Whew…what a week I had! This is gonna be a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG blog so be prepared to get bored, okay? Last Thursday night/Friday morning, I left to goto San Diego for Nelson’s graduation from SDSU with Chris, Ricky, and Tracy. We didn’t leave at 12 like we were supposed to but ended up leaving around 2ish. It’s all good tho coz we made it to SD around 11ish. We made a hersh stop in Anaheim tho coz my stomach was trippin’! Once we got to Daygo, we had to pick up Nelson’s mom from the airport then we went to one of the outdoor malls to eat. Afterwards, we went to one of the many beaches there to chill for a bit. Then we headed to Best Western to rest the remainder of the night. We watched the playoffs and mainly juz rested from our long drive from the bay.

The next day was the graduation. I woke up around 10ish and got ready. Me and Ricky went to the first graduation with Nelson’s bro, mom, dad and Jen. It was a interesting to hear what all the teachers and staff had to talk about concerning graduation. The sucky part about it all was the fact that we couldn’t bring in any food from the outside, but rather, we had to spend money buying the expensive food they provided. Luckily, we didn’t buy n/e thing from there coz we were all kinda saving our appetite for dinner, which I’ll talk about in a bit. Let’s continue with the graduation tho, okae? So yeah, after that part of the graduation, we left to goto another part, which was focused more on Nels’ major of film. Chris, Tracy, and Ramsey got there first to save us seats. Even Tone and his friends showed up since they’re down in Daygo. So that graduation ceremony happens and it was kool. They had some in house singing in the form of music major peoples. It was quite a show they put on as I thoroughly enjoyed their vocal skills. After that, they started to call the names and hand out their "diplomas". By the time it was Nels’ turn to go up, all of us moved to the front to cheer him on. Hehe…being Nels, he had to do something crazy up there. Sooo…when it was his turn to get his "diploma", he throws confetti in the air and does a heel click in the air and falls down. There was a loud bang and then everyone juz looked on. Some were amazed while others looked on a laughed, which included me…hahah! Once the ceremony ended, Jen busted out the scissors for strange reason. Then she went to Nels and…..CHOP! CUT!! WOOOSH!! Nels’ loooong a$$ hair finally met the scissors. He had his hair in braids and each of us chopped a strand of it off. It was insane! I never thought I’d see the day that Nels cut his hair. Afterwards, we went to eat at a seafood place. Lucky for me, there was steak there =o) Thanks Tito Albert for hookin up the dinner. It was filling indeed!

During dinner, I started thinkin about sumthin. What exactly was I thinking? Wellllll…I sat next to Diko, or Simon as he’s more known, and we were talking about stuff. I was all like, "maaaan…I wished I could stay longer coz this trip was tooooooo short". Diko was like, "what do you got going on next week? Why don’t u stay since nels is going back up next week for chris’ graduation". I thought about it throughout dinner. On the way back to the hotel, I talked to nels about it and he said, "oh hell yeah…do it!" so I made some phone calls. The first was home to tell them my insane plan. They said okay but was hesitant about it. The next was to derek. I had to ask derek and matt to take over my classes on Monday through Wednesday. Luckily they agreed to do it. Once that was taken care of, everything was a go! I can’t believe I was gonna stay a week in SoCal juz like that. The one concern I had was, what was I gonna wear while I was there?!? Luckily, I brought like about 4 extra shirts for going out and had my swishes, my khakis, and a pair of jeans for whatever. My biggest concern was my socks, boxers, and tshirts. Maaaaaan…what was I gonna do?

Are you still there? Is this too long? Sorry…..

Welllll…once the decision was made to stay, I called my grandma in Buena Park and asked her if it was kool to stay there till Wednesday. Of course she said it was okae. They love it when I go there coz we don’t ever really get much of a chance to visit down there. I really wanted to see my family there a lot a lot coz I hardly see them much n/e more and I miss them. Soooo…I went there Sunday morning. Originally, our plan was to go there Saturday night but chris fell asleep. Then tracy joined him and then rick and finally me. It was crazy coz chris had a study group thingy around 9 in the morning. Oops…so much for that, eh? So on the way to the bay, I got dropped off to Buena park to stay with my family. Lionel opened the door for me and greeted me. He also got a chance to see chris and tracy since he hasn’t seen them since….1999. once I got there, I basically juz cut it up with lionel and eventually ronald woke up. Finally, nanay and uncle oli showed up after doing the laundry. It was sooo kool to see everyone again. Nanay eventually started to cook some food. Mmmmm…I love Nanay’s cooking! She made some chicken with some kind of BBQ sauce. It was mmmm mmmm good! For lunch, Angelie and Uncle Boots stopped by so I got the chance to see them . After lunch, I got ready and Nanay took me to the swap meet to get some boxers, socks, and tshirts. We did get quite a deal there and the quality of the stuff was perdy good. After that, we went grocery for some foods and drinks. Once I got back, Lionel took me out to Santa Monica with his girlfriend Erika and a couple of his boys. We ate at Hooters (mmm…chicken wings!) and then they had Didi Rieces for dessert. In case yall don’t know what that is, it’s some ice cream joint where they serve you ice cream and cookies all up like an ice cream sandwich for a dollar. Good stuff! Too bad I can’t eat ice cream =o/ so all I had was some snickerdoodle cookies…yummmmm! After that, we headed back to buena park and I went to walmart to buy some stuff.

I bought some iron transfers and a kids tshirt to make something for Jilly, who I was gonna see on Monday. I made her a KGZ shirt that was red and had yellow and white text. I call it the inNout shirt. The next day, Monday, I went to an indoor swap meet to buy more tshirts coz I needed some extra shirt while I was there. Plus, I wanted to make Nels a shirt as well. I ended up buying an extra shirt for jilly coz I know she likes pink. Sooo…I designed and made a total of 4 shirts. I made a black and green design for myself while I made nels a navy blue shirt with yellow and white text while the pink shirt had baby blue and white text. I DLed a demo of illustrator and DLed the font we used for our shirts so I can design all the shirts there without my computer. Hehe…juz give me a computer and I can go nuts with designing and being creative! For lunch, Nanay made her oh so yummy pot roast. Lionel’s Auntie Michelle came over and so did my cousin Andrew. I spent my Monday doing that till about almost 7 then I got ready coz jilly was gonna come pick me up for dinner. She got there at about 8:30ish then we went to Chili’s to eat. By the time we parked, I gave her the 2 shirts I made for her. She loved them! I was wearing my brown with yellow and orange so she had that chance to see the shirt before I gave her the ones I made her. Afterwards, we went inside to eat. We got a chance to cut it up and catch up on things. It was kool juz being there with her coz I really missed her a lot. Even though we talk on the phone and stuff, nothing beats actually be there with that person who u miss a lot. So we were there for a couple of hours talking about this and that. By 1030ish, we went back to my grandma’s place. We kicked it outside and took pictures. She put one of the shirts on and we took pictures with our KGZ shirts on.

Still hangin’ in there?

The next day, Tuesday, Me and Lionel went to Newport beach to pick up some money from his mom. She works for these millionaires out there who own a penthouse overlooking the harbor. It was beautiful. Then we went back to Buena Park and got ready for Disneyland! I haven’t been there in like…8 years so it was gonna be an "fun-filled day". We picked up Erika and then met up with her sister and her BF coz he was gonna hook us up with tickets to Disneyland since he works there. He hooked it up phat as we had access to both Disneyland and California Adventures. Too bad we got there like around 3, but that was still enough time to ride juz enough rides and go around the place. The first thing we did after getting off the monorail was watch "Honey I shrunk the audience". After that, went to small world. After that, we went of the matterhorn. As a kid, I thought that ride was scary. Now, I’m like "that’s it?" After that, we went on Pirates of the Caribbean. Then we took the train to the front of Disneyland so we can go2 California Adventures to ride the tower of terror. Oh maaaan…that was freaky fun! It was like, you didn’t know when you were gonna drop coz you’re in an enclosed area aka an elevator and you juz drop. Once you drop, it goes back up, then drops, goes back up, then drops! It was craaaazy! Me and Lionel were screaming like nuts throughout the ride. The picture that was taken right before we drop shows juz how much we were scared since we never rode that. Too bad we got to California Adventures around 5:30 when it was gonna close at 6. After that, we headed back to Disneyland to ride Indiana Jones. I always thought that was the best ride at Disneyland coz it’s juz so bumpy and fun and stuff. After that, we went to ride Snow White and Pinnochio. As we were trying to get back to the Monorail, we got caught up in the parade so we rode the teacups to pass time. Daaamn…I forgot juz how dizzy you get on that ride. Then, we finally got to the Monorail and left Disneyland. I had fun there and I wished we got there a lil earlier. We stayed in Downtown Disney for a bit coz I juz wanted to check some things out there. Afterwards, we went to a Peruvian restaurant for dinner. It was bomb! We had this marinated steak, eggs, and rice. After that, we went around and looked for "You Got Served" since I came out that day. We went back to Lionel’s and watched it there.

Wednesday finally came and it was time to head back to Daygo to help nels pack up for the bay. For lunch, we had Chinese food at this little to go restaurant that my cousin Laura works at. After that, I got ready to go. We took some pictures and then left. Me and Lionel went to Irvine to visit Jilly on the way to Daygo. We all kicked it at the Irvine Spectrum and eventually watched Shrek 2. Yall gotta go out and watch it!! If you enjoyed the first Shrek, I’m sure you’ll like it as much as I did. Then, Jilly and I had to part ways once again as Lionel took me to daygo for the remainder of my week before heading to the bay. Once we got to daygo, we headed to this country line dancing club called InCahoots. Oh maaaaan…I never thought I’d goto one of these. The only thing I hated was the fact that I had to tuck in my shirt. Yuck!!! That sucked. Sooo…we met up with Ryan, who also graduated from SDSU with nels, and his cousin. I wasn’t really feeling the place but eventually, I juz said the hell with it and tried my hardest to learn how to line dance on the spot. It turned out to be perdy fun tho. Eventually, they did a dance I DID know and that was the electric slide! Hehe…I was juz tearin it up. Then, they play Outkast "I like the way you move". I was like, "yessss! Hip hop!!!". Then after that, they played "lady marmalade" and then some house song that had an 80’s vibe to it. Soooo…nels and I started to juz dance and stuff. Then we started to make a circle and I was juz uprockin. Eventually, I busted some ground moves. After a couple of seconds, a security guy comes up and flashes his flashlight at me and told me get off the floor. Hahahaha! The first time I goto a line dancing club and I get kicked off the floor…hahahahah! After a while, I went back to line dance. Then some odd minutes later, they go back into radio music in the form of Britney’s "toxic". I was like…okaaaaee…then after that, they played my "favorite" outkast song…"hey ya". Then they juz kicked it into some house beats. Some girls there was diggin my vibe on the dance floor so they asked me to teach them some moves. It was kool! It was like I had a couple of students and an audience to watch us. I didn’t think I’d have some people wanna learn the lylestyle down in daygo…in a country line dancing club no less. Afterwards, they kicked it back into the line dancing vibe and so it was time for me to bounce. I was getting hungry so nels took me to sombreros, which was similar to our adalberto’s up in fairfield. Then we headed out to his apartment to get some sleep.

The next day, Thursday, was spent getting supplies such as flashlights and such from whatever stores were there. First, we had chinese food for lunch. Then we went to Von’s to buy some stuff there. Afterwards, nels took me to an outdoor mall which also had a two story, non ghetto walmart. I never saw an escalator that had a cart thingy there too. So you basically place your cart on this specially designed escalator and it takes up your stuff with you as you go up or down. After that, we went to barnes and nobles to buy some film magazines. On the way to barnes and nobles, there was a demo on some starbuck’s fraps that were new to the place. Among them was my favorite strawberries and cream. I had like 2 of those…mmmmm…eventually, we headed back to nels’ and started to somewhat pack and clean. We also had to get the Uhaul that we were to drive back to the bay with all of Nels’ stuff from his apartment. Ryan came over to help out clean a bit. Then for dinner, we went to some wack Thai restaurant. I wasted $10 on this meal that consisted of mainly peas and carrots and hardly n/e meat like I wanted. After that, we went to starbuck’s where I ordered my venti size of strawberries and cream..yum yum good! The rest of the night was spent cleaning and packing. Friday finally came and it was time to bug out of the apartment. We woke up at 8ish and started to get things all sorted out and packed. It was the craziest day ever! By 5ish, everything was FINALLY packed and ready to go. Although we didn’t get to fully clean the place, we did manage to pack up everything and vacuum the place. We hella forced it! After leaving the apartment, we went to starbuck’s and I got another venti strawberries and cream. Then we parted ways with ryan and went to laura’s, who was another film grad from SDSU. Nels needed to go there to work on some titles for her film project. Then, the long trek finally was about to be underway. We first needed to hit up santa monica where Jen lives to pick up and drop off stuff. We got there at about 10ish but we didn’t actually leave santa monica till about 130ish coz we had lots to pack and drop off to jen’s. plus we ate dinner at this burger joint called Tommy’s while we there. After meeting up with this girl named Jamie, jen rode with her going back up to the bay while me and nels drove the uhaul back up.

Bored? Don’t worry…it’s almost done…

Since we were HELLA tired, we stopped by the magic mountain area for an hour to take a nap. We woke up and headed out. I was HELLLLLA tired and I took another quick nap while nels drove. This was the wackest drive I ever had going up coz I could hardly keep my eyes open to drive. It was bad so we kept switching. I think nels was annoyed about that. Sorry maaan…I was juz too tired to help him drive. We FINALLY get to vallejo at about almost 11. I then get dropped off and took a nap allll day till about 4ish coz I had to get ready for a gig at Benicia HS for misa’s dance show there. I got to derek’s and met up with vic, rossanne, and nicole, who got her braces off that day ;o) then eventually paul and misa show up and we practice a bit then head to BHS to perform. I get there to find out there were quite a few people there from Stage One so that was kool to see them there. I also saw Julie there. Afterwards, we goto Misa’s to eat dinner. It was hella fun juz kickin with some of the group. We fobbed out coz Paul was talking to Misa’s mom in tagalog and Vic wanted to learn some tagalog. It was hella funny coz everyone was juz trying to talk tagalog to each other, especially vic. Hahaha…it was crazy fun! Then around 11ish, we bounced and I headed back to derek’s to kick it for a bit and see the new cat 8ball. He’s so tiny but so scared of everyone I guess. He kept hiding in the living room since it was a mess and no one can bug him. Eventually I got a chance to carry him. It brought back memories of how small oreo used to be. Then around 3ish, I head out and goto sleep.

That was my crazy, insane, but hella fun week. I can’t wait till I go back down to SoCal in july for the comic con. Hopefully while I’m down there again, I can find a job so I can move from the bay. As much as I love it up here, after being down there and being with my family, I’m really leaning toward moving down there. I juz gotta look for a job then it’s on! For those of you who actually sat here to read about my adventure, I congratulate you. I don’t think I’d even try to read this loooong blog. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed experiencing it. So now…it’s question time…

Do you like the bay or SoCal?

Aight…4 days and ticking..pieces!!

P.S.

Happy birthday Eugene!