Thanksgiving came early....again.

It was just another weekend for me. Mostly with friends and some excellent pro-football.

Saturday was just mostly spent at the DLT's for my friend Marlene's daughter, Yvonne, for her baby shower that was taking place. I went there for two purposes: to take photos of the event and to show support as well. As I was heading my way over there, I needed to stop someplace to eat since I didn't consume anything after waking up late as usual. I could've gone to my church for their weekly potluck, but instead, I went to this pizza parlor just up a block on Glenoaks and Roxford. The Subway there was my original choice, but since I've passed by that place a hundred thousand times for the past nine years, I decided to try out their pizza for the first time.

It was very decent. I like it, probably the best 5 bucks I spent for two slices. It was run by this Hispanic lady in her late 20's and another girl, who I assume might be her sister or cousin in high school, that's probably doing a weekend gig for some cash. Place was small with a 4 arcade machines and a regular size flat screen TV hovering on the ceiling. They were showing a bullshit episode of True Life profiling this teenage girl who has to deal with their embarrassing mom's that has very large fake breasts and some crying shit. I didn't want to watch that while I was eating in risking regurgitation, so I made the owner of the restaurant change it to the Stanford/Oregon Pac-12 college football game. This Andrew Luck kid is gonna be the talk on the sports world for the next couple of months. I won't be surprised if he gets drafted by Indianapolis next year, if he decides to not play his senior year with Stanford. After consuming those two slices and a cup of water, I then dipped out to the DLT's. Shoutout to Bella's Pizza for the quick, delicious lunch.

The baby shower for Yvonne was pretty much handled like another regular kickback at her place like before. Only difference was that it was mostly women that was in attendance, and obviously, I didn't have a problem with that. I brought a black tarp as a background for a "prom night portrait" style photoshoot that I did for everyone there, the first time I ever did that for any event I did. The stock photos actually came out well, but I might tweak them up a bit. I didn't have any strobes or studio lighting to use, just some of the light that's occupied in the house and the built in flash on the camera. My uncle is getting his SB-600 flashgun repaired. Aside from that, everything else was absolutely chill. Spent the night there and watched a bit of football as soon as I woke up from a two hour sleep, cause I drank some Pepsi the night before that kept me awake the whole night.

I didn't go to test drive some Cadillacs at The Grove on like I said in the last post, but whatever, I drove several of them in Glendale last month. They also had the annual Glamourcon event at the Long Beach Convention Center, which is a meet and greet of former Playboy bunnies from the 1970's, 80's and 90's. I could've gone, but I rather take photos of those models from the way the looked 20 or 30 years ago. Sunday was just mostly spent at the DLT's just checking out the Niners/Redskins game, which ended up with San Francisco becoming 7-1 since Steve Young was the starting Quarterback there in that ball club in the 90's. The rest of the early games were blowouts. I thought FOX was gonna air the Packers/Chargers game in the afternoon, but they showed the Giants/Patriots game that had the shittiest scoreless first half I've ever seen. I left when halftime started (thanks to Katie Galvez for the lift back to my place).

When I got back home, I wanted to rest to make up for the loss of hours that I didn't sleep, but one of my housemates was going off with his karaoke system in the living room, and to be honest, I FUCKING DON'T LIKE BEING IN KARAOKE SCENES. I can't sing for shit, and I'm glad I've never tried it in my life, ever. To avoid hearing him from my room singing every catalog more than twice for the remainder of the time (no joke, EVERY SONG MORE THAN TWICE) I shook over to my friend Frank's house just not too far from where I live. got a chance to see the final seconds of the Giants/Patriots game and damn, that shit felt ALOT like their duel in Super Bowl XLII. Brady losing at home for the first time is like him breaking his team perfect season record in the 2007 season. That feeling was just... damn, with a different New York Giants team. Hopefully, Eli Manning earned a lot of confidence from that game. I also got a chance to see the end of the Packers/Chargers game thanks to Frank's DirecTV Game Mix feature, where its every game in one screen. Resulted with Green Bay still proving why they're the World Champions by defeating San Diego in a crazy 45-38 win. The Sunday Night game between Pittsburgh and Baltimore was brilliant. A lot of defense was displayed and it was worth watching. I still think that Ray Lewis has several years left in the league, but it was a great game nonetheless with the Ravens embarrassing the Steelers fans at their stadium.

That was my weekend. Its pretty much the usual that I do every week, friends and football. Thanks as always to the De La Torre's and the Galvez's for inviting me to Yvonne's baby shower and shoutout to the young female cashier at the Burger King in San Fernando for complementing my red St. John's Bay shirt on Sunday Night. The rest of this week was emotional news so far for some African American notable figures in the news. Dr. Conrad Murrary is finally going to jail, boxing legend Joe Frazier died from liver cancer last night and now this afternoon, hip hop legend Heavy D passed away. I wasn't alive to see Joe Frazier duke it out in the ring, but I was jumping from different nursery schools in North Hollywood every six months with my little sister in the 90's when Heavy D was getting exposure then. I remember glancing on some of his videos back when BET did a top 20 video countdown every Saturday afternoon with a different guest host paying their favorite music videos back in 2005, and a few of them chose Heavy D and the Boyz. I also remember seeing him making special guest appearances in a few repeat episodes of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and A Different World.

Damn, his passing got me by surprise. I was coming back from taking photos of Shakira's Walk of Fame ceremony at Hollywood and Vine today (she is VERY fine and I've fucked with her music since Laundry Service back in 8th grade), and found out about Heav's death as soon as got on the internet. I actually could've spent this last paragraph blabbering about witnessing Shakira in person for the first time and how it was the CRAZIEST Walk Of Fame that I've ever been to in 5 years, but two deaths withing 24 hours is just as bizarre as the passings I've seen vanished back in 2009. Just be blessed and thankful for your life, and give back to those who helped you got to where you're at right now. Enjoy the rest of the week.

Week-ending zone Celebration

It's been a while since I had a perfect weekend. This last one defines it. Including Sunday.

So on Saturday I went to my church in Sylmar during the potluck. I got there late cause they were showing a marathon of Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami on E!. After that I was near close to singing with the other youth but I got out of it since I arrived in my USC T-shirt, my Nike basketball short and my sneakers. I then went to my friend house with another person from church to witness them play NBA 2K9, which was entertaining. During that time, I kept getting text messages and phone calls from a friend of mine from Pierce College. She spent the week up here in the Valley and that Saturday was her last day because she had to go back to Downey the next day, and she wanted to do something with me before she leaves. I did an EXCELLENT photoshoot of her that week. Probably one of the best photoshoots I ever did. Afterward the video games, we then watch USC embarrasing the Cal Golden Bears at their home field in Berkley. Matt Barkley is now 4-0 in starts.

Later that night, I picked up my friend from Pierce and we chilled at my place for a bit. She told me that there are two parties happening tonight, one at her producers house (she's a singer) and the other one at her friends house in Northridge. Our original plan was to go to her producer's party first, mingle a bit, then head out to the party in Northridge. But unforutnatley, that plan has been suspended because my friend said that she got a text message saying that the party in Northridge has been raided by the cops, therefore, we're stuck at the producer's party.

As we got there, there were two adults that opened the door for us. Right there, I thought that this party was gonna be PG-13 rated. Instead it turned out to be a kickback with a bunch of twentysomethings who look like they came from the Sunset Strip. I talked to some of the people there, including this girl whose learning photography from her ex. I showed her some of my skills with her camera and it got her attention within a snap of the shutter. I also talked to this guy who's a single dad with two kids, late 30's and an occasional drinker. He offered me a drink and I told him that I live a straight-edge life which means that I don't drink. The dude start praising me saying that he would look up to me and shit like that, but he was cool
though. The music that they played at the party was mostly some random hip-hop and R&B and of course some Michael Jackson. My friend make me break loose of the dance floor. Even though I never dance, I kinda got the hang of it. At first you start of weak, then the energy kicked in. I wish they played some 80's latin Freestyle like they do at the parties in Sylmar. We left at around 2AM and I dropped her off at one her friends place. THANKS FOR SPENDING A WEEK HERE JOANA!!!

Sunday was suprising beyond excellent. Spent the day with my friend from church to do some thing I've never done before....WITNESS NFL SUNDAY TICKET! We hopped back and forth through every game that was on that day, including the New York Jets at New Orleans Saints. Too bad nobody in Los Angeles got to watch that game in teresstrial over the air broadcasting, unless they got NFL Sunday ticket. That game was one of the best games on that day. Mark Shanchez getting embarrased by the Saints in front of a rejuvenated New Orleans crowd, in which the Saints won 24-10. If you watched that game, you can see the joy at the Superdome through out the game, with cheers going left and right. The atmosphere felt like a Conference Championship game, even though it was regular season game. I also ate Sam Club's pizza and orange soda which is a great combonation on a Sunday afternoon (Thanks Frank).

I hope every weekend would be like this where you wake up on Monday morning from all the fun you had from the past 48 hours. To a point where you say to yourself "This calls for a Celebration". You can celebrate on your own endzone, which is in the beginning of the week and the end of the week