Raw Diet

Meghan and I have decided to try a raw diet out. This involves eating only raw food, including fruit, veges, grains (uncooked), legumes, beans and other such things and the goal is to do this for a week. It's supposed to be very healthy, all the research I've done so far says that your energy increases and stabilizes, you can lose weight and it's healthier overall. This is the second day we've been doing it and I must say, it's not very much fun. I'm tired (and this may or may not be because of what I'm eating) and I really want to eat some real food. I love fruits and veges and can see making them a greater part of my diet but there's no way that I could do a totally raw food diet for more than a week. Last night for dinner, we ate rice that had been soaking in water for 12 hours. It was supposed to be softer but it wasn't at all like rice is when it's cooked. This will either be a very rough week or I'll be ending this diet a little early.

Yosemite

Last weekend, my parents came to visit! They flew in Saturday night and Sunday morning, we left for Yosemite. It was an interesting 5 hour drive and we got there around 5ish. We drove around the valley and then headed to our hotel to get checked in. We stayed at the Wawona the first night which was very cute. It was old fashioned and very pretty but the walls were very thin and our neighbors weren't exactly quiet. Our room was also pretty cold so after an interesting night, we ended up switching to the Tenaya lodge for the second night. Monday, we took a bus tour through Yosemite Valley and then walked around a bit and did some hiking. It was beautiful. It wasn't too crowded because it's still cold but the waterfalls were flowing so our timing was perfect. We ate dinner at the Tenaya lodge restaurant that night and it was very good then we got a good night sleep in a warmer hotel room. Tuesday morning we went to Mariposa Grove to see the Sequoias and this turned out to be quite the walk. The road was still closed because of the snow so we ended up walking 2 miles on the road to the trail and then another mile or so on the trail. The trees were really cool and absolutely huge. We headed back to Sacramento after seeing the trees and the rest of the visit was very nice. We walked around Old Sac and they got to see where I work. It was so nice to have visitors out here, more people should come out! Here's one of the trees, that's me inside the trunk.

Spring's here!

This past weekend, the weather was absolutely beautiful. Friday night I went to the JV house and hung out. It was a lot of fun. I hadn't seen many of the JVs in a while so it was a long overdue visit. Saturday, I went to the park with a few of the JVs and Jenny and I laid out in the sun while two others played tennis. It was well over 80 which was great for a while but after getting too hot, we went to the store, got Popsicles and then headed to the JV house for a cookout and some tape ball (like baseball but with a ball made of newspaper and tape due to limited space). Sunday, I was outside all day again, playing softball in the morning with work and then going on a nice bike ride and short swim in the river later on. This weather is most certainly motivating me to stay out here a little longer although we'll see how fun it is in July and August.

Advice?

I am right now trying to figure out what I want to do next year and I'm having a rather difficult time. I know it's a decision that I ultimately have to make but I thought that maybe some input from others might help. I could volunteer again (most likely the same place because I've come to really like it out here, plus I'm already trained), I could get a job in mental health out here, which I could get pretty easily, or I could move back East and work on finding a job out there. There are pros and cons for each decision which is why it is so difficult right now. Any help out there?

Parade

Today, as I was laying on my couch watching a movie, I heard all this music outside. I looked out the window to see a bunch of cop cars and my interest piqued, I got up to check it out. There was a parade that went right by my house for Caesar Chavez day. Here's a picture taken from my front porch, pretty cool that I didn't even need to go anywhere to see this.

Blond

Here's the picture of me as a blond. It's not very good but it was the best I could do with the lighting and all. I'll put one up later of my hair as it is now.

Fix Up

So I still have to post pictures of myself as a blond but I have now changed my hair color yet again. I couldn't quite get used to the blond so I decided that I would just dye it back to dark brown. I was still at work when I decided this so I couldn't do anything about it right away, however, I had started talking about it and two of the residents decided that a third resident should dye his hair. They even went so far as to go and buy the dye, which ended up being platinum blond. I helped him dye it and it came out pretty well, although he might not be leaving it in for very long. I ended up taking the left over dye with me so I could attempt some highlights again.

I got dye on the way home and did the initial dark dye when I got back. It covered most of the blond, although it wasn't as dark as I would have liked but it was much improved. Then I did the highlights, which also came out okay but the problem was that I had to wash the highlighting dye out of my hair, which in turn washed some of the dark dye out. Now my hair is mostly light brown/reddish with some reddish and blondish highlights. It's going to be this way for a while though because I'm afraid if I keep dying it, it will just all fall out.