To Butt Dial or Not to Butt Dial...

Wouldn't it be nice if we actually had the option? But no, that's not how butt dialing works. It's completely out of our control. To date, I've had your basic every day interaction with butt dialing. The most traumatic experience I had was back in college (by that, I mean the first go around at college, since technically I'm still in college).

Anywho, this was about five years ago back on the East coast. I was down the hall in my friends' dorm. A bunch of us we're hanging out. I look down at my phone and realize it was calling my grandparents, no it was in the middle of a full on 3 minute conversation with them. No biggie right? Except that it was 2 am. Biggie!

My immediate reaction was to hit end and hit it again and again. Then I prayed. I prayed they hadn't heard the phone or that the connection didn't really go through or that maybe someone somewhere else in the world had butt dialed them at the same time and the calls cancelled each other out. God answered with D, none of the above (which He sometimes does as He has the right to). The next thing I know, my phone is ringing. Yup, they're calling me back. Crap.

Now, my grandparents are pretty cool people and I knew this incident wouldn't threaten their love for me, however I did fear for my likability numbers. My call to them had gone on for over a minute, which meant that likely, on their end, the phone rang, waking them from a peaceful slumber, forcing one of them to get out of bed to answer the phone, and scaring them half to death when they could hear me on the other end but I wasn't answering their “hello, hello's.”

I don’t particularly remember what happened after I answered, but five years later they still talk to me so I probably didn’t need to get as stressed out over the whole thing as I did.  In the years since, myself and my cousins are often at the other end of my grandfather’s butt dials, but that's another story for another day ;)

There have been several over the years, my favorite happened last year. I pocket dialed my cousin while he was in Florida. I was here in California and it was before midnight, meaning 3am for him. I had just concluded a probably somewhat inappropriate conversation with my friend and ended it by telling  her to “chug chug chug” her beer. I then looked down at my phone, realized I’d been on with my cousin for a good solid minute and fifty seconds, and thought, "wellll, he’s going to have an interesting voicemail when he wakes up."

So where am I going with all this? Well this morning, I received a phone call, at 4:30 A.M. There I was, fast asleep, in my cozy comfortable bed, dreaming of Blake Shelton taking off his... well dreaming, and all of a sudden Blake’s phone started ringing. Nope, dream ruined, it was my phone, and it was still dark out. My immediate thought was somebody died. My cell phone is off, my parents couldn't get me on it, so they're calling me on my apartment phone to tell me someone died. Crap.

I got out of bed and walked ALL the way to the other side of my apartment. (It’s not that far) I looked at the caller I.D. and temporarily relaxed because I knew I didn't have any Jewish relatives. I mean none that I currently know of. So in the process of 4 seconds, I decided whoever is on the end of this phone call is going to get it. It's 4:30 am you stupid solicitors. Usually they get the polite, “thanks but I'm not interested” Lauren. Today, they were not going to get that Lauren.

So I answer the phone and low and behold it was a......

Yup, a baby. A real life goo goo gagaing baby. I heard buttons get pushed, drooly giggles, and then, who I assumed to be, the parents react rather quickly when they realized their baby was playing with the telephone. They, of course, promptly hung up on me.

Immediately I added “get butt dialed by a baby” to my bucket list and then crossed it off. That counts right? I mean I’m sure if I had thought it up first it definitely would have been something I wanted to have happen. However, it did inspire ANOTHER addition to the list: Use my future baby to prank call people.

Xo,
Lauren

today, I was inspired by a pigeon...

Back to school leaves very little time for blogging.... I still owe you a little more of the Ohio trip.... in the interim this will have to tide you over....

So after a bit of a long and unusually hot day, I found myself on the way back to my apartment.  Class had gone well, but I had intended to stop at the Urgent Care to see if they could do something about my sinuses.  It took three unsuccessful trips up and down on the elevator for me to realize the Urgent Care was no longer where it had been before I went home for the summer. Well actually it took someone watching as I pushed Floor 3 several times with nothing happening to ask if I was lost, then direct me to the front desk with the new location of the Urgent Care... Turns out it had moved several blocks.

As that plan went up in smoke, I gave up, went back to school to fill out some paper work, grabbed a few necessities from Walgreens along with some take out from New Mings, and made my way to the school shuttle stop. Yesss, I could have walked... but it was another ten blocks and it was hotttt, so I succumbed to the air conditioning of the shuttle.  Well... I thought I was succumbing to the air conditioning of the shuttle, but once I actually got on and made my way to the only available seat way way way in the back, and sat down, I realized there was no air conditioning.

I finally made it to my stop and was quite eager to get home, when I came across a one footed pigeon hopping along on the sidewalk.  Believe it or not, this pigeon appeared happy.  I know how crazy that sounds, but it was with other pigeons doing pigeon things and it wasn't letting the fact that he or she only had one foot get it down.  I'd like to say I stopped and helped it out, but I was partly in shock and partly fascinated. I did stop myself from taking a picture because I felt that would be crossing some sort of line and definitely not respecting the pigeon.

I know we all get annoyed by pigeons.  I have this one particular memory of being in Disney with my family. Although the details are hazy, I can picture my grandmother's ice cream bar suddenly missing a large portion in the shape of an upside down triangle.  So that was traumatic for everyone involved.  However when you really think about it, I mean really, really think about it, we have it way better than pigeons and we shouldn't be so harsh with them.

And like my pigeon friend, who I've since decided was a male and have named Gus, it is important to not let the big things or the little things stop us from enjoying our lives.  The minute you start thinking about how you're having a bad day, remember there is someone out there having a worse one but making the best of it anyway.

I said before, I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of Gus, but I have since googled a picture of a footless pigeon (well technically this one is missing a leg too), just so you can get an idea of what the little guy was dealing with on the sidewalks of San Francisco.

Xo,
Lauren

... and then I saw this ...

I had a plan for spring break this year.  For the first time in a long time I’m staying home.  No airports, no planes, none of the inevitable getting sick after traveling, no crazy drunk spring breakers, just a little r&r and peace and quiet.  A little extra QT with God, reading, going to the parks, maybe the ocean, shopping, movies, catching up on my DVR shows that are piling up, practicing the guitar, and basically all the "San Francisco things" I never have time to do during school, are all on my list!

... and then I saw this video/article ...

A Major Earthquake in North America Imminent? - FOXBusiness.com

So maybe it wont be quite as quiet as I'd hoped?

xo,
Lauren

"Seriously?"

I have lots to catch up from the events of the last two weeks, but I have decided to devote this particular post, in part, to my mom.  (Mom, you can thank me later). My parents and grandparents recently visited me here in the city.  So recently that it's hard to believe they've already left, but I'll touch on time moving at a ridiculous pace in a later post.

This wasn't exactly a 100% relaxing vacation for them, in fact it was mostly a "lets get Lauren moved into her apartment" kind of a vacation.  We did however manage to squeeze in some fun here and there.  "There" happened to take place in Napa Valley where we were taken on a little tour.

The day started out pretty normal... we got picked up by the tour guide in San Francisco and made our way to Napa.  The day consisted of blue skies and the kind of gorgeous weather that makes you forget about the to do list piling up in the back of your mind.  Needless to say the winding drive through the hills and valleys on our way to wine country was nothing short of breathtaking.

Our first stop was Trefethen Family Vineyards.  Since this was my first go at a wine tasting I didn't really know what to expect so I let the "adults" take the lead.  Once inside, we made our way to the wine tasting room.  Now for the record, yes, I'm in college, yes, I've been in college for... a while, and yes, I've had my fair share of fun nights out, BUT this was the first time I'd had a drink... before noon!  With my parents and my grandparents!

I will say I didn't realize all this until afterwards.  I was more preoccupied with how I was going to "taste and spit" and still appear dignified with the inevitable wine dripping down my chin.  You can imagine my relief when it appeared the common practice was to taste, SWALLOW, and then dump (from your glass) the remaining amount of wine you no longer wished to ingest.

My relief and dignity was short lived when my mom pointed out my wine mustache a little later.

It was time for vineyard #2.  As we drove up I was too preoccupied with changing my socks (long uninteresting story) to notice what the guide was telling us.  If I had been paying attention, I would have heard him say we were arriving at none other than Francis Ford Coppola's vineyard, Rubicon.

As we piled out of the car we started to take in our surroundings.  It was truly spectacular, emulating a certain peacefulness that couldn't be easily duplicated.  The landscaping was meticulous.  We started walking towards the main building.  Before reaching it, we came to a smaller house with a sign stating it was the oldest in Napa and very much a historical site.  This is where it gets interesting (the part of this post devoted to my mom).

A man emerged from the front door.  I didn’t pay much attention... until he looked up.  Was I seriously standing just feet away from Francis Ford Coppola? Thats a big YUP!  It was at this point the previous conversation in the van about this being his vineyard started to find its way into my brain.

I ran a little a head to make sure my dad was seeing this when I hear clicking from behind me.  My first thought, “sweeet my mom is taking pictures, this is awesome.”  THEN I heard her say. “SERIOUSLY?” Out of the corner of my eye I could see Mr. Coppola standing in front of the house checking his blackberry (celebs really are just like us haha).  I knew without even looking that my mom was upset that this “man” was blocking her nice little shot of the house.  I turned around as he preceded to walk to his  car, get in and drive away.

No matter, my mom had pictures!  In complete and total excitement we made our way to the main building.  It was really beautiful and the Coppola family created a little museum    in the front entrance way, behind the stairs, and upstairs as well.  A bit of trivia for you, Rubicon is home to the first ever wine tasting room.  Some ship captain from way back in the day built it.  Anyways the experience was just incredible and the wine was quite tasty.  I enjoyed it a little more being that it was a little later in the day ;)  They also are on their game at Rubicon and served bread and cheese to go along with it.  They got an A+ because I had not had breakfast yet and it was going to be a little while before lunch.

Long story...longer... at some point, walking through the little museum I believe, I asked my mom about the picture of Mr. Coppola.  Her response went something like... “well you didn’t tell me it was him!”  (I will take absolute full responsibility for this)  Oookay long story short we are now the proud owners of a picture of Francis Ford Coppola’s lower half.  I will be adding it to this post later in the week.

I love that my family always has these kinds of stories.  Life is so fun and interesting with them... I’m sure a “Noraism” story will present itself in the near future as well.

xo,
Lauren