Things aren't going as planned.

I'm starting to get the feeling we are not ment to be in Livermore California. Nothing seems to be working out for us. Can't find work haven't heard back from anyone I submitted my resume to. Slowly watching our savings get lower and lower. And sitting still going stir crazy. I got a call for a job I didn't apply to and went on the interview with a weird feeling about the company.
Dawn and I tore apart our closets trying to find something for me to wear. A quick trip to walmart and I had shoes and new pants that fit. I think I look as professional as I can for short notice.

Now American income life was the company's name. They said the interview was for customer service. So I get there and got a weird feeling and googled them. Omg scam alert all over the google results. Tho I was there I decided what the heck I will go in. I turned everything I read on them into my key questions. Do I get paid hourly, salary, or just commission. I threw him off his speech they make them memorize. His response just commission. He'll no is what I was thinking.
Question 2 do I have to pay Anything to get taken on by your company? His answer stunned I did my homework on their shady company says yes um $600. Wtf um what part of people are broke and unemployed do these people not understand. Oh wait they can use your first $600 in commission to pay for the training. Next question was how often do I get paid? His answer once a month. I can go on for hours with my Q&A that blew his mind. But my favorite part was when I told him I was called in for a customer service not sales interview and swiftly removed the folder that said customer service off his desk and told me they aren't interviewing for that position. Then he quickly tried pushing me out the door like I was a threat to his soul less scheme. Um yeah I'm not getting invalid with your shady pyramid scheme place of employment. I have a soul and don't like lieing and i want to make people happy not con them like these evil people.

It still bothers me that these American life people just wasted my time with their soul less schemes.

But back home and now to figure out what's next.

I'm starting to get that gut feeling I have to learn to listen to. And it's telling me we need to get out of this area. And fast. Not only can I not find work but the trains are 30 mins away by car in the town of Dublin. Brian can't walk anywhere to get anything he needs with out it taking an hour or two and we just don't belong here. Oh and every neighborhood animal shitting in our yard suck too cause there are a million flies to the point you don't even want to go outside.

We sat down with Ed and dawn and decided we all want off this deserted island and are willing to work together to do it. There is no culture here. And I'm sick of hearing fire trucks heading to the burning hills.
I hate flies and am not liking the fact black widows breed around our house. And it's annoying me all our stuff is still in boxes cause the landlord still has all his stuff, furniture, and family pictures up on the walls here. I need my own space. Not a glorified half way house .

As of now we are planning a trip down to orange county California to see if I can secure work and a sweet 2 bedroom apartment the 4 of us can call home. We are leaving around 3am tonight and I'm praying that something works out in our favor.

So far I have been sending emails and my resume to everyone I know Down south cause they say it's not what you know but who you know. Hoping I atleast get a lead.

And I spoke to a friend who I was hoping to see while down in OC and she is heading to sequoia national park this weekend and needs a cat sitter. So I agreed we would spend the night with her kitty. This helps us a lot since we can save a few $$'s on a hotel. Thank you.

Sorry for the huge rant but I needed to get it out.

Now time to think happy thoughts pack a bag for the weekend and take a nap so I'm refreshed for this 7 hour drive. Here's to high hopes of something good happening. I will update more tomorrow.

Sent from my iPhone

August 20th and 21st 2011

After a long week of submitting resumes and being bored we decided it was time for a little get away with the room mates.
We were all up by 7 am and the car was packed and ready to go by 9. There was alot of Brian telling everyone to leave stuff home cause we wouldnt need it.

On the road and off to big sur.
3 hours of driving and way too much laughter. To the point I almost peed pants. Thank god for that gas station where there was a maitor dee walking around in a suit serving free water to everyone that stopped. And them having a bathroom. Back on the road .

We Arrived at big sur camp site to find no open campsites. Now usually i reserve a camp site but there were only walk in reservations left that were first come first serve. So i took my chances and warned everyone of the situation before we left. Well Negative Nancy aka Brian got his panties in a bussel. So I kept driving knowing things would work them Selves out as they usually do. I had faith that we were ment to have a good time camping along the coast. So i kept driving south. An hour down the road we came up to a camp site called Kirk creek. It said no vacancy but I drove in any way. And drove around and came up to a ranger truck sitting on the one lane road parked. I stopped the car n negative Nancy started complaining that now we were stuck n there wasn't going to be any camp sites. The ranger was yelling at a huge group of campers in a field. The ranger finished and came back to his truck and I stopped him and asked if by any miracle there was a last min opening and he turned around and said we could take the site next to where we were stopped.but he said we had to be model campers. We unloaded the car n set up camp. Brian was still complaining there were no trees. But we found a trail That had something amazing in store for us. Down the trail a little ways grew bamboo. A little father were trees and a mini waterfall and a stream. It was so pretty and smelled like the most beautiful flowers. After a short stop we continued down the trail to discover a little natural pool at the bottom of the Stream and the pacific ocean. Along with a huge rock arch in the water. We climbed on the rocks and explored the coast. The tide was coming in and we were getting splashed by rogue waves. We decided it was a good idea to head back up to camp for a while.

Once back to camp we discovered it was only 3pm tho due to the fog it seemed like 7 pm. We hung out and had fire grilled hot dogs and hummus.
Everyone minus myself cracked open a beer and decided it was time to get comphy. We had an amazing view of the ocean from our camp site. We chatted with every one who walked by and even met an older gentleman who was bicycling the PCH from vancouver to Mexico on PCH. For his 4th year in a row.
It was an amazing day so far.

Dawn and I decided to go for a dive south a few miles to see the sights. We left the boys behind. We found beautiful vista points and a local store where the people were so friendly in the town of Gorda. We then met a young man bicycling the PCH from Oregon to San deigo with one leg. I have to give him credit. That is amazing. He had a special prosthetic leg made just for cycling.

Off we went back to camp with amazing stories to share. Still overcast but actually 7pm finally we started to get everything ready to cook dinner over the fire and Ed decided to wander off. About 45 mins went by and dawn kept saying she should go find him. We told her he was ok. Then to our surprise Ed came wandering up with his hand and arm covered in blood and finger wrapped in duck tape. He was trying to be sweet and wandered back to the trail to get her clovers to cook with dinner. But slipped on a wet rock and tried saving his drink instead of himself and grabbed a jagged rock and sliced his finger open. In a panic he tried to find a ternique then realized his hair tie would do . He wandered back up the trail to the ranger station covered in blood. And the ranger tried giving him a band aid but Ed asked for duct tape instead. The 2 minute walk from the ranger to our campsite left him bloody again by the time he reached us. I had my hiker box in the trunk and my makeshift first aid kit and ran for it. Hello kitty tissues, electrical tape camp soap and a children's plastic beaver knife did the trick. We cleaned him up wrapped him up and made a splint. He said he didn't want to go to the ER so we continued our night and cooking dinner on the open fire.

The sun went down and we all relaxed and enjoyed the perfect weather and not being home.

I wish there was a way to get paid to drive amazing roads like PCH and sleep under the stars every day. I have a secret love for PCH it soothes my soul and puts my mind and soul at peace. Some say it is one of the most beautiful and nerve racking roads to drive. I say it's heaven. I'm happy today's trip worked out. I'm sitting here by a fire listening to clutch playing on my iPod in a Tin can to create a small speaker. Listening to the waves crash below us and starring off at tail lights in the distance on the cliffs of PCH at a red light cause the south bound lane slid into the ocean. It's so peaceful here.

Brian n dawn went for a walk down to the water but i wanted to stay here and enjoy the fire. On their walk they discovered a guy playing a saxophone on the rocky beach with the waves crashing and someone had stacked little rocks on the big rocks to look like a million birds. I sort of regret not going but I enjoyed starring off at the PCH.

When they got back we all laid next to the fire under the open sky and just enjoyed our surrounding.

Dawn and Ed cowboy camped while brian and I went back to our tent in fear of moisture rolling in and ruining our down sleeping bags.

When we woke in the am Brian made breakfast sausage for everyone. And we began packing up camp.

After we packed the car we took a walk down to the beach to find the stacked rocks were still there and a family was making more. Dawn brought her fire poi stuff down with her. I photographed her while she twirled fire on the rocks.

A group of 7 year olds and their moms came over to watch. We started talking and the kids wanted to learn fire poi cause their mom had taken them to burning man for the past few years and it intrigued them to want to know more.

I think it's amazing that they have been going to burning man since they were 3 I'm a little jealous.

After dawn put her poi stuff away we went climbing on rocks and found star fish and baby octopus in little pools. It was amazing. Now this is the type of thing I missed about cali.

Noticing it got later we hiked back up and hopped in the car. Time to drive north but what I failed to tell everyone was I was taking PCH up towards Santa Cruz instead of taking the major freeway home. So I continued driving and I came upon a sign that I thought said fried artichokes 12 for $1 I got all excited and hopped off PCH . We got there and fried artichoke wraps were $4 but 12 fresh artichokes were $1 complete score. I bought my artichokes and got a huge thing of scallions for 45 cents. And also got the most amazing basket of strawberries for $1. The strawberries tasted like someone dipped them in sugar. But they were just that ripe and fresh. I must say it was interesting to finally see how artichokes grow on a farm I pictured them to grow like lettuce but they grow more like a tomato.

Back onto PCH And now a short distance from Santa Cruz. It was really cool to see all the farms along the coast I guess the weather and soil is best there for garlic, strawberries, artichokes, and many other vegies.

A short while later we arrived in Santa Cruz. And hig tailed it to the board walk. This is where the movie lost boys was filmed. A very cool boardwalk. We wandered for a bit to show Brian around. We got some cotton candy, fried Oreos, and had a blast people watching.

We left just before sunset and I hopped on the main freeway. Home sweet home bound. It was a great weekend and I'm happy everything worked out so well.

Sent from my iPhone

Sunday August 14 2011 San Fran

So I find it odd that i have been here for a week and im showing people around. let along showing my room mates new cool places.

It was our 1st sunday here and ed had off work so we decided to go into san fran. i thought it would be cool to take everyone to the cliff house and the burnt down Sutro Bath Houses.

This was a place my friends took me many of times when i lived in oakland. it was a tradition to have mimosas in the morning here. so we hopped in the car and sat in traffic and up a few huge hills and we arrived. below is a picture of the old sutro bath house or what is left of it. you can find more info on the sutro bath houses in the WEIRD CALIFORNIA book. this is also one of the many locations used in the filming of the movie harrold and maude.

The cliffs offer such an amazing view of the Pacific Ocean

I love the mixure of the trees, rocky cliff sides, huge rocks sticking out of the water, the soft sand and of course the freezing pacific ocean

This is a picture looking through one of the remaining structures of the bath house

Eds going to kill me for posting this horriable picture of him but its the only picture i have keeping the tradition of mimosas in the morning here. Sorry ED

Under the cliff's there are caves that as you can see have been fixed up for safety those people are watching the waves crash in another lower cave attached to the one we were in

Brian found a huge rock attached to land to climb and explore and watch the waves crash into. he dubbed it metal metal rock. it was fun to climb and watch the little crabs scurry around on.

a view of the cliffs and cave from across the beach

I love this place. its relaxing and makes me want to take a million pictures.

and what made it so much better was i got to share it with brian.

I adore the trees that line the san francisco coast.

enough of the beach and after a little of not following my GPS to escape a hippie festival going on in Golden gate Park which is not near the golden gate bridge.

we ended up in the mission. i take it there is a lil PRIDE going on here due to the flags. But thats cool with me. Brian was amazed by the trollie and bus cables above our heads which is mainly why this pic was taken. Yes san frans buses run on either electric or bio deisel and are next to silent. Brian said the cables ruined his view so we continued down the road to discover no parking near my friends pizza place

Then off to Pier 39 A huge tourist attraction at the fishermans warf But this carosuel had a panda and one day im going to ride that panda mark my words. if there wasnt a huge line i would have done it when we were there but i was with a grumpy husband who i forgot to feed all day . OOPPS

finally i found a place for us all to eat and ed had to play with his food. We all enjoyed some calamari

and of course i had to indulge in 1/2 a crab. My belly was so happy afterwards.

Ed dawn and brian Enjoyed some cold beers

while i wandered around taking pictures. I was so excited when i found the sea lions Sun bathing on the pier. they are so cute.

I must say minus brian being grumpy it was a good day in .

Dawn and i drooled over the fruit at the farmers market but we realized prices were marked up since we were at a tourist location and we would be better off getting our fruit from the mexican farmers that set up a few blocks from our house. their fruit looks and smells just as good.

we walked down a little farther to watch the guys steaming crabs on the side of the road fresh off the piers.

On our way back to the car brian had to try out the robo toilet

instructions on how to use the toilet below.

Then as the sun was setting i rushed towards the golden gate bridge to take pictures. I figured Fort Mason would be the perfect place to capture my vision.. it turned out to be beyond the perfect location but i seemed to have forgotten my fish eye lens. yes dad i know you hate my fish eye and you think i over used it. but it would have made for a better shot of the whole bridge. I seemed to have gotten lucky with the seagull who decided to pose for me.

here is a hipstamatic shot of the full bridge i took with my phone. Dear Iphone I love you.

On the way home we drove through the down town of san fran and brian said it reminded him of a mini NYC.

Then off to the bay bridge again and down the 580 to home.

It was all in all a great day with great people in a new place.

next time we go to san fran i want to eat at the stinking rose. it is one of the most amazing garlic restruants ever.

for now im off to sleep then off to the next adventure to share with every one.

Saturday august 13th 2011

we woke and decided since ed had to work. brian dawn and i went down to brekley to show brian around.

upon arriving we found dawns long lost cousin on a wooden cut out on the side of the road.

we browsed the shops and took in our new surroundings.

lots of hippies and hipsters and side walk stands trying to sell you all kinds of intresting stuff.

Brian got his first bite of west cost pizza. twice the price and so not as good as east coast pizza. but it was intresting to watch the hippies pick things out of garbage and watch them make signs that say i need beer and weed. i couldnt help but laugh but isnt food or a roof over your head more important then both beer or weed. but to each their own. they gave us a few good giggles while wandering down telegraph ave.

im super excited i found a store that sells lomo film. this made my day. no more ordering off the interweb and waiting for delivery.

after wandering berkley i decided to take them to piedmont to my favorite cemetary. Its called mountain view cemetery and it is one of the most beautiful cemetarys with an amazing view from the top of the mountain. it also has the most unique huge mosiliuems.

great place to take pics and go for walks. those hills will get you in shape in no time. this is also the cemetery that the black dahlia is burried in. one day i will find her grave and bring her flowers.

after wandering around taking pictures we decided to head to downtown oakland. but before we got there i thought it would be nice to stop in eli's mile high club. aka bar to see who was working. an old friend Bryan was working so we stayed for 1 drink. dawn said it reminded her of detroit and loved it.

this is where alot of my friends from oakland now bartend too.

after our drink we continued down the road and ended up in down town oakland also known as the Oaksterdam district. i must say they fixed it up nice. it looks safe to walk down the road and looks like there are real business' that moved in.

on the way home we found ed a bottle of absolut SF and bought it for him.

i havent been in much of a mood to drink but went home and hung out with everyone.

ed and dawns cat loki kept me company for a bit in our room.

and then it was off to bed. i always seem to be the first one to go to sleep.

Friday August 12 2011

went to work with dawn to learn the process of screen printing. Got to meet her boss. not going to say too much about. He reminds me of Phil and that is not good. 

 that but figured i would share some pics of the process with you.

here is dawn putting shirts on the pallet to be printed by the big octopus machine

Finally got an awesome smoothie from jumba juice. mango a gogo Ah how i missed jumba juice.

this is the big octopus printing machine

huge selection of paint colors to choose from have to match them to the design.

you have to burn and clean and even reclaim the screens

this is the power washing station for the screens

add the ink so the machine will print

the drying machine that sets the ink,

after a long day in the hot sweaty shop and then taking dawn to get paid........ which is a story for another day. we came home and i cooked an awesome dinner for brian and i on the grill. so yummy

after dinner we started opening boxes and setting up our room. not too shabby if i may say. we still have alot more work to do but its home for now.

we even hung up our map of the USA .

brian has been sleeping extra since we got our new bed. it really is like sleeping on a cloud and he cant feel me tossing and turning anymore. we both started dreaming again too, i guess thats a good thing.

Till tomorrow thanks for following