A meme

Alright already! Since I've been tagged twice now for this meme, I guess I'd better do it.
(Plug: check out Val's and Shelah's blogs to see who tagged me)

What do you like most about where you live?
Oh man, there are so many things. I think it's easier to say the thing I like *least*. That would be the cost of living. Being in Southern California is ridiculous when it comes to purchasing a home. Did you know the average 2,200 sq ft/4bdrm home in my city went for over $900K last year? Nice. Needless to say, we don't make quite that much money. But the things I LOVE about here? It's beautiful, it's 20 minutes from the beach, it's an hour from skiing, it's close enough to Los Angeles to feel "connected" to anything, the weather is usually pretty good, it's a family-oriented community, there are about 10 parks w/in 10 miles of us, it's been rated the #1-#2 safest city in America year after year, our ward (church congregation) is the best and it feels like "home" to me.

Is there anything strange about where you live?
Hmm...I'm not sure how "strange" it is, but our city has some strict ordinances. For instance, there are rules for what colors/shades you can paint your house, what types of flowers/plants you can have in your front yard, things like that.
And I guess the occasional celebrity sighting is a little unique. I've seen Kurt Russell at Sav-on (he was my husband's little league coach years ago), Will and Jada Smith at Coldstones, Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson at Toys R Us (that was about 10 years ago when she was pregnant). Oh! And I saw Dennis Rodman hanging out in front of the Gap a few years ago. lol!

What's one of your all time favorite music albums and why?
This is another tough one for me because I'm not so much into entire albums as I am individual songs. As a group, I'd have to say U2 and Duran Duran are my favorite. But just to give you an idea of what's on my work-out playlist on my iPod: Lenny Kravitz ("American Woman"), Sir Mix-A-Lot (did I just admit that?), Bon Jovi, KT Tunstall, Beyonce, Beastie Boys, Nelly, Britney Spears, 50 Cent, Run DMC, Rob Base (it takes 2, baby), Guns N' Roses, Rihanna, Nelly Furtado, Salt-N-Pepa, Scorpions, Pat Benatar, Digital Underground (2 points if you can guess which song), and Usher...to name a few.

Did you have a passion for something as a kid that you still have now? (if not, what is one of your passions now?)
I wanted to be an athletic trainer. Maybe for a high school, college sports, or even Pro Football. Lame, I know. I took some classes on taping, icing, sports medicine type things and shadowed a physical therapist in high school. I loved it all! I still find myself getting all giddy when I'm watching football and someone gets hurt. Not so much giddy that they're hurt, but that I'd love to be on the field, fixing it all. But for now, I'll stick to injuries that Spiderman band-aids can cover.

What do you like most about having a blog?
Keeping in touch with my online friends. I use to belong to some message boards and developed some great friendships there. I'm no longer on either of those boards, but have found that this is a way to stay in touch w/them. I think I'm liking it better than the message boards because it's serving it's purpose w/out taking up as much of my time. I started blogging, thinking that it would be more of a journal. But it's not so much yet. Who knows, maybe I'll start another blog that will be devoted more to personal journaling.

Who am I tagging?
Colleen, Alicia, and Cyl. Because, like Val, I want to know about where they live.