day one, san diego

the weeks leading up to day one were some of the most stressful of my (steph’s) life. i was taking care of last minute appointments, training the new girl at work, trying to sell crap on craig’s list, and at a yard sale, trying to hang out with my friend amy as much as possible and seeing sights I hadn’t gotten around to yet. notice i didn’t mention packing. packing for the cross country move I’m about to undertake. so that’s what I am doing on the morning of day one. thusly, i leave late to pick up matt from the san diego airport.

the drive down is uneventful and enjoyable. i’ve visited san diego a few times before and have a couple of favorite places along the route, like the golf course in the canyon and the cool looking bridge you pass under. plus, up to now, san diego is my favorite place in southern california.

matt is waiting patiently for me at baggage claim when I pull up. we load his ludicrous amount of luggage into the car and after some initial indecisiveness we head towards our dinner reservations in la jolla. owing to the fact it is thanksgiving, most things are closed but we walk around and go towards the water. there is a little walkway with steep steps that leads down past the dumpsters to an overlook at a cliffs edge. at the bottom are seals swimming and barking on the rocks. “it’s like a zoo only cooler.” but there are also some over zealous adventure seekers taking pictures of the seals with their mobile phones. i’m still puzzled as to how they got down there. lucky for them, none of the seals seemed to have developed the taste for mammal blood. yet.

we head back up to the road and decide to sit at the ocean view bar at george’s (www.georgesatthecove.com) for sunset. the view is fantastic and the drinks are strong. matt and i catch up, make the obligatory “happy thanksgiving” call to mom, talk about movies and music and generally enjoy the atmosphere. after a pre-dinner smoke we head downstairs. our table is ready and our waiter seems nice. i ask him about the “1521” martini which is vodka infused with sweet potato and served with a toasted marshmallow. he says it’s one of their sweetest drinks which we later determine was his subtle recommendation not to order it. dinner could not have been better though. the pumpkin ginger soup was amazing and the free range turkey quite worth the price.

back in riverside matt and i have our first rehearsal. it goes ok considering that practicing wasn’t on my to-do list the previous two weeks. we nail down “you will always be the same” and call it a night.