California Rubbish

What's there to say? I don't really know. This week has been so different from the rest... but in different ways. Ya? Followin me so far? 
This is definitely gonna be one of those posts where I'm saying what's going on in my head whether it makes sense or not.
...First of all, there are really big spiders here. And it's freakin me out. The little baby ones I find in my room freak me out even more though. Baby ones=there are a thousand more somewhere and they're multiplying! ICK.
This week flew, but I learned a lot of little lessons about myself and people in general.
I finally got everything squared away with finally arranging a place that will proctor my tests online from weber state, i go down there to take the test in the middle of the day tuesday, and the day went downhill from there.
There was nowhere free to park. Of course. I should just accept the fact that there will no longer be free parking as long as I'm in California and I need to just get rid of that luxury I had in Utah. And I'm tellin ya, appreciate the free parking if you've got it! Cuz I know I didn't.
All those who have ever driven around for fifteen minutes on a college campus trying to find a parking spot where you won't get towed- that's how I feel everytime I want to park somewhere. Every Dang Time! A week ago I went to a CVS pharmacy and they had a normal parking lot! No ticket booth, meters, valet, nothing! I just drove in and parked. I wanted to stay in there longer and spend more money because of it. It was an event to behold.
Anyway. So it took me forever to park, and I finally found a public parking lot that you had to pay $10 to park in, and they only took cash, which I didn't have, so I went to a random meter that was a block away, and it only let me pay for 15 minutes, and my test was supposed to be an hour, but I left it parked there anyway, it was a ghetto college to take my test at, found the bldg and room number, they had me walk to a different bldg and pay for the test, and they only took cash too (what the heck?! what's with this 'oh, we don't take cards' business??? what year is it anyway? 1985?), so i then had to walk to their cafeteria in this other bldg and get money from an ATM, then walk back and pay, then walk and take my test, which I didn't do well on, I drove home and Amanda wasn't texting back so I was worried she didn't know I was gonna be late getting home, I try to parallel park on the road in front of my house and tap the car behind me, my heart drops, I look out my driver window to see this frantic lady with a Pollish accent yell numerous f-bombs and curse words at me, then the girl that actually owns the car tells me it's a rental and just wants my info in case the rental place sees anything, so I do this all while this lady is flipping her lid at me, I shut down and just give the other girl my info and find another parking spot, turns out the screaming lady is one of the next door neighbors, awesome for me, but luckily she's hardly home and rents out her house a lot, that girl was one of her renters, so I think that's why she lost it with me, to prove her 'I won't stand for this' ability I suppose, it really rattled me and I told Amanda, we went out to look at both cars again and there's nothing, she felt really bad for me and was worried about me the next two days, she kept trying to convince me to take a bath with her epsom salts, but I mainly just hope karma whips that screaming Pollish lady in the butt. End of story. And end of run-on/weirdly executed sentence.
You know what's weird? Everyone in Beverly Hills and Belair drive black cars. All of them. All three cars that this family owns is black. Don't get me wrong, it's made me want to get every car I'll ever want, to be black. It's just funny how they all do it but no one notices.
You know four-way stops? Good thing I'm good at those, because if you go out of Beverly Hills and onto Sunset or Santa Monica, you have to drive through a SIX-WAY STOP... and it's huge too. If you ran from stop sign to stop sign it would probably be almost half of a mile. six way stop! That was bonkers the first time I drove up to that. You have to be assertive and positive where you're going and pay attention to drivers. That totally blew me away. 
Saturday I went to the beach with two girls I met in my singles ward in L.A. but I'm still wanting to meet more people. I feel like I've had a pretty good intro with the ward I'm in now, and I think I'm gonna try the Santa Monica ward next week just because. I'm gonna kinda compare wards and see what I think. Even though I'm already having my records transferred and I think I'm getting a calling this sunday.. oh well. 
Tonight Amanda had this other sitter come and babysit the kids with me to kinda see how this sitter would do with the kids while I have weekends off. She's a sweet girl, and I think she'll be just fine. But she's from L.A. and it was interesting to hear her point of view of L.A. and what locals around here do. She told me about 'running the canyon' that a lot of famous people do I guess. She saw Zac Efron one day... so it's going on the list of musts.
Then she was asking me what I've been doing on the weekends and what I like to do with my freetime. My answer? 'Well, I've hung out with people I meet at church a few times but I usually just go out and learn my way around and do homework online a lot'(clearly made myself sound awesome. pff.) And then she proceeded to tell me everything she does and everything there is to do here. I hung my head in shame! I haven't been taking advantage of this opportunity like I should be! So I'm determined to do something awesome this weekend. Hopefully with some cool people. Even one would be fine actually. haha. 
But I've learned that I don't need a ton of things and events coming up in my life to be happy. I know how to be happy by just living. :) And I think that's important.
I've learned that first impressions are almost always deceiving and you never know anyone's story unless you ask them. Assumptions get you no where. Speak up! And more than likely, they'll be happy you're having a conversation and now you've made another new friend. :) Go you.
Don't be afraid to say what you think and defend your values. People will respect you if you do.
Don't just say it, BE it. Be that testimony that you hold so dear to your heart. 
A hug is seriously under rated in this world. Everyone needs a hug at some point. 
Songs I'm obsessed with right now: Meet Virginia, Train. Springsteen, Eric Church. Sweeter, Gavin Degraw. Reasons Unknown, The Killers. I love hearing songs that you instantly associate with the funnest moments in your life, and your favorite people.
Getting missionary letters in the mail is like putting on a jacket and finding a twenty in the pocket. You wanna have a five second celebration, gasp, maybe jump up and down, and savor it. I LOVE getting letters from them. It makes me so happy! The rest of the day!!
I apologize for the unorganized entry this week, and I'm currently looking into buying a digital camera so that I can upload some more pictures! You're great. You're all just great! I feel your love from here!
toodles,
Hay