Gettin' Rich with Sunshine Dollars

So recently we were playing BANG! (feel free to ask me for a good banging) with our friends Jason and Elise. During the out of control gaming we were talking about how poor wages were in SD versus costs of things like rent. It was at this point that Jason told us during his recruitment to his previous job he was told that even though the pay was not commensurate in respects to other locations/work, that they also paid in Sunshine Dollars (a la living in Sunny SD). That of course got me laughing and thinking simultaneously (a dangerous habit, I know). So when I was recruited to the BMS program here at UCSD they too talked of a lack of equal pay to cost but that it WAS San Diego. So was that the scientific way of saying, "Hey we'll pay you in sunshine dollars."
So as part of my goal to always save more I have officially opened up my SDSD account (San Diego Sunshine Dollars). Only question now is: Do I have to make a payment every time the weather is gorgeous? If so, how much? Can I buy my way out a gray weekend?
The irony of it all is how true it is. Alicia and I have often talked of the fact that if we'd have chosen to go to UW it'd be different. We'd own a house, I'd probably ski more, wouldn't surf, and oh yeah, people wouldn't just happen to want to come visit us for a few days. Interesting. That being said, we often talk of how nice it is having a beach a few minutes away, bicycling year-round, and the fact that I have palm trees out side my window. Oh yeah and the pay really is good here- if you count the SD ;)

Now to make everyone jealous, I had to go down to SIO to last week (Scripps Inst. of Oceanography (its part of UCSD just down on the coast more)), so I decided to take a few pix while I was there:

So this is about 50' from the building I work in. A great place to eat, as long as you don't want to go back to work any time soon.


This guy was making me jealous- wish I could join him, he looks lonely.