Road Adventures

Occasionally, I like to take a different route home. Once, when working in Clayton all day, I took Mitchell Canyon Road; it ended up being the first and last time I will take that road (alone at least). It is a one-lane super windy road through the tress; you know, the kind of drive where you expect serial killers to spike the tires on your car and chase you through the woods, then kill you and eat you.

Yesterday, I was working up in Sacramento, and had plans to go to Pittsburg after work. This would be the perfect opportunity for me to go highway 5 to highway 12 to 160 and then link back up to 4 west. Unfortunately, there was a detour in downtown Sac, so I ended up back on 80 west. In Dixon, I decided to hop off 80 and hit 113 south to 12 east and then back onto my originally scheduled route. Things went fine alone 113, which is a nice ride, with lots of open space and grazing sheep, and even some windmills. Highway 12 was a different matter.

I think things would have been fine if I hadn't encountered a literal parking lot about a mile and a half after turning onto highway 12. As it was, I got stopped, here, at the intersection of highway 12 and azevedo road...


I have a google maps application on my phone, so after 5 minutes, I checked to see if Azevedo road cut through somehow, and it appeared to, so I made an illegal u-turn over those double yellow lines you see in the upper left of that image, and turned down the road you see in the upper right. Azevedo Road is gravel, and although the speed limit is 25, I was going slower, so as not to tear up my car too much. I tried to stop an oncoming prius just to make sure that my google maps was correct, but instead of stopping he turned on his headlights; idiot.

A few hundred yards up the road, I saw a rancher in his driveway, so I stopped to talk with him. As I inquired about going around the traffic jam, it started hailing, but he was super nice, and told me he had just heard a siren, and there might be an accident, which explained the backlog of cars. He also said it might just be the bridge (which is a drawbridge). "It's hectic out here in the country, huh?" he joked with a smirk. He told me to go up Azevedo, turn left on Emigh, left on Montezuma Hills, and then take Front Street back to Highway 12. He also informed me that the road was gravel for at least a couple miles, so off I went at a slow 20-mph, but at least I wasn't in traffic anymore.

The rancher's directions were spot on, and I managed to get back to the bridge over the Sacramento River in about 15 minutes, at which point I noted that west-bound 12 was a parking lot as well. I can only assume that I would have been stuck waiting for awhile had I not taken my fun little "detour." Highway 160, which is a road on top of a levee running right next to the river, was a beautiful drive, although I might not drive that one again in the rain.

All-in-all, I enjoyed my scenic route from Sacramento to Pittsburg: good times!

Friends

I was lying in bed last night, and thinking about all of you, my dear friends, and I just wanted to give you a shout out. Here are just a few of the things you have taught me, or that I like about you:

1. You are open-minded; you may not always agree with me, but you're willing to listen, and I know you have my back no matter what
2. You teach me how to chill out
3. You forgive me when I screw up (which I do frequently)
4. Many of you have wicked senses of humor, and understand mine
5. Several of you are a-ma-zing cooks, and I hope to be one day
6. You help me not take myself so seriously
7. You have big hearts
8. Many of you have stuck with me for a LONG time, and I appreciate your brutal honesty and sustained loyalty
9. Spontaneity - enough said
10. You are willing to have adventures with me.

In short, I love and appreciate all of you; you make my world fantastic!

Talkers

There are different kinds of talkers; the old man who thinks that a cell phone is like talking into a can with a string attached, and yells at the top of his lungs so the person at the other end can hear. Then there's the person in your office who refuses to get his heiny out of his chair to go talk to someone in the cube farm; they simply shout across the office.

Today, I rode BART to and from San Francisco for work; this morning was great, as I was able to listen to the Mormon Channel on my phone, and it was quite relaxing. The ride home was a different story; I got on a the Embarcadero station, and the car I was in was packed full. Among my fellow commuters were two women, who ended up being so self-absorbed, they didn't even know where they were.

These ladies talked about everything at full outdoor volume; their kids, home decor, baby showers, their parents, vacations, their parents vacations. For twenty minutes, I listened to their mindless blather, and then we arrived at the San Leandro station. At this point, I looked at the guy sitting next to me, who was quietly working on some document on his laptop, and we started laughing. He told me that on a previous BART ride, there had been a 300-lb lady sitting in front of him screaming obscenities into her cell phone for an hour; so I felt glad that at least the "talkers" weren't using foul language.

When the train arrived at the Bay Fair station, the women got out of their seats, and said, "is this Dublin/Pleasanton?" I was sorta hoping that someone would say yes, and they would get off, but a kinder person told them we hadn't arrived there yet.

My seatmate abandoned me at the Castro Valley station, with the thought that at least it was only one more stop, and again the talkers thought they might be in Dublin. After we left the CV station, there was silence from their bench, and I thought they'd realized how quiet the rest of the passengers were, but the silence was breached with talk about heading directly to some restaurant, reading texts off the iPhone, and talking about ordering cake from the Internet that Oprah listed as one of her favorite things. Blessedly, after another 10 minutes, we arrived at the final destination, and I was able to walk home in peace.

I don't envy people who ride BART everyday, and am insanely grateful for having a car to drive to work instead of having to take public transportation.

Dreams and other nonsense

Many of you know that I have strange, and often vivid dreams. I am not sure why, but they come in bursts. Last night I had a dream that I went to Vegas with Terri, Alicia, Michelle, and Gabe. The odd part was that we could see the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean out the windows of the hotel.

We had booked a room for two nights, but then we decided to stay an extra night, and when Alicia went to pay for the extra night, they told us there was no space. Somehow, we did end up getting the extra night. To top it off, the waiters from the cruise were there, and I was like, "Mario and Didi are gonna KILL us." There are other fuzzy details, like walking around the hotel, climbing stairs, etc., but nothing too much I can recall, other than there MAY have been a scene in an airport where our flight got cancelled...

At least this dream didn't feature any maiming or death. :)

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On a totally unrelated note, we had people over on Friday for movie night, and I pressured them into watching "Jaws." I would say that, of the 10 of us, I was the only one who had seen it from start-to-finish before. It was hysterical to watch people scream at this movie, that while it is well made, can be a bit hokey compared to the CGI scarefests we enjoy now. Plus, a lot of pop culture references can be found in this 1970s gem; Bad Hat Harry Productions has it's roots here, I doubt very much we would have had "Deep Blue Sea" if it weren't for "Jaws," even the shark from "Finding Nemo" , whose name was Bruce, was named after the mechanical shark in Jaws. We had a great time, and several people told me how much they enjoyed it.

This is probably going to sound strange, and well, you know me, I am a little odd (but that's why you love me), Jaws got me strangely fascinated in the plight of sharks. Many foreign nations still engage in the barbaric practice of finning (in which they pull the shark out of the water, cut off it's three fins, and then throw it back to drown), simply for some soup. Sharks are the apex predators of the ocean, and while they may terrify us, it is their domain, and much of the ecosystem depends on them. I am by no means an environazi, but there is something to be said about respecting nature. *steps off soapbox* :)

Vacation

It's been a couple weeks since I blogged; primarily because last week I was on vacation, and the week before that was crazy busy.

Vacation in the Caribbean was amazing. The Freedom of the Seas is a huge ship: 14 decks (above the water line), a FlowRider, a rock climbing wall, at least 6 hot tubs. While the ship and the ports were fun, especially since it was in the 80's a lot of the week, one of the more entertaining parts of the trip was watching Jon and Aaron interact. Seriously, I started calling it the Jon and Aaron show a couple days into the trip.

I climbed the rock wall in about a minute, which I thought was okay considering it was my first time ever rock climbing. I also tried the FlowRider, not the stand-up surfing, but the boogie boarding was easier than I imagined, and I didn't even lose a contact lens!

Monday we were in the Bahamas, at Royal Caribbean's "island," CoCo Cay. That day the sun was warm, but it was windy. Once in the ocean, however, it was good. Emily, Jon and Aaron got on this mini sailboat and ended up shipwrecking into both the pier and the rocks. To their credit, the rudder was broken and the wind wasn't helping. Here's the video of the employee attempting to help them out:




On Wednesday, we docked in St. Thomas; we spent a large part of the day shopping; I ended up with probably 6 pendants, three pairs of earrings, and a ring. We also visited Blackbeard's castle, an amber museum (where we DID get into a discussion about Jurassic Park), and spent an exorbitant amount of time in taxis, which were essentially 5 rows of benches with a tent on the back of a pickup.

Thursday was the last port day, and we were in St. Maarten. Lisa and I took a catamaran ride and spent some time at a beach on the Dutch side of the island. The catamaran operator was this totally skeezy guy named Jason; don't get me wrong, he was nice, but I think he was under the impression that something was gonna happen with us. He clearly didn't know we were nice Mormon girls. In any case, the beach was nice: the water was not too cold and not too hot, although seeing wrinkly old ladies sunbathe topless was a little frightening. We also learned about the "bubble list." After that, Lisa and I got nachos at a local restaurant and then went on a search for postcards, which was surprisingly difficult.

All in all, it was a great trip: I flew 1st class for the first time, and ended the trip on a memorable note. All the pictures are on Facebook, so if you aren't friends with me, you should be. :)

Is it just me?

Or does everyone have as many problems with bathroom plumbing as I do?

In college, there was apparently a leaky seal around the bottom of my toilet which caused water to go spilling down the wall, and eventually resulting in mushrooms being discovered behind the couch of the person 2 floors down. Not my fault.

In the Amador Valley apartment I lived in with Lisa and Lyndy, one of the pipes over the bathroom burst and started leaking water all down the side wall and into the light fixture in the kitchen. The landlord cut a hole in the ceiling during the hottest time of the year, and left it there for a month. Not my fault.

Today, the management company pounded on the door at 8:30am to inform Lisa that there was a leak in the wall behind my bathroom counter, and they needed to come in and do some massive repairs. I unfortunately, was not home, and wouldn't be home until at least 10:30, since I crashed at a friend's house and had an appointment in Walnut Creek at 9:30. This left Lisa the crappy task of moving all the stuff on my counters to the floor of my bedroom so that the maintenance guys could come in. By the time I got home, this is what my bathroom looked like:


Needless to say, this is not how Lisa (or I) envisioned spending our Saturday. I am now just waiting for these men to leave. They told me I cannot use my sinks for at least 48 hours (which is how long the stupid fans have to fun for...continuously), and they actually will have to pull the counter out because the sheetrock is wet.

This is giving me a headache, but the telemarketer who just called told me that she hopes it goes away in the name of Jesus. Yeah, me too.

Epic Christmas, etc.

Yeah, yeah, I know I haven't blogged in awhile; I've been busy! So, firstly, Christmas:

Christmas was generally awesome; I got some great gifts, got to spend time with people I care about, and take time off work. The gift that has thus far consumed most of my time was the Epic Mickey Wii game. It's like crack; you run around having adventures in this dark, twisted version of Disneyland: awesome! I also got a sewing machine, an fabulous leopard-print umbrella, and some wonderful assortments of socks. Mostly, I was glad to spend Christmas Eve jaunting around the Bay Area and spending time with my dad (and the dogs), and with Jeff, Daniel, and Jeff's family. It was a good day, and I won a whole $1.50 at poker (sssh).

Christmas day itself was super mellow - just hanging at mom's relaxing. The next day, my mom and I flew to Utah for a family reunion of sorts. For the first time since March of 2003, all the aunts and cousins got together with our grandma. We are all such different people: a stay-at-home mom, an accountant, an urban planner, artists, musicians, students, bankers, etc. It was a crazy two days, and included much playing of Settlers of Catan, which my aunt Cindy has now renamed "Satans of Hexagons."

New Years' Eve was also slightly nuts - went to Gabe's house for the party, and then left around 10:40 to hit up the dance. I thought I was only going to stay at the dance for a few minutes, but stuck around long enough to embarrass myself with some bad Britney karaoke and to remind myself that I am getting a little too old to ""Pop, Lock, and Drop It." I pretty much bailed after the clock struck midnight. By the way, did anyone else notice that people were driving abnormally slow on the freeway that night?

On New Years Day, Lisa and I went and saw Anjelah Johnson at Tommy T's. She was hysterically funny and didn't use a single swear word! If you have no idea who she is, go to You Tube and look for her Bon Qui Qui video or the nail salon one.

All-in-all, it was a great end to an eventful year and a fabulous start to what's sure to be another amazing year. I look forward to many fun blog posts!