Internationl Gabe Freedom Day 2011

From time to time, I will have days off from both work and school. These have been come to be known as Internationl Gabe Freedom Days and today was just such one day although it wasn't supposed to be. I was scheduled to work 9-6 which is my usual shift on a Monday. I got up like it was a normal day showered got ready and arrived to work on time. I went to the bathroom shortly after arriving and when I came out a slight commotion had begun. Apparently Carlos, the store manager, overscheduled too many workers and had two people coming in at 9 instead of just one. Inside I was very excited but I knew that knowing my luck I'd be the one told to stay and Paulo would be sent home. He quiskly said "I don't mind leaving I have things I need to do anyways". but who doesn't have things to do? The same situation had occured several weeks ago whe Paulo and I were scheduled for the same shift. He was sent home early then so I figured he'd surely get the lucky break again. But the gods were smiling on me today and I got elected to go home. I ran to get my homework and lunch bag and went to my car. Then the question came to my head "Now what I do with my day?"

The first thing I did was text my friend anthony. I been wanting to see him recently because I just don't have much time anymore with work and school taking up the bulk of my time. Unfortunately he didn't respond till later that night. We had been talking about recording some stuff together I figured today would have been a good day to do that. I texted a few other people but either my phone was not working or I pissed a lot of people off because I wasn't get any responses. I decided the first thing to do was get some breakfast. I went to Fantastic Cafe and got a choriz breakfast burrito which was delicious and came home.

The misses finally texted me back and said I should go to Walmart. We had gone shopping the night before and paid for several items that didn't make it home. I didn't have anything else to do so I went. I got inside and went over to the customer service area. There were a couple of people in line that seems to in line for the Western Union so I made my own line on the other side of the rope which turned out to be a big mistake. "There's only one line!!!" the worker yelled at me. SORRY.... I thought and walked to the line. The transaction went fine and went and got my products. I also need a new water jug because my other one fell out of the fridge and cracked on the floor earlier that day before leaving for work. I found an exact replica and went back home.

Still unsatisfied with my day I had epiphany when I went into the bathroom to put away the shampoo and shaving cream from the store. For a while I had been wanting to add some shelf space inside the medicine cabinet. The pegs that hold up the boards were still intact but the shelves themselves had been missing since we moved in. I decided I was gonna go to Home Depot and get some new shelves. So I jumped back into my car and headed out again.

At the Home Depot, I quickly found the wood pieces I needed. I was gonna need them cut so I went to find a worker. That was actually a lot harder than it sounds. I went up and down a few aisles and didn't see anyone. I then went up one aisle and saw a self-serve table with saws and tape measure but there was a guys cutting and measuring some side molding. The pieces I needed werent that huge so I figure I could just so it myself after the guy was done using the station. When he was finished I approached the bench and began to saw the piece. It was much more difficult than I had anticipated. I could not get the piece to lay flat and the saw was not working well for me. I decided to give that up and resume my search for a worker. Finally, a man in an orange apron walked toward. I asked him if I could get some wood cut to which he responded "Yea! Eventually...." Another rude worker in customer service?!?! Impossible. I brushed it off and he helped me cut my wood. When I got home the pieces fit perfectly and I organized my section of the medicine cabinet and was pleased with the results.



After my handyman phase I had ran out of weird impulsive things to do. I played my guitar for a bit, did some chores and then watched the Hurt Locker on Netflix which I really enjoyed. Before I knew it was already 6 and I started making dinner and Rachel came home. It wasn't the most exciting day but it was nice to get a day off from work and school and just relax and have fun.

I also wanted to share this amazing picture I found online. I think it's pretty self explanatory but I couldn't resist posting it. It just about the coolest thing I think I've ever seen. Enjoy!

Sandy Eggo - Part IV - The Final Day: San Diego Safari Park

On our final day in San Diego, we went to the San Diego Safari Park. Before we headed out to the park we wanted to get breakfast. Rachel's sister had told us about this place called Hash House A-Go-Go, a restaurant that was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network. We decided to go check it out. It wasn't too far from the hotel but when we got there there was a huge line that was out the front door and around the building. We both agreed that we didn't wanna have to wait to go eat, so I suggested we just get on the road and get something on the way there.

We decided to take the Hotel Circle exit and figured there had to be places off the exit to eat since it was near a bunch of hotels. Much to our dismay the only restaurant we found was a steak house which wasn't something we really in the mood for. By this time, we were starting to get a little irritable. When we get hungry and can't agree on a place to eat we tend to get into arguments, this was no exception. After some words were exchanged, we got back on to the freeway and finally decided to just go back to the Denny's by our hotel since we were still relatively close we knew where it was. After breakfast and getting the same exact thing we did the first day, we finally headed toward the Park. On the way off one of the freeway exits, we saw a Denny's that would have been a more practical to stop at since it was closer to the park and was on the way which we thought was pretty funny. When we finally exited the freeway and were about a mile or two from the park we saw something even funnier than that. There were a lot of ostrich farms along the way and in one of the last ostrich pens along the way there were some birds about to get freaky. My weird perverted instinct couldn't resist the temptation and I had to pull over to get a better look. The male spread his wings and started running in place as he tried to mount the female. It looked so funny but unfortunately we weren't able to get a camera out in time. We were busting up though...he was so excited!!! (Sorry no pics)

We finally made it to the Park and the first exhibit we saw had all these pretty and exotic birds. These ones were really unique and pretty :

Pretty Birds

After that our main priority was getting to the main attraction: the tram ride. I was kind of confused because it didn't seem like they had many attractions. Just a bunch of restaurants spread out, little pond areas with birds and just a bunch of signs pointy to the supposed tram ride. We walked for what seemed like almost an hour to get to the main attraction part of the Park. There was a pretty cool lookout point with elevators that led down to the entrance to the tram ride. This big ugly creature got in the way as I tried to get a shot:

Viewpoint overlooking the Park

We got in the elevator and the first thing we saw a lion exhibit. Like many zoo exhibits, the animals were sleeping. It was still cool to see the lion so close to where we were.

Simba sleeping on his car

We continued on the path and arrived at the entrance to the tram ride. It was very packed and we had to wait in the line for about an hour which was okay. There were a lot of interesting people in the line including a moment when a mom lost her child and the kid came running back to kinda where we were. At first she didn't notice anything and the people around us were all concerned and wondering who this kid was. Then his mom finally called for her and from the looks of it she looked like she had 5 other children. It was weird. By the time we got to the front of the line we were kind of both kind of cranky and annoyed. We were kind of over the park and wanted to go home already. We went on the tram ride but left afterwards. Here's some of the shots we got on the tram:

Curious Cheetah



A "Rhyme" noceros



Random antelopes or gazelle type creatures (Made up about 80% of the tour)



This guy was actually not at the park but was grazing in the grasslands that surround the park.



Giraffes eating the trees

After the Park, we went to Belmont Park to watch the sunset. We bumped into this older couple on vacation from Tennessee on the beach. They wanted us to take there picture because they weren't sure when they'd ever be out this way again or get to see the beach. Growing up in California my whole life it's weird to think that there's people in the world have never been to the beach. I wonder what that feels like because its something I've always known and taken for granted. Enough with my deep thoughts here are a couple shots from the beach:

Sunset in San Diego



Artsy shot Rachel took that I thought looked cool.

We came home to Anaheim the next day to come back to reality. It was a very nice trip and we had a lot of fun. It seemed like it went by really fast but that's how all vacations seem to me. Next month we go to Washington to see Rachel's brother's new baby girl. That should be fun because I never been to that state before. The only thing I'm sad about is that Rachel won't let me live out my weird fantasy of  going the fish market in Seattle and having a worker toss me a fish that I would catch with a newspaper.I'm determined to find a way to get that done. It's not like I want to take it home and keep it. .I just wanna catch it, have a video/photo taken of the event, and then put the fish back and go on with my day. Rachel is concerned that I'll just smell fishy all day because apparently she is unaware of the invention of the shower. I'll guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Sandy Eggo - Part III - Day 2: The San Diego Zoo

Welcome to the San Diego Zoo

Our adventure in San Diego continued on Saturday with a trip to the San Diego Zoo. We were to meet up with Rachel's parents at the zoo. We initially agreed to meet up at 10 but we all slept in and didn't up meeting up with them at the Zoo till 12. As soon as we got there the rain started up again like the day before. Rachel's mom arrived a little after we did. She came first because Rachel's dad had some to some stuff at the AREMA convention which is why they were in San Diego. We headed for the reptile exhibit because it was indoors.  It was really cool. They had all kinds of snakes and lizard. The first thing we saw was this big lizard:



Big Lizard

 I don't remember the exact name of the lizard but it was really cool. I had never seen such a large lizard in my life before. It was a little surreal like seeing a dinosaur or something. After that we got a call that Johnny was entering the park and waited near the entrance for him to come in. As soon as we met up with him we decided it was time to get some lunch. I got some carne asada fries except there was very little "carne" in the fries but they were still good. After we ate we went to see the monkeys. The very first one we saw was in a very compromising position. I might have gotten in trouble for saying the d-word when I pointed at him. That was however topped by Rachel's dad when he said "That's a big boner he's got!"

Rafiki

Sorry no picture of the boner monkey.....

After that we saw the pandas. They were very strict about not making too much noise or disturbing the pandas. During the whole time, there was a zoo worker talking and giving information and facts about the bears which was quite loud becuase she was on a PA! Which I thought was funny.





After that we went to the Arctic area to see the polar bears. Apparently they had arctic foxes and other arctic animals but we didn't think to check behind the polar bear exhibit so we didn't see them. I did however see a polar bear that was pacing back and forth in the exhibit which looked like he was dancing and took this video of him:



  

After the dance party, we then headed to the Elephant exhibit. 

He looks like he's hiding...

This cardboard cutout was along the trail in Elephant Odyssey exhibit.



Dr. Rachel

It started to rain again shortly after we got into the exhibit which was pretty lame. Rachel's parents had decided they had enough of the rain and decided to leave. Rachel and I however were not ready to go. I still wanted to see the chimps, bonobos and gorillas. We had gone the wrong way through the monkey area when we first got there and missed seeing them.



Big Gorilla



The gorilla was really awesome he was very brave and came up right to the glass. Unfortunately, for some reason they didn't have any chimps or bonobos in the exhibit, they're enclosure was empty. I don't know where they went there was no sign or explanation as to where they were.

After we saw the gorillas we went to see the cats. We couldn't see the tiger really except for his tail which  hanging off a ledge in the upper part of his enclosure where he sleeping. They also had these other cats which were really cute. One of them seemed to really enjoy my company.





We were having an depth discussion about "paw"lotics.



After the zoo we went back to the hotel to rest for a little bit. My friend had told me about this place called Phil's BBQ which was supposedly really good and was right across the street from where we were staying. We tried going there but there was a huge line wrapped around the building like people were in line to get tickets to Metallica or something. We decided against going there and went to another place that is one of my favorite Mexican restaurant/takeout places, Sombreros.







Happy to be at Sombreros



After that we went to get an ice cream treat at Cold Stone and went to Mission Beach, another one of my favorite places in San Diego complete with a roller coaster practically right on the beach. We had a nice time just relaxing there and eating our ice cream. The wind was blowing really hard and it was very cold so we didn't end up staying there too long. We headed back to the hotel and called it a night after that. It had been a long day and went to be bed to prepare for our final day in San Diego.