One major opportunity I can’t talk about yet, which is killing a big mouth like me, but I promised and I’m only as good as my word. I also signed legal stuff, so there is that.

Another big thing is… well, I’m moving.  Yes, again. But this time, I”m not just going across town, I’m moving to Las Vegas!

I’ll give you a second to insert any in a series of anticipated and oft-heard protests:

• But San Diego is so beautiful!
• But what about your friends?!
• But Vegas is so… Vegas.
• Once you leave California, it’s really hard to get back.
• It’s so HOT there!
• Are you insane?!

Done?

I know all these things, but for me, it’s important to make decisions that are good for me and for now, this is a smart move that will allow me to take on less work so I can pursue other interests.  Some of you may know that mikey got a job up there recently and moved there in June. I decided to follow when my lease was up, which is at the end of November.  Here’s the part where some might ask “but… why?”  I can’t say there aren’t going to be some adjustments to living in the desert and away from my San Diego life, but here are just some reasons that are both positive in general and good for me, personally.

• I have a great support system there already. mikey, obviously, who I miss when he’s not around. So does Lulu. Also one of my very best friends, Heika (some might remember her as Macgeezel) — she’s from Vegas and her family, whom I am close with, still live there. Unfortunately, she doesn’t, but I may get to see her more often. There are also some of her Vegas friends that I’ve gotten to know over the years and mike’s got some friends there, as well.
• It’s CHEAP, people. I live in a beautiful, gorgeous city. I grew up here, San Diego is my home. But it’s crazy-ass, mind-blowing expensive here. And as a freelancer, that is tough. Vegas, on the other hand, can provide, for about 30% less than my rent currently, a place 3x the size, newer, in a beautiful new area. And actual house, even.
• To that end, a very large apartment or a house allows me to have an actual office, with a door. It allows me to separate work and life a little better.  Plus, paint!
• No state income tax.
• There’s a Kids Expo in Vegas every year, which means I’ll likely be able to talk Kathy into crashing in our guest room.
• There’s always something to do. Any time you want to do it.
• I’m California-adjacent. It’s only a 5 hour drive back to San Diego or an hour flight. I can come back any time I want and considering I won’t have to work as a hard, I’ll actually have time to do that. Plus, despite living in one of the most beautiful cities, I never really see it that much, as I spend most of my time in my apartment. So, this will allow me to actually enjoy San Diego… as a sort of tourist.
• I’ll probably get to see my friends from other cities more often, as just about everyone wants to go to Vegas, right? People go to Vegas, so it’s likely I may see my friends from all over (even those as close as L.A.) more than I do now.

I already went through all the hemming and hawing and “omg, the heat!” and “I’ll miss my gays” and “what the hell am I going to do in the desert?” hand-wringing.  And I will miss my friends here so much it hurts my insides.  Badly. But I have to move past that part (or rather, stuff it down and cover it with Ben and Jerry’s) so I can be excited about this new adventure.  (I’m already trying to convince Daniel and Richard to move there, too.)  I’m only 36 years old, it’s not like I have to live in Vegas forever. And I’ve left California once already… I lived in Texas for over 3 years and came back to San Diego. Nothing is set in stone, but if I ever want to buy a home anywhere, especially if I want to do it in this very expensive city, I need to start making some changes.

I’m starting to get pretty excited about the change — I’ve always been open to change. But, I’m a little overwhelmed right now — so much is going on and it’s coming really fast.  I’m up to my neck in projects, but I have to dash up to Vegas in early October for an overnighter to pick a place to live. Then within 6 weeks or so, I need to pack this entire apartment, and move to a new state… with a bunny. (That should be interesting.) And all the while maintain my workload.  This is where I take a shot of something strong, followed by a pep talk while sticking my head between my knees.

I’m thinking about investing in a camera after we get settled up there. I think a good way to introduce myself to the city is to photograph it.  Plus, I really, really want to see if I can get into The Neon Museum. Given how much I love mid-century Americana and all that swanky stuff, I think Vegas might be a fun place for me to explore with a camera. Hey, maybe I’ll even find a dumpy dive I can sing in!

I only ask that no one tell me anything bad about living in Vegas. I really don’t want to know. I probably know most of them anyway from my many trips there.  But feel free to share good things!  I’m always open for that.

My last place was probably one of the “coolest” placed I’d ever lived, in terms of hipness. For the most part, I’d lived in larger complexes that were fairly organized, well-maintained and suburban (though I did my fair share of couch surfing and car sleeping in my late teens and 20′s).  The last place was an old vintage building that I loved so much and the area was close to downtown and had a beautiful view.  It was a “cool” place to live, in terms of the area of town.

When GFI lived upstairs, it was fun — we had a good time and socialized fairly regularly, though we were always sensitive to the other’s need for space. But when she moved, aside from the view, there was really no reason to stay.  Now that I have Lulu, I needed a bit more space and I started to feel my stuff closing in on me.  Plus, with all the turnover in the building, the other tenants, newer tenants, live a “younger” lifestyle than I do (late nights, lots of noise, unpredictable schedules, Miller Lite for chrissake). Not that I’m old, but I’m certainly not twenty-four anymore and we were all just a little too close for comfort.

I thought moving to this new complex, which is beautiful, but smack dab in the middle of a corporate business park would be stale and boring, but you know? I really like it.  It’s soooooooo quiet and there’s hardly any traffic.  There’s every convenience I could want within a few blocks, I can access about 4-5 different highways/freeways within a couple miles and anywhere I’d want to go is about a 10 minute drive.

The area is really flat with beautifully landscaped streets and lots of palm trees, so walking and exercise is totally doable (and the area is full of people who walk with friends after work and on lunch breaks and lots of dog owners out with their pets after work — there’s even a little dog park!). The complex is big, but not too big and has lots of amenities like a gym, hot tub and a pool, BBQs, cabanas and all that fanciness, which I plan to use, but you know how that goes.  (Though I kind of don’t have a choice — my ass is the size of Brazil these days).

I originally wanted the largest one-bedroom they had with a den, but there was only one available that overlooked a parking lot (and it had old carpet and a vague scent about it) so I passed and took the slightly smaller one with no den and am on a waiting list for the bigger one, but I’ve decided I don’t need it.   This place is plenty big — much more spacious than my old place. Much. And I’d rather save myself $300 a month.

Corner of living room near hallway

I’m still unpacking, but I snapped a few photos with my iPhone. Some of the biggest priorities I had when apartment hunting were addressed by this complex, so I’m pretty happy: it’s on the third floor, it’s a corner unit, the price is right (for San Diego, anyway), there’s a full-size washer/dryer, walk-in closet, a balcony with storage and… the pièce de résistance, a roman soaking bathtub. When I lived in Dallas, my apartment had one and I became hooked. I had no idea how much those bubble baths balanced me and kept me sane.  Oddly enough, this complex is run by the same property management company and had the same builders as my apartment in Dallas, so I already feel very at home here.

I’ll take some better photos once I’ve got it all unpacked and nice-nice.  Right now, I need to go feed Lulu some cilantro before she riots.  Demanding bun!

mikey, GFI and I got there before it opened and spent the majority of the time sifting through the assorted crap vendors in Bing Crosby Hall and the like. We stopped for cupcakes at a super cute booth that was decorated in pink and black and white with lime green accents and curly font. It looked like a website I did for a client once… only life-size.  A little surreal, but the cupcakes were good!  Three mini cupcakes in red velvet with cream cheese icing, chocolate on chocolate and vanilla cake with chocolate icing for $5.  It worked out perfectly; we each got a bite of every flavor. 

We got our handwriting analyzed because we had a sudden urge to piss away $3. The Fair does that. It’s like a state of fugue or something. One minute, you’re perfectly rational, bypassing the loud guy selling chamois, the mood-lipstick mistress, the uber-butch hocking cheese graters and then, without warning, “Let’s get our handwriting analyzed! It’s only $3!” And the next thing you know, you’ve corrupted your whole party.

Our priority stop was GFI’s temporary goal in life:  deep fried macaroni and cheese on a stick.  I was a little skeptical at first, but I definitely had to try it.  I kept saying, “It sounds good in theory…” but no, it was pretty good.  A little bland, as far as a mac n’ cheese goes, but overall pretty much like you’d suspect — a ball of breaded and fried mac n’ cheese.  I made a beeline for the grilled corn on the cob guy and then we all hit the beer garden for an adult beverage.  Sure, it was 10am, but who was keeping track really…?

My Fair highlight was the talent from Doggies of the Wild West.  We didn’t actually catch the show, but we ran into Gary Noel and his wagon o’ western cuteness at the entrance.  I was totally insane for his dogs, snapping photos like crazy.  All rescues, he had a bunch of chihuahuas, a couple mutts, a beagle mix, and an adorable Boston Terrier I got to hold and love on.  He also let me take photos while his dogs did tricks like one-pawed handstands!  Yes, I was impressed. 

We wrapped up the Fair with frozen confections, mikey with his chocolate dipped soft serve while GFI and I shared a frozen banana. I can’t go to the Fair and not have a frozen banana. It’s like sacrilege. But seriously, where do they grow these bananas? They’re enormous, giant, mammoth, Holmes-esque bananas!  Seriously, they must be imported, equatorial bananas.  Or like super genetically-altered bananas engineered by carnies.  Between the two of us, we could only finish half… and the nuts kept falling down my top.

Anyway, we did the crap vendors, the livestock, the gastrocities and we were in and out in about three and a half hours.  Now that’s efficient fun right there!  I’ll have more photos up over the next few days. I only took 484 (with an inordinate amount of chicken shots, I might add) so that shouldn’t take any time at all to sift through. 

In the evening, I took some shots of the fireworks off my front porch and upstairs on the terrace.  I didn’t use a tripod, so out of about 128 shots only a few were clear, but I like how they came out.  It’s my last hurrah with my Nikon D80, as the Picture This project has ended and I’ve decided not to purchase it.  It’s a great camera, but it’s more cumbersome and a bit more camera than I really need.  I’ll be looking at smaller Nikons or maybe a Canon.  I’m not sure, but it was really great to participate in the program. I learned a lot about my own eye for photography.

This month is super busy while I prepare for Kathy’s visit in August and some time off that has been postponed until September.  I may slack a bit, but I know you’ll forgive me because we’re cool like that.  I do have a redesign of the blog coming soon, though.  Finally. 

I hope everyone had a great holiday!

Lushy and her mom are in town, so we all went to The Prado on Saturday for lunch with GFI and Modigli.  That is probably in my top 3 places to eat in San Diego. The architecture, the gorgeous park… the giant vats of sangria… what more could you ask for?  Normally, sangria is what I would go for, but since I’d never had a prickly pear, let alone a margarita made from one, I decided to live large.  So I had two. I would have had three, but I was too full. 

I can’t quite describe the taste… it’s tart and sweet and a wee bit sour, but not too sour. You don’t taste the liquor, really, yet you know it’s there. It’s an easy-drinkin’ cocktail, my friends.  I’m now hell-bent on making them at home.

Here’s my assessment of their recipe, based on a combo of what their menu said, your basic top-shelf, Cadillac-style margarita and the addictive experience I had with it.

Prickly Pear Margarita

• 2 parts tequila of your choice (I prefer silver tequila, personally… Hornitos or Petron, preferably, but whatever you like)
• 1 part Grand Marnier
• 1 part prickly pear juice
• 1/2 part fresh lime juice
• 1 part simple syrup

You can shake with ice and strain into a glass rimmed with salt OR, how I had it, throw it in a blender with as much ice as you like and serve it frozen. I didn’t have salt and personally, I think either a sugar/salt blend or no salt at all on the rim would be ideal.  Squeeze o’ lime. Viola!… alcoholic orgasm.

Don’t say I never gave you nothin’.