Bargains By The Bay
1:56 p.m. - 2008-03-17


The weather was wonderful this weekend, which was lucky because we had to drive to Monterey for a charity function. I wore the new silk jacket that I got last week, though sometime when I have the money I will have to get or make some kind of evening wrap/coat because I have nothing. And it was windy and chilly late at night after the event was over and we were hiking back to the car. The dinner was held in the Monterey Convention Center, and we were both astonished (being veterans of many of these charity function meals) that the food was so totally excellent. The asparagus on the entree plate was perfectly tender crisp, and how do you manage that when you are serving 500 people? I have fun at these functions watching the people and fitting in with the rich and famous (which means sitting there and watching them go by). I like the silent and open auctions where people think nothing of bidding $20,000 for something. Some of the items were pretty fabulous like vacations in villas or dinner for 8 at a private mansion, or attendance at the Pebble Beach Food and Wine thingy which is otherwise sold out. Obviously I am only watching and not bidding (!). It is also fun to watch the ladies and check out their outfits. Some ladies were casually dressed in pants and sweater, and some were very chic. There were the usual very rich ladies with faces that didn't move much, so lifted were they, but there were also polished rich ladies who laughed and had actual facial expressions. After the money raising activities, the entertainment was provided by a very very famous comedian who started out by insulting the President and everyone else he could think of, quite offensive, but he did get a good zinger off at the expense of the Speaker of the House so I will cut him some slack. I was interested in the state of comedy today, because a lot of it is just not clever. It is like an artist using too much black, which is an easy out designwise. The comedian didn't really have anything new or even very true to say, just using smut and insults as a comedy crutch. When he started making jokes about questionable smutty activities of an 11-year-old boy and mentioning body parts, well that is just not appropriate at an event raising money for children and which has children in attendance. Besides, at that point I was pretty tired so the spouse snuck out first and after a minute or so, I followed.

The next morning we had breakfast at a little place in Pacific Grove that had been recommended to the spouse by someone he knows at the Carmel office. I decided to be brave and try an eggwhite omlette, but I couldn't get past the weird white color of it. It didn't really taste that bad, but I just picked out all the veggies. Then we walked down to the shore which was gorgeous beyond belief. The wind was strong and the waves were huge. I ran around taking pictures with my hair whipping around in the wind, climbing rocks and dodging the waves. We thought the tide was going out at first but a few near-drench experiences convinced us that it was coming in.

After that, we drove back home through Watsonville to check out a fabric outlet where I purchased nothing. Then I drove over the hills and through the artichoke and strawberry fields. We stopped at the outlets in Gilroy to check out the Coldwater Creek and Chico's outlets. I actually had some shopping luck at both stores, and it was amazing that everything I tried on seemed to fit. I ended up getting about five dressy items for very little money. It is great when they sell a lovely $125 jacket for $19.99! All in all, a fabulous weekend.