Special Jewelry Story?

Hi Everyone!

Get your special jewelry featured on JIC's new website...

We are currently collecting personal jewelry stories to showcase at the new JIC.org - the new consumer site for Jewelry Information Center. We've found that for many people, no other item like a piece of jewelry holds as much emotional significance, and therefore, we are building a collection of these stories and memories at JIC.org

While the site will not launch until January, (see the current trade site here...) we are gathering a small number of stories now that will be featured at the site launch. And we want your story!

Your story could reflect any occasion or personal milestone: a proposal, a wedding day gift, a piece of jewelry given to celebrate a birth, a treasured piece of jewelry found on a vacation or travel, an heirloom piece passed down with family significance, a self-purchase to mark a promotion, etc.

Please send us your story with an image or video - could be from the event, a close-up of the jewelry, or you wearing the jewelry now.

We will also need to create an account for you to enter your story at JIC.org.
With your story, we'll need your full name, city/state/zip and email address. You will be given a generic password which you can change once the site goes live.

By submitting your jewelry story, you will also have the chance to win an awesome piece of new jewelry!

Please feel free to forward this request to any friends or relatives that would also have a story to share.

Thanks!

Lauren

Santa Barbara Tea Fire

Last night, at approximately 5:45 pm, a wind-driven fire broke out in the foothills of Montecito and Santa Barbara. (See these photos by Ray Ford, Gallery 1, Gallery 2).

As of now, the fire has burned over 100 homes, 14 of which belong to Westmont faculty. 2,000-2,500 acres have been destroyed, almost 5,500 homes have been evacuated, 500+ firefighters, about 10 smoke inhalation injuries, and 3 burn injuries.

A friend of mine who is a Westmont employee has assured me that there are no more active fires on Westmont and no injuries, but 8 structures have been lost--four buildings in the Clark Halls (F, G, M, S), the physics building, the old math building, and the two quonset huts. The last three buildings were scheduled for demolition soon for the "Master Plan" (construction "make-over" for Westmont).

I am currently sitting in my empty office with my gimpy dog, having a hard time figuring out how to voice the sentiment appropriate for this situation. My heart is breaking for people who have lost their homes. I cannot even begin to imagine that kind of trauma. My house is in the evacuation warning zone so last night we decided we'd rather sleep somewhere else than stay and worry about being in danger. While I packed up a few things necessary for one night, I also started gathering others....just in case. In the back of my mind I kept telling myself that my house wasn't in danger and all of my stress over these material posessions was silly. While the fire doesn't seem like it will threaten my close neighborhood, it's really interesting to see what you value in a time like this--I grabbed the valuables (computer, camera, and jewelry), some necessary paper work (bills, investment info, various account info), and then looked around my room waiting for my important belongings to jump out and beg me to take them along. I grabbed a few sentimental pieces of clothing, some books, and my art portfolios. I understand that my house wasn't/isn't in that much of a risk (pinkies crossed!), but it's strangely reassuring to feel like there wasn't much I could live without. Who knows, if we had a mandatory evacuation or my neighbors' houses were on flames, I may have tried to stuff my whole wardrobe into my little car. Regardless, my housemates and I are safe and so far, no one I know has been injured. Ultimately, that's what matters--not the stuff we have, but the people we have and I am so thankful that no one has been too badly hurt.


I have never been this close to a natural disaster and last night I got a good taste (that low-quality picture on the left was taken with my phone while standing on the porch).

I can hardly focus today knowing that friends of mine--professors of mine--have lost their homes, that my beloved alma mater, Westmont, has been so deeply affected--places still fresh in my mind, burned to the ground.



My prayers go out to all those involved.

The following are some links to information on the fire:

Wall Street Journal Article

KEYT Santa Barbara News - updates

LA Times Article - Mentions my boss, Bobby, who lives in Montecito

Justin's Graduation Weekend

This weekend, my older brother, Justin, graduated from the California Highway Patrol Academy. I got up at 7am on Saturday (the day after Halloween, and since I live in Santa Barbara--one of California's major Halloween destinations--you can imagine how wonderful I was feeling) and made the 6 hour drive up north.

I spent the afternoon at my older siblings mom's house (they're 1/2 siblings...but to me it doesn't seem that much different than if we were 100%), eating great food, hanging out, and sharing Justin's special day. That night, Zack, Justin, Jeanell, and I all went to Shannon and Joe's and played Wii and watched The Big Lebowski.

It was a really great day of family.

On Sunday, Zack and I got up, packed our bags, had some Dad-cooked eggs n' bacon, and got back on the road. Almost as quickly as I came, I was headed right back down to Santa Barbara. The drive back, however, was much more pleasant. I was rested and I had two new passengers--Zack and Jackson. The 5.5 hour drive went smoothly and we arrived back in Santa Barbara at about 7:30. When we got to my house, however, we had to build a fence.... yes, build a fence. While our yard is enclosed, the gate closes in at the front of our driveway, making it a bit inconvenient for parking....Luckily, there were sections of an old fence in our back yard and that haphazard construction project ended up getting accomplished rather easily... especially considering Zack and I only make up about 75% of a person right now with our respective injuries.

All in all, I just want to voice how much I really enjoyed seeing my family this weekend. It's pretty cheesy, but I haven't been home in quite some time and I didn't realize I had gotten a little homesick. Thirty hours of home-family-time sandwiched between a half day's worth of driving and piggybacking off of a wild Santa Barbara Halloween, was actually quite refreshing. I feel rested and revitalized after seeing so many of my family members and want to thank everyone for a great weekend and let you all know I really enjoyed this whirlwind of a visit.

Hope to see you soon!

Regular Blogging

I am going to start blogging regularly.

For those of you who followed and enjoyed my blog during my trip to Cambodian and Thailand, I hope you will stay tuned and enjoy the more ordinary musings of my daily life.

Basically, I need a way to stay more consistently connected to people that I cannot see on a regular basis and frankly, sometimes it's nice to have the blog-outlet, an open forum where you can spew your thoughts into cyberspace--they may or may not be read by anyone, but regardless, the experience is cathartic. I guess you could say I'm getting a little homesick and this is a way of reaching out and getting more connected--throwing my average day-to-day activities and 22-year old thoughts out there hoping to strike chords and land somewhere meaningful.

So I'm hoping that you'll follow along, comment/email me, and just enjoy being more in tune with what's going on with me down here in Santa Barbara.

Lauren

Photos!

Hi everyone! 

I have started uploading my photos to facebook. If you have an account, get on there and check them out! If not, it's easy to sign up - free, quick, and great for networking and keeping in touch with friends. You might be able to see my pictures without having an account, but I'm not sure. Just search my name and you should find my profile! 

:)

Probably My Last Post

Alright everyone, we leave Bangkok for the US this Sunday at about 4:30 pm. We'll arrive in LA at about 8 pm... 4 hour flight!!! Nah, I wish, but this time we'll only have 2 flights as opposed to the 4 it took to get over here.

Yesterday we had quite a full touring day. We went on a canal tour (and got pretty ripped off), saw Wat Pho and the reclining Buddha, took about 500 cab rides for about $2 each (cheap cheap and gives us an air conditioned break from the heat -- which, is not even as bad as it was in Cambodia), had smoothies and lunch at the Oriental Hotel (marvelous!!! We thought about switching to that hotel, but figured we'd stay with our cheaper option), and had some dinner.

Today, we're going to get Thai massages, maybe lay by the pool, go to a Muay Thai boxing match, and then go clubbing. Should be a pretty fun evening. This leg of the trip has basically been pretty chill; we're going at our own schedule, not trying to fit too much in, but still seeing some of the major sights. It's been a really great trip, but at the same time, I am excited to come home. Thank you to everyone who has been keeping up with my travels, emailing me, praying for me, and offering support! See you and talk to you all soon!

Bangkok

On the 2nd and 3rd, we said goodbye to the group we had been with for the past 10 days and at 7:30 am, we left Cambodia for Bangkok. Having gone to Heart of Darkness until 3am the night before, we were not in prime traveling condition...

(Heart of Darkness is a Khmer nightclub with a seedy history. It is a hotspot for wealthy Khmer men, prostitutes, and foreigners. That combination--in the past--has often led to fights and shootings, usually between locals and foreigners. Good thing we all got patted down before entering...Actually, we initially went just to check it out--it's a pretty historical/well-known spot and we didn't want to leave without at least seeing it. We planned to simply drive by, but when we got there, it didn't look too bad and we decided to peek inside. Don't worry- it wasn't just a few girls going into this sketchy place alone. Morgan and I went with two of the American guys from Lynn University in Florida that we met earlier that day. They are traveling with a group of 20 as a part of a psychology and Buddhism course with some of their professor, and are also doing some social justice and aid work. As another side note to this side note, I haven't felt in danger at any time while being in Cambodia. Maybe it's the friendly people, maybe it's the fact that I have an American passport, or maybe it's that I'm about a foot taller than any Cambodian man out there--and probably outweigh most of them... Basically, I wasn't too worried, but it was nice to have some guys with us just in case. The guys actually got hit on more than we did... by guys. I guess Heart of Darkness has a reputation for having a lot of gay visitors... it was pretty funny. So to sum it up, they played good hip hop, we danced a lot, there was adequate air conditioning, numberous security guards, lots of foreigners, a few dirty white men schmoozing with tiny Khmer women, it was pretty clean, and it resembled a place we might go to at home, minus the commercial sex aspect. THE END... back to talking about Bangkok.)

Luckily the flight was under 2 hours. We got to our hotel took a nap and then set out to get a snack and explore a bit. Bangkok is very different from anything we saw in Cambodia. It's much more developed than any place we visited in Cambodia, which, at this point in the trip, is very refreshing. So, needing a day of recovery and leisure, we headed to a huge mall with the hope of seeing Sex and the City, the movie. The mall was huge! It was wonderful! There were floors and floors of great shopping (Mango, Zara, Guess, designers and designers and designers)--I only bought one small summer dress, don't worry--and a whole floor of neat food. We ate a bit of sushi and Thai soup, had some Thai iced tea, and wandered around in the airconditioned shopping superstore for about 4 hours until our movie started.

The movie was good... it's interesting to see how the writers would follow up such a long series. That's all I want to say so I don't give anything away. A few funny things about our Thai movie theater experience... There were 30 minutes of previews/commercials, the "long live the king song" played before the film (apparently they play it before all movies and everyone has to stand--it was interesting), Thai people think everything is funny and laughed a lot, and the sex scenes were censored (while Sex and the City is a bit graphic, it was pretty silly that any scene with sex in it was strategically blurred out). Another really interesting thing to see was the local fashion. People here (and especially those in the mall) have more money and dress pretty trendy (aside from the uniforms that anyone going to any kind of schooling has to wear). There was also a "premier party" sort of thing at the mall for the movie, so many people came very very dressed up. Needless to say, I felt pretty dirty-chic in my stained travel v-neck, worn jeans, dirty hair, and shiny face... hot.

Anyway, that's a bit about Bangkok so far. We're planning to see the Royal Palace, Royal Theater, take a trip through the canals on a river tour, and see a Muay Thai boxing fight. Since we don't have computers in our hotel, I might go do another update, but it won't be as often as it was while in Cambodia.