Category: My Life

Sedona and the Grand Canyon

Soooo, what a weekend!

I flew out of work at 3pm on Friday and headed for the airport, the flight into Phoenix was right on time, excellent flight, no problems or anything! Got my rental car and headed out for Sedona. After driving through lots of random construction and lots of winding back roads I found the camp ground around 9:30ish. Laid out my sleeping bag and went to bed. Got up early the next morning and headed out to Slide Rock where they were having this crazy Apple Festival. It was alright. Not exactly what I was expecting and the trails there were only about half a mile long. So I made my own off roading trails and did some bouldering up to the top of the rocks which was lots of fun! Getting down was not so much fun! lol. Hung out at the festival for a little bit and then headed off to Red Rock Canyon.

Red Rock canyon was really very neat, though again there were only about 5 miles of trails. I did the longest trail which was about 3 miles and had enough of that so I headed back into town to explore the touristness of Sedona, AZ. I have to say that I was not impressed by the town of Sedona, there’s way to much touristy shit. And the Pink Jeep and competitors are EVERYWHERE! I stopped into the tourist information booth and asked the guy where a good place to watch the sunset was at. He told me to just drive up to the Airport and watch it from there. I told him that I didn’t want to just drive somewhere and that I wanted to hike somewhere. He said “I wouldn’t suggest that, It’s too dangerous.” You know that once you say that I just have to do that, so I pressed him for some good hiking because the shit I had been told about sucked. He finally coughed up this great hike to Cathedral Rock but he said, “It’s way to dangerous to do today.” BAH! I headed out after that and did another short hike where I got rained on. I love mountain weather!

From there I headed off to the Cathedral Rock hike. It’s only a half mile, but it’s a VERY steep half mile hike and WELL worth every effort. I basically ran up the whole thing bouldering and stuff up the side of this mountain. Got up to the top and it was just AMAZING! So beautiful, I wish that they hadn’t ruined such a wonderful place with so many stupid fat American tourists. Watched the sunset and ate a PB&J and then headed down. Going down was just as much fun as going up, and this time I folloed the trail, so not as much rock hopping was needed.

Headed back into town and found this place that was EXACTLY like Panera Bread, but it was called “WildFlower Bread Company”. Got a salad and sat and used the internet for a while then headed back to the camp site and crashed for the night. I had a different camp site this time with a CLEAR view of the sky. Absolutely amazing! You could see all the stars and the milky way and everything. Breathtaking! I laid there for a bit watching the stars and then fell asleep. Around 11ish or so the moon came out from behind the mountians and woke me up because it was so bright! I got a little chilly that night, but after zipping up the wonderful new 0 degree sleeping bag I was nice and toasty! 🙂

Woke up Sunday morning early and headed out for the grand canyon. I got up to Flagstaff and all the tourist information things were closed. So I called some LA people to try and figure out what was going on. I found this great place called “Sunset Crater and Wupatki”. It was a really great drive through the country side and you got to see this really neat lava flow and old volcano, etc. After that you drive about 20 miles and you get to see these really neat old Adobe houses from the Wupatki Indians. Very very neato! After those I headed into the Grand Canyon, checked out my camp site and then did some Rim hiking and took a trail down into the canyon for about a mile.

I headed back up to watch the sunset which the paper said was at 6:30. I find a great location to watch it about 5:30 and decided to just sit and wait instead of running off to find somewhere else. Last time I was the canyon for a Rim sunset there were 8 million tourists who ruined the great spot I had found before.

So I sit there and 6:30 comes around and the sun was still WAY up in the sky, I was getting very confused by this point. Lots of other people started gathering and finally at 7:30 the sunsets! Apparently I had no idea all weekend what time it really was, oh well. Also there was this REALLY cute Australian boy doing a filming about the sunset and one of the great wonders of the world. Some stupid asian walked right infront of his Camera as he was taking video of the sunset and he yelled at him, it was so funny! There was also this asian sitting next to me, wearing a beanie, hoodie, and a big furry coat! It wasnt that cold! I was there in a t-shirt and shorts! Crazies.

I hiked back to the camp site making a stop off at the General store and bought a Grand Canyon patch. Crawled into my sleeing bag and had another amazing open sky view! I just can’t describe it!

Woke up the next morning and had 2 voicemails and an email from work… I called them back and found out that the email server had crashed. I also had this voicemail/email from one of the really annoying guys at work. “My email doesn’t work.”… I assumed that fixing the first problem would fix his problem. But I called him bak just to be sure. He didn’t answer and I left a VM. I started heading back to Phoenix after that because I could just tell this was going to be a disaster. He called me back while I was pooping so I didn’t answer. then called him RIGHT back and he didn’t answer AGAIN so I left a VM. A couple minutes later I get an email from the boss man saying that this needs to be fixed ASAP, blah blah blah. Ugh. So I call the guy back again and he answers.. His problem.. The signature at the bottom of his emails are not showing up! WTF!?!?!? Are you fucking kidding me!? So I have him transfer me to the boss man and I yell at him about that. UGH. Fucking annoying.

Got back to Phoenix and came to the hotel. Have been hanging out with Mark and all the other gay nerds. So many iPhones! And who knew there were so many gay nerds! And some of them are actually CUTE! lol.

Other Drama regarding Jason/Steve/Const and Mike. Not really going to get into it here, but I feel it’s the last straw between Jason and I. And he wonderes why our friendship has been going downhill. It’s because of shit like this. First Erick/Kris shit now Const/Mike stuff. I can’t deal with it. Whatever happened to loyal friends.

The conference is really cool so far. I’ve learned so much already and had tons of fun last night with the guys. I’ve even met some great guys from Argentina and Peru who can help me out down there with stuff.

Dad’s Visit!

It’s been a pretty drama filled weekend around here, but lots of fun.

Last week at work was crazy as usual. Friday I had a demo with this company that FINALLY has their shit together.. Sad thing is, it’s a product from MICROSOFT! I can’t believe I am saying this, but I really really like this software called Dynamics! For once it appears that Microsoft has got something done right! I am setting up a full 8 hour demo for later this month after I am back from Phoenix. I was supposed to leave at noon but this guy’s Outlook kept crashing on him. Gee, I wonder why, could it be because you have 5 Gigabytes worth of email stored on your computer!?!!? WHO needs that much fucking email saved!?! I got out at 1:30 and had some stupid conference to go to.

Got home that night and cleaned up the apartment and did a bunch of other stuff. Nothing to exciting. Got in a HUGE fight with Jason over the whole Kris/Erick meeting thing. I really do not approve of it. Long story short, I was pretty pissed the whole night at him. Then to top it all off as I was leaving to pick up dad, I saw Erick pulling away from Kris’ house. Just rubbing salt in! 🙂

So I go to pick up dad and stop to get gas at the Shell station by the Airport and some fucking homeless woman comes up to me and won’t fucking leave me alone. She started to get a little violent! I was scared. Went and picked him up, he was actually early and his luggage was the first one off the plane so we were able to get home pretty quick and get in bed.

Got up Saturday morning to some horrible overcast weather. Decided to drive out to Perris anyways just to see what the weather was like out there and as we got closer, it kept getting foggier. So we get there and they say they probably won’t start flying till 1, there’s already 2 hours of reservations backed up in front of us, so we wouldn’t get in the air till nearly 3 or 4 if at ALL! So we decided to forgo that and headed to the Marsh Air Museum. It was alright, they had lots of neat old planes and stuff out there. From there we decided to hear out to Joshua Tree. Had lunch at this CRAZY little Cafe in which the woman got our order COMPLETELY wrong! But we ran into these two REALLY hot rock climber guys who ate lunch with us and gave some tips on places to check out in the park. Spent a few hours in the park just bouldering around, hiking, etc. Headed back to LA and made it in really good time, stopped at China Town and Olvera Street, both of which were having some sort of crazy festival! Ate dinner at Olvera, headed over and showed him Union Station and then headed over to Disney to show him that crazy building. We walked around on the top of it and then headed home.

Sunday we got up EARLY again, there was a HUGE train wreck right by our normal climbing place, 26 people died, so that was all closed off. Decided to go to Malibu, George got there first and found out IT was also closed due to some stupid Triatholon. Ended up having to drive all the way to Mojave which ended up being a good thing. We got out there and headed to the bottom. I got to do my first lead climbing which was TONS of fun! I was a little scared and shaking like crazy, but I made it to the top without slipping once! These other random three guys joined us in the same spot and one of them brought his REALLY hot son along! I enjoyed watching him climb… Got done with that and I ran out of the Punchbowl again which was fun! My Ankle didn’t hurt this time, so that’s showing signs of improvement. Of course we ate at Charlie Browns! 🙂

Headed back to RB from there, stopped off at the airport overlook for a few minutes and then drove him through all the beach cities, stopped at the RB Pier and did the “Speed Boat” which really wasn’t that fast or that much fun. 🙁 The best part was that we saw probably 30-40 dolphins swimming along side the boat for a while.

Got back home and I showered then we went out to dinner with Sirin and Kris which was a lot of laughs. We had yet another stupid waitress at the freaking RB Brewing Company.

After that I left dad and went to Kris’ for our end of week drinks. I was only going to have one beer and then leave so he could study more and I felt bad about leaving dad home alone. Well that turned into one beer, a bottle of wine and then a Rogers Roy! I didn’t leave till 1:30am but we finished all of the first season of Heroes! Now we just have to get through Season 2 this week sometime! It was a little awk at times last night with him though, not in a bad way, but whatever. It’s hard to explain! I like him, but I don’t really think we should start anything for the sake of the threesome relationship (not in a dirty way!!) and the fact that he’s just gonna leave anyways! Like I’ve said before he’s a really great guy!

Sunday I got a REALLY long email from Erick again regarding the whole he and Const thing that happened back in April (well I found out about it in April, the act happened in January). I’ve basically decided over the past couple months from taking a step back and really looking at who he is that I don’t really feel comfortable having him in my life. He’s a manipulator to get what he wants, kind of a stalker in ways and there are tons of other little things about his personality that just really sit wrong with me. He was a great friend before, but I just don’t feel comfortable having him in my life at all any longer. I have yet to reply to his email as I’m not sure how to exactly put how I feel into words and I feel like he does deserve a full explanation.

XM Radio

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again! I love my XM Radio! And thank god I at last have it back. I had time the other day and finally got really fed up with regular radio to call and deal with the idiots at XM Customer service. So after an hour on the phone with them, I at last have my radio back.

BUT! I have to say there’s one thing that annoys me still. I listen to stations 6,9,20,26,30,54. And every once in a while you can flip through the stations and THREE stations will be playing the EXACT same song! This can get very annoying because it’s usually a song that I don’t like.

You would think that they would have something in the DJing software that would not allow this to happen!

Also, sometimes you’ll hear a song and then a couple minutes later flip to a different station and they are playing the same song. I really think that when you have that many stations playing the same “Type” of music there should be something in there that won’t let another station play a song within say 20 minutes of the last time it was played on any other station or something.

Perhaps I’m just weird because I flip stations a lot, but it does get annoying because I tend to hear the same songs over and over again on my long drives that I take.

Either way, I do love my XM! Thank you satellite gods!

7 Accountants!

Sooo, I was thinking the other day. Why does my company need 7 accountants AND a CFO!? I don’t get it one bit!? We have a seperate person for Accounts Receivables and Accounts Payable! Plus a Controller and some other random people who knows what they do!

I even found out the other day that the CFO isn’t even a CPA! I would think that if you wanted someone in that high level position they should be a CPA! I was sitting in the conference room the other day and I heard him trying to arrange a truck for some product from Miami to Bakersfield. Why on EARTH is the CFO dealing with this?! We have a transportation manager and an ENTIRE logistics company to do this work! He should be more concerned about the 20 cell phones that have come up missing and we are paying nearly $100 a month for.

I really don’t understand how this company even operates at all. I mean maybe it’s the way the whole industry works, but really? How does ANYONE make any money!?!??!

So first some guy grows some product in some random farm far far away. It gets shipped from there to either LA or Miami via boat, truck, plane. Somehow! As soon as it’s shipped, we technically own the product and pay the grower for it, say $15, but we don’t give him the money yet.

Once its shipped, we start selling it. So typically as soon as it arrives in a port it’s sold and needs to go somewhere, say we sold it for $20.

But someone has to pay for the cost to ship from grower to port to customer, well that cost is all subtracted from the $15 we pay the grower, then say it gets here and some of the product is bad. It goes through this process called repack, there’s a cost associated with that, comes out of the $15. The product was shipped in a box that box was paid for by the company but the cost of the box also comes out of the $15.

So say the first seller rejects it, not big enough, to big, whatever reason. By now the product can be up to 4 weeks old so we try and resell it at say $12. Now WE are losing money. But WAIT! That price difference from $15-12 is taken out of the $15!!! So now we’re only breaking even!

It’s a miracle! So in the end the grower is now getting something like $8!

Really? is this how the free market works?!?! It’s so confusing! We should buy something at some price and then resell it, none of this costing shit!

My Boots! Where are my Boots?!

I have no idea where my boots are? Or something! Who knows!

Most of the same old craziness abounds in my life! Last week was great, Friday we had a wonderful dinner party with Sirin, Kris, Steve and I. Jason was supposed to come, but he was sick. 🙁 we made Tequila Lime chicken and Asparagus Risotto! We sat around the kitchen table from like 9pm-2am talking and having a great time! I think I drank a tad to much though! LOL

Saturday I got up at 8ish, Kris and I went kayaking and then hit up the company picnic party! All the people I work with are crazy and there was this really scary clown at the party. Kris and I almost won the water balloon tossing contest! 🙁 IT was really funny at the start when he THREW the balloon at me. I got him back for that! If my company doesn’t know I’m gay before, they def know now! We left there about 3 and I came home for a quick nap, shower and then off to the final CalPhil concert of the season. It was pretty good. They played Queen!

Sunday I got up and did rock climbing up at Stoney Point again. We did a different route this time (S-Crack) which was very challenging! No one made it up except for JoErick. 🙁 It was good trying though! Very very hot out! After that we hit up Souplantation and then I went home to do laundry and shit.

Some drama that evening between the whole Kris, Jason and I plans. Ended up having a really fun night anyways and drinking to many bottles of wine.

Monday, people called me into work early and then I felt sick most of the day. Went home early and napped from 5-10, went over to Kris’ to watch Weeds (oh my god, creepy!), came home after that and crashed.

Things overall have been great! Sirin got her house which really makes me want one now too! 🙁 I’m very excited for Dad to be here this weekend, going to be a real weekend of new experiences! I can’t wait! I have been getting a little annoyed though lately by someone’s constant negative attitude towards trying new things. I don’t get it, go out and try new things people! If you don’t like it then no big deal, at least you have tried and you can say you did it, if you do then cool, you have something new to do! Ugh. it’s just really annoying.

People are my office are still idiots. Calling me at fucking 6:30am for idiotic reasons and shit, downloading programs that just slow down the computer to a crawl and then complaining at me about it because the computer is slow. And really, who needs 14,000 emails in the inbox!?

Anyways, I really need to work on updating more. Life is just too busy!