Pretty

Monterey was GORGEOUS. Crystal clear, cool but not overly so. I so enjoy that drive - going through little towns, with me thinking all the way 'oh, let's by a little house here when we retire'. So pretty as you approach the coast - and then so stunningly beautiful when you see the beach and the sea. I love Monterey. Love it to pieces. Oh how I wish B. would decide to go there...but it's looking more like Chico State everyday.

The 'meeting' was productive and as always, a blast. We were laughing so hard, the boat was rocking (I know that doesn't 'sound' right but there were 12 people on a 40 foot boat, eating cinnamon rolls, telling stories and laughing our heads off). And our lunch was also great - good food, good friends. I'm sure people wondered what 'industry' we were in - most around the table were obsessed with their Blackberries the entire time. Not me. I didn't want to know what was happening back at the office - and my email isn't working at this moment (via Blackberry) anyway so that made it pretty easy to not look. I could have borrowed someones to check but I saved doing that for when I got home.

I did ask someone to check the price of my husband's employer's stock (a bank) and felt a bit sick when it was revealed. But I had another sip of iced tea and some more creme brulee and moved on. We may have to consider buying a trailer or a small, teeny, tiny boat vs. a house at the moment (based on our retirement funds having crashed (in splendid fashion) even further this past month. Us and so many others in the country all in the same boat. Good thing we're OK with working longer 'cuz that seems to be the best option at this point. But I'm pretty sure we'll be able to afford some weekend get-aways and I'm so looking forward to making Monterey a frequent spot for a respite from work. So much to explore...and just sitting watching the waves is enough to make me giddy.

I drove a friend back - we left after lunch vs. returning to the boat - and we took the long way home. As I did last year (when I was alone so it was less humiliating), I missed the sneaky turn off to the small highway that heads to I-5 vs. going north on 101. Ended up on 101 instead which takes us through San Jose and then onto 580 east (my old commute) over the Altamont to Tracy. Then on to Manteca to drop her off. The great thing is: she is a wonderful friend and a really experienced CBO, so we got to share info and pick each others brains about things. THAT'S why we missed the turn off - we couldn't hear the GPS lady telling us what to do 'cuz we were yapping so much. I told her I did it on purpose (which I didn't) because time with her is such a gift. She's been such a huge help to me the past couple years - and she's the sweetest person....we had a blast. And we found Starbucks for beverages on the drive home.

J. and I are heading to Brentwood this morning and will likely try to have a nice lunch somewhere. Kind of like a 'date night' only not. Three day weekend to look forward to and though I'll be working much of it, that's OK. I've been working a little each day on cleaning out massive amounts of files and the progress is starting to show. It's not something I really have the time for right now (with a zillion things to do for a huge, HUGE budget presentation I'll be doing in front of hundreds of people in a couple weeks) but making time to work on it a bit each day is helping to cull out stuff and finally get all of the former CBO files into one place. That will help tremendously in terms of just knowing what's out there. And it will cull out a lot of stuff that we no longer need.

Have a great weekend and I hope you, too, will have three days off. Aren't 3-day weekends great??