Creative Flow

“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” – Walt Disney

Always one to try new things, curiosity got the best of me a few years back. I dove into taking pictures, filming and editing videos, and started this website. I continued and stopped some and randomly picked them up again for a short time. “I don’t have enough time,” was a thought that constantly ran through my mind. Screw that! I’m tired of just going to work, going to the gym and coming home almost daily. I have outgrown this routine.

I just upgraded my DSLR and purchased some lighting and a tripod and have booked a few photo shoots to shoot some ideas I have. Stupid, fun, or already done, I don’t care, I just want to get back into my hobbies. I’ve decided to just spend more time on my creative side (or lack thereof) and just have some fun with it.

I’m also planning on purchasing a go-pro and filming some videos and posting them up on my YouTube channel. I have so many idea that I don’t want to go to waste. People tend to give themselves a future start date for new things they want to begin, and that’s not a motto I live by. I always say that once you decided to start something, it should begin then, not at a later time.

More tweaks on this revamped website will begin soon, and where I’m heading…… I don’t know. Not knowing where all this will take me is the fun part, and I for one am excited again!

Management Team

Last Tuesday afternoon was the yearly management team lunch and drinks. This was my first one in attendance and I must say I drank a tad too much but ultimately had a blast. I wasn’t the one that was most drunk though, so yay me!

Joke after joke was told. My boldness with my raunchy jokes emerged once I got comfortable enough (and boozed up I might add) to tell them, which surprisingly was very often. Once they started laughing, I couldn’t stop! Another round was bought before we called it a night!

I would say I can’t wait to see how next years managers lunch goes, but one never knows what can happen in a year.

49ers vs. Chargers

About 2 month ago I made a comment about going to catch a Raider game with my brother in December, but it never happened. This brought up going up north to catch the 49ers vs Chargers game when I was at a friends Bday. I’ve been wanting to go see a game and Check out Levi’s Stadium, so I said yeah I’m down, not thinking it would actually happen. Two weeks went by and the talks became reality. The next thing I know the tickets were bought and hotel was paid for. Fuck it, I thought, a mini getaway to end 2014.

We were supposed to take off Friday night after work, but Richard couldn’t get off work until 6pm. Off we went in the 6 hour trek to Santa Clara. I was in charge of the tickets, and even though it had this warning, people should know not to boss me around.

We stopped by target to pick up snacks, cups and some beer to put in the cooler. (Shoutout to KidVic for lending me the awesome cooler that got us through Comic Con. Thanks dude!!! Nachos on me!!)

6 hours later we reached our destination. We changed into our PJs and began with a 4am game of beer pong.

Vanessa, and Manny fell asleep, while Richard and I tried to stay up to watch the sun rise. I knocked out on the edge of the bed near Vanessa’s feet and got up and tried to go to the couch. I must have slept in an awkward position cos my feet were numb and I fell straight to the floor. I tried to get up but fell again. I made it to the couch and knocked the fuck out.

The next morning we went out for breakfast and to pick up more booze, steaks, and all the necessities for the Tailgate. We tried to look for parking but it was packed. We found a lot and went in only to find that they did not let people tailgate. We were told the lot across the street allowed tailgating so off we went. We set camp, and took out a few tables for beer pong and a Ginormous sized jenga set that was made by Manny’s old man.

Once people saw the jenga and beer pong table they were drawn in to us and competitions began. Game after game after game was played of beer pong, Jenga and Flip Cup as booze and shots were downed nonstop! Some people from back home were also in the same lot and they joined our company.

The game was about to begin so at this point we packed up and headed out towards the stadium. This tech-ed out stadium was awesome! Never seen anything like it. Somehow Manny managed to get us prime seating for an unbelievable price.

Drunk was not even a word I would use to describe our state towards the end of the game. When we realized the game went to overtime we were trying to locate everyone as people scattered. We did not know who won until the next morning when we saw the highlights. =\

As scattered as we were, one of the boys got jumped twice, and luckily no harm was done. He was alone and nothing could have been done at that point. It took us over an hour to gather everyone together and then another hour to get back to the hotel (which was less than 2 miles from the stadium) where we semi continued drinking and just chatting the night/morning away.

The next morning some of the group thought I took of to Frisco with the other people but I was knocked out in the couch. We packed up, and headed straight to grub at Pizza My Heart then headed to the Winchester Mystery House.

I’ve been here prior so don’t feel the need to write about it. Off south we now went, destination: home!

I know the way back on a trip is normally shorter than traveling there, but for sown reason this trek back lasted for what seemed ages!! After a few pit stops we finally arrived home, and this concluded my eventful weekend. I will now be making my own Enormous Jenga and I plan on attending more Tailgates after this!

Torn

I’m honestly at a loss for words right now. I’m happy, excited, nervous, sad, scared and angry at the same time. I just feel like I’m being pulled in every possibly direction and no matter what I do, I will never be able to make those I care about happy. I want to crawl into a hole and emerge at a future date when enough time has passed. I don’t like this feeling one fucking bit.

Welcome to life. It sometimes sucks!

Owning Your Flaws

I’m proud of the confidence I worked hard for and finally got. It feels good to love yourself and not care what people say. Owning your flaws and knowing what you need to work on is such a good feeling. I’m not looking at the past anymore. I feel good with who I am right this moment.

Salvage Lounge

We celebrated Vanessa’s birthday at Salvage Lounge in DTLA. I took the Blue Line with Jessica so we would be able to drink the night away. There really isn’t much to say about that night that the following pictures can’t explain:

Jessica and I forgot we took the Blue Line and luckily Lulu offered us a ride back before we missed the last train back home. I Saw some people I had not seen in a while, and overall I had a great time. Happy Birthday, Nessa!!!!

Goodbye Oregon Family

The reminder of the weekend with my family went by faster than the blink of an eye. They took a trip to the beach, thenWe went to San Antonio Winery to get some wine for my sister in law and niece. My bro and his family went to visit relatives from Friday night to Sunday evening, so during this time I went to celebrate Vanessa’s born day, but more of than in another post.

When they returned Sunday evening, we hung out for a few more hours before they began their trek back to Oregon around 8:30pm. They wanted to avoid the possible icy mountain areas at night so leaving at this time would have them drive through the mountains in the day time.

The weekend went by too fast. I enjoyed spending these few days with them. It really enforced the love I have for my family. No matter what, we will be there for one another. Nothing and NO ONE will tear us apart. Luckily this wasn’t a goodbye, just an Until Next Time!

Thanksgiving

Last year around the beginning of November, my brother from Oregon stopped by to visit. He let us know that he had wanted to spend one Thanksgiving together with the whole family. He said he would try for 2014. Although it was something we wanted, I never expected it to pan out as he has an ever growing family out there and having them all one down for the same weekend seemed like a long shot.

Fast forward to about 10 months later, when we got the official word that the whole family would be coming down to spend the weekend with us! This was beyond exciting, especially for my amazing mother. This was the first Thanksgiving in over 22 years that we would all be under one roof.

One of my Nieces moved out here last year, so her trek to grandmas house was about a 45 minute drive. My brother on the other hand, decided it would be cheaper to drive down, and took an estimated 16 hour trek down to Los Angeles. In the end with traffic, they took about 18 hours to get here.

Their arrival on Wednesday evening commenced with dinner, followed by a few hours of chatting and for us younglings, video games!

Thanksgiving day began with my mother and sister in law prepping all the food. I began setting up the dinner tables and the buffet style table for the food.

During this time, the younglings decided that we needed a lot more booze than my parents had in their liquor cabinet, so off we went to buy holy liquids.

Once we got back, we changed and waited for my other brother, Albert, to arrive with his family. We began driving and taking lots of stupidly awesome pictures which my neice nicknamed us The Fab Five.

I talked to Miryam and we discussed how we have never taken a picture together in almost 5 years of being family. We were surprised at how this was even possible, and decided to take our first official picture, her with her signature margarita drink, and me with my signature Stella beer.

The Fab Five took some more pictures before dinner began as we figured that we didn’t know when we would all be together once again.

We all began gathering in the living room where I had to set up the table as our dining room would be unable to fit 20 people. Soon after, the feasting began!

After many trips for food and dessert, we all just reminisced about the past and had an overall good time.

At this point I thought it was the perfect time for us to take a family picture. I first got one with all the brothers, some grandchildren and a great grand daughter.

The night ended with the younglings having some boozy debauchery and a few games of Cards Against Humanity. I will say that I got the best combo of the night with caused roars of laughter.

The best thanksgiving ever with family and loved ones. I couldn’t have asked for anything more! I love my family!