White Water

Last weekend I faced my fears and went river rafting down the American River. It was surprisingly less scary than I thought it would be. Of course, it was only class I, II & III. No class V's for this girl.

We had an awesome all-girl boat for Lizzie's bachelorette party. Fun times.

Knit happens

I’ve been feeling a little stagnant with this whole no job thing and all, so I decided to take on a new activity: knitting.

Why knitting? No reason. I think my grandma taught me how to knit when I was a kid, so it was easy to draw on that old, hidden knowledge and get right back into it (with the help of my roommate, Molly, my sister, Katie, and my cousin/sister, Renna). I like it because (a) it’s calming and (b) I can do it while doing other things, like watching TV or talking to people, and (c) I feel like I’m being productive.

So now I have a new hobby. Well, it’s a hobby like heroine is a hobby. I can’t stop knitting! I learned exactly one week ago and already I’ve completed two items: an oddly-shaped scarf, and a wine-cozy. At this point, I’ve run out of yarn, so it’s back to the knitting store, where I’m sure I’ll pick up all kinds of knitting paraphernalia to help me sink deeper and deeper into my new habit.

Behold – my first creations!

Audrey and the Great Glass Elevators

Last weekend, as you know, I went houseboating on Lake Shasta. It was a three story boat, with a hot tub and a waterslide. Three stories (plus the slide) meant you could jump off from any number of places. I preferred the slide, which involved about a 6-foot drop. But braver members of our group were back flipping off the third-story. 30-foot drop? 40? I have no concept of distance. Anyway, it was high.



I never did get up the full courage to jump off the top, but I did jump off the second story (20-feet or so?) The jumping part was fun, but as I landed, I remembered that I don’t like jumping from high distances. Why? Because it hurts! The boys can play it all cool like smacking the water didn’t burn their skin and bruise their arms and pop their ear drums, but I know that it did.

My ears were particularly sore. And, for at least a week afterward, my left ear felt like it was full of water. I tried everything: shaking my head, pounding it against the ground, Q-tips, handstands, everything at once.

Finally, my roommate Rich suggested that I needed a quick change in pressure, like an elevator ride. What a perfect excuse to visit my favorite place in the city: the glass elevators at the Westin St. Francis. I rode my bike over to Union Square, dodged the elevator security guards by heading up to the second floor (shhh, that’s my little secret), and rode that elevator up and down to my little heart’s content.

I’ve been enjoying that view since I was a kid. I don’t remember the first time I discovered the glass elevators there, but I do recall riding them up and down with Carolyn our freshman year of highschool on a trip to the City. And I remember my friends “kidnapping” me for my 18th birthday, blindfolding me and taking me to the glass elevators. I’ve visited them many times since.

And now I have a new reason to love them: they cured my ears.

Why is 6 afraid of 7?

Because of today's date.

Get it? It's 7/8/9 today.

Okay, I'm a nerd.

Fun with science

For the past three weeks, I’ve been volunteering at 826 Valencia. I’ve volunteered there many times as a tutor for afterschool homework help, but this summer they’re doing a special program for English Language Learners (ELL).

ELLs are 2nd through 4th-graders who moved to the US as children, so they can speak English fluently, but have a hard time reading and writing it. It’s basically like an educational summer camp where the kids get to do things like write stories, play games and learn stuff. And I get to help. It’s been fun.

Today, the kids got to learn some science. Basically, we played with a big tub of dry ice, soap and water. The kids were so worked up about the bubbles, they were dancing all over the playground.

In addition to dry ice bubbles and dancing kids, Mission Playground on Valencia is also filled with homeless people. The few bums that we’re comatose or busy collecting garbage actually seemed interested in the experiment. One particularly alcohol-soaked bum was so excited by the dry ice, he joined our circle.

“I know what dry ice is made out of! I know!” He was raising his hand so frantically that the teacher finally called on him.

“Carbon Dioxide!” he announced proudly.

At least he got it right.

Happy America Day

I’ve always enjoyed the 4th of July as a holiday, another excuse to drink beer and barbecue. But I’ve always been a little wary of the whole patriotism thing, the blind support of an entire country and it’s government. I’ve always found ways around it, such as the Red Neck, White Trash, Blue Collar party from a few years back.



But this year, being proud of my country and my government for the first time in a while, I actually decided to go full out. I joined the rest of the “real” Americans and went houseboating.



That means all the long weekend I motored around Lake Shasta eating hotdogs and drinking Budweiser NOT ironically. It was actually kinda fun.



Though, I had to ignore all my nagging environmentally conscience thoughts and vegetarian tendencies.