i just read over my last post. clearly it's a little outdated. oops. it's been an amazing few months...too crazy to get a blog post in, obviously. or maybe it's just that i have been lazy. i'll leave that up to your descretion. the point it, i am finally posting and i apologize in advance for leaving out any event or person...a lot has happened. so, this post will be a more general re-cap, with some more in-depth coverage of some highlights.

in may, students here were finishing up the semester, complaining about finals, picking up graduation packs. i was still here hillel, talking on instant messenger (and the all new gchat), going out for coffee dates with students, stalking friends and students on facebook, buying (and trying not to eat) candy. some of the highlights of my last few weeks in austin before i left for california (in no particular order):

• attended my last hand therapy appointment and was officially discharged. apparently my pinky is fully healed, though at times it still throbs a bit.
• saw the first and second round of the "funniest person in austin" competition. it's been going on for 25 years now, and is a big deal. rex, one of the chefs at hillel, was competing. i thought he should have advanced, but was knocked out in the first round. he blames his elimination on starting his set off with a "finger in the butt joke." no comment.
• aaron karo comedy show at antones with monics (coworker) and her sis. so funny and lots of fun.
• decided to go on a JCSC trip to israel in july.
• adam #2's birthday. ate dessert first: went to free cone day at ben and jerry's and then to dinner at guero's.
• dinner with robin and my new friends, sarah and rebecca. unfortunately, rebecca is moving in a few weeks. i introduced them to firebowl cafe and they loved it just as much as me!
• walks at townlake and in the austin hills with robs.
  
• staffed the last shabbat, study break brunch and the end of the year banquet--showed the students how great they are.
• ari's birthday (extravaganza). a few consecutive days of fun.
• soccer games--with my finger taped up for safety purposes...and to prevent having to return to the therapist.
• got free panties at victoria's secret thanks for rachel's clever tactics.
• went to home slice pizza for the first time with dane and adam. accidently ran into isaac and tom.
  
• went bowling 2 consecutive days. day number one, i sucked. day number 2, i kicked butt. well, by "kick butt" i mean that i broke 100.
  
• met ari's family, but missed ari's graduation ceremony by ~2 hours.
• girls night out for robin's birthday: drinks at santa rita, pottery painting at mad potter, dinner at hyde park. then out to see the best 80's coverband ever.

then it was off to the bay area for a long weekend with annie! we had so much fun seeing friends, reminiscing on college and running in bay to breakers. read on for details...

• we managed to fit in a lot of meals and snacks in order to make sure we got our berkeley fill: strada, free speech, chaam, yopo, sufficient grounds, jupiter, nabolom.
• sat in front of the campinile with alana. ran into becky at bay to breakers. hung out with michal at hillel. ate lunch on campus with kristin and dre.
  
• spent like 3 hours searching for bay to breakers costumes. after 2 target trips, 1 party store stop, and other random attempts, we settled on random skirts, fanny packs, pigtails, lollypops. RANDOM, but fun. that's what bay to breakers is all about. hey, at least we stayed away from wearing our birthday suit. unfortunately, many old men and women werent so smart. oh san francisco.
• our rental car, so generously supplied by antho/enterprise rent a car, got broken into in SF. not cool at all. luckily we were able to get it back to the dealership before the rain flooded the back (through the broken rear window). clearly, antho hooked us up with way too nice of a car. i suppose maybe we were asking for it. :) in any case, this instigated some serious shopping for annie, who had all of her clothes stolen! they werent the smartest robbers ever though--they missed our purses completely. you win some, you lose some. as a replacement vehicle, we were given a truck. yes, a real truck. RANDOM!

I said goodbye to annie on monday night and then spent some time seeing family. my grandparents took that side of the family out to a delicious dinner at a restaurant they are partial owners of--elite cafe. it was amazing. i also saw my cousin shoshana, my grandma and my aunt denise. michal was a saint and took me to the airport on wednesday morning and then i was OFF to san diego!

ooh, san diego. i didnt realize how much i missed it until i was back. but it wasn't the perfectly sunny days, or the views from my parents condo, or the smell of the ocean, or the beautiful sunsets. not that im complaining about any of the aforementioned items, but what i was really missing was my family. and it was so great to be back for some true old-fashioned unger family quality time. my first day back i was spoiled by getting to sit, with the mommers, in the dugout seats at a padres game. good times. it gets a little hazy after that--as in, it's too long ago to really remember what i did and when i did it. but here, again, is a general rundown:

• shabbat, unger style. the best.
  
• had friends over for a BBQ by the pool
• saw noey, an old soccer friend and got to hear all about her ridiculous life--going to crazy international places as the videographer for the women's national soccer team and working at a great non-profit called invisible children.
• day trip up to anaheim to watch the padres get their butts kicked and get stuck for like 4 hours on the amtrak. but, really, it was a fun day. i promise.
• dinner at cheesecake factory with joel and jane, just like the old days.
• saw derek's new apartment in old town and went to taco tuesdays at fred's.
  
• speed-dating with my sister. pretty much a disaster, but oh-so hilarious.
• lots of reading, lots of naps.
  
• lots more padres games--we're #1!
• took mom out for a "better late than never" mothers day brunch
  
• a few nights out in downtown san diego. im not gonna lie, it's a little too classy for my tastes.
• lunch with mom, coffee with mom, shopping with mom.
• acted as caddy for my dad for 9 holes of golf...his bag was really ridiculously heavy. he emptied 3 dozen balls out after the round. that's a lot, i swear.
• didn't update my blog (oops)
• dr.'s appointments.
• runs along the bay, and stairs at the convention center.
• fathers day, unger-style: went up the stairs at my parents 40-story building 3 times (that's what my dad wanted!), went shopping for my mom (ya, we are wierd), brunch, dinner at home.
• met my sister's book-club groupies.
• played soccer

At some point in there dorie flew into san diego, and thus began the craziest week ever--the roadtrip. after spending a day in san diego, dorie and i rented a car (the cheapest, crappiest thing we could find...becuase it was likely to get broken in to) and began out trek up the coast. we stopped in san luis obispo to have lunch with dorie's aunt and then in monterey to gawk for an hour at the cuteness of the seals. then we finished off the beatiful drive up the coast and ended up in berkeley. that night we went to dinner with matt and taylor, and then had drinks at bears lair. RANDOMLY, oren, our JCSC buddy walked in. we laughed for about an hour about how random that was, even though its not that random, since he lives in berkeley. but in any case, we were pretty excited.

after a morning in walnut creek and berkeley visiting with my grandma and cousin shoshana, it was off to san francisco. we had a lovely lunch at the grandparents pad and then went exploring. among other things, we went down lombard street (the windiest street ever), saw beautiful foliage at the conservatory of flowers, "road on" (aka stood on for a second, in order to get a photo) a street car, saw the golden gate bridge and the park, and went to dinner with aubrie, becky and jessica at some crispy taco place, which will remained unnamed, since i dont remember the name. the highlight of that dinner was defintely the dance move jessica taught us, called the "greedy buffet patron." extrapolate as you please. we also saw a georgeous sunset from the top of aubrie's building. that night we went to bed early, since the next day was going to be full of driving, in hopes of reaching las vegas in time to party.

side note: on our way out of the bay area, we stopped at peet's coffee, to give dorie a taste of heaven. it lived up to the hype. she loved it.

we did just that. it was a pretty long/boring/tedious/monotonous/desert-y ride, but that didnt stop us from having fun. we arrived safe and sound in vegas, just in time to check in with enough time to take a nap before it was time to pick up the other 3 gals at the airport. we stayed at the riviera (i only recommend it if you enjoy ghetto hotels that are far away from everything, but VERY cheap). but really, the quality room wasnt important. we needed beds and floor space for all of our clothes and junk. and we had just that. after we arrived back from the airport with lindsey, amie and emily in tow, we started getting ready for our night out. the spot of the night was voodoo lounge, since emily's cousin was DJing there. we got to be VIPs for the night, which is always fun. in the raucous of it all, i managed to lose my phone. so, if i havent called you in a while, that's my excuse!

the next day, as some of us nursed hangovers, we snuck into the pool at treasure island. it was one stop up (or two or three) from the riviera's pool. we spent 7 or so hours there, just relaxing. emily managed to get a niiiice sunburn on her legs and amie managed to get lots of "deals" on drinks at the cabana bar. we also met this random guy from new york. i think he was in the mafia.

that evening, we headed back to our "suite" and started getting ready to go out. then it was off to ceasars for a quick dinner and then the atrocity of trying to get in to PURE, one of the "hot" night clubs in vegas. we managed to make friends with a group of guys who were paying a lot to get a table, so we made it in relatively fast. it was a nice place--but my favorite part was that in the bathroom, there were like 15 kinds of perfume. everytime i went to the bathroom, i would put on a new kind. ya, im easily entertained. later that night we moved locations to a club called 40 deuce at mandalay bay. and even later, i was given 50 bucks to gamble with. i made 50, and the winnings were given to dorie. want more details? just ask me...i dont feel like writing out a more detailed explanation. :)

all in all, vegas was crazy and ridiculous and fun. as it should be. on sunday, dorie and i drove to los angeles, and even met some people on the way, at a gas station who were mid-hike. this wasnt just any hike...they started in mexico and were ending in canada. good luck, that's all we had to say!

we arrived in LA without too much trouble and met up with sarah and greg (her man) for dinner. had we not been so tired, we would have done something more interesting than go to greg's apt and watch an episode of entourage. but, hey, we had a long weekend. so, that was LA night #1.

sarah left early for work on monday and dorie and i were on our own in LA. clearly not a good idea. up till this point, we hadnt been lost ONCE on the trip. not ONCE! we managed to get lost like 6 times in LA, in one day. after dorie got her car tour of the sketchy parts of downtown LA, we arrived at laura's house. she drove us (thank goodness!) to meet up with sloane at a little cafe for lunch. we had iced tea and salads, in pure LA style and then we were off for some sight seeing. first stop: shopping and such. then: hollywood walk of fame and the mann's chinese theater. too bad that night was the premiere of nacho libre, so we couldnt get a look at the handprints. but, we did get a damn good look at the hollywood sign. dorie was ecstatic, to say the least. after the sightseeing, dorie and laura just NEEDED a cupcake. so naturally, we had to go to the best capcake place in town. now, there is some argument over which place is best, but laura is partial to TOAST, so that's where we headed. three cupcakes later, we were off to third street promenade for some shopping and then dinner later with katie, sarah and laura. good times. quite a bit later, dorie got a little tired, so we dropped her at sarah's place to get some sleep, and laura and i headed over to a bar to meet up with jon and justine. we had a beer or 2 and caught up. but that was about all we could handle. we were all pooped.

tuesday was a "free day"--as in, we didnt know what we were going to do. we slept in and then went back to TOAST for brunch (it looked sooo good the day before, we couldnt resist). we even saw a "celebrity": one of the girls from the reality show 8th and ocean. pretty exciting.

after breakfast, we probably got lost a few more times and then made the drive up to pasadena to see the beverly hills 90210 house. finally, it was time for rodeo drive (no buying, just looking). we got out of there pretty quickly, before dorie's stylish side got the best of her and then began the drive down to manhattan beach to see my favorite high schooler, rachael. we did a little beachfront shopping and then had a great dinner with terry (rachael's mom). before we started the final leg of the drive back to san diego, we needed some coffee. i wanted coffee bean, but dorie refused to try it, becuase her loyalties were already with peets. :o)

we arrived safely back in SD and even managed to return the rental car on time. we got a good nights sleep and then spent the day relaxing. we met two of dories friends for brunch in hillcrest and then spent some time with the mom in la jolla. before dorie had to get on her flight, we managed to squeeze in an evening at the padres game.

then i slept for 4 days straight, more or less. :o)

now i am back in austin for a couple of weeks...moved into a new apartment, went to the freshwater pool, random things with friends. last weekend i went to san antonio to see agi and roger and their babies...zofia turned 2! and, for the fourth of july i had a nice relaxing day: walk and brunch with rachael and dinner in gruene, TX with agi, roger and the gang.

life is good.