This is not my beautiful life

Here's what I've been up to since my last update post, mostly in photos.

No translation needed

I attended a gardening workshop at the Mendocino college on behalf of the Gardens Project in case they needed a translator. They didn't, so instead I just got to enjoy learning about how to build hoop houses.

Not improving my opinion of cats

Carson's landlady asked us if we would watch her cats while she went out of town. This worked out well since Carson was gone for a few of the days and so was I so we tag-teamed. One of the cats would not leave me alone; every time I sat down it curled up around my neck. Throwing him off was futile. (Most people who know me know that I am not a cat lover, making this particularly annoying to me/funny to everyone else.)

                                               

Having been raised in the country, Carson is an animal whisperer. He bends them all to his will, and had the cat trained in about 2 minutes to sit nicely BEHIND him:

 Jerk.

Eat Local

To celebrate local food day, The Gardens Project hosts a dinner called Farmer's Night Out with the fanciest restaurant in town, Patrona. Anyone can go but farmers eat for free, which is pretty cool. I volunteered so I got in for free, and Carson is a farmer of sorts so we had a very inexpensive date night:

This is a significantly better picture of me, with my friend and Gardens Project Americorps volunteer Natalie:

Halloween on the Coast 

I went to Fort Bragg to visit Whitney and celebrate Halloween (sort of) with Whit, Sara, and their friend Melissa who is now my friend Melissa. Here's a pic I snapped on my way to the party:

Yes, this is the same costume I wore last year, only with much less effort - no makeup, no fake eyelashes, no heels. But we didn't leave Melissa's house so it didn't really matter.

Crabs!

The next weekend I went back to my friend's mountain house. He and his neighbor went crabbing and came back with 20 gorgeous crabs, which we devoured. I wish I'd taken a picture of us eating them because it was a scene, but I was too busy shoving crab into my face (I ate two... yikes). We were all a hot mess by the end of it. Notice the dogs snagged one for themselves:

Election = Relief

I spent election day avoiding the news, but hit the local brewery once the election had been called for Obama. The failure of Prop 37 in California about GMO labeling was disappointing, but hey - gay marriage! Legal weed! No asshats who say horrific things about rape representing us! All in all a resounding success for the liberal half of the country, and I really believe for everyone, even if 49% of us don't think so.

You know you're in a small town when you've only lived there for two months but know two separate groups of people at the pub:

Photo Fail

My friend Meagan and her boyfriend Rob stopped in Ukiah on their way to the coast for her birthday weekend. Sadly I didn't take any photos because we had a really fun time walking around my neighborhood and eating some comfort-food soup I made. They were both blown away by how cute my adoptive town is ("Ukiah - who knew?") and I hope they come back to stay longer in  the near future.

Navel gazing at my good fortune (and eating cookies)

The other day, Carson made cookies. Amazing cookies. He is thoughtful and precise in everything he does, and apparently whipping up a batch of baked goods qualifies as being worth his time and energy to make them perfect. I have never once rolled chocolate chip cookies into uniform balls and gotten uniform cookies as a result. I can tell you who's in charge of the chocolate chips from now on, and it's not me.

Being an adult...

Oh, I've been working too. I have several different freelance jobs with at least one more on the way in December. So, yeah... I'm not a bum anymore! As a result, I've been spending a lot of time at my sweet little desk:

...lets you go on vacation!

It's a good thing I'm working, since Carson and I are going to MEXICO. Woohoo! We leave on November 30 and get back December 12. We'll fly into Puerto Vallarta, only 3.5 hours from San Francisco (it takes almost as long to get to the airport from here), and head south. Last year my friend Jacob and I flew into PV and headed north; I seem to keep scratching off another length of Mexico's coast with each trip. Carson's never been to Mexico and has never really been on a vacation like this, so we're going to ease into it with three nights at a fancy hotel (with oceanfront terrace, swoon). From there we'll rent a car and hit some of the small towns that make me love Mexico so much.

Life is magical!