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Stream of consciousness newsreel
Topics of discussion:
-new habits
-class went fine
-psycho gas station
-head pecker and splinter knee
-need to think ahead.
-Spoon!
Working ten hour shifts doesn't leave you with much time or energy to do much else during the week. I also had six hours of overtime last week while I was trying to prepare for the didg workshop. Nikki live thirty minutes farther from my job than I do, so I don't see her during the week. Fortunately, I have three days off to spend with her at her new house. So that's the new habit, four days at my house and working at the turtle lab, then three days with Nikki. This begins to explain why I took so long to blog this week. Been otherwise occupied.
At any rate, the didgeridoo class was lightly attended. Besides Nikki, there was one guy, and he brought his own didg, so I still have every one of the many didges I made in anticipation of a bigger turnout. On the bright side, there was no stress involved. The guy could already blow a drone, so I just showed him some new tricks and he was happy enough, and Nikki learned to bark into the didg. It would have been nice to have one rank beginner in the class to see how that would go, but maybe next time. They do want me to do another one, and a few people have already expressed interest, and one guy asked about buying one of my painted didges.
My parents had some people over on Mother's Day, and sent me out for some beer. I noticed in the parking lot of the circle K some guy had parked smack in the middle of two spaces. I pulled around the side of the building and as I came around, saw him get in his car to leave. I casually flicked him off as I passed by. He tried to do the same but I had already turned and walked on, so the little troll honked at me. I ignored him. Five minutes or more later, beer in hand, I left the store, and as I reached my car, the guy drove by on the street and honked at me again. I laughed my ass off. This guy went out of his way, sitting in his car mumbling to himself, waiting for me to come out so he could honk and drive off. Then he made a u-turn to get back onto the main road, and as he passed by again, I mooned him. Sure, it's all funny until someone gets shot in the face.
I still managed to get to capoeira this week, although we've lost our instructor for the month and most people aren't showing up, and the gym is closing early in May. Gotta keep it up, what can I say. We had to practice outside in the grass on Monday, and it seemed like everyone got hurt. One guy had blood blisters on his big toes afterward, I fell into a palm tree and scraped my knee, filling it with splinters that I took 2 nights to remove, and one girl got attacked by a grackle that pecked her in the back of the head. The reason for this rare occurence: her irrational fear of birds. People who aren't afraid of birds don't get their heads pecked!
I only have this job for another month, so I've gotta get organizized about the aftermath. I'll be diving one way or another, hopefully in a profitable way. But lately I've been thinking about opening a rock gym. Corpus doesn't have one, but it seems popular with festivals and such. Well, that's a pretty big project compared to painting a piece of pvc, but I'm still considering it.
Spoon! I downloaded the entire animated series The Tick, and I'm giddy with anticipation of watching it. I was inspired by Nikki's son Jonathon, who obsessively watches crappy Scooby Doo tapes. Now, you might be a fan of Scooby Doo, nostalgically speaking, but if you actually watch it, it's nigh-unbearable. The Tick, on the other hand, has the sophisticated humor of the simpsons while remaining kid-oriented and inoffensive. I hope to pass on my good taste to the child.
TGIF indeed. I can't seem to squeeze in more than six hours sleep during the week. Not that I don't waste plenty of time in the early evening. End of line.
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I'm gonna teach a workshop
I haven't done this before, so I have no idea if I will be able to teach anyone anything. But I've looked at several websites and listened to the cd that I learned from, and I've got my ideas about how to do it. It's really simple, like whistling, the only obstacle is actually getting the sound in the first place, but I can introduce all the ideas without them actually needing to make the sound. I've made a bunch of didgeridoos for it, and I've got two levels of upgrades available, including the painted ones you see in the picture. If you know anyone in the area, please tell them about it! 
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I am the egg man
I work for the Padre Island National Seashore for the time being. They call me the Egg Runner. I'm the man in motion when eggs have to be there today. And today was that day.
I started a couple weeks ago, the day after I finished my fast and got my attunement. I meant to write about it earlier, but never made the time. I work Tuesday through Friday, 7 am to 5:30 pm, but only until June 9. They need extra hands at the park during the nesting season of the Kemp's Ridley sea turtle. These endangered turtles, once wiped out along the coast of Texas, have been reintroduced over the past 20 years or so by my boss, Dr. Donna Shaver. She originally brought eggs in from a healthy nesting ground in Mexico and released them from here to imprint Padre Island on them as their birthplace. She had to wait fifteen years to find out if her plan would work, but finally some of the imported turtles returned to lay their eggs. Last year there were fifty of them, a record year. Today we had ten nests, a record day.
At any given time during the day we have about ten ATV's patrolling the beach of the South Padre Island National Seashore, which stretches sixty miles to the south from its entrance. We also cover another 13 miles to the north before the beach gets populated. The lower forty mile stretch is covered by park employees who camp at the 40 mile marker for four day shifts. Volunteers cover the northern route and south to the 20 mile marker. They are trained to look for the tracks of the female Ridleys that haul themselves onto the beach only once every couple years to lay a clutch of about 100 eggs. Once they locate a set of tracks or a nesting turtle, they radio the turtle lab which sends out a truck to relocate the eggs in a styrofoam cooler back to the lab to incubate. A new incubation room opened this year with room for over 200 clutches, fortunate considering the day we had today. They also brought back a couple adult females to the lab to outfit with satellite transmitters for tracking. They are much larger than I expected, nearly three feet long and almost as wide. I'll take my camera tomorrow to show you.
But I don't go out on the beach. I stay back at the lab and wait for an out call. Today, 9 of 10 nests were within the national park. One was found outside the park at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. It was my job to drive up there and bring them back to our lab. They have to be packed very carefully in a bungee sling packed with foam in the back seat. Kemp's Ridley embryos attached an umbilicus to the top of their shells to breathe through, and excessive motion or tilting can break that attachment and kill them. It's kind of like being the transporter of transplant organs, only you have to be extra slow and careful, not running everywhere. I made three hours of overtime today, finishing around 8:30. Everyone on the staff was called in to help bring in the eggs and the turtles, but everyone was ecstatic that we finally had a nest, and so many in one day. In Mexico, it's called an arribada when several turtles nest on the same day. They base their decision to nest on the weather, preferring windy days that cover their tracks quickly. That's why we've been waiting for weeks with nothing only to get swamped today. Tomorrow's forecast calls for some wind in the afternoon, so if any pregnant females missed out on today, we might be busy again tomorrow, so good night all.
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I miss food
suffer to be beautiful... suffer to be beautiful...
Okay, I'll stop making fun of anorexia now. I'm entering the fourth day of my fast, and definitely ready for it to end tomorrow afternoon. My energy level has been surprisingly high throughout, perhaps due to the daily reiki treatments I've been getting. But today I only did reiki on myself, and I also went out sailing with my parents, which sapped my reserves somewhat. Nevertheless, it's not so much the hunger as it is yearning for the pleasure of eating yummy food. I made a delightful discovery in the Asian market yesterday, while looking in vain for a fresh young coconut; pork buns! Steamed pork buns were a treat that Vanessa and I were always on the lookout for in Thailand. They were almost never in the same place twice, traveling by wheeled carts, usually strapped to motorbikes moving from market to market and through the neighborhood. Every time a bell rang outside my house, I drooled, but I never ran out in time to actually catch them. Still, we managed to find the soft, white buns with the saucy meatball center just when we needed them most. And there they are in the freezer section at the Asian market! Joy!
But really all kinds of food have been dancing in my head today. I think four days is too long of a fast for me, but I have to hold out until tomorrow at noon, when I get my second reiki attunement. I ate a banana this morning. I worried that it would interrupt my detoxification by restarting my digestive system, but since I've been drinking tea and juice the whole time anyway, a banana probably wouldn't change much. I feel like I'm starting to fade here in the home stretch. I tried to limit my physical activity, but this weekend I had to sing in the chorus for Beethoven's ninth, a real vocal workout. And I can't keep my paws off Nikki, which has probably been the biggest drain. New romance and reason are strangers.
Physically, it feels kind of like when you've been sitting for hours through a lecture then stand up to stretch your legs. Kind of stiff and tingly. In addition, I've had a lot of soreness in my back, which is where I keep my tension and hidden emotions. Fortunately, that has subsided today, although I think I pulled something in my back right before fasting and it hasn't been able to heal because of the lack of proteins. And my thinking is getting a little less clear. Three days would have been fine for me. You have to stop fasting before the body processes out all of the unhealthy matter and turns to healthy tissue. This is the first time I've fasted in four years, and I'm glad I did. Now feed me!!
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suddenly busy
I got a job. Or two. Or four. I don't know exactly, but hibernation time is over and an overabundance of possibilities is demanding I take the bane of Libra, decisions.
My "real" job is with the Padre Island National Seashore. They've hired me at the Turtle lab for a 2 month stint shuttling turtle eggs from Galveston and elsewhere along the coast. Days without eggs will be spent helping around the office. At long last, a paycheck! 4 days/week, ten hour shift. Nothing really exciting about it, but I'd be open to the possibility of a permanent gig in the national parks, which this could lead to.
I tried out for an independent film last week, and I spoke with the director on the phone. He said he was interested in using me for one of the leads, although the park job will interfere with some shooting days in May and June. There is a callback next Saturday, so I'll find out then if it's too big a conflict. I would love to do film, but I'm not really sure how good this project will be yet, so I will prefer the paycheck if I must choose. This guy pays nothing upfront but swears he will find a distributor and give percentages. Hell, even if he doesn't, it would probably be a cool experience. Wish me luck.
I've made about twenty didgeridoos by now. The first batch went to friends. A few of them I painted to test some ideas, then I made ten basic, one-piece pipes for a prospective workshop. Those will be included in the price of the workshop, but I will offer segmented pipes as an upgrade, as well as painted models for purchase. I'm looking into getting a vendor's license to sell them at festivals this summer (if I have time), and blowing up some of my photographs for sale as well. If I get into underwater video as desired this summer, those will go on the pile also.
I'll be doing some kind of diving this summer. I might do some teaching, either privately or with a local shop, maybe some guiding for tips or making videos. I made up a business card and logo, though I haven't printed any yet. Nor is the website ready. But I'm proud of the logo anyway.
My Last Meal today was a salad with hot goat cheese followed by creme brulee. Plus I ate several bites of Nikki's chicken lasagna at the Dragonfly restaurant. I don't plan to have any more food until Monday after my reiki II attunement. I have fasting tea and fruit juice. I got a massage today and a reiki session. I'm doing an extreme life makeover. I never was able to concentrate on one thing, but now I'm actually getting things done.
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Totally new experience
I'm falling for this girl. I know because I was freaking out so much last night over her. I was going to blog about her when a wave of uncertainty swept over me. I figured I must be dreaming, it can't be this good. When is she going to get bored with me? I tried to call, but she wasn't answering her phone last night. Perfect timing. Also, she had said she was going to tell her husband about us.
Oh, I haven't mentioned that? Funny story. I met Nikki in January at the reiki circle. It seemed like there was an instant connection there, but I later found out that she was married. With a kid. So much for that. Even though she seemed not to like her husband, I wasn't about to make a fool of myself and try to come between them. Even when she announced she was leaving him, I never expected she would have any interest in me. The story of our first kiss is too embarrassing to bring up.
Suffice it to say it happened, and things have been going swimmingly ever since. Until my little anxiety attack, which made me realize that I'm more than just infatuated. We've talked today. I feel better. I feel I can tell her everything. She told her soon-to-be ex-husband by the way. It's okay. I haven't mentioned these details to my parents yet, though. And thanks to my ex, Vanessa, for being a concerned friend.
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Patience, and recognizing the good things
It was wearing thin. That happens when things aren't moving along, you feel stuck, you start to doubt that anything good is around the corner, and it results in a little venting. But really, that was nothing (my last entry). I can be (and am) much harder on myself. I think I was aware of all the good things that I was willfully ignoring as I wrote that, which lessened the charge of the feelings. But it got off my chest, and now the good stuff is so much more clear. And that deserves a shout out:
-Capoeira. I started taking it when I was in France, only for four months. I didn't find it in Thailand, and never got started with it in San Diego. There's a free capoeira club at A&M campus, cool people, and I finally feel like I get it. I already knew the basic moves, but you have to put them together on the fly in the roda, the playing circle. As a beginner, you just kind of stand there trying to remember some move, any move, while more experienced people run circles around you. Now it's a lot more fun, and I'm itching to learn some more acrobatic stuff.
-Didgeridoos. I bought my first didgeridoo in Australia in aught 2. I learned how to play from an instructional cd. It's a big, heavy Eucalyptus branch, and doesn't travel well, but I managed to find some cheap surrogates in France and Thailand. Now I'm really getting into it, and I've started making my own.
The brown one is the original, the black is my pvc creation. I've made a bunch already, though I've only painted the one so far. I'm planning to sell them, and teach some workshops at the Tango Tea Room. I'll post the dates when I know them.
-Singing. I joined Corpus Christi Chorale this year. I was in choir throughout college, but I've only sung for my own pleasure since. I used to sing baritone, but my voice has eased a bit higher since then and I was able to join the anemic tenor section on two Mozart pieces. I was also expecting to get a solo in one or both pieces, but as of this week there's a possibility that that whole performance could be canceled. C'est la vie. We'll see.
-Reiki. Funny how I picked up all these strange habits in different corners of the world. I got my level I attunement last January in Thailand, after the tsunami left me out of work. I never actually used it until I came here and found a center right next to the Tango Tea Room. There's a lovely group of women who offer reiki treatments for free twice a week as a chance to practice and study the art. They're supportive and down to earth (mostly), and encouraged my didgeridoo making. I'll be getting the level II soon.
-A certain someone. I swear I intended to write this piece before today. It just so happens today was when a friendship rose to a new level. You know how it is when you think there's something there but there are many good reasons why you are probably tripping and you keep telling yourself not to think about it but you do anyway and then BOOM she's in your arms? Wow. The whole rest of the day, your spine is like a lightning rod.
So there's plenty to be grateful for, and there always has been. But since I'm so stupid and worthless, I didn't see it.
Kidding. ;-P
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