Week 3-Marin County

So my dad has been pushing me to start looking for 'real' jobs and keeps sending me all these links for really boring job openings, but this week he sent me one for a film company intern in San Rafael.  I decided to go check out the San Rafael/Marin County Area to see what I thought and if I wanted to stay up here to work.

This much I already knew-I work in Marin County and I effing hate the customers that come into my work.  Not because they are rich-I have no problem with rich people. Buster and I are actually on the hunt for a rich old dude I can marry that gives me stuff and let's me do whatever I want. It's the snobby entitlement that rich people have that is so aggravating and Marin County is FULL of them.

But it has it's upsides too, like it's environmental beauty.  So when my friend Oliver called me to go hiking at the Marin resovior to see some waterfalls I was down.  I asked him if Buster could come and he said of course...What he should have said was no, this is an impossible hike for a chihuahua.  Thanks Oliver.

We ended up carrying Buster the majority of the time, mostly because this dog hates being wet and being that we wer basically climbing up a huge waterfall, everything was wait.  So that was awesome.  I was hungover during this hike so the snickers we got from other passing hikers at the sight of small chihuahua on this hike were no where near appreciated.  But it was pretty, I'll give it that much.

We went to Sol Food in downtown San Rafael after the hike, where Buster got a lot of positive attention, oohs and aaahs, and pets.  Oliver and I, who were caked with mud and looked liked he had just hiked to hell and back got a lot negative attention like "Ew, who are these dirty people making Marin look ugly." Let me tell you, all that plastic surgery makes you look ugly too, women of Marin. 

Sol Food was delicious and as we walked back to the car, Buster still licking garlic plantains off his lips, a large old man came up to me asking for a dollar for the bus, he only need just 1 please.  He was the nicest person we had encountered all day so I gave it to him and as he smiled and slipped it into his pocket I caught side of at least an 1/8 of marijuana in his coat pocket.  Bus fare my ass.

I hate you Marin.

Join Buster and I next week at we head to Lake Tahoe.  We'll try to remember our camera this time.

Week 2-Richmond, Pacific East Mall

There are several reasons I am happy that Buster is a Chihuahua and not a Great Dane or some other huge beast of a dog. (Additionally there are some reasons that I’m unhappy he’s a Chihuahua but we’ll get to those eventually).

First off, he’s small. When he was a puppy I would stick him in my sweatshirt pocket while I went grocery shopping and he would pop his head out every now and then-which was good, because then it looked more like there was just a puppy in my pocket and less like I had a stomach tumor.

Second of all he’s cute. This let’s us get away with a lot more, like taking him places that I know dogs aren’t allowed to be in. But small and cute is a winning combination. It’s like Buster is the Jessica Simpson of dogs-he’s talentless but people still like him because he’s blonde. So I take him to the movies in my purse, or to Forever 21, or the Pacific Mall in Richmond to go get some Vietnamese food.

Let me start off by saying I don’t spend much time in Richmond. Or any, really, I just go over the bridge on my way to Berkeley and grumble about having to pay $5 on my way home. That’s mostly because it’s one of the most dangerous cities in California, right after Oakland. But when one of my co-workers, Callan (who is small and blonde and basically resembles my dog), invited me to try pho for the first time, I wasn’t going to say no based on mere location.

Callan gets off the sketchiest exit ever that looks like a road that heads out and drops off in the middle of the bay. Some how a city emerges and she pull up to what looks like a mall. She didn’t explain that she was taking us to a completely Asian mall in order to get this food. And by completely Asian, I mean we were the only ones speaking English in the whole place. In addition to sushi restaurants, Sanrio shops, and a 99 Ranch market where you can pick out your very own live fish from a tank in the back and have them kill it right in front of you (hey at least you know it’s fresh), there is also an over 18 club complete with karaoke in this mall. It was hopping too because everyone was puking outside of it.

As racist as it sounds I was beginning to have qualms about having brought Buster. My uncle told me a story about a Chinese restaurant in Petaluma that got shut down because they served dog and cat in the back. Not that there’s much meat on Buster but he’s small and probably easy to skin if you really wanted to try.

But he’s surprisingly obedient when he wants to be and took a nap in my bag while we ate the most delicious pho ever. I don’t recommend going there if you are vegetarian however-it took about 10 minutes to explain that I would not like any meat in my dinner, thank you and once it came it still had meat in it. I just gave it to Buster.

After dinner we went to go get bubble tea. Ah, bubble tea. One of the few reasons I miss living in Orange County. You can only get it where there is a large Asian population (read-not Sonoma County) and as far as I know, Richmond is the closest place. Damn it. If you’ve never had it, stop reading this and go get some now because it is delicious. The menus are always extensive and no matter the combination it’s always amazing. I fed a boba ball to Buster (I hid him again though-Buster boba could be a new thing) and he wasn’t such a fan, but if you go I recommend the Thai ice tea with small boba.

Bottom line: do not bring small dogs to large Asian malls. I mean overall it was cool. What other mall can you get sushi, go clubbing, sing karaoke, get your hair cut, buy clothes, and go grocery shopping all in one place? But everyone who saw him wanted to eat him or dress him up like Hello Kitty, neither of which either of us was really interested in participating in. So Richmond isn’t for us. But I think we already knew that.

I love it here.

I never thought I’d be THAT girl. You know, the girl with small yippy dog that she has simply must take everywhere, and always gushes over –and to round out the stereotype, I’m a blonde.

But that’s what I’ve turned into, although in my defense it was not by choice.  A boyfriend of mine rescued Buster in San Francisco during the Giants Parade back in 2010 when they won the series (hence the name-Buster Posey).  I can’t say I really wanted Buster, but his undeniable cuteness grew on me and despite threats from my mother of impending homelessness I kept him.  He’s too big now to carry around in my sweatshirt pocket, (although how big can a Chihuahua/Pomeranian mix really get?) so I bought him a seat belt and he’s my current travel companion.

We drive around California visiting friends, exploring different areas, sometimes for the day, sometimes for the week.  We call Petaluma Point A and the rest of the state Point B.  Although Sonoma County is home base it’s not the most thrilling of places to live and Buster is a pretty big thrill seeker so we have to get out often. While Petaluma has been good to me for the past 20 or so years and to Buster for the single year of his existence, it's time to move on and we are in search of a place to relocate after this spring.  California will always be home but with so many awesome place in the state we are trying to explore all our options. All we know is we want to go someplace warm because we hate the cold (let's face it, at least one of us come from Latino heritage, we're just not bred for the cold of the Bay Area).

Buster loves long walks on the beach, chasing birds in the backyard and hiking. He completed climbing Mt. Tam this past summer.  His other interests include begging for human food and humping small children when he helps me babysit.  My interests include no longer being a college student and trying to avoid speeding tickets. We’ll see where the semester takes us.