So yes, I had an excellent and happy weekend, with lots of good food (including eggplant tofu curry!!), hiking, meditating in the woods, and eventually, watching football. Couldn't have possibly been better :)

There was one bizarre moment when I looked out the car window on a very random stretch of road (not in SB) and realized that we were being passed by my ex boyfriend, the same ex who's coming to visit this weekend. You'd think in a state the size of California with the number of cars there are on the road that you could easily avoid seeing people you know, but apparently that's not the case.

We did stop by SB briefly. I thought I was ready to be back there. I'm not sure that I was. It probably didn't help that Spikey now lives in what I affetcionately like to call Neighborhood of Ex Boyfriends :)

And then, of course, I came home. Flight was good, got home early. Walked in my apartment ready to fall immediately into bed. And found a dead mouse next to my nightstand.

I was pretty feaked out, I must admit. Somehow I don't mind sleeping in a cabin full of spiders or outside in the desert with snakes and spiders, but when I'm in my own apartment I do not want creatures invading my space. And since I had never even found a bug in my apartment, the appearance of a mouse was a tad unsettling. I remember seeing a sign before I left saying that there would be exterminators in the building over the weekend and that we could request their services. My guess is that the mouse was poisoned elsewhere and struggled into my apartment through the heater to die (its body was right next to the heater).

Anyway, I disposed of the mouse after an inspiring pep talk from Laz, and I slept on the couch Sunday night so as to be far away from other possible carcasses, which I was too tired to find. When I got home yesterday I went on a mad cleaning spree (not difficult in my small and already clean apartment). I found no other dead mice and no signs of mouse life in the apartment. I *think* it was a freak occurrence. But I have asked the maintenance people to come look at my heater and ensure the absence of other dead mice before I turn it back on. Ewww.

Anyone want to lend me a cat? :)

As of late last night, I am back. We did get snowed on, but not snowed in. :(

Much more to say, but I suppose I should do some actual work at work.

I didn't write this! But it did make me laugh. :)

25 SIGNS YOU HAVE GROWN UP
1. Your houseplants are alive, and you can't smoke any of them.
2. Having sex in a twin bed is out of the question.
3. You keep more food than beer in the fridge.
4 6:00 AM is when you get up, not when you go to bed.
5. You hear your favorite song on an elevator.
6. You watch the Weather Channel.
7. Your friends marry and divorce instead of hook up and break up.
8. You go from 130 days of vacation time to 14.
9. Jeans and a sweater no longer qualify as "dressed up."
10. You're the one calling the police because those %&@# kids next door won't turn down the stereo.
11. Older relatives feel comfortable telling sex jokes around you.
12. You don't know what time Taco Bell closes anymore.
13. Your car insurance goes down and your car payments go up
14. You feed your dog Science Diet instead of McDonald's leftovers.
15. Sleeping on the couch makes your back hurt.
16. You no longer take naps from noon to 6 PM!
17. Dinner and a movie is the whole date instead of the beginning of one.
18. Eating a basket of chicken wings at 3 AM would severely upset, rather than settle, your stomach.
19. If you're a gal, you go to the drug store for ibuprofen and antacid, not condoms and pregnancy tests.
20. A $4.00 bottle of wine is no longer "pretty good stuff."
21. You actually eat breakfast food at breakfast time.
22. "I just can't drink the way I used to," replaces, "I'm never going to drink that much again."
23. 90% of the time you spend in front of a computer is for real work.
24. You drink at home to save money before going to a bar.
25. You read this entire list looking desperately for one sign that doesn't apply to you and can't find one to save your sorry old butt. Then you forward it to a bunch of old pals & friends 'cause you know they'll enjoy it & do the same.

I'm ridiculously happy to be heading out to the mountains for (un)turkey day. No work for 5 days! Hiking and seeing a million stars in the sky! Lots and lots and lots of wine! Seeing my little brother and his fiance for the first time in 6 months!! 3/4 of the Jeppesons being together! (Lately we've been stuck at 3/4, especially sad since the fourth member will actually be here this weekend, but I'll be gone... guess another one of us will have to get married to get the whole back together again, but not me since my wedding will be a strictly immediate-family-only kind of affair... so maybe Chryssi or Spikey can get married soon... we'll have to find a man in the mountains for one of them...) Cornhole and horseshoes! Tofurkey!

With any luck I'll be spending tomorrow night in a cabin by a lake. That's assuming, of course, that LA traffic lets us out of the city and that we don't get lost and sleep in the Xterra again. I feel a little more confident about the second than the first.

I hope you all have a terrific holiday! Don't be too jealous of me-- I don't get to watch football on Thursday!

Maybe when I get back I'll try to write something coherant about how much I am thankful for right now, but that might be quite the lengthy post :)

Somehow I imagined that this being a 2-day work week for me I'd have plenty of energy and motivation and be super productive. Nope. I've barely managed to keep up with work email, much less accomplish anything. Oh well.