random thoughts on living in california>san diego>ocean beach

*gas prices suck worse than most places and the prices can be random as can be. literally I can get gas for 3.83 in my town and then drive 10 minutes to work and see gas prices as high as 4.20 (no pun intended)

*it’s impossible to keep your car clean. i’m assuming most of this is due to living one block from the ocean and having palm trees poop on your car when you park on the street. i went 3 months without getting a car wash and then when i got one i could hardly recognize my car, it looked so nice. fast forward 3 days and you never would have known i washed it

*the weather is the most predictable thing i’ve ever seen. you can step outside in the morning and in a few seconds know if it’s gonna stay sunny all day, if it’s gonna stay cloudy all day, or if it’s going to stay cloudy until noon and then never see a cloud for the rest of the day. perhaps God is too busy playing with the weather in Indiana and he just has an intern working the weather here

*people are generally more attractive out here. i noticed this most when i came home over Christmas and went to the mall. people are also much more concerned with appearance out here which can be easily noticed by the vast amount of very new and very expensive cars and about 1 in 5 females over the age of 30 that have noticeable plastic surgery. actually maybe it’s even higher in certain circles. i’d say more than half of the women over the age of 40 that i deliver to have plastic surgery

*people have no clue what to do when it rains. if there is a moderate to steady rain you can expect everyone on the freeway to be driving about 20mph under the speed limit and to see a wreck on the side of the road every few miles

*i think people look for any excuse possible to dress in wintery clothes. just the other day walking out of whole foods i was in pants and a t-shirt feeling fine and a lady was walking in wearing a north face winter/ski jacket, an ear warmer headband, columbia boots, and was taking her gloves off. i think it was about 53 degrees that day

*there are no Cracker Barrel’s out here and Hardee’s is called Carl’s Jr.

*there is pretty much no such thing as winter or summer(at least so far). every day feels like it is either spring or fall and not just any day in spring or fall. it either has that “last great day of fall” feel or that “early spring day when it’s not too hot yet” feel. seriously it’s amazing. when there’s actually a really hot day you’re like “man this kinda sucks” and then you remember how all summer would be 5-10 degrees hotter and more humid back in Indiana

*people don’t like fast food or walmart out here. seriously people, what did 99 cent burgers and cheap groceries ever do to you?

*the on ramps to freeways have stop lights on them and during traffic you have to wait for a green light and enter the freeway one car per green light. this is amazing because there is no such thing as stopped traffic on the freeway out here. 465 needs to come out here and take some notes

*people are OBSESSED, i repeat OBSESSED with dogs out here. there is a dog park in just about every town/neighborhood, there is a designated dog beach by my apartment, and people take their dogs EVERYWHERE. here is a list of some of the places i have seen dogs with no one objecting or thinking it’s strange: grocery store, department store, every bar and restaurant down the street from my house, in bike baskets, in the front row at church, in the back of the communion line at church. also of note: the local petsmart has a Pet Hotel and it actually has a lobby that looks just like a lobby of a nice hotel. I’ve also noticed that Paris Hilton must have a big influence out here because never in my life have I seen so many chihuahuas. I think back home I saw a total of 3 or 4 in my life. Out here I see at least 3 or 4 a day.

*everyone skateboards (or rides beach cruiser bikes) and are surprisingly horrible at it. never in my life have i seen so many people push mongo on their long boards (seriously 8 out of 10 people push mongo, actually make that 9.5 out of 10). about once every 2-3 weeks i see someone riding a regular board that actually looks natural on a board, but most of the time it’s the guy who is pushing mongo on his long board in flip flops with a backpack or a handfull of stuff

*our apartment has no air conditioning and i think this is very normal out here

*there are few real sports fans out here that don’t come from the midwest. there’s just too much going on out here for a city to be completely wrapped up in any particular sport. back home you can talk college basketball or NFL with anyone and have a good conversation. out here the most you’re going to get is “yea I heard the chargers made the playoffs, when do they play?”

more random thoughts to come…..