My Own Ink

Doing as the Romans do

2009-08-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm moved in, I feel this responsibility to learn about what fuels this area. This means, I'm going to have to drink a lot of wine. Last weekend, I took a basics wine class from one of the wineries here. This weekend, I went to help a local backyard wine club bottle some of last year's crush. I sat on an assembly line, filling bottles or using a device to push a cork into them. All the while, I pestered the guys in the club with questions. That showed great patience with my amateurism.

Lessons learned: Winemaking is way above my head at this point.

Fitting in

2009-08-30T11:24:00.001-07:00

I've been settling into my new home the past couple weeks. I have a great place near downtown that actually has a spiral staircase in it. No joke. The job is fun and interesting, with great people. My first day my boss brought me to a desk with a typewriter and a kitchen chair and told me to have at it. Once they replaced it with a computer, I noticed they'd also left me a vase with two roses. I've been busy trying to adapt to the differences and meeting all of the new people my beat includes. It is a little bit like going from eighth grade to high school. I'm suddenly at the bottom of the food chain. But it's a fun challenge.

Lesson learned: A new one every day.

Power wedding week

2009-08-30T11:17:00.000-07:00

One of my best friends got married a couple weeks ago in Montana. In true Joe and Anna style, the week prior was packed with climbing, hiking, swimming, etc. Anna's bachelorette party was 16 hours long, including lunch on Flathead Lake, boating, a fiesta, and a band. By the day before the wedding, we were all a wreck. But we managed to rally, and their wedding was beautiful. They had the ceremony on the top of Big Mountain, with the reception at the base lodge. We rode the chair up, then the bridal party rolled into the reception on scooters down a slide that goes the length of chair 6. It serve as a pseudo high school reunion as well. It was great to see everyone.

Lesson learned: Clare and I are power bridesmaids.

Moving day

2009-07-31T09:48:00.000-07:00

Moving sucks. There is just no sugar coating it. In five years, I have accumulated way beyond what a single woman should own. It took ages to go through all my stuff, get rid of a ton of it and pack the rest into about 439 boxes. One slight complication is that I have a piano. Not just any keyboard. This is a full-sized console piano that weighs about 700 pounds. The thought of selling it was just too painful. It's like my pet.

I think this is the prime reason I had to bribe people to help me move with beer and pizza.

A group of my friends/co-workers loaded up the truck Sunday, right after my going away party the night before.

We started with some boxes, then my couch. My piano sat in the corner like an elephant we were too afraid to confront with less that full mental preparation. We finally got it onto the dolly, wheeled it to the edge of the sidewalk, practically dragged it through the gravel to the connecting sidewalk, went down the long side of the apartment building, down a shallow set of stairs, across a parking lot and up a ramp into the truck. I think every one of us was sweating out all the beer we drank the night before.

I nearly had a panic attack at least three times.

The next day, I drove the truck to Napa Valley, with two of my friends following me. A few people from my new job met us the next morning to heist the piano up another set of stairs into my new apartment.

It sits against a wall, with a few more scratches, but in tact. So now, with the help of Sean, Vanessa and my mom, I am pretty much moved into a cute apartment on the second level of a house right downtown.

Lessons learned: I have really good friends.

Summer craziness

2009-07-31T09:36:00.000-07:00

Right after lofty promises of frequent posts last time I wrote, I have gone the longest ever without updating this blog. I have some good excuses. In the past two months, I've been all over and lots has changed.

Here are a few highlights:

• My friend Megan and I went to Los Angeles to celebrate my birthday. We went to the beach, went out, went shopping — you know, all the things you are supposed to do in L.A. It was fun to celebrate turning 29 by getting out of town.

• At the last minute, I booked a trip to Montana for my high school friend Jessi's wedding on Flatehead Lake. It took some masterminding, and a mix of trains, planes and automobiles to get there, but I made it. It was worth every kink in my back from wrestling my luggage from one mode of transportation to another.

• I've also been back and forth between Sebastopol and Napa a couple times. More about why later.

• I helped my friend Lakes edit his book.

• My friends Sean, Vanessa and I took a road trip to the Seattle area for the Fourth of July.

• I got a speeding ticket and had to take traffic school. Don't get me started.

• I have been ghost writing a book for another friend. (There will be more about this later as well).

• I have been going to open mic night at a local bar and recorded a demo record of six songs I wrote.

• I got a new job and moved to the Napa Valley.

• Right now I am in the airport about to board a plane back to Montana another wedding. This time it is Anna, who is one of my closest friends, who is getting married.

So there are my excuses. Not bad, huh?

Lessons learned: I've good at excuses.

Looking for the old me

2009-05-05T22:17:00.001-07:00

I was reading some old posts today. It's strange, but I barely recognize the girl who wrote them. I was funnier then. Definitely wordier. Maybe I'm just tired.

I realized the other day that in the five years I've worked here, I've never stayed in town for a vacation. I'm always flying out somewhere on Friday night after work and flying back in at 10 p.m. on a Sunday night, getting home at 1 a.m., only to start work on Monday again at 8 a.m. So I've taken the week off for a vacation with the goal that I will just completely relax. No stress. No work.

Yesterday I got a massage. Today I had my hair done. Tomorrow I'm going to the lake.

Some might say this is stupid in the middle of the recession. Maybe. But if I can just regain some of the spirit I had in 2006, I will be a better reporter for it. Hopefully my boss will see that.

Lessons learned: I miss 2006.

Birthday BBQ

2009-05-02T09:46:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to a birthday party for one of my co-workers, Margie, who just turned 40. I hope I look as good as she does after 40 years and three kids. She has been voted "hottest woman in the newsroom" before by a previous slate of co-workers, beating out women in their 20s. So we had a barbecue with a menu of spinach artichoke dip, avocado and tomato dip, shrimp, oysters, chicken, salad, garlic mashed potatoes, garlic bread and cheesecake. Margie did a lot of the cooking, which seems a little backwards to me, considering it was her special day.

She also seems to have a much better attitude than I do about my upcoming birthday. Anyway, Happy Birthday, Margie.

Lessons learned: When I figure out how she aged so well, I will come and fill this back in.

Subscribe?

2009-04-26T12:20:00.000-07:00

Anyone know how to allow people to subscribe to my blog via e-mail using accounts other than listed in the existing subscribe tool? I know it's possible, but it isn't listed as one of the gadgets under page elements.

Cookies and popcorn

2009-04-26T12:07:00.000-07:00

My mom came to visit for part of my four-day weekend. She had a bike race in the region, so we did some hard care race preparation including carb loading and relaxation techniques, i.e. watching movies and playing scrabble. Mom did what moms do: made chocolate chip cookies with walnuts, cleaned my apartment about four times and fixed me breakfast.

My freezer is now stocked with enough cookie dough to hold a bake sale. Hmmm, maybe that is what I should do to raise money for the speeding ticket I got the other weekend.

Anyway, it was nice to have the company and be taken care of for a couple days. I needed it.

Lessons learned: When you're an adult, your mom lets you have popcorn, beer and cookies for lunch.

Farewell to my coffee table

2009-04-23T17:07:00.000-07:00

My living room is now empty, my coffee table gone.

I know this sounds like the beginning of an ode. Maybe it is.

Four years ago, my boyfriend at the time, Cavan, left a coffee table he made by hand at my place as he set out for a new job in the Boston area. The plan was, I would bring it out to him when I moved there. Well, obviously our plans never came to fruition, so the table stayed right where it was.

I sort of hoped it always would.

Cavan, who now lives in Kentucky, was in California for the week and came up to pick up what is rightfully his. It was really good to see him, catch up and do a little reminiscing over lunch. It is crazy to think it's been about four years since he was here. Seeing him reminded me that there really are selfless men out there - that there is much more than what I've settled for from my relationships since. I think we both know our lives took different paths for a reason, but our relationship carries a special kind of nostalgia.

I think that's why it may be so hard to let go of that coffee table. Because it is one of the last tokens I had left from that time.

Lessons learned: I will have a hard time replacing that table.

So connected

2009-04-22T23:08:00.000-07:00

It's official. I now can write e-mails from two different accounts. I can leave my updates on Facebook, then put them on Twitter. I can then turn around and write all the same friends on Myspace. I can network on LinkedIn. And if I'm still bored, I have this blog. Seriously. What happened to the girl who didn't have Internet just a couple years ago? I could spend all day hopping from one social networking opportunity to another.

Who needs a real life?

Ironically, I was just reading a blog post about why people get stuff done, like write that book, or record music or exercise more. Hmmm. If I thought real hard I might be able to pinpoint some distractions in my life.

Lessons learned: I need to consolidate.

Thought I'd stop by

2009-04-22T22:34:00.000-07:00

Fourteen. That's the number of blog posts I've had this year so far. So I haven't been very prolific in 2009. Now that I have lost all of my loyal readers, I thought I would show up.

Anyway, as you can see, Mom and Ben, (the two who still read), I have a new template. It really wasn't my choice, since Blogger decides ever so often to do overhauls. I have to admit, I was over the last design, but it's such a pain to change over links and ads, I just went with it. Till now. I also have added my Twitter updates. Fancy, I know.

Well I'm back for now, and I'm going to try to be better about updating.

Lesson learned: Leave for a minute and they change everything.

Posing

2009-03-18T20:25:00.002-07:00

So I made my debut as a butt model today. Our features department is doing a piece about inexpensive dating. For a photo illustration, they wanted me and a co-worker to hold hands, while they took pictures from the back, with a few dollar bills sticking out of his back pocket.

I felt like I was the subject of some strange experiment, as I stood there holding hands facing a white wall, while a group watched us from behind. They stacked reams of copy paper underneath where I was standing because, guess what, he is much taller than me.

This better not be my 15 minutes of fame.

Lessons learned: I'm not sure I have a future in butt modeling.

Basking

2009-03-18T20:25:00.001-07:00

The weather has been absolutely amazing the past couple days. I've been eating lunch outside, basking in the sun. It's made me really crave summer, but I have a feeling we have a few months to go.

In the meantime, it's always nice to rub it in a bit that I live in paradise for those of you stuck in the snow up north. Sorry.

Lessons learned: I'm not really sorry.

Snow therapy

2009-03-08T21:06:00.000-07:00

We have had a series of storms here, followed by two days of sunny bliss in the powder. My friend, Genevieve, who used to work with me here before moving to Santa Cruz, came to visit. We went snowboarding Saturday. The storms had cleared up a couple days before, so I figured the powder would be soft and all tracked up. But it stayed cold, making for some nice floaty turns in the trees. It was a beautiful day, which I needed after a long week. It was great to catch up with Gen, who I haven't seen in about two years.

Then a couple co-workers and I went snowshoeing today. We got a late start, so it was less than truly ambitious, but it was great to get into the woods, again on a really nice day.

Lessons learned: Snow makes great therapy.

Laying low

2009-02-15T17:52:00.000-08:00

I am just finishing a four-day weekend courtesy of the bad economy. Our company, like many others, is doing forced unpaid days off. I sort of took this weekend easy for once. I may have set a new record for the number of movies I've watched in a weekend. I also got caught up on a lot of chores that I've fallen behind on. It was nice to relax, though I was a little sad that I never made it snowboarding. Not that I really can afford it right now anyway. I did make it for a run and went bowling, both of which counteracted my laziness a bit. And I made some really fantastic chicken and potato soup in my crock pot.

Lesson learned: This weekend wasn't a total loss.

Rider Tunes

2009-02-06T13:11:00.001-08:00

One of my good friends from college, Jesse, recently launched a project called

Rider Tunes

It complements another Web site he constructed called

Ski Movie Music

Basically, it is a conglomeration of music from various ski and snowboard videos, with links to iTunes so that you can download the mixes and start riding like a pro. I've found some good hip hop groups this way. And if music makes me feel like a pro when I'm snowboarding, it cancels out any face plants. Check it out.

Superbowl Sunday

2009-02-01T22:52:00.000-08:00

I've never been one to yell at the TV during a football game. In fact, I've never been one to watch football on TV at all.

I do make exception to the latter one day of year. That was, of course, today: Superbowl Sunday.

Usually I pay more attention to the commercials. But today, the game was riveting. It had all the drama of a play ground brawl coupled with the emotional roller coaster ride of a made for TV movie.

I was rooting for the Cardinals. I actually got nervous. I yelled when Larry Fitzgerald made his last touchdown. And I almost cried when the Steelers stole the game in the last 38 seconds. Then we made popcorn, watched The Office and I moved on.

Lesson learned: I can finally see how guys get into this.

Trecking

2009-02-01T22:41:00.001-08:00

A friend of mine took a leap of faith and invited me to go snowshoeing/snowboarding with him and the guys Saturday. He had never seen me snowboard, so for all he knew, I might only be able to leaf and would try to make him carry my pack. Luckily for them, I can carry my own pack, and I'd like to think I'm a level above leafing.

We hiked out on a ridge line that extends from a local ski resort. It was three miles to our destination: an open cliff that has amazing panoramic views of mountain peaks, meadows and valleys. We made it at the break neck speed of 1 mph. It was a haul, but it was fun to catch glimpses of the scenery between the trees and felt good to be outside.

We spent awhile relaxing at the edge of the cliff and watching the jet streams trace lines up above us in a sky with no clouds.

On the way back, we alternated between snowshoeing the flats and snowboarding any downhill. We made it out in time to swing through some powder on a closed off run.

Lesson learned: I've got some tricks for switching out my snowboard for snowshoes for next time.

Not overdoing it for a change

2009-01-19T19:06:00.000-08:00

I had my forced unpaid day off today. I keep saying I should use a day off to just relax, but I always end up planning some big event. This time, the big event that I tried to plan fell through. So I slept in till 10, did some reading and went for a long bike ride.

It's been unseasonably warm lately. I actually wore shorts and a t-shirt on my ride. I took a loop that runs through some ranching land nearby our town. The hills have turned green, which they do for about three weeks every winter, and the cows were out sunbathing. It was really nice to get out and clear my head.

Lesson learned: A real day off is nice.

Hockey from the stands

2009-01-19T18:59:00.001-08:00

The newspaper crew, plus a few extras, went on a field trip to the Valley for a hockey game on Saturday night. I may not be a huge fan of watching sports on TV, but I love going to games like this. Maybe its because I'm competitive, and the rivalry is catching. Hockey, especially, is high drama. The bigger the fights the better. I spent the game yelling at the home team and jumping up and down when they scored.

It reminded me of when I played myself in college. I was the only girl on an all-boys team. That meant that my hockey jersey went down to my knees, and I got to throw elbows without consequence. It was great. I was never that good, but I could skate.

I'd like to imagine myself down there on the ice with the semi-pro guys, but I think I would get slaughtered.

Lesson learned: Pistachios are the best hockey game snack.

Dusting off my keyboard

2009-01-17T10:52:00.000-08:00

I sang and played keyboard at open mic night Thursday. It was a big step for me, considering I usually keep my music to myself.

Much like my cooking experience (see previous post), it wasn't a disaster. I'm not sure I was fantastic either. Still, I made it through without any catastrophes and learned a few things. I'd like to try it again, hopefully with a little less of the nervousness I had this time.

My friends came out to support me, which was sweet. They helped provide distraction in the time I had to wait before I went up to play.

Lessons learned: Mic position is key.

Cooking up a storm, literally

2009-01-14T22:01:00.000-08:00

Tonight I made curried wild Alaskan Pollock with apples and a side of jeweled rice. That is an awful lot of words, especially compared to my normal specialty dishes, a.k.a. "spaghetti" and "quesadillas." This dish had fancy stuff in it like cilantro and cranberries. I also made pudding with homemade whipped cream, blueberries and bananas for dessert.

I can't say that the main dish was spectacular. But it wasn't bad either. I have had disasters in the kitchen, and this one doesn't count. Plus, I have a theory that any main dish with apples in it is automatically gourmet.

One thing I need to get a handle on if I really am going to start cooking is the mess I make when I do it. My kitchen is out of control. I used 36 spoons, dumped cut up cilantro on the floor and filled my sink to the brim with dishes.

Luckily, I have left overs, so tomorrow night I won't have to cook.

Lessons learned: I think I'm starting to like onions. Weird.

LIke a child

2009-01-12T23:03:00.000-08:00

I feel like I reverted back to being a kid again last weekend.

On Saturday, my friends Walt, Vanessa, Sean and I went sledding, using the tubes we had taken down the river last summer. (Turns out, they weren't such a bad investment).

Then I went to my friend Megan's house, since her parents are out of town. We had girls sleepover, complete with wine, dinner, games, girl talk, but sorry boys, no pillow fights. (Technically, I am not allowed to call it that, since it sounds so pre-pubescent, but I am a big fan of calling things like they are).

Sunday after church, I had hot chocolate and took a nap.

Lesson learned: I miss childhood.

Snow hiking

2009-01-07T22:45:00.000-08:00

Last weekend a group of co-workers and I ventured out to play in the snow, via snowshoes. We started out on a groomed path, but got antsy and branched off onto the hillsides. I'm not sure I could have asked for a more pristine setting, with ridge after ridge in untouched powder — that is until we came and moshed all over it.

I spent a lot of the time bragging about my new MSR Ascent snowshoes, made specifically for women. They weigh only three pounds and have a bar you can bend up during climbing to prop your heal up. My mom got them for me for Christmas. (See the phone, where I am demonstrating their capabilities, while doing a bit of ninja apparently).

As if to prove my point about how great they are, James promptly jumped off a small cliff and broke his snowshoes clean in half. Meanwhile, Walt carried his cup of coffee the entire time.

It turns out you can half slide, half sled downhill, despite the claws on your feet. We spent a lot of time doing that, which meant a steep climb on the way back out. No matter. I had these great snowshoes that I can use to walk up the sides of walls. I think Mount Everest is my next attempt.

Lesson learned: My snowshoes rock.