So Very Dark

I know that my end of the blogosphere has been mighty quiet for the last week or so, and there is a reason for that that some of you know.

But before we proceed with an update on me, admire the car to which we have the key:

Next, I’m afraid, I must mention the weather, due to misconceptions by my good friend heather.

You see, she believes that from winter’s first night, the ground here is covered in a blanket of white.

Though today there are dustings here and there, and the occasional flake that drifts through the air, yesterday, despite the season, the ground remained bare and the temp above freezin’.  (ouch.  That one hurt me too.)

Now, to expediate the telling of my tale, in favor of couplets, prose must prevail.

For the past week I have not blogged, have barely checked my email and my Deviant Art account was left alone to pile up seemingly endless submissions and journals.  This is the man responsible:

My good friend Brendan was insistant enough that I travel to the land of sunshine for Christmas that he resorted to whining, pouting, guilt, bullying and even financial assistance with my trip.  As I a)was raised in proper Jewish fashion, and b) am a poor college student, the guilt and the help with trip expenses proved to be a two-pronged attack that crumbled my defenses.  (Just so you know, Brendan, I am fortifying as we speak, so do not expect to find me such an easy mark next time.)

Now the saga of my winter break so far (’tis lengthy, be forwarned.  But entertaining!  Oh yes.):

day1 – Friday

I cleaned the house and found an affordable flight plan that was leaving in a ridiculously soon number of days.

day 2- Saturday

I washed laundry, thanks to Anna, who is out of town and has given me free run of her washer and dryer.  Then, got my hair dyed.

day 3 – Sunday

This was a day to do errands and buy stuff I needed for my trip.  I started the day with a GOOD ‘trip’, by slipping on an icy step at Burgandy’s house while carrying a tray of coffee and and a carton of eggs.  I landed on my spine on the cement stairs…it hurt like a mother and I had a great bruise for a few days, but it faded in no time and now all i have is a very slightly sore area and a couple weird lumps.

After my clutzy beginning, we shopped for things like jeans and I got an awesome fuzzy sweater thingy that sheds like the dickens.  Then we went home and I packed and then we ate dinner and then we watched disaster movies (The Day After Tomorrow, Deep Impact…and something else).

day 4 – Monday (aka: day 3, part 2)

Since I didn’t have time to sleep by the time dinner was over, we stayed up and watched movies until it was time to leave (my flight was at 7:15).  We made great time and decided to breakfast at IHOP, but the stupid place wasn’t 24 hours.  So we went to Eat’N'Park and I had paincakes there.  But mostly I had an omelet.

All went smoothly at the airport and despite the 5 degree temp and windchill of -14, the wings did not ice up and make us crash and die.  I dozed on the plane (amazing!), got to my next flight and slept for most of it as well (amazinger!).  I landed in SF not as exhausted and ready to kill passers-by as I might have otherwise been.  Especially since the last-minute timing of my trip meant that none of my friends actually had time free to pick me up from the airport.  My friend Adam, however, suggested that I could take the Bay Area Rapid Transit to the bus, to his office in Sauselito, just across the bay from San Fran.  I was on my way to do this, when my on-it’s-last-legs-suitcase decided to give up a little more of the ghost, and make it no longer possible tp pull it on it’s wheels (an already tricky task).  This meant that I would have to carry my almost 50 lb. bag, while the messanger bag containing a heavy laptop and other heavy stuff rested on my gigantic spine bruise.  I thought about taking an airporter directly into Santa Rosa and having someone scoot over and pick me up there…but the pick-up point was a bit of a walk and finally I just decided to throw in the towl and call the one person who had NOT known I was coming and surprise her a little early:  “Hello?”  “Hey mom.”  “Oh hi!  How are you?”  “Not bad…what’cha doing right now?”  “Oh, nothing much.”  “Oh good…’cause I was wondering, could you come pick me up?”  “Where are you?”  “The airport.”

So, my mommy came and got me and we went to dinner that Shawnie made — pure awesome home-made Chicken Korma, Nan and rice.  SOOO good.  Then, I hung with Shawnie and Brennian for a little while mom and Sharon watched a movie and finally, my energy gave up the ghost and mom and I went back to the house where I crashed very much like my planes did not.

day 5 – Tuesday

I hung out with mom for a little while, and then Heather came over and kidnapped me for a series of adventures:  we went to Aroma’s (the Santa Rosa version of the Beehive, for you locals)…we went to her mom’s office, and I halfway flashed her mom’s boss…we went to the gas station…we went to her house in the boonies…we went back to her mom’s office and I didn’t see the boss at all…and then we went to the Oliver’s Market that opened up right down the street from my mom’s house.  Of all the things I saw in CA, this is probably the thing that makes me most consider maybe moving back.  Kidding.  Kind of.

Tuesday evening, I went bowling with Brendan, Adam, Carrie, Sean, Zack and Devin.  It was…bowling.  Or actually, it was watching other people bowl.  (hey!  give me a break!  I had a badly bruised spine!)

(Zack, not pictured)

After bowling, Brendan and I partook of our traditional Brendan and Ra meal of Minestrone soup and french bread, which was awesome.  Then Heather kidnapped me to the bar…unfortunately, Sean is banned from the Belvadere, which is the bar I actually like.  So instead, we went to the Round Robin.  (It’s nickname is ‘The Dirty Bird’.  That tells you all you need to know.) I had a vodka/cranberry and we hung out for a little while and I practiced being socially awkward.  I think I did quite well.

day 6 – Wednesday (aka christmas eve)

In the morning I hung around the house…checked my email for the first time since arriving…watched tv…and got a special delivery Christmas stocking from my sweetie!  Hurray!

We hung around for a little while, then went to Outback with the crew (in this case: Adam, Carrie, Sean (I think?), Karly and JDub.  And me and Brendan.  I’m not putting up pictures this time.  Okay…you can have one of Karly ’cause you haven’t gotten any yet.  I just don’t have any of JDub.)

Then, Brendan and I went to the Belvedere.  Which was packed.  I felt like shouting, ‘It’s Christmas Eve, people!  Go be with your families!’.  Instead, I had a couple coffee and Baileys’ and huddled under the overhang outside with everyone else, because it was pouring disgusting rain.  Eww.  After an hour or so of some annoying guy asking Brendan why he hated him, over and over (if he didn’t at the beginning of the night…) Heather showed up.  We tried to visit her homie Ben, but he was not answering.  So we went and got my stuff from my mom’s house and tried to go to Denny’s…but they were closed.  Stupid holiday!  So we went to Heather’s place, and had tea and ginger-bread cookies and then curled up in bed and watched episodes of ‘Chuck’ until we fell asleep.  Which was like…one.  So I guess…episode.

day 7 – Thursday (aka: xmas)

Heather and I woke up up at some stupid hour like 8:30 am…I finally got to meet her cat, Isis, though.  I had been sad staying at my mom’s cat-less house, and Xmas morning started with a purring circle of fur on the bed at our feet.  Awesome.  Anyway, since H’s sisters and niece and nephew were coming over for presents, there was a unanomous decision to actually shower and put on real clothes, rather than hang out in PJs.  Blasphemy, I say!  That is against traditional xmas tradition!  But I’m a follower, and after I got caffeine in me, I managed to put on clothes that matched, more or less. 

Eventually, Heather’s sisters showed up…apparently, Crissi’s children do not properly understand the fact that Xmas morning is a time to wake up at 5am and harass your parents until they grudgingly drag themselves out of bed.  But, they did arrive, eventually, and there was much opening of presents.

Then, because Heather’s family is like, Italian or something, and this is the way every holiday proceeds, the table was systematically piled with delicious food after delicious food and relatives upon relatives stepped through the door.  Heather and I went for a Christmas Rum Ramble (that is a walk, taken on Christmas, while drinking drinks that contain rum.  She had a rum and coke and I had coffee with a splash of rum).  We returned, hung around, got in the way in the kitchen, chatted with people, made attempts at seeming to help out in the kitchen…and eventually, ate until food was coming out our gills.  We grew gills, just for the occasion.  Christmas eatin’ gills, I call ‘em.  After dinner, we groaned and whimpered while food tried to find nooks and crannies to fit in our bellies.  Then we had dessert.  Which was awesome.  Then, Heather and I went to Brendan’s to watch the Doctor Who Christmas Special!  But not before some cute pictures of the McLerean girls pretenting to all like each other were taken:

But then…Doctor Who!

We also watched some random stuff before, and some National Lampoons after, but we all know what we really cared about.

Then….we went back to Heather’s and watched Futurama…which I know that I, at least, absorbed about 10 minutes of before passing out.

day 8 – Friday (aka: Karly’s birthday)

I know, tough pill.

I’m so happy for a birthday 4 months out from Christmas. 

Anyway, once we finally got up and got moving (hey…it wasn’t christmas anymore…we had no reason to rise with the sun) Heather and I loaded my ton of stuff back in her car and she dropped me at my mom’s house.  I comissoned my mom for a walk, in the hopes of not having to purchase a second seat on the plane on the way home.  A couple minutes later I got a message from Adam that birthday festivities were to begin with a 2:55 movie–but I begged off in favor of the size of my butt not reaching world-record proportions.  So, there was a walk, and after, Brendan picked me up and we all went to dinner at Graphiti– a yummy resteraunt in Petaluma, where they gave us our own back room with a view of the river (whether out of courtesy or out of fear of our grubby freakishness infecting the yuppie main room, I shall never know –rather than the dazzling ensemble pictured above, Karly was wearing an adorable Alice in Wonderland shirt.  The rest of us were in similar condition.)

After, we went back to Adam, Carrie, Brendan and Karly’s house and ate cake and watched Wall-E.

day 9 – Saturday

Saturday morning, I went with mom to her friend Fran’s house, so she could look at a car she was looking at buying.  And is going to.

Afterward, I bullied her into going to the Humane Society so she could find a kitty.  We found and adorable, sweet and terribly neurotic semi-long-haired tabby named Darkstar, who really needed someone, and has tons of affection under her spazz and terror.  My mom has the patience to deal with spastic and traumatized animals and turn them into functioning members of society–I think she is just the person that kitty needs.  So, hurray!

Saturday night, Brendan kidnapped me to make Skettie and Clam Sauce for dinner.  Despite working in a strange and messy kitchen and making the recipe from memory, it turned out yummy.  We spent the evening lounging around Brendan’s watching some show called ‘Seeker’ (I think) and House, and eating awesome yummy skettie while everyone else ate stupid pizza, and those who said ‘eww’ when I mentioned what I was making regreted their words when they saw how delicious our food was.

day 10 – Sunday

Sunday was Ra’s day of awesome (not that the other days weren’t awesome…this was just the ‘Ra does what she wants day)

First, I met K for coffee.  Due to our equally busy holiday schedules, I hadn’t had the chance to see her yet, but we had a morning coffee date and that was awesome.  I also got to see little K and how big she’s getting.  I mean, I’ve seen pictures and all, but last time I saw her in real life was like, 2 years ago. Or a year and a half.  Whatevers.  Anyway, we had yummy chai at the Starbucks down the street, then we went back to my mom’s (Darkstar was inteligently hiding) and chatted for a bit.  My mom took a photo of the three of us, then Kaitlyn decided, in her imperious 3-year-old way, that it was her turn.  She was adorable dictatoraly ordering us around and snapping photos…mom says they came out great.  Hopefully I’ll get to see them at some point!    (hint– mom, you need to get an online photo account.)

After K and mini-K hit the road, I worked on getting most of my stuff packed as I could for the time, then got showered and purtified and waited for Brendan and Heather to spirit me away!  And then waited some more.  Because I had forgotten that the nature of the state of California is that whenever you make plans for, the actual time they are implimented is about an hour past the time you wrote in your date book.  Anyway, eventually, the whole cast (of 3) was assembeled, and we were off!

I spent the rest of the day goofing off in the city with Brendan and Heather…first we went to Japantown so that I could buy Chestnut Daifuku to bring home to Briggs…we went to the Japantown bookstore, stopped for lunch and spent a while perusing the aisles of the random stuff store, where they sell everything from food to ceramic plates to beauty products to kimonos.

Next we went to Pier 39…eventually.  We parked at the far end of the warf district, up past Gerdelli Square, and walked down the crowded tourist-filled street full of glowing storefronts and street-vendors.  We finally got to 39, and wandered for half an hour or so…I bought a few pieces of salt-water taffy, and we tried to see the obnoxious sea lions in the dark.  Then we headed back up the the street, stopping to watch a mexican spray-paint artist demonstrating his trade for a crowd, and again to acquire shrimp cocktail at Fisherman’s Wharf. 

Our final stop of the evening was Steps of Rome, my favorite little Italian cafe in Northbeach.  Not only do they boast a menu full of delicious, from coffee to dessert and everything in between, they also boast young Italian waiters that are usually just as full of delicious.  Due to a day and evening of the most utterly perfect weather that San Francisco has possibly ever had, we chose to eat outside, sharing appatizers for dinner and finishing up with a chunk of amazing tirimisu split 3 ways.

Finally, full an tired (or not in my case, after 2 yummy mochas) we headed back to sonoma county…with a brief stop to get a photo to complete our days ‘very special’ photo documentation of the trip. Brendan dropped us two girls back at my mom’s house and bid me farewell.

Heather had contemplated going out after our return, but after a morning riding lesson, and then much of that bane of her existence – walking — she was pooped.  So she ix-nayed meeting boys at the bar and instead bid me adeu as well, after making I had pokey and pretz for the next day’s plane ride.  Then, because I had way too much caffeine inside me, I stayed up and chatted with my mom about our day.  Finally, it was sleepytime, and I eventually even succeeded.

day 11 – Monday

This day was spent largely in airports and on airplanes.  Mom and I had more free time than we expected, so we stopped at a random coffee shop on the way to the airport — you know the type…it could be an undiscovered secret with the best coffee  and breakfast EVER…or it could be just the crappy coffee shop it appears to be.  Yeah.  It was the second one.  Our bagle with cream cheese came with a brick of cream cheese on each half.  Not spread.  Not on the side. Just sliced off and dropped on half a bagle.  Hmm.

Anyway, my first flight was delayed, and I was worried, (first because I thought I might miss my connection, second because it was for ‘unspecified maintnence) but it left in time for me to catch my second flight and didn’t crash.  I actually arrived at O’Hare with just enough time to grab a sandwich, some starbucks and use the little girl’s room before they boarded us.  PERFECT.  And whereas, on my first flight, I had been next to a middle-aged yuppie couple who I just KNOW were saying snarky things about me while I had my headphones on, on my Chicago to Pittsburgh trip I was between two guys about my age–one with a striped dress shirt who spent half the time goofing on his PDA and the other a heavy guy with a shaved head and a small beard reading science fiction.  I felt very comfortable. 

Despite high winds that lead to a bit of a bumpy descent, we arrived on time (a little early, really) and my sweetie was waiting.  We got my stupid suitcase (which continued to deteriorate throughout my stay. It’s as if it’s a car who’s warrenty just expired!) and went home with a quick stop to grab essentials like milk, juice and frozen pizza.

day 12 – Tuesday

Tuesday I vegged.  I watched TV.  I caught up on email, on Myspace and on my piles and piles of DA updates.  I went outside long enough to feed Anna’s animals and then came back into the warm house.  Not that it was that cold yesterday.  Not even freezing.  In the evening, Burg, Barry and the twins (who, at 4 months, are no longer indistinguishable from each other at all) came by to drop off the hydraulic wood splitter (bah!) and visit for a little.  Briggs and I ate lasagne that his dad made for dinner and it was awesome.  And I learned that Canadians are afraid of the dark.

day 12.5 – Wednesday (aka New Year’s Eve)

Happy NYE everyone!  I don’t know for sure what we’re doing…maybe going to Becky’s?  Right now I need to wrap up this ridiculously long blog and go feed Anna’s animals.

BTW, Heather.  The sun has come out.  But there is snow on the ground.