911 Challenge

As my sister reminded me as we texted eachother after the earthquake, I love them chicken wings. It was 1995 in Charleston, SC when I realized this along with my love for spicy food. The place I went to on Market St had Habanero wings (first time I heard the word "Habanero") and they made me cry and sniffle and made my lips numb and I loved it. There is a place very nearby where I take work trips to California named University Chicken, and they have these strange tasting wings. They don't taste bad, but they are very sweet and tangy besides being spicy which is an interesting combination. Like alot of spicy wing places, they have a scale of spiciness of which I've gotten to the second from the top. They also have a challenge for which they make an extra special wing sauce advertised as two levels higher than their normal highest strength sauce. You win something if you eat so many of their spiciest wings in such a period of time. Well, Tuesday after I had my 5 second-from-the-top wings and a few beers, a large group of college kids came in, all of which who had won the 911 challenge except for 3-4 of them who were being initiated that night. I watched the whole ordeal and they were in some serious pain.

I had been debating whether or not to eventually try the challenge. Each time I go there I fear it will be my last time as I think I'll either quit my job or be fired shortly. So when I saw they had a few cups of the nasty spicy wing sauce leftover after the challenge, I asked if I could try some. I took a bite sized piece of celery and loaded it up with not a huge scoop, but definitely more than a teaspoon--probably about as much would coat one chicken wing. I knew from my vast wing sauce eating experience that it would be fine at first and take a bit to build up to a painful sensation. It took a good five mintues, but it got there. The pain on my lips and in my mouth was bad but it felt like I could probably withstand it for a long time. I don't know about 10 wings worth, though. What really makes me doubt if I can handle the challenge, though, was the feeling in my stomach. I was having some serious unfamiliar pain in that area. I didn't end up throwing up or going to the restroom, so I guess it wasn't that bad and it might be something I could get used to. But at least half of the contestants I was watching eventually threw up outside of the place. I imagine if I had more than a few wings worth of that sauce I would be in the same situation. It's all a question of how long I could hold it. The challenge requires holding it for 10 minutes. Maybe I will try next week, but I doubt it, because it also caused some issues the next day at work. Not serious, but not comfortable.

The challenge is described here and you can see videos here.

Earthquake!!!

I've been here for less than a day and this has already made it worth the trip. Somewhere around 8 weeks now I'd been out here this year, and I still hadn't experienced that stereotypical San Francisco earthquake. I think tonight's was better than most. I was in the hotel room watching a few minutes of the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown special when it hit. It lasted somewhere between 10 and 12 seconds and was a magnitude 5.6 from the first reports. Here are my actions/thoughts:

0 - 3 seconds: Lying on bed watching TV. Whoever was having a loud conversation in the room next door has now decided to either move furniture around, vacuum the carpet, or is testing out their jackhammer for their job tomorrow.

3 - 5 seconds: Yeah, the building is shaking too much for this to be just the guy next door. This is an earthquake! I stand up next to the bed and spread my arms and legs out like I'm a basketball player guarding an opposing team player.

5 - 12 seconds: Whee! This is fun. Feels like being on a subway train bouncing on the tracks.

Then it stopped. Only after that did I wonder about how subways are designed to withstand this kind of shock, and that buildings that I am on the third floor of maybe aren't. So, I never thought about leaving the room or anything to make my situation safer. There probably wasn't much I could do in that period of time if the building was going to collapse anyway.

In case there were aftershocks, I wanted to be someplace more interesting, so I went out for a run, and ended up gettin' some wings. That turned out to be pretty exciting too. See next entry!

Jury Duty

Everyone hates this I hear. But not me, I was looking forward to it. A day or maybe even a week away from work doing something different, and downtown too, which is great! So today I go down for jury selection, and there is a large pool of potential jurors so my chances aren't great for getting selected anyway. The judge tells us that we would've been selected for a bunch of grueling cases--armed robbery, a few aggravated assault cases (one involving a machete!) that would probably last all week. Great! The only problem is that everyone decided to plead guilty this morning, so--no trial. This means I get to go back to work in California for the rest of the week and next week. Ugh.

Idiot

Here's my "I'm an idiot" story for tonight. Less than half an hour ago, I was driving around my usual route for finding a parking spot downtown. I had to stop by Lovejoy's since I didn't get a chance to last weekend and I'll be gone all next week. So I'm driving north on Trinity and get to the 11st street light and plan on turning left and then left again on San Jac. I start thinking how stupid people don't realize you can turn left from a one way street onto a one way street where the traffic is going left. I think to myself I can't do that here because 11th street is two-way. So I turn left after the light turns green, and here is where my brain farts. I'm in the left lane (on the westbound side) but before I get to San Jac I think oh, I'll get into the far left lane and then I can turn left on a red light. So I completely forgot I was on a two-way street, and was in the oncoming traffic lane making a stop at the light. Before I make the turn, I realize my mistake, and a split-second later, a cop stopped at the same light but coming in the opposite direction turns on his lights.

Of course the first thing he asks is if I've had anything to drink to which I answer "no." He then asks "not even one?" and I answer without hesitation "not even one," because it is true. From his facial expression I don't know if he was going to believe me or not, so I added more of the credible story, which was also true, and which was that I was just getting downtown--to have a few drinks. I don't know if he liked that part, but what other reason would there be to just be getting downtown at this time?

I was sure I was going to get a ticket, but he left me with a warning. Maybe it was because of all the "sirs" I used, at the start and end of every sentence. But the worst thing was what he said right before he told me to be careful if I have anything to drink and he wouldn't want me to be part of one of the many accidents that happen down here, and that was that he could detect a bit of a Minnesota accent. I didn't argue since I didn't want to press my luck.

PS Brae-I thought about going to REF to see your friend's band, but if they are headlining they won't go on 'til after midnight and unfortunately I really have to be to work on time tomorrow (meaning someone will actually notice if I'm not there on time tomorrow) so I can't stay out late