Jason's Daily Notes

This weekend was crazy, in the best possible way! Busy and adventure-packed, which is exactly how I love it! Let me lay down an overview of what happened, with pictures!!!

Friday Night: Picked up Cassy and Leslie from LAX, tried to get Kogi (fail); got ready at my apt, met up with Alex, headed out to the Crocker Club in downtown. Hung out for a while, got our own "reserved" room/table (thanks to a helpful server), then the party arrived.

Mingling and drinking continued; then Juan and Jenn arrived as well. "Berkeley! Stand up!," beckoned Summer. Around midnight we were off to Hollywood, hitting up Happy Ending on Sunset. Drinks by the pail! Beer pong table (with a weird guy asking what I was taking a picture of - ughcha)! However, it was only "team Berkeley" who went here; the other part of our group--"team Michelle's bday"--diverted to Kevin's friends' apt "party" because the celebrating girl had begun to chuck up. No worries though; other than creating a couple awkward bathroom situations, she's all good.

Saturday: A jam-packed day. But we slept in (rightfully so) until around 11:30, then Jenn and Cassy and Leslie and Alex came over to make some delicious (and really filling) brunch!

The bathroom was locked when I woke up this morning (and no one was inside! - someone must've closed the door behind them while the lock was on)... I really had to pee too. FML

I had to unscrew the doorknob itself in order to open the door.

Felling "ugh"/not good today for several reasons. Also feeling unsatisfied, guilty, and concerned, for no particular reason. I scratched a neighboring car in the parking garage today :X. I hope they don't notice. Now I'm gonna have to change my regular parking space...

News: The Conan/Leno late night drama continues! I got to watch Conan last night; the whole show was joking about his potentially imminent departure; Haiti is totally devastated by the recent earthquake :(

Lunch: Cheez-Its and a banana. NOTHING ELSE.

I don't feel good. It's probably because of my lack of nutrition today.

Got my tax forms for 2009. Looks like I can start filing my tax returns.

You know what, I simply was just not prepared for today, :/

It's Cassy's birthday!

Songs: Silversun Pickups - Panic Switch; Daniel Powter - Bad Day; Lady Gaga - Bad Romance; Beck - Always

Life as a Weekend
Last night (Tuesday) I went out for Ethiopian food with Petri & Leena; it was fantastic and they loved it (so did I)! Then, looking for a place to go and people to meet up with, we ended up going to Westwood Brewing Company (in, er, Westwood), where we met Joel and Drew (who I was gonna host but couldn't)
Westwood Brewing Co. was something of a surprise:
- I never go to that "side" of Westwood (if you could call it that), so it's surprising to find such a nice bar there!
- Tuesday night is quiz night! I may return on another Tuesday to win some prizes!
- ALL DRINKS, from beer to Long Islands, cost $4.50. Now that is a good deal.
- There was a club upstairs! And it was packed! Every shallow-hearted (and anorexic!) girl in Westwood seemed to be out, and the guys weren't far behind, ready to pounce with the signature "washing machine"!

I drove Drew and Joel back to their dingy hotel in Hollywood.

Wednesday - and no work! After 9 long days, I really needed this day. I slept in, drove Matt to class around 11, returned and made breakfast/brunch with Petri. We finally headed out, around 1:30, to Manhattan Beach. It had just "rained" (i.e. sprinkled) in the morning, but the sky was clear, the air fresh and crisp, and the wind blowing. The surf was also way up - the waves were ferociously pounding the pier and battering the beach; they were probably 10-15 feet high at times.

Yes, it was pretty chilly at the beach, but it was pleasant in the Sun. Lounged around for about an hour, checking out beach houses. There were a few people jogging along the beach and I think I saw the starting line of a 5K or 10K (people were jogging off in groups at regular intervals). We walked back to the car, Petri grabbed a coffee from Coffee Bean, and headed back up the coast to the apartment.

It was around 5pm, and we quickly got ready to get to Korean BBQ. Setting out around 5:45pm, of course we hit traffic, even though we were cruising down Olympic. We stuffed our face at Hae Jang Chon. I had to love tap both cars in order to get into/out of my parking space.

The food was amazing, but took a while. It was already 8pm when we left for the free concert/ice skating in downtown LA, which I had been trying to get people to come out to all day! Matthew was already food comatose, so he just dropped us off. We missed the first band, but caught the second, who I think was Le Switch (but it could have been The World Record). Kim was already there. It was great to skate around to live music, but the band finished about 30 minutes before the skating did :/

Made our way afterwards to the Broadway Bar, but not after an unpleasant run-in with a local homeless guy. Here's a tip, kids: Don't ever be nice to anyone ever! Even if it's just giving a homeless guy a couple coins, because he will then chase you down the street and assault your female friends because he wants a dollar not coins!!! Luckily, Kim and I reverted to the (slightly more adult version of the) Dora the Explorer defense: NO RAPIST NO!!! And he shirked away.

Children show self-defense FTW!

So yeah, the bar was empty, except for us. We got one drink and high-tailed it out of there. They were filming something on the streets nearby, so there was an eerie green light along 7th, and what looked like a Formula-1 racetrack was set up. Kim was nice enough to drive us back to the apt, and it was soon nighty-night.

Songs: Rise Against; Naked Eyes - Always Something There to Remind Me

Been learning some Finnish from my guests while I've been here. (Ok, mostly just "Perkele" and "Kippis")... I am incapable of saying "Hyvää ruokahalua" ("bon appetit"), though.

I now know how to say "Cheers" in:

• English (duh)
• German (Prost!)
• Dutch (Prosit!)
  
• French (Sante!)
• Italian (Salute!)
• Spanish (Salud!)
• Polish (Na zdrowie!)
• Czech (Na zdravi)
• Danish (Skål!)
• Swedish (Skål!)
• Norwegian (Skål!)
• Finnish (Kippis!)
  

CS: Ben & Brian (for one night only; from Florida, school in Massachusetts, on a cross-country road trip) - they left at 6am to drive up the coast to SF; Petri & Leena are still here for a couple more days.

We went to Tommy's (the original) last night.

Took Ohio today to drive to work (9:10am).

Thought he'd be out today, but Jack showed up for a little bit.

9th day straight of work. It now feels beyond surreal (whatever that is). Definitely not productive

Lunch: Leftover Chinese (continued from yesterday...)

Printer issues, gah! An over 1000-page backlog.

Songs: Sublime - Santeria; Jimmy Eat World - The Middle; Phoenix - 1901; Don McLean - American Pie

Day 8 of straight work. This is the most ever.

Driving in LA traffic, even for my short 15-minute commute, often makes me lose faith in humanity.

CS: Petri & Leena's second night over; Ben and his friend (Brian) are driving through LA for just one night tonight on their cross-country road trip!

Lots of last minute changes to be done for this 2nd amended complaint.

I am the Excel spreadsheet master. People go to me to make the spreadsheets look good. I like being the go-to guy for something!

Lunch: Leftover fried rice


Uploading new document production... takes so long, waiting just to transfer files off the disc, and to do the global replace.

... @ work til 6.

Songs: Every Avenue - Where Were You?

I had to work this weekend :(

[Sunday] I drove Markus to his new apartment in East Hollywood/Thai Town (it's right by Western and Hollywood). It was nice having Markus over this week, although I feel bummed that I didn't really get to go out because I've been so overloaded with work.

CS: Petri and Leena tonight (from Finland); there's a chance that Ben and his friend (from Florida) may be crashing tomorrow night too, so stay tuned.

So, after work (which I finished earlier, at 6), I returned to the apt to meet Petri and Leena, who are really cool. They're on a round-the-world trip from Finland to Iceland to New York to LA/Vegas to Samoa to Tonga to New Zealand to Australia to Thailand/Laos/Cambodia/Vietnam to Hong Kong to London and back to Finland! Amazing, right?! Anyway, Matt joined in and we all went out in Santa Monica. I had to drive around a bit, but found a parking space on 6th. We went to Hooters (which is always fun):


I had an awkward conversation with the bathroom attendant, Jimmy. I was just leaving when he handed me my towel and was all like "how was your weekend?"; I said, "fine, although I had to work..." then he started telling me how I'm in the right position, and he knows because he's a process server. During this whole conversation I was edging toward the doorway trying to get out of the bathroom (and another guy was peeing at the urinal next to us). I fist-bumped Jimmy and was on my way. I would have given him a tip but it was just so awkward, tipping would have made it even more so.

After Hooters, the four of us walked onto the Pier, where we saw a guy catch a crab (womp womp). I was enjoying my evening, especially because yesterday evening technically counts as my entire weekend! We drove back, and stopped for tacos at the local taco truck. Petri and Leena were impressed by how good it was (prior to this, their idea of tacos was Jack in the Box!).

Songs: Will Smith / Forever the Sickest Kids - "Men in Black"; Snoop Dogg - Gin & Juice; Fatboy Slim - Praise You ["we've come a long long way together, through the hard times and the good"]; Don McLean - American Pie (been learning this on the guitar lately)

Yesterday was Saturday. Which should be good, in theory. But I had to work. Which sucks, in theory. It turned out to be not as bad as I had feared.

I slept in, after a night out with Markus and his former housemates at Barney's Beanery in West Hollywood. And by "slept in" I mean that I slept until 9:30.

Anyway, Markus had a showing at a gallery to try to get his work displayed. (Btw, you should all check out his work: markuslovkvist.com). So he was gone by 10:30, and Matthew and I got some brunch at Dolores, the restaurant right on our block. Matt had been itching to go there since I told him that they have a "pancake sandwich". Well, of course we ordered said sandwich:

And it was amazing. Matt ruined it, though, by dousing it with syrup. I would have stuck to the all-savory route myself and doused it with hot sauce. Oh well.

Work. For 6 hours. It wasn't as soul-crushing as it could have been, because we were all there with a purpose. So I was focused on getting stuff done instead of counting down the hours.

Returned to the apt around 7pm, and I was soon off to meet Matt's friends and go ice skating! I met them at their apt in Westwood then we drove to the rink on 5th and Arizona in Santa Monica:


It was fun, although the ice rink in Santa Monica was quite crowded and full of people either skating way too slow as a group or skating really fast and weaving in between everyone else. It was one big obstacle course, essentially. Afterwards, my car (me, Matt, Katherine, Greg, and Benji) headed to Yogurtland on Sawtelle. Then back home. Then sleep, because I had work the next morning too. :/