Things I love about CA

The beach. Disneyland. The mountains. The freeways-I know it sounds odd, but they ARE better. Hollywood. LA. Pasadena. Claremont. Corban Canyon. Santa Monica Pier. Claremont Colleges. Botanical Gardens. Venice Beach. Knott's Berry farm. Medieval Times. 3rd Street. Laying out and feeling the sun's rays on my skin. Free summer activities. The People. Bonfires at the beach. The fact that "I'm freezing" means "it's 60*F, and I have to put on a sweatshirt. Riding bikes at the beach. All the things you find hidden. Santa Barbara. The warmth of the sun. My friends who take me to a new restaurant at least once a month. Surfers. People who encourage me to read good books. Opening the sunroof and smelling the beach air. My house is an hour from just about everything, and 3 hours from Vegas and TJ. Seeing dolphins off the coast. The ability to pick a fav store, and know that there are 12 similar shops within a mile radius if I don't feel completely satisfied. Ruby's on the pier. Governor Arnold. CSU's that cost less than 1500 a semester. Catalina Island. Tornado season-we don't have them. DCA (Disney's California Adventure). The beach.

TAGGED!

I've been wanting to post something, for a few days, but aside from "The crazy stalker hasn't gotten me yet!" I haven't had anything exciting to tell you about...except that now I've been tagged--So, here are the rules:

1. The player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.

2. At the end of the post, the player tags 6 people and posts their names, and then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment, letting them know they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog for the rules.

Here we go:
1- I Don't have a middle name. And when I was younger and we went bowling, I'd use the letter O as my middle initial to fill the 3 spaces--it makes a word, and I guess that word makes me vain.

2-My uncle is Mel Gibson.

3-I am currently enrolled in 3 Special Ed classes. As a student. That really doesnt make me sound very smart.

4-I am fairly paranoid. I blame a teacher I had when I was like 10 who told me about all the things a particular stalker does to his victims--horrifying. I've been doing a lot better lately...and even when I'm not doing so well, I've gotten a lot better at hiding it... ;-)

5-I talk to my car. She has a name. And a few nicknames. I think that if I'm nice to her, she'll be nice to me. And it's worked so far.

6-I have a dream that one day I will have a lot of money. Not because I want a big house, or lots of expensive toys, but because there are a few things I want to do. I'm really poor right now, but one day I want to be able to say "dont worry about the bill, it's on me" regularly. Just once I want to be able to say "hey, I' m taking a cruise to Alaska--you wanna come? It's already paid for" or "I am going to Africa, but I dont want to go alone, so I bought an extra ticket--will you please join me?" I will take working/service vacations and go to New Zealand and build a house like my sister did, or work in an orphanage in Austria for a month, or help teach Brazilians how to set up a school. I want to do everything and see everywhere--and while I know that will never happen (at least not in this life), but I want to do as much of it as I can.

And since everyone I know in the blogging world has already been tagged, I am going to break the chain...I will probably remain "It" indefinately, but maybe one day I will decide to pass it on...after this post is long forgotten, or I've made more friends. On second thought, I do know someone who just started a blog, and this would be a great entry to get her going, so Val--you're IT!!!

Crazies

Is there a full moon this week or am I just wearing a huge "I love crazy people" sign?

At school on Monday I gave this kid directions to whatever he was looking for, and then my class happened to be on the way there...so we walked together. But then he wanted to walk down the stairs and into the building of where my classroom was...Fine whatever--I'd never see him again...Right? WRONG--when I came out of class 3 hours later he was there waiting for me. He thought it would be nice to walk me to my car--but he wanted to stop by his car first. I said " no, that's ok. I can see my car from here. You can go to your car, and I'll go to mine." But he insisted that I wait for him to go to his car because he had something for me...I was pretty weirded out by this, since I didn't know him, and seriously, what would this kid I met today have for me? In his car? Weird. So anyway, I waited in the institute parking lot while he went to his car to get whatever it was...And do you know what he came back with? Here's a picture of it:

Thats right--a flower. A red Rose. That was nice of him...but along with the 150 personally invasive questions he'd already asked it was a little too much, way too soon.

And last night I went to my fav. little coffee shop to get a hot coaco and read my book club book, but instead of getting nice quite time by myself, I had the peasure of spending an hour entertaining another young man who was a little too forward in his attempt at kindness. I'm flattered, I really am, but are you really so ignorant to nonverbal cues that you think I will kiss you at the end of the intrusive evening? Or did you just think I'd find your lip-infusion gloss irrestable?

Can I get a day off for emotional trauma?

So, on my way to school yesterday I was driving along on the freeway, as I've done so many times before, when traffic started slowing. We are used to that here in So. Cali. Some random genius decides that his foot has to be doing something at all times, so it's either gas or break. (I don't think some people understand that if you just take your foot off the gas you naturally start to slow down, but whatever.) And then once 1 person brakes everyone around them sees the red lights and brakes also, and next thing you know you are going 30 mph for no reason. Well, when this happened yesterday there were tragic consequences. I didn't see what happened right before, so I don't know if someone cut into the lane or what, but as I was slowing down, I noticed that the SUV on my left was not going to stop in time. And apparently the he noticed this too, so he swerved into the carpool lane on his left--where another car had to slam on their brakes, but was luckily able to avoid an accident. But the story doesn't end there. The SUV had turned so sharply to the left that he would have hit the wall, so he started over compensating swerving right and left and right again, and unfortunately he did hit the wall--which swung the car around so it was facing us, then it continued to go and rolled over onto it's side, where it rolled over like twice, finally resting on it's side. There were about 10 of us who got out of our cars there on the freeway and ran to the SUV. I could see him trying to get out of his window which was now shattered across the freeway, but since his car door was on the ground, that wasn't quite possible. so 3 men helped him climb out the passenger window. He seemed fine (for which I am incredibly grateful!), a few scratches, but walking around okay...so the first lady there was on her phone with 911 and helping him and I was blocking traffic, so I had to move my car...And when I got about 10 miles away was when I finally realized that if he had pulled his steering wheel in the opposite direction, he would have been in my lane...kinda alarming.(Dear SUV driver, I'm glad you walked away from that accident. I'm sorry I had to leave so quickly, but I had class...although, if I'd thought I could be some help, I would have been more than willing to stay...but, really--I'm kinda useless in times of emergency. Thank you for not turning right, and into my lane, when you were avoiding the stopped car. Love, Emotionally-Tramatized-but-not-as-much-as-you Heather) So, my point is this: Shouldn't I be excused from class? Because, really, there was no way I was going to be able to pay attention when I was shaking and in a constant state of borderline panic attack. I know I wasnt even involved in anything, but still...emotional trauma.

PS--You would have all gotten a random "I love you" text message from me, except that I was afraid of texting while I was driving.