A fub visit

I left Tofino on a bus for Williams Lake on a tuesday at 10am. Equipped with a laptop bag stuffed as full as it could possibly be stuffed. One thing I had forgotten, as per usual, was a book. I remedied this on the ferry by indulging in a Dwell magazine. Flipping through it while sipping my coffee took up most of the ride. In Vancouver, Laura met me at the bus depot to grab some eats. I had a 3 hour window. She mercilessly forced me to decide what we were going to have - Labee is not understanding to the indecisive, food-option-deprived. I'm sorry but this must be said. Mongolian grill was settled on. Labee and I both decided on the 'hot and sweet' sauce option, although we both erred from the chart - adding both garlic and sesame oil. The result was tasty, with a warm sweet heat. I am a fan of mongolian grill. I just want to point out that that was only my 3rd time ever EATING mongolian grill. I feel, as a person who loves adventurous food, a little cheated in life.

19 hours from the time I departed, I arrived at the familiar depot in Williams Lake. It was 5:10am. I'd slept the entire way, and was shocked into giddiness when I was woken abruptly to the bus driver's voice declaring, "Welcome to Williams Lake!". I grabbed my bag and jostled my way off the bus, and walked with enthusiasm to Bethany and Ben's car. Only it wasn't their car, as I surmised when I was close enough to note a rotund face with glasses peering nervously at me out the window. Smoothly I changed direction mid-step, as if I'd only been stretching my legs.

They picked me up a few minutes later, huddled against the front of the depot building in the freezing caribou air. Once at Gail's, Bethany directed a slightly gruff and tired Ben to make my bed up for me, which I gratefully stretched out on. Sleeping lying down is a luxury after making do with a bus seat.

I woke up some hours later and ravaged the breakfast that'd been left in the frying pan for me. Bethany had a doctor's appointment that morning, so we all went together, and then fub and I went shopping for dinner while Ben and Owen got hair cuts. We took some time deciding what to have for dinner - obviously everything that Bethany mentioned as an option was something I wanted - but we finally decided on a stir-fry with chicken, sausage, and prawns. And bok choy…and mushrooms..and bell peppers…in case you were wondering. We had a cozy Christmas-themed night, nested out in Bethany and Ben's bed watching "White Christmas" and "The Family Stone" while painting our nails . Fub and I agreed that Christmas cheer had been accomplished.

That night, I kept going in and out of consciousness, dimly aware of an uneasiness in my stomach that wasn't going away. When I woke up that morning and it was still there, fear began to set in. No! No I couldn't be sick! That just couldn't HAPPEN to me. But there was no denying it. My mind flashed back to when I'd eaten Mongolian grill with Labee. "Last time I had mongolian grill," I'd told her blithely, "I got sick the day after". …what, was that just too tempting for fate to leave alone?! but I knew it wasn't the mongolian grill. Shawn's roommate had been sick with the flu when I'd left.
It wasn't TOO bad though. I kept myself from ralphing, afraid that if I did I would be rendered helpless on a bed (ever since the infamous food-poisening incident in Encinitas, I have lost my casual 'tude towards ralphing). As it was, I could walk around - albeit in a cold sweat, and uttering zombie-like groans. A kind-hearted fub-and-benman bought me some non-sleepy gravol so that we could all go out that night and watch the new Hunger Games. The movie distracted me, and half-way through I noted that the gravol had kicked in and I felt much better. Thank the Lord for gravol.

Despite having the flu, it was still a fun day. I helped Bethany and another lady decorate for the talent show that was being held at the Church that Friday, stringing up silver stars and helping decide where the huge fluffy paper flowers 'fub had made should go. In between, I gorged my musical self on the sublimity of playing a grand piano, and curled up into a fetal ball on various parts of the floor (groaning dramatically). I was so wiped after that experience though, that I fell asleep on fub-and-benman's fluffy bed for 3 and a half hours, and could easily have slept through the night. While I was sleeping, everyone ate chicken. fub-and-benman always eat chicken. I think people should know.

There were other fun parts of the visit - going book shopping, searching for little retro christmassy figurines (for a home-made advent calendar we were thinking of making), going to the little cafe every morning (I rather forced a fub to come with me for my morning coffee. It's a tradition now, and traditions must be upheld. Just watch "the fiddler on the roof"). It was short visit. Much too short. The day after the flu day I had to catch a bus at 1 in the afternoon. I have a hate/love relationship with the Williams Lake bus depot. When I arrive, it's just a lovely sight. When I'm leaving, it's a dreary and hateful place. I always leave Williams Lake, which has a fub in it, with a heavy heart. At least (for once) the bus was quite empty and I had a good choice of seats. I ended up behind a very friendly - jolly, actually - old man in a turquoise turban, who chatted with me for a little bit. I defied my own past experience with reading on a bus (usually makes me sick) by reading the book Bethany had bought me almost the entire way. "sushi for beginners". It was dark almost for the entire ride, and we pulled into Vancouver at 9pm. As per instructions from Jordinian, I rode the sky train into Surrey, where he picked me up. I was surprised to see his kids still up and waiting for me. Apparently they were excited to see me! My nieces and nephews notice me?? This I find surprising - and guilt-inducing, since I am HOPELESS at engaging the little ones. When it comes to a shy-battle with kids and me, it's almost always a stand-off tie. However, they bounced around showing me their Christmas projects, and acquainting me with some stuffed animals (and their stories). I was shocked and pleased to note that Gert the rat was still alive and well. You know, Gert? The stuffed rat of fame? The one dad would make a voice for during family prayer times (I would be groaning and trying not to laugh). Jordan informed me that he'd saved it from drowning on Even and Esther's driveway. Anyway, it was a really nice visit and I found myself being glad and grateful for the circumstances that had led me to stay there.

Even if Jordan's alarm clock malfunctioned the next morning and I had to get ready at neck-break speed to catch the sky train, which is what happened. It was no biggie. Tracy got me to the station with time to spare, it turned out. When the bus pulled out of the depot, it was just starting to get light. I stared out the window kind of rapturously, taking in the unfamiliar yet beautiful sight of Vancouver at dawn. The glass-covered high-rises reflecting the pale periwinkle sky and wisps of cloud. The grand old buildings and the grand old trees all mixed up with the more colourful, edgy, graffiti'd ones. The city waking up. There's something about Vancouver which stimulates and inspires me. Probably has something to do with the extreme change in environment from what I'm used to.

I rolled into Tofino at 2:40 in the afternoon. Shawn was there, waiting for me beside his truck, and I may or may not have jumped onto him and latched on like a koala. He may or may not have had to gently un-velcro me from his person. We drank wine and ate some Wildside (pulled pork poutine for me - followed by gravol - and the blue cheese buffalo chicken burger for fubman) and talked most of the night. The pain of leaving a fub is soothed by the joy of coming home to a fubman.

BURD

The birds. They have been having a hard time. See, one special aspect of my job is that it comes part-and-parcel with a flock of butterball sparrows who think the bakery is their personal pantry, if you will. It's a constant struggle keeping them out of the shop, and all of us who've worked there have vacillated between pity, annoyance, desperation, and responsibility on this subject. There used to be some who'd leave piles of nuts and the like outside in an attempt to keep them outside, but when the staff subsided to being just me and Michelle, we both decided that it would be best to stop feeding them, and hoped that maybe they'd become less aggressive as a result. This was a fail. Especially with the cold snap we've been having lately, they are more persistent then ever. If the door is open, you can be sure there's a feather'd butterball hopping inside at any given moment. you can't just scare them away by stomping their way. They are so desperate, they just stare at you until you have your foot hovered right above the bird in question's tiny body. Then they'll hop outside reluctantly…but the moment you have your back turned, you can be sure they will be right back inside. The other day I observed them flocked around the closed door, pecking at paper, cardboard, dried leaves. And - I admit. I gave in. I have officially started to feed the birds again. Judge me if you must. But i love them. They are like my pets. Almost tame. They flock around me wherever I am in the courtyard, and one sneakily ate out of my hand once…(I wasn't trying to feed it. It saucily jumped onto my wrist and tried to steal a bite while my head was turned the other way).

Anyway, nice weather we've been having hey? I am grateful to weather  for being an ever-pertinent topic of conversation.

I am freshly off work, sitting at my computer in Shawn's apartment, waiting for the voice to download. And I thought - well, may as well write a blog post, ya know? Only problem is I find it super difficult to write posts these days. I've got blogger's block. I think I've got so much to relate that it's hard to say ANYTHING. 

So…well let's start with…hmm. I'm sorry, but my life has been unequivocally uneventful and boring. I am border-line depressed, struggling to keep up with the simplest of things. I feel like a total mess. Un-ravelled 'fub here. Most days I just give up and hibernate. It seems too hard to do things that would make me feel better. Everything seems hard. 

See, I don't want to write things like that, which is why I don't write often. But I feel better after writing it, knowing that people who love me will read it, so that's good. 

I am my own worst enemy. Sigh. 

Oh boy. I really need to save this post from being super depressing. It's just that, how I've been getting along up to now doesn't work anymore. It's like my juices have run out if you will. So I'm having to re-invent everything, myself included. Alright, that's a more positive way of looking at things. Re-invention is inspiring and full of opportunity. you've got to break down in order to start again, right? 

I think about when I was younger, how clear and sure I was about everything. I had a stance, and I was so sure about that stance. But...I think there's a lot of good that can come out of breaking your 'stance', and letting yourself be unsure, to re-evaluate. otherwise, how can you let anything new in? 

See, this is why I don't post. I never talk about my life except in philosophical rambles. I can't wait for the day when I can regale everyone with tales of different interesting tidbits about what's going on with me. I thought maybe  moving in with michelle would be good, but I haven't actually spent any time at my new 'place'. and now Darren is moving out of my old  apartment, and I can move back in with Shawn. so that's what's happening there. 

Also, Laura and Bethany know this, but I have a first-time-ever goal for life. I am going to open up a bakery. I am giving myself 3 years to save money and come up with a business plan. Honestly, I don't know how I didn't arrive at this conclusion years ago. It seems so natural to me now. I don't think there is any area of life I get more satisfaction from than with food and feeding people and sharing my…if I do say so…natural genius *cough*…that I've got with food. I want to blow people's minds. I want to CHANGE people's minds. I want to help them OPEN their minds, even if it's just to allow that something is good that they never thought could be good. And I just want to share quality deliciousness. And unleash my creativity. Any ideas for names? Do share. Anything someone would like to see on my menu? again, share away! 

I am back! I got my computer back on the weekend, and now it is time to re-enter the blogging world. Hopefully not everyone has given up on checking this yet.

It's a cold, fitfully rainy day here in Tuff. I am not feeling the best, have been struggling with nausea all day, so I closed up shop early and came here to Shawn's apartment. It's nice I have a job where I can do that. I'm not living with Shawn, technically speaking. On the 1st I moved in with my manager. It's a cute two bedroom house with a big deck and lots of counter space in the kitchen. I have a room at the back of the house. It has white laminate tile flooring, a small window looking out  onto some gravel driveway and rainforest beyond, and a wardrobe. I have yet to acquire a bed, but I'm dragging my heels because I wouldn't even be using it long, since Shawn and I are moving to Victoria in February. That and the fact that i never sleep there. Right? not very motivating. Anyway, so my stuff is all in boxes in my new room. And I am always at my old place. It's quite psychologically scattering to live in two places at once. I wouldn't recommend it!

A lot has happened this past summer and fall. I've learned a lot about myself. I've had to come to peace with things. Breaking up with Shawn was an eye-opener. That's the only reason why I feel it wasn't a total mistake. I actually don't think it was a mistake at all, because I don't know how else I would have come to where I am now. Shawn's the only one who's ever wormed himself in so deeply that he touched me beyond the surface. I have been humbled.

I've come to like rock bottom. Rock bottom is where my strengths come out. It's a raw place full of potential. Your choices are clear. What's important to you is clear. It's harder to hide from yourself.

One thing that's been coming on a lot lately is coming to peace with myself, however I am. learning to wipe the slate clean and really unburden myself of the past. And realizing how much I don't have figured out at all.

Once upon a time, I found myself riding on a train with no windows, full of strange people. Some were frightening. some were lost, like me, eyes darting here and there. Some were walking as if asleep. Some were beckoning at me like I needed them, and some begging me for help. I found myself pulled this way and that, wandering around until despair began to set in, that I would never find a direction. At that point, I walked into a car and immediately felt great fear, verging on panic. I didn't know what was happening - the colours were dark and strange, and the car was full of people screaming and panicking. Several came up to me with stories of fear, but I did not care to listen. For in my moment of fear, an echo of a memory had flashed in my mind: look for a window. So I looked, and there was a window not 5 feet from where I stood, and I could see clear light pouring through it, and green trees flashing past. And as I stood looking at this window, the light in the whole car changed and became flooded with this light coming in from the little window. I then looked around me and saw that the car was still full of people in great fear, running around wringing their hands, but that they could no longer see me. And then I noticed that there were a few others who had seemed to notice the window and the light also, and were looking about them with clear, amazed eyes. Another memory thumped up from my beating heart: get off the train.
I can do that? I thought, and at the thought my spirits soared and I found myself suddenly off the train, in a sunny farmyard, the kind that's just old enough to be full of charm, and the air was full of the good smells coming up from the earth, and everything was safe, and there was a cow gently chewing cud in her paddock. I remember now, that this has always been the world, I'd just been on that train for so long I'd begun to think the train was in control of me. The sudden knowledge that I'd always been free and in control made my heart sing even sweeter. Before me, I now noticed, lay a path going down into a verdant valley, of such appealing playful adventurous appeal that I stepped off onto it immediately.

TBC...

My Prayer

I am the Story-Maker of my Life
My Story is joyous.
To be Alive is bliss.
All my Heart's desire flows to me effortlessly
I feel great joy, great peace, great compassion
Sweet gratitude.
I am Alive and working perfectly
All is in order;
I love all around and within.

happy family day!

I worked an extra day today because it was a holiday. It was slow. At the end of the day I emptied the tank of crab, since it'll be a week before we open again, to put them back in the ocean in their crate. Only, I grabbed a crate that didn't have a rope attached (thus, not able to tie it to the dock cleat). So I had to take all of the crab out of THAT crate and put them in a different one that had a rope. No I couldn't just take the rope off the crate that had one and put it on the one i'd put the crab into, because you see, I don't know how to tie a clove hitch. So, yeah…I was thinking about what I could possibly share about my day today, and that was what came up. Enjoy :)

The cold ice-driven winds have changed direction, and today was much warmer. I noticed when I walked out after work that instead of smelling like snow, the air smelt like - AHH, freshness, and flowers, and just HEAVENLY. I can't describe the loveliness of how it smelt. It smelt like an early summer evening. Then I walked home in the darkening quiet. I heard Eastre's meows as I was walking up the hallway to my door and was bombarded as soon as I got in. "hello, fluffy-nutter-butt," I said in a cheerful holler. I always call her that when I come home from work. She purred and chirped and trilled in a frenzy as I got her food. She is always the epitome of desperation when it's time for her to eat.
And now, I'm waiting for Shawn to come home so we can decide what to do for dinner.

And this shall adjourn my post.

back to the grind

this is my second day back at work. It's been quiet, but not too bad. And there's a fan blowing some heat in the building now, which makes it much more bearable - 'specially since it's been freezing cold. The kind of cold where you mindlessly dump the day's sanitizing foot bath out the back door and it freezes within the hour into a treacherous sheet of ice (which almost sent me sprawling down the stairs, as I walked out to lock the freezer in the dark). I had to send a text to my boss to warn him so he wouldn't break his neck. 

It was odd how the smell of fish when I first walked back into the building after my month-and-a-week vacation was a good smell. I…I liked it. 

So, anyway, I'm going to have to look for another job to fill in the gaps, because Trilogy's only going to be open on weekends for now. There's no where I want to work. I checked on the avemployment site (alberni valley), and the jobs listed there are all for Wick (no. NO!), and various other housekeeping, resort jobs. Or restaurant jobs. for line cooks and serving staff and stuff like that. Another resounding no. 

On the other hand, after coming home from cali, I went through this painting frenzy and covered up every single one of the 8 canvasses I got for Christmas. Plus some others that had old worn-out paintings on them. I've been renewed by vacation, and more than that - coming HOME, and also by using oil paints again. I'm more confident in my painting skills. I am thinking of taking these around town and attempting to sell them at coffee shops. Who knows? come summer, could be a fun source of extra income! :D

I was so buoyant when I got back from vacation. Now I have to rise above the ruts of routine. I've been craving a place with more light (light would help. it's so dark in here. all the time!!). Shawn and I have been talking about attempting to move to an apartment maybe on the second floor of our current building. They get WAY more light, as I know from when Maike lived upstairs. Speaking of Maike, I miss that lovely person. We correspond, but it's not the same as having a besty living in the same building as one. 

Oh, a job maybe is the coffee shop I used to work at. They have a new location now in town. Actually…right across the street pretty much from Trilogy. I go there a bunch to get coffee before work. The owner mentioned, one of those times, that he may be starting a bakery section for his shop. I'd so be into that. I'd like to do something down-to-earth. Actually it's kind of a MUST. a need. He told me during that conversation, when I mentioned having worked at a bakery before, to "dive in" - but it was probably just one of those things people say and don't really mean. I walked in there the other day, too, and his wife was just leaving, having dropped off some freshly baked cookies. ERgh (my hope dwindles). 

There's a new place to eat in town. Well technically an old place that's been totally remodelled and given a new name and new menu…so pretty much a new place. They bake their OWN DONUTS. flavours such as maple-glazed with bacon. REAL bacon. Chocolate with sea-salted caramel glaze. And classics too, like the boston cream and jelly-filled. Shawn and I finally tried one the other day. We shared it, because they're all huge. the maple-bacon one. It was really good. Not mind-blowing, melt-into-a-puddle good. It probably WOULD have been that good fresh, though. we went at the end of the day, to be fair. The glaze was quality. It had a home-made taste. Def going again when I need a sugar fix. OH. come see me and get some donuts!!

fresh air

Today I walked into town to get some needed things and to visit shawn at work. Had to stop out behind The Shore building to look out over the Sound. Since I've been back from vacation, I haven't been able to get enough of how peaceful it is here. Today, it smelt like spring, and the birds were singing as if it were.
Just as I started to write this post, I happened to look out my sliding glass door and saw that the sky behind the dark tree silhouettes was streaked with fuchsia and orange. so I went out and indulged in feeling and smelling and viewing the beautifulness.
 I've definitely been feeling the post-vacay blues, but also I've been so uplifted by this trip. It's given me new strength. Shawn and I have done a lot to organize our place, and we've been keeping it clean. I like lighting a tea candle under my defuser, which is equipped with a fat slice of cotton-scented wax, and letting loose a few precious drops of the oil France made for me into it. It's a mix of sandalwood, lavender, and orange essential oils mixed together in jojoba oil. I consulted her on the mix when I was reading my chakra book, which encouraged using oils in a defuser to help get one into a calm and meditative state. She told me that an ideal mix has a low note (sandalwood), a middle note (lavender), and a high note - obviously orange. I chose them for both love of scent and for their properties. They're also all good for the skin, so that's a double use.

I got so used to going out to the beach every single day and just enjoying the simple things when I was on vacation, that I have been keeping up the habit of going out every day just to enjoy the fresh air. The weather's been pretty obliging. We've had one or two days of rain since we've been back. I mean, it's cold, but I won't complain if it doesn't rain. Rain is what keeps me inside. Cold rain.
A couple of days ago, Shawn had his days off, and we spent a lot of time at Cox bay. The weather was mostly sunny and cold. The beach was amazing. When the sun shines, and turns the usually grey-green water into shades of sapphire blue and aqua and deep blue-green, and the froth of the waves is as white as it's possible for white to be…it's a place that has no equal. The surf-hardened expanse of sand, rippled like the waves, and criss-crossed with silvery sand-dust which gleams when the sun shines on it - so beautiful. The huge breadth of space. The sigh and heave of surf. The solitary "ha" of a passing raven.

Anyway Shawn is back from work now, and I'm going to start some dinner. Salad. And pizza.

I'm back in Tofino. I'm only just feeling like myself again. You see, the night before we were all supposed to leave Encinitas, we all got food poisoning. I have never been so sick in mah life. The boys were sick for about 6 hours and then managed to more or less pass out, but I was dry-heaving all night long. I only managed to fall asleep at around 8 in the morning. Shawn stayed up all night with me as best he could. Anyway, we weren't well enough to leave that day as planned. Darren went and payed for another night at the hotel, and we all just lay on our beds and slept and drunk water. We had no choice but to leave the next day though, because Darren had to work in a few days, so we left at 6 in the morning. Pale and ruffled and hungry and still feeling sick. That trip was a trip. We drove non-stop, and it took us almost exactly 24 hours to go from Encinitas (San Diego area) to Vancouver. Midway through California we stopped at a travel centre and got some chicken noodle soup from a soup and salad bar. I slept through most of the dust bowl part of Cali. The worst is when you pass that huge cow farm - all dirt and squished-together cows and it smells sour like you wouldn't believe for miles.
We drove through the Mt Shasta part of Cali right around sunset, which was fortunate, because it set right over Mt Shasta Lake which is so beautiful. It's almost always been dark when i've driven past that spot in the past. In Southern Oregon we hit fog. The fog continued most of the way back to Vancouver.  I exchanged my warm-weather shorts for jeans while stopped for gas going over a mountain pass in Oregon. Sat in the front while Shawn drove for the rest of the night, counting the miles to Portland, than Seattle, then Vancouver. Feeding Shawn occasional bites of Mr. Noodles. We got to Vancouver at 4:30am. Stopped at ma and pops to drop off gifts and pick up my Christmas present from Labee, but they weren't awake. We waited until 5:45, then I left a note for them, set the gift in front of their door, and we left to catch the ferry. By this point we were all loopy with lack of sleep. Er…to say the least. You know, when you're so crazy you don't even know how crazy you are? And then, you know…when someone *cough*Shawn*cough* sits on the edge of a paper cup of coffee and spills it all over where you are sitting in your new acid-washed jeans?  At the ferry terminal. That kind of tired. And of course: the Red Eye returns at this point.

On the ferry it felt like Shawn and I walked to the top deck, back down to the car, up to the passenger deck, and to the car again and it was over. quickest ferry ride of my life. I think the part of my brain responsible for processing time going by was malfunctioned.

The first thing I noticed driving off the ferry in Duke Point was a small hilly, mossy farm, with some dairy cows on it, and arbutus trees. Ahhh. Nothing like the island! Nope. There is NOT.

Since I've been back, I've slept a lot, eaten a LOT, walked around on a mountain, walked around Rathtrevor in the morning fog, slept more and eaten more. Shawn and i got back to Tofino only yesterday. It was with some trepidation that I brought my noticeably-chubbier furred one back home after her 3-week vacation in Parksville. Eastre has developed a shoulder roll, and (although I don't say this within her hearing. she's sensitive) her thighs rub together like two plump drum sticks in a way that is new. Gone is her waist. She is acting really happy to be home, though. I suspect it has to do with being the only cat again.

Food poisoning sucks. But if it must happen, the last night of vacation is the time for it…I mean, rather than midway in between. We had such a nice time…I had such a nice time, walking around everywhere, spending so much time at the beach, playing in the waves, lying in the sun reading scraps of a really good book, sketching in my travel journal, eating tacos…yeah. And no, it was not a taco that gave us all food poisoning. Nor was it the delicious…delicious spicy peanut sauce mussels that I ate at the same restaurant TWICE. But I am a wiser, more cautious 'fub now. I am much less-inclined to go out to eat.

If I did it again though, it would be Shawn and I by ourselves. that much time having no space is…weird. fun and different and good for a change, but a strain for sure. BUT I'M SO GLAD WE WENT IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!

My favourite was Swami's garden. I went a second time and found a little circular nook with a stone bench and a blue pot with a flowering plant in it. The flowers were orange. Some palms and bushes opened up to reveal an expansive view of the sea.  Every once in a while a stream of pelicans would fly suddenly and silently through my little picture frame. Afterwards we all visited the book store. There was a huge circular polished wood table in the book area, with seats all around it to sit and read at. We were in there for about an hour reading. All of us left with books. I found myself drawn to two little hardcovers with meditations, affirmations and prayers from paramahansa in them.

It was Shawn's first day back at work today, poor guy. I'm expecting him back home any minute. We've got kind of a project here with our home…I'm determined to clean it all up and organize it better.

updatin'

We've gotten into a rather nice routine. In the morning after usually having a free coffee that tastes like water and used coffee grinds, and a piece of toast or an apple at the hotel, we head to the beach. Our first few days here in Encinitas we drove to Cardiff, an iconic Calif surfing spot jealously guarded by locals - as there is only one workable peak and usually at least a dozen surfers out waiting to catch a ride on it. But then we discovered Beacon's beach. We can walk there from our hotel. Victor, here at the hotel, told us how to get there: walk up the flight of stairs that leads to the upstairs of the hotel, but then instead of taking the next flight up to the second story, there is a little wooden staircase going off into a corridor of greenery and flowers that leads to a quiet residential street. From there, as Victor said (Victor loves us) you go "right, left, right" - like a soldier. After about 5 minutes of walking down a street lined with beautiful mediterranean-style houses, you come to the beach. You've got to walk down a steep trail zig-zagging down a sandy bluff, and then, MILES of sandy beach. Our first day trying it out we just happened upon a random spot, because I was looking for a spot with shade. And this spot had waves breaking that no one was surfing. They didn't look too good. But then when Shawn and Darren paddled out, turns out it was a wave better than Cardiff, and definitely better than Tofino - and no one seemed to know about it. They called it secret spot. next time we went, we met a local who told us that that spot actually was officially named "secrets". Anyway, we've been going there every day since.

We didn't end up going camping, because it's almost as expensive as the hotel.

We're not actually staying IN Encinitas. We're in the community right beside it, called Leucadia. I've learned since staying here that Leucadia was one of the original surfy-hippy spots in the 70's. It's really cool here in that chains are not really allowed in - and thus there is AMAZING food just up and down the street. It's the kind of place full of hole-in-the-wall looking restaurants that serve unbelievable food. There's a donut shoppe that looks almost like an abandoned building that has a line-up out the door every single day. Laura would be in heaven here. I say that because I know that Laura shares my penchant for trying out the new and edgy when it comes to food!

Today we went to Beacon's in the morning, 'till about 1, and then to Carlsbad where we'd heard there is a big outlet shopping mall. I was really excited bout it, but it was kind of disappointing. Mostly they were the same prices as anywhere else, aside from their sales. I only spent $40. On a pair a jeans and a pink hat with the california bear on it. I'm happy with that. That's what I wanted as a souvenir: something with the calif. bear on it.

One week left….*sob*

southern Cali

Shawn and Darren are surfing at the moment. I've been going with them, but they already went today and I spent a good few hours on the beach taking pictures and documenting in my new travel sketch-journal, so I decided to stay behind and maybe start painting on one of those canvasses I brought with me.

The housekeeper stole my tampons today, or thought they were garbage. have you ever?! a WOMAN should know better. had to get driven to an emergency gas station, since there are none within walking distance of our hotel. Darren came up with "horsehair" tampons, and it is now a trip joke. this is apparently what people use south of america. you can also call them "cherokee tampons". we've all gotten a little too close maybe. Darren is like a brother.

We're in Encinitas, California. We're going to stay in this area. Mexico was cancelled because Darren's vehicle won't be able to handle the trip. We had to have the alignment fixed here (luckily we were referred to a very honest mechanic who hardly charged us at all and fixed it so that it feels like a new car), but even with that fixed, the GAS this vehicle consumes is insane. We have to fill up every 135 miles. If you take a look at a map of the Baja, you'll see that there's NO way we'd make it. there is a stretch you must drive, for like a day and a half, with absolutely nothing in between. It is a little bit of a bummer, since Mexico is so different from here and we were going to camp and do the simple life, and I was really looking forward to it, but I'm SO over it. It's impossible not to enjoy yourself here. And tomorrow we're going camping right on the beach.

This area is special to me too, because it's a place where a very special and influential man lived that I've read quite a bit about. Paramahansa Yogananda. there is a beach named after him, Swami's, with a beautiful garden in front called the Self Realization Fellowship. It's so neat to be here because I read all about that fellowship and the making of that garden. Paramahansa Yogananda was a beautiful person who influenced thousands. His was the kind of wisdom that transcended religious dogma. accessible to anyone. He was a gift to the world, for sure. And I'm HERE!! I can't believe it.

Anyway, just wanted to shout out from California!! A Snappi shout-out right here!