Pokeraoke Part II

Check out the birthday cake I got from Jenn. It's an ice cream cake with a picture of my two puppies on it! How cool is that?!



I don't remember taking this picture.



Or this one.



Funny faces are the best.



Do these girls know how to have fun or what? They were like our karaoke backup dancers or something ^_^





Awww... Aren't they so cute together?



Good friends are best made over a stiff drink or a loud mic.



I was trying to open a bottle of wine when the wine key/corkscrew snapped and broke on me! Wow...



Drunken poker... Disaster awaits on the river for one of these guys.



Well, at least someone's winning.



Wow, how seriously am I taking this?



The lean back AND the pseudo fist pump. Priceless.



By the end of the night, only 3 remained.



This is how I felt the next morning.

Best Birthday Party EVER!

Pokeraoke BITCHES!

When was the last time you went to a garage party that was any good? If you weren't at MY party, then, most likely never.

I almost didn't even have a birthday party since I didn't want to have to stress over it. I'm the type of person who was totally worrying about whether people would have fun, eat the food, mingle, or even show up. Lucky for me, Jenn convinced me that my friends are normal people, meaning I just need to have enough alcohol to make sure everyone got good and liquored up and everything else would take care of itself.

For food, we went with 3 rib and 3 chickless dinners and 2 large sweet baked beans from Phil's BBQ, along with 50 pieces of fried chicken from Albertsons and a tin each of potato wedges and breadsticks from Oscar's. I thought that we'd have a ton of leftovers afterwards, but alcohol has a way of making people hungry I guess, because all this food was picked clean. Literally.

Food is always a good thing at a party.



The puppies are always a big hit. They were so excited to see all the new people. The world from their perspective must be a little scary though.



Here I am with the best girlfriend ever. This is the "before getting trashed" look.



The night before, we went to BevMo and bought the party favors, which included a case of Fat Tire and Newcastle, a JUG of Stoli, a bottle of Jameson, and various mixers. On top of that I got a bottle of Glenfiddich (thanks Alf!), a bottle of Jager (thanks Ben!), and a bottle of Dewars (thanks Jon!) as presents.

Here we are having our first group shot of Stoli for the night. The funny thing is, I was totally stoked to take a shot, so I yell out, "Who wants to take a shot?" and for a brief instance, all I got was silence. Seriously, with the crickets chirping in the background and everything. Lucky for me, Denise comes to my rescue, raises her hand and cheerily announces, "I will!" Then she proceeds to convince everyone else that they wanna take a shot too. Awesome.



The afterface from taking a shot is always funny.



Did I mention that there was a liberal amount of drunken karaoke at my birthday party? Drinks + Karaoke = Good Times!



Click on the video below for our very moving and emotional version of Careless Whisper. Thanks for the video Ben!

***Caution: Gratuitous Fist-Pumping in Full Effect***



I love it when my friends make friends with each other.



Was this like a Mt. Carmel c/o '98 reunion or what?



Demetrius gettin down on the mic. I think he's singing Neil Diamond's "America". Hell Yeah!



Seriously, Jukebox ALWAYS has to have a funny face when he's in a picture.



These guys were up to something, but I just didn't know what...



No, really, karaoke is big hit when everyone's been drinking.



Future mega-artist Amina James and Olivia. These girls are dope!

Mini McNair Reunion, TJ Style!

After our volunteer work at the hospice, Briseida, Alejandro, me and a bunch of the other volunteers went to downtown TJ to catch up on old times and, also, so that they could show me a more "genuine" side of the town.

Alex and Bri seemed to know their way around real well and the first place they took us was to this awesome cantina called "La Cantina de los Remedios". Notice the 2 for 1 drink special sign in the upper left. Suffice it to say, we took full advantage of the special that night ^_^



The infamous Baby Rock sat across the street. I had always heard about this place when I was frequenting TJ, but had never been to it since it seemed too high-class for me. Apparently, it was/is one of the top clubs in the LA, San Diego, TJ area.



The first thing I see walking into the cantina is a guy standing on the bar with a rope, lassoing a girl. Immediately, I knew we had come to the right place.



Wow, this photo reminds me of our McNair summer days. They're not kidding when they say you learn some of life's most important lessons in college.



Yeah, this bar was rad.



The sign above Briseida translates roughly to, "Serving drinks after 5 o'clock." Now, take a look at the clock.



3 of UCSD McNair's finest.



After the cantina, we went to Porky's, a nightclub for 80's music and chic hipsters.



Yes, they sell 40s at the bar.



Do these people know how to have a good time or what?





Random crowd shot inside Porky's.



This is the TJ version of an NYC food stand.

In My Own Backyard

One of my regrets about living in this corner of the country is that I haven't fully explored the region as much as I'd like. With LA to the north and Mexico to the south, San Diegans are blessed with a unique proximity to a wide range of cultural experiences.

Alejandro, my former roommate and fellow McNair scholar at UCSD, invited me to volunteer at an AIDS hospice in Tijuana. Because I've been wanting to experience the non-gringo, anti-tourist side of a city that's practically in my own backyard, I decided I'd tag along for the ride. Also, I could use the good karma.

This is at the trolley station near the border looking south into the border crossing.



The funny thing is, I took this picture in Manhattan.



Looks like this couple's gonna check out what's going on south of the border as well. No USA return indeed!



The extent of my knowledge concerning TJ is my pre-21 year old days along Avenida de Revolucion, or "Revo" as most colloquially refer to it. On this trip to TJ, however, I saw a completely different side of our cross-border neighbor that I had never been exposed to.

We drove about a half an hour after crossing over the border. I was surprised at the amount of growth and development taking place here. Notice the substantial grading work being done along the road and on the hillside.



Endless sprawl and undistinguished multi-family housing developments aren't limited to just our side of the border. I was actually a bit surprised to see how many people owned satellite dishes though.





This was the landscape as we approached the hospice. It reminded me a lot of visiting the province in the Philippines.



This is the neighborhood cantina, just down the street from the hospice.



I wanted to respect the privacy of the hospice patients so I avoided taking pictures of any individuals. As an alternative, I took photos of their pets ^_^ Check out the brown dog in the second shot. Doesn't he almost look like a bigger version of Rocky?





This is the sign outside of the hospice.



Hospice patients often spend their free time doing arts and crafts. These are doghouses that they've made and will sell to raise money for the hospice.



Overall, this was an amazingly humanizing experience. Witnessing the quiet strength and steady grace exhibited by the patients was a true testament to the power of the human spirit and the fact that compassion and care crosses borders, cultures, and enriches us all.