moving in and santa cruz

not much is going on. last night i met up with a girlfriend for drinks. it was fun because we had so much catching up to do. this morning i decided not to go swimming because my hair is beginning to feel like straw. i need a haircut really badly anyway but i'm waiting because i might decide to change my hair style and want to grow my bangs out more just to have that option. instead i did a 50-minute fat burning windsor pilates video and the additional 10-minute sculpting video, which was not very intense.

i am making a point of NOT wearing my heart rate monitor until i can run again. i'm positive i am not working out as hard as before, and that's fine, i just don't want to see the actual number and become unmotivated. once i tried my HRM on my mom's tony gazelle and it was pathetic. hardly a workout at all.

tonight my boyfriend is moving into his new pad - moving some stuff anyway, so i am going over to help. very exciting!

and even more exciting... more vacation stuff. this time - santa cruz! santa cruz is the perfect family vacation spot because of the oceanfront amusement park boardwalk - the oldest one in california. it's also where the movie "lost boys" was filmed. we also took surfing lessons which was so much fun. it was hard to stand up but i caught a few waves. here i am on the wharf pier - there were sea lions at the bottom barking and swimming:


here i am with a giant bird (pelican?):


here is a sea lion below:

SF

first things first - today is friday, my weigh-in day, and i am 121.6 pounds. that is 2.6 less than tuesday, and probably not a "loss" but a better idea of how much i actually gained while on vacation. so really not that bad, although not good considering i can't really exercise. i am going to try swimming again this morning.

my doctor told me to take advil liquigels for the pain. but then my dad was going on and on about how tylenol is for pain and advil is an anti-inflammatory and that's not what i need at all. he has had sciatic pain before and says he knows what he's talking about. i don't know. i took advil my whole vacation and i was far from being pain-free. i just took some tylenol now and am hoping it will let me swim like a normal fish.

yesterday i went to see "the dark knight" with my boyfriend. he actually wants to see mama mia too, but only because he really loves abba. who doesn't? the dark knight was good - action packed, yada yada yada. batman's voice was really breathy and weird though. not the actual voice, but his choice of word timing. and there was too much he's a hero, you're a hero, i'm not a hero, it's you mumbo jumbo going on. and my boyfriend thought maggie gyllenhaal was the worst heroine ever. i like her, but i was more familiar with her from previous movies.

ok and now some vacation stuff:

we left toronto early sunday morning and arrived in SF pretty early (3 hours back) around 11:30 a.m. i had figured out how to take the transit from the airport to the city, and when we poked our heads out of the ground it was ghetto-central - the mission district. lots of homeless crackheads. someone tried to sell us an i-pod nano on the sly within the first five minutes. i realize not all of SF is like this - this is just the first impression.

also it's freezing! i was not expecting california to be so chilly. i knew it was not going to be hot like the south, but it was a bone-chilling, damp cold. we checked into our hotel which was alright but the smallest room i have ever been in (we had to stack our suitcases on top of each other on the floor because there was no room to put them side by side). we were really tired but didn't want to snooze the day away, so we got coffees at this nice place called "cafe trieste" and walked to haight and ashbury, a popular spot for hippies in the 60s.

SF is very, very hilly. normally this wouldn't bother me expect i was already limping and could hardly walk. i preferred to walk uphill because the hills were SO steep, walking downhill put too much pressure on my leg. do i sound like an old man yet? anyway, we saw a man with elf ears... yes, elf ears, and regular clothes, just walking down the street. and then this scene:

out of nowhere these people dressed like this were setting up a bubble wrap slide down the hill, rolling down it, and blowing bubbles at each other while they did it. hehehe. here i am laughing about it:

haight and ashbury was fun but uneventful. later that night (after a nap) we went looking for dinner and finally found a thai place that was open. it's surprising to me how early things closed. then we went to a bar called zeitgeist. i can't believe it's sunny in this photo. our drinks were soooo strong. we asked for two whiskey and diets and 1) they didn't have diet coke... 2) it didn't matter because our pint glasses were filled with 3/4 whiskey and 1/4 coke. it was the strongest drink of my life. i drank half of it and was really tipsy. that's about it for SF! (we went back there at the end of the trip, so i'll have more to say about it later.) happy weekend. :)

where the sky meets the sea

 

i haven't really sorted through the photos yet, but here is a nice one. it's somewhere on the road between san francisco and santa cruz. it doesn't look like a real photo because the ocean and beach shouldn't connect like that... i'm actually standing on the edge of a giant cliff (scary). it was so windy but beautiful. this is the just after we drove away from the san francisco fog and gloom. it was so weird how the division between fog and sun was so drastic and obvious. i got these purple pants in san francisco... love them!

yesterday i tried swimming but my leg was really hurting so i had to stop. my mom wants me to visit a chiropractor and i am seriously considering it. my boyfriend and i cleaned his apartment pretty much all afternoon - until about 7. i did the whole bathroom and under the stove elements. we might go back today... i'd rather just get it over with. he is so excited about it and so am i because it's in my old neighbourhood which i miss a lot. it's a bustling area... people are always out doing things on the street.

so i have the choice to see two movies. 1) mama mia and 2) the dark knight. what should i choose?

even with no exercise, my weight is going back down. thank you fibre :) i hate not being able to do hard core exercise. maybe this injury is my body's way of saying it was too much. when i feel better again i will definitely ease into something. being hardcore was fun while it lasted.

i also wanted to mention that the egg on oatmeal was totally delicious. people eat eggs on toast - toast is a grain like oatmeal... what's the difference? it wasn't flavoured or instant oatmeal people - i am not crazy! ;o)

quickest vacation post ever

having fun

in hollywood today

going to laguna beach tomorrow

:)

tried surfing! (in santa cruz)

going to eat lunch at pink dog or something to do with hot dogs and pink.

you gotta have faith

today is an interesting day. why? because 1) i am going to see george michael tonight. and 2) that's pretty much it. :o) but still... george michael... whoo whoo whoo! i have been waiting 15 years for this guy to come to toronto. and now the day has finally come. my best girl friend from high school is coming in from the burbs and we are eating then going to the show. just subway or something.

for some reason there is a can of tuna sitting on my desk today. i did not put it there. somebody must be losing it. although, my desk is in the centre of the office and people seem to forget stuff on it. like once, someone left a coffee on my desk. it was closed... i thought it must be a gift. but no, someone forgot it. ha.

last night my boyfriend and i spent a LONG TIME booking hotels for california. california is not cheap. a couple of years ago i road tripped down south and hotels were cheap - like $30-$40 cheap. now it's more like $90-150. some are even more. and they don't even look that great. here is what we've got so far:

day one - arrive around noon - sleep in san francisco

day two - pick up car - sleep in santa cruz

day three - sleep in santa barbara

day four - sleep in hollywood

day five - sleep in hollywood (there is lots to do around here obviously...)

day six - sleep in laguna beach (finding a hotel here was a nightmare)

day seven - drive back to san francisco and sleep there (the only hotel we still need to book)

day eight - back to toronto

it's good that we got a car, because we can visit all the beaches and stuff. i'm sure parking will be a nightmare. i don't even want to think about it ha. i am going about picking up local transit though. already i've figured out how to take the BART (bay area rapid transit) from the airport to the stop closest to our hotel. SMRT.

i didn't work out this morning, but i might before the concert tonight. we were up late last night!

what is everyone's favourite subway sub? and make it healthy! thank youuuuuuuuuu.