California Skies

I just back to NYC on Monday from LA, where I got to spend a long weekend with Amber, my college roommate and one of my best friends in the whole world. It was supposed to be a long anticipated Girl's Weekend with the inclusion of Kristin, the other member of our trio, but life being what it is, Kris was unable to make the trip out, and was sorely missed. Amber shipped her sweet husband Jeremy off to his parents house in Northern California for a few days, and we took over the house. It was a great weekend of SoCal stuff I miss. I flew in on Thursday and we had lunch at Marmalade Cafe in Santa Monica. We spent an afternoon in Malibu, including lunch at John's Garden down at the Malibu Country Mart, an extra large Mocha Iced Blended from the Coffee Bean, and a trip up to Pepperdine. Amber and I drove around campus, swung up to our old home in Towers, and reminisced about college. Ah, the good ol' days.

If you've never lived in California, I don't know if you can truly understand how it can get to you. Now, I'm sure it doesn't happen to everyone, but for us there is quite literally this physical longing for California sometimes. When Kev and I get really nostalgic we can actually feel the SoCal air. There is a scent in the air that I find nowhere else, but when I smell it there my heart aches. It's a smell I associate with Pepperdine...this damp, verdant green scent that I wanted to bottle and bring back for Kev. Every time we walked out of Amber and JJ's apartment in the evenings it would hit me and couldn't inhale deeply enough. Living in New York calls this into sharp contrast because in the summer the streets of NYC smell like a Porta Potty. Seriously unpleasant.

We are leaving tomorrow morning for Washington DC for the long 4th of July weekend. We're going to visit our dear friends Aaron and Karrie. This is our second annual Independence Day in DC, and we're really looking forward to the vacation.

I hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July celebration!

M.I.A.

Ok, we're not even going to talk about how long it has been since I updated my blog. Let's just say the first half of 2006 has been nuts. So, let's put the past behind us...let bygones be bygones...and all those other cliches, and move forward. Ok?

It is a foggy, rainy, miserable spring day in New York today. So what am I going to do? I'm going to go do 12 hour walk for cancer. Smart, huh? I'm headed out to Astoria, Queens this afternoon for the Relay for Life. I am on a team with 3 other gals from church, and we're heading out to raise both money and awareness for the American Cancer Society. We are pitching our tent along with several hundred others at Astoria Park, and then someone from our team will be walking around a track (I think) from 5:00 p.m. today until 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. Yep, should be a long night. But I am determined that it is going to be fun! I think they're going to have fun events and bands all evening...Twister tournaments, Limbo contests, pizza parties, yoga classes...fun stuff like that. Or maybe I should say, stuff they are hoping we all consider fun at 3:00 a.m. after we've been either walking or sitting in the rain for hours. It's all about attitude, right?

But who cares about rain, lots of walking, and a long night. This is all for an excellent cause. Maybe our children won't even know what cancer is...