Julia Hall vs. Julia Hall

On my way to my Appalachian Adventure I met for the first time in my life another Julia Hall. Crazy to think, but it's true. As I was waiting to board the plane, they called my name overhead and as I was walking up to the kiosk another lady was walking straight towards it as well. I get there and say, "My name is Julia Hall." and so does the lady. Crazy!!!! Then she told me how she knew that I would be on that plane and had hoped she would meet me. She told me how when she had gone to buy the ticket online, they wouldn't let her because I had already bought the ticket and it was a big hassle. We laughed about it and then disscussed what we did. Here are a few crazy similiarities of the Julia Halls
1. I work at the VA in SD. She used to work at the VA in SD.
2. I work for a research study. She audits reseach studies. That's why she was on her way to the Chi-town.
3. I have good skin. She has good skin.
4. I like to travel on planes. She likes to travel on planes.

There are so many similiarities I could continue this list forever. But we parted ways and I boarded the plane and she waited for the next flight. Well, they say you can see into the future, and I have. I look good.

I LOVE THEM QUILTS!!!!

In my time off from school(all 3 weeks now) I have been crazy busy with my friends, family and most time consuming quilting. How I love to quilt, let me count thy ways:
1) I love the touch of fabric. Many a good time have been spent in fabric stores just running up and down the aisle, arms out, feeling the fabrics.
2) Rosie's Quilt Corner is my favorite quilt store ever. I love how big it is, seeing all the fabrics organized by color and designer and most of all the newest trends in quilting
3) I love fat quarters. To those who don't quilt, it's a quarter of a yard and it is pure heaven to me. I can buy a plethera of fat quarters for $1.50 and make beautiful quilts.
4) Piecing all the fabics together is fun for me and takes my mind to QUILTLAND, a magical place where decisions can not be made and there is no bedtime ever, but watchout sometimes the evil fairies make you sleepy and mess up late at night.
BEWARE!!!!
5) Going back to a fabric store with an unfinnished quilt is autamatically an invite for all workers to look at your quilt and ask questions. LOVE IT!!!!!! I feel really tight with my girl Judy at Beverly's. She loves my quilts.
6) I love when Ruthie finishes my quilts. Which hasn't happened in a while, but she used to do all the crappy end parts. Now that I live far away from her I have to do it and I am getting better about the corners, but she is still the best.
7) The joy a quilt brings. I love to give quilts away, because I think it is such a nice gift to give someone that you really love and appreciate. Homemade stuff is always better and has more thought put into it. I would rather have a homemade gift with thought than the most expensive gift ever.
8) Quilts are warm. I like being warm.
9) Quilts are creative art. So many fabrics and colors to choose from, it helps me express my inner creative freak.
10) Quilting brings families together. Many a night I have spent quilting with my mom, sister, aunts and cousins and have wonderful memories that will last longer than those quilts I made.

Ummmm, I love food storgage!

In preparations for my move to Kentucky or across town to San Diego State University I decided that it would be a great idea to put money where my mouth is, or rather put all the money I spent on food storage in my mouth and that is exactly what I have doing. For the last 2 weeks I have been living off of food storage food. I have made 4 loaves of wheat bread, 2 peach cobblers with rolled oats, 12 oat muffins, delicious rice with beans, chicken enchiladas and oatmeal every morning and all made with what I have at home. I can buy fresh fruits and veggies, but the rest is food storage. DISCLAIMER: I do go out to eat when invited, so it's not 100% food storage, but other than that is all from the cannery. And not just from San Diego. I have jam from Arizona and beef stew from Stockton, so its really an eccletic mix of food storage.
I love wheat bread. I don't know if its because I haven't eaten bread in months and missed it, but this homemade stuff is great. It's all been great. I must note that through every provident living lesson I wandered mindlessly to the depths of Middle Earth and back, but implementing the lesson into real life, I now know how important it is. As a single adult, it's hard to find the reason for 30 cans of food, but when push comes to shove, I am glad that I do have it and so are others. Family has benefitted from my new life style as seen with the picture of Stephanie eating some of the yummy delicious wheat bread, which she loves. It really brings families together and creates healthy living habits. As my grandfather pointed out, my digestive tract is right on these days thanks to all that fiber.
The real reason I did this was to eat up all this food and use all those recipes given to me in lessons. As I was searching for recipes that wouldn't make me vommit, I remembered the folder. I put all of those recipes from lessons in a folder and years later I found them. It was food storage heaven for me. I had a coffee grinder to grind the wheat, but I think that broke today after 7 cups of wheat flour were fabricated this evening. But other than that, its been smooth sailing. I still have a lot of food to eat and make, but I want to move into more of the bean and rice recipes. My grandfather told me not to go to fast and do what I can now and take it slowly. Do what I CAN now. Get it? Oh, I crack myself and that wheat up.

4th of July Rancho Style

For this year's 4th of July festivities, we executed the best short road trip ever. Lisa G, Judd and myself drove up to Lisa G's house in Rancho Cucamunga. Having never been there and relying on the knowledge I have acquired from media like the classic film Friday After Next, I was really looked forward to seeing Ice Cube on the street and Chris Tucker trying to get some mj, but alas, to my dismay there was none of that. Actually, Rancho Cucamunga is quite nice and has really grown the last while. We had wonderful drive up there and when we arrived, Bro Garcia was nice enough to make us Huevos Rancheros. And they were by far the best Huevos Rancheros I have ever eaten because I don't ever recall eating them before.
We stayed up late that night having lots of girl talk and awoke early the next morning to have some more. Having my own room, I don't ever get pillow talk, so the change was appreciated and enjoyed. We were treated to a breakfast fit for a king and the Garcia's treated us like royalty. They are such a cute couple and I love the way they argue. It's not really arguing, but bickering with sweet endings. The favorite line given was "I'm sorry, but you are wrong my sweet." How could you be mad at that? Yeah, that was some good bickering. It really was fun to be around them. Sis. Garcia even gave Judd a new name, Judge Judy and we know so much more about Lisa G too. I got to go through the high school photos and relive her life. It was awesome. Then we saw the best 2 years of Judd's life. The appartment he blew up on the mish and the burger joint that helped him rethink foods that cause cardiovascular disease.
The day's most eventful activity was the trip to the Los Angeles Observatory. It was amazing and now I know without a doubt that science heals all. If your heart is broken, can't decide on major life decisions or just don't feel good about yourself, go watch some stars and learn how some guy proved that the earth rotated. It will really put things into perspective and you will come out with a whole new view of life and your self worth will increase greatly. So whenever I am feeling blue or down, I will just read some science magazine or perform a 6th grade science experiment and instantaneously feel so much better. I really enjoyed the show where we saw that stated we really don't know anything about how the earth was formed and that the "Big Bang" theory really doesn't explain much. Yeah, church is true. On the way home we discovered that TJ was meant for Judd and Judd was meant for TJ. TJ will marry someone named Judy and Judd will marry someone named Terry Jane(TJ) and that scares Judd.
Fireworks at Black's Beach were seen and memories were made. It really was a great 4th and I am proud to be an American. A kid near us sang the Happy Birthday song to
America and then his parents told him to stop touching things, cause he could be touching a bear's bottom in the dark and not know. I'll have to write a blog about parents who lie to their children to teach them lessons.

The Fair is not fair to my bowels

Last week I went to the San Diego County Fair and WOW it was everything you would think a county fair would be. Lots of vendors shouting at you, dirt, cows, pigs, fried Krispy Kreme Sandwhiches and a whole lot of oil. So we partook of the fine fair cuisine. We shared some Awesome Blossoms, Pizza, Orange Julius, A Royal Banana Sunday all the way(which means everything thing on top), some others ate Turkey leg and other fat-filled food. It all tasted great, but my stomach hurt for 3 days and my bowels were in such a ruckus that I have vowed to never eat that much oil ever again in my whole. And then I remembered that I might be moving to Kentucky, where I am told everything is fried in oil. UMMMM, I can hardly wait for me to be a liar and eat fried food again and to have my bowels so upset with me that they just stop.
So then we hit up the games and this was the best part of the night. We got caught in one carnival man's snare and he wouldn't let us go. First of all, we really wanted the large stuffed tiger and honestly, who doesn't need a large stuffed tiger. Chicks dig it and fellas envy it. So we tried the "simple" game of bouncing the ball of the wall and into the basket. The carnival game kept making it over and over and over again and showing us how. So after 20$ we thought our boy Adam(whom we have no evidence ever went to the fair) would take that carni for everthing hes got. Well, not really and after spending 30 bones on a stupid whiffle ball game, we walked away with 2 pity parting prizes. Say that 3 times fast! One tiger and one deformed lion for Lisa and myself. Now I know why Ruthie never let us play games at the fair, because the carnies take you for everything you've got and then give you a pity prize while they enjoy your money and practice their game to trick more people into playing.
We also stopped by the vendor's area to look at all the crap that I will never need in my life and that I can absolutely live without and be completely happy. Some lady tried to sell me a curling iron for 200$ that didn't even work well. Ahh, the good times. I can't wait to go back.

Decisions Decisions Decisions

My life is full of them these days. So I recently decided to attend the University of Kentucky for graduate school and that was a pretty easy decision to make seeing how all the other schools said no. Well, now that I bought a plane ticket to Kentucky for next what do I get in the mail? A nice little letter from SDSU saying how much they love me and really really really ridiculously want me to go to their school. So now I get to make more decisions and quick too. Which is not my favorite thing. My friend Erin said that I should check out the schools and then weigh my options. So that's what I think I will do. Next blog time. Then I made a list of pros and cons. When I told my friend this, he informed me that 90% of all decsions are already made before one writes a list. Another friend inserted the fact that 75% of all statistics are made up. Who can I trust?