Christmas music tidings

I haven't had a job since I quit CPK in March.  At first, I was too busy to notice, what with getting married, going on a 3 week honeymoon, moving to Hawaii, trying to find a place to live, flying back to CA for my sister's wedding, and then getting pregnant, but it's been long enough now.  I'm bored.  Deeply, deeply bored.  I used to be all excited about having a baby because babies are cute and challenging and I want to grow and blah blah meaningful blah.  Now I mostly can't wait for him to get here because taking care of him will give me something to do.  I've even been a little busy today!  I went to the DMV (or, satellite city hall as this state insists on calling them) to get a license, and that obviously took forever.  And I went to Target to get milk and butter and stuff.  And I went for a walk.  And cleaned up cat poop that was somehow of the vertical side of one of the steps on our stairs (seriously, how do they even do that?  It's not like it was smeared, there was just a glob of it, hanging there).  But I'm beginning to be unable to tolerate more than 30 mins of non-activity   I've started watching TV standing up and pacing.

Anyway, all that was just a long, rambling introduction to get to my actual point, which I've barely started.  See, because I'm so bored, I also don't like quiet at much.  So I've been playing music.  There's really only one choice of music in December, Christmas music.  Especially since nothing else here feels particularly Christmasy (I'm wearing shorts and a tank top and had to turn up the AC because it was getting too uncomfortable in here).  The thing is, Christmas music can be...  difficult.  I don't mean difficult to find a good station (I mostly listen to Pandora) or at least something that's not just dogs barking or Mariah Carey, but it brings up lots of memories.  Mostly good ones, but it's making me homesick!  I just listened to Pachabel's Canon, followed by Carol of the Bells, and immediately, I was in my parent's kitchen.  Kids are running around being crazy, and they keep letting the dogs in, even though we keep telling them that they have to stay outside.  I'm helping with something food related, cutting veggies, or stirring sauce, or maybe just sitting on the counter with a glass of wine (something I seriously miss being pregnant btw, last night I told Joe he needed to open a bottle and kept stealing his glass from him just so I could smell it, and, ok, occasionally take small sips, but mostly I just love the smell of wine).  My toes are cold because shoes are annoying to wear inside, even when it's cold out and the floor is downright icy, but my body is hot because obviously I'm wearing a sweater (it's cold out!).  I've long since given up on having my hair styled in a cute way and have pulled it back from my face into a messy ponytail, and really I couldn't care less about how I look.  No one here cares either.  We're all family, right?  Even if we're not actually blood related.  And the best thing about family is not having to be at all self conscious.  I miss having my family around.  I mean, sure, my sister may drive me crazy sometimes, but isn't that what sisters are supposed to do?  I really didn't intend for this to come off as depressing, I'm smiling as I'm writing it, I just thought it was interesting how music can cause such intense reactions.  And hey, since I have nothing else to do, I might as well blog about it, right?

Music and First Impressions

I know it's been ages since I've posted, but tonight I've been thinking about something that is too long for facebook. Shocking, I know, that facebook may not always be the best way to communicate every thought.

Anyhow, my cats have always like boys better than girls. Except for Fuzzy during the day, but that's just cuz she's crazy and is terrified of everyone other than me when the sun is up. Vampire cat. *ahem* Because they like boys, especially ones they know, it's pretty common that when I come home from work, or the two of us are watching tv (at the moment it's Ottawa vs. San Jose and we're LOSING!!!! AAAAGGGHHH!!!!) or whenever, at least one of the cats will be curled up in Joe's lap. And every single time, it reminds me of that line from the George Strait song- "She thinks I'm perfect and that I love her cat, but you know me better than that!" Now, I know that Joe really does like animals, and that he (mostly) really does like my cats, but I'm always a little curious. Does he REALLY like them? Or is he only pretending? Dammit! George Strait has poisoned me!

But then that reminds me of something else. I dont know if everyone has a moment like this, but I distinctly remember the first time I actually listened to music. I mean, sure, there was always music in the background at the store, or on tv shows, and of course we'd all sing at church, but I never really paid attention to the fact that it was music. It was different from other forms of communication, and the melody and the mood and the instruments could convey as much meaning as the words themselves. That song, sitting in my parent's car, driving away from the music store, was Thunder Rolls by Garth Brooks. I'm not going to make any sort of hypothesis as to how that has affected me or my tastes in music, but I remember how dramatic it was and how it felt like desperation, even though at the time I didn't even know what the word desperation meant.

And I almost hate to wrap up this way, which no real closing statement (my various English teachers would be so mad), but sometimes blogs dont have a point. Anticlimactic, I know. I was just thinking about music, and the music of my childhood, and felt a desire to share it. Feel free to share your early memories. Or don't. That's totally ok too. :)

Go Sharks! Woo!

I have no pics to post. Sad, I know, but I just don't really feel like posting pics. It's kinda a pain in the ass on here, and any pics I have are on facebook anyway, and since I'm friends with all of you on there too, it's just not worth it.

*ahem*

I haven't done much hiking lately. Actually, I haven't done any hiking at all since Death Valley. Unless you count walking around Whale Point in Garapata with Marc and Sonrisa, which I guess most people would, but I don't because I didnt even need a backpack, and if you can go "hiking" without any gear at all, it hardly counts as a hike. It was nice though. Lots of pretty irises and other flowers. No whales though. Hmm. Death Valley was fun though. We explored many canyons and climbed on lots of rocks and I made friends with lots of lizards and bugs and stuff. Didn't really make friends with any people though, which I think proves that I have my priorities straight. I do feel bad about making that raven gag though. Watching a raven trying to throw up is somewhat uncomfortable.

Tomorrow is the first game of the playoffs! Woo! Go Sharks! We'll be there to see them beat the Kings. Last time we saw the two play we won 6-1, so I'm looking forward to seeing that again. During the regular season I like to watch games that are a little closer, but not during the playoffs. Ideally they'll be up for the cup against the Bruins, because that would be too much fun. We have a very nice bottle of Pinot Noir that we (he) splurged on and have decided that seeing the Sharks win would totally count as a special enough occasion to drink it, which just makes me want them to win even more.

Also I'm going to Massachusetts at the end of June. Fun!

Newt crossing!

neat, Joe just handed me a thumb drive with some pics on it, so uh, read the post prior to this, and then look at the pics. Do as I command!! Or don't, whatever.

Newts!! Neato!!

I want to be a part of the ecological study.... I mean, not a part of it, but I want to be the one studying the ecology... Or something? I wanna run around the woods!

Double rainbow from our bedroom balcony Sat morning. Pretty...

Me after wine tasting on Friday on Cannery Row.

It's a pterodactyl!! AAAaaaa!!!

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.