Getting Cultured, Getting Old, And Getting To Bed On Time

On getting cultured...

This past weekend I absorbed some much needed culture. Friday night, Kyle took me out for a night on the town for my Christmas present. We left work early, got ourselves dolled up, and went out to a fabulous little Peruvian restaurant in his neighborhood in SF. Dinner was delish! We started with ceviche and sangria, then Kyle got payea (spelling?) for his main course and I had an amazing piece of halibut served on top of cilantro infused risotto. Yum Yum Yum! After dinner, we caught a cab and went downtown to see the new musical, Lestat, (as in the Vampire Lestat from Interview with a Vampire) at the Curran Theater. The show was fantastic! I love musicals!! When that ended, around 10:30, we caught another cab and headed to the Mission District of SF to meet up with Kyle's brother for drinks. We laughed, we drank, we were assaulted by a VERY intoxicated young lady (she grabbed Kyle!)... it was (mostly) fun. Leisurely stroll back to Kyle's apartment (well, I was freezing so it was only sorta leisurely)... NO middle of the night pizza (thank goodness!)... and we were off to bed. A great night!
And if that wasn't enough we did it AGAIN on Saturday night!
Six couples (!!!) met at my friends' (Lucia and Alina - the twins) apartment in San Jose. Everyone brought appetizers and wine and beer and we all sat around the twins' living room feeling VERY grown-up and impressed with how fabulous we all were. At 7:30 *ON THE DOT* (because in addition to be grown-up and fabulous, Lucia is anal as hell) we left for downtown San Jose to see Cirque Du Soliel's latest - Corteo. OH MY GOODNESS!!!! It was phenomenal! I've seen a few Cirque Du Soliel shows... and they are all amazing... but this one was extra fantastic. I think it was the music. Un-freakin-believable. It put me in the BEST mood. And the acrobatics were AWESOME. I was literally on the edge of my seat for most of show. Just all around a GREAT performance. I would highly recommend it to anyone. After the show, the whole posse headed to Santana Row for some drinks and dancing. Another perfect evening!
So two whole evenings dripping with good food, good friends, good wine, and good times. Love it!

On getting old...

So I mentioned that after Cirque we went out on (the very posh) Santana Row... Well, we ended up at a place called Rosie McCanns there. It was PACKED with people dressed to the nines. The music was bumping. And alcohol was flowing like water... Just 18 short months ago I spent my 24th birthday there and thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. My, how things change. This time I found it way too loud and quite obnoxious and really couldn't wait to go home and crawl into bed with Kyle. There was a line to get in, the bouncers ignored us, the people inside were pushy, alcohol was expensive, and I couldn't hear anything that anyone was saying. Ugh. The first thing Kyle and I did, after we fought our way to and from the bar, was find a nice quite table WAY in the back where we could just sit and talk and enjoy each other's company. *Sigh* Getting "old" really sneaks up on you. But it's kind of a nice place to be... especially when you're there with the right person... at table in the back. :) Eventually, we got our old fogey butts out on the dance floor... and had a great time, by the way... but the best part was still going home and going to bed with my sweetheart.

On getting to bed on time...

Speaking of going to bed... unfortunately all this culture absorbing and good time having doesn't lend itself to going to bed early. Both nights Kyle and I tried to be in bed by at least 1 but ended up awake till 3... It was fun, don't get me wrong, but, when coupled with the 5-6 hours a night we've been getting lately because of school and work, it can really wear a person out. I am SOOO tired today. And tonight my mom and step dad are in town so I'll likely be up fairly late (again!) hanging out with them.
Why aren't there more hours in the day!?

Another Heavenly Day

Spent this past weekend at my friend Emily's timeshare in Lake Tahoe. Basically, her place sits ON the mountain at Heavenly... so you can literally walk to the gondola from her front door. It was awesome to say the least!

Highlights of the weekend included:
1. I drove in the snow for the first time in my life!! (Hey, I'm a So Cal girl, remember... we don't do snow.) I'm pretty sure that Kyle, who was sitting shotgun for the occasion, was more terrified over the whole ordeal than I was. He claims to be a nervous passenger, but I think it was my white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel and constant "OMG, we're so gonna die" that may have pushed him over the edge a bit. I'll have to work on that.
2. Kyle is sitting this season out because of his knee surgery... so during the day it was 5 couples and me - the eleventh wheel - out on the slopes. I ended up snowboarding alone A LOT... but actually it worked out well because I think I made *substantial* improvement out there. No major wipe-outs to speak of - including getting off of the lift - and I think I can officially "carve" now! Score.
3. I met Kyle's younger brother, Kelsey, who is in California for an internship. Before meeting him, I was informed that Kelsey was the cute one in family. Umm, well, granted I *might* be a bit biased, but, in my humble opinion, Nu-Uhh! I am totally dating the cuter brother. :) Go me.
4. Kyle and Kelsey learned to play craps at the casinos Saturday night... and I learned that I still really do not understand why people like to gamble.
5. I also learned that it SUCKS to have to leave Tahoe first thing Sunday morning - when there is fresh powder on the ground, I might add - to go back to school to sit in a computer lab all afternoon trying to finish a stupid lab assignment for the world's hardest class. (Yeah, 218B, ugh... is it March yet?)

Anyway... so that was my weekend. Some beers, some snow, some hot-tubbing, and some sitting at Stanford coding in C. Ehh, 3 outta 4 ain't bad.

Blogging

Go For Launch

Pluto here we come!!!
At 2pm today (EST) an Atlas 5 launch vehicle, the mother of all rockets, took off through a small clearing in the cloud cover above the cape in Florida. Tucked neatly inside was the New Horizons spacecraft - bound for Pluto and its moon! Too cool. My latest refresh of spaceflightnow.com shows that the is rocket traveling at a sweet 16,852 mph. Whoa! In a few minutes it'll reach a "parking" orbit around Earth... in nine short hours it'll swing past the moon for a boost (yay gravity assists!) to Jupiter... then, after another gravity assist transfer at Jupiter - which will shave 5 years off the trip, it'll be on it's way to Pluto. Granted it'll still be 2015 by the time we get there, but whatever, Pluto is FAR. Seriously, way too cool!
:)

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