Giving Thanks

For Thanksgiving this year Jesse and I were smart and instead of going to where everyone in LA was (ie Disneyland) we went to where they weren't.  Driving down Sunset on Thanksgiving day has to be the best time of the year.  Not a single car.  Well, maybe one or two, but still.

As promised, I waited for Jesse to return before going to see Across the Universe.  So we chose Thanksgiving to see it.  Since it had been a while since the movie's release, it was playing in very few theatres.  The one closest to us was the theatre in the Beverly Center in Beverly Hills. Lucky for us, our theater was empty.  Or at least it was until a family of 4 arrived but they sat on the other side, so our side of the theater was still empty.  The movie was awesome.

After the movie, Jesse and I further took advantage of the empty LA streets and walked to the Grove to look around the stores that were open and see the Christmas display.

This is Jesse's favourite restaurant.  Although the one we go to is in Northridge.  If you come to visit us here, I'm sure you'll get to enjoy yourself like all of our other guests have.

Jesse heading over to The Price is Right.

Unlike my mom predicted (cough, Debbie Downer, cough) our local Ralph's grocery store was open on Thanksgiving.  However, given that we arrived late in the afternoon/early evening, all of the pre-roasted chickens were gone.  So we had to make due for our Thanksgiving dinner and resort to the good old Schneider's Red Hots that were kindly left for us by our recent guest.

Luckily Jesse loves a good hot dog. especially with mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes.

On November 24th, Jesse and I drove to Pasadena for the last UCLA football game of the season against the Oregon State Ducks.  UCLA plays at the Rose Bowl which is a great venue, and it was a beautiful day.  I only wish that we had come prepared with a barbeque and snacks, oh and a truck, because the tail gate parties outside the stadium before the game were awesome.  We wanted to make sure we could still get tickets so we didn't doddle long, but it sure looked like fun.

The Oregon fans.

The UCLA marching band.

The actual game was pretty disappointing.  Both teams offenses sucked and there was very little action.  What made it worse was that we were sitting in front of the noisiest fans in the whole stadium .... and they were from USC, a fact that they made known every chance they could.  

We resisted buying the ridiculously expensive food for a while, but by half time we were too hungry.  I made the trip to the concessions area and came back with something well worth the $7 that I paid:  garlic french fries!  There was so much garlic on them that it burned.  Ed, you would have loved them!  They smelled so good that two other parties sitting near us went and got some for themselves after I returned.

The $6 coke that Jesse bought was not, however, worth the expense.

For some reason it seems that who ever designed the stadium did not take into account the large number of fans when designing the parking lot.  There were over 70,000 people at the game we attended alone, and the parking lot was definitely not large enough.  So the majority of the parking was to be found on the surrounding golf course, a sight which Jesse could not get over which explains the number of pictures he took (I did not post them all).

On second thought maybe the golf course parking was part of the design because it sure made a more comfortable place for the tail gate parties.

Quick Recap

It seems that I have been neglecting this blog somewhat so I thought I would quickly post some of the things we've been up to. It may be short but there will be lots of pictures.

First of all, on November 15th, Jesse arrived back in California with his parents and Bethany in tow. For the weekend we went camping at Malibu Creek State Park. The campground was a little lacking, mostly just an open field, but the hiking was great.










The view along Topanga Canyon road through the Santa Monica Mountains.



Jesse and I biked to the old set of MASH. There wasn't much left.







On the Saturday of their stay, we took a tour in the Jetta through LA. We saw some of the nice houses in Beverly Hills, drove down Hollywood boulevard and saw the walk of fame, and the Hollywood sign. The best part had to be the end of a trip where we got hamburgers at In N' Out. Yum.

On the Sunday the Cressman's headed on their way to more campgrounds and then eventually the long trip home (sans Bethany who we took to the airport on Tuesday). Jesse and I went back to Northridge because I unfortunately had school.

San Diego gets nerdy

A couple of weeks ago I headed down to San Diego for the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG). I was driving down with one of my classmates and our plan was to stay at the house of the father of one of her friends who was gone for a few weeks. The plan seemed pretty perfect: going to San Diego and staying for free in a big house. However, fate intervened in the form of, and I quote, "a rapid, persistent chemical change that releases heat and light and is accompanied by flame, especially the exothermic oxidation of a combustible substance." In other words the Southern California Fires.

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Luckily for me Northridge is pretty much a giant ball of concrete and therefore me and my apartment were not in danger. However, given that the house we were supposed to stay in in San Diego was located east of the city in El Cajon, which if you look at the above map has a little fire icon directly over it, our perfect plans had to change. The occupants of El Cajon were evacuated and therefore we needed to find a new place to stay. All of the hotels within the San Diego area were full of evacuees but we were able to find a room at a hostel located right downtown. We couldn't find a room for the first night though so we had to leave a day later. Therefore on Wednesday, October 23rd, we got up bright and early and left for San Diego at 5 am. The meeting started that day at 8 am and it was supposed to be a 2.5 hour drive. So if everything worked out we would have half an hour to spare. Unfortunately everything didn't work out. Another little fire popped up at Camp Pendleton, which is located right next to the I-5 which was the route we were taking. The highway was closed forcing us to take a detour east to the I-15. This meant driving on the worst detour road given that it was winding through hills and under construction and reduced to only one lane for the majority of it. This lead to us sitting for 45 minutes at a dead stop while we waited for the cars going the other direction to drive through. In the end the trip took an extra 2 hours.

To give you an idea of what the enviroment was like during the fires, I've included some pictures taken on our drive. Now normally the sky would be bright blue. Also, when we opened to windows or were out of the car, I really got a craving for hotdogs.



Although the hostel that we stayed in wasn't a free house, it was actually pretty awesome. It was only 5 blocks from the convention center and it was located smack dab in the middle of the gaslamp district which is the main downtown area. Also, although we stayed in a room with two sets of bunk beds, the other set was empty so we got the room and bathroom and shower all to ourselves.



As for the conference, I found it really interesting and I enjoyed myself. I especially enjoyed the free dinners put on by the drug companies. On thursday night I attended one about lysosomal storage disorders and on friday I attended one about PKU. I was mostly just there for the free food but the talks were ok as well. The funniest part about the whole trip had to be seeing every morning all of these geeky scientists and doctors with their name tags and complimentary ASHG tote bags swarming from all parts of the city towards the convention center. I doubt San Diego has ever been so nerdy. Unfortunately I was one of them.

NSGC Meeting - October 12-16

A couple of weeks ago I headed over to Kansas City, Missouri for the National Society of Genetic Counselors annual meeting. Now I wasn't too thrilled about going to Kansas City, because come on, what is there to do in Kansas City? Well, much to my surprise....not much. The conference was ok, lots of interesting talks about genetics which I of course enjoyed. I especially enjoyed the free food. I went to a lunch put on by the Boulder Colorado Abortion Clinic. Now I know this sounds very morbid, but the premise was surrounding cases of lethal genetic conditions. Anywho, the point is that the food was great. It was a buffet and all my years of church potluck training sure paid off. I took both the salmon and the steak, plus the salad, potatoes and vegetables, as well as the cheesecake and apple pie. Hey, as a student, if the foods free, I take advantage. Unfortunately it would seem that my genetic counselor colleagues are a little more conservative when it comes to free food so I was the only with a piled high plate.

All I knew about Kansas City was that it is known for it's beef. Although that may be the Kansas version, but I think the Missouri one is close enough. There were definitely a lot of restaurants that offered Kansas City Barbeque though, which obviously piqued my interest. Luckily I was able to experience that part of Kansas City culture by going to Jack Stack BBQ. Not to waste the opportunity I ordered the quarter chicken, baby back ribs and sliced beef. I think there may have been some coleslaw in there although I didn't get to it. So I guess eating a lot of meat is what there is to do in Kansas City. Good to know.

I didn't get out much while I was there because apart from the educational sessions and occassional naps (I never caught up from the jet lag) there wasn't a lot of time. I did make it to the Harvest Festival Market so I've included some of the pictures below.

The Summer of Love

This summer Jesse and I attended a bunch of weddings. Since they were all fantastic and I don't feel like commenting on each and every one, I've compiled a top 5 list of the most memorable moments. Here goes.

5. Ben and Becky's Wedding: Succeeding in getting Jesse to wear a tie, thus resulting in us becoming a matching fashion savvy couple.



4. Ben and Becky's Wedding: Reliving Todd and Derrick's rendition of Thuderstruck in all of their Waterloo-Oxford Lip Synching contest glory.



3. Mary Anne and Brent's Wedding: Getting to enjoy Jesse at his finest for one last time before heading back to California.



2. Mary Anne and Brent's Wedding: Procuring the best seat in the house; in the shade and next to Norm.



1. Todd and Melanie's Wedding: Getting Jesse on the dance floor, even for the fast songs, having him stay there until 5 am, all the while with a huge smile on his face thus indicating he was having a good time. I think that this had to be my most memorable moment from any wedding that I have ever attended, and from what I've heard, everyone else in attendance felt the same way.