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When I was growing up, my mom’s parents took lots of trips with their friends. They always took thousands of pictures of the trip, and we were always subjected to looking at the entire photo album before being released to go do whatever it was we were waiting to do (usually go swimming, or just go upstairs to the “playroom” and not be around adults). It wasn’t until I got older and more appreciative of the vacations that I started asking questions about who they went with and why. Sometimes it was just the two of them, but often their trips included my grandma’s sister and her husband, or another couple that they were close friends with. I remember thinking as a teenager that I hoped to have friends like that someday.
Thankfully, I have them now.
Last year 6 of us went to Pittsburgh for 5 days and had an amazing time. We toured Heinz Field, drove into Canton to see the Football Hall of Fame, and capped off an amazing weekend with a Steelers vs. Vikings game (Steelers won, of course, and now I can say I’ve seen Brett Favre in action). It was the best vacation I’d ever been on, and the main reason was because of the people we went with. Since we got back we’ve been talking about doing another trip, and I’m SO happy to say we’ve got our destination.
Jamaica.
Next year is Jamey & Jeff’s 10th anniversary, and the 4 of us are going to Jamaica to celebrate. It’ll also be Donald’s birthday while we’re there, as well as the 3 year anniversary of us dating, so we’ll have loads to celebrate. I could not be more excited. The reservation was made this morning, and now there’s no turning back!
303 days!
This.
This is Jaxson, the cutest toddler I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. He is my unofficial nephew, and I love him to pieces.
He belongs to Jason and Kathy, Donald’s sister. He’s also the first baby I’ve ever seen or held on the day of their birth. (Also, he was 11 lbs 4 ozs at birth, so he’s by far the heaviest baby I’ve ever held.) He, as well as his family, spent the week at the river with us, and he was so much fun to watch. Last year he was only 3 months old, so he did a lot of laying around staring at us. This year he was off and running at every opportunity.
He’s almost 16 months old, and he eats constantly. I’ve never seen a kid eat as much as he does. He knows the sign for “more” and can say it more clearly than any other word in his arsenal. When he gets going, he sounds a little like the seagulls in Finding Nemo. If you try to put the food away, he’ll walk over to your cooler and open it for you, and ask for more.
If I could pick what my future kids would be like, I’d want them to be exactly like Jaxson. Blond hair, big bright blue eyes, chubby cheeks, and completely laid back. He doesn’t get upset at all. The only time I’ve seen him cry was when he’s tired, and even that was unimpressive.
Our vacation was fabulous, largely in part to the simple pleasure of watching this little wonder. It’s hard to worry about anything when this is what you see:
*All photographs courtesy of Jason Ginger
Last Thursday morning we piled into the car and headed off to the Colorado River for the first trip of the season. The river is one of my favorite places to be, and I had been looking forward to this trip for a long time. Normally we’re on the California side at Big River staying in a 5th wheel, but for this trip we tent camped up on the Arizona side at Buckskin Mountain State Park.
 I am not a fan of tent camping. I’m a bit of a princess in this aspect. But this was not the tent camping I expected. There were clean restrooms and showers close to the site, electrical hookups in every cabana (which is a little like a carport with some shelves for your stuff), and running water easily accessible. Everyone brought air mattresses, and Kathy & JG brought a mini-fridge for food, so it’s not like we were roughing it.
By mid-afternoon we were all unpacked, had the tents and canopies set up, and were ready to relax and hang out. We drove into Parker for a delicious dinner at El Sarape, one of the only Mexican restaurants I actually like eating at. The food is always good, but the service is usually terrible. Thankfully, it was a Thursday night on a quiet weekend, so we had no problems with the service at all. The food was good, as usual, and the company was great. We spent the rest of the night hanging out and chatting before going to bed.
Due to the sun, and the loudmouth birds nearby, we were awake by 7am on Friday morning. Those of you who know me well know that this is not my best time of day. I was cranky and tired, but I think I hid it well. We lazed around for part of the morning, and then packed the coolers and headed out to the boats. At this point there were 12 people in our group, and 4 boats. This was more than a little amusing to me. It worked out well that we had extra boats, however, as Jen and Red’s boat had some problems and had to be brought back and tied up. We drove up to Parker Dam and floated most of the way down river. We eventually ended up at the south dam where we anchored and hung out for a few hours. I’d never seen this part of the river before, as there’s a dam in between Big River and Parker Strip, and we’re usually south of it. Parker Strip is really busy and crowded, and kind of made me miss the (relative) quiet of Big River. We did have fun hanging out there, however. My friends are quite entertaining when they’re drunk. When we got back, we took turns playing Beans (just a simple bean bag toss game, that everyone is quite competitive about) and then settled down to eat dinner. Kathy & JG had purchased a brand new barbecue just for this trip, and on the drive there it managed to jump out of the back of the truck, missing both the truck and the boat they towed behind them, without making a sound. I still contend that a band of Fast & the Furious type barbecue thieves drove up next to them, lifted out the barbecue and drove off without notice. Sadly, I think the gust of wind theory is more likely. So they bought another barbecue and we all shared it for dinner. The food was delicious (it’s amazing how tasty a barbecued burger can be when you’re outdoors) and we spent the rest of the night just sitting around the fire pit making s’mores and waiting for the rest of our friends to arrive. (It took them 6 hours to make a 3 hour trip.) They finally arrived at around 1am, and I went to bed, though a bunch of them stayed up and were loud for a while longer.
Saturday was much like Friday. We were up at the crack of dawn (in my world) and drove down river to one of the many food places that you can dock your boat at. We had a nice breakfast and then went back to camp to pack the coolers for another day on the river. I discovered I failed Sunscreen 101 on Friday, when I saw that my foot had visible finger marks on it where I had put the sunscreen. Apparently I forgot to rub it in. I also missed a stripe on my inner arm, so that was a lovely shade of pink as well. I rock. I made sure to fix those lovely mistakes on Saturday, and ended the weekend with a light tan (which for my fair skin, was exactly what I wanted). The water was colder than I liked, so I spent much of the time alternating between sitting on the boat getting fried, and standing in the water trying not to shiver. When we got back to camp Saturday night, we barbecued steaks and chicken for dinner (and by “we” I mean everyone else did. Donald was tired and went to bed before we had dinner, so I just ate some of the chicken and salad that Kathy put in front of me). We passed the rest of the night around the fire pit, watching Claudia create a huge fire.
Sunday morning came early again, and most everyone was gone by 9. It seemed like such a waste of a day to me, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. Donald and I stayed to help Kathy & JG pull their boat out of the water, and the 4 of us left Buckskin around 11. We all had a really great weekend, and I’m looking forward to spending many more weekends at the river this summer.
Big thanks to Kathy & JG for letting everyone hang out on their boat all weekend, for feeding me on Saturday night, and for just being great friends. You guys are awesome!
We spent the weekend in Arizona, and I swear every time I go out there I’m ready to pull up stakes and move. It’s so gorgeous and the people are so nice. Yeah it can get pretty damn hot, but it’s not a huge difference from California. And the housing prices are just amazing. I can buy an 1800 sqft house in AZ for nearly a third of what I pay for my 900 sqft apartment in CA. Remind me again why I shouldn’t move?
We went out there to watch my friend Duke play baseball again this year. Like last year, the team was… not so good. And like last year, it was a lot of fun. This year they got to play a game in Tempe Diablo Stadium, which is the spring training facility of the Anaheim Angels (I won’t call them the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. I just won’t). The only thing greater, in my Angel-obsessed opinion, would be if they got to play at Angel Stadium in Anaheim. Even still, this was pretty damn cool. They had a 9am game on the Angels practice fields, and then the 8pm game was in the stadium. That leaves a whole lot of hours to kill in between. Donald and I hit up the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch, and then spent the next several hours driving around Tempe. We found the biggest Bed Bath & Beyond I’ve ever seen, and miracle of all miracles, I was able to walk out with only one item. Tempe is a lovely city, and even when we got a bit lost driving through it, we had a good time together. The night game at the stadium was great. It was a little colder than I’d prefer, but nothing terrible. Duke’s team got spanked, but I got some great pictures of them, as well as some awesome pictures of the stadium itself (I learned how to take great pictures at night. Yay me!).
We stayed with my friends Tony & Kerry & Jenn, and since they all had to work Saturday, we killed time by driving around the city and casually looking at houses. When we got back, the 5 of us went to a great steak dinner at Firebirds, and then out to the greatest bar/club I’ve ever been to, called Graham Central Station. It had a huge dance floor in the main room that was mostly for line dancing and two stepping. The music was mostly country, with a couple of R&B/Hip-Hop songs mixed in occasionally. In that same room were 6 pool tables, 4 bars, and a mechanical bull. (I did not ride the bull on this trip, but I think I’m going to try it next time!) Off of the main room on one side was a room called South Beach that had R&B and Hip Hop music continually, 2 bars, and also had cages for dancers. On the other side of the main room was a room called Carnival, that had a very eclectic mix of Pop, Rock, and Hip Hop. Between South Beach and Carnival was a Karaoke bar that actually employed 4 people to be constant backup singers to whatever poor drunk soul was attempting to sing. I loved the variety of it all, and the way it was laid out. The speakers in each room were set up so the music didn’t “leak” from room to room, despite the wide open doorways. If you didn’t like the song in the room you were in, it was incredibly easy to go somewhere else. Not like at a regular club where there’s only one option. My favorite part of the place, aside from the variety, werethe waitresses (Tubey Ladies, as I called them) who walked around with test tube racks full of different shots in tubes. Ever since the bar scene from Miss Congeniality, I’ve always wanted to go to a bar that had shots in test tubes, just to try it out. I even kept one of my tubes to take home and compare to a regular sized shot (I contend the tubes have less capacity, but it’s just a theory.) We hung out for around 4 hours, and I danced a good portion of the time. Donald taught me how to two-step, and by the end of the night, I was fairly comfortable with the basics of it. Duke and his buddy showed up (totally not planned) and he and I danced as well. It was such a great time. I was a little bitter when they closed the place at 2 and told us we had to leave. But now I have yet another reason to look forward to going to Arizona for!
Sunday we all woke up late and went out to lunch before Donald and I made the long trip home. All in all it was a great weekend. I can’t wait to do it again!
I'm back from Hawaii! Well, rather I was back from Hawaii a week ago, but then I had a busy weekend catching up with my friends, and then work started Monday, and then I busted my ankle. It's been a fun week!
Hawaii was GORGEOUS! We stayed at a resort on Oahu. It was 87 degrees every single day with a light breeze blowing just enough to keep you from getting too warm. We spent many many hours just lying by the pool or on the beach. We hit up a luau for dinner one night, and the entertainment and food were both phenomenal! The host of the show was a real Samoan Chief, and he was hysterical. He told jokes, made fun of the guests, sang songs, and amazed us all with some incredible fire dancing. They had mini craft clinics before dinner, where you could learn to make a crown using palm fronds, weave a hat with bamboo leaves, get an airbrushed tattoo, or learn to make fire. The food consisted of a buffet of traditional roast pig, teriyaki steak, chicken, barbecued beef, poi, lomi-lomi salmon (my favorite!), garden salads, macaroni salads, bread and rice. It was delicious!
The after dinner entertainment was my favorite part. The show consisted of showing the different types of warrior and women dances from all different Pacific Islands. The dancers were amazing, and obviously very proud of their skills and heritage. They represented Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, New Zealand, and Hawaii, among others. The culmination of the entertainment was the fire dancing. I wish the pictures I took did the dancers any justice. It was unbelievable. They made it look so easy! One guy climbed a palm tree, and using only his feet to hold him up, twirled a baton lit with fire at both ends. I can hardly light a match without burning myself, so I was completely impressed with these guys!
We also took a sail on a catamaran and went dolphin watching and then snorkeling. I'd never been snorkeling before, and was pretty nervous, but its amazing. The fish were swimming right around us and weren't scared at all. The only rough part was that the current was unusually strong that day (according to our boat crew) so it took a lot of effort to keep over the reef where the fish were hanging out. But it was awesome anyhow. The dolphin watching was my favorite part (as anyone who knows me would guess). I took about 200 pictures of the dolphins alone. I haven't uploaded the pictures yet, but I'll post a few sometime this week, so you can see how close we were. They swam right up to the boat, and I swear if I wasn't afraid of falling in with my camera, I could have reached right in and touched them. They didn't jump as much as I would have liked, but they did do quite a bit of swimming on their backs and flapping their tails to splash us. It was so cool being so close to them!
The best thing about Hawaii, in my opinion, is the brilliant sunsets. they're just phenomenal. I took tons of pictures of those as well, and like the dolphin pictures, I'll post them this week after I've downloaded them off the camera. I spent hours watching the sun glisten off the water, and wondered constantly how anyone could ever voluntarily leave the island. It's just an amazing sight.
We came home Friday night, and I spent the next two days hanging out with and catching up with my friends. One of my friends turned 50 last week, and rather than limiting the celebration to just one day, he stretched it into nearly a week. Which meant that I had the chance to be there for the big birthday dinner. Lots of intoxication fun was had by all.
Last Monday night I had a true moment of brilliance when I fell down the last two stairs at Donald's house, and sprained the hell out of my right ankle. It swelled up like a balloon within seconds, and the pain was pretty severe. Thankfully, Donald had crutches from his knee surgery a few years ago, so I've been hobbling around on those for the last week. I went and got x-rays taken, and it's not broken or fractured, which doesn't really make me feel better. I tried walking on it way too soon, and now it's just going to take longer to heal. Not one of my brighter moments. I'll be on crutches for at least another week, and I'm so not happy about it. I hate needing help. I can't carry anything, have trouble opening my own doors, and it takes forever for me to get from point A to point B. It's just so frustrating having to rely heavily on other people for things I used to be perfectly capable of doing myself. The silver lining, I guess, is that my arms are going to be in great shape by the time I'm off the crutches. The insides of them are bruised, but my biceps are starting to get cut. Oh joy!
That's my last two weeks in a nutshell. Pictures will be up in the next day or two for your viewing pleasure! Enjoy!
One week from today I will be leaving the smoggy skies of Southern Callifornia and heading off to the glorious state of Hawaii for an entire stress-free week! Can I tell you how freaking excited I am? I've been there twice already, and I can't wait to go back.
Kelly (my Kidney Mama, or my Kidney Storage Facility, as I lovingly call her) and our friend LeRoy were planning on a week's vacation in Hawaii before I even donated my kidney. As a "hey, thanks for the organ" gesture, Kelly offered to bring me along with them. At first I declined, as I didn't want her to think I was giving up my kidney in exchange for a free trip to Hawaii. However, after much threatening convincing, I decided to join them. LeRoy backed out a couple months ago, so now Kelly and I are flying man-free! It should be a fantabulous week of reading, relaxing, tanning, and snorkling. My camera is already charged, the memory card empty and ready to be filled with tons of gorgeous pictures! I didn't lose the amount of weight I'd wanted to, but I'm ok with that. I still look cute in the bikini top and board shorts I picked up, and I still have another week to drop a couple more pounds. Even if I don't, I'll be lying on a beautiful beach in Hawaii with one of my closest friends, a stack of books to read, and some fruity beverage requiring a cute little umbrella in my hand. Who needs to be skinny?
I spent the weekend in Hopewell Junction, New York, which is about 90 minutes north of Manhattan (or so I'm told) and I still haven't scraped my jaw off the floor. It's gorgeous there. I never knew so many trees existed, and all in one place! I spent an hour Friday just sitting by this amazing lake, staring at the scenery. I'll post pictures when I get them organized, though I doubt they'll do this place justice. The conference went very well, and I had an amazing time. The living conditions leave much to be desired, but at least the food was good. We stayed at a camp for the first time (we usually stay on college campuses), and we were't really prepared for it. They said it would be "chilly" at night. They did not say it would be so damn cold that having 10 layers of blankets, 2 t-shirts, a sweatshirt, and three pairs of socks would not keep you warm. The cabin we stayed in had no heat, windows that didn't close all the way, and walls with cracks in them. It was anywhere from 43 to 46 degrees outside at night. That might not seem cold if you're from Minnesota, Maine, or Antarctica, but that's damn cold if you were born and raised in sunny Southern California. I'd much MUCH rather try sleeping in 110 degree heat than when it's 43 degrees outside. I couldn't stop shivering long enough to fall asleep. A few of us slept through a couple workshops just because it was easier to sleep during the day!
The conference, as always, was a blast. It's a conference for Secular Jews, and something I've been doing every Memorial Day weekend for the last 17 years. I've made some amazing friends there, and really enjoy going back every year. The main part of the conference is the workshops. There is always a variety of options to choose from, as well as a variety of presenters. The presenters can range from teens to the near dead. Sometimes they're interesting. Sometimes they're not. It's a hit and miss, but always gives us something to think about. My favorite part of the conference has nothing to do with the workshops and everything to do with the after hours events. (It's not what you think, I swear). On Saturday nights there is always some sort of event for the "youth." (Youth is anyone ages 13-30, as us almost 30 year olds refuse to be called adults.) Since the conference is in a different city every year, the Saturday night event varies. Some years we go out on the town, other years we hit up a family fun center, or amusement park. This year we stayed on the campground and did a badass scavenger hunt. It was part quest, part hunt, and total fun. With the exception of one girl, the people in my group were…less than intelligent. But that just added to the entertainment. Aside from the Saturday night festivities, there is a "talent" show on Sunday night after the banquet. I say "talent" because usually there are less participants with talent than there are participants without talent. Some people just straight rock. This year we had several amazing piano players, some fairly good singing, and a couple of comedy acts. We also had some not so great piano players, some HORRID singing (She butchered Feygi's language!), and some really awful comedians. But it was a great night regardless of the lack of talent displayed.
The best part of the weekend, and the real reason why I go, is the people there. They're just amazing to be around. I joked this weekend that the conference is actually the one weekend I feel dumber, because I'm surrounded by so many people smarter than I am. I mean, I'm not a dumb person (most of the time), but these people are just brilliant. We hang out and talk all night long. The more athletic folk play Ultimate Frisbee until the wee hours of the morning, and it's great fun to watch them. I get much less sleep on this weekend than any other, but it's so totally worth it. I only wish we could do it more than once a year.
In my excitement to be on vacation and to come visit my in-laws, I completely forgot about the one part of Utah that I don’t like. Babies. They’re everywhere. Young moms and their various stages of pregnancy, or infants, or toddlers, or all of the above. I don’t begrudge them their children. For the most part, they’re well behaved and freaking adorable. It’s just hard for me to be immersed in crowds of women in their early 20′s who all have kids or are pregnant, while I’m 28 and not even close to being pregnant, no matter how much I want to be. It just sucks.
On a semi-happier note, I did find great deals at the outlet mall we went to. I came back with lots of sweaters and long sleeved t-shirts that should keep me comfortable in the ice bucket that is my office. The outlet mall here has much better deals than the one we have at home, so we always spend way too much money on new clothes the day after Thanksgiving. I even bought 2 scarf sets that come with matching hats and gloves. I won’t have much use for them in California, but they were cute and on sale. I mean, who needs a baby when you can buy yourself useless items of clothing, right?
This shall be short, as I’m not on my computer. Hi! I’m in Utah, yay! I absolutely love it here. I swear if we could work it out someday that we could move here, I’d be in heaven. It’s gorgeous here. A little too cold for my taste, but that’s what heavy blankets and sweaters are for, right? We had spaghetti for our Thanksgiving dinner, and it was great. I always enjoy staying with my in-laws, and today is no exception. Tomorrow my MIL and I are going to a craft fair, and then we’re off to the outlet mall. One of the great things about Utah is that the shopping centers aren’t half as crowded as they are back in California. So shopping on Black Friday is no big deal.
I hope you’ve all had a lovely time with family or friends or however you decided to spend the day. Happy Ugly Fat Bird Day!
Vegas, in case you wondered, is much more fun when you’re awake to enjoy it. I know that info probably comes as a shock to most of you, as it completely blew my mind.
We were supposed to leave at 11am. I packed while his Royal Laziness was sleeping, and then went to the chiropractor at 10. When I got back at 10:45, Jas hadn’t finished packing, but proceeded to inform me that we couldn’t leave until he went to the doctor and got blood drawn (something he was supposed to take care of last week), and then drive 40 miles in the COMPLETE OPPOSITE DIRECTION to pick up his paycheck. The paycheck thing wasn’t his fault, as his employers were being dicks and holding it for stupid reasons. But still, it was a pain in the ass to deal with. So, our 11am departure turned into a 3pm departure. Traffic. Yay.
We got into Vegas about 7, which wasn’t TOO terrible considering the holiday traffic horror stories I’d heard in the past. (12 hours to go 287 miles? Insanity.) Jas gets on the phone with his stepfather to tell him we’re here, and figure out approximately what time we’ll be to Utah tomorrow. This, for some unknown reason, takes an hour. An HOUR, people. We’re seeing the man in less than 18 hours, is this conversation really something that couldn’t wait until then? Ok, I know I was cranky. I didn’t sleep well in the car, I hadn’t eaten since 10:30, and I just wanted him to get off the damn phone so we could have dinner.
Dinner was yummy. Super excellent steakhouse inside the Tropicana, and I highly recommend it. And then I was ready for bed. I didn’t care that it was only 9:15. But I wandered around the casino for a while anyhow. Lost my $40 to the Monopoly machine…again. And now I’m upstairs in my hotel room at 11:30 finishing this post while Jason plays poker. I might be only 28, but damn I can party like a 60 year old!
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