I Sipped Bacardi Like It Was My Birthday

I turned 30 a few days ago without much fanfare, which was fine with me, though I'm kind of surprised I didn't post anything on my birthday. Oh well.

Amanda came downtown to meet me for lunch, and she surprised me by giving me a new guitar for my birthday present!!! I was pretty f'ing excited, I will tell you that. I haven't played since my old guitar was stolen when our house got robbed on the St. Patrick's Day Massacre of 2005. Then Thursday night I got another surprise when my friend Neola from Jackson walked into my apartment. That one really threw me for a loop. Evidently I'm pretty easy to surprise, b/c everyone knew she was coming but me.

Had a "birthday party" Friday night at this dive bar in Santa Monica called "The Speak Easy Cocktail." This place rocked. Good jukebox (which we pumped a bunch of money into), strong drinks (I don't know if they were cheap or not b/c I was getting them handed to me by everybody, but I imagine they were), a couple of pool tables, and a Scottish bartender named Ruth. Ruth bought me a drink also. My roommate Josh told me he thinks I might have drank a whole bottle of scotch, but I doubt that. Although it might have been close.

Today Amanda, Neola and I were having lunch and walking around on Melrose, and I bumped into Toby from Rockstar: Supernova. I shook his hand and said "You fucking rock, man, keep it up and good luck," to which he responded, "Cheers, good on ya, mate." Australians are funny.

I'm gonna get some posts about our trip to Hawaii up here soon, with a few pictures, but in the meantime, if you want me to email you the ophoto album, just leave me a comment with your email address and I'll send them along.

Vegas Baby. Vegas.

8 hours after getting back from Maui, I left for Vegas to meet my buddies for our fantasy football draft/weekend of partying. It was a great weekend, though one with very little sleep. We were like a walking Sports Guy column. No more details - what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but I can say that we all had a fun dinner on Saturday evening.

Beach at Ka'anapali on Maui

This place is absolutely paradise. Will update more when I have a chance, but might not be until after I get back.

28 Shuffle

I have to admit I stole this from some other music blogs I've read, but I don't really care. I put my iPod on shuffle this morning, and these are the first 28 (b/c that's how many lines are on the pages of my legal pads) songs I got. Not bad, really, considering the fact that there's a good bit of crap on my iPod.

1. Ryan Adams - Please Do Not Let Me Go
2. Metallica - Last Caress/Green Hell
3. Ben Folds Five - Evaporated
4. Bruce Springsteen - Missing
5. The Guess Who - Cardboard Empire
6. Ben Harper - Welcome to the Cruel World (live)
7. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - Go Daddy-O
8. R.E.M. - Beat a Drum
9. Elliott Smith - A Passing Feeling (live)
10. Turin Brakes - By TV Light
11. Grateful Dead - Till the Morning Comes
12. Bob Schneider - Better
13. Bob Dylan - Watcha Gonna Do (Studio Outtake)
14. Paul McCartney & Eric Clapton - While My Guitar Gently Weeps (live)
15. Ryan Adams - Amy
16. Guns & Roses - You're Crazy
17. Snoop Dogg - Too High
18. Metallica - The Prince
19. U2 - New Year's Day
20. Jimi Hendrix - 3rd Stone from the Sun
21. Sleater-Kinney - Jumpers
22. Sufjan Stevens - Riffs & Variations on a Single Note
23. Radiohead - Go to Sleep (Little Man Being Erased)
24. Third Eye Blind - Deep Inside of You
25. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Waiting in Vain
26. Bush - Machinehead
27. Rolling Stones - Sympathy for the Devil
28. R.E.M. - Suspicion (live)

How to Eat Like a College Student

After Saturday's fitness experiment (where Amanda was very excited to see Jeanne Tripplehorn, Tom Cruise's hot wife from The Firm and co-star of fellow Jacobs Camp alum Ginnifer Goodwyn in HBO's Big Love), I had to go home and rest. Big day ahead. There was a Texas alumni barbecue down in Redondo Beach, and they were bringing in Salt Lick Barbecue for the occasion, as well as all-you-can-drink Shiner Bock.

We got to the barbecue around 5:00, and they were supposed to start serving dinner at 5:30. No dice. More like 6:30. At least they had beer and the DVD of the Rose Bowl to keep everybody happy until the food was ready.

I haven't had Salt Lick in years, but it's like riding a bike, you just don't forget how to handle a Salt Lick meal. Step one: starve yourself all day, so you're really really hungry by the time the meat hits the table. Check. Step two: drown (and I mean drown) EVERYTHING on your plate in sauce. Meat, bread, potato salad. Everything. Check. Step three: eat your first heaping plate of ribs, sausage and brisket (leave the chicken alone) as fast as possible, so you don't realize you're full until well into the second plate. Check. Step four: when you start to falter during your second plate, drink a little Coke in order to burp a few times and make some more room in your stomach. Check. Step five: when you realize you're not going to be able to handle much more, eat the sausage first. Everything else is just there to keep the sausage company while it waits to be eaten. Check.

I went at this stuff like my life depended on it. I was so stuffed that I could barely eat lunch the next day. That night we went to a party that some friends of ours were having, and I just sat on the couch the whole time nursing a bottle of beer and a glass of room-temperature Sprite. I was like an overfed baby, I just wanted to lie down and burp until I felt better. When I complained to Amanda that I was so full it hurt, she said, "Well you were shoveling it into your face! You need to learn to eat smaller portions." I responded by telling her that I do know how to eat smaller portions, but that this was Salt Lick, this was different. True, I was in pain (something that didn't happen 10 years ago), but if I had it to do all over again, the only thing I would change would be to try to smuggle some extra sausage out in a cup or a ziploc bag.

Survived ... Barely.

I am DYING! Amanda and I just finished taking a class at Barry's Boot Camp, where my college roommate Mark is a trainer. Damn. It's a good thing I was sweating so much, so you couldn't see the tears running down my face. More on this later, I have to eat breakfast before I pass out.

Sometimes LA Rules

Despite the lack of A/C in our apartment, the traffic, the ridiculous amount of time it takes to get anywhere, the distance from most of our family and friends, and the cost of living, sometimes living in LA is just awesome. Last night, Amanda and I went with a friend of ours who has a good hook-up to see an advance screening of Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. A good movie is a good movie, and a free movie is a good movie, but a free good movie that hasn't even come out yet is just awesome. I wrote a review of it over at The Water Cooler, but you should all definitely go see it when it comes out this weekend, it was hilarious! Super-duper!!