A very nice Saturday

Friday was kind of spent having a small pity party for myself. I mean, from anyone's perspective, my life should suck - I'm 27, single, no real prospects in that direction, unemployed, always worried about finances, and often alone due to the fact that most of my friends here work theater hours. But you know what? I've never thought of it that way. I'm a full-time student, I'm getting a fresh start, I've been working on a show I love, and I have an amazing support system. I'm really happier now than I was before. But, that said...having the single girl be the person to get the decorations and love/marriage quotes for not one, but TWO, upcoming bridal showers is a drag. Not to mention that yet another of my (online) friends is spawning (she, however, is NOT getting a baby blanket - I'll be lucky if I get Beck's finished at this rate, and she's clearly the priority!). So I kind of fell into a "poor me, no one loves me" funk for a bit.

Then I woke up this morning with my usual "screw that, I can do anything I want today!" attitude. I know a lot of people who can't seem to go anywhere without at least one other person. I am not one of those people. While there are clearly times where groups are preferable (going to Disneyland, for instance), I am perfectly capable of doing things like eating in restaurants, going to movies, and even traveling around the world by myself. So after pondering my options with my friend Matt (who initially suggested the Monterey Aquarium, which I still need to see), I packed up and went to the Santa Barbara Zoo!

The day initially started off like this:
(I swear, this is a picture and not a painting! It was taken from my steering wheel on the 154 near Lake Cachuma)

But by the time I got down closer to Santa Barbara, it looked more like this:

And I saw animals like these:











And PENGUINS! I mean, honestly, how could a day suck if you see penguins in it?
I even got really brave and went into the creepy-crawly house all by myself! The Madagascar hissing cockroaches almost made me leave, though. I can deal with lizards and snakes but I HATE bugs and spiders!

All in all, the SB Zoo is okay. It's not huge in any sense of the word - I was able to easily see all of the exhibits in about an hour and a half - and the price of admission isn't bad ($11 for an adult, plus $4 for parking). The layout is a little weird, and some of the older exhibits are a little sparse, but it'd be a fun place to take a group of kids for a few hours. There were several times I felt like I could reach out and touch the animals, even though I really couldn't. It was cool! Bring a snack, though; the concessions are outrageously priced.

After that, I headed back up to Santa Maria in a much better mood and even went shopping for the two ladies' shower (we're showering them both on the same day - this coming Monday), although I didn't find anything I liked for them. I did, however, find a super cute khaki dress that is going to be perfect for the TWO job interviews I have down south on Tuesday! One is in Anaheim for a temp job through one of the companies I've been working with and the other is in Santa Fe Springs for a company that deals with stage lighting rentals. If either of those go well, I'm moving ASAP. I'm also going to try to make time to see one of my former students and maybe another friend while I'm down there, too. It might end up being a busy day! (And yes, the Irish in me requires that even though the dress is khaki, the accessories will be green on March 17!)

Gonna head up to SLO tomorrow to try to get the ladies' gifts (reason that it's time to move #138: the malls and any other decent store here - and in SLO - are closed up tight by 7:15p on a Saturday night. Wth?), getting my ID, showering the ladies, and going to class on Monday, then back down to LA on Tuesday. Can't wait!