SBRT Day 28-33: Beverly Hills, CA

After Catalina, Diane drives me up to my brother Trav’s place on the south side of Beverly Hills.  He doesn’t live in Beverly Hills proper, where all the sweet homes of the rich and famous are…he lives in a cool little 2BR with his girlfriend Heather.  Over the 6 days in LA, we hit up an Irish pub, a karaoke bar (where I lay down Danger Zone like a master once again), and a couple other spots.  When we weren’t drinking, we explored the city and saw some sights.  We even got to go to the Paramount Studios lot, where my brother is filming a behind the scenes thing for American Idol.  No big. 

Now we’re up in San Francisco…only a few more stops before the end of the road trip and my youth…

SBRT Day 27-28: Newport Beach & Santa Catalina Island, CA

Steve drops me off at Diane’s work on Friday morning and I take Diane’s car down to the beach.  I walk out on the pier and watch the surfers, take a quick dip in the still-too-cold ocean waters, and buy a frozen banana.  Essentially, the tourist from the midwest thing.  When she gets done with work I pick her up and we go to her friend’s place for a BBQ with ribs that make me want to raise a pig named Ribs that I will one day murder in a spontaneous but long-planned rage of hunger and ecstasy. 

Instead of doing that, I go to Catalina with Diane and Brenna.  Catalina is a small island off the coast near LA, much like Mackinac Island for you Michiganders.  The boat ride is pretty tough being hungover, but nowhere near as bad as the 3 hour boat ride on a 30’ boat on ocean waters in the Galapagos Islands. From that one I still get queasy when I hear Bob Marley music…but that’s another story.  In Catalina we rent a tandem bike and a regular bike and take turns.  After trying out a few combinations of people on the tandem, we determine that I am the only person capable of steering it properly, as evidenced by this video:

[Steve as Guest Writer!] SBRT Day 27-32: Palm Desert and Anaheim

This week was just like the rest of the road trip, except subtract beer, bars, and Baylee, and add popcorn, pepperoni, and a little Asian girl.  To explain, my 14-year-old Asian sister, Teri, who loves popcorn and pepperoni, flew out for her spring break and spent 6 days with me in Palm Desert and Anaheim.  Here is a typical day during this week:

10am: Wake up

Noon: Get out of bed after watching Mighty Ducks

12:30pm: Run 2 or 3 miles with Teri

4pm: Beat Teri in tennis

6pm: Eat until I can’t hardly move anymore at a Applebee’s (financed by the amazing people that are my parents)

8pm-11pm: Beat Teri in 2-person euchre 3 or 4 times while watching TV

I realized two things over the week.  One, it’s surprisingly gratifying to beat a 14-year-old, 4’10” girl at sports and cards.  Two, my little sister isn’t so little anymore (besides the whole 4’10” thing). Just the fact that she flew out to California by herself says a lot.  Nearly every time I interact with her these days I’m amazed that she has almost become a real person.  Almost.

best of craigslist : The Streaker Tripper - m4w

best of craigslist : The Streaker Tripper - m4w

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Great Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal comic today...

Why did I pay for a college education?

So basically there's no reason to pay for an education anymore, as the good people at Lifehacker show us with the link below. Whatever, it was worth it for being in the Glee Club and going to the football games.

Lifehacker - Top 10 Tools for a Free Online Education

SBRT Day 23-27: Palm Desert, CA

Palm Desert is about 5 miles from Palm Springs.  How they get any business in Palm Desert when the much more enticing-sounding Palm Springs is right next door is beyond me.  I don’t even know why they put ‘desert’ in the name of their resort city.  Geographically correct, but not great marketing.  Anyway, it worked on us.

So Steve’s little sister is going to come hang with him for a week, while I hang with my brother and my LA friends.  To facilitate this, Steve’s parents rent a 2 BR timeshare in Palm Desert for the two of them.  However, the reservation periods don’t sync up with Steve’s little sister’s spring break, so basically I get to hang at the timeshare until she flies in on Friday.  Steve golfs and plays tennis, I lay around and go swimming in the pool; we’re in overlapping but strikingly different heavens.  We go on a hike on our last day, and it’s quite desert-y.  If you’re looking for a good hike, I recommend Boulder over Palm Desert, easy. 

When Steve drives to LA, trading me for his little sister, I’m certain that he’s happy with the trade, and I’m ready to get back to the cyclical adventure of drinking, recovering, and getting prettied up to go drink again.