Vacation

$33.00 Sripraphai - excellent as always.  Shrimp Tom Yum Soup, Green Papaya Salad,  Chinese Water Cress, Whole Red Snapper in crispy chili-garlic, drunken noodles, Taro/Sticky Rice.

I decided to take a vacation from my expenses during my vacation -  the reasons were obvious:  1) lazy. ass.  2) terror.

I am going to spend 5 minutes summing up the vacation now, though I may come back and re-visit the trip if I get some free time during the week.

1. It rained the entire fucking trip.  We sat down for breakfast outside of the Redwood forests watching the Weather Channel and saw exactly two tiny blips of clouds for every state east of California.  Clear skies.  Unseasonably warm.  Beautiful.  The entire western seaboard, however, was dealing with torrential rains and floods.  And hail.  And snow.  And wind.  The entire week.  (When we arrived in NY, it was raining AND snowing.)
2. Redwood trees are beautiful.  Redwood forests are humbling.  The immensity of these living things thrusting powerfully up from foggy hillsides with such power and solidity was moving in a way I didn't expect (frankly, I expected to be disappointed.)   It's not just the height or breadth or age of the trees, but just their sheer power and immensity.  They transcended my minute understanding of Life. Go see them.  
3. Big Sur is gorgeous. 
4. We managed to see, in the wild, Sea Lions (dozens), a herd of Roosevelt Elk (about a dozen within 5-15 feet, several dozen from a distance), elephant seal bulls, cows and pups (hundreds and hundreds in a colony in Big Sur) and banana slugs (I died inside, so who cares about the fucking number).   No bears (I always wonder about my ability to make myself big and make lots of noise to scare off a charging bear, but for some reason have less doubt in my ability to "fight back aggressively" if attacked), no sea otters (bashing oysters on their bellies) or whales (I already crossed that off my bucket list).
5. I drove 1600 miles.  Route 101 and Route 1 in California must be unparalleled in the world.  I hope I'm proven wrong but am not unsatisified if I am not. 
6. My phone interview for my dream job was extremely demoralizing and disappointing.   C'est la vie. 
7. Maybe I will ruminate more later.