June 20th = day I MET Josh (not first date)

It's the first year so I think it's perfectly acceptable to be silly and celebrate 2 anniversaries :) The day we met and then a month later, our first date. However, he will actually be out of town backpacking in Yosemite for the second one.

Other June excitement:

Welcome Baby Nolan!!

Congrats Amanda & David and big sis Emily!!

May...

Officially, as of May 1 - I have a new roommate! Oddly enough she's stayed at the apartment about 30% of the time anyway as she is my ex-roommate's girlfriend. Which sounds odd since I didn't care for him too much, but she is really great. Super sweet and fun to chat with. She cooks a lot too and sometimes offers me some :) I'm wondering if I couldn't just give her my $10 a day allotted for food and eat whatever she's cooking... I wish, lol. Although, I am actually going to just enjoy my single girl habit of picking up food here or there or cereal or whatever. Waaay to soon I am aware that things will never be the same. In a good way. Once Josh and I move in, we'll have more reason to cook for each other, someone to eat leftovers so they don't last 5 days and both motivate each other to eat out less. And then one day, a while from now, I'll have to worry about not just feeding myself! All good reasons to live in the now and just go with my own flow. I want to see if I can get sick of my absolute favorite mexican food joint just 2 blocks from my house :) Nick, the bartender and part owner of Don Pisto's, is already a little annoyed that I have an expiration date set for when I'm no longer a neighbor. *sniff. Nick and I hit it off right off the bat as he lived in Austin for a while and owned a restaurant there. Don't ask me what it was, I don't remember and didn't know of it when he said it anyway. PS: the weird pic, it's my alley and I looked up and saw the asparagus poking out. Huh.

Things I love about my neighborhood:
- Walking to work when the sun is out (yes, even when it's cold, just not raining!) and knowing I get to be a part of this quaint neighborhood at this special time. It's quiet :)

- Entertaining myself on the walk to and fro, looking in all the shop windows

- The smell of the French-Italian bakery that I stop in nearly everyday for the ultimate croissant. (I'm not biased, I've brought several people one as a treat and they all rave about it) and the old ladies who run the counter and ask "what have you hon?" They know, but ask anyway :)

- All the crazy old asian ladies in Washington Square who do their odd yoga dancing every morning. I'm really not judging, they obviously have put 2 and 2 together and realized that frequent exercise is they key to being 100 and still trotting about all over the city. Who would've thought? (sarcasm)

- All the old italian men, haha... just so picturesque. I actually get really sad thinking about what will happen when they are all gone? Are their enough Italians still in North Beach to keep a flock of old men about?

- The Hill. ugh, yes I said it. Some days my nemesis... but either way I have to get home and my body thanks me. That is, as soon as it's done hyperventilating.

April - part deux:

Welcome Azure Poseidon Graham!
(Josh's godson)

& Congrats to new Mommy & Daddy, Sally & Kevin :)

April

Josh and I were lucky to squeeze in another little getaway, a surprise destination planned by Josh! :)
We originally planned for me to take time off one Thursday so we could just have a normal full day together and do things we keep saying we wish we could do. Then Josh asked me if I thought I could get a Friday off too. I said "but you work Fridays" and he replied "yes, but I was going to ask off" ...so he told me to pack casual and not to get too excited. The night before we left was great because I got to meet his oldest sister who was visiting from New York. We, including his little sister Beth and her boyfriend, went out to dinner and it was fun being around his siblings (minus the 2 younger brothers). Thursday morning we grabbed breakfast and got on the road and I still didn't know what direction we were even headed! South. Ok. Then an interesting detour in San Jose, Josh showed me the house he was born in :) Back on the road we were now going west so I guessed correctly we were heading to either Santa Cruz or Monterey. As we kept going past Santa Cruz, Josh clued me into his plans which were to drive along Hwy 1, take me to Hearst Castle, stay in Monterey and do some light hiking around Big Sur. Plans were changed due to a landslide on Hwy 1 just 20 miles north of the castle. We were both a little disappointed but it was a sunny, beautiful day, we had great music, snacks and enjoyed driving the scenic route. He took me to a famous spot in Big Sur, the McWay Waterfall Trail that has a view of a movie set looking beach with a waterfall. Can you imagine this being your backyard? There was once a house built on this cliff and once it became a state park they tried to keep the structure, but it was too unstable. Back in the car we stopped at a different trail and hiked down to a spot where there was a little bench and a middle aged couple was already sitting enjoying the waves and a bottle of wine. Come to find out they had come here accidentally on a first date 20 some years ago and were celebrating an anniversary. They were really sweet and took our picture. As we were heading back to Monterey we saw a little dive restaurant bar in the middle of Big Sur with a "Happy Hour 5pm-7pm" It was 4:59 so we immediately pulled over and as we did I just about died that there was a giant turkey we almost ran over!

Back to Monterey to check into our hotel, we cleaned up and headed out for dinner & drinks. Nothing fancy, but we had a great time especially at a local bar "observing" some of the locals ;)

Next morning we grabbed a relaxing breakfast and drove the scenic drive around Monterey - I cannot get over the eye popping electric pink-purple flowers that cover the ground:

After that we drove towards Carmel to check out Point Lobos.
Josh had been several years ago and I'd heard about it several times but not been. A really beautiful place with easy hiking/walking around trails. Usually VERY windy at some of the points, but we lucked out with a less windy day so it was perfect.