Oh my! Is that an earthquake? No, it's just our latest round of downstairs neighbors slamming the *bleep* out of their front door. Yea, and they have a baby. I heard it crying way to clearly last night. I hate apartments. Give me four walls, a floor and a ceiling all my own...
Who wants barely used jar of Vegemite? Come on, you know you want to try it. "Hey Bob, this Vegemite stuff reminds me of the cat's ass. Here, try some."
If you look at your calendar, it may or may not say that today is Australia Day. Kathy informed me of this about a week ago and felt strongly that something should be done in the way of celebrating. Evidently living in Australia for two months last year left a lasting impression on her. Quickly a plan was formulated to have dinner at Outback and unfortunately it also involved Vegemite. To date my experience had been limited to singing along to "Land Down Under"...you know, He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich .
There we were - Kathy, Erin and I - waiting to be seated at Outback. The wait was long enough that there was temptation to jump the fence and hit In and Out - but we were determine to hold out. Once we were seated, the full plan was revealed to Erin - that tonight we would be embarking on a diversity adventure - to bite Vegemite. Once the bread arrived Kathy prepared the samplings.
I think by this time our waiter was having a good laugh at us. But come on, you work at Outback - and not only do you have no idea that today is holiday in Australia and you've never tried Vegemite. Shouldn't that be a requirement to work there - you must have a minimum of 5 pieces of flair on at all times and be able to recite 3 facts about the continent down under that doesn't include Men at Work or the movie Yahoo Serious. But I digress, back to the story. Now, there's a reason why Vegemite is an acquired taste for the Aussies. So much that they crave it and if you stop any Australian backpacker in the world they will surely have a jar of the concentrated autolyzed yeast extract with them.
That's right. Concentrated Autolyzed Yeast Extract. I think that Kathy takes pleasure in forcing me to try these strange substances that are so called "delicasies and staples" of other cultures' edibles. The last time it was squid and jellyfish - which went in my mouth, and came right back out. These are the situations you get yourself in when you are stubborn and hate to back down from a challenge.
So there we were - facing down the brown goo smeared on bread. Too bad Kathy didn't have the camera at this point, because I do believe my facial contortion would serve as a visual as to how nasty this stuff tasted. Erin remarked on it's saltiness and I, I was speechless. I'm not sure Vegemite is a taste I could ever acquire, but at least now I can say I've tried it. Can you?
Let me ask you this: If your roommate was already in pjs when you go home and had retreated to their room, door shut - would you leave on all the lights in the living room/dining room and three candles burning but shut the television off? I'm thinking it would be safe to assume that my roommate had gone to bed and wouldn't be coming back out just to turn off the lights. I should leave the bastards on all night to make a point but the problem with that is a.) changes are I'll be getting up before her and b.) she leaves lights on where ever she goes in the apartment.
As long as she pays the rent right? Well, she might be moving out if she ever decides to go through with this graduate school plan and is accepted. Just in case I'm beginning to work on a list of requirements for a potential roommate.
1. toilet paper orientation - over not under.
2. turns lights off (not obsessively, but when they aren't going to be in the room for a while)
3. normal work schedule
There are other ones...but I know better than to list them here.
Seriously - anyone who knows me, or has gone to get coffee with me knows that I always order a Cinnamon Mocha. My first exposure to the Mexican Mocha was in Eugene, Oregon when we were leaving town to make our way north during Spring Break. It took us a good 10 miles to figure out that the secret ingredient was cinnamon syrup and from that moment on I was hooked. That was back in 1997. Over the years I've gotten a few questionable looks from people when I order it and some have never heard of it before. I thought it might be something local with Eugene because this past Thanksgiving while I was up there again I found that Allann Bros. had a Mexican Beanery that was sublime.
So you can understand my shock when I stepped up to the counter this morning and found Cinnamon Spice Mocha on the menu board. I don't know if it was my contempt for the franchise that caused my once beloved beverage taste like shit or if it was just a boched job. I may have to venture to my old Starbucks (did I just say that?) to see how theirs fare.
Approximately 10 months until I (hopefully) head to New Zealand. So, yea...that means I have to get my ass in gear. I remember back in grade school, there was one family that would always get these hired hands from Australia to help with the sheep and farming. Anyway, I think there were a lot of little kids in that class that developed this fascination with the Outback and it is one place that I've always wanted to go. So why aren't I planning a trip to go there? Well, part of that is Kathy's fault. A couple of years ago she took a similar two week trip to New Zealand which would become the inspiration for her to take a leave of absence. Just hearing her talk about it makes you want to go. Don't worry mom, I'm not about to take off around the world like her. I'm not that adventureous...yet.
So the plan is still needs to be ironed out with Jen, my roommate from college who will be also going. They say that travelling with friends can sometimes ruin friendships - hell, I figure if I can live with the leaving-empty-pizza-box-in-the-fridge freak that we should manage alright for two weeks of travelling.
Had a little surprise waiting for me when I left for work today. Frost. On the windshield. In Bakersfield. Took me right back to the days of leaving 10 minutes before class in the morning only to find a thick coat of the opaque ice crystals. Everyone seems to have their own little tricks to handle it. You've got your ice scrapers (or in my roommates case an old tape or cd case) and you let the car warm up and defrost. Or when it wasn't freezing out you could give the wipers a little squirt and try to make slush out of the frost and hope that it loosened up. Still, there were the days when you didn't let it warm up enough and you just wanted to get going so with the windows down and a small hole to view ahead, you would start the drive. As long as the driver could see a little, that was good enough. But Bakersfield? It snows here once in 30 years. The heat melts the soles of your shoes in the summer. There's not supposed to be frost here. Not that I'm complaining. (:
Monkeys and Surfing Saw chimpanzees and a world class surfer on the beach today. No, really I did.
The story goes a little something like this: I took a drive down to Ventura to hang with a friend who was working a surf contest down there. So out of the gloom and fog of Bakersfield I drove and arrived to a beautiful day - only slightly windy. The contest itself was actually a fundraising/memorial event for Donnie Solomon - one of the world's best big wave riders, who drowned 6 years ago. The event has grown over the years from amateurs only to include a ProAm. Not that I would know the difference really. I relied on Kim to fill me in - That guy there - he's Pat O'Connell - he was in Endless Summer II - he's soo good. Ended up winning the event and donating his prize money back to the Red Cross - very generous thing to do. I love the atmosphere down at these events. Just good vibes.
I know, I know - but what about the monkeys? I lack the full scoop, but there were these two guys that had these two chimps, and they were walking them on the beach. Yea, only in California... Although, when I was back home for Christmas - my mom and I saw someone with a smaller monkey (like the one on Friends) in a truck with some people.
Want to meet my new best friend? Yea, that would be Sharon. She may lag, but in the end - delivery. Now I've got so much Mayer to listen to I don't know what I'm going to do with myself. Not really, I'm going to go grab a Newcastle and wait for Survivor to come on. Yes...I'm a reality tv junkie. Survivor, The Amazing Race, Lost, Junkyard Wars, Trading Spaces, and I admit to watching some of Big Brother and Temptation Island the first time only for carpool discussion purposes.
So, when hauling off Christmas trees, it would be a very good idea to strap it down or have your passenger hold onto it. Yea, I was helping Karen take her tree to the recycling lot - and on the way there it went flying out the back of my truck. Only the tree and my ego was hurt. After two U-turns and Karen dragging it out of the street and tossing it into the back again we were on our way. Once we got there - wow, I've never seen so many Christmas trees in my life. And the smell? This pure pine scent just hung in the air.
Oh, and Karen was nice enough to have me over for dinner even after the tree incident and my breaking one of her glass ornaments (I'm sorry). Oatmeal soup. I admit, I was a little skeptical at first, but she definitely came though. Not bad for just 4 base ingredients. Oatmeal - it's not just for breakfast anymore.
So, when hauling off Christmas trees, it would be a very good idea to strap it down or have your passenger hold onto it. Yea, I was helping Karen take her tree to the recycling lot - and on the way there it went flying out the back of my truck. Only the tree and my ego was hurt. After two U-turns and Karen dragging it out of the street and tossing it into the back again we were on our way. Once we got there - wow, I've never seen so many Christmas trees in my life. And the smell? This pure pine scent just hung in the air.
Oh, and Karen was nice enough to have me over for dinner even after the tree incident and my breaking one of her glass ornaments (I'm sorry). Oatmeal soup. I admit, I was a little skeptical at first, but she definitely came though. Not bad for just 4 base ingredients. Oatmeal - it's not just for breakfast anymore.
For starters, I was not involved in the 78 car pileup caused by fog here. They've joked about it at work before - the fog, having to drive with your head out the window. I've seen the effects of it though when in my first year of work, my mentor was in a fog related accident and broke his foot. Ended up having to give him a ride to work for a few weeks.
Okay, since I tend to go to a lot of concerts (over 30 the last two years) I thought I would try to do a little run down on each one I go to this year. Tonight was numero uno - a bit of a California collection with Incubus, Hoobastank, and Vent at the Centennial Gardens. I hadn't even planned on going, but Sara bought tickets over Christmas break. Now, the first thing you might be asking, is why would Incubus play their first concert of 2002 in Bakersfield. Evidently they taped the show for a music video and concert footage (dvd maybe?). Vent was the nosebleed opener and I enjoyed what muffled sound I could hear. That's one thing about opening bands, especially in big venues like this. Most of the time you can't understand a word they are singing. The sound is set up for the headlining band and I'm sure the sound crew does the best they can, but usually for all I know they could be singing passages from Dr. Seuss books. I dug the overall sound I heard though. Did pick up their independent release at the show which makes it my first cd purchase of the year.
Hoobastank. Say it with me, Hoobastank. I'd barely heard of them before tonight. Happened to catch a bit of their video on M2 for "Crawling in the Dark" when I was back home. Um, very Incubus. That's exactly what I thought then and pretty much what I think now. This is mainly drawn from the vocals - sounds very similar to Brandon Boyd's. Again, muffled - but at least it was interesting to watch the stage presence. We wondered if that's something you have to practice...bouncing around and the indie rock poses.
Incubus was all in all good. I can say that I've been to better shows - I do prefer smaller venues, more acoustic based music. The closest they come to that is "Drive" and "Pardon Me" really. Our seats were on the side of the ant hill, so it was tough to really watch the performance beyond the bounding around the stage. Found myself nodding off on a few occasions, but I think that was moreso from feeling pretty mellow and tired. I do work, and speaking of, I have that obligation tomorrow. That's all you're getting from me tonight.
so - I came back from 10 days of Christmas vacation (which wasn't bad - just a much slower pace of life) to find that I had an infestation of ants. Maybe a dozen or so had broken into the interior of the truck, but mostly they were pacing back and forth in the door frame. After two dollars worth of industrial strenght vacuuming, power washing, and a good doucing of the frame with Outdoor Fresh Raid Ant Killer and my problems are solved. Ants marching no more.
As for today, I'm still adjusting to the new office quarters. The walls are fairly thin, which was evident from the loud ker-pop sound from my office neighbor opening a can of pop. I've noticed when I leave I can still hear my music playing even though I think it's pretty damn quiet. Made me think to try using headphones. Now, there are a few problems with the headphone solution. One - the cord is pretty short so when I slide over to my desk I nearly rip my head off. Two - when wearing headphones, I have a tendency of wanting to sing along since I can't hear myself. Problem is that others can hear me and that's just not a good thing. Three - I'm able to really concentrate on work, forgetting the outside world. I'm not sure how long Eloy was standing there full out waving before I noticed, but I think it makes it a little too easy to sneak up.
