I'm a totally unclassy grown-up!
I haven’t posted in awhile…and a lot has been happening. I totally suck at the short term recall thing so here goes….
A few weeks ago Anna and I went on a short adventure into San Francisco to check out the cake wrecks book signing. It was a Monday afternoon; we left around four o’ clock. I spent the earlier part of the day cheering on Andy while he demolished a shed/hovel in the backyard. Spreckels, who can clear Anna easily when she wants to, had discovered that she enjoyed standing on top of said hovel/shed. We came home to her peering into the neighbor’s yard and decided we ought to remedy the situation before she decided to jump over and say hello. So Andy had the opportunity to show off his “manly” demolition side while I stood by and watched (mostly.)
He did let me kick a couple boards off which was pretty freaking’ awesome let me tell you. I don’t often get the opportunity to destroy things because they have a nasty habit of destroying me back. (Hence why after two boards were kicked successfully away by moi my darling husband suggested I do something else before I hurt myself.) Anywho, after the destroying we had to haul the crap to the dump and then he dropped me off at Anna’s for my adventure.
Now for those of you who live in the bay area this is not an impressive trip by any stretch of the imagination…but for this particular central valley girl it was quite a feat. We arrived at the Bart station in Pleasanton at about 5pm, which put us running about on time for the book signing in SF.
We chatted on Bart and successfully arrived at our destination. We walked a couple blocks and viola we were there….a week early. So we had dinner at the Hard Rock on Pier 39 and wandered around a bit staring at the odds and ends in some of the stores.
We got some tasty hot chocolate for the walk back and arrived at the Bart station no worse for the wear. It was a really pleasant evening even if it didn’t go quite as planned. The funny thing is that I totally felt like a grown-up. Strange to say I know, being 25 and all. But I never really think about the fact that If I wanted to I could just up and go to San Francisco.
I went straight from High School to college, from college to getting married, and then grad school. I have been working since I was 14, so I never really thought about the fact that I can indeed take the Bart in and wander around the city at my hearts content. Kind of cool I think. (Woohoo to being a grown-up.)
Tara came to visit the weekend after that trip. We had a blast eating pizza, watching Glee (love that show, and I can’t get “put a ring on it” out of my head), and then playing games and watching silly television at Anna & Josh’s house. It was nice just hanging out and being silly; I can’t wait to do it again at the Halloween party.
Saturday the 26th of September Andy and I went on our last vacation before he went active duty on October first. We went camping in Nevada for four days. It was another adventure as all camping trips with Andy tend to be. We took Spreckles and surprisingly that was the least of our challenges. We left after I got off of work. It took awhile for us to pack because we stayed up late the night before with Anna, Tara, and Josh. We arrived at our destination well after dark. Andy wanted to camp on the beach so we began scouting our spot. He decided the best way to do this was to drive on the beach. (Even though I reminded him that our truck is not 4wheel drive.) We drove about 50 feet before we got stuck. Andy tried unsuccessfully to dig us out for about an hour and a half before I pointed out the campfire in the distance. I told him to go and see if they had four-wheel drive and see if they would help us.
He wandered off into the dark while I stood with a flashlight next to our totally immobile truck. We all know how much I love the dark, especially in strange places. I am of course imagining all sorts of horrible endings to the evening. The people turn out to be serial killers and kill us all for example, or more simply that we remain stuck until morning when Andy has to hike back to the entrance to find a ranger to help us.
Thankfully the people were not serial killers; they were in fact a sweet Hispanic family from Reno who spoke very little English. They did have four-wheel drive and were happy to help us. (yay!) Between our horrible Spanish, their broken English, and a lot of body language we were able to devise a plan. Once we were free of the beach we spent another thirty minutes looking for a campsite. Andy finally found one that he liked and he began to pitch our tent. It was 1am at this point so we decided to skip dinner and just go to bed.
We woke up early and headed out to check out the lake. This turned out to be a puddle. They were not joking when they said the water was very low. We cooked some breakfast and headed out to look for better camping options. We finally settled on Washoe Lake. The lake here was a little higher and looked more promising. The campsite had toilets and showers which was a total plus for me. We unpacked and headed out to the lake to take the dog swimming.
We had to walk awhile to get to the water, and along the way there were some dead fish on the beach who had been left behind when the water started receding. The lakebed was very squishy and smelly mud. It had a quicksand like feel around your feet. Spreckels loved it though. She trotted happily through the smelly water sniffing and splashing as she went. We didn’t stay out too long because it was only mid calf deep pretty far out and we were not really keen on having our feet sucked down into the smelly mud.
After cooking breakfast the next day we made a run for ice for the coolers. On the way to the ice Spreckles got sick all over what is essentially the back seat area of the truck. We had to roll the windows down all the way to make it back to camp. Twenty minutes later we were ready to hit the road again with a newly cleaned and much less smelly truck cab. We stopped at little Washoe lake which was much fuller than the big one. Spreckels again had a blast romping through the water, chasing birds and waves and trying desperately to pull Andy into the water. Once we were sure she was quite recovered from her earlier sickness we went and explored some of Virginia City. It is a neat old town that reminds me of Columbia and downtown Sonora. Only it is much bigger and obviously better funded. We walked a bit through downtown taking pictures and looking into store windows. Afterwards we headed over to what is known as Boot Hill. It is this really neat, giant cemetery where they buried a bunch of the gunslingers. I would like to go back sometime with better shoes so I can check more of it out. (In case you didn’t know Andy and I both love walking around cemeteries and reading the headstones, it’s this totally strange fascination I know.)
After a couple hours of wandering we headed back to camp and stopped at the Chocolate Nugget. (A very tasty candy shop.) We ended the evening with a fire in the fire pit. The next day we went and got more Divinity from the candy shop, explored the local towns, and stopped at another local graveyard. It was very poorly maintained, overgrown, and had mostly only the sad little wooden slats for headstones. It was very, very windy that day so we headed back to make sure our tent hadn’t blown away. We played some Scrabble and tried to keep warm.
It was a nice trip, and I know Andy didn’t want it to end. (I was ready for a hot shower and my soft, warm bed.) I am looking forward to doing it again when he gets back. Last Friday Kristen and Brian came over along with Anna and Josh. Everybody brought their dogs. We bbq’d hamburgers, which were entirely too large thanks to me; we played a laughable game of Cranium, got drunk, and had some of Anna’s tasty Pumpkin pie. It was splendid evening even if it wasn’t the classy dinner party I had planned. Apparently ½ pound Hamburgers are an incredible amount of meat! Who knew? Also, corn on the cob is not classy. Neither is having to use lawn chairs because you don’t have enough actual dining room chairs. Oh and getting drunk before dinner is done being made, is also not classy.
Needless to say this oh so unclassy gal enjoyed herself with her equally unclassy friends. Saturday Anna and I went to see Whip It in theatres. It was awesome and I highly recommend it. Sunday I worked and yesterday I cleaned house and went to Doni’s for dinner. We played some Liar’s dice and caught up while our dogs played together in her backyard. Now that I have bored you all with this ridiculously long post I will return to work. Xoxo -Love Sum
A few weeks ago Anna and I went on a short adventure into San Francisco to check out the cake wrecks book signing. It was a Monday afternoon; we left around four o’ clock. I spent the earlier part of the day cheering on Andy while he demolished a shed/hovel in the backyard. Spreckels, who can clear Anna easily when she wants to, had discovered that she enjoyed standing on top of said hovel/shed. We came home to her peering into the neighbor’s yard and decided we ought to remedy the situation before she decided to jump over and say hello. So Andy had the opportunity to show off his “manly” demolition side while I stood by and watched (mostly.)
He did let me kick a couple boards off which was pretty freaking’ awesome let me tell you. I don’t often get the opportunity to destroy things because they have a nasty habit of destroying me back. (Hence why after two boards were kicked successfully away by moi my darling husband suggested I do something else before I hurt myself.) Anywho, after the destroying we had to haul the crap to the dump and then he dropped me off at Anna’s for my adventure.
Now for those of you who live in the bay area this is not an impressive trip by any stretch of the imagination…but for this particular central valley girl it was quite a feat. We arrived at the Bart station in Pleasanton at about 5pm, which put us running about on time for the book signing in SF.
We chatted on Bart and successfully arrived at our destination. We walked a couple blocks and viola we were there….a week early. So we had dinner at the Hard Rock on Pier 39 and wandered around a bit staring at the odds and ends in some of the stores.
We got some tasty hot chocolate for the walk back and arrived at the Bart station no worse for the wear. It was a really pleasant evening even if it didn’t go quite as planned. The funny thing is that I totally felt like a grown-up. Strange to say I know, being 25 and all. But I never really think about the fact that If I wanted to I could just up and go to San Francisco.
I went straight from High School to college, from college to getting married, and then grad school. I have been working since I was 14, so I never really thought about the fact that I can indeed take the Bart in and wander around the city at my hearts content. Kind of cool I think. (Woohoo to being a grown-up.)
Tara came to visit the weekend after that trip. We had a blast eating pizza, watching Glee (love that show, and I can’t get “put a ring on it” out of my head), and then playing games and watching silly television at Anna & Josh’s house. It was nice just hanging out and being silly; I can’t wait to do it again at the Halloween party.
Saturday the 26th of September Andy and I went on our last vacation before he went active duty on October first. We went camping in Nevada for four days. It was another adventure as all camping trips with Andy tend to be. We took Spreckles and surprisingly that was the least of our challenges. We left after I got off of work. It took awhile for us to pack because we stayed up late the night before with Anna, Tara, and Josh. We arrived at our destination well after dark. Andy wanted to camp on the beach so we began scouting our spot. He decided the best way to do this was to drive on the beach. (Even though I reminded him that our truck is not 4wheel drive.) We drove about 50 feet before we got stuck. Andy tried unsuccessfully to dig us out for about an hour and a half before I pointed out the campfire in the distance. I told him to go and see if they had four-wheel drive and see if they would help us.
He wandered off into the dark while I stood with a flashlight next to our totally immobile truck. We all know how much I love the dark, especially in strange places. I am of course imagining all sorts of horrible endings to the evening. The people turn out to be serial killers and kill us all for example, or more simply that we remain stuck until morning when Andy has to hike back to the entrance to find a ranger to help us.
Thankfully the people were not serial killers; they were in fact a sweet Hispanic family from Reno who spoke very little English. They did have four-wheel drive and were happy to help us. (yay!) Between our horrible Spanish, their broken English, and a lot of body language we were able to devise a plan. Once we were free of the beach we spent another thirty minutes looking for a campsite. Andy finally found one that he liked and he began to pitch our tent. It was 1am at this point so we decided to skip dinner and just go to bed.
We woke up early and headed out to check out the lake. This turned out to be a puddle. They were not joking when they said the water was very low. We cooked some breakfast and headed out to look for better camping options. We finally settled on Washoe Lake. The lake here was a little higher and looked more promising. The campsite had toilets and showers which was a total plus for me. We unpacked and headed out to the lake to take the dog swimming.
We had to walk awhile to get to the water, and along the way there were some dead fish on the beach who had been left behind when the water started receding. The lakebed was very squishy and smelly mud. It had a quicksand like feel around your feet. Spreckels loved it though. She trotted happily through the smelly water sniffing and splashing as she went. We didn’t stay out too long because it was only mid calf deep pretty far out and we were not really keen on having our feet sucked down into the smelly mud.
After cooking breakfast the next day we made a run for ice for the coolers. On the way to the ice Spreckles got sick all over what is essentially the back seat area of the truck. We had to roll the windows down all the way to make it back to camp. Twenty minutes later we were ready to hit the road again with a newly cleaned and much less smelly truck cab. We stopped at little Washoe lake which was much fuller than the big one. Spreckels again had a blast romping through the water, chasing birds and waves and trying desperately to pull Andy into the water. Once we were sure she was quite recovered from her earlier sickness we went and explored some of Virginia City. It is a neat old town that reminds me of Columbia and downtown Sonora. Only it is much bigger and obviously better funded. We walked a bit through downtown taking pictures and looking into store windows. Afterwards we headed over to what is known as Boot Hill. It is this really neat, giant cemetery where they buried a bunch of the gunslingers. I would like to go back sometime with better shoes so I can check more of it out. (In case you didn’t know Andy and I both love walking around cemeteries and reading the headstones, it’s this totally strange fascination I know.)
After a couple hours of wandering we headed back to camp and stopped at the Chocolate Nugget. (A very tasty candy shop.) We ended the evening with a fire in the fire pit. The next day we went and got more Divinity from the candy shop, explored the local towns, and stopped at another local graveyard. It was very poorly maintained, overgrown, and had mostly only the sad little wooden slats for headstones. It was very, very windy that day so we headed back to make sure our tent hadn’t blown away. We played some Scrabble and tried to keep warm.
It was a nice trip, and I know Andy didn’t want it to end. (I was ready for a hot shower and my soft, warm bed.) I am looking forward to doing it again when he gets back. Last Friday Kristen and Brian came over along with Anna and Josh. Everybody brought their dogs. We bbq’d hamburgers, which were entirely too large thanks to me; we played a laughable game of Cranium, got drunk, and had some of Anna’s tasty Pumpkin pie. It was splendid evening even if it wasn’t the classy dinner party I had planned. Apparently ½ pound Hamburgers are an incredible amount of meat! Who knew? Also, corn on the cob is not classy. Neither is having to use lawn chairs because you don’t have enough actual dining room chairs. Oh and getting drunk before dinner is done being made, is also not classy.
Needless to say this oh so unclassy gal enjoyed herself with her equally unclassy friends. Saturday Anna and I went to see Whip It in theatres. It was awesome and I highly recommend it. Sunday I worked and yesterday I cleaned house and went to Doni’s for dinner. We played some Liar’s dice and caught up while our dogs played together in her backyard. Now that I have bored you all with this ridiculously long post I will return to work. Xoxo -Love Sum