Man is this one of the craziest stories ever. Yesterday was one of the most exciting days I’ve had in a long while, and definitely since I have been down here in California. Sunday evening Carson called me and let me know that we had a possible job on Monday, which would involve some pretty awesome celebrities (I will tell you about those in a bit). We were supposed to go to a meeting that night to get some more info on the possible job. We met his friend from Pepperdine, Mariko, and headed to a hotel over in Hollywood. There were a handful of people gathered around discussing the upcoming event. I learned that we would be helping out with the revealing of the most recent Hollywood Star, which was for Jerry Buss the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers for the past 27 years. I was told I was supposed to be paired up with a Lakers cameraman. Carson was assigned to a photographer for the Lakers. We were just volunteers who were supposed to shadow our guys and get them anything they needed and be on the radios in case anyone else needed our guys. This seemed easy enough; shadow some dude and see a bunch of celebrities. But we soon found out that we would be a lot more involved than we could have ever imagined. We woke up bright an early (6:30 AM, which I haven’t missed at all by the way ever since leaving construction). After getting all showered up and dressed in our baller gear we were on our way to help out with the celebs. In no time we had on our walkie’s with headset on along with our backstage type passes. We had “Staff” passes that let us go anywhere, even where all the other “Media” people couldn’t go. I was assigned a “very important” task as they called it right off the bat. There were a bunch of envelopes that were addressed to various television stations such as E!, and CNN that had to be given to my camera guy so he could send out his footage to each and every one of them. Carson was soon paired up with his photographer which he will be describing in his own words.

I didn’t really know what to think about following around a photographer all day, but at least it was going to be easy and maybe I would get to see some cool stuff. Aside from just shadowing my guy the other part of my job was to make sure that he got the priority shots completed on the event shot list. I’ll get to the who, what, when, where, how of those shots later. The photographer was really cool so most of the morning we just sat around in the staging area while people gathered around the crowd control fences.

So back to my portion of the most exciting day ever. I had to call my guy to make sure he was on time and around, after finding him I gave him the envelopes and began to shadow him. This was around 9:30 AM, when all he was supposed to do was film the surrounding area on Hollywood Blvd. So my day began quite smoothly on the street down near the actual star on the sidewalk known as the staging area. I waited patiently getting anything for my guy as needed. Carson was in the same are as me right where the action was going to happen. We were so stoked, just being able to be in the area where the fans couldn’t even go though it was only an extra 15-20 feet. As time passed the moment had begun, celebrities were about to start rolling up in their rides, which consisted of mainly limos. All the other television stations were set up on a little staging area directly in front of the star and stage where the guest speakers would be talking. Our guys were running around the entrance so they could get the shots of the celebs arriving. Although I wasn’t very useful at this time I was still in the action, loving the experience.

The first car arrived and out walked Phil Jackson who was towering over most of the people. It was a bit strange because he looked a little beat up as he hobbled out with a cane. I then remembered that he just had hip surgery, so he wasn’t as aged as I thought. Magic Johnson was the next tower to walk out and the fans went crazy. Now although I wanted to talk to him and go a bit crazy myself, I remained stone cold, because I was the important worker on duty. I just kept on smiling ready to do anything my guy needed me to do. One by one the celebrities kept on waltzing in (not literally because that would have been weird). Tom Arnold, Paula Abdual, the whole Lakers team, and the mayor of Los Angeles rounded out the list for the first part of the arrivals.

At this point I’m running around all crazy with my photographer trying to get shots. We ran down the street to the Lakers bus and walked with them into the event taking pictures all the way. Then we ran back to the entrance to the event where most of the limos were pulling up. After taking what must have been thousands of photos already we still didn’t have a couple key shots because a couple people had yet to show up.

There were two however who were a bit late and I wasn’t surprised at all. I walked over to the road where the cars were coming in and saw this old school Cadillac painted in Lakers colors rollin’ on in. It was also equipped with hydraulics and let me tell you Snoop Dogg didn’t let them be hidden. He bumped all the way in, it was hella cool.

So the Snoop arrival was probably the biggest part of my day because the #1 most important photo that my guy had to get was Snoop getting out of his Lakers mobile. So I was on the radio big time at this point, people were yelling at me “Snoop’s on the corner of Hollywood and Highland.” So we ran down the street a bit, yes literally ran, and took some photos. But then we realized he was still pulling up to the event so we ran back to the entrance to make sure we got the shot. So there I was running along side a crazy bumping Cadillac as all the fans went crazy on the other side of the barricades. We got the shots and Snoop walked into the event. The highest priority part of my job that day was now complete, but I still had to help out to make sure he complete a long list of other shots. One of which was about to pull up.

Right behind him was the next big star, Paris Hilton walked out of her not as cool SUV. She of course wasn’t driving, but she looked good just as I had expected. By this time the ceremony had started and my camera guy was with the other cameramen in the front by the stage. I was now just chillin on the side listening to each speaker, ready to do anything I was asked over the radio. Although I was willing and ready to work, I was pretty stoked that I got to just enjoy the ceremony. Phil, Magic, Paula and the Mayor of Hollywood all said some pretty nice things about Jerry Buss. I don’t really know exactly who he is, but I can say that the Lakers are one of the most popular teams in the world, so I can imagine Jerry Buss had something to do with it. Then I was back to work before I knew it because I was called over the radio to make sure that my camera guy was upstairs to film the celebs on their way into the reception. All of a sudden I looked over and saw my guy waving at me to go over to him. The only problem was there was a sea of people in my way, and on top of that the only open area was being used by Fox Sports with live interviews going on.

I decided to put my balls on the table (so to speak) and force my way through. In doing so I walked right behind Paris Hilton’s live interview. I thought it was pretty cool , maybe you saw me ( I was wearing a very nice blue button shirt, which was lovely (to some). After loading up a tripod and like 400 bags (it may have been like 3 heavy ones), we were off to our destination: The Red Carpet. Yes that’s right it was just like the big movie premieres, a red carpet leading into the reception.

Meanwhile back on the walk of fame I was just hanging out near my guy and aiding in facilitating certain shots that needed to be taken. A few important ones were: Magic-Kobe-Buss, Paula-Snoop-Buss, Paris-Magic, Paris-Paula, and so on. Everyone was going crazy on the radios trying to get all their people (by their people I mean there was a shadower for every celeb that was suppose to be on the radios) together to take the photos. So I was like “Snoop, please come with me, we need some photos,” and “Paris, we need to end your interview it’s time for some photos.” But it wasn’t just me, there was a gang of us all on a team trying to finagle celebs into group photos. My guy got most of the needed shots mostly because he was money, but I like to think I helped him get the job done. Next stop for us was the red carpet for another round of photos.

As my camera guy got set up awaiting the celebs, I began to freak out a bit because he was supposed to be filming interviews, led by one of the Laker Girls. I couldn’t see any of the beautiful babies at all, and I was just about to radio someone more important than me to see what the deal was. This idea was halted in a hurry because I felt a tugging on my arm. It was my guy pleading in desperation that I was going to be asking the interview questions since the Laker girl wasn’t around. He practically threw me into the red ropes separating us from the “famous people”. Soon I had a microphone in my hand and about to give red carpet interviews. I mean what the heck? How did this happen? I was very excited but also very nervous. My guy then assured me that he would just tell me what to ask so everything would be cool. But as Jerry Buss was making his way through the first interviewers I was bombarded with three different questions. I was just trying to memorize the first one, but he kept telling me new ones. I was like “wait, wait which one do you want me to ask?!?!?). He told me and then it was time.

My very first official red carpet question was completely botched. I said hi and then sort of mumbled/slurred some sort of question together. It may have sounded something like this: “Hello Dr. Buss, howlakerswhat means today important special?” He obviously replied with “what?” Luckily I pulled it together and asked two more questions that he could actually respond to. I can’t tell you exactly what I said because I was so in the moment that I don’t remember what it was. Up next was Paula Abdual. My guy finally narrowed down my question and I was ready. She tried to sneak away before us so I yelled her name, “Paula, Paula” and she came on over. I have that sort of affect on women, ha-ha. My delivery was much smoother this time around. My first question was : “So did you really have a relationship with that American Idol boy?”… I’m messing with you guys. Again I don’t remember what I said, it was something along the lines of: what do the Lakers mean to you? It was a little nerve racking because she just kept looking at me as she talked. The camera was just not there in her mind. Obviously this is how it should be, but I just kept on smiling and nodding as she talked. Maybe she just liked my blue eyes, probably not though. Anyways Kareem Abdual-Jabbar was next and I was psyched. This was until I looked back only to see my replacement, a beautiful Laker girl. I had completed my portion of the interviews and although I was nervous it was such an awesome time. I stepped back and just watched the next few celebs come through. She got Kareem and Kobe Bryant. I didn’t get to talk to them but I got some excellent photos. After everyone had made their way into the reception area, it was our turn to enter. My guy was supposed to find some more celebs inside that he didn’t get a chance to film. I wasn’t as important this time, but I got to follow him and his Laker girl with his bag.

We headed into the club like scenic reception area. There were neon lights, a bar, and projectors playing Laker highlights all over. The food looked phenomenal. We started looking for some more celebs, and John Salley was first, and he was hella funny. After the interview he started hitting on our interviewer, he was pimpin’ since been pimpin’. (spitting game (flirting)) After I snapped a few phone photos, we were off to the next big star. It was Paris Hilton, we interrupted her meal, but I bet she wasn’t gonna eat anyways. She is shorter than I thought, about 5’8”, but has a very nice body, just as I thought. But for all you ladies out there reading this, she does seem to cake on that make –up. I got a phone photo of her too, so I can send it out for anyone who would like to see her up close. Funny man Tom Arnold was next and he is just an all around character. Cracking jokes all over the place, I laughed a few times. After his last interview with Tom, he was out in no time. I helped him down to his car with his equipment, but rushed back up to hang out with everyone. Carson’s photographer was taking a break so we decided to grab some cookies and walk around a bit. It sucks because I am sure we could have taken a few real photos with some of the Lakers or other celebrities but we were camera less. We didn’t let that ruin our time though, so we just hung out and realized that this was one of our most exciting days we have ever had. Apparently it’s not the cool thing to hang around red carpet events, because after like an hour the celebs were all gone. I wanted one photo with John Salley, the last remaining celeb, but he was in one of the side rooms dining with like 5 girls. Again he was pimpin’ so I didn’t interrupt him.

While Luke was running around with his camera guy I was mostly just chillin. My guy pretty much had everything under control after the red carpet. There was no more craziness on the radios and things were calmed down in the reception. He just continued to walk around and snap candid photos, but my job was pretty much done. So I just hung out at the reception soaking it all in. I’m not much of an outgoing person or I could have chatted with a few celebs and certainly several of the lesser known Lakers. I particularly wanted to talk to Luke Walton as he was just hanging out by himself as I was. Luke finally was done with his guy and we just grabbed some food and hung out for a while. I had a great time and it was a great experience, special thanks to Mariko Wilson for setting it all up for us.

Carson and I decided our excitement was over so we grabbed our guest bag they were handing out and headed off. I bet I was on my phone calling some friends and my family in about 32 seconds. It would have been sooner but we were in a parking garage with no service. Basically what I have taken from this experience is that down here with eBUS live, anything can happen. Come down and hang out, IM sure something crazy and fun will happen!!!!

-Luke C.

Comments by Carson

Hi, my name is Lieu also known as Buddy and I’m about to be the fourth member of the eBUS live crew. What a monumental time in my life. When Carson asked me to come help him out with the bus, I couldn’t say no. I was nervous about the whole thing at first, but after realizing that I was going to be hanging out with great people who have a great plan, and always being by the beach, the decision was easy. There wasn’t much going on for me back at home, (Washington, like the rest of the crew) I just got laid off and my parents weren’t too happy with me living at home so this is a perfect time for me to venture out and try something new for a change and I know this will be an experience I will never forget (In a good way). I’m really passionate about helping my friends out with whatever and this is an opportunity to do that and hopefully make some money. The first five nights I’ve been down here, I’ve slept at five different places. The weather has been great and I think I’m going to Six Flags on Friday so what more can I ask for. Anyways, I just wanted to give you readers an idea of who I am so when you read our stories you’ll know who we’re talking about.

- Lieu

The sun was out in a hurry yesterday so there was to be no time wasted. Although Luke D. was busy, there were still three of us and Lieu was excited to be apart of the team. Since we have been putting off finishing our luxurious black curtains for the bus, we decided this was the first task we had to tackle.

We immediately went to the bus to grab our materials, which consisted of the already cut curtains, the grommets (I will explain later if you don’t know what a grommet is) and the cable which would run through the curtain holes. I guess now would be a good time to explain what a grommet is, because we had to stop by the nearest hardware store to pick up a hammer. Without the hammer we couldn’t finish the grommet placement on the curtains.

A grommet is like a sturdy outline of a hole in something soft such as fabric. What you do, is punch a hole in the given fabric, and then place each of the two metal grommet pieces on either side of the punched fabric. The hammer then smashes the two pieces together with the help of some sturdy steel aids. So grommets are basically the bomb, because they can make weak fabric holes, very strong (like bull), enabling them to be hung into a very popular bus (known to you as eBUS live). Basically what I just described is exactly what we did in the Pepperdine parking lot underneath the beaming hot sun. We finished after about an hour or so and decided that we should give ourselves a break.

The ocean was the first thing on our mind as we had all been sweating trying to perfect our grommet placement. (I know that you are probably going to look this word up in the dictionary since you still probably don’t fully understand what it is.) A quick trip to VONS was in order so we could purchase a volleyball. We knew there were only three of us, but we couldn’t just “lay-out” as many girls prefer to do. We finally arrived at the nearest beach and found the nets. Playing 1 v 2 is definitely not the most fun, but it kept us busy and active. About 30 minutes passed and we decided an ocean swim was in order. We hurried back to the car to grab our suits and then back to the bathrooms to change. And boy do they stop cleansing those bathrooms after summer! We changed as quickly as possible to escape from the gross stalls and back to the nets. Our plan was to work up a huge sweat and then run directly into the ocean at full speed. Again after like 45 minutes we were tired and decided to make a b-line to the water. We could barely make it in a full sprint because we were so tired. The ocean felt so frickin good, and we were so satisfied with our little outing. After a bit of body surfing we decided to head back in and maybe even back to work.

There was still plenty of light out so t-shirts were next on the list. We headed to Santa Monica to look for some shirts, and were actually successful this time. We found some gray, black and white ones. These will be our experimental T’s, and hopefully they will turn out so you can start purchasing them!!! The rest of the night was spent relaxing and looking forward to another productive, yet awesome day.

-Luke C

Last Thursday I went down to Newport to attend an award ceremony held to honor people who have provided outstanding service in the field of youth education. One of the honorees was Ashley’s grandma Adeline. The ceremony was good and Adeline’s speech was pretty funny, there also was a nice meet-n-greet afterwards where I spread the word of eBUS live. I spent the rest of the day hanging out with Ashley and trying to survive while being suffocated by my ridiculous ailment that most refer to as allergies (I am allergic to Adeline’s cat). On Friday the rest of the crew came down to hang out. We drove to Crystal Cove, checked out the sights and the café which ended up being well out of our price range so we moved on to Laguna Beach to find a bite to eat and a place to hang out. After a crammed car ride (six of us in a Honda Civic) and a lot of bickering we ended up just parking in the area we thought of as ‘downtown’ and then walked to a nearby dinner. The food was pretty good and the price was alright so I can’t really complain. After lunch we hung out at the beach for a while, chatted it up and watched some people play a little volleyball, but unfortunately we weren’t prepared to take them on. Eventually we had to leave because Chelsey had to catch a flight back home that evening. Lieu, Ashley, Luke C., and I all stayed the night at Adeline’s, which was lovely. In the afternoon we went swimming in Adeline’s pool, well actually I went in the hot tub, but some of us went swimming. Then we headed out on the town to find a place to eat and to show Lieu and Luke C. Newport. We walked around Balboa island for a bit, then we took the ferry to the peninsula and walked around some more. Eventually we decided upon eating at Ruby’s on the pier, it was fitting for the Newport first timers because the whole pier thing is pretty cool. The day came to a close as we all spent hours in Adeline’s study talking about the good old days in Redmond and brainstorming about the future of eBUS live.

- Carson

Carson and my good friend from high school, Lieu, just got in for a 10 day vacation. He is here to check out the eBUS lifestyle and also too pretty much just have a blast. I am super psyched for the rest of his stay, he’s so money. So we now are rollin with a posse of four. I picked him up from the airport yesterday, which was a bit of a mini-adventure for me in itself. Man, LAX is a busy place. Carson and Luke D were busy for the day, so Lieu and I were out on the town for a while by ourselves. The mall seemed like a good idea at the time, but we quickly realized that the beach was where we should be. We didn’t do a whole lot other than just walk around and enjoy the sun. Soon Carson, Luke D, and Chelsey were with us at Chelsey’s and we were ready to rest up for the huge week ahead of us.

-Luke C

After a grueling week of preparations and a frantic morning of last minute details such as the curtains and the decals we finally headed out for the event at Pepperdine. Our purpose at Midnight Madness was to have our bus in a prime location which was provided to us by Keiy Murofushi the director of the event and to help the student sports booster club, Riptide, with a basketball contest. Special thanks to Kristi Koon, Kevin Borzenski, and Raine Mitchell for helping eBUS live get involved. So anyway, we drove through the Pepperdine gates no problem and eventually found our spot in “The Village” in the gym parking lot. We actually were in the center of all the festivities, to the left of us was Red Bull with a motorcycle show, to the right was the rest of the activities and accommodations like food from Carl’s Jr. and T-Shirts from Riptide and so on. Directly in front of us was the basketball court where we held the contests. We had a booth set up right outside the bus where we had sign-ups for the bump contest. Bump is apparently known by many names so maybe you know it is as: lighting, or knockout, or two people in the front of the line shoot the ball and if the person behind you makes if before you then you are out. The winner of that contest got a Riptide care package full of all sorts of Pepperdine goodies, but everyone that participated received a raffle ticket to win an iPod. For those who did not want to play bump we also allowed people two free throws for a chance to win a ticket in the raffle. We handed out a lot of tickets, had some fun shooting hoops and running the contests and eventually we gave away an iPod to one lucky Riptide member. After the village activities ended we cleaned up our area and headed inside for the gym performances.

All in all I would say it was a good night. We got our name out there and talked to dozens and dozens of people about the eBUS live project and what we are trying to accomplish. It was a rocky start because of the whole week of preparations but we got it done and we accomplished what we had to in order for the event to be a success. Granted it rained a little bit, but luckily one of our many preparations was to get ‘uniforms’ so to speak for the event. We wanted T-shirts but we shopped around forever and couldn’t find them so we settled on hoodies which ended up being perfect for the rainy event. So I guess everything just works out in the end. We’re probably going to take it easy this weekend and relax after such a busy week, but we’ll be back in action next week getting more stuff done and keeping the ball rolling. Thanks for reading, be sure to check back soon and tell all your friends.

- Carson

The busy week is finally over and we are ready for Midnight Madness over at Pepperdine. My first full week here in California was full of working, which is actually something I liked because the Bus is now for real and looks so frickin sharp. Here is our recap of the busiest week yet.

Monday the three of us decided to start out at the most popular copy center (rhymes with plinko) to put in our order for our decals for the side of the bus. We knew we wanted the website on each side of the bus, and two actual eBUS live logos for the front and back of the bus. Now although we knew what we wanted, by no means did this super copy center have the means or knowledge to help us out. But we decided to let it go and move on. We needed to have these logos printed by Thursday, so off we went. A local sign shop was only a block away, so we decided to check it out. This was the best idea any of us had because they turned out to be so money. The old owner was there and helped us out so much even though he doesn’t even work there anymore. He loved our bus and the idea of eBUS live. After an hour or so of perfecting the computer document of our logo, we had our order in and it was time to move on. The rest of the day was spent looking for some t-shirts so we could have a more uniform look to us for the big event on Friday. After being rejected by a few stores we decided to purchase the paint for the bus. Home Depot had paint but we decided to not settle and search for some automotive paint stores, so we could have the best deal.

Tuesday only consisted of a two man team since Luke D. had to work. But Carson and I were motivated and ready to keep the ball rolling. Washing the bus was next on our agenda, since painting a dirty bus didn’t seem like a very good idea. We found one of those drive-up self car washing stations in Venice and knew it would work. The clearance under the roof was only by a few feet, but it would work out we thought. After purchasing $10 in quarters we finally pulled up in our wash gear and our big brushes. I am shorter than Carson so I was designated the roof cleaner. I had to squat around like smeegle from Lord of the Rings, but I managed to clean the top. Carson worked diligently cleaning the entire rest of the bus. I swear squatting under a low clearance is why the roof took so long. The bus was finally washed, but the day was not nearly over. Paint was next on our list, and we had even found a few paint specialist stores. We knew the color we wanted, which for those who voted thanks for your time but unfortunately the top pick (green) wasn’t something we could use because we needed to be set apart from similar projects. Black was second but we realized it may look too dirty. Charcoal gray was our final decision. The paint specialists weren’t much help as they thought that rolling paint onto the bus was one of the dumbest things they had ever heard. I mean, we know it’s not the best possible way to get it painted, but is it that bad?

We realized that Home Depot was our best bet for paint. We were even lucky enough to find that the depot’s paint man was actually quite knowledgeable. He realized that we were going to roll the bus no matter what so he helped pick out the best possible paint for the job. Our charcoal gray was also selected; Distant Thunder* was the exact name and I am sure you all will love it. (Check out the pics). We were feeling so good that we decided to keep on going and search for t-shirts. By this time it was about 5 or 6 PM, and we had not yet eaten the entire day. For those of you who know Carson this is not that big of a deal. And those of you who know me you would probably guess it was. Well I began to feel drained and kept asking if we could eat. Carson offered a stop at some restaurant. But I decided to keep on going; my motto was that I couldn’t eat until we had purchased shirts. Setting stipulations like this help get things done in my mind. We never ended up finding shirts, but finding some fabric for our curtains was suffice I felt, especially since it was like 9 at night and my body was growing weak. The day was a success so we decided to treat ourselves to the 555 deal at Domino’s. Right as our pizza was ready, we got a call from Luke D. explaining how his car wouldn’t start and he needed a ride. We had been planning on driving to his friend matt’s house to stay the night, so eating in the car was what we were forced to do. I was so hungry that it was ok with me, but I did feel bad for Carson since he had to eat and drive.

Wednesday was no time to rest. Luke D. was busy so it was up to Carson and I to begin the painting the enormous bus. Taping started the day off in our super sunny deserted location. We felt great because this only took us about an hour. However we were soon faced with the hardest part. Making sure that all that old school yellow was covered with our grayish primer. The good part about the bus being so yellow is that we could tell where we had not yet painted over; the bad part is obvious to most probably. This is that there was no getting away from not having to paint EVERY square inch. I started out on the roof, since I was the roof cleaner, and Carson began priming the sides. We began rolling our lives away and realized that the bumpy surface was going to be a lot harder than we had anticipated. The sides of the roof were the only easy section to roll, but the center of that (because of two rivets) and the entire sides were full of little nooks and crannies. (On a positive note I was able to obtain my first suntan from the California sun.) I am definitely not used to receiving one of those in the middle of October. Before we knew it the sun was slowly going away, but we had finally primed the bus. Now many may think that a full day of priming is a waste. An example is when Luke D. called and asked how many coats of paint we had completed. We laughed it off and explained that the priming is the most difficult and look forward to an easier day of painting.

Thursday was exactly like Wednesday in regards to wasting no time. We woke up around 8 am and headed to the bus. I hopped on the roof, Luke D. grabbed the other roller and Carson nabbed a brush. The third team member really made a difference, and not having to cover a yellow inconsistent surface was even more of a help.

We were flying and our bus was beginning to look so sharp. As mentioned before, Distant Thunder* is the exact shade we chose, and it makes a great canvas, let me tell you. About ¾’s of the way through Pete skateboarded on up ready to lend a helping hand. This was great because we were in need of some more brush work.

Busses have so many little cracks to get into. The first coat was finally finished and a break for lunch was in order. Luke D. suggested Lilly’s, a great little restaurant that gave us tons of energy to continue. Luke D. was on a roll because right after his prime lunch choice he recruited an old friend, Lacey, to come and do some more painting. We now had five members painting the second coat. This was great because it began to fly right on there. The only problem was we had no idea what had been painted twice because there were so many of us, and the sun was drying the second coat so fast. But everything was looking so good that we just kept on going realizing that more than two coats in some areas wouldn’t be a bad idea anyway.

This morning wasn’t as hectic as the others. We woke up early to go get some t-shirts and realized that some dark gray hoodies would be a perfect look for the team. The decals and logos were next on the list so we headed to the sign shop to pick them up. We were a little bit nervous to see if they turned out the way we planned, but these guys were awesome and pulled through in the clutch. The light green website for the side of the bus looked so good. It looks even better on the side of a bus painted Distant Thunder*. Applying the website was the next and pretty much final difficult task.

There was the background black decal to apply first and then we had to match up the green for on top of that. Luke D., Carson and I were very successful and the Bus looks great! Be sure and let us know what you think about the color and the website decal.

*note: please read with an aggressive sort of growl, this allows getting the true feeling from this magnificent color.

Wow, what a great opening weekend this past one was. Obviously we couldn’t jump right into business my first weekend, so Carson and some others helped show me a great time in California, helping me realize why everyone wants to move here. I have a very good friend from Seattle Pacific University (which is where I just graduated from), who just moved down here to work and get a change of scenery. Chelsey is her name but I like to call her: Suzy-Homemaker. She is definitely one of the most generous people I know and has already offered a copy of her key in case we needed a couch or something. I am telling you of Chelsey because her place was my first bedroom and all of ours for the weekend.

Friday was the first big night, and although Luke D. had not yet returned from San Francisco, we had a stellar team to go out on the town with. Ashley made the trip up, and along with Chelsey, Carson, one of Chelsey’s friends, and I the night was ready to begin. We decided to keep the night a little low key and headed out to Venice. This is where I saw one of the coolest Irish Pub’s. Finn McCool’s is the name of it and it really gave me the authentic Irish pub feeling that makes you feel like you are not in the U.S. I felt like putting on some soccer on the TV, because that’s what Irish Pub’s are to me, a good beer and some great soccer.

The next day Carson, Ashley and I decided to check out the beach and just relax a little bit. I can already tell you that I am gonna love California for the weather and the beach so close. After we started to lose daylight, we began to plan out our night. Luke D. was back and gonna meet up with Carson, Ashley, Chelsey, Chelsey’s friend Kass and I for dinner with his two friends from high school Matt and Bri. We made reservations at an Italian restaurant called: C & O’s, which ended up being phenomenal. They told me that I was going to love their bottomless garlic rolls that every table gets. But I think that is an understatement because they were so amazing. Everyone agreed that C & O’s dominates most Italian restaurants. A surprise guest also made it to the end of our dinner, A.J., Carson and Luke’s old roommate from last year was in town and wanted to hang out with the eBUS live crew. So after stuffing ourselves we all headed out to The Dresden. For those of you who don’t know what The Dresden is, I recommend buying Swingers (young Vince Vaughn) and watching it. And yes I did say buy it because renting it would be a waste of $2.00 after you find yourself purchasing it afterwards. Anyway I love this move as do many of my friends, so this little jazz-playing lounge was something I was very excited for. It was exactly like the movie, nothing looked different. We even got to sit in the same exact booth that they did in the actual movie. The performer’s, Marty and Elayne, were are also awesome and also just like the movie. They have been there for so many years and they have TALENT. I wouldn’t have wanted to go anywhere else on my first weekend.

Carson and Luke D. were both busy on Sunday so Chelsey, Ashley and I decided to visit them and see if they could hook us up with some bikes or something. It was a perfect day to ride around on the boardwalk, and luckily Luke had three beach cruiser’s ready for us. I hadn’t ridden a bike in like 4 years, but it came right back to me. I guess that’s why they have that saying about riding bikes. Chelsey, Luke D., Carson and I decided to check out a late movie that night since we were all sort of tired from the busy weekend. The Departed was pretty sweet, although the ending is a bit strange. We headed back to Chelsey’s for the night and I pretty much realized that eBUS was going to be a sweet adventure.

-Luke Comer

What’s up everyone? My name is Luke Comer and I am the newest member of eBUS live’s crew. After some thinking up in the Seattle area, I decided that this company was something I had to be a part of. Although I have discussed with Carson what life has been like for him and the other Luke, I am definitely not exactly sure how it will be compared to my life back home. But I think that is the best thing about me coming down here to southern California; not really knowing what will happen. I arrived yesterday with one huge suitcase a backpack and no preconceived thoughts on what California and the bus would bring for me. I am just excited to get this company rolling and start having the time of my life.

-Luke Comer

After spending a short night at Luke’s friend Matt’s house in Marina Del Rey, we woke up at about 7 in the morning on Friday to begin our weekend trip. We woke up early so we could pick up Rachel at Norm’s before hitting the road. We enjoyed a nice and awkward breakfast with Rachel’s grandparents, more awkward for me than anyone else because I had to sit between the grandparents. After stopping by the bus and Ralph’s we went to Pete and Tesha’s to pack up the car and head out. We were finally on the road with a messily 6-7 hour drive between San Francisco and us.

We eventually navigated our way through the city and were able to find a parking spot within walking distance of Rachel’s friend’s house where everyone but me was going to stay. We all unpacked the car and found our way into the studio apartment. Then I called up my buddy Matt Brandt whom I was going to stay with over the weekend. He was out on the town after work and told me to catch a cab to 19th and Folsom in the Mission District. I had no idea what all that meant but I flagged a cab down and acted like I knew what I was doing and $20 later I was there. (Thanks for the $20 Matt). We hung out at the bar for a bit and I got to know a few of Matt’s co-workers and whatnot, one of which was the coolest guy I’ve ever met. His name was Dutch and he was English. Matt, Dutch, and I left the bar and headed to Dutch’s house to chill for a bit. Now let me briefly explain how cool this Dutch character is; for those of you who’ve seen Green Street Hooligans then let me just say that Dutch was a member of the Everton Firm cross-town rivals of Liverpool, and for those who don’t know about the GSE Dutch is a guy who grew up in Liverpool, England and his main hobby in life was supporting his local ‘soccer’ team at any cost. Dutch told us many crazy stories about football matches in England but he also talked about his short career as an investment analyst and why he left that job and England to move to ‘The States’ to get involved in construction. Anyway, enough on Dutch, so we left his house after being double parked for an hour or so and headed back to Matt’s. Matt’s friend Julie came over and we just relaxed the rest of the night, see Matt is a pretty busy guy working 60 hours a week so he really values his relaxing time as he should.

On Saturday morning Matt’s friend Ashley came over to the house and we headed out on the bus to meet up with everyone at the wharf so we could get on a boat to Alcatraz. We met up with Julie, Luke, Rachel, Pete and Tesha at the wharf. We quickly found out that tickets to Alcatraz were sold out all day so we decided to buy Tickets for Sunday and spend the rest of Saturday doing as much tourist stuff as we could. First off was a cable car ride on the Powell-Mason line up and down the hills from the wharf to downtown. We walked around a bit, shopped a bit, and enjoyed the sites. Next stop was a walk through Chinatown. It was a long walk and everyone was getting a little tired so Matt, Julie, Ashley, and I headed back to Matt’s place to get some dinner and Luke, Rachel, Pete and Tesha headed off to do there own thing. I spent the rest of the night just hanging out with Matt reminiscing about the good old days as well as learning more about my new friends Julie and Ashley.

We woke up pretty early on Sunday and left again on the public transit to make it to the wharf in time to catch our boat to Alcatraz. Ashley couldn’t make it because of work but other than that it was the full group from the day before. I’ve been to the rock a few times but it is still very impressive and you should check it out if you ever get the chance. I’m sure we’ll have photos of it up in no time and you can get an idea of what it is like out there. We walked around the city a little longer and found our way back to the apartment where everyone was staying. We packed up the car and headed out of San Francisco at about 5 PM. We made it back to Malibu in pretty good time. I had a great weekend in San Francisco. Thanks to Matt, Ashley, Julie, Luke, Rachel, Pete and Tesha for a good time.

- Carson