I’ve been waking up late.
Yesterday, I woke up to the cop and my apartment manager knocking on my door. It was around 2 p.m., and I had been barely awake.
My neighbor died.
RIP Joe.
The cop asked basic questions. If Joe was known for using drugs (he wasn’t). He was just an old man.
An angry old man. He would yell at the barking dog from upstairs. It didn’t make him bark any less.
I liked him. He was an avid reader. He saw my name on my internet bill a couple of weeks after he moved in. He asked me, “Are you the Matthew Suarez?” And I was like, yeah… that’s my name. Why do you ask like that?
He said he read all my work in the San Diego Reader and thought it was a great idea to move to Tijuana and be a writer.
I never went into his apartment. But when his window was open, you could see a shelf with a lot of books. One series of books stood out. I remember googling it, but I don’t remember the name.
I saw the van outside my window that came to pick up the body. I didn’t want to see the body. So I left the building.
I went to buy a rib-eye at the butcher’s for dinner. It was delicious with the leftover mashed potatoes from KFC, and I added spinach.
And life keeps going. Joe is gone. Bisho is gone. I’m still here.
There’s an opening in a 2-bedroom apartment in New York by this time next year with a friend.
I could move to New York if I play my cards well.
I have a lot of work to do.
I have two tours this week. I have a lot of social media posts to do.
The job stresses me out more than I thought it would. And all I can do is wait for my paycheck.
Fucking taxes.
I did my taxes, and I have to pay a good chunk.
April is constantly the worst month. Reading blogs from my past. April is always a bad month.
Taxes, sad stuff, looming birthday, this time I’m forty.
Aprils fucking suck.
Sorry if you are named April or if your birthday is in April or you simply like April… but fuck April.
Let’s get happy.
Let’s talk about beer.
I need to update the 2025 TJ Beer Guide. And instead of an update… it will get a top 10. If you need more in-depth information, please read my Tijuana Tj Beer Guide 2025!
This is my top 10.
Intro.
I’ve been covering Tijuana beer since 2014. 2025 wasn’t a very exciting year; 2026 seems worse. There is a lack of innovation and passion. Everything got expensive, and beer went overboard. Paying $7 or more USD for beer in Tijuana shouldn’t be a thing, yet many bars and breweries seem to get away with it. No reasoning behind it either. No lighter beers or low-cost beers for a lower price. No. All across the board, overpriced beers… and the worst part. They aren’t even that good anymore. They got worse somehow. I went full circle, and now I rather enjoy commercial beer for cheap at a dive bar than overpay for craft beer that is not even trying. Oh. And I’m also into wine now. I’m more interested in that. If you have wines to suggest under $20, please do.
I’m writing this from my #1 place. It’s a simple reason, it’s my favorite. Quality, price, and closeness to my house. This list is my opinion; feel free to comment yours…
The list will be published on TijuanaAdventure.com
I wrote most of the above on a lull I had in April. Then it went full throttle at the end.
The clients who inspired me to write Tijuana Adventure book 2 came back for a tour. And they did it again. We had a crazy adventure that inspired the ending of my second Tijuana book. And the whole concept of it. It’s a lot of work. But I’ll get to it. When I have lulls. The tour started at noon and ended around 4:30 a.m.
I cannot slow down.
I have so much work.
Then I had another group of clients that also went heavy. Tijuana Adventure style. Crazy shit. Except now I’m almost forty. I cannot keep going like this, or it might kill me. This tour started at 2 pm and ended around 3:30 a.m. Proper Tijuana Adventure. Destroyed and I needed a lot of rest.
But also… I have so much work.
I got paid from my new gig. My whole paycheck is going to rent and taxes. At least that’s taken care of. And Tijuana Adventure makes me the extra income. And my influencer status is more extra income or just free shit in general.
Things are going great. Yet I stress.
May is going to be busy.
Turn the page.
Old chapters closing. New life continues.
I’m not sure what I want to do for my birthday. I pictured spending my 40th birthday with my girlfriend. Well, that’s not a thing anymore. So I’m unsure.
People started to hit me up for tours in May. One of them is my birthday weekend. I accepted the tour for the day before… but on my birthday… I want to get out of TJ. I am most likely headed to Ensenada. Get a nice Airbnb or hotel room for myself. Party my night away by myself. Or perhaps Mexicali.
I just know that I don’t want to party in Tijuana. That’s my job. And I don’t want to work on my birthday.
I had a great interview with a new newspaper in Tijuana yesterday. I learned something new. Charlie Parker got married in Tijuana. I love Tijuana’s history. I love and hate this city.
I woke up to edit pictures for work. In the middle of editing, I remember the new information about Charlie Parker and decided to post it on Reddit.
I got some Reddit love. Someone likes my videos, and he posted one of my tours praising my work.
One of the comments falsely accused me of stalking her friends and that my content is trashy. It was the most upvoted comment. And since I’m the mod, I deleted the fuck out of everything and banned her from the sub.
I can agree with one statement. My content can be trashy. I don’t deny it. But I fully deny the stalking accusations. I haven’t stalked anyone since my paparazzo days. Sure, I drunkenly messaged some pretty girls online (especially in my past) and then fully regretted it. But I’ve never made new accounts to stalk or follow someone…
But it doesn’t matter. The fire got started, and it’s hard to put out. Streisand effect. More Reddit posts kept accusing me of being a stalker (and some worse than that). The posts are coming from people who don’t even know me. I’m the victim of hate and fake news. Now I understand defamation. Sorta.
During the interview yesterday, the reporter asked me if I thought I was famous. I said no.
I know way more famous people. But after this incident… I feel it. I’m more famous than I think for my own good. People even read this blog. My personal diary that I’ve made public for over a decade…
It’s fucking weird.
But this is the life I chose. It’s not easy. And it’s tiring. And I have a lot of work.
Modding Reddit is the most ungrateful shit ever, so I plan to retire soon. And let the haters hate. It does bother me, but I shouldn’t let it.
And I know it’s only going to get worse.
After the death of Bisho, this is one of the worst days that 2026 has thrown at me. But there is nothing to do but keep going forward. Without my main Reddit account, which I’ve had for 13 years. Some people were good to me… but Reddit is filled with hate. Good information, but a lot of hate. It does me no good anymore. Every once in a while, someone will say to me, “I know you from Reddit.” And I don’t like that… so.. Good riddance.
Yesterday was rough.
But when I went outside to touch grass… I realized it was just the internet and fake accusations. And Reddit doesn’t matter. GallowBoob disappeared. So can I. The proof that I was a bed person was that I wrote a book with sex. Yep. I did. And that I have an Instagram account in which I occasionally post pictures in my underwear. Yep. I do that. This is not relevant to the accusations…
I wrote a lot of “yesterdays” in this blog.
I originally started writing it in mid-April and was going to publish it as such. An entry blog halfway through April. I started writing my top 10 beer guide, but I still haven’t finished it. It’s halfway done. I just paid my taxes, so my bank account is not lovely, but it’s still fine. It’s been rough days, but I haven’t fallen into a hole or anything. I’m still climbing the mountain. Not near the top, but well enough to see all that I have left behind.
10 years ago, I wrote a blog entry about my previous ten years.
Back then, I posted a celebrity with every blog post. I chose Don Rickles. It’s nice that I can read myself from 10 years ago, and I’m still pretty much the same dude. Better. But the same.
My 30s were interesting. And I wrote through the whole decade, so it’s easy to look back and see what I did.
10 years ago, I went to Minneapolis for a friend’s wedding. This year, I’m also doing the same. After that wedding, I went on a road trip with two of my college friends. We drove from Minnesota to Tijuana, stopping in various cities. It was a great road trip. I thought about getting married in that decade. I had a serious relationship at the beginning and a different one at the end of the decade.
10 years ago, I was writing for the San Diego Reader. My first beer cover was exactly 10 years ago. News stories and cover stories. The Canon 7D was new to me. God fuck I used to abuse the fuck out of the HDR slider…
So much shit happened in my 30s. I published books and dozens of articles. I became the magazine’s main photographer, which resulted in many photo covers and interesting stories. More than a dozen written and photographed covers by me. 120+ photo covers for other writers. The world changed. Social media is fucking strange. It used to seem harmless… A fun tool. The world worlds. And it’s only going to get worse.
My mother died in 2019. My cat died in 2026. The world seems to be dying all the time. The woes of a Millennial. I’m alone. We are always all alone.
After 2019, and the pandemic… I became more of a character. I embraced Matingas. I was in a reality show. I started to appear more often in videos, not just behind the camera. I started living to the fullest. A little too much sometimes.
I’ve been talking about moving out of Tijuana for years. And I’m still here.
I have a mountain of material and writings.
It’s been a crazy fucking decade. I don’t know what the next decade holds.
It’s the weekend. My birthday is next weekend. I’ll publish this blog soon. It needs a picture. And when I’m feeling better, I’ll mount the studio and take a new profile picture for my forties.
Yesterday!
Another yesterday…
The cops stopped me a block away from my apartment around midnight. They asked if I had any “broncas,” aka drugs, on me. I didn’t. I went out with a girl, and it didn’t go that well, and I walked home by myself.
I told him that.
He said to cheer up and he said “estás guapo, le gustaste a mi compañera!” The other cop was a female cop. She wasn’t bad-looking. I laughed it off. But it still feels like I’m just some dude they can grab me whenever they want.
The day before yesterday, I was going to go out with the same girl. We’ve gone out a few times, and she has always been a fun conversation. But she never showed up after telling me we could meet downtown. While waiting for her, I decided to check out a party. I kept waiting for her… until I realized I wasn’t going to see her that night. And I kept telling myself, “one more beer and go home.” I went home close to 3:30 a.m. It wasn’t worth it. The DJs at the party were great, and there was plenty of beer and cool people. But I can’t be out like that anymore.
I wasted my Saturday. And now I’m wasting my Sunday. I need to do laundry. I need to finish the Tijuana top 10. I need to finish this blog post.
I thought about the Reddit situation a lot as well. I told a couple of friends. And I’m done. Reddit doesn’t give me any clients, and it just stresses me out to check it every time. It is one of the most toxic social media platforms out there. And people love to hate the mods. It is not worth my mental health, and I already have too many social media accounts (that pay me) to keep on going on Reddit. So if you knew me from there… now you know why I left.
I’ve held on to this blog without posting for too long. A full month… Long post!
My birthday came and went. It was great. And I took great pictures of the Milky Way. I thought it was going to be Ensenada or Mexicali. It was Jacumba. 10 years ago, I went with Chad, and he wrote an amazing cover story. One of my favorites ever. And it reminded me to get outside because life is good outside. Especially in places with no signal. I told myself I wasn’t going to record or create content. But I couldn’t help it. The place is magical. I still kept it at a minimum. And my phone was more of a tool as a flashlight and occasional video. There was no signal where we were. I need more of that.
More camping under the stars.
It was a good birthday. I’m fucking forty. It was a good fucking decade. Bye Thirties. Bye youth. I’m old now. Closer to natural death than my birth. The ride is coming to an end. Let’s go!
The tour on Saturday was an all-drinking tour. I can’t be doing those anymore. I almost canceled my birthday plans because of the previous night. But I didn’t want to be in Tijuana, and I achieved that. It felt great.
The interview with Calafia Noticias came out, and it’s great, and it’s accompanied by great pictures.
Here’s my favorite one. Pic by Abdiel Ortega.
Make sure to follow Calafia Noticias. Here’s a link to the interview:
After my birthday, Chad came over to Tijuana with his new girl. We hung out for a bit on both Sunday and Monday. Friends make life easier.
I haven’t finished the top 10 beer article just yet. I need to work on that.
I have work to do on social media. Back to the grind. Videos, pictures, and more work for others’ socials. When I opened Facebook 20 years ago… I didn’t think it would become my job. Content creator. Influencer. Fuck I hate that word.
Tijuana Adventure book 2 is coming. I have so much work.
Thanks for reading.
Oh. And I’m not waking up that late anymore. I’ve been waking up early. And besides work, I’ve been working out. And I need more. Let’s go forties!
Don’t forget to follow me on all social media!
NEW TIKTOK cuz I was banned for no fucking reason fuck.
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Matingas 
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