beachy saturday

yay! so i don't have to talk so far in past tense now. sorry for any confusion my posts might have caused since i wasn't writing frequently enough.

okay, so this past friday, i stayed at work until 8:30. it was a LOOONG day. dustyn came up to my work around 6:30 and sat with me until i got to a good stopping point. i was in training in LA for two days last week learning a new program. the program we currently use is not the best and it's not very efficient time wise. when i came back from training on friday, they automatically threw me on two new projects because of the program that i now "know".

[i have to say that as i'm typing this, i am a little sad. i knew this would happen, but on friday they asked me to work on a really, really awesome hotel project in abu dhabi. i was excited beyond belief. this is the reason i stayed so late friday and why i came in to work yesterday. they had a huge deadline to meet today, so they needed my assistance. i was hoping that it wouldn't be temporary and i would get to help out long term with this project, but they just told me that my time on the project is done. they're about to add era to the project team, but i'm so jealous! i wish that since they saw how well i did and how much effort i put in they would let me stay on it, but i know it's simply a matter of era being a designer with more rank than me (more time under her belt) sort of thing. i know they appreciate what i did. but i feel sad about it anyway. blah!]

so friday, both of these new projects were saying they needed a lot of work done by me by monday. i stayed late and dustyn met me up here. we walked to the hard rock cafe across the street and had a great dinner. that is, aside from the three couples surrounding us and the birthday girls at each table. one of the tables was so drunk it was annoying. the birthday girl at that table started balling FOUR times and cussed her friends out so badly that her friends completely left the restaurant. her boyfriend told the waiter, "keep the alcohol comin'." REALLY? the girl was so distressed - i am pretty sure alcohol was the last thing she needed. what a jerk of a boyfriend who just wanted to take advantage of her.

so friday night when we got home, we watched a movie. we stayed up pretty late unwinding from the week. i remember checking my email pretty late at night and seeing an email from a girl i didn't know and being invited to go to the beach on saturday. i didn't really think much about it, so i brushed it aside.

saturday morning, we slept in pretty late. then dustyn and i decided we wanted to have a fun, adventurous saturday. we were going to head to point loma, a place where they have a lighthouse on a cliff that is supposed to be cool. we were prepared to take pictures and maybe hike a little bit, but as we were getting ready, we talked about how fun it would be to have others with us. then i looked at him and said, "wait, we keep putting off meeting people. we need to just suck it up and try it out." i checked my email again and pulled up the one from chelsea. the mysterious group was going to meet for brunch (but we'd slept too late and missed that) and then head to the beach. chelsea gave me her number. i tried calling her, but got no answer. no one takes their phone in the ocean!

they said they were headed to pacific beach, so we hopped in the car and headed that way. we didn't know who these people were, where they were sitting, or if they did end up going, but we were on the hunt for them. i called paula from kaleo and didn't get an answer. i didn't know if she was with the group, but i tried anyway. then i tried eugene from church and he didn't answer either. i tried one more time to call chelsea's phone and a male answered the phone. i asked if it was her husband, but he said no and gave me some name i didn't recognize. i explained the situation and he happily gave me directions to where they were.

[sidenote: dustyn told me the sunday before this that i have become a more introverted person. we were at church and paula had asked us to go to lunch. we were kind of hanging out in a corner, waiting for paula to be ready to leave. dustyn kept insisting that I go find a group of people to talk to. i was NERVOUS though (not characteristic of me) because we haven't been able to make it to a small group. i didn't want to walk up and say, "hey! how's it goin'?" and them not remember dustyn and i from the housewarming party that seems so long ago.]

after i got off the phone with this guy, i was sooo giddy. dustyn looked at me and i smiled. i said, "i'm SO excited to make new friends and meet these people." he just laughed and said, "there's my girl."

we finally found parking along the street [the beaches are not made for public parking. go figure.] and walked to the beach. the guy told me to look for a pink and green umbrella and said they were next to families. i can't even describe how many "families" were out that day. there was a sea of umbrellas and i couldn't figure out which was theirs. finally, i saw a guy waving at me. it was tim. we met him at the housewarming party and had lunch with him the previous sunday with paula. in all actuality, it was tim that gave me directions, but i just didn't hear his name.

tim was the only person we knew out of the whole bunch. i'd seen everyone before, but never spoken to them. well, i take that back. i had seen kevin, chelsea, and pat before, but not david and christine. here's a breakdown of everyone.

::tim - we met him before. he's from oklahoma. or at least went to school there. [sworn enemy to a UT fan] works for a company called qualcomm. not real sure what he does exactly. nice guy. plays a lot of instruments, including the guitar, which he plays during church.

::chelsea and pat - just got married a month ago. [ps: i learned most of this info from chelsea as she and i were jumping waves in the ocean. it was just she and i as the guys were diving into the waves and going out deeper than we were.] they [chelsea dn david] were called out last sunday (a week ago) by the pastor. david (the pastor) mentioned something about lust and looked at patrick, who must have been looking lovingly at chelsea, and david said, "it's okay pat. it's legal now." i didn't know who chelsea was at the time, but i remember her turning bright red. chelsea is a teacher, or was for two years, got *really* burnt out and isn't teaching this year. she doesn't know what she'll do. she and pat are working on a book together about their first year of marriage. she said they read a lot of books about how to prepare for married life, but haven't found books that talk about the changes. she wants to open a bakery or restaurant that sounds really cool. she's a redhead and extremely energetic. she and pat have the coolest 'how we met' story - maybe i'll post it one day. he's from pennsylvania and a computer engineer. it's so random to me that the friends we've made recently have the same jobs as our friends back home. it's silly, but it gives me hope that they'll be good, long term friends.

::christine and david - just moved here a week ago from north carolina. they were brand new to the group too. it was a whole 'let's make friends' experience because christine and david need friends too. originally christine is from seattle (maybe david too, but i am not 100% sure). she majored in biology and got a masters in education. she just landed a job with a school teaching 7th grade life science. brave woman she is. david...i can't exactly remember what he does. electrical engineer rings a bell, but not 100% sure. obviously i didn't talk to the guys as much.

::amber - two years younger than me, single, fun-loving. i absolutely love to hear her talk. she's got the neatest voice. her sister (abby) is the girl that plays the keyboard at our church and sings. amber also sings and has a nice voice. i've been told they are an extremely talented musical family. amber is one of six children - three girls, three boys. her oldest sister is old enough to be her mom, or so she says. she is currently contemplating going back to school to finish her degree. she works as a nanny right now for a family that has three little girls, all younger than 3 years old.

::kevin - works as a computer engineer (or maybe electrical) for the navy. dustyn talked to him a lot because dustyn used to work for arl in austin, which does a ton of work for the navy. they had a common bond. i don't know a whole lot about kevin other than i *think* he's single. he's really tall (hint, hint anne) and went to berkley for his undergrad degree.

dustyn and i were at the beach for five hours on saturday. and guess what! i only got burned in a small part on my leg and just a little on my shoulders. thank goodness for spray sunscreen. =D poor chelsea was burnt to a crisp. but her swimsuit was extremely cute.

as dustyn and i were headed home, there was an obscene amount of traffic. we had no idea what was happening, but i remembered seeing a guy holding a sign that morning that said, 'i need tickets." as we were stopping and going, dustyn saw a sign or t-shirt that said "cowboys v. chargers". we had NO idea that the chargers were playing the cowboys in san diego. we had no idea there was even a game that day. how ironic that it was a team from texas though. i called my dad to ask if he had the tv on. he told me no, but said, "i'll turn it on. if that blimpie shows your apartment, you wave to me and i'll wave to you." heeehee. good idea, dad! we didn't watch the game, but boy could we hear it. we could hear the announcers, the performers, etc. loud and clear. dustyn took some pictures from our balcony of how crazy the traffic and parking lot were. luckily, there are only 6 games here.

on sunday, we saw all of these people again. i think i had about 10 people (maybe more) to either add as a friend on facebook or i added them. it was crazy how quickly God multiplied our friendships. i feel like He's really going to grow these. when chelsea and i were in the water, she said, "i'm so glad i have a new friend." i just couldn't help but smile. she had known me for all of 30 minutes and it just clicked. [insert disclaimer: these new friends do not replace our Texas ones. no fear!]

i also saw heather again at church on sunday. you can recall her from the housewarming party. she updated me on crazy stories about males that hit on her all the time in the navy. her comment was, "in missouri, guys didn't know i existed. here they won't brush off." the stories she told me are a little scary. she has a guy that notices small things about her - like when she fixes her hair differently, changes her earrings, or when she wears a different perfume. then there was another guy at a social event for the navy that followed her with his eyes all night. at one point, he purposefully blocked her path. she said she was "forced" to talk to him. he thought he was being interesting (i guess) when he told her horror stories about his experience in iraq - about how stray dogs would eat the intestines of the men they killed after they were dead. how DISGUSTING!! what kind of guy thinks that is going to attract a woman?!

heather and a big group went to see phantom of the opera last week. we didn't know about their outing, but they are planning to go see more shows together. i think that's so awesome ...hopefully we can join in the fun the next time. i find it humorous that abby (the musician) critiqued the main lady's voice. if you remember, dustyn and i saw the fill in lady, not the one typically in the lead. i don't know who was better, but i would assume it would be the regular lead lady.

dustyn and i have decided to try to go to jenny and eugene's house more often for small group. i really think that now that we're meeting more of the group on an individual basis, they don't seem like crazy people. dustyn is feeling more comfortable about all of this too. my hours have been so crazy at work that we haven't made it since i started my job. i can't use that as an excuse any more... i just need to get home so we can participate and make friends. we won't be attending this week, however, because dustyn's padres are coming to town. we have plans to go to belmont park (kind of like the santa monica pier if you've ever heard of it) and introduce them to SD. exciting! =D which reminds me...i think i have a house [apartment] to clean. hehe.