It's official - I live in California. I've slept here (549A Westbourne Street, La Jolla, CA 92037) for the last three nights, two of the three on my new bed. Let's play catch up for Friday, Saturday, and today's happenings:
Friday was a busy day of running about La Jolla and San Diego in pursuit of a variety of things to help me get settled. The first stop of the day after meeting up with Mom (she stayed at the Travel Lodge down the street the three nights she was here) was campus, as I had to go sign my employment contract for the TA job, get an ID card made, get some information from Student Health, and then talk to the graduate affairs adviser for the department. I even got set up with my own desk for holding office hours for undergraduate students - so cool! Mom and I grabbed a snack in the student center, stopped by the bookstore to pick up some UCSD apparel, then headed on to run other errands.
Next from campus was going to Big Lots to try and pick up a bed, which we indeed were able to do! I got a full mattress and box spring set for about $200, plus linens and a towel rack - it was a really successful trip! Mom and I cautiously made our way back to the house with the box spring on top of the car and the mattress inside, thankfully making it without losing either. We got back and got them in the room, putting the sheets in the wash to be put on sometime later. The turnaround was quick, though, and we headed back out to Target to pick up some shelving, toiletries, and other assorted items. We stopped through Wal-Mart to return an incorrectly-sized tablecloth that we'd gotten the day before, then headed once again to the house to unload. My room was finally starting to come together!
After collecting ourselves a bit we parted ways for the night - Mom hung out for a bit at the house before heading back to the Travel Lodge, while I went to catch both the women's and men's soccer games with Jon on campus - my first Triton athletic events! Unfortunately the women lost 1-0 late in the game, and the men tied 0-0, both playing San Francisco State University. In between the two games we went to Chipotle to get some dinner - I really enjoyed meeting Jon's friends, many of whom were former players from the women's team, and hanging out with them all night. Post-game we headed to TGIFriday's for a few drinks before calling it a night - it was, like I said, awesome to chill with them and I'm really thankful Jon invited me to tag along.
Saturday morning Mom and I got up to go exploring since we'd pretty much done all the organizing we'd needed to get done. I did a little bit more unpacking in my room during the morning, she worked on getting some airline details corrected, and soon we were off! Our first stop was Qualcomm Stadium, home of the Chargers and former NC State quarterback Philip Rivers. We drove on by and headed through downtown before taking the Bay Bridge over to Coronado. The views from the bridge were awesome - photo documentation by Mom over at her
blog - and it was cool to check out Coronado since I'd never been before. We parked and walked along the streets, checking out the famous Hotel del Coronado before grabbing a bite to eat at Coronado Pasta. It was delicious, and I'm probably going to have the leftovers tonight!
Leaving Coronado we blew through downtown on the freeway before taking the back way through Mission Beach, Pacific Beach, Birdrock, and finally on to La Jolla. We ended up parking along the water and walking for a bit before heading back to the house to watch some college football. We kept tabs on the State game via ESPN.com and were SO thankful that the 'Pack pulled out that 65-7 win :) Shortly after the end of the game and some overdue blogging by Mom we headed to grab some dinner in La Jolla. We actually went to the same place that Dad and I had dinner when we visited last spring - a delicious, tapas-style sushi place - it was awesome once again!
After dinner we soon parted for the night - I did a little more organizing before crashing. I got up this morning, picked up Mom at her place, and we headed to the airport so she could head on back home to Earl and Mimi. Our goodbye was short and sweet at the airport as we both tried to hold back the tears - no worries, I'll be home soon! Mom was incredible for the whole trip, coordinating our travels and making sure that everything went as smoothly as possible. I owe her more thanks than can be expressed for everything - Mom, you are truly wonderful and I am so glad we got to share the cross-country trip experience!
After dropping Mom off I ran by the grocery store - my first trip to a Vons - to pick up some stuff for breakfast, then came back to the house to make eggs and pancakes for Ryan and Keri. We sat around and chilled for a while after before Ryan and I went for a bike ride down to Mission and Pacific Beaches. He showed me all the cool places to check out along the waterfront and the boardwalk, as well as the boathouse where he works with high school crew teams. The boathouse is on Mission Bay and hopefully I'll get a chance to try out some rowing sometime - it's been since the Lake Wheeler day camp I went to in 6th and 7th grade that I've been sculling!
We made our way back up through Birdrock to the house and met Keri outside on her way to Target. We decided to tag along and I was able to pick up a planner and spend some additional bonding time with the two of them. I can't say enough about how much I like my roommates!
We've been hanging out since we got back, snacking on french fries and macaroni & cheese, organizing our thoughts for the upcoming week. Keri and I both start school back next week so we've been trying to get some stuff settled in anticipation of the beginning of classes. Oh, and I also just got an email from the NC State alumni group out here about a game-watching party for the State/Pitt game in two weeks - I'm excited to check it out!
That's all for now... I'll get some pictures of my room up a bit later!
Late-day sun looking toward the ocean one street down.
