San Diego

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Mon, 20 Oct 2008

Here We Go Again

Posted by somegosoftly under Adventures, Park City, San Diego
[2] Comments 

We are so lucky to have so many great friends. They all came out (on a Sunday!) to say their goodbyes. Or maybe they heard we’d be giving away canned good door prizes. Not yet. MK’s doing the final puzzle of fitting our life in to the car, and we’re off first thing in the morning.

I can’t even tell you how long you’re going to miss me for - I guess it depends on if my hosts let me touch the internet. We spent the weekend saying goodbye to the beach and now all I can think about is snow!

For the record, because I “keep it real” - the clothes hangers aren’t going to make it.

 

Wed, 15 Oct 2008

The Short Version

Posted by somegosoftly under Life, Rants, San Diego, Travel
[2] Comments 

I’m sorry I haven’t returned your phone calls or answered your questions. If others are asking you about me, refer them here. There’s more, but you don’t really want to hear ALL of it.

We had our place until the end of the month. In writing. The 84 year old owner failed to tell the (probably stoned) 30 year old manager that she gave our place to someone else. We found out Monday. We needed to be out on Wednesday. We kept the (probably stoned) manager that had let us lease the place anyway from being fired by agreeing to leave. Then the market got crazy. And we needed the internet. And my car can’t get a tow hitch. And I remembered that I have to go to the dentist Thursday, fully sedated, all day style. So we packed and shipped some stuff to some random addresses. Then we moved almost everything to another apartment, upstairs. That smells funny.

Then we stayed downstairs with the computers until the old lady yelled at us to get out. I stuck my tongue out at her. I don’t think she saw. MK had a rough day. We almost started driving Tuesday. But we didn’t. So, as of today, we will stay one more weekend to say goodbye, and we will leave Monday or Tuesday. But at the rate we’ve been going, I wouldn’t count on it…

 

Mon, 29 Sep 2008

Fun Running Around

Posted by somegosoftly under Friends, Life, San Diego, Shopping, Sports
[2] Comments 

Sometimes half the fun is in the normal stuff. Truth be told, we don’t DO normal stuff all that often. We skip the errands and get spoiled never driving during traffic. We walk around our little neighborhood and shop at the Farmer’s Market. This past week MK’s birthday necessitated me doing a little real shopping. I am lazy and got some things online, but finally decided there were things easy to pick up I couldn’t justify shipping costs for.

So I went to the mall. I haven’t been there since my little cousin visited. I don’t really need anything and have been pretty good about not wanting anything too. But it was great and sunny and the walking around put me in a great mood. The sales were good (which also helped my mood) and I found my dream purse (since I can’t NOT shop for myself - so much for not wanting anything). I went back later with MK since it was a lot of money, he had to approve. We also made a huge steal on new ski boots (mine were 400$ on sale for 74$, brand new, seriously) check them out:

After all the fun shopping we spent the end of the week and weekend watching football and doing a run and volleyball party with our running and volleyball club, kind of an end of summer party on the beach. It was a blast. We’ve made a ton of great friends here that we’re really going to miss and the change of the seasons and us telling everyone we’re leaving has had that awesome effect of just making everything really enjoyable.

MK and I took SH and JM out on the Hobie Cat after we checked out the Adams Ave. Street Fair. Then they picked up Chinese after deciding a bag of Doritos wasn’t enough while we watched football. JM said “Best Sunday ever” and even though it was a simple one, I had to agree.

 

Thu, 25 Sep 2008

Crazy Octogenarian Antics

Posted by somegosoftly under Life, San Diego
[5] Comments 

With the recent popularity (for swearing?) of old people on TV (Dancing with the Stars was headline news yesterday) I figured a great topic of conversation today would be old people.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen a senior citizen do?

Remember, I live amongst most of them. I mean, La Jolla is a prime old people watching place. A common quote from either husband or I on any given day could be “Gosh I hope we’re not like that” or “Look how cute they are holding each other up so they can shuffle” or “Holy crap if I turn into that swear you’ll suffocate me with the pillow”.

These people aren’t like my grandparents. My grandparents are young, for one thing, well taken care of, and hilarious. Old people around here are a little fuzzy, a little lost, and a little forsaken. I can’t get over that last one considering the cost of living around here, but you never see these people with any family! The old people I observe are categorically the worst drivers in America. They are crotchety. They cough all over you. They can be rather rude. I don’t think my grandparents have been rude to anyone in their lives. Their long, long lives. ;)

So today I cracked up as I saw this one guy, at least 70, walking through the store chugging a Monster energy drink. How many jokes can you make?

  • Is he drinking it just to stay alive?
  • Does he drink it when his heart stops?
  • Does it help him remember his name?

I’m terrible.

 

Wed, 24 Sep 2008

San Diego Street Scene 2008

Posted by somegosoftly under Music, Photos, San Diego
No Comments 

There are a lot of music festivals out there. I haven’t really been to that many. But of course, ACL is a great example of a streamlined successful one. People tell me Jazzfest is the same. And SXSW is the best thing that has happened to so many people for years. We tried Sasquatch. Meh. I’ll see Lollapalooza someday. I’ll never go to the desert for Cochella.

I hadn’t seen hardly any live music in San Diego so I decided to pop over to Street Scene. If you’ve lived here longer than I have you care a lot about the fact it was returning to the streets of downtown for the first time in a long time and whether or not this was good or bad. I just had a free Friday night.

The ticket price for what you get was a little iffy (75$/day pass), since the days are only 4-12, and the four stages are maybe two blocks from each other. I saw Diplo, TV on the Radio, Spoon, Vampire Weekend, and Beck. I have already seen all of those bands except for Beck. Beck was not very good.

If there was one word I had to use to describe it, I’d go with ‘cute’. Seriously. It was like a little miniature attempt at a music festival that really turned out more like a block party.The one great feature was a beer garden portion of the CROWD in front of the STAGE. If you follow me, this great invention means I kicked it with my 21 and up brethren and didn’t have to watch my step, unlike outside the beer garden, where the ground was literally littered with unwashed raver children. Yuck.

We went to the 94.9 after show at the House of Blues, which I’ve always wanted to check out. The surprise band was NOT MGMT like I had been praying since I missed them, but the acceptable reggae beats of Michael Franti and Spearhead.

So I ended up not going back for Day Two. Literally no one I knew wanted to go back. And besides Ghostland Observatory, who I can never tire of seeing, I’d seen all those bands too. Am I getting too much music at SXSW? I sure feel spoiled when I’ve seen all the bands I want to. Here’s a funny review from someone who didn’t even make it. I’m not old -yet I hope- but I get what he’s saying.

Soon to feature a link to the pictures, if you care.

 

Sat, 6 Sep 2008

Collegiate Memory Inspired Antics

Posted by somegosoftly under Adventures, Friends, Holidays, Music, Photos, San Diego
No Comments 

I’m not gonna lie or sugar coat this situation. I in a moment of insanity forgot my friend’s birthday. Her 30th birthday. SB, my college roommate, had to go so far as to call me and remind me I missed it and I suck. To be fair, we were planning a Mexican getaway to honor the event, and its cancellation is what prompted my forgetfulness. It’s not like I didn’t have it written down. Also in my defense (ask my mom), not having anything to do all day makes them all blur together and oftentimes I just honestly don’t know what day (week, month) it is.

Anyway, to apologize, I got SB here to SD. Her arrival late Friday was pretty exciting, as I hadn’t seen her since our road trip through Denver to Seattle. We commenced celebratory drinking at the La Jolla Brewhouse, ran kicking and screaming from stupid old Jose’s, and did a little late night drive through La Jolla Cove, calling it an early night so we could make the most of the long weekend. Did we, and how.

Saturday morning we had some technical difficulties with the car, as in we had to have it jumped. We walked the Cove again, stopped in at Karl Strauss (another brewery, already)

Mmmmm

Mmmmm

for a sampler and a Bloody Mary, and then meandered to Porkyland, our tourist coming armed with plans had suggested this place - it was great Mexican food.

Car fixed we drove to Balboa Park and paid 4$pp for the lamest Japanese Garden (it’s really 100ft. long) and wandered a bit taking pictures. When we were read to go, the car was not. Seriously, stupid car…so loving Super Husband let us cab it to Old Town while he waited (and waited) for the solution, which was determined to be a new car battery.

SB suggested the Jolly Boy Saloon in Old Town since she wanted absinthe. (She does not mess around). What I saw and we chose first was a sight which my eyes have never before been blessed with:

Wheel, Fire, Beer-Margarita

Great Inventions: Wheel, Fire, Beer-Margarita

Yes, a beer IN A GIANT MARGARITA. Or, a GIANT MARGARITA with A BEER in it. Whichever you prefer. It was AWESOME. Due to it’s size, we shared it responsibly. Then shared the absinthe. Then we were totally roasted. It was, maybe 2pm. We wolfed down some ice cream (yup, still gorging on that) then husband picked us up. We made it to Del Mar just in time to bet on the last two horse races before - seriously, she planned the whole trip, basically - we set off to the infield to attend the last concert of the summer Del Mar series that SB had discovered: DEVO.

Seriously. DEVO.

Seriously. DEVO.

As you can imagine, it was pretty hilarious. We topped out at about 30 minutes of rediculousness and headed home to clean up to head to the Gaslamp District. We had some dinner, some more drinks, and gussied up. I know it was a holiday weekend, but I’d never seen the bars so busy. There were lines everywhere, except (thankfully) Mr. Tiki’s, our staple starter bar. From there we hit up The Field, staple number 2, and some super cool new bar I forgot the name of.

Sunday morning we headed up to Mt. Soledad, then found the SDSU library and Dr. Suess statue (that was mostly for me). We went to the Gliderport, where it was super windy and there were a ton of paragliders out. We tried to get to Lahaina’s in PB but again, the beach was more crowded than I’ve ever seen it, even more than 4th of July. We changed-of-plans it right to Cass St., who serves up 4$ rice vodka spicy Bloody Mary’s. Are you seeing the theme yet? Back to our pool for some more drinks at sunset, a fashion photo shoot, and then off to the Pink Elephant, a pretty great neighboorhood hipster theme bar.

Pink Elephant Bar

Pink Elephant Bar

We got convinced by running club to meet up at Bourbon, where there was, no lie, a foam party. I tried my best to stay away from the madness, but we did have some fun dancing.We got home and totally ran through the parking garage, pool room, and etc. making messes like we were 19 again. Good times.

The next morning, hangover free, miraculously, we hit the Cove for snorkeling and the Shores for Body Boarding and Bahia Don Bravo’s for lunch all before getting SB on the plane ride home. We managed to squeeze quite a bit in.

Here’s the rest of the silly photos.

 

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