Adventures on the west coast: And the walls came down...

Today is my first official day of "spring break" and what no better way to spend it than by being woken at 7am with loud hammering above my head?? After several notices on our front door for the past month, they finally began re-roofing (is that a word?) the building. I knew it was only a matter of time after hearing the banging on the other buildings and I suppose Murphy's Law dictates work on my building should begin on the first day of break. Oh well. I must hand it to the 20 Mexican men, though. They have been working (with breaks I'm sure) for over 12 hours. It's nearly 7:30 pm! In addition, it must have hit a high in the upper 80's today! I was going to get a picture of all the work they did but they seemed a bit weary of me taking photos. Here's the mess on the lawn in front of my building:

I can't believe I haven't written on this blog since December. You may not believe me, but I do feel bad about it. I love writing and I really just need to schedule time for myself and DO IT. I have no problem taking pictures or writing, it's just posting. In fact, posting on a regular basis was one (of many) new year's resolutions that I made on December 30th when I was flying back here from PA. I've had the airplane napkin pinned to my wall by my door (remember, you can click on the photo to enlarge it):

Thus far, my resolution successes have been: use online banking, only eat 1 school lunch per week maximum, and train Marley to shake and stay. As for my aspirations, I'm in talks with a doctor about eye surgery and I'm slated to attend Andrew's brother's wedding at the very end of May. (In case you didn't know, I've never been to a wedding before!)

--It's 7:45pm, dark, and they're still hammering away up there!--

On to more exciting news... I BOUGHT MY FIRST CAR!!!! It's an '09 Honda Civic EX in "Atomic Blue." After months of research and two hours of haggling, I bought it March 26th. With the CA sales tax rising to 8.25% on April 1st and the Jetta losing air conditioning at an unknown time during the winter, it just made sense to finally take the leap. Here are the last pictures of my '97 Jetta GL, with about 122,000 miles on it:

And here's me before taking my new car home:

With only 23 miles on the car, Andrew and I took a road trip to Anaheim to see Billy Joel and Elton John in concert. They put on a great show that lasted 3 hours and among their own hits, they even included the Beach Boys "California Girls" and The Beatles "Back in the USSR" and a personal favorite, "Birthday."

And now, in the California sunshine: