Vicious & Wreck: Road Trip (Part 2)

I can hear you all think to yourselves, finally!, and Dear Readers, I don't blame you.  Here is the long overdue conclusion of the recap of the road trip we took six months ago!

Day 2

Fort Bragg is adorable.  Did you know that?  My coworker K never seemed to mention that, but look at the evidence:
We bought socks at a place called Pippi Longstockings
We at breakfast at a Wizard of OZ (book) themed restaurant called Egghead's
We browsed around the Triangle Tattoo & Museum

Our experience at Egghead's rather epitomizes our eating adventures.  Both of us were ravenous by the time we got seated and then we both stared at the menu for ages – really, we only wanted basic things, but we kept getting sidetracked by the dishes with theme names like, Ruby Slipper Scramble, or Aunt Em's Potatoes, or whatever.  I think I finally ended up with a special which was nearly identical to a non-theme-named omelette I had my eye on, but had Flying Monkeys in the title.  The food was awesome.  And, at the end of the meal, I followed the Yellow Brick Road out of the back, and to a bathroom in a separate small building labeled "The Emerald City."  So rad.

After breakfast, we were on the road again.  Shortly after we left Fort Bragg, we discovered "Perfect Beach."  We have no idea what this beach was called, but weather was amazing and the coast line was nearly empty with mist rising off the waves.  We basked for a bit, Vicious recorded some wave sounds, and then we kept on heading north, winding our way back in-land.

This part of HWY-1 was beautiful in a totally different way than the first day.  It was just as empty, but now we were weaving in and out of trees rather than beach towns.  As we got further into the trees, little shacks started popping up here and there, complete with collections of rusty tools and old tractors.  We dubbed these buildings "Murder Shacks" and did not stop to investigate.

When we finally met back up with 101 we were in Leggett and so we headed for the Drive Thru Tree.  I let Vicious drive so I could take pictures; I'll never live down the fact that I trusted Vicious – Vicious – enough to drive my car – a car – through a tree – a tree.*

We got out to walk around a meadow and pond, and then wandered into the woods to record nature sounds.  The redwoods were immense, and the day was warm, and for a while we could hear the buzz of traffic.  Then suddenly everything went quiet, and just like Merry and Pippin in Fangorn: "A queer stifling feeling came over them, as if the air was too thin or too scanty for breathing."  We said goodbye to the trees and headed back to the car.

Did you know that this part of Northern California gets really weird.  Like freaky weird?  On the way to the Avenue of the Giants, we tried to stop and use the bathroom at a tourist trap (of which there is one ever few miles on 101 at this point).  This one had chainsaw art outside and a house built into a tree.  We entered the gift shop and there was a man talking to the woman behind the counter, and he said, "I had to shove it back inside my body, it was like water balloons of blood."  Vicious and I looked at each other and high-tailed it back to the car.  We used the bathroom at Confusion Hill (home of a Chickalope?!) instead.

After driving through the beautiful Avenue of the Giants, we realized we were starving and headed back toward "civilization."  We passed through Willits, where we could have stayed in a Teepee (the possibility was discussed), and ended up scarfing down Thai and finding a motel in Ukiah (where I may or may not have been super snarky to the hotel clerk, who I'm pretty sure thought Vicious and I were a really weird lesbian couple).

It was the night before Vicious' 30th.  We sat with our feet in the bathtub, and talked about Serial Killers, German Cannibals, and British men with black hair.

Day 3

We decided to spend Vicious' birthday in Wine Country, which is amusing because Vicious no longer drinks, but we had this idea that we needed to go to Yountville and check out all the fancy restaurants.  On the way, we stopped in Geyserville to grab some caffeine, and then we got dristracted for a very long time in this amazing Vintage shop.  While we were at the coffee shop, however, the best exchange happend:

Barista: Do you two know where Coppola Winery is?
Me: Um...
Barista: Oh, are you guys old enough to drink?
Vicious: It's my 30th birthday today! THANK YOU.

From there we wandered into St Helena, and decided that we required ice cream.  We found this place right off the main street called The Big Dipper, and it was run by two gay vampires (probably), who would not take off their sunglasses while they were behind the counter, and told Vicious that the sorbet was too cold.  She gave them a filthy and went, "yeah, it's supposed to be cold." And then we found some benches under an archway at a church to enjoy our treats (where Vicious inadvertently solidified by vision of her as Halleluiah from The Hold Steady album Separation Sunday).

After St Helena, we headed to Yountville and I nearly died of bliss eating a macaron from Bouchon Bakery, and we wandered over to an old grave yard where Vicious took a picture of my ass me looking at an old headstone.  Neither of us were drinking on this trip, but we decided to go look at Chandon, because Vicious has a celebrity crush on the head chef there? I think? I'm a little fuzzy on the details – I was still in a bliss coma from the macarons.

We rounded our final day in Sonoma, eating a stupid early dinner at a the Swiss Hotel Bar and Restaurant, since we are both bad at eating regular meals despite the fact that Vicious turns crazy without food, and I just sort of wither into a grumpy mess.  We also found a few super cute shops, where Vicious picked out an amazing star dress.

And as we headed back to the Peninsula, we played Yellow Car (you're always playing Yellow Car), and were tired, but still felt amazing.  Because how many friends do you have that you can spend 36 hours with continually – most of which are spent in a car or hotel?  If you do have friends like that, don't let them go.  They are amazing, and you should be leaving for adventures with them right now.



*Please forgive the indulgence, but I had to work in a Cabin Pressure reference here – it was just too good to pass up.  For the record, this is a reference to Ottery St. Mary (series 3, episode 4).

2011 Recap

Welcome to 2012.

I haven’t updated this since Oct., mostly because I'm very easily distracted by other things, but maybe a little bit because I’m horrible at commitments that rely on only myself.  I suppose I should make some sort of resolution to keep my blog up to date – oh! Wait, I did that last year.  It sort of worked, at least I had a good run for a while.  

I have decided to make more of an effort.  I do miss blogging; it really did help me stay in the habit of writing.  So, to kick that off, here’s what you’ve been missing in my life!

Oct. 

I was going to attempt to do movie reviews while, ahem, altered and successfully did one.  I do have two more to post and will work on getting those edited so they are intelligible. 
 

I had also been training for The Warrior Dash, which took place on Oct 29th.  It was so much fun: a 3 mile fun-run with obstacles, mud, and fire.  I did it in just under 40 mins, which isn’t too much longer than my normal mile-pace (and that included all the obstacles) and I only ended up with some minor cuts and bruises.  I’m already excited for next year’s race. 

Then for Halloween, Boyfriend and I went as Lady Sherlock and Dr. Watson.  Really, it was an excuse to get Boyfriend to grow a mustache, wear a top hat and vest, and essentially dress like Jude Law’s Watson.  Luckily for me he was a good sport about it. AND lucky for the party we went to, Carmen San Diego showed up and tried to steal the Eiffel Tower – through my deductions I was able to prevent this horrible crime to the sounds of Rockapella. 

Nov. 

I had planned on devoting my November to figuring out ways that I could enjoy a satisfying Gluten Free Thanksgiving.  I had plans for pies and stuffing and biscuits and everything.  Needless to say, that did not happen. 

I went up to Oregon in early November to visit my Aunts and my cousins while all the Uncles went on a fishing trip. This involved a lot of card games and chocolate.  Oh, and worrying that there might be a bear wandering around the property.  It was fun.

Because we had a shutdown at work during the week of Thanksgiving, I zoomed down to visit one of my best friends in San Diego.  We watched an insane amount of Doctor Who, drank wine (at one point we went to the grocery store and both bought a jar of salsa and a bottle of wine. Each.), and ate chinese takeaway.  It was absolutely perfect. 

Dec. 

And then suddenly it was December.  Boyfriend and I went to Disneyland with two of our friends – it was a surprise for one of them as a late birthday present.  We did something absolutely crazy like 30 hours in parks over 2 days.  We were completely wrecked at the end of the trip, but it worth it. 

December also happens to be my sister Bear’s birthday and to celebrate, she hosted a Tour d’Franzia.  Let me explain: We had 4 teams of 4, each with a box of Franzia and tricycles, mini bikes, and razor scooters.  It’s a race to the end of the bag so, the first person drinks for 5 seconds then rides around the course (in this case, we were on a cul-du-sac, so we had to basically make a loop from further down the street), once they cross the finish line the next rider drinks and so on.  This lead to everyone being completely gone by about 2pm.  I ended up with a giant contusion on my head from a beer can and a broken toe, complete with bruises all over my body.  The fact that I’m my late twenties means I should know better, I suppose, but it was a blast. 

In contrast, we had a nice low key Christmas and New Years.  I spent the time off work recovering from the aforementioned party.  My foot is still messed up and until this week, I hadn’t been able to get it inside of shoe except an Ugg.  So, yes, I did go to a New Years party in a dress with Uggs on.  

So, yeah.  Those were the highlights of the remainder of 2011.  Here’s to 2012 and the hope that I can motivate myself to stay more on top of my own goals. 

Awesome August : Day 30

Wow, what a fail.  I make it all the way through and then forget to post this... ah well.

Tonight Boyfriend and I meet up with an ex co-worker and her boyfriend to make gluten-free homemade Pop Tarts.   We experimented with different fillings, but the fan favourite seemed to be the maple and brown sugar one (which we only made one of for some reason).  Others included peanut butter & jelly, Nutella, salted caramel, raspberry, and lemon curd.  I don't like jams, as previously noted, so I didn't try any of those ones, though I hear they were good...

the salted caramel kind of exploded...

Well, August has been fun, guys.  It's been an interesting challenge to do this every day and I'm not sure I can keep it up.  But I do want to keep doing regular posts – at least 2 or 3 times a week.  But September is looking crazy so far: friends visiting, travel, a billion birthdays (including Boyfriends), and I'm taking a class on Thursday nights now.  Of course, looking my calendar for September, I realize that I won't be lacking in things to write about.

Happy September, everyone!

Catching up...

One of the reasons that I started this blog was to keep myself in the habit of writing.  And when I'm on top of things, that seems pretty successful.  This isn't to say that the writing is superb or profound in any way, but I'm writing nonetheless, which is something I used to do constantly and I've been missing.  To quote Sugar, I need to write like a motherfucker. 

Now that the weekend is almost upon us, I hope to catch up with some posts.  Boyfriend and I were just on The Big Island of Hawai'i for a week, as you can see in the photo above (or if you're like me, you can't stop staring at the Domo with a mustache on Boyfriend's shirt – and, yes, he wore that to a Lu'ua because he's a badass).  As the official photographer for this blog, I'm waiting for Boyfriend to pass me the good (good meaning his photos, not mine) pics from the trip so I can do a recap.  So, you've got that to look forward to.

I've also been neglecting because of some weird, random health issues.  I had planned to write a pre-travel post before we left, but I spent the last day here really, really sick with a migraine.  Then on Monday, in the airport on the way home, my mouth started swelling up… Tuesday, I had to have an emergency gum procedure.  They think that I had a cut on my gum and then had a reaction to something and it caused an infection. Delightful, yes?  So, now I have stitches and a lot of mouth pain.  I haven't been a happy camper this week.

Oh, and since I'm being honest, I started re-reading The Lord of the Rings and that's taken up quite a bit of time, too. :)

But all that aside, over the next two weeks, I get to see two of my most favourite people in the world, see the last Harry Potter movie in theaters, celebrate a ton of birthdays, and gear up for my own birthday at the end of the month.  There will be tons of fun here, guys! I just have to get on it!

Last Week's Outfits

When I decided to post my outfits, part of the motivation was to force me to update this more often.  However, I worried that posting outfit posts daily would bother people, so I started Fashion Friday – which lasted about 2 weeks before life got in the way.  I figured no one noticed, but believe it or not, I've had a few request to bring back those posts – apparently people like them.  So my question for you, Dear Readers, is this – weekly photos? Daily photos?  Only photos when I really love an outfit?  Some other option?  I want this place to be a representation of me and all of my interests (hence random stories, recipes, clothes, etc) but I don't want to bore you...

Well, until I get some feedback, I think I'll try some daily posts and see where that gets me.  This was, after all, partly a New Year's Resolution to write more, so here we go!

I tried to get Boyfriend to get pics of all of my outfits last week.  We successfully captured 2 and I managed to use Instagram to get my more interesting accessories...  It's a start, right? Right!

Now that it's finally feeling like spring, I've taken to wearing nothing but skits and dresses.  This skirt is from H&M; the shirt is from Nordstrom Rack; the sweater from Target.  I got the necklace at a gem & jewelry show.  I don't know what shoes I was wearing, but I do know that I'm in front of the washing machine because I was on a mission to get a diet coke from the garage fridge when this was taken.  Mission accomplished, in case you were wondering.

I didn't get a full outfit pic on Tuesday, but I was wearing this purple dress from Target with this fantastic dragonfly necklace, that I think might be from Chico's – my sister and I are the youngest people that shop there, but only for jewelry; their jewelry is fantastic!  And, hey, my hair actually looks OK in this pic – it's been up most of the time recently because I've been running before work and can't be bothered to get up that much earlier just to do my hair...

I decided to be slightly whimsical and went with a bow theme.  Who knew I had this many things with bows?  The dress is a Betsy Johnson that I got on crazy clearance a few years ago; the shoes were an impulse buy via The Daily Candy's Swirl; the sweater was a Christmas present and thus of unknown origins; and the earrings are pink with little heart-shaped bows, which I borrowed/stole from my mom and they're Channel.  Also, no I'm not wearing white tights, thankyouverymuch.

I didn't end up getting a full outfit pic again, but you can see all of the important elements here.  The dress is from Anthropologie, again something I picked up on super clearance when I used to walk past the store every day to and from work... It's full of these bright flowers and it has pockets, which is the best!  The sweater is a TJ Maxx find, I think?  It has those patches over the elbows like a tweed jacket, so that's fun.  But the best part of this is the necklace – this is from an open market in Málaga, Spain.  I spent a week in El Costa del Sol with Si in 2003 pretty much drunk constantly, eating pizza, and bumming around with buskers we met.  It was awesome.

On Friday, I felt like crap and due to a mix up at 5:30 am, I forgot to bring the right shoes to change into after the gym.  This left me in jeans and a t-shirt, which is something I do not like to wear to work, even on a Friday.  But, what are you gonna do?  And since I left work and went to bed for 2 hours, I didn't get any outfit shots.  It's OK – you aren't missing much.

So, here's to sticking to keeping this updated a little more frequently.  Please let me know if you think I should do more or less.