California

We are in California! I keep meaning to write and I think of things to write, but it's always at an inconvenient time during the day when it's not ideal to write and then I forget what I wanted to write about. Unfortunately right now I don't feel like I'm in a creative state of mind, but I have the time so I'm going to write anyway.

California has been quite an adventure already and we've only been here for 2 weeks. On our drive here I started getting sick and that ended up weighing fairly heavily on our first week here. We were able to go out our first weekend on a drive to L.A. but I overexerted myself and ended up much worse later that day so the weekend ended up being pretty low-key, which, in an apartment that is empty, in a town where we know no one, can end up being very boring. Haha, when I had the internet guy over to hook-up our wireless he tried convincing me to get cable along with the internet for a discounted rate and I just looked and him and said "We don't have a TV", at which point he looked around and realized just how empty our apartment was and said "Oh, well if you decide to get a TV let us know and we'll get things going for you".

On our second day here, ants took over our bathroom (which really isn't all that difficult to do because the bathroom is tiny) but we quickly took care of that problem and they were gone in a few hours. On our fifth day here Jason woke up to a cockroach in our kitchen. A rather unpleasant surprise under any circumstances I imagine, though especially so when you've just climbed out of bed, are still groggy, reaching for your coffee and BAM there it is.Thankfully we haven't seen any since, though we have still gone through numerous precautions just in case they're hiding around our apartment.

And then this past Sunday (4 days ago) the ants were back, this time in our kitchen and this time they REALLY wanted to stay. We bought so much crap and did so much work to get them out of our kitchen. What ended up working was liquid ant traps. The ants come out (in full force I might add) they drink the poison, take it back to their nest pass it around to all the other ants, including the queen and within 24-48 hours they're all dead! And the best part is that they're not dead in my kitchen cupboards, they're dead in their nest. It's a gross process, but well worth it. Lindsay asked me today if I feel guilty for killing them. I certainly don't, but I apologize to any of you who are appalled at me for regaining my kitchen. If you have suggestions for how to get rid of ants in the future without killing them, I'm all ears.

The worst part about the ants was that we were constantly finding them crawling on us. I kept picking them off of Jason. Then I would find them on me - and I was super paranoid about them being in my hair without me realizing it, and evidently it was rightfully so!  I didn't end up with an ant in my hair, but an earwig! It was so gross! Jason and I were both just sitting on our bed, he was reading his book and I was on the computer when all of a sudden, right on the top of my head I felt something, so I went to scratch, but felt something and I flicked it (I'm getting the hibbie-gibbies just thinking about it) and an earwig popped onto my computer. I did the closest thing to screaming that I've done it years and started doing the "Eww, there was just a bug in my HAIR" dance. Hopefully you aren't familiar with it. The worst part about the ants all over us and the earwig in my hair is that I've built up anxiety about it or something - I am CONSTANTLY thinking there are bugs on me and my heart rate goes up and I get all jumpy super easily. It's rather disturbing, though I'm sure amusing for onlookers.

Oh my, I have written a lot and still not about anything really worthwhile.

Other than the bugs Jason and I are enjoying our time here and our time with each other. I don't think we've ever had so much time to ourselves. We've decided that it's really important to live up this time in CA. We've never been ones to go out much and spend money because, well, we like to try to live within our means and we know we just can't afford to regularly go out and spend money. But this summer we're going to really live this up because we have good income, we have no children and we're in a fun new place with fun things to do! So even though it will probably still be going beyond our means, we figure it's well worth it because who knows how many opportunities like this we will have?

Jason's job is going really well. He's really enjoying it and feels like he's learning a lot. Some days are more exciting than others, like tomorrow he is going to meet up with one of the partners and go to a mediation. He feels like they feel pretty good about him and the work that he is doing, as well, so that is always nice!

I haven't had much luck finding a job. Most places weren't hiring and the places that were wanted someone who would be around for longer than 10 weeks. I know I could just lie about the amount of time that I'm going to be around, but first of all, I'm not very good at lying and second of all I don't like lying. I know I know, such a goody two-shoes. It doesn't help that I only have a very small area to look in for jobs but anyway, so instead I'm being productive at home. I am basically taking a summer math class so that will make things nice and ideal in the fall when I am actually taking a math class. I am able to finally read a lot of books that Jason has been wanting me to read and I'm able to take care of things at home to help Jason out. I'm not going stir crazy yet. Jason seems convinced that I will, but we're only here for 8 1/2 more weeks and a person can do anything for 8 1/2 weeks! Which is made even easier when we get to have such fun weekends!

This past weekend we went to San Diego and went to the zoo and afterwords drove around San Diego a bit. It was such a wonderful day. I would say one of the best days Jason and I have ever had together. And we have so many more things we hope to do! Disneyland, SeaWorld, Universal Studios, Six Flags Magic Mountain, maybe go to a TV show, hopefully go camping in Yosemite, at some point I'll go to CO to meet Jackson (Casey's baby - due June 29th) - I mean, that right there is 7 weekends! And we've discussed doing even more than that. So we are definitely in for a FUN ADVENTURE!