Hey United States!
I’m going to be traveling through you. Flying to Minneapolis then driving down back. With my camera. And my friends! Here is what the itinerary looks like so far:
I’m leaving Tijuana on Tuesday to arrive to LA at some point in the late afternoon. Spending the night with my best friend in that city (and his lovely wife) and flying to Minneapolis at midnight. I’ll spend some days in Minneapolis just kicking-it, most likely doing some work as well. Then road trip time!
And I’m excited, but at the same time very nervous. I haven’t flown in more than five years. Haven’t really gone outside of California (or Baja California). It feels weird to leave. I still have a couple of days to pack and get ready, but it’s the only thing in my mind. I also have some work to finish, but can’t concentrate until I know I have everything read. Once on my way, I am sure I can finish work assignments and read a lot of books.
If anyone is willing to host us (or just me) in Denver or Las Vegas, these are places we would love free lodging (we have tents and sleeping bags, so even a backyard would be cool). If anyone is in any of the way of the places we’re driving and wants to get some lunch/dinner/drinks, that would be rad as fuck, but I don’t think I know that many people in middle America.
It will be an interesting trip. Especially with all the political spectrum going through. It will be a real adventure, but I won’t touch politics, just be an observant. However, I will be recording everything with my camera to do a travel section series and hopefully get some $$$ in this trip.
NOW! I need to do all my laundry (all my shit is dirty), gotta clean my apartment and leave it ready, and say goodbyes to Bisho, who I will miss a lot. But Bisho will be in good hands. My friend Susan will be cat/house sitting while I am gone. I still feel weird about leaving Tijuana, but we’ll see how it goes.
YAY!!! I AM LEAVING!
Anyway.
Last week was mostly work.
On Monday after my blog post, I transcribed an interview which I thought had great material. Upon transcribing I realized… it wasn’t that good. I went to get some of Norte beers and work there for a bit.
Tuesday I got to writing the story, forcing the not so good interview into the article. Many of the things I wrote are great, but it wasn’t good enough still. I didn’t leave my house after.
Wednesday I kept working on it, basically finish it. Didn’t leave the house much. Until photographer/friend Andy came over to take pictures of some tacos and of PedWest (which is the story I was working on).
Here is my favorite taco shop in all of the world:
And here are my pictures of the progress of PedWest:
On Thursday I received the email that I unfortunately, was right. The quotes I got are crap. The story is good and interesting, but I got to re-write the whole damn thing. Which is what I will be doing whilst I travel. I have all the material, it’s just a matter of actually doing it right. That same Thursday the editor also told me that the other story was good, just needed to have some work done on it! That should take me no time since he basically did all the corrections and I just need to fill in the blanks. I’ll get that done tomorrow….
That same Thursday I went to my friends’ show in San Diego. Before getting to my friend’s house, his cat was posing for me. And since it was magic hour… I took some shots:
It was fun times in San Diego. Like always, it reminded me of how being American can be awesome. I miss it a lot of the times. There’s a huge sense of freedom in Tijuana, but there’s also not that many liberties. And the US is the other way around, you have a lot of liberties but no freedom. I know this sounds confusing because they are synonyms in a way… but basically in the US if you have monetary power, you can have more liberties, but in Mexico with or without capitalism, you are free to do whatever the fuck you want.
Here are more pictures of Camus the cat, Gravyyard playing a show, some dude who was awesome but don’t remember his name, some bar shots, and some drunken shots.
Friday I had to deal with Citibank because my fucking debit card expired and I haven’t received a new one. I’ve talked to online help, phone help, and now a bank teller, and none of them were able to give me a card. Except the bank teller. He gave me a temporal debit card that doesn’t work for online purchases… SO THERE GOES UBER AND MY NETFLIX ACCOUNT. And since I will be traveling, I won’t be able to get my actual debit card until after the trip. This concerns me, but I shall be fine. I am getting so nervous about being so far away with little cash.
That Friday on my way to the bank, I saw a lot of news vans outside the police station. I decided to check it out and saw a news anchor from Fox…My paparazzi instincts kicked in. I was hoping for some Aloha Taylor cuz shit is she hot.. but it was Maria Arcega-Dunn. She looked amazing wearing her blue dress and juggling two phones at the same time. Probably even hotter than Aloha Taylor or Dagmar Midcap… but you can’t beat those awesome names. If real paparazzi instincts were still sharp, I would have given 0 fucks and would have taken way more pictures instead of just sneaking a couple.
I posted and tagged her on my Instagram and she was cool and responded. Just goes to show how tiny San Diego is compared to LA and how many opportunities there are in there if I really invest myself in that city. After the bank, I got bored in SD with nothing to do, so I just went back to Tijuana.
On my way back home from the border, I saw Tijuana ‘celebutants.’ So again, paparazzi instincts kicked-in for some reason. Bam. Took out my camera and took pictures of this young couple without asking questions (singer of Ziruela and his girlfriend actress Eastynn Chadwick). Didn’t even say shit to them. Even though they said hi! I was just like HEY! I took your picture! BYE!
So… I somewhat miss the old job. Not so much shooting celebrities. But more than anything just taking pictures and getting paid for it. Right now, I do it mostly for fun, though it does get me followers and things of the sort. I am really just enjoying taking cool pics and doing the edit after. I know I mentioned it before, but I used to take over 1,000 pictures a day… I don’t want to go back to that many (I used to not edit them), but taking a few hundred per day and making money would be awesome.
At the same time, writing has been great for me. Editor even told me to buy some books so I can get to next step. So I am very excited to read his recommendations (and other books I haven’t read). I rarely read when I am in home, so this road trip will have me do a lot of reading. And I am really happy that I can keep growing in a job that I didn’t think I would ever be doing. But I really thoroughly enjoy it. At some point I would like to incorporate music into all the shit I do, but for now, writing and pictures keeps me plenty busy. Being a staff photographer/writer would be awesome. But for now, the rollercoaster of the freelance life is going smoothly in the pleasant direction. Hopefully this trip won’t interrupt my progress (I am hoping it will enhance it).
Oh. And Saturday. I woke up early to go play soccer. Before even starting the game, I did a weird little hop that twisted my back and I was in great pain. I ignored the pain to play (and I actually played really well, scored more than 5 goals). But after the game, holy shit was I hurting. I took some valium that a friend had left in the house and PASSED THE FUCK OUT. Woke up on a pool of my own drool to find out that Gallos Blancos was winning 2-0 against Puebla. That made me happy. Watched some more soccer. Cooked some pasta. Back was still a painful motherfucker. Was going to grab an Uber to the pharmacy and for some more food and I found out my DEBIT CARD EXPIRED (what I was talking about before). So I took another valium at around 10. Woke up at noon today feeling like it was Monday.
So Sunday = Monday. Monday = Monday (I have shit tons of work), and Tuesday = I AM OUT TO LOS ANGELES!
This blog will be active both Mondays that I won’t be home. So I need to pick two celebrities ahead of time… which I will do soon. But for this one.
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Robert Downey Jr
Ok. This choice is for a really cute. A friend from Tijuana has been asking about him forever, but I had never delivered. And well! Here you go Margarita!
But it wasn’t you who convinced me (sorry). I got a WhatsApp message from someone that at first had no idea who it was. It took me a while to realize that it was my little niece from Guadalajara (we don’t have the same last names at all). I haven’t seen her in many years, last time I saw her I think she was 8. Now she is probably a teenager. She texted me, through her mom’s phone (my favorite cousin), asking me if I had pictures of Robert Downey Jr. It’s her biggest celebrity crush. So how can I say no to my little niece! Las fotos dedicadas para Maria!
I only have two albums of IronMan. The first album I don’t remember so well, the second album I do remember because a friend jay-walked to get a better picture. Downey Jr. called him on it, and the cops gave him a ticket…. what a dick. But at least the pictures I got were decent (and I didn’t jay-walk).
First album is from March 4, 2009.
Best shot… he closes his eyes.
And to make all the Downey fans jealous… this last pic:
This set was exclusive… and I don’t remember it at all. But I wasn’t that good of a photog or pictures would have been better, you can tell that he was being really nice and both didn’t mind the attention. I was probably completely by myself and I used to get real nervous.
Second set was a year later on March 23, 2010. I remember this day because.. well I already said it above. Here are the pics:
Didn’t even use the flash once. Better photog. Could still be way better. Anyway! Monday post done on Sunday DONE! DONE! DONE!
Now before I leave Tijuana I have a bunch of things to do. Tomorrow I’ll re-write and send the story, start re-writing the other one, do all my laundry, clean my house, pack, and get ready to go! Tuesday.. I’ll be gone!!! Be back late August. Will be posting updates and shit!
See you later Tijuas!
See you soon ‘Muricuh!!!
Matingas 