Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

All Men Are Giants

Party in a Mission Hills canyon

The house had a spacious deck that looked out over a canyon in Mission Hills.
The house had a spacious deck that looked out over a canyon in Mission Hills.

The party was on a Saturday night in Mission Hills. Celebrants were all members of the graduate school that’s part of the High Tech charter-school system that has branches in Point Loma and Chula Vista. The grad school is for teachers who work at the various High Tech schools to get master’s degrees in school leadership and other subjects. They really take care of each other over there. Beats the pink slips at San Diego Unified.

The house had a two-level porch that looked out over a canyon. The backyard was full of trees and then a steep descent to the floor of the gorge below. I asked Kelly, the owner, if she ever got wildlife from the canyon. She answered in the affirmative.

Once, when her daughter was playing in the idyllic dollhouse that’s set up at the corner of the porch, a fox leapt up over the rail and scared the poor kid half to death. Kelly also suspects that something, probably a coyote, might have gotten to her old cat.

A fox attacked this doll house.

The party had been going for a little while by the time I got there, so I decided to pass on the tuna sashimi that sat temptingly out in a dish because maybe people had been picking over it and leaving the worst pieces for me. Instead, I helped myself to some cans of Stella and slices from Pizza Port that had artichoke hearts on it.

Sponsored
Sponsored

All the teachers were inclined to slide into talk of students, classrooms, parents, and grades, but I don’t really have much to offer on that, so I dragged a few people into a conversation about struggling to learn musical instruments.

We all agreed that we’d never be rock stars.

On my way back from a bathroom visit I heard chanting. It sounded like a man saying, “...tuna, tuna, tu-NA, tu-NA...” over and over. It was John, a big guy who looked like a surfer and confessed at one point that he tells grade-school kids he used to be on the Lakers with Magic Johnson. They believe him because they have no idea how much bigger Magic Johnson is than John. To them, all grown men are giants.

He wanted a hug. He got a glass of wine.

It turned out that the “tuna” mantra was part of a game. Here’s how it went: one player thought of a song, and then another player picked a word — in this case, “tuna” — but it could be any word. The first player then had to sing the melody of the chosen song using only the appointed word, and everyone else tried to guess the tune based on the melody. Whoever guessed it first thought of a song, and the original singer picked a new word to sing. Play continued like that until everyone was over it or too drunk to care.

There was talk of a trip to Redwing to sing karaoke, perhaps inspired by the tuna game, but nobody seemed ready to step in and organize an exodus. One guy, a different John who has never claimed to know Magic Johnson, went in for a goodbye hug from one of his classmates and got a glass of red wine emptied onto his shirt in the process.

“Oh, my God, I’ll email you tips to clean that off!” said the girl who dumped the wine when she saw that John wasn’t all that angry.

“Just throw it away,” I offered. “Casualty.”

Everyone sort of flowed out the door together, dispersing into the night. ■

Crash your party? Call 619-235-3000 x421 and leave an invitation.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

2024 continues to impress with yellowfin much closer to San Diego than they should be

New rockfish regulations coming this week as opener approaches
Next Article

San Diego's Uptown Planners challenged by renters from Vibrant Uptown

Two La Jolla planning groups fight for predominance
The house had a spacious deck that looked out over a canyon in Mission Hills.
The house had a spacious deck that looked out over a canyon in Mission Hills.

The party was on a Saturday night in Mission Hills. Celebrants were all members of the graduate school that’s part of the High Tech charter-school system that has branches in Point Loma and Chula Vista. The grad school is for teachers who work at the various High Tech schools to get master’s degrees in school leadership and other subjects. They really take care of each other over there. Beats the pink slips at San Diego Unified.

The house had a two-level porch that looked out over a canyon. The backyard was full of trees and then a steep descent to the floor of the gorge below. I asked Kelly, the owner, if she ever got wildlife from the canyon. She answered in the affirmative.

Once, when her daughter was playing in the idyllic dollhouse that’s set up at the corner of the porch, a fox leapt up over the rail and scared the poor kid half to death. Kelly also suspects that something, probably a coyote, might have gotten to her old cat.

A fox attacked this doll house.

The party had been going for a little while by the time I got there, so I decided to pass on the tuna sashimi that sat temptingly out in a dish because maybe people had been picking over it and leaving the worst pieces for me. Instead, I helped myself to some cans of Stella and slices from Pizza Port that had artichoke hearts on it.

Sponsored
Sponsored

All the teachers were inclined to slide into talk of students, classrooms, parents, and grades, but I don’t really have much to offer on that, so I dragged a few people into a conversation about struggling to learn musical instruments.

We all agreed that we’d never be rock stars.

On my way back from a bathroom visit I heard chanting. It sounded like a man saying, “...tuna, tuna, tu-NA, tu-NA...” over and over. It was John, a big guy who looked like a surfer and confessed at one point that he tells grade-school kids he used to be on the Lakers with Magic Johnson. They believe him because they have no idea how much bigger Magic Johnson is than John. To them, all grown men are giants.

He wanted a hug. He got a glass of wine.

It turned out that the “tuna” mantra was part of a game. Here’s how it went: one player thought of a song, and then another player picked a word — in this case, “tuna” — but it could be any word. The first player then had to sing the melody of the chosen song using only the appointed word, and everyone else tried to guess the tune based on the melody. Whoever guessed it first thought of a song, and the original singer picked a new word to sing. Play continued like that until everyone was over it or too drunk to care.

There was talk of a trip to Redwing to sing karaoke, perhaps inspired by the tuna game, but nobody seemed ready to step in and organize an exodus. One guy, a different John who has never claimed to know Magic Johnson, went in for a goodbye hug from one of his classmates and got a glass of red wine emptied onto his shirt in the process.

“Oh, my God, I’ll email you tips to clean that off!” said the girl who dumped the wine when she saw that John wasn’t all that angry.

“Just throw it away,” I offered. “Casualty.”

Everyone sort of flowed out the door together, dispersing into the night. ■

Crash your party? Call 619-235-3000 x421 and leave an invitation.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

OSHA rules wall falls our fault

Who, U.S.?
Next Article

Seals hook up with Beaver

Salty’s Escape is a Mexican-Style cerveza brewed with corn and puffed Jasmine rice
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.