The good thing about Wednesday is that it's my last working day without an assistant. Tomorrow and Friday, I can check out mentally whenever I need to. That's the beauty of spending extra years in school. You get a little higher up on the food chain and thus, can relax between feedings.

It was 106 degrees inland today so I had intentions to come home and jump in the ocean, but ended up getting even steamier while attempting to ride my bike a bit farther up Mt. Soledad. Believe me it's not easy, especially when you're trying to weave around cars and pedestrians that move aimlessly like sleepwalkers. It was a new direction though. I'm sick of heading south on the beach walk because I usually end up at the gym and then feel compelled to go in and work out. Not to mention, you're riding your bike through the busiest pedestrian strip outside the Embarcadero. In Costa Rica, we learned how to plan a line through an area of rapids on the river and how to rapidly scope the most stable path through a muddy, rocky slope while tearing down it on a bike. This is harder. Because rocks stay where they are, but people move. They change directions for no apparent reason. They stop suddenly. And you can't pass them because another biker or cluster of pedestrians is coming at you from the other direction. Of course, when I'm walking I hate the bikers.

This weekend I'm planning on going downtown to Balboa Park to check out the museum of man, the photography museum, and the aerospace museum. Three of my favorite things, haha. I'm making an effort to go beyond the limits of Mission Valley and La Jolla for my weekend adventures. I've been settling into a pretty chill routine, but it's still a routine. There are a lot of hidden treasures to be found here. This Monday I ended up walking all the way to the Pangea Outpost (didn't want to deal with parking the car, didn't think I could bring purchases home in the bike basket, hence the leg work). The outpost has little nooks and crannies rented out by vendors, typically artists, who sell funky beach-themed stuff. I hooked myself up with some rasta jewelry and some signs for the wall, all decently priced. Now I have some art on my wall other than the unfinished PURA VIDA project - which now simply says PUR. It's better than before, it just said "PU" which, of course, really only made sense in the kitchen.