i am already listening to christmas songs. and now i am downloading some more. how sad is that.

i wonder why there aren't any thanksgiving songs. i mean, there are halloween songs (or at least songs that are always played during halloween). i guess halloween is just more popular than thanksgiving.

anyway. now i want it to be christmas. this makes me not want to study.

random issues, part 3...

- i really like how jamba juice is now selling their smoothies in the half cups. it's not that much cheaper than the regular sizes, but i could NEVER finish the regular sizes. i'm just a slow drinker and the regular sizes would usually melt long before i had a chance to get past halfway. so i am very happy with these new half cup sizes.

- everything by lifehouse is the most romantic song i have ever heard in my life. i love this song. ever since i first heard it freshman year of college, i've never gotten tired of it. i have now decided that this will be my wedding song. i don't care what my fiance says.

- ralph's is no longer striking. even though vons and albertsons are still on strike. what's weirder is that the ralph's strikers are leaving ralph's to join the strikers over at vons and albertsons. i don't really understand their reasons for doing this but i don't care. i finally get to go grocery shopping again. geez.

- woohoo, my car smells good now that i've bought a couple air fresheners for it.

- this has been a really long week. it's almost hard to believe everything that happened this week. pretty much the entire main page of my blog consists of entries about the fire. now that the week is over, it's just weird to think that all of that happened in the space of only a few days. it makes me tired just thinking about it.

- i've had a lot of random thoughts today. i guess it's just been a random kind of day.

random issues, part 2...

- how sad. there were virtually no trick-or-treaters out tonight. not that there were a ton last year, but there were even less than usual (not that i would even know what "usual" is seeing as how this is only my second halloween in this neighborhood). i think it was probably because of the fires earlier this week. although the air quality has gotten A LOT better. oh well. dammit, now i have a ton of leftover candy. i shouldn't have been so stingy with the candy. sigh.

- i've been reading about peer groups, cliques, and crowds in my adolescence textbook and i've realized something: we did NOT follow the "average" pattern of peer group formation and clique structure in high school. sadly, i think we were lagging behind the "average" pattern, meaning we did things later and were a little slower in social development than most cliques. that's sort of a sad realization to come to. oh well. at least adolescence is over. it's just kind of sad to be reading about adolescence and trying to relate it to your own experiences and realizing that you can't because your adolescence was not a normal one.

- the schedule of classes for winter quarter went up today and all the classes i want to take have their finals on thursdays and fridays which sucks because that means i won't be able to have a longer spring break. i don't think i've ever been able to have a longer spring break. i hate winter quarter finals. the only good news is that i don't need that many more classes to graduate. technically, i only need two more classes after this quarter to get my degree and graduate but the last core psych course i want and need to take is being offered spring quarter. oh well.

- i think i've used the phrase "oh well" in every paragraph so far. i'm so passive. oh well.

random issues...

- i hate dr. phil. i really do. and i hate the fact that he seems to be society's stereotypical idea of a psychologist. much like freud got famous off his theory of psychoanalysis (penis envy my butt) but wound up actually being one big quack, dr. phil is getting famous because of oprah even though his ideas and theories are absolutely ridiculous. yeah...i don't like him. although i did think it was hilarious that ellen degeneres dressed up as him for halloween today on her show.

- i am afraid that no one will come by our house for trick-or-treating. we don't have any halloween decorations up and our front door light works sporadically. but now that i've said this, murphy's law will bite me in the butt and there will be a ton of kids and i will run out of candy after the third group of children. oh well.

- our house smells bad. i can't figure out why.

- there's something wrong with my vcr. i bought a head cleaner today from best buy but it didn't work. it was the cheapest one though. the guy who helped me said, "i would go with the maxell [which was more expensive] because it seems better and i don't really trust scotch." so i said, "thank you" and bought the scotch one thinking, "hah! you cannot swindle me!!" and now my vcr still has crappy picture quality and i think i will go back to best buy to buy the maxell one tomorrow. sigh.

- i've been really tired lately and i have no idea why. this is not good seeing as how i need to study my butt off this weekend for my adolescence midterm. blaaaah...

- in the middle of me writing that last sentence, we had our first trick-or-treaters come to the door and i accidentally called one of the cute little girls a boy. oops. i hope her mother didn't hear me.


okay, i'm going to go study in the living room now so it's easier for me to answer the door. i will refrain from referring to anyone by their gender and instead will refer to them as their costumes (i.e., "oh, what an adorable pumpkin you are").

well. the air quality is much better today. i can actually see blue sky outside. we've been living with this gross, smoky, muddy sky for three days straight now, it's almost weird to see a normal sky.

unfortunately, this also means that classes will start up again tomorrow. boo. and i just realized last night that my 179 class has a midterm next wednesday. the thing is, this class only meets once a week on wednesdays. today's class was cancelled so i have no idea if we're going to still have the midterm next week. argh. and now i need to start studying for my 180 midterm which is the day right after the 179 midterm. ARGH.

oh well. at least we can breathe again.

oh yeah, last night was fun. since classes were cancelled today, me, helen, sanaz, and melissa decided to have a few drinks last night. ben and mike joined us. i taught them all how to play the naked game. yes, the naked game is spreading. it was pretty funny, as usual. especially when you're buzzed and think everything is funny. unfortunately, ben mike and helen beat me mel and sanaz twice. but we beat them at cranium afterwards. although helen was on our team then. it was just a fun night. finally passed out around 2 am which seemed so late. aww...so old.

oh yeah, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JO. in honor of your 21st birthday, all classes in san diego are cancelled tomorrow and me and everyone in my house will get drunk tonight. well, okay, it's really because of the crazy-ass firestorm taking over southern california, but we can pretend it's for something good - the birth of the fantabulous, wonderful jo. ;D i love you, jo.

UPDATE: 3:30 PM, 10/28/03 - The UC San Diego campus will remain closed on WEDNESDAY, October 29, 2003 due to fire emergencies and continuing concerns for students, staff and faculty. Faculty, staff, and students are asked to remain at home.
- studentlink.

i think this means that it's time to get drunk tonight.

okay, well, we thought that the air was getting better towards the end of yesterday, but today, it's even worse. i feel like i'm breathing in an ash tray. the sky is the same shitty brown color it was yesterday but now the sun is actually red. looking out of my window, it's just dark and brown and gross.

but i guess this must kind of be what it feels like to have a snow day. all the roomies are home today because of cancelled classes. we had a bit of fun this morning playing with nyny and looking for bruce. apparently, he was hiding in a corner of helen's bed but we didn't see him and we actually searched all over the house for him, including the garage and the backyard. helen even looked in the hall closet for him! it was pretty funny.

hmm...still waiting to see if classes are cancelled tomorrow.

aerial view of a portion of scripps ranch. at least what's left of it anyway...

these remaining pictures are all from yesterday.

from the parking lot of mira mesa high school. this is pretty much exactly what i saw yesterday outside my window.

another one from mira mesa high.

the view from downtown san diego. if i believed in hell, i think this is what it would look like.

aerial view of the fire approaching the freeway. it's the 15, near mcas miramar (the marine base close to our house).

aerial view of the fire approaching scripps ranch.

a closer picture of the fire from the 15, just past the exit to my house.

the view from close to campus.

it's the apocalypse taking over.

the view from clairemont mesa last night. see all those white dots in the frame? it's ash.

a map of the cedar fire's path. i live in mira mesa. if you look carefully, in between the words "mira mesa" and the symbol for the 15, that's pretty much where i live.

The UC San Diego campus will remain closed on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 due to fire emergencies and continuing concerns for students, staff and faculty. Faculty, staff, and students are asked to remain at home.
- studentlink

the sky is this muddy brown and gray color. and the sun is giving off this eerie orange-ish glow. it looks really dark even though it's almost noon.

i just went outside to feed a stray cat (poor thing had ash all over it) and it is DISGUSTING outside. the smell of the smoke is so thick and heavy, it's just hard to breathe for long periods of time. and you can still smell it inside with all the windows and doors shut. gross.

this is scripps ranch which is about 5-10 minutes away from us.

this is a satellite image of smoke coming from the various so cal fires, including the scripps ranch one.

this is kind of how our sky looked earlier this morning/afternoon, what i woke up to.


sigh. now that the day is over, i'm starting to feel a little bit better. but at the same time, i really don't want to fall into a false sense of security. there's this nagging, paranoid feeling in the back of my mind; this voice that says, "what if something happens in the middle of the night? what if you wake up to sirens and have to leave in like five minutes? what if, what if, what if?" i'm sure i'll probably look back later and wonder why i was so freaked out and paranoid but...oh well.

okay, classes all over san diego, including ucsd, are cancelled tomorrow because of the really bad air quality. ash is still falling from the sky and it's a bit difficult to breathe outside.

i know this is a bit stupid and petty but i'm rather annoyed that it doesn't seem that a lot of people know about the fires going on in san diego. if anything, people only know about the fires in los angeles. and maybe it's just because i'm so close to the fires, but it just seems like the fires in san diego are worse, so why don't people know about it? my parents, all the way in the bay area, didn't even know about it!! their only daughter was in the midst of a firestorm, and they didn't even know!! they only knew about the fires in los angeles and i had to tell them just how close the fires were to us.

you know, one of the main reasons why the fires in san diego are so bad is because the fire departments sent a lot of their planes and resources up to los angeles to fight those fires and weren't able to use them down here. and they were just saying on the news that if they had had those planes and resources, it probably wouldn't have been as bad as it was. not that i'm blaming anyone, it's just that things are bad here and while i'm not as freaked out as i was before, i still can't help worrying and stressing a little.

you know, if you look at the crappy maps that the tv news are providing, it looks as if all of miramar/mira mesa is on fire. everything is just cancelled or shut down tomorrow - schools, federal bulidings, courts, libraries, trash pickup, freeways. earlier this morning, the fire had jumped a couple freeways. the only areas that seem to be "contained" are areas that are already burned down; there's nothing left to burn so there's nothing left to contain! and it seems as if all of scripps ranch (which is pretty damn close to us) is just gone, just all burnt. it seems as if there's just nothing left of scripps ranch at all. they're telling everyone in san diego that if they don't need to go out tomorrow, then don't go. this is just all very surreal.

thank god i have a car. and a mental list of things to pack if we have to evacuate. it gets a bit scary and stressful when you have to seriously start thinking about what to take and what to leave behind.

well, it seems like the fire(s) have died down somewhat, but i don't want to be too optimistic yet, just in case. but i'm not as freaked out as i was earlier. at least i know what i would take if we're ever told to evacuate. i've made a mental list of the things i'm going to take and in what order i would take them.

in other news, i had a wonderful afternoon and evening with chi and chris yesterday. i will blog about this later though when things are more calm.

okay, there is a huge-ass fire in san diego at the moment. i live in mira mesa and it's extremely close to my house. there is smoke all over the sky. you can smell the smoke outside. just huge huge plumes of brown smoke covering the sky. sometimes the sun gets covered by it. it's spreading really fast because of the santa ana winds which you can totally feel outside. the fire is close to us and it's spreading towards us.

melissa and i are the only ones home at the moment, but we've got places to go to if they tell us to evacuate. one of the evactuation centers is mira mesa high school which is pretty close to us. so we're thinking that if one of the evacuation centers is mira mesa high school, then the fire hopefully shouldn't be coming too close to us. anyway, the sky is all brown and orange and i'm starting to get really freaked out. so i'm going to post this blog and turn off my computer so i can be ready to grab it if we do need to evacuate. so obviously, i won't be on aim; just call my cell if you need me.