I Swear The Pier Moved Further Away...
Thanks to friendly companionship, I managed to make it all the way down to the Redondo pier this morning, out around it and up to Vet's park, then all the way back home. That's 3 to 4 miles or something. Making progress anyway. The legs feel a little weaker today, but on the way to work I really felt like I had a lot of energy. Strangely the 190 barrier is still somewhat inpenetrable, I've hit it multiple times without managing to get below. Something tells me now that I'm running again that will soon change. Just knocking on wood that the concept of shin splints is not going to reappear.
I felt pretty tired while I was running, but that's probably because I was launching into stories from time to time, and it's hard to handle a narrative when breathing heavily at the same time. Was good conversation though, and that's all you can ask for while pushing your body around. She's headed off to Knott's Berry Farm tomorrow, might run again in the morning beforehand though, going to check with me later online. I've only been to Knott's once, and not since they put in their newest roller coaster the Xcellerator, so at some point I'll probably have to make a return trip. Six Flags is free though thanks to the season pass, so it's hard to make the switch.
Finished "Ender's Shadow" a few days ago, and got started on "Shadow of the Hegemon." Technically it's the 6th book in the Ender's game series, although any of them could be read as standalones. Basically the only sci-fi series I've ever read, and I've enjoyed them all immensely. After this I'll have to start knocking out "The Two Towers" in preperation for the movie release in December.
More news on the AF front, going to be heading up to SaMo early next week to deliver a lot of paperwork including copies of my SSN and DL cards as well as transcripts from college and various other forms. I didn't know you could just order transcripts online and have them mailed to you, which sucks because I could have done that weeks ago. Probably only takes one or two business days though so should get here in time for this visit. I was thinking I was going to have to make an extra trip to SB and back in order to deal with those, quite pleased that it won't be necessary. Also found out that the physical and BAT test (hand-eye coordination test basically) will take place at LA AFB and not Edwards, so I won't have to drive long distances with my pupils dilated. Even better, I could get someone who loves me to drop me off and pick me up! (wink wink)
Well given I'm at work I probably shouldn't be blogging. Pretty sure this is my last day here though. I certainly hope so.
Thursday, August 15, 2002
When You Need A Smile...
They always tend to make an appearance in one way or another. Was out running this morning for the 2nd day in a row (MY GOODNESS) which in itself was a feat, because due to my injury I haven't been able to accomplish that goal in about a month. So far, so good. No pain whatsoever in the last two days, as I gradually am increasing the distance I run.
I had my usual hat and headset getup goin as I plowed down Henrietta on the way back from the little two mile loop deal over yonder, listenin to Rick Dees in the morning, which tends to help a lot when compared with just listening to yourself breath and get tired. Anyway, I ran smack into a buddy from high school, or rather, the same high school as I went to We were never actually there at the same time, we've always been the same grade level so when she was a freshman in high school I was a freshman in college, and ditto now that we're both seniors. She went through the AcaDec program as well, so we share some common feelings and attributes. It was quite random we'd be running at the same time, I guess the X-Country team is up in Big Bear for the week but she had to work, so she's just running on her own this week. Ended up turning around and basically running with me back to my house, which was fun. It's amazing how running with someone else can help you forget about the fact that you're tired. Well, other than having to pause every six words to take two full breaths. :) The nice thing about her is she's somewhat close to my pace, or was at least making me think that. That's the real bummer with trying to find running buddies, one person is always more in shape, or has a much faster pace. She suggested we run tomorrow too though, so I guess I'm not that hideously slow. She just has to go run another three miles or something after dropping me off. :)
It's weird, when you least expect something to cheer you up, alakazam, there they are.
They always tend to make an appearance in one way or another. Was out running this morning for the 2nd day in a row (MY GOODNESS) which in itself was a feat, because due to my injury I haven't been able to accomplish that goal in about a month. So far, so good. No pain whatsoever in the last two days, as I gradually am increasing the distance I run.
I had my usual hat and headset getup goin as I plowed down Henrietta on the way back from the little two mile loop deal over yonder, listenin to Rick Dees in the morning, which tends to help a lot when compared with just listening to yourself breath and get tired. Anyway, I ran smack into a buddy from high school, or rather, the same high school as I went to We were never actually there at the same time, we've always been the same grade level so when she was a freshman in high school I was a freshman in college, and ditto now that we're both seniors. She went through the AcaDec program as well, so we share some common feelings and attributes. It was quite random we'd be running at the same time, I guess the X-Country team is up in Big Bear for the week but she had to work, so she's just running on her own this week. Ended up turning around and basically running with me back to my house, which was fun. It's amazing how running with someone else can help you forget about the fact that you're tired. Well, other than having to pause every six words to take two full breaths. :) The nice thing about her is she's somewhat close to my pace, or was at least making me think that. That's the real bummer with trying to find running buddies, one person is always more in shape, or has a much faster pace. She suggested we run tomorrow too though, so I guess I'm not that hideously slow. She just has to go run another three miles or something after dropping me off. :)
It's weird, when you least expect something to cheer you up, alakazam, there they are.
Wednesday, August 14, 2002
Twice.
That's the number of times I visited the hospital yesterday.
That's also the number of times I'd been in the hospital in the twenty years prior to that. I've been lucky. Never broken a bone, never had a stitch, never been involved in many of the not so wonderful things that require a hospital visit. It was interesting though, seeing the brand new wing at Little Company of Mary, visiting my Mom, trying out the food, (which actually wasn't so bad) and just being aware of all the types of people around me, who were there because they needed help, in one form or another. I really don't mind hospitals that much. I guess I don't have any negative memories associated with one, so they don't carry the same stigma that the do for some people.
Finally decided to start knocking out some of the 159 movies I have that I haven't seen. As of today that's now 158, as I finally witnessed The Shawshank Redemption 7 M's out of 7. People are very right when they say this movie is good. It's a view into a prison, and the life that long-term inmates lead. The acting is just phenomenal, with everyone playing their characters perfectly. I was especially impressed with some of the secondary characters. From the stuttering friend, to the heartless captain of the guard. The scene that affected me most though involved Brooks, the inmate who'd spent 50 years in the prison. I won't spoil it for anyone (although if you haven't seen it, put this one as close to the top of your list as possible) but the music played around that scene, and the voice the elderly actor uses while describing life on the outside, really makes you feel. The music all around was perfect, not too dominant, yet always there, eerie notes when required, slow melodic tones as well. The acting though, is what sets this one apart. Attempting to portray someone who has spent the majority of their life in prison cannot be easy. Yet every actor does a marvelous job. That's another building I've never visited, I suppose I've been lucky there too, although I'd like to think that was much more a conscious effort on my part.
Working today again, although the person I've been doing the most stuff for left last night for a month long trip, so I'm assuming they'll run out of stuff and send me home early for good. 9th day working at this place, I don't mind the 550 or so after taxes I'll end up with, but I'll be extremely glad to be doing something else.
That's the number of times I visited the hospital yesterday.
That's also the number of times I'd been in the hospital in the twenty years prior to that. I've been lucky. Never broken a bone, never had a stitch, never been involved in many of the not so wonderful things that require a hospital visit. It was interesting though, seeing the brand new wing at Little Company of Mary, visiting my Mom, trying out the food, (which actually wasn't so bad) and just being aware of all the types of people around me, who were there because they needed help, in one form or another. I really don't mind hospitals that much. I guess I don't have any negative memories associated with one, so they don't carry the same stigma that the do for some people.
Finally decided to start knocking out some of the 159 movies I have that I haven't seen. As of today that's now 158, as I finally witnessed The Shawshank Redemption 7 M's out of 7. People are very right when they say this movie is good. It's a view into a prison, and the life that long-term inmates lead. The acting is just phenomenal, with everyone playing their characters perfectly. I was especially impressed with some of the secondary characters. From the stuttering friend, to the heartless captain of the guard. The scene that affected me most though involved Brooks, the inmate who'd spent 50 years in the prison. I won't spoil it for anyone (although if you haven't seen it, put this one as close to the top of your list as possible) but the music played around that scene, and the voice the elderly actor uses while describing life on the outside, really makes you feel. The music all around was perfect, not too dominant, yet always there, eerie notes when required, slow melodic tones as well. The acting though, is what sets this one apart. Attempting to portray someone who has spent the majority of their life in prison cannot be easy. Yet every actor does a marvelous job. That's another building I've never visited, I suppose I've been lucky there too, although I'd like to think that was much more a conscious effort on my part.
Working today again, although the person I've been doing the most stuff for left last night for a month long trip, so I'm assuming they'll run out of stuff and send me home early for good. 9th day working at this place, I don't mind the 550 or so after taxes I'll end up with, but I'll be extremely glad to be doing something else.
Tuesday, August 13, 2002
More Info...
Apparently the cause of the blast was a gas leak in a house that was being fumigated, with a spark eventually setting off the catastrophic event. Luckily, this means no one was inside at the time, and from what I've heard there are only minor injuries to surrounding neighbors.
The house is just simply leveled, with many surrounding houses sustaining heavy damage.
Once again though, I'm fine, and unfortunately it appears I'll still have to go to work today, after stopping by to visit the mother in the hospital as she recovers from her surgery.
Apparently the cause of the blast was a gas leak in a house that was being fumigated, with a spark eventually setting off the catastrophic event. Luckily, this means no one was inside at the time, and from what I've heard there are only minor injuries to surrounding neighbors.
The house is just simply leveled, with many surrounding houses sustaining heavy damage.
Once again though, I'm fine, and unfortunately it appears I'll still have to go to work today, after stopping by to visit the mother in the hospital as she recovers from her surgery.
I'm Safe...
All those lucky enough to be watching CNN this morning, no need to worry, I'm fine.
The houses that were obliterated by a massive explosion at about 5:45am are located about six blocks from me. There are reports of damage in a wide radius, with glass breaking at houses more than a few blocks away, but we haven't found any damage to ours.
So if you heard the name Torrance and panicked, I appreciate the concern, but go back to bed. :)
More later as I receive more information. I won't be sleeping anymore given the number of sirens and choppers circling outside my window. The major news channels all just switched over, feel free to check it out.
All those lucky enough to be watching CNN this morning, no need to worry, I'm fine.
The houses that were obliterated by a massive explosion at about 5:45am are located about six blocks from me. There are reports of damage in a wide radius, with glass breaking at houses more than a few blocks away, but we haven't found any damage to ours.
So if you heard the name Torrance and panicked, I appreciate the concern, but go back to bed. :)
More later as I receive more information. I won't be sleeping anymore given the number of sirens and choppers circling outside my window. The major news channels all just switched over, feel free to check it out.
Monday, August 12, 2002
When It Rains...
So, my mother is currently recovering having undergone a hysterectomy this morning, apparently the procedure went as planned. She's expected to be in the hospital until Wednesday. Another really poor day at work. I was going to say shitty, but after a bad experience this weekend with someone lighting me up for swearing, and realizing that it's outlawed at OTS, I might as well cut it out of my vocabulary now. It's not like it's necessary, and it certainly doesn't help my image. I swear far below the average person, but I see no reason to do it at all Forgot to get lunch money, so I just went without. During the lunch hour my usual reading spot in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency next door was disrupted by jackhammers on the floor below. Traffic was worse than usual.
Then to top it off, I get a random e-mail then an IM from someone I'd planned on avoiding since coming to the realization in May that we were just different people. I'm stupid enough to reply, and later respond, and my reward is a conversation in which she proceeds to knock everything about my career choice, and myself in general. There were a few highlights, one of which was her informing me that she will happily be the person sending me off to war in some foreign country to die in order to protect her way of life while she spends her millions on material things. The one that really topped everything off though, was her informing me that in the "grand scheme of things," I'm just as much of a slut as she is. Now, I tend to censor this blog, in a way. I refrain from personal attacks, I never mention names, and I leave out much of the less flattering information I run into about people. In this case though, I'm not at all concerned with any reactions. As has probably been figured out, tonight's encounter was once again with the most recent ex. I've finally blocked her permanently, through all forms of communication that I have access to. I am no longer of the opinion that any sort of interaction would bring anything but negative results. In the years since our relationship ended (yes, years) she has taken up smoking, getting drunk on a regular basis, and sleeping with various people just to satisfy her physical need, including a neighbor, just because he was there. Those who know me, know why I unfortunately regret having ever been in a relationship with her. The three habits stated above are basically the least desirable traits a friend, or even a person, could possibly have. Granted, her side of the story will be different, if you ever have the displeasure of running into her and hearing about it. In my own defense, I can only say it has been over two years since I've received anything more than a hug from the opposite sex. Sad in a way, but true. I'm sure this helps you realize what a ridiculous statement the above quote really is, if you compare the two lifestyles. Why I even let it affect me, I have no idea. That's the last time. Alas, all I can say is my life will be much better off in the future, with her forgotten.
I can't thank my friends enough for being there over the last few years as I've moved through various stages of transition. I can only hope to follow your example and repay what you've given me, any way I can. The subject for that blog in May was "One Door Closes, Another Door Opens." Interestingly enough, it was still cracked enough for even more negativity to shine through. If there's a way to slam it harder than I just did, I'm not sure how.
Let it be known, this is the last blog in which she will be mentioned, permanently. Along those lines, if I give you the cold-shoulder in person when asked about the subject, back off.
So, my mother is currently recovering having undergone a hysterectomy this morning, apparently the procedure went as planned. She's expected to be in the hospital until Wednesday. Another really poor day at work. I was going to say shitty, but after a bad experience this weekend with someone lighting me up for swearing, and realizing that it's outlawed at OTS, I might as well cut it out of my vocabulary now. It's not like it's necessary, and it certainly doesn't help my image. I swear far below the average person, but I see no reason to do it at all Forgot to get lunch money, so I just went without. During the lunch hour my usual reading spot in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency next door was disrupted by jackhammers on the floor below. Traffic was worse than usual.
Then to top it off, I get a random e-mail then an IM from someone I'd planned on avoiding since coming to the realization in May that we were just different people. I'm stupid enough to reply, and later respond, and my reward is a conversation in which she proceeds to knock everything about my career choice, and myself in general. There were a few highlights, one of which was her informing me that she will happily be the person sending me off to war in some foreign country to die in order to protect her way of life while she spends her millions on material things. The one that really topped everything off though, was her informing me that in the "grand scheme of things," I'm just as much of a slut as she is. Now, I tend to censor this blog, in a way. I refrain from personal attacks, I never mention names, and I leave out much of the less flattering information I run into about people. In this case though, I'm not at all concerned with any reactions. As has probably been figured out, tonight's encounter was once again with the most recent ex. I've finally blocked her permanently, through all forms of communication that I have access to. I am no longer of the opinion that any sort of interaction would bring anything but negative results. In the years since our relationship ended (yes, years) she has taken up smoking, getting drunk on a regular basis, and sleeping with various people just to satisfy her physical need, including a neighbor, just because he was there. Those who know me, know why I unfortunately regret having ever been in a relationship with her. The three habits stated above are basically the least desirable traits a friend, or even a person, could possibly have. Granted, her side of the story will be different, if you ever have the displeasure of running into her and hearing about it. In my own defense, I can only say it has been over two years since I've received anything more than a hug from the opposite sex. Sad in a way, but true. I'm sure this helps you realize what a ridiculous statement the above quote really is, if you compare the two lifestyles. Why I even let it affect me, I have no idea. That's the last time. Alas, all I can say is my life will be much better off in the future, with her forgotten.
I can't thank my friends enough for being there over the last few years as I've moved through various stages of transition. I can only hope to follow your example and repay what you've given me, any way I can. The subject for that blog in May was "One Door Closes, Another Door Opens." Interestingly enough, it was still cracked enough for even more negativity to shine through. If there's a way to slam it harder than I just did, I'm not sure how.
Let it be known, this is the last blog in which she will be mentioned, permanently. Along those lines, if I give you the cold-shoulder in person when asked about the subject, back off.
Sunday, August 11, 2002
Not Much To Say...
Drove out to Timbuktu also known as Hemet, California on Saturday for a memorial service, that basically took up the whole day as I spent a few hours each way in the car. There's not a whole lot to say about that, it's not the most cheerful thing in the world, and I don't suppose dwelling on it helps.
Today was basically sit around day, as I despair over having to go to work again tomorrow. More hours on the road, more hours doing nothing, trying to strech 10 minute jobs into hour long ones, so that I can at least get a 7 hour day before they say "well, guess that's all for today" and tell me to come back two days later. Least my first paycheck in a while should be here in the next day or two, and then I'll have at least two more coming after that. Still have a long way to go before I've made any progress towards a decent amount on the summer, though. I could tell them to take me off this basically part-time job that I dislike greatly and is totally inconvenient, but there might not be anything else available. Then again having this go on all the way through summer would be like sticking a 5 inch splinter under my fingernail.
Props to two of my friends for being the highlights of an otherwise dreary weekend, one for a lengthy conversation along the beach during a nice sunset, and the other for letting me blab cell to cell nonstop while bored as all heck driving alllllllll the way back across LA on the way home yesterday.
Drove out to Timbuktu also known as Hemet, California on Saturday for a memorial service, that basically took up the whole day as I spent a few hours each way in the car. There's not a whole lot to say about that, it's not the most cheerful thing in the world, and I don't suppose dwelling on it helps.
Today was basically sit around day, as I despair over having to go to work again tomorrow. More hours on the road, more hours doing nothing, trying to strech 10 minute jobs into hour long ones, so that I can at least get a 7 hour day before they say "well, guess that's all for today" and tell me to come back two days later. Least my first paycheck in a while should be here in the next day or two, and then I'll have at least two more coming after that. Still have a long way to go before I've made any progress towards a decent amount on the summer, though. I could tell them to take me off this basically part-time job that I dislike greatly and is totally inconvenient, but there might not be anything else available. Then again having this go on all the way through summer would be like sticking a 5 inch splinter under my fingernail.
Props to two of my friends for being the highlights of an otherwise dreary weekend, one for a lengthy conversation along the beach during a nice sunset, and the other for letting me blab cell to cell nonstop while bored as all heck driving alllllllll the way back across LA on the way home yesterday.
Friday, August 09, 2002
The Magic at Six Flags...
Man, slept in longer today than I have in quite some time. I have a good excuse though, got few hours of sleep the night before having to get up early and head out to Six Flags. Ended up not getting home until after midnight, and I was pretty drained by that time.
Two bummers put dampers on the day, one of which was X being closed for the whole day which was disappointing, the other being I strained my neck pretty good on the first ride we went on, and was having problem rotating my head to the right the remainder of the day. That said, I pretty simply had a ton of fun for the entire day. The person I was with is someone I've always gotten along with, and regardless of the length of the line, I was never bored. I barely even noticed the heat, which stretched into the mid 90s for most of the day. We got on most all of the big rides, and although they were out of my California rolls at the sushi bar, the Tsunami ones weren't too bad. My voice was pretty much gone this morning, but now seems to just be a bit hoarse. I tend to do my share of hootin and hollerin on the big dips. :)
Managed to take a wrong turn coming home as I missed the turnoff to the 405 from the 5 a bit south of the amusement park, ended up not being that big a deal as we just took the route right past downtown on the 110, had been a while since I'd seen the L.A. skyline at night. That also allowed us to use the carpool lanes on the 110, which are neat because they're about a hundred feet above the freeway itself, your own little highway in the sky. So then I managed to miss the turnoff to the 405, and we ended up having to get off the 110 further south and double back. Apparently I was engrossed in the conversation. I've driven the 110 to the 405 route every day I've worked for the past few weeks, yet still managed to blow right by it. Go figure. Two retarded moves in one trip, can't even remember the last time I managed that. Yet I'm going to be a navigator for a living, HAHA. Er um.
Hopefully going to be seeing more of that friend than I have in the last few years, she's quite the neat person.
Managed to run across a song I hadn't heard in forever, James Taylor's "Fire and Rain." It's a nice friendly cheerful head bobber type. Turns out I don't have a social calendar for tonight, but I will be leaving early tomorrow morning to gallumph out to Hemet.
Man, slept in longer today than I have in quite some time. I have a good excuse though, got few hours of sleep the night before having to get up early and head out to Six Flags. Ended up not getting home until after midnight, and I was pretty drained by that time.
Two bummers put dampers on the day, one of which was X being closed for the whole day which was disappointing, the other being I strained my neck pretty good on the first ride we went on, and was having problem rotating my head to the right the remainder of the day. That said, I pretty simply had a ton of fun for the entire day. The person I was with is someone I've always gotten along with, and regardless of the length of the line, I was never bored. I barely even noticed the heat, which stretched into the mid 90s for most of the day. We got on most all of the big rides, and although they were out of my California rolls at the sushi bar, the Tsunami ones weren't too bad. My voice was pretty much gone this morning, but now seems to just be a bit hoarse. I tend to do my share of hootin and hollerin on the big dips. :)
Managed to take a wrong turn coming home as I missed the turnoff to the 405 from the 5 a bit south of the amusement park, ended up not being that big a deal as we just took the route right past downtown on the 110, had been a while since I'd seen the L.A. skyline at night. That also allowed us to use the carpool lanes on the 110, which are neat because they're about a hundred feet above the freeway itself, your own little highway in the sky. So then I managed to miss the turnoff to the 405, and we ended up having to get off the 110 further south and double back. Apparently I was engrossed in the conversation. I've driven the 110 to the 405 route every day I've worked for the past few weeks, yet still managed to blow right by it. Go figure. Two retarded moves in one trip, can't even remember the last time I managed that. Yet I'm going to be a navigator for a living, HAHA. Er um.
Hopefully going to be seeing more of that friend than I have in the last few years, she's quite the neat person.
Managed to run across a song I hadn't heard in forever, James Taylor's "Fire and Rain." It's a nice friendly cheerful head bobber type. Turns out I don't have a social calendar for tonight, but I will be leaving early tomorrow morning to gallumph out to Hemet.
Tuesday, August 06, 2002
Monday Dunday.
Well technically it's Tuesday, but since I didn't work today and I'm working tomorrow, it feels like it will be Monday. Who knows how long this job will last, it's becoming more of an every other day thing, and that's not really going to work this week. I apparently actually have a social calendar, as one of my friends is taking advantage of the fact that I can take someone to Magic Mountain for free both this week and next, and wants to go on Thursday, and then I'm possibly filling in as a friend of mine's "guest" at another function, someone's wedding anniversary I believe.
Then comes Saturday, when it appears I'm going to attend the first memorial service/funeral of my life. Going to be making the trek a couple hours out to Hemet, California, the hometown of my father's brother and sister in law. She's had cancer for a number of years, and passed away a few days ago. On the bright side, she's the first of my parent's generation of the family to pass away, but still at an unfortunately early age. I'd been hoping to escape off into the military before having to attend the multitude of weddings that will start happening as my fifteen or so cousins all start getting married off at once, and I'd certainly not planned on attending any funerals before finishing college. I guess though, I should be very thankful I've never had to attend one before now. Things could be much worse.
Don't get me wrong about weddings, it's not that I don't like them, it's just that I don't like the questions associated with the event. When you end up being the oldest person unmarried at the place, all sorts of fingers get pointed and questions get asked about your "progress" with the opposite sex. It's just not a priority for me right now. Answering the same question eighty times to eighty different relatives isn't much fun. No, I'm not seeing anyone. No, I didn't come out of the closet. Yes, they are smart to have stayed away from me, and you're quite clever to have said that, given the six people before you had the same quip.
Oif. So the high from the weekend has waned, and it sounds like it'll peak on Thursday/Friday, and then slash its way back down for the weekend.
Here's to long life, may all of us be lucky enough to live one.
Well technically it's Tuesday, but since I didn't work today and I'm working tomorrow, it feels like it will be Monday. Who knows how long this job will last, it's becoming more of an every other day thing, and that's not really going to work this week. I apparently actually have a social calendar, as one of my friends is taking advantage of the fact that I can take someone to Magic Mountain for free both this week and next, and wants to go on Thursday, and then I'm possibly filling in as a friend of mine's "guest" at another function, someone's wedding anniversary I believe.
Then comes Saturday, when it appears I'm going to attend the first memorial service/funeral of my life. Going to be making the trek a couple hours out to Hemet, California, the hometown of my father's brother and sister in law. She's had cancer for a number of years, and passed away a few days ago. On the bright side, she's the first of my parent's generation of the family to pass away, but still at an unfortunately early age. I'd been hoping to escape off into the military before having to attend the multitude of weddings that will start happening as my fifteen or so cousins all start getting married off at once, and I'd certainly not planned on attending any funerals before finishing college. I guess though, I should be very thankful I've never had to attend one before now. Things could be much worse.
Don't get me wrong about weddings, it's not that I don't like them, it's just that I don't like the questions associated with the event. When you end up being the oldest person unmarried at the place, all sorts of fingers get pointed and questions get asked about your "progress" with the opposite sex. It's just not a priority for me right now. Answering the same question eighty times to eighty different relatives isn't much fun. No, I'm not seeing anyone. No, I didn't come out of the closet. Yes, they are smart to have stayed away from me, and you're quite clever to have said that, given the six people before you had the same quip.
Oif. So the high from the weekend has waned, and it sounds like it'll peak on Thursday/Friday, and then slash its way back down for the weekend.
Here's to long life, may all of us be lucky enough to live one.
Sunday, August 04, 2002
Me Tho Pwoud.
Okay okay I skipped a few days. Believe it or not, I was actually getting some WORK done around here! Ended up leaving an hour early Friday too, and they don't need me Monday, but want me Tuesday. It's turning into more of a part time thing, but I still get like 250 a week out of it, so I guess I can't complain, since it's not like there's a multitude of alternatives.
The last couple days I've impressed even myself by deciding to move full ahead with my package for OTS, first by doing the HUGE application Thursday night and Friday morning, answering a berzillion questions that basically all boiled down to "have you ever done anything bad in your life, ever" to which I of course said NO! :) Then yesterday I managed to not only finish up my Personal Statement and Resume, but also get the ball rolling for Letters of Recommendation! Usually getting paperwork done with me is like pulling teeth, ESPECIALLY when I end up having to contact other people, set things up, ask them for favors, etc etc. Go figure though, I typed up the whole format for the Letters of Rec, and copied it into a Word doc along with my Resume and Personal Statement so I could send all the info to my endorsers, then wrote out lengthy personal e-mails to all of them making the requests, then even got a few e-mails back so I could send them off the info! This may not sound all that interesting but it feels really good to be taking care of stuff that was going to be hanging over me. Already two of the four people have answered in the affirmative, with the other two not being able to receive the initial e-mail until most likely Monday. Only need 3-5 Letters, but 4 would be a good number. I have a few other possibilities in mind in case these don't work out.
So we stand about two months away from my Officer Recruiter's deadline of October 2nd, for packages that will be going to the November 2nd Board. This appears to be the ideal one to apply for since I'd then find out the results in December, and if I get rejected it automatically goes to the December Board and I'd find out in January. After that if I don't get in it's basically over, and that will leave me like 6 months and two full quarters of school to secure an alternative option for my future if necessary. I'm not too worried though. My Personal Statement is something I'm really proud of, one of my better pieces of writing that had to be restricted to one page. That's thanks to the help of various friends and family members who all chimed in with their two cents, of course. The recruiter is requesting my physical next week, which I assume then will be within a month or something maybe. That's the only other real possible hangup, as the flight physical for rated applicants (people doing jobs in the air) is quite extensive, and something might be found that I didn't even know about. Most everything is waiverable, you just have be patient enough to sit through that process, and that would delay things a bit. You actually don't need to have passed the physical to send your package to the board, you just have to have an appointment made. So I might get accepted, and yet still get delayed due to the physical or a possible waiver for who knows what. Hopefully with the 6 month leeway I've added in I should be able to make the July 1 class of 2003. That would leave me a couple weeks to enjoy life after graduation before I actually ship out. Still don't know whether I'd drive or fly, or maybe take the train or something. They pay for expenses either way, and it's easier to take all your stuff if you drive, but then again travelling light might be smart for training. After training if I move on to technical training in Flordia almost immediately depending on the class date it would be a pain to have my stuff shipped though.
I guess there's plenty of time to ponder such issues. :) I'm just happy that my package is shaping up in a hurry, I should be able to give him my Personal Statement, Resume/Applicant Profile, and Letters of Rec by the end of this week maybe, or possibly next. Then I hear there's many many many more forms to fill out, but that's all easy stuff. Last step is an interview with an actual high level officer, which I hear is pretty pivotal. If you gain their vote and they write you a good recommendation, you're pretty much set. Thanks to all my interview training through AcaDec, I should do fine. So, the nice thing although I'll have to get transcripts from school, I go back like the 20th and will be able to get those as well as make an appointment with a counselor to discuss my schedule this year, and make sure I've got everything set for graduation, and thus get the form that shows my expected graduation date and how I'm going to achieve it with what classes, etc etc. I'll probably have to make one more trip down to the Santa Monica office after I've gone up to school, but I think we generally have a week before classes start anyway, so I'll just pop down and finish any last forms or paperwork, and be done maybe evern EARLY (go figure) before the October 2 deadline.
Only bummer then is I'll be done, but I'll have to wait almost a full quarter at school before I find out the results, assuming there are no delays. Alas, the infamous "hurry up and wait" slogan of the military.
Other than that, I went running for the first time in two weeks (shin splints knocked me out of it as you recall) with my new shoes. It literally felt like I was running on foam padding, it was great. I even did the stretch where you put your feet behind you and sit down on your heels, stretching that shin muscle and the muscles on top of your foot, which used to be too painful to even attempt a few weeks ago. No pain whatsoever. The bad news is my time for just the 1.5 miles that I started with like 6 weeks ago as a starting point is basically back to square one. I think it's just due to the 2.5 week gap though, I'm sure things will get up to speed much faster than they did the first time, and this time I'll have a solid 7 weeks before school starts to lower my times. The right shoes, no pain, and things should definitely improve at a faster rate than before. Just have to worry about properly stretching that muscle, so we don't have any repeats of the beginning of the summer. In related news, I'm only 1 pound off my all time low as of today, with that low coming having done that marathon hike up Mt. Baldy. So within the next week or so I should be down into the 180s for the first time since maybe high school?
To recap, proud of my Air Force package progress, proud of my promising progress in getting back in shape, proud of my current weight decline, very happy with the way things are going at the moment. :)
I have tomorrow off, anyone up for Magic Mountain? Walking all those hills and tensing up all your muscles on roller coasters is always a good workout. :) Good sushi there too!
Okay okay I skipped a few days. Believe it or not, I was actually getting some WORK done around here! Ended up leaving an hour early Friday too, and they don't need me Monday, but want me Tuesday. It's turning into more of a part time thing, but I still get like 250 a week out of it, so I guess I can't complain, since it's not like there's a multitude of alternatives.
The last couple days I've impressed even myself by deciding to move full ahead with my package for OTS, first by doing the HUGE application Thursday night and Friday morning, answering a berzillion questions that basically all boiled down to "have you ever done anything bad in your life, ever" to which I of course said NO! :) Then yesterday I managed to not only finish up my Personal Statement and Resume, but also get the ball rolling for Letters of Recommendation! Usually getting paperwork done with me is like pulling teeth, ESPECIALLY when I end up having to contact other people, set things up, ask them for favors, etc etc. Go figure though, I typed up the whole format for the Letters of Rec, and copied it into a Word doc along with my Resume and Personal Statement so I could send all the info to my endorsers, then wrote out lengthy personal e-mails to all of them making the requests, then even got a few e-mails back so I could send them off the info! This may not sound all that interesting but it feels really good to be taking care of stuff that was going to be hanging over me. Already two of the four people have answered in the affirmative, with the other two not being able to receive the initial e-mail until most likely Monday. Only need 3-5 Letters, but 4 would be a good number. I have a few other possibilities in mind in case these don't work out.
So we stand about two months away from my Officer Recruiter's deadline of October 2nd, for packages that will be going to the November 2nd Board. This appears to be the ideal one to apply for since I'd then find out the results in December, and if I get rejected it automatically goes to the December Board and I'd find out in January. After that if I don't get in it's basically over, and that will leave me like 6 months and two full quarters of school to secure an alternative option for my future if necessary. I'm not too worried though. My Personal Statement is something I'm really proud of, one of my better pieces of writing that had to be restricted to one page. That's thanks to the help of various friends and family members who all chimed in with their two cents, of course. The recruiter is requesting my physical next week, which I assume then will be within a month or something maybe. That's the only other real possible hangup, as the flight physical for rated applicants (people doing jobs in the air) is quite extensive, and something might be found that I didn't even know about. Most everything is waiverable, you just have be patient enough to sit through that process, and that would delay things a bit. You actually don't need to have passed the physical to send your package to the board, you just have to have an appointment made. So I might get accepted, and yet still get delayed due to the physical or a possible waiver for who knows what. Hopefully with the 6 month leeway I've added in I should be able to make the July 1 class of 2003. That would leave me a couple weeks to enjoy life after graduation before I actually ship out. Still don't know whether I'd drive or fly, or maybe take the train or something. They pay for expenses either way, and it's easier to take all your stuff if you drive, but then again travelling light might be smart for training. After training if I move on to technical training in Flordia almost immediately depending on the class date it would be a pain to have my stuff shipped though.
I guess there's plenty of time to ponder such issues. :) I'm just happy that my package is shaping up in a hurry, I should be able to give him my Personal Statement, Resume/Applicant Profile, and Letters of Rec by the end of this week maybe, or possibly next. Then I hear there's many many many more forms to fill out, but that's all easy stuff. Last step is an interview with an actual high level officer, which I hear is pretty pivotal. If you gain their vote and they write you a good recommendation, you're pretty much set. Thanks to all my interview training through AcaDec, I should do fine. So, the nice thing although I'll have to get transcripts from school, I go back like the 20th and will be able to get those as well as make an appointment with a counselor to discuss my schedule this year, and make sure I've got everything set for graduation, and thus get the form that shows my expected graduation date and how I'm going to achieve it with what classes, etc etc. I'll probably have to make one more trip down to the Santa Monica office after I've gone up to school, but I think we generally have a week before classes start anyway, so I'll just pop down and finish any last forms or paperwork, and be done maybe evern EARLY (go figure) before the October 2 deadline.
Only bummer then is I'll be done, but I'll have to wait almost a full quarter at school before I find out the results, assuming there are no delays. Alas, the infamous "hurry up and wait" slogan of the military.
Other than that, I went running for the first time in two weeks (shin splints knocked me out of it as you recall) with my new shoes. It literally felt like I was running on foam padding, it was great. I even did the stretch where you put your feet behind you and sit down on your heels, stretching that shin muscle and the muscles on top of your foot, which used to be too painful to even attempt a few weeks ago. No pain whatsoever. The bad news is my time for just the 1.5 miles that I started with like 6 weeks ago as a starting point is basically back to square one. I think it's just due to the 2.5 week gap though, I'm sure things will get up to speed much faster than they did the first time, and this time I'll have a solid 7 weeks before school starts to lower my times. The right shoes, no pain, and things should definitely improve at a faster rate than before. Just have to worry about properly stretching that muscle, so we don't have any repeats of the beginning of the summer. In related news, I'm only 1 pound off my all time low as of today, with that low coming having done that marathon hike up Mt. Baldy. So within the next week or so I should be down into the 180s for the first time since maybe high school?
To recap, proud of my Air Force package progress, proud of my promising progress in getting back in shape, proud of my current weight decline, very happy with the way things are going at the moment. :)
I have tomorrow off, anyone up for Magic Mountain? Walking all those hills and tensing up all your muscles on roller coasters is always a good workout. :) Good sushi there too!
Thursday, August 01, 2002
A Beam Of Light In the Dark...
Glad everyone got a good giggle out of yesterday's story. Hilarious really. [scowls] :/ I'm not supposed to be old yet. I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Toyz R Us Kid. Anyway.
Yesterday's flick was Reign of Fire which I went to see basically because I'd seen everything else decent at the theater, and my friend wanted to meet up and watch a movie, so watch we did. I actually expected it to be largely lame other than some pretty cool dragons, and it was somewhat better than expectations. Some very cool dragons, and although the whole concept of dragons ruling the world is somewhat weak, there was some pretty good action whenever they attacked. Had to go check my rating scheme and example movies to decide where this one should fall, and I think I'm gonna have to go with 4 M's. Seems like just about everything I see these days is 4 or 5 M's with the occasional 6, but I guess that's because I try to avoid the really terrible stuff, and certainly don't pay to see anything that I think will fall into the 1-3 M's area. Maybe when I start catching up on all the old stuff I haven't seen we'll see more excitement in the ratings. Only disappointing thing here was not only did I actually pay the full student price of 7 bucks because it was a night show, but I forgot to use my AMC Moviewatcher card when I would have gotten a free movie popcorn and soda for reaching 100 points on it. BUMMER. Guess next time I hit up the movies I'll have to see something good, and bring a date even, can't eat all that popcorn by myself...
Managed to get the people I work for to run out of dirty work for me to do today a little early, so left around 5 instead of 6. Better yet, I pointed out they probably won't have anything for me tomorrow early, and I might as well just skip a day and come on Friday. Yeah, it's less money that way, but I figure I'm wasting my time if I'm not even getting a full eight hour shift and am spending all that money on parking gas and food. Sushi place downstairs sure is good though. Actually I think I'd like just about any place that made sushi, I'm not too picky. It's good stuff. Going to have to get a lot of exercise tomorrow, working commuting and sleeping doesn't leave much time for it when I have to go all the way to LA. :/
Glad everyone got a good giggle out of yesterday's story. Hilarious really. [scowls] :/ I'm not supposed to be old yet. I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Toyz R Us Kid. Anyway.
Yesterday's flick was Reign of Fire which I went to see basically because I'd seen everything else decent at the theater, and my friend wanted to meet up and watch a movie, so watch we did. I actually expected it to be largely lame other than some pretty cool dragons, and it was somewhat better than expectations. Some very cool dragons, and although the whole concept of dragons ruling the world is somewhat weak, there was some pretty good action whenever they attacked. Had to go check my rating scheme and example movies to decide where this one should fall, and I think I'm gonna have to go with 4 M's. Seems like just about everything I see these days is 4 or 5 M's with the occasional 6, but I guess that's because I try to avoid the really terrible stuff, and certainly don't pay to see anything that I think will fall into the 1-3 M's area. Maybe when I start catching up on all the old stuff I haven't seen we'll see more excitement in the ratings. Only disappointing thing here was not only did I actually pay the full student price of 7 bucks because it was a night show, but I forgot to use my AMC Moviewatcher card when I would have gotten a free movie popcorn and soda for reaching 100 points on it. BUMMER. Guess next time I hit up the movies I'll have to see something good, and bring a date even, can't eat all that popcorn by myself...
Managed to get the people I work for to run out of dirty work for me to do today a little early, so left around 5 instead of 6. Better yet, I pointed out they probably won't have anything for me tomorrow early, and I might as well just skip a day and come on Friday. Yeah, it's less money that way, but I figure I'm wasting my time if I'm not even getting a full eight hour shift and am spending all that money on parking gas and food. Sushi place downstairs sure is good though. Actually I think I'd like just about any place that made sushi, I'm not too picky. It's good stuff. Going to have to get a lot of exercise tomorrow, working commuting and sleeping doesn't leave much time for it when I have to go all the way to LA. :/
Tuesday, July 30, 2002
It Starts.
The young man wanders across the mall, killing time before he's to meet a friend. He's early as usual, so he spends some time browsing. He ventures into the Disney store, his favorite as a child. Confused at first, he sees nothing but costumes: princesses, Buzz Lightyears, Peter Pans... He ponders to himself for a moment, and figures out that Halloween is a mere three months from the following day. Never too early to start promoting, he supposes. As he shuffles past the counter, an elderly woman with a nametag calls out to him. "May I help you with something today, Sir?" "No thanks, just looking around." replies the man with a smile. After a pause during which the woman gives him a once over as he watches the music video playing on the big screen, she grins helpfully and exclaims "We have some very nice costumes for little girls..." with a genuine smile. He gives a polite chuckle, thinking she was referring to possible changes in his wardrobe. It is only a few seconds later he realizes the true intent behind her words when she adds "And if you have a boy, some very cute ones for little boys as well." He stops dead in his tracks as he realizes his mistake. "No thanks," he stammers, as he makes his way towards the exit in as expedient a manner as possible without being impolite.
I'd managed to go 21 years of my life without someone thinking I was old enough to have children. Alas, someone from the general public has now made that mistake. My how the years have gone by. Wasn't too long ago I thought I was cool because I got into rated R movies by myself. Now some people obviously think I'm old enough to have a child. I suppose retorting back "CHECK WITH ME IN TEN YEARS" would be a bit much. I suppose I'm just around the corner from lines like "You don't look a day over 50." Well maybe over the river and through the woods even.
Today went only slightly better than yesterday at work, but since I caught a movie afterwards and am spending two and a half hours on the road commuting each day, not a whole lot of free time involved. I'll talk about it tomorrow, maybe.
The young man wanders across the mall, killing time before he's to meet a friend. He's early as usual, so he spends some time browsing. He ventures into the Disney store, his favorite as a child. Confused at first, he sees nothing but costumes: princesses, Buzz Lightyears, Peter Pans... He ponders to himself for a moment, and figures out that Halloween is a mere three months from the following day. Never too early to start promoting, he supposes. As he shuffles past the counter, an elderly woman with a nametag calls out to him. "May I help you with something today, Sir?" "No thanks, just looking around." replies the man with a smile. After a pause during which the woman gives him a once over as he watches the music video playing on the big screen, she grins helpfully and exclaims "We have some very nice costumes for little girls..." with a genuine smile. He gives a polite chuckle, thinking she was referring to possible changes in his wardrobe. It is only a few seconds later he realizes the true intent behind her words when she adds "And if you have a boy, some very cute ones for little boys as well." He stops dead in his tracks as he realizes his mistake. "No thanks," he stammers, as he makes his way towards the exit in as expedient a manner as possible without being impolite.
I'd managed to go 21 years of my life without someone thinking I was old enough to have children. Alas, someone from the general public has now made that mistake. My how the years have gone by. Wasn't too long ago I thought I was cool because I got into rated R movies by myself. Now some people obviously think I'm old enough to have a child. I suppose retorting back "CHECK WITH ME IN TEN YEARS" would be a bit much. I suppose I'm just around the corner from lines like "You don't look a day over 50." Well maybe over the river and through the woods even.
Today went only slightly better than yesterday at work, but since I caught a movie afterwards and am spending two and a half hours on the road commuting each day, not a whole lot of free time involved. I'll talk about it tomorrow, maybe.
Monday, July 29, 2002
Corporate America, and Why I'd Rather Chew Glass.
Well, it's taken me one day to start hating work again. One day in some random office in downtown Los Angeles where everyone is in their own little world inside their cubicle, somewhere between "I'm a total loser I have the one closest to the door" and "wow I'm so neat I have a corner office with a view." Everyone hoping they're on a path to somewhere, a bigger cubicle maybe, maybe even one on the END. The whole concept of an office basically causes the gag reflex. I can't even tell you how many times I've had to take care of the most retarded work because someone was bored of getting stepped on so they hired someone else to do the dirty work for them. The WORST kind of jobs however, is when they don't really need you. You end up sitting around, looking over their shoulder from time to time, waiting for work to be given to you. Once you're given it you finish it in a short amount of time, and therefore need something else. They become irritated that you're always in their face, and decide they're better off being irritated about having too much work to do, and you're forced to move on to the next job.
Today was no different, other than for some strange reason they wanted me from 10-6 this week. What that means is when I'm forced to take lunch just because they are and there's no more work, I end up with a less than 40 hour workweek. Of course the paycheck is already hacked into from the $30 I'm paying for parking on the week. Oh and then there's the gas. The fun part was trying to FIND the parking structure, which although it has an address of 818 W. 7th St, actually has no entrances or address numbers of any kind on 7th, and actually has its entrance on S. Flower St, on the complete other side of the block. Luckily I always leave an extra half hour on the first day of temp jobs, knowing I'll probably get lost somewhere along the way. It's interesting walking around downtown, even though I'm from Los Angeles, I've probably actually walked around the downtown area with the largest buildings maybe a dozen times in my life. There's just nothing really there, other than a major hub of Corporate America.
The really irritating part of today was the fact she didn't get back from lunch until 4:30, having left at 1. I was back from my quick break by 3, having not left until after 2, since she said she'd be back "for sure no later than 3." Well, I sat around reading Ender's Shadow for an hour or two, and then finally one of the other cubicleites from across the way noticed I wasn't actually doing anything, and decided to try to give me work to do. "Yeah, do me a favor and um, research this company on the internet they're one of our competitors, just you know, facts and figures and basically come up with a proposal on how we can better compete with them than we are already." Riiiight. As if I even know what she's talking about, have any experience in the field, or even care. Eventually she comes back and decides I'm incapable of that task and gives me a list of colleges to call and find out who their Director of Admissions is. Seems simple, until you realize I got the list at 4pm, long after all the eastern and central timezones have closed for the day. Eventually the person I'm supposedly working for comes back, and says at 5:45 she's going to show me what I'm going to be doing tomorrow while she's in a meeting. She then spends (not exaggerating) thirty full minutes trying to figure out her password into one of the systems they use. She tries four different combinations of logins and passwords, over, and over, and over, as if the 9th time through they'll work. Finally she sighs and says "I guess we'll do this first thing in the morning" before going back and engulfing herself into her laptop and her cubicle, not saying another word to me. I take my book and leave, quite irritated that this is what I'm having to do in order to earn money this summer.
What's sad, is I actually look FORWARD to the traffic. The commute is actually interesting to me. I'm actually DOING something, and can see progress being made. The radio is on, and generally something entertaining is being said, or good music is blasting. You can stare at all the other drivers, trying to figure out who they are, and what their life is like. It's just a world constantly changing, as you plod along from car to car. UNLIKE a cubicle, and a clock, which only changes once a minute, every minute, for the whole day.
This is the most irritated/bitter I've been in a while. I just wish I could find some work available that I actually enjoyed. Unfortunately the economy is not ripe these types of jobs, and so I have to take what I can get, as irritating as it might be.
Check back after the end of this week, I should be better. Who knows, maybe there will actually be stuff for me to do tomorrow. I'd much rather spend time copying and collating a six foot high stack of paper than just sitting there, pretending to be busy when people walk by really you have nothing to do. I was even playing chess against MYSELF today. Like on a piece of paper, erasing and writing where the pieces are, treating each move as if I was playing it to the best of my ability. Black was winning I think before I decided to read instead. Maybe I'll finish the game tomorrow, who knows. Good book by the way, the 5th in a series by Orson Scott Card. Basically a parallel novel to Ender's Game, possibly the best Sci-Fi novel I've read. Quite fun for little boys anyway.
You'll have to excuse me, I've been home for four hours but it's time to go to sleep so I can immediately wake up and leave again so I can hurry up and do nothing.
Well, it's taken me one day to start hating work again. One day in some random office in downtown Los Angeles where everyone is in their own little world inside their cubicle, somewhere between "I'm a total loser I have the one closest to the door" and "wow I'm so neat I have a corner office with a view." Everyone hoping they're on a path to somewhere, a bigger cubicle maybe, maybe even one on the END. The whole concept of an office basically causes the gag reflex. I can't even tell you how many times I've had to take care of the most retarded work because someone was bored of getting stepped on so they hired someone else to do the dirty work for them. The WORST kind of jobs however, is when they don't really need you. You end up sitting around, looking over their shoulder from time to time, waiting for work to be given to you. Once you're given it you finish it in a short amount of time, and therefore need something else. They become irritated that you're always in their face, and decide they're better off being irritated about having too much work to do, and you're forced to move on to the next job.
Today was no different, other than for some strange reason they wanted me from 10-6 this week. What that means is when I'm forced to take lunch just because they are and there's no more work, I end up with a less than 40 hour workweek. Of course the paycheck is already hacked into from the $30 I'm paying for parking on the week. Oh and then there's the gas. The fun part was trying to FIND the parking structure, which although it has an address of 818 W. 7th St, actually has no entrances or address numbers of any kind on 7th, and actually has its entrance on S. Flower St, on the complete other side of the block. Luckily I always leave an extra half hour on the first day of temp jobs, knowing I'll probably get lost somewhere along the way. It's interesting walking around downtown, even though I'm from Los Angeles, I've probably actually walked around the downtown area with the largest buildings maybe a dozen times in my life. There's just nothing really there, other than a major hub of Corporate America.
The really irritating part of today was the fact she didn't get back from lunch until 4:30, having left at 1. I was back from my quick break by 3, having not left until after 2, since she said she'd be back "for sure no later than 3." Well, I sat around reading Ender's Shadow for an hour or two, and then finally one of the other cubicleites from across the way noticed I wasn't actually doing anything, and decided to try to give me work to do. "Yeah, do me a favor and um, research this company on the internet they're one of our competitors, just you know, facts and figures and basically come up with a proposal on how we can better compete with them than we are already." Riiiight. As if I even know what she's talking about, have any experience in the field, or even care. Eventually she comes back and decides I'm incapable of that task and gives me a list of colleges to call and find out who their Director of Admissions is. Seems simple, until you realize I got the list at 4pm, long after all the eastern and central timezones have closed for the day. Eventually the person I'm supposedly working for comes back, and says at 5:45 she's going to show me what I'm going to be doing tomorrow while she's in a meeting. She then spends (not exaggerating) thirty full minutes trying to figure out her password into one of the systems they use. She tries four different combinations of logins and passwords, over, and over, and over, as if the 9th time through they'll work. Finally she sighs and says "I guess we'll do this first thing in the morning" before going back and engulfing herself into her laptop and her cubicle, not saying another word to me. I take my book and leave, quite irritated that this is what I'm having to do in order to earn money this summer.
What's sad, is I actually look FORWARD to the traffic. The commute is actually interesting to me. I'm actually DOING something, and can see progress being made. The radio is on, and generally something entertaining is being said, or good music is blasting. You can stare at all the other drivers, trying to figure out who they are, and what their life is like. It's just a world constantly changing, as you plod along from car to car. UNLIKE a cubicle, and a clock, which only changes once a minute, every minute, for the whole day.
This is the most irritated/bitter I've been in a while. I just wish I could find some work available that I actually enjoyed. Unfortunately the economy is not ripe these types of jobs, and so I have to take what I can get, as irritating as it might be.
Check back after the end of this week, I should be better. Who knows, maybe there will actually be stuff for me to do tomorrow. I'd much rather spend time copying and collating a six foot high stack of paper than just sitting there, pretending to be busy when people walk by really you have nothing to do. I was even playing chess against MYSELF today. Like on a piece of paper, erasing and writing where the pieces are, treating each move as if I was playing it to the best of my ability. Black was winning I think before I decided to read instead. Maybe I'll finish the game tomorrow, who knows. Good book by the way, the 5th in a series by Orson Scott Card. Basically a parallel novel to Ender's Game, possibly the best Sci-Fi novel I've read. Quite fun for little boys anyway.
You'll have to excuse me, I've been home for four hours but it's time to go to sleep so I can immediately wake up and leave again so I can hurry up and do nothing.
Sunday, July 28, 2002
Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho...
And you know the rest. Supposedly for at least this full week and possibly next I'll be employed. We'll see how that goes. At least it's 10-6, no need to wake up too early in the morning, the bummer being it's right in the heart of Downtown L.A., everyone's favorite place to sit in traffic.
Relatively uneventful weekend, as I sat around awaiting the impending doom that is work. Stopped by my old middle school during my bike workout, and was pretty amazed at the differences ten years will make. The place is basically a sea of portable classrooms, with half the playground/blacktop area now covered with them. Guess that's one way to increase the number of classrooms without actually breaking ground on a new building and spending more $. Very few places are still recognizable, other than the Resource Center (otherwise known as the library) where I spent many a morning waiting for the librarian to show up around 7am before school and unlock it so I could go in and read or play games on the computer. Can't even remember the games they had, must have been something really old.
Trying to decide how long to give the shin splint thing to heal, I think one more week and then I'm going to go for some easy runs on padded areas like grass and sand to see how they feel. Hoping to get moving with that again, this week marks the beginning of more regular arm and ab routines, and being able to work the running in would be quite helpful. Still got eight weeks before I head back, can make a lot of progress by then.
And you know the rest. Supposedly for at least this full week and possibly next I'll be employed. We'll see how that goes. At least it's 10-6, no need to wake up too early in the morning, the bummer being it's right in the heart of Downtown L.A., everyone's favorite place to sit in traffic.
Relatively uneventful weekend, as I sat around awaiting the impending doom that is work. Stopped by my old middle school during my bike workout, and was pretty amazed at the differences ten years will make. The place is basically a sea of portable classrooms, with half the playground/blacktop area now covered with them. Guess that's one way to increase the number of classrooms without actually breaking ground on a new building and spending more $. Very few places are still recognizable, other than the Resource Center (otherwise known as the library) where I spent many a morning waiting for the librarian to show up around 7am before school and unlock it so I could go in and read or play games on the computer. Can't even remember the games they had, must have been something really old.
Trying to decide how long to give the shin splint thing to heal, I think one more week and then I'm going to go for some easy runs on padded areas like grass and sand to see how they feel. Hoping to get moving with that again, this week marks the beginning of more regular arm and ab routines, and being able to work the running in would be quite helpful. Still got eight weeks before I head back, can make a lot of progress by then.
Saturday, July 27, 2002
Shagadelic Baby, Yeah...
So I got a phone call today from a friend of mine saying a group of high school peeps were getting together for dinner and a movie, all I really needed to hear was that the dinner was to be at The Olive Garden and I was mooooovin. I tried the pizza this time, usually I'm a fan of many of their pastas, almost any entree there is something I'd scrape off the plate to the last noodle. Was pleasantly surprised it was quite good, the crust tastes exactly like those yummy bread roll thingy bobbers they bring before the meal, mmmmmmm good.
Following the meal and a slight fiasco of getting to the theater on time (everyone was late, I got there at 7 to make sure our name was down in time, by the time enough people were there to be seated it was 8:15 or so, with us eventually getting seated around 8:45 after we'd had to get skipped twice, grrr) we settled in for the 10:00 showing of Austin Powers 3 : Goldmember. Now I must warn you due to one less seat being saved than we had people, and we were the last three to come in, we had to fit three people into two seats, so I was basically sitting with an armrest digging into my back throughout, and now have it permanently imprinted there. That said, I found the opening five minutes absolutely hilarious. At times during the rest, I actually laughed out loud, which doesn't happen too often. I suppose I'll have to go with 4 M's on this one, solely in reference to entertainment value. Clearly you don't go see this for the plot, and you'll have to sit through some pretty gross bathroom humor at times, which sometimes goes above and beyond what's necessary. Not even close to as horrific a display as Not Another Teen Movie or Scary Movie 2 however. Those as I recall were down much further in the rankings. One thing I will give Britney Spears and Beyonce Knowles, they clearly have been working harder than most on their abs, or there was some sort of graphic enhanced simulation going on. Believe me I'm not one to ever care about what the classic "Bond girls" look like, nor drool over the latest pair of melons, but if you see this movie you'll know what I mean. It's like half of it is an hourlong AbTronic commercial. If they look like that unaided, more power to em.
It was good seeing some of the high schol buddies I hadn't seen in a while, it's funny how the questions change from "where are you going to college" to "what are you majoring in" to "so are you graduating next year" to "what are you going to do to make a living" as the years go by and we keep growing on up. One of the people there who I hadn't seen in a long time was the friend of mine who I've basically known longest, given we were in the same 1st grade class, Mrs. Moffet as I recall. She was the one who competed with me to see who could learn the Alphabet backwards in the shortest amount of time. Silly her for challenging me I suppose. ;)
So I got a phone call today from a friend of mine saying a group of high school peeps were getting together for dinner and a movie, all I really needed to hear was that the dinner was to be at The Olive Garden and I was mooooovin. I tried the pizza this time, usually I'm a fan of many of their pastas, almost any entree there is something I'd scrape off the plate to the last noodle. Was pleasantly surprised it was quite good, the crust tastes exactly like those yummy bread roll thingy bobbers they bring before the meal, mmmmmmm good.
Following the meal and a slight fiasco of getting to the theater on time (everyone was late, I got there at 7 to make sure our name was down in time, by the time enough people were there to be seated it was 8:15 or so, with us eventually getting seated around 8:45 after we'd had to get skipped twice, grrr) we settled in for the 10:00 showing of Austin Powers 3 : Goldmember. Now I must warn you due to one less seat being saved than we had people, and we were the last three to come in, we had to fit three people into two seats, so I was basically sitting with an armrest digging into my back throughout, and now have it permanently imprinted there. That said, I found the opening five minutes absolutely hilarious. At times during the rest, I actually laughed out loud, which doesn't happen too often. I suppose I'll have to go with 4 M's on this one, solely in reference to entertainment value. Clearly you don't go see this for the plot, and you'll have to sit through some pretty gross bathroom humor at times, which sometimes goes above and beyond what's necessary. Not even close to as horrific a display as Not Another Teen Movie or Scary Movie 2 however. Those as I recall were down much further in the rankings. One thing I will give Britney Spears and Beyonce Knowles, they clearly have been working harder than most on their abs, or there was some sort of graphic enhanced simulation going on. Believe me I'm not one to ever care about what the classic "Bond girls" look like, nor drool over the latest pair of melons, but if you see this movie you'll know what I mean. It's like half of it is an hourlong AbTronic commercial. If they look like that unaided, more power to em.
It was good seeing some of the high schol buddies I hadn't seen in a while, it's funny how the questions change from "where are you going to college" to "what are you majoring in" to "so are you graduating next year" to "what are you going to do to make a living" as the years go by and we keep growing on up. One of the people there who I hadn't seen in a long time was the friend of mine who I've basically known longest, given we were in the same 1st grade class, Mrs. Moffet as I recall. She was the one who competed with me to see who could learn the Alphabet backwards in the shortest amount of time. Silly her for challenging me I suppose. ;)
Friday, July 26, 2002
BOOYAH!
This just in. They finally got around to releasing my AFOQT scores.
Verbal: 87
Quantitative: 99
Academic Aptitude (V & Q Combined): 96
Pilot: 98
Navigator: 99
Absolutely awesome. Better than I expected. The Quantitative I was pretty sure of, but the Pilot and Navigator composites are just beautiful. This will do wonders to help my chances. Couldn't have asked for much better. Yeah, go ahead, be like the rest of my family and point out that the 87 isn't as high as a 99. Hey, being better than 87% of the competition isn't bad either OKAY? :)
Someone quick, pop my head please. Pop it now, it's becoming astronomically large. Next time you see me pretend to care, even if you don't know what the AFOQT is. ;)
We now return you to your regularly scheduled senior year in college.
This just in. They finally got around to releasing my AFOQT scores.
Verbal: 87
Quantitative: 99
Academic Aptitude (V & Q Combined): 96
Pilot: 98
Navigator: 99
Absolutely awesome. Better than I expected. The Quantitative I was pretty sure of, but the Pilot and Navigator composites are just beautiful. This will do wonders to help my chances. Couldn't have asked for much better. Yeah, go ahead, be like the rest of my family and point out that the 87 isn't as high as a 99. Hey, being better than 87% of the competition isn't bad either OKAY? :)
Someone quick, pop my head please. Pop it now, it's becoming astronomically large. Next time you see me pretend to care, even if you don't know what the AFOQT is. ;)
We now return you to your regularly scheduled senior year in college.
Thursday, July 25, 2002
Well, I've Seen 2/3 Of Them...
New official count, I have 159 movies I haven't seen. Some of them I've heard great things about too, really going to have to knock some of them out this summer. Tonight I headed out to the theater again though, to check out a couple dramas.
First up was Road to Perdition, Tom Hanks' latest flick. Liked this one a lot, I love it when movies go all out in bringing back the era of the early 19th century with the whack cars and complicated fashions. Nothing like three piece suits and suspenders every day to work. There's a reason it's rated R though, it is a mob type movie, and people do get axed. I've yet to see a Hanks movie I didn't enjoy though. 5 M's.
Next I hopped on over to K-19 the movie about the greatest Russian submarine ever built, and the incident that almost sent the world to nuclear war. It's interesting, I would have thought that a movie with basically no action because it was based around an actual event in which the unthinkable was avoided would have trouble holding my attention. I enjoyed this one as well though, I thought it was better than U-571, even without all the cool explosions and special effects. I had heard mixed reviews about it, but I also enjoy Harrison Ford's work, so I might be partial. 5 M's here too.
There are a few select actors such as Anthony Hopkins who generally turn any movie into something I'm impressed by. From the rarely heard of Remains of the Day to Silence of the Lambs, he is one actor who always has my complete attention. I think the gap between 5 and 6 M's depends on whether or not I even once have to pop on the indiglo on my watch to check how far through the movie I am.
Was pondering hopping to a 3rd such as Reign of Fire, but figured that one is probably a better renter/downloader. So, about 100 of the 159 are movies I'd like to get around to seeing, guess I might as well start tomorrow. :)
New official count, I have 159 movies I haven't seen. Some of them I've heard great things about too, really going to have to knock some of them out this summer. Tonight I headed out to the theater again though, to check out a couple dramas.
First up was Road to Perdition, Tom Hanks' latest flick. Liked this one a lot, I love it when movies go all out in bringing back the era of the early 19th century with the whack cars and complicated fashions. Nothing like three piece suits and suspenders every day to work. There's a reason it's rated R though, it is a mob type movie, and people do get axed. I've yet to see a Hanks movie I didn't enjoy though. 5 M's.
Next I hopped on over to K-19 the movie about the greatest Russian submarine ever built, and the incident that almost sent the world to nuclear war. It's interesting, I would have thought that a movie with basically no action because it was based around an actual event in which the unthinkable was avoided would have trouble holding my attention. I enjoyed this one as well though, I thought it was better than U-571, even without all the cool explosions and special effects. I had heard mixed reviews about it, but I also enjoy Harrison Ford's work, so I might be partial. 5 M's here too.
There are a few select actors such as Anthony Hopkins who generally turn any movie into something I'm impressed by. From the rarely heard of Remains of the Day to Silence of the Lambs, he is one actor who always has my complete attention. I think the gap between 5 and 6 M's depends on whether or not I even once have to pop on the indiglo on my watch to check how far through the movie I am.
Was pondering hopping to a 3rd such as Reign of Fire, but figured that one is probably a better renter/downloader. So, about 100 of the 159 are movies I'd like to get around to seeing, guess I might as well start tomorrow. :)
Wednesday, July 24, 2002
One Plus One Plus One Is Three.
Theoretically, that's how many marriages will take place among the Wilson children. However in a moment of jest, my father pointed out that since the elder two aren't making any progress, "the younger one might be responsible for all three." I suppose you had to be there, but I found it to be quite clever.
Whole lot of nothing going on around here the last couple days, other than recuperating from the hike, getting into a bike riding theme as opposed to running while my shins heal, and catchin up on some movie watchin. Yesterday I finally caught Amelie which was nice because I've only seen 2 cd rips of it out so I was able to make a good 1 cd one. Even better was the fact that in a rip the subs appear in the lower part of the picture instead of in the black area below, which you'd think would be annoying because it blocks small portions of the frame, but to me requires much less concentration to watch because your eyes don't have to travel as far to watch the scene and read the dialogue if you don't speak the language of the foreign film. So anyway, yeah it's in French, but came highly recommended from a few of my female friends. Unfortunately going to have to place it in the chick flick category, but I do that with basically all romantic comedies, so don't let that deter you. I'll give it 4 M's out of 7, it was entertaining for the most part, and somewhat outside the box, but at 130 minutes it had me checking my watch at times, and the real bummer with foreign films is you can't really look away, or you miss dialogue, since your sense of hearing does you no help with the translation. Stops in the kitchen to make a sandwich and so forth require pausing, such an inconvenience! ;)
Today I got around to watching The Majestic the infamous Jim Carrey in a dramatic role movie. I actually liked this one a lot, even though it took a while for me to get used to the idea of him not cracking a joke every 2.3 seconds. I just thought it was really cute at times, and I guess was in the mood for some of the general hokeyness that accompanies a small town atmosphere where everyone knows everyone and everyone is in everyone else's business. So 5 M's for that one. REALLY need to start burning movies. My recent rips have left me with basically jack squat by way of space.
Maybe I'll hike someplace else this weekend. That was fun.
Theoretically, that's how many marriages will take place among the Wilson children. However in a moment of jest, my father pointed out that since the elder two aren't making any progress, "the younger one might be responsible for all three." I suppose you had to be there, but I found it to be quite clever.
Whole lot of nothing going on around here the last couple days, other than recuperating from the hike, getting into a bike riding theme as opposed to running while my shins heal, and catchin up on some movie watchin. Yesterday I finally caught Amelie which was nice because I've only seen 2 cd rips of it out so I was able to make a good 1 cd one. Even better was the fact that in a rip the subs appear in the lower part of the picture instead of in the black area below, which you'd think would be annoying because it blocks small portions of the frame, but to me requires much less concentration to watch because your eyes don't have to travel as far to watch the scene and read the dialogue if you don't speak the language of the foreign film. So anyway, yeah it's in French, but came highly recommended from a few of my female friends. Unfortunately going to have to place it in the chick flick category, but I do that with basically all romantic comedies, so don't let that deter you. I'll give it 4 M's out of 7, it was entertaining for the most part, and somewhat outside the box, but at 130 minutes it had me checking my watch at times, and the real bummer with foreign films is you can't really look away, or you miss dialogue, since your sense of hearing does you no help with the translation. Stops in the kitchen to make a sandwich and so forth require pausing, such an inconvenience! ;)
Today I got around to watching The Majestic the infamous Jim Carrey in a dramatic role movie. I actually liked this one a lot, even though it took a while for me to get used to the idea of him not cracking a joke every 2.3 seconds. I just thought it was really cute at times, and I guess was in the mood for some of the general hokeyness that accompanies a small town atmosphere where everyone knows everyone and everyone is in everyone else's business. So 5 M's for that one. REALLY need to start burning movies. My recent rips have left me with basically jack squat by way of space.
Maybe I'll hike someplace else this weekend. That was fun.
Monday, July 22, 2002
A Decade.
Long time, said the young man to the slightly older man. And so it goes. Managed to finagle one of my friends into heading out to the mountains yesterday for a trek to the top of the tallest mountain in L.A. County at 10,064 feet, Mt. San Antonio, known to locals as Mt. Baldy. On a clear day it's visible from my house, it used to be the one aspect of nature other than the ocean that would remind me there was more to the world than the big city. A little less than a decade ago I ventured out to the area, as part of a series of prepatory hikes leading up to the assault on Mt. Whitney that was planned for sometime in the future. Whitney has become somewhat of a symbol of strength in my family, and it was my goal at the time to eventually conquer the continental U.S's highest peak. If you really want to hear that story, ask someone to recite my AcaDec speech on the subject, many of the people around me know it by heart after hearing me give it COUNTLESS times over the two years I was competing with the team.
Anyway, that one's 14,494 feet, this one is just peanuts at 10k. :) Unfortunately as I would find out, the thing that makes the Ski Hut trail to the summit from Manker Flats somewhat difficult, is that the elevation gain is 4,000 feet over a period of 4 miles, and even experienced hikers know that 1k feet a mile means you're in for some serious steepness. The other error in judgement was based on the fact that the first time around so long ago it was the trail we used to get down, but since we never came up it, I had no recollection of how difficult a trail it was.
So yeah, not for the faint of heart. As we eventually discovered. Interestingly enough the altitude is what killed me the first time, with the last 500 feet or so to the summit taking like an hour, due to me keeling over and feeling like I was about to vomit every other step. This time it felt like I was gaining energy as we went rather than losing, at least once we got up towards the top. It's probably due to the pace, which was very relaxed compared with the kind I used in the past. It was a new thing for me to be stopping often enough to admire the view. So many times I get locked onto the final goal, I forget about the journey. My climbing partner wasn't too impressed with the trail as compared to other things we've done in Santa Barbara, given the lack of vegetation for the most part, other than your typical pine trees, brush, and oh so much sun. Basically shady spot to shady spot was the hiking strategy, as we tackled switchback after switchback. I got burned pretty good, your classic redneck circle and around the face a bit. Eventually we made it to the Ski Hut, which serves as about the halfway point. The view from there was quite nice, you're deep in a valley in an area they call the Mt. Baldy Bowl, with high ridges on three sides and just a sweeping expanse below you. We pondered the situation for a while, as it had taken us three hours to get to that point and after a late start, darkness was becoming somewhat of an issue. She eventually volunteered to give the next switchback section a shot and see how it went, and take it from there.
At that point, I really wasn't expecting to get to the top. I was having a good time as always, with the usual hiking games like the ever popular alphabet of insults, followed by the alphabet of compliments to make up for the previous abuse. She seemed pretty drained quite early on, and I'd mentioned that the Ski Hut would be a good turnaround point if necessary. I'm unsure of whether it was her own drive or whether it was guilt that made her continue, I hope it wasn't because of my typical male testosterone driven goal based way of looking at things. Regardless, I know she enjoys hiking because of nature, and the relaxing aspect of it, and definitely didn't expect to be pushed to the limit her first time out this summer, before she'd gotten into any kind of shape. A few switchbacks up I had worked out the wording of my "the mountain isn't going anywhere I can come back anytime and climb it" speech, and started into it, but that's when out popped the "oh no, we're GETTING to the TOP" attitude that would be prevalent for the remainder of the ascent. I was glad she'd decided to conquer it, but I felt guilty knowing that if she knew what it entailed beforehand she probably would have avoided it like the plague.
Eventually, on top we stood. The last bit took quite a while, as it was one of the steepest sections, and that's when you start finding it harder to breath, and the wind becomes loud in your ears, and the temperature drops in a hurry. The most hilarious aspect of the trip came as I was standing a couple switchbacks from the summit as she was four or five below me, and I stood up on a rock to do a cheer. There I was screaming out the letters of her name and "what's that spell?!~?!?" with a few wahoos involved, and as I turn around to get down off the rock, I see a pair of people walk past me, having just come over the ridge from the summit to walk down the trail. So yeah, I thought my audience was 1/3 the size of what it apparently was, as they went chuckling by. That gave my friend a good giggle anyway.
So the infamous picture eventually got taken, which was one of the things I'd been wanting to do. I have a picture in the collection that I put on the wall wherever I am that shows me as a young boy of 11 or 12, leaning against a trail marker sign on top of Mt. Baldy, with the wide expansive view all around me. I'm probably about four and a half feet tall in the picture and somewhat of a silhouette, so I figured it would be cool to get a picture in the same spot now, a whole lot older. This led to a lengthy discussion of where the picture taker should be placed to get the identical shot, with wide sweeping gestures pointing at mountains and landmarks in the background and elevated voices discussing the finer points of photography. Eventually we compromised and took a picture from both recommended locations, so we could "see whose turned out better." Isn't life always a competition with me. :/
I didn't expect it to be the undertaking it ended up as, not exactly pop up in a couple hours and hoof it back down in time for a late lunch. Darkness approached as we made it back to the car, luckily the fullness of the moon illuminated things quite well, and actually made the last half mile or so one of the prettiest I've hiked. Nothing spectacular about the area in the daytime, but the moonlight lit up the trees in a way that you just dont' see in the land of neon lighting.
Recommend the trail to others as definitely the best view you'll get in L.A. County, but allow for about six hours up and three hours down, and believe me when I say "steep." To my friend, thank you for sharing the journey even if it wasn't a very popular concept at the time. I hope you thought it was worth it afterward. Even when the level of my jokes degraded to the level of "absolutely retarded."
Something tells me I'm not going to see her for a while. Too much Matt in too little time tends to be a bit of overkill. Ask my family, they'll tell ya. ;)
We'll see where I am at 31, who knows how I might have changed by then.
Long time, said the young man to the slightly older man. And so it goes. Managed to finagle one of my friends into heading out to the mountains yesterday for a trek to the top of the tallest mountain in L.A. County at 10,064 feet, Mt. San Antonio, known to locals as Mt. Baldy. On a clear day it's visible from my house, it used to be the one aspect of nature other than the ocean that would remind me there was more to the world than the big city. A little less than a decade ago I ventured out to the area, as part of a series of prepatory hikes leading up to the assault on Mt. Whitney that was planned for sometime in the future. Whitney has become somewhat of a symbol of strength in my family, and it was my goal at the time to eventually conquer the continental U.S's highest peak. If you really want to hear that story, ask someone to recite my AcaDec speech on the subject, many of the people around me know it by heart after hearing me give it COUNTLESS times over the two years I was competing with the team.
Anyway, that one's 14,494 feet, this one is just peanuts at 10k. :) Unfortunately as I would find out, the thing that makes the Ski Hut trail to the summit from Manker Flats somewhat difficult, is that the elevation gain is 4,000 feet over a period of 4 miles, and even experienced hikers know that 1k feet a mile means you're in for some serious steepness. The other error in judgement was based on the fact that the first time around so long ago it was the trail we used to get down, but since we never came up it, I had no recollection of how difficult a trail it was.
So yeah, not for the faint of heart. As we eventually discovered. Interestingly enough the altitude is what killed me the first time, with the last 500 feet or so to the summit taking like an hour, due to me keeling over and feeling like I was about to vomit every other step. This time it felt like I was gaining energy as we went rather than losing, at least once we got up towards the top. It's probably due to the pace, which was very relaxed compared with the kind I used in the past. It was a new thing for me to be stopping often enough to admire the view. So many times I get locked onto the final goal, I forget about the journey. My climbing partner wasn't too impressed with the trail as compared to other things we've done in Santa Barbara, given the lack of vegetation for the most part, other than your typical pine trees, brush, and oh so much sun. Basically shady spot to shady spot was the hiking strategy, as we tackled switchback after switchback. I got burned pretty good, your classic redneck circle and around the face a bit. Eventually we made it to the Ski Hut, which serves as about the halfway point. The view from there was quite nice, you're deep in a valley in an area they call the Mt. Baldy Bowl, with high ridges on three sides and just a sweeping expanse below you. We pondered the situation for a while, as it had taken us three hours to get to that point and after a late start, darkness was becoming somewhat of an issue. She eventually volunteered to give the next switchback section a shot and see how it went, and take it from there.
At that point, I really wasn't expecting to get to the top. I was having a good time as always, with the usual hiking games like the ever popular alphabet of insults, followed by the alphabet of compliments to make up for the previous abuse. She seemed pretty drained quite early on, and I'd mentioned that the Ski Hut would be a good turnaround point if necessary. I'm unsure of whether it was her own drive or whether it was guilt that made her continue, I hope it wasn't because of my typical male testosterone driven goal based way of looking at things. Regardless, I know she enjoys hiking because of nature, and the relaxing aspect of it, and definitely didn't expect to be pushed to the limit her first time out this summer, before she'd gotten into any kind of shape. A few switchbacks up I had worked out the wording of my "the mountain isn't going anywhere I can come back anytime and climb it" speech, and started into it, but that's when out popped the "oh no, we're GETTING to the TOP" attitude that would be prevalent for the remainder of the ascent. I was glad she'd decided to conquer it, but I felt guilty knowing that if she knew what it entailed beforehand she probably would have avoided it like the plague.
Eventually, on top we stood. The last bit took quite a while, as it was one of the steepest sections, and that's when you start finding it harder to breath, and the wind becomes loud in your ears, and the temperature drops in a hurry. The most hilarious aspect of the trip came as I was standing a couple switchbacks from the summit as she was four or five below me, and I stood up on a rock to do a cheer. There I was screaming out the letters of her name and "what's that spell?!~?!?" with a few wahoos involved, and as I turn around to get down off the rock, I see a pair of people walk past me, having just come over the ridge from the summit to walk down the trail. So yeah, I thought my audience was 1/3 the size of what it apparently was, as they went chuckling by. That gave my friend a good giggle anyway.
So the infamous picture eventually got taken, which was one of the things I'd been wanting to do. I have a picture in the collection that I put on the wall wherever I am that shows me as a young boy of 11 or 12, leaning against a trail marker sign on top of Mt. Baldy, with the wide expansive view all around me. I'm probably about four and a half feet tall in the picture and somewhat of a silhouette, so I figured it would be cool to get a picture in the same spot now, a whole lot older. This led to a lengthy discussion of where the picture taker should be placed to get the identical shot, with wide sweeping gestures pointing at mountains and landmarks in the background and elevated voices discussing the finer points of photography. Eventually we compromised and took a picture from both recommended locations, so we could "see whose turned out better." Isn't life always a competition with me. :/
I didn't expect it to be the undertaking it ended up as, not exactly pop up in a couple hours and hoof it back down in time for a late lunch. Darkness approached as we made it back to the car, luckily the fullness of the moon illuminated things quite well, and actually made the last half mile or so one of the prettiest I've hiked. Nothing spectacular about the area in the daytime, but the moonlight lit up the trees in a way that you just dont' see in the land of neon lighting.
Recommend the trail to others as definitely the best view you'll get in L.A. County, but allow for about six hours up and three hours down, and believe me when I say "steep." To my friend, thank you for sharing the journey even if it wasn't a very popular concept at the time. I hope you thought it was worth it afterward. Even when the level of my jokes degraded to the level of "absolutely retarded."
Something tells me I'm not going to see her for a while. Too much Matt in too little time tends to be a bit of overkill. Ask my family, they'll tell ya. ;)
We'll see where I am at 31, who knows how I might have changed by then.
