My Weekend!

Friday: Okay, I was feeling really crappy during the day on Friday, but thankfully my mood managed to get lifted eventually. I grabbed some lunch at a local chinese place, but it apparently was too spicy or something, because my digestive system decided to make me incredibly burpy and uncomfortable. I couldn't even enjoy all of the yummy turkey burger sandwiches that My Man made for dinner. We went for a walk after sitting for a bit, which helped with my stomach a bit, and picked up some DVDs to watch. We got back and popped in Spiderman 3, which neither of us had seen yet.....and I gotta say: I'm SO glad we saw it at home rather than in a theater. I kept wanting to punch the characters in the noses for doing dumb things. Hehe.

Saturday: After a good night's sleep, I felt 100 times better on Saturday morning. After (eventually) getting out of bed, we grabbed some food and set off to the Berkley Wassail. We ended up getting there at about 2 pm, which was in time to say hi at the stop and head off to the next one. I have no complaints with singins and snacking pretty much all day long, and we met some new people that were quite fun to torment. I mean torment in a nice way, of course. :) After we hung out at the last stop for awhile, we went to Saturday(Friday) Night Waltz for the first time. It was fun, though I think I prefer the Friday Night Waltz in Palo Alto. Maybe it just feels more like home. :)

Sunday: Get up at about 9, have some breakfast, throw ourselves together, and out into the world we go to hike at Pinnacles! I had never been, so it was quite an adventure to me. The weather was GREAT...about 60-something throughout the day while we were doing most of the hike. We hiked about 8-9 miles, I guess, but we also climbed around on the really cool rocks. Well, My Man climbed around more than I did...since I'm still pretty cowardly about it...but he did manage to get me to climb up on a big rock! Hand hold and foot hold climbing, and even though I kinda froze and had a bit of a panic attack when I had a few slips, he kept talking me through it and helped me to the top. Which was GREAT for me, honestly...that'll definitely help me over come the irrational fear I have of climbing things like that. Maybe I'll be able to climb with ropes and stuff someday, like the folk we saw.

There were parts of the hike where there were "stairs" carved into the rocks...basically, it was kinda like someone dug foot-holds into the big mountain, put a railing next to it, and you basically climbed up it like it was a ladder (definitely not enough foot space to be thought of as stairs). These were fine, though a little daunting to look at, for going up....but going down, they were kinda terrifying! There's a great photo that My Man took of me heading up these stairs from behind, and you can check that out in the pictures I've uploaded.

We also came across some caves that were mostly closed off due to the season, but they were fun to climb around in, even if they were freezy cold. I could actually see my breath!

Animals that we saw: Lots of ground squirrels, quail, a California Condor, and a coyote!! The condor was really cool, but I was SO jazzed about the coyote. I wanted to CUDDLE it.

Here are the pictures from the hike: Lookit all of the big rocks!

After the hike, we stopped in Gilroy for dinner and headed home. First thing I did was take a shower to wash up, then turned it into a hot bath so I could just sit and soak in the warmth. A hot tub would've felt a lot better, but the tub was good enough. :) I stayed in there for about 30-45 minutes before I got out, threw on my robe and curled up by the fire with some decaf Vanilla Chai tea to read as My Man did some work on his laptop.

I got so warm and cosy that I accidentally dozed off at about 10 pm or so....and woke up at almost 10:30 to find My Man trying to put a false mustache on my face. The twit! ;-) Good thing I woke up before he managed it and was able to take a picture of it. That'll teach me to fall asleep before he does. :) I'll have to start bringing props now to threaten to do the same thing to him, now. Hehe.

VERY good weekend, over all. Tomorrow, though, I have to go to the dentist. Blargh!

End of the Year Updates

On the 28th, I went to a surprise party for my brother. I had to drive to Sacramento for the first time ever, and EYUCH the 2.5 hour drive was killer for me to do alone.

My Man returned from Hawaii on the 29th, after having a great time snorkling/scuba diving, and brought me a necklace of freshwater pearls. I missed him an awful lot, and there was much happiness and hugs around. :) I missed him an awful lot.

The 30th was when I went to my friend's wedding. That was probably the most surreal part of the weekend, primarily due to the fact that it was one of the friends in my core high school group who's married now -- and she's the first one to do so. Ha, my friend J.A. is next, and that'll be half of the group. Kinda weird that the events are happening within a year of each other. Anyway, the wedding was very pretty and it was nice spending a day with My Man, B-Bear, as well as J.A. and her fiance. After the wedding and (rather long) reception, we all went and saw Sweeney Todd at the movie theater. The Man posted the photos and video I took from the wedding here

For New Year's Eve, My Man and I went out to Palo Alto where there was a ball put on by the Paul Price Orchestra. The mother of my friend who got married plays the violin for them, so my friend invited us to go along and hang out with them for the new year. The dancing was a lot of fun, even though I eventually danced myself into acquiring paaainful legs. The countdown sorta sucked, though. I barely heard him say "okay, 10 seconds..............2, 1..." and then the band played Auld Lang Syne. We all had a bit of the "WTF where was the countdown?" moment, but whatever. It was still a lot of fun. :)

Looking forward to seeing what 2008 holds for me. Goodness knows 2007 was pretty eventful!

Knishmas Party!

My Man and I threw a party this past Saturday. A very fun party. It took DAYS to throw together, and we were taking it apart well into the night and today.

I am sooooo tired from the weekend. It was incredibly busy and high energy, save for today, and it's draining on a person.

So, instead of recapping...here's my pictures from the event! I only just got them resized and uploaded.

Nightmare Before Knishmas, 2007!

Note: Those photos don't include the ones a friend of ours took of the destruction of the gingerbread houses....we basically put them up to a load bearing test. :D

Note 2: I gave My Man his holiday gift after everyone left. It was a photo book of all of our events from the past year, and when I say "photo book"...I mean I found a program for putting together a book, and then you order it and it comes to you as an actual bound book with the photos all printed in it. He really liked it. :)

Thoughts on a friend

Went to the opera last night with My Man....and aside from yesterday being one of those days (meaning our cart disappeared at Target, horrible crowded at dinner, terrible parking in San Jose), it was a fairly nice time. The singers were good, and my opera friend was extremely animated and a joy to watch on stage.

However, after the show we went to Il Fornaio with her and some other performers from the opera, which is where she said she needed to call a friend, that I wasn't to tell any embarassing/gossipy stories from high school....and then proceeded to disappear. For about 20 to 30 minutes. Naturally, I felt completely ditched by her. Even her friends from the show leaned over at one point and said something along the lines of "apparently the dirt you have on her is that she ignores her friends" and they felt bad for us.

Found out afterwards that she ran into one of the donors for the opera....which is apparently a huge thing, because if you get the donors to favor you they'll fund you in more shows. The opera folk then understood the networking she had to do and brushed off the disappearance.

I guess I can understand it too. It's just.....I've already played second fiddle, or lower, to someone's career before with my ex (and I'm so glad I'm out of that relationship, let me tell you...feeling like an afterthought or a burden sucks ass). I just never thought I'd have to go through that with one of my friends. And as much as I've commented about her diva personality, her occasional self-centered-ness, with another friend of our's....it just really hurt, moreso than with my ex actually. Even when I commented that I've come to expect that sort of treatment from her, it doesn't make it easier on me. It's so frustrating, and I don't know if I'm over reacting or not, but it just....really upsets me when someone who has dubbed me one of her best friends (even with the clarifier of "from high school") seems to write off my company like that.

::sighs, wipes eyes::

Anyway. At least there was My Man to help me regain some of the feeling of being loved after that.

In other news....My Man gave me a key to his condo. :)

Dinner last night with My Man

Menu:
Rosemary + Garlic lamb chops
Green beans and red potatoes sautee'd in the same flavors
Spinach salad
Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes for dessert

Ambiance:
Instead of eating at the table, I set up a velour blanket in front of the fireplace, with a fire going and some tea candles lit, which is where we had dinner while soft jazz was playing on the CD player -- UTTERLY romantic when My Man started improvising love songs to the music.

The dogs were, obviously, outside...but the cat was welcome due to being quiet and affectionate without pushing her way into our plates.

Successful? Very much so! It was a very nice evening, and nothing burned or was undercooked. Overall, I'm thrilled with how the evening went (aside from the dogs having gotten pushy and loud on trying to get my attention to come back in).

What's Cooking?

I am! Well, I will be. My parents are going out of town this weekend (for my aunt's funeral...I'm taking care of the pets), and while they're away I'm going to make dinner for My Man (formally known as "The Boy"). It's taken me the better part of a day to come up with a menu, but I'm fairly proud of it!

Rosemary & Garlic lamb chops (think I might try to find boneless)
Red potatoes and green beans cooked in the same flavors
Salad (thinking Spinach salad)

And for dessert, I'm going to make Chocolate Molten Cakes.

At least, that's the plan. Hopefully, it won't turn into giving up and ordering in. It's my first grown up dinner I'll plan and make all on my own. I don't know how people plan meals weeks in advance.

I also just ordered the very special super secret gift for My Man. I'd tell you all what it is, but in case he's poking around here as well, I don't want to give away the surprise. But I'll make sure to go into detail after it's given, and post pictures.

Halloween and Things!

Sorry for delays -- I've been busy with various things, including preparing for Halloween (my next project is preparing for a party The Boy and I will be throwing in December).

First off, a few weeks ago I went and worked the final Renaissance Faire in the season up in Folsom (near Sacramento) with The Boy. Had a lot of fun there, and located a few photos that others have taken and put them all here.

For Halloween, we went to the DNA Lounge in San Francisco in our costumes. To see what we were, check out my album of Halloween photos!

And finally, this past weekend we went to a Ranch in Napa Valley that my family is members of for the weekend! We spent Saturday at the ranch relaxing, riding horses, and taking a hike. On Sunday, we left and went for a much more strenuous hike in a places called "Cold Creek Canyon," I believe. Today, my thighs are kiiiiiilling me. So much pain to go up and down stairs, but the hike was gorgeous. Once again, I have pictures! After the hike, we grabbed dinner with some friends and headed home for the 2 hour drive.

Tonight, there's a meeting with the Shoestring Theater Company's board of directors to pick next summer's show. Hopefully it'll be the one I really want!

Hope everyone reading this is well and good. Sorry I've been so sporadic with updating.

P.S. Working on a super secret, but hopefully super special gift for The Boy as a combined holiday/anniversary gift. You know, it's about 1 year exactly since our first date...time has flown!

Tomales Bay Pictures

Here's an album full of pictures taken from the kayaking trip. Look away!

http://picasaweb.google.com/caity.andrews/KayakingTripTomalesBay

Think I'll go for a walk outside, now...

The Boy left work early today, since it was his last day at HP (Yay for starting a new job! He's excited)....so he gave me a call at around 2:30 to see if I wanted to go for a hike. Of COURSE I did! I was feeling so restless yesterday that it was about to drive me crazy, so it was wonderful to get out and get my restless legs moving. We went up to Almaden Quicksilver and tromped around there for awhile, all the way to where the mining was. We even went through this little deer path thing between some bushes into this "fairy land" area....it was all clear and there were trees all around it. You could see single strands of spider webs glistening in the sunlight that came through the trees, and you could tell no one had really walked around in there. It was so peaceful! I wish there hadn't been so much poison oak around there so we could've stuck around.

Well, we got to the top-area (as far as we were going to go, in order to beat the sun back) and had our sandwiches for a little picnic hanging out on the ground. It was very nice, and we turned around once we were done to head back.

So, speaking of poison oak, we brushed against some of it while climbing around on rocks and scurrying down areas that weren't quite a trail....so when we got back, we had to Tecnu ourselves up before showering. I love all of the Then there was much flop-cuddling and tea sipping.

All in all, an extremely calming afternoon/evening. My legs are definitely feeling it -- but also REALLY needed it. I feel great. LOVE all of the outdoorsy stuff.

Animals we saw:
Pheasants! They took off from the brush next to us.
A cute little lizard that was thin and long -- I think more tail than body
Lots of tenny yellow birds
A few dear near the end -- I saw a buck while we were driving out of the area

Into The Blue

So, on Friday The Boy and I left for a weekend long kayaking trip in Tamales Bay. We left and met up with four other folk Friday evening at a really cute little hostel (Pt. Reyes Hostel) -- which, although it was cute, the beds were too hard for me and I couldn't sleep too well. Anyway, the hostel is out in the middle of nowhere and is right where there's some great hiking. On our way up, we passed really close by some tule elk (which were also all around our campsite later on), and after we got there we learned how to play the game "Citadels."

Saturday, we pick up our permits, 4 dozen oysters, then got our kayaks and went off to paddle around in the bay to our campsite -- and went through a huge grouping of jelly fish! So cool. Anyway, first we stopped off at an abandoned artist colony where there was a rope swing to play around and explore. It was really cool to look around in the abandoned houses and to see what all was still there -- I actually found a letter in one of the houses from 1995, so they've been abandoned for at least 12 years -- and it was interesting to see how much the plantlife took over the houses in just that amount of time. One of the houses had these gorgeous vines hanging through the roof into an upstairs room (later found out to be poison oak, to the dismay of others).

Eventually, we got to our beach at low tide and hauled the kayaks up to the high tide point. With the space the fire circle already made there took up, there was just enough space for our four tents when the tide came up to the highest point. We sat around for a bit enjoying the wine that was brought before going on a hike, which was a little challenging at first due to the wine, but it got easier. We found a big group of tule elk and sat on a hill to watch them wander around and call out to each other. They sounded amazingly cool.

Dinner on Saturday was shrimp salad, olive bread, and raw oysters. Yes, I tried an oyster....but it was hard getting past the idea that it is (A) alive when you crack it open, and (B) possibly still alive when you swallow it. It was extremely salty, but that probably was partly due to the point that I tipped most of the liquids out -- which included the lemon juice. After dinner, we sat around and sang songs until around 10:30 or 11:00 at night, when we all decided to crash. Before going to bed, though, I pointed out the bioluminescence in the bay at the water's edge to a few folk. I was apparently the one person who had seen it before (thank you Catalina trip in 8th grade) and when I heard that the bay was bioluminescent, I made a point to remember to poke around at the water with a stick. It caused the plankton to light up and trail the stick like magic sparks. It's soooo purty.

Sunday, everyone stayed in the tents for awhile before getting out to have breakfast at the fire circle. We put off the inevitable of putting back on our wet suits (I would just like to say "ICK!" at this point), but eventually had to as we had to get going. We got our stuff together and into the kayaks -- which was thankfully when the tide was coming back in, so we didn't have to drag them so far -- and cast off into the bay again. We diddled around in the water for a long time, stopping for lunch at one point, and eventually got back to the kayak rental place at 2 or so in the afternoon. It felt reeeeally good to get out of the wetsuit and into the car.

We stopped in Pt. Reyes Station at a bakery -- chai and a peanut butter blondie tasted heavenly at that time -- and hung out as a group one last time before parting ways. The Boy and I hung around the town a bit -- including taking a nap in a grassy area -- before heading home. First thing we did when we got back was slather ourselves in Technu to (hopefully) prevent any poison oak reactions, and took a shower. Oh my GOD that shower was freakin' awesome. I felt soooo good afterwards, even if my shoulders were killing me at the time. Dinner was at Fresh Choice, then we rented the movie Neverwas to watch back at home. VERY nice movie, and I reccomend it.

My shoulders still hurt and want a massage like woah, but I'm VERY happy with the outing. I had a lot of fun and look forward to more adventures.

Wow. Long time no update.

Sorry! I got so busy with the show and everything else that I sorta...blanked on this site. Um, I'll update with bullet points here, I guess.

- Lark Camp -
Lark Camp website
Over all, had a very good time, though parts were overwhelming and hard, but I'm all the better for it I bet. And definitely had the absolute BEST birthday ever while there. The hard/overwhelming stuff were mostly my own emotional issues with feeling like I'd been "ditched" whenever The Boy went off to play really late at night and I had to go to bed due to working the coffee shop the next morning and having to get up. It all got talked out, though, so we're good. :)

- Camping -
I went camping with The Boy and his parents for a few days a while ago, a week or so before school started. It was a lot of fun, and fairly relaxing. We stayed at a little camp area called "Little Basin" -- right next to Big Basin -- that is currently owned by HP (where The Boy works for now -- he's changing jobs), so only employees and guests of them are the only ones who stay there. The best part? We were there during the meteor shower! The Boy and I stayed out late on a dock and watched the meteors. It was great. There were a few that went across the whole sky and left long trails of star dust. Beautiful.

- School and Jobs -
I'm graduating next spring. Lots of papers to write this semester. Yeep. And The Boy is leaving his job at HP to go work at Zvents. It's a great site for looking up events. Try it out! Tell your friends! Pimp the start-up that my man's going to be working for.

- Summer Musical: Children of Eden -
The show's over, and I'm still sad about it. I'll post a link to a photo album once I have one made up. I just really miss all of the people, from the six year olds throwing themselves at me for hugs to the 62 year olds doing the same thing, and it hasn't even been a full week since the show ended. Le sigh.

- Upcoming Events -
- Weekend long Kayak trip this weekend
- Cast party for Children of Eden (date not set yet)
- Possible rock climbing outing with The Boy, practicing on a wall of course, since I'm a n00b.
- White Water Rafting is possible sometime, but hopefully it won't be too cold when it's decided.
- Renaissance Faire opens this weekend, will have to check that out at least once.


Um, I guess that's all for now. Is anyone still checking this site? :P

Who would do that?

What type of boyfriend runs you a hot steamy bath when you've been cold and shivery all evening, leaves you yummy smelling shampoo and soap, lights the room only with candles, and plays Enya music while you soak and warm up? And then makes you tea and lets you have the soft velour robe when you get out?

...Only the best kind, of course.

So head over heels, here...♥ ♥ ♥

Valhalla Renaissance Faire -- 2 weekends, 1 update!

Weekend the first:
I got to roll around in the dirt!!

Okay, so there was more to Valhalla than that, but it was still a highlight. Best moments include:

- Getting to meet new people who I totally clicked with.
- Peeking out of my shy-shell in a few of the bits that I was involved in.
- The beggar in the streets of the faire just made me smile. Adorable like a filthy little puppy, he was!
- Spitting contests with cherry pits. I'm not very good, but I participated!
- Balancing a cabbage on my head while walking through the faire.
- Kick the cabbage! Thankfully, it wasn't on my head. ;)
- Singing in the streets
- Getting to be pulled through and learn some dances with the Merrie Pryanksters....SO much fun. I want to learn all of them!
- Taking a moment to see Lake Tahoe -- which I'd never ever seen before -- and I could see Nevada from the shore!
- The stars at night were GORGEOUS.
- Sitting at the campfire and singing
- And, of course, getting to spend the whole weekend in the wonderfully fun setting with my favorite fella.

Granted, I did have a moment where I felt a little overwhelmed and had to hide at camp for a minute. And I was still only peeking out of my shy shell, spent a lot of time observing.

Weekend the second:
So, aside from the expected rolling in the dirt, here's a sum-up of what happened this weekend.

1) BEARS. There were apparently like, 6 bears (including a mama and two cubs) that decided to start wandering through the faire and campsites at night. I never saw one, but I had seen the security folk walking around through the camps with tranquilizer guns and flashlights whenever they heard reports of one near by. I also heard other camps make lots and lots of noise whenever there was one that came near by. And apparently, one of them got into the food booths and knocked over the fry vat because the oil smelled yummy. Who knew bears liked fried onion!

2) The Boy and I were pretty much it for the St. Helenas peasant guild, so mostly it was chilling out and enjoying the faire, rather than gigging.

3) Boba Fett showed up at a campfire during the after hours party and sang "I wanna be a cowboy" before waltzing along with "Waltzing with Bears." Know who was under that costume? The beggar! I believe I mentioned him last time as one of my favorite bits of faire atmosphere.

4) I learned how to use a drop spindle to spin yarn out of wool! Hopefully I can get one soon and can do that while sitting around at faire either on my own or with The Boy while singing.

5) I got attacked by a sign. ::rubs head:: I was sitting with The Boy while he was singing, with my eyes closed to enjoy the music without distraction, when a huge gust of wind came and knocked over a large sign that was next to us. The Boy stuck up his arm to block it, but the corner still managed to smack into my head and startled the hell out of me -- it could've been a LOT worse, so many thanks to my hero for playing defense! Anyway, because I yelled and started to tear up -- because damn, it did hurt and startle me -- people kept coming over going "OMGOMGOMG ARE YOU OAKY??" and alerting the EMT people on site.....ugh. It just embarassed me, since it was just a little lump and red mark. It took what felt like 5 minutes (an eternity if you're incredibly embarassed and just getting more upset by the embarassment) to get people to let it be and go away. Anyway, I'm fine. Still a bit red and tender on my noggin, but fine.

All in all, a very good weekend still! I really have enjoyed this experience and hope soooo much to continue doing this sort of thing. Oh, and those new boots I got last week worked SO much better for my poor feetsies.

Photos!
Here ya go, take a look at my weekend! No, the color coordinating between The Boy and I was not planned. More of my favorite pictures (ganked from a site with over 1300 from the first weekend) can be found in this photo gallery of mine: Valhalla Faire 2007

General Updating...Again

Let's see...

Great America:
A bunch of my friends from high school, a new girlfriend, myself and The Boy all went to Great America on Sunday, May 27th. This was GREAT fun, because I hadn't seen some of them in a long time, or I hadn't been able to hang out with them due to scheduling conflicts. Even though Great America's gotten cheesy and they aren't even trying to make their line waits interesting with their atmosphere. Still, the rides were fun and everyone enjoyed interacting with everyone else. I really like the new girlfriend, and The Boy loves my friends, and says I can keep them. :P

Boy's Birthday (May 28):
Here's what The Boy got for his birthday from me (which I spent all day Saturday putting together):

A basket wrapped in celophane and tied with a blue ribbon. In the basket was a box of blackberry jasmine tea, which he'll hopefully really like (since he's a tea drinker), and a bunch of bagels. HOME MADE BAGELS. And let me tell you, those bagels were a pain in the butt to make, but they're very yummy. Perhaps partially because they were made with love. ;)

So, I made a batch of cinnamon raisin bagels for him, which came out WONDERFULLY. The second batch was a combo of onion and poppyseed, but unfortunately the onion ones were undercooked, and the poppyseed ones came out very small. Probably because the recipe didn't have any sugar in it -- which yeast apparently needs to interact with in order to rise properly.

Well, despite the fact that he didn't notice the basket right off so that we ended up having some very yummy apple pancakes for breakfast, he did try one and apparently agrees that they came out wonderfully.

Hurrah for a thoughtful and appreciated gift. I'm glad he likes 'em. <3

This Weekend:
I'll be going to Valhalla up at South Lake Tahoe for a Renaissance Faire. The Boy got me into one of the guilds, and it's my first time on the "other side," as it were. I'm really looking forward to it! We'll be leaving this afternoon, picking up some other riders, and then off we go. Hopefully, it'll be lots and lots of fun, so I'll enjoy going back NEXT weekend as well.

I'm also baking cookies to bring and share with people, hopefully I'll get lots of new friends. Though there's also people from Friday Night Waltz who will be there, too. Speaking of which! There's my timer. Gotta go move cookies around!

Is The Kitola still a coward?
Yes. Yes I am. Trying to get up the guts to fix that, though.

A Crappy Day Made MUCH Better

So. Statistics final. Longest, most grueling, and probably most futile 2 and a half hours of my educational career. It was 8 questions long (some had three parts), and it took Two. And. A. Half. Hours. I was getting so frustrated that I ended up crying. By about 5:20 I was so upset that I essentially said "Okay, I can't do this anymore" and went to turn it in. I was the second to last person there, I kept dropping things as I tried to get everything together, cursing only slightly under my breath the whole time. I ran the four blocks to the parking garage my car was in, drove home as quickly as I could (and I'll tell ya, I was so ticked that I was screaming at other drivers while I was in my car...at least I realized I needed to calm down and did my best to do so.) Got home - where thankfully no one else was - and slammed things around. Stole a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie, and made myself take a shower to calm down.

After the shower, I went over to The Boy's, and we headed off to Felton to see a band that someone he knew from high school was in. The band was called Hot Buttered Rum, and they played some really amazing bluegrass/jam music. It was SO MUCH FUN. The energy, the music, the dancing -- especially some of the slower swoon-inducing dancing -- totally lifted my mood out of the gutter it was in to the point where I felt like my bouncy self again.

Okay, I'm a coward

Yes, certain topics make me tear up for no readily apparent reason. Yes, I've had difficulty communicating with people about various things -- such as what I want or what's bothering me -- for as long as I can remember (even since preschool).

...Despite all that, I think I'm going to attempt to swallow my fear and tell The Boy how I feel next weekend. It'll be really hard....my biggest fear is that it'll come out wrong, or that it won't be received as well as hoped. That's pretty much what's been keeping me from saying things outloud -- knowing that, while things won't go forward as well if I keep my mouth shut....opening it could make things a lot more difficult.

Still. I'm going to try...because there's always the possibility that things might even get better. Besides, I have a week to get my head ready to do so....so that should make it a bit easier, right?

Christ, I'm already nervous...

A sure fire way to sweep The Kitola off of her feet

Waltzing is good. Singing is good. But waltzing while being serenaded to? Amazing. Just wow. Love it.

Life is so very good.

Well...that was an adventure!

First and foremost, it seems that The Boy's grandma is doing okay. His parents are coming back up tomorrow.

Let's see....well, my weekend started with discovering that my best friend from high school is engaged. Then, a few days later, I discovered that my OTHER gal pal from high school is engaged. I get the privilege of telling our mutal friend B-Bear -- as long as I bring a camera along to record his reaction.

I did go to FNW on Friday, but it was extremely crowded and I was kinda in an "off" mood for some reason, and ended up heading home after the second set of music. Got called by The Boy and invited to head over after I picked up my stuff, so of COURSE I did.

Saturday was.....eventful, to say the least! We got together with three of The Boy's friends and went for a veeery long hike in Pacifica. It was gorgeous out, and the trail was veeery pretty. It went along what used to be Highway 1, and occasionally tou saw abandoned cars that were totally rusted out. The top part, though, was such a pain (literally!) to get to. It was so steep that my asthma was acting up so bad that I kept getting lightheaded and dizzy by the time I'd -finally- get to the top. The Boy was super sweet and would fall back to keep me company or wait for me to catch up.

After the hike, we went down to the beach nearby to goof around (I'd gotten a "hot spot" on my foot from my boot rubbing on it funny...ow. So no barefoot in the sand for me). The Boy decided that he had to dig near the base of a small sand wall. He ended up digging a really decent sized hole with some of us helping out by building retaining walls or tugging away the endges if they looked like they were going to fall in a bit. Well, once he started to dig into the sand bank.....that's when it got exciting. The wall of sand fell down on top of him and covered him past his nose, and I swear, my heart stopped. I was TERRIFIED. I pulled off his hat and started to pull sand away from his face while some of his friends started digging him out. I tried to help, but was kinda pushed back whenever I was attempting to, and wasn't strong enough to help pull him out. It took a long time to pull him out....but he came out none the worse for wear, aside from being covered in sand -- THANK GOD. I laugh about the mental picture now, but it scared the hell out of me.

After the near-death-experience, we all grabbed food and went to see the movie "Hot Fuzz." Extremely silly movie, so go see it if you liked "Shaun of the Dead." It was a long exhausting day, full of adrenaline, and many of us left sunburned -- particularly The Boy and I.

Today (Sunday) was a lot calmer, but still much fun. We went out and looked at some interesting homes for sale in Los Gatos hills....one of them was gigantic and GORGEOUS (as well as way too expensive), one was cheaper but....oddly built (seriously, the bathroom was tiny, had a huge window behind the toilet, a shower next to the window, and on the other side of the room was the washer/dryer), and the third one had a lot of charm! Favorite things: Window enclosed eating nook, a room with a big ol' stone fireplace, and a room that was two levels with a "stage" like area about 4 feet off the ground. Oh, and the woods? GORGEOUS. A pain in the butt to get to, mind you, due to windy narrow roads, but it was sooo pretty out there.

Afterwards, we went to a park to listen to local folk music players....play music. We ended up staying out there for about an hour and a half, and it was very relaxing. Grabbed some Chinese food for dinner, then collapsed back at home for a movie.

All in all, a very good weekend. I love my weekends with my favorite Boy. <3 This Tuesday, we have tickets to go see "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," which were gotten for us by our whistle player friend who works crew for these plays. Really looking forward to it!

Boy, when it rains it pours..

Got a call from The Boy today. His grandma (the one who lives in Texas) got into a real bad car accident today. Poor Boy....I sounded so upset that I even started to get tearful, despite having never met the woman.

I told him to call me anytime, and if he ever needs company that I'll head over at the drop of a hat, but I really want to do something more for him. I just don't know what.

Update from when originally posted:
The Boy just called and told me that grandma is out of surgery and in stable condition. Very good news. Hopefully, she'll pull through and have many more years with her family.

Another quiet -- though GORGEOUS -- weekend

So, as I mentioned in the comments on the last post, The Boy's grandfather passed away on Sunday morning while The Boy was still down in L.A. He took it kinda hard, since he'd just seen him the previous day, so when he came back from L.A. I kept him company for the evening. Spent a lot of time walking, talking, and he showed me a bunch of the pictures he collected -- as well as a collection of cufflinks he inherited from his grandfather. There were some fabulous things there, including a tuxedo set of onyx cufflinks. He says he's going to wear them the next time he uses the tux.

Tuesday, my parents and I had The Boy over for dinner at our house -- just the four of us. It was a super nice evening, and my parents really enjoy having him over. :) Yayness.

Wednesday marked the 1 year anniversary of Irish Dancing at a local pub I go to, so they had set up a dinner beforehand for anyone who wanted to attend. One of the other dancers kept refilling The Boy's hard cider before it emptied, so I took the opportunity to help him finish it off. We both got a bit tipsy from it, but it wore off (or was sweated out?) by the time the dancing was done. Actually, on Wednesdays the pub has Karaoke after the Irish dancing, and they were playing disco music at the time. Well, I've learned Hustle dancing, and have sorta been teaching The Boy how to do it, so we actually stuck around about a half hour longer dancing to the disco music. It's so fun and high energy! Love it.

Thursday, The Boy had free tickets to the opening of a new movie theater -- given to him by HP -- so we, of course, took advantage of them. We went and saw The Astronaut Farmer....it was such a nice movie! Very family friendly, and it had a warm and fuzzy feel to it. Great movie, though I was a little concerned for The Boy's sake when it got to a point where grandpa (in the movie) died and one of the grandkids found him. I think he was okay with it, but we ended up skipping out on the Celtic Music for the night and just went back to hang out at his place. I took a detour by way of my house, though, to pick up some chocolate chip cookies I'd made for him to take to L.A. and share with his family on the weekend.

Yesterday was gooooorgeous out, and I went for a bike ride through downtown to a park to sit and read. Finished my book by around noon, so I called my mom to see if she wanted to get lunch, and invited The Boy along as well...since he was taking the day off to get some things done, and everyone needs to eat lunch. We went to a nearby sushi place and got to sit in one of the booths where you take your shoes off before entering. It was really comfortable, and the sushi was very yum-tastic. Aside from that, my Friday was uneventful. Went to downtown Mountain View with my parents for dinner (found out later that The Boy and his parents were ALSO in downtown Mountain View for dinner, at the same time), then to Palo Alto for gelato and to see my singer-friend perform.

This morning, The Boy headed back to L.A. with his family to handle the estate and attend the funeral which'll be tomorrow. They'll be coming back on Monday.

It's another beautious day out. Maybe I'll bike to the bicycle store to get some actual bike shorts (the padded kind, so I don't feel like I bruise delicate areas due to the seat on my bike).