And then we did this

Sometimes when we go on one of these whirlwind trips to California, I return feeling torn between writing up everything we did (to help me remember, for posterity's sake) and writing up only the interesting parts (for the benefit of the six people who will read this). No one really wants to read about someone else's blow-by-blow vacation exploits. So instead of "And then we did this," I'll try to highlight the moments, the things that stick in my memory whether I have a photo or not. (In most cases, not.)

* Reading approximately eleventy billion books to Wombat, hastily snarfed burritos, and a long and sleepy drive north

*Driving out through Sebastopol to Bodega Bay, then driving north along the coast all the way to Point Arena, something I hadn't done in 15 years and something Dan had never done. We ate cherries as the car lurched around the windy, twisty roads, and I identified as many of the wildflowers as I could see from the moving car: wild radish, coastal lupine, monkey flowers.

* Lazy seals



* Eating lunch in the warm sunshine, watching the water, smelling the brine of the Northern California ocean

* Driving the car from Point Arena through Booneville and back to the 'dale, feeling like I was playing a video game, with only two other cars in the first 26 miles

* Two different incidents of restaurant bad luck (bacon on my dinner sandwich when I asked for none, runny-yolked fried eggs instead of scrambled in my huevos rancheros)

* Breakfast with Heather

* Snarfing a salad at Laurel's house before our first 3 hour traffic ordeal of the weekend

* The growing dread of being late to the wedding in Auburn, having to do my makeup in the car, and quick-changing in the parking lot while the golf cart kid watched.

* Someone liked it so they put a ring on it.



* The realization that I was going to be the sober driver, hoping I could stay awake and drive safely to the hotel when I could only remember which exit to take. (Luckily, we could see it from the freeway.)

* Seeing Dan have such a good time getting his drink and his dance on

* Going from one party to another (one: all Dan's family and various relations, the other a birthday party where my sisters were) and seeing my friend's parents, who I hadn't seen in about 20 years, and realizing I can only socialize with so many people in one day (we'd had breakfast with some other friends) before my brain stops functioning.

* Getting an entire house to ourselves, complete with friendly kitties, a spider web, and a forbidden kitchenaid stand mixer.





* My first crepe-a-go-go in at least 10 years, plus an hour to myself reading a delightful book on the UC Berkeley campus while Dan had breakfast with his brother, and dozing in my favorite spot of dappled sun/shade

* An entire afternoon and early evening of relaxing and enjoying the company of friends, discussing subjects both mundane and profound, and making fresh lemonade with purloined meyer lemons.

* Dan and his brother sharing one last "hope you find your bike, PeeWee" handshake for in all likelihood a year. Keep safe in Afghanistan, Matt.

All in all, it was a great trip, but thoroughly exhausting from the socializing, the hours of traffic, and travel in general. We got home Monday afternoon and were completely useless for the rest of the day. The saying "I need a vacation from my vacation," while trite, is often how I feel after a trip like this.

Replacement

My favorite part about Sather Gate is the bas-reliefs of nekkid men on one side, opposite which it says "Erected by Jane K Sather"

Last year, I lost my camera after we took a trip to California for Memorial Day weekend, and I bemoaned its loss not only because it was a good camera and a pain in the ass to have to replace a camera yet again, but because on the trip I'd taken some photos that I really liked, ones I was pretty sad to lose. Some were photos I'd taken of Wombat at 5 months old, others were from a wander around the UC Berkeley campus. I thought for an entire year about whether or not I could remember and recreate some of the shots I'd lost when that camera fell out of my backpack, so when Dan and I flew into Oakland last Wednesday, the first place we went (after a tasty Naan N Curry lunch on Telegraph) was campus.


Buckeye flower on my favorite tree


My favorite tree. It appears dead and completely hollow, yet it manages to flower and leaf every year!


Dedicated to my diplomat brother-in-law


Baberham Lincoln


Underneath the entrance to the clock tower. Maybe there was once a reflecting pool below it to explain why it's a mirror image?

This time, we went up the Campanile, the UC Berkeley clock tower. I'd not gone up since I was an undergraduate (when it was FREE, FREE!), and I didn't have an Alumni card, so we had to pay two bucks each for the view. It was worth it, though.


San Francicso and Golden Gate Bridge as seen from Campanile. Click to embiggen.


Go Bears!


I liked the brickwork pattern.


Ever wondered what the inside of a magnolia looked like? Here you go.


Dan took this one.

I remembered some of the photos I took a year ago, and found some other interesting spots to shoot. It was a good way to spend a couple of hours, decompressing after an early plane ride and gearing up for the several days of socializing ahead.

Just right

I could write a laundry list of all the things we did and all the people we saw/met/spent time with on our trip to California, but I won't. It was a trip with exactly the right amount of walking, socializing, eating, exploring, and relaxing, with almost everyone I'd been hoping to see. We were hosted on Thursday night by an internet friend we've "known" for 9 years but never met, who not only went out of her way to welcome us to San Francisco and offered us a futon to sleep on but somehow magically knew that the thing I wanted most in the world when we finally arrived at her apartment in North Beach was an egg tart all ready to go.

On Friday, Dan and I walked from North Beach all the way down to the Mission in order to meet up with another internet friend, the person through whom we met/booked our wedding photographer. She and her husband got married just a couple of months after we did, and they were in town celebrating his birthday. The walk itself was just what I wanted: through some great parts of the city, and some not-so-great parts, and I kept feeling like we were in some other city that we'd explored together - New York, say, or Rome, or Seattle. But I knew where I was going and enjoyed "discovering" San Francisco all over again. Apparently, San Francisco was expecting me.


We arrived early, did some wandering through hipsterville, but the pirate store wasn't open. We scouted out some of the stores along Mission for possible pinata procurement, and saw some creepy kid models in Zoot suits. We bought treats at a kindergarten bake sale (one leftover egg tart was not enough for me for breakfast), and relaxed on the grass in Dolores Park, watching the tennis players, listening to the tiny dog barking excitedly for his owner to throw the frisbee again! again! again! Upon arriving at the restaurant, we discovered that our internet wedding friends were just as delightful in person, and we spent a couple of hours chatting and commiserating. They left to have their own San Francisco adventure and we went back up to Mission street and bought the multicolored horse pinata. Because we'd split a piece of bread with vegetables and cheese, we were still hungry and so we then split a Mission burrito, with Mexicoke and too-sweet horchata, and then walked along, the three of us, back downtown.




All-told, between our trek across SF and back, and various on-foot trips in Emeryville (both secret-agent-style and mundane), we walked 10 miles on Friday. Thankfully, though Saturday was errands in the morning and preparation in the afternoon, far less of it was spent on our feet. Of course, no party is complete without the multiple trips to BevMo, the trek around the entire East Bay to procure supplies, or the princess tiara. Oh, did I not mention that? Leah and Simon came to hang out pre-party and gave me an awesome birthday present. And I got to spend a good long while exploring Brian's backyard with Wombat.



The party. Oh, the party was amazing. We had the right amount of food, and a booze-, candy-, and toy-stuffed pinata, and balloons, and flowers, and waaaaay too much beer. Everyone from my mom to my oldest friend to my old coworker who now lives two blocks from my sister came, from near and far, to help me celebrate my birthday (belatedly) and also celebrate 2 years of Dan and I being married. There were games and hijinks and shenanigans, and the poor pinata did not survive the night, though it took some severe beating with a billy club and Dan's bare hands to make him finally spill his guts. We wore him as a victory hat, when we weren't passing around my tiara. I just wish I'd remembered to pull down the viking hat so people could have worn that as well. It was a three Dan party.





I got to celebrate with most of my favorite people in the world, people who I see entirely not enough, and that alone made it a success. That everyone there seemed to have a good time was just icing on the proverbial cake. (There wasn't cake, but there were Mexican wedding cookies and PW's lemon crumb bars courtesy my sister. Delicious.)


We spent Sunday recovering and cleaning, returning and relaxing. We saw one sister's progress on the backyard, and the other sister's brand new place, and enjoyed a sit on Leah and Simon's patio furniture, all while being carted around in Brian's Prius. We spent Monday eating sushi and gelato with the Irish German, and then shopping and relaxing in our hotel room in San Francisco. We found Dan's new favorite burger joint after hemming and hawing over where and what to eat for our anniversary dinner, and split the champagne Leah and Simon gave us over a shared slice of tiramisu in our hotel bed.


I was sad to be leaving on Tuesday, so we hightailed it over to Ocean Beach and the ocean made me feel very small (and what the hell was up with all the foam?), and then there was a rainbow. By the time we were through with lunch and shlepping to the airport, I felt a little better. We don't live there yet, but we're working on it. Everyone will be there, everything will be there, everyone is waiting, and I hope will welcome us with open arms when it's finally time to leave Denver and go home.




(Click on any photo to embiggen)

Eating my way through California

Yesterday evening we returned from five nights and five days in the Bay Area, and it was one of the best trips we've ever taken out there. I've got plenty of photographic evidence, but what I'm thinking about today is the sheer diversity and deliciousness of the food we consumed during our trip.

In order:

Egg tarts (a Chinese baked good), Thai food, egg tarts, a brownie, half a veggies/cheese Croque Monsieur from Tartine Bakery, half a Mission burrito (with pollo asado and the works), a caesar salad (self-made), chocolate-covered pretzel chips (my new favorite Trader Joe's product), oatmeal, Berkeley Bowl sushi, homemade guac, homemade burrito bar, Mexican wedding cookies and sister-made lemon squares, oatmeal, 1/2 masala dosa and 1 veggie-filled samosa with cholla from Vik's, pizza and fresh greens at Jupiter, yogurt and whole-wheat sourdough toast, sushi from Manpuku in Berkeley, gelato, a teriyaki chicken sandwich with sauteed mushrooms and some sweet potato fries and onion rings from Pearl's, champagne via Leah and Simon and a few bites of tiramisu, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a hardboiled egg, half of a turkey sub from Subway, and a Specialty's semisweet chocolate chip cookie.

In that five days/nights, I ate out 10 times if you count the gelato and the Berkeley Bowl sushi. In comparison, we usually eat out on average around once every six to eight weeks. It's hard not to go hog-wild when we go to California, where we have so many restaurants we love and access to so much amazing food. I love that nearly all of our food is homemade, and that we eat so healthily most of the time, but that, every once in a while, we splurge for a few days on spectacular food that we only eat a few times a year. It's too bad it all must be crammed in to such a short period of time.

So, we went to California...

Hello, internet!

So...we kind of got in the car on Monday the 14th and stayed overnight in a $30 fancy-ish hotel room right off the strip in Vegas and then ended up in the Bay Area on December 15th. I so, so, so needed the break - having not been to California since May, I was extremely homesick. And we both needed to get out of town and away from our sad, Petra-less house. The drive out was relatively uneventful, the first day of which I spent approximately ten hours finishing a knitted giftmas present for my sister and her husband. We did not, as one might expect, gamble, or do anything other than eat and crash in our hotel room in Vegas.

The trip was exactly what I was hoping for - evenings spent visiting with friends and family, days spent visiting our Berkeley and San Francisco haunts. We spent an entire day in San Francisco on the 17th, topped by an awesome dinner at a Burmese restaurant with Monkey, up in NorCal for work. We slept. We attended birthday parties and threw parties of our own (complete with rockin' mamas and wombats); I baked cookies in one sister's kitchen for the other sister's first hosted extended family gathering in their new house. We met new doggies and patted old ones; we got loved up by Linus and drooled on by toddlers and saw some live bluegrass and had actual facetime with so many of the people I love most in the world.

It wasn't a white Christmas. It was green, and sunny, and warm-ish. It only rained on us once. We had sushi; we played games; we went to the movies (Avatar!) and slept in four different houses and opened presents and VACATED. And when it was time to pack up the car, late on Christmas Day, I was ready to come back to Denver, recharged for another little while. The trip back was also uneventful, and we spent most of both days driving listening to Alice Sebold read The Lovely Bones via downloadable audiobook. Dan picked up Loki yesterday and last night the three of us slept in our bed, still missing our sweet girl, but happy to be back together as a little family again.

Yet another tale of camera woe, plus, what we did in California

First, a short tale of woe: I lost another camera. It fell out of my backpack as I was walking to work last Thursday. I'd had it in the small pocket at the bottom, where my phone charger also was, from traveling (normally it would have been in a larger pocket). I pulled out the charger on Wednesday night and forgot to zip the pocket back up, and completely forgot the camera was in there as I walked to work on Thursday. In fact, I didn't notice until noon when I planned to upload my photos from the trip and blog about them.

Dan looked everywhere at home. It wasn't there. All the photos I took in California, plus the camera itself: gone again. I put up signs on Thursday afternoon along my route back home. I went into or called everyplace that I thought someone might have taken the camera to (the Capitol, a middle school) if they found it outside. On Friday I called pawn shops and filed a police report. No dice.

So once again we went on a trip and I took a whole bunch of amazing photos that are now gone forever. Also, I went online to find another camera (I wanted the same one, a Canon Powershot A720 IS, because I really liked it). When I bought it in March of 08 it was about $200. Now, to buy the same camera new, it's over $400! Ridiculous! Even the slightly used/refurbished models were over $200 on most sites. So I looked on Ebay and found the camera and bid on it and won! My first ever ebay auction, and I was the winner! I should be getting the camera by some time next week (I hope).

Meanwhile, I don't think I'm a talented-enough storyteller to amuse the 4 readers of this blog with tales of our California trip. I will say that it was the most relaxed trip we'd had to the Golden State since sometime in 2006. There were no parties we had to plan, no weddings to plan or attend, no graduations. I got to eat the baby as much as I wanted, and watched what may be the best movie ever made about reform school girls with Leah and Simon. We became rock gods via Guitar Hero World Tour (Me: singing, drums. Dan: guitar) with the Irish German. We attended a 30th birthday party at a great pub in Berkeley. We got to see lots of friends and family members and spent hours lazing outside at another great pub. We ate greasy burgers/burger-like items, Ethiopian food, gelato, noodles, and microwave burritos. We experienced the newly-refurbished and -reopened Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, and saw everything but the planetarium. My knee mostly behaved. I learned I am terrible at darts. And we got to hang out with my friend Patient Zero Matt from the old message board, which was totally awesome because we hadn't seen each other in five years! The best part was when the three of us went to (yet another) pub to meet up with Scarlett at the end of an evening, and it turned out Scarlett and her boyfriend Jason knew Matt from attending the wedding of some mutual friends. Craziness, and small world.

I can recreate some of the shots I took some other time when we're in California (mostly they were of the UC Berkeley campus and the new Academy of Sciences), but it's just not the same thing. I took some great ones. I hope someone, somewhere, gets enjoyment out of them.

It's my opinion birthday balls should be held every night.

The past week or so has been filled with productivity, accomplishment, and a general getting-stuff-done attutude around these parts.

Case in point: The house is clean. It took 2 days, but it looks awesome.

Case in point: I spent Monday (had off for dead president day) doing things like culling books and working on Secret Birthday Projects in between the running in the park and the lounging on the bed and the playing with the kitties.

I am definitely feeling better. Saturday's highlight was a surprise from-scratch paella (made by Dan) accompanied by the best appetizer ever (smoked salmon, Humboldt Fog cheese and fancy herb crackers) and 2 amazing Spanish wines. I made dark chocolate mousse for dessert, making a 2/3 recipe from the Joy of Cooking and it still took us 3 days to eat it all. All of our laundry got washed, dried, folded and put away (even the throw rugs!); all of our dishes were at one point washed, dried, and put away. Spending part of Monday in the house felt good instead of oppressive.

An interesting thing has happened recently: I have reconnected with some old friends through one of those social networking sites all the kids are talking about these days. Except these aren't just old friends, they're people who at one point were like my brothers that I wasn't actually genetically related to. The younger one goes by a different first name than how I always knew him, but in his photos he and his brother look just like they did when they were kids, except they also look just like their parents. And like themselves. I might meet up with them the next time we go to California; there is something both nostalgic and immensely satisfactory to trade stories with people with whom one shared one's childhood. We were at each other's houses multiple times a week. We took baths together and had sleepovers. They were my brothers 20 years ago, and now they can be my friends.

Four overdue packages got mailed off yesterday: housewarming, thank-you, and new baby boxes are winging their way to the East Coast and to California. My newest cousin baby (#4 for them) was born in January (and thankfully her name is a real one, Jenna). Here is the blanket I made for her.


(As you can see, it's significantly smaller than the one for Wombat.)

And here is the sweater that I made Dan that got finished in January. He wears it all the time, so I think he likes it. Either that or he is just trying to make me feel better for spending so much time on it!



(He was thrilled that I wanted to take a photo of him in it this morning, obviously.)
I want to share photos of Super Secret Birthday Project, but I think the recipient might see them, so they will have to wait. It's not a knitting project, but it's going to be awesome.

Speaking of birthdays, I have been invited to a 30th Birthday Ball in Southern California for Oldest Friend. I will be attending. What should I wear to a ball? Gloves? Mask? Should I actually try to find a ballgown, or wear something I already have? I'm excited about the prospect of dressing up but I'm already flying and renting a car, so don't exactly have hundreds of dollars to spend on a fancy dress. Ideas?

Things I learned on (or around) my Thanksgiving vacation

* Loki gets carsick (both ends), at least in the dark. Ugh. This is a recent development. But he doesn't make a peep. (Petra peeps. Very loudly. The entire drive.)

* Sometimes when you are shopping for something in particular and having a difficult time finding it, if you make the decision to leave the store and then just decide to go back once around, just in case, you will find exactly the right thing. In my case, a coat at H&M.

* Shopping when I feel like I actually have enough money to buy something is far more fun than not, even if I don't buy much.

* One's perceptions about prices can change drastically depending on the setting. In a regular store, while buying yarn, I frequently decide a skein that costs over 5 bucks is too expensive. In ArtFibers, especially because everything in there was 10-30% off AND everything feels like it got shat out of an angel's butt, $65 for enough to make one scarf suddently doesn't seem so bad. (I didn't actually buy anything, but I did spend an hour touching EVERYTHING).

* For some reason, airport security employees do their best to make life more difficult for people. There was almost nobody in the airport when we were there Saturday afternoon, no line at security - but the lady made me put my purse in an already overstuffed bag. Which I promptly removed on the other side of security. WTF?

* My mom's boyfriend is the epitome of "Doesn't understand the concept" when it comes to the game Taboo. Somehow, he just didn't get that you CAN'T say any of the words on the card...or any derivation or root thereof.

* Some recipes I make in Denver take far more time in California. Is it my mom's oven? Is it the frozen whole wheat flour? Is it the altitude difference, the additional humidity, or something else altogether? No matter, it turned out OK.

* You really can fit 11 adult-sized people around my mom's table, but only if one of them actually doesn't sit with everyone else because she has her annual Thanksgiving migraine (Sorry Lis.)

* Spending time with relatives who are also friends is highly underrated. 2 meals spent with awesome cousins plus their husband/boyfriend (respectively) = highlight of the trip for me.

* This was the first trip to the Bay Area in 2 years during which time we didn't have to do anything for anyone's wedding. It was awesome.

* Flying to CA for Thanksgiving (especially on off days, like we did) is infinitely preferable to taking the train for 2 days in each direction.

* My mom's dog is weird. She has taken to obsessing over floor shadows, and entertains herself with them for hours on end.

* A Specialty's cookie tastes even better when you have to wait months or years to eat one (and their sandwiches are just as good as I remembered).

* Wombat's name is a highly guarded secret, and one which I don't know despite subjecting his parents to Chinese water torture. OK, not really with the torture thing.

* Leah does late-term pregnancy with style and panache, and she looks like her pre-pregnant self with a basketball under her shirt. And she kindly let me maul her belly while Wombat did his limited gymnastics given the small amount of space he has to maneuver.

* Everyone in CA that we talked to about it wants us to move there after Dan graduates. We'll see what happens.

All in all, a great trip. And I have photos, but the memory card is in Dan's camera so they'll have to wait for another day.

On becoming a grown-up: The Hotel Room

We go to California several times a year. We've gone 7 times since August of 07 which I think has to be some sort of record (granted, one of those times was to SoCal, but it was still California). When we go, we always stay with friends or family members because it helps cut down on the cost of the trip - and we've been fortunate enough to have enough people who like us that it hasn't been difficult to find places to stay.

This time, we plan to spend most of the trip staying at my mom's house up in the 'dale. But we fly in on a Monday and we'd like to at least have Tuesday in the Bay Area to do stuff (I have an H&M gift card I'm itching to spend). And we'd like to spend Monday evening with Leah and Simon (Wombat permitting). So, what to do? Leah and Simon have a baby imminent. My sister and her husband have my other sister in their spare oom. My cousin will be just getting back from a big trip around the world. Maybe the Irish German has space? or maybe one of Dan's relatives wouldn't mind putting us up for the night?

It suddenly occurred to me when I was at the gym this afternoon that we could get a hotel room in the city. That way, since we fly into SFO we only have to drive up to the city. We could meet Leah and Simon somewhere in the city. And we could already be there on Tuesday morning (no need to drive all over the bay area or take BART) for the shopping excursion I'd like to do. It solves our issues, nobody has to be put out, and we get to sleep in a bed.

This is the first time I've ever thought of doing this. It's the first time since we've been together, and traveling to CA together, that I even considered the possibility of shelling out a little bit of cash for a lot of convenience and privacy. I guess we're at the point (old, married, gainfully employed) where we can actually do that, instead of having to rely on the kindness of our friends and relatives. It's not worth saving a few bucks and putting other people out.

I think this means I'm officially heading toward adulthood. It's a little bit weird, but not entirely a bad place to be.

Disappointed in my home state

I have been wanting to write about this but haven't found the right words. Let me sum up: despite being elated at the result of the presidential election (and in particular how Colorado voted), the fact that Proposition 8 passed in California has cast a pall over the last several days. I am both flabbergasted and seethingly angry that California voted to make conditions more humane for farm animals, yet at the same time voted for a constitutional amendment to take rights away from people. Rights that my husband and I feel so strongly that everyone should be able to have that we used an exerpt from the Massachusetts Supreme Court decision on gay marriage in our wedding ceremony.

I...I just don't understand it. I don't understand the propaganda hate machine that somehow convinced 52% of the voting population that continuing to allow gay people to get married would equal children being "taught gay marriage in school", would mean that "churches would be forced to marry gay people!". Maybe I'm just an unfrozen caveman lawyer, and your world frightens and confuses me, but my husband and I got married in California and the few months California allowed gay marriage didn't affect our marriage one bit. Children aren't "taught" straight marriage in school, let alone gay marriage. During those months, nobody forced any church to marry anybody. Nor have these things happened in the other states that allow gay people to marry.

I know I've mentioned my favorite wedding photographer before, and it makes me feel good to know there are so many people in California (both in the wedding industry and not) who are so in favor of everyone having the right to get married. Jessamyn Harris wrote a beautiful post in her blog (and included some amazing photos she's taken of same-sex weddings this year) here. I hope that the energy that helped to boost our next president into the White House can continue in the fight against Prop 8, to restore what should be a civil right for every adult in this country regardless of sexual orientation.

Sumo-Godzilla Wedding, part 1: or, how I gained a second brother in one year

August 2nd dawned dark and early.

Actually, it's kind of hard to tell when you're in the Bay Area in the summer, because it's nearly always overcast that early in the morning. How early, you ask? After nearly 5 hours of sleep I rolled out of bed at 6:30, tiptoed down the stairs, brushed my teeth, checked my email and updated my Facebook status, and attempted to leave Leah and Simon's house in order to drive to my sister's in time to do her hair. Except the screen door wouldn't open, so I had to wake Simon up. Boo.

So I got to Lissa's house around 7:15 and everyone was awake, or as awake as most of them can be at that time of the day (none of them are morning people). As I said, it was overcast, so there was still some dismay over the possibility of the wedding being cold rather than warm. Staying in their house were L&C, Laurel and her friend Lindsay, and Jackie, the awesomest ER nurse evah, and so as you might imagine, things were a little crazy. Someone put the Princess Bride on the TV, and someone handed me a caffinated sody pop when I asked for one, and there was a parade of showers and people pouring coffee and I plugged in the curling iron and started on Lissa's hair. Because her hair is even thicker than mine, I knew it would take a while to get it all curled so I could start to style it, so I had Lissa sitting in a chair in a daze by about 7:40 as everyone else fluttered around.

Due to some practice earlier in the week, I knew exactly how I'd be doing Lissa's hair, so once it was curled it didn't take long. I sprayed the heck out of it and hoped it would hold with only small bobby pins - in our family, with our thick hair, we usually need the big ones, but the amount of hair that was pinned wasn't especially big, so I was hoping it would hold OK. I shoved in the two pearl hairpins that had belonged to my maternal grandmother to help camoflage some of the bobby pins, and Lissa's hair was ready to go. I sat in the kitchen to do my makeup, hand mirror propped against a box on the table so I could see, because the bathroom mirror and living room mirror were full of primping ladies.

At various times throughout the morning, a parade of people stopped by the house to assist in transporting things like all the wine and beer and prosecco, the champagne flutes, the 15 potted orchids, the elements for the table settings, and a large cardboard cutout with Godzilla and a Sumo wrestler on it (more on that later). My mom arrived and was put to work ironing shirts and wraps. I put on my bm dress (a little tight in the boobs, but fit OK otherwise) and did something very simple with my hair, and stopped in the middle of something to apply Lissa's eyeliner when requested (tightlining using a dark brown eyeshadow, which I think looks much nicer than a pencil) after Jackie and Laurel had done the rest of her makeup. Jackie filed my obscenely long nails down in a square shape and I gave myself the quickest French manicure ever, and immediately smudged it when helping Jackie to tie her dress. Someone put makeup on Curtis (don't ask me why, but there is photographic evidence). The groomsmen who hadn't been at the rehearsal dinner came over to get their ties (silkscreened with sumo wrestlers) and one of them had a large hole in the back of his pants, which I fixed with about 6 safety pins. And suddenly we all had to leave, and so we piled into three cars, Lissa with her dress, veil, purse (with vows) in hand, and headed up to the Brazil Room in Tilden Park.

I didn't know where I was going, since I'd never driven up there from the part of the East Bay where L&C live, and the drive was far more challenging than I expected - lots of twists and turns on super narrow streets undergoing construction, trying to follow someone who knew where he was going but wanted to drive way faster than I did. On the drive up, it became clear that the fog was going to burn off completely, and then someone realized that the tie for the remaining groomsman might have been left at their house, so Lissa switched cars and Curtis drove home to get the offending piece of formalwear. We made it to the location in time for Lissa to get her dress on before the photographers arrived (10 AM), and people immediately went into action, arranging centerpieces on the tables, setting up SumoGodzilla and the camera and the guestbook that Dan made them, helping Lissa with her dress and getting her veil in the right spot, and visiting with each other. I managed to find everyone on whom I needed to pin flowers (8 men, 6 women) and eventually the last bridesmaid (Curtis's sister) arrived so we each picked a BM bouquet (each one was different, and all had elements similar to Lissa's bouquet). I ended up with the one I liked best, and I think everyone's bouquets went best with their dresses, even though I didn't plan it that way.

More guests arrived as we started taking formal photos, and it got brighter and hotter as the morning went on. The fog had burned off completely, so it was actually much more comfortable indoors than outside where we were taking photos. Leah and Simon arrived with the PA system and Dan just in the nick of time, as he was supposed to be in some of the photos. More people arrived. It got hotter. People started to seat themselves on the shady side of the ceremony space. Nobody seated themselves on the sunny side except people who'd thought ahead and brought umbrellas to shade themselves. And then it was time for us to gather inside and discuss the order in which we'd be walking out, since we hadn't had any sort of rehearsal the day before. Dan escorting Mom, officiant, flower girls, every other groomsman and bridesmaid, and then Lissa and Curtis walking arm in arm up to the front of the group to say their vows.




So that's what we did. Some of us grinned. Some of us cried. Some of us did both (me! though I managed not to let any tears actually fall out of my eyes). And then, suddenly, after all this time, they were married.

It was time to party.

photos by Dan, Leah, someone with Lissa's camera, and Laurel

Officially graduated, and a gigantic golden retriever

Due to the aforementioned difficult night (nightmares, 6 adults in one room, etc.) I woke up in a very foul mood on Sunday. Neither Dan nor I got to shower and we had only a few minutes to get dressed and ready for the graduation ceremony, since it was at 9 AM and we still had a drive ahead of us to get there. At least the stupid hotel gave us free continental breakfast, which included eggs and a good variety of other things, so I loaded up on protein-ish items to stave off blood sugar problems (I had two episodes on Saturday, both stemming from waiting too long to eat, I think). We left the hotel by 7:45 and drove up to UC Santa Barbara, finding free parking in a lot, and walking across campus to the lagoon. We passed a clock tower that had no clock (which would be what, a bell tower? It was very angular, resembling a stack of square blocks) and made our way down an expanse of lawn, finding a row of seats and saving some for the people who would be joining us (Laurel's BF, her best friend and her best friend's sister). Everything was bright and colorful in the muggy, foggy morning, flags of 31 countries flapping in the breeze, people selling garish purple orchid leis and bunches of roses and commemorative commencement programs that included the names of each graduate. I spent a while in line for the women's bathroom in one of the buildings and listened to a mom trying to convince her young daughter to use the potty. As soon as I got back to my seat, the music started and went on and on for what seemed like hours as the graduates filed in (and this was just graduates for the social science programs).

The rest of the morning went as graduations normally do. There were speeches, and more speeches, a keynote speech, tortillas were tossed by the graduates, some awards given out, and then every graduate's name was called. Laurel text messaged us to let us know when she was close to the stage so we wouldn't have to be listening for her name, and we all cheered when her name was called. Many audience members made far more noise than we did with air horns. There were more names called. And then it was all over, and the group of us met in the back corner and took photos of the new graduate. I felt extremely proud of her. Laurel held down two and sometimes three jobs throughout her four years at UCSB and graduated with a major and a minor and a respectable GPA.

We hiked back across campus in the throngs and crowds, attempting to keep the group together. Alas, as in any situation where thousands of people attempt to leave one place at the same time, traffic was horribly snarled up. We actually made it back to Laurel's house before she did (her boyfriend was first, but he bicycled back) and enjoyed the ocean view from her balcony while we waited. Finally, everyone was there, so we figured out who was going in which car and where we were going, and eventually we all made it to Laurel's boss's house where he was having a graduation party for her and two of her coworkers (all three of them UCSB grads this year). So it was an interesting party, a mix of family and friends of the three girls and the boss and his family and their GIGANTIC golden retriever named Bo who was the biggest dog I've ever seen that wasn't a great dane or a giant English mastiff. Seriously enormous. We snacked on snacks, admired the gorgeous house and yard, sipped tasty beverages, and enjoyed the afternoon, and finally all the food was grilled so then we ate that. Dan and I both ate a lot, since we knew we wouldn't be having dinner. Then there were two kinds of cake, and I could only eat a few bites because I was STUFFED.

Finally, it was time to go. Dan and I hugged everyone goodbye and climbed into the rental car and headed south on 101. It was the worst traffic I'd seen in a long time, and there was absolutely no obvious reason - no accidents, no construction. It took us an hour and a half to get to Ventura (should have been half an hour) and then we hit some more traffic a bit father south. But once we got to LA, there was no traffic at all. We made it to the rental car place three hours after we'd left Santa Barbara (good thing we left so early, is all I can say!) and there was some sort of mixup and they charged me an extra $9, so when I went back to the counter to ask them to remove the charge, they ended up only charging me for half the rental. Which was kind of surprising, but hey, I'm not going to complain. The airport was an airport, the flight was a flight, I managed a little nap and we landed safe and sound in Denver at 11:30 PM. When we got home around 1 AM, both of us decided we desperately needed showers (having never bathed since the tar incident of the day before).

Needless to say, I was a zombie on Monday. Which was why I didn't post.

Anyhow, all in all it was a good trip, if a little rushed. We didn't make it to Hearst Castle or even to the Santa Ynez valley, and I'd love to make it back to SoCal sometime in the not-too-distant future.

Tar Babies

Our original plan was to drive north and do some wine tasting in the Santa Ynez valley (thanks for the recommendations, Slackmistress and QIR) but by the time we made it through SB we decided we weren't feeling up to it. We did drive a little ways north up the coast, enjoying the view, then turned around and went to the Santa Barbara Mission.

The restrooms at the mission have chalkboards inside with a note that says "If you must write something, please do it here" which really amused me. I got some cool photos that I am going to try to get on the internets so I won't talk about it too much now, only say that it was a neat experience, and also say that man, they really need to update some of their displays.

After we were finished at the mission, we called my sister who told us where we might find restaurants that wouldn't cost 8 arms and 6 legs like the ones on posh State Street (she directed us to Goleta, where we ended up just getting sushi and a wrap to share from Trader Joe's). We did some more TJs shopping - stocking up on chocolate supplies for us, plus buying a few things for the next day. My sister had another graduation to attend, but she told us how to get to her house (right on the beach, on Student Row in Isla Vista) and where to walk to have a nice beach experience. We dropped off some stuff at her house, carefully avoiding all of the students packing and moving (apparently, everyone has to vacate their apartments at once, during the same weekend as graduation, so the neighborhood becomes a complete madhouse, and is the only place I've ever seen someone on a bike pulling someone sitting in an office chair down the street). Up the street we walked, through a park and down a path, and found some stairs that led down to the beach.

It's been some time since I walked on the beach with no other time commitments or other things to do, and many years since I walked on a beach in Southern California (where the water is slightly less cold than in Northern California). We took off our shoes and found all kinds of treasures as we dodged large bundles of washed-up kelp, rocks, shells, and other beach detritus that helps differentiate Northern from Southern CA (all the beaches I've been to in SoCal had WAAAAY more stuff on the sand than in NorCal). We passed a large dead elephant seal, skirting around so as not to get too close, and Dan nearly stepped on a large dead fish that was missing its eye (surely the tastiest bit, we decided). We sat for a while on a sunbleached log and watched people surf, Dan snapping action shots while I made interesting shadows on the sand with my hands and a heart-shaped shell I found.

A surprising thing was the overwhelming smell of asphalt on some parts of the beach, and the tar that washed up along the shoreline. We did our best to avoid it, and saw how it covered large rocks and small pebbles, a black ugly stain on an otherwise beautiful scape. I wondered if there had been a recent oil spill as we rounded the bend and came across a rock with a piece of iron ship embedded, rust streaks dripping down the rock like paint. The rest of the beach was less interesting, and we wiggled our toes in the shallows, and then a few waves came up faster than we expected and we got a little wet around the hems of our jeans and shorts, respectively. My leg grew tired, the one that is still healing, so I asked if we could go back. We walked all the way back, stopping to inspect the iron grown into the rock once more, splashing through the water and just next to it because it was easier for my leg to walk on packed wet sand than on powdery dry. And then a wave came up and soaked the back of my jeans up to my butt. Awesome.

Past the dead fish, the tar, and the seal corpse, we climbed slowly, wetly, and sandily up the steps to the cliff, where we stopped to put on our shoes. At which point we realized the bottoms of our feet were covered in tar, despite our valiant attempts to avoid it. I had been wearing sneakers with no socks and so after I scraped what I could, I put my shoes back on, resigning them to a tar-filled afterlife. Dan had socks to go with his shoes, so he only ruined a pair of socks. As we walked back to my sister's house, my family pulled up in the Prius, having driven four adults plus luggage down 101 from the Bay Area. My mom and cousin, my sister and her fiance, all gave us hugs and joined us at Laurel's only to realize her roommate had left and Laurel was still at the other graduation. Dan and I were wet, sandy, and tarry, while my family was tired of the long drive and wanted to relax. So we drove down to Carpinteria to our hotel, through more ugly traffic.

There was some sort of mixup at the hotel that I'm still not clear about, but they doubled the price my mom was quoted and were generally nasty all around, so instead of two rooms for that night, we had to all sleep in one. Six adults. Two queen-size beds, one ridiculously small and uncomfortable pull-out couch. We lounged in the room and discovered the one good thing, three little premoistened towelettes in the bathroom labeled "tar-off" (note to hotel in Carpinteria: excellent idea!) so Dan and I were able to remove the tar from our feet. I removed my wet, salty, sandy jeans and changed into a skirt. We sat around the room for a while, the six of us, and found a place to eat dinner when Laurel and her boyfriend drove down to join us. (a passable Thai food place, at which only a few of the diners enjoyed their meals). Laurel informed me that there hadn't been an oil spill, that tar comes up naturally out of the ocean along that part of the coast, and it's pretty much impossible to avoid small particles in the sand.

After dinner, we bought a small variety of items at a liquor store, giggled over three sizes of tequila that came in the most phallic bottle I've ever seen, and retired to the hotel room for an hour or two before Laurel and her boyfriend left and the rest of us got ready for bed. Six adults in one hotel room, sharing one bathroom, good lord. Needless to say, most of us slept terribly, especially Lissa and Curtis who ended up putting the pull-out couch mattress on the floor and piling blankets on top (they were the only ones who could both fit on such a small mattress, but I understand neither of them really slept). I slept, but had nightmares all night.

Cantalope arms, and the cutest alarm clock I ever did see

(Photo of Polie, taken by Oldest Friend)
Friday afternoon we packed up some clothes and two crane mobiles and flew to Los Angeles. I'd already checked us in online and printed our boarding passes, and we weren't checking any bags, so though we had to park in the crappy long-term lot (as opposed to the slightly less crappy one), we made it to our gate with plenty of time to spare. At which time I realized I'd forgotten to bring any reading material. The in-flight magazine provided a modicum of entertainment, but there was no SkyMall catalog, and I spent the flight using whatever brain cells I seem to have left by doing the easy crossword and three of four sudoku puzzles.

We landed at LAX right on time, and then I realized I'd forgotten to do something very important, which was print out the email from travelocity telling me with which rental car company I'd reserved our vehicle. In most airports, this wouldn't matter, since they have in-airport reservation desks all near one another, or all the rental car companies in the same off-site location. So we took a gamble and took Avis's shuttle (I knew I hadn't rented with budget or hertz) but lost the gamble. They gave me a list of phone numbers to other rental car companies, but most of them didn't work. Then we got the bright idea to call someone who could get into my email to tell us which rental company it was. The trouble with this idea was that it was 5:10 PM on a Friday, Pacific time, which meant it was even later in Colorado, and everyone we knew in California would be out doing something or on the way home from work. I took a chance and called Monkey, and luckily she was at home near her computer so was able to tell us the appropriate rental company (Thrifty). So we walked the 3/4 mile to the Thrifty lot, and they gave us a Dodge Caliber, which is apparently the only small car they rent (I'd asked for their smallest car, and it felt really big to me). We headed north on the 405 freeway toward Oldest Friend's house and arrived around 6:45 PM.

Oldest Friend lives in the cutest little house that is a perfect size for one person (or two people who really, really like each other). And we immediately fell in love with her cat, who took to us right away, purring and being cute and being all tiny and such (she was the runt of the litter). We sat and relaxed for a while, and then we changed clothes and drove over to the restaurant where we met Monkey and Big Bird and Big Bird's college roommate (who was once a professional triathlete) for dinner. Everything was super tasty - the sangria, the nachos, the enormous appetizer samplers (one regular, one seafood), and by the time main dishes came out I was already full - but I did my best, and wasn't able to even touch the beans and rice that came with. It was a fabulous evening of conversation and laughter and I have to say I found Big Bird and his cantalope arms (and his college roommate) to be thoroughly charming.

We returned to OF's house and were warmly greeted by the kitty again, who did her best to convince us she should be let outside (OF had asked us to keep her in so she'd have access to her food/water over the weekend) and then she played with us and kept us company in the bed. A scant few hours later, she decided it was time for us to wake up, sitting on Dan's chest for some morning lovey time, purring in my ear and being exceedingly cute. It was 5:45 AM, and while I dozed a bit after that, we were out of bed by seven, showering and packing and getting ready to head north. We stopped at a Ralph's on our way out of town to get a few things to eat for breakfast in the car. We headed west to PCH 1 and drove north through Malibu, noting the June Gloom (a yearly phenomenon of fog/overcast/clouds during this part of the year). It was not at all warm, so our plan of stopping at a beach or two along the way seemed to be a less-than-good idea. We drove through Oxnard, toying with the idea of trying to find a comic book shop run by one of the bloggers Dan reads, but ultimately decided to keep driving north. The gloominess continued through Ventura and Carpinteria (where we hit ugly traffic) and only started to clear up once we got halfway through Santa Barbara.

Disappointment, Contentment, Anticipation

We've seen two big summer movies so far (Iron Man and Indiana Jones), and the big summer movie I was really looking forward to seeing was Prince Caspian. So this weekend, we made a date to pay 8 bucks for a MATINEE, good lord, and headed down to the local Theater that Shows Big Movies on the 16th street mall Sunday afternoon because we'd heard it wasn't doing terribly well and might be gone from theaters soon. After being more than pleasantly surprised by the first one, I was really looking forward to seeing what they did with book two.

Unfortunately, my excitement was short-lived. The movie was not what I was hoping it would be, and though it's been many years since I read the book, I think they took quite a few more liberties with the story than I might have liked. One of my favorite parts of the movie didn't actually even happen in the book, and they were far more heavy-handed (in my opinion) on the religious undertones than they were in the first movie. I left the theater feeling like I'd seen an entertaining movie, but it wasn't what I had wanted to see. Not that I consider myself a fanboy or anything, but it's always a bummer when you walk away disappointed. If they make a movie of book 3 (Voyage of the Dawn Treader), I hope it's better. Prince Caspian did not live up to The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.

The rest of the weekend, however, was lovely. There was some relaxing and some chore-doing and two delicious breakfasts, shoe shopping but no buying, and we planned to grill outside but the weather didn't cooperate on Saturday or Sunday (too windy, not warm enough) (we tried again last night and the damn coals just wouldn't light despite direct flame for several minutes. We just need a better grill I guess, but we made do with the George Foreman). On Sunday, we made our way through the People's Fair on our way to and from the movies, and while it is generally interesting to watch people and gawk at merchandise and sniff overpriced food smells, there was nothing particularly camera-worthy (though in the car on Saturday we did see the best yard sale sign ever, with its perfect message of STUFF and an arrow pointing right, and I wished I'd had my camera with me). As Dan remarked, PrideFest is more interesting for people watching, and the Taste of Colorado is more worthwhile to consume overpriced food, so maybe we'll try again later in the summer.

I also knitted a baby hat for the baby who was still in utero last Saturday; she was born on Thursday the 5th and hadn't been named yet, so I whipped up a cute hat real quick in the baby yarn I had left over from other projects, and I'll give it to Julie in a day or two to bring to the new parents. I knitted the hat while we watched the Bourne Ultimatum (less confusing than Matt Damon Kills People and Runs Around A Lot II) and while we watched the Goonies (Sean Astin was my first confirmed crush; when I saw that movie I totally swooned, and I was only like six) and I finished it up on Sunday morning while breakfast cooked (that, and finally finished Monkey's giftmas/birthday present that I will be bringing with me this weekend).

Because hooray! We are going to Southern California this weekend to witness my little sister's college graduation (what does one wear to a graduation at 9 AM on a Sunday in a beach town?) We fly in and out of LAX, will be driving up the coast on Saturday, and making a stop at San Simeon because I've owed Dan a trip to Hearst Castle since he moved me to Colorado in January of 2003. I'm not sure what else we might do; perhaps just have an adventure and make some stops along the way up. I'm excited because we get to meet Oldest Friend's cat (unfortunately, OF will not be in town, but we get to stay at her house anyway) and because we get to hang out with Monkey and Big Bird and (I have heard tell) some other people as well on Friday night. A Friday night! Out in a big city! It should be a smashing good time. Oh, and we'll spend part of Saturday doing beachy things, and getting to spend time with my family, and I bet there will be something fun to do on Saturday night in Santa Barbara. Plus, after the graduation on Sunday we're having a party for my sister who is leaving for a 3-week trip to Ireland right afterward, so that should be fun too.

All torn up

So, we had a fantastic weekend - a flight to Oakland (somewhat delayed due to the fact that they held the plane for about 40 minutes for ONE GUY), a late evening shooting the breeze with Simon, a yummy breakfast and a day of exploring the Maker Faire. I hobbled my gimpy best around the San Mateo Fairgrounds looking at art installations and people riding around in mutant vehicles and overpriced food and a room full of people selling handmade treasures (I wanted to buy one of everything) and a giant mousetrap (as in, a giant version of the game Mousetrap) complete with women dressed as sexy mice, dancing sensually with cheese, a plethora of steampunkers (who were by far the most impressive dressed-up-in-costume group), and everyone in a seemingly good mood.

My mood was mostly good, since I was spending a day with three very lovely people who were kind enough not to make too much fun of me for my weird ambulation. The not good part was that my leg hurt like a motherbitch all day, and it got worse as the day went on. I'm a very active person and it's both difficult and humbling to be forced to THINK about how I can walk in order to minimize pain and discomfort. The few times I forgot, I paid dearly for it. The Maker Faire was decidedly lacking in places to sit, which I found to be rather unfortunate.

Eventually, we were finished making the rounds, having seen just about everything we'd wanted to see and being unwilling to wait around for evening performances, so we left the Faire and drove into the city for a bite to eat and a bit of relaxation. We ended up in a cafe in West Portal where everyone got something they felt like eating and we felt no pressure to leave, though they did have the dirtiest bathroom I'd seen in a while (dirtier than some of the porta potties at the Faire, actually). We were waiting around without much to do because Simon had an errand that needed to be run at a particular time - or so Leah thought - and it made more sense for us to just stay in the city until that point in time. After our late afternoon repast, we went over to Dolores Park and enjoyed the small amount of sun that was left, braving the wind and the crowds of hipsters and the women selling magic brownies. Dan entertained us with a story after I told Leah and Simon that he'll sometimes make up stories for me if I give him a few elements to work with - Simon requested a story about a coconut, hair clippings, and the Eiffel Tower. It wasn't one of his best efforts, but it was certainly fun to hear him work those things into a plausible story.

We drove around some more, ending up in the Marina (I think) and waiting 15 minutes in the car for Simon to run his "errand", holding in my excitement for the upcoming festivities. We headed back to the East Bay, to Leah and Simon's house, and she didn't figure out anything was amiss until we actually got there and she saw a bunch of cars on the street and the blinds shut. But the surprise worked anyway and I think she had a good time. I know I did, despite my aching leg. I got to see Sara and Ron and I got to meet Holly Burns of Nothing But Bonfires, one of my longtime blog crushes, and her boyfriend Sean. The party was an international theme costume party, and the best thing I could come up with on such short notice was my Canada t-shirt. (It was also much easier to pack than a more elaborate costume would have been). The food was delicious, the company was excellent, and a great time was had by all. By about midnight I was thoroughly exhausted and my leg was considerably swollen so I went to bed.

Sunday was a relaxing day. We got up and showered and headed over to Alameda ("nuclear wessels!") to eat breakfast at this huge coffeeshop warehouse thing, where we still had to wait a good long while to get a table. The food was good, the company was better, and we went back to Chez Agirlandaboy and relaxed a while more. Eventually we made it over to my sister's place (thanks again for the ride, guys!) and spent an afternoon hanging out with my sister and her fiance and my mom. Our trip to and through the airport was fine, the flight was fine, but the bag that we'd checked (brand new, a wedding gift) came out the other side looking like it had been stomped and gnawed on by a t-rex. One of the handles was almost completely torn off and you could see my bathing suit inside through some of the outer fabric, it was that worn through. The person at the Southwest luggage area just pulled out a new bag and gave it to us. It wasn't nearly as nice as our bag (and obviously doesn't match) but at that point I was too tired and hurty to care that much. I think Dan felt a little more strongly than I did about it.

So the birthday surprise was a success, which made me really happy. I was so glad we were able to come out and spend time with Leah and Simon and help bring the party to fruition; we provided a good excuse for many of the logisitcal details that needed to be worked out. I hope someday Leah forgives us for our role in the surprise. I got a little nervous when she said "Simon knows how much I hate surprises" while we were waiting for him.

I spent yesterday on the couch all day bored out of my skull. I kept the first 3 Star Wars movies (eps 1-3) on for background noise, attempted to get the internet to work (and only succeeded for about five minutes), finished a book, started another, and went outside in the sun for a little while with my leg up on a chair. I have to say that at this point, I'm pretty well tired of taking advil (as is my digestive system). This morning, I had a doctor's appointment, which entailed me essentially spending $30 to hear "Yep, you have a torn calf muscle. Here's a referral to a physical therapist." I called right away - their earliest appointment is for the 14th of May. A week from tomorrow. Guess I'll spend another week doing what I've been doing and hoping I'm doing things right. From what I've read in googling around the internets, this puppy is going to take a few months to heal. I'd rather have it heal right and be able to exercise again sooner rather than do something wrong and be miserable for even longer.

Also, if anyone out there in blogland is considering tearing a calf muscle, I'm going to have to recommend against it. Right now the back of my leg looks like someone took a baseball bat to it. Gross.

Long distance relationship

As I may have mentioned before, I had quite a few pen pals in high school. These were all people who lived in another part of the state, or another state, some of whom I'd never actually met. My first real boyfriend was one of them; he lived in the Bay Area and though we were "together" for a year, we only saw one another about six or eight times during that year. I didn't have a lot of friends at school or in my town, so most of my socializing was done through letters or over the phone.

Many of my current friends are people I met through the internets. I married one of them a few weeks ago; you may have heard me mention it? We spent the first year and a half of our relationship living in two different states, seeing each other about once a month or every other. It was a difficult thing to do, maintaining our relationship primarily through IM and phone conversations a couple of times a week, but we managed it.

I say all of these things because I want to make it clear I'm no stranger to long-distance relationships, whether those be friendships or relationships of a more serious nature. My Oldest Friend and I haven't lived in the same state since we were 17 years old, yet we manage to maintain our friendship across distances, sometimes truly great ones (she's lived in Belgium, Germany, Mexico, Australia, and Washington, DC in the last ten years, and she currently resides in Southern California). Quite a few guests at our wedding were people we hadn't seen in person for years because we all live in different places. Luckily, these days it's easier than ever to maintain relationships with people across great distances, what with blogs and email and such.

But.

How do you maintain a relationship with another state? Our 10 days or so in California for the wedding (during my favorite time of the year, mind) brought up all these feelings I've been bottling up for a while, about how much I miss the Bay Area. It was really difficult for me to leave in some ways, because I know we won't be back until August (well, late July for me). We have a trip to Southern California in June during which time we'll be seeing some friends and family, but it's not the same. The wedding was an amazing, glorious day capping off a week of festivities, but since then I've felt like I want that day back, I want more time to spend with all those loved ones who I rarely get to see, and never all in one place at the same time. And while I can maintain relationships with friends and family, I can't "stay in touch" with an entire region, with a season, with that feeling of belonging and familiarity.

During my five plus years in Denver, I've gotten to know Colorado pretty well. Thanks to my job, I've traveled all over the state, seen some beautiful and amazing things, climbed mountains, and stayed in brothel-like hotel rooms. My preconception of what Colorado was like (as in, before I became more knowledgable about the geography of this part of the country) was very different than the reality. Colorado has a lot to offer, both in things to do and see and in opportunities. Yet every time we go back to California, I feel like I'm coming home - to my family, to where I grew up, to the place that feels like ME. My sole coworker we invited to the wedding was unable to attend, but I sent her the links to the flickr photos because she wanted to see them. Her remarks afterward, in addition to being so amazed by what wonderful photos everyone took, was that the pictures looked like ME - like the wedding was in a place where I looked and felt like I belonged. I'd never talked much with her about my decision to leave California or how much I miss it, but I found myself with my jaw hanging open a bit when she said that.

Of course, California isn't my home anymore. My home is with my husband and my kitties, wherever they happen to be. Right now, and for the past five years, that's Denver. I like Denver. But it isn't California.

Much of our disposable income over the last few years has gone toward traveling, primarily to California. Luckily, there are cheap airfares between Denver and the Bay Area offered by a few airlines (and I hope this continues). But we want to be able to do other things with our money someday. We'd like to buy a house. We'd like to go on more big trips. And every trip to California, even when we have free places to stay (thank you, people who let us stay with you!), costs a big chunk of change. There have been times when I've wanted to throw caution to the wind, to just buy a last minute fare to California for a weekend. And then I remember that we have other things we have to think about, like paying rent and bills and eating. And when we do go to California, we schedule our time down to the minute in some cases, making sure we make plans to spend time with as many people as we can during the few days we're there. I think it will be better now that we don't have to do wedding planning while we're there, but there are still a good 20 people we'd like to see (friends and family members we both have in the area) when we come out to the Bay Area and there's no way we can see everybody each time.

Someday, I hope we can afford to live in the Bay Area. We often talk about what would happen if we won the lottery that we never play, and our stock answer is always the purchase of a house in the Berkeley hills, first thing off the bat. Because if we could afford to, we'd move there tomorrow. Well, not really, we'd wait until Dan was done with school, but then we'd go. Unfortunately, we'd likely never be able to buy a house if we did that. So instead we talk about moving places like Portland, with more affordable housing that are closer to California. And I dream about the Berkeley marina, and eating Specialty's chocolate chip cookies in San Francisco, and spending Quality Time with so many people I love.

It's the end of the year as we know it and I feel fine

Wow - it's been a long time since I wrote anything. Um, hi? Hey, it's the end of 2007! Woohoo! 2007 has been a fantastic year for us - we got engaged, I bought a car, we went on some road trips, we planned a wedding (mostly), and we're spending the last few hours of 2007 organizing our stuff for the trip to Italy. Which starts tomorrow! Hooray!

Christmas was interesting, and we spent this past weekend with Leah and Simon (thanks again for the wonderful hospitality, guys!) We've hung out with QIR, Guatemalaholla and the lovely Katherine, and had dinner with Sara and Ron. I tried on my dress, we checked off everything on the "must do" wedding list, and we had our engagement photos taken (luckily, I asked my younger sister about the makeup issue and she had some excellent suggestions, which I took, and they worked out very well. More about that another time.) Dan gave me an ipod nano for Christmas which I am very excited about using on the aeroplane tomorrow. Mostly I am really excited that we get to spend two weeks in Italy eating yummy food and walking all the time, and when I come back I'll have a good 9 weeks of gymming before I have to fit into my dress again. And then - we get married! For those of you who care about such things, it's t-minus 3 months and counting. We hope to have invitations out within a week after we get back. But you know, I'm just not going to stress about wedding stuff while we're in Italy, because I'd much rather focus on having a great time. Thanks to a lucky connection, we're spending our last night in Rome (before we fly home) staying in a super-fancy hotel and we're paying about a 5th of what the room would normally cost.

I'm going to try to blog once or twice while we're gone, but no promises. There will be plenty of stories and photos to come, however.

Happy 2008, everybody!