Day 1 in San Diego: Yo, Bra!

I landed in San Diego yesterday morning to attend the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference (or as it's been dubbed by friends and family, "The Best Mexican In the World Awards" ). My job graciously bestowed this free trip upon me, so, of course, I am taking advantage of it!

For some reason, other than the fact the northern hemisphere of Earf (yes, Earf!) is slowly tilting away from the sun, it's unusually (and unfortunately) cool here. So, yesterday, I went to Mission Beach yesterday to play in the water. I parked at the most southern end of the beach and started walking north with my shirt off trying to absorb as much of the Sun's vitamin D as possible (with SPF 30 on ).

I walked over to the edge of the sea foam and put my hand down while the wave came in. "Hmmmm...not too bad" I thought. I kept walking on the beach and noticed hardly anyone was in the water. I tested the temperature again. Cold. Damn. I walked to the center of the beach where the surf and skate shops were. I shopped for a bit and saw nothing of necessity and kept walking. Apparently on this beach there isn't a whole lot of commerce. I eventually got myself a pizza cheesesteak sandwich and watched surfing videos on their antiquated big screen TV.

I walked back to the car in about 15-20 minutes and moved it to the center of the beach. I decided I was going to get into the water. I forgot to pack my really nice boardshorts and the wifey had packed my black workout trunks that are falling apart on me. Normally this would be okay, but I didn't have anywhere to put my belongings. I couldn't keep them in my pockets for fear they would go into the Pacific Ocean and be gone forever. I couldn't leave them on the beach for the fear someone would walk off with them. I couldn't even really take my car key into the ocean because they bundled the key portion with the locking/trunk opening fob so if I got it wet, it wouldn't work. *sigh* So, I walked around some more and finally decided to at least touch the water up to my knees.

OOOOOOOHHHHHHHH! GAWD DAMN THAT'S SOME COLD SH*T! It took me a good 5-6 minutes of standing in the 65° F water before I could feel my loins return to their proper area. I let the water move me and watched others surfing or boogie boarding . At this point, I decided to do something about my predicament!

I walked back off the beach and went to the surf shop called Wings and looked for inexpensive clothing. I bought some $5 shades as I always lose them or break them at some point. I found some water shoes for $10 since I forgot my chankles a.k.a chanclas a.k.a. sandals. I could wear these in and out of the water. Cool. Then I went boardshort shopping. There were a lot of cool ones but nothing with both an inside pocket for things like money and keys and some kind of zipper to protect them. I went to 5 different stores and only found really 1 pair but they wanted $50 for it.

This one guy who I could've sworn just smoked a bowl of trees was trying to help me out. He gave me directions to visit the Nordstrom Rack outlet store further in town. He confused himself like 4-5 times trying to give directions. After I deciphered what he was saying, I decided to give it a shot. I figured that I probably wasn't going to get into the water today even if I found some due to my key issue. At least I'd be prepared for more action in the next few days if I got everything now. I drove there and his directions were perfect. I found the store with no trouble at all. I guess those glassy, bloodshot eyes were for effect down by the beach.

Here's a pet peeve of mine at outlets store. I am convinced that only midgets, anorexics, and giants can shop at those store. I am a 36" waist and 6 feet tall. All I could find for a majority of the clothes were like 28"-32" or 46"-52"! They had plenty of kids clothing there. I finally found some shorts that I liked and were in my size and decided to go try them on. I gave a call to the wifey asking her if my current boardshorts had an inside pocket. She then told me "Oh, I packed them in your suitcase." I didn't see them in the main compartment but she packed them in one of the ones I never look in. Now I couldn't justify buying these shorts if I already had mine with me. So, I left the store and headed back to the hotel.

I ended up not going back to the beach. I was hungry, tired, and a little burnt (try putting suntan lotion on your back by yourself). So, I showered, got some Chik-Fil-A, then headed back to hotel to snuggle up with my History Channel and CNN. I fell asleep at 8:30 PM PT.

Currently listening : The Warmth of the Sun By The Beach Boys Release date: 22 May, 2007