I’m loving my new place — it’s a quaint, charming one-bedroom apartment (with a BEAST of a gas heater — see photo at left — this thing kicks out some hot shit). The best thing about my place is the location: my good friends Jon and Carolyn Freeman live in the apartment above mine (and I get to see them almost every day!); it’s in the heart of Hillcrest, a lively walking community; and it’s just four blocks from Balboa Park, which is massive in scale and beauty. Anyway, check out the photos — I included short descriptions with most of ‘em.

Yep, that was a first — being outdoors for Thanksgiving.  I hung out with Jon and Carolyn Freeman and about 20 of their relatives.  (Jon and I were interns together at Willow Creek Community Church; he and Carolyn now live in the apartment above mine.)  I had a blast!

We hung out on Fiesta Island, in the middle of Mission Bay, eating turkey, Pauline’s lemon-glazed persimmon bars and playing beach soccer.  When the sun went down, we built a bonfire, ate pumpkin pie and had some laughs.  It was really great.

Check out my photos of the day.

Semi-structured nuttiness — that’s how I’d describe the last few parties I’ve thrown. My birthday party last night included activities such as “The Lost Sayings Of …” and “Pitch a Movie Idea.” Essentially I forced everyone to think, be creative, do improv and perform. Nice, huh? They all were such good sports! Oh, and we did a relay race around the pool — I’m a sucker for a good, nutty physical activity.

I turned 34, and my good buddy Wolffer, a fellow Chicago native, referred to age 34 as the age of “Sweetness,” in honor of Walter Payton. I like that. Speaking of Chicago, last night we devoured some Chicago-style hotdogs, thanks to my mom, who ordered Portillo’s hotdogs (and all the fixings!) and had them sent to me. Thanks, Mom — everyone loved the dogs!

Spanky and Randy (at left) aren’t blood, but they feel like “family” — and it was fabulous to be reunited with them both!  (Spanky’s looking good, no?  That’s one sexy surf monkey.)

In a span of three days, my family and I celebrated four things:  my grandparents’ 60th wedding anniversary, my dad’s retirement, my grandma’s birthday and my dad’s birthday.  Yowsa!  It was good to be together.

Check out my photos of the family parties.

A couple weeks ago, my buddy Deek convinced me to go South of the Border with him for four days. Deek wanted to ride bikes across the border, through Tijuana and down the coast of the Baja Penninsula. (That’s Deek — he likes to live on the edge, the very edge!) I gently persuaded him that taking a car had SO MANY benefits. I don’t think I persuaded him; he just decided to drop the biking idea.

It was a fun four days of exploring the Baja coastline, sleeping on the beach, “showering” in the ocean each morning, harvesting mussels and cooking them over an open fire and eating mucho tacos.

Check out my photos of the trip.

Last Tuesday my friend Shayla introduced me to her new love, outrigger canoeing, which is popular in Hawaii and growing in popularity in California. Shayla belongs to the Hanohano Outrigger Canoe Club here in San Diego, and she trains and races regularly. It was great fun to be with Shayla, channel the Hawaiian spirit, and paddle away in Mission Bay. We didn’t flip the canoe, and according to Coach Shayla that means I did a pretty good job for a rookie. Check out a few photos of Shayla and I.

Switching subjects … do you know why Tuesday nights are so exciting? Fish tacos! Those little fishies in those little corn tortillas. I love ‘em! Every Tuesday night at Rubio’s, fish tacos are just $1 — a frickin’ buck. So almost every Tuesday night, Santa Claus Andy (that’s me) picks up a bag full of fish tacos and heads to the Fitzgerald house in La Mesa to hand out the goodies. Usually D and Scott have a fresh margarita or cold Corona waiting for me. It’s been a nice little tradition.

It’s been so long since I’ve blogged that I don’t know where to begin.  I might as well start with fruit.  I’ve eaten more strawberries in the past five months than I have in my entire life.  I just got back from Henry’s Market, a well-loved San Diego establishment, where I bought two quarts of organic strawberries for $4.   What did I do when I came home?  Sliced those sons of bitches up.  YUM!

There’s so much to say, so many great psychospiritual resources to point you to, lots of nudie pics to show you.  But that’ll all have to wait.  Because I’m tired, and I work 20 hours a week and need to get to bed on time.

So here’s the skinny on my on-the-move-ness.  Up until recently I’d been living with the fabulous Fitzgerald family in La Mesa, which is just East of San Diego, out in the desert with the rattlesnakes.  A week ago, however, I moved into my buddy Wolffer’s condo in the Hillcrest neighborhood of San Diego.  Wolffer’s graciously letting me live with him while I look for an apartment and a roommate or two or five.

I’m pumped about the Hillcrest neighborhood and hope to find an apartment here.  For one thing, Hillcrest is a “walking community,” meaning everything (grocery store, shops, movie theater, etc.) is within walking distance of my residence.  For a couple years now I’ve had a huge desire to live in a walking community — and Hillcrest is one of the best walking communities I’ve ever experienced.  It’s a vibrant, creative, artsy neighborhood, known for its many rainbows (it’s a very gay neighborhood) and restaurants.

I took some photos of Hillcrest to capture some of its essence for you.  I hope you enjoy them.

I’m thrilled to be within 20 minutes of three major universities (USD, SDSU and UCSD). There’s so much good stuff going on (e.g., concerts, art exhibits, lectures, discussions, programs, etc.) — and I love to explore, discover, learn and grow! To use a line from the movie City Slickers, “I’m as happy as a puppy with two peeters.”

I’m really thrilled about the University of San Diego (USD) because it has a spiritual foundation and focus (it used to be a Catholic university and is still deeply rooted in and concerned with spirituality). It’s also a university that’s intensely focused on making a difference in the world, especially in the areas of peace and justice. (Check out USD’s brand new Institute for Peace & Justice; USD will soon offer a master’s degree in Peace & Justice.)

Last night at USD’s Center for Christian Spirituality, I attended a fabulous lecture and discussion entitled, “Nonviolence as a Way to Peace: Can it Work?” The two opening speakers were a Buddhist nun and a retired military man. The keynote lecture was given by Michael Nagler, professor emeritus of Classics and Comparative Literature at UC, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1966, and where he founded the Peace and Conflict Studies Program in which he still teaches the upper-division nonviolence course as well as meditation and other courses. (You can actually listen to his nonviolence lectures online for free! Go to the Metta Center website and you’ll find links to his UCB lectures in the left column.) Also, Nagler founded the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation and has written many books, including the award-winning, The Search for a Nonviolent Future.

Is nonviolence always the best way to peace? Something in me says yes; something in me says there’s never a justification for violence. Two of my heroes, Jesus and Gandhi, seemed to model this. At the same time, however, I sense that it might not be that black and white. I certainly sense that I’m not done wrestling with this issue. The wrestling continues!

Tonight at USD I’m attending a talk by Dhillon Khosla entitiled “Discover the Spirituality of Gender.” Khosla recently had a sex change (it took 15 operations), and through that process he experienced a profound spiritual awakening. His new book is Both Sides Now: One Man’s Journey Through Womanhood, and you can view a brief interview with him at the MSNBC site. I’m really looking forward to hearing his story tonight!

About a week and a half ago, my former roommate and dear friend Randy’s mom died.  So I flew back to Chicago to be with Randy and his family for a week.  Overall it was a good week.

Now that I’m back, I hope to blog some this week about my recent stay in Sedona.  I met some fascinating and wonderful people.  One Sunday morning for church, I attended the Sedona Interfaith Fellowship — it was a fabulous experience.  More on all of that later.

Don’t feel too jealous; it’s raining today.  Time to pray to Frank the Sun God (see photo at left), who lives in our backyard.

It’s really fabulous and scary(!) to be here, starting a new chapter in my life.  It feels like there are so many possibilities on so many fronts.  Here we go!