Costa Ricaaaaahhhhhhhhh

My fabulous friend Suzy and I ventured into Costa Rica on December 5th. Here are some highlights and pictures (I don't know how to format pictures, so they look really messy...if you know how, tell me!!! Suzy, I'm talking to you!):

- Arrival to airport, flight canceled, mean lady that wanted to send us on two different flights. Suzy told her NO! We traveled to Newark, then North Carolina (somewhere), THEN San Jose, about 2o hours later...ARRIVAL to destination
- Arrival to San Jose, picked up by a nice man and his very adorable daughter. Drove 4-5 hours to the jungle near Puerto Viejo (near the border of Panama), stopped at some open-air (everything is open air in the jungle) eatery on the side of the road, Began the many days of eating rice
- Arrival to Samasati (the name of the place we stayed), toilet broken, walked through the dark jungle and found a guy to help us, who called another guy who helped us, re-learn Spanish quickly
- Yoga, eat delicious food, go on an adventure trip (can anyone say SHAMAN tour?), eat, yoga, eat, avoid mange on dogs, see monkeys and SLOTHS!
- Panic of being lost and then being eaten by the beast of the jungle, sweat, sweat, so much sweat...DON'T BRING JEANS TO THE JUNGLE (unless you'r gonna ride a horse)
- San Jose, amazing cheap markets, sketchy at night, festival of lights (the biggest light festival in Costa Rica just happened to be on the night we were staying there), many people throwing confetti (a.k.a. "snow), especially in Suzy's face, not real nice, but fun hats!
- plane ride home: San Jose to Phoenix, Phoenix to SFO
- Tim surprises me at the airport! Yay, I don't have to drive home
- Back to work, booooooo

Our veranda with hammock!

Mange covered dogs, but cute!















Adventure tours: shaman tour, waterfall trek (we swam under a huge one); zip line canopy tour, horse ride on the beach (ouch!)

View from Samasati (that's the ocean in the background); meat at the San Jose market


street market: yelling and Santa; the start of the festival of lights/youth marching band

sweaty pig; we made chocolate from scratch; San Jose

Obsessed Much?

What is this?

Chicago, I love you, but you're a little crazy.

Go Green or Go Home (or go green, then go home)

I went to the Green Festival in SF this weekend with Suzy. It was great, until it got super crowded at which point I said, "yeah, I'm kinda over this." We were there for about 6 hours. I did an OK job with my effort to spend less money.

I bought some reusable produce bags (a pack of three sizes plus a mesh bag) from a place called Blue Lotus.

I also bought two rad stainless steel water bottles from a place called Earthlust, which has designs that I'd never seen before - one for me and one for Tim.

Finally, my favorite thing that I think I saw were these t-shirts from a place called We Add Up. It's an awesome idea. You buy a shirt and it has something that you have committed to do to help the earth. It has a number on it. That number corresponds to the number of people that have committed to helping our environment. The idea is that, together, we can make a difference. LOVED IT! I think this idea is pretty gen(ius).

If you are looking for gifts for the holidays, I highly recommend these companies! Other green companies that you should support can be found here.

The other thing that I took away from the Festival was the fact that the US government allows a lot more in the way of toxic chemicals than other countries. In particular, it's quite scary how much the cosmetic industry gets away with. I heard Mark Shapiro speak, and it was interesting. He has a book out about this and I hope to read it soon. Here's some info. We should all be really pissed and scared about this issue!

omfg

I know it probably does not deserve the time it takes to type this, but I have to say, I can't really believe these things a) exist b) already exist. And in particular, what's up with the "666" one and this one.

I'm trying to not let all that faith that was restored in my county dissipate.

My walk to vote

Today, I was part of history! I'm not gonna lie, I teared up a bit walking to the polls.

Generally speaking, Davis is very liberal. I think we have the most hybrids per capita in the country. Apparently though, on my street alone we have at least 2 of the 10 or so peeps voting Yes on 8 (the proposition that would ban gay marriage) and for McCain. (Yes, those last two statements are slight exaggerations.)

I've been counting signs on my street and I think we're up to about 50 on my block alone. Today, on my walk to vote, this is what I saw:



Here's my front yard. I really am a true Davisite; I have a political sign in my yard! If you look across the street, you can see that it's totally "the thing to do" here. (Also, there's a mattress...I'm not sure what's up with those neighbors. For weeks they had a ton of shit in their front yard. They have, like, 12 kids and even more bikes. And, they drive a 2-seater pick-up truck. Interesting.)

I love that these people feel the need to clarify with a homemade sign. "We're not against the gays, just equality!" I also don't understand why it says "United Not Word Marriage." Why the "word?"

I found this interesting. They are against gay marriage, but for Obama. Kinda an anomaly around these parts.


I really want to meet the person that owns this house on the corner. They literally have about 7 - 10 signs in their front yard. And, I'm fairly certain they put all the signs in the road divider that you see here.

So, while living in a tiny college town has it's ups and downs, the fact that they are very politically active is a plus. However, I guess I'm only saying this because they lean in my direction. If it were the other way, I'd not be so satisfied, indeed.

This past weekend

I've always loved dressing my dogs up. When I was little, I would put a t-shirt on Scruffles (my first dog who is also referred to by me now as "the dog from hell") and walk him up and down the street.

So, as an adult now when Halloween comes around this is obviously the only time I can dress my 75 lb. dog up and not look crazy.

Also this weekend, I went to my friend Suzy's place in SF to bake cupcakes. She actually did all the work, I just got to enjoy the end product. I guess in a small way it made me more hopeful to sit in a room with four people and bake cupcakes for Obama, knowing that there were four people that would actually get super geeked out about sitting in a room baking cupcakes for Obama.

Here's the end result:


(Yes, that is marble cake.)

Take that, Palin.

(So, I realize that over the course of the last few weeks, I've become more and more political. But, what can I say, I'm desperate, people. I guess I somehow think that writing on this thing that no one reads will magically make Obama win by double digits.)

I've come to believe that Palin is just sorta crazy (and crazed). I'm wondering what exactly she would say to this article. Maybe, "Oh that's a lie, don't cha know" (wink).

Did I mention she promotes shooting wolves from airplanes "and in 2007 she offered $150 payments for anyone who brought the left forepaw of a wolf to state officials."

What....the....h? Is anyone else scared to death that this could very well be our next president...I mean vice-president...no, I really do mean president, you're right.

seriously?

I mean, how can you not vote for this guy?

Click here for awesomeness.



This is our time.

Plus, he's really handsome.

In Idaho...

there's stuff like this in the airport.

It's also way cooler than I thought. I ate the best tiramisu I've ever had!!!

On another note, I was listening to the news at the airport. I learned that Obama is a "smooth talker." Apparently being articulate, smart, and able to actually describe to people a vision for this country equals being sleazy, untrustworthy, and just plain "smooth."

Who knew?

Costa Rica!

I'm going!

But first, I'm going to Idaho!

Blog to come....

Health Care? More like Who Care? I mean, who really needs it anyway?

So, last night was slightly annoying to watch. The health care back-and-forth was especially confusing. Click here to learn the facts.

Brother = Officially Hitched

This weekend, my brother got married. It was very fancy and was held at the old Federal Reserve Building in downtown SF.


The food was the best wedding food I've had. In fact, it was some of the best food I've had!


We danced.

And got people to do shakeface, including the bride, groom, and photographer (Jeff Newsom, who's work is amazing). Tom and Kim need practice. Jeff, on the other hand is a bit of an expert and gave us a shakeface tip: blow out when you shake - thanks Jeff!



The next day was Tim's birthday. We hung out in SF and ate Indian food.


It was a great weekend.

I gots me a haircut.

So, I went to a new salon called Magic Salon. I liked it. I think I found my new haircut place. This is the place to go in Sacramento if you want a 12" mohawk and a dyed star in the side of your head (as the 14 year old that was there was getting when I walked in. Maybe next time.) My cut was only $35.00.

Magic is the 3rd place I have gone since moving back to Cali. I've given each place 2 chances, which I think is fair. The first place gave a good cut, but too pricey and not very edgy. (I think I have this mental block that I just can't pay the same price for a haircut in Sacramento, CA as I did in Chicago, IL.) The second was a decent cut from the "edgiest" place in Davis, which, in all honesty, isn't saying much. However, she didn't thin my hair out at all. I gots me some thick hair so it looked really boring. My last cut from her was about 3 weeks ago and decided it just would not do for my brother's wedding this weekend.

But wait! I think the 3rd time is a charm. That being said, I did come away feeling like I may have looked a little ridiculous. I had this poofy thing on the top of my head that kinda made me feel like a cartoon character. Tim described it as a nest, which is extremely accurate. I think I'm coming around to it and if I don't poof it up too much up there, I think it looks pretty good. Take my quiz to decide for yourself.

(Hmmm...poofy thing)

I got to pet giraffes and you didn't.

So, today I got to go on a field trip to the Sacramento Zoo for work. I got a backstage tour, which included feeding and petting giraffes and also bongos. I can't believe I didn't bring my camera, but I guess I didn't really think I was going to get to pet them!

It was very exciting.

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE giraffes.

In case you forgot what they look like, here is a picture (off the internet) showing how cute they are:

Also, my coworker and I agreed that it would be super awesome if science could discover how to make mini giraffes so that I can have one as a pet. I pretty sure they could figure this out for me. (I'm also pretty sure this would piss off my neighbor that does not like us, which is also appealing.)

Bongos look like this:


We fed them carrots. I didn't know what they were before today.

Not a bad day at work, I must say.

Is this really happening?

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/08/palin-global-wa.html

Just plain creepy

Um, I was looking at stuff on Etsy.com and came across this:



What the hell? Why in God's name would you want to wear this head around your neck? I mean, is it just me, or is this super creepy? It looks like a drowning baby or something. Anything with just a head is a little weird to me...but maybs that's just me.

Check out all the other heads here. I love that they are described as "charming."

So out of touch.

Community organizing: I guess it's close to my heart because I studied the positive impact that community members can have on their neighborhoods, country, and world through community organizing. After last night's display of the worst part of politicians and politics, I just have to post this excerpt from the Obama website:

"...Both Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin specifically mocked Barack's experience as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago more than two decades ago, where he worked with people who had lost jobs and been left behind when the local steel plants closed.

Let's clarify something for them right now.

Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies.

And it's no surprise that, after eight years of George Bush, millions of people have found that by coming together in their local communities they can change the course of history. That promise is what our campaign has been about from the beginning.

Throughout our history, ordinary people have made good on America's promise by organizing for change from the bottom up. Community organizing is the foundation of the civil rights movement, the women's suffrage movement, labor rights, and the 40-hour workweek. And it's happening today in church basements and community centers and living rooms across America."

Read the rest here.

We have a lot of tomatoes.

As if you need another reason to come visit....


delicious food from our garden.


delicious meal made from delicious food from our garden

San Francisco, CA

On Saturday, I drove down to SF to see Tim. He's teaching at a summer program called the Civic Education Project (CEP). It's an intensive service learning/social justice program for high school kids. He's living at SF State for the next few weeks.

After really tasty veggie hot dogs at the Underdog in the Sunset, we met up with my good friend (aka my separated-at-birth-sister) Suzy, her new bf, and the bf's dog and went to Fort Funston.

Fort Funston is pretty much doggie heaven. It's a huge off-leash dog area right on the ocean.

After, we went to get ice cream at the most amazing place: Bi-Rite Creamery. Delicious. On the way there, I saw this interesting window. I decided it belonged to either a hippie, hipster, or old lady. She (or he) really likes owls. Is it just me, or is it crazy that it could potentially be the work of any three of those categories of people?

Then, Tim and I got burritos at my favorite burrito place: Gordo's! We ate them at Stern Grove (which included accidentally disturbing a couple of teenagers that were either makin' out or smokin' out behind a fire pit).

We also practiced our shakeface. If you've not tried this, you should. Just shake your face and have someone take a picture.



SF is pretty great as a city. However, the people, I decided, are generally not that friendly. Ironic, no? Still, if it wasn't so damn expensive, or someone gave me a house, or a job that paid me a lot, I'd live there:)

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables! Yay California!

Hey Y'all,

This is my garden. Actually, it's more Tim's garden as he is the one that waters it every day. However, I eat the delicious goodness that comes from it.


We have:
many tomatoes (that something keeps eating, that bastard)
green beans (three colors!)
basil (oh-so-good with the tomatoes)
squash (that we never planted but is slowly taking over the entire garden)
cucumber (that have really been taken over by the green beans)
artichoke (that died, but is coming back and that the bugs are enjoying regularly these days)
strawberries (that are pretty much non-existent because of the crabgrass)
a few carrots
some leftover lettucey stuff (that didn't ever really grow into normal lettucey stuff, but instead grew these crazy spurts of leafy stocks)

We also have oh-so-amazing grapes!

And, since are somewhat demanding neighbor decided she wanted to cut some trees down, we started an herb garden in their place.


It doesn't compare to our tiny banister potter on the back porch of the condo in Chicago, but it will have to do.

Come and enjoy the fruits of our (i.e. Tim's) labor.

I'm here for a while. And this is my life.

Welp, it's the middle of July. No travel in site for some time. So, here's a peek into little pieces of my life.

For example, this is my office. All cinder block walls are not the greatest for decorating, but, you do what you can.

Send me black and white postcards and you , too, can reserve your spot on my wall.

Mr. Toast keeps me company.


Yep, that's right folks, it's a mini fridge. I also had a microwave. However, I tried to clean it with some cleaning stuff and every time I used it after it smelled like it was going to explode. And, for those of you that know me well, you know how paranoid I am about fire (with good reason, I might add). So, alas I have to use the microwave down the hall.

Yes, I drink Starbucks and sometimes lots of it.

Look forward to the next exciting picts.