Vegas for the holidays!

Kris and I flew into Vegas on Saturday for Christmas with his family this year. It's been very strange breaking traditions I have had since before I can remember, but also fun!

I told the Mitchell family about my usual Christmas plans and they were nice enough to incorporate some of them into their own holiday this year!

While I may have missed my family and our usual 25th of December I was not without some new fun times! We woke up and ha Christmas cinnamon buns (Taylor even made the frosting orange flavored for me), then we opened presents and watched Harry Potter 7, and then we went hiking at red rock!

I am not one for outdoor activity, but it was a blast. Lots of scrambling over rocks and laughing with the family.

So a late merry Christmas to everyone!

Buds eggnog - my holiday love

Oh Bud's eggnog, how I love thee, you taste good in all forms. At 220 calories for every 4oz, it is good in coffee, alone, with kahlua, with brandy, frozen in my Popsicle maker, I want it all.

I have gone through 4 cartons, with minimal help. Even Alyssa, who doesn't like dairy, likes Bud's!

It is a magic elixir. A panacea to my problems (I don't even care that I probably used panacea incorrectly)

I wish every month was December so I could have it every day. Farewell Internet, I need another dose.

Second Thanksgiving: a very late recap

I realized today that I had left out the events after orphan thanksgiving and I am sure the Internet has just been dying for an update, so here goes!

After working a shift from 12-5 on black Friday I hitched a ride from Bobby, who was somehow not sick of me after the night before (PS, my crumble was a hit! Even with Mireille who doesn't like nuts!).  He gave me a ride to the 19th Street BART station and I booked it as fast as I could over to SFO on the other side of the bay.  The trip was hurried but luckily there was barely anyone at the airport and I checked in and got a coffee with relative ease.  Once in Vegas I had a warm welcome from Chelsea, Brandon, Kris and Geoff.  It was a crowded but snugly ride back to their place while I learned of the Thanksgiving madness that had occurred not 24 hours prior.

To shorten that up, everyone got real drunk, Kris and Geoff slept on couches, Chelsea gambled, Everyone got kicked out of a casino.  But that is someone elses story and therefore I am movin on.

Since all my lame-sauce friends were hungover, we just decided to spend a relaxing evening catching up and drinking wine in the hot tub! I admittedly had no issues with the plan.

Saturday rolled around and it was Thanksgiving mock 2.  Tons of The Mitchell Family's friends showed up and I got to see a bunch of people that I thought I would miss out on!  The feast was magnificent and the beverages were flowing.  We had planned on going to Joe's (Kris' best friend) Blacklight party later in the evening but had nothing to wear so Chelsea and I sewed some dresses quickly out of mens XL tee-shirts.

This somehow turned into a sewing lesson for Sojo and another little girl and then everyone was dressed for party time.  The 23-26 year olds headed out to the party filled with food and ready for dancing and the rest of the night was a redbull/vodka fueled adventure.

Sunday was the painful drive home.  But we got to stop in SB to say hi to Kat and Ava, so there was a nice little plus side.  Sadly, we got going to late in the day and didn't get in until 8pm, which meant no crushcakes for me. . . bummer.  Then we left Geoff's and were back in the Bay area before 6am.

And just like that, Thanksgiving weekend came to a close.  Not with a bang but with a really full snore.

Rollout

I am pretty good at retail, I can sell affluent women and men lots of sweaters that they probably don't need, I might even have a chance to sell really expensive computer products to people soon! But I learned this past night that I hate rollouts.  A rollout is when new product comes into the store and sad little associate peons are scheduled to come in from 9pm to 1am to fold, stock, shelve, build, move, sort, refold, adjust, primp and otherwise futz with the entire store and it's stock.

I was pretty stoked.  An opportunity to hang out with my fun coworkers at night with no customers to impress!?! Starting the evening off right, I brought a mug of coffee and some gingerbread.  I should have brought a mug of coffee plus a flask of something stronger and a sandwich.  Never have I hated sweaters more.  Pants are no better!! WHY do they all need so much attention? Aren't they just going to be attacked and discarded by the public in the morning? After 5 hours of folding items and being told to change or move them I am very pleased to be done.

In any case, I am now comfortably in bed drinking a beer, petting the kitten, and creepily looking and Kris and wondering why he smells mildly of maple syrup.  I hope I didn't miss anything to do with maple syrup.  An icky rollout shift is one thing, but missing breakfast foods for it would be a completely different and totally unacceptable other thing.

Kitten got stuck in the leg of a pair of sweatpants, adorable and a little sad.

Orphan Thanksgiving

I have had a lot of firsts this year: first real apartment, first pet, first attempt to pay all my bills by myself, etc.  But this is a big one because it is the first time I will not be spending thanksgiving with any family.  Luckily, I am not alone in this crazy city and have been invited to an "Orphan's Thanksgiving Feast" at a friend of Bobby's.

I am waiting patiently for my oven timer to ding and in that time I will say a little more about today.  Not wanting to show up to my awesome hosts (who I have never met) house, I chose to make a berry crumble.  This is proving more difficult than originally anticipated.  Apparently, blenders can not double as food processors, who knew? Not me, obviously.  So I have hand smashed, crumbled, blended, whisked and smooshed all my ingredients into something that somewhat resembles the photo in my cook book.

But It should all turn out well! Because it's fruit and sugar and crumble top, so how could it be bad?  I am excited about this new way of approaching a holiday and can't wait for my inevitable food coma!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

blackberries, white raspberries, red raspberries, and strawberries.  I want to eat it all.

A Farewell to Elena

For the past two weeks my friend Elena has been staying at the apartment.  She and her boyfriend broke up and so she needed a place to stay until she moved back to Southern California for Law School and other adventures in warmer climes.  I admit though, I will miss having her around.  It was nice having a third person to hang out with at night; I will miss talking about our shared love of J.Crew and Ikea.

But as a going away party she decided to go to the Saddle Rack in Fremont.  A location I was sure would be hellish and filled with horses (they are all out to get me after all.)  She assured me that no horses would be inside the bar and I would be safe for another night so I agreed.  Plus she promised me Mac n' Cheese which there is no way to turn down.

We had a nice dinner at Homeroom in Oakland, a place that specializes in fancy Mac and minus a few friends getting incredibly lost on the way there it was smooth sailing.  Elena and I shared delicious Vermont white cheddar Mac and then we all headed to the country bar.

IT WAS SUPER FUN!!! Surprise of all surprises, I had a great time! There was bull riding, and a chair they tip back and pour liquor down your throat (I didn't try either of those), dancing, a live band, and best of all NO horses in sight!  We all laughed at the two old guys on the floor dancing with all the pretty young girls, but then stopped when we realized they were surprisingly good.  Bobby, Mirielle and James showed off some swing dancing skills and the rest of us attempted line dancing and failed miserably.

I even got Kris to dance, I take this as the years win.

   

On the Art of Rhythmic Flailing

Jaymi came down again last weekend and for once spent the entire time in Berkeley! For those who know her, this is a big thing.  Of course she wanted to go out and for once, I did too!  So on Friday we made a little adventure to Shattuck Down Low.  A somewhat creepy looking club I have never been too.

Creepy? NO! Awesome? Yes indeed.

We danced for 5 hours and barely a creeper was to be seen.  The bartenders were awesome and didn't mind giving us water all night even though all we bought was a $2 soda.  The fellow dancers were great and gave us actual personal space instead of trying to rub up next to us in a never-so-seductive manner! Even though I can't dance (Jaymi lovingly coined the term "rhythmic flailing" for me,) I had a great time!

So here's the "dance" lesson:
1) play some loud music with really heavy bass
2) hire girls in underwear to dance on a stage
3) fill body with desired liquids (gin and sprite)
4) put arms over head
5) jump around like an 85 pound woman after 10 cups of coffee
6) put arms down, because they start to hurt a little
7) kick legs out like crazed hobo attacking invisible enemies
8) repeat steps 3-7 until the club closes


After our clubbing was through we tried to call Kris to give us a ride home (since it was 2:30am and we were in dark scary South Berkeley) but his phone was on silent so we had to walk.  On the route home we heard a sad little mewing and found a kitty!  We talked to him for a little while and he chose to follow us a mile home.  Now some nights he sits outside the apartment and meows for attention so we take him a little food. But our neighbor is going to take him to an animal shelter soon to see if he is microchipped, since he seems too smart and sweet not to have a family.

Occupy Oakland

This is one of those topics I try to avoid, mostly because I just don't know enough about the actual issue to form a solid opinion.  So in that vein I will not be writing about the Occupy movements but one specific part that caught my attention.


Occupy Oakland has caused a huge outcry against the police force for their use of extreme brutality in breaking up the protesters.  I agree that the methods used were terrible and that there was most definitely a better way to go about it.  But what I don't care for most is the flip flopping of the Mayor of Oakland.  She has tried to stay on both sides of the fence and that is pretty lame.


The Oakland PD posted this letter on their website and I thought that it was a well written and honest document that pretty much summed up how I feel about the Mayor (click "Read More" for the full letter).  Politics aside, things here in the Berkeley are pretty nice.  I am now going to enjoy my heathy breakfast of coffee and almond joys.

Popsicle Madness

I have gone frozen dessert crazy. For Reals.  Not only do I have 5 pints of Ben & Jerry's in my fridge, I have also been making popsicles with my birthday present from Kris nearly daily.  I understand that a diet consisting almost entirely of ice cream, popsicles, and coffee is not healthy.  This will not be a factor I consider while I continue to eat those three things.

*National Creamsicle Day is August 14!*

To the important part of this blog post, right?  Here is a list of the many popsicles I have made!
1) strawberry lemonade iced tea
2) orange creamsicle (batch one)
3) orange creamsicle (batch two with more vanilla!)
4) butterscotch cream with salted peanuts
5) straight butterscotch
6) orange
7) iced tea tops, orange bottoms
8) I have a bowl of cream mixture in my fridge and am thinking chocolate cream

The options are endless, the fun is fun (obviously), and the Jessica is pleased.

Side note: Kris and I have been watching A LOT of Star Trek, and I find myself wishing to make Star Trek inspired popsicles.  Like Picard Peach, LaForge Lemon, Watermelon Worf, Crusher Crushed Cherry Cream, and Tribble Chocolate Fluff.  I am not sure my lifestyle is awesome or incredibly depressing and so I will go with the first!

Any ideas for more flavors?

Grown up birthday: no bounce house, no singing, all good times

My 23rd birthday has come and gone and in its place I have some fond fuzzy memories of the weekend to keep me happy until next October 14 rolls around.

Kris was awesome and created a surprise BBQ for me! Well almost a surprise, he told me two hours beforehand so we could go to Costco and get upwards of 200 dollars worth of meat and alcohol. What can I say, the boy knows how to throw a BBQ.

Many of my new and old friends showed up, coming from Tahoe, Albany, and the city, I imagine they all shared entertaining travel stories and a love of smoky tri-tip. Also I received some awesome gifts! Mostly wine, but one pint of super delicious Ben & Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk!

The night passed without problems and only one guest left looking a little worse for wear. The next morning in true Berbert fashion we had mimosas and went shopping at target!

The rest of the weekend is a blur of dancing, mimosas, hanging out with Alexis and Jaymi, more mimosas, tater tots, movies, and of course more mimosas.

Now I'm off to write thank you notes like the good little girl I am, watch my cat try to chase invisible enemies through the apartment, and drink some fresh ground Peets sumatra coffee (a gift!)

I swear, I have no cash sir.

Walking home from my bar job at Nick's Lounge on Sunday, Kris and I were approached by a rather inebriated gentleman who first wanted cigarettes, then wanted a meal, and then just wanted to get drunk. He asked if we had any cash and when we responded honestly that we were actually short on funds too he looked at us like we had been caught out in some huge lie.

This made me think, can we actually gauge how much money a person has (a) in the bank, (b) in their wallet, (c) stuffed in their socks, by how they appear to the world.  I think not!  If you looked at me and tried to determine my ability to pay rent, there would be no questions; I dress well, have a new iPhone, have a pet, enjoy eating meals out, and have a whole lot of awesome ikea furniture.  But its impossible to say what was bought for me or by me.

So maybe people are just really good and pretending to have money and we are all poor?  I doubt it, but that does make me feel a little better about looking for a 4th job.  And in the meantime, I will keep going out to eat at delicious restaurants (on my boyfriends dime.)

Berkeley is the best city ever: part deux

The weather has been less than cooperative, its glum and moody and keeping me from riding my BRAND NEW AWESOME BICYCLE. But, the city is still pretty cool.
Why you ask? Because Berkeley gives away a free helmet to all Berkeley residents! So I went and got mine and am now one step closer to biking my way around town.

EDIT 10/5/11:


I woke up feeling kind of gross and headachey for no reason. After falling asleep at 11 last night I was still unprepared to get out of bed at 10am, but I looked outside and it was blue skies and puffy clouds so I got up, ate a bowl of cocoa puffs, and hopped on my snazzy new ride!  5.2 miles in 30 minutes from here to Anthropologie and back.  I went on San Pablo for about 4 blocks on the way home and got to go SUPER FAST!!!! but the rest was a nice leisurely ride with lots of stop signs and slowing down for approaching cars.  


I got drizzled on about half the time, it was super fun though.

Washingtown, aka the funny named laundromat I will frequent.

So before my dad came out to visit I gave Kris a little break.  In return for him doing laundry once a week, I would do all the other household chores (even the kitty box, which is gross).  But what did he do with this wonderful freedom?  Did he take it upon himself to clean our clothes, sheets and delicates once every 7 days? No, not so much, in fact. . . not at all.  So when I looked at the laundry bin 2 days before the parental visit and realized there was a friggin ton of laundry I knew there was only one option.

That option was Washingtown.  I carted a full laundry hamper, 2 plastic laundry bins and a backpack full of dirty clothes to a public place filled with machines.  At first I may have tried to put detergent in a dryer, but instead of being scolded and turned away I was just laughed at a little by an older woman who helped me out.  She explained that "no, one can not just use dryers because they are big and machiney," those weren't her exact words, mostly because she didn't say "machiney."  First you must use the AMAZING 55 POUND WASHING MACHINES!!! These things are literally magical.  you dump in 5 loads of laundry and presto-changeo, 30 minutes later some clothing all ready for the dryer.

Now to the important part.  I knew there was a reason that I was immediately drawn to the giant dryer.  Perhaps it is because they are large enough to fit a full size human in for a comfortable nights sleep, perhaps because they look a little like a time machine, maybe it's just because I like to pretend I am only a little kid and technology is too big for me to use, who knows?  But once that machine turned on it was like a fantastical journey into the swirling and twirling of colorful shirts and panties!  I wish I could have brought along someone on acid, or maybe a cat, because I feel like this machine would pretty much make their lives complete.

Which leads me to the end of my story, the laundromat and I are now acquaintances and hopefully I will return within the week to have another adventure with the wonderful dryer.  But in the meantime, Kris has lost what could have been a good deal.  And, although now he probably still won't do any of the house chores, I can assure you he sure as hell will be cleaning the litter box!

A Day of New Adventures

Saturday was a day to try new things, so it seemed only right to go into the city to meet Alyssa for some fresh ideas.  Looking at the costs it was going to be $4 (plus gas) to drive, or $11 (plus around the city fare) for each of us to take public transportation.  Since we never really drive into the city, with good reason as it's super scary driving, we decided to do it.

Once we met up with Alyssa a plan began to take shape.  We would
1) get coffee (my idea)
2) go see the Bison at Golden Gate Park (Alyssa's Idea)
3) get a drink at a new bar (Kris' Idea)

All this and more occurred.  But what i was most surprised by was how frickin cool the park is.  New adventures sprung up without warning once we arrived.  We saw a bus that had pushed a car up onto a divider (because SF drivers are scary), we saw older gentlemen playing with sailboats at Spreckels Lake, we saw three bison, let me repeat THREE BISON!!! although they were just sleeping and not really doing anything cool.  AND we took a turn about Stow Lake; a lake with water so gross that even the foam coming off the waterfalls looks like stale rootbeer fluff.

The only downside to the park was that there were not enough Ice Cream and Beer vendors for my taste.  I don't actually think that Ice Cream and Beer vendors exist, but they should.  Especially in a park with lots of people wandering around just waiting for their sugar and alcohol needs to be met.  This could be a huge new venture, someone should really start up a cart and pay me for my great idea.

Luckily we were able to remedy the situation and conclude part 3 of our day plan by going to a pretty snazzy brewery, called Social Kitchen and Brewery, right outside of GG park.  Truffle oil mac n' cheese, hot wings with bleu cheese dressing, barely cooked cookie dough with ice cream on top... (yup, I got my ice cream fix in there too!) and some pretty fun beers made for an excellent meal.

C.L.I.T. (Cat lady in training)

My future is set. I may not have a job right now, but I can tell you with the utmost certainty that if Kristopher ever leaves me and I am a sad bag lady I will definitely become the owner of at least 10 cats.  We can live in my fortress of solitude, aka the run down crack house I squat in, and eat tuna out of the can together.

This past weekend was a bumpy and confusing emotional rollercoaster.  Friday, we went to Sacramento for Kris' grandmothers funeral.  Having never really been to a funeral I found myself in the grip of group emotions.  I am sure there is some psychoanalytical term for this, but I had never met this woman and yet felt so sad and overcome with grief during the ceremony that it was a bit difficult to be there.  After the speeches and remembrance ended we did what UCSB graduates do best though, partied and ate a lot of delicious catered food.  Meeting Kris' family was great and we got to play with some adorable small children.

This led us to Petsmart on Saturday, you know, because children are semi-reminiscent of kittens in there love of chasing bottle caps and human ankles.  While at the store we found the sweetest little kitten ever (this has changed).  She purred when picked up and fell asleep in our arms, she made one pathetic little "mew?" on the 3 hour drive home to Berkeley, she hid under the couch for a majority of the first day home.  We named her Professor McGonagall, because we are Harry Potter nerds.

AND THEN!!!!! a change overcame her.  Our kitten is a freak.  She likes to walk on our faces at 5am, lick noses and headbutt your cheek when you are not attentive enough, and meow plaintively at the bathtub as if to say "hey, giant white inanimate object, why the shit aren't you playing with me?"

But I love her anyway, and the insanity of owning a kitten seems to fit my personality pretty well.  So take a look at my future.

Whats that you say? Berkeley is the best ever? I agree.

Quickie update: Chelsea came to visit this weekend!!! We were watching a girly movie together thursday night when she suddenly started almost crying and we realized it had been WAAAAAYYYYYY too long since last we had gotten together for some BFF bonding time.

So Saturday morning at 11am we were happily awoken by the ringing of cellphone bells, letting us know she was lost, 3 miles from our apartment.  This was quickly remedied and we started the day out right with drinks, cap'n crunch and cigars in the back yard.  Because really, what says saturday morning like some bourbon and lung issues?  Later in the day was Rivoli's, which as anyone who knows me will already agree that a single post cannot cover the amazing-ness of this restaurant (Saturday's trip sponsored (at least in part) by the Jerry Mann Foundation For Feeding Poor Children Who Love Really Good Food).

And today, oh today... the magic, the fun, the shuffleboard.  Chelsea and I found this crazy hole in the wall pub called the Kingfish, that sounded like a good yet somewhat frightening time and decided that it was a good choice to make that our location for the evening.  We coincidentally found out that Shawna (my drunken pottery friend from college) was in town AND convinced Alexis, who moved to Berkeley 1 week ago, to come join us for $3 beer and ethiopian food.  The food was a bust, but the beers were good, and the shuffleboard table belonged to us for 4 hours.  Who knew that UCSB kids were made to slide little metal pucks across wooden tables? not me, that's for sure.  But it was/is a match made in heaven and will be repeated again soon!

Chelsea just headed out, driving 8 hours back to Orange county on adrenaline, energy drinks and ritalin, and I miss her already.  But sometimes these little weekends just remind me how glad I am to live in a city surrounded by so many people I like! Tomorrow, barbecue.  It's almost good enough to cancel out the boredom of my new temp job! Almost...

5 reasons today sucks harder than a Dyson (yep, not even a dirty title to make it better)

1) new job = super boring, I don't know how to create enough busy work to fill the voids of time.  The girl before me reorganized everything already so that's out.

2) I get to see my boyfriend for a maximum of 30 minutes every day, and it's usually in the morning when he is rushing to get out the door.  Forget romantic dinners or movies together, our alone time consists of hurriedly drinking coffee and trying to make sandwiches with enough calories to get him through 16 hours of work.

3) Once home, I decided to get sushi to better my crappy feelings about the day.  This led to a 40 minute ordeal of phone calls, pick up orders, the wrong restaurant and a mini breakdown in my kitchen where I ate half a bag of frozen peas in my moment of hungry desperation

4) Money sucks, let's go back to bartering

5) I cannot figure out how to connect my laptop to the giant monitor we have.  I would very much like to throw both items against a wall but thanks to point #4 I can't do that.

I am seriously disliking today, and have a feeling tomorrow will just be more of the same.  Someone save me from loneliness, desperate hunger, and technological ill will.  OR I will begin talking to myself like a crazy person, then at least I will fit in on BART!

also I am worried this will be my future if I spend this much time alone everyday...

Funemployment!

Life is returning to normal after my weekend adventure to North Carolina to celebrate my daddy's bday.  After 4 days of partying, drinking, eating and generally having an awesome time it was somewhat refreshing to come home and not have to do anything!  Our friend Nik stayed at our place over the weekend so he could go see Outside Lands, a 3 day music festival over in the city, and he was in town until today so yesterday we got to have a little BBQ with him, Alyssa, and Kris' parents.

After lunch of champions (burgers and beers) we all took a nap and then went to do our own activities.  Kris headed to work, an awful 6pm-2am shift, Alyssa went to go meet a friend at a brewery on the other side of the bay, and Nik and I kept napping.  Around 8 we decided that dinner was in order and went over to a Sushi restaurant about a half mile away.  My favorite was the salmon sushi as usual, however, they added a twist! A little drop of wasabi in between the fish and the rice, so delicious and surprising.

This morning Nik and I parted ways and I went off to meet Bobby, a friend I met on Muni, for lunch at cheeseboard and after that I spent some time alone in my apartment for the first time in what seems like eternity.  I read 400 pages of a book, ate a cookie, and have big plans to fall asleep early and content.

Fear not though excited follower, for tomorrow I have brunch plans and a film to take in over in the city.  The funemployment lasts til next monday and I plan on filling every moment of it with excitement... or at least a lot of reading and naps!

Meanwhile, over in the city...

Yesterday I met up with Alyssa for some adventuring since she had the day off and I am between temp jobs.  We first got lunch (some tasty sandwiches from Cafe Madeleine) and then took a walk up away from the financial district to the famous bookstore City Lights.  I have passed by it a few times in precious trips as it borders both Chinatown, little Italy and the downtown area.  But having never gone in we decided that it would be the perfect location to search out.

The day was beautiful by any standards and in SF it was almost heavenly. Sunny blue sky and a warm breeze made the short walk all the more enjoyable. Once inside I found the layout of the store a little confusing but it was nice to peruse an actual bookstore after so much time internet shopping on Amazon.
Neither of us were willing to shell out $20 for a new book though so we headed to the Metreon and saw a movie instead. This was followed by a handstand competition, in reality it was no contest as I had trouble and Alyssa made it look like she could handstand all day long. We got happy hour drinks at Annabelle's and made fun of the bartender who shamelessly flirted with everyone at the bar.

After parting ways I headed to BART, only to find all the computers were down and people had been waiting 40 minutes already for them to start back up. So I took a cab with three girls from Egypt back to Berkeley and sadly spent my last $20 in cash that was supposed to go to a guy at Peet's today.

What goes up must come down

It would seem this is even more true than usual today, because as wonderful my weekend was, my day today is equally crappy.  The housewarming party was a great success; Panda and her boyfriend came up from SD, Katie came from SB, Aymee flew in from Colorado, Berbert got a ride from Tahoe, and Ethan and Kyle motorcycled their way up to coast for a giant party.  We also had some friends who actually live in the area show up to (special thanks to Alyssa for providing me with my very favorite Jam to use on baked brie).  We made lots of tasty finger foods ranging from mini caprese to chicken enchilada buns and had a BBQ with Kris' tri-tip to top off our feast.

Three days of partying and running around the city later, the apartment is still moderately clean and the only real damage is a broken couch.  It is still usable, it just looks like it is slowly sinking into a puddle of quicksand on one side, adding to the classy ambiance I was going for in the living room.

So this morning I turned up to the home office and was delighted when the guy from Raison d'Etre came in and having remembered our conversation from a week ago he brought me my very own whoopie pies! 9 of them in fact, all for me.  He gave me chocolate with vanilla filling and vanilla with strawberry filling!  Being the nice receptionist I am, I put half out on the break room table for others to eat while secretly hoarding the others in the freezer for my own personal later consumption.  But from there it was downhill.

And while I should have known from the slightly craptastic treatment I received last week from Peet's (they waited until the very last minute to tell me I actually had a job and even then all that was said was "we will at least need you for Monday") It still hurts to get fired from a job I never could have had anyway.  But even though I feel sad and bitter and mostly just want to go home and not pretend to be super-happy-receptionist-girl until Wednesday, there is the promise of a small going away party with cake to look forward to! So my work here was not in vain, I made a few friends and quite a few more people will at least be sad to have to get used to a new person at the front desk.  Which, as a temp, is really all I can ask for.  And who knows, the next job might be at a bakery and will be even better than free coffee!

My BIG problem

I have a problem, a huge problem, it is giant.  I don't know what kind of dessert I want to eat tonight.  I have boxes of pudding and jello, I have two kinds of Ben & Jerry's, I even have cookie dough just waiting to be baked!

While I decide I have chosen to partake in a little strawberry lemonade with a shot of vodka and freshly frozen cranberry juice ice cubes.

Who knows, maybe an episode of SATC and the rest of my drink will help me choose!  I am willing to go with that for now.

Intestinal Distress

Since Kris and I moved into the fabulous new apartment, we have been cooking up a storm! From lemon pasta to herb chicken with tortellinis, peach cobbler to chewy nutella cookies, we have been buying, cooking, frying, baking, mixing and sampling our way through the neighborhood grocery stores. 

Berkeley Bowl is my overall favorite, although I would need a full time job, a part time job, and probably a corner of my own if I wanted to buy all my groceries there on a regular basis.  But it is my fruity indulgence so I allow myself to go bananas in their produce section.  Target offers wonderful bang for our (fairly limited) bucks in frozen foods, meats and milk.

There are obviously many other options like Whole Foods (hippies), Andronico's (rich hippies and foodies), and the neighborhood Walgreen's (a place I only buy Ben & Jerry's).  But the one thing they all have in common is their incredible ability to give me a stomach ache.

I have been eating so well I feel like I need to be in one of the pepto commercials.  Nausea not included, I can even do the little dance!  So today I am going plain, I am having cereal, a pb&j sandwich, and hopefully mac n' cheese for dinner.  I have a wonderful kitchen with actual counter space, I could make a cake to look at and make a cake to eat and still have room to make a cake to take to work with me, but I think I need a break from it all to return to my crappy college diet for a little while.  Or just until my stomach calms down a little.

Of course... I'm an elf

Harry Potter 7 premiere last night! Having never attended a midnight showing I asked Kris if he would mind going to this one, his response was to go online and buy tickets immediatly.  So with the knowledge that I was going to be staying up pretty late last night I prepared for the show by attempting to take a nap, this did not work, I was cranky by the time we got into the theater at 10:30.  The fact that it was chock full o' high schoolers only made me more irritable and getting to yell at one of the little brats did not relieve me of any of the tension I was now carrying in my grown up shoulders.

WHUUUUUTEEVER.

The movie was good, the screenplay was definitely loosely based on the book in some areas (why was there a boat house? what was the point there?) but to avoid being a spoiler I will stop there.  I enjoyed the film but think that overall my very favorite is still #3.

So in honor of Harry Potters defeat of the Dark Hollywood Empire Lord, here are some fun pictures I found on the internet

BUT, MOST IMPORTANTLY LOOK AT NEVILLE!!!



He is super studly, WTF.



Ikea - limit 9 per customer

So after finding a place and signing a few checks, we were told that the moving process could start on Friday.  This obviously meant that on Friday at 5pm when I got off work the first stop was Ikea to buy a kitchen cart.  $350 later, we got to our brand new apartment! It is giant! It is magnificent! It makes me want to use words like splendiferous and floobily woobily (not that I don't already).  So we moved all of our swag up the 2.5 flights of stairs and decided to commence building.  This is when we realized that the "kitchen cart" we had grabbed was in fact... wait for it... a chair.  So back to Ikea we went, and when we found the right aisle and bin we realized that there were no kitchen carts in stock, interesting.  We approached a Ikea-helper and he gave us an apologetic smile while saying that he "actually knew why there weren't any in stock, it's because some lady came in earlier in the day and bought nine of them!!!!"

Now, I am a big fan of this kitchen cart:
1) it is solid wood (a big deal for Ikea)
2) it has 2 drawers in it!
3) there are shelves where you can put pans or wine bottles
4) It is just the right height for a giant boyfriend

But I cannot fathom why anyone would need 9 of them, like 2 maybe, but 9!?!? Does she not have any counters in her kitchen? Is she giving them away as Christmas gifts? Who knows.  Kris and I contemplated the mystery woman and her need to own all the carts on our way back home with the knowledge that they were getting more in stock at 10am the next day.

Saturday rolled around and we rolled out of bed, literally rolled, my muscles were already dying from overexertion. We finished building the bookshelf/dining room table we had stupidly started at 10:30pm the night before and headed back to the land of Swedish blue and yellow.  With proper item in hand we thanked the merciful Ikea gods that the crazy lady had not returned to snatch up the fresh crop of carts.  The rest of the weekend was spent making trips to and from the new apartment, the old apartment, and the storage locker.  By the last trip up the stairs on Sunday, my arms were noticeably shaking and I was happy to sit down in my living room and have some peach cobbler!

Fear the Beard

"Why" you may ask, would someone fear a beard?  Perhaps it is dirty and belongs to a hobo? Maybe it looks like the beard of a well known murderer?  No dear friends and family, this beard belonged to Brian Wilson of the San Francisco Giants (a team that my phone has taken to autocorrecting as "Pants")

I pose a question: Are you afraid of this man?

The answer is no, he looks like a mildly douchey version of Adam Levine.

However, are you afraid of this same man... with a beard?

YES!!! This man looks like he will eat your firstborn child for dinner, and your soul for dessert.  See that face he is making? I am fairly positive that's because he has indigestion from a meal too full of human life force.  And that is why the phrase "fear the beard" is completely accurate in this case.



We went to a baseball game at Giants stadium, it was beautiful!  They also have a team member named Panda, what is with this city?

The Yazz Festival, and Freedom Day!

Every year there is a Jazz festival on Fillmore street, so this sunday Kris and I decided to go meet up with John to check it out.  Not knowing a whole lot about jazz, I worried that it may be boring or uneventful.  I was wrong, so so wrong, how could any street festival with fried foods and fun booths be boring?!?!  So we walked about a mile to the festival from John's apartment in the lower Haight.



As you can probably see, there was a man dressed in a full sparkly costume, another far cooler man with a puppy in his murse, and a whole lot of people packing the 6 blocks of festival. I didn't get any pictures of the bands but there was basically one for every block of booths and food.  I also did not photograph my delicious fried calamari with tangy tartar sauce, but that would pretty much look like all calamari so you can just picture it mentally.

After a few hours, we returned to John's apartment and got a call from Jaymi Berbert saying she would be in town later if we could hang out.  So we took a nap and awaited her arrival.  Once we had a Jaymi (at like 10pm) we decided to go get a few beers at Toronados, but it was really crowded, so we went to Mad Dog in the Fog, and had some tasty Delirium Tremens, followed by $2.50 Tecate night at the Irish bar a block away.  Minus one douchey Davis student, it was a pretty fun night, and of course I got to sleep on John's ottoman which seems like it is becoming a trend for me.

On the morning of the Fourth we woke up bright and early, literally because the sun was shining in our eyes, and piled into Jaymi's car to go back across the bridge to our side of the bay.  We showed her our sad little bedroom sublet and told her all about our new apartment (our apartment that Kris is signing papers for in 2 hours!!!!!!)  She unsurprisingly did not find the bedroom a great hangout place so we headed up to Telegraph to hippie-watch.  Since it was a holiday though a lot was closed and the hippies seemed to have gone into hiding, so we went to Triple Rock to sit on the rooftop beer garden and pass the time.  I had a glass of bright red pomegranate cider, which was referred to as Freedom Drank, and Kris had a beer, boring.

   

Later we drove around Berkeley trying to find a place to watch fireworks, we ended up directly in fron of Walter and Lydia's old place overlooking the freeway.  After 30 minutes even Kris (a huge fan of fireworks and all explosions) was bored and we were happy to see the grand finale!  So overall a happy and fun 4th of July

Oh My God YELP Events!! (A.K.A Guest post by Kris)

I am going to start this off by saying one thing, everyone should go to any Yelp event they are invited to.

Jessica and I went to a Yelp Tasting Event on Sunday and had an amazing time.  There were so many Yelpers and so many different things to taste.  There was the Cupcake Winery and distillery with their delicious red velvet red wine and their amazing chocolate vodka.  There were also numerous other distilleries around sampling mostly tequilas.  There were also a variety of breweries, most of which served beers I have already tried and enjoyed.  The people pouring our "tastes" of these things were not skimping on their pours.  We were getting full cups of beer to taste.

The alcohol was all great, but the food blew it all away!  I don't know which of the foods we tried was my favorite.  There were amazing tamales and mini-burgers, and more bbq than I could try.  Everyones favorite place of the night though had to be the bakeries.  My favorite was the bacon cupcake from Vanilla Bean Gourmet Cupcakes.  Jessica's favorite (after the bacon cupcake of course) was Fat Bottom Bakery's toasted coconut cupcake, I didn't get to try them though.  Entertainingly, the woman who owned Vanilla Bean said that she didn't actually like cupcakes and opened the store solely so she could share the bacon cupcakes with the world because she loved them so much!

But Yelp did not stop at food and drinks!  There were also activity booths for attendees to visit.  After a parkour demonstration, people could try out what they saw on some hefty mats without hurting themselves.  There were tea dancers and live music from local bands.  There was also a booth where you could dress up and take a "band" picture.  And lastly, a burlesque show with some interaction between the onstage woman and the crowd.

I think my favorite part of the night was the Homefry's area.  They put on game nights all over the Bay Area by offering games and other multi-person fun such as giant jenga, original NES games, giant connect four, and giant chess.  I played an epic game of jenga where the tower eventually got taller than me and it could barely be touched without swaying a few inches either way.

All in all it was an amazing night and I definitely sugest going to any Yelp event you get invited to because they are awesome.

Everyone has a Happy Place

Mine just happens to be Rivoli's restaurant on Solano.  At least once a year for as long as I can remember we have gone to Rivoli's.  Usually, it is in the wonderful company of Walter and Lydia on New Years Eve.  But tonight, Kris and I ventured there in the hopes of recreating some of my best memories with a smaller party.  I was worried that without our "in" the service would be merely mediocre, and I was so so so happy to be proven wrong.  I might even say that tonight was one of my favorite meals there.

I (being of stupid, yet sound mind and body) looked at the menu today while at work, and was so immediately taken with one of the options that it was not even a choice as to where we would be eating dinner tonight.  Around noon I made a reservation, and it was 8 long hours of waiting later that Kris and I began our delicious trip down Rue de Rivoli.  As is customary at restaurants, we were seated... duh... then our server came out to help us get started and when he asked if we had any questions our only response was "yes, we know exactly what we want to eat, but no idea how to pair that with wine!"  He responded in turn by sending out Peter, an incredible sommelier with a love of wines comparable to my love of coats and gelato combined!

Peter seemed to take a liking to us and not only offered us 8 different amazing sounding options to go with our meal, but decided that given our interests, we would be perfect to help try out a new wine that wasn't even on the wine menu yet!

We chose the mushroom fritters with house aioli, fresh gnochhi with peaches and brown butter sauce, chicken two ways, and pot roast with mushroom au jus and polenta.  Peter helped us every step of the way, pointing out different flavors and complexities of the wines while incorporating fun stories about the people who made them! From our conversations, he appears to know everyone in the wine world, down to the newborn twins of the daughter of the guy who created Gallo wines (she married a Frenchman and created Turning Leaf! Incroyable!!)

Peter not only helped us find this perfect wine for our meal, he also made sure it was the one we wanted by bringing out a different wine from Lodi, California.  An oakier, fruity wine that was delicious with the fritters!

The food as usual was amazing.  Kris' chicken two ways would have knocked my socks off if I had been wearing any, and my pot roast was one of the most divine mouthgasms of my life.  Needless to say, they took gnocchi to a whole new level and instead of the generic chewy nubbins you receive most places I enjoyed a fluffy pillow of potato-pleasure (I later learned they were ricotta gnocchi)!

We must have done something right because when the time for dessert came we ordered a gelato (strawberry and raspberry) and asked if they still served the Vin Santo with Biscotti... sadly, the answer was no, but they did us one better and gave us a double order of Madeira dessert wine with biscotti like cookies, and threw in a mini hot fudge sundae (they must have overheard us talking about the first time Kris came and tried to eat a full one by himself.)  Side note, the picture above is after we ate two and a half of the cookies, we can't be blamed though as they were delicious and had pistachios in them.

As much as I love going on our yearly New Year's romp, I think that this was truly the first time I saw Rivoli's for what it really is.  A phenomenal restaurant with a wonderful staff, not only do they go above and beyond the call of waiterdom, they make sure that every person there feels like they are the most important people in the room.  I can't wait to go back even if next time I just drop in for the fritters and a glass of wine.

I was going to make a Taco joke, but decided against it.

The setting: Emeryville, lunchtime, on a busy street
The exact place: the best taco truck ever
Cast of characters: me and the taco dude (henceforth referred to as TD)

me: I will have 2 steak tacos and a coke please
TD: okay, 4 dollars.
me: no, I'm sorry, I must not have spoken clearly, two tacos and a coke please.
TD: yes, 4 dollars
me: are you sure you are getting this, 2 tacos, 1 coke, please.
TD: yes, 2 tacos, 1 bottle of coke, 4 dollars
me: *perform little jig, reconsider order, think about buying all the tacos*
TD: *stares a bit*
me: well thank you then!

HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS EARLIER!?!?!?!!!?!?!!

Side note, the tacos were amazing.  Emeryville is winning me over day by day.

Here is a site that my coworker Chris sent me to, I have had a lot of trouble not snorting with glee every few seconds as I refresh the page.  I think dolphin punch and the one with the horse are my favorites.

http://animalsbeingdicks.com/page/27

Super Saturday

Yesterday was very very fun, and busy, and chock full of delight!

After 2 weeks of waking up every morning at 6:30am, my body was quite pleased to sleep in all the way to 9am! We decided to go to the children's museum on the Cal campus and headed out after a breakfast of cookies.  The museum (the Laurence Hall of Science?) sits atop a big hill with a great overlook of the city. On the way up the massive hill we saw a pack of goats, bunch of goats? plethora of goats? herd? who knows... and I got out to take a picture.  After accidentally shocking myself on the electric fence we headed onward to our destination.  Even before entering we knew it was going to be fun since there were statues of a giant whale and a huge strand of DNA for kids of all ages to play on.

Inside we sneakily used our UCSB ID's and got student price of $4, instead of $17, and headed back to the dinosaurs.  The exhibit was fun but the rest of the museum seriously outdid it.  EVERYTHING was interactive! you could uncover fossils, make rockets out of cups and foam, learn about gravity and forward motion with loop dee loop toys, build structures out of jenga blocks, play with the outdoor water feature and learn about tectonic plates, etc.

We finished up after 2 hours and decided to get some lunch at 900 Grayson, a place my mom and dad said was quite tasty.  The wait was half an hour but once we sat down and looked at the brunch menu all our doubt melted away... the two pomegranate mimosas didn't hurt either.  We got chicken and waffles and it was outstanding, I was tempted to get another order but realized I was so full from the first I would just end up with a stomach ache.  So we went back to the sublet and took a little nap before meeting up with Johnlyssa.

We left around 3pm and got to John's apartment around 4.  We coincidentally got there at the exact same time as Alyssa so we headed up with her and all 4 of us decided on a place for dinner.  That place was Nickies, we got fish n' chips, potato skins, garlic fries, and country fried chicken, all alongside some Guinness.  From dinner we headed to the Sundance Kabuki theater where we had tickets to see "Midnight in Paris" with Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams.

The theater had a bar where we bought a bottle of wine and took it inside with us to the balcony seats!  between every two seats there was a little table and it was definitely one of the more awesome theaters I have been to.  Hopefully we will have another opportunity to go back soon!

We were all pretty tuckered out after our long day so Kris and I bid farewell to San Francisco and our friends and headed back into Berkeley, where everything seemed a little brighter and less janky after our day of fun.

Panini Potluck

Yesterday I found out that the people at Peet's have been very pleased with me and have extended my temp job until the end of July!  I was pretty stoked to keep working at such a fun place and that feeling was only amplified when I learned that today there was to be a panini potluck. 

I added cheddar cheese and apples to the sign up sheet and today when lunch rolled around there was a huge amount of panini fixin's to choose from.  For my first sandwich, I went with cheddar, havarti, red apple slices, prosciutto and balsamic vinegar.  And for my dessert, a scrumptious nutella and banana panini that made my stomach incredibly happy.

I am learning to like working life!

"It's only a mile away, but it's a long mile"

After work today I headed over to Best Buy to pick up some replacement cheapy headphones.  I have been buying the same crappy Sony over the ear ones for about 6 years now and thought I might upgrade to something a little more advanced.  But instead I was drawn to the E-readers... After carrying around "We The Drowned" for the last month and a half, I realized that a small E-reader may have some benefits over 800 page tomes I only plan on reading once.  So I left with an impulse buy.

After returning home Kris and I realized that the only thing that finishes off a day better than a $200 purchase is dinner at one of your favorite restaurants.  So we drove over to Corso and were lucky enough to snag a spot up at the kitchen counter! We not only got to watch the food get made for the restaurant but also had a nice chat with our cook (I learned he was not the chef, wooooooo kitchen etiquette) and we had a great time.  The best part of the meal? Probably the appetizer special of scallops with a sweet olive oil sauce on a mixture of greens and some little noodle things.  Way more appetizing than I just made it sound.

Overall, I am extremely happy to have some company and finally start exploring Berkeley, even if it is a really long mile away from us.  South Berkeley is probably not where I want to stay forever but for now it is starting to feel a little less intimidating.

The title of this post can not possibly contain the amount of rage I feel towards Verizon.

Wednesday = received replacement phone in the mail... wouldn't turn on
Thursday = take phone to Verizon, have them activate it.  Almost instantly it starts rebooting, which is the problem I needed a new phone to fix.  One lost lunch break later, I think the problem is solved.
Friday = it's not solved.  Dash to North Berkeley to the Verizon store there. Phone reboots on constant loop.  can't contact anyone.
Saturday = people can't attend a party if they don't know where it is or how to get there.
Monday = come to temp job, lose lunch because I am at Verizon for another hour. They are sending a third refurbished phone tomorrow. 

I have given up. I hate Verizon and HTC for not being able to come up with a solution to this problem.

I want to eat lunch.

Do I really have to go?

Yesterday I realized that this Temp job is pretty much exactly what I would like my job to be.  Maybe not the receptionist part... but the people and the location are amazing.  Everyday at Peet's Coffee and Tea headquarters at least 4 people offer to make me a delicious coffee beverage of some kind.  Two days ago I had Kristina's fancy jellyfish foam art on my cappuccino, yesterday an amazing little heart from Brett.  Then to top it off a man came in and said there were whoopee pie samples from one of the vendors that he brought for the staff.  FRESH DELICIOUS WHOOPEE PIES!!!

After my two weeks are up I will be sad to leave and (a) have no more income, (b) have no more nice Peet's people.

Today, the same vendor (Raison d'Etre) dropped off round two of the delectable pies and some butterscotch swirl brownies.  I stashed away a pie for tomorrow's breakfast and have decided that if I was to continue working here I would probably balloon up to 300 pounds from all the sweets and have a serious coffee addiction.

Back to Berkeley

Just got home to the sublet about an hour ago... 7 trips to the car and back with stuff later and I am contemplating dinner.  Pizza Delivery? don't meet the minimums... Walk somewhere? I have no idea what is good and it is getting dark...

Luckily I just ate a Tiramisu cupcake from Crushcakes!  Delicious!  It even had a lady finger soaked in rum and stuffed with mascarpone cheese in the center.  There are certain things I will miss about SB.

Update on the mailbox: It is not tricky, I tried it.  It works like a mailbox should.

The mailbox is really tricky?

First day in Berkeley!  Am I excited you ask? Somewhat.

Today has been very "interesting." And I stress interesting not as a positive or negative.

Alyssa and I got some coffee and then packed up my car and drove over the Bay bridge.  Freeways in Northern California, not my favorite.  We got over to the East bay and gave a call to the new housemate Aaron, this was "interesting" to say the least.  He seemed a little confused as to who I was and why I was calling, but after clearing things up a little he said the apartment would be ready in 15 minutes.

We went inside to meet him and were met by Aaron, who showed me the room (empty in an otherwise messy and full apartment) and took me on a slightly unnecessary tour of the complex.  First off, it should be known that the washer and dryer appear to be a secret hangout for villains and thieves... I am fairly sure that there are bodies in the many plywood closets down there.  Second, he took us to the mailbox which is "really tricky to open."  Why is it really tricky? You can't use the key if it is upside down.  Yea, that makes it tricky.  IT'S A KEY!! OF COURSE IT ONLY WORKS ONE WAY!  Interesting...

Alyssa and I took this as an opportunity to escape the madness and go to target.  On the way there, we got stuck between a very large 16 wheeler and a little janky Toyota with it's rear lights blacked out with tape and the longest antenna known to man.  5 minutes in we decided we needed to move or we would be stuck in this alley/chop shop/dead end forever.  Luckily, the giant truck moved out and we were able to continue to our original destination without any further interruptions.  At Target we got some towels, food, baby box of wine, ice cream, an ottoman/storage cube and a loofah!

Then back to the very "interesting" apartment where we unloaded the car and drank some wine and ate delicious Tiramisu ice cream.  After putting everything away and setting up the room a little things seem a bit less odd, and I might make it through the next 2 months without throttling Kris.  We shall see.

Blisters...

So because I am an idiot I forgot to bring any walking shoes for my SF Adventures.  This means all of my touring has been done in flats or boots... Not the brightest idea.  I got a couple blisters on my toes and decided to take it as a sign that I should solely wear the slippers I brought with me.

This plan has actually worked pretty well! The blisters are healing up, my feet are warm and comfortable, and I constantly feel at home (even while on the muni).

The only problem is that my once pink slippers are now greyish brown with some pink spots.  Lesson learned = don't forget tennis shoes, or only buy dark colored slippers!

As a side note, I went to Brown Owl today (as I have 9 out of the 10 days I have been here) and finally got my latte in a real cup. I sat in a little booth with coffee and a bagel and read my book for about an hour before realizing that tomorrow will be my last opportunity to do this with such ease!  I am excited to move to Berkeley, but will miss some of the places around Alyssa's apartment.

An Accidental Date, and My Muni Misfortune

Riding on the L a few days back I had a nice conversation with this guy, Bobby.  We ended up switching numbers and then 20 minutes later I realized I probably should have mentioned that I have a boyfriend... who I live with... oh well.  Figuring he wouldn't ever actually call I blew off the situation.  He called yesterday.  So after explaining the situation we decided to get together for a "oh well, it's nice to have friends in SF drink" at the Shannon Arms up the street from Alyssa.

Today at 4:20 I walked up two whole blocks to the aforementioned establishment and ordered myself a pint of Blue Moon.  The bartender was the sweetest Irish lady who actually talked to me and seemed to not care that I was drinking alone at a half hour to 5.  Bobby showed up and miracle of miracles, we actually had a very nice time!  I had to go around 6 as my plans for the evening involved making an elaborate thank you dinner for Alyssa consisting of chicken saltimbocca, cheese ravioli, and green beans.  I didn't realize until far too late that I have no idea how to cook green beans.

Post dinner for two, we got on the L (my very favorite public transit) and headed to John's for a night of TV and cookies.  However, Muni had other plans for us.  At West Portal (a few stops from ours on 22nd) we learned that there was a problem with the tunnel and we would have to get out and take a shuttle.  The shuttle was standing room only, and took an hour to go the distance that is usually covered in 15 minutes.  I tried reading my book, but it proved more difficult than expected while aboard a moving vehicle with only one hand.  We got dropped at Castro (one stop short of Church, where John lives) but rather than risk more underground issues we walked the long 6 blocks and finally had our planned evening.

Good day overall. I made a friend, ate cookies, enjoyed the beautiful weather, and get to sleep on the best couch ever.  That last part wasn't sarcasm, it really is a comfy couch.

Another day of wandering

God. My life is soooooo difficult right now, I woke up late and then had an adventure.  Poor me.

Alyssa and I decided to check off some more of her SF to-do list!  We headed out around 12pm and went to the Ferry building.  While there we saw all kinds of fun (and only slightly over-priced) stuff.  We ended up getting lunch there which in my case included the best grilled cheese ever.  It was Morbier, Wagon Wheel cheese, Asparagus, and honey on sourdough bread... Super good.  We also picked up a bottle of wine, a bottle of dark balsamic vinegar, some fancy cheese and a possible job interview at Book Passage.

We then walked 1.1 miles to the giant shopping center where we watched Robert Pattinson (who should have worn less clothing for more of the movie) and Reese Witherspoon in "Water for Elephants" and we were quite content.

Post movie, we met up with John at Annabelle's Bar and Bistro for happy hour and had a delicious dinner and some wine!  Now I am a bit tipsy, so blame all grammar and spelling errors on that, and we are going to watch a movie while eating some tasty cheeses!

Just a small town of 800,000

Today while out buying some fancy pants for my new exciting life of Temp work, I saw the swish of something familiar.  It was the bright red hair of the girl I sat next to only 4 days ago on the bus! I remember partially because she had on very cute shoes, and partially because that was the bus ride where I asked the very nice lady(man) next to her what time it was.

Less than a week and I am already seeing people on repeat, maybe it's a sign I should repeat some of the other good things I have done...

Like ice cream!

Touristy Monday

Today Alyssa had the day off from her coffee making job in the Haight Ashbury and so we decided to do a bunch of tourist trap things and make a full day of it.  Last night we made homemade lasagna and so after having some of that for breakfast we were almost ready for a day of fun.  We went down the hill and turned the corner to get some coffee at The Brown Owl Coffee Shop, for the second day in a row I bought a delicious latte (and an Apricot & Plum travel scone this time) before hopping up Taraval to the 28 bus.

(side note: the light-rails and the busses are both referred to as muni here, I find this minimally confusing but after Alyssa pointed out that all light-rails are letters and all busses are numbers things cleared up a bit.)

The bus ride on the 28 took hellish to a whole new meaning.  I am fairly sure that the bus operator was actually trying to knock us over at every possible opportunity.  Stop sign? Down a hill? Up a hill? Street lights?  ALL of these were just another try at tumbling 70 people onto one another.  When we finally got seats in the back of the bus we were joined by a gaggle of high schoolers who were discussing the best rap (Brooklyn v. 90's v. New York v. California,) although, discussing would actually be giving them too much credit since they were really just saying the words listed earlier without ever defining what made that the best rap.

Moving on! We got off the hell-bus and trekked up a mini hill to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge!  Here are some fun facts about the bridge:
1) the bridge is constantly being painted
2) it is orange so boats can see it and for aesthetic reasons
3) the bridge is 1.7 miles long from one side to the other

After walking halfway, I illegally spat my gum over the side and we counted to see how long it took to hit the water, but there was light debate over when it hit so the count was lost.  We turned back around and grabbed the 28 again and headed into the Marina District!  After getting off at Chestnut and Laguna we walked a few blocks and reached the Buena Vista Cafe, a local favorite made famous for their delicious Irish Coffee!  We had to try them of course and they were as good as we had been told.  But really, how could sugar, coffee, cream, and a heavy dose of whiskey be anything but super tasty.

A quick snack at the Boudin Bakery and we kept walking with Ghiradelli behind us and Pier 39 in our sights!  We hung out and watched the Sea Lions for about a half hour and then bought some mini donuts to take home with us.  The mini donuts made it about 30 feet, and we took the 8BX to the L back to Taraval and 22nd!

Now we are back at her place and I am about to get ready for my 7:30 pm interview at a Salon which is annoyingly back where we were earlier today.