Season 7 Episode 4

As we drove up North to visit my family and friends yesterday I saw one of my most favorite sites...Almond Blossoms. The white flowers on the end of each branch signify a new season. I can remember as a young girl knowing that the end of the school year began with the blossoms coming out. Only a few more months until the Magnificent Summer...swimming, no homework, TV shows, playing outside until it was dark to then come in an play for a few more hours...Ahh the blossoms ushered in a new season and created such joy and excitement.

The timing of the blossoms was fitting for the state of my life. Sam was sleeping as I drove down the 99 and I reflected on the many beginning and endings life has seemed to have. I have used the term "seasons" for my life for years now. It helps me have hope that life will change if its bad or if I am bored. It reminds me there are new things ahead, and it helps me when life is dark or stagnet to know that just like winter there will be an end and spring will come. Pretty much, it's a coping mechanism...a mind game, if you will, that I play with myself when life isn't going "how I planned." :)

The more I thought about it yesterday though the more I decided my life isn't really like the Seasons, it seems to be more like a TV show with different seasons and different episodes. My friend Kerri and I have joked for years about our life happenings, giving them an Episode Name...much like the way Friends used to name their episodes. Again, I think for us it has become a coping mechanism/mind game to make us laugh at very "unlaughable" moments in our lives. And you know what? It worked. In a moment when life seemed to be falling apart, I would get an email or a text or nowadays a facebook message with one of Kerri's "episode titles," and I would laugh out loud, remembering that life really isn't that serious.

So this particular day I thought, really my life is more like TV show episodes, not predictable seasons. I just never seem to know what is going to happen in my life. If you would have told me some of these things would have happened I would have laughed at you. But then...then are actually really happening in my life. I had to stop and reflect for a second about the TV show seasons concept. It seems to work a bit better for me. My life changes a bit more like weekly episodes with new themes every year or so. And there is always some emotional extreme in my life and there are always new characters popping in and out.

Like now for instance, I just finished a temporary job in L.A. (the fun Red Carpet Pictures are below...) while having my AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL boyfriend, who moved around the world for me. If you would have told me last February that this would be my life I would have laughed you out of my face. Funny how in a moment (or a single trip to Fiji) one's life can totally change. You can't write stuff this good (as my friend Kerri often tells me when I share the latest drama in my life) I still don't have an apartment and now I don't have a job. And I started today, me and Sam affectionately are calling our next month..."perpetual vacation." We headed to my parents for a night, then will be off to Redding, but like all good sitcoms we couldn't just go to my parents and drive up to Redding. We both get sick, fight all the way over the grapevine and then end at my parents with Sam so sick we can't go to Redding. The best well laid plans just don't ever seem to work these days. The whole time too, my life and lack of order for my life is rolling through my head. After this "perpetual vacation" what will I do for a job, where will I live, where will Sam live, what is next, what do I want to do with my life? Did we ask these questions after college....how am I hear again?

But ironically, I LOVE my life. I was driving home in crazy traffic Saturday and had been sitting for over an hour already when I just SMILED HUGE thinking of getting to go home and see Sam, get Mexican food right down the road and call one of our friends in New Zealand. All I could think was "when did this become my life?" So simple and not glamorous but so sweet and what I hoped for. We walked on the beach at sunset this week, frustrated at some things in life and unsure where to go next but all I could think was "perspective dana, perspective." It is just another episode and a great story to tell. How many people really get to not have a place to live and a job and then live this adventure? The best part of a Season a lot of times is the first episode after a summer break and the season finale that you wait for all week once you see the commercial reminding you the finale is coming. The middle is interesting and often makes you laugh and/or cry, but the best and most intense things happen at the end.

While we have had our fair share of intense in this season, this season is not over, we are just on to a new episode. Scenes from last week...to catch you up because of my lack of blogging :)

(On the way into the Awards Show I worked on the last two months...)


(All Dressed Up On The Red Carpet...Who knew?)


(More Pictures...Sam had to look snazzy because he was walking Elizabeth Perkins down the Red Carpet moments later...he was her date all night long. Who would have thought? A guy from Te Puna walking a celebrity down the Red Carpet..."


(The end of a VERY LONG night....)


(The day after the Award Show I woke up early, skipped a shower, went and got Sam and took him to the Rugby 7's that happened to be in San Diego. This was right before we walked in....we like taking pictures in the Car Parks)


(In Petco Stadium waiting for New Zealand to play)


(Sam was pretty stoked to have Beer and Chips and even more stoked that they had New Zealand Beer--Steinlager)


(Look at that smile! This was right before he was hassled by a security gaurd, got pretty angry, then found out that in America they close the alcohol sales at 4PM. Him, along with every other non-American in the stadium was appalled that at a Rugby tournament that their would ever be a stop of alcohol sales. It was even worse when the Steinlanger just sat tempting and taunting him at the concession stands after 4....only in our TV Show do you start out to give your guy a great day after a long few weeks and end on an emotional roller coaster of chaos. He looked at me at the game and said...I used to be so even keeled before you....Ooopsise...welcome to my emotional roller coaster of a life. Kind of crazy, but never lacking for excitement and laughter...)


Scenes from next week...
Redding.
Tons of Friends.
Kids I have missed like Crazy.
Linclon--more friends and more kids to play with.
LA for a bit.
Florida to meet all Sam's family that lives in the states.
Then....
Reality Check.

Stay Tuned...it seems simple enough and straight forward, but you know with me it NEVER seems to go as planned!

The blogs will continue now and the episodes will be up for your viewing on a more regular basis :) For now enjoy the "hour long episode" to catch you up!