done for your world today?

Brussel Sprouts!

2009-04-17T13:51:00.000-07:00

Oh no! I haven't updated for awhile, and now the weekend, and work, is upon me. I spent my week climbing, biking, reading, and cooking healthy food. Since my job feeds me pizza on the weekend, I need to make sure I eat extra healthy during the week. Yesterday I made one of my favorite brussel sprout dishes. Brussel Sprouts??? Yes... they can actually be quite tasty if you make them like I do. :)

First, I boiled them for 3 minutes, and then drained them.

Then, I cut them in half and cut the bottoms off.
In a cast iron skillet with butter AND olive oil (yum) I sauteed them to make them a little brown on the cut side.
Then I added a yellow onion. Most people would saute the onion first, but I don't like my onions overcooked. I like them still crisp and spicy.
Then I cut up a pre-cooked chicken sausage (no hormones or antibiotics, of course) and an apple, which was organic. All the produce in this dish is organic, actually. I think it is especially important to eat organic when you are eating a thin skinned fruit or veggie, that could be penetrated easily by pesticides.
The I threw the sausage and apple into the pan, and continued cooking until everything was hot.
After I took it off the heat, I crumbled blue cheese over the top. I made a whole bunch, so I'd have leftovers. I had it cold for breakfast today. I've been eating vegetables a lot for breakfast actually. It's my new San Diego tradition. :)

Bon Appetit! Be healthy. It feels good. :)

El Capitan, San Diego

2009-04-13T16:35:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I hiked and climbed near El Capitan and El Cahon Mountains. This is El Capitan. (not the Yosemite one! the San Diego one!)
The beginning of the hike was very idyllic and forest glen-like. Later it got very rocky and dry.

This weird parasite-ish thing is called Witch's Hair.
Then we ran into little Mr. Potato Bug. I was the only person on the hike who had ever seen one before. I always seem to run into these guys.

As we climbed higher, we could see El Capitan Reservoir behind us. You can see it in the bottom right hand corner of the picture. My new friend who organized the hike is into rock climbing and wilderness survival.
He pointed out this edible yucca plant. We ate some of the flowers. They tasted sort of yucca-y. Ha ha.

There was also this pretty thistle. I did not eat it.

There were some pretty boulders on the way up the hike but we didn't have time to climb them.
We stopped part way up at the "rest-tree." Once you get out of the glen, there are pretty much only two trees the whole way up.
After this tree it gets all rocky. There is lots of this grass, which you can pull on if you need help climbing the steep parts.
Here are all of my hiking buddies with me at our rest spot. They are all in the Navy together.

As we approached our climb, we could see some expert climbers setting new routes off to the right of where we were going to climb. You can see a climber in the center of this picture.

This is our lead climber "leading" the route (taking the rope up with him, clipping in to the bolts as he goes). When he got to the top, he set up a top-rope for me to climb.

Here I am near the beginning of the route. I didn't think I would be able to finish the climb, but I did. I think it's rated a 5.10b difficulty.

Tired and sweaty, we ran back down the mountain so I wouldn't be late for work.

On the way down I turned and snapped a pic of where we had been. The pro climbers had been on the dark brown rock, and we had climbed the rocks directly below and to the left of there.

During the whole trip, I kept hearing a weird meow-ing noise. It turned out to be the local peacocks, one of whom was kind enough to pose for me by the car. I heard there are rams around here too. Hope I get to see one of those next time.

That's all for now. Happy Spring!

Gooooood Stuffff.

2009-04-11T00:01:00.000-07:00

I love my new job at BLAH!!!! They feed me a delicious pizza or salad every night and give me a craft brew. They are all real and friendly and do interesting things. It is super easy and fun. Tonight I had the asparagus pizza with a green garlic bechamelle (sauce), lemon zest, chives, and speck (smoked prosciutto, basically). Also, they said if I get another job, I can get different nights to work around the schedule. Awesome. One of the girls there loves camping and hiking and is a freelance photographer. She is training me and making sure I know everything I need to know.

Today I got an email from another place that I really liked. If you've been following my blogs, it was the place where I had the Heartburger, called The Linkery. They are going to interview me on April 20th. Hurrah! Another great, organic-y local place. Looks like my jobby jobs are falling into place.

Tomorrow I am going hiking and outdoor rock-climbing with some people I met at REI. Very cool. I should probably go to bed and get some rest, they say it is a strenuous hike. My knee (which was bothering me in Monterey) is still bothering me a tad but the warm weather does seem to have a good effect on it. Affect? Dang it! I can never remember which one to use!! Anyway, my knee is not bothering me as much. I hope to rehabilitate it through cautious, good exercise. Like hiking!

Love to all! I'll try to take good pics on my hike tomorrow.

Breakfast

2009-04-10T11:17:00.000-07:00

Healthy Breakfast

Kitty Breakfast

Yum

Jobby Job!

2009-04-09T10:01:00.000-07:00

Yes folks, the rumors are true. I got a job! It's only two nights a week as of now, but still, a job is a job is a job. Plus, I like the place! And the people. And the location, just a few blocks from my house. It's called The Blind Lady Ale House (BLAH). I thought that was an odd name, so I looked into the origin and it turns out that it's a nod toward the site's former tenant, the Automatic Venetian Blind Lady. Ha ha ha! I thought that was funny. It is a new restaurant, just a few months old, and doing fantastically well. Even in a recession, people still want pizza and beer. Or maybe I should say, especially in a recession. I think people feel less guilty about going out to pizza instead of a fancy dinner.
The chef, Aaron, is young, smart, and friendly, and offered to teach me how to make sausage from scratch if I come in on my own time. The restaurant's website describes their credo as this: "To offer hand-crafted and tasty organic salads, pizza, beer & wine to the families, couples and singles of Normal Heights (and beyond) to eat and drink and enjoy." It also notes that "A standard pizza in Italy contains 500-800 calories. A medium cheese pizza at Pizza Hut has up to 2,160 calories." Um, gross. I've never been a huge pizza fan myself, but last night the chef bought me a pie, and I ate the whole thing! It was really honestly delicious. It was a mushroom pizza with morels, chanterelles, black trumpet, enoki, and oyster mushrooms, with pecorino romano and fontina cheeses and spring leeks. Hungry yet? To start, I will be garnishing, cutting, and serving the pizzas. There are no "waiters" at all there. Awesome. Now I just have to get one more job, and I'm set.

Yesterday I also went to the farther-away climbing gym. It didn't feel like such a long drive though, only 15 minutes or so. I really enjoyed getting back into climbing after more than a year away. I climbed terribly and felt weak, but I got lots of encouragement from the friendly staff, and by the time I left, I had made a few friends. I love climbers. They're so.... real. Since the skin on my hands doesn't have it's climber's callouses anymore, I managed to rip three new "flappers" on my fingers, which are exatcly what they sound like. Oooops. Shoulda brought my climber's tape. This is what flappers look like, after you remove the "flap": I didn't spring for a membership even though I reeeeeaLLy wanted to, but I did buy a 10 visit punch card. On the way home I stopped at REI where I met another climber who would like to show me some cool outdoor climbs and hikes around here. Hurrah! Then I checked out another Bikram Yoga place on the way home. This time I was met with politeness if not friendliness. I wish Bikram wasn't so outrageously expensive! But I guess it costs them money to heat such a big room to 105 degrees, and provide showers for all the sweaty yogis. I passed on spending any money there for now and instead did yoga alone in my bedroom. Not as effective, but much more economical. I can't wait to get back in shape!! I want to be in good shape before I show up at the MMA gym, so that I can focus on the actual skills to be learned instead of being distracted my own wheezing and gasping for breath (if you've ever boxed or wrestled when you're out of shape then you know what I'm talking about).

Ok, well I'm off to go be productive and all that. Wish me luck at my first day of work!

Great Success! Well... sort of.

2009-04-07T22:20:00.000-07:00

This is the third update on my blog for the day! I don't know what's come over me.
I had a good, productive day today. I walked to Rite Aid with Laurel in the sunshine. Then I got dressed up in my new Job Interview Clothes complete with dangly earrings and heels! It must have worked because I received several positive receptions of my resume, snared a job interview and several compliments about my hair. I guess that means I won't be cutting it or doing anything rash like that anytime soon. I wish I was like those dolls where you can wind their arm around and grow their hair out or make it short. Patience truly is a virtue. I've found that most cliches exist because they are true.

My New Job Snagging Clothes

I also further unpacked and got out my two friends that I retrieved from the storage unit up in Santa Rosa. You are never too old to have stuffed friends. This is Horsey and Sally.

I also made granola today from the recipe Gramma gave me. It smells deeelicious! But I am saving it for morning. Gramma also happened to make Horsey. :) Sally is another story... too long of a story for tonight. Oh, the tales these two could tell. Bwah ha ha!

I found an open mike night near my house that is so bad that I want to be in it, because I won't be the worst one. I plan on playing my newly learned guitar there sometime. Anyway, even if I don't, just thinking about it gave me the motivation to practice. I can play three (3) somgs now. :) Can't wait to learn more! Everything comes with time, and practice, and good ol' patience that we mentioned earlier. Oh no! I just used a literary "we"... I think that means it is time to stop. Good night.

Mid Afternoon Ramblings

2009-04-07T13:24:00.000-07:00

"A Massive Earthquake Hits Italy!" roars the newscaster as if it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Weird. I've been trying to become more self aware lately, trying to notice my affect on other people. Or is it effect? I always get those two mixed up. Effect Affect. I should learn the difference because it really annoys me when people use there when they mean they're or their and don't even get me started on the whole you're/your thing. In fact, it's a requirement for me to be willing to go on a date with someone that they understand the difference between your and you're. So I'll take a moment to explain.... YOU'RE annoying me with YOUR bad grammar. But I digress. The newscaster guy on the radio annoyed me too. It was as if he was reading the headline, and understood that it was important somehow, but his reading comprehension skills had not actually kicked in to the point where he grasped that he was talking about untimely deaths, families and homes ripped apart. I want to try to learn to be more aware. We all hurt people, sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. I'm pretty good about not doing it on purpose, but the newscaster reminded me that I need to remember to be careful not just with what I say, but how I say it. YOU'RE hurting my feelings with YOUR tone of voice when you correct my bad grammar.

Anyway I am not writing very coherantly right now. I just got back from applying for a job at a nursery. The craigslist ad went up this morning and by noon I was at the nursery. When I told one of the workers that I was there to fill out an application, he sighed, rolled his eyes, and said "Yeah, you and about two hundred other people..." Great. I wore jeans to that one (it's a nursery for heaven's sake!) but all the other applicants were wearing business clothes. I thought they looked silly. I guess I'll change back into my "nice" clothes and hit up a few more restaurants.

Then I went and washed my car. (Aren't you proud, Gramma?) I decided that if any of my prospective employers saw me arrive or exit in it, that the dead bugs and toothpaste all over the windows would not be impressive. What, you don't brush your teeth in the car? At least it's still legal.

Cats, Hair, Jobs, Gyms, and Letters!

2009-04-07T08:30:00.000-07:00

Hello non-San Diegans! Well it's Tuesday morning, 8:32 AM and I just chugged a cup of coffee. I am considering cutting my hair today. Cut your hair, you say? Why, it's already too short! Hmmm. Yes, I actually regret cutting it off last summer when it was grown out to my shoulders. But I don't know if I can bear the prospect of growing it out during my first summer in San Diego. It is such a pain to grow out, unflattering, and hard to keep out of my face. I think I would rather grow it out in winter. Anyway, after going on a motorcycle ride the other day and seeing what a helmet does to my current length, I realized that I can't ride my motorcycle to any job interviews, ha ha! Plus I am always sweaty here (not complaining, I love it!) so shorter hair might serve me well as far as looking presentable this summer. I'm not going to shave it again or anything drastic, just something that would be easy to make look nice, even if I've been wearing a bicycle or motorcycle helmet, or would look nice after working out, or swimming, or whatever. Maybe something like this, or a little longer: Any opinions?

My kitty kat has made herself quite at home here. On Sunday I took her on a night-time walk with a homemade cat leash and she was very interested in going all over. So when I let her out on her own on Monday morning I was expecting her to take off exploring, but instead she just plopped down on the porch and sat there all morning. When I got out of the shower she was already wanting to come back in. Before I let her out she was bouncing off the walls, but now that she knows she CAN go out, she seems to have calmed down and settled right in.
I should go start my to-do list for the day. I never finish my lists, but having them helps me to accomplish and keep on task. Today my tasks include:
1. Going to the auto body shop and having them put air in my motorcycle back tire. I can't get the air compressor thing at the gas station to fit on my back tire, not enough space to get the angle right.
2. Buy hair goop and a water bottle that fits into my new I-look-presentable purse.
3. Ask one of my housemates to print out my new, improved resume, or find a copy shop to do it for me.
4. Take said resume to at least 3 more restaurants.
5. Fill out questionnaire from the one and only restaurant who has gotten back to me so far. They aren't hiring, but they want me on file in case they need someone. (the Heartburger place that I mentioned previously... it's called The Linkery)
6. do paperwork like changing my address for car insurance and other boring things like that.
7. Consider lowing my job standards and applying at coffee shops or Whole Foods/Trader Joes. Opinions? I wanted to apply for a job at a mall kiosk selling Proactiv solution but the online application required me to enter my social security number into a non secure website, so I passed on that. I've also thought of walking down the street to the guys that are fixing up a crappy house and asking them if they need laboring help.
8. Get out my boxing hand wraps and make sure I still remember how to put them right on so I don't embarrass myself at the MMA gym Undisputed.

Which reminds me, yesterday I went to check out the rock climbing gyms and bikram yoga places. The rock gym that I like is really far away. The closer one is right next door to a bikram yoga studio, but unfortunately both places were rude and outrageously expensive. So I decided to just do yoga in my bedroom, and Laurel wants to do Pilates together in the living room. As far as rock climbing goes, I will just have to scout out the real live rocks and climb those for free. I do love rock gyms because of the strength they build, but I'm not gonna drive 20 minutes and pay through the nose to be treated rudely and climb mediocre routes. I miss VERTEX in Santa Rosa. So then I went to check out the MMA (mixed martial arts) gym near my house. I met the owner and he was very respectful and helpful. It's also expensive there, but it seems worth it. You get unlimited classes from 6 AM till 10 PM, with each different class taught by an expert in that field. There is open gym all day so you can also work out by yourself if you want. There is an on site injury specialist as well. I told the owner that I shouldn't come in there to train because I don't have a job yet. He said, "when you are ready, don't let money stop you. We don't turn anyone away because of money. Scrape together what you can and we'll use it as a down payment on your initiation fee. You can pay the rest later." I thought that was very gracious. The intiation fee isn't really all that much but I'm just trying to be responsible and not spend any money till I have a job. Being an adult is so annoying sometimes... :)

Well I'm off to start my day. I miss my family and friends, and think of you all often! I wish I had time to write each of you individually all the time, but I don't. That's why I called this blog the SD letters, because it's a letter to each and every one of you. Thanks for reading.

Fish, Pools, Cats, and Hearts.

2009-04-05T14:11:00.001-07:00

I went to Ranch 99 the other day. Don't think I'll be repeating that experience too often. Ranch 99 is a world/Asian market. Laurel likes it because it has Indonesian food. I thought it was fun and interesting but there were some things there that I didn't like to see... like shark fin soup. Or these live fish crammed in tanks so close together that some of them couldn't move.

There was also plentiful MSG for those that need it... Gross.

I also went out with Laurel to a weekly jazz improv session at a South Park bar. That was fun, good conversation, good music, and a good hamburger to boot.

Last night I found a cool restaurant in North Park, which is nearby. It is focused on sustainable, local when possible, farm-to-table food. I was very excited to see that, so I had dinner there. I had the Heartburger, which was made from Niman Ranch pork heart. Sorry if that sounds gross to some of you but I thought is was fantastic. I applied to work there of course. This is me in my new room, on my way out to eat there and scope out the other restaurants nearby. Yes, I am carrying a purse! It's true, folks. Trying to present a hire-able image to the SD restaurant community.

Today my other housemate Becky invited me to go swimming at the SDSU pool. It was warm and sunny and I may or may not have gotten a bit of a tan. Becky is really nice, I think I will get along with her fabulously.

In closing, I also met my neighbor Ed who is very charming and hard of hearing. His cat likes to lie in his window and I couldn't resist stealing a snapshot:

Now that I've applied for at least a half dozen jobs, I can take my motorcycle out for a spin guilt-free. Seeee ya later!

My Last Day In Monterey

2009-04-04T09:47:00.000-07:00

The First Letter

2009-04-04T06:54:00.000-07:00

I arrived in San Diego on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 to begin life's next adventure.

My new place is, surprisingly, not haunted... although my neighborhood is ghetto-light. The inside of my house is beeeeee-autiful. Lots of natural light, super clean, new carpet, new paint, etc. I don't have a yard :( but I have a little balcony porch and I plan on having a porch garden eventually. So far I have a lemon tree and herbs. (Thanks Mom!) My cat seems to like it here too. Even though she is used to being outside and hunting, she seems perfectly content. She has earned a new nickname from my housemates, Meow Mix.

Thursday I went job hunting. It sucked. Royally. I drove to La Jolla and applied at a super fancy Italian place and they gave me a 2 page wine quiz... "What grape is primarily in Chianti?" "What region of Italy is the Brunello from?" I DON'T KNOW!!! Having been landscaping, lumbermilling, chainsawing, vacuuming, and ironing for the past 3 years... well I forgot stuff like that even if I ever knew it. I don't care enough to remember that stuff. I hate learning about things that I don't care about. There's so many things I'd rather learn.

Well after Thursday's job hunting debaucle I realized that I have a closet full of ripped jeans and nothing to wear to a job interview. That's when I remembered that I had a Target gift certificate (Thanks Mike and Bobby!) so I rounded up my best friend/housemate Laurel for a shopping trip. I HATE clothes shopping, but when I have Laurel with me, I can pretend that I'm just spending time with her and forget about the shopping part. So... after several hours o painstaking work... I emerged with a pair of black slacks, a turquoise shirt, and *gasp* a green leather purse. Those of you that know me well know that I am not a purse person. I object to anything that leaves one of my arms compromised. However, realizing that showing up to a job interview with pockets bulging with phone and wallet was not very classy, I decided to bend my no-purse rule. However, the strap is long enough to sling over my shoulder so I can still have my hands free for any sudden need to beat up an attacker or rescue a baby stroller from the speeding suburban San Diego traffic.

In light of my new outfit, today I am ready to begin again. I have a list of 10 restaurants that are much closer to my neighborhood than the ones I've applied to so far. I'm going to doctor up my resume a bit more and print them up on Laurel's printer. I wish I had more interesting news, but since I've disallowed myself from spending money until I get a job... I haven't signed up for any classes or gyms or anything like that yet.

I like San Diego... but I have to admit I almost miss Monterey. Well... not Monterey per se, but the people I know and love there.