Piggies in the pool!

Watch out!

All's Quiet on the Home Front

The first morning all week that I didn't smell smoke outside; instead, there was a fog thick as pea soup. But it all dissipated and the sky is blue!

Received my SS card in the mail this week; guess that means I really do exist!

I'm on the email list for a singles group from St. Brigid church, and Thurs. evening they met for happy hour at a wine bar, so I went. About 8 women and 1 male... typical. They were o.k. people, but not one person expressed the slightest interest in knowing anything about me. Not a very welcoming group, but I'll try another event and see if they seem friendlier the second time around.

Yesterday morning I went to 8:00 Mass at the church down in Old Town; the priest was Irish!

Afterwards on my way home, I happened to pass a For Rent sign in front of a little yellow house, so I circled back around the block to take another look. Just at that moment, a boy on a bike came riding up and unlocked the door. He said his grandfather's renting out the place, so I asked if I could take a look. They're still fixing it up, but it was cute, with a nice big deck out back. Unfortunately, no washer/dryer hookups, very little closet space, and no driveway or garage - street parking only. Well, it's something to keep in mind.

In the meantime, I emailed someone listing a 1-bedroom sublet on Craigslist, and I may try to go take a look at that. $825/mo is not bad...

I need to open a checking account at a bank here, maybe WaMu...

Yeah, and I need to find a JOB!!!!

Sign me: Nervous, and getting Nervouser

FIRE!

My first California fire -
Went out this evening to Whole Foods and the sky looked hazy, and I smelled smoke. I thought, that's funny, I didn't hear any fire engine sirens. So then I heard on the radio that there are two fires burning, one down towards the border, and another one up to the northeast, farther inland. But it's amazing how they are stinking up the air, all the way into the city.

My first California farmers' market -
Drove up to La Jolla this morning to check out this farmers' market I read about. Had to park BLOCKS away. But once I got there, it was nice. They had vendors selling jewelry and junk, food vendors, and a lot of fruit & vegetable sellers. Oh, and flowers! I bought a cute little bundle of dried flowers with eucalyptus and rosemary ($3.00!!!), and it smells lovely here in my cottage. Also bought a chicken empanada to snack on from some Colombian/Argentine couple. It was pretty good.

My first California laundromat -
I've been searching for days for a decent place to do some laundry, and happened to spot a place this morning on my way to La Jolla, so this afternoon I went and did 3 loads of laundry. That was a pain in the butt - loading up the car with all the laundry, then trying to figure out how the machine worked where you buy a card to use in the machines, then loading everything back in the car, then unloading it when I got home. Some stuff I didn't want to put in the dryer, so I had dry stuff, wet stuff, and a few leftover dirty items that I didn't have room for in the machines. Overall, a very depressing activity.

Saturday

Walked over to the Albertson's this morning; that was kind of nice, to be able to walk to the grocery store.

Drove around to look at some apartments I saw in a newspaper classifieds; didn't like ANY of them. The apartment situation here stinks...

Tried to find a post office to mail some stuff, but evidently the post offices here are rather antiquated; neither one of the two locations I went to had self-service machines. Why don't they get hip??? I don't like it here....

Went to 5:00 Mass at St. Didacus (who was he, anyway???). They had the windows open - no A/C blasting! I love it here!

Recap

Sunshine at last! Yesterday was the first day since I arrived that was sunny all day long! What a relief from all those gloomy gray clouds. It really affects my mood.

A couple days ago, I went downtown to the Social Security office to apply for a replacement card - no idea where my card is. Take a number and wait, wait, wait. It took about an hour. The replacement card is free, but it cost me $8 to park in a downtown lot!

Went to Old Town, which is an area of several blocks of restaurants and shops, plus there's an area with a couple of museums, like an old stable, with a bunch of old wagons, stagecoaches, saddles, etc. There's also an old Catholic Church there, so I popped in there and lit a candle.
Also stopped in at a little shop I'd visited last time I was here, called the Old Soap Shoppe; just my kind of place with all kinds of soaps and lotions and good smellin' stuff! So I asked if they had any need of part-time help, but they said they didn't. Oh, well.

Yesterday afternoon I had an appointment with AppleOne, a placement agency. Filled out a bunch of paperwork, took some tests on the computer, then had a little interview. So we'll see if they can come up with anything for me next week.

After that, I went downtown to the County of San Diego building to pick up an application for some jobs I saw on their web site. (Tried to apply online, but the system didn't like my Mac...)
One thing I liked about that place is that they had a huge parking lot, with plenty of FREE parking! And it's right near the marinas. So I saw the bay for the first time since arriving.

On the way home, since the sun was finally shining, I stopped at a car wash. My poor car was SO filthy after that long road trip, it was embarrassing. I asked if they had any kind of frequent-user punch card, like at my car wash back in Dallas. Well, yes they did, for $2.00. I DON'T THINK SO! Next time I'll look for one of their coupons.

Yesterday while driving around, I got a call from a guy at Point Loma Nazarene University, where I'd emailed my resume the other day. I had to hurry up and find a place to pull over so I could talk without being distracted by traffic. Anyway, I think he was just prescreening, and asked several questions. So, once again, I'll wait and see.

Every afternoon when I come back home from my outings, I have to drive around and around looking for a parking spot. There's a recreation center directly across the street from this house, and there are tons of people coming and going, kids all over the place, and often there's a soccer game going on, so all the parking for blocks around is taken. It's REALLY annoying.

I need to go find a laundry, before the weekend rush....

First Monday in SD

What I did:

Denny's - had a good breakfast for the first time in days!
Craigslist - sent my resume to a job posting
Library - signed up for a card at the public library!
Border's - looked for a San Diego version of MAPSCO, which they had and which cost $25, but was tipped off by a fellow customer that they're about $10 cheaper at COSTCO.
Target - got a new battery put in my watch.
Mission San Diego de Alcala - went to 5:30 Mass (love that old church!)
Whole Foods - picked up some groceries; didn't like that store as much as the Whole Foods back in Dallas; it was too small and cramped.

TOUCH DOWN!!!

Before leaving Yuma yesterday morning, I stopped by a Chevy dealer to talk to them about that dang Check Engine light that came on the night before and then was off again in the morning. That bothered me.

The guy said sometimes it means the gas cap isn't closed tightly, so he checked mine, but it was fine. He said they could do a diagnostic for $85, but I'd already had that done in Dallas. So the mystery remains, but I asked him to check my oil while I was there. WHOA! The dipstick was nearly dry! I told him immediately to do an oil change, which I figured should get me to San Diego. But that shook me up a little bit. Why is that car using oil like that????

So after that, I got on the highway about 11:30. I thought I'd passed thru desert on the way into Yuma, but heading west out of Yuma, there were actual sand dunes! Wow. And then, about an hour outside of San Diego, the highway goes up, up and up, to 4000 feet elevation, and passes thru mountains of rocks. It looked like a moonscape. Without easing up on the gas, it kept
going slower and slower till I was putting along at 45 mph, while everyone else was whizzing past me. My little car did NOT like those mountains. I was a bit nervous, wondering if it was going to slow down all the way to zero mph. But FINALLY, after what seemed forever, the road starts descending. I thought I'd never get out of those desolate mountains. It's not a drive I'd care to take again.

*Photo courtesy of Cameron Kaiser, http://www.floodgap.com/roadgap/6/

Yesterday morning before checking out of the motel in Yuma, I emailed a girl about a rental I saw posted on Craigslist the night before. Since I would be driving for several hours, I gave her my cell phone, and she called me back when I was a little less than an hour from San Diego. She hadn't rented it yet, so we arranged for me to call when I arrived, and then she gave me directions to the house. It's a little studio cottage attached to a house, and her mother lives in the house.

I liked the place immediately, and happily, she didn't make me fill out any application or pay a credit check fee, or any of that rigamarole. I just went to an Albertson's and used the ATM to get cash for the first week's rent. She seems to be a very easy-going person, and I met her mother and her boyfriend. She's Cuban! She has one of those stud piercings under her lower lip, her boyfriend has tattoos and dreadlocks, and her mother converted from Catholic to B'Hai. Well, that's California for ya!

The neighborhood is a little edgy, but I feel pretty o.k. with her mother living right next door. She told me there's a police substation in the neighborhood, and so they're always patrolling. A few blocks away there's an Albertson's, McDonald's, Starbuck's, and Panda Express. Oh, and a library branch!

This morning I met the Mayflower driver at the storage unit at 9:00. They had all my stuff unloaded and tucked away in two hours.

Anyway, I would like to add that I believe God was surely watching over me on this long trip, as evidenced by that angel/mechanic in Deming, NM who spotted my cracking tires, and then that weird Check Engine light coming on, causing me to take it to the dealer and asking them to check the oil. And THEN, to snag a cute little cottage to live in, with no hassle whatsoever - yup, that was definitely Divine Providence.

Some time before leaving, I found some words in a Norman Vincent Peale book which became my mantra thru all of this. And here they are:

"I believe I am always divinely guided."

"I believe I will always take the right turn in the road."

"I believe God will make a way where there is no way."

'Nuff said.