Disaster strikes in the foothills

Nothing spurs terror in a Californian like the sight of snow where it usually isn't. People run for their cars to head home and bunker down.

Trees fall, there are sweeping electricity outages, there are mass collections of spin outs on the roads and everyone runs around screaming "Armageddon!

I don't ever remember my cable or my power going out following two inches of snow in MIssoula. If that was the case, my power would have been out all the time.

I have to admit, this mentality is contagious. I remember growing up I wouldn't think of anything of getting in my little two-wheel drive Subaru Justy and moshing through drifts of snow. In fact, when I was in high school, my dad would actually tow me out of the driveway and send me off onto the roads.

Yet last night while I was at the gym, I actually left early when I saw it had started to snow. I held off for awhile, but then the sense of dread about having to wrestle with my chains or not be able to get into my driveway won out. I made it home before the snow started collecting on the roads.

This morning it's mayhem. The roads are rivers of slushy, melting snow. Trees are down everywhere. No one's power is on. The cable is out. Everyone in my apartment complex walked to work.

It's lunch and there still is no electricity at my place.

This was all kind of fun and different at first, but I'm over it. Life is just so hard without modern convenience.

Lesson learned: Good thing we don't get hurricanes here.

Hold on mom

Here's a shout out to my mom, who as I write is stuck in her car going over Donner Pass. She had driven to Yosemite for a skate ski race this weekend, and left at noon to return home. It's been pouring rain here all day, which means snow up high, so I guess it's pretty slow going.

She called to vent her frustration just a bit ago. I don't blame her. I would be going crazy if I had just spent nine and a half hours in the car, too. And she doesn't have the CD player to blast like I do.

Good luck mom. Just remember my driving tips. And here is a new one for snowy conditions: Chains double well as whips for those drivers who pass too close.

Lesson learned: I love my cozy warm couch.

Waking up

Today, I attended an all-day conference with Christian speaker Beth Moore. She was actually speaking in Texas, but the event was fed through satellite to more than 500 churches all over the United States and in Canada.

About 150,000 people watched her. She said she and her ministry team were "floored" to hear how many people were tuning in: "I'm talking carpet fibers in the nasal passages," she said. She cracks me up.

She is actually the author of two different Bible study series I have done with groups of friends. I finished the last one in December. They are a little different than your usual sit around in a circle and discuss a chapter of your favorite book in the Bible. They involve five days of intense homework and a video of her speaking each week.

I'm not exaggerating to say they were each life changing in their own way. She is a phenomenal speaker and writer, who is so good at weaving in analogies, her studies of Hebrew, humor and her own testimony to make you get so much more out of what your reading in the Bible than you ever would have if you just read it on your own.

This particular conference came at the perfect time for me. I wasn't even supposed to go originally, but Sarah snagged me a ticket at the last moment. It is eerie how whatever the topic of her sermon is always applies so closely to whatever is going on in my life at the time. Today's was truly core-shaking. So much so, I went home in a sort of exhausted release and slept for three hours.

I wish all my friends and the people I love could have watched it.

I'm actually seeing her live in a couple of weeks at a conference in San Francisco. I'm looking forward to another wake up call from her and other speakers who will be there.

Lesson learned: So many.

Let it snow

I think I spoke a little too soon when I said winter forgot us. I think it was just late. It snowed in town last night — which is really rare here. The scanner at work has been going crazy all day yesterday and this morning.

My mom was coming through town on her way to a skate ski race in Yosemite last night, so we were out to dinner when it started. Luckily, we made it home safe, but we couldn't make it up the steep driveway into my apartment complex.

Most of the snow is melted off now, but it's still pretty chilly.

Lesson learned: I was wrong. Winter is still on.

Making a come back

Okay, I'm back. This weekend I took some time to heal and have fun, and although I'm not the picture of bubbling happiness, I feel a little better.

Here was my eight-step plan to recovering from heartbreak and a broken friendship:

1. I got the best massage of my life on Thursday night;

2. A group of girlfriends and I drove to Modesto for dinner and dancing on Friday night;

3. I worked out like crazy every day;

4. I actually laid out in the sun by the pool Saturday. (Yes, winter has forgotten us here. All you in the cold north can hate me, but it's true).

5. I had a movie and vent night with my friend Sarah, complete with popcorn and a glass of wine;

6. I cleaned my apartment, which had declined into static mayhem (I know that it sounds like those two terms contradict, but if you had seen it, you would understand);

7. I went to church on Sunday;

8. Last night, I played tennis. Swinging at fast moving objects is therapeutic for obvious reasons.

Now I'm working on looking forward. But sympathy flowers and chocolates are welcome.

Lesson learned: I should start my own break up recovery center.

Time out

Have you ever thought you knew someone, trusted them, only to find out they were not the person you thought? That happened to me twice this past week with two separate people, two completely different situations. Neither of them look the same to me anymore. I'm sort of just numb about the whole thing.

I might not write write for a few days — not like that's unusual. I just can't try to be funny or perky right now.

V Day, a little like war

Me and Valentines Day have a love hate relationship. I won't tell you, like many other women, trying to be indifferent and independant, that I hate it. I always go into it with hope, when I'm in a realtionship. Of course, when I'm not, it's never easy to see my co-workers get reams of flowers.

Tonight, my friends Jenn, Jess and I drank wine, ate cheese cake, bashed men and watched a movie. It met up to all my Valentine's Day hopes.

I must say though, I'll be glad when the whole day is over tomorrow.

Lesson learned: You don't need a man to celebrate Valentine's Day.

Seeking full-time assistant

My coworker Amy and I have decided that life would be so much easier with an assistant. I could have her (or better yet him) return my calls, write briefs, organize files, set up photo assignments and do all the other tedious stuff that is part of my job.

If I could bring that assistant home, they could finish up all the chores of have stacked up there, too.

Things have been a little hectic at work lately. We've had two reporters and a news clerk quit, and another reporter just announced her retirement. This means the rest of us have to make up for the absences. In the past two weeks, all but two of my days were 9 or 10-hour shifts. That wears on you after awhile.

Anyway, an assistant would help, but since reporters are hard to come by, I don't think I'll be getting one.

Lesson learned: The overtime is nice.

My own snow dance

I have this curse. As curses go, it's not that bad. It's just that every time I wash my car it rains.

This time, I decided to use this to my advantage. Seeing as how we have had a drought here — which has seriously put a damper on my snowboarding — I thought giving my little Chevy a scrub down would help the situation.

It worked like a charm — well sort of. Two days later, it was pouring rain. The problem is, the snow line is too high to help the ski resort I work at. In fact, it is pouring rain at the base, which will actually make things worse.

Oh well, so much for that plan.

Lessons learned: You can't trick a curse.

Around the world in 13 hours

Okay, I know I've been really bad at keeping this up to date lately. I won't even bother with the excuses.

Yesterday, I drove to Berkeley for another meeting with my team mates who I'm going to Japan with. We met in Berkeley because Beth, one of the four who is going, knows a Japanese woman, a, who lives there. Kimi made us a traditional Japanese lunch and shared some cultural insights that will help us fit in when we're there. Then we headed to a Japanese store to get apprised of what kinds of food to expect. There was some pretty messed up looking stuff there. Even the candy is strange, though has fantastic packaging (stuff like cartoon panda bears playing baseball stamped onto little coco filled biscuits).

It was a lot of driving for a lunch though.

Despite its length, the drive went smooth. It's a far cry from the drives I used to make when I first got here, which consisted of me blaring my music to try to drown out my pounding heartbeat. Hey, I'm a Montana girl, where four-lane roads are overkill.

But I’ve grown a little more comfortable on the California interstates in the two and a half years since I moved here.

For those of you who haven't, but plan on driving here, it is a very strategic art.

Here are some of the rules:
1. If you aren’t driving as fast as conditions allow, you are driving too slow.
2. If you are driving too slow, it’s perfectly acceptable for anyone to tailgate you, cut you off, pass you on a double yellow line, or leave their brights on while they tailgate you.
3. If you want to change lanes, but the two cars beside you only have enough space between them to accommodate a tricycle, merge anyway. They’ll move.
4. There are no rules for semi trucks (what we in California call big rigs). Just get out of their way.

Lesson learned: After seeing some of the Japanese cuisine, I might actually lose weight on this trip.