Nurse John, Mitchell Tenpenny, Colbie Caillat, the OC Fair and UFC 330: Makhacev vs. Garry
My wife and I were busy this week. We went to the Brea Improv in the middle of the week to see the comedian, Nurse John. His shtick was indeed about nursing, and even if you are not a nurse, it is easy to follow the jokes. Granted, they would most likely be funnier if you were a nurse or work in health care. There was one woman in the front who was a case manager who really tried to make herself part of the show, but Nurse John handled it well, and she was not too much of a distraction. There was an opening act, and he was really good. He called me out quite a bit for working in mortgage and being forty-four, and his jokes were more relatable to my age group.
We also went to the OC Fair to see two concerts at the Pacific Amphitheater, Mitchell Tenpenny and Colbie Caillat. The crowd there was primarily country music fans, and they really partied during Mitchell Tenpenny’s set. For many of his songs, a majority of the audience stood up from their seats. In the middle of his set, he did covers for songs from when they were growing up, and most of them were rap songs that I was very familiar with. His brother did most of the rap songs, and it was fun. He also did a rock n roll song as well. Despite not being familiar with Tenpenny’s music, I thought that he put out a very good, high-energy show.
Colbie Caillat was the headliner, and I recognized a good amount of her songs. My wife really wanted to see her, as she listened to her music when she was younger. Her set was not as high-energy as Mitchell Tenpenny’s, but her music is not of that style. She played all of her hits: Bubbly, Try, Fallin For You, Realize, Brighter Than the Sun, among others. She did a duet with Mitchell Tenpenny, and did a song when she was in a country band, Gone West. Overall, while I was only familiar with her as her songs were on the radio, I thought that she had a good show.
The OC Fair itself was fun, and we ate a lot of fair food. My wife got free tickets from her work, and getting a concert ticket also gets free admission to the fair, so we went on two consecutive days. On the first day, we went to the OC Fair after work and had free parking from my wife’s boss. We mainly ate fair food. Everyone knows this, but fair food is more of less the junkiest of junk food and overpriced, but that’s what makes it fun. We had on the first day: deep fried Oreos, lobster nachos, bacon-cheese nachos, and a corn dog. We also did the ring toss game and the water gun game. I have been doing the ring toss game every time that I have attended the OC Fair, but never won, and this year was no different despite watching a YouTube video about this particular game. We wife though won the water gun game, and we got a stuffed animal of a dog as a prize. We also went on the Ferris Wheel. On the second day though, we had issues. We prepaid for reserve parking at Gate 4 along with our concert tickets, but the roads to the parking on the fair grounds were closed. My wife called to see what we could do, and they told us to go to one gate, Gate 3, and tell them that we have reserved parking. The person at the gate said that the parking lots were full. We ended up parking at one of the schools, and it was very frustrating. We planned to eat before the concert, but we had no time and feared that we were late. Thankfully, we made it to the concert with a lot of time to spare and were able to attend the fair afterwards. On the second day, we ate: Sando sandwich, pizza, and chicken shawarma. We ended the day on the Sky Ride.
Finally, UFC 330: Makhacev vs. Garry was on the weekend. The main event was not the most aesthetically pleasing, but it was a great performance from Islam Makhacev. A lot of the fight though took place with Islam holding Garry along the fence in the clinch, and I have to wonder if that will just be what Islam will do at Welterweight against these bigger fighters. Garry did as well as he could, and exceeded expectations for some as he took a round, for sure, and arguably two rounds. I personally thought that Garry would do well in this fight but would not be able to get the victory, and Islam would use his wrestling and clinch to win this, which he did. Carlos Prates and Michael Morales are the two frontrunners right now at Welterweight to fight Islam next. Mackenzie Dern successfully defending her UFC Strawweight Title against Gillian Robertson, and Dern was pretty much dominant in this fight. Her wrestling, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, boxing and athleticism were all superior to Robertson. I suspect that Dern will fight former champion Weili Zhang next. Also on the card, Jalin Turner looked really good. Dustin Stoltzfus and Jeremiah Wells got big upset victories. Esteban Ribovics retired Edson Barboza. Charles Johnson got the fifth twister submission in UFC history. Neil Magny still showed that he is a firm gatekeeper at Welterweight. The main and co-main events being okay but not aesthetically pleasing fights probably bring the card down a bit, but overall, it was a solid UFC card.
It was a busy week, but a lot of fun. There were some things like the parking situation that were not so fun, but otherwise, with the OC Fair, concerts, standup comedy and UFC fights all on this week, it was a really good, entertaining week overall.