what you are about to see is shocking!

the 750's have joined the rank of madonna, the beatles, leonard cohen, and other hall of famers. we may very well be one of the only cover bands they allow in these hallowed halls. all the stars all showed up to cheer us on as we played our 8 song set that included run to the hills, tom sawyer, enter sandmand, won't get fooled again, flirtin' with disaster, and more! you should look for our ck in stores because we are huge. especially huge in asian countries. they even gave us that nice wall plaque. that is real gold. some fan sent us a shot of us while playing our songs. so that is what you have seen. tell everyone!! the 750's are coming and we will rock your socks off.
(sebastian, now that you have the tour bus--come join us in the hall of fame. it takes a lot of time playing the game---i mean rocking out--but you can do it. let's make it happen this summer!!)

i did it (not for kid-o's)

i really did it. i quit the running shoe job. i told them the end of the month would be my last day. that is two days longer than i wanted to work, but the boy looked like he was going to cry. really. upon giving him my two weeks, he put his hand to his forehead and stared at the floor. he told me how disappointed he was that i was only there one month because he had a lot of good applicants, and now i was leaving. blah blah blah. it is all emotional blackmail. but it totally worked. fortunately, they are letting me finish out my weeks there (for now at least) because we are lined up to live in a four bedroom house. so i know the little extra money will come in handy. i just hope now that the manix's will let us borrow one of their projectors so we can have all night rock band parties in one of the rooms we won't be using. :) so i guess now, everything that had to be done here is done. i should feel better, but i have stressed myself into a headache today. i just feel a little bad. i will get over it, though. it is hot here so i will put on a skirt and go play with dust tonight. maybe i 'll make him get me a drink. not so bad. i feel like i earned it. i hope they never know how i played them (the work that is--not the drinks--but i'll play them, too, i guess.)
overall, i am happy. i have everything i ever wanted. really i do. good shoes, a nice pocketbook, a honey i love, two kitties, and now a home in vt. (those are in no particular order!!) what more could a girl want? i'm sure i'll find it--what more a girl could want. and when i do, i will tell you all so we can all want it. :)
i am glad to hear that papa j gets home tonight. i don't like that allison being left alone with those boys for a whole week. she is probably the strongest lady i know. so i know those boys won't kill her, but i just want her to have her honey back. that is important. and he better bring back a super souvenir for everyone. maybe a baby monkey. that would be coooool!
and start planning the welcome home parties. we get home the same time claudia does. and then rob will be home. so i think you vermonter's only have a few weeks. no worries. when i get there, i will help with the planning, and we can do it at our place. get ready for a rocking summer!! and if we really get the house karen is finalizing for us, get ready to rock until the wee hours. and potential horsicopter fans, if you feel like making the journey to vermont, this summer is the time. we'll have room in the mcmansion for you.

****just an interesting side note@@@@@i did the spell check. for "mcmansion" the spell checker recommends "micronesian" so we will be living in a micronesian this summer.

one sucker here...

well i channeled the spirit of sebastian on tuesday. i decided i would dress up to celebrate my day off. dustin was not sure if i dressed up in fancy clothes or dressed up in costume. i had gotten these tights in san francisco, and i was dying to wear them, but i thought (before now) that it would just be too cold. so i had put off even opening them. until tuesday!! they are black with silver sparkles. i thought i looked so cute, but dustin said, "oh. that is how you are dressing up." i had to convince him how great i looked. you be the judge. i vote--good!




we started looking for luggage today. that was the big outing. we were comparison shopping. not so exciting, but that lets you all know that we are ready for the party sebastian and dorian are throwing us when papa j, rob, and dust and i get back to vermont. it will be my best day. i can't wait to see those littles. i am excited to have all our stuff again. even our beat up couch. i miss the movies. i miss our tv. i miss the papasan. i miss monday night exercise class. i really miss our bed. man, do i miss that bed!
we have karen running around town looking at potential places for us to live (thank you!!). we have taken the kitties for their shots (to ride in the plane, they have to have proof of their yearly shots). so things here are getting finalized. i signed up for organic chemistry 2 last week. we are finishing season 2 of lost so rob and quinn can start season three with us. i get to quit my job tomorrow. it has been really glamorous putting shoes on people, but i have learned a lot. so that is good. i am nervous to quit. i guess the worst they can do is just let me go on the spot, and that is not so bad, but i just hate quitting. i feel like i will let them down. and they do seem to like me. but it needs to be done. and it was going to happen sooner or later. at least i have a good excuse, we have to go home to our friends and family. and we will be back. better just to rip that band aid right off than to take it one pull at a time, right. so tomorrow, i put in my two weeks.
we went to dinner with our friend, forrest, last night. we went to our friend, meg's, work. she works at a japanese restaurant on fourth street (my favorite street). it was pretty good, but it was noodle soup. it was ok. the appetizers were great. we got spinach in peanut sauce (yummy) and tofu dumplings (good). it was nice to be out with friends. it seems rare that people we meet out here get sarcasm, but forrest and meg do, so we always have a good time with them. it was nice to be out at night. i know that sounds silly, but we have been eating in more. so a real dinner out with actual friends is nice. we appreciate it, you know.
how weird is it that in a matter of weeks, we will be home. part of this stint seems like we have been here forever. we spent so long not working. then we got jobs. we survived the chilly, rainy season and this weekend could get up into the high 80's. it stays sunny till 7:30, and before, when we got here, it was dark two hours earlier. i have been at my work for a month (just more) now. and dust has sold veggies for longer than that. so. that reminds me. i was going to upload a picture. upon further review of the "apron" it is not so visible, but i asked dust if i could show it, and he said yes. so i will. you have to look past the signs (the yellow laminated beasts) and you will see a little yellow apron at his waist.



sorry he is sideways. i will try to get my paparazzi skills better honed next time. but it is not bad for a first try. i hope this means that when we are short handed in the stand, dust is now qualified to come sell some produce to the folks who frequent our farm. let me know what you think. in two weeks and four days we will have been in california for a quarter of a year. that is no small hill of beans. it is no 128 hours that allison and jeremy are apart. and it is for sure no two months that rob and quinn will have been apart. but we, too, have felt alittle something missing from our lives for a quarter of a year. and it is you all. dorian, is speaking real words and sentences, sebastian has come up with crazy new songs that we have never heard, quinn and allison have done strip tease "workouts", kristin has a house we have never seen and a dog we've never met, penny has done so many things we don't know about...the list could go on and on. don't get me wrong, i love my time out here, and our new friends are fabulous. it is also really nice to see melissa and andy as often as we do. but we miss our vt homefries, too. jamie, james, kristina, we miss you guys too. and it has been far, far too long since we got to squeeze your necks. let's all work on that. (come visit). love to all.

i'ma get it for this one!

a few weeks ago i promised a picture of dust working. this was mostly for karen's benefit because i know she would love to see dust in his little apron at work. well. today, i snuck the camera into the farmer's market. low and behold, i don't think dust ever noticed. but a picture was taken. i gave him my word not to put it on the blog. so let me hear you make some noise for the picture. that way i have ammunition when dust says, "you promised you wouldn't put a picture of me in the apron on the blog." then i can say, " dust, you have a fan club who really wants the pictures this paparazzi can get, and you know, if there is a market for the photos, i gotta put 'em out there. it is my duty as a real blogger." that is how the conversation will go down. i am sure of it! so leave a comment as to whether i should put it up or not. and when the put-it-ups have it, it will go up. otherwise, the picture stays on the card.

also i have an update. it seems that i misunderstood melissa's potential job title. she alerted me to the fact that she will have nothing to do with the bay area's poop at her new job. she will only deal with drinking water. bonus, for her, she will not have a real sh*t job, eh.

also today is melissa's birthday. so shout outs to her. andy's making a feast for friends when they come over to celebrate. she said they would be drinking. so i told her to drink until she could drink the cynar. happy birthday, melc. know that i love you.

what i love

we saw this today:



the real one is supposed to look like this:





i got to thinking about what i was "missing" by living in the country for so long. we don't get billboards in vermont. so that cuts down on alot of the advertising i see. also since we don't get tv. so if npr doesn't tell us about it, we may not know. but i would say, all in all, we are pretty hip.
so the list begins...

i like to be here on the west coast and here is why:
i get to see actual people wearing actual fashions.
i can find places that sell second hand fashions and purchase those because they are affordable.
i can work enough hours (at a part time job) to pay the entire rent. ( i know this is not the norm, but it works for now.)
i can eat any kind of food out that i feel like eating. and all the restaurants are good--or they would not still be open.
i love gay men. there is a radio station that plays "dance music". normally, this would be in the "do not like column," but you add seriously funny gay men as the dj's and suddenly, it is my favorite music.
and folks like that we also hear things like young i love having a choice of radio stations. there are about 4 npr stations that are local, the gay man station, and an old school r&b station that plays marvin gaye and tammye tarrell, and otismc, mc lyte, tone loc and candyman!!!!--it is great. it is nice to not just listen to npr all the time.
we have a tv that picks up actual stations. as dorky as it sounds, i have now seen a bit of a few episodes of american idol, and it was ok to good. (my favorite girl already got voted off, so i may not be a regular at watching it, but...hey, i've seen it. )
i can go to any number of shopping areas and just walk around and watch people.
we have cupcake stores.
we get to go to shows and dance. i love dancing. i love shows.
people here expect you to be smart. multiple times while tying people's shoes, they have asked me what college i went to or did i move out here to go to uc berkeley.... never before have i lived anywhere where people assume you are smart. it is a nice feeling.
people here are active. on the way to pick dust up from work the other day, i was held up by a gaggle of people supporting a free tibet. women in pink are always protesting outside of the marine recruiting office, tree sitters are right across the street from the uc berkeley campus. it is nice to see people getting fired up about things again.
i am not writing this to tell everyone why i do not want to go back east, i just thought i had been here long enough to tell everyone what some of the perks to here were. i assume most of you know the perks to vermont. friends, affordable rent (really), the farm, friends, most of the crazies are weeded out by the weather,friends, i can be second most fashionable (next to quinn or kristina--depending on who is out), friends, vermont has a comfy feeling of permanence to it, and did i say we miss our friends???
any way. there are more things i like about being here, but i've gone on enough for now. but we will be home soon. in fact, dust said the girl we sublease from came by today. perks to this are we can now park inside our little gated community, downfalls, i can't quite shake the feeling that we should not be here if she lives here, you know. she is staying with her parents a few towns away. your comments on that are welcome. i don't know where we would go. being that we have two cats, and plane tickets home for may and no place to live in vermont... just a few major things. i guess if we found a place to live, we could pay to change our tickets and that would be fine, but what a weird pickle, you know. so let me know what you think about all this. what do you like about vermont, or the bay area. leave out the weather comments, because that is just painful. and feel free to mention the fact that outside we have flowers blooming at any time of year here in sunny california.
all for today folks.
love you
clm

break out the cynar

our friends melissa and andy came for a visit sunday night. that means we finally got to crack open that bottle of cynar (artichoke liquor) we have had since vaentine's day. i liked it, so did andy, but no one else did. cynar needs to be mixed with a splash of soda and a little oj. then it is an intersting (but likable--to me) drink. they had to come down not only for the cynar, but also melissa had a job interview on tuesday at east bay m.u.d. this company is responsible for disposing of the bay area's waste water and sewage. sounds horrible to me, but she just graduated with a degree in environmental engineering so it is her dream job. she was told to purchase a suit, heels and hose for the interview. nothing too flashy, though. i agree with the old adage that you should beware of institutions that require new clothes (unless you want to get those clothes that are required). she was not too pumped about the suit. so we experimented with the shirt. we spent monday afternoon at target and macy's (andy and dustin in tow). we got her a cute purple shirt (our favorite colour) at target and some cute pointy toed patent leather heals. i said she should express at least a little of her personality in her outfit. turns out i was right. as she walked in, the main guy doing the interview commented on her shoes. bonus. it really set her at ease. yet again, stress averted just by having the right shoes. (fellas take it in. avoid confrontation by buying your lady some shoes. potential crisis averted.) they told her as soon as a position for a junior engineer opened, it would be hers. so that is exciting. andy, her husband, dressed in purple for solidarity. here is the before picture:



this is at 9 in the morning. she had been up in time to curl her hair. who has that kind of time in the morning. never in my life have i seen melissa stressed. it was impressive. she kept it together, and they should know how badly she wants this job. she is already planning a career with them. so that is nice to see. as long as i have known melissa, she has never had a real job. maybe waitressing now and then, but a real job--unheard of. so it was nice to see her really want to get things right and work toward something. just so she knows she can do it. she even skipped out on going to see planet b-boy with dust and andy and i. (a fabulous movie by the way. really worth seeing it on the big screen. people can do some amazing things with their bodies. it was amazing. we were all smiling and wiggling uncontrollably to the movie. dust even clapped afterwards--that never happens. ) but she skipped out on the movie to focus on the next day's tasks. talk about devotion.
while she was at the interview, dust and i took the kitties to the vet for their shots so that they can fly on the plane. a super expensive trip that was no fun for anyone, but it is done, and we have diet cat food in hopes of having two little kitties again......
so we get home (i had to take dust to work) and we drink a glass of champagne to celebrate.



then we hit the town, and we got new eyeshadow (blue for me). andy didn't get any make up. but we went to see dustin at work at the farmer's market. it was a nice day. i dropped melissa and andy off at the house and picked dustin up early so we could go see the red sox take on the oakland a's.
there were at least 50% red sox fans at the oakland season opener. we not only won, we got to see some home runs. our area was full--FULL-- of red sox fans. we were all yelling and laughing. it was great! we went back today with melissa and andy. it was a noon game. so we showed dust the southern art of tail gating.


we stood outside the car (we didn't bring chairs), talked to other sox fans around our parking space and ate food and drank pabst genuine draft (the cheap beer). because that is what you do at a tailgate party. usually there is grilling involved, but it was too early for grilling. some may argue that it should have also been too early for drinking, but we knew we would be at the park for a while, and ballpark prices are outrageous. so we drank early. and you know what--we got to see papi hit his first homerun of the season! it was spectacular. the sox shut down the a's. the a's had nothing. no points--few hits, but nothing amazing. and public yelling.

yes! i love public yelling. it really made the games that much more fun for me. we ate a lot of crappy food at the games as well.



note the new red pocketbook. (thaks ebay!)


note that that hat was a little full of popcorn when dust put it on andy's head. and the super fans!!

so that is what we are up to here. baseball games and rock star lifestyles. we do it up over here. soon we will do it up over there. keep searching for us a place to live. we will soon be homeless--or sleeping on your couches. :) xoxo to all.

big news.

well, it was an average day. so far. i woke up, checked the email. looking for my grade, i realized i finally had a response from my teacher--i "squeaked by" with a 70% in my online organic chemistry class. evidently, this much work earns you a 70%:


he actually said "squeaked by." that's not too nice. maybe he is a joker, but i would never know because i never heard from him. but alas the class is really done, and all along i said i only wanted a C. i guess i just expected more. maybe in round two. and i am not really upset. i just feel like i did more work than a 70. but that is all i needed. so squeaking by is not so bad.