Fog blog

Blogging is hard. I am now going to write about the rain because right in front of me is a large window with water droplets on it.

At one moment, I looked out the window and all I saw was white. A wooly white fog settled in the valley, blocking out the hills. It looks cold and damp, but sitting in the journalism room, typing this blog, I am neither.

Now, the fog has disappeared. I’m not sure of the science behind it. Perhaps it was tired of hanging in the air, and it fell deeper into the valley to sit on leaves and grass. Maybe the sun came, and the fog dispersed, thinning but leaving us in a perpetual but indetectable fog.

Nonetheless, the hills are a vibrant green in the absence of the fog. Whenever it rains here in the valley, the skies turn white, and the hills take up the role of vibrancy. The dusty chaparral becomes an unreal green garden, and the clay-like earth blooms into a bright brick red.

Picture Credit: Nick Nice

foggy memories

the oaks

wrinkles,

white walls

metallic beige

flying roaring

,cutting,

white walls;

warm animals 

in half motion

motioning

in motion.

you latch on

to these moments, these images,

as they race in your head,

as they take tight turns,

as a force like gravity pulls and pulls you away.

you find yourself empty save the quiet conversations and the warm silence. the moments that make you you. but how ‘bout I move them? 

how ‘bout i reorganize the pantry,

pull the back towards the front,

pour it all out?

how ‘bout when you feel those candlewarm memories

in your stainless vaccum

you feel them.

you feel the road, the car

the pull,

you feel the moment, the memory

fading

into the fog.

from pintrest

Do you like the weather in Ojai ?

Mark Twain once said, “The coldest winter I spent was a summer in San Francisco.”

This summer, I spent my whole summer vacation in the San Francisco Bay Area. To me, the weather there does not qualify as summer. It was foggy and windy most of the days and you always needed a jacket when you went outside. One might think that’s great weather for the summer because there is no heat, but I hated it. It made me feel dull and was very depressing.

Photo Credit: http://www.psychalive.org

I was very excited to come back to Ojai in September because the weather is the complete opposite. The summer in Ojai is dry and sunny all the time. The bright and warm sunshine makes me happy and more energetic. But I’ve noticed that when it rains in Ojai during the winter, I get a migraine and it makes me very sleepy.

The weather really affects how I feel physically and emotionally. So the Ojai weather is perfect for me.

Dawn Patrol

Today, for the first time, I decided to join Dawn Patrol. Dawn Patrol is a small group of students at my school who head to the beach at 6:15 on Sunday morning to learn how to surf.

Now, I’ve been telling myself for years that I wanted to learn how to surf. It’s always been something that fascinates me. I love movies about surfing, and I think it’s an amazing skill to have.

I’ve actually been surfing twice – once with a family friend when we lived in San Francisco, and then once when we were in Cabo. But those times I never did more that ride the whitewater to the shore. Today, I went past the point where the waves were breaking, which was a brand new experience for me.

It didn’t exactly go as planned.

As it turns out, when you’re about to be hit by a wave and you’re my size (about 5’2″), the wave looks a heck of a lot bigger. It’s also a lot easier to be tossed around. I had a really hard time getting past the point where the waves were breaking, but once I did, it was amazing.

I didn’t ride very many waves. But the amazing part of the trip for me was sitting on my surfboard in the ocean, feeling the swells come up and down underneath me, and watching the sunrise and the fog clear away. It was an incredible feeling.

I did only catch two waves, once after I got out, and then again when I was ready to go back in. I didn’t stand up, in fact I did the exact opposite and got tossed around quite a bit. On my last wave, the board hit me in the face while I was underwater, which wasn’t very pleasant.

Overall though, the trip was worth it. I may not have made huge progress, but at least I got out there and started to get a feel for it. And watching the sun rise was perfect.

I definitely plan on going again. Maybe after I catch up on my sleep though.