2011 in review

Chances are I’m either typing this with a baby on my lap, or in the few and far between minutes baby is asleep (or on someone else’s lap, which is a lot more common), so who knows if it’ll actually get finished by New Year’s… but I’ll try!

Wow… I kind of can’t believe it’s over (well, almost… technically I have three more days, but I’m really doubting anything significant is going to happen.) The time didn’t exactly go fast (except for the past two weeks which have flown by!) but it seemed more, I don’t know, cohesive than other years – everything flowed together. Or maybe I’m just crazy and sleep-deprived. On to the review.

My beautiful little family <3

Highlights:

• The obvious one: meeting (and getting to know) our beautiful and amazing son, Damien Isaac. In fact, I’d even say being pregnant for most of the year was a highlight… weird, I know, but I like being pregnant. (The gestational diabetes, however, I could do without.)
• Dan getting a job, and in graphic design too! (Technically his degree is in product design, not graphic, but we were just happy he got a job in the art field and didn’t have to stock shelves at Walmart or something.) (Which may be what I’m doing in a month so I shouldn’t knock it, lol – see below.)
• Being able to work at the high school I used to attend – unfortunately my job ended in December due to budget cuts so I’m now on the lookout for a new job (well, I will be when I’ve recovered a bit more from Having A Baby), but it was fun while it lasted.
• My sister moving back to town – I know this isn’t necessarily a highlight for her (it’s not exactly a happening place, lol) but I love having her closer :)
• I would be remiss if I did not mention that 2011 was the year I FINALLY (oh holy crap after 10+ years of trying FINALLY) beat Minesweeper on Expert. Sure, it’ll never happen again, but once is enough.

Lowlights:

• We experienced a lot of loss this year. In January I had a miscarriage at 8 weeks pregnant, which was by far the hardest thing I’ve ever experienced. I’m actually experiencing a lot of the same emotions now after Damien was born, because now I know how a pregnancy can equal a real baby, and it makes the loss even more real. On the other hand, it’s hard to reconcile the idea that if that baby was born I’d never have Damien… but I think I can love them both and wish there was a world where they could both exist.
• We also lost my maternal grandfather (died the day before Damien’s baby shower) and Dan’s aunt (died on Christmas eve), and in both of those situations the awful timing contributed to the pain of loss I’m sure. I feel bad that neither of those very special people got to meet Damien, and it’s hard to imagine that they’re not around anymore. Obviously we’re still dealing with this and will be for awhile.
• General angst and anxiety from still living at home/not being able to provide for my kid/not being a real family/etc etc… my goal for 2012 is to improve on this!

Fun things:

• Overnight trip to Mt. Shasta for Valentine’s Day with Dan (and Ripley, hehe – we stayed in a KOA so she could stay with us)
• Went to several Giants games in San Francisco
• Trip to Arcata for Dan’s and my 3rd anniversary/our ‘babymoon’ (I was 20 weeks pregnant)
• The first time we heard Damien’s heartbeat (at 11 weeks)
• Seeing Damien for the first time at 13 weeks, and finding out he’s a boy at 19/20 weeks
• Baby shower! (It was co-ed and fall themed and 10x better than any shower I’ve ever been to – thanks family!)
• Is it crazy to put giving birth as a fun thing? But, in a way (a stressful and painful way), it kind of was.
• Thanksgiving wasn’t anything to write home about, but Christmas was fun

Songs that remind me of 2011:

• Three Days Grace, “World So Cold“
• Seether, “Country Song“
• Evanescence, “What You Want“
• Korn (feat. Skrillex), “Get Up“
• Bush, “The Sound of Winter“
• SheDaisy, “Baby Mine” (lol @ the link, it’s the only version they have on YouTube! And it doesn’t play the whole song either… but you get the idea)

Favorite new things watched:

• The X-Files… every season, plus the movies (I am more fangirl about this show than I have been anything since perhaps high school, lol – just a decade or so late!)
• Dexter season 4 (and I just bought season 5 for $15 at Target, so now I just need to make Dan watch it with me!)
• Waking the Dead (a BBC-produced cold case show with great characters)
• Buffy seasons 1-4 (I get really obsessed with watching, get burned out, and get back to it a few months later
• Witchblade (the anime version – LOVED this show, and since I watched it while pregnant the end made me cry)
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo/The Girl Who Played with Fire/The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (I LOVE Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth and am a little hesitant about the American versions, but will give them a try. I really like Daniel Craig so that should help.)

Books read: See this list, which isn’t complete (especially for November/December), but it’s the closest I’ve ever came to keeping track to what I read in a year. Next year, I’m afraid, the list will be significantly shorter – I always vowed I wouldn’t be THAT MOM who never read, but holy crap, it’s hard to read with a newborn who constantly needs your attention, and when he doesn’t, you’re so sleep-deprived you can’t focus on anything (or there’s something else you need to do.) That said, my MIL gave me a Nook for Christmas, and I’ve found I can sneak a few minutes of reading in during night feedings (when I’m not playing Sudoku or checking my email…) Though paper books will always be my first love, e-books may be my saving grace as a reader and a mom.

Goals for next year:

• Be the best mom possible to Damien :) (and the best wife possible to Dan, too!) (and pet-parent to my furkids) (you get the idea)
• Become more self-sufficient – even in a crappy economy, you can only live with your parents for so long…
• Find a job of some sort, to help with the whole self-sufficiency thing
• Take a few classes, so I can 1) finish my degree (FINALLY) and 2) not have to pay back my student loans!)
• Experience as many new, fun things as possible!

 

happy halloween!

Ripley and me in our ‘costumes’… although I guess technically it’s Damien’s costume, since he’s the one making the pumpkin shape:

Love Ripley's expression :)

Kaeli and me answering the door:

My bumpkin is kind of taking over the picture

Dan didn’t dress up, as always (although he did change into a skull-themed tshirt, which is about the best we’re gonna get…) He did, however, carve one kickass pumpkin:

(The 'pumpkin' is actually a craft pumpkin from Michael's)

It’s Pyramid Head from the Silent Hill! He also carved this Clocktower pumpkin (which I don’t get, since I haven’t played it, but it’s still creepy…)

Run, little girl...

I actually carved a pumpkin this year, but it didn’t show up very well in pictures (it was a SUPER thick pumpkin, and the holes were pretty small) so…. maybe next year? : P

baby shower!

Okay, I’m going to cheat – I wrote about it here. But you should go there and read about it.

And here’s Dan and me, in our baby shower attire:

Featured: Accidental Mom Hair

Okay, this is actually after the shower, which is why we look kind of frazzled and exhausted… but it was fun, I promise! And we got SO much good stuff; this is going to be a lucky baby. :)

san francisco adventure

Dan and I just got back from an Adventure in San Francisco with Dan’s mom. I experienced several firsts (my first hotel with a phone in the bathroom! my first time not able to tie my own shoes! my first time seeing the Giants and actually being able to recognize individual players because I wasn’t in the nosebleed section!) which were all very exciting and I’ll detail as I go…

We left yesterday morning and drove down to San Francisco. Marcia actually booked us a hotel in the city, which was pretty cool because I’ve only slept within the city limits two times (despite living in the Bay Area for two years and the Napa Valley for four, which I guess is why I didn’t – I had a free place to stay nearby-ish.) This was a huge improvement over my previous accommodations (a nonprofit organization in the Tenderloin and a youth hostel) – we were at The Palace, a historic (built in 1875; rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake and fire) and gorgeous San Francisco landmark. Apparently Dan’s mom got a really good deal, which is pretty amazing, because otherwise I’m sure I’d never stay in a place that offers $4,000 rooms. (Our room was nowhere close to that, mind you, but apparently such rooms exist. They save them for the president or something.)

To my amazement, I was not immediately kicked out of said hotel for not being fancy enough, and we crashed a few minutes in our rooms (where I discovered the beforementioned bathroom telephone. I didn’t use it, but I did drink the Complimentary Bottled Water.) We had a few hours before we had to get to the ballpark, and Dan wanted to check out Rasputin, so we took a little walk down Market Street to the shops. I decided to step into Old Navy on a search for comfortable jeans, since I was wearing The Most Uncomfortable Maternity Pants Known to Womankind (they were my first maternity clothing purchase, and I had no idea what I was doing) (ironically also from Old Navy, but it’s the style that sucks, not the jeans themselves.) I found a much better pair on sale, along with a cute (and also on sale) tank top. Unfortunately this was when I also discovered I can no longer tie my shoes on my own – goodbye, feet. I did the best I could and made Dan fix it after we got back to the hotel. In Rasputin, Dan found a supercheap video game (usually $20, $3 at Rasputin – that place is amazing!) and after a quick stop at The Coffee Bean, we were back in our amazeballs hotel getting ready for the game.

Our hotel was only a little over a mile from the ballpark, so we decided to walk. Thankfully although I am unable to dress myself, I can still walk just fine, even if my pants fall down constantly (seriously, it’s the plague of maternity wear – super comfy, but as your hips blend into your stomach there’s just nothing to keep ‘em up. Think beer-bellied men with plumber’s cracks, only cuter, because preggies are cute right? At least cuter than fat men’s buttcracks?)

How 'bout I distract you from that visual with a giant glove/Coke bottle combo? From our seats at AT&T park

Once at the ballpark, we once again were ushered to a Special and Fancy Zone – Marcia decided to try some new seats, in the club level section. We were in section 229, about halfway in between third base and the edge of the outfield (visualize it here!) The really cool part was we could watch people warm up, and actually recognize who was who. The other good part was that the club section has much better food, with more options. (The merch shops aren’t as good though, so there are drawbacks. I guess fancy people own all that stuff already.)

Here's me trying to get Dan to take a picture with me as he says, "I don't want a picture"

Mama view - my fat tum (aka baby at his third baseball game, not that he'll remember any of them!)

We found our seats, watched the Padres batting practice, grabbed some food (Dan stuck with his traditional garlic fries; I feared the heartburn consequences and went with a delicious grilled veggie burrito instead, an option limited to the ‘spensive seats) and settled in to watch the Giants outfield warm up. For example (and please excuse my crappy camera – at least it’s not a cell phone!) -

Here's Pablo Sandoval and Orlando Cabrera palling around - right after this, Lou Seal came out to chat them up

And here's a stretching Tim Lincecum with Chris Stewart, who just suited up in his catcher's gear

It was a really fun game to go to, and not just because the Giants won, although that was a big bonus (especially with how they’ve been playing lately…) I always love seeing Timmy pitch – I think he’s my favorite Giant, although don’t tell my other favorites that! – and his RBI single was just amazingly (and somewhat hilariously) awesome. There were some tense moments, but they were mostly smoothed over with delicious ballpark hot chocolate (which, by the way, Baby Boy happens to love – I’ve never encountered a food that made him so hyper. Maybe he was just excited the Giants won?) Oh, and not pictured, but I got to wear my awesome Giants hoodie (which amazingly still fits over my preggo belly) and Giants scarf (not an official team item, but I crocheted it in orange and black stripes in honor of my team.) Wearing cozy clothes is extra exciting when it’s 100+ degrees at home.

The one pic I actually took during the game... before my camera ran out of batteries. Oops. But hey, Timmy's pitching!

The next morning I walked around the block looking for a city classic for breakfast… and settled on a McDonald’s. Close enough. I brought it back to the hotel to lure Dan out with delicious smells (and to probably be the only one in the entire building eating fast food, lol) and soon we were ready to go. We decided it would be fun to go to the Academy of Sciences, since the last time we went it was super crowded and not too impressive. I’d heard things had improved, so we headed over to Golden Gate Park to check it out.

For once, people were right; we had a much better time at this visit. Of course, the tickets are still outrageously expensive, but at least this time I feel like we paid for something good. The aquarium is expanded, and almost a day in itself – you could get lost in there! We actually got to go through the Rainforests of the World exhibit, which is inside an indoor dome, and though it was hot and humid it was worth it to see all the colorful butterflies, birds, frogs and lizards. Though it’s temporary, I of course LOVED the Snakes and Lizards exhibit. They even had the animatronic python from Anaconda on display, along with bones from an extinct python that was even bigger than the movie version. We even checked out the Academy Cafe, which was delicious and not too pricy – I got ratatouille, ‘smashed’ potatoes and veggie gravy, and fresh iced tea for under $10 (and the portions were huge!)

The planetarium wasn’t open until way later, so we ended our day with a highlight – the penguin feeding! I’m a big pengie fan and watch these particular guys on penguin cam, so I was extra excited. All the visitors sat on a big square rug in front of the tank while a rather attractive penguin dude told us all about the African penguins on exhibit. Inside the cage, a marine biologist fed the penguins and answered some questions as well.

Pengies!

That pretty much covered everything at the Academy of Sciences, but Dan expressed the desire for something “chocolate-y or ice cream-y” before we left the city, so we trekked over to Ghirardelli Square. The line was a bit crazy, our order was misplaced, and I rediscovered my morning sickness when a kid directly across from me lost his lunch all over EVERYTHING (seriously, it was a three-mop event), but all was worth it when our delicious ice cream came. (Dan had a cookies and cream cone, Marcia had a brownie sundae, and I had a chocolate peanut butter sundae. It was good, but I’m going back to my classic sundae next time – I need all the hot fudge I can get!) :)

Alas, it was time to come home, and the wonderful Bay Area evening traffic made this a bit of a drawn-out occasion. (Actually, I shouldn’t complain – once we got out of the city it was fine, and I’ve personally experienced my share of East Bay hell, so we got off fairly lucky.) And now I’m in my own comfy bed, which is nice, but I’m trying to un-depress myself from Bay Area exposure (why don’t I live there anymore? *sob*) and that’s not quite as nice. Time to go cuddle with the pregnancy pillow.

at one point, this happened

One of our recent projects has been to clean out the ‘computer room’ (see beginning of this post) and make it into a bedroom/nursery (more on that here.) So far, the pictures are off the walls and relocated to other parts of the house, Kaeli’s turtles are swimming happily in my dad’s science classroom, the Giant Desk of Horrors has been relocated to the back of the van and is hopefully on the way to its new home in my dad’s office (crossing my fingers that Dan and my dad don’t get squashed by its frightening hugeness), the random junk piled on said Giant Desk has been relocated (much of it to the trash can), and finally, the approximately thirty-five million unlabeled CDs piled on desk have been sorted.

That last part is what Dan and I did last night. We found: a very large number of blank but still very scratched CDs (trash!), DVDs with only one song or photo burned on then (k?), many mix CDs, 70% of which inexplicably began with Beyonce’s Irreplaceable, and an entire hoard of unlabelled CDs of photos. Every single CD containing data was faithfully placed into my laptop’s DVD:R drive to check its contents, and on one such CD I found… something.

It’s time for a little backstory: one of my Funny Family Stories I like to tell people (like my husband, probably more often than I remember) is the time when my youngest sister was two or three, and on Easter I set up an entire display in my front yard in honor of the holiday. And then proceeded to dress up as the Easter bunny, in my own homemade costume, somehow convincing my sister that I was the ‘real’ Easter bunny and apparently she’d been really good this year, because look at all this candy! (Do you have to be good for the Easter bunny? I’m not sure of the mythos of the thing, but in all events, there was candy to be had.)

Well, we found a photo of this glorious event:

(click to embiggen, for the full effect)

Yes, I am the one in the paper bag mask. I wore a turtleneck and gloves as a part of my costume, but for whatever reason decided a bunny could wear jeans if she darn well pleased. My middle sister (the other kid on my lap) collected bunnies as a child, which provided most of the props (the giant pink bunny was actually mine), but apparently I felt the need to spice up the place with several other characters, including a wooden rocking horse, Figaro the kitten (from Pinocchio), and Winnie the Pooh. They all coexist happily in Easter Land! (Also note the canoe and wooden ‘stable’ behind us, which was actually a prop from our giant light-up nativity scene that sheltered cats the rest of the year.)

So basically, all the cleaning was worth it to relocate this little piece of history. I laughed for about fifteen minutes straight when I found it…

mini anniversary trip

Even though Dan is only working part-time, his work schedule is so weird (Fridays, Mondays and Tuesdays) he never has more than two days in a row to take off. So for our anniversary trip to the coast, we decided to leave Wednesday morning and come back Friday morning (he doesn’t work until Friday afternoon.)

Which would have worked perfectly, only I happened to be twenty weeks pregnant the week of our anniversary, and there were a whole heck of a lot of medical-y things my doctor’s office wanted to do to me during that week. Oh, and they wanted to do them Wednesday and Friday, leaving only Thursday unscathed. Thankfully my appointment Wednesday was at 10am, which left the rest of the day for Fun Times, but my Friday appointment was (gasp) 8am. If we decided to stay both days, we were going to have a verrry early morning ahead of us. We decided to play it by ear and left on our trip without solid plans.

On Wednesday, our actual anniversary, we left right after Doctor’s Appt #1 (where we got to see Baby Boy being adorable) and drove to the coast. It’s a 4ish hour drive on very windy, scary roads, but it’s pretty so that helps make up for the death-defying moments, I guess. Dan was driving, and I did almost get us killed by encouraging him to run a random red light in the middle of nowhere – what can I say? I thought it was a four-way stop kind of thing – but it turned out to be a construction site with a one-way road and traffic coming the wrong direction. Luckily there was a shoulder to veer into… Again, oops!

Sadly, our hotel wasn’t quite as nice as others in the chain we’ve stayed at in the past. It was really tiny, kind of worn down, and located directly next to a McDonald’s drive through (nothing like hearing people order burgers all night!) Oh, and our bed was made of cardboard and our pillows (two tiny, tiny pillows) were made of paper. So that part kind of sucked, but at least it was clean, and the TV got cable. If we come back, I’ll definitely pony up the extra $10 per night to stay in one of the many nicer hotels surrounding our little dingy one.

Clam Beach, as depicted by my cell phone... oops, left my camera at the hotel : P

When we drove into town, the very first thing I wanted to do was go to the beach. Yay beach! Even though it was only 60°F or so, the sun was shining and it was actually quite nice (the wind, on the other hand, was mean.) I had two beaches on my Things to Do list, and Clam Beach was closest, so that’s where we went. It was gorgeous! Hardly anyone was there, and there was miles and miles of unblemished sand (which seemed a lot less beautiful once I realized walking miles over said sand while pregnant and off balanced is no small feat. Guess that was my workout for the day.) There were really cool sand dune ‘caves’ (aka dents in the ground) everywhere that people used for their picnic base, or to fly kites from. I wanted to be closer to the water, so we trekked down to the packed sand and found a log for a little bit of wind shelter.

My hair looks all wonky from the wind, I swear!

I spent a good half hour in the water (only up to my knees, because 60 is not that warm), chasing waves and collecting pretty rocks, until these little swimming things started biting my feet. Then I retreated to the towels with Dan, where we watched a baby horse do very silly things – there was a stable nearby, and the owner was trying to train him. At one point he tried to come over and be friends with us, but he thought that meant sitting on Dan, and the owner wasn’t too keen on that (neither were we – even though he was a baby, he had to weigh 200-300 lbs.) I did get to nuzzle his cute little head, though. :)

Dan loves having his picture taken, as you can tell

After the beach we were hungry, so we headed into Arcata to hunt down an Italian restaurant. We ended up at Abruzzi, where we ate delicious pasta and I tried not to burn myself on the candle-lamp on the table (I kept forgetting it was on fire… it looked like a lamp!) There was an ice cream store in the same building, Bon Boniere, where we ate The Most Delicious Ice Cream Ever (it was all homemade!) We walked around town a little bit, looking at the cute stores (all closed, since it was evening)… and discovering that pot smoke makes me sick when I’m pregnant. Perfect time to visit Humboldt County, huh? (I just had to give all smoky clouds and be-dreadlocked individuals a wide berth. It’s not personal, I swear.)

Pretty trees! (Dan took this)

The next day was cloudy and cooler, and though it wasn’t so great for the beach, it was the perfect day to go hiking in the redwoods. We drove over to Arcata Community Forest, which has nearly 800 acres of gorgeous forest and is all owned and maintained by the city of Arcata. Since it’s not a national park, there are a lot more opportunities for recreation (lots of bike, horseback riding, and even dog trails) and it was super clean – seriously, I didn’t see a single speck of litter, even in the hollowed-out trees that seem to make natural trash cans. Color me impressed!

Baby & me in the redwoods - I'm wearing Dan's jacket because mine won't zip over my belly, lol

We wandered through a city day camp to find a trail that went into the forest itself, and finally found one that didn’t look too taxing. Luckily it was a fairly short loop (maybe 1.5 or 2 miles?) otherwise I think I would have died out there – it was soo humid, I had to pee about halfway through, and my balance and breathing were pretty crappy (once again, thanks baby.) (Well, I would have hated the humidity either way, so I guess I can’t blame baby for that.) Also luckily, it was beautiful, so I didn’t mind the discomforts (too much.) We saw lots of huge hollow trees, a family of banana slugs, and a tree growing out and over a ten-foot stump – oh, and an adorable brindle French bulldog. :)

Dan in one of the giant stumps

Oh, Dan played in lots of things too. I mostly tried to keep breathing, and took pictures of him playing in (and on) things.

Now he's on a stump...

…and eventually we made it back to the main part of the park, which was still full of day-camp kids (and random kids playing on the playground. Oh, and dogs too – there are a LOT of dogs in this town.)

This is the crazy tree-growing-over-a-stump I talked about earlier - weird! (Dan took this one too)

Since it was cold (well, not in the forest, but in the rest of town) and looked like rain, we decided against the beach and instead went back into Arcata. Humboldt State has a teeny-tiny natural history museum, and museums are always good for rainy days, so we went to check it out. They had a ton of cool fossils, bones, and various other body parts from ridiculous animals, plus some great exhibits of local flora, fauna and animal life (the crabs of California part? Okay, that scared me a little. Some of those things look like evil space spiders!) We spent some time communing with a hive of bees (inside a plexiglass box, so you could see everything), though we never did locate the queen. I also really liked all the hands-on exhibits – even though I’m a big girl and know not to touch museum-y things, I remember how hard to keep my hands to myself as a kid.

We were getting hungry, and even though we were in a new town that I’m sure was full of unique restaurants, Dan felt like Denny’s so to Denny’s we went. (And it was delicious too!) After that it was getting kind of late in the day, and it wasn’t warming up, so we made the executive decision to drive back tonight rather than staying another night and leaving in the wee hours. I made sure our extra day in the hotel wouldn’t go to waste by taking a nap, then we packed up the car and were off. Since I was the one driving, I have to say I was thankful to be driving those scary roads when I was fully conscious (and so was Dan, so he could talk to me), something I couldn’t guarantee for a 4am trip. (And yes, this time I actually stopped at the Random Construction Stoplight.)

Even thought it was but a tiny trip, I’m still glad that Dan and I got to do something fun and out of the ordinary this summer, especially since once baby comes we may be housebound for a long while. (Although I’m convinced I can be the kind of parent that travels with their kids – both Dan and I traveled ALL THE TIME when we were little – there’s really no predicting how baby will react. And, well, the money thing too. So we’ll just see how it goes I guess.)

name fun

Someone on my pregnancy message board linked to HowManyofMe.com, which tells you how many people in the U.S. have the same name as you (or whichever name you search.)

According to my search:

• Dan: There are 1,526,358 people with his first name (it’s the 16th most popular name), 1,773,210 people with his last name (3rd most popular), and 8,680 people with his combined name.
• Me: There are fewer than 1,599 people in the U.S. with my first name (it’s not common, so there aren’t exact stats for it for privacy issues), and the same stats as Dan for the last name. My combined name is shared with 9 or fewer people (if you use my maiden name, it’s 1 or fewer! Right now, ‘fewer’ is probably right… There are 11,983 people with my maiden name in the U.S.)
• Baby: I’m not quite ready to share baby’s name, but we’re pretty sure we’ve made our decision. In all events, there are 21,827 people in the U.S. with this first name, and 124 with the combined first and last.

Of course, having a completely boring and common last name really increases the chances that we’ll share a name with anyone,

Here’s the rest of my family:

• 55 people with my dad’s combined name
• 5 people with my mom’s combined name
• 1 person with both Kaeli and Kassi’s combined names (again, unique names screw up the individual stats)

blog challenge 8

Blog Challenge 8 – A place you’ve traveled to

This is funny, because yesterday while on weekend holiday to a cold place, I was thinking that when Dan and I have some extra monies (aka years in the future) we need to go on longer holiday to a warm place. I was looking at Mexico (cheap hotels/expensive airfare) and Hawaii (vice versa) and thought it would be kind of cute to go to the same place we went on our high school senior class trip – Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

It’s outside Cancun but is worlds less touristy, and also cheaper, which are both good things. It’s also gorgeous, and historical: as I’ve mentioned before, I have a strange love for pyramids, and as I probably haven’t mentioned that love extends to Aztec, Mayan, and other ancient Mexico-inhabiting civilizations. It would be fun to go back, take better photos, appreciate the culture better, etc… oh, and to be there with my husband instead of a high school class. :) (Well, I guess technically I was there with Dan, though we weren’t ‘with’ each other. We were friends and hung out a lot in high school, albeit often with my boyfriend at the time – which is what pretty much every photo from this trip depicts!)

So, anyway. Here are some of those pictures:

Who wouldn't want to go here? Sunset from our resort's beach

Our resort, which was called The Reef: Coco Beach but is now apparently Grand Coco Bay

Ruins (and very gorgeous ocean) at Tulum

Chichen Itza! I was in pyramid heaven. (This is Kukulkan Pyramid, Mayan for Quetzalcoatl. The pyramid is nicknamed El Castillo)

Our teacher + classmates (with Dan on me on the right side) on top of El Castillo - you're no longer allowed to climb it, so it's cool we got the chance

Pyramid at Coba. I climbed this one too! (Oh, and this one is still open to climb, if you're traveling to the area and want to be scared.)

Finally, here is literally the only photo of Dan and me that I can crop to include just us (it was a full class pic before, but since it’s my blog we’re the important ones.) We look silly.

Dan didn't learn to properly smile for photos until we started dating. (I'm so not kidding either.)

uproar

(I’ve been working on this for a few days, and WordPress keeps crapping out on me, so I’m crossing my fingers I’ll actually finish it today. We shall see…)

This week was utterly crazy: on Tuesday, I subbed for my mom’s P.E. classes (a first for me and something I’m not exactly a natural at, although I did end up enjoying it), on Wednesday Dan and I went to the Uproar festival, and Thursday and Friday I subbed junior high all day (exhausted from the concert, no less, but I made it through! And even had a bit of fun while doing it.)

So, Uproar Fest:

As it turns out, we left earlier and less prepared than we meant to, meaning we arrived at Sleep Train Amphitheatre in Wheatland (formerly known as Marysville) super early and without food. Oops. We decided to try to make it through the day on extremely large cups of soda (and succeeded!) and wandered around the festival grounds until the main stage opened. I was fascinated to discover that I was ten times more comfortable being around the fest-goers than walking through my local shopping mall, despite the fact I am not gorgeous/stylish/perfect-looking/what-have-you, and that was a happy feeling. Anyway, we hung out in the grass with our soda until our field seating opened, and then we planted ourselves for the evening.

This was our one successful photo of the day... Thanks, Crappy Cell Phone Camera!

First concert: Halestorm. First of all, I was BLOWN AWAY by Lzzy’s pipes – holy crap, that girl can sing. I first heard of Halestorm when I bought my Uproar tickets, but I’m always excited to discover new female-fronted bands, and I immediately iTuned their album. Still, I often like bands better in concert, and Halestorm certainly qualified – plus, I could sing along with most of the songs. =)

Photos from the Halestorm website:

Lzzy! - from www.halestormrocks.com

The band - from www.halestormrocks.com

Next was Stone Sour. I was excited to see them if only for Corey Taylor, but they put on a really good show. I only knew three of their songs, but hey, those songs were a lot of fun (I still love “Say You’ll Haunt Me“, despite the fact it’s played on the radio every five minutes) and I’ll definitely check out their new album, because the rest of their songs were good too.

I can't find any concert photos, so here's the sun going down over the hill. Pretty!

Avenged Sevenfold came next, after a long wait as their ridiculously complicated set was assembled. It was impressive, though – there were fireworks, (constant) pyrotechnics, and even a hanged man (a real live man, although he was tethered as well as hanged.) (Interestingly enough, the hanged guy appeared during the song “Nightmare” along with LOTS of fire – two of my phobias. That IS my fucking nightmare!) (Here’s a video of “Nightmare” at Uproar. It was pretty much like this.)

FIRE! (from www.avengedsevenfold.com)

Alas, they only did one song from City of Evil (“Beast and the Harlot“), which is the only album I own by them… (that said, I’ll probably get all of them at some point, but I’ve been poor and there’s been lots of new albums out lately.) We did see them in 2005 at Ozzfest, so I guess that was our chance to hear their early stuff. =P And the rest of the concert was good too – loved “Almost Easy“, loved the tribute for the Rev, and loved the amazing show they put on.

Tribute, minus the thousands of lighters/cell phones in the audience (from www.avengedsevenfold.com)

And finally, best of all – Disturbed!

This isn't a concert photo. It's David Draiman, with a dog. CUTE! (from www.disturbed1.com)

Since Disturbed is one of my top three favorite bands, it’s no surprise that this was my favorite concert. Their set was simply genius – they managed to pack in just about Every Single Ever, which is no small feat considering how many they have. Sadly, there was one exception: Remember, my favorite. But they did play Prayer, and best of all, they did a medley of singles from first album The Sickness (not including “Stupify” and “Down with the Sickness“, which they did in full.)

My cell phone can't take photos at night, obviously... But this was roughly our view of the stage.

And, they were AMAZING throughout. In addition to the great songlist, they had  I’ve only seen Disturbed once before (again at Ozzfest ’05) and that first concert placed them in my Top 3 Bands. This concert only cemented the position further… and yes, I’d love to see them again! :D

After the concert…

Nothing like a 2am roadblock!

The ride home was pretty much a blur, but it involved cold Del Taco burritos, ramen and candy from a 7-11, fast food bathrooms, and of course the above roadblock. And then I had to get up the next morning, with a hoarse voice (from screaming), a raw throat (from smoke), a sore neck (from headbanging), bruised toes (from standing on a hill) and a constant ringing in my ears (that one’s self-explanatory), and teach a bunch of unruly junior high students.

And… that was fun too. (Not nearly as fun as the concert, but hey, I got paid for that one.)

next time I will ride the giant wooden coaster

As luck would have it, Dan and I ‘inherited’ another vacation from my parents – they were going camping in Santa Cruz with my aunt, but when my aunt couldn’t make it they decided not to go and offered the reservations to us. I figured we needed at least one more vacation this summer (to make up for the summers I spent working, or doing other equally boring things) so off we went.

Our lovely campsite! (Not shown: annoying drunk teenagers in the adjoining site.)

Sunday morning(ish) we drove to our campground, which was actually in Watsonville. Manresa State Beach has several campsite areas; ours was actually pretty near the parking lot, which was nice since you have to carry your stuff in. We set up our campsite, made dinner (I was impressed with my much-improved camp stove food!) and headed to the beach.

Manresa Beach at sunset

It was gorgeous but cold – actually, it was cold the entire weekend, despite what the internet so incorrectly informed me.  Luckily for me, Dan has excellent campfire-making skills, so as long as we were at camp we were nice and toasty.

Though my face looks sunburned, it's actually pink from the cold. Attractive!

Monday morning, I made more gourmet camp stove breakfast (for myself, since Dan isn’t a breakfast-eater) and we went into town on a coffee cup/long sleeve shirt-finding mission, since I neglected to bring either.  After successfully acquiring both, Dan charged the laptop in Starbucks while I drank delicious coffee (…and changed into my new shirt, because it was cold!)

Mmm, coffee!

Sometime in the afternoon we headed into Santa Cruz to visit the boardwalk. I had never been there before and since I’m into the whole cheesy tourist kind of thing (think mini golf courses!) I was totally into it. We walked all around and decided to – guess what! – go mini golfing first.

Dan's pirate friend

We were behind a large family for half the course but decided to skip ahead about halfway through. Then we got SO far away that we had time to take this lovely timered photograph

That flash behind my head? MINIGOLF GHOST.

…Then we got confused and somehow managed to skip two holes. But we didn’t worry about it too much, because 1) we payed with a coupon, making our overall golf experience only $8, and 2) it made our scores look better.

We were hungry, so we walked across the street for Mexican food. When we got back it was after 5pm, meaning all the rides were $1 each! Hooray! Of course, my first choice was the Fright Walk, which isn’t even a ride (but it was a bit cheaper, and the line was very short. And, it was surprisingly scary! As it turns out, I am not completely desensitized to all things violent and/or evil, thanks to my media habits.) (And there was one part – a spinny tunnel – that felt like you were walking into the Twilight Zone or something. Very cool!)

We, um, also rode this kiddy dinosaur ride.

Ahh, a scary monster!

The Cave Train Adventure was silly and very old school; according to the website, it:

features many of its original 1961 cast of characters and technology of the 21st century. This glow-in-the-dark train ride is a new experience complete with nostalgic elements that families have loved for generations.

So, see? We were just being historical. =)

Also historical was the Ferris wheel, where I was alternately wowed by the Monterey bay and scared to death of the rocking seat up very very high (which I swear Dan did on purpose, just to make me squeal.)

Pretty!

I did get some fun pictures though.

View of the boardwalk from the ferris wheel

There were a few more thrill-seeking rides that would have been fun to try, but with only two of us there was no one to hold my bag, so we decided to spend the rest of our tickets on the sky ride (aka Skyglider) (aka Zippity Doo Dah). It was basically a ski lift, only with a bar to hold you on. There were more pretty views to be had, only I only got this silly photo before my battery ran out. =P

I'm not very good at getting both our faces in the picture... but at least we're having fun!

Not pictured: the DELICIOUS funnel cake we split (coupon!), and the equally nommish mocha that came cheap and in a souvenir cup (coupon coupon!)

On Tuesday it was sadly time to leave, so we packed up our stuff (surprisingly fast, considering this is my least favorite part of camping) and headed home. There were a lot more things I would have loved to do in the area (Monterey Bay Aquarium, museums in San Jose, or even just more time on the beach) but… we were absolutely exhausted anyway. Next time we’ll actually have to book our own vacation and spend a couple more days. (And, maybe it won’t be freezing cold!)