Wednesday, 11 August 2010
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San Diego Day 3: Babycakes
So here is my job for today as a San Diego Temp: go to Babycakes and chill. My job tools are my resume and Levinson’s “Guerilla Marketing”. I even have my own assistant: a vanilla latte and pommy cupcake.
I love Babycakes. It’s a reverted home with the most amazing cupcake selection with a grand vintage interior and the people to match. Yesterday, I had the horrible failure to make conversation with 2 hipsters at the velodrome races. I had to redeem myself if I want to practice getting over my inability to small talk.
From what I have learned, you just have to interject in a conversation. Talking with a friend yesterday, we somehow got into the topic of the asexuality of my family as well as his porn addiction, which by the way, is very odd to discuss (this guy just analyzed the sexuality of my sister and my mother!). To get even a little word, I had to blurt out an opinion if I wanted to be heard which turned out to be not so bad. Armed with this small bit of conversation experience, I met Leslie, the Babycakes barista. It was nothing special, but it was a change from my norm. We chatted about photography and the morale in shooting strangers in the open street. I’m not even sure if this post was worth writing about but anyway I’m posting it anyway. It’s some bit of growth and I’ll probably look back on this and smile.
As my review for Babycakes, it’s just awesome to go to. I’ll make this quick and direct. The customer service is phenomenal as Leslie kept me entertained through conversation. The pommy cupcake was a bit dry. It was also a bit sweet but perhaps that’s what I get for ordering a fruit cupcake. Coming before their hazelnut was just awesome. Their coffee is also a breath of fresh air. The music is spectacular and sends a good vibe of chill pop songs. Think Mandy Moore, Ace of Base, acoustic guitars, beach wind, a happening night life, and everything else California is known for. Anyways, I got to take a number two.Ciao!
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San Diego Day 3: Food
I stick the carnitas into the microwave. It’s something I made with my sister yesterday; spiced with verde salsa, cinnamon, and some cumin and paprika. I feel meat always tastes better with cumin. I slice some fresh strawberries and drizzle it lightly with some honey with some of yesterdays baguette toasted with organic butter. I’m not the type to care about organic foods but I have to comment that the taste of organic butter is like Bill Gates -- IT’S RICH! And just to wash it down I have my black tea.
Now, I have to be quick with it because in an hour I have a coffee date with a cupcake in an hour and I do plan to hit first base with it.
I know that my philosophy for food sounds, well, odd. It’s almost gluttonous but I promise it’s not. If anything it’s beautiful – it’s a lifestyle. For the same reason my friend, Garrett, invests so much on his wardrobe or why my boyfriend moves to a new city every season, food expresses ourselves. The clothes that you wear can be equated to me eating a lobster tail. I am what I eat, and I do enjoy eating well. So like clothes, I'm wearing my days worth of fiber, vitamin C, a shot of espresso (just because I like to stand out a little), and some protein to make my muscles pop out and I could really tell you where to go to get all this half off too.
So here I am, at Babycakes in San Diego about to feast on this amazing pommy cupcake. It is red, sweet and very delicious and is... going... into... my... mouth.Now, if only I could gain an ounce of weight. - -||
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San Diego Day 2: The Ex
Is it odd that I love my ex? We have this odd relationship of not talking for awhile and then managing to come back into each other’s lives. When we do come to talk, I always get into these large states of euphoria. I dare make the comparison that it’s almost like Christmas and that I have been visited by Santa and he has eaten all my cookies and left me some presents under my tree.
To me, our relationship has always had unfinished business. Exhausted from the long distance, it faded without a word and we just kind of accepted it. I think that relationship somehow turned into this bizarre brotherly love.
Recently, I’ve been included to be in the know about one of his newer relationships. In today’s convo...
“I talk to him about you all the time!” he says to me. It makes me happy to know that I’m not just some guy he dated; that I make a difference. I know that he does in my life.
I love you, Ben. :) -
San Diego: Day 1
I’m currently stationed in San Diego sitting in a Starbucks in the heart of Hillcrest trying to learn Levinson's "Guerrilla Marketing". To catch everybody up to speed I ran away to San Diego for an “Elizabeth Gilbert Experience” where instead of eating, praying, and loving, I will be eating, exercising, and working and hoping that all of this will promote some sense of enlightenment in myself.
Why?
Bottom-line: I am not ready to be a graduate!
I was such a loser in high school: no direction, unable to socialize, and totally had no self awareness but I have always had high expectations in myself. 5 years since my high school graduation, I have beautiful friends that mostly consist of artists and entrepreneurs and I have done so many jobs from a freelance web designer, outreach coordinator, social, spirit, sports chair, district web tech, advertisement intern… well, you get the picture. You don’t even need to know what all those positions are. Bottom line – I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished since high school.
The problem is, “I don’t feel I’m complete yet.” So, like the adventurous Elizabeth Gilbert, I am attempting to finish constructing myself to become that person I wanted to be within a month period. (It’s a short time period but I’m curious to see how far I get). Right now I am…
1. Still shy, incompetent at small talk
2. Unable to smoothly verbalize my thoughts (let alone organize them)
3. Interested in the world but still not culturally aware enough
4. Unemployed…
I guess that is why I’m in San Diego. I plan to fulfill that promise to myself to be hungry for life and where better than San Diego? I have quite a lineup of things to do that’s out of my usual norms and hopefully will give me something to look back on by documenting it all as well as enhance my abilities as a writer.
MY NAME IS BASSANIO FUCKING GRATIANO AND I’M GOING TO EAT YOU SAN DIEGO. CHECK-ME-THE-FUCK-OUT!!! :D!!!
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
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Still Figuring Out a Voice
I never realized how hard it was to improve your writing. Maybe it's because I don't know what it is I want to write. Finding a voice is hard now a day and I'm not sure if it's because I've become jaded growing up over the years. My other past xanga account entries have been pretty easy to write; events, feelings, thoughts, and oddities.
I drove down to San Diego (for one day) from Riverside with the boyfriend to help out with my sister's photoshoot for her bike rental business when I met another friend's camera assistant. His name was Calvin and he was a journalism major. I asked him if he had a blog. I was thinking, "If this guy is a journalism major, his writing has got to be ball'n! I could use that for inspiration."
No dice. Turns out he was in the same funk I was in. I guess it doesn't matter how good a writer you are if you can't even process your thoughts out. I use to be so random and wild. Has 2 years in the Inland Empire really jaded me this much? Not to hate, but it feels like it has. I can't wait to move out and get on with my life.
Feel free to check out my friend's blog. His writing is entertaining as well as witty.
OKHEYDEI Destroys Japan
Just_Getting_It
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- Member Since: 2/23/2010
