This is a pretty disjointed post, but just work with me here. I’m too over it to organize and trasitionize.
Last Saturday I went over the hill to Livermore!!!! (What, you haven’t heard of the place?)
It was my cousins’ 40th wedding anniversary surprise party and we had a big bbq on top of picnic tables all done up fancy wedding style. THE BEST part was that there was a little posterboard with pictures from the original 1970 wedding, and my DAD was a groomsman! He was 21 at the time bahaha. He’s on the far left:
I was gazing with amusement at this photo when one of my oldest cousins came over and mumbled to himself “My my…. that was back in the day when Cary smoked a lot of that marijuana plant…”
“WHAT?! NO I DIDN’T!” my dad hastily piped in. “Katie don’t listen to a word they say. It’s all LIES!”
OH NO. Ohhhhhh no Dad! The gatos are out of their bolsas now!
I told him that there was no hiding it now! Ever since that fateful night in highschool when I invited some friends over to watch Easy Rider for the first time… and he knew every word…. A-HA! My suspicions had now been confirmed, sucka!
For reference, Easy Rider (particularly 1:43 haha):
Then, on Sunday when I TA’d the basic scuba class I found a golf ball in 40 feet of water at the Breakwater and carried it back with me… only to find that another buddy pair had also found one! HAHA yesss someone must just be goin to town driving from the shore!
Also, saw the Fleet Street show in Stanford. SO good/funny/fun!
ALSO, can we just talk about Stanford the PLACE for a second? I got lost driving around trying to find the auditorium, but I made this wrong turn and started heading straight for these HUGE and BEAUTIFUL buildings.
And to top it off, this was at sunset so everything was pink and gold…. on the fucking granite and marble ARCHES?! What do you think this is, Italy? Fuck!
Actually, EVERYTHING is extremely nice and (am I allowed to say this?) fancy shmancy at Stanford. I think back to Santa Cruz… and the more and more I think about it… We basically just have a bunch of buildings up in the forest! Hahaha. But whatever, as we hippies do, we keep it au naturel. Besides, people riot if ANYONE suggests change or development. Or, for no reason at all.
And one moreee thing! Okay, someone forgot to tell me that Frat houses and Sorority houses actually exist. I mean, I knew they were around (kinda)… like I had seen them in Cal Poly SLO and at UCSB….. but generally they were just these houses that are collectively rented in town somewhere (CAPPA CHOWwwwww no mas!). But OHHHH no! The stereotypical Frat House of Hollywood Cinema is REAL in Stanford! Not only are they on campus but they are somewhat intermixed within buildings! AND, they are not houses; they are mansions. I’m guessing anywhere from 25-50 people live in ONE of those big, beautiful houses. And the most amusing part of it all was that when I exited the Auditorium around 9:30-10 ish, I could hear mobs of people singing along to Lady Gaga songs, bottles chinking, girls yelling shrilly over the music, boys guffawing over their beers… the silhouettes of ridiculous amounts of people partying in the illuminated windows of 3 stories.
Ohhh, so THIS is what a real college is like.
When Kerry and I were talking last night we decided that one day we’re going to crash one of those parties and go to jail for one night only!
…or not. Bahaha.
Cool thing number fifty thousand: Scuba fun dive ON OUR OWN!!!! Lover’s Cove, once again, for the freaking win!
Oh and btw, it looked like that, only better. Desiree, Brittany and I made a group of 3 while Jackie went with Patrick. Literally, we saw EVERYTHING. The only thing that could have made it better was if we made out with mermen and made the mermaids jealous. Freals. It was THAT good. Here are pictures I found from the internet of just a few of the species we saw (it would take hours to find them all), just so you have an idea of how beautiful it was! These are actually pretty accurate pictures… but even what we saw was even MORE vibrant and lush than some of these pictures!
cystoseira osmundacea
Sea Grapes– I’d never seen so many!
Pteroygophora (bahaha “ummm that would be pterygophora… also pterygophora…. that too…. pterygophora…”
Orange puffball sponge! so fun to poke. Looks like MAGMA!
Ostrich PLume Hydroid– didn’t know what this was when I saw it underwater. We took some time to really look around a cool rock, and I found a little tiny upcropping of these hiding behind the fronds of some fleshy reds
LIGHTBULB TUNICATESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS I am obsesssseeeeeeddddd with these!!! OH my gawwwwdddddddddd-ah!
And, for the grand finale, as we navigated our way back to shore through passages and channels between large lines or sediment shelves and rock lines, amongst schools of different perches and rockfishes, past the largest sea cucumber we had ever seen in our LIVES, we sailed up to a shelf on the reef to only about 8-10 feet, and the kelp became very dense… and then, to maximize all the glory the world could possibly bestow upon us in one dive, the sun poked out from behind a cloud and illuminated a ceiling of green and gold!
It looked like that, only BETTER and more golden and translucent! I grabbed my buddies. Pointed to my eyes (“Look!”) and then swooped my arm upwards (“up and around at this beautiful scene!”). It was all too beautiful to simply acknowledge it with a “shaka,” so we resorted to SMILING WITH OUR EYES like the top mwaudels we are. We rolled over on our backs and laid there for like five minutes, just staring up. I live for moments like this. I never feel more at home than being under the kelp on a sunny day. It was also good because I feel like a lot of the times as a scuba diver you have these sort of horse blinders on… your mask really kills your peripheral vision, and it’s really easy to just find your eyes glued to a rock, checking out all the tiny inverts baby algae… so it was really amazing to just be able to stop, relax, and enjoy the scene at large.
I love you, ocean.
Furthermore, just got back from the Santa Cruz Beekeeper’s Guild (FUCKYEAH, it’s a guild not a club!) Monthly Meeting and it was really cool! We talked about different plants that are beneficial or poisonous to bees, and what times of year they bloom. One of the beekeepers there wants me to give a one-hour top bar hive class at a skills (skillllzzzz 2, yknow!) expo in September…. that could be really neat! MAYBE I WILL! It’s just weird though… I feel like I know a lot about top bar beekeeping vs. traditional langstroth… but at the same time feel like I’m no authority on the subject whatsoever. I guess, quite frankly, I’m intimidated by the collective knowledge of more seasoned beekeepers and feel like it’s not my place to go about teaching any beesness… but we shall see. There is but a summer ahead of us!
DID YOU KNOW…!?
Beeswax can be used to purify water! HELLZYEAH!
And finally,
Another cool thing: Avocados are on sale at New Leaf! Om nom nom White Cheddar Sourdough, Avocado, Cayenne Pepper Sandwhiches delight!
LOUD NONSENSE 