You CAN eat healthy on the road!!

(The Greek falafel salad and pita + hummus I had for dinner tonight)

My job requires a LOT of travel. It seems like every other weekend I'm on the road.

When traveling with teams, I'm often at the mercy of the coaching staff's discretion when selecting dining establishments. However, our baseball travel roster is nearly 30 players and with a number like that, it's difficult to find something for everyone. Let alone a place to sit with all 35 of us. So I'm often left to wandering and discovering city streets alone, allowing for me to make better eating decisions.

The last two road trips have coincided with my new push to start a healthier life that includes a great deal of running and eating healthier. So here's my list of ways to eat healthy when you're traveling.

1.) If you have to eat fast food, be smart about it!

Lots of places are wising up and adding healthier choices to their menus. For example, Subway and McDonald's among others are adding "lighter sides." If you're going to splurge on calories with a burger or a large sandwich (see if you can opt for a whole wheat bread instead of white), get a fruit on the side and a bottle of water or even low-fat milk to drink with it! You won't have a craving for junk later and you'll shave off about 600 calories by ditching the fries.

2.) Skip the taxi.

We got placed in the middle of nowhere in Bakersfield on this trip (not a pun, I'm well aware of the fact that Bakersfield is the middle of nowhere). I overheard some of my guys talking about a shopping center near the freeway and curiously began looking up where it was located. I found out on my iPhone's GPS that the center was located about a mile away from me. After working all afternoon, I decided to save the $6-10 it might have cost me to grab a taxi and I walked. It took me about 40 minutes round trip, which was awesome because I got in some added exercise. So that gave me some room to play around with dessert and still fit in under my daily caloric goals!

3.) Get sauces on the sides.

For things like salads, wraps and sensible sandwiches that seem healthy, hidden fats, calories and cholesterols lie in the sauces doused all over those bad boys. Last night for dinner I ordered a Cajun blackened chicken wrap with veggies, avocados and bacon. I saw that it came with a pesto aioli (mayo) sauce and asked for that to be put on the side. It was a good call, because I saw some of the others and they were DRENCHED in sauce. The "side sauce" they gave me rivaled my drink - seriously. I dipped my wrap in the sauce every couple of bites to moisten it up a bit, but when all was said and done I barely used 1/4 of the sauce. Same went for the salad. It takes so much fat and unwanted additives from a meal when you put the sauce on the side.

4.) Half the plate and EAT.SLOWLY.

Most portions at restaurants are ridiculous. If you're like me, you feel bad not eating something you paid for. But then again, do you really want your extra money to go towards your belly or save you from over-eating?! I'd pay $5 to rid five extra pounds.... ha. Well, no matter how hungry you may be, cut the plate in half. Eat a bit and waste time talking with friends, reading a newspaper, checking your e-mail, etc. I guarantee you'll find that if you let your stomach rest a bit, your food will catch up with your mouth and you won't want that extra half of the sandwich. A good option is to save the other half for another meal, or just toss it. You really don't need all the food that's loaded onto restaurant plates these days (unless it's a fancy, schmancy place with teeny portions, but those places are out of my wallet's league anyways).

5.) Consult the nutritional information.

Yeah, it's a drag and yes it takes a lot of fun out of ordering off a menu. But if you're on the road, dining out isn't the same special occasion as it is at home. Yes, let yourself splurge for one meal. But for the others, be smart! There's no need to ruin any diet or health goals you may have set for yourself on a few meals out. California law now requires chain restaurants to provide nutritional information at every table or on the menu. Consult the menu and see what's the smartest choice to eat, instead of what sounds the best to you. And if you don't have a calorie counting menu, there are many of websites and iPhone applications out there to help you figure it out. My personal fave is the Daily Plate iPhone application. It cost about $5, and I've been using it every day since I purchased it. It's one of the best few iPhone apps I've paid for and I love it.

Don't believe me? Here's a list of trips I've taken this year:

Hawaii

Long Beach

New York & New Jersey
Portland

Santa Barbara/San Luis Obispo

Southern California x8

Bakersfield

We don't do much talking in the 209 + Post No. 500!

You knew I was going to write about it. How could I be an A's fan in Stockton and not comment on this??!?!

First of all, I think Dallas Braden is kind of an idiot. That's just my personal opinion, I'm entitled to it. He's a pugnacious kid from Stockton (and if you don't know what my city's all about, it's kind of ghetto and parts are also rural agricultural areas with lots of immigrants. It's an interesting mix of folks), and went to high school the same year as one of the girls I work with. So he's only two years older than I am. And at 25, I still feel like I have the mentality of a kid sometimes.

Apparently, so does Dallas Braden. A few weeks ago, A-Rod stormed the mound when the A's played the Yankees (ew) and it was just handled so poorly. Braden was spouting about it and venting live on tv for hours that night. Now fast forward to a few days before his start this weekend and what does he say, "We don't do much talking in the 209 [Stockton's area code]." Seriously, he's an idiot.

But that set the scene for this weekend. When Braden tossed MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL'S 19th PERFECT GAME dating back to the 1800s. As in, no hits, no runs, no errors. Nothing. That is impressive.

We get DirecTV on the bus during road trips and this weekend drove back and forth an hour north to UC Davis. Our Division I collegiate baseball team completed a three-game sweep of UC Davis, and down in Santa Barbara our women's softball team also swept UC Santa Barbara. To the point where the Gauchos never even once scored... which kills me a little inside to write, since I graduated from there and all.

So on the bus back, all the guys could not stop talking about Braden's perfect game, saying how this was a great weekend for the 209. As we drove away from the baseball field, still on the campus of UC Davis, the trees lining the road kept interfering with the DirecTV signal. So on SportsCenter when Braden's teaser aired, we essentially missed the entire thing before it cut to commercial break. And all the guys on the bus kept screaming, "NOOOOOOOOO, NOOOOOOO, NOOOOOO," with every interference from the trees. It was almost akin to a record skipping. Classic.

It's always a very entertaining ride back when we win.

In other news, my new "boyfriend" as he's been dubbed - don't worry, still dating J.D. this is only a joke - and I didn't have any interaction whatsoever this weekend! I don't know why, this is silly actually, but I'd been super nervous about making the trip to UC Davis and having him remember me. I wished he'd forgotten and I guess this weekend he did just that! So crisis averted, I live to tell about another day. Too bad though, that could have made for some more comical blog posts.

If you're curious about the incident I'm referencing which led to this "new boyfriend," so delicately labeled by my female coworkers you're going to have to read about it here, on my sports-writing blog.

And I made it to 500 posts in under three years! Thanks to everyone who's been reading my blog and encouraging me to keep writing along the way. This was only meant to serve as means of updating my friends and family across the pond when I lived in France for a year. I'm glad I kept it going!

Now, I think it's time for me to pass out...... after running SEVEN MILES in about 66 minutes. I know, impressive right?!?! I couldn't even believe it.

EEEEEEEK

I'm going to admit something I've been freaking out about a lot lately.

I'm having a blog identity crisis!!!!

You see, most blogs I read have cohesive themes and are all really neat and inspiring. As for me, I'm all over the place! I'm ADD and crazy (not really, but my blog is).

I'm envious of all you neat theme-y bloggers out there and to tell the truth, I've been trying to be like you :) It was easy when I started this blog back when I lived in France. My new life abroad and the painful struggles of a foreigner was mostly all I talked about. Then I tried to change the theme to life as a Californian and now my 60+ hour work weeks leave for some pretty boring entries.....

Oh well, I'm trying to figure out this book club thing. So expect something about that in my next entry :) But before that, I'm off to go for a mini run. We have another three-game set at No. 25 (in the country!!!) UC Irvine. So I'm down here in Orange County for several hours with really not a whole lot to do!

So maybe a little run, then exploring the mallish areas here.

And oh yeah.... I had dinner with and met Jim Abbott last night ;) Be jealous!! He's a really nice dude!

No one hates me more than roadtrips

While I was tending to my Pacific baseball official scoring duties, I escaped some pretty gnarly travel as the women's basketball team headed home from their double overtime win at Long Beach State. The ride in itself is over six hours, so I was pretty excited about only having to make the hour and a half drive out to Stanford instead. But on the way back, the Long Beach road gods struck again.... flat tire for the Pacific travel bus.

Despite the team's recent success - having won two out of their past four games, despite only winning six the entire season - it seems their luck on the road would go to hell for the rest of the season.

While they were to play UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday afternoon, the Pacific women's basketball team headed for Anaheim, Calif., two days earlier, this Monday. The thinking was a few extra days' rest would help the team, but I can't help but think that in the back of everyone's mind was the thought that if we lose Wednesday and would have left Tuesday, that would be a hell of a lot of travel for not even one full 24-hour period spent down there.

I digress. After I got to stand in as part of the practice squad on Tuesday afternoon, we showed up ready to roll for Wednesday's game just blocks from Disneyland. Although we had our hotel booked until Thursday morning, our loss yesterday afternoon sent us back on the road for Stockton, Calif., a lovely six-to-seven-hour trek. Passing through the usual Los Angeles traffic at 4 p.m. on a weeknight, I figured the ride would take a bit longer than usual, but nothing too strenuous. Anyways, half the girls' families were down in SoCal watching the tourney, so they ended up staying with the parents for the remainder of spring break. Meaning there were only 10 of us on the bus, including staff.

Before we even reached the sign for the Grapevine - about an hour north of Los Angeles - we hit a massive amount of wall-to-wall traffic. No one was budging, save for the assholes trying to drive through the median and merge into stopped traffic. As we pulled up to a big rig, our associate head coach begged the bus driver to open the passenger side door, so she could ask the semi's drive (who must have had a CB radio) if he knew what was going on. Apparently he had no clue, but heard on the news a few trucks had flipped due to windy conditions and ignited a fire on the freeway. Awesome.

I don't believe we were stuck in two miles of traffic for any more than two hours. You know, no big deal. Instead of reading my latest French book - which gets me carsick - or sleeping awkwardly on the bus - which hurts my TMJ-laiden neck - I decided to head to the back of the bus and mingle with the players for the first time all season really. And, now it's the last time since their season came to an abrupt end. Long story short, we exchanged musical tastes, played a ridiculous game of truth or dare on one of our student trainer's phones and all-in-all had a fun time joking and teasing. At one point, Kyle broke out his training tape and started taping McKenzie's feet together. His student trainer, Mark, let CT tape his ankle because she assumed she was a pro now that hers had been taped so many times. Anyways the tap fiasco ended when I couldn't wait any longer and did something I promised I'd never do in my life - I used the bus's restroom. Everyone knew that was my worst nightmare and I was deathly afraid of it, but still, the trainers decided to tape the door shut and I about cried/vomited. But it was a good laugh, looking back on it. Welcome to road trips.

When we finally made it back to campus it was nearly midnight on a trip that should have had us back no later than 9:30 p.m. I booked it over to my friend Zach's house, as he was watching little Woodstock and picked up my puppy. Instead of waiting until I woke up the next morning - probably would have been close to noon - I decided to just go straight home since I was already in a driving mood. Plus, the drive from Stockton to Alamo usually takes me around 45-50 minutes.

But disaster struck on the way home once more. As I hit Livermore, a semi decided to swerve out into my lane, around 12:30 a.m. I had no choice but to veer in the opposite direction, which was directly in front of a CHP - little to my knowledge. As soon as I made the switch, the blaring lights went off and I nearly went blind. This fucker was fast and in a Charger, so he had to be an ass. See the type of cop car below:

Anyways, I pulled off the off-ramp and into a safe stopping place and this younger guy came out, with his flashlight all up in my face. He asked me if everything was alright, and if I had been drinking, but I calmly explained that my swerve was self-protection instead of intoxication. Before ever asking for my ID or any proof of anything, the officer looked down into my lap, saw Woodstock and began asking me a billion questions about my puppy. He was smiling, saying how cool it was that he was so tiny. After he had been satisfied with answers, the officer told me to be careful and have a good night.

No ticket. No DUI despite my full-fledged sobriety. And no nervousness. The first and last time I was pulled over, I cried my eyes out for the officer and the world to see. This time, I remained calm even though my heart was thrashing inside my chest.

But no harm done. And now I'm only down to one season - baseball. I was reminded a few days ago how much I miss baseball and baseball writing. So I'm going to try to make it my goal to pay a bit more attention and get back into that a bit.

I'm also not let down in the least that my next road trip isn't until the weekend of my birthday - Easter weekend - when we travel to Long Beach State for baseball. The few weeks home and away from a bus will be nice.

On road travel

For the amount I've flown, I shouldn't be as afraid of planes as I am. Granted, I've never really been afraid of flying, my hands just get extra clammy on take-offs and landings and my heart beats heavily in my chest as of late.

Maybe that's due to the small 60-person carriers I was used to shuffling in on my way back and forth from the Bay Area/Santa Barbara (with its two gates) when I was in college. I swear during one flight on an abnormally windy day in San Jose, our pilot made an announcement over the PA system that he couldn't fight the wind on account of our plane being so small. So we literally were tossed around in the air, my stomach doing flip-flops the entire time.

Today was much of the same story. Let me explain myself a bit.

We flew out of Orange County, the John Wayne Airport, in one of the first flights of the day this morning (8 a.m.). The county of Orange has some interesting noise ordinances regarding the airport, since Los Angeles is the epitome of suburbia and urban sprawl, and per capita, is the most densely populated city in the United States. So with houses literally on the landing strip, John Wayne Airport (referred to as SNA from here on out) has reduced hours of operation. Furthermore, planes must take off at abnormally fast rates, almost like a sonic burst of energy, to create as little noise pollution as possible.

See SNA's explanation of this ordinance below:

"John Wayne Airport (SNA) is one of the busiest and most noise sensitive airports in the United States. The Airport is located in the center of Orange County, California with residential areas in close proximity. To mitigate potential noise impacts from aircraft operations and to enhance compatibility with surrounding communities, the Airport maintains some of the most stringent noise rules in the United States. The General Aviation Noise Ordinance (GANO) has been adopted by the County of Orange to regulate the hours of operation and the maximum permitted noise levels associated with general aviation operations."

SNA, note the cluster of houses and businesses just beyond the airport

Another aerial view of SNA and surrounding suburban areas

Well, today when we began to take off, we streaked through the sky in less than one minute. However, a pilot could not rationally continue at top speeds like that, because it makes for a very turbulent and jittery ride on a small 737 plane. So as soon as we hit the appropriate marker in the sky, I believe the pilot completely let off the gas. Instead of slowly decreasing down to our average speed, he just let go.

All of a sudden, looking out the window, I noticed we were going from rapidly ascending, to quickly descending in free fall. You know that annoying, adrenaline-induced feeling in the pit of your stomach when you drop in a rollercoaster? Well it felt like that, but much, much worse without the suspension to a track to guide our fall.

A billion thoughts ran through my mind at once, as our free fall hit close to the one-minute mark. I thought for sure we were crashing, my biggest fear in life. As soon as the sensation subsided, I unlocked my vice grip on the seat handles, noticing that my hands were abnormally sweaty. At this point, my breath caught up with me and my heart battered around in my chest, as I began to sort of hyperventillate.

Sitting next to me, our trainer, Kyle, let out a long, "WOAH." Seconds later confiding in me that he, too, feared we were all going to die in a matter of horrible seconds. Honestly, that was one of the WORST experiences of my life. Nervously joking, we both talked about the horrid sensation during the course of the next 15 minutes.

It is not without immense appreciation, that I say I'm glad to be back on solid ground for the next couple of weeks. I don't think we'll fly out again the remainder of the basketball season, unless we make the post-season tournament in Anaheim mid-March (spring break). I think that'll give me enough time to recover.

I may slip up

I just realized that I've now blogged for one straight week.

So far it's been pretty easy, but now I'm running out of gas. I'm not that exciting of a person. And my work schedule is getting to be quite hectic.

For example, this week we had women's basketball last night, three men's volleyball games this afternoon/tonight and then another women's basketball game tomorrow afternoon (not to mention my 9-to-5 work schedule... but let's be honest, it's more like 10-10:30-to-5).

And check out my upcoming road trips:
-at UC Irvine Friday-Sunday
-at UC Davis Jan. 23 (but it's only an hour drive, so that's really just a day trip)
-at UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly Feb. 3-7 (booo, traveling on Super Bowl Sunday!!)
-at Sacramento State (day trip) Feb. 13 (ha, working against my boyfriend's team, we might be enemies on Valentine's Day)
-at UC Riverside and Long Beach State Feb. 24-28
-Big West Tournament (if we finish in the top 8) March 10-13

Yikes... that's only basketball season, let's not forget about baseball which kicks off at the end of February. If you live in any of these areas, let's hang out when I'm down there!

And I'm really nervous about every weekend from Feb.-Mar. ... here's a small glimpse why:

Saturday, Jan. 20:
Softball vs. Santa Clara, 12:00 PM
Women's Tennis at San Francisco, 1:00 PM
Softball vs. Santa Clara, 2:00 PM
Baseball vs. San Francisco, 3:00 PM
Women's Basketball vs. Long Beach State, 5:00 PM
Women's Swimming at Big West Championships, All Day
Women's Water Polo at Cal State Monterey Bay, TBA
Men's Basketball vs. TBA, ESPNU BracketBusters
and
Men's Swimming at Big West Championships, All Day

That's taken straight from our website, folks. Realize that each game at home requires 2-3 people there working. And we only have six of us total in the office. Eek!!!

(P.S. I apologize for the cop-out post. Maybe I'll write about my progress on the book club soon, it's getting kinda good!)

I'm like a nomad

As I prepare to hit the road again with my basketball team this weekend, I can't help but think back to all the places I've been this year.

Where I've been in 2009:

CALIFORNIA
Alamo
Auburn
Costa Mesa
Davis
Elk Grove
Fullerton
Goleta
Granite Bay
Huntington Beach
Manhattan Beach
Montecito
Napa
Newport Beach
Northridge
Lake Tahoe
Lodi
Long Beach
Los Angeles
Palo Alto
Pismo Beach
Roseville
Sacramento
San Diego
San Francisco
San Jose
San Luis Obispo
Santa Barbara
Santa Monica

HAWAII
Aiea
Honolulu
Waikiki
Waipahu

NEVADA
Lake Tahoe
Reno

NEW JERSEY
West Long Branch

NEW YORK
Manhattan
New Rochelle
New York City
White Plains

OREGON
Eugene
Pleasant Hill

WASHINGTON
Seattle
Spokane

Where I'm going to close out 2009:
Portland, Oregon this weekend
Las Vegas, Nevada in less than two weeks!

Although I've been to over half of the states, traveling to Gonzaga with the baseball team was my first actual journey to Washington!

I'm noticing a trend in my chosen profession. At my last job, I lived in France and traveled all over Europe for a year. And prior to that, just after graduating from UC Santa Barbara in 2007, I traveled all over the United States to 17 different cities with the AVP.

I don't know what I'd do if I was stuck in a job that kept me in the same place all the time!! As I've said before, my promise to myself is to keep traveling and living in different states/countries every couple of years. You know, change things up before I have to settle down and be a real person :)

Viva Las Vegas

I haven't been to Las Vegas as a simple traveler before.

In fact, I haven't been there in over two years. But I did spend a long weekend in Sin City when I was writing for the AVP. We hosted the annual Gods & Goddesses of the Beach tournament, sponsored by none other than Caesar's Palace.

It wasn't really the typical Vegas trip. Mostly because it was all on my employer's dime. We camped out in suites at Caesar's Palace, ate in the employee's lunch room, earned per diem for meals down in the forum or in the main dining area of the hotel. But most of all, our three other main sponsors (Cuervo, Barefoot Wine and Bud) footed the bill for all the athletes and employees to rub elbows with the rich and famous. Meaning, all access into the Pussy Cat Dolls' private club party. Bottle service on the roof. I was used to that during the entire summer of 2007, traveling with celebrities and getting into promotional parties. At the Dallas stop of the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour, we rallied at Ghost Bar downtown, at the Dallas Cowboys' private party where Carrie Underwood sang happy birthday to Tony Romo in early April. I even got to meet.... wait for it..... T.O.

So yeah, that wasn't a real trip to Vegas. I only gambled about $10ish, but got three free drinks during the process, so I consider that as coming out even. I'm not much of a gambler.

This time, J.D. booked a trip for us to stay at THEhotel at Mandalay Bay. We're off from Dec. 14-17, and found a nice little package that includes the 4.5-star hotel and airfare.

Now I'm off to do some research as to what there is to do in Vegas that week.... since I'm not much of a gambling fan. Hopefully J.D. gets it all out of his system during his basketball trip to Reno this week ;)

...Oh yeah, did I mention I have that ENTIRE week off of basketball?!?! So awesome to have time off and feel like a normal 9-to-5 working person.

2,833 Miles Later....

I made it to New York, in case you were curious.

And boy what a trip it's already been. Have I mentioned that we've only been here for just under four hours?

As I mentioned earlier (or Tweeted, I can't remember anymore) our women's basketball team hosted Southern Utah last night. I did my radio broadcast of the event and then stayed after the game's conclusion to write up my story and update stats on the website. At about 10:45, I was ready to leave my office, until a number I didn't recognize called my work phone. Normally, I would have ignored it since I don't like taking calls from numbers I don't recognize on my cell phone, or after 5 p.m. at the office. If it's important enough, someone will leave me a message.

Well that person did. And I decided to check it instead of going home to pack. Lucky for him, it was the media contact at Southern Utah with desperation in his voice, asking if I'd go into our gym and get his computer charged and bring it to their hotel since he'd forgotten to pack it.

Oh yeah, they also left at 7 a.m. this morning. Apprehensively, I called him back and said I'd go search for it, but as I made my way down to the arena at 11 p.m., the lights were all off and it was locked. So I had a coworker come let me in, who generously agreed to take the charger himself. I owe ya, Ben.... :)

Then I get home just after 11 p.m. and frantically try to finish my packing for our East Coast road trip. I take a shower at 11:20ish and realize I'm starving. So J.D. made me some food while he was watching TV downstairs. After eating, we finish watching Chopped and for the life of me, I can't fall asleep. Every hour it felt like I was fruitlessly rolling around in bed, only to find another one of my four precious hours of sleep has disappeared.

When my alarm finally sounded at 3:35 THIS MORNING, I was already laying in bed, dreading its noise. Having no other choice, I gathered my belongings and made it to the athletics department.

We had about an hour and a half drive to the Oakland Airport, but I couldn't sleep and felt ill from my less than two hours of sleep and lack of food. But we finally made it. And I had to pay for my second checked bag, but I'm hoping for reimburstment.

With less than 30 minutes to go, I scurry through security and conveniently find a Chili's right in front of my gate serving breakfast. I order a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, potatoes and wheat toast to go as to make our 7 a.m. departure. However, I become a nervous wreck as the preparation takes nearly 10 minutes. And cost me $12!!! But as soon as I grabbed my meal, my seating group was called to board. Lucky me.

Once we take off, I open up my breakfast box and quickly consume it all, only to feel slightly ill from the poor quality of ingredients. As is my usual reaction, I tried to sleep it off. But my head kept falling down the aisle pillow waking me up. And my foot fell asleep.

So I finished my notes on during the three hours my battery lasted me. For the final hour and a half, I tried a combination of reading and watching DirecTV (I <3 Jet Blue!) before I started feeling motion sickness. I really have the world's worst stomach.

When we land, we board our charter bus to take us to the hotel (aptly named Luck of the Irish Lines), before one of the freshmen players finds $20 on the seat near her, shrieking "It's the Luck 'o' the Irish!" Well, turns out it wasn't, our trainer had lost $20 from his pocket. Or so he claims. Our associate head coach caught on and said the staff would be sharing that money for an evening out. $20 in New York for seven people.... good luck :)

All is well and fine to set forth, except our driver had awesome road rage. And I became enraged because he kept giving us spiel after spiel about why the "New York Yankees are the greatest team in the world, from the greatest city in the world." Whatever, dude. If they're so great, where have they been the past nine years?? I guess money can't buy you everything, afterall.

However, it was a pleasant trip, because this crotchety driver was a riot. And I was quite impressed how in tune he is with current events, sports, politics, history and local tourism. Needless to say, we got a mini tour on our way up to White Plains, N.Y., where our hotel is located. Apparently he'll be taking us on a bus tour of New York City on Monday, so I'm certainly looking forward to that.

Close to 5 p.m. EST, we arrived at the hotel and within seconds of spotting the name, I shouted out, "I've stayed here before! They give you free cookies!"

Turns out, this is exactly where we camped when I worked with the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour and had a weekend tournament on Coney Island. Kind of an inconvenient commute, but fun nonetheless. I got to spend two days in the City with my mom two years ago.

But back to the present stay.... I seemed to impress some of the other coaches, because as we made our grand entrance (how do 13 college girls in matching Pacific Tiger sweats, along with five similarly-clad coaches not make a grand entrance?), what should appear other than a large, inviting plate of warm chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies.

And a free "social hour" complete with booze, salad bar, hot wings, fries and my personal favorite, hot chocolate and marshmallows.

Awesome! I think it's going to be a good trip. Now about getting some sleep....

Life keeps getting in the way

Despite my efforts, for the life of me I can't commit to blogging/writing each day. At least the intention's there....

In the upcoming weeks, I've got a lot on my plate. Tonight marks our athletic department's fourth game in a row. Friday and Saturday night we had women's volleyball, yesterday I did a (sub-par) radio broadcast for our women's basketball game, tonight is men's basketball and we close out the "weekend" with women's basketball on Tuesday night. Generally I'm needed to be at as many home games as possible since I'm one of only three or four people who know how to run the stats program on our official computer. If I'm not running stats, then I'm calling for someone else who is or, better yet - on air.

But that's just the start. After the rush of this five-straight, I get to hit the road with women's basketball (WBB from here on out) for the first time this season. We're headed towards Oakland to board a non-stop JetBlue flight to NYC at.... get this.... 4:30 a.m. Need I remind you that we have a WBB game the night before that probably will wrap up entirely around 10 p.m.?

I get the feeling that I'm going to attempt to stay up all night and sleep on the plane. Otherwise, I might not wake up from a three/four-hour "nap" at 3:30 a.m.

But after our New York/New Jersey trip this weekend, we arrive back in California Monday night-Tuesday morning. Wednesday night I'm headed back home for the ENTIRE Thanksgiving weekend off - free - no work. It's amazing.

However, once I return to Stockton, I get to turn right back around and trek out to Portland, Ore., with WBB.

Then maybe I can take a breather! ...Or write on all my plane trips. At the very least, I hope to catch up on some reading/sleep.

Well, with all said and done, I realized I won't have much time to start decorating for Christmas.

So, J.D. and I put up our tree last night. It's still fairly bare, just has three strands of lights. The ornaments can be hung later, but for now, at least we got the labor-intensive part out of the way.

Does that mean I'm allowed to start listening to Christmas music now?!? :)

Why does this always happen to me?

As I said earlier, we had our road trip to kick off Big West Conference play this week. Our Pacific Tigers took on Long Beach State for the conference-opener, and we actually won! (Yes, I wrote that story... that's what they pay me for) We haven't beaten the 49ers since 2003, but they finally did it. And that part pretty much makes the rest of what I'm about to say almost irrelevant. So here's my 36-hour trip to Long Beach:

Wednesday afternoon: We're set to leave for noon. Or so I though. The timeline said noon, and it also said "get lunch at 12:30," so I assumed that meant leave as a team and get lunch.

Oops, I was wrong. As soon as I packed my stuff on the bus, I realized that everyone else was scrambling to get food at 12. So no worries, I'll just go to my car, drive to Subway and grab a sandwich. It wasn't until I went back past my office that I forgot I didn't drive that morning. J.D. drove me to work so my car didn't have to sit in the lot for two days. With only 15 minutes left until departure, I told my boss about the mistake and luckily he had peanut butter and bread, so I made myself a nice little sandwich.

Which was not long enough to hold me over until dinner. We were set to check-in the hotel at 8 p.m., so I was thinking we wouldn't eat until after that. But luckily we stopped at the Macaroni Grill after passing through the Grapevine and I was able to eat at 5:30 p.m. But I was feeling very uneasy from 12:30-5:30, since I only had a banana for breakfast.

Wednesday night: Upon arrival to the Holiday Inn in Long Beach, the night staff has no idea where our room keys are. We had about 15 rooms and 25 people waiting in the lobby at 9 p.m. for their room assignments. So they swipe and re-key 25 new keys and hand them out to us. Once we checked in at 9:30 p.m., I realized I had a room all to myself! This was going to be awesome, since I didn't think I'd ever get a room to myself with a soccer trip. I always did with baseball since I'm the only female they travel with, but there are several roommate options on the soccer team. But I got lucky!

Or I thought I did....

When I opened my door, I put all my stuff on the floor and went to go wash my face in the powder room area. Then I realized I heard water running in the bathroom, so I went to check it out. And my toilet was overflowing from the top part where the flusher mechanism is. The water was seeping out quickly, flooding the entire bathroom floor and into the powder room area/hallway. So I try to call the front desk desperately hoping for someone to pick up. They never did, so I frantically grabbed all my belongings and went downstairs to the first floor. They gave me a new room without any problems. I went to get ready to meet a friend from the area for my "second dinner" since I only had pasta, chicken, a small PB sandwich and banana to eat all day. As I make my way down into the lobby about 30 minutes after switching rooms, I noticed that there was a large flooded area down on the first floor, with caution cones.

The problem wasn't actually a leak, but that FLOODED TOILET dripping down from the third floor and into the lobby. I looked up and noticed that the lobby ceiling tiles had crumbled onto the floor and water was leaking from them. So that means that room had leaked down into the second floor - someone else's room - and into the lobby. Only in Long Beach....

Thursday afternoon: Our women's soccer team beat Long Beach 1-0. In high 80º weather, despite reports claiming it was going to be mid- to low-70s. I had originally packed pants, but realized after we grabbed lunch it was going to be too hot for pants. So I took out my khaki shorts that I thought I had washed a few days before. But I was wrong, they were still dirty from my last home soccer game, when I somehow got rust all over the bottom of them by rigging up the electricity lines to our extension cable for internet and power. So I hand washed the shorts in the bathroom sink. And had to sit in damp shorts during the bus ride, since the hairdryer wasn't powerful enough to dry them completely. But luckily it was hot enough that they dried out in the first 10 minutes I got to the field. And then with 30 minutes left on the pre-game countdown, I was sweating profusely. And continued to do so throughout the remainder of the game.

Thursday night: After the huge victory, the team decided to celebrate by dining in Long Beach near the campus so all the girls' parents could stay and catch up. We also got a little bit of extra spending money for dessert too! About halfway through our dessert (and the three-hour dinner) my friend Lisa called me to say that she heard there was a massive oil spill on the Grapevine that closed most of I-5 down. Once they had started cleaning up the mess, the closure had blocked traffic from two hours south down the road. One of our players' parents drove back up immediately after the game and said he'd been sitting in traffic for nearly three hours - the same amount of time we'd been eating dinner.

So it actually turned out to be even better that we won and took our time with dinner, otherwise we'd be stuck! When dinner finally finished around 8 p.m., we took an alternate route... 405N to figure out which would be the best way - go three hours out of the way and take 101 N through Santa Barbara/San Luis Obispo and then try to reconnect with 5, or just take 405N to 5N and pray that it'll be open?

Our bus driver kept radioing people and heard that the Grapevine was back up and running, so we decided to take 405N to 5N. It was fine on the 405, but once we got to the Grapevine we encountered a bit of traffic. And at that point I think I realized I had drank too much water.

Early Friday Morning: So I tried to fall asleep on the bus, but couldn't beacuase it was too uncomfortable and I didn't have a pillow. I kept tossing and turning and by 2:30 a.m., woke up to realize we were getting off at the school's exit. So I called J.D., waited for him to come pick me up, went home, brushed my teeth and passed out after 3 a.m.

My boss told me not to worry, get some sleep, and come in at noon on Friday for work in the office.

Friday afternoon: Instead, I slept through my alarm and woke up at 11:45 a.m. on Friday. I showered faster than I ever have before, got ready and make it to work by 12:15 p.m. And now I'm exhausted. Can't wait to go home and pass out.

Anticipated Friday Night Plans: Make pizza with J.D. and then maybe go out! Because....

THIS IS MY FIRST FREE WEEKEND!!!!! Hopefully we'll go wine-tasting tomorrow and do some house-cleaning on Sunday.

Have a good weekend everyone.

I can't live without a pet!

So I've been bugging J.D. to consider a dog/cat for quite some time now. Due to his cat-hair allergies and our very small "backyard" neither of those are so practical at this moment in time. And our schedules don't really leave much time for pet training with our current jobs.

But I've had some sort of pet my ENTIRE life. And I don't really know how to function without one!

Which is why I'm starting to consider either a rabbit or a guinea pig. They live in cages, don't really need to be trained and they're fun! Both animals can be let out of their cages and run around. And the nice thing about having two people in the house is that whenever one of us is on the road, the other is pretty much always at home.


So maybe when I get back from my soccer trip to Long Beach on Thursday (36-hour trip which begins at noon: we arrive at 8 tonight, play at 3 tomorrow and then make the 6.5-7 hour drive back north), we can go look at some caged pets this weekend!

Because, for the first time in several months, we don't have a single thing to do this weekend! (Can you say pumpkin patch/wine tasting in Lodi?!)

La-La!

I still wish I lived in LA.... ALL the time! But my friend Lisa lives in Santa Monica right now. She held up her end of our "after college we're moving to Los Angeles and being roommates again" deal.

I did not.

So in attempt to make up for that, I get to stay with her for a few days mid-week. Why would someone drive 5 hours each way just to go to LA from Tuesday night until Thursday afternoon?!...........


..........Because J.D. got us tickets to go see the ESPYs!!! ESPN's version of an award show. And the much-wanted tickets to the after party with celebrities and sports stars!

See, having a journalism degree pays off sometimes ;)

This is what they look like:


This is the host in 2009:



And this is the venue.

Here's to hoping I'll make some famous friends in just a few days ;) My only complaint is that it conflicts with the All-Star game..... buuuut I'd be watching that on t.v. anyways, so I'll just catch one of the 85 times it re-runs on t.v.

Hope I'll have pictures when I get back!

Oops

Still haven't taken/loaded photos of the new place. Or photos from the county fair this past weekend.

Oh well.

This morning I just ate my very own home-made fruit, yogurt and granola parfait which is actually the salvaged remains from last night's dessert. With a few very ripe plums from last week's farmers' market, I decided to cook with them. So I tossed plums, strawberries and raspberries into a ramekin and mixed up a crumbly and crunchy topping to cover the fruits while baking. So I took a couple of cups of instant oats, flax seed, water, butter, brown sugar and cinnamon/nutmeg and folded it all together for the crisp upper layer.

Well, with an impending road trip tomorrow, I made the decision that all leftovers must be quickly consumed. So breakfast today with a bit of yogurt and banana slices, and then I'll have it as dessert again tonight. Possibly with ice cream this time?

But about that road trip.

J.D. and I are headed off to SANTA BARBARA for a long, holiday weekend! On Saturday the baseball team I worked for in college will be having a 4th of July free game at the harbor, while the municipal Independence Day Parade will take place around lunchtime through the beachy city streets of Santa Barbara. Then street festivals and.... fireworks!


All very exciting things to look forward to. Especially since I haven't set foot in Santa Barbara in exactly one year. But it's still crazy to me that where I spent four magical years of my life is someplace different, strange and new to me. Crazy.

The Night Before Christmas & Visions of Summer Dance Through My Head

Only six months until summer! With the winter equinox already behind us, the days are slowly starting to get longer (shortest day of the year is Dec. 21) and what better way to plan for it, than thinking ahead to the summer?

Once my collegiate baseball season ends, along with grad classes, I can start thinking about fun quick trips. And ever since I graduated from high school, my dad and I keep talking about doing a U.S. baseball park road trip. Six years after the fact, it might actually start to come true....

Obviously I'm not in a financial position to roadtrip to all 30 major league stadiums, but lucky for me I've already been to: the Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets and Baltimore Orioles stadiums. So that leaves me 22 more to go....

So, we brainstormed a few different routes to take, and after consulting the A's travel schedule in June and July, decided on the northern route.

I propose five ballparks in nine days.

July 2009:

July 3- Fly from San Francisco to Cleveland
July 4- Oakland Athletics at Cleveland Indians (fireworks night!)
July 5- Drive from Cleveland to Detroit (2.5 hours)
July 6- Kansas City Royals at Detroit Tigers
July 7- Drive from Detroit to Chicago (4ish hours)
July 8- Atlanta Braves at Chicago Cubs
July 9- Cleveland Indians at Chicago White Sox
July 10- Drive from Chicago to Milwaukee (1.5 hours), and Los Angeles Dodgers at Milwaukee Brewers
July 11- Fly from Milwaukee to San Francisco

Jacobs Field in Cleveland, Ohio (Indians)

Comerica Park in Detroit, Michigan (Tigers)

Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois (Cubs) U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, Illinois (White Sox)

Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Brewers)

I'm really looking forward to this! Mom and Dad, you better be serious about this happening :) How about a late birthday present then, since I won't be able to go to MLB Spring Training with you in Phoenix this March/April??

And the winner is....

What was the best part of my trip?!

Brace yourself here....

Bakersfield.

I know, I know, I even surprised myself on that one! Don't get me wrong, it was so great to see and do everything in all those cities, but hands down I had such a blast with Lisa, her family and brother's friends. Whoever said there's nothing to do in Bakersfield was so wrong. Instead of telling, I'll just post some photos from our crazy adventures.

No, your eyes do not deceive you. We actually opened a bottle of wine with a POWER DRILL.

Money doesn't grow on trees

But it certainly comes out of gas pumps.

Let's talk about something disconcerning right now. Gas throughout California is anywhere between $4.19 and $4.45 a gallon. The lower end of the spectrum to be found only at cheap retail truck stops in the middle of nowhere, and the higher prices in really expensive areas. Don't even get me started on diesel which clocks in at a shockingly high $5.20 per gallon.

As I'm pumping my gas yesterday, I notice some signs on the side of the pump reading something to the effect of "You are not allowed to spend more than $75 on your tank." Which explains a loooooot to me right now, seeing as how the last few times I tried to fill the Explorer, the pump shut off at under 3/4 of a tank. I tried in vain to continue filling, knowing that surely it takes longer than a minute to fill my car.

So, apparently now we're being rationed on both water and gas out here.

Drivin' down the 101

The circular red itinerary is what I'll be doing in just a few minutes!

ROAD TRIP from:

Alamo

to San Luis Obispo

to Goleta/Isla Vista and Santa Barbara

to Los Angeles/Newport Beach

to Bakersfield
(Sorry, I couldn't find any good pictures. This is the best I got.... pretty accurate, actually.)

and then back to Alamo!

Though, as excited as I am, I'm realllly not looking forward to driving through the (multiple) armpits of California. Beginning tomorrow with Greenfield, King City, and pretty much anything between San Jose and SLO. Then again, Wednesday's going to suck going through and beyond Bakersfield, then near Kettleman City where they probably raise 85% of all McDonald's beef on about less than a square mile of property. Don't you envy me right now?

Biggest joke of our drives down 101, "What exactly is happening?" Welcome to Steinbeck land, my friends.

I'm so excited to see all my friends from college, most of whom I haven't seen in about a year now. See the rest of you next Wednesday, when I'll be back to scrapbooking, reading, and overall avoiding any possible GRE studying.

More scraps

Continuing on yesterday's post, I started packing for my big roadtrip beginning tomorrow (Bay Area to San Luis Obispo for lunch with Kat on my way to SANTA BARBARA until Sunday, then SB to Los Angeles/Newport Beach until Tuesday, Newport to Bakersfield where I'll be spending the night at Lisa's house, and then Wednesday I'll drive about 3,945,837 miles up I-5 to get back home in five-six hours.)... I'm really good at sticking to one subject and avoiding tangents, huh?

Well, a bunch of my friends from UCSB are all converging on Santa Barbara to meet with the rest of us who never left the area for quite the undergrad reunion.

But we all know me and my restlessness -- I started scrapbooking again mid-packing.

Here's my third page from the European album. (And this is so me, I'll get on this huge kick and do tons of pages, then take a two-year sabbatical.)

Page 3 includes pictures from Barcelona, where I spent a long weekend with my parents. I told you I found snazzy stickers for decoration, and I've included my metro "flex pass" if you will. Hopefully my limited Spanish doesn't suck too much!

And then we have our 2006 family Christmas vacation to Hawaii (Family Travels Album). Glad I'm finally getting on these updates.... years later. I'm a little bummed because this is one of those 14" x 14" pages, so a lot got cut off during the scan. I also had to be jenky and juxtapose the two page halves together in Word.... because I can't find any photo editing software on my parents' computer.