As I prepare for the cross-country trek with my father I have come across these gems that help explain the generational divide between the two of us:
The 6 Most Unintentionally Hilarious Old School PSAs
Read...watch...pee your pants.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Riding Off Into the Sunset
(aka Driving off into the Sunset in a pickup truck with a U-Haul trailer)
Sooo, I just booked a one-way ticket to Houston for next weekend. It’s time to offer up an official goodbye to Houston, pack the last of the family belongings, lock the front door one last time, and drive off west with my dad. Yes, with my dad - just me and my dad.This is going to be awk...wait for it...ward. I will not project or place expectations on the conversation but here is what might be covered before we hit the on ramp to I-45: Republican v Democrat. Old School v New School. Wal*Mart Atlas v iPhone Google Maps. Need I go on?
With that being said, I have great apprehension about this trip. I’m nervous. I’m anxious. I'm waxing nostalgic. Don't get me wrong, this won’t be my last trek to Texas but it will be my last time going “home” to my parent’s house. Houston has a special place in my life. It is where I became an adult and headed on the path to where I am today.
It’s where I-started and then ditched the life of an oil man
-spent five years as a YMCA youth counselor and drove the short bus
-declined UT and Texas A&M so I could go to the University of Houston and experience true diversity
-was introduced to live, local music
-learned the joys of an inter-continental airport and a passport
-learned how to demo and drywall flooded homes
-learned to say Ma’am and Sir with a wink and a sincere smile
-learned that sometimes it’s worth the 35-mile drive for good food
-became a professional commuter and experienced ‘real’ traffic
-became a fan of summer rainstorms
-found great friends that got me through my 20’s
-said goodbye to my dog Sadie
It’s where I will always feel at home.
It’s like when I go back home to San Diego but different. San Diego is filled with childhood memories. Houston is where I became an adult. I can still remember my first flight into IAH with my family looking for a house. It was so flat and there were so many trees. It's funny that I found direction for my life in a place that I needed a map and compass to navigate for the first year I lived there.
I will always be grateful that my parents picked up and moved from San Diego (on my birthday) back in 1997. It forced me out of my comfort zone and started a chain of events that has made me the person that is sitting here typing this post.
Chances are this trip will be one for the record books. Spending 4 days with my dad driving across the Southwest will more than likely make it into my memoires as a full chapter. That is if we don’t kill each other by reaching the city limits. I am too afraid to hitchhike through western Texas so I won’t bail out of the truck until I know I can make it home safely (I should have never seen the Texas Chainsaw Massacre). I can’t eject myself from the truck in New Mexico for obvious reasons (skin walkers and new age healers) so I will sit tight until we at least reach rural Arizona (yeah polygimists). If the universe allows me to make it to Southern Utah and I see familiar landmarks I have no fear jumping from the truck at speeds of 35MPH (roll when you hit the ground, just like Chuck Norris says, right?). If you happen to get a phone call from me around November 18th please pick up. I’m probably at the Greyhound station avoiding Large Marge and Pee Wee Herman. I might need you to wire me money, then again I might be desperate enought to part with my iPod or MacBook in exchange for bus fare. So when that phone of yours rings please pick up, please, please pick up.
As a complete side note:
For those that have ever been to Chuy’s (down off Kirby and Westheimer) know that I will still make an annual pilgrimage back to the Lonestar state so I can order a chicken Chuychanga with creamy jalapeno ranch sauce. If I can pack in a trip to Berry Hill’s for some fish taco’s that would be icing on the cake (but that cake would really need to be a slice of chocolate from Benji’s). Oh and then there’s a side trip to Niko Niko’s for a spinach pita and then a hop over to Rice Village for some Thai. I could go for some BBQ at County Line or stale cookies from the crazy Panaderia near Hopper Road. Maybe a few tortilla’s from H.E.B. for homemade fajita’s. Don't forget there is always room for a late night trip to the House of Pies for some chocolate silk and never, ever forget that when all else fails…Kat’z nev-uh closez! Who has the Tum-tum-tum-tum-Tums?! Better yet, who wants to go?
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Winter Cold, Take 1
Mark the calendar – Nov 6th is officially my first sick day of the winter (and it’s not even “officially” winter yet). It dumped snow this week and there are three storms on the way over the next seven days. Kill me now! Snowbird fires up its ski lifts tomorrow, exciting and depressing.
Who knows if my cold is due to a week of not sleeping while my boss traversed the Middle East two weeks ago, if I’ve been infected with whatever germs he brought back, if I have the crud that has half of out IT department out (convenient that my new MacBook Pro is in the hands of the person that may have gifted this disease to me), or if I contracted something after bowling til the wee hours last night and didn't wash my hands afterward.
Who really cares? One upside is that I have coughed for the last 18 hours and have managed a killer abdominal workout. The other upside is that I’m bored out of my gourd and decided to whip up a post.
In any case, I write this entry under mild medicinal intoxication. I hate medicine and never, repeat NEVER, take it. The only thing I hate more than medicine is being sick so one obviously trumps the other (I guess my definition of "never" is more flexible than it might be for others). Dayquil gives me a hazy hangover that has been ever present with me today. As if I don’t have enough trouble forming complete sentences or typing, this is risky business people. Please disregard my poor grammar or unforgivable typos (I just typed unfrogivable, thank you autocorrect).
So in case you didn’t realize it, this week was election week. I voted a week early on campus and only had to wait in line 15 minutes or so. November 4th in Utah started with a nasty storm that brought rain, snow, and blustery winds. I can’t imagine having to wait in lines outside in weather like that BUT I still would have done it in order to cast my vote.
As I watched the returns come in Tuesday night I tried to take in the significance of what was happening. My doubts and misgivings about the readiness of our country evaporated as the news stations started to declare our new President-Elect Obama. The rallies of people that had gathered in hopes that their voices would be heard erupted with cheers and tears. Why reiterate the historical significance of whoever could have taken office here on my blog – my memory will revolve around the fact that I sat in my living room glued to the TV, iPhone in hand texting away, with the overwhelming sense that the country had made it choice clear. The Supreme Court would not be deciding this election, a collective relief.
WARNING: Ranting will commence from here on out...
Some of those that are close to me and have turned out to be apathetic due to many excuses: I just don’t know about politics, it’s Utah – my vote doesn’t really count, I don’t like either candidate, etc. I try to be understanding with those that are part of my daily life that would rather watch reality TV and get their politics in 30 second sound bites than search for answers. It’s hard to have meaningful conversations with people that can spout off random sports statistics but couldn’t verbalize what socialism is. Don’t take offense, I’m not asking that you have a degree in political science to comment on an election. My concern is that with how critical this election is – most people in my immediate circles are disappointing in their election acumen (click on the word for the definition, I can wait).
I know too many people that live and die by SportsCenter, The Office, Gossip Girl, or {insert your show of the moment here} but when you can’t take 15 minutes a day in an election year to familiarize yourself with the issues and candidates I have diminished respect for you. Even more appalling is when you try to have a half-assed discussion about a candidate with nothing more than information from a local news station that can barley package a 7-11 robbery correctly. I am not announcing myself as a politico or a pundit but the only thing worse than apathy is ignorance. Sirs and Madams, check yourself before you wreck yourself (and our country).
All things aside, I don’t care how you voted. I do care that you voted with some level of competence, that you can explain why you decided one way or the other, and how you plan to get involved. Please don’t put critical issues on the back-burner until January 2009 or indefinitely. Don’t let apathy or victorious confidence result in passing responsibility to “those” who are heavily involved in politics. It’s time now to take inventory and get involved. Our country/state/county/city cannot solve problems without the assistance and input of its citizens. Make it a point to attend a town hall meeting with a group of friends, make time to go to an academic lecture, write your representative (for hells sake find out who your representatives are!), engage your community in some fashion, read (yes READ) more than one newspaper/magazine/website as information sources and stop forwarding emails from your uncle/sister-in-law/coworker/listserv/etc unless you are completely aligned with its contents (and for the love, stop with the bad Photoshop jobs of candidates and images stolen from Google).
Now that I have slighted my non-political friends I won’t go further and drop Prop 8 on you. Just know that I have strong feelings on the issue and I have tried to understand both sides of the issue and its ramifications. As a Californian by birth and having been raised in an active Mormon family I have struggled with how the proposition has been handled and spun. I will leave it at that and can only hope that politics do not turn up at the Thanksgiving Day dinner table. It won’t be pretty and I am not afraid to sling the mash potatoes across the table, blind a sibling with the cranberries, or even sacrifice the stuffing up a parent’s nostril. Game on!
So who’s in for dinner this year? I promise to post photos of the eminent food fight.
Who knows if my cold is due to a week of not sleeping while my boss traversed the Middle East two weeks ago, if I’ve been infected with whatever germs he brought back, if I have the crud that has half of out IT department out (convenient that my new MacBook Pro is in the hands of the person that may have gifted this disease to me), or if I contracted something after bowling til the wee hours last night and didn't wash my hands afterward.
Who really cares? One upside is that I have coughed for the last 18 hours and have managed a killer abdominal workout. The other upside is that I’m bored out of my gourd and decided to whip up a post.
In any case, I write this entry under mild medicinal intoxication. I hate medicine and never, repeat NEVER, take it. The only thing I hate more than medicine is being sick so one obviously trumps the other (I guess my definition of "never" is more flexible than it might be for others). Dayquil gives me a hazy hangover that has been ever present with me today. As if I don’t have enough trouble forming complete sentences or typing, this is risky business people. Please disregard my poor grammar or unforgivable typos (I just typed unfrogivable, thank you autocorrect).
So in case you didn’t realize it, this week was election week. I voted a week early on campus and only had to wait in line 15 minutes or so. November 4th in Utah started with a nasty storm that brought rain, snow, and blustery winds. I can’t imagine having to wait in lines outside in weather like that BUT I still would have done it in order to cast my vote.
As I watched the returns come in Tuesday night I tried to take in the significance of what was happening. My doubts and misgivings about the readiness of our country evaporated as the news stations started to declare our new President-Elect Obama. The rallies of people that had gathered in hopes that their voices would be heard erupted with cheers and tears. Why reiterate the historical significance of whoever could have taken office here on my blog – my memory will revolve around the fact that I sat in my living room glued to the TV, iPhone in hand texting away, with the overwhelming sense that the country had made it choice clear. The Supreme Court would not be deciding this election, a collective relief.
WARNING: Ranting will commence from here on out...
Some of those that are close to me and have turned out to be apathetic due to many excuses: I just don’t know about politics, it’s Utah – my vote doesn’t really count, I don’t like either candidate, etc. I try to be understanding with those that are part of my daily life that would rather watch reality TV and get their politics in 30 second sound bites than search for answers. It’s hard to have meaningful conversations with people that can spout off random sports statistics but couldn’t verbalize what socialism is. Don’t take offense, I’m not asking that you have a degree in political science to comment on an election. My concern is that with how critical this election is – most people in my immediate circles are disappointing in their election acumen (click on the word for the definition, I can wait).
I know too many people that live and die by SportsCenter, The Office, Gossip Girl, or {insert your show of the moment here} but when you can’t take 15 minutes a day in an election year to familiarize yourself with the issues and candidates I have diminished respect for you. Even more appalling is when you try to have a half-assed discussion about a candidate with nothing more than information from a local news station that can barley package a 7-11 robbery correctly. I am not announcing myself as a politico or a pundit but the only thing worse than apathy is ignorance. Sirs and Madams, check yourself before you wreck yourself (and our country).
All things aside, I don’t care how you voted. I do care that you voted with some level of competence, that you can explain why you decided one way or the other, and how you plan to get involved. Please don’t put critical issues on the back-burner until January 2009 or indefinitely. Don’t let apathy or victorious confidence result in passing responsibility to “those” who are heavily involved in politics. It’s time now to take inventory and get involved. Our country/state/county/city cannot solve problems without the assistance and input of its citizens. Make it a point to attend a town hall meeting with a group of friends, make time to go to an academic lecture, write your representative (for hells sake find out who your representatives are!), engage your community in some fashion, read (yes READ) more than one newspaper/magazine/website as information sources and stop forwarding emails from your uncle/sister-in-law/coworker/listserv/etc unless you are completely aligned with its contents (and for the love, stop with the bad Photoshop jobs of candidates and images stolen from Google).
Now that I have slighted my non-political friends I won’t go further and drop Prop 8 on you. Just know that I have strong feelings on the issue and I have tried to understand both sides of the issue and its ramifications. As a Californian by birth and having been raised in an active Mormon family I have struggled with how the proposition has been handled and spun. I will leave it at that and can only hope that politics do not turn up at the Thanksgiving Day dinner table. It won’t be pretty and I am not afraid to sling the mash potatoes across the table, blind a sibling with the cranberries, or even sacrifice the stuffing up a parent’s nostril. Game on!
So who’s in for dinner this year? I promise to post photos of the eminent food fight.
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