adventures of tilly willy in san diego!

of course this is only a chapter of the story of "The Adventures of Tilly Willy in San Diego", but i feel like i needed a witty title (thanks erin!)

last weekend i had my dear friend cristina from tampa visit me. she showed up on wednesday and had to hang out at the airport for 3 hours (enduring a very rude make-out session near her) for me to pick her up. we promptly went to Trader Joe's, which is my new favorite store, for dinner supplies. we got these awesome veggie burgers, which were so good, although i'm not vegetarian, i purchased them a second time yesterday. Thursday, while i had to work, cristina got to enjoy the San Diego Zoo and that night we got to eat sushi in a boat. Friday, after another work day, i headed out to my car and found one of my tires completely flat. i surely got a nail right in my tire. luckily i had AAA who i called to come change my tire. (sidenote.. i find it emotionally crippling and pathetic that i'm not strong enough to change my own tire. but.. i'm glad God made men and good fulcrum levers.) because i had the ridiculous really tiny spare tire on, i had to get my regular one fixed right away, which only took Sears Auto 2 hours to do. not really sure why.

finally at 8 i made it home where i picked cristina up for dinner at the San Diego Port.
on to the good stuff.. we got to visit Coronado and went to watch The Proposal. (second sidenote: yes, i know, a 'girly' movie. i will do it occasionally for my friends. and watching ryan reynolds never hurt anyone.) And Sunday we went to see the seals at La Jolla, got to walk around Balboa Park and go to to the FREE art museum, and got some yogurt from Yogurtland.

i must admit i wasn't sure what the deal was with all the self-serve yogurt places around here, but i have only been once and now i am dying to serve myself yogurt (you can pick as many flavors as you want) and then pick out the toppings. it's like you can pick one theme, like 'fruity', or 'chocolately' and stick with it, or just pile on whatever looks good... you get to make all the decisions! it's wonderful. and addicting. thank goodness there are about 4 yogurt places i can walk to from my place!
here's a pic of me and cristina at Coronado.. yes, it was chilly that day!

so that is all for now.. i had two more visitors since then, which i will have to document later... but i am sad to see all of you go!

i moved to san diego a week ago, and it has already begun changing me and how i think. leaving dallas not only meant leaving all my friends, but leaving relationships behind at this place. the union gospel mission.

working in the kitchen there, i began some relationships with amazing men, who oddly enough, we were supposed to be encouraging in Christ. every single evening i went, i was astounded by their unrelenting faith and renewed vigor to live for Christ. they encouraged me more than they will ever know. and once, many of them were homeless or incarcerated. or both.

getting to my point, in san diego, there are homeless everywhere... maybe because southern california has incredible weather which never gets too cold or hot. as i came home to my apartment today, there was a homeless man going through our recycling bin. my first thought was to stop and ask him how he was doing. now, i admit that sounds silly. how do i think he's doing? he's homeless and rummaging through a recycling bin, looking for plastic and cans he can turn in for 5 cents each. probably not so good. but of course, i am thinking with the middle-class mind-set that a home and all the extra commodities are good. he may be fine with being homeless, and wouldn't have it any other way. BUT, i didn't stop. i walked on in like he wasn't there.
regardless of how he thinks of himself and his situation, it bothered me that i didn't stop and talk to him. before you freak out (castioni!), it bothers me that we (our society) has grown up being taught and will teach our children to beware of the homeless.!... they will ask for money... they are a nuisance.... it grieves me that yes, i sometimes treat them that way. i try to avoid them and shy away from them on the street. or possibly worse, i ignore them like i did this afternoon. yes, i am a hypocrite because i am not living like i believe and let my fear and society tell me how to behave.
i know people that are homeless are not a population that mainstream society doesn't think about all the time, unless like me, they may find them rummaging in the trash bin.
But along with God's other commands, He tells us "whoever oppresses the poor insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors Him" - Proverbs 14:31; and "whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered" - Proverbs 21:13; and "she opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy" - Proverbs 31: 20, describing the Godly woman, and Proverbs 22:2, which reminds me i should treat all people equally, "the rich and the poor have this in common, the Lord is maker of them all."
thinking of how i am inconsistent in living what i believe saddens me, but i know i am human, and fail miserably sometimes. i know i have a God who gives second chances and still loves me in my imperfectness, which only gives me renewed hope that tomorrow will be different than today.

The Journey Half-way Across the.... Nation

That’s right! I up and moved from Dallas, Texas to San Diego, Californ-I-A. And yes, that was 1400 miles that I traveled and will now attempt to document.

It all began…. Well, really, it all began when I enrolled in graduate school, knowing that during the 4th year of the program, I would move away to complete my externship (which is really just working full-time, while still paying tuition). So the time came for me to move.. which was a sad and painful process, entailing not only saying goodbye to close friends and those I was just getting to know, but also purging my apartment of items I really should let go of.

After three trips to Salvation Army and having most of my belongings packed in boxes, I thought I was ready to begin packing the minivan I rented. My patient friends came over to help and we started cramming things in the van. We thought we were doing okay, until Melody pointed out all the van seats fold down into the floor! Eureka! That was when the fun really started… just kidding. My friends helped me pack the van for 5 HOURS! They were amazing and I owe them for life. They hung in there with me, although much of my stuff was not packed in boxes and they were still trying to help me decide what should travel with me, and what should be thrown away. I apologize to Castioni, who encountered my wrath when she suggested I give away my ironing board. Which I did.. Erin IS wise.
And after many tearful goodbyes, I was off to spend my last night in Dallas in a hotel room with my dad. These are shots of my last drive on 114 to the hotel.


Thursday was spent driving through west Texas, which was actually quite beautiful. Texas is super big! I even saw a tumbleweed!!


We ended up driving all the way to Albuquerque, New Mexico on Thursday night.


All of New Mexico basically looked like this. Not very exciting.


The next day we ate lunch in Flagstaff, Arizona. It was so strange to see mountains covered with conifer (?) trees. It reminded me of Oregon. I could definitely live in that part of Arizona… isn't this awesome??!!

Friday night was spent in Phoenix and I was able to see my smiling friend Julia, who graciously let me bust up her evening plans and tag along with her. It was so nice to see her, if only for a couple hours since we are not sure when we will get together next.

The trip through the rest of Arizona and the eastern part of California was like something out of a horror movie. Driving through desert and desolate towns, where we saw dirt devils swirling through the air (or whatever they’re called). Yuma, Arizona was about the biggest town we drove through, and the question my dad and I kept asking each other was “why?”. Why would anyone live way out there? I didn’t even take many pictures cause it was too depressing. Although... they did have WINDMILLS! which of course, I had to take pictures of.


And yes, I took this while driving. And yes, I know that's not so safe.

Then came the US Border Patrol stops outside of Yuma. I must admit, although I had done nothing wrong I was a little apprehensive about having to stop when we crossed over into California. Those guys look scary with their guns strapped to their side. At that time, I was riding with my dad, and the Patrol guy asked if we were bringing any fruits or vegetables into California. My dad said yeah, we bought some oranges in Wichita Falls, Texas and lifted them up so the Patrol guy could take a look. He just kind of snickered and then handed them back and told us to have a nice day. We wondered why he laughed and realized the oranges we had bought in Texas were grown in California, and we were just bringing them home!
The last several hours driving through California seemed to take forever, and we all agreed, it was the worst part of the trip for some reason. There were two more Border Patrol Stops, several miles of pure sand dunes, many views of the US/Mexico border fence, and climbs to 4000 feet and back before we were finally driving into San Diego.
The first few nights in San Diego I stayed in the hotel with my dad and we just wandered around doing touristy things. Here are some shots from our hotel downtown.










Here’s one of Coronado beach. Sadly, it was cloudy last week end. I didn’t realize how much I have missed being close to the water. It’s just so amazing.


Sunday night all my belongings were moved into my apartment, and Monday morning early, my dad was off to Florida, and I was all alone, left to unpack and settle in.

If you read all the way down to this part, congratulations!! You made it through! I really just wanted to put up pictures of my trip, but I couldn’t really do that without a brief, albeit, boring narrative of the journey. So as long and boring as this read was, that was about how long and boring the trip was. Although, my dad and I both can now say we have driven across the distance of the US. Not all at once of course, but we figure it still counts.