MARCH 2003

I FAILED MY TEST.
Yeah, I was pretty bummed. So.. the instructor told me to change lanes, and I saw a white van behind me. It was more then a car length away. I turned on my signal, and changed lanes, but the van didn't want to slow down. I was going 35MPH, and the van was gaining on me. The van eventually had to slow down. What does that tell you? THE FUCKING VAN WAS SPEEDING..... and the instructor failed me for a "dangerous manuver". Total bullshit. By the time I got home, I slept for two hours.

When I woke up, I felt somewhat better, but still bummed out. I decided then was a perfect time to start working on a song I had in mind like, last week. The song itself is something that's pretty rare. It's a soft song, very emotional. I don't use power chords, so, you know that it must be somewhat intricate. It's called
"Just A Day Away". What's it about? It's about.. well, trying to forget about the bad shit that happends in the day you live, and letting you know tomorrow is a just a day away... being able to start over again. Yeah, I can totally relate it to my crappy drive test day. I ended up writing the lyrics to the guitar, which took about 20 minutes. I spent the rest of the day recording, keeping the lyrics timed with the song, and adding echo to my voice. It doesn't sound bad at all.

I wrote another song today. Something that I've been working on for a few weeks.. just been lazy with it. Today, I decided to record it. The song is called
"My Reminder" and it's about.. reminding youself you're somewhere you're not suppose to be. I can relate that to me, and Del Taco. I had planned for me to be working somewhere else by now, but unfortunatly, I have to stay there for now. But, basically, the song has it's slight tangents where it deals with a possible suicide issue. I know, it's deep. I actually recorded the song with 2 of my voices. One singing the main tone, and the other harmonizing. It's interesting. That's 2 songs, in 2 days that I've recently recorded. I'm offcially on my way to making another personal album of mine. Not sure what to call it right now. I think this album will have the same amount of songs as the other (11).

Well, besides letting my bad moods catch up to me.. everything has been normal. Chris New told me about him throwing a small party, and he wants us to play. Figures......the same week he has it planned, Sean will be in Hawaii. Fuck. Well, I guess it's okay, because... Sean's Dad will have some people come over once his studio is finished being set up in the garage. Well, now that I think of it.. us.. playing for older people... no, I don't think that's okay. Whatever.

Our set list is comming along well, as well as the songs themselves. I think we'll have a total of 11 songs to play at the cobalt, including a cover, by NOFX. There might even be a possible cover of a Rancid song as well. That's all for now. Thanks for reading my boring update.
  • Monday, March 10th, 2003
    1:12 AM

It's late. How was your weekend? Mine? Oh, it was pretty decent. Well, let me first update you about band practice which happend on Thursday.
I had talked to Manny after I got home from work, and told him to get a ride from his mom, since Chris wasn't able to make it to practice. Manny seemed in a hurry, and so I let him go. After some time went by, I couldn't reach Sean, or Manny via the telephone. So, I was pretty much sittin' around. Finally, I got a call from Sean, and him and his mom ended up picking me up. Once there, Manny called there, sayin' he wasn't gunna make it, because he had gotten hit in the mouth with a basketball, and it losened a few of his teeth. So, Sean and I pretty much ran threw the new song I wrote titled "I'm Finally Over You". His mom thinks it's super catchy. Anyway, Sean and I spent the rest of the night skating, and playing hacky-sack in his garage.

Friday, those bitches at Del Taco tried to make me stay until 6PM, even though it said I was leaving at 3PM on the paper. Certain people kept askin' what time I was going home (even though they already asked me before) I guess they were expecting my answer to change. Fuck them, cause I left at 3PM. Sabrina got to my house around 4PM'ish. We decided to head out that night. Where did we go? We took the bus to Hollywood, to eat Mongolian food at the outdoor mall that's there. Once we got there, the first place we went to, was the sunglasses cart. It was already dark, but still, I bought a pair of sunglasses. I was stuck between two pair... red framed, or these matrix lookin' black ones. Sabrina thought the black ones looked better, and I liked them too, so, I got them. Yep! For those who see me now.. will see me rockin' my new shades.
So yeah.. after gettin' sort of lost, we ended up findin' the place, and eating. It was really good. For some reason, it wasnt' enough food for me, so I bought a huge slice of pizza, and Sabrina got Cold Stone Ice Cream... except, I ate half of that too. Anyway, after that was done, we waited awhile for the bus, and got home later that night. We ended up goin' to Shawn's house (he lives like 3-4 houses down). Not too much was happening. I had a few beers, then 3 shots of hard alcohol. By the time we decided to leave, I was having some trouble tryin' to see straight.

Saturday.. what happend Saturday.. Ohhh yeah, I went driving. I've been using my friend Josh's Grandma's car. They live across the street. Josh and I both have been drivin' her car, because we're gunna be takin' our driving test this Friday hopefully. There's a reason why I HAVE to pass that driving test... you'll find that out later...
After we came back from driving, I decided that I wanted to spend like $80+ on her. So, we went to the mall, and I was gunna buy her 2 pairs of shoes. The sad part was, was that they didn't have them in her size. I'm sure we'll find them later.
I ate pizza, and then we walked around the mall. We then went into Sports Challet to get Sabrina a red baseball T-Shirt. Of course, they didn't have anymore small sizes. So, we came home, just to find out that Shawn (who lives like 3-4 houses down) was having another get together. First, Sabrina and I walked to Del Taco. I got a macho bacon and egg burrito (which had no bacon) .. and I got a breakfast burrito. Sabrina got a 1/2 green burrito with rice. After eating, it was already past 11PM. We went to Shawn's house. This time, I only had .. 4 beers I think, and Sabrina actually drank some too.. considering she doesn't like beer. That night was better, because I got to see someone do one of those beer bong things. Holy crap, he sure did chug a lot of beer..
So yeah, things started to get interestin' when Shawn decided to start wrestling people in the living room. After watchin' people get their asses kicked. I somehow ended up on the floor, and not too long after that, Shawn's heavy ass was on top of me. I didn't do to well, because he pinned me. Then again, maybe if I had a normal start, I would have done better.
Things kind of calmed down a bit... that was, until Shawn slapped some cake on Sabrina's face! Oh man, did the madness happen.. she started to chase him around the house, only to get more cake on her face, and all in her hair. Shawn's face was SO covered in cake. So much, he even had it up his nose too. It was really funny watchin' them. So, after Sabrina cleaned up, and I brought back a new sweatshirt, we all sat and watched a movie. I had another beer, and it was hittin' 2AM. So, Sabrina and I headed on home.

Today (well, Sunday) Sabrina and I went to Circut City to pick up a connector for my Mini Disk player. It was acting weird, so, after comming back home (after eating ben and jerry's ice cream) I tried out the cord, which, worked fine, except the actual Mink Disk player itself, wasn't recording properly. The next thing I know, Josh is at my window askin' if I wanted to go driving. So, we did. We first drove to the Smoke Shop for Josh, but it was closed. Then we drove to the Empire Center (which has like, almost every store... no not really, but still). I parked, and waited with Sabrina and Josh while his grandma got somethin' from a store. When she came back, I drove up to Best Buy, went in, spent like 15 minutes standing around waiting for one of the dumb fucks to ring me up. Yeah, I ended up buying a brand new Mini Disk Player, as well as batterys, since the damn thing didn't come with any. So, by this time, I was kind of tired, and my sloppy driving was showing it. Josh's Grandma seems to think I'm ready for the test, which is good.

Oh yeah, now for that reason why I HAVE to pass the test....
I'm getting a mid 80's Chevy Cavalier from my high school teacher Mr. Damavandi. He's moving to Maryland, and doesn't want the car anymore, so, he's sellin' it to me, since he knows I need one. The car is nothing special. Actually, from what he says, it's crap. The dashboard rattles, the passenger window doesn't roll down, it needs to be cleaned out, also, the color of it... is like, a faded gold, so, I figure it's like, dookie brown color. He said it has an AM/FM radio, but he doesn't remember if it had a tape player. IT BETTER HAVE ONE... that's one of the main reason why I bought the new MD player... was so I could hook it up in the car and listen to MP3's. Anyway, if things go as planned.. I'll be takin' the test on Friday, and then after the test, I'll drive the car back home. AND.. if things keep going as planned, I'll end up having 2 cars. There's a 1991 Honda Accord in the garage that's going to me, ..thats IF everything works out. Why am I buying the chevy then? Well, it's only $500, and plus, shit could happen with that Honda, and like, the government could take it, since it's my Grandpa's car, and .. well, he died.

That's all for now. Ohh yeah, I found a picture of Alex dressed up as Buddy Holly that I had saved. I added it to the scrap book section, so take a look at that (the last picture on page 2). I won't update this again until.. I'm guessing the end of the week/weekend. Pray that everything goes well, that I pass the test, and that Im able to bring the car home in one piece. Thanks for reading!
  • Wednesday, March 5th, 2003
    6:48 PM

Hello. It's been some time, but that's because not much has been happening. Lately, it's just been work, and practicing with the band. I've been saving up money, and came really close to buying Tom DeLonge's Fender guitar for $450, but, I decided to save up to help get a (very) used car. As of today, I've passed $700, which, I'm proud of. My battle still continues!

Last Friday's band practice didn't go very well. Chris was tryin' to finish up his project for school, but something was up with his printer. He ended up driving to Comp USA, to get a new cable. I thought he'd be able to pick up Manny and I, but I ended up just calling Sean's mom, and said I needed a ride there. Once there, Sean was gone for about 10 minutes or so. We usually start at 5pm, and it was already around 6:15PM. I called Chris to see whats up, and he said that his parents left him with his little brother, so he had to stay home and watch him. I called Manny and told him that he'd have to get a ride here, but his mom was being stupid, and wouldn't drive him to Sean's house. After telling Sean what had happend, he told his mom that she has to pick up Manny. Fuck.. Sean's parents got so upset, especially his dad. So mad, that he pretty much treated us practicing at their house.. saying how they make us food and everything, yet still have to pick up people. God, I felt like crap. Well, Sean's mom ended up picking up Manny... and we had practice, without Chris.

Well, you'd think since Sean's mom went out of her way to pick up Manny, the practice would be decent, but, it actually wasn't. Sean was pissing me off, because he wasn't paying attention to the tempo of songs, and he kept speeding up. Hid dad noticed it as well. Later on, towards the end, 2 girls came over to watch us. Of course, Sean sped the hell up.. he was going so fast, I had to stop singing the song. When we were done, I sat down, and was so frustrated, I didn't want to play anymore at that time. Sean finally figured out what was wrong, and that he needed to slow down (I had told Sean to slow down many times before..I've been telling him since I've known him!) Anyway... once he payed attention, everything sounded much better, but still, wasn't as good without Chris.

Manny was saying that we need to practice on Thursday, instead of Friday. I didn't understand what he meant, because, I knew he had appointments on Thursday. But, this time, he didn't. The reason he can't practice Friday, is because his girlfriend is complaining about not seeing him. Bleh, that's just one of the many things she cries about. I was getting frustrated, but then found out that Sean won't even be able to practice on Friday, because he has to go to the temple with his mom. Atleast I know Chris is open on Thursday, so, things are fine.. right? No..
Sharlott wants the band to be in her class commercial project. I had told everyone about it a few weeks ago, and now that it's about time to do it (orginally planned for Saturday) everyone is busy. First off, Chris can't do it Saturday, because he has college. Sean won't be home, because he will be snowboarding, Manny doesn't even know if he'll be open on Saturday. Gee. So I called Sharlott and told her the siuation and had the day moved to Sunday. Chris is open Sunday, I'm sure Manny will be open Sunday, I'm open Sunday.. but, Sean can't do it, because he has a lot of school work. Fuck, now I gotta tell her we can't do it Sunday, and I feel like crap because now we're screwing with her school work. Argh!

I'm starting to tab my music, and print them out, that way, I don't forget songs that I don't play for awhile. The only thing is, tabbing takes awhile.. and I have a bunch of songs that need to be tabbed. Blah. Oh yeah, I got a haircut today, and now my Atticus hat doesn't fit the same way. I can't wait for the weekend.