alcoholism

i realized awhile ago that i have a drinking problem. so i'm smack dab in the middle of a drinking hiatus. what bothers me is that i know now i was drinking out of sheer boredom. the state of being drunk made boring people interesting, easier to connect with somehow. inebriation made those awkward parties turn into fun times. all of the people i would normally avoid talking to became close buddies, if not only for the time being. so now here i am, sober as hell on a friday night and i find myself in bed alone after just finishing when harry met sally.

here's my predicament: do i stay home and stay sober, although it's boring as hell, or do i go out and fool my brain into thinking that i'm having a good time? is it my own character flaw that most people are uninteresting enough that i only enjoy being around them when i've had a few drinks?

i do admit, staying away from alcohol these past few weeks has led to feeling great in the morning. i still have money left over to pay my bills and feed myself. i also haven't made a foolish ass of myself recently.

but god damn it! i would really love to drink an entire bottle of red wine.

short layover

time sure flies when you're bored as fuck. traveling makes it way too noticeable how ridiculously ignorant people are, at least in my experience. i wonder if other people think that when they encounter me. maybe it's completely situational. or maybe most people i meet are dumb. hmmm.

mt shasta, ca is a beautiful sight in the summer. normally covered in snow, i caught her scantily clad frame today. that saucy minx.

I had to show one of my good friends the primitive and beautiful Fern Canyon, Ca. It's amazing how many tourists were there. Lots of overweight folks who couldn't "make the hike" which is completely flat and under a mile. Anyway, what they missed out on, I thoroughly enjoyed.

Along the coast near Fern Canyon is my favorite beach by far. Perhaps because I ingested some mushrooms there, perhaps not. I'll never know.

There was a man in this photo but I smudged him out. I don't know if it looked better with the mysterious dude or not but this is the one that's here to stay.

summer adventures

my friend and i went on a little expedition the other day around arcata and here's what we found. the picture of the feet was cool because there was a huge boat halfway through construction and we just found it sitting there upside down. the other pictures are all of an old saw mill in town that was quite photogenic. anyway, i'm hoping there will be more to come in the "Arcata: Explored" exhibit.

additional ingredients for an epic summer

Sake Bombs softball

Tailgate parties

Batting cages

Trimming WEED

Smoking said weed

Letter-writing to the out-of-towners

Allergy medication in the form of a nasal spray...

6-packs of PBR tall cans (only $4.99 at the stinky pinky)

Gladiator sandals

Photographizing

River trips

Oyster Fest

and the livin's easy

so, summer is upon me, with it's great weight.

there hasn't been sun in about a week. i even went searching for it inland at the river, and got rained on.

my work schedule is set up so that i'm fucking broke half way through my three days off.

the worst is the block of dead time from 6-9p.m. where there is absolutely nothing to do and i sit around waiting for anything to happen. and i mean anything.

slosh ball? frisbee in the street? wine bottle chugging contest? racy movie? gang fight?

i'm even annoying myself with the incessant whining.

arcata kinetic sculpture race

Every year, a bunch of crazy folks all get together and create these awesome kinetic sculptures to race from Arcata to Eureka, which is about 8 miles away. Today, I walked around and snapped pictures of my favorites. I took the pictures with my phone so they aren't of the highest quality, but I won't apologize for that!

This dragon sculpture breathed real fire, and roared. It was impressive.

Sorry you missed it, but if you are in quaint Arcata, CA June 20, 2009, you can witness another Plaza Event and come to the Oyster Fest, where there are hundreds of different ways to eat oysters, and copious amounts of beer to be consumed.