Pumpkin Carving!

Tonight Meghan and I carved some pumpkins! It was great, the pumpkins smelled delicious, we roasted some seeds and our jack-o-lanterns are great. Mine is pictured above, it has hair and everything and below, mine and Meghan's are on the front porch. Here are some other pictures I've recently uploaded from my past adventures so you can all catch up!

Halloween Weekend!

This past weekend, Meghan and I ventured down to San Francisco again. The initial reason was because Brian was visiting some friends there and I was going to meet him for dinner. It just so happened that the JVC house in San Jose was having a Halloween party on Saturday night so it worked out really well. Friday night I met Brian at the BART and we took it into the Mission for dinner at a place called Range. It was a restaurant that he liked to go to when he was still living in San Fran and I provided an excuse for him to go again. It was really nice to see him-I miss having family around a little-and the food was delicious!

Saturday I spent the day poking around San Francisco. Meghan, Mike and Mike's two roommates and I walked a lot around the city just exploring. We climbed some big hills and got nice views of the city. Saturday night we headed down to San Jose, all dressed up as pirates! It was a fun night, good to meet some other JVs and just hang out. We came back this afternoon so we'd have some time to get ourselves together. It will be an early night as we didn't get much sleep this weekend.

Here's a shout out to the Sox too! The series is looking good, although it would be a little more exciting if the game right now was closer but GO SOX!

The Benefit!

So after weeks and weeks of planning, calling radio stations, picking up donations and the like, the benefit has come and gone...and successfully! There were about 400 people there altogether and everyone had a great time. The benefit is really a time for Clean and Sober to raise some money by having a dinner with a silent auction and raffle. It's great for the residents because it gives them the opportunity to "shine." Tuesday, we went shopping with some of the residents so they could find outfits for the big night. Everyone gets all dressed up so they look wonderful, feel wonderful and have a great time. It was really nice to see everything come together after having worked on it for a while now. A few people made speeches about their stories and how far they have come but my favorite part was the count down they did at the end. My boss started calling people up by the amount of clean time they had so starting at 12 years and going all the way down to 1 day. It was really great to see everyone up on the stage together forming such a strong community. All the work that went into the Benefit was definitely worth it.

Apple Crumb Pie

So I kind of forgot about my blog recently so here's a quick update. I got married but don't wear my ring to work, Meghan got a mouse in a bar, and I made 12 apple crumb pies within the last two days. Okay, so only two of those are true. I didn't really get married but Manny started that rumor so people would leave me alone at work-not that anyone was really bothering me too much.

Meghan did get a mouse in a bar the other night however and I did make 12 apple crumb pies in the past two days. We went to this place called the fox and the goose and Meghan sat at this table where there was this computer mouse. She kind of looked at it funny and picked it up when the guy next to her was like, "oh yea, I brought that out in case anyone wanted it." Kind of odd, but we thought it was a clever way to pick people up so we may be trying it one of these nights.

As for the pies, we went to Apple Hills this past weekend and went apple picking. It was a lot of fun, there are a bunch of different orchards all in one area so we picked apples and had some apple donuts. Later that day, I was at New Start picking up a basket of food and mentioned making some apple pies so they loaded me up with 13 bags of apples and then told everyone that I was making them pies. I said I would not make them pies but would come over and make pies with them so that's what I did. I was at New Start II yesterday and New Start I today and made a total of 12 apple crumb pies. They got very good reviews but the sad part is, I didn't try any! I will definitely be making some more this weekend however so I can try some of my dad's famous recipe!

Costochondritis (the end of catch up)

So as my ankle was starting to feel better, I reduced my intake of advil and my chest started to hurt. It was just the right side and I had noticed it bothering me a little but without advil, it was killing me. Monday night, I barely got any sleep because it was hurting so badly so I decided I'd go get it checked out at the doctors. I have Kaiser insurance out here which after going to for my ankle, I had decided that I would go there as little as possible but of course, I had to go back almost right away. I managed to get an appointment for Tuesday after convincing the nurse that I was OK and not having a heart attack. After poking around a little bit, the doctor diagnosed me with costochondritis which is a swelling of the cartilage that connects my ribs to the sternum. There's no real cause, although sometimes it is linked to a virus so there wasn't too much the doctor could do except give me some extra strength pain killers. It certainly feels better with the drugs and I slept a little better last night. It's a very interesting thing though-if anyone has unexplained chest pain, you too could have costochondritis!

Hiking (the middle of catch up)

On Sunday, Meghan and I went with Sister Libby up to the foothills to do some hiking. It was absolutely beautiful with all the leaves changing (although nothing compared to home). It was really more of a walking path rather than hiking which was good for my ankle, I don't think it could have handled too much rough terrain. We had a nice picnic by a little stream and it reminded me of the path that is at the end of the street at home. I was thinking about how Stephanie used to take us all down there and we'd hang out by the stream, making little boats and floating them around. It was a fun day.

Also, a belated Happy Birthday to Mom and Kevin-who is finally 21! I'm excited to go out at Christmas with all the siblings!

The move (the beginning of my catch up)

So New Start II is almost completely moved. Last Wednesday-Friday the bulk of the move was really done and I spent a lot of time driving people and their stuff around, building beds and going to the dump. Luckily, no one had their bed fall which was great because I would have gotten the blame and when driving Manny's truck, I managed to only drive over 5 nails! (This wasn't really my doing but I have gotten the blame, oh well). The flat tire was an improvement from the last time I drove his truck as I backed into a cement barricade at the dump (but I didn't really do any damage then either so it was okay). Everyone has all of their stuff over at the new place and seem to have settled in well. Now people who are on the waiting list will start going in which is very exciting for me because since I've started, there haven't really been any new people.

Mice!

Today at work, I went into Manny's office to do some stuff on the computer. I happen to glance over at the mouse trap and low and behold, we had a mouse! I went to get a paper towel and bag so I could take him out but when I went back and moved the trash can, he moved! I just about had a heart attack and ran out into the hall meeting Erik who asked what was wrong with me. Lance came in and took care of the mouse but my heart is still beating a little faster even an hour after it happened.

Jubilee Day

Saturday was Jubilee Day. The Sisters of Mercy had a mass and then the unveiling of a statue in Capitol Park-a huge deal seeing as how it is a religious statue on government property. It's there to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Sisters of Mercy. Saturday night Meghan and I went with the JVs to get frozen yogurt at this place called Big Spoon. The place is sweet, you can make your own ice creams and then they just charge you by weight. Afterwards, we went to their house and watched Animal House (the first time I had ever seen the whole thing:0)

Sunday was a relaxing day. I got some stuff done around the house and finished reading Fried Green Tomatos. I was excited when I found it in the library a few weeks ago because I love the movie and I enjoyed the book just as much. I got a few new books at the library yesterday as well. It's nice having time to read for pleasure rather than just school-it's a new thing for me and I'm enjoying the time.