Jet Set

My whole life has been spent living out of suitcases -- packing, unpacking; packing, unpacking. Every day I feel grateful that I found a partner in crime who has likewise been blessed (or cursed?) with the itch to jet set, and together we are perfecting the jet setting couple lifestyle! I don't like to brag (yea ok I do, just a little) but there are definite perks to having a trans-California relationship. This past long weekend is a perfect example.

To start off, I got to fly off on Thursday night, a perfect way to turn my back on Burke and Kant! YAY! After attempting (weakly) to tackle Tristram Shandy on the plane, I decided that Glamour Magazine was much more mini-vacation material. After a lovely late night dinner date in San Jose, reveling in the chicken madeira at Cheesecake Factory, we had a great windy drive back to Santa Cruz, basking in Kenny Chesney and the fog.

On Friday, little Miss Spoiled slept in until -honestly- 1:15!!! That's half the day! I got so lost in those fluffy blankies that I couldn't peel myself out of them until I literally became ashamed of still being in bed. That night, we had a tasty health food/Mexican fusion dinner and saw Dan in Real Life at the Del Mar, which is always a fun adventure. Last time we were there, the guy at the candy counter gave me a free cookie! This time, no free cookie, but I did buy a vegan German chocolate cupcake which was pretty bomb! I call it the celebratory "4 years of knowing Marcello" cupcake. It even had a cute little frosting flower on top!

Not exactly the one we had, but close

Saturday morning, I did something I hardly ever do - I let myself be talked into waking up early on the weekend! YES! Because I was really excited to embark on the type of adventure I like bestest of all - road trip with my man! We were up, up, and away, heading to Point Reyes, which was about an hour away from San Francsico. We were armed with no map and no snacks, but lots of songs on the mp3 player! This was the first time I actually drove across the Golden Gate in years, and it was still as cool as I remembered it. We didn't really know much about Point Reyes, except what a British-published tour guide of California told us. We finally got to this beautiful peninsula, and though at first maybe a bit underwhelming, we had a great time enjoying the beautiful scenery. Sparkly blue ocean on the right, sparkly blue ocean on the left, rolling green hills between the asphalt and the sparkliness, and scattered across the rolling green hills, my favorite animal in the whole world -- the moo cow! Let me tell you, the commercials don't lie - happy cows DO come from California! They have a permanent beachside residence, rolling fog comes and cools them down, sunny Cali skies clear up to warm them, and they're milk cows, so they will be around for a while without the threat of being.. well you know. I won't mention it here. Okay so we had read that there's a nifty light house at the tip of the peninsula, and we decided to track it down. And oh goodness by the time we got there we were kind of over it, but we decided to go seek it out. So we park, and walk the half mile to - get this- the equivalent of thirty flights of stairs that take you down to the lighthouse! Yes, I said down. So Veronica gets all cocky and thinks, oh what's a few stairs? We can do it! So we walk down, and walk and walk, and get to the lighthouse, which is cool but let's be honest, it's a lighthouse. How overly exciting can it be? We take some pretty cute pictures, and decide to brave the walk up those same thirty flights of stairs. And little weakling Veronica nearly had a heart attack! I am SO inspired to get in shape now. Yes sir! By the time we made it back to the car all I wanted was FOOD! We snaked our way back into the itsy bitsy little towns on the way and got some really tasty pizza in Inverness (I think). Then, it was daring the traffic back time! YES! Having no map and only one good sense of direction between us, we got on and off freeways, on and off bridges, in and out of traffic, and went in or around or above, I have no idea now, the entire Bay Area. After a little fun stroll around Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco and even a bit of shopping, we decided it was time to call it a day, but not before ending up in San Mateo, indulging in some truly tasty rolls at Joy Sushi! If it wasn't for the hour's drive back, I'd say that was the perfect end to an adventurous day!

Point Reyes Lighthouse and Stairs!

Sunday was really chill, with American Gangster being the main attraction, and actually catching a matinee at the main Santa Cruz theater proved to be not such a horrible thing after all, though the girl next to me kept sending text messages. Oh well. I can't think of a hotter date than having three sexy men to focus on - my first ex-husband Russell, the hotness that is Denzel, and my own sexy man! Monday was study day, but really was spent mostly eating brownies, watching reality tv, and just a little bit of Melville. This morning, it was back to the airport again, with beautiful rolling fog and traffic reports that told us that cows and deer were causing havoc somewhere! No kidding! Cows and deer! When's the last time that was mystery behind LA traffic jams? In just a couple of hours, I was sitting at work in Norwalk, talking thesis statements, but still totally basking in the fact that in the last few days, I'd spent time in San Jose, Santa Cruz, the countryside outside San Francisco, the city of San Francisco, and San Mateo! And we just had the funnest little mini dates on the way, like the really fun dinner last night. I always knew ravioli are tasty, but who knew they're even better when they're deep fried!?

I guess the point of this blog is me just basking in the aftermath of a really great, relaxing, fun, and adventurous few days with my best buddy, even though right now he's 300 miles away.

Original post date: November 6, 2007