Vacation Abridged

I wanted to do two more posts about my vacation to California, but that's just not going to happen. In times of procrastination though, I managed to at least upload my photos to Facebook. I'm going to just post those three albums here, and hope that they, along with my captions, tell the story well enough. Besides, now I can post all of the pictures, instead of just a sample. 

Enjoy! 

California with Friends & Family 

California Route 1

Lake Tahoe 

Victory?

Now, I'm not trying to dress myself in a flight suit and declare Mission Accomplished or anything, but I do want to point out that we haven't seen any roaches in quite some time. I think the COMBAT traps helped a lot. 

But roomie also pointed out that the guys who lived below us moved out. We never did figure out how many guys actually lived in that apartment....it was at least three...sometimes we thought there were five. Exterminators were in the empty apartment last week. Ew. I don't even want to think about what it must have been like down there....

California - Leg 1

School started on Monday, and I'm already swamped with work. Actually, the whole time I was in California, it seemed like every day I checked my email, I had another pre-assignment. 

Therefore, the entries about my trip will be written in parts, because I'd feel really guilty if I took the time to write about the entire trip in one day. Plus, I wouldn't do it justice. 

Leg 1 - LA

I was in LA for three days to visit my Cousin Rob. He's the closest of my cousins to my age, so we've always been pretty good buds. We had a blast together.

Here we are bustin' a move. 

We went to Venice Beach to have brunch with an ex-coworker of mine. Cousin described Venice Beach as the "Times Square" of LA. When I asked why, he said, "There's a bunch of weirdos." Here's the open market, but I didn't get any pictures of the "weirdos." I did see them, though. 

I felt I had to do the touristy thing and go to Hollywood. We went to the Chinese Theater, saw the Walk of Fame, then Cousin said, "Well....that's Hollywood." Turns out Hollywood is kind of lame. 

But this was a cool picture to get. Gotta love that smog. 

 

And we got chicken & waffles. It doesn't make sense in theory, but it does make sense in your mouth. 

 

Another beach - Malibu

Cousins! 

I also visited the Unitarian Universalist church near my cousin's house, since I was there a week after the shooing at the Knoxville church. It meant a lot to be there to heal with that community, since I was unable to be at my home church. 

This concludes Leg 1. Stay tuned for Leg 2 - Route 1. (I have no idea when I'll get around to posting that. Millions of amazing pictures).  

Now to do the work I've been putting off doing all morning... 

Say no to lockjaw

In March I received a packet o' forms that needed to be sent in for my MBA program. I'm all about deadlines, so I noticed the  deadline for the medical form was August 1, and that's all my brain processed. 

I pulled out the form again sometime in July, since August was coming up, and I noticed it was a form for our immunization records. On closer examination, it was a form specifically for incoming students under the age of 26. I turn 26 in January. *shakes fist*

I contacted my undergraduate college in hopes that they still had my record, which they did. Sweet. $5 to mail them. Nuts. 

When the records came in the mail, I looked again at the form to send in, and noticed that I needed to have a tetanus shot in the last 10 years. My record said my last tetanus shot was in December '97. Hmm...maybe they won't notice...

I faxed in the form, and right away I received an email from "immunreq@__.edu" pointing out that my last tetanus shot was not in the last 10 years. 

4 months away from not needing to submit my immunizations, and 8 months away from being in the clear. Instead, I got a tetanus shot yesterday and now I'm down another $50 with a sore left shoulder.

*shakes right fist* Bring on the rusty nails.  

Margot

Yes, I just got back from a vacation in California. Yes, it was amazing. Yes, I should write an entry about it. But first...

...I must share my love for Margot & the Nuclear So and So's. I stumbled across this band when I accompanied my roommate to The Frames' show at the 9:30 Club sometime last year (they were one of the openers). Oh my goodness, what a trip they are. 

This band has 8 people in it, which is cool, because their live show sounds just as full and rich as their album. 2 guitars, a bass, drums, keyboard (the lone chick who adds lovely harmonies). Okay, that's pretty normal. Then add a guy who plays brass (either trombone or trumpet),  a guy who plays lap steel for some songs and violin for others, and the most entertaining of all, a guy who specializes in percussion (including a big bass drum & tambourine) and sweet dance moves.  

They were signed to Epic, which is interesting, because they are ultra-indie...not the type of band you'd expect to be signed to a major label. But apparently that has contributed in the delay of their next full album release (conflict and such -- I guess they convinced the label to let them release an EP, which is available now). 

Anyway, saw them tonight at 9:30 again, this time they headlined. And they were wonnnderful. Love them.  

(Clearly, I'm still on California time, as I'm still awake at 1:25am...)

COMBAT

We have declared war on the roaches. 

12 traps filled with delicious poison for them to eat and bring back to their nests to die a hopefully painful death and to spread the death around their nests. 

Mwah ahahahaha

Wunjo Onion

So umm...I'm in a band now? 

My sister is the performer, not me. That's why I save my musical endeavors for family and church. (Singing and playing in church is the best -- it's like playing in front of 50 grandmothers. They'll love anything you do!) 

My dad has recently found a guitar pickin' buddy at church, Jack, so they've started playing together pretty regularly, and I join in when I can, along with other musical folks in the congregation. Also, summertime at a UU church is pretty lax. Often the minister will take a bit of a break, and church members will do many of the services. My dad has volunteered us to do the music at several services lately. 

This week we received an email from my dad that said the folks at this little church mess up our names in the orders of service a lot, and that we should have a name for the group instead. He suggested Wunjo, the rune for joy and harmony. Cool, until you throw in the confusing pronunciation -- Vun-yoh. 

Then Jack shot out an email suggesting the name Wunjo Onion, "using musical joyfulness in peeling back the layers of existential philosophy, looking for a meristem of truth..." Wow. That's a UU explanation for you. 

At practice on Friday, my mom pointed out that she saw the emails and refrained from commenting. :-) My sentiments exactly, mother. 

Didn't stop Papa from announcing us as Wunjo Onion today at church. Oh well. He just forwarded an email from a woman in the church, expressing her appreciation for the music this morning. (What did I say about the 50 grandmas?) 

I guess a silly name can't keep us from making purty music.