my life

Hectic Happy Holidays

Whew, the holiday rush is over and I'm just settling down. What a crazy couple of weeks! I spent Christmas in Boise (stopped in McCall for snowboarding on the way down) and brought Juneau and Maya there to see their "grandparents." I spent a week at my parents' house (brought my work with me) and got to hang out with family and friends. We went on a Christmas light tour with my cousins and aunt and uncle, did a White Elephant gag gift exchange on Christmas Eve, and had a wonderful Christmas morning in which everyone got spoiled rotten as usual! I'm excited that I got a new office chair and other office supplies so I can be more comfy in my little home office. Thanks Mom & Dad! I also got an ice cream maker, magic bullet kitchen gadget, and a new mess kit for backpacking, among other things. On Christmas day we went up to McCall after spending some time with Seneca's family, and then came home the day after.

After one day home, it was on the road again. We headed to San Francisco with our friends Hallie and Joel for "Sea of Dreams," a New Year's String Cheese Incident show. I had never seen Cheese live before and San Fran is just plain awesome, so I was excited about the road trip. We stopped in Ashland, Oregon, the first night and as we headed South it got more and more rainy. We tried going down 101, but that turned out to be a bad idea. Mudslides had closed the highway, so after staying a night in the very wet Redwoods, we turned around and tried another way. A few hours and 2 failed detours later, we were finally on our way to the show. It was raining so hard it felt like we were in a Monsoon, and it took us forever to finally get across that bridge and park the car. We arrived at the first night of the concert around midnight, but luckily we only missed one set.

The venue for Sea of Dreams (Concourse Exhibition Center) was filled with "cheeseheads" all dressed up in crazy costumes. There was psychadelic art on display and a room with nothing but blacklight sensitive obstacles. There were 3 stages and several booths full of interesting wares. It was pretty crowded but I got a great view of String Cheese and danced and walked around the venue until about 3am. We headed to our hotel room, which ended up being quite a fiasco after having our rervation "lost" then found and being double-booked in a room with another crew of "cheeseheads." Eventually we got our room and got a few hours of sleep. The next day was actually sunny! We explored San Francisco, hung out near Haight Ashbury and Golden Gate Park, and tried tasty brews at the Magnolia Brewery on Haight St.

New Year's Eve was one I won't soon forget! We wore psychadelic costumes and got to the venue early. String Cheese played on and on (from about 9 pm to 2:20 am with one set break!) and there were tons of people dressed up in crazy costumes complete with flashing lights and more. We headed to the floor to ring in the New Year while Cheese jammed out. At midnight, there was a countdown and thousands of balloons were released from nets on the ceiling. Glow sticks and balloons were bouncing around in the crowd, and everyone tried to keep the balloons up in the air. The energy at the show was amazing, and kept us going until around 4 am when we started our walk to the hotel.

We stopped by the ocean on the way out of town the next day and headed to Portland. We finally got some sleep staying with my cousins in Portland and headed to Moscow the day after. We stopped for a hike at Multnomah Falls and hiked to the top to soak in the view. I've seen those falls so many times, but never from right above the edge of the cliff! It was a quick and uneventful ride back to Moscow...

I'm starting a 40 hour/week schedule today. I'm working 10 hour days, 4 days a week. It will be hard to get used to and take up most of my days, but my 3-day weekends are precious and I can use the money! At least I have a more ergonomic chair to sit in now... Time to start another busy year. Happy 2006!

Labels: family, holidays, volksvegan grease bus

posted by Megan @ 2:46 PM