END OF SABBATICAL

My decision to stay away from ingesting narcotics this month was described as a "sabbatical" by one of Jansen's friends. It's a cool description but ultimately doesn't work by definition. Sabbaticals usually refer to paid leaves of absence every seven years. It hasn't been that long and this certainly isn't paid, so I need a better way to describe this "fast".

I took my cuz and her husband to Ontario Mills for some shopping. I dropped them off and tried to return my jewelry scale to Sam at M&M Smoke Shop. Of course he refused so my next move is to get it repaired by the manufacturer. The stupid thing works fine but eats up the batteries you put in them.

Then I went home and worked out. After, I picked them up and had dinner at home. Sinigang with beef ribs. Good but I still prefer pork.

Then off to Jansen's to celebrate the end of my sabbatical. We picked-up some yay and I brought the jay that I had rolled in Vegas with Richie the last time. I watched "Walking the Line" and when midnight rolled around, the jay was lit and the rails were killed. It felt good to be back.

Of course, poker had to be played and I ended up winning every game but one with Tam and Jansen. We played 7-card stud, pot limit Omaha, limit Hold 'em and no limit Hold 'em. The only one I lost was stud. Got home at 4:30am.

A NIGHT OUT IN THE OLDER PART OF THE OC

I brought Jansen to Diamond Bar this morning because our plan was to go to Hollywood to hook-up with his cuz Aaron. We spent the day snoozing and by the time it was time to go, plans had changed.

Our first stop was to Sugar's Bikini Bar in Anaheim. We were there to see bikinis and the boobies underneath them, but lo and behold, we ran into The Stalkings, an all-girl punk band that attracted a bunch of 50s style female punks and young men who fantasize about them. Jansen said he felt like a groupie and liked the Japanese guitar player while I liked the brunette bass. It was obvious the lead singer was attached given the giant diamond she had on her finger. This is a band that my friend Peter would enjoy watching and drooling over.

We left the bar wondering what happened to the bikinis, but nevertheless satisfied we were out on a Saturday night. Tam is out of town with some of her girlfriends in Vegas, so even though I felt lazy about going out, I felt like we had to do it.

The next stop was The District Lounge in Orange. We'd been here before and I always enjoy going out here. I think I've been here on a Thursday and Friday night, but never on Saturday. The crowd was similar to those nights, but a little more crowded. It's a typical OC crowd - a little more money, a little more white people and a little more stuffiness. Still, it's what I like and what I'm used to.

Jansen spotted a girl in eyeglasses that I would have never imagined was his type. She was a little bookwormish and quite plump, but anytime he gets a little eye contact, he feels good about himself. We stood next to them for a good ten minutes and didn't say a word. As they were leaving, he even imagined her to give him one last look, but it looked like she was just looking for her friend to me. Regardless, he was right when he said that we really were pussies for not even trying to talk to her and her friends. It was ridiculous and I began to seriously wonder if I need a drink before I can talk to females.

My sobriety makes me wonder if I need foreign substances to feel normal. I've been without alcohol, tobacco or drugs for nearly a month now and boy, do I feel bored. I think I have been substituting watching tv, reading or eating to fill the cavern that these substances normally fill. I can't say that I feel like my mind is any more clear. The only difference is that I wake up a little less groggy. But since I wake up so late these days, I don't feel very different.

All in all, it's nice to be sober and feel like I'm cleansing my body which then kind of cleanses my soul (you know, mind/body - same thing). Perhaps this gut feeling I have is part of the cleansing ritual. I feel anxious, kind of nervous, almost like having butterflies in one's stomach. I may be feeling this because I have all this time on my hands and I've wondered what I've done with it. Or maybe I feel like I have things I want to do, but can't seem to do them. Or maybe it's because I don't have a job and am looking for the right one but can't seem to figure that out. Or maybe it's because we have guests coming from the Philippines and I'm dreading having to take care of them. Or maybe it's losing two friends with priviledges and feeling bummed about it.

Maybe I'll find out this Wednesday when I'm out of this sabbatical. Or maybe I wont.

PRESIDENT'S DAY

There's nothing like relaxing on a holiday. But since I haven't been working, holidays don't have the same value. I suppose that's true with most things in life.

I woke up quite late having come home quite late last night. Moms left to go to T. Fe's house for her birthday. But before she left, she bought some Chinese spicy shrimp for lunch. Good lookin' out moms.

I ran 2.75 miles and it was actually quite easy. Perhaps the sobriety, the cold or the endurance (or all of them) is making it easier and easier to run farther and farther.

I watched The Good, the Bad and the Ugly before going to bed. It's the third of the Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns and the last movie with Clint Eastwood.

PARIS HILTON IS 25

Rachelle and I spent the day dragging Christine around Las Vegas' Harrahs properties so we can get cheap trinkets and stamps for their dumb Total Rewards promotion. Unfortunately, everything about the promotion appeals to the collector in me so I fell for it. Of course, Rachelle is usually stupified by the chance to win anything ($1,00,000 goes to someone) so she just had to go. Poor Christine had no choice.

We gambled a little downtown at the California and it was quite an experience to watch Rachelle play $5 blackjack. Even though she has snowboarded, surfed and done all kinds of physically challenging activities, she still looked like a little lost child on the blackjack table. Talk about intimidation. Here she is, over 30, having played thousands of hands on her Palm and getting an MBA, but she's still absolutely frightened by black jack. She never ceases to amaze me.

We ended the day at Rio's and got a free ticket to one of their shows (I think it was eROCKtica) for having gotten a stamp at all their properties. So we went back to Caesars and took a little nap. Our plan was to go to Ghostbar at the Palms but as Rachelle kept buggin' ("So where are we going tonight? What are we going to do?), I kept napping. By the time I got up, it was already 11pm and I knew there was no way in hell we were getting in anywhere.

But I felt like we had to go ahead and do something so off we went to the Palms. Of course, as I suspected, the lines were ridiculously long. I called Rich for some help but the poor bastard was already sick from having drank way too much at his co-worker's party.

Since we were staying at Caesars, we figured we might as well go there and hit some of the bars they have. It's funny because as big as Caesars is, they only have three bars that you can just walk up to and drink. One is called The Bar which is really just a bar, another is the Seahorse that is just across from Pure, and finally there's the Shadow Bar which is also quite close to Pure.

As we stood around the Seahorse, we could tell there were a lot of Pure rejects that knew enough to stop themselves from standing in line all night. Even though Rachelle was a guest, we also knew well enough not to even attempt to get into Pure since it was Paris Hilton's 25th birthday party there.

The girls wanted to hit the Shadow Bar, but I was tired and didn't really feel like waiting in line there. Besides, my wingman Rich wasn't around and I was kind of bummed that we couldn't go around looking for tail. I began to regret not hanging with the girls when I got back to the room by myself. I called, but they didn't pick-up so perhaps it was for the best. It's always good to give the girls some time to themselves.

2ND INTERVIEW

I woke up at 10am, dragging myself out of bed for my 11am interview with some other people at Wilkin Guge. For some reason, I'm not really excited about this. I was a little nervous, but the magic of working for a glamorous agency is no longer there. I guess I've lost some of my innocence.

I got there about five minutes early and met with Stella Cruzalegui first. She works for ARC media services and WG was using her as their media strategist this whole time. Apparently, they've overtaxed her and decided it was time to get an in-house media director. She broke things down for me, telling me all about the kind of clients WG has (mostly Inland Empire businesses) and what the company needs as far as structure. She also said that the position would require someone who would handle all media, "from nuts to soup." It was obvious she'd been in the business for quite sometime and acted like some media buyers I used to know.

Media buyers and media planners are two different types of media folk. Buyers tend to be less educated and are more like sales people. They are required to buy media slots in broadcast media and are pretty hardcore when it comes to negotiation. Planners, on the otherhand, tend to be more analytical and spend more time planning versus negotiating.

Anyway, just as we were starting to get comfortable, Andrew Wilkin, managing partner and Creative Director, joined us in the interview. He was a soft spoken man and much more quiet than most of the creative directors I've known. However, he's the one that started the business and seemed confident in where he wanted to take it.

I felt comfortable talking to them and they didn't ask me any questions I couldn't answer. In fact, they didn't ask me any questions I've never heard before nor where they very difficult. Maybe I judged them wrong, but it felt like they had already made up their mind to hire me. However, after the interview, they mentioned they would be interviewing a few more people and that they would make their decision after the meetings.

I got home and ate lunch then waited for the Adelphia technician to come and drop off the DVR I ordered. After waiting from 1-3:30pm, I called Adelphia and asked them what was going on. They were surprised to hear the technician never arrived and offered to get someone here in thirty minutes. I asked them what they could do about all my time wasted and the dispatcher asked me what I was asking for specifically because she didn't know what I was trying to get at. Thoughts of sexual favors crossed my mind, but then I threw the question back and asked what they usually did when someone misses an appointment.

The dispatcher then said that if we reschedule for Friday, she can waive the visitation fee. I was happy with that and accepted.

Then I got a haircut at the Haircut Store and jogged 2.75 miles. When I got back home, I cooked up two versions of salmon from Sara Moulton of FoodTV. They turned out pretty good but I may have overcooked the salmon. Afterwards, I took a pretty gnarly shit that was mostly liquid. I don't know what could have caused that except for the pork chops I had for lunch. Maybe it was my nervousness or maybe the food I ate wasn't completely digested when I did my run.

I stayed up watching Fistful of Dollars directed by Sergio Leone. I'd seen Yojimbo before so I was a little worried it might be a direct copy. The plot was the same, but the actors and setting were different and it was a lot better than I thought it would be. Very cool movie and highly recommended.

YAO MING

Tam took the day off to spend Valentine's Day with Jansen at Disneyland. They called me in the morning and asked if I wanted to go. I told them I would, but after eating lunch, I realized I didn't really have that much time. The Clipper game starts at 7:30p and if I went to Disneyland, I'd probably have to leave around 4:30p in case of traffic. So I called them and passed. However, they'll be going to California Adventure sometime next week, so I will probably go with them then.

I got the address of me moms workplace from her but didn't leave until 5pm. Moms gets off work at 5:30p so I knew I would be late. To make matters worse, I spaced out and took the 60 freeway all the way to downtown LA until I realized that she works in Alhambra, not LA anymore. So I had to turn around, take the 5 to the 10 E and of course, I got caught in traffic. Then, I got lost once I was in Alhambra and couldn't find S Fremont thinking that Fremont and S Fremont might be two different roads.

When all was said and done, it took me 1.5 hours to finally get to the building. During this whole time, moms kept calling me all pissed off asking where I was and what was taking me so long. She even had the nerve to say that maybe we should just forget the whole thing. It didn't help, but I got really pissed off and started yelling at her. I was already frustrated from the 1.5 hour drive and her anger at me just made it worse.

We still had an hour to get to the Staples Center and you could hear the crickets chirping during the whole drive there. I parked about two blocks away and we walked to the entrance. We bought some overpriced McDonalds and brought it to our seats. By then, moms and I had calmed down and she thanked me for bringing her to the game. It wasn't much of a game since the Clips lost by over 30 points.

On the way back to the car, moms apologized and said that she got angry because she wanted to have dinner at Black Angus near her work. I suspected that and told her that we would probably have had problems since it was Valentine's Day. All in all, it was a stressful but ultimately fulfilling evening.

INTERVIEW IN LA

I interviewed with Big LA today in Culver City. Holy shit is it far. But the position seemed promising so I figured I'd give it a shot.

The agency is a small one and the first thing you notice when you walk inside the building is that it's got an urban loft feel. Things looked a little cluttered, but it reminded me of some of the start-up studios in San Francisco when I used to work there.

No one was really around, but I did recognize a Filipino guy I saw on their website. There's always something comforting about seeing your own people when you're at a job interview. A tall, young and post-Bohemian chick asked me if I was Giovanni and I said I was. She then led me into the conference room where some other young and quite attractive ladies were talking to Colette.

Colette then asked me to follow her upstairs to her office. Colette has that yoga-like body, slim, trim and a great ass. She was tiny but her presence was certainly felt. You knew she ran this joint and that she was the boss.

She told me the position was entry level and that immediately turned me off. I don't want to have to fax, go through mail and do stupid monkey work at this time in my life. I already gave a good two years of my life giving back to the community and if I'm going to do monkey work, I'd rather do it for a good cause.

However, the position still intrigues me because Big LA is a very "green" company. They run a fleet of Prius' that run completely on bio-diesel. That is very cool and I know they probably work with a lot of Hollywood stars who are into that kind of shit.

Nevertheless, the commute is very far and I don't think I would be happy driving all that way to make so little to do dumb work. Although I know the energy would be great and the people would be cool, I'm gonna have to pass on this one.

TOSSING AND TURNING

I had a tough time sleeping last night because I felt cold and I kept thinking about Stephanie. I wanted to get up at 9am, but I just couldn't. I kept pressing the snooze button until 10:30am. I finally got up and started working on the computer. I wanted to get a lot of media files off the Dell and onto some CDs to save space. It seems like the PC is slowing down a little and I suspect it has to do with all the files I've been downloading from Limewire.

After lunch, I was so sleepy, I couldn't resist a nap. So I took one and just kept napping until about 6pm. What's wrong with me? I think I am feeling a little bummed out. I know Stephanie's decision doesn't have much to do with me and how I am, but I can't help but wonder a little. I shouldn't take it personally, but still, I can't help it. I guess I need a little more practice not taking relationship failures personally. At the same time, I don't know if this really counts as a relationship failure. As my cousin Rachelle explained, we had more of a companionship.

Even though I didn't feel like running after the nap, I forced myself to head out and do it. It was a lot tougher than I expected. I thought tennis last Saturday would have made it easier, but it didn't. My heart felt heavy but it might be because I had too many layers of clothing on and was overheating.

My brother Paul called me on his way home and I returned his call. We just chatted a little, mostly about nothing, but I enjoyed it. I hope we will continue to call and chat, though I don't have a lot to talk to him about. I think I will try opening up a little more with him.

Moms came home and complained about having pain in her upper back. She probably slept wrong. She took some Aleve and that seemed to help.

The rest of the evening, I burned as many CDs as I could, but it is taking a lot longer than I expected. I will need to continue tomorrow morning.

SUPER BOWL XL

I woke up late since I played poker all morning. Basically, hunger woke me up and I had lunch around 1:30pm. Moms was ready to go to San Manuel again today, but Paulina called to say she would not be able to go. So she stayed home.

The Steelers were 4.5 point favorites against the Seahawks and they covered the spread. I fell asleep watching the SuperBowl both because I was tired and because I really had no interest in the game.

I decided to put on Kieslowski's White. It's a bit confusing and it's good that the DVD has some explanation and commentary about what's going on. Kieslowski puts a lot of symbolic things in the movie and you kind of need to pay attention to how he does it.

Then I called Stephanie since I hadn't heard from her in awhile. She sounded really sad and she explained that she has been sick the past few days and that a lot of things were going on. Then she added that she was sorry because she was using me to get over her boyfriend and that she thinks it would be a good idea to stop seeing each other. She also mentioned that she felt things were moving too fast for her.

I was a bit shocked and didn't really know what to say. I told her that getting over someone by seeing someone else doesn't really work and that I could have told her that. Oddly, I actually wanted to be the one she rebounded with so I could get her back into the swing of things. She's young and I wanted to show her that there's a big world out there. I wanted her to see other people so she could see what works for her and what doesn't.

I asked her if we could still be friends but she didn't think that would work right. She said she needed some time to figure things out. I wonder if there are other things that might be going on that she wasn't comfortable talking to me about. She also said that we both want different things in life. That may be true, but I was curious what she thought I wanted because even I don't know.

I immediately called Charlotte to tell her the news. She thinks that Stephanie's parents might have something to do with it. I didn't even think about that, but it makes so much sense. They are there to protect her and they probably know her almost as much as she knows herself. They know she is probably someone who gets quite attached easily and they know that we are very different people. What's the point of continuing something that may not really lead to anything? Also, Mormons tend to marry early in life, so maybe there's some pressure to find a good man and start creating children.

I'm a little sad because I really enjoyed getting to know Stephanie and having someone to hang out and do things with. Oh well. I tell ya, life is a trip because just a few months ago, I felt like I was on top of the world having hos in different area codes. Now all I've got is Palmala Handerson and my porn collection. Greeeeeaaaaat!

TENNIS

Moms and I had lunch and she was feeling really bad about my brother Noel and his impending divorce. I guess she feels like it's kind of her fault. Or maybe she just feels sad about what will happen to the kids. Either way, I never really know what to do when she's upset. I've never hugged her to make her feel better or said anything to reassure her. I just stay quiet and wonder myself what will happen. I kind of just accept that sometimes, things don't work out the way you want them to.

After lunch, Jansen called to see what I was up to. He wanted to know if I wanted to play tennis or basketball. I said tennis. My shoulder aches a little, but it doesn't hurt enough that I can't play. He picked me up and we headed to Diamond Bar High School.

I was surprised to see that no one was playing tennis or basketball. It was completely empty. We got on the court, warmed up and then started the set. Jansen didn't play tennis in high school and I played for four years. Needless to say, I won, but it was actually very close at 7-5. It was a nice little workout, just what I was looking for for a Saturday afternoon.

After tennis, we hit up a little boba place to cool off and refresh ourselves. I ordered a taro drink and Jansen had a thai iced tea boba. I wonder why I don't get the same feeling drinking boba versus drinking milk? Is it because boba drinks don't use dairy products?

Although it's not technically Elaine's birthday, we celebrated it in Hollywood at the Continental Bar on Wilshire. I always forget that Elaine is an Aquarius like me. Joyce drove her there and we got there with JD's bmr. I can't believe how fast JD drives, but I still feel pretty safe in his huge car with my seat belt on.

The Continental is a small space and it's actually a restaurant with a small bar. Every time someone asked who's idea it was to go there, Jansen would always say, "it's where Joyce got punched in the eye." Regardless, it was brotha and sista night. As soon as you entered, it smelled black. Unfortunately, only the thick and heavy sistas were out and the only petite and pretty one I saw left early.

When Din arrived, he suggested we leave and go to another bar. So I rode with him over to El Carmen or something like that, in Hollywood. It's a tequila bar with Mexican wrestling art as decor. It had portraits of Mexican wrestlers, the funky masks they wear and and overall Mexican theme. Initially, the guy/girl ratio was great and there were a few prospects hanging out. But, as the night dragged on, all the ladies left and only guys were left. I guess that's why they always say, strike while the iron is hot.

The only interesting thing that happened was when an older woman tried to walk past me and excused herself by saying she needed to walk a straight line somewhere. She was very odd and she seemed drunk. As JD and I spoke to her, a man came calling her his wifey, but she claimed he was just a cousin. Before I knew it, he stole her away.

I saw her later outside as we got ready to leave. She looked older outside where the lighting wasn't as generous as inside the bar. Still, she was very well put together and I wish I could have spoken to her a little longer.

As usual, when we got to Jansen's, we played poker until 6 in the morning.