The Rest of Our Lives Will Be Just Like Christmas

Merry, Merry my friends.

Obligatory music video to follow. You guys all know that I l.o.v.e. Frightened Rabbit. What a special treat, I might even say a Christmas miracle, that he has this tune. We did a White Christmas themed radio show last night. Yep, we did our show on Christmas. It was really fun actually. Last year, we went skiing on Christmas. This year, KWVA. Next week, first show of 2011, I will be flying solo, as DJPJ will be setting up for the second annual New Year's Day Funk n' Balls performance. I'm pretty sure the radio show'll be themeless. So anyway, because just about everyone I know had a white christmas (some first the first times in their lives. Come on you weather controlling aliens, I know my Montanans and New England folks will make me jealous, but Tennessee, really?) I thought we could give ourselves one. Musically, anyway.

Frightened Rabbit - Best Christmas Song Of All Time

I hope all your Christmasses were as lovely as mine. I had the best of both worlds because I was lucky enough to go see momma, papa and brother bird and still get home in time for the actual day with my man.
Check out what I got for Christmas...... drumroll... bbbbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmm....

...


....


.....


......

Look how fast my hands are moving... you can't even see the sticks!

Just call me Pigeon White. Maybe one day I'll be good enough to play with a pseudo-brother-guitar-god, creating one of the best rock combos of all time because I can play just as well as some sixth grader practicing in his garage. Just kidding, Meg, I think you're great. Really. And, while you're listening to me, how about getting over that stage fright and getting back on the road?
How does someone get stage fright AFTER years of touring? I'm just sayin...

AND I'M JUST KIDDING about getting the drums. I don't get to keep them, but I did get to play them. These drums are on loan from Brad. The aforementioned FnBs have been practicing here and leaving their equipment much to my, and my dog's, delight. Actually, I am not sure if Floyd is delighted or absolutely terrified... you be the judge.

Goes berserk to the beat of the drum

Back to the reality. As you may know, Florida is a great place for birdwatching. And, as you may also know, my relationship with birds is a complicated one. But I partook in: 

Some owl stalking, although we were careful to not molest the birds in any way, in accordance with the posted warnings. 

Well, that's my mom, but I was there too. 

It was a two hour drive to see this guy. Each way.

Totally worth it. I am being serious. 

Plus, the route guidance took us through a Wal-Mart parking lot to get there. It doesn't get much better than that.

In bigger bird news, we went to Jungle Gardens.

Birds Galore.

I saw some flamingos.

I fed a flamingo. 

OH EM GEE.

Scared for my life at this point. 

As you can see, I was not able to look directly at the bird while feeding.

Photo credit: Mom (good job getting the shot while convulsing with laughter)

I actually was *ok* until a big duck snuck up behind me and pecked my leg. That was the end of that. In other animal encounter news, my parents' "foster dog" Ernesto bit me. I honestly don't think I have ever been bitten by a dog before. Ernie is a fiery one. I can't say I was too sad to see him go back to his original foster person due to repeated bitings. My parents are getting a new one in a couple weeks, Atari. I named it. 

Just to finish up with the animal adventure section of this post, I met my brother's pride and joy, Winston Thelonious Monk.

This is a real cat.

And this is after I cleaned the eyes. And check out my ring! Instant classic. 

Photo credit: Brother (again, good job getting the shot while convulsing with laughter)

This is what xmas trees look like down on the gulf coast. Beautiful. 

We went to several movies, tis the season (for Oscars, hello). 

The Tourist: Great, fun little movie. Can you go wrong with Johnny Depp? No, you can't. Especially in cute cotton pjs. 

The Social Network: I felt really excited to see this one, because I have been reading about Zuckerberg for years in Fast Co. and Business Week and such. Great movie, great dialog... I liked it a lot, but what are all these people saying it was the best movie of the year? 

The Fighter: Great, intense movie. Can you go wrong with Marky Mark Wahlberg? Can you go wrong with Christian Bale? No, of course not. And, being born and partially raised in New England, I kind of don't believe that Bale isn't really from Lowell. My dad grew up in the next town over (from Lowell) and he was buying it too. If Bale doesn't get the Oscar, I'll eat my mittens. It was like Intervention, but even more real. And the mom deserves one, too. There are some early Oscar predictions, as you can imagine, I get into that kind of thing. This year will be the first one in a while that I have seen a lot of what I am sure will be contenders. My man and I are going to see Black Swan tonight, so I'm covering all the bases. 

Anyway, I had a great time with the fam in Florida. Of course, I didn't get too much work done.

 

This is the textbook I'll be teaching this quarter. I brought it all the way to FL.

What you can't see is that I am on page 3 or something like that.

Back in waterworld:

Xmas Eve

Xmas AM

It's a good thing Floyd doesn't believe in Santa anymore, because how could we explain how he got a gift even though he has been bad all year?

I ordered my man the Keith Richards book for Christmas, delivered free with the wonderful student Prime account, and I told him to just put the Amazon package under the tree. But I forgot that I ordered something for myself as well. You can just imagine the excitement when he opened this:

Even better: what you can't tell is that it's 1270 pages. 

And for me.... I got totally spoiled, as usual. One of my favorites:

Is this gift as good as a drum set? I think, yes. 

Choose whatever metaphor you like

Have you missed me?

Because I missed you.

The good thing about not writing a blog for a while is that there is a lot of material.
Right?
Hmmm.

 Look at those gd'ed hippies!

The big news around here is berrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (that's my drumroll)........ I want to be a drummer.
IT SNOWED! I take this to mean that all my complaining worked!

Unfortunately, this beautiful snow is long gone now and not to return.

But I sure appreciated and enjoyed it while it lasted.

So today is my first day of vacation. I am not doing anything school-related all day. All blog, reading (pleasure reading, NOT journal articles or text books), shopping, groceries, radio show, run. I better get this day going.

Except I did have to email a student who had an 86.1 average why I couldn't give him an A-. Those crazy kids.
So reading - I am reading The Help, partially on the recommendation of my fellow blogger and friend. It's a great book, I am plowing through it, happily, because I have a long plane ride to Florida coming up and I am hoping to bring The Girl Who Played With Fire.... Christmas Break is the time to reduce that stack of "to be reads" and add to it of course, what is a better Christmas gift than a book?

So groceries - I don't think that a lot of vegans are reading this blog, but on the off chance that some other crazy vegan is googling around and finds me - we have been eating GOOD lately.
I just found a recipe for VEGAN FETTUCCINE ALFREDO! I have tried a lot of this lady's inventive recipes, all are delish. Dinner tomorrow. I wanted to make it tonight, but my man is getting together with his band this afternoon and then we have radio show at 8pm. He doesn't want me to get mad at him when he gets in the door at 7:35 and we have to eat in the studio. Again.

You might think friends, that being a vegan is not fun on Thanksgiving. And you may have even teased me... one word - TOFURKEY. It's good. Believe it.

Before our home meal we had a pre-Thanksgiving meal from Cornbread Cafe, which was amazing. I love that place, but I have to admit, after every meal I feel like I need to sit on the couch for two hours and watch The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. It's all their fault I tell you.

My man and I have to split when we go there. 

And, jumping ahead, we ate there again last night and had the Eugenewich. Unreal. Any food that causes spontaneous moaning is, embarrassing, yet wonderful. It is southern-fried tofu, barbecue sauce (what is BBQ sauce? Seriously, I want to know), fried onion rings and carrots, tomato, soy cheese...

But for the "homemade" part.... Look at this dork!

I can't believe how predictable we are. But we had tofurkey for the first time and it was so good. So good.

Look at that Mound on the right! Momma bird loves 

to tell me how my man is always hungry. He's fine! 

We ate early and headed to good old KWVA. It was a nice way to celebrate. I am thankful for our radio show. Last week we did a 90s show that was FIERCE if I do say so myself. My man heard the "Best DJ in Eugene" (as voted by Weekly readers) say something about how 90s music sucks and the 90s were the worst decade musically. Well, we had been planning a 90s show for a while and that was all it took to challenge him to a music-awesome-off duel. It was really fun. Tonight we are doing "Some Like it Hot." We have been watching some classics lately and getting inspired. Last night it was Citizen Kane. What a fantastic movie, I forgot how great it is. Wow. Rewatch it if you haven't lately! Call to action alert!

Tangent - in order to get really psyched (90s!) for the 90s show, we went to the midnight showing of Pump Up the Volume. My Christian Slater Supercrush returned in full force. Also, we were the ONLY ones in the theater. Afterwards (like around 1:30am) we decided to grab a beer and went to Max's. Didn't realize at the time that

1) super close to campus 

PLUS

2) night before last Duck's football game

EQUALS

Pigeon's students present. And wasted.

At least I was sober.

See you soon guys. xo

Get Your DAMN Hands Off Her

I met Crispin Glover last night.



While I have a special place in my heart for George McFly, I loved Crispin for so many other reasons.

There was Layne. 

"Hurry your ass!"

 The funeral guy from Gilbert Grape.

And Bartleby, oh, Bartleby. 

"I'd prefer not to"

I even liked him in Hot Tub Time Machine.

I can't believe that is the second time I admitted to seeing that movie on this blog.

So, I am a fan. After attending It is Fine. Everything is Fine! last night, I thought that we might have to break up. Please don't click on the link or watch the trailer unless you are prepared for some bizarre stuff.
We spent 4+ hours with Crispin last night. Currently, he tours around the country doing dramatic readings from his illustrated novels, showing his two films, holding Q & A sessions and signing books.
The book reading was really neat.

He created these new art works by taking books that are in the public domain (because they are so old) and cutting them up and changing the story and adding illustration. It reminded me of this book I have been trying (in a very lazy, inactive way) to get ahold of since my printmaking teacher in college showed it in class, The Humament.

Wait, wow, I just ordered it from Amazon. Merry Christmas to myself. I am the easiest person in the world to shop for. 

But here is Crispin Hellion Glover (Given name, btw, I checked. Yes, even the middle name)'s work:

So he reads with a red spotlight and a slideshow presentation for about an hour. This was the best part of the evening.

I thought I was prepared for the movie. I had watched said trailer, read about it and listened to an extensive interview with Crispin on the subject. I knew it would be weird. It was a movie written and starring a man with cerebral palsy. If you think it might be difficult to watch a movie where it is utterly impossible to understand the main character 98% of the time, try to imagine that character's full frontal nudity. As graphic detail as it gets. This one made Captain Spaulding's scene in Devil's Rejects look PG-13. This movie was not for the faint of heart. During the movie, I became upset with Crispin. But then he talked so long during the following  Q & A session that I kind of got over it. Forgive and forget, I say.
Maybe some of the problem with the movie was that we didn't see the first film (What is it?) in the planned trilogy, although he assured us we don't need to see that first and they don't really go together anyway. After having a little distance from the movie, I can kind of, maybe, a little bit understand the film. It is hard to imagine the kind of devastation and frustration, and those words are not even close to strong enough, of having a healthy mind inside of a severely handicapped body. But it's hard to feel too bad for the guy when he has sex with numerous women, at least one of which is meant to be a young teenager, and then kills them. Yep, that's the plotline, but I guess that's not so much the point. It has kept me thinking about it though, which in this case does have the unfortunate nudity seared into my memory. Maybe that makes me shallow, I don't know. My man thinks we might be squares. It's true, we don't have face tattoos, like the couple that was sitting next to us at the screening. We weren't the only ones, though, because I heard the woman behind us apologizing to her date on the way out.
Crispin stuck around to sign books long after midnight and took time to talk to each fan personally. Even in my (quickly evaporating) disgust, I was quite starstruck, and shook his hand twice. The second time he was reaching for the book to sign.
So anyway, big night. I guess it was what I expected, but more so. I guess we can still be friends.

Half Awake, In a Fake Empire

The end is in sight. The summer paper that is somehow creepin into the winter. We will present our paper in about a week and a half, and, while slightly panicked, I am so happy that it will be over and we can all move on. Deception is out. Pricing nerd will be back in full force.

Also, almost over is my torturous soccer league. I thought I would love playing soccer. After all, I loved it my whole younger life, from kindergarten up through freshman year of college. Strictly for love of game, not the competition, as I never made the varsity and played on intramural (not university team) one year of college. I was the honorary captain of the VJ team, maybe because of seniority (literally, there weren't a lot of seniors on the jv) Actually, thinking about it now, I don't think that I made it through the whole college freshman season... Anyway, the point is that that ten years is a long time. Skills that were marginal at best get a mite rusty AFTER TEN YEARS.
To prepare for my first game, my man and I got a ball at Target and kicked it around the backyard. Of course, we wanted to go to the park, but, as I might have mentioned before, we have a beast of a dog who does not like to be left alone and does not play well at the park.

I know it's hard to believe, but trust me. 

So with the only other soccer practice area we could consider being the dog park, we settled for the backyard. Anyway, one errant kick headed straight for the satellite dish and I should have known soccer was not going to go well for me. $75 dollars and 5 days later our cable was restored and I was off to the first game. When the goalie asked me after 10 minutes if I had ever played soccer before, I realized:

1) I was not going to make any friends on the soccer team and

2) I suck worse than I had feared. 

The (sort of) good thing is that the rest of the team in general also kinda sucks. We do have some good players (My man: "You need to be more like Leslie") but we went six straight games without a goal. (My man: "I think your team's goal should be to score a goal." Meaning don't even think about winning). Another good thing is that once the other team is up ten goals you can get an extra player. That has happened to us. Several times. 

Oh yeah - it rains here too. Every Sunday. And we do not cancel games for that here in Eugene.

So anyway, tonight is my second to last game with the dear Soccer Otters. They are continuing to play an indoor league starting next week. I say they because I will not be there.

Related to soccer? Yes, but also everything else.

Some might say this advice is simplistic, but I think it's got to be the key to life, right? And, for real, I am not talking about soccer anymore. And, you know what? It's not simple. It's really complicated. And this advice is hard to follow. Inaction is easy. The key is forcing yourself to move when you need to IMO. 

Ain't no Sunshine

I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey...

So, I have never been the most excited person about halloween. But in the spirit of others being excited, I thought I'd post the coolest song ever written that involves Halloween. I mean, how many times can you hear the monster mash (although I admit the first two times I heard it this year I realized it's a pretty neat song).


Not sure what is up with this video, apparently Ryan Adams is a weird little dude.

So I am sitting here getting ready for the radio show tonight and enjoying some Divine breakfast....

We are doing a rain theme tonight. It's part of my attempt to accept the inevitability of what is going to happen for the next seven or eight months. I said to my man this week, I don't know if I can do it. I lived through last winter and now I know what I am in for.... He reminded me of our friend who lived in Eugene for about a year who told us that he "did one year and when the rain started again, I had to get the hell out of Oregon." I guess it's the same in MT. The cold comes in and stays around forever. But I like the cold. The dry cold. I am freezing here in Eugene already and I don't think it gets below 30 degrees all winter. Oh, well. I hope I can make it. Four more of these winters. My wooden dresser drawers won't open and close. Everything feels damp. Our front door gets so swollen from the rain that we can't use it from now until May. Did you guys see that horror movie with the girl from Labyrinth that moved in the wet apartment? This is my life.

 My man says, maybe this winter there'll be snow.... I hope so. I dreamed three nights ago that F and I were looking at houses to buy in some strange city and it was snowing those big fluffy flakes in the gray sky and it was wonderful. I am not holding my breath. Anyway, because of the rain show I have been listening to some really fun stuff this morning.... and, yes, I am playing November Rain. F found his Use Your Illusion I down in the basement. He told me he bought it the day it came out.

I am not much of a dresserupper. The only thing I bought this year was bobby pins.

My man said I could wear a white robe. I said I'll wear a white shirt. That's about as festive as I can get. I wish F would be Han Solo.... oh, Han. But he has decided to be Magnum.

We went to the Rocky Horror Picture Show with a live cast last night. Quite an interesting experience. There is a troupe of transvestites here in Eugene, there were probably 20 or 25. Being marked, and I mean physically marked with a huge lipstick V on my cheek, as a virgin (never seeing the movie with a live show) I had to get in front of the theater... I was sweating. I got off easily, having to only run through the tunnel of molestation.... it kind of reminded me of a grown up, perverted Happy Wheels when you have to skate through the tunnel of people... use your imagination here. My man tried to get out of it and was heckled until he was forced to participate. Other than that, and while the costumes and the passion were impressive, I got a little annoyed - I couldn't hear my favorite songs. I mean, I think that the songs are awesome enough. They are already funny, why change the lyrics and have 25 people yelling out over it? Also, really bummed to discover this morning that Over at the Frankenstein Place doesn't even mention rain so we can't put it in our show tonight.

We have three Halloween parties on the agenda for the next 24... I wonder if we'll make it to any. I have 54 short answer exams to grade. Happy Halloween my friends.

Ooooh we used to wait....

So this is promised to be my last post (for awhile) about Arcade Fire, so in the spirit of that - this is an AFpolloza.



My man and I went to the show in Portland.

It was incredible.

I hate to say it, but I have postponed writing this blog for a bit. While I have calmed down a bit since then, it still blew my mind. We debated quite a bit about going, you know the story... school, work, pricy tickets, no one to watch the dog, too much driving in the middle of the night. Have you heard this story from me before? But of course, we made the same decision we always do, the right one to go. I am yet to regret a extravagant music related trip to Portland (and aren't they all music related?). Yes, I had to get picked up from school and eat at Subway on the way up. Yes, Floyd was in the car for more hours than I care to admit. Yes, we didn't get back to Eugene until almost 2am. Totally worth it.
The new album The Suburbs, is incredible. We did a whole radio show around it when it came out in August.
Calexico opened up, which we were excited about too, but I have to say - Arcade Fire came on and made those guys look like amateur night.
This band knows how to put on the show.
They started out with Ready to Start - no brainer, but what a perfect opener. The energy level was so high and maintained the whole night. I read a review later from this tour where they said AF finally has a show opener to match their fantastic closer (more later).
A concert is about the music, right? If I go see a show though, I want to be entertained. I want to see something cool as well. This band has a couple screens up behind them. At first I thought it was playing video of old shows, but then I realized there is no way it is synced up that good - it was live, but manipulated. Very cool stuff. And non-live crazy images too. Lots of instrument switching, which I love. Local Natives do that too and it's so impressive IMO.
One dude looked like Shaun White in a white jumpsuit. One guy looked like he might go nuts banging the drum which was obliterated during the closer - WAKE UP. Win's lady, looking like a middle schooler who was having the time of her life. And of course Win, he was phenomenal. Finally got my man to agree that he is one weird looking dude. And I mean that in the best possible way.
NOTE: If Win had walked out into the crowd at our school like he did in the video above, his freaky tallness would have walked right by us, I think. We were nice and close and dead center. But, he did do the tightrope security barrier walking... brave man. They played a lot of stuff from Suburbs of course, but lots from Funeral too. I wanted more from Neon Bible, but I really can't complain. I seem to be the only one who thinks that album is as good as the other two. But you know what, I was listening to it the other day and I changed it to the new one, so who knows? Maybe the popular opinion is right. Win made some comment about it being dangerous to be in Portland on a sunny day, because it makes him want to live there.
So the moral of the story is - go see these guys!

And check this out too - www.thewildernessdowntown.com
COOLEST.
I don't want to give it away, but it seriously made my day when I watched it. If you have five minutes and you want to do something neato and nostalgic this is the best bang for your (free) buck.

We have vegan voodoo donuts in Eugene now. Yum. I added this so I could have a fun thumbnail, because I took no pictures at the show.

For my part, it was Greek to me

So, I usually like to put a little video nugget at the beginning that I imagine my friends clicking on and listening to the music as they scroll through my post - like a little soundtrack. The song I wanted you to listen to today has no video - what, what? Anyway, check out this band:

Cotton Jones Basket Ride and if you really want to humor me play Somehow to Keep it Going while reading this post. Make sure you open a freshie window. I was in physical pain when I found out that this band played right here in Eugene at Sam Bond's in August. How do I miss these things? Now I've had to start harassing them on Facebook to come back.

Ok, now I am ready to start. See how much easier it is when there is a video, Cotton Jones? Get on that.

I knew this would happen. School has sprung and I neglected my blog. But if it makes you feel better now I am neglecting school work to blog. It all works out, yeah? School is good, busy as usual. I have this weird feeling that I can't call myself a 'second year' yet because my cohort and I have a major revision on our summer paper kind of hanging over our heads to complete and present before I can officially move up in status. The new students are here. The leaves are turning. You know what, the rain hasn't started, the air is crisp and I remember why fall is my favorite. I have a psych class this semester where I learned about the spotlight effect. I suffer massively from this effect. It means you think people notice you and care about you a lot more than they really do. Do you think that has anything to do with blogging?

But you guys didn't come here to hear about school today, did you? You want to hear about Greece! (i hope)

It was wonderful. My man and I have never taken a vacation alone, more than a night or two camping or skiing, so just the idea of being together 24 hours a day for two whole weeks was very exciting. Both being quite indicisive, as you may know, it was hard to pick, but I don't think we could have done better. We picked it because
1) when are we going have so long to go so far ever again? In like 30 years when our unborn children are grown up? That's too long.
2) Greece is romantic.

3) We thought the eating would be easier there for us than say, Mexico (who wants animal fat in everything) or Hawaii (the depravation without the fish.... I may have mentioned that Ahi tuna is the one thing that I sometimes feel like I would unvegan for. However, I saw The Cove and my non-fish-eating ways have been reconfirmed).  

And we were right about the romance part.
Food - let's just say it was delicious but repetitive. Olives and Greek salads with no feta. Stuffed tomatoes. Beers.
We went to Athens first, to do the learning and culture part of the trip. We did have a rough start. My man's bag was lost.

"Your bag is in Rome"

We got a taxi to our hotel after learning there was a transportation strike and reading the guidebook saying it should only be about 15 Euro. Well, we sort of had a creeper taxi driver and found out he was charging us 60 Euro - like $100! But apparently the book was very wrong. He yelled at me for accusing him of being a thief. Which I did not. Anyway, the trucks were on strike in Greece driving by the Parliament, very close to our hotel and blaring their horns. It kind of sounded neat, but oh so loud.

We were quite frazzled by the time we found our hotel on foot after being let out and told it's around here somewhere. It was only about 5 blocks away. Keep in mind it's hard to read a map or signs that aren't only not in your language but also not in your ALPHABET.

Cheat sheet

Our hotel was not the most romantic. Gotta love twin beds for the first night of your honeymoon. Actually, all the nights. That's how they roll in Greece. The location could not be beat though.

After that though, we started to like Athens. The Acropolis was amazing.

 I was a bit confused about what is real and what is not. There were a lot of 'real' parts of the Parthenon in the museum down below. But then, there they were up there too.... hmmm. A lot are allegedly in the British Museum as well, information which was spat out my our tour guide in such a contentious way I felt like they had taken HER personal bits of the ruins.

Like these ladies were incredible, but they were in the museum too. Except one. British Museum. They are like 12 feet tall.
From the top of the Acropolis you can see buildings all around. This view is 360 degrees as far as the eye can see.

We were shocked to learn that Athens has only around 3 million. Standing up there, my man and I decided it must be bigger than NYC. I think that illusion has a lot to do with the fact that the buildings are short? I don't know, it looks like more than 3 million to me.

Part of what I loved about Athens was that there was this kind of modern, yet semi-run down city where in the midst of it, ruins and beauty.

All this stuff was in walking distance from our hotel.
Some things I learned in Athens:
1) Greek coffee is not just coffee in Greece. It's different. And -

 it does not taste as good as it looks.

2) This I did not learn in Athens, but it slowly dawned on me that the signs in the bathroom not to 'put paper in the toilet' were not simply mistranslated. 

You really can't put toilet paper in the toilet there. This one unfortunately confirmed my suspicions. I could longer pretend I did not understand...

Anyway after a few action packed days we were off to Mykonos. I am crazy. And I can be a bit cheap. So when I had the choice to book a flight for about a quarter of the price, I was willing to sign us up for a 6am flight. Not thinking we need to be there an hour early. And it's an hour bus ride. And the bus only comes every 30 minutes. Our wakeup call was at 3am. I apologized to my man when we got up like zombies and, you know what he said? "It's ok, I was ready to get up anyway." Love him.

We stayed in Iaonnis area and it was quite relaxing, away from the city (called Hora) where all the late night parties happen.

Mykonos was gorgeous, we stayed at the place where Shirley Valentine was filmed. I really, really loved it there. One day we rented a ATV. My man really wanted a moped, but the rental guy would not allow it. We took it all over the island. I really loved the islands.

Super Paradise Beach

Obligatory pigeons.

I hope you like sunsets.

Next, we were meant to take a ferry to Santorini. Ferry travel turns out to be a bit tricky. I thought it's like the plane, it comes in, you board like 45 minutes before, then it leaves. Well, we got on the boat, they took our Santorini tix and everything. Then the boat proceeded to leave the dock about 30 minutes early! Wrong boat. 

The boat company was really nice about it, but we did have to spend the night in Tinos, which ended up being quite fun and different than anywhere else we went in Greece. More real. Less English. No credit cards. 

Where are we?

This was hands down the smallest and coolest bathroom of the trip. 

I am slightly nervous that I am the blogger obsessed with bathrooms. What with the WOW talk and the toilet paper. I am sorry. 

Very authentic.

Another boat ride in the morning took us to Santorini, which was stunning. Again, we stayed off the beaten track in Monolythos beach, but these pics are mostly from Thira. 

Santorini used to be called Strongili which means round one. It was an island that turned into a caldera after an explosion many thousands (?) of years ago. We took a boat out to the middle and swam in the volcanicly hot waters. 

Oia is home to the world's greatest sunset...

I missed my dog. Greek Stink.

 So what do you think of the sunset?

It was amazing. My man loved Santorini the best. 

After almost 2 weeks though we were ready to get back. I missed my dog. I have to show you the place we stayed in near the airport in Athens on the way home.

Is this place a David Lynch set or what???

And it was good to be home.

Up next: 

"Arcade Fire concert almost ruined by dog-left-in-parking-garage's incessant barking."

and

"Brothers have weddings too"

Stay Tuned.