Babies from Serbia...

I dreamed last night that all of a sudden there were about 20 orphans from Serbia at my Dad's house. We had to take care of them, and I think they all had AIDS. I remember dressing them, and they were too big for the smallest onsies, so we had to run around looking for bigger ones. We were feeding them, and finding places for them to sleep. I never really got what we were doing with them, or what the goal was (to find them homes, etc). But I remember spending a lot of time with them, and we also had to give them medication. I just remember having a great nurturing feeling about the dream.

Rioters in Vancouver...

Really? This whole mess in Vancouver just irks me. I guess part of me wants and expects people to be "good". But I should be smarter than that. I know alcohol is likely a factor, but what makes these idiots want to destroy shops, loot on live TV, taunt cops and canines, and parade around taking pictures of the destruction others created? I just don't get it. And as a friend stated earlier, the city of Vancouver and the fans of the Canucks are going to get a bad wrap as if this was solely their fault and the fault of the loss. When in fact is was probably only part of the excuse, and the stupidity of some of the intoxicated (at least I hope they are) fans getting involved after the fact. And it also pisses me off that the media should be reporting the win by the Bruins and the celebratory fans, and maybe even the sad Canucks fans. But in either case, hockey has been overshadowed by asshole hoodlums. ARGH!!!!! I think I need to stop watching CTV now, it's just pissing me off.

Neighbors

It has been since my dorm year at college that I have lived so close to neighbors that I see some of their routines.

On one side of me is a couple of early 20s girls. My parents say that they like to have loud parties, but I haven't heard any since I've moved in. They have a couple of guy friends (boyfriends?) and a girl friend with a maybe 2 year old that frequently come over. It can be loud if they all hang out on their patio and chat, but that would be the same for anyone.

On the other side is a couple with their 2 small children. I haven't officially met them yet, but they all seem nice. However, I can hear every time they walk up and down their stairs, and they don't close their kitchen cabinets gently. The kids spend most of the day using the back patio as their playground, and they talk at twice the volume of any average adult. Don't get me wrong, they sound adorable. But loud they are.

Then there is this guy with an 18 month old (just guessing), who hangs out on the lawn in front of our place every day it seems. He is a bit older, so not sure if he is an older Dad, or a Grandpa. But the inner condos don't have any lawn, so I guess he just comes out here to let thew little guy run around a bit.

Then there are the dog walkers. Tons of them. Between the trail and the sidewalk, I probably see at least 20 people with dogs walk by every day. I notice that every older lady had a dog the size of Merlin. And this one lady has a little dog who is injured or paralyzed. His/her back 2 legs are in little slings and uses wheels to get his back half around. I always felt bad. Then my Mom and I took Merlin for a walk on the trail before she left and ran into them. The dog was a little pain in the ass and was so feisty than he knocked himself over and needed help to get back up. The owner didn't seem too sympathetic toward him/her, so I wasn't really either. But maybe he's nicer towards humans, rather than other dogs.

That's it for now. As I observe more things, I'll keep you all posted.

My move...

So, I have officially moved... as of a few weeks ago. And now that my parents headed back north, I have the place to myself. It's nice to be living in a place by myself, where I don't have to think about someone (my Dad) walking in whenever to make food, or listen to random people talking or fighting outside my bedroom window. Such a change, I love it. Plus now I've been cooking more, because I have room to actually prep and cook. When I didn't have the space, it was more of a frustration than enjoyable.

I haven't used the pool yet, but it'll be pushing 90 degrees on Tues and Wed, so those might be good days to do that. And it's been fun exploring the area. Not like I wasn't living 20 mins from this area most of my life, but I only really knew the area of Broadway Plaza. But now I have been checking out restaurants (and a Thai place I may try this week), stores, etc. I also need to explore the Iron Horse Trail (literally about 40 ft from my front door). As I sit in the living room and watch walkers, runners and bicyclists go by on the trail, it makes me feel like a bum. So that's on my to do list too.

Well, that's it for now. Off to figure out what to make for dinner, keep looking for jobs online, and catch up some more on my DVR.

Vivid dreams

Every night as I lay down to go to sleep, I get these split second snapshots of the dreams I had the night before. Not enough to evoke whole scenes or the theme, but enough to make me lay there and try my hardest to remember what it was about. And that is every single night. I think it’s kind of fascinating how our brains work like that. But also drives me nuts when I can’t remember the dream.

Then, last night I was having a great dream, and remembered it when I woke up. I had to get up and take a phone call… long enough to forget what I was dreaming about. When I went to lay down again, I was trying really hard to continue the dream where I left off.

Am I the only one this happens to?

Another random dream last night...

I was at my friend’s house in the Bay Area, and we were hanging in a back family room. There was all of a sudden a roar in the air. Kinda like when it’s stormy and planes fly at lower altitude, only louder. Then I started noticing the clouds were swirling and not looking quite right. Then a tornado emerged. We all freaked out. I ran toward the center of the house to a doorway. I sat on the floor in the doorway and wrapped my arms and legs around the wall. Then the house gets picked up and we started spinning. I remember feeling a little dizzy.

Then all of a sudden we stopped. We looked outside and the house had landed in the middle of some street. I remember having an iPad, or similar device, and looked up where we were on the GPS. We ended up in some small town East of Reno in the middle of Nevada. No one seemed too phased by a house landing on their street, which led me to believe that the tornado went through this town too. We started wandering around a bit. Then people started setting up booths selling T-shirts and what not. I remember complaining that people were trying to capitalize on a natural disaster. We wandered back to the house to find about 12 people dressed like hippies had taken over the property. It was like something out of the show ‘The Colony’ where they were protecting a property for themselves during a disaster. I just remember thinking that I hadn’t even grabbed my purse on the way out the door. I wandered around town a little more, but that’s all I remember.

Restaurant and Mansion Dream

I was staying at a friend’s house, and was woken up by her babysitter (who I had never met) telling me that she had to leave for a while and I had to watch the kids. Well there were about 5 kids, not all my friend's, that ranged in age from about 2-6. So I had to get up and watch these very active kids. They were running around doing every craft imaginable, eating all sorts of things, and making a big mess.

I ended up out on the street in from of this pub sort of restaurant. Turns out it is owned by my old friend Andrea. I was chatting with a few people out front about the fact that there was a power outage on this and a few other blocks. One of the girls was also telling me that a couple of blocks up was this gas station that in this movie we all knew (which I think wasn’t a real movie I’ve seen in reality), the main character proposed to the other main character. I thought that was cool and wanted to see it, but never did.

We ended up inside the restaurant and the place was filling up with customers. They all knew there was a power outage and that we weren’t officially opening until the power came back on. But guess they were alerted that it was going to be soon, and they started getting antsy. I wasn’t really there to work, I was just a friend of the owners and was visiting or something. But there seemed to be a lot of employees running in and out of the kitchen like chickens with their heads cut off. They were trying to get things prepped, but were still waiting to get the power back so they could start cooking and stuff. Then Andrea’s Mom showed up and was trying to calm everyone down. I think she managed the place. I never did see what happened there.

I was suddenly back at my friend’s house. Not her real life house, but this made up, beautiful mansion. It was this very modern, white mansion with all clean square lines. There was a large pool outside the large plate glass windows out front. But there were also sprawling grounds with manicured lawns, another huge pool away from the house and a hot tub that could seat about 20 people. There were lots of people coming and going, some I knew, and some I didn’t. There was apparently going to be some huge party there that night. My old co-worker Jason, and his wife were there. And also a bunch of old college friends, like Adam and Bill. This group of friends and I were chatting in this one room for a long time, and they kept trying to point out to me people I may know. People were still coming and going, as I got the vibe that any and all people were welcome there and people just showed up whenever to hang out. At one point this very beautiful and shapely woman walked by the window and Adam ogled her. I jokingly asked if he was still married, and he held up his hand to show his wedding ring. Then he jokingly said, “I can still look.”. At one point I was out front just watching a handful of people heading down to the larger pool and hot tub further away from the house, and just had to ask someone for clarification, “Exactly whose house is this?” and they confirmed, Jennifer. How I didn’t know that since I was staying there, I’m not sure. Then I basically headed up the large staircase to the room I was staying in, to get ready for the party.

Then I woke up. I didn’t get to see how the party turned out.

Orlando Bloom dream... odd.

I was starting a new college and was moving into a dorm. It was a large campus, like a small town. I was hanging in this room with this guy. He was going to show me around and to my room, but we weren’t ready yet, so we were just hanging out and chatting. And there were a few other people in the room having their own conversations.

Then this girl comes in, who I think is the gf of the guy. She said she just got home from L.A. and I said that I did too. Then I told her I was there for a hockey game, and she then told me she loved hockey. What are the odds? So that was cool, I was making a new friend.

Then randomly, Orlando Bloom shows up with some sort of crazy automatic gun of some sort. They had these weird bullets that were huge, and had little metal doors on them that opened. Not sure why. He started shooting the gun through the room, not aiming at anyone, but causing big explosions. It didn’t seem to faze anyone, so he did it a couple of times.

Soon after we started hearing aircraft and everyone started scattering. I looked kinda baffled, so the guy I was chatting with said, “It’s a bi-plane, so it must be serious.” So I ran too. It was like the whole campus was running and screaming, and I looked up and saw a bi-plane and a helicopter. And I kinda wondered why everyone was running, because I think they knew about the shooting and were going after Orlando Bloom. But I ran anyway. Soon we saw a long limo zipping by with flags on it, as if it carried someone really important. I tried climbing up some stairs in one of the building, but it was as if the building was warped and I couldn’t squeeze up it.

- And then I woke up. I hate when that happens and I don’t find out what happened. Plus, what’s up with Orlando Bloom in my dream? I couldn’t even tell you how long it’s been since I’ve seen him act in something. Wasn’t on my radar. Very strange.

New Year’s Weekend in L.A.

So Sarah and I met up with Steph and Bre around 8:45am on Friday so we could sort of caravan down to L.A.. We ended up taking a couple of different freeways, but remained in the vicinity of each other. They even passed us on the freeway once and didn’t know it. After making one gas/food stop together, we arrived in L.A. ten mins apart from each other. We checked in the hotel which is an older hotel, and we later learned has VERY tiny rooms. There were a ton of 20 something’s checking in at the same time. We later learned that there was some local Rave and a bunch of them were going to it (dressed very oddly… I feel old).

Sarah unfortunately had pneumonia, but came on the trip anyway. She was feeling kinda ok, but she decided to take a nap before we headed out for the evening. At 6pm we met up with Steph, Bre and Jeremy to head to El Coyote Café, that Claire and Bobby recommended to me, for dinner.

We passed through Beverly Hills and Hollywood and ogled the mansions. The restaurant was eclectic and fun. I decided on the ostrich tacos, because how often do you find that on a menu (although I have had ostrich before), and they were great. Everyone enjoyed the place. After, we decided to head over to the Santa Monica Pier, which we predicted was going to be a madhouse.

Luckily it wasn’t. Michelle and Dan had been at the Ducks/Flyers game and met us at the Pier. We walked around a bit, took some pictures with a macaroni,
scared Steph by walking to the end of the pier over the water, watched some fireworks at 9pm down the beach, then walked down to the beach. Afterwards we went to Bubba Gumps for some late night drinks, appetizers and dessert before heading back to the hotel.

We got back around midnight and all headed to Steph and Bre’s room, which was a mansion compared to ours ;-) and we all hung out and chatted and laughed (boy did we) until 3am. Steph had woken up at 3am, so Sarah thought it would be fun to see if Steph could last 24 hours, and she did.

Saturday morning Sarah wasn’t feeling so hot, so she wanted to sleep in. We were meeting the gang at 3pm at the Yard House, but unfortunately Sarah wasn’t up to it, so she stayed behind. We walked down there and luckily it was no issue getting a table for 20 at that time. Slowly but surely everyone arrived (ended up being 15 people). It was great to see all the people from the previous night, plus Heidi, her 2 friends, Des, James, Kym and her husband, Matt and Stephanie.

We had a great time at lunch/dinner, even though it took them forever to take our orders. We walked over to Staples around 5 and went our separate ways to either the store, or to watch warm ups. Luckily Sarah was feeling better that this point and walked down to meet us for the game.

We were all seated in the same row for the game, which was nice. The game itself was a little mellow. Not a lot of fights or penalties, so it seemed to go pretty quick actually. But the Sharks pulled out a 1-0 win, and that’s what matters. We took our traditional group pic next to the Gretzky statue, then said our goodbyes.

Steph, Bre, Jeremy, Dan and I ended up hanging out and chatting for a few hours. It was a good time.

Sunday however was the day we had to leave. Sarah and my goal was to leave town by 11am, but after getting out of the parking garage, and getting gas, it was more like 11:20am. So off we went on a dreary day. Sarah’s Mom already gave us a heads up that there was a ton of rain between us and home, so we expected that. One we got close to the Grapevine, we saw a sign that said “snow escort, expect delays”. We didn’t know what a snow escort was, but thought it would be cool to see some snow. Well, after we were up the mountain, maybe around 1pm, we started seeing snow.

We thought, cool, and took some pictures. Then after a while, it was starting to stick to the ground, and the hills were looking dusted with snow.


Then the snow started piling up more, and that’s when traffic stood still. We started off with 5 lanes (or was it 4?) of traffic, moving pretty darn slowly. Then the snow started coming down really heavy, and we started moving about a mile an hour.

Then we would stop, then maybe go for 10 feet, stop another minute or so, go another 10 feet, etc. And I have never in my life driven on icy or snow covered roads in a non-4 wheel drive before. I would press the gas, my wheels wanted to force me to the right, and I had to compensate by turning to the left every time. I didn’t tell Sarah, but I was pretty freaked. I was worried I was going to spin out, or my car was going to shift to the right and hit another car, or get stuck in the snow. My heart was racing.

There were even a few people getting out of their cars and walking in the snow on the shoulder, not sure why. On the other side of the freeway, we could see plows, one at a time going down one lane, then a row of cars following it. So we knew that’s what was happening up ahead of us too.


After about an hour from when we first stopped in our tracks, the 5 lanes had been merged down to 1.

Some big trucks sucked it up and plowed through the snow in some of the outer lanes (yikes), but the rest of us played follow the leader and I tried to keep my tires in the tire tracks of the car in front of me. The icy roads had turned into slush and snow, and was much easier to drive on. It took us a full 2+ hours to get over the Grapevine, in what took us maybe 30 minutes on the way down.

And I have never seen so many cars just stranded on the side of the road for one reason or another. It was insane. When we were close to the bottom, we noticed no traffic on the other side of the freeways, and the road was just covered in snow. We knew at that point they closed the freeway down. Which apparently they did at 1pm, and may not reopen until tomorrow or Tuesday. And we felt bad for all the people on the other side that didn’t know this yet.

We stopped at the first place we could to make a pit stop. The gas station, food places, etc had no power. OK, so we drove another 5-10 minutes to the next place with services, this place MUCH larger. No power to the whole town either.

OK, so we just decided to move on and make up some time and made a stop a few hours later. We finally got to Sarah’s about 8 or so hours later, which took us less than 6 hours on the way down. Then I still had about a 45 minute drive home. We both made it home safely, which is what matters, and we have a story to tell.

Article about the storm and I-5 closure. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cold-weather-20110103,0,3315839.story

Back to Washington – Day 11

My last day in Washington. We had decided to have lunch at the Rockfish Grill, since my shuttle wasn't leaving until 2:45pm. So we had a nice lunch, then headed back to the boat. I actually only had about 30 mins at that point to finish my packing, so I did that really quick. Then I headed up to meet the shuttle. It was the same lady driver I had back in June. Nice lady. I was the only one on the shuttle with her all the way to where you change buses, so we chatted the whole time. She was telling me about how she lives in a very rural area, and that her family likes to shoot off crazy fireworks for New Years and stuff. And that they will shoot prairie dogs and stuff for digging up their property. I am for sure not pro-killing animals, but the way she told the story, it was pretty funny. I got on the other bus at the transfer station, and we continued on to Sea-Tac in the dark and rain. We got there around 6pm (a little late) and I had 2 1/2 hours to kill before my flight (it was delayed 30 mins). So I wandered the shops, bought a book ,magazine and 2 bottles of wine. Not sure why about the wine, I just thought I'd buy some on a whim. Then because of my stomach issues previously, I was too worried about eating anything too creamy, fatty or fried, so I skipped my normal trip to Ivar's at the airport for my usual fried shrimp and clam chowder. So I stopped at the place next door and got some couscous salad to go to eat on the plane. It was delicious. The flight was uneventful and I arrived in around 10:30pm to the puring rain. I thought I left that stuff in WA ;-)