CALIFORNIA POPPIES- // State Flowers, State Birds and San Francisco

Yesterday my friend Sarah took me around San Francisco to look for apartments, and we saw a flower shop with a bundle of poppies for sale, and I was shocked!  shocked!  And on top of that, I also passed by State Bird Provisions, which serves our state bird,the California quail.  When I was a kid, I was always terrified to pick poppies because it was illegal to pick our state flower and thought the police would just somehow know and arrest me.  (As a child I never had a desire to eat a quail, but if I did, I would have assumed that was illegal too)  I looked it up though and it seems like the consensus is just that you can't pick golden poppies that are growing in the wild, but the rest are fair game.

If I eventually get over my fear of picking poppies, this could change my life forever, because I have a serious thing for poppies.  I love how tall and lanky the stems are, and how fluffy happy the tops are.  There's just something about them that doesn't take life over seriously.

Anyway, I really am falling in love with San Francisco! I'm trying to decide if it's worth the insanely high rent prices to live there, but regardless, I hope to visit often and spend a lot of time there!

VALENTINE'S DAY

Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day yesterday!
Taylor and I avoided the crowds, stayed in last night and ordered some wine and sushi. We might make a trip to Ojai tomorrow for a day date.  Definitely looking forward to that, haven't had a day outdoors for a really long time. 

My mom had a stack of construction paper she wanted to throw out, and my pack-rat ways couldn't help but take them home with me!  I decided to use them  to make these flowers  and brighten up the apartment for Valentine's day using this tutorial from a wedding that my friend Frances showed me back when I was wedding planning.  Pretty simple to make, and all the supplies needed were already at home.

STARTING TO FEEL LIKE SUMMER!

Picture taken at the California Poppy Reserve

It's starting to heat up in our neck of the woods. If you're like us cheapos who refuse to turn on the air conditioning, it's going to soon be time to swap out that winter comforter for a thin sheet at night and time to start sipping ice water while sitting next to a fan as a cooling mechanism. As much as I complain about the heat, I still love the summer in theory! I love eating dinner with the sun still shining, being able to walk around at night without a jacket on, ... so nice!

We've got a busy few days ahead!  Joyce is flying in tonight, and then we'll be waking up bright and early tomorrow for Taylor's 5k and seeing our friend Jared who is in town after. Taylor's dad is celebrating his 60th on Sunday, and then I'll be off to Diamond Bar on Monday for my brother Josh's birthday!  Im not sure how studying is going to fit into all this :T

Some random things i've been thinking about:

• Speaking of the long days- did anybody get a chance to look at the solar eclipse  on Sunday? Sooooo cool! what amazing pictures! I wish I saw it!  I was thinking of trying to see it, but was too intimidated by all the warning about burning your eyes and needing to make little peephole things that were six feet long
• A juvenile mountain lion found in a downtown Santa Monica office courtyard was fatally shot this Tuesday.  I have to admit I'd be terrified if I saw a mountain lion walking the streets, but I can imagine that the poor thing must have been even more afraid. I'm not sure I could say it was the wrong decision to kill the lion, but it is still a sad situation.  It reminded me of 20 under 40 writer, Tea Obreht's novel, The Tiger's Wife, a marvelous book that contains a symbolic plot line about a tiger entering civilization. It opens with a zookeeper who has spent his life caring, feeding and nurturing a tiger, and is also forced to fatally shoot him because he attacks a civilian.
• Do you ever accidentally text the wrong person?  I'm pretty terrible at that.  For some reason I always do it to my friend Joanna while texting Taylor. Luckily I haven't sent anything too embarrassing and she's always gracious about it, but I'm still sure she doesn't love me calling her "babe" and "pookie" all the time either.  Joanna, if you happen to read this, this is my public apology!
• Are you a fast typer? Taylor and I are so unbelievably competitive about the littlest things! Take this typing test, and let me know if you beat my score!
• Lastly, a Fresh Air interview of the late Maurice Sendak, most well known as the author of Where the Wild Things Are. Really moving, could be one of my favorite interviews she's done (although i guess it's technically a compilation of interviews and not a single interview) 

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!)