F My Life

Yes, that infamous line from Superbad continues to haunt me. All the boys in Santa Barbara used to say it all the time and now everyone at work continually repeats it to me.

Why's that? Because of this amazingly, ridiculous website.

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Today, my first graders released the butterflies we've been raising. The kids were sad that one had died in his cocoon and wouldn't be set free. Turns out that butterfly may have had a better fate: a flock of birds ate half of the others. Immediately after releasing them. In front of the kids. FML

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Today, at 4 AM, I locked myself out of my apartment. After calling friends in vain, I decided to just sit on the doorstep and wait for someone to come in. I sat for 10 minutes before a homeless man insisted threateningly that I move. I was kicked off my own front doorstep by a homeless man. FML

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Today, I finally got my cast taken off my leg after a long month of crutches. I was so excited, until four dead spiders fell out. FML

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Today, I was at my boyfriend's house.I've been a vegetarian for 4 years, and his mother made lasagna with meat in it. After telling her I don't eat meat, my boyfriend's father proceeds to say "we know who's meat she does eat." My boyfriend, his mother, and I were standing right there. FML

Why I've been living in a cave

Tomorrow is my last day of grad class!!!! All I have to do is turn in my paper, present for about 5-10 mins., then I'm on my merry little way for the summer. That means, however, that I need to finish my paper (I'll get it done after lunch at work, nothing else today anyways).

And then I get to start thinking about moving THIS WEEKEND! I have to put up pictures of the new place soon, it's kind of cute really :) I'm very excited for my own place finally, for the first time in my life!

And then J.D. and I were looking at where my Delta/American Air/United sky miles could get me this summer. Belize is actually really cheap, fits in with my miles, and after watching a documentary on the area, looks like a wonderful plan! Especially since I promised myself that after living in France twice and visiting lots of Europe, the next place I'd like to visit in my life is South/Central America. It's not actually going to happen, but a girl can dream right?! :)

Other than that, when I'm done with grad school tomorrow, I have three more weeks of baseball until the year is over. Then the final week of May, I'm going to move Aimee out of her apartment and spend a few days in Newport/Huntington again -- we're thinking about going to California Adventure in Disneyland this time. Then the weekend of June 6, it's Laura's wedding at Lake Tahoe! And then my weekends are free free free until work starts back up again in August. That's also when I get to make the trip up to Eugene, Oregon, for Jenn and Eric's wedding.

Oh yeah, and did I mention, I'm getting a job promotion that should start by mid-May?! Lots of exciting things to look forward to this summer, maybe Belize will be another one?

Oops!

I can't believe I forgot to post about this yesterday.

Points to the first person that can tell me what's wrong with this baseball jersey ;)


Way to go, Majestic!

Some of my FAVORITES!

I'm still on this really high "I love baseball" kick. And since I just finished my final in my only grad class this afternoon, I'm not quite ready to do work yet.

So on my lunch break, here are some of my favorite photos from this spring, of my favorite boys with whom I am fortunate to travel across the state every other week!

#2 Ben Gorang

#5 Jake Sylvester

#7 J.B. Brown

#15 Nick Longmire

#23 Joey Centanni

#40 Tye Davis

The 2009 Pacific Baseball Team:

And credit where credit is due.... special thanks to Matt Brown, Meghan Camino and George Steckler for their dedication behind the lens this year! Without whom, none of these photos would exist.

"Work Trip"

This last weekend was such a blast! I'm so grateful my final paper was moved back a week, otherwise I would not have been able to have had the opportunity to go down to Orange County this weekend!

First of all, I've always wanted to go down to Cal State Fullerton because that baseball team's almost like a legend among all D1 collegiate teams. They just have so much history, and for an A's fan, have had a lot of players go professional. The field was beautiful, it was extremely hot all weekend long, culminating with a 95-degree day game on Sunday. It almost had a minor league feel, so again, I'm really excited I got to see the park!

But that's not entirely the whole story.... I sort of got to see history in the making! See my article and read the PDF I made to understand what I'm talking about :)

Other than that, get ready for a brief recap of the weekend.

THURSDAY: My sister came and picked me up and I got to check out her house in Newport Beach for the first time. I'm really jealous of where she gets to live! Only one block from the ocean she lives and to kill time while we were waiting for our friend Gianna, we walked a couple of blocks down the street to this small dive bar on the ocean. It was a neat little sports bar with a Mexican theme, so of course we each had a margarita to start things off. While waiting, this group of guys from Jersey (just imagine the accents already...) stopped at our table and "had to find out who we were." Small world, one of them went to UCSB. But a cute awkward and tall guy started talking to me since I was getting so heated with the Angel's game on tv. In the land of the Angels, I was actually cheering when they started getting pounded!

Long story short, they invited us to come over and take shots in Huntington Beach (where we were ironically headed for dinner), but to our better judgment we turned down the offer from what would have been a drunken chauffeur. Then Gi finally arrived and we headed out to a delicious Mediterranean hole in the wall restaurant in downtown Huntington. We stayed there for hours, as the waiter flirted with us all night and gave us free appetizers and baklava after dinner. The baklava, he said, was a gift after I correctly guessed that he was originally from Turkey, and not Greece, as my sister surmised.

This is where it gets weird, "Max," he said his name was, started to develop a little crush on my sister and then he started showing us pictures of Istanbul, saying we should go visit soon. While it is much prettier than I'd ever imagined, his next suggestion was proposterous. He told us to go and his parents would pick us up from the airport, house and feed us the entire time. Wow..... As the night began to dwindle away, he suggested we go to bars with him. Instead we booked out of there and went to a bar where I met my friend Chris, who works at our athletic conference office and who I have almost daily contact with, but I had never met up until that point. It was a good night made that much better when our friend Max randomly showed up. Needless to say, Aimee was quite unhappy about the whole thing, especially after I kept saying she'd dance with him.

FRIDAY: Oh yeah, did I mention I was on a work trip? We didn't have to be at the field until 4ish, with game time set for 7 p.m. So Aimee and I took our time waking up, then quickly showered and hopped on bikes and rode around Newport all afternoon. About lunchtime, I decided I wanted to go to a little diner and find some kind of brunch food, so we found this cute little surf shop-inspired diner and got egg white omelets with all kinds of fruit and veggies. And I indulged my inner child by ordering a tall, cold glass of chocolate milk.


After riding around a bit, we stopped at the harbor and then made our way back to her house, packed up and watched tv at my hotel suite in Brea before it was time to head back to the field. That was an exciting night, as my Tigers defeated Cal State Fullerton, the NO. 6 TEAM IN THE NATION!!! 5-4 in the top of the ninth inning, after we put up four runs in that inning! It was also my first time on radio since all the broadcasts prior were broadcast solely on the Internet, and the person working in the studio for the radio station had nothing but good things to say about my broadcast. So that was an exciting moment for me.

SATURDAY: Taking our time waking up again, we headed down to the lobby and had breakfast with Ben, my co-worker since the softball team was also playing at Fullerton last weekend. After breakfast, Aimee and I met our student team manager, Antonio, and headed to Downtown Disneyland! It's been about five-six years since I last went to Disneyland, so that was fun to come back to the area again. We first went novelty shopping and then found ourselves in the ESPN Zone. Antonio treated us to a game card and we played sports/arcade games for the better part of an hour. My favorite part was actually striking out Alex Rodriguez of the NY Yankees in a pitching simulation. But I won't tell you that my fastball only clocked at 43 mph. Embarrassing.... the gun must have been off. That's ok though, because I get bragging rights since Aimee walked A-Rod on four-straight pitches and Antonio gave up a home run ot Jason Bay. After we ran out of points, we headed to the House of Blues for lunch and then drove back to campus to catch some of the softball game that afternoon. About an hour later, it was back to work for me, so I went up the concourse and on the other side to the baseball diamond, where I got to broadcast another win for Pacific!!! This time it was 14-10, after we posted four runs in the sixth, seven in the seventh and two in the eighth for our FIRST series win EVER against the Titans. Super exciting.


SUNDAY: Wasn't all that exciting, as we woke up and went straight to the field for the only day game of the weekend. Actually, scratch that. Baseball games always make for a fun day. Can't win 'em all though, but we fought hard and almost pulled out the sweep with a 4-3 loss before making the 6.5 hour bus ride back up to Stockton.

Again, it was a great weekend and I'm so glad I got to go! There's nothing better than baseball, except maybe baseball in warm weather, no, how about baseball in warm weather in Southern California on the beach?

Heaven.

Just to let you know

That I have changed my format. I was getting a little bored with the old style and since it's been about a year, I feel like this is more fitting of "me."

Pictures from Easter to come! Until then, you can see them on facebook.

I probably won't be updating for a while since baseball's heading down to Cal State Fullerton this weekend. I finally get to see my sister Aimée's apartment down in Newport Beach. I think we're going out for dinner in Huntington Beach tomorrow night at some Mediterranean restaurant with our friend Gianna. I'm looking forward to it!

Joyeux.....

For my 24th, I spent the day eating. So pretty much in the same way I spend every day of my life, ha. J.D. took me to The Firehouse Restaurant in Oldtown Sacramento that really took me back to my days in France. Which, by the way, exactly one year ago I spent my last day in France. On April 6, 2008, I was on a plane to Germany and Spain for my Spring Break. This year's was spent working at baseball games!

But I digress. The restaurant was extremely elegant and small, with a staff of about four personally tending multiple times a course to each table. It was a neat little combination of France meets Northern California that so many eateries and wineries in this area so painstakingly try to emulate (see: the film Bottle Shock). Literally, after every course that was sat down in front of us had finished, the wait staff came and cleared out all five-ish plates that were on the table in addition to all of the silverware, regardless of whether or not it had been used. Now I know that this has the potential to sound pretentious and stuck up, but it was really nice being treated in such a manner. I've never really eaten at an establishment of this level, so it was a nice change of pace for someone like me. I think everyone deserves to be treated to a really swank meal at least once in their lives. Oh no, it's the French food snob in my genes coming out now...

So I'll leave you with descriptions of the meal, taken from the website itself!

We started off with a small endive shell placed atop a port reduction sauce filled with sand crab and pineapple, "compliments of the chef." They then gave us a basket filled with two types of bread to snack on, while I sipped my 2006 Victoria Sauvignon Blanc. Half of the bread was a sourdough type of dough flavored with asiago cheese and garlic. The other half of the basket, which was much more to my taste, was a dark wheat bread with cranberry, walnut and rosemary. Amazing!

First Course: Pears and Camembert en Croûte
(*My favorite dish of the evening)

Double-creamy camembert cheese wrapped in puff pastry and baked golden brown wine-spiced pears, blackberry gastrique and organic honeycomb

Second Course: Hearts of Romaine Caesar

Whole leaves of crisp lettuce and house-made dressing, anchovies and shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano

That was followed up by a lemon cucmber sorbet for a palate cleanser before the entrée.

Third Course: Achiote Duck

Chili-citrus rubbed duck breast with gingered carrot and kohlrabi purée preserved lemon polenta and tomato-apricot relish

And for dessert we were served the restaurant's take on a Strawberry Charlotte: A bottom layer of sponge cake soaked in strawberry sauce, with lady fingers facing the outside of the pan fanned around the cake. It was all topped off with a strawberry mousse with a top layer of gelatin, strawberries and chocolate drizzles.

This has definitely been one of the most decadent birthdays ever. It was definitely a fun experience. Keep in mind I'm still recovering from that nasty two-week stomach flu, so I was only able to graze my way through the entire meal. For my stomach and his wallet's sake, I'm glad this was only a special event and doesn't happen too often ;)

Now I need to think about what to do for his next month..... Maybe a restaurant somewhere in Napa or San Francisco?!

Sick at home again....

I'm really tired of this not being able to function thing. So while I'm sick at home (when I'm not sleeping) I've been searching Central Valley newspapers for possible housing situations and doing a bit of work from home, where I can't infect anyone else with my diseases. Though, that means I won't be able to go to UCSB this weekend with the baseball team because I don't want to risk getting any of the players sick :( That means I won't get to have my mini-undergrad reunion with the 10ish people who are still down in Santa Barbara.

I wish that was an April Fool's joke, but it's not. So instead I'm going to try to rest up from home, call the doctor again and hopefully get better.

Until then, here's a bit of what I've been working on:

Perfect Tigers Continue Big West Play Down at UC Santa Barbara This Weekend

Pacific starts out 2009 with the best mark since 1999, after going 3-0 last weekend

Senior catcher Kurt Wideman is leading the way for Pacific, as his .403 batting average ranks fifth in the Big West. His .68 doubles per game is also the best in the nation.

April 1, 2009

Stockton, Calif. - Off to its best conference start in a decade, the Pacific baseball team looks to improve on its 3-0 Big West Conference mark after sweeping UC Davis last weekend. The Tigers will have some work to do when they head south to take on UC Santa Barbara, who after dropping last weekend's series to Cal State Northridge 2-1, has fallen out of the national polls.

Pacific enters the week with a 10-13 overall record and a perfect 3-0 record in Big West Conference play. The Gauchos are 14-8 overall, with a 1-2 conference record.

All games during the 2009 season will be broadcast for free on pacifictigers.com. You can also follow every game in 2009 on Gametracker. Big West Conference games on the road can also be heard on KSTN 1420 AM.

Complete Release in PDF Format

Pacific Tiger Baseball This Week
Monday, March 30 - vs. Stanford, L 10-2
Friday, April 3 - at UC Santa Barbara, 2 p.m.
Saturday, April 4 - at UC Santa Barbara, 1 p.m.
Sunday, April 5 - at UC Santa Barbara, 1 p.m.

Pacific Tiger Baseball Last Week: 3-0
Friday, March 27 - vs. UC Davis, W 8-4
Saturday, March 28 - vs. UC Davis, W 11-7
Sunday, March 29 - vs. UC Davis, W 15-9

PROBABLE FRIDAY STARTERS:
LHP Joey Centanni (3-2, 2.16 ERA) vs. LHP Mario Hollands (2-2, 3.69 ERA)

PROBABLE SATURDAY STARTERS:
RHP Cole Akins (2-0, 5.02 ERA) vs. RHP Mike Ford (3-2, 4.86 ERA)

PROBABLE SUNDAY STARTERS:
RHP Hunter Carnevale (1-3, 6.23 ERA) vs. TBA

ON THE ROAD AGAIN
All of Pacific's 2009 contests will be broadcast online at the newly-redesigned Pacific Athletics site: www.pacifictigers.com. But now with the start of road Big West Conference series, all the action can be heard locally on KSTN 1420 AM in the Central Valley. This week's contest at UC Santa Barbara kicks off the Tigers' first true radio broadcast of 2009. Pacific Baseball can also be heard on 1420 AM for the following three-game series: at Cal State Fullerton (April 17-19), at UC Riverside (May 1-3) and at Cal State Northridge (May 15-17).

RECORD-BREAKING PERFORMANCES
During the last homestand, Pacific set a few new records as a team and with individual performances. On Saturday, March 28, the Tigers' crowd of 934 fans in attendance at Klein Family Field broke Pacific's previous record of 881 on opening day last season, Feb. 27 against Santa Clara. One of the driving forces behind the record crowd was a joint effort with the United Way of San Joaquin County who gave out over 600 tickets to fans in the local community.

Individually, senior Kurt Wideman and Nick Longmire muscled their way into Pacific's all-time record books with their performances at the plate last weekend. After going 5-for-5 with three doubles against UC Davis on Sunday, March 29, Wideman compiled 15 doubles on the season and 35 for his career in three years with the Tigers. Wideman's 35 doubles ties him for eighth in Pacific history with Vince Brigman (1984-87). By moving up the ranks, Kurt pushed Jason Walker's (1999-2001) 34 doubles to 10th overall, knocking off Stan Rogers (1976-79) from the all-time top-10, who currently sits at 11 with 33 doubles.

Longmire's fourth triple of the season also came during that Sunday game against UC Davis, making his career total reach nine in two seasons with the Tigers. Those nine triples tie Longmire for seventh in Pacific history with David Boer (1974-75), Terry Maple (1965-68) and Pat Tobin (1978-81). Out of the top 10 fell Scott Boras (1972-74), Frank Halvorson (1976-78), Keith Johnson (1990-92) and Chip Sell (1991-94), who are each tied for 11th overall with eight three-baggers.

FIRST TIME'S A CHARM
Behind an impressive three-game sweep of UC Davis to start out Big West Conference play, the Pacific Tigers are off to their best start in conference action since 1999, when they also swept the first three conference contests of the season. Pacific's three-game sweep of the Aggies was also only the Tigers' second sweep in conference since 2006, when they defeated Cal State Northridge in three-straight from May 26-28, 2006. Finally, the sweep over UC Davis marked the second sweep in 2009 after Pacific defeated Houston in three contests at home mid-March. The Tigers have not recorded two sweeps in one season since 2005, when they swept Northern California rivals Sacramento State and UC Davis to finish out the 2005 season.

THE NATION'S FINEST
One week into Big West Conference play, the Tigers are making their way up the rankings. Senior Kurt Wideman headlines the entire country, as he is recording .68 doubles per game, which is good for fourth overall with 15 total doubles in 2009. He is joined by teammate sophomore Nick Longmire, who has also been a force for extra-bases this season. Longmire's four triples ties him for 10th in the nation this year.

For the second-straight week, Pacific is in the top 20 for double plays, as the Tigers rank 16th among all Division I schools for their 1.23 double plays turned this season and are 29th overall with 27 double plays.

Wideman is also making waves in conference play after Pacific's 3-0 sweep of UC Davis. Kurt's .403 batting average is good enough to put him at fifth overall in the Big West. His .740 slugging percentage is only bettered by one player in eight other universities, as Wideman holds the second-best slugging percentage in the conference. And his 15 doubles in 2009 are tops in the entire conference.

Again, Longmire is right there with Wideman in the rankings. His four triples in 2009 are the most from any player in the Big West Conference. He is also tied for fourth in walks drawn, as Longmire's patience at the plate has resulted in 14 walks this season.

From the mound, Pacific is also up among the Big West's finest. Senior Joey Centanni's 2.16 ERA is the second best in the conference, and batters against him are hitting the 10th lowest, with a .260 average. In relief, senior Mark McCain's 14 appearances out of the 'pen are good for the most amount of appearnces overall and as a reliever in the Big West Conference. McCain's one save this season ties him for 10th in conference, as sophomore Thomas Berolzheimer's four saves are the second best in Big West play.