This weekend, I finally felt my first California earthquake. Saturday, around midnight, we heard our glasses shaking in the cupboards and felt a rumbling of the floor.
Sure enough, it was a small quake. It’s silly, but I felt a funny sense of pride and joy having finally felt one.
While heading to the city this past weekend, I chuckled at the large signs posted on Highway 17 near the Summit touting “Herbs, $125 an ounce” flanked by the green crosses that signify medical marijuana.
A co-worker also spotted it and got a chuckle. Apparently though, a lot of people weren’t laughing at the signs. In fact, county officials made Santa Cruz Mountain Herb owner Daniel Hwang remove the signs this week.
County supervisors said the signs violated local ordinances pertaining to advertising of medical marijuana.
My colleague Christina Gullickson has put together a “bucket list” of the top 10 things to do in Santa Cruz County before you die.
Check it out here. I think I’ve done half of them. How about you?
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation makes available transcripts of parole suitability hearings a month after the hearing is held. They can often be very interesting to read through, providing insight as to what leads parole board commissioners to make the decision whether or not to grant parole.
Last month, parole officials opted to grant parole to Kenneth Luther, who was convicted of shooting another man to death in Aptos during a robbery in 1986. I wrote about the hearing briefly here.
Here’s the transcript of the hearing for anyone who may be interested:
Luther –
The news doesn’t stop for directionally-challenged 15th century Italians, so I’m here working away today while the rest of the world (okay, just county and state offices, banks, and post offices) gets the day off. I’m not complaining – sometimes it’s nice to have a slow, calm Monday.
I’m sorting through the various arrest logs from the past weekend. Some officers tend to write far more descriptive reports than others do. I enjoyed this one out Watsonville from Friday afternoon on the 400 block of Rodriguez Street:
“Adriana Diaz was arrested after she selected a bottle of liquor, placed it into her purse and left the store without paying for the bottle. She was cited for petty theft and released.”
The real question here though is what kind of liquor was it? That’s what I want to know!
I just realized it has been more than a month since I posted here. That is just unacceptable. Election stuff, the beginning of the new school year and various trials have kept me busier than ever.
I will do my best to continue providing witty insight on my continued adjustment to the left coast shortly.
Until then, what the heck was up with the weather earlier this week? 
I hate roller coasters. I don’t just dislike them. I mean, I actually hate them. I detest them with a deep-seeded passion and generally refuse to go on them. I’ve gone on about three in my life and it’s never gone well.
When I moved here though, I thought I should give a coaster another shot. After all, it had been a decade. I went on the Giant Dipper last September. It was terrifying. I hated every second of it and pretty much felt like I was going to die the whole time. It’s quite possible that my screaming caused my boyfriend to suffer permanent hearing loss in one year, and it was bad enough that he vowed never to repeat that experience with me ever again.
However, the Hurricane is soon to be no more because it was placed up for sale. My college bestie was in town and a few of us decided to go to the Boardwalk last night for dollar night. One friend kept trying to convince me I should ride it at least once before it leaves santa Cruz. I refused over and over again, before finally deciding to bite the bullet and just ride the darn thing. As we strapped ourselves in, I was already feeling certain I’d pee my pants.
Still, I stayed tethered in and braced myself for what was to come. And you know? It was terrifying and I absolutely hated it. A coaster girl I will never be.
So long Hurricane, thanks for the memories and the momentary fright. I can’t say I’ll miss ya much, but I know others will. Right now I feel positive that I won’t be riding the Undertow, but who knows, maybe I’ll get brave enough to confront my fear once again. I’ll just be sure to bring ear plugs for everyone else who rides with me.
Earlier this week I marked one year at the Sentinel, which also means it’s been a year and two weeks since I made the big move to California. Holy smokes. Where is the time going?
I’ve got my California license, plates, voter registration and a membership to a local wine club, but I still wouldn’t say I really feel like a Californian yet. There’s still a lot more to understand, explore and discover…
While doing some research, I came across a rather strange set of stories about a murder trial held here 20 years ago.
Apparently a 20-year-old former roller coaster operator was charged with first-degree murder for the death of a young man. Prosecutors alleged she drank the victim’s blood and believed herself to be a vampire. That tactic failed though, and she was convicted ultimately of assault with a deadly weapon, not murder. Weird.
My colleagues at the Mercury-News put together an awesome piece about Kenny, the clown who ended up with Steve Jobs’ iPad.
Amazing.
