Checking in from Orlando! I came here with friends for New Years and to enjoy the theme park experience. I'll be home tomorrow and upload some Kennedy Space Center photos then!
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The Pursuit of Happyness
This ended up being the Christmas Eve movie and all things considered, it wasn't uplifting but the story makes you think. While all the celebrity news shows are raving about Jaden Smith (Will's son) and how great he is, the reality is that he gets the job done at the kid level. His acting is okay and I'm sure that it helped that he worked with his father. The movie itself is based on a true story of a rags to riches millionaire. It covers a few month span of what it took for one man and his son to survive while competing for an internshp at Dean Witter and ultimately a dream job. We go from homeless shelter to cheap motel, to subways for sleep, and a relentless drive to do better in life. The movie can be uplifting or depressing, depending on your point of view. I found it to be a little of both.
From the beach to the hilltops of Oregon - I had the quick and fun turnaround trip to spend Christmas with a friend. In terms of Christmas events, it was a pretty perfect trip. No flight delays, a movie with no one talking in the audience and not a single cell phone went off, Oregon wine, pancakes with Oregon berries, and fun with friends!
The Friday before Christmas. I almost feel complete. This has nothing to do with Christmas but instead the amount of getting caught up that I needed to do this week. As expected, the vacation week was the fastest of the entire year. While I'm still missing two of my major goals for the week, I did manage to buy both a TV and an office bookcase this week. I had inspiration (don't know where it came from) to make a Friday night stop at Pier 1. It turns out that a sale was on, the store was fairly empty and I found parking. The end result is I finally made a dent in the mess in my office. I'd take a picture but the mess has transported itself to the bookcase and I don't want to admit to everyone how bad it is! What goals were left out? One, homework. I can work 50+ hours, travel, write 3 papers and post daily each week and somehow it always gets done. Give me a week off from both work and school, and nothing. I had the best intentions to get a week ahead but no. The other ...
The end of the year is approaching and I find myself with the need to burn vacation days. It's a use it or lose it type policy at work and rather than give up my time, I'm staying put and doing vacation at home. So far, I've managed to print out photos that have been sitting for a few months, made 3 trips to Wal-Mart in an attempt to find and rescue my photos that were lost (twice) and finally succeeded today. I even have food in the house and of course, the TV is here at last. While laundry, cleaning the floor and pulling weeds have all been taken care of, I'm still procrastinating on buying the bookcases that my office needs. I unpacked a few more boxes and that ended up creating a bigger mess than if I had left everything alone. The fact is, I'm okay with dis-organization. When it's too much for me to take, then the bookcases will appear. It would be nice if I hit that point this week though. I've done nothing and everything and I can already feel the wee...
Continuing on the theme of friends and good times, I'd like to share a memory from the past. This picture is from 1978 and was taken at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. The person on my left is Jean, my friend that I have known my entire life. On the right is her cousin Crystal, who I first met at the age of 7 or 8. Jean and I grew up across the street from each other. We're only 2 months apart in age (yes, I'm older) and someday we will be on Oprah for a life-long friends episode. As small children, we both idolized Crystal, who we considered to be beautiful, smart, glamourous and the personification of all that little girls want to be when they grow up. Crystal was a product of the 60's and all the flower-power idealism of that generation. Many teens of that generation went on to conform to consumerism lifestyles but Crystal stayed true to her love of nature and animals. I always wanted to be a marine biologist. It turns out that I hate to study and get seasick. I also...
There are two kinds of happiness in the world. One is the enjoyment of hanging out with your friends at Turf Supper Club and enjoying a pint of Guinness with them. It is one of the best things in life. The second kind of happiness is the kind that can only come in a really big cardboard box. Inside that box is 50 inches of LCD joy. The screen, the sound, and the ability to watch Star Wars and LOTR in full optimized home viewing is about as geek heaven as it gets!
Wednesday in St. Louis was almost spring-like. The sun was out, the air nice and sort-of warm, and I spent it in an office with a view of a parking garage. Such is life here. Now I'm back to the business travel life of trying to find dinner. The last two nights saw the hotel restaurants packed full due to sporting events in town. Now that there's no event, both hotel restaurants are closed for private parties. The Starbucks is closed and the bakery under renovation. No place to eat but my room. I hope room service doesn't suck too badly tonight. I'm looking forward to traveling home tomorrow and saying C-Ya to St. Louis for the year! Update - room service called back. My food is ready but all the bars are closed and locked up and they can't bring me wine or beer. Water it is!
Last night's arrival into St. Louis was to the chaos of Monday Night Football. The cab driver told me that we were in for a rough drive because of the game. My mind is thinking, baseball's over, it's not Sunday, basketball? No, a huge rivalry event game with Chicago. Downtown was packed even in the rain. St. Louis airport has a really slow baggage claim. It's so slow that you can go eat, get a flu shot (I did last night, only $25 and no wait right next to baggage claim) and then wander about and the bags are still not off-loaded. At least I got the flu shot.
Sunday afternoons are wonderful events when the sun is shining, football is on TV, and all homework assignments are done! It occured to me that the last time that I had a Guinness was in Russia and the last time that I had dark beer at Karl Strauss was months ago! (The last Firkin had no stout.) So Ms. Kitty and I headed off for a day of eating, drinking, and TV. First stop - Karl Strauss downtown where there should have been a huge crowd of people in the bar to watch the Charger's game. We arrived and the place was pretty empty which was surprising but it made for great service. We enjoyed the food and beer, made fun of everyone (and ourselves) and then returned to Ocean Beach for Guinness at OB's. (The restaurant, not related to OB) After a couple of pints of great and tasty Guinness we walked to Ms. Kitty's house for coffee and TV to finish off the day. All in all, a great Sunday. Plus the Charger's won and have the AFC West title!
The quick trip to Arizona was to visit Audrey, who escapes a screen name because she refuse to accept the existance of cyberspace. Audrey is the person who inspired children to learn that dogs and horses get birthday parties, speeding is okay if you don't get caught, and fast cars are for everyone. This is a person who acts 20 years younger than she is and refuses to be old and feeble. Her color is race car red. The car in this photo is my rental car. I need to digress and explain more back history. While Audrey was bright red Buick Skylark, her husband Emil was Mustang Blue. Every kid in the neighborhood wanted one or both of their cars. When I requested my rental car, I went cheap. I wanted the Ford Focus at $30 per day. I arrived at Hertz and could not find my name on the board. Two different people helped me and then a puzzled man finally pointed at this car and said, there it is. I could not believe it! A 2007 Emil Blue waiting for me, full upgrade at no extra charge. Now Emil...
While Machu Picchu is amazing, I liked the beauty of the Sacred Valley. This portion is where the Temple of the Sun is located and when you climb to the top, there are great views of the surrounding mountains and valley. Peru will never rate as my favorite destination but it was a completly unique place to go in terms of the Inca culture and heritage. For me, 7 days was way too long and I'm sure that I would have enjoyed it much more in 5 days without extra time. But take that for what it is because I believe that you can see the best of a city in 3 days or less.