Room 2.0

I have a new found appreciation for everything that goes into decorating a house/apartment/room... Kayla and I came to L.A. with basically nothing, and we really hadn't improved upon the situation (aside from the floral couch and emerald green chairs - thank you very much to kayla's grandma) until Julie arrived. Its not that I hadn't tried, I just didn't know where to begin! I couldn't un-pack until I had a dresser so that I knew what I was going to need to store in the closet and under the bed, and I couldn't pick out a dresser without picking out a desk and a bed because they had to match and I couldn't pick out a duvet cover because I didn't know what anything else in my room was going to look like! Are you getting the picture? It was overwhelming to say the least... then Julie arrived. One morning I left for class and the same afternoon I come home to FURNITURE! It was awesome.

SuperDiamond

Kacy, Elaine and Patti arrived in LA on the 8th... they were supposed to land around 1pm but after a crazy day of weather and delays I ended up picking them up around 8pm. Since they were originally arriving in the late afternoon, we (Julie, Kayla and I) decided to surprise them with tickets to see a Neil Diamond cover band, called SuperDiamond, at the House of Blues in Hollywood that night. Their delayed arrival meant we were cutting it close so we ended up going straight from the airport to the House of Blues, they changed in the car while I drove (what troopers). The band was... interesting - I wish I could have taken some pictures (priceless) but cameras weren't allowed inside. Kacy, Elaine and Patti had been up since about 2am (LA time) so we sent them home early but Kayla, Julie and I stayed and had a great time singing 'Sweet Caroline' at the top of our lungs :) Here we are waiting for the valet:

Julie's Trip to LA and San Fran

My trip to CA was split between visiting Paige in LA and then visiting Steve, Brenda and the little ones in San Francisco. I started in LA with Paige. I went to help her get her new place set up, to show her some of my favorite LA spots and to help her buy some essentials for her apartment. We had a great week, including going to see "Superdiamond" a Neil Diamond cover band! Paige, Kayla and I were among the last people to leave the House of Blues that night. I went rollerblading everymorning on the beach and we had some great meals at my favorite LA restaurants. I then went up to see the SF Seligsons and the cuteness of Isabelle and Marshall in this video is more than I could ever explain in words!

Studying

LA Marathon

The LA Marathon was this past Sunday and I volunteered at the water/Gatorade station at mile 25. We were told to arrive at 7am but when I got there we had to wait to set-up until the 'bike tour' was done. I wish I had known about this bike tour beforehand! It turns out that they open up the course for a bike race on the morning of the marathon... I use the label 'race' loosely, as the vast majority of bikers were just out to take advantage of the street closings for a cool tour of LA which is something that I would definitely be interested in next year. Anyways, once the bikers were done we set up folding tables lining an entire block and then packed them with cups of water and Gatorade so that we wouldn't have to worry about filling once the race started. It was fun to see all the different groups go by (handicapped, pro men, pro women, mortal men, mortal women, etc) and it made me a little nostalgic for my cross-country days, but not so much so that I wanted to be racing - by the time the runners got to us they looked like they were more than ready to be done! The exception to that rule was the lead pack of runners, they flew by us at somewhere around a 5:20 minute mile pace - let me put that into perspective by saying that when I ran cross-country our races only lasted for THREE miles, my personal best time was 18 minutes 55 seconds... that would put me at about a 6:20 minute mile pace and you will just have to trust me when I say that no one would have described us as "graceful" by the end of a race ;) These guys (and girls!) were not only running much faster than we ever did, they were running more than EIGHT TIMES as far (26.2 miles)! And they made it look effortless! It was worth volunteering just to see them. Here is a picture of one of the leaders passing our water station:

Best Wishes!

john has had haircut issues lately as well...

Deja Vu