Cherry Blossom Candy Leaf

On Thursday morning I woke up not feeling well. I had a sore throat, fever, body aches, and a headache that wouldn't quit. Luckily, I have not been very sick throughout this year, but as we are a week away from my wedding, the stress has gotten to me, and my body was telling me to slow down. Friday was my birthday and although I planned to have a solo beach party and a margarita, I spent the day in bed.

On Saturday morning, I was feeling better, so Ben and I headed to my favorite beach in Ventura called Oil Piers. It used to be more secretive and private, but over the years, more and more people have discovered this gem of a spot. It was gorgeous. Eventually the breeze picked up and cooled us off. I can't imagine a better way to spend a day.

On Saturday I drove down to San Diego for a non-traditional bachelorette party. JoEllen, Olga and I went to see Mason Jennings at the House of Blues. We left Olga's after a cocktail and some dominoes almost two hours after the doors opened. JoEllen thought we should save our cash for later and decided to park further away where the parking might be cheaper. However in our excitement, none of us read the parking machine and JoEllen put in a 20 dollar bill. Unfortunately, the machine didn't give change, so we slightly overpaid for the $5 parking spot. When we finally arrived, Mason Jennings was one song into his session. He played many songs that I didn't recognize and I figured they were from the new album which I have not really listened to much. (I don't have a CD player in my car where I have been spending a lot of time lately). But I also began to wonder if there might be a mystery album that I haven't heard before because every song in the set was foreign. No one else seemed to know the songs either, but everyone enjoyed the show. Mason Jennings reminded me of Bob Dylan. Is that a common comparison? For his encore, he played Butterfly, California, and that rat-a-tat-tat song. Everyone sang, "I miss the ocean when I-I-I go to sleep." It was lovely and truer words were never spoken.

After the show, the House of Blues staff made everyone leave via the same exit and I was seconds away from an anxiety attack that would lead me to claw my way out of the very tight bar. It's ridiculous what a place of business will do to encourage the purchase and consumption of severely overpriced cocktails. Moments before the show ended, you could leave out of a number of exits, but when the show was officially over and we were sure that Mason Jennings wouldn't come out for a third encore, everyone was herded into the bar. The walkway was less than 5 feet wide and the staff at the front was allowing people to come into the bar as well. It was like two steps a minute. JoEllen, the chef that she is, fled to the kitchen and was able to leave without experiencing further claustrophobia. But I did not get off so lucky. I just remember yelling out, "This is lame!" No one else seemed on the verge of panic, but I was moments away. I just kept thinking about that club in Rhode Island that Whitesnake ignited and burned to the ground, as all the patrons inside panicked, fled, were trampled, crushed, and burned. I will never get that image out of my head.

When I finally met up with the girls who were already out front, we complained for a while and then headed to a cafe in Hillcrest for the best burger I've ever had. The butter burger was a buttery, garlicy, herb covered delight on a delicious onion type roll. The french fries were like In 'N' Out, but thicker and ALL SOFT, just like I love them. I will have dreams about that burger. After dinner, we went back to Olga's. JoEllen went home and Olga and I went to sleep shortly there after. The following morning I had planned to go to the beach, but I noticed that there was an Andy Warhol exhibit called "Dream America" at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park. I love the beach, but I also love Balboa Park. Every city should be so lucky to have such a beautiful cultural center. Needless to say, I learned a lot of new things about Andy Warhol and the exhibit was fabulous. They had the famous Marilyn, Campbell's Soup, and Mick Jagger prints, but they had others that were awesome. My favorites were a collection of prints called Shoes which featured one of my favorite materials used in paintings and collage. You are probably thinking, "Shoes, right?" No, I am talking about glitter. It wasn't exactly glitter, but diamond dust. Can you imagine? Crushed diamonds and thrown onto wet paint. The series, specifically the black/white and red/black prints were a sparkly sensation. In addition, I loved the Cowboys and Indians series often called "vulgar" by critics. I just loved the contrast with the bright colors on the stark white background. The colors reminded me of cross processed slide film. Magnificent! I also was pleasantly surprised by the electric flower prints called Kiku. I have never seen these in a book and I thought they were out of character for Warhol whose prints are quite recognizable otherwise. I would not have known that these were his had someone shown me these outside of the museum. And finally, I loved Warhol's wallpaper. It inspired me to create 3-4 large stencils that will overlap to create a similar POP effect on one wall in my future house.

After that, Olga and I walked around. We headed to Spanish town and bought necklaces at the Gem and Geological Society shop to commemorate the lovely weekend. This store sells jewelry that is made by students and just as beautiful and much less expensive than you would find in an expensive shop. My necklace is just perfect: I love it! Later, we checked out the tortoise show and plant sale. Finally we went back to Olga's. I headed home, stopping at the beach first. It was a zoo even at 4 p.m. I couldn't find a parking spot, well, I didn't try that hard, so I drove the coast most of the way until I reached Oceanside. It was fantastic and I couldn't help but feel lucky to be driving with a beautiful view as thousands of motorists sat in the parking lot that is the 5 freeway.

I thought about San Diego throughout the drive and afterward and I was really sad to be leaving. I miss that city. I sometimes forget that it's there, but when I return, I long to be there for many weeks to follow. I knew that when I left San Diego almost 4 years ago, I would probably never return to live there again. But I have to say, that it must be one of the greatest cities in the world. It has so much to offer. Great beaches, mountains, food, fun, culture, diversity, art, music and more. When I win the lottery...

I met up with Ben later that night at Shawn's house. They had returned from Ben's fishing trip bachelor party where the man of the hour puked five times. My poor doll! Most of the guys didn't even catch any fish, but they all definitely caught a buzz. We ate at Wood Ranch and it was a fine close to the weekend.

No, this is not porn, but a statement of fact. In early June, my class participated in a Congressional Hearing at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. We spent months learning about the Constitution, and more specifically, the rights and responsibilities we have as citizens. We read a book called "We the People" and presented our discoveries to a panel of judges. The judges were important members of our community, like judges, principals, doctors, politicians, etc.,. Needless to say, the kids were absolutely petrified, but not as much as their teacher.

We finished presenting our units, which spanned the Framers declaring their independence to the present day. The kids exceeded my expectations and we even had 3 groups out of our 10 that scored in the highest bracket, which is a tremendous accomplishment when my students are predominantly English language learners and belong to low income families. We are definitely the "have nots" in the district and as much as I want to say that it doesn't impact academic performance, I would be lying.

We had about 40 minutes to explore the Library after our presentations. Then there was a lovely awards ceremony where the kids could celebrate their accomplishments. Just as we entered the auditorium, Nancy Reagan arrived to pay her respects to her late husband on the anniversary of his death.

I never thought I'd see the day that I had to utter those words, but today was that day. This morning I took Fredericka to the vet for her annual check up and beak grinding. These appointments are often very stressful for Fred, especially the beak grinding. She will usually pee/poo all over the place and it takes two people to do the grinding on a 5 1/2 inch tortoise. The vet's assistant holds her, pushing her hind legs into her shell, which should push her front legs forward and her head out. Fred definitely resisted and Dr. Martin commented on Fred's strength. As the grinding continued, I watched her tail to warn them if I saw an accident about to happen. As I was doing so, I noticed something that was not poo or pee coming out of her tail. I asked the vet, "Is that a penis?" The vet replied, "It sure looks like one, doesn't it?" So now, 10 years after Fredericka joined our family, we have discovered that she is in fact a he. We probably should have figured it out when we saw Fred making it happen with the rock/"girlfriend" in the aquarium. I don't know if I can ever refer to Fred as a boy and Ben was even a little sad knowing that his little girl had grown up to be a man. But we just love her/him no matter what. She is otherwise very healthy. No parasites and she, I mean he, has gained 10 grams for a grand total of 555 grams! What a big boy!