An insufferably long week, an intolerably long post

Hey kids,

Let me preface this post by saying that I bought a new phone last week, and it's all text-y and photo-y and terribly FUN, if a phone can actually be fun. You know me, I'm not a phone person. I'm exactly the OPPOSITE of a phone person, so I guess that's why I love how this one makes it easy to text. I'm a pay-as-you-go kinda gal, cuz I can't ever see myself making more than $20 worth of calls in a three-month period, which is exactly what I pay with Virgin Mobile, but now I've finally joined the rest of the text-manic world, thumbs flying as I shop, drive, talk on my landline... I may have to re-think my plan, then, as each text I send costs me 5¢. I've also been visually documenting all sorts of inane minutae, to share here with you guys. You'll thank me later. Or not.

Sunday, Aug. 24



Lunch at Qdoba, dinner at Jack in the Crack. It was one of those "We're eating crap and damn proud of it!" days. We had Kashi Go Lean Crunch for breakfast, though, so that's gotta count for something. Note the change of clothing: Halfway up the winding mountain road, you decided to projectile vomit the entire contents of your stomach and then some. And yes... daddy did try to cut your bangs this weekend. And the bloody nose in the second pic? Let's just say you went ass-over-teakettle about three times down a dirt trail before rolling to a halt at the bottom of the hill. You look strangely MaryKate and/or Ashley-like in this second photo. I think it's the bulbous eyes and the bad haircut.



We went to Truckee today to scope out the lay of the land, so to speak. The Cracker/Camper show is at the Truckee Amphitheater, which I had never been to before, so we drove up there today to make sure I know how to find the place, where the good parking is, what kind of terrain I'll be dealing with, etc. The photo on the right is the view of the amphitheater from the stage. Anal? Yes. But it's just a few less things now that I don't have to worry about. Now I can concentrate on deciding which Cracker/Camper person gets to sleep with me next Sunday night. Ha! I kid... I kid...

It's a lovely venue. Plenty of grass and shade, the stage is surrounded by your namesake quaking aspens ("Waverly" is Old English for -- you guessed it -- "quaking aspen.") The amphitheater overlooks the Truckee River and is rife with chipmunks. And the chem-toilets are surprisingly clean. All in all, not a bad place to play.

Saturday, Aug. 23

No photos today.

I had three chores to get done today: 1) clean my bathroom, 2) sort through Wavy's old clothes and box them up to send to her brand-new little cousin-twice-removed, 3) make enchiladas for dinner. I managed to do 1 and 3, but number 2 did me in. Do you know how many adorable outfits you never even got to wear before you outgrew them? It's sickening! There are piles of clothes in the closet that still have tags. I'll do it later this week. I *have* to, or little Emily Grace or whatever-the-frick her uber-common name is will outgrow them, too. (Says the mother of a "Jakob.")

After dinner, Jake and I went to Borders and got some books. I chose "The Raw Shark Texts" and Jake chose "Spongebob Squarepants Rocks!" a Level 2 Ready-To-Read book wherein Spongebob, Patrick and Sandy start a rock band, and Squidward steals all their instruments. I've locked myself in the bathroom and managed to read the first chapter of mine, and somehow Jake has managed to get me to read his entire book to him half a dozen times.

Friday, Aug. 22

First day of my new job.

Yeah, I'll get into the specifics of this a little further down under the "Monday" heading. I'm now "©re@tive Direct0r of §peci@l ¶ublic@tions." Upside: I get my own office. Downside: I'd rather eat the undercooked ass-end out of a wild warthog.

I still have a job. I still have a job.

Thursday, Aug. 21

See post underneath this one. This was the night I went to see Beck and got pulled over by a cop.

Wednesday, Aug. 20

Cleaned off my desk in Reno. Here it is, before I boxed it all up. What a messy pig I am.



Monday, Aug. 18

Came into work this day expecting business as usual, but before the day was over, my department had been all but dissolved, my boss and a co-worker were fired, and the rest of us were divvied up and scattered to the four winds. The prevailing mantra amongst the survivors: "I still have a job. I still have a job."

We are all victims of an economy that has not been kind to the newspaper business.

Long story short: I work in ©arson now instead of Reno, in a position I turned down several months ago when it was offered to me. AND, it has nothing to do with teh internets, which I was certain was going to be my future, forever and ever, amen. Ah well.

I still have a job. I still have a job.

Sunday, Aug. 17



Day 2 in San Jose. I went to the mall, which I normally avoid like the plague, but I had three very specific purchases in mind, and I knew I could find them all in one fell swoop at a big-city mall: Brown Crocs; a mid-priced black leather purse reminiscent of an outrageously-priced Guess purse; and an Oakland Raiders t-shirt for a certain four-year-old football fan.

Overheard while shopping at the gigantic, endless maze that is the Oakridge Mall:

"There aren't any good stores here."
"There aren't really many stores here where I can buy a GIFT."

Obviously these jaded city-dwellers haven't been to the Carson Mall, which sports a Gottschalks and a Jo-Ann's Fabrics. And not much else.

Found everything that I was looking for and quite a bit of crapola that I *wasn't* looking for, raced over to grandma's to pick you up, then headed for home, a mere five hours away (when you're a poky driver like your momma is).



Saturday, Aug. 16

Dropped you off at grandma's and met up with Auntie L today and did coffee (Starbux), shopped (DSW!), did lunch (Chipotles), did drinks (The Peacock Lounge), did dinner (Outback!) Whoot! A perfect day.

Stayed at one of my favorite hotels, the Pruneyard Inn in Campbell:



Friday, Aug. 15

Mini-break! It's off to San Jose for a weekend of grueling, fast-paced fun, you with grandma, me with Auntie L. But since we didn't leave till after work at about 6pm (who knew that it would be my last day as a... well... whatever it was that I did...), we stopped at the midway point in Stockton and got a cheapie motel and hung out and read the Bible, courtesy of those mysterious Gideons.



All right. That's enough torture for one single blog post. Love you both. Sleep tight. Or as Wavy says... "Nigh-nigh!"