a little bit of san francisco for you

Some photos from the first month (almost).

the busiest three weeks ever: part three, the big road trip

We left off having returned from Missouri...

I had been spending the last month or so saying my goodbyes. Last looks at the White House and the Monuments. Last walks through the museums. See-ya-laters to the friends .The moving company showed up a grand total of two days after we got back from Missouri, wrapped the furniture in protective blankets, plastic wrapped the couch, and loaded all 50 some odd boxes we had packed up into their giant truck. The next morning we packed the car, loaded the cat, turned in our keys, took one last look at the apartment, and locked the front door for the last time. Virginia was good to us, but it was time to hit the road.

And so began the road trip to end all road trips...all 3400 miles of it.

Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, California

On the first day we made it all the way to Indiana. A few interesting (or not so interesting) tidbits from the first day: I forgot to make a road trip mix CD, so we couldn't listen to the Forrest Gump Soundtrack, which by the way, makes excellent road trip listening. That and we played a rousing game of "name the state capitals." Tim couldn't remember the capital of Alabama. Oh, and we stopped at Walmart and bought Lunchables (which I haven't eaten since grade school). Tim made me make his cracker sandwiches for him while he drove. I figured it was the least I could do.

An interesting factoid about Indiana? The Hoosier State is obsessed with two things. God, and a man named Tom Raper. Mr. Raper is on almost every billboard, selling RV's. It's a rather unfortunate name don't you think? Though, when we passed the showroom, we did kinda want to stop and look at an RV.

Day two we made it to Missouri, where we passed through St. Louis to see the Arch. Before we got there though, there was all sorts of road trip fun to be had. First, was the realization that from the very beginning when we left Virginia there was never more then a 30 mile stretch between Cracker Barrel locations. Almost as many road signs along the rout as Tom Raper RV signs in Indiana. Second, country radio stations in the Mid West really like Randy Travis. Specifically, "Three Wooden Crosses". You can watch it bellow and experience what we got to listen to about once every half hour. If I didn't know all the words before this trip, I sure do now.

Third on the list of mentionables from the day would be the fact that Sunday morning the country station treated us to a break from Randy Travis, for the weekly top 20 countdown. We got to about song #14, and were enjoying the non-repeating of songs, when we crossed into Missouri...and had to switch radio stations...to a station that was just starting the top 20. So...we got to start over and listen to it again. Sigh. Lastly, having finally tired of country radio for the day, Tim decided to switch off the tunes. I was secretly looking forward to a little quiet so that maybe I could crack open the book that I had been meaning to read on the trip. Tim had other ideas. He decided to make up his own radio station. Disney songs, all sung by himself. "Spoon Full of Sugar," "Hakuna Matata," and "Kiss the Girl" from Little Mermaid. It was quite amusing if I do say so myself.

Here are some photo's from the St. Louis Arch:


Day Three was almost entirely Iowa and South Dakota. Iowa has to be the second most boring state I've ever been through (you'll learn about the first a little later). South Dakota was by far my favorite State we visited. I was beyond surprised by how much I loved South Dakota. We stopped and did a lot of sight seeing in SD. Here are some shots from the road:
This was, hands down, the prettiest cloud cover I had ever seen:
We stopped at Mt. Rushmore:
And then, the partially completed Crazy Horse memorial. And, by the way, if you ever go by there, stop at the little visitor booth at the early entrance (not the big one further up the hill). Hopefully Jim will be working. He's the nicest old guy ever. He greets you with a giant smile and says things like "and what can we do for you today little lady?":
If Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse weren't cool enough, we were lured by the dozens of roadside signs for the elusive Wall Drug, which claims to be "America's favorite roadside attraction." Now, I don't know about America's favorite, but it certainly is MY favorite roadside attraction. Here are a few reasons why. I think the coolness speaks for itself:

Day four was all Wyoming. This is the most interesting thing we saw in Wyoming:
Needless to say, Wyoming takes the prize for "Most boring" state I've ever been too. It's quite an honor I'm sure. The only amusing thing that happened there was that I got to see lots and lots of antelope, which I originally confused with Gazelles. But Tim set me straight..."Gazelles live in Africa, Nic." Oh, yeah. Whoops.

On the fifth day we made it all the way to Nevada, where we each lost five dollars on the slots in Reno. At one point I was up to $6.50, but then I got greedy and went and lost it all. Quit while you're ahead isn't a lesson I've learned yet, apparently. Prior to reaching Reno, we passed all the way through Utah. It was interesting enough. Salt Lake City, the Morton Salt Company, the salt flats (home to what has to be the longest, flattest, and straightest road in America), and this strange roadside odity: the Metaphor: Tree of Utah. Also in Utah, I discovered my new favorite Johnny Cash song, "One Piece at a Time." If you haven't heard it, you can listen bellow. I find it quite funny.


And now we have finally reached the sixth and final day of the trip, where we found our way to California and the good ole Pacific Ocean.

It was a short drive (comparatively) through Nevada to San Francisco. We made it to the Bay Bridge around two o'clock in the afternoon. Here's the first real California view that we got:
Yeah, I think we made the right move.

Now, I bet you all are wondering where Oliver was during the trip. Oh, he was there all right. He got the entire front half of the back seat to himself. He had quite the spread back there. Litter box, favorite purple blanket, and his carrier in case he got scared. I had done all sorts of reading about how cats handle road trips and things to worry about and watch out for. None of it was necessary though, because, well, Oliver is the best traveling cat in the world. I'm convinced he's actually a dog. By far the funniest thing he did was try to go number two in his litter box, balancing on three legs, while Tim's driving 80 mph down the freeway. He was successful, and any remaining concerns I had about him traveling went right out the window. If he wanted some attention, he stood up against the back seat and pawed my shoulder so I could drag him up front to my lap. If he wanted a better view he stood up on the door handle and watched the miles and miles of endless farmland roll by. If he wanted to sleep, he crawled into his dungeon (under his blanket) and slept. Just so that you can get a good Idea of how he handled the trip, here is a shot of Oliver, demonstrating his lounging abilities somewhere in the middle of South Dakota, and then getting ready for bed at a Motel 6 in Wyoming:

So there you have it. Here we are, the three of us, back on the West Coast. Yay!

the busiest three weeks ever: part two, Missouri.

Ok, so we're finally in San Francisco (more to come on that in a future blog), stealing wi-fi from a neighbor until our internet gets hooked up, and I can do a little catch up here on the blog. Where did we leave off? Oh yeah, I had just gotten back from New York...

As you might remember, this was to be the busiest three weeks ever. I arrived back in DC around 4pm. This gave me just enough time to get home, do my laundry from the trip, re-pack it for the next trip, eat, and get the cat to the Pet Smart Pet Hotel for boarding. The very next morning at 6am we headed to the airport for the trip to Missouri to visit Tim's family.

We landed in:


From there we rented a car and drove to West Plains, Missouri where we were greeted by this handsome little fellow:


He seemed to be keeping watch over this old abandoned gas station:


Having finally turned onto the drive of Tim's aunt & uncle's property we were greeted by at least five dogs running straight at our car. Because when you have that much land you have to fill it somehow, and there's really nothing dog's like more then room to run. Except for maybe this pup...all she did was lay around. But contrary to what you may think, Chloe's the happiest sad looking dog in the world:



Well fed, and well rested (thanks to Tim's fabulous aunt and uncle), we headed out for some site seeing(as much as one can actually site see in Missouri). Along the way to our destination we ran across this old dead tree, and this old abandoned road:





Having eventually gotten to where we were going we stopped for some fresh spring water (from a plastic pipe sticking straight out of the side of a little hill) at the Hodgson Water Mill:

Headed on to the next mill (because there are a lot of old mills in West Plains), we stopped by this river:


At Rockbridge Mill we found this little gal, who seemed more then willing to pose for a photo:


The following days were filled with food, family, friends, more food, and among other things a birthday luau (because at least half of Tim's family was born in May):


And lastly, at the beginning of our long drive back to Little Rock, West Plains left us with this...a fittingly quaint send off from a perfect little nook in small town USA:

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Stay tuned...next up is the blog of all blogs to describe the road trip to end all road trips...THE BIG MOVE :)

the busiest three weeks ever: part one, New York.

Some time around the beginning of May we officially found out that Tim got the transfer that he requested to San Francisco. It was less than a month's notice. But instead of freaking out over the never ending cross-country move to-do list, I decided to just skip town. Where to? My favorite city in the country: New York City!

Jimmy (my brother), who you may remember is traveling with Cirque Du Soleil's Ovo tour, is living there at the moment. Regardless of the planning, and packing, and re-packing, and moving, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to take advantage of a free place to stay in the Big Apple.

And so began part one of the busiest three weeks ever. Here are a few highlights from the too-brief trip to NY.

Jimmy's Apartment! - is on the 30th floor of an apartment complex on the Upper East Side. I walked in to this view:


Cirque Du Soleil - Ovo!!! - I got to see the circus :) And not only did I get to see the circus but I got to see the circus for free. And not only was it free but I sat in arguably the best seat in the house: front row, a little right of center. Apparently Jimmy has made some friends along the way and when he saw what seat the box office had assigned me, even his jaw hit the floor.

I don't know how to adequately do the show justice in a description of it, but lets just say that it was kind of FANTASTIC. You can check out Ovo's official website here. I've seen Cirque twice now, and I was still floored by the talent and general bendy-ness of the performers. Go see it!


Ovo's one year tour anniversary party!! - Now this was an unexpected treat. Jimmy told me early on that all the Cirque employees, performers included were attending the one year tour anniversary party for the show, so I'd be spending that evening solo, and honestly I was just fine with that. But, him and his housemates came home that night with an invite for me too! It was a 1920's flapper themed party, so I did my best. Borrowed a dress from one of his housemates, and spent the night partying at a rooftop bar in Manhattan (with a ridiculously upclose view of the Empire State Building), with a bunch of Circus performers, enjoying an open bar - ie. never ending champagne, and a crazy 1980's dance troup for entertainment. I went to sleep that night at 4am. Here is a photo of Jimmy and I before the party:


The Metropolitan Museum of Art, also known as "my favorite place in New York City"!! - I go to the MET every time that I go to the City. I know where all of my favorite rooms are and where to find all of my favorite pieces. I decided to take pics of all my favorites and, Following is a brief tour of all the things I would show you if I ever took you to the MET.

My favorite vase:

My favorite 18th century Venetian room, and also the thing that I look most forward to seeing when I visit. Strangely enough, I've observed other MET visitors walking right by this room without even giving it a second glance, which leads me to believe two things: one, that I am the only person in the world that thinks this is the most fantastic bedroom ever, and two, that I should have been born in 18th century Italy.

My favorite sitting room from 19th century Europe:

My favorite stained glass window:

My favorite sculpture - Diana:


My favorite chair, and believe me, the MET is full of pretty chairs:


And finally, my favorite pieces of art - Seurat, van Gogh, and Monet (in that order):



Central Park!! - Where I love wandering.


And there you have it. My waaay too brief trip to New York city. I left out photo's of people watching on the steps of the TKTS booth in Time Square, and the trip to Junior's for Cheesecake, but I'm sure you can imagine just how good that was. So good in fact, that I couldn't eat the entire piece, and I enjoyed the remainder of it for breakfast the next day :)

Soon to come, the blog all about the trip to visit Tim's family, because you know, when you're moving across the country who needs to plan or pack? Traveling and putting things off is way more fun :) Stay tuned...but it may take a while to get that one up. They're turning off the internet in the morning, and then the movers are coming, so you may have to wait till we get to San Fran for a description of all the wonders of Small Town Missouri...

it's a baby in a basket.

I have a box of old family photos.
This has to be my favorite one of them all.

It's my dad at 14 1/2 months. My grandmother, in true motherly fashion, has penned his age on the back in precisely scripted blue ink. I like that it's not your typical childhood photo. He's not tearing into glittery Christmas wrapping, or blowing out birthday candles, there's no laugh caught mid grin.

I think that this is when dad started to figure out what the world was all about.

I imagine my grandfather kneeling on the freshly mowed lawn in order to frame the image just right. It is a picture worthy moment...my father on the verge of tears over the unfairness of being placed inside a wicker laundry basket alongside, what I imagine to be his fathers drawers and handkerchiefs recently pulled from the line. Who knows, maybe this was my grandmother's solution for a not-yet invented playpen, it was 1943 after all.

I imagine that moments after the click of the shutter my grandfather rose from his crouched position, brushed grass clippings from his knee, and rescued my father from the stack of laundry, perhaps giving him a soothing rub on the back. At that point I see my grandmother retrieving the basket, smoothing her apron before bending to the ground to pick i t up, and they all return to the kitchen for lunch, or maybe an early afternoon nap.

This is all just conjecture though. All I really know is what I can see in this photo, and one thing is clear. This may have been the moment that Dad realized that sometimes it doesn't matter what you want, sometimes you just end up somewhere you don't want to be, like in a pile next to your father's underwear. :)

This is one of the reasons why I love photos. They capture important moments, for sure. But, sometimes you get lucky and you catch a moment that doesn't become important until much later :)

spring!

These were taken in the backyard of our apartment complex, not, as you may have thought, at the National Cherry Blossom Festival. I did go down to the festival this year, but believe it or not I got better shots of the trees in the backyard. Go figure.

And because it's becoming kind of a tradition to include an Oliver update, here you go: Tim is making a cameo appearance (playing wii of course), and yes, this really is how Oliver "sits" on the couch.




Happy Spring!!

today is brought to you by the letter "R"...for "resign"

Last Wednesday my boss had a team meeting. Oh, how I love the team meetings. She's been on an inspirational quote kick lately, and during our meeting she handed out a photocopy of her latest favorite:

"An Integrity Test: Here's an integrity test for anyone who's part of an organization: Does what we say about our organization while we're at work match what we say at home? If it's positive at work and negative a few hours later at home, we have a choice to make. Here's an idea we should all consider: Believe or leave. Sound harsh? Maybe. But if the organization is no longer a vehicle to help us reach our life goals, why would we stay?"

Now, she handed this out intending it to be a pat on our backs that we are so committed to our positions, and that thankfully she doesn't have employees that have to ask themselves this question.

Seriously?

I called in sick the next day, and the day after, and then walked back in the office on Monday and quit.

I mean, I was miserable at that job, though apparently I did a really really good job of hiding how much I loathed it. Otherwise, I can't imagine that my boss ever would have thought that handing me a permission slip to resign would have been a good idea.

Now, thankfully, she took it really well. And even though I wasn't looking forward to being unemployed, I was prepared for it. But, it doesn't even look like that is going to last very long. The same day I quit I had an interview with Starbucks (can you tell that I needed something pointless?, plus who can deny that knowing how to make a decent cappuccino could be useful?). They hired me. But now I get to call and decline that too, because I got hired by a temp agency in DC...which will be fine until June or so. Why June? We've got big plans in June, but I'm superstitious, and nothing's confirmed yet, so I'm not telling.

:) Cheers to quitting stupid jobs.

"Snowmagedon"...the sequel to December's wildly unpopular "Snowpocalypse"

And, here we go again. Because, you know, the twenty inches that we got in December, followed by the two other snow storms that we just got, clearly wasn't enough. Nope, we're always out to outdo ourselves. Bigger and better is the name of the game here in the nation's capitol. This time we closed the Federal Government, declared states of emergency, kept all the kids home from school, and canceled all the flights, and that was before it started snowing....and snowing...and snowing....

When all is said and done we could have almost thirty inches, making total snowfall so far this winter close to sixty inches, and winter's not even done yet. If only that damn groundhog hadn't seen his shadow.

The grocery stores look like a tornado has hit them. Not a single banana left on the shelf. No pasta. No franks and beans. The only thing worse than standing in lines, I imagine, is being the checker behind the counter ringing the carts. You're stalked in the parking lot for coveted parking spaces and shopping carts.

Home Depot sold out of shovels on Thursday (we checked).

Business closed at noon, which just moved rush hour up by five hours. No seats on the metro, no calm on the streets. And, everyone is just waiting, waiting, waiting, for more snow since we've seen since 1922 (or so the news says).

So, I'm sure we'll wake up tomorrow, hopefully with electricity in tact, to the blinding silence of a city blanketed in white. We'll enjoy it for a few hours. We might build a snow man, snap a few photos, catch a few flakes on our tongues. Then it will sink in...

Now we have to dig out.

when all else fails, just blog about the cat.

not feeling particularly blog inspired lately, but I do know some of you out there who did always enjoy the Oliver anecdotes, so here you go :)


Every morning Oliver wakes up, meanders out to the living room, eats, uses his box, and settles down in the same spot on the floor to stare up at the wall, as you can see evidence of in the photo to the left. What on earth is so intriguing about the wall? Well, I wondered the same thing the first time I noticed him doing this and thus found myself staring at both the cat and the wall...for half an hour. He just sat there, waiting. For, as it turns out...the sun. Yep, the cat stares at the wall, every morning, and waits patiently for sun to make it's way down to him. It's quite cute actually, especially when you consider that the poor thing hasn't yet figured out that he could have already been blissfully basking in the light if only he jumped up on the couch. Again, never claimed he was the smartest, but he sure is good for a laugh. And, right now as I type this, Oliver has decided to express his objections to my giving of attention to my computer, and not him. I had actually mistyped the previous sentence three different times because of the fact that I am now reaching around and over a cat that has settled right on top of my chest as I lay here on the couch, and is proceeding to lick my face. Oh, and did I mention that when he jumped up here he brought his ball of yarn with him. Again, not the smartest, but he sure does know how to get what he wants. And with that, I'm off to go play fetch with my cat...errr, i mean dog...oh no wait, he really is a cat...i think.

stop the presses! it's official...the world has ended because the office is out of fax toner!!

Lets just say that there was a toner "incident" at the office today. I call it an "incident" when what I really mean is "fiasco of ginormous proportions."

Please watch the following scene from one of my favorite episodes of Friends. It will properly prepare you for the silliness of this morning's office antics.



Ok, so hopefully you found that amusing. I had this scene running through my head the entire morning I spent dealing with what will forever be known (at least to me) as "The Day Without Toner."

I walked in this morning and the fax machine was blinking red. Red is never a good sign when it comes to office electronics. It either means that some minuscule shred of paper has lodged itself inside some well hidden yet crucial piece of machinery and caused a jam which will take you all day to un-jam, or it means that you are out of toner and hopefully are not wearing white because you will inevitably end up covered in black dust. It ended up being the latter.

Initially this was not a big deal, as this was an obstacle that I had foreseen back in April when I ordered a spare toner cartridge anticipating this exact scenario. Now, what did not occur to me at the time is that the wrong toner cartridge would be delivered, so that seven months later when I actually needed it, it would render itself full of toner, but absolutely useless to me.

Next up...break the news to the rest of the office. Considering the level of panic that ensued, one would have thought that I had said a tornado was headed straight for us. Now to their credit, a good portion of day to day business is conducted via this fax machine, so I do understand (kind of) the concern. However, I still saw this as a manageable problem. Just walk up the street to the local Staples and buy a toner cartridge, and get reimbursed for it.

Now that would have been a reasonably good plan, but I forgot that I live in a recurring episode of "The Office", so naturally there wasn't a single Staples or Office Depot in the Metro DC area that actually sold a compatible cartridge for our fax machine.

On to plan two, order some and have it shipped over night...oh wait, they can't ship it overnight. Awesome, the earliest it can be delivered is Thursday. That won't work.

Sit back, take a deep breath, tune out the rising levels of panic surrounding you in the office...think, think...Wait! Is it possible that there is another office that uses the same fax machine (unlikely, but worth looking into), and may actually have a spare cartridge??? Yes! Success, there is a spare toner cartridge waiting for us up at one of our sister offices.

I break the news, and you know what reaction I get? Now that the office realizes that toner is within sight the conversation turns to complaining about actually haveing to go get the toner. Well, if it's not important enough to go get it, then why the heck did you watch me spend an hour and a half trying to find it??? I think that tomorrow I'm going to get to the office early so that I can exact my revenge...perhaps I'll purposely jam the copy machine...