wow, it's been so long! first of all, matt and i had such a great weekend in san francisco--really one of the best trips i've taken. i really loved the city, the coastline, everything was so beautiful!
matt and i left last friday morning and got to SF at 6:30pm. we stayed with joel and his roommates, astevens, bstevens, and mccann, who live in a quaint beach town called pacifica (about 15 minutes south of SF). friday was valentines day, so went took the BART subway downtown SF for some dinner. we strolled through china town and ended up in north park, the italian district at a cool little restaurant. tasty food and great chianti. the best part was when matt "blew up the bathroom" and then lied about it to a girl who had been waiting outside to use it! after dinner we went to this cool bar called vesuvios where jack kerouak hung out in his day- cool pub atmosphere, especially the upstairs. we headed home for the night and laid around chatting in the living room (there are 4 boys in the one bedroom apt, and then we barged in! total of = 5 air mattresses in that place!!!)

saturday morning we lazed around the apartment and then matt and i went exploring in the afternoon, got some lunch and found a perfect spot (about a block away from their apt) sitting on the edge of a cliff overlooking the HUGE pacific, chatting and drinking hot chocolate. when joel got back from class, we went downtown to the chinese new year festival. there were tons of people on the closed-off streets--totally packed in. the parade was, um,... how do i say this? sort of random, including the usual dragon things, firecrackers, and a clown that flashed us and had a stuffed animal lion below the belt--CUCKOO. then it started to rain on us, which eventually became rather fun! there were also random, 20 minute sections where there was nothing--and then something else would come down the street. we got tired of waitng for the ending so we left the parade early to find some food in china town. long story there, the service was horrible and had to argue with our waitress over price, but very funny experience. after dinner we went to this other cool fisherman’s bar/grill place--really wharf-core, including a doorman wearing a rain slicker with long grey hair and beard--so moby dick! it had all kinds of cool things all over the walls, very fun. it was still raining when we were done and had to walk about 15 blocks to the BART to get home. wet dogs, all of us. joel thought it would be hilarious to start kicking puddles of water at astevens, while getting the rest of us wet. highlight: astevens ran over to a balloon arch, buried his face in it and started biting and popping balloons...

sunday, easily one of the best days of my life. we woke up around nine, the boys donned their wetsuits, and we headed out to surf at this great spot called linda mar. the boys charged the waves while i hung out on the beach, took in the BEAUTY, read, and took pictures. we went back to the apt, got cleaned up, got some lunch at a cool italian deli and matt, joel, astevens, mccann and i went to muir woods for a hike. i had never seen redwoods before, and was in awe. besides that, the streams and creeks running through, total GREEN, cool, and best smell in the world dominated my senses! i think one of my favorite parts about it was that we so naturally interacted with each other--you would be talking to one person, then come to a curve in the path, another person would pass you, and you'd be instantly chatting with someone else. we walked and talked and we IN AWE OF GOD. after our perfect hike, the boys dudes took us up to sausilito, this great lookout point, witha perfect view of the golden gate bridge and the city-spectacular. from the lookout point we drove down to the haight asbury district (think hippie movement) for some dinner. we went to this cool Mediterranean (my favorite!) place called kan zemans. the atmosphere was so cool, dark, red lamps, everyone sitting cross-legged on cushions around your table. i had some tasty lamb kabobs and rice, and warm, spiced wine--yummy. after dinner we walked around a bit and checked out the scene--matt got offered pot several times. we ended up stumbling into a jazz club that looked very retro and fifties. the band was just starting so we decided to check it out and stayed for a couple of hours. the scene was perfect for my very first martini. also my very last disgusting-2-sips-of-and-couldn't-handle-it martini. sorry mare, bad news--it tastes horrible. the jazz was great, the atmosphere was perfect, and our great trip was winding down. those guys really were great hosts and so fun!

we had to leave on monday morning, but we decided to drive down the coast to at least monterey. highway 1 was gorgeous!!!! just driving on the curve of a cliff, waves crashing below. we stopped in monterey, which was a great little bay sort of town, with little shops and brick roads. we checked out fisherman's wharf and cannery row (see matt's reference for starflyer) i wanted to check out big sur, but by the time we were done with monterey it was 3:00 or so and we had about 7 more hours to go. we got home about 9:30, almost 12 hours in the car, we were tired, and already reminicient of our great time, but glad we were coming home to warm san diego.

so we've been through another work week, and i have great news!!! they finally got me some help and another speech therapist is going to take over my caseload at the charter school (which was getting out of control, in the number of kids that i had to see). so that is a relief and i will finally be able to catch up, i think...
other highlights--great bible study we've gotten into, and matt and i went to a party last night with his friends from work and played games--it actually was really fun! today i'm going to my friend's house to hang out in her garden and maybe help her plant some stuff.
hope everyone is well.
tracey