Life 2.1

I mean, there really is no place like home. I should know. I arrived at mine today after not having been there since Christmas. That may not seem like a long time in the grand scheme of kids being away from home but for this kid it sure was a long time!

Since my weekend is jam-packed with events, I did something every no person whose every minute is spoken for should do: I didn’t sleep Wednesday night. This was a mistake for many reasons. Mainly because I like sleep and while I don’t mean to, I turn into someone similar to Maxine the cartoon when I don’t get enough shuteye.

My biting sarcasm index raises exponentially.

Lucky for me, I made up some of the hours on the plane. By the time I awoke, we were making our initial descent into Sacramento, where my dad was picking me up. We headed to lunch then drove home. I surveyed our backyard and saw what could only have been something out of a magazine. Well done, parental units. Pictures will be taken on Sunday at my family dinner.

Thursday afternoon/evening also found me at a freshmen football game. That’s odd outta me, I know. For those of you who don’t know, my brother is the offensive coordinator/QB coach for the wobbleheads (aka the freshmen) and my cousin plays on the team. I love being at that stadium but since I’m going Friday night after the rehearsal dinner, I’ll probably post pictures then.

The blog might be picture-iffic for the next few days…I’m just sayin’.

The game got over at 4 and the rookies won and looked pretty good doing it. (Must be the coaching.) Since it was about dinner time, my dad and mom took Ted (my other brother) and me to Red Rock Cafe for my favorite burger (my brother Joe was scouting an opponent after the game then had film to breakdown so he couldn’t make it to dinner.)

It was a solid first day and night back but it makes me wish my stay was longer!

No Comments | In: Social Adventures | tags: football, home. | #

…I’ve been here for years.” — LL Cool J.

Wise, yet oddly appropriate words. It’s no secret that upon finishing up school, I moved back to Napa from San Diego and started working in the wine business. And now, after a year hiatus, I’m back in it. This time on the sales side and working from The Boot. I’ve only been back in the business for 3 days but hopefully I can pick up where I left off.

I’m still getting back into my groove but I’m feeling pretty positive. I don’t think I can honestly devote a whole post to the new job because I still learning the ropes but there will be more to come.

Also, I have been without internet access for almost a week so my bad for not posting a Get Meaningful Fridays installment.

In other news, I will be returning to California later in the week and I can’t wait for that. I fly in Thursday and will be making a beeline for Taqueria Rosita, which reminds me…my dad told me I could submit a menu of meals that I would like to have upon my return home for consideration. I should get on that.

It will probably include the following:

Taqueria, Lawler’s (because I love me some ravioli and malfatti), Red Rock burgers…and my mom and dad are having the family over one of the nights and it goes without saying that we will have butter and garlic marinated tri-tip, which is kinda making me drool a little, not gonna lie.

This tri-tip is so good that one time during Christmas break, I returned from college and worked at an insurance office where I had worked over the previous summer and at the end of the holiday, my boss gave me gift certificates to Browns Valley Market (a small, specialty mom-and-pop market) where the aforementioned trip-tip is sold. The day before I packed my car to return to San Diego for school, I went an purchased 5 butter and garlic tri-tips and froze them. Prior to my departure, I packed them on ice in my cooler and hauled them back to San Diego, kept them frozen and had one a couple weeks later for my 21st birthday. It was awesome.

If I remember correctly, I also froze one once, packed it on ice in my carry-on and took it on the hour flight back to SD before. I imagine that the person scanning my carry-on at the security line was slightly alarmed but never did anything. The tri-tips are that good.

But along with that tri-tip also comes getting to see my whole family. We’re talking aunts, uncles and cousins here, people. I’m very excited at this prospect because I haven’t seen all of us together since Christmas Eve and even then I don’t think we were all there. I plan on taking lots of pictures. Including one giant cousins picture, so when I say I have a lot of cousins I have pictorial evidence to back me up.

Expect pictures soon.

4 Comments | In: Delicious-flavored foods, Life in the boot-shaped state, Social Adventures | tags: family, menu planning, Napa, Napa restaurants, tri-tip, wine. | #

I have spent a good portion of my spare time over the past couple weeks looking for a new place to live. My lease is up soon and since we all know how I feel about my current apartment (that is, I do NOT ♥ it) so I have been looking around for a place to live. I’m thinking about moving into a small single-family home but apparently shotgun houses* are the thing in New Orleans. Bah. And they have no closet space because apparently property tax or some damn thing used to be assessed based on closet space. I mean, I guess I see the rationale here. Obvi if you have a need for more closet space, it’s because you have more clothes and clearly having a lot of clothes back in the day makes you rich. I mean, I get it. But today? Not so helpful.

I have scoured craigslist and nola.com for possible rentals, toured houses that smell like feet and come to the realization that people on craigslist are very good at taking pictures to make the house look really good when in actuality it’s in a crappy neighborhood. What will probably end up happening is me moving apartments, which isn’t bad. In fact, it’s probably the responsible thing to do because it will most likely be a bit cheaper and I would be saving money.

It’s just frustrating. And stressful. And I’m starting a new job Thursday. Did I mention that? Yea, the other job…the one I moved more than halfway across the country to take, commonly referred to as my “dream job”? Yea. Not so much. I’d be happy to share the long version of the story with anyone who asks but it will require a few many adult beverages so be prepared. Fair warning.

But I’m excited at the prospect of starting anew and having some autonomy when it comes to my accounts so I’m hoping things will work out and I will start to feel a bit more settled. Of course, having a house/place to live set up would also probably help that feeling.

More to come on that front, I’m sure….

*Shotgun houses consist of three to five rooms in a row with no hallways. The term “shotgun house,” which was in use by 1903 but became more common after about 1940, is often said to come from the saying that one could fire a shotgun through the front door and the pellets would fly cleanly through the house and out the back door (since all the doors are on the same side of the house).– thank you Wikipedia.*

2 Comments | In: Life in the boot-shaped state | tags: houses, rentals, shotgun house. | #

• Scented candles
• Adobe CS3
• Rainy days that lead to rainy nights and therefore a whole night of scrapbooking
• The song (below) which I happened to hear last week, which seemed timely

Caitlin & Will – Address in the Stars

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1 Comment | In: Get Meaningful Fridays | tags: Get Meaningful Fridays. | #

I am a sports fan. It’s no secret that I ♥ baseball and football. But, after watching a day of volleyball, I think I just like sports because of the competitive feeling that goes along with them because by the end of the day, I was just as engrossed in the volleyball matches and I would be for any football or baseball game.

I spent my Saturday in Baton Rouge on the campus of LSU covering volleyball and I gotta admit, I was nervous because I don’t know volleyball. I wasn’t even sure when points where scored and I learned prior to going that no one says ‘bump’…it’s a pass. I had a big job ahead of me.

So I enlisted the help of someone who would know and save me from using poor terminology in my story–a former volleyball player who was planning on going to the match to watch her old teammates anyway.

And thank goodness she came! I learned a lot. I learned that ‘sideout’ is something you can yell when you want to get the ball back to serve. I learned that a ‘free ball’ is essentially like a Hail Mary in football, when the other team is scrambling to hit it over and not using any kind of technical maneuver to get it over but just in ‘hurry up mode’ thus allowing the receiving team to collect themselves and put pressure on their return. I learned that 8th grade PE volleyball totally messes you up by teaching you the wrong rules. The ball can touch the net on a serve, as long as it goes over and either team can get a point, not just when you’re the serving team…but I also learned that I like competition. A lot.

By the end of the day, I was behind our bench fist-pumping, yelling proper terminology and feeling the excitement of getting that big point. It.was.awesome.

We were playing LSU in the evening match and the third set was close. It was 17-16 at one point and we were up. The teams had some awesome rallies going and there was the rush that I have only experienced in football and baseball (and basketball) when you are totally engaged in the game before you. It’s the adrenaline rush that you feel when you’re totally in the zone, at the ready for whatever you opponent is throwing at you. There are no nerves, just a heightened sense of readiness. And it’s fabulous.

We ended up dropping the third set and losing but it made me realize just how much I thrive off of competition. It was disappointing to lose, when all that adrenaline is rushing out of you but it made me realize why sports are so enjoyable to me. And I like that this is a new sport for which I have an appreciation.

I love me some good athletic competition, but…that probably surprises no one.

2 Comments | In: Sports, because, have you met me? | tags: competition, volleyball. | #