A New Adventure

Let me begin by saying… apparently I suck at keeping that blog promise of “I’ll write next week” seeing as that was two and a half months ago… se la vie.

I do have a fairly legit excuse; I have in fact been all kinds of crazy busy lately. Reason for this: I’m temporarily moving to Australia. A lot of my friends and family question the logic behind this decision, so, allow me to explain once and for all on public record, so that I do not have to constantly repeat myself over and over again.

Way Back Story: I have always wanted to be in the United States Navy. The plan was, after high school, I’d get my bachelors and go in as an officer. Well, “distractions” came and went in my life, and so, it has taken me 4 years to get a 2 year degree. In this same time span, most the rest of my graduating class has now graduated college. I am supposed to be President someday, and yet… I’m behind? To make things worse, as though I did not just suck at school, I kinda sorta in a way let myself go a bit. May the record state: in high school, I was a sexy beast. I however ended up gaining the freshman fifty in college. I already took the ASVAB (Military entrance exam) and received a 96, qualifying me for any job in the military, but, I’m not happy with my size, nor is my recruiter for that matter. Those extra pounds (of love mind you) are all that stand in between me and enlisting and starting the rest of my life.

More recent back story: one of my best friends (Andrew – who I will refer to often for future reference) and I went to Australia in June. Andrew is half Aussie, and so, we stayed in Sydney for almost a week, then visited one branch of family for a few days, and then visited another branch of his family for another few days, two days in Melbourne, then Sydney and back home. Now then, the 2nd branch of family we visited… amazing fun. I loved them, they loved me. Andrew and I visited the family wheat farm. This is where I (the nearly city boy if it wasn’t for my Boy Scout experience) got to drive the tractor and sow some seed in preparation of the harvest. Paul (the father of the family) made a comment that I could just not go home, stay, and work on the farm.

Andrew and I get home. One crappy thing after another seems to happen to me after getting home. It was a Job like summer for me. Then, one day, Andrew and I were watching Rocky IV and I yelled out “THAT’S IT! That’s what I need Andrew!”
“What? To get your ass kicked by a Russian?”
“No no no… a change of scenery, a culture shock, a whole new environment to train and mature”
“Oh… ya that does make a lot more sense then wanting to get beat up by a Russian”
“Do you think Paul and Jan where serious when they said we should stay and work the farm?”
“I don’t know dude, they are cool, but they might have just been saying that, email them and ask”

As though planned, Jan (the mother of the family) happen to be online at this exact moment, and so, the question was asked, and the response
“Of course!”

Plans then went into motion, and snowballed from there. I got my “Australian Working Holiday” Visa and began working any job I could for any amount of money to save up for the ticket.

Now, the moment is here, I am sitting in the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX waiting to board my flight. Hoping that the really beautiful set of female flight attendants is going to my plane. And looking at all the Los Angeles, California propaganda scattered throughout the airport. As I sit here by my lonesome watching planes take off and land. I’m reminded of one of the opening scenes in the movie Dogma where Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are playing the role of two fallen angels people watching in an airport and listening on their thoughts, and looking around and knowing there story. They aren’t just numbers, or simply other passengers taking up air. They are people, with lives, families, stories to tell, and unfortunately in some cases with smell.

Also forces me to think of my own life, family, and story, (and smell, is that my feet? No… It’s gotta be the guy 3 seats over, has to be…) I am really Uber-excited about this move. I have been building up for it for the last three months or so. Now that the time is here, and I look at the beautiful pictures of California, I take stock of what I am sacrificing for this gain I hope to achieve Down Under. I will most likely be in this dump attitude until I land in Fiji after having at least a bit of a nap, and realizing… “I have 4 hours in Fiji!” at that point I’m quite sure my attitude will re-focus on the goodness that is to come… but, up until that point, so long as my cell phone still works, I am thinking about the friends and family and beautiful Central Coast that I leave behind (and also that group of female flight attendants, I could lie, but that’s just not my style)