Update with pictures

I’m updating!

Things have been relatively okay recently, though I feel a debilitating stress creeping below the surface. I could name a few big things that are stressing me out, but the truth is I’m always stressed out and in some ways thrive on it and find comfort in it. Basically I’m just used to being stressed about certain things (finances, purpose, organizational skills, etc). Silly I know, so I won’t go on about it.

Saturday there was a neighborhood planting. Not mine, but I did help out. One of the girls was being quite irresponsible and didn’t show, so I had to drive the big truck around to all of the sites and drop trees and tools off. Karoline was with me as the navigator/assistant tree lifter and I admire her for not being phased by all of the f-bombs I dropped while driving. I used my favorite curse phrase a few times: Godfuckindamnshitassbitch.  Pardon my language. Driving that truck through traffic and getting lost isn’t fun.

The planting was okay after I didn’t have to worry about running over anything in the truck or doing any other serious property damage. My section had 3 trees and 3-5 volunteers. The volunteers were pretty cool, I only wish I wasn’t so flustered because of how hectic the morning had been. I am really good at listening and retaining information but I’m not so good and explaining to people how to do things. The words just don’t come naturally since I’m a visual learner, and my instinct is to just do something and have them watch me. That doesn’t always work though so I need to work on that.

Saturday afternoon involved more door knocking. Nothing like door knocking in an area where there is a language barrier! Awkward!

I didn’t really do anything Saturday night besides walk around. Sunday I went on a 10-12 mile bike ride and spent the rest of the day being a lazy ass. Paul has spent the weekend in DC visiting his grad school, American University, so I haven’t talked to him very much. He seems really excited with his decision to attend grad school there though so I’m happy for him!

Today was actually a fun day. Meghan’s uncle owns a kayak rental place near a pier in Santa Cruz so we got to go kayaking in the ocean today for free. We originally went out to see whales but unfortunately didn’t see any. If we would have I definitely would have made a mess in my wetsuit. It was pretty awesome though, here are some pics (they are kindof big, sorry, and FYI Karoline took all these pictures):

Meghan and I on the kayak. I wanted to be on a double kayak with her since I’d never done it before and was scared I’d get lost at sea and either starve or have all of the flesh picked from my bones by ravenous birds.

Along the pier.

The pier where the kayak place is located. See all the big ol’ fat sea lions? Well, some are in the water and there is one on the board up there. Lazy bastard! Not really. They were huge though.

Meghan and I going under the pier… to get to the other side. Don’t worry, there weren’t any sea lions around to fall on us.

Sea otters! They are so cute, and Karoline accidentally drifted too close to them here. The one on the far right isn’t so happy about that.

Meghan and I getting swept out into the unknown! Not really, but there were some pretty big swells when we got away from the pier and the shore and it was pretty exciting. Seeing the swells coming toward me and then having to ride them on a tiny ass kayak! Eep. Too bad I was starting to feel seasick.

And some more big ol’ sea lions when we got back to the pier. One of them ended up drifting kindof close to us and I saw his big teeth and nearly wet my pants. They are cute but also kindof scary.

We ran into a lot of kelp when we got a little farther out, and Meghan was talking about how they are attached at the bottom. I didn’t know exactly how far the bottom was but I still got a strange sense of vertigo thinking about it. Damn, the depth of the ocean is pretty scary! It scares me to think of all the shit that lives down there and how deep it is.

So those are all of the pictures for now. It was a really good time, and once we were done we called up Carie to go out to lunch. After eating at a small Mexican restaurant we headed back to the pier to go to this bitchin’ candy store. I ended up spending $7 on chocolates, and given my choices the financial impact could have been much worse.

Hmm, what else? Paul is on his way back from DC right now, and I submitted my application for one of several internships with the Human Rights Campaign. Not sure if this’ll pan out, but the least I can do is give it a shot

I’m going to try to start riding my bike to work everyday, and a few of the tree planting events I have organized are coming up soon. I’m pretty nervous about that, but actually going through with the events is the only way I can really gain experience.

I’m going to try to start studying for the LSAT again, but it’s so hard to keep myself on a schedule. I’ll really be into studying for a few days but then I’ll let it go for a few weeks. I need to develop the kind of discipline to get this stuff done.

Hmm.. okay, I think that’s it for now. I’ll try to update in a more timely manner next time.