Day 5 - Happy New Year

My original plans were to try and to celebrate New Years with some friends in Pacific Beach, but with everything that's going on with the family, I thought that it would be important to bring in the New Years with my loved ones.  I am blessed with a very loving family.

There is a lot to be thankful for and I'm looking forward to what 2011 will bring.  Some things that I'm really looking forward to:

• China trip with Dr. Gertmenian (my econ. professor at Pepperdine)
• Ashley's Wedding
• Comic Con 2011
• Possible trip to Poland
• Learning Polish
• As challenging as it may be, attending Pepperdine University
• And whatever surprises that come along

 And of course, my resolutions:

• Regularly hit the gym
• Learn to cook
• Stay on top of my studies and homework
• Become more of a mentor and leader at work

Happy New Year everyone!  Be safe and have a great time tonight!

Day 4 - Frank's Birthday and Good Friends

Sorry for the late post, but I just got home from a night out with some friends to celebrate my friend's, Frank, birthday!

Sometimes it's so easy to take your friends for granted: you get a text or phone call from a friend asking you to come out and play, but you make up some excuse because you just want to stay home.  I'll be honest, I've done it before and I'm sure all of you have done it as well.  I love my friends.  They're the people you can just be yourself, laugh and have a good time.

Tonight, we, along with Frank's family, friends, and coworkers, went to West Coast Tavern in San Diego to have dinner and some drinks.  I ordered the salmon and it was delicious AND FREE!!  A benefit for being patient and polite with the waitress that forgot to put my order on the ticket.  Afterwards, we went to Bourbon Street for more drinks and a little dancing.

West Coast Tavern

some friends and new ones

Frank and Stephen - two great guys that make me laugh

I'm really glad I got to spend time with all of 'em before the New Years.  I'm definitely blessed with great friends who know how to make me laugh and let me be... me.  Those are the friends that, I think, everyone should have.  Too many people these days will have friends just because they fit some kind of label, they're good looking, they're popular, or, worse yet, they (eventually) want to "get it on."  Good friends, and I mean the really good ones that will always be there and don't care who you are and what color your hair might be (etc), are rare commodities and go well beyond "skin deep."

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." ~ Dr. Seuss

Day 3 - Pho-tastic

For the past 2 weeks I've had some kind of sickness going on: coughing and a sore throat.  I'm not sure if it's the weather or allergies, but today I've developed a runny nose.

Thankfully, there is a Pho restaurant (Pho T Cali) near by; which by the way, I highly recommend for your Pho cravings!  I'm not sure what it is about Pho, but I always feel a little bit better after having a hot bowl of Pho Tai (rare steak).

For the 2nd day in a row I'm thankful for food, but, more importantly, I'm thankful for a roof over my head during this cold and rainy day in San Diego.

In family news, my grandpa is doing a lot better.  The doctors put a stint in his kidney to help relieve the inflammation caused by his infection.  Hopefully, he'll be out by News Years eve and spend some time with his loved ones.

Day 2 - Adobo my chicken, thanks!

People that know me know that I'm not the greatest cook in the world.  God blessed my brother with that talent.  I can find my way around a kitchen well enough for myself.  I've made spaghetti, grilled cheese sandwiches, steaks, mashed potatoes, and, of course, rice.  If you're Filipino, you probably eat rice with almost every meal.  I'm not terrible, but let's just say there have been more than a couple times when I've screwed up top ramen.

Tonight, I decided to step out of my comfort zone a little and make Chicken Adobo.

Not only am I thankful for the deliciousness of chicken adobo, but also thankful that my mom was available to laugh at me and attempt to step me through the process.

To be best of my recollection:

1. Olive oil and cook up about 4 cloves of garlic
2. I decided to throw in some onion
3. Brown some chicken in the pan for a little bit
4. Throw in 1/4 cup of soy sause and a cup of water and let it boil
5. Once things are cooked, remove everything and fry the chicken (I like it crispy)
6. Put back the soy sauce/water/onion/garlic sauce
7. Simmer and serve

Best directions ever, right?!

I also made corn and rice (refer to my aforementioned statement).  And here are the results..

Grade: C .  It's not my brothers or my mothers, but it was good enough for me.  Kind of on the salty side and the chicken was weird and soft.  I'm so used to my mom's chicken being more crispy.  I think I need to fry up the chicken more in the future...

Day 1 - Happiness is a choice...

Why hello there again, blogger...

With the year 2010 coming to an end, it's a good time to reflect on everything that has happened.  2010 has definitely been a year of challenges, upsets, heart-ache, and plain ol' crap.  But it's also been a year of success, achievement, blessings, and a lot of positive events.  And that's what I want to start focusing on...  The positive stuff (quite the vocabulary, right?).  I'm generally a pretty lucky guy to be where I'm at for my age, and it's time I really start counting my blessings and maybe be just a little bit more (or a lot more) appreciative of everything that God has blessed me with.  Hopefully, I'll be able to spread the positive vibes and affect the people around me.  I like to see people happy, and it makes me feel even happier when I can affect someone in a positive way to maybe put a smile on their face.

So, today is the first of, hopefully, 365 blogs counting a positive experience or aspect of my life that occurred for each of the next 365 days...  That is quite the commitment considering I'm not an avid blogger.

Let's begin...

Today, I went to visit my grandfather in the hospital along with my mom, sister, cousin Alan, and aunt Tess.  My grandfather has had some health issues and became quite ill just before Christmas eve.  Without going into all the details, my family was pretty shaken up and Christmas day had a awkward and eerie feeling.  I could tell that everyone's thoughts were of my grandfather in the hospital.

I'm glad to report that my grandfather is doing a lot better and looking a lot more like himself.  I've been sick myself, so it took a few days before I could see him (even if it was at a distance).

My grandmother came up to me before she left and put her hand on my cheek and said, "I'm so glad that you could come and see your grandpa.  I love you, Carlos."  That meant so much to me.  Even if I didn't really realize it then... Really thinking about it helps me appreciate how much I really love my grandpa, grandma, and the rest of my family. 

Me and Grandpa at my cousin's wedding

Roots: My Esperanza Video

So a couple of nights ago, I got a big rush of creativity and ended up making a BADASS video of my two years with the Esperanza drum and bugle corps. I've dedicated it to all the friends I have made there, and I know i'll be friends with some of them for the rest of my life.

I first sent the video to my friends Randee and Aaron... and from there the video started to get passed around and stuff. It's actually making people cry!!!!! HAHAHA

I didn't know my video, that just came out of a spurt of my imagination, would cause so much craziness hahaha

anyway if you wanna see it.. just hit me up on AIM: itsmecarl123

just a warning.. it's like 32MB big


or you can download it right here! It might take awhile though... Freewebds doesn't exactly have the best servers around.

Roots: My years with Esperanza Drum and Bugle Corps

Bleeding Blue

So I'm back from Blue Devil auditions and it's good to be back in my own comfortable bed. The drive was friggin long, but the trip was totally worth it all. After all my hard work starting way back in August it paid off in the end.

To make things short: I'm a Blue Devil now!! WOO HOO

It's time to get my passport because I'm going to friggin Europe!!!!!

Auditions began on Saturday @ 10am. We were taken into an auditorium where Wayne Downey, John Meehan, and Pete Emmons spoke to us about the audition process and how it was going to work. We started off doing some basic things like: stretching, marking time, and posture. Then we ran for like 8 minutes and starting some marching. We did foward marching, backwards, and some slides. During the marching audition, people were called out to head over to the warm-up room so that they can prepare themselves to play their auditin piece in front of Wayne Downey and John Meehan. There were some people there that didn't know how to march very well, so it sort of made it easier for me and calmed me down. I also had a lot of friends with me, so that helped a lot too. By the time it was my turn, marching auditions were over and I was waiting around for 3 hours. I was pacing, and using the bathroom all the time. I was so nervous.

The drum major Jonathan Holmes finally called my name and I went over to warm up. When I got intot he room John Meehan and Wayne Downey were pretty nice about everything. You were able to take your time and so not to make you all nervous. I didn't play my piece as well as I would like to, but I guess it was good enouguh hahaha!

Anyway, at the end of auditions John Meehan seperated everyone into two groups: the people that were call-backs and/or accepted, and the people that got cut. I was really sad when Randee, Hunter, and Adrian's names were called for the call-backs. To be honest, I thought it was going to be the other way around. =P

On Sunday, I returned to auditions where they continued the audition process. They wanted to narrow down the field even more by observing the call-backs and the acceptants. The only thing was, you didn't know which one of those you were. I didn't want to take any chances, so I maxed out everything. They did some crazy marching stuff by slowing bumping up the tempo to 190. It's not THAT fast, but when you've been marching 170, 175, 180 bmps for half an hour all day long... your shins start to burn like crazy!! Haha!

Finally, Wayne Downey spoke to us about some technical things like when camps are and who needs to attend... Then the moment we were all waiting for... He called out the people that were accepted and were, from that point, Blue Devils. He only called out 5-6 people... and YAY!!! I was one of 'em!!!!

5..6 people out of 60th people... I'm really glad I made it.


Thanks to all my friends that supported me the whole way. Good luck goes to my Randee Krymer in whatever you choose to do (I <3>Shane Tampone - we're going to friggin europe!!
Kyle Gregory - you're the best man. I hope you come to check out our shows because you're definitely one of my best friends that I want around!!
Derek Stadler - your words of encouragement just show how great of a friend you are
James Szweda - Yeah... I know you already knew I would make it.. thanks for believing in me

What a drive!!!

10 more days till Blue Devil Auditions!!!!

and check out my 8 hour commute!!