just to clear up some confusion... this is a picture of my aunt Linny. we were on a hike in the Oakland hills with our cousin Alan. it was rainy and super muddy. we had a joke about the hat. so, here she is wearing the hat.


hat

getting ready to go hiking

"and i'm even going to bring hat"

What's your duck type?

it must have been music to his... nose

today at tower records i saw a weird man smelling CD's. i wonder if that is how he selects which ones to buy? i love san francisco.

shit shit shit

you know, last night when i parked on the side of the street with friday street cleaning from 12noon-2pm i knew it was a bad idea. for some reason though, i told myself that i'd be awake before noon and just needed to leave myself a note to move my car. did i wake up before 12noon? sure i did. did i leave myself a note? NOPE! did i remember to move my car when i heard the street cleaner out in front of the house at 1pm while i was in the garage getting the mail? YEP. did i get a $35 ticket today? also, YEP.

ARGH!

Rob and Jon at Theo's

Outreach... or Reaching Out

so, this morning i am doing outreach at city college of san francisco. i think i encountered a question at my info table that could make the top 10 list of weird questions asked to a student assistant.

a strange guy came up to me and asked, "what is your job here?"

i replied, "i work for san francisco state and i'm here to talk to students about transferring to san francisco state."

(simple enough? ummmm... i guess not)

then he says, "well, do you have a camera? because i would pay you $50 to take pictures of me."

all i could croak out was, "sorry, i don't have a camera."

my brother Never Does...

Happy 23rd Birthday Jon!


My brother Jon and me 

Steph's place

The Cutest Green House

where do i live you ask? in this cute green house, where else? no, really, can you see that little green door to the side of the garage door? it's the way in to the hallway that leads to the back of the house where Stephanie's adorable one bedroom in-law unit is. it is quite cozy back here.

*snort*

today my step-sister told me that she snorted with laughter while reading my blog. i felt so proud!

Grand Lake theater in Oakland

Grand Lake theater... I guess they didn't vote for Bush

sleepover at Linny's

my cousin amy came into town from Santa Cruz since it was a holiday weekend. on Saturday afternoon we drove out to Oakland so we could stay the night with my aunt (her Mom) Linny. the three of us grabbed burritos and snuck them into a movie. it was fun, but a little messy. note to self- get more napkins next time you sneak burritos into a dark movie theater. we stayed up late, slept in late, and then went for a long walk around Piedmont. check out the picture above. i thought it was enough of a statement to walk back in the morning and take a picture of it. gotta love the liberal Bay Area!


the view from Linny's balcony

Poo-berry muffins

don't eat these muffins!

so i awoke this morning to both the sound of stephanie in the kitchen and to the delightful smell of freshly baked blueberry muffins... what i didn't awaken to was the small print on the side of the box that said "Excessive consumption may have a laxative effect"
DON'T ASK

i've set a record

i just wanted to let you all (my 4 readers) know that i slept in on friday until 11am!

woo hoo!

also, stephanie showed me how to get pictures onto my blog, so as soon as i get the hang of that you'll see more images. aren't you excited?

if any of my other blogging friends want to show me how to do other cool things with my blog, i'm always eager to learn new things. *hint hint*

ps. happy 24th birthday lindsay and joe!

argh

i'm in some weird funk tonight... is anyone else out there in a weird funk? i wish i knew why i was feeling so blah.

i'm in one of those moods where i can't even find internal motivation to move from my couch to my bed so i could go to sleep. the warmth from my laptop is so familiar that it feels like it's my friend. alright, i'm getting hungry now, definitely a sign that i'm up too late. i'll go now.

I didn't realize how "special" my high school was

i recently found out that the high school i went to back in the day now requires auditions to get in. thank god i went there when i did... i never would have passed frickin auditions! ha!

http://enrollmentoptions.sandi.net/scpa/auditionguide.html

lindsay is crazy

i only have a few little things about my day worth sharing... one is that lindsay is so crazy. she called me when she was leaving work and decided that she needed a girls night. i was totally down for it, so we had dinner and went running around town buying some necessary sleep over stuff for her spontaneous decision. after doing what we do best (some silliness) we started to get ready for bed. then, right before she was going to jump into the shower and get ready for bed, she called out "oh f*ck!" and realized that she had to go home because she left a book there. believe it or not, that freak still took a shower, put on her pj's, and then drove home to san mateo. hahahaha! i guess you have to really know us to appreciate this rediculous evening.


Is she really going to stab me?

the other thing that i did today that was exciting was i started thinking about the road trip that monica and i are planning in june. she lives in north carolina right now and i am going to fly out there after i graduate to drive back across the country with her. i am so excited! i delightfully procrastinated on my homework by hanging out with this really cool large road atlas that stephanie has here in her place. as some of you may know, i'm secretly a map junky (what do you think about that, reader #4?) and i just loved looking at the different interstate highways and planning our route back to california. i realized that i am going to get to see so many cities that i have never been to. how cool. i'll write more about that as monica and i discuss and plan. YAY a girl's road trip! what better way for 2 best friends to celebrate the summertime, and both of them graduating with masters degrees, and Monica's final moments before she gets married!?

i'm back

hello bay area, i'm back! i had a good weekend in san diego, saw everyone i wanted to see, wanted to relax more but my homework didn't allow for much of that. it felt great to be home, but then when i got back here today i felt like i was home... again. how can that be, when one person has 2 totally different cities that feel equally like home? as my new friend calls me, i guess i truly am a San Frandiegan. i mean, just sitting on muni with my mini ipod felt like home. it was weird because muni is usually too stinky to be equivalent to anything other that a bathroom... anyways...

i am so tired right now, you'll have to excuse my babbling. you think i talk a lot from day to day, just get me when i'm like an over-tired 2-year-old. it's not a pretty sight. haha! i can babble endlessly and sometimes i even start kicking my legs around in tantrum mode. why am i sharing this? oh yeah, i'm tired and demonstrating my babbling skills. alright, i'd better go now. i just wanted to say a quick little hello to my favorite city... it feels good to be back in SF.

dude!

my mom said to me today, "who calls their mother dude?"

hello from san diego

i'm writing this morning from San Diego. i flew down here yesterday after taking Muni from Steph's place to Embarcadero, then getting on BART to the Oakland coliseum, and then the AirBART shuttle to the airport.... egads, what a journey.

believe it or not, it's pouring rain down here! argh. and, it was so beautiful in the Bay Area over the last few days. do i miss it? i don't know yet...

anyways, i'm here now, and i'm blissfully sitting on my awesome leather couch and watching the Oprah shows that i asked Sasha to save for me from the last few weeks on the DVR. it's like heaven! also, sleeping in my own bed last night was great too. i wanted to lie in there awake for as long as i could just so i could consciously enjoy it.

well, ok, i gotta get back to my couch and my tv... how am i ever going to get any homework done this weekend? eeeek. plus, i'm off to pilates with my Dad soon, so i'd better get ready for that too. write to ya later!

Tuesday

i realized this morning that i didn't write anything yesterday. i guess i just wasn't in the mood or something. anyways, this post will be brief because i am running out the door in a few moments to pick up Manal from the airport. we are going to have lunch at this yummy chinese place near her house! i'm so excited!

if there are no new posts from me for a while, it's because i have a few busy days coming up. tonight i have class from 4-10pm, tomorrow i am starting outreach at skyline and then i have class all afternoon. tomorrow i am also having a girls afternoon with Danielle and Sarah before the CSA meeting... and then i will be getting home again after 10pm. i am expecting this CSA (Counseling Students Association) meeting will be a long one.

on thursday after doing some outreach at city college i am flying down to San Diego. it should be a good weekend, but i'm a little stressed trying to get all organized going into it. maybe once i'm down there i'll make some posts from my cute little apartment in mission valley!

alright, i gotta go drink my green moroccan mint tea and head out the door. have a happy tuesday! or, as my grandmother says, a mazel dickey tuesday.

i actually have been doing some homework tonight

have you ever had the feeling "where am i?" when you look around your familiar surroundings?

that just happened to me. it was weird.

ok, you caught me, i'm procrastinating

well, it's superbowl sunday... i don't have much to say about that. i went to Mike's superbowl party this afternoon, which is something i do every year actually. last year, it was at my house because he was my roommate. this year it was at his new place which was pretty cute. it was a mellow party compared to some of his others over the years.

anyways, the highlight of my day actually was shopping with my aunt Linny. we went to target (yes, my 2nd time in 48 hours i know), pier 1, and after lunch at Atlas Cafe http://www.atlascafe.net/ we went to this cool store i just discovered called sports basement http://www.sportsbasement.com/. i got some great hiking shoes on sale and some north face ski pants for $60! i'm so excited about them. i have to start thinking about when my next ski trip will happen. i know i will be going on a hike on feb. 20th, so i have a couple of weeks to break in my new shoes.

right now i should be doing some homework. the more i can do tonight, the less i have to do tomorrow... obviously. i don't know why i'm trying to do any of it this late at night. i know myself by now, and i work so much more efficiently in the morning. i really should just wake up and do it, however i'm trying to convince myself to just do some now. thank god there is a rerun desperate housewives tonight.

just to recap my saturday before i head off to a different procrastination technique... yesterday i went bridesmaid dress shopping with my friend (one of Monica's main bridesmaids) Amy at the Siri headquarters http://www.siriinc.com/. then in the evening, after having dinner at Jitra with Stephanie, i drove down to Santa Clara to check out some of my friend Danielle's photography that was on display at Barefoot Coffee Roasters http://www.barefootcoffeeroasters.com/. i felt like such a busy bee this weekend!

ok, i'm off to make some phone calls... i mean, do my homework! ;-)

santa cruz adventures

yesterday i went to santa cruz to visit my cousin Amy who is a freshman there. we had an awesome day! not only was the weather practically perfect, but we were also quite productive. after seeing her adorable dorm room and comparing her "hippy" side to her roommate's "pink" side, we ran off to an indian buffet. what could be a better way to start our friday off? then we went into town and ran some errands.

we had a few goals for the day:
1) look for hiking boots for me
2) i needed to stop at kinkos to fax something
3) she needed a tapestry
4) and she wanted to buy a cheap bike so she could cruz around campus... gosh my jokes are getting more and more like my dad's every day ;-)

i know i mentioned above that we were very productive, but we actually only accomplished one thing on our original list... let me explain.

after shopping downtown for a while, seeing way over priced hiking boots (eliminate #1), and getting some fudge and chocolate covered gummy bears (add a #5... everyone needs a treat), we found the perfect little green tapestry (yay #3). then we decided we were going to find a target in a nearby town called watsonville. we went to the santa cruz public library. Amy got a brand new library card (add #6) and we used the public computers there to check out the location and directions for the target. we were on a mission! it was at this point that i realized it was after 2pm and i could not fax this form i had because it was going somewhere on the east coast and it was after 5pm over there already (oops #2).

so, we found the target (add #7) and spent like an hour in there finding all sorts of great stuff that we didn't need! that's what makes target so wonderful. we got some cute little girly yet boyish trendy underwear (#8) Amy got batteries (#9) and we both got hot pots that were on sale for $7.99 (#10)! oh, and don't forget gum (#11). of course in this process we looked at some cheap schwin bicycles. they were all broken! (there goes #4).

instead of our original goals, we were productive in:

5) getting a yummy treat
6) getting Amy a library card
7) finding the nearest target which was in watsonville 15 miles away
8) buying new underwear
9) getting Amy batteries which she had written on her hand but almost forgot anyways
10) acquiring new hot pots for easy tea/soup preparation
and last but not least...
11) getting the ever needed pack of gum

ahhhhhhh! what a day!

we ended our day on campus with a delightful hike through the redwood forest, a stop in the meadow for a santa cruz sunset, and some vegan pizza in the dining hall. oh, and of course we hung the tapestry on the ceiling.

thanks for reading about our adventures! i can't imagine that was at all interesting to anyone but Amy and myself, but i thought i'd share anyways because that's one of the things i do best.


My cousin Amy and Me

still no phone call

so, today is Thursday... the "cool" day to make weekend plans... so i've heard. what does it mean that my weekend is already full? am i super cool or just super dorky and organized? ok, don't answer that.

anyways, today in honor of a conversation that i had with my good friend Marc, i am going to blab about a phenomenon that seemed to entertain us for a while this evening. what is it about attracting people of the opposite sex more when you are in a relationship, and having such a hard time doing it when you are actually single and available? we decided, through some laughter, that when you are with someone you emit a different vibe (or hormone smell, or something) that other people can sense. when a girl is out looking (hunting) for a man, she can almost smell that he is already claimed by another woman (like when a dog pees all over a tree to mark its territory). that smell instantly makes him attractive because if he's been claimed already he must be good.

thoughts on this theory? i think it works both ways maybe. obviously there would be exceptions to the rule, but overall doesn't it seem like when you are single there are just no good options out there, but as soon as you are taken people start popping up?

i think we mainly liked talking about it because of the "being pissed on" analogy... but that could be a whole other post on it's own. i'll save it for another day.

tomorrow i'll be going to santa cruz to visit my cousin Amy. i'm so excited. right now i am going to watch an Oprah show that i taped earlier today. saying "taped" as in VHS, feels a lot like saying "hey listen to this tape" and meaning a cassette tape with music on it. i hate it. i want my DVR back!!! oh, and i'd like my ipod back also... while we are dreaming of technologies once accustomed to.

get some yellow curry in a hurry!

here is some food for thought: http://channels.netscape.com/ns/homerealestate/package.jsp?name=fte/yellowcurry/yellowcurry

Happy February!

today is the first of the month. i always have mini celebrations on the first of the month... not because it's rent day, but because i get excited about starting a fresh month. also, i like turning the page on my calendar.

i had a really great first day of feb actually. school started for me today. i went to my law and ethics class and to my assessment techniques class. my law and ethics professor was also a professor of mine last year... she had given me a bunk grade and i challenged her on it, and she didn't budge. i was not too psyched that i was going to have her again, because i didn't want our past conflicts to effect this entire semester. and, at the beginning of class in front of everyone she says, "Torrey, can you stick around during the break? I want to talk to you." EEEK was i in trouble already? then at the break she says immediately that she looked over her grades from last year and realized that i had been caught in a narrow margin between grades that wasn't fair. she then told me to check my unofficial transcript because she had adjusted my grade.

wait, does that mean that she changed my B to an A? all i could croak out was "thanks" and that i would come to see her in office hours to talk more about it. as soon as i got home i checked my grades online, and wouldn't you know... there was a grade adjustment on there. I GOT STRAIGHT A's NOW! i am a good student, but was never a straight A student.... not since 10th grade at least. and now for both Fall and Spring semesters i have A's across the board. i'm so proud of myself.

other things that made the day happy... i had indian buffet for lunch, the satellite dish started working again on the tv at steph's place, and i talked to marc on the phone! wow... maybe i should quit while i'm ahead and go to sleep soon.

alright... TOBY OUT!