Rachelle in the City: The Waves were Big, The Dead Sea Scrolls were old, Stanford won The Big Game, all is right with the Universe

Rachelle in the City: The Perfect Wave

I looked forward all week to heading to the museum to check out the exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Thank goodness Geoff has the same interest in learning and discovering otherwise I would have felt bad dragging him to the museum.

As was expected, the exhibit was packed and I had to overcome my desire to push people out of the way so I could actually see. You get to see people's personalities in a whole new light in those situations.

You get the roamers who don't care at all about waiting and just cut in and get a good close look while others look at them with both disgust and envy that they have the guts to do that. Then you have the ones that you always end up somehow standing next to throughout the exhibit who already know it all and are constantly talking about how they already know it all. Don't forget the people that stand forever right in front of the display you are trying to look at while others around them attempt to peer around them to have a look. That could have been me I suppose. I enjoy taking my time in understanding and soaking it all in. Heck, when will I ever be able to see this stuff again?

The idea that I was staring at something that someone had looked at and written 2,000 years ago just amazes me. It was also big confirmation about how many times the Bible has been written and how mistakes can be made by one person who wrote a word wrong, changing the story forever.

Later that afternoon we met up with Avery and her boyfriend at Trophy's where the Stanford Alumni of San Diego were getting together to watch Stanford play Berkeley in football which is otherwise called Big Game.

Big Game was always the most exciting game to go to while I was in college because it was against our rival school, Berkeley. It was pretty cool seeing alumni of all ages wearing their Stanford gear and cheering Stanford on. The funny thing was that no one was interacting with each other. Everyone came with their groups or families, ate and watched the game, and then left. We have fun though and were happy to watch Stanford win and reclaim The Axe from Berkeley. Everything is right in the universe again.

First thing I heard on the radio Wednesday morning was how big the waves were going to be that day. The biggest of the year! Avery and I decided to check out these waves on her lunch break. We ate in Cardiff at this restaurant called Las Olas, which had decent Mexican food (I am biased because I come from a state that has THE best Mexican food in the world, so Mexican food around here will always be just "ok").

We noticed there was tons of people just pulling over to watch the waves with their binoculars. After lunch we found a spot to watch and though I was expecting the waves to be bigger, they were pretty huge sometimes...especially when you got up close and it felt like a monster was coming towards you. The air was thick with the spray from the crashing waves. There were seriously 50 surfers in this area called Swami's waiting for The Perfect Wave. It was fun to watch when surfers caught a wave and expertly and sometimes not so expertly ride it back to shore. San Diego takes their waves and surfing seriously. I wasn't really interested at first but since everyone else was I sort of got into it. So there I am starting to get into San Diego's culture more and more. Who knows, pretty soon you might catch me with my surfboard trying to catch the perfect wave.

Rachelle in the City: She goes and finds herself the Big O.

Rachelle in the City:
The Big O

Where does time go? It seems like just yesterday I moved to the San Diego area and already the weeks have flown by and Christmas is just around the corner. I am crossing my fingers my supervisor will let me return to New Mexico to visit my family for the holidays.

The bummer about working retail in a spa is you have to work 7 days a week, 362 days a year. This is the price I have to pay for now I guess, and hopefully it will pay off in the end. Though, a little hiss rises up in the back of my mind sometimes when I am stocking the shelves and it says, "you went to Stanford for this?"

Working and recovering from work has been my theme these past few weeks. I had Tuesday and then Sunday off last week. So weird.

My point is, my big plans of checking out cool cheap things to do around San Diego has been significantly delayed. However, that doesn't mean I haven't managed to squeeze in a few highlights to mention.

For Avery's birthday she made the long trip up to North County and we had lunch at this Japanese restaurant called Nozomi in Carlsbad. Their lunch specials are so delicious and complement that with some sake and it makes a perfect start to an afternoon (only if you don't have to return to work of course).

Afterwards, we were determined to find Geoff's friend's bar in Oceanside where she's a bartender so we could maybe score some free drinks. I had never been to Oceanside before and I don't think I will be heading back there soon, unless I want to shop at The Closet. Marines were everywhere and everything just seemed...sketchy. We finally found the bar called The Haunted Head and when we walked in all these dirty old men looked at us and since my friend wasn't working at the time we sort of looked at each other and agreed to head to the sports bar down the street instead. Oceanside has its own vibe going but it's definitely not my vibe.

My eldest aunt came into town on business and I was able to show her my apartment. She thought everything was "cute" and she took pictures of me standing in each area of the apartment so she could show my family back home.

We spent an evening in downtown San Diego having tapas at this place i kept telling Geoff over the phone was called "O" but was corrected by an irritated waiter who said the name was actually "Red Circle." What do I know. It was an alright place. They were playing some good music though...the kind I could see me and my girls getting down to. It was great to have family visiting me and I hope they come more often so I don't miss they so much.

Geoff and I declared we have gained too much weight since we got married and our goal is to start becoming more active in our daily rituals. Funny thing is that it's actually easier said then done. What better thing to do then get off work and curl up next to your loved one and read or watch TV together? I am looking forward to this coming weekend because Geoff and I are going to check out the exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls because we are scholarly like that. I mentioned it to Avery but she didn't sound to keen on going. I'm excited though.

You can head to the Natural History Museum and see the Dead Sea Scrolls until December 31

Oh Wikipedia: The Dead Sea scrolls consist of roughly 900 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves in and around the Wadi Qumran (near the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran, on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea) in the West Bank. The texts are of great religious and historical significance, as they include practically the only known surviving copies of Biblical documents made before 100 AD, and preserve evidence of considerable diversity of belief and practice within late Second Temple Judaism.

And the San Diego Natural History Museum has them. Check them out until December 31, when they will continue on to a new destination.

Currently, 15 Dead Sea Scrolls are on display, including the oldest manuscript containing the Ten Commandments and a section of the Copper Scroll, the only scroll written on copper.
The Dead Sea Scrolls—objects of great mystery, intrigue and significance—are widely acknowledged to be among the greatest archaeological treasures ever discovered. The scrolls link us to the ancient Middle East and to the formative years of Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity.