As they are about to get started, and I’m getting everything into place, I look up and standing in the back of the club under this bright light, is the Spanish Girl from the Faith No More show beaming at me.
I had emailed her as promised and told her about the show and gave her the info. I even told Pete about her and skeptically said “I doubt she will show up”.
So I take my Spanish fare and we find a seat up close as the show is starting.
Ana & I said goodbye to everyone as I was anxious to spend time with her, and we had one of those majestic New York nights where you just walk the streets and talk for hours and occasionaly stop and have a drink somewhere. It was so Before Sunrise but again I may have seen too many movies haha.
When laughed and talked well into the night, and when it was finally time to say goodnight, we both were dreading of losing the company of the other.
When I got off the train that night, I was totally dancing and singing all kinds of West Side Story style.
Now when they its a trek out to Jones Beach, heed this warning, because its not only a trek its freaking ridiculous. If I wasn’t all hunky dory road trip style with my beautiful European companion I would have been furious. First of all you have to catch the LIRR for about an hour with a possible transfer and then when you arrive you have to take a bus. When we arrived we were informed that the bus out to Nikon, was no longer in service and that you had to take a cab. Then the game begins, as all these fucking predatory cabbies who wanna haggle with you instead of just giving you a straight answer. And then wanting to charge per person etc.
We found two other stranded concert-goers who were riding solo amongst them and so we all packed in and shared the fare. Thankfully, they were of the fun, outgoing 311 fan, instead of the jam-band, nitrous inhaling, shirtless variety that seems to bridge their band and ours.
So round trip train tickets and cab fare was almost 100 dollars, so if you wanna go to a show there, remember thats its at least a hundred bucks on top of the ticket price. But again I was walking on air with this girl on the most beautiful day and was about to actually go on a stroll on the beach.
We go ahead and claim our tickets and passes, and then head for the beach.
We get in and the venue is gorgeous, not exxactly Red Rocks, but one of those venues that is as about the place as it is about the show. I hadn’t seen 311 in a long time, so I was interested in seeing how they have evolved over time.
At first it was that usual scene that I don’t dig, a bunch of industry people, having that same talk, a few contest winners, radio, retail, etc, that most bands will skip altogether and who can blame them. Then their manager comes in thanks everyone for coming but takes me and her to the side and asks us to follow him.
He leads us way out on the other side of the venue where all the buses are parked and we have a fun time talking. He really wanted me to speak with P-Nut, so he goes to get him and introduces us. We talk at length, mostly about Ween, and this dude is a serious fan. I thought he was cool, very mellow and gracious. He had alot of questions that I did my best to answer. We thanked them for having us, and they were very sincere in thanking us for coming.
We begin the hike back to the city, totally high on the events of the day and all that we had experienced. Train rides, beach walks and dudes named P-Nut haha.
So high in fact that when we get back to Penn Station, we walk all the way up to 59th St. and take a daring late-night stroll thru Central Park, that would normally be totally ill-advised (and can get you arrested) but tonight, we were fearless. One of the best nights I can ever remember.
Ok so after a wonderful Christmas and one of the most eventful Holiday seasons, and overall one of the best years of my life, I was ready to say goodbye to 2010 in Los Angeles. I had business there and a bunch of other things going on but the real reason was to be reunited with Ana, the wonderful, and gorgeous young Spanish girl that I met in NYC
We fell so deeply in love – we talk everyday via Skype, I’ve never done the long-distance relationship thing before and I couldn’t wait to see her We finalized that we would meet on December 30th but the airlines had other plans. Here she was taking a 24 hr odyssey and landing in Philly before finally making to LA and all I had to do was fly from Dallas, and her plane lands on time the evening of the 30th as planned. When I got to DFW that afternoon, my flight had been canceled and United seriously told me that they wouldn’t be able to get me out till Jan 3rd!!
Not only would I miss NYE in LA but this poor girl, who barely speaks English, has never been to LA before and has no ability to drive, not to mention, where was she gonna stay?
She was already in LA and expecting my arrival within the hour. What the fuck was I going to do?
They declared that anyone holding a passport could be re-booked for a flight through Mexico City that wouldn’t arrive till 9pm on Dec 31st. By the time I got there and got anywhere it would be past midnight, not good, but I had to get there ASAP so I signed up for the flight, and grabbed a hotel voucher. Speaking of which I had no idea how I was gonna get ahold of her (her cell-phone didn’t work in the States back in July) and out of desperation I just called it and it actually worked thank goodness. I told her I was booking her a hotel at LAX and that I would be in tomorrow. I go to my hotel at DFW but not before paying a visit to my old friends at American Airlines.
Ran into an old Crew Chief I knew back in the day and he booked me on the first flight out in the morning Non-Stop to LAX.
Here we go:
So after finally landing in LAX, waiting forever for my bags and the shuttle to get to Ana’s hotel, I was pretty nervous when I knocked on her door. We hadn’t seen each other in over 5 months – knowing that she was on the other side of the door before I knocked & that in a few short seconds she would be in front of me was the most exciting feeling in the world, I’ve never even remotely been in love like this before.
She opens the door, beaming at me- it was a great moment and pretty dramatic given all that it took for this moment to happen. Let’s just say that we didn’t leave the hotel anytime soon.
We we finally did leave her hotel in the shuttle back to the airport to catch another shuttle out to the Rental Car dispatches. On the way back to the airport, their was a tense moment as the shuttle was full and being driven by this openly rude, thug of a woman who’s driving was very reckless and making everyone audibly nervous. Their was a thick silent moment, and all you could hear was the radio playing Diana Ross’ Upside Down, and we were in the seats closest to the driver and out of nervousness I just started singing the song and it made everyone (including the driver) laugh, who seemed impressed that this white boy knew the words.
We get the rental car and head out to Sam’s, and old friend, and my buddy in LA, who I stay with when I’m out West. It was after 1pm and the Spanish New Year was at 3pm our time, and she had told me of some (well known) Spanish traditions that I knew nothing of, and was fascinated by, and was determined to help her not only keep her traditions, but was excited to participate in them as well.
What that would require is getting to Studio City, after purchasing some champagne and grapes, greeting Sam’s roommates (Sam was still in Texas for the holidays as well and wouldn’t be there till Jan 4th) plugging in my laptop, and securing the password to get online and find the live feed for the Spanish New Year.
We do all of those things by 2:52 pm but it was a Saturday afternoon and Sam’s roommates were having a little Football watching party and everyone was pretty buzzed when we got there, so it was a little awkward to go:
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Jan 5th
Went to the legendary buffet at Monte Carlo – let me tell you something, hunger will never be an issue after this meal. It was soooo cold, but we had a good time walking around. She doesn’t drink/smoke/cuss/ (which I super appreciate) and I tried to show her gambling, but she didn’t find any appeal in that (which I also kinda appreciate haha) so after walking around a bunch I thought to catch a show to get out of the cold. I’ve been to Vegas 40 times and have never caught a show. The only one that really interested us was the Beatles Love – Cirque Du Soleil so we went over to check it out to discover, that the only day they DON’T have shows is Wednesdays. But we still had fun checking out the setup etc.
Jan 6th
Drove back and caught up with Sam, and the odd thing is that neither one of us mentioned the nonsense on New Year’s Day and it proved also to not be an elephant in the room. He seemed glad to see me and was very welcoming, so for now I decided to dismiss it as temporary insanity haha
Jan 8th – Jan 9th – Recap:
So this was Ana’s last weekend before heading back to the motherland on Monday. I did my best to show her around and give her the experience, and for better or worse I feel like I succeeded. However ill-advised and half-baked my ideas sometimes tend to be. For example: It’s perfectly natural for a tourist to want to see the Hollywood sign, and maybe get as close to it as possible (that’s the baked part) – However EXECUTING that turned what I thought would be a few hours in the sun, into an 8 hour trial of one’s physical and mental endurance. I was convinced we had crossed over into the Twilight Zone, I mean I was wearing a leather jacket for christsakes, do I look like I was prepared to climb a freaking mountain? The only thing that kept us going was no longer the desire to get to the sign, but not so that our pain and suffering would be in vain.
I drive to Griffth Park and park the car, and I seriously thought, it would take about 30 mins up, walk around for another 30, back down, the whole thing in under two hours. We started up this thing and I don’t know where I went wrong but this thing just kept winding and winding and winding around and up to the point I thought I was on drugs. It was funny for the first hour or so and we were enjoying the day, but dread started to set in when we were exhausted and over 3 hours in and no sign of it being over anytime soon (pun intended). Fatigue and dread apparently makes me prone to chronic flatulence, and I’m only admitting to this because this punch-line is so great. This girl barely speaks, let alone complain, and in her disgust, suddenly her English was perfect, like somehow my air pollution transcended any language barrier. Somehow I was gross, universally haha – because she delivered the line that kept us laughing when she said “you fart….ALL DAAAAYY”
At one our desperation to get out of this situation cause us (namely me) to make bad decisions, one was this “short-cut” that would have been impossible with hi-tech repelling equipment, let alone with two dehydrated people who are impractically dressed. We followed this couple up and we almost made it, but as we neared the top it became impossible (and quite scary). The female of the couple actually starting crying and then Ana, had a scary slip, so I pulled the plug on it and we had to trek all the way back down in defeat and disgust. As we did so, her English became perfect again when she said clearly “I….HATE…YOU..” haha.
Finally like a castaway spotting an overhead plane, we made it to the top after almost 5 grueling hours.
Now we had the arduous task of getting the fuck back down, and I was determined to NOT repeat what we had just done. I looked for an alternate route and we head down on the opposite side where the residents were which was kinda cool. We even found a store and asked where we were and it was then that it became clear, just what a fuck-up I had made. We were MILES from the car….but at least here I could call a cab and I did just that. It only took about 15 mins for them to show while we desperately re-hydrated, but the cabbie (who was probably scamming us as all fucking cabbies do) seemed uncertain of where our car was, but then seemed on-point.
30 mins and 15 miles later we are nowhere near anything recognizable and I start to panic and then I make it CLEAR where we are parked. He turns around and goes back and when we finally find the car, it was like less than a mile from the store we called the fucker from! I asked how much, and he says “15 bucks and we will call it even” – I just handed him the money, but almost instantly wished I had said “I’m thinking 5 asshole”.
The next day:
We spend the early part of the afternoon doing some last minute things before I have to take her to the airport. We are both visibly upset about her leaving and I try to console her. I stayed with her, walking her all the way into the airport and to the security point where I only ticketed passengers could continue. Their was a break in the line and we were instructed to go upstairs though a bunch of turns and twists and right there as we were saying goodbye, a moment of sheer John Hughes’ cinematic bliss shined down on us. Their was a speaker right above us that started pumping out Diana Ross’ Upside Down, just EXACTLY as this trip had begun. Incredible.
