Hello Fall

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Amelia M.

Hello Fall.

You’re officially here.

I’ve seen the signs. The air is crisp and the sidewalks lined with yellow leaves. I look around me and see that never has a population taken sweater weather so seriously. As of now I don’t have to worry about what shirt I’m wearing. I just drape myself in an oversized scarf with an adorable pattern and layer upon layer of sweater. Now that there’s a chill in the air everything I wear is soft, comfy, and overall blanket like.

My friend Emily and I enjoyed the full effect of fall by walking through Memory Grove the other day.

And the food, Fall, you bring such good food. People are normally 70% water, but once October hits I’m pretty sure that statistic changes to 70% pumpkin flavored additive. In fact if someone wanted to take over the country all they’d need to do is drug Starbuck’s pumpkin spice latte supply (Or PSLs as the overplayed commercials like to so affectionately call them). They’d have a thousand zombie-fied millenials and pre teens at their beck and call. But I mean, I get it pumpkin, this is your time to shine. I’m not about to stop you. Even if my preferred beverage is a Carmel Apple spice (I can still make a mean pumpkin chocolate chip cookie).

Fall, you just give the world a lovely shine. Joe Fox gets it: “Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.” Now if I only I could spend part of my Fall in New York… (A girl can dream right?).

Currently: Watching Criminal Minds after a fun game of Bigger or Better (we ended up with a giant framed print of John Lennon and a stuffed animal).

Confessions of a Hoarder in Training

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Amelia M.

Things I found while cleaning out my closets this weekend:

2 computer mouses [mice?]
My cowboy pajama pants
An unopened instruction manual for my Dell Monitor in it’s original plastic seal [circa freshman year]
Yarn from my abandoned knitting hobby [I will pick this back up]
Fabric from an abandoned sewing project [that too]
One notebook almost entirely filled with work notes [from the Internet Safety Project era] and to do lists. Here is a to do list sample that gives you a good idea of my college day to day: finish editing homework [crossed off], work out [not crossed off], make cupcakes and mix frosting colors [crossed off]
A holey sweatshirt my mom begged me to throw away last year [Actually thrown away now, sorry Mom]
50 pages of a novel I started writing [and 2 drafts]
Multiple crumpled Happy Birthday tiaras
That really good bra I thought I’d lost [Trust me, this is a victory]
3 different editing manuals and a baggie of index cards dictating common usage errors [unable to throw away any of this]
All my college apartment rental agreements and rent receipts
My “Save The Cheerleader, Save the World” T-Shirt [I really wish Heroes had turned out differently]

Currently: Sitting at the back of my closet trapped by all the things I said I’d organize tonight

We’ve been on the Run, Driving in the Sun

Posted on September 15, 2013 by Amelia M.

[Day 3:The day where we drive, drive, drive]

The day begins with us bidding farewell to Watsonville’s strawberries, sand dollars, and foggy dunes. And of course, our little beach side home.

We decide to stop in Carmel for lunch. We dutifully follow the signs directing us to beach parking and find ourselves considerably uphill from the actual shoreline. Cute little homes line our beach bound path. When we reach the ocean it’s the foggiest piece of coast yet, giving us the strange illusion we are in a small, relatively little known beach. Sans blanket we are forced to practice our balancing skills to keep our food as sand free as possible. But the more immediate danger are the birds lurking behind us, waiting to swoop for scraps as soon as our backs are turned.

Then we take to the coastal highway.

It does not disappoint.

This might be the Lady in Black island. Just saying.

We wind along, new cliffs and shoreline emerging around every corner, each view perfectly packaged with blue skies and just a touch of mist. Every shoulder and stopping point is full of tourists attempting to take that perfect picture.

Yes, we were amongst those picture taking tourists.

Our first stop is McWay falls. It’s a secluded beach that derives its name from the small waterfall running through its center.

No one can actually go on the beach ( hence the secluded feel despite the cars lined up along the highway full of people looking for the entrance). Everyone admired a view from a walk way nearby that looks down. We meet a couple people from exotic locations along the way.

We keep driving until we are in the heart of the Big Sur. It had been my plan to bring Jack Kerouac’s Big Sur and read it for the first time at the Big Sur, but I didn’t have time to make this happen. So instead I’ll content myself with reading it after as a way to let the trip live on. For our next stop we had planned to stop at Pfeiffer Beach, but we were turned away (due to full parking!) and decided to try Point Lobos instead.

Here we befriend a park ranger who joined us as we watched some harbor seals (Some of these seals actually turned out to be divers, haha), hiked around a little bit, and discovered a haunted whale graveyard.

Sort of. If you count national park endorsed educational exhibits of whale bones as graveyards.

Note: If you’re going to take funny witch pictures in cauldrons you find randomly unattended first check what the cauldrons are used for. You could be standing in something that’s former purpose was cooking whale fat. Ew.

Ann got cooked twice? Also the witch has decided to use a finger gun to accomplish her dastardly plan?

We bid farewell to the Big Sur and went to Monterey for dinner. The Monterey wharf was small, but cute. The place where we had dinner had a tradition where they give roses to everyone after their meal.

The rest goes by in a big blur. We drive back to Oakland, along the way we pass through GarlicVille (Fake name, real place), and listen to every song we have with California in the title. It’s the late hours of the night by the time we turn in our rental car and head to the hotel.

The next morning we sadly board our plane, click our heels, and head home sweet home.