Greetings from Las Vegas...

Las Vegas, New Mexico that is. Yeah, it's about as exciting as it sounds. I am pretty sure if I was in the other one in Nevada I would not be blogging. I have not been to the one in Nevada yet, but I am pretty sure it's a little more happening. Bobaloo and I packed all of our stuff up yesterday and put all of our necessities in the U-Haul and everything else in storage. We were able to get on the road and make it to Phoenix last night. To get out of the state of California we had to go through some mountains which was terrifying because the brakes in my car are not up to snuff. There was a nasty accident too that freaked me out. It's extremely strange to be driving in California and Arizona. There are border patrol agents everywhere. When I was driving to California a couple of months ago I had to stop four or five times at checkpoints. Last night we only had to stop once. Border Patrol agents assholes. And while I am a fan of dogs, I don't appreciate their scary dogs sniffing my car. We made it to Phoenix and stayed in a hotel. Today we finished driving through Arizona and were making our way through New Mexico when we decided to stop for the night. So, we are enjoying the luxuries of cable television and continental breakfast. I love cable and I love breakfast. A lot. By this time tomorrow, I will be in my own bed at home. I am pretty excited about that. This trip has certainly been interesting. You wouldn't believe all of the things you can buy from the side of the road in Arizona and New Mexico. That's another post entirely. Well, that's all. Good night.

The Weekend Happenings.

Well, this past weekend is my last one in San Diego. It was filled with all sorts of fun and adventure and unfortunately, not a whole lot of packing. On Friday, we hung out at a friendly bar called the Aero-Club which has been our regular hangout while being here. There are always some interesting characters in there so it was nice to yuk it up and stay up too late.

Saturday was a lazy day from staying up way too late. Amongst all of the laying around and doing nothing I managed to muster up the fortitude to reactivate my Netflix account so I could fully bask in being a bum. After an Ed O’Neill (Al Bundy) movie and Chinese food, I was out.

Yesterday was fun. Bobaloo and I headed up to Carlsbad to have a delicious brunch with my sister-in-law and nephew. I am sad to be moving away from them. I have really enjoyed getting to spend so much time with them while out here. No trip to Carlsbad would be complete without a trip to Dini’s By the Sea. So, we headed there and had a few cocktails and enjoyed the sunshine. After that we went home for some more Netflix fun.

I have two days left of work. Two days! We have a few days to get all of our stuff packed and ready to go and by this weekend we will be back in Colorado. I cannot believe it.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Just Ducky

So if you are bored this weekend and have stumbled upon Jillie Side Up, you have found me at a funky fork in my life. Do you know what I enjoy about being a grownup? That we all are in various stages of having our ducks in a row.

There is the type of grownup who from an early age had life pretty well figured out. They dreamed their dream and went and got it. Those people’s ducks are fully aligned. I have a couple of best friends who are this type of grownup and I am always amazed at their tenacity and discipline.

There is the type of grownup whose ducks are all there, kind of in formation, and for the most part swimming with some direction. They made it from point A to point B, but not by the means of a straight line but rather a curvy path. I have friends who are of this variety too. What I admire about them is their ability to get to point B while having some fun and doing cool shit on the way.

Then, there is the grownup like me. I have ducks. And they’re really awesome ducks, but kind of rebellious and can never seem to get in a row. I am eleven days late in making my birthday resolution for this year, so here it goes. This year is the year I reign in my ducks and tell them what’s what and where we are going. If all goes well, next April 13th, we will be having a duck-themed birthday party and will be celebrating how pretty my little row of ducks is.

Slapdash San Diego Thoughts (in no particular order)

My time in San Diego is winding down. I am excited to be all packed up and to leave. I am not excited however, to actually do the packing or drive twenty-one hours. It’s strange how mobile I consider myself in my head; in reality I have a lot of stuff. I can’t help it, I am sentimental and it is easily to acquire a menagerie of furniture, books, photo albums, and clothes. Stuff. It’s weird how much I enjoy my possessions. Not that it is treasure from Pier One Imports or anything fancy like that. When I first came out here, besides my husband, the thing I missed the most about Colorado was my couch. I loved that sucker.

I am happy we were able to check out some stuff while living here. In some ways it has been like a weird two month vacation except I go to work.

Do you know what I find most fascinating about San Diego? No matter where you stand in the city, there are dozens of frozen yogurt shops in a two-mile radius. As a fan of frozen yogurt, that is amazing. That shit doesn’t happen in the Midwest or in Colorado. Sure you have your Dairy Queen, Coldstone Creamery, and whatnot but it just isn’t the same. I am really going to miss that.

I enjoy missing things; it means there was some joy or love worth checking out and worth being missed. I am glad that I am going to miss San Diego a little bit. Not just the frozen yogurt, the Trader Joe’s, or Ikea. The hustle and bustle of the city is great. Although there is a little more bustle for my taste than there is hustle, the general vibe is awesome. I am a fan of cities that have great public transportation and SD is awesome, trains, trolleys, busses galore plus most areas are pretty pedestrian-friendly. Yield for the peds, man.

Happy Day, Earth

I am generally a fan of holidays where it is expected of me to have cocktails. Christmas? Celebrate the birth with some egg nog. Easter? Celebrate the rising with some wine. Fourth of July? Have a few cold ones and watch the fireworks. St. Patrick’s Day? Self-explanatory. Earth Day? Why not?

It is great that we have a day dedicated to pondering where we need to make changes for a better world. This past year has found me eating more locally, using reusable shopping bags, and cutting back on consumption with limited trips to Target.

Where I could use more green in my life in my intake of beverages. Wine, beer, rum, and Coca-Cola all come in glass or aluminum and make for much to be recycled in our household. When we lived in Boulder, on occasion we would get mead from Redstone Meadery and drink like Vikings. They sell their mead in reusable and fashionable blue bottles. When you returned with your bottle they would refill it at a discount price. What an idea! I love it!

I think I am going to look for some other useful ideas when it comes to cans and bottles. I am already planning a Heineken Christmas tree this year out of bottles. Also, the internet is amazing. Look what else you can make. I think I am going to try the beer chandelier and the radio for the lounge.

Here is an interesting article on the topic of beer bottle vs. can. Which is better for the environment?

Can you think of more eco-friendly ways of getting your drink on?

Mussels, Mollusks, and Movies

I have not been feeling very creative as of late. My thoughts have been a gumbo of mumbo jumbo recently. Having life be absolute disarray might have something do with it. I have been doing a lot of reading though, sometimes it’s nice to sit back and read about the drama in other people’s lives.

I leave San Diego at the end of the month and am very excited to be going back home. This little adventure hasn’t been a total loss though, we’ve missed three blizzards in Denver and the pool at our apartment complex will open up at the end of May.

My husband brought up the idea that we’re pool kind of people. Not ocean people, not lake people, on occasion river people, but for the most part pool people. It’s totally true. I am not quite sure what to make of that information. I prefer to be a big fish in a small chlorinated pool? I guess if I am wearing my shiny swimsuit, I look more like a mermaid or a shiny mussel shell. So I guess I am a shiny mollusk in a chlorinated pool. Hmmm... Anyway, I am looking forward to the summer and getting all of our pool toys out and enjoying the sunshine.

I have been enjoying my time out here a lot more. Now that I know we’re going home it is easier to be worry-free. I have given my two week notice already, and have never been so happy to leave a job in my life. Seriously, it’s that bad. Last weekend we went out to dinner and a movie which was fun. We go to the movies once a year, so it’s a big deal. We also took a drive up the coast stopping at a fun little bar called, Dini’s By the Sea in Carlsbad where we drank cool drinks in the sunshine on the patio and met some interesting people.

Two Weeks Notice

Remember the movie The Wizard of Oz? I loved it when I was a kid. I knew every word and every song from watching it over and over. It was a close second to Annie. I always shuddered during the parts with the flying monkeys, laughed at the teeny munchkins, and marveled at Glenda the good witch.

In less than two weeks I am going home. Much like the movie, my life in Denver became black and white and I went on a search for Technicolor. What better place to do that than California? Everything is bright, new, and different. I have encountered tin men, scarecrows, and the like out here. I was swept up in a necessary twister of befuddlement and amongst the budding plot lines, was smacked into a harsh reality.

I remember a part at the end of the movie when Dorothy says something like, “I know now if I ever go looking for my heart’s desire, I don’t need to go any further than my own backyard.”

That is how I would sum up the lessons learned on this misadventure. Does life get boring and monotonous sometimes? Yep. Is part of being a grownup dealing with it? Unfortunately, yep.

P.S. In other news, I logged into my blogger account this morning and all of the blogs I read disappeared from my queue and somehow the internet erased me as a follower from the blogs I read. Darn it! I didn’t mean to “un-follow” you; it might take some time for me to find everyone again.

It happened.

I am now closer to thirty than to twenty.

One year older, and a hell-of-a-lot wiser.

Beware of Foreshadowing

So, a proverbial change of heart has taken place and some decisions have been made. I called my dad today to wish him a happy Easter and to tell him that after a lot of thought, we are moving back to Denver. I was expecting for him to advise me to stick it out and hang in there. But instead, he said something along the lines of at least we have the courage to make mistakes. And more importantly, life is full of ups and downs and the key is to have more ups than downs. Sometime during the three and a half years of living in Denver, it became home without us even realizing it. We have gotten our apartment back, now all we have to do is get our lives back. Hopefully, there will be many ups in our future. Happy Easter!

Looking for Answers

I am full of questions. I cannot help it; there is just so much strange information out in the world pleading for me to get my informative hands on it. My inquiries know no confines.

I tackle global issues. How far would we have to go in the ocean to reach international waters? I ponder diversity. Why are there never white people working at sushi restaurants? I delve into holy contemplation. Why do we celebrate Easter, again, and where do the eggs come in? Even cuisine is not safe from my inquest. Who came up with the idea of frozen yogurt? Did they have a beef with ice cream or something? Why has no one invented beer flavored frozen yogurt? I’d eat that.

More often than not, my husband shoulders the brunt of my queries in the car on the way to somewhere. After attempting an answer the following conversation usually takes place:

Him: I guess I don’t know, wait, how am I supposed to know?

Me: I don’t know. You know lots of stuff. I thought maybe you’d have read it somewhere.

Him: Where would I have read about the creation of frozen yogurt?

Me: I don’t know. I was just wondering. Maybe you’ll read about it somewhere in the future and remember that I was wondering.

At this point he usually just shakes his head and we move on.

The strange part is that I don’t necessarily need an answer and it is not likely that I will not wiki it when we get home. In my opinion though, they are valid questions to throw out there. Someday I am going to win a big screen TV in a bar trivia competition or something. We’ll see who’s laughing then.

The stranger part is I have a picture in my head of my husband reading in a waiting room and learning the answers to all of my questions in some magazine. I wonder what magazine it is.

Let The Sunshine In

The trouble began right before we moved to San Diego. Bobaloo and I have had a barrage of bad luck. We have been thwacked by the world more times than I care to count. It started with Bobaloo's identity being stolen in Denver followed by major car repairs that were not in the moving budget.

I came out here and found an apartment that is too small, had my identity stolen, and last week had to buy a new starter for the old Taurus. Not to mention the stress of Bobaloo looking for a job and the both of us trying to adapt to a new place and a new life and missing Denver quite a bit. It's been a rough run.

We have been doing our best to stay positive and have been doing everything karmicly (I don't think that's a word) possible to turn things around.

Here is some awesomeness amidst the calamity:

• I get the biggest kick out of the weather forecast on the news. Here is an example of a typical forecast: Today we're expecting it to be nice, tomorrow we are expecting another beautiful day, but look out, the temps are going to plummet to 55 on Saturday. Ha!

• Pacific and Mission beaches have the best people watching in town.

• We had our maiden voyage to Trader Joe's last weekend. Wow. There was no possible way for me to contain my excitement and focus there. We found such low-priced delights as vodka, green bean chips, and soy chorizo. Soy chorizo! If that is out there, think of the possibilities! The chorizo was muy delicioso by the way.

• The Little Italy farmers market is charming. It is quaint and there are all sorts of fresh goodies and samples. I love samples.

• The Aero-Club Bar is a friendly neighborhood joint we found last week with good peeps and good booze.

• We mysteriously have cable. I do not know how long it will last but I am enjoying every second of it.

• I get to see my sis-in-law and nephew on a bi-weekly basis. It is neat to see the little guy trying to say new things and getting big. Plus, I get to look forward to being an aunt to forthcoming baby two.

• Last but not least, it is April and I have a tan.

P.S. How does the song go? Is it "let the sushine in" or "let the sun shine in" with a space between "sun" and "shine?" Hmmm... I suppose it doesn't really matter.

Swimming Lessons

Living in San Diego, Bobaloo and I live quite close to the ocean now. I’m talking under a mile. When we made the decision to move here I had dreams of hanging by the ocean and taking it in on a hot day that includes picnics, Frisbee, tunes, the whole nine yards.

Bobaloo and I were talking about going to Pacific Beach to hang out this weekend. Only now, has the realization that I cannot swim set in. And while the ocean is beautiful, I am terrified of it. Not to mention shark attacks.

Growing up my family vacationed in Florida twice. Both times we stayed in hotels next to the beach where we swam in shark-free, five-foot pools next to the ocean. My dad would not let us go into the sea over our knees because of the omnipotent undertow, thus, my irrational fear of the dark deep-sea.

I think about this and the birthday resolutions I am going to make in a couple of weeks and am thinking it might be time to sign up for swimming lessons at the local community center.

Lord Hornblower

So, this last weekend my little bro was in town for spring break. This kid has seen and done everything by the age of 17 due to my older bro and me living in awesome locales. I was kind of stumped on what to do with him and also a little short on fun money.

For $25 apiece, I booked tickets for us to cruise the 26 miles around San Diego Harbor. When we got on the boat we found chairs for the three of us on the left side of the boat, or port side if you will, for all of my pirate readers. Ahoy, by the way. The whole tour was of everything on the right side of the boat. Oops!

We saw Diego the whale’s shadow. The poor thing is stuck in the harbor. Who gets to name the whales anyway? I have to say, it is kind of a lame name for a whale. If I had a whale, I woud probably name him Walter. What would you name your whale?

Halfway through the tour, we found a table on the sun deck where we were able to indulge in a beer and some chips. Some awesome chips. Chips in the shape of a whale’s tale. I took pictures. And as soon as I find my camera cable I will upload them. Anyway, we proceeded to get sunburned, which was awesome. Because it was March.

After the boat ride, we topped the day off with some pizza, frozen yogurt, and the movie Anchorman. I think my bro got a good taste of San Diego.