Picking up where I left off

It's been little while since I got back from my trip and I started working at the same jobs that I was at before I left. Doing construction for my friends dad, and back on set from time to time doing background work. Doing The construction isn't as bad as I expected it to be when I was picturing it in my head from south america, being winter and all. I guess because the work that I was doing in the jungle was insanely tough and exhausting. Lugging around giant logs and hacking through bush all day with machetes will make any job look easy I suppose. But I have no complaints about picking up where I left off. I was ready to leave South America. I saw and did everything that I wanted to and was ready to come home. I was kinda excited to come back for winter because it was pretty much summer where I was and I was sick of the heat. Plus I stocked up on sweet winter clothes down in South America to prepare myself. Its also pretty awesome that christmas is coming up soon because I finished ALL of my christmas shopping while I was down in South America, so that means I dont really have much left to do or worry about before christmas.

It was pretty cool to see all of my friends again once I got back because its been so long since I last saw any of them except for Dylan that came down to Peru for about a week. The first week or so that I got back, I spent going out to dinner mostly with different groups of friends. A group of us went out to dinner to my favorite restaurant called the foundation where they have the BEST nachos ever. The purpose for this dinner was to set up a secret santa type activity for christmas, where we all draw names from a hat and we have to get that person a gift without them knowing who is getting them their gift, and the same for you. I think that the person I got is really gonna like the gift that I got them and I am actually super stoked to give it to them. After a little bit of confusion we got it all sorted out and then left to head back to the house my my friends Dan and Lennea. Dan just bought this boardgame and invited us all to come back and play it. I was a little skeptical at first but after we set up the teams of myself, alex and Tyler, versus Dan, Lennea and Clayton we played a round of it and I realized how intense this game actually is. The game involves a wheel that you click and it gives you a word, you then start to describe what the word is without using actions or saying the word, and once one of your teamates says the word you click the wheel and pass it on. Whoever is left with the wheel by the time the timer runs out loses, and the other team is rewarded a point. The game pace is fast and nerves are high, and by the time the timer is almost up everybody is super intense and competitive. I must admit that my team got defeated more times than Dans but it was good fun and I cant wait to play again. I also just bought a longboard and am pretty stoked on it. I dished out about $250 for it but it's a really good quality one. I normally go up with Dylan to get food or something and just get him to drop me off so I can ride it all the way home. Where I live everything is uphiil like stores and restaurants and stuff, so he drops me off about a 1o minute drive away and the ride back is all downhill. I just put my ipod on and cruise all the way home and you can get going pretty fast on that thing. The cool part too is when there are no cars on the road I can just take up the entire street and carve that thing as hard as I want. It pretty much feels like snowboarding on fresh powder if any of you know what that feels like.

So after a few weeks of working construction, I get called in to work on a saturday on set. I wasn't sure if I wanted to because I already made plans to go downtown and then out to the club for my friends birthday, and you never know for sure what time you will be done on set. It could be 3 hours or it could be 15 hours. I finally said yes because I need to the money to pay off a bunch of bills that I have. When I showed up to set I met a couple of friends that I haven't seen in awhile and they asked me about my trip, and I told them some cool and funny stories. Then This really weird asian guy that kinda looks like that asian guy from the show heroes comes up to me and starts chatting with me for a bit. The conversation started off pretty normal but then this guy started explaining to me all these weird useless facts about fairys, ghosts, and aliens and how they are all connected in a weird new age movement which involves controlling the world. This guy was literally lecturing me about this stuff for hours, and im not even joking. The only responses I gave were, "Oh really," "cool," and a little bit of, "weird." This was the kind of guy that even though the other end of the conversation was giving dead end responses, could go on and talk about different things endlessly. So I was a little relieved when we got called to work on set. It was actually a really cool set which was supposed to be an arcade full of kids playing games while a giant dog is supposed to be talking to a pigeon. The movie was cats and dogs 2, so the cast were mostly animals. The coolest part was that the arcade they had was full of games that we were allowed to play, and had infinite credits. Some of the games were x-men, house of the dead, area 51, some racing games, and some other shooter games. I was placed on area 51 to play with this other kid. While we waited to shoot the scene me and the other kid were playing this game and I got super into the game and turned my gun sideways like a gangster, and started shooting these aliens and said, "Fuck yo' shit nigga!" Completley oblivious to the fact that my partner playing the game was black. He never said anything after and neither did I. I don't even know if he heard or cared, but I just went back to playing my game normally, only a little embarrassed and awkward. Regardless, it was pretty funny and i'm just gonna mention that I am not a racist, haha. So after we finish I head back upstairs to where our holding is and sit down to start reading my book. Only to see that weird asian guy out the corner of my, headed straight in my direction. There was nothin I could do and was sucked into his vortex of crazyness. He started telling me about these haunted houses and how people with ouiji boards (not sure on the spelling) open up these doors for evil spirits to enter their house and haunt them and stuff. This went on for a little while until it got pretty entertaining and he began to explain to me that Criss Angel's illusions are actually real and that he channels these dark spirits that help guide him through these illusions like levitating across two buildings. It was pretty hard for me not to laugh. After a few more hours I was finally rescued by my friend Natasha who pulled me away. Me, Natasha, the black kid I was playing area 51 with, and some other asian guy started playing cards to help get that weird asain guy away from us. I taught everyone a game that I learned while I was in the jungle called Yaniv. And after kicking everyones ass a bunch of times it was finally time to leave. All in all it was actually a fun day on set, full of entertainment. Later that night my friend Alex and myself proceeded to get our dance on at the club. I forgot how many goofballs there are here with their affliction shirts, streaked hair and torn jeans.

The few weeks that I have been back have been fairly normal and feel just like they were before I left. But it feels good to be back and I think it was time for me to return. I can't wait for christmas and i'm really excited to give everyone the cool gifts that I got for them while I was down in South America. Well I don't know what else to write so, until next time thanks for reading about my life.

- Justen Ortiz