TGIF!

Yay! I survived the week!

Today is Friday...obviously. I started the morning a little slow since apparently the 1 pint of beer I had last night was of high alcohol content. 1 pint! And it felt like 3. Maybe it was 10% alc, I don't know. Anyway, so I hit up the gym before class and was relieved to find that Friday mornings are a good time to be in the gym. On the other week days, every single squat bar in the place is taken within 5 minutes of opening, which is somewhat surprising. Obviously the world is evolving from the "bench press" phase. I can't argue with the logic of that one. Squat away my friends.

After the gym I had Pre-Calculus. In last year's Algebra class, we used a Pre-Calculus textbook, which made me somewhat suspicious. No matter though, because in this class, 63% of what we're going to cover, I learned last year in my Algebra class. Seriously. No kidding. And I got an A in that class.

Does that give me reason to slack off? No ma'am. I'm just working ahead and getting assignments done early to take the load off of my other classes. I am definitely cool with this.

So lectures have been boring. That's ok, I have coffee and an active imagination.

After Pre-Calc I went out into the field with my lab mates (fire weather lab) to take some samples of our live fuels to submit live fuel moistures. We're not seeing the new growth that is generally happening about this time. We did just get our first rain the other day, but only got about a tenth of an inch. It's going to be a crazy dry year. It was nice getting outside and into the brush, and it was even nicer that the work was easy. Just walking around with a pair of clippers, clipping off samples of chemise into my little cans to be dried in the oven back at the lab.

When we got them back into the lab, we weighed them and stuck them in the oven. They cook for 24 hours and are then removed for a second weighing. The difference in weights is how much moisture is out in the live fuels.

I went home with every intention of getting some studying done. I got home and had lunch, and then tried to take a nap on the couch. It was quite restless and didn't help with my motivation at all. So I've just been boppin' around the house for the past 5 hours.

I'm going to the Breakfast Ride (14 miles) tomorrow with my new cycling club. It says it's a leisurely ride and to bring a few dollars for pancakes and coffee at the halfway point. SOLD. I need a nice easy ride as I've got a 14 mile run due on Sunday. Yikes!

So I'm on Strava...which so far I do not see the hype, but that's probably because I'm not frequenting my club's board since I don't have any recent rides GPS'd. Strava is an athlete tracking/social website type of thing. You upload your runs and rides to Strava from your GPS, smartphone or whatever other device you have with GPS capabilities. It compares you to others who have run your route, compares your runs with your last ones, displays leader boards for certain routes and then makes suggestions on who you should "follow" (or stalk). Kinda interesting, so I'm going to see what happens when I add a Strava Widget to this blog. I have no idea, so it'll be interesting.

Well, I should get this closed out and maybe get a little Meteorology reading in tonight...we'll see. Gotta get rested up for the Breakfast Ride tomorrow!

People! People everywhere!

I was raised in the city. I learned how to drive on San Diego freeways with traffic and idiots who don't understand that their inability to figure out how to merge is what causes traffic in the first place. I grew up in a tiny apartment surrounded by other apartments.

I actually like my little apartment here. It's small and comfortable.

What I don't like is all the people. I can live with the buildings and the drab freeways, stores everywhere. I've been a bit irritable lately, and I'm beginning to figure out why.

I started wondering about my issues with running errands. I have access to so many stores that it's ridiculous. Anything I want is all within a few miles from me. But I would get my errands halfway done and be overwhelmed and go home. I finally had to buckle down and make a trip to Target because I was on my last roll of toilet paper.

It's because of the people! They're everywhere! You can't get away from them!

At school there are just swarms of them. And they all walk too slow because they're texting while they're walking, and I need to get around them, but there's too many of them! Today in Pre-Calc, some weird guy walked in off the streets and decided to sit in. He had some questions about Einstein that the professor didn't understand. After shouting things out for a few minutes, he decided to leave. A kid behind me during the ruckus said "Now I'm getting really scared". I thought about the chaos that one panicked kid could cause. He's just a guy off the street with mental issues. Not every homeless or mentally ill person is a threat to your personal safety. I imagined the stampede that would ensue if the guy started to look threatening.

After class we are like a herd of cows. We all flow out the same way at the same speed and there's no getting around it. God forbid you have to eat, pee and have another class starting in 10 minutes.

On Wednesdays I have a big break in between classes where I can swim, eat and study. Well today I figured out exactly when the swim team comes in and takes over the tiny locker room...AND JUST HANGS OUT! Ladies! There is an entire pool deck out there for you to hang out at. Your coach knows you're in here, you can't hide! It is so irritating to have to dress literally an inch or two from several other girls...brushing against each other while nearly naked.

And now...my new biggest pet peeve. This is a huge issue with me right now and it irritates me probably more than it should.

I basically live in Duncan Hall. It's where I work, study and have classes. It's where I eat my lunch and check my email. On the 6th floor there is a restroom by the elevators. The other day I went in there, and when I came out, there was a paper towel crumpled on the floor and another shoved into the handle.

Oh. My. God. OHMYGOD! OMG. o...m...g.

Wait...am I getting obsessive compulsive over someone who is obsessive compulsive? Maybe.

Here's the thing. There are germs everywhere. What?! That's right, you heard me. Everywhere. Probably places you would not consider.

Exposure to germs allows your body to create a strong, healthy immune system. Germaphobes get sick more often than non-germaphobes. Why? Because our immune systems are stronger because we started building immunity from when we were children. You absolutely have to expose you and your children to germs from day one in order to have any hope in building a strong immune system.

But if you want to have a ridiculous phobia about something, fine. I'm afraid of little tiny spiders, we're even.

I do have a very big problem though, when your stupid little phobia starts to affect the people around you. If you use a toilet seat cover, make sure it flushes. DO NOT LEAVE IT THERE!

If you have to use a paper towel to open a door...BRING IT WITH YOU! THROW IT AWAY!

This didn't happen just once people...it's every day. Every day in Duncan Hall, some girl comes in and uses the restroom and leaves not one, but two paper towels...one that mysteriously ends up on the floor and the other shoved into the door handle.

The other day a girl got into the elevator and used a tissue to push the buttons. Not 5 minutes later there was a paper towel in between the two bathroom doors (this might explain it) and one shoved into the handle. Seriously?!

EVERY DAY.

I will find her. And I will sneeze and cough on her in the elevator. I will fart in the elevator and say "Smell that? That's because you're inhaling my poop particles". Then what? Is she just going to stop breathing? She's stuck in there until the door opens.

Every day people. Every day with the damn paper towels in the door handle.

Other people have to use that door. Other people have to circumnavigate her trash. What if everyone did that? There would be thousands of paper towels crammed in there by the end of the day.

Why not just carry hand sanitizer and use it after you leave the restroom? Then no one would have to pick up your trash you rude, selfish germ girl!

You just cannot go through life thinking only about yourself. I don't understand how people don't think (and care) about how their actions affect other people. It's totally crazy.

And don't get me started on merging....in the 2 miles of freeway I have to traverse to get home from school, there are four or 5 merges I have to endure. You want to see some interesting human behavior? Just sit and watch people try to merge. It wouldn't be so bad if the radio stations would play good music while all of this is going on.

Oh yeah. And it's Rush Week on campus apparently. I put my game face on when I had to walk down that path....twice. In case you don't know what Rush Week is, it's when all the fraternities and sororities line the walkway to recruit impressionable kids. They hand out flyers and display their pink and purple banners with shiny Greek letters. I slung my swim bag over my shoulder, sunglasses on, shoulders back, and marched right through that madness- chin up and eyes straight ahead.

I swear people holding flyers backed up and let me through.

Who needs comfort zones anyway?

I've been spending quite a bit of time outside my comfort zone lately, and whenever I get outside my comfort zone too much, I really get the need to crawl back into it. My errands lately have been working like that. I head out with a list of things I need and come back with half because the traffic and amount of people out there overwhelmed me to the point that I just wanted to be shut back up in my home.

Obviously quitting the job I've had for 9 years, dropping my benefits and job security, putting my house on the market and moving to a city I've never lived in before with a new "job" that doesn't even cover rent...all qualifies as going way outside my comfort zone.

I found a new place to run. Boom, outside comfort zone.

I paddled out into unfamiliar surf... way outside comfort zone.

Jumped into the pool on campus...yes, back into my comfort zone.

And then there's cycling. In Montague I could just roll out my front door and have rolling country roads for miles and miles. I got a new road bike (yeah, you've met her, Ruby) and fell in love. When I lived in San Diego I bought a mountain bike because I didn't want to risk riding around in traffic.

Now I'm back in traffic. I considered finding a place to ride my mountain bike out here, and did some searches. I came up with some good options but none of them were really tugging at my heart. I read a couple descriptions of road rides and they sounded so much more fun. But I don't know how to ride in traffic, I don't know where to go, and I just changed out my pedals and cleats to a new type of "clipless" pedals. Can I tell you how much I dislike that word? Clipless. But you clip into them. Because at some point, someone decided to call the toe cages "clips" and now that you can clip into your pedal without the toe cage, it's considered clipless. I've been using clipless pedals for a couple years now, but needed an upgrade.

Anyway, so I got a pair with a dual entry instead of trying to get my pedal flipped around the correct way which required a good deal of looking down and not at the road. Which can lead to collisions. We don't want those.

I came across a website for a local cycling club that looked like it had something for everyone. Almaden Cycle Touring Club had about 8 choices of rides going on today.

Meh, I don't like people. I'm so far out of my comfort zone already, I just want to hide in my house and eat bundt cake.

But I really wanted to ride. I would eventually have to get over my fear of cycling in a city or I would give up road biking forever...ok, maybe not forever, but too long.

Oh what the hell. There's no such thing as a comfort zone anymore. Not around here. Everything is new, everything is scary, just go. That's my motto these days, just go.

So I picked a moderate paced ride (14-15 miles per hour) over 35 miles on a ride called the 10 City Whirlwind tour. First I would have to survive the 1.5 mile ride there, on my own and without help.

The first issue I ran in to was a left hand turn where there were two left turn lanes. After a second or two of thought, I chose the right hand one. I made it safely to the park where the ride began and found a fellow cyclist that is also one of the leaders. He wasn't the leader for today, but he quickly took me under his wing. He talked me through the club and how it works and I expressed my newness to him.

Other cyclists showed up, we had introductions and small conversations. Then we were off.

Learning new pedals is a little tricky. Especially when you're now worried about not getting hit by cars, not crashing and not making a total fool of yourself. I unclipped at an intersection and we waited for the light. When it turned green, I clipped back in and stood a little on the pedals to increase my speed and get out of the intersection. Well, I was not really clipped in like I thought and my foot slipped off the pedal. My pelvis crashed down onto the seat. Hard enough so that my new found friend had to ask if I was alright. I won't die.

After feeling out the group a little, I pushed past some of them and towards the front of the group. We rode through some minor hills, some super busy streets and some secluded residential areas. I had to watch for cars and other riders and hazards in the road. Thankfully, in a cycling group, these guys are also looking out too and they communicate it to everyone either by shouting or pointing. We had a couple meet-up spots to reign the stragglers back in, and one extended stop at Starbucks. The rest of the way was mostly flat.

We even had a roller blader with us most of the way! What a stud!

I decided I was joining the club for sure. There are rides of different abilities going on every day. You just go down the list, pick one and show up. Apparently membership covers co-pays and stuff for accidents. Very cool. Actually today one of our riders smacked into the side mirror of a car parked in the bike lane. We all circled around to be sure he was ok. I think just his hand was hurt.

It's only $20/year but somehow manages to also pay for parties and stuff. They have get-togethers, meetings and supported tours (long rides). They keep a stats profile on their website for all the members. A lot of the guys today were talking about Strava... a GPS based performance/recording thing. It's like social networking, but for rides and runs and stuff. I'll have to look at it. I didn't wear my GPS today, but I will in the future.

One of the guys used to ride competitively and gave me some tips on bike handling. It was much appreciated. On my short ride home after leaving the group at the park, I already felt much more comfortable riding with traffic and with my handling skills. Of course experience will only help more.

When I got home, I dismounted and carried my bike up the stairs. I was feeling pretty good and was really proud at my ability to keep up with the group. As I walked in the door, my quads suddenly started screaming at me. Holy cow! How did that happen? I have a long run tomorrow!

I shoved as much food into my belly as I could, drank a bunch of water and took ibuprofen. I drew a hot bubble bath with epsom salt and eucalyptus oil. After soaking for awhile, I climbed out and took a nap. I dreamed of steak. Thankfully I had some thawing in the fridge.

I had probably one serving size, but then was still hungry so I had a second. Then I was still hungry so I drank a bunch more water (just in case) and had a couple pieces of cheese and some brussel sprouts. I keep peaking in the fridge and cupboards, but nothing looks good to me. I still have that feeling that I want something though. More food! More sweets! More more more! Maybe I just need more sleep.

The Mission...and a little more...

Classes are in full swing now, so I thought I'd post a few pics and some observations from my short week. For some strange reason, classes started on Thursday, so I only had to go on Thursday and Friday. It made crashing all my classes somewhat of a pain though. Someone invented this fantastic rule that grad students cannot enroll in undergraduate classes until the first day of class...which means you have to crash a class that's already full and hope someone drops so you can get an add code. Ugh. Since I have a lot of undergrad classes to make up due to having a completely different Bachelor degree, I will be crashing almost all of my classes for the next couple years.

Anyway, here's a couple more pics of my lab. This is the actual lab, we have another part of it on the roof, but I didn't get pics of that yet (still waiting for all my keys since the people in charge of taking care of that lost the request).

That weird looking thing is a wind tunnel.

Little meeting table and some work space. Also, I'm eyeing that cabinet counter top as my new study location. If I sit up with my back leaning against the wall with the white board on it, I can stare out the window while I struggle to concentrate on whatever I'm studying. This is the 8th floor, so it's a nice view.

So, if you ever wondered why weather forecasters are wrong a lot, here's why. You just spin the hands and wherever it falls is your weather for the day.

Went surfing on Wednesday. Still beautiful. Still arctic water temperatures.

So Thursday morning was the big day. First day of classes. I knew it would be packed and parking would be a nightmare, so I made the fabulous plan to be at the gym at 7am (on campus) and then have plenty of time to work out and get cleaned up before my 9am attempt to crash a math workshop. 

I was instantly transported back into high school and I was uncomfortable. High school was not my best of days. I had flash backs. So I put my head phones on and attempted to get a good workout in while everyone and their mother was in the gym (why people, why?). I kept getting this really strong smell of dead fish, wherever I moved to in the weight room. It was awful. Finally, it occurred to me that if I kept smelling it wherever I went, it must be me. I sniffed at my armpits. Just sweaty. I looked around before sniffing my shirt. Nope. Weird.

I went into the other room to finish my abs and do some stretching. The smell went away. Goodness.

Went to class. Several kids asked if I was the instructor as they walked in. I realize my face was a little puffy from some crappy sleep the night before, but seriously?

Finally the instructor stood up. He was 23 or 24 years old. He said "I'm in my 4th year here" (as an undergrad) "So I know some shit". Um. Ok. For crying out loud.

I went home and bitched and moaned about having to do a 5 mile run. I figured maybe I would just run without my GPS and just do what I could. I had a crappy long run on Sunday and just wasn't feeling it. Then I got hard on myself and told myself to quit making excuses and being such a wimp. I grabbed my GPS and took off.

And boy did I take off. The first mile wasn't super fast, but it's faster than I usually start out at. 7:38 I think. Mile two was a 7:18. Nice! I was feeling pretty good and since my run on Sunday was so bad, I decided to push it and see how well I could do. Mile 3 was 7:09. I kicked it up a notch. 6:59.58!!! Holy moley! But then I got a little tired and my last mile was 7:11. Still, I averaged a 7:15 which is pretty amazing for me. I felt better. 

My class today was a Pre Calculus lecture. I got to school early and did some studying. Then walked around a bit and took a couple photos. A lot of people did not know what to think of the new tourist on campus.

Little quad on my way to Washington Square Hall for PreCalc.

 Oldest building on campus. Something-or-other-hall.

 The new library. Dude. It is HUGE. I was scoping out some places to study (other than my corner by the window in the lab, and the grad room of course).

My escape. My home. My heart. Right there in that crystal blue water.

When I swim, the water in my ears blocks out all the noise except for my breathing and the sound of the bubbles rushing past my face. My head wanders to a certain stressor...breath, breath, bubbles, breath...it's gone. It wanders again....bubbles, breath... It's amazing how the sky looks from underwater. Shining behind a shimmering window. And when I get close to the surface, I can see the reflection of my arms, and there's arms above and below, then my face pops out and my nose skims across the surface like an alligator. Bubbles and breath.

Having just the one class for the day, I went and swam and then headed home for a shower and lunch. Then I was on a mission. As I walked to the jeep, I remembered I had left my Garmin Nuvi GPS in the house. I should go back and get it. Nah. How hard could this be? I've been in San Jose for 20 days now. I should know my way around. 

Here was the mission: coffee (the good kind), beer (the good, hard to find kind), some beauty products (because apparently I am old enough to be my classmates' mother) and a bit of groceries.

I headed out to the Campbell version of Barefoot Coffee Roasters. Barefoot is a local roaster that trades directly with the farmers. They have classes and cuppings (tastings) at their place downtown...but that wasn't where I was going. I'm a mile from the community of Campbell, so I headed there. It wasn't hard to find since it was on the main drag. I bought a bag of coffee beans and an espresso. Since my trip to Italy back in Dec of 2006, I have yet to find an espresso quite like it. This one might have been the best so far, but still not Rome quality.

Because I like it bold....

My espresso. With raw sugar.

Then it was off on a beer hunt. Specifically I was looking for this amazing beer I tried from BevMo a few months back. I've been a fan of Samuel Smith since I discovered BevMo years ago. BevMo is short for Beverages and More and it's like Toys R Us, but for grown ups, and of the alcohol variety. It's amazing. They sell beer in singles too, so you can try new ones without having to commit to a whole 6 pack.

When I went grocery shopping last weekend I saw that Whole Foods had had this amazing nectar of the gods, but it was sold out because it was apparently on sale. What is this amazing beer I speak of? Samuel Smith's Organic Chocolate Stout. It's amazing. Chocolatey and smooth, it's just an all around great beer. And hard to find. It wasn't at Sprouts either.

So...BevMo it was. Using my memory of what was on google maps, I took a few roads into what I figured was in the right direction...found the road I wanted, and then Presto! Found BevMo. It was small. They had Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout (another awesome beer) and their Winter Ale (ok) and Nut Brown Ale (good)...but no Organic Chocolate Stout. What?!!

This BevMo was not very big. I chose a couple new beers and asked the lady about my beloved Organic Chocolate Stout. "Yeah, we don't carry that, I don't know why. But our Camden and Santa Clara stores do.".

"Camden?" I asked.

"Yeah, off Cambell and the San Thomas/Montague (yeah, there's an expressway here called Montague Expressway and near it is actually Bowers Ave...no joke) area. If you follow Hamilton down you'll basically run into it."

Hum. Ok. Hamilton. I see Willow, maybe Willow turns into Hamilton. Kinda, not really, but I found Hamilton. 

It was Friday and work was letting out for some. Traffic was beginning to get nightmarish. I hit the end of Hamilton and saw a ton of stores. No BevMo. Hmm...stay on this road or turn left on Campbell? I watched 253 cars fail to merge at a red light. Breathe Carrie.

I crawled into the next intersection.HA!!!! There it was!! But how do I get there?

As it turned out, it is right next to Sprouts, where I went shopping last weekend. I have a memory like a steel trap. 

I perused the aisles....and then I heard the harps! There it was! They did not sell it in a 6- pack, or a 12 pack for that matter, so I just bought 3 pints. Here it is people...my favorite beer:

Isn't she beautiful?

So then it was on to Ulta, which is nearby. I needed something to fix my face, and something else to fix my hair. I don't know people. Sometimes people say I look so young, then someone asks if I'm the professor of their class. When I look in the mirror in the morning, it's been scary more days than it has not been. My hair on the other hand: I decided now that I could live a real life and wear real clothes and do real things with my hair, I was going to straighten it more often, since it looks so gorgeous when I do.

Well when you surf twice a week and swim once or twice a week and run 3 days a week...that all just goes out the door. There's no way. Well if you read my hair blog, you see that I've got quite the wild head of curls. Every once in awhile I decide I'm going to embrace those bad boys...then I look in the mirror and think nope. In any case, chlorine, salt water and sun are all wrecking havoc on my hair. So my hair needs help.

Back to my face. When I was in Florida on a fire there, I discovered this awesome face scrub that heats up your face when you wash. It always made my face so bright and radiant (or was it the Florida sun and fresh oysters?). I found it once when I got back to Cali, but never again. I looked for it online and it was sold out at a lot of places. Ridiculous. I gave up and moved on to a different wash. It's ok. Obviously not. 

So I went to Ulta looking for more face serum and a hair mask. Look what I found!!! The last one on the shelf!!!

What is that??!!! It's my face wash! Haha...sorry folks, beer number 2, and it's Friday.

After pacing back and forth among a thousand different solutions for my hair, I decided on a couple products from Ouidad (the curl experts). I'm not saying I'm going to embrace my curls...but I mean, after 33.5 years you think I'd at least be close. Anyway, none of the products commit to curliness anyway. I got "Melt Down Extreme Repair Mask", "Moisture Lock" leave in conditioner and then got a free small bottle of "Botanical Boost" moisture infusing refreshing spray. For the rest of my face issues, I settled on Olay Regenerist Anti-Aging serum.

Yes, I wear sunscreen.

So, not only was my mission fairly successful, I positively knew where I was. I was not, however, going to grocery shop. I had my share of people for the day. There's lots of them out here.

I went home, had some steamed brussel sprouts and homemade soup....

And then.... Samuel Smith's Organic Chocolate Stout....and.....wait for it.....

Trader Joe's Mini Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake!

Warmed in the microwave. 

Happy Friday folks!

Inside

There's a decent swell working it's way in, followed by another, so I figured today would draw more of a crowd out in the surf than this last week. Also, today is a holiday. I do not know what took me so long this morning, but I was drinking my coffee by 5:15 am, but for some reason refused to get out the door until the sun had just barely started to light up the sky. Oh no! You're late!

Gar. I drove South by Southwest and drove down 41st St. There were cars already lining the street and turning down residential side streets. Seriously? Already? What is it, epic out there?

It was not exactly epic, but it was exactly crowded.

 All those little dots out there are people. And one seal. Notice how the sun is hardly up...and also notice what I mean by the sun rising in the west up here. This is California, people. Sunrise in California.

I am not a fan of crowds, but I certainly did not come all the way out there to turn and and go back without surfing. I walked 3 blocks back to my car and got changed. It is misery stripping down to a bikini when you can see your breath. And again, I failed to put my key into the key pocket of my wetsuit before I pulled it up. It would be going into my leash pocket once again, which one day will bite me in the butt.

I followed the line of people going down the stairs to the beach. The tide was low so I could be a little more choosy about where I paddled out. I definitely did not want to paddle out into the biggest crowd out there. One guy was walking another guy toward the stairs, where he sat down and shook water from his ears. The guy asked if he was sure he was alright, and satisfied with the answer, walked away. I looked over at the guy who sat there, slightly stunned looking.

"You wipe out or something?" I asked.

"Got hit by a board" and pointed to the side of his eye where there was a marble of a bump.

"Oh yeah, you got a little bump there. Quite a crowd out there".

"Yeah, there's less of a crowd on the other side but the waves are better here."

Not being familiar with "the other side" I decided to just stick with this one for the day.

I looked left along the shore and just saw crowd after crowd. I picked a spot and headed in...only then realizing I was walking on a rock shelf. Great.

 I paddled out into the arctic water and sat to the far side of the line-up (the crowd that's lined up hoping to catch a wave at or near its peak). After paddling for, and missing, the smaller reject waves that the line-up passed by, I moved towards a group of older guys and sat in the empty space between the two crowds.

I watched a seal sit and stare out at the group of surfers. He was maybe 20 feet from me. He disappeared under the water and I hoped he wouldn't decide to bite me. Those things can be ferocious. I saw a great wave and knew I was in a good spot, so I went for it. As I caught the wave, I realized it was going to pitch sharper than previously thought, but decided I was going for it anyway. As I stood up I saw the very tip of my nose go under water. It was too late. That front foot planted and shoved the nose down even lower. That's right Carrie, push that nose under. Shit.

With the nose of my board underwater and the weight of the wave curling up behind me, I was tossed abruptly off my board and into the path of the crashing wave. My board got thrown up behind me and as I went under I threw my arms above my head to keep the board from hitting it.

When I surfaced, I pulled on the leash to retrieve the board, endured a couple more waves and finally made it back out beyond the break. My head hurt and I noticed my ponytail had been jerked down and around to the side. My hands were too numb to do anything about it. That wave must've hit me hard.

I saw the seal pop up next to a kid that was paddling towards me. The kid looked over a couple times as the seal just floated and stared. After the kid went by, the seal took to staring at another guy sitting in the water. They stared at each other for a few minutes and I had to laugh. The guy had such a straight face, how can you not laugh at this seal just sitting in the water staring at you?

I saw another great wave that looked perfect for me. I started to paddle for it and noticed a guy off to my right.

"Go girl, it's all yours! Paddle for it! Paddle hard!"

I smiled and took off.

"Yeah kid go!" I could hear him shouting as I paddled into the wave. When I felt my board pick up speed I popped up, nose stayed out of the water and I was up. I looked right and saw people bailing off the wave. I was the only one on it. I steered my board to the right as best as I could to follow the path of the wave. Right turns are not my specialty, but I'm learning. I got a nice long ride out of it as it passed around another point. When I figured I was getting close to the rocks, I jumped off the back.

Unfortunately I was then caught on the inside of a set of big waves.

Inside and outside: a brief tutorial. Inside is on the shore side of a breaking wave. Outside is out deeper in the ocean than where the wave is breaking. It is a pain in the butt to get caught on the inside of a set.

And I was.

I jumped back onto my board and paddled toward the crashing waves. I rolled under the first and it lifted my board and spun me around. I rolled back up, paddled towards the next crashing wave, rolled under and made it. I got tossed around by at least three more waves before I was finally able to get back out to the break. I lay face down on my board with my arms at my sides, resting. God, my head hurt. But that was an awesome wave!

I sat up and watched others catch waves, paddled out when bigger sets rolled in and scooted back when they disappeared. I closed my eyes and pointed my face towards the sun, feeling the warmth.

Two old guys paddled by me talking about the waves they were getting.

"Yeah, we'd take the first wave in the set and take 7 more to the head!" One guy was saying. Yeah, I know the feeling.

My hands were so numb I couldn't even wipe the snot off my face. I splashed at it a bit and wiped my hands down my face. Good enough. I shoved my hands into my arm pits.

I caught another wave and crashed shortly after standing up. As I went under, the pain in my head shot up again. Damn!

I popped my head up and looked out to the other waves coming in at me. I was exhausted. And I had an entire set crashing down on me. I tugged my board closer and after getting hit by the next wave, pulled it up to me, and just before I spun it around, got hit by another wave. As I surfaced, I looked to the next wave. It was quite a bit bigger, so I just dove under and let my board fend for itself. The wave passed over me and after it released my board, I surfaced again, grabbed my board and rolled onto it. You're going to have to get aggressive here or you're going to get your ass kicked.

I paddled out towards the crashing waves, once again, my arms aching and stiff. I rolled under the next one and felt the pain in my head again. I rolled back over and onto my board. It's the cold! You're having immense ice cream headaches! Well I'll be damned. Heave several thousand gallons of freezing water on top of your head, and what do you get? An instant, massive headache. There's something to be said for those silly looking neoprene hoods I bet.

Wave after wave hit me as I struggled to paddle out. I finally made it out, once again and decided I was done. Being unfamiliar with the lay of the ocean floor here, I didn't want to paddle back in on top of a bunch of rocks. I paddled over to the familiar entry point that I had gotten out at the last few times I was here, but there was already another set coming in, and the big crowd sat right in front of the nice beachy spot. I was going to have to take another way in.

So I turned and paddled toward where I had seen someone else successfully make it out. I did not hit my aim though and ended up on some rocks. I'll just take it slow. Good thing my feet are numb and I've got booties on. A wave hit me from behind and I let it wash me in. I tentatively placed my feet down again...and got nothin'. I noticed a guy watching me from the shoreline. Carrie, you're an idiot. I had washed myself onto some rocks, and then right back off into a deep pool. I smiled at the guy to let him know I was not hurt. I let the next wave wash me in further, found the ground once again and waddled with my numb feet over to the stairs.

As I bent over to undue my leash, half the ocean shot out of my sinuses. The other half is still in there, hours later. After getting my wetsuit off, I drove home with the heater blasting the whole way. It's funny how at first, everything besides ice cold water feels warm, but once you start to thaw, your body figures out it's not really that warm and you start feeling really cold again.I got home and took a long hot shower. I think I'll hang my head over the side of the bed for awhile to get that water out of my sinuses.

Purple Sweet Potato Latkes and Other Random Musings

First off, a disclaimer. I have had both a glass of sweet vermouth and a glass of sherry which has given me exactly the correct amount of drive to write some random things.

I managed to pull off a 12 mile run today...albeit about 30 seconds slower per mile than my usual long run, but some days you just have to be thankful you made it out there at all. The paved trail I run has an entry a mile away from my apartment, so I run 6 miles out, turn around and run 6 miles back. Which means when I get off the trail and back onto the street I have one mile left to go. This logic failed me at mile 11.1.

It all started when I took a little turn off to find a bathroom. I calculated I had ran an extra .1 to .2 miles in order to do so and had to take that into account. So I ran out 6.1 and figured that would do it. Somehow, just after mile 10 I started to do the math again, because what else can you do with all that free time on your hands? I figured I would hit mile 11 as I hit the street, and have one more mile to go, making it 12. So far so good.

Just before I hit the street I looked at my GPS. 11.1. What? Man, I don't know what I did back there but I screwed up. I'll just stay on the trail for an extra half mile, run a half mile back to the street and then have the final mile home....making it 12 miles. 11 plus 1 plus that last 1 equals 12. Bummer. Ok, no big deal.

So I kept running. I looked at my GPS...11.2. Ok, so if I run .4 miles, that makes it 11.6, and then .4 back, making it 12...then one more mile...wait. Wait a minute. I'm running 12 today. That makes....13, what? Geezo.

I turned around and headed home. Some days you just keep running simply because you are not home yet. That's how my whole run felt today. Until my watch beeped at 12. I just stopped running. I wasn't home. At least a half mile away, but I didn't care. I just didn't want to run anymore. Just one of those days.

I managed to put up my blackout curtains in my bedroom finally. I'm excited to see how that goes.

I also made purple sweet potato latkes for dinner.

The sweet vermouth and purple sweet potatoes:

 Making it into a batter with green onions, cilantro, egg, whole wheat flour, salt (not enough), pepper, garlic and cayenne.

Fried it in some coconut oil.

Yep, there they are.

Ran out of vermouth, so onto sherry. Topped the purple latkes with ash covered goat cheese. Not eating enough ash these days, so I have to buy my cheese coated with it. I don't know.

After I finished eating and checking the surf reports (swell coming in!!!) I was craving Moose Tracks ice cream. I supposed I could walk to 7-Eleven just two blocks away, but I'd have to get dressed first. I turned to hot chocolate instead. Not a valid replacement but I suppose it will have to do.

So about this swell.....overhead to double overhead!! What? What's funny is that it seems "overhead" is quantified by over 5 feet. Haha....anyway. Maybe that's only funny to me.

Really wish I had that Moose Tracks.

Oh yeah, the swell. Well I did a whole lot better with the smaller waves on Friday than I did with the slightly larger ones on Wednesday. Seems my ideal surf size at the moment is "ankle to knee high". How sad is that? Maybe I just had to brush off some of the rust. Maybe overhead will be nice.

It's been awhile. Overhead is going to feel absolutely HUGE to me.

Hum. Mooooose Traaacks...... Nope. Not getting dressed just to stagger out into the dark streets to 7-Eleven just to get ice cream that I don't need. Could you see me getting gunned down, and you all would be saying at my funeral..."all she wanted was some Moose Tracks..."

Too morbid? Ok, signing off.

First night at the lab!

Onto the real reason I'm here (ok, not really... the real reason I'm here is because there's a pool on campus a 3 minute walk from my lab). I'm now officially employed by San Jose State University Research Foundation. It's like I'm a scientist, but not because I'm a student with not a whole lot of science/math background. We'll get there. 

I'll post more pics of campus when things are actually open. School is on winter break right now, so it's pretty empty and these pics were taken in the late afternoon when everything was closed.

Here's the building my lab is in.

Hall of Science. Sounds scientific. That's because it is. So, otherwise known as Duncan Hall. The Meteorology Department (and the grad room where my desk resides) is on the 6th floor.

Yes, I do believe that is a cheeseburger in paradise.

This is my desk. 

Haven't really moved much of my stuff into it yet, but I figure that will happen as I sit there and study and suddenly realize I wish I had _________ and kick myself for not thinking of it sooner. You'll notice that I do already have a coffee cup there, because at least I have my priorities straight. Not only is it ceramic and therefore microwavable, but it also has a lid. Winning.

I guess I study here, and live here. Maybe sleep under my desk when it gets too late to drive home. I'll fancy it up more once classes get started (next Thursday!). Maybe put a plant in there that thrives off artificial lighting. Couple of pictures. Bottle of wine. Snacks. Clean underwear. I don't know, the options are endless.

Our little forecasting room for the department. I suppose I could've turned on a light.

 The view from the 6th floor.

My lab is located on the 8th floor in what used to be a storage room. I'll get better pics of all that at a later time. We've also got a rooftop lab (where I will do a lot of my studying while soaking up the rays) that I'll get pics of as well. Our lab's website can be found HERE.

The reason I was at the lab the other night was because a group of local 6th grade students were presenting their project to us and getting a tour of the lab. By the time they got there it was too dark to take them out to the roof, but they got to see a little bit of what we do. I'll try to get a link to the kid's project and will update it here.

First of all, let me just say, I do not remember being this smart in 6th grade. These kids were given a project to research a natural disaster, come up with a solution (using legos and robotics and stuff) and present it to relevant groups in the communities in order to get feedback on their project, and improve it. 

This group chose wildfires and decided to enhance early detection methods by putting a blimp in the sky equipped with an infrared camera. When a new start is detected, they will transmit the coordinates via satellite to the nearest fire station. They are also toying with the idea of some sort of retardant capabilities in the event that suppression resources are delayed.

The whole set-up. A community complete with fire station, the blimp and it's satellite.

Demonstrating the use of the infrared camera. 

This was pretty funny as it led to a discussion on the best settings to use for the IR camera. This kid and my professor started discussing the range, in microns of the wavelengths of these things. I got the gist of it but I mean, who really knows what a micron is? It's small is all that I understand. Anyway, so my professor said we generally have it at 3.9 microns, or well, 4. And this kid came back with- actually, I did some calculations and yadda, yadda, averaged out these measurements and came up with 4.3 microns. He handed my professor his notebook that displayed his calculations. Goodness! This kid is smarter than I am! I bet I can do more pull-ups though.

Upstairs in the lab, my professor demonstrates a small unmanned aircraft the lab used to do an IR flight around a prescribed burn.

And my professor and I posing with the kids.

We had a big question and answer time where we provided feedback and suggestions for their project. They asked us questions about fire and fire weather, and we bounced some ideas back and forth about retardant, detection issues and typical fire behavior. It was super cool, and I was definitely impressed with how well these kids did the research, visited fire stations for feedback, adjusted according to suggestions and were still striving to make improvements. Mostly, I left there thinking I had gotten myself into a pretty cool new life situation.

Apartment updates

After reaching a fairly comfortable living point, I stalled on getting my apartment together. I think I just got over it, moving is rough. After all the packing, loading, cleaning, unloading, unpacking, organizing and re-organizing, it gets to be a little much. One of the things I've been putting off is putting up the blackout curtains, but only because I actually have to trim them and hem them (using the cheat method of hemming tape).

Living in Montague spoiled me on how dark my room would get at night- completely dark really. And I totally understand that living in the city means lights on all the time, but I apparently live on the Vegas strip because my apartment complex is so incredibly illuminated that it is daylight 24 hours a day. The pictures hardly do it justice being as the exposure time on my camera adjusts itself to the light, but all of these pictures were taken without a flash.

This is my apartment complex as seen during the day.

This is my apartment complex at night.

Every single one of those lights stays on all night until the sun is well past coming up in the sky. There are some obvious benefits to this. If someone is sneaking around my window...well ok, forget it, no one can sneak around in that sort of spot light.

Some of you might say, that's how it is living in the city. No, this is how it is living in the city:

By the way, that daylight glow coming from the left of the photo is from my complex. The remainder is the street is significantly darker.

My front door...and my windows. Just your average horizontal window blinds on those babies.

Looking from my front door out into the courtyard. You could get a tan down there. 

So obviously it would benefit me to get my blackout curtains up. I made a bit of improvements to the kitchen, being as storage and room are hard to find around here. 

 I got the bars, hooks and pots from Ikea. Hanging these above the stove freed up space in the drawer for spices and space in the cabinet for small appliances.

You don't get to see all of the living room because I've still got some clutter around there that I'm pretending to be dealing with, but here's some storage solutions I've implemented for the larger things.

My bikes hang vertically from the ceiling next to the futon in the living room. I live right next to the San Andreas fault line by the way. This should be fun. I wanted to hang them both the same way but I was having some issues with the tires blocking the light switch for the kitchen. I knew if I did that it would drive me absolutely nuts, so I went with just hanging them how they sat best. Road bike in front, mountain bike behind.

And yes, that is my swim gear sitting on the futon. Because I swim now. I'm back.

My surfboard hangs on the other wall in the living room, above the furnace I may never use. It's the middle of January and I have not turned on my heat once in the two weeks I have lived here. The small box under my jacket is actually currently being used as a door stop, because the real door stop lacks the 2 additional inches I would need to keep the door from hitting my surfboard. Gotta have my priorities straight.

Here's my bedroom. Still a work in progress but it's coming along.

Not a whole lot has changed in the bathroom since I posted pics of it except that I got an over-the-toilet shelving thing for help with storage. I would show you a pic of that but currently there are wetsuits, swimsuits, towels and surf booties strewn all over the place in there. 

I've put some pictures up but I'm still working on that as well. It's been on my to-list for over a week. I finally just threw out my to-do list. It kept growing instead of shrinking. I'm over it.

Surfing and redwoods!

Well it was another beautiful, sunny day in San Jose. It's been pretty warm here- chilly in the morning (in the 40's) but warming up to mid-70's. I just got my camera back from getting debris cleaned out from inside the lens, so I figured I'd have an early morning surf session, followed by a stroll through the redwood grove and still make it back in time to run some errands (like getting my high speed internet set up-YAY!).

I got up early and drove out to Santa Cruz right before the sun came up. I just got a new, warmer wetsuit since my old one just wasn't cutting it. I pulled into the parking lot at the end of 41st St. and hopped out to check the waves. It was pretty chilly out (mid-40's) so I was not chomping at the bit to pull my warm clothes off quite yet.

Here's my new surf spot.

There was a funny group of mostly older guys out in the line-up this morning, and due to the lack of any significant swell, it wasn't crowded at all. The water however, was absolutely frigid. It got especially cold when the sun came up and the wind picked up. Brrr!

Wednesday had been my first day back surfing in about 5-6 years which left me incredibly rusty and I was not able to ride a single wave. Today I rode quite a few. I also saw a few sea otters and more dolphins. One of the spectators up on the cliff was pointing out a leopard shark to a guy in the water. As the tide came in, it messed up the waves quite a bit and I was getting cold anyway, so I decided it was time to hop out.

Here's some pics of the spot from after I got out.

I shivered like crazy as I got out of my wetsuit and into warm, dry clothes. I hopped in the car, blasted the heater and drove out to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. It was still pretty chilly and the redwood trees provide quite a bit of shade, so I blanced my coffee in freezing hands while trying to take pictures. There's a path that circles the grove that's just under a mile long.

I found a warm sliver of sun, so I stood in it for awhile with my eyes closed, warming my body.

I made it back to the start of the loop and decided to check out the gift store. I knew better, but couldn't help myself. They had a lot of cool things. I bought a little gift for a friend, a giant redwood seed growing kit for myself, and then spotted an ice cream bin. It's way too cold for ice cream, I thought as I peered into the case. You really don't need ice cream.

No, I don't. But I do need a chocolate dipped cheesecake! As I walked along the road back to my car, I ate my chocolate covered cheesecake and the sun warmed my back. I was one happy girl.

I got home and decided I better get to work on germinating those seeds! 

The kit comes with seeds, soil, little white pebbles, and it's own little "greenhouse". I got it all set up, anxious to see some sprouts within a few days...then got to step 7.

I don't even get to set them in the sun for 20 days! I gotta trick them into coming out of dormancy. Lame. So here they are in their temporary home, wedged between the Sherry and Ezekiel bread. 

To be continued....in 20 days.