San Francisco, Arcata, and the long rode home

And so I'm back. Back home. Back to the valley. Where it is balls-hot. Seriously. After an almost week in San Francisco, in which I wore a long sleeve shirt + a sweater on one day, it is such a bummer to come back to this heat.

Jesse, thank the heavens, had mostly fixed the window during the cold spell so now we can use the air conditioner in my room. And it is still hot in there. Not that the air conditioner isn't working, it is. Nicely actually. But, you can feel the heat waiting like a demon from hell, breathing on your neck and waiting for the powers of electricity to fail.

Anyways, the trip was fantastic. The ride out was mostly uneventful, which as far as road trips in the middle of the night go that's a good thing. We did get a late start, leaving around 7.30p. We made good time though and got to James' house around 2-ish. He got us settled into his roommate's room, who was oddly enough here in the valley, and we got to bed a little while later.

Wednesday was an adventure, for sure. Jesse and I decided to walk to Fisherman's Wharf from James', which is near Haight and Ashbury. An almost 5 mile walk. Haha. Thank god for the iphone and the maps application. It took us like 3 hours, mostly because we took our time. Not too bad of a walk, either. It took us through a number of places, including Chinatown and Market St. And I'm not sure what the area is called but the mall area with a million stores expanded into several blocks. We took a break at a park in that area and I was facing all the high end and designer stores, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Tiffany's, etc. We went into Borders and a 4-story William-Sonoma before heading on our way.

Once at the wharf we just sat. For like 20 minutes. Watching birds and Jesse munched on a pretzel. I took him to the candy store on Pier 39 and tantalized him with the many things he can continue to ruin his teeth with. I convinced him to eat at some restaurant mostly because I just wanted clam chowder...and a grilled cheese sandwich.....and fries.... I was just hungry. Walking for 3 hours does that to a person.....

We, read: me, decided to take the transit system back. I was done with walking at that point. haha. And while the iphone's map app is amazing, it doesn't help sometimes when you're not sure which direction your supposed to take the buses/trains. But, we made it home in like 40 minutes and with almost no problems.... Except for the jerk in the train station...But that's a story for another time.Back at James' I made us some dinner. James came home and hung out with us before we all felt the need to pass out.

On Thursday, James called out so we could hang out and he could get some homework done. He took us to the Science Academy in the Golden Gate Park. It was pretty cool but the rainforest exhibit was closed and we missed the star show thingy... The aquarium was cool though. I had to push through some panic but it was worth it. That's where we found out about Micheal Jackson. James got a text from a friend. We contimplated the news as we stared at a wall of tropical fish. The rest of the night involved eating some very tasty chicken soup from a chinese place on Haight, watching a couple of movies, and general hang out duties... haha.

We had to leave Friday afternoon to head up to Aracata to pick up Johnny. The drive was amazingly beautiful. Tons of red woods and rivers. It was wierd too because the towns are these little "hillbilly" towns but they advertise hippy-ish type businesses and cultures. I guess that's what Northern California is like.

We got into Arcata around 8. Johnny was sitting on his lawn like an old man waiting for his grandkids to show up. So ridiculous. We were gonna head off to the beach to watch the sunset but his drum teacher showed up. They chit chatted for a bit and his girlfriend was pretty nice. After they left we headed to the beach. Driving with Johnny is a bit scary. You just have to let it go and hope nothing bad will happen. Haha. The beach was really a cliffside. You walk from the car down this path with the ocean on both sides and you end up on the huge cliff over the ocean. It was beautiful.

We got back to Arcata and went to this house party with a band. The music was ok but the experience just re-affirmed that I did not wish to move to Arcata. The houses are beautiful and the area is so.... well, beautiful. But, I could not handle the people. Nope nope nope. And it was so obvious the Jesse and I were from L.a. We are a bit..... hostile? Haha. Not really. I mean I'm a nice person but I grew up here and people aren't.....outright nice(?) here. I don't know how to explain it. I don't know you so please don't stand in my personal bubble. No, I don't want to share my stuff with you. No, I don't agree with your pompous beliefs. Etc..... And all those kids live in this fatasy world where they are "poor students" when in reality I'm sure most of them are recieving most, if not all, financial help from their parents. And if I'm offending anyone, I'm sorry but it'll take some convincing for me not to think this way about them.

An old friend from high school met up with us and Johnny took us for a hike in the woods behind the university. Apparently the students are allowed on the campus all night. The buildings are locked but the campus is open. We ran into some people they knew in the football feild playing frisbee with a glow in the dark frisbee. The hike was fun but difficult in the complete dark. Adn johnny kept getting lost. Again, thank god for the iphone and the map app. I pulled it up and it helped get us our bearings and Jesse figured out the way out. Jesse who'd never been there before and only relied on his sense of direction to get out. Good job boys who have gone through there with sunlight beating through the trees.

We went back to their house and watched 'Moonwalker', which is the best. If you haven't seen it, figure out a way to. It's amazing. Jesse and I slept in the spare room on top of the highest stack of mattresses ever. Seriously, it was like 3 mattresses high on top of a box spring and a frame. It's complicated as to why there are so many mattresses and I don't feel like typing it out.... The closet was a bit freaky in that room and I made Jesse sleep on the outside of the bed.

Saturday was our head back day. We left around 12.30p and began the long trip back. We did stop at spot off the side of the road and went swimming in the river. That was pretty awesome. And worth going back for. We didn't get home until 2-ish. I was so exhausted and I had work on Sunday. Unfortunately, some issues reared their ugly heads and Jesse and I didn't get to sleep until 4.30 so we could get everything resolved.

All in all, a wonderful trip. It raised a lot of questions and possible paths for our future and we're looking into them. It was a lot of fun and I loved spending time with my brother. Arcata was a beautiful place to visit but that's all. San Francisco, on the other hand, well that'll be a post for another time. After all, this one took me all day to write...

Vacation here we come!

Tomorrow Jesse and I are leaving to San Francisco for a little mini-vacation. The first vacation I've had in over a year. And I'm getting paid for two of those days. Woot woot!

So the plan is this: We're gonna drive up to Frisco tomorrow night, probably leaving around 6 pm. Here's hoping we don't arrive too late because I'll feel bad waking up James but I'm sure he'll still be awake. Jesse and I are gonna the next few days there and Friday afternoon we're gonna head up to Humboldt county to hang out with Johnny. Then it's back home Saturday with Johnny in tow.

I love going on road trips. It reminds me of my childhood. Summers spent in 16 hour drives to and from Texas. I can't wait to get on the road. And I'm excited to be going with Jesse. You know, it's crazy how we've known each other for, what?, 8 years or so, and together for over 4, and we still find time together super enjoyable. That we'd rather be hanging out with each other than other people.

When I was still at the cake shop I had to deal with a lot of bitterness about love talk. The owner is a divorcee with two kids from the lawyer ex-husband. I got a lot of don't get married, date forever, etc. talk. And it's super frustrating because I know why people say the things they do. And I can't help but feel anything but pity for the people who have given up on love. Like just because they got burnt once means there's nothing else out there for them. I think that's all a load of crap. Just another reason to guard their hearts and keep the wall up. Not to mention that as silly as it seems, I truly believe Jesse and I are soul mates. Two halves of a whole. So all their talk about how love is bull means nothing to me because I don't believe them. And I don't believe that they really believe that.

I did make a joke about hooking up with girls at first which made the cake decorator laugh. The owner was like hang out with your girlfriends, go on vacations with your girlfriends, etc. And honestly, I can't imagine anyone else I'd rather go on trips with. Well, I can think of a couple people I think it would be almost as fun to go with but you know. And I'd still want Jesse to be with me.

I'm gonna miss the dogs. We're gonna leave them with Sam so we don't have to worry about planning around them. At this point, I'm not even sure what we're gonna be doing in Frisco. James may be working everyday we're there but at least I get to spend some time with him. I miss him so much. I'm glad we've both grown up enough to have a non-annoying sibling relationship.

I was thinking lately about my relationships with my brothers and how I feel like they've changed. I feel like all my brothers suddenly appreciate me more. I don't know if it's just me or what. Louis seems to be trying to engage me more often which is awesome since our relationship is the most strained. Jeff has always seemed appreciative of my company but he seems, I don't know, happier to see me? Thinking about it though, that's probably because he's just had a kid and he's happier to see everyone. Haha. James is....well James. Our relationship has been getting progressively better since we got older. I think it's mostly because he's not such a jerk. haha. But it could be that I'm no longer the whiny little sister. So all in all, the important relationships in life are improving and I love them and all that globity-gook.

Tomorrow's gonna be a busy day. I have to do two loads of laundry, pack, go to the store to gather some supplies, get the dogs squared away, prep Mittens for the week, ugh and so much more. And all before 3 pm. Yikes. Oh crap and I have to go fax my school paperwork in. Agh. Good night.

The last day of school

Today was the last day of my school-required internship. Well yesterday, technically. I've set up another internship that starts in a week with a bakery closer to my house. While I ended up enjoying my time at the required internship site, it wasn't focused on what I want to do. It was a specialty cake shop that didn't require me to use too many of my hard earned and expensively gained skills. I mostly dipped things in chocolate and helped customers. And helping customers is nothing new to me considering my several years of retail experience.....

My new internship site is a fully operational bakery. They make everything down to the croissants, which no one does due to the mass amount of time and energy they take. It kind of sucks that I'm choosing to do another stint of unpaid labor but I suppose the experience is almost as good as money. Most jobs I've looked for ask for at least one year of experience. How am I supposed to get experience if I can't get a job in this field? Hopefully with this internship I'll have about half a year of experience, which is better than none.

I want to find a job in the baking/patisserie field so bad. I am so tired of working retail. I am so tired of hating my job. At the cake shop, even when I really wanted to hit the owner or my back was starting to really ache, I still enjoyed my job. I enjoyed creating something I could be proud of. Of giving someone a great experience that would make them want to come back and buy from you again. And while that is an aspect that I enjoy within retail, it's not my product that's bringing people back. I don't do anything to create what I sell. I just convince people to buy stuff. Stuff they don't need and stuff I don't really care about.

Speaking of which..... Now is the time I turn off the computer so I can get some sleep in order to sell people stuff they don't need. I guess in all reality that sums up almost everyone's job. Well good night for now.