Greetings from SoCal

This morning is my first morning on my own so I thought I'd better get caught up on some blogging... before I head over to Target. I am also getting some laundry done - have to earn my keep :)

The time change has been a killer on me. I barely got any sleep on Friday night, and then that left me not feeling all that well physically on Saturday, combined with some nervousness around meeting John's parents. Only in the last 24h have I really started to feel like I might be adjusting. It's a very weird feeling being here in February, where the weather feels like June at home. Combine the fact that it feels like it should be 6pm when it's 2pm and that it feels like June when it's actually February and you can start to understand why I've felt messed up.

John was worried I wouldn't like it here, but I do. It really is a beautiful place to live, there actually is a lot of green, it's just intentional as opposed to naturally occurring green. The main problem I have here is that you can't afford anything. You basically have to make a 6 figure salary in order to have a house, and even then it would be nowhere near the type of house you'd find in the ritziest parts of Rothesay.

Not being used to having a cat around, Caly's sudden appearance on the bed in the middle of the night made me jump more than once, especially given the fact that she is a 20lb cat. 20lb cats do not go unnoticed. Caly is still a little confused about me, given the fact that John rarely has visitors, let alone someone who is here all the time. I was afraid she'd hide out the whole time I was here, but she has quickly discovered that because of the time difference, I am somewhat awake in the middle of the night and will pet her. The other morning she jumped up on the bed and meowed in my face as if to say "hey you, the one who pets me in the middle of the night, snap to it!" So she's slowly becoming ok with me. Today she is hanging out on the couch beside me, raising her head when she thinks she hears something. Caly reminds me a lot of Garfield - orange, fat, likes to walk all over you while you're in bed, sleeps all the time. She's a great cat though, with the exception of the immense amounts of hair she leaves around.

Let's see, a recap of what I've been up to. Friday night I arrived and John met me at the airport. We collected my luggage and headed for home, expecting it to take 2.5-3h but it really only took 1.5h. We never came to a dead stop, and being able to use the carpool lane really helped. We came back to the apartment first so I could see it. My living room is about the same size as his living room plus kitchen. His bedroom and bathroom are about the size of my bedroom. That's pretty much it. It's a small place, but he does have a garage underneath for his car and a bit of storage. The crazy part is that he pays double my mortgage for this 1 bedroom apartment.

Friday night we decided to head out to the Olive Garden for dinner. Had to wait 45min for a table so we headed over to Albertson's to get a few groceries. They have Orange and Grape Crush in glass bottles here, it's awesome. I also got some IBC, of course.

Saturday was the day we headed out to Desert Hot Springs (and Palm Springs) where John's mom lives to see her. His dad also came down so I was able to meet both at once. We had a great tour of Palm Springs and the weather was absolutely perfect. 27°C and not a cloud in the sky [it is the desert, after all :)] Meeting the parents went well and they both seem like great people. I wasn't feeling so great at first between not having any sleep nor much in the way of food, but after we went to lunch I felt more like myself.

I've got some nice pics but for some reason Blogger is acting up this morning and not really letting me post them. I'll try and get some up later.

We got back on Saturday too late to go to church, so we headed to Albertson's again to pick up the remaining items for the cupcakes I planned on making for Sunday's Superbowl party. We've been looking for thick sliced bread but that seems to be a rarity here (it's much better for French toast) but we decided to take a look in this Albertson's while we were here just in case they had different stock than the last store. We took a look and didn't see anything. Just as we were turning around to leave the aisle, we notice this Asian woman who was crouched down, had opened a bag of bread, took the heel out and pratically snorted it. She had her face right in the slice of bread and was sniffing it. It was either the craziest soft-bread test I've ever seen, or else they're hiding drugs in bread now. We got out of that aisle as quickly as we could. The question is, did she buy that loaf, or did she put it back on the shelf? Ewwwwww. Note to self: always buy bread from back of shelf.

Sunday morning we got up and went to church. It was... interesting. Let's see, they had guitars, children's choir, and made you sing the Our Father. Not my taste at all. Next weekend we'll try a different church, maybe the one in the round, with the altar in the middle. Makes me appreciate my own traditional mass all the more.

I seem to be running across some strange Asian women while I'm here. In church, an Asian woman arrived for mass halfway through the homily. Um, you missed half the mass, lady. Come back for the next one. There are 5 masses on Sunday.

We came back from church, I made cupcakes and then we headed over to Chris' house to watch the Superbowl and meet his friends. They all seemed happy to finally meet me (I am real!) Chris has a really nice house, a bit bigger than mine (minus the basement, of course.) We played some pool and then the game got underway. The game itself was rather boring, unfortunately. A couple of big plays, but really not that exciting. Some good commercials though, and that's half the fun :)

John had Monday off so we had a lazy morning and then headed out in the afternoon to his office, where I met a few of his co-workers. Everyone seems thrilled to see me. John has a lot of people who obviously care about him a great deal.

After work we drove around to a few different places. We went to Newport Beach and stopped at Fashion Island, outdoor mall of the rich. Nice spot. Again, I have pics which I will try to get posted up later. We also headed to Corona del mar and the Pacific. Had to see the Pacific while I was here. Much warmer water :) We also had the mandatory stop at Costco, where I bought a couple of things and John bought a whole bunch of stuff (my bad influence.) Also stopped at Best Buy. Last night we were a bit too late to head to the movie theatre so we stayed in and watched Garden State, as I had never seen it. Hoping to hit the theatre tonight to see Walk The Line. It was playing on the airplane on my trip down, but I didn't want to watch it with headphones and a tiny screen.

Well, I have reached my legal limit for amount of time allowed to spend inside when it is sunny and warm outside. I'd best be off to Target. I'll see what I can do to get some pics posted up soon.

p.s. to Jenn - I saw 100 calorie Pillsbury ready-to-bake choc chip cookies in the groc store. I am also going to snap a pic of a store that is across the street. It's THE Jenn store, I swear.