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Can you do Vegas and back in 24hrs?

In short, yes.  Do you want to?  Probably not.  After driving from San Diego to LA and back on Saturday, I ended up going out to Downtown and then North Park that night.  While out, I got a drunk dial from my friends Robbie, Sam and Kenny asking if I wanted to go to Vegas for the next 24hrs and be back late Sunday night.  They all had way too much to drink to drive and they wanted an opinion from someone who wasn't drunk.  I thought about it for a second and said why not.  I wasn't sure if it was possible, but I was willing to give it a try.  Plus I knew somehow we would get back because Sam and Robbie had work they couldn't miss and I had a big test.


Vegas recap
-We ate way too many Jack in the Box tacos thanks to all the free taco coupons we've gotten from all the Padres games this season
-We were threatened by some guy in Jack in the Box's drive through at 3AM
-I sports bet on the Chargers for the first time!
-We found the only Chargers sports bar in Las Vegas, Michael's Pub!
-Played beer pong at O'Shea's
-Ate Pinks for lunch!
-Discovered my Dealer friend Jessica from the Planet Hollywood Pleasure Pit no longer works there  :(
-Ziplined for the first time down Fremont Street!
-Four guys that are all 6' tall or taller in a 2 door Honda Civic Coupe for a roadtrip is a bad idea!  My neck is still sore!
-It's still hot in Vegas in October!  I assumed it would be cool because it's now fall, man was I wrong!  Plus the AC on our car didn't work, it was a nightmare!
-DON'T go on a road trip with Kenny, Sam and Robbie!  They sing show tunes for hours!  Seriously!
-The best part was that thanks to my winnings, I came home with more than I left with!


Thinking about it, it's not the first time I've done this, I've gone to...
-Chico, CA and back in 36hrs with three drivers*
-Phoenix, AZ and back in 30hrs with two drivers*
-Fresno, CA and back in 20hrs with two drivers

*denotes drinking haha

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Or was it...

Whichever one it is, Redline energy drink fooled me twice...

Back in October 2008 I was watching the local evening news and heard this warning about Redline energy drinks.  Being the curious type that I am, at that moment I decided that I would give the drink a try.  A few days later on a weekend roadtrip up to Los Angeles for the Long Beach Half Marathon, I told my buddy Robbie about the drink and we decided to try it.  So 10AM on that fateful Monday morning we each drank a Redline and went to the Getty Musuem in Malibu.  It took a while to take effect, but when it did, I was wrecked!  All I remember was feeling like I was going to vommit all day long, which made my drive back down to San Diego utter hell.

Back to present day.  Thanks to waking up early for a race Saturday morning  and daytime drinking, I found myself falling asleep at 3PM at the Adams Ave Street fair.  I told my friends I needed a Monster so we headed over to a liquor store.  While buying drinks my buddy Trevor picked up a Redline, my buddy Joel followed suit and alas I reluctantly did the same.  By some act of god, Trevor chugged the thing within seconds and was fine.  Joel and I on the other hand didn't get off so easy.  Joel finished his, whereas I drank 3/4 of mine and met up with some friends in Del Mar.  After seeing how I was shaking like a crackhead, they decided to take the drink from me and pour it out.  Thank god!  As the next few hours progressed, the shaking stopped but I did start to get chest pains.  By the time I finally tried to go to bed at 2AM, I still felt the lasting effects from the drink.

In Redline's defense, it's designed to be drank before you workout and I didn't work out after consuming it.  I did do a mile bike ride through North Park back to my car, but that's probably not what they had in mind.  The bottle also says to always begin use with one-quarter bottle (2 Ounces) of Redline daily to assess your tolerance and to never exceed more than 4 ounces per serving or more than one bottle daily, but we ignored that warning.

I'm kind of curious how it works if I consume the correct amount before a workout, but after the last two experiences, I'll pass.  Moral of the story, STAY AWAY FROM REDLINE!

Am I a bandwagon fan?

The other day I was talking to a friend about the SDSU vs Washington State football game we went to a few days ago.  Surprisingly that was the first SDSU football game I've ever been to.  While we were talking about the game, my buddy mentioned how good the game was.  Somehow I didn't even notice.  I started wondering how I didn't notice.  It was either because I was too drunk or I just don't care if we won or loss.  The more I think about it, I believe drinking was part of it, but I mostly just didn't care.

Then I started thinking about all the teams I identify with: Seattle Seahawks, San Diego Chargers, San Diego Padres (kind of) and SDSU men's basketball.  I'm a Seahawks fan because I grew up watching Seahawks games with my dad.  I can still remember him always wearing his Seahawks jersey every time a game was played on TV.  I became a Chargers and Padres fan while growing up in San Diego going to the games with my dad.  I always assumed I grew into caring more about Chargers football as became a teenager, but now that I think about it, it's possible I became a fan when we started doing well a few years back.  I've only recently started to care about SDSU basketball in the last few years, even before I became a student at SDSU, but I hopped on the bandwagon when they started doing well.

So I guess what it comes down to is that I might be a bandwagon fan.  The more I think about it, what's so bad about being a bandwagon fan?  I cared about all these teams before they were good, but once they started playing really well I really started to pay attention.  What kind of a fan wants to love a team that is horrible year after year?  Maybe more of us are bandwagon fans than we thought...

I might have a problem...

I've come to the stark realization that I might watch a bit too much TV.  It all started in the Fall semester of 2010 when I worked under Sergeant Johns.  Every night between the hours of 8PM and 10PM we'd just sit around the break room and watch prime time television and now I'm hooked.  Here's a list of the shows I don't miss an episode of...
-Chuck*
-How I met your mother*
-Two and a half men
-Top Gear (US version)*
-Tosh.O*
-The League*
-It's always Sunny in Philadelphia*
-Modern Family
-Criminal Minds*
-The Office
-Community*
-The Big Bang Theory*

*denotes shows I've seen every episode of.

Eh, they don't seem to be interfering with my life at all so I'll continue to keep watching them!

Pageants

A few days ago my mom was watching the Miss Universe Pageant.  I saw it while walking by and just blew it off.  Then the other day I received a Facebook invite from one of my ex-gf's friend for a pageant fundraiser.  Instead of RSVPing yes or no, I just quietly ignored it.  The thing is, there are things about pageants that I hate and I don't want to support it.  I don't hate pageants because I hate my ex-gf, I but for a host of other reasons.  I wasn't crazy about pageants when my ex was into them, but I will support a gf in whatever they want to do.  While we were dating I learned all about pageants and to be completely honest, I don't know why anyone would want to do one.

Pageants are advertised as a scholarship opportunity.  After talking to any of the competitors, you'll find that they spend more money preparing for the pageant then they have the possibility to win.  Plus the contestant deemed the winner is highly dependent on the judges, one panel of judges might pick one girl whereas another panel would pick a different.  And for some reason that I don't understand, the contestants take it very personal when they lose.  When I lose a race I might be let down, but I'm not sad about it, these girls are crushed, especially the young ones.

Then to top it all off, if you do win a title, you serve that post for a year.  From talking to the girls I know, this is their favorite part of the whole process, doing fun appearances such as being in parades.  The only thing that bugs me about the appearances is that at the end of the year these girls get Presidential Volunteer Service Awards recognizing them for volunteering for 100 hours in the year.  I've done a lot of volunteer work in the past and getting dressed up and walking around events isn't volunteering!  Albeit they might do some work at a few of the events, it's no where near 100 working hours to deserve that award.

Not to take anything away from the girls though, because some of the pageant girls I've meet are some of the most accomplished women I know my age.

Knowing my luck, one day I'll have a daughter and she'll want to compete in pageants...

Work sucks, I know!

Ok, so most people know I work at the San Diego Community College District (City, Mesa and Miramar College) with the police/parking department.  But most people have no idea what I actually do.  The most I talk about my job is how my co-workers and I sit around most of our shifts, but what is it we do when we are working?  I am a community service officer, NOT A COP!  Every time I tell people I work with college police, people assume I am a rent-a-cop.  Nope, we have police officers that are actual state officers who have jurisdiction on campus and up to a mile off campus in any direction, if I remember right. 

So what is a community service officer?  My job entails a few things, writing parking citations, doing lockouts when people lock their keys in their cars, battery jumps for dead batteries and checking on room alarms when they go off.  But sadly our department works by seniority, so the senior officers get priority on battery jumps, lockouts and alarms, so I'm stuck writing parking tickets.

The more I think about it, I have too large of a conscience to write parking tickets, but I do trudge on.  I've gotten parking tickets in the past and they just ruin your day.  I try not to think about it, and most days I don't, but when I do I hate myself for it.  For those of you that know me, I'm a an nice, easy going, non-confrontational guy.  So luckily in my line of work, you almost never see the person you write the ticket for, and if they do come up while I'm writing the ticket I'll just give them a warning, AKA $0, and they're as nice as can be.  But if someone comes up to me with a ticket I just finished writing and asks me to take it back, I lie and say it's impossible to take back but truth be told, I can.  The way we write tickets, the second I cross the send box on the ticket, the ticket is uploaded to the internet through my work cell phone.  So I use the excuse that the ticket is already online and it's out of my hands.  They always believe me, and then I proceed to tell them how they can appeal the ticket and it will most likely be reduced or denied.  They usually leave me with a thank you, understanding that I'm just doing my job and I've been as helpful to them as possible.  The thing about this job, you just have to see yourself as a robot, if they have a permit they're fine, if they don't, write them a ticket.  I'm am no judge, I don't decide if you deserve the ticket or not.

Because I never write tickets for people inside their cars, people who come back to their cars while I'm in the process of writing the ticket and am helpful to people I've written a ticket to, I never deal with angry people.  But what about the people I never see?  How many people come back to their cars, see the ticket, realize they don't have the money to pay it and just sit in their car crying?  To tell the truth I never think about it, but it's a sad reality.  In this line of work you just have to block it all out, or eventually it'll get to you. 

I justify my job to myself in many ways.  I tell myself if I didn't do it, they would just get someone else to do it.  I also don't feel as bad as I would if I was a city meter maid, because compared to parking on a public street when you almost never expect to get a ticket, college students parking on a college campus without a permit know they are taking a chance.  Another reason why I sit around so much is because it limits the amount of tickets I write, in other words, the amount of days I ruined.  When training for the job my boss explained that we have to sell permits and write tickets to pay for the upkeep and construction of new lots, but is that true or is that a justification for our jobs?  What really is the point of college permits?  Why don't we just raise the tuition a bit and let everyone park for free?

I guess what it comes down to is that the job pays pretty well, gives me Friday through Sunday off, has a ton of downtime for watching TV, going online, or doing homework, and it works around my school schedule, so when push comes to shove I'll stay here until I find something better. 

What made me start thinking about all this is a ticket I gave earlier.  A few minutes later, this lady and her around three year old daughter came up and ask why they received a ticket.  She just came onto campus to register as a student.  I said my usual lie about how I couldn't take it back and she was ok with that.  As they walked back to her car, the mom was explaining to the little girl how they got a ticket and I just felt horrible!  The more I thought about it, with the construction going on here at Miramar at the moment, it's hard to find visitor parking.  Plus I know she wasn't lying about registering, she had the papers in her hand.  I guess I just wasn't thinking at the time.  After thinking about it, I wanted to take the ticket back, but by the time I went back they were gone.

Thinking back on my job, I've been doing it since the fall of 2009, but I actually trained for it in the fall of 2006.  After training I quit because I felt wrong about giving parking tickets.  A few years later, I needed the money and came back.  But now I'm starting to wonder, have I changed?

Where to begin?

I've kept blogs in the past through sites like Myspace or Facebook, so I'm kind of excited to give a actual blog site a try.  Altough I've never kept a journal, I find blogging to be similar.  Something I can look back on in a few years and see how I've grown.  I'll use this as an outlet to sometimes vent, say what's on my mind and chronicle interesting stories in my life.  I'll try to keep it interesting, but to tell the truth I'm writing this for myself, not for an audience.  Feel free to comment, another point of view is always appreciated!