Jewish Furlough

This past Wed and Thurs my work was closed due to another "Jewish Holiday". Hey, I wasn't complaining and definitely wanted to take advantage of the free time during the sunny week. On Wed, I met with my new employers and talked with their graphic designer for a while. Later that day, I spent a couple hours ballin' it up at the 24 in Altadena. Oh, also, I'm proud to say that I am no longer afraid of playing with the black guys at the gym. Before, I used to psych myself out before we'd even start playing. I'd think, "shit, these guys are way too athletic for me and will dunk on me all the time!" Most of them had mean game faces on in the gym too! But during these past few months I learned a few things:

1. Yes, the black guys ARE super athletic and most are much better than I am. BUT, there are also a lot who suck and I am also a lot more savvy and basketball IQ smart than most of the players I play against. So I've learned that I all I need to do is play smart and know what my body can do. And hey, a dude dunks on me? So what....

2. Its super refreshing to play with people who are familiar with organized basketball (aka. passing and looking for your team mates)

3. People talk way too much shit in LA. I guess it's all about how you talk the talk and much less about whether or not you can walk the walk... Gets real annoying, real fast!

And after 3 hours of basketball, I chilled at home Wednesday night and watched Hot Tub Time Machine and 500 Days of Summer online! Both were very excellent movies and I highly recommend them to anyone.

Thursday, though, was the day where I had the whole day to plan something fun. I decided I didn't want to stay cooped up indoors and went out to enjoy the midday LA sunshine. I ventured back to Echo Mountain for a quick hike (or so I thought)...

Before I had a job down here, I would try and explore LA and one of the places I visited was Echo Mountain. Now, I don't remember the hike being that hard nor did I remember the sun being that hot. Let's just say that summer may have officially started for me! Check out those sexy backpack tan lines! haha.

 





Yeah... so I stupidly decided to hike up the 2.5 mile trail without a shirt and sans sunscreen because I was thinking it would be the perfect time for a tan. The while stripes are from the backpack I was wearing that carried my water bottle and D80. Well, I guess 3+ hours in the sun, on the top of a mountain, with no shirt, comes with some dire consequences. Yesterday, I spent every waking hour graciously lathering lotion on any burnt area of my body. It didn't really help that much either. Luckily, when Jenna came over last night, we went out and bought some Aloe Vera which she thankfully helped apply on the hard-to-reach places.

Later Thursday night, I was just expecting to relax at home but Bryan asked if I wanted to play ball with some of his friends from Pharm school. Knowing full well that I couldn't turn down an opportunity to dominate some local chumps ;) I went and played with them. We went to a small rec gym and ended up playing for almost 3 hours. After that, my legs officially hated me... My shoulders, back and chest were sore from the sun burning, my legs were shot from all the on-court running and my arms were dead from hitting all those shots! haha. I passed out sometime before 12am after watching some of Sherlock Holmes in bed.

Here's a pic I found up on Echo Mountain. Pretty creative.

See! This guy was suntanning too and I bet he didn't put any sunscreen on...

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I also went to check out the South Pasadena Farmers Market on Thursday afternoon.

They had a bunch of great looking produce but was kinda expensive. I did want to try some of the cooked items but didn't feel like mingling or spending cash. Next time though... when someone goes with me.

What would you do if you had a couple days off from work? Would you just relax at home or go out and do something?