Kookaburra sits in the ol' gum tree...

Weekly Update, November 1st - 7th

2009-11-07T22:33:26Z

It was a quiet week in San Jose, at least on my part. I had a painting project due in my Color class on Wednesday, and my project was well-received. It wasn't exciting; we had to do color charts based on the Munsell Color system, starting with grayscale and working with a certain hue to maximum saturation based on the value. I chose yellow because it was the easiest - or, at least, it would have fewer squares to blend and paint. It turned out OK; the painting was a little sloppy because I can't control a brush for the life of me but not bad. When we hung the paintings in class, it was really interesting because you could see that some people really struggle with the concept of value. But most of the paintings were really good, and made me wish I'd picked a more challenging color. The majority of the class went with blue or green. I overheard several people saying stuff like "Oh, the yellow one looks really good" while they were in front of mine, so that was uplifting. There's one guy in the class who is really good with paint and color - he finishes the assignments in a single day and spaces out during the lectures, but still does just fine - and I saw him talking to another student about my color grid and giving it a thumbs-up. That was a mood lifter, since he can be really critical when he thinks you've done something wrong.

I had several assignments that I had neglected to turn in for my painting class, so I got those to my teacher and that was a relief, too.

--

Last night Seanie and I went over to Bonbon's house for tea. That was fun. Her apartment is really cute. She works at Teavana so she had a bookshelf that was competely filled with Teavana tea tins; it was amazing. It was a very last minute thing; she texted me around 8 or so to see if I wanted to come over and eat brownies and drink tea (but of course I want to) and we headed over right around 10. It's nice having one of my co-workers living out in my area of town; most of the rest of the Lush crew live out by Valley Fair so last-minute visits are a much more difficult proposition.

--

The Manager at RHA is going to be gone for a few weeks on a cruise. Lucky guy. I'm jealous. It's his first big vacation since he started here, and it's going to be weird not having him around. Hopefully nothing major happens while he's away.

Ooh! One of the residents just offered me a free lunch, so I gotta go mooch. :D Talk to ya later, Internet!

This is Halloween!

2009-11-01T17:07:09Z

So for Halloween this year I was Norma Desmond*:

*Just kidding. But seriously, I've got the face down, don't you think?

--

So for Halloween, there were no parties or crazy nights out because I went to work at Lush. Luckily, we were having a party at the store, so it was less work-like than usual, but that meant I had to dress up in a costume. Naturally, I just wanted to cheap out and refused to buy a new costume, so I spent some time rummaging through my closet and eventually concluded I could pull together some sort of Amy Brown fairy outfit. I had everything except wings, so last night I sent Seanie out to brave the crowds at one of those super-sized Halloween stores and he bought me some cheap black angel wings. Quality-wise, they're awful, of course, and the straps were made so poorly the wings didn't come close to sitting in the proper part of my back. But with a couple of pins we were able to get them to stay in place.

My final costume (and my manager as a pirate wench):

While I was at work, kids were trick-or-treating at the mall. So many kids. We ran out of candy after only about an hour and a half, and we'd had at least 8 or 9 bags of the stuff. It was crazy. There were a lot of customers, considering it was Halloween, but that was all thanks to the fact that Lush was having a 'Dead Man's Party' and you got tons of free stuff if you came in. But the customers came in waves, and there were a lot of employees milling around, so I didn't really have much to do in the store at the beginning of my shift. I ended up going to the doorway and telling kids we had no more candy, cutting them off before they could come in the store and set off our conversion tracker.
(Not that it worked. They'd still go in the store anyway, hoping someone else was nicer.)

It's funny, but I got a lot of parents asking if they could take pictures with their kid. I guess they can't get candy so they'll take a picture of the gothic angel instead? Sure, why not? It warms the cockles of my heart to know that in ten years, kids will look through the family photos and will stop and look at the strange woman and say "Mom, who the hell is that?" and Mom will reply "I dunno, some random mall chick."

One of my coworkers was dressed up as Lady Gaga, so if you walked through Valley Fair between the hours of 6 and 8 you very likely saw this dancing in the doorway of our store:

It was so funny. "Lady Gaga" was really into the dancing, and we had people stopping to stare, take photos, and record videos of her dancing. I could not stop laughing. It was so funny. Bonnie is my hero for having the balls to dance while strangers gawk for at least ten repetitions of Gaga's songs.

Lady Gaga and I.

Gaga, Abby and Peter:

Lady Gaga, a crazy 80's Lady and a Pirate Wench walk into a bar...

...actually, I just realized that set-up doesn't work because only the Pirate is of legal drinking age.

One of my newest co-workers, Elena was the other gothically-inclined lady. She had this fantastic kestrel mask and mantle that she couldn't wear because it scared too many kids, apparently. I thought it looked great.

A customer came in wearing the cutest Max (Where the Wild Things Are) costume:

Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella (actually a Marie Antoinette costume):

At nine o'clock the store was closed, registers shut down and we were ready to go home. We made our monthly sales target and blew our store into bonus-land. Great night!

The store is closed and it is time to go home!

Life sucks.

2009-10-30T05:12:53Z

What a nasty week.

Four midterms, one of which I didn't even find out about until this Monday!
Monday the 26th - Accounting
Wednesday the 28th - Art History (Modern)
Thursday the 29th - Archaeology
Friday the 30th - Statistics

I feel so burned out, but at least there's only one more to force myself through.

--

In other news, there was an event at DeAnza for transfer students today, so I talked to representatives from San Jose State, San Francisco State, and CSU East Bay. Sounds like my plan for a double major may get scuttled; apparently the schools are really cracking down on students spending an extra year at university to get extra degrees. Man. That sucks. The best chance I would have would be at East Bay, but that's my back-up back-up school. It's geographically inconvenient, and hasn't got a reputation that can compare with other schools. I mean, I only know one person who ever went there. But they're the only school that doesn't currently have a policy in place against second bachelor's degrees.

San Jose State is still my first choice, though, since it's close to home. SFSU is the convenient back-up, but I might have to quit my job at RHA to go there, and I would genuinely hate to do that.

Also, my accounting teacher has a really screechy, annoying voice.

2009-10-25T17:27:43Z

My accounting teacher - the rather frumpy one that reminds me of Dolores Umbridge - is not a very good teacher. She uses the powerpoint slides provided by the textbook's publisher in her lectures, which is fine, but she doesn't really use them. Sometimes she'll speed through the slides so fast you can't write any of the definitions down - but she quizzes you on the same definitions later. Other times she'll being doing a demonstration problem on the whiteboard when she'll veer off and do all these extra calculations to determine things not required in the problem. For example, the problem might ask what the variable costs per unit is for a certain sales number, but she'll also work the numbers to see what would happen if we increased sales ten percent, or if we started manufacturing a second line of sweaters, or all these other funny details not called for in the original problem. It gets really confusing.

She also seems to have a set number of questions we need to ask her - if we aren't asking questions, we weren't paying enough attention. A few days ago she went off on a little rant that we should be paying attention because she's the "interpreter" of the book. We could just read the textbook, she conceded, but we couldn't understand it without her help so we ought to pay attention to her. But when you do ask a question, she doesn't answer it very well, either pointing at where she's done math on the board and telling you to look there, or referring you to the textbook anyway!

Also, if you're ever late she gives you the stink eye, and continues to glare at you for the rest of the quarter. Seriously. Whenever she looks into my back corner, she looks so angry, like she can't believe I have the audacity to come to class...and that's when I'm on time.

I'm really stumped on one of the chapters - Process Cost Accountings makes absolutely no sense to me. I'm hoping to ask accounting teacher from the summer for help, but I don't know if I'll be able to find him before the next accounting midterm. :-/ At this rate, though, I'm seriously thinking that my best helper will be Dr. Wikipedia. Again.

It's not a good customer service day.

2009-10-24T05:25:57Z

Sooo behind in school. Not good.
Three midterms next week. Also not good.
I'm tellin' ya, by Friday I'm gonna keel over and die.

--

Crazy resident today: She takes her dog out for a walk. Near a pond in the common area, she stumbles into a swarm of wasps and gets stung. Her dog gets stung. They're both traumatized. In the process of escaping she drops her sunglasses and her cell phone, as well as the doggie-doo bags she carried with her. Her dog's poo, which I guess she was in the middle of cleaning up, is left on the ground. She and the dog go home and puff up like balloons.

She calls the office. She wants one of the Maintenance guys to go up and check the wasps because those things were aggressive and nasty. Fine. That's kinda in their job description, right? If there's a nest right next to the path, they should know about. BUT this resident also wants someone (of course she doesn't specify who, other than not her) to go up to the wasp-infested path and get her cell phone and her sunglasses for her.

Give. Me. A. Break. Get your own fuckin' stuff that YOU dropped. If the wasps are such a terror, you're a horrible person for expecting someone else to go brave that. If the wasps have left and you're just too chicken to go up there yourself...well, too bad.

The leader of the Maintenance Crew happened to be in the office and we were chatting before she called, so I told him about the call and he said he'd take a look, but he was having a busy day so it wasn't exactly high priority.

Lady called back an hour or two later when I got back from my lunch break (she may have tried to call sooner, but I wasn't there) to see if her cell phone was at the office yet. I told her no, it wasn't, and I hadn't seen anyone from the Maintenance team so I didn't know if they'd even had a chance to go up yet. She repeated that there was no way she was walking up there to get her stuff. She had been stung and it was horrible and she was pissed. I said nothing, because really, there was nothing to say. I wasn't going to apologize for the wasps being there, because that's an act of God and the office had nothing to do with it. I wasn't going to volunteer to go retrieve her stuff, because that's totally outside my job description. I wasn't going to say "Get the fuck OVER it" because that is a quick way to lose a job. So I said nothing other than non-commital "Hmm-hmm." She said she would call back in a while to see if her cell phone had been brought into the office. I said "OK" and she hung up.

FIVE MINUTES LATER (ten minutes max) she came to the office door and asked for her cell phone. I told her it wasn't there, and as far as I knew no one had a chance to go up to the pond and get it - just like I told her on the phone. She wanted someone to go and get it RIGHT NOW - but I told her that no one was there. The Maintenance manager was somewhere else on the property or gone for the day; the one crew member on duty was hanging party lights for an evening event, a job planned for him for days. I wasn't going to pull him from it. She gave me a A Dirty Look, but I sure wasn't going to go trotting up the path for her sunglasses. Finally she muttered something about going back to the hospital and left.

She's a very vocal resident, so I'm sure she'll call Monday and leave my bosses nasty messages about my lack of customer service and the insufficient speed with which we reacted. And all I have to say is this:
YOU'RE THE IDIOT WHO PANICKED AND DROPPED YOUR STUFF. GO GET IT YOURSELF.
YES, I REALIZE YOU ARE IN PAIN BECAUSE YOU WERE STUNG BY WASPS, BUT IT'S STILL YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO RETRIEVE YOUR OWN BELONGINGS.
Yeesh.

--

So it was already a bad day when I got to Lush, and right before we closed I got another *delightful* customer. Lush has a promotion going right now where if you spend $40, you can pick out a free BUBBLE BATH. It's a pretty rockin' deal, since it includes any bath bomb, including the $8.95 Comforter and the $11.95 Blue Skies. So this lady comes in with her posse of fresh import Asians. They don't really interact with the staff, other than to establish that they know the promotion and know the Lush products. After she shops for 15-20 minutes, she comes up to the register. She wants to spend exactly $40 to get her free item, and hands me her items very carefully. The item she wants for free she keeps separate, balled up in her hand where I can't see it. I figure it must be one of the expensive bubble baths, and she wants to make sure I don't charge her for it. Whatever.

Her first total was $32, so she picks out another item, which brings her up to $39. Then she takes something out and replaces it with something slightly more expensive to bring herself up to $40. Finally she hands over the free item she's been hoarding away from me, and when I open it up I see it's a Floating Island Bath Melt. Bath melts are cocoa butter confections that make the bath water moisturizing and luxurious. They're also, unfortunately, not part of the promotion. When I point this out gently, her face immediately darkens like a spoiled child's.
Her: "But I was here before and she said it was OK."
Me: " I'm sorry, but the bath melt is not included in the promotion as a free item."
Her: "They let me do it last time!"
Me: "They may have been able to make an exception then, but I'm not a manager and I do not have the ability to override the promotion. I can only give you bubble baths for free."
Her: **seriously, she looks like a child about to cry because Mommy won't buy her ice cream**
Her: "Give me this one free or I won't buy any!"
Me: *shrug* "I can't. Sorry."

She turns and storms out with her crew, and I start un-bagging the items in her basket and my co-workers help me put them away. As the exchange had progressed I started to recognize her - she's a semi-regular pain in the ass who ALWAYS come in and tries to twist the promotions to get better deals or asks for excessive samples or special services, like cutting bath bombs in half (which we aren't supposed to do because it's dangerous). You'd think by now she'd be so horrified by our customer service she'd stop showing up, but no luck. Oh well. I'm sure I'll see her again during the Christmas season.

Leave your kid at home, yeesh!

2009-10-21T03:40:16Z

View Poll: #1474049

My mom is a member of a bluegrass group, and they have meetings at our house once or twice a month. Today, one of the members of this group (whom I've never seen before, so she's either new or someone's wife/sister/whatever) and she brought her two-year old with her. I don't like kids, and I especially don't like surprise kids. Mom had no idea this child was coming until she heard it talking to itself as it entered the house.

Even worse, the owner of the child didn't bring anything to amuse it. No books, no crayons, no toys. Nothing. So first my mom looked to see if we had anything suitable, but we haven't had a kid that young in this house for twenty years. Naturally, we have nothing. So they give the kid a permanent marker - a sharpie! - and a piece of paper and she starts scribbling on it. You just KNOW that the two-year old is going to eventually miss the paper and permanently ruin our table.

I think it's horribly tacky to bring a child to someone's house without asking - especially when the person is, at best, a very casual acquaintance and at worse a complete stranger. But if you do have to bring a child with you due to some sort of emergency, give it a way to amuse itself! I mean, how hard is it to keep a coloring book or a toy doll or WHATEVER in the car?

I had some painting to do tonight, but I don't really want to play with toxic chemicals while some munchkin is wandering around looking for stuff to stick in its mouth.

Christmas is in at Lush, and I'm in my house where it's warm.

2009-10-15T23:24:23Z

The Christmas products are in at Lush. I helped set everything out on Tuesday night, after the store closed. We don't have all the Christmas gifts in, and we were missing the Fairy Tails body scrub, but I *think* everything else was there.

In other barely-Lush-related news, I visited Melissa at the hospital yesterday. (She's one of my coworkers at Lush, who went in for back surgery on Monday.) She seems to be healing up OK, all things considered. She's nearly mastered the use of her walker and was wheeling laps around the recovery center yesterday. That was pretty cool. She might be home by now; her doctor had to sign her off this morning but she said she'd be able to go home today.

I saw two performances over the weekend - Coppelia on Thursday (I start the weekend early) and Rent on Sunday night - and finally got around to writing 'em up. Feel free to read if you're interested. They were both shows worth seeing.

School's canceled! Hooray!

2009-10-13T18:25:50Z

OK, I know that those of you who live in snowier climes are probably rolling your eyes as I say this, but school was canceled today due to the rain.
I'm very excited. I had a Statistics midterm today, and now I have a whole extra day to Not Study for it!!!

It's utterly wussy not to have class because of rain. I freely admit it. But the power's out and everything in our classrooms now revolves around technology, so if I went out to campus I'd just be sitting on my bum, in the dark, staring at the teacher struggling to demonstrate problems without the aid of powerpoint and projectors. It'd be tragic, so I will kindly spare my teachers the trauma.

So do I buckle down and get caught up on my studies, or spend a restful day off vegging? Decisions, decisions...

Obama & the Nobel Peace Prize, 2009

2009-10-09T17:44:18Z

So President Barack Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize.
"Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee said their choice could be seen as an early vote of confidence in Obama intended to build global support for his policies."

I'm sorry. Accomplishments are what we should be honoring with the Nobel Peace Prize, not intentions.* Obama has done a great many things, some of them good and some of them bad, but I honestly can't think of anything he's done that warrants the Nobel. He's improved our standing in the Muslim world, but that was not a particular merit of his Presidential policies, but the result of:
A/ He has a Muslim background, so he's more likely to understand their background
B/ He's a man of color
C/ Obama burps sparkling bubbles, farts rainbows and rides unicorns. People just love him. (EDIT TO ADD: ALSO HE POOPS GOLD.)

and perhaps the biggest contributing factor is simply
D/ HE'S NOT BUSH.

I say this as a huge Obama fan. I love the guy. But he's been in office for less than a year. When he was nominated, he was in office for like two weeks. I feel like people around the world are doing their darnest to turn Obama into a symbol for everything good and proper, but he's not the Messiah. He's not a savior or a superhero. He's just a man like any other, and at some point we're all going to have to realize that he's human and can't live up to all the expectations and desires and wishes and hopes we've piled on his shoulders.

* Although according to this article, intentions are just fine for a Peace Prize.

Feeling anti-social again.

2009-10-09T17:09:07Z

Today was Club Day at DeAnza. All the little student organizations and associations get a table at the center of campus and try to recruit members to their group for Christians, Atheists, Chinese, Rock Climbers, etc. Seeing the tables always bums me out a little. I'd love to join one of the groups and be able to play board games during my breaks (yes, there's an International Board Game club) or go on weekend excursions to Yosemite with the Outdoor Club, but where's my time to do this stuff? When I'm not in class, I'm eitehr studying my books or working at one of my jobs. I don't have time to see the friends I already have; is there any point to fostering new relationships I'll never be able to maintain?

Oh well. What else did I do today besides spend ten minutes wallowing in self-pity because I am antisocial? I had a midterm in Archaeology. I think I did very well. I was in and out like lightning, bam bam! 40 questions. Completed in ten minutes. That's what, fifteen seconds a question? It was an open-note exam, but I didn't even need the notebook. I cracked it open once or twice just to double-check an answer, but it was just confirmation. It was a ridiculously easy exam. Heck, I even spotted an error the teacher had made when he set up one of the questions. I rock.

My Accounting midterm from last Tuesday? That one didn't go so well. I got a 74%, which given I had missed at least four class sessions in two weeks is not bad. I mean, not awesome, but passing, which was all I expected. But the teacher grades on a curve, and our class performed so poorly she decided to add ten extra points to every exam. My score went shooting upwards 20% to a comfortable 94%. What's that, an A? Sweet! Of course, the bitch of getting an A is that you have to maintain it, but I'm happy, of course.

Next Tuesday is my next midterm, this time in Statistics. Fun!

By comparison, I'm a straight-A student!

2009-10-06T21:22:49Z

Man, I thought I was unprepared for my Archaeology midterm. I have only read the chapters once, and hadn't really gone over my notes or made my "cheat sheets" for the exam, which is on Thursday.

The guy sitting next to me today? Hasn't even looked at the textbook yet. He had the terms from the class written in his notebook, but he didn't even know what paleoarchaeology was. Oi. You can figure that out just from the name! Yeesh.

Organizational Notes, 10/4/09

2009-10-04T19:04:00Z

TO-DO List (no particular order)
~~accounting~~
- read ch. 20
- practice problems ch. 19, 20
~~- computer probs ch. 20~~ - 1:08 pm

art history
~~- locate textbook~~
- read ch. 3

archaeology
~~- get notebook~~
- take notes ch. 1, 2, 3

statistics
- ~~read ch. 1~~ 2:52 pm
- read through 2.5

design & color
- ~~paint color swatches for color wheel, warm colors~~
- paint color swatches for color wheel, cool colors

- package up bookmooch books, to be mailed

- package up aromacreme for azuki

- clear gmail account of emails pending response

- update book blog, 10/4

- fold laundry

...well, that's do for a start.

k00kaburra @ 2009-10-02T15:49:00

2009-10-02T22:56:06Z

Dear Internet,
When I decided to continue working at both RHA and Lush while taking twenty academic units, I may not have been thinking clearly. I may have overbooked myself just a smidge. Just sayin'.

~Me

School's going pretty well, right now, but we're only two weeks in. I've got my first two midterms next week; I guess my grades on those will reveal how fast my ship is sinking.

SJSU applications opened up yesterday; my application is *mostly* done but I need to check in with a counseler to confirm I am providing the correct information. Once that is done, I should be able to submit my application and rest easy for a few months, until I hear from SJSU next spring. I scheduled an appointment with one of the counselers, but the earliest date is October 20th - I don't want to wait that long! On Tuesday afternoon I'm going to try to do a walk-in appointment, but whenever I do that I end up waiting around for a couple of hours so we'll see if I have the patience for it.

Sorry if I owe you an e-mail. My Internet response time is down to a crawl right now.

Busy busy as a bee.

2009-09-27T23:06:03Z

Man, it has been a long weekend.

Friday was a fourteen hour workday.
Saturday was the same.
Today, at only eight and a half hours, seems like a virtual vacation.

Of course, the REALLY exciting day will be Thursday. After 2 pm I have the whole evening off!

But it is only Sunday right now. Gotta truck through the rest of my shift here at RHA and then four days of school before Thursday afternoon arrives.

Crazy day at RHA...

2009-09-26T05:41:09Z

So I got to work at RHA this morning and in my mailbox was an envelope from the Board of Directors. I was late (aaargh!) so I didn't have a chance to look at it; I was too busy running around making coffee and answering phones and all the rest. Finally, I settled in and got to work, and then the General Manager came out and reminded me to open the envelope. It was a Thank You note/Announcement that I had been selected as the Employee of the Year, and a one hundred dollar bill. I was so surprised by the money that I almost started crying. It was so nice of the Board to nominate me, let alone give me money. So that was an awesome way to star the day. I'll get my name on a plaque and everything - way exciting.

Fast forward a few hours. The General Manager was in and out; he had a doctor's appointment and errands to run. My Boss, who doesn't work Fridays (the whole reason I work Fridays is because she needed the day for family matters) came in to check her e-mail, and while she was here my co-worker Maria called. (You may remember her for some drama back in August.) She basically told me she wanted to quit, because her job at Rinconada was reducing the amount of money she got from unemployment when she was laid off from her other job. I was trying to figure that out - if she quits Rinconada, wouldn't that endanger the unemployment payments because she's deciding not to work? - but I was also trying not to say anything 'incriminating' out loud because the Boss was there and I wasn't sure how firm Maria's idea was. But it seemed like she was definite about it, because she wanted to speak to the General Manager, so I asked if she wanted to speak to the Boss since she was sitting just a few feet away, talking to one of RHA's Directors. (Quick background note: The General Manager is the top of the food chain, under the Board of Directors. The Boss is my direct boss, but her official title is Office Manager.) Maria did, so I handed the conversation over to the Boss, who was Not Pleased.

The Boss went into the General Manager's office to talk to Maria, and I went off to the kitchen so that
A/ I wouldn't be eavesdropping
B/ I would appear busy
and commenced washing dirty dishes.
After I heard the Boss go back into our office, I went back in. She asked me if Maria had talked to me about covering her weekend shifts. I said no, because I didn't remember having any sort of conversation like that over the previous week. She said Maria would probably not be coming in for her shifts. Right then the General Manager came in, and they talked about the situation for a few minutes. In the end the General Manager decided to fire Maria, because apparently she hadn't shown up to her shift on Wednesday, either. So when Maria called him on his cell phone number (which I had given her) that's what he said, but to be honest I don't know who officially ended it. Was she was terminated or if she quit. Bottom line, she doesn't work for RHA anymore.

I was pretty bummed. Maria was a great coworker, and she's always fun to talk to. She works hard so it's really sad that her job ended on such a negative note. (Plus, I had kinda been hoping she could cover one of my shifts next weekend so I could escape with Daddy for a quick Yosemite trip.) Several members of the Board of the Directors popped by throughout the afternoon to sign Maria's last check or to pick up paperwork. They would congratulate me on being Employee of the Year and I'd thank them for the opportunity, but at the same time my mind was constantly worrying how Maria was going to pay for her kids' education while she's out of work, hoping her gambit to increase unemployment works for her, wondering what she'd do if she doesn't find another job soon, etc.

School's rockin'...

2009-09-25T21:41:13Z

I'm liking my classes as the first week draws to a close. The fact that Stats and Accounting have Friday sessions is a bit of a problem, but class attendence isn't tracked by either teacher so *hopefully* they'll avoid schedule tests on Fridays and I'll be just fine.

Setting Archaeology as my first class of the day was a brilliant masterstroke of scheduling. I love the topic, and my teacher has so many awesome filed stories that I don't want to miss a single lecture. Not only do I go to school every day with no reluctance, I arrive on campus early to ensure I get a good seat.

Managerial Accounting is more of a problem. My mind wanders because the topic is dull. Really, there's not much you can do to make accounting exciting, and my teacher doesn't seem to be trying to do so anyway. Her teaching style is so nondescript that when I attempt to describe her, I can only think of physical attributes. Middle-aged. Rather dumpy. Hair's thinning and obviously dyed. Dresses in 'career' clothes, but she's also dressed for comfort so they're loose and unexciting. I feel bad that I've taken note only of rather unflattering observations, but as a teacher she hasn't done a thing to stand out.

I have an hour break after these two classes, and it's become my coffee/tea time. I find a shady spot on campus and read for an hour.

Stats sucks, topically, but it's a class EVERYONE was trying to get into. On the second day, our teacher had brought in extra desks and they were still overflowing. There were 45 students in the class, so he told everyone not enrolled to leave because he wouldn't be able to do any more adds. One or two people leave, so he does a head count and there are still over 50 people in the classroom. So he repeats himself, and when no one leaves he says again that he is not adding anyone so GET OUT. A couple of people who had been the top of the waitlist, originally told they could stay, are told to leave as well - and of course, these are the 'good' students who do leave. But there are still five or six extra students in the classroom, unenrolled, that our teacher's got to get rid of but they're refusing to leave, and the class is big enough that he can't tell which students they are.
Finally, one chola in the back row yells, "Do you people NOT UNDERSTAND ENGLISH? He told you to GET OUT!" and some terrified people went scrambling out. OK, that was kinda funny, but not really.

Art's good. Giles is hilarious!

Design and Color is awesome! I had so much fun chattering away on Wednesday. When we actually start painting next week, I'm a little nervous about that, because I'm horrible with acrylic paint but the class is so fun I hope it'll be OK.

As You Like It

2009-09-25T21:07:46Z

San Jose Rep is currently performing As You Like It, and since this seems to be the Year of Shakespeare for me Seanie and I decided to get tickets. (It helps that the Rep had a buy one, get one free promotion running.) It's been a year or two since I last saw a show by the Rep, but they usually have good entertainment.

So As You Like It was placed in an ambiguous setting, at an amorphous time. Sometimes it looked modern, like at the beginning of the play when Orlando and Charles wrestle in a WWF-styled arena, but when Rosalind and Celia flee to the forest of Arden the costumes and possessions of the characters slip into something more likely found at the turn of 20th century:

Very pretty, though.

The director made an interesting choice - I don't know if this is a common occurance in performances of this play - in having Jacques and Adam played by the same actor. As Jacques is giving the famous 'All the world's a stage' monologue, he strips down out of his finer clothes and becomes older and hunched as he speaks, until at the end of the monologue as he says 'sans teeth, sans taste' etc Jacques has disappeared and the actor has become the shriveled husk of Adam, the aged servant of Orlando. It's pretty cool; the two characters don't look at all similar so if you weren't paying close attention to the faces, it wouldn't be noticeable until that moment that the actor had been playing Adam before. It was just beautifully done. The rest of the cast was quite good, too, but that one scene really stuck with me.

I hate digital sets. Just gotta say it. I think it's boring when everything is just tossed up a screen behind the actors without three-dimensional props. But they did pretty well with them in this production; the screens complimented the props instead of replacing them. Tables and chairs (and a rusted out car) were still on the stage, and actual snow fell instead of a digital projection in the background, so it looked very cool. Gold star for actually using technology effectively!

First Day of School, Fall 2009

2009-09-24T23:18:03Z

One year ago, I fully intended to be at San Jose State University today. I thought I'd be taking the bus downtown every morning, eagerly soaking up knowledge at a 'real' college. I'd have finally moved forward with my life.

Well, a big HA-HA to that. The California budget cuts ripped that goal to shreds, as SJSU closed Fall 2009 admissions early and then refused to even consider taking applications for Spring 2010. So it's September 21st, 2009, and instead of being a month into the semester at SJSU I'm starting a new quarter at DeAnza.

Although I'm not where I wanted to be, I can't complain. My schedule looks pretty good based on what I experienced today.

My first class of the morning is Intro to Archaeology and it is being taught by a Disney Animatronic. The teacher, a highly experienced archeologist who has done excavations all over Santa Clara Valley, is great. I mean, he's entertaining. He speaks clearly and loudly - always a huge bonus in a teacher. But I swear he copied his gestures and facial tics from one of Disney's robots; possibly, the auctioneer on Pirates of the Caribbean. His head swivels, he blinks, his arms move and I think it's just his way of being a dynamic speaker (and don't get me wrong, he is quite good) but all I can think is "Hello, Disney? One of your Haunted Mansion ghosts escaped!" My day is off to a very strong start with this guy, though, whom I shall call Indiana Jones in my journal thanks to Jeannie.

After him, my schedule sags for a couple of hours. My accounting teacher is OK, but she's not who I wanted to take the class from. When I signed up for Managerial Accounting it was taught by Kwak, a teacher I had back in the Spring 2009. I liked his class because I got an A+ even though I only showed up to about half the classes, because almost every assignment is done through the computer. I also liked him because even though the class met five days a week, M-F, Kwak never made us come to school on Friday. That was awesome. But last Friday - the weekend before school started - the accounting classes were all switched around and now Kwak isn't teaching a section of this class, so I have to take it from this lady. DANG IT! I don't think I'll be able to attend the Friday classes, since I work at RHA that day, and I had planned to use my lunch break for my next class, Statistics.

But before I go to Stats, I have an hour break. I went and bought coffee because I was practically falling asleep in Accounting, grabbed a muffin and settled into a shady spot to read.

Statistics is the class I'm most worried about. The teacher for the class was poorly rated on RateMyProfessors.com, but the only Stats teacher ranked highly had his section completely filled up before I had a chance to register. This teacher had two things going for him:
1/ No accent
2/ No homework
so I went with his class. But I've dropped Stats before because it was so incomprehensible, so I'm really, really going to have to apply myself this time around.

Another hour break. I went back to my car to take a nap, but that failed because someone's car alarm went off. But let me take this opportunity to say that I have NEVER seen DeAnza so crowded in all the years I've been going there. Parking's a nightmare; some people were reporting they spent between thirty minutes and an hour trying to find a spot. The sheer mass of people milling around between classes is like fighting your way through the mall on the weekend before Christmas. The news said there was something like 8,000 people trying to add classes; I don't know if that means there were 8,000 people on waitlists who may have other classes or if there were 8,000 people just trying to add something so they can be in school. Either way, it's horrible.

After this break it's time for Art History: Post-Impressionism through Today with a teacher I'm going to call Giles because yes, he is just like Buffy's Watcher. British, bookish, dry humor, and round wire glasses. He seems to be extremely, utterly opposed to cell phones, complaining that whenever we use them we're giving our money away to The Man. He claims that art history is one of the best degrees you can get, because in order to understand art you must have a thoroughly rounded education. You must understand history, philosophy, religion, economics, politics, etc. etc. etc. Oh, and if he had control over these matters he'd make sure that every major world leader had some sort of history degree because MAYBE they would understand cause and effect a little better.
I think his class is going to be great fun.

Another break follows, two hours long this time. I walk over to Whole Foods, decide I'm too cheap to buy food there, and walk down to Target for $3.50 mac-n-cheese with yogurt and milk. Huh. Lots of dairy; never thought of that before.

My last class is going to be the most fun, I think. It's Design and Color which can only be useful, right? But I'm excited because it's another class with Miki, who taught my Design class last quarter and was SUCH a great teacher. Even better, a lot of the students from my Design class are also in this color class, so it will be fun to work with these guys again.

Renaissance Faire 2009

2009-09-24T22:39:30Z

September 20th, 2009.
Last day of freedom. (School starts tomorrow.)
What to do?
Escape reality and flee back into the past at the NORTHERN CALIFORNIA RENAISSANCE FAIRE!!!

I woke up pretty bloody early in the morning so that Seanie and I could be at Terry's house by seven. Amazingly, the frantic scrambling and frustration of Seanie's desire for more sleep paid off, and we actually arrived on time. Of course, Terry and Rhi weren't quite ready, but these things happen.

After waiting for a bit (browsing the bookshelves to amuse myself) the four of us headed over to IHOP for breakfast. Nothin' like sweet, sweet french toast to start off the day! I have to admit, though, it's totally a buzzkill to read the new menus. IHOP recently started printing the calorie count for each entree right next to the description, so you'll happily read "French Toast: Delicious strawberries in sweet sticky syrup layered over fluffy, thick slices of french toast awash in buttery goodness and powdered sugar" and then at the end of the mouth-watering description it reminds you "2990 CALORIES!!!" *sigh* I mean, we were going to the Renn Faire and that meant tons of high-calorie food, plus alcohol, so a huge breakfast on top of it was just a heart attack waiting to happen. k
But so what? I still got french toast.

After breakfast we went back to Terry's to pack up costumes and get Sarah, one of Rhi's friends. (I'd met her briefly at a party or two.) Then off we went to Gilroy, where Kathleen lives. Kathleen is Rhi's mom, and she officially owns the Cutest House in the World. Seriously. They have a wonderful front porch to sit and relax in a summer breeze. They have a beautiful Victorian parlor as you walk in. The guest bedroom is exquisite, with wicker baskets and antique furniture. There are cute little china teapot sets EVERYWHERE. There's a library that I could peruse for days; I saw soooo many books from my various wish lists on the shelves. Really awesome. She and Eric also have a huge selection of costumes and we spent hours picking out what to wear from her collection. In fact, we spent so long that we didn't get to the Faire until past noon, which was a pity, because we missed the first jousting tournament.

But we were there! At the Faire!

Right after we walked in, one of the vendors started heckling Terry because he wasn't in period costume. (He was the only one in our group who hadn't dressed up. Even Seanie had pulled on a hooded priest's shirt over his jeans.) Before Terry was going to even consider clothing with codpieces, he needed alcohol, so we set off to find one of the many beverage establishments and loaded up on beer, cider and mead.
(PS: Raspberry mead? Really not as delightful as I thought it would be. Sweet mead is awesome, though.)

Then we began wandering the little shops. The Renaissance Faire is like a bazaar of handmade goods, all of which are at least vaguely related to the theme. Leather bags, books on period costume, pewter cups, jewelry...you name it, you can find it there. Since there is a $25 entrance fee, it sometimes irritates me that you have to pay money to spend money. But they have several stages with varying entertainments, like pageants with the Queen, singing, and magicians.
The other thing about the shops is that most of them have very vocal owners, or people standing in the lanes heckling passersby to examine their goods or play their games. Seanie and Terry were caught up by the men running a javelin-throwing booth, and soon both guys were hurling wooden sticks at targets.

Neither guy actually struck a target, but Seanie assures me it is much harder than it looks.

This being Elizabethan England (in sunny California...sweltering, sweaty California) every other sentence to come out of someone's mouth was an innuendo. You have to be quick-witted if you want to make a reply to these guys. Most of them the time I was cracking up too much to respond, but even if I wasn't laughing I doubt I'd have been able to come up with an appropriate response.

Sarah holding all the drinks while the guys were playing with their wood. (Y'see? I'm no good at the innuendo.)
Or, as one of the vendors commented, Sarah was a lady of "great bounty." I'm pretty sure he was talking about the cups.

Being on a bit of a budget, I was trying not to get *too* interested in anything for sale, because I'd be sure to spend money that way. But, alas, someone was selling books, and I was sucked right in. Literally. I didn't want to stop, but everyone was like "No, go for it, you love books!" and they ended up standing around for fifteen minutes while I talked about Elizabethan pattern-making and clothing reproduction with the owner of the stall. In fact, it's a very good thing they were with me, or I probably would have talked myself hoarse and bought one of every book. (In fact, I fully intend to order one or two of the books through the vendor's website after my next pay check arrives.)

That book was so cool! 'Tudor Tailors' I believe it was called.

As we wandered, Queen Elizabeth's procession came by so we all bowed and watched her pass.

The Virgin Queen.

Her ladies-in-waiting must have been most uncomfortable in the heat.

Unfortunate shadows made me look like one of my front teeth had been knocked out!

Rhi had declared that she would buy Sarah and I each a flower garland for our hair so that we would be 'properly' dressed from head to toe, and so after we had completed a circuit of the Faire we stopped at one of the vendors to do just that.

Sarah getting fitted with flowers.

The long herb/grasses in this wreath made me think of the Statue of Liberty, a little bit. But I ended up getting this one anyway.

We were so busy checking everything out that we missed the second joust, too. Dang it! Seanie and I caught the very tail end of it, but all that meant was we saw the knights do a final circuit around the ring after the fighting had ended. What a pity.

Well, I guess if I'd made it for the joust I wouldn't have had a good enough place to get nice photos.

A hypnotist approached us while we were eating lunch and asked if we'd like to be hypnotized in his show. Rhi volunteered, and I volunteered Seanie to do it, so Mezmeron 'prepped' Rhi before the show with pre-performance hypnosis.

You are getting very, very sleepy...

...FWOOMP! Down she goes!

Rhi up on stage.

See the pretty red-head girl up on the stage? At one point, Mezmeron told her she had lost her butt and she went walking through the audience, asking if anyone had seen her bottom. Poor girl. He also told them they couldn't remove their hands from their head unless they touched their nose, and they couldn't remove their finger from their nose unless their hand was on top of their head.

The lesser of two evils is...?

Mezmeron telling this hypnotized guy that he is, in fact, Sandra Bullock, filming a period piece, and he needs help adjusting his boobs. I don't make this stuff up.

A parade of skulls and goths came through during the show. I remember seeing them every year when I was a kid: the Macabre. When I was really little, I thought they were scary when they came by playing their sorrowful, weird music. Now I think they're cool, and if I knew how to get involved with that sort of thing I'd probably try to join up.

Dance, Macabre, dance!

While we were watching the hypnotist, we had noticed behind us a huge swing. It was a wooden seat large enough for five-six people, and it was pushed by one or two young men. It just looked like so much fun. After the show ended, we went over and got into one of the swings.

Terry, the one who REFUSED to dress up.

It was so much fun to go flying through the air! Early on in the ride, Rhi accidentally kicked one of our swing-pushers in the face when he ran beneath our swing. OOPS! That was awkward, but also really, really funny. We could not stop laughing, especially since he took it more or less in stride. Indeed, he claimed he didn't even realize he was bleeding from where her foot had connected with his lip. I hope he wasn't hurt too badly, but he continued pushing us and jumping up on the swings' ropes like a monkey so I think he was OK. When the ride was over Terry offered to buy him a beer, but the carney declined.

Seanie and I soaring through the air.

By this time it was late afternoon and we needed to head back up to San Jose, because I had a store meeting at Lush. As we were walking back, we ran into Mr. Mezmeron again and he messed around with Rhi a little more. Seanie actually managed to make a video of it:

Y'know, the one trouble with the Renaissance Faire is that every woman's got her boobies hanging out of her top. I mean, you see some pretty saggy tits out there, since most of these women are also bra-free. Why am I not showing off my cleavage as well? Just look at this lovely photo (ignore the face, which is not so lovely) and illustrates why quite clearly: I am flat as a board. There just ain't no boobs there.

Folks, this expanse of nothing is WITH a padded bra. So sad.

Sarah, myself and Rhi in full costume!

It's funny, it took hours to get dressed and only about two minutes to get everything off again. I made it to my meeting on time; hopefully everyone else made their destinations as well.

Yellow Face

2009-09-20T02:27:45Z

So last night my brother and I went up to Mountain View to see Yellow Face, the 2007 comedy by David Henry Hwang, the playwright responsible for M. Butterfly and the reworking of Flower Drum Song a few years ago. Theatreworks usually puts on excellent plays, and this was no exception. Yellow Face follows David Henry Hwang as he becomes a major playwright and voice for the Asian-American community. He even leads a protest against the casting of a white actor in one of the lead roles in Miss Saigon. But when Hwang accidentally casts a white man in the lead of his latest play (he thinks the actor is part-Asian; after all, you just can't tell with all these part-Asians running around!) he saves face by convincing the world that the actor's ancestry is, in fact, Asian. But soon this actor, Marcus, has become the new spokesperson and face of the Asian-American community, which throws Hwang into a fury because how can someone represent the Asian experience when he isn't even Asian?

It was a very interesting play. Lots of reflection on race and how one defines it, and the subtle racism that many minorities still face today. As one character complains in the clip below, you always get asked "Where are you from?" and when you answer, "Stockton, California!" the next question is always "No, where are you really from?"

Francis Jue was in this production; I've seen him in several plays before, including M. Butterfly (which was seriously one of my favorite live performances ever!) and Into the Woods. He's a fantastic actor. He also succinctly summarized why I think I like Hwang's plays so much when he said, "For me, Hwang's work has been a seminal part of being Asian-American in this culture. It's about feeling alienated in your own country." (Bold is mine.) In the second act, that alienation plays a major role as the US Government begins cracking down on Chinese-American bankers and scientists, investigating them for espionage, in the late 1990s. Even in California, where I live, there's still this undercurrent in society that Asians may be the Model Minority, but they're still the 'other' and no matter how many generations your family has been here, Asian-Americans can't be 'real' Americans. (Even if, in some cases, your Chinese ancestors got here before the European ancestors of the "real" American saying this!)

Anyway. Great play. Really enjoyed it. I wish I'd seen it sooner, so I'd have more time to convince some of my friends to see it, but unfortunately the run ends tomorrow so getting others to go seems quite unlikely. But hey, if you live in the Bay Area, try to get a ticket for the Sunday show. It's really, really worth your time.

Since I like videos, here's one of the playwright talking about the play:

Ham and Jam and Spamalot!

2009-09-17T16:52:41Z

On Tuesday night my boyfriend and I saw "Spamalot" in the second-to-last stop of the traveling tour. I'll get to the show itself in a minute, but first I must say that Broadway San Jose, the new company bringing musical theatre to San Jose, so far has been extremely unprofessional and disappointing. When we ordered season tickets, they had two options: a 5-show or 4-show subscription package. You ordered the 5-show package through Ticketmaster, and if you wanted to see four shows only you'd get your money refunded for the fifth. IT seemed a roundabout way of doing things, but whatever. We only wanted to see four shows, so we ordered through Ticketmaster and waited for the chargeback on the credit card.

When I finally got my chargeback, it seemed low (only $36 for two tickets) so I e-mailed the company at the customer service e-mail. Twice. I couldn't call them because I work during the hours their office is open, but you'd think they could reply to an e-mail! But I never heard a peep, and I know people from the company are on-line, because they have a regularly-updated Facebook page. I eventually figured out the refund issue on my own, but the entire situation left an EXTREMELY bitter taste in my mouth.

Anyway, it turns out Broadway San Jose f*cked up again, because on Tuesday the 'Will Call' line was going out the door of the theatre and around the block! (On the Facebook page I saw a notice that people should arrive for Will Call an hour before the show started...yeah. THAT'S going to happen.) Thankfully, Seanie and I had gotten our tickets in the mail so it wasn't an issue for us, but the clusterf*ck at box office meant that Spamalot started half an hour late. Way to go, Broadway San Jose. I don't care if it was the first show of the first season ever, understaffing 'Will Call' and failing to sort the tickets so they could be distributed efficiently is a preventable, embarrassing screw-up. Did we get anything for the delay? Naw. They barely managed an apology over the speakers twenty minutes into the wait.

But anyway...FINALLY the show started and we could see SPAMALOT!

The show is pretty funny, with constant laughs, but the first act and second act feel like two completely different musicals. Act I more or less follows the plot of 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' pretty closely. Act II, on the other hand, starts off with a song from the movie 'Life of Brian' and spins off into parodies of other musicals. It becomes much more self-referential and at our show had jokes about Kayne West and Serena Williams. Extremely topical improvisation.

I am a huge fan of the movie, and there were a couple of scenes I really expected to see. The witch-burning scene, for example, would have been fantastic - but it's not there. Nor is the bridge-crossing scene. But most of the funny bits made it into the show. The Broadway parodies were funny, with references to Phantom of the Opera, West Side Story, and Fiddler on the Roof. I mean, OK, the movie's basically a series of sketches and doesn't end in a 'proper' way, but the musical makes even less of an attempt at a coherent story, and what little plot it kept has to be put aside constantly to fit in the Broadway parodies.

I mean, I laughed, and it was fun. But I enjoyed Act I a LOT more than Act II.

One red car leaves, another rolls on in.

2009-09-17T16:12:59Z

I've always loved my father's Toyota MR2:

But it's a stick shift, which I've never learned, so I've been unable to drive it. Over the past few months Daddy toyed with the idea of selling the car to Seanie, but ultimately that transaction never worked out because Seanie was unemployed for much of that time. Finally, Daddy turned to the Internet to sell the car. A buyer came to the house today at 8 am, took the car for a spin, and decided the car was great and took it away, and now I'll never ride in that li'l car again.

Daddy must have been feeling the loss, too, because when I got home that afternoon there was a brand new 2010 Mazda Miata, happy red, sitting in our driveway.

That's two new cars for Daddy in a month. Mom's gonna go through the roof!

Yosemite: Sunday

2009-09-15T23:03:01Z

Oh, my legs were sore this morning. Also, I think I overate at breakfast because my stomach felt like there was a lead shoe sitting in it. But in spite of aches and pains, Daddy had a seven-eight mile hike that he PROMISED would only have a bit of fierce uphill at the beginning, after which it would be smooth, soothing downhill. He always says that, and we know how well it worked out yesterday. But off we went to the east entrance of Yosemite to the Gaylor Lakes trailhead.

The first mile or so is a steep uphill climb. At first I was in the lead because I was the slowest and would set a good pace. But my brother, hyped up by two huge plates of breakfast, was practically running up the mountain behind me. His presence behind me was making me walk much faster than a comfortable pace, and didn't want to use all my energy in the first mile. I let him pass after a few minutes, against my Dad's recommendation.

The view was stunning, and got better the higher we got.

The tall peak on the left is Mt. Dana. The higher we went, the more the trees thinned out.

One of the last wildflowers hosting one of the last butterflies of the season. I was trying out the super-zoom on my camera. It did decently, but somewhat blurry.

The Dana Meadows.

Seanie's working on his scruffiness.

My Dad, all tricked out in his hiking gear.

At the top of the ridge, gazing down at the meadows below. I never feel as powerful as that beautiful moment when I realize I've completed a horrible task (like hiking uphill) and it really wasn't as horrible as I dreaded.

Gaaaw. This would have been such a great photo if our faces weren't completely obscured in shadow!!

Seanie gazing out at the beauty of Yosemite.

Something Seanie lectured me about on the trip was to take photos of *people* in front of beautiful vistas, not just the scenery, because in fifty years you won't remember the location but if you put a person in the picture, you'll hopefully remember them at least.

The rocks changed color at the park boundary as they switch from metamorphic to igneous. Or something like that. I don't actually remember anything from my geology class, which is a real pity because my teacher, Mr. Cook, was pretty awesome.

Pointing out the differences between rock types. Because, y'know, OMG ROCKS!!!

There was a lot of mining in the Granite Lakes area once upon a time, so some of the mountains are pretty torn up.

"It's all downhill from here." Daddy says.
For once in my life, I'm happy to hear it!!!!

Chipmunk!

My dad picked up one of the pinecones on the ground and gave Seanie a little lecture about how pinecones work.

It was cold and very windy, so I took out my sweater, but I didn't want to bother with taking my backpack off, so I wore it backwards and looked like a major dork.

The water in the lakes was a beautiful, deep blue. It would have been freezing cold, yet it was tempting to just jump in because it looked so refreshing.

The wind kept kicking up and trying to blow the hat right off my head.

Check it out. A nice big flat rock. Time for a nap.

Yosemite: Saturday

2009-09-15T22:31:31Z

We drove up to Yosemite last night for a weekend of hiking. So awesome! I love Yosemite.

We didn't leave San Jose until 6 pm, which is a bit of a bummer since that means we were standing around the house doing nothing all day long. Grrr. If I'd known we were leaving *that* late, and not at 2 pm like I originally expected, I would have gone into work. That's $100 that coulda been in my pocket!

Oh well. The point is, we made it to Yosemite eventually and I woke up in a Tuolumne Meadows tent cabin! Dad wanted us to hurry to the dining tent, and Seanie and I were several minutes behind him so we ended up seated at another table. Breakfast was buffet-style, a new development. Eggs and french toast and fruit, my favorite. Seanie and I each took a yogurt from the oatmeal table and stuck it in our pockets to eat later. I was going to swipe a spoon, too, so we'd be able to eat it while on the trail, but Seanie actually asked one of the staff members and he said it was OK, and even offered to get us a larger spoon. (I would have returned the spoon at dinner time. I wasn't really stealing it.)

But enough about breakfast! Let's hit the trail!!

It was bright and sunny when we started our hike. It was to be a fourteen-mile trek from Tuolumne Lodge, where we were staying, to Olmstead Point. Dad PROMISED it was mostly flat, but it turned out he told a fib.

Lots of pine trees. Lodgepole I think?
We were hiking alongside Tioga Road.

Seanie's excited to get started!

Aren't we just so cute with our matching hats?? (Totally not on purpose, by the way.) I believe this was taken near the Tuolumne Meadows Visitors' Center.

Sometimes it's hard to see in the photos, but the trail was often the Old Tioga Road. While most of the road has since returned to nature, on occasion one can see chunks of the old pavement that cars drove on.

These are the Soda Springs, one of my favorite spots to visit in the park. Mineral water bubbles up out of the ground with natural carbonation. Back in Ye Olde Days people would come to the park and drink the water for its magical health benefits.

One of the little soda pools up close, so you can see the carbonation. The water isn't hot like thermal geysers in Yellowstone.

I ALWAYS taste the water even though I know it tastes like rusty nails. What, do I expect the flavor to magically change to strawberry or lemonade one of these days?
Rusty nails/dirty pennies, YUCK!

Hangin' out, wearin' my AWESOME hat.

Shepherds used to lead flocks of sheep through the meadows before Yosemite was made a National Park, so a wooden structure was built around the mouth of the springs to keep the sheep from drinking/pissing in the clean water.

Seanie confirmed that yes, the water did taste lousy.

Step right up, don't be shy! Actually, since it's near the end of the pre-snow season in Tuolumne the springs are pretty dried up. But you can see where the minerals have dyed the rocks red or salty-white.

After messing around at Soda Springs and Parsons' Lodge (a Sierra Club funded building that exists pretty much for the sake of existing, near as I can tell) we spent a couple of hours wandering through trees and grass and gazing up at huge domes of granite. (Granodiorite if you're a geologist and technical about these sorts of things.) Daddy had seen all these things many times before, so he was moving at a pretty quick pace. Kendrick, my brother, kept up with him very well but Seanie and I tended to drift behind.

Stopping for lunch. GATORADE SUCKS.

Storm clouds started rolling in. We could hear thunder rolling and echoing through the valley. It was a good day to NOT be up on one of the stark, bare granite faces!
Strangely enough, we only felt rain when it was sunny and hot.

After a particularly long stretch of uphill climbing, I got whiny and tired so Seanie took my backpack and put it on OVER his own backpack. So he's wearing two backpacks in this photo.

Going through an area with an old rock fall. Big granite boulders everywhere, but all the plants indicate they fell from the cliffs many many years ago.

Watching fishes swimming in one of the little rivers. My brother is coming up behind me to shove me in. Just kidding. Kinda.

Tenaya Lake. We got here around 2:30-2:45 pm, and had hiked eleven miles. Seanie and I were pretty wiped out so we decided to call it quits and wait for the Yosemite shuttle to take us back to the tent. My brother and my father continued on to Olmstead Point, another three miles off.

Reading while waiting for the shuttle.

The shuttle driver was a cantankerous old coot, always ready with a seasoned gripe. He told my boyfriend all the things he'd been doing wrong when he tried to fish Tenaya Lake the year before, and sped past the shuttle stops without slowing down. (They were always empty, but somettimes he wouldn't even turn in to see if anyone was nearby.) As we disembarked I said "Have a great afternoon!" and he replied "I had a great afternoon...once" in the grumpiest voice ever and I just busted up laughing. He was *such* a cartoon character.

Seanie took a nap in the tent while I finished my book, and then we showered all the sweat and dust off. Kenny and Dad came back around 6, so after they showered we went in to dinner at the Lodge. I had citrus and salt-crust salmon with linguini and roasted vegetables, YUM. They did an awesome job with the salmon, even eliminating the fishie taste that Seanie so hates. I ate and ate and ate, but still couldn't finish all my food. (I did smuggle out a couple of rolls to eat tomorrow though.)

I'm doing dozens of little things, but none of it is especially interesting to write about.

2009-09-05T21:37:48Z

I'm trying to remember what I did this past week, but I'm coming up with nothing. It's pretty pathetic, I think!

Monday was inventory, so I worked 3 til midnight.

Tuesday I don't think was anything, but I spent most of the day at home. I think I did some cleaning and updated my book blog a lot. Yes, I did do a lot of back-writing to get my book blog and personal journal fully updated, since I got ridiculously behind after Ashland. So it was a writing day, I guess.

Wednesday I worked 9:30-5, and by the time I got home I was too tired to do much else so I read Cleopatra's Daughter.

Thursday Seanie came over and we hung out all morning, but didn't do much. I got a craving for tea so we did bake raspberry & white chocolate scones, which we ate with devonshire cream and vanilla tea.

Friday I worked 8-5 at RHA, and exercised when I got home. After that, I was once again quite tired so I read.

Today I work at RHA and then in the evening I have a shift at Lush. Tomorrow is RHA and then in the evening a store meeting/party at Deb's house. That should be fun.