Joe Nichols at the "Fab Fair"

I realized several years ago that I don't love the Fair, I love the concept of the Fair.  The Del Mar Fair (officially the "San Diego County Fair" as of several years ago) runs from the beginning of June through the 4th of July.  It is well loved in San Diego and seen widely as the beginning of summer.  I love summer.  Thus, every year when the fair opens I think, "I have to go!".  And I generally do.

The problem arises when I arrive at the fair.  We get our tickets walk in, and then comes the question, "So, what do you want to do?".  Uhhhhh, I dunno...

I grew up being indoctrinated by my mother about the dangers of temporary rides, so the rides are out.  I don't really have an interest in playing the games, so cratch that.  I love the food, but it's too expensive to get a lot of it.  I'm not really interested in going there to shop.  So what does that leave?  The exhibits.  We walk around the garden exhibits, check out the prize winning roses and dalias, and check out the crazy collections.  All of this takes maybe an hour, which seems like a waste of money on gas and tickets.

I was readying to resign myself to not going to the fair again, at least not until we hda kids, when last year Tad and I stumbled upon the answer.  The Fair Summer Concert Series.  Tad and I went to see Weird Al last year and enjoyed a fantastic concert!  The best part was that it was free with admission.  Full price adult admission is $14, what a great deal! (And you rarely have to pay full price).

I decided that that was the way to do the fair.  Arrive around 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon.  Check out all the exhibits we were interested in seeing.  Eat dinner.  Then, grab seats for the concert.  With this in mind, I eagerly awaited the concert list for this year's fair.  It was a somewhat disappointing list in terms of the "free with admission" acts, but there was Joe Nichols.  At the time, I couldn't name any of his songs to his name, but I recognized and liked plenty of them. 

Tad is not much of a country fan, but Raelene is, and she was down to go with me.  Tad dropped me off at her condo on Wednesday, and we headed over from there.  We grabbed dinner from Chicken Charlie's, looked through several exhibits, and then it was concert time.  It was a great show!  Jana Kramer opened for jim.  She was ok.  He did a fantastic show, all the favorite songs, plus a countrified version of "Baby Got Back".  I think I hooked Raelene on Fair concerts.  I can't wait to see who's coming next year!

Pause for an Update on Life Now

It has been my experience that I take forever to finish my trip updates. This fact is frustrating, but the journals are important enough to me to keep doing them anyway. However, I'd also like to keep up with my life journal now, considering I've been home from Romania nealry a month. So here goes.

It took me a good week to adjust back to life in the states. No amount of debriefing could have made me understand reverse culture shock like actually experiencing it. I don't think I'll ever feel quite the same about my country and culture. I still love America, and will undoubtedly be overly patriotic for the rest of my life, but I better understand now some of the things that frustrate people from elsewhere about here. I mean, I'm a total "J" personality on teh Myers-Briggs, and I was about ready to chuck my planner out the window, things are much too fast paced here.

It definitely did not help my adjustment that straight away we dove into apartment hunting for next year. That was a nightmare and a half, let me tell you. Everything by SDSU falls into one or more of the following categories: too expensive, too unsafe, too dirty, too far away from campus and/or public transportation, does not accomodate pet dogs. Fortunately Valencia is exempt from pet laws, but one of my future roommates Ana has an 8 pound Bischon.

Eventually, after much searching and about 8 trips down there in 10 days, we found the perfect condo. The complex is in Mission Valley in between two trolley stops, which are about a 10 minute ride from campus. It's absolutely gorgeous: 2 bedroom 2 bath, great sized living room and kitchen, patio balcony. The complex is secure and has a pool/jacuzzi and fitness center. I'm uber excited. I'll be moving in the beginning of August, but our landlord is giving us the keys in a couple weeks so we can start moving furniture.

I'll be sharing the master bedroom and bath with Anja (she was in comm disorders with me at Biola and is starting the audiology program at state). Ana and her little doggy Brady will have their own room and bathroom on the other side of our condo.

Besides that craziness, I've been hanging out with Raelene quite a bit. We went to a college group at her church the first weekend I was home, and were the oldest ones there, hahaha. We hit up the Del Mar Fair. First time for both of us going without our families. I think we did quite well though, saw pretty flowers and farm animals and shared a deep fried smore and some deep fried cheese curds. yum!

I had a party to celebrate graduation and my birthday. My and I made fruit kabobs, my dad bbqed chicken skewers, and we had a variety of salads and desserts, plus mock margaritas, mmm. Krista, Becky, and Amanda came down from LA, which was amazing to get to see them again. Elizabeth brought Matthew, and Raelene and a number of neighbors and church friends stopped by.

For my birthday on Saturday I spent the day at Disneyland with Raelene and Becky. That was pretty awesome. They give you a button that says "Happy Birthday!" and your name, and everybody in the park wishes you happy birthday all day long. I counted about 19, plus I got sung to outside the ice cream shop on main street. Amanda met us for lunch in downtown Disney, and we met Krista at Red Robin for dinner. I had my family party Sunday evening, joint with our Father's Day celebration.

This morning I finished up an online scrapbook from shutterfly.com of my Romania trip. I may be able to post some of it on here. I'm pretty excited about it, mom had a special offer so we got it for free.

Other than that, I guess next on the list is 4th of July, summer sure goes by so fast!