I was doing my news reading this morning and came across this brilliant idea.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1509468.html
People can borrow gay people, gipsies and Muslims for an hour and talk to them about their lives, reports Nu.nl.
Haven’t updated in awhile, due mainly to a packed work and social calendar. Each week, more of my intern friends close out their 12 week internships and head back to their respective spots around the country. Plans for visiting and meeting up later this year are already being drafted, ideas include trips to San Francisco, Austin, and Whistler. Sounds like a great idea to me, except for my chronic lack of vacation days. I’ll have to be selective about my trips, but I’m excited to go to places where I know people that can take me/us around.
Speaking of the chronic lack of vacation days, Bo has been throwing me compelling arguments to accelerate my Return to China backpacking trip. His angle: in our position, we don’t have to worry too much about having the money, but time is always against us. True words. A trip might be in the wings for as early as Autumn 2006. The idea of heading back into the world so soon is pretty exciting–I can’t wait to resurface my traveling skills and mentality.
As far as my life goes, I’ve been having a good time out in our wonderful weather. I went camping with a trio of others around Mt. Rainier last week, hiking 22 miles of the Wonderland trail and camping out in the back country of Cowlitz Park. Our campsite was incredible–we slept on a ridge that dropped off into mountain canyon where waterfalls from glacier snow melt in the visible distance merged to become a beautiful mountain stream curving down the bottom. This stretch of the Wonderland trail is probably my favorite hike to date (save the moderate traffic)–while I’ve been in many places I felt were more incredible individually, this hike had elements of all of them. Deep forest, rock fields, mountain prairies, and sweeping mountain views.
Possibly the only bad thing about this hike was a bit of brashness on my part–I used this hike as a fine opportunity to purchase some equipment, namely a pair of hiking boots. Most of you will probably recognize how it’s not such a great idea to be taking the tags off new boots the night before departing for a two day, 22 mile hike. Not only did the boots end up too small, but they were completely not broken in, which is evidenced by the blisters I have on either one of my heels that are larger than quarter in diameter.
Live and learn.
The Bar has been set. I just got home from THE BEST karaoke night.
Showed up with Bo, Bug, and Fernando at the EMP’s Liquid Lounge tonight to meet up with a group of about ten other people already at the bar.
After various members of our group sang hits like Summer Nights, You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling, and more, the moment we’ve all been waiting for came when Bill D, John R, Rohit S, and Bo L got called to do Bye Bye Bye.
Some background here. This year’s intern music video, currently in post-production, is the aforementioned culprits, plus one Clare R (not present) doing Bye Bye Bye. As such, my four good friends had a whole dance routine already planned, rehersed, and performed in recent memory.
So what do they do? They did it right in the bar! Among our whoops, cheers, and laughs, they took it on! The video is out of control!
But that’s not all. Three songs later, the night’s MC starts calling for a “Mikey.” The real guy was a no-show, so Graham B pushed me up on stage. Supposedly I’m going to be singing Time of Your Life. Okay! No problem, but I drag up another intern, Phil, in the process.
Supposedly. When the MC pulled up the song, the splash screen said, “Country Favorites” and the song was “Butterfly Kisses.” Phil and I exchange glances (WTF mate???) and Phil rolls right into the song! Neither of us had heard it before, so Phil just starts quoting the lyrics!
An excerpt:
Butterfly kisses after bedtime prayer.
Stickin’ little white flowers all up in her hair.
“Walk beside the pony
daddy, it’s my first ride.”
“I know the cake looks funny,
daddy, but I sure tried.”
Oh, with all that I’ve done wrong,
I must have done something right
To deserve a hug every morning,
And butterfly kisses at night.
Butterfly kisses, with her mama there
Sticking little flowers all up in her hair
“Walk me down the aisle, daddy, it’s just about time”
“Does my wedding gown look pretty, daddy?”
“Daddy,
don’t cry.”
With all that I’ve done wrong,
I must have done something right
To deserve her love every morning,
And butterfly kisses
I couldn’t ask God for more, man, this is what love is
I know I’ve gotta let her go, but I’ll always remember
Every hug in the morning, and butterfly kisses…
So both Phil and I are both going on it, except I’m laughing so hard on stage I’m literally crying. We’re throwing in these hand gestures, putting flowers in our ears, twirling our hair, blowing kisses, and hand butterflies. An instant hit. Man, I gotta get the video of that.
Summer life in Seattle has not ceased to keep up its frantic pace. My Thursday café night turned into a dinner this week when everyone arrived at Caffe Vita around 9:30p and hungry. Ended up going to a busy Italian place just down the street I’ve been wanting to try that miraculously had a table for 16 immediately available. We ended up cramming 21 people in, but between the Montepulciano wine and fine Italian pizza, no one complained. Had a lot of newcomers this week—too many in some sense. I tend to like four to five people as the optimum café group size, but who am I to keep visitors away from the soul of Seattle?
Went to the
Took a bike ride around Lake Sammamish on Saturday. My bike had it’s first flat tire after I had cut through Marymoor Park on my way home. A sharp rock had gone straight through my back tire and punched my tube, just before I was going tackle the hardest hill on my ride. My saddle bag contains everything I need to replace a tube—except a pump. Fortunately, a bus stop was located right at the hill’s bottom and a passing Training Coach stopped and took me up the hill, where I was a mere stone’s throw from a gas station. From my various rides I’ve gotten quite good at replacing bike tubes, so fifteen minutes later I was cruising again, my rear tire inflated to a sub-optimal but adequate 60 psi (gas station pumps are weak!). And I had avoided the big bad hill!
The rest of the weekend was pretty much life as usual. My Saturdays will probably be freeing up on a regular basis in the next month or so and I think I’m going to start doing Habitat for Humanity work again. I haven’t been fulfilling the “slingin’ hammers” part of my About Me.