Hot Summer Nights

Check out this video I made of our crew hitting Rincon Puerto Rico for a week of fun in the sun and surf.  We weren’t greeted by roping 6ft walls of perfect swell, but we made the most of what we had.

This is my first venture filmmaking with the Canon T2i, and I had a lot of fun using it.

After much deliberation and procrastination I finally purchased a new camera.  It’s not just any old point and shoot digital camera, but rather a DSLR (digital single-lens reflex camera).  Don’t ask me to explain that name.  Anyway, it’s a CAMERA.  It’s not a professional camera but it’s kind of an entry level one.  It has all the bells and whistles such as exposure control and aperture settings.

I’m pretty excited.  I once started to get into photography when I was in high school, but I fell away from it because of the prohibitive cost of buying and developing film.  I remember reading books all about exposure and stuff.  Now that it’s about 10 years later I have forgotten everything so I have to learn it all again.

This camera also has the ability to shoot professional grade high definition video.  So I’m very excited to start getting back to things I really like: photography and film.

I took the camera to the beach today to try it out.  With a little help from Photoshop this is what I’ve done so far.  I barely know how to use anything on the camera so far, so I was pretty pleased with what I was able to do.

Done For The Day

Dog Day Afternoon

Opposition

San Elijo State Park

Heather and I enjoyed a great sunset last week in Pacific Beach

It was my 2 year anniversary of coming to San Diego, so I bought a California flag on the boardwalk for $10.

Tonight I went back to my artistic side, a side that has not been visited for a long, long time.  It’s seriously been over a year since I seriously drew anything, and quite a long time since I ever tried to do anything artistic with my hands.  I’ve done some computer graphic design, but that’s not the same thing.

So tonight, I poured myself a glass of wine, played some music, lit a few candles, and got down with some pastels and a few mini canvases.  I liked these canvases since they are only 2″ x 2″.  They don’t overwhelm you, making you feel like you have a huge space to fill.  It’s great to start out with.

Anyway, like the surf bum I am, I decided to do my favorite subject: waves.  How original.

I’m pleased with how it came out, although I feel like it might be a tad derivative of the various surf art I’ve seen over the years.  I’d like to develop my own style, but that will come if I keep at it.  I’m more happy with the color ones.  The black and white one was the first one I did, so I was still getting used to actually drawing with my hands again!  My favorites are the stacked set (horizontal waves) and the dark blue one with the two thin waves.  The others look a little stilted I think.  But that’s just my inner critic!  Can’t wait to do more.  Click the picture to enlarge.

Series 1

For Scale...

The plan will be to put them in a shadowbox of some sort I think.  I’ll post when I make more!

I got a new car!  I bought it last Wednesday, right before Thanksgiving.  I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while, and I finally pulled the trigger.  I kind of made a quick decision…whether or not that was the right thing to do I’m not sure, but it was a great deal for exactly what I wanted….and more.  I keep finding new features!  I didn’t actually read each and every feature since there were so many.  As long as it was black and 4×4 I was happy.  Tonight, for example, I found out that the rear view mirror is auto-dim, and it’s really cool.  It looks so much better than the old style mirrors that you push the tab and then you kind of see a shadow of the headlights behind you.  It’s electrochromatic or something, not sure how it works.  BUT not only does that auto-dim, but so do the side mirrors!  So cool.  No more getting blinded by that one dude who always has one headlight adjusted wrong so it’s super bright.   There’s in-dash navigation and a camera that lets you see what’s behind you as you’re backing up.  There are heated seats – not only the front two seats but even the BACK has heated seats!  It drives great, the steering is so tight that it took me a bit to get used to it.  With my Blazer and even my 03 Jeep back home the steering is fairly loose and moving the wheel a lot doesn’t have a huge effect when you’re driving down the highway.  That’s not the case with this new Jeep…I have to make sure I don’t steer as much as I did with the other cars.  It’s fine, just took a bit of getting used to.  Now that I’m getting used to the dimensions and the handling I’m finding it very nice to drive.  The seat is super comfortable.  Now that it’s getting colder here in San Diego at night (temps drop into the 40′s) it’s nice to jump into the car and turn on the heated seat.

The funny thing was that Donny bought a new car the same day as me.  I was driving up to LA at the time and bought the car on the way after test driving it.  I texted Donny that I’d be late, and he said he was at a car dealership too.  So funny.

The trip to LA was great.  Donny, Katrin and I had a blast hanging out in LA and going to Disneyland.  I’ll post pictures later when I get them off my phone, but for now here is us on a roller coaster:

California Screamin'

I don’t know who the guy in the top left is, haha.  Of course Donny is making a face haha.  Anyway, it was a great time and I really needed a change of scenery and to spend time with family.  The cool thing is that I’ll be meeting the whole clan out in Arizona this weekend yet again to see Katrin perform in Secret Garden.  I’ve been seeing so much of the Murdocks these days, which is awesome.

Hey, it’s not every day you get to get a new car AND go to Disneyland!

Tonight I made beet risotto for a potluck dinner I was having with some friends.  It’s a recipe I found on the internet that was originally published in the New York Times.  (Click Here for the recipe)  I had made this before, but the second time around I was much better at it and made less of a mess.  The kitchen still looked like a semi bomb had gone off though, since of course I didn’t leave myself enough time and was rushing to get it done in time.  So, instead of neatly putting things away when I was done with them, everything got flung all over the kitchen.

Reading more about beets I’ve found that they are extremely packed with nutrients.  I think I’m going to eat more of them.  The only annoying thing is that it takes quite a while to cook them if you roast them.  Maybe I can steam them instead.

On Friday I hung out with Heather around Pacific Beach.  I took some photos of Crystal Pier:

Crystal Pier

Crystal Pier

It was such a nice day out that day.  Unfortunately it rained this weekend but cleared up at the end of today (Sunday).  It’s pretty chilly for San Diego though, felt a lot like an East Coast autumn day today here, which was kind of neat.  I’ve become acclimated though, now if it goes below 60 degrees I think it’s cold.  Crazy!

On Wednesday night I’m heading up to LA to visit with Donny and Katrin for Thanksgiving weekend.  We’re going to go to Disneyland on Friday!  Should be really fun.

Sorry about the lack of posting!  I promise I won’t only post when I’m sick or injured.

Anyways…last weekend was Halloween weekend, and it was pretty much a marathon weekend for us.  We started on Wednesday night, and went out each night until Sunday.  I don’t think we went out on Sunday.  It was tiring, but really fun.

I was a cowgirl:

It was a fun costume

All my friends went all out:

That’s not everyone, but most people.

We went out downtown, and there were so many great costumes.  It was lots of fun.  I was on antibiotics the entire weekend due to the sinus infection I had, but I tried not to let it bother me.

This past week San Diego has been hit by yet another heat wave!  Today it was 97 degrees.  It was amazing.  It felt like an oven outside!  Today was the first day in two and a half weeks that I went surfing.  I was knocked out of the water by said sinus infection.  It felt so good to get back into the waves.  It’s weird, I feel all restless and unhappy when I don’t get to surf for a while.

Last night Val, Joanne, Charlie and myself went to the Belly Up to see a band called Two Door Cinema Club.  They were a lot of fun.

We have another fun weekend lined up!  Lots of surfing tomorrow, and then another concert on Saturday night, as well as festivities for Michelle’s birthday.  Tomorrow should also be another hot day, so I’m looking forward to that.

Well, that’s the recap since I last posted.  Time for bed – I’m soooo tired, but I did want to update my blog today.

Ugh!  I threw my neck / shoulder out again this afternoon.  It was so stupid, I was just reaching down to grab my board so I wouldn’t lose it (was surfing without a leash) and I guess it knotted up.  I’ve had this happen before, it always happens in the same spot.  My muscle seizes up between my shoulder blade and my neck.  Now I can’t turn my head to the side.  It’s so weird when it happens; I have been doing multi hour marathon sessions all summer and fall, yet one hour in today in small waves and it goes.  It’s gonna take a few days to work itself out.  Guess I’ll be hitting the advil tonight, haha.  The frustrating thing was that the waves were utter crap at Cardiff.  I was never in the right spot, and there were a couple wave hogs out taking all the set waves.  Frustrating session to say the least.  Got some practice in without the leash, but gotta say the session was not really worth it.

I forgot to write about this when it happened, but I figured I’d mention it here before I forget again.  So a few weeks ago was the ESA Espo’s Surf Contest at Ditch Plains.  ESA stands for Eastern Surfing Association, and they run contests and such all over the East Coast.  It’s a sanctioned event, which is cool.  Anyway, I won first place in both Women’s Shortboard and Women’s Longboard.  That’s cool.  They gave us some very big trophies.  I’m not quite sure what to do with them, so they’re sitting on my dresser right now.  What was also fun was that Kurt and Jamie were also in the contest.  I worked with them at the Surfhampton Surf Camp for the past two years.  Anyway, they both won their respective divisions – Jamie won the Open shortboard, which is basically like winning the entire contest, and Kurt won the Master’s Shortboard which is the age division group, beating Jamie in that heat.  Anyway, between the three of us we had a ton of trophies.  Team Surfhampton basically swept the ESA Espo’s Surf Contest

ESA Trophies And Contest Poster

Team SurfHampton Sweeps The ESA Espo's Contest!

I am a coffee shop addict. Found this one on Yelp – Ost Cafe. So cozy in the rain. It’s dim and candlelit – I’m journaling by candle.