Weekly Update

California- What a different world. Especially after living in Cincinnati for four years. Where everyone is in a hurry. It's rush rush rush in the Nati. Here, it's very slow. And there are no SUV's. Gas is $3.40 a gallon, and everyone here is so Earth conscious. The commute is so much shorter than in Cincinnati. My biggest commute will be 10 miles. Much better than the 30 mile commute to Mason during the week. We've been here 11 days and I still have half a tank of gas.

Weather- The climate here is very strange. It's always foggy/cloudy in the morning. What Humboldt county calls The Redwood Curtain. Sometimes the fog is so thick it keeps locals in for days, not able to go anywhere except in town. Usually by noon, the sun has burned off the clouds and fog, and it's gorgeous the rest of the day. The highest it gets in temp. is about 62 degrees. It feels like fall all the time.

Work- Yes friends, I got a job. I'm totally excited to start, as I'll be a recreation leader for an after school program in McKinleyville (just 10 miles up 101). It's only after school on weekdays- no evenings or weekends. This is perfect as it leaves my nights and weekends open to teach and perform. On Saturdays, I'll be teaching three classes at Humboldt Music Academy. The director, Kit, has let given me complete creative freedom in getting classes going. I'm teaching two sections of a class I'm calling Music Explorers. One for 2-3 year olds, and one for 4-5 year olds. We'll be listening/dancing/singing to different world musics every two weeks. And both the classes are full! I'll be teaching Class Voice for kids, age 9-12, as well. I'm totally excited.

Exploring- Rob and I have been getting to know our surroundings the past week or so. We visited an apple farm last week, owned by this old burnt-out hippie lady dressed in baggy jeans and tie-dye. We're trying to find a grocery store comparable to Kroger, but groceries in CA are quite expensive. We'll try another store this weekend, as we've tried two different ones the past couple weeks. Friday we had dinner at the Samoa Cookhouse, this old logging restaurant that feeds you family-style, reminiscent of the way lumberjacks would eat a hundred years ago. It's right on the Samoa Dunes, or "spit", just a minute from the ocean. The food was mediocre, and they just kept bringing it. Soup, salad, bread, fried stuff, potatoes, coffee, dessert. It was disgusting. But now we can say we did it and never go back. Saturday we spent the day in Arcata, where HSU is located. It's so very hippie. Kids with dreadlocks on skateboards, the farmers market. We walked around and saw a peace demonstration in the Plaza while people were buying their fresh vegies and flowers from the market. What a sight. Sunday we attended a BBQ, held by the chair of the HSU music department, Ken Ayoob. What a nice guy. He's originally from Boston, and has that sort of East coast attitude about him. He reminds me of Kenny Goldholf. And two of the music faculty (other than Rob) went to CCM. It was fun talking about Cincinnati stuff with them. But all in all, I still felt uncomfortable. It's that whole small talk thing. Or talking shop thing. It was fun for a while, when we were talking about Weight Watchers and Atkins and movies and stuff like that. But once they started talking shop, I needed to get the F out of there. Yes, I'm a musician. But I think what makes me a good one is that I don't have to sit in a room full of them and use big words and flaunt the fact that I know this that and the other about music. I just want to be a person. I just want to talk about interesting things. Music is my great love, my passion, my life. I live it every day. I don't want to have to talk about it every second of that day.

Thanksgiving- Rob and I won't be able to make it home for Thanksgiving. It's way too expensive, and we're planning to come home for Christmas anyway. But because we can't make it home, we are planning a trip to Wine Country! Sonoma is only about 4 1/2 hours by car. We found a great, inexpensive room to stay in- because it's after the harvest, Wine Country is way cheap to visit!- at the same place we stayed on our honeymoon. We thought it would be nice to get back, drink some amazing wine, eat some amazing food and come home three days later relaxed. Plus, since Rob barfed the first three days of our honeymoon due to the stomach flu, we thought this would be a nice little getaway. Plus we don't have airfare to worry about, so it will be relatively cheap.

All for now, kiddies.