Postcards: Blank Slate

It has come time to write more postcards, as I've once again found myself wandering.
I've been having a hard time writing from places I call home, just like you wouldn't send a real postcard from your local grocery store...probably. Sometimes, though, life takes you by surprise.
Example:
I am currently in my hometown in California. There isn't a lot of exciting adventure things to write about, but I'm more of a vagabond now than I ever felt traipsing around Central America. I can try to explain why, but I can't promise I'll be very good at it.

Le Grand Summary:

Right?

Very quickly and all at once, I was handed a blank slate. That means no responsibilities on Salt Spring Island, no place to really live, no job. I could go wherever I wanted.....So for some reason I chose Willits... The other "home" that I have.

Really, with all the travel and excitement, I guess there is a big part of me that is a little bit tired of not having a place to set up my life. My stuff is ALWAYS in storage, and sometime, I would like to use my DVD player and my microwave. Not at the same time...Maybe at the same time.
So I somehow meandered back to Willits. Then I very quickly meandered back out. As of right now I'm floating around California between family members, catching up on all the stuff I've been missing. My new baby niece, my sisters new apartment at University..And also scouting out places I might like to stay a while.

In the meantime, I am on more of an adventure than I've felt like I've had in a long time. There is no real safety net here.

But enough of that, and more about California.
Most people have been to California and know that the golden hills, beaches, and general celebrity fanfare are why most people drop in. I've been between Willits, north of San Francisco and San Luis Obispo, south of San Francisco. I'm hoping to get all the way down the coast pretty soon because its COLD. The other day my car door froze shut. I had to open the passenger door, which was slightly less frozen, and kick the driver's side door out from the inside. THIS IS NOT OK. It is time for me to run madly towards the sun.

One thing that I got to experience this time around which I have never seen in my whole life living in California were the Zebras.
Yep. Zebras. I don't know who knows about Hearst Castle and the man behind it, but its fascinating to me, and for some reason, I've never actually been. Driven by, sure, but not actually gone. So basically this guy William Randolph Hearst, who was a newspaper publisher and a seriously rich guy, built a HUGE castle on a hill just off the Pacific Coast Highway. This place was a hot spot for famous guests and his art collection, and general excessive Californian parties. Hearst wasn't exactly everyones favorite guy, I think he actually thought he was the freaking king. So as if that wasn't enough, he filled his mansion with exotic animals. After he died, the place became a museum of sorts, you can take tours and such. Most of the animals were given away or sold to zoos, but someone let the Zebras out. They still live on the property today, peacefully amongst the cows. If you drive up highway 1, you'll probably see one hanging around on the side of the road in a field. Of course that means I never saw any. Until the other day! I was driving with my dad up the coast telling him "Maybe we'll see Zebras!"
"Zebras? Yeah right ok."
"No really, they're around, I've never seen them but I wanna! Keep your eyes out and tell me if you see any, they'll be around Hearst castle."
"Ok...."
A minute later he says, "HEY LOOK, A Zebra!"
I have never pulled over so fast. Its a weird sight.. Cow...cow...zebra...cow... I had my moment of touristy photo grabbing and "YAAAAAY"ing and then we drove away and I just kept saying "Zebras!" for a while, I don't know, weird things happen to a person when you see a zebra in a random field. Like writing almost a whole post about it...Wow, ok. ANYWAYS.

ZEBRA!

So besides that, I've been mostly playing with a lot of babies. My friends have babies now, my sisters have babies. One thing I have learned about babies this trip is that they are iPhone evil geniuses. A 1 year old imported all of my Facebook contacts into my phone so now I have a thousand names and numbers that I don't even really know. He also likes to call or text boys which I then have to explain to them why I called them 3 times late at night... That is never a fun conversation. No one ever believes you when you say a baby did it. For some reason its never like a girlfriend who I know really well and won't care, its always a guy, and usually one I would rather not have thinking I called them repeatedly. I'll get him back one day when he's starting to have girlfriends or crushes... "Oops, I must have accidentally hit dial..."

Willits is the same. Willits is always the same. Nothing REALLY changes. Funny enough, that is both the reason I came, AND the reason I realized I need to leave. So I am making goals. I am lucky to have a car here so I can drive away whenever I need to. My sisters and nieces and nephew are only a few hours away, the beach is close...The beauty of California is that everything is relatively close. There's nothing you can't see or do. What better place to be in a time of endless opportunity (or complete panic. Whichever.)

And now a bunch of pictures in no particular order because I'm too lazy to re-organize them..
:)

Christmas in San Francisco, Union Square. Looking out a Macy's window.

Thai Squash Soup post Christmas Dinner.

A snowy morning on top of the world in Mendocino County.

Stockings all hung by the chimney with care!

So, I was shown some excellent fish tacos at Rio's in Willits!

I don't know how read my post about 10 good things. You can find it on my other blog here. But this was my list recently...Its the little things...

Christmas cookies! This isn't even a little bit of them either, we made a LOT. Hear that, girlscouts? Yeah, be afraid.

Ocean in Northern California

This is what family is for..

Another sunny day in California

It looks like a windows desktop wallpaper...but its real

That is GREAT NEWS!

A rainy evening at Avila Beach

Christmastime

This is NorCal

New Year's Day Hike

Like, totally fro-yo.

Avila Beach

Christmas in Union Square, SF

An old movie played at this theater the night we were there in Palo Alto, and at the end this guy rose up from the orchestra pit playing the movie theme on an organ. A very cheap, and very awesome experience.