I've been slacking on my posting here so I'll try and make up for it in this entry.

This past week I had Thursday and Friday off. I was in dire need of an escape to somewhere woodsy and pretty, so we rented this cute cottage in the middle of the woods for Friday and Saturday night. We decided to make a long weekend out of it and started off woodsy and pretty at Matt's parent's place in Santa Rosa Thursday night. On the drive up, we stopped by my favorite winery. Matt has decided that I call this my "favorite" because it's just a huge room of free samples cuz I don't really drink wine, which is true. I could honestly care less or even tell what is considered a "good" wine.. except for dessert wine or port. Mmm.. Anyways, telling people I have a favorite winery makes me seem like I'm hip with the wine scene, or something.

The drive up through Sonoma was beautiful. We stopped by several fruit and vegetable stands for fresh food for the weekend. We also stopped by the little town square to "fake feed" the ducks. There was a big geese with a naked neck, so we called him "Neck-id". Hah! There were also a pair of ducks that were huge, like geese, so they were aptly named "Guck" and "Doose". We also saw a pretty ugly duck take a huuuge squirty crap in front of us. Impressive.

We drove up to Matt's place after much duck fun. The house that he grew up in is very nice.. it's out in the middle of the boonies with lots of skylights and surrounded by trees. We pulled into his driveway and there was someone in the "usual" parking spot, so Matt decided to park off the gravel road underneath some trees on a gradual hill. Any other time of the year this would've been fine, but after a few weeks of rain, the ground was pretty mushy and damp. Soo... the truck got stuck. We called USRider which is like AAA for trucks and horse trailers, and I got to get my money's worth of my membership fee the next morning. Apparently a "normal" tow truck wouldn't do because after all, my truck is a 3/4 ton vehicle and no one wanted to get their tow truck stuck. But a nice fellow came out with his heavy duty tow truck and winched us out of our predicament. Matt was very apologetic, and I was miffed, but got over it. Yarg.

The rest of the weekend was beautiful. The cottage turned out even better than in the photos, and it was located in the middle of the redwoods. We checked out the cute little town of Mendocino and I got most of my Christmas shopping done. Inside the cottage we found the owners had left us directions to a secret waterfall in a nearby park, so we hiked there one day.. and found about 5 other couples at this "secret".. China scared the crap out of everyone by running full speed towards the top of the waterfall, almost to the edge, before sprinting back towards us. She was seriously insane the entire trip. Totally stoked we left the apartment, every time she was loose she'd run around like a stark raving mad lunatic. Fortunately that left her pooped for the night and she'd fall asleep in a dead coma.

We made some delicious food.. bacon, eggs, and english muffins for breakfast, carnitas tacos and Matt's yummy pasta sauce for dinner (with polenta, which I never knew existed before and there was probably a good reason why). ;) The last night, however, I felt a bit grouchy and bad about myself. I felt like I had eaten like a pig over the last few days and felt like isolating myself. Matt was sweet, consoling me and reassuring me that I'd feel better.. and I did eventually. Taking me out of a 'routine' was tough on my system. Fortunately I have an awesome, caring boyfriend who understands with open arms whenever I start feeling that way.

I didn't want to return to Berkeley, but we did.. what a stark contrast to the vast fields and moss-covered forests we were in just a few hours earlier. We decompressed from the drive home by watching Waterboy ("YOU can DOOOOO it!") and playing Xmen: Legends.

Just thinking about this coming week stresses me out.. full week of work including Saturday. Ugh! At least next week is Thanksgiving.. hooray for Pilgrims.