worldless wednesday

wordless thursday

, originally uploaded by buki-rama.

i'm fine, me too, we're fine and how are you?

Well, I'm back. And I could not have been lazier about posting if I tried, which I didn't. ( try, that is)
But I did have a relaxing, energizing, exciting and beautiful trip and that's all that really matters.
I did attempt a post on Sunday night, apologizing for being so lame all week and promising a BIG UPDATE SOON!!!! but something happened when I hit publish and it was eaten by the cosmos so even that small attempt was foiled.

I am back now and finally got a montage of photos put together so I will leave you with that and a promise of an honest-to-godness real post tomorrow and stories of our travels including a REAL! GENUINE! DRIVE-IN MOVIE!!!!

In the meantime, please to enjoy: The best of LA, SLO, and SB!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

pfpfpfpfpfttttt!

Have you ever had just one of those days? I knew waking up today that I would have a long day with a lot of errands and phone calls to make but even still.....It was just one of those days.

I won't bore you with the details but suffice it to say that I will have a lot more to do tomorrow before our flight than I wanted to have. I hate getting on an evening flight just exhausted because I've been running around the whole day, but including having to drive Chewy to Ft Lauderdale in the morning, I have 3-4 other places to go, plus come home and straighten out the house blah blah blah, yes I said I would not bore you with the details, I am done now.....

Chewy's going to "camp" in Lauderdale and after being screwed-over by the last place, I really hope he likes it and they are nice to him.(That is always my worst fear, that people are not nice to him and don't see the good in him, because he is so sweet, and OH GOD I"M GOING TO SHUT UP BECAUSE I AM A HORMONAL MESS RIGHT NOW!)

It looks like a really nice place and as long as I remember to bring all his stuff he needs for the week, we should be OK.

So, we are leaving tomorrow for a much-needed week away, more needed by Chris than me, but I am just looking forward to being someplace where the temperature goes below 80 degrees at any time in the day or night and I am going to happily wear pants and sweaters and actual non-flip-flops on my feet.
I even went to the mall yesterday and bought 2 pairs of maternity jeans that are oh-so comfortable and I am really excited to wear pants that do not cut directly into my spleen. Even the Bella Band I bought is no longer enough and I had to break down and buy some maternity pants because I refuse to wear sweatpants every day for the next 6 months, thank you very much.

I will be posting from CA but they will be more sporatic because I intend to take a lot of naps and enjoy being outside in the CA air, and maybe even take a nap outside in the CA air, because i am crazy like that.

sign of the times

CNN is running a story today about (mostly middle-aged) women in Santa Barbara, CA who are living in their cars. These women have lost their homes for various reasons and even though most of them have jobs (ironically enough, one woman is actually a mortgage processor) it is not enough for them to afford a place to live.

The city of Santa Barbara has opened up parking lots for "women only" to let them sleep in their cars from 7PM to 7AM. There are no bathroom facilities available but it is a safe area that is gated off at night and they can sleep there without anybody bothering them. Other cities around the country are actually looking into having a program like this as well.

While I applaud the city of Santa Barbara for doing something to help these women, I know the people we see are just a small fraction of the homeless people who are actually out there and go largely unnoticed around the country. I can't help but think there has to be a better way to help these people besides allowing them a place to sleep without being arrested or murdered, but not giving them anything more to just get back on their feet.

Unlike most homeless people in this country, these women don't seem to be addicted to drugs or suffering from mental illness, but rather they seem like you and me. This really is something that can happen to anyone; anyone without perfect planning for the future or with a run of bad luck. We all need to be constantly on the alert, always thinking about the future. Chris and I have recently begun seriously putting money away for the future and paying off credit cards and student loans and only paying with cash and all those things Suze Ormand and others tell you to do but this gives me a new appreciation for the fact that I have the opportunity and the ability to do that. Some people live paycheck-to-paycheck and if they get sick or injured or fired, within weeks, they could just lose everything.
I really don't have and answer, but the government can't just ignore this because the way the economy is going, there is only going to be more of this in the next few months and years.

(*deep breaths*)And now, I am going to go give my dog a bath. That always makes me feel better. The rant is over.

bloom

Since we moved to Miami, Chris and I have taken a vacation in August, and we try to do it somewhere less hot than here.
(Except for 2005 when we got married on St Lucia , which is somehow hotter than Miami but it's a dry heat. So instead of a steamroom, you're in a sauna.)

Last year, we went to California, where we visited a friend in L.A. (HI!) then drove to Santa Barbara, St Luis Obispo, and ended up in San Francisco. It was one of the most relaxing and beautiful vacations I have taken, and it made Chris and I both fall in love with the state.

The morning we woke up in Santa Barbara, I insisted on bringing Chris to the botanical garden to go hiking. I had been there 2 years earlier by myself and I couldn't wait to show Chris how great it is. There are trails that loop up in the hills surrounding the garden and there are redwoods and CA wildflowers and the whole place smells like eucalyptus and sage. I really could have just set up a tent right there and lived very happily til the end of my days, but Chris insisted that there are places just as beautiful that we could live in that actually have indoor plumbing so I gave in and instead dragged him to the gift shop.

Besides the most amazing lotion in the form of a bar of soap (really- you should try it. No spills in the pocketbook) I bought a stack of small cards that have CA wildflower seeds imbedded in them. You're supposed to plant the paper in some soil and up sprout some flowers.

I mailed one card to each of my sisters and my to my parents and planted my own sometime in December (once the really hot heat of Miami finally wore off)

Weeks later, some weed-y looking things came up and I have been alternately watering it and ignoring it for the last 3 months or so, assuming Miami is not Santa Barbara, and I guess these flowers just aren't gonna work here.
Until yesterday-




(!!!!!)