Welcome to the new-look, sassy, links-on-the-side Discoblog. This whole thing, need I remind you, fair reader, is a work in progress. And this new template with more ample sidebar pleases me, for the moment. Its good to be back bloggin’.
My weekend was busy and here it is. It all started last Sunday night I decided to surprise the old San Diego boys and buy a ticket down there for the super bowl weekend. I coordinated the arrival and pick up with Eryn, keeping everyone else in the dark, and things went pretty smoothly. The Thursday before I left, I stayed up way too late playing Battlefield 1942, which has become the latest bane of my existence. I went to bed around 3 am after all the packing and such was done, and I got up promptly at 4:30 am Friday morning to head to the airport. The flights (I had a stop in Sacramento) were a blur as I pretty much passed out for the duration of both. And then San Diego.
My favorite immediate thing to do promptly after landing whenever I return to San Diego is to rush outside and smell the San Diego air. Some of you may complain that its smoggy crap, but I love the smell; it reminds me of many happy years I spent there. That first breath of air and the accompanying sunlight are enough to immediately elevate my mood an echelon or two, and on this trip it proved no different. I always get in a good mood anyway when going to San Diego. Certainly its because I get to see my friends, but also because of the nostalgia of knowing that several of my formative years were spent there. Its tough to call it my hometown, for some reason (I didn’t move there until high school), but it certainly feels familiar, which is always a plus. Anyway, I landed, and was happy and content with the world.
Eryn picked me up at the airport and then we zoomed over to his dream job at Sony, and we got there and once again I marveled at how different our jobs are. I mean, seriously, how completely and utterly different our jobs our. (Be strong Michael – do NOT get started on a job tangent here…) Anyway, it was fun hanging around his office, checking out the latest hi tech stuff. Everyone was pumped on the Super Bowl Pre-game animations and it was fun watching that. Then we checked out another fun game of WCD football, PS2 style, which is always good fun (the write up is still, um, pending).
After work Eryn had arranged for everyone to meet at his place prior to heading to Pizza Port (another favorite nostalgic spot of mine in SD – spent the good half of my 21st birthday there…). Still no one knew I was in town. I had fun surprising people as they came over – Adam’s response was especially funny as I walked in and said, “What’s up?” His eyes got all wide as his brain processed the odd and unexpected information. (Then we made out).
Pizza Port was a blast, complete with pizza and beer (shocking!) – The night cap was spent at Eryn’s playing some game called “Derivation” – it was a good time even though Iwan cheated his way to a win.
Saturday I slept in until about noon (always trying to catch up on sleep) – then Eryn and I hit the Pancake house and finally hiked Torrey Pines with Adam, Diana, and Heather (That’s right – I was fifth wheel). That night we ate some dinner at Calypso’s, a chic place somewhere in Encinitas – the food and wine were really good, and chalk up another 50$ plus dinner for me. (I average about one a week). There was some fun conversation with Sara Martin and the others and I had a good time staring at attractive southern California women scattered about (and working in) the restaurant. There was also a table full of rich, La Jolla looking older women complete with ridiculous sized wedding rings who were out on the town and supplying me with plenty of amusement in the process. Following that, we headed out to the Shanty to play some pool which translated into me feeding a couple bucks into a horrible juke box while we watched Iwan play some “bar guy” for rights to the pool table so that the whole lot of us could eventually play (down to Eryn, Heather, Iwan, and myself by this point). Iwan succeeded (without cheating this time) and we played some pool for a while.
Sunday was the Super Bowl and we all headed to Eryn’s Dad’s ummm “house”, which of course was unreal. The game was fun to watch, and good old Gabe Buhr showed up so we could chat face-to-face one last time before he becomes a dad. The game was a blast – its funny how easily I fall back into the same old routine of watching TV with that group of friends. Everyone eyed me with vast amusement when a typically horrible Super Bowl commercial ended, all aware of how much those fucking things burn me up inside. This year the Jimmi Hendrix commercial was particularly disgusting. The Super Bowl halftime show was complete with tits (or tit), and I’m already tired of the uproar generated over this thing – I found my dad’s annoyed reaction particularly funny and typical of prudish Americans. (I’m surprised they didn’t cut away to some horrifically violent movie promo or something similar to quickly flea from the “dirty, filthy, scarring” sight of a female breast and save the minds of our children. What a statement that would have been.) Following the super bowl we headed to Adam and Diana’s house for fun game of “Dungeons and Dragons Clue” which was won by me! Then it was good bye, and back to Eryn’s, and off to bed, and to the airport in the morning.
And back to the gray skies of Seattle. Being in San Diego for a mere weekend and then coming back here seriously reminds me of how much I miss the sun in the winter here. Within hours of return, my mood had already settled back into the residency-related mush of gray. Where it remains.
[modified]
“The world is a vampire….”
