As I sit here typing, I've got the door open and am listening to the sound of the ocean, the sea gulls and thunder as a powerful storm crosses overhead. It's peaceful and yet kind of nerve wracking at the same time. There are tornado watches and severe thunderstorm warnings all around, but since I have no idea what county we're in, I have no idea if it's us or not that's under the gun. We had one big storm come through earlier but evidently there are more to come throughout the night. Fabulous.

It was a good day today. We went to class, shopped a little bit at some upscale outdoor shopping center and then ate at the Cheesecake Factory. Boy was it good and boy was I full! We came back to the hotel after that and I've just hung out since then.

I miss my family terribly. I miss seeing Tanner after school and her being excited to tell me about her day. I miss driving to school with her, radio blaring, singing at the top of our lungs and then laughing at what goofballs we are! And of course I miss Steve. I miss hanging out in the evenings and relaxing together. He's sick again (and God forbid he go to the damn Dr!) and I miss being there to take care of him. I miss sleeping next to him at night and knowing when I wake up, he'll be right there. I know it's only been two days, and don't get me wrong, I've had a blast, but I miss my best friends.

I've wondered a lot over the last two and a half days what it's like to live here. I wonder if when you live here, you take the ocean for granted. I wonder if you live here, you don't go to beach much because it's not that fun when you've lived here all your life. I wonder how they keep the city so clean-is it because it's not the summer or is it always this way? I wonder where all the freaks are, or even if they have any, because we've not seen but maybe one or two! I wonder how much the public transportation here is because there are ALWAYS people at the bus stops. I wonder what it would be like to live here. Hmm............

I got tickled this morning because on the news, they were talking about the weather today, how it was going to be 75 degrees and "winter is coming back tomorrow." The high tomorrow is supposed to be 54. They call that "winter?" Crap, where I come from, at this time of year, we call 54 a heat wave!!

I think I'll go sit out on the patio one last time. I really want to walk down to the beach and walk along the beach for a little bit, but with my luck, it'd start down pouring as soon as I started! The patio will do for now........