Had a wonderful weekend up at Stampers Warehouse in Danville. I drove up by myself Thursday afternoon. The drive up wasn't all that bad even though it always seems to be a long, boring tedious drive! LOL! I was hoping that I'd see the monarch butterflies that I saw going up there last year at this same time, but alas, they were no where to be found. I kept myself awake and alive by listening to some CDs that David made me of some of my favorite songs. My favorite question from hubby "Did you listen to the instrumental CD I made?" Me: "Ummm, nooooo...when I drive and I drive for 5+ hours, I need music that I can SING along with..." We know you can do the "dahhdahh dahhdahh dahhhh..." thing with "Frankenstein" but c'mon you can only do it for so long before you feel like a jack ass! LOL!
It was weird though Thursday night-I arrived in Danville and the road just stopped-crazy traffic PLUS the sky opened up (literally it looked like) and just started POURING. I think NO CA'ers are like SO CA'ers-most do NOT know how to drive in the rain. Being an East Coaster, I do :)...but the scary people that don't know how to drive tend to send me inside when it rains out!
Arrived at Stampers Warehouse safe & sound...got checked into my hotel...headed to Borders & Whole Foods. I found the new Quilting Arts, Oprah (collage!) and a great book called "Imaginging Ourselves" about women from all over the world. I managed to eat the exact same thing every night from Whole Foods and still by Saturday night, I wasn't sick of it! I would eat a slice of tomato basil pizza and a small salad. The funny thing was, EVERY night I would ask for a SLICE. They'd tell me to come back in 12 minutes...so I would go back and they'd try to give me a whole pizza. EVERY night I'd tell them, it's just me, I just want a slice like I asked... it became a running joke there!
I had an awesome time teaching-we did the text as art class, some of us are brave sessions 1 and 2, painted journey journal and the color theory class. WOW! Even with the weather going from being rainy one minute to bright sunshine the next-nothing changed the students spirits! They were game for bright, bold, vivid colors all weekend. It was awesome seeing what they made. I had a great time teaching-I love going up there-the people rock, the store rocks (OMG I get into so much trouble up there! LOL!!!) and the atmosphere is amazing. I loved opening my hotel windows every morning (even when it is 30 degrees outside) and pushing the curtains aside to see rolling green mountains.
The weekend seemed to go very quickly. I had a hard time sleeping Saturday night as I was just about to go to sleep and heard them say that I5 at the Grapevine was closed-eek-due to SNOW. SNOW? SNOW? in Los Angeles? That had only happened to me once before and that was in Simi Valley. It was raining and HAILING in Danville (LOVED IT!) but I didn't have to go over any MOUNTAINS while I was there LOL. So I freaked out a little...it didn't help the fact that the whole ride home Sunday night they kept flashing signs "CHP escorting over the Grapevine SNOW SNOW SNOW". "Snow Snow Snow"?!? Anytime I hear it said like that I think Danny Kaye & Bing Crosby...but throw CHP escorting in there and the thought of trucks and little ol' me going over the grapevine in snow didn't sound FUN.
The thing that kept me going on the way home was:
seeing my little boy and how happy he'd be (and me too-he was-I got lots of hugs and cute little boy "love that you are home, Mom" back rubs!)
hubby and his backrubs (LOL)
my old time radio show CD that I forked $15 for at Borders-I usually just get MP3s from otrcat.com/ MUCH better then $15 for 4 hours-I pay $5 for hours and hours!!!
AND the most gorgeous rainbows-HUGE, colorful, bright rainbows that stretched across the sky...amazing....it was pouring-absolutely pouring when I left Danville at 3:30 on Sunday but I got to the 580 and it was clear with scattered clouds. It would rain every now and then but it was weird!
Needless to say I get to the Grapevine, see huge trucks and tons of cars on the other side of the road and figure everything was ok...and it was!!! LOL! I get worked up for nothing ;) It was eerie driving over the mountains with nothing but pitch black all around you with huge globs of white snow to your side, and then a "spitting" of hail/rain/snow/sleet. WEIRD.
It was an awesome, wonderful weekend with lots of art making and fun!
Then it was followed by two days of used book store hopping LOL...I managed to find some Corita Kent books I wanted...two Hunderwasser books...and some others that I will post about soon...

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