Emuzines

Happiness is…

…spending a night playing games with Nik and some of our oldest friends, in the birthplace of our relationship (the Rhoades household).

…devouring a meal of some of the best Mexican food LA has to offer (Pachanga), balanced on my lap while cruising down PCH and rocking out to KLOS.

…spending a relaxing day knitting with Martha, chatting with Justine, Dad, Nana, and Nonno.

…spontaneously remembering favorite LA food and drink spots, then going to them right away.

…see above…drinking a Coffee Bean vanilla latte during said games.

…coming home to a happy and sleepy Logan greeting me at the door, and following me within an inch of my body around the house until bed.

…knowing that I get to spend the next week and a half with some of my best friends and my family.

…also knowing that I get to go home to Nik, JoJo, and some incredible people who have quickly become the most wonderful friends a girl could ask for.

Quick post. I received a very, very good grade on my statistics midterm and I am so proud of myself. It was a tough one. Let’s just say that if there were A+++s, I would have one!

Things are also going really well at work. Finishing up an article draft, and finalizing my coding scheme for my own project. Sally and I ran through some videos using it today and it went really well. We also have an analysis plan in the works thanks to an incredible research scientist who helps me out a lot, Greg.

I’m heading to LA tomorrow and I am super excited. Lots of good plans, and I’ll get to spend some quality time with my mom, Mandi, Logan, Danny, Melissa (a frequent reader–hi!), and Mark. Happy!

This was written a couple of nights ago. The summary isn’t complete, but I figured I should get it out before I slack off on my blog again. I won’t get to the rest this weekend beceuase Mandi is visiting right now! Yay! Last night was went out for tapas in town, and today we’re heading to the outlets for fall clothes shopping and then coming home to make an autumn meal.

Here is what I owe my blog:

Summer Summary, Part I

I sit here snuggled with Nik under a big soft blanket on an evening that feels very much like fall. The heat of the past months has subsided, and has been replaced with a cool(er), windy evening. The branches outside whip around, and the sky is turning a very Halloweeny orange. I was able to resist putting up my fall decorations under September 1 only, so the house has been covered with pumpkins and fall leaves for almost a month. I further resisted Halloween-specific decorations until tonight, and am now surrounded by witches’ hats and ghosts. Additionally, I have lit my Pumpkin Patch candle, so the house smells very fally.

I have completely neglected writing here all summer. It was a vicious cycle, missing a post on one event, and then not wanting to post on the next until I went back to that. This resulted in no posting, so here is my summer summary. I vow to try very, very hard not to lag on posts in the future.

Studying

This was my big summer activity. It hurts just to think about it even now. I had my preliminary exam for school last week. This was a three-day exam covering infancy/early childhood, middle childhood/adolescence, and adulthood/aging. Within these areas I needed to know details of biological, socioemotional, and cognitive development. In addition to the details, author names and article or chapter years. I had about 200 articles memorized, most with multiple author names. Hundreds—thousands—of facts floated and, luckily, solidified in my head through endless hours of studying. Ugh, enough on that. A painful experience, but worth it.

LA

I made three trips to LA over the summer. Always a great time. The first served as a break between the end of classes and the beginning of the previously-described activity. I fit in visits to my dad, Martha, and Justine (dinner and a night stroll in Long Beach), Mark (coffee in Redondo Beach), Kimberly, Zena, and Grady (incredible new dinner place in Long Beach), and spent lots of time with Mandi and my mom (and Logan!).

The second trip was for the Fourth of July. JoJo came on this trip, so there was lots of playful chaos. I went to a party at Danny’s, like last year, and played games and set off fireworks with them. We also went to what is my favorite Hollywood Bowl trip so far—to see John Fogarty. My mom, Mandi, and I go for this holiday every year, not caring who is playing. We didn’t even know who John Fogarty was before going, but almost every song was recognizable. He put on a fantastic show. Lots of good food again, as always, too.

The third trip was just last month. This was a whirlwind of activity: celebration of Mandi’s birthday at Café Sevilla, Maddy and Mike’s wedding, Foti and Sarah’s engagement party, a surprise visit to my dad, Justine, Martha, and her side of the family at my step-uncle and –aunt’s anniversary party, taco truck adventures at 2 am, and more. Many of these occurred in one night, leaving me hardly able to move the next day. Luckily, Nik just drove me home and Jo and I slept!

North Carolina

What can I say about North Carolina, my annual weekend of extreme fun?!? My NC trip deserves its very own summary.

-Raleigh Melting Pot (“1, 2, 3, FONDUUUUUUE!”)

-Games, games, games

-Boating

-Water skiing

-Tubing

-Driving the jet ski (“OH MY GOD, 52!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”)…that’s how fast I got. I screamed

-Table for 12 at hibachi

-Balls of rice in my eye

-Flashlight tag

-Pool

-Fried pickles

-Shopping

-Coffee and Apples to Apples break

-Microwaved s-mores

-Golden Cheesemuffs

Mandi and I always love, love, love our North Carolina trips. Sharon, Paul, and Sara (Ryan was out of town, but let me sleep in his room!) are always great hosts.I frequently look through my old NC pictures just for fun. I wish I could get out there more than once a year!

I love living in the house!  Spring has definitely arrived in Davis, and the neighborhood literally smells like flowers.  I got out of the car after work today and it smelled delicious.  My backyard also smells especially nice.  There’s a tree that we thought was some sort of fruit tree…but is suddenly blooming thousands of white flowers.  I’m pretty sure that’s what’s perfuming the backyard (and maybe the neighborhood…), but I also stuck my nose to all our other flowers and they smelled nice, too.  I can’t wait to have a BBQ and patio set back there.  I do spend as much time as I can out there, gardening or playing ball with Jo.  She LOVES being out there, although the other day is was very windy and she thought a rose was attacking her, and she was scared.  The rose now lays on the ground, bit in half.

Everything here is great.  We have purchased everything for the guest bedroom, and actually are having our first guest here Sunday night, just for the night.  Nik’s friend Liz from college.  But I don’t know if the bedroom stuff will be ready on time…  But then Mandi and my mom (and Logan) come on Friday!!  Yay!!!  It’ll definitely be ready by then!

Nik hung our pictures yesterday and it’s looking very homey.  Not much more to do to set up, except figure out where all of my smaller decorations go and do the guest stuff. 

I had a long day of many meetings at work and am pretty tired.  But I have to prepare for a presentation on Monday, so I better go get working on that…

I spent last weekend in L.A.  Technically Logan-sitting, I fit a ton of fun in with some of my favorite people.  Unfortunately, Mandi and my mom were in Amesbury, so I didn’t get to see them…but I had an activity-filled weekend, anyway.

I got in very late Friday night, after a horrible Super Shuttle experience which kept me driving around LAX for an hour after midnight.  On Saturday, I got my nails done (I only try to fit in the very important things), and then had some relaxation time with Logan.  When Noah was up from his nap, I met up with him and Mark at Polliwog park.  We fed some ducks and gigantic fish, and played with Noah on the playground.  We ran a lot and tired everybody out.  Seeking some quiet, more conversation-allowing sit-down time, we headed to Mama D’s for dinner #1.  After that, it was dinner #2 with Gabriela…unphotographed, but great as always.  I had my beloved Caprese salad at Lazy Dog, and we laughed and laughed and laughed. 

Sunday saw breakfast #1 with Melissa at Le Quotidian (the best coffee in the world…), with a surprise additional goodbye visit by Mark.  Breakfast #2 took place at Eat at Joe’s with my dad, Martha, and Justine, and the remainder of the afternoon was spent cuddling some more with Logan.

The weekend was over quickly, but wonderful.  It left me utterly exhausted but somehow refreshed, and thankful for the great people in my life (including my mom, who wasn’t there, but left me roses and all sorts of preferred foods and sweets and drinks, and a toy to give to Logs!).  Another weekend in paradise.

Similar to my List of Happenings post, here is a bulleted list of happenings.  I don’t feel like I can put into words the great fun and relaxation I have had during this winter break home, so here are some thoughts and happenings.

• Scrapbook catch-up!  Or, rather, scrapbook work-on, since I have completed a few pages, but made so many more memories since I’ve been here, that I’m sure I’ll go home needing to do more than I did.  But hopefully I’ll have completed all July, 2008 activities by the time I get back into school.
• I finished sorting all of my literature for my chapter.  In other words, I finished reading through all early intervention literature EVER DONE on kids who are blind, deaf, mentally retarded, or premature, or have Down Syndrome or cerebral palsy.  That’s a lot of studies.  I had to find them, first of all, which I’ve been doing since September.  Then I had to read through them all, determine their quality, and rate them.  Now I get to write on the highly rated ones!
• Gaby time.  Last night Gabs and I went to Cozymel’s for dinner and then to the movies.  We laughed so hard.  She’s the best.
• Logan cuddles.  Logan spends most part of most nights with me, and leaves in the mornings (or middle of the night, I can never tell).  In what *I* consider morning, I call him in, and he jumps on my bed for cuddles.  He is so cute.  SO CUTE.
• Again about Logan.  We played “Where’s the ball?” with him tonight, which is really hide-and-seek with a ball.  He’s great at this game and searches the house high and low for whatever particular toy we’re playing with–he always remembers.  He looks on every shelf, he checks the top of the table, he looks under and over furniture and between each pillow on the couch.  It’s great.  So today we hid it in his water bowl.  This was new, but he found it right away.  He just couldn’t bear to stick his nose deep enough to get it out.  He worked at picking it up by tennis ball fluff for a long while, while we sat and laughed until we couldn’t breathe, but that didn’t work.  Then, he drank all the water and got the ball!
• Tonight we had a Thanksgiving dinner, mostly since Mandi wasn’t able to join us in Amesbury for Thanksgiving.  My mom did a spectacular job with the food, as I selfishly perused the scrapbook store and worked on a Mark and Noah page while she cooked.  Yummy!
• Mandi, Danny, and I went ice skating, which was great fun.  We went to Seaside Lagoon.  Here we are:

• My mom treated Nik, Mandi, Danny, and myself to an incredible dinner at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian restaurant in Beverly Hills.  It was quite the experience…SO much food!  We chatted and chatted and couldn’t stop chatting (and eating).  Here WE are:

• Tomorrow is sledding with Mandi and Justine.  It should be really fun.  I remember toppling over quite a bit last time Mandi and I went.  We’re sure to scream, and the most fun happens when it makes us scream (think dark San Francisco forest)!
• There’s so much more…  It’s just been a great break so far, and it’s been nice to see everyone who I’ve missed so much, and I hope I can squeeze everything in in my last remaining days!

I’m in LA!  Yay!  It was a difficult and slightly painful drive down.   I took the 80 to the 680 to the 101, because of the snow problem on the 5.  I had never driven the 101 all the way down, and I actually really enjoyed it.  It was really pretty, a very neat drive.  I thought it was funny that the scenery completely reminded me of Disney’s California Adventure, rather than the other way around.  With the trees hugging the highway, the tin agricultural buildings with “Asparagus” painted on the sides, the fields, the mountains covered in snow.  It was very pretty.  I was amazed at the great time I was making, and most of the time there was very few cars anywhere to be seen.  Then I hit Santa Barbara.  It took me two hours just to get through SB (rush hour), and from then on it was tough.  The valley and the 405 were horrible.  Even the radio DJ was late to his shift because of the 101/405 area traffic.

Anyway, I made it!  My mom had a yummy Greek dinner waiting for me.  Logan cried like a big baby and has been following me around and cuddling any chance he gets.  I went to bed pretty early to prepare myself for yesterday, which was our Christmas!  Mandi and I started the day with some shopping, and I wrapped and wrapped, and cooked (well, I mashed some sweet potatoes) all day until Christmas time!  Then gifts, fun, food, and a nice drive along the beach with Logan.

It’s nice to be home, and nice to know it’s for 2/3 weeks and not for 2/3 days!  I can’t wait to see everybody.  Let’s get together!!!

Here are some pictures from my visit!

[View with PicLens]

I’ve spent the weekend back at home, and had a great time!  At first, I didn’t tell anyone I was visiting home, because I had so many plans and no free time, and didn’t want to say, “I’m coming home, but won’t see you” to anyone.  I feel a little guilty about that but really, I didn’t have time! 

On Friday, my mom picked me up and, although she tried to keep it a secret, she had a secret Indian food feast in the trunk.  I smelled the garlic naan yumminess and the secret was out!  We came home and Logan got a lot of love, and then we dug into the food, which I’ve been craving for a couple of months!  Friday night was pretty relaxing.  I studied a bit…couldn’t avoid it completely…and hung out with Logan, and went to bed nice and early…with Logan in a ball at my feet!

Saturday was spent with Mark and Noah, who just gets cuter and cuter and cuter.  His language has exploded.  I got into the car and turned around and said, “Hi, Noah!” and he waved and said, “Hi!”  Last time it was work to just get him to wave at me!  He was quite entertaining, demanding (”More,” “Doggie,” “Other doggie”) to see Logan and JoJo pictures.  I loved being with Mark…wish I could see him every week, or twice a week again (didn’t realize what a luxury that was, eating sushi with him twice a week!)  Saturday night, I attended Danny’s fabulous Halloween party, dressed in bat antlers.  Mandi and I carved a pumpkin.  Despite Mandi’s cutting off of the pirate skeleton’s eye and nose, we sort of won first place in the contest (we got second, but it was rigged to let the only kid win).  It was really nice seeing everyone there, and Mandi and I solidified our next week plans (yayyyyy…she’s coming to visit!  Downtown Sacramento!  San Francisco!  Napa!  Spa!  Food!  Chocolate!).

Today I went to Oak Glen with my mom, a yearly tradition which I always enjoy.  I was a little disappointed before I went, because I knew I couldn’t buy food to eat for weeks, like I usually do from there (apple bushels, apple pie, etc.).  However…I thought of how awful Safeway produce is anyway, and conviced myself that I could squeeze some apples into my suitcase!  They’re still sitting on my bed…I haven’t tried to pack them yet…

I’m leaving soon for the airport…and want to go spend the last hour with Logan!!  It was a great weekend!!

So…Nik and I spent the past few days moving in.  The drive up wasn’t bad…actually, it was sort of fun.  I played games with myself such as, “How many miles can I go without having to alter my cruise control?” and “Can Nik and I match our cruise controls EXACTLY, leaving neither of us having to brake?”  I found some good radio stations, I watched tomatoes fall off of tomato trucks, I saw some baby cows, and I talked to Mark and my mom with my Jawbone.  We made a few stops, which helped the body aches immensely, and we arrived happily.  We stayed in my favorite Davis hotel the first night, and got up early the next day to get our keys.

The apartment is really cute.  Certain rooms are a lot bigger than I remembered.  The bathroom has a double sink and is huge, and the living room is going to allow us to get a gigantic 3-piece sectional.  The bedrooms aren’t quite so huge, and we are splitting up the Pottery Barn furniture throughout the apartment in order to get it all.  We’re hoping to move into a bigger place (a house?) after this year, so we’ve been buying with that mindset.  Make it work this year, so we have it for the future.  Speaking of buying, we’re nearly done with purchasing all of the furniture.  We just have to get the nightstands and find some bookshelves.  Like Nik said, our couch won’t be delivered for awhile, but we really love it!  We have done a ton of work on the place (especially Nik), and it’s looking good.  He has been very busy putting furniture together and his hands are covered in blisters.  He got a bit of reprieve when Sarah and Foti came up to help (our first visitors and huge helpers, thank you!!).  I tried to help a bit but I’m better at…washing the dishes…and…coordinating colors in the bathroom towels…than using a screwdriver.  Oh!  And then he bought an electric one, which made his day.

We spent the evenings going out to eat and watching Sex and the City.  It’s been quite fun.  We are now back in L.A. for the week.  My fun Aunt Sharon is coming into town tomorrow, and we have a lot of plans.  I have been cuddling with Logan a lot and he’s such a LoveBug.  And today is my sister’s birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MANDI!), so we’re doing a few fun celebrations.  I’m so excited for my plans.  We leave again on Saturday with JoJo.  Hopefully we JoJo-proofed the place (i.e. picked up spare screws and nails from building desks) enough so that her initial exploration of the place goes well. 

Oh, please send me letters at my new place!  They would make me so happy