SMARTJUICE

So Much Drama in the LB...

So, way back in the spring of 2007, GF and I went to Laguna Beach to visit our friends Reid and Blondeemily. They were living there at the time and were due to return in May, so GF and I capitalized on one of the only available weekends that were left and hopped on a plane to Cali. Good times were had by all.

Now, I'm going to go ahead and admit something here: I was a big fan of the MTV show Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County. Judge me all you want, but sometimes I get sucked into stupid reality shows on MTV and this happens to be one of them. Lest you think I am alone in this, both Reid and Blondeemily were also fans. That may or may not be a reason that they decided to live there for a year. GF didn't really get on the Laguna Beach bandwagon until I forced her to start watching the third season, which was by far the worst.

Needless to say, it made my day when I would get emails from either Blondeemily or Reid describing how they went to a restaurant that was featured on the show or how they actually saw someone from the show. I think my favorite email from this time period was when they took some visiting friends to dinner and then to the Laguna Beach High School football game. I could transcribe that entire email, but the gist of it was:

"Went to dinner. Had a lot of wine. Went to LBHS football game. Bought 4 LBHS shirts for $90. Saw girl we hate from Laguna Beach. Said something mean about her. She gave me a weird look. I gave one back. Turns out I said the mean thing rather loudly. She probably hates me. Oh well."

How could we not go and visit?

Well, since then I have promised that I would blog about the trip. However, I didn't just want to throw up some pictures and say "look at these pictures...fun was had by all." I racked my brain for a way to cleverly blog about a vacation, but ultimately felt defeated and gave up. And that was why I stopped blogging for 6 months. I kid, I kid. Anyways, as I was sitting in class the other day I finally came up with a way to do a Laguna Beach post. And it could be awesome. Or it could be horrible and I could be ridiculed beyond relief. But I guess that is a risk I am willing to take.

Previously on Laguna Beach:

Here it was, the end of our Laguna Beach trip. We've had such an awesome trip. Reid and Blondeemily have been the best hosts and showed us all around the town. We expected our last day to go flawlessly, but none of us were prepared for the drama that was about to happen . . .

[Intro music: Hillary Duff song. Circle...square peg...something...]

[Circle's don't fit into square pegs....my life...something....]

[Rain. Rain. Rain. Washing me. Something.]

[I'm free. Rain makes me free.]

Laguna Beach: The Real, Real Orange County

[Music by some hip pop group: We got more bounce in California...]

GF: Can you believe we've had so much fun in Laguna?

Matt: Shut up, I know. It's been sick.

GF: And like, I can't believe this is our last day. I hope it's rad.

Matt: You know it will be. Reid and Blondeemily have been the best hosts.

GF: We should probably go and meet up with them.

Matt: Totally.

[Music by some emo group. Random shots of Laguna.]

Matt: Dudes, what's going on?

Reid: Chillin man. Just hanging out at the high school.

Blondeemily: We're looking for Fat Cami. I've got a bone to pick with her after that run-in at the football game. I'm totally gonna rage on her.

Matt: Maybe she's down at the beach or around town. We should go there.

Blondeemily: For sure.

[Music by some punk group singing about girl fights, or something. More shots of Laguna.]

Matt: I don't see Fat Cami anywhere.

Reid: Me neither. Dudes, anyone wanna see me do a headstand?

Blondeemily: REID! That is like, totally embarrassing.

GF: Ahhh! Whatev. Come on Blondeemily, let's go shopping.

Blondeemily: I can't believe Reid did that headstand and embarrassed us like that.

GF: I know. Good thing we went shopping to take our minds off of that.

Blondeemily: For reals. Shopping rocks.

Matt: Dude, Blondeemily is totally mad at you.

Reid: I know man, it's totally gnarly.

Matt: You need to do something for her man. Like, you need to take her to a pimper dinner.

Reid: That's sick, man. I should do that. Hey, look at that wave.

Matt: Wicked.

[Music from some soulful singer songwriter about thoughts and love. More shots of Laguna. Reid walks along the beach, lost in thought.]

Reid: I'm sorry for doing that headstand and embarrassing you.

Blondeemily: I'm over it.

Reid: That's rad. Let's never fight again.

Blondeemily: For sure....let's just laugh.

Matt: I'm glad all that drama is over.

GF: Laguna Beach is so awesome. I'm bummed we have to leave.

Matt: Me too. Hey, let's go party at Lauren Conrad's house.

[Music by some up and coming hipster band. End credits. Some story lines might have been completely made up for dramatic effect. What, did you really think this was reality?]

Saturday...In the Park..

....think it was the 4th of July.

Except that it was March.

And it was Sunday.

But other than that, just like the song.

After a few days of excellent weather, Mother Nature struck back and gave us another cold snap that had me wearing the heavy pea coat for another week. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the cold like any other good Southerner. I really do. But when it comes time for Spring, I'm ready for Spring. Bring on the mild weather and the days lasting until 8 o'clock.

That is why this past weekend was so great. The weather was perfect and I finally noticed that it was getting darker later than usual. Despite the stupid studying that had to occur, I was able to get outdoors and enjoy the weather. I spent my Sunday in the park with GF and a few other friends, including:

Lucy

and Jack.

Lucy is a Retriever puppy, while Jack is a full-grown King Charles Spaniel. Jack was a little terrified of Lucy, especially when Lucy would barrel into Jack and knock him in the back. All he could do was raise his furry paws in the air and try to look as helpless as possible. I think it was an act though. I secretly think Jack likes a rough woman.

These were the best dogs ever, namely because they weren't my dogs. Dogs, much like babies, are enjoyed even more when you can give them back. Not that I don't ever want a dog, because I do. Just not right now. Just not in an apartment. So it's good to get my dog fix with my parent's dogs, or other friends' dogs. 

I have also come to a realization. Not every entry has to be this carefully constructed story. I won't update for awhile, and then I feel as if my next update has to be really long and funny. And sometimes that keeps me from updating. So no more. Sometimes it will be short and sweet. Sometimes it won't even be notified. 

In other news, Evil Sister is coming home from the Tundra this week to do some marathon wedding planning/wedding dress shopping. I suggested either black or red, on account of the evil and all. She is becoming less evil though, considering her and her fiance's upcoming move to the lower 48. Not the great state of Texas of course, but the lower 48 nonetheless. I can't really have her become completely un-evil. She was the favorite when she wasn't evil, and that won't do.

And to prove her evilness...rain is forecasted for this weekend, which kills the good Spring weather. And you know how I like Spring.

ITS OMA

So, ages ago I took a road trip with two of my oldest friends to the great city of Chicago. You might remember these friends as these two jokers.

One day the three of us were hanging out and talking about the future. We realized that Dustin was about to graduate from law school, and Danielle and I would be starting law school in the fall. Weird how all three of us chose that route. Anyway, we figured that all of this was a cause for celebration. We decided there was no better way to celebrate the beginning of someone's new life (Dustin), and the death of two other people's lives (Danielle and I..all we do is read) than renting a car and driving to the Windy City. No significant others were allowed because we were going to be talking about law stuff.

So we left Dallas, excited and ready for the 15 hour trip that was ahead of us. Not too long into Oklahoma my eyes started to get a little tired and I was allowed to take a nap.

Halfway into the nap, I was woken up by Oma. Who is Oma, you might ask?

This is Oma.

Oma was an older, white-haired lady in a BMW. And Oma drove fast. And hey, ITS OMA!

Actually, I'm a little jealous of her smarts. It's like she has a personal announcer everywhere she goes. Think about it...you're at home and you hear someone pulling up, so you go to the door wondering, "Who is here?"

"Oh, ITS OMA!"

Man, she's smart.

Well, we didn't think it could get better than ITS OMA. She turned off somewhere in Oklahoma, never to be seen again. But then we got to Illinois and OMA got some competition. Let me introduce you to..

Dinky 31.

Dinky 31 didn't really have as much going for him as OMA did. Dinky 31 was just a plain minivan with a funny tag. Like if you were at home again, and someone pulled into your driveway and you got up to see who it was, you would probably just say, "Oh, it's just Dinky 31." And that "just" is a killer. That "just" will never be a "ITS OMA".

Well, all this happened before we got to Chicago, which we finally did. No thanks to Danielle who instructed us to "just get off the highway now...how hard can it be to drive towards those tall buidlings." Turns out, it is pretty hard to drive towards those tall buidlings.

Then we explored Chicago for the next couple of days. So Danielle and Dustin have been bugging me for forever to put that OMA picture up on the blog, as well as other pictures, but it has been so busy with the school, etc. (I'd just like to point out that Dustin has gone through law school and Danielle going through it right now, so how can they not understand about my lack of time? Ingrates!)

So here I am in the library, posting pictures when I'm supposed to be working on a contracts outline. I only have 3 pages of the outline done, but by golly, we have a picture of OMA on the blog. So enjoy it.

Then go here for the rest of the pictures. I suggest that you click on the pictures on the left hand side of the screen because they are in a sequential order, and for some reason if you click "Next", it doesn't always take you to the next picture. Weird huh? Typepad hates me. So do Dustin and Danielle.

Who is that over there?

ITS OMA!

Helpless

Some of my best friends live in Houston. As of 10pm last night they were still fighting traffic. They were tired, hungry, and trying to make the best out of a crappy situation. Not that their situation was more horrible than all the people affected by Katrina, not in the least. But it killed me to talk to them every hour and not be able to help them at all. Not be able to give them food and water, not be able to cool them down because they turned the AC off to conserve gas. I felt completely helpless.

I didn't get the opportunity to write about everything that happened with Katrina. I never had the time to sit down and hammer out my thoughts, but it was pretty much the same feeling. Helpless. Everyday I would go to school and sit in class, feeling like what I was doing was worthless and unimportant in the grand scheme of things. I would have mild anxiety attacks whenever I looked at news websites. I felt trapped. I wanted to be doing something, helping someone. But all I did was donate my money and go about my daily activities. That's really all I could do I suppose.

I remember watching CNN, seeing all the destruction and the looting and thinking to myself, "But this is the United States". I'm not sure why I thought that should mean something. I guess it's because I was having a hard time witnessing the most powerful country in the world reduced to what looked like third world conditions. I guess that's an important lesson to learn. I guess we all need to know how quickly these things can happen. That way we can prepare. That way we can appreciate just how good we have it.

I don't know what to think about Rita and the whole evacuation of the biggest city in Texas. Honestly, it seems a little excessive. Houston isn't a bowl like New Orleans. All that could happend is some flooding. How bad is a little flooding anyway? But I guess people can't erase those images of chaos that prevailed through the streets of New Orleans. And if you think that those images might become a reality, why wouldn't you get out of town. Of course you would get out of town. So in that sense, I understand it completely.

I'm still not sure where my friends are. I can't even get through to one of them. But it's not a panic situation. I know they're fine and will be fine. They might be tired and hungry, but they are fine. I just wish I didn't feel so helpless again.