I landed at LAX around 7:00 am and was totally exhausted and was in desperate need of a nap. I had to drop 818 off at his place so we decided to lay down for a quick nap which ended up lasting almost 4 hours. I was freaked out when I woke up and it was approaching rush hour traffic so I hauled ass back to San Diego in the Prius and wouldn’t you know but I almost drove on the wrong side of the road when I hit downtown! I wasn’t even driving over there in AU and NZ! I guess being in the front seat anxiously watching 818 maneuvering around on the other side of the road/vehicle was enough to screw me up. Ugh.

I met  some of the girls at Lei Lounge in University Heights for some happy hour drinks and snacks (Jeanine, Lauren, Alicia, Amber, Tracy, Kerry and Becky.) I was too busy drinking martinis and gobbling their Philly cheesesteak rolls, lobster mac-n-cheese and the pineapple mango chicken to even take pics of  my food.

After a  bit the girls were on their way to The Purple Church (code word for Pure Platinum, the stripclub) so I had them drop me off at Bareback (ironic that I am at a New Zealand bar and grill already…oh wait I love this place)  to meet up with Dusty, Rich and Jeff. (Side note: Jeff is a master group vacation planner and is planning a trip this summer which is on my new bucket list… stay tuned for details!!) They had been at opening day of the Padres so they were pretty saucy. Even Kyle, the manager of Bareback was all sauced up. He didn’t recognize me at first because of my dark tan and blonde locks.

We mosied over to Tivoli and all of my favorite bartenders were working (wait… Christina wasn’t there!) Rozie, Andrea and Jenn.

Eli showed up. Funny story about Eli from probably 1993 or 1994. He was hired by the Romero brothers to be a spy at the Tiv. They wanted him to pretend he was a regular and make friends with the staff to see which of their bartenders were stealing money/giving away too many drinks. (I mean Christ, how do you get a job where you get paid to drink in a bar??) He did bust a few people but became such good friends with our group of friends that he resigned as the spotter and started hanging out with us. Anyways, he convinced me to do Jaeger Bombs with him.

I look pretty ridiculous here.

This is freaking priceless: what is he so excited about?  The fact that I am actually holding back vomit?

One of my oldest dearest friends met me to kick off an Irish Pub Crawl today! I have known Scotty Leo for about 13 or 14 years now… He used to come into The Tivoli as the Camel cigarette guy and I was in there all time visiting my friend Karen who bartended. Scotty was good friends with another bartender named Kim (yes, my beloved Kim) and even though Kim and Karen never really got along, I fell right in with their crew and have been BFFs with many of them for a loooong time. Oftentimes we refer to our circle of friends (and actually tons of other people in SoCal) as “Six Degrees of Mike Jenkins.” Kim and Mike dated forever, Mike knew Renee and Sigrid from a job, they were all in the DJ scene, Chris opened up a 18+ nightclub, yadda yadda. I could go on for days about how I know everyone and their connections. Long story short, from here on out when it is a Mike Jenkins connection I will say “6degreesofMJ”

We started at The Field, probably the most authentic Irish pub in all of San Diego, simply  because of the fact that every single part of the bar was shipped here from Ireland. Every bar stool, every bit of decoration, every knick-knack, probably even a few dust bunnies.

I guess I am not the only one who shops at Busted Tees.

What Scotty and I couldn’t figure out is how all of these people have today off? Are they all unemployed like me? Are they just on their lunch break? Are they all Irish and take the day off? Do people in Ireland even celebrate St. Patty’s Day?

I ordered the Irish Sampler, and it was not very good. I should have gone with my gut and eaten at Dublin Square, but I was waiting on Moe and Claw who claimed they would be at the Field for BREAKFAST and finally showed up at 2:30. Talk about tweeker time, Jesus!

After waiting around for too long at the Field, Scotty and I started walking towards Patrick’s but got distracted by the live music at Henry’s Pub.

Watch this band absolutely massacre a U2 classic.

Cute bartender… be patient while I test out my camera all day…

Scotty forgot that you were supposed to wear green today (he doesn’t get out much) so I stuck this on his head. Dork.

This clown was actually pretty entertaining.

Here I did the work for you. I can’t tell if they are a local company or not though.

Scotty had to take off so Moe, Claw and I headed over to Dublin Square which was fucking mobbed but I was able to get a great shot of a trainwreck of a girl. I know for a fact I have been that intoxicated in public and now that I have seen this vision of loveliness I might consider heading home before I am in that condition in the future. Wow. And it’s still daylight. I love how she is holding herself up with the door handle. (look her for her on my friend Joey’s site.)

I asked the boys to act casual and pretend I wasn’t there. Ok thanks guys.

The girls from the Tilted Kilt were cruising around dressed like sluts trying to get people to go all the way down to the ballpark area … most people forget that place is even there. Kind of a brilliant move… I’m pretty sure it was the dimples on the one girl’s back that pushed us over the edge.

On the way to Titled Kilt we stopped at The Tiv, of course. I bet you can guess where all four of these guys were born and raised. If you don’t know then I guess you should probably stop reading this blog because you are dumb and I just don’t need dumb people following me. But if you aren’t from the United States, then you are allowed to continue reading. Just google “wicked retahded.”

I didn’t take many photos at the Tilted Kilt because I was too busy betting Claw and losing.  I thought that the bar was only open 7 days a week during baseball season. He claimed that the place was open year round 7 days a week. It is huge and I was convinced that there would be no possible way that they could fill it and make enough money to stay open down there in the desolate East Village. I was wrong and I lost ten bucks. I only make bets that I am 99.9% sure to win. I suck.

All day we had been making fun of businesses in the downtown area that have gone under and by what thought process did they ever think that they would survive in the current economic crisis. Take this giant 5,000 square foot location for hand woven carpets.

Or a place called:  Wings, Pizza and Things. (no pic sorry.) I thought I would open up a shop called “Bicycle Locks, Gerbils and Tanning Salon” and see how well it did. Ridiculous.

Like I said, be patient while I play with the new Nikon D300.

Our last stop of the day was at Basic where the two of them GRILLED me about who this character was that I was going to Australia with. I couldn’t take it anymore and I had to get up early and attempt SCUBA diving in a pool which is sure to be a full blown anxiety attack. I needed some sleep and I needed to be certain I didn’t smell like booze in the morning. I was asleep at 8:30 and it was awesome.

Before we left Basic a random 80′s song came on that I cannot get out of my head. Do you remember this song?? I love it! Godley and Creme.

Diego and I slept in a little today. It is certainly nice not having the alarm go off at 6:30 am. I decided to lock him in the bathroom with the fan on while I went to the gym to drown out any potential “small dog sounds.” After the gym I met with my friend Michael from work (yes I was in the office the last 3 days… what can I say? I miss being around everyone) and we went to eat at The Local. For starters we had the Fancy Beer Cheese and Hot Pretzel (freaking awesome if you are ever in there, get it!)

Homemade beer cheese made of gouda, sharp cheddar and Stone Brewery’s Smoked Porter. Big soft pretzel with coarse salt and rosemary.

After lunch I went down to the Tivoli to grab a beer with Michael and Robert. Their Mom passed away this morning, she was 84 years old and had been sick for a bit, so it wasn’t a shock. I wanted to just pop in and give them hugs

Diego and I enjoying the sun.

We went back to my house, after all that walking he was ready for a nap. But I wanted to try one more time to do something funny with him so I could tweet Jason while he was stuck in his meetings. I tried to put Diego in the fridge and the oven, but he was not having it.

I opted to take more pics of him in the sunbeam.

AND THEN FINALLY! After several hours of trust building excercises, he allowed me to put this tiny sombrero on his head.

But ran away when I tried the tiny leprechaun hat.

Come on!!! It’s almost St Patrick’s Day! Why the sombrero and not the leprechaun hat? sheesh

My friend Jason asked me to dog sit Diego while he went out of town on business and of couse, I obliged. Diego is a half Chihuahua/Daschund mix. He is what you call a “People Dog” and I am what you call a “Dog Person” so it was a perfect match! I had big plans to dress him up in all these hats and costumes and do things to him… tweeting all the time so Jason can see how much fun we were having, but I gotta tell ya, Diego is not one who likes things on his head. Not one bit.

He’s pretty damn cute though

He loves to lay in the sunbeam.

And I think what might be going through is head during this video is something like this: “Ooooh I love the light even though it is so bad for me, can’t look away, just keep blinking to make sun not hurt” Or some variation of “Yeah I am a total dumbass and I know this is blinding me, but it feels so good.”

Apparently during the time that I went to the gym this morning Diego cried and barked and the landlord called me asking if I had a new dog. I was meeting my friend Jeff for dinner so I dropped Diego off at Joe and Vanessa’s so he could play with Kali and hopefully she would keep him company.

Dinner was at Proper Gastropub near Petco Park and since Jeff works for Shipyard Brewing Company and they carry some of his beers, we decided to go check out their grub.

Sausage rolls (3 out of 5 stars, too much breading and they were a little greasy)

Braised lamb and beef cheek sliders with crispy fried onions and tomato chutney. (3 out of 5, nothing special)

Chips and mussels with  fennel and leeks poached in creamy Chimay White with bacon foam. (I am going to go ahead and give this ZERO stars! It was served lukewarm, the mussels had no flavor and the bacon foam was more like watered down broth.)

I was waiting for Joe and Vanessa to finish at the driving range so I could stop by and retrieve Diego, but they weren’t ready so I stopped by the Tiv to see my new bff Andrea.

One thing led to another and I stopped by the Chee Chee to tell Jessica (former NA employee) about my recent departure and then Joe and Vanessa  picked me up from there and FORCED me into going to The Local.

Hi Sean! (Congrats to you and Mina on the new addition to your family!)

He showed me some pics on his Blackberry and I was informed that they do not have a real camera at home and they have a newborn baby! (tragedy) Looks like they are going to be my first customers! Shit who am I kidding, I am not going to charge them for my photography … I just want a bar tab