San Diego Extravaganza

i've been trying to blog about san diego, i promise. i wanted to do a day-by-day breakdown of the trip, but unfortunately it's come out very boring and i can't remember what happened the first few days exactly. i simply was not doing myself, my friends, or the trip justice. therefore i've given up and decided to blog you a hodge-podge of loveliness. love it or leave it, my friends.

it was amazing to get to spend a week with my most favorite people from college, especially in sunny san diego, california! it was PERFECT. people i love, beautiful setting, and a great supportive fan base to take care of us (and by "fan base" i'm referring to the pidcoes and the dignals).

*subpoint -- they're our fan base because they read our blogs like it's their job. and they love us. what's not to love? really.

we got to spend a few days with sarah dignal before she ceased to be. it wasn't exactly always quality time -- let's face it, a few days before The Big Day, who can make quality time happen?! NO ONE!!!! i thought sarah did a marvelous job of not freaking out majorly (i expected worse bridezillaness than i saw...much worse. and i've seen worse freaking outage from her, so i know this was pretty tame). sarah, you're awesome. we called you bridezilla in jest, we love you still, and we're not quite over the fact that you called us once a day from your honeymoon. someone's phone would start ringing and they'd look and say "sarah is calling me right now?!?!?!" and we'd all make shocked, scared faces. and then answer the phone hesitatingly. it was fun! but yes, you were marvelous. very hospitable, and still cared about your friends even though your wedding was coming up, you were having flower and hair fiascos, and you hadn't finished packing.

it was also great to get to know adam burmeister better before he carried our little digs off into the sunset...in the words of jon schaller,

jongzoolander: I mean if he tamed Sarah, he's got to be freaking brilliant.

which is true. it must be. sarah was quite a beast. (i mean that in the manthoniest of ways).

we loved spending time with the pidcoes and the dignals. they took care of so many meals for us, they gave us rides, they went sightseeing with us, they got us to the airport to get home...MAN. they were great. i can't wait to go back. if...i ever have money again (which is highly unlikely at this point...another story for another post). mr. and mrs. pidcoe were great temporary parents...i'd kind of like to be adopted. (don't tell my mom or dad, shhhh). shadow (the doggy) was always jumpy and licky because he was excited to see us. anna was so much fun...hanging out with her was a blast because we kept forgetting she was 15 and not 22! ahhhhhhhh! and david was pretty cool too -- i heard a funny story about how meredith and bekah johns took him out to starbucks and called him jonathan the entire evening and he never told them any different. they felt Super Stupid at the end of that, let me tell you.

suzin, on phone with meres:

S:Where are you guys? When are you coming back?!
M:We're on our way back now. We're out with Jonathan.
S:.........who?
M:Jonathan.
S:Jon Schaller? Jon Hugenin? They're both here.
M:No! Jonathan Pidcoe!
S:.................Meredith, there is no Jonathan Pidcoe.
M:Anna's older brother?
S:His name is David. Definately David. Remember the story about him and Sarah's little brother being born around the same time and named after Jonathan and David in the Bible? What's Sarah's brother's name?
M:......................OH CRAP!

yeah, i laughed my pants off. serves her right for having fun without me. tee hee.



we got to do a lot of sightseeing. just driving around, we saw a ton -- different parts of san diego (jamul, bonita, coronado, little italy, seaport village, point loma, the downtown, the gaslight district, etc). jon schaller (and meredith too) learned how to get everywhere in san diego with the freeway system. it's all useless knowledge now, but still something fun to learn. after sarah left for her honeymoon we had free reign of her car (and the city!) without any wedding obligations. we went to coronado beach and sliver strand beach, we shopped for reefs in a surf shop, we ate at various italian and mexican restaraunts, we ate at a diner (complete with big-wigged, attitudey, dancing waitress named "mimi"), we took our pictures in a photo booth, we went to the bar in the top of the san diego hyatt to see the city, we roamed around seaport village (twice), we played in balboa park (twice), some of us got manicures and pedicures (no, actually not jon schaller), we visited a farmer's market in la mesa, and we got to spend an afternoon in tijuana.

we turned a couple of acquaintances into friends -- fellow bridesmaids bekah johns and kristen tropf got to see the suzin-jon-meredith phenomenon in its full-fledged glory and lived to tell the tale. bekah was especially enthralled with us, i could tell. she loves us. she wants to be us. it's true. she did give me one gift i'm taking away and sharing around the world -- the "dear diary." i love it. we (as a group) had a few "dear diary" fights that went something like this:

"dear diary, i hate jon schaller"
"dear diary, i hate suzin creviston more."
"dear diary, jon is stupid."
"dear diary, these people are crazy and if i had the keys to the car i would drive off and leave them here."

(that last line really happened, and it was kristen tropf, and it was the time she totally beat our pants at the dear diary game. she wins! we all laughed!)

and um bekah johns totally needs to come play with me. after she ditched us on the beach (maybe that was why she was pulling her suitcase around coronado, she was trying to lose us permenantly....i didn't really think about it at the time, but now that i do....most people don't go to the beach with a giant parallelogram suitcase), meredith asked me if bekah and i were going to be best friends and i was all "duh, i wish, but she's like two hours away. dear diary, meredith sucks at remembering that ft. wayne is two hours away from fishers."

and then we had huge wonderful fun giggly times! memories, people, memories! there were some scary sarah-is-freaking-out-needs-to-take-a-nap-but-won't-stop-moving-ahhhhhh days (ok, not that bad, but still...it wouldn't be a good idea to be visibly fun in her presence) where as soon as we were in the car we'd go into Rare Form with the "dear diary" business. we had fun reliving our manicure experience...

"you wan flowa on toe? i have is pretty you wan."
"um.....okay?"
::paints flower on toe:: "that be fie dolla mo."

and somehow bekah's $28 base price pedicure/manicure went up to $41 dollars...i certainly hope she takes lots of pictures of them. and never wears shoes ever.


there was one night at the end of the week, where meredith, jon, and i ended up staying up until about 2 a.m. just laughing our faces off over crazy stuff. as we were getting into bed, meredith asked jon to come in and read us a bedtime story off wikipedia.com. that didn't work, because it was boring, and then i told some caryn stories and somehow jon misspoke a couple of times and sent himself straight into a not-actually-drunk-but-you-sure-could-fool-me state of being. the end result was jon being unable to walk or sit up, talking like a little whiny boy, and saying all sorts of crazy things. at first we tried to keep him away from phones, because he really wanted to leave sarah a message. when he found his cell phone and we couldn't stop him we decided to roll with it and let him call bekah johns and jeff timmer as well. i think you just had to be there, because it was definately the funniest hour and a half of my life. and then when jon finally went out to the couch for bed i locked the door because he was scary. SCARY!

we finished off our week with our Tijuana trip (it was a cultural experience for jon and meredith...TJ can be scary if you aren't mentally prepared for it. it was their first excursion to mexico, and my third. TJ is a sleazeball town, and I hope no one judges all of mexico by it). we did end up meeting and talking to a great little old man in TJ who was part of a sort of "better business bureau" who gave us helpful advice and a map of all the "BBB" shops which we made sure to visit. heck, it was so great that meredith ended up buying $45 worth of linens! we all got what we came for (mexican wrestling masks, soccer shirts, blankets, pottery, and linens) and went home tired. that night we divided and conquered -- meredith and jon ran some last minute errands, and i cleaned up the apartment for the burmeisters' return.

there were a few things i simply couldn't blog about for various reasons -- you're welcome, jon, and i'm sorry, sarah, but you're going to have to figure it all out on your own. mua ha ha ha ha.

The End.