Captain Log: Star Date Part III Rest of Sunday night and Monday

Upon arriving to the home of our host family we were engaged from the get go. I told Riri all the details I could about the two girls and their parents. I said, "I won't be surprised if PGG (Princess Girly Girl) is sobbing in tears when you leave. She'll love you. PS (Princess Seriously) loves to tease and is boy crazy. And the parents well...they are amazing." I was being teased from every member of the family the moment we walked to the door (except PGG who likes to tease as well but was too excited about our arrival and couldn't understand why everyone else in the family was making us wait in the doorway insisting we couldn't come in). I always get nervouse about bringing strangers to this family, I get even more nervouse when I'm not in the room. I know the world isn't about me but this family is very good at making it clear that they love to find MORE reasons to make fun of me. In a kind loving way of course.

Luckily for me I make it a point to be open about the silly/annoying/airheaded things that I do. Laugh at your self first and the world laughs with you sort of thing. Also, neither Riri nor the host family have had much exposure to my various quirks quite yet. That I'm sure is yet to come.

The host mother and I have a love for Grey's Anatomy and since I haven't had TV for about three months I haven't seen many episodes lately. Even if they are being recycled right now I still haven't seen them all. So we stayed up for a while said family prayer, which, by the way, they make me say the first night of EVERY visit I make. Which makes me feel wonderful because they want me to feel part of the family but nervouse because I'm still very shy about praying in front of people.

It's good for me, builds character from what I hear.

So while Riri hit the perverbial hay, I stayed up with host mom to chat and watch Grey's Anatomy. And got some advice as well.

So we had every intention of going to Disneyland on Monday, California Adventure on Tuesday, Seaworld on Wednesday, the beach Thursday, and Universal Studios Friday (if we felt the need. It wasn't a priority).

When we got there the only part of our plans that stayed the same was our scheduled beach day. The people who I've stayed with every time I've gone down to California since returning from my mission were instrumental in the change of our plans. As they are So-Cal vetrans we heeded their every bit of advice and infinite wisdom. Well almost every bit of advice. When we didn't take their advice we always said, "They are always right. We need to remember that."

So the weather around there was a bit cloudy which equals cooler then usual. Since Universal Studios is more inland they suggested me do Universal on Monday and do Seaworld (which is close to the coast) on Friday. We took there advice and had tons of fun.

There's something about being in theme parks that just makes you feel like a kid. But when you are an adult, who thinks clearly and plans neatly without the fears of tantrums you can get though a suprisingly large amount of activities. We planned our day so well we only missed one or two attractions. The 4-D Shrek movie was awesome. The chairs move. Backdraft was cool cause this time around (I've been in once before) I actually got what they were trying to say about the fire. It was pretty cool and makes me want to watch the movie now.

The best though in my opinion was the Back Lots Tour. Everything else was cool but there's something about the special effects that makes it way cool. We also went on The Return of the Mummy. Which at one point makes you feel like you have sarub beattles crawling around your feet (it's all in the dark too) and I kicked my feet so much and so hard that I ended up needing a bandaid cause my little two was bleeding. It was no small cratch either a good hunk of skin came off. Only I have the talent to do that.

The rest of this post will show some pictures and I'm going to try and get a movie clip on here too.

Didn't trust anyone with my camera so we took seperate pictures. This is Shrek's home. That little girls is totally going to bust his chops for being late when he comes out.

I'll Figure something out...I always do

Some one asked her blog readers to write about a typical day in their lives. I happen to be one of her blog readers and decided to write about my typical day. "But," I thought to myself, "my days are not typical. They are never typical."

Don't get me wrong. I have the usual things that I need to do. But something always comes up. Take my day today for instance. But to really understand my day today I have to start with last night.

I have trouble sleeping sometimes, I'm not an insomniac I just have an overactive brain that won't let me sleep for an hour after I go to bed. I also like being on the internet doing this, that, and the other. But I am CONSTANTLY trying to put myself on a schedule. It starts with the night before being in bed by 10:30 pm.

To try and cultivate this habit I take a sleeping pill an hour before I want to sleep. Last night worked perfectly. Unfortunatly I was SO tired when I was heading to bed that I did not set my alarm clock correctly. Which means only one thing. I over slept.

My day (at least on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) should work something like this.

5:30 am - wake up get ready for school. (If I was motivated the night before I have a breakfast, lunch, and dinner made since I live no where near my school and will be gone all day. I also have my clothes picked out for the day, clean clothes).

6:15 am - out the door to beat early morning traffic any later and I'll be pushing to get to school on time.

7:15 am-10:30am - various classes I have during those hours (currently three)

10:40-12:oopm - I study, read textbooks, and do homework

12:00pm-12:30pm - I eat lunch. (Breakfast is eaten during my first class, my teachers cool that way)

12:40 - 1:30pm - last class for the day

2:00pm - 5:00pm - study, homework, and read text books

5:00pm - 6:00pm - work out mostly for sanity rather then health reasons. I have to go and do things.

6:00pm - 7:00pm - eat and go on the internet

7:00pm - 8 or 9 (depending on my mood) - more study (of course Friday is date night and must be more flexible. If homework is not finished I do it on Saturday)

This is actually what happened today

6:30 am - my eyes pop open and I notice two things that are not usual when I wake up 1) It's lighter in my room then it should be 2) I feel more rested then I should be. My eyes haven't cleared yet but I know my lock is not reading 5:30am.

Thing is my teacher for my first class made a huge deal about being late. She says if you are going to be late I don't want you in class. If you are leaving earlly don't come to class.

So I rush thinking, "No time for shower, no time for food, no time for nice hair. It's a hat and sweats today." And then I look at the time and think, "I won't make it anyway, I'm taking a shower."

So I miss my first class. It's only the third day of school. Dang it

8:00 am - get to school sit in car and listen to a book on my iPod. This turns out to be a big mistake that I regret for reasons to be disclosed later.

8:40 - 10:30 pm - go to my other classes have great time

10:40 - 12:00pm - grab a subway sandwich and find a place to get homework finished for my other class that's due today. Realize that I don't need to finish ALL of the questions just some.

By noon I have lots finished, I eat and get ready for my class at 1:40 pm. Wait 1:40 pm, that's not right, I'm sure you are all thinking that and you look back up at my actual schedule to see if you read it wrong. No you didn't read it wrong. I forgot when my class started. It's no use having a day planner I guess. If I don't remember no amount of writing it down will keep me from forgetting. I, thinking I have lots of time, go to the river and soak my feet in the water. Go to find my class and realize too late that I missed my class.

My teacher was in her office though and she accepted my homework and said, "I've heard every excuse in the book but not that one." And I left with her laugh still ringing in my ears.

Then I go to audition for a choir but didn't actually have to do anything, he just let me in the choir. I love it when he does that. I get some books and then head to do some more study. Decide I want to play some games on my cell phone instead.

Finally get to studying around 3:00 and get a lot done. Get ready to go to dinner around 5:00. Get in my car and it won't start. Remember how I said I stayed in my car before I went to class. Well, I have a little ritual that I do when I'm parking. I put on my emergency break, open my car door, HEAR THE CAR DING LETTING ME KNOW MY LIGHTS ARE ON, and turn off my lights. Well guess what I didn't hear this time.

Yeah, so almost 10 hours later my car won't start. I spend two hours trying to find someone to help jump start my car. I end up having to do it twice! At two different places. By the time I figured out that my battery was seriously dead and needed replacing it was time for me to go home. A whole day of studying wasted.

You see I make plans. But something always comes up. Always.

Captions Log Stardate-Sunday Part II

So eventually we made it to Las Vegas safe and sound. We stayed up (way too late in my opinion) waiting for LV Friend to put her cranky son to bed. It was nearly one before my head finally hit a pillow. I'm sorry but after driving all day I wasn't willing to do the polite guest thing and stay up to chit chat. But all the same the people were really nice and the kid was cute.

Sunday we decided to go to church. I found out from my So-Cal family that it was mearly 3 hours to get from LV to Riverside. So At 11:30am we went to church and decided to stay for all three hours. Which was enjoyable because I really do enjoy church.

But then Sunday school started. Not that the lesson was bad I just had trouble paying attention because of some guy that wouldn't stop looking at me.

I walk into the Relief Society Room and immediatly get approached by a guy that I smiled to earlier in the hallway. He was dark skinned, late 30's, and VERY friendly. A little too friendly if you know what I mean. He came right up to me, introduced himself (his name escapes me at the moment). I gave him my name (it's only the polite thing to do) and he responds with, "You are very pretty." Now this is not the polite you look nice you-are-pretty comment. It was the creepy I-want-to-touch-your-hair-you-are-pretty comment. I have to say I never kept my eyes from looking in just one direction so hard in my life. Nor have I ever had eyes focused on me for so long in my life.

We ended up back in the chapel for Relief Society since it was a 5th Sunday and combined with the men. We sat in the waaaay back. My admireer was sittting up in the front. He didn't look back nearly as much but...I could tell something was working in his mind. Sure enough he came up and made his way to the back of the chapel.

He sat down next to our LV Friend and after a moment of staring now not just as me but at Riri he leaned over and whispered something to LV Friend. I didn't hear anything but after some whispering between the Admirer which ended him leaving the chapel all together Riri found out what happened and said to me, "We should be thanking LV Friend after this. She just told him we both have boyfriends."

Though that did stop him from making any more advances it didn't stop him from staring. The elders were sitting almost directly to the other side of me and were laughing the whole time. I kept pulling funny faces and wondering how the heck this was going to end.

Luckily it ended with us leaving swiftly after church. We drove past the LV Temple. Never been there myself and it is very pretty. We hopped on the freeway and went crusing past the LV Stripe. That is we crused for about 10 miles when all of a sudden the traffic came to a dead halt. We CRAWLED our way to Primm. About 20 miles outside of LV and the last place to gas up before hitting California. You don't want to wait until after Primm cause the next stop it's WAY to exspensive. It took us TWO hours to get to Primm. Which was funny because we thought we'd be close to Riverside by that time. No such luck. We stayed there ate dinner at a crappy buffet and took off.

And ended up at Riverside near 9 or 10. Leaving our grand admirer behind. Luckily for us....

"M" Captions Log Stardate: Don't even know what that means...

*We'll just stick with Saturday Night Part I*

It was a dark and stormy night....

Oddly enough that's what it ended up being. But first lets begin at well the beginning. My ship mate, we'll call her Riri, and I took off from Boise around noon. She had enjoyed a blessed time at the temple and I was running around like crazy getting things ready for the coming week of frivolity.

We drove for a good long ways with no problems. We decided to take the 93. This goes through Nevada. The other way down would be to go through Utah. Which is the way I know. I hear there are many ways to get to California but I don't know them all.

That's where we were going. Southern California! 10 days of non stop excitment and fun. It was a two day trip down and back. We took my little car, er, I mean spaceship, that had never seen anything beyond Boise, Idaho. The poor thing was in for some shock.

You see, before we even reached Las Vegas, which was our first stop for the trip, my little spaceship went through something it had never endured before. Heck I'VE never endured it before. It was a...

!!!Desert Monsoon!!!

Who ever heard of such a thing? I hadn't. You see in Idaho the saying goes, "If you don't like the weather just wait 10 minutes and it will change." Apparently Nevada has never experienced that kind of weather before! So it's dark out, totaly pitch black because there are NO cities (we had passed a sign saying the next city wouldn't be for another 91 miles) no lamp post, not anything we could call civilization. And then the lightening starts.

That part was actually pretty cool though Riri mentioned it was blinding. I didn't have much problems with that and I was the one driving. But then the rain started. And it got harder and harder and harder until finally I had to pull over. I could not see a thing. This is when we figured we wait until it died down. At one point it lightened up a bit but once I got one the road it would rain harder again and I'd have to pull over.

The sickest part of the whole thing was the other cars. There weren't many of them but when they came back they came by FAST!! I couldn't believe how fast they were going. I kept thinking to myself, "I can't believe I'm afraid of a stupid rain storm. What is wrong with me?" Then we make a phone call to the friend in LV. We are using my phone because Riri's does not have sevice at this time. It went something like this:

Riri: Hey, we are about an hour or two outside Las Vegas but we ran into this horrible rain storm. Caption's pulled over and we are going to wait it out but it doesn't seem to be letting up. Can you look at the news and see what's going on?

Pause

Riri: A WHAT!?!

Pause
Riri: You have got to be kidding me?

Riri turns to me: We are in a monsoon!

Me: That can't be, aren't they tropical? They must be over exhaggerating.

Riri relays this messege to our LV friend.

Pause

Riri: No that's what the weather man is saying, it's a Desert Monsoon. We are in the beginning of the season. They GET THEM ALL THE TIME!

Pause

Riri: Great! (turns to me) we are in a flash flood warning zone and she says it's just staying where it is. It's not moving.

As Riri and LV friend discuss where we should meet once we get there (and Riri mentioning we might not actually make it alive) I weigh our options. Every few minutes a car comes by very fast. We could follow one, they obviously know what they are doing. "But you don't. You could get killed doing that." We could just wait until it's over. "Hello! Flash Floods, monsoon not moving remember?" But I can't see anything. I've already drivien on the wrong side of the road. I could get us killed.

I hear Riri finally off the phone mention something about the wake up strips along the sides of the road. I start forming a plan catching on to what she is saying. We'll go slow, stay on the wake up strips so I know I'm not going to get us killed by running into on coming traffic, and pull over when ever I see someone coming behind us. I Put the car in gear and we head off.

10-15 mintues later the sky is suddenly clear, the rain is gone competly not even a drizzle remains, and the moon is out. As quickly as it came it was gone. But we could see the lightening in my review mirror and Riri says, "Drive. Drive fast don't let that thing catch up to us." She didn't have to tell me twice.

Since I've been home I decided to do a little research on Desert Monsoons. Still a little skeptical they even exsist. Come to find they are very real. It has less to do with climate and more to do with geography. Who knew?

And that was our first night on the road. We knew it was going to be a very interesting trip.

More Remodeling Pictures

This here is one side of the house in our back yard-->
This is our back door as of two months ago

This is the other side of the house
The last pictures I showed did not quite do the exsentive work we are undertaking justice.