BIKING.

In lieu of finding housing, I have taken up biking☺ Megan has been shopping and test riding and comparing prices and calling bike experts like Gordy and Ruth. FINALLY on Saturday morning she made a purchase. It really wasn’t a question of when she was going to buy it this weekend though: it was where. We got up and ventured to a bike shop we hadn’t been to which was recommended by her PT, in another part of the city. I drove because if she made a purchase, I needed to be able to get back home (Megan has a manual, and, no, I still haven’t learned to drive one yet). Anywho…we made it over to Lombardi Sports only to find not-so-knowledgeable sales people, over-priced “beginner road bikes,” and super high-end bikes with price tags soaring well beyond $1500. Megan test road one even though neither of us were stoked about the experience that we were having. Shortly thereafter we made our escape only to find that the trip had cost $50—in a parking ticket. See, in the Mission, where Megan lives there is free parking. You just can’t block a driveway or park on the side of the street where street cleaning will be happening from 7 – 8 am. And on the weekend there isn’t any street cleaning either. The Nob Hill area likes to charge for Saturday parking and will come seek your car out even if you are only parking for a lousy, 30 min Lombardi Sports experience. Boo.

We managed to make it over to Valencia Cyclery where Megan’s dream bike resided. She had tested it time and again, and had fallen in love with it, but she needed to know everything that is available: an informed shopper, that one. Back at in the Mission at VC, we were met by Will, who had helped us/Megan the night before. The bike Megan ended up purchasing is a 2009 Specialized Allez Sport in flat black. It has an aluminum frame with a carbon fork and stay. The components are lower end, but it’s a 9 speed triple, which means that it can be upgraded without too much expense. She/we also fell in love with a TREK 1.2 T (I think?), but it’s 8-speedness meant that an upgrade in components would nearly mean an overhaul because the nicer components are no longer made for 8-speeds. Does it sound like I know what I’m talking about here? I feel like I have a decent idea of what I’m talking about now, after listening to so many bike talks, but I fear that I’m still largely in the dark about the biking world and the wondrous amounts money that can be spent there.

Regardless, we met our goal of a bike ride on Saturday. I was planning on taking her roommate’s bike, however, it was miniature (Korin is not a miniature person, but we aren’t the same size). Thus, I decided to ride Megan’s commuter trail bike. It’s a Specialized from an unknown year with a heavy metal frame, components that work, and original tires that might blow at any time (according to the guy who helped me pump up the nearly flat tires). Together we charted a bike map and took off for Golden Gate Park. Riding a bike there made me realize just how crazy it was that Minkoff and I walked there. What were we thinking? Megan and I rode all the way through the park and out to the ocean. I didn’t touch it this time, but I admired it from afar for sure. The ride back was moderately hilarious as we opted to make a right straight up a hill at one point. Megan powered through the hill, I huffed and puffed my way up. Unfortunately, we got to the top and found that in any given direction we would be going up again: time to resort to the map. We backtracked, though we admittedly were proud of the climb we had just made, even though I felt that my heart my leap from my chest.

Sunday morning Megan and I went to breakfast with some friends who were having a big brunch (to raise money for No on Prop 8). At breakfast, Ness and her friend, Catherine, said they were planning a bike ride for the afternoon. I got excited about exploring with people who knew more what they were doing, and Megan did as well. We all got a later start than we would have liked, but around 3pm we shoved off from the Mission. Our goal: cross the Golden Gate Bridge. The ride started out in regular Market St traffic—slow for biking. We made it to the Embarkadero. Our plan was to ride along it (the edge of the land bordering on the bay) to the Marina and then to cross the bridge there. The Embarkadero proved annoying: the bike lane got little respect, the area was overrun with pedestrians, the smells in the air reminded us of sewage instead of fresh air off the bay. Bummer. Finally we made it to the Marina where the fog had landed. The air cooled a bit. We couldn’t even see the GG Bridge: it was shrouded in fog, not entirely unusual. We rode along the water—I was fascinated by the wind surfers! They speckled the water under the bridge with their colorful little sails. The amount of bodies in the water was mildly disconcerting, but they seemed to know what they were doing. Notice that we were nearly level with the water, watching the surfers. The GG Bridge is not level with the water, in fact, it’s rather high above it. We turned a corner and began our climb. Needless to say, I brought up the rear: did I mention that everyone had a road bike except me? Ness also recently invested in clip-ins, which made her climb even easier. We were all a little jealous. Finally we found ourselves on the bridge! It was exhilarating even though you felt like you were floating through the air—even seeing down to the water was a challenge through the fog! As we neared the other shore, the sun broke free of the clouds. I was stoked to soak it up.

I was relieved when Ness suggested that we venture down the hill back to the water level and stop for dinner/a beer in Sausalito and take the ferry back to the other side. My legs were near cramping after the recent climb. Plus, I was a little chilly. We cruised down a windy road that delivered us into the adorable waterfront in Sausalito. We smelled pizza and allowed our noses to lead us to where our empty tanks could be refueled. Sitting there on the street, we managed to do some people watching: a Rolls Royce was parked directly in front of us. The owner came out, got in on the right side of the car. He was also asked of the car’s year as he settled into his seat: “This is a ’54.” Wow. Impressive. The car was in pristine condition. After the diversion and refueling, we realized that we were all quite cold. We discussed our options. We decided that an efficient stop at Starbucks for hot chocolate would allow us to digest and warm up. Then we would attempt to ride back across the bridge—somewhat to my dismay. However, the ferry ride would have been mighty chilly… The climb back up to the bridge was brutal. Catherine and I struggled in the back as Ness and Megan pulled away. I was grateful for Catherine’s company, without which I might have not completed the hill on the bike. And then, my pride would have been hurt. The rest of our ride was moderately chilly and was punctuated by Megan wanting to take full advantage of her bike speeding ahead on a straight away, and Ness having a little trouble with clipping out before a painfully slow fall. But, really, what owner of clip-ins hasn’t done that?

The remainder of the trip was a little bit of a struggle because none of us wanted to battle any more hills as we made our way back through the city to our respective places of residence—especially in the dark with a decent amount of traffic. We were moderately unprepared for our epic journey: only Ness had bike lights, no one had warm enough clothing (though no one froze because of the hills). Overall, we had a great ride. I think we were all satisfied—and quite tired when we returned. We might become a gang...

Hardly Strictly...Fun.

More eons have passed...but I'm still alive and kicking! My trip back east was wonderful! I want to do an entire post separately about it with pictures included. Look out for that at some point.

I have arrived back in California. I almost didn't realize how much I missed it until I left for nearly 3 weeks. Coming back was both exciting and lonely. I really did have a great time at home in ALPH, ATL, and Athens. When I came back, I celebrated my 24th birthday. I planned not to work, so Megan and I had breakfast together that morning, then she headed off to work. I scanned craigslist for a while looking for a place to live--OH, I came home and found that a couple of people who play ultimate and some who don't are looking for some housing. I'm going to team up with them and look for a place. I'm stoked about having people that I know to live with! Also, I'm no longer looking in Menlo Park, where I work. I started looking at prices and realized that it's not any more expensive to live in the city, and, let's be honest, the city is really where I want to be. Most people that I have met live in the city, Megan's in the city, the school I want to go to is in the city...plus, I have the best job ever to commute to, it's literally a stop for Caltrain.

But back to my birthday celebration: I spent the morning online, then Gordy chatted me wanting to know if I was up in the city. We met up a little after lunch and went to Dolores Park. It was a beautiful fall day and the fresh air (minus eastern humidity) reminded me of Italy. I have some amazing memories of my semester there. We swang in the park, then made a stop at a popular ice cream place. They had some crazy flavors, very sophisticated. We loved it. We weren't sure what our next move was...it was early in the afternoon and neither of us had plans until the evening. Gordy asked me if I was up for a walk. I replied that I thought so...not knowing that she had quite the hike in mind. We walked through the Mission up towards the residential area. This is the area that I don't consider very PC, it's entirely NOT handicap friendly. If you were to try to wheelchair around this area, you would go flying down a hill and probably have a near-death experience. Anywho, we climbed and climbed, Gordy apologized along the way, she didn't remember the terrain that it was necessary to scale to get to our destination. However, our efforts were rewarded. We made it to the top of some rocks and got a spectacular view of the city. If you scroll down and look at the main picture here, we were on that brown bit of land in the center of the photograph. The view was amazing. The wind was also impressive, it cooled us after our lengthy hike. From there we toured parts of the city I had yet to visit. Overall, the afternoon was the perfect way to spend my birthday--thanks, Gordy!!! That night, Megan took me to a restaurant in North Beach. It was the first time I had been to that part of the city. They had a vast selection of beer and I had rabbit stew that was FANTASTIC! (Megan's chicken stew wasn't too shabby, either). The place is called La Trappe. If you ever get a chance to go, I think it comes highly recommended by both Megan and me. I guess at this point though I should also give a shout out to our favorite bar in the Mission: The Monk's Kettle. It's an amazing joint, if you come to visit me, you can almost be positive that I'll take you there, unless you are Robin and don't like beer. They have a lengthy beer menu and a warm, endearing atmosphere. They also have great food! Megan and I rave about it constantly. I tried to take my friend Sarah Minkoff there last night, and we took a tour of the Mission before arriving, but I think I have it down now. Sorry, Minkoff.

So, Minkoff came into town for this bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park. It was called the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. It's always free, and I'm told that it's usually as amazing as I found it today. Minkoff and I made the trek there on foot from Megan's apt, which was a good 2.5 miles--and that was just to get to the eastern side of the park, the festival was a good mile in. But it was worth it. We enjoyed every detail of the experience. The walk there was invigorating on the sunny, windy fall day in the city. We made an early stop on Valencia for some breakfast, which was lovely. But our first find was an abandoned toilet on the sidewalk (look out for a facebook profile picture...). As we photographed me squatting on it, a man walking by nearly doubled over in laughter, apparently we're hilarious. We walked down Haight St into Lower Haight and I fell in love with the area. It was like walking through downtown Athens for a second. The streets were crowded on this Sunday morning. Once on Oak St, we walked past some pretty fantastic, classic San Francisco homes overlooking a park. We briefly fantasized about living there... Minkoff also noticed the plethora of Obama signs. She immediately made it a goal to try and locate something McCain affiliated.

Once on the park grounds, it was pretty easy to tell where to go: just follow the main flow of traffic, bike and pedestrian. On our walk, we passed the Flower Conservatory, a stark white building in a plush landscape complete with a gator made of flowers (Minkoff had to take a photo, she's a University of Florida graduate, it's in her blood or something). After a few more yards, we heard some music. Sarah noted that we must be on the right track! But then we actually heard the music that was playing: 80s rock. Suddenly on our right we saw a collection of roller skaters dancing/skating on a paved area just off the street. I think it's safe to say that we slowed our clip just to take it all in. A little farther down we encountered more music, this was more in the way of swing music. In another paved area we saw couples--of all ages--dancing. We had to stop to watch this. We located some signs: Free Swing Lessons every Sunday at noon. Huh, who knew?? The rest of our walk was filled with interestingly dressed people and people with babies strapped to them.

Finally, our ears were being filled with bluegrass, like actual bluegrass music where the woman singing was occasionally hitting a note on pitch...we moved along. The set up was impressive. There were 5 stages separated by landforms that helped to block the music of one stage from another. We picked up a schedule and headed towards Ben Kweller's performance on the Star Stage. It was quite enjoyable. We settled in on the grass, claiming our spot in the sun, and then we proceeded to people watch. It was highly entertaining. The drunkenness was just beginning for most. We could smell pot in the air. The stage announcers asked that you step outside the stage areas to smoke cigarettes, but that if you had medicinal marijuana, you could smoke wherever you needed to...ah, California:)

Eventually, we left in search of Golden Gate Portables (port-a-potties) and food. The array of food was impressive and moderately priced. We grazed on a hill in the shade and prepared for Iron & Wine's show. We clearly ate too slowly (well, we got caught up watching the entirely velour-clad woman climb the hill, the babies next to us "jogging", etc.). We bought one of the best brownies I've probably ever eaten (peanut butter!) and began to look for a place to settle down. Unfortunately, the entire area was COVERED with people. We got into a slowly moving line headed towards the stage. I occasionally found myself paralyzed listening to the music, which began shortly after we joined the line. I had to shake myself back into the reality of the thousands of people around me. Somehow Minkoff and I managed to walk up to some people on a blanket as they were leaving. They just walked off without their wonderful blanket--which claimed an enormous amount of space. We quickly decided to squat, thinking that the worst outcome would be getting kicked off upon the couple's return, but there was no way that would happen for at least 30 mins with the way the crowd was moving in. We lay down and enjoyed the music and the 2 year old behind us who repeatedly held threatening pine cones over Minkoff's face. The parents were embarrassed, but the kid was just loving the attention. After stumbling through some songs, the show came to a close--though it was a VERY good show. Samuel Beam was hilarious with little comments regardless of his inability to get through a couple songs without stopping to recall the words. Please, if you have never heard of Iron & Wine, do yourself a favor and listen to some of the music. Here's the Iron & Wine bio from the festival: "Iron & Wine is the musical project of Sam Beam, originally from South Carolina. When soft became the new loud in indie circles a few years ago, Iron & Wine quickly stepped ahead of the pack as the most arresting of the new-folk artists. The music is morose and mysterious, with impressively layered harmonies and instrumentation." Love it.

We had to make a bathroom stop again. This time the people in line were less polite and much more drunk. One man came in and cut in line, an older man who was about to take that bathroom tried to wrestle him out. Unfortunately, the drunken man won as he nearly fell into the portable. He was greeted with shouts of profanity and boos when he opened the door to leave. The entertainment was endless.

With darkness approaching and Minkoff's drive back to Davis ahead of her, we decided to hit the road. We stopped at a few stages briefly on the way out. But we soon got back into a good walking pace and left the park. Don't worry, the roller skating rink with the 80s theme was still going strong. Oh, and needless to say, we didn't manage to find a single McCain sticker, poster, t-shirt, etc. It was a good day:)

My 2nd Move.

Hokay, so, I haven't posted in like, eons, I apologize. Life has gotten a little hectic: I decided to stay in the Bay Area despite the fact that I didn't get a whole lot of feedback--eh hem... I took a full-time position in Menlo Park at the Menlo Park Chamber of Commerce (ya, the site could stand to be upgraded). It's basically like working as an office assistant for a small business. My title is: Executive Office Assistant / Events Coordinator, cool, right? Well... it's ok. I enjoy it, but not as much as I enjoy PT stuff. At this point, I definitely realize that regardless of what kind of cool experience I'm going to get here, I am pretty sure that I want to become a Physical Therapist. I am in the process of applying to UCSF, which seems like a pretty good school--the best part is that I recently registered my car in CA, applied for (and was granted) my California license, and registered to vote in CA so I am well on my way to gaining residency. If I get into UCSF, I will begin PT school next June and gain residency shortly thereafter, thus reducing my school cost by approximately 45-50%. Crazy, huh?

Speaking of PT, today was my last official day at BaySport, the physical therapy clinic where I was working. It was a sad-ish day, but I worked from 8am until 1pm, then we had a lunch for me (hurray! Italian food!), then I went to babysit for Becky until 3:30pm, then I drove home (to Menlo Park, about 40-45 mins), then I shut my eyes for 10 mins, then I got up and went to the Quadrus Conference Center (an amazingly beautiful place) for the TriCity Mixer (sponsored by the Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and East Palo Alto Chambers). I met and I mingled, I drank 2 beers, then I arrived home at 9:15pm. All in all, it was a good day--2 free meals! Whew...I'm glad to be in bed.

Anywho, I'm way off topic: I have made my 2nd move in California! However, it's another temporary situation. I had to give up my previous place because Liz was headed back to town, which was fine. Luckily, Megan's brother, Chris, and his wife, Erinn, have accepted me and are allowing me to take over their guest room for a little while. As I write now, I've temporarily settled here in Menlo Park with them. I stare at their gorgeous wedding pictures on the wall, and I grin because I love it, I love them, and I love that they are letting me stay here for FREE. Don't worry--I'm paying for all the groceries for which they will allow me to pay! However, it is working out for them because Erinn left for the east-ish coast the day I moved in. Chris joins her in the next few days: so I've kept him company, but soon I will be apt sitting for them. Chris will return for a little less than a week before I, myself, head back east for my first homecoming since going west. It'll be a trip to remember: the rents and I are headed north for NYC. Shockingly, lover of art history though I am, I have yet to visit the Big Apple (but I have been to the Little Apple, remember?) So, the Manleys are due for a trip. We will leave the day after I arrive home in ATL, and we will be there for the weekend (plus a little) but I am sure that it will be glorious. Then I will be in ATL until the end of September. I arrive Sept. 11th and depart again for SFO (San Francisco Airport) Sept. 29th. It'll be a nice vacation. The other bonus is that I got this full-time position with this trip on the table. Thank goodness, otherwise I would be scrounging even more than I already am for Christmas vacation time! Who knew the working world was so harsh? Where are my 2 weeks Christmas vacation??

I guess that's the biggest part of the update for now. I'm currently looking for a place (for fairly cheap) that's close to where I'm working. Unfortunately, living with Chris and Erinn is nearly too good to be true: they are about a 5 min walk from the Chamber. Believe it. So, looking at any other place is kind of disheartening. However, I checked out a pretty cool place last night--it's in East Palo Alto, which is notoriously known as the ghetto. This place was in a good neighborhood, and I would be living with 2 larger male ultimate players, so that's a bonus, for safety's sake. It was also a nice house with a sweet kitchen for the low low California living cost of $650/mo. plus utilities. Also noteworthy: it is within about a half mile is IKEA. Who wouldn't want that? (please note the sarcasm...)

So the verdict is still out on a permanent place, but there are possibilities and options. This is good in the gloomy economy, right? Btdubs, I don't want to get too politic-ky here because, well, it's just not my style, but please note the human/women's/gay rights campaigns. You all know me, and I hope that you would support my want of being able to marry whomever I want. This is all I will say for now, but there may be more to come...

I'll leave you with that thought. I realize that I need to update the blog with some pictures of my growing hairs (about an inch long now!) and that I never posted about Seattle, which I loved, but not enough... Check out my facebook profile for the pictures.

Welcome to Today.

I have been living retroactively to try and update my blog based on my adventures; however, now that I have completed the act of getting to California, I feel that it is ok to simply jump into life as it is currently occurring. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of my current place of residence--I should probably get on that. The apartment I'm living in belongs to Liz Cassel, a Stanford grad student, to whom I was referred by Megan. Liz is in Houston, TX and I am here sleeping in her bed and using her desk and looking at her clock (a photo-montage of pictures of her playing ultimate). The apartment is the bottom half of a residential building located directly on the street. Luckily, it's not a terribly busy street. And, on Sunday mornings, there is a street market with tons of fresh produce and flowers that is a block from me. It's one of my favorite things about living here. My other favorite thing is the kitchen in this place. It's phenomenal. Tiled floor, long, granite countertops, gas stove, and all the amenities like good knives, juicers, blenders, wine stoppers, etc. My roommates know how to live. Oh ya, I live with 2 other Stanford graduate students. I'm not terribly good friends with them. One of them is quite quiet and the other has been gone for the past month teaching in Colorado. But it's great. Except that there is no A/C and it's about 80 degrees in here at 10:30pm. However, comparatively, I hear that 80 is comfy. The people I babysit for woke up at 7am to a temperature of 92 inside their house. Ick!

So, as for the job situation. I moved out here partly because my boss, Becky, from the physical therapy clinic where I was working in Athens, GA moved out to San Jose this past March and offered to get me a job where she's working. That has happened. I'm currently employed by BaySport as a physical therapy aide. I love it. I get to do so much more hands on stuff with patients than I was able to do in GA. It's confirming that I love physical therapy and that it's something that is worth investing in for 3 more years of school. Aside from that I babysit for Becky as well. (Becky, my boss from GA). I used to babysit for her back in Athens when she only had Enzo, but now she has Nolan as well. They are 3 years and 10 months, respectively. I adore them both. Becky picked up some more hours at BaySport with my arrival. So, I commute to work and then to Becky's or to Becky's and then to the office. Or sometimes, Becky will drop the kids off at the office, as happened today, and I take them swimming. This is the BIG benefit of my job at BaySport: it's located within a super swanky gym. I get a free membership. They have 4 tennis courts, 2 swimming pools, a hot tub, 3 weight rooms, a pilates room, a spa, and a café. In other words, I'm getting a pretty good deal. So, sometimes I take the kids to the pool for an hour or so until Chris, Becky's husband, gets off of work. It works well, especially on days like today where is was 105 degrees--and I'm sure it was about 110 in Becky's house.

Starting next week, I'll be working at Starbuck's Coffee as well. I know, I know, I'm working for the man, right? Well, as it turns out, 'the man' offers health benefits for part-time work. That's right, with an average of 20 hours a week, I can get full-time health benefits. Unfortunately, I interviewed and got this job about 3 weeks ago and I'm just starting next week. I went out of town, and now my trainer/manager is out of town, so I wait. The Starbuck's is literally right down the street, about a block and a half away, which will be nice for those few mornings next week when I have to be there at 6am. My eyelids burn just thinking about it. Oh wait, maybe that's the fan blowing semi-cool air at my face. Either way, it's going to be a little rough. Monday will be a good test. I work at Starbuck's from 9-1pm, Becky's from 2-3:15, and BaySport from 3:30-8pm. Plus, it takes about 30 mins to get to Becky's from my place. I hate the commute, it's my least favorite part about where I'm living.

Now, to throw a wrench in all the plans: Megan and I took a little vacation trip up to Seattle last week. Through a series of events, we had free plane tickets up there from Sunday June 29th to Monday July 7th. We took advantage of it. We were also able to stay in Fremont at Megan's friend, Kendall's, house for FREE for the ENTIRE week. It worked out ridiculously well as Kendall was flying east for the next 10 days. We house-sat. Perfect. We also had run of the grill, the car, and some bikes, as well as camping gear. All in all, we had an AMAZING week. I have some pictures. I'll do a whole post on it at some point. But the main point is that I fell in love with Seattle--and so did Megan. I also fell in love with the University of Washington, which could serve me well come this time next year...SO now everything is up in the air. My living situation is up Aug 15th, and I have places to stay through the end of August so I can finish up my jobs, but then my path is unclear. I'm looking at full-time jobs with benefit options in the Bay Area as well as in Seattle--anyone have any connections they want to tell me about? I'm looking to work for the next year and then go to school. I figure the more I can save the better, so that's the plan.

Anyway. I'd love to hear some comments. This is what is going on RIGHT NOW. I know you've all been dying to know, so I feel good finally having posted something current:)

To Cali, the Destination!

Finally, finally, finally, we made our last drive through California to our San Francisco destination. We were both excited about the prospect of being in one place for a few days.
But before actually making it into Cali, we had to pass some construction--the kind that lasts for 13+ miles. Ya, it sucked a little, but we made it through. The drive was beautiful despite the roadwork. I was a little nervous about an orange we had rolling around in the cooler when we finally crossed the border into California at the "Agricultural Stop." Luckily, Megan had her wits about her and we were able to press on.

We came near Davis and decided to stop at some outlets in Vacaville. We went into the Puma outlet, which was tempting, but only slightly damaging on the wallet. And we also went into Bath & Body works, I love their slogan for this lip gloss. I also love the lip gloss, except that it's like $10 a tube...wtf?



Back on the road, Megan was looking sharp in her new Puma hat.








But we were both a little bored. The sunset, however, was captivating and crossing the bay bridge was picturesque. I was so so so excited about my new place of residence:) I only wish I were still near to the water's edge. It's such an amazing feature in San Francisco.

A Night in Reno.

Does this sum up the experience of Reno? It's questionable...Megan and I are still wondering if "Pasties" is REALLY the word that was supposed to be used on this sign. Regardless, we were finally closing on our destination for the evening: Reno. We discussed driving on through to Tahoe, but with the dust storm that took over the afternoon, we decided that we were ready to settle. The dust DID finally clear, and it opened up to be a beautiful sky (see the picture Megan took of the clouds).


















Somewhere along the way, I decided that I couldn't really wait to pee. The rest stops are few and far between in the desert, so we stopped at an "exit" that literally led nowhere. The road stopped after about 30 yards of the exit ramp, so I just pulled off and jumped out. I didn't even turn the car off. However, Megan surprise attacked me with the camera...

Eventually, we made it to Reno and found a Days Inn off the interstate. It was to be our first hotel room together--moderately exciting!!!












So, to celebrate, we did some awesome diving onto the bed and photographed it. If you are able to zoom in on my face in the picture where I'm cross-legged, you will find a Jessica face full of pure fear. What was I scared of? It's unclear. In the first picture of Megan diving, I hope that you will notice her resemblance to Kevin Bacon. I hope you are smiling broadly if not laughing. We had a good time in Reno, all in all:)

From Salt Lake City to Reno

These first two pictures are showing you a lake, The Great Salt Lake. I took these out the window of the car as Megan drove us away from Salt Lake City closer to her home. In the original plan, Robin, Megan, and I were going to do the drive from Salt Lake to San Fran in one day. With only Megan and I, we decided that we might have to split it up into 2 days. Unfortunately, this would mean that we would have to stop at a hotel because we had not planned on a place--partly because we didn't really have a place in mind for the area that we covered. Regardless, everything worked out. Plus, this way, we stopped and examined some of the salt in the salt flats while on our way!
We phoned a friend to learn more about The Great Salt Lake, of course, that friend was Robin. I mean, she's The Great Geographer, we had to call her. Unfortunately, she didn't answer right away. Our curiosity grew: how big is the lake? how big was it when it was at it's largest? is the salt left behind usable? do we eat it? is it a source of income for the area? Megan knew the lake was pretty large. Come to find out it used to be part of Lake Bonneville, which used to cover most of Utah and part of Idaho and Nevada as well. The lake today fluctuates quite a bit due to its shallowness.

The record low is from 1963 when the lake covered 950 square miles and its record high was in 1987 when it spanned 3,300 square miles! On average, the lake covers 1,700 sq miles. The white stuff in this picture isn't the snow we'd been seeing just the previous day--this is salt.








The salt that remains from the lake's evaporated area is used for several things: salt for water softeners, salt licks for livestock, and to melt ice on roads, but not to eat. Any companies that extract salt have to pay royalties to the state of Utah since it owns the lake.








As you drive through the salt flats, also known as playas, it nearly looks like you are driving through a very flat plain that is covered in a thin layer of snow, until you stop or open your car window and realize that it's really f-in' hot. Like desert hot. Here, there was a structure, some kind of art sculpture, that Megan and I stopped to see. We didn't stay long because it was hard to adjust to how bright it was, and it was unmanageably HOT.

Playas are ideal places for racing apparently, which makes sense because they seem smooth and flat and there's nothing you could really crash into...however, I still find it a little odd. I would like to witness this racing business.



Interestingly, you can see another kind of "playa" right here in this photo. To me, it looks like I have a "high and tight" haircut. No offense to anyone, but I'm not sure it's a good look for me...
One might also argue that there were a coupla playas in the car that day...ok, this is getting bad. But, in all seriousness, I really like this picture of Megan and I and I'm not quite sure why. I think we are good-looking.













Ok, Pooks, you specifically commented on my potential "west coast elitist" attitude and here I am blogging with a few notes about the differences between driving in the southeast and the west. For one, there are casinos sprinkled across desert lands; this doesn't so much bother me, but the fact that one of them was called "Nugget" (see picture) is a little much.
As for another drawback, sometimes the weather can be entirely unpredictably odd. As we passed through the desert parts of Utah, a dust storm of sorts started. I was driving and all the sudden it got sort of dark. I think Megan was reading some of "On the Road" aloud when I stopped her because of this dust picking up with the wind. It was creepy. That whitish-cloud near the ground is dust being picked up by the wind, and I'm pretty sure that it was 4-5 stories high.


Eventually, it looked like this. Visibility was low, which was pretty creepy after having driven in areas where you can see just about as far as your eye will let you. I'm going to have to do a Part II...

The Second Half of the Trek Begins!

It was somewhat hard to leave Boulder. We'd been there a while, we'd enjoyed some ultimate, we went out a few times...and it was hard for me because Robin decided to head home at this juncture. All in all, it was definitely the best decision. 3 people just wouldn't really fit comfortably in my car with all my stuff. I had tried to pack to make it happen, but with Megan and Robin's stuff on top of mine, it was just too much for the Altima. Megan and I dropped Robin off at the Denver airport and said our goodbyes before hitting the road. The drive north through Coloardo was pretty, for the most part. We drove up into Wyoming a little as well before turning southwest and heading to Megan's hometown of Salt Lake City (the only state capital that is 3 words, mind you).
Megan and I got a little bored, and we didn't phone friends as much as Robin and I had. Instead, Megan taught me the states' song to make me learn to name all the US states. This started as we competed to see who had been to the most states. I won, apparently living in the southeast helps when you can drive through the more boring states...
After the states' song was learned, which took a good hour or so, we quizzed ourselves on state capitals. That was entirely pathetic, especially on my part. Robin would DEFINITELY have been ashamed. I was suddenly glad for her not to have been present. I needed (still need more) time to hone my skills...


The scenery remained quite pleasing and we even saw snow!

That night we stayed in one of Megan's high school teacher's homes. She was out of town so we had the place to ourselves. It was an adorable house! Megan drove me around the city, took me to her favorite brewery for dinner, and then drove us up to a high point for a view and down to the Temple at the center of the city. We had an incredible time, but we failed entirely on the photo-front.

A (couple of) Night(s) Out on the Town

Of course, I need to mention the fabulous hostess that housed us while we stayed planted in Boulder for 6 days: Jenni. As a prologue, I guess I should explain that Jenni was a connection that Robin had through her brother; he had lived with her while he did a program in Miami, Fl, where Jenni used to live. When Robin knew we were going to be staying a few days in Boulder, she contacted Jenni. She was more than happy to put us up--even though we were going to be inhabiting the area for quite some time. Jenni is slightly shorter than Robin:)

The first afternoon that Robin and I arrived in Boulder was nearly comical for the way in which we met Jenni. Jenni is a sexologist who was going to be at work until later in the evening, so Robin and I scoped out a pub and ordered some appetizers and drinks and settled in with our books for a little while. Soon we got the call that it was time to meet our hostess. We were led to a commercial strip's parking lot. Once there, we were told to wait in the dark lot for Jenni who would arrive via bike. We waited and waited. We went into the dollar store and got some toothpaste, and finally, as we were sketchily loitering around my car, we saw a biker approach us. We waved and Robin called out to her--indeed it was our dear hostess. She met us at the car and was disappointed to find that I did not have a bike rack at the ready. Instead we would follow her to her apartment in the car as she biked. It worked well, for the most part. Unfortunately, the drive to her place was largely a slow incline, which was a workout for her and a particularly slow drive for us. Robin tried to conversate with her along the way, but this only seemed to further her breathlessness from the hill. Jenni was quite the character, and the time spent at her place was mostly enjoyable--except that she has cats (or her roommates do) and Robin and Megan are both quite allergic...suckers. Luckily, by this point in the trip I was accustomed to Robin's morning routine of nasal spray. Some people wake up to birds singing, I would start my morning with some Bino snorts. I have a video that I will have to figure out how to upload...ok, it should appear here:
Hilarious, no? I mean, she's cute even while performing a nasal spray demonstration. Jerry's a lucky guy.

We went out a few times with Jenni and her boyfriend and one night we managed to take some pictures and also put ourselves in some hanging basket holders (?). Robin, of course, looks absolutely adorable:) Megan and I chose more awkward poses...

































Aren't these photos just so lovely?!












We also went out on the town with the infamous, I'm sorry, famous Adrienne Tecza. Here, she is pictured riding a mechanical bull. There were also scantily clad women walking around offering Jose Cuervo shots for yelling people. We yelled, we took some shots, AND THEN we got FREE stuff like cool tank tops and wristbands that say Jose Cuervo. Beat that.













Adrienne also convinced these guys to make as though they were kissing her on each cheek, nice trick. This was yet another night out. We went out with Jill Simmerman from UNC Chapel Hill, one of our rivals this year who beat us as we struggled for that second place spot at Regionals, which would advance us to Nationals. Whatevs, they had to get up and warm up and play; we got to sit in the sun and enjoy the scenery:) Oh and in this picture, don't mind that slightly creepy little girl in the front left who was attempting to shoot us with her "gun." That was all part of the Boulder weirdness that was amazing.

The Nationals.

Robin and I arrived in Boulder, and the next day I went to pick up Megan from the Denver airport. Together, the three of went to enjoy the UPA College National Championship! In this first photo, one of the vendors had set up a dress-up photo booth. I rocked the tie for the rest of the day while watching several games.

Erin Mordecai, Robin and my former teammate from the UGA Hodawgs, moved out to Santa Barbara for grad school in theoretical ecology and joined their team--the Burning Skirts. Last year, the Skirts were in finals vs. Stanford and, as I mentioned previously, Megan's team, Superfly, managed to capture the National title. This year the Skirts battled on again. They qualified for Nationals, unlike Stanford (sorry, Megan, I had to add this) and by the end of the second day of play, they found themselves on top yet again. For this tournament there are 3 days of play. 1 day of pool play, 1 day of quarters and semis, and a third day just for finals. So Erin anxiously awaited her 3rd day of play at the Nationals.

This is Robin and I with Erin, but I was trying to hide the Burning Skirts logo so she could pretend to be a Hodawg again for a second.

Some of the fans for the men's teams are REALLY obnoxious and die-hard. Think UGA football fans or Red Sox baseball fans, the Ultimate equivalent is the fan contingent for the Wisconsin Hodags. Unfortunately for us, the UGA Hodawgs, people constantly seem to get the names confused. However, Hodag is pronounced phonetically and if you want to sound like the fans, you have to add in the mid-western "daahg." We managed to sit in the midst of them for the men's final, a game between Wisconsin and Florida. The Wisconsin victory meant that we were in joyous company.

This exchange of expression between Megan and I happens quite a bit. Robin managed to catch it on film/card (I mean, it was a digital camera). Love it.
















All in all, Nationals was highly enjoyable. Unfortunately, the Burning Skirts were defeated by UBC, the University of British Columbia. In case you don't know, that's in CANADA. Since when did the NATIONAL Championship include Canadians? The Skirts are technically the best college women's team in the Nation, good work, Buddy!

A Different View

Ok, so, this is probably a post that has to happen before I can continue on with my stories and rants about cross country travels and whatnot. That's because at this point in the journey, it becomes rather imperative that everyone is aware of some things in my life that I wish for everyone to know and feel comfortable talking to me about. Basically, I'm just going to tell you that I am gay. I realize that this may come as a shock to some and to some it may also be a disappointment; however, I hope that it is not viewed that way because I do not see it as such. I simply feel that I am attracted to people more so than gender. However, it seems that in my recent dating history, women have been more on the radar than men. I wish to address here for a moment that I do not intend to uphold the belief that I was "born gay." Please do not feel sorry for me for "being this way." I am happy with who I am, and I have done some of my own work with myself to be comfortable and accepting of who I have become. I remain the same confident, blunt, and yet lovable person that I have always been, but I do feel the need to make it known that this is part of who I am now, and I would like to be able to discuss it freely--especially within my family. I love all of you, and I want you all to know and love me for who I am!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Without further adu, I would like to introduce Megan Andrews, my current and amazing girlfriend:) I guess this is an appropriate time to say a little about how we met. Interestingly, ours is a story of the modern age and technology. I was working on an ultimate tournament that UGA was putting on last December, Classic City Classic. I was the women's tournament director, which was a daunting task. It was also a very frustrating task, and I struggled under the stress. Luckily, Michelle Ng, captain of the University of Texas at Austin came into my life. She had run a few tournaments and was, in fact, trying to currently set up a women's tournament for the fall as well. She came in right as I was feeling defeated, and she offered great advice. Without her, CCC would have had a very unprepared Tournament Director, I would like to thank her again here-Thanks, Michelle! The main method of communication that I had with Michelle was gmail chat. It was great. We could chat while I did stuff online to prepare for the tournament and intermittently we managed to change the subject a few times and talk about a few personal things. This eventually led Michelle to do her usual networking. In my case, it was a "love connection," if you will. She actually said (well, typed) "I have a life partner for you, so you should rest easy knowing that." My immediate response was "who?" and I tried not to be too obviously anxious; I knew that I should be at least somewhat skeptical. However, Michelle told me that she was pretty talented in this area and that I should trust her judgment. I must admit, it was somewhat hard to believe that Michelle, who hadn't actually met me in person, could introduce me to someone who a) I might be interested in, and b) who might actually be interested in me. Regardless, I began to facebook stalk Megan as soon as I learned her name. There wasn't a whole lot that I could find not to like, unless you want to get into my competitive nature--she played ultimate for Stanford and had won two National Championships with them--I have to admit that I was a little jealous and intimidated.

Finally, we met via gchat, if one can consider that meeting. We hit it off instantly and I was surprised by how easily we communicated and understood one another through chatting. We continued on this way for a little while, though by our second conversation I had asked if she would be coming to the east coast any time soon--oh ya, did I mention that I was in Athens, Michelle was in Austin, and Megan was in San Francisco? Crazy. I should also mention the slight weirdness that Megan had actually been in my apartment in Athens before. In 2006, we hosted CCC in Athens and Stanford managed to fly across the country to come. I happened to offer up my apartment to their team. Ironically, Megan was only in my apartment for a brief time because she was staying with some friends at UGA instead of with her team. She did come up into the apartment for about 10 mins, and, according to her, we met, but I met a few too many that weekend to remember her specifically. But still, crazy.

Here is where I tend to speed up the story some because it kind of happened that way: we gchatted for a few weeks, our first conversation was October 18, 2007. On November 8th I managed to get her number from Michelle and give her a call, it was her 23rd birthday. She was at a brewery and enjoying herself, but she appreciated the call, nonetheless, and I enjoyed hearing her voice for the first time. After about 2 weeks of talking on the phone, we had managed to make quite the connection--enough so that we were both too curious about our chemistry together to ignore it; we split a flight for her to come to Atlanta December 21st. As luck would have it, when each of us was beside ourselves with anxiety and nervousness about meeting, our interaction was delayed. Megan's intended route had a connection in San Diego and her flight from San Francisco didn't make it there in time. She panicked and tried to get on the flight, but they wouldn't let her, she was too late. Insult to injury, there was no other flight to ATL that evening. She would be spending the night in San Diego--not with me. We were both devastated. Luckily, she had a friend in San Diego that picked her up and partied with her and took her to the airport the next morning around 4am in order to catch the first flight to ATL that Saturday. I spent yet another night hardly sleeping for all my nervous energy. Finally, around noon the next day, the time had come for me to leave for the airport. I drove there and parked and waited. I waited and waited. My palms were clammy, the armpits of my shirt, soaked. Finally, a tall, blond walked off the escalator. I recognized her instantly and felt the huge rush of adrenaline that I had anticipated. I walked up to her (carefully, trying not to do anything foolish or clumsy) and for a moment we embraced in a hug. She smelled wonderfully! We walked out of the airport hand in hand.

I guess the rest is kind of history at this point. We really hit it off that first weekend. By the time she came to see me in December, she had already booked a flight to come back in January. In the mean time, I was in Phoenix with Terry and Lea Young and managed to hang out there and then fly to San Francisco for New Years before heading back home. This was a potentially risky step because Megan was celebrating with her family: her parents, aunt and uncle, and her brother and his fiancé (at the time, now they are happily married:) ). I met them all and loved them all. The last minute decision to go there for New Years had been a good one. Megan came in January (and managed to finagle her way into coming a day earlier than I was expecting, this was fortuitous because the weather on the day I was expecting her was atrocious). At this juncture she met my parents, which went fairly well. Then we went a while without seeing one another until my spring break in March. A little before this point that I had talked to my boss at the Morris Center for Physical Therapy, Becky. I told her that I had a friend, Erin Mordecai, who was in grad school at Santa Barbara, who said that I would love it out in California. She had even offered me a job in her lab. Becky then became quite excited. She pulled me off to the side and said that no one else knew yet, but she was moving back to San Jose early in March. She was ecstatic about the idea of me being able to continue babysitting for her kids! She also figured she could work out something for getting me a job at a physical therapy office where she was working. With this prospect, and Megan in California, my mind was nearly made. When I went out there for spring break, I met up with Becky and stayed in touch. I realize that I'm not to this point in the story of my blog, but Becky has been an amazing connection and she is largely the cause for my livelihood out here at the moment.

Megan managed to visit me just once more in April for a few days in Athens. At this point, we were planning on meeting up halfway across the country in Colorado. Thus, we are now able to resume the story as it was being told before this interruption...

Colorado. Boulder, Colorado.

We were finally approaching Boulder, we had made it to the mountains. When we were driving and we saw them, we were ecstatic! We screamed, we got all energized...and then it was another few hours before we were actually near to them in Boulder. However, as we approached Boulder, we jumped out at a view area to take a few shots. Also, Robin left "Lake Robin" which is photographed here as she couldn't wait for our actual destination spot.


We had to get a shot of ourselves with the mountains in the background...I think we did pretty well! We were SO excited to be out of the driving gig for a few days. And we were really stoked about The Nationals. So, for ultimate frisbee in college every year there is a nation-wide tournament where 16 of the best men's and 16 of the best women's teams compete to find out who is the best in the nation! The Hodawgs didn't make it this year. We had to be one of 2 top teams in our region and we came in 3rd--bummer! But I was excited to be there and be able to sleep in/watch what games I wanted as well:)