travel light

Rach and I are currently in the process of repacking our car after the first half of our road trip. I thought it was best to stay committed to my "travel suitcase" during our time in Denver so I'm done packing while Rachel is trying to figure out how she got everything to fit the first time around. We've had a travel method all this time. For our road trips we each have of the smaller suitcases in which we live out of. The larger, "permanent" suitcases full of clothes we won't need for our travels remain in the car and untouched. We decided to take everything out of our car while we were in Denver so that our car didn't weigh a ton while we used it for the 10 days. I put my big permanent suitcase in a corner and haven't touched it while Rachel dove straight into hers. I'm done packing. I get to blog while I watch her pack. So far lots of success creating a good balance this road trip between fun and relaxation. AMC helped by putting on a 48 hour Rocky I-V marathon on television. I'm going to list my highlights of the trip so far so that I don't go into a big long narrative of each one, which I have a habit of doing.

My highlights so far

1. Seeing a few people of college in L.A.

2. Exploring the beach in Malibu with Christina and finding all the cool starfish. Also the big rock we climbed. (Sorry mom and dad)

3. Hiking with Christina and Rachel to the waterfall.

4. San Diego Zoo with Steph and Rach. (Even though we got to the tiger cage too late to see it)

5. Going into some random bar in San Diego to watch the World Series only to find it was a Bill's backer bar.

6. Seeing the homeless person selling lies for a dollar. (He was "selling Michael Jackson tickets and had good crack"

7. Playing drinking games around the kitchen table with Nick, Kim, Steph and Rach at the Army Post and then listening to Nick and Kim sing a song in the livingroom.

8. Listening to Rachel freaking out on the phone with Chase bank after realizing she left her ID, her debit card, her credit card and a piece of paper with both our banking account numbers on it at the last rest stop we were at.... 2 hours back.

9. Watching Rachel find all those things while she was still on the phone with Chase in the cranny of the car door.

10. Drinking beers in the hotel shower in Vegas.

11. Going to bed at 10pm and never leaving our Vegas hotel because we were drunk.

12. Taking Becca to see the mountains.

13. Going out to dinner with Becca and Liz at Rioja to eat artichoke and truffle tortelloni.

14. Seared kangaroo meat. (I hated it, Rachel liked it. I think it tastes like what you would expect dog to taste like)

15. Sushi with Julie and Kelsey.

16. Cuddling up and watching endless hours of Rocky movies.

17. Cheersing Rachel because she handed me a glass of wine while I'm blogging.

18. Getting my official Hunter E-mail address.

19. Running errands all day to restart roadtrip tomorrow.

20. Looking forward to everything to come.

Tonight we're going to Stella for dinner. Tomorrow we'll get up early and drive to Santa Fe for where we'll hang out for a little bit before we head over to Albuquerque. We'll spend the night there and head out early for Dallas. Thats supposed to be a pretty long trip and I really want to check out Roswell on the way. We'll see how time is I guess. Trips really going to pick up momentum now so we're pumped and ready to go! P.S-Rach seems to still be packing.

-lj

Away we go

Well...the day is finally here. I figured since I haven't posted in months and Joanna is busy putting on the bike rack that I would take on the responsibility of blogging before we depart! The best news about this morning is that our friends came to say goodbye to us but decided to follow us down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium!!!!!!!! No sad goodbyes yet =) And... Becca is coming to Denver so definitely no sad goodbyes there. I'm happy to say that our eyes popped open at 6am ready for our adventure. We saved packing the car for this morning and it is complete. Shipping six boxes definitely helped with freeing up some space. I have a lot of mixed feelings about leaving San Francisco but mostly I am SO excited to get back to NYC and be with family and friends. This was a very, very cool city and it really grew on us. Our jobs were amazing and we met some pretty cool people. Between trips to Muir woods, our tough mudder adventure, countless walks down the wharf, and some of the best food we've ever eaten San Francisco's definitely on the top of my list. Sadly our video camera has bit the dust but have no fear, Joanna insisted we get a new one. I'm sure Joey will blog later with more details but for now we must hit the road. To all we're leaving behind, it's been an awesome adventure... to all those in our path ahead... can't wait to see you =) Love to all xoxo

-lr

Last Times

We leave early Tuesday morning. Our last day of work is Sunday and of course, we've saved everything we have to do to be ready to leave for Monday. Personally, I'm in the nostalgic phase of leaving an adventure city. Everything in my mind is based upon "last times". The last time I'll drive through China town with the windows down after dropping Rachel off at work. Singing in the car in between stop lights where I drop my volume and watch all the Asians dedicate themselves to finding the perfect produce. All of them picking their way from market to market rummaging through countless bins of vegetables, roots and fruit I can't identify, searching for an acceptable specimen. The elders, all always so hunched over, ancient looking and scowling as if nothing in the world any longer meets their standards. There's always several panic-sticken looking men and women, practically sprinting, carrying heavy suitcases or pull carts, trying to make a bus that isn't going anywhere fast enough for them to miss it. I enjoy my drive through China town- it's like driving through a wormhole into a completely different world. Today was my last time sitting on my blanket in Percita Park with a book, my eyes stinging with clumsily sprayed tanning oil. My time in the park is rarely relaxing because it revolves around trying to find a comfortable balance between reading without sun in my eyes and getting my face tan. This is never relaxing because the balance doesn't exist. The relaxation only happens at the times when I put my book down so I can rest my arm and watch all the dogs play catch with they're owners who only like to talk about what breed of dog they have. You'd think I'd have learned to just leave my book at home. The goodbyes and mapping out of goodbyes have started to happen at work. I hate goodbyes. I'm sick of saying them and feeling the sadness that wraps itself around them. The hub of construction right by my house shifted in the past two days which means my last turn left onto Bryant to go to my house was had without my knowing. I feel cheated. Besides my last day of work at a job that I love, the biggest last is going to be my last walk down the wharf in between Rachel's and my restaurants. I can't count how many times I've done it in the past five months and it's probably my favorite part of the day. There's street performers, sometimes sea lions if I feel like walking down Pier 39, about 20 languages happening around me and a fantastic view of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz the whole way. This last walk will happen tomorrow. From Fog City Diner to Cappuros, which is the favorable direction because the wharf gets busier the closer you get to Cappuros. Also I can take my time since I'll be coming from work rather than rushing toward it. Saying goodbye to my coworkers isn't even something I like thinking about. I've worked here the longest of all the places and these people are like my family. The only bad thing I could possibly say about this job is about the uniforms. White in a restaurant is silly and impractical. That being said, I couldn't ask for a better job or for better coworkers. Thank God I don't have to say goodbye to Becca yet. If I did, it would make this week a million times more stressful. Becca will be coming to Denver for a few days and I'm so excited to show her one of my favorite cities in the country. As sad as all these "last times" are, we're ready to go. We don't hate San Francisco. Actually, we've grown to really like San Francisco. But it's time to move on. I just found out a few days ago that I was accepted into Hunter College. At least that's what the recording sounded like when I sneakily checked the status of my application via phone. I'm 99% sure I was accepted to Hunter. I'm going to start in February and have about 8 classes to take before I can apply to Hunter's Nursing Program, which is one of the best in the country. I'm keep thinking back to an 18 year old Joey, showing her chemistry teacher a blank homework sheet in defiance. He would look at me, take a deep breath, mark something down, and move on. Once he walked away I would lean back in my chair and continue my conversations with my friends about rehearsal the day before and about rehearsal after school today. I was going to be an actor- I didn't need to know chemistry. .....woops. The average GPA of a student getting into Hunter's Nursing program is 3.5. Whats the difference again between an electron and a proton? I'm excited to actually find out if I'm smart if I apply myself. I'm telling myself I am. I'm also telling myself I'm lucky part of the Nursing School application is a personal essay. One thing is for sure- that was the 'last time' I get to get away with not doing my Chemistry homework. I wish I was able to savor that moment more...I feel cheated. -lj

Y Adventure

Today will be an adventurous day. Sadly, probably the last adventurous day in Northern California before we leave. Rachel and I are packing our backpacks for our Yosemite adventure this morning. Becca and Brett are on their way to pick us up. We can only stay one night but we're all very very excited. Please excuse my lack of fluidity and imagination with this blog- blogging usually only happens after several cups of coffee and I am functioning only on a few sips.

We'll be staying in a hotel tent- a tent with a wooden frame and canvas walls. I, of course, keep having flashes of bear encounters which is up there with "Joey's Top 5 Fears". When we return tomorrow night, I work everyday until the day we leave, which while stressful, is fiscally necessary. I absolutely promise to do a serious NorCal reflection as well as a briefing on our trip across the country (which is going to be amazing). Today though, I will be busy meeting nature as I've never met her before. I promise not to climb any trees Mom and Dad- at least not too high. ;) lj

Tough Mudder NorCal 2011

I should probably tell you about Tough Mudder while it's still pretty fresh in my memory. We woke up Saturday morning around 8am and finished all our last minute packing. We made extra sure we had all our energy bars and gu's, our gloves for good grip, our sneakers and our brand new outfits and white headbands. We decided that morning that it would be quicker for Becca to meet us here and keep her car in our driveway since our house is closer to the Bay Bridge than hers. We both woke up with lots of energy and were practically bouncing off the walls. It was finally here! I absolutely insisted that we bring the video camera. We have one and have barely used it this whole adventure! So dumb. Finally, Becca arrived and the first thing I did was grab the camera to capture our departure. We stopped for some breakfast before really getting on the road and I got to enjoy a pumpkin latte, which is one of my favorite things. And a pumpkin muffin. And a sandwich. A great thing about knowing you're about to do an event is that you don't feel guilty about what you eat beforehand. Rachel was driving, I rode shotgun with my latte in hand and Becca was sprawled in the back and we set off for our 4 hour roadtrip to Squaw Valley. The ride was beautiful and as we got closer we noticed a car on the highway packed with a bunch of dudes around our age. I had a strange feeling they were headed for the race too. A grabbed a piece of paper and wrote in big letters "Tough Mudder?". We got in the lane next to them and pushed the paper against the window. They smiled and gave us a thumbs up. About five minutes later our cars lined up again and there was a piece of paper against they're window this time. We got closer. We squinted. What does that say? "SEX?" Boys. Rachel laughed and Becca and I rolled our eyes. We gave them a thumbs up and drove on. We finally got to Squaw and realized it was almost at 7,000 feet elevation. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. It looked like the movies. I kept wondering what it would be like to go snowboarding on these mountains and felt a touch of sadness that we were leaving before I could find out. We checked into our room, which we realized was a suite (sweet!) and we headed into the village (steps from our lodge) for some food. The small village was totally taken over by Tough Mudder. Most of the people had done in that day and were sporting the orange headband you're handed when you cross the finish line. People were also sporting limps. Lots of limping. Some people had scrapped legs, a few were on crutches. We would ask some people in passing how the race was. The response wasn't motivating. Everyone took a deep breath before answering and they would all respond the same..."it was long. Much longer than you think it's going to be". "oh....ok" we'd say. Lots of people told us to tape our ankles since its so rocky. Lots of people also told us to make sure we ate something with potassium along the way because cramping was a huge problem since our bodies were getting cold and wet so often. Not once did someone say "oh man it was awesome! I wish I could do it again tomorrow!" We were slightly weary of this "super long race" and we headed back to the lodge to sit in the hot tub. There were some tough mudders in the hot tub so we asked them how it was. Luckily, these people were super friendly and said it was lots of fun. They also told us how long it was, to tape our ankles and to watch for cramping. But at least they said it was fun! We headed to the room to relax a bit and went to get some dinner. The whole village was in party mode because so many people had already done the race and we felt a little left out. We headed home to make sure we got to bed nice and early. The next morning we woke up around 6:30. We got dressed and went outside to discover something that we hadn't anticipated. It was absolutely....freezing. You could see our breath in the air. We were told it was going to be 90 degrees. We were also told that the first obstacle of the race was in cold water. We laughed nervously about our discovery and headed to breakfast hoping that the sun would heat the world for us within the next three hours. Our start time was 10:20 so hopefully, the elevation meant the sun had super powers. We ate as much as could at breakfast and headed over to register. It was already warming up and we felt much more confident in the temperature. We got our numbers drawn on our heads with a sharpie, had number flags on our backs and returned to our room to stretch and gear up. We were all definitely nervous, but really excited too. Our biggest fear was that we didn't want to be cold for six hours, which is how long we expected the race to be. After about forty minutes and calls to parents we realized it was time to go. We walked over to the starting point where we stood with our group of maybe a few hundred people and an MC got us all jumping and excited. Before we went, the National Anthem was sung and it was the most I've ever enjoyed it. Most of the group I stood with were standing there because they had raised money for troops. I never feel too patriotic but I really did at that moment. After that was done, the music was cranked up again and the jumping continued. Everyone put up their right hand and repeated a pledge prompted by the MC. It went something like "Tough Mudder is not a race. It is a challenge. I will help my fellow Mudders finish the course. Comraderie comes before my finishing time. Tough Mudders do not cry. Babies cry." We jumped a few times more and it was time. Last high fives and nervous smiles. Here we go....its about to start....holy shit.....GO! And we were off. It was such a large crowd that the only people who had the option to run were the people right in front. It was kind of a slow shuffle out onto the course which was pretty anti-climactic. Good thing though because the course was immediately up hill. After about a half hour of fast paced hiking (most people fact paced hiked the whole thing- running was for super hero's only) we came to our first obstacle. It was a pit of mud blanketed with barbed wire. We had to army crawl through the freezing mud under the wire. It was really, really cold. But it was also really, really fun. We got out and continued. The obstacles were all really fun and also either very cold, or very difficult, or both. We had to submerge ourselves in an ice bath which is scary because your body almost stops working and you have a marine screaming at you to go faster. About half way through I saw one of the most touching things I've ever witnessed. A lot of people who do Tough Mudder are people from the army who have lost friends, have hurt friends and were hurt. I saw one guy with no hand fling himself over a wall like a one armed ninja. So anyway, we were hiking, hiking, hiking for what seems like forever and we noticed that we were coming up on some sort of a bottleneck. A team of about 8 people. One of them, was in a homemade wheelchair constructed of heavy duty wheels, a seat, a pair of crutches and handles on the side. Me, Becca and Rachel all had to stop for a moment and watch what was happening. There was a girl in the wheelchair with no legs below her knees. They were fake. Her team was carrying the wheel chair up and down the mountain. When they would come to an obstacle they would ALL complete it. They would carry her and she would use her arms and thighs to help. To make this clear...there were sections of the mountain, a lot of them, that you almost had to sit on your butt and slide down or scramble up because it was so steep. It was slippery, and rocky and absolutely no joke. If this girls wheelchair tipped over, which I saw almost happen a few times, there was going to be a serious problem with probably serious injuries. We watched them for a second and told them they were rockstars when we passed them. We stopped after completing the next obstacle to watch them do it. They all did. They all scrambled over and under logs in a maze of more barbed wire. Tears glassed over all of our eyes and we promised each other that we wouldn't once complain during the rest of the challenge that we were tired or cold or in any pain. I didn't see them at all after that. I would love to know how long it took them to complete the whole course which turned out to be around 13 miles and went up to almost 9,000 feet of elevation. Hands down the most inspiring thing I've ever seen. After almost 6 hours and about 25 obstacles, we finished the race all three of us holding hands and sprinting through the finish line. We jumped up and down and hugged and grabbed our free beer. All I could think was "Oh man, that was awesome. I wish I could do it again tomorrow." -lj

everything

First, I must say thank you to everyone who donated to Wounded Warrior Project. The race is on Sunday and I gotta tell ya... we're a little nervous. The Tough Mudder website says to work your way up to six miles runs, which we've done, and to be able to bang out 15 pushups in a row, which we can also do. However, something tells me that running 2,300 feet up a mountain covered in mud over the course of 11 miles might be a little bit harder than running a straight line up and down the San Francisco Bay...I dunno...just a gut feeling. Never the less, we're really really excited. Not only for the race but to go on a little 3 day vacation with our pal Becca. Also, once the race is over... the planning can begin. Oh yes...oh yes, we're getting close to the countdown ladies and gentlemen. The countdown...for the next page of our lives? No. The next chapter then? Oh yes, yes it must be a new chapter! But no. This is way bigger than that. Well....ok yes, I guess the road trip east can be a new chapter sure...BUT...once we hit the other coast of this big, beautiful (and I can tell you from personal experience, it is pretty beautiful) country, we're starting a BRAND NEW BOOK! A new volume to the Rachie and Joey Saga! I don't know about you but for us, "excited" doesn't nearly cover it. Want to know why ending adventure is so much more exciting than beginning adventure? Because once "travel" adventure number one is over...."life" adventure gets to start. Know whats gonna be in "life" adventure? Everything. In about three months, Rachel and I get to unpack our suitcases for the last time and start everything. It feels very similar to when you're about to graduate college and about to conquer the world, only instead, we're probably going back to college, and we've already conquered the world. Or at least the country. When I shut my eyes and fast forward 2 years, I see me and Rachel living in a very small apartment in Brooklyn, sitting on a love seat, with medical and anatomy books sprawled across the coffee table and plates containing discarded bites of a poorly cooked, but healthy, meal at our sides. We're trying to study but can't stop talking about what our future house is going to look like. We're laughing about how much easier it is to carry three plates to a table than carry five textbooks on the subway. If that Joanna shuts her eyes and fast forwards another two years, we're in the same living room, packing our old textbooks into boxes. We're carefully wrapping our wedding albums in tissue paper and putting those in boxes as well. There's another box in the corner labeled "scrubs" and I silently congratulate myself on my new job. We're moving into our new house tomorrow, our first house. It's small, but everything we've been dreaming of. Most importantly it has a lawn. Which brings me to my next fast forward. It's five years later this time and I'm inside our house. It's Sunday and its the first Bills game of the season. The game starts in a half hour. I'm excited for the game and I'm throwing a tiny Bills Jersey over the head of my favorite person in the whole world. I hand my favorite person a small, soft football and explain how important the game of catch is and hand in hand we're headed outside to the lawn for the very first lesson. So, why are we so excited for adventure number two? Because it's gonna be everything. -lj

in the mood for a quickie?

I'm sitting at the computer waiting for my friend Becca to come over and play in the park with me so I thought, hey, might as well update my friends. Last Sunday I played softball on my sister restaurants team and we won twice. I was MVP by default (I was batted in a lot) and had some of the best fun I've had since I've been here. I'm counting down the days to Sunday when i get to play again. Beers and softball at 10 in the morning on a Sunday is definitely on the top of my list. We play against other restaurants which for some reason, makes it more fun. I'm almost done with my new tattoo! I've sat for 7 hours total so far. It's on my right arm and is a half sleeve and its the most painful thing I've ever experienced. Every time I'm in the chair I'm amazed that I'm (well, Rachel) is paying someone an obscene amount of money to basically torture me. It's my birthday present and I was looking at it today and must say, its coming out beautiful. I kind of wish I had stuck with my original plan of a quarter sleeve instead of a half, but then everything would look smooshed and not as pretty. I'm hoping I only have one more session left. It's frustrating because I've been trying to work out a lot, training for race, and every time I get tattooed I have to take a few days off to heal. What else is new?...hm... I still like my job. Oh! How can I forget! I applied to college yesterday! I applied to four CUNY schools. It's basically just to take my pre-reqs for nursing school. I want to go to Hunter for nursing school so I hope I can take my prereqs there too. Uh oh. Becca is here. Guess we'll finish this up later. Adios! -lj

sparkles and splashes

Rachel promised she'd tell you about it, but I'll give you a rundown about our trip to Napa. We stayed at the Old World Napa Inn in a verry nice room. It had a fifty inch flat screen, big bathtub, separate showers, king size bed, and my own little touch, a bottle of Domain Chandon Sparkling Wine waiting in the room for us. (the lady actually brought it to us two minutes after we walked in). Well, thats all Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum needed to get a night going in Napa. We downed the bottle and headed out. We chose a cute little spot for dinner and ordered a second bottle of sparkles (unlike us to drink sparkles but it was nice). We sat outside and basked in the actual summer weather, which we, by, have forgotten the pleasures of. We decided to eat light so that we could go to another restaurant later. We split mussels and then Halibut. Both delicious. The mussels were the biggest I'd ever seen anywhere. We paid our bill and walked around downtown Napa, which is absolutely adorable. It reminded us of Cherry Creek in Colorado, but more quaint. We found a bar and decided to go in for a cocktail. We sat down and ordered mojitos. While the drinks were delicious, we hated the energy of the bar so we enjoyed each others company, drank our mint rum and were on our way. We walked around some more and next thing I know, it's dark outside and I ask Rachel what she'd like to do next. She grabbed my hand and said "I know what I want to do". Flopping my shoulders quickly up and down I say "ok!" and briskly followed her along. I remember being astonished that she knew where she was going. Before I can try to figure out where she's taking me, I realize we're siting in a nice Italian restaurant, for whatever reason, making the decision with our server to get a bottle of more sparkles. Finally time slowed back down and I took a moment to look around. This place was pretty nice! Great menu too. Are we even hungry? Drunk, obviously, but hungry? Who cares. We're in Napa. We order steak carpaccio and some sort of appetizer sampler. Pretty yummy. We both have big crushes on Gnocchi in any sort of pesto so even though we were full, it was on the menu so we followed with that. Mistake. It was so salty we couldn't even force it down. We even contemplated for a moment about whether or not we should complain. We decided against it and asked for the bill (we couldn't fit dessert) and left a full glass of sparkles each. Thank goodness! We got home and leaped into our big bed. Rachel was out as soon as she hit the pillow while I stayed up and drunkly watched Frasier and the Golden Girls on our big TV. I didn't finish the episode of Golden Girls and I find myself still wondering what happened to Dorothy at the end. We woke up at 9 for breakfast, which was held downstairs in the "wine cellar". It was very yummy, but not the easiest breakfast we'd ever gotten through. We crawled back to our room and fell asleep for another hour. I told Rachel to make sure we were ready to go at 11. At least we felt better after our nap. We showered and we ready in time to meet Lonnie outside. I had arranged for Lonnie to pick us up in a nice big SUV and take us Vinyard hopping for a few hours. We climbed into the SUV and found...you'll never guess....a bottle of....sparkles!...in the backseat with two empty glasses and to cold water bottles. Lonnie said it was for us and that we could do whatever we wanted with it, even if we wanted to take it with us and "drink it in our bathtub tonight or whatever we want". Phew. We thanked him and both went for the water bottles. He took us to four wineries throughout the day. I had given a list of the wineries to my manger at Fog City before hand and he made a few phone calls. Each of the wineries gave us complimentary tastings. To show our thanks we bought at least one bottle of wine at each winery. We ended up with around $200 dollars worth of wine...but really nice wine. We had asked Lonnie in the SUV what his favorite kind of wine was. He had mentioned he liked Cabs,so we bought him a bottle of Cab that we gave to him at the end. At the second winery we went to, which was the biggest one, Lonnie set a picnic for us overlooking the vinyards. We had sandwiches and pineapple coleslaw while someone who worked at the winery came over every once in a while to give us a taste of a different wine. Then Lonnie surprised us with a homemade cake and a candle for Rachel. Our last vinyard was our favorite. The man who owned it took us out and showed us the vines and described the growing process. Then we went inside for a tasting. We liked his wines the best too. We bought three bottles from him. Lonnie dropped us off and I thanked him a million times. He seemed very touched that we had bought him a bottle of wine. (A nice bottle). We went back into our big Bed and Breakfast room and laid down for a little while. Then we went out to dinner at La Toque. We were going to do the tasting but the menu is set up that you could choose any four things on the menu for a set price. Because you could choose what you wanted that way, we each did that. We had lobster salad, mushroom and fava bean ravioli (which was my favorite), fried halibut (also very good), soft shell crab, duck, rabbit and lamb. It was fun, but all in all a little disappointing. Being blown away by food is so much fun and the ravioli was really the only thing that did that. Service was really great though. It was one of the back servers first day and you could tell he was nervous. He was super sweet and would say "merci" to each of us every time he refilled our water. (which he would refill after we took two sips). We went home and I tried to stay up for Golden Girls to try and find out what happened the night before but I fell asleep during Frasier. Breakfast the next morning was much easier to get through. We tried not to eat too much before Rachel's big birthday lunch. This was the big event of the trip. I had made reservations at Morimoto Napa. I had secretly e-mailed the executive chef to tell him we were coming. I had met Chef Lunak months ago while working at Clio in Boston. I was his backwaiter and he gave me his card towards the end of his meal telling me if I were ever to move to Napa to call him for a job. Yes, yes I'm kicking myself in the ass now. Well, we got there and decided we wanted to sit outside in the sun. This restaurant inside is seriously seriously awesome. We were pumped the moment we walked in. Our server came over and asked us about water. Someone came over and filled our water. Our waiter came back two minutes later with two glasses of sparkles, smiling. The Chef sent us sparkles! Two words...rock...star. I looked like a rockstar. I knew the chef and he just sent me and my girlfriend out champagne! This guy is no joke. He's on Morimoto's team on Iron Chef America. The one with the blonde facial hair for next time you watch. We cheersed and sat looking at our menus in awe and excitement. Someone was coming over. We looked up. The coolest looking dish I'd ever seen was placed on our table. It was Morimoto's famous toro tartare with six condiments. Again, no joke. It's a 28$ dollar appetizer. And it was freaking....amazing. We gobbled it up and had a blast doing it. It was cleared from our table. Or waiter came back over....and took our menus away. Took them away. He said "it looks like your in for a leisurely lunch". We both sat there wide-eyed. Then, half-shelled HUGE crablegs were set on our table smothered in some spicy red sauce. We both just stared at the food. Then at the waiter. Then back at the food. He told us what it was, smiled and walked away. We inhaled it. Someone came and took our empty plates away. Then two more dishes arrived. A lamb tartare and a tuna pizza. Seriously, some of the best food I've ever had, not to mention the most beautiful looking. While we stuffing our faces with raw meat covered in yumminess I looked up and Chef Lunak was standing over our table smiling, hand extended to me telling me how nice it was to see me again. I shook his hand and introduced him to Rachel. I tried to explain how grateful we were and how incredible his food was but I'm sure I couldn't possibly have done a good job. He said to make sure we said goodbye before we left and left us to our meal. After we were done the waiter finally brought us back our menus. We were so full but had to order something. We ordered rock shrimp tempura and miso glazed cod lunch combo thing. Both were good, but didn't compare to the mind blowing (there it is!) dishes he had chosen for us. While we were eating the General Manager of the restaurant came over. He extended his hand and said "I heard I'm supposed to recruit you." I laughed and told him he was more than welcome to. He chatted us up for a few minutes and gave us each his card, telling us that if we wanted to try Napa, we'd both have jobs. You better believe we had a pretty long discussion about moving to Napa when he walked away! We sadly decided against it and kept our sights on Brooklyn. However, I looked it up and there's a Morimoto in New York now. Looks like I'm keeping these contacts handy! While we were at lunch I gave Rach her birthday card and an envelope marked "What Are We Gonna Do On Your BIG Day??". Inside the envelope were two tickets for the day to Six Flags which is half way between Napa and San Francisco. We got there around 3 and knowing we only had 5 hours there (God forbid) we dropped some money for a Platinum Flash Pass. I don't know if you've noticed but Rachel and I like to pretend we're loaded...its actually our favorite thing to do. We got to skip all the lines. Lines that took an hour for others took us two minutes. Also, with our special wristbands we were allowed to ride a ride twice in a row if we felt like staying on. We learned quickly that roller coasters are short for a reason and only used that privilege twice. My favorite part of our six flags day were the two shows we saw. A dolphin show and a killer whale show. I would totally trade in nursing to be a whale or dolphin trainer so I might look into that. What job is better than that!? We also got center (towards) the front seats with our special flash passes and got cooled off a few times with some splashes. During the dolphin show some guy proposed to his girlfriend on the microphone which was sweet, but a little awkward. It was hard coming home but it was probably the best trip we've ever taken. Not that we don't kind of live on a big trip, but you know what I mean. Now our focus is saving money to finally settle down, which we're very excited about. Are there killer whale shows in Brooklyn? -lj

dad-e

happy birthday to you

happy birthday to you

happy birthday dear daddy

happy birthday to you

lj

i miss my family. happy birthday to my dad. i love you.

looking forward

So we're still not crazy about San Francisco but we do have some things to look forward to and be happy about. First off, we went and saw Harry Potter last night at midnight. Thumbs up to that. Secondly, we've signed up for another endurance event! You all know we did the New York City Triathlon two years ago. Well we just signed up for Tough Mudders NorCal. It's Sept 18th and is a ten mile long obstacle course/run around a mountain. You basically run 10 miles hitting about 20 obstacles along the way designed by the British Special Forces. Ice cold water, electric shock, 2300 feet of elevation gain, 15ft cliff jumps, 12 foot walls, and lots of mud are all involved. We're raising money for Wounded Warrior Project which helps vets from Afghanistan and Iraq that have been wounded. Here's my donation page, I would really really appreciate any contributions. Even if it's just five dollars, it would show me that you support me. https://www.raceit.com/fundraising/donate.aspx?event=3355&fundraiser=r1483841

My friend Becca from work also signed up to do it with us. It's in Squaw Valley, CA, close to Tahoe.

In other news, Rachel's birthday is this week!! I'm taking her to Napa for a romantic weekend. I don't want to ruin any events so I'll leave the details for after we return. It should be a fantastic time. Dangerous to send two foodies that like to pretend they're rich when they're not over to Napa. Very very dangerous. But we make great money at our jobs, which luckily, we both love. We spend our days working and working out in whichever order is more convenient. We talk about going to NY every day. We can't wait. We're looking forward to settling down and going back to school just as much as we were looking forward to adventure over a year ago. I'm already having stress about telling my job even though it's still a few months away (end of October). I promised them I was here to stay when I was hired and they were nervous about trusting me. How can they expect me to live somewhere I don't like though?

Linda is gone for two weeks on vacation. Tuck, the roommate who moved out when we moved in is staying with us while she's gone and then he's going to move in permanently. We're babysitting his mom's dog. I very old, very fat, very soft and sweet one-eyed pug named Maggie. I never want her to leave. Did I mention she's very very fat? Did I mention she only has one eye? Her strange barks sound more like a mix between a baby crying and a pig squeeling. Nothing like a dog which makes her all the more charming. ....she's so fat. She's hilarious. I still can't pinpoint exactly why we don't like San Francisco, but we really really don't. Maybe a huge part of it is that we're homesick and so ready to settle, for now. I can't wait to get the nursing ball rolling and to go apartment hunting and have a home again with Rach, where we can live exactly how we want to. This is also way too far from family. Way way too far. Even if we loved it here I don't think we'd be able to stay so far. Just knowing everyone is so far away makes me miss them more. Since we make such good money we're staying until the end of October and after Napa we're turning our dials onto save mode. It feels nice to look forward to home. Adventure was awesome but it's definitely time to wrap things up. Scroll back up the blog and don't forget to donate please!! -lj

coming mr. wilson

I don't know why I've been neglecting the blog so much. It's not that I don't think about it. I do. It' s just when I have time, I'm never in the mood. Let's see, what's happened.... My birthday for starters. It was actually an amazing day. Rach got us a hotel for two nights in closer to downtown right next to the movie theatre (in case I wanted to go). We volunteered during the day and played basketball with kids that had autism. My kid was named Angel. I think he was around 14 or 15. He made almost every three point shot he went for and kicked my ass when we played one on one. They only do this once a month but I plan on doing it if I have off the next time they do it. Rach and I joined a volunteer organization and can sign up for different things all along the week. So far my work schedule has stopped me from doing another one, but I keep looking for a schedule match. We went to dinner (which was my first yelp review -Mayes Oyster House') and then was beckoned into some bar by four fifty - sixty year old lesbians who we hung out with for an hour. We then went to the local lesbian bar (which I hadn't been to yet) and we made temporary friends and had fun until two in the morning. It was all fantastic. Fog City Diner is okay. I like it, I like the people. I don't like being the underdog- everyone has been there for years and is very used to how things work and they're able to work very fast. I'm getting used to it. The money is really good as long as they don't cut you after two hours (which I'm the new person so I usually get cut first). I also wish I tried harder to find a job closer to home. There's so many restaurants around here but we both panicked I think and went for the tourist area we knew was hiring. It can take between twenty minutes to an hour and twenty minutes depending on traffic. We just an our public transportation explore day the other day, so we might start doing that. Christina and Alex came to visit for a few days!! We had an amazing time. We went on a boat ride under the Golden Gate Bridge, had some real Chinese food, saw a Blue Grass musician who was actually Asian (interesting), went to the movies, had some original Irish Coffee where it first started in the States and went to a famous bookshop where the Beat poets used to hang out. Having them being here cheered us up a lot. I think it's pretty obvious we're not crazy about San Francisco. I'm not overwhelmed by the friendliness of the people- thats for sure. Everyone says its so clean- I think it's really dirty. And there's are tons and tons of scary homeless people. Way more than New York and the ones here are different. They make you feel very uneasy. One of them threw a piece of bread at my face as he walked by. I was sitting in the park reading. I'll never know why he did it. Also yesterday one of them asked me if he could ask me a question. I would usually keep walking but thought that after the bread throwing incident I needed not to judge based on that one person and I stopped. The man who stopped me whispered something I won't even write in the blog in my ear. I told him he was a piece of shit and I walked away. Rachel feels the same way about San Francisco. We just can't seem to like it. I think part of it could be the weather. We're very weather affected people and the constant cold here doesn't do much for our moral. It can be very sunny and we've had a few really hot days and once in a while, it does get beautiful, but not enough. We're still going to give in the whole summer. We don't hate it.....really. We just don't love it. We do have some really great days and have fun but the fun is usually not San Francisco specific, if that makes sense. Our apartment dynamic is about to change. Robin is moving into a place with her girlfriend at the end of the month. We had an open house the other day to sublet the room. We chose a very friendly couple to take the room for a month. The sublet is only for July since Tuck will be moving back here in August (the guy whose room we took). Our new roommates will be Eric and Kyle. They're really sweet and the five of us hit it off immediately. The apartment will be crowed but the boys really did have great energies and kept expressing how clean and tidy they were, which gave them a lot of extra points. Monday we're going kayaking in the bay with some of Rachel's friends from work. I'm very very excited about it. I really will try to be better with the blog. I know I say that every time. One things I really really love about San Francisco..... is Linda's dog Wilson. If I don't either throw the ball right now or take him out he's going to start crying so I have to go. Later bloggers. -lj

how ya doin

To make my family happy I'm going to do a quick bloggie rundown before I head to work. Try to keep up. I have my second day of training today at "Fog City Diner". It's about a twenty minute walk on the water from Rach's restaurant and it took me three and half interviews to land the job. It's not really a diner- more of a restaurant disguised as a diner. I absolutely love it. I really wanted the job. I went through two and a half (halfs are my new thing I guess) days of training at rainforest cafe and on the third day (half way through) I decided I couldn't possibly be happy working there and I quit. I told them I had received another offer from a restaurant I thought would be a better fit. This was a lie, I was actually still in the process of interviews at Fog City but they were good interviews and I decided to take a leap of faith. I was in the air for several days, but my leap ended up working out just fine. Phew. I was beginning to think this luck of mine had taken a turn for the worst. The trainer I was with yesterday was on the floor starting at 11 and got cut at 2:00. She made $120 and never had no move faster than a snails pace. It seems so far that this job is going to be amazing. We actually haven't been falling in love with San Francisco like people had been promising but I think a large part of that is owed to the stress of job hunting. Now that we've both landing jobs we love and are promised very good money, it will hopefully become easier to relax and live and enjoy S.F. We've both become extremely homesick for New York while we've been here. We've even admitted to missing Boston for some reason. We miss Boston. Thats how much we like S.F so far. Try explaining that one. I think also a big part of it is that we're not in as adventurous of a mind-set anymore. We're getting settle down antsy and you look at places different when you're debating making your nest rather than just playing in the leaves for a little while. But thinks are surely looking up. We went to an Oakland A's and Yankees game the other day, obviously in Oakland, with Linda, Julia and a bunch of others. It was an absolute blast and the Yankees won. Seeing the Yankees though definitely confirmed that Rach and I are New Yorkers. It's in our blood and in our hearts. If we stay here it will only be for a few years, for school probably, but it's becoming very clear to us that the final home will be in New York. It's our home at datz just da way its gonna be! -lj

San Francisco, CA

Well, in case you wondering, we made it! Our trip was a blast. I saw three of my old Americorps teammates, saw the Grand Canyon, got to see Betty and Beau, hiked next to the Hollywood sign and didn't have to work a single day! Magnificent. We've been here for a week and half now. Our room is finally furnished thanks to the thrift stores of San Francisco and Julia, who gave us a bed and a dresser. Like everyone warned us, its a little cold here. And very windy. However, it's sunnier than we expected which we're very thankful for. We like it here but haven't yet found our "groove" I guess we'll call it. We both have jobs, thank goodness. We'll both be working in restaurants on the Fisherman's Wharf. Today was Rachel's second day of training. She LOVES it and I'm so happy for her. She's working at a family-owned Italian Restaurant across the street and a one block down from my restaurant. I'm once again going corporate. Why does this always happen!? I got hired at the Rainforest Cafe. I actually don't start my training until Friday. Linda used to work there and said she made A LOT of money. Well, I certainly better if I'm going to prance around a restaurant with no windows in a fanny pack while calling myself a "safari guide" instead of a server. Until Friday I tidy up and run errands. A month and a half with no income certainly isn't good for the bank account so I haven't taken myself to the movies as I did in Florida. Tomorrow I'm going to finish all my errands and spend the day in the city on foot. We've been driving everywhere so far, and let me tell you something about San Francisco.... it is not a city you want to drive around in. The traffic is awful and the streets are very confusing. We've only taken public transportation once. It seems a little confusing here because its not like New York where its just one system. There seems to be three or four that you need to figure out until you can get to a final destination. We've only taken the bus. Tomorrow I'm going to go on a solo adventure called "figure out the public transportation system". The name needs work. I know. I'll bring a book, a map, and my compass. Wish me luck. ...Yes, I really do have a compass and yes, I really plan on bringing it. I'm excited to have an income and some sort of routine. I'll be able to decide how much I like it here much better once those things are in line. We've gone out to dinner twice. One to a nice place and one just to a little Thai place because I wanted Thai food. We went to Zuni our second night here. I mean, c'mon... I know we don't have jobs but we needed to celebrate getting here! We had a poached egg with rabbit bacon and smoked paprika oil to start. Our other appetizer was ricotta gnocchi with spinach and nasturcium. For dinner we had steak with polenta and spring onion and also the halibut with...I forget, but it was fantastic. For dessert creme brulee and flourless chocolate cake. Everything was great- very good introduction to San Francisco restaurants. I've been reading. I've read two books since being here. Both about World War 2. My next book is about the war in Iraq, but I wish it was about WW2 because now I'm very interested. We've been renting a lot of movies because its fun and cheap. Every other time, one of us can choose any movie we want, so its fair. The movies I've been rented are all about WW2. Rach is being a sport about it though. I went to Blockbuster today while Rach is at work. She's going to kill me when she finds out the movie I got has subtitles. I got "Life is Beautiful". Considering I was about to rent "Schindler's List", she should thank her lucky stars. I'll wait until she does something that makes me mad to get "S.L". Last Sunday we went to Bay to Breakers. It's this race/party San Fran has every year. This year was the 100th anniversary. People dress up in costumes and run around Golden Gate Park. I haven't looked up why they do, but they do. We got there around 11, which was later than we wanted to, but oh well. By the time we got there it seemed that all of San Francisco was drunk and had been for a few hours. We walked the parade/race route for over an hour and got sausage sandwiches over at some tent. The tend had already run out of everything that contained alcohol. We didn't dress up, but the costumes were all hilarious. It was like halloween but with clever, funny costumes instead of scary ones. One thing that really shocked us was the amount of nudity. We saw several naked men...just walkin in the park...just hangin out.....just a normal day. Naked. Ass naked. Well...some wore backpacks....and roller skates. But that was all. We inquired the legalities of this with our bus driver. He said that in certain parts of San Fran it was legal. We didn't see any naked women. Just men. Most of whom, shouldn't have been naked, but good for them I guess. Rach has Monday and Tuesday off so one of those days we're going to spend the day in China town pretending we're Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern. I'm pretty excited about this. I love our roommates and really love our new dog, Wilson. His face is perfect and he loves to play. He also loves to take naps with me and Rach while we watch movies on the computer in our bed. Our bed is a mattress that sits on the floor. Its totally comfortable and we plan on getting a frame and box thing eventually. Hm....what else, what else, what else.... Rachel's bug bite is almost all better. She got it in Denver and it got pretty intense for a second there, but its fine now. We'll try to take some pics soon. Maybe even take the video camera for our travel channel extravaganza on Monday. -lj

Blah Blah...irrelevant.

Ok as important as it is to write some sort of general update- I'm not going to right now. However I do have quite the story. Once I sit down in San Fran (where we will finally arrive Tuesday), you will hear all about driving through the Rockies, Rach's unfortunate altitude sickness, her spider bit thats eating away her leg, almost hitting two cows with our car and other things. But for now, at this moment, there is something that I must tell you immediately. So, we arrived in L.A last night around 7pm. Christina wouldn't be home until around 9 from work so we stopped to grab a bite to eat...blah blah blah...irrelevant. Fast forward, Christina comes home, we sit and chat for fifteen minutes and we decide to go out so Christina can get some dinner. We decide to walk to the strip in her neighborhood with all the restaurants. We're walking...the neighborhood is fantastic...blah blah blah...irrelevant. We get to the place Christina had in mind and she stops outside the door. 'I don't want to go here anymore' she says. Okay. 'I think we should go to this restaurant over here'. She turns around and goes through some alley and cafe we hadn't even seen at first. A beautiful restaurant dining room appears in front of us. Coincidentally, the restaurant is called "Cafe Stella". The name of my restaurant in Denver! Lovely fact, however...blah..this fact is irrelevant. We approach the hostess and say we'd like to eat and have a drink. She takes the three of us to a table where Christina sits across from Rachel and I. After I settle down in my seat I looked up to Christina who all of a sudden had a big "secret secret" look on her face and she was leaning forward slightly to be sure that no one could hear her. 'Did you guys notice who's behind me?'. Neither of us had. We looked up and over Christina. They're was a cute baby hanging over a woman's shoulder. We smiled. We like babies. 'Aw, what a cute baby.' We say. Chistina swilveled in her chair to see the baby. She tells us, no, that's not who she meant. 'Oh.' We scan the room. I saw him first. He was sitting with a woman at a two top (a two person table) and was facing us. He was wearing skinny jeans, a plain gray tee-shirt, and a red wool hat that seemed more fitted for winter than L.A in May. He was chatting with a woman with a full head of redish purpley, beautiful, curely hair. We'd been in L.A maybe three hours at this point and what are the odds that out of all the celebrities walking around this city....this is who is sitting only feet away from us. I'll give you a moment to guess. .............. ............ .............Can you guess? Out of all the celebrities! Who is sitting next to us? You need more time? ..................... Micheal Cera! Micheal freakin Cera! My twin! I can't possibly tell you how often I hear I look like him. Almost at least once a day. We respected his privacy and never approached him. Even on his way out. The table next to us asked him for a picture which he was very nice about. You could tell though, that he wished they wouldn't have asked. I had day dreams throughout dinner of him approaching me instead saying "hey! you know you look just like me!". I would smile and tell him that he was mistaken. It was actually he who looked like me and we would have a laugh, take a picture together and be lifelong friends who look very much alike. The three of us tried to chat about normal things but kept getting distracted by my dopelganger in the bright red hat. Thankfully, he left about ten or fifteen minutes after we got there so we could gain back our focus. I wonder if he noticed at all that I looked like him (since everyone else does), but I'd bet he didn't. The best part is that on our way out Christina caught the conversation of a few men standing outside. They were I guess talking about how Micheal Cera had been in the restaurant. We walked by them since they were standing by the door. The last thing Christina caught of the conversation was "Oh, look, he's back! Oh, wait, thats not him.". Today we went on a pretty hike. Although compared to last night and the run in with my famous twin...thats pretty irrelevent. -lj

good byes and good times

We're finally in the same car! Once again a one car family. We left Buffalo yesterday and spent the night with Kate and Kate in Lancaster, Penn. The stars aligned and they "cut" someone today from Kate's job at the rec center so she gets to spend the whole day with us! Turns out, they have a Wii so guess what we've been doing for hours? Just out of the shower and she's taking us to see the outlets in a few minutes. I'm going to have to test my will power and walk through an American Eagle. I DO need a new white tee and jeans, but we'll see what kind of deals we find. Responsible shopping is the name of the game until we get jobs in San Fran. After the outlets we're getting back into our million pound car that feels like a tank and driving forty minutes to Harrisburg where more Popson family visits will occur. Aunt Peggy and Uncle Jims is always a great time. It's become an Easter tradition that we look forward to. And we also get to see Stephy who just flew in from L.A. It's also the NFL playoffs and the Buffalo Sabers have their fourth game today against Philly. I don't really watch hockey but when you have a team to root for in the playoffs it's a blast. In Harrisburg we shall stay until Monday morning. We realized this morning that the trip to Ohio is actually twice as long as we for some reason thought it was going to be so we'll have to wake up early so we can spend some decent time with my Americorps teammate Joni. It's been a few weeks shy of a year since I've seen her and I must say, I'm rather excited- I don't want to get there too late. I've been missing Florida. I miss coming home at 11 and sitting on the patio with Chris and Charlie for hours. I hate the "goodbye" part of adventure. It's so hard. Now in a few hours I have to say goodbye to Kate again. Whenever I'm around her I realize how I actually miss her even more than I thought I did- and I already thought I missed her a lot. I know the same is going to happen with Christina. This lifestyle is great but all this saying goodbye all the time really blows. Kate is starting nursing school soon and found a great school and program in the area which means this might be somewhere we'll have to look into settling down in. At least while I go to school. It's a good distance from home too, which is a plus. I'll have to look into this. Pretty nice that I can use Kate as a nursing school test rabbit and send her through first (especially if she has to buy the books first, mwahahaha). I'm blogging because the beautiful girls I'm with are busy doing they're hair. They've teamed up to try and convince me to wear make-up today. Out of their minds. We're having such a great time so far. I'm freezing though. All the time. I miss the sun and warm weather. My tan left my skin so fast you'd never think I've ever even been to Florida in my life. I'll have to take some advantage of being a mile closer to the sun in Denver. Man are we excited for Denver! Every once in a while Rach and I will just look at each other and smile. We know we're both thinking the same thing........... our life is awesome. -lj

Wiiiiiiiiiiii

So far so good. We're having fun in Buffalo despite the fact that its mid April and its been snowing. We've actually been lying lower than usual which I'm obviously all for. I made traditional Magnetti gravy last night for the family and some friends. (Basically my family's spaghetti with meat sauce). It came out surprisingly delicious. I was nervous because it was my first time cooking it without being under the strict supervision of my mother. Everyone loved it and it felt amazing to bring a piece of my home into this one. The whole house smelled just like mine for a good 5 hours. Tonight we're going out to dinner with Rachel's friend Tim and his girlfriend. Tomorrow we're going out with the family to watch the Sabers fourth playoff game (hockey). During the days we've been playing with the Wii fitness nintendo game. You stand on a board and you work out with different games on the tv screen. The board can sense how well you're doing your workout. The board will then tell you your "fitness age" according to the data it's calculated during a few fitness tests the game puts you through. All the tests have to do with balance. According to the Wii fitness, my physical fitness age is 39 years old. Thirty Nine. I did the test twice to make sure. The second time it said 38. I'm 25! I'm supposed to be at my prime age and this nintendo equipment has scientifically calculated that I'm 14 years older than what I should be. Doesn't it know I get carded for Rated R movies? Actually, come to think of it, I did see a lot of 39 years olds at the finish line of the TRIATHLON I did two years ago. ....stupid game. -lj

fluffy towels

I bought a Yankee Candle car freshener for the Honda today.  Fluffy Towels.  Tomorrow at around 9am I'll get into my fluffy flavored car and for the fourth time say goodbye to my house for, what is for me, an extended period of time.  Tomorrow I'll take a solo drive to Buffalo where Rachel has already been since yesterday.  The drive should take me around six hours.  I'm excited to see my other family (the Popsons) but always get very sad to leave this one.  Especially knowing how far I will be going.  It will officially be the farthest I've ever been from home.  

 I already miss Florida and everyone in it. I miss my coworkers and my friends.  I even sometimes think of some of my regulars from the restaurant and wonder how they're doing.  Goodbye's are always far less dramatic than I picture them to be and Florida goodbyes were no exception.  Not any less sad- just less dramatic.  We were going to stop at the beach and dramatically say goodbye to the ocean, but when the hour came we decided it was unnecessary.  We even canceled our plans to go give Patte one last Cheerio.  At the last minute we decided this idea was also over the top and the memory of our duck friend would be enough to sustain us. Besides, we didn't have any Cheerios.    It was also not so dramatic leaving Jupiter since we only drove a few hours north to visit Rachel's friend Heather in Tampa. Goodbye Florida! We'll miss you! Oh....hello again Florida.  Tampa was a great time.  We sat in Heather's living room and caught up then went out dinner at a restaurant on the water.  I wasn't feeling well that night so I sadly had to stay in while everyone went out to see a band.  We had to wake up early the next day and face our longest drive of the week to Atlanta and I didn't want to risk getting sick.  The next morning we woke up, almost on time, and finally said goodbye to Florida.  The trip to Atlanta was like pulling teeth.  Teeth we desperately needed in order to enjoy our first Top Chef dinner ever.  We thought the ride was going to take between 7 to 8 hours.  It took 10.  Also, don't forget we both have cars still and had to do this on our own.  We hit about four pockets of serious traffic.  Thankfully, the restaurant had no problem moving up our reservation to later.  We were exhausted.  Dinner was fun.  It could have been very fun.  The food was good. We probably could have enjoyed it more.  It was very unfortunate but I'm still glad we got to go.  I couldn't stop thinking of the pillows at the hotel the whole time which I wish wasn't the case.  Atlanta seemed pretty cool but no exploration was done.  After dinner we went straight home and went to sleep.  The next day we arrived at cousins Lindsey's and James' house around 2.  They greeted us on the lawn with baby Brayson and dog Broker.  They had just bought property and wanted to take us to see it.  We went for a very uphill hike with Brayson on Lindsey's back to see the property and then sat by the lake to drink a beer and throw rocks into the water.  It was so nice being in the mountains again.  Later, more family came over and we made dinner and I spent the night blowing bubbles so Brayson could run through them, laughing hysterically.  He was always brave when one accidentally popped in his eye.  I asked Lindsey if I could have him but unfortunately for me, she said no. Fortunately for you, the adventure continues.  Day four after breakfast we climbed back in our cars (which both smelled like Wendys at this point) and drove to Charlottesville, Virginia to visit Lindsey's sister Andrea and her husband BJ.  They immediately took us to Dave Matthews Wine Vinyard for a wine tasting.  It was beautiful and the wine was actually very very good.  They told us that this part of the Virginia is becoming the Napa of white wine.  The whole area was gorgeous and wasn't at all what we expected from Virginia.  The downtown, we were shocked to find, was actually somewhere that seemed...ideal for us to live.  It was young, artsy, packed with restaurants, super clean, surrounded by farms and vinyards, full of places to hike and then beach is two hours away.  If this adventure goes past San Fran, Charlottesville, Virginia now stands as a strong contender for destination number five.  Virginia.... who knew.  We were supposed to visit Kate and Kate in Penn. the next day but Kate #1 was feeling under the weather so we decided to make the final push towards Monroe and surprise my family by arriving a day early.  Six hours later I walked into my house to find my mom making homemade Chicken Soup over the stove.  We've spent the past week relaxing, losing every inch of tan we had, watching Real Housewives with my mom and eating. Eating a lot.  My mom let me make the gravy (meat sauce) and meatballs while she supervised.  It came out great and I plan on making it for Rach's family this week.  I got to see Nicole, Aunt Jackie, Grandma, Aunt Judy and Donnie.  I love my family.  We went into the city on the one super sunny day we had and squeezed about ten friends into one day.  It's been really nice to be home, especially for so long.  We really get the best of both worlds whenever we come to New York.  In Monroe we wear slippers and in Buffalo we wear party hats.  Tomorrow my slippers come off.  Oh also... we're not homeless!  It just so happens that my good friend Linda lives in San Fran.  It also just so happens that one of her roommates is moving out of his room on May 1st and her and her roommate Robin need to fill it.  We just have to go through a credit check with the landlord which should be no problem.  We're still going to wait to get there till around May tenth or eleventh though.  Funny how things always just seem to work out.  I have a lot, a lot,  A LOT to be thankful for and to look forward to.  But tonight...tonight I'm going to enjoy my slippers. -lj

nplh

I don't even know where to start. We didn't really have access to the internet on our roadtrip so a lot happened without being able to update. We left West Palm/Jupiter April 1st. My goodbye to Charlie and Chris in the parking lot at 9 am was a very sad and hard one. The hardest yet. It's much harder to say goodbye to someone when you have no idea when you'll see them again. Oh my...I just learned that Rachel has been waiting for me to watch a movie. I will tell all about our Florida to New York trip soon. I promise. We got home to Monroe yesterday evening and I gotta say, cold hands aside....there's no place like home. -lj

friends

I just have to say quick that I'm going to miss my people here very much. Very Very much. -lj

Nine days

One week from Friday. Nine more days. Nine more days to make as much money as we can. Nine more days to tell everyone around us how much we've appreciated their kindness. Nine more days to realize that we better start packing soon. Nine more days to stand along the beach. We're very very excited. We've been searching craigslist for possible sublets, making budgets, booking hotels and planning food and family stops. I honestly think this is our favorite part of adventure. It's so much fun to look forward to a huge change. And this one is going to be very big. And long. I have to say, we're indulging in this move quite a bit. Here's a rundown of our itinerary-

We leave Jupiter the 1st to spend the night in Tampa with some of Rach's highschool pals (whom I've met several times). One of them is expected to go into labor during this time so... watch for that post. Then we leave the next day for Atlanta, GA. We can't make our days as long on this trip because now we have two cars and can't split driving duties. We'll stay in a hotel in Atlanta and have reservations at Woodfire Grill. There we will be doing the tasting menu served by Top Chef finalist Kevin. Las Vegas season. I'll try to write down the dishes so I can tell you about them afterward and we can all judge them together! Next day its on to Tennessee to visit Rachel's cousins and finally meet new baby Brason (who I guess isn't so new anymore). The next day its on to more cousins in Virginia. Next day is a long push up to Lancaster, Penn where we'll stay with Kate and Kate. If its really late and we know they're sleeping and we have left over energy, we might push it a few more hours and make it to Monroe. I absolutely cannot wait for Monroe. I'm so homesick (as usual). I seriously need a family reboost. After about a week in Monroe, we head West for a week in B-Lo (Buffalo......duh). After a week of light partying (yea right), we're going to stuff all our things into the Honda and together, head to Harrisburg, Penn for a few days (Popsons are coming too). We've tried to make a habit of going there for Easter and we're afraid if we stop the tradition the Easter Bunny may not know where to go. The day after Easter we'll set back on the same route we took to Denver a year ago- since thats where we're going. How can we drive out to California without stopping in Denver for some fresh mountain air! If you've just joined the blog- first of all, welcome. I'll go over our "Denver" route. First we stop in Wilmington, Ohio for a night to visit Americorps teammate Joni. The next night is in Grosse Point, MI with Americorps team leader Emily. A night at a hotel is Chicago is necessary because...c'mon...Chicago's cool! Then its a huge long push past all the corn in America until we get to Denver. We've chosen to stay a mile high for about a week. So many people to see and dogs to hug. Denver carries such a different "home" feel than Boston or Jupiter has. Denver is.... Denver. If I had to choose right now where I wanted to settle, I wouldn't have to think about it. Hands down, Denver. I told Rachel I was going to tie myself to a tree when we got there so that we couldn't leave. I'm still seriously considering the idea. We plan on leaving Denver May 5th. Depending on how much money we've spent, we might stop in Las Vegas. Might as well try to get that money back, right? We might also stay in a hotel in between Denver and Vegas so we have time to check out the Grand Canyon. We also might then just stop in Vegas to look around and head right back out and into Cali. First night in California will be spent with sister Stephanie just a little south of L.A. Then a few days in L.A with best friends Christina and Alex. Then on the 12thish (depending on whatever we set up as a living situation) we take a beautiful, relaxing nine hour drive along the coast of California and arrive in San Fran to start our new life....again. That's a month and a half of pure adventure. Followed by more adventure. Wouldn't you be impatiently counting down? ..... Nine Days. -lj

relapse

Rachel and I spoke with the doctor yesterday. Turns out our adventure bug had only gone into remission. We started feeling symptoms again about a week ago. We both started feeling restless at first. Then we slowly started realizing that the sight of a palm tree was no longer exciting- it was common. Rachel had noticed a strange taste in the back of her throat. I wasn't aware of it at first but I realized that I was experiencing the same thing. We tried to drink some water. The taste just got stronger. Florida water is disgusting, with a sewer bouquet and afternotes of poo. We put down our glasses when it dawned on us. - We haven't tried a new food in months besides the blue fish we completely destroyed that day we went fishing. What was happening to us? How did we come to this? This wasn't us. We're foodies damnit. Three stops? Really? We throw our lives into a car, sell all our stuff, quit our jobs, paint that apartment back to white and come running back after only three stops? What kind of book can I write with that!? A short one. Too short for us. We've been lazy adventurers - must be all the sun. Time to pour the sand out of our shoes and hit the road. We're leaving Florida April first. We have Rach's grandmothers car on loan still and need to give it back. Besides we're desperately home sick. We'll drive both cars up to New York within four or five days stopping to see family and friends on the way. A week in Monroe, a week in Buffalo, Easter in Harrisburg with Rach's family and then we stuff all our things back into the Honda, put a flower in our hair, and head to San Francisco. Everyone we've met on this trip has asked the same thing. Are you going to San Francisco. Apparently everyone pegs us as future San Franciscans. Unlike Boston and Florida, this stop is actually a candidate for the "settle down" city. Denver may still be in the running as well. New York is also on the list. Speaking of Denver, we absolutely plan on stopping to visit on our drive over. We'll also stop in L.A to visit Christina and other friends. It's hard to move to the same state as your best friend but to a different city. It's just that neither of us think we would like L.A. Also, L.A right after southern Florida seems like a lot of superficiality all packed into six months. We're in the mood for some culture, some art, lots of good food and good people. Not to mention one of the best gay communities in the world. So no one panic. Keep up on the blog and readjust your clocks - time for another countdown. -lj

itsy bitsy

Usually I have pretty decent stories to tell about all our exciting activities and unlikely run-ins with strangers. We both work about six nights a week so we really don't have anything out of the ordinary to blog about. However, I do have something that happened to me the other night that I think can be universally enjoyed and I thought I'd share it with you. As you know know, I now live in West Palm Beach. This makes my commute to work somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes depending on traffic and how badly I don't feel like driving. Well two nights ae ago, I was driving home from work at night. I was alone, I was tired and I was annoyed that my long drive had only just begun. About five minutes into the drive I noticed my eyes were detecting movement on a "closer focus area" than my regular driving eyes. I narrowed in my pupils to get a closer look and there it was. A spider moving across my windsheild. The inside of my windsheild. I now my mother knows, but to inform you more clearly...I do not like spiders. I shudder at the thought of one. Everything about them freaks me out. More information about me is that I try as hard as I can not to kill bugs. Even ones that make me want to pee myself. I will kill something if I think it can hurt me. Like a bee, or a mosquito. But I try very hard to resist killing things out of pure fear- thats just not fair. But back to the drive. It was a small spider. Brown and skinny and scary. Worst of all, it was fast. My eyes widened and my hands tightened on the wheel and I tried to balance the task of driving safely and keeping an eye on my new passenger. The road I was on was a 45 mph three lane road and I couldn't let this get out of control. I switched the focus of my eyes every few seconds. Close, far. Close, far. Close far. Close.....where did it go? Far. Close...holy crap, where is it!? My eyes darted all over the car. Keep in mind, its nighttime to boot and I couldn't barely see in the car anyway. Every mile or so there would be a light. If it was red, I would stop and panic. Frantically searching. It's on me. I know it. It's crawling down my neck. It just bit me, I felt it! I smacked frantically at neck, rubbed my head like a scrach off ticket because surely it was making a nest in my hair. Green light. Far. I took deep breaths. I reminded myself that there's probably spiders in my car all the time, I just happened to see this one. Things were going to be fine. I was getting to the highway- the half way point. About 15 minutes left to the drive. I got on the ramp and merged onto the I-95 South towards West Palm Beach. Far. Far. Close. There it was. In the same route he was going before. Left to right. Directly in front of me. How did he get back to left without me seeing him! I gripped the wheel. Now I was on a highway. I focused in and out trying to hold on to him this time. I picked up a piece of paper that was laying in my passenger seat. Should I kill it?? It hasn't done anything to me! If I can just get home I can brush it out of the car. If I kill it, I know I'll feel guilty. I sat ready with the paper, waiting for the little monster to make its move. It's just waiting to jump off the window onto my face, I know it! Close, far. Should I do it? It's wrong! Close, far. Close...its gone. No! I lost him again! Why did I hesitate?! Now I also knew that he could move closer to me without my knowing. He'd done it before, he'll do it again. He's just hangin out on windsheild. It's ok. He doesn't want anything to do with you. He just like the windsheild. About another two miles passed. I searched, rubbed my head, slapped my neck, wiped my face...how did it get in my shoe!? He seemed to be crawling everywhere on my body. In my ear, up my nose, over my eyebrow. Where did it go?! Movement. On the windsheild again. This time higher. I had visions of him crawling onto the ceiling and dropped down onto my face. I grabbed my paper. Stay where you are or you're gonna get it! He moved higher. I stood my ground. He disappeared into the shadow above me. No, no, no! Thats the worst place you could go! I'm not killing you, please don't hurt me! I shrank down into my seat and tried to watch above my head. I realized I had shot down to fifty five miles an hour trying to drive safe when I should be gunning it home. I obviously wasn't going to kill it so what I needed was safety. I leaned into the gas. My goal now was to just get home. He reappeared on the windsheild and moved the right. Phew. He was now probably somewhere on the passenger side. But now I remembered. A few days ago my car was hit while it was parked outside Rachel's house. The women who hit me is paying for it, but my door was hit in such a way where I can't open in. I've been crawling across the car coming in and out through the passenger side. I'd have to crawl right past the spider. I finally pulled into my parking spot at home. I turned the car off and hit the dome light. Shrunken into my seat I searched the car. Just go for it. I eyed my path across the car. Just go. Fast. I flung myself across the car and leaped out, shutting the door behind me. I shook myself frantically. Was it on me. After I stopped jumping around I reached into my pocket so text Rachel. My pocket was empty. I knew it immediatly. My heart sank and I lifted my eyes to look through my passenger window at the driver door. My phone was sitting in the driver door pocket. Remember now that my driver door is broken. I'd have to crawl back through the passenger side to get it. I wanted to cry. I took a deep breath, opened the door and dived for my phone. I slammed it shut and did my "shaking off the spider" dance again. I looked back in the car. No. I didn't. ..... I did. The dome light was still on. I had to laugh this time. I repeated my dive and dance. I ran inside my house, into the bathroom and carefully inspected myself in the mirror. No spider. I haven't seen it since. I'm just hoping that the morning heat killed it. I haven't found a body. I cleaned out my car today and even took it to be vaccum it. I'm so glad I didn't kill it. All in all I think I handled it well. -lj

happy love day

Ok ready? Set... go... Rach and I kept fighting and fighting so we decided on a split. We had two weeks left in the condo together and fought less but hung on to our decision. Two weeks were up and Rach's parents drove a car down so now she has her own car. Rachel moved in a friend of a friend in Jupiter and I moved in with my new good pal Chris, a girl from my job. I live in West Palm Beach and am now the world's fourth largest contributer to the process of warming our planet. I live with Chris and her boyfriend of five years Charlie. I love them dearly and think of them, especially Chris, as a blessing. I don't know what I would have done without them. After a few days of sleeping alone in my new bed I realized that my decision (as usual when I make big decisions), was the wrong one. At that time the standing of the relationship was not broken up, but barely seeing or talking so we could "figure things out". I realized after talking to some dear friends (christina and kate) that our lifestyle had made it impossible for Rachel and I to have time for establishing individual lives and were therefore, smothering eachother and the relationship which was now on its way to disappearing. I wasn't having it. I made Rach go on a date with me and took her to the beach and to see the rehabiliting sea turtles (which was awesome). I put on my most charming smile and explained what I believed had gone wrong and how we could fix it. After lots of charming smiles which I'm sure got pathetic after five minutes she started smiling back. Long story short, we love each other very much and are enjoying having date nights and re-establishing romance. (Charming smile gets em every time). Unfortunatly, my new home does not have internet and has seperated me from my blog. I'm sorry. This time it is not my fault. Rachel and I are sorting out plans at this point to move back in together (hopefully she can come live with me, gotta talk to Charlie) in March. We're staying another month and are deciding, unfortunatly, how to round up our adventures to a close. As fun as it is, the freedom of the road, we've learned, actually offers little freedom and we are starting to look at a "larger plan". One that involves careers, benifits, family and vacations. One that is going to start out of course with school, long hours and lots of of work. Right now we're probably heading back to NY in April, staying in Monroe for a month while we re-establish jobs in the city and decide on new degree paths. There is some talk of one last adventure to California but financially, this might not be the smartest decision. We will see how things go. Rachel's chef Eddie is opening a restaurant on the Jersey Shore over the summer and has been relentless in asking us to there promising we will make more money than we ever will any summer of our lives. This is also an idea we're throwing around. I'll try to visit my local Panera Bread more often and update you more. I know I say that all the time. When all is said and done at the end of this "break", it was the best thing for us that we could have done. We're very happy and have a renewed appreciation for eachother and a new respect for our relationship. Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. Think about everyone you love today and ask yourself if you've been taking it for granted. -lj

And change of plans!

Alrighty... well... the man that I live with has informed me that because he is going through a divorce and they are battling with money and their son that I won't be able to stay after this month. Haha... awesome. Now what to do....

I was wrong

There is a lot of culture and diversity in Florida. I just have not explored enough of it. I also live in a town that is mostly retirees.

In need of people my age haha

xoxo,

Rachel

How dare us....

So selfish we are to not post for almost a month!!! My deepest apologies to our followers. Let's do some updating. We are still in Florida... for a couple reasons. First and most obvious, the weather. It was impossible to pack up the car and attempt to get anywhere when the entire country seems to be under extreme weather crisis. I'll stay in 80 degree la la land. Secondly, it is technically "Season" here, which to everyone down here really means "Busy Season" they have just abbreviated it I guess, so for the most part our restaurants are pretty busy. Jo's is a little newer so they still have good days and bad days. Mine is steadily busy but the inevitable over-staffing is occurring so not every night is as lucrative as I would like. For December and January, thanks to my awesome family, we were able to stay in their condo down here. But of course since it's "season" it makes the most sense to make money on the place so they rented it out. As Jo and I scrambled to make up our minds about our next move we came to the conclusion that maybe it would be a good idea to live separately for a bit. I'll spare all the details, or let Jo describe it all since she is the better writer. I am living with a 24 year old beautician, a 50-something year old mad scientist/musician with a 13 year old Justin Beiber look-a-like son, a golden retriever named Sully, a beagle named Snoopie, and a fish. Boy did my life change drastically. I must say though that I have only been here a week and am learning an insane amount about life and myself. This whole adventure has taught me a lot but now I'm thinking it's just showing me how weird everywhere is and that New York is where I'm meant to be =) Or that stereotypes really do come from truth. My boss Yosi from Cafe Orlin in New York said before I left, "Don't get stuck in Florida. I spent a year and ran out of there. I need culture and so do you." It seems that people are either born, raised and stay here forever, or people escape from their lives and hide out here. It is interesting to say the least. I hope to see more parts of Florida before we depart. As for now, everything is sort of up in the air but I'll figure it all out eventually. Any other 25 year olds out there questioning everything??? I miss my friends and both my families a lot. I love you all =) Happy Super-bowl Sunday everyone!!!!! Go Packers!!!!

xoxoxo,

Rach

So lots of things to talk about. One is that my trip home to Christmas was a total success. Christmas was great and a blizzard snowed me in for an extra five days. At first I was devastated and frantically called every airline looking for an earlier flight than the one on the 31st that I'd been moved to. Flights were an average of 500$. I had just started my job at Gulfstream at was nervous that I'd lose my job. Once I called my boss and heard "Well, you didn't make it snow.", I relaxed and enjoyed my time with my family. I consider it the best gift I got this Christmas (and I got some cool stuff). When I came back my job welcomed me and asked how my time at home was. I'm very lucky.

I've been walking on the beach a lot. It's only a five minute walk from my house and when I have nothing to do I stroll over. I love living near the beach. I could spend hours there. I've learned that I'm very good at choosing a line to walk in that keeps the wash of the waves less than an inch from my feet so my shoes don't get wet. Rachel always tells me that I operate on a different plain than other people. When I walk on the beach I feel like the water, the sand, the shells and the birds are all on the same plain as me. The water will wash up and go back the moment before my foot comes down and my shoes don't get wet. I'll sit and stare out while the sun sets and three times now I've caught glimpse of a dolphin on manitee in the water that no one else seems to see. The beach is a really magical place for me. It always gives me the feeling you get when you read a poem that you really understand except there are no actual versus on the beach. It's just salty air, strong wind and rhythmic sounds synced with the feeling of knowing its possible to see something extraordinary. I'm really going to miss the beach. I won't miss having sand in my socks though. I really, really hate that. -lj