THE WORLD IS SPINNING

++ THE WORLD IS SPINNING

so much has happenned in just the past couple of months, even more so in the past couple of weeks.
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do you ever get that sense that things are going to fast and you don't have enough time to process it all?
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you start to make sense of what's going on, then you have to go to sleep or you have to go to work or time just moves and all of a sudden it's time. time to do something. whatever. it's just time and there is no time to think about it anymore. the things that aren't happenning to you will somehow in some aspect influence you or have some sort of affect on you. it's overwhelming. make you feel small again. not insecure. just unstable. like going on one of those playground spinny things that everyone did when they were small and holding onto the end while your friends spin it around as fast as they possibly can. you hold on. at first you focus on just one thing and try to hold that focus for as long as possible until you have to turn your head. you whip your head around to the right and immediately try to refocus on that one object. a tree. a car. your friend's face. some in the distance. anything to prolong the inevitable unstableness you know will occur when you get off. your friends tire of running or pushing the hunk of metal. or you jump off, not being able to take any more. you lie in the grass. look up. the white cloud posted just to the left of the midday sun. it starts to turn arond clockwise. you close your eyes momentarily hoping for it to stop. open eyes. turning. long blink. open eyes. it's back where it should be, but starting to turn again. eyes closed. you feel your body turn to the right. except you're laying on the ground. wait then, the ground must be moving to the left. impossible. you stand. open your eyes. everything feels as though it's leaning to the right. focus. 30 seonds go by. everything starts to slow down. you can think about anything .. again .. now that the world has stopped spinning. your head is a little hazy. as if you've just been the witness of the spaceship exploding. did you just see that? did that really happen? are you serious? dumbstruck. but not dumbstruck, you know what just happened. you saw it with your own eyes. they instantaneously replayed it over and over and over and over. its real. are you serious? now what? what happens next? your mind blanks. deep breath. grass. summer heat. friends talking. spinny thing behind you. thirsty. queesy stomach.
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now what?
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++

SAN FRANCISCO TRIP

++ SAN FRANCISCO TRIP

The left coast was great!

I left Friday morning from Dayton at 5.30am and flew in at 11.30am. We pretty much just went to outdoor stores (REI and AnyMountain) and went to Bay Street over in Berkeley.

Saturday we went bouldering down at Castle Rock State Park (about an hour and a half south), then went to Palo Alto (Stanford is there) and walked around downtown and ate. Palo Alto is filled with smart and rich people. I wouldn’t say beautiful people. but well dressed and they hold themselves well. Saturday night we met up with most of the college people out there, 8 or 9 of them. It was good to see all of them, briefly, but just the right amount of time.

Sunday one of our friends took us down to the Lin De Mar, down in Pacifica (about 45 minutes south), Pacifica is just south of Daly City which is just south of San Francisco. We went surfing out there for pretty much the entire morning and half of the afternoon. It was awesome! A little cold at first (even with the wetsuit), but you warm up, and the sun even came out! I’d have to say that was the most all body just exhausted I’ve been in a really long time. I’d equate it to maybe the first time I’d ever gone snowboarding. Later that evening we went up to Tiburon (just north of Sausalito, which is just north of san Francisco, across the golden gate, up in marin county) we ate at this little place called Guaymas. We met up with two other friends for dinner who I hadn’t seen yet. so we’re standing in line waiting to be seated and all three of them turn to me and say, ‘that’s george lucas!’ but with a quiet exclamation point. so I turn and blankly, rudely, (blatantly) just stare at this guy standing no more than 5 feet away from me. graying hair. beard. no taller than me. wife. daughter. little kid with a star wars t-shirt running around. I look back to my friends, ‘that’s not him. there’s no way that could be george lucas.’ he continues to wait in line. we go get seated. seafood dinner was amazing. sure enough I get back to heather’s place, do a google image search for george lucas and there are 10,000 hits of george lucas staring me in the face. it was him! ghiradelli ice cream after dinner topped it off.

Monday we went down to fort funston (far southwest side of SF, about a 3 minute drive from daly city) and watched hang-gliders go jump off a 150 foot cliff over a beach. that sport seems nuts to me. I want to try it! we watched them zip back and forth for a while. a walk on the beach. we watched people flying radio controlled airplanes around for a while. (that also seems like something that would be fun to do.) then it over to the beach chalet for lunch/dinner. seafood was good there as well, not quite as good as guaymas though. view was just as nice though. back to the city to walk around downtown one last time. a stroll through the newly renovated ferry building and then we met up with samee for another go at ghiradelli ice cream on the go. (about 5 minutes before I had to leave for the airport he arrive in the city. he had just gotten back from LA.) literally he came running across the street. we said hi and walked straight into the ice cream shop. ordered. then the three of us started walking (ice cream cone in hand) to heather’s to pick up her car. dropped samee off at his place, then to the airport. flight left at 10pm. red-eye. atalanta at 5am. 3 hours of waiting. never seems so long as it does at 5 in the morning. 8am flight. Dayton at 9.30am. and in to work at 10.30am.

it’s weird. every time I go back to SF it feels like home. sort of. you know, after you’ve lived someplace for 6 months, you are used to it. I already know the area. I don’t need to be entertained. I’m just there doing the local stuff. falling back into a routine. or checking out all the odd-off the beaten path (non-touristy) stuff. (That doesn't mean I'm going to move there. Don't get the wrong idea. You know who you are that I'm directing that comment to. I've just been there a lot times and so I feel comfortable.)

next trip, Taiwan in the beginning of December…++

POISON IVY

++ I HAVE POISON ivy and it sucks. no, no. not that poison ivy. the actual poison ivy. i went geo-chaching with hesse and cornell and thielman and got it while searching for an ammo box. after we went geo-caching, we went to the beach and everyone waded into the water except for me, so i assume if they did have it, they got it all washed off. not me. i get poison ivy (well i assume it's poison ivy. it's poison something) fairly easily. i swear i just see poison whatever and i get it. haven't found a good way to get rid of it, except go to the doctor and get some medicine (which is what i'm doing today). ++

GOD BLESS PASSIONATE PEOPLE

++ GOD BLESS THE people who are passionate about the things they do and surround themselves with. these are the people who push others beyond their limits of understanding and comprehension and compel them to strive and expand beyond the realm of habitual and customary limits. ++

THE HARDEST THING

++ BY FAR THE hardest thing i've done (or tried to do) today.

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/states_experiment_drag-drop_Intermed_State15s_500.html
know your united states of america? ++