I wrote this poem while doing 85mph down the highway in Arizona.

Soutwestern Fabric

Tuft of green wool
  on an earthly sheep
and beyond,
  layers of faded indigo
       velvet
scattered in the pelt are
  the revenous fleas.

Fleas who grow and prosper
  until sheep grows weary
 of being bitten, cut,
  ravaged.

Sheep snorts hot and fiery
  breath, fleas burn,
 fleas are suffocated in the
  thick, intolerable dusty winds

And yet still, fleas is the ruler
of sheep, all until both look up
          Heavenly tapestry above

 Brings down yellows and blues
Gold and sugary globs
 candy for sheep
  life for flea

And all is content
       wool and velvet
  candy and life
 sheep and flea
  beautiful balance

Well today was my birthday. I had a pretty uneventful but enjoyable day. Splurged on some food at the boardwalk and played some neat games in the Arcade. Laid out on the beach for a few hours, read a bit more of a book I just bought and rode my bike around town.

I love to see the few people who actually acknowledge my birthday every year. I don’t ever tell people as a matter of course when I was born, nor do I expect or really want anyone to congratulate me. But it’s nice to know the people who go out of their way to know and to say something to me about it

The one downside to today has been that the one person I really wanted to hear from I haven’t heard from, but oh well life goes on.

Ok so yesterday I went out to go get supplies and various things I needed. This process was made much harder by several facts:

There is no Walmart, Kmart or Target.

There aren’t any big shopping centers.

There aren’t any super markets (Grocery Stores yes, but nothing even close to the size of a Harris Teeter or Winn Dixie)

Which pissed me off for about 10 minutes until I realized that somehow by either fortune or careful planning, this city has yet to be overrun by the consumer whoredom that has consumed the east coast.

I did find a small mall and a Sears where I was able to get most of what I needed. Then I went to a “Sporting Goods Store” which was maybe 1/10th the size of REI or Dick’s, and got some shoes and new swimming goggles.

Holy crap, yet another awesome city. The parks system in Santa Barbara is just absolutely incredible. The entire city is absolutely beautiful and spotless clean. They have awesome facilities, bike paths, running paths, pools, courts, etc. There is an overabundance of civic activities always going on, from yoga to volleyball to tennis lessons.

The downtown area is the perfect size to not need a car at all, biking is faster and you can get everywhere much more easily. Though there is still ample parking for cars and easy access back to the US 101 Freeway.

SB City College is just phenomenal as well, hopefully I can get up some pictures of the area sometime soon.

Dallas Texas was awesome. It is hands down the best place to be as a single mid twenties male in the US. Hotties are a dime a dozen, plus they are educated and have good jobs. If you are single and looking move to Dallas. /commercial

Ok seriously though Dallas was fun times and I definitely want to go back.

The rest of texas however sucked. 600 miles of nothing isnt very much fun, and the entire state is a damn speed trap. They WILL pull you for 3-4mph over.

I stopped in Tyler texas. Pictures will be up soon

I am sitting here in Taco Bell at about 10:30 mountain time.

I have made the decision to try and go all the way through to California tonight. Only time will tell if this is going to be a stupid one or not. It’s another 8 hours from here, so if I can make it, that will be 22 hours of continuous driving. So far today I have driven about 1100 miles in 14 hours. So I think I can make it to Santa Barbara in 6-7 instead of mapquest’s estimated 8. I decided that I will stop here in Flagstaff on the way back to see the Grand Canyon.

I have to say that Western New Mexico and Eastern Arizona have to be the most beautiful places for highway travel I have yet to lay eyes on. The time just floated by from seeing one beautiful scene to the next. I took a few pictures, but on the return trip I will be sure to really stop and take some better more composed shots.

Amazingly the only rain I have encountered on the entire trip was a light sprinkle in east Arizona for about ten minutes. I didn’t think it ever rained out here!

Well tonight I stopped in Jackson, Mississippi to stay with my grandmother. 12 hours from Raleigh, only about 35 hours to go. Tomorrow I will be driving to Dallas where I am staying with my cousin and we are going to go out and hit the town. Then I am praying to make it in one day from Dallas to San Diego (probably not going to happen).

Tonight I did my hour run, and broke the 8min barrier! I ran a 7:55 mile for the hour, averaging out over 7.5 mph. Hot dog! And after a 12 hour drive and 4 hours of sleep last night, I am even more proud of it.

Well cheers all from the deep south, more updates to come.

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July! I know I certainly had a gluttoness good time. Tomorrow I have about 20 bills to go pay, then I am determined to clean the house. This will probably end up being a multi-day Trading Spaces-esque job, but I have got to do something constructive!

Time permitting I am also going to be looking at either renting or buying a plasma cutter and a mig welder. I also need a good high speed electric random orbital sander if anyone has a few extra laying around. I am at an impass with my car so more tools must be brought in to deal swift justice to it.

I honestly don’t know if, when or where I will be going this summer. All I know is that I definitely need to get out of Raleigh for an emotional and psychological respite. Hopefully after a few days of relaxation I can get the fingers of my brain wrapped back around the various projects and duties I have to get finished around here.

So my first week of training has been going well so far.

I have been keeping pace with my regiment, and have yet to injure myself or be unable to complete anything. This is pretty encouraging for me. I will post my completed regimen for the week once it’s all done

Man, I haven’t done a real post to my journal in a month! Rather than doing one giant boring one, I will split up the latest happenings over the next couple of days.

Tonight’s will be a short one.

I finally got around to ordering new contacts. I decided to pay the extra 15% and get colored ones. I might say the actualy contacts look weird as hell, not at all how I would have imagined color contacts to look. They also don’t seem to fit quite as flawlessly as the traditional contact lenses I have used in the past. BUT, I do like them! Even though they are supposed to be deep blue, mixing with my brown eyes ends up with a gray/blue look. I like it

Since I already have gotten started on my personal appearance, might as well continue the trend. I have decided to let my hair grow wild for a while. I am going to make a concerted effort to not get a hair cut until Christmas. No trims, nothing. I will keep shaving though of course! I’ve always wanted to have a mop top, so I guess we will see how this goes.

Eyes and hair, check. Next up are the fingernails. Everyone that has known me for a long period of time knows how badly I used to treat my nails. Now I am very proud to say that my cuticles are finally completely normal and healthy. 6 of my nails are doing well, 3 more will be grown in properly by the end of the week and the last one, well I am going to have to quit messing with it!

Last on the list is the general body. This weekend I am going to start the long, grueling process of preparing to run a marathon, building up to hopefully completely a full IronMan triathlon. These are two goals I desperately want to complete in life. In addition I want to get my body and mind into peak condition. I have to give a lot of thanks to Abe Lui who has very graciously helped me by building a training program for me. Without him and his continued support and assistance I know I wouldn’t have ever gotten off the ground. I really hope to be able to compete in and finish a Marathon by Fall 2005, and to compete in a half IronMan by Spring of 06. But I am realistic about my progress, so I am going to just stick to the program and see how well I can develop myself.