Tag: nic

Christmas in Iowa

Sooooo.

Here I am back at work! 🙁 Ugh. I so don’t wanna be there.

Yesterday was so long. Got up early to do stuff and ended up not having to leave the house till 10! I could have slept in. I’m not sure why, but the last few days I have been UBER sleepy! My dad and I went to look at some houses, which I think are really cute! The only problem is that the guy is asking WAY to much for them. $185k. He needs to drop it to the $150k range to make it feasible. Went to the airport and had no problems getting checked in and through security in like 10 minutes. Sat around the airport and watched The Color Purple. Which was pretty good.

Got on the flight from DSM to STL and slept pretty much the WHOLE flight. Got into STL and my flight to LAX was delayed like an hour.

So anyways, the rest of the week was great. Christmas night I went out with the gang as per usual to The Blazing Saddle. It was of course a fun disaster! 🙂 We even had a new person join this year! Amanda F from our HS. She was tons of fun! We ended up getting home at like 3:30ish. Made a fool of myself I’m sure at the Saddle but, who cares it was fun! 🙂

Friday I got up and just lounged around the house, I was pretty hung over. Wasn’t going to go out that night but I had met this really cute guy who wanted to hang out. So I headed over and picked him up and we went out to dinner at Java Joes and then met up with a bunch of his friends. Meeting his friends was a little AWK but I still had a ton of fun. We went to a few different bars including Locust Tap, 101 (SCARY!), El Bait Shop (tons of fun, including the attached 70’s bar!) and again the Saddle where we lost the girls, very annoying. I also found this really good beer called 312 Wonderful!

So anyways, I drove him home and spent the night there at his house which was a total crazyness. His dad was still up when we got there so it was like an undercover operation to get me into the house! LOL. Got up early the next morning and found out that we got a TON of freezing rain overnight. My car was COVERED in ice! So I had to drive home in that shit.

Got home only to find out that we weren’t going to go to the farm for Christmas, meaning I could have slept in more at his house. Instead I just lounged around the house all day and did nothing. That night I met up with the Adam again to go see Valkyrie. It was an amazing movie! Drove him home again and sat in his living room talking for a little bit. Got back to the parents house around 2ish.

I really enjoyed the guy, he’s very nice and very cute… I think he intrigues me most because he really compliments who I am. He’s artistic and outgoing and what not. Problems are that A) he lives in Chicago and B) has no money to come visit. He honestly reminds me a lot of Andrew, which I’m not sure good or bad? I’m hoping that maybe I can go to Chicago to visit for a weekend. I’m not to sure what will come of it all..

It was also a very sad trip home for me. First time being back to the family since Grandpa’s passing and I had a pretty hard time dealing with it. There were many times where I was holding back tears. Even at random times as I was out with friends or just sitting at home. Opening presents at Grandma’s house one of the last ones was a gift for the three grandchildren. It said “From: Grandpa” and it was a 50-state quarter set. My grandpa always collected coins and one thing we always knew we’d get was a mint set every year. This was the last gift from him, it was only 3 quarters away from being completed when he died.

Anyways, I wish that I could have spent more time back home and had more free time. I didn’t get to see many of the friends that I usually hang out with, never got to sit in the hot tub, and didn’t get to do some of the stuff that I typically do back home.

Overall it was a great trip home!

Merry Christmas EVERYONE!

Merry Christmas!

It’s been a busy busy week here in Iowa. TONS of stuff going on.

Got some AMAZING news last Friday at work. I got my approval for the $500,000 software implementation. I also had a meeting with the CEO regarding the idiot CFO and some other plans I had for the company. So that was GREAT!

Saturday I got back to Iowa with noooo problems what so ever on the flights! Which was GREAT. Got home and went to bed.

Sunday I got up and went out with Angel and had a great time. Monday went to gym with mother and then wondered around all day long and went out and did something that night. Tuesday I drove mom to work and went around doing stuff. Also went out that night with Angel, then the saddle where I met this REALLY cute/nice guy who’s a comedian from Chicago. We ended up going back to his parents house and talking/cuddling till 4am! I left his house to 3 inches of FRESH snow and TONS more coming down. Had to drive home in that shit, no plowed roads or anything, it was SCARY. Got all the way home and then almost ditched the jeep in my parents drive way. Did a 360! LOL.

Wed got up at 7:30 and drove mom to work, then ran around doing stuff that day and then drove down to grandma’s house with the aunt and cousin. Lots of fun there. We went out and visited with the Great uncle, and great Grandma. It’s amazing to hear their stories and I hope that I’m in half as good of health as my great grandma is when i’m her age! It’s also really amazing to see the different between my 76 year old Great Uncle and my 97 year old Great grandma. My uncle is in VERY poor heatlh, whereas she is in amazing health still!

Ok. Gotta go help the family. Adios y’all!

Thanksgiving, San Jacinto and Joshua Tree!

Wow, what a weekend, went from the wonderful Beach, to Winter wonderland, to the desert and back to a very foggy and overcast beach! Only in LA can you do such a thing!

So, Thursday I headed down to Laguna beach to meet up with Nick and Dustin. We hung out in Laguna for a while and watched the sunset which was amazing. After that we headed over to some of Nick’s friends house for thanksgiving dinner. That was a HUGE mess, but tons of fun! Lots of people, tons of delicious food, and a great time was had by all. There was this one old guy though who kept STARING at me the WHOLE time we were there though. Very annoying! lol

Got done with that and headed home. Nick and I went through the plans for the next day and reviewed what we were packing then crashed in bed. Got up at 5am Friday morning and drove out to Palm Springs and got the second tram of the day up to the top. Got there and there was 3-4 inches of snow on the gound at the tram station which is about 8,200 feet. Started out hiking and got lost a few times because the trail was not marked at all. So we were trying to find our way up!

It was absolutely gorgeous getting up there. We reached the Peak which was about 6 miles up at around 1pm, so it took us about 4 hours to do that. Got up there and hung out in this emergency shelter cabin to eat lunch and warm up a little bit. On the peak there was around a foot of snow up there. We hung out and checked out the wonderful views and then started heading the 2 miles to our camp site. The snow seemed much deeper on this side of the mountian, we were going downhill and we were blazing the trail.

I decided after a while that it was just too much, my feet were soaking wet, my toes frozen solid so we turned around and went back. Made the 6 mile trek back in a little over 2 hours. So 12 miles and 7 hours later with a 35 pound pack we were back where we started. Spent some time in the tram station and had some hot tea and then headed to the bottom. Stopped at KFC for dinner and saw this HUGE fat guy in there eating a boat load and I was disgusted and wanted to yell at him. After that we headed out to Joshua tree to meet up with Travis and gang.

We got there and met a bunch of new people and then we crashed in bed. I was sooo tired! Saturday we got up and went climbing for the whole day. Pretty much from sunrise to sunset! It was amazing. Although I was sooooo tired and my back was killing me, so I only did 4 climbs that day. 🙁 Tons of hot guys were out climbing as well! Yum! It was a really great group and hopefully I can start doing some climbing/adventures with them some more!

Went back to the camp site that night and they had another GREAT thanksgiving dinner and then this other couple made delicious chicken tacos! We had so much fucking food around the camp site. Plus people were smoking pot and drinking tons of alc. It was very entertaining! I went to bed probably around 9ish and laid and watched the stars for a little bit. Sooo pretty.

So Sunday we got up, packed up and then headed out to breakfast with Travis, Jafey, Nick and I. Had good chat then back to LA! The drive was great, no traffic or anything but the weather at the beach SUCKED! It was overcast and nasty! I would rather have the snow! Lol

Overall it was a GREAT weekend!

Download the Google Earth file of the hike here:
2008-11-30-mt-san-jacinto

Here’s a movie:

It’s been awhile!

I know. I’ve been sucking at updating! But I’ve just been so damn busy with life and shit! You have no idea.

Last week was crazy. Not home pretty much every night of the week. My cats are lonely! My house is a mess, my laundry needs to be done and I need sleep!

Friday night I went out with Kris, Steve and Mayko. Had a good time till the end. We went to Fiesta, Abbey, PopStars and Eleven. Mayko got me into the VIP at Eleven, Steve and Kris didn’t come so I lost them. Then found out that Steve had just left Kris and Kris wondered off. I yelled at him for wondering off! What a mess.

Saturday I got up early and took car in to service. Got home and slept till noon, got up, packed and headed out for Mt Baldy. Met up with George and Jason and we hiked up to the top of Baldy and spent the night up there. Soooo Fucking pretty! You could see both the LA and San Gabriela Valleys.

Got home from that late on Sunday and met up with Kris. We went to the BevMO $.05 sale and bought tons of wine. Went back to his house and ended up drinking 3 bottles.

Monday morning work called me at 5:30 and I had to go into the office. What a fucking hang over too! Spent the day working and then did personal trainer. He about killed me! Got home from that and I crashed.

Tuesday I worked and then went kayaking with Kris. We did a beach landing, which was just GREAT! We almost rolled over in the waves, but managed to keep it nice and straight and landed perfect! Carried the kayak home and then showered and then went, got his Jeep and headed to Jason’s for Lasagna and Champagne! What a fun night!

I am officially out of town/busy every weekend from NOW till Oct 27th! Crazy fucking shit! I am very excited for it though!

I am not sure if I mentioned it, but I got my iPhone. It’s been wonderful and yet annoying. It crashed on Friday, WHITE screen of death! Would not do anything for hours! Very annoying. It’s also very very slow loading my contacts screen and I have noticed the bad reception and VM’s take hours to show up!

I’m going to spend a week in Phoenix in September. Going to spend 4 days in Sedona/Grand Canyon and then 4 days in PHX at a Nerdy convention. I can’t wait!

That’s my life. I had lots of other shit to write about, but I’m to damn busy! Keep up people! 🙂

Pics from the weekend are here.

Can I Use a Figure 8?

Another adventure filled week in the life of Cj B! Wow. Sometimes it amazes me how much my life has changed in the last year. How much I’ve accomplished in the last two years. Just wow.

I’m sitting here trying to remember everything that I did this week. I hung out with Jason Monday night. I think that’s the night that we ended up with a little party on our hands and drank 6 bottles of wine between 5 of us. Tons of fun. It was Vince, Me, The fiancee, Jason and Kris. It started out with just Jason and I making dinner together and being ungodly cute! lol Then Vince and Fiancee showed up and then Kris. We all sat around the kitchen table from 7ish to 11ish just talking. I love that I have a group of friends who can do that.

Tuesday was alright. I had this date with a latin guy, he gets here and asks for $10 for gas! WTF! Either way we hung out and watched this movie called The Orphanage it was in Spanish and it’s about this girl who was adopted from an orphanage, then goes back years later, buys the place and tries to open it as a place for handicap kids. It was VERY VERY good. I highly suggest the movie… NOT the date though!

Wed I went to this stupid backpacking clinic at REI. I mean it was nice if you had never been camping before, but I was expecting it to be a little bit more about actual BACKPACKING. Which I haven’t done in forever, so I was hoping to get a little refresher. I did not enjoy it. I think I went to bed pretty early that night.

Thursday I had my final checkup with the doctor for my ankle, so that was good. He said everything looks fine and to expect pain for the next 3-4 months when doing strenuous things. After that I went out with this guy Justin and we worked out. He’s uber buff, so I figured he’d be a great person to work out with. Which he was. A a little awk and very very flamy, but very buff and I was very sore the next day. I’ll probably keep trying to work out with him.

Friday I got home and went Kayaking with Kris up in Marina Del Ray, we had another great time up there and were out on the water for nearly 2.5 hours. Tons and tons of fun! We sat out in the ocean and watched the sunset again, words cannot describe. I wish I had a water proof camera. Got done with that, drove home, showered and then we went out to dinner at this mexican place. We drank a pitcher of margaritas, ate food and talked. Got done with that and went back to his place where we drank another pitcher of margaritas! 🙂 What a night!

Saturday I got up and Kris came over, we sat out on the porch, drank our breakfast and then decided what to do. Ended up driving to Malibu and going hiking at this place called Winding Way Such a pretty hike! After we were done with that we spent a few hours at the beach, drove home and got dinner. I came home after that and watched this movie called Valintine. It was a little slow, but I liked it overa all.

Sunday was the typical rock climbing. We did Devil’s Punch bowl again. We didn’t start the day out very good though. First my trailing rope got ALL fucked up and I had to undo that shit, then the lead climber got up to a belay station and all of a sudden we hear “clink…. clink….. clinkk…. clinkk…. thud” and then the guy yells out, “Can we use a figure 8!”. He had dropped the belay device! Which is essential! Thank god he found an extra one on his gear! It only took us 1.5 hours this time to climb up, then we rapped down and climbed back up a different route called “Slot machine”. I decided to be crazy and carry my gear up it! Tons and tons of fun! After that JoErick and I decided to race out of the bottom of the punchbowl. Oh my god, bad idea! about 20 pounds of gear, 110 degrees, and very steep trail up. My ankle is KILLING me right now.

We ate at Charlie Browns again. If you live anywhere in the SoCal Area. YOU MUST STOP HERE for food sometime. I HIGHLY suggest the Rodeo Sandwhich! It’s DELICIOUS! And for $6.95, you can’t fucking BEAT it!

I just got home and am going to just crash on the couch now. I may or may not have a date tonight. I haven’t decided if I will go or not. I’m very tired.

Pictures from the weekend are here.