Waterless = Sad Andy

Over the weekend, I was one of the unfortunate homeowners who suffered from frozen water pipes that eventually broke.  You can see in the picture a huge slit towards the bottom of the pipe. *sigh*  So not only have we not had water for a while, since so many homes in Tucson were affected, I have to wait until Thursday before a plumber can come fix it.  Now I'm usually decent when it comes to stress control - I try to not let many things bother me - but honestly, it really sucks having no water.  I have been taking my showers at the gym, which is totally inconvenient.  Jonny and I bought several gallons of water in case we need to deuce, but I've been holding out until I'm at the office or out and about.  But even at work they've been having water problems. :/ I also typically drink tons of water throughout the day.  When I play video games I love having a glass of water full at all times...it's just become a habit.  Instead, I have been drinking more gatorade and conserving our water supply towards other things.  It just lowers my happiness when water isn't easily accessible.  I'm sure you all know how much it sucks.  I can't do laundry, but I have a trip to get ready for (Orlando) on Thursday, so I'm either going to have to do it at a laundromat or a friend's place.  That's another thing, the plumber comes on Thursday morning, so will the pipe be fixed before I leave for vacation?  I just can't fix this thing on my own and even if I could, piping supply is sold out at several stores.  It's just a mess over here and I'm a sad panda right now.  I miss you water so much.  :'(

Another Vegas Vacation a.k.a. Fuck Tao

As you already know by now, I have a problem where I rarely reject going on a trip when invited.  So I recently went to Vegas for a few days last weekend staying from Thursday through Saturday. I stayed at the Luxor for the first time and it was interesting having a room in the pyramid.  The elevator actually moves diagonally, which extends the amount of time traveling up the floors since you're traveling the hypotenuse and unfortunately there aren't any windows in the elevators, but it was still cool nonetheless.

As for the hotel rooms themselves, this broke my string of staying in suites in Vegas, but seeing how we really weren't in our rooms very often, this wasn't a problem at all.  The Luxor has solid rooms and the price was affordable: 2 queen beds at $220 for the weekend.

When I arrived in Vegas at 11am on Thursday, Wes had already been there for 2 hours and was 4 drinks deep; a little drunk to say the least.  But he still played some Blackjack and Pai-gow with me while we waited for Justin and Liz to arrive.  Our group was quite amusing this trip.  Since Wes had recently introduced Foursquare to them a week earlier, they were a little addicted in checking into places, more so than me.  We were constantly trying to check-in to places and talked about which badges would be fun to get...yeah, nerdy to say the least. :)

On Thursday night, the group decided to go to Tao nightclub at the Venetian for some clubbin' action.  Wes's friend Sara knew of promoters who could help us get free cover, VIP access, a table, and bottle service.  However, some of you might already know my utmost hatred for Tao based on an earlier experience one time.  A few years ago, I tried to get into Tao with 3 of my other buddies since we were convinced that this club had the best-looking girls when we walked by the line one night.  We had learned about Tao's pretentious, gender-balance enforcement where guys weren't allowed to get in without an equal ratio of guys-to-girls.  So we picked up 5 girls to enter line with the 4 of us.  While we waited in line, a bouncer came up to us and offered to get the girls in earlier and for free and we'd just see them inside, so we obliged thinking it'd be good for the girls.  Big mistake.  By the time we reached the front of the line, a different bouncer said to us, "I see 4 guys and no girls, you guys aren't getting in."  And of course, the original bouncer who offered to get the girls in earlier was no where to be found.  In other words, Tao is a crooked establishment with a terrible protocol and I vowed to never go back there.  But since my friends all wanted to go and we were guaranteed all this free service...

Yep. That's a picture of me being scarred for life.  But here's the story to go along with my 2nd Tao experience:

So we arrive at Tao at 9:45pm and are waiting in a general area with the promoters.  First of all, I'm trying to be on my best behavior and not be a debbie-downer 'cause I literally hate this place, but I try and have a seat at the jewelry store and they tell me I can't sit there, so of course, I give them a stare back and then finally get up and leave, trying to keep my composure.  So we're waiting, 10pm rolls around, and the promoters are ready to take just the girls into the club since they get free drink until 11pm.  So they start herding up all the girls in our group like sheep (about 15 or so) and take them into the club while we wait outside.  And then that's where I'm like, "here we go again..."  Then the promoters get us into the "VIP" line (I must emphasize these quotation marks because I thought VIPs didn't have to wait in line?).  Meanwhile, our ladyfriends are inside and saying how they feel like they're about to get raped.  After about 30 minutes of waiting in the VIP line, we finally get into the club at around 10:40.  I waited an hour to get in for this shit!?  First of all, our table was overly crowded with like 20 or so people and there was only one bottle to serve of all them.  In other words, I didn't get a lick of the complimentary bottle service.  Fortunately, one of our ladyfriends was nice enough to grab me a gin and tonic that they got for free.  However, after 11pm, they stopped getting free drinks and those vodka cranberries they were drinking skyrocketed to $14 a glass.  So we try checking out the venue, which I will admit is nice and has potential, but with it being overly dark in there, it's really hard to tell what anyone looks like.  In addition, the dance floor was literally PACKED.  It felt like trying to weave one's way through a mosh pit.  Tao was pretty much what I expected: nothing special.  When we finally left at 12am, I was satisfied that the only good thing that comes from Tao is the phrase "Fuck Tao Hen-Hao!"  "Hen-hao" in Chinese means "very good". :)  I was also very proud of myself for not spending a single dime at Tao.

Friday was a much better day.  I found myself very successful at the Blackjack table at MGM Grand netting $180 in one sitting.  Later that evening, we enjoyed a dinner buffet at the Excalibur.  We headed back to the Luxor since the girls had to go up to the rooms before going out for the night, so I found a Blackjack table downstairs where I won a very quick $80 by the time they were ready.  This night we decided to pick a lounge/club that was more chill and hopefully way less pretentious and fortunately we were successful!  We ended up going to Blush at the Wynn where Sara helped us again get in for free, but this time we didn't have to wait at all.  Blush is not nearly as big nor popular as Tao, but I was really pleased with the place.  My drink of choice for the night was the Long Island Iced Tea, which turned out to be a great decision: strong at 4 shots a drink and $15 for each.  In my opinion, a great deal in terms of Vegas nightclub drinking.  Oh and I might also mention that you get a free glass of champagne with your Foursquare check-in!  FTW!!!  I ended up having 6 Long Islands on the night and I was good to go for the rest of the night!

We ended up leaving Blush around 3am and getting back to Luxor around 4am, but I wasn't ready to call it a night yet.  I ended up playing Blackjack with Liz and Justin and I have no idea how I was able to rack up another $100 in my drunken stupor.  But I'll take it!  That pretty much concluded a solid Vegas trip, so until next time, Fuck Tao.

2010: One of the Best Years of My Life

The title pretty much says it all: at age 27, 2010 was one of the best years of my life. But what made it all possible? Easy. I attribute it to a new mentality on life that all originates from a motto I concocted as my resolution for the year: Make It Happen. And the biggest key for making it a success was to never give up on it. As 2010 comes to a close, I feel like I've accomplished so much in one year that I have in say the previous 3 years. While this new look on life can be very demanding on my schedule and energy, I don't feel like I'm more exhausted from it all and in fact, I feel better than ever! Probably because the happiness I endure from it translates to near-zero stress in my life. :)

It all started on New Year's Eve in 2009. I hadn't actually come up with the motto "Make It Happen" yet, but I was with great company and close friends. We took advantage of an all-you-can-drink deal at Angels and Outlaws in Scottsdale and after several comical stories on the night that you may or may not have heard about, the tone for the new year was set. It was going to be a good one.Early in the year, I decided I should be more active in the "going-out" scene. I really made a conscious effort to make an appearance when invited. I hardly ever said no to any vacation or event...of course being single with a nice-paying job helps me accomplish that, for which I am grateful. It helped that I had friends who had so much going on this year in their own lives too. Thus, I would be invited to a handful of bachelor parties and weddings as well, which are always fun! ;)It wasn't all a breeze tho'. There was a 2-week stretch where I was hopping back and forth from home to Vegas to home to Vegas to Tubac and literally trying to make it to everything I could. The key was that I just stopped caring about whether I might feel tired from it all. I could afford it and I could afford the vacation days, so I just went out and did it all.That's a pretty important factor for me: being able to muster up the energy when I don't think there's any. Forcing myself to just, well, make it happen. I think that it's stuff like that that can be a big obstacle for people. "Oh, it's too far" or "I'm kinda tired, I think I might just stay in" are things I hear all the time and things I stopped using as excuses.However, I also honestly believe that you can make the time for someone if really want to, people usually just don't choose to. Of course, the flexibility of my life is also really huge. It's pretty awesome when I can go out on the weekdays and stay out late to hang out with friends and not have to worry about getting into the office early. I can stay rested with a normal amount of sleep each night and continue to have a good social life.But don't get me wrong here. IBM is still very important to me and I've always been the overachieving type anyway. If there's a job to be done, I will usually get it done and try to do it well. I think that's been important at the workplace. My colleagues all know I am a late-bird, but they know that I'm still effective at my job and it even showed this year when I got a promotion, something that I'm very happy for and also contributes to the great year that was 2010. :)Even with all the trips and going-out and more stuff on the agenda, I tried to not let it dominate my life either. I still continued to enjoy the things I love: video games, watching sports, working out, and playing basketball. I just found ways to make it all work. For example, Monday would be my day off where all I want to do is play basketball at night. Tuesday I would go lift at the gym after work and then get ready for a night on the town. Wednesday was usually a basketball night with going-out an option. Thursday is bowling followed by more hanging out. And then Friday-Sunday was a mix of all of the above. :)So all that is good and gravy. I'm going on trips, hanging out with friends and making new ones, keeping up with the stuff I love, staying successful at work; but another big thing for me this year was the luck with the ladies. I don't really blog about it because I try to stay humble (and secretive? haha), but I will admit that this year was one of the best in that realm. I took my "make it happen" mentality to the courting plate as well. When I saw someone that I was interested in, I wasn't being the shy guy in the corner. Instead, I stopped caring about the outcome, just went up to them and started talking and being myself. If they wanted to talk some more, great! If not, no big deal and move on. I understand that there's some level of confidence you have to find first and for me, I think the whole "making it happen" mentality really helped with that.Now one might argue that I'm ending 2010 the same way I started it: single. In the end that's definitely true, but the dates and experiences I had this year helped me learn more about myself and what I'm looking for, which is the ultimate accomplishment and something to build on for the future.Alright soooo: 3 trips to Vegas, 4 weddings (Vegas, Tubac, Michigan, Tucson), 4 bachelor parties, 2 trips to Mexico (San Carlos, Cabo), Dana Point, Scottsdale resorts, Payson, my first Cardinals game, repeat bowling champion, basketball champion, fantasy baseball champion, fantasy football champion, IBM promotion... While those all definitely contributed to the great year, I couldn't do it without the people and friends in my life. That was a challenge for me. Since I still live in Tucson some 5 years after I graduated, you can only imagine how the people I knew when I went to school at the U of A had all moved on with their lives and gone up and left Tucson. In fact, before this year, I struggled to find people to hang out with in town. That might be why I had to make things happen. My generation had left Tucson, so I was forced to make new friends, but I feel like I accomplished that this year and now my life is like that Over song by Drake.Ahh, but with new friends comes newer responsibilities. It's a lot to keep track of all the people you have to keep up with. However, I never quit. For example, you could literally see my text messages per month grow from 200/mo in the first quarter to 700/mo halfway through the year, to over 1100/mo by the end of the year. I aimed to be very reliable in returning every call and text I got. I stopped caring about whether someone wasn't at the same level as me, I just took what I could get and tried to be the best friend I could.Maybe that's it too. I stopped letting the silly things bother me. I had always considered myself pretty easy-going, but I think I took it to a new level. Yeah, there's things out there that can annoy you, but you have to ask yourself, "does it really matter?" and if you say yes ask yourself again, "really?", with more emphasis this time. ;) Then again, I will admit that I feel pretty lucky and that helps me to live this lifestyle. I'm blessed with a job that not only pays well (good enough for me!), but I can do it on my schedule. I have a great circle of friends who enjoy my company (I think) and want to invite me and be a part of their life. But I think if you have a good attitude on life, people will notice and want to share that with you. Happiness can be contagious. :) I'm also pretty fortunate as well. I know there's people out there who have serious problems: unemployment, debt, family or friends in unfortunate situations, etc. That's not something that can just be ignored. I'm very lucky to not have to deal with those kind of problems.I also wonder how my lifestyle could change if I weren't single. It's one thing to be on your own and not have to worry about tending to someone else or family. I'd like to think that until I actually settle down, I could continue to make it happen with a significant other in the picture, but I guess in time we'll find out. Until then, I'm just gonna enjoy what I have.Now that I think about it, didn't someone already come up with my motto? I think it goes something like "Just Do It." Haha. I like mine better though. "Just Do It" sounds kinda forceful whereas with "Make It Happen" you actually have to take a look and ask yourself what you have to do to make it happen.By no means am I saying that I'm perfect now. I still make mistakes, I can't be there 100% of the time, and even I have to cut back every now and then. The point is that I'm trying to do more and with that effort I'm happier than ever. I'm definitely in a much better spot than I was a couple years ago! I'm sure some of you remember the gloomy days of "poor Andy." Well, I'd like to think those days are behind me now. :) Okay, so we all know that 2010 was a great year. The question now becomes, how can we top it off? I think the answer is, you don't ask that question. Don't look at it as some yearly basis but instead just build upon the great year that was 2010. Meet more new friends while keeping up with the old ones, keep going out and planning fun trips, and continue the pursuit of those ladies! And so that's just what I'm gonna do. Already planned in 2011 is another trip to Vegas, snowboarding for the first time in my life, vacations in Orlando, New Orleans, DC...and we're just barely scraping into April. ;) I know Austin's on my list as well and I'm gonna want to visit Matt and Pamela when they move out to California. On that note, I will continue to try and make my blog happen. I know there are times when I'll go awol for a while, but it is some extra work to put these posts together. It's worth it though and it's fun for me to look back on my past. I hope whoever reads it gets some kick out of it too. Anyway, Happy New Year everyone! 2011 is on it's way and I can't wait! :D

IBM Bowling League: The Road to the 3-Peat

You may recall from an earlier blog post in March that my bowling team in the IBM Bowling League was successful in repeating as champions. :) Bowling has already started back up and unfortunately our team didn't show up in the first half, which ended just last week. I blame it to the number of times several of us were absent and had to rely on subs. I personally missed 4-5 of the 12 weeks.

So tonight begins the second half and if we want to have any chance at a pulling a Michael Jordanesque 3-peat, we'll have to finish the 2nd half of weeks in 1st place so that we can get into the title game. It won't be easy, but I vow not to miss another game for the rest of the year. I want back-to-back-to-back championships that bad! DO WORK SON!