Flying Free Trip #17: Long Beach CA

My life is awesome.

Friday was 111 degrees in Phoenix. Saturday was too. However, Friday I was hot; Saturday I was not. I was so hot that I posted a picture of ice on my blog.  It was so hot that even at 6am at 90 degrees I decided it was too hot to go for a bike ride (or maybe I was just lazy). Then I was even hotter after walking back from lunch at 1pm. Why did I move back to Phoenix? Yesterday, people kept asking me what my plans were for the weekend. "Nothing," I replied. I was sure I'd think of something interesting to do. Probably read my book and clean the house a little. Then I realized---why am I in Phoenix this weekend when I could be somewhere cooler? What about California? I could enjoy the beautiful 75 degree California weather AND read while in transit. So I looked up flights to California and decided to go to Long Beach. I found a nice park within walking distance from the airport with a nice long bicycle path. I might not be able to bring a bicycle on the plane, but I recently found a nice pair of used roller blades.

So, I went for it. I woke up early on Saturday morning and a short while later I was in Long Beach California walking down the tarmac to the airport. Yes, this airport is so small you have to walk down the tarmac to get to your airplane. It's so small that the baggage claim is outside. But it's also so small that I could walk to a park in just a few minutes. The park was beautiful. I felt like I was in a utopia. Many people were out enjoying the beautiful weather. One man was doing a fairly good job keeping up with me on my roller blades, but I eventually passed him for good.

Overall the trip was excellent. The sun makes me happy, and Saturday was no exception. I failed to bring sunscreen, so I'm a little red, but it's not too bad. My return flight was two hours delayed, so I went shopping at Kmart to pass the time and bought socks. I enjoyed a delicious smoothie for my afternoon snack. And finally, I returned to the airport and flew home.

Nice Day.

HOT

With the coolest temperature of the day being 87 degrees at 5am, I forget that it can actually be cold here. A few months ago, it was so cold, I found ice in my front yard. Being such a rare occurence, I had to take a picture. Now I look at it dreaming of cooler weather. Maybe I should take day trips on the weekends to cool down.

Book Signing

Confession: I like teenager books. Maybe it's because I never liked reading in high school because the books we read in school I thought were boring, or because I prefer quick, easy reading to books with words I have to look up in the dictionary. Maybe it's because I'm still a kid inside or I prefer to stay away from adult themes. Whatever the reason, I really like teenage science fiction books especially. Here a few titles I've read somewhat recently:

• Uglies Series
• The Maze Runner
• The Hunger Games Series
• The Roar
• The Supernaturalist
• The Adoration of Jenna Fox
• Running Out of Time
• Found (The Missing Series)

Last night I finished, The Maze Runner by James Dashner. I had a little trouble getting really interested in it, but once I did, I was hooked and finished it in less than a week.  I like the whole concept of the book. It's about a bunch of teenage boys who show up in a glade surrounded by an impossible maze. They remember nothing of their former lives, but they live pretty happily in this glade working hard to keep their physical needs met and even harder to try to solve the maze. I was never convinced that any of the characters were as smart as they were supposed to be (Orson Scott Card does this really well in Ender's Game), but I enjoyed it anyway. I'm pretty excited to read the next book in the series, The Scorch Trials.

Tonight, I went to a book signing for Illusions by Aprilynne Pike. Four years ago, I was playing games at a friend's house, and she told me about a story her sister-in-law just got published called Wings. When I moved to North Carolina, I discovered the book in the library and read it. It was quite good! Definitely an early teen romance book, but I liked it anyway. The second book, Spells, was even better. I now look forward to reading Illusions. I find it interesting that one person I talked to four years ago directly affected my evening tonight. I would not have gone to that book signing if I had no connection to the author. It makes me wonder how the things I've said to other people have affected them.

Anyway, this was a quadruple book signing! Four authors, many books! The books by two of the authors seemed especially ridiculous to me---vampire romance novel with 10 books in the series and mucho teenage angst going on. I enjoyed twilight, but this just seemed over the top. One author stuck out to me though. When Veronica Roth said she likes The Giver and read Ender's Game seven times, I immediately liked her.  Her personality and vibrance increased that liking even more. I could totally see myself being friends with her. Then I read the plot summary of her debut novel, Divergent, and I liked her even more. It's my favorite genre---young adult dystopia! More amazing is that she's only 22. I used to always think authors were older than me. Now they are my friends. I look forward to reading Divergent and hope it's even better than I'm imagining.

In response to this article, I don't think any of these books are inappropriate for teens. They might be too dark for younger children, but I'd much rather see a teenager reading these books than watching much of the lousy TV shows and PG-13 movies that are popular today. (Don't get me wrong---there are some good new TV shows and PG-13 movies, but I'd say the majority are just a waste of time.)

And now that I'm pretty much out of vacation days at work and thus will not be taking any more cool trips around the world for quite a while, I should find plenty of time to read all of these books.