Road Trip

I LOVE road trips! Just hopping in the car and taking off is what I consider an ideal weekend. Tiana, Howard and I decided this past weekend to take a trip to Solvang, which is a small Dutch town an hour or two away from Santa Barbara. The landscape this time of year is beautiful and I was pretty stoked to spend my last official weekend exploring before the retail holiday monster rears it's ugly head. Yup, I have 4 days off, TOTAL, until January 1st. (not including Thanksgiving, which doesn't really count since I have to be in my store at 5 am the next day.) But I digress...

We intended to get an early start and make it to Solvang by early afternoon....didn't happen. We ended up in San Luis Obispo which is about 3 hours away from San Jose. Howard and I were supposed to meet Madalene and her Howard for dinner, so after a (too brief) Starbucks run, we started to head back to San Jose. We spotted a sign for the San Juan Bautista mission, and decided to stop there to take a look around. This church is located in a quaint little town surrounded by beautiful rolling hills and farmland. The mission itself was gorgeous and had a reverent stillness that I could not possibly catch on camera. I did make an attempt to capture the beauty and essence of this historic landmark. WARNING: The pictures are slightly grainy due to the lack of good lighting and distance between me and the object I was photographing. Enjoy!

front of church

Candles were lit by some fellow travelers

Courtyard across from church

Beautiful original wrought-iron light fixture

Original plaza and stables across from church

Fountain in church courtyard

statue of priest who built the mission

Church bells

Cemetery of Unmarked Graves

Me and Fluffie (Howard's dog)

Tiana and Fluffie

Absentee Blogger

Hello Blog! I've been so busy lately that I'm afraid that I have neglected you! Work has been insane...October, November, and December are hell for retailers! I have had so many deadlines to meet, one after the other, on top of the fact that my budget hours were cut. And there is no end in sight. Management meeting on Tuesday, stockroom tours on Friday, Thanksgiving week/Black Friday....*sigh*. I could go on, but it just depresses me.


On the brighter side of things, I have been seeing potential date #3 for about a month now. We get along pretty well, and things are looking good! His name is Howard (unfortunately the same name as my sister's fiancee). He is Filipino, which is weird because I was positive that I would not be happy with someone of Asian/Pacific Islander descent. We actually have a lot in common, so we'll see where this takes us. I am positive that I no longer need an online dating site to set me up and I have no interest in dating anyone else. The only problem is that I signed up for the three month trial period, so I can't cancel until the end of the month.




In other news, Tiana and I have been living on our own for 2 months now! We still don't have a bed yet, haven't had the chance to go get one. I have been cooking almost every night...I am actually getting better, I think...=) I haven't sent anyone to the emergency room yet!! The drawback is that I have pretty much gained the weight back from my salad binge...I will have to come up with another way to keep the pounds off!