It's raining men

I'm starting to notice a cyclical pattern in the love life of jholiday. For most of the year, the city of San Luis Obispo is not exactly a mecca of single attractive respectable(keyword) young men. You might think otherwise, being a college town, but it is surprisingly difficult to scratch up a date whom I would feel confident bringing home to mother.

This is all true and consistent until the leaves begin to fall and a chill wind sweeps down Higuera bringing Christmas lights and somehow, eligible bachelors along with it. Jholiday is fighting them off with candy canes and shopping bags every holiday season, and I ask, why? Why this change? I'm certainly not doing anything differently. I actually prefer to celebrate the holidays without the added pressure of impressing (and shopping for$$) some new man friend. Perhaps it is the nostalgia and sentimentality that the shortening days and "A Christmas Story" reruns bring to the homesick and sugarplummed boys of San Luis, and they seem to yearn anew for some cute blogger like me to drape their arm around.

Sigh... Whatever the reason, as this single girl and The Weather Girls say, "It's raining men, hallelujah, it's raining men, Amen!"

the illest thing

Jholiday has caught a nasty cold. I'm currently holed up in my room, confined to spreading my germs to my keyboard and mouse. But since this is jholiday's blog, I do have something fabulous to share with you. Who would have thought that in these dark hours of sniffles and bulk Kleenex consumption that a worthy idea would glimmer in the darkness. But I might have found the best way to alleviate my symptoms, in the form of a Mexican (spicy!!) fruit salad. Trust me, it's amazing.

You will need: cucumbers, lemon or lime juice, salt, cayenne pepper and sweet fruit (I like grapes, mandarin slices and watermelon).

Combine the fruits and cucumbers, toss with lime/lemon juice and a dash of salt, then season with cayenne pepper until it's just spicy enough for ya. Ahh, sweet relief.

Silly

I saw the new Bond tonight. I liked this video more :)

RIP Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton has long been one of my literary heroes. He was the second author I really got into as a child (after Keene's Nancy Drew series) and I did pride myself on delving into the scientific mysteries of his novels while my class mates struggled through a volume of "Goosebumps". I spent many sick days and rainy weekends in his dinosaur populated islands off the coast of Costa Rica, jungles deep in the heart of the Congo with murderous gorillas, a broken time machine in the Dark Ages of Europe, and the cold sinister corridors of metropolitan hospitals with dark secrets.

I soon became a thirteen year old Crichton snob, protesting the movie adaptations of his books because of their unforgivable departure from the storylines in my beloved novels. If my parents were unlucky enough to take me to one of the films, they were guaranteed an earful of whining lament from the backseat of the station wagon, as I educated them on the film's omission of a vitally important Pachycephalosaurus or a wrongfully killed minor character.

Crichton is the author of the popular novels Jurassic Park (for which he is most famous), The Lost World, Congo, Timeline (another favorite of mine) and Sphere. Crichton was a Harvard educated physician, and a screenwriter, producer, and of course, novelist. He passed on Nov 4th, 2008, after a battle with cancer.

My music secret

Everybody asks me, "Julia, how do you find all of these amazing bands that no one has ever heard of before?" Well, not everyone. Some few may mumble something about no one listening to techno anymore and ask me to turn my music down...but for those of us who like to take a chance with new and exciting sounds, I present to you my secret weapon. The UK pop charts.

Our friends across the Atlantic have always been just a bit more savvy when it comes to pop, and most of their best hits don't even make it to the US market. Recent discoveries of mine have been "Beggin" by Madcon, The Sugababes, "Infinity" by the Guru Josh Project, Adele, and "Up" by The Saturdays. My ipod and my workouts have never been livelier.