I'm sorry faithful (or semi-faithful) blog readers, but there has just been too much for me to write about, even if I gave everything 1/4 of the justice I would like to. So, keeping that in mind, I'll take an event, or two, and write about that a little more in depth. Please, if you really liked the day-to-day style, let me know, but if this is just as good or better, still let me know.
Football is a big part of my life. I love it, both for viewing and participating. The ability to watch could come out of the play perhaps, because I can see things before they happen, and appreciate tough plays, and feel the players' pain when they get hit, and when they mess up. I've been playing for a long time, and I remember my grandpa playing catch with me, one of the few positive memories I have of him, so football will always be something I treasure. A few years later, I played flag football in Iowa, (two undefeated seasons, raising our town's winning streak to 13), and learned a lot of skills that I still use, and I learned that football brings people together. I can still hear my coach yelling if I make a really stupid play, and I still know how to run the option, and I still love playing safety. When we moved to California, I missed the formality of league football, and tried to get some stuff going in my neighborhood. This didn't work often, and I spent a lot of time playing with Alex. The upside to this time is when we moved to the apartments, he was a good quarterback. Really good.
The first few games were hard, as most of the guys who were playing didn't have much experience with football. They were great at futbol, but didn't get the other rule differences. We must have spent 3 hours on forward laterals alone. Eventually we had a nice little group of guys, who would play fairly regularly. Fast forward 3 years, most of those guys think they are too cool, or have moved, or are busy with work. New group of guys, much younger, more versed in rules and tactics, but not quite on my physical level. The last game we played had a new addition to the mix, Uriel, and for while his brother, and two cousins. One of the most socially challenging moments I confront from time to time is when girls attempt to play football. Don't get me wrong, there are girls who can play, but it makes things more tricky for all the guys. Do we block them, do we have to watch where we tag them, what if we miss because we watch where we tag? Its hard. I had to deal with this, because one of the cousins who was playing with us was a girl. 14, 15 old enough to handle herself, pretty athletic, not so small she would get trampled. And then we were running a kickoff back, and I was blocking, and she was coming from the side, and I instinctively dropped my shoulder, and knocked her on her butt. Whoops. I felt awful, and she rubbed it in a little, partially because she was shaken. Probably wasn't expecting that.
Another thing I love about football is how it can come down to that last moment. One last touchdown before dinner, last play of our drive. We have to get a touchdown, or its a turnover. Alex bombs the ball, way down the parking lot field. Everyone looks up, I'm sprinting after the ball, catch it, jump over the little tree divider thing, and get the touchdown. It was a good ending, and we all know it. Game over, handshakes and man hugs all around, and then we trot inside, till next time. I love football.
And then this, well this is just too good to keep to myself. A few nights ago, Alex gave me a wedgie, like big brothers do. No good reason, it was just there. Fine, that's fair game, but he can't complain if things escalate. This morning I realized, things hadn't escalated yet. I spent most of the morning trying to figure out what to do. Finally, I hit on it. Alex was going to be leaving the house for a while, and I would have just about 45 minutes before I had to go somewhere. I know there is a long tradition of winter cleaning in some places, where you cleanse your room of everything that holds you down. I wanted to share that with Al. So Nick and I cleaned out everything we possibly could in the amount of time, and moved it to our room. It looked like a wasteland in Al's room when we finished. There was almost nothing left, except all his books. (I think he should spend more time reading.) What makes this funny is the approval of my family, and even enjoyment to some degree. Alex, when he walked in, was not amused. He spent a few minutes taking inventory of what he didn't have. Which was a lot. He then strode fiercely out into the living room, accused myself and Nick of taking his stuff, and he demanded it all back. It took me almost a minute to stop laughing enough to get a sensible response out. I helped him get his stuff back into his room, but he really didn't see much humor in it, and as the scope of the prank dawned on him, he got more and more mad. He's gonna get me back, but I've already got a response planned. The door, which he always closes, off the hinges, and somewhere else, like, the dining room. Simple, fast, hilarious. Thanks to Mom for the idea!
I hope you all have a joyous Thanksgiving!
Chris
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
What A Week!
Wow. This has been such a crazy week for me. I'll start at Monday, and then skip over a day or two, and finish on the bang that was my weekend.
On Thursday, I went over to OTRA, to do some moving around of cars, and more importantly, doing the prep work to make the moving around possible. Across the way, in the same industrial park as the shop, is a repossession shop, where cars that are being repo'd are taken, and stored. The lot is used as storage, but part of the business is taking the cars, from wherever they may be, and cleaning the cars out. The prep work was cleaning out a pile that was all the unclaimed rubbish that had been pulled out of various cars, and left there. I was talking with one of the employees at the lot, with a few questions about all the stuff. Legally, the owner of the vehicle is entitled to all possessions contained within the vehicle, and has the right to reclaim said possessions, without fulfilling due obligations that would allow them to regain ownership of their vehicle. Furthermore, after a time of 60 days, the agency in current possession of the vehicle is no longer required by law to retain the personal effects contained within the vehicles, if said effects have not been reclaimed. Furthermore, the agency is allowed to charge a nominal fee for the reclamation, as a charge for storing the effects. Now, naturally, the guy I was talking with didn't use similar language, but that was the point. I didn't know any of this, and found it pretty interesting stuff. It was equally interesting to see what was left in cars. A baseball bat and glove, tons of car seats and clothes, and even a wallet. Most of the valuables were reclaimed, but there are a few who know their vehicles are going to be repo'd will actually load it up with junk or debris. The most interesting moment came as we were moving the cars around, and there was one with a flat, so instead of filling up the tire, the guys at the lot used one of the trucks for us. I didn't know how easy it is for a tow truck like that to pick up a car, and maneuver it. It's scary easy. Under a minute to start driving away. The guys were talking, and they showed me a picture of a pickup truck that looks exactly like a regular truck, but has the equipment sitting in the bed, and can pull up, grab your car, and drive away, without you ever knowing. Life lesson, don't get your car impounded.
Friday was pretty fun, got to go down to Monterey, work at the Aquarium, which is always fun. I had some fun interactions. I have to share a few with you guys, because they were just too great to keep. I was at the Seafood Watch cart, and I offered a card to lady wearing a New Mexico shirt. Turns out she was from Fresno (shout-out to my Fresno readers!) and had some issues with the environmental movement, particularly restriction of water to prevent the die-off of smelt in the rivers. We had some amount of back-and-forth about how we, between the two of us, did not understand the role of the smelt in the eco-system, and imagined that they do play some role, but were not sure of the importance. She walked away, unhappy with my agreement with her point that people are more important than fish. It's not like I, or anyone, is going to argue with that point. People are more important than fish, but we boil it down to people or fish, which is where the problem comes in. How do the fish affect people, and would the loss of the fish have more of a negative impact on people than the actions taken to prevent the loss of the fish do? I don't know, but it is a complicated question, and one that I feel is worth the time it will take to gain an understanding. I also talked with several students from a community college, and found out how much fun it is to help other people with their homework. I also got a nice compliment from two guests, who said I have an accessible way of talking about ocean stuff, and make things understandable for a younger generation. Nice compliment, good to know that people appreciate what I try to do.
Friday night was a football game, at Valley Christian, a local high school. The only reason we were there was because Alex attended a football camp VC held for Down Syndrome kids, to give them a chance to feel like stars, and have some fun playing football. As this was the last regular game of the year, all the campers were invited. It ended up being myself, Dad, Alex, Mandy, and Nick. Mandy and Nick had a great time, as this was a new experience for them. I was mostly cold, and bored. Valley Christian was far better than than their opponents, and it was just a killing. Its hard to watch sports when you've played, particularly if you still play. The most important fact about that night was when we got home, and when I went to bed. I'm pretty sure it was somewhere around 11:45, which isn't great, but isn't as bad as it could be.
Saturday morning-4:45. Yes, I really did get up at 4:45, on purpose, and I stayed awake, also on purpose. This particular Saturday, I was headed up to Sacramento, carpooling with someone else. The occasion was a get-together of students who are in online classes, similar to the one I take, perhaps even the same class. We stopped after about 30 minutes to pick up another student, whose parents did not fancy the idea of driving for 3 hours at 6 a.m. Can't say I blame them. The ride up wasn't too bad. There was lots of talking, listening to music, arguing about various characters in the books we read. Creon was right! Sorry, just had to get the last word in. I'll just give a basic rundown of the events of the day. We did some basic getting to know you stuff, which was mostly a going-around-the-circle-remembering-names game. I rock those games. Thanks to my parents for the good genes! We then did some Greek practice. I surprised myself with how much I still remember. Next was a movie, which I really enjoyed. Stranger than Fiction. First, there was a tie-in with what we had just discussed in class, but was also well written, acted, and most importantly for me, featured several songs from one of my favorite bands. 4 or 5 Spoon songs were scattered throughout the movie, and I really enjoyed it, because in addition to being good music, the titles and lyrics of the songs related to what was happening in the movie. This clip, the opening sequence, features "The Way We Get By".
After the movie, we had a discussion, which wasn't super lively, but still enjoyable. It was then time for break. YAY!! Tortilla soup, thanks to Mom and her magic leftovers. After lunch, we played some 3 Flys Up, then volleyball, and then a super-fun game, called chaos tag. Chaos tag features every player as "it", and tags result in the tagged sitting down. Once a tagger gets tagged, all those he (or she) tagged are allowed to get up. Any tags above the wrist don't count, and simultaneous tags can be settled by walking away, or Rock, Paper, Scissors. I walked away from the sports time feeling pretty good about my athleticism.
We then watched Macbeth, the Roman Polanski version. The adults and I were the only one who knew the story behind Polanski without any help. The movie itself was good, but long. Poor Wesley, one of the kids I rode up with, started to doze off for a second. Fortunately for him, I nudged him awake before he started snoring too much. Again, there was a discussion of the story, and then we did a reading of the classic scene with the witches and apparitions. "Double double, toil and trouble." Hilarious to watch these sweet, innocent, homeschool girls attempting to pull off anything close to a evil witch. I was the second apparition, the little kid. We then moved on to some singing, which I felt like a total fail at. Not really much of a singer. Then was the music recital. There are some pretty talented kids in this group. Then dinner time, which was yum, and another round of chaos tag, and finally, dancing. Lots of traditional dancing. Reels, and polkas, and other things. I did all right, and had fun. After one more round of singing, we went home. The drive was killer, and everyone in the car was exhausted. We stopped in Vacaville, which I know, because the bathroom at the Starbucks had been tagged all over the place. I finally got home at 2:30.
I had to wake up the next morning for church, at 7:30. This took its toll, when, in the middle of a really interesting talk on poverty, I put my head back, and crashed. Next thing I know, the room is really, really quiet, and the girl sitting next to is poking me in the ribs. I felt awful. Fortunately, I have talked with the speaker before, he knows it was nothing personal. I actually really enjoyed his talk. After church was the play-off and championship for church softball. The first game was won fairly easily, and I was finally getting to a place of satisfaction with my play at third base. The championship we lost, but just barely. The bats, on both sides of the diamond, just could not get going. I had a good play at third, spearing a HARD line drive. Felt great. After my ride dropped me off downtown (Thanks Chaney!), I walked the 5 blocks to my stop. But the sun was setting, and I needed to go.....bad. Turns out it isn't that hard to urinate in public, provided you are standing in a corner, with the sun setting, and lots of trees casting shadows. I stopped a fro-yo place, more to use to bathroom to change into my pants. (Can't do that in public, no matter how shady it is.). Got on the bus, tried to stay awake for a while, and then woke up in Gilroy. Oops. I was now 10 minutes past my stop, at least. Found a payphone, as my cell phone was dead (of course) and my family came and picked me up. Thanks guys!
That's been all worthy of note for the past week. Hopefully I'll have more, in a more timely fashion.
Night!
On Thursday, I went over to OTRA, to do some moving around of cars, and more importantly, doing the prep work to make the moving around possible. Across the way, in the same industrial park as the shop, is a repossession shop, where cars that are being repo'd are taken, and stored. The lot is used as storage, but part of the business is taking the cars, from wherever they may be, and cleaning the cars out. The prep work was cleaning out a pile that was all the unclaimed rubbish that had been pulled out of various cars, and left there. I was talking with one of the employees at the lot, with a few questions about all the stuff. Legally, the owner of the vehicle is entitled to all possessions contained within the vehicle, and has the right to reclaim said possessions, without fulfilling due obligations that would allow them to regain ownership of their vehicle. Furthermore, after a time of 60 days, the agency in current possession of the vehicle is no longer required by law to retain the personal effects contained within the vehicles, if said effects have not been reclaimed. Furthermore, the agency is allowed to charge a nominal fee for the reclamation, as a charge for storing the effects. Now, naturally, the guy I was talking with didn't use similar language, but that was the point. I didn't know any of this, and found it pretty interesting stuff. It was equally interesting to see what was left in cars. A baseball bat and glove, tons of car seats and clothes, and even a wallet. Most of the valuables were reclaimed, but there are a few who know their vehicles are going to be repo'd will actually load it up with junk or debris. The most interesting moment came as we were moving the cars around, and there was one with a flat, so instead of filling up the tire, the guys at the lot used one of the trucks for us. I didn't know how easy it is for a tow truck like that to pick up a car, and maneuver it. It's scary easy. Under a minute to start driving away. The guys were talking, and they showed me a picture of a pickup truck that looks exactly like a regular truck, but has the equipment sitting in the bed, and can pull up, grab your car, and drive away, without you ever knowing. Life lesson, don't get your car impounded.
Friday was pretty fun, got to go down to Monterey, work at the Aquarium, which is always fun. I had some fun interactions. I have to share a few with you guys, because they were just too great to keep. I was at the Seafood Watch cart, and I offered a card to lady wearing a New Mexico shirt. Turns out she was from Fresno (shout-out to my Fresno readers!) and had some issues with the environmental movement, particularly restriction of water to prevent the die-off of smelt in the rivers. We had some amount of back-and-forth about how we, between the two of us, did not understand the role of the smelt in the eco-system, and imagined that they do play some role, but were not sure of the importance. She walked away, unhappy with my agreement with her point that people are more important than fish. It's not like I, or anyone, is going to argue with that point. People are more important than fish, but we boil it down to people or fish, which is where the problem comes in. How do the fish affect people, and would the loss of the fish have more of a negative impact on people than the actions taken to prevent the loss of the fish do? I don't know, but it is a complicated question, and one that I feel is worth the time it will take to gain an understanding. I also talked with several students from a community college, and found out how much fun it is to help other people with their homework. I also got a nice compliment from two guests, who said I have an accessible way of talking about ocean stuff, and make things understandable for a younger generation. Nice compliment, good to know that people appreciate what I try to do.
Friday night was a football game, at Valley Christian, a local high school. The only reason we were there was because Alex attended a football camp VC held for Down Syndrome kids, to give them a chance to feel like stars, and have some fun playing football. As this was the last regular game of the year, all the campers were invited. It ended up being myself, Dad, Alex, Mandy, and Nick. Mandy and Nick had a great time, as this was a new experience for them. I was mostly cold, and bored. Valley Christian was far better than than their opponents, and it was just a killing. Its hard to watch sports when you've played, particularly if you still play. The most important fact about that night was when we got home, and when I went to bed. I'm pretty sure it was somewhere around 11:45, which isn't great, but isn't as bad as it could be.
Saturday morning-4:45. Yes, I really did get up at 4:45, on purpose, and I stayed awake, also on purpose. This particular Saturday, I was headed up to Sacramento, carpooling with someone else. The occasion was a get-together of students who are in online classes, similar to the one I take, perhaps even the same class. We stopped after about 30 minutes to pick up another student, whose parents did not fancy the idea of driving for 3 hours at 6 a.m. Can't say I blame them. The ride up wasn't too bad. There was lots of talking, listening to music, arguing about various characters in the books we read. Creon was right! Sorry, just had to get the last word in. I'll just give a basic rundown of the events of the day. We did some basic getting to know you stuff, which was mostly a going-around-the-circle-remembering-names game. I rock those games. Thanks to my parents for the good genes! We then did some Greek practice. I surprised myself with how much I still remember. Next was a movie, which I really enjoyed. Stranger than Fiction. First, there was a tie-in with what we had just discussed in class, but was also well written, acted, and most importantly for me, featured several songs from one of my favorite bands. 4 or 5 Spoon songs were scattered throughout the movie, and I really enjoyed it, because in addition to being good music, the titles and lyrics of the songs related to what was happening in the movie. This clip, the opening sequence, features "The Way We Get By".
After the movie, we had a discussion, which wasn't super lively, but still enjoyable. It was then time for break. YAY!! Tortilla soup, thanks to Mom and her magic leftovers. After lunch, we played some 3 Flys Up, then volleyball, and then a super-fun game, called chaos tag. Chaos tag features every player as "it", and tags result in the tagged sitting down. Once a tagger gets tagged, all those he (or she) tagged are allowed to get up. Any tags above the wrist don't count, and simultaneous tags can be settled by walking away, or Rock, Paper, Scissors. I walked away from the sports time feeling pretty good about my athleticism.
We then watched Macbeth, the Roman Polanski version. The adults and I were the only one who knew the story behind Polanski without any help. The movie itself was good, but long. Poor Wesley, one of the kids I rode up with, started to doze off for a second. Fortunately for him, I nudged him awake before he started snoring too much. Again, there was a discussion of the story, and then we did a reading of the classic scene with the witches and apparitions. "Double double, toil and trouble." Hilarious to watch these sweet, innocent, homeschool girls attempting to pull off anything close to a evil witch. I was the second apparition, the little kid. We then moved on to some singing, which I felt like a total fail at. Not really much of a singer. Then was the music recital. There are some pretty talented kids in this group. Then dinner time, which was yum, and another round of chaos tag, and finally, dancing. Lots of traditional dancing. Reels, and polkas, and other things. I did all right, and had fun. After one more round of singing, we went home. The drive was killer, and everyone in the car was exhausted. We stopped in Vacaville, which I know, because the bathroom at the Starbucks had been tagged all over the place. I finally got home at 2:30.
I had to wake up the next morning for church, at 7:30. This took its toll, when, in the middle of a really interesting talk on poverty, I put my head back, and crashed. Next thing I know, the room is really, really quiet, and the girl sitting next to is poking me in the ribs. I felt awful. Fortunately, I have talked with the speaker before, he knows it was nothing personal. I actually really enjoyed his talk. After church was the play-off and championship for church softball. The first game was won fairly easily, and I was finally getting to a place of satisfaction with my play at third base. The championship we lost, but just barely. The bats, on both sides of the diamond, just could not get going. I had a good play at third, spearing a HARD line drive. Felt great. After my ride dropped me off downtown (Thanks Chaney!), I walked the 5 blocks to my stop. But the sun was setting, and I needed to go.....bad. Turns out it isn't that hard to urinate in public, provided you are standing in a corner, with the sun setting, and lots of trees casting shadows. I stopped a fro-yo place, more to use to bathroom to change into my pants. (Can't do that in public, no matter how shady it is.). Got on the bus, tried to stay awake for a while, and then woke up in Gilroy. Oops. I was now 10 minutes past my stop, at least. Found a payphone, as my cell phone was dead (of course) and my family came and picked me up. Thanks guys!
That's been all worthy of note for the past week. Hopefully I'll have more, in a more timely fashion.
Night!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Kayaking!
Like the title says, I went kayaking this Saturday, and it was pretty fun! There was also some other funnish stuff that happened over the past couple days as well, so I'll try and cover almost everything.
The trip down to Monterey was mildly boring, so I slept. This is something of a slight hobby at the moment, as I'm working on the ability to be able to sleep, and then wake up, then go back to sleep. As someone who does a fair bit of public transit traveling, this is a skill I need to have. I was quite proud really.
Shift was good, though we were short a fair amount of people. There wasn't really anything super interesting, which is odd, but I did get to talk with someone from Americorps, who was in town for a retreat. Her particular job was hosting homeless people in L.A., while they were trying to find more stable housing and a job. I found out there were 80-90 Americorps folks, all there for a retreat that was taking place at the Asilomar conference center. It was pretty interesting getting to talk to this lady. Very representative of the interesting people who come to the Aquarium. After shift, I went to the store, bought myself some rolls and fruit and carrots. I then walked the mile and half to where I was staying, and then spent a mild night working on my paper.
The next morning, I dragged myself out of bed, showered, etc, then walked the 3 miles to where we would be kayaking that morning. I did stop at a coffee shop, got my fix, and grabbed a cranberry scone. A really good, rich cranberry scone, which lasted my whole walk. As I was enjoying the great weather, and seeing a nice sunrise, a rarity for me, I was also noticing the large amount of people out getting "exercise". I then realized I was eating a scone that probably had more calories than they would burn, and just walking along, I was burning off those calories. I tried to not gloat too much, but smirking as I chewed my food might have been a giveaway. I finally arrived at the shop, with 5 minutes to spare, and took a little time to brush my teeth, and rest my feet.
While we waited for everyone to arrive, I led some games for the group, and then we got started. Basic instructions, make sure everyone was there and listening, then breaking into groups, and getting our gear. At first, it looked like I was going to be the only guy under 18 in the group, but fortunately, I was saved, and two more guys got roped in. Once we got out there, I realized that my partner, Johnathan, is just as much of a troublemaker as I am. Probably shouldn't have been in the same boat. The paddle was great, good weather, nice waves, just enough to make it interesting, and a good group. There was the obligatory splashing, a race, wherein I got whacked in the back of the head with a paddle. That kinda hurt. All right, it hurt, a lot at first. My eyes were watering. I also got to collect some cool snails, and enjoy that piece of creation. There were some really nice looking ones, but my personal favorite, was the jewel-top snail. See picture. Awesome!
As we were coming back in, getting ready to land the boat, we decided to capsize our boat. It was remarkably easy. We just leaned to the side, and in we went. We popped up, shook the water from our faces, flipped the boat over, got back in, and landed the boat. As one of the guides was pulling us up, he remarked our shenanigans were "excellent!" The rest of the group was abuzz within a few minutes. Did we really flip our boat? Someone heard we fell, someone heard we needed help, someone heard we got in trouble.
The rest of this post is being written more than a week later, and therefore, will be slightly more compressed.
Sunday was the make-or-break softball game, my team against the one undefeated team in the league. Interestingly, we played our best game, and won easily. My play was not up to my standards, but I did out-hustle a dribbler to third. Hustle is surprisingly rare in this league.
The week was somewhat of a blur. However, I can account for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Thursday was a long day of helping a family from our church move. The stand-out event was me dropping a table on my toe. That hurts. I did get paid, which is an upside.
Friday, I was at the Aquarium, got to talk with a couple from New Zealand, and a group of students from Cabrillo College, a local community college. There were several hundred other people in there too. I then rode the bus with 3 high school students, we talked, they were surprised I was their age, I got complimented (I think) on my long eyelashes, and then I got off. I then proceded to get on the wrong light rail train, realize that fact, get off, miss the right train, and finally end up in the right place.
I don't really remember Saturday, but I'm sure something happened that Mom will remind me of.
Sunday was church, which was good, then softball, which was a "fun game" meaning score didn't count, and the regular rules didn't apply. Again, I was just all right, but my running was pretty solid. It really unsettles people when someone is sliding into their base, and the ball is coming towards them. I actually slid twice on the same hit. Once at 2nd, ball dropped, and then again at 3rd, where the ball was caught, and I slid masterfully in, below the tag, and got called out, because it was a fun game and the ump was tired and sweaty. I was not happy. Let's be clear. I have nothing against umps making judgement calls, but when they tell you they know you were safe, that, that is what I have a problem with.
Today was a homeschool day at the MBA, and I went as a "regular person", which was totally absurd, because I'm pretty sure I was the only guest saying "hi" to everyone, talking, etc. My cover was blown to pieces when I was "part of the group" headed over to the teen program, which involved deep ocean camoflauge. (Way cooler than army camo, gotta say.) The staff member who was leading the program introduced a volunteer who was helping out, and then said something along the lines of "and Chris, right back there, is also a volunteer here, so if you have any questions about volunteering, feel free to ask him. I probably just made him turn about 5 shades of red." Yes, she did. I should have just worn my badge, would have been a lot easier. Regardless of that, I really enjoyed being able to share one of my favorite places with most of my family. Nick and Mandy had some really good questions, and it was cool to walk around with a captive audience. I loved the energy level. I usually have to create the excitement and energy in an interaction, but I could just feed off of Mandy, Nick and Beth.
I'm caught up, and feel really bad for my blog silence for the past week and couple of days. Things get busy, and I only have so much time I can devote to writing, and sometimes it goes to other topics and projects.
Anyway! I hope you all are doing splendidly, and I'll be back with more later.
The trip down to Monterey was mildly boring, so I slept. This is something of a slight hobby at the moment, as I'm working on the ability to be able to sleep, and then wake up, then go back to sleep. As someone who does a fair bit of public transit traveling, this is a skill I need to have. I was quite proud really.
Shift was good, though we were short a fair amount of people. There wasn't really anything super interesting, which is odd, but I did get to talk with someone from Americorps, who was in town for a retreat. Her particular job was hosting homeless people in L.A., while they were trying to find more stable housing and a job. I found out there were 80-90 Americorps folks, all there for a retreat that was taking place at the Asilomar conference center. It was pretty interesting getting to talk to this lady. Very representative of the interesting people who come to the Aquarium. After shift, I went to the store, bought myself some rolls and fruit and carrots. I then walked the mile and half to where I was staying, and then spent a mild night working on my paper.
The next morning, I dragged myself out of bed, showered, etc, then walked the 3 miles to where we would be kayaking that morning. I did stop at a coffee shop, got my fix, and grabbed a cranberry scone. A really good, rich cranberry scone, which lasted my whole walk. As I was enjoying the great weather, and seeing a nice sunrise, a rarity for me, I was also noticing the large amount of people out getting "exercise". I then realized I was eating a scone that probably had more calories than they would burn, and just walking along, I was burning off those calories. I tried to not gloat too much, but smirking as I chewed my food might have been a giveaway. I finally arrived at the shop, with 5 minutes to spare, and took a little time to brush my teeth, and rest my feet.
While we waited for everyone to arrive, I led some games for the group, and then we got started. Basic instructions, make sure everyone was there and listening, then breaking into groups, and getting our gear. At first, it looked like I was going to be the only guy under 18 in the group, but fortunately, I was saved, and two more guys got roped in. Once we got out there, I realized that my partner, Johnathan, is just as much of a troublemaker as I am. Probably shouldn't have been in the same boat. The paddle was great, good weather, nice waves, just enough to make it interesting, and a good group. There was the obligatory splashing, a race, wherein I got whacked in the back of the head with a paddle. That kinda hurt. All right, it hurt, a lot at first. My eyes were watering. I also got to collect some cool snails, and enjoy that piece of creation. There were some really nice looking ones, but my personal favorite, was the jewel-top snail. See picture. Awesome!As we were coming back in, getting ready to land the boat, we decided to capsize our boat. It was remarkably easy. We just leaned to the side, and in we went. We popped up, shook the water from our faces, flipped the boat over, got back in, and landed the boat. As one of the guides was pulling us up, he remarked our shenanigans were "excellent!" The rest of the group was abuzz within a few minutes. Did we really flip our boat? Someone heard we fell, someone heard we needed help, someone heard we got in trouble.
The rest of this post is being written more than a week later, and therefore, will be slightly more compressed.
Sunday was the make-or-break softball game, my team against the one undefeated team in the league. Interestingly, we played our best game, and won easily. My play was not up to my standards, but I did out-hustle a dribbler to third. Hustle is surprisingly rare in this league.
The week was somewhat of a blur. However, I can account for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Thursday was a long day of helping a family from our church move. The stand-out event was me dropping a table on my toe. That hurts. I did get paid, which is an upside.
Friday, I was at the Aquarium, got to talk with a couple from New Zealand, and a group of students from Cabrillo College, a local community college. There were several hundred other people in there too. I then rode the bus with 3 high school students, we talked, they were surprised I was their age, I got complimented (I think) on my long eyelashes, and then I got off. I then proceded to get on the wrong light rail train, realize that fact, get off, miss the right train, and finally end up in the right place.
I don't really remember Saturday, but I'm sure something happened that Mom will remind me of.
Sunday was church, which was good, then softball, which was a "fun game" meaning score didn't count, and the regular rules didn't apply. Again, I was just all right, but my running was pretty solid. It really unsettles people when someone is sliding into their base, and the ball is coming towards them. I actually slid twice on the same hit. Once at 2nd, ball dropped, and then again at 3rd, where the ball was caught, and I slid masterfully in, below the tag, and got called out, because it was a fun game and the ump was tired and sweaty. I was not happy. Let's be clear. I have nothing against umps making judgement calls, but when they tell you they know you were safe, that, that is what I have a problem with.
Today was a homeschool day at the MBA, and I went as a "regular person", which was totally absurd, because I'm pretty sure I was the only guest saying "hi" to everyone, talking, etc. My cover was blown to pieces when I was "part of the group" headed over to the teen program, which involved deep ocean camoflauge. (Way cooler than army camo, gotta say.) The staff member who was leading the program introduced a volunteer who was helping out, and then said something along the lines of "and Chris, right back there, is also a volunteer here, so if you have any questions about volunteering, feel free to ask him. I probably just made him turn about 5 shades of red." Yes, she did. I should have just worn my badge, would have been a lot easier. Regardless of that, I really enjoyed being able to share one of my favorite places with most of my family. Nick and Mandy had some really good questions, and it was cool to walk around with a captive audience. I loved the energy level. I usually have to create the excitement and energy in an interaction, but I could just feed off of Mandy, Nick and Beth.
I'm caught up, and feel really bad for my blog silence for the past week and couple of days. Things get busy, and I only have so much time I can devote to writing, and sometimes it goes to other topics and projects.
Anyway! I hope you all are doing splendidly, and I'll be back with more later.
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