The light at the end of the tunnel
It is almost friday and three days off are looking me straight in the eye. I've already got half of my body outside of my office. Me being the loyal and hardworking guy that I am, I just do not want to call in sick to work. Really, I just don't do it unless I really have an emergency. I'll still be here tomorrow wondering if we're the only ones at work. I'm not looking forward to the friday traffic with everyone trying to shoot up 80 to go to a lake or Reno (Reno anyone?). If you're coming over to the double V on sunday for our get-together I'll have two turntables and two CDJs for whoever wants to spin. There'll be plenty of oysters, probably some bbq, so come on down. Although I'm not looking forward to the heat this weekend, at least there will be some cool drinks and spirits to take in as well.
The Mormons are coming! The Mormons are coming!
So I'm at my other job at the arena and luckily, they have a wireless network in the joint! Pretty cool, eh? Who needs basketball when you've got the internet? So the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is here performing, huge group. Really nice sound with the orchestra as well. When I first got here it looked like a convention for the republican party but then you started seeing the Polynesian side of the Mormon faith. That is a trip. I've got other concerts to look forward to like Destiny's Child in Sept and U2 in Nov. Even the Eagles are doing a reunion tour in Oct. Should be fun, not even mentioning that Warriors on the upswing as well. If anyone wants to check out the circus in Aug, let me know. I always find a suite for family and friends at those types of events.
So back to the wedding, I have done pretty well with keeping the crowd going during the night but I knew this was going to be tough. Luckily we moved the first dance to occur right after the entourage entrance. Before that though, as we were lining up the group in order the groom was nowhere to be seen. I kept looking for anyone to tell me who he is because I never met him. He had a twin brother but I didn't realize that until I kept seeing who I thought he was, holding another girl's hand. So when he did show up it was a pretty grand entrance, he in his white tux and terminator sunglasses. He walked with his head held high and then went straight to me. I shook his hand, gave him my congrats and said, "Let's do the entrance, you ready man?" "No, I'm not in the mood", he said. What? What kind of mood do you have to be in? I could already see that he was way drunk, red as hell, and just loud. I mean, it's your wedding dog, but damn, show some class, right? Naw, not tonite. When they finally sat down, we called the priest from the ceremony. He gave a prayer and wished the couple good luck. The groom gave no acknowledgement to that, none at all. Didn't even look at him while he gave his speech. He just kept waving at people in the crowd. When the speeches came, his brother looked like he had to bite his tongue. He did mention how wild his brother was,as if to apologize for his current behavior, but he really held back. Aileen, as Matron of Honor, gave a beautiful speech which he also pretty much ignored, even as she thanked him for making the bride and her kids a family again. Just disgraceful. So as the night went and time went by and by, he was nowhere to be seen. Most of the time he was at the restaurant bar, not the bar behind him in the outdoor patio to be seen by everyone. He missed a beautiful Hawaiian performance (the wedding was a Hawaiian theme) until the exiting of the group. I told Nette, who introduced the halau, to not focus on this as a gift to the couple so that we took attention away from their situation, but more to the friends and family that were there. There he was anyways grandstanding when he made his return. So we missed the mother-son father-dance. His mom was sweet but she seemed so lost, not knowing what to expect from her own son. Her dad was upset but really held it in. I could see uncles who were sponsors, looking at him in disgust, knowing how drunk he was. We were going to try to do the money dance but I couldn't imagine anyone would want to dance with him in that state so we cancelled that too. We barely got the cake cut. There was no bouquet and garter toss. Luckily though, as we kinda waited around people just started to dance. I wasn't expecting it, but what else was there to do? We couldn't just wait for something to happen so we went with it for about two and a half hours straight. They said no hardcore rap so that was half my stuff, so we went with the old school r&b, which worked great. I even got to play some old house music, like Robin S. 2 Unlimited, and the "I like to move it move it" song. I looked at Laurie at that moment and we both thought of the lemurs in Madagascar, the movie. Having to play the whole night kept me away from being able to play stuff that Laurie and I could dance to be we did get our moments. Later as I saw the bride here and there I could see the pain and worry that all had gone so badly that she was in shock. She tried to put on such a different face that you could see how hurt and embarrased she was anyways. My heart really went out to her and still does. Finally, when we packed up and were leaving the restaurant, I was chatting with one of the valet guys who complimented me on the music. He said it sounded great in there, except for the groom, who he could not believe he was acting like that at his own wedding. The story got out that the ring was dropped at the wedding (his brother dropped it, as the best man). The valet mentioned that is bad luck and it means what I think you all are beginning to understand and see. I won't put it here because you never want to predict the worst, but I'll be surpised if they "you know what"... I believe she deserves better.
Man, Where's the time?
I've been wanting to post since saturday after wedding that we were at but man, time flies. Anyways, I knew that there would be a wedding with drama but I didn't know when it would come. This was it. If ever you wanted to punch someone lights it, this was it. But the wedding wasn't about me, it was about the couple and there's no way that I would inject myself into a situation like that, considering I'm not that close to either families. You would just expect someone that was close to them to try and take control of the situation. And I'm sure that someone did but the alcohol really took over and made it impossible. I'll be back to finish this but gotta get back to work. See? I'm trying really hard not to be a blog slacker.
Question for you all
Summer is here, do we go back to the bald head style or should we give them the clean cut look? Personally, I like having some mini me's running around, but that's just my opinion.
This blogging thing is...
Amazing... I'm keeping up with people who I wish I could just knock on their door and say what's up to but they're miles away
Scary... because at any moment someone might start watching your every move, so I've heard
Funny... I can be myself, let it hang out and also read comedy in everyone else's blogs
Reflective... you can really look inside yourself and put it all on a post if you want to. Who is going to deny you of doing that?
As friday comes and goes as far as work goes I'm looking forward to going home, sit on the couch, chill with my wife and kids, even change a diaper or two and count my blessings. Even when I drive home while listening to Air America Radio and getting riled up about what this administration is doing to this country, I have solace in my family and friends. Unless one of you get rounded up and sent to Guantanamo. See Ya!
Light at the end of the tunnel
I'm chillin at work as it's now 5pm, I'm rarely here this late. I'm just staying on the internet anyways. I'll be meeting Moe at around 6:30 to get our mackie speakers for a gig this weekend in Sausalito. Our JBLs almost crapped out on me this past weekend. We need to open them up and see what's going on in there. At least it was only one but could you image if I had no sound at a wedding, just bass, and we still hadn't done the father-daughter dance, money dance, bouquet-garter toss, and dancing for the evening? I woulda been assed-out. Luckily it held but I'm not gonna chance that again. Our contingency would have been one mid range speaker which could have technically worked but that woulda sucked as well. I'm gonna look at some new speakers since we're hoping to be able to do 2 gigs in one day if necessary, better for business. That's one of the advantages of going digital and not vinyl. We can make copy after copy of cds. We can even go the iPod route but I'm not really for that. I like to "spin" and I'd feel like there was no spontaneity to the event if I didn't. We did pick up some CDJ-800s which are the new cd turntables. Whoever is down to come out to the double V can give em a test run. Tons of hip hop available to spin also. I was told that at the wedding this weekend they don't want hardcore hip hop so there goes half our stuff. No biggie, although hip hop really keeps a party going. So no 2 Live Crew, NWA, Dr. Dre or Geto Boys I guess. I think they want some country this weekend too, oh boy, got tons of that, tons. Wish me luck.
Hump Day/Night
So wednesday is here and although I'm now home I'll be leaving for softball soon. I have a game in Benicia at 8:50 at night, yikes! We're having an informal dinner on the kitchen island. I heated up the last of the KFC (we're boycotting KFC, Laurie's dad brought it, I do miss the chicken skin though) and I'm eating it with the spicy jufran. Spicy jufran is the bomb. I also opened up some chunky artichoke and jalapeno dip that I'm eating with some ruffles. The dip is kinda old so you might hear about it tomorrow but I hope not. I should be eating some all dressed chips from Canada. Hand them over whoever has them and I'll let the little boy go =).
I saw the the American Film Institute put out it's top 100 movie lines. Here' s my top 5 from the top of my head at least:
5. "Eh hebune setna!" Arnold Voslo The Mummy
4. "How many ribs I get with that?" Chris Rock I'm Gonna Git You Sucka
3. "Sexual Chocolate!" Eddie Murphy Coming To America
2. "They're always after me lucky charms!" That Irish Guy in Austin Powers
1. "Mr. Han, suddenly, I like to leave your island." Jim Kelly Enter The Dragon
I know you guys got yours.
The Evening Chill
So I'm chillin' at home with the boys and the wife, who is still sick. Mio is still trying to talk but I'm getting frustrated with his crying and whining. He whines a lot. But he's really cute and can just turn my frustration right around. I was watching Chappelle's Show, Season 2 while Andres was sleeping. He woke up and started watching with me. Not good. As fun as the show is, there's a lot of cussing on the dvd since it's not censored. He's not picking up the words but he knows what's good and not good. That's cool but I know it just takes one time for him to repeat a line like "Mmm Mmm Bitch!" He already knows how to do the "Mmm Mmm" part, but he doesn't say the b-word. The wife will kill me if he does so I'll stop it. He really does love the show though, what parts I do let him watch.
Frontine has a really good program on PBS called "Private Warriors" about the security contractors in Iraq as well as an expose on Halliburton and Bechtel. Sorry but these companies that run these contractors are shameless. You just know there's something dirty going on up in there. I really feel sorry for the real soldiers out there getting $1200 a month when a guy next to them is a contractor making over $100K for the year. That's scandalous and that's our taxpayer money. There really needs to be an independent investigation on what's going on over there.
Oh yeah, still no thong walking around but now I have to watch myself and make sure that I close my door when I use the bathroom or something like that.
Small world, ok, not that small but still...
Ok, so I'm sitting in the family room enjoying LOTR, Return of the King, in dolby digital last nite when Laurie tells me from upstairs to change the tv to channel 2, the 10 O'clock news. I reluctantly do it but I see a woman standing in front of a building that looks very familiar. Laurie yells, "It's the studio!" I'm like, "Un-oh, fire? What could possibly be going on?" Turns out it may be a murder-suicide, 2 men and 1 woman, crazy. Now, I've done some crazy things in my past relationships. I can be the biggest baby, cryin like a you-know-what, but murder? Yikes! Reminds me of the Chappelle's Show skit, "When keepin' it real goes wrong". You can be as hard as you want but the minute you cross that line, it's over and you've ended up in a world you never thought you'd reach. But these people are dead, and it's now going to affect everyone involved in their life and people they didn't even know. That's a real ripple effect. Just think if the gun set off the fire alarm and the sprinklers went off, Likha's costumes would be screwed! I'm not trying to minimize what happened to these three people but look how far the ripple would have reached if it did. That's why I'm always conscious about cause and effect.
New Day, Same &*%$, or is it?
So it's monday and my wife is staying home, lucky her. Although I don't know how lucky you can be with the flu, get better woman. We have a new tenant in our house who is a student of Laurie's but now she's going to Solano College. We even got her a job at my old work, right next to the college as well. She gotta pay rent somehow, right? It's been awhile since I've had roommates but I will never, "and the Rock means never!" forget those days in college. College is really the time to learn and experiment, in education and in life, and I did all that. I shared an apartment with 3 other guys and if those walls could talk boy! Actually they did since the walls were so thin, nothing was hidden from us. We'll see if we can say the same about our tenant. Not that I'll be trying to snoop and listen, it's just that some people are just loud. Don't know if she is. Also, Laurie's co-worker, an older pilipina lady said, " a tenant can be temptation. The weather could be hot and she could be wearing skimpy clothes. Do you trust your husband?" Now, I never claim to be a saint but at this point it my life it's a little useless. We just bought a new house, paid a grip, so I don't need to lose it all just for that. Of course the main reason is I love my wife, second I love my kids. I couldn't stand to be away from any of them for any period of time. Plus, I'd get killed with child support. Like they say, do it all before you get married, not that I did it all, but I know where to draw the line. So here goes, wish us luck with her. I think she'll be fine, she's got a responsible persona to her. She also hooked us up at Ikea when she was working there, although Laurie doesn't know the difference between %40 and %15 percent off (you're fired for that one). The 9-5 is about done and I'll head home to my hour commute, watch some HD and chill. Maybe the new girl will walk around in a thong! Hahahahahahaha! Just kidding, but seriously =)
Busy weekend
I'm gonna try to post as much as possible but having 2 kids can put a damper on that, especially since they're 3 and 2. I didn't get much sleep this weekend. Friday we had a dinner celebration for my wife's younger brother who was just promoted from the 8th grade. Congrats! I remember my 8th grade graduation, which was back when we used to wear bogart pants with 20 pleats in them, fresh... I had an older girlfriend in the 8th grade too so I was a pimp for that. She was already in high school, a freshman, wow! These days, the kids amaze me at how fast they grow up. Take for example a gig I had this weekend. One of the kids in the wedding, must have been around 4 or 5, if that, was a little dancing machine. We could see that he wanted to dance so I threw on some Michael Jackson for him, Billie Jean, during dinner. (Is that appropriate music for a 5 year old? Michael Jackson?) He was all over the place, he had better moves than half the people I know! Anyways, as the night went on, he kept on and on, but when I started playing some ballroom music for the older folks he ran straight to me and asked for more hip hop. I get that at a lot of parties, but not from kids that age! So as the party went on, anytime we played hip hop he was right there in the middle, as he called it, battling! He was servin' people. I'm hoping my kids enjoy their childhood and not rush into being a big boy like the older kids. I guess on this father's day it reminds me that it's my responsibility to guide them in that direction, we'll see.
Friday nite though, we went to a good friends house, another married couple, and met up with them while we watched a video of their show in Vancouver. Gotta say, it brought me to thinking about coming back doing something with the group but I really do enjoy my Sundays. Maybe if I lose 20 lbs and replace it with muscle, I'll come back. So I guess then I'm not coming back. I bought a weight bench about a month ago, I've done maybe 4 sets altogether, woo! I can still jump rope though. Anyways, congrats to both ensembles for a great show which gave us cheers and laughs, mostly laughs! Just kidding, when you've done it this long, you tend to look for mistakes and mess-ups more than just appreciating the show itself, am I wrong? I have some top hits myself so nothing to be ashamed about. Thanks to our mom, we got to sleep in our bed without the boys, but it was short-lived since we had to get them at 8 am. That was tough because we didn't sleep till 4 since we got home so late.
Saturdays gig was cool, thanks to Mark for hanging with me, since my boy Moe was outta town. I was sweatin' because one of our speakers was cutting out and the night was young with still a lot of things coming up since dinner was just ending, scary! The speaker held up and we played till 11pm, I think I can still move the crowd, even the older folks. I guess the electric slide just never gets old. I even threw in Super Freak, which got the floor packed. Saw somethings happen in the reception that I'll make a note to self that it shouldn't happen in our wedding reception, specifically cutting out the Mother-Son and Father-Daughter dances. All good though.
This Sunday has been nice, no big plans, just relaxing and chillin with the family. Thank you wife for making that happen and for my awesome cards and gifts. We finally did go out and see our peeps in Vallejo, the Davids and Mr. Salumbeeds. Their house is really coming along. Their front-loading washer dryer is the bomb also! Married couples can appreciate those things. When I was single I could care less. Now, it's nice to celebrate father's day on both sides, as a father and a son.
It's about time!
Ok, first I have to apologize to Voodochild who had me setup to blog years ago. But now, feeling like I have stuff to say, share and vent, I'm gonna start blogging. I read all kinds of blogs, mainly political, mainly left-leaning. So although I'll go that route many times in a post, I'll also be the silly, smart-ass critic and jokester that I've always been. My family life will definitely be a big part of the posts because what kids do can be just so damn funny. Deejaying is a big deal for me also so I'd love to get replys about what's new out there in the music scene and equipment. But let's talk about everyday life as well and what decisions we make today that will affect us down the road, cause and effect. So with that, I'll catch you in a little while but holla at your boy.
