December Staycation: Day One

Let me tell you a little something about the OSF: He is a list-maker.

He loves him some lists. 

Also schedules.

And so, when presented with four whole days to fill for our staycation, he took out a single sheet of lined paper and made a schedule of our weekend.

Everything from addresses to exact times to notes about what to do while at each place. 

I like that OSF. :)

Well, as you'll no doubt read on his blog, the Mexican lunch we had was not up to par. However, the place had excellent light, and I got this great picture...

... which he and Sarah feel is his, "I'm about to go out and kill someone" look. But I think it's cute. Any outside comments? Is this serial killer or hot guy headshot?

This is an Indian.

We roamed around for awhile, ducking into the little stores of little knick knacks (and Beanie Babies!) until five o'clock began to creep up on us. As anyone who's ever visited Julian knows, the town closes at five. As in, you can't even pump gas past five. 

Famous Julian Pie was on our list, so we ducked into the Famous Julian Pie place for a slice. I had the cherry apple with a scoop of vanilla that was really good. Chris got some cider that he loved, but he wasn't so much

of the pie.

 

Oh, snap!

December just does not give me enough time to sit down and write about what I've been doing. Bad, December! Bad, for being so busy and hectic for the first half of this month!

But today is my first official day of holiday vacation. To celebrate, the OSF and I went to lunch at Olive Garden, ran some errands, and are now sitting at our respective computers, editing our respective pictures, and finally updating our respective blogs. 

And since I'm not quite done with the photos from our fun mini-vacation last weekend, here's the pictures of the day that came before the weekend:

#336: A polar bear cookie from Starbucks. Brittany's teacher at work, Dave, has been winning big at Barona lately and, generous guy that he is, has been treating us to Starbucks, Little Caesars, and even the Filipino place nearby. And one day he brought back these adorable cookies along with our hot cocoas.

#337: Reason #68 to love the OSF: He has his own hot glue gun. He also really likes cardboard. Since his Secret Santa gift for work didn't arrive in time, he created his own replica DVD to give to his co-worker to hold her over until the actual DVD arrived. Who thinks of something like that? The OSF, that's who!

#338: I got to go meet Chris' co-workers for their awesome Christmas party two Fridays ago. They had it at the Stone Brewery, with a tour of the factory and everything. The tour guy was funny, and even took us into the warehouse freezer. After the tour, we had appetizers outside in this cute little lounge area, and then back upstairs for our three course dinner (yeah, salmon). 

It was pretty dark the whole time we were outside, so my only picture is of Chris at the dinner table (in his cute vest!).

#340: The White Demon strikes again! The car window decided to give up altogether the week before we had that torrential storm, so the OSF spent some time using cardboard and wires to keep the window up. Despite his valiant efforts, the window still slid down again the next day, so now I'm one of those people who drive around with a taped up window. Oh, well. I did grow up in East County after all.

#341: Kristen, with Cuddles the Dog, at one of our TV Mondays. This was the night that no new shows were on and we began watching Love Actually. Also, I was yelled at for being on my laptop during our movie time. I didn't care though; I successfully emptied the 200+ emails in my inbox. Check that off my to-do list!

Late nights at school

So, it's 5:05p.m., and for the last hour I've watched the sun slowly sink further and further away from the window. Until now, when the pitch blackness has officially settled in. I'm still here at the good ol' classroom, having no means of up and leaving whenever I want, due to the White Demon's disregard for my feelings. It refused to start up last night, so I'm depending upon the kindness of strangers (read: the OSF) to shuttle me around. Currently, I'm waiting for the OSF to get off work himself to come get me. I've kind of forgotten those long lost days of being fifteen and being stuck places until my mom decided to stop watching afternoon television and come and get me. (Oh, you know that's how it went down, Mom. Don't even deny it.)

Since I've been here since the classroom opened this morning, I have gotten A LOT of work done. All my grading for November is now entered into the system, and I've all Bio, Math, and electives that have been turned in since Monday. Yay me! I also managed a couple hours of tutoring, and now I've pretty much settled down with Farewell to Manzanar to finish out the wait. I've justified reading during my work time with the claim that my tenth graders have to read it, so I should at least know what they're talking about for the four lessons that cover the book. I read their short stories for the same reason. And all of this reading because I want to just reminds me that, man, I was a great high school kid.

And now this high schooler's headed back to her desk to finish reading chapter two. Peace out, girl scouts.

And please pray the White Demon feels better soon!

How I combat seasonal depression disorder:

That's right, December. Hot pink nail polish. What now?

When in the heck did December get here?

I was shocked this morning when I went to sign a student's contract and discovered today was the first of December.


Dudes. It's December.


Where's my dislike button?


...


December is cold. December gets dark at 4:45 p.m. December makes my hair and skin dry out until I'm miserable and can't touch any metal surfaces without risk of electrical shock.


December pretty much stinks. 


I dislike December almost as much as I loathe September.


Almost.


December means the end of the year, which can be both good and bad. Good for getting tax refunds back. Good for starting over on how many medical visits I can have through my health insurance. (I need to get my wisdom teeth out soon, after all.) But bad because it's yet another year to tick off our counts. It's the end of the time allotted to finish goals set back in January, whatever they may be. And let's be realistic; most of us could use a couple more (or six) months to finish up those goals. Not to mention it's cold. And Seasonal Depression sets in all around us. And I don't know about the rest of you, but 4:45 p.m. night times really don't work for my active lifestyle.


And that dry skin just really sucks.

Six

November 29 marked six months of this cute OSF guy being an official fixture in my life.


To celebrate, we went to Forever Fondue, a first time for both of us. Man, is that place fun. You get to cook your own raw meat at your table! And there's cheese dip! And your food's always hot!


We got there at five o'clock for our reservation, which turned out to be unnecessary since we were literally (and I actually mean literally this time) the only ones in the restaurant for the first 45 minutes. So we had the 3 wait staff pretty much all to ourselves.


Okay, so I apparently have lived my life not knowing the joys of fondue. Or really what all fondue entailed. I thought fondue was dipping things in melted cheese. Or chocolate. But apparently there's so much more to the experience.


The first part of our meals consisted of salads and the cheese sauce, in which we dipped bread, apple slices, and cauliflower. (They also brought us cherry tomatoes, which were of course left untouched in the bowl by both of us).


Then the real meal began. Our waitress brought out our platter filled with teriyaki steak, chicken, shrimp, filet mignon, scallops, broccoli, zucchini, carrots, and mushrooms. She gave us instructions on cooking times, then left us to it. 


It wasn't like the greatest food in the world (but still yummy!), but the experience was awesome. Soon we had it down to an art as we multi-tasked between cooking new pieces and eating the ones that were finished. I think my favorite part of the whole concept is that dinner is drawn out so much, so there's time to talk about all the random things we talk about, while we wait five minutes for our chicken to cook all the way through.


So, yeah, it was fun.


After dinner we went walking around La Jolla, down to the shore and Chris explained to me how the ocean works (something about the moon and tides and currents), and we agreed the whole idea of anything but creation is a stupid idea. Because just look at the ocean, people! It's crazy!


And Chris showed me this crazy bridge/dam type thing down at the shore right next to the Sea Lion's sleeping area. Somehow I've never heard of this thing in all my 25 years living in San Diego, and numerous trips to La Jolla Shores. You pretty much go right out over the ocean, and the waves are lapping at your feet, and it's crazy! We made it all the way to the end, and just as Chris was turning back toward me, this huge wave comes up over his head, right where he'd been standing. We'd angered the ocean gods! So we ran back the length of the thing (very carefully, mind you), with the ocean nipping at our heels the whole way.


It was fun.

Happy six months, babe! Love you!

I Heart the OSF

I'm thankful for notes I find tucked into my cell phone.

Thankful for a creative soul who encourages my own creativity.

For inside jokes.

For someone who likes staying home on Friday nights, too.

For honesty and realness.

For a boy who likes holding hands.

And cuddling.

For fun.

For simplicity.

For six amazing months of getting to know more about him each day.

And for more of these wonderful days ahead.