Jumping on This Bandwagon

Neil's post has me thinking about the people in the South who are picking up the pieces after Katrina. I think it's absolutely true that the politicking needs to be set aside until the looting stops and until people are fed and housed.

But I was talking with a friend of mine last night about how fuel prices will go up. While I realize this is not a tragedy when compared with the suffering that is going on by the people who experienced the storm, it is something that has been simmering in my mind for sometime. Unlike some of the liberal columnists I don't think that the hurricane is some sort of environmental backlash for GW's policies (although I think he's done a crappy job with the environment, among other things). I just think the impact that the hurricane will have on fuel prices shows how truly vulnerable we are to fossil fuel availability. The entire infrastructure of this country is based on car travel, with only a few isolated pockets of efficient public transportation. Don't get me wrong, I love my car. I love driving and taking off on road trips. But there's got to be a better way.

Why is it that in the early 90's the most important thing in the world was having a fuel efficient car and now no one cares? All of the manufacturers ran ads advertising the insane miles per gallon that their cars got in the city and on the highway. The manufacturers were racing for the best fuel efficiency, because those were the cars the consumers would buy.

Then came the advent of the SUV and no one cared anymore about fuel efficiency. Suddenly it was very important for every soccer mom to have an Expedition. Have you seen those things? These little 5'4" women with 3 little kids in the back driving these behemoths that almost don't fit in the lanes. Don't even get me started on the Hummer. And of course their fuel efficiency is abysmal

The thing is, alternatives do exist. 10 years ago in an Environmental Biology class we watched a short documentary on research being done in Europe on alternative power sources. My personal favorite was the corn oil-powered Volvo. The problem is, until these efforts are given more financial backing and become widespread, they will never be a viable alternative and will always be too expensive for the average person. The common man couldn't afford a car until Henry Ford came along with his mass production and his assembly line.

I just think if things continue the way they are, we're going to find ourselves too involved with other countries' economies and political systems and paying more than we can afford at the pumps to maintain a certain lifestyle. If these spikes in gas prices cause more attention to be paid to alternatives, then that's great. But it could have happened so much sooner.

(I can also give a pretty good diatribe about water usage in the desert, if you're interested)

So that I don't end all preachy, here's a great picture of Jen in Berkeley's baby boy, Memphis:

Goodness, I Sure Caused A Stir

Praise Panera Bread and its free Wi-Fi! And praise Allen for telling me about it.

I just want to say a few things about the last post:

1) There were about 12 people besides the missionaries who came to help me move. When I say "help me move" what I mean is load all the things that I had already packed into boxes, along with my few pieces of furniture, into a truck. The only thing that wasn't ready to go was my bed, which a couple of people kindly took apart, because I slept on it the night before and because it was buried behind a pile of full boxes when everyone first got there. Oh also, a couple of my friends loaded some decorations I had in the basement into another box for me because unbeknownst to me there had been a leak and the bottom of the original box was completely rotted through. Other than that, I had already packed up all my belongings in boxes all by myself. I would never EVER expect my friends who volunteered to come help me to pack up my things as well.

2) I thanked everyone profusely for their help and fed everyone pizza when it was all done. I also cheered and clapped when the couch was officially out the door.

3) Jerilyn, I understand your frustration with the members taking advantage of someone as nice as Zippy.

4) I was chatting with a friend of mine yesterday who reads this blog and whose dad was a mission president. In that mission (and no doubt in most, if not all, missions) missionaries were required to perform a certain amount of service per month. Helping people move was an easy way to fill those hours.

5) I think my frustration was perfectly understandable. I knew the dresser was broken when I left, and was kind of peeved, but the elder apologized and I said it was ok. But to show up at my new place after driving 500 miles and discover that 2 more pieces of furniture were broken and no one had bothered telling me, upset me. And who knows where the footstool wound up.

So that's all I have to say about that. Now back to my job search.

Reasons Why You Should Think Twice Before Using Missionaries To Help You Move

Let's do a little tally, shall we. After this move I have:

- A dresser that is now missing a large chunk of wood from the front. It's still useable and all, but not in the same shape it once was. Apparently it broke because one of the missionaries was leaning on the dresser and putting direct pressure on the wood as it was balanced on a stair. Well, yeah, a 200+ lb missionaries leaning on the edge of a dinky piece of wood is going to break it. Go figure.

- Two broken bookshelves. The permanent shelf in one of the bookshelves was hanging by the two back screws when we unloaded it, having been completely ripped off the front two. There were two big holes in the front where the other two screws had been ripped out. The other one wasn't ripped out completely, but the wood is torn and I'm not sure if it will serve its purpose of holding books anymore. I actually walked in on one of the missionaries trying to ram out the permanent shelf in one of the bookshelves and I stopped him and told him that shelf didn't come out. Is it really not common knowledge that most bookshelves have one permanent shelf? I think what most gets me about the bookshelves is that they didn't tell me they broke them. I still would have been ticked, but it ticks me off more that I had to discover it when I got here.

Check out how smart I am, though. I managed to epoxy together the shelf that had been completely ripped off. After that dried, I applied spackle. The bookshelf is white, so while it doesn't look nice, it does blend. So if I just put books over the two ugly spots, it should look fine. The other one is a little tougher. I epoxied the wood and then put books on top and underneath in an effort to clamp it together (not having any clamps and not feeling like trekking out to find a Home Depot). It seems like it might work, but I'm not sure. I'll try it out tonight.

-A missing footstool for my IKEA chair. It's not in my apartment here, and according to Angie it's not in my old apartment. Heaven knows where it wound up, but that's $40 right there.

To the credit of most missionaries, I have used missionary labor before and been very pleased. Other than a couple of broken Christmas ornaments, everything has always made it in one piece to my various apartments. I realize they're volunteering, but seriously, would you treat your mama's furniture like that? I almost want to call their mission president and tell him to keep those two from moving anyone else.

On the plus side I have been Queen of the Unpacking this weekend. I'm almost completely done and started hanging stuff on the walls last night. One of my roommates was away for the weekend and was very impressed when she came home last night. The apartment is great and I really feel like I have my own little place downstairs since I've set up the family room, my bedroom, and bathroom, and I even have a separate entrance if I am so inclined to use it. I'll take pictures once I'm finished. It's very cozy down there and I feel comfortable and at home.

I miss all of my friends a lot and am kind of lonely. I know I have some friends down here already, but I still miss everyone in Boston. Plus, I was out of the summer social scene for part of the summer since I was studying and then went to California. I had just come back and started seeing people again, and then it was time to go. I do plan to come back to visit, especially since Santa Cruz Jenn will be living in Cambridge this year.

Hopefully I'll be able to locate one of those crazy internet cafes today and then I can keep up with this regularly. I've missed the blogworld. You know, for the whole 5 days I've been gone.

Gone For A Bit

Today I'm heading down to DC. I'm having mixed feelings right now as I'm discovering it's really sad to leave a bunch of friends behind. I've met so many amazing people here.

Right now we don't have internet in my apartment. I'm hoping for some wild wireless signal that I can grab hold of, but unless that happens, I'm offline until I can get DSL set up in the apartment. Hopefully that will be sooner rather than later because I am absolutely useless without email. Basically, I'm saying that I may not write for a bit, but it's purely not by choice.

Winchester Mystery House

8/6/05
Since it was a Saturday, Rawson got to join Jenn and I on our daily outings. We headed north to San Jose with the intent of going to The Winchester Mystery House, which I had read about for years in ghost books and was thrilled to realize was nearby when I flew out for Jenn and Rawson's wedding last year.

First, though, we had to stop at

I still don't really know what a Rosicrusian is, but they had a cool museum, and, as luck would have it, admission was free that day! I've always been fascinated by ancient Egypt.

First off, we have the fake Egypt outside:




However, once we went inside, most of the artifacts were genuine ancient Egyptian (I say "most" because they had a few objects just for show, like a plaster fake of the head of Nefertiti, which I think is in The British Museum).

So here we have Real Egypt:





I've had a morbid fascination with scarabs ever since the Mummy movies, starring Brendan Fraser, one of my personal favorites.

And here we have Jenn and Rawson being goofy in the underground tomb inside the museum:

Jenn may hate me for posting this picture

After perusing the Rosicrucian gift shop, it was time to head to

You know, the giant red and white sign, numerous families with small children, and carnival atmosphere should have told me that the spook factor was going to be on the down low.

In the late 1800's Sarah Winchester, the widow of the head of the Winchester company, and heir to the Winchester fortune, moved to San Jose with a mission. While living back east, she had been told by a spiritual advisor that the spirits of all of the people ever killed by the Winchester rifle were angry and wanted her to build a house for them. The house had to be worked on continually and could never be finished. The result is a sprawling mansion, with stairs that go nowhere, confusing hallways, and a maze of rooms. So my question for you is, knowing that story, what parents of small children look at each other on a Saturday morning and say, "I know where we should take the kids today!"

You have to go through the HUGE gift shop to get to the tour. The shop boasted maps of the area and books about California ghosts and the Winchester House, but mixed in with those were figurines of frogs with straw hats by the fishin' hole, recipes for gingerbread cookies with the dry ingredients attached, and a snack bar that I believe sold churros and giant novelty cups for your soda.

Once the tour started I was hoping for some spooky flair. Not so much. We were obviously the 57th tour of the day for our particular tour guide and he was intent on shuttling us through as quickly as possible, with as little attention to real detail or an authentic experience of any sort as possible. At times he spoke so fast that I had no idea what he was saying. He stumbled over the words, and I think spit on a few of the patrons

Regardless, I took numerous pictures hoping that the ghosts would ignore the crappy guide and the gawking tourists and put in an appearance for me, who of course is not a gawking tourist, but someone really interested in the whole ghost story genre and who, darn it, wanted some spookiness in her afternoon.

This is Sarah Winchester's buggy, parked inside at the very beginning of the tour.

Whether or not there were ghosts sitting in it at that very moment, I thought the buggy itself looked kind of creepy.

The staircase that goes nowhere!


The seance room where nightly seances were held and plans for the house were drawn pursuant to the ghosts' directions.


The ballroom, where Sarah Winchester would play the organ for hours so that the ghosts could dance (does this sound like Disney's Haunted Mansion to anyone else?)


This is the one picture where I thought maybe, MAYBE, I'd captured something of note. The image in the far left of the mirror looked like a man in profile to me and several other people I showed it to. But looking at the larger picture I see that it's not. Good story though.


The latent Victorianaophile inside me took several pictures of the details in the house because even though it's a crazy and confusing place, Sarah Winchester was insanely rich and spared no expense in creating beautiful elements for her home. For instance, all of the decorative glass was made by Tiffany:




This was the last room of the tour and the entire floor, ceiling, and walls were covered by lovely wood paneling.

What can I say? I appreciate decorative details.

At the end of the day, I felt sad for Sarah Winchester. She was crippled by arthritis, most likely not completely mentally stable, and haunted (both literally and figuratively apparently) by the means of her fortune.

But who can beat a fun day of cheesy museums?

Redwoods

8/5/05

Jenn and I headed out first thing for the Redwood Forest. Well, first we had to stop at this restaurant and get awesome burgers, but THEN it was straight to the Redwoods.

First off, I don't know if you realize, but the redwoods are very tall


They are also very big around, as evidenced by this picture of Jenn (who is not very big around) standing next to a couple of them.


Initially driving through the forest felt very primeval. Suddenly everything is darker and cooler, and you're surrounded by these towering trees on all sides. I could see how easy it would be to get lost if you happened to stray off a trail.

Jenn and I hiked what we determined was about 5 miles of trail, first along a river, then up into the mountains a bit. It was beautiful.

The bottom of a fallen tree. The trunk was completely hollow.

A view from the trail.


The entryway to a room in a redwood trunk.

As Jenn, my very knowledgeable guide, informed me, when John Fremont first came to the Redwoods, legend has it that he slept in this tree. You walk in the doorway and it opens up inside the tree to a very comfortably-sized room. I'm amazed at how much abuse the trees can take at their bases and yet they keep growing and growing. (I'd also like to note that based on this picture I've determined that I shan't be taking anymore pictures in the squatting position)

On the trail was a circle of Redwoods that they called the Cathedral. I think you can see why.


Sunbeams


I don't know if my camera does the color justice, but I took this picture because it was just so amazingly green.


Trail


That night was arts night in Santa Cruz, which included my new favorite performers, PYROCUSSION!

Seriously, they're awesome.

At the same gallery where Pyrocussion performed was this metal armadillo, which obviously rocks.


All in all, a great day.

Blogger Question

So you know my super interesting "Malcontentment" post that everyone has an opinion about? I don't know why, but when I click on it, the post won't open all the way. I see the first few paragraphs, and that's it. The end of the post and all the comments won't open. I emailed Blogger and they haven't responded yet so I thought I'd see if anyone else knows what's up. I print out my entries and I definitely want that one with all of its comments.

Monterey

How is it that I can empty a couple of bookcases and fill 11 boxes and still look like I've done nothing? I hate moving.

Insomnia strikes again. I think it has something to do with the switch my doctor and I made of my meds so that I could get the generic since I don't have insurance anymore (still cost $100. Freakin' pharmaceutical companies!) I used to take one pill in the morning, but now I have to take one in the morning and one in the evening. Besides forgetting the evening one a couple of times over the past couple of weeks, it's messing with my sleeping as well. That was one of the reasons we switched to the once-a-day one in the first place, to see if it was the evening pill that was messing up my sleep. Turns out it was. I thought I'd get all the kinks worked out and get adjusted to it while I was on vacation. Guess not. But the non-generic costs about $200, so the generic is necessary.

So since I'm wide awake at 3:15 AM, I thought I'd pull together my post about Monterey.

8/4/05
Jenn and I headed south to Monterey, passing through the area of California that provides the majority of the amazing produce I was gushing about a few days ago.

The water of Monterey Bay is the bluest I've ever seen, other than in the Bahamas.




First stop was the Monterey Bay Aquarium.


I know it's blurry, but it says, "The sea is as near as we come to another world." This is the entryway to a portion of the aquarium. It is a darkened room, with fish swimming furiously above you in a tank that completely encircles the room.

Jellyfish




Kelp Forest


Diver in Kelp Forest with Sharks


It was hard to take pictures in the Aquarium since my flash tended to reflect off the tanks, but it was too dark to get decent pictures in the darkened rooms without the flash. Suffice it to say, we saw sea otters being fed, penguins waddling around (I still want a baby penguin!), beautiful jellyfish, and a myriad of amazing fish.

After the Aquarium, we walked along Cannery Row, taking in the shops and the tourists.

We stopped in a candy shop so I could buy an assortment of saltwater taffy in true tourist fashion. As I was perusing the vast barrels of taffy, a group of teenage girls came into the shop, loudly talking to one another.

One of them said, "Dad would be okay with us spending all our money here because we're not in Utah anymore and won't be giving money to the Mormons." (or something like that)

I started laughing; Jenn was mad. I appreciated her getting irate on my behalf, but it was so obviously an ignorant comment. And seriously, girlie, you best watch what you say. There are lots of Mormons in California.

With all due respect to the Aquarium, I think Jenn and I got the most joy from John Steinbeck's Spirit of Monterey Wax Museum. Wax museums are always outstandingly awful, and this one was no exception. Although the one in that Jenn and I went to several years ago with a wax Last Supper was pretty tacky, Steinbeck's may have it beat.

First of all, the guided tour was a piped-in recording of "John Steinbeck" taking us through the history of his beloved Monterey and his old digs in Cannery Row. Each of his comments were augmented by a strategic spotlight on whichever wax figure we were supposed to be observing. At times we had to dart from one end of the room to the other and back again to keep up with John's narration.

Here is the first scene: Indians and conquistadores

Note the Indian maidens seated in the front. If you stare at the back of their heads long enough, you find yourself wondering if they have faces. Then you start imagining the faceless figures turning around and staring at you with no eyes. You're a little reticent to turn your back on them after that.

Political correctness has no place in the Spirit of Monterey Wax Museum:




Jenn is involved with political matters here, I believe. We sort of lost track of the actual "history"...



I think I'm part of an insurgency of some sort.


Crazy Horse


Lastly we progressed to the characters of Steinbeck's Cannery Row, consisting of people he actually knew. Oh the stories he told....

Despite regaling us with tales of the local bartender and his regulars, or the wacky folks you might meet sitting on their porches around Cannery Row, this unsettling character was never explained.


No, seriously, check out his face. That's just not right.

Note to the wax museum folks: your patrons might feel a little less creeped out if you explain the crazy pole man.

And the capstone of the Spirit of Monterey Wax Museum? Why the brothel, of course.


Throughout the museum Jenn and I had commented on how the stories could have been slightly improved by some motion in the tableaux. For instance, Steinbeck related a ghost story, wherein a cradle and rocking chair were spookily lit. I noted how if the cradle had actually rocked, it would have aided the spookiness factor immensely. But, alas, no motion in the wax museum.

However, you see the little minx sprawled seductively on the bed there? HER BOSOM WAS HEAVING. I am not kidding. HEAVING.

While we were standing there listening to Steinbeck wax poetic on the ladies of the local whorehouse, a little family came into the room. The parents took one look at the currently spotlighted brothel and quickly hustled the kids out of there.

After that it was time to head back north. These are cypress trees along the highway, growing next to a farmhouse, the only trees towering above the surrounding fields.


We capped off our day with Chinese food for dinner, served to us by a waitress who was truly passionate about her work. I've never felt so affirmed in my dining choices.

Santa Cruz

I should be packing right now. However, I slept too late to get a really effective morning start, and I think that having A Makeover Story in the background while I catch up on my blog reading is also an important part of my day. I'm not feeling guilty about sleeping late because I got zero sleep the night before last and only managed to cat nap a tiny bit on the plane (I can never sleep in vehicles).

Let the photo extravaganza begin.

First off, I think you all should be introduced to Santa Cruz Jenn (aka Jenevieve; my best friend from high school):


And here is Jenn with her husband Rawson:

Despite being a bridesmaid in their wedding last November, I had never exchanged more than a token few words with Rawson. It was great to be able to spend time with him and Jenn and get to see how awesome they are together and how considerate they are of one another's happiness.

8/3/05
My first morning in Santa Cruz, Jenn and I went for a long walk along the cliffs and the ocean.


Out on this rock were about 40 sea lions, with others bobbing around in the water surrounding the rock, waiting for the tide to come in so they could clamber on themselves.

Last November, the sea lions had completely set up camp in Santa Cruz. They enjoyed lolling about on the rafters under the boardwalk and we could hear them barking all day long. There are only a few under the boardwalk right now in August.

Another highlight of the cliff walk was the surfing museum, where we saw the huge giant WOODEN surfboards surfers used to use. They were like 25 feet long and weighed 95 pounds, which tells me if we think surfers are strong now...

Later that afternoon, the fog cleared and Jenn and I went to the beach.

Because I'm dumb, I forgot to put sunscreen on the backs of my calves and fell asleep facedown on my towel. Yeah, they were a little red.

The whole time I was in Northern California, I kept noticing these flowers everywhere. They grow wild.

I thought they were very surreal-looking, with their bright pink color and no surrounding supporting leaves or foliage of any sort, just popping up randomly out of the soil. Jenn told me she'd always thought they looked like something you'd need to grab for extra points in "Super Mario Brothers." So their official name is Video Game Flowers and I hear the little "ka-ching" in my head every time I see them.

I just realized that I never took any pictures of the view from SC Jenn's apartment of the amusement park on the boardwalk. Rest assured it is very brightly lit and fabulous and there is a constant soundtrack of doppler effect screams from the various rollercoaters.

Coming up tomorrow: Monterey.


UPDATE: Jenn just emailed me some links with pictures of Umbrella Man. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of him myself, but here is a picture from one of the sites for your enjoyment

He walks very slowly, with a serene smile on his face. He's something of a local celebrity. Apparently he didn't always wear the women's clothing and carry a pink umbrella; those are recent developments.