For the love of guns

It's been a few days since the last update. That's not to say nothing has happened though. Last friday was pretty normal, except that at like 10.30 pm this dude Chao (who knows everyone) called me and invited us to this get together at Victor's house. Victor is this French exchange student who lives with a couple of other fellas at University Heights, which is actually not close to our school. Anyhow, me and Perttu decided to go but Tuija decided to pass...you know how girls are when it comes to taking off quickly. And FYI, I can get on the move quickly when I so desire. So we went there, spent some time there, getting a bit intoxicated and chatting, it was a fun night, got to know a lot of people from many countries.



Saturday was an exciting day, even though it started off slow. We went to Pacific Beach once again, but my local friend, and an old army buddy of mine, Anssi, called me at some point and said he was in the neighborhood and he could pick us up. So, we got into his BMW and took off, heading for a real American gun store! Via our apartment of course, to change some clother and to drop Tuija off. And yes, the gun store was a sight in its own right. A pity they wouldn't let me shoot as I did not have an American ID, but man they had some weird stuff there.

The regular stuff like Glocks, Berettas, Pythons and Desert Eagles were on display naturally, as well as some rifles and stuff. Now, of course they had to have some automatic rifles as well, such as M-16 and an AK-47. Nice. Also, the salesperson loaded a Colt 500 handgun with live ammo and pointed it at a wall...most likely illegal, but the police officer standing next to us didn't mind.
They also had some practice targets which featured a muslim, as well as a rapist. How very politically correct. Oh, they also had a DVD that I almost decided to buy, seeing as it was such a useful DVD. "Headshot Targets" was the name. Did I mention that along came 50 printable practice headshot targets? Viva America!




Anyhow, after that we went to Trever's place, and from there we went to the Gaslamp Quarter which is in downtown San Diego. We were supposed to go this bar called Shout! which features two piano players on opposite sides of the bar, battling each other and the crowd wishes songs, throws stuff at them (including panties, hopefully by women mostly). We were gonna get Anssi to play there, as he's quite nice with the piano, but the place was PACKED since it was Labour Day (think Vappu) weekend. So, we went to this club Visions instead, which was nice enough. Drinks here are a bit more potent than back in Finland; half of the drink is always liquor. I'm down with that! Eventually we went back to Trever's place for an afterparty, but Trever passed out. Well, it was a lot of fun anyway! Oh, bars here close at 2am, and they literally drive people out at 1.30am, with policemen in the doorway ushering people outside. And I thought Finland was bad.

When I woke up on Sunday,hung over, on Trever's huge couch, I wasn't planning on going anywhere anytime soon, except to the pool perhaps. Well, once again it turned out that life has surprises in store for those moments. Anssi informed me and Trever that he was going to his family friend Jake for sauna, and me and Trever were invited. So we went downtown to get Anssi's car, which I drove back to Trever's. I wasn't exactly in the mood for driving but Trever was still wasted so I had no choice.

So, eventually we started for Jake's house and stopped at In & Out for breakfast on the way. Odin's Great Raven, that fast food joint must be the best hangover killer ever! They have three different hamburgers: hamburger, cheeseburger and double-double. I picked double-double, animal style and all that stuff, which means that they put cheese, tomatoes, pickles, mayonaise and whatnot in it, as well as in the fries. Got a week's worth of calories there, but it definitely paid off. In & Out has the best burgers. You can also customize the burgers as much as you want; you can e.g. get a four-layer double-double if you want, animal style etc.

Finally we got to Jake's house. Jake is this 87-year old American guy who has lived in Finland many summers since his wife had been Finnish. He had also at least visited most countries in the world, and everything in his house was from some exotic country...he had egyptian tapestries, OLD european naval maps etc. on walls, the wooden floor in his living room was from Ethiopia and so on. And he had a sauna, which made the day even better. After sauna we got on Jake's top of the line BMW 765, and it was definitely the most comfortable car I've ever traveled in. And it doesn't stop, we went to have lunch in a French-style restaurant with Jake, and the food was naturally really good.

After lunch we took Jake home and went to pick up Perttu and continued to Pacific Beach once again, where Anssi's friend Justin has an apartment. We got some 90 beers and went to the beach to enjoy them (you can drink at the beach until 8pm). Justin's parents had prepared dinner for us; they barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs as much as we could eat, along with some salad and then some. They also had Jack Daniels -mustard! We got somewhat tipsy at some point, but ended up going home sometime after midnight; it had been long 3 days after all.
After weekend it has been relatively slow. My newly found enthusiasm for running and exercising hasn't faded yet, and I have been running every day now. On another note, it seems that we're finally getting a car this weekend! Anssi's friend got this nice -88 Mercedes E???, which we're probably buying. It has been fully restored a few days ago, so it will be an easy sell in December when we'll have to get rid of it.

Oh, my life is good at the moment. Living in California with a nice apartment, a pool in the yard, a Mercedes...what is there to complain? Well, now that I think, it would be even better if I had my muse here to share all this joy. Life is good, life is good.

Oh boy, do we feel safe or what...this is right around the corner from our apartment.