Bakersfield, CA

Bakersfield is where I arrived last night and have once again set up camp in. I had a fair tonight, it was incredibly slow but I had some great conversations with the counselor next to me. The revelations I came to today are the following-

1. I have no desire to ever live in Bakersfield, or really anywhere in this area.

2. Bookstores are one of my favorite places to go, any bookstore, new and used, there are so many unspoken words just waiting to be read.

3. I love bugs. The best part of my day was when the counselor from Patten University and I started talking about her hotel room last night and how she found a very large wolf spider on her bathroom towel. She told me she's not normally scared of spiders but this was so huge and fast that she ended up calling the hotel help and had a guy come kill it for her. Upon spraying the spider with raid apparently tons of baby spiders jumped off its back and started running away! They switched her room.... But this so hit my interest, so we talked about spiders and bugs for a good 20 minutes after that. That intrigue in me, that most people probably find amusing and incredibly odd has been so peaked recently, this being a prime example of such cases. THIS IS WHAT THAT COUNSELOR SAW LAST NIGHT! ON HER BATH TOWEL! YUCK!

4. I have an 8 hour drive tomorrow, longest I've ever driven by myself, it should be quite the experience. :o)

For some reason I couldn't post these photos in my other post so here they are. Random ones.

Ventura, CA

I spent the weekend in Ventura and had such a great time there. I was able to stay with my grandparents, see my great aunt and uncle, an aunt and a few cousins. It was also nice to get a break from the 100 degree weather and feel some ocean breeze on my face. And by nice break, I mean fantastically wonderful.
I've got some photos hear of family and various things around Ventura, so enjoy. :o)
This is incredibly random and sporadic I realize, I feel the last couple weeks travel catching up with me and today I was absolutely exhausted all day. I slept so well the last two days though, I think being in a house and feeling safe makes such a difference. I can only stay asleep for a couple hours at a time in the hotel rooms and then I wake up, fall back asleep and wake up again, every little noise brings to a complete alert no matter how deep into sleep I am. But this weekend, I slept solid and comfortably, so I couldn't figure out why I feel like a truck backed over me today. Driving to Bakersfield was literally putting me to sleep, luckily I was able to chat on the phone for quite awhile with friends and my mom, kept me awake, which in turn kept me from crashing. Sorry, this is all over the place and has run on sentences left and right I'm sure.
I learned so much about my family heritage which was so interesting to me. I would love to do a genealogy of some form and really know what made my family who they are, what made me who I am.

Fresno, CA

The beautiful church across from my hotel in Fresno. It is 100 degrees here!

Ahh...reminded me of the elevator you can take in the reed opera house in Salem. I miss home!

I found lunch in this fabulous little civic square that had trees, rose bushes and little cute places to eat.

I just felt everyone should feel the pain I have when I wear these high heels. Although this makes me look cheap and possibly redneck, I love the twead. Yeah, the silver area on the tip of the heel, that's metal, makes a nice clink clink noise when I walk on anything but carpet. Very enticing.

I had some great visits this week. I feel like they've been so blessed and I have had some great conversations with students and counselors. Although I haven't gotten as many high school visits scheduled as I would've prefered I feel as though the quality of these visits far surpass any quantity I could've reached. I also feel more than 5 voicemails and 2 emails begins to warrant a restraining order :o), so I'm trying to find the positive in what I am able to do and not the negative in what I am not able to do.

Students recently have been asking about the weather in Salem right now. I start out telling them about all the tree's being different colors and how its cool weather. You can comfortably wear a peacoat, scarf, fingerless gloves and walk around out in the cool air with a hot coffee and have the best time. It makes me miss this part of home so much. I think I can officially say Fall is my favorite time of the year. The colors. The feel. The excitment of knowing Holidays are near. Wearing at least 3 layers....oh boy, that is a good time to me! And a great book. Speaking of books, I bought an anatomy book from Borders last week, it was on sale and I'm a sucker for science, books and Borders.

Bests of the day/last night-

Best show- Headline Animal Attacks/ Friends.

Best Book- yeah, I'm still on Pigs in Heaven

Best station- country baby! Pleased as ever that I found a country station.

Until tomorrow.

At the botanical garden in San Fran at Golden Gate Park. It was very beautiful and there was a turtle pond! A turtle pond....wow... I stayed with Kristy (a friend from High school) and her 92 year old grandma who lives in the Sunset distract downtown. We could step outside of their front door and walk to any number of food places, coffee places and random places. We had some great donuts and coffee from some little place that only takes cash and is open 24 hrs...it was so tastey! Followed by multiple episodes of Flight of The Concords, it was a great night.

We went to Pier 39 one of the days and walked around all the crazy little shops, stinky piers and dodged all of the non English speaking people, which was everyone. After going going going, it was great to see Kristy and just talk and catch up. She's so much fun! She wanted to hear my Casey Corban story again...the one from when Kacie was my assistant and a guy named Corban called to talk to me and repeatedly kept saying "Hi, it's Corban." to Kacie and she kept saying "yes it is." her not realizing Corban was his name and him not realizing he had the wrong Kacie! Overall, so funny.

This was at the botanical gardens again. America's Next Top Model actually hunted as down on that walk, I can see why.

I took time while Kristy was at a church meeting to walk through the memorial site for soliders lost at war, it was really nice actually. It was peaceful and quiet and a great time for reflection and gratitude. There were thousands upon thousands of grave markers, somehow each one of them managed to stand heroic, it was amazing.

We had to mark my ride in the popular mode of transportation down here. Bus....shuttle...I have no idea what to call it but it was pretty fun and so convienent. We went shopping in Union Square and ate at the Cheesecake Factory at the top story of a like 9 story Macy's. It was so much fun and I bought way too much. Who am I kidding, never too much.

On another note, I bought these incredibly yummy Choxie chocolate bars for counselors of schools I visit and had to leave them in my car between my last visit today and my hotel. Let's just say that Modesto is in the 80's and 90's and the chocolates were in my back seat. I put them in the fridge once I got in the hotel but they didn't take quite the same mold as before. Darn! There is no way I can give them to counselors now...all deformed. Guess I'll find something else. I'm off to another college fair so I best be going. Seeing my grandparents, Jaimie and Abbey this weekend though, should be fun!

Thursday and Friday before San Fran

My last day and the visits during Friday went really well. The above photo was from a Christian school that I visited on Friday. I was very much looking forward to getting into San Fran and enjoying time with Kristy. I didn't have internet the whole time there though. That's all from those days.

Vallejo

Photos in Vallejo, CA today.

I noticed this tree behind my hotel when I was getting some fresh air outside this afternoon. I love trees!
This was just really beautiful and the sun was shining from the side.

Too bad there aren't any cool bugs inside this weird plant.

The tree by my car. The hill behind it it where the first tree was too.

Today has been such an odd day. I had two high school visits this morning, on my way to the first visit I got stuck in quite a bit of traffic (the hwy was shut down for construction...really people of California...shutting down the rural hwy). However, I made it through to find myself stopped in more traffic. There were two high schools in the city I was visiting today, I got stopped in front of the school I was not scheduled to see, literally in front of the front doorway for quite awhile. News vans, news anchors, huge sound technology type things and the likes plagued the front walk way and road. Apparently, there had been a shooting at the school about 20 minutes before I was stopped in front of it in the deadlock traffic. I did make it to my scheduled visit though, found out the information regarding the traffic at the other school and had a great chat with the counselor. So all around, an interesting morning, it was unnerving to be so close to where a gun had just been fired maliciously. Not something I hope to encounter again. And mom, no I wasn't in any danger, don't you worry.

Went for another great swim today and did some water aerobics, it was an empty pool. Probably stayed that way due to my aerobics too :o). Today I got a text from a friend about getting pumpin creamcheese muffins from Starbucks, a past favorite between the two of us. It was so weird, because I saw these delicious muffins at Starbucks yesterday and thought to myself," it must be some special right now because those are Fall pastries..." And then I realized after that text that it is actually Fall! Where did Summer go?

Shows of the day- I'm Pregnant and I didn't Know It, Toddlers and Tiaras, Glee.

Books- Pigs In Heaven

Quote of the day- "I want to be a st-aa so people will want my attogaffs." As said by an 8 year old who does pageants, acting class, writes songs with her dad (not good ones), etc.

So I can officially say I’ve been in a high school that costs as much as a college to attend. I’m talking olympic size outdoor swimming pool on the edge of a cliff that overlooks San Jose, CA…a mini Courthouse athletic club in their downstairs gym building….top of the line electronics throughout the entire school. I t was astounding! Going to college won’t be such a stretch for these kids as far as money and the facilities available. Sheesh.
Somehow both high schools I visited today were on the top of a hill (heard a few refer to it as a mountain, but I see no snow peaks so…..yeah….not a mountain :o). It’s absolutely beautiful here. Palm trees everywhere, sunny skies, tank top clad people, and the sea of black clothing that mark the professional Californians of course.
My first webcam conversation= complete! Yay! I talked with all the people in my office at a Starbucks in Dublin. If any of you also have skype feel free to hit me up, my username is caseylyn24. I was surprised that I wasn’t getting weird looks, I mean, I was sitting in a corner talking to my computer, laughing and carrying on a full conversation….I was almost disappointed that no one found it odd, it’s not often I get to play the insane one.
So Brentwood, CA is actually quite cute. I like it! It’s definitely a small town, small little downtown with boutiques and the likes. Surrounded by rolling brown hills, orchards and fruit stands. I took a nice swim in an empty outdoor hotel pool in 80 degree weather….don’t be jealous. I can honestly say that was the first time I’ve ever purposely swam laps as a work out, it was great, I think I should do it more often.
Still no more crazy stories though. Once again my eyes were bigger than my stomach, common thread of my life. So…..I got a chicken caesar salad (no big surprise there) but then it came with bread and butter. And then as I was walking back to my car, because of course I always get everything to go, I walked past a frozen yogurt dive and thought it also sounded nice and refreshing. So I got a small vanilla, chocolate & peanutbutter frozen yogurt, very excited for it too. And then…..almost back to the hotel, I realize I’m so thirsty and don’t have anything but tap water in my hotel, so I stop at the gas station market and get vitamin water, diet dr.pepper, an apple and Pringles chips. Seriously! Do I really believe after a lifetime of not eating that much, wanting to eat more because I love food, but never being able to finish anything; that I would be able to eat all of the above mentioned food. A good tidbit of information for me to remember, I will say in all fairness that I figured the Pringles and apple would go for tomorrow, and that the salad wouldn’t be that big. Excuses excuses I know, but I feel like there is some justification that is plausible. And for those wondering....i didn't even get through the salad, it was bigger than I thought.
That is all I have to report for today! Something about being here makes me want to frolic through an orchard though. Going total girl on you all right now, how cool would a wedding be in an orchard. Trees people! Tree’s, paper hanging lanterns, white Christmas lights, white tea lights on tables….pretty right. :o) Not that I’ve thought about it, actually I haven’t thought about that much, it all just came to me right now as I was thinking about how much I want to go hang out in those trees. And think about all the awesome spiders that would be there. Both big and probably a wide range of colors, ah, I am not doing well talking myself into staying safe in the hotel. Don’t worry though, I will.
Until tomorrow! I’ll be sure to find something fun to write too. Thanks for baring with me over my tumbling words pent up all day! And of course, some pics from my day. Sorry again, driving takes out the fun of photo taking.

The view from San Jose Valley Christian, one side anyway. The backside was even better!

I have a thing for signs...much like trees. fire hydrants. shoes. doors. bugs.

Brentwood, CA wishing fountain in the cute downtown.

Someone really cares about a clean window. That someone is not here apparently.

Layin' Low

Today was pretty uneventful. No rejected credit cards. No power outage. Geez, where'd all the fun disappear to? I made two school visits today, Christian schools, so that's a nice change to the degree and kind of questions I got asked in comparison to public schools. Although, don't get me wrong, public school did me well. Great in fact.

I did have some great BBQ chicken pizza from Sonoma Chicken Coop tonight after my college fair though. Yum, its gets highly recommend.

Anywho, I didn't post a photo yesterday and....well.....I never got a chance to take one today. It makes it so difficult to take photos if you are the driver, and indeed since Corban hasn't yet got us personal drivers (which I hear we should have in the next year or so....very much kidding for those of you who take comments literally), I was driving all day. But after talking to my momma on the phone tonight and answering her questions as to what my room looks like, I took a photo of it and am offering it up as my photo of the day. Nothing artistic, nor is yesterdays. So here they are.

Photo #1 the cute glass condiments they sent with my club sandwich.... So adorable!

Photo #2 my room at the Holiday Inn....read it like a rap song, its more fun that way.

San Jose, CA

Today was the first day of a new travel season. The first day I've ever used a GPS. And the first day I've sat in the dark with the power out in a city by myself. Needless to say, it was a day of many firsts, and I pray, a few lasts.

It's actually been a pretty great day. I slept in until 8am, enjoyed my morning packing and doing "the usual," which consists of music, Friends reruns and dancing around from mirror to mirror getting ready. You can take that dancing as literally as you want. I learned how to use skype, which was quite the defeat for me, ate homemade chocolate chip pancakes at Kris, David and Paul's house and a great drive and half off apps with my mom, Tyler and Jess. Good times all around! The greatness of my morning helps balance out the disappointing events of my night.

6:30pm- Arrive at the San Jose International Airport. Take a shuttle to the car rentals. Get suitecase stuck between shuttle drop of and the curb- true fact. Kick it out- also a true fact. After getting there and getting my reservation, some kicking and grunting included,my credit card gets rejected. This rental car I got tonight, I'm using for almost three weeks, you can imagine how much that would add up to. Oh, and don't forget to add on tax and the extra fee for my under 25 age when doing this calculation, its an important factor. Okay, so I finally get my car after using my personal credit card (it wanted to be used really, its only ever bought books, its been dying to buy something more exciting).

It's dark and it's starting to rain hard.

GPS's are amazing! I found my hotel no problem, with a very kind lady talking me through every minute direction there was yet again a silver lining to my rental car mishap.

First floor, sliding glass door room in the third building from the lobby and cafe. Not my cup of tea, but manageable. I was starving so I decided, like any sane person, to get food from the cafe rather than trudge around in the rainy city I know nothing about. For all of you fearing my easily accessable first story room, I decided to take the opportunity while waiting for my food to be made to talk with the front desk and get any available second story room. Luckily, there was one right above where my luggage already sat safely in my room. So I got my to go food, hurried back through the rain between the building that eventually led to the one my room was in....until.... the power went out! Yes. The power went out.

So I'm standing in building 4 (that's what it's called), my room is in building 5, there is an outdoor gap between the two building, its pouring rain, pitch black both inside and outside now and all my stuff in still in the first level room. Uh oh. It was seriously a hard decision to open the door to the outside from Building 4 and take that step into extreme darkness in the vulnerable outside. But I did it, found my way into my room and gathered up all my stuff. I figure there were two choices, 1-sit my lower level room in the darkness and eat my dinner by phone light feeling uncomfortable with the sliding glass door leading to the parking lot OR 2- move all my stuff up the stairs to the second floor in the darkness and sit in that room alone and eat my dinner by phone light. I went with option 2, I figure if I have to sit in darkness I can at least feel confident in the safety of my room. Good decision? Any opinions?

The power didn't come on for over 45 minutes tonight. It felt like a horror movie was about to come into the ever present reality of my life, that perhaps my life had actually collided with something from hollywood and I was the innocent bystander unaware she was on the big screen at the baseball game and was filled with terror when she realized she was infact on it. I give a big thank you to Jordi for talking on the phone to me that whole time, keeping me entertained. It was such a weird feeling to sit in a dark hotel room, a room that I had never actually seen with the lights on. I sat there, couldn't even see my hands in front of my face at first, it helped that I turned my computer on and kept my phone light on. But seriously, my first day back on the road and I get credit card not working, freak storm that hits san jose and power outage for almost an hour! I'm ready for my lifetime movie now.

So really though, I make this much more dramatic then I'm sure it was. I would not usually admit to this, unless it was about dark water and then all know my fear that exists, but I was actually quite scared. I've never been one to be terrified of the darkness but I'm also not someone who finds no worry in it either. It's unknown. It's unknowable. Therefore, worthy of some fear.

But I made it through. I ate, with the lights on! Washed my face, brushed my teeth, even turned the tv on. Electricity = making my night. So I end with this- I pray that this is the worst of it, that all looks up from here. I pray for everyone back home too, I realize a lot of people worry about us on the road, but I worry about you back home! Funny how that works. :o) I will try to keep this blog more updated this time, as well as one on one communication with everyone. This is my goal,

And this is a random side note. I still don't see what the big fuss is with Zac Efron. I'm just sayin', he just came on tv and I don't get it, well, I do get his awesome plaid shirts, but that's it.o)