Bar Hopping Series - 24 Hour Bender

Its 2:18 pm. I start with a Half and Half at Dublin's. At an Irish pub you never ask for the other name for this drink. Never. The bartender must be Irish because he didn't even ask me to explain it.

Its 3:15 pm, I'm on the Blue Line train going to Long Beach. The jiga boo in the picture closest to the exit just had a altercation on the train platform. He just straight up popped somebody on the face and ran into the train to get away from them.

Its 3:47 pm, I'm having a Rainbow Roll at Sushi & Teriyaki on Long Beach Blvd. Later, I'm going to have a tall bottle of Newcastle in a brown paper bag from Rite Aid as a wait patiently for the next train to downtown Long Beach.

 I got off the last station and hopped over the the Rock Bottom brewery.

I'm having one of their brown ale micro brews. Unfortunately, I lost my notebook and so I am unable to provide the exact name of the beer. Losing my notebook...one of the major travails in trying to make it through the 24 hour bender. I am a talkative drunk and got into a discussion an elder gentleman bachelor, middle age lady and her bald headed date. From the elderly gentleman, I learned what makes the Tanquery Gin special is its heavily flavored with ginger and not so much with juniper berries. Also, there must have been a religious convention because the place was packed with people in their Sunday best.

Its 7:09 pm, I'm at Alegria. Its Flamenco night. The only drink I could think of that was a latin drink is a cuba libre. Some other middle age drunk was yapping on about his former glories. He used to hang out with a big hair band, Poison. No used trying to talk to two girls at the bar because I'm being given the brush off. I thankfully hop back on the train toward downtown.

It's 10:00 pm, I'm at Dublin's again. I ask for a half and half and the girl doesn't know what I'm talking about.  I use the facilities. The remodeling of the interior of the old building is really well done.

Guinness at The Elephant Bar in Downey

T'is But a Flesh Wound

I wanted to get some soul food and Kentucky Fried Chicken wouldn't do.  I took the Expo Line and got off on Crenshaw which is in the black neighborhood of Compton. I had been here before, exploring, when they had opened up the Expo line and I made a mental note of a soul food place.  I had some fried cat fish and greens at M and M soul food. I walked over to yum yum donuts for desert. This huge older black guy comes walking in-actually as a 5' 8" Filipino, everybody seems huge- and on his right leg he is wearing orthopedic shoes with 3 inch heels. We get to talking about the Lakers, then the conversation turns to the motorcycle accidents we've been in.  He was working as a buyer in the downtown Los Angeles wholesale grocery district, riding his motorcycle to various wholesalers. A truck crossed the median because the driver fell asleep, the result from the accident was his neck was broken, but his spinal cord was left intact. His leg was sheared off at the shin but was reattached. However, 2 inches of bone could not be replaced. Another younger black guy, just as big and beefy as the older black guy, overheard our exchange and started to tell his story.  His accident happened when he was going through an intersection, a lady wasn't paying attention and drove through a red light. He got T-boned. The exhaust pipe broke off and was driven through his calf. He showed me the picture of the wound from his phone. I took a picture of the image from his phone. I posted this pic on my blog. The older black guy said he will never ride a motorcycle and he kept telling I'm going down. The younger black guy was defiant and said he still going ride no matter what.

Aspirations of a Romantic

What are the aspirations of a romantic? What does a romantic aspire to? What are the goals of a romantic?

To love and be loved.

I Love Amazons

I asked the Amazon if I could take her pic. The Amazon graciously assented and I didn't have to tip her. She works for tips posing with the tourist at Mann Chinese Theater. This is the second time I've been overcome by an Amazon.

Since I'm discussing about being overcome, here is some guy being overcome by Metro Security for farebreaking. That's gonna cost you $250.00

Fail. Twice in a Row. Last Chance.

I took the DMV Motorcycle Exam at the Montebello DMV. Why Montebello? Compare it to the other DMVs and the answer is obvious.

I failed the DMV Motorcycle Exam twice in a row. They gave me one last chance. A copy of the third try for your viewing.

I am honored to have the privilege to live fast, die hard, and leave a beautiful corpse.

Second Chance to be Shogo Yahagi.

Ride Rite allows you to retake the motorcycle skills test the following weekend. Why did I choose a weekend with rain? I didn't even have the proper motorcycle riding rain gear. I am such a noob (this will be my 3rd day on a motorcycle). I had on a white undershirt, long sleeve Champion lycra shirt, Addidas Munster Rugby track jacket, and over all that a Carhartt black jacket, and blue jeans. I also had on my Smith and Wesson service boots. The rain soaked my Carhartt jacket, but not the Addidas track jacket, my jeans were completely soaked through. My ass was wet for the better part of the day. My socks got wet and of course so did my feet. This was not one of those warm rains. It was a chill (for an Angeleno) bitter rain.

One of the better conditions to retake the motorcycle skills test? I think not. The rains made the parking lot surface slick. The skills test would be more difficult and tricky.

The first skills test was the dreaded execute a figure 8 in the box maneuver followed by the swerve the obstacle skills test. They had allowed us to practice and I would always put a foot on the ground or rode the motorcycle off the boundary lines.

When the test came I executed the figure 8 without putting a foot on the ground or riding the motorcycle out of the boundary lines. The swerve maneuver was a cinch because I love doing the quick press to the right with a quick press to the left.

We waited in line to do the quick stop maneuver as the other students were completing the dreaded figure 8 in the box maneuver. Just to notch up our collective nervousness, one of us got into an accident. There was a indication something might go wrong when the pretty Russian girl from the OC suddenly gave her motorcycle to much throttle and it bolted out of the box and careened wildly toward the fence but fortunately she managed to break in time. The instructors gave her another restart. She coasted into the box executed her U-turn then as she was about to do her S-turn she again gave it too much gas and her motorcycle bolted from the box and towards the line students on their motorcycles. She took out one of motorcycles, fortunately the student who was on his motorcycle quickly jumped off. He avoided the impact. The girl and the 2 motorcycles went down. I ran to the scene of the accident. She was on the ground sitting up, hands to her face, someone hit the kill switch on the bike since the wheels were still spinning. A crazy scene. Instructors, and students cleaned up and we got back to testing.

We all did the quick stop test, and the cornering test. At the end of the tests everybody passed except for the Russian girl. The instructors/examiners let us look at our scores or rather the points we were assessed.

I saw name, ran my fingers down the column, to the square tally box at the bottom. It was blank. Zero points, no points assessed. Totally perfect. I was doing a fist pump or a Tommy Smith and John Carlos raised fist in the air mental celebration. Kicked ass over last weekend; from zero to hero. I get to follow in my anime hero's footstep.