Glynnis Visits, Takes Photos!

Glynn just sent me photos from last weekend when she and Rosalie visited. They are SO great and I wanted to share. Enjoy!


This was taken from outside the door of their hotel room. If you come visit, you can stay there too. It's pretty cheap and gorgeous views!


Glynn and Rosalie outside their hotel room.


From left: Rosalie, Miriam, Neile, Lisa, Glynn


Lisa and Neile. Lisa is my oldest friend. We went to high school together and she now lives in SF with hubby Chris and sweet little daughter Lexa.


Here's my trailer -- THE PALACE!


Snapped from the top of UCSC campus. You can sort of get an idea of how high up we are and it was a perfectly beautiful, clear day and you could see all the way to Monterrey. Lovely.


Neile and Miriam


Rosalie, Miriam and Glynnis


At breakfast. Yummy Nicholas'!!


Glynn, Neile, Miriam


Pretty girls on their way home.

Thank you SO MUCH for coming. It meant so much that you drove all that way. I love you both very much!!!

Settling In

So, my second week is complete. I think I will stop counting from now on and just settle in. Last week at work was good. I was actually getting *real* work to do and that felt good. Visiting users in different buildings, barns (!!!), off campus offices, etc. My area is the southside with an emphasis on the Base of Campus -- which I will now refer to as, simply, Base Camp. There are a bunch of offices that the southies support off-campus and I will be the Mac person for the off-campus people. I like being the Mac person.

I haven't set up my permanent shop at the Palace (trailer) yet, but last week I spent two days there with a loaner laptop (a little buddy) and it was awesome. I also started riding my bike to work finally. It took me a while to get a pump for my tires and just get motivated to ride that long way up. And I do mean up. And I do mean long. Holy moly! It's a wonderful ride though. There are a couple of steep inclines to get through town, but those are nothing. High St. is the hardest. It is SO steep and SO long and you just put it in a low gear and spin. Sometimes I feel like an old dude with a walker could pass me, but I make it so I don't care. When my home is set at the Palace, after High St., I'll just have a small incline and I'm at the base. But, when I work at the top, I have a HUGE hill to climb. It's pretty rad and beautiful and all of that, but my gods is it steep. When you finally get to the top you feel like there's nothing you can't do for the rest of the day. So, while I go on and on and on about how hard it is, I really do love it. I feel alive at the top!

Now, the best part is the ride down. There's a path that runs down the middle of campus and it's kind of like a roller coaster. First of all, the view is unreal. On a clear day you can see Monterrey. And when you set out, you go a little down, then a little up, like a roller coaster and then STRAIGHT DOWN. You have a dedicated path going one direction so there is nothing to get in your way. I get down in about 3 minutes and it's the most awesome feeling ever. It's your big reward for riding up that morning.

The other thing I am noticing about cycling here is their infrastructure is really really progressive. There are bike lanes EVERYWHERE, share the road signs, walk your bike on the sidewalk signs, bike racks on ALL buses including UCSC shuttle buses and UCSC VanPool vans. When you are riding with traffic, you really feel like you are part of traffic. The cars and bikes just seems to work well together. Now, it's not perfect, but it's the best I've felt so far. It's also the best way to get around town. At 5pm, man, there is a LOT of traffic. And I fly by it all on the ol' C-Dale.

Miriam and I went to CrossFit today and I signed up for a permanent schedule - finally. I'll be going Tuesday and Thursday at 6am and Sundays at 10am. I think it's going to be great when I get back into shape with that. I'm also going to join this racquetball club at UCSC's Wellness Center on Tuesday nights. I'm hoping I'll find a partner equal to Ron (but you will never be replaced, of course) so I can play more during the week. Then everything will be perfect. Miriam is going to join a league basketball team on Mondays and I'm very excited to go out and watch them play!

What else? Glynnis and Rosalie came up to visit on Thursday night and we went out to the Red Room for dinner and drinks. It was SO wonderful to see both of them and it meant so much that they came. We had a wonderful time and laughed and talked and ate really good food. On Friday Lisa, Chris and Lexa came down from SF and we hung out at our apartment with a bunch of tacos and beer. It was Miriam and my first dinner party. Now we know we can have 6 people and a baby and it's not too terribly crowded.

Glynnis took tons of photos, including some on campus, so when she sends them out, I will post a few here. I've been really bad about taking pics, but will try and get better.

Last night Miriam and I went to see her high schoolers perform MacBeth in San Jose. We went with two of her colleagues, Erin and Chris and went to this really great dumpling house before the play. Yummy. The play was good -- the kids did a great job -- but damn, it was like watching a play in German. Ahem, I think I need to figure out a little of what they're saying. It would definitely make the play more interesting. But, it was nice to go out and meet some of Miriam's friends.

So, that's the big report from here. It was a really nice week. I feel like I'm settling in and our apartment is really coming together -- I cannot emphasize enough how important that bookshelf is. THANK YOU!!!!!

Hope to hear from you soon. Write, call, something. Just please stay in touch. I think of you often.

Love,
Neile

Week One, Complete!

So I got through week one of California living. I have to say, it went really really fast and it was a really really good time. Things at work just get better everyday. I'm starting to figure out where I am, starting to *do* actual work and meeting lots of new people who seem to be really cool. I haven't yet moved into the trailer, but that'll be soon. I can't wait and I even have a coffee pot ready to take there. Ooooh, the coffee will be so delicious and plentiful. Since I'd have to ride my bike down a steep hill or up a steep hill for coffee in the aft, this is critical.

This weekend Miriam's parents came down from their Berkeley visit to spend the weekend here. They stayed in a little hotel down the street and we hung out Friday night, Saturday and today. Yesterday the coolest thing happened. Miriam's dad designed and built the greatest bookcase for our apartment. It's so perfect and allowed us to move a lot of books and stuff into it and free up a ton of space in the place. I'm going to post a few photos next of it. Everyone chipped in a bit. Drilling, sanding, etc. It was a fun project and the end result was awesome. So, thanks SO MUCH!!!!!

Today Matt and Michelle came down to S.C. and we all went to Natural Bridges State Beach. It was a so beautiful. It is known for it's yearly migration of Monarch Butterflies and the best time to see them is between mid-October and late January, so it was perfect. We saw thousands of them and they were just beautiful. We were able to see huge clusters of them camouflaging themselves in the trees. There was a dude with a telescope and when you looked in, all you could say was WOW. Pretty neat. Then we walked down to the sandy beach and had a delicious picnic. We hung out there for a while stacking rocks, talking, playing frisbee and laughing. It was such a nice way to spend a Sunday. After a nice cup of coffee at Kelly's French Bakery, we said goodbye to the four of them and headed off back to the apartment.

We put a bunch of stuff into the bookcase, took out a lot of recycling, did lots of laundry, and hung the star light. Ahhh, the star light. It's nice to have that back up as it really makes me feel like I'm at home again. If only we could paint our room Santa Monica Blue. Soon, I hope, in the next place. Maybe. Anyway, it was a nice weekend and I'm looking forward to this week at work. Glynnis and Rosalie are coming up on Thursday and Lisa and family are coming down from San Fran on Friday. So, the end of the week will be busy with guests.

Oh and I worked out at Crossfit this morning for the first time in two weeks and holy shit, I thought I was going to die. Literally. I've never felt more nauseous after a workout than I did this morning. I'm completely out of shape after only two weeks and that's a little heartbreaking. I'm planning to go a few times this week to get myself back into it quickly.

OK, more later. Hope you all are doing well. Gouldie is home from the hospital (YEAH), my San Diego chicks are out of harm's way and everyone else seems to be reporting in just fine. I'm bummed to hear I missed a rager Halloween party at Jon's. Damn, Jon, you didn't even invite me. Hmpf.

Love to you all.

Neile


Everyone chipping in on the book shelf.

Now What?

I miss writing about my drive. Though of course I don't actually miss the driving. I'm not really sure if anyone will check this now that I've arrived, but figured what the hell. I'll post about my first couple of working days in Santa Cruz.

Man, the first few days of a new job are exhausting. Lots of paying attention, being nice, being in a good mood, trying to always listen and ask questions and absorb. By the end of the day, I am whipped. I really like it so far though.

Today was my second day and I got to just take a walking tour, by myself, around campus. I was handed the crappiest map on earth -- and we all know how good I am with decent maps, think about me and a shitty one -- and told to be back by 1. I had a lovely walk, it's so beautiful up here. Walking through the redwoods. But, I got totally lost. I ended up walking out of the redwood path onto a road somewhere very very downhill and far away from where I began. That didn't matter though because I found myself staring out at the beautiful ocean. It was pretty amazing. I was pretty far down the hill and it was quite hot today and of course I am wearing a black shirt, so I decided to take a bus back up to the top. Lazy Neile. I went to the bookstore, which is in the same area as the student union and, seriously, it could NOT be more different from U of M. It looks like a ski resort. I am not kidding. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, but will take some soon and show you. You just won't believe where I am working now.

I found out that my work space will be in a TRAILER that was slated for the dump. Just like the SoM, space is hard to find. They want me supporting the plant and facilities people and they are down on the south side of campus. I call it Base Camp and what it means to me is that I won't have to ride my bike all the way up the hill every day. I'm pretty stoked about that. I'm not quite sure what it means to work in a trailer, but I really don't care. I'm happy here. They pay me well, I have health insurance, I can still ride my bike to work and I get to come home to Miriam every day. Oh yeah, and the ocean is 10 minutes away. So, it's not so bad. I have yet to see this space, so we'll see how excited I am after that. I had this fear today that I'll have to pee in a port o potty outside the trailer like a construction contractor. My foot is going down about that, if that's the case. I really doubt that's the case.

There are so many things I have to do still. Get a bus pass, get a rec building pass, find an rball partner (I miss our games, Ron!), etc. So many things to do to make this my home. Slowly it's all coming together though. M and I decided to get a small storage spot for extra stuff until we find a bigger place. We'll be looking for a two bedroom after the first of the year. Until then, anything that we don't need or want on a daily basis will go to our satellite apartment down the street.

Well, so that's all I have to report right now. Work will start to get a bit interesting when I get my accounts set up and whatnot. I still don't have a UCSC email address. Turns out, it'll probably be something really lame like neileris. BAH.

OK, I miss you all very much and think about you often. Please write or comment. I love hearing from you.

Take care.
Neils

First Couple of Days!

Wow, what an incredible two first days in California! I showed up in Berkeley pretty early on Friday, around 2pm. Miriam wouldn't be there until 4, so I killed time in a cafe and just tooling around Berkeley.

Before that, and after I left Truckee, I drove to Tahoe to check it out. It was a beautiful 15 minute drive down a winding road lined with tons and tons of trees. The rec area I wanted to walk around was closed for winter (!!!), and there was a looming storm that the local news idiots were freaking out about, so I decided to just get going to Berkeley. The drive was not bad at all. Going through the Sierras was incredible. Long and curvy and lots of people driving way too fast. I just cruised along in the right lane, not taking any risks. I had come to far to mess it up now by being reckless like everyone else.

I can't tell you what an amazing feeling it was to see a sign that said "Berkeley 26 miles". After all the driving, the states I left behind me. To see that Miriam and crew were only 26 miles --- it was a bit overwhelming. I sat on my car on Hilgard waiting for her. Glynnis and I had a really fun conversation and then I sat alone for a while. Just waiting. And I was really nervous. My phone rang and it was her, and I was bummed because I realized she was probably stuck in traffic somewhere. When I answered, she said "is that you sitting up the street?" And there she was at the end of the block. It was just so great to be together again. After all this time. All this planning. All the work and the crying and the worrying and the driving. And there we were. Standing together on Hilgard in Berkeley.

We went in and the whole crew was there to greet us. Everyone so excited and happy, it was wonderful. Michelle had made some signs (pics below) welcoming me to Northern California. So awesome! After hanging out and catching up for a bit, we piled into cars and drove to this delicious Italian restaurant called Rivoli (that's where the I Made It picture came from). Food and fun times. This dinner was also celebrating M & M's parents 40th (!!!!!) wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary, once again!!! Truly remarkable.

On Saturday we woke up and got breakfast at Cheeseboard (the best bread/pastry/cheese shop in the world). Then we all walked down to the farmer's market. Miriam and I did a bit of shopping at Monterey Market and after a really really funny interaction with Anne back at Hilgard (details another time) we headed off for Santa Cruz.

I had to follow Miriam because she had her car and I have to say this last bit of driving was the longest and most stressful of them all. First, because the highways are HUGE, like 8 lanes in both directions and PACKED. There are WAY too many people in California --- and I just added one more. Oy. Anyway, we did finally make it and it was wonderful to be here. To be home. With Miriam.

This morning, Miriam really wanted to see the Orionoid meteor shower, so we set the clock for 4 and were going to head down to the beach. I got out of bed and turned on the coffee and we figured we'd sleep for a few minutes while the coffee brewed. When we woke up we discovered it was 6:20! Ugh. We jumped out of bed, grabbed coffee and headed down to the E. Cliff. The sun was starting to come up, but it was still dark on our side. We sat down on a big rock in front of the ocean and waited. We didn't see any meteors, which was a bummer, but we did see the most beautiful sunrise over the ocean. The waves were huge and awesome and there were lots of surfers. We sat there for a long time and it was just a great way to start the day here. Afterwards, we made breakfast and just headed out to do errands and unpack.

The unpacking will take a while and it'll be a little overwhelming, but it'll get done soon and then we can just settle in and work and live our lives. We're both really excited for that, so that'll be the motivation to get moving with settling in here.

So, that's about it so far. I realize this is long and I want to post some photos too. Tomorrow I start my job at UC Santa Cruz. I'm nervous, but really really excited. I have a good feeling that my email address will be neile@ucsc.edu, which would be AWESOME. OK, here are a few photos and I will talk with you all soon. Please write me, I miss you! And thanks so much for all of your comments. It's been such an incredible experience for me, this drive across the country, and I really felt like you all were there with me through this site and that's just rad.

I love you!
Neile


Just outside the Truckee Diner, where I had my first real breakfast in a week.


Yummy!

Tahoe!

Whooo Hoooo!


The Crew, minus Matt. Matt, how'd I miss you?!??!


Michelle's welcome signs. Just awesome!! Thank you again, eyebrows!!!


Beautiful Miriam!


Whooo Hoooo!


ooppff!

I MADE IT!

Best Mood Ever!

Good morning from Truckee, CA! It's so wonderful to wake up knowing that a: I am in California; b: I do not have to rush; and c: I have only a three hour drive to Berkeley today.

Strangely, I woke up at 5am, wide awake. I couldn't go back to sleep so I watched local news and surfed around. After having breakfast on the phone with Miriam, I took a wonderful shower and started packing up my things. The whole time I'm packing, I'm smelling the sweet sweetness of coffee someplace. And it smells soooo good. I got dressed, packed up the car a bit and went into the front desk to find three big things of delicious coffee. I had to get some stuff at a drug store, and the woman at the front said "yep, you sure can WALK there". So I did. I took a cup of coffee with me and walked. The weather feels so wonderful outside. It's cloudy and will rain any second, but it's about 55 or so and just wonderful. Being up in these mountains surrounded by trees, it's just an incredible way to wake up. I'd highly recommend you all come here and stay at this place. Just wonderful.

I wanted to say another thing about Dorothy too. K-Lo & Nelly: the ONLY reason I found a gas station (needed it) and this wonderful Inn is because of Dorothy. I pulled over and asked Dorothy what was the closest hotel around. She is the only reason I am not in a Day's Inn or some other crappy place. This was a WONDERFUL gift you gave me. Thank you thank you thank you!

Next I will go get my first real meal since Monday night. Eeeks. It's been too long. I'm going to some restaurant on Donner's Pass called Smokey's or something. I asked the woman at the front where she would send her sister for her first real meal in 4 days. She said Smokey's.

I'll snap a bunch of pictures today and post later -- from Berkeley I suppose. It's crazy how fast this all went. I wonder when I'll start freaking out about the fact that I'm starting a new job on Monday. Cripes.

Love you all!
Neils

p.s. thanks to Mike for the new Burnt Bun image and to Jon for resizing it. so funny!