Ay! Imma let you finish but this had to be one of the greatest vacations of all time.

     What a great vacation this has been! The food, the ocean beach walks, the conversations, the jazz music, the anime, the movies, the smash 4, the mario kart, the family, the friends, etc. As I like to say,"It's all good." Tonight's the last night that we're staying here. Here being this super nice big house on the ocean in Cayucos, California. This is the good life. This is the sort of town where people don't really live here. Rather, homes are used for people to rent by vacationers. The town is mostly upper class, white, and people are hardly ever seen unless they're walking their dogs on the beach. We saw other black people, Hispanics, and Asians too but that was in the bustling busy daytime of the town. It would be great to live in a place like this one day when I'm retired. The city life is great but nothing beats the ocean front. Seeing it everyday, waking up to the sound of it, and that majestic ocean breeze that makes even the hottest days bearable. Maybe one day I can afford to live in a place like this. Goals, as they say. 

     This has been one of the best vacations I've had with my family ever. The best part of it was just relaxing, hanging out, and talking with my brothers. They're really cool people and I've become close with them, especially as I've gotten older. One of my brothers is a black studies scholarly intellectual with an interest in Caribbean/African diaspora. Check out his blog here http://ryfigueroa.blogspot.com/, he's been going strong with his blog for a few years and it's gotten a lot of traffic. He's a very cool guy and the thing we have in common is that we're both jazz fans. He's more of a straight ahead guy at heart but I can forgive him for not liking the extreme avante-garde free jazz sounds of modern New York and Chicago. My other brother is more like me in that he's a gamer and he's super chill. The trip has been great with them.

     Every morning we went on walks on the beach. Each day we walked farther than the last so I was getting in more exercise day by day and building up more stamina. This is something that I want to take back with me back home. I'm going to start going for walks to get in more exercise. It really gets the blood going and your day going. Other things that I'm going to take with me from this trip is that I want to go to the beach more with my friends. I'm gonna recommend going out to Santa Monica and Malibu, places like that to get away and relax this summer. Hikes in the hills would be good too. Also, I'm going to focus back on music and the guitar, learning as many jazz standards as I can as well as just overall practice in improvisation and jazz. 

     Lastly, I want to improve my diet tenfold. I'm going to stop eating ramen and hotdogs everyday and have more variety in my diet. For starters, I'm going to buy fruit like apples and bananas, pre-made salads, cereal/milk, granola bars, and cold cuts for sandwiches. Sounds like a much better diet just thinking about it. 

     I ate so good on this trip that it's unfathomable. There's no universe I can imagine where I would be making enough money to be eating as good as I ate on this trip. Notable mentions was this seafood place called Dorn's where I got this great combination plate that came with scallops, shrimp, fish, squid, and calamari. I pulled my weight on the vacation by paying for everyone's lunch at Anderson's Split Pea Soup restaurant back at this town called Buellton. In addition, we ate at this cool Mexican fusion place called Taco Temple. It's not traditional at all but the portions are humongous. The food is great to boot. I ended up getting the carnitas nachos. My brother got a wet burrito and it looked like a pig swimming in sauce. 

     Another thing that I thought about on this trip was my working status and how I should go about trying to get promoted or get a raise. Getting a second job isn't out of the question either. I've got a lot on my plate (I can't stop thinking about food!) literally and figuratively to think about. It's all good. 

     Lastly, another notable mention about the vacation was that I saw this waifu anime mini surfboard at this gift shop of this chick sucking a popsicle ;-). I was thinking about buying it but the next day I went to the shop they'd already closed. That would've been an amazing souvenir considering that I'm an anime connoisseur and waifu fan. But waifu's aside, this trip has been amazing. I look forward to taking what I learned from this trip and bringing it back with me home. Ah, life is good. 

More Vacation Stuff

   

     Just thought I'd write a bit more while on this great vacation. Things couldn't be going any better. Every morning we're going out on the beach and going for nice walks. The house is right on the ocean and the weather has been amazing. The first night we got here it was super cold and windy but now things have seemed to stabilize. These resort towns are pretty cool. There are all these antique shops with old instruments and stuff. I saw a clarinet, violin, flute, and lots of cool guitars. In fact, today we went to this guitar shop in a neighboring town. I walked in and saw a bunch of old geezers but the place itself was pretty nice.
     There was a big stage right in the middle of the shop, presumably for concerts. There was a drum set onstage as well as a microphone and tons of cables all over the place. The store itself didn't have anything spectacular when it came to guitars and basses. It was all mostly secondhand stuff but I did play this great red Joe Satriani signature model, it was so rad! The guitar itself was secondhand but when I plugged it into this solid state Albion amp it sounded great.
     I started by playing a few jazz chords and progressions and it responded beautifully. Surprisingly, it had a great throaty guttural tone for jazz as well as blues. I had a blast playing chords on it and playing a ton of my signature licks. Keep in mind that I haven't really picked up and played the guitar seriously for like a month so going in I didn't think I was even going to play a guitar today.
     However, the owner was so nice and generous that I had to. He was practically begging me to play on his stuff. He asked me if I was looking for anything in particular and when I said I was just browsing he told me that I could play anything in the store. What a guy! The funny thing is that later I went to a coffee shop and told the barista girl about the guitar shop and he said the owner didn't care about the customers XD. Anyways, once I played a few minor 7th chords into a few dominant 9ths I was back in business baby!
     My guitar playing definitely has changed after not playing for so long. I feel like I don't hit as many notes, partly because some of my technical aspects are lacking from not practicing but my melody and sense of original style stands out more if that makes sense. It's like riding a bike. Even though I haven't been bike riding in like five years I still know how to ride. I felt like the playing today at this guitar storefront kinda reinvigorated my playing. Once I get back home I'm definitely gonna start playing more guitar again, and maybe after a while try to form a band, finding members via the internet. My main thing has always been free jazz but I'm still into straight ahead stuff as well. I feel like I could go far if I had a band and started playing shows and stuff. Goals!
     The other thing we've been doing a lot is watching a lot of anime, Netflix, and movies via the Wii U. I'm glad that I brought it along. It has turned out to be great entertainment late at night when we're not out on the beach or sitting on the porch with the fire pit going.
     Anyways, I felt inspired to do a post because of the guitar shop. It was the best part of the vacation for me so far, although there have been other great moments so far like when I won against my bros in three player Magic the Gathering using a swamp and mountain deck, walks on the beach, and this amazing seafood dinner at this place called Dorn's. The dinner was so delicious! I got a seafood combination which came with fried calamari, squid, fish, scallops, and fries. It was a memorable meal that's for sure. Hope to have more memorable moments on the rest of this trip. We're going to be here for one last night then we're hotel bound for a day, and then we'll be back home. I can't wait to get back to work and earn some good paychecks. I miss my friends at work and my main friends too. It'll be great to be home again. Hope you're all enjoying your school spring breaks or if you're a working stiff like me I hope work has kept you fully engaged and fulfilled. Thanks for reading, catch ya later!