Wednesday, April 26, 2006

California, here I come!

Right back where I started from. No, I'm not moving back. I'm going to a wedding. My friend Erin is getting married in July and I'm taking two days off work to make a long weekend and flying out to Los Angeles. Apparently Delta now offers non-stop service from Raleigh to LAX, which is good news. I try to avoid flying anything but non-stop (read: spoiled travel brat). The justification is that it's actually the cheapest flight. I bought my ticket today. Woo hoo! I wonder if it will be weird to be there. Probably.

I joined a gym! It is the most fancy-schmancy gym I've ever seen in my life. The cardio room must have at least two dozen treadmills, the same number of ellipticals, as well as steppers and bikes. There are six huge plasma TV's mounted on the wall, with the sound broadcast on FM frequencies. The room itself is at least three stories tall, so it feels very expansive. Upstairs there are more treadmills, ellipticals, and bikes, but each with their own individual TV that you can plug your headphones into and change the channel on. There's even a cinema room, which is dark, with ellipticals and bikes and a huge projection screen with a different movie daily playing on a constant loop (yesterday was Ghostbusters). There's the usual complement of weight equipment too, but I don't use much of it. They have a "women only" room, but I feel comfortable enough in the main gym not to need that. They offer tons of classes, including yoga and pilates. There's even an indoor pool. I don't see myself using it, but you never know. The locker rooms are very well appointed. Free shampoo, conditioner, lotion, even q-tips. Private showers. The works. It's the kind of place where you actually want to go work out. So I'm a member now and hopefully some of these pounds I've packed on since moving here will start to melt away, just in time for summer. I worked out today and discovered just how out of shape one can become in seven short months.

We had another bad thunderstorm last night, around 10 pm. I was just going to get into bed when the lightning picked up. It was ridiculous! I saw more lightning in five minutes last night than I did all my years in California. The thunder wasn't as bad as last time but it was still enough to keep me up. I didn't even bother trying to sleep through it. I sat on my screened porch in my comfy Adirondack chair listening to the rain fall, the thunder clap, and the trees blow in the wind. I got my cat carrier ready just in case. All it takes is one well-placed bolt of lightning, and the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire!

Being an American Idol fan, I figured I'd give our local version a try. I've watched "Fox 50's Gimme the Mike" the past two weeks. Oh my. It looks like a glorified cable-access show. The talent would not even make it past Idol's first round, and the judges are broken records. "You need some vocal work, but good job."

Speaking of American Idol, what were the judges thinking last night dissing Katherine's performance? I thought it was awesome. It gave me goosebumps! And then Paula crying during Elliott's? Dude, that is messed up. I listened back to both his and Katherine's and his did absolutely nothing for me at all. I think he will be in the bottom three, along with Paris.

Found out at work today that we will in fact get Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day off as paid holidays. Yes, these are a given at most offices--especially ones where 95% of the customers are schools, for Pete's sake--but they are not official holidays for my company. Thankfully, though, we will get them off and we will be paid. Happy news.

I'm attempting craftiness again, with my friend Tammie's gift tag swap. It's like my postcard swap, but with gift tags (duh). I have high hopes that it will be easier for me than the postcards, though, because there is no theme and the creation does not have to go through the postal system naked.

Delayed response photos. Here are some pictures that I should have put up in my last post, but didn't. First, some Galloway cows from Fearington


and second, the Apple Chill festival.


Lastly, some unique flowers. All the young girls (high school age) were walking around with these, and I thought they were cute. Only when I saw this container of them at the Planned Parenthood booth did I realize what they were made out of. Yeah, I'm a little sheltered.

2 comments:

  1. I'm glad you're able to come out for Erin's wedding. :) It will be fun to see you again.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I haven't been back to CA since we moved to FL - am curious what it would feel like.

    I'm still getting used to T-storms, too, but hadn't even thought about the roof catching fire. One more thing to worry about - especially since this is the lightening capital of the world!

    The gym sounds way cool. Says something great about the area. I belonged to a couple of really cool ones on the West Coast but not here. But with a movie theater? Now that's interesting.

    ReplyDelete