King Tut-n-common

King Tut probably would have gone the path of historical obscurity when he died at 19 , and was buried in the Valley of the Kings in the 1300's bc. He was only 9 when he took the throne.
His big accomplishments? He changes his name from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamen. He reverts back to monotheism, and a bunch of cults worship him as the God King. Then, 9 years later he bites the dust...
Over 3000 years later his tomb is discovered by a western archaeologist who has been digging for 4 years, on a hunch, to find it. He's pumped, though slightly disappointed that his lunch ticket isn't the most accomplished pharaoh. However, gold outshines history, and there was a looot of gold in that tomb.
Today, the contents of Tuts tomb, the only pharaoh's tomb found completely intact, are making the museum circuit, and I went with my fam see it at SF's De Young a few weeks ago.
My two cousins, Delfi and Frankie, are 9 and 11, so I already knew they'd be over this pretty fast. We got little radios that explain the exhibits and they were pumped about that.
"cshp. Hello. are you there?" "cshp. code red. cshp."
Then we were ushered in a mock tomb entrance to watch a movie about King Tut...When the lights came back on and we were shown into the exhibit, a series of rooms filled with articles from Tut's tomb preserved behind glass cases. The artifacts were really beautiful. A lot of the pottery was painted and glazed in a beautiful bright turquoise blue, a color that signifies life, and the boxes and masks were inlaid with gold and stones in intricate geometrical patterns. They created mini tombs to lay on the real tomb, so if the Pharaoh was feeling lazy he could send his mini spirit to do work in the afterlife for him. My favorite was a dark wood chair inlaid with gold, and woven on the seat. It looked like it was made a hundred years ago...I can't believe it held up so well for 3,000.
Room after room of artifacts and my cousins were getting antsy so we skimmed the last couple of rooms until we got the the end of the exhibit.
There......the Grand Finale! The Tomb of King Tut! ......Projected onto a white platform...wait what?!?!!? Man...we were jipped!
We spent the next hour looking at King Tut paraphernalia in the gift store which they seemed to enjoy a lot more. The kids wanted to buy their parents all kinds of stuff...pens, toys, their names in hieroglyphics. I'm sure their parents were ecstatic to get all these useful gifts. Frankie decided to get his mom a bag of stones. You can fill a bag with as many stones as will fit, for $4. So he stuffed that thing until it wouldn't close and they overflowed onto the counter when he was paying.
Finally we rounded up the gang, my aunt, uncle, cousins, and dad, and squeezed into the car to grab dinner.
A lovely day. Everyone enjoyed it. On the way back, Delfi remarked "Man that exhibit was soo fake."
Getting through to the children, one museum at a time.

Learning to Drive - Continued

...Wow, I'm bad at this. Just give me time...especially YOU--The guy tailgating me at this stoplight, on a HILL!...I'm shiiifffftttinnnggg!!!

My mom took me to Sacramento to pick up my brand new beater. I got a quick clutch lesson there and was let loose into the world to drive the 3 hours to Santa Cruz...alone! I didn't do so badly, though I only braked once in the entire first 100 miles because I didn't wan to have to shift. I kept praying that traffic would be clear on the infamous hwy 17...No go..As soon as I hit that winding one way hill of a highway the traffic stopped, I sighed, and proceeded to lurch up it. It was SO hot, I was sweating like crazy and holding onto the wheel for dear life...and finally, I lurched into my little parking spot, and lurched through my front door, and lurched onto the couch, where I fell asleep and had lurching little dreams. Well, the next month will be interesting. I feel like I'm 15 again except with accountability...Sounds terrible, doesn't it?
I think I'll borrow the automatic for just a few more days until I figure out how to drive the steep hill...and after I scope out all the flat spots where I work.

Learning to Drive the CLUTCH!

"I ain't got no car....and I can't drive stick...I only ever learned to drive automatiiiiicccc..."
This is the beginning of a blues song i just made up for myself...The raw emotions of a gal who crashed her car, can't fix it, and now has to learn to drive stick really fast so she can borrow someone else's car for a month! (my guitar gently weeps)
But, I'm actually really excited(no, not about the crash...)! I should have learned to drive stick years ago...
When I was 15 I picked up a few stick shifting skills...
I was on high school exchange in France and my host-mom, Martine, used to take me into the hills around Auvergne to go hiking. She loves to hike, and there are so many remote, beautiful spots in Puy de Dome. It was once an active volcano so the landscape is really green and the soil is rich. Geographically though, it's not so convenient, so the region of farmers was sort of left to itself.
We were coming back from a hike one day, driving on an empty little road that wrapped around a small vineyard, and Martine must've been in a daring kind of mood, because she asked me if I wanted to learn to drive. "Heck yeah!" my 15 yr. old self said to her in French (how do you say? heck oui?) I jumped in the driver's seat and took off...sputtering around the vineyard. I really felt like I was getting good (i was 15...so probably not), but I got nervous when I had to break and almost ran straight into another car , though being the cautious driver I was, I never really got over 10 mph...
That was the last time I touched a stick shift...
Ahh the memories...

So wish me luck! I hope I remember something, or driving in San Francisco is going to be a biaaattcch.

Sooouuuttthhh Ameeerrriiiicaaaa!

Time is flying by...In just a little over a month Brad and I will be flying into Lima, Peru to start our journey through South America, yeeeah!
We bought our tickets months ago, and I've been fighting the urge to even think about this trip. It didn't seem real, and it was so far away it was painful to even think about all those days of work ahead. But now it's already the end of July and I'm letting myself get excited...reeeally excited!
In this last little stretch of time before we leave, I'm trying to appreciate how comfy my bed is, the nice bathroom i use every day, the kitchen and farmers markets, my mom's garden, walking to the beach after dinner, and all the nice things I do everyday that seem mundane...Ok.. no, I'm lying, I'm not really doing all that every day, but I should, ya know? I really should...
As for planning...I've thought about visas, hostel reservations, bla bla bla, what clothes I'll bring (I'm not a machine-I need to plan my clothing situation carefully)

Brad's checked out every surfing destination south of the border. I'm researching adventures for the weary surfer's girlfriend who needs a break from chilling on the beach alone...again...for hours... I have a feeling that won't be a problem...mwa ha ha...well I'll probably just visit museums, and markets, and toodle around like I always do...Watch out Peru!

I think I'll have a countdown before I go, and every day post a really boring picture of my life so that all the pictures I post from South America will look 10x more exciting and beautiful. Then, I'll look back while I'm down there and really appreciate that I'm not home at that moment. Who's in?!