the grimace was from the glare, not the pain of saying good-bye

As I mentioned in the previous post, my hopes last weekend were that I would be able to sell my motorcycle after the buyer had it checked out at the local shop. The mechanic said it was a great bike, but that the front seals would need to be replaced soon, and so I was only able to sell it for the minimum I’d set for myself, $3000. All told, I probably lost a couple/few grand on the whole experience, but it’s finally off my hands, so it’s time to move on. One nice bit about the sale is that the buyer instructs skydiving and also works at a place with a windtunnel skydiving simulator, and he said if I come early on a weekend morning I might be able to try it out free. So I’ve got that goin’ for me.

I’m not sure why I planned it out this way, but as soon as I got rid of my secondary vehicle, I dropped my only remaining vehicle off at the shop for repairs. The up side was that I brought my bicycle along to get myself to work after dropping the car off, and realized that I’d forgotten how pleasant it can be to ride the bike to work. Sure, I get a little sweaty, but I end up feeling somewhat energized, too. Unfortunately, it took all week to finish the $2k repairs on the car. I had engagements in Bakersfield on Tuesday and Malibu on Wednesday, so I had to rent a car for two days, which left me feeling like an asshole for declining rental car coverage on my insurance policy. I will be rectifying that situation very soon. I picked up my repaired vehicle Friday afternoon, and it looks good as new. Still, I don’t think I’ll be able to shake the sense that the car, which was brand new just one year ago, is now “damaged goods.” Oh well. This morning I rode my bike to work again, not because I had to, but because it feels nice. Maybe I do still have two vehicles.And now here’s a picture of the cat who lives in my apartment, just for fun:

I see right through you

I am moving along very gradually in my efforts to take care of the damage that was done to my car three weeks ago. Today I finally called the LAPD to file a report, and then went online to file a claim with my insurance company. It turns out that my deductible is in fact $1000, as I feared, so I could end up paying for all of the damage out-of-pocket. Lame.

I am also finally about to sell my motorcycle. A guy came and looked at it last weekend, and seemed to like it. He’s paying to have a mechanic give it a good once-over tomorrow to ensure that it’s free of problems, and as long as everything’s in order he’ll stop by Sunday evening to buy it. I’ll be sad to see her go

So in the final week of May, I heard the term June Gloom used on a number of occasions, and had no idea what it meant or why people were using it at the end of May. Thanks to the Internets, I now have an understanding of this California-based term. I guess this time last year my brain was still coming out of its fog, and two years ago I was too new to California to notice any mention of this phenomenon. Third year’s a charm, I suppose.

Anyway, while it is indeed overcast today, the first of June, I myself have not succumbed to the gloom. I woke up early, went for a bicycle ride, and did some shikantaza. My goal is to make this a regular morning routine – wish me luck!

In honor of my breakfast videos of 2008, I made this little thing showing me enjoying some tasty scrambled eggs and brown rice – breakfast of champions. The lighting is bad, but my usual video crew wasn’t available for filming so I had to wing it.

As I was going about the process of making a new breakfast video, I happened to take a look at the videos from last year. The first breakfast video (“Good Morning JavaJunkees“) still gave me a chuckle, but the second one (“The Truth about Breakfast“—which I’ve taken off my publicly-available youtube channel) disturbed me deeply. I hadn’t seen it since I made it. Hearing stories about how strangely I was acting is one thing, but seeing that behavior for myself was a truly terrifying and humbling experience.

I’m debating whether or not I should write back…

but you can now view your credit report free! This is the website to go to in order to view your credit report. find out the source of the negative marks on your report, contact them, and offer them 60% of what you owe to settle. if you don’t have 60% to part with (or 70%, if that’s as low as they’ll come), then work out a payment plan with them. your credit report should reflect when you’ve gone into a repayment plan, hopefully one that won’t take too long to finish. and once you’ve cleaned it all up: fill out those credit card applications like crazy! wow! everything is FREE again!!

also, I worry that one of my new year’s resolutions might have had a negative impact on everyone’s fave fast food joint. . . the title of the article is “Who’s responsible?”, and I couldn’t help but think it was me. then I read the article and realized that it had been published last october. thank god. I wouldn’t be able to bear it if I thought that I single-handedly bludgeoned the giant, simply by deciding to no longer eat three double cheeseburgers (plain) four times a week. and yes, it would’ve been single-handedly, because I always drove with the other hand. but I digress.

also, had a nice talk this morning that reminded me of the possibility of travelling to russia to teach english once I finish my bachelor’s degree. I’m looking around online for info about that.

UPDATE: I looked around online, and for some reason it appears that all of the programs you can sign up for are programs where one *pays* to go teach. what’s up with that? can’t I go teach and get paid?!? (END UPDATE)

it’s early to tell what I’ll actually end up doing–I’ve also considered the idea of grabbing a teacher’s certificate when I finish the bachelor’s to do some 8-4 M-F stuff for a while, or perhaps just continue working in a cafe—possibly managing one—and working on my writing. who knows. I’d like to get the sort of job where I could return to some sort of normal sleeping schedule. I mean…my sleep schedule right now is “regular” in that I nap EVERYday and consistently stay up too late (never with any good reason), but I think I might enjoy going to bed at a decent hour every day and getting up at a reasonable hour, as well. no rush.

I went to GIRCNA this weekend. it was sort of anticlimactic….I suppose the most significant part was being of service to the planning committee and seeing just how cheap and irresponsible people can be. it’s disgusting, and my faith in humanity wavers at the sight of it.

anyway…we’re wrapping up the semester. I’m just shooting for passing latin, and I think that everything else should fall into place. we’ll see.