I wrote about the upcoming traffic hell and got published (here). I started the article with Spanglish. Then I suffered my own traffic hell of my own. Some people have it much worse. I can’t imagine. I spent a good 4 hours in my brother’s car yesterday. More than three hours were sitting on the freeway driving (or on the passenger seat). Around 13 minutes were spent waiting in line for In N Out drive through. Less than 2 minutes it took me to devour this double double:
It was glorious. It was almost 4 pm and it was my first meal of the day.
Posted that sucker on Tijuana Adventure’s Instagram since I’m making it about food in the region (and eventually also tours).
Camp Pendleton is far yo!
Like really far. I made it to downtown at noon and the plan was to go to the office to pick up my waiting check and say hi to the editors. Nope. Didn’t have time. Drove to Camp Pendleton.
Fucked it up at the gate and I didn’t enter through the visitor’s side. I had to cut someone off. Military people make me nervous for some reason (apparently, everything makes me nervous). But after a while explaining where I was going, they let me through.
Then I fucked it up. I drove further ahead than I should have because Google.Maps was sending me to some place else that wasn’t where I was going. And in Camp Pendleton, you are supposed to drive the 7-mile loop around if you want to correct your mistake. I didn’t. I entered the entryway of where only military vehicles go and turned around on the road.
There were no signs that said I couldn’t do that. I didn’t know. Nothing happened.
I made it to the meeting at 1324 hours.
I thought because of the military, not being on time I was going to get scolded. Nah. Dude was a retired veteran and only works in the military housing department. He was cool. We hung out and drove around the neighborhood after some headshots. He told me he was from Texas. I told him that my family lived there when I was young, so I grew up going there. We had a trip about Tijuana and how long it has been since he had gone (early 90s). Basically, we exchanged pleasantries as we went around Camp.
Girlfriend just called. She wants to go out to eat. I’m not sure if I’ll be done by 2 pm to go out to eat already. But maybe.
The fucky schedule is still bothering me. Again, I go from couch to bed, bed to couch, and back to bed. Two-hour intervals. During hot days I mostly sleep on the couch, but now it’s weird to just do that. Girlfriend texted me at some point during the night to come to bed, so I did.
So my mornings are still weird. Work out. Coffee. Shower. And then the day starts.
Emails! I remember when emails made me nervous. Now it’s a meh. I think I’ve been traumatized by my old bosses. My very first boss loved to yell at me, then he would take his anger pills, then he would talk slowly and barely comprehensively. His British accent didn’t help either.
Back to yesterday.
Pictures weren’t that great. There was nothing going on in the neighborhood. And pictures of houses are BORING.
It was until the very end that people were playing soccer. But it is still very meh.
And I wasn’t authorized to take pictures of any of the cool stuff that was actually going on (military related). So I got to know Camp Pendleton and the community. Lovely place for Army people. Growing up there or living there would be crazy. It’s such a nice little piece of paradise surrounded by military. Either the safest or most dangerous place ever. It seemed fake. Like how college is fake. You go there for and live there for a couple of years, train, learn, and then get the fuck out. Abandoned the area. Other people need to train and learn and get the fuck out into the real world.
And after Camp Pendleton, I had plans to stop by to a restaurant to take pictures. I was stuck in traffic. I was desperate because I haven’t had any food or coffee the whole day. I was late to give my brother his car back. I couldn’t find the email with the restaurant that I was supposed to go to.
So next week. Master list of restaurants to take the next cover and inside pictures. That’s going to take a while. But it’s going to be fun. And it might involve free food. And I have all week to do it! And at the same time, I plan to interview some people in San Diego.
My week is set for next week. Yep. Pictures of food, find the guys I want to interview.
Also, I picked up the magazine with my picture cover and the pictures on the inside. THE INSIDE SPREAD IS HUGE. I love huge inside spreads.
This is what it looks in the mag.
This is the original picture.
And yep. That’s the Instagram boyfriend and a bachelorette party.
Inside the magazine, there are also numerous pics by me. Five more for the story. Three more for a different story. And also an article I wrote (this one). That seems to be the recipe. Few pictures. An article. I need more articles. And work on more writing covers.
And… probably also get more gigs. People have started to ask for me to take pictures for them. It seems like the photographer path is a good nice paying one. I almost got a gig for covering Comic Con tomorrow, but they need me to get my own pass and I haven’t had such luck.
I want to go to Comic Con though. It looks like summer Halloween on steroids. So much fun. Also, way too many people that after an hour or two, I would already have hundreds of pictures, and there would be no need for more.
Oh yeah. Chester from Linkin Park died. Hah. I never liked them. Still sucks. And it sucks more that every radio station was playing Linkin Park in a tribute to him. Shit always sucked. Seems like the dude had money and everything else going for him except for good music. But suicide. Suicide might be the answer to everything.
I don’t think I ever took his picture. But maybe.
My wrist hurts and it bothers me while doing push-ups :(
Doesn’t matter. Push-ups. Sit-ups. Coffee coffee coffee.
Two of the military bros I saw yesterday were hella rip in the group of them that were playing soccer. Like the type of dudes that you only see in the movies or on muscle beach with gigantic buff bodies and cheesy tattoos. They were gigantic. They probably do nothing but work out. Their soccer technic was horrible. I wanted to play.
In fact, all of Camp Pendleton seemed like the epitome of the American dream. American flags flying everywhere. Military related stuff. Lovely families. Super nice quiet neighborhood. Tons of nice parks with beautiful green areas. ‘Muricuh.
After Camp Pendleton, I went to meet up with my brother, and drive back to the border. The border line took us over 40 minutes. Yep. Bordergeddon hasn’t even started and it’s bad already. Especially on the weekends. Crossing the border often is insanity and I’m still not used to it.
Unsure what this day has for me. I should interview that guy that I said I was going to interview last week but he didn’t show up. Yep. That’s what I should do. Girlfriend wants me to meet her were usual after work as well. It does not feel like a Friday to me. At all. But will have to do.
Coffee, work-out, shower, light breakfast (maybe), get out of the house with my camera again and get to work.
OOOOOeeee!
Matingas 