Love, Dancing, and Tahoe

For the past few months, we have been planning a trip to Lake Tahoe for skiing. All the footwork was done, and we were packed and ready to go. Then we find out there was going to be a massive snowstorm in the Reno area all weekend. No, worries. How bad could it be...right? I have only skiied once. I used to snowboard but had a pretty bad fall that made me give it up. So this was going to be my second skiing experience.

This trip was similar to college trip - 10 person condo with 13 people in it, only two bathrooms, only two bedrooms, beer can pyramids, beerpong, a hot tub, and a ridiculous high guy to girl ratio (which can be gross for the girls). But it all worked out - there was fresh snow, and everyone was ready to enjoy the weekend.

I managed to survive with all my bones intact, but there were times I thought I wouldn't make it. We were at Heavenly, and Chris swore there was this blue trail that was really a green. Naively, I followed him. At first, I thought he was right. There were a lot of flat spots (which were painful for my weak little arms since I had to push myself across flat snow), and we were even able to take a nice picture. So here I am thinking "Wow, I must be better than I thought since this blue is so easy." Then, I turned a corner and saw this super steep hill. There is only one way down the mountain at this point, and this is it. While I could have done the trail walk of shame and walk down to the bottom, I felt I had to at least try it. The little yellow dot on the ground in the picture is me. When we finally made it to the bottom, and I was ready to go.

Since the snowstorm was delayed until Monday, we decided to try this Pints and Paddles event on a riverboat on Lake Tahoe. The idea was pretty neat. The boat took you around the lake. It had a jazz band, free beer, and a Bavarian dinner buffet. It was great.

Lee and Lindsey were engaged on the trip, Kenny and Damon discovered a new bromance - there was so much love in the air. We also were able to catch a strange 80s and 90s cover band at Harrah's Cabo Wabo, and I saw Chris pull out some 80s dance moves that made me cry I was laughing so hard. As a matter of fact, there are several guys that I can blackmail with embarrasing pictures of their dancing...

By Monday, we were all exhausted and ready to go home. Our car (Chris, Damon, John, and myself) was the last one to leave Tahoe. As luck would have it, the snowstorm hit at the same time. In an effort to find the silver lining, I will say these guys can probably put snow chains on with their eyes closed (yes, Chris is "supervising"). Eventually it was so bad that the road signs were barely above the snow (that is a rest stop sign). We did make the 9-hour trip home in 12, but I am just glad we made it. We finally were able to see Tahoe. It was beautiful and made us miss winter.

If you were on the trip, here's a memory for you : "No, it's not funny! Coyotes eat babies!"

Chocolate, Beer, and Pickled Eggs

I love chocolate. As much as I know I am playing into the stereotype, there are few things in life that make me as happy as good chocolate. Now that I am working in Long Beach, I take the scenic route to and from home. Belmont Shore is a cute little area just south of LB that has random events. This past weekend was the Chocolate Festival. The crepe man at Le Creperie made chocolate crepes filled with fresh strawberries and nutella and topped with whipped cream. Amazing! When we stood in line at 3pm (two hours into the festival), he estimated making at least 300 crepes already! By 3:30,those in the line that wrapped around the block were disappointed to discover the crepe guy ran out of crepes. We managed to snag a few despite the insanely long line.

This was one of the first events of Mehgan's bday week, so several of us had quite an adventure in Belmont Shore. This was the first visit at Le Creperie for several of us, and my "Mar" crepe was fantastic and was not overwhelmed by the seafood.

After chasing down the evasive BJ's Pazookie, the guys decided a bar would be more fun than following all the women shopping. While I am a proponent of this way of shopping, having three slighly intoxicated men shout at you from across the street is not what I had in mind.

Once we convinced the guys to stop yelling "Hey, ladies, ladies!", we found ourselves enjoying an overcast afternoon in the bar. Classy, I know. I don't know who suggested it, but someone convinced all of us to try a pickled egg. If you have never had the displeasure of one, be grateful!

I love eggs, even hardboiled ones. But when the egg is almost a solid, is a sick color of yellow, and comes served with mustard, I'm not interested. With some liquid courage, I was convinced to try it. Reaction below.



Chris, who doesn't even like eggs (if you have ever seen the ketchup he smothers the eggs with, you know what I mean), looked a little green. Ashley took it in stride, as did Christa.



The final strange tidbit of the Choco Fest day was the Vespa with a sidecar. Now, this made us all laugh hysterically. This lady had her dog in the sidecar with aviator goggles on. The picture is not the best, but I hope you can enjoy it as much as we did. Oh, and don't worry - she's not about to wreck. She killed the Vespa in the middle of traffic.

Moving Pains

So, no, we have not dropped off the face of the earth. We have been moving. While we loved Costa Mesa, our apartment complex was becoming sketchy. I think the final straw was when our not too sober upstairs neighbor fell asleep with the bathtub running and flooded our extra bedroom and bathroom. So we gave up the “city life” of CM and moved to the very Stepford-like city of Irvine (I swear the children outnumber the adults!). We love our new place, but I have to ask, who in the world makes narrow stairs and doorways that do not fit an average size desk or entertainment center? And aren’t you supposed to accumulate furniture after college? While we acknowledged from the start our computer desk had no hope for reaching the second story, we had high hopes for our standard sized entertainment center. Little did we know…

We hired movers knowing we could not lift that insanely heavy chunk of wood over our heads (which was the only way we figured any human could move the thing). I will give the movers credit – they pushed, they pulled, they angled. But the entertainment center just did not fit and a large corner of it was ripped off. We finally conceded and let the movers put it in the garage. I figured Chris could take it apart and bring it up in two pieces. After a couple of hours trying to putty, glue, and drill it back together, John and Chris decided it wasn’t going to work. We had a moment of silence for the poor thing – it survived two Lubbock moves and the move to Cali. As a gift from Chris’ parents (I hope he has told them about it by now), I felt really bad about having to put it in the dumpster. **sniff, sniff**

The movers made us realize that we need to “downsize” our belongings. We budgeted three hours for the move. When the two movers walked into our two bedroom apartment and said “um, I think we are going to need more people or we will be doing this until dark”, I knew we were in trouble. It took six movers FIVE!!!! hours!!!! In our defense, several years ago we lived in a three bedroom townhome; we are now squeezing into a one bedroom with loft. It’s just not right.

I realized that we were both desperately hanging on to items that are just not necessary in SoCal. We each have at least four heavy coats that we only use when traveling out of state. I have seven scarves. And I really do think a pair of galoshes are inappropriate on the West Coast. I admit I do have a dirty little secret – I own over 100 pairs of shoes (it’s hereditary, blame my mom!). Chris collects khaki pants for some reason, and we have enough towels to cover all of Newport Beach. Needless to say, a few shoes, towels, and coats are on their way to Goodwill.


I would like to add special thanks to the people who made this move possible: Mehgan, thank you for kicking our rears in gear and forcing us to pack (to all those who don’t know, we didn’t start packing until the Tuesday before our Saturday move. Procrastination, schmacrastination). Danielle, thank you for taking our two stuffed-to-the-gills walk-in closets and somehow consolidating them into one small walk-in closet. John, not only do I thank you for helping convince us that going to the bar Friday night was a better idea than packing, but thank you for patiently laughing at Chris’ piecing the entertainment center together. If it wasn’t for the three of you, we would still be in our old place!

Coachella

After much ado, the lineup for Coachella was finally announced. Now before I offend any of you, I provide this disclaimer – I am a child of the late 90s; I do not love 80s music as much as most of you; these are solely the opinions of Jacqueline and not the Cure-loving, 80s obsessed Chris. I cannot be held liable for any anger you experience by reading and disagreeing with my assessment of past and current lineups.

People who do not know what Coachella is: check out the Wikipedia info and know that it’s a massive three-day music festival in the middle the desert, and is intense in musical lineups and the wear and tear it puts on concertgoers.

This year is the year of nostalgia for Coachella. The headliners for the 3-day festival are Paul McCartney, The Killers, and (ta-da!) The Cure. While Chris has been leery of the festival after hearing Chili and Jeremy’s uncomfortable and slightly terrifying stories involving the desert heat, car break-ins, and purse stealing, I am a believer in try anything once. As the child of Beetles-loving parents, I am sure to break their hearts by saying I would forego Day One. Day Two looks really good with The Killers, TV On the Radio, and James Morrison (wedding goers, remember the song Stephanie’s sister sang at our wedding reception? That was one of his songs “Better Man”). We could easily see those people otherwise, so the real reason for going on Day Two would be to see if a) Amy Winehouse shows up and b) what in the world she does if she goes on stage. I could be part of pop culture history! Day Three is cool with The Cure, Lupe Fiasco, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. While Chris would argue it would be worth is all just to see The Cure, again, I am not completely sold on a three hour trip to the desert for that lineup (oh, and Public Enemy will be there – so old school!).

I think much of my lack of enthusiasm comes from this past year’s heartbreak. We missed 2008 Coachella. I am sticking with my original argument that “there will never be another one as good as this one!” I wanted to go to Day Two to see Cold War Kids, Death Cab for Cutie, Dwight Yoakum (yep, that’s not a mistype), Prince, Flogging Molly, and Café Tacuba. Little did we know 2008 mainstream up and comers MIA and MGMT would be there that night, too. Day One had Jack Johnson, Teagan and Sara (loooove them), Vampire Weekend, The Raconteurs, and Santogold. I would have been so happy going either day- well as happy as a person can be in the desert surrounded by not-so-sober, sweaty people. But we didn’t go because it was “too hot” for Chris, a 25-year desert inhabitant. I got over it (kinda).

Well, fast forward to December 2008. We have planned our holiday vacation home and booked our flights. Then the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas lineup is announced. This time I am literally sick to my stomach because our flight comes home at 7pm, and the Day Two Concert starts in the afternoon. The lineup was The Cure (again!), The Killers (again!), Death Cab (again!), Paramore, Franz Ferdinand, Scott Weiland, Snow Patrol, Vampire Weekend, and surprise headliner Kanye West – all of which we would pay to see separately. Chris was dealing with his own inner turmoil since this would be the second time in 2008 he missed The Cure (missed Coachella and in a May concert due to his sister’s wedding). I do feel for him. Robert Smith looks terrible. And I don’t know how old he is, but he doesn’t look so good. We definitely did not regret going home, but I believe there is something evil in this world ensuring I will never see The Killers live.

Anyway, back to Coachella 2009. It is just not as awesome as 2008. There are several bands I would love to go see…in an air-conditioned venue in LA or the OC. I’ll admit my 21-year-old self would be one of the first ones in virtual line to buy a ticket, but my old, cranky 25-year-old self says “Coachella is for the birds!"