There are some things that you just don’t notice in winter…

Like the fact that the air conditioner is broken.

It was 103 today in Sacramento. I went for a run. Got home about two hours ago and still haven’t stopped sweating. Super sad for sure.

P.S. Is anyone else totally stoked about the temporary gay marriage rights?! I thought it was U.S. Supreme Court decision the way everyone was talking about it, but when I checked the news I saw that it was just the California Supreme Court. All you conservative “family rights” protesters out there still have one more chance to make it illegal. BOO!

 

And then I was all by myself

Tony and Angela both left this afternoon. I also took my two huge bags to my friend Mihir’s house, where I’ll be squatting for a few days before my grand escape. All that’s left here is piles of paper and the few clothes hanging on the drying rack.

And me, of course. It’s so lonely in this tiny apartment all by myself and it’s making me a bit crazy. Just one more day here and then I’m off to Mihir’s though, so I guess I won’t have too much time to lie in bed being depressed. Actually, tomorrow I plan to clean up this apartment a little bit, throw out the rest of the food that I don’t plan to eat at Mihir’s and finish packing.

I can’t believe it’s finally almost time for me to leave. Paris really is such a beautiful city and I’ll be sad not to have the Eiffel Tower only a few blocks away, and history at my doorstep. I really will miss it here, but I cannot wait to be back in Sacramento where I feel comfortable.

I’m looking forward to not feeling like an ugly duckling when I show up in a t-shirt and flip-flops. It’s going to feel great to have my feet free of the confines of these horrid shoes. Oh, and running in the spring. I can’t wait to run again. I’ve become extremely lazy in my last weeks here.

I’m sure you’re all sick of hearing me talk about coming home, it’s just there isn’t much else on my mind these days. I did finish two books this week, which is a plus. That puts me at nine for the year. I’m a bit behind schedule, but I’ve already got six books waiting for me on the hold shelf at the Sacramento Public Library. Cannot wait.

See you all in six short days!

 

I should have brought my umbrella…

I looked outside this morning and thought it looked cold out. But it didn’t look like it was going to rain. I debated bringing my umbrella and decided on a no. That was my first mistake of the day.

The rain gods were punishing me today. For what, I don’t know. What I do know is that there were no rainclouds in the sky, but as soon as I was about to exit my vehicle the rain began pouring down. And as soon as I got back into my car the rain would stop. Coincidence? No. It’s the rain gods.

In addition to the punishment from the rain gods, I was yelled at by some French guy today for parking next to his car. Granted, I was double parked, but there were about thirty other cars parked there too. And I made sure to leave room for him to be able to get out. I guess he was afraid of scraping his crap car on my crap car. So instead he stood outside his car smoking a cigarette until I got there. And then proceeded to lecture me about how I made him wait for half an hour. (I was only gone for 15 minutes at the most). If I had been at home I probably would have said something like, “Well, would you prefer to wait another half an hour while we discuss this or do you want me to get in my car and drive off?” But instead I just said, “Desolée” and got in my car.

Then again, if I were at home I wouldn’t have been double parked.

For some reason though, this confrontation sparked an emotional breakdown for me. As I drove home I started thinking about how much I want to go home and how much I hate taking care of kids and on and on and on until, by the time I got home, I had worked myself into a crying mess. I couldn’t really explain all that to my boss because, really, it was just me being over-emotional. She gathered it was probably the stress from the confrontation with that guy, which looking back now is probably a correct conclusion.

Having already had this kind of day, it was only bound to get worse, which it did….when I sideswiped a parked car. I know, I know, you don’t even have to bother with the jokes about female drivers. It really wasn’t ALL my fault though. The guy was parked illegally on the right and was taking up my entire lane. And to my left there was a giant city bus. So I tried to squeeze between the two and…well, I just didn’t fit. The other car really didn’t look that bad, but my beautiful little car now has a giant scratch all the way down her passenger side.

Oh, and this happened in front of a whole row of stores so all the employees and customers came out onto the street to see what happened and stared at me like I was the devil so I was forced to leave a note instead of driving away even though the other car didn’t even really have much damage. And in it’s own turn, that meant I had to tell my boss about the accident instead of pretending somebody must have hit me while I was illegally parked.

Oh, oh, oh, and then right when I got home today it started pouring down rain. And I mean buckets full. You could hear it on the roof and there was lightning and everything. So I had to walk a block in the rain in only a t-shirt and jeans.

I really wish I’d taken my umbrella this morning.

 

Heat!

So…I have these super old-fashioned heaters in my house. Two of them. One in the main room and one in the bathroom. They look like this:

Old school, yes?

Anyway, when I was sleeping in my sweatshirt and warm socks for the first few days I was here I tried to make these things work, but they hated me. I couldn’t even turn the knob on the one in the bathroom. And the other one just wouldn’t turn on. Luckily, I found a space heater that I have placed directly next to my bed so I can at least be warm at night, but it makes it nearly impossible to get up in the morning.

Cozy bed, or super cold bathroom floor? Um, I’ll take the cozy bed, thank you.

Well, no longer! Today I came home from work and my apartment was miraculously warm and cozy. And then I heard some little clicking and popping noises coming from the main heater. What’s this? I thought. Of course, I immediately ran into the bathroom and tried the knob there just for giggles. And it works too! They’re hot!!!

Apparently in France they turn off the heat for the whole building until October. Maybe to save energy or something. I really don’t know. What I do know is I’ve never been happier to be nearing the month of October. I guess they turned it on a few days early because it’s been pouring down rain for two days now. Maybe some of the other peeps around here started to complain. Me, I just thought it was my apartment so I didn’t see any point in asking about it.

Another reason I’m super happy: I can now cross “space heater for the bathroom” off my shopping list for tomorrow! Woohoo for saving money!

 

New TNB and Book 23 (Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn)

Why is it that I wait all year for summer to come, only to complain about the heat once summer finally arrives?

Seriously, nobody should live in the central valley without at least having a friend who owns a swimming pool. It’s the only thing that can keep my sanity during these smoldering days.

Anywho, I have a new blog up on TNB with one quick and easy tip to help you look thin and feel great. I’m not going to give it away here, so you’ll have to go check it out. Oh, and you can leave me a comment there too (PRETTY PLEASE!).

Also, I finished another book (surprise, surprise).

Book 23 (I’m almost halfway to my goal!): Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living on the island of Nollop, where Nollop is worshipped for having come up with the sentence “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.” One day the “Z” falls from the Nollop monument and it is interpreted as a posthumus request by Nollop that the people remove all words containing the letter “Z” from their vocabulary.

As more letters begin to fall, the citizens begin to become distraught as they must be careful with every word they say or face severe punishment including lashings or banishment from the island.

This book is cool because as the letters drop, the author ceases to use them in the book as well. It gives us a sense of how difficult it really would be to take a letter out of the alphabet, even the seldom used letters like “Z” and “Q.”

The only trouble I had with the book is that the story is told through letters written among family members. I often got the characters mixed up and didn’t know who was who. I felt like I needed to create a family tree to keep them all straight. But if you just ignore who the characters are and pay attention to the story instead, it’s pretty good.

 

Adventures in Trash, Smells I love to hate, and Dumb instructions

Adventures in Trash

As promised, I have posted a review of Book 8 on The Nervous Breakdown. The book was Garbage Land by Elizabeth Royte, whom I had the privilege of interviewing. I also began my own adventure in Garbage Land, and let me tell you there are no Garbage Fairies who miraculously make our trash disappear. But enough of that, you must go to The Nervous Breakdown post haste and leave me some love AFTER reading the post. It will be much appreciated.

Smells I love to hate

So you haven’t left for my garbage post yet, huh? Well, in that case let me tell you about how much I HATE jasmine. It’s the smell of summer and everyone seems to love it because it’s EVERYWHERE and it’s the strongest smelling plant I believe I have ever encountered. In case you don’t know what jasmine is, I have a photo:

In addition to my hatred of jasmine, I also despise the smells juniper and freesia, which are often found in body lotions and sprays. Gro-oss. I tend to like the non-flowery non-fruity lotions. Something that smells clean and fresh, but not like I just stepped out of a fruit basket.

However, I have recently discovered a girly smell that I quite enjoy. And that, my friends, is Tide’s new Lavendar-scented laundry detergent. Seriously, this stuff is heaven.

I totally stole this picture from their Web site. Hopefully they won’t sue me since I was giving them props. But then, you can never trust these big corporations anymore.

Dumb instructions

On to our last topic: I hate when you buy a new product and it has ridiculous instructions to accompany it. Luckily, I didn’t actually buy this product so I can’t be that upset about it. I received it as a free sample in the mail. What is it? Dove’s new Energy Glow daily moisturizer with subtle self-tanners

In the instructions I am specifically told not to apply the product to places I wouldn’t normally want tanned, such as the bottoms of my feet and the palms of my hands. Um, does anyone else here apply lotion with the backs of their hands? I don’t think it would be possible to apply lotion without getting it on the palms of my hands. Perhaps some better instructions would be to wash my hands after applying the lotion in order to keep my palms from looking jaundiced.

Okay, now go to The Nervous Breakdown if you haven’t already been there. Thanks!

 

Spring is here!

The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming, the days are getting longer and it’s time for spring cleaning! I couldn’t be more excited right now. Look what’s in my front yard:

Daffodils are my favorite and they’re right in my front yard! Yes, these exact ones. Aren’t they adorable? So everybody get excited. Spring is here, hiking is here, the sun is here!

PS I do realize it’s not actually spring yet and there will still be rain but when the flowers start showing up it’s really here even if the calendar doesn’t say so.

 

…and the floods went…

I don’t know about Sacramento, but here in Yolo we have avoided any major flooding. Although mudslides are still blocking roadways, some powerlines have fallen and some communities are still partially submerged in water no large-scale damage is expected – at least not today.

I just talked to an emergency services spokesman for my city and he said water levels peaked at 1 foot below the levee and then decreased sharply throughout the night, losing 10 feet of water within hours. So even though there are still several roads closed due to flooding, the majority of us escaped any problems. I hope this holds true for the rest of the region…

 

The floods came…

There is flooding throughout Northern California, with power outages, mudslides and water-logged roads causing major problems in many cities. I-80, I-505 and Highway 16 have been closed in the areas closest to my home and sandbags are being filled like crazy here. But this should come as no surprise to anyone living in the Sacramento Region. Although we haven’t had flooding since 1998 (the year of El Nino), it was bound to happen again and it’s because the city was built on a wetland.

Yes, precautions like building levees and digging out overflow areas have been taken, but can we ever really subvert what Mother Nature wants? I think not, especially when we’re covering the land, which used to soak up the water, with pavement and houses. Of course your house is going to flood.

I’ve always thought about this during the rainy season here because people complain so much about the rain and the flood water, but do they honestly expect any different? Just because Sacramento doesn’t look like a wetland/flood plain anymore doesn’t mean that it isn’t one.

I do hope that everyone makes it out safe though. Here in Yolo emergency workers have been evacuating families since early yesterday and moving the elderly from retirement homes and nursing homes to higher ground and non-flooded areas. Every town surrounding me has suffered major flooding and instead of being out there volunteering to fill sandbags and help displaced people, I’ve been out to the levees and driving around looking for stranded people so I can interview them for a good story. It’s no wonder so many reporters seem so jaded, like me.

But I do feel I’m providing a public service. I’ve been writing about this flood since days before it happened and giving the people the information they need to know in order to get out safely. Because of newspapers and news channels people know who they should contact, what they should prepare, where shelters are, where the floods will happen first and when they should get out.

Well, that made me feel a little better at least. I know some of you have been out volunteering to help with flood victims and filling sandbags and I commend you for your efforts. I hope the levees hold up. From what I saw yesterday, they don’t have much hope if the water gets too high because the waters are flowing so fast and the wind and rain is only getting worse.

For those of you who don’t know what a levee is, it’s just a big wall of dirt along the riverbanks to serve as a speed bump for the water when it gets too high. Cache Creek only has one more foot to go before it makes it over the levee, which is fine. The real problems start when the levee gives out and there’s no speed bump there. To reinforce it they were putting thick plastic, called Visquine, over the levee so the dirt won’t wash away and they were holding them down with more than 3,000 sandbags. All done by volunteers and Dept. of Water Resources workers.

For information on what you can do to prepare or help click:
Sacramento Red Cross
Yolo Red Cross
American Red Cross