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