Also I just re-discovered Josh Groban...I forgot how amazing his voice is...you should give him a listen some time...

I went to the farmer's market this weekend with my friend Anne. So many sights, sounds, smells, and tastes all in one place.And the great part is that it's all local. I found rhubarb which means I can make rhubarb cake sometime this week! Yay! I've been having a craving for it...(Rhubarb cake is basically lots of sugar and cinnamon and rhubarb.Yum! You can actually hardly taste the rhubarb due to the sugar and other cakey ingredients.) Actually I'll probably be making more than rhubarb cake since I got quite a bit of the stuff. So excited for that...We also had a taste of ethnic foods from Italy and Latin America. How authentic they were is hard to say but none the less they were delicious. And taste tests there are about as plentiful as at Costco. Awesomeness! I love taste tests...Really good food too. A shame (but also a good thing) that most of the venues only accepted cash otherwise I would have spent waaay more than I did. But it was a good time just to hang out with Anne and chat and enjoy the other's company.

That same day I got to hang out with Victoria and Eric and Jonathan and Mark. We played soccer and hung out at the playground for a while. It's been a while since I hung out with any of them so it was good. I like to change up who I hang out with; it adds more fun to my life. It's been way too long since I've kicked a soccer ball around. The only sad and kinda funny thing is that since I was playing in my bare feet it felt like they had bruised from kicking the ball around for so long. (They didn't actually bruise but they sure hurt for a while afterwards...) I've never had that happen before...So ya. I also watched Inception for the first time. Freaking AMAZING. Also it has a super good soundtrack. Normally I get kinda skeptical when there's so much hype about a movie and then wait till like a couple months or years after it came out and think it only required moderate hype. Not so with Inception. So good. (At least if you're into that particular genre of film).

So ya. Overall just a good weekend to hang out with people and get caught up and just chill. And piece of exciting-I get to see my parents and my sister and my niece this weekend since they're all coming out to the city to visit me! So excited! (Quoting my friend Emily...:)) So ya. Summer is being made good by friends out here and family and just having time to simply be and experience different things. Also I bought Ever After this weekend. I can't find it anywhere on youtube and it's probably one of my favorite chick flicks (not really a favorite movie ever but ya...definitely a favorite chick flick...) And it was for less than 10 bucks. Score! So ya. Now it's back into another week of work and routine. Should be good. Anyway. Have a good one. Get out and enjoy the sun this week!

Zumba!

So the other day a friend of mine convinced me to check out a zumba class. My initial thought was, "What the heck is zumba???" It's actually a dance workout that combines the music of salsa, tango, hiphop, chachacha, among others. I checked it out on youtube and thought, "I'm gonna DIE!" Somehow I was convinced it would be a good idea to go and check it out. So I did.

As a workout, it actually wasn't too bad. I might feel it in the morning though...oh well. It was actually really fun. Once I got past the feeling that the other people in the class were staring at me and thinking how retarded I must look, I was able to relax a bit and just dance uninhibited. Such a good feeling that for like an hour, you can listen to fun music and follow an instructor and forget about everything else that's going on in your life. While there were some moves that I wouldn't normally feel comfortable doing (don't worry it was nothing too terrible, it just stretched my comfort zone a bit...) I was able to forget about it a little bit and do them as best I could. But ya it proved to be a fun way to workout and I would definitely do it again. You should check it out sometime.

Work has been slow due to rainy weather for the last week. I worked with a girl today and we discovered that we know a lot of the same people. I'm hoping I can connect with her more often, especially cuz unless I'm mistaken I think she's a Christian and it would be so great to know that there is another Christian that I can work with. At the very least she does go to church (and one I actually recognized and knew where it was). So ya. It's been great getting to know who different people are and getting acquainted with some of them. Also another girl and I decided that we were going to adopt a character just because it would be fun. So far my character's name is Elizabeth and she is from England, but emigrated to Canada sometime in the late 1800s to the early 1900s. Her cousin is the other girl she was working with for a little while today and she lives in one of the farm houses and is from a middle class family. She may or may not have a brother. I'm still looking for more character development ideas that could relate to the time era. Should be fun, though I'm not sure as to whether or not we'll keep this up all summer but whatever. So ya.

Have a good one and watch out for whales!

I discovered the library this week. So great. I had forgotten what it was like to actually go into a library and pick out a book I wanted to read just for fun. I also discovered that there was an ample supply of relatively new DVDs along with oldies. (Unlike in the library in my hometown where there are still VHS tapes from the 90s and likely earlier...ya usually don't go to the library for movies...) I also obtained a library card...which officially makes 3 different places that I have a library card...nerd much...Though it will take a little while to get used to the layout of this particular library in terms of finding books I think it will be a good investment. And discovered that it's super close to my house which is pretty great.

I also somewhat started doing research for my paper that I have to write for my spring course. Proving to be interesting and crazy (and somewhat heartbreaking) with what you can find on certain topics and how it relates to specific countries.

I had gotten a cross-stitch kit from Wal-Mart earlier in this month and have started to work on it. While I usually try to stay away from buying Wal-Mart products (other than certain food items) I figured I needed something to do with my time and it was cheap. It's turning into a moderately fun project to work on.

Oh and I discovered that biking to Signal Hill is entirely doable. Originally I thought I would have to take the bus up to Sunterra and then down again to Signal Hill which trip would take at least 2 hours. But then yesterday I was checking out a reception hall with a friend for her wedding this weekend and we needed to go to Signal Hill and run a couple errands. Turns out that it's actually pretty simple and closer to home than I expected. H'ray for more shopping options! Though I still probably won't go over there as much but it was still good to find that out.

So ya. That's about all that's been going on. Somewhat of a relaxing week since I don't have to work. It's been good. Though I'm finding it difficult to get outside for exercise and fresh air when I don't have a reason to go outside...bummer. I really do enjoy being outside but prefer to be outside when well there's something to go outside for whether it's going to the store or to a friend's house or to work. I can't exactly use the being out in nature excuse since well it's a city and actually getting outside of the city requires a little more effort and maybe a car and maybe some time...none of which I have...ok I have the time, at least this week, but I don't have the car. So I guess I will have to devise a plan to get outside more regularly and do some exploring for the slightly less city parts and the slightly more nature parts of this city...

Have a gooder and watch out for walruses!

Bus Driver Humor

So this morning I was going to work at a relatively early hour (as in it was around 7:30; this is becoming a somewhat normal time for me to be leaving my house at...) and to get to work I use transit. Nothing too unusual...To get to work I also have to make one transfer which is usually no big deal right. Anyhow. I got on the bus at the place where I make my transfer and show the drive (a lady) my pass. Except that she proceeds to inform me that she's not taking anymore passengers. I kinda gawk at her for a couple seconds, turn to the back of the bus and notice that it's nowhere near full, and look back at the driver, who I'm sure was chuckling to herself by this time. She then laughed and said it was ok. And the rest of the bus laughed right along with her...including me though I was a little embarrassed. Lucky for me I can laugh at myself in such situations most of the time. Gotta love bus drivers with a sense of humor...

Rain and Stars

I walked home from a friend's house tonight. Unbeknown to me, it had rained earlier in the evening and so as I was walking, I couldn't help but notice the amazing smell. It had a fresh crispness-without-being-cold sense and was just so refreshing. At one point I looked up and could actually see the stars overhead. Living in a city it's one of the things I miss the most about small town/country living-looking up and seeing stars and picking out the different constellations (ok so I can only find the Big Dipper and Orion but still...). I used to think/still do think that just by finding the Big Dipper, that I knew everything would be ok. When I worked at Subway I would often get home late at night and before going into the house I would look at the stars. In that stillness, you begin to get the picture that there is something out there that is greater than all of the troubles and difficulties that you experienced during the day and that Someone actually cares enough about you to send His Son to earth to be able to understand human problems. It blows me away. When we are in that stillness, even just for a moment, we begin to understand that God is God.

On a different note...Tangled is a decently good movie though I found it to be somewhat predictable...also I made quiche tonight for the first time and it was quite good and completely vegetarian..(unless you don't include seafood in your vegetarian lifestyle then it wouldn't be vegetarian...but that's just getting technical...)

Anyway. I have also been sleeping in and being on the whole quite lazy in the last couple days so tomorrow will be the day to change that habit I think, starting with costume fitting for work. H'ray!

Have a good one!

Alissa

Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth~Psalm 46: 10