Bow down to me

I'm well versed with Italian culture just because I have some strong ties to the country. Italians tend to be a very religious bunch. Sure, there are many non-believers but they're still really big on religious holidays especially for patron saints and such. Anyway, most Italian people have names that are typically found in the Bible or variations of biblical names. Usually each saint has their own special day where you celebrate their life, go to church or whatever. In Italy, at least were my family is from, Sicily, when your saint day comes around you get well wishes and maybe you'll get your favorite food at dinner. Today happens to be my saint's day. Yes, St. Urban Pirate. It is also my grandma's birthday. In true Italian fashion, I unexpectedly was the recipient of a "gift" and fittingly enough I got it today. It pays to have my name, at least today, literally...on the real... fo shiz

In other news, I'll be starting work soon. Yay! I finished my online traffic school. I failed the final three times before I finally got an 80%. Stupid shit and a waste of my life. I'll also be moving on up to larger living quarters with in the house..yay! I'm excited to once again have a half bathroom. There's something great about having your own toilet, especially so close to you. This will only mean that I will take even longer to emerge from my room in the morning. It appears that things might be looking up again for 2008. The summer is/was a drag so hopefully this new job won't suck as much as the last one and hopefully my living situation will be more comfy for me.

Fingers crossed...

last week was hectic and shit for reals

For reals! Last week I was on fire in terms of acquiring money. I managed to take on a research project with someone for money so that made me happy to know I'd have my next loan payment. Mid-week I found an ad on CraigsList asking for people to participate in a driving simulator research study. They said they would pay $100 cash for approximately 1.5hrs. Sounded like easy money, and easy it was. I got called and went in on Friday and was out $100 richer. I had an interview at Pinkberry of all god awful places. The interview was crap and I didn't want to work there anyway. Besides, I had an interview the next day at Bloomingdales and I had high hopes for getting a job there since I had history with Macys.

Long story short, I stay at Bloomingdales for 2hours and walk out with a new job. Yay! It's a step up from Macys and it's going to be something new and I'm excited to take it on. Bring it. Tomorrow I go in to fill out more paperwork of sorts.

Friday night, me and urban hippie went to see Donna Summer. She certainly dimmed all the lights and we all danced that last dance for love. It was great and we were clearly loving it because we were told we were being too loud. Woops.

Saturday we got up at 4:30am because I had to drive to San Luis Obispo to attend a mandatory first meeting for one of my library classes at Cuesta. It was about a 3 hour or so drive and it was nice since I hadn't driven up the 101 in a long time. It was also nice to have mizz P with me so I wouldn't fall asleep at the wheel (we both only slept 3 hrs). Extra credit points for you there Patty Cakes hahaha!

Upon our return the Sunset Junction Street Fair was in full force. I'll get around to writing another entry about Sunset Junction and my real feelings towards the street fair. The street fair was a good idea that has since been ruined by douche bag elitists. Anyway, I'll save that for later. The only good thing that came out of Sunset Junction were all the bottles and cans that I found in the trash cans. Right now, I gotta get to uploading some pics of the summer.

news of the weak...er week, so far

here are some news stories worth looking at...just because I said so.

Forever 21 development on South Central Farm site is protested

Of course they protested. You bulldoze an urban farm that so many people used to cultivate and grow awesome things and you come along wanting to put a fucking FOREVER 21 development on the land? for reals? I'd be out there with molotov cocktails for that shit. Talk about adding insult to injury..fucking politics..everything's political. Fuck Villaraigosa, he's just like the rest of them. You
get all into them being elected into office and all they do is disappoint. Makes me sick.

L.A. could learn a thing or two from Portland

If you know me, I'm not a fan of Los Angeles. I can't explain why really, it's just one of those things. I love San Francisco and in the past few years I've developed this intense love for Portland. Prior to June I had never been but I finally made the trip and fell in love even more. I'm sure I'll get around to moving there next year or whenever. Anyway, they have many awesome things and one of them is their public transportation system. Their public transit system has wowed and amazed many and has served as a the basis for many other cities' public transportation planning. I'm not sure where I'm going with this other than to reiterate my decision to want to move and why I think Portland is cooler than LA.

No sandcastles please, you're in Italy

I had to throw this in because Italians are ridiculous. I love Italy but sometimes they just have crazy ideas and in this case, crazy by-laws. It's a short article and worth reading for the hilarity of it all. All I have to say is, thank god I never went to Eboli or I'd be in debt to the Euro at least 4 times over. teeeeeeeeee heee heee

like a fly caught in a web

I feel stuck. I hate feeling stuck. I'm unemployed and in quite an interesting living situation. I wish I could just get some shit rolling so I can feel like I'm living life again instead of just being stuck. I shouldn't have spent this summer doing nothing. I had big plans and they didn't come to fruition and I'm like argh! I want to move. I want to move. I want to move. I want to move. I just feel like my time here is done. It's time to move elsewhere and do new things. Los Angeles just doesn't feel like the right fit. It never has! I just feel like I'm in some constant limbo living here. One day I'll finally do it. Just get up and go, move. New city, new job, new housing...new life. That sounds grand. I wish the moment would come sooner rather than later.

buon ferragosto! buon festeggiamento!

It's days like today that make me wish I lived in Italy...why? because today almost everything would be closed and everyone would be on vacation. I swear Italians get more vacation days than anyone else. Not only do they get all the Italian national holidays off, but they usually get off most Catholic holidays. Damn. Anyway, today is Ferragosto. Historically pagans would celebrate harvest on this day. Religiously, Catholics celebrate the Assumption today. So, if you're super Catholic don't forget to go to church today or else you'll be struck down by the hand of god. It's one of those mandatory Catholic church going days...the kind you can go to hell for if you miss...yeah WHATEVS! Anywhoz, Ferragosto is the day that people use to start a vacation, go to the beach or just party. I bet the beaches today were packed. In any case everyone in Italy is partying and since it's on a Friday this year, doubly so I would imagine. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in Los Angeles. Los Angeles has no little Italy neighborhood or anything (wish i was in SF). Weird I know. I'm thinking there won't be much celebration. I can however create my own. I just wish I had money to buy booze. Damn. Maybe I can pull some strings somehow or use my credit card. Stupid unemployment. I don't have nearly enough recyclables to buy a cheap bottle of champagne yet. Darn. Yeah, recycling for money...and what? desperate times call for trashy measures...all I have to say is, watch out Grand Master or whoever you are *SNAP SNAP*

reflections of a travel whore

I'm going to throw this out first- I'm a Europhile...I love Europe. I majored in European History in college. I love other places too but Europe has me sprung. If you know me, I usually go to Italy because I'm half Italian and all. I love that country way too much. The history, art, and over all beauty are great. Sure their politics are as shit as our's but once you've been wooed and seduced by an Italian boy you'll understand.

This time last year I was in Italy rounding off my grand European adventure. I've been going to Italy almost yearly now and was certain that I would return this year. However, due to unplanned financial circumstances and such I could not. It totally bummed me out. Anywho, I was thinking about the traveling I have been able to accomplish this year. While I didn't get to step foot on European ground this year, I still went to some cool places near and far.

Earlier this year the buzz was about Jamaica, Jamaica and more Jamaica. The trip finally happened in March and what a hot mess that was. It was fun. Extremely different from my Europhile existence that's for sure. I learned to appreciate the madness of the country even though it was stressful at times to deal with shit. I also want to travel as much as the world as possible so I'm now able to say I've been to the Caribbean.

Jamaica was my only international excursion this year. I was somewhat spoiled after having gone to about 9 different countries in total. My other ventures were more west coast based. I took two trips down to Palm Springs. It may be full of old retirees but it's pretty cheap to go for a couple of nights. I had never been there before so it was cool to check out the fancy desert and stuff-plus I got to go to Coachella, ha!

My last 'major' vacation was to Portland, Oregon. I had been wanting to go to Portland for years. I heard so many good things about the city that I wanted to find out for myself. I've also thought about moving there so I wanted to make sure I liked it just in case I do make it up there. Portland was awesome. I had never been to Oregon. California is the only west coast state I've seen. It was nice to see a new state. Portland is at the top of Oregon so I got to see the whole state. The drive sucked balls and I learned my lesson about road trips and such and such etc etc...It was great though

Being the brat and travel whore that I am, I actually rung in the new year on a mini trip. I was in Maryland visiting a friend. Where am I going with this entry? I'm not so sure myself though...but I was just stuck on not being able to travel a lot this year but in actuality, I've been to a lot of cool places and seen a lot of cool shit. Well done...and the year isn't even over yet.

rocking and rolling my way to creating the perfect escape bag

I'm usually a dedicated blogger in that I never delete blogs and start again. However, times have changed and so have I. This is not my first blog, and it might not be my last blog, but it is my blog and I will write as I want to.

Moving right along

For those of you living in the Los Angeles area we recently had what I would like to call a mild to very moderate earthquake. If you're from California you're pretty well accustomed to the earth rocking and rolling. Personally I've lived through every major quake in the LA area since 1982. My last major earthquake was the Northridge quake of 1994. I was not quite 12 and I vividly remember it. I was asleep, everyone was, until the earth started shaking and shaking more. Things started falling on my head and all I could hear were things breaking, crashing, and rattling-not quite knowing what the breaking, rattling, and crashing were. I remember pulling my comforter over my head to protect myself. The thing about earthquakes is that you never know how long they will last. At first the ground will start shaking, maybe rattling and then it gets harder and shakier. It might die down a bit but still continue to lightly rattle into an even bigger shake. It's all unpredictable. Was this newest earthquake just a small quake or a foreshock to something bigger. I don't know! Know one does, not even those fancy seismology folks. It's a crazy concept. At any given moment there could be a massive earthquake and no one will know it's coming. Leave it to Los Angeles to be located near major fault lines. Los Angeles is a hot mess of a city. When it rains it's like some catastrophic event on the freeways. Los Angeles can't quite handle nature especially earthquakes. Since I have no faith in the city of LA to save me in the event of a natural disaster I decided that I need to take things into my own hands. I decided to create an earthquake kit/escape bag. As a child I always had some sort of bag or box under or around my bed that I had filled with various items like band aids, candy, tissues, you know whatever a child could throw together to make an earthquake kit-nothing that would really be a live saver if I needed one. I'm now older and wiser so I decided to research kits and then custom make my own. Feel free to steal my list or add to it according to your tastes and/or preferences

1. water
2. snacks- granola bars, nuts, canned foods, peanut butter, hard candies, non perishables etc.
3. a change of underwear and socks
4. flashlight with extra batteries
5. emergency contact info
   
6. blanket- you know those cool emergency ones that are in the foil shit
7. utensils, including a non electric hand can opener
   
8. a wide array of bandages, adhesive and non
9. antiseptic wipes and other ointments
10. aspirin and antacids
11. latex gloves and heavy duty plastic garbage bags
    
12. battery powered radio
    
13. duct tape
14. brass knuckles
    
15. hand sanitizer
16. tools- scissors, rope, pocket tool, whistle
    
17. mini alcohol bottles, choose accordingly
18. a good post apocalyptic read, deck of cards, and hot dice
    

suggested items:
cigarettes, a special toy, family photos, taser gun and/or other weaponry