Recently in life or something like it Category

The hard part (at least for me) about breaking up is losing the friendship.  If even just temporarily.  Setting arbitrary dates of when you can touch base again and see where we are in life.  But the thing is, you won't be in the same place.  I suppose that's a good thing in some ways, as there's a reason things had to change.  But there is still a feeling of deep loss.  Like the act of actively not talking to someone will just make that the new status quo.  At the end of the arbitrary time, there just won't anything left but awkwardness and bittersweet memories.

Obviously this morning was seeped in melancholy for me, and listening to the John Prine version of the below song probably didn't help.  But it sums up a little of what I'm feeling this morning.

A couple years ago, I signed up at the Universal Life Church Monastery, and became an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church.  I did this in order to perform the wedding of one of my best friends.  A few months ago, one of my former co-workers at Symantec, messaged me to see if I could still do weddings.  He and his long time partner were finally going to get married, and they wanted to get married at one of their favorite places to go...Disneyland.

The problem with getting married at Disneyland is that its not allowed.  Sure you can get married at one of the hotels...starting at $10,000 for the official Disneyland wedding experience.  Even then, you can't get married inside the park at that rate. 

So my friend asked if I'd be willing to perform a "rogue" wedding inside the park.  It would be just the two of them, a witness and myself.  I was more than glad to help out, so it was just a matter of my friend figuring out the date.

The date was finally set for May 5th and I took the afternoon off from work.  Because of a last minute change of schedule, Alicia wasn't able to come with to be the witness, so my friend Noelle stood in.  We got to the park around 3pm and headed in to find a good location to perform the ceremony.  But first we had to stop and get some Mickey ear's to complete the dress code.  We ended up finding a nice quiet spot next to the Thunder Mountain Ride (which was closed for maintenance), on a wooden bridge overlooking a pond (with turtles sunning on the shore).  The ceremony was fairly quick, just the vows (read off of the Bride's iPhone), and the exchange of rings.  A few people caught on and cheered when it was over (and the possible staff member that walked by ignored it). 

Even the Pidgins don't like the rain in So. Cal.  Its been raining all week in LA.  And not just the normal barely a shower type of rain, but close to a half of a years average rain fall in a week kind of rain.  Lots of streets have flooded and mud slides are happening all over the fire ravaged mountains on the east side of LA.  A little rain is good (at least in my opinion), but the rain we've had this week is a little more than the environment can handle down here.  Most of it is just going to run off down the river beds into the ocean and not help the drought conditions anyway.

UCLA H8NUSC

What's this? Things have suddenly gotten busy.  Both in my off time and at work.  So I'm running a little behind on my end of the year post.  But tonight, I'm sitting down with some Yogurtland and finally getting it out here on the blog.

the wrap-up:

• I finished my year working as a lay minister at USC in May.
• I worked at a coffee shop (very part-time)...a first experience.
• I worked as an executive assistant for just over 2.5 months (during which my exec "left" the company)...another first experience.
• I finished the year (and am still) working as a supply chain planning analyst...again, a first experience.
• I lived in three different apartments.
  
• I didn't make it back to Oregon until Christmas (making it a full year away).
• I read more books than last year (by one)
• I discovered lots of free (or inexpensive) things to do in LA.
• Like a bunch of movies screened for free, sometimes months before they opened to the general public.
• I reconnected with a few old friends.
• Married one of my friends (by performing the ceremony, not getting married myself)
  

All in all, it was a good year.  After 1.5 years, I've got a small group of good friends.  I even kind of like LA a little.

This coming year I'd like to:

• Read more books than last year.
• Practice yoga regularly
• Improve my diet (partially by getting rid of the fast food habit I fell into while working at USC)
• Make more friends
• Love people more

So I didn't get around to writing a post last week while I was home in Oregon.  So this will be a brief post, basically just bullet pointing some things I'll post more depth in my end of the year wrap up.

• Drove home to Oregon over 2 days (stopping in Williams, CA)
• Bought chains in Corning at Les Schwab (and stopped at the Olive Pit for good measure)
• Roads were for the most part bare pavement throughout all the mountain areas of Northern California and Southern Oregon.
• Eugene Santa Pub Crawl 2008
• Reconnecting with old friends
• Christmas
• Cafe Yumm & Hawaiian Time
• Performing a wedding
• Drove back to LA in 1 day...bare pavement all the way (only a little bit of slush from Mt. Shasta City down to Shasta Lake).
• Back to work on Monday (with a flat tire just as I left my apt to greet me, and a bus ride to work instead)
  

The year winds down, and so do the activities.  A couple of my friends left town for the holidays over the weekend.  So a few less partners in crime are around.  I've also been trying to be frugal in my spending to compensate for the unpaid week next week (gotta love temp work).

Lately I've been thinking a lot about where I am in life.  How many of my friends, who are younger than me, seem to be much further along in life.  They've got good jobs that they love or graduate degrees.  They've got homes. Are married.  Heck, some are even divorced (not that it is a good thing).  But even then, they've experience marriage and the love that drove them to it in the first place.

It all seems so far away to me.

Its hard being 32 and not really having anything figured out.

I'm leaving for Oregon Friday, right after work.  It'll be nice to be home for the week.  Catch up with some friends and family.  I'm taking two days to drive up, planning on stopping somewhere around Sacramento late Friday night and finishing up the drive on Saturday.  Saturday night is the annual Santa Pub Crawl in Eugene.  It'll be a cold crawl this year as the temps are predicted to be below freezing, with possible snow showers.  No matter how cold it is, it'll be a nice welcome home.

Not much going on the past week.  Because of the short work week at Thanksgiving, my paycheck was a little lighter last Friday.  So no new food adventures. (Though one food adventure was thwarted by being a day early before they were open to the general public).

I've got about half of my Xmas shopping done.  Just need to figure out something for a friend in Eugene, and the 'rents.  Ok, maybe that is a little more than half done.

Ahh...the holiday season is now in full force.  My second Thanksgiving in LA.  This time I did have a meal a little closer to my families traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  I got a ham (just over 8 pounds), and made a couple recipes from my friend Nicole's blog (Pinch My Salt).  Extra Creamy Mashed Potatoes (Recipe) and one mentioned on Nicole's site, but actually from one of her food blogging friends, Stuffed Sweet Potatoes Wrapped in Proscutto (Recipe).  The food was all good, though I did end up having a lot of extra food.  One of my friends ended up being sick, so he wasn't able to come over.  So it was just me and one other friend.  Oh well, I've turned the leftover ham into two soups so far, and have plans for a third soup for the last of the ham.  The Proscutto wrapped sweet potatoes were really good, as the saltiness of the proscutto really complented the sweetness of the potatoes.

I did unfortuntely miss out on going to the LA Auto Show.  I couldn't find anyone who wanted to go with (well except for my friend who got sick).  So largely the extra long weekend was pretty lazy.  Lots of watching football, including a great Civil War victory by the Ducks, which likely will keep the Beavers out of the Rose Bowl.

I found out last Wednesday, that one of my best friends from Eugene is getting married, and pretty quickly as well, the wedding is at the end of December.  Monday night, he called and asked if I would perform the ceremony, so I fired up the internets and got ordained at http://themonastery.org/.  So this Dec 27th, I will perform my first marriage.  Wow.  Crazy.  It will be cool to be such an integral part of a special day in my friends life.

Tonight, I'll be bottling my first batch of beer brewed in LA.  In a little over a week it'll be carbonated and ready to drink.  I'd like to invest in a keg system sometime soon...bottling is such a pain.  Someday.

The biggest thing I did this past weekend was my trip to Phoenix.  Besides dinner at Pizzeria Bianco, it was a pretty low key visit.  I did go to church with my friend and her family on Sunday morning.  It was a non-denominational style church (though technically they have a denomination of some sort apparently).  The guy giving the sermon referenced the fast spreading coffee chain "Dutch Brothers" from Oregon.  He had gone there while in Oregon for a funeral.  He used the enthusiasm of the employees he encountered at Dutch Brothers as a good example of how we could be a "REP" for Jesus.  I found it a little amusing, because a bunch of my friends referred to the Dutch Brothers employees as "coffee tweakers" because they always seemed to be way hopped up on caffeine.  Other than that, I found the service mainly fluff, with little substance.  Basically, Jesus is cool and we are cool cuz we love Jesus.

Last night, a friend and I went and saw Spring Awakening at the Ahmanson Theatre here in LA.  It was the big musical winner at the 2007 Tony awards.  From wikipedia: "The musical is based on the controversial 1891 German play of the same title by Frank Wedekind. Set in late-nineteenth century Germany, it concerns teenagers who are discovering the inner and outer tumult of sexuality. The original play was banned in Germany due to its portrayal of masturbation, abortion, rape and suicide."  I thought the musical was enjoyable, and it was nice to dress up and see a show.

I'm still not really sure what I'll be doing for Thanksgiving.  Perhaps a smallish dinner at home with a friend or two.  Perhaps nothing.  Who knows.