Some Seriously Needed Friends & Family Time

Clearly I haven't been keeping up with this blog for the past couple weeks. In my defense, these last couple of weeks have been rather busy with friends and family. I had so much fun with everyone here and couldn't believe how fast it went. Also, I knew I needed to see everyone for my own sanity but I really don't think everyone stayed long enough cause I'm right back on that razors edge of teetering over to craziness. So if you don't mind, everyone, come back very very very soon.

I'm not going to be writing much about anything other than just describing the barrage of photos I'm going to be cramming into this post. So please enjoy and I hope to have videos up soon cause I definitely used my Flip Cam more than taking photos.

First things first. These two lovely ladies, Kellie and Alisa (left and right), took us out to a fantastic sake bar called Ace Wasabi, in the marina district. Not only did I drink my very first Sake

Bomb I was

 also sitting next to Tory Belleci, one of the newer guys from MythBusters on Discovery Channel. Pretty sweet... I guess if you're a nerd like me. I unfortunately didn't have the balls to ask for an autograph or even say hi. Not really my style I suppose. As for Sake, I was totally expecting something with more of a burn like a mix between wiskey and vodka and after about seven shots I decided to break out the iPhone and look up the average alcohol content of Sake. Yeah, right around the same as a bottle of wine. 

The next evening my mom, brother, and sister showed up. I couldn't have been more excited to see them. Not only was it great to get some well needed hugs from the family, they brought a real bed, a couch, my carpets, and all my camping gear that I had in storage up in Eugene. 

I tried to take my family to all the touristy places and show them what everyone should see while in San Francisco. We made it to the Golden Gate Bridge and chilled down at Pier 39 for a while. I personally don't have very many pics of my family because I forgot my camera and all of them had cameras. I suppose I should have been a little bit more proactive in asking for the photos via email or something before I wrote this. Damn. 

Either way, we had a blast. My mom tolerated her boys swearing like sailors, my big city driving, and everyone poking fun at everyone. It was like I never left. 

Then Monday rolled around and even more guests showed up. Ian (Kendra's younger brother), Cody (friend, old co-worker), and Jane a.k.a. Janice (friend and Ian's lovely girlfriend) rolled in and it was time to RAGE!

We strolled around the city, back to Pier 39, some of the really expensive designer stores, all over and around the San Francisco Zoo, back to the city for more strolling all with Ian hobbling around on a broken big toe. Let's just say, I wasn't kidding about the RAGE part. Our first night all together was fueled with alcohol, longboarding, and Ian deciding to go into a full out sprint and kicking a curb. Not to mention he just crashed on his longboard and acquired some amazing road rash, including on his ear. Silly Schmian.

[left: Ian and Kendra with matching scarfs.]

[right: Kendra and Jesse looking sexy in the city... duh]

[left: Cody & Ian riding a big furry tractor]

[right: Jesse double fisting the best thing to come out of mexico... Churros]

[left: Giraffes at the SF Zoo. My new favorite animal]

[right: Two pasty white kids smooching]

I had so much fun with everyone here and I can't wait for everyone to come back. I hope it's sooner rather than later but I think we'll have to make a trip up there to grab a breath of fresh Oregon air. 

[EDIT: I nearly forgot, and with a polite reminder, before anyone even showed up my friends Kolby and Allison showed up at my work disguised behind newspapers and visited for a brief moment. Unfortunately it was super busy and I could only get out and take this photo with Kolby with a quick round of hugs. Love ya guys.]

Dependancies and Driving

I can’t begin to tell you how annoying it is to not have reliable internet connection. Hence, not being able to keep this blog updated as much as I would like. Even more annoying is how dependent on a connection to the world wide web we are. Although, I find it slightly humorous when I’m sitting in a cafe getting things done on the internet and the connection craps out, stay calm and you can just sit back and watch the parade of the panicked. Slowly but surely, each person comes to the realization that the computer they are hypnotized by doesn’t have the ability to bring them the information that they need.

Yesterday we had a ton of fun. We decided to drive across both of the bridges (Bay Bridge and Golden Gate) and head over to Muir Woods area just past Sausalito, which is a “National Recreation Area”. Unfortunately we drove to the entrance of the Muir Woods and they wanted roughly $80.00 per person... well more like $5.00 per adult but we were just stubborn. We think we shouldn’t have to pay a fee to look at some trees, but that's neither here nor there.

So we had this great idea to drive even further up the road, which by the way was quite possibly the windiest road I have even ventured up. When we got to the top we ended up stopping off at this overlook which was absolutely beautiful. Steep rock faces right into the ocean and you could see the city to our left and there were patches of dark and ominous clouds out above the ocean that made for some cool pics.


After we got tired of getting blown around we decided to DRIVE some more. So off we went, up a road that was even windier than the previous. I soon came to realize that we were now traveling on Highway 1. Here’s where it gets really fun. If you know anything about Kendra’s past, you would know that she used to get pretty car sick if given the right conditions. You know the situation. We’ve all been there at one time or another, reading a book while in the back seat of the family van. Which is a big YUCK for just about anyone I believe. Well, this road was so bumpy and windy that her skin had turned to a ghoulish green and she was fighting back the urge to jettison her breakfast.

The best... slash... funniest... slash... actually worst part of the whole situation is that we failed to use or fancy iPhones to see where the hell good old Highway 1 led to. We just assumed that it would eventually lead to a real highway. Who would have guessed it actually goes for another 56 miles north until a tiny podunk town named Olema. At about the point when Kendra felt the need to clear out the Safeway plastic grocery bag of our road munchies for a barf bag I figured that it might be a good time to just turn around and carefully make our way back to civilization.

Luckily for Thug Passion, Kendra never lost her guts and we stopped at a way random 7-11 and scooped up a bottle of Sprite to calm her stomach.

After all that, we figured it would be a good idea to just chill at home and watch a movie, but we didn’t have one that sounded that good so we went and picked up a great movie I would recommend to anyone that doesn’t mind a tiny bit of violence. Green Street Hooligans. One of my favorites and I am surprised I hadn’t picked it up earlier. It stars Elijah Woods and is the second movie he did after the last of the epic trilogy Lord of the Rings. The first movie he did after LOTR, was another of my all time favorites, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I feel like I’m trying to sell these movies but today is the first day that it has rained since I’ve been here and it kinda feels like a good time to grab a movie and chill at home. That and word on the street, or the weather application on my iPhone, says that it’s snowing back home and I am pretty jealous.

On that note, I would really like it if anyone from home could save some snow for me and maybe just mail it to me. Any inquiries for an address may be directed and answered in the comments section of this blog. Please and thank you.