27 Weeks, 3 Days.
More than half a year.
It still feels so weird.
It still feels like I’m going to see her on some holiday break.
It still makes me cry when I realize I’m not going too.
I didn’t do much yesterday. I’m not doing much today.
I don’t like it when I don’t have much to do. Because I just sit here. Looking at things that I have to do but that I can avoid doing if I want so I don’t do them.
I had a photoshoot today. It was never confirmed. So I just sit here.
My brother, his wife, and the kids are hanging out with Marc over at Valle de Guadalupe in a nice house with a pool. I wish I was there. I could go there now… but I have work and cross the border tomorrow morning. Two photoshoots and delivery boy.
Should be okay.
Too bad I already got paid for one of them.
Driving is nice, though Donatella, my car, worries me sometimes.
Donatella drove the furthest she’s gone this weekend. I drove to LA.
Contrary to what people told me, Friday afternoon going north was a breeze.
The border took me less than 10 minutes at around 4:30 pm.
I was in El Segundo before 7:30 pm.
Less than 3 hours.
I hit traffic a bit after San Diego, a bit in Irvine, and a bit when getting close to LAX.
That was it.
Driving back on Monday morning was a breeze as well. Took me less than 3 hours to be back home.
Friday I just hung out with my buddy Hudson and his wife until late at night. His wife made us gnocchi from scratch but then she had to go to bed cuz she had a flight early in the morning. They were delicious, but strongly flavored gorgonzola that I couldn’t finish my plate. I felt bad.
Brocollini, asparagus, chicken, or something to counter the strong gorgonzola would have been perfect.
But she made it from scratch in less than an hour. Something I could never do.
Respect.
She also left me super fancy chocolates as a gift for visiting. I’m excited about those. They look super fucking fancy.
Oh. And I ate Tim Tams cuz she’s Australian and they always have some. I should have asked for some Vegemite. I still haven’t really had that weird shit.
The following day I just hung out with Hudson, started drinking beer after some brunch. Then we jammed…
I haven’t hung out with the dude in years.
More than 3 years.
And we barely jammed back in the day. We just knew we were both into music.
Oh fuck.
It was great.
His neighbor Casey came to visit and jammed with.
Oh! It was great.
Haven’t felt that good jamming in a long time.
Many times while jamming, I feel like people get stuck in simple patterns. And I get stuck in my patterns, but they are a bit more complex and weird.
Hudson followed.
Casey followed.
We jammed for hours.
And at around 7 pm I was exhausted that I went to lie down.
I didn’t wake up until 2 fucking a.m.
And then slept some more till like 8 a.m.
I slept for more than 12 hours while visiting a friend.
Felt like a waste of an afternoon. But fuck… it was so fun to jam and fuck… was I tired.
Sunday was a similar pattern sans Casey.
The jam was still very fucking good.
Hudson played bass a la Claypool while doing some scream-singing while I played drums. It actually felt good to play drums to his riffs. They were weirdly mathy and easy to follow for what “my drumming style” is.
(It’s non-existent).
Beers at El Segundo:
Hudson lives in El Segundo so he rarely leaves that part of town. So I didn’t really go to LA. I went to El Segundo.
El Segundo beers are common in SoCal and in some breweries in Tijuana. I had it plenty. They even collaborated with Insurgente with the Dreamer IIPA. It was nice to visit their little spot. And we filled growlers of their stuff and drank a ton of mulberry IPAs.
I also took some of my favorite from Baja (and Colima) to Hudson: Perro del Mar, Juan Cordero, Lupulosa, Piedra Lisa, Mauka (special gose beer by Colima), and a Rompeolas.
One of my missions in LA was not successful. My brother left a bunch of photo gear over there in the office we used to work for. Photographers grabbed it because it was basically unclaimed. I am claiming it for my brother because is somewhat rightfully his and thus rightfully mine (I’ll give it back to him if he ever wants it… I also have a lot of his shit in my apartment…).
I will go back to LA for more JAMMING (seriously, it felt fantastic).
And because I want that photo gear.
Speaking of the photo gear…
I’m repurposing my extra room as a photo studio. That was Chad’s room. And it was my mom’s room for her last year in this world. It’s still so strange. I keep looking at places to move, but there is nothing. So instead of just closing that room and not going in because I felt a vibe there… I rather just repurpose it. Moving on, I guess. The closet is still filled with a lot of her stuff…
I should clean that when I’m done blogging and arrange it in a way that it looks plausible.
That’s why I wanted that photo gear.
But I can start arranging it and making it look nice without it.
And now August begins soon.
July, as forecast, was very busy. August doesn’t seem that insanely busy, but I will try to get it like that. I got one more gig offer… I’ll see what it is all about tomorrow.
And I want more gigs still…
I should apply for my SENTRI as well.
And hopefully, find more places to drive Donatella too.
Her oil leak is getting worse. I need to fix that.
Matingas 
One response to “27 Weeks, 3 Days: Drinking El Segundo – Jamming with Hudson – Driving Donatella Far”
Sentri is the best