Summertime living is easy and oh so fun!!!

I just can't get over how fun this summer is so far...and for me, it's only been officially summer for two weeks now! My last final was two weeks ago today, but all the fun started on Tuesday, May 13. It was the day after the cruel day of three hectic physics finals (though it was brutal having all of them in one day, I'm SO thankful I got to get them over with early in the week), Brent and I spent the whole day together doing nothing spectacular really, but it was just a blast to be together for the first time with the weight of school off my shoulders. I drove to his place and after a yummy lunch we installed a new stereo system in my car, thanks to his friend Mike who gave me the system as a hand-me-down!! Ok, so the truth is Brent got maybe half of it installed (I maybe helped unscrew a few bolts or something, but Brent had most the know-how and did most the work) before the spring heat got to us and we decided to take it all to Best Buy, have them do the work of installing it while we chilled at Dairy Queen. I still hold that that was a fabulous decision. :)

The next day Brent and I were supposed to accompany his visiting extended family to Malibu for a beach day, so when his family backed out we decided that we still weren't going to pass up the perfect beach weather. On the way out to Malibu we determined that Chocolatine would be the perfect pre-beach lunch place. It was Brent's first time at Chocolatine, so I was thrilled to get to experience it with him after having sung its praises to him so many times before. I got my favorite lunch item there: a warm goat cheese salad. Brent got a tasty looking ham and cheese grilled sandwich, I think, and we both got their delicious iced chocolate drink. While we were enjoying our meal, a troupe of about six French boys, about 9-11 years old I would guess, clamored their way into the cafe and rushed the truffle display case, for on top of the display were plates of free pastry samples. They were all talking loudly to each other, bantering back and forth in French as they greedily stuffed their hands and mouths full of the free goodies. I was giggling to myself as I watched the scene, and giggled even more when Hugo, one of the French cafe owners, emerged from his counter delicately carrying a tray with a hot drink, gruffly telling the boys to get out of his cafe, this wasn't a...a..well, anyway, go away and come back only with your mothers!! Get out! Hugo slapped some of the boys on their heads, and they all smirked and giggled as they clamored out of the cafe. Hugo looked a little ruffled as he served the hot drink he was carrying, and just as he was taking his place behind the counter again the entire boisterous troupe entered the cafe again, this time closely followed by their mothers. Hugo laughed as he related the previous events to the mothers, all the while the mothers were laughing, shaking their heads and holding their heads in their hands. The whole party asked if the private room were available for them, so they were speedily on their way out of the main public room of the cafe...thank goodness. I enjoyed the entire scene immensely, but the boys were a little to loud too allow for a peaceful, enjoyable meal with my boyfriend. :)

After our meal we stopped at a cool-looking cigar shop across the street, not for cigars themselves, but for the boxes they come in. Brent had told me that he was wanting cigar boxes for his room in which to keep some small items that needed a place, and so I was delighted to have a reason to go into this particular cigar shop that I've been eyeing ever since my first visit to Chocolatine. I've just been trying to come up with a legitimate excuse to enter the shop because it just looks so cool from the outside. Brent and I entered the shop in our beach wear, me in a sarong and tank-top and Brent in a t-shirt and shorts, and I don't know about Brent but I felt a little out of place in the much-more-expensive-and-classy-looking-than-I-had-ever-imagined shop. I kept my chin up high, though, as the millionaire-looking, cigar-puffing shop keepers eyed us from behind the counter. Brent explained what he was looking for and asked if they had any empty cigar boxes in stock. No one said anything for about five seconds, until finally one of the shop keepers slowly nodded and said, "You know, I think we do. Let me go check." He walked out of the room and a few minutes later returned with two perfect, classy looking cigar boxes. Brent got really excited, said they were exactly what he was looking for, and asked how much? The man shrugged and said, "Oh, you can just have them." I felt SO proud to have seen and suggested the shop that would not only have the perfect boxes Brent was looking for, but that also would give us the boxes for free! Brent gave me due credit. :)

On the way to the beach we found a pretty view and got out of the car to take a picture. The camera seemed to think that the pretty view was us, not the scenery behind us, but here it is anyway. :)

The beach was awesome. We actually spent most of the time just sun-tanning on the sand, and as I had my mythology class final the next day, we took turns reading each other stories from my mythology book to help me prepare. That turned out to be REALLY fun, we had such a blast reading to each other that we decided we didn't ever want to return to the beach without a book to read! We saw a pod of dolphins...I say that a trip to Zuma is incomplete without seeing dolphins. It was six o'clock before we knew it, and the wind was starting to pick up, but Brent convinced me to take a quick, 30 second dip in the ocean before we headed to the warm car by emphatically saying that we're not yet old enough to not do fun crazy things like getting in the ocean even when it's too cold to do so. We both ended up really glad that we forced our bodies in the water...how could we have spent four hours at the beach without touching the waves? Silly me for thinking it could be possible. :)

Have you noticed I've ended all paragraphs so far with a smiley-face? I guess I have to keep it up. :)

The next afternoon Brent met me at my place after my myth final with a little surprise. :)

His way of rejoicing in my rejoicing that school no longer has any claim on me for the summer! It looked even more special with the candles lit. We just chilled at my place and watched a movie that day while we waited for it to be time to go to Bible study.

Friday we spend with his friend, Scott, who was visiting from Arizona. We went to lunch at Olive Garden before we spent two hours at the bowling alley. I've been bowling more in 2008 than I have in the previous two years, I think, all thanks to Brent. He and his friends enjoy it so much. On this particular bowling day I decided to give up just getting through the game by disinterestedly shoving the ball down the lane whenever it was my turn. I figured that if Brent likes bowling so much, I may as well learn some strategy so I can eventually actually compete with him. Brent and Scott were fabulous teachers, I actually feel like I know what I'm doing now when my turn to bowl comes up! I think it's just gonna get better and better from here. Watch out, Brent Tyler, your days of clobbering me at bowling are coming to an end. :)

Saturday and Sunday are days I shall not speak of...I woke up feeling a slight nausea that only grew and grew throughout the day...Brent and I spent Sat with Scott and one other friend, Mike, we ate at a restaurant I shall not mention and never want to hear mentioned again, and when I got home at nine o'clock that evening I went to bed nauseous, feverish, and with chills. The next day was not a good one. The only highlight was when Brent came and visited me for a little while in the afternoon, I'm so thankful to God that during his visit my nausea was lifted! It came back only as he was leaving, weird, huh? Well, let me re-phrase a sentence..one of the only highlights of Sunday was Brent coming..the other highlight was finally submitting to the fact that I would and could not sleep while experiencing the full-force of the nausea and fever, and therefore crawling out of bed to watch Sabrina at 2 am. To me, there's just something so soothing about watching a chick-flick in the middle of the night when I'm sick as a dog. Sadly, the trauma my body experienced on Saturday and Sunday left me weak and extremely sensitive to food for the following three days, so Brent and I couldn't do the same type of vacation-y type stuff we'd done the previous week. Monday I did manage to spend the evening with his family celebrating his brother's birthday, and Tuesday in the evening my parents, brother, Brent and I went to my awards reception at school and a dinner at Mimi's after, but other than that the sickness of the weekend made me feel pretty blah about doing anything else. :) (Really just for tradition's sake...that paragraph really didn't deserve any sort of smiley-face.)

Wednesday, however, I was not going to let be claimed by my sickness. It was the day before Brent would leave for his family vacation in Hawaii, and we had saved the Wednesday before his departure for a special day-trip to Santa Barbara. We visited a botanic garden that we had set our eyes on when looking through a travel magazine, it turned out to be a really cool place with lots of intriguing flowers to study, breath-taking views, and almost-pant-inducing hiking trails. :) (Again, I know the smiley-face really doesn't fit there, but I'm telling you, I've got to keep it up.)








After our time at the garden we tried out McConnell's ice cream parlor, Heather had suggested it to us, telling us it was the best ice cream she had ever tried. It was yummy, especially the waffle bowl, but I still hold that Haagen-Dazs is my favorite place to get a scoop...oh man, you can't beat that simple yummy richness. But hey, if any of you think you have a parlor that serves a better scoop than Haagen-Dazs, let me know. I'm not about to stick to my guns about that place, I'm all about finding the best ice cream there is, and if you drop any names, I'd be more than happy to try it out. It's never a bad time for ice cream. :)

We went to the Santa Barbara pier after our ice cream, watched the skate boarders at the skate boarding park for a while (you have to admit, the best part about watching amateur, wanna-be-macho skate boarders is seeing them mess up or fall or something...their reactions to their mistakes scream "Uh..I hope nobody saw that." I laugh and laugh...discreetly, of course. :) The pier itself was great fun. Extremely windy, but extremely pleasant, probably mostly because of the company. :)

The only thing that sounded good to Brent for dinner was Olive Garden's stuffed chicken marsala, so on the way home we stopped at the faithfully delightful restaurant in Oxnard. I was feeling extremely sick after the ice cream, so I didn't eat much, and was wondering how I was ever going to manage feeling so sick all the way home until Brent agreed that I could drive his snazzy new car home. Driving my boyfriend in the the sporty stick made me feel oh so special and was the perfect diversion to get my mind off of how awful I felt. When we got home I crashed on the couch and we watched the finale of American Idol, but of course I fell asleep before the winner was announced. :)

Overall, it was a really special day, though. :)

The next day I dropped off Brent and his friend Mike at LAX (they went to Hawaii a few days before the rest of his family), and my companion has been gone ever since. :( But he returns on Saturday, I can't wait to greet him at the airport! :)