Post 3: Continuing of preparations

7/24/09

Location: Crowne Plaza Bloomington, IN

 

I am in Bloomington, IN for the AAU national diving championships.  This is my first time at this meet and should be a fun and interesting experience.  The meet is much different than most USA diving meets and I am a little nervous being in charge of everyone and so new to the game here, but these thing normally work themselves out, becasue i am lucky enough to have a great group of coaching colleagues and we all seem to help each other out.  Since I last wrote I have been preparing for the trip, obviously.  But I feel like I am very under prepared.  A little over 1 month from now I will be in Europe and at the very beginning of the trip.  And in a time of transition I am sure.  I feel like a privileged Urban creature now and to be honest I don’t really think much of city living.  I have always thought highly of a more quiet life and I think this trip will be a good opportunity to try and take my life in that direction a little more.   At the same time I know I will miss my home while I am gone.

 

 

With regards to the title of the blog, in explanation of the question: Why?  Because, I have been working for about 2 years (although some would say I don’t have “real job”) and have slowly accepted that I can do better at my job by bending to the expectations of others. But I would prefer simple honesty to layers of bullshit and I honestly I think that people need to take responsibility for their own actions and do what feels right to them. Also, I think that peoples’ strongest opinions are often the things that limit their life the most.  The fact is I enjoy acting like a goofy kid.  So if the name of this blog keeps you from being able to enjoy it, your loss.  And I am insincerely sorry that I enjoy acting like a fool.

 

 

Today I was at the gas station, the BP on lake and Green Bay.  Some guy using the other side of my pump was a FOB from Pakistan visiting his son, who I presume lived in Wilmette.  He didn’t know how to use the “American gas pump” (his words) so I gave him a little lesson.  His English was pretty good and he seemed like a nice guy.  I was pretty happy to have met this guy because it was an opportunity to teach such a simple thing that I take for granted.  It was like I got to be a little part of his American welcoming party.  When I am traveling next year I’m sure there will be situations where I will be the guy on the other side of the pump, unable to do a simple thing.  Hopefully I will have earned some brownie points or karma or whatever so that I find people friendly and helpful when I am a visitor in their home.

 

On a side note there hasn’t been a good day of waves on the lake in a long long time and now I am stuck in Bloomington and it sucks.  I cannot wait to be surfing daily, a dream of mine since I first returned from Kauai for the first time.  Ok I think that will do for today.

 

TTFN

Post 2

            Location: Airplane headed west

            Date: June 26^th

 

This entry will be like the first day of class; hopefully the rest of my entries won’t be this boring but these are things that need to be said I suppose. 

 

I will start things off with a short sermon:  I have been called “preachy” before by people that I both love and respect.  I have tried to make myself more conscious of this fact, for the sake of self improvement, but in life sometimes you are who you are, so if any of my words come off that way it is not intentional.  I don’t really believe in any organized religion and I try not to look at things as moral or immoral although I do believe that some actions have consequences both in reality and on our spirits. I am aware that mine is just one of billions of perspectives making it next to meaningless, so if you take offense to what I say just try and keep that in mind, ok.  Please be seated.

 

Most of you know I will be doing a great deal of traveling soon and some folks have asked, and some have demanded, I keep a record of my travels.   I hope that this will help some of you live vicariously through me because I plan on having a hell of a lot of fun.

 

It also may be worth noting that I am following in the footsteps of my siblings who have all done a little writing of this sort, (the blog sort) some of which has been travel oriented.  Although my favorite was my Brother Nick’s first blog which was so honest and open that he decided to stop writing it; and far too quickly, but he set the bar quite high in my mind.

 

When I travel I will be heading the opposite direction that I am now, and I do plan on doing one full lap around the world.   I will first to Amsterdam and Finland, for a long overdue visit to Annina's home, then onto South Africa in the middle of September.  Surfing as much as possible.  That much of my plans I will divulge for now along with a quote from Deadwood, a favorite show of mine (are HBO shows TV shows?), spoken my Al Swearengen: “Announcing your plans is a good way to hear god laugh.” 

 

Back home I feel myself being drawing in tighter to the ongoing and ever changing process that is life in Chicago and I know the longer I remain the harder it will be to break away from it all.  I want to be clear that I don’t feel like I am running from something I don’t like in Chicago; I love it there.  I have a great job and lots of people I love and lots of people who make me feel loved.  A trip like this just seems like something I need to do, and I am starting to feel the clock ticking back towards zero.

 

 

Recently (almost 3 years ago? My brain does not keep a good linear record of time and not surprisingly as I am quite excited to go to Amsterdam.) I have gotten all wrapped up in Surfing.  The single mindedness and wonderfully simple yet physically challenging task of catching and riding waves upright is an activity that gives me a great sense of satisfaction.

 

I get a similar feeling while playing a musical instrument; my mind is filled with the task in front of me allowing muck cluttering my mind to fade away.

Enough of that corny surf magazine nonsense for now.

 

I find myself growing apprehensive as my date of departure (August 23^rd) grows nearer, in less then two months my trip will have begun, and I feel that even though I have been dreaming of a trip like this for almost as long as I started thinking of myself as an adult, I feel unprepared.   For one thing I could be a much more physically healthy person and I have no one to blame for this but myself, my TV, and my Xbox 360 (among other inanimate objects).  For two things I have sacrificed much of the time I could have spent living in a tent to stay closer to the comforts of modern city livin’, and the all important college degree.  I did however manage to complain about it all a whole bunch while I was doing it (college), until I realized how much time and energy I was wasting doing it (Complaining).  I also had the realization that I was creating an identity in reaction to the world around me instead of looking inward at the person I wanted to be.  I am not a whiny person by nature (unless tired and/or hungry) but I was trying to play roles as a means to integrate myself in certain social circles; something I still do today, and consider a very necessary tool for success in this modern age of heavy technological connectivity, but now I try to make a much more earnest effort to be honest with myself in the process.

 

I would like to live a much more healthy life than I do right now.  Moving out of my house for college, like many others I fell into a pretty unhealthy routine of heavy drinking; additionally I have been and continue to be a cigarette smoker in this life.  It’s gross and bad for you I know I have heard the lectures and sermons before.  I’d prefer if people just quietly set a good example for me and accept the fact that good people smoke instead of pointing fingers and outcasting.

 

Having spent the past year and a half out of school back home in Chicago it seems that many graduates, recently entered into the workforce are still on a similar cycle.  I believe it could be called “working for the weekend” and if your lucky as me you are now thinking about Chris Farley dancing around in assless chaps or whatever the fuck he was wearing.

 

Anyways I will leave it at that for now I guess, ending by saying that I will return to my book West of Jesus which has been very good so far. (Thanks Chris)

Post 1: Me Doing things

Hi,

As many of you know I am doing some things; and I am going to do some things, in the future.  I have decided to make a record of them here.  This is the beginning...........and the end i suppose.

Enjoy!