August 2001Friday, August, 31, 2001 We drove back to Glendale…sigh. It was a really cool family vacation. It had its moments, but those were overshadowed with the fun we had. One of the things I will totally cherish are those discussions in the car. We all didn't talk the whole way…we would listen to music or sleep or whatever. Every now and then a topic about relationships, religion, roles of men or women…and dang I dig that! Leaving them wasn't easy, but I had to head back to SB before the holiday traffic started up. And I just MISSED it…whew! I made good time on the way back too! Some how Jelena and I got to talking on the phone and we went to Q's. Now how smart was that, especially seeing I was supposed to drive to San Mateo that morning? Lol!! We went out and had fun though…and woke up a few hours later and drove to San Mateo. Get this: 312 miles in just under 4 hours..you do the math…haha! Thursday, August 30, 2001 We decided to spend another day in Vegas…which was cool. We the Rio buffet…dude I was feeling that. Ok, I gotta mention this cause it is sooo scandalously funny! Haha. I was sitting across the table from Isaac and directly behind of him was a woman and I guess her date/boyfriend/husband whatever. Now why was she all about trying to make eye contact and what not?? That kills me…people go out with their significant others and then be trying to flirt - with them RIGHT there!??! It is so funny! Haha! Wednesday, August 29, 2001 We drove to Vegas…hmmm…the drive was great. We had some great talks in the Suburban. Today Elouise wanted to talk about the love is blind concept. Truthfully after thinking about it…I have no idea what it means that love is blind. An interesting note is that, Vegas is actually cooler than Havasu…which were grateful for! Isaac and I hung out…and I gotta admit for a 13 year old, he is pretty cool…ahah! Just messing with you man! We went to the buffet at the hotel we were staying at…The Start Trek Hilton. We had some of the BEST prime rib I have ever had in life! It melted on my tongue like butter…woohaa! Tuesday, August, 28, 2001 Remember how I was saying it was 90+ at night in Havasu…well it doesn't get any better in the day! Lol! Isaac and I hit the pool and even the pool was hot! It was diving into bath water! Today was Isaac's birthday and we all went to a Chinese restaurant. He also got a whole mess of punches from everyone…ohh I feel that boy's pain! Haha! Later that night we played Monopoly…ooh boy I love that game! I rock at Monopoly! The game ended in stalemate between my father an I. Hehe! Tell me you have heard of Jill Scott! For some reason throughout random parts of the day, her sone "A Long Walk" kept going through my head. It goes:
(lyrics courtesy of www.azlyrics.com) Monday, August, 27, 2001 Ever been boating? I hadn't! Living on an island most of my life I had only been on ferries and a sail boat only once. I had never been power boating up until today…let me tell you it was tight! Before I go on, I gotta share this really funny thing that happened! Ok so we are cruising, just got out of the no wake zone and just cruising. I look over the side and I said, "hey, I can see the bottom". My father who was driving didn't hear me…and I didn't really think anything of it at the time. So I move to the front of the boat to take his picture and all of a sudden we lurch forward to a halt. Guess what? We hit bottom! Haha! I'm not laughing at my father, really I'm not. I just found it amusing. So I jump over the side and the water only comes up to my knees…lol! I nearly busted a guy laughing so hard. So we're working the engine and doing stuff to get the boat free. I walk around the back to see how bad it is and FELL into a hole the propeller dug into the silt…haha! One second I'm knee deep, the next I'm up to my chest in water…haha! We finally got the boat free, and was cruising again. I'm looking at the river banks noticing some people have parked their boats at these little private beaches. How cool is that?! So we dropped Jenice and Eloiuse off at one of the boys go off to tube. Can I tell you hitting the water at 35-40MPH is NOT fun haha! Actually it was a lot of fun..hehe! George and Isaac got the hang of it and were cruising. I fell off like 3 times! The last time I was getting a hang of it though! I gotta concede though Elouise was the best…my father was whipping her around an she hung on like a trooper! Ahem…allegedly her brother Isaac was passing on false signals…telling my father to go faster when she wanted him to slow down…haha. Let me try to describe what happens when you fall off a tube doing 35MPH. First you BOUNCE off of the surface of the water. In the case of Elouise, you ROLL 3 or 4 times…that was tight to watch! Then you go head first into the water. Oh and this is the best part…if you're wearing shorts…your shorts end up around your ankles! Every time that happened I swore that I would be coming up butt naked save for the vest…haha! Sunday, August, 26, 2001 Ok, so I'm excited!!! Really excited!! Family vacations where I come from are unheard of! So I want to take full advantage of this opportunity! Going are my father, Jenice, George, Isaac and his sister Elouise (I'm probably jacking the spelling of her name up…but it sounds really pretty). We drove straight to Lake Havasu and check in. Here would be a good place to pause. If you don't know where Lake Havasu is, climate wise, it's right down the block from hell!! It was 11PM at night and it was friggin' 90+ degrees!! We're unloading the Suburban and we are working up a sweat!! Dude. Needless to say, after we were done, we went straight for the AC. And here is the funny part: you couldn't turn the AC lower than 78 for fear of making the system lock up…s'up with that!??! We've arrived and in one-piece…thank you Father! Woohaa! Saturday, August 25, 2001 Ok, I love my ride. I really do. I am very blessed to have a car that looks good and is fun to drive. However it has its moments!! This week it started to misfire really, really badly. It SO happened to start right after I had the transmission serviced…but of course they wouldn't claim responsibility. 3 days later, this last WITHOUT it, and a new O2 sensor I'm back on the road. Sigh. For kicks I might just go to a mechanic school. I can rattle of specs, years, models and what not. However have I changed my oil ever? Nope. Could I tune my car up? The extent of my mechanical abilities is rotating the tires myself and making sure all my fluids are where they ought to be. After getting my baby back and leaving 3 hours after I actually wanted to, I drive straight to Pasadena to see my friend Andi. Not sure if I have talked about Andi much in here, cause I really don't see her all that often. I've known her for about 5 or 6 years and she is quite coo'. One of my fondest memories is when were at a 4th of July BBQ and on our way back to our friends' house we were exchanging "you might be a red neck" jokes…haha. Anyway she was having a hard time at work and we talked extensively about it. Andi is a strong person for putting up with the drama, cause it's not necessary. One of these days I'd like my own shop so I can hopefully run things the way I think they should be. Someone one once said that businesses are in place to make money. Yea, sure that is the bottom line. Even at 26 I can see how companies' business practices suck. Andy hang in there and kick butt take names later! Thursday, August, 23, 2001 Whoa…I FINALLY have a new version of the site! The last on was working my nerves. Part of my motivation was my friend Chelsea told me if I could do so much, why didn't I have a better site. That was a kick in the pants/reality check if I ever had one! Here is the fruits of my labor everyone!! Any web designer worth their salt will never say that a site is truly ever "finished", because there is truly no finality attached to it. There will always be new techniques to play with, things to refine, etc. etc. The Director's Cut idea comes from my love of letterbox movies on DVD. I don't care what anyone says…they are waaay better than the regular format ones. And since I have a tight 27" Panasonic clear picture…it's all to the good baby! For the record…I do not have an authority complex!!! Hahah! I've been getting good feedback about the splash page, but some folks are thinking that with that pic. Truth of the matter, it was one of those Chelsea and I took that day we went to Lake Los Carneros. We were playing with perspective and she got a good one of me…so the truth comes out!! Haha! Wednesday, August 15, 2001 Today is my last day at Fielding and I am filled with an amalgam of sadness and relief all at once. I was there for 4 years and learned so much about myself, technology and issues in the work place. More than anything it was this last that eventually prompted my resignation. I'm not going to name names or specific instances on this online journal, but I've been keeping track. NOPE I'm not going to go postal or anything…as always though my memory holds a fair amount for a long time. Nope, I'm not going to harbor any animosity for those elements that made my time there, interesting, for lack of a better word. Beth, my friend and supervisor threw a going away potluck in my honor, and it was SOO COOOL to see all the people who turned out for it! Then towards the end of it, people started speaking on my behalf, and I'll admit…I was getting a bit choked up. I want to thank all of my friends at Fielding! This is not good-bye, our paths will cross again!
Wednesday, August 8, 2001 Something kinda cool occurred to me today, but I'll get to that in a second…here's some preamble lol I was up until 4AM this morning working on a client's site. Then I went to work a couple of hours later and needless to say, my body was there, but my mind trailed somewhere. Came home and crashed. No other way to put it. I saw the bed and I'm pretty sure it called my name out. 5 hours later, I'm back in the world of the living. Lol While I was fixing dinner this movie on TNT came on, I think it was called "Living Out Loud" or something. It stars Danny Devito, Holly Hunter, and Queen Latifa. Don't ask me why in my channel surfing I settled on this station…the movie wasn't my usual fare. It was a really odd movie, but I think its oddness (can also be read as goodness) correlates directly to its realism. Specifically, we all, myself included, want life to follow this really safe predictable path. Sometimes Life has a sick sense of humor. The path can be really messed (insert expletive here) up. However in the end, after trudging through all the crap, enduring all the drama and coming close to wits' end, it all works out. Heh. You then ask, "the hell just happened?" lol. What just happened? You blinked. The other cool thing that occurred to me relates to story telling. This can be story telling in a movie, novel or even a person's life. This started to be revealed to me after watching a different movie, and came into full light after watching this movie tonight. In a nutshell: wouldn't most of us like to just skip to the end, where everything works itself out? Did you see The Shawshank Redemption (redemption is such as apropos word)? In it Tim Robbins' character goes through all manner of crap, but in the end his patience, integrity and all that is rewarded. Hmm…sounds almost like the story of Job. My point is this: My previous and prevailing inclination is to skip to the end of the story, where everything works itself out. However that's not fair to the story or the person living/experiencing the story. Skipping to the end robs anyone of the complete joy of the redemption. Is there a lesson to be learned some where in here? I dunno honestly. May be I need to enjoy the whole 'story' a little more. Sunday August 5, 2001 Today, I was feeling quite lethargic. I woke up this morning and did NOT want to move. This weekend was Fiesta so the crowds around downtown were 30 times what they usually are. Drunk people all over the place, messing up town, etc. Reminds me of back home when the cruise ships come in. Tourists all over the place, more trash on the street, just overall - bleh. It's good for the economy and all that but it still sucks. My friend Laura calls me up and DRAGS me out of bed to go downtown to have lunch at El Paseo restaurant. Dudes. You have got to go to this place. They make their own tortillas and everything is so fresh! You go there, and you'll be spoiled forever. You'll never be happy with an Acapulco or El Torito's ever again. And afterwards we did something really painful: window shopping. Can I just say how I REALLY REALLY don't like to go window shopping? If I go to a mall, I like going with a specific purpose in mind. Browsing just isn't my bag. Since it was Laura and she paid for lunch, I was quite obliging…hahaha! Thanks for dragging me out of bed shorty! Saturday, August 4, 2001 I think I broke something when I was dancing last night…haha! We were dancing HARD last night. Damn I love Trish and Shannon! Also checked on them, cause they were a lil faded. Went to Home Depot for some lumber for my bed. My mattress sucks ass! It used to be all firm and stuff, but now it has virtually NO support. My roomies suggested I put a piece of wood under it. You're going and I'm asking myself, "was that really journal material??" haha! I will say this, whenever I walk into one of those do it yourself places, I just want to buy a bunch of stuff and build something, anything! Later that night, we met up at Shannon's job for dinner…me, Trish, Shannon, Kathy, and this other girl Cindy. Cindy was/is a major hottie. Nuff said! 2 nights in a row with 4 hot chicks - damn! Woohaa! Wait - I'm not dating any of these women either, the hell am I so happy about!?!? LOL Thought for the day: I don't know how many other people feel this way…but have you ever felt the need to kick it with people of your sex? I'm NOT talking in a gay way, cause I don't go that way! The word I think is 'bonding'. Girls get together and do their thing and boys get together to do their thing. Tonight I listened to girls do their thing…and I was hurting for some testosterone! I mean watching a movie and seeing something blown up or shot, watching a Chevy truck commercial - anything! I love my female friends, but where my boys at! Haha! After John gets back, I'm gonna go ahead with that guys' night. Friday, August 3, 2001 I am stoked. Why? Cause I'm going clubbing with Trish and Shannon! I got to their place and there was another friend from San Diego, Kathy. Kathy was a knockout. She was like 5'6", curly hair, petite, just all around FINE. Ok, I gotta pause a moment here. ALL three of these women would have fit right in on TV or on a movie screen. Refer to last month's journal for descriptions of Trish and Shannon...worth the read. Mental note: must take pics of those 2. We danced our asses off!! Highlights of the night: Shannon and Trish dancing on these benches. When standing up they were 4 or 5 feet above the crowd. Guys would just stand at their feet, mouth agape and watch them shake their groove thangs! It was friggin' hilarious to watch! They got drinks AND money for their 'performance'…haha! Had to rescue Shannon from this guy whom was getting a little too friendly with her! Then I had to be rescued from HER! It was all good! A little quasi salsa dancing with Kathy - I was quite impressed. I was really nervous cause Shannon was saying how great a dancer I was and stuff…talk about pressure! Lol They ALL can dance! Much love to ya! Thursday, August 2, 2001 Tonight I was supposed to go to Sharkeez or that thing that Chelsea's roomie is a DJ at. Neither plans materialized. I was too whooped and just not interested in being around more crowds. Wednesday, August 1, 2001 Photography is a passion of mine. I've never made money from it and don't consider myself a professional or anything. Ever since my accident, photography has been an integral part of my life. Not photography itself, but more to the point, capturing a moment on film. As such, when I go some place I sometimes see that place as a sort of location for another series of pictures. I wanted to share with Chelsea 2 of these locations, the first being Campus Pointe and the other this bridge at Lake Los Carneros. Left work a little early today, scooped up Chelsea, and showed her these spots. I can't wait to use those spots! On the way from the spots, I talk to Chelsea about my desire to change my look. According to her she already had something in mind. While we were shopping for her, we were looking for something for me too. FINALLY after going to Banana Republic we found something…whew! Added incentive to loose weight. Nuff said. |