California life so far

HELLO!

My goodness it's been a while.  But so many great things have been going on I figured it was worth a pause to post some of it here! Last we spoke, Jimmy had started school and was enjoying it so far and I was on the seemingly promising hunt for jobs and internships.  So now the question is: has any of that changed?

The good news is YES and NO.  Yes, Jimmy is still thoroughly enjoying law school (from what I can observe) although his study schedule doesn't really allow for many adventures these days.  But that's an acceptable sacrifice.

NO I am not still looking for a job!  I started my 3-day per week internship at the San Jose ICA back in September.  It's going pretty well so far.  Ok, no, actually it's going AWESOME.  I keep on having moments when I get home from work and Jimmy asks how the day went and my immediate reaction is to moan and mumble some unintelligible words about how much it sucked but then I suddenly remember I am no longer working at Nokian... I'm working at a MUSEUM! And I'm actually making a difference there.  And the people there are teaching me so much about what I actually want to do with my life and it just feels great to actually be a part of something as awesome as the ICA. And when all of this hits me all at once I smile like a fool and say "NO! I had another excellent day! What about you?" At which point he usually gets up and goes back to studying. But anyway, I'm serious.  The ICA is going really well.  As usual, it would appear that I've started yet another job right when they are in crisis mode.  Except this is not the crisis mode of winter tire sales... this is the fast-paced mode of the ICA's epic annual art auction.  Since they're an entirely non-profit organization they hold a huge auction every year - that starts as an exhibit and then ends with a huge gala and live auction that people have to buy $50 tickets just to get in- and with a staff of about 7-8 people organizes this event becomes absolute mayhem.  I started just as they were trying to get everything set up for the exhibit to go live which meant a panicked frenzy of trying to obtain artist information and upload artwork, information, prices and artist statements for over 170 pieces onto our flickr page and the mobile access website that they are testing out this year.  The upside to being 22 is that they've entrusted me with all the social networking which means I have already learned so much about how to create a mobile access site that people can access from their smartphones. I actually got to film and then edit an entire clip just to promote the auction AND THEN had to figure out how to upload THAT onto the mobile site.  It's crazy that this is actually amazing experience to rack up and I hadn't even expected to pick any of these skills up at the ICA.  All in all, the whole internship is going super well and I honestly really am overly excited about the auction.  So excited that I'm going to make you all look at the artwork too! Noo, not actually. Only if you want to...

SO first, you should all go through our Silent and Live Auction galleries on flickr.

Silent: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sjica/sets/72157627597961267/

The Silent Auction is on October 8th and 3 pieces have already been "slamdunked" (which means people can pay the full retail price any time between now and October 8th and win the piece... but they have to leave it in the museum till the end of the exhibit...).  My favorites include Andrea Borsuk's piece, Llisa Demetrios' two bulls with attitude (that's what I call them because I think they look quite persnickety) and Ken Matsumoto's flower wall... go on... click on those pictures and tell me they're not awesome:

  


But all in all pretty much everything in the silent auction is surprisingly VERY colorful and I personally think a lot of them should have been in the Live Auction.

then there's the Live Auction: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sjica/sets/72157627395998596/

Which is the huge gala fancy event for which I am also the Restaurant Coordinator (meaning I have to call and arrange for food donations from all the restaurants that people otherwise assume donated magically the evening of).

My favorite piece in the entire exhibit is in the Live Auction - Mary Souza's "Azure Guest".

If you don't look at any other pieces, at least take a peek at that one.  It's also huge and I got to meet the artist.  She's a pretty awesome lady who wears bright while cowboy boots that are too big for her.

There's also this ridiculous machine up called the "TO DO" list which just cranks out an epic long to do list using a little battery-operated arm that writes in the artist's exact style and has yet to repeat itself.  Downside is it just keeps on writing on this long sliver of paper that is piling up and making a MESS of our floor. But I think that's kind of the point.

OK so then IF you have a smartphone (cough cough MOM AND DAD) you should try the mobile site and let me know how AWESOME it is: http://mytbc.mobi/wap/site/sjicauction 
You can watch the little video I made on there too.  I'm honestly really proud of the first part... which required taking hours of footage that I had taken while they were installing the exhibit and editing it down to 1 minute and 30 seconds... and then the second part just shows you the goofy awkward people that are actually in charge of this place... ohhh fine.  I'm sure you're all SUUPER curious.  (probably not).  I GUESS I can include the video here too. (since you asked... wait nope)

Pretty goofy right?  I seriously can't watch that video anymore.  But it's become this weird combination of happiness that they literally just threw this at me knowing I had no experience with editing or imovie and I actually figured it out.... mixed with a little bit of embarrassment because I honestly have no idea if it's actually as good as they say it is or if I just picked music that's too cute to resist.  Either way... it's a weird place to be stuck in.

OK SO THEN now that we're done with all that! The other good news is about 3 weeks ago I ALSO got a PAID internship working as a "winemaking intern" at a small urban winery right in San Jose! Not to take away from the coolness of the ICA but this is also a totally awesome job!  The winery is called Coterie Cellars and it's run by a husband and wife team (and sometimes their adorable 2 year old or the Italian/Spanish grandfather).  So far I've gotten to bottle their 2010 Pinot Noir and crush the grapes for their 2011 viognier.  [IMPORTANT TIP FROM CALIFORNIA VINEYARDS AND WINERIES: Buy 2010 california wine NOW.  Apparently 2010 for California is proving to be an amazing year so you should all buy bottles now while no one else knows and then save them for a couple months... or years.]  This weekend they're doing more harvesting so I'll be in there tomorrow and Monday probably crushing more grapes!  It's a labor-intensive job but with some of the nicest people I've ever met and they always make sure to buy lunch for everyone and there is usually always at least one wine-tasting break a day.  The day we were bottling, Kyle (one of the owners and wine-maker - his wife does most of the marketing) just grabbed a bunch of glasses as was sticking them under the filling machine (that I call the wine cow because it was BASICALLY an udder filled with wine that you just attached bottles to) so by noon that day my workstation looked like this:

That's the wine cow and wine glasses left on top for refills.  Yep, they're a fun bunch of people.


So that's my life now.  Add on top of that the fact that I'm taking the GRE on October 10th and I'm still trying to run 5 days a week and hopefully that will begin to explain why I've been so busy.  Jimmy is a different story.  He does mostly this all day:

And yet he's still busier than I am.  I guess that's the difference between being in law school and... everybody else's life?

Other updates include: I sprained my left hand a couple weeks ago.  Mainly due to a in-road train track that was poorly placed and the fact that I was on my way into work... on my bike.  It got to a pretty ridiculous size and color but no breaks!  It's almost completely healed now.  I just have problems gripping the handles or tops of things (like pots full of pasta, coffee mugs or the lids of jars)  But it was pretty epic.  The doctors were all shocked that I hadn't broken anything... especially considering all the bruising.  I wasn't really sure how to tell them I bruise better than a plum.

They gave me a temporary splint and sling to stop me from doing more things that could hurt it... which means Jimmy came home to me looking like this.  And apparently had to take a picture. I called it my club.  He called it "The Bear Claw".  Either way it was sufficiently pathetic for a while.

And that's mostly it! I think.  I don't think I'm missing anything.  Either way I should get to studying (I'm taking a practice test today) since October 10th is creeping up on me. Miss everybody lots and lots!  It's still sunny here but the weathermen are totally promising that we [might] get rain this coming Monday.

Love, Meg

San Francisco and Birthdays

Oh, hello there!  I hope everyone is enjoying the east coast summer... (heard through the grapevine that Boston got 3-5 inches of rain this past weekend?)  Yeah, we still haven't even seen a drop here yet.  The general answer when we ask people when it will rain here is "Um, September? November?" Which makes me laugh but... in all seriousness it is just a LITTLE bit weird that the weather is just always the same here. It makes me feel like we're stuck on repeat.  Also, the lack of moisture in the air is surprisingly noticeable- especially when I try to go for a run in the afternoon.  No matter how much water I drink during the day, my throat goes dry and I start feeling dehydrated within at least 10 minutes of running.  It's crazy!

Anyway, enough with the observations.  All in all, things are still running smoothly around here.  Jimmy has OFFICIALLY started law school.  Which means he is OFFICIALLY reading at least 5 hours everyday- not included time spent actually in class.  His bag is slowly starting to fill up with gigantic law books that keep on arriving in random boxes. But it sounds like he still likes it (after less than a week of actual class).   Here: just look at how excited he is to be going to class

I have OFFICIALLY started my job search and I've already got a nibble!  I have an interview next week for an internship at the San Jose ICA.  Keep all of your fingers crossed for me. This looks like a really cool place.  In between job searching and resume/cover letter writing I've been wasting my days studying for the new GRE, looking at schools, starting new art projects, trying out new recipes for dinner (see that pizza down there:)

yeah, those are eggs... inside onion rings!

and planning weekend excursions and JIMMY'S BIRTHDAY.  Because that's what we've been up to this past week.  

Ok so FIRST, this past weekend (saturday to be exact) we took the train in to the city (at last!) and walked until our feet fell off.  We caught a bullet train that morning (express train that follows the same rail as the local train from Santa Clara to San Fran but skips more than half the stops along the way) that got us in to the city in an hour (as opposed to an hour and a half).  The train got us in to the CalTrain station that was south of everywhere we wanted to be...

View Larger Map

So at first we tried to wait for a bus that would take us up to Chinatown (that we were told was at least 20 minutes away by foot).  But when that bus didn't show up for over a half an hour we set off on foot. I think we spent at least half the day in Chinatown due to the fact that it is A) absolutely totally HUGE B) filled with good food and C) super awesome. 

yes, i briefly turned into a panda

We had cantonese dim sum for lunch, which is an experience in itself... especially when you're really hungry and everyone's talking at you all at once.  We eventually made our way out of Chinatown and headed in a general "up hill" direction thinking that we would either hit Nob Hill or Lombard Street or, at the very least, the water.  We ended up walking all the way up Telegraph Hill (surprise!) where we checked out the tower and our first view of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Telegraph Hill lined us up with Lombard Street (but not the curvy road part) so we walked all the way back down only to see that we would have to walk all the way up hill again to actually walk [up more] on the curvy street.  We paused at a cafe to debate whether or not this much more uphill walking was really necessary (I could have already told you it was not) and then after a much needed shot of espresso we set off again, this time for Fisherman's Wharf.  We walked around for a while on Beach Street, in between tourist trap stores all selling the same sweatshirts and perhaps far too many people, and stopped over in a gallery just to gawk at what was for sale (Joan Miro, Picasso, Rembrandt, Dali and more).  We made it all the way to Ghiradelli Square, saw that the store was far too crowded and went and sat by the water to look at Alcatraz and rest up a little.  We had an early dinner at Boudin (the place that um, INVENTED sourdough.  I didn't even know San Fran invented sourdough!) and then tried to jump in line to take a cable car back to the train station.  Unfortunately the line was longer than we had hoped for so we ended up walking a little farther to catch a more reliable bus so that we could make it back to the station in time for the 7:15pm train (or else we would have had to wait until 8:15 for the next one.) Here's what the walk looked like:

View A short walk in a larger map

a little bit more than 5 miles?  it felt like soo much longer.

begin: walking up hill

and up

and up

curvy road! and bridge! in the so far away distance!

walking down Lombard

espresso break

alcatraz in the distance

All in all, a very good excursion even if we only did see less than half the city.  I'm already plotting out our next trip in.  It will include: Haight Street, Alcatraz, the parks along the waterfront and ummm more good coffee.  

Anyway, in other news this week: YESTERDAY WAS JIMMY'S BIRTHDAY! Which I'm sure half of you already knew (the Venning/Miller half to be exact) but for the rest of you- Jimmy is now an old dog. No, just kidding.  Although in dog years he would be a great great grandpa dog by now, right? Of course he had a ridiculous amount of reading and he was in class for the majority of the day, but here's what birthday we did squeeze in:

he's not surprised per se but he can't deny that isn't exactly what he wanted

the present- enjoyed instantly

ignore the fact that jimmy's still a little bit of a hippy who can't wear a shirt and appreciate this candle-action-shot i took

Oh, and yes, off to the side that IS a slice of four-layer carrot cake, how could you tell?  I like to play around with my extra batter and frosting.  And I promise we didn't just eat cake and drink scotch all night.  Although that was an option.  Nonono.  We're actual grown-ups [usually].  So dinner was a four-layer lasagna packed full of 2 different pasta sauces, 3 different cheeses, garlic, and a yellow pepper.  All in all a good day for the birthday boy.  I came to this conclusion using the fact that he said "good birthday zebear" at least 8 times after coming home to his new bottle of Balvenie.  Today it's back to the regular schedule of Jimmy reading a lot and Meg cycling between running, job searching, reading more about the ICA and posting this entry.  

Hope all is going well with everyone.  Hopefully there will be another adventure this weekend!

Since arriving

Alright so now fast forward to the present:  Jimmy and I officially live in Santa Clara now.  As you figured out we didn't have internet for the first two weeks of being here so we had to find other ways to amuse ourselves besides buying fresh produce and cooking delicious elaborate dinners using an actual stove and actual knives (as opposed to a tiny camp stove that doesn't agree with the subtle art of high heat vs. low heat and camping knives).

Our first trip wasn't really a trip.  We just drove to a movie theater to go see the last Harry Potter.  Great story, Meg, I know.  No, but the important part of the story is that the movie theater we went to just happens to be right at the heart of Santa Clara.  As in, this is THE movie theater that just happens to be right next to Yahoo, Net Logic, Intel, McAfee and other tech giants that I don't even know because, let's face it, I've been living in Vermont.  It was kind of cool to be right in the center of it all.

Our next trip was the requisite trip to the Pacific Ocean.  We took a day trip and drove on down to Santa Cruz... which is pretty much everything you'd imagine from a California beach town. Hippies? Check. Flipflops everywhere? Check. Tourists? TripleCheck.  It actually seemed pretty small too but I think that's also partially because Santa Cruz beaches are all in the bay so there aren't a lot of good surf areas.  We're going to have to go farther south to find those.  We did find a really nice road that winds its way right along the water, with the only other thing between the road and the water being a bike path and then some short cliffs.

We walked all around the Santa Cruz boardwalk (which reminded me a lot of the NJ boardwalk just with less fake tans and more people) where we snacked on some Garlic Fries (it's genius, try it someday) and I snapped a picture of this lady before we drove out to a beach and laid in the sun reading for the rest of the day:

Our third day trip was a trip to Napa Valley to see the vineyards, northern California and, obviously, try some wine.  We set out a little too late in the day (left around 10am, takes an hour and a half to get there, had lunch and then finally set off to wineries... most of which close by 5) so we only got to stop at two wineries but all in all it was lots of fun.  We got to really explore the area- starting with Napa and then driving up route 29 to explore the wineries

I guess route 29 goes up for about 27 miles before you're officially no longer in the Napa Valley.  We didn't get up that far but we stopped at V. Sattui Wines (they only sell from their winery, they don't sell at any wine/beverage stores anywhere in the US) where we got to sample 6 wines and Silver Oak (they only make Cabernets) where we tried three very good cabs AND got a free glass.

walking up to V. Sattui

the archway of Silver Oak

tasting room for Silver Oak

Silver Oak

Looks kind of nice, huh?  You should tell my Uncles Steve and Ron that so that they'll come visit me out here and not in Burlington and we can all go sip some West Coast wine.

Basically I guess our conclusions so far are: going back to Napa Valley, definitely... although we are going to try to get to know some of the other wine regions of the state as well.  Next beach we go to will need bigger waves annnd next trip we go on will be to San Francisco!