Juan’s 28th Birthday
It was Juan’s birthday yesterday and we celebrated a number of ways. I arranged a carne asada for him at his parent’s house on Saturday and invited our friends (always referred to as “La Chusma”) and our immediate families. My mom bought the meat (ranchera/beef skirt) and prepared it (I didn’t have the time nor the room to go buy it as it was on sale on Thursday only), I bought the boneless chicken breasts and prepped those, mother in law made the rice and beans, I made a green chile and avocado salsa, potato salad, and kaptainsnot made a super delicious carrot cake from scratch. Juan rented a karaoke machine again, but this time it was harder to get people to sing.Unfortunately, as the night went on, the people that did want to sing sang rather loudly, drunkenly, and crazily. They kept singing rancheras and doing the “ah ah ah ha ha ha” stuff on the mic when they certainly didn’t need it. And no, this wasn’t the immediate families or the Chusma. But we’ll just leave it at that.
We had a good time and by the time we got home and into bed it was almost three in the morning. I was so tired that I wanted to sleep the entire day but we had an appointment at 5:00 p.m. in Universal City that we couldn’t miss, so get up around noon we did. 😀
We picked up kaptainsnot from my parent’s house and drove to Universal Citywalk because I gave Juan a double flight at iFlyHollywood on Valentine’s Day that he hadn’t cashed in yet. I finally booked it for him and decided we needed to go because left up to him, he would never actually do it. It’s a laziness thing of getting something done, I dunno. So anyway, we get there and just make it (ok, we were late but I called ahead). We get there as another group of flyers is in the tube with spectators surrounding from all sides. This only got Juan more anxious and excited. We walked up, signed in, signed his life away and bought the DVD (big mistake).
Juan then went to get changed and “trained” while we waited outside. About 15 minutes later, he was the first one to get in the tube. He was suited up in a black and purple jumpsuit, extra large goggles (to cover his glasses), and a black helmet. He had his arms tucked in with his fists under his chin as we walked to the doorway and gently fell forward in the wind tunnel. There was a coach in there the entire time, moving Juan around trying to get him to balance. After watching the video, Juan can’t believe that he was so off, he needed to bring his knees down and be straight instead of U-shaped like he was. He just didn’t know that is what he looked like while he was in there.
You get to fly for one minute at a time which sounds really short but is ample time to have fun in there. He flew twice and is ready for his next flight. And no, he has no want of flying out a plane. This gives you all the fun and adrenaline (maybe not as much adrenaline) of sky diving with all the safety you could possibly have. The only thing safer is tying a cable and swinging you above a mattress. lol
kaptainsnot took a little bit of video, but I forgot to tell her to keep the point and shoot camera horizontal. So, some of the video is sideways. Sorry! I also added some of the photos to the end.
We had a great time watching him and he loved the flights. We had dinner afterwards and watched Hancock which was much better than what most people and reviews led me to believe. I am glad we gave it a chance. The Dark Knight was sold out at the IMAX there and there is no way that I am not watching this movie on IMAX. Maybe next weekend, we’ll see. Anyway, it was a great weekend!
ETA: And I forgot to mention the neatest place that we discovered while there, The Los Angeles Sock Market!!