Santa Barbara mourns the passing of a dear, dear friend. Actually two equally dear friends.

Sunday, June 08, 2008 marked the end of an era. A life lived to fullest, ended all too soon in a tragic accident. Vida Forrest was the first to discover the mangled body at her Uncles beautiful home. Lifeless and limp, in a wilted heap on the hickory planks of the cabinesque kitchen, her beloved friend no longer responded to her beseeching cries. Shock and horror quickly followed as everyone in the kitchen fell into a hush as Vida cradled the devoured loved one in her arms.

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Animals I’ve been within 3 feet of:

Baby seal: Seen on the beach, sunning itself. I ran right by, startled it and it waddled around and then I was worried it might eat me, so I yelped and ran off. Don’t laugh, do you know if seals have teeth or not?

Momma Seal: Seen two feet from the shore, wading around the water, fatter than you’d think. Too fat to run after me so I wasn’t worried.

Blue Jays: Seen at my Uncle’s house in the mountains, they came to steal the peanuts we sent out…bold little buggers.

Rattle Snake: Seen while hiking in said mountains…scary, mad, and rattling away….I hate nature.

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Prelude

I decided to apply with a temp agency to see if they can help me get a permanent job. I called this place and this was our previous conversation

Me: Hi, I just moved to Santa Barbara and I’d like to set up a time to apply with your company.

S.E.G.*: Ummm, yeah are you looking for temp or permanent work?

Me: Either one.

S.E.G.: Ummm, yeah, have you been to our website?

Me: Yes, I have.

S.E.G.: Ok, fill out the application ad let’s meet on Wednesday at 2:00pm.

Me: Ok, that sounds good.

S.E.G.: Ummm, yeah are you looking for temp or permanent work?

Me: Either one (didn’t I just answer this?).

S.E.G. Ok see you then, bye. (click)

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Now you may think CHP is the California Highway Patrol, but before you go all Eric Estrada on me, let me remind you that it stands for Church Hunt Phase 2. Ah yes, more searching.

Ok, let’s get right to it. Church 2 meets at a junior high school auditorium, which you’d think would be pretty lame, but let’s remember I live in S.B. home of everything pretty, so naturally it’s gorgeous. And can we have a little side bar here so I can tell you that I use the word gorgeous a lot now. I seem to use it every time I describe something about S.B. and it’s just so apropos. Another side bar to my side bar, yes I just used apropos and it might be in my list of top 10 words. ANYWAY, this auditorium is gorgeous, it has fancy painted, inlaid ceilings with gilded curly things all over and more stuff I can’t describe. Let’s just say that I’m sure it’s a historic landmark because it’s that ornate and beautiful.

We get out of the car and this time we’re ready, we’ve got our game faces on. And yes, my game face includes my game sunglasses and game stilettos. I’m looking around and checking people out. The dress is what we’ll call snotty casual or uppity dress down or rich people trying to look like they don’t care….or should I say, rich people trying to look like they don’t care while showing off their designer labels. Now let’s first understand that I have nothing against labels…I don’t have anything designer of course, but if I did you can bet I’d show it off. It’s like big boobs, it seems a bit much when you see some people with too much cleavage on display, but you can bet your ass if I had big boobs, I’d show cleavage at every opportunity and even make up opportunities where none existed.

But I digress.

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Good week.

Monday to Monday was pretty good, better than ok, more than just not sucking, it was actually good.

Monday: Per my husband’s not so subtle admonishings to do stuff on my own, I set out for the beach with a backpack, my iPod, a book and a notebook. I walked for 30/40 minutes, watched the waves, and then read my book. Pros: Did it by myself, had a really nice, relaxing time, finally pulled on my big girl panties. Cons: only backpack is from high school, bright blue, with Marvin the Martian patches.

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