Jamaica Mon!

I was off work Wednesday, so that was the day that I needed to do a large portion of moving. I packed up my little Honda Civic 4 times by myself and carted everything I could out of Eldon's garage that would fit in my car.

Then, Geoff's brother Robert and brother-in-law Ruban came over in Robert's truck and picked up all the big stuff.. Bed, desk, etc. I've got moving down to a science. 1 day to relocate, and then several days to organize.

Thursday when I got off work, I went downtown and picked up Eldon so we could go over to Kim's house. I had heard a lot about this girl, but never met her, so it was time. We arrived at her apartment down town, and she announced that she too, was engaged! (Insanity, I tell ya!)

Her fiance' Adam arrived shortly after, Adam's friend Rhianna who was visiting.
Rhianna, Adam, Kim

We decided to go out to eat at a Jamaican restaurant, aptly called Montego Bay.


Eldon got himself a rum punch, which was really good, but my "day at the beach" was even better!



Their food was very spicy, even the "non spicy" dishes were spicier than I usually like, but the food was very good. They kept the table full of fantastic banana bread and I ate WAY too much. My only complaint about the restaurant, was that they seemed to be on "island time" there, as far as the service goes. Go for the food and atmosphere, expect friendly, but not quick service.

Kim is into art. She used to run a gallery downtown, therefore knows a lot of great photographers. Maybe there will be some photo shoots in my future. :) Even better than that, she likes to surf, and we made tentative plans to have her teach us how. I've always wanted to learn.

Lots of ways to Descend...

Saturday after I got off work, Eldon and I went over to Brie and David's house for dinner. It was supposed to be a send off for Jesse as he is heading back to NY for school again as the summer is over. In addition to that, it was a week before his birthday, and since he would be gone, it was a birthday thing as well.

It turns out, it was even more than that still... as Brie announced that David had asked her to marry him! So it was an engagement party as well.

I can't believe the amount of marriages and engagements this year. Crazy. Just about everyone I know is getting married or engaged. Not me though... The running joke of becoming dog lady is still very eminent in my future. I've also been known to joke that the saying "Always the bridesmaid never the bride doesn't even fit... I'm not even IN the wedding!"

That's ok though... I'm not in any hurry. Contrary to what my mother thinks, I'm NOT that old, and I DON'T need to rush out and find me a sugar daddy. I'm fine the way I am, and it will either happen for me, or it won't.

After cake was had, we went to a late showing of The Descent.
It was a very creepy, jumpy movie. The best part, was having a full theatre.. and during one of the jumpy parts, a guy in the row in front of us actually exclaimed, "Jesus Tits!" in fear.

The entire theatre could no longer be scared, as we were all busting up laughing.

When the movie was over, friends of exclamatory guy turn around at him and say, "Jesus Tits?" the guy shrugged, quite embarrassed.

We made plans that once this movie goes on DVD, we have to take it on a laptop and watch it in the Ape Cave, just to REALLY freak ourselves out.

Afterward, we all said our goodbyes to Jesse and headed home.

Hopefully to NOT have nightmares as Brie descends into marriage, Jesse descends into NY, another year under his belt, and I... well... I descend into another new living adventure. More on that soon.

20 years and counting....

I met Kathryn when I moved to San Jose, CA in the 4th grade. I was 9 years old. She was the first and very few people to befriend me in this new place. Somehow, no matter where I roamed, we managed to remain in contact and stay friends for the last 20 years.

I hadn't seen her in about 8 years, but being that she lived in San Jose, she did a little rearranging and possibly begging to make it so she could have the morning off to come up and see Eldon and I in San Francisco.





It was typical bay area weather, and I'm an incredible wuss when it comes to being cold.. so the first order of business was to get me a sweatshirt. This involved shopping! Poor Eldon.. had to shop with two girls. He made the most of it though.



I finally got a sweatshirt and we did a bunch of touristy crap. Kathryn, although living a short distance from SF, didn't bother to go up there very much.

It was actually NOT my idea to go into the pet boutique.... but I wasn't going to argue!

I ended up buying this book just because of the title. "How to make your man behave in 21 days or less using the secrets of professional dog trainers."

I got my fortune read by Zoltar. I figured all would work out as long as I didn't ask to be BIG. It actually said "Unexpected wealth will arrive. When riches come, do not forget that a man's true wealth is the good he does in the world, so when opportunity knocks, grab it." (I won't hold my breath.)




and what's a trip to pier 39 without visiting the sea lions? I don't know why they call them 'lions'.. they're more like blubbery hairless dogs. They bark and play like dogs, will eat just about anything, and live in packs.. even with multiple males in a pack.





We started to get hungry at this point, so we went to the Wipeout Cafe. I couldn't resist taking a pic of Eldon molesting the statue outside.



It was only 11:30 am, but we were on vacation, so we decided to share a 42 oz drink. One of the cafe's specialties.

Eldon had an enormous burger. We joked that he needed to unhinge his jaws to eat it, and I had a personal pizza that was fantastic. For only being a pepperoni pizza, I don't know what they did to it, but it was one of the best I'd ever had.


The food was excellent, and we were stuffed, but Kathryn insisted on having some cotton candy. There's always room for the sugary goodness puffy air, right?!

We went to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum.

We discovered that according to the love meter chair:

I'm loveable...

Kathryn is boring...

and Eldon is frigid.

We walked around some more, and did the touristy take pictures everywhere thing... We actually got some really cute pictures in Ghiradelli square and surrounding areas.

and then it was time to head back. Kathryn had to work and Eldon and I had a plane to catch.

Rather than walking we decided to take the trolly back, just to complete the San Francisco experience.

I'm so glad I got to see Kathryn. It had been way too long, and I won't get to spend much time with her when I go out in October, because I'll be going out there for her wedding. I'm so happy for her!

Our hotel shuttle driver didn't get the urgency in which we had to get to the airport and we arrived JUST barely in time to make our flight IF we didn't have to go through the ridiculous line at security... Luckily, when we got to the ticket counter, we found that our plane was late, so we actually had a half hour to spare. Got back to Portland, took the max back to the house and were crashed out by 11pm, so I could work the next day... whee!

Californication.....

My incredible luck with radio stations (it's the ONLY way I ever win anything... through radio stations) this time managed to win me airline tickets, hotel reservation and concert tickets to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Oakland, CA...

Well the day finally arrived for us to jump on a plane and go. 6am came very early. Especially for me, who is more of a night person. Eldon and I took the MAX to the airport, so as not to have to impose on anyone else in the house at that early time. There was a beautiful sunrise to start our day... although both of us were so exhausted we barely had much time to take it in.

The new security measures at the airport were as usual lots of fun, but especially for me. The night before, as part of my packing ritual, I made sure to remove any contraband from my purse. (I could seriously be tempted to stab someone to death with my fingernail clippers or drown someone in my perfume otherwise.)

Apparently I didn't do a good enough job, because my purse was ran through twice and then completely strip-searched, each of the contents individually removed, "hello everyone, there's my tampons and birth control pills.. take a look!" and they finally found what they were looking for.... all 0.8 fl oz of liquid eyeliner that I could do some serious damage with.

"Turn this plane around, or I'll.... um... make you all look EMO!"

We did eventually make it onto the plane, and they even let me keep my eyeliner. I think all told, it actually took longer to get to the airport and go through security than it did to actually GET to Oakland.

We got to the airport and picked up a shuttle to our hotel. Our check in time was at 2, and we arrived at 10, so we had some time to kill before we could actually relax. They did allow us to stash our stuff in one of their back rooms at the hotel so we could explore our surroundings without the burden of luggage.

Now I submit to you, a montage of all the glamour that is my winnings.. or our walk around the beautiful downtown Oakland, CA.

So even though our surroundings were less than glamourous, when you have good company, you tend to have fun regardless. We did a whole lot of walking, talking, joking, etc. We walked around the coliseum and found where the concert was going to be later that night, so we weren't scrambling for that information when we were supposed to be there. We also found that if we cut through the coliseum and squeezed out of the small opening, it cut down our walk back immensely.



(Of course, I had to quote the line from Titanic on my way down.)

We were finally allowed to check into our hotel and we were so exhausted that we took a nap. I had told Jesse that I would make an attempt to meet his friend Jonathan while I was in Oakland, since he lived very closely to where we were staying. He called just as Eldon and I were waking up for our nap. Him and his girlfriend Sara joined us for a quick dinner before the concert.


Right on the tickets, it said no cameras. We thought about trying to sneak it in, but didn't want to have it confiscated, so we decided against it. When we got in, we were instantly irritated by the incredible number of cameras. Half the friggin arena had them! Not only did half the arena have cameras, but a large portion of the crowd had weed too. I was getting a contact high just being there. I was so angry we decided not to bring the camera. So, because of this, the only pictures we have are ones from our camera phones.




We also discovered that camera phones are the new lighter. Back in the old days, people would use lighters to try to induce an encore. Now everyone just opens their phones and lets the lights shine. It was actually quite funny to watch thousands of cell phones wave back and forth.

It was a great show. They played a bunch of songs from their new album which I hadn't heard, and some old favorites as well.