Woo-hoo! I flew!

Sure did. I kicked that plane in the you know where and showed it who was boss!

Here's just a taste of some of our awesome adventures in San Francisco. More to come when Chris gets done with his edits and gets impatient enough to start in on mine while I'm doing other things.

(You know it'll happen, OSF.)

December Staycation: Day One

Let me tell you a little something about the OSF: He is a list-maker.

He loves him some lists. 

Also schedules.

And so, when presented with four whole days to fill for our staycation, he took out a single sheet of lined paper and made a schedule of our weekend.

Everything from addresses to exact times to notes about what to do while at each place. 

I like that OSF. :)

Well, as you'll no doubt read on his blog, the Mexican lunch we had was not up to par. However, the place had excellent light, and I got this great picture...

... which he and Sarah feel is his, "I'm about to go out and kill someone" look. But I think it's cute. Any outside comments? Is this serial killer or hot guy headshot?

This is an Indian.

We roamed around for awhile, ducking into the little stores of little knick knacks (and Beanie Babies!) until five o'clock began to creep up on us. As anyone who's ever visited Julian knows, the town closes at five. As in, you can't even pump gas past five. 

Famous Julian Pie was on our list, so we ducked into the Famous Julian Pie place for a slice. I had the cherry apple with a scoop of vanilla that was really good. Chris got some cider that he loved, but he wasn't so much

of the pie.

 

Timeline Part Two

So we left off at pumpkins. Next was the OSF's birthday at Disneyland.

... followed by our first day of road tripping, which ended with SPRING AWAKENING in San Jose...

... which was followed by American Idiot in Berkeley on Saturday....

Then we came back for a week of work, and on Friday Chris and I left early to start the journey to Fresno to stay with his Aunt Mari and Uncle Moose and play Wii games with Jessica. 

Saturday morning we all headed an hour and a half north of Fresno (to Mantica?) for Chris' cousin Kelsey's wedding (which was freezing!):

Then one last morning of playing with Jessica (tug of war this time): 

And back home to a normal life with no traveling!

Awakening: San Jose

So I'm finally getting around to posting about our San Jose Spring Awakening experience.

We started out early: Ryan, Brittany, and Ryan's friends Michelle and Jess in one car, Chris and I in the other. We traveled for hours and hours, stopping only for lunch at Quiznos, Subway, Jack in the Box. (The Quiznos, we discovered when we pulled in, had not yet opened: "Maybe tomorrow!" the guy yelled to us. Um, what? You don't have a set opening day, and yet you look like you're open... Then the Subway across the street was closed too. And finally when we started wondering if anything in God forsaken Bakersfield was open, we found the others at the Jack in the Box, again across the street. Also, this Jack in the Box offered showers. I'm a little worried about Bakersfield as a whole.)

After driving way out in the country for more hours and hours (including a pass through Gilroy, California, the garlic capital of the world), we made it to our San Jose home. We actually made very good time, so we had a couple of hours to relax and get ready for the night's festivities.

In the boys' room, we discussed the options for dinner. Ry, the Yelp fiend that he is, discovered the Firehouse Grill, just blocks from the theater, so we headed there for a quick meal. The Grill turned out to be a bar and grill fashioned after a firehouse, with fire/burning related names for all their entrees. Good food, good service.

Please forgive these pictures. I didn't bother to photo correct them, and the lighting in the Firehouse was very dim and very yellow. :(

We opted to walk to the theater, rather than deal with parking closer by, and we set out through the beautiful streets of San Jose.

Let me tell you: I would not mind living in San Jose someday. It's super clean and super safe looking.

The show was, of course, amazing. This was mine and Ryan's first time this season (fourth overall!), so there were a few new cast members and swings to watch for. Of course, we were way up in the back, so we couldn't see the swings well anyway.

But.

During intermission, I was feeling a little mischievous. So I grabbed Chris and our stuff and headed down to the orchestra level, where I'd been watching two empty seats in the fifth row.

I'd heard of people moving to better seats at intermission, but I'd never attempted it myself. It's unnerving trying to pull one past the the ushers.

Sadly, someone else had snaked my two empty seats by the time we got down there. :(

There were tons of available seats in the back half of the orchestra, which all would have been perfectly fine seats, but for some reason I had my heart set on up close and personal.

Ryan and Brittany joined us soon after, and we had our sights on this one row which appeared to be completely empty in the middle. No purses, programs, or husbands left behind to watch the seats. I finally got up the nerve to ask the family sitting right behind those seats if they had seen anyone sitting there. And the super nice dad tells us, "Nope, there's six empty seats, starting right here. Feel free?"

Thank you, super nice dad. Thank you. Because of you I was able to score this picture with my 50 mm lens:

I figure it's okay to sneak pictures if it's not technically of the performance, right? Right? Oh, well, I didn't get caught.

Then it was out to stage door for us, to get signatures for our Spring Awakening books. I've been waiting since last Christmas, when Ryan got the book for me, for the cast to come back.

First up, Taylor Trensch, the new Moritz, and a total sweetie! You can just tell how excited he is to be touring right now with such an amazing show. 

In this picture we've got Kayla Foster, one of the new chairs, and Gabby Garza who plays Anna.

Steffi D.!

Shingledecker and Krystina!

And then, just when we thought the night couldn't get better, guess who ended up being at the show? Skylar Astin, the original Broadway cast Georg. We're talking from the days of Lea Michele and John Gallagher, Jr. here, people. And he was soooo nice, chatting with us about Glee and flipping through our books, asking how we'd managed to score Lea's signature. He ended up being our third original cast member to sign, a total fluke right before our planned visit to get two more. 

So once again, it was a great Spring Awakening experience. And special thanks to the OSF for following us around as our own personal photographer! 

The One with the Camping Trip

Chris' good friend Emily wanted to celebrate her birthday with a good old fashioned campout, and so at noon we headed off for Lake Perris, a campsite an hour and a half off Interstate 15.

Here's a fun fact about Perris, California: It's freaking hot.

This picture is before we even got there:

Yes. That's a reading of 109 degrees.

There were seven of us to start out with, and two others arriving later that night. And since the temperature had topped at 111 degrees, we decided to set up camp as fast as possible, throw on the bathing suits, and head down to the lake.

It was pretty crowded, but we managed to section off our own little square of water, and Emily even found someone with an air pump to blow up the pool floats. If you've never had the experience of laying out on a pool float in a lake, drifting along in a rhythm that makes you want to fall asleep, with the sun warming your back... well, you should try it. It's amazing.

I didn't want to take my camera down to the lakefront, so this is the only picture I've got of the lake, with that cute OSF posing in front of it.
Then it was back to the campground, where the boys started a fire in the pit and Cody fired up the grill for dinner. It was still freaking hot, and no one bothered trying to keep the pit alive. Sad, since Cody and Emily had brought up a ton of firewood.
While Cody grilled up a ton of burgers and hot dogs, we sat around in our wet suits and camping chairs, snacking on Goldfish and french onion Sun chips, and wondering when in the heck the heat was going to stop.
Silly, OSF. Why do you hide from the camera?
Our amazing chef, Cody, taking his duties very seriously.
The OSF and I, in our post-swimming, lake gunk covered, gross and sweaty state.

It still hadn't cooled down by the time the sun went down and the "games" started. I'm just going to say that these games may or may not have involved red cups, a deck of cards, and various bottles. In the middle of the "festivities," Sarah and Kristen finally made it to the campsite, bringing more ice and snacks with them. We stayed up until around midnight, chatting about Disneyland passes and our favorite characters on The Big Bang Theory, before the "game drinks" and two hour swimming excursion finally caught up with us.

I think it was actually cool for a total of one hour during the night. All I know is that I eventually fell asleep feeling hot and woke up around 7:30 feeling hot, with a brief reprieve at 1:30am when I ventured out into the cool for the bathroom.

Cody was up bright and early when I woke up, already working on breakfast for the troops. Bacon and eggs, baby. Because Chris and Sarah demanded it.

The plan was to stay until checkout at noon, but as the temperature rose higher and higher, we decided to "get the he out of he" as Chris put it. So while breakfast was cooking, the rest of us packed up tents and bags so we could make a quick exit.
Chris and Emily work on breakfast's finishing touches.

After breakfast, we loaded up the cars; somehow, even with all we ate, drank, and/or left behind (ahem, firewood), we still had a heck of a time getting everything back in the two cars. It took awhile, but we finally managed to squeeze in the last camping chair, and jumped in the air conditioned cars to "get the he out of (t)he."

We were back before eleven, to find that San Diego was a measly 86 degrees. 86. Phfffshh. You haven't felt heat until you've been to Perris in July.

And the final trip picture: Chris and Sarah jumping on the pile of blankets and sleeping bags as we unpacked the car.

The Great McDonald's Coca-Cola Glass Hunt of 2009

Sometimes I'm a sucker for collectibles.

Pogs.

Beanie babies.

Chronicles of Narnia books.

And now Coca-cola glasses.

It started off innocently enough last Friday. I went through the McDonald's by work, noticed the banner about the free glasses with every value meal, and decided I might as well see what these glasses were about. BTW- they're freaking awesome. I already love glass cups and coca-cola, and together they freaking rock!

There, on that Friday afternoon, it became my mission to collect all four. And let's just say that mission has changed day to day in the last week and a half. Here's the play by play.

Original mission: Collect all four colors: Blue, turquoise, purple, and brown.

Friday afternoon: Got a blue glass at Fletcher Parkway.

Saturday afternoon: Convinced the OSF to take me to the Massachusetts MickyD's, since it's next to the In N' Out for him. They tell us they had "aquamarine," which I think, and Crayloa agrees, is more turquoise than blue. And yet, when we opened it up, it was a blue glass. Jerks. And then they tell us all the stores were only selling browns for the last week, and we were out of luck with the other colors. Which just fueled my need to collect the other colors!

Monday afternoon: Got a brown glass at Fletcher Parkway. The guy there told me to try back in the next few days for purple. I think the Massachusetts Mcd's people are liars.

Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon: No dice on the purple glass at Fletcher. But they had only brown, and then only blue on these two days. I'm beginning to think none of the McD's chains were prepped on the structure of this promo.

Wednesday evening: Brittany and I head to Ryan's to watch Wall-E with Ry and Chris. We stopped at the College Ave. store, and they didn't even have any glasses at all. But Brittany later went to the one near Ikea, and found all the colors but turquoise. She picked up purple for me in exchange for one of my blue.

Thursday afternoon: Somehow I get stuck with another blue.

Friday night: Get a call from that cute OSF boy. Turns out he totally took one for the team, and he and his sister stopped at a McD's near Magic Mountain to see what they could find. Two more purple glasses!

Total tally: 2 blue, 3 purple, 1 brown.

Confession: This sort of situation is prime to bring out the OCD in me. I need to have these things in nice numbers. Either one of each, or two of each, or, as it was looking, three of each.

So since the turquoise glasses were nowhere to be found, Mission #2 became to collect three each of the blue, purple, and brown.

But then.

On Saturday night.

Ryan and I decided to initiate the Great McDonald's Coca-Cola Glass Hunt of 2009.

We would not rest until we found the turquoise glasses! We would drive for hours, cranking the Spring Awakening soundtrack as we stopped at each and every restaurant in our search for the holy grail of coke glasses.

Oddly enough, the closest McD's to Ryan's apartment, the one inside the Walmart on Aero Drive, had both turquoise and brown. Go figure. So we took our food and our glasses and went back to the apartment to watch Ella Enchanted and then take a last minute trolley ride downtown to take pictures (but that's a story for another blog).

Oh, at this point, Brittany finds out that you can buy the glasses for $1.99, instead of buying a value meal every time. Errrrr.... My stomach would have been happier finding that out sometime on Tuesday.

Sunday morning: Ryan texts me that the power of suggestion is too powerful for him, and he was already the owner of a brown glass too.

Sunday afternoon: Brittany and I run errands and stop at the Navajo store for a brown glass, 79 cent coke, and no value meal. Take that, McD's!

Tally: 2 blue, 3 purple, 2 brown, 1 turquoise.

Sunday evening: As I explain my OCD plight to Chris and Ryan, Chris suggests I give Ryan one of the purples and collect 1 more turquoise, putting my final tally at 2 each, which is a nice even number that will make it easy for me to sleep at night. Excellent.

Which brings us to today. Monday. No final turquoise glass yet, but I have high hopes for the week. And remember: if you stumble across a MickeyD's giving out turquoise glasses, give me a call!

A Track 4 kind of day

I got in my very first ever car accident on Monday. Bummer. But luckily for me, God loves me to pieces, and, much like my first 'getting-pulled-over-experience,' my first accident experience went about as well as that kind of situation could possibly go:

1) Both of our cars were completely drivable afterward.

2) The car I hit barely had any scratches and one tiny indent on the bumper.

3) The guy driving was super, super nice, and pretty much had the exact same personality as my TGO, Ryan. As I told everyone later, it was like running into Ryan if I didn't know him yet.

4) I did not cry.

5) My insurance people were amazingly great.

6) My dad was so sweet about it, even though I assumed he'd be angry with me: "The car can be replaced," he said, when he looked it over, which in my dad's language means, "I'm glad you didn't die in a fiery car wreck, because I love you." (You gotta read into these things sometimes.)

7) Dad's already found the right parts to make my front bumper look brand new, and for under $100.

Gotta love experiences like that.

Andy's homecoming was later that night, and he wanted us to go to McGregor's to celebrate and chill. He's actually much more excited than the picture of the day portrays:

Tuesday we had our normal Coffee Shop Tuesday for about an hour, then we all piled in the OSF's car for an impromptu run to Best Buy (because I wanted to play with my soon-to-be-new-laptop). And after that we headed back to Ryan's for American Idol finale night, followed by the TV premiere of Glee. Here's Ryan sportin' the Glee and dialing in for Kris Allen for the 127th time: