Setting the Scene

It's 1am, Saturday morning and I can't get to sleep...Boyfriend is up in Queensland now for his cousin's wedding and I was too poor to go. Tomorrow I'm taking Boyfriend's Mom out to dinner and a movie for Mother's Day since she didn't go to the wedding either. Happy Friday to everyone back home!

I thought that before I could tell the Costa Rica story I'd better introduce some of the characters from it.

Mr. G: Our faithful surf coach...always the first in the water, no matter what the conditions. At 6 am on a freezing and windy Saturday with little to no swell this guy would try and get us pumped on the surf conditions...a bunch of too cool 16 and 17 year olds are generally "blah" about the world to begin with and throw in someone with a passion for something and there is going to be some snickering/not appreciating of the stoked attitude of that person. He is an amazing surfer and all around good guy. He moved up to Santa Cruz right around the time Nae did, as he had also gone to school there previously, and he reconnected with an old friend and they fell in love and she is now his wife and she is gorgeous and an awesome person and they've got a cute little toddler now (who ran around our house with no pants on at Christmas and who fell in love with my Dad for letting him eat cupcakes before dinner and who was freaked out by Madagascar cause he doesn't have a tv out his house to watch...and who can already speak and understand both German and English and point out Venus in the sky....can you tell that I love this kid?!) and another baby on the way. He's grown on me over the years...I think he mellowed out a bit and I grew to appreciate his positive outlook way more and now we are friends rather than teacher/student and I am very glad that we have kept in contact with him and just wished I would've appreciated that stoked attitude back in the day, too.

Me and Nae: The only two girls on the surf team. I didn't compete, though Nae did...I hate competition plus there's not a girl's bodyboarding division so I just free surfed. Not only were we the only girls on the team, we were some of the youngest people on the team and when we first joined I couldn't drive so we became dependent on various people to give us rides to and from the beach. We weren't there for the boys at all; we both genuinely enjoyed surfing and getting to go on trips for cheap, but it was an awesome perk as I mentioned in another post to be surrounded by all the cutest boys from school. Even though I wasn't a fantastic bodyboarder and Nae wasn't as good of a surfer then as she is now, it gave us some credit with people at school...the boys, although maybe they didn't like us for the most part as friends or otherwise I think appreciated the fact that we were out there trying and were there to surf and not to flirt with them.

John Wayne's Grandson: A really nice kid and a really good bodyboarder. He wasn't "cool" and he was the youngest person on the team so he got picked on a bit by the older boys, but handled it well.

The Artist: I didn't know him very well, he seemed nice enough and he seemed pretty quiet. I think basically he was just a big hippie. He had a painting of a duck on his surfboard that he called quacklepuss...this duck would eventually become our team mascot and the name of our surf team....Team Quacklepuss!

The Mass Murderer: I can't even remember this guy's real name or if he was a good surfer or not. I don't remember him really being on the team or doing much with us, other than being on the trip. He was cute in a whitetrash sort of way. I mention him just because he comes up in the C.R. story at some point.

Bren: Good bodyboarder, hottest guy at school in my opinion. I don't remember seeing him at all in my freshmen/his sophmore year but I spotted him and the "custom x" writing on his bag probably in the first week of my sophmore/his junior year. He was a nice guy, again, another quiet one. He liked to do some stuff by himself and I don't think he tried that hard to be cool...I think it was him, though it might have been the artist, that was given the nickname "the Lone Wolf" on the trip, no idea what happened to him

Bran: he was a surfer, Nae was in love with him, he was really short, he played football for awhile too before he gave up cause I just don't think he was motivated about life in general. He is a key player to some of the drama in the C.R. story so remember him. Also, the one thing I remember about him is that he had a really pretty and popular girlfriend his senior year and she asked him to prom or some dance or something wearing a whipped cream "bikini" ala Varsity Blues! I'm sure it was hot for him, but I'd be straight up embarassed if I was that chick, knowing that the whole school knew you liked to get naked and cover yourself in food for your boyfriend. I sometimes wonder if they are still together...I wonder how many times he's cheated on her if they are...he just seems like the type looking back, although at the time he seemed nice enough

Overindulged Asshole: was my carpool for awhile, but wasn't too great of a carpool. I remember one afternoon it was raining but we decided to hit up the beach after school anyway. It was a bust and nothing was surfable so we decided not to paddle out. Well Asshole has me, Nae, Bren, and Bran with him and Bran lives right near him and Bren, Nae and I all lived fairly near each other and not that far out of his way...we were out of luck anyway. Asshole dropped us at some random Carl's Jr and said "good luck getting home" basically. I don't think we had a cell phone and my mom was out of town and dad was still working nights and sleeping during the day at this point so we couldn't get a hold of anyone. Finally, Dad came and got us (but not before having dinner at Carl's Jr, cause really how we he miss an opportunity for that, haha). This guy was kinda cute, I had a crush on him for about .5 seconds, but then would be grossed out hearing him talk about all these (younger) girls he dated and how all he wanted to do was put it in their butts. Keep him in mind, too, you know with a name like Overindulged Asshole he's going to bring the dramz...

The Nice Guy: best smile ever, seriously just a nice, fun guy, was the only one who really wanted to be friends, although one day we did get in a fight because I had hit a dog right outside of school before starting the day and he came up and teased me about it at lunch and made me cry, but he apologized. Anyway, yeah, a great guy I'd say. He works for/helped start a surf company that is getting big in Orange County and apparently sells at a shop in Costa Rica now, too (http://www.tavik.com/)

Dick: not named because he was one, that was just what he was called...before the Team Quacklepuss name got finalized, we were nearly going to be called "Dick and his boys", before Mr. G said it wouldn't be cool to Nae and I because we weren't boys, we didn't mind we thought it was funny, he was a nice kid, too, younger-in Nae's class, and he was fun to be around, as well

K.C.: I had met in Spanish class the year before and became fast friends with. He was nice and fun and made Spanish class fly by. He's still seems to be a really nice guy and goes on mission trips to build houses (and surf) and stuff. My mom had him in her car in C.R. and really liked him, too. He was nice to everyone and the type of kid who could get on with grown ups.

D.Mini: Also in my class and good friends with the guy Bun liked at the time. He was a super stoner and always getting in to trouble at home. His family situation seemed a bit weird and he came and lived with us for a few days (maybe it was only 1, I can't remember now) one summer because things were going on at home. He longboarded and was just a random, fun guy.

Photo Larry: Professional Photographer, looks like the main guy from the movie Powder, but is so cool and could totally kick your ass if he wanted to, funny guy, good guy, takes great photos and has/had an awesome girlfriend that came along on the trip, too, and kept Mom company

Doug: Friend of Mr. G, chaperone on the trip, friend of Bun's older brother I think, didn't see him again after C.R. but would've liked to as he was pretty cool

The trip story might have to wait til Monday, we'll see what happens with the rest of my weekend, but now that you know the characters, it'll be easier to write the story.

Happy Mother's Day Mom...I know you'll eventually read this one :) I miss you and love you heaps!