redeeming factors

ok... let me just preface this by saying i am STILL a norcal kid. i bleed the golden gate and sourdough and fog, OK? BUT, i have to admit socal is growing more, well, tolerable. and i have my college roommate kim (same roomie all 4 years - boulder for life!) to thank for this. she's the one in the sleeping-bag-sized wetsuit below. that was day 3. i'll get to that.

day 1 i don't have pics of, but it involved sausages and wine at a german architecture party. yeah. i know.

day 2 began as a lazy saturday. it kind of ended that way as well. in between time, we went kayaking in sunset beach. or, rather, darcy kayaked and kim and melissa floated and/or were towed. my arms were kinda sore the next day, but it almost made up for not working out recently. i rewarded myself for the effort by eating a large portion of this:




duke's makes some RIDICULOUS 'chos, friends. eat and be merry. and grab a mai tai to help wash it along. the nachos session was followed by shopping in huntington and then a bonfire at bolsa chica started just slightly after sunset.



this is us waiting in the car for a happy family of three to abandon their pit so that we could burn tofu dogs and wash them down with s'mores and wine coolers. yeah. i know.






after washing the smoke and melted marshmallow off ourselves, we slept. and got up early to see about a surf. finally found a place to rent boards and wetsuits by the huntington pier and then went out to attack some waves. here is kim in her enormous wetsuit.



an effin GORGEOUS day, but alas the waves we found were not built for humans. i think we picked the wrong timing for the tides (and likely a poor spot, but we were afraid of pissing off the locals with two missouri kids and my own land-lubbing self by getting too close to the real stuff) but let me tell you the dolphins were ripping that shit up! they didn't care that the breaks weren't perfect... about 10 of them were shredding the waves pretty near us, so that sight alone made the day. after surfing/floating on our boards we did what all socal residents do on a normal sunday, and went sailing. my friend sam has a boat up in marina del rey, and he took us for a spin into the ocean. no one puked. only one bottle of beer spilled. and only one container of cheese spread ended up with a footprint in it. one the whole, a success. i will force sam to take me again. adequately exhausted from a weekend of abnormally damp and sunny activities, we topped off the weekend with sushi and wine.




damn... i'm exhausted just writing that. rest in peace, cheese spread.

ghetto

just when you think you live in a lovely new neighborhood just blocks from the beach and have cable AND internet along with a garbage disposal to make you feel fancy........... the GHETTO BIRDS ATTACK! home before 10 and a mellow evening on the new futon, you think? negative ghost rider, the pattern is full. full of GHETTO BIRDS, that is!
for those of my avid readers who do not live in long beach (which is no one, i'm pretty sure) ghetto birds are helicopters - most often police helicopters investigating suspicious shenanigans in nearby neighborhoods of our lovely city. they are loud mother effers that circle and circle and circle... ebbing and flowing with hideously obnoxious propeller-pounding ferociousness that pierces into your whole entire brain and totally interrupts 'the daily show'. i have a feeling that jon stewart would be seriously pissed to know that i have to pause the flow of his bush-crushing witticisms due to the evil that is is the long beach police helicopter. enough! i'll just have to tell you about disneyland later... fight the power friends, fight the power.