The Chargers couldn’t lose because they had a bye week, JR and Veronica had their wedding shower, Adelle convinced me to head out to Disneyland before our pass privileges were set to expire, I got a chance to hang out with Dr. Nourani in Downtown San Diego, and I did a little work in finishing up my migration to my new MacBook Pro.

Disneyland was definitely a great highlight as the lines were short allowing us to ride what we wanted (California Adventures’ Soaring is still the best), the apple pie caramel apple was a delight and the biggest plus was seeing one of my college roommates as a Jedi Knight Instructing young Padawans on stage at a Disneyland show!  Mr. Stephan Oyoung, without a doubt has the best job.  Working 4 days a week teaching kids how to rid the world of the dark side with light saber techniques, what more could you ask in a post graduate occupation?!  Two thumbs up and kudos to you Jedi Oyoung.

On the day of voting, I got to witness a new dawn in Downtown with yet another college buddy, Dr. Nourani and was readily entertained with his residency stories.  I mention a new dawn only because it was about the time when Barack was making his acceptance speech and McCain ending his bid. Bobby’s stories make me wonder where I would have been at if I did do a post-bac program in lieu of flight school.   We ate at Marsala (an Indian restaurant of course) which was tremendous but a bit overpriced then made our way to Altitude Sky Bar where we got to see the Madonna Concert without the Madonna.  Good times all around, but once again I find myself commuting back to work.  It’s been a while since I’ve been at the crashpad.  I can’t wait to get the band back together.  

I got to really just hang out with some buddies this past weekend which was quite relaxing and enjoyable.  I went out with my buddy to a shooting range and I have to say that I was relieved that my aim is still pretty good.  I still have a lot to learn, but its definitely getting to be a little bit easier as my confidence level goes up.  The shooting range in Oceanside called Iron Sights is a great place to rent and try out a variety of handguns and rifles.  That’s my number one choice in San Diego for now until I have to re-qualify next month. 

I also ended up at a Moroccan restaurant called Marrahkesh in Newport Beach where I had rabbit for the first time.  It definitely tasted like chicken but I can’t say that I was too impressed.  The lamb was awesome but I enjoyed the baklava and tea the most.  The tea was a minty green with a lot of sugar.  The rest of the experience was enjoyable as I got to hangout and meet some people for the first time.  I met one of my friend’s roommate from UCSD and his wife of almost a year and she participated in the belly dancing.  Bobby also got up and danced a bit.  It was all fun.

We headed out to a bar in Newport Beach called “The District” which was basically a really small bar that was on par with PB Bar and Grill but a little bit more upscale.  We had a couple of drinks, met more peeps and called it a night night around last call at 1:45AM.  I crashed at his pad and woke up to a beautiful day.  I really can’t see myself leaving Southern California for anything else and I didn’t want to leave.  We walked the pier and ate a Duke’s where I had an amazing seared rare ahi steak tuna.  The food was spectacular. 

Now I’m headed up to Flint, Michigan where I’m going from 70F to 11F.  i can’t wait! 

Well, I decided to go on an excursion this past weekend all beginning with a notion that I wanted to surprised my lovely sweetheart in the city of Cuernavaca in the state of Merelos just one and half hours south of Meixco City.  The whole notion was originated by spontaneity like most of my “less than 24-hour excursions.” (refer back to London) 

Of course, I had to do this all in the middle of a full four day trip followed by two days off then back to work for another four day trip.  In between this all is where I was to take a flight to Daytona Beach, move out, drive back to Atlanta, take an early flight to Mexico City, somehow get to Cuernavaca, drive back up to Mexico City at 3:45 in the morning, make a flight back to Atlanta which connects in Orlando, take the shuttle back to my car, get dressed then head back out for work. 

It all began like this…

“Hey dood, I’m going back to Daytona to vacate the master suite so that I could rent the entire house to students.” -me

“I could help you out…” -Kurt

“Sure…” me

Well that’s when we made the plans to fly down, rent a one way SUV pack all my stuff in and drive back to Atlanta.  Kurt and I could moved an array of affections that I’ve collected since I first moved there in 2005, loaded up the 2008 Ford Explorer from Avis Rental Car then headed out.  We stopped by our old flight school, CAPT, and caught up with some instructors and students and also found one of our favorite ground / flight instructors, Cary Green,  at his own facility called Avia Aero Services.  It was great reminiscing about all the times that we had and learning about a few of our other colleagues and just getting reacquainted.  I do miss the kind of educational, promoting, environment that we had at CAPT. 

We drove back making minimal amount of stops which included eating at Woody’s BBQ, getting Starbucks’ Java Chip Fraps with Red Velvet Cake and fueling up.  We made it back to Atlanta around 12:00AM, upacked and drove back to the airport to drop off our rental.  I got home around 3:00AM due to van time confusion which forced us to wait 30 minutes but needless to say, I was tired when I got home…wake up time for Mexico, 6:00AM.  Thanks for coming along Kurt and helping out.

Day to do things these days have been more of an adventure the more I think of it. Random places and bars…different restaurants and foods…almost killing myself on a 10K (my first one by the way) and just flying to pay the bills! The 10K took place in Northport, NY an was called the 2007 Cow Harbor race. I ran it with Matty P and his friend Sean. I didn’t train and I’m definitely paying for the pain that I’m feeling all over my body, but I like to think that I did just alright. I mean, I finished and I really had no gauge on how good I wanted to do or what a good time was. I really didn’t do anything to prepare myself..hence, winging it!

I’m heading to San Diego again this weekend, but I’m not sure whether or not I’m actually going to go anywhere else in terms of a vacation. Should be fun to just go somewhere random. Maybe Salt Lake City or something. We’ll see…I’m not sure if you have me on facebook or myspace, but I do have a profile there with some new pictures. It’s almost as if I have to keep up three different virtual lives these days and make sure that I tend to them! Anyways, today was just a waste of a day really. I finally got a working installation of Windows Vista with some other programs ready to go for some actual work usage.

What I mean or am talking about it the project that I’m trying to get going, but there are just too many things in my head. I want to keep on running (after I fully recuperate), buy new shoes, head up a project, fly and study more about it so that I’m ready for an interview just in case I need to apply somewhere else (long story) and then fly back to Daytona to take care of some things, geez…just so many things to do that it stinks that I can’t really work on too many things when I’m on an overnight. It’s not like I put work away during the 4 days that I’m on when I’m at the hotel. I wish that I could run errands or something, but you just can’t do anything. I guess that I could continue running and planning, but sometimes you just do want to do anything after a day of flying. Tomorrow I have 5 legs…that’s going to be a doozy!

I’m currently riding on AirTran Business Class this afternoon on my way back to Atlanta. It ended up working out where Delta Flight 1460 was full, an S2 wouldn’t work and the jumpseat was occupied by a fellow pilot whom I could have kicked off, but I wouldn’t want that to happen to me. So, once again, on this roundtrip, I have done my part in the continuing effort to help out people. It’s a good deal. I of course ended up riding on AirTran. I’m almost willing to continue doing it this way because the business seat is that much better. I’m loving it. There isn’t a movie or TV’s, but the friendliness of the Flight Crew, XM and variety of whatever really is just a good change.

I enjoyed hanging out with the parents and the cousins once again. It tried to upgrade my mother’s computer but the RAM that her computer uses isn’t available anymore even at Fry’s! It sucks! Now, I have to order it from newegg and somehow then pick it up etc. It’s just a little bit of trouble, but should work out. I also ended up fixing up my cousins computer and ordered up the internet for them. I have to fixed it up for them next Tuesday and take my mom and sister to LAX to fly to the Philippines. I wish that I could have gone, but oh well. My job is just too demanding.

I’m getting really close to my 2nd year mark where I’ll actually be able to afford a somewhat minor upgrade in lifestyle. It’s getting a little harder here and there especially now that I have a day line. I notice that I am actually spending a lot more on food these days as I’ve neglected to pack a lunch. It’s become a little cumbersome, but I might do something about it this time around. The peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are an awesome snack to have and I might end up bringing some slimfasts with me as well and just throw them in the ice drawer. Tomorrow is setup to be a really long day blocked to a long 7 hours and 52 minutes! That means that I’m basically maxed out according to the FARs. The overnight in Greensboro though isn’t bad as I remembered that there is a rib dinner special available. I’m definitely going to try to hook that up!

“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.” -Robert Frost

I just felt like I wanted to start this entry off his way…here’s the entry that should have been placed here yesterday afternoon or something.

August 8th, 2007
Today was definitely a good day to wake up to. Besides the small note of being pretty burned from hanging out at the beach all day yesterday with the cousins, it was good. I felt like I had yet another good time in San Diego relaxing after a gruesome 4 day trip. I was also still in San Diego just feeling good to be home in a city that I love and where I am surrounded by so many friends and family.

I’m actually starting to feel like I need a place of my own. It would be nice to be able to come “home” to something each time I’m done with a flight and just relax. I dislike imposing on my girlfriend and her roommates and I definitely don’t necessarily feel like the Farm House (a.k.a. Loxford Lounge Crashpad) is like my own place at all. The house in Palm Coast, Florida was the last place where I felt like home. I plan on going back ASAP to take care of the grass and various home owner things that I need to look over, but I guess I really wouldn’t mind “living” there. The last time I was there in December, I really felt like I could find peace there. Besides the heat and humidity, I was getting use to it. Next to the house that I grew up in, it was the 2nd longest place that I lived at. We’ll see how things go in the next few weeks. See how the commute is and stuff after my next visit there. I don’t have a car there tough so renting would just be more of a hassle and yet another expense to my already so little regional pilot wage. I’m also thinking of driving back down there on a Sunday only to drive back on Wednesday so at least I could “move” more stuff out of there. To where, I haven’t a clue. I don’t even remember what I have left there. Maybe I’ll see how much it costs to rent a car and move it from Daytona to Atlanta. I have no idea on how to ship things back home or of course to where the heck home would be. I just have a lot of books and clutter really. I also thought that leaving some clothes there would be beneficial if I needed them in some distant future. One thing is for sure that I need to get my motorcycle gear back to ATL or SAN so that I could get back into it. I don’t have a bike or anything, but I just want to be prepared.

I’m gearing up for another 4 day trip. Make sure to click on my calendar above. If you’ll take notice, I’m going to have some early duty-ins again such as 5:30AM, 6:30AM…I can’t hardly wait again. I like getting in early to the hotel so that I could rest but I definitely don’t want a repeat of my 3 hours afternoon nap. That messed me up so bad to where I wasn’t able to get back to bed till around 3:00AM with a duty in of 5:30AM. Oh well…here goes to my overnight in Greensboro, Alexandria, and Montreal for the upcoming week. Of course, I rinse and repeat the following week. =)

Today started out a little hectic trying to get on my flight back to ATL today with the fact that the line for security in Terminal 2 was being held up for 1.5 hours due to a security breach. This in turn caused the captain to time out and us to end up flying to Salt Lake for a new crew then on to ATL. Oh joy… now instead of getting into town around 5:00 PM local, I’ll be there around 11:00 PM. Should make out to be a quick nap at Loxford Lounge then onto my awesome four day trip. I spend the last three days just hanging out in San Diego and got to see the Padres vs. the Mets. Adelle and I took the trolley to downtown which was really easy and cheap and we ate some garlic fries and hot dogs. This is the definitely of a good night at the ballpark.

My line in August that I was awarded consists of 350 hours away from base so that should provide for another $500 of per diem. Now as long as I don’t’ spend it on food while away, I’ll be good. I also might be able to pick up some open time in August for some time and a half to help out with things. The biggest deal will be swapping out my car in Atlanta for the one in Wildomar. I’ll be driving the 1985 Mercedes Benz 300D Turbo Diesel and it doesn’t have any air conditioning. That’s going to be fun in Atlanta. If anyone has any ways to create a new cooling system in a car, please tell me. It might be a little rough, but we’ll see how that goes. Wish me luck!

I had dinner with an old friend tonight and it was fun just hanging out. I’m glad that she’s doing well and I do hope that we get to talk a little more often. We ate at a place called Joe’s right near the airport and I have to say that they made me a really awesome hamburger. Now I’m fat again.

Still haven’t found my headset (QC2s) or my video iPod. I’m very disappointed with Delta Lost and Found! =(