Yay Vacation!

Today has been the first real day of internet usage since we got home from Oregon on Sunday evening. We arrived to a broken A/C unit, so sitting in front of the computer hasn't been a top priority because of the heat. Sunday's temps were at about 105*, yesterday was around 95*, and today is only about 80*, so it's much more tolerable to be here, catching up on all I've missed over the last 12 days. The A/C isn't fixed yet, but hopefully should be today, but thanks to ceiling fans and living in a wind tunnel, things haven't been too horrible.

Anyway...my vacation was fantastic!! Of course, the first 2 weeks of my vacation was spent with Riki in Medford, OR, helping out and keeping her company (and from losing her mind) while adjusting to motherhood. I *heart* babies and it was really difficult to leave, but the coast and the beach were calling, so off Jenn and I went last Sunday.

I swear, I had more seafood last week than I've had in the last year. We had salmon, crab, and muscles that had all been caught (or picked) by the family. I've never had such fresh seafood. Scallops, oysters, and clams were also had, but purchased from the store. lol. There was also shrimp, but I didn't eat any of that - I didn't want to risk swelling like a balloon.

Jenn's family is really fun and hilarious. I'm so glad I got to go. It was kinda weird being in the middle of the pack in the generations. Jenn's aunts and uncles ranged from 10 - 20 years older than us, and her cousins mainly ranged 10 - 20 years younger. LOL. There was one cousin and her husband and sister who were only 6 - 8 years younger, but still. LOL. We all still had a good time, though.

Most of our nights consisted of hanging out at the Beach House (between all the family, we were in 4 houses for 28 people) playing spoons, drinking, and talking. Did you know it's actually possible to get stabbed with a spoon? Yeah. I have evidence!! Jenn's cousin's husband was a little over zealous and got me pretty good on the hand. LOL.

We also had 2 really good days of sun and those were spent on the beach. I got a really good tan and am almost rid of my nasty tan lines on my shoulders (I have a tube-top style bathing suit) and even got some color on my legs! That never happens!! Getting to and from the beach was a real bitch, though. From the Beach House to the actual beach was a cliff with 45 steep steps down. I named them the stairs of death. LOL.

It was really nice to be away from the internets - although that really backfired when people started dying and I needed information - but now there's tons to catch up on. lol. I'm going to continue doing that.

I'll have pictures up as soon as I can.

Going offline

My time at Riki's has come to an end and so has my internet connection. LOL. For the next week, Jenn and I will be on the coast of Oregon at her family reunion where there will be no internets (at least not that I know of. LOL) for me to check in on everyone with. I'll still be Twittering when I can, so check in over there if you're following me.

Have a great week! I'll see you guys when I get back!

My uterus hates me

So I've been here, in Medford, OR, for a week now and I think my uterus hates me. I swear it's weeping every time I hold my niece for any extended period of time. LOL. She is the most beautiful baby ever...well, until I have my own kids, that is. LOL.

Just kidding Riki! Love you!! hehehe

Seriously, though, my niece is gorgeous. She's the freakin spitting image of her mother.

And my uterus and ovaries are yelling at me in some language unknown to me, but I know they're pissed off. LOL. I'm hoping this means they'll get their asses in gear and cooperate when I get back to CA and start insems again. The quicker they get their act together, the less clinical we have to be about this situation. LOL.

Anyway...it's 1am and I should get to bed. Little Miss Fussy Pants will have us up before we know it. Hopefully I can sleep until 9am. ;o)

Stress!!

My dad called today. He got laid off from his job. He worked at a Chrysler dealer, in their service & parts department. They all thought they were safe since they were part of a corporation with Sonic (not the restaurant chain) who owns other dealers as well as Infineon Raceway (formerly Sears Point).

My parents bought a house last year and have a large mortgage. Thankfully my brother, who still lives with them, works full time and has good income so he can help out. As soon as I'm home from Oregon, I'm seriously looking for something full time so I can funnel my money towards my parents if need be. I mean, with the job market the way it is, who knows how long it might be until my dad finds a job. Who knows how long it'll be until I find a job?

This really sucks. I smoked twice today because of it (I've been trying to quit cold turkey since being in Oregon, but have had 3 cigs in 3 days...not bad, really). It's stressful worrying about them. I'm sure they'll be fine, but still, I worry. I've seen so many other people lose their homes because of this damn economy, I don't want that for my parents.

If you're the praying type, please throw them in your prayer list. I'd really appreciate it.

I made it!

After 15 hours of travel (Amtrak train & bus) I finally made it to Medford at 12:45 today. I'm exhausted. I've been up for 26+ hours at this point, but sufficiently caffeinated that I won't fall asleep mid conversation. I'll probably hit a wall at 7pm and crash out for the night, but I'm good to go until then. LOL.

The train ride was fun. I wish I could have done it during the day so I could have seen the sights (and not missed out on as much sleep!), but I got a lot of reading and crocheting done. ;o)

Now I'm at Riki's. I've seen the baby - she's more beautiful than her pictures show - and I'm totally jealous!! LOL My time will come, but I want it to be soon!! LOL

Already I'm so relaxed here - it's the clean air. LOL. I can't wait to visit the goats. LOL. I just may never want to go home.

Anyway, I think I'm gonna go take a shower and wash the travel stink off me. LOL. That'll be a good start to the rest of the afternoon/evening.

STOP! Hammertime!

Weird Weather.

So I, along with many people around the state, experienced warm, but thundery weather last night. While I was at work, I took out the trash and was greeted with 70-degree temps and a sprinkling of rain at 7pm. LOL After the sun went down, Jenn and I saw flashes of lightening out over the delta and in Oakley. Around 1:30am, there were some thunder crashes directly overhead, but those passed very quickly. At that point, I decided to get off the computer and head to bed, but as I was shutting off the lights and putting my water cup in the sink, lightening caught my eye, so I grabbed a smoke and went outside to watch it a bit. LOL. There were only 5 - 15 seconds between each flashes, sometimes as little as only 1 second. It was so awesome to watch!! I caught a little video on my phone, but I can't get it off my phone and onto the internets. LOL I want to share it cuz it was cool! I kinda hope there's more lightening tonight, but I don't think there will be. LOL. Oh well.

The Weekend Review

My birthday weekend went pretty well, I have to say. ;o)

Friday night, after Jenn got off work, we headed up the street to the Contra Costa County fair. I forgot my phone at home, so I wasn't able to Twitter about all the awesome trashiness we witnessed. LOL. First, not 2 minutes after we walked in, we saw Jenn's ex who now looks super scary (too much sun, gained weight, had a front tooth rot out of her head, probably is doing drugs now). She came up to us and said hi and acted as though there hasn't been a year since we've spoken. Weird. There was also the hugest police presence I've ever seen anywhere in my life. Seriously - you couldn't walk more than 40 or 50 feet without seeing a group of 3 or more Antioch cops or county Sheriffs. It was weird. For dinner, we had foot-long corndogs. They were so freakin obscene, but damn tasty. There were only 2 beer booths, too! Ghetto! OH!!! And they had a shark display - a 10x30 foot tank with 3 sharks in it. It was really quite sad, to be honest. There was also a live Giant Snake booth and a live Monkey booth, both of which you had to pay $1 to get in and see what they were hiding. I chose not to encourage either of those things. There was the usual fair stuff, though - the Midway games, ferris wheels, and other rides, the livestock, the craft rooms (where we saw some AMAZING quilts!! I'm gonna have to start one now and get myself entered for next year!! lol), and the live band. The band was a general rock cover band who had a second singer that was a Tom Petty impersonator. Ooh! And we got a funnel cake! I definitely got my $8 admission's worth of entertainment at the fair.

Saturday was my actual birthday. I tried to sleep in, but was up at 9am anyway. LOL. I laid around and fell back asleep until a little past 11am. I just hung out on the computer and waited for Jenn to get off work at 4. I did wake up with a migraine, so I worried that I was going to implode. Once that passed (it was completely gone around 3pm), I got up and started getting ready to go out. When Jenn was off work, she changed and we headed out to The Outback Steakhouse for dinner. I got my usual Ribeye (medium rare!!) with the mushroom & lobster sauce. I ate my fill, then took the other half home to have for lunch (which I did today. LOL). Once we got home, we laid around for a bit, letting ourselves digest and preparing to head out of the house. LOL. Once it was late enough, we headed out to Pleasant Hill BART to pick up who was coming in for the weekend, then got to Shauna & Cole's house to grab everyone and head to Masse's (a pool hall/bar). Of course there was much drinking, a bit of food, and some pool playing. We had a good time. Everyone laughed and carried on. Cole invited his now former boss to come hang out with us as Travis had just been let go from his job and could use an excuse to hang out and party. We shut the bar down. LOL. Travis drove us all home (in 2 shifts), where we hung out and were up until about 4am. Surprisingly, I didn't wake up with a hangover, but I did remember that at some point during the night (at the bar, not at home), I humped Angel's leg. LOL. Oops. ;o)

So Sunday was pretty lazy. Jenn was kind of ambitious and ran out for donuts before everyone else was up. At around 2, we finally got our acts together and the 5 of us (me, jenn, shauna, cole, and angel) headed out for club sandwiches and a beer at the bar around the corner (which were disappointing!), then went to get frozen yogurt. Yumm!! After that, it was pretty much time to get Angel back to Amtrak so he could get back home, and so I could get home to change so I could get to work. Work ran late last night as we had to change the ENTIRE store, plus a couple people had to leave early and there were a couple no-shows. I didn't get out of there until about 1:45am. But it was a fun atmosphere, so it didn't really seem like we were there that long.

I had a really great birthday weekend. It definitely wasn't what I had planned out a month or more ago, but I'm happy with the way things turned out. Sometimes smaller is better!

Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes!! So far my 30's are awesome. Hopefully they will continue to be that way. LOL.