saaaaaaaaan diego

Tuesday, 2:20a: Rode the bus from Madison to Chicago, caught plane.
Tuesday, 11a: Arrived Denver, Bill left his backpack in the security checkpoint. Caught another plane.
Tuesday, 2p: Arrived San Diego after joining the mile high club. Got rental car. Fox Rentals upgraded rental car for free- car is still a piece of poo.
Tuesday, 3p: Went to Dad's work, followed him home. He gave Bill some crap for having an earring. Bill went one better, pointed out that he has two, not one. Go Bill!
Tuesday, 5p: Boys go shopping, sister Heather comes home, stepmom Linda comes home, everyone is good.
Tuesday, 6p: Boys cook. Okay, mostly Bill. Dad harrasses.
Tuesday, 7p: Yeah- dinner took some time. It was great. Heather had giant seconds. yay!
Rest of the evening was fun - the visit is going well.
Dad mentions that Friday we'll be going out to dinner with stepbrother Eric and his GF. Oh, and he's apparently impregnated his ex-wife within the last month. They're all wondering if his girlfriend knows. That's the best gossip I've heard in a while. In case you're wondering - ya- Eric is the same one who tried his "wiles" on me last year. I think he just can't keep it in his pants. He's still cute though. Nice kid.

Wednesday:
this involved lots of coffee and lounging in the backyard watching the tops of houses back in the hills behind Escondido. Beautiful.
We spent the entire day lazing away, which seems about right for a vacation. Later in the day we went to Solana Beach to see the ocean.
The drive from Escondido to Solana Beach is very cool. It runs straight through a very beautiful area filled with trees and curves and rich people. Rancho Santa Fe is the town nestled in the hills there and it's nothing but gold-plated everywhere you look.
The beach was deserted at 3p- we got a space in the public lot (FREE PARKING) and headed down. There isn't the typical sandy beach there, instead it's flat and goes along the cliffs. We walked in the water and collected shells. It was late in the afternoon and we still came back with some pink from the sun. Unreal. Besides which, I'm already pretty tan, so wtf? I also collected some cool-ass rocks. They have two or three colors melded into the rock, and they're all smooth from the ocean.

Later we had steaks on the grill and watched a plane make an emergency landing by Los Angeles. Apparently the front wheel of the landing gear was sideways. My dad the pilot was saying the best way for him to land would be to slow the plane way down and land on the back wheels first, then after the speed was cut, then the front could come down. We watched it live, and the pilot of the plane did exactly what Dad said would work, and the plane did not crash. There was some smoke and fire as the wheel was running along the ground the wrong way, but all in all it was SUCH a perfect landing. Tony called while we were watching the landing and I wasn't really up for talking to him- I hope I wasn't too rude but I really had to see that plane!!
Tony did say that he'd be in San Diego by the weekend. That'll be cool to see him after 14 years.

Thursday was basically a day for a. post office to mail postcards, b. breakfast, and c. Ocean Beach.
Holy shit it was SOOOOOO cool to be back in OB. Bill and I walked the pier, which is actually the longest pier in Southern California, took some pictures, and then hit the beach. Nothing has changed in that place. I love OB. I used to go there all the time when I lived in San Diego, because it's a locals beach for the most part, and I hate tourists.
We went into the water and FROZE. The water temp at OB is always way colder than any other place, because the Gulf Stream flows right by there and it's an arctic current. This helps the waves, however, and it's a surfer's haven because of the gi-normous breaks.
We went in twice, with a break to warm up in between. The second time the waves were HUGE, and we totally had our asses kicked by the surf. I got yanked underneath at one point and couldn't get up for a good 15-20 seconds. It was awesome, feeling the power of the tide. Heh. Tidalgrrrl stops ranting and gets her ass kicked by waves.
It was a blast. We went after that and had carne asada burritos (because we could) at a restaurant in OB where we sat at the front of the place where there aren't any windows and looked out on the street. There was a drunk woman who sat next to us for a while and it was really bumming me out. She seemed young enough and normal, but with a serious drinking problem. It was just very sad.
There was a weirdo across the street who was wearing a fireman's helmet and yelling at some (other?) homeless guy - and it made me remember how many weird folks are in this town. There was another woman smoking in a trenchcoat (this is one block from the ocean, did I mention?), and she appeared to have mental health issues as well.

***BREAK***
I FUCKING DETEST RONALD REAGAN AND HOPE HE'S BURNING IN HELL RIGHT NOW FOR DOING WHAT HE DID TO THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA'S MENTALLY ILL POPULATION.
***BREAK***

Allright. Later we came back to Dad's and watched Survivor. I think Bill's seriously reconsidering the state of our relationship after discovering that I...LOVE...Survivor. He'll have to learn to deal. After all, he's got bad habits too, I'm assuming? I don't know what they might be...but I'm sure they are there.
Hmmm....lesseeee...he um...gets me coffee whenever I need it. Not a bad habit. Dammit!
AHA! I've got it!! Shit. I don't. He's great. Dammit!! =P

Ok, Survivor aside, it was a great night, and so far this trip is turning out to be wonderful. I am not looking forward to going home because I know my surgery is impending. Like doom. Grrrarrrrrgh. Dooooooooom.