Picnic Day!

Picnic Day was a roaring success. Mom came down and the three of us went to watch the parade downtown. After the California Bacon Benedict at the Black Bear Diner, we headed on campus to explore the exhibits.

Mom bought me a shirt from the Antro club. We visited the AGASA booth where my mom got de-baptized. The fundraiser was to throw a balloon at an AGASA member to baptize them whatever religion a person wants, but I asked them to debaptize my Mormon mom for me.

We went to veterinary medicine to see kitties and reptiles, hung out at plant sciences, saw the electric and hydrogen vehicles and saw a girl get busted with alcohol and pot in the arboretum. (Picnic Day is near extinction because of the amount of drinking-related disturbances in the past few years. I have no problem with partaking, but people need to do that shit at home).

We walked downtown for Record Store Day, but went back home when the bars started overflowing. We had dinner and mom left and that was the end of Picnic Day. I've been checking the news to see if the trouble caused by the thousands of attendees from out of town was any worse than last year. We saw two people being arrested in front of The Bistro when we were walking home.

Next big event is Whole Earth. My Tye Dye dress is fitting much better these days, so I can't wait to hippy it out for that! >< I love living here.

I have gained a pound.

And I am owning up to it and taking responsibility for it. I'm also going to change it. Last week was the culmination of a few weeks of slip and sliding downhill toward imminent weight-gain. I grabbed some chocolate here, sugared soda there, chose a quick, frozen pasta meal over taking the time to prepare the good stuff. And when I weighted in on Wednesday, I had gone from 142 to 143.

No more! I refuse to allow my own poor discipline and self-justification stop me from admitting my fault and getting back up on that horse! Excuses be damned. Rain cannot be an excuse not to move around for an entire day of reading and internetting. I have an apartment gym if I can't go outside. I haven't run in a few weeks, complaining that I lost my iphone holder the last time we did a deep clean of the apartment.

Today, I was going to refuse to resurrect because it is Easter, but I may need to rise again and drag my husband out for some recreational activities in our lovely little town. Maybe its time for a picnic with salad and wonderful noms.

James Cavern

Last night, while killing time before a Deaf event at the Dive Bar, I heard a new cover of an old song, Usher's "Nice and Slow." It was very nice, but I was wondering why it was so loud. I was headed toward the Zuhg Life and I glanced over and there was a stage with a man in a hoodie playing an acoustic electric guitar. I was floored. It was so beautiful and the voice so flawless, I had thought it was recorded music. I stopped in my tracks and when I could breathe again, I went over to watch.

The man with the voice played three more songs, one of them his own, and I learned his name and that he was a local musician in the Sacramento area. His name is James Cavern and he has one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard. To top it off, his favorite band is The Beatles; it's clear he knows good music. My readers, you all know how I feel about The Beatles. I bought the last CD the store had in stock and continued on with my way.

There are three times in my life that music has stopped me in my tracks and I remember them all clearly. The first time I heard "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away," by The Beatles when I was about eleven was the first. The second time was a few years ago when I borrowed a classical music CD and Erik Satie's "Trois Gymnopédies," and the third was yesterday. If I hadn't shaken his hand after the set, I'm afraid I would have been convinced he wasn't a mere mortal.

He is, in fact, a normal human being, with a Facebook and you can find him by looking in your search bar and liking his band page.

April 3, 2012

I have so many plants now. I bought an air fern in SF on Sunday and it lives in a little urchin shell. My mom bought me a big old plant when she came to visit a couple of days ago. I forgot what she called it, but the name on the tag says "philodendron." It's a hangy, viney-looking thing with heart-shaped leaves. My three cacti and aloe plant are doing well. My spider plants as spidery as ever. I even added a little topsoil to the poor little Christmas cactus Chris gave me and it stopped wilting. The flowers he got me aren't looking so droopy anymore, either. I've found the right watering schedule for them, I think.

San Francisco was beautiful on Sunday. We went down there with friends Jimmy and Yazzy, taking BART at the closest station and riding into Embarcadero. We met up with some more friends and my sister and her boyfriend and shopped a bit. I found the most awesome store in history in Japantown. It's called "Daiso" and everything in it is Japanese and only a dollar-fifty or less. We went to sushi afterward, which was a ton of fun and I wore my sushi earrings I got at Claires (yes, I'm a tween), so it was fitting.

It's Spring Break, so I don't have to go to school this week, but I'll be at a Deaf Night Out event in Sacramento on Friday. I tried to bring my mom to one a couple weeks ago, but she forgot all the sign I taught her and so it was a little hard, but I have some really great friends in the Deaf community that helped her out. There were a couple times I was signing and forgot to voice for her. I felt bad, but sometimes it's just easier.

Those are my updates for the evening of April 3, 2012. Erm...I forgot to mention April Fool's Day. Chris and I changed our relationship status to "Open" on facebook and my mom freaked out. Everyone else got it. It was hilarious. Here's a link to some screenshots. I tried to go back later to take more, but we had already changed the status back and couldn't visit that comment thread anymore (fucking facebook). It was pretty classic. Anyway, have a good Spring Break, everyone.