From San Diego with love

I came down to San Diego to join Rosa who is staying with her brother to nurse her post-breakup woes. It's my second time here this week! Today, we did so much that I feel like I've been here a whole week instead of just one day.

I drove down the 15 and met Rosa and her friend at a Whole Foods. I ate some Chino strawberries I had packed in a plastic bag and ate the last bite of a cheese danish.

Rosa and I then went back to her brother's place where a friend of Helena's that we had never met before picked us up. He drove us to Phil's BBQ, where we met up with Helena and another friend to eat trays of baby back ribs and fries. So much meat and potatos. Wow. I'm not much of a meat eater. It was interesting to see my lunchmates devour ribs while talking about other rib places (notably Dinosaurs in NYC) and fantasy crushes that they stalked intentionally, including homoerotic man crush anecdotes. I'd forgotten what it's like to be single, evangelical, and repressed.

Then Rosa and I regrouped to go to Coronado Island. We rented beach cruisers for $15 for a half day from Little Sam's where a very nice guy called Dave helped us out. We rode around the island until we got to the ferry landing and then decided to take our bikes into downtown. Once we arrived, we decided to get a snack. Rosa got a peach jamba juice which dripped down my shirt and I decided to get a hot dog on a stick (it was so unmemorable i will never get it again). I had to eat the hot hot dog on a stick (yes it was very hot) very very fast because we realized we had to get back to the dock right away. We ran down the escalator, hopped on our bikes, and flew down Broadway, cutting off buses and praying that we wouldn't get hit by a car. And you know what? We got to the ferry landing with 10 minutes to spare!

We finished riding around the island and ended up at the Hotel Del Coronado where we had to marvel at the immaculate gift shops filled with things of absolutely no value: things like turquoise resort wear, white fur capes, and a whole shop devoted to white and blue spa salts. The hotel is magnificent though in its old school, vintage glamour and when we walked out onto the deck, we arrived just the sun began its blazing descent beyond the hills. (For future travelers, Coronado Island has amazing white sand. It reminded me of Hawaii)

We ate a sort of lame dinner at Panera. It was nice to sit down. And there was a young man named Nathan that Rosa enjoyed. We discussed whether she has a fetish for black men, considering her thing for Luis, a Brazilian man we met in Taize last April.

For the finale of the evening, we went to Extraordinary Desserts in downtown San Diego. Holy Smorgasbord. This is a fabulous place to come with friends, if you're feeling blue, celebratory, or just smokin hot. Rosa got the Ivoire Imperial, torte made with fine layers of vanilla bean soaked pound cake and creamy white chocolate mousse, raspberries, covered in white chocolate shavings, in a pool of tart rasberry syrup. I got the dark chocolate chai tea cookie. I love eating food that reveals layers and layers of flavor and hidden tastes the more you chew and savor the morsel. A bite of the cookie revealed a cool dry texture at first, and then it gave off a surprising burst of heat and moist dark chocolate flavor, becoming more complex with the addition of intense undertones of chai tea. The aftertaste in my mouth was decidedly rich and smoky.

We talked a lot about love, relationships, and dreams. We talked about passions, future plans, and travels. We talked about healing and hope. It was a wonderfully full day. Peace to you tonight.