california's burning, burning

gotta go shoot augustana for writing that song.... it's been stuck in my head all day. know why? BECAUSE CALIFORNIA IS FREAKING BURNING!!!

yeah so we had to evacuate at 5 am this morning. 8 different fires burning pretty much all of southern california and down into mexico. got up and grabbed what we could.. got my laptop and guitar and some clothes. packed it up in all the cars and drove out into the traffic of everyone else leaving.

leaving this morning was like the worst scene in an action movie.. the sky was all black and smokey, ash was raining from the sky, and a line of traffic stuck going up the hill in front of the house while we're all packing up the cars and trying not to choke.

then it was stressful because we got split up.. dad and megan were at the church office and dad wouldn't leave. and mom and the rest of us (me driving my car and her in the van) drove around forever. we ended up leaving my car in a parking lot... i hope it's okay ><

so we figured we'd head north up to a friend's house.. but the 15 north was closed. so we had to take a very very very round about way... with the rest of san diego.

red is the route we took.

blue is the way we would normally go.


basically we drove around for nearly 10 hours... it was almost all bumper to bumper traffic everywhere. EVERYONE had to evacuate. we went even farther south for a while because it was the only way we could go.. and there was more to it than this. so yeah..

now we're finally up here and have been here about 3 or 4 hours.. and now they're saying that this area might have to evacuate too sometime tonight. ugh. and if we don't leave then it's still 10 of us in a house with 2 beds, 2 couches and some chairs... not fun.

luckily they're saying most of the fires by my house have died down.. but the power, water, and gas are all turned off.. they said we can't go back for a day or two. oy.

and so i'm back! from outerspace...

or south carolina. whichever. it's rl different over there on the east coast. here's one little story for you.

08/25/07 south carolina - day 4:
tonight we went out for dinner with mimi (my mom's mother). she took us to a cafeteria style place called jackson's cafeteria. i embarrassed myself going through the food line... although anyone could make the mistake...there were the potatos sitting there, and next to it was the gravy in the same size dish thing... so then what was this darker liquid over here? i think deep down i was hoping it was teriyaki sauce, because it was right next to some white rice. the question came out something like "what's that dark stuff there?" and with all the attitude and "oh-no-you-di-nit" of a big southern black woman, the lady behind the counter told me "THAT'S GRAVY." oh. duh. i'm in the south and i don't know gravy when i see it... i forgot you have to have 2 kinds of gravy here; one of the dark people and one for the light peole. i'm sorry, i'm just an idiot from california. we only have one color gravy...because we aren't racist still. (ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! ......... no no i'm kidding!!) anyway, all she did was answer my question... but you know when you can tell that people just don't like you...or think you're stupid. it was that feeling. x1000

and yeah, that was one of my first lovely experiences with the culture... i won't bother with the rest. most people there aren't all too friendly UNLESS they already know you. southern hospitality must be from another part in the south.

so yeah, back to work. it's going a little better now. first day back was terrible. i messed up on a lot of things. but now i'm doing better... it's really a lot to remember how to do... but i got paid! and it's a nice feelin~

before the craziness continues

well, off to the east coast tomorrow morning. got a full day of travel ahead of me... ugh. i hate flying. so boring. plus i've been sick all week, so that should make for a fun (not) trip. jeez...
johnny and i went cruising in the BMW before i left. we went shopping and had a good time :) <333
so now i'm finally all packed. finished my last day of work for 2 weeks. it almost doesn't seem worth it with what i make.. like nothing compared to my last job. :( sigh...
so yeah.. time to go try to sleep now. i wish i didn't have to go. it's been so hot here, i can't believe i'm going somewhere even hotter for the next 2 weeks. miserable! i hate being too hot. or to cold.. i guess no one does.
i feel so not ready to go. i don't know why...maybe because i'm sick? it seems like i just did this a few months ago... oh yeah... cuz i did! ugh.

comic con 07 - nerds unite!

comic con this weekend was fun! really exhausting though! i woke up at 5 am friday morning and couldn't go back to sleep... just excited i guess. then my boyfriend picked me up at 8 and we went down to san diego (half an hour away), parked (friggin $10 to park!!), got our badges (pre-registered baby!), walked and got breakfast from a little corner cafe, then went back a little after it had opened at 10 and the line went away. saw lots of neat stuff and got good free stuff. saw my friend caitlin at the FUNimation booth (she does winrey's voice in FMA), and some other people, like the guy who plays goku from DBZ. he was funny, lol..

here are some pictures:

omgz. free internets!

amazing. so yeah, went to catalina island this morning.. staying for 3 days. rode the boat... i forget what it's called? catamaran? didn't get sea sick :) that was nice. but omgz. so much walking and waiting after we got here! waited for the shuttle (mini van thing) waited for a hotel room.. our reserved one was smoked in -_- laaaaaaame. but they get a $1000 fine.. so i feel somewhat justified.. although i wish we weren't on the bottom level with a bathroom door that doesn't close :/
oh but once we got here the motion sickness drugs kicked in >< so we were all super groggy and drugged... so all the sight-seeing was misserable. we found a teeny-tiny mexican place for lunch and we were all falling asleep.. cept mom, she had out her 4 foot long map of the island and was reading us facts about the island... horray for tourism.
anyway......i'm pretty sure none of this made sense.. so i'll just stop.

well, today i went on a lovely road trip... sorta.

see, my mom see's this doctor up in beverly hills who uses "natural medacine stuff" annd she's pretty into that, so she goes to see him every year. and this time she was all "hey, wanna come to the doctor with me? you can go shopping on rodeo (row-'day-oh) drive while i'm doing that!" suuuure :)
hahaha. i forgot how much i hate going to LA. and long car rides.
soo yeah. got up early this morning, rode in the car for 2 and a half hours.. i'll spare you the boring details. finally got there and i was like "holy cow! every other car is a mercedes or a BMW!!!" no joke! XD it's insaaane!! there were like 5 BMWs in a row.. and a saw some ferraris and lamborghinis too :D actually being driven! that was neat.. you rarely see them being driven around where i live XD they just sit on display in shops or whatever...
saw lots of interesting people too. you get all types there. rich people. poor people. poor people who try to look rich. rich people who try to look poor...yeah. it's cool. and of course all the people who hang out there simply to "get discovered" by some movie producer or modeling agent. some guy standing on the sidewalk tried to make me listen to his CD.. said something about ill wish i had when he's famous? yeah kay crazy. i can't remember his name, so i'll never know.
none of the fancy, expensive shops really appealed to me.. the only one that came close to being cool was guess... and i didn't even know that was what it was till i went out. yeah so i guess i could never be in fashion... cuz i don't like name brands? or know them... infact i can't pronouce half of them when i see them!!! and you shouldn't wear what you can't pronounce. ever! or eat for that matter. pronunication is important. so is spelling, but i think i just killed it back there. dang.
ANYWAY!! i don't think i saw any movie stars.. oh well. mom's appointment ended at like 2 PM, so we were gonna go to one of the little cafes on camden or rodeo for lunch.. buut they were all real crowded (go figure). so we decided to go to a certain mall to eat.. so. 3 hours later!!!!!!!! who has lunch at 5 PM? oh, i do. and we actually passed like 2 other malls.. but she wanted to go to this certain one. but what was cool was that i was wanting wendy's (i like wendy's). and she was all "oh come on, you can get wendy's any time!" (no, not really mom).. and then we got to the mall and right on the front there was a big wendy's sign XD wendy's!! in the mall! am i lucky or what! hahaha. so yeah, ate my deeeelicous jr. cheese burger delux, and then shopped around a bit.. didn't buy anything all day though... save for food of course. heh.

and yeah.. i guess that's really the most exciting parts... that i can remember. saw the street corner for sunset and camden...from singin' in the rain.. but i guess i'm the only one who would care about that :) hehe