06-30-004 11:55 Another day in Costa Rica and it seems like I can never make up my mind. I am somewhere yet nowhere and I often wonder what will happen next. Much has happened of late but the most recent thing is that Monday morning, I awoke with a throbbing pain in my mouth. The source of it came from one of my tooth which had a cavitie in it. I had known about this problem for quite some time but I had let it go and now I must pay for the lazyness. You see, I woke up not only with a pain in my mouth but also with a cheek the size of a small appple. Yes, it was so bad that the right side of my face was swollen. Sigh, I freaked out and showed up at Ralph's doorstep since I knew he knew a dentist. Of course, he had a good laugh at my expense but hey, what are friends for. He took me to his dentist and she told me that I had 2 advanced cavities and probably needed one tooth pulled out due my wisdom teeth. Que lastima!!! However, before any of that can be taken care of, I have to take antibiotics til Saturday. Boo hoo hoo, I cant drink any alcohol until then but at least it will do me some good. Give me a chance to clean my system out. On another note, since I have not been drinking but I have gone out once or twice with friends to a bar I realize how stupid we get when we are drunk from the perspective of a non-drunk. Gee, makes me want to stop drinking, or not!!!! 06-22-004 10:22am Presently writing from this internet cafe in Jaco. Yeterday was dead at work and I decided that I was tired of San Jose so I left early packed my bags(not very well though since I forgot a few things) and headed to Jaco. Took the 3:30pm bus and I was dead tired which means that I arrived in Jaco around 6:20pm. Chek in the Poseidon hotel and called "P" but no luck. I then headed to the Bohio bar next to the beach and got a Shrimp ceviche, a beer, and a ginger ale. The place was dead and so was I. Done with my dinner/snack, I opted to go and sleep for the night. A night of rest well deserved. Now, not sure what I will do for the rest of day and whether I shall stay another night at the Poseidon or opt for a cheaper place. Will let you know. 06-20-2004 5:49pm I am so bored right now. Just at work and sitting in front of a computer. No games of any importance but what did I espect. NBA is over and nobody really bets on MLB. Didn't do much last night except eat and read finished a book. Since Derek has moved to the Dominican Republic, it's been boring at home which is why I usually end up going out. Except last night of course since I needed a break. However, there is only so much reading or TV watching you can do which is why I usually end up at a bar somewhere. The question now is whether I should go and and get a beer or not tonight. I do need to clean the house and do laundry but I can always do that tomorrow. Looks like I'll be staying in CR for a bit longer. At least until November. The only problem now is where should I live? If I stay in my current house, I'll need a roommate. I could afford to stay there by myself but it would be a waste of money. Maybe I'll go back to Calle Blancos. At least over there, I'll have plenty of company even though they will mostly be gringos and half of them will be mongers but it's better then watching TV. Sigh, couldn't get the time off I wanted so it looks like I wont have 5 days off to go to the beach. Only 2 and a half days. That really sucks but I will be able to save money that way. One thing I do want to do before I leave is take the month before I leave off so I can just bask like a lounge lizard at the beach. That way I'll be fresh when I get back home. 06-18-2004 8:22pm Got back from jaco beach on the 16. I went out there with some internet friends along with this girl I had met in Jaco and who one day showed up in San Jose because she was visiting her mom and wanted to hang out. So here is the lowdown. Since I last wrote. At least, from what I remember. Hum, can't remember much. Probably need a beer to remember. I'll start my story at the New York Bar where I was to meet Dave. I think this happened on Monday night. The NYB was very pretty dead except for a few regulars and the occasional tourist. Dave walks in and even though I had never seen him before, I knew exactly who he was. He sat down and ordered a beer and we began to talk. About 30 minutes go by and we decide to go to the Key largo to meet his other friends. I tell him I will meet him there in about 45 minutes since I had something else to do. I take care of my business and I enter the KL. Pretty dead there too but what do I expect for a Monday night. He isn't there yet so I go to the back bar and order the usual Imperial beer. As soon as I sit down, two girls sit next to me and give me the usual speech. Didn't really feel like mingling tonight and at that point, I'm saved Dave is in the building. Dave is here with one of his boys. We shoot the breeze, and order more drinks. I order a tequilla and I get Scott a Cockroach. Not sure how long we are there but Dave and Scott leave. We make plans to meet in the morning and go to Jaco Beach. Since I'm not ready to call it quits yet, I grab the prettier of the two girls that had spoken to me when I first arrived, buy her a drink and we are off to shoot some pool. Half an hour goes by and Dave is back for more. I go back to the bar and hat girl follows me like a puppy who just found a new best friend. The girl wants my number and wants me to take hers. Definitively not into so I tell her I just moved and don't have a phone line yet. I take her number I'll leave it at that. Not gonna go into more details but let's just say that the shit hit the fan at the end of the night. Sunday arrives and I give Dave a call around 9am. We plan on taking the 1:30 bus to Jaco. I go to there hotel and I order a beer at the lobby while I wait for them. Dave shows up with one of his friends while the other two are sleeping it off. Off we got to the Coca-Cola Bus station. The trip is pretty uneventful. We make it to Jaco and I take them to the Poseidon. It's a pretty good hotel for the price. I would have taken them somewhere cheaper but they are gringos and they need AC. I get them checked in and I head to my usual cabina. They are tired and want to take a nap so I tell them I'll meet them at this bar on the beach calle Ohio(Spelled like the state but pronounced differently in Spanish. The h is silent) in 2 hours. I head to my place, called "Cabinas Nicole". A nice place for a man on a budget. The place does not have a swimming nor A/C but I'm at the beach and I'm only gonna sleep there. I get two bed, cable TV, a full kitchen, and of course private bathroom for about 1/3 of the cost. I check in and even though at first I was tired, the excitment of being at the beach beats my tiredness. I go instead to the Bohio and bring with me the book, "Don't stop the Carnival" by Herman Wouk. A great read if you ever thought about moving to the caribbean I order a beer and a shrimp Ceviche, and I relax barefoot with sands between my toes. Only 15 minutes go by and I get hugged from behind. I hope it's a woman. Sure is, it's Maria 1. She takes a seat and tells me Maria 2 is on her way. There goes my reading time. Next thing you know, I start meeting other gringos and my friends finally show up. I find out that they didn't sleep but instead went shopping. I'm about to go home but then it starts raining. Oh well, regala me una otra cerveza. Rain finally let's up and I go to my cabina for a power nap before I go out with Dave and company. Of course, as soon as I fall asleep, someone is knocking on my door. It's Patricia. Argh, will I ever get to sleep? She comes over and we end up eating. We then head to the Beatle bar to meet Dave and company. At the Beatle Bar, I find out that Patricia knows Maria 1 and two since they are there as well. Damage control time and my plan is alcohol. Still no sign of Dave and company but I run into the same group of gringos I had met at the Ohio bar. We have a good time and finally, Dave shows up with the 2 other guys that didn't get up in time to go to Jaco with us. A lot of stuff happens and the girls want me to go with them to El Central to dance. It's about 12:30am. I'm tired and I wimp out. I haven't hit the waves yet and I want to get up early. They are not happy but I tell them they can meet me for breakfast at the Poseidon. Hard to get breakfast and gravy with grits in CR and the Poseidon has it. LOL too early for them so I tell them they can then find me at the beach. Next day comes, I get my breakfast and Dave is already there along with the 4 gringos I had met at the Bohio bar and a group of gringas we had seen the previous night.I finally hit the beach. Finally, the beach no details necessary. I need to go back to San Jose that day since I got to be at work the next day and I opt to catch the 3:30pm bus. Now I'm back in San Jose and it's almost 9pm. Already planning my next trip to the beach which will be this coming Monday. I', gonna take 5 days off, go there by myself and hopefully I'll be able to finish my book. Tonight, gonna head for the Nashville to say hi to my people for that famous one beer. 06-13-2004 6:55pm It seems like I never run out of stuff to do in Costa Rica. Plans always get turned around so I always have to tell people that in Costa Rica, nothing is concrete. Example 1, I was suppose to write more about kelby and Kris' vacation in Costa Rica but got sidetracked because Derek got back from the DR and he was here for two days before he was gonna head to Thailand. This sucks, I should be in Thailand with him right now. Example 2, The same day that Derek arrived, a person that I met in jaco decided to come over and visit and that person is not leaving til Tuesday which means I'm still not getting much sleep per night. Example 3, I was suppose to go to the Dominican Republic for work this month but request was denied because the football season is coming up and they need experienced people so I won't be able to go til halfway through the football season. Didn't get much sleep last night either. Got off work at 8pm. Lakers game going off be right back 7:33pm Ok, I'm back. I had to work in sales tonight since we had a problems with some of the sales people but before I go on with my story, I just want to tell people that if you want to bet on a game and need to setup an account, dont wait til the 10 minutes before the game starts to start an account because I can almost guarantee you that you are not going to get your bet in unless you get the action for the second half. Back to my story, yesterday I got home around 8:30pm. I was a bit tired so I took a quick nap and then the phone rang. It was Diana who was close by and wanted to see if I wanted to go out with her. Didn't feel like seeing her cause I wanted a boys night out and told her I would call her Tuesday. She was disappointed but she understood. Of course, I didn't tell her I wanted it to be a boys night out but just told her I was tired. I laid down on the couch again and my guest is getting fidgety because it's time to go prowling. Phone rings again. It's Corey and he is on his way. Oh God, my head already hurts and I feel the urge to throw up because I know what's going to happen when he comes along. Corey comes over and we head for Chaplin. A decent crowd but our usual waitress Vanessa is not there. A good amount of college girls but I'm bored. Three gringos are sitting at a table next to us and they are annoying me. Yes, they are loud, tapping on the table with there bottles ans singing Guajira Guantanamera, you know, the Cuban song. We finish our beer and we head to the Downtown San Jose for the New York Bar. We make it to the New York and it's a pretty tame crowd. I see that Neiling and Isabella are working tonight. Neiling has a new hairstyle and is wearing a nice summer dress. I introduce them to my friend and she invites us to her birthday party on the 25th of this month. Hum, It's 11:30pm and I thought I would try to meet some CRT people at the DR. I tell my people that I'll be back and head to the DR. No way I'm gonna find them tonight because the place is full. I do a quick walkabout through the gauntlet and head back to the New York. I'm back at the New York and more people have shown up. I spot Norma who is also a bartender at the NYB but she is drunk like a skunk. Not much conversation with her and I have to hold her up so she doesn't fall off her stool. Interesting, a young gringo couple has just walked in and I see a group of regular gringos as well. I go shoot pool and I noticed that this pro who is with this young guy keeps looking at me playing pool. The young guy is just sipping on his beer and she looks bored with him. Kids, if you are with a lady, it's your job to keep them entertained. At least, if you want to be on there good side. Argh, it's 2am and we are shut in the bar. yep, time to move on. if I had been a smart guy, I would have gone home but instead, I suggest we go to the Luncheria for some karaoke and some dancing. The beer is cheap there which is a nice change from the NYB. Singing and dancing the place doesn't close til 6am. Good thing I dont have to work til noon but Corey has to work at 8am. Yes, he went home early today. I got maybe 3 hours of sleep and I want a quiet night but the problem is that it is now dark outside and my eyes are beginning to twitch in anticipation of what could happen. Somebody save me from myself. 06-04-2004 5:30pm Last night was Kris and kelby's ultima noche en Costa Rica. Taking this in consideration, I didn't get any sleep last night. I'm exhausted and surprised I made it to work on time. Sure I smelled like staled cigarettes and booze but I was there on time. We were invited to a rave last night but it just wasn't what we wanted to do for our last night together. I mean, paying 10,000 colones(about $25) to see a guy who mixes music and who doesn't start til 2am felt like too much work. But I told the people who wanted us to go there that we would try to make our way there. So I get home from work, Bram is giving me a ride since he just bought my old PC. I get home, the place is a mess. Kelby is upstairs sleeping and I forgot to tell Kris and Sandra that I had cancelled meeting them at La Casa Italia(an Italian restaurant). The phone rings, I pick up and it's kris, oops sorry get your ass back here, get rid of Sandra, wait for Cindy to come over to pick up something and we are out of here. In the meanwhile, I go do the dishes and try to make the place look presentable. Damn, nobody bought any toilet paper. I tell the boys to help clean the dumb and we are off to the Nashville so Kris and Kelby can say goodbye to the crew. We say hello, play some pool, drink some beers and down a few shots of tequilla. Carla the bartender is off work and hitting on a fresh from the plane gringo. Alba is behind the bar and dancing to some good old rock n roll. We are the life of the party. Carla and the gringo are going to go to some bar called "Elvis" to sing. They turn down the offer to go with us to a rave. Alaba doesn't want to go either. We close down the bar and we take the Halan the bouncer with us to go do some karaoke with Carla and the gringo. Bam, we are in the bar and a good thing too cause the place is full of stiffs. Well, we start this new bar in style with shots of guarro(local moonshine), some beer, and a little singing and dancing. A couple of hours of bad singing and drinking later, all of the other clients can no longer stand the screeching nocise coming out of our mouth and we are left alone. Sigh, another bar that we end up closing down. Too late to go to la Calle la Amargura. We head for El Pueblo. We wander from bar to bar. And you just can't take me anywhere without me knowing someone. Sucks but a good thing for Kelby and he makes me proud. No more details are necessary. We leave Kelby at Twisters while the rest of us go look for action at other bar in El Pueblo. We hang out here and there but I'm bored and it's already 4:30am. I tell them I'm going home and Kris and Halan go with me while Karla stay with gringo boy and Kelby is with my friends. We head for the exit. We pass a couple of gringas. Kris is drunk but he is still a lady's man. He stops and asks them where they are from. Holy crap, the girls freak out for no reason and tell him to, "shut the fuck up", and start yelling obscenities. Those girls are nuts and must be on something cause Kris is just like wow, I'm out of here. He didn't touch them, just ask a question and they freak. One of them actually throws a drink in his face. We are out of this place. I only wish I would have had a camera cause that was hillarious. Of course, we don't go directly home. We stop by another bar for one last drink and to pay a tab Kris and Kelby had left there on one drunken night. We pay the tab and have a beer. it's 5am and I got to be up in 3 hours. I tell Kris that I'm going home. He decides to stay and close down the place. The sun is starting to become visible. Looks like I'm gonna show up to work drunk. Oh well, I can wing it. I get home and I'm ready to go to bed. Finally!!! Wrong, the phone rings, its my friend and she is bringing Kelby home. I need to give her the directions to my house cause she does not remember. Plus he left his keys at home so I got to stay up for him. At least he doesnt come home alone. It's 6am and Kelby shows up. However, Kris should have been here by now. Damn, being a responsible host, I stay up and wait for him. He finally shows up and he had to walk back to the house cause he had no money. Well, this time he had enough to catch a bus. Hum, this scenario sounds familiar but it will be for a different entry. Now, I can finally sleep. Wrong, it's time to take a shower and go to work. Que vida. Going back to in time to Thursday AKA, there 2nd day in CR I will start by saying I started the day with a late lunch. Yes I didn’t get out of bed until 1pm. After a quick shower and shave, I took the boys out to Avenida Central for a quick tour of downtown San Jose and as a side trip I took them to the market. Not sure if it’s old age but I’m having a very hard time recalling the past week and a half. The real reason though is probably because I was drunk an average of 10-16 hours a day. Entonces, please bear with me as I try to recall as much as I can of those past 9 days of debauchery. As I was saying earlier, we were in downtown San Jose doing some sightseeing. I’m talking about the part of San Jose that most tourists never see. I’m pretty sure we ate lunch somewhere but for the life of me, I’m not sure if we had a local Tico dish or not. However, I do know that I took them to my favorite watering hole, el bar Nashville Sur. The Nashville is a quaint little bar located a block or so away from the Downtown Holiday Inn Aurora. It is currently owned by this gringo from around the Great Lakes area. When you first meet him, you would never expect him to be a bar owner. A big man who lifts weights in his late 20s to early 30s who loves to have a friendly chat. Now, the Nashville has become my hangout place in Costa Rica but I can assure you that it is not because of the cheap prices. Let me try to give you a mental picture of the place. You enter through a pair of saloon doors straight out of a John Wayne movie. As soon as you enter, you can catch a glimpse of the whole bar in just a blink of an eye. The joint is more like a long double wide hallway where as you enter the bar is on your right and takes up half the wall of the bar and the bar is just decorated with American paraphanelias(need a spell checker) that gives the bar a charming rustic look. An old style looking jukebox is at the far end corner of the bar behind a short pool table with barely enough room to maneuver around it. However, old the jukebox may look, it is actually modern enough to hold CDs with a great music collection from classic rocks from the 70s and 80s to more modern music and of course being in Costa Rica with a decent collection of Latina songs. The joint also has an upstairs that they have been working on for months but in general, it is still not open to the public unless you are a regular like yours truly who is good with the owner and all of the bartenders and bouncers that work there. Therefore, I can just hang upstairs and play pool by the hour and watch the ricas walk by from the balcony. Now that you have somewhat of a rough idea of what my watering hole looks like, all I can say is that all like the place for the friendly bartenders and a cool owner. It helps that all of the bartenders are females as well and they like to have fun, chill, hang out, talk and dance. I always feel at home there and that’s the story I’m sticking to. I’ll add pictures to these entries depending on how fast I can get them ready. Basically, I was just trying to say that we started drinking at the Nashville that day early like around 3 or 4pm. I’d write more about that night but to be honest, I really can’t remember much of that night. I do remember that it was the second day of work I skipped the next day. Patience is a virtue. Would write more but I'm dead tired and I'm still at work. Oh and by popular demand, here is the line for the Belmont since people have been asking me for it and yes, Shorty Jones is still the favorite. I hate being a bookie and I'm gonna be out of the business soon. Smarty Jones -400 Rock Hard Ten +350 Eddington +700 Oh before I go here is a little something I got a friend of mine's website. In any case you should check out hise site at: www.submediatv.com < 073103 - This is a great point from Rush. However, the problem with most of the people that engage in a seemingly detailed argument is - that they dont enable us. They call us into action, and I for one am interested, but he gives us not even a hint of how to go about changing things for the better. Why does he just skip over this? This is the problem with many people that talk about change. This is also probably why it seems as tho we are a "sit back and watch it happen" society. We would rather watch the fight than be a part of it - only because we dont know how to join in? By Rush Limbaugh: I think the vast differences in compensation between victims of the September 11 casualty and those who die serving the country in Uniform are profound. No one is really talking about it either, because you just don't criticize anything having to do with September 11. Well, I just can't let the numbers pass by because it says something really disturbing about the entitlement mentality of this country. If you lost a family member in the September 11 attack, you're going to get an average of $1,185,000. The range is a minimum guarantee of $250,000, all the way up to $4.7 million. If you are a surviving family member of an American soldier killed In action, the first check you get is a $6,000 direct death benefit, half of which is taxable. Next, you get $1,750 for burial costs. If you are the surviving spouse, you get $833 a month until you remarry. And there's a payment of $211 per month for each child under 18. When the child hits 18, those payments come to a screeching halt. Keep in mind that some of the people who are getting an average of $1.185 million up to $4.7 million are complaining that it's not enough. Their deaths were tragic, but for most, they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Soldiers put themselves in harms way FOR ALL OF US, and they and their families know the dangers. We also learned over the weekend that some of the victims from the Oklahoma City bombing have started an organization asking for the same deal that the September 11 families are getting. In addition to that, some of the families of those bombed in the embassies are now asking for compensation as well. You see where this is going, don't you? Folks, this is part and parcel of over 50 years of entitlement politics in this country. It's just really sad. Every time a pay raise comes up for the military, they usually receive next to nothing of a raise. Now the green machine is in combat in the Middle East while their families have to survive on food stamps and live in low-rent housing. Make sense? However, our own U.S. Congress just voted themselves a raise, and many of you don't know that they only have to be in Congress one time to receive a pension that is more than $15,000 per month, and most are now equal to being millionaires plus. They also do not receive Social Security on retirement because they didn't have to pay into the system. If some of the military people stay in for 20 years and get out as an E-7, you may receive a pension of $1,000 per month, and the very people who placed you in harm's way receive a pension of $15,000 per month. I would like to see our elected officials pick up a weapon and join ranks before they start cutting out benefits and lowering pay for our sons and daughters who are now fighting. "When do we finally do something about this?" If this doesn't seem fair to you, it is time to forward this to as many people as you can. If your interested there is more....................... This must be a campaign issue in 2004. Keep it going. SOCIAL SECURITY: (This is worth the read. It's short and to the point.) Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years. Our Senators and Congressmen do not pay into Social Security. Many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan. In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it. For all practical purposes their plan works like this: When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die, except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments. For example, former Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000 - that's Seven Million, Eight Hundred Thousand), with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives. This is calculated on an average life span for each. Their cost for this excellent plan is $00.00. These little perks they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Fund--our tax dollars at work! From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into --every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer) --we can expect to get an average $1,000 per month after retirement. Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one month to equal Senator Bill Bradley's benefits! Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made. And that change would be to jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us and then watch how fast they would fix it. If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of awareness will be planted and maybe good changes will evolve. WE, each one of us... can make a difference.. How many people can YOU send this to? 06-03-2004 7:50pm Still at work but it's pretty slow right now so I'll go ahead and tell you about what has happened since Kris and Kelby from Atlanta came to visit. On Wednesday, I came to work as usual and I got an e-mail from Kris. I had totally forgotten that he was coming for the US Memorial weekend. Oh my, he wrote that he could not find a flight for the Thursday or Friday so he was coming today. My goodness I was not prepared for that. Next thing you know, I get a phone call at work and guess who? It's Kris and he's already at my house and ready to party. I tell him to come meet me at the mall once he is all settled in and that I would meet him for lunch. He arrives and we have lunch at Moraccos which used to be the old PK2. For those who do not remember, it is the bar at the main entrance of the San Pedro Mall. As soon as you enter, it is on your right. Anyway, we talk and I meet Kelby for the first time who of course knows my sister and Frank(Goodness my sister is popular). So I have a beer and eat and I go back to work. I leave early and I take them out to paint the town red. I wish I could give you more details but all I pretty much remember is going to alot of bars and coming home when it was daylight. Oh yeah, I also forgot, that same night, one of person that reads my blog also wanted to meet me. His name is Fabio and I'll leave it at that. So we met Fabio at the KFC and he hung out with us the whole night as well. Here is a picture of an old friend, Maria that I met a year or so ago. Since I don't have any pictures ready I thought I would give you guys at least one picture. It is from an old party from a year or so ago. And yes, I'm wearing my famous Hawaiian shirt!!!! It's busy now since the last two MLB games are about to go off in 15 minutes so I got to go but here are th elines in case you were interested: The Bet Pitcher ML O/U Run Line Toronto Blue Jays M Batista +155 O/8/-105 +1 1/2 -140 Oakland Athletics B Zito -175 -u/8/-115 -1 1/2 +120 Sorry only have time to put one game up but will write more later. 12:59pm Hello everyone, it's been a busy week since I will be moving out of Costa Rica soon but the destination will remain a mystery to the lot of you till I will be in the next country. I'ts been busy because Kris and kelby are here to visit me and have been here for about a week now. These 2 are killing me since we have been out every night til the wee hour of the morning for 6 out of 7 days. A lot of fun but it does have it's toll on the body. Just got back from the beach yesterday and I had an amazing time. Plenty of pictures to share and will do so as soon as time allows. So bear with me a bit longer and the next entry I will write about all that has happened in the past week.