Road Trip Labor Day Weekend 2007

I am in Ventura California visiting my uncle David.
I drove down from Oakland on Wednesday afternoon. I left work at 1:30pm and arrived in San Luis Obispo at around 5pm. My plan was to meet up with my friend Amber, have dinner, spend the night, and leave for Ventura the next morning. When I arrived in SLO, I got a little lost and had to pee so bad, I thought I was going to piss my pants. I got off the freeway and basically pulled into a parking space across the street from a public restroom and next to the Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, which is actually in downtown SLO.

Once I found bladder relief, I made my way over to her place: her grandmother's condo where she lives with her mother and grandmother. Three generations of Boyce women. And Sadie the black and brown mini Dachshund. She is very cute and loves to give kisses right on the kisser. When you say, "that's enough Sadie" she turns her head away, to stop. She can't look at your face without kissing you. Barbara, Amber's mom, is a very sweet, very interesting woman. She engaged us in conversation and told me there was a good story about how she acquired Sadie which she ended up telling me later. After taking Sadie for a short walk, we were both ready for some food.

Dinner at Big Sky was okay. I had pozole which was a decent Big Sky-ed version of the Mexican soup with hominy I so love. But, it seemed rather expensive for what it was and it wasn't served with the typical chips, oregano, onions, avocados, and hot sauce it comes with in Mexico. What did I expect? Amber got a tagine with a chicken sausage and pearl couscous. We were definitely full when we left the restaurant. Good thing we didn't have a dessert... I was eye-ing a spicy Latin American chocolate torte with pepper sauce. But, Amber talked me into frozen yogurt.
We walked around downtown SLO, slowly burning off some of the bloated feeling. Eventually we made it to the frozen yogurt place: serve yourself. It was awesome! You get to fill your own cup with the frozen yogurt of your choice of at least 8 flavors and then there are about 15 different toppings, including hot fudge and caramel (my favorite). I had a peanut butter and chocolate frozen yogurt with chopped butterfingers, chocolate peanut butter cups, and caramel sauce. All for just 27 cents per ounce. It was a great deal!

On our way back to the car we ended up in a sporting goods store, like Sports Mart. It was a huge store with everything related to sports you can imagine. We wandered around the store and found a room with special contraptions for doing "sit-ups," stationary bikes, treadmills, and the like. We tested them all out, making complete fools of ourselves and laughing hysterically. We really didn't give a rats ass what the kids working in the store thought of us! They were really nice, considering....

After a quick workout, and checking out the coming thunder and lightning storm off in the distance, we went home, ready to call it a night.

We were both incredibly tired. After crawling into bed, under a down comforter, I realized it was going to be way too hot for anything so heavy. So, with one leg out, I was ready for a good night sleep. We talked each other to the point when you can't remember what the other person just said one second ago, and when you try to speak all that comes out is nonsense.
A few hours into a deep sleep a clap of thunder and bright light from lightning woke us up. It was an intense storm which seemed to last forever. At one point Amber went to the window to look out and maybe to close the window. A few minutes later there was a down pour. And then I passed out again. I guess Amber felt wired and had a hard time sleeping.

The storm cooled things off a little bit for the next day. But, it was still pretty damn hot when I left for Ventura.

I arrived at Uncle David's house just in time for a trip to the grocery store, Peet's, a soak in the pool, and a lounge in the spa. Life is beautiful! We made hamburgers for dinner. I mixed in egg, onion, breadcrumbs and seasonings. David does it that way too I guess. I think that's how my Mom does it too, which is why I do it that way. It is the best way if you ask me!

Although my uncle and I aren't blood related, it seems that we do things very similarly, tease in the same way, are smart asses in the same way, etc. We think it has to do with me being raised by his little brother.

So, by now I have been here three full days. We have accomplished a lot in those three days! First of all, we have spent ample time in the pool, spa and on the hammock. Every night we watch the sun go down, the bats come out, and listen to the coyotes howl at the moon (or at each other?). It is beautiful here, if a little HOT. It must have been 98 here today, at least!

So, Friday at 11:30pm we took a boat ride to Santa Cruz Island, of the Channel Islands which are right off the coast of Ventura and Santa Barbara. It is an hour boat ride which is a little choppy, but not bad enough to make anyone sick. We sat in the back of the boat on the way there. I love the feeling of the wind in my hair, and the sun on my back. I gather you can sometimes see whales and dolphins on the way out or back, but we weren't so lucky. As we arrived, you can see the water is clear to at least 15 feet. There is sea kelp carpeting the water close to the shore. I quickly took out my camera and took over 100 photos while we were on the island.

First thing, we had lunch. I was about to bite David's head off I was so hungry. Sitting facing the ocean, at a picnic table, we scarfed down just about every morsel we brought with us. Fully satisfied, we found an acceptable, fairly easy hike to Cave Point, which is actually located above the caves you can kayak through down at the ocean level. It is an incredibly beautiful island, even given the dryness of the landscape. It is various shades of brown set starkly against the blue green of the ocean. In places, as you can see in my photos (above), you can see red, yellow, and green flowers, shrubs, and grasses.

By the time we got up to the bluff which overlooks the rest of the island as well as the mainland as far as the eye can see, we had to turn around to get back to the 3:45pm boat. If we missed it, we would be spending an awfully long night on that island.

Friday night we sat around, talked, hit the spa and made dinner at around 9pm.

At some point over the weekend, David showed me the joys of eBay and surfing the net. As if I didn't already know! But, really, I hadn't ever been on eBay. I am not the same kind of junkie he is, and I probably won't be, but I can definitely see the attraction! I have a few things saved that I probably won't buy, but it was fun looking for them. The thing is, his notebook is down, so we have been doing eBay shopping mostly on my laptop; much more convenient than his desktop. I am not sure what he is going to do when I leave! I guess he will have to commit to getting on the phone with Apple for who knows how long. The last time he tried to call he got cut off, just as he was getting somewhere with the fixing. Oh well. Such is life with a computer.

Okay. So, Saturday was yesterday. We were very productive. At breakfast, over coffee, we discussed the state of his kitchen counter bar stools. He claimed they needed to be replaced. I suggested he should have them re-chromed and reupholstered. He seemed dubious at first, but quickly realized that it is quite do-able. He is never going to find stools as cool, first of all, and as comfortable, second of all. We found a couple of places who do the metal work. He says he will call on Tuesday to get a quote and see how long it will take for them to be done. They are going to look fabulous!

David recently moved out of a large office space. He brought all the furniture and art work home and put it in the living room. So, we moved most of it out of the way into an extra bedroom. We then hung 2 paintings in the red room (aka the TV room). Once that was done, we started talking about the guest bathroom and how hideous the shower curtain and the blue paint his ex-wife had picked out. This was unusual because she usually had impeccable taste and a good eye for color. In this case, she missed... big time. The pattern on the shower curtain was something that might have been popular in the 80's sometime. It had a beige background with rectangular splotches of blue, purple, and brown. UGLY. Luckily, David agreed with me. I suggested a new curtain to match the towels in the bathroom. He said that all the towels in the house need to be replaced, so we should do the whole thing: curtain, towels, and bathroom accessories. And new paint too!

We headed out to Linens and Things and spent at least an hour picking out a sage colored faux suede shower curtain and beautiful, thick, cozy, cream towels. We did not find appropriate accessories. At Bed Bath & Beyond we debated over a few different styles and left with my favorite ones: brown with different green circles, sort of a retro look.

After all the shopping we were exhausted and starving. We zipped into downtown Ventura for a bite to eat. Finding ourselves at an outdoor restaurant was perfect. The minimal menu (due to them setting up for dinner) and slow service was difficult to deal with, but somehow we managed. We had some salads and a yummy mushroom pizza. And left with five different desserts: raspberry filled heart cookies, chocolate heart cookies, lemon bars, a hazelnut chocolate torte and a raspberry bar. As it turned out none of it was very good. But that didn't stop us from finishing it all by this afternoon!

On the way home we talked about going to a paint store. David nixed the idea saying he just wanted to get home. But somehow we got sidetracked... I suggested getting a movie at Blockbuster and when he realized his DVD player isn't working, we were 100 feet from Lowe's home improvement store. We got a bunch of paint chips and a DVD for helping design rooms.
We weren't able to load the DVD. So, we had to design on our own. David picked two shades of deep purple for the bathroom walls and upper board that goes around the light and the shower curtain rod. He picked a light yellow/cream for the cabinets, door, and moldings. It actually turns out to be a really beautiful combination.

As I was in bed this morning, I had a thought... light bamboo accessories. I even thought it would be cool to have bamboo towel rods, but I never figured we would find anything like that. Well, when I told David about it over coffee, he was juiced. Immediately he grabbed the laptop and started looking. Then he went to his computer and I had mine. Together we found a plethora of bathroom accessories made of bamboo. I even found a site that had the towel racks, hooks, and toilet paper holder I had envisioned!

After that excitement we planned a trip to the beach with the dogs: Diggy and Trevor. They are the most amazing golden retrievers ever! Diggy is about 12-13 years old and Trevor is about 4. Ventura has a long "boardwalk" along the beach. David says you could probably take it all the way to Santa Barbara. Well, I didn't make it that far. We all walked together about 20 minutes. David then turned around to find a shady spot to rest. Diggy was really hot and tired and I think David enjoyed the rest as well. Trevor could probably have come with me for a quick run. I did about a 20 minute run. I was covered in sweat, thirsty and ready for a dunk in the water. David and the dogs followed me and we took a quick swim. It was COLD!! But so refreshing. I was contemplating the swim I will be doing for a triathlon at the end of the month. Hmm. As we were leaving the parking lot, we realized that we got to the beach just in time - before the mobs!
At home we cleaned up the dogs, cooled off some more in the pool, took showers, ate lunch, and got ready for some more power shopping.

First we hit Costco. Okay, remember how I said David and I have a lot in common? Well, the way we shop at Costco is completely different. He leaves his cart at the end of the aisle and walks all over the place, then having to carry the stuff he wants back to the cart. At one point our cart got stolen! When I go to Costco I keep my cart with me and walk up and down almost every aisle, unless I know for sure I don't want anything down that aisle. If I go in knowing exactly what I want, I go - with my cart - directly to the things I want and then leave. In any case, we made it through in less than an hour I think. It is good that he had a list, because I think if he hadn't it could have taken all day.

Our next stop was at Lowe's to get the paint samples. David wanted to see what the colors he chose would look like next to each other. While we were waiting for them to mix the paints, we walked around the store looking for other things to buy. We found a thermometer for the spa... the one he had said it was 60 when it was probably 100! We also got a thermometer to give us a more accurate temperature of the outside than he can get from the internet. The weather and temps on the net are generally from down at the beach, which is quite far from the house. David lives up the hill in a little valley and it is generally a bit warmer up here than at the beach.
Finally, we started looking at kitchen cabinets: I was getting ideas for corner cabinets. I also looked at dishwashers and refrigerators. Nothing I need now, but sometime in the future, I definitely plan to gut my kitchen and start over.

Paint complete and on our way home. But, we had to stop in the downtown Ben & Jerry's for dinner. Chocolate and fudge brownie ice cream in a chocolate waffle cone for David and Half Baked frozen yogurt in a chocolate and peanut waffle cone for me. Best dinner I have had in a long time! Of course I was hungry after sweating a gallon crammed in the bathroom with David doing test painting.

Now my vacation is slowly winding down. I think I would like to go back to the beach with David and the dogs tomorrow. I will be leaving here at around 4pm to drive back up to SLO town to see Amber again. It is a much easier drive from her house to mine than straight from Ventura. And, since she didn't come down here with me I would like to spend a little more time hanging out. I will see her again though... at my 40th birthday party!!!

I have to come back down here to see David sooner than I did last time! Kelley and I came down for a visit 2 Thanksgivings ago. Almost 2 years is too long. Besides, I have to make sure David follows through with the new bathroom design! It is going to look fabulous! Not only that, but I will be looking forward to seeing his re-furbished kitchen stools.

Well, that's it for the moment. David just came in and asked, "Aren't you done yet?" My reply: "I am just writing my last paragraph." And in response he said, "I am just going to turn on the spa." So, that is what I will be doing next. Getting into the spa, looking for shooting stars, and having some "deep and meaningful" with my uncle. Last night it was about the universe and sub atomic particles and God and the meaning of life. Maybe tonight it will be a little lighter?

Financial Responsibility

The first step to gaining financial responsibility... admitting that you aren't yet responsible? Deciding that you need to get a grip? Well, I have finally taken action. I may never have done anything, save for the fact that a good friend of mine recently started working for Morgan Stanley.

So, my friend Jenn, who I have known since college (some 17 or so years), married John. It's been at least 5 years since they have been married. Ever since they have been together, Jenn has raved about how savvy John is with finances, investing, and just understanding how it all works. Apparently he has assisted a number of friends in making loads off the stock market. He is smart about it and has been watching and studying the markets and how they fluctuate over many years. Really, John is an amazing person all around. Not only is he good with numbers, but he is an amazing artist, a talented "handy-man" (he just remodeled their house almost single-handedly), and is a great father as well.

It appears that John was ready to have a 9-5 job after mostly completing their house and started looking into financial planning, I imagine both because he is good at it and it is a lucrative field. He landed a position at Morgan Stanley, where they trained him and he became certified or licensed to do all kinds of things like write loans, trade stocks, and advise people on what to do with their finances. Well, John and I had talked a number of times before about investing and various options, but always at their house, over dinner, playing with their daughter, in between having a drink and knitting, or watching a movie. So, he was finally open for business! I gather I was John's first client!

The evening before I left for his office, I was filled with anxiety. I collected all of the paperwork he might need: my mortgage, bank, student loan, and credit card statements, tax info, pay "stub," and retirement statements. I can honestly say that I know I must be somewhat responsible, since I actually have all that stuff, can easily put my hands on it, and know basically what it all means and can even explain to you what it is. That is a good start. I also know that the market has been very temperamental recently. Interest rates are going up and there is no telling when that trend is going to stop. Knowledge of this didn't help my anxiety.

By the next morning I was a nervous wreck. I met John in his new office in downtown Walnut Creek. The office is a wall of mirrored glass. By contrast to the 80's style building, the decor of the actual Morgan Stanley office is very staid forest green and burgundy striped wing back chairs and a brass lamp on a very dark wood table. The office assistant called John and told him I was waiting. He came out from cubicle land, dressed in a shirt and tie. I know the last time I saw John in a tie was at his wedding. It's all part of the job. In any case, we headed off to a little European cafe John has started frequenting.

John really put me at ease. We looked over all of the documents I brought, he explained how each document was a piece of the puzzle and how we could approach the planning in several different ways. He remembered that I had talked about the possibility of going out on my own at some point and said that we could look at what I would need in order to make that a reality in 2-6 years. John was excellent at explaining things so they made sense. It demystified my financial picture and made it feel manageable. He has in mind different options that I can choose to go with or not, as I see fit. So, not only was I feeling relieved, but I was feeling very excited about my future.

I will have more to report on in a couple of weeks when I meet with John again and discuss in more detail the various paths I can take. But, as of now, I would highly recommend him to any of my friends and family who may be in need of the type of services Morgan Stanley offers. Although he is new to the firm, he is not new to the field, and has many excellent references.
If you would like to contact him, you can email him at:
John.Sanchez@morganstanley.com
He would be happy to hear from you! Tell him Elisabeth sent you.

Check in again to see how it's going with me and my money.