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Stumbleine / Smashing Pumpkins / Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness: Twilight To Starlight

happycap:

Smashing Pumpkins - Stumbleine

1995.

Damn…I turned 29 years old today and a lot of things/memories/conversations took me back to my youth but none more than listening to this song. Thanks?

I’ve been listening to the Deluxe versions of Gish and Siamese Dream on Spotify all week and they’ve been ACE but I tell you what, when Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness gets that treatment, I’m gonna lose it. In my opinion, that trio of albums I just mentioned is really hard to top.

Yesterday was my brother’s birthday. The big man hit 34 years yesterday. He has his own blog on tumblr if you’d like to follow. He’s got a house being built for him and at 34 years of age he’s built himself a nice little family too. No need to look high and low for inspiration, some of my heroes are blood.

Happy Birthday, Brotha!

Estos son mis cuates! Here we are celebrating Jesse’s 30th Birthday (dude all the way to the left). No maaaames. 30? Chingue su madre…

With the exception of Sal (all the way in the right, Jesse’s older brother aka Cholo Ninja), I’ve known the rest of these mugs for about 17 years now. That’s over half of my life, yo! It’s funny cause we always tell people when we’re talking about each other that we’ve known each other “for like 10 years n shiet, foo” but somehow after saying 10 and 10 and 10, it’s now become 17. How quickly time flies. Serio pedo.

I don’t want to take away from the occasion that brought us together here but Fabi (Jesse’s wife) sure knows that it’s super rare for all of us to take some time to ALL hang out so she snapped a quick picture of all of us mientras hablabamos babosadas. There’s always 1 or 2 of us always missing so it was cool that all of us could take some time off of our sleepy schedules to hang out and NOT finish a 24 pack of beer. Ya teniamos sueño and it was cold. We’re getting old, what can we say?

Some of us will soon be married, others will be fathers and the rest who knows what other roles they’ll be filling but one gig that we’ll never quit is being Best Friends. *insert Care Bears and all kinds of silly cute snuggly shit*

Arriba Los Compas de la Fremont!!  (L to R: Jesse, Me, Marco, Deandre, Oscar and Sal)

Lissette’s temporary birthday iPod. Due to custom engraving I couldn’t just pick one up at the store so while it was being shipped from China, I got her this 0GB model to hold her over. She said the headphones are a little too short but it will hold her over until the real one arrives.

*Song on display: “Birthday” by The Beatles

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Out The Blue / John Lennon / Mind Games

John Lennon - Out The Blue

Today is Lissette’s birthday. We spent a nice morning having coffee and sharing pastries before we headed off to work. This song is for her. I wish I could say that her and I are doing 100% amazing right now but who said relationships are meant to be easy? We love each other, of that there is no doubt. That’s always a good start.

Out the blue you came to me
And blew away life’s misery
Out the blue life’s energy
Out the blue you came to me

Everyday I thank the Lord and Lady
For the way that you came to me
Anyway it had to be two minds one destiny

Her artwork is featured in a local artists gallery this week. Pretty neat and excited for her.

So guess what? Mr. All About Family Guy over here (me) forgot my Sister’s birthday this past Friday. Can you believe that? I felt like such a jerk. I still kind of do but my sister was totally cool with it as I knew she’d be cause she’s cool like that.

My sister deserves I write 100+ blog entries about her. She’s a character but she’s loving. Extremely loving.

So I’ll simply say: Happy Birthday, Sari! I Love You. Thank you for being an awesome sister and giving me two amazing nephews. Buen Provecho! wink

She knows me all too well. Slightly cheesy but it’s PERFECT. My girl got me this Godfather card for my birthday. I’m down with anything Godfather especially a card that plays the theme music when you open it (it really does). And to top it off, that’s two tickets to see Mogwai at the Mayan Theater next year. She knows how to make this viejito happy and I’m stoked to be her “own, personal, breathing piece of art.”

Thank you, Nappy Head.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the first ever documented photo of me at 28 years of age.

So far my birthday has been very sweet and by sweet I mean that I’ve been hit up with many nice birthday wishes so far and it’s burrrrrrrrly 10am.

“Oooooooooohh, I feel love, I feel love, I feel love, I feel love, I feeeeeeeel looooove…”

It’s funny calling my dad for his birthday. He lives in Vegas (me in Los Angeles) and I see him once a month maybe. But we call every so often and catch up usually about the same stuff (work, the weather, how everything is getting expensive and family stuff) but he likes knowing that I’m thinking about him and that “no te has olvidado de tu papa.” So we chat it up for a bit and what would normally be a long conversation with their pops, when I hang up and look at the time we’ve talked it clocks in at under 5 minutes (like today it was 3). On his birthdays it’s usually less because unlike our other calls that  end with “Ok, Dad. We’ll talk soon” on December 1st he ends it with “Ok, I’ll call you tomorrow.” Why? Because tomorrow is my birthday. So we don’t really talk it up too much for his birthday. I wish I could be there to physically give him this big ol’ hug but I can’t. I know I’ll be able to soon though so I ain’t trippin’.

Either way, Happy Birthday to my Old Man! To Pops! To Don Elias! To my Father! I sent him a card explaining to him that as a young kid and being compared to him I used to dislike the idea of me looking/turning into him. We’re kids, we want only one of us. But now, as an adult, when people compare me to him I love it. My father is a great man and if I remind them of that, then that fills me with little PEZ tablets of joy. I wrote all that in Spanish in his card so I hope he understands it cause I speak Spanish well but writing it is a whole new ball game.

“Wake up, wake up it’s the first of the moooooonth.”

Before my birthday cruises around on Dec. 2nd, a more important birthday drops on Dec. 1st. My father turns 58 this year. Check out this picture of him as a young ‘cipote.’ I hope I’m at least 1/2 as handsome as he is. Don Elias, yous the man.

She’s pretty stoked for turning 5-FOH! I’m trying to calm her down. Lil’ reality check. 

El pastel de mi madre. It was good. The bolillos in the background are gonna be good in the morning too.