Ok, Here's New Years Eve get-together at the Witte's... All the pictures are blurry. The people looked blurry to me at the time, too...

Here's the whole group, well, minus Jon, who left at 11:30.. (loser), and me, who's taking the picture. It's Andy, Tony (Rachel on the phone, I think, or Diane), Blair, Brent, and Chris.. Yup, 5 guys and ME! It's any single girl's dream. Too bad I'm not single and most of those guys aren't either.

Here's Larry, the cat... He's licking his nose!

3 men in a tub, the butcher, baker and candlestick maker, aka, Tony, Andy, and Brent

Tony... putting clothes back on...errr..yeeea... I have a much less decent picture of Andy... Why me?!

Jon and me! Before he crashed and left...

Chris grabs the dice first to break a tie in Scene It...

Blair... on beer 10 of about 17 that night... =(

New Years Eve.

20 years ago, 1984: I was one year old, barely walking or talking, innocent in just about every way...

15 years ago, 1989: I was six. The Loma Prieta earthquake happened, my aunt got into a car accident that put her into a head brace and she almost died, my other aunt almost died giving birth to my cousin all in the same month. What an unlucky/lucky year...

13 years ago, 1991: My house had just burned down with my grandmother, and my life changed from innocence and naivete.

10 years ago, 1994: I was eleven and thought I knew the world, ready to tackle anything. My brother got married, (I think)... Yea, I thought I was cool, but I was really the biggest geek on the planet..

5 years ago, 1999: The big Y2K scare! That seems like just yesterday! We were about to enter a new millinium! How exciting! I was 16 and rockin in my cute convertible! How fun!

2 years ago, 2002: Graduated high school and started college, how scary and exciting...

1 year ago, 2003: Just barely in a relationship with Chris, came down to meet his friends and family for the first time... That seems like a long time ago, though, now.. haha, much more than just a year...

a month ago, November '04: Turned 21!!! Whoo.. I guess theses are the best times of my life, gotta live 'em up!

2 years from now, 2006: Graduate college and start the real world, with what? I have no idea. What a scary thought.

5 years from now, 2009: I'll be 26! Yikes! What on earth will I be doing?! How many adventures/tragedies will I go through? Sometimes I envy those of you who know exactly where you'll live and who you'll love and what you'll be doing in 5 years!!

20 years from now, 2024: I'll be 41!!! Oh my god! Ok, this is getting really scary, now, I'm gonna stop.

Christmas!!!

On Christmas eve, we were discussing a clay piece my sister made when she was very young... We thought it might have burned up, but weren't sure. Santa found it and put it in her stocking this morning... It's Cotton Candy and she used to lick it:

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My mom got in her stocking a.... ummm... a quite *phallic* salami. She couldn't figure out why Santa would put a salami in her stocking... My dad said, "Well, maybe he thought you would like it!" Ok, Dad!

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And what else would be in my dad's stocking, but a little bottle of JD!

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Here's my mom trying on a sweater she got from my dad. The color looks really good on her.

My mom's dog, Tyson even got dressed up for the holiday!

And here's a nice picture that my mom made my sister and I do so she could have something for her New Years Letter (she doesn't do xmas letters like everyone else, she does it for New Years, instead, I don't know why)

Yay! Sorry these pictures are all really bad of people, but I didn't want to spend the whole time taking and retaking pictures, so I only took one, then put down the camera so I could enjoy the festivities.. Then we ate brunch and that was about it... Now it's off to a friend/neighbor's for christmas dinner. I'm already tired.

On this day, the 19th of December, 2004, Mr. Peter Scott & Mrs. Teresa Ferguson are invited to join George Zimmer and friends for dinner and dancing at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco... George Zimmer, from The Men's Warehouse, is one of my dad's clients.

Here are Peter and Teresa ready to go out on their big date!

Don't they just make such a cute couple?!?

Oh! And one more, 'cuz we're just sooo proud of them!

Awww, ok, off you two go! Have fun, but not too much fun! Don't do anything I wouldn't do! Just say no!

God, didn't you hate it when parents were like this about Prom?! It was a relief if you even made it to the car!

I'm never letting my parents pick out the Christmas tree again! Look what they got:

Let's start from the top: The most important thing is the star. IT'S CROOKED! And there's no limb that sticks straight up for it, either!

2. What the heck is that gap about 3/4 of the way up?!?!

3. This picture makes it look good, but when you look at it in person, it's not Christmas tree shaped!! It looks more straight down than triangle or whatever... But it looks okay here...

4. They put it on top of soo many boxes that it looks funny. If you want a taller Christmas tree, get a taller one! Our ceiling is about 13 feet high, so we have room for a taller one..

Oh well. I wired the star straight, and we decorated it, so the gap doesn't really show, but this is one of the saddest, most embarrassing trees I've ever seen! =(

My sister wanted me to write this: "Ginny is the coolest sister ever! She only looks like she's 21." (She's 27)

Thanksgiving Day

4am I wake up and take a taxi to the airport. Ugh!

6am I board the plane and who should be there but Fr. Malo! (Yay, O'dowdians) I couldn't say much 'cuz I was holding up the line in the aisle, so I moved on. I wanted to get a picture to put on here, but after we landed, he disappeared, Kaiser Sose style (how do you spell Sose?).

1:30 pm Texas Time Arrive at my aunt and uncle's house. Then we ate a huge yummy turkey dinner. And napped while the boys watched football. Then we played pictionary.. Fun stuff.

Uncle Dave cutting the turkey

My Grandma's plate. Yum

My Grandma, my cousin's little girl Sidney, and my other cousin's month old baby Annabella

My grandpa, my cousin's other little girl, Landen, and my sister. (Don't ask me why she has orange hair. I don't understand)

Me with the baby... She was sooo tiny! A month old. I don't think I've ever held a baby that young. And one of the cutest babies I've ever seen.. maybe that's just 'cuz she's family.

My mom and the baby

Friday

We went to brunh with my grandparents then went to the mall, did a little Christmas shopping and then back to my family's house for Trivial Pursuit 90's Edition. We played younger generation versus older generation, and the parents kicked our butts! =(

Saturday

We went to Starbucks for breakfast then took my sister to the airport which she almost missed her flight. She went home to go to a bachelorette party, but was planning to meet us in Vegas. Then back to the mall with my mom to search for jeans for me.. No luck, but we got some more presents. Then we went to my family's again and played Pictionary again and ate a spicy Indian dinner. And we drew names for our Christmas exchange.

Sunday

I couldn't sleep until midnight and then I woke up at 6am and couldn't go back to sleep! We went to the airport and got on an earlier flight to Las Vegas. We stayed at the Venetian. It was very nice and our room was awesome. Then we walked to Mandalay Bay, which is waaay down at the other end of the strip... like 3,000 yards. Oh my! My feet hurt soo much 'cuz I was wearing heels. We met my sister at the House of Blues Gospel Brunch which was fun, but not really that great. Then we walked around the Luxor and Excalibor and then went back to the hotel. It was below freezing with strong winds outside, so we didn't want to go on the rollercoaster. We went around the hotel and shopped a little and then napped and then got ready for dinner. It was way overpriced and not very good, but we are spoiled 'cuz we come from the Bay Area with the best restaurants in the world. Then everyone was really tired and falling asleep, but we went to "O" and it was awesome! I personally liked Varekai better, 'cuz I could follow the story more, but everyone else said that they liked O better. My mom was falling asleep during the show. Quite annoying. When people appaulded she would wake up and clap extra hard. Haha. After the show, it was midnight and I was 21!!! Whoo hoo! So we walked around Bellagio and tried to find a table or a bar, but I was too indecisive so everyone got annoyed and then my sister wanted to see the inside of Paris 'cuz she'd never seen it before, so we went across the street. My dad's back was hurting and everyone was so tired. I felt bad, I didn't want to keep everyone up just for me, so I just wanted to get it over with, have a drink, gamble a little and then go to bed. So I got a Tequila Sunrise and they carded my sister, not me, then I played slots, then I was like ok, let's go to bed. Supposedly, my mom couldn't sleep, so at 2am, she tried to wake me up and go to Fremont Street (like the old Strip), but I didn't wake up! =( Oh well

I don't know why, but I took a picture of the Forum at Ceasar's

The House of Blues

And, finally, my sister, me and my dad tired on the bed...

Monday

We woke up, gambled and played Blackjack, because I'm 21 and I gotta play 21... I wouldn't have gotten carded, but my mom decided to announce that I was 21 today so the guy is like well then I guess I better check, huh? =( I let my whole family play with me, but we all lost. With a $25 minimum, it was an expensive 30 seconds! =( Then we played roulette. Again a $25 minimum. I put it on black. It landed on red 18 and that was that. =( How unlucky. It doesn't help with my mom screaming in my ear and getting all excited and loud. We're gambling, we gotta play it cool, and she's just embarrassing and bad luck going, "Well, what do we do?! I don't know what we're doing!?" Ugh... Anyway, then we checked out and got on a plane to home. I drove back to Santa Cruz and met Chris after his section. Finally some time to relax... All in all, I think Vegas is just not my family's style. We don't gamble and we laugh at the people who walk in front of us and say, "Wow, this is what it's really like, huh?" No! Go to Europe, it's NOTHING like the real thing! Ah well, Se la vie. (My sister corrected me that it's actually spelled: C'est le vie)

Halloween weekend, Chris and I drove to Santa Barbara to visit Tony! Yay! I finally got to meet Dom... very cool. SB is too much partying for me, I'd never get any sleep... But it was so much fun for the weekend. I really like that you can bike everywhere there, I wish Santa Cruz were like that. Tony was the Mad Hatter, Rachel was Alice, her roomate was the Queen of Hearts and Tony's roomate was the Cheshire Cat.. I wish I had gotten pictures... Oh and Dom was a Legends of the Hidden Temple kid.. (If you don't know what Legends of the Hidden Temple is, you're lame)... Anyway, he was a purple parrot... Awesome! I didn't get to see my friend Phoebe, too bad. I miss you, Phoebe!!!! Anyway, saw my first water polo game! It was sooo exciting!! I can't believe I never went to any in high school. Boy did I miss out!! It went into double overtime and then sudden death! Chris and Tony didn't get to see their friend, Jared play, but that's ok... Anyway, then halloween, we were back in Santa Cruz, but pretty over the whole dressing up and partying thing, so we bummed out early...

Note to self: TAKE PICTURES WHEN YOU DON'T WANT TO, 'CUZ YOU WANT THEM LATER!!!

I guess I should give a promised update of how the saltine race went... We heard from a friend that it's impossible to eat 8 Saltine crackers in a minute. Here are the rules: 8 Saltines in a minute, anyway you can (one by one, 4 by 4 or all eight, if you like)... Nothing to drink during that minute and you can't mash them up before you put them in your mouth. So, Mitch and I think we can do this. We get the Saltines and I go first. I stuff two in my mouth, try to chew, time is running out fast, stuff another two in there and now it's even harder to chew. It was like my mouth was going in slow motion, I couldn't bit down as fast as I wanted to. At 15 seconds remaining, I stuff the remaining 4 into my mouth. Big mistake because then of course the time runs out and I am stuck with the biggest wad of crackers in my mouth and no room to chew... Mitch attempted also, and with a little better luck. He got most of it chewed, but not all, I'd estimate he did about 6 crackers. I don't think it is impossible to do 8, just damn hard! The crackers turn to cement in your mouth and makes it so hard to chew and swallow. We're done with that. If you can do it, you're my hero.... (No pictures because the last ones were ugly enough and I figured I'd spare you of more hidious photos of me just sitting there chewing. Also, chewing is more of an action, that you can't catch through still pictures...)

In high school, I was infamous for stuffing little hostess chocolate donuts in my mouth. One day I stuffed 5 of the 6 donuts into my mouth at one time. Sarah, Kelly, Jessica, and Julia were witnesses. Kelly said of it: You have a big mouth! You're gonna be really popular in college! And then Julia said: Why would that make her popular? Wouldn't that make her less liked?! Oh Julia.... Anyway.. so, Sarah, Mitch and I were in Safeway buying dessert and this came up. He said Oh well that's easy, I bet I could fit 5 of those in my mouth... And so the challenge began:

*photo missing*

Mitch begins... First one, easy!

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2nd one, fine!!

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3rd one "How many more left?!"

*photo missing*

Oye, Running out of room!

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Come on, Only one more! You already have 4!!

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He's done... 4 1/2.. Good job, Mitch. Impressive...

*photo missing*

Now for my turn...

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First one.. How did I do this in high school?!?!

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Number 2.. I think I can handle this...

*photo missing*

Oooh Maybe not..... =(

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Oh no, I'm turning red....

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This is four:

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Aaaannnd, number, five.... Nope, can't do it!!! I was hittin the gag reflex, so I had to stop... =(

*photo missing*

I have no idea how I did it in high school =( But Mitch won: 4 1/2 to 4.... I was so ashamed...

*photo missing*

Stay Tuned for the Next Competition: 8 Saltines in a minute! We've heard it's impossible. We're gonna prove it wrong... Xanga documentation coming Thursday, hopefully...

Pumpkin Carving!!!

We teamed up. Chris/I had one pumpkin and Sarah/Mitch got the other...

Chris makes the first cut for the lid...

After removing the guts of the pumpkin, Mitch draws a preliminary design for the face.

But luckily we had stencils...

Now for the actual cutting...

Chris and I finish our pumpkin first... It's a bat cave!!! (And it has a wart on it's wing...)

Aaannd, like 4 hours later, Sarah and Mitch finish!! Mitch says it was because the face was very hard to do because it was so fragile..

So, I put theirs out on the front porch with the other pumpkin, but then suddenly it falls off the chair! I dropped their pumpkin!!

Mitch comes running!!! "What did you do?!" he shouts. He tells me that if I broke the face that he worked so hard on, he would break my face!

So, we pick up the pumpkin and inspect the face.... The mouth is broken!

Mitch is PISSED. Chris has to hold him back and Sarah has to hide the knives. I apologize, but it didn't sound sincere because I was laughing so hard... Then I told Mitch that it was scowling like a pirate, so it's a Pirate Pumpkin. That made him happy!

Yar! Happy Pirate Halloween, Mateys...

On Saturday, Chris, Jess, Eric and I went to go visit Nicole at her new boyfriends house. That was fun, but when we went to leave, we only got a block before Jess noticed her wheel pulling to the left. We pulled over and sure enough her front left tire was FLAT! Yikes!

*photo missing*

So, Jess leaped into action and changed her tire! What a pro!

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Most of us couldn't really do much except stand around... Here's Chris inspecting the flat tire...

*photo missing*

Finally Jessica got the spare on... (also just wanted to show how rad her mustang convertible is).

*photo missing*

With the exception of Eric, our hands were all at least this dirty:

*photo missing*

end.

Because we can all benefit from some useful information every now and then...

Today, I learned: Eggs have a shelf life of 4-5 weeks after the sell date. So, if you buy eggs today and the date on them says Oct 13, they should be OK until about Nov. 20th... (That's about 2 months from now!) So, don't throw them out after a month, but then again you might not want to eat the ones that have been in the fridge since January...

Since Chris's parents come up to Santa Cruz to move him in, my mom decided it would be a nice idea to have dinner, and meet his parents. So, my parents drove down from Berkeley, and all 6 of us went to dinner at a very nice place called Shadowbrooke in Capitola. It was very nice and both parents loved it; they are already planning a graduation celebration there (that's almost 2 years from now... Chris and I don't plan into the future that much... kinda scary). Oh well. I was soo nervous, but I think it went pretty well. Not too many awkward silences or disagreements. I think my parents still very much approve of Chris (despite political differences). At the end of the night, the moms started telling embarrassing stories. That's when you know it's time to leave.

My mom, trying to make small talk: So, how are the Lakers gonna do now that Shrek was traded?

I went to the San Francisco Opera, which I've been meaning to do for years. I saw La Traviata. The first guy I sat next to was very rotund and breathed heavily. It was very annoying, so I switched seats with my mom, and just my luck the guy next to me had turrets, not the swearing at random moments kind, but the kind where he would twitch and every once in a while make a hiccupping sound. It was less annoying than the heavy breather, so I stuck with that seat. The opera was not as sad as I had expected; I was not all that impressed. Maybe my expectations were too high, or maybe it just wasn't the right story for me. I'll try again, on opening night next year, so I really get to dress up! =) Also, I got to see Jennie and Mitch, who happened to be sitting in the section above me! Yay for funny intermission chats! P.S. My parents thought you were both really nice.

So, I'd been off work for a grand total of two days before I got bored out of my mind and almost went insane. I had such bad cabin fever that I almost took off for LA at 9 o'clock at night, but my boyfriend convinced me to wait til morning. So first thing on Labor Day morning, I drove to LA, and spent a week there. I helped the Witte's with a charity horse show a little bit, and swam in the pool a lot. And even swung at a few golf balls. I say swung at, 'cuz I missed most of them! And I taught Chris how to drive a stick. He was so good that it was sickening to remember how many times I stalled and how frustrated I got trying to learn!! And now I'm back in Berkeley for a couple days. I haven't even been here for a day and I'm already soo bored, wishing I was someplace else! =(

No pictures because my camera is in Santa Cruz, awaiting my arrival later this week.

As promised, here is my friend, Sarah who I haven't seen since about 8th grade. She lives down the street from me, so it's really a shame that we don't talk anymore, but she's cool. She's one of 4 sisters! They are all great, beautiful girls, err women, now... Also in the picture are her little sister, Kate, and Kate's boyfriend, Shiraz. Kate was 10 last I saw her, so it's hard to imagine that she's going off to Brown soon and that she's had a boyfriend for longer than I have!!!

Scanned a bunch of my pictures today. Ah how the memories come flooding back.. Here's a little bit about my high school days for those of you that don't know:

Most of my days were spent with Traci, my best friend in high school. We were inseparable and have some of the best memories. She was a cheerleader, golfer, and flutist in the band. I haven't spoken with her since high school, tho. Weird how things work out. Sometimes I really miss the friendship we had.

Then, there was Meagan! I was really close with her for a couple of years, but we drifted apart when she moved to a different high school after soph year. I had some wild nights with her... but it was always good old fashioned silly, sober fun. She's changed since then. But we had crazy fun times in my VW convertable!

These are the girls that I've loved since Elementary school! Adrienne and Emily. (Sarah's not pictured, but you'll get to see her on Sunday). We didn't hang out much in high school, but are still pretty close. Emily is one of the few people I can travel with and we're gonna be friends till we're 80! =P

Ah yes, and then there were my crushes! LOL We can't forget about those. The one kneeling in this picture was my crush for all 4 years of high school!! (note: the rest of these boys were not my other crushes) haha Ok, I'm gonna move on before I start to blush...

I went to a Catholic high school, which means there were priests. Fr. Glass (far left) was such a hard ass that everyone hated him, but he was all about no BS, so everyone had to respect him. Fr. Malo (next to Glass) was such a great quirky, inspirational teacher that taught the best sex ed class I've ever taken. Another teacher that I musn't go on without mentioning is Mr. Tyler, the Earth Science teacher. That was one of the best classes of my life and he was so enthusiastic and fun!

I didn't do any sports. Instead, I was a choir geek for all four years. I took it every single semester! It wasn't a very prestigious chorus, most took it becuase it was an easy A. But I don't think anyone who hasn't been in Mr. Judd's chorus class will understand why it was so much fun. I doubt you can spot me in the picture; we all look the same! lol

That's about it. Of course I could say much more about my high school experience. But I'll just sum it up with Charles Dickens: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

I picked my parents up from the airport at midnight. They've been in Alaska for 2 weeks and were ready to be home. So, what's the first thing they do when they get home at midnight? Do they: Raid the fridge 'cuz they're starving, go straight to bed 'cuz they're tired from traveling, or sit down, relax and tell me about their trip??? buzzer! Time's up. That's what they would do if they were normal. But no, my parents set their bags down at the front door, and start going through the stacks of mail. Why? Because they "have so much to get done" that they have to start right now. Then, they show me souveniers, and this throws them into more unpacking. So then at 1am they unpack all their clothes, tell me all about it, and start some loads of laundry. It's now almost 2:30am and they are just settling into bed.

Countdowns, because I'm that bored...

2 Hours until my godawful brother, sister-in-law, and 8 year old twin neices come to visit. =(

2 Days until I see Chris again! (In Santa Cruz for a day)

8 Days until my parents get back from Alaska.

25 More days until work is over! (15 more days of actual working)

30 Days until I move into Santa Cruz.

43 More days of Summer! (or 43 days until school starts)

63 More days until Hockey Season starts! Go Kings, Stars, and Penguins!

81 Days until Halloween.

82 Days until Chris and I have been together for a whole year. That's scary!

109 Days until my Birthday!

119 Days until Christmas Break (Winter Quarter is over)

135 Days till Christmas!

141 Days left in 2004!!!

(146 Days until I see Dan again. Whoo hoo?)

At my internship with Chez Panisse, I help the Pastry and Assistant Pastry Chefs. The best part of the job is staff lunch because all the food is delicious! But today, I went to go sit down with my plate of food and there was a table with people crowded around it; full. So I sat alone at the next table while they all talked about life, and I just quietly ate my food. How sad! =( I'm loner (or should I say loser?). Also today, I was chopping chocolate with a tool like this one (it's the best way to chop blocks of chocolate):

You have to put a lot of weight into it to get the block to break into chunks. Anyway, My finger slipped and I accidentally punctured my finger!! I felt it go about halfway through my finger, and it didn't start to bleed for a second, so I had time to go clean it and put a bandaid on it. In the food business, however, you must also keep the bandaid out of the food, so you have to put on a glove, or in this case, just a finger condom! So I had to wear this embarrassing little slip of plastic for the rest of the day! How funny! A picture, of course, for your amusement! =)

Ode to J.K. Witte's Roses.

Don't you dare skim past them! Take time to enjoy the beauty of each one!







Don't you dare skim past them! Take time to enjoy the beauty of each one!