Roads go ever ever on... (Post 1 of 30)
Roads go ever ever on
Under cloud and under star,
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
- Tolkien
or me, i guess. I'm back in LA after travelling over oceans and under blue skies.
My parents have a time share in Tahoe, and even though they've been going there for 10 years or so, this was the first time I was able to go too. it was great fun in a 'i'm going to mostly sit by the pool and watch cheezy tv' kind of way. I got to bring my dog since the management company started allowing them last year, and she was popular with the other guests. My stepmom's best friend and her husband have been going for 14 years, and so we did dinners with them and their friends, who were all fascinating people - retired school teachers who now travel to Korea and Egypt and Europe, a social worker who is now spearheading a pilot program in her county to train foster families to be able to take in some of the tougher at risk kids so they don't have to go into group homes, people like that. Awesome conversations all under pine trees and blue skies. And one day I did make it out to Emerald Falls with Laney's (stepmom's best friend) grandkids to do a little bit of hiking. That one afternoon was totally enough for me (though i was proud i actually tried to rock climb a bit and had the tired muscles the next day to prove it!)
After Tahoe I went back to Mom's, though this time was just to visit, not to unpack or anything. We played tourist a bit and went to visit the hotel in the little town I grew up in - they'd been on a TLC show last year sometime, and the renovations were really beautiful. We also visited the (new to me) Tailing Wheel No. 4 which sounds sort of boring but is *really* cool in person. (pics forthcoming, really).
I also took my computer back in to get repaired, because the laptop repair had fixed a problem that started showing up again in Tahoe, and the verdict was sadly that my computer is getting old, and there wasn't much he could do about it. I have to keep my computer cool and out of the sun, and not run it for too long, and hope the mother board lasts until i can figure out a new one. Which sadly means no graphics binges for me ... or one at a time things, not massive sets, for a while. My Mom had a little netbook she didn't need, so I'm using that one as my real portable computer, but it is a stripped down little thing with a bit of a slow processor.
I ate more peaches this summer all together than I have in the last five years combined, I think. And made peach crumble twice - the first time was scrumptious, the second time i went overboard on the walnuts in the crumble topping so it was really more of a walnut crumble with some peaches included. Great over ice cream though! And I had California sushi in Tahoe, which may seem strange, but I had my very first sushi ever in Tahoe when I was a kid and it was delightful then (and now!) I cooked for my Mom, and ate sorta vegan with my Dad, and indulged in two bottles of wine (not at the same time) while in Tahoe.
Trundling back to LA was easy, but the moving back into my apartment was difficult. The woman who rented my room wasn't a particularly clean person, so even though she felt like she'd scoured the house before she left I had to re-clean every surface in my room (literally from walls to floors to windowsills). Cuz my feet turned black the first day I walked around in my own apt. The windowsills had streaks of *black* on them where they'd tried to wipe them down but didn't actually, you know, use a clean cloth. I flipped my lid about it, and about how they had shifted my stuff around during the year (hey, shifting is fine, but stacking paintings so they get scratched, wadding drapes into balls alongside blankets, or basically leaving glass mementos sitting where they could be knocked over wasn't ok with me). My girlfriend pointed out I was probably also partially freaking out from accumulated stress, which is/was exactly right. She told me to cry it out and then cry some more, and I'd feel better. And I did. It helped that she came by and helped me organize stuff so I could get it back into my room the next day.
Regardless it was still nice to catch up with housemate, who has had a bunch of medical stuff going on this past year (and still ongoing), though not my story to tell. She's a trooper though, and through it all has managed to wangle a promotion, so i think her rockstar spirit shines through.
ok, must take dog for walk, she's looking shifty. i'm trying this 30 blogs in 30 days thing, so hopefully more tomorrow!
also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there
Under cloud and under star,
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
- Tolkien
or me, i guess. I'm back in LA after travelling over oceans and under blue skies.
My parents have a time share in Tahoe, and even though they've been going there for 10 years or so, this was the first time I was able to go too. it was great fun in a 'i'm going to mostly sit by the pool and watch cheezy tv' kind of way. I got to bring my dog since the management company started allowing them last year, and she was popular with the other guests. My stepmom's best friend and her husband have been going for 14 years, and so we did dinners with them and their friends, who were all fascinating people - retired school teachers who now travel to Korea and Egypt and Europe, a social worker who is now spearheading a pilot program in her county to train foster families to be able to take in some of the tougher at risk kids so they don't have to go into group homes, people like that. Awesome conversations all under pine trees and blue skies. And one day I did make it out to Emerald Falls with Laney's (stepmom's best friend) grandkids to do a little bit of hiking. That one afternoon was totally enough for me (though i was proud i actually tried to rock climb a bit and had the tired muscles the next day to prove it!)
After Tahoe I went back to Mom's, though this time was just to visit, not to unpack or anything. We played tourist a bit and went to visit the hotel in the little town I grew up in - they'd been on a TLC show last year sometime, and the renovations were really beautiful. We also visited the (new to me) Tailing Wheel No. 4 which sounds sort of boring but is *really* cool in person. (pics forthcoming, really).
I also took my computer back in to get repaired, because the laptop repair had fixed a problem that started showing up again in Tahoe, and the verdict was sadly that my computer is getting old, and there wasn't much he could do about it. I have to keep my computer cool and out of the sun, and not run it for too long, and hope the mother board lasts until i can figure out a new one. Which sadly means no graphics binges for me ... or one at a time things, not massive sets, for a while. My Mom had a little netbook she didn't need, so I'm using that one as my real portable computer, but it is a stripped down little thing with a bit of a slow processor.
I ate more peaches this summer all together than I have in the last five years combined, I think. And made peach crumble twice - the first time was scrumptious, the second time i went overboard on the walnuts in the crumble topping so it was really more of a walnut crumble with some peaches included. Great over ice cream though! And I had California sushi in Tahoe, which may seem strange, but I had my very first sushi ever in Tahoe when I was a kid and it was delightful then (and now!) I cooked for my Mom, and ate sorta vegan with my Dad, and indulged in two bottles of wine (not at the same time) while in Tahoe.
Trundling back to LA was easy, but the moving back into my apartment was difficult. The woman who rented my room wasn't a particularly clean person, so even though she felt like she'd scoured the house before she left I had to re-clean every surface in my room (literally from walls to floors to windowsills). Cuz my feet turned black the first day I walked around in my own apt. The windowsills had streaks of *black* on them where they'd tried to wipe them down but didn't actually, you know, use a clean cloth. I flipped my lid about it, and about how they had shifted my stuff around during the year (hey, shifting is fine, but stacking paintings so they get scratched, wadding drapes into balls alongside blankets, or basically leaving glass mementos sitting where they could be knocked over wasn't ok with me). My girlfriend pointed out I was probably also partially freaking out from accumulated stress, which is/was exactly right. She told me to cry it out and then cry some more, and I'd feel better. And I did. It helped that she came by and helped me organize stuff so I could get it back into my room the next day.
Regardless it was still nice to catch up with housemate, who has had a bunch of medical stuff going on this past year (and still ongoing), though not my story to tell. She's a trooper though, and through it all has managed to wangle a promotion, so i think her rockstar spirit shines through.
ok, must take dog for walk, she's looking shifty. i'm trying this 30 blogs in 30 days thing, so hopefully more tomorrow!
also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there