love it here.

they just built a new pharmacy by my grandparents' house. i'm resisting the urge to apply for a job there. [i do intend to apply at a pharmacy eventually to make sure i like the environment/work before i go through pharmacy school.]

last night, we got in a little over an hour late. not too bad. the pilot announced that it was "a balmy 3 degrees outside." eek.
my mom's parents picked her up and my dad and i got a rental car [i'll need to get a photo] and headed to my dad's parents' house. [yes. it's somewhat sad that we aren't all together, but this way we are all happy.]
i tried to navigate, and we ended up getting on the freeway the wrong direction and driving back through the airport. oops. but we finally made it. my sister was here waiting for us, and we all ate some yummy lasagna. :]
i also found out that it was my grandparents' 62nd wedding anniversary! oh and i learned that they met each other because my grandpa was a busboy in the women's dorm at the college they both attended, and my grandma waited tables there to make a little extra spending money. she made 25 cents an hour, and her aunt paid 38 dollars a month for room and board. we talked tonight about how much things have changed.

today, we visited my sister at her office and went out to lunch. my grandma and i spent some time knitting. she does the knit stitch differently. i kind of want to learn her way... it looks a little faster. of course, it's probably her experience that makes it look so much faster. we ate dinner at my uncle's house. then my sister and i got some shopping done. grandma, dad, and i stayed up pretty late talking. we somehow got on the topic on healthcare, which got my dad a little fired up. it also left me with a dismal feeling about the future of healthcare in our country. but that's another topic for another day. and probably one that i won't go into on this blog. :]

tomorrow, my sister and i are going to do some more shopping. then we have to head up to fort collins. my mom's parents are having a dinner to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary, which is on saturday. it's supposed to snow here, so hopefully the roads won't be too bad.

my grandma mentioned today that she didn't send out christmas cards this year. she said she used to be so good about writing out christmas letters to all of her family, but this year she decided that she would call instead. and then she added that part of the reason that she didn't write out letters this year was because she didn't know what to say about grandpa. she "didn't want to alarm anyone, but then again... maybe it's an alarming situation." my heart broke a little bit. but he seems to be in good spirits right now, which makes me so happy.

well. it's time for me to get some sleep.
goodnight. :]

wasting time.

our flight is delayed. we haven't left the house yet, and it keeps getting pushed back more and more.
so i thought i would write about my friday night/morning adventure.

i ended up staying out all night with yenh, hector [who i will seriously try to start calling j.r. since i'm the one only who calls him hector], and anthony. so i only got one hour of sleep, which made yesterday a struggle.
but it was a good night. :]

we ate at silver peak, we danced at 210, and we ate some more at the peppermill.

there was plenty of drama mixed in when hector's ex's friend spilled her drink on yenh. i offered to be yenh's roxana, and tell the girl i would break her face if she ever did that to my friend again. [if you don't know what i'm referring to, read the longest paragraph in this post.] but yenh wanted to keep things low key. i'm fairly certain i wouldn't have been able to follow through, but it could have been fun to see what happened if i tried to channel my inner roxana. ha.

hector... i mean j.r. and anthony are first year med school students. they are on winter break, but it was still hard to get them to commit to going out for the night. they decided to dedicate all of their days of vacation to snowboarding, and going out for the night would mean giving up one day of snowboarding. a hard sell, but yenh and i worked it out. ha.
during our second meal of the night, this guy sitting at a table across from ours stood up, tried to walk, and fainted. [he was beyond drunk because he had come from the dj tiesto show at the peppermill that we missed.] i told hector and anthony that they should have jumped to action, but let's just say they weren't quite in the proper condition to issue medical care.this isn't a set up. they were fast asleep at this point. anthony didn't even get to eat very many of his fries because he couldn't stay awake. and j.r. started snoring shortly before we woke them up to leave.
but i have to say, listening to them jabber while they were awake was pure comedy. plus, it was fun to get the dish on med school. :]they're lucky yenh and i are so nice and made sure they stayed safe. ha.

although my eyelids were heavy all day, i managed to ship my packages on saturday. only a day late... not too bad. i also learned that there is a automated mail center thing at the main post office here, which is open 24 hours a day. and it's pretty simple to use. the line was shorter and faster, so i tried it out instead of waiting to see a postal worker. hopefully everything went accordingly and my packages will be sent. :]

i didn't find anything warm at j. crew [or anywhere else for that matter] to take to colorado with me. i'm planning to just dress in layers. we'll see how it goes. i managed to do some laundry last night, but was too tired to pack. so i woke up early this morning to shower and pack. i'm thankful that we have an afternoon flight so that i could break my habit of not sleeping at all before flights. ha. as usual, i feel like i forgot several things, but everything on my list is checked off, so hopefully i have enough to make due.

i hope everyone is feeling more prepared for this christmas than i am!
i'll try to check in from colorado. :]

so much to do.

so little time indeed.

i keep having to remind myself that i am leaving town again on sunday. and with that reminder comes the realization that i don't have as much time for my to do list as i think i do. but for some reason, i'm still not feeling the time crunch.

i haven't finished finding gifts. what a stunning surprise.
so that's obviously on the list for tomorrow.
also a stop at j. crew because i can't figure out what happened to all of my sweaters, and it's ridiculously cold outside. and really. denver isn't going to be any warmer than it is here, so i need something warm to pack. [plus. they are having what seems to be a perpetual sale.]
and a long overdue visit to the post office. i don't know why i dread going to the post office so much. i used to love visiting there with my mom as a little one, but now i can't ever manage to make myself go.

maybe i should include a little bit of fun as a reward for getting to the post office, eh? i've been meaning to paint pottery all week. and actually, much longer than that. but if i run out of time to paint pottery, i could always knit. :]
and i am going to go out with yenh and some friends tomorrow night. as long as the weather isn't too terrible.

otherwise...
the wind is so horrific at my house tonight that helix has actually woken up and barked a few times. the whole house is shaking. i'm not a fan of this sort of wind. plus, i know it's bringing a storm, which is bad news for the holiday travel plans.

i forgot the mention that i bought the friday night knitting club on the same day as my successful wooden needle/soft yarn hunt. i'm excited to start it. i'll confess that i chose it primarily due to the adorable cover. i know. i know. i almost didn't buy it when blurb on the back alluded to a tragedy. but then i read the blurb for the second book [knit two] and basically spoiled the tragedy for myself so i'm properly prepared. someone, please tell me you would have done this too? i don't know what got into me. normally, i wouldn't have wanted to ruin the surprise.

now the only problem is that i'm rather antsy to make progress on my actual knitting. so far knitting is winning all my time.

& & i just found out that the book is being adapted into a movie. this might be a good indication, right? hopefully it's a good read. :]

yarn + old friends + another option.

i mentioned in the last post that i've been knitting. yesterday, i went on a yarn hunt in addition to my hunt for wooden needles. and i found some pretty fabulous stuff. i'm a sucker for yarn that's ridiculously soft. i might continue the hunt a bit today. we'll see.

helix has been going a little bit crazy with the balls of yarn sitting on the couch. it's pretty funny. he will just sit there and watch me knit and then sort of growl at the yarn. he wants to play with it so badly. last night, i got up for a minute and he swooped in and tried to steal my yarn. silly guy.

& & robin, in case you happen to read this, i found some of your yarn when i was sorting through boxes from my apartment. yes. i still have plenty of boxes that i've not unpacked. ack.

last night, i met up yenh and hector for dinner and a movie. [photo circa summer 2006.]

it was really good to see them again. they were both biology majors, so we had a few classes together here and there and knew some of the same people. we became close friends and had a some pretty awesome adventures together. yenh is now going to pharmacy school in utah and hector is going to medical school here at unr.

we talked quite a bit over dinner. we covered lots of ground... politics, relationships, marriage & kids, movies, school...
yenh is trying to convince me to apply to pharmacy school. last night, i couldn't sleep, so i was seriously contemplating the idea. when yenh started telling me that i should do it, james said, "hey. the salary of two pharmacists wouldn't be so bad." then yenh said "yeah! the three of us could open our own pharmacy!" ha. but i also think that it would be a job that would allow for a family, which is important to me. and you can finish in three years. the thing is, i don't have all the prerequisites to apply. the main one standing in my way is anatomy and physiology, which i swore i would never take because i know that i couldn't handle the whole cadaver situation.
it would be nice to have another option than grad school though. plus, pharmacy school leads right into a career whereas grad school leads right into who knows what. so i don't know. maybe i'll try to convince deepa, radhika, or mike to take anatomy with me so i can freak out to them and not have a full blown anxiety attack. ha. :]

ok. i'm off to work on some more christmas gifts. wish me luck!

i've been meaning to blog.

i really have.
i even have two posts in my drafts section.
but i wanted to do a post about san francisco with pictures first.
so i'm sitting down in my cold, dark bedroom on my trusty desktop that has a pretty empty hard drive because i rarely use it for more than watching satc or friends to fall asleep.
so. how about a post that lives up to the name [photos + words + stories] of this blog. :]

in case you haven't noticed, i sort of have a thing about taking photos from the airplane. i happen to enjoy them quite a bit. it goes without saying that i was pleased to capture this one on our morning flight into oakland:
most of the first day was spent shopping, although one might argue that we were primarily window shopping. the only real purchase of the day was at lush. i picked up a couple of little lovelies. they sure made my suitcase smell good. :]

i may have mentioned that one of my vivid childhood memories is riding on the spiral escalators in the mall containing nordstom. now they almost make me nauseous, but i still ride on them for the sake of memory lane. i loved seeing the holiday decor all over the city.

that night, we had a large group dinner at north beach restaurant. i won't go back there, but it was fun sitting at a huge table in the wine cellar with about 25 ladies who were enjoying the vino quite a bit. :]
the best part of the dinner [obviously not the food] was getting to see the prusciutto rooms. at the beginning of the meal, one of the silly italian servers boasted about how they make their own prusciutto on site. after our meal, the owner of the restaurant showed those of us who were interested and talked a bit about the process. it was pretty interesting. he said there was $300,000 worth of prusciutto in the two rooms. yikes. after dinner, mom and i walked over and got some cheesecake to eat in the room and called it a night. some of the ladies headed to lefty's, a bar in union square right outside the hotel. i think i heard them walking back to their rooms around one. seriously. when i'm older, i hope i can still stay out late like that. :]

the next day, mom and i did a little more shopping. the anthropologie on market st. is my most favorite anthro store. the decor at every anthro is always fascinating, but especially at this store. so many unique ideas.

after a little shopping, we headed to north beach to wander around. we had tickets to beach blanket babylon that night, so we stopped by the venue early to make sure of the location and pick up the tickets. since i have no other photos from the show, i'll just mention now that it was fabulous. better than i expected. if you're unfamiliar, it's famous for the crazy hats worn by the performers. they really are impressive. they basically make jokes about current events and pop culture throughout the show. the political part was my favorite. they seemed to make fun of everyone equally. :] oh and since it's december [i'm assuming that's the reason. ha.] they ended with a whole christmas themed segment, including a huge christmas hat. :]

before the show, mom and i wandered around washington square.we visited some of the boutiques in the area and then headed down columbus st. to visit a few more shops. i finally got to see vesuvio during the day.ha. usually i just visit there with andrew at night, but the murals on the wall outside were so fun to see during daylight. i was trying to convince my mom that this is sort of a famous spot, and just after i took this photo, a tour bus stopped and all the people unloaded and started taking photos too. sort of funny.

we decided to have dinner here:
i've eaten here before, and it's always good. i wanted a good meal after the yuck meal from the night before. [ok. to be fair, i should say that my mom enjoyed her meal the night before. i think i was the only one who didn't like mine. but with all the choices in the area, i don't feel the need to ever go back.] we had this cute, isolated little table by the window at the stinking rose with a christmas tree right behind my chair and a fun view of columbus st. after dinner, we headed off to the show were we eventually met up with everyone else from our group.

on the way back to the hotel from the show, the limo driver that had been driving us around for the whole trip got pulled over. it was a huge ordeal, where all the ladies in our limo freaked out at the cops and told him they were inconveniencing us. the cops said that the limo driver hadn't filled out the paperwork properly, so we would have to get out and take taxis. this lead to further freaking out, where the ladies told the cops that taxis were unsafe. the cops said they've been having problems with limos acting as taxis and then kidnapping the people they pick up. this caused the ladies to get even more angry because they've been using this limo service for years and told the cops they were ridiculous. i thought the whole thing was a little bit funny. some of the ladies who were in the limo are rather prominent people in reno. if the cops had only known who they were dealing with! ha. i looked it up on google maps and realized that we were less than a mile from the hotel, so mom and i just walked back. they rest of them reluctantly took taxis, and the limo got towed. the driver apparently showed up at lefty's, the bar where he knew the ladies would be that night to apologize. ha.

anyway. i really don't mind the walk from north beach to union square. james and i usually just walk. and tonight was especially cool because mom and i got to see this big christmas tree at the ritz.sadly, i failed to take photos of all the other cool trees we saw. ah well.

the next day, our flight wasn't until the evening, so after a yummy breakfast, we decided to head to golden gate park to explore. we stopped at the conservatory of flowers first.the coolest part was in one of the rooms, they had set up "the golden gate expressway", which is a little model of san francisco using all kinds of "junk" to create the buildings. oh. there was a train too, but that wasn't the impressive part. ha.notice the cheese grater? and the forks and spoons?
and here's coit tower made out of tape measures and mini blinds.
it was fun to look at each little building and try to figure out what they used. they had a little booklet that you could look at to read what each building was made from. things like light switch plates, keyboard keys, cds, computer guts, old mail cartons... i wish i could remember more!

after that, we headed to the de young museum. i'm pretty sure we took a wrong turn somewhere because it too us a while to find it. we first stumbled on the academy of sciences, which i will definitely head back to check out another time. then we went over to the museum. they are having a big ysl special exhibit right now, which was definitely the highlight of what the museum had to offer. i seriously loved seeing all of those clothes. and i seriously wished i could take a few pieces home. :]

we went up in the tower, as suggested by the guest services lady. it offered one of the best 360 degree views of the city i've come across.
the other interesting part of the museum was the dale chihuly glass. mom and i talked about how the bellagio has sort of "ruined" us. when you can see a whole ceiling made of chihuly glass, four pieces aren't all that impressive. likewise, when you see buildings modeled out of flowers in the bellagio conservatory, the golden gate park conservatory isn't quite as impressive. :] we still loved wandering through the park. it's something i've been meaning to do for a long time now.

after our short adventure, we were getting hungry, so we walked over to the haight for some lunch. naturally, i suggested we eat as askew. my mom loved it too! then i proceeded to make my poor mom walk for miles and miles and miles because despite however savvy i might think i am, i still haven't figured out the public transportation system very well. but we got to see buena vista park and plenty of cool houses like these: and we finally came upon the paper source in the fillmore where i made a quick stop. and then we continued walking and walking and walking back to union square. i got to show my mom japantown too. ha.

i didn't have a chance to visit with andrew because he was in the middle of finals. i guess that means i'll need to make another trip soon. :]

briefly, in other news:
we finally saw quantum of the solace sunday night. it was good. i need to see it again so i can figure out some more parts. i always feel like i need to see those types of movies at least twice to really understand everything.

it's been snowing. james is ecstatic about that.

this was taken from my front porch monday morning. the road is under there somewhere. :]

i've been knitting. i think i'm going to look for some wooden knitting needles in case the don't allow metal ones on the plane. i mean really, what better way to pass time while flying in the winter than to knit?

i'm craving tapioca express. so i might trek out there today.

james keeps asking me what i want for christmas. i still can't decide on anything.
i got my one big christmas wish over the weekend from my parents. now i just need to set it up. :]
i've not finished my shopping. but i'm sure you probably guessed that, huh?

i actually started this post last night, but had to take a break and didn't end up finishing it until now. kudos to you if you read it without taking a break. ha.

go figure.

now that i'm ready to upload my photos, the nasty "your startup disk is full" message has returned and decided that my desire to blog about the vegas trip with the inclusion of photos is doomed. ah well.
[that should explain why i'm asking for an external hard drive for christmas.]

upon reflecting on the trip, i really have little to say. i think that's why i was hoping to include photos of victoria. :]
my mom picked her up from daycare on monday, and we took her shopping. we also decided based on her attraction to our necklaces, that she likes tiffany jewelry. we warned my dad about this, and he had a good laugh.
on sunday, i was able to meet up with deepa for a couple hours. we went to town square. it was my first visit to this particular shopping area, and i really liked it. they have a smaller martin + osa than cherry creek in denver, but it's a martin + osa nevertheless. it's very spread out, and there are living spaces above the stores. oh. and there is a cupcake stand and a very yummy yogurt shop. what more could you ask for? when i told james about it, i added that i wouldn't mind living there. :]
we visited town square again on tuesday so that victoria could have her photo taken with santa. it was a pretty good santa, but unfortunately, the photographer was unwilling to wait for victoria to smile before she took the photos even though there was no one in line behind us. oh well. the resulting photos were still pretty cute.
we didn't do a whole lot else besides shopping and eating. we did had dinner at lucille's on tuesday night, which was obviously a highlight.

in other news, my studio calico kit arrived today. i'm in love it with once again. i actually like the kit way more than i imagined. in fact, when i was looking through the goods, i was more inspired to scrap than i have been in a long time. hopefully, the feeling will reoccur when i have time to scrapbook again. maybe this weekend. we'll see.

i also attempted some christmas shopping today. i made a similar attempt yesterday, but i came home with one bag. and wouldn't you know the bag only contained a shirt that i purchased for myself. ha. today was a bit better. i again came home with just one bag, but this time it contained victoria's gift. i've resolved that my parents will get a "new year" gift because a. i don't want to haul the gift to denver and back and b. it probably won't be done before we leave for denver anyway. now i just need to figure something out for my sister and brother + amanda. i'm considering waiting until i get to denver to purchase my sister's gift. i have a few things in mind, so it shouldn't be too difficult. i do need to figure something out for paul and amanda rather quickly so that i can get everything in the mail though. eek.

i better get going. it's nearly one in the morning now. where did the night go?
early tomorrow morning, mom and i are heading to the airport. i've not packed my bag yet, but my laundry is in the dryer, so that's a good start.
perhaps my computer will randomly find some disk space by the time i get home so that i can upload and post photos. otherwise, i'll figure something out. we can't have too many photo-less posts around here.
goodnight. :]

p.s. i was just scrolling through my old posts and when i saw the photo in this post, i got sad that i no longer have long hair for the first time since my hair cut. i guess that it took quite a while for that feeling to come. but i'm about to go blow dry and flat iron my hair. i'm sure that i'll once again be glad the length is gone when i finish the process in half the time. :]

i'm here.

but i still haven't uploaded my photos. ha.

my sister came to town on tuesday for a mining conference with her company. i picked her up yesterday when the conference was over, so we've been spending time together.
i even woke up early this morning before i had to go to work in order to go get breakfast with her. :]
work went by way too slowly. plus, james went snowboarding today and my mom and sister went shopping, and i so wish that i could have been doing either of those things instead of sitting in the freezing cold [broken heater] scrapbook store. but i'm so thankful because jeanne offered to work for me tomorrow until one so that i can get lunch with my sister before she leaves. seriously. so sweet.

anyway.
i feel like i have way too much to do in order to be ready for christmas. i'm so far behind that i don't even know where to start. hopefully on monday and tuesday i can put a good dent in my list before my mom and i leave for the city. eek.

i'll be back sooner or later with the rest of my photos from the trip.

survey says:

it's already four days into december!
i'm not ready for it to be december yet, but i'm embracing it and getting totally excited.
december means a trip to the city. finally.
december means a trip to colorado see my family. again. which makes me so super happy.
december also means that i didn't get my christmas shopping done early this year. ha. ah well. i'll figure something out.

tomorrow i will post about the rest of my trip, but i haven't uploaded my photos yet, and i'm feeling too lazy to do that right now. so how about this instead:

where is your mobile phone? in my black bag. the bag with the handle that has stitches falling out. maybe i'll go visit the coach store tomorrow to see if they can fix it?
where is your significant other? in his bed sleeping.
your hair colour? brown.
your mother? the best. she's in fallon right now.
your father? the best. he just said "these oranges are so good!" then walked out of the kitchen. ha.
your favourite thing? traveling. :]
your dream last night? i don't remember it. i slept pretty well.
your dream goal? ack. it's going to be a while.
the room you're in? the family room.
your hobby? artsy stuff and scrapbooking.
your fear? death.
where do you want to be in six years? that one is a big fat question mark. i used to be so worried about having a plan. it's strange to not be so concerned now.
where were you last night? home.
what you're not? motivated to clean the house.
one of your wish-list items? this wireless external hard drive.
where you grew up? right around here.
the last thing you did? talked to my dad.
what are you wearing? joe's jeans & my favorite black long sleeved tee.
your tv? turned on to hgtv.
your pets? helix is asleep in james' room.
your computer? this one i generally use for computer stuff + internet. the desktop in my room i generally use to watch dvds until i fall asleep.
your mood? good.
missing someone? when i think about it, of course i can think of people to miss.
your car? in the driveway.
something you're not wearing? socks, shoes, or makeup.
favourite shop? martin + osa for now.
your summer? was not too eventful.
love someone? duh.
your favourite colour? teal + black.
when is the last time you laughed? something super random happened and it made me laugh so hard. but i can't remember what it was! i'll have to ask james.
when is the last time you cried? when i was driving away from my grandparents, i got teary. but not as much as last time since i knew i would be back in three weeks. :]

feel free to copy this and fill it out if you get bored.

tomorrow i'm picking my sister up from the hotel where she is staying here in reno. she was at a big mining conference with her company, now she is going to stay with us until sunday. we're going to meet up with my dad to get her a new phone. i need to do some cleaning and i should do some laundry to keep up too. i want to make rice krispy treats, fudge, and cookies. i doubt i'll actually make all three. i've never made fudge before, but it seems easy. ha. james and i are going to dinner for radhika's birthday. at some point, i'd like to stop at target. i'd also like to make it out to the coach store, the local art supply store, and oh geez... i don't even know. it's time to make a list and prioritize.