Wednesday, December 31, 2014

2014 the year that was....

2014 was a blur of excitement, achievement, exploration and self recognition. I think the easiest way to reflect on the past year is to break it down by seasons, starting with Winter!

Winter: #HIKEIT
I started 2014 off being newly engaged to my partner now of 8 years! Kinda of a crazy feeling... because as a kid I never thought I would ever have that chance. Oh amazing!! In Feb I had the chance to fly home with Caleb to MN where he got to finally experience "cold" (I mean -25 cold) and became godfather to my nephew. What a crazy feeling to lay in your childhood room with your nephew.. where has the time gone (but we can save that for another blog lol). During these months I also discovered a new passion for hiking. We bought a year pass for the so cal state parks and started hiking! I call them "Airplane Mode Sundays" and giving myself a mental break from social media/technology and just finding yourself in the woods is needed!

Spring: #22
Kicked off spring with a bang by having Spring breakers down from MN aka #22! I love having people down and exploring San Diego as if for the first time. Really gives you a sense of how lucky we are to live in this city! But it wouldn't be spring break with out some bing drinking and drunk trolley rides from downtown to la mesa. #22. As soon as the livers recovered it was time for a smokey camping trip for Caleb's bday! So the gay's packed up their lives and headed to the woods for some sleeping on the ground, cooking over a fire, and hiking. Nothing like laughing and bonding with your friends over a fire and not showering for 3 days... oh the memories (but we will leave those stories in the woods). This leaves us with my favorite month of Spring, May! My sister, nephew and her husband came down to visit for 10 days, then soon after was my bday & my mom came down. May was a month of family and adventure! I took my mom to Palm Springs for the 1st time in her life and showed her the "resort life" as we floated with drinks over my bday weekend. Really just perfect.....

Summer: #WERK
When I was a kid, Summer was nothing but relaxing at the lake in northern MN and working on your tan. Now, Summer, is my busiest months of the year for work. I kick off June with Out at The Fair (award winning event) & the OATF Pool Party. This years OATF was incredible!! We set out to prove that we can handle this type of event and blew peoples expectations away! 2015 OATF is only going to be that much better! Right after OATF I jumped on a plane and flew off to Key West for the 1st time in my life. Let's just say it left more then an impression on me.... finding myself on my own island (14 miles off the coast in the middle of the gulf) with just my partner and 2 friends was insane. Taking that moment in life to just light up, relax and enjoy what you have done already in the first 6 months. But as soon as the vacation ended it was time to get back to CA for a crazy month of July! Not even on the ground for 48 hours and back in a DJ booth for 4th of July.... then a week break before the biggest launch yet! Pride 2014 wasn't only amazing for my DJ career (16.5 hr DJ day Saturday of pride) it was time to release Hillcrest Social to the public with a parade viewing party at Flicks. Let's just say with the positive reaction we got something started that day.... something BIG! In between OATF and Out at the Races I had a chance to sneak home and help my sister move out of her apartment and start a new adventure in her life. It was kinda of amazing to show her no matter where I am you can count on me. Out at the Races or OATR was a huge learning process for me. Sad to say there were some horses that passed this season and some in the community took to Facebook to bash me in contrast fb posts about the Races, how this event is horrible, and how the lgbt community shouldn't support it.... with haters comes success. As I stood at OATR under a HUGE cabana, with our own private bar, betting booths, Todd Gloria, our own concession stands and a 3/4 full tent I thought what a success. But it wasn't done there...... there was still the DJ Steve Aoki concert where I danced and partied in a crowd of 17,000! I jumped and danced while he played FREAK & stared up to the sky thinking... this was incredible!

Fall: #THECHANGE
With only 3 weeks of planning and 2 weeks after the OATR I managed/planned the 1st ever DJ Stage at South Bay Pride in Chula Vista. I used part of the OATF team to booked 5 Djs from Hillcrest, 4 drag performances, 2 hosts and help run the stage for the day. The event was waterfront on San Diego Bay and a beautiful back drop of downtown. I had never been to South Bay Pride but I really enjoyed it and hope to do it again next year. After the excitement of Summer was whining down we went full force into Hillcrest Social and creating a brand that would excited and empower the LGBT community here in San Diego. Deciding the best way to gain users is to put in the foot work we got a few photographers to go out weekly and capture the nightlife in Hillcrest. Giving people a real feeling of connection with the app. Giving you not only a place to find whats going on, to be able to share your pictures, chat with people from all over, and help promote local talent (this section is gonna blow people away). But don't worry I still got to sneak in my Halloween party... the last big party in La Mesa before the move. But if you would have told me that night I would be moving soon after I would have told you, you were crazy! haha But it happened and I love it... worth the stress. To be able to start the new year and have a Christmas in a new place was a great feeling.

2014.... I gained some new friends this year and grew apart from some old ones. Nothing against the people who move out of your life, but it happens for a reason. For me personally I felt like I have a path, goals, ambition and can't keep letting the constant negativity pull me away from my goals. I am not jumping into 2015 with any crazy fitness goals because every time I try I end the next year looking the same lol. So instead I decided I want to walk 10,000 steps a day and lift something more then my DJ bag 3 times a week. I eat really healthy and pretty much have cut fast food out 95%... minus those taco shop nights. I want to blog more, share recipes, answer questions and just explore blogging more in the new year. I also want to fly some where international.... so I am on the hunt for a groupon. Here is to 2015, may the year be filled with joy, success and exploration for everyone! Happy New Years. #LastSelfieof2014



Tuesday, December 23, 2014

"The Post......"

This last Saturday a drag queen went on a rant about me and my friends and I figured I would address it here not on Facebook anymore. Because I refuse to give her anymore attention since that is all she seeks. So from here on out we will call her "BS".

Here is her "Rant":


Now lets set the record straight once and for all. This is the same drag queen for months now venting on fb about how her life is shit and how she had to almost sleep on a park bench because the people she was staying with before (after 3 months of sleeping on their couch) finally decided enough was enough. We have been friends on and off for years now. Honestly it ends because I got fed up being treated just like a wallet and used just for fb likes. So after her fb status about having to sleep on a park bench we opened our home to BS, blew up a air bed in the sun room, made sure she had food, a warm bed and a roof over her head for about 3 weeks. 

During the 3rd week there was a Charity event in Hillcrest remembering passed LGBT members. That night also one of my friends got married and asked to meet up at a local venue for a drink. During the whole meet up, someone "forgot their wallet" and sat there with a frowned face all night... So I decided, "you know what you are not going to ruin this joyous moment for us so I will just open a tab, get you a couple drinks and we can hang out". As the night went on it turned into plenty of drinks and food with the ending tab being up worth of $150. After getting home and there was still no thank you for the hospitality or generosity I was mentally done. (To me it isn't about the money if there is some form of gratitude shown). Later that week BS moved out... didn't hear from her until the day of our Halloween party stating she was on the way. (yippie) As the night went on he got unbelievably wasted and passed out before 11 pm. Then woke up before anyone else, took all our Halloween candy and his leftover booze and bounced. That was the last I heard from BS.... after Thanksgiving and there was still no attempt for communication on their behalf so I decided to just cut ties, removed social links, and just move on. 

Since that choice honestly life got way better, everyone seemed happier, my partner and I decided to make a crazy move to north county to give ourselves separation and to leave the past in La Mesa. Honestly life was great, I did not think about this person nor have any hard feelings, people move on and life changes. Then comes this last Saturday when I saw BS at a local venue talking to my partner and while I was on the floor I decided to just avoid the conversation because during my DJ shift there isn't the time nor the place to have this conversation. The night ended and that was it.... so I thought! I woke up Sunday morning before our meeting to a text message with a screen shot (since I cut all social ties I never saw the post) from BS... I just couldn't believe it. After everything, you take to social media to slam us?! Me and my close friends have a rule that any drama can be saved for an adult conversation and not blasted on social media for attention! So I shared the screen shot on my fb page and said I am done.... and to my surprise people supported my idea to move on and even got texts from people saying ya that is F-uped! 

People come into your life for a reason... it might not be a for ever friend but they come into your life to teach you something. This sure did teach me something!! It taught me to stand up for myself, don't let people take advantage of you and that if you get the negative out of your life it will get better! So let's set the record straight - we aren't friends, we haven't been in MONTHS, and honestly after how many people have helped you out in San Diego to keep you off a street and that's how you thank them.... KISS MY WHITE ASS! 2015 is gonna be an amazing year with out BS and I know this because the last month of 2014 was.... Happy Holidays and remember your self worth before other people put you down! 

Friday, December 19, 2014

Out at the Fair!

Most people know that I am the founder of "Out at the Fair" here in San Diego. But yesterday I got an amazing email: "Western Fairs Association has announced its Achievement Awards recipients, and I am elated to report that Out at the Fair received First Place as New Community Outreach Program in the Mega Fair category!"

I have to say this is so encouraging that our work to showcase the LGBT community of San Diego County is being recognized by the Fair Association! Here is one small step in the right direction and I can't wait to start the planning of our 5th year in 2015. Kinda brings it all back to the last sentence of my first blog.... ;-)

Friday, December 12, 2014

3rd times a charm!

This week I asked Caleb if we could get the weight bench back together so we can start working out again. He thought it would be funny to make a time lapse of him putting it back together... little did he know it would take him 3 attempts and a lot of laughing. Don't mind the giant mess in the garage an office will be born in their some how lol.





Thursday, December 11, 2014

Who am I:

My name is Will but a lot of people know me as WILL Z. I DJ here in San Diego and across the country as well. I am a former twink turned daddy and the transition has been kind of crazy. I moved to San Diego in 2006 with nothing but my dog, a car full of crap and a dream. To not go back to -40 weather ever again! I started out as a barback and had an opportunity from my DJ Dad Nikno to learn now to mix. I had the ear for it and I caught on pretty quickly. As my DJ career started to grow other opportunities came up for me to help my LGBT community. I started in 2010 the 1st ever LGBT day at county Fair and in 2015 "Out at the Fair" will be on its 5th year! I also organized "Out at the Races" the first ever LGBT day at the Del Mar Horse Races (we are on our 3rd year). 

But don't think that my out of the box thinking stopped there... after my grandpa passed I promised him I would get my mixes into the hands of all the people I could, thats were the birth of my app DJ Will Z - Mobile came from.  But my dream of apps wasn't over there. I have always wanted to make an app to help connect the nightlife in Hillcrest, a place for local talent to get their contact info up to be booked, to open just an open forum for our community connect other then "Grindr" and show Hillcrest that there is more to us then hot abs and twinks (like some other publications). With the help of my amazing business partner the dream became a reality in July of 2014 we launched Hillcrest Social. 

Now a little about my personal life. I just moved out of La Mesa after almost 5 years (which I swear my house was the hot spot of east county gays at one time) to a house up in Mira Mesa with my partner. Kind of a new beginning for a new year and I have had to leave some of the moochers and negative people in my life behind. I just see 2015 as a fresh start and have the motivation to tackle pretty much anything now....

What is the blog about, well if you know me I love food ( i could eat till I got on the show my 600 lb life), I love music, I love to stand up for what is right and help my community move forward. I am here to talk about my life, the journey who has made me who I am and answer any questions or blog about any topics you want me too as well. Remember no one can hold you back from your dreams but yourself......