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