I always knew I had good taste....

and this just confirms it! Apparently, it enjoys being stared at. I think a weekend walking tour is in order to check out the other winners.

You might be a grown-up if.....

1) You start going to bed before 10 PM

2) You wake up naturally by 8:30 AM on weekends

3) You finally understand the appeal of a high thread count

4) You iron your clothes

5) You're especially excited to get the mail on Tuesdays because that's when the coupons and weekly circulars arrive

6) You buy plants (the kind that require water and sun rather than dusting)

7) You fantasize more about the luxurious outdoor living space you walked by rather than the hunky, shirtless runner

My new 'hood

This post is way overdue since I've been living here for over a month now, but I've been busy getting settled in, yo!

Living so close to the beach I've tried to make it a priority to get an evening walk in. I've seen some pretty cool things on my walks. I took a picture of this house during my first week here. It was my favorite at the time. It's a little hard to tell in the picture, but I love how the all white flower scheme in the front pops against the black. This house sits right across from the beach so I assume they are used to taking pictures of it all the time, but I still looked both ways before snapping the picture and scurrying off.

I haven't been good about having my cell phone or camera with me on many other walks and have missed some of the other cool houses, one had a cool rusty iron dinosaur head in the garden (it was classy I swear) and another yard had a bunch of bizarre shaped shrubs. I think one of them was a small child, but I can't be too sure. I think I remember what street it was on, so I'll try to document it next time I pass that way. But come on, with a view like this it's easy to get distracted, and walk around smiling a lot. :]

It's also a little like Pleasantville around here. Kids ride their bikes to school, play unsupervised in their front yards (and presumably don't get kidnapped), and take evening strolls with their cute Dads and dogs.

I've also had a few run-ins with some Texans. I was out one night wearing my Tech shirt and a guy started giving me the guns up. At first, I was taken off guard wondering why he was waggling his finger at me, but then I got it. Another time I was walking through the Del and had a group of kids start smiling at me and one of them gave me the guns up. I pulled off my head phones and asked if they were on spring break to which the kid replied, "Yes Ma'am". Ah, how cute.

One not so cute incident happened on my way into Panera. I was walking in behind a guy and his girlfriend when the dude let the door slam in my face, and it wasn't one of those times where I was aways behind him or he couldn't see me. I was literally walking in right behind him and he just let the door close behind him. I remember thinking to myself that would NEVER have happened in Texas.

Texas, oh how I miss your manners, but I think I'll stick with the So Cal scenery.

Central-NorCal Roadtrip

Brandy was kind enough to show me around one of her favorite places: Santa Cruz. I had never been, but figured what's not to love about a beach with a fun boardwalk? Santa Cruz did not disappoint. My favorite fashion statement of the day was the girl rocking two belts. Brandy the genius interpreted the trend: one was for function and one was for fashion, obviously.

We started off at the pier (which I think might be the only pier that I've ever been able to drive and park on). The highlight of the trip for me was probably seeing the sea lions lounging around. We saw a herd of them at the end of the pier and got to witness one of them (whom I named Lucinda, Lucy for short) trying to launch herself up onto the landing below the pier. And looking at this guy sunbathing, who could blame her?

~Lucy makes her approach...

~and promptly missed.

She did this a number of times. It was heartbreaking to watch, but that girl wouldn't give up! The backstory that we made up was that she was an adolescent sea lion working on differentiating from her family (who still call her Lucinda although she's told them many a times that her name is Lucy!) Well girlfriend showed them! Here she is after making the miraculous leap.

~And then her family gathered below to celebrate her with chants of, "Lucy! Lucy! Lucy!" And they all lived happily ever after (complete with healthy boundaries). The End.

I could have watched those guys all day, but we were getting hungry so we grabbed some clam chowder from Stagnaro Brothers and made our way over to the boardwalk. Unfortunately, neither of us had coins to get our fortune from the creepy animatronic fortune teller machines, but we did pick up some salt water taffy from Marinis.

Here we are working our "bait" poses. Notice, I finally read the memo about the hip pop.

The fun didn't stop there my friends! Oh, no! We still had the whole drive home. We stopped off at the outlets at Gilroy (home of the famous Garlic festival). Lots of garlic pictures around town, but no stench. What's up with that? Our main reason for the stop, the Coach store was a bust and way too crowded so we quickly moved on.

This little roadside menagerie is quickly moving up the list as a potential honeymoon destination. There's a cool fruit stand, a restaurant, hotel, sweet shop, train, and a creepy carousel. What more could you ask for?

Funny names, that's what. There's casa de fruta, casa de restaurant, casa de motel, casa de sweets, casa de choochoo, and casa de carousel. So amazing, I couldn't even make that stuff up!

Bran and I ended our day with some yummy (and inexpensive sushi) then some more girl talk. That's the way you do NorCal, folks.

Fres-yes

High speed internet, streaming netflix, and the Lucas girls. Fresno (really Clovis) ain't too shabby. On the agenda for the weekend: the Swedish Village, Santa Cruz, and lots of giggling.

Cruise Critic: The list

	Please Sir, Can I have some more?!	Oh no he di’n’t!
12/19 We’re on a boat!	“Washy Washy! Happy Happy!” As they squirt you with hand sanitizer	“Freestyle” as a term
	Hildoug’s mad stamina after a red eye and early morning workout	Where do they keep the ice cream?
		Hard sells on everything!
	Captain Douchebag always auditioning for his next wingman	Where's the freaking clock? I’m on a “freestyle” schedule here, people!
	Bowel Movements as dinner conversation (repeated each day)
12/20 (@ sea)	World’s best euro mullet on one of the male dancers
	Cruise Director Andy
	Towel Animals!
12/21 (Roatan)	Awkward photo hunt and the discovery of my future boyfriend (Harvard alum) and his family photo	Social Stratification. White people building McMansions all over the island
	Lester’s description of “poo poo sand”
	Child-biting monkey
	Getting pooped on by a bird
	Hildoug and I almost falling out of the back of the tour van when the back door popped open going up a really steep hill
	Spotting a woman wearing a mini elf hat
	Mom proves that she has an uncanny ability to predict surprise downpours
12/22 (Belize City)	Jersey family Belikin Beer (Hildoug)	Cave tubing doesn’t really personify the culture
	Red beans and rice. Yum-o! I am the Cheetah Princess!	Bad Bryon – not very friendly, but earned some points from un-stranding me on the rocks and preventing me from getting clobbered by a tree while tubing.
	All you can eat sushi on the boat
12/23 (Costa Maya)	Lonely fist pumper at the swim up bar	A reggae band doing country
	People already wearing ports of call t-shirts	Souvenir guy dropping my Mayan calendar ornament and breaking it. Then finding out it was the only one left in the store. Incident ended with me way over-paying for broken Mayan calendar ornament.
	Second City Comedy Troup was pretty dang funny.
12/24 (@ Sea)	Awesome holiday variety show	X-mas buffet. Yuck-o!
	Multiple naps	Woman saving seats for her family to watch “The Christmast story” then leaving them empty for long periods of time. Then being rude and kicking people out of them when they sat down.
	Mr Pearl contest and watching the drunk cougar mauling the contestants
	Seeing our friend Oscar everywhere
	Andy’s reading of ‘Twas the night before Christmas’ (Hildoug, obvi)
12/25 (Key West)	Going on a walk	2 picture takers at the end of Route 1 taking a zillion pictures when people were waiting
	Seeing the Southernmost point of the US	Making friends (while bowling) at the end of the trip instead of the beginning
	Checking out the Bridge Viewing Room. Hot pseudo-captain. Not hot? Enclosed smoking	No key lime pie ornament to be found anywhere in Key West. Really?
		Missing my favorite Excursions director Federico
		My purse magnet and key card not getting along….again.

Where have you been?

Where haven't I been would probably be a better question. I've had a bunch of good blog ideas in my head over these past few months, but of course never got around to typing them out. I blame the unreliable internet, but more likely it has more to do with me being a bum. I've become a super slacker with my camera and therefore don't have any amazing pics to regale you with. Bad Stephanie!

Here's a quick recap of the past few months:

1) Rebel and her littlest monkey came for a visit. Cadence was a trooper and survived her first plane ride and a few time changes (hello daylight savings time!). My Mom pulled out the big guns and there were toys galore to keep her occupied while her Mommy and I caught up. Cadence dug our walk along the waterfront and had a blast going down the slide and playing on the swings at the dream park (shivering be darned!). I also learned a valuable lesson: Never share your yummy Starbucks drink with a 14 month old. Backwash is inevitable.

2) There was a trip out to Lubbock to hang out with my Harringtons. Einstein bagels opened in honor of my visit (how nice of them!). Needless to say there was a lot of good lounge time, TT & Kate play time, and visiting old haunts. Kate just about broke my heart on day one when she started saying, “TT, I miss you.”

3) A very So Cal Thanksgiving. I got to hang out with fam and experience my little bro as a college freshman (which makes me feel really, really old. It also doesn’t help that 2011 marks 10 years since I completed my undergrad. Ay chihuaha!). I got my fill of shopping and did my best to avoid the annoying flat iron salespeople. They are everywhere and are attracted to my curly head like flies to honey!

4) Miami Beach (pre and post-cruise).

~Our first hotel in South Beach was amazing. Great design and great location (Sense South Beach). On our first full day there we headed out to see the beach and get a lay of the land and proceeded to get rained on. I’ve never been so drenched in all my life! We took refuge in a Cuban restaurant and it was a great choice. It rained most of the day so we busted tail back to the hotel in between downpours (caught sight of the Metropole of Jersey Shore fame along the way) and then ended up indoors the rest of the day.

~Our hotel after the cruise was not so great (Red hotel). It was way north of everything and not in the best neighborhood. We got to the hotel before a room was available so made the most of the time by heading to Lincoln Road Mall and catching “Little Fockers”. I was on the hunt for Dash – Miami and Miami Ink (i.e. Love and Hate Tattoo), but didn’t run into either. (The brother was eager to get back to the hotel)

5) Caribbean Christmas Cruise (post to come)

6) New Years Eve in Portland. I made it home with enough time to do laundry and sleep in my own bed for two nights before roadtriping down to Portland to hang out with some of my high school girls. We had a low key NYE reliving old times and playing catch-up. We also watched a ridiculous amount of movies. My host Kara tried to sell me on moving there so pulled out all the stops in showing me the sights. We waited in line for an hour to experience Voodoo donuts (totally worth it) and she took me to a great breakfast spot called The Tin Shed before I made the trek back.

I was then glad to have some downtime and no impending scheduled trips. Yeah, that lasted for about two days before I started getting bored. There’s been lots of reading and a bit of tv watching to fill my time. :] And now, I’ve got another sojourn planned in SoCal starting next week. I’m looking forward to soaking up some sun, seeing lots of friends, shopping, and a little roadtrip up to the Central Valley where I’ll probably be forced to watch a lot of Prison Break and be made to dress like Dog the Bounty Hunter’s Wife. Needless to say, I can’t wait!