Life 2.1

I know I haven’t kept up very well but that’s ok because it means business is good!

• The Danny Gokey concert at the Napa Towne & Country Fair last night. The dude is an amazing live performer.
• summer berries
• my first funnel cake!

This was painted outside a shcool school in North Carolina. Here’s hoping the painter didn’t forgo English class in favor of work study prior to taking on this job.

Since August is shaping up to be quite the month, I figured I should do a quick recap of the last 2 weeks in July before I’m behind even more than right now.

I suppose it goes without saying that living back in Napa almost brought my New Orleans-style social life to  screeching halt…until I started going to Chef’s Market with MTG, which is how I met my a good portion of the people with whom I have been spending my time.

It took me 27 years, but I suppose I have a pretty solid crew of adult friends now, as opposed to the multiple circles of friends I’ve always had (and still have!). I mean, I’m pretty sure that if the Tom Foolery was still open, we would totally have a team for beach volleyball and adult beverages on a Friday night. Since the sand volleyball courts are riverside, and therefore flood often, we have a team that rules at Washers and Ladder Golf instead.

We do some pretty fun stuff together, like celebrate the birthday of My Buddy (as G will now and forever be known).

The 30th was spent (mostly) in MTG’s backyard, where we BBQ-ed, played Ladder Golf and participated in shenanigans, as evidenced by the below:

The first time I had seen KK in literally months

This is ladder golf

Love these girls!

Lisa & me. I'm pretty sure that, together, we can move mountains.

Me & the Birthday Boy

We kept My Buddy’s birthday festivities going with a trip to the Rivercats game a few days later, with MTG and Matt accompanying us to watch the A’s prospects. We got helmet sundaes, which is always a good choice and had great seats that we only cost us a grand total of $26 (I ♥ minor league games!) We got to see A’s top prospects Chris Carter and Michael Taylor and Carter, I was just informed, will be making his MLB debut tonight, so that wasn’t all bad.

It's an ice cream bowl, it's a helmet AND hours of entertainment

My USF sweatshirt was as close to A's colors as I was getting

The Rivercats game was a lot of fun and I hope we go back again this season (that is a hint, Buddy)

Later in the week, we all got together for the last Chef’s Market of the season and decided that it was only appropriate to take photos of the last of our weekly outings to downtown Napa. These were the results that came from photos taken from our prime people-watching spot that is the lamp post in front of what used to be the First Squeeze Cafe:

MTG, Matt-don't-move-to-Bend-Mohorovich, Morgan and G, who looks less-than-thrilled that I'm taking this picture

Yep, I am pretty convinced that Morgan could look adorably fashionable in a burlap sack

MTG and G

My TFE girls

Generally-speaking, I’m thankful I didn’t have to slow my roll now that I’m back living on the west coast and I’m extra thankful for the posse that rolls with me.

KK kinda reminded me that I have a blog the other day and that it hadn’t been updated in ages. Point taken, KK.

For that reason, let’s do a recap of the 4th of July, shall we? Because I gotta be honest, probably the best one I’ve ever had. Typically, the 4th is always fun, but this particular year, I really enjoyed myself.

Big Metal came to visit from North Carolina and we kicked off the weekend in style by stopping at not just one outlet mall, but two outlet malls. We promptly followed this up with naps. The evening found us at Taqueria Rosita (for anyone that knows me even a little bit, this probably shocks you not at all). We met up with some of my friends and we bar-hopped, or as close to bar-hopping as one can do in Napa, and followed it up with a solid movie night.

Then the 4th fun began. I would have began a pictorial recap at this point but apparently my camera decided to go rogue and change settings by itself so all my 4th pics came out blurry. So you’re all stuck with the story. We went swimming and bbq-ed at the aforementioned friend’s house and followed that up with fireworks on the lawn at my previous place of employment. We brought games and all the items to make ice cream sundaes, because, I happen to think that ice cream is a fabulous way to celebrate this country’s independence.

The owner of the winery of my previous place of employment put on one helluva sparkler show that came complete with a finale they drew our applause, it was that solid. And the fireworks themselves were awesome, since we were literally sprawled out on the lawn and they were shot off overhead.

Post-fireworks, we all headed back to Command Central/Morgan’s house. (Morgan, by the way, gets my sincerest gratitude for letting me crash at her place while she was out of town and get back to my independent roots, if only for a few days.) We all enjoyed the sequel to the movie we had watched the night before (Boondock Saints I and II) and in a shocking turn of events, the first was way better than the sequel.

Monday was spent being lazy, which I can get on board with on a holiday, but Big Metal and I did rally enough to go stroll around downtown St. Helena and look at all the expensive things we could buy for the same price as a down payment on a Ford Focus.

My camera began behaving again Monday afternoon and she and I got a chance to do the whole Napa Valely tourist thing by pulling over to take pictures of ourselves next to vineyards. **Note that I said ‘pull over’. As in, I’m happy you’re visiting my valley but we have lots of wineries and vineyards so please be kind to the people sharing the road with you and pull over when admiring them, as opposed to crawling past them at a snail’s pace. Thank you.

We are soNapa Valley

Yep we ARE patriotic

We followed up the trip around the Valley with a BBQ at the roommate’s house, where the food’s free and the rent’s cheap.

It was a super busy weekend and as far as I’m concerned, Big Metal didn’t stay nearly long enough, but I’m glad she was able to keep our new 4th of July tradition of hanging out together despite that whole 3,000-mile difference thing.

I will have to make time to do another post about how I joined a slow-pitch softball team soon. And yes, it is as funny a story as it sounds, you are correct.

• Laughing so hard last night with my high school friends who I haven’t seen in forever. We need to do better guys, seriously.
• Shopping with the aforementioned friends on my day off. I miss having someone “peer pressure” me into buying something
• The College World Series and the TV coverage that leads to Omaha