Cereal In A Cup [dot] Blog

2012: New Year, New stuff…

So, twenty eleven ended a few days ago, and as I was doing the traditional recap of the year, I gotta say it wasn’t that bad of a year. It did had a crappy beginning coming from the shit that twenty ten was, but all in all I gotta say it was a pretty good year.

Lots of concerts (In no particular order): Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, Pearl Jam, The Battle of Coachella 2011, The Battle of Lollapalooza 2011, Aerosmith, Cage the Elephant, Florence and the Machine, Noel Gallagher, Foo Fighters (three times!), Morrissey, Paul Simon, Tears for Fears, My Morning Jacket, The Naked and Famous, Two Door Cinema Club, Matt & Kim, Rammstein, Friendly Fires, The Doors, Journey, U2, Poison, Botellita de Jerez… pretty good music this last year, and this new year is off to an awesome start as well with the Weezer Cruise in just a few days and back to back Coachellas in April.

Work wise things also went well, I left the fun of the cosmetic world and went back to the software company that saw me born. After the akward and hipocresy of saying hello to certain people (and truth be told, avoiding some other people as well) I returned and got shipped to sunny California in lovely Carlsbas where awesome times were had with awesome people, awesome music, and awesome bars. Even thou Carlsbad is somewhat of a really small place, it has the “local vibe” I love so much. Sadly things got to an end really quick and I had to depart lovely Cali (it was a sad night at O’Sullivan’s Bar when I had to say goodnight) and moved to Bentonville Arkansas.

The Road to Bentonville was quite a ride, after moving out late on a Saturday evening, I made the 26+ hour drive and got to Bentonville late Monday night. Trip was full of snow, rain, fog, wind, coffee, fog, creepy places, and a horrible HORRIBLE weather all Monday (which I later read it killed 4 or 5 and left a ton of people stranded in several parts that I drove through), but I made it alive and in time to reboot the reboot things around in my life.

So yeah, lots of traveling this last few months of the year, made quite a couple of frequent flyer miles, drove more than I thought I would, sold my car in Mexico, bought a car in the US, moved out of my parents house (hopefully for good this time), then moved again, made a few new friends, lost a few others (not that it makes me lose my sleep at night), saw several of my close friends get married, and did a bunch of other stuff that totally overweights the bad stuff that came through in 2011, so that in my book piles up for a pretty good year.

Hopefully twenty twelve will also be a good year (and I’m counting on that). More concerts, more booze, more fun, and setting up in motion phases 2 and 3 of The Master Plan (yes, that still is going on).

so here’s to a good 2011 now gone, and here’s to a rocking 2012 which will bring the end of the world according to the good ol Mayan friends.

Cheers!

Now Playing – Billy Joel: Vienna
Now Drinking – Double Black

3 and a half months later after moving to sweet sunny California, things took an unexpected turn and I was forced to leave for Bentonville Arkansas.

I must admit I’ll miss Carlsbad, the good weather, the cool vibe of the people, O’Sullivan’s, the music scene being so close, etc.

But anyway, I left Carlsbad early Saturday evening, something like 5 hours after schedule due to unforeseen circumstances (mostly loading the freaking car and clearing out the apartment) and made it to Needles California where I spent the first night. Needles is a horror film like town, right in the middle of nowhere in the border line with Arizona, but it was all right, I was tired as shit so it had to do for the night.

Next day I woke up kinda late, but really rested (little sore thou) and ready to continue. Day 2 I drove into Arizona. Kinda crappy weather but totally doable. Ran into some snow, but nothing bad. I knew ahead there was going to be some snow but made it all right into Albuquerque where I tried to stay at the world’s famous Albuquerque Holiday Inn (where the towels are oh so fluffy!) but I made the choice of another place, a really shithole hotel which up to today still regret staying there. The weather was starting to get really cold but whatcha gonna do about it.

Day 3 was the toughest. Woke up around 4 or 5am (don’t know what time zone) and was surprised to see the car all covered in snow. Finally packed everything back into the car, loaded myself with coffee and left. Worst driving conditions ever. Long story short I went all the way with a huge cold front that was following me all fucking day. Heavy rain, fog, snow, ice, more rain…horrible.

After driving into a scary forest right out of Tulsa I finally made it to Arkansas and into the hotel around 10:30pm or something. Sore as hell, tired but ready to start over.

Never been a fan of the whole “things happen for a reason” thing, but I had to take it like that, had no other choice. And so far things don’t look that bad. I mean I’m on my own, the town is not THAT bad, the job looks challenging as hell, the weather has been pretty cold, so it should be fine, it should all be fine.