epic weekend part ii

one of the things that makes something epic is the scale or the significance of it. for me the reason this was an epic weekend was for both of those reasons, the scale of what i did was enormous. but the significance out ways the scale by far.

i had got into my car at 4:30 and i was on the road heading east to interstate 5 to head north, when i looked at the sky and saw one of the most glorious sunsets i have seen in some time, the clouds were a radiant pink and gold and you could not see the sun, but just the last rays of light before this side of the world was once again plunged into the dark night. as i drove i was speaking to kaitlin about my journey to orcas and what it meant. i had never been so far from home by myself, yes i had been to mexico, hawaii and canada before, and yes they are all much farther from my home then orcas island but, i had always been with other people on those trips. plus i wasn’t leading those expeditions. this, though this was novel, i was in charge of my destiny, if i got lost i would have to find my way with out anyone’s help. this was one of the strangest feelings i have ever felt both the thrill of a new adventure and the fear of the unknown. so i drove for two hours. exit 230 turn left at the light. highway 20.

highway 20
as i drove east on highway 20 i saw on my left what appeared to be giant christmas trees with smoke coming out the tops. it turns out that what i actually saw was an oil refinery, turning alaskan oil into all sorts of petrol products. i arrived in anacortes around 7 stopped at the wallgreens got a cookie and went to the ferry. i could still turn around, but to have gone so far that would be silly, so i got my ticket parked my car got out went in the terminal and waited, the waiting wasn’t so bad i got to catch up on my reading which was nice. for some time i was the only person in the building except for a women who was cleaning, and then this kid walked in. couldn’t have been older then 20, wearing a snow cap low to almost cover his eyes, heavy jacket and an awkwardly shaped backpack. i sat and watched him shiftily mill about the terminal. i think there is a difference between the classical traveler and something else, when i think of the classical traveler he has a hiking pack with a tent and a sleeping bag, water, and certainly does not put off a strange and sketchy vibe. this fellow was not the classical traveler instead he gave off more of a drifter vibe. so i continued to listen to my music and read my book. because of my music i didn’t hear what he said the first time. "pardon?"
"do you drink beer?" the kid said.
once again some underage kid wants me to hook them up with beer, but i do indeed enjoy beer.
"yes." i replied.
"you want to go have some beers?" he inquired
now writing this down it seems like a completely innocuous question with the best of intentions, however, i did not want to have any alcohol in me when i went to visit my friend, that’s not why i said,
"no i’m good, thanks though."
the reason i said no was you should never go against your gut and my gut gave me a bad feeling. after that i waited a bit more and then got on the ferry.

the Ferry
their is something about being resourceful and cunning. on the ferry my cd player, yes i am still rocking it old school with the cd player, a nuisance but i am saving up for a new ipod, my cd player broke. its an older player with no anti shock or even a hold button so this is not too unusual. finally my first challenge whilst traveling, a minor inconvenience if i cant fix it but if i can, a moment of glory. so i popped out my knife and began to fiddle with it. in a about ten minutes i had fixed the problem and i decided to take a sleep. as i lay against my pack i heard the familiar jingle of my phone ring, it was cara, my friend who i was going to see on orcas island. apparently it was snowing and they couldn’t get down to the ferry,
she asked "could you get a ride up to the island market?"
"where's that?"
"just ask anyone they'll know."
"ok, will do"
"is that ok?"
"are you kidding this just adds to the experience, the thrill, the adventure."
"ok well we will see you soon."
"ok bye."
"bye"
how am i going to get to a place i don’t even know, crap.
simple either ask for a ride or hoof it into town. so i did plan a, ask for a ride. sitting next to me was a couple probably in their late fifties playing some sort of card game.
"are you guys going to orcas?"
"ya." the man with the mustache and graying hair said.
"cool, do you guys live there?"
"no we just come up a lot." his wife said as she laid a card down.
"oh."
at this point we had arrived at orcas island they were cleaning up their card game and were about to head to their car.
"hey could i ask a favor of you guys? could you give me a ride into town?"
now i realize that i probably seemed like the guy who wanted to have a beer with me, and that might be what prompted their answer, i don’t know. she said "Oh, i'm sorry we don’t give rides to hitch hikers."
"oh. ok"
it looked like i was going to have to get directions and walk, if i got lost no big deal i had my tent, i had my sleeping bag and pad, and i had water. no food but what’s a night without food? i could just set camp really anywhere and be good to go.

the island
i began to walk when a car coming off the ferry stopped next to me, rolled down the window and a head popped out, sandy hair and a friendly face, the kind you know you can trust.
"do you need a ride?"
"ya that be great."
he was stopping traffic and this obviously perturbed the ferry worker so naturally he yelled at us. a few moments later i got into the car. it was a little five seater with several large planks of wood going from the back to the front, in the back seat was a hiking pack and a sleeping bag. he seemed to be a classical traveler.
"i'm alex" i said as i extend my hand.
"zach".
zach, turned out to know cara's family, was a carpenter and had traveled all around central america, thailand and nepal. he once had dreads as well. we talked about his travels his dreads his carpentry work and music, he was me in a few years. it was snowing. he dropped me off at the island market. i called cara and she said she would be there soon. thinking ahead might be the best thing you can do when you travel that way you are not caught unprepared, so in that vein i had packed my snow pants. i pulled em out and put em on. as i waited i began to wonder if i was even on the right island. it turned out i was when an old white and red bronco drove up through the snowy parking lot, a girl jumped out and said "alex, your ride has arrived." so naturally i got in. in the car was cara, her friend lanie and lanie's dad. snow was falling fast and the road to cara’s was far too treacherous too drive down so we walked. i think having avoided walking for so long at this point i was excited to finally get to trek down to anywhere. once we got to cara's we had some dinner with her parents and then we watched flight of the conchords, our mutual friend erik joined us and then we all fell asleep. the next day we woke up had breakfast and played a weird question game, i’m not going to even joke here i love that game. after the games we walked slash had a snowball fight all the way to erik's. once we got to erik's house we did some sledding some snow surfing and i snow boarded for the first time. i think its because of all my time skate boarding and long boarding but i was awesome at snowboarding. after about an hour of that it was time to go to the ferry so we drove, as we drove i got to see the skate park and hear more about island life. island life is not like life here on the eastside, everyone knows everyone there, its a community not just a city or a town or a neighborhood. i tried toasted almonds in the car and i love them. i got to the ferry said my good byes and boarded my ship to return.

the trip home
i got on the ferry, i like to go out on the deck and watch as we leave shore, its important to me. when i came back in i was surprised but very pleased to see the couple that had said they couldn’t give me a ride was on this ferry, not only that but they were sitting once again right next to me. so i got back without problem to the mainland got in my car and began to drive home.
i was some where outside of mt vernon when it appeared the hood of my car was about to open. i pulled over to the side of the road, and began to investigate, it was not the hood but a large piece of plastic that was attached to it, i need some way of securing this so i took the next exit to a gas station, when i suddenly realized how hungry i was. oddly enough i had come in right next to the burgers so, naturaly i got a burger. the guy who sold it to me was quite the character, a handle bar mustache tattoos all the way up his arms, chubby and glasses. when he gave me my change he flipped the coin off the table top like you would in a drinking game. after purchasing some tape i fixed the car and drove home with out a single problem.

the aftermath
as i sit here and write this story of just one day i realize how much there is to do in this world, so much to see, so many people to meet, and if we dont leave our comfortable places and get out in the world you will never know these people, see these places, or have these experiences.

epic weekend part i

most of my weekends have some sort of adventure, however this was the best so far. because of the amount of stuff that went on this weekend i will break this into two posts. so here we go.

FRIDAY
on Friday i went to the Alex woods concert at KTUB. so much about this was amazing from the music to the company. i finally got to hang out once again with Shoshana and Josie, i had not seen them since we all went ice skating back at the beginning of December so that was really enjoyable. after the show Shoshana and i went back to my house and watched flight of the conchords.

Saturday
so this was the exceptionally busy day, that morning i got up did laundry, i was down to my kilt so you know its time for laundry then. after that i picked up Justin and Jesse and we went to benaroya hall for Play! a video game Symphony. a great concert with music from final fantasy, battle front 1942, and my personal favorites the legend of Zelda and Mario. after the fantastic music i went home and cleaned the basement. upon completing that stupid task i went to UW and met up with Casey Childress and we watch The Fountain, this was really good because Casey had not seen the fountain, check out my43things for a summary of the fountain. oh and we both played guitar.

Sunday
i have never been so scared at any time as a speaker. i was asked a couple weeks ago to speak at Pine Lake Covenant church, seeing an opportunity to advance as a speaker i said yes. then Sunday arrived and i realized i was about as prepared for this as easy company was when they entered bastogne. i had a poem and a whole lot of fear, so Tamara and i went to the library and we prayed. all that was left was to wait until it was my time to say my schpeel. as i waited i worshiped and a renewed sense of purpose and a peace came over me. pastor Chris got up and opened the service, Tamara introduced me and then i said what i was asked to speak on and read my poem, and sat down. i heard a wonderful message about resting in the Lord and it was over. after the service several people came up to me and thanked me for reading my poem, two people asked for copies. i never really know what to do in those kind of situations, you know, how to act, what to say. i am usually more blown away by the fact that people liked what i had to say. church, done, so i went home and packed for orcas island.

once i finished packing i went to Stuarts birthday party. these are the kind of things i do know what to say at. the reason why is they aren't awkward, your with the people you love and who love you, you can be yourself. i love Stu he is kind of a mentor, but more some one i just look up to, mabey that's the same thing i don't know, i do know i hold him in a lot of esteem. following the party i gassed up the car went home fed Lucy, she's my pet python, and hit the road to orcas island.

a long journey

i have kissed 7 women in my life, i will not name names but i will say this, its just something i did. only 3 really meant anything. the other 4 were completely out of lust. my life has been a long journey. when i was younger, at the beginning of high school my heart was stayed on the Lord at all times. it stayed that way until the end of high school. now, admittedly i did a couple of things in high school that i am not proud of, but it wasn't until after high school that i entered into the desert of my soul.

i use to be able to hear from God easily and then i entered the desert.

my life has mirrored the life of Siddhartha, from Siddhartha. he started as an aesthetic and then he dived into the worldlier side of life indulging his appetite for anything and everything. the only difference is that i told myself i was still following after God. i wasn't.

i eventually, IE a few weeks ago, turned back to Christ, really what happened is that he loudly called me back.

i am sitting in my study and i am listing to the knifes "heartbeats", every time i hear it i just want to go out and help the world and do the work of the Lord. it's weird i know, but certain songs do that. a lot has changed in the past 3 years all of my friends are juniors in college and I'm stuck as a freshman with one quarter under my belt. i feel inadequate, i feel stuck, i feel left behind. but i know that i am moving forward, slowly i am gaining ground academical and spiritually, i am moving forward. by next fall i will be a sophomore and hopefully i will have moved onto a larger school. but as for now i am still here.

now i know this blog is supposed to be about a lot of things, but mainly its supposed to be about me gearing up to travel the world, so here is an update. today i went out in the woods and tried to start a fire with a bow drill, you know the whole rubbing sticks together to start a fire. extremely hard to do and i have yet to do it but that means i need to persevere and work at it. when i travel i want to be able to survive if the worst case scenario happens and so in that vein i am training myself.

i need to get a steady job and start saving my money for travel. I'm not sure how much i have in the bank but its not enough to travel the world that is for certain.

people have shown alot of interest in coming along and i hope some of them do, especially john.

oh lastly my friend isn't in a coma anymore and just has a broken ankle so that's good

coma

yesterday my friend was supossed to come up from oregon to see me, sometimes life has other plans. she was hit by a drunk driver and now is in a coma. my thoughts are the following on this, firstly if she hadnt been coming to see me or even coming so early then this wouldnt have happend, if she had left a little sooner or even a little later she would be here and this would be an entry of joy and not great sadness. part of me blames myself, another part of me blames the drunk that hit her. what will i do if heaven forbid she never wakes up? what do i do if she dies? how can i go to that funeral and say to her family "hey guess what she was coming to see me im the reason she's DEAD!" why does there have to be so much suffering in this world, a year ago next month another friend of mine lost his dad, and tim said this, "this isnt supposed to happen to us."

in highschool we all had hope for the future we thought we were cynics but we just had dark senses of humor. yes bad things had either happend to us or around us but nothing horrific nothing too tragic. it now appears that the older we get the more and more our lives begin to resemble a greek tragidy, i swear if somebodys girlfriend is actualy their mom i am going to loose it.

the odd thing was after highschool we all went our seperate ways, i had a feeling i wouldnt see some of my closest friends ever again. the thing about that is now they are back in washington, and i still hardly see them. you never know whats going to happen in life wether its geting in a wreck or losing your dad, or just not seeing your friends.

skating

so the other day a family came into my store (Zumiez), 6 year old kid named patrick and he wanted to be a skater, so i started helping them out, build the board custom grip job that took a half hour the whole time his dad is takin pics well here is the after math of it

"After we had cake here, we took Patrick to the skateboard shop called Zumiez in the Redmond Town Center and walked up to the glass doors (patrick’s mouth was already hanging open from taking in the window displays). We walked in and looked around. 7:45 on a rainy Thurs night. No other customers. 3 guys working. One on the short, stocky side with black spiked hair; one thin medium sized guy with short wavy hair, and one guy who was about 6 foot and artsy-complete-with-dreadlocks. They all gave us a warm greeting and said “All right, Dude!” when Patrick told them he wanted a skateboard for his birthday. The artsy guy ended up helping us. Kate’s comment while he was helping us was “mom, he looked scary but he is really nice”. Alex (scary but nice guy) helped us pick out a “deck” aka board (Patrick wanted two things on his deck/board before starting this adventure: something orange and something with a skull on it). So we found a board with a top of orange and with the wood grain showing through and a bottom that is gray with a skull and cross bones. Then Patch picked out the “trucks” (what the wheels are attached to), wheels, and bearings. Usually, there is grip tape (sandpaper stuff that keeps your feet stuck on the board) covering the whole top of the board but Alex said he would do a cut out design for patch so that Patch could still see the orange. It took Alex at least 30 minutes to cut out all the design before then sticking each piece to the board, trimming the extra and filing it down. Then he put on the trucks and let Patrick help put the bearings into the wheels (I’ll forward you the unedited photos) Oh man, it was everything that we could ever have hoped for in a skateboard purchasing adventure. It happens that Alex (scary but nice guy) also is a nanny for twin 3 year old boys AND a huge HP fan, the 3rd book being his favorite. Anyway, fun night all around! "

so today i got a link to the site that the pics are on and read that, i guess the point of this post is that it realy made me feel important to have helped them out, i feel like i am begining to make a divrence in peoples lives

where are you from part I

so i just got home from visiting my friend sarah. she is more then a friend, thats because we dated for two years in highschool. its weird how people from your past make you think about your past, i think back on it and i wonder if i even liked that person i was, or if i even have changed. admitidly i have matured and the most notable physical divrence is that i can grow a full on beard. thinking about who i was and if i liked that person makes me wonder do i like who i am now? i dont know, i think so, but at the same time i feel like God is rebuilding me into who he wants me to be and not who every one else wanted me to be. in high school i really just molded myself to be what those around me wanted me to be, wether it was my dad, my church, my friends, even my tv. in some sense i supose i was who i wanted to be and some of the choices i made then i am very pleased with the results such as my hair. however there are other choices that make me wonder if they were the right ones even to consider, such as breaking up with sarah. i know now that i gave her a completly bull shit answer, "that God wanted us to break up" if that was true she would have heard that as well, really what happend was i felt under appreciated and instead of talking to her about it i bailed. i felt i was puting in all this work and she wasnt doing didily, which in retrospect isnt true. the truth is that i was looking to her to fulfil a need in my heart that she couldnt fulfill, and it was selfish of me to even look to her to do that, now of course i was to immature to know that but still i definitly owe her a long overdue appology, and if she reads befor i nut up and become a man and talk to her i hope she knows this is not it. alot of times people from your past can bring out the worst but somtimes they bring out the best i think this is one of the best kinda times

pure or poser

today i bought a sleeping bag and a sleeping pad, i can now techinicly go out into the woods and survive, if i knew how to hunt and identify plants i would be set. i had a thought as i was driving home from REI though, i am either going to turn into a camping loving outdoor obsessed wild mountain man, or im going to be a big poser. i hope im the first but only time will tell. in other news me and my dad are going to watch "Band of Brothers".

im excited to do this with him cause we never spend that much time together and its going to be a good bonding experiance.

purpose

This is my first blog, ever. So I will say the purpose of this blog. the purpose or point of this is to chronicle my journey through life and through this world, the short term is to help me watch my progress as i save money and train to travel the world, and then as i travel it tell how its going. the long term is to talk about life, love, theology, film, beer, basicly anything that interests me. i will try and update it as often as posible at least once a week. so here is to the new year and heres to my travels.