Hot Summer Nights

[check back for pictures in the next day or two!]

This past week has been pretty intense here in Southern California.  For five days straight we’ve been having rain and wind akin to small monsoons.  It was pretty weird…every day a new storm would roll through, with pouring rain and heavy winds.  This kind of weather is very unusual for Southern California, and a 5 day stretch of it is almost unheard of.  Lots of records were broken, including a barometric pressure reading that was originally set in the late 1800’s.

Even though it was pretty depressing after the first few days, we did get some cool thunderstorms - something I thought I wouldn’t see much of since San Diego rarely gets them.  I love thunderstorms and can’t get enough of them!

Another benefit of these storms was the fact that they dumped a LOT of snow in the local mountains!  This means some goooood snowboarding!

Yesterday Val and I went up to Mt. Baldy which is just a bit northeast of LA.  It’s 8600′ at the peak I think.  You have to put chains on your tires if you don’t have 4 wheel drive.  The mountain roads got kind of treacherous as you get higher, and at one point I had to turn around because even with chains I wasn’t getting any traction on the road.  My tires were spinning and I wasn’t going anywhere.

Mt. Baldy is a quaint mountain - I don’t know how else to describe it.  It’s pretty natural - it’s not like they cleared out a bunch of trees and rocks to make wide open trails - instead they left a lot of natural obstacles.  The chairlifts are kind of old too, and known to stop for periods of time.  I’m not sure why the lifts stop, but it’s kind of weird.

It got pretty snowy and windy by the time we eventually made our way to the summit, and getting down was pretty much an exercise in blind snowboarding.  There was so much powder though!  It makes such a huge difference - you really feel like you’re floating through the snow instead of scratching over it.

On the way home we saw the most AMAZING sunset I’ve ever seen.  I couldn’t believe it.  I took pictures but it just doesn’t do it justice at all.  The sky opened up in multiple layers of orange, purple, and blue.  It was intense.  Honestly I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more beautiful sunset.

Looks like we’re going to hit Mt. High tomorrow for round two, trying to take advantage of all the new snow while we can!  Since we had so much rain recently we have to wait a bit to surf since all that rainwater causes massive amounts of polluted runoff to drain into the ocean.  This can be pretty dangerous to swim in, and the risk of getting some sort of infection is sadly kind of high.  It’s an unfortunate fact of life here in California.

Tags: fresh powder, lots of rain, snowboarding
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I really don’t like taking antibiotics but I’m so glad they exist.  Unfortunately that cold that I caught while I was in Whistler turned into a sinus infection somehow.  It was going on 10-11 days and I just wasn’t getting any better.  So much congestion, coughing, post nasal drip.  I had to go back do the doctor because I couldn’t take it anymore.  The odd thing was that the doc barely even examined me.  I hate that.  I mean come on I’m paying you like $70, I don’t go just to tell you I think I have a sinus infection and have you agree with me.  He only looked in my throat.  HOW can you diagnose a sinus infection by looking in my throat?  Either way, I told him all my symptoms and he agreed with me and gave me Zithromax.  I love this antibiotic because it’s only 5 days.  I had Cipro for the last infection a month ago and it was awful…had to take it twice a day for 10 days, and you couldn’t eat any sort of dairy or anything that has been fortified with calcium with the antibiotic.  Needless to say it really limited my food choices.  I mean, even eggo waffles are foritifed with calcium.  EVERYTHING seems to be fortified with calcium these days, it’s pretty crazy.  I bet my milk is calcium fortified.  It seems like everything I wanted to eat had some sort of cheese or dairy in it, or else it had calcium.  I got so frustrated!

Anyway.  I’m on day 4 of Zithromax and my nose is FINALLY not all clogged up and I’ve got my sense of smell back.  My right ear is still making the occasional crackling noise, but I think I’m pretty much getting better.  Finally.  Maybe this will be the last of these stupid sicknesses.  I feel like I’ve been sick 90% of the time since I arrived in California at the end of October, and I’m NOT exaggerating.  I think I’ve only had about 2 weeks of clean health since then.  This is really unlike me - I used to get sick a lot with strep throat/colds/sinus issues when I was a kid, but since college I’ve been pretty healthy.  My friends here must think I’m some sickly person.

In other news, it seems that San Diego (actually all of California) is in the crosshairs of a pretty heavy storm system.  It’s going to deluge rain for the next 5 days, and it’s going to be really windy.  I just hope we don’t get a lot of flooding.  What is annoying is that I won’t be able to surf for at least a week.  After it rains around here you should wait a few days for the runoff to dissipate.  It all runs into the ocean taking all the pollutants and some sewage with it.  That’s all I need - another sinus infection.

The good thing about these storms is that they will hopefully dump a lot of snow in the mountains here in California, and that means some good snowboarding!  Even if my friends can’t go I might make a solo shot to Mountain High or something, especially if I can’t surf for a few days after all this rain.

Tags: being sick is awful, sinus infections, storms a 'brewin, zithromax
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Well, I really should be doing work, but I’m having a severe crisis of concentration.  So, I guess I’ll post a little update here since I’ve been meaning to anyway.

I just got back from an amazing snowboarding trip to Whistler, Canada.  Whistler is actually technically Whistler Blackcomb.  It’s a ski resort with two mountains (both huge).  Whistler is a mountain, and Blackcomb is a glacier.  Both have incredible terrain and ski runs.  If you started at the top, I believe it would take you about a half hour - 40 minutes to make it all the way to the bottom.  I guess if you were really fast you could do it in less time, but for normal people it takes a LONG time to get all the way down!  Usually you don’t do that though, you just go to one section of the mountain and stay there for a bit.

I went with my friends Val and Lori, and we stayed at Barb’s apartment.  Barb is our friend who moved from San Diego to Whistler this past summer.  She let us stay at her apartment for free, which was awesome!  It was close quarters but we had fun cooking dinners and breakfasts, and having chocolate fondue.

We went for New Year’s, and on New Year’s day we got a foot of fresh powder.  It was snowing nonstop for three days!

My favorite session on the mountain was when Barb took us to the alpine area called 7th Heaven.  It starts above the treeline and then opens up into a sloping meadow of open runs and copses of trees.   We went through a few stands of trees which was challenging.  Tree riding means trying to find a path between the trunks and navigating the powder in between.  Often there are already gouges in the snow from others going through the trees, so that adds to the difficulty.  We went through a few narrow keyholes where it was basically only as wide as my board and tree trunks were whizzing by inches from my head.  (Yes, I do wear a helmet)

At The Entrance To The Whistler Olympic Park (L to R: Myself, Barb, Lori, and Val)

The Winter Olympics are going to take place in Vancouver and Whistler this year, so we got to take in all the improvements and construction going in to the preparation for the games.  Unfortunately we couldn’t really see the Whistler Olympic park because they had shut it down for security measures.  It’s kind of sad that the world is like that now, but such is life I guess.

L to R, Me, Lori, Val - Riding the lift

Winter Wonderland on Blackcomb

I can’t wait to go back!  I had a great time.

The only problem I had during the trip is that Lori unfortunately got a cold the night before we left, and both Barb and I caught it.  So I’m sick yet again!!  Fortunately it wasn’t bad enough to stop me from snowboarding.  It was just annoying that my nose was running all the time.

Actually, I felt *great* when I was on the hill, in terms of my body.  I didn’t even get that sore!  Last year when I went to Whistler I got so incredibly sore that I couldn’t move.  I don’t know if it’s because we were doing shorter days or what, but my legs felt pretty strong the whole time.  Maybe my snowboarding technique is just better so that I put less strain on my muscles.  Who knows!

Hopefully we’ll take a few more boarding trips this Winter.  Val is talking about going to Mammoth, and it sounds really fun.  It’s about 6-7 hours north of San Diego, so it’s a bit of a drive, but I was looking at their website and the mountain looks huge.

I was telling my friends that after officially learning the basics of how to snowboard over the course of 3 trips to Vermont during High School, I pretty much perfected my snowboarding technique on the most dinky little hills in Michigan.  Mt. Brighton was only about 20 minutes away from the U of M, so it was a great place to go just to work on technique and get my kicks for an afternoon.  The only thing is - Mt. Brighton is a converted landfill (aka garbage dump).  It is TINY.  The hill itself is only like 230ft. high!  Let’s just say that it has made me truly appreciate going to a real mountain :)  I mean, Whistler makes Brighton look like a speck of dust.

Tiny Mt. Brighton

Tags: fresh pow, powder, snow is fun, snowboarding, whistler blackcomb
Posted in Stuff I've Been Doing, Travels | 6 Comments »

Well, Christmas has come and gone, and I can’t believe it went so fast.  It seems like yesterday that I was having Thanksgiving dinner!

I spent Christmas in Michigan with the family, and it was great.  Getting there and back, however, was a different story.  Delta lost my luggage on the way there, and then rescheduled my returning flight for the next day at 6am.  I officially hate Delta!

It was ridiculous.  When contacting the Delta/Northwest baggage hotline they said they could send an email to the Detroit Metro baggage office to see about the status of my bag.  They said, quote, “we can’t actually call them because we don’t have their phone number.”

Wait, what?  The baggage hotline for  a major airline can’t look up the number for an airport’s baggage office?  Are you kidding me?

Adding insult to injury, they are now charging $20 to check a bag.  Thanks, I just gave you $20 to lose my bag.

Then on the way back it was quite an adventure.  First, the nosecone of the plane was scratched and they had to replace it.  Then, taxiing to the runway we hit a pothole.  The captain got on the intercom and basically told us “That pothole you felt back there was nothing, everything is fine.”

But it wasn’t.  Apparently as we were taxiing around some passengers heard a strange vibration noise from the right engine.  Then the stewardess heard it.  So they stopped the plane and had to get everything looked at.  When we taxied back to the gate and the pilot and mechanics came to the cabin to investigate I kind of knew we weren’t taking off that night.  I didn’t want to fly on that plane anyway - as all this was going down one of the flight attendants said to the other attendant that she would “rather just get off this plane.”  When the FLIGHT ATTENDANT says that, you know you have a bit to worry about.

So we had to go back to the airport, wait on line for an hour, get a hotel voucher for $13 (which was useless because everything was closed), board a shuttle for the hotel, and get 3 hours of sleep before waking up at 3am to make the shuttle for the newly rescheduled 6am flight.  PLUS, adding even more insult to injury, they didn’t let us have access to our checked baggage.  ANOTHER night without any clothes and toiletries.  After we boarded our rescheduled flight we had to wait 2 hours on the runway because they forgot to stock our plane with any beverages or food.  Didn’t much matter to me because they only give any worthwhile food to first class anyway.

In sum:  I hate Delta.  They gave us a $100 voucher for future use with their airline.  Thanks but no thanks.  In another few months all that $100 is going to be good for is checking a bag.

Well, enough about that.

I’m currently up in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, for a weeklong snowboarding trip with my friends Lori, Barb, and Val.  We are staying at Barb’s fantastic apartment for free.  New powder is expected for New Year’s Day.  I’m so excited!

I will update hopefully with some more news about the trip.

I’ve gotta say, even though it’s nice to travel, I will be so happy to finally get home after this trip and get back into a regular routine and schedule.  I just want to relax, and for me it’s hard to do that when I’m traveling - especially sports traveling like surf trips and snowboard trips, where people want to make the most of their time and you can’t always make your own schedule.

Tags: delta sucks, snowboarding, travel, whistler
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I am a bad bloggist.   Well, I’m back yet again.  The problem was that I was still sick and it really felt like someone had taken my brain out and replaced it with cotton balls.  I’m not kidding - it was really hard to function.  My flu turned into a sinus infection and I couldn’t get rid of the lingering cough.  After first trying to wait it out I finally went to the doc and got some antibiotics.  Basically I was sick for a month!!  :(  I’ve only been in California for about a month and a half, but it really felt like I wasn’t here at all - I couldn’t do my normal stuff and it was really hard to concentrate on things.  I went out with friends when I was feeling a little better, but the fatigue was so bad and I really wasn’t myself.  I even went surfing a few times thinking I was almost over it, and afterwords I couldn’t function at all.  I just wanted to go to sleep.  It was pretty crazy.  Then I read that extreme fatigue like that was actually a pretty big symptom of sinus infections.  I’ve had sinus problems before but never had fatigue like that.  Even now I’m still working on getting my energy levels back to normal - I’m still getting a little more tired than normal.

Either way, I’m finally, finally feeling like myself.  I went surfing today, and it was glorious.  What a great day here in San Diego - warm and sunny, no wind.  I got some great waves.  There’s really no way to describe being out there in the water.  Even just paddling around the lineup and watching others take off on clean blue waves is a rush.  I’m so thankful that I’m able to surf and exercise again.  It’s tough on me when I have to get over injuries and illnesses since I’m such an active person.  I get so antsy.   BUT - I should just concentrate on being thankful that I’m able to heal up and get back out there.

I was in New York visiting home this past weekend, and it was pretty fun.  I took the red eye in, and I swear I will NEVER do it again!  I was pretty much non-functional when I got into town.  I was SO tired.  I took the train out to the East End, which would have been cool if I wasn’t a zombie.

Mom and I went to the city and did the usual Christmas stuff.  Unfortunately we forgot to take into account that it was a Saturday.  It was incredibly crowded around 5th Avenue and stores like Saks 5th Avenue were pretty much being ransacked by overeager holiday goers.  On a sidenote, I think strollers should be illegal in highly congested areas.  When I went to Disneyland with Katrin and Donny I nearly got run over by a mom pushing a stroller at about 73 MPH.  Those things are as big as SUV’s nowadays.  They probably have their own GPS units and Espresso bars.

The Window Displays at Bergdorf Goodman

Ornament Sculpture - NYC

I’ll be heading to Michigan soon for the holidays, and I’m really looking forward to that.  I’m even looking forward more to downloading a few episodes of Glee and watching them on the plane.  I’m getting strangely intrigued by that show.  It’s not normally a show I’d watch - BUT - the writing and humor is so quirky/funny in a slightly “American Beauty”-esque way that I really like it.  Also, the singing is amazing.

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I was sent an article today regarding the disappearing beaches on Hawaii:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33934617/ns/us_news-environment/

Geologists say more than 70 percent of Kauai’s beaches are eroding while Oahu has lost a quarter of its sandy shoreline. They warn the problem is only likely to get significantly worse in coming decades as global warming causes sea levels to rise more rapidly.

The thing that stuck out to me with this article is that it keeps throwing around the term “rising sea levels” like bad propaganda.  This article is just a fluff piece - the fact is that sea level rise is unproven.  You could probably find a dozen articles supporting sea level rise, but I tend to side with those that take a more balanced look.

I used to think that global warming was a huge problem, but after reading “State of Fear” by Michael Chrichton I have changed my views.  I have a lot more to learn and read on this topic, but it’s something I’m rather interested in.

Beach erosion is a big problem, and is something that I personally care about.  The beaches around my house in Southampton, NY have been getting very small, and with each new Nor’Easter storm that comes through it seems that they get even worse.

This issue was one of the reasons I joined up with Surfrider.  I’m coming to realize that the major problem causing beach erosion is not global warming and sea level rise, but rather the hardened manmade structures that we build along the coast.  It’s these structures that cramp the beach and don’t allow it to move naturally.  Jetties, seawalls, roads, houses, and other similar things don’t allow the beach to move back as storms push back the dunes.  They also starve beaches of natural redistribution of stand from along the shore.

Even if sea level rise was a real threat, I don’t think the miniscule rise would cause such dramatic erosion in certain areas.  Instead, the most dramatic erosion is caused by jetties and seawalls.

Anyway, it’s good that these articles are coming to light, but I’d rather that we focus on the REAL cause of coastal erosion.  If it were up to me I wish we could just remove all the coastal housing and structures.  But that’s nearly impossible right now.  I’m going to personally do more research on this and I’ll post what I find.

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So this entire past WEEK I was sick with the flu.  I think it was the swine flu.  It started out last Friday - I felt fine that morning except for a bit of a scratchy throat when I woke up.  I got a call from my friend Val to go to the mall around lunchtime.  We went to lunch and after lunch I really started to feel bad.  I could tell I was getting sick but I didn’t realize it was going to be that serious!

By the time I got home 4 hours later I had a 102.3 fever!!  I could barely stand up.  I had no food in the house so I had to make a mad dash run to the supermarket.  I’m sure everyone in the store knew what was up with me - as if the 10 cans of chicken soup, 2 boxes of theraflu, box of asprin, gallon of orange juice, bananas, and loaf of bread didn’t give it away.  I bet the guy at the register washed his hands and got the flu shot directly after I came through the checkout line.

Well, it was horrible, and a week later I can say I finally got through the day feeling pretty good.  I still get bouts of dizziness/lightheadedness but I’m not nearly as worn out as I was all week.  Still got a cough, but that will probably go away soon I hope.

Last night I was feeling well enough to go check out the Raveonettes at the Belly Up.  Val did a promotion with them with her company, so she got us in for free.  Stoked!  Anyway, they put on an amazing show.  The only thing was it was so stinkin loud!  It was literally painful to stand near the stage, so I had to retreat to the back of the venue to watch the rest of the show.  That was unnecessary - I mean you can have it loud, but you don’t have to cause ear trauma.  I don’t know how other people were dealing with the volume level.  I know I have sensitive ears and I have to be careful, but still!  Anyway, the lighting effects were great and they had a ton of energy.  What a great show!

The Raveonettes

A few days ago was the first night I could go out of the apartment, although I was still not feeling myself.  I went to go see the Encinitas premiere of Modern Collective, another surf movie.  This was fun - lots of progressive surfing.

I had really wanted to go see a surf movie premiere at the La Paloma (almost every surf movie worth its salt comes to this theater) and hadn’t gone at all last year when I was in San Diego.  Now I’ve seen 2 within one week.  Weird how life works.

Tags: Raveonettes, Surf Movies, Swine Flu
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Last night I got to go to the La Paloma theater in Encinitas to attend a showing of Rob Machado’s new movie “The Drifter.”  This was a really, really fun thing for me to do.  Rob Machado is a world champion pro surfer, and probably my favorite pro surfer.  I just love his style and his understated manner.  I had no idea when I came out here, but Rob is from Cardiff, which is right down the road (Cardiff is part of Encinitas).

Anyway, The Drifter is less of a surf movie in the traditional sense and more of an introspective documentary / travelog about his wanderings in Indonesia trying to get away from society as we know it.

Before the screening Rob played with Jon Swift, a great singer/songwriter/guitarist.  This was an amazing treat, since I had been a fan of Jon Swift ever since I saw “Shelter.”

A little bit of background:  Shelter was the first surf movie I ever saw.  I bought it when I just started surfing, when the sport was still this entire unknown world that I was embarking on.  I used to be intimidated going into surf shops because it just seemed like this other culture that I was not a part of.  Shelter is still one of the best surf videos to date.  The music in the video is fantastic, and features Jon Swift playing some great music including “Run, Run River.”

Well, much to my absolute delight, after the screening of The Drifter, Rob and Jon played another acoustic set while they showed bonus surf footage from the movie.  Basically we were watching a surf movie with live music.  The vibe was absolutely amazing.  Well, the last song they played was “Run, Run River” and it just brought back all these cool nostalgic feelings that I still get when I watch Shelter.

Jon Swift, Rob Machado and Friends

I love surf movies, and after following Rob, Jon Swift, and Taylor Steele for years and years from our little outpost on Long Island I was so excited to see them all in person, meet them, and talk to them.

Taylor Steele is really cool.  He is the creative mind behind a lot of groundbreaking surf movies.  Rob is very quiet and shy, and Jon Swift was easy to talk to and very friendly.  I was thankful my friend Lori was there - she’s not shy at all it seems, and she was more than willing to chat everyone up.  I probably would not have even attempted to get an autograph.  Instead it turns out that Lori went to High School with one of the musicians in Jon Swift’s band.  (You can’t walk 2 feet in this area without bumping into someone who has a connection with Lori, haha.)

Taylor Steele and Rob Machado do a QandA Session After The Film

Anyway, it was a really great night.  I got my DVD copy of The Drifter signed by Taylor Steele and Rob Machado, and I’ll probably put it in a frame.   I also got a few Jon Swift CD’s and he signed them as well.  It’s crazy - just a few years ago I was searching all over for Jon Swift’s music and couldn’t find it.  Now I have his CD’s, met him, and got him to sign them.  It’s funny how life works.  If you had told me back then I’d be actually meeting these guys I’d have been utterly amazed.

Rob, Lori, and I

I guess it seems silly that I’m getting all amped up about meeting a few minor surf industry celebrities, but it’s just that when something becomes a big part of your life like surfing did, and you build up all these nostalgic memories, it’s kind of a big deal.  I think coming from New York it’s even moreso since you never see any pros or famous surf people, and California and Hawaii and all those other exotic and famous surf locales seem a world away.  As I travel around and meet more people through surfing it seems the world gets smaller by the day, but I hope it never loses its lustre for me.  I never want to lose that excited, daring feeling of breaking into a secret clubhouse that I had when I first started surfing.

Here’s video I took of the end of the song “Run Run River”:

Tags: Jon Swift, Rob Machado, Surf Movies Are Sick, Taylor Steele, The Drifter
Posted in Random Thoughts, Surfing | No Comments »

I don’t know why it is, but when I sit down at coffee shops with my computer it’s like I put out a sign that reads “Please come over and talk to me.”  I always attract people who want to ask me to help them get on the internet, want help with their computer, want to know what I do for a living and then immediately want me to give them lessons on internet marketing, or anything else under the sun.

Today I got up early and went to Panera.  The earlier you go, the less likely it will be crowded.  So I got a good table and was really starting to get into a groove, when this lady ambles in.  She was kind of frumpy and had a cane, even though she only looked about in her 50’s.  Anyway, I don’t mind that, but she was one of those talkative people who walks around talking to nobody in particular.  She grabbed one of the Panera workers and asked where she could find any used newspapers that people had left behind, and then had to thoroughly explain the reason why she liked day-old pasteries because you could put them in the microwave.

Anyway, I just KNEW she was going to start talking to me even though I was clearly working on my computer.  Sure enough, she comes over and asks me if my computer keeps running even if it’s unplugged.  I explained that yes it does because it has a battery.  She then pulls out a multi-outlet power strip - you know, the kind you have in an office and can plug about 10 computers into - and asks if I would like to plug it into her power strip.  I think she was under the impression that the power strip would continue to power the computer if the power went out for some reason.  I declined her invitation and explained that I was already plugged into the wall outlet.  Anyway, she starts untangling all her power wires for her laptop and then asks me if I’m from the East Coast.  I was surprised and asked her how she knew, but the only reason she gave was that she would go to New York every year.  But the last time she was in New York was in 1993, visiting her crazy great Aunt.

She then proceeded to regale me with a story about an old college roommate who called her “crazy Anne” for six months, even though her name was something else.  And then, probably because I must have looked utterly entranced by her stories, she proceeded to rant about how nobody makes bagels or pizza like they do in New York, and how this place in Oceanside made this amazing crust to her specifications.

Later on when I was at Starbucks this hyper woman came over and asked me if I could Google a company called Paychex in Carlsbad so she could get the number.  I agreed and searched for the company listing.  She then proceeded to jump up and down as I tried to get the listing, pointing at the computer screen and yapping “no, thats not it - oh maybe this one - no wait this!”  She was so high strung and tense that it pretty much oozed off onto me and I could feel my blood pressure raise by the second.  Finally I sent her off with the regional office number and told her to call them.

I think I’m going to start wearing headphones so people don’t talk to me.

Anyhooooooooooo…………

For Halloween I was a 1920’s flapper.

We went to the Belly Up for a big Halloween party.  It was fun, everyone went all out with their costumes.

The surf was kind of funky today.  I had a tough time catching waves, so it was a little frustrating.  Then the fog rolled in again, making it really dreary after about 3:30pm.

Also, I wanted to share this picture I took at Mecox Beach, in Southampton NY:

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Beacon's Beach Sunset

Well I arrived back in Encinitas on Tuesday.  It’s been a whirlwind of unpacking and getting myself back into the mode of being here.  It was kind of hard for me to leave home and get on that plane to come here.  People couldn’t understand why I wasn’t ecstatic to be leaving for CA, but the truth is that it has always been very hard for me to make big changes like that, especially total changes of scenery.  I hate leaving people.  It was extremely hard to leave CA and come to NY in the summer, even though I’m glad now that I did.  My plan is to do summer in NY again next year, and I’m sure it will be very difficult to leave.  Only one person really understood where I was coming from, and I was glad to have her empathy.

Anyway, enough about my moping around.  It’s really nice to be leaving the NY weather and getting some sun here in CA.  The palm trees never cease to amaze me, and I’ve already seen a few dolphins out in the lineup at Grandview.

I surfed for a few hours today and the waves were beautiful, clear, and blue.  They weren’t big, but that’s ok.  I had some fun rides.  I rode my Merrick Flyer because during my last session I somehow collided with some donkey and the nose of his board punched a hole in the bottom of mine.  Now it has to dry out before I can take it to Ding King for repair.  When that happened yesterday it took all my willpower not to get REALLY mad.  I mean, I was pretty upset, but I could tell that I was about to spiral down into being really angry and in a bad mood.  I mean, that can happen when your pristine, new board gets a hole put in it.

I’m getting ready for Halloween.  I’m going to be a flapper.  Let me tell you - the scariest thing you can do this Halloween is to go to Party City the day before Halloween.  It is like a ZOO, with kids running around throwing plastic scythes, begging their parent’s for candy, and shrieking like banshees.

Meanwhile, it was interesting to be checked out by a banana at the supermarket and have my purchases bagged by a bottle of ketchup.

And in case you were curious, those aren’t my groceries on the belt.  I don’t normally buy 5 bottles of wine and a box of cheerios.

Well that’s it for now.  I really want to turn this more into a photo blog, so look for that in the near future!

Tags: Back in California, Leaving Home
Posted in Random Thoughts, Travels | No Comments »