People who know me outside of Xanga would understand… or if you’re
from the Philippines or are close to someone who is, you might find it
funny (case
depending).

I was driving back from the Jersey City ShopRite today when I caught
one of those yellow cabs stopped near the corner of Grove and Columbus.
The cab company, printed in big bold letters on the front passenger
side door, was called “Bakla Co.”

From Christmas Day through January 7th, I was walking around with a bad
cold without being aware of it. It commenced with an odd stomach flu
followed by symptoms of fever and excruciating stomach pain. I paid the
doctor a visit that Friday (the 7th), who told me that it was just the
common cold.

He said that the reason for the odd symptoms was that I failed to take
it easy. Four days rest was all it would take, he deadpanned. His first
statement was right; I rarely get feverishly sick, so I tend to shrug
off colds and function as usual.

Since my doctor was in central New Jersey, I decided to head to my parents’ house and stayed there until that Monday.

That weekend was when I ascertained that I had to make some changes in
my life. I basically felt like I was resisting change ever since I
graduated with my masters in December 2004. Moreover, I also realized
that since then, I’ve become more cynical, stubborn, and moody.

I think both my heart and one half of my mind are craving change, but
the other half of my mind remains stubborn. Immediately, you can see
that there’s a clash, so psychologically speaking, the mood changes
aren’t surprising at all. That being said, I need new goals and
something different to strive for.

So as of about twenty minutes ago, I’ve officially started the process.
I just registered for the GREs in the hopes that I can gain admission
to some other grad school besides my alma mater. The field of study is
still yet to be decided, but at least I’ve taken some sort of action.
March 18, 2006 is the date. Hopefully, it’ll be ok, for I haven’t taken
a closed-book exam for almost two years now. I had take-home exams for
the final semesters of my masters program…

As for my heart yearning for change, that might require a bit more work.

~~~~

Newest additions to playlist:
Jeffrey Gaines, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”
_The Myth_ Soundtrack – Jackie Chan and Hee-Seon Kim, “Endless Love”

Wishing you all a happy, healthy, and productive 2006.

questionnaire

From Swtdove114‘s xanga:

Your World View

You are a fairly broadminded romantic and reasonably content. You value kindness and try to live by your ideals. You have strong need for security, which may be either emotional or material. You respect truth and are flexible. You like people, and they can readily make friends with you. You are not very adventurous, but this does not bother you.

I’d just like to take time out to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas/Happy Chanukah/Happy Kwanzaa/Happy Belated Solstice

When I finally get away from this Xanga hiatus, I think I’ll bring back a tradition that got me started with this Xanga thing– with a twist of course

Hope everyone out there in Xanga land is doing well. I’ve been mostly
invisible around these parts lately, but I hope to return soon.

Meanwhile, I’ve finally updated the Vegas entry with a few more pics. Enjoy

a non-vegas vegas?

During the roughly 2-day (one full
day and two half days) Vegas segment of my trip, I spent about 85% of
it doing “Non-Vegas” activities, mostly with trinz and company.

Unfortunately, pictures are minimal here. When I’m around friends, I
have a tendency to forget my camera as well as forgetting to take
pictures.  I’ll try to make up for it with more descriptive prose.

the weather

During the daylight hours, temperatures were actually cooler than I
expected; upper 60′s to mid-70′s. The sun, however, caused it to feel
as if it were 5 to 10 degrees warmer. At night, I needed to add the
lining to my jacket due to the temperatures in the 40′s. However,
because of the lack of wind, my skin couldn’t really feel it, unlike
the bone-chilling conditions that cause it to feel like it’s 10 or even
20 degrees cooler in the NYC area.

day four: wednesday nov 16

- Left San Diego for Las Vegas at around 9:45am.

- Stopped at Riverside, CA for lunch at 11:15ish. I ended up eating a “chicken noodle bowl” at Flame Broiler
at University Village, a small strip mall serving mostly UC-Riverside
students. $4.50 for a simple bowl of noodles, chicken, and veggies.

-
The drive was marred slightly by about 15 miles of construction.. and
about 100 miles of the same exact scenery; after the drive, my eyes
were literally bugging out from staring at the same thing for 1 1/2
hours straight lol

- Arrived at the Barbary Coast
hotel. Tried to revert my eyes back to the normal state by taking a
nap, but I probably slept only five minutes. I really wouldn’t
recommend this hotel if you want a good night’s sleep. The room was
clean but the windows were not properly sealed, thereby resulting in a
lot of noise from the cars moving along the strip. To make matters
worse, the heater also sounded like a motorcycle engine.

- Met up with trinz and her person-of-unknown-status-so-I-shall-call-him-a-friend Kevin .
We started off with a short tour of the now-revamped downtown area,
with Kevin briefing the two of us with the past five decades or so of
Vegas history.

- We started with ice cream at the California Hotel and Casino. I got my usual mango-flavored ice cream, which I give an 8 out of 10.

- They then took me to see perhaps what is the mother of all Vegas
tourist traps, the “Fremont Street Experience,” which I saw as nothing
more than a full-color commercial for the Las Vegas Speedway shown on
an giant LED lightboard similar to those found in baseball stadiums.

-
To be fair, however, there was also a rather impressive performer that
Trina calls the ‘Saxophone Dude,’ who apparently spends the entire day
playing tunes with the sax as well as other horns. Honestly, that man
must have had surgically modified lungs as I have no idea how he could
play like that. Too bad I forgot my camera in the car; otherwise I
could have recorded him .

-
Went to an off-the-beaten-path casino near North Las Vegas for dinner,
and had a very oddly cooked steak. It tasted extremely strange; I still
can’t identify why, though, lol. Trina ordered medium-well but got
bone-dry instead, haha. Kevin ordered rare, and it seemed fine to him.
Odd…

- Headed for the desert lands of the Lake Mead
Recreational Area in the dark for a unique view of the stars. The sky
is so clear over there that the full moon was able to supply us with a
relatively bright, unobstructed light source. (shadowy figures are
Trina, left, and Kevin)

- Went to a neighborhood bar that Kevin frequents often. It
admittedly was in a not-so-nice neighboorhood; you actually had to ring
a doorbell to gain entrance. (Yeah well, I guess that’s not any
different from the bulletproof glass windows at the White Castle and
Checkers here in Jersey City.) There was this weird lady who was
clearly under the influence, singing the songs played on the jukebox
out loud, lol. Of course I had to sing along with her when ‘Hotel
California’ was playing, and as Trina pointed out later, I wasn’t even
drunk .
I found it very humorous when the bartender came up to us and said,
“You are the first normal people I’ve seen come in here today.” lol

day five: thursday nov 17

- For some reason, I had a weird craving for one of those microwaved
breakfast sandwiches that are available at Dunkin Donuts. After hours
of trying to search for a place with such sandwiches available, I
finally stumbled upon a 7-Eleven about a ten minute walk away.

- Of all places, I went to a Costco after breakfast in nearby Henderson, lol. <geek>I needed this item
so that I could hook up my mp3 player to the car. I did have Sirius
satellite radio in the car, but even their stations repeated songs like
there was no tomorrow. I figured I was planning to get it anyway, since
the one I had in my own car had a malfunctioning display. </geek>
Honestly, I had just as much fun hauling over to a new town, even if it
was just 15 minutes away.

- <touristStuff>At around 12:30, I went out for a walk along the strip, stopping at the Bellagio to check out the decor inside and snap some pictures.  </touristStuff> (yes, this picture is an indoor pic)

- Had lunch at some Java cafe at the Flamingo at around 2:30pm. It
simply consisted of a pre-prepared sandwich with cold-cut turkey,
lettuce, and tomato. At $7, I probably should have taken the effort to
find a Quiznos. Oh well… that’s what happens when you’re lazy. The
food was unimpressive, so I didn’t take a picture of it. However, I did
get a close-up picture of this bird that perched on the chair in front
of me

- I also briefly checked out the Wynn and noticed that it was very disorganized, decor-wise. It wasn’t even worthy of any pictures.

- Trina gave me a call, and I got utterly confused trying to
find the area in which she lived. I didn’t arrive until after 5 (I
think), so we did an attempt to hike at Red Rock in the dark. We
couldn’t see much, unfortunately.

- To kill time before dinner, we ended up going to a local Frey’s Electronics
store, which I’ve never seen before. Haha, Trina said that the look on
my face upon entering the store was just like a kid in a candy store. I
think my look was justified, though. The place was absolutely huge and
even included a coffee shop. A bookstore I can understand, but a coffee
shop in an electronics store? Weird stuff.

- Coming out of the store, we noticed that the moon was not yellow or white, but ORANGE.

- We then went to Sedona,
a bar/lounge/restaurant, for dinner, during which Trina’s sister,
Bianca, met up with us. I had this king salmon dish, which was
excellent. I forgot my camera AGAIN, so I couldn’t take pictures of the
food or the decor. However, the decor was an odd hodgepodge of elements
that I’ve found in various places in the city; these elements just
happened to be in one place.

- After that, Trina and I got ice cream once again at the Wynn. I
got this rather odd triple swirl variety that mixed raspberry, banana,
and some other flavor (forgot what it was). I forgot to take a picture
of the ice cream once again…

- In the car, I had suggested something that I haven’t done in a while myself, doing karaoke . So
Trina, in turn, suggested a place that had recently opened in Vegas’s
Chinatown area, which she had been meaning to go to but never got the
chance. We rounded up her friend, Mark, and met up with her sister at
the place. It was basically identical to the Korean places in Fort Lee
and Edgewater that my Jersey friends and I are accustomed to
frequenting, except that they sold alcohol as well. CHEAP… $20
per hour with a 1-drink minimum for the 4 of us, compared to $35 per
hour in Edgewater. (Too bad this place doesn’t give you the option to
record yourselves, that would have been better.) I messed up on
the high notes, lol, but Trina and Bianca were definitely on their way
to Carnegie Hall Mark didn’t sing, but we’ll force him to use those pipes next time, haha.

- 1:30am came and passed, and we were all exhausted after a night of killing our throats

day 6: friday nov 18

Last day in Vegas…

- Packed up my stuff to go back to Cali…

- Picked Trina up, and we headed back to Red Rock to do a little
hiking before she had to head for work. The scenery there was the most
unique I have ever seen; I surmised that you can’t see anything like it
on the East Coast.

I could see why Trina set aside this area, which is only 15
miles from the Strip, as her personal retreat, just like Bear
Mountain is mine. Next time I’m in the area, Red Rock will definitely be a place worth coming back to.

- Stopped by an Albertson’s, a large supermarket chain, to pick up
some lunch, then headed back to her place, where we said our goodbyes.

- I realized that I had no place to eat my roast beef sandwich, so I
stopped in this bank  parking lot on Sahara Avenue, lol. It
actually tasted pretty good for $3.49, hehe, but I FORGOT TO TAKE A
PICTURE AGAIN!!!

- I took the 6 1/2 hour drive back to Long Beach, CA. To be continued in the next entry….

Trina, thanks again for dragging this tourist around Vegas .
It was great finally meeting you after over a year of chatting and
hanging out with you and your ppls.. Hopefully, we can do it again
soon.. So when are you coming back to Jersey??!?? lol

Due to popular demand, I’ve edited the entry below with pictures … More details from the rest of my trip to come.

greetings from san diego (entry from November 16)

Since I’m getting sleepy (silly three hour time difference), here’s a rundown. Hopefully I can qualify each bullet point with pics soon.

weather

Warm and sunny during the day, 60′s and 70′s, but down to the 40′s and 50′s at night where I was staying by the shore. The wind becomes chilly after 3pm, but not brutal as in the winter winds of the NYC metropolitan area. After 9:30pm, there’s always this REALLY THICK fog that makes driving quite challenging.

day one: sunday nov 13

- Stayed up all night, since I was up until 3am packing and I had to leave at 6 for JFK anyway

- Flew JetBlue from JFK

- Slept only 1 1/2 hours out of 6 on the plane. These old guys were yelling and screaming while watching Sunday afternoon football on DirectTV. They were also ignoring all calls to shut them up.

- Arrived at Long Beach, picked up rental car

- Stopped at overlook on the way to San Diego (not sure who that person that got in the picture was, but it certainly wasn’t me )

- Arrived at Best Western Island Palms Hotel & Marina

(view of marina in back of my hotel room)

- Got a free upgrade to a 2 queen suite … quite a bit of room for just me. Too bad the wireless internet connection here was slow

- Felt really tired from not sleeping, so I didn’t feel like doing much.

- Went to Homefire Grill for dinner. Simple place where you order at the counter and a server serves you the food. Medium-cooked roast beef (“Tri Tips”?) and mashed were pretty good.

- Went to Target and Vons (a supermarket chain) to get supplies.

day two: monday nov 14

- Went to the San Diego Zoo … Took about 180 pictures there, definitely a record for me. My favorites:

(panda)

(giraffes)

(elephants)

- Took a shower, then headed for the Gaslamp Quarter, which reminded me of Hoboken, Greenwich Village, and St. Marks’ Place all mashed together in 16 blocks of San Diego.

 

 

 

 

 

- Had dinner at CH1V3 (yes, it was spelled that way). With a name like that, I was expecting some kind of chef that whipped food up together while playing World of Warcraft. Apparently that wasn’t the case. The wild mushroom soup and free-range chicken were excellent; the food as well as the decor reminded me more of Morimoto’s (in Philly) when it actually tasted good. Dinner and my famous club soda cost $30 not including gratuity, which I found to be very reasonable.

- Walked around a bit more and had trouble finding the garage I parked the car in, then headed back to the hotel.

day three: tuesday nov 15

- Went to the Old Town district. Nothing much there except for school groups, old buildings, and overpriced souvenir shops. In fact, the majority of the buildings had been restored due to an earlier fire that destroyed most of the town, so that seemed to reduce the historic value somewhat, IMHO. I did get some pictures of some of the old adobe-style architecture.

- Had lunch at Fred’s Mexican Cafe, home of the unique grilled mahi-mahi burrito. I had that as well as a basic chicken soft taco. Definitely packed a punch (and a good-tasting one at that) for a mere 8 bucks. (Sorry, I ate part of the burrito before remembering to take a picture, lol)

- Drove to the Cleveland National Forest, about 45 miles east of San Diego. Some interesting scenery there. A little chilly for hiking though.

- Went to Cafe Luna for dinner, which is a place off the beaten path, 45 minutes away from the hotel (but still within San Diego city limits). The place certainly deserved its #1 Yahoo Travel ranking … creamy leek soup, some sort of portabello mushroom with mozarella as an appetizer, and butternut squash ravioli.. all pretty good. However, I have seen comparable food in North Jersey and in NYC. Cafe Michelina’s in Hoboken will still do it for me Total bill: $39, a little on the pricey side for a suburban restaurant in a strip mall, but NYC would have cost more for three items designated as “specials.”

(soup)

(mushroom appetizer)

(squash ravioli)

- Spent an hour writing this xanga entry

Tomorrow I’m headed for Las Vegas, but I enjoyed San Diego, so I might just be back here on Friday before heading up to Long Beach as the final destination I still have yet to investigate the live music scene, which I may do on Friday.