Happy post!

Since my last post was so complainy, I figured I should post a quick one about today, cuz it's been a very good day (even though my back is KILLING me, but that's the last I'll mention it, because luckily Joe also has back problems, woo! so he has a bunch of drugs lying around that I'm gonna take.)!

Anywho.

We got to sleep in all late (which for us is around 9:30), then we headed to REI to get some wine glasses for our upcoming camping trip in Death Valley. I pointed out that we could just drink wine out of regular glasses or even nalgene bottles, but he just gave me a look of death and insisted that we drink wine out of the proper glasses. Whatever. Then we headed to Paraiso winery in the Santa Lucia highlands because we'd never been there and we've liked most of the wine. I was absolutely thrilled to see snow covering all the hills, so pretty!! So we had some yummy wine and bought a few bottles and then took the long way back here, through Carmel Valley. Joe said he thought he saw some snowflakes, but I told him that he was crazy cuz it was still 46. But! The temp kept dropping! And soon the occasional snowflake turned into actual snow!! It was very exciting. I was bouncing up and down in my seat and shrieking like an overexcited 6 year old. So fun! Alas, Joe didn't want to stop. Until!! OMG!!! Coolest thing ever!!!! (I'll put pics up later) There was a newt crossing sign!! An actual, official, Please Do Not Run Over the Newts sign!! So then we had to stop so we could take a pic of it. Because, seriously, OMG!! EEEEEeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SNNNOOOOOWWWW!!!! and NNNNEEEWWWTTTTSSSS!!! Ok, to be fair, we obviously saw no newts, but Joe promised that the next time it rains when it's at all warm out we can drive up there and go newt hunting.

Then we drove back into Carmel, went out to eat and our server happened to be a former CPK employee, so that was fun. Then back to PG where we had to drive by Asilomar because it was breathtakingly beautiful out. We even had to pull over to gape at the ocean and the clouds. We were there right at sunset and the waves were all huge and angry looking and there were lots of white caps, but the air was so clear that we could see individual trees in Santa Cruz. It looked like we were looking across a river. So cool! Unfortunately taking pics of scenes like that is really hard. They never come out looking as amazing as they do in real life, so we didn't even take any, but trust me. It was pretty.

And now I'm home! Yay!

Is that a cheery enough post? :)

Stupid rain! And facebook! And blogspot! And work!

Of course, I decide to write about every hike I go on in an attempt to keep my blog more up to date, and what happens? Rain. Endless, ceaseless, annoyingly cold and dreary rain. Needless to say, we haven't really be able to go hiking. We were going to try to go on Sunday, but the snow level is down to 500 feet tonight. And no, I did not forget a '0' there. Joe thinks we'll see flurries here in PG, but that it just won't stick. Last night it was raining so hard that I couldn't sleep because it was too loud. Stupid rain. Right now it's sunny and 50 degrees, but I'm sure it wont stay like that long. Bah.

We did manage to sorta hike last... uh... Sat? Sun? We'll just say last weekend. Because most of the trails that we wanted to go on were closed due to the rain and mud, we ended up just walking along Old Coast Road, which is the little dirt road right before (or after, depending on which direction you're coming from) Bixby Bridge.

If you've ever seen a car commercial you should be fairly familiar with this site, although usually the angle is from the other side. This is a pic from Old Coast Road itself. I was going to put up a better pic that Joe took, but apparently you can't just copy pics from facebook anymore. Annoying!

I have a cat laying on my feet. She's very cute and all, but I kinda need to move them (my feet) because they're falling asleep. Sorry Cassie.

Anywho, so the road starts off with nice views of the scrub covered hills, pretty typical of the area, then almost immediately goes down into a nice mossy, foresty valley.

(Can I take a brief moment to complain about how difficult putting pics on here is? Why do they automatically go up at the top, instead of where I was typing? Do I have it set wrong? Cuz it is a major pain in the ass to have to move the pics down every time.)

There were a few cars that passed us as we were walking along, but it was still very nice. Lots of pretty little streams, a cute little mouse, etc. And I just tried to put up pics of that, but because they're vertical and the little box for typing is so small, it wont let me move them past the other vertical pic of Joe walking along the road. It's probably a good thing you can't hear me, because there is some language that is inappropriate for some audiences. Point being, there are going to be no more pictures in this entry. In which case, it's kinda pointless to go over the hike in any more detail, cuz you really do need the visuals. I mean, when I tell you that we stopped at the crazy gate withe spikes, barbed wire, and 4 locks, it means a lot more when you can see how truly insane that thing was. There are pics on my facebook, but that's not the point dammit!! AARGGG!!!!

*ahem*

So, moving on! I am officially done with my apartment in Marina, woo!! I've basically been living with Joe since December, but since my lease isn't up until March, we've been taking our time. I already did my final walk though and all though, and should be getting my deposit back soon. The guy looked at it for about 30 seconds before declaring it immaculate and told me that I'll get everything back from my deposit except for the carpet cleaning. I seriously never thought that anyone would ever call my apartment immaculate, but I guess miracles do happen! I've been working very hard to keep Joe's apartment (and my current place) clean though, which I'm sure he appreciates. But talking about cleaning apartments is boring. So I'm not going to anymore.

Let's see... I switched to working only days, which has been nice. This way I have the same schedule every week (Mon-Thurs, in at 11:30ish, out at 3:30ish), and I get to see Joe. And I have weekends, woo!! Still no luck on surgical tech jobs though. The career services person emailed me yesterday about a surgery center that was hiring, but it was in Bakersfield. She knows that I don't live there anymore, or, should at least. I've spoken to her on the phone a few times, and the last time she started with "How's Monterey?" so I was a little confused by the email. Whatever. Finding a real job might make my life tricky right now anyway, because I have a lot of trips planned for the next few months. We're going to Death Valley at the end of March, Mount Shasta in June, and I believe Mass. in July. Which is not to say that I'm not still trying, it's just that there is a part of me that is appreciating still having a job that is so flexible. Although I am starting to get really tired of serving, and minor annoyances that happen every day are getting very irritating. Like when you're sitting at a table by yourself with 4 menus down, and I walk up and ask if I cant get you anything while you're waiting for the rest of your party, the correct response is not "Oh hi! I'm waiting for my friends!" No shit. I didn't actually think that you needed 4 menus all to yourself, and I did just acknowledge the fact that there are more people coming. Joe thinks I need to start writing about all the annoying things that people do in restaurants, but I'm pretty sure it's just because he's tired of hearing me whine about it.

I'm sure no one wants to listen to me whine though, and since I've already whined about facebook, blogspot, the weather, and my job, I think I'll stop now.

Willson Peak (Henry Coe State Park) and Eagle Peak (Toro County Park)

Ok, I know. It's been just under forever that I last posted. Since then, I've moved twice. To two different cities! And I keep doing all these super fun hikes and stuff, and I want to keep track of what hikes I liked and what ones I kinda hated and all that, so I figure I can do that here? I do fully understand that I will probably forget about this by the time we go hiking next though (either Fri or Sun), so yeah. At least I'll have these two officially documented! And with that, I shall get started.

Last Friday Joe and I went up to Henry Coe State Park outside of Gilroy. Prior to this I didn't really realize just how pretty that area can be. I don't think I'm alone when I say that all that comes to mind when I think of Gilroy are outlet malls and lots of garlic. Needless to say, I was very pleasantly surprised. We left from the Hunting Hollow parking lot and headed up the trail to Willson Peak.

Because of all the rain we've had lately (it is January after all) we immediately ran into a minor obstacle.

Luckily we found some rocks that we could climb over without getting too wet. Not yet anyway, on the way back we had to cross that creek several more times, and we both got out feet pretty soaked.

Anyway, you can see the main trail (that we came back on) directly across the flooded creek, but the trail we went up was off to the left.

And that's where the fun really began.

Steep. Very steep. In just under a mile we climber over 1,200 feet, in a about 35 mins. Which I believe is a damn good time for something so steep, because I, unlike that crazy boy I'm with, do not run ultra marathons up mountains for fun. Anyway, while I absolutely want you to notice how steep it is (which is hard to see in pics, I know), you really need to take a good look at the background too. Soooo pretty!! And we could hear frogs calling the whole way up. Most of them from the creek down in the canyon, but we did pass a couple little ponds as well.

Joe was mean though, and wouldn't let me stop there. Mean! Mean mean mean mean mean! Whatever. After not too long we made it to the top! Woo!!

Aw, aren't we cute!

Going back we went the other way, towards Hunting Hollow. The going was slow cuz my knee has been acting up (seriously, I have no idea what I did too it, but it's been hurting a lot lately), so I had to be really careful on the downhill part, which was almost as steep as the going up was.

See what I mean about really pretty?

Parts of it had some nice creepy mossy trees too, which were a lot of fun.

But eventually we made it down the the flat part and enjoyed the wide path in the valley.

And then! Beer!!

This is El Toro Brewing Company (obviously) in Morgan Hill. Really good beer and very decent food too, which is always appreciated after the 7 or so miles we'd just hiked. After food we headed back to Gilroy to go to Barnes and Noble so Boy could spend his gift card (yay books!) and then to BevMo where we spent way too much, but hey, it was cheaper We were saving money! And, come on! Were we expected to not buy alcohols? Psh.

And that was the Henry Coe trip on Friday.

Then on Sat I worked. We were busy and I made $150 and I was happy. Yay!

Then on Sunday we hiked more! Woo!! We had planned on going down to Andrew Molera, but the trail we wanted to go on was closed, so instead we headed to Toro County Park, which is a nice little park in between here and Salinas. We'd been there before, trying to get to the top of... uh... San Simas Peak? I think? So we were going to try to do that again. Unfortunately, niether of us slept well the night before and since I've stopped drinking caffeine, I couldn't even grab a

monster for some quick energy. That whole trip was kinda a disaster. We wanted to go up Coyote Ridge, but the trailhead starts at the youth overnight center, which is closed to non youth overnight people. So instead we headed up Bessie Canyon. The views were pretty enough, but the trail itself was just ugly.

It got pretty steep at some parts, and unforunatly those parts were all rocky and wide and the trail half washed out and despite being only in the 60's, with the sun beating down on us with no shade we were both pretty miserable. I just got to the point where I didn't even want to stop because I was afraid that if I did, I'd quit. So I just turned off my brain and kept going. And then, cows!

Apparently part of the trail has cows on it. And that part of the trail was way better. Much prettier and just nicer in general. A little while later we made it to Eagle Peak.

The original plan was to keep going from there, but we were kinda over it, so we just stopped for a quick bite (I had a cliff bar, he had jelly beans), then headed down the Coyote Ridge trail that we had wanted to go up.

I found a flower! :) You can see the trail we took going off into the trees. I loved those trees. They were all nice and shady and pretty and the trail itself was soooo much nicer. We figured out how to get to the trailhead when we got back, so if we go again we're definetly going up that part. Sadly, I have no good pics of that part of the trail.

Ok, I had one good pic. At the end of that trail we came to the youth center and a little pond, then the trail veered to the right because we're not actually allowed at the youth center.

And then we walked down the road to the parking lot. And I'm tired of writing, and I still have to figure out how to arrange this all pretty on my blog (I started to try to write this in blogspot, but it was annoying the hell out of me, so now I'm using my word processor). I think we're going to do Garrapata next, so I'll try to post about that too. And anything else you guys may be interested in?

Oh, I should also probably mention that I didn't take these pics, Joe did. I have some in my camera, but the cord to download them are still in Marina.

4X4

4 Things I have asked my neighbors to stop doing that I shouldn't have had to
1. Please stop playing music at 3am at full volume.
2. Please stop letting your dog crap under my stairs and then leaving it there.
3. Please stop unscrewing the light bulb that lights my stairs.
4. Please stop parking an inch in front of my garage so I can't open it.

4 Stupidest things my tables have said to me recently
1. I didn't know there was corn in my White Corn Guacamole!
2. Can I just get small pieces of all the appetizers on one plate?
3. Can I get only half of a pizza?
4. I didnt know that was a pizza! (we actually hear that one all the time)

4 Awesome things I've bought recently
1. Contacts!
2. Cappuccino gelato
3. Espresso martini
4. Cadbury creme eggs (yay, easter candy!!)

4 Best surgeries I've gotten to scrub in to so far
1. Emergency craniotomy
2. Bilateral full thickness and split thickness skin grafts on arms, shoulders, and neck
3. Robotic nephrectomy
4. Total hip replacement

Why do drugs when you can get contacts?

So I finally got some contacts, yay! Sorta anyway. I just got a trial pair to make sure that these will work for me. I haven't worn any in forever though, so everything is all warped and my eyes are having to relearn how to focus on stuff with contacts in. I'll be able to see normally in an hour or so though. I hope.... If not, I'll get a different trial pair! Woo! :)

I did my taxes today. I'm getting just over $1,000, which is good. I'm quite pleased. That money will pay off one of my credit cards (I have three, terrible, I know), pay off the school (not completely, just pay the past due bills, ugh), and I'm thinking an iphone. Not to use as a phone, mind you, but to use as an ipod.

My snake is better. His skin still looks pretty bad, but it will until he sheds a few times. There's no new dead scales though, and he's being way more active. At least, as active as kingsnakes are supposed to be. Which isnt very. But sometimes when I come home from work he's in a different spot, so thats good. :)

I got 6 free samples of nescafe taster's choice instant coffee in the mail yesterday. That was fun! Although I greatly prefer real coffee, having some instant lying around is nice. Although one of these is decaf, and seriously, what is the point of that? Doesnt coffee make good fertilizer? Maybe I'll toss it in my herbs that I grow... (and yes, I mean actual herbs (cilantro, parsley, and basil, so don't go accusing me of growing weed)

Blah. I have to go to class in an hour. I've had three people ask me to pick up their shift at work today. Too bad I cant. I could use the money since I've been sick and missed Fri and Sat. Oh well.

Ew. I burped and it tasted like Del Taco.

And I think I'll end on that note.

Yup. Bye!

Poor Simon!!

I think my snake my have scale rot, which sucks, cuz that means I have to pay for a vet. The good thing is that the only decent herp vet in town works at a 24 hour hospital, so I was able to schedule an appt for early monday morning. I might be late to work, but that's ok. This week when I worked the opening shift it only took me 30 mins to do all my opening stuff, and I had an hour to do it in, so I don't think they'll care if I show up 30 mins late. Obviously I'll ask them, but yeah. Ugh. I just hope it's something easy to treat, I don't like that my snake is sick!!!

I also need to see an eye doctor. Which is tricky given my schedule. But I really need new glasses/contacts. Probably contacts and then I'll have these glasses as an emergency back up.

I have no beer in my fridge. It kinda makes me sad.

I finish school on March 4. THANK GOD!!!! I miss having free time. And not having to deal with complete idiots wasting my time all day.

Happy list and Annoying list

Things that annoy me-
A girl in my class today was complaining about those morons who drive 25 miles an hour down the freeway when it's so foggy that you can't see 5 feet in front of you, so when she's driving along at 65 she cant stop in time and risks hitting them. I was about ready to call CHP right then and there. Let's see, she acknowledges that it's really foggy, that most people slow down for the fog, and that when she drives 65 she is in danger of hitting them because she cant see them soon enough to stop, and yet, think they're the morons. She also had her license taken away for two years because of excessive tickets (seriously, I've known people to get 5 tickets in a month who didnt have any problems, how many tickets was she getting???), but still insists that she's a good driver.

Speaking of driving, people who drive 30 down Ming and Stockdale. During the day. When it's nice and clear. And the speed limit is 45.

Doctors/techs/nurses who have abhorrent sterile technique. I wont go into more detail here, but yeah, some of the stuff that goes on in OR's is scary.

People who clap their hands and stomp their feet every time they laugh at one of their own jokes.

People who raise their hand after the teacher says "If there's no more questions you can leave now."

Getting up at 4am.

Filling out job applications.

Filling out job applications for a job that will require that I get up at 4am.

Things that make me happy-
Good books!

Food!

Sleep!

Cuddly kitties in my lap when it's cold and they're all warm and soft and cute!

First scrubbing a case from start to finish ("first scrub" is the person who set it all up and passed all the instruments), without having the doctor have to ask for a single instrument (it was only a circumcision, which is a pretty easy case, but still!).

Walking into a room when people are not only talking about how well you're doing, but are actually arguing over who noticed it first (this really happened today. Very cool!).

Christmas is 8 days away!



Where am I going for Christmas anyway? Do we know yet?