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down in the dumps..

so i get a call last night around 11pm from a good college buddy of mine. he used to be my boss at macy's and help out with the club me and my friends were apart of. anyways i usually wouldn't be getting calls from him this late so i was curious as to why he was calling. i pick up, in his usual normal fashion he tells me our other homeboy past away earlier that day. car accident. last i heard he was engaged. it was quite shocking to hear even that news. he was having problems with his lady at the time and it was just so unexpected. but aside from that, it showed that love stands through really bad times and patience is a quality that just overcame their adversities. anyways, after i hear about his engagement, the next time i hear about him is this... sadness for real. anyways he was a cool guy, i had no real problem with him. he was just an average guy that i had a couple good memories with. i remember he took me to a secret surf spot and where he said he was a dolphin, played dynasty warriors till the early morn in his old apartment, balled it up at the courts on meder st. hella stuff. hmmm.. so yeah that accident, he didn't make it and fortunately his fiance and his fiance's child survived. sadness..

just that night before i spent some time with some of my roommates from college and they seemed stressed out out of their minds about their jobs. i mentioned them because we all did live with our now deceased friend. hmmm.. today has been a trying day. i shal sleep and blog about why in really down in the dumps.

before i begin my day..

so i had this dream last night, actually more like this morning, that kinda freaked me out. i'm guessing i was in chicago, for sure not in the bay area, and i was getting something out of a minivan. from what i remember it was my aunt from chicago's minivan and as i was getting out of the passenger side door i noticed that it was kinda broken. i assumed it was broken into just recently and saw some unfamiliar guy trying to open the driver's door. as he was trying to open that door he sees me trying to close my door and i run. i saw knife in his hand and book it to the convenient store. i immediately call 911 and i just could not figure out where i was and i just end up not finishing the call with them. instead i hide between one of the isles and call my ex. i tell her im in trouble, about to be stabbed and i wake up. from what i remember she was pretty concerned, she asked if i was on alemany in the city and i told her i was far from it and thats all i remember. but yes i need to get on with my day and work out is definitley needed. first time in the gym this year for me. got my deposit check from my apartment. and gotta drop off my netflix stuff..

back in the bay..

so i know i didn't finish up with my daily blog deal but there wasn't much to the rest of my trip. after my last blog i headed out to MIT and harvard. i actually didn't go alone because one of my roommates in the hostel planned to go there too. so first of all i didn't get up in time for the breakfast that day so i headed out to dunkin donuts. their food was not up to par with my standards anyway. the mini-bagel with butter and jam was not that great and the milk with my cereal must have came from a powdered box kinda thing. anyways i had one of those flatbread sanwich and a dunkachino for breakfast that day. then matt and i walked up massachusetts ave towards MIT. omg, that was a hella far ass walk and i was just like, can we take the train or something?! whatever, so we get there and end up in the one of the quad areas which was pretty empty. took some pics, walked through buildings and found ourselves in their stata center which was cool to see. just a oddly shaped building outta this boring ass smart guy campus. after seeing that, we walk toward harvard. i must say from there it was super far away from harvard. on our way there, there was the MIT museum and that was super cool. hella nerdy ass shit in there like mototrized sculptures of the DNA models and robots.. so yeah, a hella nerdy ass museum. got hungry ate a bar a clock away. i ate a 9dollar chicken sanwich and introduced my australian friend root beer. walked to harvard and found out it was a massive campus with many old and beautiful architecture. there were some great buildings and scultures that showed the prestige and legacy that university has gain over the years. then we took the train back to the hostel. i packed my stuff up and headed to adrian's. was getting dark and took a break in the park before heading into his place. when i got there, set my stuff in his room and kinda just chilled and watched TV. we ate tacos, watched american idol, drank and headed to a bar in cambridge blocks away from MIT called middlesex. it was pretty hip bar playing lots of funky disco beats with breakers bouncing in and out of dance. the was place mad cool but since it was a tuesday night, there were not that many girls. there was a group of girls that came in but weren't all that. so we kinda just let them be instead of diving in the mix with them. as the night progressed, we got more drunk and just took a cab home. even though it was hella late when we got back we just continued to pound beers. we ended up talking about the life as a single man and a non-single man. it was pretty heavy stuff for me to handle but it was good to get insight from guys. these guys were hella cool because they were aware of my situation and generously showing me their perception of it. it was cool and we paid for it the next day. i think all the guys ended up sleeping in til about 11. we then made forbidden pancakes and chilled all day. i planned on trying to hit up mass general hospital but was just not feeling it that morning. 230 rolls around, i shower and head out to logan airport for my flight back home. my flight gets delayed about a half an hour. as soon as the plane arrives i head to my seat and just knock out. head to detroit it think and book it to my transfer gate. that flight i was awake for most of it. i end up pretty much finishing one of my self help books. it was super interesting to read about how my life should be more about me and sharing love. i enjoyed most of it and it brought me home safe and sound. i say that now because a couple days later a plane lands in the hudson... yeah that scared the shit out of me. so yeah home sweet home. im in at like 11ish and just pretty much knock out for work the next day... so yeah, thats the trip. back to the grind. tomorrow is my friday and its a MLK day. picking up some comp time at work tomorrow and i am just not looking forward to it as much because of my double i pulled today. oo so tired now. goodnight world.

boston: day 2 (continued)

so for the rest of day yesterday it was pretty chill. again nothing was really planned so it was pretty fun. after the library i went to the trinity church and it was amazing. the windows and the murals were just awesome. the detail that artists to put in these glass mosaics was do good. anyways, that church being a catholic church i made a wish because it was my first time in there. i made a wish that i have been making since i was always told of this tradition. i wished that everything will turn out alright for myself and my ex. i prayed that we would find happiness with or without each other. it most definitely made me just think about her and how she is doing and i just felt that she still thinks of me. but i don't know what she wants. i don't know if she feel the same way i do or if she wants a new man or just wants to be alone. anyways as i was in the church i got a call from my friend that lives over here. he was about to get off work at the faneuil marketplace at the urban outfitters. so i called back but i guess he was still doing a couple things so i headed down towards the prudential center to see a couple more sights before meeting up. anyways i saw a couple church buildings and i got a call from him. i hopped on the green line and headed to the government center for us to meet up. we start walking to his place and on the way we get a canoli at the famous mikes pastry shop on hanover. oooo boy that was good. i never had a one before and i have been mission out. anyways i told him i would get dinner if he was down so we hit up this place called fiore. kinda pricey but it was delicious. we just end up talking about all the kinds of things going on in our lives. women, family, economy and all that jazz. afterwards we head towards his place. before going there though we stop by the 7-11 for some beer. as we were about to walk in, a lady stops us and offers us a pair of tix for the celtics game!! we were just in awe, it happened all so fast and we were attempting to get at that but she wasn't biting. but wow, we got tix in the lower lever for free!! we buy the beer, get faded at his place (i meet his cousins and get a little tour) and bounce to the game. the game was freaking crazy, overtime and the celtics win by 6. get back to his place and just chill out. shared a couple youtube vids and went to sleep. the day began, he and his cousins leave for work and head out as well. now i just have no clue what to do today. i'm planning on getting to harvard and MIT to check their campus. so yes i shall update in a little.

boston: day 2 @ boston public library

so on this beautiful january day i have done a whole lot of sight seeing so far. from my hostel i walked down to beacon street. there were many brownstones (i think thats what they're called) on along that street and they were just tastefully accented by the snow that topped them. i was on beacon street for like 2 miles and i made my way to the public garden and the boston commom. the parks were filled with many different statues and and other structures. i took plenty of pictures and i'll post some as soon as i get a chance. i feel like i have walked the entire city twice today. i was just all over the place i had like no real route to go. i went through a couple places twice but that was cool, i saw little things that i didn't see the first time as i past through the second time. anyways, after strolling through the park i got bit hungry and chose to head towards quincy market. i saw on the travel channel, or the food network (one of those) that this was a great place to eat. so being the guy that loves food, i checked it out. i perused the choices and they all looked so good. they had almost everything from indian to chinese to greek to japanese. it was so hard for me to choose. so since i was in boston, i thought i would try to get something that i could not get in the bay area. so i thought the clam chowder in a sourdough bowl would be a great idea so i went for that. they had free samples and it was pretty good. i kinda chose that place because the first time i past it all the seats were filled and i kinda base how good a place is. but as soon as i ordered i noticed that hte lobster roll was what everyone was buying! anyways i was still pretty satisfied with my choice it was good and it helped my stomach settle what i had for breakfast at the hostel. i think the milk that i had with my cereal was the kind you have to reconstitute, like it started off as powder kinda milk. and the bagel i had was alright. i didn't really care too much for it. even thought it was a minibagel, i was only able to eat half of it. =/ eh, you can't win them all. anyways, back to the food at the quincy market. it was a good early lunch and i wouldn't mind going back there for another restaurant. so after that i was pretty fired up to explore some more and take more pictures. so i just wandered and made my way towards the aquarium. i didn't go there but was in the area. there was a nice veiw of the skyline, or part of it from where i was at. from there i cut inwards towards the shopping area. i consider it the shopping area because i all of a sudden saw places like footlocker, macy's, h&m, etc.. so i walked through there and found my self falling asleep. so i decided to look for a coffee place. the lines in the starbucks were outrageously long so i tried to look for a local place and just ended up at a dunkin doughnuts. the first thing that caught my eye was the dunkachino. wow that is hella good!! better than most of the expensive stuff at starbucks. anyways i got my second win and was just ready to take on more of boston. the dunkin donuts was right across the street from city hall which was conviently adjacent to the the quincy market. so i walked down to there and i found a statue of samuel adams =). that was pretty cool. and just to the left of him was an even bigger statue of ted danson! hahahah.. (boston, cheers, where everybody knows your name) so yeah that was kinda cool. i kept walking and i found a huge sign that said the union oyster house which is apparently america's oldest restaurant. so i plan to check that out later. more walking leads me to the part of town my friend is from, haymarket. so now i know where to go when i gotta meet up with him later. finally i make my way to the td banknorth garden where the boston bruins play. there was a train station there so i planned on making it to the area where im at now the boston public library. i didnt just stop by here to blogg, i ran out of battery on my camera and was desperately looking to charge it. to im here and there are a bunch of places im gonna get to as soon as my camera finished charging up. there is the trinity church, the prudential tower, the old south church, and so many others. so i dont waste any more time. it looks as if my camera is almost full and i should be on my way to more of boston. oo btw, this freaking library is super awesome. it has got to be my favorite library. if i could study anywhere i think that it would be here becase it is mega nice with internet and tables and its hella quiet. oo and the pic up top is of the library! cool windows and green lamps =)

chicago: day 4 and boston: day 1

so its the start of my 2nd day in boston. before heading out to the airport it was once again a lazy day at my aunt's house. we took pictures of all of us for me to show my mom and dad and to share at our reunion. my flight experience wasn't so bad yesterday. i arrived in boston yesterday like 8pmish and i used the train system to get to the hostel. i took the blue line to the green line supposedly to take me to an area close to my hostel. i ended up taking the wrong letter green line and riding the train back in the reverese direction. so i walk in the snow for a couple of blocks and get to the hostel. i check in and my room, wow. it was like moving into a dorm, filled with 6 people, in the middle of the semester. anyways i was restless and i took advantage of the outing signups they had in the lobby to go to a pub a couple blocks away. i met a bunch of australians and wow they can drink. after having a couple beers we tried to look for another place but of course on a sunday it was pretty dead everywhere. i was walking around the city with a bunch of strangers that i just met and it was pretty fun. we wanted to drink more because it was still pretty early but i was like, uh ok. so we head back and they start playing cards. i on the other hnd was pretty beat so i slept. and we come to right now which is the beginning of my 2nd day here in boston.

chicago: day 3

today was a totally chill day. it was spent getting to know my family in chicago a little bit better. being that it was a saturday and it was my vacation, we slept in and with much style. i woke up at like 1130am and everyone was up around that time or so. we had some breakfast (stuff like hash in eggs and bacon), watched monk and followed up with a good shoveling of snow out the driveway. oo i forgot to mention as i woke up, i had feeling it was gonna be snowing so i looked out the window and sure enough it was!! my first snowfall in chicago, it was quite an experience. any ways we shovels for about an hour or two. it was pretty deep. i would say nearly knee deep. there was about a foot on one of the car hoods. anyways we got back in the house afterwards and watched more tv. we got to watching anger management and click. we then finally decided to get something to eat. we head over to the asian restaurant near by and get a couple plates of some delish chinese gormet items. i have to say it was pretty good and greasy but it doesn't beat the asian food back in cali or HI. anyways after that, we see yes man.. great movie, i definitly wanna buy that one along with wall-e and trpoic thunder. we get back to the house and watch more tv and now its time for bed. so as you can see today was real chill and i think thats how my fam here is. its great to relax and just loath and watch tv and movies all day long. i gotta make my way back here this year when i get a chance. ok sleepy now. goodnight all..

chicago: day 2

so today, or should i say yesterday, was the last day of big luxury for my vacation because i had to check out of my hotel room which was just 2 blocks from the magnificent mile. it was a pretty prime location for me and was quite a good area for me to get around. i was able to do a little more sightseeing today as after i checked out of the hotel. i made my way to the skydeck of the sears tower and saw a different view of the city. it was spectacular to see the city from such a height. after that i kinda just walked around town. oo before i forget i also has a portillo's for a polish and a chicago dog. it was quite a breakfast. anyways to continue my sightseeing, i went to grant park to try and see the buckingham fountain but ended up just seeing a construction sight. it was frozen as hell and there was just nothing exciting to see at this time of year there. i was looking forward to seeing this fountain that reminds me of my childhood (the times i used to watch married with children). anyways it was getting time for me to head towards my aunt's work and i was getting kinda tired. so i pick my stuff up from the hotel, hit up the red line, transfered to the blue line and headed to towards the north west side. i end up at my aunts house and i just watched a couple movies.. so tired now. sleep time

chicago: day 1

wow.. hella long ass day today. so first of all i head out of SFO like 1230/ 1245 last night. the red eye was quite a good experience. my first flight was to minneapolis and i could hardly sleep. there was an autistic kid behind me that was quite erratic. when he was getting to his seat he smacked me in my head and i turned around. his mother apoligized to me and mentioned his illness. i completely understand just it wasn't the end of his unpredictable behavior. it was a bit difficult to sleep with his shreiks of high and low tones. he also continued to tap my head a couple more times. the flight was about 3 hours long and walking off the plane to my next flight was absolutly shocking. it was freezing, like walking into a freezer. my gate was super far away and i was tired by the time i reached it. this flight was about 2 hours long. as i slept fairly well and was satisfied with my seat selection. i was able to take up a whole row, in this case it was two seats and it was nice to have both of them. as we approached chicago, i looked out my window. it was amazing to see how dense the greater chicago area is. there were so many houses and all topped with snow. it was pretty cool to see. then maybe about a hundred yards from the where the tires of the plane met the pavement, there was something that just made my day. there was a whitecastle! so awesome, i can't wait to get some. stepping off the plane again i felt super cold. i walk through the terminal to the trains to the city. i end up taking the orange line into the city, into the famous transit loop. i get off and ride the red line to my hotel. the exit i took was the grand avenue exit and i end up at a place that i was meaning to hit up while i'm hear. there it is the weber grill restaurant. my friend at work mentioned to me the unique method of preparing food there and i was intrigued with it. so in most bbqs i have attended, the food is usually cooked on a grill and being the observant type, the brand of grill i mainly see is weber. so this place must be pretty good because i love bbq. i hear that they even cook pizzas on the grill. so i need to hit that up. i stood in the cold right in front of that place for a good ten minutes or so just to figure out where i needed to be. so i head down state to ontario where my hotel is. on my way to my hotel i pass by the famous magnificent mile. it was filled with nice shops and brand name stores that i would absolutly go wild for if i had more money. but i had a destination that i just needed to get to first so i don't roll around town with my luggage. i walk into the lobby of the fairfield inn and wow. marriott has stepped it up in their interior design. it was super trendy with the color changing mood lighting and the led tickers with inspiring quotes. hahaha.. anyways i drop my stuff off and head back out into the city to explore. i was starving so i had asked the front desk clerk for a reccomendation for breakfast. she lead me to the west egg cafe. ooo that was some good chorizo. hit the spot before i hit the city up. i walked up and down michigan avenue. i went as far north as the beginning of the north lake shore area and ended up down to the ice skating rink at the millenium park. it was quite a journey. i stopped by places like the apple store and niketown just to warm up for a moment. i started my touristy kinda stuff at the john hancock tower and was able to get beautiful veiws of the city. my admission to the tower came along with my purchase of the city pass. which means i have alot more sightseeing to do tomorrow. but to continue with the john hancock tower, it was just spectacular. i was 94 storys up in the air and wow it was quite high. there was one thing that kinda freaked me out though. as i was coming up to a window i put my hand up the little frame part, a baseball size peice of ice falls. thats 94 stories down! o man super scary. anyways i ended up talking to this quite redhead that works their and i finding out the crackin places in town. after the tower i kinda went on a photo spree talking pics of just whatever i saw. walking down michigan, i passed the two water tower dealy things, a couple famous churches, the chicago tribune tower, the chicago river, a couple museums and millenium park. woo i was tired after all that walking. and i was walking in my timberlands. my ankles were killing me. so i ended up taking the train back to the hotel. i checked in and knocked out. i slept from like 430ish to like 9pm. i headed out like 930 to get me some pizza. i know that deep dish was just calling my name. there was this place i remember passing by called pizzaria due on the way to the hotel from the train stop. unfortunately the deep dish takes a while to bake. so i sat and waited for that goodness. i had that with some beer, it was heavenly. i was still a bit anxious and wanted to stay out so i ended up at a place called rockit bar and grill. i got me a couple drinks and watched the gators and sooners game. it was pretty exciting. gators win and my focus was on the ladies in the place. but i was just not feeling the crowd. there were cute white girls but i was just ready to knock out. so i walked back and been chillin since. so tired now. must sleep. day one, done.. its in the books. now i better rest up because i wanna hit up the museum, planetarium, aquarium and other places tomorrow. good night world..

happy new year!!

so its a new year and i feel like i celebrated it in a way that was quite unusual for me. i did enjoy the company i had and was entertained with the alcoholic beverages and company, but i felt unsatisfied. there was something missing this year that i just did not really feel. i know this is the part where i say i miss my girlfriend, but what if it wasn't her. what if i was missing something more significant, more complex, or even more simple? well nonetheless i felt like i was missing something. why did i choose to hang out with my homeboy instead of my other cute ass homegirls?!? boggles my mind.. well my initial logic made lots of sense because my journey back home was like 5 stop signs. which made for a much safer and risk free night for me. i did drink but i really sobered up with the whole night being a "blur". i remembered everything but it was just kinda "fuzzy" because it didn't strike me as a defining moment in my life. it was as if coming into the year 2009 was another day, no real signifigance... so the new year begins, and my life needs to come together much more organized and planned (that's what i plan to do at least).. i have made a decision to make the whole ex-girlfriend thing as a low priority. there are so many other things that i want to experience and i feel as i am holding back because of my feelings.. my heart needs to let go so i can explore and do new and excitng things. i know its hard to do but saying it is the first step. i have this trip to chicago and boston coming up and i am very excited to see life outside the bay. i have been meaning to take this kind of trip for a while and am looking forward to everything. this coming new year seems like it is going to be filled with many new and crazy adventures. i just feel like with all the new friends i am making and the reconnections i have been meaning to follow up on have given me somewhat of a second win almost. its great to say goodbye to 2008. there were so many things that happened that just affected my life in so many ways, there are just too many to mention. alright so i can start off the new year right, i just hope i can get a good night's sleep for once. goodnight world and i wish everyone in my life a great and wonderful new year. i love you guys.. for real no joke i do.. thank you for everything =)