Big Sur is now in the rearview.  I would like to go again very soon, but money will keep me from going any time before the new year.  Nevertheless, life goes on beyond the shores of Big Sur.  My life goes on in ernest.  I think back to just a few years back when I wasn't in my current situation.  I now spend most of my day out of my house.  Only a decade ago I spent most of my time at home.  Sometimes not leaving home for three days straight.  Today, I sometimes don't see my home for three days straight.  It's a happy change since my adventures have taken me to some of the most unique and beautiful places in California.  The grind pays for my adventures, and seeing it that way helps me get through most of my work days.  Anyway, here's what happened this past month.

Big Sur is in my rearview mirror :(

Oct 1, Back to the grind for me.  TheGirl started her new job today.  We talked to each other during our lunch breaks.  She said she arrived a little late, not good.  I told her to leave extra, extra, early because she doesn't know the commute time just yet.  Did she listen to me? Nope.  Well, kinda.  She didn't leave early enough, hence her getting to work 15 minutes late.  Tomorrow, she says, she'll leave earlier.  Overall she had a good day at the new job, she told me.  I'm very happy for her.  Her probationary period ends in four months.  At that time she is entitled to two weeks vacation.  She has already stated that she wants to go back to Big Sur.  I'm up for that.  I love Big Sur.

Oct 5, TheGirl is has company this weekend and the next, so I took this weekend to have some fun with my buddy.  I've neglected him for the last couple of months.  Again, because I've been prioritizing TheGirl on my schedule.  But, this Friday we were buddies again.  We decided to check out a place called the Oinkster in Eagle Rock.  Supposedly it has great pastrami.  Well, that's not true.  The food was not good, shall we say.  Here's a quote from the review I gave it on Yelp.

My buddy and I love pastrami, and are always searching for a good pastrami sandwich.  We've been to some of the best pastrami joints this town has to offer.  So we had to try Oinkster since we read so many positive reviews.  Well, I was disappointed with the flavorless food there.  The Oinkster pastrami was on my list.  It's a mix of pastrami, onions, slaw, and cheese, all of which contributed absolutely nothing to the overall taste.  The pastrami was nothing.  A meaty thing that filled the sandwich with mass, but little taste.  The garlic aioli was good, but I've had better.  It was the only thing that added any flavor to my sandwich.  The Belgian fries were quite good, and really didn't need any of the fancy tasting ketchup they offered.  Overall I would not go back.  The Hat is only a few of miles East, and has MUCH better pastrami for about the same price.  And the portion size is much bigger.  Fancy sauces can't make up for fundamentally good pastrami.  If you can't get the meat right, smothering it with tons of condiments isn't going to help.

Oct 6, A Saturday without many plans means that I, by default, try and clean up my room.  It's a futile endeavor since by next week I'll have a new stack of papers to replace the stack I cleaned up today.  The time TheGirl has "company" I'm pretty much on radio silence.  But that's a choice we've both made.  I don't think it's fair, but at the same time I'm WAY over it.  When she was first entertaining this guy I hated that she wouldn't text me the entire weekend.  Now I've learned to live with it.  And I've noticed that she is now the one that sends me a text out of the blue.  She claims that she is always thinking of me.  And of course she disparages TheChisel calling him stuff like dummy and such.  Which actually stinks, because I know she's said terrible things about me in the past.  You know what though? My plan to emotionally detach myself from her has worked.  Slowly I've become less dependent on her affections and her time.  I now have to cultivate the old life I had before she came into the picture.  I like spending time with her, but at the same time now that she's working and that TheChisel will want to show up more often, she's going to be less available.  But that's OK, I'm not dealing with that by hanging out with my friends (those left), and going to places I know she doesn't want to go.

Oct 10, In what has become sort of a tradition, TheGirl and I went to dinner tonight.  Then we went back to her place for some cuddling.  Yes, cuddling.  That isn't a euphemism for sex.  We just cuddled.  I would have liked to have been intimate with TheGirl, but she's sick with the cough she claims I gave her.  Couple that with being tired from her commute, and you have us simply holding each other.  It's still nice to cuddle with TheGirl.  I shouldn't like it that much.  I should just let her be and cuddle with her guy.  But I love cuddling with her.  She feels so right.

It rained today.

Oct 11, I worked eleven hours today.  My Glendale job had me running around handing out bookmarks to many of the schools in Glendale.  It was a haul, but made easier by me doubling up on my route.  Last time they had me do this distribution I had to run around to all the schools and THEN do my regular delivery route.  This time I figured I would combine the two, since many of the schools I would visit are next to libraries I go to on my route.  I didn't get to go to lunch until 2, but I got everything done.  But if seven hours wasn't enough, my San Marino job called me to work an evening shift.  Since I wasn't going to see TheGirl, or had any other commitments, I gladly took them up on their offer.  Since late nights at the San Marino library are pretty much cake, I knew I wouldn't be doing much work.  I was paid to sit down, check in a few books, and chat with my co-worker.  Pretty nice.  Big bucks today! Ha! No TheGirl until Sunday.  TheChisel is in town this weekend.

Oct 12, A few days ago my supervisor told me that she would have to have me put down some page hours when I work on Fridays, because of her budget.  What am I going to say, no? Today she came up and told me to forget that, she's paying me my full hourly rate until June.  Means nice money coming in.  Good thing too, since it includes the raise she told me about last week.  She sees that I put in a 100% effort, and that I don't just carry my own, but go out of my way to get things done speedy and right.  The long and the short of it, she even told the new boss that I'm doing a great job.  NICE! Brownie points for me!

I arrive at the front gate and find the park PACKED

Oct 13, My boss told all the clerks that we had a meeting today.  Only five of us, including me, showed up.  Too bad because some actual important stuff was discussed.  After the meeting I bolted down to Disneyland to get on some rides and buy my cousin's kids a pair of gifts.  Disneyland was PACKED, and all the lines were long.  The one ride I was willing to wait for was Haunted Mansion, but not an hour.  Which is was the wait when I arrived.  So I walked around, bought myself a shirt, and then found a pair of cute shirts for the girls.  I think they'll like them.  Walking around, fighting the crowds, tired me out.  I think just seeing all those people there made me not want to stick around.  I even forgot to have a churro before leaving.  But, I did have a corn dog for lunch.  It was yummy.  I was supposed to hang out with my co-worker Holly and go to dinner followed by ArtNight.  However, ArtNight was last night.  And Holly was working late.  So we decided to try for next week.  TheGirl has plans, and I'm not included.  The drive home was tough.  Towards the end, as I reached the Cahuenga pass, I started to drift as I drove.  I was super sleepy.  I got home and decided to take a nap.  I set my alarm for an hour so I could pick up my aunt.  Well, the alarm sounded and I clicked it off, told myself only 5 more minutes.  Five minutes turned into two hours.  I guess my body needed that extra sleep.

Taken August 30, 2010, while visiting Mission Inn in Riverside

Oct 17, I went over to TheGirl's for our for our traditional Wednesday night dinner tonight.  I showed her some pictures I had developed, yes from film, from the Lomo fisheye camera I own.  I took some pictures while up in Big Sur with the camera, and I dropped it off the other day.  Well, today I picked up the prints and low and behold, I found pictures I took with that camera from two years ago.  Over two years ago actually.  Like the one above, that picture was taken over two years ago when TheGirl and I first started off.  We went to the Mission Inn in Riverside.  She had to travel out there for a test involving possibly being a kidney donor.  She didn't go through with the donation.  And crazy enough, just recently the person that was to be the recipient did get this new kidney.  He was doing well until he wasn't, and he just passed away a couple of weeks ago.
After dinner at a local restaurant we came back and I recorded a few moments of Cindy puppeteering a stuffed monkey she named Chandaka.  Chandaka has become our new mascot, of sorts.  I first started showing TheGirl how puppeteering was all about bringing a thing to life.  Now Chandaka has a personality of his own, a little bit of TheGirl, and a little bit of mine.  Here he is clowning around.

living in the past is stupid

Oct 20, I was texting TheGirl tonight about the picture and the person she was going to donate a kidney to and for some reason TheCat's name came into my head.  And for some reason I searched for her on Facebook.  I found her.  The best thing about the search is that I felt nothing.  At the end of the day the past is the past.  She didn't want me.  I asked her out three times and she turned me down three times.  That's OK.  At the time it was one of the worst things that could happen to me.  Today I don't pine away for her like I did two decades ago.  Today TheKat is an afterthought.  She has her life, I have mine.  Booze allows me to let go of the inhibitions I usually carry.  I feel nothing towards Kat any more.  Actually, I look at her and she looks completely different.  I don't even find her attractive any more.  I do hope she's happy, because I know I am.

my new Canon EOS T3

Oct 23, I bought a DSLR Monday and it arrived today (pictured above).  I thought it was finally time to get serious about this photography thing.  TheGirl says she wants to go to Big Sur in November, during the Veteran's day weekend.  I don't have the cash, but I might still go in order to use this new camera.  Can't wait to shoot some pictures tomorrow.

Oct 26, I heard at work today that one of the other drivers might quit soon.  Apparently he might be getting a new job with the city meter maids.  Probably pays better than our current job.  The potential is now there for me to pick up more driver hours, and not spend at much time behind the desk.  There are positive aspects to being out of the office for my shift.  But there is also some negative aspects.  Perhaps they won't want to move me up because they only see me as the driver.  Who knows.  Let's just see if this rumor is true before I get ahead of myself.

Party on....

Oct 27, Tonight I was a paid photographer for the 2nd annual charity event at the library.  Last year I was "hired" to photograph the event.  But last year I was dead from that horrible cold that didn't release me from its death grip.  This year was different.  I had my annual cold early enough to get well for this event.  And I also had the use of my new fancy camera.  Woo! The night was cool, but it was funny how there's always some little drama that comes along with even simple events in my life.
I spotted a striking woman as the first guests arrived.  She was the body electric.  Throughout the night I wanted to have a moment where I could speak to her for a moment.  I knew that would be all that I would get.  But it's like we were doing a dance all night long.  She would move closer and then away from me.  I tried not to think of her, but there she was always in my line of sight.  She stood next to me while watching the Flamingo dancers.  There was a slight brush of her arm on mine.  It felt so nice, even though I didn't try to lean into her.  She said something to me about how beautiful the dancers danced, and then said nothing.  Towards the end of the night her self-important husband arrived to escort her, and here's the strange thing.  Even though we didn't introduce ourselves to each other at any point of the night, she made it a point to introduce her husband to me.  It was strange, and only served to confirm that she was a partner in the dance.  Perhaps an unwilling partner, but a partner nonetheless.

"Cosmic Bedroom" model from Kubrick exhibit at LACMA

Oct 28, TheGirl and I went to check out the Stanley Kubrick exhibit at LACMA today.  I love the movies of Stanley Kubrick.  Favorites being "Clockwork Orange" and "Dr. Strangelove."  TheGirl has no idea who Kubrick is.  It's nice to introduce her to things she has no idea about.  Like last year we went to the Tim Burton exhibit, and of course this year Kubrick.  The exhibit was really neat, and had lots of props from his movies.  My other favorite is "2001: A Space Odyssey."  There were some really cool props from that movie.  As shown above, even though I wasn't supposed to take any pictures, I managed to get a picture of "the cosmic bedroom."  Too cool.  During dinner TheGirl confessed to me that she misses me, and that she's still trying to deal with the history of the guy who broke her heart.  She is thankfully dealing with it, and realizing that there's no use in wallowing in the past.  But of course it's hard to move on after having those thoughts in your mind for so long.  It was nice to hear her say that she misses me when I'm not around, but doesn't miss TheChisel.  Then again, I have to take that statement with a grain of salt.

Oct 30, So the news reported today that Lucasfilms is going to be sold to Disney for just over $4 billion.  I don't know what will come of this, but my one hope is that Disney "get's it" when it comes to the biggest movie franchise perhaps ever.  Lucas has carved up, "added" to, reedited, revarnished, the original Star Wars trilogy to the point that I had stopped being a fan of his work.  I LOVE the original Star Wars, and always rail against Lucas' own destruction of that legacy.  Seemingly done to spite the fan out there that just wants to see his original work in the highest quality format available.  The sale to Disney will hopefully bring in people to the company that love the original movies as much, or more, than I do.  If they put me in charge of the film division I would stop production of the "enhanced" versions of Star Wars.  I would find the best negative of all films, remaster them in high definition, and sell them to the fans.  Fans like me who simply want to look back at those movies we grew up with and loved in the highest fidelity format available today.

The view from the basement

I've been doing these 52 week projects for the last two years.  This is year three.