The Biggest Loser

No, today's title is not indicative of my current unemployed status although being unemployed is starting to wear me thin. Today's title is about the NBC hit show "The Biggest Loser". Much to our surprise, TBL Campus is none other than California State University of Channel Islands. What significance does this have to our lives? Well, we live adjacent to the CSUCI campus. When I say adjacent I really mean on campus. We are a small bedroom community nestled in the Santa Monica mountains attached to the CSUCI campus. Apparently not small enough because we had no idea TBL was being filmed only a short walk from our front door!

In a previous life the CSUCI campus was the home of the Camarillo State Mental Hospital. Built in the 1930's the campus buildings are Spanish Revival in style. It is rumored the Eagles song "Hotel California" was written about CSMH. Jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker was a "resident" of CSMH while detoxing from Heroin. He wrote "Relaxin' in Camarillo" as an ode to his stay. A well located on campus was used in the movie "The Ring". And my favorite fact, it is rumored the campus is haunted ... boo!

Surprisingly our community has a very low population of college students. Most of our neighbors are professionals, police officers, military personnel and faculty. Oh, I forgot to mention our animal neighbors; coyotes, deer, birds, mountain lions, lizards and bunny rabbits.

The mountain lion is the newest member of the community, albeit they were here before us, and several sightings have been reported. I believe Mojo and I had a brush with the mountain lion but I can't be certain. During our morning walk last week we came upon a bush that was growling at us. At the time I didn't know of the mountain lion sightings so I assumed it was a coyote. Sure, a coyote is scary but to think it may have been a mountain lion is totally scary!!!! In retrospect it makes sense that a large animal was on the prowl. Recently I have been complaining about the large poops left on the walking trail. Of course I assumed the poop was left by an inconsiderate dog owner but I suppose the mass amounts of fur in the poop should have been a tip off.