Santa Barbara

Every memorial day weekend Santa Barbara hosts the i madonnari Festival at the mission. The great thing about living in LA is that it's super simple to escape to Santa Barbara for the day; especially when you have a friend who is always up for a trip to SB.

On Saturday morning, E and I hopped into Gio- her Toyota 4Runner- and made our way up to Santa Barbara. After a brief stop at the Camarillo outlets for an obligatory shopping break, our first destination was UCSB. It's amazing how much has changed on campus since we graduated in 2003. There are now parking structures where there used to be flat lots, new buildings all over campus, and graduate student housing where there used to be an open field. But the more things change the more they stay the same. From our seats at our favorite restaurant SilverGreens in Isla Vista we watched as a group of students played a lunchtime game of Flip the Cup. The drinking game even included random dancing and running around with shirts swinging in the air after the win.

After purchasing a replacement alumni surround plate for my car, we stopped by the festival at the mission on our way downtown. The afternoon was spent shopping and enjoying the beautiful Santa Barbara day. Before heading home we had dinner at Pascucci's only the best Italian restaurant on State Street. It was here that we experienced the most memorable moment of the day . . .

After a short wait the host called our name and began to lead us through the restaurant to seat us for dinner. As we walked through the restaurant I noticed we were heading towards a curtain. "Cool," I thought, "we'll be in the back room away from the front door." Little did I know that behind the curtain, was a table. A secluded table for two. E lost it as we moved to sit behind the curtain and I sarcasticly exclaimed to her, "How romantic! Had I known you were taking me on a date I would have dressed up!"

The night got better when the man selling flowers stuck them through the opening in our curtain and peered in only to realize we weren't on a date, and quickly dissapeared before we had a chance to react to his presence. This was probably for the best because our reaction was a fit of giggles.

Then, later on in the evening, I was telling E how great it was to be seated behind a curtain so that I could secretly spy and eavesdrop on the couples having dinner around us when I heard a voice from above say, "Don't think that I can't see you." I turned to find a waiter standing behind my chair entering his orders into the computer. I guess we weren't as hidden away as I thought we were.

All in all it was a lovely day with E and out of LA. I purchased quite a few things for myself, most exciting of which was my dress for graduation. I wish I could tell you what it looks like but for now it will have to remain a surprise.