a day trip to the bay and the nostalgia that it brought

i heart sf.

on monday i went to san fransisco with carole and justina. i was so excited to go becasue i have never been before, except that one time i went camping underneath the golden gate bridge for youth conference. we hit up all the touristy spots such as chinatown where i tried a chinese doughnut which was disgusting! we went to pier 39 and watched the seals and foreigners, walked around fishermens warf as well as the rest of the city. we walked up and down the crookest street in the word, lombrad not wall st people...sorry bad joke. but by far my favorite thing that we did was go to little italy.
as soon as we enter neighborhood a man came out of his shop and yelled at the man in the next shop over in italian. voglio parlare con te! my heart accelerated with happiness. oh hearing a real italian speak italian, mama mia, che magnifico! further down the street there was a man smoking outside a restaurant and i asked him if he was italian and he was so we began to have a conversation in italian! it felt so good to speak the language again. oh how i have missed it. we talked about where he was from, me going to siena and why he came to the states. needless to say my friends were impressed with my schveet skills. i still fumbled like i always do, but i love the italian language sooo much. its part of who i am now. we continued to run into italians throughout the day wether they were working or on vacation. i even followed some around at pier 39. yes i know im a creeper, but i just loooved hearing them speak. che comodo! guarda! towards the end of the day we went to this gelato shop in little italy called naia. i was expecting overpriced disappointing gelato but i was pleasently surprised. naia had decent prices and good gelato even better than that one place in lucca where we ate horrible gealto that one time. i talked with the girl behind the counter as i tried many of their flavors ranging from corn to toasted coconut and she told me that they make their own milk base right in the store and just as the italians do they make their flavors using the actually fruits, nuts, ect.

i will definitely be making a return trip.

old love

>honey look at this. its a heart made of seaweed!
oh thats great sweetie. here, let me take a picture of you by it!
>alright
oh dear you are so beautiful
>stop that right now you handsome man
say cheese
>cheese!
lets walk off into the sun holding hands.

well atleast this is how i thought the conversation went...

santa cruz: some things that happend

so every summer starting last summer the girls in my family take a vacation. last year it was to lake tahoe and this year it was to a larger body of water known as the pacific ocean. so from monday to monday we (my grandma and her offspring: tammy, kristin, michelle and my mom, the cousins emerald, noel and tara, plus my uncles girlfriend and her mom and their new baby riley, oh and my grandmas sister sue) spent time "bonding" and by bonding i mean everyone did whatever they wanted and most of the time we were doing it together weather it was shopping, sitting at the beach, searching for sea shells, fighting, hair dying and doing, eating, or bike riding we were in some sort of a group.



while at the beach roasted some 'mallows we and by we i mean my aunts slightly less than sober husband, had a hankering for some pizza so naturally we had it delivered right to us, on the beach.



i ate a deep fried twinkie at the boardwalk and was disgusted that i liked it.



my grandma fell down. although she denies this saying that she just needed to pee. sure granny.



i spent some time with my cousins. interesting fact: emerald, me and noel were all born six months apart.



i remembered friends and had flashbacks to me being less than nice to my brother becasue he didnt take his friends when i let him have a very small sip of a drink of mine.



i ate a pop gummy candy that i havent seen in years. mmmm.

i would insert a group picture here if we had taken one, but we did not.

spending time with my family is always interesting and although they may embarrass me and i feel somewhat/a lot like a misfit when im with them i enjoy having them around. hahaa

a little kayaking

i think this is fast becoming a summer tradition between justina, carole and myself. we took out carole kayaks to lodi lake. although its disgusting the lake can be really pretty at time. i love spending time with these girls. they are goofy and fun.

i think my favorite part if our outing was when carole and justina deiced that it was a good idea to spray me with water fooorever. im usually not such a wimp, but i was out numbered and my poor weak arms were tired.

how ever it was also enjoyable when i fell out of my kayak while my "friends" watched and laughed. hehehe.

i love summer and doing activities such as theses. i love being outside with the sun beating down on my skin making it all sunkissed looking, i love that i dont have to wear pants or socks. i hate wearing socks. i would totally be down for having an endless summer.