Spring Break Trip - Part 1

During the second week of March I realized that I had a week of Spring Break coming up the following week. Time was wizing by, and I had been hoping to make it down to a friend's wedding in Florida. Unfortunately, between time and funds that trip was not going to happen.

So it was on March 11 that we decided that we would take a short weekend trip to start off my Spring Break, then come back, work on homework and James would go to his classes. We chose Paso Robles as a destination because of the wine county. We have not yet made it over to Napa, so this was our wine country warm-up.

On Friday morning we realized that while we had a destination we had no plans. And since we were traveling over the weekend we knew we needed to make arrangements for a place to stay. Since it is only March, which apparently means it is still cold many places, we chose to stay in hotel. My task for this trip was to find and book a hotel. I had about an hour to look at our options around San Simeon, Morro Bay and Paso Robles area for anything cheap, but not skeezy. This was a large area, and before James had left to class he suggested Motel 6 and said, "Honey, I know you'll find somewhere nice."

So the pressure was on to make this a nice trip, and the proper location of the accommodation was key to this. I decided that we could probably do a little better than Motel 6 and broadened the budget to $100. After looking at Google maps I realized that staying by the ocean would be a real treat. I figured it would be expensive, but also knew that it was the off season, so there were probably deals to be had. I made several calls, looked at the maps, and finally found a great little, independent hotel.

Bayfront Inn was the little gem that I found. It's an older building, but updated and clean, and right across from the bay. At $83 out the door, this was a steal. And on top of that when we arrived to check in our room was upgraded to the king-size bed, with private jacuzzi.

Morro Bay is a lovely little town to visit. That weekend there was a Chili Cook-off that was so popular they ran out of food and drink. We meandered around and found a lovely Farmer's Market where we picked up some snacks for the room. We head back toward the bay to find some food and found a great lunch spot called Hofbrau Restaurant. This is where we took this photo.

Later that night we watched the sun set over the ocean and walk around Morro Rock that you see in the photo.

The next morning we woke up and knew that we had to get over to Paso Robles to check out at least one winery. Before leaving we had breakfast at Frankie and Lola's, which had amazing, original, vegetarian selections. Our destination was Pipestone winery. A sustainable and organic, family-owned operation. This is one of the far-out wineries, meaning its not on the main drag, but totally a great find. We were the only ones there, which allowed us to try many wines and have a great conversation with our host.

It was 5pm already and we were hours from home. We knew that we would be driving through the dark, but were lucky that clocks had just rolled back that morning for Day Light Savings Time. On the way back we saw some amazing flower patches and drove for miles without seeing anyone else. The final last hour was of course the hardest and coldest, but we pushed through it and made it back to LA by 9pm. This trip was a major success.

Next weekend we'll be heading to Anza-Borrego to catch some more amazing wildflower patches.

My First Earthquake

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On Tuesday morning, at 4:30am James and I sprung up and out of bed to a terrible rattling of everything in the house. We looked at each other, and James immediately thought it was the motorcycle that had fallen over. We rushed downstairs to our garage and everything seemed to be in order.

We got back into bed, and tried to figure out what had just happened. Nothing was out of place, or had fallen over. Wasn't that suppose to happen when there's an earthquake? Apparently, it just sounds like a freight train blowing past your house. It reminded me of some friends' places in NYC that lived over a train stop.

It was a 4.4 magnitude earthquake that hit 10 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. We live about 3 miles west of downtown, so I guess we felt the tremors. Nothing was reported damaged, and there were no injuries.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/16/los-angeles-earthquake-44_n_500431.html

Losing a Friend.

On Saturday March 6th, 2010 my childhood dog and friend, Jinger, pasted away at the age of 17 years old. We had brought her home when I was about 12 years old, so she was a real friend during those tough adolescent years. When I moved away for school she stayed with my parents who took great care of her.

Since I'm living in California and am so far away on this day I decided to bake her a biscuit with chocolate chips. James and I hike up a really steep hill and found a little spot my a tree, where I said a few words and left some wild flowers and her biscuit.

Jinger had a good long life, and though she will be missed, she will not be forgotten.

RIP - Jinger Crooke - Dec. 1993- March 2010

My First Art Review

On February 26th, the art exhibit that my program and cohort put together was reviewed by the LA Times. The review looked at the role of community art projects and discussed how sometimes the projects work, and sometimes they fall short.
Here's what they had to say about my artwork in the exhibition:

"Jamie Crooke's partnership with the Hollywood Sunset Free Clinic provides one possible answer. Crooke walked the streets around the clinic pushing a cart selling health-related items–bandages, apples, wheat grass seed, Emergen-C packets – in exchange for a dollar or a bit of conversation. In addition to examining the cart itself, gallery visitors can watch a video and flip through a photo book documenting the project. The cart also features a price list including the above mentioned items as well as the cost of one year of employer-provided health insurance (about $13,000) and the annual compensation of United Health Group's CEO (more than $9 million). With this sly, humorous gesture, the piece makes its critical point about inequities in healthcare spending, whether one sees it on the street or in the gallery."

While I am not sure what the future holds for me with this profession and type of art making, one thing is certain: I will also have my LA Times review when I was 27 years old :)

You can read the whole review here:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/02/art-review-love-in-a-cemetery-at-the-18th-street-art-center.html#

I'm Engaged!

On Feb 14, 2010, Valentines Day, James Powell asked me to marry him at the geological site called Devil's Punch Bowl. It was a complete surprise, but perfect timing. We were both ready to let each other and the world know that this is where our relationship is going.

I have to say that the whole thing, the proposal and accepting, was less scary than I thought it would be. As a girl you see so many movies and moments about engagement and always wonder how it will happen to you. Will the ring be in my food? Will he ask me on national television? But in the end, my husband to be picked the most natural - literally in nature - way to ask, which I loved! I imagine that when you have the right person, and you've both already talked about your dreams and expectations, it makes the whole process a lot smoother and enjoyable.

About the date: as of now we are thinking of a longer engagement, maybe 2 years, so that we can both find a little more stability either academically or financially. This April James will know about his school options, which may constitute a move back across the country again. So I think after April we will set a tentative date.

So needless to say, February has been a very full month. There was my birthday on the 10th, our engagement on the 14th, and my LA Times Review on the 26th, which I'll blog about later.

Best Weekend Ever!

On Feb. 13th we set out on a weekend excursion for the long weekend and a much needed break from school. We had a 3 day trip planned, which was mostly a surprise for me since my birthday was that week. So I was lead to believe that this extravagant trip to the mountains in Angeles National Forest, just outside of LA, was a birthday gift, but it was actually much more.

I had asked to go somewhere with snow, as I was actually really missing it, and I wanted to try an outdoor activity like skiing or snow shoeing. We went with the snow shoeing, which was amazing. You can see a picture of us here on top of a mountain, quiet as could be, looking down at an amazing vista. I felt like a mountain climber, or maybe a mountain goat. So on the first day of our trip we went with a small group of people on this snow shoeing adventure before we even checked into our cabin.

James had found this cute little cabin in Wrightwood, and had booked it for the weekend. He did a great job finding this place. It came with a fireplace, full kitchen, television and board games. We did it all: roasted marshmellows at the fire place, played the board game pass the pigs, and of coarse argued about the movie Pretty Woman. And that was just the first day.

The next day was Valentines Day. We had decided to spend it at Devil's Punch Bowl, a geological site on the San Andres Fault line. The pictures I took completely do not do the place justice. I really needed a wide angle lens, but the views wasn't even the best part. As I was staring of the vista, I turned around the find James on his knee with a beautiful ring, asking me to marry him. I was shocked, surprised and elated all at once. I agreed, and we continued our hike as an engaged couple, which I have to admit was really hard not to tell everyone we passed on the hike.

I can't really remember what happened the rest of that day, except a pure state of bliss. On Monday however, we packed up our stuff, loaded the car and decided to go sledding. We found a pretty quiet spot, and thought we would give it a go. I was having second thought about the hill we chose, as it was quite steep, but James went for it. And this was one of the scarest moments in my life. As he slid down the hard ice hill his body vibrated in an unnatural way. I stood there on top of this hill thinking, I've only been engaged for 24 hours and I might have just lost my fiance. When he finally got up I raced down the hill to him to find his hands bleeding. I ran to the car to get the first aid kit and wrapped up his knuckles.

The whole thing worked out. We were both ok, so we decided to just snow shoe a little before leaving this beautiful landscape.