bear

Finally caught up on picture galleries! :)

Subjects include:
- the booze cruise
- 17-mile drive
- the monterey bay aquarium
- my 10-year high school reunion
- dania and jp's wedding

Yes, I took over 400 pictures in the last nine days. Yes, my camera is currently being held together by a ponytail holder. *grin*

( the promised trip update )

Took a couple of days to recover, and then Saturday was Meghan's 30th, and my first ever "booze cruise." And as I predicted to kazulrw, I spent all of my time running around taking piccies and none of my time actually consuming alcohol. Hee! But it was actually quite fun - there was a rockabilly cover band, and yummy little appetizers, and a cool breeze blowing in off the ocean. Then Friendly's with melissaagray and fes42 and stranger78, Apples to Apples at the afterparty, and then driving down Route 1 at 3 am. You're only as old as you feel!

Yesterday, I made the mistake of dairy when it was both 95f out and the first day of my period. So hyounpark brought me Tylenol Flavor Creator, since I can't swallow pills, and my god, this is like EXACTLY what I was hoping for as a kid. Granted, I also thought I'd be the one to invent it (since "normal people swallow pills" and thus nobody cared about making medicine taste tolerable), until I couldn't wrap my head around the chemistry involved, but still! I am going to be very sad when litigious American society eventually runs this product off the market because some idiot didn't keep their medicines locked away firmly enough, and their kid drinks an entire bottle and has to go to the hospital and the parents don't dare show weakness by assigning any amount of blame to themselves.

Anyway, it's funky. I thought it would be some sort of clear syrup that you mixed flavor crystals into, but it's a cherry-based syrup, and you get a bunch of flavor packets with the package. You pour out the syrup dosage into the measuring cup, then dump the flavor crystals directly on top, and then chug immediately. On reflection, I'm honestly not 100% sure this is actually kid-oriented, because I felt like I was doing a shot. True, I needed to take the full three teaspoon dose, and most kids will be fine with the recommended 1-2 tsp, which is much more "sip" and much less "down the hatch!"

So yes, that's how we spent our first anniversary, building furniture (well, okay, I watched) and me semi-loopy on new drugs. *snicker* We'll make up for it later, but tonight is girly night!

missing the ocean tonight. the cool, fierce breeze of the pacific; the moist, clay-ey sand between my toes; the soft hiss-crash of the waves a few hundred yards away; the seals barking because dammit, it's after midnight, it's time to play! what are you silly high schoolers doing, up past midnight with hours to go of homework? come have fun instead!

and california is my future. and optimistic, ever-hopeful that it will be andrew's too.

1/3/24: Oh, younger, dreamy-eyed self. You will make it back to California, though it'll take awhile longer than you'd imagine. And Andrew, too, will make it to California eventually; "we spent Christmas in California with my in-laws." Mild regrets for the worst parts of our younger selves' behavior and wishing we could have been better to each other, more prepared to love each other the way we deserved and needed, but that's the nature of growth. (I know, a lot easier to say as a 40-something than to hear as a 20-something.) And you will both be happy at your core, despite the circumstances of the future world.