BIZZZZZARRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

This is shaping up to be an odd day 24 hours.

But first let me give my thanks and appreciation to the jackass that put dynamite on the freeway. I got on this morning and it was a ghost town. I was wondering what jewish holiday it was but then turned the radio to traffic to find that the freeway was closed completely one exit north of my house and seeing as I was heading south I had an open freeway. It was a blissful 12 minute drive to work.

Last night I obliged an old friend that had asked me to go to a "cool thing" with his family. He only told me that it was very important to him and that it would be really fun. Any time his family is involved i'll usually accept cause they're super cool. We I get to this building down by the airport and ask the security person at the front counter what the hell all this is. She lets me know that it's a personal growth seminar where everyone smokes, everyone sits on their cell phones and it costs a good penny. I think ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh shit, can i leave now? I do notice that there are tons of really good looking people going in there, which isn't bad for the eye candy but makes me suspect. I call him and he says he's stuck in traffic so I enter and they immediately ask me to fill out a card which is obviously a marketing card. I fill it out with as much bogus info as I can and she hands me my sticker name tag that says Willy (i couldn't put Dick). He shows, his family shows and an old friend of ours shows. There are about 500 people here but they go into stories about how people attain breakthroughs in their lives and that is usually all they need for personal betterment. The whole time I know my friend is a bit off and more, I guess, progressive thinking. (grad from UC Santa Cruz with a psychology degree!)

There were ceo's, actors, family people general cross section of society, but there were brief sessions of question/answer where every single person participating in this program got very close and looked you straight in the eye and let you know that they are to be honest, and recommiting. I said thanks but was still a shade uncomfortable. People shared their personal breakthroughs and all this but the facilitator found time to throw in quick "suggestions" to register for the class if we would like our very own breakthroughs.

We were then told we had to go into separate groups and meet with "counselors" to see if we qualify for our own awakening. All the while tons of tables with credit cards scanners and registration forms. I and my old friend went to our group while our mutual friend stayed in with the rest of his class, and his family went into their own group. This is where I started getting upset cause it was a sham, total sham. I got done with it and didn't want to share the fact that i was writing jibberish like "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" on my workbook. He asked willy what he had down and I had to say, "I got nothing Ali ("counselor's" name). He immediately took his focus off of me and didn't interact with me the rest of the night. I tried to keep my body language as non defensive as possible but I was trying my best to not go off on this guy that was a screen writer doing this for not a single penny as he kept saying. Their pamphlet had all kind of funky jargon and they had their own odd esotericisms. I was done, i was pissed. But immediately following he hit us up again for the 435.00 registration. I understand that these people are probably getting personal growth out of this or their self esteem is so shitty that they have to do this but I was thinking that most of these people are professionals and prolly have health insurance. Why couldn't they just get over their own mental blocks of going to a therapist (who is certified) for their 10-15 copayment. Crazy, different strokes for different folks i guess. It was sad, I seriously felt like i was listening to Tom Cruise in Magnolia and wanted to know when the space ship was coming to pick us all up. Either way thank god I brought my own water cause I was waiting for Jim Jones' cousin to show up with a bowl of punch. Waste of my time, and I feel like I wasted theirs and my friends. But I hope above all hope that he gets the help he desires.