This weekend came as a much needed break after a fairly hectic week. Perhaps as a result of my emotional Pisces nature, I try to make a conscious effort to feel and show gratitude for everything and everyone I have. And of course, you, reading this right now, are probably also one of the people I love the most, so thanks for being around :-) That being said, my sympathy is with those friends who lost someone they loved last week, be it baby, uncle, or father.
Work started off with a splash on Monday when one of the housekeeping staff hit a sprinkler while cleaning (an empty) patient room. Only 2 telemetry monitors and 1 computer-on-wheels were injured in the water eruption, but MAN that place was like a rainforest - humid, WET, and smelling weird. (One can only assume a place as wet as the rainforest is smelling a little funky, right?!) Tuesday, I experienced my first California earthquake, which was much less exciting than the one in Maryland last year. In fact, I wouldn't have even known it happened if someone hadn't told me! I just thought my cell phone was vibrating my chair! (and in fact, as I'm writing this Monday night, we had another one today too!)
The rest of the week was thankfully pretty uneventful and led to fantastic weekend with Beth and Phil in San Diego. As always, every meal was AMAZING; I ate fro-yo 3 days in a row (a little ridiculous, I know...), tried a 50/50 burger of half bacon/half beef, drank a delicious new beer (banana bread, SO YUMMY), and of course, no trip to PB is complete without Fish Shop's fish tacos. Seriously, they're addicting.
Believe it or not, in between all that eating, we did manage to get out and actually DO a few things too :-P Friday, Phil and I took a walking tour through PB. There were tons of people laying out on the beach and surfing because it was so hot and sunny! On the walk home from the beach, I did a little shopping. After a long day of walking in the sun, we spent the rest of the evening relaxing!
Saturday was all about the ZOO! If there's one thing that's pretty unique about California compared to many other states, it's that you can find every climate and type of weather possible here: snow, rain, fog, palm trees and beaches, deciduous trees and forests, desert, etc. So it's only fitting, then, that the zoo features animals from every climate too, even though they're all living in the same one - hot, sunny SoCal. The lynxes can live in cold up to -70 degrees F and they're living in 70+ degrees! We all ended up with pink cheeks and TIRED. Phil flew home Saturday night, while Beth and I watched Argo and Pitch Perfect... hilaaaaaaaaarious. I love a good acapella comedy!
Thankfully Sunday brought some cloud cover so we could hike without fear of more sunburn! Beth took me to Mission Trails Park for a hike, which was pretty cool. TONS of trails and lots of people hiking, running, and biking. It's definitely a sweet place to mountain bike... wish I'd discovered it sooner!
Sunday afternoon I got all my hair chopped off then headed home, where I met my new roommate - nice and normal, woohoo! Overall, a fabulous week with fabulous friends!
Despite not getting much sleep after the drive home from Anaheim, I still made it to Joshua Tree National Park today to use my new National Park Annual Pass! It was a perfect day for a few desert hikes... sunny and warm, but not unbearably hot. There were a lot of people out, but none of the trails were very crowded, which made for a peaceful and quiet day in the beautiful high desert of southern California.
Hike 3: Barker Dam... The dam was built to help with a water source for the cattle being used in the area. Sadly, there was not even a drop of water in sight today, but you can see on the rocks that the water did get pretty high at one point!
