VEGAS, BABY, VEGAS

That's right today is the day we are going to Vegas everyone be prepared for debauchery previously unreachable of except maybe by Joe.

Congratulations to the Brave and Mighty Trail Racers

The Suspense is Killing Me

The world waits with breath held, Did Joe get his license in the mail?

couple of things...

First, and the most important:
Tom informed me last night that there is a mandatory meeting on May 28, 2006 at 4pm. This meeting will take place at the Mai Tai bar (if you need directions, don't bother).

Secondly, the following pain in the ass story is true and could only happen to me. So, I was having a problem with my new phone (it keep shutting off, and I was misssing important calls, yeah right). So, I called to get another phone to replace the wacky phone that was causing so much stress in my life. My phone company agreed to send this new phone because mine is still under warranty (I neglected to mention that it had been dropped on more than one occasion). And, I get this new cool phone, and guess what?
Yup, you guessed it. The shit didn't work! What the fuck. That is so my luck! But, my luck is about to change, I can feel it. I will win lots'o'cash in Vegas...I know it.

Thirdly, I wonder if Joe got his new license in the mail today? I hope so.

VEGAS!

A place where the beer flows like wine and beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano

Two Beers and no Idea

I hate this blank page that blogger gives you to start your posts. So devoid of color, devoid of inspiration. Anybody go out and buy the new Chili Peppers album yet? It not all good but there are some inspiring moments on there. I think I've mentioned this already. Honestly though if you don't own Kings of Leon "Aha Shake Heartbreak" you're really missing out. This is the album I swore I would never buy form iTunes because the CD I bought wouldn't let me rip it, but this is really a CD I don't want to be without so I've bought it now...twice. My favorite line from this album is in the last track called "Rememo" it goes like this: "I'm overdue another round/to gain control and take me down." So there that is.














FUUUUUUUUUUUUCk I can't think of a goddamn thing to write about. Words once poured out of me on this blog. I think I've have emptied the contents of my mind. Maybe a beer would help. Beer helps many things. I think I'm gonna go crack one. At the very least it will cool my sweating brow. Be right back
(Pause for dramatic affect)














Thats much better. "This beer is delicious but its so filling!" Lauri just walked in and gave me a rash of shit for taking pictures of myself and posting them. And I quote "Did you really want that beer or did you just want to take a picture of yourself with it?" Thanks Lauri now you got me asking myself that very same question. Well no matter, the beer is cracked so its me and him to the bitter end. I thought I might expound on the various mundanities of life inside the Rat Race, but its been done hasn't it? It all seems so far away from me and my beer anyway. I don't have much to complain about. If I get sick of sitting at my desk, I just walk away from it for an hour or two, say I'm tendng to my events and no one is the wiser. It can be quite exciting at times. Just ask Emily, she got a taste of the life of an Event Manager back in April. Any how...
So I guess I never answered my own prompt about what album inspired my youth and where I was when I first heard Dr. Dre's "The Chronic" On a side note if you go back to that post, you will see that Owen has never heard the Chronic. How he managed to become a functioning memeber of society without ever being exposed to the Chronic I'm not sure, but I'm sure going to remember my deprived friends across the pond the next time I listen to some Gansta Rap. By the way Owen if your reading this, you must get some Rap into your rotation. May I recomend: Dr Dre's "The Chronic" 2pac's "All Eyez on Me" GangStarr's "Moment of Truth" I don't want you to go all Ali G on us, but you at least need to give it a shot.
Anyway so back to me. The first time I heard the Chronic was in my friend Adrians Lexus on the way to a PHS Basketball game. It was different than any other rap I'd heard before that. the most influential album of my Youth youth, was Social Distortion's self titled album , the one with "Ball and Chain" on it. And I know I'm dating myself but its true.

This beer is done.














Do I stop? Its ten O'clock, I have to go to bed, but I don't wanna. I just wanna keep drinking and writing. I think I'll have another one and then decide what to do after that. I always make better decisions after the second beer any way. Be right Back.
(Pause for Dramatic Effect)














I switched to glass. I think a cold PBR goes down mighty smooth in a nice cold pint glass don't you?
So even though I'm on myspace now, I don't really care for it. I get bombarded with ads everytime I'm on there and I can't check it at wor because they have those obnoxious dating service ads witht he scantily clad women. Did you know that at Albertsons and Ralphs a 12 pack of PBR can be purchased for $5.99. They pay so little respect to the PBR. They treat it like Keystone Light or something. Don't they know that PBR won a blue ribbon in the 1834 world's fair? Well their ignorance is my gain. Well I'm gonna end here. The ideas just aren't flowing as fast as the beer.

Perma-Buzzed

Now I remember Why I quit drinking for a month. See, my mind wanted a beer so bad it made me forget. Cottonmouth, acid reflux, general malaise, mood swings, swollen face, and sore dry ass crack(from beer, shits, and anal leakage...). There's only one answer to all these ailments I just have to figure out how to pull it off: Stay drunk all the time. Work fucked-up, play smashed, shower hammered, go to sleep three sheets to the wind, and wake up shit -faced. A flask in the desk drawer and a beer in the toilet tank. I can do it. I can do anything I set my mind to. Don't doubt me, I'm a go getter.

5 more days...

If you aren't excited enough about Vegas coming up, then check out the IP's website for the Vegas cams that are in the casino, out front, and on the street. Its pretty cool!

Having a job is ridiculous.

Have you heard the news...

So, like any other morning, I check my e-mail first thing at work (because who wants to work while you are basically still sleeping, that provides for many errors) Anyway, I see that I have a message from myspace. Apparently, I have a friend request from someone named Pete. Could this be true, or just a joke. Had Pete D actually fallen for the myspace trick. Sure enough, I viewed the profile and it is Pete D. Had he been weakened by the fact that we are all on it? What had happened? How had this happened? All that shit talking and here he is. Who would have though?

Well, Pete, welcome to myspace. Does this mean that Randy will be making a reappearance to myspace now that Pete has been seduced by it?

Code Name: AV 5

It has often been my contention that in-between us sane folks and the guys who talk to and shit themselves while wandering the streets, there are many people who walk right down the line between sanity and insanity. I work with one of those people from time to time. First a word of explanation, at most convention centers, walkie communication is done by department codes, (don't ask me why) Like if you work in Events you are assigned a number according to your rank. There are 4 event managers here so being the first hired, but not the director, I would be known as "Event 2" If you work for Audio Visual you would be "AV 1, 2, 3 0r 4" depending on how many techs there are. So we have this AV tech who comes and works for us on big shows. Our Biggest show, needs no more than 3 techs. However, at his home facility he is known as "AV 5" so in any radio communication he refer to himself as such. For instance: "AV5 to Peter" and so forth. My response: "Go ahead, Bruce" (Bruce is his real name) Here we don't have the biggest crew so you know everyone's first name by thier voice, no need for codes. So its funny that he won't refer to himself by his own name, but he also is only 1 of 3 or sometimes even 2 so designating himself "AV 5" is doubly nonsensical. I've often wanted ask him why he does that, but its that sort of question that sets these "linewalkers" off. His obviuos mental frailty is accentuated by his Einsteinish hair and his pants that are 5 sizes (not exaggerating) too big and held up with suspenders.

Happy Mother's Day (to my Mom)

My mom won't see this but its still cute! That's me at the far left, then Leslie at the right. Sheila is at the bottom left and Sharon at the right. Our family dog Millie is in the middle of course. These are the family baby pictures!

Coffee

I think i'm addicted to coffee. I don't feel complete if i don't enjoy a cup or two or three of coffee. I'm not addicted to caffine, i don't think, just coffee. it might be one of those things like you subconsciously need it. But Sheila is addicted to caffine, aren't you Sheila? She gets fits. lol. I have at least one cup at work everyday and i try to squeeze in another cup if i'm not busy. Thats around 8:45am. At about 11:30am my stomach is so tore up from being empty and the coffee is eating away at my esophagus. This forces me to eat lunch early. I hate that too, but that's another blog for another time. I drink coffee at work for two reasons. One is because its the thing to do. You know, walk around the office talking to people while you sip your coffee. Its so cliche. The other reason is cuz i'm not a morning person. I hate getting up early. I know that people get up way earlier than me but arriving at work at 8:30am for 7 years is absolute torture. So i need the coffee to wake me up and to actually be social. People at work know that they really shouldn't talk to me until about 10am cuz i give some dirty looks and i won't work until i'm feeling ready. So what about the weekends? Sure i get to sleep in and i do sleep in. take today for instance, I woke up at 11am. Do i need coffee to wake me up? no. Do i need it to get myself started for the day? no. But did i drink two cups of coffee this morning/afternoon? hell yeah i did. In doing this it has lead me to blog. Sheila and I started...or was it Pete...well the three of us use the word "scheme" but we use it more like "schkeme" as a way of us making shit up and talking nonsense. Like when you get a great idea when your drunk and then the next day you wonder why that was a good idea. You were schkemeing! Coffee leads me to schkeming and boy have there been some great schkemes. Like the time i thought it would be a great idea to go shopping for randy and alex. that schkeme took place at about 9am and by 11am it fell apart cuz it was a ridiculous idea. Even as i type this nonsense rambling post, my coffee induced buzz is fading and i now think its a bit lame. But before i was on a roll. At least i thought so. I'm totally schkeming! I don't think i'll even proofread this post cuz it'll take away from its originality of my caffine high. Lack of proper capitalization or puctuation, and runaway sentences. Its all proof of my high. and now i think i'm done. And i also wonder, have i blogged about this before?

Inspiration

Thats right. It comes in bottles. You just got to know where to look and NEVER give up!

A Prompt

Two question to all you Rat Racers out there:

What was the most influential album of your youth? (13-20 years of age)

Where were you when you first heard Dr. Dre's "The Chronic"?

The Answers

Where on the internet can you find the answers to how to live your life?

I Love My Woman

Its CINCO DE MAYO! How will you celebrate??

The vicious cycle of men's fashion

I just spent $300 on work clothes. You work more so you can afford more clothes but then the more you work the more work clothes you need or people start to think your homeless. And THATS how the man keeps you down.

I have a new life's goal...to find a job where I can work barefoot. Thats the dream.

Life is making me angry!

There are so many things i want to cover here that are bothering me. Its 9:15am and i'm angry. Usually i'm mad at this time because of work realted issues, but today i'm angry at everything. Every morning i listen to KFWB on the way to work. Sometimes the reports bother me or make me wonder why i live here. There are tons of bad things that go on in the world and i hate it. Then there are the funny or lighthearted stories. When was the last time you heard something "nice" on the news? Its been a while for me. So this morning they talked about gas and immigration rallies. Two things that get my blood boiling. First lets start with immigration. Sure enough a couple of my staff took the day off. It was a busy day and i think it still would have been busy even if they were here, so i'm not going to let them have that. I'm just so over it. Many of the protesters aren't struggling financially, they're just trying to prove a point. And the fact that kids are taking off school?? That is the most...i mean...ah! Now on to gasoline. I gave myself a test this last week. Last monday i filled my tank for $3.11. It cost me $30 to fill up. I fill my tank every week and $30 is not cool. Now i know that there are those who drive further and can sympathize here. But i decided that i was gonna do whatever it took to make that gas last. The whole week i was very careful to not accelerate quickly at lights. I was going to drive 65-70mph on the freeway. I wasn't going to drive around during the weekend. I wasn't going to drive anywhere once i parked my car at work. My car is in good shape so i figured it might be possible to stretch out the gas for a week and a half or maybe even two weeks. I was disappointed in the results. I'll be filling up my tank today. One week and barely another day. So there goes that. Now i know the actual recommended speed for saving gas on the freeway is 55mph, but that will get you killed. There is no way you can drive 55mph on the freeway. That's like going backwards. I have noticed that others are driving slower and only a few cars will weave in and out to pass you, that's good. Unfortunelty its only going to get worse. I just might end up actually driving 55mph to and fro cuz the next gas prediction is $3.50-$3.60 in the next two weeks. I heard that this morning and wasn't thrilled. Could that actually happen? I even thought about asking nearby co-workers to carpool with me. I'm not poor but its becoming ridiculous. And then on a side note, one of the cars that was weaving in and out of traffic had two puppies in the back of the truck trying to huddle together to keep warm. *sigh* .........moving on....... So i just don't know what i can do to relax. Do i need a vacation? Probably, but then i'd have to pay gas to go somewhere and deal with stupid people. Should i see a shrink? Maybe. Then i can work through the issues. Should i not listen to the news anymore? No, i'm 28 not 14, i need to know what's going on and should know what's going on. Should i become an alcoholic and be oblivious to things and/or just forgot them momentarily? Could happen. So this is a moment in Lauri's brain. Annoying huh? Yeah i know. And when i get to work all i want is a cup of coffee and read my email. But guess what? On this day of being angry.....no coffee was made. If it were a twelve cup maker i'd be all over that but its a huge industrial one that will take 30 minutes to brew and i'd still have to clean it out from yesterday. Life isn't very fair. I will however try to make this day better. Its now 9:45am and i'm calming down after drinking some tea and venting to you all. Thanks for being there for me! :)

Dumbest Protest Ever

Something occurred to me today about this May 1st immigrant thing. The protests are about how America needs immigrant labor (i.e. under paid and un-skilled labor) So, in essence the protesters are fighting for the right to remain under paid and unskilled? Thats pretty dumb. During the whole prop 187 thing, the immigrant population was fighting for the use of public services. That I can understand. This thing is just dumb. They're saying "look at how useful we can be to you, if we never learn English, accept lower pay and never learn any valuable skills." Am I wrong?

A month of sobriety, Lessons Learned

Lesson # 1: Your friends will shun you.
Nobody I know encouraged my desicion to quit drinking, not did they make any effort to make me feel welcome among them when they were drinking.

Lesson #2:Drinking does not cause weight gain.
If drinking causes you to gain weight then stopping drinking should cause you to lose weight. Neither I, nor Randy lost a single pound from quitting drinking for a month. So drink on, guilt free.

Lesson #3: Drinking is not the cause of your mental problems.
In fact, a good stiff drink might actually put you in a better mental state than being completely sober. Without alcohol, there were times when I found myself an anxiety ridden wreck. I also thought that not drinking might help alleviate the unexplained anger I sometimes feel when having to get up early in the mornings... but it didn't. Overall, I found myself in no better mental state after sobering up than before.

Lesson #4: Self Discipline is highly over rated.
Life is short, depriving yourself of things makes it unenjoyable. Eat, drink and be merry.

Lesson 5: Beer is Good
It just is.

If you had asked me to predict what the result of this little experiment would be, I would have said the complete opposite would have occured. I didn't learn anything about moderation or the body being a temple. All I learned was that if you wanna get fucked up from time to time, its probably a good idea.