Slang- Part 5

This one had me dumbfounded. Usually I can figure out the gest of what a person was saying but I had absolutely no clue what my friends were saying.

A grip: adjective- a large amount. Most commonly used when referring to a large amount of individual objects. For example: We had a grip of papers due. Less often referring to a large amount of a collective object. For example: There was a grip of rain last night.

I even challenged a friend about his usage of this slang word. Duh, that was dumb to say the least. Who's the native speaker? Not me, that's for sure.

Beach Abbrev.

I hung out with my most recent Ex last night. We went out along PB into Mission Beach and then Mission Bay and ended up a little south of La Jolla Cove at a dead end street watching the waves come in. My Ex stole my keys so that we'd have to stay longer so I didn't get back until late last night (this is my excuse for not blogging yesterday).

But to relate to last night I was remembering when I first moved to San Diego and my landlords' daughter was asking if she could go to PB or OB. I had no clue what she was talking about and didn't figure it out for at least another month. So I've made a list of this funny little abbreviations.

Going from south to north:

IB- Imperial Beach
OB- Ocean Beach
MB- Mission Beach (I don't think any one says this but I may be mistaken. Also why wouldn't they? Doesn't it follow all the others?)
PB- Pacific Beach

Bugs

I'm staying with a friend tonight "in the boonies." While we were talking, this small white moth flew past her. I thought little about it until another friend captured the said moth and let it go outside. I laughed and joked that another 10 bugs would fly in as we let the one go. And while this is funny to me because it really could happen in my mind, it was funnier to my friends because they know it won't. At least not here.

Because of the SoCal desert there are very few bugs, which is wonderful. But I find it highly amusing when people here freak out over one or two bugs in their home when they've left their doors wide open all day for five days straight! My response is always "Duh!" when they're shocked that an insect would dare to come into their home when it had a whole lot more room out of it. Anyway, if you're that worried about a few bugs- get a screen door. That's what they're for!

Slang- part 4

Dank- adjective. Meaning something is cool (not in the temperature sense). "That was some dank food, yo!" Yes, I've actually heard this sentence come from one of my 24 year old friends.

I can't get over this one. At all. Every time I hear it I think of the basement I used to live in with moldy carpet. That's what dank means to me. I really will never use this slang. It just doesn't mean "cool" in my mind and it never will.

Eating Fast Food- Part 3

Local hamburger obsession:
In N Out.
Whoopdeedoo. They make hamburgers and you can get them regular or hard attacked (Animal style). Same thing with the french fries. The menu is simple and the fries aren't that great.

Cool trivia: Founded by Christians. You can find Bible verse references on most of their packaging.

Can you tell I am really not impressed?

Fires

As I've mentioned the Santa Ana winds leave all of California's vegetation dried out and that leads to FIRE!!! I got a rude awakening last year when the Witch fire closed down Scripps Ranch, the neighborhood my school was in. I never realized that fires were so common in California. I knew that I heard about fires pretty often but I just had no clue that Californians went through this every year!

How's this happen? The thing is it doesn't rain that much in SoCal so when the Santa Ana's dry everything out it doesn't get green again. Anything from a camp fire ember, a spark from a car accident, to a lightening strike can start a fire. The amazing thing is lightening strike sites can smolder for days before they break out into fire and that fire spreads quickly. Thus the origin of the phrase "spreading like wildfire." :) I've seen a fire go from hot spot with a trail of smoke to a full fledged fire in five minutes.

I remember talking to my father the day they closed down Scripps Ranch and his closing words to me were "Welcome to California!" I love my father.

Transportation

I just got back this afternoon from a weekend excursion to South-Central LA. And let me tell you I learned some very important lessons!

First, the "Coaster" and "Amtrak" may work together but you can't use the same ticket for them even if they're going to the same place.

Second, just because Amtrak titles a station "LAX" does not mean it is LAX. In fact the "LAX" Amtrak station is actually Union station which is at least 10 miles from the LAX airport. Thus when you get directions from LAX they are not the same as directions from Union station.

Third, Amtrak is really nice. The LA Metro subway/tram is not.

Fourth, I'm not scared of riding public transportation but I am a little wary of waiting for it.

And last I probably had very few fears in LA because I'm just too naive about what I was getting myself into. Also because once I was there I had the mindset that I had to follow through.