Go ahead, laugh it up!

Due to "popular" demand, here's a link to recent photos of me on my website.
And here's what I look like at the time of this posting; talk about recent, it's now:

This one's for you, newly-red-streaked-hair pal o'mine, and for you over there in the Denver area!

Yep, that's me while talking on the phone (using an earpiece) and lounging at my place on a quiet Sunday night.

greetings from Elk Grove

So I finally made it up to Elk Grove, a suburb south of Sacramento, where my roommate bought a house in December. I've come up here for the last four or five weekends now. Unfortunately, today's drive left me more sour than usual. Thoughts of car wear-and-tear, the super-expensive gas prices, and just the simple fact that I absolutely abhor driving on a freeway for longer than 10 minutes. How do other folks do it? Not even my dose of Origin's "Piece of Mind" rubbed strategically on my temples, forehead and nape for calming aromatherapy erased any unhappy thoughts on the seemingly endless drive. Ok, I'm a lightweight in many regards, call me a wuss; driving's not just my cup of tea.

I spent the night over in American Canyon - the "Gateway to the Napa Valley" - to visit family, so my drive today was actually shorter than usual, but that didn't change much of my mood when I arrived, unfortunately. Felt bad for my roommate because I sort of brought him down with me...my funky energy just sucked any of the goodness out from what supposedly was a happy weekly reunion, so I apologize to my roommate for that.

Anyway after dinner, my energy level came back up; he made some good barbecue chicken! I also watch an old VHS tape that contained a couple episodes of "I Married Dora." Anyone remember that show back in 1988, or '89? This tape also had Justine Bateman hosting "Saturday Night Live," spoofing "Family Ties," hee-larious! We also watched more track and field from the 2000 Olympic Trials, held in Sac State's Hornet Stadium, btw.

On a technical note, I may move this blog back to the Blogger.com server/site, so I can save more space on my own website, so hopefully that transition will happen smoothly.

Sage Cleansing

So I move to a small studio apartment in Daly City at the end of May. It's very near the government center, a block behind the Post Office, and walking distance to Krispy Kreme, Val's, Lily Cafe, House of Sisig, IHOP...you get the idea.

Anyway, I've complained all along about how "ghetto" the neighborhood is, and even my neice and nephew said "You live in this dump?!" Well it's really not all that bad, but my biggest complaint is the weird energy in my unit that makes me wake up in the middle of my slumber every night. For one reason or another, I'm disturbed: get up to pee, a weird dream, hearing a sudden sound, a thought (different than a dream), anxiety, blase, blase.

So finally, after almost two months of this "agony," my coworker suggested a "sage cleansing." At this point I was so desperate to relieve myself of the problem that I dragged Bancy to the Mission to the Scarlet Sage Co. on Valencia and bought sage. This is the same lunch hour when we ate at El Farolito (delish quesadilla suiza).

That same Monday evening was when the ritual to cleanse my apartment of the weird energy occured. I really had no clue how to go about the ceremony, so I merely lit the sage and lavender, fanned it all about, hoping to get every corner, cupboard, closet space, etc., and "chanting" for the energy/spirit to leave so I can get some good sleep. I freaked out when the smoke became thick and thought that it would trigger the smoke alarm to go off. That's when I realized that Hello, open the patio door for: 1. Let the smoke take energy out of the place, and 2. Just breathe!

Don't know yet if the ritual worked, as this whole week I've incorporated a couple of things to possibly help me sleep: purchased "sleep time" lotion from Origins; started jogging again, gone to bed a little earlier, like right before midnight, hello!

So I'll give it another week or two to get a final assessment of whether my rituals really work.

Spanish Fly

ok, ok, I must give credit where credit's due: My inspiration for starting a blog came from my recent "experiences" with Spanish/Latino culture within the last couple of months and I just felt like sharing them with the world...call me krazy! (btw, it's a little bit too close to my bedtime, so by the middle or end of this blog, I may not make sense anymore, so I apologize in advance)

For starters, I stumbled upon the hit show on Azteca America called "La Academia," a reality-tv show (I really don't like reality-tv shows) from Mexico that combines "Big Brother" and "American/Pop Idol." One of the contestants got me hooked on the show, her name is Yuridia, from Mesa, AZ, who wound up in second place at the end of the show's 4th season. Because of Yuridia and a couple other contestants, I downloaded their songs to my iTunes/iPod and constantly listen whenever the craving starts. Then curiousity of course enters the picture; I started to find the lyrics to my favourite songs on Google, but much to my dismay, since all the songs are of course in Spanish, I needed someone to translate. Enter my co-worker Bancy (sometimes referred to as Chancy, or maybe she'd really like to be referred to by her real name: Kumiko Wildboar?!); I "recruited her and her boyfriend/partner - I'll call him Tartie for now - to help translate these songs. I still haven't gotten anything back, but hopefully they'll have something soon.

Second: While I'm on my Spanish/Latino kick thing, I ate lunch with Kumiko/Bancy/Chancy at this place called "Cafe Durango," at the Top of the Hill Daly City. It's a dive, but they serve delicious Salvadorean/Mexican food. This was last Thursday, July 21. My order was a meat/cheese quesadilla and pork/cheese pupusa. Bancy had the pupusa plate. We couldn't finish our lunch, so we ask the server for to-go containers. Upon her return, she "throws" a piece of foil and plastic bag to Bancy, but for me, she sweetly packed my leftovers. Right away, Bancy and I discussed what just took place: the server's actions regarding packing my leftovers. Bancy thought that since people mistake her for someone who would speak Spanish, but doesn't, people get the idea that she's stuck up. My theory was that I was the man at the table, so she catered to me; that this was part of the culture.

Third: I ate the leftovers from Cafe Durango that night. For lunch on Saturday, I took my neice "Biki" and nephew "Tibs" to CD. I got the same order as Thursday. The leftovers lasted me til Sunday. On Monday, for lunch, Bancy and I went to "El Farolito" in the Mission (the reason for this trek is on another blog shortly). I order the Quesadilla Suiza there (had a cute encounter with the cashier); ate half of it there and took the other half home for lunch the next day (Tuesday). So yeah, I ate the second half of the quesadilla suiza during lunch. Tuesday night, my "roommate," VS, had a board meeting in downtown SF, so we decided to meet up for dinner at "Talulla" in the Castro. This restaurant was recommended by friends from Sacramento. Unfortunately, they had a 20-minute wait list and we were hungry and VS had to drive back to Elk Grove, so we decided to dine at Taqueria Zapata. Guess what I had—their super quesadilla. Didn't seem very super, it disappointing and small, but good for comparison to the other establishments.

Fourth: Just remembered that the name of my Mac Powerbook G4 may be "Angelina Rodriguez," named after Ms. Jolie (coz she kicks major ass, well she's a bad-ass), and Bender Bending Rodriguez of Futurama fame. The Powerbook's metallic finish reminds me of Bender.

ok, bedtime, but that's my Spanish Fly.

The beginning of...

So I've finally created this blog, on my own website on top of everything. The website will slowly build, btw. Well, I had so much to say, but after an exhausting experience just setting the blog up through my website, I'll start rambling maybe later tonight or tomorrow!