a cold, cold birthday weekend
The weekend has been far busier than I expected, and I'm only now getting the change to sit at the computer and write out some thoughts. So much has happened in just three short days!
Friday:
Gerry greeted me at the door with flowers after work. So sweet! I sat down immediately to finish hemming a dress for one of my girls who needed it for Winter Formal the next day, and then when I finished, Gerry and I decided to go get some cheap drive-thru food and bring it home to relax with. But that's not what actually happened.
Instead of In-N-Out, he pulled up at Claim Jumper and took me back to the party room where there were 14 of my California friends waiting! We had a super dinner together, and great conversation. I was given some gifts, and several people had written birthday cards for me that had meaningful and encouraging personal messages. I've never been so blessed by birthday cards before! This night was great because it finally "clicked" in my head that people truly welcome me here, and that California really is home now.
Saturday:
For a couple of weeks now, I've been seeing a snow-covered mountain range out the window at work. Well, that is before the midday smog rolls in and completely obliterates the view. So when Gerry and I decided earlier in the week to go check them out in person, I was excited.
We got a pretty early start, considering that it was Saturday. A quick stop for breakfast at my favorite SoCal eatery, Bagels & Brew, and then we were on the road. There was good traffic for much of the way, and I was surprised to reach the base of the mountains in just an hour. Then up, up, up we drove. It was a really scary road, with dropoffs, hairpin turns, patches of ice, and clouds below us. I told Gerry he should enjoy the view since I was driving and couldn't, but he was unable to look out without getting sick. So he napped.
Even though I'd checked ahead of time and there was no snow chain or 4-wheel-drive requirement for this weekend, we kept seeing signs advising us to have snow chains on hand. Was this trip the right idea, in my little Matrix? The sign that really spooked me said: Must Have Chains In Possession: No Exceptions. Err... We weren't planning to drive off road or anything, and the plows and salt trucks had done a really thorough job on the main road. But we had no chains. Go? Turn back? Go? Turn back? Go? Turn back? Such a dilemma...
We went anyway. Next time I promise that we'll borrow chains from someone.
There were signs of recent rockslides on the mountain side of the road, and I actually spotted three mid-sized chunks of rock bouncing down the slope and onto the road. Most certainly disconcerting ... I actually thought about death by a rock smashing through the side window, and talked to God for quite a while about this.
After a while, we came to a really thick traffic jam. It barely crawled. Seriously, it took two hours to go 15 miles from that point. It was most frustrating, and I was in a foul mood by the time we hit Big Bear town limits. I had to pee so badly, and the morning's coffee was giving me the shakes.
It still was 30 minutes before we crawled to a little market where Gerry and I piled out of the car, glad to stretch. He was ready to start throwing piled snow, but I marched into that store looking for a bathroom. No luck! AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGG! Bought some trail mix, and eating a handful of that helped to calm me down immensely. Then Gerry drove until we came to some public parking and the grail of all grails, a public bathroom. Thank you, Jesus!
And then it was time to play!
When I discovered that the top layer of snow could be scored and pulled up in brick-like chunks, I decided to build a small fort. Such fun, working on that fort. It wasn't very fortified, though. A three-year-old named Danny took out one side with a well-place snowball ... but then his mom made him help me fix it, and that was fun. I love little kids, and his company was much appreciated.
Danny spoke Arabic, and apparently my stumbled Arabic phrases were perfect for his three-year-old attention span. "Good job!" "Do you speak English?" "You are a nice little boy." "Yes." "No." "Are you happy?" "Thank you." "You're welcome." "Have a good day!" Seriously, I think the key to learning another language is to practice it with children. They don't judge, and they don't mind mistakes.
Gerry waited off to the side by some ducks and was very patient while I played. Unfortunately, he realized after stepping into the snow that his shoes just weren't going to hold up to the challenge. (Mine didn't do so wonderfully either, but I had spare shoes, socks, and clothes in the car.)
I was surprised to see how much time had passed when we finally walked back to the car and I changed into toasty clothing. Playing in the snow was definitely enough to work up an appetite, so we walked through town until we found a little family-style Italian restaurant. Yum, piping hot linguine with garlic and meat sauce... Perfect!
Back on the road again, we hit the same exact traffic jam as before. Two miles? Twenty minutes. But as we looped around to the North Shore, finally the cars turned off, heading up another hill to a popular ski slope, and the day took a decidedly cheerful turn! Now that we know about the ski slope traffic on that side of the lake, I think we will always come into town on the other, residential, side of the lake. Problem solved!
The view was fantastic from the North Shore. Not only was there a huge lack of traffic, the snow was white and fresh beside the road. Some families had pulled their cars over and were sledding together on the beautiful hills.
We had a real treat when we pulled into a ranger station called the Discovery Center. There were bear and cougar skins you could touch, telescopes sighted on eagles' nests across the street, nature reference books, and an animal tracks identification area where you pressed blocks into some mud and actually made the tracks yourself. The center hosts daily snowshoe walks and hikes. There was a great little cafe, and a store with all sorts of colorful knickknacks.
Outside, there were lots of bird feeding stations, and tons more fresh snow! Gerry and I laughed to come upon a snow-couple on top of one hill. To get to them I had to climb a drift that went over a fence, maybe four-and-a-half feet of snow? I fell right through at a very awkward moment, and Gerry had to help tug me out. After that, I learned to slide my feet as I moved along the top of drifts, rather than stepping with them.
We walked around that area until our fingers and toes were numb. Then back to the parking lot, a final snowball fight, and then it was time to drive back down off the mountain.
The trip down the mountain was still intimidating, but in a different way than before. Now there was water and ice all over the road, more blind corners, and people walking in the road and sledding in obvious avalanche areas. I was nervous about hitting a person or skidding off the edge of the mountain and down into oblivion ... but nearing the bottom, Gerry complimented me and told me I was doing a good job with driving. That verbal affirmation from him meant so much! It gave me renewed confidence to finish the descent, and some courage to maybe make the trip again next year.
Took a wrong turn in Riverside, dang it. This is not the first time that I've made that mistake, nor the second. It stressed me out a bit to have that happen when we were so close to home, so I'm thankful that Gerry made an executive decision and let me splurge on the toll road to drive straight home. Ah, home sweet home.
One last thing. In one of the snowy areas, two guys ran out onto the road waving their arms for us to stop. We did as they asked, and got to witness this...
She said yes. ♥
Sunday:
Because many of my high school students had Winter Formal last night, they skipped Saturday services and I accompanied them to morning church services today. Such a different feel in the daytime! It's definitely a smaller group gathered, but the content was still good. And then a number of the teens came over to our apartment for the afternoon, where we talked, read the 1 John together, and watched Napoleon Dynamite.
Gerry's cooking something delicious ... I feel like I've been eating all weekend ... and then we're heading out to the 8:30 church service before crashing in bed and starting a new week.
It's been a good one!
Friday:
Gerry greeted me at the door with flowers after work. So sweet! I sat down immediately to finish hemming a dress for one of my girls who needed it for Winter Formal the next day, and then when I finished, Gerry and I decided to go get some cheap drive-thru food and bring it home to relax with. But that's not what actually happened.
Instead of In-N-Out, he pulled up at Claim Jumper and took me back to the party room where there were 14 of my California friends waiting! We had a super dinner together, and great conversation. I was given some gifts, and several people had written birthday cards for me that had meaningful and encouraging personal messages. I've never been so blessed by birthday cards before! This night was great because it finally "clicked" in my head that people truly welcome me here, and that California really is home now.
Saturday:
For a couple of weeks now, I've been seeing a snow-covered mountain range out the window at work. Well, that is before the midday smog rolls in and completely obliterates the view. So when Gerry and I decided earlier in the week to go check them out in person, I was excited.
We got a pretty early start, considering that it was Saturday. A quick stop for breakfast at my favorite SoCal eatery, Bagels & Brew, and then we were on the road. There was good traffic for much of the way, and I was surprised to reach the base of the mountains in just an hour. Then up, up, up we drove. It was a really scary road, with dropoffs, hairpin turns, patches of ice, and clouds below us. I told Gerry he should enjoy the view since I was driving and couldn't, but he was unable to look out without getting sick. So he napped.
Even though I'd checked ahead of time and there was no snow chain or 4-wheel-drive requirement for this weekend, we kept seeing signs advising us to have snow chains on hand. Was this trip the right idea, in my little Matrix? The sign that really spooked me said: Must Have Chains In Possession: No Exceptions. Err... We weren't planning to drive off road or anything, and the plows and salt trucks had done a really thorough job on the main road. But we had no chains. Go? Turn back? Go? Turn back? Go? Turn back? Such a dilemma...
We went anyway. Next time I promise that we'll borrow chains from someone.
There were signs of recent rockslides on the mountain side of the road, and I actually spotted three mid-sized chunks of rock bouncing down the slope and onto the road. Most certainly disconcerting ... I actually thought about death by a rock smashing through the side window, and talked to God for quite a while about this.
After a while, we came to a really thick traffic jam. It barely crawled. Seriously, it took two hours to go 15 miles from that point. It was most frustrating, and I was in a foul mood by the time we hit Big Bear town limits. I had to pee so badly, and the morning's coffee was giving me the shakes.
It still was 30 minutes before we crawled to a little market where Gerry and I piled out of the car, glad to stretch. He was ready to start throwing piled snow, but I marched into that store looking for a bathroom. No luck! AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGG! Bought some trail mix, and eating a handful of that helped to calm me down immensely. Then Gerry drove until we came to some public parking and the grail of all grails, a public bathroom. Thank you, Jesus!
And then it was time to play!
When I discovered that the top layer of snow could be scored and pulled up in brick-like chunks, I decided to build a small fort. Such fun, working on that fort. It wasn't very fortified, though. A three-year-old named Danny took out one side with a well-place snowball ... but then his mom made him help me fix it, and that was fun. I love little kids, and his company was much appreciated.
Danny spoke Arabic, and apparently my stumbled Arabic phrases were perfect for his three-year-old attention span. "Good job!" "Do you speak English?" "You are a nice little boy." "Yes." "No." "Are you happy?" "Thank you." "You're welcome." "Have a good day!" Seriously, I think the key to learning another language is to practice it with children. They don't judge, and they don't mind mistakes.
Gerry waited off to the side by some ducks and was very patient while I played. Unfortunately, he realized after stepping into the snow that his shoes just weren't going to hold up to the challenge. (Mine didn't do so wonderfully either, but I had spare shoes, socks, and clothes in the car.)
I was surprised to see how much time had passed when we finally walked back to the car and I changed into toasty clothing. Playing in the snow was definitely enough to work up an appetite, so we walked through town until we found a little family-style Italian restaurant. Yum, piping hot linguine with garlic and meat sauce... Perfect!
Back on the road again, we hit the same exact traffic jam as before. Two miles? Twenty minutes. But as we looped around to the North Shore, finally the cars turned off, heading up another hill to a popular ski slope, and the day took a decidedly cheerful turn! Now that we know about the ski slope traffic on that side of the lake, I think we will always come into town on the other, residential, side of the lake. Problem solved!
The view was fantastic from the North Shore. Not only was there a huge lack of traffic, the snow was white and fresh beside the road. Some families had pulled their cars over and were sledding together on the beautiful hills.
We had a real treat when we pulled into a ranger station called the Discovery Center. There were bear and cougar skins you could touch, telescopes sighted on eagles' nests across the street, nature reference books, and an animal tracks identification area where you pressed blocks into some mud and actually made the tracks yourself. The center hosts daily snowshoe walks and hikes. There was a great little cafe, and a store with all sorts of colorful knickknacks.
Outside, there were lots of bird feeding stations, and tons more fresh snow! Gerry and I laughed to come upon a snow-couple on top of one hill. To get to them I had to climb a drift that went over a fence, maybe four-and-a-half feet of snow? I fell right through at a very awkward moment, and Gerry had to help tug me out. After that, I learned to slide my feet as I moved along the top of drifts, rather than stepping with them.
We walked around that area until our fingers and toes were numb. Then back to the parking lot, a final snowball fight, and then it was time to drive back down off the mountain.
The trip down the mountain was still intimidating, but in a different way than before. Now there was water and ice all over the road, more blind corners, and people walking in the road and sledding in obvious avalanche areas. I was nervous about hitting a person or skidding off the edge of the mountain and down into oblivion ... but nearing the bottom, Gerry complimented me and told me I was doing a good job with driving. That verbal affirmation from him meant so much! It gave me renewed confidence to finish the descent, and some courage to maybe make the trip again next year.
Took a wrong turn in Riverside, dang it. This is not the first time that I've made that mistake, nor the second. It stressed me out a bit to have that happen when we were so close to home, so I'm thankful that Gerry made an executive decision and let me splurge on the toll road to drive straight home. Ah, home sweet home.
One last thing. In one of the snowy areas, two guys ran out onto the road waving their arms for us to stop. We did as they asked, and got to witness this...
She said yes. ♥
Sunday:
Because many of my high school students had Winter Formal last night, they skipped Saturday services and I accompanied them to morning church services today. Such a different feel in the daytime! It's definitely a smaller group gathered, but the content was still good. And then a number of the teens came over to our apartment for the afternoon, where we talked, read the 1 John together, and watched Napoleon Dynamite.
Gerry's cooking something delicious ... I feel like I've been eating all weekend ... and then we're heading out to the 8:30 church service before crashing in bed and starting a new week.
It's been a good one!