to the June 22-28, 1998 episode of
"As the Rose Wilts"
| Monday June 22, 1998 |
My main mission today was to go clothes/shoe-shopping for my upcoming trip to California. Now, I'm not really big on clothes shopping in the first place, but yesterday I couldn't find anything that I wanted! The worst part was shopping for sandals. I couldn't find anything that wasn't either horribly ugly or had less than a 3 inch platform! I'm 5'8" tall, I don't need platforms! Then, I finally found a nice pair of suede flat sandals, however, they didn't have them in my size. So, the whole shopping trip was a total wipeout! |
| Tuesday June 23, 1998 |
One of my friends at work scanned some of my pictures of my new niece, Erica Ann, so I a page on my site for them. I also had to schlep all over the place and get miscellaneous errands done prior to my trip. This was definitely NOT fun in 95% humidity, I can assure you! |
| Wednesday June 24, 1998 |
Ok, last night I finally met my mysterious new landlady-to-be. From the way she was talking, it didn't sound like she was going to tell me to move, contrary to what my upstairs neighbor said. My new landlady is a fairly attractive bleached blonde in her 50's, who walks around carrying her little dog. She seemed pleasant enough, and she was telling me some of the stuff she has planned for the house. Now, officially, until she closes on the house, she can talk all she wants, but she can't do anything as far as the tenants in the house are concerned. Personally, I have a feeling that she might be a better landlord than my current one. She asked when she could take a look at my apartment, just to get an idea of the size of it, and like I dope, I said Thursday! So, this means that tonight I have to run around and clean like a maniac so that the place is up to snuff tomorrow. That's in addition to all of the errands I still have to get done before my trip! Some days, I could just smack myself upside the head! |
| Thursday June 25, 1998 |
Today I was absolutely manic trying to get everything done before I leave for my trip to CA tomorrow! My landlady-to-be was supposed to come by to see my apartment, but never showed up, which totally annoyed me. If she wants to see it now, she'll have to wait until after I get back next week. As much as I'm looking forward to this trip, I could do without all the running around trying to get stuff done before I leave. I think I'm going to need a vacation to rest up from my vacation. I can't believe I booked myself on a 7:30AM flight - what was I thinking when I did that??? |
| Friday June 26, 1998 |
Well, I managed to wake up at 4:15AM when the alarm went off, and I actually did manage to make my flight. I was really worried that I would miss my connection in Dallas, because the flight from NY was slightly delayed, but I made it. Long airplane rides are so boring, and I kept looking at my watch every 15 minutes or so. It looks like I picked a good time to get out of NYC though, because the high temperature in NYC was supposed to be 99 degrees with about 90% humidity, and in CA the weather report said it would be clear skies and around 85 degrees. It was kind of weird getting off the plane in CA after roughly 8 hours of traveling, and it being only around lunchtime. The weather was GORGEOUS, and I was so glad to see my friends waiting for me at the gate when I got off the plane. Even though the airplanes had pretty decent and substantial food for a change, I was really hungry when I got there, and we drove to a nearby Wendy's for lunch. Both of my friends were online friends, and one I had never met before today, and I'm glad that things went really smoothly from the start. We had a 3 hour drive from the San Jose airport back to my one friend's apartment, and along the way we stopped at a farm stand. I found some hot sauce named Gil's that I plan to give to my friend Gil at the V.F.W. When I saw it, I just couldn't resist buying it for him. After that, we drove through Gilroy, which is definitely Garlic City! For miles all you could smell was fresh garlic:) |
| Saturday June 27, 1998 |
Today, we went to a place called The Underground Garden. My friends have been there a lot, and know the owners, so we got in for free. This place is totally amazing! It's kind of hard to describe, but I'll try. Back in the early 1900's, this man arrived in the USA from Sicily, and started out with a small cabin. In order to escape the California heat, he dug himself a cellar, where he would sit and be cool. He then expanded his underground space to somewhere near 70 acres, only about 4 acres of which remain today. He built everything underground, including a kitchen, bedroom, fish pond, gardens, tunnels, etc. Without knowing anything about engineering, he learned how to alternate the underground levels to maximize the cool air, and in order to allow the plants underground to grow, he created skylight type openings above them. He grew oranges and other fruits underground, so that the tops of the trees were ground-level, and easy for him to pick. I'll include some pictures soon, so folks can see how amazing this place is. |
| Sunday June 28, 1998 |
Today we left on our journey to spend the night in a cabin at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. When we first got out of the car, I was amazed by how many ladybugs were flying around. They're all over the place, and several of them landed on me. We were fortunate enough to catch up with a group who was getting a tour with Ranger John Lockhart. He was really good, and you could tell that he enjoyed his work. The trees here were huge! There's really no way that even pictures can do them justice - you really need to stand near them to appreciate them fully. After walking around and visiting the Vistors Center, we checked into our cabin. I was expecting a really rustic cabin when I saw the outside, however they must've recently renovated the interior, because it was really quite homey. They must be planning on adding electricity soon, because there were light switches and a ceiling fan in place, just no electricity to run them. We started a fire in the stove outside, but we really couldn't get it going, so eventually, we gave up on it. Then we went inside because it was getting a bit late. They provided us with 2 battery-operated camping lamps, which were kind of a joke. They use rechargeable batteries in them, and we must've gotten the tail-end of their last charge. They ran out of juice before we were ready for bed, and it's a good thing that one of my friends brought along a really good flashlight! I was kind of worried about getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and running into a bear, so we agreed that whoever woke up needing to go to the bathroom would wake the others up and we would go together. |
Tune in next week, for the next episode of... As the Rose Wilts |
