Sea World

Elaine, SMS, Fadi and Mia!

This weekend, I met SMS’ friends Fadi, Elaine and their cute daughter Mia.  It was a great weekend.  I missed them on Friday because they came in late and I went to bed early.   I don’t normally do that- I’d rather stay up and wait- but I was SO tired and I was on call.  I felt like I’d be really screwed if I stayed up and then got called in.  So, off to bed I went!

Jumping whale

Oh, splash zone!

The next morning, Linda and Rip made everyone breakfast and then we packed up and went to Sea World.  It was actually more fun than I was expecting.  I was looking forward to hanging out with friends, but even the shows were pretty good!  There was a Pet Spectacular show that was embarrassingly impressive to me.  There were a lot of cats, dogs and pigs that had routines and tricks.  We also saw the Shamu show and stayed well out of the splash zone!  We noticed that the show has changed quite a bit- the trainers don’t get in the water with the animals anymore. There was also a young whale that had just been born on Valentine’s Day!  

I got my ticket for free thanks to SeaWorld's Hero Salute program!  The program gives one free ticket to active duty members and three immediate dependents every year.  I had to fill out the form on the computer, print out the voucher and then turn it into the ticket office to trade it in for a ticket (and show my id).

I think the highlight for me was seeing Mia play in the soft floor play zone.  She’s just so cute!  She’s full of smiles and just a total delight!  Elaine and Fadi are awesome, too. That evening, we had pizza at my house and watched the sunset from the roof.  Then, we walked to Extraordinary Desserts and split two pieces of delicious cake!

This is most definitely not Mia.  But it is
how I felt after dessert!

The next day, we had a delicious brunch with caramel overnight soaked French Toast and bacon.  Yum!  Then we went off to Cabrillo National Monument.  We went up to the lighthouse and appreciated the views.  Then we went down to the Tidepools and scrambled around the sandstone cliffs.  Next, SMS, Elaine and Fadi went to Rip and Linda’s (whose home we took over for the weekend while they were up at Newport) while I had to go into work to repair a mandible.  Boo!  Although it was a good case, I am not as into trauma as I used to be!

Slow fizzle...

I'm having the nicest Friday evening after a week that started off packed with evening events but slowly whittled down to a nice, mellow Friday night unwind.  Not that I'm complaining- this week was great but I'm slowly feeling a little burned out from too little sleep, too much activity and still having a TTD list that I can't ever complete.  This very mild ennui is mainly due to lack of sleep and hydration, which I'm trying to remedy.  Lots of water today, no coffee and upping my sleep although still measly at 6.5 hours.  But I will do better.  Sleep is vital.  And lack of sleep is associated with weight gain, which I've unfortunately also noticed that last few weeks.

Whah, whah, whah.  Woe is me!  Let me tell you about the fun parts of my week!  Monday night, I went out with some friends to the Imagine Dragons concert at House of Blues.  It was an awesome show!  There was a ton of energy and I really liked the slightly harder rock style they played, although they too have several songs with the "California Calypso" rhythm that I hear in so many songs (songs that I like, don't get me wrong!).  My favorite song was "On Top of the World" and "Radioactive."

Before the show, Jenny, Colleen, Brooke and I went to Sea Rocket Bistro.  I had the yellowtail with curried cauliflower puree, sauteed cauliflower and kale, which was delicious.  I love veggies done right!  The company was great as was the food, although the service was pret-TY slow.  Afterwards, we picked up Tawnne and off to the show we went!

On Tuesday, I went climbing with a guy that I linked up with through the Facebook running group I'm a part of.  Unfortunately, it was a bit of a bust since he hadn't been climbing in awhile and didn't pass the belay test at the gym so I was partner-less.  I ran into one of SMS' friends Debora and got a few belays off her so all was not lost.

Wednesday, SMS and I went to Happy Sushi (fair) and then went climbing which was a lot of fun.  I feel like I'm slowly getting better but my initial quick pick-up has slowed a little bit.  But I'm working on my strength and endurance and I'll get there!

Thursday, I went out to dinner with Cat and Brooke at 100 Wines, which was so much fun since I hadn't seen Cat in forever.  We took full advantage of the happy hour menu cheaper eats and got a delicious melted Brie, lamb meatballs, caramelized cauliflower and a marinara pizza.  It was so much fun to try different things off the menu and the conversation was great.  We were there for two hours!

Tonight, I was supposed to go to a Williams alumni event but I took a pass.  I did some sprints this afternoon after finishing all of my online training and now I'm catching up on the blog before I finish cleaning up my room.  I started cleaning at 430 this a.m. since I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep.  I'm going to see SMS and his friends this weekend.  We're going to go to Sea World which HOLY CRAP is so expensive.  I get in for free but I definitely had some sticker shock when I bought the tickets, even at the military discount rate.  I could go skiing for that price!  Anyway, time to stop sounding like a cheap old lady!

Newport Beach

SMS and I had an awesome weekend up in Newport Beach.  I had bought tickets awhile back to see Wicked, which was playing at Costa Mesa.  He had wanted to see it when we were in Honolulu but family dinners didn't allow for it so when I went on the traveling production page to get ideas for where we could see it, Costa Mesa worked out beautifully!  I had no idea where it was but it's in Orange County, only 90 minutes away.  Even better, SMS' grandfather owns a duplex 1/2 block from the beach at Newport.  It was beautiful, open and airy and just the most relaxing, awesome place.  I took a nap on both days!

Wicked was great and I'm so happy we got to see a show together.  On both Saturday (Wicked) and Sunday (St. Patrick's Day), I wore a bright green dress that SMS bought for me a few weeks ago.  It was the perfect dress.  He took pictures of the two of us down by the beach.

Highlights from the weekend culinary-wise include Unami burgers, dinner and lunch at Gulfstream (delicious oysters, Heavenly Biscuits, grilled artichokes, trout, delicious clam chowder) and a lavender latte from Milk and Honey.

Fun weekend!

Ok!  My weekend was amazing.  First, I switched up blog addresses which I'm very happy about.  I feel that this one makes a little more sense.  A Portmanteau suitcase is an old suitcase that was divided into two compartments and the word portmanteau is basically a synonym for neologism.  Since I make up/combine words all.the.time, I thought it was a relatively apt name.  Plus, I'll be traveling quite a bit in the next two years so I thought it was a nice transition!

I had my Grands Rounds talk on Friday regarding Medical Therapy in Otosclerosis.  The talk went really well.  The topic was focused and the presentation went well.  Yay and phew!  Friday night, SMS and I celebrated by going out to dinner.  I made reservations at Herringbone in La Jolla. I love that place.  The interior design is incredible- there are a lot of gothic elements with the metal and light fixtures but there are also very textured elements like the strewn ropes, exposed beams and live olive trees.  It is totally awesome.  I think of it as a goth Alice in Wonderland on acid.  I don't know if that's how the designer thinks of it but it seems to fit.

SMS and I split a dozen oysters.  I meant to say 1/2 dozen but what I really meant came out so we got to try each kind.  I'm definitely a fan of West Coast oysters- I love the brininess of them compared to the smoother, butter-y taste of East Coast oysters.  Then, I had the scallops and pork belly entree with a pea puree (yum!) and SMS had a carbonara pizza.  Both dishes were great, although I really liked our friend Erich's reaction when he said to me, "Your dish sounds amazing and your [SMS] dish sounds like a Wednesday night!"

Saturday was a really mellow day.  I took a pilates class, cleaned up my room, took a nap, went for a run and then had dinner at SMS' place.  Then we watched "Yes Man," a movie that was SUPER cute and pretty funny, albeit not the deepest thing I ever saw.  But I would definitely recommend it.

Sunday was rock-climbing extraordinaire day.  SMS, Erich, Angela and I went out to Mission Gorge and hung out/climbed for 7 hours.  Then we went to Burger Lounge.  I had a really nice time even though the routes we tried were pretty tough to near-impossible for me to do at my current skill level.  I really do want to improve but today felt sort of off to me anyway and we went on really tough routes.  While I love doing something together with SMS, especially so healthy and outdoors-y, my competitive side definitely makes it hard to enjoy sometimes because I get so frustrated!  I want to be good and I don't want to "fail" in front of others but it's just the way the sport goes for newbies.  And I know that but sometimes knowing doesn't make it easier.

Anyway, after an awesome day, I went out to dinner with Zen at Starlite.  She had the steak and I had the swordfish.  It had been awhile since I'd seen her and it was great to catch up.  Her husband is at MDA right now and grumpy towards life, which is completely understandable!    Now I'm home, trying to be diligent regarding blog updates and assiduously avoiding the tidying up that my room desperately needs.  Maybe tomorrow!

Pittsburgh!!

This past weekend, I had the best time in Pittsburgh.  Leading up to the trip, people were slightly confused as to what the possible draw of Pittsburgh could be.  Well, only my best friends from college that's what!  Ever since missing the 10 year reunion, I've been particularly sad (not actively sad, just missing people sad!) that I haven't seen some of my friends in so long.  Marissa, Carrie and Laddie have all made it out to SD on work trips and I had seen Karen when I was in DC, but it had been forever since I'd seen Gisele.  5 years, in fact!  Also, the group of us hadn't been together in that same amount of time and we finally decided that enough was enough and we had to make it a priority to see each other.  So, last September, a flurry of emails went out and this past weekend was the one that worked for everyone.  Well, except for Hillary since she went ahead and got herself knocked up but since that is such fantastic news in and of itself, we'll just have to see her another time!

I took the plane out on Friday.  Laddie and I were on the same flight from Chicago but sat separately since I was studying and she had work to do, which looked suspiciously like taking a nap to me.  But whatever, I don't work in advertising.  Then, Karen and Carrie were at the airport to pick us up.  First stop, liquor store.  Second stop, costume shop.  I know, ridiculous!  But we were loading up for Saturday's bachelorette activities for Marissa.  Then we went to Karen's house and hung out before heading back to the airport to pick up Gisele.  [Airport trips would be a theme of the weekend.  Fortunately, Karen drives a Prius].

Next, we went to the Double Wide Grill for dinner.  It was a converted gas station, which was very cute.  We drank some local beers and ate delicious food although I'm having a memory lapse right now as to what we ate exactly.  And no, it's not related to the number of beers I had!  Marissa met us there and we hung out for a bit before heading back to Karen's place and hanging out until 2.  While I had the advantage of being on West Coast time, that was still pretty late!

The next day, Laddie and I slept in until 11!  It was delightful.  Everyone was about to head out for a run so we quickly rallied and joined them for a run in the cemetery.  Then, we showered and ate brunch at Coca Cafe.  Oh, yum!  Karen and I split the fried eggplant Benedict and melted Brie and fig French Toast, both of which were dee-licious!  Then we went to the Mattress Factory, a contemporary arts museum.

When we got the museum, we realized we had walked into a 35th Museum Anniversary celebration!  Awesome!  I silk-screened a poster and then we all sat down and made crowns.  It was serious business!  There were cardboard strips that were stapled to size to serve as the crown base.  Then there were a ton of craft materials to glue/staple/tape to the crown.  We each made our own and then wore them around the museum.  It was really fun.  The museum was pretty incredible.  Two installations really stood out.  The first was James Turrell's Pleiades (1983).  There was a ramp up to a small platform with two chairs.  It was complete and total darkness.  The room had acoustics that made all noise seem far away, even as the person I thought was far away was just a few feet from me.  Although we didn't stay in there long enough to let our eyes adjust to see the painted amorphous sphere, it was a pretty cool experience to experience that degree of sensory deprivation (visual) and sensory distortion (audio).  The second was Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Dots Mirrored Room and Repetitive Vision (1996).  No deep thoughts here- it was just a really cool visual experience.  I'm sort of a sucker for the infinity images towards the vanishing point that mirrors provide.   

Repetitive Vision

Infinity dots

After our arts and crafts session!

Repetitive Visions of Laddie!

After the Mattress Factory, we headed back to Karen's house for a Skype session with Hillary that included our impromptu bacholorette party!  We celebrated with champagne, presents and a nice chat with Hillary although I think all the champagne drinkers were getting easily distracted by the end.  Then, we went to a delicious Thai place named Pusadee's Garden.  The food was pretty good and much needed.  I had a delicious, rich pumpkin curry.  Next, we headed across the street to The Allegheny Wine Mixer, a wine bar (now THAT was just what we needed!).  It was a pretty cool place with really nice people.  Our party was joined by Karen's lovely boyfriend Adam.  It was really nice to meet him and he fit right in.  Well, he didn't have a crown but he managed that potentially embarrassing situation with aplomb!

Hi Hil!  Where's your crown?

Admiring Laddie's necklace on me!

The next morning, Gisele and Marissa took off fairly early.  Carrie, Karen and I slowly got moving although I felt pretty good since I had alternated with water the night prior (an excellent strategy that I am now realizing at my old age!).  We went and had the prix fixe brunch at Tamari, down the street from Karen.  Then we went home and packed before heading to Church Brew Works for a beer/peek inside one of the coolest bars (it's a converted church!).  Afterwards, Karen drove us to the airport and Carrie and I parted ways and I was off to San Diego!  While I love San Diego and my life here, there's a special place in my heart for my college friends and it was so!nice! to see them.  I can't wait to see them again at Marissa's wedding! *fingers crossed!*

Karen and Carrie

Ouch!

Woe is me!  I went to my storage unit today to grab some Winter clothes and in the process, COMPLETELY smashed my finger between the rolling storage door and a table leg.  It hurt so badly that it didn't actually hurt the first few minutes.  Fortunately, there were no crunching or cracks so no fracture!  Yay!  That would have really sucked.  I can also move it reasonably well so I think I'll be ok operating, rock climbing and skiing.

Yes, skiing!  That's why I was at my unit.  I'm off to Breckenridge for the holiday weekend with Jenny, Brooke and Lauren.  I cannot wait!  I have wanted to ski out West for the longest time and Jenny's brother's house is reportedly amazing.  I feel very lucky and fortunate, crippled finger aside!  I also went shopping at REI today and got two tops and a vest so I'm pretty set.  I will definitely have to up my Winter clothes count as I get ready for Japan.  The shopping over there isn't the greatest due to the tininess of Japanese clothing sizes but it's ok.  I'll just go shopping with the obese Japanese women.  (Seriously, when I was there before, there were several people who were way fatter than me but their frames are so teeny tiny that we were the same size.  Just point me to the Japanese mu mu store!).

  There are many blog topics to catch up on- the Hawaii trip and Santa Barbara trip are most prominent.    I also have several exciting mini-trips, graduation plans, rock climbing adventures and weekend events to document.  Phew!  Since we spoke last, I am the proud owner of one (1) Coachella ticket.  Woo hoo!  I'm so excited.  Tawnne and I are going to go.  I have the day off Friday so we're going to get up there, see all the bands and in general, have the best time!  We're going to car camp and I can't wait!  I really like the line-up this year.  Last year, I wasn't hip enough but this year, there are several bands I'm looking forward to!  Bands I already like include Tegan and Sara, Of Monsters and Men, The Lumineers, Vampire Weekend and Two Door Cinema Club.  There are also some people I really want to see like Stone Roses, Sigur Ros and Blur.

Catch Up

I'm going to write a separate Hawaii post but so far, 2013 has been pretty stellar.  NYE was a great success and the Hawaii trip was way too short!

My non-reading book club met on 1/9 at Extraordinary Desserts which has the most amazing cheese bar on Wednesday evenings.  There were two delicious Blues, two sheep milk cheeses, a coconut milk gouda and several others.  My piggalicious plate is shown above.  There may have been two, ha ha!  The women were great to talk to as usual and it was really a lot of fun!

That weekend, I went to a climber's party.  I've been rock-climbing a fair bit and am progressing reasonably well.  I'm pretty competitive and don't like being less skilled than others but that's ridiculous since I just started up again after a 13 year hiatus.

The weekend after was Matt and Michelle's housewarming party where we missed all the food trucks at 57 Degrees because we showed up too late.  I met a really nice MD/PhD student who just finished up her data collection and will be starting her MS3 year next Fall.  Prior to the housewarming party, I went out to dinner with our incoming intern, his girlfriend and SMS.

Edna had brunch at her place that Saturday and her awesome sister Janie was there.  I will really miss all the terrific people I've met since I've been here.