Ok, this is getting ridiculous. What day is it? Wednesday, July 18. I think I stopped work about this time last November. Last November! Eight months traveling, eating, sleeping, thinking, playing, enjoying, drinking, depressing, walking, talking, living, loving, hating and reuniting. The "fun" times are nearing their end as they always do and I am ready to immerse myself into conventional Western society. Find a job, find a wife, rear some kids, grow old and live happily ever after.
Life in the West ain't so bad really. It's just not so wild anymore. Sitting here with a bowl of pecan praline granola topped with fresh strawberries and organic dried cranberries, soaked in almond milk, occasionally aided down the hatch with slurps of now cool but still robust coffee. You don't get this in SE Asia. Staring at my new MacBook Pro, I feel like I've just undergone Lasik again. I don't even have the new retina display, but this is such a significant upgrade over my old netbook that it seems like I do. Once you go Mac you never go back. Or so it would seem.
They don't have $2 haircuts in the West, which is a shame, but fortunately there are do-it-yourself options. I just did it this morning and although the clean up is a bit tedious and I'll never look as slick without a proper barber, this option does the trick for now. The one thing the West does have going for it is the peace and quiet. Holy shit, I can't remember the last time I've had such quiet nights. Doesn't mean my mind isn't making noise, but at least I can't blame the guy on the motorbike in the alley and wish him dead for contributing to my perpetual sleeplessness.
Not that I really wish anybody dead. Just throw a mental stick through their spokes and send them flying over the handlebars headlong into a cement wall. That'll teach 'em for unnecessarily using the horn. The problem is this kind of education would be a very slow process. You'd have to break nearly everyone's neck and probably twice before they got it. As a Westerner you just have to accept the noise, grin and bear it as they say, otherwise you'll just go mental. And once you go mental, you need to find some peace and sanity before you can go back into the fray.
I do miss the heat of southeast Asia. Naturally I think I have semi-acclimitized and California summers don't feel as hot as they used to. Of course, I have been mostly in San Francisco, but that's a different story. As Mark Twain said, the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco. Really? Regardless, it is cold most of the time in the summer here. However, even outside of the Bay Area where I have been warned it's too hot to be outside, I have found it to be quite to my liking. Ahhh, warms up my bones. Always prefer to be too hot rather than too cold. To sweat on top of the sheets rather than shiver under them.
I played golf last week with my Dad and one of his friends. I lost as per usual, but it's getting pathetic. My Dad is 70 and playing worse every day (according to him) and his friend is 83. To give myself some credit, I don't play very often, but I should be carding a better score. It appears it is time to hang up the clubs, but I'll keep whacking balls as long as my company is accepted out on the links and as long as my clubs don't end up bent around my knee. It's been a long time since I've done that, not taking myself too seriously out there these days. It's more fun to try and hit a few good shots and end up with a few pars, perhaps a birdie and as few quadruple bogies as possible.
Well, it's time to check Facebook to see if I have any new likes or other notifications. Time to think about what to eat for lunch even though I just had breakfast. What music to listen to. To think about what exercise I should engage in today, but actually not partake in it at all. It's the thought that counts after all. To shave those unruly chest hairs and pluck those pesky mole hairs. Too much time on my hands, yes that's for sure. But the clock is ticking and it won't always be so. Living the easy life the only way I know how, enjoying it while it lasts, but glad it's not forever.
Life in the West ain't so bad really. It's just not so wild anymore. Sitting here with a bowl of pecan praline granola topped with fresh strawberries and organic dried cranberries, soaked in almond milk, occasionally aided down the hatch with slurps of now cool but still robust coffee. You don't get this in SE Asia. Staring at my new MacBook Pro, I feel like I've just undergone Lasik again. I don't even have the new retina display, but this is such a significant upgrade over my old netbook that it seems like I do. Once you go Mac you never go back. Or so it would seem.
They don't have $2 haircuts in the West, which is a shame, but fortunately there are do-it-yourself options. I just did it this morning and although the clean up is a bit tedious and I'll never look as slick without a proper barber, this option does the trick for now. The one thing the West does have going for it is the peace and quiet. Holy shit, I can't remember the last time I've had such quiet nights. Doesn't mean my mind isn't making noise, but at least I can't blame the guy on the motorbike in the alley and wish him dead for contributing to my perpetual sleeplessness.
Not that I really wish anybody dead. Just throw a mental stick through their spokes and send them flying over the handlebars headlong into a cement wall. That'll teach 'em for unnecessarily using the horn. The problem is this kind of education would be a very slow process. You'd have to break nearly everyone's neck and probably twice before they got it. As a Westerner you just have to accept the noise, grin and bear it as they say, otherwise you'll just go mental. And once you go mental, you need to find some peace and sanity before you can go back into the fray.
I do miss the heat of southeast Asia. Naturally I think I have semi-acclimitized and California summers don't feel as hot as they used to. Of course, I have been mostly in San Francisco, but that's a different story. As Mark Twain said, the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco. Really? Regardless, it is cold most of the time in the summer here. However, even outside of the Bay Area where I have been warned it's too hot to be outside, I have found it to be quite to my liking. Ahhh, warms up my bones. Always prefer to be too hot rather than too cold. To sweat on top of the sheets rather than shiver under them.
I played golf last week with my Dad and one of his friends. I lost as per usual, but it's getting pathetic. My Dad is 70 and playing worse every day (according to him) and his friend is 83. To give myself some credit, I don't play very often, but I should be carding a better score. It appears it is time to hang up the clubs, but I'll keep whacking balls as long as my company is accepted out on the links and as long as my clubs don't end up bent around my knee. It's been a long time since I've done that, not taking myself too seriously out there these days. It's more fun to try and hit a few good shots and end up with a few pars, perhaps a birdie and as few quadruple bogies as possible.
Well, it's time to check Facebook to see if I have any new likes or other notifications. Time to think about what to eat for lunch even though I just had breakfast. What music to listen to. To think about what exercise I should engage in today, but actually not partake in it at all. It's the thought that counts after all. To shave those unruly chest hairs and pluck those pesky mole hairs. Too much time on my hands, yes that's for sure. But the clock is ticking and it won't always be so. Living the easy life the only way I know how, enjoying it while it lasts, but glad it's not forever.
I find three sticks are necessary in Vietnam.
ReplyDeleteto throw in the spokes of everybody around you?
ReplyDeleteYou have to do/say everything 3 times here before they get the message that it's important.
ReplyDelete