Plan "B"

Um, whatever. Actually, I hung out with Rosanna last weekend. She has a house in spitting distance of the ocean.



Her front yard is full of "Naked Ladies Dancing In The Wind", or at least that's what she said they were called. The only funny plant name I knew was Mother In-Law's Tongue. Anywho, they're pretty, so I took some pix.





She has lots of nice plants around her house including these tiny little multi-colored jobbies that I first noticed during a trip to Walt Disney World.



Coincidentally, she has a lot of the same plants as they do at the Canery in Monterey. I should know - I had 6 trips there last year.



Oh, and I can't forget Sammy D.

What was the best day of your life? What made it the best day? I've decided to write mine down so I'll have it somewhere when my mind goes.

First, the best day of my life was full, just full of activity. It started around 7 am off the coast of Puerto Vallarta, aboard the Celebrity Mercury. I'd been dancing at the Navigator club until past midnight the night before, so it was tough getting my lazy bones outta bed. I knew that breakfast was to be served during my excursion, but I wanted to get some bacon and eggs to hold me over until lunch just in case the excursion food wasn't up to snuff. I went to the buffet and filled a small plate with yummies and a mug-o-coffee. I sat at a window overlooking the coastline of the Mexican Riviera and had some quite time.

Then, it was off to the excursion aboard the Pirate Ship Marigalante. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much, but as we got closer and closer to the "ship" it was clear that this thing was unique. We all piled in and one of the deckhands was walking down the aisles of passengers popping dramamine into people's mouths without even asking. Sort of a "Trust me, I know you'll need this" action as he made his way around the deck of the ship. There was another buffet breakfast, but while it was acceptable, it wasn't as good as the food on the Mercury. We made our way around the ship looking at all the different things there were to see. Apparently, this ship was an exact replica of one of Columbus' ships.

Anyway, as soon as we pulled the anchor up, the festivities began.

Stay tuned for:

• Pirate show - Arrrr!


• Snorkeling off Marieta Island - and jelly fish :-(


• Majahuitas beach party - banana boat, kyacking, damn dirty apes


• Open bar - woo hoo


• Best dinner ever - did i eat frog?


• Dance till dawn - boogie oogie oogie


# posted by Johnny @ 7/22/2005 11:07:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

I mustered some courage and tried a new church for their singles night last night. I was prepared for disappointment because of some earlier experiences with "Holy Rollers" and rock & roll bands. Are 20 piece drum sets really neccessary to sing hymns? Whatever brings the crowds, I guess. Trace used to call it "Hot tub religion" after a book by the same title.

I arrived at the converted office building and was still bracing for the worst. To my surprise, there were no "ushers" to decend on me to ask who I was and where I was coming from. "Fill this out so we can put you on our e-mail list, and visit you at random."

I walked into the "Acoustic Cafe" and found a type of greeting table where people would pick up their notes to fill out during the lesson and a name tag. The blank notes indicated that we'd be cracking the Bible tonight. "Oh, and here's a visitor card for you to fill out."

It turned out that most of the people were camping in Tahoe or somewhere and the guitar player appologized for the sparce crowd. Well, my table was full with 8 and there were about 5 such tables. Anywho, the songs started and I was relieved to know that I knew all of them (thank you K-LOVE!) They were all K-LOVE contemporary songs, but no rock & roll. Nice, but very short. Three songs later the lesson began.

The lesson was pretty basic stuff. Really basic at times, but the speaker was passionate. Not sure if he's the "regular guy" or not. Afterwards, we broke into small groups to discuss the questions in hand.

Basically...

1. Did Christ die for your sins?


2. How does that affect your life?

O.K. #1 - pretty braindead. #2, well, the more you think about it, the harder the answer becomes.

All in all, it was a pretty good evening. I'll be going again when I have a free Thursday night. My worries about rock bands and holy rollers and all that were unfounded in reality, so it was nice to be with Christians like me.

So, with the recent phenomenon of reality based docu-drama movies that have come out, I've given some serious thought into making one of my own. The only thing really stopping me is the fact that I don't own a video camera.

I'd make a sequel to "Super Size Me" which basically cured me of McDonald's for life. I rented it the day before my first meeting with my trainer, Jerry. This sequel would be called, "Super Size Me Too" - but it would be about gaining 20 pounds of muscle instead of fat. It would be my struggle to gain weight in the form of lean muscle mass in 5 months in order to:

A) Live a healthier life
B) Not worry about throwing my back out every time I do some home improvement project
C) Look decent in the hottub on the next cruise

So, the first scenes would be me going to 3 different doctors for a physical. They'd not only measure my body fat and BMI, but also take blood samples to check my liver, cholesteral, etc. Everything - a full physical. I've done that and I wasn't very happy with the results. My BMI is fine, but I was 23.1% fat and my LDL was high. My liver seemed o.k., but I'm on that toenail medication again, so I suspect that could be better.

Anywho, they'd measure everyhing, then I'd hit the gym - HARD! I'd have trainers (plural! trainers!) who would get my body in show quality in 5 months. I'd have nutritionists and people with taste dressing me.

At the end of 5 months, I would hope for a net gain of 20 pounds and a % fat less than 15%. That would mean a net pure muscle gain of about 30 pounds.

Now, that would be cool.

O.K. I'm not all muscle headed now vs. who I was before I starting hitting the gym, but I am different. I'm eating much better and drinking water. Yes, me! Drinking water! Who'dathought? I'm really conscience of the musclebound guys at the gym who seem to all take on the same persona while working out. The "look at me" guys - and gals too for that matter. I have to make sure I don't become them while I get bigger. They're not my goal - some of them are downright jerks.

I was thinking yesterday about dancing, and if having muscles will interfere with my ability to dance and have fun. I don't think my metabolism has changed much - I mean I seem to have the same amount of energy, but I also feel heavier.

Hmmm. Anywho, off to the gym now - it's legs and abs today - joy!

Well, it's back to work for me. I had a week of vacation and a week of class. Good vacation. Good class. I made my airline reservations for my cruise, and I can't wait! (a single explanation mark hardly does justice to my enthusiasm)

I got some material for my pirate sash and I'm going to buy a sewing machine this weekend. I have to come up with the design I want for the pirate coat. I'm torn between a traditional captain's pirate coat or an anime style long flowing coat. The latter would be wicked cool if I could pull it off. It'd be a cross between pirates of the caribbean and the Neo matrix priest outfit.

I can see it in my head and trust me - it's wicked cool. I just don't know if it will materialize.

My weekends are almost mine now, so I'll have some time to work on it instead of databases (not that I mind spending my weekends on databases).

Well, I've done as little damage at work as I could, so I'm off to the gym. I think I lost some weight while on vacation. It's going to be tough keeping my weight up. My ubergoal is 200 lbs by cruise time, but that's a dream.

I remember being a kid of 13 or so and wondering in my loudest inner voice that I could muster what it was all about if it wasn't about me. I'd laugh now, but I can't help thinking of all the normal living I missed out on being wierd. Anyway, I've been able to straighten a lot of things out, and even though I didn't feel any better at the time, I feel better now for the big night of confessions I had last week. Has a big weight been lifted from my shoulders? No, but at least it doesn't have to eat me alive anymore.

In addition to all the fun I have at WP, it's always been a sort of cemetery for me. A place I go to visit ghosts from my past. There are places I remember from when I was in my first teen year - walking down the road in the dark from Grandmas cabin to where the pool is now. My initials carved on the telephone pole on the way to the "stick people", and people. People and rollerskates. It's esoteric at this point, but then what else is new here, eh?

Anyway, after years of trying to work out the details of my life, I think I've decided to just get over it and move on. I wish someone had slapped me sooner. And hope? Hope is a friend of a friend. The song is so true ya' know. The dazzle of hope had me mesmerized for a while, but I know better now.

Sorry, I didn't mean for this to be a sad-n-sappy entry. It just sort of sounds like that though, eh? It's not really though. In a sense, it's closure. I wonder what's going on outside?

==========================================

Artist : Dashboard Confessional
Title : Vindicated
Album : N/A
Genre : Modern Rock

Hope dangles on a string
Like slow spinning redemption
Winding in and winding out
The shine of it has caught my eye

And roped me in
So mesmerizing, so hypnotizing
I am captivated

{Chorus}
I am Vindicated
I am selfish
I am wrong
I am right
I swear I'm right
I swear I knew it all along

And I am flawed
But I am cleaning up so well
I am seeing in me now the things you swore you saw yourself

So clear
Like the diamond in your ring
Cut to mirror your intentions
Oversized and overwhelmed
The shine of which has caught my eye

And rendered me
So isoloated, so motivated
I am certain now that

{Chorus}

So turn
Up the corners of your lips
Part them and feel my finger tips
Trace the moment, fall forever
Defense is paper thin
Just one touch and I'd be in
Too deep now to ever swim against the current
So let me slip away (3x)
So let me slip against the current
So let me slip away (4x)

{Chorus}

Slight hope
It dangles on a string
Like slow spinning redemption...

I just read a quote from a fellow blogger who works at my company in New York. "Fail Faster." The notion being that the way to success is to have failures. The fastest way to success is to get through the failures as fast as possible. Course, the analogy breaks down pretty quick the more I thought of it, but the premise is true. The way to success - especially something that is difficult (and therefore worth doing) - is to acknowledge when you fail, get over it and get going toward the prize.

I acknowledge that I've failed in the past. By some measures, I should be the most successful man on the planet, but that's where the analogy breaks, eh? What I got out of that was confirmation that I'm doing the right thing wrt to getting up and back on the horse as soon as I fall off. But now, I'm typing colloquially as I wave my digital arms in the sky and attempt to make a point. ;-)

I get down,
I get up again.
walk on.

What do you think of when you think of California? Personally, I think sunshine, Golden State, Eureka, the state bird - the quail, beaches, Hollywood, Disneyland, etc.. So, what must we now think of in this politically correct atmosphere? That's right - tree huggers and endangered species.

It's like living in PCU (Politically Correct University which was a funny but B grade movie).

Instead of all the things that make California great or things that have to do directly with California's history, we have decided to focus strictly on the groups of people who would complain the loudest if they got their little feelings hurt.

Therefore, our quarter has John Muir, Half Dome (which is cool) and a near-extinct bird (the Condor). I imagine if we had a gold miner with "Eureka" above in a scroll, they'd freak out.

If we had a quarter with the Golden Gate, there would be riots in LA.

If we had a Hollywood sign with a beach, the Marin lawyers assoc would sue.

If we do anything - somebody complains. So, we go with the oiling the wheel which is most likely to squeak the loudest. What a sad state we live in.