Politics

I've never been very into politics. I found it all too confusing and didn't really think that I should be voting on things that I had no clue about. Plus, there was never really anything that I felt strongly enough about to want to vote on. In fact, before this year, I'd only ever voted once. (Please don't start throwing stones at me yet!) But recently my views on politics and voting changed. The second time in my life that I voted (and only the first time at a poling place) was just a few months ago and was for some local officials and measures. Even then, I was very proud to receive my little "I voted" sticker :D

The presidential primaries were really what changed things for me. The idea of being part of such a historic time in our nation and possibly being able to vote for our first female or black president was so exciting! Unfortunately, I didn't register in time to be able to vote in the primaries :( but I will be able to vote for President. And not only will I be voting, but I've also been watching some of the Democratic National Convention! Shocker!! I wouldn't say that now I'm really INTO politics (I still prefer trashy news shows over the actual news), but I definitely am paying more attention to what's going on in the political arena. Hmm, does this mean I'm a grown up now?

Not much training going on here

You remember how I blogged not too long ago about how I needed to get back into training again? Yeah, that hasn't happened. Last week I ran/walked with Amy on Monday and didn't do any running OR walking with Claudia. Monday night Amy's sis and bro-in-law were still in town so instead of running I met Ann and Lara for drinks. Last night Claudia had a few things she needed to take care of after work so we ended up just meeting for some dinner and drinks. Tomorrow she can't do any running because she'll be swimming in Shadowcliffs-- not that I'm complaining much since tomorrow's supposed to be the hottest day of the week.

At some point I really WILL get off my lazy butt and start training again! Maybe this weekend. Don't hold your breath though... I'm not holding mine :D

(Not-at-all) Clear Lake

This last weekend I got to do a little camping in Clear Lake. The weekend has initially been planned as a big getaway for our TNT group of friends. Unfortunately other things came up for the majority of the group and it ended up being just me, Lael, his friend Kelvin and girlfriend Amie who could make it. Although I had been excited about hanging out with the big group, I knew that the 4 of us would still have a good time. Never having been to Clear Lake though, I didn't really know what to expect.

Lael and I decided that to maximize our camping time, we'd head up to Clear Lake (about 3 hours north of Walnut Creek) on Thursday after work. That way we'd have two fulls days there, and half of Sunday. We ended up leaving a little later than intended and after too long on some windy little roads, we finally got up to Clear Lake State Park at about 10:00pm. We checked out our campsite, said hello to the skunk that was hanging out in the bushes at the edge of our site (EEEKKK!!!), gazed up for a bit at the super bright stars and set up our tent. Our campsite was really nice... we were under a bunch of trees, which ended up provided us with plenty of much needed shade during the day, and our campsite was well blocked off from the sites next to us. After getting the tent put up, all of our things put away, and playing a few rounds of cards we finally went to sleep around 1:00am (WAY past my usual bedtime!). Even with the crickets causing a racket, it was really easy to fall asleep!

Friday morning we woke up at a decent time-- the campground wasn't too crowded, so we weren't woken up really early by the usual campground noise. We made a yummy breakfast and decided on what we would do that day before Kelvin and Amie got there. We walked along the boardwalk path out to the swimming area (gross-- all this algae floating in the water) and then around to some of the other areas. And that pretty much exhausted all of our activity plans. We spent the rest of the day playing cards, tossing around the football and frisbee, napping, reading, trying to stay cool (it was in the 90's), and trying not to die from boredom. Around noon all of the weekday campers starting clearing out and the campground felt really deserted. It was kind of creepy actually. Later in the afternoon the weekend campers started showing up and it got much more crowded.

The boardwalk trail and slough behind our campsite

The slough in the morning... it actually looks pretty!

Ugg, not so pretty here... the later in the day it got, the more icky looking it got

The backside of our campsite from the trail

Lael and I checking out the lake

Clear Lake at sunset

Water activities like boating, swimming and fishing are the main attractions at Clear Lake. Since the water really isn't nice enough to swim in (and I don't really swim in large bodies of water anyway-- I hate fishies), we didn't have a boat, and weren't interested in fishing, that didn't leave us with a whole lot of entertainment options. Our late evening activities consisted of a shower (me) and a run (Lael). Finally around 8:30 when Lael got back from his run we decided to start getting dinner ready. We had some yummy chicken, salad, and guacamole. Kelvin and Amie arrived right when we were eating so after we finished, and they had put up their tent, we chowed down on some s'mores and stayed up till 1:00am laughing and talking. As loud as we were, the rangers only came by once around 11:00 to let us know that it was quiet hours.

After we got up on Saturday morning, we had a nice breakfast of French Toast, sausage and OJ. The morning was spent just hanging out and relaxing... throwing the football around and playing board games. On Friday morning after talking to Kelvin and Amie, Lael reserved a boat for us for Saturday afternoon-- the pricing was very reasonable and it would be something fun to do, another than just hanging around in the campground. We packed up some lunch and some drinks and then drove over the Lakeport where the boat rental place was. Before heading out in the boat with a wakeboard, and innertube, we got a little boating lesson. I find it a little surprising that after spending just 10 minutes with you they give you the keys and send you on your way. Yeah, it's not as difficult as driving a car, but you're still handling this very expensive item that goes pretty darn fast.

Kelvin and Amie on the boat

Amie getting ready to wakeboard!

Kelvin, Lael and Amie all tried out the wakeboarding while I took video from the boat. None of them had much experience wakeboarding, and NO experience driving while wakeboarding, so there were quite a few spills. After they each tried it a few times, it was almost time to return the boat so we headed back towards shore and then spent the remaining time dragging the three of them around on the giant tube thing.

Lael getting up on the wakeboard:

Kelvin and Amie's wild tube ride:

After we got back from the boat, everyone was exhausted! I went to take shower and when I got back, everyone was sleeping exactly where I had left them! Later that evening we cooked up a yummy dinner of burgers and hot dogs, followed of course by some s'mores. We were definitely quieter that night and even though I could hardly keep my eyes open, we didn't go to sleep until around midnight! The next morning after we all got up we ate a little food and then started the long process of packing everything up :( We left the campground a little before noon and on our way to the bay area we stopped for a late lunch at the Red Hen Cantina in Napa. Although it was a really fun weekend, I think we were all ready to go home, shower and nap. And that's exactly what I did as soon as I got home!!

Kicking Cancer's Butt

A few months ago a friend of ours was diagnosed with Uterine Cancer. The mass that was inside of her was too large to remove through surgery but after a few months of chemo, it was sufficiently shrunk down enough to be removed! She was a complete rockstar during Chemo and didn't experience many of the worst side effects. She came out of surgery yesterday and all reports say that she is doing fine and recovering well! WOO HOO!!! Now all my fingers and toes are crossed hoping that she's recovers quickly and that we find that the surgery got rid of all the cancer!

Today after work I'm off to Clear Lake for a weekend of camping. I've never been up there before and I've heard that despite the name, Clear Lake is not actually clear, especially at this time of year! One of the most popular activities at Clear Lake is fishing, which means there are lots of BIG fish in there, which means I will NOT be getting in the water!! I think we'll have a lot of fun just hanging out, relaxing, eating and maybe getting in some hiking. I'm sure I'll be coming back on Sunday one dirty, sweaty, tired girl!

Sad goodbye

In a bit of sad news, my parents had to sell their condo in Tahoe :( They first bought it back in 1993 when I was still in high school and although it's given us years of fun Tahoe trips, the time came to sell it. Since the new owners are taking over at the end of the month, we decided that instead of a trip up to celebrate my brother's birthday in Portland, he'd come down and we'd do the celebrating in Tahoe instead! We haven't had all four of us there in awhile and it was nice to be able to celebrate my brother's bday, and say goodbye to the condo together!

We spent the weekend doing many of our favorite Tahoe activities, which means we ate a lot and spent a bunch of time sitting on the beach :) The weather was really nice, even on the HOT side, which is rare for Tahoe. I know we'll be back up to Tahoe again since it's one of our favorite places to go, but it will feel a little weird staying somewhere different at first. But then again, going to Tahoe is more about enjoying the lake and the mountains and the gorgeous scenery, and less about where you actually lay your head down to sleep :)

Yummy mango margaritas :)

Being silly :)

On the pier at the Hyatt-- favorite spot for drinks

BBQing-- who let them have control of the fire??

Lunch at the Rainbow Lodge on our way back down the mountain.

Off track

It's training time again! With the Nike Half not too far away, it's time to get back into some more consistent running. After New York I was doing pretty well... running once or twice during the week. But lately even that small amount of running has been hard to maintain-- Busy schedules and heat keep getting in the way!

This week Claudia and I were good girls and still met up on Tuesday night, even though it was hot out. BUT, did we decide to walk instead of run... OF COURSE!! The rest of my week has been pretty low key, but it hasn't involved any kind of exercise. I think next week I'll need to get a little more serious about my training, and start doing the longer runs on the weekend. We'll see how that plan fits in with the weather, a camping trip, and a 3 day weekend. Maybe I'll wait until September to really get serious! :D

More birthday celebrating

Is it just me or does it seem like the Olympics have been on forever, even though it's only been a few days? This is going to be a long two weeks!

Friday night I managed to watch just about 45 minutes of the Opening Ceremonies. Very cool, just way too long. Since I was TiVoing it, I figured I'd just watch it later when I could "boop, boop" through the commercial and boring parts! Plus, I needed to get up early so that I could be in Alameda by 6:30 to help out with a water stop :( Water stop duty was actually pretty fun, and I got to see a lot of old team peeps, and of course Mama Lisa and Coach. I got home a little before noon, took a shower, and then took a nap :) Saturday night I had been invited to a going away party for a woman that I know who is moving to Canada... she is the cousin of a former co-worker and 1/4th of the "Vodka Klatch" as her hubby likes to call us :D I figured I'd drop by, say goodbye, visit for awhile and then be back in bed at a semi-reasonable time... didn't really turn out that way! The party was a lot of fun, even though it was sad to say goodbye to Maureen :( We told her when the three of us remaining girls got together again, we'd have to call her and put her on speaker phone so she could still have a cocktail with us :D BYE MAUREEN!!!

Sunday was Ms. Lindsay's actual birthday and it was a day full of celebrations! We were both up around 9:00am watching the rest of the Opening Ceremonies when Lindsay gets a surprise visit from her sister and two nephews! They came bearing gifts, balloons and breakfast! Lindsay's sister made some yummy waffles with fruit and whipped cream, and sausages and she was nice enough to let me join them :D YUMMMM! After lazing around the house a little, Lindsay and I got ready and headed out to the Lafayette Reservoir to grab a picnic area for the day's 2nd celebration :) At 1:00 a bunch of Lindsay's friends and family came to BBQ and hang out. It ended up being pretty hot but we still had a fun day of eating, drinking and hanging out :) I came home later that day stuffed, tired and filthy!

Sneaky

I'm not all that great at keeping secrets-- unless of course it's something very important-- but I've been keeping a secret all week :) Last week I heard that a surprise party was in the works for Lindsay, my new roomie. Her BF, cousin and our friend Jeanette were working on planning a surprise get together for her 25th birthday. Despite a few close calls, and despite many of our facebook profiles announcing yesterday how excited we were for the evening, the surprise party went off without a hitch! Lindsay had no idea anything was going on and she was completely surprised, and I think very touched, when she walked in the door of the Artisan wine bar to about 20 of her friends and family yelling SURPRISE! Hee hee... being sneaky is fun!

Change Part II

A little while ago, I wrote about how there seems to be a lot of change going on around me, and how there was a change happening in my life too. Most of you already know what that is, but for the rest of you, I HAVE A NEW ROOMIE!!! I know, that's not a mind blowing change, but it is kind of big for me... The Girl Who Hates Change :D

About a month ago, my former roomie told me she was going to be looking for a place to live in Berkeley, which is closer to where she goes to school, and where she really spends most of her time. It was a move that made sense, but I wasn't excited about the prospect of looking for another roommate. It's such a crap shoot... you could start out with someone who seems normal, only to find that they drive you crazy. But also you can end up with someone who becomes your best friend (LOVE YOU Claudia!!)

So, needless to say, I was not excited about my roommate's move, especially since she really didn't know WHEN she would be moving. She had wanted to take her time and find the perfect place for her, which put me in a holding pattern until she found that place. But everything turned out perfectly :D My very good friend Lindsay was also going through some housing drama and it ended up that when I needed a roomie, she also need a place to live AND a roomie! Perfect!

So last Thursday the former roomie moved out, and I spent the next few days cleaning like a mad woman! And don't you hate how you start cleaning, and everything starts to look even dirtier?!! After I got home on Thursday I cleaned, until I finally went to bed. Friday night after going to see Jeanette's band play in Blackhawk, I cleaned until bedtime. Saturday before going to Sonoma with Rocky and Claudia, I cleaned. Sunday before helping Lindsay move in, I was still cleaning! Just when I finally felt better after trapeze, I'm sore again from all the scrubbing!

Now it's been two days since Lindsay moved in and the place is really starting to come together! There are still a few things to be put away, and a bunch of pictures to be hung, but it really looks nice. Last night we had Claudia, Rocky amd Lindsay's BF Russ over for dinner and to help us put Lindsay's computer together (THANKS ROCKY!!!) and hang some pictures (THANKS RUSS!).

Birthday time

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY!!!