caning

I do not know what this young woman, who was lashed to the boards, did to upset my mother (who just so happens to be the dictator of a small country) so badly, but my mom handed me the riding crop and with a face contorted in wrath, she screamed at me, "BEND HER OVER!"

what does it mean?

Lizzy and I went for a run last night down by the Back Bay. We stopped and rested at a little wooden fence looking out at the marshlands and chatted. The view stretching out before us was beautiful. The sunlight glistening on the water and wildlife frolicking on the sand truly spoke to the magnificence of all of God's creations. As we talked I had this incredible urge to kiss her, but knew that I should not for some reason. I fought it the entire time and was proud of myself for not doing it, even though I had no idea why.

As we turn to leave that spectacular place, not more than fifteen feet from me, out of clear blue skies, a violence bolt of lightening strikes the ground. It was brilliant and bright! I felt the heat from this dazzling display of nature as it singed my hair. The sound was deafening and I could not believe what had just happened. No more than twenty seconds later, another bolt struck a little further off. For some reason I was not afraid, but stood as a storm of lightening struck repeatedly all around us. I was in complete awe and basked in the beauty of it all. I was really enjoying myself and smiled at this aweso experience. Truly something to behold, but why was it happening all around me?

street performers and construction in croatia

Kim and I spent what seemed like hours today looking for our hostel. We were wandering the streets of old town and could not seem to figure out where the place that we had reservations was (little did we know, it was actually outside of the walls of the city up the hill.) As we were wandering the streets, we came upon some street performers and among them was none other than Tyler Waldron. He was doing some incredibly lame magic tricks using playing cards and making no money whatsoever. As we walked by, he started begging us for a donation, but there was no way that I was going to pay for such a poor assortment of tricks.

I decided to take it upon myself to teach him a cool trick that he could use, so I asked for a card from his deck. I took it a flicked it sending it spinning it the air, only to have it turn and arc back to me like a boomerang, whereupon I threw it again to have it turn a little circle and come back. I explained that it was all in the wrist and the flick, and that he should use this trick to make money. I then showed him the advanced trick that I could do, making the card fly a figure 8 around us. Tyler tried, but every time he threw the card it would just sail away and hit some onlooker. After showing him repeatedly and he still could not get it, I told him to quit his day job and find something new.

Kim and I continued on our way and searched some more. No one spoke any English, so our search was that much harder. We managed to run into my home students who lived in Croatia and they offered to let us build our own dwelling because that would be easier, right? They had an empty lot next to their house, so we grabbed some wood and started building. There was a hardware store on that street, so I went looking for parts to a broken sander that I had, got it all fixed up, and came back to continue the building. Everything was going so smoothly and it seemed like we finished our four story house in record time. We forgot to add stairs, so every floor had a ladder and each floor was successively shorter than the one below it. It must have been because we got lazier and lazier as we built it up higher. I climbed the ladder to the fourth floor and realized the the door was too small to fit through. So much for my penthouse room with a view. I guess I'll just settle for the third floor.

awkward

Just wanted to relay a very awkward situation that I was in recently. I was guarding at the porch in Newport (21st street for those of you who do not know.) I had a note that I had written to Stephanie Leupold, the President of my company's wife, explaining my feelings about Guy Dickson. I had them in the pocket of some shorts I was holding while wading out in the water and I heard her call to me, so I decided to throw the shorts to her and let her get the note out. The shorts landed on the ground right by her, but some other man picked up the shorts. When I looked, I saw that it was Guy and he was dancing around not giving up the shorts. He pulled the note out and read it, then handed it to her looking dejected. I had gotten out of the water and was sitting at my "tower" again, when he came over to ask me if I wanted some ice cream and if he could have a hug. Can you say "awkward?"

adventures in croatia

For those of you who have never hot-air ballooned before, I highly recommend it. My best friend Jason took me on a hot-air balloon trip to Croatia and the views were spectacular. As we floated effortlessly over the national parks and lakes, we could see the sea in the distance. Upon seeing a busy little stretch of coast, we decided to land and check out the scene. I think Jason is much better at flying the hot-air balloon than landing it because we over shot our target and ran into a fence when landing. When we landed our balloon, we had to check into the country at the local government building that was no more than the back of a trailer. They told us that we had to catch a boat to the only island that had the authority to issue visa's, so out we header. We decided to swim to the island because it would be that much more adventurous and began the swim (it was only a couple miles anyway.) Halfway through the swim the boat drove by and we hitched a ride because we had already had our fill. Down the channel we speed, turning between tiny islands with the wind on our bare scalps, racing the other boats for fun, until we saw the island that we were headed to. There was a ramp in the water right before the island that water-skiers used to launch off of and we were headed right toward it!

We hit the jump at full speed and flew into the air. We had at least four seconds of hang-time and landed back in the water with a thud. I turned to give Jason a high-five, but he had gotten tossed out of the boat and the boat was not slowing. It pulled up to the island and I got off to get my visa, figuring that Jason would just swim in. There were all sorts of colorful characters there. There were African tribes people, a whole herd of elementary school kids, the circus act with all of their animals, and random people dressed up in Mardi Gras and Halloween attire. It was quite a scene. Deciding that this would be better to experience with Jason, I went to sit under the shade of a tree while waiting for him to swim in. The beaches and the water were lovely that day and I cannot wait to go back. I will probably make my way back there some day. Who knows, maybe I will go next week!

boring

Yesterday I was surfing with Ber. We sat there as stared at the ocean as a 15 minute lull passed us by without a single wave. I turned and saw a lifeguard trunk parked at the 36th street tower, so I paddled in to say hello. I said hello and then we just stood there looking at Lake Newport.

I never said that my life wasn't boring at times.

back in the day of cdm polo

For those of you who played water polo, do you remember those 5.30am workouts? Pulling into the high school parking lot when it was still dark out. Seeing SAABs with "Fly Girls" stickers on them. Watching me pull up on my motorcycle with sidecar, oh so coolly? Going into the team room in our speedos and huddling on the floor to keep warm, while breathing in the mildewed, chlorinated carpet, just waiting for Vargas to come in and yell at us?

I remember it like it was this morning.

yellow tar ... is that contagious?

Driving in torrential downpour has never been my favorite. I just do not feel comfortable driving as fast as I see some when it is coming down really hard. The last time it rained that hard, I was driving away from work on MacArthur past the Bluffs. I was watching the rain dump on my windshield and saw it dancing with my wipers. Seeing the lights through the rain was very beautiful, but very dangerous. There was a motorcycle beside me and I thought that this guy must be crazy riding in the rain.

As we pulled onto the 73 on-ramp the water pooled and got very deep all of a sudden. The motorcyclist had pulled in front of me and laid down his bike right in front of me. I did not have room to swerve or time to react and I drove right over him! Luckily, his bike went to the side, so it did not scratch my Mini. I stopped and got out of the car right when another car crashed in front of me. There were hoards of people climbing up the bridge to see the accident in front of me, so I ran over to see what was happening there. A doctor had pulled the man out of his car and recoiled in horror shouting, "Get back! Get back! This man has a deadly strain of the Yellow Tar!" Now, I have no idea what that is, but I definitely do not want it.

landon outside work

I just found out that Landon has magical super powers! I called his house line in Utah from my office to chat yesterday, so I knew that he was in Utah. I was bummed that yet again he was down here and we did not get to go surfing or hang out this past weekend. Literally two minutes after we hung up, I walked downstairs to the street and as I walked past the driveway to my parking lot, I see Landon kicking it in his car. So, there is the proof. He can either fly REALLY fast or he has the power to teleport. Which one is it? I would really like to know and how can I get some of those powers? Seriously.

mirror fight with ashton kutcher over katie holms

I must have had a rough night last night, because it is all seeming very hazy and I am having trouble remembering exactly what happened. All I know is that I was eating at a Mexican restaurant with my mom enjoying dinner. The mariachi band was playing and we had the most delicious fajitas. We were just eating and talking, laughing and generally having a good time. The horchata tasted a little funny and when I got to the bottom of my drink there was a little raffle ticket saying that I had won a free dinner that night! This was great, as free food is almost always better than food that you pay for, but like they say, "there is no such thing as a free lunch."

We left the restaurant and I started feeling really sick. I think that whatever the raffle ticket was made of had dissolved into my drink and was making me a little delirious. I walked into some building and saw Katie Holmes sitting there and in my delirious state, went up to hit on her. I was making some great progress and had her eating out of the palm of my hands, laughing at all my jokes, when Ashton Kutcher came over and told me that was his girl. I told him to back off and he did not like that at all. He pushed me, so I pushed him back and he slammed against a mirror, shattering it to the floor. We both picked up shards of mirror and started slashing at each other. How barbaric! All this over stupid Katie Holmes. We slashed and punched, kicked and bit. This went on for so long that we were both exhausted, bloodied, sweaty, and breathing heavy. I still was not feeling up to par and was lucky to have held him off, even getting so good jabs of my mirror into his side. As we paused, we talked and decided that she was not worth it, so we shook hands and went home. I am not sure if I am still sick or if it is the stab wound, but I me stomach still hurts.

crystal orb

My friend Tyson and I were walking by a construction site when we saw some very shady characters discussing two crystal orbs that they were holding with shifty eyes. We decided that they must have stolen them, because what would construction workers be doing with ancient-looking crystal orbs that definitely have magical powers, anyway? So, we sneaked into the site and lifted those two orbs, high-tailing it out of there. One of the construction workers saw us on our way out and gave chase. I remember running so hard, but it did not seem like I was getting anywhere. I pushed it a little harder and broke away just enough as I turned down the street, losing both him and Tyson.

I was now in a neighborhood that looked really nice and had driveways that went up to each of the houses, but the next street was a long way up. I had a feeling that the construction worker would get in his car to catch us, so I ducked into one of the driveways to hide. I saw Tyson running up, so I called out to him to come hide with me. Not more than 10 seconds later, the worker drove by, pulled into a driveway down the street, turned around, and drove back. As he passed us for the second time, I felt relieved and for the first time, took a good look at my orb. It was elliptical and had little crosses etched on the inside. It really was a thing of beauty. A little cloudy, but it somehow reflected so much light that it seemed to glow.

We were getting ready to get up and run again, when the construction worker drives back up the street towards us in a van this time. He drops two people off at every driveway (don't ask me how he got all those people in that van), who would start looking for us. The van pulls into our driveway and when the sliding door opened, two girls jumped out and grabbed us. I was struggling and about to get away, when through the opened sliding door, I see Mikey sitting there. He was part of the search party and just knowing that he was one of them, the "bad guys," just broke my spirits. I gave up and let them take me. Mikey, your treachery has broken my heart.

back in high school

I always thought that it would be really cool to change high schools halfway through. New friends, new experiences, and a new image would be very exciting to create. I found myself experiencing just this when I transfered to Newport Harbor my Senior year. That first day at school I wandered the halls looking for my first period class, not realizing that they had a "home room." I eventually figured it out and found the Kim and Ber were in my home room, which was so choice! I walk up to them and sit down, happy to be among friends, when I hear Kim relating a story to Ber. She finishes by dropping an F-bomb and both Ber and I look at each other surprised, chuckling nervously. We were saved by the bell and just dropped it, leaving without a comment.

We went out into the parking lot by my car and I changed for swimming. I put on a black sheer Euro-thong because I thought it would make me swim faster. Berley walked by and stopped when she saw my new speedo, commenting that if I wanted to start out my year at a new school on a good note, I had better get changed out of this banana hammock. I think she is very wise.

foray into architectural art

I hate being late for class. I hate being late for anything. I always try to show up places early, but this particular day I just could not make it on time. I had an architectural art class that was located in the back "shop" area of an architectural firm. Usually, we walk through the front reception area to the back shop. I like to talk to the cute receptionists, but today there was just no time to do that. I went around the side of the building, to enter the back door, past all the heavy machinery and joined the group in looking at something our instructor was demonstrating. I took my place right next to Charity.

The instructor directed our attention to the ground, where he had a tiled layout. The tiles were all semi-wishbone shaped, but a little fatter. Then he showed us some mathematical formulas, with the tiles sketched out. There were fulcrums and degrees, with lengths and measurements. Then, as we watched the tiles, half began to rotate in unison, then they would stop and the other half would rotate. I could not understand how they all spun together because at no point in their rotation, was there any empty space between tiles. All the students were in awe and the instructor just stood there smiling. Charity, always having to be the smart one, started explaining how this was possible because of the alternating rotations and specific degrees, throwing in some Calculus jargon. I called her out on some of it that could not be true, citing the Pythagorean theorem. She countered by reciting pi to the 38th decimal and I shot back with Bayes theorem. Charity hit me with Markovitz, so I got her back with McCallum. The class and the instructor stood in complete wonderment at our sheer genius when we concluded that the debate had ended in a stalemate and that we were both right. We were much to smart for this class, so we left to start our own architectural art firm, but first went to discuss the details over some caramels.

swimming at the ool

Growing up with Brooke and Landon was a blast. I still remember bending hangers and using them to try to catch rabbits by their house. I had a blast from the past the other day, as I went and visited Landon at his house for a pool party. I walked in through the garage and every room in the house was exactly as I remembered. Even the pictures on the walls had not changed. It was nostalgic and comforting to be back in an old friends house. I walked up the steps to the pool and saw the party in full swing. There was a DJ and people running all over the place. It was really nice to hang out with Landon again because I hardly ever see him anymore. We reminisced about the last pool party when I cracked my head open on his water slide. Good times!

After all the catch up, I really had to pee. I stood at the edge of the pool and dropped my board shorts to pee. Only after did I notice the sign that said, "Welcome to our ool ... notice that there is no 'P' in it. Let's keep it that way!" Jessica came up to me to cover me up with a towel and gave me a big hug. Apparently, she did not think it was appropriate to be exposed in public, as I was, but then again, I do not think that she was wearing anything under her towel either. As the party wrapped up, we all went to Landon's pool house for "tree of life" showers. Ah, the misty, water-color memories.

where is ... the baby?

Time seriously flies. I cannot believe that all in the past year my good friend Sadie divorced, we dated, got married, AND had a baby. We have always been very close and even dated before our respective marriages. When she went through her divorce, I was there to console her and help her through it. I guess the spark was reignited because things happened very fast after that.

After work one day last week, I went to my parents house because Sadie was hanging out with my mom doing some art project. I walked in and said hello, kissing my wife, but noticed that our baby was not there. Inquiring, I asked, "Where is ... the baby?" For the life of me, I could not recall my child's name. I was searching and searching. I thought that I must be a terrible father if I cannot even remember my own child's name, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not come up with it. Oh, the look that Sadie gave me when I called it "the baby!"

I decided that I would rather go play with my friends instead of hanging around getting "the eye," so I drove down to see my friends at some random park. I noticed that there were a couple of yellow cars down the street and remembered this for later when we would leave, so that I could beat everybody at "Yellow car, I win" (the best game ever.) We all chatted for a while and when it was time to leave, the only person that jumped in my car was Galina. I drove away with her, called the yellow cars, and subsequently realized that the Russian did not play the greatest of all games, so I turned around a dropped her back off at the park. My friends all decided that they wanted to skate over to the Dover church building to play some basketball. President Slater was there leading the pack and I honestly just wanted to see him skate. I started bombing the hill by the park, picking up a lot of speed, when I realized that I did not have my sliding gloves on and I was fast approaching a four-way stop. The light turned red, so I went down and slid on my bare hands. When I stood, I was unscathed. Good thing too, because I am sure that I would have gotten an earful had I come home all cut up, still forgetting my baby's name.

recursion

In case you do not already know, I have been studying for my CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) exam for the past six months. Basically, I get to the office at 8 in the morning, work until 5.30 in the evening, and then I bust out the books until 12.30 in the morning. Then I get to go home, sleep very briefly, and come back in to work to repeat it all over again.

Last night was no different. There I was studying in my office and JOLT! I totally twitched, waking myself up. I was still in my office when I woke up and I was still studying. It was then that I realized I was dreaming that I was studying in my office, when I actually was. How incredibly bizarre, I was thinking, until POOF! I woke up again, still in my office studying. No, no, no, no, no. This cannot possibly be. Was I just dreaming that I fell asleep while studying, only to have a dream about myself studying, then waking up to realize that it was a dream and not even know that I was still, in fact, dreaming; only to awake one more time, snapping back to reality, and discover that I was dreaming that I was dreaming? Man, this is really making my head hurt! TWITCH! OK, I know that you and I are both confused as it is and I know that I should not be adding another, but please keep in mind that this is not my intention. I cannot help it if my dream was recursed three layers deep, but that was indeed what happened. I was dreaming that I was dreaming that I was dreaming.

I need more sleep and need to study more. Too bad those two are mutually exclusive activities.

did you read my first post?

i want my mexican baby back

Gas prices are ridiculously high right now. I cannot believe it; when I went to fill up my tank two weeks ago, it cost me over $4 / gallon! What is even worse is that someday I will be rereading this post and say to myself, "Wow! Only $4 / gallon; I wish that gas was that cheap now." All I can do now is to fill up at the cheapest station that I can find in order to save myself a quarter each time I fill up. That is exactly what my mom and I were trying to do yesterday as we wasted gas, driving around, looking for the cheapest station. We were in Costa Mesa and she promised me that there was a station by Fashion Island that was selling Premium for 30 cents. I told her that there was no possible way that a gas station would be selling gas for that cheap, but she would not have it. She basically forced me to drive around the bay to this gas station despite all protests on my part. I thought it ridiculous to drive that far for gas, especially when I knew it was not any cheaper over there, not to mention I would probably run out before we got there.

So, my mom and I drive around the bay and find this mystery gas station that she has been talking about and we are about a mile away when my car runs out of gas. So close that we could see the station up ahead, but I did not have enough momentum to roll up the hill to it. We walked the rest of the way to the station and when we got to it, low and behold, gas was over $4 just like everywhere else. There was a bus station next to the gas station, so we decided to ride the bus home and just leave the car. This way we would save money on gas. What a great plan.

There we were, riding the bus, which was crowded and stinky, just like every other bus that I have ever ridden (I have only ridden buses in Thailand.) As the bus attendant came around to collect the fair, he started spouting off, "Oh F*! I'm so freakin' sorry. We have to reroute through the transportation hub in Westminster and we just had a terrorist threat there, so you're looking at a freakin' four hour layover!" He continued, dropping expletives, so I turned to look out the window and tune him out.

We were driving down MacArthur passing Bonita Creek and as I was looking out the window, I noticed that we were driving up next to a convertible Mini Clubman and there was a rather large monkey tied up in the back seat. I thought this had to be the strangest sight that I have seen in Newport, until we pulled up a little bit further and I saw an entire family of four monkeys in the front seat. The papa monkey just looked at me and smiled and as the mama monkey on the far side turned toward me, I saw a human baby in her arms. Apparently, the other cars noticed this as well, because all the cars around us started to drive as close to the Mini as possible in order to take pictures. Everyone seemed to have a professional camera with great big, long zoom lenses.

The rest of the bus ride was uneventful, but when we got to the Westminster bus station I met up with two friends and started chatting. We did not want to wait for four more hours to get home, so one of them decided that he would just transport us home like Mike TV in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The next thing I knew, I felt myself hurling through the air, but could not see anything. I found myself in a huge room standing by the ankle of a sleeping giant. I was lucky that I was transported and reassembled in an open space. My other two friends, however, were not as lucky. They were now stuck inside the ankle of this slumbering giant and were yelling for help. I think the banging of my friends caused such intense pain that they woke this giant up. She started moaning and clutching her ankle, crying out with pain. The more she moved, the more my friends yelled and pounded from within her skin and it was not getting any better.

did you read my first post?

I just wanted to get out of there, so I ran out the door and found that I was next door to my own apartment. I walked in the front door to find that someone had been in there. My things had been overturned and for some reason someone had erected a Christmas tree, complete with lights and ornaments, in my backyard. I walked through my room and into my bathroom, where wooden cutting boards had been screwed into the counter tops, hanging over the edge. The water was running and there were bubbles in the bathtub. One of the boards supported a little TV set, which was turned on. I stood there long enough to watch a preview of a new movie coming out starring Rob Schneider. I was so discombobulated that I don't remember the preview, except for the end. I heard the narrator with the extremely deep voice say, "... starring Rob Schneider in ...," as Rob comes running around the corner and up to the front door of an apartment building in the slums of Queens and says, "I want my Mexican baby back!"

why did you eat my dad?!?

The best decision that I made when I was in college, other than the obvious: changing my major to Information & Computer Science and deciding to actually learn during my last year, had to be the decision to become an RA. Being a resident adviser in the dorms was honestly the most chill job ever. Who can argue with free rent, my own room, own living room, own bathroom, and money for food every month? All I had to do was use the dorms money to throw a party once a month, making sure to invite a speaker of some sort. This is why it did not surprise me at all when I found out that my dad took a job as an RA at BYU-Hawaii. I did not know that they let people other than current students become resident advisers, but he got the job, so that is pretty sweet. However, another thing that I found odd was that they did not give my dad a room in the dorm because the old RA was living there and she refused to leave. My dad had to commute to the school every day and if he had to stay the night, he was made to sleep in the living room on the couch. How could he be a "resident" adviser when he was not even a resident? Maybe be was just there to advise the residents, not as an adviser who is a resident. Confused yet?

Either way, I went to visit him one day on my lunch break (yes, I have very long lunch breaks.) I walked into the dorm, but could not find my dad. I assumed that he was out planning a party or something, so I decided to wait in the old RA's room. She must have been some sort of Emo hippie because the bedsheets were tie-dyed and there were Weezer and My Chemical Romance posters on the wall. The room was a disheveled mess with clothes strewn about. I was getting tired of waiting and did not want the old RA to come back to find some stranger in her room, even though that room should have been my dad's, so I walked out and around the dorm to ask the residents if they had seen my dad.

I found that the entire dorm only had two rooms, but no one there had seen my dad, despite how small the place was. They began telling me a story about a dwarf that haunted this dorm and I laughed at them because I could not believe such ridiculousness. I left and went back to the living room to wait. I had not been there for more than a few minutes when a midget (not a dwarf because he was normally proportioned) came hopping into the room wearing a pair of bunny ears. Upon closer inspection, I discovered tufts of hair and little bits of my dad in his drool! I picked the "little person" up and shook him, yelling, "Why did you eat my DAD?!?"

three jobs keeping me busy

Back when I first started working in a real, grown-up job, I was also offered a job to coach University High School's girls water polo team. I would absolutely love to coach water polo, but found that it was very difficult to work out my schedule to allow me to do so. However, I decided that I would do it anyway without telling Green Street. This worked well for a while and I thought that if I can fit in one additional job, in the morning before work, I could fit two just as easily. So, I got a job cleaning the house of some very wealthy person living in Newport Coast. Sure, I was tired, but being busy is something that I love.

One morning, the water polo team that i coached had a game against some other high school and we were favored to win by a large margin. As the game progressed my girls forgot all the fundamentals and were just getting run over by the other team. I was getting so upset that they were doing so poorly that I started kicking chairs and yelling at the girls. Never in my semi-professional career had I ever seen anyone play so poorly. They were definitely swimming a mile butterfly after this game. After a disappointing performance and a terrible loss, the stands cleared out and I paced the pool deck while my girls swam. Every puddle that I stepped in, splashing up on my khakis made me even more upset with them. However, the softer side of me began to appeal and I started to feel sorry for my team and stopped their swim. I asked them to think about what had gone wrong and what we could do to play better next time. Everyone left that morning with a better feeling than we had previously and we all knew the action that needed to be taken.

I left the pool deck and headed over to my second secret housing-cleaning job. There was a sauna on the side of the house that I would use as my entrance. I would climb on the roof and enter the sauna; then from there, walk inside the house. I found the rich housewife drinking wine for breakfast and got to work. As I was cleaning the upstairs, people kept coming in and out of the house, tracking dirt around. I had to re-clean everything and when I finally got it all done, I was late for work. Not only was I late, but I also couldn't find my shoes. I remember taking them off when cleaning the upstairs bathroom, but no matter how I searched I just could not find them. After searching frantically, guess who was gnawing on my shoes, but the stupid, mangy dog. I left and showed up at Green Street late with Kao greeting me, saying, "Umm, where have you been and where are your shoes?" I guess I can't get away with secretly holding three jobs.

intern at hatch

I am always so intrigued by Berley's work. She gets to design restaurants as her job and I never realized how much thought went into all the details. It is really very interesting to hear her talk about her work and I can tell that she really enjoys what she does. Now, I know that I have no artistic or creative ability in this area; even though you may think I should, given that my dad is an architect and my mom is the artsiest, craftiest person that I know. Regardless, I was very excited when Hatch, Kim's work, took me on as an intern. Despite the fact that I was just their little monkey-boy, who ran errands and acted like their little slave, I got to soak in all the creative juices that were flowing and learn more about the interior design world.

My first day there, they were in the middle of their own remodel. The office was gutted and there were make-shift cubicles around the perimeter. Mine was right next to the front door, so I got to see everyone coming and going. In the middle of the office there was a smoothie bar that sold delicious, fresh-fruit smoothies for $10, but curiously they only had guava and durian. Don't ask me why I tried the durian smoothie, because I basically think that it tastes more like meat than fruit, but I did and definitely did not enjoy it. As I was gagging down my smoothie, Kim brought an art piece over for me to look at. It was for an installation in one of the restaurants that she was working on. The piece was a glove that was hand painted and mounted on a stand, but the odd part about it was that each individual fiber was painted a different color and there were frayed threads all over it. As I leaned closer, I realized that a tug of one of the threads changed the color and overall look of the whole piece. It was enthralling and mesmerizing. I stared and played with this glove for a good ten minutes, getting sucked into to and played in the psychedelic world that it created around me. I was slapped back to reality when Kim, snatched the glove from me and told me to get to work.

After my shift had ended, I walked to a house in the Port streets. There was an outdoor shower with glass walls around it, so I proceeded to undress and take a shower. I saw people walking down the street as I showered, but it did not seem to phase them or me. Rich came running down the street full speed and then slid on his okole on the asphalt like some cartoon character. He would skip/jump off the curb that each driveway created (there were nine total, I counted) and when he got to the end of the block, he would jump up and flick the birds the were perched on the street sign, off the sign. Then he would run back up the street and come sliding down, doing it all over again. I saw CD Clayton come out of the fourth house down and watch Rich as well. He shrugged his shoulders and went back inside. I followed his cue and did the same, leaving Rich to his own merriment.