so emo?

That's what I think when I look at my new blog design, so emo.  But yet, maybe appropriate for these times in my life.  Time to move on again.  So I guess I feel windswept, with a light sprinkling of snow and rain.  Gray and blue and dramatic (but the red text in my design I am not liking or feeling at all).  I love it when people ask, "where to?"  The answer to that is unknown right now.  Thank goodness for good friends and comfy couches to crash upon.

I was looking at the date today, and in the deep recesses of my brain, I recognize it as an important day.  It finally bubbled to the surface that my one and only niece is turning 6 today!  It doesn't seem like she can be that old!  But she is so fantastic and lovely and loves all things pink and girly.  She's a constant source of entertainment and with her strong will, seems like she's giving her parents a run for their money.  I love it!  I am excited to see my favorite 6 year old soon!

I spent the weekend in Monterey (well, more like Marina) and Santa Cruz.  It was really great to be by the ocean again.  I stayed with my Crater Lake roommate in her super cute, sunny apartment.  One of the highlights was biking the Monterey Coast Trail.  This trail used to be the railroad, and run along the ocean.  We got to ride by several state parks and the vegetation these days is a lovely green, orange, purple, yellow.  So beautiful.  We didn't bike the whole thing but biked 10 miles to Monterey (Cannery Row) and back.  We stopped at Fisherman's Wharf to eat some snacks, to find kettle corn (unsuccessful) to enjoy the sunshine, and when we went to unlock our bikes, we found that my combo lock would NOT work.  It would NOT open.  Gah.  So there we are, bikes locked, no way to get back, no one to come save us.  Enter Monterey police and bolt cutters.  He believed that the bikes were ours but we still had to give him our names and IDs incase the bikes ended up stolen,  Thankfully we don't have to worry about that.  They're really ours ("you can check, our DNA is on the bikes and the helmets" -Kari)!  So we made it back.  I had never ridden a bike 20 miles before so no I can check that off the list!

Next up was my couch-crashing friend Matt's family dinner, followed by drink at The Red Room in Santa Cruz.  I have not been to a bar in a college town on a Saturday night for some time.  It was good to catch up and the people watching was even better.  Can I just say, I'm glad I'm not in college anymore?! 

All in all (in all) great trip!  I should be applying for jobs, or packing, but obviously procrastinating in any way possible is winning right now.  I bet if I looked back in the blog 3 years ago, I would be doing the same thing: job searching, moving, procrastinating.  I'm working on a change.  I realize that I need it.

If you're reading, thanks for reading.  And who thought blogging was dead?!