Traffic was at a virtual stop when the rain came! They had shut down the Sepulveda tunnel due to flooding, which made what should have been a 10-minute drive back took over an hour extra. Yikes.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, I’m ready to get into the holiday spirit! Now the weather on the other hand… maybe not as ready. Around Halloween it was sooo close to snowing in the D.C. area, but it ended up kind of – well, slushing instead.

I went out to the east coast for the weekend and on Saturday, it was raining or sleeting all day.  At times, it almost got cold enough for us to get some snow down in the DC/VA area.  Almost.  I hear that more northern parts did get snow, and quite a bit, and I’ve got to say I’m a bit jealous.  I was hoping for some snow to enjoy here as well.  While I’d all but forgotten the experience of getting into a cold car and trying to defrost the windows while warming up, I do miss snow.  Nobody said I had to miss all the unpleasant experiences that come with it, right?

My selective memory allowed me to remember a brisk walk with snow crunching under my feet.  Pretty positive memory.  It allowed me to remember building snowthings and catching snowflakes with my tongue.  Very positive memory.  It did not, however, allow me to remember the bitterness of a freezing cold car.  Not so positive memory.  Well, that’s how it goes I guess.  After so many years removed from this kind of life, I chose to focus on the things I did like about it rather than that which was less desirable.  Nevertheless, with all the pros and cons trying to weigh each other out, I still wouldn’t mind moving back to more volatile climates for awhile.  It’d make me appreciate LA even more when I returned, right?

Wow, it has been two tiring days on the road!  Philosopher and I set out on Thursday, ready for a coastal trip up to Northern California.  We made pit stops at the Getty Villa, Ojai, Santa Barbara, and Solvang before finding a campground in Santa Maria to settle in for the night.  The sleep was sporadic and interrupted by cars driving by, brisk air (it was in the low-mid 50s all night), and of course the uncomfortably firm ground.  Every time I tried to stretch out straight, I would find my blanket was covering my feet and it was way too to have them out.  So, reluctantly, I would pull them back in and curl up in a ball under my body pillow.

When getting things out of the car, I had accidentally locked my keys in the trunk (first time that happened to me!), so in the morning I called up AAA to break into my car for me.  It was really interesting to see their method, using an inflatable balloon pouch and a thick metal rod.  I didn’t quite imagine it being that way based on descriptions I’ve heard using clothes hangers, but hey, whatever works!  With access to all our stuff again, Philosopher and I were able to prepare for the long day ahead.

Day two consisted of a lot of winding roads, driving up and down mountains, and in and out of cloud/marine layer coverage.  I feel at once windblown and sunshone (yeah, yeah, not a term but what would you say?).  This time went from Santa Maria to Pismo Beach to San Luis Obispo, then out to the coast again to drive along the 1.  We took some time at Carmel-by-the-Sea to enjoy the town and beach, then continued on to Santa Cruz and finally San Jose.  While waiting for dinner at BJ’s and looking for another campground, we decided to go for more traditional lodging.  After all, we weren’t having much luck finding a place and it’s been a long two days without proper rest, so I don’t mind rewarding myself with a nice bed and shower.

Luckily, I was able to find the Larkspur Landing Hotel in Campbell, which was offering a really reasonable rate.  There’s free wifi, breakfast, cookies, and a business center, fitness center, and laundry room.  What’s most valuable is a warm and cozy bed, as well as a hot shower!  There’s no need to suffer and doing the whole camping thing another night was turning out to be too much trouble.  I can finally charge up my phone again and start tomorrow afresh.  By dinnertime, we will be meeting up with Panda and I’m really excited for that.  :)

Hurricane Irene is ripping through the east now and I hope that damage is minimal. This happy sea turtle is in D.C. and hopefully will be safe from damage, along with all his other sea creature buddies.

I hope that all the creatures on the East Coast weather the storm this weekend.

Wow, it’s been so long since we’ve had nice warm days in LA!  The past couple of days have been a real treat, since we pretty much skipped right over the summer thing last year and went straight from a brisk winter to a cool fall.  I think I only remember two days being moderately warm in all of 2010.  I feel like I’m finally coming out of hibernation after a year and a half of chilly weather and boy does it feel good!  It makes me want to actually go outside and do things on my time off rather than hole up in my room on the computer like I’ve been doing.

I’m really excited to start inviting people over for pool parties and maybe even barbecues, if I can figure out how to work the grills we have poolside.  I think I might also consider wandering around the Century City mall every now and then, enjoying the warm evenings as I browse storefronts and munch on Pinkberry’s.  What a relaxing way to spend a Friday night after a full week’s work.  I’m really looking forward to the increase in activity that the higher temperatures will bring.  Also, I haven’t craved frozen yogurt in the longest time, probably because it hasn’t been hot enough to make me want something to cool down with.  I’ll be adding that back into my diet now, for sure!  Nothing like a good old yogurt parfait from Pinkberry’s to satisfy my froyo cravings.

This past week was also the first time I’ve gone to yoga class while it was still light out.  That was pretty amazing for me too – I’m so used to associating class with the darkness of the night, but now it still feels like daytime when I head over.  I love having long days of sunlight.  Thinking of long days, I’m almost nostalgic for the warm summer days of the East Coast and Midwest, where we’d sit on the porch and watch fireflies as we ate watermelon or drank lemonade.  Too bad there are no fireflies here and as of yet no juicy watermelon in the fridge.  I can’t wait to see Panda in Virginia this the summer and recreate some of those great memories of my childhood.  I’d rather have days of thunderstorms and flash floods if it meant I could also have beautifully warm nights.  It’s certainly better than the tepid summer we experienced last year.

It’s been a really wet season for many months now and I don’t think a single month has gone by since late fall where we didn’t get a rainstorm.  Today’s was particularly hard and driving on the I-5 was pretty crazy!  The worst of it was worse than anything I remember experiencing in New York.

I’ve described “zebra days” before and oftentimes you will find “blossom rain” occurring in such weather, where it’s sunny yet it’s drizzling at the same time.  (I only heard this term blossom rain due to meeting the author of the upcoming book, Beneath Blossom Rain – cool, huh?)