my (distant) brush with a celebrity...

ok, ok, so i suppose it was bound to happen. seeing that i'm in california...the breeding ground for rich and famous people. so i went to the house of blues last night in hollywood. mat kearney was playing, and oh man, i think mat k. is fantastic! so after the first opener, a woman went up on stage and was talking away blah, blah, blah...and then she said, "we have among us tonight, keifer sutherland and a big bunny...." huh?, i thought. i didn't know if she was being silly or what. but then again, i did see a big fat bunny costume walking around. so i started searching the crowd for jack bauer...uh, i mean kiefer. i couldn't see him anywhere. well, at least i figured that i was possibly in the same room as him. even that was pretty neat! i heard some whisperings behind me....and it seemed like kiefer was the buzz word. so i asked the lady behind me....and sure enough. she pointed him out to me...and he was sitting at a table so close to me! there he was! turns out he has his own record label now, and the second band that was opening is on his new label. so from then on, it was hard not to just glance over at him and think about how that's the same guy the united states sees on tv and loves, that's the same guy who fights terrorists in a single day :). it was just weird to see him hanging out....sitting having a drink at a table with some friends....and clap and cheer when the band finished. i definitely recognized a jack bauer haller even over the rest of the crowd. i would've inserted a photo here of the one and only jack bauer had i not had to check my camera at the house of blues valet...silly rules. and i had to pay 5 bucks to check it! silliness.

besides that....let's see....
i'm continuing to check out churches. and having fun doing it. there's just so many here, it's crazy! i went to saddleback this past weekend. the place is amazingly huge. it's almost like it's an entire community within itself.
yesterday, jiffy and i drove into san pedro....which is right on the ocean. it's not as glamorous as you may have just pictured in your mind though. when we were driving into the area, i kinda felt like i was driving through gary, indiana. not pretty. it's an industrial area...with all these big rig looking things. a bunch of huge metal structures. just not at all a nice beach town. when we got around to where we were staying though, it was a bit better. it's a boy scout facility, and mountain and sea adventures has an office in their building. so guess what...jiffy and i got to sleep on couches in the little office room...and this morning we had to shower outside in our swimming suits. ya know those kinds of showers that you might find at a swimming pool. the ones that you have to get wet in before they let you jump into the pool. yeah, those were like the ones i had to use. kinda strange. especially because there was a big important meeting this morning happening at this location...and there we were showering. kinda awkward. but hey....it was a great view of the ocean!
so today we had a group of high school seniors arrive from las vegas. we did a bunch of marine biology stuff with them. it was so neat!! we went to an aquarium that was just spectacular! then we went tide pooling. i got to hold a little octapus...and something called a brittle star. amazing stuff. God just blows me away with his creation and creativity. really...it's amazing. i am in wonder of God because of it....the colors of these creatures are so brilliant...the way they were delicately made with such a purpose and part of how they work with the environment they are in. it's awesome! and tidepooling is just fun!! life abounds in those little nooks and crannies of the ocean. absolutely awesome!!

there's some photos for you to see....(for some reason they decided to put themselves up at the top by the talk about jack bauer...so maybe i haven't figured out this technology thing yet.) two are from the aquarium. the other is fran (the husband to the big wig director of the whole organization) showing some of the students some creatures he found.

alright...well...that's about it for now. we're headed to the island tomorrow. it's such a different lifestyle there, so i'm excited to experience it.