a weekend away and a return to stress

so, i take my MCAT in like, 15 days. am trying to tell myself that everything will be fine, but it's easier said than done. throw in the stress of finding a job after it's over, a little boy trouble and just general uncertainty and you have quite the cocktail.

all this of course called for a weekend away. so i took off for tahoe with a few good friends and my fairy godmother and spent three days at the lake.



this was the view walking down from the house. i've spent time in tahoe, but it's a special thing to have a house on the lake, as my dear gina does, and so the views were quite majestic just twenty feet outside the door.


the water, which you can sort of see in the picture above, is basically almost crystal clear. a tad on the chilly side, but rarely have i wanted to dive into a lake so badly.


beautiful, right? so i picked up jenn at SFO friday morning, we stopped at the market to grab about 100 limes and avocados, and we made it to tahoe about three and half hours later, where a group of lovely ladies was waiting to hand us maragaritas made with fresh citrus and Patron. a dinner of grilled tri-tip and pasta salad and several lovely bottles of wine and a skype call with a friend who couldn't make it later, we all were exhausted and passed out.



we spent the next day heading to a bar that's basically on a dock, and then took the boat for a spin and caught some sun. as you can see, i'm quite tan. kind of amazing.





jenn is too adorable for words.





got home and opened the grey goose and had martinis, and then we all took a nap (tired from sun and drinking) and then roused ourselves enough to order a cab to a restaurant. they were worried about the weather so were not serving fine dining on the patio, but we waited out there with a drink while they prepared our table and caught a great sunset.



dinner was delicious. lots of great wine, and i had scallops stuffed with crab meat and pesto on little risotto cakes and a stellar salad. then it was cabbing it home, more wine, a chocolate birthday cake for gina and drunken talking on the dock until the wee hours.

i woke up early and sunned on the dock, listening to music and just relaxing.



the next day we hit emerald bay and ventured into nevada. views were fairly spectacular there, as well.




all in all, it was a fabulous little get away, and while i've struggled monday and today with getting myself back on track, it was great to see my friends and get some fresh air.

so... who wants to visit? ;)

sigh.

so, apparently the only thing that can motivate me to update this blog is to have emily yell at me to do so. sadly, very little has been going on in the last few months that's worth reporting.... although i'm slightly concerned a piano's going to fall on my head this week. my father had hip replacement surgery two months ago, and about a month after that, my sister broke her wrist and had surgery. now, my mother calls me to tell me that she fell off her bike and broke her arm, and she just had surgery yesterday.

emily assures me bad things happen in threes, but i can't help but feel slightly nervous every time i walk outside this week. am i NEXT?? eeps.

in other news, i pinched my sciatic nerve, which was a huge bitch. it's been nearly a month, and sitting for extended times is still difficult. i either need to be on my back or standing up walking around, and not everything one does is conducive to those two positions. sigh.

jeremy arrived mid-may, and it's been great to see him... i'm glad he's in the bay area in the sun and relaxing, and he seems to be happier since he got here. i missed him a lot.

i'm still at the hotline at the San Francicsco AIDS Foundation -- i'm doing the AIDS walk in July. if anyone would be willing to donate to the walk, let me know, and if you're in the city and want to join my team, even better...

be kind, please unwind.

it was megan's birthday on sunday, and to celebrate her 29th year, emily, noelle, jess, megan and i went to kabuki spa for a morning to relax and unwind. the main attraction of kabuki is their communal baths. we spent over two hours relaxing in the sauna, steam room, hot bath and cold plunge.

the sore neck i'd been battling for days disappeared, and we then lunched on soba and sushi and took a nap before people dropped by our house to celebrate with good food, a cake and wine.

a weekend of sunshine.

the weekend before school started, frances, marisa, john and i packed up the car and dorjee and headed for pt. reyes for a picnic. needless to say, the weather was outstanding and the day was perfection. after eating quiche, fresh fruit, pumpkin-cheescake cupcakes and drinking a bottle of wine, we hung out in the surf and soaked up the sun. on the way home, we stopped at an oyster farm and had the freshest oysters i've ever encountered...and people wonder why i love it here.

apparently i don't look like anyone...

...because these are not true at all.

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

a very Bakke/Bauer christmas

so, despite the fact that i did NOT attend high school in stillwater, i am still allowed at the annual christmas reunion at angie's parents' house. which is very handy, because i get to see some of my favorite people all in one holiday extravaganza, complete with beef sausage, spreadable cheese, karaoke and other midwestern favorites. not only that, but everytime i sleep at a bakke household, i have the pleasure of sleeping on some of the world's best air mattresses. that family seems to top themselves every time i sleep over, and this year was no exception.

plus, i even managed to make it to stillwater without dying, even though there had been a massive blizzard and it was CRAZY windy. i swung by the bauers' and picked up emily and lucy and then we began the trek out to the middle of nowhere to casa de bakke.

california drivers suck.

okay, here's the thing. i KNOW i bitch non-stop about how shitty the drivers are in this sunny state. but seriously. i bought a new car about six weeks ago.

and it has been hit THREE times. THREE. WHILE PARKED.

i was picking lydia up in the mission about three weeks ago, and she went to get in the passenger side and the door only opened halfway. turns out some asshole hit me in my school parking lot and didn't leave a note. and i don't have collision insurance, because i'm a poor bastard and can't afford it.

someone swiped the front bumper a week later, scraping paint off.

and last night, i leave marisa's house at eleven-thirty or so and go to open my driver's side door and it snaps back shut! because someone hit me in the SAME spot that the passenger side was hit, and now BOTH doors barely open. at least this time i got a note. actually, i got TWO notes. one from someone saying they watched someone hit my car and speed away and left me their license plate. (i can only assume this sweet, wonderful soul has been hit and no one left THEM a note, and they feel my pain. and they live in CA, so the chances are pretty high i'm right)

the person who hit me ALSO returned and left a note. either they felt guilty or just realized someone might have seen them, but all i can say is, debby better have insurance.

on the plus side, lindsey comes tomorrow! yay! i'm so excited!

my program is a cult.

my classmates are so great. they're a great support system, they're great to study with and more importantly, they're a blast to hang out with...

i promise, we're really studying a lot.

loving the bay...

so, i haven't blogged in quite a while.. i'll try to catch up. might as well pick up in october or so.

it's been a long time since i had a party for my birthday -- it's been at bars for quite a few years, and so this time i decided to throw it at my house. it's plenty big, and that way we could make food.

well, good i head in theory. and it was TONS of fun, but such a mess! and my poor roommates... i was heading to sacramento the next morning and left them with the ugliest mess there ever was. but i'm pretty sure everyone enjoyed themselves. new friends mixed with old and everyone got drunk. sign of a good party.

here i am...

finally, i made it to the west coast. i got here last wed. with ella after an incredibly long drive. on tuesday we drove all the way from omaha to salt lake city! i think i'm going to have to stay here forever, because i NEVER want to drive
through provo canyon again with a rental truck towing a car. Oh my
god, so scary! i thought my break pads were going to start on fire!

it is so incredibly beautiful here... the weather is fantastic. 78 and
sunny every day, and cool at night. my house is absolutely beautiful,
i got so lucky. you could film a cooking show in my kitchen. and my
bedroom looks out on a huge garden with a pond. i have a lemon tree in
my backyard. :)

i don't start school until next week, so i've just been enjoying
relaxing and settling in. ella was here until sunday, and i took her
into san francisco and we did some touristy stuff. it only takes
twenty minutes on the train to get to downtown from my house in
berkeley, so that's cool.

berkeley is SO beautiful. there are glorious, lush gardens EVERYWHERE.
all you smell is flowers when you walk down my block. this morning and
yesterday morning my roommate and i went for a run by our house in
strawberry canyon. a bunch of it is uphill, which sucks, but when you
get to the top, you have a beautiful view of the bay and san francisco
and oakland.