I stopped at the mall yesterday. I’ve been looking for some long pants so I can wear them for teaching. All I have right now is a bunch of shorts.

I’m not having much luck. But I’m seeing some interesting things along the way. Here’s something that surprised me:

It’s velour! Some of my favorite shirts from middle school were velour. I was so tempted to buy it. Maybe after I get some pants…

My shipping pod is here! Yay! It arrived on Monday. I went to the storage facility yesterday to go into the container and get out my school boxes. The other stuff will have to wait two more weeks, because that’s when I close on my house.

Everything was in great shape. There were no collapses. I was so glad!

I went directly to school, and got some help from the summer camp kids to carry it to my room. They got Jolly Ranchers as a reward. Without exception, they preferred grape and watermelon. I found that so interesting. I prefer grape and watermelon too – though I will eat cherry, which is good, because that and the green apple ones were all that were left. Green apple… yuck!

I’m in school mode, and school doesn’t start for another month. AWESOME! I always feel like I’m rushing to get ready for school, but now I have all this time to do stuff. It’s an extra special blessing now, of course, because of being at a new school.

Yesterday I started reading the 7th grade History textbook. It is slow reading, but it’s so interesting. I’m going to have a lot of fun teaching it.

Since it’s cool here in the summer time (did I know LA was so cool in the summer?), I leave my classroom doors open in the morning for a nice cross-breeze. When my doors are open, people stop by to say “hi”. I met three new people yesterday – one was my co-worker Diana, and the other two were a former teacher and her husband. How delightful!

It’s my half-birthday today! Woo hoo! Happy Half Birthday to me!

On my way back from church yesterday, I saw a van with a LOT of bumper stickers on it. I had a lot of time to read them, because I sat behind the van at a red light. It was fascinating, because so many of the stickers seemed to contradict each other.

Warning – there are some swears. Also, most of them are political in nature, so if that is stress-inducing, skip the van picture and look at the flower picture or sunset picture that were in my phone’s photo album:

I went car shopping yesterday. I’ve been looking at Carmax, among other places. I like that Carmax doesn’t haggle, because I’m a terrible haggler, and haggling raises my anxiety level by many multiples. The Carmax facility that had a truck I was interested in is in Duarte, which is in north Los Angeles. Denis joined me, and it was a Road Trip.

The truck I went to see was a “TRD Sport” model, which means it was suped up and configured for off-roading and such.

All the bells and whistles were fun, but it was too much truck – too big. I mentioned it to the sales guy, and he said there was just a regular SR5 there. He went to get it.

I liked it. It was much better – easier to see out the windows, smoother ride. I think it’s what I want …but in white. Ah well, but I do consider it a successful day, because I narrowed down my choices.

By the end of the test driving, we were hungry, so we went to a nearby restaurant. I had tacos. They were amazingly delicious.

The view was amazing too:

On the northern edge of LA where the city ends, mountains rise to the horizon. It reminded me of the West Maui Mountains in Kahului. Since we were so close to the edge, we decided to drive into the mountains a little.

It was desolate and beautiful – dry rocks and scrubby plants. Our turn-around point was Silverwood Lake. We only got out for a quick look because it was HOT.

The trip back went through a lot of traffic. What people say about LA traffic is true. But what a fun day!