California...
California here I am! (and have been since July 3rd...) It's nice to be "home," whatever that means. Alexa will be here until mid-August. She's been laying paving stones for my mom, cutting back brush, which has been deemed a fire-hazard by the fire department, for my dad, and generally being helpful around the house. We've been relaxing, mostly, with occasional day-trips out to San Diego and one trip up to Joshua Tree. I may post some of that, or I may not... we'll see.
Yesterday was a pretty idyllically fantastic day, though.
- First we went sailing with Moana (who works, among other places, at a boat rental place), who was gracious enough to take us out sailing for 2 hours and then thank us for the experience :). I'm relatively confident at sailing, now, too, which is a bonus.
- Then we ran some errands. Then we went to Alexa's bank and then to Sports Chalet to pick up a pump for my inflatable rubber raft. I spent an extra $2 or $3 to get the electric one - powered off of the car - and it was totally worth it. I re-enabled an old phone my parents had sitting around, so my new number is (760) 666-0252. My driver's license has a 666 in the middle, too. Does that mean I'm the devil?
- Next, we went back to Ocean Beach, hang-out of the stoners of San Diego. The cops seem to have a bit more of a presence than they used to, rent is a bit higher, and there's a starbucks there now, but the beach bums are still there and it's still a nice place to be. It's sad, though, the direction it's headed. I was wearing one of the shirts my brother made, this one to look like the "D.A.R.E. to resist drugs and alcohol." program shirts, but it says "D.A.R.E. to keep college students off hard drugs on weekdays." On the way to my favorite secluded beach, a girl complimented the shirt and mentioned she almost wore hers that day. Oh yeah, I remembered, I've seen lots of DARE shirts worn with a sense of irony... We enjoyed the cliffs and waves for a while, and when it was time to move on, another beach bum/punk said, "Nice shirt, dude. You lookin' for any?" I told him I didn't have any cash.
- Finally, the perfect cap to the day: a show called "Hippiefest" at a really cool venue called Humphrey's By the Bay. We stopped by a grocery store on the way and picked up a fifth of Jagermeister and Alexa got a 20-ounce bottle of coke. We went to the San Diego bay and put my rubber raft into the water at some place on Shelter Island Drive called a Fuel Dock, the same place Ransom and I used a few years ago. Paddling straight out, making an immediate left, and going until the waterway, lined on both sides with enormous yachts and other boats, we got to the spot where you can see the stage of Humphrey's from the water for free. No $75 tickets for us, no sir! The show was amazing, and I really feel like I got a feel of the 60s. The opener was alright, the next lady was less good, but we spent most of her time on stage drinking and talking to the folks in the boat next to us. They were super friendly and willing to trade what they had, which was ridiculously nice, for some of our Jager. One guy told us how he got a medical marijuana card for $150 that is completely "legitimate," whatever that means. I wonder how long it'll be before California up and legalizes marijuana entirely. Anyway, according to the member of the turtles who volunteered to MC the show at the last minute, the guy who was supposed to be MCing's "acid just kicked in." Heheh, and the guys from The Turtles were pretty drugged-up, too, and weren't afraid to talk about it. At one point, he talked about how they "were once a drug band, and you know what? We're STILL a drug band! Only now we do all the old stuff plus zoloft and lipitor and flonase and ..." and he just kept naming prescription and non-prescription medications. What a dude. So when The Turtles went on, I was surprised to note that they were really, fantastic. The dude from Cream, one of the guitarists (no, not Clapton), was also pretty sweet. He basically played a Cream cover show, but you could hear, if you closed your eyes, that pretty much all the instruments were 2-dimensional except for his guitar. He went nuts. So we were really disappointed in the Animals, who have not aged nearly as well as the previous two. That was just fine, though, because by the time we got out of the water, we both had to go to the bathroom and were looking for snacks. As we neared the dock, they played House of the Rising Sun, so the experience was complete, in any case.
What a good day, eh? Today was way more boring. Bought some groceries, cleaned up the car from yesterday, put stuff away, ate dinner, watched a dumb TV show, and wrote this down. Hmm. Oh, and yesterday, I got a 54 ounce bag of skittles. That's over 3 pounds!
Tomorrow, Moana is taking us wake boarding, as long as no one rents out the boat(s). We might have to wait for a weekday to do that; we'll see.
I was hoping to also make a post about June 26th, called "Hitchhiking Adventure: Colorado, part 2," but I have stalled out on it at the moment for two reasons. 1. It would be WAY better with pictures, for which I need a card reader. 2. It's 3:15am now, and I'm sleepy. Oh, and I should wake up in 6 1/2 hours if I want to make it to this wake boarding thing tomorrow. In good news, though, I've gotten to talk to Anca, my Romanian photographer friend, and Noha, one of my students from Egypt, this evening. Woo!
Hopefully I'll get this camera business sorted out tomorrow,
Hugs,
~George
Yesterday was a pretty idyllically fantastic day, though.
- First we went sailing with Moana (who works, among other places, at a boat rental place), who was gracious enough to take us out sailing for 2 hours and then thank us for the experience :). I'm relatively confident at sailing, now, too, which is a bonus.
- Then we ran some errands. Then we went to Alexa's bank and then to Sports Chalet to pick up a pump for my inflatable rubber raft. I spent an extra $2 or $3 to get the electric one - powered off of the car - and it was totally worth it. I re-enabled an old phone my parents had sitting around, so my new number is (760) 666-0252. My driver's license has a 666 in the middle, too. Does that mean I'm the devil?
- Next, we went back to Ocean Beach, hang-out of the stoners of San Diego. The cops seem to have a bit more of a presence than they used to, rent is a bit higher, and there's a starbucks there now, but the beach bums are still there and it's still a nice place to be. It's sad, though, the direction it's headed. I was wearing one of the shirts my brother made, this one to look like the "D.A.R.E. to resist drugs and alcohol." program shirts, but it says "D.A.R.E. to keep college students off hard drugs on weekdays." On the way to my favorite secluded beach, a girl complimented the shirt and mentioned she almost wore hers that day. Oh yeah, I remembered, I've seen lots of DARE shirts worn with a sense of irony... We enjoyed the cliffs and waves for a while, and when it was time to move on, another beach bum/punk said, "Nice shirt, dude. You lookin' for any?" I told him I didn't have any cash.
- Finally, the perfect cap to the day: a show called "Hippiefest" at a really cool venue called Humphrey's By the Bay. We stopped by a grocery store on the way and picked up a fifth of Jagermeister and Alexa got a 20-ounce bottle of coke. We went to the San Diego bay and put my rubber raft into the water at some place on Shelter Island Drive called a Fuel Dock, the same place Ransom and I used a few years ago. Paddling straight out, making an immediate left, and going until the waterway, lined on both sides with enormous yachts and other boats, we got to the spot where you can see the stage of Humphrey's from the water for free. No $75 tickets for us, no sir! The show was amazing, and I really feel like I got a feel of the 60s. The opener was alright, the next lady was less good, but we spent most of her time on stage drinking and talking to the folks in the boat next to us. They were super friendly and willing to trade what they had, which was ridiculously nice, for some of our Jager. One guy told us how he got a medical marijuana card for $150 that is completely "legitimate," whatever that means. I wonder how long it'll be before California up and legalizes marijuana entirely. Anyway, according to the member of the turtles who volunteered to MC the show at the last minute, the guy who was supposed to be MCing's "acid just kicked in." Heheh, and the guys from The Turtles were pretty drugged-up, too, and weren't afraid to talk about it. At one point, he talked about how they "were once a drug band, and you know what? We're STILL a drug band! Only now we do all the old stuff plus zoloft and lipitor and flonase and ..." and he just kept naming prescription and non-prescription medications. What a dude. So when The Turtles went on, I was surprised to note that they were really, fantastic. The dude from Cream, one of the guitarists (no, not Clapton), was also pretty sweet. He basically played a Cream cover show, but you could hear, if you closed your eyes, that pretty much all the instruments were 2-dimensional except for his guitar. He went nuts. So we were really disappointed in the Animals, who have not aged nearly as well as the previous two. That was just fine, though, because by the time we got out of the water, we both had to go to the bathroom and were looking for snacks. As we neared the dock, they played House of the Rising Sun, so the experience was complete, in any case.
What a good day, eh? Today was way more boring. Bought some groceries, cleaned up the car from yesterday, put stuff away, ate dinner, watched a dumb TV show, and wrote this down. Hmm. Oh, and yesterday, I got a 54 ounce bag of skittles. That's over 3 pounds!
Tomorrow, Moana is taking us wake boarding, as long as no one rents out the boat(s). We might have to wait for a weekday to do that; we'll see.
I was hoping to also make a post about June 26th, called "Hitchhiking Adventure: Colorado, part 2," but I have stalled out on it at the moment for two reasons. 1. It would be WAY better with pictures, for which I need a card reader. 2. It's 3:15am now, and I'm sleepy. Oh, and I should wake up in 6 1/2 hours if I want to make it to this wake boarding thing tomorrow. In good news, though, I've gotten to talk to Anca, my Romanian photographer friend, and Noha, one of my students from Egypt, this evening. Woo!
Hopefully I'll get this camera business sorted out tomorrow,
Hugs,
~George
Comments
And the best part about the DARE shirt was getting the release from the DARE non-profit's legal department for the shirt. I didn't even have to lie!