I have returned from my blissful weekend in Fallbrook and it was quite good fun. There's a lot of things I miss about life in rural San Diego County, but I'm not sure I'd be willing to move back there anytime soon. It's now reached that point where I have more friends up here than I do down there. Still, I have to say that I had a great weekend.

I left my apartment in the cruddy little suburb of Montrose at about 8:30 Friday evening and made the long drive south. As I approached the northern borders of the city of Temecula, I switched the dial on my radio from the fading signal of the self-proclaimed world famous KROQ to the lesser known but, in my humble opinion, far superior 91x. (The exception, of course, being that Kevin and Bean are far superior to Brand X Morning Radio). At any rate, I arrived at Adam and Alicia's house at approximately 10:00. I was worried that, perhaps, he might have calculated how long it should have taken me and issued me a traffic citation based on the fact that I arrived so early. But, no...he let me off with a warning. They fed me some left over dinner, and then Alicia went to bed, while Adam and I stayed up talking for a while. I ended up going to bed at about midnight.

At any rate, the next morning Kim Price drove up from her place in San Diego and then the whole lot of us went to breakfast at the Garden Center Cafe in Fallbrook. There's a funny little thing about Fallbrook, and that is the fact that it is nearly impossible to go somewhere without seeing somebody you know. Sure enough, there at the Garden Center, was Mr. Allan Raymond...perhaps the greatest English teacher in the history of Fallbrook High. I talked to him for a bit, during which time he informed me that he was, after next year, retiring from teaching. That was a weird feeling, actually. Truly the end of an era.

Not surprisingly, the topic of conversation during breakfast eventually turned to Kim's father, Ben Price, who passed away a little more than a year ago. It didn't last too long...it just just more of an "I think about him when..." type of thing. Honestly, I have to say that I do miss the guy. There are few people I respect more than I respected that man. I'd venture to say that, at times, I was closer to him than I am to my own father.

At any rate, I should probably change the subject before I get all teary-eyed. So, after breakfast Adam and Alicia and I went to Riverview for the wedding. I must say, I was disappointed at the turn out. There were very few people I actually knew there. I did get to see some people I hadn't seen for a while, but for the most part it seemed to just be people I didn't know. The highlight of the entire event, however, was when I walked in to the sanctuary and there was my old friend Mark Todd, who has owed me 60 dollars since October 1998. Yes, four years ago, he and Jake Smith and I went to San Francisco to see REM, Neil Young, Sarah McLachlan, et. al. at the Bridge School Benefit Concert. As Mark did not have a job, I graciously paid his share of the tickets, the hotel, and all his food. The total bill came to like 100 dollars for him, but he paid me like 40 of it right away. I had even generously offered to let him pay me in New Zealand dollars when we went there in 1999...60 New Zealand dollarsprobably would have been like 25 bucks. At any rate, no sooner were the words out of my mouth on Saturday than did he open his wallet and give me the 60 dollars I'd been waiting for. He's lucky I don't charge him interest. Mandy Yingst was also there, looking surprisingly thin for being six and a half months pregnant.

So, the wedding went well but I think the reception was poorly planned out. First of all it was outside, and it was in the mid 90s at that point. So, by the time they got to the dancing and bouquet and garter and all that, everybody was more or less gone. Incidentally, I caught the garter but after having caught about 10 of them in my lifetime I have concluded that they simply do not work.

After the wedding, I went out to dinner with Ryan and Mandy Yingst to Fidel's Mexican Restaurant in Carlsbad. As usual, the wait at Fidel's was over 40 minutes, on account of it's right next door to a bunch of vacation homes and condominiums. So, all the slack-jawed yokels from other states made us wait, but wait we did because the food is well worth it. The dinner was good...but it paled in comparison to the lunch I was eagerly awaiting for the next day. After leaving Fidel's, we went over to Vinaka...a neat little coffee shop I used to frequent when I lived down there.

Anyway, I got back to Adam and Alicia's at about midnight. They were still out with some other friends of theirs, so I just went to sleep. The next morning, I went to church at Riverview and then...after church...I drove to Filiberto's on East Vista Way, strode boldly up to the counter and ordered a Carne Asada Burrito with sour cream, cheese and guacamole. I then stood by the pick up window as my mouth watered. Soon, my patience was rewarded as I heard the man shout, quite rapidly, "carneasadaburritosourcreamcheeseand
guacamolelargedrpepper." I sat down and watched Telemundo while devouring the thing I truly miss the most about San Diego county. Damn, that burrito was good.

After eating the burrito, I considered ordering another one as I would have done during my high school years, but thought better of it once I noticed the faint traces of heartburn creeping up on me. So, I drove over to Ryan and Mandy's house, where Ryan was in the middle of retiling his kitchen. Since it was obvious that he would be busy for most of the day, I decided to go ahead and go home, thus bringing my weekend to a screeching halt.

Oh wait...Sunday night after I got home, I went to church and then went out for chinese food at Ocean Coral in Pasadena with Alisa, Christy and Ryan Cox (to distinguish him from Ryan Yingst).

Well, I realize that probably reads more like a laundry list than much of an exciting story about what I did last weekend. But, sometimes laundry lists are the best I can do.

And for all those wondering...Katie Pearson comes home tomorrow. Saturday I will have lunch with her and tell all. Wish me luck.