Hotels

I realize I talk a lot about traveling lately, but that's life. With that said, can I just say how much I LOVE having someone make my bed everyday?! I mean, if I don't get to sleep in my own bed, at least I can enjoy the perks. Granted, I don't have a TV in my shower like some people I know, but I'll take what I get.

I've been staying in a hotel with a mini kitchen the last couple of weeks. There have been a couple of times I've been ambitious enough to go grocery shopping and actually use the facilities. And not only do they make the bed and give me clean towels but they also run my dishes in the dishwasher! This is the life!

I do have one complaint. They are all about saving resources these days, and I fully support that! But there are just some approaches I don't understand. They ask me to reuse my towel to save on soap and water resources, right? Most days I like to do my part and reduce/reuse/recycle. Although there are some days I just want a towel that smells like the downy bear even though I used a new towel the day before, don't hate me. BUT when I try to reuse my bar of soap to wash my hands they won't let me, they insist on giving me a newly wrapped bar every day. They don't even leave the old one to let me choose. If they want to save soap, how about leaving the bar that will last me the next 3 months and giving me a new towel?

Me In 2008

Yeah, I started this entry back in Dec. It seemed like a good idea to look back on the year and remember the things I had done. Now that it's nearly March, it seems a little late, but what the heck? Here are the main events, in no specific order...

-SKYDIVING: My cousin Melissa and I decided to do something memorable this year so we went straight to the top, skydiving. For a girl who hates heights, I have to say I was quite brave, I didn't pee my pants or cry. I'm pretty sure I will not throw myself out of a plane ever again but I have some awesome pictures and bragging rights from the whole experience. The only problem is finding something memorable to do next year, nothing seems quite as exciting after that.

Yeah, that's me plummeting to the earth!
You can see the Great Salt Lake behind me and Toole to the right.

Melissa in the plane on the way up.
Doesn't she looked poised? I was nearly peeing my pants at this point.

-HOME IMPROVEMENTS: I tiled my bathrooms with the (large!) help of my friend German. Although he was really the brains behind the whole thing, I think I made quite the little helper. I then painted my bathroom immediately after tiling. After waiting the minimum time for the grout to dry I taped the walls and went to work. It might have been midnight when I started, but it turned out great. Then there was the green carpet. I decided to re-carpet my entire house, this meant moving our all of our possessions into the kitchen (the only non-carpeted space in the place). That's when we found out that the carpet wouldn't come for another week. Oh my! Finally, the day arrived. So, with nearly 1000 square feet of forest green carpet rolled up and thrown off our deck, we finally rid ourselves of our own 'green monster'

-CONCERTS: I still have a few to go before I catch up with Lynne, but I still got to see some great concerts this year including Coldplay, John Meyer and Jason Mraz. That's Annie, Lynne, Me & Lou before the John Meyer concert.

-SHAKESPEARE: I made it to the Shakespearean festival twice this year, once to see Taming of the Shrew & Cyrano with my sister who lives down there. Then a bunch of us went down for a road trip to see Caesar and Gaslight. 12 driving hours, 2 days and 2 plays later we made it back. We came out of it with minor (and some major) bumps and bruises from the weekend, but we all survived.

-MOVED TO SACRAMENTO: Ok, not literally. However, I have spent some time in Sacramento nearly every week since Dec. The hotel receptionist, the office security guard and parking attendant all recognize me now. It's nice to have friends down here.

-SAN FRAN: Speaking of friends. Annie decided to come visit me one weekend while I was stuck in Cali. The plan: Annie flies in Friday night in time for dinner, and we wake up at 4:30am to drive to San Francisco in time for the sunrise. Reality: Her flight was delayed and finally came in at 2:00am. Yes, we still left at 4:30am to catch our blasted sunrise. Although painful, it turned out to be totally worth it and we got to do everything on our list that day.

This is us overlooking the city from the Coit Tower, just waiting for the sun to come up. You can see a mix of exhaustion & craziness in our eyes. Don't judge us, it was early.

The view from Alcatraz, we really could not have had better weather!

The Golden Gate Bridge.
I about lost my lunch up there.

And...Lombard street.
We also made it to the Palace of Fine Arts, Pier 39, and did a little shopping in Union Square.

-HAWAII: And I finally rolled in the New Year in Hawaii. My friends Robert & Heather are living there while they each finish their Masters and were gracious enough to let me visit.



Watching fire works on a beach in Hawaii was definitely the best way to start a new year. The weather was amazing, my friends are great, I got to sleep in, eat some great seafood, swim in the ocean, visit Pearl Harbor, eat a Matsumoto snow cone, take a nap on the beach, snorkel, read, read, read, experience the Polynesian Cultural Center, weave a fish from palm leaves, watch the sunrise and sunset on the beach and catch some whales playing. Happy New Year everyone!

I split my pants...

So, after weeks of working by day, sitting in my hotel room by night and eating out for every meal nearly every day I think I've reached an all-time low. I suspected I was gaining weight but I didn't think it was yet out of control.

Yesterday, I got dressed and noticed my pants feeling a bit tighter, certainly nothing I couldn't live with. Nonetheless, I decided it was time I do some lunges/squats. Me being the multi-tasker I am started to do some lunges while I was blow drying my hair in the morning. Good thing, too, because not more than 10 minutes later I was getting dressed and when I bent down to put on my shoes I heard something tear. I panicked and ran to the mirror to check out my pants. Whew! Still intact. Or were they?

I realized that night that the lining of my pants and totally ripped. Yep, Melinda ripped her pants. And to top it off, she blogged about it.