New Beginnings

I can't believe it has been since new months that I last posted. I have been working at Heavenly, yet again; and thanks to Uncle Mike and Aunt Lynda I now work in marketing research. So basically I get paid to ski and talk to strangers and ask them multiple choice answers.... life is difficult.
My grades are good. I currently have 2 B's and 1 A, and I am content with that. US government, Biology, and English 101. It is nothing too exciting.
My mom bought me a brand new subaru 2010 forester, the color is paprika, but I call her Chalula... the license plates are NDWEEBA. We couldn't fit in the A before to make it andweeba, but its close enough. The lady at the DMV asked if it was a gang term, and I literally laughed out loud! I love her! And she handles wonderfully in the snow which I am so thankful for!

Recently I had tuition issues with University of Denver, they seemed to think that I owed them a full quarters of tuition for the fall and my dad and I fought it, and yea, we won! It made me so happy and it was such a stress relief!

I went to go see Katie this last weekend for some much needed sister catch up time. She picked me up Thursday, we went to lunch and split a salad (we went to this place when ( was there when she was a freshman, 4 years ago!). Ultimate Frisbee practice that night and Friday we went to Santa Monica where she works in a movie production office internship and I went shopping for a few hours, I know so hard to do! Then we went to 'Color Me Mine' which she and I did when Katie visited me in Denver last year. It is a ceramics shop that has pre-made items, such as piggy banks, mugs and plates to name a few, and then you (the artist) paints them and after three weeks you receive a call saying they have been fired and are ready for pick up! Ta da! your FA BU LOUS! Then we got back to her place got ready for a decades party (I was 80's thanks to her roomie Bambie, and she was 40's). After much fun we came home and slept like logs!




Saturday we watched recorded olympics and went to the Ghetty museum of art. I was gorgeous and fun! I was extremely tired, more so than normal but I didn't think too much of it. Later that night we went to Pete Carroll's "a better LA" fundraising concert, hosted by Will Ferral. Katie had bought us nose-bleed tickets, WAYYYY in the back of the auditorium, but then a man came up to us asking if we were going to have a good night, so then he gave us 2 FRONT ROW TICKETS! We didn't believe it, but then we went down to the front, and there we were, 5 seats away from Pete Carroll and right next to Tennacious D, the band with Jack Black AHhhh it was sooo cool!

Sunday we went shopping in Melrose, and went to a cute (extremely busy) diner and had delicious eggs benedict! Then Katie dropped me off at the airport and I kept falling asleep for the 20 min drive. The flight was fine, a little delayed due to snow but nothing to worry about, the drive home was slow and snowy but normal. Then next morning I worked out and came home and slept! After I went to class a few hours later, it hit me, I was sick. I was really sick. I made it thought my next class without upchucking and came home, I didn't go to class later that night because I was asleep from 330 to 630, class started at 6. I had the 24 hr flu that Abigail had the day before I left and I fought it off for the whole weekend, but as soon as i got home it hit me like a sledge hammer. At least it explains why I was so tired when I was with Katie?!


OK it was a short brief update but now (today) I stated to waitress at a new sushi restaurant, Sushi Pier, it is where Burger King was at Kale drive and Hwy 50. Wish me luck!

Best wishes to all


Where we were, at the very far back...
Where we were moved to, notice the curtain and no body behind us...
That is everyone who performed, including Will Ferral in a snuggie and no pants...

Christmas Cheer!

Abigail and I had gone to Reno to pick Katie up from her London adventures!

The few days after that had been skiing, lounging around, wrapping presents and hanging out with family. Christmas eve was at Gigi's house mom, dad, us kids and jim.... the whole gang! Christmas morning we (the gang) went skiing together. Found Uncle Mike and Aunt Lynda and went tubing! We had somehow lost dad along the way but we soon found him on our way back to the car... evidently he had pushed some guy down in the lift line because he was skiing recklessly. But we hadn't seen the whole thing so on the chair ride we were thinking that he had punched someone who had allegedly keyed his car the day before. We were wrong. Abigail fell over twice, Katie got taken out by a snowboarder, I had a yucky cold, and nothing happened to Hugh. We opened presents and had delicious quiche. Analisa took her 3 kids to Piedmont Ca, to see her parents and brothers. She drove back that afternoon.

After the Christmas fiasco, I found a job at Heavenly (thanks to Uncle Mike and Aunt Lynda) and I now take surveys from customers for marketing purposes... We shall see how the minimum wage part time goes for me....
Tonight is new years and I have no idea what my plans are.

xoxo
Andrea

Bay-Snow

After finals I need to get out of Tahoe. I chose the best day, after the biggest snow storm yet this year.
Well I had my biology final, went home and packed and the next morning I headed to the bay area. I had breakfast with Becca, lunch in Davis with Zanny and Elena, two friends since I was a youngin. I headed to Marin and stayed with my Boppa for the night, we went to Trader Jo's and the store in the morning and I then headed into the city. I had coffee with Mackenna and Ashley, two friends from high school and then stayed the night with Shannon, a close family friend who is in the San Francisco Ballet. After shopping the next day and stealing some amazing things (not literally, just great finds) I headed to Diablo to stay with the Moulthrops, some family friends. I stayed two nights and was about to head back to Tahoe but the weather kept me another day. Lunch with Analisa (stepmom) and her parents, brother and sister-in-law. Her father had beed 5 days post-op from a back surgery and was doing FANTASTIC!
The drive home was easier than I had thought too!

Now skiing, attempting to find a job, and expecting Katie and Hugh to come home!!!

London; part 2

SATURDAY we ventured over to porabello road and Abigail and I make a fabulous shopping pair! She got a crepe, we walked 'down' the road, looked at plenty of cute things, I kept trying to find a replacement puzzle ring for the one that my mom had given me, and I managed to lose it. But there was no success in that department. We did find a really cute store called Octopus and spent the majority of our money there. We also lost everyone else from the group, but went to another store called Accessorize and Abi got Christmas gifts for her friends.
Then we went back to the meeting place but no one was there, and we walked back down the street attempting to look for any signs of our family, who all managed to wear black, awesome. Then Abigail saw Katie and we said that we would meet back in the cupcake line in about 30ish minutes. The cupcakes, well not as good as Katie said they would be.
After dinner etc, I packed all of my things up and headed to bed.

MONDAY bright and early, (it was still dark) Zach and I went to catch a scheduled Taxi to take us to the train station, but it was pouring rain and we took a wrong turn to get to the cab stand, but ended up finding it! Zach and I said our goodbyes and I took a train to the airport, checked in, got coffee, went through security looked at the duty free items and only bought post cards, and spent ALL my pounds! so proud :)
The flight was not as comfortable as on the way back, due to the lack of sibling comfort :( Then I had to kill a few hours in the San Francisco air port because we didn't know how close to cut it with the timing of customs and the next flight. Well customs only took about 15 min and the 4 hours of waiting for my flight, so I slept for 3 hours of it on a bench. I later found out that Caitlin (I visited her in Oregon) had been in the SAME terminal at the SAME time, on her way back to school, but I failed to even think to call her, (I blame jet lag).
My dad picked me up at the fabulous Reno airport (my favorite airport in the world, no joke) along with Bill Brown, a family friend. My bag on the other had, went to Florida? Not sure, why or how that happened, but it got delivered to the house the next morning regardless. It did smell like cigarette smoke and the handle was broken but shit happens, no need to cry over spilt milk.

Here are the some of the black and white photos I took...

London; part 1

OK first of all... London was super cool!!!

Kaite has already started her portion of blogging about our trip, so rather than saying basically the same thing about what we did and where we went, I will just add my own commentary...

SUNDAY the jet lag sucked! Hugh decided not to sleep on the plane so Abigail slept on the floor (between the chairs, where your feet are supposed to go, mad props) and I slept on Hugh. The apartment was really nice and we all bummed around for the rest of the night because we were pooped and I was so freaking excited about all the pies that England has, it is a problem. Abigail and I managed to stay up until 7:45.. I think Hugh went to bed around 9 or so?

MONDAY while Katie was in class, we went to Westminster Abbey, and it could have been one of my favorite places we visited. There was so much history within such a condensed area (considering how long it has been around) that I could have spend another hour in there reading all of the graves and memorials. We had lunch at another pub and more pies to go around :D Then we walked through part of St. James Park and saw the Buckingham Palace. Seeing as how it would get dark at 4:30 and most museums close at 5 and it is much too dark to do any sightseeing, we were about to head back to the apartment, when we saw the Queen's Gallery. It is located on the side of the palace and it contains art work, armor, furniture, cutlery and JEWELRY! which had all been in the Royal Family. The jewelry was the most impressive, in my opinion, however google wasn't helping me and therefor there is no picture to show my favorite diamond necklace on display...



Dinner was at a yummy at an italian restaurant near the apartment. Abi had a yummy desert, I think it looked like gonads covered in milk chocolate mouse, GROSS... the waiter was entertaining, but very hard to hear.
Sleeping over at Katie's was short-lived. I wanted to sleep all the way though the night and not wake up at 4am, so I took an ambian and tried to stay wake and talk while she was doing homework, needles to say I fell asleep mid sentence and started to drool and I fail to remember any of our conversation.

TUESDAY at the Tower of London, again I was the last one out because I was trying to read everything, so people were waiting for me at the exit. That is where the picture on Katie's blog was taken... they were waiting for me. We had lunch at St. Katherine's Dock and from all the walking around for a few hours we walked to the grocery store and then ordered a
turkey. Naps for all! Then we all headed out to greek food and Avenue Q which was so great! It was hilarious!

WEDNESDAY the bus tour sucked and it was so cold and miserable that I was so glad once we got off! Having to pay to use a restroom is stupid, especially when you don't have any money and are about to pee your pants! So not cool.
When Katie brought out her sandwich, we were ALL salivating, however Kaite's comment about how we never know when we are going to get food etc... well it depends, sometime its the ONLY priority or it isn't a priority AT ALL... no middle ground so its hard to tell. Then when Katie maneuvered us through non busy streets, she didn't mention they were the whore-house streets... and how Katie knew of these streets, we will never know...
I had heaps of fun watching everyone try and climb up, seeing all the other tourists there taking ridiculous pictures (us included) and the group of people dancing and being video taped. I also totally missed the statue that Katie was talking about but the video link is pretty cool, and after seeing it I wish I would have noticed what she had been talking about, or heard the conversation.
Now on to Covent Garden and the street performer, he made me laugh but only because he wasn't succeeding and I don't think it was on purpose. Poor fellow...



THURSDAY we went SHOPPING! But amazingly I didn't but anything but that may have to do with the fact that the pound is 1.67 to the US dollar... boo hoo And now I have to fill in this part of the day.
We left around 930 am, and took the bus and then the tube to Harrods, or the shopping area around it. And let me tell you that Harrods is HUGE! It takes up an entire block, the bottom floor is half food court, and when they say food court, don't think American shopping mall. Think elegant sit down dining of 6 different types, gourmet to the max! It was unbelievable.
Jim is not a fan of shopping so he did not join us or the Simmons for our shopping adventure and so he went to some museum instead. Then Zach and the gang went to the War Room Museum and then the Churchill museum. It was interesting but by that point in the week we were all burnt out by museums... but the coolest thing about the War Rooms, was that the day that WWII ended all the staff working there turned out the lights and it wasn't touched again until it was proposed to turn into a museum. So everything there was exactly as it was the day the war ended.
This is also Thanksgiving Day but Katie had class, as you could tell so Mat Simmons ordered Indian take-out. None of us ever had any Indian so it was an adventure, and we never had any idea what exactly we were eating... Great Adventure!

FRIDAY we took a long, long, longggg train ride to the complete opposite side of London to Hampton Court Palace. It was beautiful and magnificent, also quite cold but ho hum. We toured around the palace of how Henry the VIII lived and how the castle worked, with headphones and all! It was funny how many tours gave out head phones and a recording of what you are looking at. There was Westminster Abbey, Queen's Gallery, the tour bus War Rooms, Churchill, and Hampton Court. Impressive in my opinion.



On the train ride back I left everyone in the center of London for some alone time. I wandered along the edge of Hyde park and through random blocks of the city because I didn't really know where I was, and the streets do not run off of a grid system which was quite confusing. I went back into Harrods on my way home and purchased my Christmas present to myself, which was a fabulous wool overcoat, which I had seen the day before.
I came back to a delicious Thanksgiving dinner, Robin was there along with our whole gang!




More coming up soon!

Oregon

So this last weekend I went to go see Caitlin Moulthrop in Eugene Oregon, where she attends U of O. I left my Bio lab and headed strait to Reno and slept at Jim's house. Then I woke up at 4:30 am to head off the the air port early Friday morning... ehh

Yet again I screwed up in security, my waterbottle (tin, reusable) still had water in it!) doiiii Andrea! So I dumped it out quickly and jumped back in line, and thank god for Reno, and no one ever wants to go there... security wasn't too bad. The flight was fun, Cait picked me up and we had some breakfast. The street was cute and we did a little Christmas shopping!

Then we went shopping, and shopping... oh yea and shopping! Ha ha. Then we drove back to her cute little apartment, where her roommate was to be missing (thank god, I have heard some horror stories) Lovely mexican for dinner and a movie, ya you are jealous of our PJ party!

The next day we toured the school, or should I say that Caitlin gave me a tour. Then we grabbed lunch at trader jo's and took a nap/ showers. Got ready for the football game, they were playing Arizona! So we met up with her family friends for a tailgater, but first we had to walk all the way around the stadium! Ha ha Caitlin was super upset at this point because apparently she had to do the same thing the last game, but in the opposite direction, I just happened to find it funny, which I don't think helped her mood out all that much... teehee!

OK, so the game was SICK! I love football live! And there were really gross hicks sitting in front of us, and it was a bummer but added to the experience. It was chilly out but thankfully we beat the weather and it DID NOT rain! Which was a total surprise because it was supposed to rain the entire freaking weekend! And the weather man was wrong, so thank you Mr. Weather Man!

So everyone there was cold (I was thoroughly prepared with hand warmers to the boot) and at the end of the 4th quarter we headed out to beat the traffic. When we got back we checked the score just to double check and this is how the conversation went:

Cait "Ohhhh mmyyy GODDDDDD!"

Me "Yea what happened?"

Cait "The score was 47-44! We lost!"

Me "Wait whoooahhh what? How?"

Cait "I don't know if I can believe this, I need to check a more reliable source because I am getting a lot of different numbers!"

.......

Me "Find anything"

Cait "Well I don't know... What's a reliable place"

Me "For sports, you mean like ESPN?"

Cait "Oh yea, RIGHT!"

Oh I can't tell you how freaking hard I was laughing! I fell over.... But I guess you had to be there

The next morning we were planning on waking up early and heading to the coast to hang out/ picnic like the cute couple we are, but we opted out of waking up at 7:30. So at 9 am we packed up all my stuff and headed to the bluff for a quick hike which I thought was a fabulous way to start off the morning! Coffee, quick change, and on the road again Play song>

We tried to grab lunch at a place the Cait likes (gluten free-friendly) but they were closed so we ventured across the street to a breakfast nook, super cute and delecious! Then I went back to the airport and thank goodness I was early because security was loonnggggg!

I all of the pictures I took in the last month or so because my memory on my computer is full. I am currently working on trying to solve that problem so cross your fingers for me, and I think that Cait has some saved that she can send me!

Now I have 5 days until London and I am so super duper excited!

Refrigerators

I had quite a strange weekend.

It started off with me being sick to my stomach and not going to Calc to take notes... oh well. then I got my act together for some Chem tutoring. I am so glad that I went because I had an "ah ha!" moment. Worked out got Abi from dance, and with Riley we went to go see the god family (Bob, Rosie, Roberta etc...) for some family time. It was good to see all of them, unfortunately Kalie and Brittany had to go to their dad's house for the weekend, so yet again, we didn't get to see them AGAIN!

Ok so we had my favortie cheese enchalatas (which we made with my fake cheese so I could actually enjoy them to the max) and we then watched Nacho Libre, and I think the best part was watching Rosie and Roberta die of laughter! Abi and I were slightly lost, but then again, laughter is contagious so it was just a great movie.

Then we had eggs, hashbrowns and bacon for breakfast. Roberta cut my hair. Dad wouldn't stop nagging me about what my plans were, because I didn't know what my plans were in the first place. So all in all we met up with dad and Analisa in carson so watch the Michael Jackson video which was really good.

I watched the USC Arizona game and then headed to bed, I really wanted to find something to go out and do with my friends, but living in a small town, that can be hard to find sometimes.

OK so then on Saturday I spent the ENTIRE day organizing the Crap in my room. Can I say that I was having an OCD day? I would say yes.

Later in the day I was reheating food in the microwave and it stopped working, along with the refrigerator! Ahh panic attack right?

So I reset all of the breakers and still nothing... Mom was freaking out at me though text messages, which were just making me more angry! So then I took all of the food from the fridge into the garage fridge (which i had to take all the non perishables out first, aka wine beer and soda). Next I took all the meat out of the freezer and put it into a cooler (seeing as how there was no room in the garage freezer). Shortly after Andy Dauscher (handyman neighbor) came to the rescue! He tried all the same things I did. Then we pulled out the fridge unit, and attempted the plug, no success, only sneezes from all the dust. So I did a quick sweep job and we pushed it back. In the end it turned out to be a circuit breaker which wasn't working right (sneakily stuck). OK so I lysoled the bah-jesus out of the fridge, seeing as there was no food in it, and transfered all the food back, lysoled out the garage fridge and put all the previous materials back in. Now onto the freezer. I did the same with the lysol, but with out the bah-jesus bit (because it was still sorta frozen). But I did manage to organize it: red meats, white meats, packaged foods, sweets (so they are harder to reach on the bottom) and in the door was breakfast stuff, vegetables, nuts, and ice-packs/ juice. I was very proud of myself.

BUT THEN....

I tried to reheat something in the microwave again and it stopped working and I was so worried that it was going to cut out the fridge again, it thankfully didn't. Its just time for a new microwave, and hence we are now mircrowave-less.

Wonderful, lesson learned; don't pack so much food into the fridge if you aren't willing to lose it.

And now my mom is FINALLY home from a wedding in Ohio that she went to with JimmyWimmy.

Thanks it, thats all!

--> for now

xoxo