Autumn Arrives

It started to feel like fall tonight. I was driving to the store at around 7 PM; it was dark, breezy, and fallen brown leaves were scattered about the street. As each car drove by, they would be driven upwards into miniature tornados of motion only to fall back down to rest a moment later. Halloween is this coming weekend and we set our clocks back the following night. 2009 is nearing its end.

So I have been a busy beaver, thus the no post for a while; not that that is so unusual. Blogging was a fad, then Facebook; now it seems to be Twitter. What will come next? Things that make you go hmm.

School continues at what feels like a slow pace this semester. Whereas school used to be fun, lately it is feeling like a chore. Once I am finished with this year, all of my pre-reqs will be done and I will get to concentrate on Spanish and Portuguese stuff which will be great. I have not spoken Spanish much lately nor taken a class, so I feel like my language skills are slipping. I am looking forward to the summer when I will (hopefully) be able to pick up a course with some classroom time. Due to my work schedule, attending classes can be hard to do. Summer session courses are expedited and I believe I can just attend one day a week. Starting with some of the major classes over the next few years, I am going to have to find some way to attend on campus a few days a week. I love my work schedule, but it does make it hard to attend classes or regular appointments because each week my days off rotate. I will officially be transferring to Cal State Hayward next fall though, so progress is being made.

I recently returned from a couple of different trips, one to Seattle and one to Vegas. Seattle was a shaman workshop that was super cool; I met some lovely Australians, Canadians, and Peruvians there. I am hopefully going to take some future workshops with my new friends and continue my learning process. I also met with a great tattoo artist in Seattle that I think will be doing a koi tattoo on me. It is a large piece (my right shoulder into a half sleeve), so I am still in the consideration process. I hope to go up to Seattle the beginning part of next year to get it done. It has been several years since I got my Virgin of Guadalupe tattoo and I really love it. When I had my first one done, I vowed to wait a few years before getting another as tattoos get addicting. The artist is very talented though (he has won a lot of national competitions), so if I am going to get it done he is definitely the guy to do it.

My Vegas trip was cool, I went to celebrate my friend Christi's birthday. Unfortunately, she was ill for the first few days that I was there. However, she was able to rally and we caught up the last couple of days I was there. I saw two Cirque du Soleil shows, Love and Ka. Love was good, but I was not amazed by it. There were some good stunts throughout it and the music, being the Beatles, was incredible. There was a lot of stunts occurring all over the theatre and I didn't feel like it had a clear direction or point of view. Ka on the other hand was great; it is staged in a huge theatre built specifically for the show and it has some amazing effects. Some friends had given it good reviews, but Christi and I went into the show with low expectations. It is definitely worth your time if you are looking to see a show. So far I have really liked Zumanity and Ka. I am looking forward to seeing O and Bette Midler in future visits. Short visits to Vegas (three to four days) seem to be a good amount of time. Anything longer and I get pretty antsy to get home.

Another fun part of my vacation was flying Virgin America to Vegas and back. Wow, what a cool airline! I definitely am more of a white trash, working class passenger. Yeah, business or first class would be cool, but I do not want to pay for it. Southwest has suited me fine because they fly out of Oakland, are always on time, lots of leg room, and I can check a bag for free. I have also really liked JetBlue, but I don't fly trans-con that much and that is primarily where they fly out of here. (Any west coast trips have to connect through Long Beach.) But JetBlue also has a generous amount of leg room and DirecTV right? Which is great on long flights. Now we have Virgin America which charges you to check a bag and skimps on the leg room. However, their inflight entertainment system Red is SUPER cool. It is an interactive system that has live TV, on demand TV programs, a cool interactive airshow type map with Google Maps technology, and a huge selection of musical selections including music channels and the ability to create your own playlist from 60 or 70 different artists cds. You also can order food or drinks from your seat and they are delivered to you by the flight crew. They also have inflight Wi Fi which I did not take advantage of on my 1 hour flight from Vegas to San Francisco, but a great perk to have! Virgin also does a really cool job with hiring good looking inflight crew and putting them in good looking uniforms. It is such a cool airline all the way around in that respect. With competitive prices, why would you not fly them over a Delta or a United?

Work is going well, we have been busier than usual lately which has been a nice change of pace. I have been working as a dispatcher for four years now and been gone from the airlines for five! It is really unbelievable, I do not know where the time has gone. I continue to count my blessings as each year passes. I am vested in the state's retirement system next year and can count of some type of pension when I retire; so so so cool.

The house saga continues, I still do not have any news. I do not want to talk about it. Thanks for your patience as mine has run out.

So that is a quick update on me. Just after the holidays, I am planning a Mexican getaway for a couple of weeks before Christmas. Before we know it, Christmas and New Years will be here and then 2010.

Hope you are all doing well. Cuidate!

36 and Counting...

So it is my birthday weekend; I am 36 years old this year.

I know I say this all the time, but I genuinely feel that I lead a charmed existence. Since leaving the airlines a few years ago, I feel like I have found my niche in life. Even though my work can be a bit annoying or stressful at times, it suits me. I like working non-traditional hours and I have always greatly enjoyed working in general. (Check out that good Christian work ethic, who would have thunk?) My job offers me plenty of overtime and this is allowing me to buy a condo and take trips when I want to. I still have these lingering doubts that everything is going to come crashing down one day, but I suppose that is just my suspicious nature.

I tend to be something of a news junkie, watching Morning Joe in the mornings at work and DVR'ing Charlie Rose as well as hitting various news sites on the Internet throughout the day. So when the news drones on and on about people out of work, the health care debate, global warming, terrorism, and the like, it becomes a bit hard to separate one's self from the hype; everything is "fast breaking" and "hard hitting". When I give these ideas thought, neither of these concepts are in step with the pace of my life. I am neither fast breaking nor hard hitting; I prefer a slower and lazy pace of life. So this level of frenetic discourse probably does not help me to relax about stuff. It is an interesting self-observation, now that I have put it down on screen. *Note to self.

I am headed north today with a couple of girlfriends on an overnight to Mendocino. We are going to hang out, have a low key overnight at a hotel on the beach, and then hit some wineries and outlets on the way home tomorrow. I had a lovely Friday evening with a new friend and then spent Saturday evening with my friends Brian and Alex at a Brazilian steakhouse where waiters circled with hunks of drizzling meat. Good times were had by all.

This month is going to be a busy one for me. I have a bunch of people to touch base with, so I am going to be on the road a bit on days off with trips to Seattle, Vegas, and possibly Denver and Phoenix. So much to do, so little time. Facebook and the Internet are great for keeping up with people, but there is nothing better than chilling with the ones you love. So off off I go.

I am taking a couple of classes online, both required subjects, Literature and Critical Thinking. Thus far, Literature is proving to be a breeze. Critical Thinking is a philosophy course and it is one of those courses that I dread. Just logging on to the website fills me with loathing, but there it is. My reluctance is based upon my thorough lack of interest in a lot of the material (dissecting exactly why a statement or argument is true or false or logical) coupled with a large amount of writing to exacting standards. One of my strengths tends to be punching up other people's writing. For example, several people at work always have me proofread their e-mails or professional documents and I will edit or add to their work as needed. So this week's critical thinking assignment was to rewrite a poorly written sample letter to a potential employer. I was fairly confident about this assignment, but the professor was not a fan in his response to me. He gave me an 8 out of a 20! What is wildly funny is that all of the work I have turned in thus far has been total crap in my opinion and he has given me perfect marks. So the total lack of any read on this class and this professor have me a little spooked. No matter, I keep telling myself it will be over in a few months. The pitfalls of being a perfectionist.

Beyond that, I remain so eternally grateful for all that I have experienced in these first thirty five years. I am hooked on Shutterfly and had a couple photo books made that now proudly occupy my coffee table. When I flip through the pages of my life (literally), it is so cool to see what a journey it has been so far. From climbing pyramids to scuba diving, from flying to remote corners of the globe to hanging out in Dolores Park, and from sunny days to foggy nights, I have such fond and distinct memories of everything. Thank you to all of you for being such great and supportive friends and family. If the first thirty five years are any indication, the next thirty five are going to be incredible.

Gracias por todo amigos y hermanos. Cuidate.