Been Busy

My last post was hardly an uplifting thought (though, of course, brilliant in its analysis). Unfortunately, I've been busy and the news has been anything but uplifting.

But, I was busy doing cool stuff, and since I am finally done with all that was happening in the last week, I thought it would be nice to finally post about it...Aiden permitting...

***Aiden did not permit...which is why this post, officially created on the 3rd of August is being posted on the 5th.***

So, what have we been up to? Well, we went to a wedding of good friends. They haven't risen from the private state of the newly married bliss (and good for them I say!), so the link does little more than point you in the direction--there's no update.

But while attending that wedding interesting things began happening. Our car decided that we had enjoyed too easy a time with it, having just dropped another $500+ on it, and the compressor for the AC went out. The wedding was in Fresno, during the worst heatwave of this Summer. The temperature in the shade was over 110 degrees, in the sun it felt like you were in an oven. More dear friends came to our rescue (we wouldn't have endured the trek to the wedding if not for their generosity) and lent us their new Toyota Camry. It was a nice ride. The outside world was burning in hell, but we were cruising inside in fantastic cool air, in a very comfortable car.

While out there, we stayed with another dear friend and her family, and as odd as it might sound...sleeping for a night at their house was the closest thing Sheri and I had enjoyed to a getaway vacation pretty much since the October before Aiden was born (well, there was the Christmas after he was born...I am not sure if I count that or not, but its still been about 2 years). 2 years! I cannot stress enough...getting away, even if its not the Ritz, is everything. We stayed in a normal home, ate normal food and did nothing much in particular...and I felt more rested and relaxed coming home to L.A. to go and work that night than I had in nearly 2 years. We are, needless to say, grateful for the haspitality of both a car and a room. They may seem like little things, but we have revived in no small part due to that mini-break of a day and a half outside of the ordinary.

Also, while we were on our mini-break, we managed to visit Saquoia National Forest and see the giant trees. Amazing. Really almost a holy place. God has done some amazing things with this world.

Then, about half a week after that adventure, we embarked on another. A friend from the past (how exciting does that sound?) came to visit us. We hadn't seen her in 6 years, but Kari Kipp is as wonderful as ever, and we had a great week with her catching up and essentially tiring ourselves out as much as possible. We hiked to a "waterfall", otherwise known as the trickle at the end of the trail aka Millard Falls in Altadena, we went to the OC Fair, to Crystal Cove State Beach, to Balboa Island, to San Louis Obispo, to W.R. Hearst Beach, to Pismo State Beach (tried camping...too much sand, too much wind...still got sand pretty much everywhere...), to Cambria, and a few other places. It was a full week. We literally couldn't manage to get up and go anywhere the last day...we were too tired. We had a lot of fun. We hung out with one of my good friends a couple of times, and generally just did as many fun things as we could manage.

We did so much stuff that at the end of the week...all of us were sick. Good times.

So yeah, that's what's been keepin me from the computer and blogging...real life. And its been good. I have become convinced that the surest way to go mad is to NOT plan a regular occasion for walking in the woods. I have also decided that I WILL immerse myself in something NOT related to the city on at least an annual basis...it was too good not to go back.