i'm sure it must be fall somewhere...

so today . . . it is HOT! the santa ana winds are blowing, and it was over 95 degrees today. and in case you aren't paying attention, it is NOVEMBER!!!

i love southern california. love. it. and a big part of the reason is our moderate weather. we have about ten really hot days and five rainy days a year--the rest of the days are between 65 and 85 degrees. how can a person complain about that?!?!

oh just watch me... i have a whole list of complaints! ten, as a matter of fact :)

TOP TEN REASONS WHY IT SHOULDN'T BE 95 DEGREES IN NOVEMBER!

#10. the halloween chocolate will melt. it was just three days ago that tiny children (and some not so tiny children,) walked around after dark threatening their neighbors if they didn't get candy. i was at target last week, so i know that almost all halloween candy either has a chocolate coating or a chocolate center or is totally 100% chocolate with no distracting substances added. but chocolate doesn't respond well to heat. and since i can't believe that all that candy has already been eaten--although i am sure a lot of it has been--it is sitting on kitchen counters all over southern california, melting...

#9. it doesn't feel like fall. you know what i mean--that crispness in the air, a little bit of frost now and then, red and yellow leaves... ok, i can't blame the lack of colored leaves on the heat. probably. but it doesn't feel like pumpkin patch weather--it feels like water slide weather! and so...

#8. i can't use the fireplace. i love having a fire in the fireplace, but wood is precious here, so our fire is made from burning gas rather than burning wood. we do have trees, but you have to drive a bit of a distance to see wild ones. and since californians seem to prefer to let their trees burn naturally, you don't see too many wood burning fireplaces here. and that's ok with me. i would much rather turn a switch and light a match, than haul and stack wood. besides, can you imagine the spiders that would live in a wood pile?!?!?!? which brings me to...

#7. the spiders are confused. (this point is diandra's. she is somewhat spider-phobic. and when i say somewhat, i mean completely and totally, to hysterical proportions...) diandra says the spiders don't know what to do with this unseasonably warm weather. she says when it is warm they stay outside, but when it turns cold they migrate inside, looking for more moderate temperatures. and we did have a few cool days, so according to diandra, all the spiders have moved inside. but now that it has warmed up, they are coming out where we can see them--still inside, but out in plain sight. needless to say, she is somewhat skittish right now. she thinks the spiders are everywhere. and i have heard the screams to prove it!

#6. our tans have faded. and yet when it is this hot, you can't run around in long sleeves and tights and boots! there is a reason that arms and legs are bare in the summer time and not in the dead of winter. have you heard the term "winter white?" yeah, well it isn't just a sweater color--it is also the color of my legs by mid-october. these are the times i wish that the ethnic skeletons in my closet would make themselves known. i was sitting across the room from a filipino guy wearing shorts tonight at bible study, and i couldn't help but think, "i wish my legs were that nice caramel color in november..."

#5. my allergies are activated. the reason it is so hot is because of those blasted santa ana winds! and when the winds blow, it stirs up all sorts of stuff into the air--stuff that makes my nose run and my eyes itch. i don't like it when my nose runs and my eyes itch. when my nose runs and my eyes itch, all i want to do is curl up in bed and sleep--preferably in front of the fireplace. which i can't use, because it is too hot! (see #8)

#4. diandra is dying in her jeep. diandra has a very cool jeep wrangler. it has monster tires. the top and windows zip off so she can enjoy the socal sunshine. the boys are all jealous (which, as everyone knows, is the important thing about a vehicle!) it is the car of her dreams! unless we have unseasonably hot weather. because one thing the jeep does not have is air-conditioning. we warned her. she said it would be fine--after all, the whole top comes off! we tried to tell her that there would be times when she wanted a/c, but all she wanted was that jeep! so now she has it. and she still loves it. but when fall "arrives" and she zips the top back on, and then the santa anas blow, it gets kind of toasty inside.

#3. i can't decide what to wear. this might not sound like such a big deal, but there are issues here! (see #6) even though technically it is fall, if i try to wear fall clothing, i am going to die of heat! but summer clothing just seems wrong (although i saw several people in shorts and tank tops today.) and when you are a person that gets out of bed 15 minutes before you have to leave for work on some mornings, not knowing what clothes to throw on your body wastes precious time, making you late. my compromise (to deal with #6) is bare arms, covered legs. but it isn't as easy as it sounds.

#2. i feel the need for iced drinks, but the red cups have reportedly arrived at starbucks. that means it is time for seasonal drinks! i am not really a starbucks person, but a couple of years ago i discovered the joys of a peppermint white chocolate mocha. i even went out in a snowstorm to get one! (and not a california snowstorm either--it was an oregon "don't go out unless there is an emergency" snowstorm.) and don't tell me just to get my seasonal drink in iced form, because you cannot drink a pumpkin spice latte if there isn't some steam rising from it. really. (although an iced peppermint white chocolate mocha might not be bad... )

and the number 1 reason that it shouldn't be 95 degrees in november is...

#1. it's too hot to get into the garage and get out the christmas decorations. "what?!?!" you may be thinking, "wait, isn't this blog about ridiculously hot weather in november?? why is she talking about christmas decorations??" because, at our house we prefer to put the christmas tree up before thanksgiving, and this year diandra has requested that it we put it up extra early--like in a week or two. we do this for a couple of reasons, but mostly because we love our christmas decorations. and since december has been getting busier and busier for us, the only way we really get to sit and enjoy the beauty is to put it up early. but don't worry--it isn't like the tree is in the front window.

as you can see, this unseasonably hot weather is annoying me. thankfully we are supposed to be back to our regular fall temperatures (65-70) by the weekend--back to our sweaters, boots, hot drinks, and a fire in the fireplace.

maybe we will even brave the garage and get out those christmas decorations...

an explosion = ?

so today . . . i thought we were having another earthquake, but we weren't.

i guess no matter where you live, there are unique cultural things. (i'm sorry. i know "things" is not the very best word to use there. but i am soooo tired--you know, graduation last night and then all day at adventure city with my kindergarteners today. i'm exhausted! i wasn't even going to blog, since it is wednesday, but then i heard the explosions and had to blog . . . but, i cannot promise that my choice of vocabulary is going to be up to my normal standards.)

when we first moved to california, i was not convinced it was going to be a place i wanted to live. i thought it was going to be one big traffic jam with air so smoggy you could see it and gangs on every corner. thankfully, that is not what it turned out to be, but that was my initial expectation. i hadn't been here very long, when one night i heard a sharp explosion. "GUNSHOTS!!" was my initial thought. as luck would have it, i was home alone. i ran around the house, closing windows, making sure the doors were locked and setting the alarm--which should be the normal state of things, but i didn't know that yet. i just knew there was going to be a gang confrontation right outside our front door and we were all going to die, just because we had moved to california. (well, we weren't all going to die. i was home alone. but clearly i wasn't thinking all that rationally.)

the next day i looked in the news, but there was no mention of the hail of gunfire i had heard. hmmm, i thought. maybe it is so common place that they don't even report shootouts here! but there were no shell casings in the street either, which as anyone who watches tv knows, are a byproduct of a shootout. i asked someone about it a few days later, and they said, "oh, that was probably just the fireworks from the high school graduation."

what? fireworks at the high school graduation? i guess that could be what it was . . .

the next summer, in the middle of june, i heard the explosions again. "GUNSHOTS!" i yelled. i had to yell, because we had company visiting and i didn't want anyone to be hit by a stray bullet. i was thinking we should all hit the deck and maybe someone should call 9-1-1. then rollie reminded me about the fireworks. i peeked out an upstairs window and noticed that all the neighbors were standing around looking at the sky. and then the sky lit up with a burst of fireworks . . . followed by a boom that sounded suspiciously like a gunshot to me.

the next summer, when i heard the big BOOM, i am sorry to say i still thought gunshot. but i quickly remembered the fireworks, and instead of throwing myself on the floor, i ran outside with the rest of the neighbors to enjoy the show.

i now know that the likelihood that i will hear gunshots in my neighborhood is virtually non-existent. so every june when i hear the explosions, i remember that it is time for my own personal fireworks show.

that is, until today.

because a couple of days ago we had an earthquake. it was small. it only lasted a few seconds, and i barely felt the movement. but it began with a loud BOOM. i've only felt one other earthquake here in socal, and that was the one on easter sunday. i don't remember a boom with that one, but the movement lasted for a couple of minutes. I don't want the probability of an earthquake to dictate my choices, and yet, there are times when i think about it. occasionally when i go to bed i will think, "what if there is an earthquake tonight?" and then i put my laptop in the trunk of my car and my handbag right by my bed . . .

. . . just in case, because you never know.

of course, since i don't do this every night, odds are that when we do have an earthquake, it is going to hit on a night when nothing is where it belongs, which will make it hard to find stuff in the rubble . . . (you see how my mind works? i mean, i don't sit around worrying about this stuff, but sometimes i have 'disaster' thoughts. i blame all those disaster movies that were popular during the formative years of my youth--especially "the poseidon adventure.") but i digress . . .

so tonight i was sitting here on the couch, sorting all the photos i took at adventure city today, when i heard a loud BOOM. and this time, i didn't think gunshot. but i also didn't think fireworks. this time i thought EARTHQUAKE!!!

i sat very still. i watched the dogs (which wasn't really all that helpful, because they seem to be totally unaffected by earthquakes--they just keep on sleeping.) i heard another BOOM and then another one. then i thought gunshots. (i see this as an improvement. at least my mind doesn't immediately go to violence.) then mia came running into the room, her body on alert. and that's when i knew. it had to be fireworks.

because my highly strung "guard" dog will sleep right through an earthquake, she quivers and shakes in fear when it rains, but she is all about defending the house when she hears . . . fireworks.

after i heard a few more BOOMS, and the crackling that follows a fireworks explosion, i went out to enjoy the show . . . and quickly noticed that the car alarm was going off on a car across the street. the force of the explosion had apparently set it off. no one came running out to check on it, and after about five minutes it stopped.

good to know. apparently car alarms do not continue indefinitely. and now that i know that, my criminally inclined mind is formulating a plan . . .

so the good news is, i have progressed. i have grown. gunshots are not my first option when i hear an explosion in the middle of june. i no longer think the evils of southern california culture are out to get me. i have adjusted and even embraced much of this culture. i defend it to my rain-soaked friends up north. in fact, i hope i never have to live anywhere else!

but the bad news is "the big one" is still out there. somewhere. it is just waiting to catch me off guard.

and so begins my life of crime . . .

*disclaimer--while i would not call myself an environmentalist, i am not opposed to taking care of our planet. today i am just venting frustration at how it will inconvenience me. so please find the humor in my discomfort rather than being indignant at my attitude.

so today . . . i've been thinking about this whole illegal plastic bag thing . . .

in case you haven't heard, the california legislature has banned plastic grocery bags. you know, those plastic grocery bags that we all use to put our shoes and laundry in when we travel, and collect our empty soda cans in to take to recycling, and to line our small wastebaskets, and most importantly, to pick up doggie bombs? yes, well, we will no longer have access to those bags.

ironically the language in the legislation actually bans "single use plastic bags." for me, a sandwich bag is single use. a large garbage bag is single use. even plastic wrap is single use. the one type of plastic bag which is definitely NOT single use is the plastic grocery bag. we keep them in our kitchen, in both bathrooms, in the trunk of the car, and with our luggage. i even keep a bunch of them at school for those occasional bathroom accidents that preschoolers are prone to have. and i cannot leave the house to walk milo without one of those bags. because while mia is too busy walking to stop for anything, milo's walk is not complete until he has proven to the neighborhood that his digestive system is working just fine!

apparently california legislators do not have to deal with their household garbage or doggie poop. because for those of us who do, those plastic grocery bags are essential and definitely multi-purpose. but we are going to have to learn to function without them. instead, we are being encouraged to buy reusable cloth bags for our groceries.

i don't really have a problem with the whole cloth shopping bag idea. in fact, the trunk of my car is home to three giant costco reusable bags, three small trader joe's bags, two red target bags, one green subway bag (which scores me a free cookie every time i use it!) and a bag i got at forever 21 with a colorful bird on it. i could probably use the bird bag at any store since there is no name or logo on it, but i always think of it as my forever 21 bag. clearly i am going to have to buy some stater bros bags, or getting my groceries home is going to be a challenge . . .

i know that technically i can use any of these bags in any store. i know this in my head. but if i were to walk into stater bros with my trader joe's bags, i would feel like i was cheating on trader joe's! after all, i bought those bags at trader joe's, and i'm sure it was their intent that i use them when i shop at trader joe's. i'm sure they want me to look at those bags in my trunk and think, "oh, i need to go to trader joe's to buy groceries today," NOT "oh, i'm glad i have these trader joe's bags to carry my groceries home from stater bros in." then again, maybe if i used my trader joe's bags at stater bros, other shoppers would see them and abandon their shopping carts and flock to trader joe's, but i kind of don't think so.

i can see this cloth bag thing is going to be an issue for my ocd tendencies. i am going to feel like i have to have the correct bags for each store. the trunk of my car is doomed to be filled with all these shopping bags, which is going to make actually bringing any groceries home in it a challenge. but i think the bigger challenge is going to be remembering to take the bags in with me . . .

i already have trouble with this. how many times have i found myself at the checkout line at costco thinking, "oh rats! i left my reusable bags in the trunk of my car again!!" which leaves the cashiers no choice but to put my eggs and cheese and broccoli in big cardboard boxes which won't fit in my trunk. so when i get to my car, i have to unload the boxes, then find a place to dispose of the boxes (because as i just said, they won't fit in my trunk!) and then take my groceries into the house one armload at a time. i could use the reusable costco bags i keep in the trunk to take the groceries into the house, except they are always underneath the unloaded groceries.

so, you may ask, what do you do if you live in california and you go to the grocery store and you forget to take your properly silk-screened cloth bags in with you?

well, you have two choices. you can either buy new cloth bags--which are usually fairly reasonably priced (but after i forget 20 times, it is going to add up--at $1.99 each,) or you can spend a minimum of five cents for each paper bag you use. that's right, we will be allowed to buy paper bags.

ok, so let's just think about this for a minute. we can't have plastic bags because they are bad for the environment (even though they are very useful around the house,) but we can buy all the paper bags we want (even though technically trees must die to produce those bags.) ok, just so we are clear--we are doing this for the environment . . .

lest you think our legislators are totally crazy, (i'll just insert a pause here so you can laugh hysterically,) the paper bags are required by law to be made from 60% recycled materials. i guess paper bags are environmentally friendly as long as you only have to kill enough trees to manufacture 40%. and i guess plastic bags are ok as long as you buy them from glad or hefty. and i guess the planet isn't in immediate danger, because this ban on plastic grocery bags does not go into effect until january 2012.

i figure that gives me a year and a half to stockpile them. let's see . . . if i double bag everything and only put an item or two in each one . . .

i feel the earth. move. under my feet.

so today . . . we had an earthquake. i think.

it happened around 4:00 a.m. i was sound asleep, and probably would have remained that way, except rollie woke me up with these words: "WE'RE HAVING AN EARTHQUAKE!!" at least, that is how it sounded to me . . .

rollie, along with many others, is expecting that "the big one" is going to hit LA any day now, and so, being the boy scout that he is, he is always on alert.

i am not. on alert, that is. i woke up just long enough to hear the windows rattling and think, " i'm glad the curtains are closed, so that when the windows break the glass won't fall on me." and then i went back to sleep.

rollie did not. i'm sure as soon as he felt the shaking begin, survival plans started forming in his mind. and it was probably a little bit hard to go back to sleep after that . . .

i wish i had awakened a bit more or that the earthquake had lasted a little longer, because i don't really remember how it felt. i do remember thinking, "i need to wake up! i am finally here for an earthquake and i need to experience it!" don't misunderstand--i am not a fan of earthquakes, because i have seen the damage they can do. but i admit i am a little bit fascinated by solid ground MOVING!

when we moved to california nine years ago, i was not thrilled. i loved the pacific northwest--all the green, the mountains, the ocean, the wide open spaces, the clean air . . . and i pictured southern california as clogged, congested, cramped, and brown, with air that was barely breathable. i expected traffic, concrete, sales tax, and earthquakes. i did not expect to like it. at all.

but i do. i love the sunshine and moderate temperatures. i love the palm trees and exotic flowers. i love the energy that comes from the people, and yes, even the traffic. (ok, that's a lie. i don't love the traffic, but i have learned to deal with it.) although we have lived in different parts of the country, we have always found something to love about wherever we were. and there are many things to love about southern california. although, earthquakes may not be one of them.

i think i remember being in an earthquake as a little girl. we lived in vancouver, washington at the time, and i was walking home from school. and the earth moved. it only lasted a few seconds, but i still remember that feeling of the earth shifting under my feet. i think. or maybe i just dreamed it, because it was a very loooong time ago, and vancouver, washington is not the earthquake capitol of the country.

california is--at least it seems that way to me. but they never occur when i am here to feel them. there have been a few small quakes here in the last nine years, but always when i am out of town! i joke about my presence being the only thing keeping southern california safe from earthquake disaster. but apparently my earthquake repellant tendancies are only effective when i am awake. which i clearly was not at 4 a.m.

before rollie went to work this morning, he came in to talk to me for a few minutes. i knew we were going to talk about the earthquake. this is the conversation that i envisioned.

"do you remember that we had an earthquake last night?"
"of course i do! you woke me up to tell me about it!!"
"well, you weren't moving! do you even know what to do if there is an earthquake?!"
"yes, i know. but it is a little hard to move to safety if one is asleep!"
"THAT'S WHY I WOKE YOU UP!!!"

i'm kind of cranky in the morning, so the conversations in my head tend to be a little snarky. of course, in real life we never talk to each other like that. the actual conversation went something like this.

"did you feel the earthquake last night?"
"no, but i heard the windows rattling. i just thought it was the wind."
"nope--it was an earthquake."
"you know, if 'the big one' hits at night when i am asleep, you may have to just push me off the bed and onto the floor. because i might not wake up."

we are much nicer in real life than in my head . . .

later i asked him about diandra, because i didn't know if she had been awakened by the shaking or not. i would have expected her to come flying out of her room. but of course since i was asleep . . . he said she did wake up, but when she came out into the hallway and saw that mia wasn't going berserk, she figured that everything was ok. considering that rain reduces mia to a shivering mass of white fur, diandra said, "i guess mia thinks that rain is more dangerous than an earthquake." yes, mia is a california dog.

of course, it was only a 4.4 quake. rollie emailed his mom to let her know that we were all ok, and she hadn't even heard about it! i guess a 4.4 quake in socal is not all that newsworthy.

there are predictions that last night's quake was an indicator of more to come. my prediction is that my weekend is now going to be different than before the earthquake. i predict that rollie is going to spend saturday securing the tvs to the walls, stashing bottled water all over the house, and maybe even installing latches on all the cabinets. because he is a boy scout and must always be prepared!

at lunch time i was teasing him about the look on his face when it happened. "you couldn't even see my face! it was dark! and you were asleep!" he said. "i know," i replied, "but i know what your face looked like--it had that 'on alert' look that you have." "you are mocking me!" he said. "yeah, i am. i just think it is so funny how we react to a crisis. you immediately react and start making a plan, and i just sleep through it." "you can sleep through it," he said, "because you know i will take care of you."

which is true. i have absolute confidence that if "the big one" hits in the middle of the night, rollie will push me off the bed . . . to safety, of course :)

a top ten list

so today . . . i was once again reminded of the things we cope with, living here in southern california. and so i offer you my TOP 10 LIST OF CROSSES WE HAVE TO BEAR HERE IN THE SOUTHLAND . . .

#10. year round pedicures--whether you do them yourself or have them done, your toes have to be ready to poke out of the end of sandals all year round. even in december or january we can have sandal worthy weather. there is no time off for pretty toes.
#9. affordable fruit--it may require a trip to the korean grocery store, but we have delicious fruit here all year. in fact, the most delicious strawberries are grown less than a mile from our house!
#8. traffic--yes, there is traffic, but at least the roadways are built to handle it--except during rush hour. and if you use the traffic feature on your gps, you can avoid most of it most of the time.
#7. dearth of colorful fall leaves--most of our trees seem to hang onto their leaves until the new leaves push them off in the spring. and yet there are a few that reward us with beautiful fall foliage.
#6. winter roses--my rose bushes are still flowering and will continue to do so until the gardener prunes them in january.
#5. a governor who is also known as the terminator--at least in his former life. maybe not so much now that he has gone political.
#4. championship sports teams--yes, i think the lakers are the devil's spawn (go blazers!) but as rollie would say, "scoreboard, baby!" so in the interests of family harmony, let's just talk about our beloved angels . . .
#3. food from all over the world within a 20 minute drive--seriously. anything you want to eat, you can get it here--just ask your gps.
#2. disneyland--i don't think this one requires any explanation.

and the #1 cross we have to bear . . .
following doctor's orders about staying out of cool air when you drive a convertible. no wait. i did that. with the top DOWN. and no jacket. in the middle of november!!!!

bwahahahaha!