Long Overdue Vacation

Might I begin with: Hooray for going out of town!
My superb weekend started on Friday with a note from my boss describing the raise she got for me effective today! Weee! It may sound egotistical, but I love receiving appreciation for my hard work! I was so excited on Friday that I worked an hour and fifteen minutes overtime. But upon escaping, the party could begin!
I was sort of thinking that some food and drink were in order... you know, to celebrate or whatnot. Somewhere in Berekely, perhaps... anywhere, really! The "diet" I am on leaves me pretty much starving at about four o'clock. I digress - I called my family first, to tell them the excellent news, and then I called the Jessa-Bean to see if she wanted to partake in some festivities with me since Simone was having dinner family time with her sis from out of town. She didn't answer, so I called the Logan to see what his plans were for the evening. They pretty much consisted of car-work before the trek to Twain Harte on Saturday. By the by, Jessa ended up calling me back so I found something to do! The plan was to go out drinking in Brentwood with Ben's brother and friends from out of town... but then we turned lazy. Jessa wanted to get all her online accounting homework done before our trip to the mountains (makes sense!), and that wound up taking a bit longer than anticipated. Plus there was pizza and pie for roommate Max's B-Day (that no one showed up to...) and blunts, oh my! Long story short, we rented the movie Waiting... and bought some booze and just laid back at Ben's for the evening.
At 8 in the morning on the following day, Logan, Kristen, and myself awoke to prepare for the trip! Kristen's parents bought a cabin in Twain Harte about a year ago and they were nice enough to let us use it for the weekend!
Simone and Austin met us at our house in Oakland and we were on the road around 9. We were really shooting to get up there in time for a half day run at Dodge, but it didn't so much work out that way. We made a couple of stops for food, coffee, and lift tickets before our arrival in Twain Harte. The cabin was.... well, it was a house. It was pretty immaculate, really. 4 Rooms with a total of 6 beds, 2 bathrooms, full kitchen, living room with a wood burning stove... you get the picture.
Once we were sufficiently settled, Kristen and Logan traversed to the store for food while Simone, Austin, and myself searched for means to a fire (ie, logs small enough to fit into the wood burning stove). When this didn't work, we went back to television watching and laziness! Wee! We watched the end of Punch Drunk Love before the K&L returned with a ton of delicious treats! And that's when the eating began. It pretty much didn't end until I got home on Sunday, but at least it was good food!
Ben and Jessa showed up around 8 or so and Logan had bought BBQ treats, so we grubbed pretty hard and put on Forrest Gump (the movie selection was a little on the sad side) before retiring for the night.
Ok, so today is Thursday and I still haven't finished this freakin' post! I need to write more than a sentence per day if I'll ever finish! Ha!
Sunday morning was an early one, as far as vacations are concerned! We wanted to be on the road by about 8:30 to have a full day on the mountain. It actually worked out pretty well. I showered and Kristen made yumyum breakfast. She bought Soyrizo from the market along with eggs and etc for breakfast burritos and it was de-lish! An excellent breakfast to start out an active day!
It started out as a pretty nice day, not too cold or stormy. This was sort of nice except that the snow wasn't all together awesome. It was snow, though, so I wasn't complaining so much. I almost rented a board but thought better about spending the day on my arse and got skis. It turned out to be the wiser decision because it meant I could actually hang with my friends!
Kristen used to work at Dodge Ridge about 2 years ago, so she kind of knew the ropes and took us to the back side of the mountain. It was beautiful! The snow was a little better and the lifts moved a lot faster. Not everything was open due to the lack of snow, but it was enough to play with. She took us down 2 pretty difficult runs right off the bat... I'm thinking it was not intentional, but it got me a little shakey! It seems, however, that Dodge Ridge's hard runs are the equivalent to Kirkwood's medium runs, so even the hard ones weren't too bad... it was generally just a little steep for a second and then pretty mellow after that.
Anyhoo... after playing for awhile we got hungry and met at the lodge for some warm food. We had planned on bringing a lunch with us, but it didn't so much work out that way. Warm food was better in my opinion anyways. I had Clam Chowder in a bread bowl which was actually good! Or else I was just that hungry which is equally possible. Beer was had by all before lift-ing all the way back up to the top.
The damn lift at the bottom was so slow! Plus, it had started storming during our lunch break so it was also freezing and snowing. By the time we reached the top we were covered in snow and shivering. We managed to make it down to the back side of the mountain again for one more lift before closing. I wasn't sure how much more I could endure, it was so cold. I've probably been in colder ski conditions in the past, but in comparison to the earlier portion of the day, this was pretty bad! It was windy, which made it very difficult to see and my chin was so cold I was trying to ski with the bottom half of my face in my jacket.
Needless to say, I ditched them all to get to the bottom via the fastest means possible. The burning in my legs was intense, but I made it down in one piece and retuned my rented gear in time to meet up with Ben and Logan in the lodge getting hot chocolate.
We made it home... unfortunately all the coffee shops were closed, but Simone, Jessa, and Austin had been on excursions throughout the day that involved buying non-decaf coffee (which Kristen had mistakenly bought the day previous) so yay!
Eventually we made it back to Oakland and I watched some Grey's Anatomy before hitting the hay! Logan and Kristen stayed up for another day (to themselves), so I had a nice big quiet and peaceful house.
Ok... so I know the post got a wee vague toward the end, but I want to get this up and posted before this weekend arrives!
Tata for now, my loverlies!
*RM*

I love this girl!

How well do you know the first person on your top eight...fill in the blanks about them...

1. Name: Sarah (poohead, poo)

2. age: 24

3. birthday: 4/8

4. how long have you known this person: 10 or 11 years

5. are you related: No but we might as well be

6. where does this person live: Oakland, Ca

7. how often do you see them: Not often enough

8. when was the last time you talked in person: 2ish weeks ago

9. on myspace: Never

10. on the phone: last week.

11. how did you meet this person: We went to High School together. I always called her Tanya

12. their favorite color: Blue. Red

13. when will you see this person next: Not soon enough

14. Have you ever kissed this person: Yes

15. What kind of music do they like: A mix of everything

16. whats their best feature: Her hair is pretty keen with the dye and fun colors.

17. whats your favorite memory of this person: All of them

18. what does this person like to do for fun: Hang out with pals

19. what are your true feelings toward this person: She is the little sister I never had.

20. in 10 years do you think you'd still place this person at the top of your top 8: Yes

repost this with the title:
"how well do you know the 1st person in your top 8"

(From my Myspace page via Sierra - smoochies, girl!)

Anyone as bored as me right now?

* Raevyn is _____.
* Raevyn needs ______.
* I want to _____ Raevyn.
* Raevyn can ______.
* Someday Raevyn will _______.
* Raevyn reminds me of _______.
* Without Raevyn _________.
* Raevyn can be _______.
* Raevyn is always _______.
* Worst thing about Raevyn is ________.
* Best thing about Raevyn is ________.
* I think Raevyn should _________.
* If Raevyn were an animal, she would be a ______.
* Right now, I bet Raevyn is thinking about _______.
* Raevyn makes me want to _______.
* If I could spend the day with Raevyn, I'd ____________.
* I'd ______ for Raevyn.
* Raevyn is made of _________.
* Raevyn is the _________.
* If I could be Raevyn for a day, I'd ______.
* I want to give Raevyn a ________.
* The song _____ by _____ reminds me of Raevyn.
* If I were with Raevyn right now I would ______.

Test Taking For Dummies

Well, I have finally admitted that I need help. More so, I have forked out the dough necessary for me to achieve the scores I feel are required to get into the Grad School of my choosing. $1099!!! That's a lot of moo-lah! But... for better scores guaranteed, I'm willing to try anything.
My first class was last Wednesday, and we spent the majority of the two and a half hours taking a diagnostic test. You know, to see where we are each starting off the class so that the "higher score guarantee" (or "HSG" as the teacher and course book refer to it) actually applies. Here's what I know thus far:

Scores from actual GRE taken in October 2005:
Verbal: 510/800
Quantitative: 710/800
Essay Questions: 5/6

Here were my scores last week for the Diagnostic:
Verbal: 530/800
Quantitative: 670/800

So I guess it's about the same... the tests were awful. The actual GRE took about 4.5 hrs in total to complete... The diagnostic took about 2 (no essay questions). The diagnostic consisted of 4 sections, each 30 minutes in length: Verbal, Quantitative, Verbal, Quantitative. I ran out of time in all four sections. Which tells me one thing right of the bat - I need to work on time management in a serious way. I'll never get higher scores unless I can learn to manage my time better!
Ok, well I guess I'll do some work now...

But first:

Arena (known to self and others) accepting, dependable, giving, intelligent, silly	Blind Spot (known only to others) able, bold, brave, caring, cheerful, clever, complex, confident, energetic, friendly, happy, helpful, idealistic, independent, kind, knowledgeable, loving, observant, self-assertive, shy, spontaneous, trustworthy, warm, witty
Façade (known only to self) logical	Unknown (known to nobody) adaptable, calm, dignified, extroverted, ingenious, introverted, mature, modest, nervous, organised, patient, powerful, proud, quiet, reflective, relaxed, religious, responsive, searching, self-conscious, sensible, sentimental, sympathetic, tense, wise

Dominant Traits

57% of people agree that Raevyn Mystique is intelligent

All Percentages

able (14%) accepting (14%) adaptable (0%) bold (28%) brave (14%) calm (0%) caring (14%) cheerful (14%) clever (14%) complex (14%) confident (14%) dependable (28%) dignified (0%) energetic (28%) extroverted (0%) friendly (28%) giving (14%) happy (14%) helpful (14%) idealistic (14%) independent (42%) ingenious (0%) intelligent (57%) introverted (0%) kind (14%) knowledgeable (14%) logical (0%) loving (28%) mature (0%) modest (0%) nervous (0%) observant (14%) organised (0%) patient (0%) powerful (0%) proud (0%) quiet (0%) reflective (0%) relaxed (0%) religious (0%) responsive (0%) searching (0%) self-assertive (14%) self-conscious (0%) sensible (0%) sentimental (0%) shy (14%) silly (14%) spontaneous (42%) sympathetic (0%) tense (0%) trustworthy (14%) warm (14%) wise (0%) witty (14%)

Created by the Interactive Johari Window on 22.2.2006, using data from 7 respondents.
You can make your own Johari Window, or view Raevyn Mystique's full data.

Penguins Are Cute

It's a yurt, silly!

I meant yurt.

Oops.

*~*RM~*~

Fun Times At The Yert!

If only it were still the weekend! Then this stoopid day would never have come to pass. It only reminds me of bad times, of lonely times. I've become comfortable in my lonliness... enough to even say I'm not as lonely anymore. I'd say that's a good thing! I've been walking a lot lately. It's been so nice outside I can't resist myself! Who wants to sit at a desk for 8 hours straight, anyways? So I grab my little red mp3 player and march on out the door when the clock strikes 12 and just walk. So far it's only been down Bollinger Canyon, but I like that street. I walk about 15 minutes in one direction and then 15 minutes back to the chair. Not too shabby, it's about a mile and a half or so all together.

Yesterday, I didn't walk. My calves hurt. I went to the yert over this last beautiful (did I mention beautiful?) weekend with Ben, Jessa, and Simone. Jamohn and Sally stopped by on their way to Monteray (which I'm pretty sure is not on the way, but it was still nice to see them!) and Logan and Kristen actually showed up in the late night to join in the festivites! Fun was had by all. We spent much of the night attempting to make the playstation work as a dvd player, but to no avail. Well, to minor avail. We managed to get the Matrix:Reanimated to work, but no one was really into watching that one (again). So mostly Ben played video games and we chatted and ate. And ate. And ate. And ate. We ate a lot! For some reason, camping = eating. I don't know.

Sunday morning we all woke up pretty early and drove down to Boulder Creek in Logan's Suburban ("Big Foot" - yes, Logan is now in charge of Big Foot! Yay!) for coffee and breakfast downtown. Boulder Creek is awesome. Everything is very mountain-y, which I love. Little art stores all over and coffee shops that aren't Starbucks (and actually better, yum yum for the Mocha Chai!) and pubs, etc. You get the picture. So we grubbed on some breakfasts and coffees and meandered to Big Basin for a wee hike. Not so wee obviously, since my calves hurt.

Big Basin was just as I remebered it. I love that place. We actually haven't been camping there in a couple of years, but I must say it's one of my favorite spots. Many a memory there with a miasma of different people. Some good, some not so good. But memories, no less. Usually when I go with my family we do the bike riding thing, so it was nice to hike a little. We went on the Sempervipen Falls hike, about 5 miles, I'd say, round trip. Easy hiking for the most part. Unfortunately the whole hike there followed alongside the road that leads to the campgrounds, so it lacked a little there. The waterfall was huge and flowing incredibly well! Ban wanted to jump in but there were the signs posted and once we cooled down from the hike he realized how cold it would be. It still would've been fun, I say. From the waterfall we found a nook near Slippery Rock for "resting" and from there we hiked a different way back, not alongside the road. Now, I'm all about walking in circles instead of straight lines, so I was glad we all finally consulted the $3 trail map we bought at Headquarters instead of walking back the same way we came in. It was much nicer, quieter, and a little more challenging. I'm thinking that's where my calves kicked in full time. It was a lot of up on the offset, but followed the creek for pretty much the rest of the way.

Then, back to the yert we went for clean up and packing. This went pretty swiftly by and we were back on the road. It took about an hour to drive home and we vegged at Ben's while he BBQ-ed and I was pooped so I traversed home pretty early for some shower and sleep.

Like I said, why does the weekend have to be over already? I have next Monday off which is yay, but no plans yet. The cabin will be the following weekend - I hope it snows before then! Geesh it's like Springtime here already!

http://kevan.org/johari?name=Raevyn%20Mystique