stories that survived drunken blackouts, constant pleas to realize the greatness of the music I listen to, child raising tales, and other things that might get me fired.
Matrix Direct, you're outta here! I am compiling quite an impressive lists of failed interviews; Nationwide, Liberty Mutual, Chartis, McMaster Carr, Scottsdale Insurance Company, Reliant General, Explorer, and now Matrix Direct, officially. So I've decided what the hell might as well go the agency route. Wednesday I'll be meeting with a company down here and Thursday I'll be hitting up one in LA. Supposedly the one in LA has a plethora of insurance opportunities so I'm hoping for the best. I had an interesting conversation with Nick regarding my interview approach and after fully digesting it, I have decided to switch up my approach. It is afterall basically like a sales pitch and I gotta spend more time trying to close on the job's duties instead of just speaking of my accomplishments as a supervisor. I spent all day today worried about shit and its idiotic really to worry about things you can't control- I just gotta be me. The only lame part is the bullshit worrying didn't really let me enjoy Knott's Soak City with my kids as much as I should have. We didn't make it yesterday because by the time we got there it would only have been open for a couple of hours, so we checked into Hugo's pool. I think the last time I was at a water park was when I was like 8. I think it was one in Utah of all places. Anyways the kids had a great time and really thats all that matters. The other factor that played into not enjoying soak city as much was the fact the previous evening was spent doing way too many shots of... Jager. Fuckin Jager. Never a good idea to plan an all day in the sun event after a night of heavy drinking. Whatever is left of your soul gets sucked out by the sun and water. And to top it all off, my back is burnt.
So Saturday night the Phoenix all stars paid San Diego a visit. Nick and Me Started our night at the Aeroclub while we waited to see if Del and Mike survived their attempt at skydiving.The place has been here since 1947 and its aptly named due to its proximity to the airport among other reasons. The bartender here was really nice and service oriented and we passed the time watching Garden State. .For some reason this part of town, including Golden Hill and South Park, is big on showing movies instead of sports. the Padres had lost and there wasn't much left in the sports world anyways. Issam was also in town as well as a couple of their other AZ buddies. Once we all met up we decided to hit up Dublin's square, one of the many bars in the gaslamp district. Gotta say the service was lackluster here. It was also here that I realized I'm passed my beer chugging prime. I actually finished third. End of an era. There was a time when I could finish a 40 in one drink. Those times are over. Let's be honest, there should have never been those times. Funny a few days ago I was talking about my Duck Down shirt that no one probably knew what it was. As we are all sitting there waiting for the waitress to come, One of Del's and Mike's buddies complimented my shirt. Even knew what it was. So I stand corrected. And by compliment I mean in a non gay way. I'm not D so I don't get hit on by gay guys. Just drunk lesbians. Anyways after Dublins Square, we ended up meeting up with Isaam's brother and hit up the Tivoli. Its the oldest bar in the gaslamp. This is when the Jager started to pour. Last call came dunno how many shots later, but this had not been the plan. The plan was to take it easy knowing that the next day was gonna be a day in the sun. Anyways we stumbled back to the car, but knowing that I wasnt fit to drive we had no choice but to find a Denny's. Santee is too far to make a less than sober drive regardless of one's drunken superpowers. So we ended up at the Denny's off Pacific Highway. I did however successfully avoid the southern omelette and instead went with a pot of coffee and a house salad. I was gonna go on and rant about the perils of drinking and driving and type up of my worst tale regarding that, but I'll spare the sermon, everyone knows its never good to do it. I will say that the patron saint of drunk driving must really like me because she has spared me from ever getting arrested or injuring anyone- just don't do it. I do the best I can not to myself. I need to go turn off the DVD player now since its been on the Empire Strikes Back main menu for like an hour and its driving me nuts.
I would like to apologize to the lady who I called a grenade whether she heard me or not. I watch all of 10 minutes of Jersey Shore and it gets me acting like more of a drunken asshole than I usually am. Sorry.
This is Brother Ali's Tight Rope. very excellent song verse 2 and 3 really speak to me.
This song here. Wow. I really dunno know if there is a more beautifully written song. You'll disagree, I know, but this is one of those songs I can never just listen to once. Once it comes on its on repeat for a few spins. I woke up this morning thinking about this song because last night I was watching this ghost show where they were showing the most terrifying places in the US. a Tattoo parlor was one of them. Also to make the list was San Diego's Whaley house. Anyways I was thinking about this because this morning I was clinging on to the edge of my king size bed. Apparently my kids decided this was one of those nights where they would sneak in and take over. I couldn't blame them, we had just watched some ghost stuff and even I sometimes find it hard to sleep. So I don't know why I watch these shows. What usually happens is that Fia will sneak in first, and during the night upon learning he's alone in the room Lil D will make his way over. I know this because a couple of times I will wake up during the middle of the night to get something to drink and it will just be Sofie and me in the bed. but come morning, I'm catching myself from falling off the bed. This still happens. I have tried locking the door, but I can't get myself to do it constantly as I still remember the time I was desperately trying to get into my parents room and they had locked their room. I had just had a terrible dream, it was dark in the hallway and I was balling because I was convinced a demon was in the hallway coming at me. Having unsuccessfully attempted to run to my parents to save me I had no choice but to run back to my bedroom and hide under the sheets. I got so scared I puked. We had had KFC (back then it was called Kentucky Fried Chicken cuz back then it was still America Damn it!) I remember that because I was soon no longer scared of the demon- I was scared what my mom would do when she found out in the morning that I had puked all over the bed. So in my attempt as a little kid to conceal the evidence, I went to the kitchen to find something to clean up my bed. The only thing I found in the dark were the wrappers that KFC corn on the cob used to come in, so I grab them went back into the room and attempted to clean my puke with it. After thinking I had done a good job, I threw the puke soaked wrappers in the trash, changed my pjs and went back to sleep. Thought I had done a pretty good job till the morning when, while I was in the backyard imagining I was some army soldier combating russian attacking forces ( I must have recently watched Red Dawn), I hear my mom begin cussing up a spanish storm and yell for me to come inside. She shows me the sheet and asked me what happened. I remember thinking that if I told her the truth, that I had puked because I had been scared shitless, she would have been more enraged. So I lied. Told her I had a bad stomachache and that I tried to clean it up. She then yelled at me for not having gotten her out of bed, obviously not knowing that I had been banging desperately on their door in the middle of the night. So while there have been times where I lock the door when my kids are with me, I usually don't, not because I'm afraid I'll have to clean up puke, but because I still remember that scared desperate feeling of being all alone in the hallway.
I guess in thinking back I could have woken up my brother, but he was like only 9 and to a 6 yr old, another little kid is a useless accomplice in the fight against evil.
Well I'm off to get in a workout before the kids wake up, also heading to Knott's Soak City before meeting up with Issam and them for a night of debauchery. And yes this is the only song I have been listening to while typing up this one...
I was playing this song today on the way to dropping my kids off at the boys and girls club. As its ending, Sofia says to Lil D and me
"this song is like the movie Labyrinth"
Lil D and me look at each other for a second. Lil D responds
" how so? that movie is about a girl who goes to save her little baby brother by going through a maze"
" Not the whole movie just the part where she has to solve the puzzle with the jesters with the shields"
then I remembered. She was exactly right. the part of the movie she is referring is exactly like the song. The girl ( who is Jennifer Connelly- who up until a couple of years ago was in my top 5. Only her age has her dropping) meets these two jester looking dudes one who always tells the truth, one who always lies. Its just like me to think that even though the speakers are right behind her, she wouldn't listen to the actual lyrics, but she does and thats not the best part.What I liked the best was how she was able to relate it to something she knows and likes. Again maybe this is only a dad moment that interests only me, but hey.
So last night- yeah that was a whirl. Started off at chilis by my cousin's house. We decided we were gonna go there way early before the padres game due to both our houses lacking AC and us needing to get out of the scorching hell that is east county. I needed a drink or 5 after an interview in which not only was the chic confrontational about my work experience, she also didn't listen very well. I'm not quite sure what makes them think I'm hoping to make the salary I'm was making when I am knowingly taking a step back, but thats how the interview started. Then she asked for what I did and any accomplishments. I replied I was a supervisor and besides typical supervisor stuff I was heavily involved in the on line endorsement project, I developed an intranet site, developed a training manual for underwriting and service, trained, and helped oversea two other departments, and that basically the underwriting supervisor position had been created for me. her reply?
"Those just sound like projects." I replied with " well I reviewed my departments time cards, had monthly meetings, audited productivity and quality, answered questions from every department including my own- things inline with a supervisor's position." Anyways it went back and forth like that, me pretty much defending my resume for a position I was over qualified for to start with. Then she pushed on what my old company would say, if they had anything negative to say. I told her they wouldn't have anything negative to say about my work ethic, the quality of my work or my willingness to take on more responsibility. I went on to say I had nothing but respect for the company and understood their decision to let me go as I spin a tale that the reason for my departure was that the owner had brought in someone that was replicating my job and he went with that person (as opposed to the truth - which my settlement agreement forbids me from writing and technically even discussing) instead of me since he had never even met me. her response?
" Oh I get it you just have no respect for your last company"
"NO! Thats the opposite of what I said!- I still respect the company, I helped it accomplish quite a bit- I understand it was the owner's business decision. I only regret not getting the opportunity to meet and discuss my status with the owner. There is no love lost."
Yeah whatever. A friend of mine works there right now and says he already wants to leave so I guess I wouldn't be missing much anyways. But still its frustrating- its almost like they read and hear everything I did at my last job and for some reason feel threaten. I'm the last person to think like that's the case but I felt that kind of at Mcmaster Carr as well when I asked about supervisors' roles and if the floor was split up in sections, and what training consisted of. 3 of the 5 people told me different ways of how training was conducted. Is it structured? Um its structured in that you have one on one with a trainer for a week. Hmmm. Anyways after this interview I'm expecting an email or another letter explaining they went with another candidate.
So Padre game at 7, we are there at 530. After a few tall ones, I decided to switch to good ol' apparently girly ass vodka tonics. I ended up getting invited to a poker game so I end up leaving. Except I forgot where I was going for a bit and stop by another bar. Order another vodka tonic, then switched to scotch cuz well I had to man up I guess. Get a call, its the poker game- I'm like half an hour late. I get there around 1015 sit down to hear them discussing hip hop and the greatest rappers of all time. I sit and listened til I couldnt stand it anymore and the hip hop snob came out of me.
" Tupac, Eminem, the Game are some of the best rappers of all time"
"biggie and nas too though and blah blah blah"
"Krs is one of the most underrated rappers ever"
I could only handle so much. Me not being sober, get in on it
"Tupac sadly was overrated. he was with digital underground for christ;s sake. The Game? really wow. and you can't really say a rapper is underrated when he's considered a hip hop legend. Now you wanna talk real lyricist? Ever hear of Ras Kass? Murs? R A the Rugged Man, Supernatural? Juice?"
" uh no."
"Then we really can't have this conversation."
Some one did bring up Kool G Rap though, had to give them that.
The song is step by step. By Eyedea. If you have never seen Labyrinth and won't bother to listen then the first part of this blog is meaningless.
This is the one that started my real fascination with hip hop. Prior to this song it was just casual listening to Too Short, NWA, early beastie boys and even MC Hammer (sad but true). Its was what the kids were listening to at the time and I was following blindly like a kid would. We had one of those big ass satellites that was supposed to get a million channels or what not, but it really didnt get shit other than some spanish stations. It did however get BET. and on BET was a certain show called Rapcity. All rap for like an hour or 2. back then it was the greatest show ever. I would record it while I went to play basketball and come back and watch all the videos when I got home. BET being headquartered on the east coast played a majority of east coast artist. Anyways the first time I watched this show was late at night. It was a rerun. I had no idea what I was about to experience. This video came on and right from the sampled horns I was hooked. Right then I knew the shit I had been listening to was meaningless. I had never known hip hop like this and from then on all I wanted to hear was this branch of it. I was the kid that would call radio stations and request these songs not fully realizing at the time they wouldn't play shit not on their playlist or on the top 40. What a crock of shit the radio is. The person answering the phone would just say " you got it" and my dumb ass would proceed to sit there and wait for hours waiting for it to come on. Maybe I should have asked for some PM Dawn. I don't know maybe the music people enjoy whether it be rap, rock, metal, jazz, etc... doesn't hit them as much as hip hop does me, but this really has played a part of who I am. Maybe it shouldnt have, but it did. I also remember the first time I went to New York and Hugo and me were waiting in one of the 100 lines you have to wait through to get to the top of the Empire State building and I happen to be wearing my Boot Camp Click shirt, which is like the affiliation group Black Moon is in. The guy working the line noticed it and told me "way to represent Brooklyn! Where you from?" "
"Man I'm from California- San Diego" guy was stunned someone from California would be rocking the shirt. I just recently purchased another shirt from these guys- its the Duck Down Man shirt, little dude in the front running with a target, which still to this day most people out here have no clue what it is. I'm keeping it short as I have hopefully my final interview at Matrix Direct morning and I'm tired from embarrassing myself at basketball tonight.
So I have my third interview Wednesday with the life insurance company. Decided I would need a new shirt and tie for the occasion. Now normally I would just head off to the Men's Wearhouse or some other fancy place where they have people that pair up the shirts and ties for you. But seeing as I am no longer in a position to be spending like that, I had to do it on my own. Being color blind makes this a tough thing. My dreams of being an electrician and pilot were dashed at an early age. I remember kindergarten still when it was time to draw your house, I colored my house's lawn orange. Everyone thought I was just being whimsical. I had tried to color the lawn green, but it just didnt look right to me. Then came the stop light project Red, yellow, green right? Well to me the red is red, but the yellow looks orange and the green looks white. I did not get the coveted check plus on this one. In real life its not a big deal because I know if the light at the top is lit up I stop and so on. And if I'm driving in Texas or some other moronic place that has their stop lights sideways, I know to stop when the light is on the left etc.. While on the subject of stop lights, I think its time LA dropped the attitude and started adding some left turn signals. traffic is already fucked- what's another 30 seconds to give a few people a safe left? I'm just sayin... Anyways after noticing the weird looks from my stop light I decided I needed just to conform with the rest of society's color correct ways.Only problem is that some of the little pricks would take the labels off the crayon and my ass would be S O L. Especially when it came to the purple and black crayons. My night scenes would usually be purple. I mean I can tell basic colors, like a solid yellow. But I am completely fucked when it comes to those fancy colors like mauve, tan, rainforest, and shit like that. So anyways there I am at the toilet store (Anchorman reference for you ). I guess I could have tried to make it simple but its not like I could go with the basic white shirt and black tie. Wasn't trying to look like an FBI agent, or worse a member of Best Buy's Geek Squad. Or Michael Douglas in Falling Down. Or a Mormon cruising the streets on a bike searching for converts. So I went with some white striped shirt which I hoped had blue stripes, and a tie which I thought had blue but ended up having purple on it instead. Anyways I got a second opinion. Turns out the tie is good, the shirt not so much. Thanks for preventing me from walking into the interview on Wednesday looking like a reh-tard.
I really don't like playing basketball at the gym- the game is lame there, just the people playing and their uppity ways. I almost played with my earphones on. I seriously thought about it. There is something admirable though about a guy who is 0-8 from beyond three but continues to shuck it up with reckless abandon. Nevermind I have position on my guy. Hopefully he applies that confidence in other areas of his life. Worse shooting form I've seen in a while too. Then there is of course the kid who only passes to members of his summer traveling team when he's not shooting from half court. Just terrible. I played a game in LA on saturday and at least there they passed me the ball once I made a few. You know how hard it is to get the ball passed to you when you are the sole non AA? Not in good ol Santee though. I had to clean up their shit after every missed shot. Fine with me. Got the ball passed to me once, maybe twice and yet somehow managed to score over half the team's points. I am contemplating playing tonight at the church except I don't have my basketball shoes- I left them in LA. I dunno if I want to play in my running shoes and risk rolling my ankle prior to my interview. If there is one category I have a chance in leading when it comes to basketball, its rolled ankles. I remember purchasing my Magic Johnson shoes back in the '90s thinking it would solve my ankle rolling issue. I might have been the only kid rockin them. Turns out it was most likely cuz they didnt do shit to prevent me from rolling my ankle every other day. Hey when you're a fat little kid who doesnt get the ball passed to you, you have to score somehow and that for me was trying to get every rebound possible. Fat kid+ running after rebounds = hall of fame numbers in the rolled ankles.
In the end it's kind of silly for me to have a favorite color seeing as I get it wrong half the time, but I guess it would be blue.
Riot! by Chino XL featuring Ras Kass. Probably the single greatest "one liners" track ever. One of those that has you rewinding to catch what they said. you know, if you're into lyrics and shit.
Woke up this morning on the floor to the sound of D snoring. it was like 730 in the AM. what only a few hours before had been a nice little swanky condo (furnished by Z gallerie) was now littered with beer cans, bottles of liquor and wine everywhere, bags of snacks, broken glass, cigarettes, bags of jack in the box, and 8 people sleeping all over the place. Luie sleeping off in the dining area, D, Wes, and me on the ground in the living room with D and Wes haphazardly sharing a blanket, and two up on the sofa bed. The plan was to hit up Redbull's Flugtag, which is not the air races, but this contest where people build weird ass flying contraptions and see how far they fly. They are all themed and the members of the team do this whole dance and presentation prior to launching their contraptions. Sounded like a good time. While the weather was excellent the lack of a belief in sun screen bit me in the ass. My refusal to wear sunscreen is not one of sound reasoning. Anyways gotta say it turned out to be a little bit overrated, if only because we didnt really have a good view of the contest, and none of the attempts we saw went anywhere. Kudos though to the 3 amigos themed one. The other thing the event is lacking is alcohol service. Large crowd though. I personally lost interest after about half an hour of being in the sun, crowd, and without a drink. Thankfully mostly everyone there was thinking the same and after a brief stop at a bar, we headed back for some swimming, and drinking action. At this point, the drinking escalated pretty quickly and a drowning seemed imminent. We were in the pool area pretty much from early afternoon to sun down. Again my lack of sun screen skills came back to haunt me. After sundown it was back to the condo for more drinking and then it was off to wander the streets of the LBC, well at least the parts where we were allowed to roam. 2 to 3 bars later, I can pretty much guarantee 100% in the group was out of commission. Anyways I have this thing where I tend to go off and wander the streets of an unknown city on my own. It happened again last night. Other towns this has occurred New York, Harrisburg, Phoenix. Normally when this happens I have to check the receipts to see where I ended up the next day. How I have survived drunk wandering without having been mugged is one of my life's little mysteries. Tonight it was Long Beach. I'm not sure where I went I just remember being in a bar where no one I knew was there, bought a shot, drank it, looked around and bounced. a little while later I was leaning up against some brick wall. I realized then I had a small issue- I didnt know what bar everyone else was at. I knew the street where the bar was somehow so I figured if anyone was still there from my party they would have to end up on the street eventually. So I posted up against a trash can and waited. Eventually this plan worked and after about 20 minutes, I found the group. Still trying to figure out which person punched me in the ribs. Good times.
D wins the award for most destroyed. Puya for best host, Luie for best Shaggy from scooby doo impression when I scared him by the bathroom, Bonnie wins the " I know who Vakill is" award, Wes for best picture haha. everyone else wins the award for coolest group of people to spend a Saturday burning in the sun with.
Raw life from the Foreign Exchange. quick little tidbit, The Foreign Exhange is Phonte from Little Brother and the Dutch Producer Nicolay. They didnt meet in person until after this album came out. They met on the Okayplayer boards and Nicolay would send Phonte beats over email and then Phonte would send his vocals back to Nicolay. Hence the name of the group, The Foreign Exchange.
I guess I'm gonna have to decide between taking along regular or chunky chips Ahoy tomorrow. I got called today from the life insurance company I interviewed with yesterday and I have another interview tomorrow. Guess the whole act like Red thing panned out. Dunno I think I learned from last week that until I hit the snooze button on the day I'm supposed to start work, that's when this whole ordeal will be over. Can't say it doesn't sound promising though...
I think I'm close to setting the record for most band aids used on a single wound. I mean I have even run through a box of transformer ones that Wes has at his house. This thing is like Clint Eastwood in Hang Em High- It just wont die...
It always amuses me when I walk into a Chinese restaurant and all the workers are Mexican...
I thought if I'm sitting in the sauna with my headphones on and texting away, that would be a pretty strong signal, I'm not really interested in holding a conversation. I mean its hotter than fuck in there and I just wanna get through the 15 minutes. My bad if I'm coming off as an asshole, but odds are we have nothing in common if you're 60 and you're rockin speedos...
I wonder if I'm the only one who has to start the song over that was playing on my MP3 player, in my car when I get in there....
I'm gonna have to speak with Sofia regarding her upkeep of my car's backseat. While I understand the occasional fry will end up on the floor, making my back seat look like the inside of Oscar the Grouch's trashcan is just terrible.
I'm trying to figure out what the highlight of my day was. It was either drinking 128 ozs of water, Brandon telling me he wanted to suck on my nipples, or the Padres beating up on the Cubs again- even though I couldnt watch it...
I thought up of a show today. Maybe its already on TV and I just have never seen it, but I thought of a show where a guy (me) goes and parties with tailgaters at all types of sporting events. I would have you stop me here if there has been a show like this before, but seeing as no one is here, Im gonna go ahead and continue. Obviously I would hit up football games, baseball, and basketball games, but I would also say I would hit up nascar and hockey, and fuck why not, even soccer and tennis. Everything from the debauchery of football tailgating to the pomp and circumstance at a Polo match. I would however always wear shorts, flip flops, and a shirt from one of my favorite music groups-regardless the weather. This would pretty much be my cheap attempt at getting free shirts from cool groups by explaining how I would promote them. I thought of this part over laundry today. I also noticed my Atmosphere shirt is ruined so I need a new one. But anyways back to my show. Basically see how different parts of the country do their pre game drinking and eating for different events. Then after this awesome show took off, we would take this world wide- English Premier league, Bundisliga, Spanish and Italian A series, Argentian, Brazil leagues (all these are soccer or non american football for those offended by the name soccer), Japanese baseball, Australian rules rugby, Indian Cricket basically sporting events around the world. It would basically be just hanging out with the average people and eat and get drunk with them. I of course would need bodyguards. Especially at events I would care less about (nascar, hockey, curling- I'm talking to you).
The things you think of when you're unemployed and trying to figure out a way to achieve your dream of traveling overseas...
Anyways Here is one from a man you might know- Phenom by the X to the Z. This is for those that wondered what else he did besides pimp people's rides. This man has been a bad motherfucker since Paparazzi - which he came out with in like '94.
