Yes, it has finally come to this.

This post is supposed to be about the time I spent in California with Shane's family.

Unfortunately, to get to why I was in California, I have to confess that I did something I am not proud of:

I went to a mid-singles' conference.

It was not the first I have been to, and I have a feeling it will not be the last. The difference between this one and others, though, is that it attracts people from all over the country--as in, people from other states fly in to attend this conference. I am now officially one of those people.

It started with a desire to visit Stephanie, who is now living in San Diego--well, Coronado to be more precise. She suggested that I come the weekend of the Huntington Beach LDS midsingles conference. I have learned from years of experience that Stephanie can make anything fun, even these kinds of activities, so I said yes.

The highlights:

• The Angels/Braves game on Friday night. The Angels won, and I ran into Rochelle, a former roommate who is now finishing up her law degree at Pepperdine. No pictures of that, sorry, Lisa.
• Fish tacos on the beach.
• Some pretty good workshops on Saturday morning. It turns out, both Stephanie and I are bathing in masculine energy. No, that's not a good thing.
• The beach on Saturday afternoon.
• Speed dating. No, seriously.
• Seeing this man behind us in line for dinner. Not being a Laker fan (in fact, truthfully, being the opposite of a Laker fan) I had no idea who he was, but Stephanie recognized him and texted me discretely to alert me to his presence.
• A pretty decent 80's rock cover band that wore wigs.
• I fell on the floor laughing. Now that I think about it, I can't remember the particulars of that one.

The lowlights:

• Overhearing comments like the following: "I need to know you are willing to give. No, wait. That was my marriage." Huh?
• Dinner at Ruby's on the pier. The food itself was good. What was not good was that, in order to accommodate the entire conference, we had to eat in shifts, and, when we were seated, we were put at a table with six people who were already halfway through their meals, had come together, and were not great at small talk. When I asked the man to my left what he did for a living, he said, "Many things." Maybe I'm a snob, but that didn't seem like something a man in his 40's should be saying.
• A two-hour Sacrament meeting on Sunday morning that dissolved into chaos as people prepared to be fed.

I had a great time because, again, I was there with Stephanie, which meant that, at a given time, I could look over at her face and know that she was thinking the same thing I was. Also, we had a lot of downtime to process through some of the awkward encounters of the day.

Sunday after church, Shane came and picked me up so that I could spend the night at his house. Huntington Beach is about an hour from where they live.

By skipping the closing fireside, I got to have dinner with Shane, Maria, Brooklyn, and Elise, who is now doing this:

That's right--she can crawl. And, when she gets going, she's pretty quick. She has to be because she has to keep up with this person:

Not that Brooklyn spends much time crawling. Most of our time was spent singing, dancing, and playing "Rapunzel," which involved her dangling a gold rope from the back of her head while I pretended to climb up.

The next morning we went to Trader Joe's, where I mostly just looked longingly at frozen food I couldn't take home.

Brooklyn, however got a box of ocean animal crackers which she ate in the car.

For lunch, Maria took me for some really good sushi, which is something I don't have very often, having gone from the plains of West Texas to the landlocked state of Utah.

Here is something else I don't get very often:

Look at those cheeks! Man, I miss those girls. I don't get to see them as often as the two other people whose pictures make it onto this blog, but I sure love them.