My First California Earthquake

Today at 11:42 a.m. I was sitting behind the receptionist's desk at work. The receptionist was on her lunch break and I was scheduled to cover for another 15 minutes. I was staring absently out the front door, through the glass, at all the cars backed up on 9th street. Then, I saw the walls start to shake. I thought "is there a really big truck coming down the street?" A second later I thought, "no, no way, that is too long and too strong for a truck to do that, I think it's an earthquake." I felt the earth beneath me shake and considered for a moment getting under the desk, but it was already getting softer, so I figured I was fine just sitting where I was and enjoying my little ride. It all lasted about twenty seconds. Afterwards I felt like you do after you get off a roller coaster-granted, not so extreme- when you feel like you are still moving around on the ride.

I looked at the other room where the other case manager was meeting with a homeless man. They had both stood up and were talking excitedly. The homeless man was asking what our address was because he had never felt an earthquake before (they are harder to feel when you sleep outside all the time, I guess the building shaking is the biggest giveaway) and he wanted to remember where he was when he felt his first earthquake. Afterwards everyone kept asking if we were all okay. Robert called my desk phone to check on me (oops, I hadn't even considered calling anyone. Umm, I wanted to keep the phone lines open for emergencies. That's right, yeah, keeping the phone lines open) and I told him I was fine.

It really didn't even feel like much of a shaking. The people who walked in the front doors minutes later had no idea there even was an earthquake, and from the looks of it, neither did all the people who were stuck in traffic in front of our building. But it was still cool to feel the earth shaking like that, weird, almost unnatural. The earth just is suppose to do that.

Robert's Reaction: "It was an interesting experience. The building shook a little and then started swaying back and forth and all the window shades started banging against the window. The event seems rather fun thinking about it now but in the brief moment that it occurred I was a little scared."

Melabert

In the process of packing, I came upon our wedding video, so I popped it into the computer to entertain me while I packed. For the first time I noticed the videographer had named the disc Melabert, which I really liked. Robert wasn't too keen on that, he preferred the other option, with his name first. I agree with the videographer, who wants to pay for a video named Robarie?

Happy Pioneer Day!

I used to love going to the Days of 47 parade every July 24th. We would wake up early, stake out our spot along the parade route, and lounge around for hours as the sun came up and the thermostat shot up, waiting for the parade to start. Ahh, memories. Now it's weird, no one here thinks it's a holiday today! In Utah the 24th was just as big a holiday as the 4th of July. I miss it!So, I am taking a minute to personally remember the pioneers and their trip to the Salt Lake Valley. I am grateful for the sacrifices they made so that I could live in Utah. I am grateful for the sacrifices they made so the church could survive and I could be a member. Happy Pioneer Day everyone!

P.S. Pictures of this year's parade at http://www.ksl.com/?nid=491&sid=1527069

What If?

Lately I've been wondering what it would have been like if Robert and I had known each other in high school. Would we have been friends? Dated? Barely even known each other? Robert and I discussed it and agreed that we probably would have known each other and maybe have been friends, but probably not dated. There are two scenarios, one is if we had known each other in Idaho where Robert went to school, the other if we had known each other in Utah where I went to school.

In Idaho we would have been two of like five LDS kids in the entire school. So we probably would have gone to seminary together, been in the same ward, gone on activities etc. We definitely would have spent a lot of time together, and I think we would have gotten along well as teenagers. In Utah we would have been two of hundreds of LDS kids in the school. However, we both did cross-country in high school, and the cross country team had less than 15 people on it. I knew all the cross-country team members and we spent a lot time together at practices.

So we would have known each other. Probably would have been friends, but not dated. That is because Robert is two years older than me. So when I was a sophomore, he was a senior! How cool would I have been dating a senior as a sophomore. He he. Yeah, it wouldn't have happened. I'm very glad that we both decided to go to BYU and were able to meet each other. =)

(This is Robert and I on a night hike up to the Y when we were dating)

Birthday Flowers

Robert got me these pretty flowers for my birthday. We were a sight coming home on the bus on Friday, I was carrying a big cake that my co-workers had gotten me, and Robert was carrying two giant bouquets of flowers.

Friday we also rode the Waterbus, the water taxi that goes around Marina Del Rey, for the first time this summer. It was weird not to see Woody lounging around on the dock. He is on his mission and obviously does not work for the Waterbus anymore. It was a nice relaxing ride until the giant group of teenagers got on and filled the back of the bus.
For my birthday Robert and I went to Home Depot and got color swatches galore (Later on we also went to the movies and out to dinner with Steve and Wendy). Here are some of the colors we like. I think we'll go safe with neutrals for the front rooms and maybe go a little more crazy for the bedrooms. The first pallet are colors for the front and living room, second is for bathroom #1, and third is bathroom #2. I've been looking at colors all evening and that is as far as I have gotten! We had our house inspections and still feel good about the house, so we are going ahead with the offer. So now we are in escrow and cutting waaay back on our spending so we can actually afford to paint our house in another month.

The votes are in..

The votes are in and the winner for where Robert and Melarie should live is ...Claremont!Honestly, this is not surprising since Claremont is widely known as a good place to live. From Wikipedia:

Claremont is a college town and artistic community in eastern Los Angeles County, California, USA, about 30 miles (45 km) east of downtown Los Angeles at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. The population as of 2000 is 33,999. Claremont is endowed with a rich history, it is known for its seven higher-education institutions, its tree-lined streets, and its historic buildings.^[1] In July 2007 it was rated by Money magazine as the fifth best place to live in the United States, and was the highest rated place in California on the list.^[2] Due to its large number of trees and residents with doctorates, it is known as "the City of Trees and PhDs."

I apologize for the paucity of recent posts, but house searching has consumed most of our time recently. We made on offer on a house (in Claremont, see we do listen do our friends and family) and are now in escrow. We have another five days or so to walk away if we find anything majorly wrong with the house and after that it will be another month or so to finish escrow. The house is a bank owned and may have some issues with the roof and pool, so right now we are planning as if we will be moving beginning of September, but not counting on it so we don't get too disappointed if it doesn't happen. I am a little excited, but I am trying not to think about it too much and get really excited in case something happens and we don't end up getting the house. With that in mind I am not going to post any pictures or give details until we know we are getting this house. It should be an eventful month for us anyhow.

Happy Independence Day!

This summer will be our third summer in L.A. Wow, time flies! In that time we have managed to pick up some traditions, you know, things we do every year. Well, actually, it's more like we have adopted Steve and Wendy's summer traditions, which I think is all the better because they have already perfected the traditions. One is watching the fireworks at Santa Monica College from the lawn of the institute building and another is going to the Hollywood Bowl, both of which we did this week. Two years ago at the Hollywood Bowl we saw the LA Philharmonic and Kenny Loggins, last year was the LA Philharmonic and Gladys Knight, and this year was the LA Philharmonic and..we'll it was a Dodger's 50th Anniversary celebration. So there were a lot of old Dodgers players, the Dodgers announcer, the organist Nancy Bea Hefley, and Randy Newman (the guy who sings "You've Got a Friend in Me", not sure how he relates to the Dodgers). We had a great time and really enjoy our new (borrowed) tradition.

Smart Robert

We found out Robert is getting a promotion. Yay! I'm so proud of him. Not only is he very smart but he is very hard working. Put that together and you get promotion to senior asosciate in one year. He was in the top 3% of PWC employees for his work performance reviews. Good job Robert! (and just to be clear, Robert has been very modest about it, but I was very excited for him and wanted to post it.)