Mammoth Weekend

I am moving to Mammoth, I have decided. We drove up Friday afternoon - and were making great time and having a beautiful day - until we got a flat tire. Sam had to work hard to find a tire we could use up there, but we got a new tire on Saturday and spent the day shopping and relaxing at home. Sunday we went snowboarding. My second trip down the bunny hill, I decided I quit and started crying. But after a warm up in the lodge and a cup of coffee, I decided to do one more run...which turned into three. I ended up not hating snowboarding so much, but refused to graduate from the bunny hill. So I ended my snowboarding day on a good note and in a good mood and sent Sam up to the real runs so he could have some fun too. While he was out, I made friends at the bar in the lodge. I highly recommend the Mammoth Mocha. What a fun day! Then we went out to a wonderful dinner at the Mogul. Best moment of the night was when the girl sitting at the table next to us started whining and her mother said, "All these people paid LOTS of money to come have a nice quiet dinner. Now sit down in your chair and be quiet." Seriously and the little girl did exactly that. It was great. I enjoy parents who understand that other people can't tune out the cries of their children like they can. I'm attaching a few photos of the weekend. And in case I haven't mentioned it, I wanna go back.

Driving through California

So Sam and I drove up to Mammoth for the holiday weekend. But rather than talking about Mammoth or the trip, I think I'll talk about the city of Mojave. If you don't know where that is, don't feel bad, neither did I. It's about halfway between Los Angeles and Mammoth Lakes. And boy is it a gem. On our way through on Friday I saw several things of note. Two interesting billboards. The first read, "Really good jerkey. 90 miles ahead in Olancha." It must be really good. I've never seen a sign advirtising jerkey 90 miles away...actually I don't think I've ever seen a sign advirtising jerkey. The second sign read: "Guns4Us." Kinda like Toys R Us for grownups who like the NRA, I guess. And then on our way home, the highway was backed up heading into the town. We sat at almost a dead standstill for about an hour only to find out it was due to the fact that the two traffic lights in town were both out thus causing the backup. I'm not sure if I feel sadder for me because I had to sit in traffic, or for the people who live there...because they live there.

Our apartment

Since most of my family has not seen our apartment, I'm posting pictures. The furniture collection is a bit eclectic, but that's what you get when you're not planning on staying that long in a place and money is in short supply. Nonetheless, I think it's pretty sweet. Plus I have a really great roommate.

The kitchen. Not nearly enough cabinets.

The living room/dining room

Teeny tiny bathroom

Bedroom (yes, that is my wedding dress. I have since taken it to be cleaned and preserved)

Come on people, it's just a cat!

So, on Saturday Sam and I got a kitten. We have been planning to get one since before we got married, but we were going to wait at least a few more weeks (largely because we are going out of town in two weeks for a couple of days and don't want to leave a new kitten alone). But you know how it goes with kittens; they just call out to you and you can't leave without them.

We went to Newport to the rescue organization that camps out in front of the pet store every Saturday to "just look." We finally decided to get Dexter (his name was Baxter, but we changed it), but that wasn't the end...it was just the beginning. The people at this organization are dear people, but a little crazy when it comes to their cats.

Sam and I were required to sit through an hour-long pet parenting class - their name, not mine - where we learned that cats can die from almost anything, like seafood ("NO tuna!!"), cat food with grains, clay litter, and getting too many vaccines. You sit there long enough and you start to buy into everything. Now I realize each of these claims is founded. But lets get a little perspective here: many a cat has lived with clay litter, iams cat food (oceanfish flavor), and vaccines. Also, we apparently need to train the cat. You do this by giving it a reward of wet cat food when your cat does something you want it to do. Great. Dexter doesn't like wet cat food. Also, he had been home for all of three hours and we were already on the third type of cat litter. They all scare him (like he literally won't step in them) except the clay litter (which apparently is going to kill him). I don't think he cares. And neither do I because my carpet isn't a good litter either.

Also, you can't take just one. It will kill their little spirit if you take only one and they don't have another kitten to play with. I don't think Dexter got the memo that he's supposed to be sad and lonely without a feline playmate because he seems just fine to me.

The day was made a little longer because poor Dexter had an ear infection and was taken to the vet while we were learning how to parent him so we had to go pick him up there. Whew.

Long story short: I think people make their cat's neurotic. I love my cat, but lets just remember...he's just a cat. To quote the movie "Raining Cats and Dogs": "People, you can love your pets; just don't LOVE your pets."

Honeymoon Photos

Well, I was sick for the first couple of days (I got sick literally the minute we left the reception), but it got way better once we got to the Caribbean. How couldn't it, right? Here are a few photos of our week in paradise.

View from our balcony. Can you see the humidity in the air?

Our building at the resort from the boat we took snorkeling.

Sunset on our balcony


Before dinner at the French restaurant


Dinner on the dock our last night in St. Lucia. It was really pretty.

A little late....

Me and the new hubs. Well, that's a lie because we took pictures beforehand, but he is my husband now.

It rained. The ceremony was supposed to be outside, but we had to change it an hour before the ceremony. I think it turned out pretty well, yes?

My sister was a wonderful best woman (not to mention she looks pretty in the pictures - a nice bonus - way to be pretty Em!)

This is a lot of my immediate family - almost everyone. Minus a brother-in-law, three nephews, and a grandma. Pretty impressive. I am so thankful they were all there. How blessed we were that they were all able to make it out to California. And those who couldn't make it were in our thoughts.

It turned out to be a beautiful day (well, not the actual day, but you know...) and a good party with dear friends and family. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did.

(Thanks to Brant for sharing these photos. They are the only ones we have right now so they are wonderful to have).

A sad yet liberating realization

The last few weeks have been full of papers, projects, and presentations for me. As I was writing the most recently completed one, I had a realization. I was agonizing over things, thinking, there's no way the professor will think this is any good. And that's when I realized: I have no control over my grade. I usually put in about the same effort on all of my projects and papers. Which is a decent effort given the time constraints. And sometimes I get As and sometimes I get Bs. Occasionally, I'll know I did a mediocre job and I will get a mediocre grade, but just as often the professor thinks it's great. Or I will think I aced something and I'll get a B. So rather than try really hard and disappoint myself. I'm just going to do the usual and leave it up to the whims of my professors since even if it's an A effort, if he or she is having a bad day or didn't like what I was wearing last week, I might get a B anyway. Or conversely (and I like this better), it's a B paper, but the professor likes me or is just feeling the holiday spirit a little more than usual and give me an A for fun. Oh to have that power.