i suppose it fits that in my last entry, i proclaimed my intentions of regularly blogging once per week, and two weeks later i’ve already broken my promise. you apparently can’t even trust a white man if he even looks slightly mexican. todo mis amgios piensan que soy un mexican. por que? mire a mi piel.. es blanca!!

20 people learn the extent of marshall’s teaching abilities
so how did my training go you ask? it went pretty well i think. it was kinda cool how, as the labs and training material got progressively harder, my students needed less and less help from me. maybe i was just blessed to have gifted students for my first class, but it gave me an assurance that i was teaching (at least somewhat) well. it’s amazing how hoarse your voice can get, and how much utter pain your legs can withstand over a 3 day period. i commend the world’s teachers for being able to do this every day for a living — i don’t know how they get used to it.

priceless gems in boring book shops
i was lucky enough to have katie come and pick me up from the airport last sunday night and take me to my hotel. the airport rate for taxis in roseville was to the tune of $70 one way. monday night, katie and i went to the roseville mall and stared for (what seemed like) hours at riddle books for her grandfather. whee doggie! i subsequently wandered over to the dvd section of the borders we were in, and found the most exciting dvd to hit the shelves since little miss marker. that’s right, it was no other than the amazing saved by the bell: the college years. alas, i refrained from buying it, but it will be mine some day, oh yes!

an hour and 15 minutes is longer than 30 minutes
wednesday night katie and i caught our flight (after some mild disasters) on southwest airlines to san diego. on the flight we attempted to solve a crossword puzzle, only finding that we suck so bad that we had to use the key to get about 95% of the answers. it was enough to keep us entertained though. opie was waiting for us in the baggage claim area, where we had to wait a whole 5 minutes for katie’s bags (take it on the plane next time!!). after loading up opie’s coche, we headed straight down to the yard house(warning: flash) in the gas lamp district of san diego. we enjoyed a few draft beers and some damn good food before heading to opie’s house in oceanside, and quickly crashing after arriving.

the world’s deadliest museum, and coconut shrimp
after sleeping in ’till approximately 12:30 thursday afternoon, we all headed down to the beach to have lunch at joe’s crab shack. joe’s is nothing special, but the restaurant overhung on a pier — so it was pretty cool. after lunch, we walked up and down the pacific enjoying the ocean, and talking about things i would normally be embarassed to talk about in public (panning for gold at knott’s berry farm??). once katie was done trying to make the ocean dig her feet in the undertow, we headed to the midway carrier that was recently retired and turned into a museum. opie paid a hefty fee for us to get in (hehe — sucker), but it was really cool. they had an array of different jets and helicopters on board that were each unique and informative to look at. i thought it was especially cool how freaking thick the catch cables are on the deck of the carrier — those things are thicker than my forearm. next up, we went to horton plaza and shopped around the strangest mall i’ve ever been to (in a good way!). after skipping across orange dots to find the entrance to the mall, we walked up and down for about an hour or two — going to various shops and buying random crap (vampire: the masquerade 2, frozen lemonade, handguns, etc). once we were “shopped out”, we headed back to oceanside where we stopped at walmart and bought some board games and gak balls (for juggling). before playing monopoly, we went to del taco and grabbed some quick grub. naturally, opie dominated the monopoly board (he is way too good at that game), and i was first out ;). after the game ended, it was time for some shut eye.

i will never call orange county “the oc”
friday was the only day of the entire mini-trip that had an actual agenda. after getting ready, opie drove us from san diego all the way up to hapless corona, where mojo commerce was still alive and well. opie dropped me off at mojo, while katie and opie headed out to the irvine spectrum to see the incredibles and have an early dinner. i got to see all the old familiar faces at mojo: ed, kevin, mike, jim. after catching up with everyone, brian and i drove from corona to the spectrum where we met melissa (who he’s now married too — congrats!) at the cheesecake factory after going through a fun parking debacle. over dinner we all caught up and enjoyed some good laughs.. nothing like beer and (astronomically overpriced) food to bring friends together. after the cheesecake factory we headed to the fox sports grill where they have one of the most awesome bars i’ve ever seen in my life. they also have mini-bowling, and pool tables. the timing was nearly perfect — as we met katie and opie at the bar only 10 minutes after we arrived from our dinner. brian, melissa, and i played a game of mini-bowling.. which i horribly lost (are we seeing a recurring theme here?). next we headed over to the pool table area and played a quick 2 or 3 games of pool. 2 of which we lost to brian’s l33t 5ki11z. what a night it was. i said my farewells to brian and melissa and opie, katie, and i drove all the way back down to oceanside for a nice hour and change drive.

tragedy in seal beach: not a single killer whale in site
today was the day to head to seal beach. it’s kind of a magical place.. where lots of seals sit around and do absolutely nothing while the tide pushes them around like dead fish. sometimes i wish i was a seal. after staring at the lazy seals for about 30 minutes, we walked uphill to a place called “moondoggies” in la jolla. naturally, being marshall, i ordered a pepporoni pizza — for strategic sheep purposes, of course. after lunch, we needed to find our way out of la jolla and into downtown san diego so we could find a comedy club that katie had been raving about ever since like 3 weeks ago. trouble is, getting out of la jolla is harder than it sounds. in true marshall style — we were lost horribly. after about 30 minutes of wandering around winding residential streets, we finally found our way back to the highway.. yay! we arrived at the comedy club with about an hour to spare before the show started, and the ticket window wasn’t open yet.. so we headed next door to a british pub appropriately named “shakespeare’s”. after having a beer, we went back next door, and voila! a huge line of people had formed, and we were ticketless. after waiting through the line, we find out that the show is sold out and the next one doesn’t happen for another 2 hours. d’oh! luckily we had that bar next door — just order us another round! before we headed into the next show, i got the chance to do some team juggling with a random guy in the line for about 5 minutes. opie and katie were impressed (so they say). the show itself was pretty funny — i think i still prefer stand up comedy over it though. the laughs always seem to be alot heartier in stand up (at least, in my experience). we headed home after the show, and i got a chance to show off my amazing club-juggling abilities (more like inability). i was actually able to keep a club juggle going on for more than 10 throws once — i was very happy with myself.

parting is such sweet sorrow
before it was time for katie and i to head our seperate ways, we headed down to the oceanside beach where they have an extremely long pier that leads out to a ruby’s on the ocean. we had lunch there (food reminds me of denny’s — bleh), and watched fishers try to catch sharks with large fish. the long walk back on the pier was particularly painful, as there was a sharp wind and the temparature was in the mid 50s — yikes! we headed home and finished packing everything up, and opie drove us to the airport. the trip was awesome, and i can’t wait to do something like it again. i’ll be posting links to some pictures as soon as i get them (opie: pay attention! upload those pics!)