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!