is the slowest sine the early 90s. so.
Planes awesome. Taxis/buses bad (flat tire and missing the entrance to Aviarios and going all the way into Cahuita).
My day: work starts at 6AM, mucking out the 70 some cages in the back and feeding breakfast-green beans and watercress (vainica y berros). Then breakfast, then taking the babies (15 or so in all) out for exercise and to use the bathroom (the base of a tree). Then playing with Amanda, the one legged kinkachoo, and Fivela, the woolly opossum, or else giving tours to tourists, until 11:30, at which point it's time to chop veggies (carrots, sweet potato, and mango) for the cages, then lunch, then more tours/taking the babies out for afternoon potty if they need it, until 2, when its feeding time for the adults. Feed them all, and then we're pretty much done. Bedtime tends to be around 10, just after Futurama and The Simpsons. Nights out in Cahuita as well (hooray for drunkeness in Spanish), and odd jobs. I've agreed to paint new signs for the sanctuary, as the old one is a bit shite. Also working on a kids book and writing a lot in general, as well as reading somewhat less than I'd like.
There's more, but the half hour is up at the internet cafe. Anyways, you've got an idea. We'll see if the internet is any faster anywhere, at any point, ever.
Love
Brian
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Shadows
Really should be in bed.
Summer is wrapping up for me--sort of--as I prepare for Costa Rica. Which, with some small luck involving airlines and latinamerican busses, I will get to this Thursday.
The first summer after college I guess is bound to be different. I guess my single greatest realization is this: people are people. That means that your special, unique and irreplaceable friends are...well...not so much. There are friends everywhere. And the question becomes wether to try to deepen friendships through time and effort or to make as many friends along the roadside as possible. I realize that this summer has been partly unfulfilling because I have not met new people or made new friends. A lot of my friendships have deepened and strengthened, and I have realized the value of some of the them, particularly my friendship with Robbie. I know I've always used him as somewhat of a yardstick to see how we both had grown and in which directions, but this summer I've felt very close to him--that our shared journey has been infinitely more important than where we've gone, and that however different we are or become, that path has shaped us both.
That's kind of the end of cheesy sentimentality, though. Other friendships have deepened, all changed, and many...sloughed off, fallen away. Through lack of effort, lack of interest, lack of time. Whatever. Their death hurts deeply, but in the end I know that people are people. That there will always be more friends, as long as there are humans in the general vicinity there will be more friends. Which I guess is one of the reasons I'm not scared of Costa Rica. Or or leaving, so much.
What I'd do differently next summer:
Purpose. Not a job, necessarily, but something. Something to do, something to meet new people, something to get out and have a reason and something to take a break from and to have commitments to. I've not been bored, but I've been listless. I've not done things not because of laziness but from sheer inertia. And when I noticed I had maybe a month left and couldn't think of a way to start something. What? Anything? Maybe.
And I'm left with that terrible 2 days left feeling. Where I kind of want to get on the plane right now and kind of want to write everyone I know a long long letter. Where inertia bleeds into urgency. Or something.
There's a cat purring in my bed and it's late and I've been sick and I've got to get up tomorrow. So goodnight. What do you think of the "heartfelt diaries for the readership of the internet at large"-type post from me?
Summer is wrapping up for me--sort of--as I prepare for Costa Rica. Which, with some small luck involving airlines and latinamerican busses, I will get to this Thursday.
The first summer after college I guess is bound to be different. I guess my single greatest realization is this: people are people. That means that your special, unique and irreplaceable friends are...well...not so much. There are friends everywhere. And the question becomes wether to try to deepen friendships through time and effort or to make as many friends along the roadside as possible. I realize that this summer has been partly unfulfilling because I have not met new people or made new friends. A lot of my friendships have deepened and strengthened, and I have realized the value of some of the them, particularly my friendship with Robbie. I know I've always used him as somewhat of a yardstick to see how we both had grown and in which directions, but this summer I've felt very close to him--that our shared journey has been infinitely more important than where we've gone, and that however different we are or become, that path has shaped us both.
That's kind of the end of cheesy sentimentality, though. Other friendships have deepened, all changed, and many...sloughed off, fallen away. Through lack of effort, lack of interest, lack of time. Whatever. Their death hurts deeply, but in the end I know that people are people. That there will always be more friends, as long as there are humans in the general vicinity there will be more friends. Which I guess is one of the reasons I'm not scared of Costa Rica. Or or leaving, so much.
What I'd do differently next summer:
Purpose. Not a job, necessarily, but something. Something to do, something to meet new people, something to get out and have a reason and something to take a break from and to have commitments to. I've not been bored, but I've been listless. I've not done things not because of laziness but from sheer inertia. And when I noticed I had maybe a month left and couldn't think of a way to start something. What? Anything? Maybe.
And I'm left with that terrible 2 days left feeling. Where I kind of want to get on the plane right now and kind of want to write everyone I know a long long letter. Where inertia bleeds into urgency. Or something.
There's a cat purring in my bed and it's late and I've been sick and I've got to get up tomorrow. So goodnight. What do you think of the "heartfelt diaries for the readership of the internet at large"-type post from me?
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
A (now monthly) blog post and the close of Summer Part 1
In 9 days (July 17th), I head off for Costa Rica to volunteer with the sloths at Aviarios. Of course, my carbon footprint getting there will cancel out whatever good work I could hope to achieve, but ah well. At least it will be pretty, and hopefully educational.
This last week has been a hectic one, after over a month of very quiet summer. Last weekend I went camping with Shawn and a couple friends about halfway to San Fransisco (right beneath the fires), then took off to Colorado for the week to visit a bunch of friends who drove there and were staying with Jessica's aunt, who lives there. Went on a couple cool walks and saw a rodeo, which was a cultural experience and a half. Then came back for the 4th and headed out the next day to camp with Robbie in the mountains right above LA. All this has made me somewhat feel that I've done something this summer.
However, I'm reading a book called "Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America" which is making me feel a lot better about the summer. Fuck you, Post-Industrial Puritan Work Ethic! It's got me thinking about people who avoid working (like at a Starbucks, not at anything in life), and the ways to live without a shite 9-5 minimum wage job--without being a wage slave. More so how it can be done well, or differently, rather than how I've heard of or seen it done: Keroac bumming around and surviving on apple pie, the couchsurfer I hosted last year living on people's couches and being a "freegan" (a person who takes food that the grocery store puts out back as it reaches its sell-by date) until he learned it was illegal in the UK. What other ways are there to do this? Something like my Costa Rica trip seems something of an answer, though of course that comes with a fee. But there are networks like WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms) where you can stay at a farm and get room and board for a day's work. Sure, it's still work, but its not $8/£4.45 per bored hour of the same day to day tasks. I was at a bonfire last night for Shawn going back to Jordan (where he's working for the semester) and hearing everyone sit and talk about their jobs was the most depressingly adult thing I think I've ever experienced.
I feel like there are, again, infinitely many things I want to do before I leave again. It makes me wish I had to leave sooner, almost, because in 9 days I can get a lot done...the question is, what to choose to do?
In Costa Rica I'll only have access to the internet in internet cafes, so posts will be...probably more frequent, if anything! When you're on a schedule, you tend to get shit done that needs done rather than watching that YouTube video another 7 times...
This last week has been a hectic one, after over a month of very quiet summer. Last weekend I went camping with Shawn and a couple friends about halfway to San Fransisco (right beneath the fires), then took off to Colorado for the week to visit a bunch of friends who drove there and were staying with Jessica's aunt, who lives there. Went on a couple cool walks and saw a rodeo, which was a cultural experience and a half. Then came back for the 4th and headed out the next day to camp with Robbie in the mountains right above LA. All this has made me somewhat feel that I've done something this summer.
However, I'm reading a book called "Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America" which is making me feel a lot better about the summer. Fuck you, Post-Industrial Puritan Work Ethic! It's got me thinking about people who avoid working (like at a Starbucks, not at anything in life), and the ways to live without a shite 9-5 minimum wage job--without being a wage slave. More so how it can be done well, or differently, rather than how I've heard of or seen it done: Keroac bumming around and surviving on apple pie, the couchsurfer I hosted last year living on people's couches and being a "freegan" (a person who takes food that the grocery store puts out back as it reaches its sell-by date) until he learned it was illegal in the UK. What other ways are there to do this? Something like my Costa Rica trip seems something of an answer, though of course that comes with a fee. But there are networks like WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms) where you can stay at a farm and get room and board for a day's work. Sure, it's still work, but its not $8/£4.45 per bored hour of the same day to day tasks. I was at a bonfire last night for Shawn going back to Jordan (where he's working for the semester) and hearing everyone sit and talk about their jobs was the most depressingly adult thing I think I've ever experienced.
I feel like there are, again, infinitely many things I want to do before I leave again. It makes me wish I had to leave sooner, almost, because in 9 days I can get a lot done...the question is, what to choose to do?
In Costa Rica I'll only have access to the internet in internet cafes, so posts will be...probably more frequent, if anything! When you're on a schedule, you tend to get shit done that needs done rather than watching that YouTube video another 7 times...
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