Growing up in a military town

Sometimes it is hard to remember San Diego is a military town. There are beaches to distract you. Comic-Con comes once a year to create havoc. Let's not forget the incomparable San Diego Zoo and Sea World which if you grew up in San Diego were the best places for field trips. Though these days if you have a child under 5, you are more likely to visit Legoland than anything else in San Diego.

But there is a huge military presence in San Diego. Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard all reside within San Diego County. The only one missing is Army, but there's a base a couple of hours away by car. My father wasn't in the military, but almost every single one of my friends' fathers was a military guy. My friends had to deal with deployment, missed birthdays, general lack of communication (i.e. internet didn't exist), and watching me interact with my dad. I know it wasn't easy.

So Veteran's Day and Memorial Day have a special meaning to any San Diegan, native or new. A big thank you to everyone who has served our country. May we honor your and your families' sacrifice with empathy and gratitude. Be safe and stay strong.

A Review of Allegiant, the Final Book in the Divergent Series

I wrote a post about the Divergent series a couple months ago. The final book of the series, Allegiant, was published on October 22nd. I finally finished the book and should give it a review since I already dedicated a post to the first two books of the series. This is difficult because I don't want to even think about the book I just finished.

The problem is I (along with many others) really dislike Allegiant. I actually bought the book on its release date, skimmed through it, figured out I would hate it, and then it took me 12 days to finish it. No spoilers here, but I agree with the majority of readers. The ending is contrived and what the author Veronica Roth thought she was doing wasn't what she actually accomplished. The amazing story of strength, perserverance, and love apparent in the first two books ended up being a convoluted mess. Mostly I'm just disappointed.

Now I have even more respect for The Hunger Games. It is marvelously written with a true understanding of the human condition. I mentioned in my Divergent and Insurgent post that Veronica Roth was too ambitious which is obviously true. She ended up changing the way Allegiant was written because she couldn't write the story she wanted. But I think that should have been the first clue the path she decided to take was not how the story should have evolved. Much has been written about Roth's youth and in Allegiant it is very apparent. However, I also understand her defense of Allegiant and appreciate the maturity she has shown in its discussion.

So I highly recommend The Hunger Games to anyone. As I've mentioned before, Catching Fire is my favorite of the series and and trailer does not disappoint.

It looks good! The Divergent Series is subpar in many ways, but I don't regret reading it. However with all things, it is hard to remember the good when the ending is so bad.

Venturing into Downtown Vegas for the first time

As a long time SoCal resident, I have been to Vegas many times. However, I have never gone to downtown Vegas. It is the original Vegas which is about a $20 cab ride from the Strip. I guess I have never ventured to downtown Vegas because I never had a reason to visit downtown Vegas. It makes sense it would take The Killers to bring me there.

The Killers are my favorite band. If I had to describe The Killers, I would say they are a glamourous rock band with super catchy music. Their shows are amazing. Some of my affinity for The Killers resides in the fact that I saw them very early in their career and liked them then. I used to love putting on The Killers while driving to Vegas. They really are a Vegas band: shiny, nonsensical, and always reliable for an amazing experience. I've always wanted to see The Killers in Vegas, but never had the chance. Then came Life is Beautiful.

The Life is Beautiful festival was very ambitious. First, it had an incredible lineup with The Killers, Imagine Dragons, Kings of Leon, Beck, and a reunited Jurassic 5 to mention a few names. The festival organizers brought together a culinary village sponsored by all the famous restaurants in Vegas. Each booth had various dishes which all had to be under $10. There was also a chef stage where musical acts would "cook" with chefs. Also at the festival was an Alchemy garden with all sorts of libations. As a festival, Life is Beautiful was a revelation.

Since the festival was in downtown Vegas, I convinced my sister we should stay in downtown Vegas. Just so we can could walk back to our hotel after the festival. We ended up staying at the Golden Nugget which I highly recommend if you are staying in downtown Vegas. The bathrooms were tiny, but the awesome pool makes up for that inconvenience. We even splurged and bought chairs at the adult only pool for Sunday so we could recover from Saturday. The bartender at the adult pool even had the tvs set to football games. The Chargers were on a bye, so I didn't have to be that person who had to watch her game and make everyone else watch it too. I simply watched  and cheered everyone else's game while poolside.

The Killers were the last band for the entire festival and they were amazing. I had already seen The Killers twice (of course I did) for this Battle Born tour, so this was the third time I had seen them under a year. But The Killers were in their hometown and they were so excited. It probably helped that they had been home for about two weeks before this show and were ready to do one last performance.  Brandon Flowers, the lead singer for The Killers, told stories about their songs. Mostly, they were thankful for their fans, demonstrated their appreciation by showering everyone with confetti, and ended the night with When you were young. 

However, I will end this post with my favorite Killers song, Mr. Brightside. Thanks to The Killers for validating my reasons for making you my top band. Viva Vegas!