full El Paso update and more ramblings ...
Gosh time has gone by so fast since coming home. I spent most of Monday running errands such as post office and buying groceries. I also tried to kill a mice that was running wild in the living room but no luck. But i was really really close. oh well. must buy some working mouse traps ... the ones i bought today are crappy so i've got to return those and get some new ones.
Anyways, I wanted to just try and sit down and write down everything about the El Paso trip. Basically I left early Thursday morning leaving Oakland to arrive in El Paso around 5p.m. My really awesome friend Pat who I met at the AP last summer picked me up and we went to her place. I'm really glad I paid extra to take a flight so I'd arrive in the city early ... the red eye flight I was going to take was cancelled (that's the one my sister took and she just kept freaking out about how she wouldn't get in El Paso early). What a huge relief to be there in the afternoon! The weather was nice and warm around 76 degrees and the airport was so clean and organized ... so less hectic and crazy than Oakland and SF. I walked out of the airport not knowing where I was going or how I was going to find Pat but we ended up bumping right into each other. It was just so great to see her again and we had so much to catch up on during the car ride to her house. On the way to her place, I saw different parts of the city, the poor, the good, and downtown. The houses there are flat they have no shape. They're just big blocks of squares and everyone there is Mexican ... very few white people or any other ethnicity. After we dropped off her nephew who came to the airport, we went to her place and her other sister had just gotten another karaoke cd and the Strokes' 12:51 was on it. So we both did a duet on the 12:51 song pretending we were crazy rock stars particularly Julian Casblancas. lol. it was great ... singing your heart out with friends is always fun. that just really jump started my trip ... just letting loose and singing Strokes songs. We ate for a bit and I cleaned up and then we headed out later to tour El Paso. My friend and I walked around downtown and ran into two really cute guys in a rock band or punk band called the Electric Funeral. One of the guys was really cute and in the car later we just kept gushing about this guy. We passed by the El Camino Hotel, the only swanky hotel in El paso where we knew the strokes would be staying. We hung out at hte bar hoping to catch them ... but no luck. oh well. we saw a lot of different sights and walking was relaxing. we later went to Applebees to meet up with another one of her friends and had some drinks and appetizers. When we got home, we watched Gothika with Halle Berry, scary scary movie but really cool. Its not a good idea to watch scary movies before going to sleep though ... all night I had dreams or nightmares about my co-editor yelling at me for something that wasn't right with the page. Slept really well aside from the nightmares ... my friend let me stay in her room while she slept on the couch! I insisted on sleeping on the couch but she wouldn't let me. Her parents were really nice ... her mom is a bus driver for the local school district and her dad works for at the local army bases as a civilian or something.
Friday was Strokes day .. the day of the show. We picked up Jean from the airport and proceeded to camp out at the club. We took turns walking around trying to find the Strokes or staking it out at the hotel. It was all quite an adventure though I didn't find any of the guys my sister did. My sister met Nikolai and Nick Valensi and kept jumping up and down and screaming over the phone when she told me. I met Fab the drummer at the after party ... interesting stories were said about him after the concert ended.
Just getting to see them live at a small club was really amazing despite security totally screwing us and dividing the line into guys/girls and then letting the guys in first. During the mid of the set, Julian walked into the crowd and continued singing although he was mumbling some incoherent shit in between like "i don't feel so well." must've been all the cigarettes he was smoking in between songs or the drinking. But it was crazy seeing the crowd mob Julian and basically tearing him into pieces. When he came back to the stage, his shirt was unbuttoned and his hair was messy. Got to love those crazy lead singers of rock bands. =)
Leaving El Paso was hard because I had such a great time with my friend and at the show. When Pat dropped me off and waited with us at the bus station, I was ready to cry because we probably weren't going to see each other for another year or so depending on her job situation. Her temp employment with the AP ends this week and she's moving back to El paso. SHe was so incredibly generous during my stay there whether it was buying me drinks or taking me to see so many different sights, I was just so grateful to have such an amazing friend to share the experience with.
So since coming back home, I've been studying for my marketing class doing a lot of reading and outlining, and testing myself at the end of the chapters. I've also been doing a lot of cleaning trying to throw away junk or give it away. Wednesday, I go to Sacramento for a day for a newspaper design seminar and then Thursday back home again and leaving late night to go to LA Friday for the Strokes show. Did a lot of studying today and skipped out on hanging out with g-parents, dad and sister who were going to tour the Jelly Belly Factory.
I've also been freaking out a lot more and having these panic attacks or something like that about there being so much to do this week and hoping to finish it all. I've also been concerned about my friendship with this particular guy I work with ... things have been really awkward and I don't know whether to call and apologize or continue to avoid him. Since we went out on that one "date" it's just been really strange and I don't know how to act around him whether I should be friendly or cold.
Anyways, I wanted to just try and sit down and write down everything about the El Paso trip. Basically I left early Thursday morning leaving Oakland to arrive in El Paso around 5p.m. My really awesome friend Pat who I met at the AP last summer picked me up and we went to her place. I'm really glad I paid extra to take a flight so I'd arrive in the city early ... the red eye flight I was going to take was cancelled (that's the one my sister took and she just kept freaking out about how she wouldn't get in El Paso early). What a huge relief to be there in the afternoon! The weather was nice and warm around 76 degrees and the airport was so clean and organized ... so less hectic and crazy than Oakland and SF. I walked out of the airport not knowing where I was going or how I was going to find Pat but we ended up bumping right into each other. It was just so great to see her again and we had so much to catch up on during the car ride to her house. On the way to her place, I saw different parts of the city, the poor, the good, and downtown. The houses there are flat they have no shape. They're just big blocks of squares and everyone there is Mexican ... very few white people or any other ethnicity. After we dropped off her nephew who came to the airport, we went to her place and her other sister had just gotten another karaoke cd and the Strokes' 12:51 was on it. So we both did a duet on the 12:51 song pretending we were crazy rock stars particularly Julian Casblancas. lol. it was great ... singing your heart out with friends is always fun. that just really jump started my trip ... just letting loose and singing Strokes songs. We ate for a bit and I cleaned up and then we headed out later to tour El Paso. My friend and I walked around downtown and ran into two really cute guys in a rock band or punk band called the Electric Funeral. One of the guys was really cute and in the car later we just kept gushing about this guy. We passed by the El Camino Hotel, the only swanky hotel in El paso where we knew the strokes would be staying. We hung out at hte bar hoping to catch them ... but no luck. oh well. we saw a lot of different sights and walking was relaxing. we later went to Applebees to meet up with another one of her friends and had some drinks and appetizers. When we got home, we watched Gothika with Halle Berry, scary scary movie but really cool. Its not a good idea to watch scary movies before going to sleep though ... all night I had dreams or nightmares about my co-editor yelling at me for something that wasn't right with the page. Slept really well aside from the nightmares ... my friend let me stay in her room while she slept on the couch! I insisted on sleeping on the couch but she wouldn't let me. Her parents were really nice ... her mom is a bus driver for the local school district and her dad works for at the local army bases as a civilian or something.
Friday was Strokes day .. the day of the show. We picked up Jean from the airport and proceeded to camp out at the club. We took turns walking around trying to find the Strokes or staking it out at the hotel. It was all quite an adventure though I didn't find any of the guys my sister did. My sister met Nikolai and Nick Valensi and kept jumping up and down and screaming over the phone when she told me. I met Fab the drummer at the after party ... interesting stories were said about him after the concert ended.
Just getting to see them live at a small club was really amazing despite security totally screwing us and dividing the line into guys/girls and then letting the guys in first. During the mid of the set, Julian walked into the crowd and continued singing although he was mumbling some incoherent shit in between like "i don't feel so well." must've been all the cigarettes he was smoking in between songs or the drinking. But it was crazy seeing the crowd mob Julian and basically tearing him into pieces. When he came back to the stage, his shirt was unbuttoned and his hair was messy. Got to love those crazy lead singers of rock bands. =)
Leaving El Paso was hard because I had such a great time with my friend and at the show. When Pat dropped me off and waited with us at the bus station, I was ready to cry because we probably weren't going to see each other for another year or so depending on her job situation. Her temp employment with the AP ends this week and she's moving back to El paso. SHe was so incredibly generous during my stay there whether it was buying me drinks or taking me to see so many different sights, I was just so grateful to have such an amazing friend to share the experience with.
So since coming back home, I've been studying for my marketing class doing a lot of reading and outlining, and testing myself at the end of the chapters. I've also been doing a lot of cleaning trying to throw away junk or give it away. Wednesday, I go to Sacramento for a day for a newspaper design seminar and then Thursday back home again and leaving late night to go to LA Friday for the Strokes show. Did a lot of studying today and skipped out on hanging out with g-parents, dad and sister who were going to tour the Jelly Belly Factory.
I've also been freaking out a lot more and having these panic attacks or something like that about there being so much to do this week and hoping to finish it all. I've also been concerned about my friendship with this particular guy I work with ... things have been really awkward and I don't know whether to call and apologize or continue to avoid him. Since we went out on that one "date" it's just been really strange and I don't know how to act around him whether I should be friendly or cold.