rockstar lifestyle

last thursday was crazy. thursday is typically our half day, but we are coming into the lube oil flush now which usually means, no days off, 12 hour days, but before i go there, i need to back up a few hours before getting to work. i normally get out of bed around 5:30AM to leave at 6:00AM. i got a call around 4:00AM from TheElectrical, who'd been sick off and on. he called asking if we had anything to break a fever, and if i could walk it down to his apartment about 4-5 blocks away. being the nice guy that i am, i stumbled out of bed, found some generic aspirin, and dragged myself down the street towards his apartment. he'd left his apartment door open, so i knocked and walked in and found him in his bed. i gave him the medicine, wished him well, told him to call if he needed anything, and went back to my bed for another hour or so.

we went to work for the "half day", but things looked like they were going to run long. we compromised (you don't need two TAs for a lube oil flush) that he would leave at noon, and i'd stay until 7PM at the latest, and he would come in on friday, and i'd have that off. by around 4:30PM, we found out there was an electrical issue (and our guy was sick), so i made my way home and let TheMech know that he had friday off as well. i got home and showered, then jules and i went the TheMech's house to go to dinner. we'd invited him and his fiancee to the "buddha bar" in downtown cairo at the sofitel gezira. his fiancee was getting her hair done and was running late so we went ahead to make the 9:00PM reservation, and he was going to follow once she arrived. when we walked up to the restaurant, they wouldn't let me in because i was wearing shorts, despite having reservations. they said we could eat in the restaurant but not the lounge. sadly, this, combined with a lingering exhaustion, put me in an irritable mood for most of the night. TheMech and his fiancee arrived shortly after, and we had a very nice meal.

after dinner, we made our way to the nile hilton's rooftop bar, "el mojito", where we went after jules' birthday dinner. TheMech and i were both stopped at the door... they don't allow shorts after 7PM. FUKK!!! this didn't help my mood even further. i got into several non-productive debates-turned-arguments over the stupidity of not allowing people who wear shorts into your establishment. we ended up going to the "tavern" bar downstairs for a few drinks. TheMechsFiancee wanted to go her regular haunt, "far east", back in maadi, so we hopped a cab for the 30 minute drive back toward our part of town. far east was fun. same ol', same ol'. a few beers, some people playing pool, lots of sudanese women of the night lurking about. far east closed at 3AM, and TheMechsFiancee was jonesin' for a disco, so we tagged along.

we found a more-than-happy-to-oblige-us taxi driver who would take us the, again, 30 minute drive back to downtown cairo to coma disco. coma was decent. my mood started to pick up at far east and was getting better by the minute. we danced and danced and danced a fool at coma until they turned on the lights and opened the door at 7AM. again, we taxi'd (yup, 30 minutes) in the blazing morning sunlight back to TheMech's place in maadi. after not too much convincing, jules and i found ourselves in borrowed bathing suits enjoying a beautifully refreshing swim at TheMech's 7th floor rooftop pool. after clearing our bleary eyes a bit, relaxing, and finally having our 4th or 5th wind catch up to us, we dried off, quickly changed, and walked down to road 9 to a nice breakfast place called lucille's. we had eggs and hash browns and (beef) sausage. it was a nice way to end my, by the time i went to bed around 10AM, 31 hours awake.

ah, how i miss college.

i hate coffee

jules is a coffee-junkie almost, TheMom drinks coffee, i think i'm pretty much the only person in the civilized world my age who doesn't drink coffee. i know there are more out there, but we are small group. TheMech get cappuccinos from the coffee girl. he gets them with milk and sugar, and they look kinda good, like foamy chocolate milk. the only time i drink coffee is when it is iced and full of chocolatey goodness.

well, today i caved. i ordered a cappuccino myself, the same way, and it's not all that bad. normal coffee still sucks, but this isn't too bad, but i'm retarded. i like to make concoctions, and i have some cranberry juice on my desk... it's, um, tangy to say the least. it's not as good anymore, but i'll drink it. that's the price one pays to be a concoctioneer (now, Rich|, THAT is a made up word).

in other news, yesterday i had to go up the road about 3 hours to another site to check their foundation. TAs often get tossed around in countries like this. instead of mobilizing another TA, with international business travel, putting them up in a hotel, and expenses, they borrow nearby TAs to do simple works like this. it was 3 hours up, 4 hours there, and 3 hours back. normally i'm in the car 2 hours a dat roundtrip. i never thought i'd say it, but i'm tired of sitting. i read a lot of my book, but good lord, i'm gonna get bedsores. anyways, on the way up the road, we drove to pyramid street in downtown cairo to get to the main north-south road, cairo-alexandria desert road. i was reading my book and didn't realize we were heading to pyramid street. the driver asked me if i'd seen the pyramids. i told him, only from afar from the hotel balcony, and he pointed out the driver's side window. HOLY SHITE!!! they are RIGHT there. you're in downtown cairo, and it looks like you can throw a rocks and hit them. there's no embellishment when i say cairo seriously sits in the shadows of the pyramids. it's hard to believe that such an engineering marvel, a wonder of the world, is just background fodder to the locals. they see it every day, and eh... i was in awe. i did my best to take pictures while driving, they aren't the best, but it'll have to do until this weekend. i'm planning on going on a tour of the pyramids booked through the hotel. it leaves at 8:45AM which sucks, because since that's our day off, thursday night usually ends in the wee hours of friday, but i'll have to get up. i WAS going to go by myself with a driver, but apparently that gets really complicated. the driver's can't go in with you because then they are tour guides, but they don't have a license for that or something. then there are people inside who will try to scam you out of money... here, sit on a camel for a picture, then they start taking you somewhere you didn't want to go and charge you money for it (i suppose bailing from a moving camel would be dangerous). so, i'm taking the tourist tour. maybe when jules gets here we can do that on our own. too bad she's seen them all before, so i'm not sure how excited she's going to be seeing them again.

sorry to be terse, but i'm going to go finish my tangy UTI-preventing cappuccino now. more later.

energy drink review, part I

red bull - kinda tastes like crap, but comes in smaller sized can that conveniently mixes well with other liquors at a bar. gives me massive heartburn, and after downing three or four in 10 minutes, i've been known to giggle uncontrollably, especially at this clip.

full throttle (black can) - tastes like fuzzy navels, people will think you've been kissing an underage bridesmaid at a wedding reception all night.

full throttle (blue fury) - tastes like green apples for some reason instead of "blue agave flavor". isn't agave what is used to make tequila? i was thoroughly disappointed. after having the black can, i thought they were going for a legal liquor-based theme. too bad.

rock star (punched) - supposed to taste like fruit punch, but it tastes more like the post-church service kool-aid that stains kids upper lips while the adults are engaging in post-sermon "fellowship".

monster (green M) - very similar to redbull with a hint of citrus. i think there's a hint of a manufactured nasty-ass aftertaste just enough to make you hate yourself for drinking it, but not enough to stop you from trying it ONE MORE TIME. repeat, ad nauseum. cool green poptab though.

monster (assault) - this drink tastes like something you'd take when you're on the couch, sick, and you need the energy to get up to "visit" the bathroom. it's a hybrid of cough medicine and those little "smarties" candies that were better snorted than chewed (did i say that?). not sure if i can finish this, but i'm going to try. cool red poptab though.

monster (lo-carb) - the tastes what i'd expect diet laundry detergent to taste like. it's so bad, i actually think that it MIGHT taste better coming back up, only because your brain is acknowledging that it's getting that shite outta the body, and you learned your lesson as to never drinking it again. when you belch (which you are destined to due to the massive carbonation), you get the horror of reliving that awful taste without the joy mentioned previously of "expulsion" (that in no way condones bulimia). really pansy sky-blue poptab, so there's no real upside besides 20 calories per can, zero if you upchuck, which is extremely likely.

<EDIT>full throttle (nature is one bad mother) - um, i'm 50/50 on this one. it is supposed to be açai berry flavored. i have no clue what that is, where someone at coca-cola heard of it, and why they would think that an energy drink should taste like it, but that's beside the point. it's not THAT bad. apparently when açai berry flavoring is simulated through various chemical trials and combined into a carbonated energy drink, it tastes like iced tea, lightly flavored with a mix of raspberry or peach). i like iced tea, i don't like raspberry or peach iced tea, so if that's your thing, you might like it. it's pinkish in color from what i can tell from the little left on the can lip. the belch burns more than most and doesn't taste as good, maybe it's eating away at my digestive system, i'm not sure, i suppose that could be a side effect of this entire study. either way, it isn't as bad as any of the others.</EDIT>

to date, full throttle (black can) is leading the race, hands down. full throttle in general (being a coke product) seems to have the best handle on this market in the way of taste. any suggestions? i'll move them to the top of my list. as of now, i'm using the monte carlo method of choosing which drink to test.