Berkeley Bouldering Trip

Last Friday, Cody and I went to Berkeley to boulder with some friends (David, Sunnie, and Viqui.) As always, Berkeley is beautiful and any trip with Cody is super fun, even when we are just driving.  Especially when we are just driving, listening to radiolabs and having conversations on science-y topics. When we got to Indian Rock Park, I was surprised that I never knew how such a big rock was smack in the middle of the Berkeley area surrounded by houses.There are lots of other rocks like that scattered around. David and Cody really got into bouldering and were helping each other, while I just played around on the rocks.  David and Sunnie are really good and I only wish Cody and I could have gotten together with them a lot earlier because I think we could really learn from them.  I've noticed that climbers tend to be really friendly and helpful, so I'm sure we'll encounter other climbers that we can learn from.


After climbing, we went to Berkeley Bowl and bought lots of bulk food.  We are planning on making vegan pumpkin and poppy seed wheat bread. Sounds good, right?  We are also going to make veggie tamales (we might need help from my mom for this), and tofu stuffed bell peppers.  Yum!  We bought a pint of vegan curry lentil soup and ate it on top of a look out point overlooking the bay.  After eating, we climbed some more! It was a really secluded little park with a beautiful view of the sunset.  There was a small playground there and we played in it as if we were little kids.  




The following Sunday, we drove up to Yuba City to watch the annular eclipse. I made a pinjole projection box, but a man with his children who saw us on the side of the road, gave us a plastic film that helped us see the eclipse better. It was a very nice afternoon eating cherries while watching the eclipse, and I'm glad to have shared it with Cody.

Happy 6 Months!

Yesterday was our 6 month mensiversary! Half way there to a year, and it has been a marvelous six months. I am so lucky to have such a compassionate and caring human being who actually loves me. He has such a beautiful soul and is so down to earth, that I always feel so relaxed next to him.  So, what did we do to celebrate?  We went to Whole Earth Festival at UC Davis!  It was a very relaxing afternoon sitting on the grass with Cody's head on my lap, gently caressing his hair and music all around us.  Lots of hippies!  But also, lots of vendors :/  I got a beetle painted on my chest. It was really pretty, but I think that next time, I'll paint my own beetle at home. 

There were informational booths too, like SAVE THE FROGS, but by the time we got there, only the vendors were left.  And the food was so expensive too!  Imagine a mango on a stick for 5 bucks! absurd! Still, it was a nice ambiance and we were there with friends too (Christina, Luna, Mike, and Robyn).  AND Cody and I got FREE plants! Yay! More babies for our garden!

Afterwards, some of us went to eat, but we all met again later in the park where we played with Mike's glow pois. And that's it! We went home.  

Cody on the left, Mike on the right.

Here's a poem I recently got from Codybear:  

There once was a man, gazing fondly at his lover with delight.

She gave him love, fidelity, and respite… He’d do absolutely anything for her in a fight.

At her he frequently stared, but it couldn’t be helped.

In a moment he might feel her pinch, and give a yelp.

For he had feelings hard to bear, for her gift to him had been more than fair,

Her passion, her stare, her gentle and loving care.  

To pleasure, to cherish, to warm inside and out,

He loved her more day by day, there could be no doubt.

Her hair a gorgeous pink, so much more beautiful than she might think

A squeaky bra and a pouty lip, both do nothing to shake his grip

of the love he feels, the desire he has, the hopes he carries

For her and he to one day marry.

And for all that may come, the ups and downs are sure to follow.

But in each other's arms nothing felt is hollow,

for there always awaits an even greater tomorrow.

Worry and fear, do take heed,

with them together you will not feed.

While little in this world is certain, indeed,

it is beyond true, Nahdxyeli, that you are all Cody needs.

Yay! I love my Cody :)  And speaking of "one day marry," big ol' CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! to Viqui for getting engaged!!! I am sooo happy for you!  

And another Congratulations! to Karina!  for getting into UC Davis Med School.  Knew you could do it, girl!

Fairy Puppy

P.S. Don't know why that text is boxed in/highlighted like that.

Earth Date 4-22-12

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  Yesterday was a horrible allergy day for me, but Cody came to the rescue by providing me with Benadryl and a ride home for me and my bike.  I've learned my lesson and will be taking allergy meds every morning even if it doesn't look like it's going to be a bad allergy day, which will come in handy when I work on the garden tomorrow (er, should I say later today).  The garden is doing well. Since Cody and I planted our Indigo Apple Tomato, it's grown into a promising food resource and it all started with EARTH DAY! about 2 weeks ago.

To celebrate Earth, we decided to spend the day out in nature and tending to our garden.  In the morning, we rode our bikes in Folsom on a beautiful trail.  I made this "Happy Earth Day" sign and attached it to the back of my bike.  I did get a few cheerful reactions from passerby's.  Then we had lunch in Old Folsom, which neither of us had ever been despite living so close to it. 
 




 I really liked our beans and corn lunch but apparently, Cody didn't.  No worries, he was just objecting to his picture being taken- but he looks so cute! Afterwards, we picked out our babies at the nursery and took them home, where we planted them in our garden. Eggplant, squashes, cucumber, more tomatoes, and beans, oh my! We are sure to have a feast this summer.  

Later that evening, I noticed that I got sunburned, which doesn't happen very often, so I was surprised.  After gardening, I gave Cody an Earth Day present. They are rock owls- an idea I got from pinterest.  I think I will continue to do this every year and make it a tradition, unless I forget- I tend to be forgetful >_<

                                            
If you want to continue reading about our garden, you can check out his blog at Stay! Weird for a week by week update. Plus, he gets more into the maintenance and details of not just the plants, but the soil too. He just bought worms to add to the worm bin with compost.  Hehehe, squirmy!

Museum Date 4-12-12

 Yes! I finally reached the current month- the downside? It’s almost over.  No worries, I’ll be doing individual posts. By that, I mean no more month recaps. Earlier this month Cody participated in a bouldering competition! It wasn’t organized very well.  As a spectator, I could see a lot of cheating going on; you can imagine how Cody felt, so we left it early. But that gave us more time to get started on our garden.  We only planted one plant, an Indigo Apple Tomato.

Crocker Art Museum, New Addition.

A few weeks later, I went on a lovely museum date with my Cody at Crocker Art Museum.  We had a charming night perusing many amazing exhibits. There were a lot of people there, mostly students. Before I get into the art, I want to talk about the feeling of walking through a room full of people while holding hands with your loved one- you feel alone. Not in a lonely way, but in the kind where your rusty brain gears are trying to make sense of different points of views. There’s no right way to interpret art, everybody sees something different and not everyone will agree it’s art but the act of looking is all that is required to spark something inside of you.  By the end of the evening, it felt like my brain was in pain from trying to think.  It feels like my brain has been constipated and seeing all that art stirred some cognitive indigestion. But at the same time it was so much fun! It’s interesting to feel emotions brought upon by paintings on the walls. Many times, I wasn’t even sure I knew what I was feeling- for sure confusion- but that’s the point, that my brain was trying to figure something out.   By the end of the night, it felt like I hadn’t been there with Cody. We were together and we did talk to each other about the paintings and other things, but it was mostly an individual experience. He kind of felt the same way, so he understood what I meant.

I wish I had written down the names of the artists and their works. Some that I remember and was able to google were:

Judy Chicago

Earth Birth 1983

The Fall 1993

Irving Norman

My World and Yours (And The Gods Created The World In their Own Image) 1954

Gottfried Helnwein

Troy Dalton

The Birth of Cain

March 2012

Petroglyphs

Katie and Kate

 Cody and I, along with Katie, Kate, and Matt, took a trip to Bishop, CA for their spring break. It’s a great place for bouldering and rock climbing, plus it also has hot springs!  We spent 5 whole days climbing and camping!  It was so much fun. Cody and Matt got to do some serious bouldering while the girls just played around the rocks.  My favorite spots were the Happy Boulders and The Dreamers. We also went to The Buttermilks, but didn’t stay long there.  And getting to the bottom of…..I forgot the name of the gorge, but it’s where we climbed, was long but even more difficult to 

hike back up.  

I was cranky and upset; not at anything in particular, I guess I was just tired.  I didn’t want Cody to see me like that, but he’s very understanding and I tried to emphasize that he didn’t do anything wrong.   At the end of that long hiking day, I was more cheerful and when we had to do more hiking the next day, I wasn’t cranky.  Changing moods and having feelings is part of being human and I’m glad that I didn’t scare Cody too much, because the truth is that I had a lot of fun hiking and climbing and exploring and just being generally active.  We also went searching for some petroglyphs in the area and were very impressed by what we found. On the way home, we also stopped at Mono Lake to look at the Tufas.

 

                                                        Cody and I also explored the town of Bishop, which is really small, but touristy. In the evenings, we visited some hot springs and it was sooo warm!  It was my first time swimming in them and images of the movie Volcano came to my mind; specifically, the scene where a bunch of horny college kids get into a hot spring that rapidly heats up, ending with them boiling to death.  But nothing of the sort happened to us and it was very romantic, in fact, with the evening twilight and the bats flying around us.  Electricity poles ran alongside and in the dark of the night, you could see small arches of electricity racing along the lines amidst a blanket of gleaming stars.

My very first snow angel!

On the drive to and from, we drove through the mountains so there was snow and I got play in white fluffy snow!  It wasn’t hard, like I remembered from when I was a kid. We had mini snowball fights and made snowmen and snow angels. 

Snow family.

I was a little worried at the start of the trip that after spending so many days together, we would grow a bit bored of each other; I think Cody was concerned about this too.  But by the end of the trip, we both felt like we had grown closer by getting to know each other better.  We got to see the good and the bad sides of each other and we still weren't sick of each other- always a good sign, right?  Not only did we grow closer, but our relationship grew stronger too.

February 2012

I want to be caught up with the present already, but I’m almost there, so I’ll try to write shorter recaps. I don’t remember much of what happened in February; our school schedules didn’t leave much free time. But there were two events that I do remember; one, of course, was Valentine’s Day. Our first V-Day and we spend it doing….NOTHING! Because I had class all day, I didn’t even see him until almost 10pm and we were both tired. But a few days before, he brought me pretty orchids and we spent the day together.  So even though we didn't do anything on valentine’s day, we did celebrate it.  Beside, shouldn't every day be Valentine’s day?  It sure does feel that way to me.  I’m in love every single day and everything looks shinier, fluffier, brighter, greener, prettier- all because of him.

  Gaby                                                                                                                Esau

Ok, enough with the mushy stuff.  The second thing I remember from February is my tea party!  I had a casual tea party to celebrate my unbirthday so I invited a few friends and what do you know, it was their unbirthday too!  So we all drank tea, talked about psychology, and blew out the candles to our unbirthday cake.  Not many guys came, but it was nice that Cody got to meet some of my friends. And a BIG thanks to Gaby and Cody for decorating even though you can't see it in the pictures.  Also, kudos to Gaby for a delicious and pretty cake. I want to have another tea party some day. Maybe you could join us next time.

                           Karina

Cody                                                                                                                     Alana

January 2012

     Unfortunately, I did not spend New Years Eve with Cody.  He was down in San Diego visiting his family and I couldn’t go due to work.  But I did see him New Years evening, after he got back from SD.  He brought me flowers!  Those were my first flowers that I’ve ever gotten from a guy that was not family! 

     The previous month, Cody took me rock climbing at Pipeworks with his climbing friends.  Afterward, we all ate Thai food in downtown, where we started talking about pets.  It turned out that Katie had so many cats, that she was giving two away.  I jumped on the opportunity, so on January 2^nd, Cody and I went to pick up the cats. 

   I named them Nala and Khajit. They were (are) so cute! But mischievous! One time when I came home late from work and nobody was home, they tore open their food bag. 

                                









But it’s hard to stay mad at them; they do so many funny and cute things. I love them so much!