Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place

It's an age old saying. When forced to make a tough decision people say they are "stuck between a rock and a hard place." It has probably applied to you at least once in your lifetime. Today it applies to me.

Sometimes life doesn't always go the way you planned. You make decisions based on the information that you have and hope for the best. But when things change, you have to change with them. Sometimes those changes are simple, and sometimes they aren't. I'm being vague for a reason. I know nobody reads my blog, but I'm still not about to drag anyone through the mud on here. All I will say is that a change happened today and it has me in the middle. The bad part is that I don't have a decision to make. I can't choose one option or the other. I have to take both. And to quote Swingers, "there's the rub."

Not to worry though. I'm adept at making adjustments and small changes to make things work. I have no problem adjusting to new situations and I'm sure that I'll be able to do just that with this situation. I'll make a couple calls, change a couple plans, and everything will be just fine. It helps that I don't plan too far in advance because it means that I have less changes to make. Life is so much easier and manageable when you're an optimist like me. =)

Staycation Lunch Day 4: Subway???

Yeah, Subway. Lunch today wasn't spectacular, but the day in general was a lot of fun. I wasn't planning on doing much today because I was pretty worn out after yesterday's fun in the sun. But I ended up being invited out to Venice Beach by Natalie, so I went! We picked up her friend Matt and stopped for Subway sandwiches before heading out to Venice. I had never been to Venice Beach before today and really didn't know what to expect but I knew that it would be an adventure

We got lucky and found great free parking about 20 paces from the beach. After that it was straight to the boardwalk to check out all that VB had to offer. We passed by muscle beach and saw some guys working out. They really need to wear more clothes. Some outfits leave nothing to the imagination. Then we passed by the basketball courts from the classic movie White Men Can't Jump. I was then asked to sample 3 different hip hop cds by unknown artists, but refused.


There were some rather interesting "performers" on the boardwalk. There was the Worlds Best Wine-O who had a shirt that said "Jingle Bells! Jingle Bells! Help me get drunk today!" He also sang it. There were some homeless people with funny signs like "At least I'm not your kid" and "Kick my ass for $1." Then there was a guy playing guitar on roller skates with a portable amp who would follow people around as they were trying to make phone calls. He made for some great entertainment while I enjoyed a strawberry banana smoothie.


From Venice, we headed up to the Santa Monica Pier to check out things there. Again, I'd never been to the Santa Monica Pier before, so I was stoked to check it out. I snagged a slice of pizza and a soda for a quick bit of energy (very healthy, I know) then we cruised down the pier to check things out. I fought the urge to pay $6 for a picture of me with a wood cut out of Van Damme and watched some kids at the trapeze school on the pier. We saw a band playing a concert and a couple break dancing crews then headed back to the car.


It was prime traffic time, so we decided to not go straight home yet and stopped at Amoeba Music in Hollywood first. This place was the third first for me today! As I walked into Amoeba, I was just in awe of the massive selection in front of me. Racks and racks and racks of new and used music, dvds, and even VHS tapes! (For anyone under the age of 20, those are movies) There was even a free live concert in the store. The Sa-Ra and Creative Partner gave a 25 minute performance that was being filmed by MTV2.


After spending an hour in Amoeba Music and picking up 6 or 7 cds and dvds I ended up buying only 3. I bought used dvds of Fight Club and The Prestige as well as a cd by The Faint. All three for under $30. That's one great deal! I'll definitely have to go back there when I have an actual shopping list so I'm not so overwhelmed. Maybe tomorrow I'll stick to my plan of staying local. We'll see.


Since I didn't really eat anything worth taking a picture of, I'll show you guys the sign we saw while walking back to our car in Venice Beach. I can't decide if it's a clever way to meet a girl or just a pathetic attempt. You decide.

Post Vegas/Pre Vegas Part 1

This past weekend in Las Vegas was loads of fun! Friday morning I drove up with my neighbor who was visiting her pregnant friend. We made good time, getting into town in about 4 hours. I dropped my neighbor off with her gal pal and headed to my condo. Dropped off my brother's new wheels at our place in Henderson and made myself some lunch, then headed to the strip.

I met up with my friend and his family at the Miracle Mile shops. Some of them wanted to walk around and shop (lame!) so we headed back to the hotel room for a quick drink and to head down to the pool. After some sun and an AMF we decided to do a little gambling. With a new batch of AMFs quickly made up and a little food in our stomachs we headed to Planet Hollywood to play some video blackjack and wander around a bit. I lost $20 on blackjack and penny slots in about 15 mins so I decided to move on to Roulette. I played for about 15 or 20 mins and made my money back plus a little more. About $45 in all. Remember the $20 bet increments from the last post? Anyways, a win is a win.

We moved from there to staring at the girls in The Pleasure Pit, all very attractive. After a little bit of gawking we decided to play some poker. My favorite. Unfortunately, the cards were not very kind to me. I didn't win my first hand for over 2 hours! After that beat down we headed back to the hotel where my buddies girlfriend had finally arrived. She had to work, but flew in after a long day and was ready to party.

We ate some dino chicken nuggets (they are the best) had some redbull vodkas and a little Patron, then decided to walk towards the strip for a bit. We started walking at around 1:30 am. On our walk, we decided that a midnight swim in the 24 hour pool would be a more fun idea. We got changed and headed down to the pool with more redbull vodkas at 2:30am. The pool was surprisingly not empty. Plenty of people had the same idea that we did, and a few people partied too hard. We saw one person passed out on a pool chair. Drinking at the pool always leads to interesting times and tonight was no different. I ended up making $20 to swim naked across the entire pool and back. It was, by far, the most exciting way to earn a quick Jackson. My buddy and I convinced his gf to do it too. Since she had never been skinny dipping, we figured this was as good a time as any. Plus he said he would cover her $20 skinny dipping debt to me.

Saturday "morning" was spent down by the pool again for a couple hours. Really it was about 12:30pm when we finally got down there. My buddy and his gf had a wedding to go to, so I got changed and headed out to make a bet on the Preakness horse race. I had a couple exacta boxes and bet on three different longshots to win just for the hell of it. Nothing panned out for me, but I won some money back on a quarter wheel of fortune slot machine, so it was all good. After that I walked to MGM Grand and played some poker for a few hours. Got a couple beers and made a little money there too. Chilled in the pool for a while saturday night, no skinny dipping this time. Got back to the room around midnight and started watching Eagle Eye. A really entertaining movie that I should have watched sooner. My buddy also made some awesome cinnamon rolls. After two of them, I called it a night.

Sunday morning, my buddy and his family all took off at 5am. I slept in until 9. I checked out, packed up, and headed back to my condo to load up a couple things to take home. I thought about gambling at Green Valley Ranch, then I thought about laying out by our pool. I ended up staying home and playing some Rock Band for a couple hours before picking up my neighbor and driving home. Made pretty good time getting home and had a good chat with my neighbor. When I got home, I pretty much just relaxed and got ready for the new work week.

You may have noticed that the title says "Pre Vegas" as well as "Post Vegas." It's pre Vegas because I'm heading back out to Sin City again this weekend. I'm not taking friday off this time, but I do have the holiday on monday, so it will be another three day weekend in the desert for me! This time I'm heading out there for my brother's birthday so I'm sure we'll have plenty more to drink and loads of fun. I don't think I'll get my good steak, but I'm sure I'll have some other stories for you next week. See ya back here then.

Mondays suck!

I think the majority of the world would agree that Mondays suck. No matter what you do, how much you make, or who you work with, you always hate to see your weekend come to an end. Going back to work on Monday is never any fun. The reasons for work on Monday not being fun will vary widely though. I thought about this today as I was walking across the street to help someone with a minor problem that they couldn't tell me any information about aside from "It's not working!" So I thought I'd write about some of the awesomely crappy jobs I've worked in the past to help alleviate my pain.

In high school I worked at Toys R Us. If you collected Star Wars action figures or Hot Wheels, this was an ideal job. However, there were some drawbacks to it like any other job. The place is a giant toy store. Kids go crazy when they see so many toys that they want. And of course, the parents just don't care about controlling the kids while inside TRU. I've seen kids use the restroom in the aisles while a parent just turns their head. I've had to clean up puke in an aisle right next to the restrooms. Kids will pull toys of the shelves and just toss them away as soon as they see something new making a huge mess to clean up.

The parents were not much easier to deal with. I worked at Toys R Us during two interesting times. First, I was there when the Tomagotchi was huge, and at the same time UPS went on strike. So we had this amazing toy that everyone in the whole world wanted 3 of and we weren't getting any shipments of them. So parents would scream and yell at me, the lowly Toys R Us employee, because UPS they couldn't find the toy their kids wanted. They'd tell me to go look in the back after checking the inventory in our computers and seeing that we had none in stock. Kind of like the movie Waiting, we found ways to get our own revenge. We'd go to the back to "check for a toy" and hang out with a fellow employee for 10 minutes while the parent twisted in the wind up front. We didn't care, we were getting paid minimum wage. Other times we'd grab the toys and hide them somewhere in the store for ourselves.

The other interesting time that happened while I was working at Toys R Us was the Christmas that the Tickle Me Elmo first came out. Rabid parents are 100 times crazier at Christmas time. Having our store hours extended until midnight for a month didn't help either. Toys R Us helped prepare me for how to deal with insane people later in life. Whether I'm at work or not, I somehow seem to draw the crazies towards me.

The other job that I worked which I think had some influence on my future was a valet driver. In college I worked as a valet driver for a Viejas Casino in San Diego. I think everyone should work for tips at least once in their life. It really opens your eyes to how hard some people work for such crappy pay. Makes you see how much certain jobs (restaurant servers, valet, hotel maids, casino dealers etc.) really rely on tips. It's pretty bad when you get excited over a $2 tip. Having worked that job for a mere 3 months really changed the way I thought about tipping.

Well, I feel better. Maybe now I won't be so frustrated when I ask a user to "log off and sign back in" and instead, they shut down their computer. Oh well.

p.s. Happy Easter

The Dark of the Matinee

It's been a while since I've gone to the movies. I think the last movie I saw was The Watchmen, and it was excellent! The problem with movies now is that they cost so much. $11 per person is ridiculous! Makes me happy to be single! HA!

After watching The Watchmen I got curious about the actual comics. I spent a few days at work surfing the web and reading all about the series of comics. I had actually read the wikipedia entry and the entire plot before seeing the movie. Lucky for me, my short term memory sucks and I forgot all the big plot twists.

I still wasn't satisfied with just reading short summaries about all the characters, or even the authors, so I cruised to the store and bought the new release paperback. I'm sure some of the super fans would be upset to hear that I didn't go search for the original 12 comics or buy the collectors edition hardback, but who cares? I'm reading the book now and loving it. Takes me back to my childhood when I used to watch the X-Men cartoons constantly.

This comic is slightly different, but just as good. I like that it's set in a fictionalized version of the real world. It really sucks you into the story. Makes you wonder if any of this actually could have happened. And if it had happened, how different would your life be today?

And if anyone thinks this post title sounds familiar, it's the name of a song by Franz Ferdinand. Great band, check them out.