The Dirt Cricket Abides

I had a few extra days here at home and my mother and I were about to get into WWF Smackdown 2008, so I had to run away for a few days.  I made it to NYC only to put my tail right back between my legs and run even faster out of that town.  Holy Shit how much do I hate $8 beers, $15 appetizers, and a hangover each and every day.  I was thrilled to see a bunch of my friends, but i also realized how I am vehemently opposed to needless expenditures of money.  Also why does every person wear black in that town?  Who Died?

I did hit up the two oldest pubs in NY: McSorley’s and Old Town Bar both of which are my kind of place.  McSorely’s is extra special because there are only two options, light or dark beer.  No Mojitos, no Cosmopolitans, vodka sodas with a twist or even a simple rum and coke…light or dark beer.  The food menu is even better: Cheese and Crackers.  What are cheese and crackers…simple, a sleeve of saltines, about 20 pieces of pepper jack cheese and the fucking hottest Horseradish mustard ever.  Well my friend Brian and I both played the “who can eat 5 saltines in one minute” game.  It cannot be done.  It should be on the list of games for people you don’t like with the Spoonful of Cinnamon and the Gallon of Milk challenges.

Shit I leave Monday morning for Colombia and I am now officially uneasy, terrified, full of self doubt, excited and stoked.

Chirp Chirp

More Tequila Please

When you have parents like mine–one or both Latin–holidays always seem to have some unique flavor…and rarely can be defined as average or typically American (something I have grown to love.)

Every minute of my holiday this year was a little different than Norman Rockwell’s image.  Turkey with stuffing is nice, but so amazingly blase; instead due to our fabulous Mexican hosts we had a chocolate chicken mole so good it can make you doubt religion, pinto bean casserole, spicy nopolitos salad (cactus), and a whole shit ton of tequila & red wine.  Let’s just say my family woke up with queasy stomachs and headaches.  Personally I love the fact that we had multiple nationalities attending, and all were more focused on shots of liquor than who won the day’s football games.  My father will forever resent the chiding of our friend Moises yelling “Chucky Boy” to goad him into shot after shot of Don Julio Anejo.

Parents & Bro-Inlaw

Dinner & Drinking

Chirp Chirp the cricket is fat, drunk and happy

Happy Thanksgiving

View From my apartment in SF(a little pre-note to my writings…this is to be FRED’S journal, and I only happen to be sharing it with my friends. Over the course of the next 12-24 months if my pontifications, self promoting dribble, and mundane accounts of daily activities become annoying and/or boring to you fuck off and stop reading. This is for me to relive over and over what I hope to be one of the better periods of my life; this has not been created for your enjoyment, only for my own! )

The whirlwind of activity and emotions as I prepared to leave SF were more overwhelming than anticipated. I never thought I would actually be so incredibly sad to leave what has been my home for the past 9 years. It was even more surprising as this is the same city who’s cost of living feels like an anchor holding the specter of personal progress at arms length. In the end it’s the people…the people with whom I am close, and the crazy kooks who roam the city just outside my front door. All this was made evident to me as I feel a marginal and growing disdain for the whitewashed and gentrified suburbs of the East Coast….the diversity of San Francisco is matched by only the monster of Manhattan and perhaps the “Latiness” of Miami. Maybe after my wanderings I’ll be ready to assimilate into the picket fence and 2.1 kids?

All the mushiness aside, I managed to find the dream tenants to sublet my apartment, got to see many of my friends before I left SF, missed out on others I did truly wish to see, and finally got the hell out of Dodge. Coordinating all the logistics were so much harder than I ever anticipated, and as always with a true procrastinator I was not packed and ready to go until 1:00 AM the morning of my departure.

I cannot help but feel as though the stars have aligned in favor of my trip. The following sequence of events has and will truly make for one of the best months in my entire life:

1) My Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series and became world fucking champions (well Canadian & US champs) and every time I watch Chase Utley drop the “eff bomb” on national TV I do actually tear up and smile. To all my friends who fancy themselves as the liberal academia type–those above the heathen activity of watching professional sports…too fucking bad, I’m a world champion!

2) Barack Obama’s election. I could not have handled another 8 yrs of bungling mismanagement and silly spending by a political party that has totally lost its way. I believe if the Republicans continued on with their shenanigans they would have sunk us as a nation deeper and deeper into the bowels of economic pain, and continual criticism by the rest of the world. Once upon a time we were one of the “moral authorities” of the globe. We promoted democracy (where it was wanted) and bailed out Europe from the grip of fascism & the Nazis. It sure would be nice to be seen as a friend by most of the world, and not seen as a self motivated nation hell bent on only protecting domestic economic interests no matter the consequences to others. I believe we are a country of well intentioned folks who have been mislead for too long of a time. (I promise there will be more on this to come, but do remember perception is reality and this is not someone who sings the Democrats tune no matter what. As a further aside–b/c i cannot help myself–was not the Republican Party once upon a time supposed to moderate spending and increase revenues?)

3) I quit my job. I had a great job that many would have loved, worked with smart and interesting people, but let us be real…work is called “work” and not “fun” for a very good reason.

4) I grabbed my balls, pounded on my chest and bought a one way ticket to Bogota, Colombia. Yeah every other person has told me to be careful because I will surely be kidnapped & ransomed, robbed, and basically violated in every way the US media makes us fear will happen. Hmmmmm, I do not believe it, and I frankly do not care what others think…after I am done wandering the globe and come back to the States, (maybe broke, maybe never) I may be ready to put the head down and work my ass of for a good living. But for now I will do may best to avoid any encounters with the FARC. More than anything it just feels great when people ask “What’s your plan?” to which I can retort “I don’t have one; all I have is a ticket to Colombia.”

5) In a few short weeks I will wake up in South America to not set foot on US Soil for a very long time.

There are sad parts of my travel that pull at my heart strings…I am going to miss the birth of more than a few of my friends’ children, a few weddings, and miss out on so much of the normal life we take for granted. No more deep powder days with my best friends for the next two seasons, or awesome backpacking trips…but then again everyone else seems to be growing up and moving on with my life and I am just not ready at this point, so here we are as I prep to leave for my adventure.

Oh yeah the amazingly cool cherry on the top of this amazing month, is that I found out my best friend in the word and his amazingly cool fiance are joining for the first month of my trip. You can see their blog here.

Chirp Chirp ,

The Dirt Cricket