Dave's Thoughts of the Day: July 29th

Happy Monday everyone.

Oh do I have a story for you!  When I last left you on the blog, I was drumming up a trip to a Kenny Chesney country concert.   Bad news folks...  it didn't happen.  The entire trip was contingent on ticket availability from my lady friend's company and they didn't deliver.  Not only did they not deliver but the whole thing came undone.   So apparently, the lady friend in question wanted to just go buy tickets, which was fine, and I even offered to buy a tick to go w/ her but long story short, by the time we got into any of that there were barely ANY seats left so she convinced me to just not worry about it and try a different concert.  So, fairly enough, I obliged and let her go it alone, or with some other people from her company or some jazz I have no idea.  The point is, it didn't work out.

In the beginning, I was mad.  I was stewing for a few minutes wondering what happened there.  Invited and suddenly it was me who was home.   Ultimately I was not mad for long.  I knew it was going to be tough to get into a Country concert, and it was an act I only had lukewarm interest in anyway.   At the end of the day, it was all right.

Now I had to figure out what to *do*  Saturday night.  You plan it all out, even think of possible belt buckles and cowboy boots and it all goes to pot.   I was a little lost.  I was going to try for the Dodger game that night, but no!  The Dodgers were on an unbelievable string of consecutive sellouts, something like five straight sellout games including Saturday night.  I couldn't even find a seat on stubhub or the other ticket brokers.  I stopped at a Goodwill store in the bleak hopes of finding a Technics used turntable, no dice, and then tried for the ticket brokers, no dice there either.  So I said "well!  I may not have a country concert, but I bet SOMEONE huge is playing right here in LA."  All they had that night was Bruno Mars, oiiiiiii...

I was NOT going to pay dollars to watch that hack in concert.  I mean can you imagine a bigger Michael Jackson ripoff than him?  No way.. let the teeny boppers go after him.  So, basically I was hosed.   No Dodgers, no concert, and in the middle of Los Angeles.   Fortunately it was still about 4pm.  

To ease the pain I checked out a pretty neat Vintage Audio shop in Echo Park, near where Dodger Stadium is, then I went up the street to a place called "Burrito King" on the corner of Alvarado and Sunset.  I got the California Burrito with the little thimble of red sauce.  It was FANTASTIC.  Then all these hipsters were going over to the ordering window to get the same thing.  Good thing I had the tight black jeans on right?  When in Rome or some jazz?  I sat at the barstool along the counter, watching cars go back and forth, more hipsters meeting friends, chilling, getting burritos among the other bohemians.  Echo Park was very, very cool. 

Let me tell you, this California Burrito was almost as good as the ones in San Diego.  Big fan.  It made me feel much better.

So, it was back home to Santa Monica to regroup.  I got back in time for the Dodgers game on TV.   Coach wasn't around this weekend, he had a family vacay so it was just me and the TV for a while.  I looked up some places to go out for singles and a couple articles mentioned the "Bungalow Bar" by the beach over in Santa Monica.  That bar's right by me!  I walked by it a couple times, in fact.  It seemed festive.

It was going to be weird to go to a bar by myself with no wingman, and I even texted a couple buddies but no one was available, so I went for it alone.  Walked several blocks to Wilshire and continued toward the Bungalow Bar.   This is when the whole thing got interesting.  Some cutie stopped me on the way over and asked me if she could park the car on the curb.  She was confused by this sign on the parking meter that said "Taxi Zone" with some other jargon.  I looked at the sign and I was confused too.  So she asked some valet guys at another bar across the street and they said the spot can't be used but the spot behind it was fine.  So she's getting back to her car and I asked her "Where ya headed?"  She goes "Oh, Bungalow Bar."

And it was like BANNNNNNNNGGG!!!!!!  Several Jackie Chan/Mindblown images in my head.  Blew me *away*.  So I yelled "Meeee too!"

I waited for her to park the car, but I *didn't* want her to think I was following her so before she got out I kept walking.   My logic was, if I just got to a red light she'd catch up with me anyway.  Bazinga, she did so I did some small talk.  She was pretty nice about everything but it was clear from her body language she had no interest in me... she was there to meet some other friends and she drove all the way from Newport Beach an hour away.  We had like zero chemistry in conversation but she was affable enough to help me get to the line at Bungalow Bar.  I thanked her for her help and let her go... her friends had a spot saved for her.  Now if she was *really* interested in the cow, she'd convince her friends to let me join all of them.  No dice, so to the back of the line instead.

What a line it was.  For goodness sake, this was not the Bungalow Bar, it was the Bungalow *Line.*  I waited in that stinkin' line for an hour and 35 minutes.  It was so long we started to have conversations with other people in the line including one other joker who drove down from Sherman Oaks, apparently on his own.  Then both of us talked to a group of girls behind us who were pretty much out of our league (well not COMPLETELY IMHO but more or less from the way they seemed to gravitate toward each other).

After this mind numbingly long wait, which I stupidly rode out.  Any sane human being would have bailed a half hour in, but anyway... after all that we were in the bar.  Now the bar was *all right* but it was NOT worth 95 minutes... the place was some noice back yard decor a little bungalow, and a ping pong table.    Festive crowd though.

There was a lot of produce here at this market... I went for a drink: a 7 and 7... big fan here.  Seagram's 7 and 7-Up (sometimes sprite).  A couple other highlights from the evening.

-- I was over at a heat lamp scouring the scene and some lady in a flowery dress (different lady not flower pot) she comes over for a second.  She says to me "I'm cold blooded, I like going over to the heat.  This is good stuff!"  and I went "This is good stuff indeed!"  Then she disappeared.  --I want to marry her.
-- Really WEIRD playlist that night... even more random than Jack FM... mostly 90s hits mixed in with some CD of oldies or something.   Nothing was off limits... 50's Bubble Gum Rock, 60's, 70's, it was weird.  Anyway, I was deep into the 7 and 7 and Glenn Miller's "In the Mood" (don't ask) starts playing, so I start to shuffle, then I'm doing the dance, and in this group in front of me, one of the ladies sees me and starts doing the dance with me for a few seconds.  Hahahahahaha, that was a riot!  but then her group kinda swallowed her up or something.

So, all in all, a few binks, but no real action.  No numbers, no real conversations... it's tough when you go one on five..  a lot of the babes here were in big groups and in many cases, big groups that had a dude in it.  I like this place though, it's just terribly overrated in the sense that it's not worth waiting over an hour for.  Like Pink's Hot Dogs!

All right, quickie time.

I HAVE A NEW PHONE!!  Yesterday I went to Best Buy and purchased the Samsung Galaxy S4 phone.  Hallelujah!  It's fast!  It's current!  I can use the "!" and "?" keys which failed on Saturday on the DROID X2.  I was done with the DROID.  Thankfully, Best Buy offered a 50 dollar gift card trade in value for the DROID.  Really really nice of them to do.   I actually applied it toward the purchase of the new phone.

The phone is a world of difference -- faster, better graphics, more memory, GOOD battery (at last) and I only have used the most basic features so far.  The hand swiping and retina features may be tried out pretty soon.  I like how light the phone is as well.  It's wider, but it's thinner and maybe easier to handle with the rounded edges.  This is my first attempt at purchasing a top of the line phone -- it's a dream so far, one day in.

People at grocery stores are more helpful than anywhere else in the  neighborhood.  You ever notice that?   The kindest, most helpful, resourceful, people in any business happen to be in the business of groceries.   On Friday I was looking for some Cactus Cooler and Hebrew National Hot dogs, and the guy there helped me with both.  The Cactus Cooler was not on display so he went to the back and got a case for me.  Do the dance!  

On Saturday, I had pondered some possible alcoholic cocktails that could incorporate Cactus Cooler.  Nothing's coming to mind, other than maybe a Seagram's 7 or some Vodka and Cactus Cooler.  What would it be named?  I thought -- "The Cactus Twist." 

On Sunday night, I posted a real doozy on the board... I wrote something about Bud Selig doing what it takes to help the Yankees and Red Sox but not the Dodgers.. in retrospect, I was going back to material way in the past that had nothing to do with today.   I didn't think that one through.

In all honesty, I'm rather shy.  It probably doesn't come through on the podcast or anything, but I find it difficult to put myself out there and trust other people.  Maybe a fear of rejection or something.  No idea.

I'm better than I used to be, though!  The other night, going to that Bungalow Bar, wasn't the storybook ending but it had plenty of juice.  One could have worse nights in Santa Monica.

Speaking of, did you guys know Chris Mad Dog Russo was *in* Santa Monica that day?  BLEW MY MIND.  To think, I could have gone to the SM Pier and found him there, but no!  I was just too absorbed in my Phil Steele College preview magazine.

It's a great magazine, but gee whiz does Phil Steele love his own stink.  Every page of that damn magazine is him bragging about predictions he made ten years ago, with a *little* actual information and analysis.  Each article in that magazine I go "would you get on with it???"  Then he gets to the good stuff.  Once you get his actual recaps/stats/etc it becomes very useful.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed his constant back-patting.  He writes every single page and article in the 352 page magazine!  Every one.

I find it simultaneously impressive, consistent, and self-serving.  Nonetheless, it has some very great information, full charts, stats, power rankings, even every single NCAA FBS team's schedule.  It's not only a good preview magazine but it will prove to be an amazing reference during the year.

How long has my buddy Umberto's been away from the grid now?  His texts don't get replied to either.   This happened a year or two ago.  Now I'm starting to wonder...

Yasiel Puig might want to calm down with the bat flips and the baserunning errors.  Kid is raw, but come on, yo, get it together young man.   Great work on his part winning the game with the home run, though.

My Dad's been asking all of us in the family to start fasting on two days out of the week.  That doesn't sound too healthy but I'll try it today.  I didn't pack a sandwich for lunch.  Part of my motivation to fast was my utter laziness in not wanting to pack a sandwich last night.  Shhhhh!  Don't tell anyone!

Every time I write, I know I run the risk of putting myself out there, but I enjoy the thrill of the output.  I hope you do too!  Have a great Monday everyone.