Room vs. Keely

  I have four weeks until I move. FOUR WEEKS. Do you know what that means? No? It means packing. It means cutting back on crap you don't need. It means--ugh--decision making. I hate playing favorites with yarn! I hate to part with any yarn or scrap of fabric that I might need in the someday future (but probably not really). So today after I got home from a less than stellar day at work, I walked into my room, placed my hands on my hips, and surveyed all that I ruled over, trying to decide where to start first.

   If my room were a country, it would be the landfill of the world. Or perhaps a hippie country that didn't get the memo that its not cool to leave everything on the floors of your streets. Either way my room is a disaster. I could give a teen a lesson in how to really make your room insanely messy. My bed is probably the cleanest part, as I usually pull the covers up because I love my quilts that I made laying on top of it, and like to show it off to myself. In reality, its probably a volcano waiting to explode. Clothes, yarn, fabric, knitting needles, books, make up, and here and there a knitted blanket carpet my floor. At least the mess is colorful and also soft right!?

     I SHOULD probably start with my books--since I have so many of them--but really, I'm just putting them in trash bags (much more space saving in cars than boxes), and what if there's a book I want to read!? I thought about the yarn, then realized it was going to take time (and lots of it) to decide which ones were going to be voted off the country of Keely. Fabrics are pretty well in hand, as most of them are in bags already and don't need much organizing. The thought of the two boxes in my closet from when I first moved back home called to me, reminding me I probably needed to throw away most of what was in there. But when it dawned on me that doing so meant more decision making I quickly fled my room to the safety of my computer, where the hardest choice  would be which Pandora Station I was going to pick.

    So now I sit here, procrastinating and amusing people at the same time, all the while doing a great job of ignoring the fact that I'm going to have to start packing--and therefor firming the fact that I will be moving in four weeks into the land of the unknown. My only consolation is that the land of unknown is the land of coffee, trees, and beautiful gray skies. So my first decision as president of my country called Room will be clothes and blankets. Because its summer now and I don't need half the blankets on my floor. Although they did make wonderful rugs!

     

Country Road Take Me Home

THESE ARE ALL PICTURES I TOOK

People often say that 'home is where the heart is'. But people also say that we're 'a product of our environment'. I believe both of these things equally. Some people are born or live in poverty, where a cardboard box serves as the dinning table, but love keeps the family together. Some live in apartments the size of shoe boxes, and others live in nice suburban condos and town homes. Throughout my life I've lived through many different forms of homes. But my first home, the home that shaped me, formed, and made me who I am today is Modjeska Canyon.

    It isn't a very well known place, even to people who live all of four miles away from it. It is tucked at the very foothills of a mountain range, and as a child it was considered so far out of the way that we had our own general store in case some one ran out of basic goods and couldn't get back into town (which due to only having one road, took about half an hour to get to the nearest city). But progress happens and now there is easy access to it through off shoot roads that lead directly to it--and cities have been slowly building around it as well. But Modjeska is still a magical place that gets bypassed since the neighborhood itself is so deep and well hidden by winding roads and Live Oak trees. But for those who do know it, its the most enchanting place in California.



    Modjeska has good and bad memories for me, ranging from catching tadpoles in the creek that snaked next to my house in the summer, to staying up till 3 in the morning at the local Biker joint while my dad sobered up from drinking and playing pool before sticking me on his Harley and driving me back home down the winding road perched on the side of mountain. But most of all, Modjeska holds for me the example--and even the bar--of what a good community is, and what living with and working with nature REALLY means.

Most people who lived there during the 80's were artists, musicians, hippies, free spirits, and occasionally an actual job holder. I recall more often than not, that I could go to anyone's house or yard and play with their animals. People (even now) raise a lot of animals, grow their own food, and add their own artistic flair to the homes, which are all individually made and preserved. But more than the homes, gardens, and animals, were the people themselves.




    Often times every one knew who I was--even if I didn't know them. They watched me even if I didn't know it, and my next door neighbor always let me and my sister enter her house freely and insisted that we sit in her chairs and eat cookie dough saved just for us before letting us go to her backyard to pick her blackberries. The neighbors that lived a few houses down were musicians, and on hot, lazy, summer evenings the whole canyon echoed (thanks to the mountains and trees) with their banjo, spoons, and guitars--along with any other musician who would amble by to join in. BBQ's were frequent and so were people who simply stopped their cars in the middle of the tiny main road to talk to neighbors. There was never anger over this, in fact I recall a time when that happened to my dad and the people who were both trying to come AND go, got out of their cars to join in the conversation and catch up! In the fall and winter the community got together to scare the children for Halloween, and had Santa stop by to deliver presents to every boy and girl at the Christmas party held in the Fire Station.

   My dad, while not always diligent in watching me, taught me many valuable things--some of them by simply not being around. It took me a very long time to realize the reason he never played with me during the day was because he was drinking, but I was very young, and busy playing in nature. I frolicked through the streets and trees completely safe, took care of my babysitter's horse (who sadly died when the river rose during a rain storm and dragged her horse and several others into the raging waters), and played with my dogs who were always on my heels. He taught me to respect nature,  that all plants had their own voices, that animals who hurt us did it not because they hated us, but because we frightened them. To be gentle to the earth around us, and through stories, to believe that animals could talk.

    Most of my summers were spent up in the hills unsupervised with the other children, where we did daring things like walking on a narrow wall behind the fire station, climb the ancient oaks that protected us from the  glaring California sun, and roam wild in the hills and mountains that  were probably more dangerous than we gave it credit for. Kids growing up in the area learned this first: "If you hear a rattle, stop and walk backwards slowly heel to toe". The other was to always have a dog at your side. You couldn't find a kid who DIDN'T have one. I had three, but two of them in particular were my shadows. They protected me, slept with me in the dirt, and taught me how to recognize if a sound meant danger or a rabbit. And more than that, they taught me that animals had personalities and thoughts and feelings just like any one else, they just communicated it through nonverbal behavior. It was this, I think, that made it so easy for me when I was older to recognize what people were really feeling.
 
These memories and more are what shape my opinions today. That community is when neighbors contribute to each other, share, laugh, grow, and support. That we do not have to destroy nature and try and rebuild it into what we think is 'perfect', nor are cookie cutter homes and manicured lawns the 'ideal'. That letting  children explore the world and nature around them without gluing them to you is vital to their growth, and that when you are alone, sad, happy, or over come with emotions, the babbling brook, bending ancient tree, and gravel road remind you that you have a friend in both nature and the person next door.

MY VERY FIRST HOME

    I leave for a new state, a new life, and new people in four weeks. There is a lot that I am not sorry to be leaving, but Modjeska tugs at my heart very much. Being so far away from the home of my heart is more painful that saying goodbye to my friends and family, who can uproot themselves and visit me. An entire forest and mountain can't. But I take with me my memories, pictures, and myths and legends of the land I spent eight happy years in.

    I learned many life lessons in the multitude of different homes I moved to, but Modjeska taught me the most important ones. Respect nature, listen to the plants and animals, take care of your neighbors, and always ALWAYS remember that to the 400 year old trees and 40,000 year old mountains, you are still a child of the earth that should frolic through their trees and fields.

             Thank you Modjeska, for giving me a childhood that was filled with magic, music, and love.

Halfway there and all I see are hills

  Hello blog-o-mine! I hope you haven't been too lonely without my sparkling words to feed you! In other news (since you have none to give, as you're not real, and therefor have no life), lets talk about me! Because that is why you were created!

   In four or so months I will be moving--hopefully--to a new state with a new job and a new life. I can't say I'm scared by the prospect, because getting out of California actually sounds really amazing the more I think about it. But as I'm a girl and prone to ever changing moods, I've lately been feeling some anxiety over moving. Most of it is money related, with a dash of  'oh-god-will-I-really-be-able-to-get-a-job!?' and a sprinkle of  'I-don't-want-to-leave-my-friends.'

   In a world where family is rapidly becoming no longer defined by the people who give birth to you and more about the friends who stay with you, loosing my friends is more of a set back than anything. I've lived on my own before and family help was simply my mother saying 'deal with it' and my kind but poor father saying 'I wish I could help...'when the hard times came. My friends where the ones who helped me through my darkest moments and my happiest triumphs. And finding friends like that is hard no matter where you live I suppose. But having to move and NOT have that support there...THAT is a scary thought.

   But to swing the pendulum the other way, I have a clawing need to break free from the state that I'm in. I've outgrown this fishbowl of a city, and I can tell because I've recognized patterns that I used to have a teenager emerging--and I'm not liking it. I used to be better than I am right now--I used to be wiser and more sure of myself. Which is yet another reason, why I need to move. I have so many emotions coming at me all at once and from every direction that I don't even know how to sort it all out. One thought does keep running through my head though: 

    Am I the person I need to be to make this move? 

    I guess that's something I'll just have to figure out at it comes. I only hope I CAN be that person when the time comes.

Common Sense Misses Again!

You know that adage 'look before you leap'? I have learned this lesson all too well today. I WOULD be mad that I just spend 12 dollars on a product that I thought was going to work only to find out it might be bad for me, but really, it was my fault. I should have read before I bought. Or perhaps I should have seen the sarcasm in the words that were written about said product. Either way I can't get mad because it was my fault for not fully reading the article.

   So what is this terrible thing I've wasted my money on? Soap. That's right, soap. Its from Japan, and its name is AHA Soap. Underneath it, it says 'mild chemical peeling soap'. Now, I really want to get rid of my top layer of skin. Why? because it has some things on it that I could really do away with (like larger pours awkwardly gracing my cheeks). And since I didn't want to spend 500 dollars doing it I thought 'well, why not with this soap! Twelve dollars is a lot cheaper!' Supposedly this soap burns your skin raw and 'peels it'.

   Or that's what I thought. Turns out, it simply make your skin dry to rawness. Not fun, and it sounds painful right?

    Unfortunately for my face, my curiosity has gotten the better of me, and I find that since I've already spent my money, I might as well use the product! And if I went the inch, I might as well go the mile right!?


So here is my before face:


(Awww, aren't I cute...and...purple)

aaaaaannnnd here is my after face:



      I'm not sure if it fully shows it, but my face wasn't too bad at all! It was pretty pink on my cheeks, but I didn't feel the burning sensation that your supposed to feel, and my skin didn't feel overly dry or red. So this leaves me with several hypothesis.

1) The girl in the article just has really sensitive skin

2) I should have left it on longer

3) My skin is so bad that it needed a stronger chemical

4) The company has revamped its line and the soap is now 'milder'

   But other than that, no harm has come to me so I think I'll just keep using the soap until something adverse happens.


                   Oh yes, I'm living my life on the edge.....

When Good Times Go Wrong

     The morning started out great, just like any normal morning in the life of a normal person. I had lunch with a friend (peruvian food should be served EVERYWHERE), enjoyed the wind, and got my math homework scanned and started. Even class for Sign was wonderful and useful! And then it happened. IT happened. 

    Class ran late, and I fearing that I would be VERY late for my next class that is a good 20 something minutes away, began driving and swear---I mean swerving as I tried to get to my destination on time. Only mild traffic tried to stop me, but I easily side stepped it by taking a surface street. I managed to grab a parking spot, making sure that I had the paper I had written around 1 in the morning for this STUPID class was safely tucked in my binder, and then sprinted up the stairs despite the wind and cars that purposefully ignore the walk ways (and the people walking on them). As I get to the class room I become puzzled. 

      That isn't my teacher. First of all, my teacher is a GIRL. 

'A sub?' I thought to myself. Then I looked at the students. They didn't LOOK like my class. Puzzled I checked the number on the door. Why yes, this WAS the right room. What the heck was going on. 

   And then BAM! It hit me like like a bird hits a window, its Wednesday. MY class is on Thursday. So basically, I studied and wrote a book and worried allllllllllllllll of last night for NO REASON. NONE. Now I'm doing math homework which I actually DO have to stress for thanks to a quiz! So now I have two nights of stress, one which was not needed. Crap. 

   In other news, Things That Amused Me Today: 

- A man riding a chopper and clenched in his mouth was the LARGEST cigar I have ever seen! Strike that. I saw one as big as that one once. In a cartoon. 

-A license plate on a HUGE SUV that translated into "Crazy for kids!" Really? I couldn't tell by the large gas guzzling car your driving around. 


-A cat staring at me from the back of a car window. I wish MY cat could be trusted to run free around in my car.

Driving Etquette in the O.C.

I drive by this all the time!

    You've seen the commercials, you've swooned at it in the movies, and you can't WAIT to drive on it. I am of course, talking about the California Highway. The PCH (Pacific Coast Highway, for those who are not from SoCal) is one of THE most filmed roads in America. You see the winding roads that are sided by sparkling blue oceans,  beautiful rolling hills of coast brush and interesting sandstone. The lone car is shiny, sleek, and the people in it smile gaily up at the camera as they zip along the coast. 

   If this is what you pictured, then you are seeing Hollywood magic at its most powerful. Contrary to popular belief, it is also one of the more deadlier roads along our 'pristine' coast. If you are intending to move to SoCal, please, let me be the first to warn you: We (yes, I include myself in this one) are INSANE drivers. If you think taxi men blaring their horns and saying F********K you! is scary and stressful, try getting into a fender bender with a man whose car makes your 'expensive' SUV look like it belongs in a trailer park. 

     That being said, here are some things to remember when driving the freeways and surface streets of Southern California. Remember, people here are rich, and they get most of their money from suing out of towners like yourselves from your 'lack' of driving knowledge.

Freeways:

-When merging you DO NOT SLOW DOWN. You speed up to the normal speed of 80mph as fast as humanly possible. Not doing so will result in cars PLOWING INTO YOU. I hate to tell you, but as a SoCal girl, we KNOW when you're not from around here (your license plate doesn't even need to be from out of state). Politeness is NOT our strong suite on the freeway.

-The speed sign may say 60mph/104 km, but 75/125km to 80/128km is standard. If you go in the fast lanes (The two far left lanes) you will get honked at, and people will zoom around you, get in front of you, and then slam on their breaks. I've seen it done more times than I want to say.  

-Get used to people riding your tail--its so common here no one even CALLS it that. 

-We DO NOT slow down to enjoy the beautiful beaches, craggy sandstone cliffs, or palm trees. Its hot, we have places to be, and WE NEED YOU TO FREAKIN' MOVE! For your own safety, pull to the side of the road if you want to take pictures.

SURFACE STREETS:

-Unless you see a sign that says 'do not turn on red', you are free to make right hand turns. Waiting for the light to turn green WILL result in some one getting out their car and screaming at your window, or them blaring their horn until you move.  I wish I were kidding.

-The sign may SAY 45mph, but most people go the allowed limit of 50, if not more. Get used to it. And if you DO want to follow the speed limit, stay on the right hand lane which designated for old people, newbie drivers, and out-of-towners like yourselves. 

-Get used to people weaving. That is pretty much what you learn to do as a teen here. Its a weave or be weaved world here in SoCal. Did I mention we have places to be RIGHT NOW? 

-If you slow down to let some one get in front of you, also making a waving hand to motion in the direction they can do so, is a good thing. This will result in a FRIENDLY encounter, and if you get lost, they might even be willing to point you in the right direction. And all from a hand wave! Who knew!? 

   To conclude, SoCal drivers are NOT mean per say--unless your driving slow (aka, following the speed limit)--but the sun DOES make drivers agitated, and we get A LOT of sun here. People in SoCal have places to be (where I have no idea, but it must be important since they're driving there so fast. Maybe they need to get to a Starbucks?), people to see, and don't have time for your 'following the rules' crap. Now that you are armed with this knowledge, you will hopefully use it to your advantage if you decide to visit  here.

Yay and Nay

Alright! Since this world is filled with things that make people happy and sad, here are the things that do the same for me!

Things I say 'yay!' at:

-Getting a full paid trip to Utah to Skii with the family I babysit for, and GET PAID FOR IT (and here I was worried my life was turning dull and monotonous. Shows how much I know!)

-Waking up before ten (I'm so proud of myself!)

-Waking up and thinking 'damn I look good!'

-tea!

-My mom finally understanding the signs for 'who' and 'where'


Things I say 'nay' at:

-Becoming dangerously low on tea.

-My cat Soji, for thinking my hair was yarn and trying to eat it

-Not finishing a book when I REALLY should be


And that is my list of Yay's and Nay's today!