homeless adventure part hamsa: good thing we brought our camping gear

sorry this has been so long coming; the [lack of] internet that we had (via brians phone acting as a hotspot) made it virtually impossible for me to upload pictures so i waited until we got back to utah.  we have been here for almost 3 weeks now, and we still have no real internet.  and no pictures.

but i sally forth.  the last weeks of being in california were a little crazy.  there was so much that we wanted to do but just didnt have a chance to get to.  but we managed to see some friends who had moved out there (permanently, sooo jealous), brian got to ride his freeboard through the city (with a bunch of dudes who were high), we went to an A's game with our ward (i wanted to wear my giants shirt but opted to stay alive instead), we went on a double date (with my fabulous new friend Jac who i left in sf and miss!), got invited to dinner by a cool younger couple in our ward (make that TWO friends i made in the bay!), and even managed to go to a wedding the day before we left (one of brians childhood friends).  there probably is alot more, but law school has already scrambled my brains.

as we were packing, we were faced with the dilemma of how we were going to get everything home again.  you see, we had accumulated a few things [ahem, brian bought 4 rims] and didnt know how it was all going to fit back into our two little cars.  i pointed out that the camping stuff that we had been determined to use hadnt been used at all.   great.  oh, nevermind, we had used the camping grill once before it broke and was now in the dumpster.  ha.  good thing we brought it huh?

the weekend before we were to move back to utah, we decided to justify the camping gear we toted across the barren wasteland that is nevada and was going to be hell to pack back.  so we went to yosemite.  it was only for one night, and we wish we had stayed longer, but it was tons of fun.  we went into the valley, went to the base of one of the falls, and the next morning went on a hike and swam in a mountain lake.  talk about a stellar ending to the summer.  brian just about peed his pants that night, thinking there was a bear near our tent, but i think he loved it too.

he apparently like it so much that he wanted to duplicate the experience on the way out of california.  instead of staying in a hotel (which he swears is a good thing because all the reviews on yelp indicated we were destined to get an STD, bed bugs, and some terminal disease from dirty sheets if we stayed in any hotels between Reno and Elko), we drove 30 miles off the freeway and camped in a remote [but free] campsite outside of battle mountain.  as we drove in at 1 am, i hoped noone was there to be woken up.  when we pulled in and noone was there, i wished there were other people around to make sure we emerged from our tent alive in the morning.

too bad, we were alive in the morning, and we did make it back to utah in one piece. well two pieces, since we were in two cars.  and i can tell you God hears prayers, because besides some minor overheating issues at the beginning of the trip which brian fixed, and some weather stripping that decided it would rather strip than weather the last 30 miles into SLC, we had no car problems during the drive like i asked.  but i tell you, sometimes be less specific, because the next day, both our cars fell apart.

justonemoreyear, justonemoreyear, justonemoreyear.....

homeless adventure part a'rbaa: the giant potty

ok so the title really doesnt mean an enormous toilet.  ill explain in a minute.

first of all, we have no internet, which is why i havent posted earlier.  i keep saying im going to go to the library and use the internet there, but i havent.  my schedule is this: go to work, come home, change and go to the gym, make dinner, watch part of a movie, then go to bed.  thats it.  it doesnt sound super busy, but it seriously is.  its nuts.  busiest summer ever.  BUT its been two months since i posted last so its time for an update photo-style.

my ghetto food processor 

brian is a goofball

We finally got settled by buying some things like a 5$ set of silverware and 5$ glasses from Ikea.  we also had the good fortune of having some members of our ward donate some furniture to us for the summer, like the chairs above.  still sparsely furnished, but its something!

this is our town, San Leandro

Downtown Oakland, where I work

Oyster Bay, the airport is in the distance

So thats the scene we live.  i bart into oakland everyday. we drive around town every day.  oyster bay is where san leandro meets the bay.  neato. 

Point Reyes

Point Reyes by the lighthouse

HOLY windy

 we like to go on adventures, like to point reyes and on pretty drives that always make we want to barf.  this day i was good. on the way there at least.  after this picture, i turned green.  

brian is scared of goats

brian is also scared of pictures

i love G-raff-eeeeeeeeeees!

driving into the city 

the golden gate from the bay bridge

the golden gate from the lookout point

the sweet tagging next to the golden gate lookout

on memorial day, we went to the zoo and to the golden gate bridge.  brian likes to take pictures.  he took pictures of the bridge. i did too. but mine are uglier.  

Lets go Giants!

we had great seats

so happy to see the giants play!

coach boch

sweet stadium

...street lights, people...

we LOVE the giants and were super stoked to be able to see them play. we have  gone twice now.  hence the "giant" in the post title...

classic.

BFFLFE

did i say classic already?

aw!

I also went to Everett for Danielle's wedding.  i stayed with lisa and laughed way too much.  but thats what you are supposed to do with best friends right?  thats what i thought.  brian stayed home and his bro came out to chill with him.

to finished the explanation of the post title, we went to see Harry Potter 7.2 last night at midnight.  AMAZING.  the audience sucked but the movie was good and it was way fun to do a midnight showing, since its been years since ive done one.  

anyways.  now you know, we are still alive.  though without the internet, you might question my definition of "living." 

homeless adventure part talatta: born again

we are no longer homeless!  so yesterday we left our first home, which looked like this:

and now are at our new home, which looks like this:

except for our air mattress, we have no furniture haha.  grandmas lent us a table and chairs, but they are still in my car.  

today we went to our new ward, which was super friendly and alot smaller than our last one.  the lesson in sunday school was about the rich man who asked Christ what else he could do to follow him.  Christ answered-give up all you have and come follow me. people in class were talking about giving up all your material things (which is only one part of that parable, right?) so i mentioned how having only one pot and one pan has made me realize we could give up all we have in our storage unit, and giving up everything isnt a big leap from where we are right now hahaha.  oh man.  

speaking of church, and being mormon and such, the manager, who is an elderly man, noticed that my phone number was 6666.  he asked me if i was christian and i answered yes.  Oh! are you a real born again or just christian in name?  oh, actually im mormon!  oh uh well about the deposit... haha lets just say he went from excited to really awkward really fast.  then when we came with the deposit, he grumbled about how if he had known sooner that we would only stay for 3 months he probably wouldnt have rented to us (he knew the whole time), that it was a renters market and he probably was too eager to rent the apartment out, blah blah blah.  anything to do with the fact that he now knew that we were mormon? hmm.  oh, and did i mention that TWICE he made us go on a journey to get cash or a money order when he told us we could use a check initially?  yes.  im just glad he didnt totally decided we werent worth it.  

anyways, later today we are goin to ride bart, so i have some idea what the heck i am doin when i start my internship tomorrow, and so i dont get lost on my first day.  that would suck.  

YAY FOR HAVING A PLACE TO LIVE!!  but if you want to come visit me, bring your own bed.

homeless adventure part it'nane: the epad

so. we made it to california in one piece!  well, technically two pieces since we drove two cars.  holy crap, driving through nevada is SO boring.  this time, we stopped in reno for the night, which we have never done before, and it was a nice way to break up the trip.  we stayed in a butt cheap casino hotel that turned out to look pretty nice actually.  if they were planning on ripping us off by gambling, HA.  not happening.

who knew that reno would be the place where brian proclaimed a desire to bond with people??  the 49ers drafted a guy from UNR and brian, while waiting for our food to come to the table, said "i feel like bonding with all these people!  we have something in common!"  weird.  brian doesnt usually want to bond with anything, especially people haha. we also stopped in vacaville and walked around the outlets for a little bit, and let brians car cool down.  it was fine, but the turbo (im guessing here, i really dont know what im talking about) makes the engine run hotter so there is an additional intercooler needed to cool the engine down.  but after driving for a few hours, it still gets pretty hot.  i think.  actually, it was like 90* in vacaville so we needed a cool down too thanks to neither of our cars having A/C.  whoever thought that was a good idea needs to be shot.

so we made it to grandmas house safely.  first thing, we got into her pool and cleaned it for her.  ahhhh i have many a memory of jumping into a pool right after arriving at a grandmas house. classic.  yesterday we spent driving around the ENTIRE bay with the exception of the city, which we almost accidentally visited.  what were we doin? oh, looking for a place to live.  it really doesnt help when people never call or email you back. so lame.  so we drove around forever, visited several sj sharks stores, and saw way too much of the bay in one day.  today grandma and i went to the farmers market, then we will take her to lunch at her fav chinese place, then we will go on another housing hunt. yay.  i hope you hear the sarcasm in that.

do you guys have grandmas in law that you intrude on?  i dunno, grandma is great, and this is the second time she has let us stay with her for a few days.  its clear she is a little lonely because she constantly tells us about random things, but she is a great tour guide and tells you all about the street you are on and how a girl died on it (thanks for that nice bit, grandma haha), and she could tell you (and will tell you) the summary of every book she ever wrote.  but its still awkward!  i dunno how much i should just nod and agree, or if i should interject (cuz she seems to just talk over that anyways haha), or if i should look at brian for help when im feeling awkward.  he is so good with her though.  super patient, and kind, and accommodating.  i love him more just watching him treat his grandma with such love.  anyways, im sure she likes the company, and she always has questions about the computer or her new epad (she means ipad but it cracks brian up to hear he say epad constantly) or how to use the tv guide (she has 1000 channels and just uses the guide that comes with the paper, not the one on the tv for dish network).  she is so kind to let us stay here, but im eager to get out of her hair.  hopefully something this afternoon will work out!

homeless adventure part wahid

so my second year of law school has finally ended.  and im pretty sure i remember none of the stuff i studied so hard for finals.  not that ive had a chance to lazy around that much.  why you ask?  ive had two weeks of summer, essentially, so why havent i had a chance to let the wax build up in my brain??

because yesterday we moved.  yup, packed up all our belongings.  and today we are driving to california.  hallelujah.  no, we are not taking all of our stuff.  most of it is sitting in resplendent glory in a storage unit.  the only things we are taking with us are the essentials.  by that, i just mean the crap we could fit into two tiny 2-door cars.

yesterday, we had a home.  today, we are homeless.  we still have NO idea where we are going to live in ca.  all we know is that my internship is in oakland and we dont want to live in oakland.  im hoping-praying-crossing my fingers-determined to live in an extended stay hotel instead of an apartment.  why you ask? because i want furniture.  and no bed of mine fits in a 2 door honda.  not to mention i spent two weeks trying to find apts and of course nothing is furnished (what married couple DOESNT have their own furniture??) and  the hassle/stress of finding cheapo furniture that we can leave there is not worth it to me.  no way.  give me an extended stay. and that way we dont have to pay additional utilities either!

so, what are my ultimate thoughts on this homeless adventure we are about to have? well, up until about 2 weeks ago, i was really excited. then i was stressed.  now im terrified. oh, im sure it will be TONS of fun.  but the unsurety of it all freaks me out.  yes i am a planner, yes i like to know where the crap im going to be living for the immediate 4 months.  (actually, we are homeless when we come back to UT too at the moment, but thats a whole other stressball) yes, id like to think we arnte going to be sleeping in our car or in some equally embarrassing situation that i hope my supervisor doesnt find out about. but oh well. we didnt bring the TV, we DID bring camping gear and our freeboards and swimsuits, and im stoked to have a homework free summer with my honey.

i have already dubbed this summer the homeless adventure, and im sure this will be the kind of epic story that brian and i will look back at when our ADD crazed children are running around screaming like wild animals and think, "lets go on another homeless adventure and leave these hooligans in storage."  just kidding.  we would leave them at home...and lock their grandparents in with them. :)

lets hope this doesnt become our new neighborhood...

mad marchness

where did the time go?!  i just barely went to DC like last week, right? how the crap has it been like 2 months?!  this semester has flown by and probably due to a couple things...

at the beginning of march, brian and i went to san francisco for interviews for the summer.  i only had one and he had none set up when we left so we were kind of gambling.  we stayed with grandma hulme and spent the first few days running around getting interviews done and driving all over tarnation. then we spent saturday playing...i even got to see a childhood friend Eileener!

it was great because i got my internship-yay!  ill be at the Alameda County District Attorneys office in downtown Oakland.  but it was super stressful because brian had no interviews schedule and we had no idea what we were going to do if we didnt get internships.  we are still waiting to hear back for brian but pray for us!  because i got mine, we are for sure going to sf for the summer!  yay!

at the END of march, i went to vegas for danielles bachellorette party!  it was just what i needed-some time away from school with my best friends.  i hadnt seen either of them since my wedding two years ago-i cannot believe it has been that long!  whenever we see eachother its like not time has passed since 6th grade when we spent all day together.  some other girls were there too-julia, crystal, and kendall-who were AWESOME.  its easy to see why danielle is good friends with them.

anyways, as the only mormon, i spent the weekend being the only sober one as well, which is not something i would do with just anyone, so the fact that i did it shows how much i love these girls.  and it was fun-the room was awesome, we ate some great food, and we spent a ton of time dressed up [weird] and giggling like always.

oh and somewhere between the two trips, i ran for trial advocacy president.  i was coerced into doing it by eli and jeff-they took advantage of me in a strange city at 3 am in a hotel room [read that: i must have been delirious during this conversation and im going to blame this on them].  how could i say no? so i mounted a campaign of cupcakes.  funfetti cupcakes to be exact, frosted with lime green buttercream frosting at my carrel, and topped with hot pink sprinkles.  screaming alex.  so i cupcaked the place up and won my election.  so now i get to be in charge!  oh how scary that is to me.  im super afraid im gonna mess up and be a flaky president like the last couple have been.

and today was the last day of classes for me.  so not including my 3 finals, im done with my 2L year.  my first day of orientation was like, last week!   how could i be a 3L in a few weeks?!  gah.  i dont understand how im going to make it in the real world-i dont have any sweet skills!  ultra freaked out.  in the mean time, im gonna miss my 3L friends who graduate in 2 weeks... :(

some pics for your enjoyment!

Gold Gate bridge

 monterey aquarium-me touching starfish, brian touching bat ray, 

me happy with otters, me happy with my squishies.

me and eileener at the sharks game

best friends-lisa just cant control herself

 out to dinner at margaritaville-we had a GREAT view off the deck

 danielle got a little drunk the first night.  and then she got lots of presents.

outside of bellagio fountain.  our sexy shoes the second night. mine are the blue ones :)

 the morning after.  danielle cant keep her eyes open. lisa looks like an avatar.

taking the capital by storm

last week i went to washington dc.  it was supposed to be for a trial ad competition, but we all know it was an all expense paid vacation. i went with some of the coolest kids in the school, and im fairly certain we never stopped laughing.  highlights:

theme of the trip: bacon

told the entire plane to DC things about me that no one should know.  i thought i was keeping my voice down.
passed around a box of chocolates.  flavors-disgusting. flavor finder-incomprehensible.

rented a minivan that felt like an aquarium inside.

2 law students locked 4 more law students in a mini van.  could not escape.

had a panic attack when the window rolled down but couldnt figure out how to roll it back up

figured out the back seat of a mini van is called the "way back"

listened to jeff snore
im apparently a high maintanence eater.  who knew?

watched jeff cut his velociraptor toenails.  youre welcome, roxy.

discovered that jordan is the most responsible of all of us

feared that joseph's wife would have her baby.  well, we feared. he didnt.

got less than 4 hours of sleep every night

listened to eli tell crazy stories, of which he has a plethora

met up with my cousin and aunt.  made said cousin sit through 2 rounds of boring trial ad

bickered with some catholics

went to a great restaurant.  great restaurant downgraded to ok restaurant when the 50$/plate bill came...

aunt paid for my dinner :)

changed our eating schedule to 9 am, 2 pm, and 11 pm 

did a picture scavenger hunt

broke my camera while taking a pic for some asian tourists

had an allergic reaction.  to hot chocolate or jefferson's memorial.  which, i dont know.

ate seafood, halal kabobs, schawarma, brazilian churrasco, cheesecake, among other stuff.

wiggled squid tentacles in josephs face

went through a body scanner

caused a security crisis with manderin oranges

got some free girl-on-girl action with a TSA pat down

gave the rest of my friends some free girl-on-girl entertainment courtesy of the TSA pat down

tested positive for explosives

got another massage courtesy of TSA

envied jordans 1st class upgrades

after telling the old lady taking our tickets that eli didnt want to sit with us, she replied "well eli dont have a choice." 

taking a nap on the plane to discover noone was in the same seats upon waking up.

standing groggily on the curb, avoiding looking at each other, waiting for rides 

oh yeah, there WAS a competition that we participated in.  Eli, Jeff, and I went to quarterfinals and Mary Beth, Joseph, and Jordan went to semifinals. go us.

here are some pics from the adventure:

the official trial ad traveling teams pic

the official we-are-sight-seeing-on-the-schools-dime pic

the good mormon wife

i have been in utah for a while now, thanks to my being in college here, and i still refuse to say i "live" here.  this is not my domicile, thank you very much. this is due to many things, but first and foremost, the fact that utah mormons are weird.  i should know.  ive been mormon all my life, and lived here both as a child and as an adult.  

now, when i say this, i dont mean they are weird in that they teach different things.  not at all, the mormon church is the same where ever you go.  but the differences are more subtle, like their attitudes about certain things or ideas.  many people would disagree, but i think its true. even predominant themes in the church are taken to huge extremes here.  

case in point: as mormons, we really value the family and most women choose to be stay at home moms, at least for part of their lives.  but nowhere is there any sort of teaching that forbids working women/mothers-rather, that is a decision left to the individual and the family.

however, a few weeks ago we had stake conference, a sort of district church meeting, where this doctrine was totally skewed.  this is what was said:  "a woman who has a million degrees but no children or family at the end of her life has nothing compared to the woman who can take pride in raising 5, 6, 7, 8 children." the guy speaking piqued my interest with his comments, but i tried to wait before being insulted for any sort of balancing remark such as "this applies to anyone who puts careers ahead of family" or "i say women because i was just speaking about mothers" but nothing like that came.  it made no sense in the context, but i thought maybe he was just unprepared so it came out weird.  

either way though, it was insulting!  why, you might ask? because not only is an education important for women, the statement doesnt take into consideration the women who cant have children or who dont find the guy for them, and who doesnt want to sit at home doing nothing for their entire life. not to mention, everyone knows that earthly wealth isnt gonna  chill with you in heaven, and we believe the only things you are gonna be able to keep past this life in family and knowledge.  so explain to me again, how a woman with a degree(s) is screwed?  

these are the kinds of comments frequently made about mormon women, by mormon men and women alike, in utah. but ive never heard such awful interpretations anywhere else.  when i was in middle school in wa, noone there ever insinuated that women shouldnt go to college, and i certainly never heard the sentiment that women should only stay home and have babies in ca.  it is so frustrating, to feel like people admire your desire to go to law school, but oh you arent gonna work afterwards right, cuz you have been married to two years already and in 2 more years you should definitely be working on babies.

no, actually.

im gonna work.

AND have babies. 

you judge me, and ill punch you.

kidding. maybe.