[I'm] Going Back To Cali (Part 2/2)

The last post, "[I'm] Going Back To Cali (Part 1)," was attempted to be, but was not, finished by this past New Year. Fail on my part. No (valid) excuses. Please forgive me. Alright let's get on with it.

Picking up (more-or-less) where I left off:

This Bruce Clay guy. He turned out to be a freakin trip. Yin, Joe, and I sat in this guy's class for about 7.5 hours a day for 5 days. There were about 25 of us in the class. Almost everyone else was sent by their company to "learn SEO" so that the company wouldn't have to pay for a 3rd party service. This was EXACTLY what Bruce anticipated and wanted.

Jen made for a very suitable, if not desirable, secretary and personal assistant. She also claimed she learned new things. That's all fine and dandy. What I really cared about was that she took excellent notes. Her notes are still helping me today! In addition, Yin has become pretty damn proficient with using ole Bruce's trademarked SEO ToolSet!

Just about each one of these five mornings was PRETTY. FREAKIN. ROUGH. and consisted of 4-5 cups of coffee, multi-grain bars, water, sprite, fruit, and a cup of tea. The combination of an acknowledged hangover and anxious reality that you're about to have a whole lot of very valuable information crammed into your head worked as a perfect mix for a very valuable and memorable experience each day of this adventure.

I will never forget some of the people I met in this course. I remember these two people, in particular. I'm having a hard time remembering their names, but we all met in the lobby during the free, unlimited wine and cheese hours the second night after Bruce had finished preaching for the day.

It was Joe, Yin, these two bros (one who turned out to be very knowledgeable of and familiar with the porn industry in a neighboring valley), and myself. Joe ended up driving us all to dinner and I can't repeat some of the conversations that transpired during the car ride(s there and back). We went to a cool restaurant on top of a hill within the valley. It had a great view. The dinner was too much fun. Wow. People are interesting at first. How would you describe they are at second? I can't yet think of a term for it...

Simi Valley wasn't the most exciting place to hang out at night nor during the day. That's why on the third day we took a trip to Santa Monica and Venice Beach... We drove through the mountains from Simi Valley down to the coast. The drastic and changing scenery was exciting and attractive. Santa Monica was gorgeous and flavorful. I'd never seen such a set up as those houses lined along the Pacific OVER  the water and ON the highway. It was not only stunning, but also beautiful. Whoever these architects were did a swell ass job.

Then there were the beaches... These beaches... They were UNREAL. First we saw the freakin pier and what-not near Santa Monica. (That was after we walked the [what seemed to be entire] distance down the beach to get to the pier.) West Coast beaches absolutely lived up to their reputations.
After that we drove up to that Venice Beach area and (I at least) had a hell of an experience. The people there were like nothing else, literally. I did not understand how they survived on a weekly basis! It was incredible to see these sorts of people just "living" there like that's about all there was to live for. It was straight up creepy to be honest with you. A few times I remember asking Joe what the deal was with the whole scene. He said it'd been that way for 30 years. I had no more words, but fully enjoyed the experience, no doubt.

[I'm] Going Back To Cali (Part 1/2)

Good Lord. Please forgive Will Voegeli. I don't know how I let him get so backed up on sharing these fantastic experiences with his friends and self.

Despite the delay, this should be a fun post to read. You got that Will?? Yeah. I got it and apologize. I'm looking forward to this.

So I last left off with wrapping up my visit to Block Island and leaving y'all with a riveting, edge of your seat conclusion that lead into my (secretly) wild trip to California.

Venice Beach

It was a spur of the moment trip. Joe told me one morning that we should find the best SEO certification course and get certified in this shit. I believe it was later that afternoon that we found good ole Bruce Clay teaching out in a suburb of LA, California. It was originally just supposed to be Joe and I, but towards the end of the ticket booking he called and told me, "Hey Will. Tell Jen she's coming, too. Get her to send me her info. I'm booking tickets now, so tell her to send me her stuff ASAP."

I hang up the phone and head into Jen's office to let her know that she's coming to California with Joe and I. Mind you, Jen had only been with KooKoo Bear for a few weeks. What's more interesting: she'd only been working upstairs in the "web department" for about 1 week, didn't know what sort of work she was getting into, and didn't know Joe or I at all...

Good Ole Los Angeles Car Jacking

Typical Jen (Yinny) was focused (a little too much) on something on her computer screen when I walked in to break the news. (Not to my surprise now-a-days) She was startled by my entry. I told her she needed to e-mail Joe all of her personal information. She asked why. I responded, "Because we're going to California and apparently you're coming with us. You ready to learn a few new tricks? Okay. Stop looking at me like that." Jen asked when we were leaving. "Sunday," I said. "This Sunday?" she replied. "................." I said. (I think the time between me telling her she was coming on a trip and the time we were flying out was about 3 days...)

We all finally rendezvous at the airport. (Of course I am the last person to arrive at the terminal.) Jen, okay from here on out I have to refer to Jen as "Yin or Yinny," looked a little nervous, but cool and level headed. I was pretty excited, myself. Joe managed to get all three of us seats next to each other, so that was pretty fun. Jen got the middle seat at first, but I forced her to switch so I could box her into the window seat and have a perfect blend between bro-talk on my left (with Joe) and chick flirting on my right (with Jen). Joe and Jen watched on my laptop as I talked the support chick with the Delta Go-Go In Flight into free Wi-Fi for the entire flight. B055 /\/\0\/3.

Beautiful Los Angeles

Jen was starting to turn out to be a pretty cool chick. Disclaimer: At first, in the office, I'd thought that she was a kind of weird, strange, A-type, dork. (That was way before I knew how smart and A-type and strange and dorky and weird she really was...)

We landed in LA and it was hot. It felt EXCELLENT. Being on foot in the city was bright, hazy, thick, and hot. It was exactly how I'd imagined and seen it in the video games and movies. I loved it!

Joe got a cool rental car (that turned out to host some freaking fun rides) and the 3 of us rolled out towards Simi Valley. [Okay. This is another "aside" or whatever you want to call it, but this was Jen's first experience riding in a car with Joe (and in LA), so she had zero expectations...] Joe performed his normal wild, fun ATL driving, but on the highways of LA without a scratch. Joe's driving seems like luck, but don't disagree, it is purely finesse.

The hotel is reached. We are all tired, but know what we are in for. I guess it makes perfect sense that there's a restaurant/bar called "Elephant Bar" practically connected to the hotel... (To be kindled at a later time.)

My room looked SO BALLER. Like... This baby literally looked like I walked back into an 80s hotel room that likely had a Scarface movie scene shot in it. Jen's room happened to be right next to mine. Joe's room happened to be like 30 rooms down the hall and to the left... IDK. WHATEV.

We're scheduled attend this class starting at 9:00 AM every morning most of the time we were there. Noting in my brain that I had to be good to learn a whole lot of new stuff in the morning and that my alarm was going off at 8:00 AM... I called Jen and told her to, "Meet me outside of my room in 3 minutes." I told her, "we're walking next door to a gas station to grab a case of beer and coming back to have a good night." She arrived promptly and on time. The walk was completed. The beer was had. The night was fun. I discovered that Yinny is too good to be true.

This post is to be continued and finished by the New Year.

It's Been A While

I was watching Deep Impact when I started writing this blog about a month ago. I knew the title and remember watching it, but couldn't remember when I saw it or what it was about. My first thought was a porn film, but I can see now that's incorrect. It's about a "comet" that's scheduled to end it all.

Now I'm watching Wall Street.

I'm way, way behind on all of this blog stuff. Wow. There is so much I want to talk about. A lot has happened...

We have: visiting Brian Bobb in Washington D.C., checking out Block Island with Alex Hnizdor, hitting up Los Angeles California with Joe and Jen, revisiting Columbia SC for the USC/UGA game, raging in Seaside FL for the first with Megladon for one of her friend's weddings, and all sorts of new, strange experiences around ATL.

The new, seemingly sudden, arrival of Fall 2012 has brought a bitter-sweet feeling. The weather feels amazing, but I'm a little sad Summer 2012 has come to a close. This summer was absolutely great. I couldn't have asked for anything better.

It feels unreal that I'm actually going to see Rob Zombie in concert for the first time ever (at 26 years old). Brian Bobb bought us box floor seats to Zombie's upcoming performance in Atlanta. He's teamed up with Manson (who I saw on my 21st birthday along with Slayer). I had a ticket to see Zombie my freshman year in college and was packed and ready to head to New Orleans on Amtrak in the morning, but damn Katrina had to wreck the place that night and the House of Blues was gone by morning...

Work is very busy, like everyone always says, but it's going great and it's been a lot of fun, as usual. Jen and Lacey are absolute gems. Nobody could ask for better coworkers. Energetic, smart, funny, witty, good looking; What more could one ask for? Thank y'all.

This movie is in its closing, which means the same for me. Good night and good times tomorrow.