when it rains it pours down

Hey friends, long time no blog! Wellll, there is a lot of stuff that I have to get off my chest so I hope you can endure this just fine. 

First off, I got some picies developed from December and January, so I thought I would post them herreee.

I started talking to this guy about my car when I was picking up my photos in Little Italy. He once has had a Golf, a wee long time ago. He went on about how great of a car it was, how it is designed so well. To which I said, “Hey, I agree!” After a lengthy conversation about German vs. Japanese engineering, we started to talk about Italy, little and big. Note, at this point, we have the Axis power conversation trifecta going. He was in the process of writing an article for the San Diego Reader about his disdain for Little Italy, so he asked me reasons why I did not like it. I went on about how they can line the streets with Italian restaurants but that does not bring actual Italian culture into the community and how it is hyper-branded with it’s own empty logo. My final example went on about how there is no community-gathering place like San Francisco’s Little Italy. Dude especially appreciated that point, as he was from San Francisco. 

After those diatribes, we went on talking about his career as a teacher. Even though he has an ethics background, he is teaching History at Southwestern, “nothing to write home about,” he says.

It is funny, even before he mentioned his background, he reminded me of Greg Campbell, my ethics and American history teacher in college. They put off very similar vibes, the whole “still waters run deep” deal. 

Greg Campbell was one of the best teachers I have ever had. His ethics class made me socially conscious and his history class spurred my love for American history (oh and I got the highest grade in the class). If you followed the link in his name, you would see that the Art Institute let him go for “unclear” reasons, which is such a shame because more kids need to take classes by him. I cannot really go into it right now but his teaching style was second-to-none. Cause and effect history and situational ethics FOR LIFE BRO.

Also, if you followed the link you would have seen the name Katie McGowan. Katie (this one, at least) was another amazing teacher of mine. Huge crush aside, her Visual Language and Culture class was invaluable to me (without her, I could not have talked to Little Italy Dude about the hyper-branding–it all comes full circle!). You may or may not remember my anti-globalization/capitalism/starbucks/branding/logo/marketing phase, but it was all thanks to Ms. McGowan.

She was the first person I have ever met who liked Red House Painters, so I made an awesome sound collage mash-up with them for her a project and she totally dug it. I remember she talked about seeing Mark Kozelek in San Francisco and he played her favorite song (I think we can all guess what it is) but said it was about his cat. I do not believe that to be true.

I remember when I played the song in class; we were bumping it super loud during the Godspeed x Alex Jones section, when the teacher from the next room over comes and tells us to turn it down. My nemesis in the class, a guy I truly hated, told the other teacher that no one cares what she thinks, so we turned it up louder. Andddddddd, I am pretty sure that exact nemesis was playing keyboard for The Appleseed Cast last Wendesday… something I will get to in the next post.

We have had a funny trend of people finding Webtape by searching for themselves on Google, which is why I am using my teacher’s first names. So, Greg and Katie, if you see this I would like you to know that I sincerely appreciate all that you did for me, as I wouldn’t be me without you. HWUPT.

geezz, that was a long tangent. I will be sure to keep the captions to at LEAST half that length...

this is my cousin Michael, he may be a tool but he is still kinda cool. sometimes.

seee.

This is Michael's brother, his name is Durand. Durand is actually one of the people I look up to the most. He graduated from Berkeley and now he is working in DC as an assist to Dianne Feinstein. Legit.

On this day, Mark, Annie and I dominated Mark, Chris and Ashley at football. We also ate these sandwiches... there is so much bacon on that blanket.

Secondly, I would like to add another Happy Birthday to Annie, I found this for you, enjoy:

Thirdly, I assume you all know what tragic fate I endured last week with my knee but I will retell it for the mems.

Last friday, 2/26/10, we were having a butts-up party (which I clearly wasn't losing) downtown. Man, I am too tired to tell this story. So to make it short, I was running to throw the ball against the wall when I heard a pop and felt a terrible pain. I then, reluctantly, look down at my knee and fall to the floor. I remember looking back and Joe was laughing "lol lol," and I was saying "no dude, again again!" it took us about 3 times for him to realize what was going on, at which point he was game on 100% UCSD doctor. 

At first, someone asked if we should call an ambulance and I said "nahh, I am good," thinking I would just pop my knee back into place myself. I demanded an ambulance about 30 seconds later, after realizing that being my doctor was not a good idea. The ambulance drivers were pretty slow to get there, which was surprising because they were total bro doggies who probably go 100mph in the dez. But since they took so long it gave us plenty of time to consider relocating my knee. I could tell Mark was pretty gung-ho about this idea when I looked down and saw him holding my ankle, ready to pull. Looking back, I probably should have let him do it, as it would have saved my jeans from being cut up like potatoes and a lot of wasted time. Note, during all of this, Mark was standing on a sprinkler so I would not get super-soaked. Although, going to the hospital soaking wet would have been hilarious.

Pat and I had this theory in high school that it would be hilarious to go to school one sunny day drenched in water. You would just walk around huffing and puffing all day, "I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT!"

ANYWAYS, the hospital was a complete waste of time. They wheeled me in and did exactly what Mark would have done, then I sat there for 2 hours doing nothing. At about 3 in the morning, they exported (? deported? discharged! [ew]) me and I crutched out the doors to the waiting room to see my cheering squad waiting there all happy to see me, Annie and Ashley were making out. I then, unrelated to the making out, felt very sick, which continued all the way home. Awesome side note, I navigated my mom to Annie's house with my eyes closed.

SO, the best part about all this is that February was my first month of health insurance, so I totally got my money's worth. ALSO, I had a follow-up doctor's appoint on March 4th, so I got this month covered too! Woo! Jeff: 2, Insurance Giants: 0.

That is that but I still have so much to talk about, I will probably split it up into two posts. Looking back,  there is no way I am going to proof read this whole thing. So you are stuck with it, as am I. ENJOY!