Last weekend was Labor Day - I had Monday off and Jordi had no jobs scheduled, so we were very excited for a long weekend together. We were thinking of going to San Luis Obispo, but in life you either have money but no time, or time but no money. In this case it was the latter, so we decided to take advantage of the awesome town we live in and explore the area a bit more. Saturday both of our parents came over to our house and we headed down to the beach for an all day beach day. It was the first all-day beach day we've had this summer, and it was so fun to bring all our toys and picnic and relax the whole day! The forecast called that Saturday would be the only day of the weekend that it would be sunny, so we were crossing our fingers they'd be right. We toted down beach chairs, umbrella's, coolers, horseshoes, a football, paddleball, and even the kayak!
It was gloomy when we got down there, but the sun came out in the afternoon and it was beautiful. We didn't leave the beach til around 6, fat (from Mom's amazing chocolate chip cookies) and very happy!
Sunday we went to church and saw our favorite waitress from a restaurant downtown with her boyfriend. We chatted for a bit and found out that she knows some of my friends from college! We like them a lot, and are hoping to hang out with them in the future :)
In the afternoon we biked down through Camp Pendleton to Oceanside. First we biked through San Clemente, which smelled like seaweed and barbecue's. After passing the power plant, you ride through a very long campground, with lots of trails along the bluff and down to the ocean - we're going to have to explore that another day! Then you ride along the old Highway 1, which is super pretty and smells like delicious California Sage.
Then you cut across to the other side of the freeway and into Camp Pendleton, which was kinda weird. We passed lots of government housing and ugly storage units. Ridiculously large trucks from Texas and Montana wood zoom by quite regularly. Finally we made it to Oceanside, and took the train back up to San Clemente where we went to Sonny's for some pizza, which smelled great and tasted even better! ;)
Monday we hiked up Saddleback mountain, as far up as we could get. You have to drive offroad for about half an hour just to get to the trailhead, which is pretty fun. The beginning of the trail is very pretty and nice, and then it turns to death. It gets really hot and dry and never-ending. We hiked for over two hours just switchbacks through the shrubbery on a super narrow trail. We almost got run over by mountain bikers racing down a few times. It was not that great. We didn't have enough water to try and make it to the top, but we ended up doing about 10 miles all together. One day I'd like to get to the top, and although it's really not the greatest trail the views are still awesome.
So that was our weekend! Then I was sick with a bad chest cold the rest of the week, and this week I've been working a lot, and Jordi's been looking for work. He has been incredibly productive during his down time though. He made us a dining room table (really pretty!) he made cookies, dinner a couple nights, along with working on his website and advertising stuff. Another thing he's been working on is getting us insurance. We applied for Kaiser and got a surprising letter of rejection. Causes of rejection?
1- "Serious medications listed on your application"
Yes, Jordi got very sick in Asia and was suspected of having a gastrointestinal parasite. He took "serious" medication, and got better. Voila!
2 - "your history of back pain or injury within the last 12 months"
Jordi worked for a few years in an office setting in front of a computer, and his back became tight. He went to the doctor and they gave him stretches to do. Now that he is not in an office setting and does stretches, he has no further symptoms.
3- "your history of Hepatitis A"
I had Hepatitis A, which is non-chronic, and a virus that does not remain in the body. This was 15 years ago and I fully recovered, thank you very much.
4- "your self identified history of a medical or health related condition"
????
It's a little bit preposterous because we are pretty dang healthy and almost never go to the doctor, yet they still don't want our money! They don't know a good thing when it hits them in the face! :) Anyways, yet another fun thing Jordi gets to deal with while I teach the kiddos how to swim and freeze my brains out while I'm at it.
On that note - thank goodness I have no terror children this session! However it is cold. My days start with a feeling of dread, then a feeling of cold, then a feeling of accomplishment, when I'm taking my hot shower. Newspaper is still going well, although I am waiting for the opportunity to talk with my boss about where this is going, because I'm not so keen on filling up my hours with "free labor". I have worked a lot on two articles that will be featured on the same page - one is about a singing group for those with Parkinson's called Tremble Clefs, and the other is about a barbershop style chorus and quartet in San Clemente. They are putting on a concert together in November to raise awareness for Parkinson's.
I was invited to their after practice ritual of wine and singing at Sonny's where I was even lucky enough to be serenaded by these handsome gents!
I've had a lot of fun doing it and meeting lots of people, but it is very time consuming and hard work. I'm also about to do an article about Ricardo who owns Ricardo's Place, a Mexican restaurant, and he's very involved in the community. Anyways, I will post when they come out...my latest writing is about back to school:
http://www.el-despacho.com/ED_20100903.pdf page 4
Well that's all for now! Hasta pronto... ;)
