Road Trip Entries From April 28th to May 14th! :)
This one is super long because I haven't been able to put them together for weeks, sorry guys XD
*edit* Wow. LJ wouldn't post this because the post is too large. I have never in my life run into that. Consider me impressed. Time to cut this in half! XD */edit*
But here they are!
April 29 at 1:06am
Did you guys know that fresh chopped garlic burns the eyes just as bad as fresh chopped onions? Cuz it does. But! Super excited about CURRY TONIGHT! It's been far, far too long... ♥
Comment from Sarah: you should come sit over here.. Im about to start crying lol
Me: haha I'm staying right here in the other room thank youuu ;) aren't you glad you took your contacts out earlier? :P
Sarah: well then I dropped it on the floor haha. Yeah Im getting ready to join you... Im dying haha
Me: ahaha your dog is a ridiculous cuddle buddy. every time I get comfortable typing with her chin resting on my wrist, she puts her head right on the mouse sensor pad thing, and as soon as I figure a way around that... Taro makes a sound in the kitchen and she bolts back in there using my stomachas a launch pad, goes over to you and bugs you until you send her away, and then she jumps in my lap and I have to pause until she arranges herself, and the process starts all over again....
April 30 at 12:50am
I HATE YOU FACEBOOK CHAT. YOU MADE THE MAIN WINDOW EATEDED MY FANTASTIC AND EXCITING UPDATE, AND IT WAS LONG! YOU SUXXORS. I WILL STAB YOU IN THE EYE WITH A STICK. =D
April 30 at 8:33am
Today was an AWESOMELY FANTASTIC day in LA! A fitting last day of fun in the City of Angels before I move on out tomorrow for Portland! I got to see two friend I hadn't seen in two or more years, and I. Had. A. Blast. Really, if every day of my road trip would be like this my life would be a big rolling ball of joy, waiting to knock you all over. And that's without a man or money. Beat that.
Waking up was a little difficult today. I reset my alarm twice and even dozed for another 15 minutes after Lisa sent me a text saying she was up and getting ready. I finally dragged myself out from under the covers and stepped out of the bedroom... and walked right back in to come right back out with a blanket slung over my shoulders to curl up in while I ate my cereal and checked my facebook. Vegged on the couch with my laptop for like an hour; watched an episode and a half of Naruto (which I've been watching the past few days, for the first time in years) because I'm a nerd sometimes like that, and watched a little bit of the Utopia music video again because I loves it sooooo ♥
I finally pried myself away and abandoned the blanket on the couch with a promise to see it again soon, grabbed the clothes I planned to change into.... and my font lit up with a message from Lisa saying she was on her way. So I looked down at my pajama-clad self with my scruffy bed head, sighed, and got moving. Brushed my teeth, broke out the little red dress for second-chance comeback from it's Little Tokyo debut, straightened my very recently dyed maroonish-red hair, put on makeup that came out unusually well and with very little effort (which is rare because my eyelids have weird little creases in them... o_0), put my hair back with pretty little flower clippies, dug out a couple of necklaces and turned one of them into a bracelet, spritzed on the perfume and hair spray, pulled out the little black sandals that go with the dress, switched everything over to my awesome new purse (the adorable little sailor-colored one I bought for $20 when I went to Downtown with Sarah to the Fashion District), checked the time and figured traffic or some such had caught up with Lisa (who lives in Orange County which is a 45 minute drive away), and finally sat down to chillax and wait!
Sarah got up but wasn't feeling well and opted out of going with us to Santa Monica, but I've been dragging her around everywhere for days, so she probably needed a break anyway ;) When Lisa finally got here to pick me up, the three of us sat and talked for a few minutes, because none of us had seen eachother in ages and well, we're girls and we just can't help it =D Then I realized we were supposed to be meeting Ileana at the promenade in 10 minutes, and it takes 20 minutes to get there, so I called and was relieved to discover that she wasn't quite there yet anyway, but figured we'd still better hurry.
So we went down to the car and headed out, and decided to take Wilshire all the way to the coast, because that's the way the bus takes and is pretty sweet and simple, right? ...Not so much >_> First they were doing ridiculous contruction and 3 full lanes had to merger almost simultaneously into the one left lane, which luckily we were already in, but it still took forever and was not exactly a great example of safe driving. There were a lot of pointless choruses of honking to be heard, the ends of which were obviously people just chiming in for the hell of it in response to the first annoyed honks because they could, and a lot of going around cars that found themselves stuck in the middle of the intersection. It took us forever to get past that, but then we did and it was smooth sailing from there! Right? Of cooooourse not! Hello? Haven't you people read any of these stories before? GEEEZ, some people!
Anyway ;) After we got past that, we turned down Santa Monica Blvd heading West towards the ocean, but soon realized we were indeed not heading where we intended (We figure it's something along the lines of... the road DOES go to the beach, but not where we wanted it to? Did I mention Lisa doesn't live or work right in LA either?). So we were at least 10 minutes further out of the way than we started, and even though Ile was running a little late she'd had arrived sometime before we got out of the traffic ridiculousness, so we felt bad for being late, but she said it was fine and she was entertaining herself with the shops on the promenade. So Lisa pulled out her Garmin GPS and I pulled out my Verizon GPS, and the Garmin was slow to get to working but we soon had to mechanical voices entirely out of unison telling us basically the same thing, over and over and over again. Twenty minutes or so later we were parked on the 8th tier of a parking garage that only had 8 open spots left, and on our way to find Ile! I called her and we figured out what directions we each were coming from, got to heading towards each other, and hung up! I told Lisa to look for a tall girl searching for someone, and eventually I spotted her, but I was only 95% sure it was her until she waved at me XD And then there were hugs and rambling banter to be had! With two friends that didn't know one another and who I hadn't seen in two plus years, I was a little worried at first that the conversation would be a little forced for the first while, but naaaaah, Ileana's naturally talkative and Lisa and I are quick to catch up, so chattering away we went!
We walked to one end of the promenade and didn't really know what we wanted to do, so we were debated for a few minutes, until Ile either remembered or admitted that all the while she was waiting for us, she wanted to take us to this sort of naturalistic bath and body products store called Lush that she swore up and down was really really cute and fantastic and we just HAD to go! Now I'm not the biggest person on spending a lot of money on anything, and hate paying for new makeup or shampoo because it always costs too much to get anything that actually works worth anything, so I was a little skeptical about the place, but we had a goal! And I'm generally up for anything as long as it includes spending time with my friends, so off we went! On back down the way we came, careful not to pass the store... wait wasn't it on this block....? Hmmm.... I guess we'll just look a little further on.... OH! there it is! Guess we really did walk a good ways :P
So we went into this store, and were greeted by the sweet smell of a bunch of waxy soaps and bath fizz balls, and they were cute, but nothing out of the ordinary.... OR SO I THOUGHT! Haha, and it all spiraled from there. The closest lady to the front came up to us and asked if we wanted a demonstration of the products. With Ile being SUPER excited and apparently recognized by at least the one LUSH employee, Lisa being a little weary of sales antics and keeping off to the side a little, and me generally always being up for anything free that's usually expensive and happens to be good for my super dry skin that's going through withdrawl from all the lotions I was using for my sunburn, we all three stepped up to take part in the sampling.
First there was this waxy lemony scented pasty stuff we rubbed into our hands, then a salty almondy scrub that we then rinsed off, and a super fantastic lotion to top it off. Hahaha, it was actually pretty interesting, and not something I do every day, so I was already having fun. What? I'm a girl. It's nice to do pretty things every once in a while. =D (**And I stopped and picked this up like 5 hours later after a hair dye and stencil-making break. Exacto knives are hell when your hands aren't used to them, dangit! So let's hope I can still remember everything! Especially since there will be more hair dying and shower break before I finish XD **)
So I was already having fun, and then we looked around here and there, and fiddled with things a little bit but still not really into it, and THEN. Lisa got to talking to the lady behind the counter about the natural face masks. And I walked over and was listening in because there wasn't much else going on at the moment (small store and all). And all of a sudden she starts talking about how this one they had out was actually not a face mask, but a hair and scalp treatment, which happened to be really good for treating psoriasis and eczema on the scalp, and she was kind of going on about it out of habit because she herself has had a lot of problems with psoriasis. Now I don't know about you guys, but I have at least three significant people in my life that have pretty bad problems with it too, so at this point I was really listening, and had totally gone into hey-I'm-learning-something-new-and-interesting-so-I'm-about-to-pick-your-brain-til-there's-nothing-left-I-want-to-know mode. Which... I'm kind of a nerd. So that happens sometimes. And cue the next hour or so, me running this poor girl all over the store asking questions about EVERYTHING and making her show me how they all worked if she couldn't explain them. Haha, Ile and Lisa were keeping themselves pretty entertained too though so I didn't feel bad, and the sales lady was all too happy to go on and on and on about all her favorite products that she uses on a regular basis herself and loves to gush about. So we bombarded the store with crazy thirsting for knowledge questions and it was all around a super good time. There were 4 products she recommended for psoriasis, and they range from $10 to $25 a pop. So obviously I can't afford them right them, but once I'm all set up in Utah and have paid some stuff off, I'm all about sending all my dears in need a care package ♥ Especially the won't who can't legally earn her own money to buy her own for at least 3 more years XD
So! The Lush store was exciting! Sorry I wrote so much about it, but girly moments don't happen so often for me, so consider it logged in the books! Then we wandered about for another aimless little bit, were ever so slightly annoyed by the people who wander the touristy areas asking people for money for various causes, and then Lisa spotted a Gizmo backpack in a toy store, and we spend the next 15 minutes or so nerding out at all the action figures of The Crow, Star Wars, etc. They had Barbies and everything too, but that's not what we were in there for XD Ha, and they even had TY beanie babies. Good stuff :)
After that we decided to get food, but passed the basics food court with the McDonald's and Subway, and were kind of wandering towards a couple places Ile liked and was recommending, when SHOCK! Lisa spotted a Michael's! Haha and cut our conversation off mid-sentence to point it out. Scoooore! Why is that a big deal when it's just a craft store, you ask? Well, because I needed stencils for my hair. And where else to get them? (Besides making your own. Which I will get to. Later XD) So we wandered around looking for star and birds stencils, found only star ones that would work, bought those and a sponger brush as an applicator, ran into someone Ile knew from church, and we were off again! AND HUNGRY!
So we found the health-food restaurants Ileana was telling us about, checked the menu for the first one, realized it was closed when the lady came out the open door and told us so while closing it, and moved onto the second one, called Real Foods, or something like it. (There was this super neat-looking spiritual book store between the two, but it said it closed late, so we decided food needed to be first :P) Taking one look at the menu there told me that at $12-$17 a meal, it was about twice what I was willing to spend on food for the day, so I was thinking we'd better go elsewhere. But then Lisa insisted on treating me, which was super, super sweet, and I've done the same thing for so many other people that I decided I really didn't have the position to refuse on pride. So we decided hey what the hell, this stuff sounds delicious/interesting/completely new to me but I'll try it, depending on which one of us you asked. It wound up being a completely vegan restaurant, with meat substitutes and the whole nine yards, and it was ALL SO GOOD. My body was on a nutrient high for HOURS, and still almost kinda is XD I had Seitan cutlets (at least I think that was the name...) with grilled veggies, and super wholesome salad, and millet and quinoa which I added sesame seeds too. I finished 90% of it all, but it was a lot of food! Next time remind me I like splitting food with people XD But man, the water there even tasted delicious! We were all really glad we wound up eating where we did!
After the late lunch/early dinner, Ile had to head back to the bus station and head back, but Lisa and I still had some time to kill, so we said our goodbyes and split up! Our now twosome headed to the spiritual bookstore, which upon walking in, smelled AMAZING, was, really cool to look at, and was run by a younger asian man and his SUPER CUTE dog! So needless to say, I was pretty stoked about the place. They had all kiiiiinds of quality metaphysical stuff, but there were also a lot of organized religion things, from christianity to taoism. It was really cool how they were all blended together side by side, and there was SO MUCH STUFF TO LOOK AT! I was kind of overwhelmed by it all and knew I could afford nothing, but it just felt so good to be in a place like that again. Ha, I was just breathing in the smell of it and seeing the sight of it and in two second flat could feel myself relaxing. So we probably spend at LEAST half an hour there, maybe more? And I really enjoyed that there was no pressure at all about buying things or not being welcome. There was even one guy sitting and reading that said he'd been back and forth there for at least two years, buying when he could but welcome to sit and read when he couldn't. And multiple people, including Lisa and I, were playing a very impressively well behaved game of fetch with the super friendly dog in the middle of the little store.
Ha, and nowhere but a place like that can a stranger look you up and down, say "I like your colors!" out of the blue, and not be weird. Haha, the guy who'd been reading liked my outfit, and verbal dissected almost every piece of it with compliments. I thoroughly enjoyed this because the things he said about it were just about exactly what I was thinking when I put it together this morning. Like the bright flowers giving off a cheery feeling, and the dress and hairstyle just giving off a general vibrancy of life, etc. It kind of made my day, especially because he wasn't anywhere near hitting on me, it was just simple statements of fact from his viewpoint. I miss those sorts of things. And to find this place right on the edge of the 3rd street promenade was kind of magical in and of itself.
Shortly after that we left the shop and headed back to the parking garage with the weird elevators. One only goes to floors 1-5, and one goes from 5-9, so if you get on the wrong one, you have to go all the way back down again or take the stairs. and if you're on 5-9, you're screwed anyway, because the place you pay is on level 2. We were on level 8, so we wound up going up the elevator to level 2, back down the stairs to the second elevator, and then took that elevator back to level 8 XD oooooh complications.
Also it's 5 AM. It was like 8 PM the first time I started typing this >_> So many pauses and stops, and so long... XD But I'm closing in on the finish, so I can't stop now!
ANYWAY. We left Santa Monica, and after a little traffic and a change of route or two, we made it back to Sarah's, found a really good parking spot, checked to make sure my care was still there with no tickets, and went back up to hang out for a little while until Lisa went home. Ha, she still had some time to kill before rush hour was over anyway :P So we spent a good little while laughing and carrying on and being a bunch of nerds with random sound effects and star trek references that we all got, and good times were had by all.
Then Lisa left and I went to go get my car off the next street over so I could steal her fabulous parking space, and even though when I'd checked earlier there were only two other cars parked on the opposite end of the street as me, there were now two cars scrunched on either side of mine... with 5 or 6 spaces to spare between those and the two at the other end. Eff my life. So I took a deep breath, got in, and prepared to escape! Did I mention this road is a little bit hilly? And that I drive a manual? And that yesterday I love-tapped the truck in front of me in just about the same spot? (Just a love tap though, really, because going like 2 mph when you're only about 6 inches away to begin with, there's really not any damage you can do, especially when all your car reaches is the truck's rubber bumper XD and really, who the hell parks a foot away from the car behind them on a hill, anyway?) So I wound up having to put the parking break on and ease backwards with it on, then make a super-tight turn to get out of the spot, but I did it! Without attacking anybody else! Yes, I was and am proud of myself :P Then I drove around the block, said goodbye to Lisa, stole her spot as she drove away, went back upstairs with Sarah, and had a sandwich!
Then I've spent the rest of the night typing this up, making stencils of a bird and stars to put in my hair, and then dying them into my hair! I'm updating pictures after I post this before I go to bed (Oh dear good I want to sleep though!) and so there will be pictures of the between stages of dying, but you'll have to wait a few days to see how it looks when it's dry and straightened! But now I need to finish all this stuff up and get to sleep so I can drive tomorrow. Goodnight all!
Oh, and on a side note. If inspiration hits you and you think up an entire awesome poem right as you're trying to go to sleep, get up and write it down. Please. I didn't last night and now I can only remember the first line. BAH HUMBUG. SERIOUSLY.
Sweet Dreams~! ♥
Also. I lied. It's off to bed with me, and pictures will just have to wait. Sorry Darlings. But on the bright side, by the time I put them up in either Portland or Olympia, there will be even more of them to look at!
April 30 at 5:58pm
and I'm off! 20 hours to Portland here I come! there's someting wrong with my computer again, and my apartment's website won't let me pay my rent, but I guess I can only worry about that tomorrow! right now I have to be on the road in 10 minutes so Taro can lock the door behind him when he leaves, but it's cool cuz I only have one trip of stuff left to carry to the car anyway. AHHH my brain is frazzled. But gtg!TTFN!
May 1 at 11:28pm
Wendy Sanders is finally coming to terms with the fact that she's just going to have to be the stray cat that nobody ever gets to keep for very long for the next 3-5 years or so, while somehow balancing being the wiry little feline that can't stand not having someone to care for. Unless of course I find someone who wants to uproot themselves and blaze a trail with me. Doubt it. So until then, here's to summer loves and learning to let go when each new phase has to end. God help my traitorously attachment-loving heart.
May 2 at 12:26am
Also! It's been pointed out to me that I didn't inform you all when I got to Portland. My bad. Got here in about 21 hours, including a 2 hour nap and stops :) Will tell you aaaaaall about it and put up pictures when I get to Olympia tomorrow night, but as I only have but so many hours here in Portland hangin out with Erica, I don't plan to spend several of them updating my facebook ;) Talk to you soooooon~!
May 2 at 10:05pm via Mobile Web
In Olympia! Just so we all know :P
May 4 at 2:59pm
omg! intarwebs! Better use 'em while I got 'em! So! Here's the update finished typing up yesterday. As usual, it's long! XD
So! I'm feeling rather lazy, but I'm going to write this anyway! Bah Humbug ;) Just kidding! Typing these up for you guys is neeeeeever a pain in the ass, oh noooooo~! =P Buuuuut whatever, they're just as much for my records as for your entertainment, so. I just like to complain every once in a while and you all know it :) So read on! Woo!
So after making 5 trips to the car from Sarah's 2nd floor apartment with the main gate propped open with a brick so it wouldn't lock me out, the car was finally repacked! (We'd taken everything out to fit all the goodwill stuff in it, and never quite gotten around to repacking it.) Checked the oil, got myself and my GPS situated, and was off! I was headin' out of LA! And an hour later.... I was still headin' out of LA! Really. I hate Los Angeles traffic. Where else do they have a lunch rush? I left at 3:30 so I got caught between the last of the lunch traffic and the first of the real evening rush. Laaaaame. So at some point, eventually, I made it out of the city and it's surrounding towns, and finally escaped the stop-and-go and was free to drive at a good pace again.
Random note? One of the best car snacks ever? Frosted mini wheats. Oh man. Fantastical munch and crunch right out of the bag. Just sayin.
So after a while a lot of the bits of these road trips start to blur together, and for the first several hours of this trip there was nothing especially notable about this drive in particular. Except of course that on the day I was leaving California, it was blazingly sunny and warm. Of course. Which also meant constant reapplication of my sunblock, which thankfully was in my purse on the passenger seat and easily accessible. I had originially thrown a light jacket on to keep the sun off, but it was way too hot with no A/C for that. Yay for no repeat sunburns.
The drive was pretty methodical, on and on and on and whatnot. It gets easier and hurts my legs less with each set and I have to stop less often. There really are some really pretty places in California though. It was a throughly enjoyable drive with a nice breeze (meaning ridiculous winds that kept throwing my car around - CA is great for those) to keep me cool, and constantly changing scenery to keep me entertained.
Stopped for gas a couple of times after the sun went down. (Driving through sunset and sunrise is always fascinating, somehow. Really pretty, too. It's fun. =P) One of the times I stopped was in this town that had all sorts of gas stations and restaurants and hotels, thinking with that many I could easily find a place to get gas, use the bathroom, and grab some coffee close by the on/off ramps and pop right back on the road. Mmmmm nope. It was in the wee hours of the morning and all the convenience stores were closed, but the pumps were still working so I checked refueling off my list. Drove around for a bit and found an open gas station store, but they didn't have a bathroom so I grabbed some coffee and moved continued my search. Several of the fast food places still had open drive-thru windows, but no open lobbies for potty breaks. After another 10 minutes or so, I saw a Denny's. Thank Jesus for Denny's. Each and every one of them. They were of course open and had a public restroom, so all was good. That quick in-and-out of the town I had planned turned into an hour of one-way turn only and no u-turn signs coupled with everything I searched out being closed, but it got done, and after another 10 minutes of finding my way back to the highway, I was en route once again!
A couple hours before sunset I finally crossed the border into Oregon, and almost immediately was surrounded by big towering black masses of earth on either side of the road, which wound through the mountains in an impressively functional manner. If any of you have driven through Shennendoah, it's a little bit like that, except they made the roads wider and less curvy so the speed limit even at the sharper turns doesn't go lower than 45. I kind of love driving on mountain roads :)
A couple hours into the mountains of Oregon and 14 hours or so into the drive, I decided I would stop soon to take a nap, and started keeping an eye out for rest stop signs. I also needed to stop for gas semi-soon, so started looking into those exits too. Unfortunately though, in the mountains there's not a whole lot of options, and every couple of exits there's 1, maybe 2 gas stations, most of which wind up being closed after you get off the highway and go find them. (Which is kind of entertaining because there's always truckers that need to refuel and just decide the closed gas station is as good a place as any to take a nap, and just park there until the place opens in the morning so they can continue on.) But eventually I found one that had the pumps on overnight (but the store was closed, of course), and stopped in there to fill up. And oh dear god. That gas station had the slowest pumps I have ever encountered. Ever. I swear it took me 15 minutes to fill up my tank, and it had only been halfway empty. And holy baby Jesus it was cold. And there was no way to rig the handle (which was of course one of the harder-to-squeeze ones that make your hand cramp up after a while, so I had to keep switching hands) to pump without my hand on it and get back in the car where it was warm and not windy, so I just stood there for 15 minutes shifting my weight from foot to foot, and rocking back and forth and shivering. Oh fun. But! There was this pretty little fluffball of a stray cat, who wasn't really little for a cat at all, for me to talk to and complain at the whole time, so it was a generally livable experience. Although it wouldn't come anywhere near my car for me to pet it. Until I was in the car and about to drive off, of course. Then it walked in front of my tires just to make me nervous until it slowly strolled past to the other side and on to do whatever other nightstalkerish cat things it does in the mountains to entertain themselves.
And then I was off once again! And not long after that I found a rest stop, around a 25 mph exit ramp that looped all the way around in almost a complete circle so that the whole rest stop was completely hidden in trees, which was kinda cool. It was kinda set up like a campground but not, which makes complete sense because it was called the Valley of the Rogue State Park Rest Stop. (Appropriate, no? I thought so too.) And there were a decent number of people stopped there, so all in all this was promising to be the best sleep I've ever gotten at a rest stop yet. So out of the trunk my Wolfie Blanket came, and burrito-wrapped in the driver's seat was I.
Woke up 2 hours later pretty chilled despite the big fuzzy blanket, and itchy. I still don't know why itchy. But I just couldn't relax after that and got up and moving. Maybe it was just a sign that it was time to wake up and continue the drive. I really need to learn to carry hand sanitizer though, because there was no soap. It wasn't just out, there were no dispensers for it period. Odd. But oh well, such is life! Hopped back in the car a drove on. Oh, and just so you all know, Oregon doesn't fuck around with litterers. I've seen "Do not litter" signs in different states with varying fines from like $60 to $300, but not Oregon. Oregon's maximum fine is just over $6500. They strike to bring pain XD
4 hours later I was only about 30 minutes away from my destination, so I pulled off at another rest stop to freshen up before I went to meet Erica. This rest stop was entirely fascinating. They had a free coffee stand that is permanent enough for there to be a metal sign attached to the Rest Area sign on the road, and it was surrounded in green and very well maintained. There were even dog walking trails around it, which was nice. There were a lot of people around being generally jovial, and there was even a guy playing guitar and singing by the bathrooms.
And I'm not even sure he had the guitar case out for tips. I kind of think he didn't. Interesting. Overall it was just an entertaining area =D I changed clothes and did my makeup and brushed my hair in the bathroom, although they didn't have any electical outlets so I couldn't restraighten it. While I was doing all that a lady came in to clean the bathrooms, and I was pretty amused by her because she really just did not care that I was there at all whatsoever and went around coughing and snorting and throwing things across the bathroom like there was nobody else in there. (Ha, I was super amused while putting my mascara and eyeliner on by the projectiles I kept seeing fly behind me in the mirror. She was just emptying all the little trash cans in the stalls, but that woman had an arm on her lemme tell ya. And every last one of those little brown bags made it into the bigger trash can. No misses :P) When I left the bathroom (looking twice before I crossed the projectile zone, of course. that's not exactly something I planned on catching with my face XD) and walked out the door, I realized the area was chained off for cleaning, so I had to step super high to get over the chains and back to my car. At which time of course, this lady walks around the corner and sees me, and I'm sure it looked like I had just brazenly climbed over the chains and used the closed-off bathrooms. And when I caught her eye with my leg swung halfway over the chain, it was a total caught-red-handed moment, and she just cracked up, mumbled something like "I -like- you," and walked on her merry way. It was funny as hell. More ladies with short and choppy white hair that admire my tenacity need to pop up in my life more often, hahaha. Those types have the BEST stories. ♥ ♥ ♥
And then once again, I was off to Portland! And 20 minutes later, I was there! And my gas tank was on E. That's the only time on this trip so far that the gas tank has had less than a quarter tank. I felt bad. Especially because I decided to park and just get gas before I left for Olympia the next day. And parking was a bear, too. There was a farmer's market going on right by Erica's dorm, so all the parking there was either blocked off or taken, but I quickly realized that it was all timed and metered parking anyway, so I didn't want to park there regardless. I drove around a couple blocks and came to the conclusion that all the parking in Portland was pay-per-short-amount-of-time, and soon after ran upon a parking lot with mostly open spaces, which looked super friendly at that particular moment. So after taking a good few minutes figuring out the pricing and whether I needed to buy an all-day or all-night ticket (or both, since it was still a half hour before noon) in order to not have to move my car until I left for Olympia, it printed me out a $6 all-night slip that magically ran through all day too, and didn't expire until midnight the next night, at which time I would've been long gone. I was pleased. So I grabbed my purse and my laptop, called Erica, and headed to walk up the 5 blocks to get back to her dorm. She met me partway, and all was good! We stopped in at her dorm room for a few minutes, dropped off my laptop, and debated what we felt like doing. We wound up deciding on heading over to the Saturday market set up a short distance away, and headed out! We walked through the farmer's market on the way over to the train stop, and saw a couple of rather interesting-looking stalls, but nothing totally useful unless you know what you're doing when you cook or are in need of fresh fruits. Which I generally don't and was not, so.
Was pleasantly surprised to discover that where we were going was in the free zone of Portland public transportation, which is a foreign idea to me, the whole free zone thing, and so I got to ride there for free. Walking the rest of the way from the stop we got off at to the market, we passed the Chinatown of Portland, which is about a block of really, really shaby buildings with cracks in them, that supposedly is kind of a shady, seedy place. Then we passed a porno movie theatre that shows hentai on Sundays. With a super popular expensive doughnut place a few doors down from it with a line out the door and down the street. Consider me amused. And then we were at the market! Several blocks of artists and sellers wheeling their deals on overpriced baubles and entirely overvalued wares. Although some of them where hand-crafted/hand-painted and therefore understandably priced. There were also a bunch of food stalls that were semi-decently priced, but what impressed me was the variety of types of foods. Usually it's all generally the same food at most of the stalls at the sorts of events, but these people had everything! XD There was a fruit stand, an African food stand, a Jewish-type food stand, middle eastern, pizza, chinese, greek, and a stand selling these fluffy doughy things called elephant ears with differing flavors that I kind of wish I'd tried now put didn't. We didn't wind up buying anything, and wound up getting carry-out Vietnamese food instead of eating at any of the food stalls because we saw this one guy with it and it looked good so we asked him where it was and it was similiarly priced, so huzzah! Yummy Pad-Thai and Thai Tea for me. Which is entirely Thai and not Vietnamese. Huh. Oh well!
So then we wandered for a bit looking for a place to sit and eat out of the wind, failed, and decided to walk back towards the bus station and just walk and eat. I was pondering what the little scraggly green leafy garnish plant was, and shoved the whole thing in my mouth to find out. Kinda regretted it. Very bitter and left a twangy stingy spicy sensation in it's wake. Bah.
So we were thinking of going thrift-store shopping, which required walking to a different bus station, and we were headed that way when.... there was lots of yelling and chanting and megaphone sounds. Hmmmm. Fascinating. So we checked the bus schedule and it said it was going to take a while, and about that time I decided I didn't really think paying to take a bus to go thrift shopping where I probably wouldn't buy anything because neither of us really had any money would be kind of pointless in the end, so we decided to walk another way back and walk and eat some more while we did it.
Well, turns out this option took us right into the midst of all the people yelling, which turned out to be a mass protest with thousands of people with signs about relegalization. Although you could tell there were a few people protesting just to protest, like the guy with the anarchy flag tugging his 3-yr old son (by the looks of him) behind him, or the guy with the Saddam Hussein Flag. And then there were the people with signs that said "Do I look illegal?" And lemme tell ya, some of them... some of them I just wanted to shake and say "YES, you do. You look illegal as hell." Not most of them, but really? Stop with the "If you speak English at me right now I will cut you." look and maybe I'll be a little more inclined to stop glaring at you. Thanks.
Saw a couple signs I really liked though, got a picture of one of them, even though I had to walk jog ahead of the mob a little to get it. It said "Be the peace you want to see in the world." and I've seen it elsewhere a few times with differing wordings like "Be the change you want to see in the world," which I actually like better, but really, they're all very true and very quotable, so. =P
After following the crowd for a short bit, we decided to sit and eat at the little courtyard plaza across the street. Which required crossing the mob. So we walked with the parade a little bit, diagonally across so as to not disrupt the flow too overmuch, and came out safely and mostly unseperated on the other side, sat and finished our Pad Thai, or almost all of it in my case, and talked about what we wanted to do with the rest of the day.
And then Erica said some of the most magical words I've ever heard. "Well... do you want to go to the zoo? Someone bought me a membership for my birthday, so it'd be free." PING! Instantly decided as a fabulous idea by me. FABULOUS. So even though it was supposed to close in a little under 2 hours, I figured even if I only got to see half of it, I'd be spazztastically happy to do so, and it would be entirely worth the $2 for 2 hours bus fare.
So we get there and get our tickets and the little zoo key that you stick in little speaker-slots around the zoo for it to chirp information at you, and headed to the souvenir shop so it wouldn't close on us on the way out. Quickly decided they had no worthy postcards (they only had 2, which were overpriced and sucked), and that their shot glasses were the lamest and most overpriced I've ever seen (they were plastic with basically no design and $8). They did have cute stuffed animals and such, but those were way out of my price range and not what I was there for XD So that stop didn't take long. My feet, by the way, have still been killing me. But. Cute little animals. Pain cannot stand in my way! =D
Goats, eagles, otters. OMG I LOVE OTTERS. The most adorable little bobcats ever. Sleepy Cougar. (This quickly became the theme. All the cool animals were asleep. All of them.) Polar bears. Who were sunbathing. Because that what polar bears do in Portland, evidently. And the most adorable little wrinkley-faced black bears ever. Pictures will be provided as soon as an internet connection comes my way. Penguins! Cute. And then. And then and then and then. LORIKEETS! Which was entirely a TON of fun. At the Lorikeet house, you pay $1 for a little cup of nectar, and you go inside and hold out the little cup, and the birds land all over you and eat it. SO MUCH FUN. But as soon as the little cup is empty, they KNOW. You really can't fool them with and empty cup. They won't land on you after that XD
Then we went and found the antelope, giraffe, zebra, elephant, monkeys, owls, wombat, and a couple of reptiles. Realized we'd passed the tigers/leopards somehow, and went to search them out, and caught the rhino, hippos, and lion seal along the way. AND THERE WERE MORE OTTERS! And they were adorable. And there was this little cave place that was neat and had water reflections all over everywhere. Finally found the tigers and leopards, and were kind of annoyed because the big sign for them was entirely on the back side of the area, instead of in the front with all the rest of the signs XD And because we realized we'd back RIGHT in front of them at least twice XD But right about then we decided we'd seen everything and would head out, and then realized people were just starting to all leave. (It was 5 and the zoo had been supposed to close at 4, so I guess security leaves everyone alone for an hour and then asks them to go.) So it was super nice that we got extra time to see everything. The only downside was it meant we went past 2 hours and I had to buy another bus (in this case train) ticket (not like they check them, but $2 just in case is ALWAYS better than the real ticket you get for getting caught without one), but it was totally worth it in my book, because, hello, ZOO!
The train had SO many babies and strollers packed into it. I was kind of impressed. So we got off at our stop, then had to get on a bus to go up another street and get closer to our destination. While waiting at that bus stop, we had 2 or 3 different people come up to us and ask if we were interested in political surveys or asking for money. And then there were the two girls who pranced up to us in their bright yellow matching t-shirts, and started out their speech with "So we have some really great stuff for you today!" And stuffed a good fistfull of colorful and polka-dotted condoms, along with stickers and pins that say "Take care down there" along with some papers, and then went on to explain that they were advocates of the free clinics and such in the town and spreading the word. It was actually a pretty impressively effective tactic, good for any sort of sales pitch. "HERE LET ME SHOVE SOME COOL FREE SHIT IN YOUR HANDS! And then you have to listen to what I have to say for at least a few seconds!" Haha, I admire their brazenness though. Good for them. You will never catch me going around any town passing out condoms. Probably. XD
And shortly after that the bus came, and we headed back to the dorm after stopping by my car to pick up my blanket and a few other things. Got back, had a raspberry fruit bar as a snack (mmmm), and vegged on our laptops and talked and caught up for a few hours before we rolled out the yoga mats on her floor for me and went to bed. It had actually been a really eventful day, and impressively fast-paced, even though neither of us expected it to be, what with our not having any ideas as to what we wanted to do.
Slept like a champ. Woke up a few times because some limb or another had slipped out of the blanket and it was cold, or because of some noise outside, but easily fell back asleep each time until we both woke up about the same time around noon. Twelve hours of sleep. Oh yeah.
Lounged around for a few hours, ate cereal, grabbed showers. The shower stall I wound up using didn't lock and actually had two stalls in it with basically see-through shower curtains, but whatever. I'm 21 and in a locked all-girls restroom to which only other girls in the building have a key. We all have the same parts. If they walk in, they walk in, so be it. And it was either that or the bigger, single-stall lockable shower with hair all over the floor. Bleh. Nobody walked in though luckily. Made my day go a little smoother XD
Around 3:30 we left to take Erica to work and send me off to Olympia, which was a little early but I remembered I still had to get gas, so. And it was a good thing we allowed some extra time for it, because not only did the car have trouble starting, but the first gas station I tried on the GPS didn't seem to exist, and it took us a little while to run upon the second one. Which wound up being full service only. Weird. First time this trip I've run into that, but according to Erica all of Oregon is like that. Straaaaange. So the tank was full and 10-15 minutes later I was parked in front of Ross, where Erica works. And was extremely amused to look up after parking and realize there was an entire carnival in front of my car. RIGHT in front of my car. Like 5 feet away. HowdidInotseethatwhat? Anyway, I walked into Ross with Erica so she could fill up my 2-liter water bottle for the next leg of this crazy driving adventure, said my goodbyes, and was off again!
And I didn't actually realize that Portland actually IS the border of Oregon. Like, 10 feet from the "Leaving Portland" sign there was an "Entering Washington" sign. It was kind of exciting ♥
Almost as soon as you cross into Washington the landscape changes to hilly but not mountainous, and TREES. Trees everywhere. It was absolutely beautiful. But unlike the feeling of age a grace and tenacity and magic that you get in the New Mexico deserts and the Oregon mountains, the feeling you get here is more of the people living within the trees all around, and not so much of the land itself. This changes a little further into the state and becomes quite welcoming and solitary feeling, but is still not quite as powerful as the other two.
This drive practically didn't exist to me, because it was only two hours long, which is a total cake walk in comparison to the other drives I've trudged through on this trip. And suddenly, I was in Olympia! It didn't take long to find Zoey and Veles's complex, although the traffic circles leading up to it did throw me off a little, and I was there! With a beautiful empty parking space reserved just for me because they don't have a car and so don't use it.
I had to call to see which number it was though, because when you get towards the back of the complex the parking space numbers stop following the letter/number pattern the apartments have. Then it took me a good few minutes to find their apartment because evidently I'm dyslexic and forgetful after so much driving and weird sleep patterns. They live in apartment K6, but I was originally remembering it because it's like K9 (as in the dogs), but upside down. Then I starting just remembering it as K9 somehow. And then the parking space was 79, and somehow my brain changed the apartment number to K7. Oh yeah. That just happened. So I went to K7 and knocked. No answer. Called Zoey. "I think I'm at your door...." to which she replied "No, no I don't think you are. We're on the top level dear." Which I thought was funny, because the numbers were listed on the front of the building with 7 on the bottom, but the actual doors aren't numbered, sooo... what the hell. So I walk upstairs, knock on the door, and.... Lady eating dinner who is definitely not Zoey answers. Wrong door, sorry! Call Zoey again... midway through ringing hung up because I realized it was K9, not K7, then wait no how the hell did I mix that up? It's K6!! Geeez. So I quickly realized after that thought that I was on the wrong side of the building, walked over to the right one, and then quickly I was in the right apartment! Sheesh. Time to sit down.
Met the cats, Forbis and Squinty, in short order, which is evidently impressive because Squinty is shy but walked up to me within the first 5 minutes I was here. They are adorable and I ♥ them. Forbis keeps me company, and indeed has been sitting by my legs through much of this typing, which has taken me forever and has been split up across two days' time. So, back to it, so that it doesn't become three days' time. X_x
So it was about 6PM at this point, so Veles was making Pizza for dinner (mmmm, I've been craving pizza for weeks!) and we decided to watch The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, which was fantastic, and made even entirely better by delicious pizza and root beer. Then we talked for a couple hours and it was bed time for Zoey who worked the next morning, so I went and got cozy on the couch and went to sleep with both cats sleeping on top of me (yay! :P ♥ ) for a good hour or so, until I had to switch positions on the couch and Squinty abandoned me. Forbis stayed for hours though :) This morning I woke up around 9:30 for a little while, but went back to sleep until noon. Woke up, had some fruit, and started typing up all this crazyness.
Around 2:30 Veles got home from school, just in time for the power to go out, and around 3:30 Zoey got home. I typed more of this until my laptop battery was down to 15%, and about then the power came back on and therefore Veles could make quesadillas, so I saved what I had so far (for the millionth time. I save it often, thankfully) and put away the lappy. Right about then Z's friend Tabitha called to say she was going to come get us to adjust Zoey's haircut at her apartment, and so PJ's were thrown off and replaced by jeans, and quesadillas were had on the move.
Got to Tabitha's and met her cat Noodle, which is by the way just about the coolest cat name ever for a small and super soft fluffy cat, and got cozy on her couch full of pillows while she got to cutting Z's hair in her kitchen. Other peoples that work with Tabitha and Zoey arrived to also get hair things done, with dye and bleach and trims and razoring and whatnot, and I borrowed a hair straightener to fix up my hair a bit so I could get pictures of my stencil dye-job outcome before I redye it. At some point macaroni and cheese was had by most (we forgot about the girl in the shower rinsing the bleach out of her hair, and it all got ate up. we all felt bad), and there was tons of playing games on cell phones to go around, along with crazy antics and reminiscent stories, and then it was about time for everyone to head home. On the way out we all went through a couple boxes of goodwill stuff that Tabitha had (I find that one of the most fun things ever is going through boxes of stuff people are giving away. Evidently when I get rid of things the people at the swap love it too, so I guess it all evens out XD) I got 2 pairs of boots, and a pair of comfy flip flops that I'm hoping will hurt my feet less, and a bunch of lotions and creams and such, because with my ridiculously dry skin I can never get enough of those, and because nobody else seemed to want them for whatever reason.
And then Tabitha dropped us off at the apartment again, we changed into PJs, talked and lazed for a bit, and it was, once again, bedtime! And then I sat here and sat here and finished this crazy typing thing. Which alas, huzzah, holy jeebus, I think I am finally caught up on! Life is good. I am sleepy. My head is achy. Forbis is cuddly. And it is officially time for me to sign off. Now if only I had an internet connection to post this. Ah well. It'll just have to wait til tomorrow. Just like paying my rent, because I forgot the blue card in my other purse that's still in the car. Again. Such is life.
Goodnight Lovelies! Sweet Dreams!
*edit* Wow. LJ wouldn't post this because the post is too large. I have never in my life run into that. Consider me impressed. Time to cut this in half! XD */edit*
But here they are!
April 29 at 1:06am
Did you guys know that fresh chopped garlic burns the eyes just as bad as fresh chopped onions? Cuz it does. But! Super excited about CURRY TONIGHT! It's been far, far too long... ♥
Comment from Sarah: you should come sit over here.. Im about to start crying lol
Me: haha I'm staying right here in the other room thank youuu ;) aren't you glad you took your contacts out earlier? :P
Sarah: well then I dropped it on the floor haha. Yeah Im getting ready to join you... Im dying haha
Me: ahaha your dog is a ridiculous cuddle buddy. every time I get comfortable typing with her chin resting on my wrist, she puts her head right on the mouse sensor pad thing, and as soon as I figure a way around that... Taro makes a sound in the kitchen and she bolts back in there using my stomachas a launch pad, goes over to you and bugs you until you send her away, and then she jumps in my lap and I have to pause until she arranges herself, and the process starts all over again....
April 30 at 12:50am
I HATE YOU FACEBOOK CHAT. YOU MADE THE MAIN WINDOW EATEDED MY FANTASTIC AND EXCITING UPDATE, AND IT WAS LONG! YOU SUXXORS. I WILL STAB YOU IN THE EYE WITH A STICK. =D
April 30 at 8:33am
Today was an AWESOMELY FANTASTIC day in LA! A fitting last day of fun in the City of Angels before I move on out tomorrow for Portland! I got to see two friend I hadn't seen in two or more years, and I. Had. A. Blast. Really, if every day of my road trip would be like this my life would be a big rolling ball of joy, waiting to knock you all over. And that's without a man or money. Beat that.
Waking up was a little difficult today. I reset my alarm twice and even dozed for another 15 minutes after Lisa sent me a text saying she was up and getting ready. I finally dragged myself out from under the covers and stepped out of the bedroom... and walked right back in to come right back out with a blanket slung over my shoulders to curl up in while I ate my cereal and checked my facebook. Vegged on the couch with my laptop for like an hour; watched an episode and a half of Naruto (which I've been watching the past few days, for the first time in years) because I'm a nerd sometimes like that, and watched a little bit of the Utopia music video again because I loves it sooooo ♥
I finally pried myself away and abandoned the blanket on the couch with a promise to see it again soon, grabbed the clothes I planned to change into.... and my font lit up with a message from Lisa saying she was on her way. So I looked down at my pajama-clad self with my scruffy bed head, sighed, and got moving. Brushed my teeth, broke out the little red dress for second-chance comeback from it's Little Tokyo debut, straightened my very recently dyed maroonish-red hair, put on makeup that came out unusually well and with very little effort (which is rare because my eyelids have weird little creases in them... o_0), put my hair back with pretty little flower clippies, dug out a couple of necklaces and turned one of them into a bracelet, spritzed on the perfume and hair spray, pulled out the little black sandals that go with the dress, switched everything over to my awesome new purse (the adorable little sailor-colored one I bought for $20 when I went to Downtown with Sarah to the Fashion District), checked the time and figured traffic or some such had caught up with Lisa (who lives in Orange County which is a 45 minute drive away), and finally sat down to chillax and wait!
Sarah got up but wasn't feeling well and opted out of going with us to Santa Monica, but I've been dragging her around everywhere for days, so she probably needed a break anyway ;) When Lisa finally got here to pick me up, the three of us sat and talked for a few minutes, because none of us had seen eachother in ages and well, we're girls and we just can't help it =D Then I realized we were supposed to be meeting Ileana at the promenade in 10 minutes, and it takes 20 minutes to get there, so I called and was relieved to discover that she wasn't quite there yet anyway, but figured we'd still better hurry.
So we went down to the car and headed out, and decided to take Wilshire all the way to the coast, because that's the way the bus takes and is pretty sweet and simple, right? ...Not so much >_> First they were doing ridiculous contruction and 3 full lanes had to merger almost simultaneously into the one left lane, which luckily we were already in, but it still took forever and was not exactly a great example of safe driving. There were a lot of pointless choruses of honking to be heard, the ends of which were obviously people just chiming in for the hell of it in response to the first annoyed honks because they could, and a lot of going around cars that found themselves stuck in the middle of the intersection. It took us forever to get past that, but then we did and it was smooth sailing from there! Right? Of cooooourse not! Hello? Haven't you people read any of these stories before? GEEEZ, some people!
Anyway ;) After we got past that, we turned down Santa Monica Blvd heading West towards the ocean, but soon realized we were indeed not heading where we intended (We figure it's something along the lines of... the road DOES go to the beach, but not where we wanted it to? Did I mention Lisa doesn't live or work right in LA either?). So we were at least 10 minutes further out of the way than we started, and even though Ile was running a little late she'd had arrived sometime before we got out of the traffic ridiculousness, so we felt bad for being late, but she said it was fine and she was entertaining herself with the shops on the promenade. So Lisa pulled out her Garmin GPS and I pulled out my Verizon GPS, and the Garmin was slow to get to working but we soon had to mechanical voices entirely out of unison telling us basically the same thing, over and over and over again. Twenty minutes or so later we were parked on the 8th tier of a parking garage that only had 8 open spots left, and on our way to find Ile! I called her and we figured out what directions we each were coming from, got to heading towards each other, and hung up! I told Lisa to look for a tall girl searching for someone, and eventually I spotted her, but I was only 95% sure it was her until she waved at me XD And then there were hugs and rambling banter to be had! With two friends that didn't know one another and who I hadn't seen in two plus years, I was a little worried at first that the conversation would be a little forced for the first while, but naaaaah, Ileana's naturally talkative and Lisa and I are quick to catch up, so chattering away we went!
We walked to one end of the promenade and didn't really know what we wanted to do, so we were debated for a few minutes, until Ile either remembered or admitted that all the while she was waiting for us, she wanted to take us to this sort of naturalistic bath and body products store called Lush that she swore up and down was really really cute and fantastic and we just HAD to go! Now I'm not the biggest person on spending a lot of money on anything, and hate paying for new makeup or shampoo because it always costs too much to get anything that actually works worth anything, so I was a little skeptical about the place, but we had a goal! And I'm generally up for anything as long as it includes spending time with my friends, so off we went! On back down the way we came, careful not to pass the store... wait wasn't it on this block....? Hmmm.... I guess we'll just look a little further on.... OH! there it is! Guess we really did walk a good ways :P
So we went into this store, and were greeted by the sweet smell of a bunch of waxy soaps and bath fizz balls, and they were cute, but nothing out of the ordinary.... OR SO I THOUGHT! Haha, and it all spiraled from there. The closest lady to the front came up to us and asked if we wanted a demonstration of the products. With Ile being SUPER excited and apparently recognized by at least the one LUSH employee, Lisa being a little weary of sales antics and keeping off to the side a little, and me generally always being up for anything free that's usually expensive and happens to be good for my super dry skin that's going through withdrawl from all the lotions I was using for my sunburn, we all three stepped up to take part in the sampling.
First there was this waxy lemony scented pasty stuff we rubbed into our hands, then a salty almondy scrub that we then rinsed off, and a super fantastic lotion to top it off. Hahaha, it was actually pretty interesting, and not something I do every day, so I was already having fun. What? I'm a girl. It's nice to do pretty things every once in a while. =D (**And I stopped and picked this up like 5 hours later after a hair dye and stencil-making break. Exacto knives are hell when your hands aren't used to them, dangit! So let's hope I can still remember everything! Especially since there will be more hair dying and shower break before I finish XD **)
So I was already having fun, and then we looked around here and there, and fiddled with things a little bit but still not really into it, and THEN. Lisa got to talking to the lady behind the counter about the natural face masks. And I walked over and was listening in because there wasn't much else going on at the moment (small store and all). And all of a sudden she starts talking about how this one they had out was actually not a face mask, but a hair and scalp treatment, which happened to be really good for treating psoriasis and eczema on the scalp, and she was kind of going on about it out of habit because she herself has had a lot of problems with psoriasis. Now I don't know about you guys, but I have at least three significant people in my life that have pretty bad problems with it too, so at this point I was really listening, and had totally gone into hey-I'm-learning-something-new-and-interesting-so-I'm-about-to-pick-your-brain-til-there's-nothing-left-I-want-to-know mode. Which... I'm kind of a nerd. So that happens sometimes. And cue the next hour or so, me running this poor girl all over the store asking questions about EVERYTHING and making her show me how they all worked if she couldn't explain them. Haha, Ile and Lisa were keeping themselves pretty entertained too though so I didn't feel bad, and the sales lady was all too happy to go on and on and on about all her favorite products that she uses on a regular basis herself and loves to gush about. So we bombarded the store with crazy thirsting for knowledge questions and it was all around a super good time. There were 4 products she recommended for psoriasis, and they range from $10 to $25 a pop. So obviously I can't afford them right them, but once I'm all set up in Utah and have paid some stuff off, I'm all about sending all my dears in need a care package ♥ Especially the won't who can't legally earn her own money to buy her own for at least 3 more years XD
So! The Lush store was exciting! Sorry I wrote so much about it, but girly moments don't happen so often for me, so consider it logged in the books! Then we wandered about for another aimless little bit, were ever so slightly annoyed by the people who wander the touristy areas asking people for money for various causes, and then Lisa spotted a Gizmo backpack in a toy store, and we spend the next 15 minutes or so nerding out at all the action figures of The Crow, Star Wars, etc. They had Barbies and everything too, but that's not what we were in there for XD Ha, and they even had TY beanie babies. Good stuff :)
After that we decided to get food, but passed the basics food court with the McDonald's and Subway, and were kind of wandering towards a couple places Ile liked and was recommending, when SHOCK! Lisa spotted a Michael's! Haha and cut our conversation off mid-sentence to point it out. Scoooore! Why is that a big deal when it's just a craft store, you ask? Well, because I needed stencils for my hair. And where else to get them? (Besides making your own. Which I will get to. Later XD) So we wandered around looking for star and birds stencils, found only star ones that would work, bought those and a sponger brush as an applicator, ran into someone Ile knew from church, and we were off again! AND HUNGRY!
So we found the health-food restaurants Ileana was telling us about, checked the menu for the first one, realized it was closed when the lady came out the open door and told us so while closing it, and moved onto the second one, called Real Foods, or something like it. (There was this super neat-looking spiritual book store between the two, but it said it closed late, so we decided food needed to be first :P) Taking one look at the menu there told me that at $12-$17 a meal, it was about twice what I was willing to spend on food for the day, so I was thinking we'd better go elsewhere. But then Lisa insisted on treating me, which was super, super sweet, and I've done the same thing for so many other people that I decided I really didn't have the position to refuse on pride. So we decided hey what the hell, this stuff sounds delicious/interesting/completely new to me but I'll try it, depending on which one of us you asked. It wound up being a completely vegan restaurant, with meat substitutes and the whole nine yards, and it was ALL SO GOOD. My body was on a nutrient high for HOURS, and still almost kinda is XD I had Seitan cutlets (at least I think that was the name...) with grilled veggies, and super wholesome salad, and millet and quinoa which I added sesame seeds too. I finished 90% of it all, but it was a lot of food! Next time remind me I like splitting food with people XD But man, the water there even tasted delicious! We were all really glad we wound up eating where we did!
After the late lunch/early dinner, Ile had to head back to the bus station and head back, but Lisa and I still had some time to kill, so we said our goodbyes and split up! Our now twosome headed to the spiritual bookstore, which upon walking in, smelled AMAZING, was, really cool to look at, and was run by a younger asian man and his SUPER CUTE dog! So needless to say, I was pretty stoked about the place. They had all kiiiiinds of quality metaphysical stuff, but there were also a lot of organized religion things, from christianity to taoism. It was really cool how they were all blended together side by side, and there was SO MUCH STUFF TO LOOK AT! I was kind of overwhelmed by it all and knew I could afford nothing, but it just felt so good to be in a place like that again. Ha, I was just breathing in the smell of it and seeing the sight of it and in two second flat could feel myself relaxing. So we probably spend at LEAST half an hour there, maybe more? And I really enjoyed that there was no pressure at all about buying things or not being welcome. There was even one guy sitting and reading that said he'd been back and forth there for at least two years, buying when he could but welcome to sit and read when he couldn't. And multiple people, including Lisa and I, were playing a very impressively well behaved game of fetch with the super friendly dog in the middle of the little store.
Ha, and nowhere but a place like that can a stranger look you up and down, say "I like your colors!" out of the blue, and not be weird. Haha, the guy who'd been reading liked my outfit, and verbal dissected almost every piece of it with compliments. I thoroughly enjoyed this because the things he said about it were just about exactly what I was thinking when I put it together this morning. Like the bright flowers giving off a cheery feeling, and the dress and hairstyle just giving off a general vibrancy of life, etc. It kind of made my day, especially because he wasn't anywhere near hitting on me, it was just simple statements of fact from his viewpoint. I miss those sorts of things. And to find this place right on the edge of the 3rd street promenade was kind of magical in and of itself.
Shortly after that we left the shop and headed back to the parking garage with the weird elevators. One only goes to floors 1-5, and one goes from 5-9, so if you get on the wrong one, you have to go all the way back down again or take the stairs. and if you're on 5-9, you're screwed anyway, because the place you pay is on level 2. We were on level 8, so we wound up going up the elevator to level 2, back down the stairs to the second elevator, and then took that elevator back to level 8 XD oooooh complications.
Also it's 5 AM. It was like 8 PM the first time I started typing this >_> So many pauses and stops, and so long... XD But I'm closing in on the finish, so I can't stop now!
ANYWAY. We left Santa Monica, and after a little traffic and a change of route or two, we made it back to Sarah's, found a really good parking spot, checked to make sure my care was still there with no tickets, and went back up to hang out for a little while until Lisa went home. Ha, she still had some time to kill before rush hour was over anyway :P So we spent a good little while laughing and carrying on and being a bunch of nerds with random sound effects and star trek references that we all got, and good times were had by all.
Then Lisa left and I went to go get my car off the next street over so I could steal her fabulous parking space, and even though when I'd checked earlier there were only two other cars parked on the opposite end of the street as me, there were now two cars scrunched on either side of mine... with 5 or 6 spaces to spare between those and the two at the other end. Eff my life. So I took a deep breath, got in, and prepared to escape! Did I mention this road is a little bit hilly? And that I drive a manual? And that yesterday I love-tapped the truck in front of me in just about the same spot? (Just a love tap though, really, because going like 2 mph when you're only about 6 inches away to begin with, there's really not any damage you can do, especially when all your car reaches is the truck's rubber bumper XD and really, who the hell parks a foot away from the car behind them on a hill, anyway?) So I wound up having to put the parking break on and ease backwards with it on, then make a super-tight turn to get out of the spot, but I did it! Without attacking anybody else! Yes, I was and am proud of myself :P Then I drove around the block, said goodbye to Lisa, stole her spot as she drove away, went back upstairs with Sarah, and had a sandwich!
Then I've spent the rest of the night typing this up, making stencils of a bird and stars to put in my hair, and then dying them into my hair! I'm updating pictures after I post this before I go to bed (Oh dear good I want to sleep though!) and so there will be pictures of the between stages of dying, but you'll have to wait a few days to see how it looks when it's dry and straightened! But now I need to finish all this stuff up and get to sleep so I can drive tomorrow. Goodnight all!
Oh, and on a side note. If inspiration hits you and you think up an entire awesome poem right as you're trying to go to sleep, get up and write it down. Please. I didn't last night and now I can only remember the first line. BAH HUMBUG. SERIOUSLY.
Sweet Dreams~! ♥
Also. I lied. It's off to bed with me, and pictures will just have to wait. Sorry Darlings. But on the bright side, by the time I put them up in either Portland or Olympia, there will be even more of them to look at!
April 30 at 5:58pm
and I'm off! 20 hours to Portland here I come! there's someting wrong with my computer again, and my apartment's website won't let me pay my rent, but I guess I can only worry about that tomorrow! right now I have to be on the road in 10 minutes so Taro can lock the door behind him when he leaves, but it's cool cuz I only have one trip of stuff left to carry to the car anyway. AHHH my brain is frazzled. But gtg!TTFN!
May 1 at 11:28pm
Wendy Sanders is finally coming to terms with the fact that she's just going to have to be the stray cat that nobody ever gets to keep for very long for the next 3-5 years or so, while somehow balancing being the wiry little feline that can't stand not having someone to care for. Unless of course I find someone who wants to uproot themselves and blaze a trail with me. Doubt it. So until then, here's to summer loves and learning to let go when each new phase has to end. God help my traitorously attachment-loving heart.
May 2 at 12:26am
Also! It's been pointed out to me that I didn't inform you all when I got to Portland. My bad. Got here in about 21 hours, including a 2 hour nap and stops :) Will tell you aaaaaall about it and put up pictures when I get to Olympia tomorrow night, but as I only have but so many hours here in Portland hangin out with Erica, I don't plan to spend several of them updating my facebook ;) Talk to you soooooon~!
May 2 at 10:05pm via Mobile Web
In Olympia! Just so we all know :P
May 4 at 2:59pm
omg! intarwebs! Better use 'em while I got 'em! So! Here's the update finished typing up yesterday. As usual, it's long! XD
So! I'm feeling rather lazy, but I'm going to write this anyway! Bah Humbug ;) Just kidding! Typing these up for you guys is neeeeeever a pain in the ass, oh noooooo~! =P Buuuuut whatever, they're just as much for my records as for your entertainment, so. I just like to complain every once in a while and you all know it :) So read on! Woo!
So after making 5 trips to the car from Sarah's 2nd floor apartment with the main gate propped open with a brick so it wouldn't lock me out, the car was finally repacked! (We'd taken everything out to fit all the goodwill stuff in it, and never quite gotten around to repacking it.) Checked the oil, got myself and my GPS situated, and was off! I was headin' out of LA! And an hour later.... I was still headin' out of LA! Really. I hate Los Angeles traffic. Where else do they have a lunch rush? I left at 3:30 so I got caught between the last of the lunch traffic and the first of the real evening rush. Laaaaame. So at some point, eventually, I made it out of the city and it's surrounding towns, and finally escaped the stop-and-go and was free to drive at a good pace again.
Random note? One of the best car snacks ever? Frosted mini wheats. Oh man. Fantastical munch and crunch right out of the bag. Just sayin.
So after a while a lot of the bits of these road trips start to blur together, and for the first several hours of this trip there was nothing especially notable about this drive in particular. Except of course that on the day I was leaving California, it was blazingly sunny and warm. Of course. Which also meant constant reapplication of my sunblock, which thankfully was in my purse on the passenger seat and easily accessible. I had originially thrown a light jacket on to keep the sun off, but it was way too hot with no A/C for that. Yay for no repeat sunburns.
The drive was pretty methodical, on and on and on and whatnot. It gets easier and hurts my legs less with each set and I have to stop less often. There really are some really pretty places in California though. It was a throughly enjoyable drive with a nice breeze (meaning ridiculous winds that kept throwing my car around - CA is great for those) to keep me cool, and constantly changing scenery to keep me entertained.
Stopped for gas a couple of times after the sun went down. (Driving through sunset and sunrise is always fascinating, somehow. Really pretty, too. It's fun. =P) One of the times I stopped was in this town that had all sorts of gas stations and restaurants and hotels, thinking with that many I could easily find a place to get gas, use the bathroom, and grab some coffee close by the on/off ramps and pop right back on the road. Mmmmm nope. It was in the wee hours of the morning and all the convenience stores were closed, but the pumps were still working so I checked refueling off my list. Drove around for a bit and found an open gas station store, but they didn't have a bathroom so I grabbed some coffee and moved continued my search. Several of the fast food places still had open drive-thru windows, but no open lobbies for potty breaks. After another 10 minutes or so, I saw a Denny's. Thank Jesus for Denny's. Each and every one of them. They were of course open and had a public restroom, so all was good. That quick in-and-out of the town I had planned turned into an hour of one-way turn only and no u-turn signs coupled with everything I searched out being closed, but it got done, and after another 10 minutes of finding my way back to the highway, I was en route once again!
A couple hours before sunset I finally crossed the border into Oregon, and almost immediately was surrounded by big towering black masses of earth on either side of the road, which wound through the mountains in an impressively functional manner. If any of you have driven through Shennendoah, it's a little bit like that, except they made the roads wider and less curvy so the speed limit even at the sharper turns doesn't go lower than 45. I kind of love driving on mountain roads :)
A couple hours into the mountains of Oregon and 14 hours or so into the drive, I decided I would stop soon to take a nap, and started keeping an eye out for rest stop signs. I also needed to stop for gas semi-soon, so started looking into those exits too. Unfortunately though, in the mountains there's not a whole lot of options, and every couple of exits there's 1, maybe 2 gas stations, most of which wind up being closed after you get off the highway and go find them. (Which is kind of entertaining because there's always truckers that need to refuel and just decide the closed gas station is as good a place as any to take a nap, and just park there until the place opens in the morning so they can continue on.) But eventually I found one that had the pumps on overnight (but the store was closed, of course), and stopped in there to fill up. And oh dear god. That gas station had the slowest pumps I have ever encountered. Ever. I swear it took me 15 minutes to fill up my tank, and it had only been halfway empty. And holy baby Jesus it was cold. And there was no way to rig the handle (which was of course one of the harder-to-squeeze ones that make your hand cramp up after a while, so I had to keep switching hands) to pump without my hand on it and get back in the car where it was warm and not windy, so I just stood there for 15 minutes shifting my weight from foot to foot, and rocking back and forth and shivering. Oh fun. But! There was this pretty little fluffball of a stray cat, who wasn't really little for a cat at all, for me to talk to and complain at the whole time, so it was a generally livable experience. Although it wouldn't come anywhere near my car for me to pet it. Until I was in the car and about to drive off, of course. Then it walked in front of my tires just to make me nervous until it slowly strolled past to the other side and on to do whatever other nightstalkerish cat things it does in the mountains to entertain themselves.
And then I was off once again! And not long after that I found a rest stop, around a 25 mph exit ramp that looped all the way around in almost a complete circle so that the whole rest stop was completely hidden in trees, which was kinda cool. It was kinda set up like a campground but not, which makes complete sense because it was called the Valley of the Rogue State Park Rest Stop. (Appropriate, no? I thought so too.) And there were a decent number of people stopped there, so all in all this was promising to be the best sleep I've ever gotten at a rest stop yet. So out of the trunk my Wolfie Blanket came, and burrito-wrapped in the driver's seat was I.
Woke up 2 hours later pretty chilled despite the big fuzzy blanket, and itchy. I still don't know why itchy. But I just couldn't relax after that and got up and moving. Maybe it was just a sign that it was time to wake up and continue the drive. I really need to learn to carry hand sanitizer though, because there was no soap. It wasn't just out, there were no dispensers for it period. Odd. But oh well, such is life! Hopped back in the car a drove on. Oh, and just so you all know, Oregon doesn't fuck around with litterers. I've seen "Do not litter" signs in different states with varying fines from like $60 to $300, but not Oregon. Oregon's maximum fine is just over $6500. They strike to bring pain XD
4 hours later I was only about 30 minutes away from my destination, so I pulled off at another rest stop to freshen up before I went to meet Erica. This rest stop was entirely fascinating. They had a free coffee stand that is permanent enough for there to be a metal sign attached to the Rest Area sign on the road, and it was surrounded in green and very well maintained. There were even dog walking trails around it, which was nice. There were a lot of people around being generally jovial, and there was even a guy playing guitar and singing by the bathrooms.
And I'm not even sure he had the guitar case out for tips. I kind of think he didn't. Interesting. Overall it was just an entertaining area =D I changed clothes and did my makeup and brushed my hair in the bathroom, although they didn't have any electical outlets so I couldn't restraighten it. While I was doing all that a lady came in to clean the bathrooms, and I was pretty amused by her because she really just did not care that I was there at all whatsoever and went around coughing and snorting and throwing things across the bathroom like there was nobody else in there. (Ha, I was super amused while putting my mascara and eyeliner on by the projectiles I kept seeing fly behind me in the mirror. She was just emptying all the little trash cans in the stalls, but that woman had an arm on her lemme tell ya. And every last one of those little brown bags made it into the bigger trash can. No misses :P) When I left the bathroom (looking twice before I crossed the projectile zone, of course. that's not exactly something I planned on catching with my face XD) and walked out the door, I realized the area was chained off for cleaning, so I had to step super high to get over the chains and back to my car. At which time of course, this lady walks around the corner and sees me, and I'm sure it looked like I had just brazenly climbed over the chains and used the closed-off bathrooms. And when I caught her eye with my leg swung halfway over the chain, it was a total caught-red-handed moment, and she just cracked up, mumbled something like "I -like- you," and walked on her merry way. It was funny as hell. More ladies with short and choppy white hair that admire my tenacity need to pop up in my life more often, hahaha. Those types have the BEST stories. ♥ ♥ ♥
And then once again, I was off to Portland! And 20 minutes later, I was there! And my gas tank was on E. That's the only time on this trip so far that the gas tank has had less than a quarter tank. I felt bad. Especially because I decided to park and just get gas before I left for Olympia the next day. And parking was a bear, too. There was a farmer's market going on right by Erica's dorm, so all the parking there was either blocked off or taken, but I quickly realized that it was all timed and metered parking anyway, so I didn't want to park there regardless. I drove around a couple blocks and came to the conclusion that all the parking in Portland was pay-per-short-amount-of-time, and soon after ran upon a parking lot with mostly open spaces, which looked super friendly at that particular moment. So after taking a good few minutes figuring out the pricing and whether I needed to buy an all-day or all-night ticket (or both, since it was still a half hour before noon) in order to not have to move my car until I left for Olympia, it printed me out a $6 all-night slip that magically ran through all day too, and didn't expire until midnight the next night, at which time I would've been long gone. I was pleased. So I grabbed my purse and my laptop, called Erica, and headed to walk up the 5 blocks to get back to her dorm. She met me partway, and all was good! We stopped in at her dorm room for a few minutes, dropped off my laptop, and debated what we felt like doing. We wound up deciding on heading over to the Saturday market set up a short distance away, and headed out! We walked through the farmer's market on the way over to the train stop, and saw a couple of rather interesting-looking stalls, but nothing totally useful unless you know what you're doing when you cook or are in need of fresh fruits. Which I generally don't and was not, so.
Was pleasantly surprised to discover that where we were going was in the free zone of Portland public transportation, which is a foreign idea to me, the whole free zone thing, and so I got to ride there for free. Walking the rest of the way from the stop we got off at to the market, we passed the Chinatown of Portland, which is about a block of really, really shaby buildings with cracks in them, that supposedly is kind of a shady, seedy place. Then we passed a porno movie theatre that shows hentai on Sundays. With a super popular expensive doughnut place a few doors down from it with a line out the door and down the street. Consider me amused. And then we were at the market! Several blocks of artists and sellers wheeling their deals on overpriced baubles and entirely overvalued wares. Although some of them where hand-crafted/hand-painted and therefore understandably priced. There were also a bunch of food stalls that were semi-decently priced, but what impressed me was the variety of types of foods. Usually it's all generally the same food at most of the stalls at the sorts of events, but these people had everything! XD There was a fruit stand, an African food stand, a Jewish-type food stand, middle eastern, pizza, chinese, greek, and a stand selling these fluffy doughy things called elephant ears with differing flavors that I kind of wish I'd tried now put didn't. We didn't wind up buying anything, and wound up getting carry-out Vietnamese food instead of eating at any of the food stalls because we saw this one guy with it and it looked good so we asked him where it was and it was similiarly priced, so huzzah! Yummy Pad-Thai and Thai Tea for me. Which is entirely Thai and not Vietnamese. Huh. Oh well!
So then we wandered for a bit looking for a place to sit and eat out of the wind, failed, and decided to walk back towards the bus station and just walk and eat. I was pondering what the little scraggly green leafy garnish plant was, and shoved the whole thing in my mouth to find out. Kinda regretted it. Very bitter and left a twangy stingy spicy sensation in it's wake. Bah.
So we were thinking of going thrift-store shopping, which required walking to a different bus station, and we were headed that way when.... there was lots of yelling and chanting and megaphone sounds. Hmmmm. Fascinating. So we checked the bus schedule and it said it was going to take a while, and about that time I decided I didn't really think paying to take a bus to go thrift shopping where I probably wouldn't buy anything because neither of us really had any money would be kind of pointless in the end, so we decided to walk another way back and walk and eat some more while we did it.
Well, turns out this option took us right into the midst of all the people yelling, which turned out to be a mass protest with thousands of people with signs about relegalization. Although you could tell there were a few people protesting just to protest, like the guy with the anarchy flag tugging his 3-yr old son (by the looks of him) behind him, or the guy with the Saddam Hussein Flag. And then there were the people with signs that said "Do I look illegal?" And lemme tell ya, some of them... some of them I just wanted to shake and say "YES, you do. You look illegal as hell." Not most of them, but really? Stop with the "If you speak English at me right now I will cut you." look and maybe I'll be a little more inclined to stop glaring at you. Thanks.
Saw a couple signs I really liked though, got a picture of one of them, even though I had to walk jog ahead of the mob a little to get it. It said "Be the peace you want to see in the world." and I've seen it elsewhere a few times with differing wordings like "Be the change you want to see in the world," which I actually like better, but really, they're all very true and very quotable, so. =P
After following the crowd for a short bit, we decided to sit and eat at the little courtyard plaza across the street. Which required crossing the mob. So we walked with the parade a little bit, diagonally across so as to not disrupt the flow too overmuch, and came out safely and mostly unseperated on the other side, sat and finished our Pad Thai, or almost all of it in my case, and talked about what we wanted to do with the rest of the day.
And then Erica said some of the most magical words I've ever heard. "Well... do you want to go to the zoo? Someone bought me a membership for my birthday, so it'd be free." PING! Instantly decided as a fabulous idea by me. FABULOUS. So even though it was supposed to close in a little under 2 hours, I figured even if I only got to see half of it, I'd be spazztastically happy to do so, and it would be entirely worth the $2 for 2 hours bus fare.
So we get there and get our tickets and the little zoo key that you stick in little speaker-slots around the zoo for it to chirp information at you, and headed to the souvenir shop so it wouldn't close on us on the way out. Quickly decided they had no worthy postcards (they only had 2, which were overpriced and sucked), and that their shot glasses were the lamest and most overpriced I've ever seen (they were plastic with basically no design and $8). They did have cute stuffed animals and such, but those were way out of my price range and not what I was there for XD So that stop didn't take long. My feet, by the way, have still been killing me. But. Cute little animals. Pain cannot stand in my way! =D
Goats, eagles, otters. OMG I LOVE OTTERS. The most adorable little bobcats ever. Sleepy Cougar. (This quickly became the theme. All the cool animals were asleep. All of them.) Polar bears. Who were sunbathing. Because that what polar bears do in Portland, evidently. And the most adorable little wrinkley-faced black bears ever. Pictures will be provided as soon as an internet connection comes my way. Penguins! Cute. And then. And then and then and then. LORIKEETS! Which was entirely a TON of fun. At the Lorikeet house, you pay $1 for a little cup of nectar, and you go inside and hold out the little cup, and the birds land all over you and eat it. SO MUCH FUN. But as soon as the little cup is empty, they KNOW. You really can't fool them with and empty cup. They won't land on you after that XD
Then we went and found the antelope, giraffe, zebra, elephant, monkeys, owls, wombat, and a couple of reptiles. Realized we'd passed the tigers/leopards somehow, and went to search them out, and caught the rhino, hippos, and lion seal along the way. AND THERE WERE MORE OTTERS! And they were adorable. And there was this little cave place that was neat and had water reflections all over everywhere. Finally found the tigers and leopards, and were kind of annoyed because the big sign for them was entirely on the back side of the area, instead of in the front with all the rest of the signs XD And because we realized we'd back RIGHT in front of them at least twice XD But right about then we decided we'd seen everything and would head out, and then realized people were just starting to all leave. (It was 5 and the zoo had been supposed to close at 4, so I guess security leaves everyone alone for an hour and then asks them to go.) So it was super nice that we got extra time to see everything. The only downside was it meant we went past 2 hours and I had to buy another bus (in this case train) ticket (not like they check them, but $2 just in case is ALWAYS better than the real ticket you get for getting caught without one), but it was totally worth it in my book, because, hello, ZOO!
The train had SO many babies and strollers packed into it. I was kind of impressed. So we got off at our stop, then had to get on a bus to go up another street and get closer to our destination. While waiting at that bus stop, we had 2 or 3 different people come up to us and ask if we were interested in political surveys or asking for money. And then there were the two girls who pranced up to us in their bright yellow matching t-shirts, and started out their speech with "So we have some really great stuff for you today!" And stuffed a good fistfull of colorful and polka-dotted condoms, along with stickers and pins that say "Take care down there" along with some papers, and then went on to explain that they were advocates of the free clinics and such in the town and spreading the word. It was actually a pretty impressively effective tactic, good for any sort of sales pitch. "HERE LET ME SHOVE SOME COOL FREE SHIT IN YOUR HANDS! And then you have to listen to what I have to say for at least a few seconds!" Haha, I admire their brazenness though. Good for them. You will never catch me going around any town passing out condoms. Probably. XD
And shortly after that the bus came, and we headed back to the dorm after stopping by my car to pick up my blanket and a few other things. Got back, had a raspberry fruit bar as a snack (mmmm), and vegged on our laptops and talked and caught up for a few hours before we rolled out the yoga mats on her floor for me and went to bed. It had actually been a really eventful day, and impressively fast-paced, even though neither of us expected it to be, what with our not having any ideas as to what we wanted to do.
Slept like a champ. Woke up a few times because some limb or another had slipped out of the blanket and it was cold, or because of some noise outside, but easily fell back asleep each time until we both woke up about the same time around noon. Twelve hours of sleep. Oh yeah.
Lounged around for a few hours, ate cereal, grabbed showers. The shower stall I wound up using didn't lock and actually had two stalls in it with basically see-through shower curtains, but whatever. I'm 21 and in a locked all-girls restroom to which only other girls in the building have a key. We all have the same parts. If they walk in, they walk in, so be it. And it was either that or the bigger, single-stall lockable shower with hair all over the floor. Bleh. Nobody walked in though luckily. Made my day go a little smoother XD
Around 3:30 we left to take Erica to work and send me off to Olympia, which was a little early but I remembered I still had to get gas, so. And it was a good thing we allowed some extra time for it, because not only did the car have trouble starting, but the first gas station I tried on the GPS didn't seem to exist, and it took us a little while to run upon the second one. Which wound up being full service only. Weird. First time this trip I've run into that, but according to Erica all of Oregon is like that. Straaaaange. So the tank was full and 10-15 minutes later I was parked in front of Ross, where Erica works. And was extremely amused to look up after parking and realize there was an entire carnival in front of my car. RIGHT in front of my car. Like 5 feet away. HowdidInotseethatwhat? Anyway, I walked into Ross with Erica so she could fill up my 2-liter water bottle for the next leg of this crazy driving adventure, said my goodbyes, and was off again!
And I didn't actually realize that Portland actually IS the border of Oregon. Like, 10 feet from the "Leaving Portland" sign there was an "Entering Washington" sign. It was kind of exciting ♥
Almost as soon as you cross into Washington the landscape changes to hilly but not mountainous, and TREES. Trees everywhere. It was absolutely beautiful. But unlike the feeling of age a grace and tenacity and magic that you get in the New Mexico deserts and the Oregon mountains, the feeling you get here is more of the people living within the trees all around, and not so much of the land itself. This changes a little further into the state and becomes quite welcoming and solitary feeling, but is still not quite as powerful as the other two.
This drive practically didn't exist to me, because it was only two hours long, which is a total cake walk in comparison to the other drives I've trudged through on this trip. And suddenly, I was in Olympia! It didn't take long to find Zoey and Veles's complex, although the traffic circles leading up to it did throw me off a little, and I was there! With a beautiful empty parking space reserved just for me because they don't have a car and so don't use it.
I had to call to see which number it was though, because when you get towards the back of the complex the parking space numbers stop following the letter/number pattern the apartments have. Then it took me a good few minutes to find their apartment because evidently I'm dyslexic and forgetful after so much driving and weird sleep patterns. They live in apartment K6, but I was originally remembering it because it's like K9 (as in the dogs), but upside down. Then I starting just remembering it as K9 somehow. And then the parking space was 79, and somehow my brain changed the apartment number to K7. Oh yeah. That just happened. So I went to K7 and knocked. No answer. Called Zoey. "I think I'm at your door...." to which she replied "No, no I don't think you are. We're on the top level dear." Which I thought was funny, because the numbers were listed on the front of the building with 7 on the bottom, but the actual doors aren't numbered, sooo... what the hell. So I walk upstairs, knock on the door, and.... Lady eating dinner who is definitely not Zoey answers. Wrong door, sorry! Call Zoey again... midway through ringing hung up because I realized it was K9, not K7, then wait no how the hell did I mix that up? It's K6!! Geeez. So I quickly realized after that thought that I was on the wrong side of the building, walked over to the right one, and then quickly I was in the right apartment! Sheesh. Time to sit down.
Met the cats, Forbis and Squinty, in short order, which is evidently impressive because Squinty is shy but walked up to me within the first 5 minutes I was here. They are adorable and I ♥ them. Forbis keeps me company, and indeed has been sitting by my legs through much of this typing, which has taken me forever and has been split up across two days' time. So, back to it, so that it doesn't become three days' time. X_x
So it was about 6PM at this point, so Veles was making Pizza for dinner (mmmm, I've been craving pizza for weeks!) and we decided to watch The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, which was fantastic, and made even entirely better by delicious pizza and root beer. Then we talked for a couple hours and it was bed time for Zoey who worked the next morning, so I went and got cozy on the couch and went to sleep with both cats sleeping on top of me (yay! :P ♥ ) for a good hour or so, until I had to switch positions on the couch and Squinty abandoned me. Forbis stayed for hours though :) This morning I woke up around 9:30 for a little while, but went back to sleep until noon. Woke up, had some fruit, and started typing up all this crazyness.
Around 2:30 Veles got home from school, just in time for the power to go out, and around 3:30 Zoey got home. I typed more of this until my laptop battery was down to 15%, and about then the power came back on and therefore Veles could make quesadillas, so I saved what I had so far (for the millionth time. I save it often, thankfully) and put away the lappy. Right about then Z's friend Tabitha called to say she was going to come get us to adjust Zoey's haircut at her apartment, and so PJ's were thrown off and replaced by jeans, and quesadillas were had on the move.
Got to Tabitha's and met her cat Noodle, which is by the way just about the coolest cat name ever for a small and super soft fluffy cat, and got cozy on her couch full of pillows while she got to cutting Z's hair in her kitchen. Other peoples that work with Tabitha and Zoey arrived to also get hair things done, with dye and bleach and trims and razoring and whatnot, and I borrowed a hair straightener to fix up my hair a bit so I could get pictures of my stencil dye-job outcome before I redye it. At some point macaroni and cheese was had by most (we forgot about the girl in the shower rinsing the bleach out of her hair, and it all got ate up. we all felt bad), and there was tons of playing games on cell phones to go around, along with crazy antics and reminiscent stories, and then it was about time for everyone to head home. On the way out we all went through a couple boxes of goodwill stuff that Tabitha had (I find that one of the most fun things ever is going through boxes of stuff people are giving away. Evidently when I get rid of things the people at the swap love it too, so I guess it all evens out XD) I got 2 pairs of boots, and a pair of comfy flip flops that I'm hoping will hurt my feet less, and a bunch of lotions and creams and such, because with my ridiculously dry skin I can never get enough of those, and because nobody else seemed to want them for whatever reason.
And then Tabitha dropped us off at the apartment again, we changed into PJs, talked and lazed for a bit, and it was, once again, bedtime! And then I sat here and sat here and finished this crazy typing thing. Which alas, huzzah, holy jeebus, I think I am finally caught up on! Life is good. I am sleepy. My head is achy. Forbis is cuddly. And it is officially time for me to sign off. Now if only I had an internet connection to post this. Ah well. It'll just have to wait til tomorrow. Just like paying my rent, because I forgot the blue card in my other purse that's still in the car. Again. Such is life.
Goodnight Lovelies! Sweet Dreams!