New Life

So many things plant themselves on the horizon of our journeys through life. We find ourselves contently travelling, blissfully unaware of the new, scary, and exciting prospects hidden in plain view just around the corner. Then, in the blink of an eye, life takes away the canyon wall or lifts the fog or let's us crest the hill, unveiling the new adventures and letting us determine the best way to undertake them.

In the past two months, I've been friends with people who have had a total of four babies, lost a grandmother, lost a job, quit a job, lost a friend, and all the while, I've been blessed with those same friends in my life, enriching me and standing by me as the demons and hardships of the past rise up to greet the opportunities of the future.

I've heard a quote that, at some point, life stops giving us things and starts taking them away. Yet, as recent events unfold and continue to do so, I think it's more accurate to say that life continually gives and takes.

Malcolm, one of the four babies, represents to me that give and take. On the one side, he's a symbol for youthful and innocent hope and aspiration, the determination to fight and live and pursue all of the good things in life. On the other hand, he triggers memories of the things I've lost in life, the dreams that I had lumped into parts of my life that suddenly and inexpicably vanished and left me with no choice but to honor that there is a bigger world than any of us can fathom.

Every day we're given opportunities for a new life. We must choose to make the best of these opportunities, for the window of change can close well before we know it was open, and all we're left with is a view of what could have been.

Clouds and Medicine

I'm at Rose Medical Center, what's becomming my home away from home and work. My friend Lyss's baby Malcolm is here still, and will be for weeks as they maintain his prematurity until he's big enough and strong enough to be like other babies. It's a funny thing, the life of a tiny infant. I wish I was so lucky in lots of ways: sleep and eat and get someone to clean me up daily... on second thought, that's no life.

Day One at work without Bob. It was interesting. Already, a co-worker remembers getting stoned with the new Production Manager, a guy who has "37 years in set-letter printing" yet managed to ask me what we used vehicle laminate for. (Vehicles.) Apparently the owner of the commpany knows this guy from a bar they both frequent.

I need an adventure. The fact that I look to these miniature outings, like going to the hospital, the grocery store, the video store, the movies, etc., it definitely aids the idea that I don't get out enough.  Oh well. Time to see the little guy. I suppose this is one of the greatest adventures anyone could be a part of, that of a new life. In the past two months, I've been luck enough to see four new babies. Plus, yesterday I found out my friend Kim in Oregon had hers, too.  Apparently, there was a lot of fertile people in 2009.

Rapids on The Great River

Yesterday, I found out that my boss, mentor, and friend Bob was "let go" from our job. While I'm convinced that he will fight and come out on top, I'm disgusted and shocked at the circumstances behind his departure. The owners of the company had gone behind his back, interviewed and hired a replacement, and didn't tell him until yesterday, the day after we had stayed late at work to get a big job done for a potential big stream of steady work. They lied, they used, and they asserted their "power" based on a disagreement where they were actually proved to be in the wrong.

In the meantime, I got up this morning with ideas of climbing in my head, but the lack of partners led me to start fishing for applications in other career paths. It also led me to make a journey to the hospital to see Lyss's baby boy Malcolm Reynold. He's growing immensely, passing the three pound mark. He's starting to make little noises, smiles, and sad faces. I'm thankful for the opportunities I get to see him, as they're more than just innocent: they help me to remember the time I had with my own son, Tiberius, who was born and spent the first part of his own life under very similar experiences.

The Great River of Life is an interesting place. It starts off as a tiny mountain stream and ends in the Great Ocean of Heaven. Our own rivers are unique to us alone. Some are long and some are short. Some are tranquil and some are treacherous. Some are designed to feed crops and others are designed to carve immense natural cathedrals through the wilderness. The more I have these huge experiences in my life, the more I realize that I need to accept whatever direction my own river is pointing me. Swimming against the current is pointless and will kill me far too early. I'm learning to embrace change, to see awkward situations as opportunities to grow. I'm riding this river to it's conclusion, and, with any luck, I'll make it to the sea.

Indiana Jones

Tonight I watched the last two Indiana Jones movies. The first of the two, The Last Crusade, really impacted me as a kid. I remember having my parents buy me little notebooks that I could pretend were my own "grail diaries". I'd wear khaki pants and hiking books. My house had bricks outside the side door, and I would walk, carefully, from brick to brick, imagining that I was spelling the word "Jehovah" (even though we all know that, in Latin, "Jehovah" is spelled with an "I"). I would have loved to have travelled the world in search of ancient artifacts and adventure. However, I think I missed my calling.

I love writing. I love finding moving stories and having inspirational experiences and sharing them with people.  When I'm not writing about movies and burgers, I seem to create things that impress even myself.

Maybe I missed my calling in that I'm supposed to be a starving artist of sorts, going from place to place, looking for work and adventure and things to write about. Maybe I'm even supposed to get a job writing. I watched a movie the other night (I forget which movie), and one of the characters made a reference to the River of Destiny. The reference was that we're supposed to embrace what we are destined to be, or else we find ourselves swimming against the current, wasting all of our energy on fruitless endeavors.

With all of the upheaval at work on Friday afternoon and the cloud that will be hanging over things tomorrow, maybe it's my sign that I have been fighting the current long enough. Maybe it's time to go and actually do the things I've wanted to do, to live in a BattleWagon and actually travel to new and exciting places.  I can't resist the current.

Burgers and Comedy

Last night I outdid myself with some awesome burgers and a great flick...

My burgers (tentatively titled the WannaSnort, after the awesome burgers I had last weekend):

1 pound 85% lean ground beef (if you can find fattier meat, you're better off)

1 tsp. Louisiana Hot Sauce

1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

olive oil and a brush

2 over-sized hamburger buns

cream cheese of indeterminate amount

ditto with diced jalapenos (a jar of them works just fine - green chilis would work well, too)

Mix everything together except the olive oil, the buns, the cream cheese, and the diced jalapenos. Season a skillet with your olive oil if you're frying them. If not, chill... we'll come back to it in a second. Mix it the meat with a fork instead of your hands. That way your selfish hands don't steal all the burger grease. Make two patties. That's right... two. Two being the number of patties, having passed the number one, and proceeding directly to two. Three is right out. Once you have two patties, two being the correct number of burger patties to be made, pour a little of that olive oil in a bowl or just drizzle it on both sides of the patties. Use that brush of yours to even it out, to give them a good coating of goodness. Then, set your cooking device to a medium heat setting and cook your burgers up. The olive oil gives the meat a nice crispy outside yet keeps the inside all sorts of juicy and delicious.

When you serve them up, it's best to have some over-sized, hearty buns of some sort, like Kaiser rolls or big sandwich hoagie buns or something like that. When the burgers are almost done cooking, bust out a hearty amount of plain cream cheese and throw a layer on the bottom bun, let's say almost 1/4" thick. That gives the meat a nice place to live for a few minutes. Move the meat into position on the cheese, and grab those bits of jalapeno and put a layer of these on top of your burger. Then put the top of the bun on your monster and proceed to make it disappear.

I managed to pair this burger with some barbeque Lays chips and the movie "Men Who Stare At Goats", which was dry, but hilarious as a result. Burgers and gluttony seem to go well with a movie which makes you laugh so hard, you seem to forget about the heart attack you're going to have 10 years too early. The premise of this movie was the hidden and secret formation of a "psychic spy" unit of the United States Army, including a man with the power to stare at a goat until it's heart stopped. As horrific as this sounds, it was actually very funny and well done. George Clooney and Jeff Bridges stole the show, and Kevin Spacey, as oddly evil and intimidating as he could be, made me laugh more than once. The high parts for me were Ewan MacGregor, Obi-Wan Kenobi in the new Star Wars movies, asking very honestly and innocently Clooney what a Jedi was... classic!

Red Cliff and T-Bones

I had the privilege of watching the 5-hour, two-part, battle epic movie "Red Cliff" on Friday night... and into Saturday morning. This movie, like "300" and "Braveheart" before it, was a exaggerated historical account of the Battle of Red Cliffs (or the Battle of Chibi), which, to quote Wikipedia "was a decisive battle at the end of the Han Dynasty, immediately prior to the period of the Three Kingdoms in China."

John Woo does a fantastic job directing this film, which I watched after cooking up and devouring a t-bone steak I had marinated all night before. I served it up with some sautéed mushrooms, garlic, and bell peppers... but I'm digressing.

The acting is superb. I don't know any of the names, but I recognized the face of the actor that played in one of my favorite movies brought to the U.S. by Quentin Tarantino, "Hero", starring Jet Li. Yes, this movie is somewhat fantasy, playing into the larger-than-life personae of the hero Generals, Viceroys, Dukes, and featuring your standard evil bad guy, the one that unites all of the good and virtuous against him.

What sets this flick apart is that, while it's 5 hours long if both parts are viewed back-to-back, it doesn't feel like it. It moves along, and the anticipation built to showcase the final battle is not betrayed by the scope and scale of the battle itself.

This was a fantastic find, and I'm glad I could see it in it's entirety. The theatrical release was only 3 1/2 hours long.

The Lackluster Blizzard of 2010

Yesterday, it snowed all day, and I was optimistic that this weekend was going to be a snowy heaven, where everyone's cars are stuck, the roads are slick, and meetings and appointments are cancelled. No such luck. Today, I woke up to the sun shining brightly, the temperature already in the 20s, and the roads moist, but drying. Oh, well. Time to move to the east coast, perhaps?

Today I have my first official meeting as an Entered Apprentice in Freemasonry's Le Droit Humain. I'm excited, as I was initiated in December with high hopes of success. The comradery, respect, and friendship that the Masons have for each other is something I could really use in my personal life right now, with work being the way it is, my good friend Lyss having a baby over two months early, my relationship with my sister all but gone, and my parents, as a result, out of touch.

Ah, but life is good, all things considered, and I feel I have a chance to earn back some of the karma points I've lost in previous years. October is right around the corner, and the new BattleWagon, while definitely not a snow-worthy stallion, is spacious and worthy of a life with me in residence. The world is a big place, and I have things to see and do before my time expires. I realize it's much too early for me to ponder these things, but I've found in my travels a respect for the small amount of time we all are given to enjoy this blue marble for what it is. There are friends to be made, sights to be seen, dreams and aspirations that have to be realized. While we all have faith in different things, we each have a religion built inside us, where we are Gods and controllers of our own destiny. To waste or squander this gift would seem like a shame.