All right now STOP! SISTER TIME!

When my ex decided to leave and my world was in chaos my sister was feeling sad and sorry for me so booked a ticket to visit me for her fall break. Her school district moved to a "balanced calendar" system and she has a two week long fall break which was perfect for her to take a week vacay to see sad old me! Luckily, I'm not sad anymore so we could just enjoy our time together. She is still here until Wednesday but she was complaining about not having any blog posts to read so I decided to throw her a bone and make a quick blog post.


Her first night here we just chillaxed and didn't do much. She likes to pretend like I'm ALWAYS on my phone, but she is no better. She's always on her phone or tablet as well. We are a bunch of internet junkies.

 

Luckily she loves my doggies and doesn't mind them laying all over her all the time. 

 

Target is like our Mecca so of course we had to make a visit to the Chico Target. And of course when we saw Turkey Hats we had to model them. Because duh! Who wouldn't?!?!

 

 

We LOVE geocaching so we had to squeeze some of that in of course! Found some cool ones in Upper Park @ Bidwell Park!

 

 

We apparently also have a hat trying on addiction. We first pretended to be guests at the Royal Wedding and then tried on flapper style hats in an homage to Thoroughly Modern Millie, a family fav!

 

Finally, my sister has attended several social gatherings with me during her time here. We went to a birthday party brunch/lunch this morning and caught a few cute snaps of us together! 

 

She has two more full days here so there will be sure to be more photo ops! One more blog post at least for her to read.

365: Poking the Belly

When my sisters and I were little we used to fight over who got to "poke the belly" of a new tub of butter. Poking the belly meant you'd stab or otherwise maim the middle of a tub of butter usually where there was a swirl. I have no idea where "poking the belly" came from but after googling a while it was apparent this was just one more weird thing my family made up. I'm guessing we made it up because the butter looks sort of like a belly button? One of the best things about being a grown up is that I have pretty much free range to always poke the belly now. Because Ange doesn't even know what the hell that means nor does she get excited about it. And no smelly little sisters trying to elbow their way in!

365: So Grateful for Days like These

Today was pretty much perfect. I went to the post office this morning and found three packages waiting for me! Score!!!

One package was my birthday gift from my dad and stepmom--a Timbuk2 messenger bag!!! Yes! Now I can walk and bike to school when we move down to Chico with getting annoyed at straps sliding off my shoulders or worrying about my stuff getting all wet or ruined! Thanks papa bear & Gail!

My second package was some Old Navy stuff I ordered with a birthday gift card from my sister & a credit I got from something I had to return that my mom got me for my birthday! Yay new clothes!!! Thanks mom and sister and BIL!

The third package was more amazing love from one of my Juniata girls and her awesome family. More donations for Africa! Thanks Mandy, Brian, Tom & Math Ruthie!!!

Next I got to my office and there was a note slipped under my door from a student I had last semester. It said all sorts of nice things and totally gave me a pep in my step all day. Thanks Esther!

Finally, someone stuck little encouraging post-it notes all around the bottom floor of Butte Hall today. They were so cute and definitely made me smile. They were intended for other students in the midst of stress about finals I'm sure but I didn't mind partaking in the love fest too!

Pretty much my life is charmed and amazing.

365: Hazards of the Trade

I had about $350 left in my professional development accounts this year and it needed to be spent by the end of the semester or I'd lose it so I decided to invest in some "instructional aids."

Specifically: contraceptives.

Have you ever spent $350 on contraceptives at once? It buys a TON of stuff. I ordered everything through Amazon and since they operate an online space for many smaller sellers I ended up with 16 different dealers sending me things. Dental dams here, condoms and lube there, etc.

Well apparently two things happen when you have stuff shipped to the university. First they open all the packages that come in and check out your stuff. That's kind of bunk but I guess if someone sends me anthrax then it won't be me who gets it. Secondly, apparently you aren't supposed to get "personal stuff" shipped to you at work.

I'm sure you can guess what happened next.

When I went into the office this morning out Department Administrative Assistant was cracking up. Apparently someone in shipping had been frantically trying to get a hold of me all day Friday (I worked from home on Friday) because he was worried about the massive orders of contraceptives I was getting. He finally called Marie up and was trying to get the story out delicately to her without busting me or embarrassing himself or her. The best part is that Marie immediately knew what he was trying to get to but instead of bailing him out she let him spit out the whole story before she explained that I'm the sex professor and none of that stuff was "personal" but was for instructional purposes. She thought it was the most hilarious thing ever. I did too. I'm still waiting on more packages so let's see how embarrassed I can make them before it's all said and done!

All I can say is that it's a good thing I didn't have more money because sex toys were next on my list.

365: Road Trip!

Our landlord came down to fix some stuff at the house this morning and when we was here he told me his little dog Zippy got bit by a snake last night and he had to go to the emergency vet. Luckily he had already had a rattlesnake vaccine so he made it. This was my call to action! I'd been meaning to get the girls vaccinated but kept putting it off. The Butte Humane Society has a walk in clinic every day of the week (M-F) and super cheap vaccines. So I hopped in the shower after Bill left and tossed the girls in the car to go get their rattlesnake vaccines! They were SO EXCITED to be GO, GO, GOING! They also decided that despite the fact that I drive a station wagon they both needed to squish into the front seat and breathe on each other and me. Total nerds. But they got their first shot so hopefully it will save their little lives if they ever happen upon a snake while running through the canyon!

365: Ice Cream Buddies!

After the fundraising dinner at Woodstock's we decided to hit up a new Hispanic ice cream parlor with two of our newest and favoritest people in Chico: Danny & Caitlin! They are also our soon to be surrogate (?) parents to our fur babies!

We had so much fun!!! From Danny's decision to try ALL the green ice creams in the case, to laughing about BEEFHAWKS, and apparently getting on the owner's nerves with our boisterous laughing, it was clear we were the only people in the place having a GAY old time! So glad we met these two :)

365: Gala Night

Tonight was my department's spring gala to celebrate our spring interns and graduates. I was asked to be a "commencement" speaker at the event which was nice and fun. They gave me a thank you note and a cool stone coaster as a thank you gift. We had 51 students interning this semester--so many it was hard to get them all in a picture and impossible to get them all looking at the cameras at the same time! I did a quick panorama snap and called it a day. Yay for new young professionals!

365: Empowerment Rally

I was invited to speak at an Empowerment Rally organized by a class on campus. It was a communications class that focused on gender & communication, taught by someone I've never met, and organized by students that I've never met. I have no idea how they picked me. They contacted me a couple weeks ago and asked if I'd be one of their three speakers and if I could give a 15 minute presentation on body image. Sounded like it could be fun so why not?

It turned out to be a cool class project and was a lot of fun. They raised $500 during the week for our Safe Place program which does education and outreach around sexual and domestic violence on campus.

My talk focused on loving your body TODAY and not feeding into social & media messages telling you that you're not good enough the way you are. I think it went over pretty well with the students, and I know it went over very well with their instructor because she asked me to speak at a conference she organizes in the fall! All in all, an awesome empowering day!

365: Spyder & Scarlett

These were our get-ups for the white trash party (yes we know that's classist and not pc--it wasn't our party and we just rolled with it). Ange was also known as Spyder & I went by Scarlett. We carried ketchup and mustard bottles for our beverage containers. All together we spent about $25 putting our outfits together. It's ok to be jealous. We know we're hot.

365: Go Big or Go Home

One of my/our good friends texted me this morning to see if Ange and I wanted to have drinks this evening. Well drinks turned into more drinks turned into dinner and long (hilarious) conversations. We' finished our second pitcher of margaritas but had more stories to tell and since I wasn't driving I got one final drink. Grande margarita! Good times with a good friend. Olé!

365: Riding the Bus!

'm ahead of schedule in my M/W Human Sexuality class so we got out of class earlier than usual. I had time to kill and it was a beautiful day so as I strolled along towards Stonewall to see my babe I saw the bus stop and thought "Hmm...I haven't rode the bus since I moved to Chico maybe I should do that?" and as if by magic a bus pulled up and I decided to hop on! All I knew is that it was headed in the direction I was going and that with a Chico State ID I could ride for free! According to Ange this made me a "weirdo" but whatevs! It was a random and fun adventure. I only rode about 5 stops before I bailed. I didn't want to ride all the way to Costco or wherever and be stuck there. More adventures to come once we move down here!

365: Old School Fun in the Sun

We've skipped over spring and headed full on into summer! It hit almost 90 degrees today and while we were bopping around town I decided we needed to throwback to the olden days and buy a sprinkler to play in! We looked several places and couldn't find one exactly like I was picturing from my youth but we found a pretty good substitute at Big Lots. We came home, hooked it up to the hose on the deck and ran through it for about half an hour. So. Much. Fun. And also like our youth it was nuddie pants only so we had to be crafty with the pictures we took! Definitely the best $3 we've spent in ages.

365: Post Carwash Par-Tay

The fundraiser carwash raised over $700 to fund HIV test kits for Stonewall! Wahoo! Of course we did what we do best and partied it up to celebrate our hardwork and sunburns! Love my peeps!

365: Awesome Discovery

Since my little boogie bear is feeling under the weather I decided to pick up some Thai food for dinner since it's the only thing she's been hungry for in days. While I was waiting for it to be ready I wandered into some local shops to check out the goods. I found a cool card/paper/gift store and at the very back of the store I saw this awesome rack of gift wrap that was made to look like various metropolitan areas. So cool! Next time I have to give a fancy gift I'm totally getting some of this!

365: At Home Date Night

We have a lot of work to do this weekend so we decided to have an at home date night. We worked until about 9 and then settled in for a movie. Now Ange isn't really a movie fan so when we watch a movie together it goes one of two ways:

1. We get a movie I'm super excited about and she falls asleep halfway through.

OR

2. We find some ridiculous comedy that sounds good to Ange and simultaneously doesn't make me want to gouge my eyes out, and there's only a 50/50 chance she'll fall asleep.

Tonight's selection was Jack and Jill starring Adam Sandler x2. It was completely ridiculous as expected. Mostly completely OOC and kooky but lots of very hilarious slapstick. Ange made it through the whole thing which equals successful date night for me!

365: Rocking out with HPA!

Our Health Professions Club held a fundraiser at Cafe Flo tonight. Of course Ange and I were there to show our support. They had an open mic, lots of karaoke and some actual singers and bands. My favorite moment of the night was when three hipster nerdie guys got up and started rapping the most ridiculous song I've ever heard. It involved the words "cray cray" at least twice if that's any indication. All in all a successful event and super silly fun.

365: LaRocca Winery

(click to enlarge the rad panorama)

We spent a couple of hours at LaRocca Winery today. Ange discovered it while surfing the 'net while I was in Denver & made a tasting appointment for today. It's only a couple of miles from our house and was the first organic winery in the state of California! For $10 we got an extensive & informative tour, 8 wine tastings (3 white, 5 red), and an all around great time. Our tour guide was the owner of the winery! It's a small, family run operation. It was a gorgeous winery and of course we loved all the green and organic parts even more! It's my new favorite wine & winery! If you come and visit us, this will definitely be on the list of things to do!

365: High Fashion

I decided on a whim Tuesday night that I was going to go all out for my fashion choices for this conference. Since I sick during MasQueerade I didn't get to wear my super sexy dress. I decided to pair it with a suit jacket to bring down from cocktail to high fashion business. I could have went safe with plain black tights but where's the fun in that? Fishnets and heels thank you very much. I got some funky cheap jewelry at Forever 21 to finish off the look. Based on the number of compliments I got today me thinks I should take more fashion risks on the regular. Rawr.

365: My Peeps!

I'm in Denver at the Forum on Education Abroad to do a panel presentation with two of my favorite peeps in the whole world: Kati Csoman & Emil Nagengast. It's a shame that Ange had to stay back, but based on our hours of work tonight she probably would have been bored to death. We did, however, make time for dinner, drinks and socializing. Of course we did. Cause that's what we do! Up and at 'em early in the morning to wow the Forum. We got this.

365: Tradition

Some years ago my mom got a surprising amount of money back on her tax return. On a whim she sent me and my sisters each a hundred dollar bill. The next year she did the same thing. And thus began a tradition!

The best part is that I ALWAYS forget about it. Sure $100 is G R E A T, but it's not SO huge that I sit around wondering about it from January to April. So when it comes it's always a super fun surprise that I don't expect even though once I remember I'm like "oh yeahhhh." Even when I got the envelope I was thinking "What's my mom sending me?" It's not until the crisp lovely bill sails into my lap that I remember. It's awesome.

Thanks mom! ♥