Surprise Five

Today I was riding home from work, and as per usual I was cutting a little traffic here and there on the 405. I wasn't going to much faster than the traffic because there is no need when I'm on my way home from work. It is not like I am going to be late or something. Anyway,  as I was coming around the section leading up to the 101 connection, which has a lazy left hand curve to it, not more than fifteen feet in front of me I saw a small hand reach out the passenger-side window of the car I was about to pass.. and the palm was facing backward. I could not see the face, but when I saw the hand I could not resist. As I passed by, I stuck out my hand and gave them five.

It is not often you have contact with someone else on the road. You are often in a large mass of humanity, each in your own personalized containers. Interactions between people are scarce, and even more scarce are the day to day interactions that we would otherwise share. This split second interaction opened my eyes a little bit to what we may be missing. Not that I expect people will be passing mustard between cars during rush hour. But I do wonder what it would be like if we all became a little more social during our commutes.

Through a Window, Pain., Quinn, Quinn, Quinn, Other Things

Through a Window, Pain.

So I put my foot through the side window in my living room. Not on purpose, of course. I meant to push off the wall. See, I was lying down on my stomach in the window seat working on my computer, but I got uncomfortable being in the same position after a while. So, I put my foot up behind me to push off to wall and the next thing I knew I was lying on the floor with a bloody foot. Lucky for me I had a friend nearby who was able to run to the store for me and get the bandages I needed to patch myself up. It's been about a week since that happened, but I just thought people might like to know why I have a scar the shape of the Nike symbol on my foot. No it is not because they have asked me to be a spokes person for their new line of frizbee apparel... not yet anyway. ;)

Quinn, Quinn, Quinn,

The problem with telling stories is that the longer you wait to write them down, the less interesting they seam to you. This story was one that, at the time, was very entertaining for me. Hopefully it is for you readers, because then you can comment on it an remind me why. :D 

So I serving at a wedding last week and having a pretty good time doing it too. The bride and groom were both attractive people and so were their friends. Maybe I'm shallow but when you work two weddings a week little things like an attractive and happy wedding party are a big plus. One of the best things about this wedding was that right off the father of the bride got completely smashed. It was great because he's a happy drunk. So was it came to his turn to talk into the microphone and express his blessing (note this immediately after the pastor prayed a tender moving prayer over the young couple) he took it upon himself to introduce everyone in the extended family like he was playing duck, duck, goose. He was hurriedly fumbling around the dinning room, "...and, and this is grandmother (insert asian name) she is weally, weally, old but this was impotant so she made it.... and this this is (insert bride's name)'s cousin Quinn. Lovely Quinn..." The entire wait staff and I had such a hard time not laughing that we all went back in the kitchen cause we couldn't take it anymore. Well later on that night after dinner was served I was helping with the coffee service. Who should I run into but Quinn. Lovely Quinn. Quinn actually works at a Starbucks around here somewhere and wanted to know what kind of coffee we used because she liked it so much. Well, as she was telling her the particular brand we use and (of course) setting her up with a refill... she looked into my eyes I saw it happen. She got hooked. Now I'm not going to say this about all girls, but there is generally a specific moment when girls go from simple conversation to something else, and at that moment ten thousand jiggawatts of pheromones come shooting out their eyes in a ruthless attempt to paralyze their targets. The female will then calmly attempt to bind their prey with invisible threads all the while distracting their prey with their attractive physical attributes, intelligence, talent, and sometimes wealth (aka "womanly whiles") . Some attacks of this nature can be more lethal than others based on the female's execution and the male's escape reflexes. Luckily for me I was at work, and avoided her attack simply because I wasn't paying attention. :D I was however momentarily stunned which gave her time to talk a little bit more (I don't remember what she said), write me a note, and tell me to meet her at the bar. After she got up to leave and I got over the surprise of what just happened, I realized I had no idea how old she was. Being asian, she, as well as several of the girls at the reception, had that ambiguous young look to them which makes it impossible to guess their age. It kinda creeped me out a little because since I got my hair cut nearly every guest at the country club thinks I'm sixteen or seventeen. I really didn't want to end up going on a date with some girl that is still in high school but just looks older. Talk about awkward! Anyway, by the time I finished serving the last couple tables and headed up to the bar, she had apparently gotten her drink, gotten bored, and wandered off somewhere else. Oh well. No loss to me. Later on though she was able to find me again. This time she was a bit more insistent. She gave me her phone number and insisted I send her a text. So I did. The DJ was playing some good music, so I texted "do you dance?" No answer. She ran into me later but was helping nearly dead grandmother out to her car. She once again insisted that I call her and go out some time. Well, it was a good two days before I did finally call Quinn. Unfortunately for her and her hunting instincts she should have given me her number before she went to the bar because she gave me the wrong number. :D I escaped without ever having to find out her age. 

Other Stories

For those of you who don't know: I love good bread. I'm snacking on some that I bought off the day old rack at Food 4 Less. It's not really important, but I couldn't help but mention it. Maybe I shouldn't say this either, but I have taken to pseudo-racing on my way home from work on the 134. It's nothing dangerous cause the freeway is pretty much empty and I'm not going much faster than I do when I am going to work. That said, it is pretty interesting and to do. I'll be riding along the freeway at a nice calm 80, then I'll see some guy burning up the road towards me. About the time they get to me I roll on the throttle and just try to stay level with 'em. It really isn't hard because I get to use the carpool lane so I never even have to go between cars. I don't really even ride to beat them or anything. I just try to stay even, cause otherwise it wouldn't be interesting. I'd win because they'd get stuck behind some cars and then I'd be bored. That's what ends up happening most the time anyway, though.

This last friday was a bit stressful. We had an outdoor wedding that go rained out. In the middle of the reception, right after we served the salad and right before we served the entre we had to pull the entire reception inside. The wind was blowing so hard, in fact, that some of the big hanging paper lanterns started falling on the guests and for some reason sparks were shooting out of one of the extension cords that was up there too! It was a really good thing that the bride was a really good sport. In fact, when she decided to take the wedding inside, and everyone was worried about getting hit with either electric sparks, rain, or falling paper lantern of death, she was all happy and encouraged everyone to hit the drinks because there was an open bar.

Lilly House

I have just finished what I can only refer to as a marathon of background work. In the last two days I have worked as an extra on two shows for a total of 25 hours without reprieve. The total amount of break time I had during the entire ordeal was a whopping 4 hours. So in total I worked 25 out of 29 hours. The first thing I worked on was a pilot for the show, Lilly. Apparently, this new show is a prequel for the show, Gossip Girl.... or something like that. After I got off set at a shiny 7:00 am, I hopped on my motorcycle and flew down the freeway from Chatsworth at 100 mph to my house in Pasadena, shaved, washed my face, collected a new wardrobe, and then hopped back on my bike and flew down the 110 to get to my 9:30 am call time for House all the way down in Carson. House fans, don't get excited. Hugh, was not there. And speaking of people who are not there... I am not really here anymore. I could talk more, but I can't. I am just too darn tired. Being awake and working will do that to you.

I will say before I go, though, that I made some wonderful friends, some of which I'm sure will be involved the Hollywood Prayer Network if nothing else. I also made what should be a fair amount of money, although, if things had gone better I would have made a ton more... but I can't get too annoyed about that. What I can do is get some sleep--so that is what I am giong to do right now.

Where am I now?

Much has happened since my last post. I have quit my job at Sports Marketing and I am now unemployed...ish. I moved out of my house in El Monte, and now I am living in Pasadena. My room is large (it was once a living room) and chilly. Yesterday I was on my first official show. I was an extra for My Boys. I don't really know the show at all, but that wasn't apparently a surprise to anyone I talked to who worked there.  For those who are wanting to know what episode to look for me on, I'm sorry but they didn't tell me what one the footage was for. So, unfortunately I won't be able to give you a heads up. Next week I may have a new job bussing tables at the Mountain Gate Country Club. All I have to do is fill out a small mountain of paperwork, get a drug test, and wait for a week. After that, it sounds like I have the job. The problem is that I find myself frustrated. I am frustrated with myself. I am fighting against the lethargy and apathy that comes from not knowing exactly what to do next. I came down with a plan, but ever since I broke up with Becca, I have been trying to create a new plan--a battle plan without an ally. Everything is now up to me. What do I want now? Where should I work? Where is God leading me? Where I am in the first place? Maybe I'll go and work at the country club. It would pay just enough. Maybe I should keep doing background work. It is very flexible and has potential for making more money. There is also the risk that I would not work that much as well. Maybe I should apply to work as a temp. The pay would be better when there is work for me to do, and the work would be good for me to do. I am tired of feeling like the work I do is bullshit. That is one reason that I have a hard time getting psyched out about working at Mountain Gate. Unfortunately, that's still not enough reason for me to turn it down. I need the money.

One Miserable Night

Last night, after Becca and I broke up, I was up most of the night coughing, sweating, blowing my nose and taking trips to the bathroom to relieve myself. This being sick stuff really sucks! For the majority of the morning I tried to find a way to get to the doctors. I would have simply driven myself there but my fever had left me so weak and dizzy that I didn't dare get on my motorcycle. So I called up some friends, but they were either out of town or I couldn't get a hold of them, so I tried calling a cab. The trouble is that since I live so far away from the center of LA that most of the cab services don't range this far. I finally found one that did when my friend Jeff called me. He had gotten my message and even though he was on his way out of town he called up some other mutual friends and found someone who wasn't busy today and was able to help me out. So I canceled the cab--and I'm glad I did, and my friend David took me to the urgent care center, stayed with me and even filled out my paper work for me! The whole visit to the doctor's took about 4 hours, but he didn't complain the whole time. I am truly blessed to have the friends I have. 

Home Sick

Today I spent the whole day at home reading, not talking--even to people on skype (I chatted instead), and thinking about what I should do. My thoughts ran more or less like this: I have a whole day to do anything except (insert long list of things). I should really make use of that! So I read a book called "Rich Dad's Prophecy" that I stole from my dad's book shelf before I left, finished reading the second book I have by Donald Trump--one very self-important person I might add. I got half way through "Rich Dad's Prophecy when lunch rolled around and I decided to make lunch and work on a book that I've been thinking about. No I won't give out the title online! Someone in my massive audience might steal my idea, and then where would I be? But don't get too excited I bagged that idea when I realized I should check the status of my flights for my Christmas trip. Well, I looked but no one was giving me any indication of what was going on with them because apparently they were too far off to worry about... which started me worrying about them momentarily. Then did various necessary time wasters such as examining the glands in my throat practicing my cough. Until recently I haven't been practicing it much so I guess I'm a little under-conditioned for it. Now I'm a little sore and I don't want to cough anymore. "COACH! TAKE ME OUT!!" And now I'm writing another entry for you my reader(s). I should be finishing my first post or doing something else productive, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I just want to be better and I want to get out of this rat-race, get to Seattle for Christmas, see Becca, and not let anything get in my way.

PS~for those of you who are wondering: yes, we in LA are having a horrible time with our winter storms as well. As a matter of fact it was raining until almost noon. In fact we have had so much weather that all the ski resorts in the mountains around here are open already--which I don't have to tell you has created such confusion because people aren't used to having so many to choose from this early in the season. The panic is widespread verging on stupidity. For all of you deeply disturbed skiers out there trying to decided: my prayers go with you.

Returning Empty Handed

I'm sorry but this post is not the promised continuation of the last post. I have gotten myself very busy since the last time I blogged. As a result, I will have to catch you up on a number of things later on (not this post).

Today, was an interesting and trying day for me. I am now working for a sales/promotion company as an independent distributor. This means that I am technically my own business, but that happens to only contract for Sports Marketing Inc. What I like about the company is the opportunity that I have to be mentored by some excellent people. Honestly, the quality of the people I work with is the reason I chose to work there. 

I am doing well there now. Not surprisingly I've learned the basics of pitching/sales rather quickly and I am simply refining my technique at this point. At the end of my first week I was "setting the pace" for the promotion that I was working on. This means that I was selling the most Dodger ticket packages of any of the other distributors at the office. On Tuesday morning, one of the managers at the office called all the distributers into the office and explained that some people would have to pick up the pace and sell more pieces or having them work for Sports Marketing would be a waste of time for them and for the company. She then went on to say that people who were interested in moving up should be watching me because I was next in line to be promoted. As you can imagine, that was a nice little confidence boost. Fortunately, and unfortunately I have been identified as a leader at the company now. I say unfortunately simply because I am not a leader yet. Even though I am only a distributor, yesterday I was actually invited to be present for a meeting on the development of what will eventually become a brand new division for the company. I was also assigned to train a new employee. Normally only managers or assistant managers train new employees--or at the very least a person who is an account manager. Having me train this new person was kind of unheard of since I am still going through the training myself in a way. The only problem was that I was not able to work the field myself as much and as a result I didn't make as much money. I wasn't too worried about that though. I figured I just had an off day. Today I had another person to train: this time someone who had actually been working longer than me. They had been trained by some other people before, but were having some problems because no one had broken the pitch down for her piece by piece and helped her correct some bad habits she had begun to develop. It wasn't hard but I was able to get her back on track. The bad things was that do to a combination of me mis-judging some customers and some genuinely bad locations for selling I ended up not selling a single piece of merchandise. I did every thing that I had tried to do right, but the results simply weren't there today. I hurt a bit to think about how I had fumbled opportunities but in the end I know that it was bound to happen eventually. Everyone goes home empty at some point. If I never had a day like today I would never know what it feels like to handle the frustration, disappointment and confusion of coming home carrying merchandise instead of money.