Orange County has a lot of mini-malls

See below for the reasons why I haven't been posting

My last full day with Erin, Adina, and Gertie (the Civic). Erin had a early AM dentist appointment to get the crown on her tooth that’s been a pain in her butt for months. I dropped her off, swung by the hotel, picked up Adina, and we went to the beach. We were there for about 20 minutes, long enough to wade in the Pacific and watch some fairly impressive surfers, before Erin called, impatient to get to Irvine for her noon housing appointment. Much to her dismay, we were late picking her up and then late for the appointment, though it turned out not to matter too much in the end. Erin has a lovely 2-bedroom apartment with a gigantic kitchen, which she better learn to cook in, because it’s just that huge. I would kill for that kind of counter space.

As some of you know, Erin and Adina are going off to that ‘festival’ known as Burning Man where a thousand people hang out in a harsh desert for a week with no modern conveniences doing a lot of strange drugs and wearing a lot of weird outfits and calling it art. No, mom and dad, they will not be participating in the strange drugs part, but they were into the idea of costumes, and so that’s what we did for the next several hours. That and buy supplies to go into the wilderness. Staring at their 10 gallons of water, dust masks, goggles, and plastic bags that will be used as toilets, I’m stumped as to the reason why they want to do this, but for some reason they’re looking forward to it. It gave me a chance at least to check out the town of Irvine, which is a planned community owned by a corporation and… yeah, kind of looks like that. Has a nice little mini-mall and an arthouse theater, though.

It also has In-and-Out Burger, which Californians swear by and I have never had, being turned off by the name. But I tried it today in the spirit of trying burgers across the US (also checked off Sonic… eh). It was pretty damn good. I got a large burger, fries, and shake for $4.80, and it had the same sauce that Blue 9 has. Chris, Mariah, sorry, Lucky Burger has now been edged out two spots on the great burger list.

I can’t believe that tomorrow is that last day I see Erin for months. This is possibly the longest that we’ve been apart since middle school. Even at our tensest moments, I always knew I could give her a slap on the butt and everything would be ok. Now I’m living with 5, 6, or 7 roommates, depending on the night, and embarking upon my first job where I get my own desk and my own computer. And Adina, well, she’s planning on being a citizen of the world for the next year or so. Our 1 ½ years of bliss at 81 Olive Street have definitely come to an end.

Ok, on to less sad things. Erin has no furniture in her apartment, so we are doing what is called the ‘minimalist’ thing right now, which is all of our stuff spread across the floor, drinking some champagne from the bottle, and about to settle down to watch movies on my computer. Later we’ll spread out the sleeping bags for one last night in them, though this time without the bugs, gravel, and 30 degree temperatures. My kind of camping.