I really don’t know where this one is going, so I’ll just start writing and see where I land…
This was a pretty good weekend. It started a little early on Thursday when I basically drove to The City for dinner. It started out as this grand plan of making a weekend out of it and kind of fell apart. Jen was supposed to meet me down there in SF (we have United points to burn) and then go to dinner that evening with the company. I was going to go to the conference for the day and then fly home while she took the car and visited her friends. Jen had to work so scratch her out of the plan. And oh, there’s nothing going on at the conference on Friday for you either. Scratch that too. Well, that just leaves me with a really nice prepaid hotel room in The City and a dinner to attend. Gma had a day off on Friday so I switched my plans and drove to Pleasanton and met up with my buddy Michael and rode BART into the city. Not only did this add a trip to visit my awesome Gma (and if anyone says anything different about her I’ll cut ya) but I saved myself at least $50. One, I don’t have to pay tolls to drive into the city ($9). And two, the cheapest parking I found overnight was $39 plus tax. Plus I don’t have to deal with the obnoxious 80 traffic going over the bridge. So I figured this was a pretty good plan. After lunch on Thursday I headed down to meet Michael.
As I mentioned before, I love driving in the Bay Area because it’s like playing a real life game of Frogger. I jump from lane to lane and I get a little giggle when I see a logging truck because it really reminds me of the game. But I got to Pleasanton BART station and I had read before that I could leave my car there for 24 hours for $1. Yes, I saved $40 by parking there and no tolls. Score. Well it was raining pretty hard and as most of you know I think I’m made out of sugar and I might melt when wet. Not really. I don’t mind the rain at all. But if I can avoid getting drenched, I try to take advantage of it. I parked rather close to the station and went to the machine to pay to park. When I get there it says I am paid until 4a. Problem. I don’t plan on returning to the Pleasanton area before 4 A.M. I start to panic, but decide I’ll figure it out so I pay my dollar and head into the station. Michael was running a bit late so we took the next train leaving the station. In the meantime, the parking situation was on my mind. Part of the reason I added 45 minutes on my trip other than to see Gma was to save money on this pointless trip. A ticket of at least $20 would not piss me off, but would also make my plan a complete and utter failure. I get on my phone and read that the lot I parked in is privately owned HOWEVER the parking structure is BART owned and can park there for 24 hours. I deliberate that since I already paid a whole dollar to this evil private company that I should take my chances. But then the voice of reason kicked in and told me to move my car. I walked back out to the lot and moved my car to the structure. This structure is the biggest clusterfuck I’ve encountered in the parking structure department. They had so many signs saying permit required during this time, but not this time… reserved parking… single day only… I was so overwhelmed that I had no clue where I could actually park. Finally by the third level I just gave up and parked and started to develop a case to argue when I got the ticket. I paid BART $1 for parking and prayed. Yes, I had just doubled my parking expenses for nothing.
We got into the city and it was pouring down rain. I had my rain jacket but my friend was dressed smartly… sans an umbrella or hood. Now, if I was wearing a $1,000 suit, I would make sure that I had something to keep it dry. But in his defense he was not made aware of my plan to do this trip as cheap as possible or my enjoyment of walking in the city in general. Google Maps was confused and we took the roundabout way to get to the hotel which sits on top of Nob Hill. It’s a beautiful hotel with a fantastic bar on the top level with an amazing view of the surrounding area. We had a few drinks then headed to dinner after his jacket dried off.
Dinner was kind of a blur. Maybe it was because I was hungry or most likely it was the fact that I had four glasses of wine before dinner was served. Needless to say I was feeling good. The company was nice enough to hire us a limo to take us where we needed to go. And where I needed to go was to hang out with my college roomie Steve at another bar. I connect up with him and have a few more drinks and some cake. By 10:30, I am completely fried. I am ready to call it a night and Steve drops me off at my hotel. Somewhere around 5 A.M. I wake up from my drunken stupor with a massive hangover. I get up to take some advil and go back to sleep. What was unusual was I was drinking good stuff all night which just proves that my body is not really as picky as I thought.
I woke up feeling better a little later and headed out back to Pleasanton. When I got to my car I had resigned myself to having a ticket waiting for me. Yet, the parking gods had shined down on me and didn’t give me a ticket. I guess I did park in the right place. I drove over to Tracy and hung out Gma for a few hours and got caught up on the family business. I really miss not having her in Chico because it’s just fun to hang out with her and do little things. We used to go to Target and our errands together then go to dinner on Sundays. It was our thing. But I had to head home to get back to Chico for dinner with our friends Spencer and Jenny.
We met them for dinner at Smokin Moes for some bbq. I can’t complain that bbq is always good no matter when it is. We hung out at the restaurant where I discovered that Spencer has the same mean streak I have and I love it. He knows how to get the truth out of those kids. We then headed over to dueling pianos because Jenny wanted to check it out. We got there early so we could have a table. When the show started I swear that is was like the scene out of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” If you don’t recall that movie, here’s the clip:
It was fun but I felt I was in that club between the pianist and the crowd. I was just waiting for Betty Boop to offer me cigarettes. Thankfully, Jenny and Spenser felt the same way and we bolted.
Saturday morning I dropped Jen and Vanessa off at Nash’s for brunch while they had girl time and my buddy Conner came to visit. Before Conner got here, I picked them up from brunch where they were they met a short gun salesman (wonder why guns were his calling) that was trying to pick up on Vanessa. Jen had a few glasses of OJ in her and was ready to plan. I dropped them off at Vanessa’s house and I got to hang out with Conner. I talk to Conner pretty much all day via text. He’s the rally commissioner at one of my schools and has become a good friend. Most of our conversations keep us both entertained for the day, but we don’t hang out much in person. So he came up and we went and worked out. Normally I don’t enjoy working out with people doing weights because they slow me down and I rock out. But I actually enjoyed working out with him because he matches me workout ethic and tempo it was a good push. We’ve actually been pushing each other to get stronger while working out. I know it’s dumb to get in a competition with a 16 year old working out, but I think we both benefit. We also went on a nice run outside and hit the hot tub.
When we got back to my place we started the uphill battle of educating Conner on pop culture. I joked with him that he lives in a cave. The first movie I had him watch was Clue—one of my favorites. It’s SUPER campy, but full of one liners. Then I broke him into the John Hughes library with Weird Science. It is hilarious how much more raunchy 80s movies are compared to today’s flicks. The difference is that in the 80s they were coy about it and now it’s overt whether you want to see it or not. Finally the Woodstock’s pizza showed up (It’s like crack for Conner) and we had a nice carpet picnic with Jen. I also broke him into Mario Party where we all got beat by the computer… super lame. If there are three real players, the computer shouldn’t win it on bonus stars. It’s bullshit. But Conner had to bail home and I met up with some of my buddies for cocktails.
I’m going to talk about my buddy Loren for a second. I met him through my friend Speed Bump. Loren is great. He’s a smart guy that has a lot of the same interests as me. So we always have lots to discuss. But where Loren and I differ is confidence. I know I’m awesome. Ask me and I will tell you. Loren is up there too, but doesn’t want to admit it to himself. Last night was an example of it. Not only is Loren a smart guy, he’s pretty good looking too. My point is that he has a lot going for him and I’m dealing with a grenade here. But besides normal drinking debauchery, Loren was only successful at talking to ladies when they were old. I mean not only in age, but in appearance. These ladies that were in line with us at LaSalles looked like they were rode hard and put away wet. With their faux fur jackets, cupcakes, and smiley face balloon for the bouncer. Yes, cupcakes. They offered us one but I was scared they were drugged and I would wake up in a ditch with my underwear missing. But Loren ate not one, but two and was a little chatter box with these ladies. When we got into the bar, they split and we were on our own again. After a while we migrated to the Bear where again in line we met another girl. This time she was a college student that was actually a nice girl. I’m not saying she was a knock out, but she was nice and willing to talk. I tried again to help him out but no luck.
Now, I’m not picking on Loren for his lack of skills. Because it’s not that he lacks skills, he lacks the self confidence to go after what he wants. I think many people lack it because they are scared of the rejection. Trust me, I’ve been rejected plenty of times for things I really wanted. Did it slow me down? Sure… for about five minutes while I developed a new plan for getting what I want. I don’t expect things to be handed to me. Sometimes it is and I’m thankful. But most of the times I have to put in the work and use my knowledge (my good looks don’t hurt either) to get what I wanted. Do I get EVERYTHING I want? Certainly not. But I’ve been successful enough to build that confidence that I need to push my agenda. Because if you don’t have an agenda you’ll not only bullshitting me, you’re bullshitting yourself. Everyone has a plan for life. Now if you accept that then you can start realizing that your friends and those around you can help you achieve what you want. I’m not saying use your friends. That would be wrong. But your friends (at least I am) are willing to help you achieve your goals as long as you don’t take me for granted or step on me to achieve more. But there’s a saying that together everyone achieves more. It’s more than some cheesy moniker coaches use. It’s a truth that your friends are going to be there to help you as long as you let them where you are going in the first place.
