Estival

The past year has been unseasonably and, dare I say, unreasonably cold in Southern California. We basically never had a summer - it was the coldest ever recorded - and there's been an unheard of amount of gloom and rain.

After this weekend, I think we're finally past that.

Aural

I'm learning to play the guitar. For Christmas, my brother found me a twin of the guitar that he inherited from our parents. And over the past few months he's been teaching me to play it. (I've mentioned that he's awesome before, right?)

It's probably not the way one should learn an instrument (it's certainly not the way I learned the piano or violin), but we've kind of skipped the normal "learn technique and all the chords first" and gone straight to "learn these five chords or this strumming technique in order to immediately apply them to this one song." It's a little convoluted, but much more rewarding, because then I can actually play something immediately. (Of course, there are lots of songs I can't play yet because I haven't learned all of the chords and such. You win some, you lose some.)

So far I've learned a rousing 4 songs. I need to up my practice time and learn more songs soon, becasue whatever songs I'm currently studying are stuck in my head on repeat even when I'm not playing, and a 4-song playlist gets old quickly.

At least I like the songs I've learned so far. A lot. :o)

"Well it goes like this the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift..."

Recuperation

I just got back from a long vacation with my boyfriend.

Melancholy

A few lousy days on top of a bad weekend on top of a few rough months have left me angry and depressed, and I try not to spew that kind of angst on this blog. There's enough negativity in the world without me adding to it.

So as soon as I shake off my funk we'll be back to our regularly scheduled program. In the meantime, thanks for your patience.

Indulgence

Today I made a brunch of pancakes (the classic Joy of Cooking recipe that my dad always made growing up) studded with fresh blueberries (purchased at the Mercato yesterday) and drizzled with real maple syrup (smuggled back on a plane by yours truly from the East coast because they do it better there), plus pepper-crusted bacon (mmm... bacon) and mimosas with hand-squeezed OJ (we seem to have lost our elecric citrus juicer during our exodus for fumigation, which is sad since it's probably the most frequently used appliance in our house)...

All while still in my PJs.

Evicted

After three years, I still feel fairly new to life in California. Lots of things about living here still surprise me or strike me as odd.

For example, having grown up in Ohio and upstate New York, it's still a miracle to me that I'm not buried in 4+ feet of snow 9 months out of the year.

Also, there are basically no insects here except for a few spiders. (Yes, I know spiders aren't technically insects, but Webster promises that they fit under the "non-technical" definition of insects. Roll with me on this one.) And apparently termites.

Because we got a letter informing us that we have termites and thus the condo association was going to fumigate our building and we'd need to find alternate housing for three days.

Saccharine

I spent the afternoon volunteering at our local Swedish cultural center. I get to learn about Swedish culture and then share it with the public, which is awesome, except for the fact that I also gorge myself on coffee and sugary-sweet almond bread the entire time. It's very Swedish of me, and the combination of caffiene and sugar is great for the first two hours, but by hour 3 I'm pretty much convinced I'm dying.

(Spoiler alert: I didn't die. But I did feel like crap for several hours.)

Crepuscule

I live near the ocean. Okay, I work near the ocean and live near a bay. Whatever. I get lots of awesome oceanscapes (bayscapes?) driving to and from work (and anywhere else in close proximity). If I time my day right, I get to watch the sunset over the water on my way home.

In fact, I bribe myself into getting up early in the morning with promises of sunsets on my drive home. (That's normal, right?)