I Can Just Sense the Liberals in the Air

BRILLIANT, albeit exhausting, weekend and beginning of week.

So I made the journey to San Francisco to see Caroline (and Olivia and Steph!)! I was SUPER excited for the 6 hour drive. And this tale doesn't end badly because it was GLORIOUS! Although perhaps I could have been better about choosing the playlist. I ended up recycling the list from the trip from PA to LA, which in retrospect was a little too spread out and designed for long-lasting moods... I could have used an abridged version. But really it was just fine.

Also, my ipod car charger broke (not surprising since I couldn't have spent more than $4 on it), but FORTUNATELY it broke on Thursday, so I was fully charged and prepared for Saturday.

So I set off at 9am-ish, stopped at target for some foods and another unrelated errand, and took off. I LOVE my GPS for many reasons, but on this trip I especially loved the estimated time of arrival because I kept making it smaller and smaller! I just loved the thought of me "making time." Ahh the little things.

I arrived at around 4pm, although I wasn't supposed to meet Caroline until 7pm. I really did feel kind of bad that I just intruded on her second day home, although she assured me that it wasn't annoying. I bet it was a LITTLE annoying... and not because she wasn't happy to see me, but... well you know how exhausting guests can be.

ANYWAY, I decided to poke around the city for a bit, and ended up going to the only place I really knew of in San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge. Which I (in my mind) hilariously discovered by typing it into my GPS. Of course, the GPS wanted to take me ON the bridge, but fortunately I found a tourist area right before the bridge to stop and make some bragging phone calls. Although to be fair, there isn't much to brag about when it comes to a bridge... In fact, I spent a lot of my phone time (it was really one one call...) bragging about the prevalence of humming birds. That was unexpected.

Here it is:

It's important to note that I was not disappointed on the hill-front. I went up this hill and almost shot myself in the face. Not because I'm afraid of heights, but because I'm afraid of stopping on hills in my car. Nay. I'm afraid of hitting the gas on my car if it's stopped on a hill. I just roll back and then screech up again! I think I'm dying every time. And this one hill that the GPS took me on was ENORMOUS! Just like that hill that Christina Applegate and Cameron Diaz dance up in The Sweetest Thing. And it had like... 4 stops. After I was finished with the bridge, the GPS tried to get me up that hill again. I could not be fooled though, and simply refused to turn onto a street with an incline of more than 30 degrees. GPS did a lot of recalculating that day.

After that, I called Caroline and we ended up meeting up before 7pm. We went to Berkeley and got some EXCEPTIONALLY good pizza at a place called The Cheese Board. It was so neat because they only make one type of pizza every day. They have this HUGE line down the street waiting for the pizza, but it goes so fast because you basically just say if you want a slice or a box or several boxes... and everything is basically already done. Then people sit on the grassy median on the street and eat the pizza. VERY cool. And DELICIOUS!

Afterwards we picked up Steph and Olivia from the airport. We toured San Francisco a bit, heartily singing the Full House theme song. Then we went back to Caroline's home, chatted with her mom for a bit, and went to bed. I was about to pass out at 1am. I did get my own bed though, and Caroline sleeps in a bed that's either a full size or a queen so... that was lovely.

The next day I left at about 9:15am to make it for brunch at Elena's.

Oh my god! This was the most elaborate brunch I have ever had in my life! Here is what I can remember:

-Crepes: This includes strawberries, mango, blueberries, raspberries, possibly pear?, homemade lemon... curd? homemade jam, some sort of spread cheese (I don't remember because I didn't get a chance to sample that part).

-Bacon, both turkey and pig.

-Sausage

-Potatoes

-Artichoke and egg frittatas. When Elena told her mom how much I love avocados, her mom got me an avocado to eat with the frittatas!

-Coffee cake.

And everything was on such nice china! And she made coffee for everyone and she made tea for herself and me. And we had juice! I forgot to ask about it but it was delicious! I was so pleased! And I loved her parents so much, although I pretty much already knew I would because of the tales I've heard. By the way, Elena's mother refused to let us help her clean because the dishes were heirlooms and she finds it pleasurable to be with them! I want to be a woman that enjoys being with her china.

After breakfast, we went out to Berkeley to go visit the street venders that sell on the weekends. I probably wouldn't have gotten anything, but how great are these earrings!

I love trees!

(If you're interested, the artist has a line called Salma's Treasures and she said she does free shipping.)

After that, I had a chili dog at a place called Top Dog, which was great because I had been mysteriously craving a chili dog for about a week. Then we loitered around Elena's neighborhood for a while. We actually got super immersed in these parents and young young children playing wiffle ball at the park. It was actually a LITTLE creepy of us. We also saw some cute pictures of Elena when she was a baby. And then I took off.

I got back home around midnight and I'm pretty sure I immediately fell asleep. Honestly, I'm sorry to report that I've been pretty tired since the trip. Although not in a bad way. PLUUUUS today I took a long lunch and ate with Corina and Ari at the Farmer's Market! And TOMORROW I'm hanging out with Julia, for which I am puh-umped!! The rest of the week is going to be quality.

Here are some more miscellaneous pieces of information:

1. Reinstated my netflix. I decided to put forth the $50 I earned at Present Pictures towards this cause.

2. Here is the dog that I get to hang out with at the office!! His name is Clyde!

3. I got a 14/24 on my Oscar picks this year! I'm a LITTLE sad that I missed the Oscars both in town and on broadcast. However... not THAT sad. I wanted to see my friends more. Although if this were last year... might've been a different story. Oh Slumdog Millionaire...

I can't even believe it's only 10:20pm and I'm about to die. How did I get so tired!?