Driving.

So this is my second Blog Every Day in May post, even though it's not May anymore, and even though it's been quite a few days since my last post. The next prompt I chose was this one: 

Day 12, Sunday: What do you miss? (a person, a thing, a place, a time of your life...)


When Steve and I were in Europe last year (I can't believe it's been a year since that trip!), we spent four glorious months walking, biking, and taking public transportation. The only time either of us drove was when we were working on that farm in Hungary, and then it was only a tractor. The only times either of us sat in a car was when we were hitchhiking back and forth from that farm to a music/arts festival a few villages over. And there wasn't a single moment in that whole four months that I thought to myself, "Man, you know what I wish I could do right now? DRIVE."

We never had to. The places we visited were all made for pedestrians - everything was within walking distance from everything else. After the initial shock of observing our Polish friend Anna walk us the long way back to her flat IN HEELS, we realized that, yes, anything that is three miles or less is in walking distance. Any place that was farther away or that we wanted to get to quickly was reachable by bus or subway. Occasionally we would ride bikes to places. Looking around us, we soon realized something that was the opposite of how life is in the United States: if you want to get anywhere in Europe, driving is probably the most inconvenient way of going about it.

Within an hour of arriving back in the United States, we hopped on a six-lane freeway heading home from LAX and passed by at least four accidents. Which is three more than we saw the ENTIRE TIME we were in Europe. A few days later, we were driving with a friend of ours to another friend's soccer game, and she asked us this completely absurd question:

"So did you guys miss being able to drive around in your own car while you were gone?"

Umm. No. Absolutely not.

For the last year and a half (ish) that Steve and I were in school, we were interning (then working FT) at places that were 30 miles away from where we were living. Luckily for us, our jobs weren't too far apart from each other and we usually carpooled. But those 45+ minutes of driving each way, five days a week? Awful. And we were going against traffic. Our commute would've easily been doubled or tripled if we'd had to drive in the other direction. Suffice it to say that before we went to Europe, I already disliked having to drive anywhere. And if I didn't like it when I had to do it, I sure as hell didn't like it after living for four months without it.

I don't know how people do it. I don't know why Americans insist on doing it. So to answer the question of "What do I miss":

I miss not having to drive. Ever.

Driving sucks. Cars are expensive, for one thing. Between gas and maintenance and insurance, not to mention the actual purchase of the vehicle, it's a lot more trouble than it's worth. The hectic times of the day traffic-wise are the times when people are already cranky and pissed off and ready to just GET HOME. So what happens when you put a whole bunch of annoyed, restless, irritable people in vehicles and stick them all on the road at the same time? Road rage, and accidents, and horn honking and cursing and middle fingers everywhere. Not to mention it's bad for the environment, having so many cars on the road all at once.

I work about one mile from where I live, and I still drive to work all the time. Why? Because I suck at waking up early and in the afternoons now it is too blasted hot to do anything (it's supposed to hit 110 degrees this weekend) and basically because I am lazy. And I need to change that, because seriously? I. HATE. DRIVING.

So this is not so much an answer to the prompt, but more of a declaration:

I am going to drive less. Because walking or biking is less offensive to my mental health, my waistline, and the environment. This means no more waking up ten minutes before I need to run out the door and jump in my car to get to work on time. This probably means packing a lunch for work (unless I can convince Steve to bike over and bring me food :D ). This means sucking it up when it's hot outside, because you know what else is hot? The steering wheel of a car that's been baking outside all day long. And the car key after six minutes of being in the ignition (I can't count the number of times I have burned myself pulling the key out even though it only takes a few minutes to get home). I vow to spend less time rolling my eyes at other drivers and more time soaking in the beautiful sunshine. I vow to alleviate stress by both avoiding the maniacs driving down Market Street and getting some exercise in every day. I vow to spend less money on gas and more money on fresh produce at the farmer's market, which, now that June has hit, will be open on Thursday in the Promenade, which is on my way home from work. I vow to think happy thoughts on these walks, which will only take about ten minutes more than it would to drive. I vow to admire all the trees in my town and remember that by walking, I am helping the environment that those trees grown in.

I miss not having to drive... It's time to remember what that's like.

Summary of My Life.

So my cousin was participating for a while in this challenge called "Blog Every Day in May." I didn't realize she was doing it until about two weeks into May (and realized that going from hardly blogging ever to blogging EVERY DAY was a bit too ambitious), so I figured it was too late to jump in.

But I looked at all the daily prompts and I really like some of them. So I'm cheating, and just doing some of them, and I'm not going to write every day because really, I probably won't, and this will probably extend past May since we've only got a week of it left. So here goes -

Day 1: Story of your life, in 250 words or less.

I’ve done the typical life things for a twenty-something: graduated college, held down a good job, become financially stable. But those things don’t define me. They don’t really represent anything I stand for as a person.

 I love to see beautiful things, taste delicious things, and do incredible things. I am a world traveler and a wife, a planner at heart, a soccer player and coach. I have tattoos that are a statement to the kind of life I try to live, I love wearing lipstick even though my husband doesn’t like to kiss me when I do, and I don’t brush my hair very often. I have learned to fear nothing and sometimes find myself crying, not because I’m sad but because this world is so beautiful and life is so short. I am a decent writer, despite my tendency to use too many run-on sentences. I am no longer a picky eater. I often suffer from book hangover. Some bucket list items are to see as many countries as possible, learn another language fluently, get a six-pack, participate in a polar bear plunge, compete in an amateur ballroom dance competition, take a trapeze class, pay a stranger’s dinner bill, and jump in a taxi and yell “follow that car!”

I think my husband is the handsomest man I’ve ever seen, I prefer to spend money on experiences, not things, and I ALWAYS dance like no one is watching.

Above all things, I am a WOMAN. Happy and alive.

My Non-Travel Bucket List

I have started writing down bucket lists before, but they all end up turning into just a list of all the countries in the world and weird things I want to eat. So I have challenged myself to come up with things I'd like to do before I kick the bucket that don't have anything to do with traveling.

DISCLAIMER: That statement about items having nothing to do with travel may not be entirely true.

• Obtain a CPA license (so I can have a business card with fancy extra initials behind my name.)
• Design and sew a quilt. And a dirndl. So I can wear it to Oktoberfest!
• Climb a mountain. A really big one! (Like, umm. Mt Fuji in Japan? Or Mt Kilimanjaro? Or....)
• Bake a loaf of bread that does not double as a blunt object to whack intruders with.
• Learn to speak another language fluently. (As in, not just "Thank you" and "Another beer, please.")
• Compete in an amateur ballroom dance competition (Still trying to talk Steve into this one...)
• Pay a stranger's dinner bill
• Do a "Trash the Dress" photo shoot with my wedding dress. (One of the three I ended up buying. [Online, for <$400 total. Whoop.] But first I have to fit back into one... :P)
• Dress up for ComiCon (or other comparable convention of nerds.)
• Dress up for a USA game (I feel silly putting this on my list, since I already know I'm going to do with for Women's World Cup Canada 2015.)
• Learn how to ride a horse (that isn't a pony tied to a post that walks in a circle at the fair.)
• Jump off a waterfall (Steve keeps telling me to do this. I'm scared. But it'll happen one day.)
• Attach a lock to a love bridge
• Jump into a taxi and yell "follow that car!" (Should've done this in Vegas. Really, really should have done this in Vegas.)

....so that's about all I came up with, until I decided to type "bucket list" into Pinterest and see what other people came up with (because seriously, I can't think of anything more than "travel to this place" or "eat this") - here is what I've added to my list:

• Hug a penguin (I'm not sure if this is legal.)
• Participate in a polar bear plunge
• Take a trapeze class!
• Throw a party serving fake alcohol and see how many people act drunk (Too bad I'm not in college anymore.)
• Throw a drink in someone's face (I wish I could get this mad. I'm past the rage point of my life, though.)
• Attend a masquerade (why didn't I think of this myself??)
• Have a paint fight (I imagine this will happen if Steve and I ever decide to stop traveling long enough to settle down and buy a house to paint.)
• Wade through a cranberry bog
• Finish an entire big pink eraser (Seriously. Has anyone ever finished one of these??)
• Swing from a chandelier (and hope it doesn't break)

Things I have crossed off my bucket list before I had a chance to put it on:

• Marry the love of my life
• Run a marathon (Well. Complete a marathon.)
• Sing karaoke in front of a bunch of people (Every Thursday, Red Lion!)
• Smash a pie in someone's face (Technically it was cake. Marcus.)
• Eat a spaghetti taco (I was mind-boggled for a moment, seeing this on someone's list. Then I realized... I've done this before.)
• Dance even if no one else is and even if I look like a fool (which I'm sure I do.)
• Live without fear. (I'm there, finally. So I have no excuse to not cross every item off this list.)

I know, I know, I'm cheating... It isn't really writing blog posts if I'm just making lists. But Steve will tell you, there is nothing I love more than making lists. (Other than him, or Billy, or traveling, or food.)

But it's better than nothing! And now that these things are written for the world to see, maybe I'll do them sooner rather than later!

Tying Up Some Loose Ends.

Remember this post from New Year, where I said my New Year's resolution was to blog more?

Yeah. Utter failure.

And remember when I promised over and over and over that I'd post some pictures of our place?

Yeah. That didn't happen either.

I am back to remedy both of those situations.

So here's a big WELCOME BACK from me, to myself. There are a lot of things that have happened in the time I've been blog-hibernating, and some thoughts on life that I'd like to get written down, so here goes New Year's Resolution: Take Two.

And here are some fabulously blurry pictures of the past three-ish months of our life!

I'll start with a couple pics of our place, since you've been waiting so long:

Our living room. Much more "us" than it would be if it was centered around a tv.

Our kitchen, on one of its cleaner days.

Our dining area, aka the other half of the kitchen?

Sorry folks, no pics of our bedroom or our office. Both are consistently messy and mostly undecorated (still! I know. We somehow lost all our thumbtacks in the move and didn't get around to buying new ones till like... a week ago) so you will probably have to come visit if you want to see them!

MISC PICTURES FROM FEBRUARY [Holy crap. I haven't blogged since February.]

Valentine's Day:

This is what I came home to at lunch on Valentine's Day!

Steve shucked those oysters himself. And put together the centerpiece flower arrangement.

AVENUE OF THE GIANTS, Humboldt County, CA

Eel River(?)

The view from above. 

 This is where the pictures start getting blurry, because I changed the setting on the camera to something that required the camera to be held very, very, VERY still.....

That is a tall tree. A very, very tall tree.

Between me, Billy, and my brother, we could reach maybe a third of  the way around the tree?

Party tree! The couple in the middle are my old friend Adrienne and her husband Evan, who  we were visiting in Humboldt.

The boys atop a fallen tree.

That is a redwood that had fallen over. For scaling purposes, keep in mind that my brother, standing on the ground right next to the tree, is a little over six feet tall.

A creek we found. I mostly posted this picture because Billy looks adorable in my jacket.

MARCH:

We basically didn't do anything exciting in February due to MY FIRST TAX SEASON aka I did not have a single day off work in the month of March.

APRIL:

As a celebratory MY-FIRST-WEEKEND-OFF-IN-TWO-MONTHS!!!, we met up with a bunch of our college friends in Santa Barbara for a mini-reunion and some hiking and avocado picking and other typical shenanigans. Steve and I took the train down rather than driving - and that train ride was like 17 hours long. Each way. But it was also kind of refreshing to travel around with just a backpack once more....

The view from the beginning of our hike.

Don't know if you can see it, but Iris has a big fancy camera - I took this picture as proof she was there, because she normally doesn't have any pictures of herself from our adventures.

We got lost on our hike, and asked some random guys for directions to Seven Falls (which, incidentally, were all dried up by the time we got there - 3 hours later) and they told us to continue on the trail we were walking on until we came to Pride Rock... We were pretty stoked to hear that other people use Disney references to describe landmarks besides us.

Steve and Blonde Matt helping me down a boulder. I was certain I was going to die. Thank goodness I had tall, strong, handsome blonde men to save me.

I was clinging like a barnacle to that rock.

Steve and Jane atop Pride Rock, SB version

Blonde Matt's and my feet..... You really can't tell from this picture how effing far down it was from the rock we were sitting on to the bottom of the canyon.

Carolyn, the dust from our hike washed off and adequately prepared for avocado picking.

Jane basically lives in the avocado grove. 

FOOD AND OTHER THINGS:

Carne asada tacos

Trying our hand at kalbi [Korean shirt ribs]

I guess the Deutschland jacket takes away from me pretending to be Asian?

Steve's glorious cheese pizza

Spanish sweet rolls... I forget what they're called. But Steve made them. From scratch.

Getting ready for some BEZZERWIZZER!!! [A fair warning to everyone out there: don't play trivia games with us unless you are a serious trivia game fanatic. Because that's what we are, and we will beat you every time.]

Korea Steve came for a visit!!!! :D

I love coming home to lunch already made.

Homemade turkey meatballs, courtesy of Steve.

Vegetable curry.

Some of Steve's fantastic french bread.

Homemade pretzels. Steve made the pretzels from scratch, and I stole a bite before taking a picture so it would look like a heart. Awwwww.

Steve's family's traditional Valentine's day cookie. This is a cake pan, so this cookie is much bigger than it looks.

Bacon, balsamic, and brussel sprouts. A winning combination.

Swiss chard pasta, courtesy of my dad's garden, and a pineapple-zubrowka martini.

Plantain empanadas - my mom's recipe.

Billy misses having his picture taken all the time. What a ham.

Multigrain pancakes (mix courtesy of the local flour mill) with strawberries & yogurt. And breakfast sausage. 

Bay scallop salsa-viche.

Just another day of lunch waiting for me at home.

Whew. I'm worn out and all I posted was a bunch of pictures!

But it's a good start, right? :P

Some Nights

Some nights I am inspired to blog. But those nights are few and far between, especially since we don't take as many pictures as we did while we were in Europe, and I can't get away with just putting up a bunch of pictures. :P

WORK: Work is, so far, still enjoyable. Steve is wrapping up his food safety manual gig, but has an opportunity that looks promising - he may begin working in the organics business soon, with a job that requires a couple days of travel and lots of days at home, but I don't want to say anything until it's set in stone. So stay tuned! And hopefully I'll blog about it sooner rather than later. :P

HEALTH: For those of you who aren't on Facebook, about two weeks ago, Steve got knocked out at soccer >.< and has taken the last two weeks off of most physical activity while his head heals. He ended up with a pretty bad concussion, but for the past week his headaches have gone away and he has been feeling fine. I'm still trying to convince him to take another week off and skip soccer on Monday, but he has so far rebuffed all my arguments. :-/

FITNESS: Steve and I have been doing a lot of biking on the weekends [except these past two, since we've been out of town]; here's a picture!

OTHER: As an early birthday present [my bday was almost two weeks ago?!], Steve crocheted me.... CAPTAIN AMERICA!!!!

HOME: Here are two pictures of our bathroom! Because it's the only place in our apartment that is clean enough to take pictures of. :P

And... that's all the update you guys (anyone who hasn't up on this blog because I don't write about anything interesting anymore :P) get right now. Up next (hopefully, again, sooner rather than later), Valentine's Day, Avenue of the Giants, Steve's potential job opportunity, and all the delicious food that Steve has been making me.

Fitness Goals.

As I have said in multiple posts, it has been a long time since I've been really fit. Part of that is due to knee surgery, part of that is due to our leisurely summer in Europe, part of that is due to having a job that lasts till evening rather than soccer practice every evening. But I am in that stage of rehab where I am all amped up to be crazy fit and alongside my husband have vowed to get strong again. I made a long list of both short-term and long-term reasons why I want to get back into shape, and here are a few of them:

1) I played on the same club soccer team for the same coach for nine years. After I graduated high school, my coach took a coaching hiatus for a couple years until his daughter was old enough to play on a club team. So for the last few years, I've been going to the Valkyrie practices to say hi and watch the new "us" play, and I've been wanting to set up an alumni game, where my old team could get back together some weekend and play the girls. Well, the Valkyrie just won A-Cup and most of them are heading to high school in the fall, so I would say they're old enough to play us now. It's going to happen sometime at the end of this summer. And I need to get back in shape and shake all the dust off my soccer skills so I can show these girls who's boss. ;)

2) When we were still in college, Steve and I lived one year in a four bedroom house with a bunch of our friends. This house was down the street from a supermarket that had one of those blood-pressure test cuffs near their pharmacy, and every time we went, our friend Marc and I would basically compete to see who had the lowest resting heart rate, aka who was in better cardiovascular shape. The lower your heart rate is, the stronger your heart. Generally, when you are in good cardiovascular shape, your resting heart rate is low because your heart is strong enough to pump out enough blood for your body in fewer beats. (Unless you have a rabbit metabolism like my husband, whose heart rate is much higher than mine no matter what.) Anyhow, whenever Marc and I tested ourselves, I always won (except once, which I still think is because Marc had a long-sleeved shirt on, which interfered with the cuff's ability to measure his bpm. But no matter.). But Marc has been playing soccer without a huge break like I had to take, and I have no doubt that his bpm is much, much, MUCH lower than mine. And that just isn't right!

3) Right around when Steve and I got married, I was in a big get-fit craze. It was gorgeous outside all the time, I was only working part-time while doing last-minute wedding planning, and there were sweet horse trails all throughout our neighborhood that I would go running on. And at some point, all of us girls (which, in our group of friends, is a small minority) decided that we were going to have a race to see who could get a six-pack first. And no one ever won. SO I CAN STILL WIN IT!!! :D

4) Because my kids are going to be awesome athletes and I want to be their inspiration. Oh, and I also want to be that hot soccer mom, so I can measure up to my babe of a husband.

5) The simplest reason: it has been far too long, and I miss it. I miss the ache in my muscles after a hard workout, I miss the instinctual movement of my body on the soccer field, I miss the sound of my feet on the pavement as I run. I miss just being able to kick a soccer ball around with my husband. I miss how good it always made me feel. I miss the laughter and the friendship and the camaraderie that just isn't the same when you're on the sidelines. And when I start playing soccer again, I don't want to begin by just starting to get in shape THEN learning how to play soccer again. I need to be fit before I start, so I can focus on the ball and the strategy and the team and not get distracted by how *%^#*$)%! tired I am. And that begins today. (Or really, it began a few days ago. ;)

So Much For That.

Well, I didn't get very far with my resolution to blog more. :-/

In my defense, a lot has been going on: we moved all our stuff in, I started my new job, soccer has started up for Steve, etc. And it has been fun. And I really wish I had some pictures to show you of our place, but it is still not set up as nicely (ie, not clean) as I would like for pictures. BUT I promise I will take some of at least the clean rooms and put them up.... Tomorrow.

I've been at my new job for two weeks now, and obviously I have survived! Things have been really busy from the get-go, and with tax season looming, things will only get busier. But so far I am learning a lot and enjoying the work I've been doing. It's fulfilling, actually, to have so many things to work on, to get projects done, and to have the day fly by quickly. I've been going home for lunch since my work is literally only one mile away from our place, and it feels like a long break in the middle of the day, so I kind of forget that I am basically at work all day long. Steve is still working from home doing his food safety research/manual writing/whatever it is that he actually does, but his schedule is very flexible so he usually has lunch waiting for me when I get home. AWESOME! I love having a useful (and handsome!) husband to come home to.

PT has been going well - although going in the morning BEFORE work is not my ideal time. Ugh. So early. But I have noticed one thing: the first few days after I started working, I was coming home exhausted, both physically and mentally. But once I started going to PT in the mornings, I found that I have more energy throughout the day. You always hear people say that exercise stimulates your body and gives you more energy rather than taking it away, but I never reallllllly realized the truth of that statement until now. And since I (again, because I like to brag ;) ) live only a mile away from my work (ie, a three minute drive), I have time to get up, get some exercise in, eat breakfast, and go to work without really having to get up that much earlier.

Steve has been having fun at home while I'm at the office - like I mentioned already, he's been working from home with a food safety consulting gig, but besides that he's also been playing a lot of guitar, crocheting, cooking, and working out. The new 7v7 season started at the soccer park last Monday, and really since we moved into our place he's been itching to get back in shape - it's been too long for both of us, really. He has his bike up here now and I just brought my old bike from my parents' to our place today, so hopefully tomorrow we can go buy some new tubes for my bike (which I haven't ridden in like eight years....) and then we can start getting some serious cardio in! There are some neighborhoods down the street from us that we can go explore, or we can take our bikes out to the river trail and get some serious mileage in. I'm looking forward to it. I just wish the weather would get nicer! It was nice out (like 60 degrees and sunny) for a few days last week, but it's been drizzle and dreary the last couple days.

So with that not-so-exciting life update out of the way, I will put it on my to-do list to take some pictures of our place and get them up for all the world to see and admire. And hopefully I will get to this sometime before the weekend is over and not like three weeks from now. Here's to hoping! <3