++ SMITH ROCKS STATE PARK!!!! wait, what's at smith rock state park? are you serious! a state park dedicated to a bunch of rocks, you've gotta be kidding me! yeah, yeah, you guessed it. its rock climbing! and lots of it. they say that outdoor sport climbing originated at smith rocks. aparantly some 'naive' guy decided he wasn't good enough (aka sucked) at traditional climbing, so he went up to the rock with a drill and some bolts and some glue and started drilling holes and gluing little bits of metal into the rock like a jackass. and like all things american, it was a jackass idea that caught on and now sport climbing a 'norm' for climbing, mainly for those of us (me included) who are #1. beginners at climbing, #2. don't know enough about climbing to actually "climb". #3. people who are lazy. #4. people who don't ever want to know. #5. i'm eating lunch right now. #6. and i'm going to smith rocks in 4 hours! #7. those who like the accessibility and ease of sport climbing. #8, don't have the balls to do it.

so smith has tons of sport climbs and heather and i (being #1,#2, and #6) are going to go climbing this week. but...i'm getting pro (protection), meaning chocks (well i have those), tri-cams, hexentrics, and a few SLCDs so that i too will be able to "really climb" (meaning do traditional climbing). i just have to buy them and work up enough #8.

for everyone else who doesn't care about climbing, the last daily lesson. numero siete (in spanish), number 7 (in english), chi (in chinese), and thats all the languages i know.

Greenwich, CT
"Hey all - After some cajoling by Mr. Blackburn, I have now cracked and will offer my top ten musings of the first two weeks in New York:
.10. The weather here is just as wet as Seattle. Allow me to describe: in 10 working days, it has precipitated, in some fashion, 8 of those days, making the Marginal Propensity to Rain (MPR) = .8. Given that the Coefficient of a Good Subway Performer at rush hour (GSP) is 3.6 .. GSP = T - .1W .. GSP = 5 - 1.4 .. GSP = 3.6 where W = weeks worked before I finally saw a Broadway show and T = the # subway I take into work, and given that I will have two opportunities per day to witness a street performer, the answer to New York is: NYC = 2GSP + (MPR/10) .. NYC = 2(T - (W/10)) + (MPR/10) .. NYC = 2(5 - (14/10)) + (8/10) .. NYC = 7.28 This is exactly why I take the 7:28 train into the city every morning.
.9. People that remind me of people at work: I sit next to a young Wilford Brimley (Quaker Oats guy), his boss sounds like David Lee, I ride the train with a woman who might as well be the mom from Home Alone (and she could be for all I know), and a Brad French look-alike at work.
.8. Trains are great, no matter how long the commute. I'm finally getting to read the Harry Potter series, and when I run out of books I can sleep.
.7. Greenwich, CT, is absolutely beautiful. I live 1/2 mile from beaches and Long Island Sound, and it is a great escape from the insane density of the city.
.6. Greenwich, CT, is wicked rich. Mel Gibson, Ron Howard, David Letterman, and a host of other hotshots have houses here, the Honda Civic equivalent here is a BMW, and there are dealerships for Bentley, Rolls Royce, and Porsche.
.5. Connecticut has no straight roads at all. Grid is a foreign word, and roads change names more than they do around Clifton.
.4. There is a place to get bubble tea in Times Square. If you do not know what bubble tea is, that is to your detriment. It is the Asian trendy beverage answer to Starbucks.
.3. Travel in New York determines any and every activity. My commute every day is about 3 1/2 hours, which really sucks.
.2. I'm the only one on the train in the morning not reading the Wall Street Journal. It must be a dead giveaway that I don't have a million dollar portfolio.
.1. Don't ever bump into someone on the subway, they will offer no forgiveness. My FIRST DAY in the city I witnessed one of these incidents where a woman bumped into a guy reading a book, he got mad because she didn't say excuse me, then for an entire subway stop they went back in forth in their New York accents dropping f-bombs like they were fighting in Iraq. Very funny and strangely satisfying, I think because all my stereotypes and preconceived notions were being proven within an hour of my being in the city.
I hope you're all doing well, that you're getting a quasi-legitimate sense of responsibility at work/school, and that you take advantage of as many company kickbacks as possible."

++ CLEVELAND ROCKS, CLEVELAND ROCKS!!! the 6th of the 7 part series:

Cleveland, OH
"Somehow i missed all the emails except for B-squared's :-( ... such is life.. anyways... i have a top ten list as well...
Top ten things things i have learned during my first week of work:
.10. even though i have worked here before i am still, in fact, a coop.
.9. but i am the executive coop which means i can direct all crap work to the other coop - a second year who i don't think i've ever met before except once at bowling - which may or may not be a fuzzy alcohol induced memory.
.8. Tuesday is the worst, longest, day ever without a frozen yummy carrot at the end of it. damn all of you with a don pablo's in your area!!!
.7. Telling people your thesis is not the best idea in the world - there are meetings on the lakefront redevelopment plans with leaders from communities in cleveland at 8 in the evening every fricking week and i get to go to all of them.
.6. living with the rents is good 'cause everything is free but bad because they have lots of opportunity to drop hints about me living in cleveland after i graduate. i should start keeping track of how much they do this - it has to be at least twice a day.
.5. it is still possible to make fun of brian baker long distance thanks to email.
.4. joining a guy (i mean gym, how on earth can i have confused those? i must be a complete moron) is a good way to meet young people - and scary old meatheads
.3. going to happy hour with people from work can be fun, however, if they buy you beer and you will be forced to drink it - especially if you really, really, really don't like beer!
.2. gay men are the funniest creatures ever. actually i learned that from jason wright before i left but whatever.
and the number one thing i've learned after one week of coop:
.digital cable is amazing" ++

++ LESSON #5 of 7:

Washington DC
"Well, apparently the top 10 list has become the thing to do, and since I am easily convinced of anything and will clearly do anything popular to appear "cool" (is that the right word?) I shall also commit to a top 10 list...although to be fair I have to avoid those fascinating tidbits I mentioned in my first mass email...this may be difficult.
.10) Ethnically and racially diverse neighborhoods actually DO exist (just, apparently, not in the midwest).
.9) Nearly all office buildings in Washington are horrfically ugly. This must be in the zoning codes somewhere to prevent them from upsatging the monuments or something.
.8) There are parts of DC that are very beautiful, have really old houses, and havn't been overrun by a)yuppies, b)politicians, c)slumlords, or d)cockroaches.
.7) It is somehow relatively easy to work 4 buildings down from a previous employer (that has over a hundred people in the office) and still not run into any of them EVER.
.6) If i send an email to the person sitting next to me, the email must travel all the way to Portland and then back before it arrives at his/her computer.
.5) Discussing the War (or GDubya for that matter) is only a sensitive office topic if you happen to be pro-either of them (thankfully, I am neither).
.4) There is no justice in the world. I say this solely because the gawdawful Albert Speer-wannabe World War II Memorial has been allowed to be built on the National Mall.
.3) Malls without shopping confuse tourists.
.2) People voluntarily leave Portland. Yes, I know, hard to believe, but at least 4 people in my office lived in Portland and LEFT. To come to WASHINGTON, of all places. My personal theory: they were bamboozled into thinking they were going to Washington, the state. Actually, Otto (person at work) said the the quality of life in Portland is way too high and he felt guilty living there.
Which brings me to my next point...the VERY MOST IMPORTANT THING I HAVE LEARNED ON CO-OP
.1)Not all people named Otto or Fritz are large, bald, German men. Hard to believe but true." ++

++ SAN FRANCISCO - this past weekend. we left friday after work and drove the 14 hours there through the night. s-uper s-paz m-inx r-aving housed us and heather and i showed them around 'their' city for most of the weekend. it was as if we were living there and it was just any other weekend. a day of surfing (well m-inx surfing, s-paz, heather, and i not watching, but eating breakfast at dennys), a walk through the haight, the buffalo exchange, amoeba music, o-n "t-reatment"'s house (where he was sleeping, but as usual the front door was unlocked, and there were lots and lots of self-portraits of him snorting something, which i'm pretty sure were not pixie-sticks filled with sugar), crepe vine in the castro where we got to watch m-inx be super uncomfortable while eating his food, oysterbed to visit my old place of employment, twin peaks 2 to lean on the wind (aka, not get blown over), and lots of sitting around and watching movies at their place. it was foggy (of course.) and we didn't see the golden gate bridge once, or fisherman's wharf, or the piers or any other thing which even slightly resembles anything tourist. it was nice. until we had to leave monday morning and drive the 14 hours back. once a weekend=ok. twice in a weekend=poop. and of course as soon as we hit the washington border, it started raining.

the 4th of 7 lessons in the installment:

Boston, MA
"Since my first email was just info. and was also forwarded to my family I don't think it should count as my mass email contribution... so this will.
Jumping on the bandwagon of the top 10 lists... this is what I've learned in Boston/New England as of yet...
.10. Be thankful that your family doesn't live all in the same place so if you ever need to hit them up for a place to stay they might just be in the same city as you... it's saved my butt more than once!
.9. Even though I-95 says it only goes north-south it can really go east-west too. (very good to know if you don't want to go on a 20 some mile detour)
.8.Boston is the Windy City, not Chicago.
.7. Second day on the job: "If you don't smoke and drink coffee you're not in the right profession."... hmmm, I do neither.
.6. There still exists those dispensers that give you a sheet of toilet paper at a time as opposed to taking off of a roll. (if you care to see them visit our restroom on the fifth floor in 286 Congress St.)
.5. You can get a place to live that costs twice as much, but is 1/2 the size as you can in Ohio. (case in point, my place in Beacon Hill)
.4. Prior to popular belief, laboratory floorplans do not lay themselves out, they need co-ops to do it.
.3. There are actually IT guys who know less than us... scary...
.2. You're in a real city when you have a baby shower/beer party at work.
And the #1 thing I've learned:
.Jerry Larson can find you even if you haven't talked to him since 1985. (guy that sits behind me graduated in 1984 and got a call from jerry when he came through with the 2nd yrs. for their turkey tour... hadn't heard from jerry for 18yrs.)... be afraid, be very afraid." ++

++ I'M GOING TO SAN FRANCISCO! i'm going to san francisco, in 6 hours! woohoo! but i have to drive all night to get there tomorrow. boo. but i'll be there for 2 days! woohoo! but then i have to drive the 13.5 hours back. boo. but heather may get a computer in oregon on our way back! woohoo! but i won't, because i don't have my insurance money yet. boo. but i will soon! woohoo!

i broke the streak. i didn't even leave the house until 7.30am today. go me.

lesson 3 of 7:

Atlanta, GA
"It's been 4 months since I left the bubble of college, but in my heart I'm still there. I really do enjoy the real world so far, nothing too shocking has come up. The worst is that don't have that timeline in your head. The one that says this is the beginning and this will be the end, and then something new starts. The real world time line goes on forever. and if you have seen "The Sandlot" I mean to say "forever" in that tone, FOR-EV-ER.
what I have learned in the real world
.10. There is no one to pay your bills except you. If you don't pay them something bad happens.
.9. you think you are getting a college education so that you don't end up as the receptionist. It's all lies.
.8. After 10 weeks you still have to go to work.
.7. you are still paid poorly even though you have more expenses.
.6. everyone around you is either getting married or pregnant.
.5. Atlantans are still bitter the Yankees burned their city and won the war.
.4. the zoom game works just a well in the real world as it does on co-op.
.3. office chit chat centers around the important current events, like the Bachelor and American Idol.
.2. going a few days without a shower is frowned upon.
.1. surfing the Internet can ALWAYS be billed to a client, you're doing research." ++

++ MY CAR IS FIXED. it just cost me an arm and a leg. $978.78 to be exact. just to replace some cv boots, a split v-pipe. and a muffler, and to get an oil change. didn't know my one arm and my my long leg costed so much. i could survive with just one of each of those i'm sure. possibly no legs and no arms. then maybe i could buy me a nice camera.

and its 4 straight days now. i hope to break this streak.

the lessons continue... this time from cincinnati:

Cincinnati, OH
"Good to hear from you all. I've been checking my email every 5 minutes for the past week just waiting for those inevitable emails from the likes of Mr. Siwek, R Gill, and J Dubs. I can now rest peacefully at night. I would send you one, but I'm not sure I've learned 10 things since starting co-op. Let's try.
.10. Co-op = receptionist's bitch when she leaves to go to an afternoon Reds' game.
.9. Turning drawings into PDF's from AutoCAD is considered a worthy investment in my time here.
.8. Punch lists on crappy urban housing are fun cause you get to punch walls and stuff.
.7. Having to work for someone that is a big Browns fan can truly be painful.
.6. Co-op doesn't mean more free time; conversely, during co-op, other things will find ways of eating up your time, such as getting a new car. (Yes, the Tangerine Dream has officially been retired. The new "chick magnet" is an 89 Pontiac 6000, affectionately known as "White Thunder", or perhaps, "Creamy Goodness". I'll let you guys vote.)
.5. Once the office boiler has been turned off for the winter, it can't be turned on again (or at least that's what they tell us).
.4. Sports and war are touchy office conversation topics.
.3. Weather is an okay office conversation topic.
.2. Co-ops get the crappy computers while receptionists and the office manager get the new, faster models. (Cause they do more work anyway.)
And the number 1 thing I've learned on co-op:
.1. Chose your roommates more wisely next time. (Jason Fofrich + Sara White = BEST ROOMMATES EVER.) Sorry J Dubs and Mark. Sara buys jellybeans." ++

++ MY CAR IS BROKEN. i was driving home from the climbing gym last night and i went over a bump and then my car started making a really loud ugly noise. real loud. real ugly. i can't hear my radio over the sound ofthe car. its the cv boots. don't ask me what it does. i don't know. i do know whenever i accelerate it makes the loud ugly noise. so i'm taking it into the shop tomorrow morning at 7.30. which sounds really early, but then again i've been at work this whole week at 7.30am, so its not too much of a stretch. why? because i have nothing else better to do. really? no, not really. i'm lying. i don't know why. i just have been.

this is what everybody is learning on co-op (one a day for 7 days. yes thats all my 'friends', so yes 70 things to learn in 7 different cities)...

Charlottesville, VA
"Howdy everyone, I completely forgot (living in Cincinnati last summer) that the cool thing to do over co-op is to send mass emails. Consequently, I'd like to take this moment to apologize for my substantial absence, or conversely, my inevitable return (however you see the glass is your prerogative). Luckily, however, this time I got the memo. Two of them actually , because every now and then I do need a little prodding to jump start those creative juices and whatnot (a veritable "shout out" to Rebecca and Jason...East Coast represent!). Taking personal liberties to disregard traditional notions of cohesive paragraphing strategies, I have compiled a list of important life lessons that I've gathered from my first week here in Charlottesville, VA. A "top ten" list if you will. (I would like to preemptively acknowledge that there is a largely architectural undertone to a number of these points. Additionally, I would like to turn that acknowledgement into an apology).
.10. You can't do red lines if the firm doesn't do any construction documents.
.9. When I grow up (which will obviously never happen) I want my assistant to have an assistant, who in turn would have a secretary.
.8. Hydrogen fuel cells are actually a conspiracy of *gasp* big oil companies. (I'm actually not kidding on this one...).
.7. Pedestrian streets can work in regions in which snow falls as late as April.
.6. Northern Virginia, despite my deepest wishes, isn't really the Deep South.
.5. The storage room is actually a perfect place for a ping-pong table (thus confirming a personal heartfelt belief of mine).
.4. A 9:30 start can begin to seem early even after only a week of the unusual practice.
.3. Chicken is truly a respectable addition to any breakfast meal (particularly waffles).
.2. I will never again rent an apartment 20 minutes walk from the nearest Laundromat.
.1. I am no longer convinced that Mr. Jefferson isn't actually a deity.
Well, there's probably paint drying somewhere that I'm sure I will regret if I don't watch for at least a portion of the day." ++

++ WOOHOO! check it out. look at me being all up with the technology! i've added a tag-board, meaning people can leave messages to anyone they want! or talk about whatever they want! i'm either super up to speed with the cutting edge or a super nerd.

memo from work ...
Dear Men-Folk of ARC:
Please lower the toilet seat when you are done using the comfort station – also – please mop up all youe whisker shavin’s after tending to your facial hair.
Thanks Much

response from someone else ...
now wait a minute...how do you know one of youzzz woman folk weren't shavin your legs?

response to the response ...
Sorry to be presumptuous. Ladies – if you must shave in the work place – please do so in the shower. ++

++ I LOVE THE OUTDOORS. heather asked me the other day what i like to do. i answered, " i like to be outdoors. i like to climb, i like to hike, i like to camp, i like to play soccer, i like to golf, i like to be in the outdoors, doing physical outdoor stuff. i'm not a big fan of sitting in a classroom, of sitting listening to lectures, of being passive." if it were me, i would wake up do something active outdoors, then eat, then do something else active outdoors, and then eat again and then do something else active outdoors and then sleep. wake up and do the same thing again. i'd never get sick of it. and if i did, then i would do something different active outdoors.

white water rafting - was awesome as it always is. there weren't any swimmers, although j-ackleg w-hitewater almost bit it twice. if it weren't for those footholds... and he's a good shield for blocking water from hitting the person behind him. i think between him and heather, they got more soaked from incoming water after lunch in the first rapid than the other five of us got the entire ride. the water was freezing. we had to wear wetsuits and booties and i had on a fleece, a raincoat, and a life jacket and i was still a little cold!

camping - was cold. i like fire. i was a pyro when i was a litt..younger kid. i loved fire. camping lets me re-live my younger childhood. isn't it great though? you like a fire and throw stuff on it and it burns. then you throw more stuff on it and it burns as well. and then you throw a lot of stuff on it and it burns like crazy. its so great. and then it goes out and its cold.

kayaking - heather and i went kayaking out on lake union and lake washington on sunday. apparantly two days of camping, the matrix reloaded, and a day of white water rafting weren't enough, so when we got back on sunday, we went to the university avenue street fair and then kayaking for 2 hours. the place we went to has a dock right in between lake washington and lake union, but to get out to lake washington you have to paddle through the montlake cut through portage bay and then out to lake washington, which is fine when the water is flat, but when the boats are going past you the wake tends to get a little higher the closer you are to the boat, which is fine unless you are right next to the boat, which you are when you go through the montlake cut, which is creepy, especially since i don't think i would know what to do if i flipped the kayak over. but anyone can kayak. all you have to do is fill out a little piece of paper with some information on it and sign your name saying you are responsible for yourself, not the company, and then they give you a boat and off you go. no experience required. but then again, they won't save you if you start to drown.

sleep - is good. especially when you fall asleep at 8.30 and sleep soundly for the entire night and then get up at 7.00 the next morning to go to work. believe it or not, it actually makes work easier in the mornings as well. and you don't have to visit the coffee machine as many times. (although if you are the first one in, you have to make the coffee. found that out this morning. apparantly it doesn't 'magically' make itself.) ++

++ I'M GOING CAMPING. i'm going camping. i'm going camping. i'm going camping. i'm going camping. i'm going camping. i'm going camping. i'm going camping. i'm going camping. i'm going camping. i'm going camping. i'm going camping. i'm going camping. in 4 hours. yay!

and i get reimbursed money for my stuff being stolen. double yay! ++

++ MAN, I'M FEELING BLUE. ok, well not blue literally, but kind of sad. maybe not sad, burdened maybe? seriously, i know how i feel, i'm just not so sure i have the words to explain it. i started looking at how much money i should save up for school next year and how much i will/should have to borrow and its a whole lot more than i have. i'm so bummed right now. i went climbing last night and was too bummed to have a good time there and i never let anything bother my time climbing. i'm so bummed i don't even really have anything to write about other than this. i'm not even that excited to go to san francisco next weekend or that it will be a three day weekend. maybe a good hike this weekend will do me some good. get away mentally. ha, maybe i'm mental. yeah, mentally bummed. ++

++ KAYAKING - is an absolute blast! if it didn't cost so much money and i didn't have other things to worry about such as how i'm gonna pay for school next year and all the stupid costs which come with that such as rent, food, books, and trying to replace my laptop, camera, and camcorder, then i'd buy one right now. the class was mellow. basic. how to get in and out of the boat. the different strokes. how to go straight. how to turn around. how not to tip your boat over. how to tip your boat over. now i'm a pro. uh, right. but at least now i can go rent a kayak whenever i want and not feel like an idiot trying to get in and out of it. and actually vaguely know what i'm doing in the water. or at least know enough to fake it. right, so this entry is boring. i swear it was a lot more interesting last night.

whitewater rafting this weekend on the wenatchee river. woohoo! that water is going to be so cold!

i'm getting big. i gotta start eating less. this entire entry is boring. i'm gonna stop now before i suck it up even more. ++

++ WE'VE BEEN BOMBED. and not just normally bombed. 'drity bombed'. and i'm not talking about who number two works for. and it doesn't have a good view either. seattle is suppossed to be going through this huge exercise, "the largest, most extensive simulation ever" and yet it hasn't interrupted anything i've done today. thats too bad, because i really didn't feel like doing any work today. i saw some of the pictures and its actually pretty awesome how realistic they made the scene of the bomb. overturned buses. real raging fires. debris everywhere. it looked almost as good as the real thing.

leavenworth this past weekend. wow, that city is something. not great. kind of funny. very kitsch. big tourist trap. and yet there's something about it which makes you like it. and then you blink. its one of those places where you go for a day or a weekend, but you definately don't live there. well at least i don't live there. or ever will. but icicle creek/canyon is there and the wenatchee river are there and its georgeous. so is a bunch of rock climbing, which we did for the weekend. except its mostly trad/free climbing and i'm too much of a wus to do that, so instead i just do sport climbs and bouldering, of which there isn't much in leavenworth, so we did a lot of hiking with a lot of gear to make ourselves look like we know what we are doing when in reality we really don't. ever. ++

++ WE LOCK our doors now everyday, no matter where we are going or for how long. are we paranoid? not the door to the outside, because well yeah obviously (at least to me) we lock the outside doors. but we have locks on our bedroom doors as well. we've always had them, but just never bothered to lock them during the week, just on fridays when the little kids are having school at the place. but now, they are locked always. so what if someone breaks into our bedrooms? well they get everything in our rooms, but can't get to the rest of the house. basically our house now is a bunch of small locked rooms. i feel like i'm on star trek or the titanic and there is a disaster and everything needs to be locked down and shut off from everything else, so that everything else doesn't get contaminated or the house doesn't sink. the best part is the deadbolt is now a dual cylinder lock, meaning you have to hhave a key to lock and unlock it on both the outside and the inside. meaning if there is a fire, i better have my key in my hand, otherwise i'm either screwed (and by screwed i mean burned) or i'm going out a window (which wouldn't be hard either seeing as they are single paned windows). i wonder if its time to start looking for another place to live? i wonder if i can find any other place to live which is just as cheap, but safer. is there really any place thats safe anyway? maybe i'm just paranoid. ++

++ YAY IKEA. your cheap danish knock off furniture sucks. ++

++ BELLEVUE ART MUSEUM - BAM! and you're there. well at least on the first fridays of every month to get in free, which is where heather and i went this past friday. people in bellevue are pretty. pretty people. seattle=ugly people. there must be something in the water. water is easy to come by here in the northwest. water which makes you pretty is hard to come by unless you are on the east side of the water. so the art museum. and there was a free fashion show. which you would think a fashion show set in a place of pretty people would have very pretty people. try again. the exhibit was intriguing though. it was about installation and exhibition fashion shows. think installation art, except its about fashion and clothes and the everything is moving. its a show, its a fsahion show. its art. its a fashion art show. its way cool. BUT we didn't see that at the BAM. oh yeah, its designed by steven holl. i think he ripped it off of chiasma. copy cat. back to the fashion show. the exhibit is about e.v. day and it was titled g-force. now i won't go into details but i watched the fashion show from the top of the staircase staring at at hordes of people through g-strings strung up by wires. i'll stop there.

food - dick's drive in restaurant has to be the coolest greasy spoon joint in town. its greasy. its cheap. its 'retro'. but not quite. more like they started in the 50's and never bothered to advance with time. and have kept the same look since they started. even the people who work there wear the little white hat thingy. hamburgers are $1. cheeseburgers are $1.10. french fries are still hand cut out of realy potatoes and sold for $1.40. its faster than the fastest fast food place you have ever been to. its a great place i must say.

i'm looking into buying a new laptop, although i can't decide what i'm going to get. a pc ... or ... a mac. everyone says mac. although macs cost about $1000 more. and i don't have an extra $1000 laying around. but i want a mac. i'm not sure how to justify spending more money for a computer i don't really really need. more research. we'll see. ++

++ ON WEDNESDAY after heather and i got home we noticed our laptops were missing...as well as my digital camera...as well as my digital camcorder...(about $10,000 total) and the back door was open. no problem i think, our landlord just came to borrow all four of those items without asking. uh huh. someone did come to 'borrow' those items without asking and i don't think they intend to give them back. i can't say i feel violated or defiled contrary to the expectation of everyone (all of 2) who have asked. i don't feel cheated or paranoid. i don't feel jumpy or obsessive/compulsive at checking to make sure my personal belongings have not been taken. i am not mad, angry, upset, 'homicidal' (as the seattle policeman told us he was when he was robbed twice in a two week period), or any combination of any of the above mentioned. i am however sad. not sad that someone would come and personally take my stuff. not sad that my stuff stuff is gone (well kind of). not even so much sad that someone else 'needs' the money so bad that he had to steal from someone (being me). more so sad that i can't get to the pictures and video that i had taken. 130 pictures i was going to upload that night. 57 minutes of 15 second clips of video dating back to last summer and the tail end of my trip to taiwan. pieces of my life and memories which i can't get back. thats what makes me sad.

anyway, if someone offers to sell you two laptops, a digital camera, or a digital camcorder, ask them if its from seattle. and if it is. kick them in the ass. and the balls too if you get the chance. ++