A Thanksgiving to Remember...

This past weekend I experienced my first Californian Thanksgiving. A Thanksgiving without tons of family, friends and food seemed very odd to me and at first I was extremely homesick but I quickly realized two things. 1. I was living the life I had always wanted to - exploring, traveling and enjoying life and 2. I'd see them in a month and for the time being, Skype would just have to be enough!

Wednesday night before Thanksgiving we (me and my charming CPA friend) set out to drive the 8 hours up to San Francisco. We thought we could make it all the way there that night and get up in the morning ready to explore. Well, as things often go in my life, plans NEVER go as planned. I should have known this when he dropped his cell phone in the toilet on the first pit stop that we were in for a eventful weekend! Haha.

We had a wonderful time. We saw the Golden Gate Bridge, the giant redwoods at Muir Woods, Stinson Beach, Lombard street (aka the curveyist street in the US), Fisherman's Wharf), San Jose, the Winchester Mansion, Sonoma/Wine Country/DeLoach/Hook and Ladder Wine's, Union Square, Pebble Beach, Carmel, Montery, Marina del Ray. Gosh we did SO much! It was an amazing trip, even with a few hiccups including a broken down car that is still in San Fran and my impessive ability to get us lost no matter where I am. We are lucky we are safe and that we made it back. Thank God for rental cars! :)

Now the countdown begins till I head home for Christmas! I can't wait to see everyone!

Taken from on the Bridge

Muir Woods - Inside a Redwood!

Stinson  Beach at Sunset

Winchester Mansion

Lombard Street

Winery's

We spent the AM at the service shop! lol

Carmel by the sea

Even on my weakest day, I get a little bit stronger!

I started this blog to remember my journey, even the hard ones. Although, I try to make a conscious effort daily to find the silver lining of things…..not all of it has been easy.  There is a Sara Evan's song that says, "I'm telling myself I'll be OK, even on my weakest day, I get a little bit stronger." Every time I hear that song I smile to myself and take a moment to realize how much I have overcome in my life, especially the past 6 months. A year ago I would have never expected to be single in California - but look at me! I am doing pretty darn good! I will miss my family and our annual Friendsgiving very much on this holiday, but I know those people are there for me no matter where I go. I am very thankful for these amazing people in my life every day. :)

Malfunction Junction!

I now know how Janet Jackson felt the night of that famous halftime show when she had that wardrobe malfunction! Yes, it happened to me and my hotglue masterpiece. The recital was going well. I did an opening dance that we were taught about 10 minutes before our audience came in, not having a clue, I’d say we did well. My class dance was last. I was pumped and ready. My getup was a bit hookerish but I didn’t care, I had made it and I was proud of it. Not only that, I was confident enough to get out there and shake my thing looking like said hooker with my creative outfit, extremely exposed (maybe not but it felt that way!). Then IT happened, I felt the back of my skirt go, in slow motion. Someone had stepped on my skirt from behind and it came undone. I grabbed it with one hand and the front started to go too. I quickly Thanked God for deciding to wearing the boy shorts I had on and managed to catch the front with the same hand and hold it up. I continued the dance one handed, laughing hysterically and was quite happy when it was over so I could make myself decent. ;) I really enjoyed the recital and I can’t wait to take more classes next time. I plan to take a sewing class soon….to prevent any future malfunctions! J

My teacher, Jheri

The final hooker look :)

Here's a Story....of a Lovely Lady...Fresh Prince of Belair!

I had such a great weekend, I didn't even have a chance to blog about it!

Saturday was a much needed lazy day while cheering on my Gators. I will never ever take for granted being able to watch a Gator game on TV. I have spent several games this season, searching online for websites that stream the game live. Thank the good Lord for these sites. A fan can be a fan, even 2300 miles away! After all, the Gator Nation IS Everywhere!! I remember many Saturdays that were spent with all my girlfriends getting up early and spending the whole day having too much fun, covered in orange and blue. Some of my favorite memories, or lack of memories, are from Gator games and I hold those close to my heart...especially during homesick days. :)

Sunday I woke up to an enthusiastic call from John. (Enter new character!) I have been seeing this charming CPA for a few months now. He has been a bit under the weather so I was happy to hear he felt like coming out to play. We hoped in the car and headed towards LA. First stop, THE BRADY BUNCH HOUSE!! That's right, we live here and we spent the day being TOTAL dorky tourists and I had a blast. :) We found the famous TV houses right on the internet. We visited the Brady Bunch house, the Happy Days house, the Fresh Prince of Belair House and the Knocked Up house. Oddly enough these houses were all supposed to be in different cities than what they are actually in. It was very cool to see these houses from shows I grew up on and one of my favorites movies. My favorite was the Fresh Prince house. The owner drove by as we were peering over the bushes trying to take pics but oh well, I just smiled and giggled a wave! He was young,  I had to try, right?! ;)

Sunday night I had a field trip with my belly dancing class. We went to a great tapas restaurant and after we ate they put on a beautiful show. One of the dancers even had a snake she danced with! It was amazing!

This is a busy week for me. I have planned an entire menu of meals. I plan on shopping for them tonight and cooking them this week. I also have my recital this week as well as a candle party I got invited to by a new friend!! (Yay new friend!!) If I can figure out how to post pics of the houses, I shall. J

The Brady Bunch

Happy Days!

Fresh Prince!

Hot Glue Masterpiece!

Saturday morning I got up and headed to meet my friend Liz in Foothill Ranch. I took what seemed like the longest possible way there  and finally arrived in the windiest place in California. Yep – I discovered that famous ‘Santa Ana wind’. We went to JoAnns fabric store, armed with her wealth of knowledge, we found just the right fabric and all the other do dads I would need. At this point , I was really wishing I knew how to sew but alas I am fierce with my with my hot glue gun.  Don’t worry, I’m saving all these fantastic ideas for when I  do learn to sew! ;)

So I go home and I no longer have the brains behind this operation to be there and help me. We are now operating on my own creativity folks – this could be dangerous! Well, the idea was to fold the fabric over a bit, put the waistband in and then scrunch it up. Well, I needed had what I wanted to do in my head but I definitely needed more than 2 hands and my 2 feet to do this. I got this great idea! I have chip clips! They have magnets on the back so I’ll just put one one either end then one in the middle! Great plan! Ok so I get it all clipped and I’m gonna put it up somewhere. The back of the front door. Well, in all my great planning I totally missed that the weight of the fabric would pull those magic clips right to the ground. Now the doors all scratched up. Oops. I tried again on the fridge before deciding I’d just  have to use my monkey toes and figure this out. J My final skirt is quite something. I’ll post pics soon.

BEFORE

Shimmy from the Heart!

On my new lets-start-my-life–over-adventure I told myself I was going to do things I’ve always wanted to do but somehow something (or someone) always held me back.  After two failed marriages, it was time to focus on me. To figure out who I really am these days and to put my wants and desires at the top of the priority list - even if this means turning the AC on 60 and only watching HGTV, and blaring my music and singing at the top of my lungs. (I'm sure my neighbors are big fans of that last one!)  My momma always told me that we must be happy with ourselves before we can make someone else happy.  Guess she was right....

Meeting new people (that I actually want to hang out with) at this stage in my life, outside of a bar setting, can be a challenge so I joined an online womens group. At first I was skeptical and felt I was trying to date these girls....you know, shes cute, but shes not my type or she looks fun but maybe too wild...finally we were matched in a "connecting circle." So far I've met 2 great girls from this. One of them, Liz, told me how she wanted to take belly dancing classes and I knew she would be an instant friend  since this has been on my want-to-do list forever!!

So I finally started taking belly dancing classes. At first I was a bit in shock. I expected to walk into a room that looked like the inside of a castle with hot ladies dancing around in pretty outfits and shake what my momma gave me then after 2 classes have a 6 pack ! Well, there was no castle (it’s only the Laguna Beach community center after all) and we were ALL beginners so no one else had any more of a clue than myself. Oh and I'm still waiting on my 6 pack to show itself. ;)  My teacher was this awesome older lady, with bright red hair, and lots of jingle jangles on. She has quite the personality too.  She tells us she’s been dancing for 30+ years and after seeing her do “the camel” I believe her. The first week we learned what we call the eights. These exercise our ‘female reproductive system’ and we should do these daily because even these parts of our bodies need exercise. I quickly asked if these were gonna get us pregnant too because if so, I should definitely sit this exercise out! ;) We all are in the beginner class so we all looked just as silly and akward exercising our organs as did the other. It was also suggested that we stand on ours heads daily to prevent the effects of gravity. Thankfully, this wasn’t a class exercise! 

The next few classes were just as fun. They gave us zills (finger symbols) and we danced and clanked around. They made beautiful noise with a exoticxl dance…I made lots of noise and laughed at myself and my lack of rhythm. Then they introduced veils. I thought wedding veil…like it goes on your head. Boy was I wrong! It’s like this flat sheer sheet that one flings around and dances with. So everything you do with this veil is pretty so you can basically make up stuff and its called something. (At least thats what I got from it.) Last week they put me in a solo circle and I flung my sheet, I mean veil, over my head and swirled it around just like I did when I was a kid….I mean just like I was taught.  ;) It was so much fun. The whole class has been a blast.

My recital is in 2 weeks. I'm going to make my costume this weekend. I bought the stuff this morning. It shall be an interesting piece of work being as I don't sew. That's next on my list of things I want to do. ;) I shall post a pic of my hot glue masterpiece soon!

On this day I am thankful for HOT water!

So I am creating this blog to remember my daily happenings as I go from a small town married gal to a big city single chick! I love home and miss many aspects of it such as my family and friends, sweet tea, boiled peanuts, the good ole southern food, and of course my Gators BUT I now call the sunny state of California my new home and will soon prove that with a new drivers license (and last name)! Doube yay!

Over the last 5 months in this amazing always great weather state, I have learned alot about myself. I have discovered that living somewhere without humidity and barely any rain really can control your mood immensly. I have found that ya'll is THE SINGLE funniest word in the English language to anyone outside the south and that I actually can't control just how much I really do say it. I have learned that there really is a whole different world out there and I have so much left to learn.

This weekend I learned what GAS is used for. That's right folks, gas. This southerner has never used gas for anything (besides making my car go!) and had no clue how useful it truly was. I got home Friday from work and I got this note on my door that my gas had been turned off. Well, you can imagine how surprised I was since I thought I was paying this every month with my rent but I thought oh well, I just won't cook this weekend. Gas stove right? (Like I cook alot!) No biggie. So I figured it out online and made the payment immediately, all of $77 and expected it to be turned back on right away. Later that night I filled up the bathtub and went to jump in and low and behold it was COLD WATER! Now I get it. Gas heats the water. Ok now I'll just wash some clothes. Oh wait stop. It heats the dryer too?! Now I'm just really annoyed! (And quite cold!) Well I have to bathe so what do I do? Ok I got this. I'll soap up and RUN thru the water. That lasted a few times. Then came my next bright idea. I'll heat bowls of water in the microwave and fill up the bathtub! That wasn't a bad idea but it was soon to prove it was a close to impossible idea! Today, I came home and had hot water. I've never been so thankful for my hot water!