Well, haven't done a whole lot of anything today related to the trip.

Kinda stalled at the moment. My sister suggested i stay until at least Sunday. At which date, she has free time to accompany me to Fisherman's Wharf.

On one hand, i free like I'm wasting "precious" time, the longer I stay. On the other hand, it feels rude for me to do my own thing and take off. Then again, I kinda feel rude to be "crashing" her dinner party with her friends tomorrow. On top of that, it always feel like its a bad time for me to be there with my sisters and their husbands... like I'm some sort of catalyst for fights.

Sigh, a decision I dun like.

 

Hey Goobers... I understand the family B.S... I haven't seen my sister in about 17 years don't want to and won't... It just works out that way sometimes... You may meet some nice people at the party though so it may not be all that bad... I found that the best way to deal with my family was to get moderately stoned. They always made comments about how nice and pleasant I was when I'd had a toke or two.

 

LOL TC....Goobs, you might get a girlfriend tomorrow night!

 

Yeah I was thinking the same thing... I think he really need a wild and crazy fling... Of course if he isn't lucky in San Francisco there is always Nevada and that may even be cheaper. Goobers let us know if you get lucky.

 

San Diegos not a bad bet. On Thursday night, its always crazy in PB or downtown. But I don't go to those places anymore. Mind you I'm only 23 but I'm over the clubbing scene. I'm really too young to be feeling this old

 

I had a pretty wild time at a house on the northwest corner of 24th and Broadway in San Diego in 1967... Later in the same year I experienced pure hell at M.C.R.D...

 

MCRD is actually a nice place now. Both my aunt and uncle are chiefs in the Navy and when there's a family event going on, we usually go. Pretty nice on a warm sunny day in San Diego. Can't beat it!

 

The mess hall there was great.. The fat guys lost weight and the wispy little fellows gained weight.

 

My sister's place in SD is a short hop up from PB's night life. And I don't mean by car or even bicycle. I can go do the whole bar scene on Garnet, get plastered and walk home home. Except, I've never really been into the bar scene... and I can't seem to get (mentally) plastered. I found out long ago, I'm not comfortable with the audio aspect of it all. Actually, no... me being "shy" makes me uncomfortable, the fact i have single sided deafness, means loud bars/clubs give me massive headaches. I hadn't even realized why until I read someone else's experience, thought... hum, that makes sense now!

I think if i want a girl, I'll have no choice but to rely on my folks setting it up. I'm too chicken shit to do the whole "Hi, what's your name?" deal. Scary part is, the few times I visited gay bar (first time, didn't even know, second time was a relative wanted to see what it was all about)... as i was saying, on those two occasions I got hit on by guys... or at least that was what I was told afterwards (I'll be honest, I had no clue). If only the girls would hit on me... makes my life easier... then again, some one told that a girl DID hit on me once, and I blew her off. I did??

I guess I'll add another example of my naivety. Back in 94 (I think), I hung out with this girl a couple times when her folks would visit from the burbs. That was pretty much all the contact we had... but aparently she told a couple of people we were going out. When i "confronted" her about it, I said I wouldn't mind going out with her, just like to KNOW ABOUT IT! I was like: I have a girlfriend?!? About an hour later, I found her drunk and that she was arranged to marry some guy... talk about short lived relationship!

The closest I've been to being involved with the military, is taking a college English course at MCAS, and then quiting two weeks later (though there was one chick that looked really cute in that class).

 

I had to read your post a few times, like I told you a long time ago I really like the way you express yourself... I have a couple of brothers in law that are single.. The younger one meets girls on line and goes out with some of them from time to time, the older one likes beer, food and a funny looking dog with an overbite... They don't have any hassles like guys that are involved in a relationship with a woman does... I know my life would have been a lot simpler and not as stressful if I was like those guys.... Did you go to the language school at El Toro? I was released from active duty there.. I met some Vietnamese Marines that were attached to my battalion that had gone to school there when I was in Vietnam... One of them was a real ladies man that had girls that he had met in California sending him nude photos of themselves.. He was easier to understand than a lot of the Marines from up north or the deep south... My cousins sons mother was Cuban and Mexican, he looked like a very tall middle easterner and went to El Toro to learn Arabic when he was in the Army... I don't know how people can learn more than one language, I have enough trouble speaking English correctly but maybe not.. They wouldn't have sent me into communications and let me do ground to air liaison if I hadn't scored well in word usage skills... I guess I need to cool it with the ramble and go to sleep... I hope you have a great time at the dinner.

 

Ahh goobs I war in the same boat as you, girl wise. Shy and everything. But then I got a job as a transporter/lift team at a hospital and that required balls to be able to talk to patients, nurses, family, and doctors alike. Was intense before but I got the hang of it and eventually it trickled down outside my job. Now I didn't turn pimp or anything but I got a few girls since then. I guess what I'm saying is don't be afraid to be shot down. Plenty of fish out there as they say. Too bad after a while it gets repetetive and boring. Like I said above I'm really tooo young to be feeling this old

 

I can relate to what you said.... I have never been shy but I had a way of putting my foot in my mouth that was not at all endearing to the opposite sex.. I got a job on a psych unit and found out that there wasn't all that much difference between the patients and staff... Learning how to act like I knew what I was doing in the presence of women I needed to impress gave me more self esteem that resulted in a lot of female attention.. It's yourself that you need to bull shit, when you've got that down you get attention..

 

Greetings from... the ROAD!! Monterey, south of Santa Cruz.

Yes, finally back on the road. My sister suggested driving down "17 mile drive", so I'm on my way there, decided to grab some food, maybe get my clam chowder this time.

My sister got a few pictures of me before I left... my mom wants them so any potential daughter-in-laws (and their parents) can see for themselves what I look like. At the moment, i look llike a monk that forgot to shave his head recently. I went to get a hair cut in Palo Alto and told them to do "3 on top and 2 around" which works nicely in Chicago and San Diego... but feels like she used 2 all around (or even less).

 

Hey Goobs, you'll be passing by a lot of missions also, if you're interested. And watch out for the radars (bush patrol) on 101 in King County!

 

I think I'm pretty safe with my 5/10 over habit, I find that most traffic is going faster than I am.

I've never really paid much attention to missions, in fact, I'm not entirely sure what they are (church related settlements?!? No idea).

 

Yeah the missions are the early church settlements in CA and are all now historic landmarks. Here's a quick link: http://www.missionscalifornia.com/

BTW, Hearst Castle is also along the way for you. Safe trip!

 

Oh yeah, my sister mentioned Hearst Castle... for some reason, I thinks castles are more interesting than missions. :|

 

Supposed to be awesome but haven't been there.

 

Greetings from... the parking lot of the visitor's center of Hearst Castle.

Was debating whether or not to take the $25, hour and 15 minute tour of part of the castle. Leaning towards no... heavily leaning towards NO. So, first tour is $25, and you can choose to see the grand rooms, the upstairs OR the guests houses (2 of them)... but only one if those three option per hour and 15. Unless theres another discount I missed, with the 2nd (and I presume 3rd) tours being $22, thats $69 to see the whole castle and almost 4 hours. Not only that, but all three allow you to "leisurely" stroll through the garden and pool areas (again, two pools too). That hour and 15 includes the bus ride up and down. So that means you're paying something like $20 for what, half an hour of some part of the castle?

I think I'll pass. Maybe if I have some animate company, I might've done it. Or if they let me drive closer to it.

 

Kinda on the expensive side. Didn't know that. Yeah makes a difference with company. TV dinner in front of the TV or TV dinner at a restaurant with an occasional chit chat with the waitress... heheh...