Stress. The struggle is real. Don't get me wrong: I LOVE my job! My students are really starting to do great things, I work with the best people in the world, and my school, though technically in the ghetto, is wonderful! I feel like my kiddos and my co-workers and I are a little community with many trying so hard to ensure a bright and happy future! BUT OH. MY GOODNESS. Working in schools these days in HARD and STRESSFUL. I truly feel that people that don't work in schools can never understand the immense pressure to perform and to achieve perfection with all students at the same rate, while also working non-stop for free and then being criticized and beaten down along the way...not by my school administration, but by the folks at the district office...ya know, the ones that DON'T work with kids? Or maybe that's just in my district. Anyhow, the first part of the school year was really stressful, but after deciding to make a change in my perspective and mindset, I'm feeling much better about things. One of the changes I decided I needed to make was that I really needed to put myself first in certain situations. For example, I don't need to take work home every single weekend or every single night. If I need an evening to myself, I should take it, And when I leave stuff at work, I need to also leave my work thoughts at work and not feel guilty about all of the stuff that's not getting done. That stack of papers to grade will still be there the next day. Also, I decided to take a cue from Frozen and "let it go"! I have TAs who can grade stuff and do a bunch of things that I've always done on my own; now, I let them do more "stuff" and guess what! It's fabulous! Further, I need to do preventative stuff and not wait until I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown to take a little time for myself and I need to savor the small stuff! So that's what I'm doing! I'm doing "me"! And with that loooong intro, I will now dive into my magical San Diego weekend!
I've been super exhausted and needed a little San Diego (my happy place) in my life to prevent myself from getting too stressed out and overwhelmed, but after looking at my schedule, I realized that I wouldn't have time to go for about 3 months, so I decided to wait out the three months because, ya know, there was stuff to do. Then, I remembered my pact with myself and decided: NOPE. I will make time. So, I booked a room in San Diego for Friday and Saturday (October 30th-31st)- Halloween Eve and Halloween! I decided that I wanted this trip to be a little different and that I would do stuff that I had never done or hadn't done in a while, mixed, of course, with the things that I absolutely love and want to do every time! On Friday, I left work and got on the road. After battling through about four hours of traffic, I made it to my hotel! I had phoned in my order to Phil's BBQ (the BEST BBQ I have ever had! You should try it!) and picked up my food, along with one of their delicious pumpkin whoopie pies (a must) for dessert! I stayed at the Rodeway Inn by Qualcomm Stadium and it was really nice, especially since the room was very inexpensive.
I've stayed here with my parents before and, among the reasons it's so nice is that it's kind of in a neighborhood and off the beaten path, so it's not among heavy traffic and it's SO dark outside so you can see a million twinkling stars in the in the night sky! So, I ate my dinner while watching a little TV and then changed out of my work clothes, touched up my make-up, and headed over to Old Town.
I had booked a ghost tour with Haunted San Diego! I've always wanted to do this, like seriously, since I was a small child and had seen the fliers for these tours in Old Town, I've wanted to do one, but never thought I really ever would! That was changing tonight! Once I found parking, I located the meeting place for the tour (a "must" when you get lost everywhere you go!) and then walked around Old Town! I had no agenda and just took the time to look around. Some stuff had already closed, but I went to Gepetto's Toy Shoppe, which was a childhood favorite for me, and then I got a root beer float and just took my time with it. When it was time, I went to the Best Western Hacienda Hotel to meet the tour guide.
We went to the Whaley House, Montezuma Villa, The Horton Grand Hotel, the William Heath Davis House, and El Campo Santo Cemetery. Our tour guide/storyteller was awesome and I had a really fun time! We even had a few creepy things happen that, pretty much, everyone in our group experienced at the same time! It was about 11:15 pm when the tour ended and I had to walk through the courtyard area of Old Town when it was completely deserted. It was SO creepy! When I got back to the hotel, I pretty much went straight to bed.
The next morning, I did not set an alarm at all and I put my phone on "Do Not Disturb" mode. I slept in until almost 9 am! It was SO nice! Then, I just laid in bed and watched TV for a while, which I never, ever do, so that was really nice too! And, of course, a girl's gotta eat breakfast, so I went fancy and heated up a frozen breakfast burrito I had grabbed at 7-11 the previous night and I drank a red Mountain Dew...I know, I know, I'm wowing you with my nutritious menu selections. ;) I really wanted to take time to relax as well as have some fun, so that's exactly what I did. I didn't really have an agenda for what I was going to do. I knew I wanted to tour the Whaley House and I knew I wanted to spend some time at Silver Strand Beach, but other than that, I kind of wanted to do things I hadn't done before. When I first checked into my hotel, I grabbed a bunch of fliers for things to do from the lobby and decided that I would pick a couple of those things to do.
First, I drove into Old Town and went to the Whaley House and browsed around a few of the shops.
Then, I drove out to Little Italy, which was right on the coast. Oddly enough, there wasn't much "Italy" stuff, but I did see some Argentinian stuff and a Little Brazil store, even though it was supposed to be Little Italy. I stopped in at Little Brazil because Scott served his mission in Brazil and I wanted to see if they had any of the things I'd heard him talk about; it turned out that the store was pretty small and they didn't really have much,but I was still glad I went.
After that I went back to my car and I decided to look at the fliers I had gotten from the hotel. One of them was for harbor cruises and I looked at the departure times and decided to get there in time for the 3:00 cruise. I got there and bought my ticket about 10 minutes prior to boarding, so it worked out perfectly! The boat was pretty big and, actually, really nice. I decided to sit outside and went all the way to the very back of the boat. It was a beautiful day and it was so relaxing to be there. We saw a bunch of California Sea Lions and got to hear a lot about the coastline and the history of San Diego.
After the harbor cruise, I drove out to Coronado Island to hit up my favorite beach. I walked along the beach for a while, marveling at how vast the ocean is and what an amazing creation our world is! So beautiful!
I also took some time to explore the Hotel Del Coronado. Afterall, it's known to be haunted and it was Halloween, so I decided to do a bit of ghost hunting. First, I went into a cute little shop that can be accessed from the outside of the Del, by the café. I bought a few Fall leaf plates and a super cute Thanksgiving hand towel. Then, I ventured into the hotel a little further as I browsed the Shops at the Del. Just for kicks, I asked the ladies working in the shops whether they were familiar with the stories about Kate Morgan haunting the hotel and they all said yes. One of them told me that she likes to mess stuff up in some of the shops after they're closed and that there's a shop upstairs that is often visited by her. It was kind of fun to hear some of the stories! It turns out that the place where they found her body is no longer there; the staircase where she was found has been removed and additional restaurants and cafés have been built in its place. I didn't experience any ghost stuff, but it was fun just to forget about what people might think and just have some fun!
I watched the sun set over the ocean and then drove back to my hotel room for the evening. The following morning, I drove home so I could make it to church on time. The weekend was so, incredibly relaxing and exactly what I needed! Can't wait until my next adventure!
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