Irvine, CA: Only in the "OC" 122005

Greetings from Irvine--
Claron and I arrived here last night and are staying in a hotel across town from Clark & Lilly (Claron's twin & his wife). Claron chills with Clark during the day while I work.
Irvine is a bit odd. I am leery of any place that is entirely owned by a private company. http://www.blogger.com/www.irvinecompany.com Everything in Irvine is owned by the Irvine Company… all 44,000 acres of it. Everything around here is lovely though. Everything is perfectly landscaped and clean. However, there is a bit of smog about today. It may be creeping in from LA though. However, from my birds eye view of Irvine, I can see an outdoor pool in which I have seen multiple people swimming today. It is about 70-75 degrees outside. I think the pools are heated.
Irvine has a mall with a ferris wheel in the middle of it. Also, none of the store are inside. It is completely outdoors. I think it is quite an assumption that the weather will always be nice enough that you do not necessitate a roof for your mall. The individual stores do have roofs of course.
Last time, I was in Irvine (Foothill Ranch) I had to laugh. It is so funny. For anyone that has ever seen Laguna Beach, they are not pretending. That is really how all of the kids around here are. One of the kids that went to Moscow with me the first time went through a lot of cultural shock. He'd never really seen any place with poverty or where everything is not perfectly in place. I've been assignment now with a few OC kids and I have developed a set of questions for them. So far, none of them have had mothers that have ever had a job while they were living or cooked dinner every night. In fact, most of these "stay at home moms" do not really know how to cook. They don't garden. Some of them clean. What do they do? They go to the gym, go to lunch with their friends, go tanning, and don't forget… They must frequent the lovely outdoor mall! This is amazing to me. I want to know where I can sign up!
OK… I started some albums to contain my travel photos and such. I have downloaded some Flat Stanley pics. Here it is: http://community.webshots.com/user/asarnoci

Tonight, I have a firm function that I can actually make! I am having dinner with some partners. I will let everyone know how it goes.
In the mean time, I know you are all ridiculously busy getting ready for the holidays! I am thinking of all of you.
Happy Holidays!
Warmest wishes,
Amanda