Beach Day

I'm sick of trying to upload photos to Blogger and have to deal with them. So just click HERE to see pictures of our beach and surfing day.

Baja Betty's

Satomi asked me what I was doing after work tonight, and for once, I actually had some free time. Actually, I should've been doing more productive things, but we went to Baja Betty's instead. It's half Mexican food restaurant, half gay bar, and it was really fun!Michelle, Satomi, and even Katie! We all ordered drinks and appetizers because it was HAPPY HOUR.

We had a waiter who we all totally knew was gay. When he checked my Iowa ID, he said he had moved from Missouri a year ago. He was pretty flamboyant. He said something like, "Yeah I love San Diego because it's such a liberal place and blah blah blah. I live here in Hillcrest blah, blah, blah. It's just nice to be the minority, you know? Because I'm straight and everything, so it's cool to live in a gay neighborhood."

All of the sudden a question mark appeared above all of our heads because this guy said he was straight. Like, seriously? We thought the moral of his story was going to be "Oh I moved from Missouri and now here in San Diego I feel like I can be out and proud." But that was not the case. He kept pretending that he was straight, and he even bought us free shots! :-)

Matty Matt Matt came with two of his friends and kept coming between the two tables. Here is almost our whole lunch shift from today, minus Dreya. That's right, we're all Sushi Deli co-workers!

Then some yahoo decided it would be fun to light off some fireworks indoors. The nerve of some people.

After a few attempts at pictures, our "straight" server asked if he could take the picture.

Then we were done at Baja Betty's. Somehow 2 1/2 hours had passed, but it felt like 1. Matt and his friends had already left, so we went back to Satomi's car, but I was like "Hey let's stop in this 99 cent store!" And as soon as we got in, we realized Matty and his friends were already there! The store had many amazing treasures, but the biggest treasure of all is knowing that.....

....SATOMI IS MY HERO.

Blacks Beach

Today Michelle and I went to Blacks Beach for some sun and surfing. It was a long hike down the hill, especially carrying our beach bag and surfboard, but it was also a mini adventure. I had heard that beach is a good place for surfing, but it may have been a little too good. The waves were super huge and unfortunately, with our limited surf knowledge, didn't have a successful surf day.

The cool element to Blacks is the Glider port right above it. So there were tons of people paragliding and probably one or two hang gliding. It was awesome to be laying there and then have a huge parachute fly over you.

One thing I forgot to mention to Michelle until we got there was....Blacks is a nude beach! However, I didn't plan on going nude with Michelle there, since she is my manager at Sushi Deli. So I tried to show her a little bit about surfing, but of course I don't know that much. We both failed miserably at trying to get out into the waves, but they were so big that we gave up. A current kept pulling me south down the beach, so I decided I didn't want to die today.

Michelle kept trying to catch waves and got flipped around a few times. As she was walking back towards me, a nude older man asked her "Is it getting rough out there?" The man was completely naked except for the big straw hat he was wearing.

Then, there were so many nude people there, and the sun was feeling good, I decided to tan my bum a little bit. And then when Michelle attempted surfing again, I gave my front-side a little sun.

After awhile we decided it was time to go home. I asked a woman what time it was and she said is was 5:00! We had been there almost three hours without even realizing it.

Anyway, the moral of the story is...Blacks is my new favorite beach and Michelle is my new surfing buddy that I have recruited.

Orange County

The real Orange County wasn't really what I expected it to be. Just a lot of people thinking they are the shit, when they really aren't. Since we went last weekend and I'm lazy, just read Joey's blog about our adventure. We first went to South Coast Plaza in Newport Beach. Then we hung out at Allison's house. Then we helped with the fashion show. Overall it was a pretty fun weekend, but it kind of left a bad taste in our mouth.

Mini Grilling Fiesta

The other night, since my first grill was cheap and didn't work, I got an urge at 11 pm to go to Wal Mart for another one. This time I told myself I'd spend more money so that the grill actually worked. Well, since it was only charcoal, I figured it didn't really matter if I got a semi cheap one.


I found one for about $25 and it is taller than those mini Weber grills. Mine is just a generic brand, but it seemed less shady than the Rite Aid brand grill I had before. So we also bought that charcoal that is supposed to light right away when you touch a match to it. You aren't even supposed to use lighter fluid.

So the next day, we got some arrachera and decided to have Erica and Chris over. I tried to light the charcoal in my new grill. I tried and tried and tried. After trying to light the "instant light" charcoal for about 15 minutes, I gave up and ran to buy some lighter fluid. The bag of charcoal specifically says DO NOT USE LIGHTER FLUID WITH INSTANT LIGHT CHARCOAL. So I threw a bunch of lighter fluid on and it finally lit, although I was almost expecting it to explode because of all those warnings.

Erica was there, but Chris came and went because of work. Eventually he brought Charles back with him, and we were ready for the feast. I also invited Michelle and Amanda since they live so close by, but they were late. Joey had spent all this time preparing a huge Mexican food feast, but then he had to go to work by the time it was ready!

So Michelle and Amanda finally got there, but then Joey left, and then after we ate, Erica, Chris, and Charles all had to go. So then it was just me, Michelle, and Amanda. We all started drinking wine and just had a long, in-depth conversation about a whole slew of things.

Without realizing how late it was, Joey got back from work and we were surprised that a couple of hours had already passed. Joey's work friend, Olga, had dropped him off after work, and I told him he should've invited her in for food. (By the way, the meat was good, but since I'm not used to charcoal grills yet, it was a bit dried out! So it was really good, but was similar to beef jerky)

So by the time Olga turned around and got back here, Michelle and Amanda had to leave. So then we hung out with Olga for awhile, before it was time for bed.

We had also hung out with Olga a few days before, when we all went to Nunu's...

Although our first larger-sized get together semi failed (because everyone kind of came and went), I am still planning on having a grilling party!! Maybe next weekend though, because we are going to the OC this weekend. That's right, The REAL Orange County. But I'm pretty much expecting it to be exactly like all those crappy reality shows.

Grill = Kill

We had a heat wave recently, with the temp getting up to about 95. Perfect weather for the beach and surfing!
Every time I go surfing, I get a little bit better. However, I'm taking very little baby steps each time I go. The first time I surfed, I caught a wave laying down. Then eventually I semi-stood up. Then I stood up for 2 or 3 seconds. So this time I actually stood up for about 5 or 6 seconds! I think if I just get the upper body strength, I would be much better.

With all the familiar feelings of spring, I decided I wanted to get a grill! But with our very limited income, I decided to buy a $25 gas grill at Rite Aid down the street.

BAD IDEA! After taking about 45 minutes assembling the Chinese piece of crap, it was finally ready. We had the chicken ready to go and everything. I even invited a few people to come eat some food from our new grill, but thankfully, everyone was busy.

I say 'thankfully' because of what happened next. I started the grill just to test it out. I turned on the valve and it started hissing as expected. Then I tried to turn it off. The gas just kept hissing and hissing with no way to go off. I didn't want to light it, just in case I couldn't stop it. So I unscrewed the little propane tank. So again I tried it, and actually lit it this time. I figured since I had already gone to the trouble of walking all the way to Rite Aid, then Ace Hardware, then to Whole Foods, and then back to Rite Aid to buy it, plus the time it took to put it together, we might as well cook our dinner on it. Then the flames started going and it looked great! It was working like a charm! So I went inside and told Joey to bring out the chicken because we were ready to cook it. So I took the top off the grill and noticed the flames were getting bigger and then smaller. And the propane tank would hiss kind of louder and then softer again. Then all the sudden it went HHIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!! and the flames got huge!
That damn grill was frickin' possessed! I took it back to Rite Aid the very next day. They asked what was wrong with it and I told them it was dangerous.

I was almost tempted to buy a Rite Aid brand charcoal grill, because what could go wrong with that? But I decided it would be better to spend a little bit more money for a mini Weber grill.

I smell a cookout on the horizon....

New Friends

The other night I stopped by Sushi Deli to pick up some sushi, and I saw my manager, Michelle, was working a double. We had worked together earlier that day, but Sushi Deli at night is way different. It was super loud in there and looked kind of hectic. I asked Michelle what she was doing after work and she said to call her later. So I texted her and we made plans to grab a drink at Nunu's, which later we canceled because she didn't get off work until late. The funny thing is, we realized that we live about a block away from each other!

So we made plans to hang out Saturday night. I went over to her apartment and met her roommate, Amanda, and then later her friend Collin came over. The girls attempted to make pina coladas using coconut milk and a real pineapple, which turned out tasting like milk with chunks of pineapple. But we just added more rum to make them taste better :-)

Michelle is from Michigan and Amanda is from a north suburb of Chicago but they both went to school in Indiana. They just moved here in September or October so they haven't been here long either. I think it's the fact that we are midwesterners that we get along so well.

Since the weather was super nice today, we decided to have a Beach Day! The girls picked me up and we drove to Ocean Beach, somewhere I'd never been before. We picked up some burritos along the way and they were pretty good except that mine had sticks in it! At first I thought it was seasoning or something, but after pulling out 7 or 8 little mini sticks, I got grossed out.

The parking lot was crazy and there were people everywhere. It is a much more crowded beach than some of the others. Then we saw this ice cream truck. I understand the "flavors", but what the hell are Grandma's favors? A hand job for $5?

They brought these big blankets, which are much better than the towel I normally take. I need to invest in a beach blanket!

We all basically passed out on the blankets for about 2 hours until it was time to go. The temp got up to 90 degrees but the beach was the perfect temperature with the cool wind coming off of the ocean. It felt so relaxing to just lay there and listen to music!

I just wish there weren't a thousand people on the beach!