“So Happy Its Thursday” at SoCal! Just got home and ate some home-cooked meal from my grandma. Camaron rebusado and some Nilagang Baboy. That’s “yummy” in english.
Its been a while since I had some of her cooking. Last time the Golden Girls went up, they only brought pastries. Anyways, LA is gonna have some nice weather this weekend. We are going to get some high 70s, and low 60s at night. Should be nice.
Meanwhile, I’m gonna chill a bit before I roll on to bed. Probably watch either Fever Pitch and/or Hustle & Flow. Tomorrow, I plan on swinging by Westwood to get some lunch with Jevon and Jovan. At night, probably go down towards the Long Beach area to take my cousin out to dinner as she is visiting here from the PI through her contract-work as an Software Analyst (I think).
Oh man, should be good times on a TGIF. As for Saturday, no plans yet. I guess we might just end up rolling to Zanzibar at Santa Monica at night. Maybe catch a flick with some buds in the daytime. For Sunday, maybe roll on to Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles but we’ll see what everyones doing.
Anyways, have a great Friday and smile… ’cause the weekend is here!
“Allow me to re-introduce my self… my name is Ho…”
So yes yes, long time no write. Its been really visual as of lately. The week after Chicago was just “back to reality” even though it was a short week, for me at least. We took some new and old coworkers (who were leaving) out to Buca on Howard. That was fun, even though it took up a bit over 2 hours for an hour planned lunch on a Friday. Anyways, things were busy and what had to be done were done for that week.
Meanwhile, I almost missed my stop getting off the bus this morning at the Transbay Terminal. Thank god to this dude who woke me up. I was completely knocked out with my hoodie and iPod on. Its just that the 20–30 minute usual commute that I take have been going up to 30–45 minutes. Its really the stupid Bay Bridge construction that have been going on lately. I guess they close the 5th Street and Harrington Street exit which caused a lot of bottleneck for commuters going to work in the city starting last Friday.
Anyways, I guess I was dozing off in the bus while listening to John Mayer’s Room for Squares. Just haven’t heard that in a while. That and I just needed something mellow for the morning being that I am freaking sore from playing lots of softball this week. Probably close to 7 hours of it. Yah, hardcore… 8 for 11 at the Alameda Pickup Softball (Saturday at noon) and 2 for 3 at the Daly City league (Westlake Park, Sunday afternoon).
In relevance to the topic at hand, I’ve been meaning to write about Chi-town for days now. But I just haven’t had the time because of other stuff. Anyways, it was really good times at the City of Wind. Hope to do it again some other date in the future. I really hope that I can catch a Cubbies game at Wrigley Field before they win a World Series.
Friday, 9/2: Hipocracy Within Our Midst
Backtracking to last-last Friday AM, Jenn and I took a cab to the airport for about $25 (including tip). The dude was cool but I think he was trying to get some more mileage on us. Thank god I remember the shortest/fastest way from Biggy’s pad through Otis (the street).
Anyways we got to the Oakland Airport and through security with ease. We also got on Group B for seating with Southwest which was really weird because we checked-in online at 1am. I didn’t really think people do that too, at least not that many.
So fast forward to the most exciting part of the morning, the Group B line dilemma. Yes, what a dilemma it was when this lady tried to be all high-and-mighty for leaving our luggage un-attended. The story starts when we got in line. We put our luggage down, and I told Jenn to just get some coffee and breakfast for us as I stay there and watch our stuff. So she goes and I put the stuff down in line, walk over 5–7 feet away to an empty seat and chill. Time flies slowly, and after 10 minutes I got up from my seat and grabbed my iPod in my camera bag; and walked backed to where I was sitting down.
So minutes passed and new people got on line. Two ladies followed the gentleman behind my spot within a 5 minute span. Fast-forwarding to about near board time (which was at 8:45am), Jenn came through with the bagel and some coffee. As I got up from the seat, took off my headphones and walked over to the line where our bags where, the two ladies spoke out. Lady #1, the one that was originally behind the gentleman (and now in front of Jenn and I) said to me, “you shouldn’t leave your baggages unattended. We were gonna call security…” yadda yadda yadda.
Lady #2 I guess was in re-assurance of what the the first lady was saying. So I replied as I was gazing at the gentleman (who knew I was there from the beginning when I got up and got my iPod), “Oh, I was just a couple of feet away.”
Lady #1 replies, “But still…” blah blah blah. Still trying to get her point across. Meanwhile, I was thinking about the dude behind us. Didn’t he tell them that I was there? Anyways, I then said, “Ok, granted. But weren’t you originally behind him?” [got ’em]
She then blabs and try to be Lady Justice, when all she can be is a hypocrite—one of the things that I hate most, with a passion. I stood there thinking, “Does [Sherwin] really have to choke a bitch!?!?” (~Chappelle’s Show) haha. I also started thinking on how funny it would have been if Biggy went with us, oh man… that would have been a sight to see.
Being the grown up (between this 40–50 year old lady and I) I told her, “you know, its the weekend. Have a good one.” No one is about to ruin this freaking weekend, no one. Not someone who is bitching about following the rules and not following common courtesy, as well as common sense in that sense.
Furthermore, as we were boarding the plane. As Lady #1 found a seat as you walk-in to the cabin, she just blurts out, “I need help with my luggage” Jenn and I were like (at least I was), “Are you kidding me? You aren’t even gonna say PLEASE, or at least be sincere about it?” I swear, she said it like everyone near her were her servants. Damn.
So I just help another man push her bag into the space above. Funny thing is, she didn’t even say “thank you” to either one of us. “Ain’t that a bitch?!” (~from most of Samuel L. Jackson’s films).
Other stuff for Friday were: Giordano’s, H&M and meeting up with Cat and Olivia (for bar-hopping and some Chicago dogs at Hogie Hut).
Saturday, 9/3: Trekking of Chicago
Saturday AM? More like Saturday noon. We pretty much got home around 4am. Even tough it was only 2am CA time, we were still tired and needed much rest for the upcoming day. We pretty much distinguished Saturday as our Tour Day of Chicago, and can I tell you the places we went.
But before starting the exploration, Joemama, Jenn, Cesar and I went to this 24hr. cafe called Tempo. Yummy stuff might I add, but the lady that was serving us seemed to be not on point with our food. Anyways, after our brunch, we met up with everyone to ride the Red Line to head towards the Chicago Jazz Festival at the Grant Park area.
It was just plain awesome! Makes you think how far we can take the human body to and to what extent we can define nature’s law of gravity. Its both a creative and powerful form of the martial arts. Not to mention, music is involved and deeply rooted to it… “Parana e’, parana e’, parana.”
After the performance, we made our way to Grant Park to quickly check out Buckingham Fountain. This fountain’s popularity lies within the intro for one of the most entertaining family tv-series of all times, Married With Children. “Love and marriage, love and marriage. Go together like a horse and carriage This, I tell you brother You can’t have one without the other.” Oh man, memories of “No Ma’am”, “The Nudy Bar”, “Big ‘Uns” and Kelly’s girl friends. Oh the laughter and drama of the Bundy family.
Meanwhile, the Jazz Fest had great entertainment and food. Mostly everyone stopped over to get some funnel cake topped with a scoop of ice cream. After that, we pretty much headed back to the hotel (Doubletree Suites on Delaware St.) to get ready for dinner and the night-time festivities.
For dinner, Group A went to Cheesecake Factory (located below the John Hancock Tower) and Group B went to Ed Debevic’s. I went with Group B. It was a weird place. I guess the waitress aint suppose to be all “Pleasantville” on you but just straight-out blunt. Either way, the food was good. I ordered the Roasted Chicken dinner meal, and that got me full.
Afterwards, we just met up with everyone at the Signature Lounge atop the John Hancock Tower. Drinks and desserts were expensive. I ordered a dessert which wasn’t all that for $8. I’d say the dessert cakes over Costco would probably worth it. And thats a whole, huge cake and not just some dinky slice of a slice of cake. Anyways, it was just chill. Too bad they had to split us up in two groups because seating is hard to come by for 16 people (given).
After a couple of hours, a bit after 1am (Sunday), we all headed back to the hotel. I guess it was just a lot of walking for the day, so everyone was tired. However, a couple of people headed to Tempo for some midnight snack. Joemama and I went for a walk with our cameras. I borrowed Lou’s tripod to help me get some long-exposure shots of Chicago. I’d say most turned out pretty well. Other than some security concerns by a guard over at John Hancock Tower (which we totally understood because of the heightened security alert) our night-time photography session is a must for a town specially known for its architecture.
Sunday, 9/4: More Walking
Sunday came up fast. By the time we woke up in the morning, we all knew that there are a lot of things too see that we wont have time to even check out. But what would a Chicago trip be without eating at Kitschn’s. We were gonna roll to the one at Roscoe but it was just too far from where we were located. So we took a cab for a quick ride to the one on River North.
Mostly everyone ordered their famous“Green Eggs and Ham Sam. The best thing that I tasted from the restaurant would probably be the Tiramisu Twinkie. Damn. That sucka is just daaamn bad for you but its so daaamn delicious.
With that, we were enroute for the Sears Tower. On our way to take the train, Belle dropped her sweater without even knowing it. Light bulb… and whats a better way to entertain ourselves by pulling a prank out on Belle. So we all passed Belle’s sweater to the back of the pack, ending up with Joemama. And the rest was just history, hilarious history in that case.
Getting to our destination, we probably were in line to go to another line for about 30–45 minutes. After that, we then saw a 15-minute short film about Chicago and the Sears Tower. Then, got on the elevator which shot up 103 floors up in about 15–30 seconds. Come to think of it, after coming out of the elevator, I felt a little dizzy.
But it was all forgotten by the awesome view of Chicago’s cityscape. Too bad it wasn’t all clear. That, and the windows weren’t cleaned recently. Maybe its just because that we were on the 103rd floor. I mean, come on, you’ll have to pay me a lot of dough to clean just one side of the building that way up.
Anyways, after being amazed by the view and reminiscing a bit about the scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, we headed down and out of the building. Some went back to the hotel to relax, and others headed to go check out the River Tour by Wendella. So we all took the train.
The most funniest part of the ride was probably almost losing Joemama in the crowd. You just gotta imagine that each cab was packed by people. I mean, it just wasn’t funny seeing it at all. I guess the humidity of the tunnels were getting to em, and they just needed to get to somewhere else. Anyways, Joemama didn’t get the opportunity to get out when everyone couldn’t get in a cab. There were no cell reception at all and the exit that we were suppose to get out at was under construction. But alas, Joe was a trooper. He even went back to the hotel, waited for our call to meetup, and arrived at the destination spot before us—which was about a couple of miles to walk. Far if you’d ask me. I probably would’ve taken a cab.
The tour was great and quite educative. It provided everyone with a lot of history about Chicago’s past, its present and future. Not to mention, a great alternative perspective to the one we saw from above the Sears Tower… a perspective from the ground-up. One fact to take note of was probably when the tour guide asked us why Chicago is called “The Windy City.” I quickly replied (just to her, as she was next to me), “because everyone has gas.” Oh schnaps, oh schnaps… a little giggle was good. But she stated that its because of the ever-changing politics in the city. Like a wind, it comes and it goes; no concrete destination of where it’ll end up at.
Other stuff for Sunday evening were:
eating at Sushi Samba and paying a $400 bill ($100 gratuity and tax!)
partying at the Funky Buddha while thinking that it was $10 cover for everyone, and later finding out that its $20 for guys and $10 for the ladies
last but not least, packing our stuff and spending our last night in Chicago… *tear*
Monday, 9/5: Gino’s and Goodbye
For Monday’s schedule, we planned an hour or two for people to go do what they want and just meet up at Gino’s East at noon. A couple of people went to Niketown, Urban Outfitters and H&M (again). But it was really hard to buy a lot of things as our luggage space was limited to new things. Anyways, Gino’s East was good. I think that their crust was better than Giordano’s. That and their restaurant’s atmosphere was cool. Probably the best way to describe is that “the writing is on the walls”.
…and they all went back to Cali and lived happily ever. Till then, don’t worry, be happy.
From my mind to yours, there’s nothing more than a great vacation if you can laugh out the terrible times with friends. For example, walking lost in Chicago to go to a club with a bunch of girls wearing high-heels. Awesome, good times.
What is up with the current weather? I went to LA this past weekend and OMG, it was just yucky summer weather. I mean, I’ve been there for the past couple of years… but it never sucked that bad. Yah, it was like 90s but it was more humid than usual.
Its probably because of Hurricane Katrina. She’s behind all this weather pattern that were having lately. I mean come on, you got a forecast of high 70s in downtown SF with no freakin’ nice breeze whatsoever. Then, the temperature reaching the high 80s past noon—that’s just crazy.
I know what you Californians are saying, “it might be earthquake weather.” Yah, I hear you too, it might be. It was like that in the past, and usually around this time. Blah. Knock on wood… hopefully its not but just a case of Katrina.
Just needed to get that out. Freakin’ weather is suckin’ especially here in downtown where its usually nice and cool. People usually wear a light sweater or jacket. But today, I think I saw more people wearing their office clothes than their regular leather and denim jackets.
Seems that its always the female storms that causes the most problems. I guess its like PMS. When they feel shitty, you just gotta stay away from them. Anyways, I just hope that those in her path are okay, especially those in Louisiana.
While talking about ING Direct’s increased interest rate (i.e. 3.3% from 3.0%):
me (10:43:26 PM): didn’t you want my financial advisor’s contact info? juan (10:44:38 PM): im good for now, i want to start saving some money before investing
me (10:45:02 PM): ummm thats an oxymoron
You guys ever wonder how the names came about for the days of the week? As a little break, I took and wondered off to outer space and this question bothered me for a couple of minutes. For example, the meaning of the first part of “Thursday”. That is, “thurs”. What is it? What does it mean? Here are some definitions I have found from the biggest, centralized knowledge-base in the world (aka. the internet):
Thursday is the day of the week between Wednesday and Friday.
The name Thursday comes from the Old English Þunresdæg, meaning the day of Þunor, commonly known in Modern English as Thor.
Some have adopted an acronym for Thursday, similar to Friday’s T.G.I.F., to say “So Happy It’s Thursday,” or S.H.I.T.
In the popular rhyme, “Thursday’s Child has far to go”.
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, the character Arthur Dent says “This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays”. A few minutes later the planet Earth is destroyed. Thor, for whom the day was named, also appears later in the Hitchhiker’s series and in other Adams books.
In the Hindu religion, Thursday is guruvar or the Guru’s day.
Quakers traditionally refer to Thursday as “Fifth Day” eschewing the “pagan” origin of the name “Thursday”.
Interesting aye? Well check this out… in terms of history, here’s one for the record books:
Black Thursday refers to October 24, 1929 when stock prices in the NYSE fall sharply, with record volume of nearly 13 million shares. Five days later, the market crashed on volume of over 16 million shares — a level not to be surpassed for 39 years. In popular imagery, the crash has come to mark the beginning of the Great Depression.
“How about in terms of the Bible?”, you might ask. Well, here it is:
There are two holidays that traditionally fall on Thursday. One is Maundy Thursday. It is the Thursday upon the eve of Good Friday. Biblical accounts have it that the “Last Supper” was on a Thursday, and it was at this meal that Christ gave the “mandate” to his disciples to “love one another”. The word Maundy is a corruption of the Latin word “mandate”.
Meanwhile, here’s one Thursday that most people in the US look forward to every year:
One of the most popular holidays in the United States is Thanksgiving. It always falls on the fourth Thursday in November.
Very interesting to find all of this stuff. I guess thats why people don’t like Hump-day (aka. Wednesday) that much. But once they are over it, they feel [like] S.H.I.T. =P