weekend-ing.

i hate it when i miss out writing about my weekends because, really, they are what i worked toward all week.

three weekends ago, i went home for Labor Day.  it was such an amazing, much-too-quick weekend, one that i'm going to write about in a separate post.

two weekends ago, Ethan and i spent our Saturday in Santa Monica, which was won-der-ful.

some of the high points:

the day was GORGEOUS.  not a cloud in the sky.  and in my black tube top and high-waisted mustard yellow skirt?  i felt so, so pretty.

Ethan and i held hands the entire time.  we browsed the shops (where i purchased little red hair extensions and a Hello Kitty cardigan that i cannot WAIT to wear), walked the pier, people-watched, listened to live music, looked at the ocean.

we also laughed a lot.  we always do, but i particularly noticed it on that day.  how happy we both were.

{we also found this.  the best button ever.)

but i think one of my favorite parts was when we got a late lunch at this Mexican place on the promenade.  we drank amazing margaritas and ate chips and salsa and played 20 questions.  i loved that so much.  it made me realize how much of Ethan isn't on the surface and how much more of him i want to see.

we ended the movie by coming back to my house and watching The Grey (a good, but hard to watch movie).

on Sunday morning, we went to a little French-style restaurant, Mimi's, for breakfast.  my cappuccino was amazing, my omelet was amazing, my strawberry muffin was amazing.  

it was, in short, amazing;)

the rest of the afternoon was spent: running errands; laying out + reading; watching Machine Gun Preacher (which was great).  

it was one of those satisfying, feel-good weekends.

this past weekend was equally good, but in a different way.

Friday:

was exhausting.  it was 100 degrees outside (NOT normal for Orange County) and my house has no insulation and no air conditioning.  which basically meant that my house was a sauna.  Ethan and i spent 3 hours on Friday evening driving around to Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Walgreens, etc. to try and find an AC unit or at least a really huge fan (i do have a fan in my room, but it was really just blowing all the hot air around).  what we found was nothing.  every single place we went was sold out of fans (what?).  so, Ethan ordered Claim Jumper take-out for us.  we went back to my house, opened all the doors and windows, ate our dinner, and watched Titan AE in the heat of the night.

Saturday:

it was 109 degrees.  yes, ONE HUNDRED AND NINE.

we both agreed that we couldn't hang at my house, so we made the trek out to los angeles to go to the Holocaust museum.

 

{just something about a city skyline.}

it's something i've been wanting to do since i moved down here and it did NOT disappoint.  we took the audio tour, which turned out to be a LOT of information, but i learned things about World War 2 that i never knew before.  and i love me some history, so that was exciting.  LAMOTH also has more artifacts from the Holocaust than any other in the country--the Jewish stars, Nazi uniforms, concentration camp clothing, etc.



the concentration camp portion of the exhibits was definitely the most painful part.  they had dozens of pictures and a video room with horribly heart-breaking videos of the concentration camps after the war ended.  it was one of those things that is so overwhelming that it doesn't seem real.  i also think that, in this day and age, with all our gory movies, we've become so desensitized.  i had to keep telling myself that these were real people--people that once had houses and jobs and dreams for the future.  people with families that had been ripped from their hands.  people that watched their loved ones die.  what brought it to life for me was imagining being with my family.  being physically pulled apart from each other and stuffed into cattle cars.  standing in line, watching other families get shot and knowing that we were next.  watching the people i love starve and knowing there is nothing i can do about it.



knowing that was the reality for millions of people made me weep.



the whole experience humbled me and inspired me.  i hate to say that i felt anything good, but it made me want to be better.  almost the entire German population was convinced (mostly through propaganda and mass media) that these people were inferior beings.  i also saw the United States try to maintain an image of "peace" and neutrality while innocent people were dying.  it made me hope that i will never cower or be intimidated by evil.  what i told ethan as we were leaving was this: sometimes justice means intervening on the behalf of someone else, even when they don't ask for it.  even when popular opinion and political correctness tells you otherwise.  

i feel like, today, we in danger of this happening again.  our focus now is being politically correct--where we are more interested in hurt feelings than in standing up for truth.  there are evil people in this world--from every tribe, tongue, religion--and i pray i will never be afraid to intervene for someone who needs it.



ahem.  getting off my soapbox now.



the rest of our evening on Saturday was delightful.  a block down from the museum is this amazing outdoor shopping area called The Grove.  it had trees and ponds and faux train tracks running right down the middle of the street.  we wandered around there for awhile--browsed Barnes and Noble, watched live music, bought a pair of sunglasses for each of us.



that night, we had soup and salad for dinner,

{and peach champagne--my new true love<3}

 and watched The Scarlet and The Black--one of my favorite movies, which is based on a true story about a priest in the Vatican who helped hide enemies of the Nazis.  it was quite the appropriate timing.



Sunday:



i slept in until noon.  scrubbed down and rearranged the kitchen.  rearranged my bedroom.  went for a long, charming Sunday walk with Ethan.

{played with chalk on our walk:)}

watched the new clay-mation movie The Pirates and half of The Hunger Games.  like most of our Sundays, it was relaxing and low-key.



***



and now?  it's wednesday.  we're more than halfway to the weekend and that's always something to be excited about.



in the meantime, i'm enjoying the 80 degree weather and crossing little things off my to-do list. :)



more soon, friends.