go big or go home
it's my last weekend of college and i think it was a pretty good culmination:
i went to watsonville on friday morning with some classmates. we were going to happy girl farms to spend the day making saurkraut in exchange for a food donation at our graduation. we had a lovely day peeling and chopping 800 lbs of raw cabbage and sinking our hands into stinky fermented cabbage. the group i drove down with, which consisted of my friend todd and his friend allison, decided it would be nice to make a leisurely way back and stop in santa cruz for dinner. when we left watsonville, todd's car wouldn't start, but we got a jump and everything was OK. the farm is just inside of a daylight headlight section and we think that todd probably forgot to turn his lights off or something.
after a lovely dinner and stroll through downtown santa cruz, we decided to head back to berkeley. on our way up the highway 17 summit, todd's dashboard and headlights started to dim. i recognized from driving the beast (R.I.P., pour some out for your homies), that the alternator was probably going out, then the car died. thankfully, we were right next to a turn out, but highway 17 after dark is a nasty place to break down. we called AAA, but todd didn't have the extended mileage tow plan and my car insurance is aparently expired, so it was going to be $500 to tow to berkeley. we decided to just get towed to the AAA garage in santa cruz and stay the night. the tow truck driver said the garage would probably be able to get to the car the next morning so we didn't think it was worth it to try to get back to berkeley that night.
allison is really into the couch surfing culture, so she just started calling couch surfers in santa cruz. we ended up staying with a friend of hers from high school, but he wasn't there. his wife, whom allison had never met, drove down from the mountains to pick us up in scott's valley (outside of SC). she has a 3 1/2 year old and a 10 month old, and she got them out of bed to drive down and get us! she was so nice and so accomodating, especially since she hadn't met any of us! she knew who allison was but totally trusted us to not trash her house with her daughters in it.
the only catch with staying the spare room was that they have a dog who really doesn't like strangers. she told us that once the dog came inside we should stay in our room because it would bark and/or bite if we came out. of course, todd and i wake up in the middle of the night having to pee, so we had to climb out of the window and pee outside! thanfully there was a chair underneath the window on the outside otherwise it would have been really hard to get back in!
we woke up early the next morning and called the garage, and the mechanic said they just needed to get a part and the car would be ready around noon. megan (our host) was headning back down the hill around 10:30, so we strolled around the hills hear her house. it was totally gorgeous -- redwood trees everywhere and lovely ponds and banana slugs. we came back to the house and hung out with megan's dad who was there fixing the toilet. he was really nice and gave us his number in case we needed any more help. todd read the cat in the hat with the 3 year old while the baby crawled around on the floor being adorable.
megan gave us a ride back to central santa cruz and said she was coincidentally on her way to oakland and could probably give us a ride. we turned her down because the car was going to be done soon...bad idea. we called the garage around 12:30 and they said they'd call back around 1:30 and that the part hadn't come in yet. we just kind of wandered around downtown santa cruz feeling gross due to lack of sleep and toothpaste and an overabundance of cabbage juice. 2:30 rolled around and no word from the garage, so we decided to call them again. they said that they'd been sent the wrong part and they didn't know how long the process was going to take. but, the garage closed at 3pm not to re-open until monday. my phone and todd's phone here both dead by then. so, allison whips out her phone again to try to get us a rideshare back to berkeley, but to no avail. we thought we were screwed and were going to have to rent a car until we realized that there was a greyhound station a little ways away. we got there to find that a bus to oakland was leaving in 20 minutes, called to make sure the car wasn't going to be ready, then hopped on the bus. poor todd's car is still in santa cruz with our pickled vegetables and he'll have to go down and get it during final's week.
i had been planning on going to drinko with my friend brianna but had to keep calling her (until my phone died, though i did manage to get a minor charge at the verizon store in downtown SC) and telliing her it was going to be later and later. she picked us up at the greyhoud station, took me home, and i cleaned up and changed and we decided to tough it out at drinko! i got to see a lot of great folks and had a good time doing that. we left on the early side since we were both tired. tanja came with and we found a great sushi place at 2nd and geary that gave us free appetizers and dessert! it was $30 total for a pretty sizeable meal! anyway, i returned home around 11pm expecting to get in my jammies and crash out, but instead decided to go to beckett's to hang out, listen to music, and drink more.
a little bit of insanity ensued this weekend. now i need to call some potential sublet options, get dressed, buy groceries, and study for my last final ever! it's tomorrow! then all i have to do is write a paper and do a take-home final and i'm 100% finished...i can't believe it! yowzers.
i went to watsonville on friday morning with some classmates. we were going to happy girl farms to spend the day making saurkraut in exchange for a food donation at our graduation. we had a lovely day peeling and chopping 800 lbs of raw cabbage and sinking our hands into stinky fermented cabbage. the group i drove down with, which consisted of my friend todd and his friend allison, decided it would be nice to make a leisurely way back and stop in santa cruz for dinner. when we left watsonville, todd's car wouldn't start, but we got a jump and everything was OK. the farm is just inside of a daylight headlight section and we think that todd probably forgot to turn his lights off or something.
after a lovely dinner and stroll through downtown santa cruz, we decided to head back to berkeley. on our way up the highway 17 summit, todd's dashboard and headlights started to dim. i recognized from driving the beast (R.I.P., pour some out for your homies), that the alternator was probably going out, then the car died. thankfully, we were right next to a turn out, but highway 17 after dark is a nasty place to break down. we called AAA, but todd didn't have the extended mileage tow plan and my car insurance is aparently expired, so it was going to be $500 to tow to berkeley. we decided to just get towed to the AAA garage in santa cruz and stay the night. the tow truck driver said the garage would probably be able to get to the car the next morning so we didn't think it was worth it to try to get back to berkeley that night.
allison is really into the couch surfing culture, so she just started calling couch surfers in santa cruz. we ended up staying with a friend of hers from high school, but he wasn't there. his wife, whom allison had never met, drove down from the mountains to pick us up in scott's valley (outside of SC). she has a 3 1/2 year old and a 10 month old, and she got them out of bed to drive down and get us! she was so nice and so accomodating, especially since she hadn't met any of us! she knew who allison was but totally trusted us to not trash her house with her daughters in it.
the only catch with staying the spare room was that they have a dog who really doesn't like strangers. she told us that once the dog came inside we should stay in our room because it would bark and/or bite if we came out. of course, todd and i wake up in the middle of the night having to pee, so we had to climb out of the window and pee outside! thanfully there was a chair underneath the window on the outside otherwise it would have been really hard to get back in!
we woke up early the next morning and called the garage, and the mechanic said they just needed to get a part and the car would be ready around noon. megan (our host) was headning back down the hill around 10:30, so we strolled around the hills hear her house. it was totally gorgeous -- redwood trees everywhere and lovely ponds and banana slugs. we came back to the house and hung out with megan's dad who was there fixing the toilet. he was really nice and gave us his number in case we needed any more help. todd read the cat in the hat with the 3 year old while the baby crawled around on the floor being adorable.
megan gave us a ride back to central santa cruz and said she was coincidentally on her way to oakland and could probably give us a ride. we turned her down because the car was going to be done soon...bad idea. we called the garage around 12:30 and they said they'd call back around 1:30 and that the part hadn't come in yet. we just kind of wandered around downtown santa cruz feeling gross due to lack of sleep and toothpaste and an overabundance of cabbage juice. 2:30 rolled around and no word from the garage, so we decided to call them again. they said that they'd been sent the wrong part and they didn't know how long the process was going to take. but, the garage closed at 3pm not to re-open until monday. my phone and todd's phone here both dead by then. so, allison whips out her phone again to try to get us a rideshare back to berkeley, but to no avail. we thought we were screwed and were going to have to rent a car until we realized that there was a greyhound station a little ways away. we got there to find that a bus to oakland was leaving in 20 minutes, called to make sure the car wasn't going to be ready, then hopped on the bus. poor todd's car is still in santa cruz with our pickled vegetables and he'll have to go down and get it during final's week.
i had been planning on going to drinko with my friend brianna but had to keep calling her (until my phone died, though i did manage to get a minor charge at the verizon store in downtown SC) and telliing her it was going to be later and later. she picked us up at the greyhoud station, took me home, and i cleaned up and changed and we decided to tough it out at drinko! i got to see a lot of great folks and had a good time doing that. we left on the early side since we were both tired. tanja came with and we found a great sushi place at 2nd and geary that gave us free appetizers and dessert! it was $30 total for a pretty sizeable meal! anyway, i returned home around 11pm expecting to get in my jammies and crash out, but instead decided to go to beckett's to hang out, listen to music, and drink more.
a little bit of insanity ensued this weekend. now i need to call some potential sublet options, get dressed, buy groceries, and study for my last final ever! it's tomorrow! then all i have to do is write a paper and do a take-home final and i'm 100% finished...i can't believe it! yowzers.