california, i'm offically here to stay

after living here for almost a year and a half, i officially registered my car today. phew. and as with most things like this, there is a story to go along.

so i woke up early to be out of the house by 7a, arriving at the DMV by 7:15. yes, the DMV doesn't open until 8, but i didn't have an appointment so i figured i should get there early. and it's good thing i did. when i arrived at 7:15 i was already the 8th person in line. i proceeded to stand in line outside for the next 45 minutes reading my book. i was off to a good start. the doors opened, i got my number and waited to be called. the woman who helped me this morning was great. and i always try to start a conversation with people, especially in places like the DMV because everyone seems so crabby! she welcomed the conversation. after a few more minutes, and getting my car inspected, i was all set! california license plates and all (which i still need to put on my car...) life was good as i was driving to work. i wasn't going to be too late and i had finally registered my car.

but...right as i was about to pull into the parking garage at work, i realized that i hadn't seen my car TITLE since i handed it to the woman. panicking, i checked my pile of papers praying that it was in my car and hearing the words of my dad saying "you really don't want to lose the title". so, i raced back to DMV. and i guess "raced" isn't exactly the correct way to say it. i crawled through the horrendous traffic, which does NOT help when you are freaking out.

i finally got back to the DMV to find out that they keep your title and send you a new one (i think because i was registering from out of state) wow. so i got a copy of it and went back to work. what a morning.

i also decided, i will NEVER live in the valley if i don't work there. going over the hill out of the valley is a complete nightmare during rush hour. i'm seriously not kidding you.

have you ever seen an oscar meyer weiner truck?

i have! today actually as i was driving to work on this dreary tuesday! it was quite entertaining and very unexpected!

snow day!

during my time on the east coast for the holidays, i had a snow day :) i mean nothing was canceled and the roads were fine, but i hadn't seen falling snow in two years. the only downfall...shoveling it!

view from my parent's garage

my mom shoveling (me procrastinating.)

this is the real reason people tuck their boots into their pants!

a snow plow!! ha.

the day i left we took a family picture.

gingerbread house making contest!

the boys in los feliz always throw a good party! on saturday night adam and jesse had a christmas party where we got to have a gingerbread making contest. it was awesome. my team was totally into it (although i'm not a super competitive person, so that was pretty funny.) we didn't win...but it was really fun. and definitely had a car and working garage with our house thanks to julie!

it was a really great night that ended perfectly with a few of us chatting by the fire in the fireplace :)

our gingerbread house!

julie, trey and me awaiting judgement (dennis was on our team too!)

the winners with the emerald city!!!

one of the awesome hosts, jesse! his house is amazing!singing christmas carols with mariah and matt!thanks for hosting adam!kevin and shannon :)

little drummer boy.

Then he smiled at me, pa rum pum pum pum. Me and my drum.

imagine baby jesus smiling at you. wow.

scarfs.

i don't really think i've picked up too much of an LA style over the past year, but i do love scarfs. although i'd say they're pretty international at this point...so i may not have picked up any style...ha.

i just got a new scarf last night for birthday. (thank you julie morris :) ) oh man, i love a new scarf. so great. i never realized how cold my neck can get.

'duh' has stood the test of time.

i flipped on the radio the other morning, and caught the end of a conversation in which one of the djs happened to say 'duh'. they continued on to say, "duh has really stood the test of time". i was thinking about it, and they are right. ha. i've been saying duh forever, and it hasn't lost a thing.

what other words are like that? hmmm....

9 days until christmas. 7ish days until i fly home. 4 days until i SEE erikka and eric. it's almost officially winter and it's going to be in the 70s tomorrow. oh LA.