The Mists of OB

Funny thing about San Diego. It only rains about 8 inches per year. I'm not sure what the rain is like in the winter months, but if it's anything like today's rain, it will be welcome. The rain is not so much like rain, but more like one of those mist-generators they set up for people at outdoor events to help keep folks from overheating. There is this slight spritzing across your face and arms and it's kind of refreshing - something I could definitely have appreciated out in Boston.

Official Wierdest Day Ever

Today started out normal enough. Strike that. Today did not start out normal in any sense of what has become "normal" for us in San Diego. And the day just got weirder. Note: Although cat sightings are not necessarily odd or abnormal, the frequency with which we saw cats today was certifiably peculiar.

7am
Usually I am the first to wake and rise. Today, DB woke first and I slept a bit later waking with something like a summer cold. This in itself is unusual since I rarely get sick and mostly only from stress. Turns out, I'm a tad stressed.

Also, neither of us had bad dreams - amazing since we've both been having bad dreams since we moved into our apartment. This could partly be due to the energetic clearing I did last night and/or because we moved our sleeping space to another area in the room. Hopefully this is a turning point in our dream-lives.

8:30am
Leaving the apartment we spot Max, our neighbor's cat. He stops to meow good-morning at us, and we oblige by meowing back.

1:30pm
On our way home from a movie we stopped at Peet's for my favorite - a DeCaf Mocha Freddo with Soy, and ended up getting it half free. I had a couple bucks left on my Peet's card, which the server applied toward the cost of the drink. The rest was to go on my Visa card. Oddly, the register flat out refused to charge my card. Now, let me be clear - my card was not denied. The register simply wouldn't recognize the transaction. This perplexed several Peet's staff and managers, and ultimately, not wanting to keep us in line any longer, they simply said "it's on us."

2:30pm
We're sitting in the vestibule minding our own business and I notice a seemingly respectable senior citizen outside the vestibule writing something on the wall with a permanent marker. I wait until he's finished and discretely take a peek to see what kind of graffiti this guy specializes in. I see a vertical length of tape running down the wall with the word Jesus neatly printed on it.

5:30pm
On the way to the beach we see a siamese cat a block from our place. We usually see this cutie at the Cliffs when we watch the sunset. It just meanders over to the cliffs and takes a seat to watch the beautiful light show.

Several blocks later we see a portly looking cat sitting on the ledge of a restaurant. It watches us. We stop to pet it, then continue on.

7pm
While walking home from the beach, my attention was caught by this woman standing in the driveway of a beach parking lot, cars driving around her, yelling out to no one in particular "You're not birds! You're human's!" I'm still rather unclear about the context of this exclamation.

7:15pm
Nearly home, we are approached by the oldest living cat in the state of California. It meows, sits and allows us to shower it with loving attention. We leave, it watches us as if to say "Hey, I'm not done letting you pet me."

8pm
Returning from watching the sunset, we see Max out near the parking lot. One of his owners comes around the corner chatting it up with Max in meow-speak. He see's us and says something to the effect of, "Just talking to my cat, I do that a lot," and half-embarrassed comments that we must think he's crazy.

meet the neighbors

we bought an ikea coffee table yesterday and found that we actually needed tools to put the damn thing together. usually ikea furniture doesn't require much and comes with a cheap wrench or whatever is required, but no. ours needed a philips head screw driver. sadly, the philips screw driver on my handy-dandy pocket knife just wasn't cutting it... or screwing it, so to speak. so, i went on an adventure to meet my neighbors.

ive boiled folks down to their stereotypcial essence for your reading pleasure. here's what we have so far:

the ex-cop
the nurse
the psychic
the young married couple with a cat named Max
the invisible asian guy
the surfer
the single father
the guy working in LA
and of course, the artist/life coach and the social/youth worker (that's me and db)

this sounds like the making of a reality show if you ask me.

interesting fact:
the psychic says when she moved in she could feel some spiritual presences in the building, so researched the building in public files... apparently, when it was first built (around 1920), our building was a brothel! yes, a real brothel. the ladies would stand out on the balcony and wave to the sailors as they went by. Later, in the 1960s the building became a nudist colony. And today, of course, it is the site of a crazy reality tv show called "living near the beach" and staring yours truly.

gremlins

db and i have both been having weird and scary dreams each night since we moved into our place. its a bit unnerving if you ask me. here's a brief run down:

gremlins attacking me in my sleep
being in high school, having too many absences in PE and not having my math homework done
dreaming im dreaming and having nightmares

its my party

my birthday was a fantastic and relaxing event full of quiet times, beach lying, and good food. just what i like on my special day.

db bought me flowers the night before at the farmers market, as well as a purple basil plant. yes, we have basil now. fresh basil. and its purple. how cool is that?

30 spins on the cycle

i ran into Kevin So on the boardwalk and he told me he was hosting a cycling contest at his home. he had this new exercise bike that counts the number of times your wheel goes around one full turn. whoever spins the most, wins something... the bike? a front row ticket to his show? i don't recall. in any case, i was up to the challenge.

db and i went to kevin's and i looked at the chart of who had cycled and how many times they pedaled. with pretty low numbers (like 5 and 23) i knew i had a fair chance. the contest was over in less than 12 hours, so i hopped on the bike and started peddling.

after 30 rounds i was well ahead of all the other contestants, so i jumped off and when to talk with kevin who was headed toward me.

his house was beautiful and large with palm trees inside and out. high ceilings with huge windows along the top of the walls, tilted perfectly so you could look out into the sky. presently, it was night.

"kevin," i said, "look at the sky."

kevin turned and we both looked through the skylight. we embraced, watching the beautiful show in the sky.

minutes later, we released our embrace, both feeling a bit awkward.

db came in with kevin's roommate and best friend. she was a lovely hip lady, kind of short and round with gorgeous brown skin. she flirted with db - i think he liked the attention :)

eventually we headed home where db checked his voicemail. kevin's friend had called and left him two messages from two different phones. one from her and kevin's cell phone (apparently they shared a cell), and the other which said "you should check out my profile on coconuts.com".

from the observation deck

i remembered some of the strange and interesting things we've noticed about san diego or the folks who live here. plus ive noticed a few more.

• people love to tell you that you will simply have to get a car to live here. im pretty sure none of these folks have ever taken the bus or trolley b/c if they had, they would know that its easy, affordable, clean and friendly. the trolley is pretty cool - it reminds me of the underground (aka subway) in london - super nice and spacious train cars.


• people on the bus are either too crazy to drive or too old, and that is why they take the bus. so, if you take the bus you must be able to tolerate crazy people, old people and crazy old people. listening to them talk to each other makes for an amusing way to pass the ride.


• every single time we've been on the bus, someone has gotten on the wrong bus and asks the driver or fellow passengers "is this the __ bus to ___?" the thing is... there are only TWO buses that serve our neighborhood, the 35 and 923. and every bus has the bus number and destination clearly displayed on its front and back reader boards. not only are the numbers very different (although they do share a "3"), but 35 only has two numbers in it, while 923 has three numbers in it. the length of the number should give some indication of which bus you're stepping onto. db and i have a 100% success rate for getting on the correct bus and we just moved here.


• lots of mohawks, especially on children... although we also saw lots of children at the airport in NY with mohawks, too. so, its probably not unique to CA.


• people are exceptionally friendly, cheerful and helpful at least 75% of the time. examples:
  • im pretty sure we've been welcomed to san diego about 30 times since we arrived. i dont recall being welcomed to boston once, except perhaps by the flight crew on their final arrival announcement.
  • our apartment manager went out of her way to help us get into our apartment by the 15th by expediting our application and credit checks, even though she didn't have to and there were plenty of people who could have taken the unit and waited the extra two weeks to get in.
  • the bus drivers have been more than happy to help us get all the places we've needed to go. and on our route a driver gladly helped two girls traveling abroad from Asia find their destination - even stopping the bus and pointing them in the correct direction down a street, all with a smile and kind tone of voice. in fact, it was actually as if the driver enjoyed helping people! this is something you will not see in boston with the frenzy speeding bus drivers there.
  • the cashiers at the co-op love their job and love us - they gave us the member discount even though we weren't yet members and were incredibly friendly and kind.


• the police are referred to as Peace Officers in all official written materials. their job is to keep peace, not necessarily to bust asses left and right. imagine a world of peace keeping instead of a world of policing.


• fruit is ridiculously cheap and absurdly fresh. strawberries are $2 per pint; avacados 50 cents each; mangos 39 cents each; cherries $2 per pint; cherry tomatos (red, purple or yellow) $2 per pint.


• ben and jerry's ice cream is a luxury item to aspire to at $4.49 per pint.


• jumping up and down in the ocean is fun, and it makes people happy which in turn makes them nicer people.


• sunsets over the pacific are incredible. the sun looks like a ball of fire sinking into the water. its particularly impressive when you can only see a strip of the fire through clouds that extend out as far as you can see except for a few centimeters above the water at the farthest point. picturesque.
• people seem to really like that old school ring tone that sounds like an old telephone.
• eighties music is the thing. but its not your typical eighties music - the stuff you still hear on the radio. its obscure songs that one rarely hears and had all but forgotten existed. and not only is this music played in most of the shops, real estate offices and restaurants but you'll also hear it blaring from cars.

life is good

waking up this morning we thought we'd start the day out by going to the beach.

so, we started out at The Cliffs, and followed the cliffs to the beach. Little crabs ran all over as we walked, heading for the safety of the crevices. Sunday morning is a quiet morning at the beach - just a dozen determined surfers and other early risers. We dropped our stuff and headed for the cool waters of the Pacific. Mmmm, refreshing.

We had an awesome time jumping in the waves - its really great how ceaselessly fun wave jumping can be. I can't wait to get body boards!

We came home at 11:30am, showered, ate lunch and settled in for a nap. Playing in the ocean tires a girl and guy out. We woke from our nap at 2:30pm and headed to the cafe for internet, smoothies and a view of the ocean complete with breezes and live music.

Next stop, home to get our bathing suits back on for our evening ocean frolic.

moving day

this was quite possibly the easiest moving day ever.

we woke up at our usual time, 6:45am, showered and started packing our bags for the big move in.
took a cab to our new place by the ocean, and there we were. moved. living in san diego, california. easy.

of course, we rested a bit. sat around celebrating with smiles and inspecting each nook and cranny. we also put a few things in the appropriate locations. then we went to the co-op to become members and buy some food to fill our fridge and bellies.

we had a nice lunch, put things away, and headed to the beach for a late afternoon splash...

im pretty sure ive never seen db have so much fun.
we walked out into the water and just jumped waves for as long as we could stand it. afterward, we lay on our beach blanket (which also doubles as our picnic blanket) and headed home to order pizza for a celebratory dinner.

can i just say, we've seen some strange and interesting things here in san diego... a gang of 30yr old razor riders (those scooter-things that all the kids are riding); folks on the street asking if we want to buy weed (which we don't); avacados for 50 cents; a boston red sox mural on a closed Ocean Beach bar/grille; and a bunch of other things that neither of us can think of all of a sudden.

we got it!

YAY! We got the apartment!!!

It's incredible! We signed the lease and we move in tomorrow!!! YAYAYAYAY!

last chance

we have to check out of the hotel tomorrow and there doesn't seem to be any available rooms in our price range. so, we have to find a place today or we're on the street for a while. today is the day, and that's exactly what we intentioned - finding a place we can move into by the 15th.

we looked at an incredible place today - a renovated spanish building from the 1920's spanish. it really matches our intentions in the most important aspects (there are a few ways it falls short, but none are deal breakers)... let me count the ways in which this fulfills our requirements:

• although 6 really long blocks from Ocean Beach, we are merely half a block from The Cliffs where we can not only see the incredible ocean below and beyond, but we can also climb down to a path along the cliffs to enjoy the ocean and two sandy beaches (one a few blocks to the left and another a few blocks to the right)
• the building and neighborhood is in what several realtors and tenants have referred to as the "more desirable" side of Ocean Beach, making it both quiet and safe both day and night.
• technically not available for another two weeks, if we get the apartment, we'll be able to move in on the 15th... the unit will be cleaned and painted while we live there, so we'd just have to refrain from buying furniture or decorating till the 27th
• easy to find (take W. Pt Loma Blvd to Sunset Cliffs Blvd and make a left. Take a right onto our street and we're 1.5 blocks up on the left in the most interesting looking building a few houses before The Cliffs).
• the building is clean and well-kept, and although the unit isn't technically "ready for occupancy" its still pretty damn clean. and we absolutely adore the management company - super friendly, honest and willing to answer all our silly bostonian "what does this mean" questions, and really seems to take the responsibility of being a landlord seriously (maintenance request slips in the hallway, posting legally required signs which we haven't witnessed in any other buildings, etc.)
• great light in the apartment both morning and early evening. then fair lighting into the kitchen area through the courtyard (which has a fountain and seating area!)
• go figure - the unit is 350 sqft and is called a Junior 1bd (which means its a studio with a separate kitchen). there is tons of storage in the kitchen/dining area, and the bedroom/living space there is a huge closet. plus, the bathroom sports built-in shelving. as far as room for doing art... i could set up shop in the courtyard, half a block away at the cliffs, or in the apartment if i choose.
• so, its not cottage-like, but it reminds me of a small spanish hacienda - eventually i'll post photos. there is so much character to this place, i can live without the grassy yard - plus there is a water shortage, so grassy yards just aren't an environmentally thoughtful way to go.
• the place isn't furnished, and the bedroom/living area is carpeted - so that's a down side. but it does have vinyl floors in the kitchen and bath. i can live with it.
• it seems to be in energetic alignment with both of us - we both love it.
• affordable at $915/mo, with a low security deposit. we do have to pay for all the utilities (water, sewer, trash, electric and gas) but they shouldn't cost more than $75/mo. the reason we pay for water is to help with conservation... if a person knows they pay for water, they consume less. i like it.
• this place is 6 blocks or less from everything we need - including a diner, coffee shop, library, and the only music venue in OB! also, we're 1/2 block from the bus stop, on two lines. one which goes downtown and the other goes to Old Town. laundry is on-site. one market is about 6 blocks away, the co-op is 16 blocks away and on the bus route.
• haven't seen any neighbors, so we can only hope they are friendly. the apartment manager says she likes to keep a quiet building, so it should be pretty nice. most tenants are long term residents, too.
• the windows... well, there are 3 and only one opens. but if we live here, that will be our first work-order request, to get the other two in working condition. we must have open windows! the sink is equipped with garbage disposal, and the bedroom/living area has a ceiling fan. the fridge is big and spacious. no microwave, no problem.
• finally, the place appears to be pest-free, and if we ever decide to get a cat we are welcome to for an additional deposit. YAY!

intentioning our perfect home in san diego

somewhat of a repeat of yesterday, except we did about half the walking. started out checking apartment listings online - craigslist and the sd reader - then called potential apartments during the 2 mile walk to Ocean Beach. also called folks we hadn't got ahold of yesterday.

have i mentioned how cheap the restaurants are here?
lunch today: sloppy joes, poppers and soda for only $6.50 total (including tax).

saw a few places today... a few between $800 or $1000, but don't quite match-up with our list of desires (aka intention list). location, size, price and move-in date are the top deciding factors. we have an appointment to look at something tomorrow which is in a super cute building but a few extra blocks from the ocean.

Intentioning our perfect home in San Diego:
Our new home is:

• a stone's throw to/from the beach
• in a safe, quiet neighborhood/location both day and night
• available for us to move in by July 15th, 2006
• easy to manifest, find, rent, afford
• clean and well-kept by our friendly, kind, honest, responsible landlord
• full of natural light
• spacious (350+sqft) with plenty of built-in storage and room for doing art
• 1 bdrm, cottage-like, with grassy yard and space for a grill
• furnished in a style that appeals to us with wood or tile floors
• in energetic alignment with both of us
• affordable - $800/mo, low security deposit, utilities included
• convenient: laundry room on site or nearby, close to market, diner, coffee shop, library, music scene, work
• surrounded by kind, friendly, honest, responsible, neighbors who keep appropriate volume and refer clients to me
• equipt with windows that easily open/close/lock, garbage disposal, microwave, refrigerator, ceiling fan
• pest-free and cat friendly

the hunt is on

• Woke early for 6am PST coaching call
• Completed awesome call
• Showered
• Walked to OB (2+ miles)
• Breakfast at super awesome/cheap diner - total $10 for 2 complete meals
• Walked up and down each street in a 2 block by 12 block area nearest the beach
• Took down apt management numbers posted on buildings and made tons of calls
• Library for classifieds in Union Tribune
• Lunch at Subway, fruit from grocery
• More walking in a new 2 block by 12 block area
• Took down apt management numbers posted on buildings and made more calls
• Saw two units inside, peaked in a few windows of other units
• Toes in the ocean, splash-splash, surfers everywhere
• Took another coaching call, this time from the beach :)
• Walked back to the hotel (2+ miles)
• Groceries for next few days (sandwich stuff, cereal, fruit, etc)
• Shower
• Ate salad for dinner
• Walked back to OB and then returned to hotel to experience our new neighborhood at night (4+ miles)
• 11pm, bed time

Note: fruit and veggies are ridiculously cheap here in CA... im in love

california here i come

so, here i am... sitting in the jetblue rotunda at JFK airport in NYC enjoying my free wireless internet connection and various tv programming. where am i off to today, you ask? why, sunny ol' San Diego of course.

"a mirror into my private life," db mutters as he gazes up into the picturesque daytime drama of General Hospital.

young and restless, thats what we were last week after returning from our most recent hiking trip. we've been somewhat at the mercy of other folks kindness for rides to and fro, and this has resulted in lots of sitting about with little to do except dream of hiking or california and what awaits us there.

we are equally ready to get our new lives started in San Diego. for me this means finding an apartment, doing some temp work, advertising my art, reiki and coaching in my new neighborhood, and relaxing on the beach. from what i understand, for db this means finding an apartment, getting a job working with kids (school, social work, etc), and reading 100 books over the next year.

so, on a whim a few days ago we decided to investigate flight prices again - something we haven't done in over a month since deciding to spend the summer hiking. prices weren't as good as they were in spring, yet they were sufficiently low for us to check into getting a ride to the airport. turned out, db's friend was headed up to Burlington, VT the morning of our flight to take a Mandarin language course. the synchronicity of these events led to this morning's early departure.

we knew it would be a long day. the first leg of our flight was scheduled to leave Burlington at 4:30pm and our ride would be dropping us off at the airport a good 9 hours early. we figured we could check in early and go flit around town for the day. apparently, this is not allowed. we could check in as early as noon, but no sooner...

unless... we wanted to fly stand-by on the 11:30am flight to JFK. we'd still have to wait for our original connecting flight to San Diego, but at least it would break up our day. since neither of us had been to JFK airport, we figured it would be an adventure. we could check the place out and really get to know it. thus we opted for the earlier flight.

please, do not mistakenly think that just because JFK is a cool airport name and in the cool city of NY that the place is any more comfortable, interesting or entertaining than any place else on the planet... it is most definitely not. in fact, its right up there with Chicago's Midway airport which i liken the atmosphere to the basement of my middle school gymnasium.

and that brings us back to the present moment.

we concur that soap operas are where americans learn to behave... dramatizing every little interaction to the point of making us nauseous.

Cliffhanger

In between hiking expeditions DB and I have been renting DVDs for mini-marathons of our new favorite TV series, Veronica Mars.

The plot twists and turns, turns and twists, then twists and turns some more. Although exhausted, we were wholey unable to resist our intrepid curiousity about "who dun it" and we stayed up till 1am to finish season one. Now that's a cliffhanger!

I have to admit I looked up the start of season two online (see above link) and was sorely disappointed to see how things pan out in season two... DB and I were ecstatic when two certain someones finally hooked up, but it looks like the show does the predictable thing in season two.

Will DB and I keep watching? Too early to tell. Plus, we have to wait for season two to come out on DVD before we can even begin.

Long Trail Adventure Day Eleven-B

Not a "real" hiking day - no Long Trail miles. We merely hiked down a couple miles to a trail head where Daniel's parents picked us up. A huge storm came through last night and another was on its way for the afternoon, so rather than try to summit Mt. Mansfield in a thunderstorm, we figured we'd go home and relax our faces.

Distance: 2+ miles

Start: Butler Lodge

Destination: Stephenson Rd

Weather: Windy

Damage: Thankfully none

Morale: Pretty high

Breakfast: Granola bars

Lunch: Burgers in St. J

Long Trail Adventure Day Eleven

Is Hell located in the mountains? Maybe.

One hell of a morning from Puffer to Taylor Lodge. Longest, slowest, hardest, most injurious 3.4+ miles ever!

I fell twice. First, forward into a mud pit, twisting my left ankle (fortunately not sustaining any injury). Second, backward onto my ass, seriously bruising my right cheek and scraping the top layer of skin from my right wrist. Downward climbs suck. Daniel also fell twice, escaping with not so much as a scratch.

We rested for an hour or more at Taylor Lodge and after catching our second wind, hiked another 3.4+ miles up Mt. Mansfield to Butler Lodge. This second bit really restored Morale and left us each feeling greatly accomplished. After discussion, we determined our feelings of accomplishment from hiking come from a combination of actually going a decent distance in a decent amount of time and feeling like we truly got some exercise.

Still, I insist we return to St. J tomorrow before we end up going home in pine boxes.

In other news, on our second half, we were passed by two thunderstorms which only sprinkled on us and enjoyed incredible views of the surrounding mountains.

Plus, when passing a pond we saw a bullfrog!!!


Distance: 6.9 miles

Start: Puffer Shelter

Destination: Butler Lodge

Weather: Thunder Storms

Damage: Bruised right bum-cheek, scraped wrist, twisted left ankle, sore knees

Morale: all-time low, really great

Breakfast: Oatmeal w/ Raisins and Refried Beans

Lunch: Tuna, Hershey's bar, Reese's

Dinner: 1.25 bags of Chicken Top Ramen, Rice, Hershey's and Reese's PB cups.