I was scorned by the motherhood gods immediately after my last post in the form of severe sunburn by the pool. You would think that this fair-skinned mother-
in-training would have been able to handle an hour of happy sun rays but the abilities of tanning oil should not be underestimated. Luckily (??) I only put it on my front side so my back is still nice and pasty white. As for my chest, tummy, and legs however... think lobster. I was going to post a picture but it felt weird. Too much skin.
After spending an hour chatting with my long-lost bestie Mush while frying by the pool I took a shower and dolled up for my honey. He got home around 2:30 to take me to Disneyland to recreate the commercial I mentioned before and to spend some more good quality time with Ariel. I don't know if I have a Disneyland threshold but I certainly don't feel as if I am close to reaching it any time soon. We had so much fun playing with the camera and holding hands. I have only been away from Michael for about three weeks now but seeing him just made me realize how wonderful it is to be able to have him around all of the time. My hat goes off to all of those army wives out there that say goodbye knowing that their sweethearts will be gone for 1+ years. It takes a strong woman (and a large hobby budget) to handle that kind of time frame. And a tangent for all of those 18-year-old girls with boyfriends that are about to leave on LDS missions... don't. do. it. Say your goodbyes today so that you have moved on before he leaves... then you can love him again when he gets home!! Just don't tie your <3 down like that. Anyway, we held hands. That was where I was going with all of that. It was great.
After Disneyland we went and saw
Zookeeper with Kevin James and I was actually SO surprised at how much I laughed. It was the perfect post-Disneyland movie. Tired brains could just watch and laugh mindlessly without having to thing about anything at all... except Michael. Somehow working on movies all day doesn't make him tired of analyzing everything he sees. If you do not have your feet firmly planted regarding your like or dislike of a movie, Michael can surely sway your opinion with his analysis. My family no longer allows him to give his opinion on anything they have already seen or may see in the next 15 years because his points of view taint your entire experience. I'll have to have him do a movie review on here one of these days... with spoiler alerts all over it. He holds nothing back. Anyway, I thought Zookeeper was funny. He thought it was funny but that the storyline was completely flawed so it was hard for him to concentrate... I thought it was about talking gorillas... how can that be flawed?? Anyway, we held hands during the movie and it was wonderful.
On Saturday morning we got up and got ready the slow way, where showering somehow takes 30 mins even though the water is only on for 9. Rachel (my sweet mother in law) had gone through her closet and had me try on everything that she was through with. I must say that I now feel cute and SOO relieved! My work pants were starting to cry when I pulled them out of the closet every morning because they are all so old. I feel like a new woman now... and I think it has something to do with the fact that I now own my first pair of BKE's. Dream jeans. I am so grateful for Rachel's giving attitude. She firmly believes that if you don't love it or you don't wear it that you should get it out of your closet. I went home so pumped to cut my closet in half! When I went in to go assess the situation though, I decided that I need an intermediate phase. SOOO... I am going to transfer anything I haven't worn in the last 6 months-ish into Michael's closet. If I don't think about it before he gets home in 5 weeks, it's toast (Toast = have my
favorite SIL take anything she wants, have my beehives take anything they want, dump the rest at DI). If I do think about it, the article has earned its spot back among the ranks of my other clothes purchased in high school. Oh gosh - I have a tangent disease today.
After getting ready and spending 45 minutes hugging my new wardrobe we went off to the Orange County Fair to eat some roasted corn, go through the fun house, make Michael go on a bunch of spinny rides, and pet tons of animals. They had cows whose back end stood taller than Michael. I'm not exaggerating. Their bottoms were 6' tall!! Michael also promised to get me a miniature potbelly pig as soon as Tank and Ruby die. It might be a while but I'm not going to forget. After the fair we met up with Chad and Rachel for some KFC before they headed out of town to spend their 2 year anniversary in Vegas. We then took a long hard nap, waking up just in time to jump back in the car to head to the
Sawdust Festival. It was a brilliant fair filled with glass blowers and people with dread locks. We had a blast. Probably because we were holding hands.
Michael bought me ice cream at McDonald's on the way home. :-)
Sunday morning we went to church then jumped in the car and took
Carmageddon by the horns in our drive to Santa Monica. I spent some time in Santa Monica on a trip with some friends in high school and it has been a romantic destination to me ever since. Hopefully nobody from Sony is reading this blog post (does anyone read them when they get this long? I think not. My posterity will thank me later though, I'm sure.) because we definitely broke into Sony Imageworks so that Michael could give me a tour. We saw the normal things like the beautiful courtyard and cafeteria AND the top secret things like cardboard cutouts of the Smurfs and things like that. It was awesome. I can't even tell you how happy it makes me to know that Michael receives fulfillment in his work. That is worth more than any salary could ever pay and almost more than going to school for 12 years for an undergrad degree. I know that he loves what he does and it inspires me to spend my time on things that I love to do. I believe that passion is service. It feeds the souls of those around you. I wish everyone could do what they love to do.
After my top secret tour, Michael and I walked up and down the Santa Monica pier, then strolled down the beach to take a nap on the sand. It sounds like we did a lot of napping. We did. It was wonderful. On our way out we stopped by an apartment complex to tour one of their units to see what things look like living in LA. In three words? Small and expensive. In two words? Snow-less winters. In one word? Yes. I love California. I don't want to live in a place with barred windows where my children cannot play on my front porch (LA) but the California suburbs are to die for. We will see what happens!
The last leg of our journey included a sad parting of ways at the Orange County airport. Michael didn't know but I had already cried earlier that day so that he wouldn't see me cry when he dropped me off. We're almost halfway through his internship and I really am doing fine... but I married that man for a reason and living without him will never be my #1 or #100 choice. Only 4 more weeks till I get to see him again!!
This is a real picture of the park
