I Pack Up My Belongings and I Head for the Coast.

Here are some pictures I have taken since getting my new camera at Christmas.

You couldn't see any of the pier deck because there were layers of sealions across every inch of it!

I know these guys look grey, but they are actually California Brown Pelicans.

Trying to figure out how to snag a spot up on the pier.

No room on the pier, guess we'll have to sleep on the rocks!

Looks comfy!

You can't really see them very well but this is like a whole raft of sea otters. There are at least 100 of them in the area, but none got close enough for me to get a good picture of. We are hoping to go out kayaking at this place before we leave and will try and get pictures of these cute little guys up close.

You're looking for a starfish in this picture. It is purple and has bumps all over it.

This is some kind of weird fish that washed up on our beach and Mom dazzled us with her story of finding it and how we just had to go down and see it because it was "like nothing she'd ever seen before." We found it and said, "Huh, is this it? I thought it would be bigger. Isn't this just a flying fish or something?"

Little Sand Pipers.

It's the California State Flower: the California Poppy!

Dad and Boyfriend on one of our walks through the campground.

One of the campsites.

The worst part of going down and walking on the beach or in the campground is then you have to hike up this big hill to get home.

Still hiking up the hill.

We get lots of mushrooms on the trail. About a month ago we had really big ones that were bright orange/red with white spots on them. If I find any again, I'll be sure to get a picture because they were really pretty.

As Boyfriend and I were doing the loop walk yesterday, we came to this part of the path that gets pretty foresty on either side, I was just about to remind him how Dad and I had once seen a coyote or something in the bushes there, when something ran across our path! I think it was a coyote, as it moved like a dog, but then I got a glimpsed of its tail and it was kind of bobcat like. We came across some really, really fresh poop about 5 feet down the path, but coyote and bobcat poop seem to look a lot alike, so we can't be sure what it was. Either way it was pretty neat to have a spotting like that in the middle of the day!

Yesterday Stretched on For so Long, Tomorrow Feels Like Forever

Busy times around here.

Friday afternoon I got a call from our property management company that basically let me know that our status for staying in our house was back up in the air, which is not what I wanted to hear less than a week before I was leaving, and after being told earlier in the week that it was pretty much a done deal that we'd get to stay so not to worry about packing or cleaning up! Friday night we went down to see Turk and Stylez. I made fish tacos for them at their place and some really good peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. I hoped they thought the fish tacos were ok, they had never tried them before and they had never had the soft corn tortillas before either. All night long their house kept filling up with pot smoke because their neighbors were burning it off by the kilo it seemed like for some reason. They had a fire going on in the backyard and smoke was billowing high up in to the sky and it was definitely pot that they were burning but I have no idea why they would be throwing it on the fire like that. Anyway, it was a fun and mellow night and I always have a really great time with T&S because they are great people. They are funny, have similar tastes to us, and are really genuine, warm and caring people. Stylez gave me a mission to bring her back the most chocolatey+peanut buttery thing I can find from the U.S. I already have at least one thing in mind for her.

Saturday morning we went out to this cool cafe for breakfast and then headed back to the Coast. We quickly ran in to look at storage units in case we need one later in the week and then I went in to see the Hairdresser and she made me look beautiful. I said to Boyfriend, "I feel so much prettier when I come back from the Hairdresser's" and he said, "Yeah, you do look prettier!" Haha, he really put his foot in his mouth on that one, though, I know what he was trying to say and it was sweet. Tinkerbell came in to get her hair did (yes did and not done) while I was there and I was glad to see her one last time before I went home. We were all going out to dinner later that night, but Tinkerbell, the Farmer, and Junior were going to have a night at home as they had had a big night before and Junior didn't let them get much sleep when they did get in. At about 6, we all (LC, Bob Marley, baby Lo, the Runner, the Smooth Talker, Croc, the Teacher, the Soccer Player, the Hairdresser, me and Boyfriend) met up for dinner at a local Chinese food place. LC and I have been wanting to try it for ages and though, the food was good, the service was pretty dismal so I don't think we'll be going back there anytime soon. I got a hug from all our friends, except for Bob Marley who forgot I was leaving this week, as we were going home and it hit me that I wouldn't see them again for four months. I got a bit teary eyed in the car because I knew I'd miss hanging out with all of them while I was away, plus I was bummed that I wouldn't be there to see the Soccer Player and the Hairdresser's baby just after he/she was born and to obviously see them in their role as brand new parents.

Yesterday, I spent the day packing my bags and then we drove up to Newcastle to see the Redhead and his girlfriend. You may remember me mentioning the Redhead ages ago on here and asking for any interested ladies to contact me. No one ever did, but in about May I think, he met someone and they are going great. They are even taking a trip to Fiji in February together...I wonder if it's an engagement trip already??

Today was spent frantically trying to clean the house a bit and tick off things on the move out list that the property management company had sent over. I got the windows done, blinds dusted (which was a huge job as they were caked in red dirt from the dust storms), and oven and stove top cleaned up. I also baked a pasta dish, made chicken stir fry, and two batches of "Nicole Richie Chicken" to put in the freezer for Boyfriend while I am away (he's spoiled and not much of a cook). Then tonight we headed over to Boyfriend's Pa's house to have dinner with him, as well as Boyfriend's parents and brother, Bob the Builder.

The past four days have been crazy busy, but I'm glad that I've squeezed in seeing everyone. As I leave each group of friends or family, I reflect on how lucky I am to have each person in my life and about how I'm going to miss them like crazy for awhile. It is so great to have a mix of Boyfriend's family and our friends to make up a feeling of family for me while I'm here.

And while I will miss everyone a whole lot, I am also super stoked to see my Mom and Dad, Nae, and any and all the friends who have promised to pay me a visit!

I'll try and post again on Thursday morning (Wednesday afternoon U.S. time) before I head off for the airport. It will probably be a dramatic post, telling everyone I love them and dividing up all my worldly possessions between Boyfriend and my family. I hate flying! In the meantime, I'm going to keep cleaning the house and hope that the real estate person calls back with news tomorrow that we can stay in our place and I'm going to try and find some kind of herbal (no, not the kind of herbal I mentioned earlier) remedy to help calm my nerves about flying.

You Oughta Know

I'm a little worried posting this...you might read it and never come back! I guess it's a risk I'm willing to take because I thought it was fun and funny to write and hey, you guys deserve to know all about the big dork I really am! So here it goes:

10 Things You Didn't Know About Little D (aka 10 Things You Didn't Want/Need to Know About Little D)

1)I hate flying. It's two months out from my trip home and I'm already thinking about the flight and dreading it. When I book flights I think to myself "Am I sealing my fate? Did I just pick the one flight that week that is going to go down? Should I rebook? But then what if that's the one that goes down?" I used to be prescribed Xanax for flying because I get that nervous. I'd still take it, but I don't have anyone to prescribe it to me anymore. Weird habit for someone who chooses to live thousands of miles away from their family, thus ensuring at least two 14 hour flights home a year, right?

2) I freak out in crowds. I hate people touching me, being too close to me, blocking my way when i've got things to do...whether it's picking out movies or grocery shopping, I panic or get really pissed off and it's a toss up on any given day which it'll be between panicked or pissy. This amuses Boyfriend to no end and he sometimes laughs about how frustrated I get and other times he's really nice and can foresee when the crowds are going to get to me and gets me out of the situation as quickly as possible.

3) I became a vegetarian for a few years starting at age 11 because Jonathon Taylor Thomas did an interview in Teen Beat or some magazine like that where he said he'd only ever date a fellow vegetarian. I didn't know when or where I'd meet JTT but I wanted to have at least that one thing going for me if we ever did meet and he suddenly wanted to date me!

4) I used to have OCD (self diagnosed, but whatever, minor detail) as a child, probably around the age of 10-11 and everything I had to do had to be even....if I ate a bite of food and chewed it on my left side, well then my right side and in the middle had to have a bite chewed there as well. I had to eat an even number of chips or crackers or whatever, I had to flip a switch 2 times or 4 times, but never 1 or 3 times....I wanted things to be fair and I didn't want to hurt these inanimate objects' feelings....One day I finally realized that my little ticks were taking over and decided to try and stop them. I still catch myself from time to time moving different bites of food across my mouth so that things are fair and even, but for the most part I was able to unteach myself my OCD habits. The one thing that I still do(and it's funny given my love of all things being even, I think it has something with me wanting life to be fair and my Mom telling me constantly when I was little that "Life's not fair.") is that I have to wake up on an odd numbered time...the number has to end in a 1, 3, 7, or 9....I even leave out the 5 because it's half way through 0-9. It's the one habit that I just can't shake.

5) The first big concert I ever went to was the Rolling Stones with my Mom, Dad, and Nae when we were probably around 12 years old. It was at Dodger's Stadium and we had seats on the field pretty close to the stage and I thought the whole thing was so neat, but me and Nae kept complaining about the "funny smelling smoke" all around us!

6)For my 18th birthday I asked my parents for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young tickets and that's what we did...Me, Mom, Dad, Nae and Nae's boyfriend at the time went and rocked out and it was really special. I went through a classic rock phase (I still love it, just don't have it on repeat like I did then). I also used the song "Teach Your Children Well" as the song on my Senior page in the yearbook. (I've also seen Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton, Neil Young on his own, Paul McCartney, and James Taylor over the years and about 100 other bands that aren't classic rock.)

7) I was on the yearbook staff my Senior year and it was really fun and I got to meet some good people and use 6th period as a time to just hang out, though I probably should've worked harder and actually met some deadlines.

8) The only school dance I ever really had fun at was at Senior Prom and that's because I went with my whole group of friends finally and my date was a really good friend, the Captain of the High School Football Team. I was really late to our meeting spot and he was really frustrated as I was holding up the whole group, but when he saw me he said the best thing ever, that "he couldn't be mad at me anymore because I looked so good." Swoon! We had a great time: he said something silly to me as our photo was being taken so I love our picture together because I've got the biggest smile on my face, we danced a slow song together but weren't together together so I was free to mingle with everyone and take pictures with a bunch of friends and not be glued to his side the whole night or expected to dance with only him, and at the end of the night since we weren't having prom night sex he serenaded me with this reggae song that I always used to love how he sang and then we partied it up and spent the night together (but once again, not together together) at one of our friends' houses with the whole group.

9) I have the biggest mouth in the world and am awful at keeping secrets, though I really am working on it this year and so far I have 3 secrets from various people that I've managed fairly well to keep secret. Boyfriend and Nae both laugh over my big mouth and commiserate with each other about how their embarrassing moments are never kept private. Oh, and I really talk how I write; there are constant asides that I go off on (just like in these parenthesis) and I'm sure it's hard for the average listener to follow along with, but I get so excited and sidetracked and caught up in details. Though I am a fairly concise speaker when I need to be, like in front of the class because I wouldn't want to confuse the kids. I also talk a lot and it drives Boyfriend and my family crazy. They pretty much think "Do you ever draw breath?" but I can't help it. I've got a lot to say and limited time with my family so I gotta get a year's worth of talking out in 3 months and I can't help it if I get a sudden burst of energy or thing of something really awesome when Boyfriend and I get in to bed at night and just have to tell him before I can fall asleep! Sometimes I like to sit back and just listen, too, to everything that is going on around me.

10) I have a blankie. It's not one that I've had since I was born; my Mom got it for me the first Christmas after I moved to Australia. It's sky blue and has snowflakes and penguins on it (I love penguins...we call them pengoos, Boyfriend and I, is that lame in general? Is it lame couple's talk? Probably on both counts but at least we don't call EACH OTHER Pengoo or Snuggle Butt or whatever, right?). It's a little throw blanket and it's down. It's the best blanket to have on the plane cause it just covers me and means I don't have to use the icky airplane blankets (I've heard stories and you really don't want to use airplane blankets). It's also warm in winter and cool in summer and a great blanket to lay on the couch with. It's a security thing because it reminds me of my Mom and home and being loved and wrapped up in a big hug, but I'm not Linus from the Peanuts...I don't take it to work with me or school with me or hide it in my purse or drag it behind me at the shopping center, but it is nice to come home and throw it over me at the end of a long day or to throw over my shoulders at night in bed for just a little bit of extra warmth.

Ummmm, ok, so are you ever coming back again now that you know the dark, dark secrets of my soul? Do you think I'm a freak? Oh well, if you're reading my stuff, you'd might as well know the real me and not just some bright and shiny version. So in summary, I, Little D, am a bad flyer, angry in crowds, a vegetarian to get boys, a reformed OCDer, a concert/classic rock nerd, as well as a yearbook geek (though actually really cool/popular girls from my class were on yearbook), a hater of all school dances in memory minus Senior Prom, a big mouth who can't keep a secret and who talks until her face turns blue, and I'm Linus lite. Stick around if you dare. If not, I understand and it's been nice knowing you! Hah!

But really, things might start to get a bit more interesting around here over the next couple of months because we've got another Ikea trip planned for next weekend(really, this is exciting/interesting to me...we don't have a lot of fun stuff on the Coast, can you tell?) plus a wedding in Terrigal with the whole group, and I've just booked my trip home for the end of October and will actually be celebrating my first Halloween in 5 years! (I told Boyfriend today that we have to raise our kids, should there be any, in America because, really, it's cruel for kids to miss out on Halloween. It's not very big here, no costumes or trick-or-treating...how depressing and that means I won't have any kids' Halloween candy to raid some day!) In the meantime, Boyfriend and I have to decide whether or not we are keeping our little house to rent for the next year or whatever and if not, where we will store all of our stuff until I come back and we find a new place together. There will probably also be a recap of another tearful goodbye between Boyfriend and I, as well as a post to all of you in case I die on my flight home (remember Confession #1?) and then a recap of the crazy people I was forced to sit next to on my flight to San Francisco. Then the process of finding a job and hopefully working lots of hours until Christmas and then Boyfriend coming to California and all of our adventures there this year. There will probably be an influx of posts about me suddenly wondering why I miss my family so much while I'm in Australia because they drive me nuts when I'm home (Mom and Dad and Nae actually had this conversation when they were out to dinner the other night..."I will love being home for a week and then I will hate everyone" haha). I'll also probably have lots of pictures and recipes to share soon because I cook a lot for my parents when I go back home (mostly because they are pretty bad cooks, sorry Mom and Dad but you know it's true, Nae would agree) and Nae is a pretty awesome chef and baker, as well, so I'll share her awesome Thanksgiving and pie and lemon bar and cookie recipes. So keep checking back in and if these posts aren't exciting enough for you guys, then remember you can email me or leave me a comment on what you would like to see me write about instead.

Hope and Validation

We're a little bit behind the times down here in Oz. Today's Oprah episode is from the day after the Presidential Election! It's neat to sit here and watch it and get that excited buzz all over again; to remember that moment when I had a little part of changing history. I did a mail in ballot and had to read up on all the Props in California to make sure I was voting the way I wanted to. I was deeply disappointed when Prop 8 (aka Prop H8te) passed and disappointed again last week when it was upheld, but I figure maybe we'll get it right the next time it comes up for a vote. But I was also glad when my fellow Californias voted for Prop 2, which meant livestock (chickens, pigs, cows, etc) had to be caged/stalled in a humane manner from now on.

I will never forget sitting on my couch in my apartment in Newcastle for 5 hours straight watching the Australian coverage of the election. My heart soared each time a state was called for Obama. Boyfriend and everyone at his work was watching it online and we'd constantly message back and forth as news came in.

When the election was finally called in his favor I remember feeling so much pride in my country. I remember crying out of happiness, probably the only time I've done so in my life up til now. I remember calling my Mom and her screaming in the phone because she was so excited and us talking about how big this was. It was an amazing moment. Watching John McCain give his concession speech, I was proud of him as well because he did it with grace and without bitterness. Then when President Elect Obama got up there I was a mess of tears again. "Yes, we did!"

So I know that we're behind the times in TV here and I know this post is months too late (though this damn show has me tearing up all over again!), but I wanted to tie it in to that message of hope that President Obama stands for...

When was the last time you felt hope or thankfulness? Like really felt it? Up until yesterday I can say that I don't think I had felt hope since the election. I had been thankful for all the big things in my life, but how often do we all overlook the little things we have to be thankful for?

I was out on a walk between storms yesterday and was overwhelmed by the awesomeness around me. The lake was like a mirror and reflected all the different colors of the clouds overhead in it, the air was fresh and clean, and there were so many birds flying around me: kookaburras laughing, white and pink parrots screeching, little purple, orange and green lorikeets screaming from the trees, huge pelicans trying to steal fish from the fisherman on the bridge, and the tiniest little song birds flittng around in the trees that I could only see when I stopped walking and watched them dart from branch to branch.

It was then that I began to feel hope for things that have been bothering me lately because of all the little things I was thankful for. I know I'm getting in to some hippie-sounding crap here now so totally, if this isn't your thing, skip this posting and the next one will for sure be lighter, but if not and you want to stick around reading, I'd like to share with you all the things I am hopeful for and the things I am thankful for. I'd also like to challenge you to think about the own things in your life that could do with some hope and all the things you have to be thankful for. It's amazing how much doing these two little things can lift your mood!

Hopes:

I have hope that I WILL get a job.

I have hope that I will be able to stay in Australia with Boyfriend.

I have hope that everything will work out.

I have hope that things will get better....money wise, housing wise, job wise

I have hope that Boyfriend and I will someday get married and that we will be able to figure out some of the things that stand in our way (i.e. where in the world to live?)

Thankful for:

As always, my amazing family

Still having a little bit of money in my bank account

Having a roof over my head

Having a boyfriend who loves me heaps

Having a great 2nd family of Boyfriend's family and friends here to support me

That if I did have to leave here my family would welcome me back with open arms and help me in that transition back home

And then there are the things that are so easy to forget to be thankful for:

Being able to see so that I can see all those amazing birds I hear in the trees

Being able to hear because I love music so much

Being able to walk and not having any types of other physical or mental disabilities

The fact that I've been able to live in another country for over 4 years

That I have been able to travel the world before I was even 25 years old

So that's it for me trying to be all deep/cheesey and stuff...I'll get back to posting junk food recipes, tv show reviews, and travel adventures now!