40 Days of Awesome - Days 7-14

Eh, too lazy for an intro.  Days 7-14, here we go...


Awesome Day #7: BCS Championship at the Sports Page

We would have needed a LOT more pitchers to make that game even remotely interesting.


Hey, here's a fun drinking game: watch an LSU-Alabama game and drink every time someone scores a touchdown.  It's fun because you don't need to worry about finding a DD, since you'll be more sober than a group of nuns afterwards.

That game was horrendous.  I'd rather watch back to back episodes of the Kardashians than watch a game like that again.  Fortunately, the day was still awesome, because we abandoned the game after three quarters and got some kick-ass burritos from La Bamba.


Awesome Day #8: Taco Tuesday at Nick's Crispy Tacos

I forgot to take a picture, but here's what it looks like when Georgia and I are eating tacos at Nick's.


Ah, Nick's... far more reliable (and more delicious) than a BCS game.  Random side story: this past Halloween, I met Nick at his other restaurant, Tacko.  Not only does he make amazing tacos, he was also a fan of my Tony the Tiger costume idea.  Good peoples.


Awesome Day #9: Trivia night at St. Stephen's Green

Photo of the winning team, taken by the losing team.

We may have come in second place, but the important thing is that we beat Ansel/Ryan/Quirk/Alyssa's team by a point and a half in dramatic comeback fashion.  Also, as you can see from that picture, not only are we "wicked smaht", we're clearly the best looking team as well.

Awesome Day #10: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The name is Blomkvist... Mikael Blomkvist.


After three days in a row at a bar, and eight out of the first nine days of awesome involving at least a little bit of drinking, it was time to do something a little different before this turned into 40 Days of Alcoholism.  Day 10 was a dinner at Google and a night at the movies.  The movie was good, but I have a few ideas that could have made it better:

1. Change Mikael Blomkvist's weapon of choice from "pen" to "pistol"
2. Change the name "Mikael" to "James"
3. Change the name "Blomkvist" to "Bond"
4. Add about 50 more explosions, 17 more fight scenes, and 3 more car chases

Also, fun fact: Rooney Mara, the star of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, is the great-granddaughter of both the founder of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the founder of the New York Giants.  So, I now have two reasons to hate her.

Awesome Day #11: Grilling dinner and margaritas

Turns out this sweatshirt is actually pretty warm when I'm not falling into a cold river in Oregon while fishing.  Who knew?


Friday night was a pretty calm one for a Friday, as I wanted to make sure I was well rested for Saturday morning.  (Look at that: foreshadowing!  Who knew this blog had literary devices?  I usually barely even feel literate when I'm writing it.)  I grilled some blackened salmon and veggies with a friend, then headed over to an apartment in Sunnyvale for a couple margaritas with a few more friends.  After some fun "would you rather..."s involving rats, I called it a night and went home to get some sleep.  Kate, on the other hand, probably still hasn't slept since we gave her some horrifying new rat images that she won't be able to get out of her head.

Awesome Day #12: 49ers-Saints game!

Still amped up two full days after the game.  This must be how drug addicts feel after popping a giant handful of speed and then being wired all weekend from it.


On Saturday, I was lucky enough to go to the 49ers-Saints game, which was basically the exact opposite of the previously mentioned LSU-Alabama game.  The game itself was incredible; when talking about it afterwards, we decided that the only two playoff games we can think of that could rival it from our lifetime are the Pats-Giants Super Bowl (with Tyree's helmet catch) and the Rams-Titans Super Bowl (when Mason came up one yard short on the last play of the game.)  Also, I may or may not have written that last sentence solely so I could bring up the Pats-Giants Super Bowl again.  Suck it, Harrigan/Lanstein/every other Pats fan I know.

Anyway: tons of scoring, close the whole time, a big upset, a few huge plays (the two Vernon Davis catches at the end will probably get the most attention, but the Alex Smith run was one of the coolest sports moments I've ever seen live)... it really had everything.  And if that's not enough, the crowd was fucking PUMPED for the entire game.  I've never seen a crowd with that level of energy from start to finish, and it got to the point where the guy behind me literally jumped out of his seat and onto my back after a couple big plays near the end of the game.  Just an absolutely unbelievable experience.

That night, still feeling a huge adrenaline rush from being at the game, my night turned into an energized drunken adventure that included sake bombing, a karaoke bar, randomly bumping into a girl I went to high school with, an apartment party for someone who leaves for flight school next week, and probably a whole lot more details that I'm forgetting.


Awesome Day #13: Pub Crawl

I'd make a joke about drinking Peruvian beers at an Irish pub, but I've been temporarily blinded by the reflection of the flash off Paul's jacket.  Give me a few minutes.

To celebrate the fact that we have MLK day off, eight of us went on a Mountain View pub crawl on Sunday night.  Stops included two Irish pubs, a Spanish place, and a dive bar, where we invented a game that was basically the equivalent of "flip a coin... if it's heads, this half of the group drinks; if it's tails, the other half of the group drinks."  Car bombs were consumed, beer pong was played, and someone woke up wearing no pants and an inside-out t-shirt.  All in all, I'd call it a successful pub crawl.



Awesome Day #14: Brunch at Rick's Cafe

Everyone looks happy but Ryan... probably because he sensed the music we were about to subject him to in the car ride home.


After eating awesome tacos at Nick's and awesome brunch at Rick's, I'm making a new life rule: any time I see a restaurant named __ick's, I'm eating there.  Although, in a city like San Francisco, I might regret this if I drive by anywhere called Dick's...

40 Days of Awesome

“Some are born awesome, some achieve awesomeness, and some have awesomeness thrust upon them.  Oh, and some chicks are lucky enough to have my awesomeness thrusted into them at night as well.”

-William Shakespeare, famous poet and apparently a historic misogynist

When it comes to awesomeness, to quote Lady Gaga, baby I was born this way.  But why limit ourselves to only one of Shakespeare’s three options?  I may have been born awesome (since “redhead” and “awesome” are basically synonyms, I’m assuming we can all agree that I was born awesome), but that doesn't mean I shouldn't try to make my life even more awesome.

Meanwhile, in New Year’s Resolutions land, most New Year’s Resolutions are more boring than a Hugh Grant movie.  Flossing teeth every day?  Boring.  Running twice a week?  Might as well pop some popcorn and set up a chair to watch the paint dry for the next three hours.  Quitting smoking?  “Quitters never win, winners never quit”… so not only are you boring, but you’re also resolving to be a loser.  And so, we’re left with a puzzling problem – how do I make a New Year’s resolution that doesn’t end with me gouging my own eyes out from boredom?

This year, I’m killing two birds with one stone, and taking a new approach to my New Year’s resolutions that will also tackle the above awesomeness question.  (Side note – why is killing two birds with one stone generally considered a good thing?  I guess it makes sense if the birds were rabid, or if we’re in a Hitchcock movie, or if my name was Chrissie B. and birds were my sworn enemy, or if I was really hungover and they were chirping loudly outside my window at 6:30AM… but in general, aren’t birds one of the better animals to have around?  If I’m doing two things at once, why can’t I “smush two spiders with one stomp”, or “kill two terrorists with one missile”, or “high five two friends with one slap”?

Anyway, I’m going to find a way to force my life to be even more awesome while giving myself a New Year’s resolution that I’m actually going to be excited about.  In addition, it’s also something that will finally get me to start blogging more, instead of just saying I’ll blog more and then ignoring it like a hot girl ignores a nerd’s emails.  And since I’ve been told that you’re more likely to stick to your goal if you tell others about it… ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, my 2012 New Year’s Resolution:

40 Days of Awesome.

You can tell it’s awesome because it’s bold AND italicized, so we’re already off to a great start.  Plus, it’s got awesome right in the title... ever hear anyone say “Alexander the Great was pretty mediocre” or “you know, that Ivan the Terrible was a pretty nice guy”?  Fuck no.  And you’ll never hear anyone say “40 Days of Awesome was alright I guess”, because it says awesome right there in the title.  On a related note, if any future biographers are reading this one day, I am hereby officially naming myself Andrew the Tremendously Awesome Kickass Champion.  Please do not refer to me as anything else.

Anyway, the specifics: to kick off 2012, I will do one awesome thing every day for 40 days straight.  Why 40 days?  Plenty of reasons:

• 40 oz. bottles are awesome
• 40 is your score when you’re about to win a game in tennis, and winning is awesome
• I-40 runs all the way across the country from California to North Carolina, because 40 isn’t some sissy bitch quitter number that quits after two or three states
• 40 Oz. to Freedom is a top 3 Sublime song (sorry, “What I Got” and “Wrong Way”, but you’re overrated… the other two are Santeria and April 29, 1992), and Sublime was awesome
• “take 40 winks” means taking a nap, and naps are obviously awesome
• “39 Days of Awesome” sounded weird, and 41 days would just be overkill.

This awesome to-do list of awesome things has a wide range of awesome categories.  They include drinking awesomeness (drink a full boot at Leopold’s, drink a pint at The Black Horse, do a Caltrain pub crawl, etc.), eating awesomeness (eat brunch at Mama’s, make a pizza from scratch, eat at the Bacon Bacon Truck), athletic  awesomeness (play volleyball in Santa Cruz, bike over the Golden Gate bridge, take a yoga class), random awesomeness (Sharks and Warriors games, go to the farmer’s market at the Ferry Building, live jazz at Rasselas), more drinking awesomeness (trivia night at St. Stephen’s Green, beer flights in Half Moon Bay, day trip to Napa, sake bombing), and of course, the most awesome of awesomeness (make a spontaneous, unplanned trip to Vegas with less than 24 hours notice.)

So, what’s in it for you?  I’ll be blogging once a week to comment on the seven awesome things that happened that week.  This means if you like reading these posts, you’ll get to hear from me more often.   Hooray, you win!  And if you don’t like these posts, it means you get the pleasure of blatantly ignoring them and reporting status updates about them as inappropriate/spam in Facebook more often.  Hooray, you win too!  (And by “you win too” I mean “go fuck yourself.”)

The 40 Days of Awesomeness resolution will officially begin on Monday, 1/9.  In the meantime, if you have any awesome ideas that you think I should add to the list (or specific awesome things you’d like to join me for), feel free to reach out and let me know; my list currently has 60 things, but not all of them are quite as awesome as I’d like them to be, so I’m still open to suggestions.

Happy New Year!