Don't Drink the Water in Waco

Mom, Dad and I were lucky enough to travel to Baylor University in Waco, Texas last month to watch Kylie and the Lady Techsters play softball. Most of us know Dad's history with Texas...College Station, to be exact, and his intense animosity towards Texans of all kinds. For the sake of everyone, I hoped that Waco would fall higher on his list of favorite Texas cities...and for the most part, it did...

Waco is a small city in between Dallas and Austin with a population of just over 110,000. As far as I could tell, there's not much to it so Baylor University is the city's saving grace. Not only is Baylor a top Christian university (so the folks by default have to be nicer than those at A&M, right?!) but it is also full of beautiful, elaborate red brick buildings. When we weren't watching softball or hanging out with Buggy, we were able to drive around and see the campus.

The school even has a zoo license of some sort so they are able to keep bears on site!

The athletics complex at Baylor was absolutely incredible. The softball and baseball stadiums are located right next to each other, built of red brick, and include all of the expected amenities plus some. That would be a great stadium to play softball in.

Even though the weather was much colder than expected we enjoyed seeing Kylie play FIVE games over the course of three days in this fabulous stadium. They played Rutgers and Louisiana - Monroe two times each and Baylor once. Here are some actions shots from the games.

It was great to see you Ky and I can't wait for our road trip out to Louisiana in a few weeks!

P.S. Next time we'll know...

Before we arrived in Waco, Kylie warned us that the drinking water was gross. I didn't think much of it since I'm not very picky about my water. How bad could it actually be?! Well, we quickly learned the hard way. At one of our first meals out, we ordered water and it tasted like soil...probably just a fluke. NOPE! The water tasted the same at every single restaurant we went to. I even think one of the waitresses looked at us like we were nuts when we ordered tap water. When Kylie said the water was gross, she was not kidding! I cannot count the number of full glasses of water we left on our tables because we took a few sips and decided quenching our thirst was impossible when it was more like drinking dirt than ice water.

I thought it was a bit strange that the water tasted bad every where in town and that the locals seemed to think it was totally normal so I did a bit of research. I came across quotes like:

"Nowhere on Mother Earth does the water taste as bad as in Waco."

"The taste and odor associated with Waco's water is a serious problem..."

"One thing all Wacoans have in common is the bad taste in our mouths."

Come to find out that the poor quality of the water is a known and ongoing issue in Waco. There are two different alleged culprits of the water issue that are probably related in some way.

The first is that Lake Waco contains a significant Cyanobacteria population. This blue-green algae is believed to produce the compounds that make the water taste "green".

The second, more interesting (and unproven) reason is that there are dairy farms located north of Waco so the city is essentially down manure creek and receives all of the dairy farm runoff.

Both of these reasons are disturbing...but we survived and everyone in Waco is still alive so I guess the water can't be all bad. Hopefully Waco can get the water problem fixed before my next visit.

STRESSED spelled backwards is DESSERTS.

I've worked nearly 30 hours over the past 2 days. Needless to say, work is crazy busy and extremely stressful right now. Not to mention, the fact that I'm leaving for Waco, Texas on Thursday and have to get everything done by tomorrow!

Even though I'm absolutely exhausted, I have not been able to get to sleep at a decent time the past couple of nights. It's not that I haven't tried...it's just that all this stress will not allow me to relax!! I swear that I caught myself close to a run on the way to lunch today. What on earth?!

Since I seem to have some free time, I decided to research this condition.

Stress is defined as physical, mental, or emotional strain or tension that includes a state of alarm and adrenaline production, short-term resistance as a coping machine, and exhaustion. Common symptoms are irritability, muscular tension, inability to concentrate and variety of other physical reactions such as headaches and accelerated heart rate.

I must say...I've never experienced so many of these symptoms all at the same time! I'm sure you know that I am a naturally stressful person, so maybe I've gotten used to some of these things but it's times like this when I really feel the effect of true stress.

After a little bit more searching, I came across an interesting quote: "The bigger your stress, the bigger your success." I don't really agree with this since part of being successful is being able to deal with and manage stress appropriately (which I am still learning) but if this quote is trying to say that stress is an indication of a successful person then Go Me! A little bit of stress is good but I can definitely see how a lot of stress over an extended period of time can really wear on you. Luckily this is the type of thing that comes and goes with any career and once I am in Waco I will be de-stressed and happy...until then, this is me...

Kindness is like snow - it beautifies everything it covers.

I had TWO encounters with snow this past week. Oddly enough, one was in Southern California...

On Saturday, Mom, Dad, and Camille picked me up so that I could catch Camille's big State Cup soccer game against another Surf team. Why two Surf teams had to drive four hours to Lancaster to play a one hour game against each other beats me. But it was a cool experience. We got to the Lancaster National Soccer facility around 7am to find the fields covered in snow! As a result, the games were delayed almost two hours in order to let the snow thaw but that didn't stop Camille and I from having a bit of fun.

Camille played great, as always, even though her team lost. I think they've come a loooong way this season and have potential to continue getting better and better. Here are a few action shots from the game.

My second encounter with snow came in Chicago, a more expected place to come across cold weather. I was in the Windy City for a last minute business trip from Monday through Thursday. It was a mad scramble to find a coat that would be warm enough and to figure out what on earth you wear when the weather is expected to go from 30 to 40 to 10 degrees all in the same week. Luckily, I wasn't outside too often.

I got into the office around 2pm on Monday and the weather was fine. It was sunny and about 35 degrees...I wasn't even cold! Tuesday's weather was fine as well. Then Wednesday came and the walk from the hotel to the office was not as pleasant as the others that week. It was windy, the air was moist, and probably about 20 degrees. The sun was not out and weather.com warned to expect the worst. My coworkers were laughing at me all week because I'd never been in weather that could potentially get down to the single digits. I've also never been outside when it was actually snowing and was very excited to experience such a thing. I made the mistake of saying that I've been "to" the snow...which apparently is not how it works in places that it actually snows. You don't go "to" the snow because you are already in the snow. In CA our only option is to travel to where the snow is. Explaining this to those who live in snowy weather was of no use.

Our office on the 33rd floor overlooks the lake and much of downtown Chicago. Around mid-day on Wednesday, you could not see the lake because there was snow everywhere! It was a beautiful site. I tried to take a picture but it just does not do the sight justice.

I decided to leave the office around 7 that night (before everyone else) so that I could walk around in the snow. I thought it would be cool to catch some snowflakes on my tongue and see some of the sights under a white blanket of ice and snow. I stopped for some deep dish pizza, which always hits the spot, and continued walking around. I had to use my umbrella because the snow was wet and melted the second it hit you, but since it was so windy my umbrella was constantly turning inside out. There were not many people walking around at this point so I'm sure I looked like a tourist of some sort. Needless to say, a new experience that started out as pretty fun turned out to be pretty miserable very quickly.

This is what it looked like when I got back to my hotel. When I woke up on Thursday morning, all the snow was gone and the sun was out. I figured it'd be another day like Monday or Tuesday...I don't think the intense weather changes in Chicago are all that surprising to anyone. Well, I was unpleasantly surprised to find that it was 10 degrees outside on Thursday morning! This is officially the coldest I've ever been!! It was 10 degrees, felt like 3 with windchill and all that jazz. The temperature only got up to about 15 that day. I was very under prepared for this type of weather. My coat didn't seem heavy enough, my scarf wasn't thick enough, and I had nothing covering my ears or face. I have never been happier to get on a plane back to Los Angeles!! I guess this type of weather is something that everyone should experience once in a while. I'm glad that I don't travel to these cold places very often. Chicago is a great city...when it's warm. Maybe our team will start planning trips to Los Angeles until it gets warmer in other parts of the country.

Ketchup

Lots has happened since I last wrote, hence the need for some Ketchup!

Last weekend my college roommate, Krystal, was in town to watch her sister play softball against LMU. This was the first time she'd been down to LA since her Bachelorette Party. (Samantha and I threw her a themed party in which 10 or 12 of our closest college girlfriends dressed as flappers and took a limo to a club in Hollywood. It was a great time and an impressive 'last hoorah' for Krystal.)

We last saw Krystal in September when we travelled to Northern California for her wedding. Sam and I were bridesmaids and a good amount of our friends were there attending the wedding. The day was a complete success and Krystal is fully enjoying married life. She and her husband, Ben, own a house in Sacramento and recently got a cat named Maverick. Here are a few pictures from the wedding...

The view of the Kehr house from the reception tent

The Bridal Party at the Rehearsal Dinner

Samantha and I after the ceremony

The Newlyweds and their LMU Softball Girls

My point is, that it has been a while since we've seen Krystal and we are all in the midst of growing up. (It's weird to think that I will be 25 in less than a month. That's a quarter of a century!!) On Thursday when Krystal and Ben arrived, we went out to dinner at a tapas restaurant in Hermosa Beach.

On Sunday we went up to LMU to catch a few games. I hadn't been up there in a couple years so it was good to see the Kehr family and some of the softball girls. This year, all of the girls who were Freshmen during my last year are SENIORS!! They are still the same yet quite grown up. Just another reason why I'm starting to feel quite old! I miss the LMU campus and the beautiful new softball complex but it was nice to be on the spectator side of the game. It costs money to get into the games these days! I guess they've finally tried to make softball a revenue producing sport.

Ben with the LMU Softball Alumni

More Birthday Celebrations: This Time...Fishing!

As if the Monster Jam birthday celebration was not unique enough, we decided to celebrate Rob's (Tara's boyfriend) birthday by spending a day out on the open seas working hard for our own breakfast, lunch, and dinner...a.k.a. Fishing!

We left out of the Redondo Beach pier on a small fishing boat run by the locals.

None of us had had much experience with fishing so, of course, we were the laughing stock of the boat, but also the life of the party. We spent half a day out in the middle of the ocean fishing for small fish and came out pretty successful. Between the six of us we had enough food to eat for the rest of the weekend. We caught mostly perch and sea bass, and some mackerel but we had to throw them back since they aren't in season.

Our group minus the birthday boy (from left): Casie, Britt, Danny, Jordan, Tara

The 'Big' One

Rob with our catchings after they'd been filleted.

I'm proud to say that I did NOT get seasick AND caught the biggest fish (of our group), which wasn't very big at all. All joking aside, spending a beautiful morning on the ocean reminded me how lucky I am to live in wonderful Southern California.

This gets me caught up on the most exciting moments of 2009 thus far!

Until next time...Hugs and Kisses!