Tag: San Diego

Chicago and San Diego Trip…

Posted on by anele25

For the past week and a half, I have been out of work and the cities I ended up visiting were Chicago and San Diego. It was also my birthday month and I decided with two events coinciding with each other, I would take advantage of the time off. The two events were a Baseball game and a Wrestling event. It all started Wednesday night as me and my best friend Adrian left SFO on the way to Chicago. We landed Thursday morning and ended up taking public transit to our hotel. The first thing I noticed was how accessible everything in Chicago was. As we rode through the neighborhoods and through the suburbs, we started getting closer and closer to our destination. One thing that we did not account for however, was that we would get lost. We ended up on the wrong street and the bus driver was nice enough to redirect us. Adrian decided it would be best to take a Lyft to our hotel as we went to go drop off our luggage, we ended up leaving our luggage at the hotel and walked over to a breakfast spot that was pretty good for what it was. After this, we walked again to a bus stop and saw what was around town. For the better part of the afternoon, we ended up going to where Wrigley Field was and took a small tour of the ballpark itself. As I sat there, I was in awe of the different pieces of history that were in front of me from the Ivy and the bleachers that were there. Baseball, I love it because to the casual viewer it may be boring but to me I get so much more out of it because you’re thinking as the pitcher is up there, what kind of pitch is he going to throw, what is the hitter looking for, what defensive position are the infielders and outfielders playing, and most importantly what is the hitter going to do once the pitch is there.

 

The tour guide explained most of the history behind Wrigley field and how much meaning it really had. The players, the events, the people, and also the employees that would make Wrigley run smoothly. My favorite story was hearing how the fences near the bleachers got built because of the fans that would be going on top of them. Once the tour was over, I quickly realized how much I needed to visit other city’s ballparks to get a feel for the city and also for the team. I bought my Chicago Cubs shirt and off we were. Soon after, we took an Uber back to our hotel to check in and took a very long nap to reenergize for the night. We ended up taking an Uber to downtown to check out the Skydeck and what a sight it was. On the way there, I did get a bit of anxiety because of the elevator that started shaking a bit. If you haven’t been to the Skydeck, I would recommend it for the sheer beauty of what it is you’ll see up there. You can end up seeing 4 states (these four states being Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana) on a clear day but since there is something about the night sky that intrigues me, I enjoyed it. There were quite few tourists taking their pictures, and once you step onto the glass you get this thrill because you are 109 floors up and you can feel the whole city in front of you. I took some pictures with my friend Adrian and that first night was capped off by some bar hopping as I just rested there and enjoyed the company of my friend Adrian. The most fun we had at that moment was when we played some pool at this bar called the ‘Game Room’. At that moment, we had some real talk as we started talking about what it is we wanted out of life and what we would hope to get out of it. It was the first time in a long time that I realized that my friend also had this pent-up emotion that he wanted to let out about some issues he had gone through with his previous relationship and I won’t share them out of respect and love to him. All I could do for him was to be a supportive and caring friend. I couldn’t give advice because I myself have not gone through that nor do I wish to ever go through that.

 

As we rode home, I started getting the conversation and the itch to talk to some of these lyft and uber drivers who are probably just regular people like we are. Out of the ones we met on our trip (I’ll sum the majority of them here), I would say the one who I enjoyed talking to the most was this one who was a fan of wrestling and he had told us about some of his experiences as a wrestling fan. I can remember the first question he asked me which period of wrestling was the best and I straight up told him that the 80’s were my favorite period. We started getting into the promos, the matches, the angles, and the general booking of the territory. One thing we noted was that wrestling was seen as special because there were no superheroes or social media to hold some of these guys back from what they could be. Nowadays, it’s a little harder to stay in character and to know how to draw in an audience. Overall, each driver was pretty nice and had a unique background to them from schoolteachers, to retired city managers, students, regular everyday people, and there was even one who just gave us a city tour on how much each neighborhood is different. The next two days were filled with fun and excitement as we ended up splitting up that morning as we visited Millennium Park and split a bit after as we each did our own duties. I went to the zoo to get a fresh take on the wildlife that was near Chicago. I saw an assortment of animals that day from Zebras, Cows, Roosters, Gorillas, Birds, Bears, Rhinos, and other assortments of animals. I even saw a cool trick on some buckets where he started juggling some plungers and afterwards came down. The time at the zoo winded down and I headed over to downtown to catch some dinner with Adrian. We had some deep-dish pizza, which truth be told, was not as good as the one I had in Berkley a few weeks ago. Once we were done, we headed down on the subway to the Chicago White Sox game to catch another baseball game. I enjoyed the game for what it was but when the team is not as good as they were before, the game can be a bit tedious to follow but, in this case, you can find creative ways to engage yourself by talking to others and talking to friends as well. I ended up taking three or four walks around the stadium getting my steps in. I headed towards to the deck to check out the night sky. I ended up taking a picture by there and a Chicago sign to remind me of all the good times that were ahead. The game ended in a 4-3 victory for the rival Detroit Tigers and I continued my streak of ballparks on this trip. The drive home was pretty long and this time I saw how much traffic was really backing up in Chicago and talking to our driver I saw how much the weather there can impact the city they live in. Once we got home, we slept in and had a long day ahead of us the next day. The next day was some of the hottest I had felt in a long time as it was humid and it was muggy. We ended up taking each a solo split once again as I wanted to do my own activities and head to North Avenue Beach and do some sight-seeing on the beach. I rented a bike for 3 hours and just biked as I saw the majority of the beach and afterwards sat down in between to do some reading on a book called Flow which describes those experiences where you essentially focused and are fully immersed in what it is you are doing. The feelings of just being on the beach and having that time to just reflect on what is there in the present are some of the best feelings in the world. That is what I realized as I sat on the grass getting through a good chunk of the book.

 

I headed back and did some more biking around 1PM. We ended making a trek to the famous Pro Wrestling tees store where I ended up buying a Golden Elite shirt (Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, and Kota Ibushi shout out!). From there, we ate (again) and after we saw our first ever Takeover show by WWE NXT. This show was great as it consisted of five matches. Each of the matches from Undisputed Era vs Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch to Shayna Bazler vs Nikki Cross impressed me because the guys and gals all showed something different in the matches. Some were hard hitting and others felt like actual fights where each guy or gal wanted to outdo their competitor. The show itself was fun because I also got to experience getting the Chicago vibe of a wrestling town along the way. Afterwards, I got to check out one last show before I left Chicago as I went to see Bruce Prichard of Something to Wrestle with Fame. The jokes, the laughs, the stories, and the banter between Conrad Thompson and Bruce Prichard is something I get a joy out of personally every week. The show was definitely worth the price as each guy that was present in the show presented something different and unique to the fan that was there. For example, one of the guys that was there, Armando Alejandro Estrada gave a great recount of what it was like to work under the tutelage Once that was finished, I ended up going back home to get a few hours rest before our flight took off. I ended up getting just over three hours of sleep that morning and I got on my flight ready to head back to the bay area. Once I landed I just let everything sink in for a minute before I realized where I had gone and the people I had seen. That night I had a great time seeing some music drum and bass with a friend of mine and we headed home soon after that. The next day I prepared for my trip to San Diego which by and large felt like it went by really quick as me and brother had some bonding time ahead of us and we had driven there this time. The first stop was at an Oakland A’s (Let’s go Oakland) vs. San Diego Padres game which had some drama towards the end as one of my friends kept saying that it is difficult to go 0-5 and one of our hitters, Stephen Piscoitty, ended up hitting a homerun to tie it up in the 9th inning. Then in the 10th inning Jed Lowrie (thanks to an error ended up hitting a 2-run homer. Afterwards, we headed out to our friend’s house to talk some war stories and discuss other things that were going on in our lives currently at that time. I also talked to our friend about his living situation and how different everything was out there in San Diego as opposed to the Bay Area. Here it can be expensive and over there it seemed like everything was a bit cheaper. The next day we went through some interesting areas as we headed over to Camino de la Plaza to see the border from the other side and also saw the Border Field State Park. Before we went there though, we stopped by Sunset Cliffs to see some of the cliffs that I had seen on some videos through Youtube and some of the views were breathtaking. I got a few good pictures which hopefully down the line some of my friends can go and visit for themselves.

 

Walking through that muggy San Diego weather, I can see some of the struggles that the people of my background have gone through. Me and my brother ended up picking up some photos of a little girl. The girl, who we had no idea who she was, was probably someone’s relative and we put the photos up to represent some sort of hope that maybe someone will see them or that it won’t happen to someone else. The border itself by the Border Field State Park also gave me some interesting vibes because we were essentially walking through sand to get to see the other side of the border but once we got there we were told that we were to not get anywhere near the fence. We walked back to our car which seemed longer considering the distance we had traveled. Once we got back to our friend’s house, we had a last pow wow to close out the night where we talked about life, dreams, our times that we have had together, and just everything in between. I had an epiphany that life is meant to be full of memories, laughter, sadness, and great people. That night as we drove back, I stopped by Anza Borrego State Park and saw some stars that were marvelous in my opinion and I just stopped for a few minutes to gaze at everything that was in front of me. That to me was the best way to end my time in San Diego. There were some mannequins that I had seen on some YouTube channels but I did not get a chance to take a look at them. However, after that I said there will always be a next time. I walked away from the vacation reenergized and knowing that I fulfilled my need of getting out there to see what else the world has. I didn’t care if I got lost or if I knew where I was as long as I knew where I was heading to in the long run. To anyone and everyone who reads this, the best gift that life gives us is purpose and to each of us we have our own destiny’s crafted out. Yes, life may not be perfect and that’s okay. In this life, you have to want to get out to see just how wonderful and beautiful the world really is and this is just here domestically. I can’t wait to see what else is out there in the world because I have a little bit of everything right now and I couldn’t ask for anything more. (Author’s note: Here are some pictures representing the trip).

What I’m proud of in 2010…

Posted on by anele25

There ain’t no excuse for loosing your feet
Drowning in your defeat on this road of life
There ain’t no excuse for coming up short
The ball is in your court
So reach up and touch the sky

-*NSYNC on Do Your Thing

I can’t believe what a great year this has been, both physically and mentally. I remember at the end of 2009 I wasn’t sure how the next year would go because I had many things that I had accomplished that year. I got to finally make a connection with my dog, Paloma, after her and I hadn’t really been close during the first few months. I also got to become acquainted with a group of people, one of whom I still consider a very good friend of mine. I got to do what I wanted in 2009 as I grew a lot during that period as I had great conversations with all sorts of people at school, at work, at social gatherings, at home, and other great places as well. However, I accomplished so much in 2010 that I don’t want the year to end but I think what I would want to be heard is my top 5 things I am proud of in 2010:

5. Taking a vacation after four years:

This was a tough road for me because I was thinking in my head for the longest time about how I hadn’t taken time off work for a substantial amount of time. I would request to take the occasional time off which was mostly for sporting events and other events to attend to. My vacation was from March 21 till April 1 which was plenty of time for me to just reflect and relax about what I didn’t need to deal with. The week was filled with fun and surprises because the first day of my vacation was when I went with my dad, grandma, brother, sister in law, and her friend to the flea market. I had wanted to go to find a CD that had been released recently by Banda Cuisillos and I had no luck in finding it. What I found fun that day though was the sheer enjoyment I saw in having my family there with me in the good weather that we have here in the bay area, just relaxing and not worrying about anything. We ended up eating nachos and drinking soda that day at the flea market which I enjoyed because if it’s food it’s food. When all was said and done, my co-worker, Jed, called me to see if I was doing anything because he was “bored”. I complied to him because at the time I didn’t know any better as to what being “bored” meant to him so I obliged and I just went along with him to go to his house and pick him up. We ended up going to wal-mart in Milpitas but then he proceeded to ask me if I could drive him to pick up a fish tank part. We ended up getting there and he got it then we called it a night. The next day was when myself, my dad, my brother, and Jay went to watch the WWE Supershow leading up to Wrestlemania 26 which was awesome due to the sheer athletic ability that guys like Rey Mysterio and Shawn Michaels were putting on that night. I was dumbfounded by the fact that there were so many people there that you couldn’t even buy merchandise and what not so I was a little disappointed I couldn’t buy anything. The next two days I started studying for my Biology final and working on my Ethics paper which to this day amazes me because not only was it well written but I did it in a timely manner. I was stressing for those two days because the night before my Biology I was debating whether to hang out with my co-worker, Jay, and my friend Rick. I decided to call it off because I realized that they weren’t going to hate me for the rest of my life if I said no once and they were both very courteous about me saying no to this one time occasion. I went to Biology the next day and did ok on the final but I felt I could have done better. The next day I ended up waiting for my brother to call and tell me what was going on that day. If it isn’t really known yet, I took about a four day trip to San Diego with my brother and my sister in law’s family. The momentous occasion was that one of my brother’s friends, Alex, was getting married to his girlfriend of three years. I was happy enough for them that I ended up buying them a set of knives that was on their wedding list. I waited for my brother to get there and when we ended up getting to the airport for the rental car, it seemed like a very long process. I couldn’t wait for my brother to get on the road and start driving. I hadn’t really got to talking to him on that long of a trip before so I was looking forward to it. He was really quiet on the drive but I found out that my sister in law’s family loves talking about other people’s problems. For example, they were talking about how so-and-so didn’t really love them so they weren’t really being faithful and I didn’t think any differently of them, it just opened my eyes to what my brother had to live with. The next morning my brother stayed with me in the hotel talking and watching TV with me. A few hours later he and his girlfriend had to go wedding rehearsal which I didn’t go to. I was starving so much that day that all I could think about was food as I went with my sister in law’s family to go shopping at CVS and Ross. They finally got back from the rehearsal and we went to eat and I was amazed how many people from my brother’s and his friend’s job were there. It amazed that only his closest friends were there because he deserved to be poured in all the glory. I have always considered him to be a decent human being because he tries to be courteous with you without ever putting himself over you. It all seemed so surreal because I had known some of these guys close to five years now and they were pretty cool with me. I remember the comment of the night came from one of the guys that I have known for about five years in Aldo, as he stated something about our minds not being as cognitively functional in our early years. That concluded the night there. The wedding was something else because we had the ceremony which was really nice because I saw a guy I hadn’t seen for some time, Dave. Dave used to be one of the guys that my brother used to work with and I always found myself talking to him when he would have us over his house. He seemed really cool due to the fact that he loved movies and I loved movies so we hit off pretty well actually. The ceremony was well attended to and I saw Alex being really nice to everyone who had attended the ceremony as he tried his best to take pictures with his wife with everyone. We then went to the reception itself which was followed by food and dance which was great to see as everybody had a few words to say about Alex and there love for him. I thought one of my buddies, Allan, had one of the best moments of the night when he busted out with  a rap about Alex’s marriage and everybody, including myself, ate it up. My brother also had some words to say and I believe that he and Alex have this bond that is almost impossible to break up. I can see that through this speech that Alex might be the only one who really understands my brother because sometimes I find it difficult to even reach my brother. Everyone had fun and everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves. I was just a spectator but I still found enjoyment in the fact that everyone was having fun. The next day, my sister in law’s family decided they wanted to go to Disneyland which was fine with me because my brother and I went and had some amazing ribs at this restaurant out in LA somewhere. The ribs were amazing and I couldn’t help be enthralled by the fact that Wrestlemania was that day and I was most interested in Shawn Michaels’ final match. I was waiting for the final result as I later found out after a little delay on my Ipod Touch that Michaels retired and I felt a little sad after that. I reflected a little bit after that maybe 2010 was a year of change and rightfully so it was. The final day of our trip, Monday, was when we got back home and I was tired from so much driving and I was little taken aback from what was in front of me when I got home. Of course, I remembered that my aunt from Mexico had recently gotten in so I greeted them as best I could as I had to help my brother bring back the rental car. I was kind of saddened by my brother not standing up for himself more when his girlfriend’s family was practically yelling at him to get stuff done so they could get home and rest. I honestly felt bad for my brother because he was genuinely a nice guy with no ax to grind but I guess sometimes that sort of stuff happens. The next day I kind of relaxed and I ended up going to the gym with my co-worker, Jay. We talked about work as per but I wanted to just talk about my trip afterward. The next day I decided to take my friend, Rick, and Jay to Fenton’s which was all the way in Oakland which was on March 31. That was a memorable day because that was a memory that will never leave me, as we were all one and no one had really been hurt or berated against so I took it for what it was: an honest good time. I also bought MLB 10: The Show which was an awesome game that I played for close to six months. That night, myself, Rick, and Jay played the show and we just enjoyed ourselves.

4. Starting this blog:

There is not enough words to say how proud I am to have started this blog. I am proud of this blog mostly because it improved my writing skills and it helped me appreciate life more. I was talking to a co-friend at work one time and she suggested that my first few blogs were great reads and after hearing that I was encouraged even more. I feel the need to say things on this blog because some of it is what I believe and my beliefs are what I stand by in life. As I say these days to people, I could be wrong, nobody has to be right all the time. For starters, blogging has opened up not just opening up more, but it makes me appreciate life more.

3. Continuing my journey to fill up my Ipod Touch:

I am proud of this for many reasons. For one, my selection of music at the beginning of the year was honestly not that great and for good reason I decided to experiment and see what new music I could listen to. I have always considered myself a type of person who will listen to anything if it has meaning and depth to it. For example, the list of ten artists or bands I got into this year was:

1. The Clash

2. Eric B. and Rakim

3. Billy Joel

4. 98 Degrees

5. Linkin Park

6. Los Tiranos del Norte

7. Oro Norteno

8. Gerardo Reyes

9. Los Titanes de de Durando

10. Los Huracanes del Norte

I am trying my hardest to keep exploring because I like music that tells stories whether they be about love, tragedy, political movements, violence( though it seems unintentional at times), and pretty much anything else. Right now, I have close to 1600 songs and once I pass a certain milestone, say 2000 or 3000 I will listen to every song on there. If I hear something I like, I’ll try my hardest to get it on my IPOD anyway I can. As a great philosopher said, Friedrich Nietzsche said “Without Music, life would be a mistake.” Not only is this true, but it’s something we can rely on to get us through our days, whether good or bad.

2. Having great conversations with a good friend of mine

This is something that I look forward to every week and it’s something I want to do every week. At first, I thought this person was just someone that would forget about me after he quit the job that we both worked at but I thought it was worth a shot to see how he was adjusting to life after the Big Red Machine. At first, I feared rejection and doubt raised in my head as to how he would respond to text messages I would send him. I was still a bit upset that he just quit and abandoned his “friends” at work. I was wondering what triggered in his mind to want to leave this job that I felt at the time had a lot of upside to it and it was a good environment to be in because there were still a lot of good people to work with. After a few text messages and a bit of doubt being raised out of my head, at the end of 2009 he and I decided to talk a bit about work and what led to his decision to finally leave the Big Red Machine.After talking to him that day, I realized that there was still that bond between us. After that, I didn’t hear from him for a few weeks due to holidays and work filling us with things to do. But on January 19 of this year we met up at a local strip mall when it was raining and pouring at the same time. I remember that day very vividly in fact because I remember my friend got very soaked when we were trying to head for a local Subway that was close by and we talked about work early on but after that day we found more in common with each other than I would have thought. We talk about life, our experiences, our triumphs and tragedies, our problems that have solutions, school, work, and one of the best sports ever baseball. I want to take this opportunity to thank this friend of mine because without him, I would not have realized that we as human beings have a lot more to offer each other. Talking to somebody and getting to know them in conversations is essential because (1) We get to see that we are not alike in our beliefs but if we disagree with each other, we can always try to respectfully see the other’s person’s point of view. and (2) The human relationship between two human beings is slowly going away and when I finish talking to this friend of mine whether it is on the phone or in person, I want to be able to try harder in life. For example, I remember just last week when he and I had a brief, but magnificent conversation about baseball and what was going on in our lives. After that, I was looking forward to work because even though it may be a crummy job for crummy pay I still enjoyed myself that night because I also tried my best to not create any drama and just get my work done the best I could. Thanks Buddy!

1. I am proud of motivating myself to the fullest extent

This year was a road of emotions, highs and lows, excitement, triumphs, and it was also eye opening. This year I motivated myself to be motivated at work, school, home, with my family, and also with my friends. I dreaded going to school for the first few weeks of school in 2010 because they were mostly 9:30 classes but I saw after a while that even though the subjects themselves weren’t that great I still found myself learning new subjects. I remember in Biology that there was a classmate of mine who helped me a lot with class assignments as I was not the best at Biology. It kept me motivated to believe that if someone can do that for me I can help other people out as well. You can say that he was teaching me the best he could about DNA and RNA. He also helped me understand plants and what goes into the construction of what makes a plant. In my speech class from the beginning of that year, my speech teacher praised me for writing a 7 page paper on Health care which I thought wasn’t that exciting to begin with. I remember that date, February 18 because that’s when I got together with a few buddies of mine to converse about our lives and we just had a lot of fun that day. With Philosophy, I took an ethics and a History of Philosophy class as well. I found the Ethics class to be particularly engaging because I would usually bring some of the topics with me to work and discuss them with P!NK. I remember we had some great discussions about the ideas of being a good person and doing the right thing which was usually the essential question I was asking myself for the majority of the quarter. I also got to asking myself why exactly some people do the things they do morally or not in their case. It kept me motivated to start questioning whether it is right to even consider if it is ok to never lie? I still have trouble with this question and sometimes I am a little hard with myself about the ways I may tell lies to people. My family was a big reason why I decided to keep being motivated because they have done a ton of stuff for me this year. I remember there have been times where my dad or mom have decided to make food for me when they are tired or they have just gotten home from work and I thank them for that. I also found it very fitting for my dad and myself to watch WWE Smackdown whenever he is not busy on Saturday afternoon and he and I become very engaged in the product whenever Jack Swagger or Kofi Kingston go out and have another classic in front of the fans. I also got to seeing my brother finally become a dad and he looks a bit more happy than he has in previous years due to Jazmine Diaz coming into the picture. Jazmine and Paloma are the two new additions to our family and ever since both of them have noticed each other they become aware of the other’s presence. I love them both dearly because Jazmine is going to be a very smart kid just from seeing her very engaged in her surroundings and Paloma is just as adorable because she doesn’t yell you when you get home as all she wants is comfort and care. I made the habit of also discovering that the connection of childhood will never leave someone. This past summer, my old buddies Freddy and Alex stopped by here near my area and we had a great conversation for close to two hours about our lives. This kept me motivated thinking about all the changes that we have all made and the reason that I believe it was better for me to see them was because I saw that both of them being brothers keeps them together and they have a lot to offer the world. They are as I would say “one of us” rather then them being someone you had just met recently. 2010 was also the year I got to take some fun trips with a co-worker of mine to malls, Chinatown, Gilroy, and other places. I do miss those times on long days here in the winter but we always have to remember that we can’t have any regrets here in life because once you’ve lived it it is a part of your life that will be gone but not forgotten. I also had the chance to go to game 1 of the world series which is something that I will never forget. I took the train to hear the game and also watch it on the big screen which was worth it because not many people get a chance to have a world series in their area. It was a fun experience and one that is forever ingrained in my memory. 2010 was enjoyable and hopefully I’ve inspired people to write even more so about their lives in 2010: Good day and here’s a little something that is awesome ( one of my best memories of 2010)