Cody & Family

Well this post is a bit of a mix of things that happened from late September throughout October. Cody has been spending more and more time with  me and my family. It makes me super happy that he likes my family and that my family likes him too!

Happy Birthday to Me!

On my birthday, my parents like to celebrate like I'm 3 years old.  No matter how much I try, I just can't escape it. There's the pinata, balloons, goodie bags, presents, cake, and the traditional "mordida! mordida...." that is directly followed by your faced being shoved into the cake.  This year, I shared my birthday with my dad, so it made the occasion even more memorable.  Because it was such a special occasion, it was even more important for me that I share it with Cody. What I was more concerned about was whether Cody would accept my family traditions. I was relieved when Cody was able to participate and feel at home with my family. It added to the specialness of the occasion and I felt like I shared a deeply important part of me with Cody.


2nd Saturday with My Cousins:
Another 2nd Saturday date, this time in October, but with some of my little cousins! Shandell, Laura, and Leo came with us to look at several art pieces. I wanted them to explore the city and Cody wanted to them to explore the arts.  I don't think they were too excited about the night though; they are, after all just kids. I was really hoping that at least Shandell would have an appreciation of it though.  What made the night memorable was that there was a rally going on that evening for Women Take Back The Night. The cool thing about Sacramento is that there is always some kind of protest, march, or rally going on. So, as the group was marching along, we joined them in protesting violence against women. 

"Yes means Yes! 

No! means No! 

However we dress,

 Wherever we go!"

After the march, we took the kids to eat giant pizza slices. I think they really like that part.  Cody and I just want to make kids think, learn, and expand their minds.  I want to expose them to different things so that maybe it'll make them better persons as they grow up.  Cody is really interested in helping kids learn and grow. Together we thought this night would have a positive influence on my cousins, but I guess we just have to find another way of reaching out to them.

October's Litter Clean Up Day:

For our second litter clean up day, I invited my cousins again to accompany Cody and me to clean up trash. Only Leo came, but that was better than none of them.  We all had a fun time cleaning up by the river, but we were sad to find so much trash.  Today's rant, however, focuses on fishermen! They show up to fish and leave their trash on the banks.  They even leave their fishing lines and hooks! It's not just bad for the animals, it's bad for people too! What if you were picking up a rock on the shore and accidentally get a fish hook stuck in your hand or foot?!  Arrgh!

You can only keep a 12 year old's attention for so long, so we took breaks throughout the day to play on swings, wade in the river, and eat our PB&J sandwiches. At one instance, Leo stopped working because he was trying to catch a fish with a rock dangling from a fish line! He may not have a great attention span, but at least he was out with us.  Hopefully, we are making an impact on them after all. Cody and I have also been reading to and with them a few times a week. I hope they are getting something from these activities. 

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer:

I participated in this many years ago with my friend Jamie and I loved it! Ever since then, I have wanted to try it again, but for one reason or another, I just never did....until this year!  I don't want to say that Cody made it possible, because who knows if I would have done it regardless of his company. But I know for sure that his support and enthusiasm for me to finally do it was a big factor in helping me achieve this goal of mine.  I was so excited that I even invited my family. Even though only a few members of my family walked with us, I felt very accomplished and happy for us.  Every interaction that Cody and I have with my family is a chance to show them how good of a person he is and why I love him. 

Trick-or-Treat! 

With all the time we've been spending with my cousins, I was surprised to find that Cody actually wanted to take them trick-or-treating on Halloween. I mean, it's one thing to have kids, but it's a totally different thing to have kids hyped up on sugar running all over the place trying to get as much candy as possible.  And it wasn't just 2 or 3 of my cousins; it was the whole bunch: 8. What was Cody thinking?! Luckily, my aunt and uncle went with us to help us keep an eye on them.  Apart from the crazy of taking my cousins with us, this was our first Halloween together- so I wanted it to be memorable. We had first decided our costumes were going to be of a couple. Something romantic like Romeo an Juliet? No! More like Mario and Luigi. Can you guess who was going to be who? :P  But as the day approached, we got lazy and realized that we dont want to feed the consumerism idea of Halloween (we just didn't have any money to waste), so we just painted our faces. Cody had a cold, so he didn't really dress up.  I did Cody's face- Can you tell what he was?  Phantom of the Opera! At the end of the night, what made it memorable, was the fact that we spent it together.

Save The Planet!

Around mid September Cody and I participated in our first Global Litter Clean Up Day. It started by a group on facebook called, Give A Shit About Nature (GASAN). Supposedly, people all over the world participated, though, I don't think a lot of people did. But to those who did, thank you! 

Cody and I cleaned up a lot of trash along one block and along the river walk. We wished we could have done more, but there is A LOT of trash everywhere! I wish people wouldn't litter, especially smokers; they just throw their cigarette butts on the floor like it doesn't matter. But it does matter! Especially so close to the river! The toxins left over in the cigarettes get into the water and animals.

Of great concern when cleaning up is the plastic that holds together six packs.  These end up in the water and eventually into the ocean, where sea turtles and other animals get caught in them.  It is extremely important to break these up before throwing them away.  Another thing you can try is reduce your consumption of plastic in general and reuse any plastic you already have. I know, easier said than done.  But every little bit helps, right? I've gotta believe it.  So Cody and I will try to do these once a month, and hopefully, more people will join us so that we can clean up more than just one block. Any of you interested?









A few weeks later, Cody and I tabled for Save The Frogs! with Mike and Adrienne at the Sacramento Reptile Show. There were so many tiny amphibians ( and some not so tiny), along with a bunch of reptiles and arachnids for sale.  Our table however, wasn't selling anything live. We were trying to promote awareness for the drastic decline in population of amphibians and convince people that if they did want to buy animals, to make sure they were not wild caught.  We also tried to get people to sign a petition to prohibit the importation of bull frogs into CA because these frogs are not native and tend to outcompete other native species. Any money we made from the selling of t-shirts and other STF paraphernalia went straight to fund the non-profit org. It was a long day of talking to adults and kids and seeing really cool animals!

Later that evening, we all went to Adrienne's & Chase's house for some tofurkey hotdogs and soyrizo. We spent the rest of the evening playing a fun game of animals and math- I forgot what it was called, but it's not as lame as it sounds.  It's was fun hanging out with them for a day, plus, it was for a good cause :)

Lake Tahoe

Ya know how I'm always lamenting that my family is not part of my adventures with Cody? Well, this time, they were!- at least my mom and my cousin, Shandell.  Cody and I were planning a trip to Lake Tahoe for some outdoor time and climbing. Last minute, I asked if anyone wanted to go and my mom and Shandell expressed interest. So early the next morning we all set out for Lake Tahoe. My mom came well prepared with food and snacks, even a whole watermelon!  She also brought her puppy with us.  I guess love of animals runs in the family.


And while Cody and I climbed, they explored the area and/or slept. But it's a really different dynamic when you're hiking with a big group as opposed to with just one other person. For one, you just have to pick the perfect spot to picnic in order to cut the watermelon, otherwise, you'll have to lug the whole thing everywhere you go.  Second, you must absolutely get lost and wander aimlessly, only to realize hours later that you were just a few feet off the trail.

But in all seriousness, it was sooo much fun!  Despite being lost and not being able to find The Brain, which was a particular rock that Cody really wanted to climb, we all had a good time.  After the morning climb, we were walking back to the car and passed a lake that was begging us to swim in it.  Well, i got right down to my undergarments, in front of my mom and cousin, and went in.  All I have to say, is that the lake was a cold-hearted liar! It was not as warm as the shallow water said it was :/  But hey, you only live  once, right? I think my mom took that as final confirmation of having a wild child for a daughter- more so because she said there were construction workers nearby and "how dare[I]? People [would] see me". Baloney! I didn't see anyone except for us four (five if you count the dog).  Of course, I have gotten in colder waters, so we shall forgive the little lake. Or was it a pond?  Geez, my memory of this is a bit sketchy; it was, after all, 2 months ago.

The second climbing part of the day was suppose to be near Lake Tahoe's shore, but it wasn't.  This is the part where we got lost and I hiked for hours and hours with a whole watermelon in my bag.  At one point, Cody and I separated to go look for The Brain, but it only resulted in us chasing each other in circles. Note to anyone lost- never separate from the group. We've all seen it in scary movies, so I don't know why I did it.  Nothing scary happened to us though, we just got kinda frustrated at each other.  I think Cody was a little bit more frustrated with me than I was :/

But all was well in the end. We stopped for lunch and a quick rest. (No, we still did not cut the watermelon!) Even Canela enjoyed romping about. Afterwards, Mom and Shandell took a nap on a slab that we all nicknamed The Sacrificial Rock, while Cody and I continued looking for The Brain. We finally found it, but I didn't climb as much. Cody did pretty well though, but outside bouldering is always tougher than gym bouldering. When we were done, we returned to The Sacrificial Rock to get my mom and cousin and then back to the car we went! 

This time, we were on our way to Lake Tahoe, but we saw a man coming out of an ice cream shop with a HUGE ice cream cone; we obviously, had to stop for our own cone. There was also a cute wooden bear, so it was only fitting that Codybear and I would take a picture with our fellow brother.



Near sunset, we finally reached the shores of Lake Tahoe. The air was cold and the water was even colder, but I had never been in Lake Tahoe, so you'd be crazy if I was going to pass up the opportunity to go in :D  And Cody, following my lead, went in too!  Ok, so we're not all crazy up in those bear heads of ours- we only went in up to our knees.  Afterwards, we all had dinner and YES! We finally cut that darn watermelon!  All in all, it was an awesome day and I was happy to share it both with Cody and my family.  And I know Cody liked it too because he really likes taking people to new places and even Shandell fell in love with the area; she would like to live there someday.  I, on the other hand, want to live everywhere with Cody.

RIP Baby Khajit.....

    It is with a heavy heart that I am announcing the heartbreaking death of one of my cats, Khajit. He passed away on October 27, 2012 at the young age of 5 years.  Cody and I have been hit pretty hard by this. We will always love and remember him as our fat, grouchy yet loving Khajit. He loved climbing his cat castle, liked to play rough, loved eating every hour and always insisted on a full plate. He would always wake me up around 5-6am for his morning feeding by placing his claw on my jugular and he loved humping his brother to assert dominance. He also had penchant for eating yarn, which is what led to his untimely death.  Rest in peace my lovely kitty.  I love you and so does daddy.

Cody and I are now focusing our attention on Nala so that he doesn't get depressed at the loss of his brother. We have been spending more time with him and even taking him on trips with us, but I'll tell you more about that later, after I update with everything that's happened between last post and this one. And it's actually quite a bit, so I'll be doing it over the next several days (hopefully).

Support

I'm at a place in my life where I can find my own motivation and feel confident to do things on my own, but it's always nice to feel and have the support of loved ones and friends.  And Cody is certainly a good source of support for me.  He is always there for me, from helping me fill out county papers at midnight, staying up with me to keep me company when I'm feeling all kinds of crazy, to getting up early (on his day off) to give me a ride to get my parents' dog spayed.  On top of that, he gives me flowers!

 

I should be the one giving him flowers as a thank you, not the other way around. But he can continue doing so if he wants :)

Just like my family who has always been here for me through both the good and tough times, Cody has become someone I can always count on. And why not? He has become family.

Cody's Friends are My Friends Too

A few weeks after our Yosemite trip, we hung out with some of Cody's friends. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures, but it was nice getting to know more about Cody through his friends.

River Rafting:
Cody and I joined Adrienne, Mike, Chase, & Carrie on the American River for a day of rafting.  I had never gone river rafting, which is a bit hard to believe since I've lived next to the river almost all my life.  The experience was nice, except for there were TONS of other people rafting too. And they were all rowdy! Plus, all the trash!  This activity illustrates perfectly how horrible humans treat nature.  Loud, rowdy, polluting people disturbing the peace of the river. I suppose it wouldn't have been so bad if the river wasn't so crowded; I would like to take my family river rafting someday. But even the cost of this activity, I feel, discourages certain people from participating.
 Ignoring all the noise and trash left behind by rafters, you could really enjoy the riparian ecosystems. We saw tons of ducks. Cody pointed out all the different types, as well as some plants.  We saw some pretty cool rock and riverbank formations.  And when the sun got too hot to be under, we slipped into the water :)  The water, of course, was super cold! Afterward, we all hung out at Adrienne & Chase's house for grilled eggplants and tofu. Earlier that day, Adrienne gave Cody and me a pair of string bracelets from Brazil to make a wish. I wished for ****** ;p  Supposedly, your wish is suppose to come true when your bracelet falls off on its own. So I tied Cody's bracelet on him and he tied mine. Mine fell off within the hour; I guess Cody didn't tie it strongly enough, but that meant that my wish is going to come true really fast, right?

Dinner with Stacey & Derek:
Derek is an old friend of Cody & Mike, so they've known one another for years.  Derek got engaged over the summer, to a very special lady, Stacey.  So we had all been meaning to meet some time, but just never gotten around to it, until last weekend in August.  I kept hearing amazing things about Stacey from Cody, who heard it from Derek, and guess what, she really is wonderful.  We decided to have a potluck together, but ended up eating as if we had gone to a 5 star restaurant! She made some amazing, mouth-watering, spicy bbq cauliflowers (in lieu of bbq chicken wings). She also made really good tomato and portobello sandwiches with cheese.  AND delicious, delicious (no, that's not  a typo) humus. Plus, they provided the wine.  Cody and I made spring rolls for them- not as fancy, but still fun.  While the food was cooking, I got a tour of their home and WOW!  It's so artsy!  and yet, nicely decorated.  Not at all like my place would be if I had all that space to throw my brushes and projects on the floor.  All those projects that I pin on pinterest, I bet Stacey would be able to do them and actually follow thru with it. After dinner, we played  Cards Against Humanity, which is like Apples to Apples, but more perverse. We all had fun and I had a great time being more open with Cody and his friends. I'm glad Cody isn't afraid of showing me to his friends. They're all pretty cool.

Tuolumne Meadows

Oh my, where to start!  It's been such a long time since I've updated and so many things have happened. I only hope I can remember all the details so that when I read this many years later, I can recall the stillness of the woods, the bone chilling drop in temperature, and the smell of fresh pines in the air....but more on that later.

     We took our trip in mid August, before all the craziness of school and work started, and we headed to Yosemite the same way we drove when heading to Bishop. Last time, the road had snow a couple feet deep on its sides and the trees were loaded with pure snow on its branches. This time, however, everything was green and clear; plus, it was day time. I've said this before, but I'll say it again because it really is true: I love road trips with Cody.  I love what we talk about, I love the moments of quiet and the moments of laughter. I love all that he teaches me about the mountains and I love all that we learn about each other.
    I hadn't been in the Yosemite area since 2007, so I was  anxiously looking forward to our arrival as we left hot Sacramento behind us. The temperature got cooler as we got closer, and I felt a twinge of guilt knowing that Cody and I were escaping the heat while our families were stuck in 100 degree weather.  And I guess Karma hit us when we arrived at Ellery Lake, because the temperature dropped like 40 degrees (er, I may be exaggerating, but it was hailing!!!!). Yet, instead of focusing on the negative, we decided to get out of the car and experience the rain and hail by prancing.  Ok, so we didn't quite pranced; it was more like, "whoa! too cold, back in the car, quick!" But just being able to experience the change in temperature was awesome. And it's funny because, at the end of that day, when it had stopped raining, we drove by that lake again and this time, it had an orange glow from the sunset.

    Once we passed through the entrance, I kept expecting to see a bear at any moment, so I kept my eyes open for them. I was constantly disappointed when I kept mistaking logs and dark boulders for bears.  Apparently, Cody found this really amusing.
     We stopped to have lunch and who do you think we ran into?  Matt and Kate from the Bishop trip!  Cody knew they were going to be there that weekend but they made no plans to meet up.  And it's a BIG park! So what could have been the chances of running into them? But regardless, we climbed together after lunch.  These rocks had lots of little knobs that made it easy to climb; I think that area was called The Knobs.  I liked it there. On the way to our campsite, we stopped by a creek and soaked our hands and feet.  Cold water really helps aching fingers and toes.

      At our campsite, in June Lake, we saw some shooting stars :)  We made ourselves a ready to eat meal: Naan and Curry. At night, we heard a loud noise and people trying to scare a bear away.  It wasn't a very pleasant site because in the morning, there were lots of trucks and cars turning on their engine.  It was quite noisy and seemed like a truck stop. I was disappointed that I didn't actually get to see the bear raiding the campground.
       The next day we played on Puppy & Kitty Dome Rocks.  The day started out beautifully and there was an alluring little pond with a small waterfall into it that I told myself I would take a dip in after climbing. At Kitty dome we had a majestic encounter with a doe. While Cody was climbing a guitar rock, there was a doe that stayed near by. It started sprinkling, so Cody took a break from his rock, and while we were standing still, the doe came closer and closer.  We were so happy! So we kept still longer. Everything was still, and then, she started making sounds.  And do you know who answered her? Her fawn!- who was just about 10 feet away from us! The doe reached her baby who promptly proceeded to suckle and then they both started walking away, but not before the fawn looked at us and stomped its foot.  The mom yelled at her kid to get away from those humans and follow her.  Amazing, amazing nature!
    After kitty dome, we stopped by the pond again, but by this time, the temperature was cold, cloudy, grey, and sprinkling. But it's YOSEMITE man! I went in anyways, freezing water, thunder, and all! I hiked back to the car all wet with squishy shoes.  Still no signs of bears.

      On this night, we didn't stay at our reserved campsite. Instead we decided to go primitive!  And found a cute little spot next to a creek on free land.  We set up our tent and it was the best spot we've ever had camping. It was also a short drive to Lee Vining, so even though we were primitive, we had the option of escaping back into town.  We made ourselves some chocolate abuelita and cooled it off in the river.  I was scared of the dark, so I turned on our headlamps every now and then. It looked like we were in the middle of the woods, but it was right next to the road.  I want to go back to that spot.

The following morning, Cody made me pancakes!  Camping pancakes! Camping Banana Pancakes! With maple almond butter.....I love this boy.  He has the  sweetest and most caring soul.  I love my Cody.  As today was going to be our last day, we decided to climb in an aspen grove one last time before heading over to Yosemite Valley. On our way there, we stopped to take pictures at a lookout point and decided that we wanted to climb one more problem: CREATURE OF THE BLACK LAGOON.

If there is one problem I would try over and over again, it would be this one.  Not that I was even able to finish Creature of the Black Lagoon, but I will try again. We will go out out there again someday, preferably next year, to try it. And if I am able to finish it, I will do it over and over again.  Such a beautiful spot, but very swampy. Trust me, you did not want to fall into that murky water.  However, it was a relief knowing that if you did fall, the water would break your fall. Letting go of the fear is a big part in accomplishing any problem.

    Well, after 4 days of camping and no shower, I was down to my last clothes.  And knowing that I would surely fall into the water at some point, I wanted to take my pants and shirts off.  But unfortunately, there were other climbers there too, and though I'm sure they wouldn't have minded if I had stripped down, I'm still not exactly comfortable doing so in front of others.  So I only took one of my shirts off.  With only one dry shirt of my own and a borrowed long sleeve from cody, I ended up looking like this by the end of that project:

Ridiculous!

So, after this, there was only one more place to visit, and that was Yosemite Valley. We walked up to Lower Yosemite Falls where we found a few small pools of water,  but mainly, everything else was dried up. The "falls" were just a trickle, but still cold. We sat on some huge rocks and read our vows to each other, while eating bread and cheese (Cody broke veganism for the trip).  The sun started setting and we knew it was time to head back home. I didn't get to see any bears during this trip, but there's always next year, right?