JUST LIKE THE GOOD OL' ETNA DAYS

More pictures from our trip up north last weekend.  Joyce and I headed over to Tiff and Jeff's new condo in Emeryville to get ready together before Julie and Chris' wedding. It made me unbelievably nostalgic of the good ol' days living in our Berkeley apartment on Etna Street when we'd all sit on the floor in front of our mirror with our makeup sprawled on the floor with dresses piled on the bed because we didn't know what to wear.  We'd always take way too long to get ready because we'd be talking and laughing instead!  I love these two, and I'm so thankful to have them in my life!

THE MOST POLLUTED CITY IN THE NATION?

The American Lung Association came out with their rankings of the top ten most polluted cities in the nation. For those of us in LA, it wasn't exactly a surprise to receive a shout out on this list, but I think what may have been depressingly surprising to me was that out of 10 cities, California not only made up half of these cities, it made the TOP five cities.

Ranked from 1-5: 

• Bakersfield 
• Hanford 
• Los Angeles 
• Visalia 
• Fresno 

Anyway, is that not totally weird? I just made the drive up from LA to SF last weekend for a wedding, and was busy snapping photos of the beautiful scenery from my car window.  It makes intuitive sense that LA is polluted, because you can't actually see the mountains behind the humongous cloud of smog and you can physically see cars and cars piled up for miles on end.  But as you get out towards central California, the first thing that comes to mind are the gorgeous mountains and farms and the crystal clear skies-pollution is not the first thing that comes to mind. The last two pictures taken near Modesto, which ranks #5 in short term particle pollution even has rolling hills with windmills!  Somehow windmills always seem synonymous with green energy and sustainable design.

In any case, it's definitely food for thought. In the various lists the American Lung Association has produced over the years, Southern and Central California has always been one of the worst polluted places across the board.  And it does raise concern-pollution actually causes 10% of our deaths here in LA.  Maybe this will finally convince Taylor to move us to New York! I'm half kidding because despite the depressing statistics, I really do love it in LA, but maybe this means that I will at the very least think twice about inwardly scoffing at the token lady with the SARS mask at I always see  at Ranch 99!

BIRTHDAY WEEKEND

After our trip to a winery last year for my 25th birthday, I think Taylor and are going to make it a tradition of going on a mini-vacation every birthday if we can!

I've been itching to go to Palm Springs since New Year's but something always comes up so that it's not practical to go.  This time around, we realized that Coachella was happening the same weekend (which would explain the $150 price tag for 2 star motels 20 miles outside of palm springs!).  I actually half considered attending for  minute or two- seeing Radiohead perform live was an experience I would be willing to brave my fear of cool people and crazy traffic to go see- but with tickets ranging from the high $300's-mid $1000's... we quickly decided to opt for plan B! (Although I wonder if I would have changed my mind had I known about the uber realistic Tupac Shakur hologram ahead of time)

One thing I love about living in LA is that you are pretty much always within an hour's way from the beach, the mountains, the desert, (ok maybe a little bit longer than an hour for the desert), the lake, the fields, or the city.  If you are itching to get away, you can transport yourself to a destination spot relatively easily if you know where to look.

So, with that in mind, we headed out to the beach!

After having so much fun biking in San Diego at Tiff's bachlorette , the one thing on my to-do list was to rent bikes and do it again in Newport.  Aside from that, we kind of played everything else by ear.

Here are some of the highlights if you ever find yourself in Newport:

• The Fairmont Hotel: Found a great deal on hotwire and stayed here for two nights. It was definitely an upgrade from some of the hotels we've been staying at lately. I wouldn't say it was an unforgettable, but you definitely couldn't go wrong staying here, and the staff is very friendly.
  
• Fukada: (This is actually Irvine, not Newport, but close to our hotel) We braved the long lines to eat here for dinner on Saturday, and let's just say it tasted nothing like the packs of defrosted udon I'd boil in chicken broth for lunch almost everyday in my college days. Definitely worth the wait, but might check out their to-go location if I'm ever in town again.
• Akropolis: I was too busy being lazy to plan stuff, so Taylor actually found this place on his own, and it was a great experience on so many levels.  The food was great, it's located 5 steps from the pier, and the staff is beyond friendly. I actually left my purse here for a whole day without knowing it, and when I went back the next morning to get it, they were super sweet and gave me my purse with everything in it.  (The same could not be said about the McDonalds in Diamond Bar)
• Boomers:  I still can't believe we spent part of our getaway mini golfing.  However, if you're married to someone who loves it as much as Taylor, you need to distract them from the view of pink windmills and mini waterfalls while driving past it on the freeway.  Otherwise, they will discover it and not be able to stop thinking about it the whole time you are within 15 miles of it.  That being said, some interesting things to note about this location are: 1)this place are that this is the first time I've ever seen people our age sans children mini-golfing, and 2) I actually tied with Taylor this time!

And finally at the end of our trip, we headed over to Ben and Ruby's who also prepared an AMAZING dumpling dinner party for us and John and Linda!  They also made us strawberry and blackberry shortcakes to celebrate my, John and True's birthday.  We had a lot of laughs and good times, and it was definitely the perfect way to end our trip!  :) 

THE MANY FACES OF FANTASY SPORTS

Do you have a friend or loved one in your life that goes from the highest of highs to the depths of despair within seconds when looking at sports graphs and charts on their phone?  I'm not going to name names, but I sure do.

JONAH LEHRER//Conducive to Daydreaming

I first came across Jonah Lehrer when I heard him on a Fresh Air Interview.  He talked about his latest book Fostering Creativity, and discusses the scientific analysis of what goes on in the brain when engaging in creative work.  He makes a contrast between how relaxed and happy states of minds and daydreaming lead to those "ah ha!" moments and how sad and depressed states of mind give us more of the ability to stick with the tedious and laborious part of the creative process that is necessary to take those ingenious ideas and make them a reality.  I'm a total sucker for these kinds of discussions; when scientists take apart and analyze things that seem totally organic and subjective, and provide a framework to analyze it.  I think that's why I was drawn to architecture in the first place- a meeting place of sorts for the intersection of beauty and logic.  And, it turns out I'm not the only one- it online takes a brief moment of online searching to see his name splattered all over article headlines, blogs, youtube and perhaps most significantly, a recent episode of 30 Rock.

Anyway, I thought about his book today when I picking out blue paint samples at work because he talks about  how the color blue is conducive to daydreaming.  I thought that was interesting because Taylor and I are so different in our tastes and the things we like, however one thing we seem to agree on the is the color blue, and I wonder if it is because we are both total daydreamers.

REFLECTION//it's a little early to be saying this, but another year is about to go by before we know it

Last weekend, I went with a few friends from church on a retreat as part of a seminar called "The Course of your Life" As with most retreats, I did a lot of thinking, and as you can probably gather from the name of the book, I did a lot of thinking about... the course of my life.   I'm still trying to process a lot of the things we discussed, and it also reminded me of my new year's resolutions for 2012. 

I'm not sure when I started this, but somewhere down the road, I started to form the habit of writing big prayers at the beginning of the year, and then coming back at the end of the year and seeing what happened.  Granted, a lot of them are "goody two-shoes" prayers, like "Lord please help me to thirst for Your Word and desire it with all my heart" (although as safe as that sounds, it's actually probably one of the most dangerous prayers you can pray) or "God, help me to love my neighbors with Christ-like love this year".  But you know, I also put some of the shallow-est most outlandish requests in there too.  Don't get me wrong, God is in no way by any stretch of the imagination some sort of genie that we just shoot out requests to.  However, I do keep a habit of recording my prayer requests, because the crazy thing is that God answers them and is totally faithful to them.  A lot of times, when I look back to what I wrote, I'm so amazed that He answers prayers that I already forgot I prayed.  Imagine that! Sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes the answer is no, but what remains the same is He is more faithful to my prayers than I even am to my own.  

I am reminded of this, when I look back on one of the things I prayed about for this year.  I prayed that I'd learn that I could fight for things that I believed in and be able to take more risks. To not be afraid to rest more, pray more and not be afraid to pursue things even if it felt like I was starting from zero again.  I think I wrote these things as an ambiguous ideal that sounded nice, but I feel like I'm actually approaching a crossroads in which I am grappling with these things, and I wonder what is going to happen.  A little scary, but kind of exciting too.

FALLEN FRUIT//A few pictures

Finally dragged Taylor to go and pick some fruit with me from the fallen fruit trees in our area! A few pictures for now until I find time to organize the others (and recover from the insane allergy attack our little trip just caused!)