Which was great and all but the scene utterly lacked all my classmates and teacher and since I was supposed to be meeting them I was on the verge of a panic attack. I finally got cell reception nd left my teacher a tearful message and then ran into a few other class mates who were equally flummoxed.

Unbelievably gorgeous november day, sans the rest of my class:

I drove all over effing Pt. Reyes and then, after a mini nervous breakdown, decided to take a nap on the beach and have lunch. After that I was on my way home when I saw a crap load of cars on the side of the road and it was… my class!

Turns out they never went to the place we were supposed to meet… (WHAT>!>WHY? OMFG) . instead, the teacher and assistant decided to stand on the side of the road and try to flag everyone down to go to north beach. But they missed about half the class. So, that blows.

I joined up with them and we drove around sort of frantically and pointlessly until i was almost out of gas and had to hitch a ride with classmates. It was a beautiful, highly annoying and pointless day. I almost wish I hadn’t seen them and joined up.

I was really looking forward to getting to walk around with someone very knowledgable about plants but there was no plant list, we didn’t spend much time or talk about anything in depth, it was basically impossible to listen, take pictures and take notes all at the same time so I just gave up.

We ended up here:

Sometimes I can’t believe I am lucky enough to live here.

I saw a bunch of tule elk and that was awesome. Also, happy California cows, they are adorable.

At least there is no homework this week!

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No matter. I snorkeled for 2 hours this morning and saw another turtle. It swam right under me and was so cute! I love how they flap their wings through the water.

I’m a bit of a nervous snorkeler. I have to have a noodle under me in case I have a panic attack. And I am nervous about telling if the reef under me is too close. Depth perception through the snorkel mask seems distorted and I have a horror of accidentally touching something. If I did I swear I would scream and that wouldn’t be good underwater. I _almost_ screamed this morning due to a leaf floating into my field of vision…

This is why I don’t think I can ever trust myself to scuba dive. Those prone to panic attacks and random pointless screaming should probably steer clear. I was pretty pleased with myself for figuring out that I could snorkel with a noodle.

I went and rented a boogey board with a fish viewing hole in it and Vim and I have taken Jack WAY out. It’s sort of hard to tell what he can really see since he can only look straight down. Coronetfish and puffers are my favorite to see. The coronetfish are just very funny and wiggly and the puffers look SO HAPPY. I’m pretty pleased with my new camera and it’s waterproofness.

So far today Jack has watched TV all day. Right now he is watching some cartoon with kids and a huge blue elephant. He also watched a butt load of Pink Panther cartoons.

I finished reading Drop City, a book my sister foisted on me. It was good but one of those books where you are just freaking out wait for the next heinous thing to happen, the next rape or next death of a child or whatever. Last night as I woke up hacking up gross mucus I couldn’t go back to sleep and I keep imaging what I would do if there was a tsunami and we had to, like run for the hills. Would I stop to pack up food and clothes? If I didn’t would I regret it later? Where would we even go? There is a huge mountain behind us but I have no idea if there are even roads up there.

I try to be in the water every evening as the sun sets but possibly today we will make a longer excursion out to take a tropical island sort of hike. In order to do so we have to drive back over the south eastern part of the island. Someday maybe we will even make it to Haleakala.

Random notes for next time:
bring a sewing kit!
more band-aids!
more contact lenses!

We are in room 6 this year and it is a one bedroom that is less awesome than I pictured. It IS great to be on the ground floor with lanai opening up right onto the lawn only 10 steps from the beach. A studio like number 3, 4, or 5 would be more ideal or even an upper floor studio with ocean view. But the layout for this unit is a tad weird and makes no sense.

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The drive up was easy despite heavy rain for the first half. It snowed gently once we got into the mountains and it was very exciting. Jack loved it. I had a moment of feeling disappointed when Tim told me that we weren’t going over Donner Pass. I’m used to going to North Lake Tahoe!

All of Tahoe is covered with a pristine white powdery snow an the skies are blue. I love how the snow on tree branches falls off occasionally creating this cloud of snow that drifts down in a swirling cloud. We saw a coyote this morning!

Other people have been waking up in the morning and heading out to the slopes for ski or snowboard. NOT ME. Across the street we worked long and hard to build a kick ass sled trail. I venture out once or twice a day to sled.

I am not exactly prepared to be in the snow. I brought my lady bug rain boots (shockingly, these work fairly well), a pair of wool socks, my sisters kick ass looong winter coat with hood from her days in chicago blizzards and I have a pairs of snow pants I can’t remember where I got. no gloves of my own but a nice neighbor lent me some. I wonder if REI still has winter boots on sale. I’m sure I’ll come back to Tahoe sometime in the next 4 or 5 years…

When not outside I am sitting around on my ass, or in the hot tub, or wrangling kids, or eating yummy food or playing board games or sitting around with my lap top amidst a bunch of other geeks with laptops.

I have not snow shoed yet. Maybe tomorrow morning before we leave?! ahhhh, a really good vacation!!!

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Liz wrote up yesterday pretty well here so I won’t rehash it. Except maybe to say that when we at the entrance to Central Park it was so very alluring. I need to go in there. I am looking forward to doing one of those horse and buggy rides with some drunk BlogHers. s that so very wrong?

Woke up sort of late today and didn’t get out of here until like noon. I hung around the lobby for a bit to see if I noticed anyone I knew who might want to come on a wandering adventure with me but didn’t see anyone and was eager to get out and explore. I left thinking I would head to the garment district but looked the the left and saw the Empire State building and just headed towards that. It was so fun to just wander around. I got to Grand Central Station and went in and sat there for a while. I don’t know1 Think of all the kids books you’ve read where they are in Grand Central Station?! I felt really happy and connected.

It was fucking HOT. I was sweating like … someone who sweats a lot. I dabbed myself with a dainty handkerchief. After G.C.S. i called home to talk to my kid. He was happy to hear from me and super cute on the phone. At three yrs. old he is just learning to talk on the phone. I miss my bunn! Both of them!

I meant t head to the Empire State Building but got distracted by the NY Public Library. WOW. I’m so in love and so intimidated.

Then I went and lurked for a bit in Bryant Park. Ate some kinda boring food and listened to Broadway in the Park. Went to Japanese bookstore that is right there and lusted for all the craft books. I may have to go back and Barbapapa book in Japanese.

Then I accidentally went to Times Square. Really I should have just gone south from Bryant Park towards the garment district but got a bit confused. I went to the Sanrio store and was tempted by the Hella Kitty stuff and the I Love Nerds stuff.

Ended up on Mood Fabrics and it was so awesome I almost passed out. All at once i realized i was dead tired and my feet were about to fall off. I may have to go back and roll around in the beautiful shirting fabric.

Went to some BlogHer parties… People’s Party and Queerosphere. Fun! What ho! Feeling festive!

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We are flying to Detroit to go camping with Vim’s family. I don’t need even the vestige of something nice to wear. All I need are one pair sneakers, one pair of crocs, 2pairs of pants, two camping skirts*, 4 t-shirts, a tank top, two bras, 47 pairs of underwear, two bathing suits, contact lens solution and lens, sunglasses, regular glasses, moist face cleaning tissues, my face cream, oh and some socks I guess. I have some magazines for the plane and will load up my iPhone kindle app with a new book, plus some audio books, a camera, a sleeping bag, and sunscreen.

And this lamp, and a thermos. That’s all I need!

Last time I was in MI with Vim’s family it was when we got engaged and I had the WORST cold EVER. I was barely functioning on about 4 types of cold medication. My brain was all stuffy, I couldn’t hear or breathe or concentrate and if I recall correctly it was super rainy and cold.

* I hate shorts. Skirts are way better for hiking and camping. I learned this the one time years ago when I read a book about how to pee in the woods. If you are wearing shorts you have to bare your whole ass to the universe but if you have a skirt on it’s way easier to pee and have a bit of modesty about it. The best way to do it is to lean against a rock in an almost seated position. Now you know!

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After Sha and I got off the plane in Rome we took the train to the Termini station and since it was raining we just got in a cab. A cab whose driver had no idea where the hotel was and had to ask the other drivers and then got us there pretty quickly after having driven up on the sidewalk and run over a few pigeons. I hadn’t really managed enough sleep on the plane and I was so tired the ground was heaving around and I was ont he verge of hallucinating. Our Hostel manager was super nice and talking to us and drawing us a map and giving us directiosn and all I could think was that I was about to pass out.

We stayed at the Hotel Lodi, which I recommend as being super friendly, clean and having the bidet right smack dab in the middle of the shower. It was rather far out of the way and was off most of the Rome maps so beware and make sure you keep the business card with the map on it with you so that late at night after getting off the metro you wont be totally lost. They served morning croissant and cappuccino and had two computers with internet in the breakfast room which was very handy and I would totally recommend this hotel to other travelers. It had hostel shared rooms and also private rooms with private baths.

After we left Rome so I said goodbye to any sort of useful internet connection. I did do some analog blogging on my journal but I found that it just did not answer and that it ended up being more of a list of things seen and done.

After 2 days of death march touristy shit in Rome I was so very ready to plump down at our villa in the middle of nowhere to drink cheap wine and read and play games. I’m always a bit torn between touristy death marches and casual hanging about in a new alien environment. Much of it depends on what your companions want to do and whether or not you can split up. And in this case all of the above was fine. I had traveling companions who wanted to do both things AND didn’t care what I was doing either.

One thing I really liked about this trip was having a home base and not having to pack up and move to a new hotel room every few days. It really helped to make me feel more relaxed.

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