My super fly, ultra-smart, singularly sweet, gorgeous baby sister turned 21 yesterday. Being far more sophisticated and mature than I was at 21, she did not go out and get sloppy drunk at her first legal opportunity. Instead, we celebrated Shack-family style with wine and reflections and stories and laughter all wrapped up in a dining experience.
Peohe's hooked us up with custom, celebratory menus.
{photo credit: MoShack}
And the waiter played along and carded the Midge.
{Photo credit: MoShack}
There was much posing and documenting of the evening.
{Photo credit: waiter man}
{Photo credit: MamaShack}
Dinner ended as dinner at Peohe's must - with lava cake.
Twenty-first birthdays, however, are extra-special and thereby require multiple cakes...
{I just realized that this picture includes: Mom, Dad, birthday cake, funky head scarf, and champagne...what a lucky birthday girl!}
On Saturday afternoon, the sun defied expectations and came out to shine on a little outdoor fun. The residents of Cape May Avenue in Ocean Beach acquired the requisite permits and closed off their street to host "a free event celebrating community and music."
OB being OB, there was a wonderfully diverse group in attendance. The street was packed with dreadlocked hippies, skinny jeaned hipsters, stroller pushing mamas, homeless vets, scruffy musicians, cholo types, and free spirits galore. At least fifty percent of those in attendance were accompanied by a canine companion. Bigs was my favorite.
{Bigs}
Drinking and dancing all afternoon necessitates some sort of non-liquid sustenance, and that need was easily met by the fabulous Green Truck, a 100% organic food truck that runs on vegetable oil and solar power.
They also use compostable utensils and plates which are added to the food scraps in the compost bin underneath the truck. The resulting compost is delivered to the farms where they source their ingredients. Seriously cool.
Happily, in addition to being food for the planet, the food was also good for my mouth. I think I won with my grilled mahi tacos, but Tom insisted that his chicken pesto wrap was top notch.
Bigs was also a fan of Green Truck's offerings.
Then, of course, there was the music. Tom has been playing with Melly Frances and the Distilled Spirits for awhile now, and they put on a great performance under a small tent at the end of Cape May Ave.
Once the sun started to set and the temperature dipped to the mid-fifties, I wimped out and headed home, but I'm told that Tom and Devin wrapped up the night with some crowd-pleasing covers that even had the police tapping their feet when they came by to enforce the 10pm curfew. All in all, it was a great way to spend a Saturday.
* being finished with car shopping
Car shopping is the worst. Let me rephrase, shopping for a certified pre-owned Prius the week after Japan was devastated by natural disaster and oil prices pushed $105 a barrel while on a limited budget and in possession of taste that does not believe in budgets - that is the worst. The only good thing about driving all over creation last weekend looking for a car was getting to meet up with Tom's brother and his girlfriend for dinner at The Library in Santa Monica. That reminds me - sweet potato fries also make me very happy.
{Santa Monica Boulevard}
*my new car
The good news is that all that car hunting paid off and I now drive a super-cool spaceship car. Most importantly, in purchasing a hybrid, I have earned the final merit badge and am now a full-fledged yuppie.
*Tom
Of course he makes me happy every week, but he went above and beyond this week. He called all the dealers and did all the talking to the awkward salesmen (had I been on my own, I probably would have bought the first car I test drove because the guy was super nice and I felt bad for him because he seemed particularly sad and desperate).
Tom also took my ridiculous demands (leather interior, navigation system, sunroof, less than 20,000 miles, 2010 or newer, previously owned by a B-list celebrity or reality star, etc) in stride and let me realize on my own that some flexibility might be required. He didn't even roll his eyes once. In addition to his endless patience, I am also particularly grateful for the fact that he relieved me of all negotiating duties; I would certainly have paid at least $5,000 more just to avoid the awkwardness of having to bargain.
As an extra bonus, he makes silly faces and those also make me happy.
While I'm at it, his random guitar-playing strolls around the apartment make me happy too.
*pets that cost less than five dollars and require minimal upkeep I got a little distracted on my errand to Staples, wandered into Petco, and came home with this guy...
I asked Tom what we should name him, he reflected for about two seconds and came back with... Spanky.
*hilarious babies on youtube
Someone posted this video on Facebook this week, and I've since seen it a bunch of other places. It makes me laugh every time. It's a 59 second mood lift, something we could all use as we try to wrap our minds around the tragedies that seem to be stacking up at breakneck speed around the globe.
The most recent addition to my list was, awkwardly enough, inspired by an episode of Dateline that I watched the other day. In this particular edition of Real Life Mysteries, Dateline's investigative team delved into the mysterious death of a young newlywed on her honeymoon. It seems that the freshly minted husband, a certified rescue diver, had convinced his young bride that they should take a scuba trip to the Great Barrier Reef for their honeymoon. Oh, and also, she should increase her life insurance policy and make him the sole beneficiary. You can see where this is going...sadly, Tina did not and she ended up drowning/being suffocated depending on whose lawyers you are talking to. Anyway, I was less interested in the "mystery" than I was in the site of the dive that the couple was on. They were diving off the coast of Queensland, Australia and were exploring the wreck of the S.S. Yongala, a passenger ship that sank in 1911. It looks super cool, and I'm sure it's perfectly safe assuming your husband isn't trying to kill you.
Since both of these adventures will require a large cash infusion, it is unlikely that I will be crossing them off in the near future; but that's why this is a life list, not a do-in-the-next-six-months list.
Oh yeah, and I also decided that I am going to learn all of the words and references in "We Didn't Start the Fire." That's free, maybe I'll tackle that one this weekend...
After a long weekend of hunting, Tom and I finally tracked down my new vehicle late yesterday afternoon. When I came to terms with fact that the Jetta was officially out of commission, I knew that it was time to put my money where my mouth is and go for the hybrid.
I mean really, have you seen An Inconvenient Truth? No? Well, let me fill you in. The polar bears are drowning because they can't find the they can't find icebergs to rest on, and they can't find the icebergs because the icebergs are melting, and the icebergs are melting because we like to let our Hummers idle so as to leave the air conditioning on while our friend runs into the store to pick up a six pack because God forbid we roll the window down and breathe the polluted air. And the plastic rings that hold the six pack together? They're eventually going to strangle a penguin. At least that's what Al Gore said.
{This guy just got lucky. Look how teeny tiny his iceberg is!}
So, in order to save the polar bears, I bought a Prius and I only drink microbrews that are locally sourced and come in recycled, biodegradable carriers.
So what if my new car looks a little bit like a spaceship that got stuck in a wind tunnel? It's well worth it if I can cut emissions by even 25% on my fifty mile round-trip commute. Look how relaxed the polar bears are now.
Plus, think of all the new tops I can get with the money I save on gas...
the new Anthropologie catalog and a big mug of Tazo Passion tea
car insurance that provides you with a rental car
{Scored the free upgrade, plus this ride reminds me of a favorite jam from high school}
mainstream rap of the late nineties that was somehow accessible to Catholic school girls in Vermont, specifically the Lil' Troy classic "Wanna Be a Baller" {For those who might not immediately get the reference, the chorus starts off with, "Wanna be a baller, shot caller/twenty inch blades on the Impala..." Mr. Troy then goes on to talk about a "diamond rottweila' " and how he is "not a leader, not a followa." It might not be lyrical genius, but it's catchy as hell.}
My parents want a black lab. I tried to get them to reconsider as the yellow labs are much easier to photograph, but I think I'm just going to have to work on my metering... Either way, they were all perfectly adorable, and one little black girl seemed particularly smitten with my camera. Check her out - she's transfixed.
Seriously, it does not matter what is happening; she will not be distracted.
"It's not as bad as it looks," people always say. In poor Jetta's case, it was exactly the opposite.
A week ago today I got into an accident in the middle of a busy intersection. Other than a skinned knee and a new skittishness behind the wheel, I escaped unscathed. The same cannot be said of the Jetta. What looked like a relatively minor dent concealed a broken axle and various other ailments that are apparently quite costly to repair. Bottom line - it's totaled.
On Tuesday, I went to the body shop to pick up all of the stuff that had accumulated in my car over the years, and I was sadder than I had expected to be to say goodbye to the old gal. Despite my frequent complaints about tricky German engineering, I really did like my little Jetta. It was the first car that was just mine, a college graduation gift from my very generous parents, and it served me well for eight-plus years.
During my senior year, it delivered my friends and I to Narragansett when we needed to avoid the reality of our impending release into the real world by spending an afternoon at the beach. It ferried me around Burlington for seven months after college as I tried to figure out what to do with my life (too bad it'll never get to see how that turns out!). Then, in a great show of endurance and commitment to adventure, the Jetta took me from Shelburne, Vermont to San Diego, California by way of Tupelo, Mississipi; Juarez, Mexico; and Yuma, Arizona. It received its first major scratch the first time that I pulled into the too-small parking spot at my first apartment. The Jetta served me faithfully in the daily commute to three different places of employment and assisted in eight more moves after that first cross-country jump. Perhaps most significantly, the Jetta tirelessly covered the 130 miles between San Diego and Los Angeles as I was falling in love with my husband. Less romantically, but more practically - it helped me to race said husband to the emergency room when he sliced his thumb open on a can of beans.
It's just a car, but it was a good little car, and I'm sad to see it go. It feels a little bit like the end of an era, but I'm grateful to the Jetta for safely delivering me to this point in my life. On the bright side, the next era is looking a bit greener; we're going hybrid shopping this weekend.
This post is belated because on Friday, I was too busy enjoying some of the things that make me happy to blog about them.
First things first though. Things to be happy about from last week:
Lincoln and Washington - These guys made me happy on Monday because the observation of their birthdays meant no school.
{Not sure what these two are up to, but this is the first image that came up when I googled Lincoln and Washington. Apparently it is Apotheosis of Washington and Lincoln by S. J. Ferris circa 1865.}
Art Stores - I walked into Artist and Craftsman Supply and spent a good half hour wandering around imagining all of the crafty magic I could whip up with the plethora of pretty paper, glitter, paints, and clay on the shelves.
Window Seats - Normally, I am an aisle seat girl. However, on short flights like the 54 minute one from San Diego to San Francisco, when I don't have to worry about climbing over people to use the bathroom, I am all about the window seat.
{Landing at SFO}
San Francisco - I love visiting this city so much that I can even overlook the fact that the thermometer struggled to rise above forty-five degrees.
{Alhambra and Mallorca}
College Friends Who Easily Make the Transition to Lifelong Friends - The best part of San Francisco is, of course, that it is home to one of my favorite people in the world.
Surprises - When I decided to make the journey to San Francisco for Kelsey's 30th, this is the moment I was most looking forward to:
Kelsey's husband Chris picked me up at the airport and brought me to their apartment where Kelsey was very surprised to see me when she returned home from her hair appointment. After a delicious dinner, we delivered Kelsey to her sister Annie's apartment for the second surprise of the evening - a surprise part complete with birthday banner, cupcakes, and cocktails.
Cover Bands - After the evening's second surprise, we continued Kelsey's birthday celebration at the Red Devil Lounge where we got our swerve on to the sweet sounds of Pop Rocks. It's possible that this is the multiple Greyhounds talking, but I'm pretty sure that these guys were awesome. Anyone who can convincingly rock Jesse's Girl and then seamlessly transition California Girls (singing Katy Perry's part and Snoop's part) all while wearing a pirate costume is alright in my book.
Saffron Risotto with Seared Diver Scallops - I have no picture of this as I was too busy stuffing my face to stop and get my camera out. Suffice it to say that the food was wonderful and the company even better at the birthday dinner in which Kelsey's family was kind enough to include me.
