Tuesday, July 13, 2010

With All Her Glory, presenting........Summertime! (and the meaning of true beauty)




My oh my oh my. How a handful of summer days can change everything. (AKA, this is gonna be a novel-long blog/ diary entry, yikes)

For some time now, it has been warm, hot, gloriously sunshiny and summery around these parts. I believe June 21st was the last time I felt cold. The 7-month winter really did a number on my psyche, and I apologize greatly to those who listened to my angry complaining and sometimes emotional breaking-down around the first half of June (namely my husband and my sister...but also a few other sisters). On that last day of cold, June 21st, I started ye crazy ol' Aunt Flo and even though Pollock Pines got to be around 66 degrees that day, I WAS FREEZING. Just for a tidbit of period trivia, I read that on the first day of your flow, a poor girl's basal body temperature drops significantly, causing the temperatures outside to feel quite different to the lucky lady-in-red than to any nearby person that is NOT sporting the rag. (Could be a good thing if it's 100 degrees outside!)

Anyhow, enough piddly explanation of my misbehavior. Since that day, SO MUCH HAS CHANGED!!! That first summer night, longest night of the year, I had a great realization as I stayed in my house alone whilst all my dear friends were celebrating together. I was cold and in a bad mood and didn't want to put that yucky energy on my friends. I had been feeling rather gross for a couple of months, especially hard on myself, on the way I look, on the process of aging, and that day had been a sobfest on and off all day. An emotional rollercoaster about to absolutely WRECK! But instead of wrecking.....some kind of smooth sailing began. Something inside of me found peace. I stepped out onto my lovely 3-sided forest deck and leaned over in awe at the sunset and majesty of the wild pine trees. I became in touch with a feeling of being "present" that I hadn't had in WAY TOO LONG. I stopped wishing and wanting and needing and I just stopped and noticed all the wild nature and life around me, and remembered how much I have done in my short 34 years. The knowledge of my hibernating self came pouring through. I actually felt pretty for the first time in months, just standing there alone. I remembered who I really am and who I have been for years, but who, for some reason, I had been losing track of for a little while. I remembered that I am a girl that doesn't think that looks are the most important thing in life (AT ALL!!!), that it is a beauty inside that is quite more powerful and shining and real and wonderful than any pretty dress or perfect weight or sweetly golden complexion. Pretty girls are a dime a dozen, but wisdom in personality and creativity and kindness and truth-seeking in a soul is a rare thing. I remembered that experience and knowledge in life becomes the realest beauty. And that just noticing the beauty in the world around is a GIFT of beauty. And kindness, peace, caring, creativity, and nurturing ARE beauty too. And that in order to stand up to the materialism that exudes from every billboard and magazine and so many conversations around me, I MUST ALWAYS REMEMBER THE TRUTH about such things, as well as do my best to demonstrate. Which also collides with the truth about love. It was quite a night sweet epiphany for me, and it was the night that summer really did begin. I have never felt cold since. But I have felt: inspired, excited, warm to the boned, sweaty, carefree, whimsical, and powerful.



And since then I have: taken a day trip up Silverfork Road with my husb,


laid on the hot sands at the American River drinking beer with my Heather sister, visited my awesome 98 year-old grandma in Sacramento and ate at McDonald's of all places with her and my dad!,

hosted a stay at my house with my lovely sis-in-law and her three amazing kids, played a Coal Beautiere show in Grass Valley that I was super scared of but it turned out going swimmingly well, watched my cat Grabby bring a few lizards into my home and place them on the living room floor (where I promptly had to catch them under a clear pie pan with a record slid underneath)



purchased an annual pass at the local lake and swum many times in its blue turquoise waters,

celebrated a friend's, Rebecca Pangbroehrn's, birthday at her sweet Sacramento garden home,


dined with her and our husbies at one of the best restaurants in Sacramento, which she manages and her brother owns...called Magpie ( they are like 95% organic and the food is BRILLS), received a colourful and descriptive letter from a dear friend (Ryann Savino) who is currently working in Maho Bay, in the Carribbean, on the isle of St. John,

stayed a sweet dusty summer night on Lake Spaulding at the annual Nevada City Boat Party (and it was my favorite year there yet to date),
got an awesome sunburn, and to top off all the fun....................QUIT MY JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That last one may not seem like the best thing, but it really was the best thing for my soul.

(And I also have some greats of the Boat Party coming off my Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim...with all its 35mm impromptu and vignettes. I can't wait!)

So now I have so many more adventures to look forward to. I have a friend's wedding and all-girl gathering coming up in the next week, overnight hikes to go on, a desert/ LA road trip to plan, Wednesday Hot Summer Nights in Nevada City- where vendors all display their crafts and food and you drink in the street and say hi to all the friends, another road trip to Santa Rosa and Russian River Brewery, a Coal Beautiere show with an amazing Portland band called John Heart Jackie at the Cozmic Cafe (which Jacob and Alisa Mingle now owns THANK GOD!), and the Nevada City Film Festival to volunteer for the weekend of August 19-22. And because I have been thinking about all things work-related so deeply.... I think I am going back to school for this semester and taking some real, downhome, web publishing classes! I might try a minimum wage job or something just a couple days a week, but I honestly just want to have a pretty open schedule, learn a bit more about html and web designing programs, and get a little something extra next tax year when Art and I look super duper poor on paper.

Besides all the summery shiny happiness portrayed here, I really want this blog to be about remembering the truth. I want to be able to look back here and remember that I shouldn't get sucked into the system, no matter the endless winters or downheartedness in general. The typical American system, the worldly system even, is to be sucked into superficiality, materialism and consumerism. Those things cause us to judge ourselves so very harshly as women, to compare ourselves to each other constantly, to be jealous of each other, to futilely attempt to buy our happiness, but worst of all- to forget and abandon the wonderful beauty and creativity that lives so strongly within every one of us. Our women hearts are strong, are dramatic, are sweet, are beautiful, are imaginative. Our struggles are beautiful too, they are part of our experience and they become our strength when we overcome them. One time I visited a girl in Portland who had no mirrors in her house. It was about seven years ago, and I remember thinking it was a little overboard or something. But lately, I have often wished there were no mirrors in my house because they only make me feel worse than I actually feel. I know it's so selfish to go there. It's not like I am disfigured or unhealthy or disabled. I know it's so selfish. But nevertheless, this world IS SO VERY prejudiced in it's accepting of only certain kinds of beauty, and that causes us girls constant self-criticism. I hate it. It's not fair how brutally the world treats unconventional beauty, and how sugar-ly and stupidly sweet it is to girls with the regular old pretty looks. Bleah! How boring! I want to live in my mind as though there are no mirrors around me for me to look into and see only faults. I want to be stronger than the mirror. I want to especially set a good example for girlies and women of the future, because being obsessed with other interests and activites in life besides looks, clothes and money is the actual road to success. It doesn't have to be college, it can be anything that makes your heart happy. But judging oneself harshly is the surest way to falter on the path.

It's one of my only goals in life, to live strongly and feel beautiful inside no matter my imperfections on the outside, to overcome the materialism and to be the best example possible to all people around me (provided they are around me on a good day! jeez!) I know it's quite a quest, but I know I will go all the way, and I know it will be worth it.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Summer Come My Way

Hi all. First off (of course), please excuse the nature of my last blog. ...... A girl has got to have moodswings, right? Maybe not. Well, I don't know what got into me last week, but I was in a rock-bottom type of moodiness right through til Sunday. But then something in the air shifted and things got warmer and I ate some delicious summer food and drank some icy ginger ales in hot cars and by yesterday I felt great. Seriously, something felt so OFF to me last week, from Wednesday until Sunday I felt like a weird, depressed Zombie kind of girl or something. I guess one of the things that happened is that I woke up Wednesday and my house was 59 degrees inside, which seems REAL annoying in the middle of June. To me, anything under 63 degrees is TOTALLY COLD, unless it's 100 out and you're in an air-conditioned movie theater. But even then! Anyways, to top it off, I get in trouble if I even ask Art about turning on the heater, which Heather and him may make fun of me for but GEEZ! how else is a girl gonna heat up her house when the high for the day is only 57!?? Which is what the high was here last Wednesday. And I was at the very last frays of the end of my winter rope. You understand that in California here it's often 60 plus degrees on CHRISTMAS DAY?!! So 57 in the middle of June is just PURE PURE pure unadulterated torture.

But enough of that. Summer is officially and unofficially HERE!!!!!!!!!!

My quest for summer. Oh Summer, Cruel Summer. Hot, mean, sweaty, gritty, salty, dirty, REFRESHING, BEAUTIFUL summer.

Even though a bit of warmth has begun, the river is flowing harder and colder and faster than anyone's seen it flow in 35 plus years. The snow in the Sierras is melting now and there's still 5-7 feet in places. So we go down to the river, but we only dip for a second. Hence, my pics from last year (for inspiration)!




Oh summer, how your gardens grow!


How your beer flows!


Here's to inspiration! These pics are all from last summer, but they make my dreaming of it so sweet. I love that feeling of just craving a beer and a cold lake and lying in the sun in the hot heat to where it's almost unbearable. Oh summer, I know you've only just begun but please please heat up and hear my call and come to our house! Please bring the hot hot California heat with you, MAKE ME SWEAT!!

Friday, June 11, 2010

On life failing me at the moment- + 2010 Doldrums

First off. I'm 34. Not so bad you might think. Wrongo. 30 was only the beginning. I could still look past all the things I'm about to go into. 31 was fine too. 33 was verging on the edge, but one could still cling on to an OLD DREAM. But 34.....34, 34. There ain't no getting around what faces you..............................weepy, regrettable, unforgettable, calamitous, grasping-at-straws LOSS. You start to see you are losing it all. It's JUST the time that one's body begins to show off all the realities of living, unless that is, you work out at the gym 6 times a week....and even then, YA CAN'T look 21 ever again. And Looks, my friend, is only the tip of the iceberg.

Cause losing one's "youthful prettiness" in itself isn't so bad. Honestly, for the right reasons, I don't really give a rat's tail. Getting a few wrinkles/ sun spots and a saggy butt and boobs isn't the death of me (USUALLY), however, it causes a chain reaction down the line. So first, I'll go into the general downside of being an aging WOMAN (in my case, GIRL-woman)

A. Finding jobs begins to get more and more difficult. You just AREN'T AS HOT as that 24 year old that went in for the same job (especially when you are an uneducated third class citizen/ worker like myself). Ba-Bye Money.

B. Walking around at the river in a bathing suit. IT'S JUST FLIPPING HARD TO DO NOW. It' didn't USED to be hard to do so much (for me, always a little bit)...but now IT'S JUST FUCKING HARD. What about all that WHITE cellu-plight? 8 year old boys are going to run from me with low voices and snortling giggles.

b-2. These first two stem from losing one's looks. See, the problem isn't the changing way I look. If I lived in a world alone, I wouldn't care. The problem does comes from me COMPARING myself to the pretty "norm" but mostly I FEEL that it comes from the "pretty norm" laughing in my face everywhere I go. From posters hanging in malls, to magazine racks, to teenagers in public places, to rock n' roll shows, to family conversations to conversations with my very own BESTIES, being "pretty and youthful looking enough" is haughtily having the time of it's life making ME feel like shit.

3. You don't know what you are supposed to expect from life anymore. What is success? What's failure? You're too smart to think that money and fame are everything. But you're still too dumb to see things from a purely spiritual perspective. You still go back and forth between the two. Occasionally, ridiculously superficial stuff (like someone you know that knows David Letterman or something) still impresses you, most of the other times.........not at all. IN a way, it's kind of depressing. That stuff used to add EXCITEMENT to life. But now.....you just wonder what kinds of seeds to plant. But alas, you're still no Buddha on the mountain-top.......

4. You're SUPPOSED to have achieved success by this point. (Meaning: Parents and grandparents are supposed to be uber-proud of you).........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................FUCK.

5. You're SUPPOSED TO be having, thinking about, or already have had babies by this point...........................................................................................................................................................................................................FUCK.

6. You get jaded. There ain't no way around it. No matter how bouncy, cheerful, kind, optimistic you were in the good old days....the crusty depressing realistic weight of cynicism sets in. And you hate it. You're even jaded about your jadedness. Underneath it all, you knew it would happen.
Bullcrap.

7. Life in general just loses it's lustre. Swimming in lakes isn't as exhilarating. A brilliant movie just isn't as brilliant as it once was. Even your Iphone seems like an old piece of junk in your purse. Your clothes are ripped, you're 34 but pathetically you can't afford new ones. Your bathroom smells weird, no matter how much you clean it. Your family gets jaded too, and possibly even sick of you and themselves and all the other siblings, another chain reaction that leaves you more stranded and alone in your struggles than ever before. Phooey.


Right.

You know, give me a break, I'm having an off day. BUT STILL! Doesn't this kind of thing at least ring true SOME OF THE TIME? For everyone? OK, maybe never for Meg Ryan or Jenny Lewis or freaking Jane Fonda, but for the mass of us, yes.

REASONS WHY BEING 34 IN 2010 MAKES IT FAR, FAR WORSE

1. Neverending winter in Northern California. I MEAN IT. I MEAN C'MON GOD! It was 57 degrees high at my house yesterday. Granted, I live a little up in the mountains. BUT THIS IS SHIT FOR MY SOUL.

2. THE FUCKING RECESSION. If aging didn't look good back in 2004 whence trying to become employed, IT HARDLY IS BECOMING NOW. My chances of getting a waitressing job after 2 weeks of scouring restaurants in June 2010? About 2-3%.

3. No one listens anymore. They all screech screech screech constantly to their Twitters. To their Iphones. To their damned BLOGS ( i Know I know). They don't even hear their own children tugging at their skirt. How sad is that. I include myself in this (except without the children part)

4. EVERY SINGLE PERSON between the age of 14 and 39 is in a band. It used to be a novelty, a rarity, something to get listeners out of their houses on a Friday night. (See # 3) Now....there isn't an audience. Just 55 more bands listening to each other. SO much for inspiration.

5. Diaries are non-existent. You remember those precious blank books that girls once wrote novels of their own lives in? Adios. Hello Facebook, Myspace, and every other status updater that makes writing to no one a lost art form.

6. THE FUGGING BP OIL SPILL. It's enough to make you want to go down to Mississippi, roll around in the goop, and suffocate yourself so that you can know what that poor wildlife is going through.

7. Aging movie stars get prettier and prettier whilst us normal folks are looking worse and worse sheerly for the fact of what we are compared to. Botox is making MYSELF look like a weathered old indian chief. (which is actually OK with me)

I've run out of things to bitch and whine about. I sat here on this here computer tonight and forced myself to stay in because I was in SUCH a TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, horrendous bad mood that I figured it I went out I would only cause a mass sadness to society...especially my friends. SO. Here it is via my lonely old computer.

Now for bed at 9:45 thanks to the teensy fraction of a waitress job that I DO have. (Waking up at 4:15 tomorrow)






OK. All that sounded purrrrty crappy, right?

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Perfection Attained. Curiosities in my tiny city




First off. If you haven't read the blog I wrote yesterday please scroll down and read it first. In fact skip this one altogether if you don't wanna waste time and JUST READ THAT ONE. It's not so cutesy.
And other than that.............

A. It WON'T STOP raining and snowing!!!!!!!!
B. I have almost given up on outdoor activities, cause it's hard enough to get out of BED when my house is this cold in the morning and it's almost JUNE! (4 days!)
C. What else is there to do but...........write another blog entry???

Seriously! I thought I lived in California?!! Even though I'm at 4000 feet elevation, I have heard thru the locals that winter weather this late in the game and so consistent is TOTALLY WEIRD. So I've taken to cuddling in blankets until mid-afternoon, building raging fires in my woodstove on a continual basis, and, currently, listening to some new tunes at my local Itunes Store. Ok, not THAT new, but to me....NEW.

This is I found today. Link to the song "Lemonade"
I like CocoRosie. I went to a concert of theirs a couple years back, and though the crowd was so hip that I felt like I was the shyest most goody-goody girl in the world, they put on a lovely show, complete with their mom on backing vocals.

I like it. I think next I wanna hear the entirety of the new Eminem album.

And.....without further adieu, some tidbits of my world circa this NEVERENDING WINTER.


Above. Violet syrup on homemade shortcake with strawberries and brown-sugar yogurt. Invention that sounded worth a try.


Above. Some homemade little blank books I put together for my very dear girlfriends that either had birthdays, going-away parties, or just needed a package sent from afar.


Above. Whiskey corner at our house.


Our sweet little wooden fairytale house. I'm hoping that SOMEDAY summer actually makes it here, and when it does our front porch is going to be my favorite place.


Our record listening station. Complete with cassette deck too!



Above: RHINO Records.
During late March, I went to Southern California with my dad and sister and we met up with my little brother Mikie. He took us to this great little town, Claremont, and I found a relic left over from the 1990s. A real, true, old fashioned spacious goodlooking record store that is NOT part of a giant chain!!! Rhino Records! This photo above shows my purse parked at the RECORD listening station. I also got the first glimpse into being truly "Old School" when two college kids (maybe 18) passed by me talking about how cool real records are and how they are the best on a rainy day. It wasn't so much their conversation that impressed upon me, in fact I've probably had the same one with somebody, it was more the way they were sort of bragging about liking records to each other and you could tell they both probably just had bought their first record player in like the last month! You could tell it was something BRAND NEW to them. It was so weird...realizing that certain analog ways of listening to or interpreting art are no longer necessary AT ALL, only pure novelty (and expensive!). I can remember being a little kid and knowing that a record player was the only WAY I could hear recorded music in my house, and in many of my friend's houses. I used to go to this kid's house after school sometimes and we would jump around to this excercise record for kids called "Mousercise"! Later they made a show out of it. And Heather and I were able to spin around to THIS SONG only because of our little record player! It was like a daily affirmation. I remember doing it outdoors sometimes, so it must have been a portable Fisher-Price record player that we used.



You may have seen a picture of weird clay looking babies at the top of this blog. Those were part of a baby shower contest to create your own baby out of a piece of Hubba Bubba bubble gum at Jocelyn and Dan's Baby Shower for their darling Juniper. I actually pretty much hate baby showers, ESPECIALLY the dumb games. I have to say however, Jocelyn's baby shower RULED. EVERY GAME WAS SO MUCH FUN. Well, here is the amazing couple on that jubilous day! By the way, both J and D are awesome and unique musicians and you should check that shit out!
Link to Jocelyn's website for her music, Alak HERE
Link to Dan's website for his music, Pregnant Here

And the three pregger ladies themselves! Since then, they've ALL had their tinys, and they are all healthy and happy.

And here is the glorious Juniper. Just 2 days old, in the arms of her loving uncles. :) BTW, both uncles are awesome musicians TOO!
Uncle Michael's music/ Afternoon Brother HERE
Uncle Matty's music/ Soft Devil- can't find a link............





Some of our good crew got married in recent months as well! (With more to come) These above photos were from the lovely Livia and Antwon's wedding, down at the American River, on a fine March Spring Day. Crazily enough, both weddings I've been to so far this year have found themselves bathed in sunlight and warmth. And both were next to the green and golden American River, land of Eureka! itself, where a mere 150 years ago shining pebbles of yellow gleam led ambitious and brave men and women from around the world to their destiny in the golden hills of California!


SOOO. Ruebi and Manuel's Bachelorette/ Bachelor Party and Despidida. It was great fun. I got to catch up with my beloved girls in the city and we pranced thru the Mission wearing feather boas and sporting paper bags with little drinks in them. (This took place after a glorious afternoon patio party for Ruebi with champagne cocktails and penis straws! I don't have those pics tho....they were Polaroids and got donated to Ruebi). As you can tell, our dear Ruebi is pregnant. And by that 2nd pic you can probably also tell, she's about the sexiest pregnant gal you've ever laid eyes on!




I only have a few shots from Ruebi's wedding itself, because I was in it and there was a photographer and I wanted to just ENJOY the party. So hopefully more of those pics will one day arrive within my territory. There is a little video too, of the Ruebi gettin' ready for the big moment.



Me.
My family.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Imperfectionista: Visions of the Clumsy, the Bad, and the Ugly


That's what I am. Absolutely, soddingly, imperfect.

I am not much of a blogger, as you can tell from the last date of an entry here, but I occasionally DO like to read other people's blogs. I have to be very selective these days though, because with the overwhelming cuteness going on in the girly blog world, I am very lucky to come up from a reading session not feeling like an old stepped-on piece of dried macaroni. (This is a term I frequently use when NOT feeling cute, sexy, important, creative, or anything else that's loosely related to the word "special").

Anyhow, I got to thinking about possibly, just possibly, creating a blog entry now and again that focuses mainly ON my many imperfections. Or imperfect days or happenings. Or my erroneous ways in general, like hogging out on too much fried fast food sometimes, or ending up in a Walmart and actually LOOKING at clothes, or throwing my recycling into the regular trash at gas stations, or getting psychotically drunk and my face melting off, or ridiculous arguments that Arth and I have about nothing that almost leave us wanting a fricking divorce when they're over. You know.... the wicked details that might make other not-so-cute-all-the-time girls feel a little BETTER about themselves (in comparison to the dorky and clumsy things that so oft happen within my world!) Note: this is so NOT a diss to the cute blogs.....this is only a funny, weirdly happy idea that I got in my head and totally feel like delving into.

Can't believe I'm going public with the following photo. But I just have to. It's morally right.




Yes, the above photo is me circa the 1986 or something. God-awful. I have to harbor some animosity toward my parents for LETTING ME OUT OF THE HOUSE LIKE THIS! It's like their first-born was some kind of wild-child or something that they kept locked in the closet until this day.

And for the present.


EWWWW.


Yesterday I got a push to make the blog entry a reality....
Art and I had to take a little trip to the local overgrown suburban sprawl known as "Folsom". There we made our way to the Factory Outlets in search of well-priced but quality work shoes for my Arth. After our first jaunt into a store, a downpour began. Like, SOAKING rain. Needless to say I wanted to head back to the trunk of my car to grab my umbrella, but the outlets are such like a maze that we had a hard time finding the right path to the part of the parking lot where our car WAS. In an attempt to cross (at a cross-walk) I completely BAILED. I slipped on a wet, newly-painted speed bump and landed on my wrist and bum. My entire palm was coated in white paint and there where some unmistakable white handprints on my black hoodie as well as white paint on my tights, shoes, and purse. To top it off, I was also getting soaked. I was caught so off-guard by the white paint that I forgot to be embarrassed, which was nice, and was more worried about my favorite black hoodie having a permanent kindergarten painting on it (my hand). Art helped me up and we rushed to the food court area where I found a bathroom and tried to find some paper towels to wipe away the paint. Alack. No paper towels ANYWHERE.
I made my way back into the actual food court and grabbed some napkins. Not such a great idea because the minute after I dampened them and started rubbing, they tore into tiny shreds that not only did nothing to remove the paint, but started a linty looking mess on top of it! So I went for the gold, turned on the faucet, and dunked my favorite hoodie in the bathroom sink, wringing it out and scrubbing 1800's style. I emerged from the bathroom with my dripping hoodie and a bit of a temper. A young man who had served Art some coffee saw my wet and white painty dilemma and kindly pointed me in the direction of the Outlet Information Center so that I might be able to file a report.

I'm not the suing type, hope to never be, but in such a situation I thought it best to at least report what had happened JUST IN CASE my wrist never stopped hurting or something. We found the Info Center and I saw white foot prints leading in!!! A lady inside was holding an ice pack on her head. Poor thing almost cracked her head open on the same flippin' speed bump. The same thing had happened to two others, one being an Outlet employee! The nice people inside got my info, took pictures of my painted purse and tights, and then me and Art got the HECK OUT OF THERE. We headed back to the car where I got my umbrella so we could do some real shopping.

Imperfection Police
1. My skirt and tights were already shoddy, had runs and a holey zipper (a put-together girl wouldn't be caught DEAD walking NEXT to me!) but now they also have skids of white paint on them.
2. Somewhere along the line, a cat must have peed in my car in the last week or so, so Art and I kept getting whiffs as we drove.
3. Our car has a missing front turnlight cover (the orange panel), a broken front bumper (previous owner hit a deer TWO times) and duct tape WRAPPING the passenger rear view mirror to the car.
4. Car is messy
5. The one NICE thing I was carrying, my vintage carpetbag purse, now has white paint near the handle.
6. Art's shoes had holes and his feet were drenched, hence immediately replacing them with the new ones once he found some dry socks* in the back of the car.
* another major imperfection- what the heck was an old pair of socks doing back there???
7. I lost my Bluetooth AGAIN during all of this.
8. My makeup got rained off just enough to reveal my dirty, chimney-sweep like melasma spots on my forehead. One of the great gifts of aging.....dirty looking skin even when it's clean as a whistle.
9. Maje cellulite under there.


STROKE OF LUCK: Iphone = Still OK, despite the fall.

Redemption Afterwards: Drinking a Pliny the Elder at TWO SEPARATE LOCATIONS! (Folsom and Placerville)


Of course, kiddos, I'm the scary-looking one.