The Week Ahead

After two weeks of staying close to home with the Peanuts Gang, only leaving for a couple of job interviews, I'm ready to paint the town. I have so many crazy goings-on that I find myself tonight completely catless, having taken Millie and Harley to my parents' house so that I can focus on things here before joining them on Wednesday.

Here's what my week looks like:

Monday

Tomorrow I'll set off from my apartment at about 8:00 and head west to the City By the Bay. Provided I make it across the Bay Bridge in decent time, I should meet up with my friend Chris in front of Pier 39 at about 10:00. We're going to bum around Pier 39 for a bit, have some lunch, and then catch the 1:05 Blue and Gold Fleet Ferry to Angel Island.

Angel Island is a good-sized island in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. It has been used as a sort of West Coast Ellis Island, a military fortification (during WWII), and many other things. These days, its a state park and a fun place to hike. I hiked it with some friends right after graduating from high school, and haven't been back.

It will be awesome to catch up with Chris, too. We met the day before my 16th birthday, in 1994. To give you some perspective, I will be 32 in a few short weeks--we've been friends for 16 years. Chris is one of those people that I can go ages without talking to, then one of us will call the other and it's like we just spoke five minutes ago. Now that we're both on Facebook, it's even easier to keep in touch.

The last ferry back to San Francisco leaves the island at 3:30, so we may not have time to go all the way around. Still, we'll get a good hike, and a good climb up the hill in the middle that affords gorgeous views of San Francisco, Marin County, the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge, and everything else the bay has to offer.

Plus, Ocean Girl gets an Ocean fix.

Tuesday

Dealing with SF traffic and all that jazz, it may take me some time to get back to Stockton on Monday. On Tuseday, I'll sleep in, then get up and have a quick run, spend some time at the gym, and drive back to the bay again!

Tuesday is my OMG SUPER EXCITING!!! day. Yes, July 20th is finally here, and my favoritist band in the whole wide world, Keane, will be playing Oakland. I expect that they're already en route to San Francisco International from London.

I'll meet up with Summer at some point in the afternoon and we'll hang out, maybe have a bite to eat somewhere before getting in line at Oakland's Fox Theater. We hope to get excellent spots--there's no seating, just standing room at the Fox--so that we can see the boys in all their glory.

Excited? That's an understatement. Finding out they were coming back to Oakland turned May from a shitty, stressed-out month into a downright awesome month. No matter how hard it was to face work, iminent unemployment, etc., I was able to remind myself that I had Keane tickets burning a hole in my wallet.

It promises to be UH-MAY-ZING.

I'll crash at Summer and Ben's place on Tuesday night because on Wednesday...

Wednesday

I have a 10:30 interview in Monterey. Which is about 2 hours south of Oakland. An early start, for sure. But that's okay--if I were to get a job in Monterey, I'd be living NEAR THE OCEAN. "Oh, I had a rough day at work. I think I'll go walk on the beach." 

"Oh, I'm feeling kind of sad today. I think I'll go walk on the beach."

You get the idea? Ocean Girl could be very happy living in Monterey.

After the interview, I might hang around Monterey a little with Summer before heading back north and east...to Lincoln.

It will take me at least 4 hours to get there, but Millie and Harley will be waiting with my parents, happy to see me. Also in Lincoln? My big brother and his family, visiting from Idaho. The last time I saw them was at Grandma Cooper's funeral in January 2008, so I'm looking forward to catching up with Aaron.

After that, I have nothing set in stone, except that Mom and I want to see "Eclipse" (me for the 2nd time, her for the first) and maybe I'll take a scrapbook project to work on. Maybe I can wheedle a nice day trip out of Mom and Dad, or maybe we'll just sit around in our air conditioned house with the cats and books.

Either way, I made sure Marian knows to set up a sub for PetCo cage cleaning next Sunday, because after two weeks of being stuck at home (including the fourth of July, which was Mom's birthday!), I'm ready to be out and about for a while.

And yes, the camera will be with me at all times, and I have plenty of extra batteries. : )