I'm back...

Well, I'm back from the Redding trip. After Redding, I went up to Crescent City for a couple weeks. Anyway, I'm back down in the Bay Area now. I'll post more later as well as pics.

Meh...

Well, I'm going to Redding for a few days, leaving in the morning. I don't really have anything better to do the rest of this week and weekend. I'll be helping my dad out at some Red Cross thing he's doing. Oh well, I heard from him that there's free beer. Free beer and all the bottled water you can drink almost makes the 105 degree heat sound worth it. Meh, I haven't seen my dad for a few months so it'll be cool anyway. I'll be leaving around 10 or so and riding up with my mom. I plan on being lit for as much of this so called vacation anyway, good thing I'm not driving.

I'm planning on swinging thru Sac on the way back on Sun or Mon and that'll give me a chance to hang at least for a few with Frank and Amanda. I haven't seen them since they came down earlier this year so that'll be fun. Hang out in downtown Sac for a bit, maybe hit some bars, I dunno. I'm pretty broke atm, but maybe there'll be some Jameson left over from my vacation bottle and flasks of JD are cheap. I figure we'll get faded and wander around downtown for a bit. Whatever, it'll be good times either way.

I would say Viva la Roadtrip but I'm riding up with my mom and that's kinda the anti-roadtrip, so meh. Fuck it.

I'll post pics or something on Mon.

Fireworks by the bay...

I just got back from bartending at the All Star party in SF. Talk about nuts. I was expecting a baseball fan kind of outdoor mingle on the edge of the bay party, not a 5000 guest (including pro players), high rollers, searchlights and fireworks with like 5 live bands party.Hell there were prolly500 staff alone. Tickets for the party were $350 a head and the guests all rolled in tour buses and limos. Not exactly what I was expecting to cut my teeth on. All in all tho it was fun. I was working what they called a "full bar", but actuality they had like 5 liquors at each station, plus beer and wine. I rolled in at about 3:30, our actual check in time was 4:00, the staff for the 2nd company arrived at about 5:00 and we had 3 hours to setup before the party started at 8:00. It ran till 11:00 and closed up very fast. I was told that they'd been setting up for 3 days. 3 days for a 3 hour party, fucking crazy. Still free live music, catered dinner and all the bottled water and gatorade you could drink, you cant beat that. I can really dig this gig.

I did my server training on Sat, I'm now on my companies list for serving and bartending. I should really start having gigs roll in now. I'll be calling them when I get up to give them my schedule for the week. How it works is, we call each week with our availability and then they book us for gigs.

Blah, I need to get some gel inserts for my shoes. Standing on concrete for 7 hours really kills your feet and knees. I just had some cereal, it's like the only thing in the house right now. Now I'm going to drink some Knob Creek and finish my beer and go crash.

Yesterday was Independence Day...

I did nothing for the 4th of July this year. I had planned to go up to Crescent City for a few days to party with friends but didn't have the cash to go.

Yesterday was pretty much a wasted day. Tues night I had a wicked headache that just wouldn't go away. My mom gave me a Percocet to see if that would work. It did to say the least. Less then an hour later I was barely able to stand. I remember sitting back against the pillows on my bed (this was about 2:30am), the next thing I knew I looked at the clock and it was 7:30. I was still sitting exactly how I was five hours earlier. Total black out. It would have been fine, but it didn't feel like I'd slept at all and about 8:30 I fell asleep again. I woke up at 3pm.

I made some guacamole and bean dip and ate that with tortilla chips for dinner. My mom had also bought a cherry pie and I had some of that.

After dinner and dessert, she wanted me to make maitais, but we didn't have any pineapple juice. I ended up faking it and blending up something I'm calling West Coast Rum Punch. It's fairly simple to make. 1 can of fruit cocktail, 4 oz Barcardi light rum, 1 oz Bacardi 151, 2 oz Triple Sec, a splash of grenadine, a splash of sour mix and top with OJ. Blend that with ice and you have a tasty beverage. We got a little faded on that and I sorted and uploaded some pics for her while we talked about hallucinogenic drug use and the raver subculture.

My serving class at my staffing company got put off till Saturday @ 11am so I think I'll wander around Alameda today and take some pics. My cousin and her kids will be here thru Sunday, but they have a busy schedule of vacation shit that they are doing so I don't plan on seeing much of them. They arrived Monday night and spent a couple hours here on Tues. We all went out to dinner Tues evening, the 7 of them, myself, my mom and my grandma. It turned out ok, the children were far more well behaved then I had expected. We went to Pasta Pelican, a nice Italian place here in Alameda. Their food was excellent as always. I had the Fettucine Primavera con Pollo and enjoyed several glasses of fine Kendall-Jackson chardonnay.

I started going to the public library here in Alameda. I just finished Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk and Brave New World and returned them. Now I'm reading Nausea by Sartre. I'm enjoying it very much. After that I have some more Sartre, some Voltaire and A Scanner Darkly to read.

I've also started writing again. For those few who have read my work, you know my style. I'll probably post some stuff on here soon.

I've been on a margarita kick lately. I think I'll go make one to help me unwind and perhaps cook some hotdogs for a snack. I don't have a grill down here, but you can fake it pretty well in a skillet.

Employed again... sorta...

I have a job again. Well kind of. I got a job as a bartender at a staffing agency. The problem is, they don't get enough bartending gigs since most people need like 30 waiters and 1 bartender. So I'm taking their serving class on the 5th and that way I'll get jobs doing either. My first actual bartending job is on the 9th. Yes, I now wear black slacks, a white shirt and black tie to work. Now I have my foot in the door, I'll learn serving and I'll get experience in both. A large number of the bartenders I've talked to down here started in catering/staffing. I'll need to get a second job so I have enough cash flow to get things in order let alone have cash to get an apt.

It does feel good tho. Being unemployed always is fun for like the first day, then you start being bored out of your mind sitting around, then you run out of money... Besides, I've been fed up with tech work for a while now and this whole bartending idea kinda just came along out of the blue. The best job, not the best paying by any means, but most enjoyable was when I worked as a delivery driver. I dunno, I just seem to enjoy food service, and it can lead to decent money as well. Staffing waiter/bartender, fine dining waiter while still doing staffing bartending, full time bartending, bar management, who knows.

The snake is notoriously tempting...

... But the snake is fair
What is worse than not knowing?
To live or disappear?
~Dimmu Borgir - In Sorte Diaboli - The Serpentine Offering

I just got back from seeing Pirates 3. It was a lot better then I expected. I had heard a lot of bad reviews and it had kind of soured me. However, I felt it was a decent conclusion to the series, although a bit long.

In other news, I finished my class last week and took my final on Friday. I passed both the written and pour exam with flying colors. Now I just have to find a job. I followed up on a tip that the bartender Donna at my local passed along, but it didn't go over too well. They did take my name and number but I doubt I'll hear back. Perhaps I'll follow up again after I've made a few more rounds. There really aren't that many bars here in Alameda, so I'll have to branch out into Oakland and SF. It'd be nice to have something close tho for the commute.

Other then that, I haven't been doing much. I went to Death Guild for a few hours last Monday and hung out at the Rockit Room on Fri. The Rockit Room is where my instructor tends bar at so it's pretty laid back, plus students drink for free. I've started hanging out at a little hole in the wall down on the corner of Santa Clara and Park St. It's a little dive bar called The Lost Weekend... IMO one of the best bar names ever. They've got friendly staff, generous pours and comp a lot of drinks. It turns into kind of a rockabilly bar on the weekends I understand, but it was hella dead this weekend. Almost everywhere was, it being a holiday weekend and most people were out of town. Yeah, it's got a cool vibe tho, they've got lava lamps everywhere (43 total) and old retro TVs that just have snow on them. Mostly radio for music, but they do DJs and live bands every month or so.

Blah, I don't know what else to say. I've got to head up to Concord to drop off my old phone charger at my old job and pickup my final expense check. I'll do that tomorrow I guess. I've got to pay some bills tomorrow as well. Maybe I'll try and get that done by early afternoon then I can wander around Alameda and drop off resumes and fill out apps. My mom is still in town, I think we are going to Berkeley on Thurs but I'm not sure. I don't really need anything from there, but I could go check out some bars or something while she does whatever.

Also, my keypad went out on my Hermes (Cingular 8525), so I had to pickup a replacement phone yesterday. Fucking Cingular and their refusal to insure PDA phones... Anyway, I have a phone again and got my numbers transferred over.

Son, confront me... The Road To Devastation...

...Kneel before me... The Road To Devastation
Inhale, exhale... The Road To Devastation
This is my life... The Road To Devastation
~Kataklysm - In The Arms Of Devastation - The Road to Devastation

Tonight was the first session at National Bartender. I'd have to say, it went pretty well. Our instructor Tim lectured for about 90 mins, then turned us loose. The idea was to practice the count during free pouring, but as most of us knew that fairly well most of the students went on to double pouring, shaking, etc... They started us off with cream drinks, all fairly easy. I figure between the practice at class, studying my flash cards on BART and killing time at work; I should have the 200 or so recipes down pat fairly soon. Hell, outside of the weird fruity things and the creams, I already know a lot of them and have drunken a lot of them. Still, it's nice to have a full bar to practice at and I popped my speed gun cherry tonight as well. Heh, those things are fun. Our instructor is pretty laid back and is a long time career bartender. I'm definitely looking forward to this class everyday.

This last weekend was a fucking blast. Neurosix on Friday was tight, it was a shame I had to catch the last O bus back cause they played some damn good sets the whole time I was there. On the plus side, since it doesn't seem like its quite caught on yet it wasn't packed. Julie's is really a small club, but I like the ambiance there, it's very retro modern, it almost has a art-deco feel to it.

On Saturday, I ran over to Berkeley and got my other ear pierced. It was cool, no appt. needed and no wait. After that, I chilled at home for a bit then went over to Club Gossip. I'd have to say I was disappointed. It obviously was a very popular club, but they had very little seating. On the plus side, there was tequila tasting going on. That was cool. It was some new stuff called Tezon, very smooth. Much smoother then the Milagro that I usually drink. The music there was a little off to me, they pretty much just piped 80's pop/synth music videos onto a couple projector screens.

Sunday was supposed to be my kick back and relax day, but alas. I went and saw 28 Weeks Later... over at Jack London Square. That film fucking rocks. After that I headed over to SF again to catch The Invaluable Darkness Tour @ The Warfield. That gig was fucking awesome. I'd never heard of the main band, Dimmu Borgir, but the rest were known to me. The opening set was by Kataklysm, followed by DevilDriver, and then Unearth. The first three sets were fucking intense. The when Dimmu Borgir came on it was fucking crazy. Two hours after the show and my ears were still ringing. As for other shows, VNV Nation is going to be playing at the Fillmore on June 25th and of course OzzFest in Mountain View in July.