It's beginning to feel like Winter

For all of you who already think we are freezing our asses off...well we will be shortly. It has actually been pretty warm lately, near 80 with humidity. In the past week though it is definitely starting to get cold. It is already like San Diego in December, but apparently it is suppose to be 75 this weekend. I wish the weather man would stop teasing us. Either get cold or stay warm!

So things in CT have been good. My mom came and visited last week. She thought it was nice scenery here, but that the people are a bit off. She understands why every time I go to the grocery store I need to make a drink after. (I'm not kidding, I get that stressed out!) It was great having her here...Jeremy really loved it because he got to eat something different from salad for dinner.

We went to NYC and were on the search for the best black and white cookies. We thought the best one we had that day was from a place called Juniors. Why is the black and white cookie so good? Seinfeld was really onto something. Maybe we need to be on the lookout for marble rye as well. One thing not to get while in NYC would be a pretzel. Jeremy & my mom were on a missing to try food from the food carts. I tried a bit of the hard, cold pretzel and found a hair in my piece. The warm almonds from the card were mighty good and a steal of a deal. I think they were $2 for a bag.

We did almost get killed by a semi-truck getting on to the freeway. I'm not joking. I don't understand why truck drivers are so insane here. They are either riding you tail like white on rice or pass you going 85. SCARY! We made it ok, I just had to drive in the shoulder of the road for about a half mile.

Jeremy and I also thought it would be a good idea to drive to Queens after dropping my mom off at JFK. We were wrong. We thought drivers in CT were bad. New York was insane. I was fearing for my life at every turn. Why do the rules of the road mean nothing to the people here? I did like Queens, it was alot less tourist, although we ate at the most absurd French restaurant with Carla and Phin. We actually got into a fight with the waiter and manager. They told us that just to sit at their table was $15 and that no one is allowed to just order appetizers. It is a really long story, but that was basically the gist of it. The manager yelled at us and told Carla that she had never eaten at their other restaurant. It was quite comical and unbelievable all at the same time. After that we did hit up this really cool bar that was like Germany at Octoberfest. All in all in was a good night after we de-stressed from the drive in.

Also, getting to JFK was not bad. Talking to people from here you would have thought that we would have been in traffic for 5 hours. Obviously these people have never been to LA and have no real concept of traffic. Even going around the airport wasn't bad. The San Diego airport has more traffic than the Jet Blue terminal at JFK.

Since it is October we are starting to get into Halloween. We carved a pumpkin this weekend while watching a couple of scary movies....Pumpkin Head and Cabin Fever. Both solidified my hate for scary movies. I seriously felt nauseous after Cabin Fever, it was so gross & bloody, although it was kinda fun to laugh at. With lines like "He asked us for our help and we lit him on fire" and "Why would you shoot a squirrel?" ..."because they are gay."

Anyways,here is s a picture of our little guy on the drive home. His name is Jack and when he gets excited his smile just lights up!

I did see the funniest thing this weekend while driving to the gym. This lady was walking on the sidewalk with one of those baby carriers on the front of her chest, but instead of a baby being in the carrier....her dog was. Seriously!!! Get a leash!!! And they say people in LA are bad.

On a side note, I would also like to address all of the people who said that they thought I was from the East Coast. I am deeply offended. After being here for almost exactly two months, I do not see ANY correlation between myself and the people in New Haven. Except for the fact that I am not blonde. If any of you would like to discuss this more, you know who you are and you know my number.

Onto more happenings in our life....

While walking home from watching The Darjeeling Limited, Jeremy and I almost got our butts kicked by some kids on bikes. We were just crossing the street when this gang of 13 year olds almost ran us over on their bikes. Jeremy stared the one kid down and they yelled some obscenities. I cannot describe the look this one kid had on his face. I think if he had a gun he would have shot us. Jeremy claims he would have crushed the kid, but I didn't really want to chance it since he had his posse with him and Jeremy just had me. I mean...I have been working on my guns, but I'm not sure I could fight some 13 yr old kids and win. Sad, but true.

Yes. We do live in a bit of the ghetto. This has proven it. Along with the bums telling my mom she was pretty and asking her to give them money. New Haven is definitely a strange place.

We are still on the hunt for a kitchen table. The tag sales are proving to be, how do you say, terrible. Maybe they should try having garage sales, you know, having enough stuff on your lawn to fill a garage, not one table on a street corner.

Well, I think that is about it for now. Here are some pictures of the area, along with some from our trip to NYC with my mom.

My place of employment...Casey Family Services

In FAO Schwartz playing the piano from Big

Jeremy and my mom eating a slice in NYC

Starting our day off on the train to NYC with a little love from Dunkin Donughts

Ready for a carriage ride in Central Park

The view of the street that we live on

The colors are starting to change. It must be fall!

One of the buildings at Yale

Another Yale Building

That is the Schacalieu update for the week!! Hope you enjoyed!

All settled...Finally!

I have had multiple requests for pictures of our place. Well, the day for pictures is finally here. I was holding off because the place was still a wreck with about 6 boxes left in the living room. After a final trip (well...really two trips) to IKEA to purchase a TV stand, bookshelf, and file cabinet...our new apartment can now be shared! This weekend Jeremy worked hard constructing our new furniture, and we hung curtains and pictures. The apartment is now beginning to feel like home. Here are the pics....

So there you have it, the living room, office/eating area, and kitchen. We still need to acquire a table and chairs....hopefully soon! There is a bedroom and a bathroom, but I didn't take pictures.

Along with finally getting our place furnished, I started my new job on Monday!! The first week went really well. I am working at Casey Family Services (a non-profit agency that deals with foster care programs). Right now it is just a temp position, but I am hoping it will turn into a full time job or give me some good connections. I am doing administrative work along with helping to plan conferences. All I can say is that any company with a delicious coffee machine and free/water & sodas is A-OK in my book!

Now onto the weather...

The weather was beginning to change to Fall earlier this week. At night we were down in the 40s and mid 60s during the day, but it heated up this weekend to 80. Let me just tell you...we are NOT prepared for Winter. I went for a run on Wednesday morning in my "winter" running clothes. These running garments were resesrved to December through January (maybe February) in San Diego. I have no idea what to do when it actually starts to get really cold.

I am judging that it is starting to turn to Fall by one tree in front of our house. Some of the leaves are already turning red and orange. I am excited to see Fall, if that one tree is any indication it should be breathtaking.

I did purchase two full length jackets at TJ Maxx this weekend. I couldn't decide which one would be better, so I bought both. One is a wool jacket and the other one resembles the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man. Jeremy had a great time standing there watching me. The look on his face was one of pure retail loathing. I wasn't planning on buying a jacket when it was 80 degrees outside, but I want to be prepared!!!

That is all the new haps in New Haven for now! Hope you all had a fabulous weekend!

Liquor, radio stations, and snakes....Oh My!!!

So this blog is kinda ragging on New Haven, but after this, I think we have found all the oddities of this place.

First up....The Liquor Wars.

All Californians...please take a moment to thank your lucky stars that you are able to go to any local Ralphs, Albertsons, or convenience store and purchase beer, wine, and liquor.

I need a moment of silence. Alas, that freedom has been taken away from Jeremy and I. Not that I usually buy large amounts of alcohol or make it a priority to drink on Sunday...but shouldn't I have the choice. Connecticut is another state (like Utah & Colorado) that still have blue laws enforced. If you didn't know, blue laws are "a type of law designed to enforce moral standards, particularly the observance of Sunday as a day of worship or rest. Most have been repealed or are simply unenforced, although prohibitions on the sale of alcoholic beverages and occasionally almost all commerce, on Sundays are still enforced in many areas. Blue laws often prohibit an activity only during certain hours and there are usually exceptions to the prohibition of commerce, like grocery and drug stores. In some places blue laws may be enforced due to religious principles, but others are retained as a matter of tradition or out of convenience." Wow! Doesn't seem like these laws are ridiculous and outdated!


In addition to the inconvenience of needed to plan ahead, in New Haven they don't believe that my ID is real. Story time! So...last weekend, we had a lovely day in Branford at the "beach". I put that in quotations because the "beach" had no waves and had boats docked extremely close to shore. Anyhoo, after a day at the beach, a group of us decided to make dinner, so we went to the store to get some food and beer. I said that I would buy the beer and when I got up to the register, I gave the checker my ID and she said I wouldn't be able to buy the beer. I was bewildered! What? We had to call the manager and then I was able to make the purchase. My ID was also questioned when I was buying some wine at the liquor store and the guy asked me if my ID was really a real California ID. I almost started laughing and wanted to invite him outside to look at my license plates. I can tell that this is going to be a problem for all of our years here, since I never plan on getting a CT license.

Now onto...Radio Stations

Right now, one of the things I am missing most about San Diego and California in general is the variety of great radio stations. Radio stations have themes in California. You have oldies, rock, alternative, classical, pop...you get the idea. Here in good ole CT the radio stations are SO random. One moment you are listening to a White Stripes song, so you think you have found an alternative rock station, but then Celene Dion comes on. WHAT? Of course, you don't want to listen to Celene so you change the station, you find what you think is 80's, but then comes Shania Twain. AHHH! The insanity!!! The sheer madness of it all!!! Why does no station follow any kind of format? The only station that seems to have a theme is the oldies station. Basically, there is not one radio station worth listening to and we are no longer hearing any new, current music. Now, this isn't a big problem when we are at home because we can stream Internet radio, but in the car....ugh, words cannot describe the frustration.

Last but not least...A party with snakes?

Saturday seemed to begin normally.... We were invited to a block party, so we went to the store to pick up supplies for skip n' go naked juice. The block party was fun and everyone was enjoying our special juice. Once the block party was over we all decided to stop by a party that a grad student in the biology department was throwing. Now, when you think house party...what do you think of? Close your eyes, let's get a visual of what is typical of this kind of party. People talking, music playing, cheese and crackers sitting out, dancing? Well my friends, none of that compares to this house party!!! In your visual did you picture people sitting and talking and holding snakes???? Yes, that's right snakes!!! When you walked in the door to the house party, did you picture yourself smelling a funk? Was the funk the pee/poop of a snake? NO I DON'T THINK SO!! Normal people don't have a party like this. This guy took us on a tour of this room that was filled with snakes and if that wasn't enough....tarantulas!!! Jeremy shot across the room when that little guy was pulled out. I swear, this was the weirdest party of my life. At least all of the people we went there with thought that it was the weirdest party ever, so that must mean that they are normal and did not expect it to be a hands on biology party.

I know this blog has been filled with gripes, but I really don't know what else I can gripe about after all of this. Nothing can beat the strange snake souiree!!! Next up....it's getting chilly...I have a new job...1 more trip to IKEA should finish off the apartment!

Adios Amigos!!

Weekend Update

I hope you all had fun labor day weekends. Jeremy and I managed to keep ourselves busy. It weather was really nice, although I hear that in CA it is hot, hot, hot! Thankfully it was pretty mellow here with a nice breeze and NO humidity! Thank goodness!

So friday night we met up with some of Jeremy's fellow students for drinks and dinner to celebrate one of the students defending his thesis and officially becoming a PhD. The margaritas were flowin' and it was nice to be out and about.

Saturday was a big day for me because I got to go to a spin class at the gym. Yeah! I joined Bally's for a month to try it out. I've been running and cycling around town, but I have totally been missing the gym and spinning classes! It was great, except I was the only one in the class. Hopefully on Tuesday when I go again, there will be some other people there. After my trip to the gym we had plans to go into Branford, a town about 5 minutes away, to check out Branstock. We had read about Branstock in the local paper and it sounded fun...a day of bands, booths, and fun. But upon our arrival to Branstock, we got the feeling that maybe this wasn't going to be a day of fun. The town of Branford was really cute and nice looking. Branstock however, was another matter. It looked as if everyone there had stepped out of the "Smells like teen spirit" Nirvana video. Not kidding, it was the town that grunge forgot. The band onstage was a bunch of high school students, they were ok, but once they were done the WWF style wrestling began. There was also a couple of sad tag sales going on. For those of you west-coasters, a tag sale is the word over here for garage or yard sale. Basically, there wasn't much to do and the wrestling was humerous, but really terrible. We decided to stick it out until the reggae band came on, but that proved to be a waste of time. We left after the second song. All in all, Banstock was great for people watching, but I don't think we will be attending next year.

Sunday we started out on our trip to visit Phin and go sailing, but a stop at Dunkin Donuts needed to be made in order to get us ready to brave the CT drivers. If you don't know, Dunkin Donuts is huge out here. There are more Dunkin Donuts than Starbucks if that puts it into perspective. The slogan of the dominant donut chain is "America runs on Dunkin" and let me tell you I am becoming a believer! Let's change that to "Schacalieu runs on Dunkin." It is some yummy, yummy coffee. Don't know about the donuts though, if you know me, you know that I do not eat that kind of fried goodness.

Sailing with Phin and Carla was great! It was a really nice day, could have been a bit more windy, but it was still fun. It took a while for Phin to get the motor started, some technical difficulties, but once it started, it was full steam ahead. Phin gave us some lessons on what we needed to do and now I know that port side means left and starboard means right. I also got to steer the ship, which was lots of fun. I'm steering and saluting at the same time in the picture! Jeremy learned how to tie a knot. No one lost their cookies (although I think all of us at one point felt a little sick) or fell overboard. Here are some more pics of the day.

This is Phin starting the motor, this was pretty much his position for about 30 minutes before we left the harbor.

It was really beautiful out there. We were sailing around the Long Island Sound. It was really cool that you could see the New York Skyline from out there!

After sailing, it was time for relaxing. We watched Steel Magnolias, which wasn't a good idea because I was bawling!!! I have no idea why Jeremy agreed to watch it with me, he just kept laughing at my crying.

Yesterday was labor day, so no work! For me that really means nothing right now though. I started out the morning with a nice little run and then we went downtown and checked out the 20K race that was going on. If I had known about it before and had money to spare I would have trained and registered, but I was just a spectator this time. Probably a good idea since my knee has been bugging me. After the race we relaxed at home and then got ready for a BBQ at Jeremy's professor's house. It was a nice little party with a lot of great food. We brought the famous 7-layer bean dip. Oh, little known fact about CT...refried beans do not exist! I about had a fit in the grocery store. The only ones we could find was refried black beans and there was only one kind. There is no rhyme and reason to the grocery store here....there were olives placed in 3 different aisles!!! Ugh, don't get me started, we were so frustrated!!! But I digress.... Once the night got movin'...the guitars and bango's got pulled out. Yes, Jeremy's professor is an awesome banjo player! It was a fun party, we got to mingle some more with the other students and professors.

Today is Jeremy's first day of school. No....I didn't take a picture because he did not pick out a special outfit. So, hopefully that is going well and he is learning all about what is in store for him.

Peace out!

First Impressions of New Haven

We have been in New Haven a total of 11 days so far and aside from being totally different from California (as expected), we are learning alot about the East Coast.

If you didn't know, it is pretty historical out here. New Haven, also know as Elm City because the first settlers planted lots of elms, was founded in 1638. The Amistad trial took place here and it was considered one of the first towns because it had a plan. That plan consists of the city being built around a green, which most of the towns around here duplicate. What is a green you ask? Well, it is basically just a big square with grass. People hang out there, on the green in New Haven there is 3 churches surrounding it.

What you may not know about New Haven and Connecticut in general is that people are crazy drivers. People decide to straddle lanes for miles, merging is a totally foreign concept, and I basically fear for my life every time I get into the Saturn. Now, I know what you must be thinking...but Angela, you're from California and have lived in LA, that's where the crazy drivers are. Oh, contrare monfrair!! In LA it is a controlled insanity....people drive crazy, but you can predict it, you know what is going to happen. Here....it is just insanity. Another thing that makes driving difficult out here is that they apparently don't belive in hanging street signs where the signals are. You are really lucky if here is a street sign anywhere at all. You just kinda have to guess or piss off people when you realize you need to be turning right because you just noticed the tiny highway 1 sign way to the right of the road, not visible unless you are the first car at the light. One more thing about driving, there is rarely a on and off ramp at the same exit. You think that if you head towards the highway you can get on going either direction, No you fool! It isn't so.

Aside from the driving hassles, the people seem to be pretty nice and welcoming. For instance we went to Wallmart to pick up some necessities and the checker woman is going off (in her brooklyn type accent) that so-and-so told her that she had to ask her when she needed to go to the bathroom and she didn't need to listen to her, she just got out of the hospital the other day, and she can go to the bathroom when she wants and she is going to take this up with the management. Seriously, she was talking about this to the lady in front of us and to us. But seriously, the people do seem to be nice and extremely nerdy. What can you expect though...we are up the street from Yale. I think I should start selling pocket protectors, fo' sho!

These 11 days have been spent exploring New Haven and CT in general. There is a nice running trail just down the street from our place that goes around a lake and I took a nice bike ride on another trail today. There are tons of trees here! The humidity is taking some getting use to, but hey~ I figure I can bring sexy back even while sweating and having fro-ey hair! We went up to Mystic, CT on Saturday and ate at Mystic Pizza. The pizza was really yummy...the sauce really is spectacular!

Other than that, I have been applying to jobs like a mad woman. I have put out so many resumes I don't even remember where I have sent them anymore. We have also been searching for a good grocery store. Trader Joes here just isn't quite the same, and there is no Whole Foods! AHHH! What am I going to do? I don't know, I had a mini panic attack, but I think I will pull through. I have no money to buy food anyways. We did go to a gigantic store that was out of the way, but pretty awesome. It is called Stew Leonards, I think it's a big deal around here, it's the largest dairy farm according to Ripley's Believe it or Not. It was kinda like Disneyland, the corn and milk statues sang songs....that resembled It's a Small World for sure! They had really good produce though, something that we totally take for granted out in Cali. I almost cried when we went to the normal grocery store and I saw the lettuce for the first time.

We also got internet and cable hooked up. One week too late though...sadly we missed the season finale of So You Think You Can Dance. I seriously almost cried then!!! Good thing the beers with Jeremy's fellow students kept us occupied. Don't worry, I got filled in on all the haps.

Oh! Some breaking New Haven news from this weekend. It's pretty funny actually. The Hash House Harriers, the drinking group with a running problem (they put on the red dress run in SD), well they were marking a trail for a race and decided to go through the Ikea parking lot and people mistook it for a bioterrorist scare and the entire Ikea was evacuated. They were marking the trail with arrows made out of flour on the concrete. Here is the artice....big news! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20441775/

So all in all, New Haven is pretty nice (well except for the outskirts...that's where the ghetto is...Jeremy swears he saw the aftermath of someone getting capped), but it's going to take a while getting use to going South on the highway and having the ocean be on our left hand side. Too weird!

The trip of a lifetime?

Well, for those of you who don't know....we made it to New Haven!


Let me re-cap a little bit of the trip for you. Jeremy and I drove a 16ft Budget truck complete with car carrier 2,901 miles...coast to coast. (well, actually Jeremy drove the whole way, he wouldn't let me drive) Although most people go from East to West, we just had to be difficult and go the opposite way.

So at 4am on a lovely Friday morning, we set off into the dark. Jeremy was sweating, hoping he wouldn't crash the truck or lose my car from the carrier. I was crying. That lasted about 2 hours before I passed out from tear duct exhaustion. When I awoke we were almost to Stateline..things were going smoothly as we passed into Nevada...then....trouble!


A nice couple in an RV signaled to us that something was wrong with our truck and we should pull over. Oh shit! So, we get out of the truck and we see smoke billowing from our car carrier. Awesome! Jeremy starts to freak and I see it in his eyes that we should just turn around...this has to be a sign. I get on the phone with Budget and we make it to a gas station.


Long story short, we got the car carrier changed out in Vegas and it was smooth sailing from there on out. We passed the time with our "clipboard of fun"~kudos to mamacita! So as we played license plate bingo and crosswords the miles just flew by.


On our trip we listned to alot of NPR, oldies, and my fabulous singing! The NPR was great along with the spectacular views of corn fields to lull me to sleep. About every 30 minutes I was nodding off. We stopped in Cheyenne for a day and saw the sights. Thanks Rene & Doug for entertaining us with a tour of their new abode furnished with the most beautiful red and gold carpet I have ever seen!



After Cheyenne we were ready for Chi- Town. But, before Chicago we really got into corn country. Besides seeing fields and fields of corn, where you could almost hear the whiperings of "If you build it they will come" I asked Jeremy..."Is this heaven?" to which he replied, "No, it's Iowa." Besides seeing corn and pondering life, wealso got hit with the knowledge bomb that Kool Aide originated in Nebraska. Kool!



So we finally made it Chicago and found a place to park the truck. Only one tree was scarred in the process. Melinda took us sightseeing and we saw "The Bean."





If you have not been to Chicago and seen this beautiful piece of art, put it on your life list. It will entertain you for at least a half hour. Amazing! Jeremy entertained himself flicking the bean and laughing about it for at least 3 minutes.






We have also checked off "seeing Wrigley Field and take a picture in front of the sign" from our life list. Chicago was awesome and it was great to have a couple of days out of the truck.



Then we had to get back to reality and get in the truck again. We almost made it through Pennsylvania, but couldn't take it anymore. That is a really long state. So we headed to the Comfort Inn just in time for "So you think you can dance." Perfect end to a 14 hour day of driving.



The next morning we woke up and were excited that this would be our last few hours of driving. We were really excited, but the though of moving all of our stuff up 3 flights of stairs didn't seem all that appealing. We made it to New Haven, Thursday the 16. The drive was over! Moving up the stairs wasn't too bad. It was humid, but anything was better than driving another 14 hours. With all of our stuff in our new apartment, we had one last task...return the Budget truck. We would no longer be truckers, which entailed waking up at 4am, drinking endless cups of horrible coffee, and navigating highway 80. A tinge of sadness crept into our hearts, but was diminished after a hassle of driving through narrow one way streets in New Haven and dropping it off at the Ikea parking lot.



The trip was officially over. We were now in New Haven. The next week was filled with unpacking, getting to know the area, and cursing Connecticut drivers. More on that in the next post....