Author Archives: Julie Paris

Ocean Beach!

First thing’s first. I just went on a walk to the pier, and as I passed the beach, some guy started talking to me. I removed my earbuds, and he said, “You’re looking very lovely today.” Not quite as explicit as Eric’s solicitation, but I like to think I attract a classier crowd.

I haven’t written this past week because I’ve just plain been enjoying Ocean Beach. I’m not going to lie – it’s pretty great. We got here last Wednesday. Our apartment has two bedrooms, two baths (so as to prevent frustration over whether one has the right to occupy the reading room for 45 min at a time), and has a small balcony. It looks like this:

As you can see, Eric immediately set up his office in the second bedroom, and I think he’s been pretty happy there, aside from missing his chair at home. He’s using this folding wooden chair that can’t be too comfortable.

We were really happy to find that we have everything we need here; the apartment is very well appointed. We didn’t really need the Kate Spade kettle, but we have it in case of emergency. Wow.

The dogs have finally settled in a bit. There were a lot of new noises and smells when we arrived. There are two dogs that live downstairs – a bulldog named Stella and a . . . I don’t know . . . dog named Nova. They are good dogs who can be outside without a leash. We don’t do that. Luckily, we have our own side entrance to our second story apartment, so we can escape for walks without any drama. We don’t have a fenced yard like we do at home, so we take LOTS of walks. I take both dogs around the block in the morning, Eric and I both go for a longer walk around 5, then Eric takes them out just before bed. We realized after a couple of days that something had to be done about Waffles’s leash manners. We may have been lazy for the past year and not trained him how to not be an idiot on a leash. We now realize the error of our ways. Thanks to our new doughnut-printed Gentle Leader, I can now take both dogs for a walk at the same time without wanting to kill them.

We are within super comfortable walking distance of nearly everything we need. There are a few small markets, tons of restaurants, churches on all sides of us, coffee shops and acai bowl places galore, and even a few psychics. Everything smells like incense and hippies.

That reminds me….we’ve developed a new game called: surfer or homeless person? We’re not very good at it yet. Both groups of people like to wear those pullover poncho things that look like they’re made out of burlap sacks, neither wears shoes, neither smells particularly good…you get the point. I kid – in pretty poor taste, I’m sure – but it’s actually really nice to be in such a laid-back, accepting community. I NEVER worry about what I’m wearing. Eric always feels overdressed. He says he should’ve left all his clothes at home and just gone to a thrift shop when we got here.

Another great thing about this place is the weekly farmer’s market. Every Wednesday night, this one long block about 2 blocks from us is filled with tents with people selling homemade hummus, East African food (super popular…crazy long line), Turkish food, bao, dumplings, gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches (we had one last night with hashbrowns, chives, sour cream, bacon, two kinds of cheese…so good!), healing crystals, jewelry, burlap sack pullovers, poke bowls….all kinds of goodness. Wednesdays might just become our new favorite day of the week.

We have tickets to a couple of plays coming up. This Sunday we’ll go to the Ocean Beach Playhouse for “I Love You Because,” then the following week we’ll go to the Old Globe Theater (as in Shakespeare) in Balboa Park for “The Importance of Being Earnest.” Tomorrow night should be fun too. We have tickets to this event at the San Diego Natural History Museum called “The Secret Society of Adultologists: Courtship, Love, and Sex.” Check out the link. Should be interesting, or at least different. I’m particularly excited about the Prom Selfie Station and Mating Dance Performances. Too funny.

We also have reservations for Valentine’s Day for the first time in the history of us. I decided I wanted to celebrate, and I knew that good food would be all Eric needed to join me. We’re going to George’s at the Cove, overlooking the water in La Jolla. We haven’t been up there yet, so I’m pretty excited. Our reservations are for 4:30, but I’m actually okay with the early time. The sun sets around 5:30, so we should have a pretty incredible view. Oh, and we’re on the terrace.

Hope all is well back on the east coast!

Quick reminder that the “featured image,” the picture at the top of the page, doesn’t show up for folks who click on the link from the email you receive. Kinda a bummer. If you refresh or type in the address, you should see it.

Eric wants you to know…

For DAYS, Eric has been asking me why I haven’t yet posted about his favorite moment from our road trip. Here you go, love.

Our first night in New Orleans, we got food from a po’boys shop on Bourbon Street, as I already said. While we waited on the food, Eric decided to walk down a few blocks to grab a six-pack of beer. On his return trip, a woman (incredibly attractive, I’m told, and of appropriate age) yelled out to Eric, “I’ll give you $10 to put your d*%k in me!”

Y’all. He has never been happier or more proud of himself. This has come up every day since it happened. Eric told his parents about this incident today, and his mom suggested that might have made me jealous. My response? I was so proud and happy for him!

So there you go, Eric has the potential to go into another field of work, should he decide to advance out of managing programmers. Please mention it with much admiration when you next speak with him, while if you want to talk to other person for a romantic connection you can try a virtual girlfriend like viavanessaa online.

By the way, we got to San Diego. More on that to come, but first thing’s first!

Anthony, NM and Gila Bend, AZ

Welp, we not only made it across TX, but we trekked through New Mexico and more than half of Arizona too! I’m writing this from a hotel room in Gila Bend, Arizona. Where? Exactly.

Just yesterday morning – I can’t believe it’s only been a day and a half – we left out sweet little oasis in Austin. Just 90 minutes or so down the road we entered San Antonio and made for the Alamo. On the way, we passed this significant exit:

Kinda fun, even for Eric, since he took Solms as his middle name when we got married. His idea!

We journeyed on to the Alamo.

Kinda cool to see in person, particularly because it’s right downtown. There’s, like, a Marriott and a dive bar beside it. Very strange. We briefly brushed up on our history, saw some old guns and swords, walked through the church part – which is the part that you always see pictures of (who knew?) – and then made our way to Riverwalk. Beautiful, right?

We knew we had to bite the ginormous nearly 600-mile bullet, as it were, so it wasn’t long before we headed west into…nothingness. We played the Cows on your Side game, we marveled at how cool trains are, and we worked on our visual differentiation skills. Is it a cow on my side? NO! It’s a horse! Shoot! Some of these poor sweet cows were completely alone with nothing else as far as you could see. I mean, like an individual cow, and nothing else. Were they lost? Should we have been worried? What’s the story there?

It was a long day, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had built it up to be. Eric and I, knock on wood, are doing remarkably well at being patient and gracious with one another about most everything, even my navigational skills. The dogs are a dream in the car. Addie likes to stand up to look out the window once an hour or so, but Waffles sleeps the entire time. We have snacks, we have podcasts for days, we listened to the George RR Martin novel that isn’t in the Song of Fire and Ice (Game of Thrones, if you only watch the show) series. We stop when we need to, we have no schedule, and we’ve even been sort of okay about what kind of food we eat. I couldn’t have asked for a better trip, really, and that just tells me that I am not cut out for road trips.

I just don’t like them. I knew this before, but we kinda broke it down today. Eric wanted to know what he could do to keep me from getting grumpy, as I did when we got to our airbnb house in Anthony, NM, otherwise known as the west side of El Paso, TX. You know, the main thing that has bothered me on this trip has been the lack of central heating. How spoiled am I? Every place we’ve stayed has said it was “heated,” yet only one has had central heat. The others have relied on wood stoves (little ones!) and space heaters, which terrify me because I’m constantly afraid they will set the house or my dog on fire. Last night, it was cold. The whole house was just as cold as it was outside. The pellet stove on the opposite side of the house was lovely and kept Eric occupied for longer than it should have (watching it, not tending to it). But it didn’t heat our bedroom, which btw was open to the kitchen and hall and had no hope to hold in the heat from our space heater. The whole point of this trip is to be warmer for a few months, so I’ve had a little trouble adjusting to our chilly beds.

Sunset in Mexico…well, we were in TX, but the view is Mexico.
Notice the border fence. We were super close to Mexico!
The terrain has changed a lot throughout the past few days.

But like I said, I really couldn’t have asked for this trip to have gone much better. I feel like such a brat for complaining, but it’s always been my goal to be pretty honest here.

I feel like you can probably tell from my writing that I’m nearing the end of my road trip rope. I reread my last post and the editor in me shuddered. Sorry ’bout that.

In that spirit, however, I’m going to make quick work of the rest of tonight’s post.

Today I woke up in a better mood, due, in no small part, to Eric’s having moved a space heater into the bathroom in the middle of the night. It’s a lot easier to get up when the bathroom is warmer than your bed. We drove maybe half the distance to Tucson before Eric saw billboards for Dwayne’s Fresh Jerky. Obviously, we had to stop. Look how happy it made him!

Newly restocked with jerky, we ventured on. The exciting part of the day was a stop at my aunt and uncle’s house in Tucson. They, sadly, were off skiing in Europe, so we didn’t get to see them. However, I love love love their house, I love Tucson, I love their yard, I love the huge saguaros everywhere, and I only have wonderful memories of being there, so I was excited to show Eric the view, the pool, the shuffleboard court, and the cacti. I think you’ll understand once you see the photos.

The opposite view doesn’t disappoint either:

We had a nice picnic, let the dogs explore a cactus or two, and then got on the road again. I could’ve stayed for hours just hanging out, but it made sense to get going. Something tells me I’ll be begging Eric to spend a week with me out here in the near future.

Oh, and if you have a sec, zoom in on the picture of Waffles by the pool. His little face makes me laugh.

This is what happens when our family tries to take a selfie together: Waffles freaks out because he assumes Eric is going to throw him into the pool, and I get a picture like this. Probably my favorite of the trip so far.

Last note for the night, we ended up in Gila Bend, AZ tonight. It’s tiny and weird. Check out the pics from the gas station.

Here’s our hotel:

But then again, you can’t beat this sunset.