Transcontinental Immunity Boost

I have to apologize for the delayed postings, after the fabulous albeit brief San Diego run, I seem to have contracted a little cold from the tin can petri dish that is modern air jet. But this trip was just what I needed.

After actually making my flight and flying into San Diego at a decent hour, I had some quality catch up time with Carly, whom I hadn't seen in over 8 months.

The next morning I had set aside for cleaning out the garage. Instead we coerced mom into a family trip down to the sprint store. My Winston had decided to start dialing whomever he pleased. My siblings apparently had been under similar direst. With my heart set on the i-phone however, I was hesitant to resign with Sprint. Luckily my roomie Linds alerted me to the Intuition (Instinct, but because it was introduced to my by that name, I am having a hard time using the correct one.) Wow this really is the i-phone killer! The biggest perk is the double battery system - it wont help me to answer the phone, but at least its not because the battery is dead!

That evening we had my Aunt's 50th birthday and retirement party. Oh lordie. When I was asked to be a speaker, I assumed it was a casual grab-the-mike-and-say-a-few words type deal. By now if you haven't reached this conclusion yet ...I can hold my own in the impromptu department. After comparing notes with her best friend Valerie however, I quickly discovered, this was a bit more detailed. Woops.

With 5 minutes to spare I finished! You can see the speech in it's entirety here.

After a very thoughtful and researched  introduction by her partner Sina (she downloaded my bio off my work website) she was ready to hook me off the stage as if this were an acceptance speech at the Oscars - cue the music, dim the lights. But speaking on behalf of the family, I wanted to make my point. KB kicks ass and I had a five minute floor to declare that!

Having lost my place after Sina's third "one minute" call I went off page and finished. Looking out at the 150 + attendance I saw KB rolling in fits of laughter, my family chuckling and, what I thought, a generally positive reception of the speech. Hello - I was looking right at them, while they laughed with me (or at me) and KB's tales from our family!

The reason I describe in defense is afterward, I was approached by at least five non-relatives to say "your speech was hilarious...no matter what anyone says." The fact that each comment included that secondary clause leads me to believe one of two things: my remarks bombed, or half of those people in attendance don't know the real KB. Woops...now they do!


My key-note speaking debut aside, the party was amazing. Done as a luau theme, the stage show included hula dancers. There is nothing more entertaining than watching my 40 year uncles and my 90 year-old great uncle try to hula on stage with the pros! Watch those hips fellas!

To continue with the culture immersion of the evening, we all headed to in-cahoots. A country-western bar smack dab in the middle of the sleepy beach town of San Diego. A few G & T's and an Irish Car bomb later we we're demonstrating our superior country dancing skills on the dance floor. Must have been intimidating because my cousins, our two exchange students, Aly, Matt and I were the only ones left by the time the songs changed.

Time to go home kids! A Mexican taco shop, two winks, and three hours later, Carly and I were off to meet her friend Kevin's parents for a little surfing action, before the crowds hit the sands.

The waves were body-whompers (shore breaks so your body gets whomped) but there was light at the end of the tunnel with Mexican breakfast included. Delicious. Then an hour trek up to Ramona to visit Dad, steal the bro, and take a nap.

On the agenda for the evening: drive in movies - red neck style. We've got this down to a science. Two trucks, two foam mattresses, four sleeping bags, eight pillows, tons of candy and jumper cables (two movies over the car radio tends to drain the battery.)

Kyle was dying to see Star Wars: Clone Wars, followed by Batman: Dark Knight. The plan was to sleep through the first and watch the second, but both Kyle and I (as he puts it) "were just going to rest until the good parts" of Batman. Thank goodness, I really needed some sleep anyway!

Sunday is church day with Granny Goose. I am not particularly religious, but this is a little tradition for both of us to go to church together, early. After dropping Carly off at the airport, a little God, it was back to the house for some sunday circular stealing, breakfast, and the treat of waking up mom on the weekend: futile for those over 10 years old. Thank God for Kyle!

Then I decided we should rearrange moms living room, six hours before my flight. I was mostly packed and had lunch plans (Mexican of course!) so I could surely squeeze it in. For once my timing was dead on. With just enough time to make it through security, now with my luggage (screw you US Air - I WILL get that bag on the plane sans surcharge) and benadryl - for ensured sleepage it was back to the Right coast.

Everything was perfect - except for that little cold - which like my tan, had subsided. Until we meet again San Diego (Christmas baby).