Disneyland

I took my first-ever trip to anything "Disney" yesterday, when we went to Disneyland with my sister-in-law and her family. It was an exciting day, but after the $56/person, plus parking ($10), plus food ($25+), plus the gas to get to and from L.A. ($1,876.77 ..... HA!), I have to say it's only worth it if you have kids or if you go on a very off-peak day. It was fun, but so much of the day was spent waiting ..... that's why I much prefer Universal Studios. Both times we went there, we were able to go on everything we wanted to, plus the longest we waited for anything was probably 20 minutes. But Disney was definitely more exciting for the kiddies! Overall a fun day, even though we didn't get back until after 1:30 a.m. Oh, and Space Mountain was pretty incredible -- I'm still dizzy from it today!

Quick update -- my supervisor emailed me to stop by her office this week to discuss plans for my goodbye celebration. Talk about awkward; if you're going to do something, fine, but I don't want to help plan it! And if you really want to know what I'd like ... does anyone out there know a polite way of saying, "No party. Just some money would be great, thanks!"

Company

Jason's sister, her husband, and their two little boys are visiting us this week. Jason went to pick them up at LAX and they're on their way to Santa Maria right now. I've never seen our two month-old nephew Caleb before (except a few pictures) and I haven't seen 3 year-old Ethan since Christmas, so it should be fun. His first plane ride :) The only bad part is that Jason has to work 3 of the nights they're here, leaving me to cook and entertain. Oh well, I'm sure they'll be easy-going about everything.

On a different note, I only have bits and pieces of 4 weeks left of work. This coming week I took 2 days off for our guests. The next week I have Friday off (my "9/80" day), the following week I have Monday off for Labor Day, and the following week I only work Monday thru Wed. Then I'm DONE!!! And none too soon. I've been finding out crazy stuff about different employees (office gossip, but sadly believable), and I just want out. I've never worked at a place like this before. One of the coworkers I've become closest to said to me in response to my amazement at our office dynamic, "Welcome to California." I don't think it's true of California as a whole, but our particular department isn't the most caring, unselfish or moral group you'll ever meet.

Moving on

Despite our recent "misfortune," I am still very grateful for our Californian experience. I can look back and honestly say that I think it's brought me and Jason closer. We've had to start fresh in all areas of our lives: meet new friends, attend a new church, create a home out of our apartment, discover new restaurants, stores, getaway spots and other locales together and more .... and all these new experiences we shared together without family or long-time friends to rely on (except over the phone :)) And I believe that's made us stronger. But for many reasons, we've decided that this chapter in our lives is just about over. My in-laws are flying in next month to help us "pack up and ship out." Two 4-day trips in the course of a year, can you believe it? My poor car!

Things I will miss about California:

-Making U-Turns freely, even at stoplights
-Being able to go for outdoor walks year-round
-Wearing flip-flops to any occasion, anytime
-The beautiful mountains in the distance -- living here gave new meaning to the lyrics "for purple mountain majesties" ... when the sun hits them a certain way, it's amazing.
-Driving along the coast
-Year-round, weekly fruit markets (even though we didn't go all that often, it was still nice to know they were there!)
-Living so close to L.A. (again, didn't go all that often, but took advantage of some neat attractions on occasion)
-Getting a Spanish education without paying for a class (ha! kidding! that I will NOT miss!)

Things I DO miss about Wisconsin:

-Panera Bread
-Boston Market
-Culver's
-Dairy Queen
{hmmm, eat much?}
-Pick 'n Save (it's hard to find a one-stop grocery store around here that's affordable AND pleasant to shop at)
-Kohl's (even though I'm too fat to fit into their Junior's and too young to wear the elastic-band "Misses" clothes, I still love shopping there)
-Paying rent that's less than $800 ... or $900 ... or heck, even $1,000!
-The people, of COURSE!

I'm sure there's a lot more on both lists, but I'll stop there for now. I have yet to give my notice at work. Hopefully I'll muster up the courage and find the time to do it on Monday. Although I'm not sad to leave my job, it's never easy telling your employer that you have to quit! I even remember being nervous when I quit my 3-week long college job at the on-campus Blimpie's sub shop! Sad :(

Starbucks

Now that my husband works at Starbucks, I'm beginning to crave their drinks! This is not good, seeing that the normal price of a drink there is $3 or $4! But Jason knows what I like, so he can recommend things that I would otherwise not have tried or that doesn't technically exist on the menu (there's no way they could list all the variations, and I've always assumed you can only order what's offered ... not so, apparently!)

Anyway, things at my job are a lot better than when I first started. I still don't ever want to be a receptionist again once I'm done with this position, but it helps that I'm starting to really get along with some coworkers (I've even gone out to dinner with one girl a couple times, along with some of her friends and Jason, plus we work out at the same gym). And I have every other Friday off (yay!) and I've finally earned vacation days. I'm up to 55 hours already :)

So despite feeling stressed overall, life is actually quite good. I just miss my family and friends back home, and am looking forward to an affordable cost of living again. $2.69 for the cheapest gallon of gas, $400,000 for a shack of a house, and $4 for a 12-pack of soda is all a bit steep!

One last thing, since this is a super random post anyway -- I'm starting to play all sorts of Yahoo! games (the free ones you play online) ... For a while I was stuck on Chuzzle, now it's Alchemy and Text Twist, and surely more to come. It actually kinds of makes me miss my dad when I play though, because I know he would have loved these games and I wish I had discovered them before when he was sick; just something small to give him a little extra something to look forward to. It's the strangest things that make you miss someone when they're gone!