Chaos Attraction

First Day in Santa Cruz

2016-12-20, 11:13 p.m.

So on Monday I went to Santa Cruz to visit Meg. I was pretty nervous about doing this because of having to worry about how to get there. Highway 17 (the one direct route, over the mountains) is only reachable by cars and busses, and Mom is already freaked about me driving in mountains anyway and Highway 17 is what, the third worst road in California or something like that? I admit even I wasn’t super thrilled at the idea of driving it, and that was before I was reading the warnings about driving there in winter. Not to mention this morning’s news report when I was getting ready at 6-whatever a.m. about there’s already been two accidents on Highway 17 due to black ice.

Anyway...since I was leaving from the East Bay rather than where I usually live, I ended up taking the ACE commuter train, which I had not know about previously, but it goes through town and as far as San Jose, dropping off at their transit station where I could catch a bus to Santa Cruz from there. I was pretty nervous about this and I think I was kind of right to be because (a) I tend to be an idiot on new forms of public transport I haven’t used before and (b) despite being all, “Look, this is my first time doing this, what do I do?” I ended up not hearing that I was supposed to put my ticket into some kind of ticket checker and was politely told on the train it’s something like a $10k fine (what?!) for not doing that. But it was my first time and I was a clueless noob, so she marked me off for that. I’ll have to find this ticket checker thing next time.

I did manage to find enough room to stash my luggage by my feet (of which I sadly had to bring a lot because tons of warm sweaters take up way too much room in a bag), so there was that, and I read/knit on the way over. I did manage to find the bus to SC right off because it was right in front, but was confused on where one bought a ticket--apparently you have to have the exact right amount of cash to get on. Which I had this time, but I’ll have to make some change before I return.

I made it over the mountains safely, no black ice, I’m here, huzzah. The guest room is lovely, Meg’s house is kind of a jungle, I am currently writing up entries while she does some kind of hippie counseling session with a friend of hers (that’s fine, I did show up at a weirder time than expected). More later.

(continued.....)

So in the afternoon we hung out talking about crafting stuff, making a list of things to do. I brought my loom that I bought at Dickens Fair and she helped me set it up and learn how to do it. (Not too hard without the giant machine.) We talked about her possibly starting to do a sweater for the first time out of her handspun yarn.

We went to the beach in Davenport with her dog and let the dog run around and have some fun, picked up some seashells, sea glass, and rocks with natural holes in them. We briefly went to a yarn store, where I found two small balls of chunky-ish rainbow mochi yarn.

After dropping off the dog, we picked up Meg’s husband and we went to Pacific Avenue and went in various hippie stores and bookstores. I got two books, “Sweater Design in Plain English” (figure Meg can take advantage of that one while I’m here) and a book on being female and trying to combat online harassment (sigh...I didn’t want to buy that but someday that will be necessary, won’t it?). We went out to a Mexican restaurant, then went home and Meg and I talked about more craft stuff. I picked up a lot of free magazines while I was out and added to my list of things to do and go to from that.


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