Auspicious Visit

It's been a crazy ass week. I had my interview on Monday and suffered through intense angst (ANGST) until I heard back on Wednesday (I got the job, SURPRISE!*), culminating in a total energy crash and strange and unwarranted general malaise the following morning. It's a good thing Lisa and Mark were driving down for a visit from the East Bay -- and that they had thought to surprise me by secretly bringing along Alana, who I hadn't seen in a year? In over a year? In any case: my general malaise disappeared tout de suite.

This super tall silvery, velvety shrub/tree elicited screams. SCREAMS.

What a wonderful, wonderful surprise. I got to celebrate the new job, my birthday (and Lisa's!) with some of my most favorite people. This birthday feels like a milestone for me -- I'm entering a new stage in my teaching career, which is allowing me to save and prepare for some big, "adult" expenses** -- and I can't think of any other people I would rather be spending it with, even if belatedly.

Touched it. 

Friday we drove up to campus, I signed some forms at HR, and we visited the UCSC Arboretum. In all my years affiliated with the university (first as a student, now as a lecturer), I'd never been to the arboretum. What a shame that it's taken me so long to visit; it's absolutely gorgeous. We wandered from garden to garden, talking about politics and power (a conversation started the night before at a taqueria that continued for the entirety of the visit), touching absolutely everything we came across. Every bush, every flower, every tree, every pinecone. We touched everything. And it was worth the $5 entry fee, well worth it. It was even worth the mild sunburn (and corresponding, mild crankiness) I developed later on.

Touching it. 

These are a couple of the few snapshots taken early in our walk. I didn't take down any notes on the plants I photographed, but I do remember that they were all located in the Australia/New Zealand gardens.

We stumbled upon a huge flock? crew? gaggle? of California quail on the way out, but I was too busy watching them roadrun away from us to take out my camera. No reason to become inordinately upset; I have a wonderful Super Cuchi post (of the avian persuasion) to share tomorrow regardless.

***
* Thanks for the woo-woo, by the way. It absolutely worked!
** Okay, I'll tell you: it's a car, I'm saving up for a new car. Don't tell the Little Green Car, it'll become horribly jealous and stop working just to teach me a lesson. You think I kid, how little you know!