Absoluteshine
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Absoluteshine's LiveJournal:
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| Friday, July 1st, 2005 | | 4:29 pm |
| | Thursday, June 16th, 2005 | | 12:44 pm |
Are you worthy of my empty cans?
I've accumulated 2 garbage bags full of empty cans and bottles which have taken residence in my trunk for over 2 weeks now. I was supposed to take them to the Albertsons but I keep thinking that instead I will get the whole heapful to some worthy less-fortunate family or homeless person, often found going through the recycling bins in the alley behind my apartment. The hope is that when I see one next time rummaging through the bins and garbage in agonizing disappointment, I will stop them, offer them my giant bags and announce in a superman voice that they should "take the day off and go play with their children". When exchanged the $4-6 gift will balance the universe, bring me good karma and conveniently satisfy my philanthropic self with my own lazyness. I almost gave them away last week but the guy who was going through our bins was driving a car and putting them in his trunk. I figured if he could afford a car then he probably wasn't worthy. ...In writing this I suddenly feel connected to my mom whom I recall when I was young used to buy a case of Labbatt's Blue for the garbagemen. Every year around Christmas, she would wake up early and wait for them to come then run out in her PJ's, bottles clanging together. The hope was that this gift of booze would bring good favor any time we went over the 2 garbage bag limit in Vancouver. | | Thursday, May 26th, 2005 | | 11:14 am |
| | Monday, May 23rd, 2005 | | 6:50 pm |
Thailand
May 7, 2005 5 pm Flight from Bangkok Leaving AsiaThere is so much to see in Thailand and given I only had 9 days to see it all, I think its only fair that I call my journey a scrapbook of impressions. From the mountains in the north to the beaches in the south, Thailand is full of people with kind souls but interesting contrasts. The Thai are Karma-believing Buddhists who feed stray dogs, smile and greet strangers emphatically and wear long shirts and pants in public out of respect even in 40 degree weather. On the other hand, the Thai are open to homosexuality and prostitution. You can be talking with a waiter or taxi driver one moment about the tsunami and then the next they’ll ask you whether you want to go somewhere with ladies or boys or ladyboys. Despite the amount of tourists who have flocked to Thailand, the Thai people have seem to accommodated them with their 7-11’s, English signs and Pad Thai (which isn’t really a Thai thing). I know I was annoyed. But politeness, genuine compliments and smiles run plentiful here. I think the best compliment you can give Thailand is that once you visit, you leave thinking about the next time you will return. People feel compelled to come back, to return to the same places they had visited and to pick up the friendships and the conversations where they left off. Kaap Kun Kap Thailand. Here is a slice of my adventures in Thailand: BangkokI spent 2 days and 5 nights here flying in and out of Bangkok. Bangkok, much like Beijing and Saigon is crowded and dirty, the kind of dirty that leaves black stains on your clothes and in your nostrils (btw, don’t make the mistake of wiping your forehead on your white shirt). In 40 degree weather, I saw a little bit of everything on foot including Khao San Road (which reminds me of Venice Beach with all the freaks disguised as backpackers), Patpong (unfortunately I couldn’t help feeling like a bit of a perv going by myself so I didn’t catch the pingpong show), Wat Po (Got Wat?), Chattachuk market (puppies!), Sukhumvit (famous for fishbowl sex parlours) and the east part of town which I can’t be bothered to try and look up.      Chiang MaiI spent 2 days and 2 nights in Chiang Mai which I visited mainly for the market and for the mountains. Here is an entry from my journal on day 2, the highlight of my time in Thailand: What a day. Woke up with my first case of non-solid bowel passage. I don’t recall eating anything weird so I assume it’s from drinking the cheapass Thai whisky that was served out of a Volkswagon Van in Bangkok. I came all this way to hike so I force myself out of my air-conditioned room and tuk tuk to the bus station. LP says it costs 40 baht to go up to Doi Suthep and a bit more to go further to the top of the mountain. When I get to the bus station, I wait for a sawngthaew (an official taxi pickup truck with seats in the back) to take me up. The policy is to wait for 8 people in order for the price to be 40 but being I’m the only one there, the dude wants 450 baht ($12 USD) for a return trip. I waited it out for 30 minutes and eventually people came. I met a German guy who worked in the tech industry also and together we went to Doi Suthep. Not a huge fan of the temple thing, but this Wat was very beautiful. After Doi Suthep, we figured we would take another sawngthaew up Doi Pui mountain but no extra passengers came so we decided to try and hike up the steep road ourselves. A few hundred meters up, we flagged down a pickup truck. We offered to pay the man to take us up. At first he refused but then stopped the car, told his 2 little boys to move over and we climbed in. The road was steep and bumpy. It must have been odd for the little boys to wake up seeing a couple of strangers in the car. When we reached the top, we handed money to the man but amazingly he refused. We tried to give money to the kids as well but he wouldn’t take it. I’ll be dammed. Karma. Trying to relieve memories of Sapa, we took a hike through a H’mong village. The hike was nice (great views and wild lychee trees) but the village had a lot more amenities probably because these people weren’t as poor as the hill tribes in Vietnam. We hung out and had a beer until the clouds started coming in and we could hear thunder in the distance. At 5, it started to rain slightly so we headed back to the village but all the taxi’s were gone. We could sense that trouble was coming. We tried to hire a local to drive us down the hill but taking advantage of the situation, they all wanted an extraordinary fee to take us down the hill. We could have paid the $10 USD but our stubbornness won out and we decided to hike the 4 km downhill. Although we didn’t have water or food, the one thing I learned on this trip was that I could rely on myself in any situation. It worked out. Just when we reached the next town below, the rain started to pour. We paid a local 300 baht to take us back to Chiang Mai and we made it back safely without a drop. Chiang Mai was a mess. The lightning and rain storm flooded the streets and knocked out power to the entire area inside of the moat leaving everything pitch black for the night. Its funny because we were both exhausted and famished and after surviving our little ordeal in Doi Pui, the only thing we wanted was McDonalds. I spent the night at the outdoor market honing my negotiation skills. I have to say, negotiating for a discount brought the charm out of me. Between my smiling and Wai’ing (bowing) and asking for a yellow discount, I managed to get about ½ the asking price. Even the locals complimented me in my master negotiation techniques.      Phuket – Kata YaiI traveled to Kata Yai, an area that wasn’t really hit by the tsunami although I had seen some of the damage. I stayed at a resort which cost me $30 a night, a 70% discount from the typical rate. It was empty. I must have counted 6 other guests the whole time I was there. Spent most of my time itching my mosquito bites, reading and drinking by myself. Since there were no tourists, my best and only conversations were with local bar/waiter staff who had little else to do but answer my typical stupid questions like do they like rap or where are you from (100% of the time, they were from Thailand).      | | 12:34 pm |
China
The afternoon I arrived in Hong Kong, I was unshaven, unshowered for 48 hours and looked like someone who was hiking through the muddy hills of Sapa just the night before. By that night, I was staying in a hotel that cost me as much as a week’s accommodation in Vietnam, drinking $10 martinis and hanging out at an exclusive model members-only club in the Long Kwai Fong district. I had hoped that my trip to China would carry forward the cultural enlightenment I had enjoyed from Vietnam. That coming home to the “motherland” for the first time would feel like my long lost home, that my people would welcome their Chinese son with open arms and offer me refuge in their hutongs, teach me the secret ways of kung fu, or at least make me an MTV Asia VJ. Instead it felt more distant. Less of a community and more of a rat race of people more concerned about budding in front of you in line than helping out a lost tourist. I guess it didn’t help that I traveled with my 2 best friends from Canada, and none of us spoke any Mandarin. We had a hell of a time even accomplishing the simplest tasks like ordering food. It was frustrating to watch white people in convenience stores as they updated their IP phone cards and asked for directions in perfect Chinese while we struggled with the simplest statements: “Er water. Er gum. Shi shi” We stuck to the 3 major cities in China: Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai and although I was disappointed that we didn’t see more of the countryside, it didn’t matter whether we did anything at all, I was just happy to be retelling our old stories, bursting into inappropriate laughter in public, and acting like kids again. Thoughts and moments from China: Hong Kong- It cost as much to take a train from the airport to the city as it does to take a bus half-way up the coast of Vietnam - The high-rise apartments are even more massive than New York. Behold the near future of living in big cities - What is Popeye’s doing in Hong Kong?    Beijing- According to Lonely Planet the city is roughly the size of Belgium. I’d recommend renting a bicycle for anyone planning on visiting - People who are getting their haircut on the sidewalk don’t like having their picture taken - Hold off on buying $80 worth of tea at Ten Fu. There is one in Vancouver. - The Peking duck is over-rated. - Wandering around for 3 hours looking for an Internet café. We resorted to going to the university and calling out “English, English” in hopes that someone would point us to a computer room - The Great Wall has a Great number of stairs       Shanghai- People of Shanghai, congratulations on your vast improvements on hygiene (breath mints and nicer teeth) in comparison to your brethren in Beijing - Forever remembered for its cheap massages, high-end shopping malls, trendy bars, and karaoke night - Pizza Hut is a classy joint - Chivas and green tea will get you mullered quickly - The Bund Experience tunnel is a tourist rip off but the Sex Museum was worth visiting. In particular the 18th century wooden dildo or the castration knife were my favorites!       | | 9:00 am |
My Vietnam
April 15th - Flight from Hanoi to Hong KongIt is appropriate that in our last morning in Vietnam, sitting in a restaurant with Jay while the airport taxi has been waiting for me back at the hotel, that I finally find a restaurant that has real Heinz ketchup, not the local sweet stuff that tests my gag reflexes. We started our journey through Vietnam 2 weeks ago today on a hot Friday afternoon in Saigon. That seemed like ages ago, a time when we were naive about this country's customs and people, a time when we were uncultured and untanned, a time when girls would wave from buses and we would oblige them with a smile and a wave back. 2 weeks of sunshine later and Jay to a person gets mistaken as Vietnamese and I have learned so much that it occurs to me that I will miss this place and everything else it has given us. People often travel to gain perspective, like watching an ox plow the fields or witnessing Buddist rituals or giving $.50 to a poor child will somehow enlighten them. And they will come away, souvenirs in hand, a bigger person having "done Nam". For me, I just wanted experience and a few good stories to tell my friends and loved ones back home. I often think of Vietnam in a selfish manner. Selfish in that the way I saw it, is the way it is, that it was created that way for me and that no one else will ever see it that way. I realize that nothing will ever be the same. Vietnam will change, I will change but the experiences and snapshots I took along the way will remain frozen in time, a product of selective memory, digital photographs and solidified friendships. Years from now, when the images of squat-chair dive restaurants in Saigon and misty ricefields in Sapa have diluted, I think it is the faces and the stories we shared with these people that I will hold onto the hardest. Mistaken by budget backpackers as locals, Jay and I got the uncut version of Vietnam given to us by locals along the way. These people we met... many of them young, a product of the new Vietnam, whizzing along on their moto's with their new western clothes and hanging out in Internet cafes. These is such a contrast with the old Vietnam, the images of women selling goods from the market, carrying large baskets across their back. In this country of clashing contrasts, the sounds of motorcycles drown out the Communist propoganda played over the city loudspeakers. But despite these contrasts, what facinated me about Vietnam is how well it works together. There is a sense of community here, a sense of neighborhood. There is enough com (rice) for everyone, the mechanics fix their bikes, the farmers bring fresh harvest in the morning, the cyclo drivers move people around. It all works together, an indication of the fabric that holds Vietnam in place, the same pride and work ethic that has held it together through a century of invasion from the Chinese, French and Americans. These people...I hope they will tell our stories one day. Thank you Vietnam. Saigon - CoChu Tunnels - Mekong - Mui Ne - Nha Trang - Hoi An - Sapa - Hanoi                   | | Saturday, May 7th, 2005 | | 5:56 pm |
Asia in Summary
6:30 pm - 2.5 hour flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong The things I set out to do before I left for this trip have largely been accomplished. I'm not one to make lists of goals but looking back, its the little things I'll forever look back on during my first trip to Asia: - seeing the various big cities and quiet towns in Asia - having great conversations in other languages and broken English with locals - meeting other travelers from various countries who are also seeking soulful experiences - lying on the beach and doing nothing but listening to the ocean - hiking up a mountain - ordering by pointing - giving away money - leaving people I meet with memories of me so hopefully the stories they tell back home will include me - seeing old friends - meeting new ones - getting drunk - relishing moments of clarity - swimming (despite my fear of it) - And most of all experiencing another world I have no regrets. Although I would have liked to see more countryside in China or stay in Hanoi longer, or visit Phi Phi after the tsunami, I think my trip worked out just right. I was lucky. I was never in danger, nobody tried to steal from me and I only got ripped off twice by taxis with liberal meters. I left LA 6 weeks ago with optimistic hopes for life-changing epiphanies about my career and furthermore about my place on this vast planet. And although those never came to me, I trust that my experiences gained from this trip have already influenced the answers to the questions I seek. If anything, traveling opens ones eyes and makes you want to see more. I learned from my trip that I can rely on myself, that I must improve my Chinese and return (with my father) to that country one day, that I need more sweat in my life whether that be more hiking or yoga, that my job isn't that bad, that I am fortunate to have such a caring and unique girlfriend back home, and that I'm only getting started seeing the world. I have a head full of memories and a journal full of entries I'd love to share. Its tough to summarize my trip in one long entry so instead I thought I'd jot down some curious facts: - 38: Amount of days traveled - 13: Amount of cities visited: Hong Kong, Saigon, CanTho, MuiNe, Nha Trang, Hoi An, Sapa, Hanoi, Beijing, Shanghai, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Kata - 15: Modes of transport: plane, bus, cyclo, taxi, motorcycle, jeep, ferry, ship/boat, bamboo basket, river raft, train, subway, bullet train, tuk tuk, sawngthaew - 7: languages spoken: English, French, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Mandarin, Shanghainese, Thai - 90: % of people who thought I was Japanese - 2: # of Canadians I met during my travels - 23.6: % of total living/expense budget spent on alcohol - more than my entire accommodation budget - 14: % over budget I went largely as a result of the fact above - 6.5: # of years it would take the avg blue-collar Thai worker to earn enough to have the same trip I did - 2: # of watches that either stopped or broke. I had no concept of time for most of my trip - 43: # of journal entries - 4: # of free rides received from kind locals - 1: # of times I seriously thought I was going to die - 99: % of Vietnamese people I was taller than - 1: # of famous VJ's I hung out with - 11: # of backpackers who I actually had a conversation with. Most thought I was local - 5: # of massages received. 5 more than I've had in my life - 6: # of times I ate fast food consisting of McDonalds, KFC, Popeyes or BK - 100: % of times I wore my favorite pink bunny shirt on a Friday night - 63: $ in USD paid for a tailored suit and jacket in Vietnam - 40-45: % of price I was able to negotiate souvenirs/gifts for. I'm a master - 3: # of times my friends convinced a local girl I was a karaoke model - $69,196: amount I made per hour in Dong (net) on my paid vacation. The average Vietnamese person makes about half that amount per day - 16: hotels/guesthouses I stayed in - 8: # of mosquito bites - 4: # of people from Vancouver I bumped into in 2 nights in Hong Kong - 2: # of squat toilets I used. #1, never #2 - 1: # of times touched by an androgynous person | | Friday, May 6th, 2005 | | 6:59 pm |
The Farang
Thailand, the white man's wonderlandEverywhere I go in Thailand, I see farang. It's not like I'm not sured to seeing white guys with asian girls - Aside from all the cross-racial dating I see in LA and Vancouver, I saw rich ex-Pats courting young asian mistresses in Shanghai, I met Frenchmen in Vietnam who had married their Vietnamese girlfriends years ago and were now investing in businesses. But in Thailand, its different. I see the farang in droves with their tasteless Hawaiian shirts, overweight, prematurely balding, football hooligans, college fratboys hi-fiving eaching other and even the odd lonely senior citizen. I see them with Thai girls sitting on their laps or on the back of their motorcycles. I see them hand-in-hand walking back to the hotel with teenage Thai boys. I saw a 6'5" farang traveling on a plane with his 3'8" Thai girlfriend, the whole time I sat behind them on the plane not a word of English passed between them. I see it all and its all so wrongly mismatched. Looks, age and arguably class. I try and avoid them like the plague but I see them everywhere in droves at the gogo bars in Patpong, sitting at McDonalds in Chiang Mai, holding hands at the beach in Phuket. Rentings girls here is like renting videos, you just return them when you're done with them. But as much as it disgusts me, I realize that it is part of the culture here. The Thai's don't mind. Tourism feeds the economy and mixed kids are considered beautiful (unlike in Vietnam where they are austrasized). An average bar girl makes 100 baht ($2.50 USD) while one session with a farang can fetch her 15,000 baht. One local I quizzed on the subject told me that she once had a boyfriend, a farang. She laughed when I asked where he was. "He had to go home" she shrugged. I think it is this part that troubles me the most. Beyond the transaction itself, I wonder what lies behind their renowned Thai smile. I wonder if deep inside they hold any hope that these farang may come back as promised or whether they have defaulted their feelings to disappointment and hopelessness. A tourist should give as much to a country as they take away. Something isn't right here. | | Friday, April 29th, 2005 | | 5:10 pm |
Inbetween haircuts
My second haircut in Asia was done by an androgenous Thai person. He/She actually did a good job. For $8 USD at a pretty trendy place...they even shampooed my ears. I've now had my ears shampooed, cut and massaged by a blind woman. BTW, I promise not to make all my Asia entries about cutting my hair. I have so many travel stories and introspective thoughts I'd like to share but those will have to wait until I get home. Hope all is well with everyone. R | | 12:06 am |
sweaty
It's midnight in Bangkok. Its so hot, my crack is sweaty. | | Monday, April 11th, 2005 | | 7:47 pm |
Dying in Vietnam
When the plane from Danang to Hanoi dropped a 2nd time, it occured to me that I might die. I'm used to turbulence but typically the captain comes on before hand and in a soothing voice, politely asks passengers to buckle their seat belts. This time no warning. We must have dropped 100 meters at least. My stomach felt like I was on the Hollywood Horror ride at Disneyland. At first I was calm until I saw that Jay was praying. At least he had God on his side Things I remember thinking about during those 30 seconds of terror: - I should be wearing a sweater. I'd like to be warm if we crashed - Nat's gonna be pissed if I don't come back to her - Why did we have to splurge and fly instead of taking a bus like all the other backpackers - Does anyone back home know I'm on this flight? - I'm never flying Vietnam Airlines again. FUCKERS We landed in Hanoi a few minutes later. No explanation. No apology. The stewardesses lined up to greet the passengers farewell like nothing had happened. I was pissed. "Thanks for almost killing us" was all I had to say on my way out. | | Wednesday, April 6th, 2005 | | 12:51 pm |
Mui Ne
Sitting in an Internet cafe listening to I Need a Girl Part II with Vietnamese rap. All the music here are American songs with Vietnamese words. It's pretty interesting. Mui Ne is a beach resort full of bungalows and a few tourists just 3 hours north of Saigon. One strip of resorts and a lake and sand dunes just north of here that we're planning to explore today. LJ is in Vietnamese too. I can't figure out how to change the buttons back to English. Oh well. Back to the beach. | | Saturday, April 2nd, 2005 | | 11:19 am |
Saigon Cut
I finally arrived in Saigon at around noon yesterday. I had some time to kill while I waited for my buddy Jay to get in so I decided to get a haircut. Actually I had already scoped a place out called Tony and Guy (not affiliated with the real chain) that was recommended in Lonely Planet. I eventually found my way there after navigating through the relentless sea of motorcycles. 150,000 Dong they quoted me which is $10 USD. Pretty cheap considering I usually pay $60 in LA. But since my airport taxicab negotiation went poorly (I paid almost twice what Jay did), I decided to find a cheaper place. I walked around a few blocks and opted for a place where no one spoke English and was probably more of a place for old Vietnamese ladies then young hipsters. $5 got me a shampoo, a decent haircut done with scissors as dull as a breadknife (after a little coaxing with wax) and a bloody ear. Yeah, she snipped me. Apologized profusely but couldn't stop laughing like everyone else in there. I knew why. Even across the ocean, transcending language and culture, my dumbo ears speak for themselves. | | Tuesday, March 29th, 2005 | | 2:08 pm |
I'm off
This day couldn't come soon enough. I leave tonight for Asia. I've got my spanking new REI backpack filled with my new iPod Shuffle, Nat's new digital camera, a new head-to-toe wardrobe courtesy of my friends from Hurley, a new pair of Merrell's with aggressive tread for hiking and fighting tigers and my Lonely Planet guides. I look GOOOOOD. But I'm most likely getting mugged the second I step out of the airport. See you all when I return. R | | Wednesday, March 9th, 2005 | | 10:00 am |
Asia!!!
So after all these years of talk, I'm finally going to Asia! The decision was made last week when my boss finally approved my 5 week sabbatical/vacation. I've booked my flights, gotten my shots, Lonely Planet books and visas and bought way too much travel stuff (flares and GPS locator not included) like a true rookie. Leaving at the end of the month - 2 weeks in Vietnam traveling from Saigon to Hanoi - 2 nights in HK - 2 weeks in China from Beijing to Shanghai - 1 week in Bangkok I'm meeting some old friends of mine in various cities but I'm doing the first and last portions of my trips myself. If anyone has any friends in Saigon or Bangkok who I could contact in case I get tired of talking to myself, please email me. Also, if anyone knows where I can find a decently priced hotel in HK, I'll be indebted to you forever. | | Tuesday, March 8th, 2005 | | 10:07 am |
Happy 2 Year Anniversary Darling
Thank you Nat for putting up with 2 years of: ~ watching me play single-player videogames ~ full closets for me and none for you ~ my condescending I'm-never-wrong-attitude when we fight ~ all the CD's you lent me and I scratched ~ anytime oral sex went unreciprocated ~ my tendency to hog the shower and turn the water hotter when you're not looking ~ embracing my cravings for fast food ~ other weird habits of mine that cannot be published I'm a better person today because of you. Love, R  | | Monday, February 28th, 2005 | | 2:48 pm |
The Line
It was 2 years ago to the day that I left for LA. I remember it was a clear and mild Friday afternoon and the I-5 was empty. It was as if I was the only one on the road and that the stage was being set for me to alter history. Almost like being in the middle of one of those car commercials when all of downtown is empty or one of those morning after scenes in zombie movies sans the zombies. I looked in my rearview mirror, paused to remember the look of the mountains in the skyline and in my mind at least, I would never look back. Every once in a while in life you get to surprise yourself. Finally leaving Vancouver was one of those moments for me. A bit like the last day of school and the feeling that leaves you sort of wandering in your own little daze. I thought to myself that back in Vancouver, people were carrying on with their lives, as I would have been on any other day. But this time was different. This time I was crossing that line. People usually expect me to do this kind of thing. The line crossing thing. I seem like the type they say. I guess it didn’t help that for years after graduating high school I told everyone I knew that I was moving away from home, that I would be severing the cord or taking the plunge or whatever you want to call it. I used to bump into people I haven’t seen for a long time and they’d tell me that they thought I had moved to New York or Toronto or did the teaching thing in Asia. “Nope, still here” I’d say, “I’ll be gone next year”. But eventually I took my reasonable hat off and decided to make it happen. When I finally got around to moving to LA, I figured something great would occur to me. LA was supposed to be my thing. At least that’s what people back home said, like I was destined to do great things in a city that provided sunny and glamorous conditions year-round. I had expected to find my calling, my key differentiator that I could harness to push my personal power to its potential, Tony Robbins style. Flash forward to 2 years and here I am. The youthful optimism that once inspired me to cram all my possessions into my trunk and drive to LA attitude is gone. I’ve replaced it with the wonder twin team of uncertainty and doubt. These days I find myself questioning why I’m still here, and spend too much time bitching about being here. I know it has been wearing on Nat. The other day she sort of throttled me with a “you’ve been whining about this stuff since I’ve known you but you haven’t done anything about it” comment the other day. She was right. I wondered if it was that obvious? It’s crossed my mind that perhaps I should just go home to my friends and family and all the things that were great about the life I left behind. But despite my shame, my pride won’t let me go. There is too much I haven’t done yet and I haven’t tried hard enough to right things. It’s odd because most people need motivation from something, some event that causes them to move forward, to make a change. Being complacent scares me. And not feeling motivated leaves a taste of uselessness in my mouth. I owe it to myself to find that line again. And when I do, it may take me while to take the step but I fully intend to cross it. | | Friday, February 18th, 2005 | | 11:49 am |
Compliments from strangers
I was at Starbucks this morning and as I was receiving my change, the cashier girl looked at me and said "you look good by the way". I was like, "excuse me?". She repeated her compliment, smiled and moved onto the next customer. I was stunned. Not that I was interested in her, but I really wanted to find out what prompted her to give a complete stranger a compliment. I doubt she was picking me up. Maybe it was part of her job. Maybe it was my cue to put a bigger tip into the square container. Maybe I should have said, "why thank you miss for making my day with your kind words. And may I add that you look lovely in your black and green barista outfit also". Instead I clammed up, blushed nervously while I stood waiting for my coffee and then bolted out the door like a little violated boy. | | Thursday, February 10th, 2005 | | 2:42 pm |
Free Stuff Comes with a Price
The other day on my flight back to LA, the gay steward(ess)/airline attendant, whatever bought me a drink. "Shhh...this one's on me" he whispered while inconspicuously handing me the little Tanqueray bottle and continuing to wheel the cart down the aisle. At first I didn't think he was gay. I like to give male stewards the benefit of the doubt. Heck, I'd love to travel for a living too and in my opinion I'm only a 3 out 10 on the potential gay scale. But...he saw that I was reading "Running with Scissors" by Augusten Burroughs. DANGER DANGER. I was only part way through the book at the time when he casually scrolled by row 17 and then all of a sudden stopped to tell me that he loved the book. In his words exactly, "it reminded him so much of his youth". I finished the book a couple days later. It was actually really funny despite the full-on detailed pedophile anal sex and swallowing scenes. Free stuff comes with a price. This thought kept troubling me as I downed my free booze and masterminded ways to avoid Gay Steward on my way out. I made it out of the plane ok but when I was waiting outside the airport washroom for my friend, he walked by and smiled. I was scared that he would come over to invite me for a drink in West LA so I put my head down and pretended not to see him. Is that bad? Am I a homophobic jerk? I guess the least I could have done for the free booze was given him a proper airport handjob. =) | | Tuesday, January 11th, 2005 | | 5:59 pm |
A Voice
Praise be My Lord. All hail the lamb. God is great. God is good. And the chorus went on and on. I’m not religious so church, and in particular the whole song thing at the beginning can be an uneasy thing for me. But during this particular visit on a sunny Sunday morning in December my eyes were drawn to a young girl in the first row. I didn’t get a look at her face but in my head I concluded that she was the hard-studying, piano-playing, prototypically perfect Asian daughter type. What drew me to her was the fact that while everyone else was following the Powerpoint slideshow with the lyrics, she had her eyes closed, head down and was waving her hands from side to side. The ritual went on for the full hour interrupted periodically by a loud, unabashed praising of the Big Man. How fascinating! I believed that this girl, who I will name “Sunday Morning Melody” was an introverted never-go-out, bubble-tea-drinking junkie. But much to my amazement, she was exposing herself with the recklessness of a drunken Christmas office party. If you didn’t know she existed before, you did after you saw her. You couldn’t miss Sunday Morning Melody if you tried. And I assumed for that one hour every Sunday she got her opportunity to rise up and stand out of the crowd. She had a voice. My initial thought after I got over my surprise was one of encouragement. “Way to go” I thought, “rock on”. But while I stood there is awe of this young lady I realized that I couldn’t help feeling a little envious. You see, 2004 has been a very anonymous year for me. While others were out buying houses and traveling to Asia and going back to school and getting married and being promoted, I did nothing of the sort. I didn’t get a bonus, a raise, or an honorable mention at the company awards. I didn’t take my sabbatical and trek through Asia. And I certainly didn’t get discovered off the street and offered a part in a movie or commercial or a reality tv anything. Instead of accomplishing anything, I committed myself to making realtime roster updates on my EA baseball game that included every major league team and all the minor league affiliates. I did this with the diligence of Rainman for the entire major league season (effectively enough time to have a child or run across Canada). In the fall, I incorporated a healthy splash of brown and green into my wardrobe. I added this act to my bread-and-butter black and pink look and took my show to Miami, Vancouver, SF, and Toronto, never getting close to Asia as promised. Side note that I did get to go to Europe for 2 days for work but that doesn’t count for the purposes of this rant. And finally once a week I managed to put enough Pepcid AC into my body (to counteract the dreaded Asian tomato disease when drinking) that I have effectively become immune to it. In summary, if I had created a New Years resolution list for 2004, it would have gone unchecked. For this, I must apologize for 2004. I’ve consumed a lot of resources from this great earth yet my impact was minimal. My ROI was negative. Like Simon from SNL, I watched life go by from a hotel window with nothing to show for it but prune hands. I've been as useless as tits on a boy. Watching that girl made me realize that my Sunday morning hasn’t come around for a long time. It is now 11 days into 2005. I’m working on some steps towards improving my outlook for this year. Small steps like this entry. Thank you Sunday Morning Melody for the kick in the ass. |
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