THE BEAST

oh hell! everyday at 430 or so, the biggest, dumbest, BIGGEST flying black thing comes into the trailer and tries to mate with the fake flowers holding the roof to the trailer. i usually run out screaming and don takes care of it. this time i patiently waited for it to leave, but it wouldn't. i don't know how i was able, but i found the courage to slam the window shut trapping it between the glass and the screen. there's a rather large hole in the bottom left of the screen, but the dumb ass couldn't find it. so he just crawled around freaking out for the longest time. long enough for me to take this picture. all of a sudden, he found the hole and flew out. quickly i ran to the other window with NO SCREEN and slammed it shut. and i shut the door. now i'm trapped in the trailer. it's probably out there with 50 of it's closest dumbest friends waiting to attack me. &$&%&%_!!!!

the other crazy thing is, there is a spider living outside the screen on top of the trailer. every time the beast went up to that corner the spider came down on it's side of the screen and tried to eat the beast. so weird. i wonder if the beast first took down the spider upon it's release before it comes after me.

California RULES!

My first real reason to love California more than any other state I've lived in:

"Our state now recognizes that an individual's capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual's sexual orientation," Chief Justice Ron George wrote for the court's majority.

Read the story

California Living!

OK, so...

This day was SO fun, but more on that in a minute. Not an incredible amount has happened since my last post in November. You know, just regular living. Getting used to a new place, new job, new life, etc. The holidays came and went. Miriam and I went and visited Glynnis in Hawaii then split off and she went to Pittsburgh and I went to Ann Arbor. We met back in LA on the 30th and drove to Santa Cruz together and spent New Year's there. Since then, we have been living and working and working and living. And it has been great.

But, it got SO much better when we found our new apartment. We found out that we had to move a few weeks ago and I stepped into high gear on Craig's List dragging poor Miriam from place to place around Santa Cruz. It's so competitive finding an apartment here. You show up at one place and there are four other couples there looking too. All jockeying for position. I hated it. We found a place we really liked and met all of our criteria, but I knew we lost it when we had to explain to the woman that we were a "couple". Ugh. The next place we looked at was perfect, just perfect! And it's where we are now. It's two levels, the first being a garage. In the garage, he made the space really nice, so it's not dirty and nasty, but kind of livable. He put built in cabinets and drawers and a desk. Plus there is laundry down there. The best part is that there is a garage door opener, so when I ride home from work, I just push the button and in I ride. Ahhh, a dream come true.

Upstairs is our real living space. There are tons of windows that bring so much delicious sunlight. With hardwood floors throughout the place, it feels so clean and dry and wonderful. Off of the kitchen is a great patio that is fenced and private. That also gets a lot of sun. In fact, Miriam burned her feet a little yesterday out there. Oops. There is one bathroom off the bedroom and vaulted ceilings, so even though the space is still small, it *feels* big.

Another great part is the location. The neighborhood is called Seabright and we are about 5 blocks to the ocean. In fact, the day we rode that roller coaster, Michelle, Matt, Miriam and I walked down to the beach saw the coaster and Michelle said "Let's do it!" So we walked. WALKED everywhere that day.

There are bars and cafes and restaurants and burger joints and just tons of places to walk to around here. Even grocery stores! We didn't have that at our old place and it's something we are so happy about.

It also cuts my commute down by about 15 minutes. Though my ride is a lot harder because of the route I choose, it only takes me about 20 minutes to get there. 15 minutes on the way home.

What else? My job at the university is going just fine and I've managed to make a few friends. We've gone out to happy hour a couple of times and these women are really awesome. They're all interested in things besides work and are smart and interesting and I feel so lucky to have met them. Plus, Battlestar Galactica is an interest of a few and I've found a place to watch it every Friday night, which is awesome!

Miriam is busy busy at work, though fortunately for us, the week we moved was her spring break. Sadly, she had to do a LOT of stuff for our move on her own and on the time she should have been chilling, but it was great for us. She really made it happen!! Now she's back at work and busy again. It'll be awesome when she is done this year and can relax and spend some time just living in this great new location.

We are both really happy and looking forward to visitors soon. Mike is threatening to come and Dana too, so we'll see. We'd love to have any of you, so please think about it!!

The two other pictures under the coaster: Miriam and her cowboy hat in our new apartment and the second is waiting for Michelle and Matt to arrive for burgers. I'll post more later.

Love to you all!

Neils

I've Officially Had My Ass Handed to me in California

Last night I went to "Racquetball Club Night" at UCSC's rec center. Basically, you show up and just play with whoever is there. I was SO nervous, but had to do it. I really want/need to get back into playing rball regularly. There weren't as many people as usual because of the holiday week, but I did get to play with a guy named Joe who handed me my ass oh I'd say about SEVEN times in a row. I think the most points I scored in a game was about 9. Boise, I am rusty.

It was so much fun though. I will definitely be making this a regular thing. Also, apparently there is an rball class on Thursdays from 6 - 8. Yes, I will check that out as well!

I received my California Driver's License in the mail the other day, so now it's official official. The little Golf has Cali plates and everything. That makes three states the car has been registered in. Definitely the next state will be Pennsylvania. I feel pretty certain about that. But not for a little while.

Ahhh, the sun is shining on my face as I type this from the Palace. Back to work now. I'll post a couple of pics below of the inside of the Palace. I love it here. I wish there were a way to make it smell a little better though. It smells kind of funky. Oh, and funny story: I have to pull the shades down on my window at certain points throughout the day because the sun is so strong. Yesterday I pulled the string on the shades and the whole thing came crashing down. Apparently the wood is so rotted out around the windows that it can't hold the thing up. Ahaha. I mentioned that this trailed was "red-tagged" before I got here, right? That means it was on it's way to the dump and they said "wait! Neile is coming, she can work there!" Ahahaha. I LOVE IT!

Miss you all!
Neile


View of the Palace from my chair

View of my computer and window. It's a little dark cuz of the sun (!!!). See that piece of paper on the window? That's our org chart that I now use to block the sun from burning a hole in my face.

Here's our kitchen and inside the door is where Don sits.

Birds Eat Off of Your Shoes in Capitola

So, today is Veteran's Day and for the first time in my working life, I have the day off. Whoo hoo! I've had a really great day so far. After breakfast with Miriam, I lied around in bed until about 8 contemplating the day. When I realized I could lie there ALL day, I got up, cleaned up a bit around the apartment and set out on my bike. Car insurance was the goal for the day. It took about an hour, but I got it done and now I'm ready to get my car registered here tomorrow. Then I decided I'd ride down to the beach and grab a sandwich and watch the water. It's SO beautiful here today. Really sunny and when you are in the sun, you are nice and warm. There is still a slight chill in the air which is also pretty nice.

As I was riding down 41st towards the beach, I passed a bicycle shop and stopped in. My brakes have been really weird, my gears aren't shifting very nicely and, as much as I don't want one, I need a kickstand if I'm going to put the ol' C-dale into our bike storage room. So, this really cool guy hooked me up. He adjusted a cable on my bike which has fixed the shifting problem, installed a kickstand for me and I made an appointment to get my brakes worked on. All for $10. I love bike shops!

I kept cruising down 41st and then did a little loop around and got onto Portola to head down to Capitola Village. Miriam and I had gone down there yesterday after working out and got some coffee at pastry at Gayles. Gayles is kind of like Zingerman's, just on a smaller scale. They make all of their bread (which they sell around town at groceries) and pastries, plus they have a deli and prepared food section, coffee, etc. It's really really good. Today I went to a place called Capitola Kitchen and grabbed a sandwich and some lemonade. Over by the beach they have a ton of benches that you can sit and eat and watch the ocean. Man, it was just gorgeous and a perfect spot to have lunch.

You're probably wondering what the title of this post means. When I was done eating I put my feet up on this concrete wall and was just relaxing. This little black bird came hopping by and was getting closer and closer to my feet. I wondered how close it would get and then all of a sudden it pecked at the bottom of my shoes and flew off with some kind of food product that was stuck in my shoe. Ahahaha, pretty gross and pretty weird and very funny.

On my way back to my bike I passed by a candy shop with the largest jelly bean wall I've ever seen. Yeah, I pulled out my BSG credit card and loaded up. I can't wait to go in on all the new flavors. YUMMY! Luckily it's really expensive per pound, so I will not be frequenting this place, but it's nice to know it's there.

So now I'm just chilling at the apartment. This weekend, among a million other things, Miriam and I put together her stereo and it's so fun having radio again. So, I want to figure out what the good stations are here and get the local NPR station and program those in. I think I'll take a little nap and then I'm meeting Miriam at CrossFit at 5 for a workout.

This weekend was really awesome. We made some good progress at getting our apartment in even better shape. Put stuff away, set things up and rearranged a bit. I think it made us both a lot happier . Soon we'll tackle getting stuff up on the walls.

Well, that's about it from Santa Cruz. Write back and tell me what's going on with you. I'd love to hear from you. For those in AA, I'll be back in town on December 27 - December 31 and would love to see you. Hopefully you'll be in town.

OK, love you!

Neile

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