How to throw a Halloween party

I woke up this morning with a tattoo on my arm and my apartment completely trashed.

I know what you're thinking. Don't worry, I didn't drink too much Tequila, get kidnapped by a motorcycle band, who forced me to get a tattoo and took over my apartment for the after party.

Close, except the tattoo is not real, and my alcohol consumption last night was far from epic. We had the ultimate Halloween party last night. Four of us who live in the apartment complex we have nicknamed the UD Dorms each picked a different theme. The hosts of the party dressed up in that theme, then we moved from apartment to apartment as the night progressed.

We started at Jenn's pirate party, where she had gone all out with black lights, a pirate cage and a poster from Pirates of the Caribbean. An hour later, we moved to Cameron and Krystal's, who had a witch theme. They served witch's brew (Sangria) under a large spider web. Chris' apartment was a western saloon. His girlfriend, Jenn, greeted us at the door with shots of Jim Beam. Chris even had poker and a real saddle.

My theme was a fitting one for the last one of the night. Yes, that's right. It was white trash.


Decorating for this required tearing down everything cute in my apartment and redoing it with a coffee table made of plywood and beer boxes, lawn chairs, hunting magazines, pizza boxes and other cardboard waste strewn about, a Budwiser tapestry, a plastic table cloth with cigarette burns, romance novels and much more. I served Twinkies, powdered donuts, Easy Cheese and jello. For a game, we played, "Pin the axsesoryz on the Redneck."

Someone once told me that having a cocktail party is a good way to make sure your house doesn't get destroyed. People tend to act more civilized when they're dressed up and in a luxurious environment. It works the other way too.

We went from being a sophisticated group of reporters to trying to throw candy corn into each others mouths. Pretty soon the candy corn was whizzing by my head. I of course had to take it to the next level by lobbing a twinkie at Josh. Fortunately, it didn't escalate into an all out food fight. But it was fun.

The only problem was, I spent the morning hopping around my apartment trying to avoid swishing the candy into my carpet. With the help of Gabe, Chris and his girlfriend Jenn, my apartment is now back to normal. It feels good to have my Van Gogh's "Les Irises" back up instead of an "Easy Rider" poster.

Lesson learned: When left in their package, twinkies make a fun, yet apartment safe, food fight material.

Working at home

Today my editors finally made good on the promise to let me take a work day for my project. In order for this really to happen — so that they wouldn't be tempted to sidetrack me every five minutes with a new story idea — I worked from home. I've only done this a few times, but I must say, it works well. I got more done in the six hours I worked on it today then I have in the past two weeks.

So now two of the stories running are mostly done. I just have a few touch ups and lots of editing.

I'll be holding a celebration when this is through.

Lesson learned: Food in my fridge, a television and DVD player, a stereo and a piano are less distracting then my office.

Apples to Cajun to climbing

It's been a full weekend. Days like the last two make me want the Indian fall we've been having to stay forever. That and make me never want to go back to work.

Here's a quick recap:

• Friday night I went out to dinner with Gabe and some of his friends. The group met up with Jenn and Paul later for a spirited game of Apples to Apples. It's where you put one card in the center with an adjective on it. Then everyone places one of their seven cards down with nouns on them that best matches it. The judge position rotates among the players. My best was "colorful." I laid down "barf."

• Saturday I had a meeting with all the members of my Rotary exchange team in Yosemite. It was a beautiful day and all the trees are starting to turn orange and yellow, making the drive a collage of colors. And of course the Valley floor was stunning. We had lunch at the Awahnee, an old and luxurious hotel there.

• I had tickets to a Cajun Festival, so I went with Gabe. We stayed long enough for a free dinner and then rented a movie. I don't really remember the name of it, or much else for that matter. It was one of deep, convoluted films about oil and corruption. I was asleep for much of it.

• Paul, Gabe, kid from church named Andrew and I met up with our paper's photographer, Amy, and some of her friends to go climbing. I surprised myself by pulling my 117 pounds up some pretty crazy cracks. I can't feel my arms. I'm typing with my nose right now.

• Gabe and I made dinner and my place tonight.

Starting to see a theme here? Me too. :)

Lesson learned: I think I may be seeing someone.

My own real life TV show

Have you ever noticed how there are about a million shows of every genre based on doctors? We've got ER, Scrubs, House and Grey's Anatomy to name a few. In fact, I just watched the latter, hence this post. I'd like to propose that we do one on journalists.

In our newsroom, we've got it all: the horror and violence of car wrecks, the thrills of drug busts, the drama of inter-office romances (okay ex-romances), the comedy of everyday slip ups that we make...

That five of us live in the same apartment building makes for a sort of Friends-drama hybrid. We could have the scenes from the fast-paced newsroom, with deadlines looming while fights erupt across the office from the pressure juxtaposed with relaxed barbecues where everyone has a beer and talks shop.

Chris would make that older character that everyone loves, who often passes on words of wisdom to his younger counterparts. That he just can't seem to figure out the new computer system — or any computer system for that matter — could be a recurring theme. Amy's the sort of gruff, seasoned reporter who really gets to see the inside of local law enforcement, yet has a sort of dry humor about her. Mike is the guy who gets married and has a baby (because someone always has to have a baby on TV shows.) Josh is the comedic relief — though the actor who plays his character would want to take his career to the big screen, so Josh would quit and take a trip across the country and then through Europe. Me, well there's lots of turmoil with me, between my love life and the heart wrenching health and kids stories I do, I'm sure we could get some tears out of viewers.

We could concoct Office Space-like dialogue, recreating the dilemma that comes with having three bosses. Or we could go more in new vein of modern dramas, with that one character's voice narrating life's lessons with profundity.

Yep, clear prime time, "In Print" is on its way.

Lesson learned: Maybe I've been watching too much TV.

Gold rush

Today was another one of those days I didn't work on my project.

But I got to go to a Gold Rush camp for kids. It was nice to get out of the office and drive up into the hills. I hung out with fourth graders while they dug up dirt to mine using various techniques, like gold panning, something called a cradle and another long box they use to sift out rocks.

Seeing all those kids with their little mini shovels made me want to be a forth grader again. At least then I wouldn't have to finish my project.

Lesson learned: There is a little sweat shop gold operation going on in the woods east of Sonora....Okay, I'm not serious, they plant the gold.

A girl's best friend

There are only a hand full of people that I would drive five hours for to spend that much time with. It just so happens, one of those people was in Berkeley this weekend. So I did just that.

Anna and I met in environmental science in high school. From there, we were in cross country, tennis and Precision figure skating together. We went skiing. We spent nights at each others houses, and days at the lake. Then in college, we ended up being roommates in the dorms. We've been with each other through break ups with boyfriends, family issues and health complications.

Needless to say, I was disappointed when she transferred to Bozeman, but we never stopped being best friends.

Anna is one of those friends I can go without seeing for a year, and without talking to for three months, yet when we finally do reunite, it's like we're picking up where we left off.

So when I found out Anna was in Berkeley for a wedding, I canceled all other plans. The only time that she was free was Sunday afternoon. I made it down there about 4 p.m. (after getting a little lost). We took a walk, went to coffee and had dinner, catching up as we went.

It was fun to reminisce about the joke love letter we wrote in keyboarding to this guy named Jerod and his kermit green car. Or how we used to come home to our friends in our door rooms watching TV, which we stole from Juppy by crawling through his dorm window. Or sneaking out onto the roof of our dorm room.

Yeah, we had so much fun.

Someday maybe we'll end up in the same place and can continue our adventures.

Lesson learned: I miss that girl.

Home improvement

Last night was round two of construction in flip flops. I'm becoming a pro. Okay, so I wasn't really planning to help work on Jenn and Paul's house when I went over there. I was just stopping by. I should have known better.

I actually had a great time. Jenn and I made a expedition to the hardware store first to get electrical boxes. We had to call Paul like three times to make sure we were getting the right stuff. He kept saying, "Just get the blue ones." Try saying that to girls standing in front of a wall of 50 million varieties of blue electrical boxes.

Once we got back, we went to town with the hammers. My favorite part, though, was pulling up carpet. That's where the danger of wearing flip flops comes in, will all the tacks and nails that comes up with it. Jenn and I joked that we should make a home improvement video for women — since we look the part of seasoned contractors and all.

I thought I was getting the hang of pulling up some of the wood nailed down under the carpet, until Gabe came in and did about four times what I was doing in about 4.2 seconds.

Lesson learned: It takes me about 37 strikes of a hammer to nail a nail in a 2 by 4. Gabe: 3. So I guess I will never make a successful career out of construction.

In memory of Vicki

Our publisher's wife, Vicki, died this week. I went to her memorial service today.

She was relatively young: just about to turn 60 next week. It was a sudden heart attack. The weird thing was, she was at the college when it happened. The spokesman there only knows my extension, so he called me to tell me she had collapsed and they were doing CPR. I had to pull Geoff out of a meeting. It felt strange to see his smile as he came out to talk to me, knowing what he was about to hear.

The electricity went out at the funeral home this morning, so they had the service outside. It was a beautiful message from the chaplain under a perfectly blue sky. I couldn't help but cry when he recounted some of the touching details about their relationship - how they gardened together, how they always noted the 13th of every month because that was the day they met.

We all lined up to hug Geoff after the service. What do you say to someone who just lost their life partner, companion, best friend...From the sounds of it, she was all those things to him.

This poem was in the handouts, and it sort of struck a chord with me:

God hath not promised
skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways
all our lives through;
God hath not promised
sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow,
peace without pain.

But God hath promised
Strength for the day,
Rest for the labor,
Light for the way
Grace for the trials
Help from above,
Unfailing sympathy
Undying love...

Lesson learned: Life is so short, sometimes shorter than you think it should be.

Busy having fun

It's been a record week for bike rides. I've gone Sunday, yesterday and today. I have plans to go again Saturday. Yesterday was the record milage for the season: 48. It was a nice easy ride along culvert that our drinking water runs down. We've had a few beautiful days here, and I was out on some great vantage points to take it all in. There is talk of snow at higher elevations. Everyone who snowboards is starting to get that jittery excitement.

I just need to wax my board and I'm ready.

Now if work would calm down a bit. Today was nice though. I had a split shift, so I got done about noon, went out to lunch and then on a ride with my friend Gabe. When I drove to town about an hour away to cover a school board meeting, I discovered it had been cancelled. I came back and worked for a couple hours on my project then headed home. To think I would still be working if the meeting had gone on ... I got lucky this time.

Lesson learned: The easiest meeting to cover is a cancelled one.

Second-hand hip hop

This weekend, hanging out in my apartment has been like living next to a club that never closes. The apartment next to mine has been vacant for a couple months since my coworker Mike got married and moved out. Even before he moved out, it might as well have been empty. It was simply a storage shed for his furniture while, for all practical purposes, he lived with his fiancee.

Well, my landlord found a new renter, and I'm realizing how thin my walls are. Friday night, the repeating bass lines of hip hop songs came floating through my walls until about 1 a.m. Well, at least that's when I finally drifted off to sleep. I awoke to more of the same Saturday morning at about 7 a.m. And every time I stopped by my place throughout the day.

I don't have a problem with hip hop. In fact, I love it. But not at 1 a.m. or 7 a.m. - when I am trying to sleep. And not when the only part of the song I can hear is the bass line, which just loops over and over and over. Listening to music that someone else is playing across a wall is a little like sitting next to someone smoking a cigarette: It's a lot better for them than it is for you.

I feel bad saying anything to my neighbor because she seems really nice. She just likes her music loud. I'm not really ready to go be the prudish neighbor yet. We'll see what happens tomorrow morning - my last chance to sleep in before another week starts again.

Lesson learned: I miss Mike.

Fall arrives

For the first time in about four months, it rained today - really rained. Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced my umbrella. Rain here is not like it is in Montana. There you get a high elevation cloud cover that nestles in the Valley, and it drizzles for weeks on end. Here, we get a torrential downpour. The low spots in every road, sidewalk and any other surface become miniature rivers. You can't walk anywhere outside without drenching the hem of your pants. And cars tires kick up storms of mist, so when driving all the roads become this sort of hazy fantasy world. The fog crowds around the hills, giving them this eerie horror movie look. Eerie but dramatically beautiful.

It's nice to have a change of season. It's refreshing. I am looking forward to snowboarding. But for now, the rain meant only one thing for me: While I was tucked in my drivers seat with the heat on, all the dusty bike trails are getting packed down. Yes I have a one-track mind.

Lesson learned: The rain is nice, but I'm not ready for winter yet.

Signed up with nowhere to go

More than a month has passed since I was accepted to the Rotary exchange program to Japan, and I have yet to learn much more than a handful of words in Japanese. We signed up for this online program as a group with the idea we would learn it independently. I got an e-mail forwarded to me from our group leader confirming that he had requested an account for us. I thought I would get instructions a few days later telling me where to go and what my password was. But it never came.

A few days later, I got an e-mail from the group leader saying "Hope you are all enjoying the language instruction. I just completed the first lesson." What? So I wrote him, and apparently I never got an e-mail that told me my password.

He set me up with one, but now, ironically because my new computer is too new, I'm having problems downloading the software I need to run it.

At this rate, "Hi" and "yes" are the only words I will master in this language.

Lesson learned: There are disadvantages to being up with technology.

More extreme stuff

I meant to write a blog post about Sunday, which I spend with a group of friends going caving. I never got the chance to, but I will say, it was a perfect finish to an extreme weekend. It involved crawling through narrow holes in the ground, bouldering and bats. We all came out with mud smeared up the fronts and backs of us. In Jenn's case, the holes in the butt of her jeans just kept getting bigger the more rocks we shimmied over.

Well that was Sunday, and tonight I was off to another adventure. Steve and I decided that mountain biking in the light is just not extreme enough for us. Next time, we think we'll wait until it's dark to start. We were smart tonight and brought headlamps. We did a shorter ride than usual, but it was new territory, which can be a bit disorienting when all you have is a pen light strapped to your head.

Before it got dark, we got to catch a glimpse thick fog shrouding the hills around us as the sun turned orange. It was acutally refreshing to do a ride in the cool, damp forest surrounding a reservoir, after the many hot dusty rides we've done. But it's a sobering reminder that our biking days may be numbered.

Lesson learned: Bats in caves aren't just in the movies.

Lovin' it despite the bruises and bug bites

I think I had the most epic ride of the season today. Well guess now it would be yesterday, which is why I'm a little delirious right now. When I say epic, I mean in more than one way.

Steve and I decided to ride to Pinecrest Peak, a 20-mile ride. This is only four miles longer than the ride we usually do, so it doesn't seem like it would be that much more difficult. Of course, the first 14 miles of the other ride aren't uphill like this one was.

And the downhill section is even more challenging, with sandy sections that look like they are about to slide down the hillside, a single track trail riddled in rocks and sections with series of rock steps and obstacles.

It was great. When we arrived at the top, we had a dramatic view of the Sierra in all directions. There are oceans of granite and spires of volcanic rock. It actually looks down on Dodge Ridge to south. We ran into a ranger up there, who told us the elevation of where we were standing was about 8,400 feet — about 3000 above where we started.

I was a little shaky when I first started down. It was the first time I have done something so technical with the clip in peddles. But I eventually started getting my confidence up, going over rocking narrow passages and off some of the steps. I was still walking some of them though. Just as I was starting to get into a rhythm, a cloud of gnats descended on my head, providing somewhat of a distraction.

A little while later, I was cruising through a smoother section when some sort of bug decided to sink its teeth into what I will call my upper left buttock region. It was such a shock I screamed. Poor Steve, who was behind me at the time, almost had a heart attack.

I managed to survive the rest of the ride without falling (though my legs look like they have been through a wringer.) I did lose some nerve after the bug attacks and ended up walking quite a bit. I think part of the reason was I got to witness Steve flying over his handlebars — twice.

Lesson learned: Gnats and bee stings won't stop me. I'm addicted.