teresa

I have been noting good blog post ideas to myself lately without making the time to make any of them happen, so this will be a catch up post, filled with a string of events, thoughts, funny sightings - whatever pops into my mind reflecting on the recent weeks this Saturday morning.

Mom and I took a vacation a few weeks ago to San Francisco.  It was a great time.  Mom loves the city and I love to research and plan things to do.  We had such a full long weekend.  We went to Half Moon Bay, saw a Shakespeare in the park, saw Chihuly’s amazing work at the De Young, winded down Lombard Street in my car, waited our turn to go up Coit Tower, ferried it out to Angel Island to never go on the tour, saw a show - The Drowsy Chaperone at a beautiful SF theatre, saw a movie, went to the wharf and the beach, shopped, found the coolest neighborhood garden in Palo Alto, and went to a Giants Game! 

I posted many of our pictures here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elliottgoodwin/sets/72157606583191855/, unfortunately in a rush to get them off my camera I think I accidentally deleted like half of them from the end of our trip.  That has really been bothering me because they are lost forever…  I keep thinking they will some how mysteriously show up - just as they did disappear…  that is the downside of being a paranoid to do list manager as I am, sometimes you rush to get things done and things go wrong.  Deleting those pictures really makes me mad.

The other big recent event is I completed my first triathlon!  Deb and I did a triathlon near Lompoc where she lives.  It was such a great time and such an important personal milestone for me.  I set the goal of completing a triathlon either 1 or 2 years ago as a chance to set a goal that would make me learn how to swim.  I never learned to swim as a kid and am borderline afraid of the water.  So I did it, and it was so great to do it with a friend!  I will admit that the swim was in a pool so our next tri will be in open water, maybe in LV, we shall see we are still plotting.

Driving back from Lompoc I saw two older men at the pump next to mine at a gas station.  One of the nice men was cleaning his windshield as the other kept him company.  Then he started cleaning his entire car with the windshield wiper, he was so proud of his efficient use of resources.  His friend looked so embarrassed I think he would have climbed into the trunk if he could have.  I thought this was funny, i wondered how he answered the sometimes typical prompt after filling up his gas tank, Carwash?  Yes/No.

On my drive to and from Lompoc I also listened to 2 audio books.  On the way there I listened to Farewell my Subaru, as the proud driver of a fine all wheel drive Subaru that no longer makes as much sense where I live this title caught my eye.  It is about changing your life and reducing your impact to the environment.  He did that by moving to New Mexico, starting a ranch with goats and chickens, and parking his Subaru for a truck converted to run on biodiesel.  I liked it.  It could have been read a bit better.  The content was very enjoyable.  Don’t worry, I didn’t notice the humor in me driving 4+ hours to swim, bike and run while listening to a book about reducing your fuel footprint…

I drove back Saturday so that I could have Sunday to Burning Man shop.  Elliott and I have been on mad spending spree to prepare for our week + vacation to the playa.  This has included thrift stores for costumes, hardware stores for our shade structure, army surplus stores for costumes and shade, Target for misc supplies, you get the idea.  Well I spent all day running around to check as many things as I could off the check list, Elliott had a picnic with a group he is involved in so he was off the hook.  I did so good.  At the end of the day though I realized my Kulesza worry wrinkles were worse than ever.  These are those wrinkles on your phase between your eyebrows that develop from worrying particularly if your worrying is attached to your face, which seems to be a genetic disposition of mine.  I don’t think I ever noticed until a recent trip to Las Vegas when Kathi was pointing out everyone’s worry wrinkles.  I think she was thinking about shooting botox or who knows what else into hers.  Anyway mine are normally just vertical, although after a long day with customer service people that will never be as good as I was at Champs back in high school my visible dismay had turned horizontal showing 2 L’s on my forehead.  Elliott tried to rub them out for me.  I am not sure but I think I listened to a meditation on the ipod before going to bed which calmed me.

Work has been great, we are busy, with a new project that is pursuing LEED certification so we are enjoying some sustainable design as well as our efforts for sustainable living.  Today we will trek back to the farmers market for our favorite dates and whatever else shows up.  And we have a weekend full of BM prep, a party with some new friends that will be our playa mates, and probably some work intertwined in there too.   All with the vision of in a week and a few days I will be cruising on my fatty seat on my playa bike, in lord knows what kind of outfit, checked out from reality.  My blackberry will not work.  I will not be able to respond to little work things here and there as I usually do.  I plan to check out the art.  Write.  Take pictures.  Meditate.  Meet some new people.  Reflect.  And spend some awesome time with my love and friends new and old. 

Its funny how traveling within the US can still seem foreign.  First of all I am not sure why but apparently they do not believe in toilet seat covers in Colorado.  Until today we had been all over, public, private, one-holers and fancy restrooms - none of them had toilet seat covers.  Funny thing is the toilet seats have been cleaner than seats I have seen anywhere before which to me might seem like a contradiction.  Today I went to the restroom in the lobby and went to sit down, indoctrinated into the Colorado way, when I saw toilet seat covers next to the toilet paper, I was amazed, seat covers!  While we are on the topic I also saw my first dual flush toilet in a restroom in a building of artist studios, where we had stopped to enjoy a coffee.  The building was very “green” and these toilets allowing for #1 or #2 flushes are very popular, it was cool to see one in person instead of in a magazine.

Another observation, while driving today.  Nearly all cars going only 5-10 mph over the speed limit.  All in their own lane, charging along happily and friendly.  There were a few cars who were in a hurry, but these people were not the majority.  After driving in California for a year this felt strange.  This is typically the scene only after passing by a speed trap and it usually only lasts 45 seconds.

Our honeymoon although not to a foreign country has still provided some interesting cultural experiences.

Logging on from Vail I would like to capture some of my memories.

First off many things have come to mind that believe it or not I did not manage to fit into my recent wordy posts.  Two moments I will never forget at the wedding were on separate occasions when Brad and Russell came up to me and wanted to genuinely welcome me into their family.  They said they were so happy that Elliott and I were together and that they wanted me to know that they were happy that we were married.  This made me feel so welcomed into the Goodwin family.

Reflecting on an older post we have now flipped the outlook of in a week from now, which has become a week ago we were… at the rehearsal, and tomorrow that will be a week ago we were married!

For a honeymoon update things are perfect.

Ok not everything is perfect, the hotel was a little rocky at first.  The key didn’t work, we had to return to the lobby and when we did get in we couldn’t find the bedroom (sounds ridiculous but true).  They didn’t deliver the luggage because we ‘didn’t give them our room number’…  The shower takes awhile to warm up (which I feel is karma telling me to save water and energy by taking short cold showers… an inconvenience I have not yet adopted in my efforts to reduce my personal footprint).  The maids are emphatic about cleaning and turn down services which we have finally remedied with the do not disturb sign.  And there is a detector of some sort probably smoke that blinks all through the night above our bed. 

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That’s right the girls have converged on las vegas for my wedding shower and bachelorette party. I flew in last night and most of us got together for margaritas and mexican food.
This morning I got up and paid my dues to the running god he who allows you to eat (and drink) more calories with less guilt. I had a great run down (or maybe up) the strip past the wynn and back to the mandalay bay. There were a lot of runners out which keeps you going. I saw many of the same people after I turned around they were also doing an out and back. I thought if she still running I can keep running too. I did get passed by one gal who looked hard core - I tried to catch her but eventually gave up.
Any way now I am waiting for the girls to go to the shower, then I scheduled a haircut (fun!) and then we will party in a very respectable manner of course!
Can’t wait to be Elliott’s Mrs’, it is exciting a little scary and the wedding is going to be here in no time.

In the spirit of our wine blog I made a note to myself to blog about our trip to SF a few weeks ago, on Dec. 7.  The highlight is we stayed at the Omni and Elliott ordered the heart package which included a Cristalino Rose Brut (champagne), and he says he didn’t know but it also included rose petals in a heart shape on the bed - so cute!  We went to SF to go to a holiday party for BAYA (architects organization), but the party was a bust in a sleazy bar with crappy food (ie chicken skewers in a throw away metal tin, I don’t mean to be snobby, but I was expecting a buffet dinner) so we skipped out early and ate at this cute little Thai restaurant, I think it was called Basil.  We ordered our first Sake ever!  It was called Pearl Sake, it was sweet and very nice, we really enjoyed it, and will try Sake again.

We ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant the next morning, included in the package.  We went to the farmers market at the Pier near Embarcadero, bought some clementines that were delicious.  We walked through Union Square, saw the big tree (with LED lights, less energy) and all of the wreaths in Macy’s windows.  And we walked back through a portion of China town which was fun.  I considered buying my Christmas gifts in China town but decided the recipients wouldn’t appreciate my humor so I didn’t.