Bun B - Let 'Em Know (prod DJ Premier)

Christmas morning I woke up and decided to hit up what is becoming my favorite spot in LA. It was cool that there was a break in the rain and the sun came out for a brief visit. The first time I went up with Danny I was thinking there was probably a way to hike it all the way to the Hollywood sign without me having to drive to it first. I ended up seeing a sign that said Mt Hollywood. I knew that the sign is on Mt Lee so I didn't think that was the trail but on my way up it (its a fairly easy hike- like really easy actually) I saw that there are lots of trails and that I would probably be able to find my way there. Seeing as I had nothing to do and wanting to keep from the thought this was the first Christmas I would not be with my kids, I said fuck it. 3 hrs later, a couple of wrong turns having to blaze my own trail, and a couple of slips later, I had gone from the Observatory to the hollywood sign and back. It wasn't all that bad- I didn't really even stop to take a break. It was good for the health and the mind as well as it made me forget about this Christmas and year overall and got me really looking forward to 2011 and next Christmas. I am completely over this Christmas and this year overall and truly am the really excited for the upcoming Christmas in 2011. The hour daily of cardio has really been paying off. How can I stand to do an hour of cardio daily at the gym? Music and Daydreaming. If your music taste can't get you to withstand a couple of hours daily at the gym, well obviously your musical tastes aren't as good as mine. Where as I used to sit on my ass for hours on end just listening to music, now I get off my ass and do something healthy for myself. The daydreaming part helps out too in making time go by. Mostly its about the new job and how I plan on moving up as far and fast as I can, but other thoughts come up as well. Like winning the lotto and how I would spend it all like Brewster from Brewster's Million.  Basically any dreams that make the time go by. I went to the gym twice today. I think all the coffee I had last night didn't let me sleep all too well last night and I was wide awake at 5. So I said fuck it why not. I went again after work. Yeah now my calves are burning like someone rubbed an STD all over them...

Today during our first break I went up to grab some coffee with this girl from my training class and she talked my ear off about the cake she made for Christmas. I mean she basically gave me a play by play of everything she did, what ingredients she used, what temperature, the type of mixer she owned, how she decorated it- I mean I couldn't get a word in if my life depended on it. When she was finally done, I asked her how long this whole ordeal took her. 5 hours. She then showed me the picture of the cake. It might have been the greatest cake I have ever seen. Then I remembered that she is also a professional pastry chef. That's when it all came together and I realized why she had been so passionate about her cake baking story...

Training is going by slow still and this was the first Monday after a week of working and weekend off. I bought a bunch of Smart one's microwave meals for lunches. The chicken Santa Fe is unfortunately out of the rotation. I forgot how awful some of these taste.

I was just talking to Wes about needing to play some basketball this week. Our first league game for the new season is Wednesday Jan 5th and its been about a week since I shot a basketball. We can not slack off as this season it's gonna be on our shoulders to take home the championship, if I can somehow translate shooting lights out during shootarounds into the actual games and if Wes can re establish his Nike air release move. If these things become reality then the rest of the D level is in for a long season. D level of course referring to the lowest level of competition in the league...

During Danny and I's Chinese Christmas dinner, I got a fortune cookie with the greatest lotto numbers ever;
08, 12,24, 32, 44 and 17. I knew all the players as soon as I saw it. I mean it shouldn't be too tough to figure these out.

Concerto of the desperado

Wes and me are convinced Old man Frank tagged along with me to LA. The last week more than a few things have occurred. What you ask? Actually I don't care if you ask, I'm gonna write about it anyway. On Sunday Wes, D, and me are in the living room (which also doubles as my sleeping quarters) when we hear a Crash! Bang! Boom! Bam! (no really it sounded just like the words- trust me). So we go investigate because we don't heed the warnings from horror movies that when you go investigate you end up hacked to death. Nothing seemed out of place in Wes' room where the sounds originated. Until Wes checked the bathroom. Turns out Old man Frank decided he didn't like the cabinet over Wes' toilet and decided to throw it on the ground. Wait there's more. Monday D is using the oven when all the sudden  it starts going on the fritz- He can't open the oven and the timer is going on the fritz. It turns out that old man Frank had decided the oven was dirty and it needed to be cleaned. So he put the oven on self clean mode. Tuesday D and me get home and I try insert my key into the door to open it. I had used it in the morning to lock it but when I tried to open it, it wouldn't work. D then tries to use his key. Same thing, his key isn't working either. So we call Wes thinking maybe he had decided he didn't want roommates after all and had changed the locks. He of course hadn't because he secretly wants to be Mexican and having three Mexicans residing with him at present is the closest he will get. He tries his key and his ain't working either. Turns out Old man Frank wanted some solo time apparently and had reset/rekeyed the lock. Without a working key, Wes can't rekey it. So now he has to wait until kwik set, the lock manufacturer mails him a new lock. Later that night as I am sleeping, I hear all these noises coming from the garage and Wes' room. I thought he might be getting brutally attacked, but being a minority and knowing that in horror movies the minority doesn't fare too well, I decide my best course of action is to just throw the blanket over my head and make myself invisible. I figured Wes might be able to hold off old man Frank with his patented Navy Seal choke hold. Since we used the oven last night and tonight, I guess OMF decided that the oven needed more cleaning, so the oven went on self clean mode by itself again... That's why folks we need to hire the Ghostbusters. If they can take down the Stay Puft marshmallow man I hope they can take down Old man Frank. Old Man Frank by the way is the ghost from my house. He once appeared to both D and me on separate occasions and once decided that my alarm clock should go off even after my friend Dan had unplugged it and thrown it across the room. True story.

I feel like a slut. I cheated on 24 hr fitness tonight. Wes took me to Gold's gym tonight. I have to admit the equipment there is much nicer and newer than 24 hr's. They even tried to court me after and ended up giving me a shirt which I am wearing now. But while I might take their offer of a 30 day pass and a free hour with a personal trainer, I will end up going back to 24 hr- if she'll still have me. I mean in the end there are more of them, I use more than just the equipment there, like the sauna and basketball courts, and well they have basketball courts. Although a first for me did happen there in the history that is my life. I did a mile in under 8 minutes for the first time ever. Not even in high school when I played baseball and basketball on the daily did I do that. I could probably do it faster too since I had it on one of the harder levels. Think I will try on Friday on flat ground to see how fast I can do it (yeah I am pretty Fn proud so I had to share)...

I was able to find what both Danny and Sofia asked for Christmas and pretty easily tonight. Danny is really into a series of books called the Warriors- not the awesome '70s movie but a book on these waring tribes of cats or rabbits or some sort of regularly thought of wussy animal. Sofia like Puya is a Michael Jackson fan and she wanted the Michael Jackson Experience game for the Wii. Found it super cheap on Amazon and with free 1 day shipping so it will be delivered just in time for Christmas. Wes is gonna do me a solid and drop off the set of books for me tomorrow...

Concerto of the Desperado by the Roots from their classic album everyone should own, Illadelph Half life...

"The hip hop purist that still gets lost like a tourist"- the line doesn't really go like that but I adjusted to reflect me in LA
.

Savior

I put the first part of this one as a note on FB. I'm pretty sure I was just tired. I am far from being one to think I am above and beyond anyone, I hope that's not how it came across it's just a little frustrating having to start over again when I know I should be at a different stage in my career. I'm sure I'll get over this feeling though.

I talked with my kids during lunch yesterday and to be honest all the feelings of missing them now and in the future were hitting me- Instead of taking it on a daily I'm a tard and think about the whole next year I will be up here and it sucks. Damn I hate getting all like this here...

On a lighter note I didn't get lost today heading to 24 hr fitness, but damn was the traffic terrible. God must love himself some bbqing because it wasn't raining while I was out grilling it up tonight... After the gym tomorrow I'm gonna go Christmas shopping finally so that should make it feel better. That and maybe watching some Christmas Story and some Nightmare before Christmas.


Savior, by Slug, Eyedea (RIP), and Sole. Eyedea died a couple of months ago in his sleep, he was only 28. I hadn't heard this song before tonight...


"The pressure pays the toll, it takes control
So I can be a better dad, I can be better in bed
I can be a better man, I can be better off dead
I can be a better son, boyfriend or employee
But I better fix my head before I let that shit destroy me
Yeah, you know me, that cat with no game, no gear
Been in love as many times as I've been alive in years
It ain't my fears that's riding me, nope
It's how I cope and construct, and how I act as if I don't give a fuck..."

(To All My Friends) - The Loser Wins

The jobs starts in full effect tomorrow, Thursday was kind of interesting- not the boring ass signing of paperwork or orientation talk part of it- it was interesting because as Danny and me stepped into the training room, the HR supervisor stops me and directs me to where I will be sitting. The front row, right in the middle and in front of the trainer. The one seat I exactly did not want. Then as I am heading to my seat the manager of the department I will be working in comes up to me verifies that I am me, and she begins to talk about me to the other supervisors
" Oh so this is Roy De La Cruz..."
I could also hear them go on about me in their own discussions. Then the manager discovers there is another De La Cruz in the room and she turns to me to ask if I am related to him. When I reply yes, there is an awkward pause that has me wondering if she's thinking I am just messing with her. She then asks if he's my brother and I reply sure is. The usual question then comes up- who is older? Haha Fuck all of you. He is older by three years. Later we have to introduce ourselves and say something about ourselves. This was D's introduction:
" Hi I'm Danny De La Cruz, I also have worked in auto insurance and... (he points to me) that's my brother."

Haha sweet. The class all laughs and decides to come up with nick names once its verified I am in fact the younger of the two. Little De La Cruz, Baby De La Cruz... Anyways its definite fact that they have some expectations for me- which I guess its a good thing although I had planned to be low key through out training and show off the insurance skills at a later date, but now that plan is out. So I think I am just gonna go all out and display my awesomeness in insurance right away. Hopefully this means I won't be rocking a headset for too long...

My eggnog cherry got popped last night and from what I remember the actual eggnog drink is good. The jag-nogs, nogasakes, and my own version of vodka, whiskey, and Kahlua into the eggnog? Not so much. But if there is one thing I learned from Andrew Zimmern, is that you try things twice to make sure that you don't like it. The problem with this theory when you are talking about adult beverages is that you usually end up going to sleep early and getting drawn on... Real mature team, HaHa. Damn it. I inquired more than once about getting beer because hard liquor and me usually end up going to bed together. The real problem with me (no I'm not quite alcoholic status and I don't plan to obtaining it) is that I drink any beverage too fast. Water, Gatorade, beer, mix drinks, milk, limeade, oj, etc... I can usually drink in one drink. I can down a 32 oz gatorade in one drink. The same with water and actually I start my gym sessions by downing 64 ozs of water to be properly hydrated for the workout. So when this god given talent is used for evil, I end up drinking too much liquor too fast and bam! Penis on my face. you would think after a 16 yr hall of fame career of drinking I would have learned to switch to a normal person's drinking ability, but nope. God gave me a gift and a curse I guess. Anyways thanks to Ryan and Becca for being lovely hosts. I dug the abominable snowman stocking.

Another one of God's gift is my amazing ability to recover from such outings, I was up by 10 and hit the gym running. Sure the people around me could probably smell the alcohol coming out of my pores, but whatevs, I'm on a mission to look like a bad ass freedom fighter from America. Then did a little grocery shopping, Cooked D some breakfast that included breakfast sandwiches and french fries, and proceeded to clean up the kitchen. Afterwards I decided since Wes was still dead that D and me should go get Wes' car. I then decided that afterwards since I was a productive member of society after a night like that, I would go to Tompkins square for the Sunday night game and a few pops, but I'm still kind of like Los Angeles' version of  Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer;

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'm just a caveman. I fell on some ice and was later thawed by some of your scientists. Your world frightens and confuses me! When I see my image on the security camera at the country club, I wonder, are they stealing my soul? I get so upset, I hop out of my Range Rover, and run across the fairway to the clubhouse, where I get Carlos to make me one of those martinis he's so famous for, to soothe my primitive caveman brain..."

Haha Los Angeles I guess frightens and confuses me so much that I find myself getting lost in trying to get to places I have been to multiple times. Today? Tompkins Square. I swore it was somewhere on Lincoln... I was just told its on the corner of Lincoln and Manchester, so I was right. Except I went the wrong way on Lincoln. Ended up on Venice Blvd, drove past the Bigfoot and realized, hey, I'm a Reh-Tard... So for my failure, I decided it was best to just head on back to Wes' and call it a day.



The Loser wins another excellent Atmosphere tune.

SANTA CLAUS GO STRAIGHT TO THE GHETTO

I wanted to give my friends something for Christmas. So since I was incapacitated today with another round of the gout, I decided to write you all some holiday Haikus- its better than a donation to the human fund I say. Hope you enjoy them

Symantec Teammate
welcomes you to his gun show
Kobe is his dog

The Patent Lawyer
A-Team Michael Jackson Fan
Cold Play defender

USC Alum
Even rocked it in their band
Brings limes for limeade

Poway citizen
Patricks O'Harley's Kelly's
My Denny's teammate

Newport Beach Hustler
Mongolian Bar B Que
No fan of Golf boy

The Moons Guitar Man
Watches Korean Movies
Potato Tacos

Vegan is her way
Made her car scrape once or twice
Is Miles Davis Cool

Black Keys fanatic
Toy story 3 ride all star
Scared of the fuel light

Cable T V guy
Don't say real name in public
My Chili's Teammate


Utah Jazz- Really?
The Vegas Haiku Legend
Pit bull look a like

Hawthorne is her home
needs to quit that Dodger shit
Resides with Jazz Fan

A G Employee
Soccer Softball Basketball
His Bachelor Cruise

Claims is her domain
Stuck with Huge after cruise
owns blue or green car

Tireless Promoter
A real female hip hop fan
Whos Birthday was it?

Six foot three doubter
hails from the city of wind
A Derrick Rose Fan.

Saw tree on fire
married to Volkswagen man
mom to awesome ones

He's the god father
drawings are just too bad ass
square feet confuse me

From Napa Valley
politically liberal
too bad ray lutz lost

The Belize Broiler
Is maybe colombian
likes to climb mountains

  Animal Lover
likes to stockpile lots of books
misses griffith park

     Palestinian
tried to kill me at squaw peak
 The desert is home

Temecula Man
the bread man to the masses
his beard is way weird

Merry Christmas!

Roy

Last Day

I was talking last night before I went to bed (actually couch) about taking a day off from working out because my body was starting to reject all the exercise. But then I remembered I was an American (haha that's taken from a buddy down in Santee who likes to rationalize everything with the fact that he's an American or that he is in America)and being one I needed to shun the pain and keep on keeping on with the workouts. And for having such bad thoughts I decided- fuck it- I'm waking up at 645 and hitting it early to teach my pussy body a lesson. The workout went fine, the attempt at basketball with the Hawthorne crowd did not. No aspect of my game was on (my defense never is- I go with the best defense is a good offense philosophy). So because of my Lackluster play I am thinking up hitting up Griffith park again. I need to get ready for my next mountain ascension anyways...

Last Saturday a buddy of mine took me on an 8 mile hike to the top of two mountains in San Diego. Besides having to ford the San Diego river, it actually wasn't that bad. So we have decided he's gonna be my mountain tour guide and take me on climbs through out San Diego. I have done Cowles, Pyles,North and South Fortuna. Next on the list hopefully in the next couple of weeks is Mt San Jacinto in the desert, then El Capitan, Mt Woodson, Iron Mtn, Cuyamaca, and Mt. Laguna. Then we will design badges and I'll wear it proudly haha. After these, I will re attempt Squaw's peak in Phoenix, the motherfucker that made me realize how fat I was. Anyways after the 8 mile death march, we were witness to one really bad attempt at picking up a bartender. After a few initial disastrous pick up lines, this exchange took place;
"By the way I'm (name withheld) what's yours?"
"Paris."
"Oh nice! I've never been to Paris..."- in a sexual innuendo tone
"Well, you won't be going there tonight."
laughter from the rest of the patrons at the bar...

Here's another true retail store story from my past to end this one. My first ever job was at K-mart. My baseball coach got me the job there and I was assigned to the Layaway department. It was during the holiday season and they always need help around this time. Now normally only two older white ladies are needed to work the Layaway department. By white I mean Whiskey Tangos. By Whiskey Tangos, I mean WT's. By WT's I mean White trash. Sorry my white buddies but some of ya'll are just fixin to get labeled as such. And yes I did make an attempt at using your lingo in order for you to understand better. Hopefully you'll get why I used this term in a bit. Now first of all I was supposed to get trained on the super duper Hi Tech computer system. But since they saw I was mexican, they told me some bullshit that I was just supposed to be a "runner" and basically b their bitch. Fine I was only gonna be there for the holidays and was supposed to make my move to electronics (ah yeah at the Kmart that was the dream spot, haha) so I didnt care so much. Except as their bitch, I got the worst schedule, never took my lunch when I was supposed to, never took my breaks even though they would take countless smoking breaks, and they decided to have me reorganize the whole layaway inventory on my own. While they watched. Really ridiculous. They weren't my supervisors, they were supposed to be helping me, but they didn't. Finally one day I said fuck it I'm going to lunch with my friend Kurt who worked in the toy department. Didn't care what they had to say. I made sure it wasn't busy and seeing as there were only 2 people in line and one had already been helped, I just said, "I'm off to lunch" The look on their faces was in complete shock. One of them said whatever and I bounced. I come back to them being all pissed off, the other guy who worked there was in the back and as I said what's up he comes at me with
" Don't say hi to me buddy leaving curly sue (or whatever WT name she had) all alone when it was super busy..."
I looked at him (he was a 40 yr old WT by the way) and said both WT#1 and #2 were here and it wasn't busy- so you should calm the fuck down. I had had it with this team. Everything from that episode seemed to have subsided a week later and they were even starting to treat me like a human being when one day as I am punching in. the older whiskey tango after having helped a Mexican lady out blurted this out

"Don't know why she is putting all this stuff on layaway not like she is gonna actually ever come back here and pay it off. I swear some people shouldn't be allowed to put stuff on layaway. If it wasn't for all these Damn Mexicans we wouldn't have to work so much..."
I speak up.
"Well actually if it wasn't for these Mexicans like ME putting stuff on layaway, we probably wouldnt have a job back here."
Both of them turn around all red and embarrassed and the one who spurted it out begins to profusely apologize and try to say she didn't mean it like that. I don't know how else she would have meant it but whatever. After this I just kept to myself in the back. I should have reported it to HR but I was too young and figured they wouldnt believe me or some shit. The worse part is that it wasn't even true. The majority of people who put stuff on layaway weren't mexicans- they don't know enough english to know what layaway is, haha.

Anyways I'm off to destroy my body some more.

Hands On Experience Pt. II

So I have gone to about 7 or 8 24 hr fitness locations recently and have asked all of them if they have a pump to put air in my basketball. Everyone except for the one off the 105 have told me that their pump has just broke. "Like just the day before..." The one off the 105 told me that people brought in their own pumps and to go ask somebody in the gym. Haha really? I guess thats the standard answer to not allow members to use it. Maybe its a liability thing, haha. Last night Team Symantec came through in the clutch to win and clinch a playoff spot. I was on fire... during the shoot around. During the game I was- not so much. I need to shake off that San Diego thing of not performing well under pressure (Trevor Hoffman and Nate Kaeding I'm talking to you and fear joining you.)

I have been up in LA since Monday, trying to get acclimated to this new routine. I think once I start work on 12/16 it will be more structured, but for now, I'm just I guess enjoying the little time left I have off before getting back to the grind. And really its in between looking for a second job. Yesterday I applied at borders online, apparently they have hiring opportunities around here somewhere so hopefully I will get lucky.

I remember back in Monterey I had refused to get a job any where else other than the wherehouse that was by my apartment. So that was the only place I bothered applying to. I got it within after one interview and didn't understand back then why people had such a hard time getting a job. Now having been through it, I would like to take it all back.

That job was cool, the best story from there sounds like a retail store urban legend and I wouldn't have believed it myself if I wasn't there but- and go ahead and skip this part if I had written about it before- our store also rented videos. Anyways one day, a very upset white lady in her early 40's comes in upset. She demands that we pay for a new VCR for her because a tape she rented from us got stuck and the cost to repair hers was more for a new one. I mean she is cussing up a storm demanding to speak with the manager. I was busy stocking videos having won the honor from the other guys that day- it was usually empty during the day in that part of the store so you got to pretty much restock without being bothered. From that part though, I can hear her screaming and cussing about how she didn't need to provide the video back and that the estimate from the repair store and the receipt for the new one should be sufficient. The person trying to help her kept asking that all they would need would be the video that caused it for inventory and to verify. She was refusing to provide the name and the actual video to the person helping her out. All the workers including me tried to calmly explain we would need the video back anyways, but nope, she just kept cussing away. Finally my manager comes in and they end up going to his office. He comes out looking all serious and advising the customer she would get reimbursed and apologizing. As she's leaving the parking lot, he turns out with the most ridiculous smile goes to the back and produces the video that had caused her to be so damn upset...

See, We had an adult section. Yep, between the guys that worked there it was always a battle to see who would get to restock the adult section because we all would take our sweet time in perusing through the sweet titles and covers. Turns out the video that had gotten stuck in her VCR was from this section. We ended up proudly displaying it in the back room by the punch in clock. She deserved it for the half hour ridiculous scene she had caused- I mean she yelled at all of us at one point in trying to get us to just take her word for it. I mean we would have eventually found out what movie she had rented by looking up her account, but I guess she didn't want to be there when we did.

The name of the video? I wanna say it was either,
White Men Can't Hump, or American Booty, but I can't remember exactly...