Day 362 - A Final Drink at HBC

Today was my last day of work in the office! I think I'll miss it more than I expect. We got to leave early, so I went to sushi with my coworker Cathleen and then ran a few errands. Carey and Jeff made me an amazing stir-fry for dinner, then we headed off to Hollister Brewing Company for one final drink together. After hanging out a bit at their house, Carey drove me home and we came thisclose to getting skunk'd right outside my front door. I don't even want to think about how much extra stress that would have added to the next few days.

Day 361 - Lily, (Mostly) All Growed Up

My coworkers threw me a going-away party! They all signed a card and got both a pie and a cake. As much as work has slowly eroded my soul over the last seven years, and as much as I generally dislike being in the office on a day-to-day basis, I'm really going to miss the regular face-to-face interaction. Tonight I had dinner with Andrew and Liz (I love how everyone has been feeding me this week). Their puppy Lily is now six months old and has grown a lot since the last time I saw her.

Day 360 - The Marketplace

I spent the evening finishing up a bunch of moving-related tasks (although there's still more to do) and so decided to take a quick photo of the Camino Real Marketplace while I was over there picking up my dinner. It's not the best shopping center in the world (and this isn't even a good shot of it—plus I realized after the fact that I should have gotten a shot that included HBC), but it's where I've come for farmers' markets, movies, carousing with friends, and shopping for the last seven years. I'm excited to explore the little plaza that's across the street from my future apartment.

Day 359 - Food Bonanza

Today after work I hung out with Carey, Jeff, Nicole, and Brendan at Nicole's house. I had them divvy up my remaining food items (there were more than I expected) and in return I got some spontaneous and fun shots of them posing ridiculously. We also tried mulling some mead, which was… not nearly as tasty as I'd hoped. I am going to miss these bastards!

Day 358 - Joey, One Last Time!

I have less than a week left before the big move, so I decided to focus on taking photos that document important places and friends (and their pets!) rather than trying to find artistic or technically challenging shots. Today I hung out with Carey, Jeff, and Joey while I did my laundry. They made me a delicious vegetarian pizza with three types of cheese, mushrooms, olives, garlic, and artichoke hearts. (Well, Joey didn't help with the pizza, but he was awfully adorable.) This shot didn’t come out very well, but I sort of like the muted colors.

day 357 - A Day at Avila Beach

Today I went up to Avila Beach with my awesome friend Ash. We rented a hot tub at Sycamore Springs (which was the perfect thing after all of yesterday's hard work—it helped relax my ankle and the sulfur is so good for your skin) and then had lunch at Woodstone Marketplace (which was amazing—I had a delicious wrap with a sun-dried tomato tortilla, greens, chicken, slivered almonds, avocado, mango chutney, and a balsamic vinaigrette). I took the shot of the ocean as we were driving past on the way back home. Little did I know that there's apparently been a pod of humpback whales right off the coast for awhile now. If I'd only known, we would have stopped and done some whale watching.

Day 356 - Trimmer

Today was an exhausting day. My fantastic parents came down and helped clean up my apartment and I packed like it was going out of style (it is). Although I had an opportunity to take a good shot before or after they left, I didn't think about it until right before I collapsed into bed. So I quickly searched for something and ended up with this (pretty shitty) shot of the blue trimming attachment on an electric shaver. I'm pretty disappointed in myself for "wasting" one of my last shots on something so dumb, but what can you do?