As we all know a tsunami has hit southeast Asia, eastern Africa, the west coast of India, Sri Lanka, and many other countries. Some friends of mine and I have donated money to different causes (doctorswithoutborders.com and the International Red Cross). This has spurned debate about donating/giving and when, why, how, how much, personal circumstances. What's great about my group of friends is that we all have a different answer, but we listen to one another. Two of us donated not small sums, a few others gave what they could. The amount doesn't matter, but our conversations surrounding this is interesting. There is concern about social security, supporting closer to home (family/friends), the timing (are we giving now when there is a "sudden" disaster, what about the rest of the time when there is "just" malnutrition?), and the seeming general american apathy towards the global situation.
Having spent four months in a very third world country this year, I know that on a day to day basis we frivously spend money. I went to lunch today and it cost me $8. For $8 I could eat for at least a week in Nepal. And yet I thought nothing of the money that I had just spent. Surprising how quickly you get back into the old way of doing things. I wear my sandals from on a daily basis, not just because they are comfortable, but as a reminder of where I was, what I saw and experienced. I plan on wearing them until a Nepali person would throw them away.

WTF? Sometimes it seems to me that I make my life harder than it should be just to see if I can pull it off. I apply to DVC in person. Fill out the form, hand it in. They say "Log on to register for classes on the 13th or the 14th." I do that today. I can't register. I call. "Oh, you should be able to register either after midnight tonight or after midnight on the 14th." Okay. SO I get back online a few minutes ago and try to register, sure I know it's not after 12, but what the hell. Still says I can't register. I decided to poke around and find out if it says anywhere when I will be permitted to. I find this mythical place. And I also find that they must not have inputed my application becuase it does not say when or that I am registered. Yea. This all so wonderful because tomorrow I am going to San Diego for a day of store tours and will not have an opportunity to resolve the problem until f'ing Wednesday morning. WTF?
Ahh vented. In other exciting news I'm discovering that people in generally arn't good communicators. They just plain don't return calls. Sometimes I think that if I stopped calling people that my phone would never ring. Perhaps I will try this. I love talking to people, in fact I think that I talk more than my sister. I'll call people just to say hello. I try to keep a revolving list of people that I haven't spoken to recently in my head and call at least one every two or three days. Funny thing, they don't usually call back. I called one person five times over the course of two weeks. Not one returned call. WTF? I thought this person was my friend, are they? Apparently they don't have the time or the inkiling to pick the phone and say "Hey, I'm really busy, but I'll call when I can." That would be nice. Some sense of decency. Ahhh.
I feel the weight lifting off my shoulders. I love the blogging thing. It's a great place to be able to put up what you dream about without worrying about it coming back to you. Like your own personal chalkboard or brainstorm. More of a brainstorm, fleshing out ideas, a free flow of information spewed forth onto the world, my own little corner of humanity. Lovely.
AJ, Jono and I had a great visit last week. We went to a basketball game, the warriors actually won. When we left the arena we couldn't find my car. As I wandered about the parking lot looking for it, I realized that I wasn't that upset at the idea of my car having been stolen. Sure, it would have sucked, but I kept thinking "Oh well. Glad there wasn't anything of value in there except my soccer shoes." Hehe, turns out that I had parked it on the other side of the stadum. DOH. The two of them were obsessed with finding cars with spinner rims. Man, it was so funny driving around looking at the rims on cars with them. On Tuesday we hit SF, then at 10:30 at night we left for Tahoe. We cruised through Auburn around 12:30. Then about 30miles east of Auburn, 80 was closed. Whoops. We sat there until 2:15, and arrived at Barb's place about 4:30. She was just getting up, so she made french toast. Yummy. We hit Sheep Flats, T's, the lake and Jono went for a swim. That evening we had Zachary's for dinner, and the next morning they were back to the airport for yet another flight. AJ said to me "In most cases I would say 'You don't know how much we appreciate the home cooked meals and the real bed', but in your case, you were just on the road, so you do know what this means to us. " I did, and was more than happy to play host to the two of them.
That's all for now folks.