I'm home for 2 nights, 1 day before heading out with my husband to St John for our vacation! I had to fly to California for my job earlier this week, so I was a bit stressed over getting work done, planning for the upcoming vacation right before another trip for work...
California was nice, temperatures in the mid 60s, sunny and dry. My rental car was a lot nicer than the last time as well! I arrived in San Diego around noon, got shuttled to the rental car place and after a few confusing moments, I was able to get in my Toyota Avalon Touring (with black leather seats) and be on my way. I plugged in my destination on my phone to figure out how to get to the
office from the rental car place. Once plotted, I kept reviewing the
directions the whole way to...the hotel. I past right by my work. No
problem, really, my phone doesn't talk to me like the other GPS systems
do...so I pass the road that takes me to the office and went to the
hotel, checked in, went to the room to drop off one of my bags and went
into work.
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| View from my hotel room |
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| Same view...but the sunset on the ocean! |
I thought I'd be there for an hour or two, but stayed longer
than that. It was only my second time in this office, but the people I
work with are all here, so they were ready for me when I got there! It
was actually refreshing to be able to work in an office after being home
based for 2 years.
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| Yes, this was parked outside my office in California |
The first night I was already exhausted by the time I got back to the hotel, but I needed to work on some things before I allowed myself to work on my art. So I worked, watched Lost (I had to watch it since the TV was a H.U.G.E. flat screen and Lost is the ONLY show I still watch!), and worked some more. I kept thinking I would wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed since waking up at 7am in California would be like waking up at 10am at home. This only works if one would go to bed at a decent hour! Finally, at 1am (uhhh, that would be California time...), I finish my work and give up on working on my art for the night.
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| Beautiful flowers and shrubs in bloom, with a perfect backdrop of the ocean |
The second night? I go out to eat with co-workers and their friends. It was so much fun! The parking in San Diego is difficult to find if you're not local, so I parallel parked and we all walked to the restaurant (yes, I really did parallel park! And just to clarify, the parking spaces are not gigantic spaces, like they are in Mebane, able to fit 2 cars in one space...no...it seems there is a law in California that the cars should be small to successfully fit in the parking spaces. Maybe it's the parking spaces that dictate people's girth size...hmmmm).
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| Uhhh...this is the ocean, dude. |
Walking around San Diego at night after dinner...beautiful weather, not humid, brisk enough to keep you walking, but not cold to wish to be back inside. I soaked in the interesting people, cute houses with neat, (but not manicured nor matching) yards. One yard had classy yard art. Yep - giraffes, elephants, gorillas...all sculpted out of sheet metal (it was dark, so I can't comment on the type), but it was fantastic! And it seemed to fit right in with everything! Once back in the hotel room, I gave up doing my art again and resigned to sleep since I had to catch my plane in the morning.
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| Too bad I cropped out the ocean to the left, but this is a cool photo anyway. |
The trip was great, but tiring. The only time I could to do my art was at the airport, so hopefully my upcoming trips will yield more productivity...but without sacrificing the experience of the trip!
