The Goings-On

Lots to catch up on.

I've been busy (and not writing (go figure)) for the past week enjoying my time out here in LA. Here's the skinny:

Saturday we celebrated the Catholic St. Patty's day. Much drinking followed by much passing out followed by a strained attempt at remembering the blacker parts of the evening. We played lots of darts.

Sunday was recovery from St. Patty's day. Mostly it was a day of reading and generally keeping to myself, and that day I finished the Road. It was very good.

Monday was spent also lounging around. That night Granite and Red came over to the gent's house and attempted to throw another St. Patty's day and it fell flat.

Tuesday I found myself some trails, and I climbed a small mountain. The smog was clear that day so much so that I could see snow on the mountains and downtown LA from as far away as Buena Park.

Wednesday I went out again on another hike to find a comic shop, and it was an utter failure. I walked about 10 miles that day, got a terrible farmers tan and many blisters on my feet. And I rediscovered the reason I don't wear sandals on long treks.

Thursday was spent more or less off my feet. I discovered that I made the cut for the University of Michigan School of Information for their Master's in Library and Information Science. That evening Paul threw a bachelors party for his friend Robert. There was lots of meat, and lots of beer. It was very much a success.

Friday I spent with some friends from Columbia College who are out here for their semester in LA. We went down to Long Beach (which was kind of touristy and on the whole not worth the drive). That night they dropped me at Ben and Kate's and then we hauled ass north to San Francisco for Easter weekend with Kate's aunt, Annie.

Annie is a character. Ben and Kate warned me about how she likes to grill people with questions and her very pressing personality. She liked me, and kept telling Kate how cute I was and if only she were a few years younger.

Saturday I climbed a mountain in the morning and saw a giant cross and the entire Bay area. Then we went down to Haight street and had some pints at some bars and went to Amoeba records and then we went into San Fran proper and wandered around aimlessly there. Then that night we went back to Annie's. Kate went to pick up her sister from the airport. Ben and I read, and watched Dazed and Confused.

Sunday we drove to pick up Kate's sisters from Stanford and then went to Muir Park and saw really big trees (we also drove over the Golden Gate Bridge (it really is orange)). Then we came back and had dinner with her family, packed up, dropped her sisters back at Stanford and then hauled ass back to Los Angeles.

Today I rode with Kate to where she works in Culver city. Now I'm sitting in a Starbucks updating my blog, discovering the location of a comic shop, figuring out how the bus goes to Santa Monica, and listening to my iPod. I'm debating about writing, but I'll probably end up walking and taking pictures all tourist like, especially considering that I am about to have two whole days sitting on a train back to Chicago and then to East Lansing.

And here we are. I'll get around to posting pictures when I get where I have a cable. I'll also toss down impressions on San Francisco soon.

Westward Expansion

I'm in Los Angeles!

I flew out yesterday evening and got in with enough time to grab some sushi and watch Lost.

The plane was packed. I ended up sitting next to a mom and her two kids (12 weeks and 1.5 years) and their great grandma. Subsequently I got very little reading done again. Large portions of the flight were with the 1.5 year old girl sitting in my lap looking out the window. It was cute but a little frustrating.

On the descent my ears didn't pop properly, so for most of yesterday I was deaf out of my right ear. And it aggravated my sinus cold, so now I'm chugging water trying to get healthy as quickly as possible to enjoy the weather.

And enjoyable weather it is. It's 10am right now and 62 degrees! I'm in sandals and shorts!

I started chapter 5 of the Rider's story. Maybe finish that in a day or two. I've got a really strong idea where he's going for a few chapters now.

I also think I've come to grips with my process a little bit. When digging through my flash drive I found a plethora of unfinished novels, novellas, short stories, snippets of scenes. And what I do is riff on them, and then let them cool. It gets a ton of writing done right away. But leaves me with a lot of half-finished projects. And then I go back and continue chipping away. Maybe what'll happen is eventually I'll just start getting lots of things done at once. Have like three novels finished in a sitting...

Anywhoo, it's nice, and though I'm sick I want to go for a run! Pictures and adventures to come soon

A long overdue retrospective of California

I'm stuck at home because I live too far away to do anything. And I'm dreaming of California. I'm dreaming of last spring break. I'm dreaming of my own little manifest destiny. Of when I finally came to the Pacific and could proclaim "I have been coast to coast." I'm dreaming of the friends I met out there who mean more to me than most any of the friends I've met in this gray Midwestern city.

"When I get to California gonna write my name in the sand. Gonna lay this body down and watch the waves roll in."

- Beulah - "Gene Autry"

I went out to Los Angeles for two weeks during last Spring Break. I'd had, up till that point, a fairly long and exhausting, and hermit-like school year. I was facing a lot of the emotional shit of having broken up with my last girlfriend (of 2.5 years) and the culture shock of being in a brand new city, and not under my parents roof. It was stunning. And then, after a long Christmas Break spent watching a gross amount of movies with my buddy's now wife (they were still engaged at the time, and she had come back home from LA, while he couldn't afford to), she planted the seed of me visiting of Spring Break. I, desperate for any excuse whatsoever to get away from my roommates, jumped on it. Arranging my schedule, and taking a week off of school I managed to make a one week spring break into a 3 week excursion, two of which were spent in sunny SoCal.

The experience itself was something that I so desperately needed. It finally got me back out and loving living, and not being such a hermit again. For most of the two weeks I was there I spent it sleeping on the floor of my buddy's messy room surrounded by mounds of dirty clothes and a couch cushion as my only pillow. It was wonderful. I ran a few times a week. I played discgolf. I reveled in the sheer awesomeness of the west. Of the far shore. Of being in America, but being in a country so different than what I was used to. I visited Hollywood on multiple occasions (did the touristy thing one day, and wandered the far reaches of elsewhere the other times). I went to a church service, which was the first time I'd ever really felt truly moved by what the speaker was saying and the christian truths he was preaching (of love and the importance of sacrificing ourselves to others in all we do (being truly christ-like)). We went to the Getty museum where I spilled coffee on myself, to Santa Monica. We partied hard over St. Patty's day, and went to an opening night showing of 300 upon which we all stormed out wanting to fight the Persians and "dine in hell!!"

I returned recharged and tan. Feeling emotionally awakened once again. I've not been the same since. And now, with a night to myself because I'm a hermit in this city, and the friends that I did have plans with canceled, I'm dreaming of going West. Of reawakening that love and that joy again. Of being on the far side of the US in a land that is just as much a foreign country as London is to this icy Midwestern city.