I was browsing the local weekly paper, as I do, when I saw that the Harvest Festival in Arroyo Grande was coming up. Then I got online, as I do, to see what more I could find out about it. AG knows how to throw a Strawberry Festival, so I had high hopes for their Harvest Festival. In my wildest dreams I would not have imagined how awesome this festival is. There is really only one thing you need to know: They have Weiner Dog Races. Weiner... Dog... Races. Picture it. Go ahead. Picture those itty bitty legs pumping as fast as they can while those floppy ears trail in the wind.
There was no way I wasn't going to this. And, of course, Trixie wanted to go too. And so did my Mom. So we all drove out to Arroyo Grande on Saturday and stood on the sidelines to cheer for the racing dachshunds. As you might expect, not all pups were in the mood to race, so some of them walked a few steps and then just stared at everyone. A few made a break for the finish line. Some ran a few steps, stopped, ran a few steps, stopped, etc. And honestly, I have never heard such intense cheering at a local sporting event. Sadly, I do not have photo evidence of this. I know! It was so crowded that I watched the whole thing through a gap between a woman's floppy hat and her husband's shoulder. So you'll have to trust me, it was magnificent. I did take a picture with a tractor though. You're welcome.
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"We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm, and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if we only seek them with our eyes open." ~Jawaharal Nehru
Have a great weekend everybody! If you keep your eyes open, you can find adventure anywhere... Like on a random LA street across from a Burger King. MJ want YOU... to find adventure.
*Mural by Mr. Brainwash Let me share with you a recent conversation I had...
Me: Are there any record stores in Santa Barbara? Justin: Why? Me: I want to look for some used CDs. Justin: You still listen to CDs? Why don't you just download what you want? Me: [silence] Justin: What? Me: *evil eye* I'm sorry, digital?!?! I'm not saying I don't have any digital music. I'm not saying I don't have an mp3 player. But nothing compares to flipping through a pile of CDs, pulling out the one you want, and sliding it into the CD player. I realize the fact that I treat my CDs as if they are prized vinyl might seem a little ridiculous, but I was born in 1980. Sue me. I want to look at the track listing on the back. I want to recall all the beautiful memories that the cover art evokes. I want to take out the little booklet and look at the lyrics and then wonder why the always gets caught when you try to put it back in the case. It's all part of the experience. When I'm shopping, I want to hear that plastic clacking sound when you go through the racks at the record store. I want to hold the music in my hand and take it home with me. Don't even get me started on ebooks. So lately I've been craving record stores. I want to devour them disc by disc. When I go out of town I always check to see if they have a place that sells used music. Since record stores aren't really a big thing anymore (sad), the ones that are left are usually pretty cool places. After the Grammy Museum, Erik and I felt it was our duty to then visit Amoeba Music in Hollywood. Surprisingly, Amoeba has only been there since 2001, but it became an instant landmark when it opened. Think Empire Records, but on steroids. When we walked in we were instantly overwhelmed. We quickly went over our mental lists of what kind of music we like and what artists we were looking for because we knew that as soon as we crossed the threshold we would forget everything. Which is exactly what happened. I know I like Hootie and the Blowfish and I wanted Cracked Rear View, but do I also like Perry Como? Do I want his Christmas album? I just don't know anymore! Where's Elvis?! Erik was pulled into the movie soundtrack section, while I ended up in reggae and soul. We could have stayed forever; rolled out our sleeping bags right there in the aisles and moved in. Except that my nasty sinus cold was making my energy fade faster than a one hit wonder. I knew our time was limited. As I finally made my way to the register with my copies of Bob Marley's Legend and Michael Jackson's Michael, I heard, "Will the guy who was looking for Bachman-Turner Overdrive please come up to the front, we found the CD you wanted." I laughed. This place is awesome. www.amoebamusic.com Okay, so there was no way we were going to top yesterday's Dapper Day on the fun scale. There was no point in even trying. But Erik and I did want to hit up a few other LA activities on our way home from Disneyland last weekend to keep the party going. First stop: The Grammy Museum. Sightseeing is kind of one of my things. I can tell you about all sorts of random sites in many different cities yet, for some reason, I didn't know the Grammy Museum existed. Either that or I knew about it, but it didn't get saved into the old memory bank because I didn't find it interesting enough. I've been on a big music kick lately though, so now it's very interesting. I love the way life works sometimes. I used to get excited about watching the Grammys every year. Then I got less excited. Kanye West ruined a lot of things for me. But in my heart I love music and was looking forward to seeing what the Museum would share with me. Plus, I had a Groupon, so yay! The Grammy Museum is literally across the street from the Staples Center, which was weird, but also kind of cool. If I had more time (and money) I might have gone into the NBA store to get some Lakers knickknacks. Go Lakers! So the first thing that happens at the Grammy Museum is they send you to the top floor. You step into a dark elevator that lights up neon blue when the doors close (it felt like being inside a Vegas cocktail) and then you step out into a room lined with TV screens playing various Grammy acceptance speeches. Down the center are a row of Grammy awards from various years showing how the design has changed. By the way, those suckers are huge! When winners joke about how heavy they are, they're not kidding. Then it was on to a whirlwind of jazz, blues, and Donna Summer. Everything was interactive so there were a lot of touch screens and headphones everywhere. If you had the time, you could learn an entire music history course worth of information. One of the interactive maps even had a picture of NSync on Florida, which made me laugh. [Insert bff shout out here]. My favorite thing was a tie between the mini documentary on the evolution of pop music and Donna Summer's dresses. Did you know she also paints when she's not busy being the Queen of Disco? I didn't either. On the third floor was a giant white Grammy statue, a Michael Jackson display, a row of red carpet dresses, a tribute to Pepe Aguilar, and stalls where you could learn how to mix a record. Of course my favorite thing was getting to see the red Thriller jacket up close. It looked like it probably would have fit me... Second floor: California Dreamin' - The Sounds of Laurel Canyon. Uh oh. I didn't want to spend too long on this exhibit because it might re-awaken my sixties folk obsession. Not that that would be a bad thing, but I'm in the middle of other phases right now. I don't have time to fight the urge to wear bell bottoms and flowy tops and listen to Buffalo Springfield! I just don't! I was lucky the second floor also had a gift shop to distract me from the Mamas and the Papas. You know how I feel about gift shops. (I lurv them). I ended up buying a postcard, a pin, and a couple of guitar picks to commemorate the occasion. Then it was back out onto the scorching streets of Downtown LA. Psst. Hey. Yah, we weren't supposed to take pictures, but you know how sometimes your phone just randomly takes pictures of your pocket or the ground? I think that's what happened... To learn more, go to www.grammymuseum.org
Last week Erik and I celebrated what may be my new favorite holiday: Dapper Day. First of all, it combines two of my all-time favorite things - Disneyland and dressing up. Second of all, I support anything that brings back the word "dapper". Twice a year (once in the Spring and once in the Fall) guys and gals get all dolled up and go to Disneyland. Thousands of dapper ladies and their fellas roam the park looking fabulous and since Disneyland is really just a giant work of art, dressing up sort of adds the finishing touch to Walt Disney's masterpiece. The first time I heard about Dapper Day I got Adventure Butterflies. These Butterflies (similar to the falling in love variety) create a tingly, excited feeling deep down inside that you have just discovered something magical, something that you were always meant to have in your life. I believe I was meant to be dapper. As much as I LOVE Disneyland, one of the pitfalls of going on a non-Dapper day is that there are 1.3 million strollers clogging every pathway and people in unflattering shorts and fanny packs around every turn. Nothing against fanny packs (okay, everything against fanny packs... stop wearing them right now please) or strollers, but they don't exactly make the best background scenery for photos. You're standing in front of the teacups smiling away and when you get home and flip through your pictures, you notice what looks like a group of escapee tourists from NASCAR or Gatorland right behind you. Nice. But this doesn't happen on Dapper Day! It's glorious! People who aren't dressed up look at you like you're a celebrity and cast members wish you a Happy Dapper Day. You walk around with an extra spring in your high-heeled step and pat yourself on the back when you are able to find a ladylike way to climb onto a giant inflatable tire that floats around on an air cushion. It is so. much. fun. For your viewing pleasure, here is a taste of my Dapper Day Vacation Album. Enjoy. Check out www.dapperday.com for more fun pics or follow @dapperday on Instagram
Remember in 4th grade when we had to build a model of a mission? Oh, I guess this was probably just if you lived in California. Unless 4th graders in New Jersey built California missions for school projects too. I don't really know... When I was a kid my parents took me to all sorts of sites, including many, many missions. I enjoyed them, but by the time I was a teenager I was kind of sick of them. The same thing happened with me and trees. These activities were fun for a good long time, but then I wanted something more urban and exciting out of my travels. Bring me LA! Bring me Vegas! But it's okay, because we repaired our relationship and now I love missions again. And trees. And botanical gardens. I can't resist a nice botanical garden. Miss T's parents came from the same explorers' mold that my parents did and was taken far and wide as a kid too. Now we're adults and have taken our own kids to the missions (and dragged them all sorts of other places), but there is no rule that says two grown women can't go to La Purisima by themselves. Is there? After our recent hotel adventure, we wanted more, so when we heard that our closest mission was having Purisima's People Day we thought that nothing sounded more adventurous than watching people dressed up in 1800s mission people clothes doing 1800s mission people things like making candles and weaving and grinding corn. Welcome to 1822... We started off in the soldiers' quarters where a nice young soldier told us all about his room and the adjoining jail. The best part was clearly going to be getting to go behind the bars that normally keep people out of the various rooms. Usually it's "You can look, but don't touch" and now it was "You still can't touch, but you can look at things at much closer proximity and without the bars that give the not-so-subtle impression that we don't trust you to keep your hands to yourself every other day except today". Next we talked with a chatty weaver who showed us how wool was spun and a chatty baker who showed us the ovens where her bread would have been made. We even got to taste some of the homemade loaf with butter, which was a nice treat. Then we got to see actual roast chickens being taken out of an actual working adobe oven and served to actual men who were dressed as soldiers sitting at a table. They were really going all out with the who re-enactment thing - it smelled so good. I never thought I'd be jealous of a man in a heavy wool coat on a hot day, but I was. I wanted his chicken. I wanted it bad. Back outside we watched a group of women making candles and I got to help grind corn for tortillas. After that we only had two goals left. 1) Find the room the Ghost Hunters investigated on their show and 2) go to the gift shop. We found the "haunted" room first and took some pictures to see if we could capture any ghostly lens flares. Sadly we didn't. I think Miss T was disappointed. She would have loved to send a video to her boys of a ghost sitting on the bed or a pot floating above the nightstand.
I was happy enough visiting the gift shop and not seeing a ghost. It was 1,000 degrees inside there, but I was determined to pick up and examine every handmade item they had. I have to say, seeing the mission populated by historically accurate characters did make the whole experience more fun. And I mean, come on, I got to grind corn. If someone asks you if you want to run around a golf course having handfuls of colored powder thrown at you, the answer is always yes! Because adventure!
Last week I signed up for my first ever Color Run and I recruited my friends Susi and Michelle and my Dad (the only actual runner among us) too. We giggled in the backseat being driven there by a parent when we are, for all intents and purposes, adults ourselves now. We, of course, wore our Color Run shirts and had colorful, rainbow socks and sunglasses and hair accessories. Okay, my Dad opted out of the colorful accessories, but he did wear the shirt. There was a palpable, amped-up energy everywhere we walked as people checked their phones to see how close we were to the starting time. We watched as groups of moms in tutus walked by and we laughed as groups of college guys in tutus walked by. Everyone was feeling the spirit! We drank some water and pretended to stretch, as one does. Before we even knew what was happening the race had begun and we were off and running! Everyone was laughing and jogging and when we passed through the first color station we all ducked our heads down involuntarily to avoid to powder. As if that were possible! Every time someone would get hit with a color bomb there would be an accompanying burst of laughter which almost made you forget that you were technically running a 5K. Almost. We ran all around the golf course. We also trotted around the golf course. We also walked around the golf course. We also dragged our feet slowly across the golf course. I'm sorry, but we're just not runners! But we got some exercise, we had a blast, and we raised money for charity (I think). At the end of the race, just past the Finish Line was the after-party. Hordes of tired bodies were given a new boost of energy as Avicci blared across the field and we all danced and got shot with even more colored powder. What a ridiculously wonderful adventure! When Adventure calls and says, "Hey, I know it's the middle of the week, but how about a free hotel room on the beach?" you say yes. You don't take a moment to weigh you option, you say "I'm in!" Because adventure. I can't tell you how this happened (it's a mystery), but I can tell you that when I got the email confirmation the first person I called was Miss T. She knows an adventure when she sees it and didn't hesitate to accept my offer of a free night at a fancy pants hotel. So we threw a couple of overnight bags together, I swung by to pick her up when I got off work, and we headed for Pismo Beach. This is what we were met with: Score, right?! Miss T and I ran around exploring like we were a couple of teenagers who'd never been away from home before. "Omg look at the cute little fridge!" "Did you see the fire pits with the shiny rocks?" "Ooh, palm trees!" Of course we had seen all of these things before (we're not full-fledged hermits, after all), but they were extra exciting because a) they were free and b) we had no reason to be at a beach-front resort on a weekday but we were doing it anyway which made us feel like a couple of frivolous celebrity-types. We could get used to this... Our main objective for the night was to simply hang out, gossip, and relax. We considered going dancing. We considered going to a bar. We considered a lot of things... from the comfort of a poolside lounge chair. The chair won. So did the TV. The next morning we woke up to the sound of waves crashing outside and got up for our free continental (who else loves that word?) breakfast. The food was average, but the view was amazing and because of that I had the best bagel with cream cheese of my entire life. The sun wasn't in the mood for socializing, but that didn't stop us from doing a little more exploring and chillaxing. We eventually had to check out (nooooooo) and even though I didn't really want to go to work, I was sure in a great mood for the rest of the day.
My mom recently loaned me her copy of the book 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker. I know, I'm a sucker for social experiments. I can't help myself.
"Do you feel trapped in the machine of excess?" That's what the back of the book asked me when I picked it up. "Not exactly," I said. "But you have me intrigued. Do go on." Then it told me that Jen Hatmaker wanted to simplify certain areas of her life to not only cut down on excess, but to leave more room for God. You see, Jen is the wife of a pastor. But let me tell you right now, she ain't your typical preacher's wife. The way she writes is thought provoking, but also so, so funny. There was this whole thing about bread vs. tortillas in the Food chapter that made me laugh out loud. Each month she would only use/consume 7 things, depending on the month. 7 foods, 7 clothes, etc. Hello, of course I wanted to try this! But since I'm kind of in the middle of my own social experiment here (having many adventures... of which this is one) I planned a mini version. Instead of a whole month for each seven areas of excess I did a business week. Want to know how I did? Read on… WEEK ONE: 7 FOODS Mission at the Beginning of the Week: Eat only chicken, sweet potatoes, avocados, spinach, apples, eggs, and whole grain bread. Recap at the End of the Week: Remember how I was all, "I read this book and now I'm only going to eat seven foods for a whole week and simplify my life and stuff and won't that be fun?!" Yah, it was fun for all of, like, five seconds. Monday started off pretty good. Grocery shopping was super easy because there were only seven things on my grocery list and I got all excited because limiting my scope of choices made me more creative with my menu planning and cooking. Monday and Tuesday I made omelets and soups and sandwiches and even a sweet potato apple stuffing. What?! I have a friend who calls this "chef-ing out" and I totally chef-ed out. Oh, and I also ate forbidden cookies. Oops. I pretty much ate all the cookies that were leftover from Lego Movie movie night and started referring to them as “Evil, Delicious, Sugar Rectangles of Sabotage”. They didn't have frosting and M&Ms on them, but they definitely weren't 7 approved. I felt guilty for a second and then I remembered that for several months last year I couldn't eat any food (zero things) and life is too short to not eat cookies. By Wednesday night I broke completely. I inhaled three fistfuls of M&Ms and drove to Jack in the Box where I waited in the drive-thru so long that I became delirious and ended up ordering tacos and then screaming "Nooooo!!!" as I pulled away from the speaker because I realized I had forgotten to order them without lettuce and I hate warm lettuce and now I was going to have to remove the lettuce when I got home which meant I wouldn't be able to eat them in the car and they would still be covered in lettuce essence. I could smell the lettuce as I drove home. The tacos were mocking me. I ate one taco in front of the TV and then stared at the second and thought What am I doing?! I threw it in the trash and microwaved some chicken and sweet potato apple stuffing which I should have just done in the first place. Stop the merry-go-round, I'm getting off. I liked the seven foods, I liked the simplicity, but I just wasn't feeling the week as a whole. I thought I would be better at this… WEEK TWO: 7 CLOTHES Mission at the Beginning of the Week: Embrace a reduced wardrobe by only wearing seven items of clothing for a week. Recap at End of the Week: Before choosing which seven items I would commit to for the week I counted exactly how many individual items I own, just like Jen did. When I got to the last piece and came up with the number 250 I kind of freaked out a little even though Jen had 327 and didn’t even seem that fond of clothes. I will say, though, that while Jen spent too much money on clothes and often left things hanging with the tags still on, most of my clothes were things I had made, bought from a thrift store, or had owned for at least a decade. And I wear them all all the time because I love to dress up for life. So don’t judge me, okay? Plus I added a donation element to this week that Jen didn’t Anyway, a few things you should know: Jen says two pairs of shoes count as one item Undergarments do not count toward the total I am going to wear a bra as little as possible anyway I'm sort of on vacation so I (unintentionally) picked the best week ever to do this I chose: 2 pairs of jeans (same blue, different length) Shoes (one pair navy Converse, one pair cowboy boots) Brown tank top Thin white button-up Blondie t-shirt Workout outfit My list kind of looks like what a 5-year-old would pick out if she was told to choose her wardrobe for a week. I had to look nice for two of those days (white top, cowboy boots) and the rest of the days I just wore my Blondie tee. I counted my workout outfit as one thing. And I allowed myself accessories. Sue me. So how did it go? Well I forgot to wash my t-shirt Thursday night so I just decided not to get dressed at all on Friday. Because I'm super dedicated. Two weeks in and I've noticed something. This whole experiment encourages living with less, which I am all for. I'm always trying to cut back on how much stuff I have, but I think you have to find a balance. There are two things I have thought about while shunning excess: 1. Life is short, so if I want a cupcake I'm gonna have a freakin' cupcake. If I want to accessorize the you-know-what out of an outfit, I'm gonna do it. I want to enjoy life. 2. While blind excess is wasteful and unnecessary (and we should definitely be grateful for everything we have and not take anything for granted) I think it's okay to have a few things that are important to you. For example, I'm not going to worry about having too many CDs or too many tubes of paint. I'm just not. And that's okay. WEEK THREE: 7 Possessions Mission at the Beginning of the Week: For a split second I thought, "Wait, I can only own seven possessions?" Turns out I just had to get rid of 7 things each day. Piece of cake! Recap at the End of the Week: Jen relieved herself of literally hundreds and hundreds of things during this month. And instead of just donating them to Goodwill, she found real homes for a lot of them. For example, she gave household items to a single mom starting over. I ended up freed myself from 37 of my possessions (two over the goal), all the while imagining what it would be like to have to live in a 200 square foot tiny house like on that show Tiny Homes. I got rid of tote bags, CDs, books, buttons (pins), more clothes, hats, random kitchen items, a few bath products, and some hair accessories I never used. AND I did try to find some of them homes. Of all the items I found homes for, a neglected green flower pot was my favorite. I bought some snazzy new flowers, planted them, and left them on my neighbor's doorstep with a note that said, "From Rebecca and 7". WEEK FOUR: Media Fast Mission at the Beginning of the Week: Create a personalized media fast Recap at the End of the Week: I have a problem and it's name is Smart Phone. So for my Media Fast week the main target was my cell phone. Up until last year I had a regular old phone that just made calls and sent texts. I saw how glued people were to their phones, checking them constantly, and I didn't want that to be me. Because, see, I know myself. I knew that if I got a phone that went on the internet it would be all over. I was so, so right it's almost embarrassing to tell you how right I was. Jen went for the whole month with no TV, no video game systems, no social media, no apps, no radio, no texts, and no internet. My terms weren’t so drastic, but they maintained the spirit of cutting back where these outlets are having a negative affect. For example, I kept playing my Wii because I waited 31 years to get one and I use it for three things: dancing, playing drums, and playing tennis. But I did plan to cut back on my internet/phone usage and cut out extra mindless web surfing (on phone or laptop) and only use the computer for work. I planned to limit my TV to the unwinding evening hours and I only check Facebook, email, etc. once a day. Before the week even started I unsubscribed from a ton of email and unfollowed some negative people on social media to have a clean slate. Then Monday came. Here’s what happened: Monday: Did not check my phone first thing when I woke up. Triumph! Checked my email and social media only once. Had major Facebook withdrawals around 6pm. Treated them with S'more Pop Tarts. Tuesday: Did not check phone first thing in the morning. Victory! Checked email and social media once.... and then once more before bed. Wednesday: Did not check phone first thing in the morning. Winning! Also, for third day in a row, did not turn on the TV until after 5pm but came up with many good reasons to check things on my phone multiple times. Thursday: Completely forgot I was supposed to be on a media fast. Friday: Good morning, Facebook! Okay, so I knew going into this that it wouldn't be so much a media fast as a fast from excessive media consumption. I didn't like checking my phone right when I woke up in the morning, but I was addicted. I didn't need to check Facebook 78 times a day. I didn't need to watch Kelly & Michael while eating breakfast. I didn't need to grab my phone every time a commercial came on while watching TV in the evening. And, honestly, I did feel better not doing these things. Of course, I'm typing this while watching Kelly & Michael, so it's not a perfect conversion yet. Favorite things about the week: Phone-free mornings and less TV/more music Least favorite things about the week: Facebook's powerful hold on me and my phone-checking OCD WEEK FIVE: No Waste Mission at the Beginning of the Week: Recycle… or something… I wasn’t really paying attention because school started for the new year. Recap at the End of the Week: Wow, could I be any worse at following 7? During Jen's No Waste Month, she recycled everything and composted and planted (well, maintained) a garden and shopped second hand and drove only one car. Hey wait, I drove only one car! Sure, I only own one car, but whatever. And I always shop at thrift stores. And I recycle. And... Yah, I pretty much sucked at this week. WEEK SIX: 7 Spending Mission at the Beginning of the Week: Only spend money at seven places. Recap at the End of the Week: I could have told you five days ago that I would only shop at Target and Dollar Tree, which is exactly what happened. Yah, I pretty much did NOT suck at this week. So there, Week 5! WEEK SEVEN: Rest Mission at the Beginning of the Week: Rest, based on the 7th day being the day of rest. Recap at the End of the Week: I rested. Yay, I’m done! It was a crazy ride and even though my 7 barely resembled Jen Hatmaker’s by the time it was done, it was fun to try. I’m still all for shunning excess because I feel happier when not weighed down by unnecessary stuff, but life is about balance and that’s ultimately what 7 reinforced. Now back to adventure brainstorming! |
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"Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the sooner we will be able to treat life as art." Archives
December 2018
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