a wish to be a big cactus/with a pink flower on it

joshua trees

our campsite

nancy cooking an amazing breakfast!

looking out over jtree park from rocks at quail springs

me - pretending i can rock-climb

The flower said, "I wish I was a tree,"
The tree said, "I wish I could be A different kind of tree,
The cat wished that it was a bee,
The turtle wished that it could fly
Really high into the sky,
Over rooftops and then dive
Deep into the sea.

And in the sea there is a fish,
A fish that has a secret wish,
A wish to be a big cactus
With a pink flower on it.
And in the sea there is a fish,
A fish that has a secret wish,
A wish to be a big cactus
With a pink flower on it.

And the flower
Would be its offering
Of love to the desert.
And the desert,
So dry and lonely,
That the creatures all
Appreciate the effort.

And the rattlesnake said,
"I wish I had hands so I could hug you like a man."
And then the cactus said, "Don't you understand,
My skin is covered with sharp spikes
That'll stab you like a thousand knives.
A hug would be nice,
But hug my flower with your eyes."
- "Tree Hugger", Kimya Dawson

*sigh*

just got back from joshua tree national park last night. what an AMAZING trip. i had such a good time. the last two weeks have been a bit of a blur. with no real schedule to speak of, applying for jobs, freaking out about finances, registering for nationals, working, studying, and boxing boxing boxing boxing, and organizing the jtree trip.

so, really, the jtree trip is all i want to talk about, because the rest of it wasn't so exciting, except i DID go to boxing every day last week, which was awesome (thanks stephanie for coming with), if not a bit daunting with the 5am wake-up everyday. but it was fun, and hopefully this week (minus today) will be the same!

so, camping - we left friday mid-day to head out to joshua tree national park.
it was a much easier trip than i had expected, we got out there in under 3 hours even with a little bit of traffic! devon, tim and i got there first and set up camp, then nancy and dave showed up and finally TJ and cheryl. on friday we pretty much just hung out and cooked up some dinner and had fun on the campsite. after a fabulous breakfast of french toast on saturday (thanks nancy!) we took off and drove through the park stopping at various places to play on the rocks and see cacti and eventually made it to the complete other end of the park to cottonwood springs where we started our hike to lost palms oasis. it was close to a 4 mile hike each way. beautiful scenery, it's so strange. the desert. i felt like i was on another planet almost. the whole panorama is just amazing, the plants seem so foreign and the rock outcroppings look staged. it's just unreal. gorgeous in a completely different way than lush green tree filled areas. but also so DRY. talk about no humidity. but that's the mojave and colorado deserts for ya. anyway, had a hike out to the oasis - which i think wasn't exactly what any of us had in mind. the description we had read left a bit to the imagination and really, we all took it too far. the oasis, i suppose was rather a miraculous in the middle of the desert, but it wasn't pools of water. there was an outcropping of fan palms (the largest group of CA fan palms in all of jtree park) and if you dug enough in the group there was in fact water that welled up. at any rate, we took a little siesta in the shade of the palms before we headed back up and out of the oasis and back to cottonwood springs, and then back to our campground at blackrock canyon. sunday, nancy and dave had to take off after breakfast, and the rest of us packed up our site and decided to head out to hidden valley where TJ and i put on our rock-climbing shoes and pretended we both knew how to boulder... ha! but by the end of a couple hours we got the hang of it, but of course not before a few minor scrapes and abrasions. tim hung out with us and mostly laughed at our attempts to rock climb... cheryl and devon went for a walk around hidden valley and met up with us later. we all had lunch and then made our way back to san diego.

in a rare twist of events the temperatures at joshua tree were perfect - it was in the upper 70's -mid 80's during the day and 50's at night. PERFECT! whereas apparently san diego had a wicked hot weekend (it was disgusting when we got back last night). so what a great weekend to get out of the city!

anyway, the trip was awesome, great people, great weather, phenomenal scenery... i really didn't want to come back to reality! i laughed so much when i was away - it was great! on that note, hope you enjoyed the pictures above... here are some more, enjoy!


and here are some of TJ's pictures from the weekend! thanks for sharing TJ!

and HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEVON!

cranial overload/systems malfunction

*remember to breathe*

so. i'm done with grad school. (i know, i can't believe it's true either).

the last month has flown by. so much happening. so much to get done. so much still to do. and while i'm not in school anymore (it's weird not being in clinic all day today) there's this illusion of time and choice, but i'm not so sure it's anything more than that, an illusion. i had kind of envisioned a slow-down, some time to myself, something a little less structured and a place where i could get back to myself, live the kind of life i want, going to boxing, yoga, having time to cook dinner, and working. something other than the crazy-woman rushing around, every minute of my time scheduled kind of life i've been living for the last 4 years. and it is different. i am not absolutely scheduled, but now it's making myself my own schedule, where in i have to find more work, plan out my board studying (because yes, i need a study schedule, cos i will ONLY TAKE THESE ONCE) and get my exercise in, not to mention see friends (have to make the best of my last 6 months here...) and all that good stuff.

did i mention i finished grad school?

ha. i didn't think it would ever happen. and the reality is, it's a bit of anti-climax. i mean, there's still so much studying to do and i can't work in acupuncture until i'm licensed... so. yeah. maybe when boards are over this will feel real. but that being said, i'm glad i have a little time. now that i'm not in school my entire waking life, i can research more living/job stuff in portland and figure out more details of that. which is VERY exciting and kind of surreal, this is all starting to be real...

right, so, since i last posted... oh god, i have no idea what i've done. ha. finished up school, i believed i passed all my courses, otherwise i'd probably have heard by now. i applied to board exams, both nationals and states... i *FINALLY* got my registration ID for nationals and now have to schedule my exam modules (it's done at a computer testing center) which i plan on taking in a month. but might spread out the sections a bit, so possibly in the next couple of weeks i'll start that process! eeeeeek! nationals! and my states application was received but i doubt i'll hear anything from them for a while (the test is in august).

and in life outside of school/board exams (is there such a thing?)... have gotten to hang out with friends a bit. have gone out dancing with the girls a few times, hiking (possibly some pictures to come of hiking in penasquitos a couple of weeks ago), batting cages with ris and devon (too fun, though i was kinda crap at the hardball) and just yesterday i went kayaking!!!! on mission bay with tim. we had such an awesome time, though there was definitely some bumper-kayaking going on with the crazy messed up paddle. so much fun, haven't been kayaking in ages, so it was awesome to be out on the water (made me REALLY miss crew!) though i was crap at putting sunscreen on my legs and managed to miss a couple spots and now look like i have some sort of demented skin disease *sigh* oh well, it was worth it! speaking of weather, it's been CRAZY hot out here (high 80s!).

oh oh oh oh! this might be a day premature, but emily may indeed be moving to san diego YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i'd be ridiculously excited. ridiculously. we haven't lived in the same city since HS...

in other news, the baking update: i've made the cheesecake (again, and again fabulous reviews), truffles, a ginger butter cake, the molasses spice cookies again (always a hit!) chocolate raspberry cake... but as my camera was on the fritz, no pictures... but it's fixed now, so look forward to baking pictures now that i have some time on my hands, and tons of recipes i want to try!

in recap: i finished grad school.

this is less about you all understanding it, than trying to have it sink in that i have actually finished my masters degree (about damn time) and am (almost) allowed to practice acupuncture for my job. :).

in the meantime, anyone you know in san diego who wants to give me a part-time job, or needs a massage, please get them in touch with me ...

cheers!
~ Alexis