Arenal on the Water

For our last full day in Arenal, we booked a canoe trip. We had a tough time deciding between a canoe trip or waterfall rapelling, but in the end we decided the canoe trip would be calmer, easier, and more peaceful. It was a half day trip down a Class II or III river. Given that we had never really been on any river with a real current, this was an entirely new experience. It was a fun trip. It was a little difficult because it was the first time my girlfriend and I had ever acted as a canoe team and I would have trouble understanding why she was doing what she was doing. Plus, sometimes, we would row the wrong way with our correcting strokes or whatever so the other one would be rowing so much harder not understanding why it wasn't working, but we learned a lot both about canoeing and about each other. For example, she learned that I could not always see the obstacles ahead of us that she could, as she was in front, and I learned to just trust more that she knew what she was doing and just offer her as much power as I could, and try to remember which way I was supposed to be rowing. Eventually, we seemed to get a lot better at it and even the guide said we were doing really good at one point.

(I would say that was probably the biggest part about this trip - learning about each other. With all of this hiking and canoeing and everything else, we seemed to learn so much about what and how the other person thought and how to communicate better. I had not expected my girlfriend and I to learn so much about one another on the trip but we did. The canoe trip was probably the pinnacle of all of this because of the way people experience it. It was seemingly the hardest and best part of the trip for me, but not in the way you would expect. I would say my favorite day in Arenal was the 13+ hour hiking day, but the day that probably made the most lasting impact in my relationship with my girlfriend was the day of the canoe trip.)

After we finished our trip, they made us lunch by the river. It was good and we got to talk to the three other people on the canoe tour with us, who were all really cool and around our age, probably a little younger. They were staying in-town and were leaving for Monteverde that day. We were able to recommend a couple different things they could try before they left and it ended up being really helpful to them.

That afternoon, we went to the Arenal Observatory Lodge, which is a hotel but also one of the best places to be able to see the volcano lava flows at night. It is really out of the way. So, if you intend to go into the city at all while staying in Arenal, I would not recommend staying there. However, if you are good with staying on-site the whole time you are there and just book lots of tours that include transportation, it is really a nice place to stay. We walked on some of their private paths, one of which led to a little waterfall, which was really nice, but the paths are not maintained as well. On our way back up we saw, you guessed it, more monkeys. (We saw monkeys pretty much every day that we were there. In fact, even when we go out hiking or kayaking now that we are home, we constantly think we are going to see monkeys in the trees.)

After the little hike, we made our ways back up towards the lodge, after another small hike through some gardens. Somehow, while waiting for the night to come, my girlfriend and I got separated. She had decided she wanted to go sit on another area of the deck and when I went to find her, I couldn't. So, after looking for her for a while I decided maybe she had gone back to where had been hiking before in the gardens. So, I went back but I couldn't find her. I did find a really awesome place for us to watch the volcano and it seemed no one else was there. I went back to try and find her and ran into her. She was so upset. She had no idea where I had been. I guess I had somehow just failed to see her back on the deck because she was sitting in a different area with some random people. Reunited, we went to the place I had found to watch the volcano and the clouds cleared a little so that we could see the top of the volcano and the lava. It was amazing. However, the best view came on the cab ride home when the clouds completely cleared and we could see lava just pouring down the side of the mountain. It was amazing.

Hiking Arenal

This was probably one of our most active days of the entire trip, with activities beginning at around 8AM and not finishing until 11 that night.

Once again, it began with a delicious, but early breakfast, which we finished in-time for our early morning pickup to get us to our 8AM hike through the rain forest. There were an abundance of hanging bridges there, as well. Again, our guide was really cool and our group was fairly small. There was a family of three women (a mother and her two college-aged daughters), two other girls (probably in college) and a third girl from Germany. The hike was kind of long and there were a lot of inclines and declines. Our guide took us the opposite direction that a lot of the other groups were going (its a circular route). This reduced the amount of other groups we had to deal with along the way and made the hike slightly easier. He had recently injured his foot playing soccer and wanted to take it a little easy.

After finishing here, we dropped off the two college girls but kept everyone else and went on our hike down to see the La Fortuna waterfall. It is about 500 steps down, on a pretty steep decline. Once you get there, though, you get to swim in the absolutely ice cold water, just beneath the waterfall. The German girl had absolutely no issues with it and jumped right in. My girlfriend and the mother of the other two girls made their way in pretty easily. Then one of the daughters went in, which left only the other daughter and me. It was during all of this that I learned that this (Colombian) family was from Miami. So, we all bonded, learned what they did for a living, where they worked, etc. The mother was a teacher and the two daughters were in college. One of them worked at a restaurant I know. Eventually, I got in but the last daughter was having a rough time. Finally, I convinced her to come in with the logic, how often are you going to get to do this. Bam, she was in.

Once we got out and managed to get our shoes on - fortunately, we had brought a couple extra towels and we shared them with the others so that they could dry off and get their feet back into their shoes. Then there was the difficult and strenuous hike back up the mountain. During all of this we also learned that the German girl worked for a company in Germany that was going to begin offering tours to Costa Rica for older/retired people. So, she was trying to try out all the activities to determine which ones were appropriate for that age group. We all seemed to feel this was not one of them.

We, eventually, made it to the top and then they dropped us off for lunch and we were told we would have a different tour guide for the second half of our trip. We were all sort of disappointed by this because our guide had so far been great, but whatever. Our lunch ended up being at the same restaurant we had gone to dinner at the night before. Again, it was absolutely fantastic and it included dessert, which was the awesome ice cream with hunks of brownie in it. The entire meal was quite good and the vegetables were just as fresh as the fruit.

Refueled and rested, we did a little souvenir shopping, but the rain had started and it was pouring by the time we got onto our tour bus, heading towards the Volcano hike. Along the way, we picked up a group of about three or four Cubans from Miami. It was hilarious. So, everyone was speaking some form of Spanish. The guide wasn't sure he wanted to do the hike because of the rain and asked us if we really wanted to go, but we were all insistent that we just had to go hiking. So, we got out and began the hike. The first five to ten minutes were miserable and wet but then the sky inexplicably cleared and we were able to continue our hike. It was really cool.

The day we landed, the volcano had begun to be more active and there was a lot more lava coming out than normal. So much so that they had closed off part of the path which takes you right to where the lava rocks are from the last large eruption. However, the Cubans being shrewed negotiators convinced the guide to let us go up unaccompanied and we got to stand on the lava rocks. It was staggering how far the rocks had been blown out of the volcano, and a little disturbing that it could easily happen again and this time hit us. Fortunately, the guide came up and stopped us from going too far and we headed back to the bus.

Next stop, hot springs. We went to the Tabacon hot springs and it was really pretty. The springs there all sort of flow through these man-made gardens, with rocks and such there that you can sit on as the water rushes past you, or there are pools that you can wade through and a waterfall that you can stand behind. The water is around 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) and it was just what we needed after such a strenuous day of hiking - it was about 6PM when we got there. Dinner was at 8 and then we were scheduled to go home. Our guide, however, took us all back to the volcano to try and get some night lava shots, but it was fogged over and we ended back at home, at around 11PM. What a day.

Arenal From Above

For our first full day in Arenal, we had breakfast at the little dining area - a huge buffet included with our room. The fruit was incedibly fresh and delicious every day. If you like pineapple, papya, and bananas, you are going to love Costa Rica. After supplying ourselves with food, we went on a Sky Tram ride up to the top of a platform that offers some absolutely beautiful views of the active side of the Arenal Volcano and the man-made Arenal Lake. The shuttle that took us there seemed to be filled with trendy older-hipsters. Somehow, we just did not seem to fit in with them, as they discussed their new cars and all of the money they were spending here and there. Fortunately, we were separated from them upon our arrival, as they wanted to zipline down the mountain and we had already decided we were going to do that in Monteverde. So, they matched us up with another group of folks that were pretty nice. We had two guides - one was very new to the area, she was from Bahli and I think the other one was helping her out.

After we got to the upper platform and took lots of pictures, they took us on a small rainforest hike and explained lots of nature to us. As our first tour and nature seminar, it was really good. They refreshed our memory of epiphites and bromiliades and were really nice. After all of that was done, we made our way back to the platform for our ride back down. It was a really nice and easy trip, and helped get us oriented.

One thing I noticed that was different from my trip to Italy was it seemed like absolutely no one had done any preparatory work in anticipation of the trip, let alone thought to carry a guide book around with them. I could not seem to get my head around this, as I seemed to use my book even more once I got there. It helped us find our way to a local ecological park that is affiliated with the local schools - teaching lots of nature classes. For only a few dollars, we got to wander around the whole park that was completely devoid of tourists except for us and see a sloth, iguanas, herons, poison dart frogs, a butterfly garden, and all sorts of other stuff. It was really awesome, and so incredibly inexpensive. An entire experience I would have missed without my guidebook.

Afterwards, we made our way into the town, had lunch at the great inexpensive place recommended by my guidebook, found a couple of ATMs and a grocery store. Once again, nearly no tourists were to be found in our restaurant. The grocery store was really helpful for getting water and snack food. As is to be expected, water can be really expensive in the hotels and gift shops. All the money saved could be put towards activities, food, and souvenirs.

That night, we had planned on going to a steak restaurant recommended by my guidebook, but our hotel concierge said that we would like this other place more. So, he had us go there. It really was good. I had this half of chicken cooked in banana leaves with this delicious sauce. Fantastic. And my girlfriend had some steak, which was also really good. Even though this was probably one of the nicest restaurants in the entire town, it was probably about as expensive as going to Chili's here in the US. Completely ridiculous.

It was a very productive day and just what we needed in anticipation of our long day coming up.

Costa Rica Photos

As promised, here are my photos from Costa Rica, with captions, and a couple of short movies of hummingbirds. Some of the shots did not come out very clearly, but many of them I think you will enjoy. There's close to 200 of them.

Our First Cabin

Early the next morning, we awoke and experimented with our shower - trying to make it hot but not scalding. The place we stayed at in San Jose also had a shared kitchen area, with free coffee and lots of different teas. It was really a cool little place and relatively empty. There seemed to be about three college-aged girls staying in another room just down the way from us, but I think that was everyone in our particular building. So, it was nice and quiet. I imagine a bunch of college kids could have a blast there ... except, it is in downtown San Jose.

We checked out and left our luggage with the hotel front-desk folks while we went to grab breakfast at a little place down the road. This was the first time I was to have black beans and rice for breakfast. What a trip. The traditional food there, though, is far more bland than many other Latin areas. Quite different than what I expected, but good and cheap.

Our shuttle out to Arenal got to our hotel almost as soon as we returned from breakfast and whisked us off to our first private cabin. The trip out was really easy after you got out of the small and busy roads of the San Jose area. Pretty soon, most of civilization fell away and you were driving through much more rural areas. It was really cool. The cabins at our resort were sort of like little duplexes. So, there might be someone on the other side of your duplex but you would never know it unless you saw them. There were trees and shrubs everywhere making you feel more secluded. The showers were also really cool because they were sort of open in the ceiling, providing you with daylight in there, and there were plants set into a little alcove just beyond the shower. We also had these really cool rocking chairs on our front porch. So, you could just sit and relax and watch the humming birds.

We spent a lot of that day just enjoying our cabin and trying to make the AC work. We were, unfortunately, unsuccessful with this latter task and they switched us to a new and bigger cabin. We were somehow not as happy with the second cabin as the first, but they were both really fantastic. The view from both rooms was of the pretty landscaping that dominated the area that was our resort and then the omnipresent volcano beyond. Really, really pretty.

This was probably our least active day of the entire trip. We walked a little while out to the road (our resort was set off from the main highway in Arenal), and determined that walking into the town or anywhere else really was not something worth undertaking. The streets there were not really laid out for pedestrians until you got into the actual town, and given the driving down there, you were really risking an awful lot by attempting to walk.

Deleted Scenes

I realized that I forgot a couple segments from my last post. Probably the most significant one was that the server in our office went down just before I left on vacation. I am not, technically, our IT person. However, I do have a long history of fixing stuff that is IT related and we have a service contract with Dell for IT support. Hence, armed with a couple of cell phones and a sense of adventure, I worked with Dell to determine that at least one of the server's hard drives was bad and got it replaced and then determined that the remaining hard drive was corrupted and I needed to destroy and rebuild the entire array.

In theory, this should have gone more-or-less smoothly, as we had a complete backup tape that had gone off the night before. We backup every night and the backup was good and the tapes were brand new. So, I had a lot of positives in my favor. Plus, we have high level technical support at Dell. As such, you only work with the folks in the U.S. that speak English and really know a lot of stuff. I had a huge negative, however, Windows 2003 Small Business Server, which ended up being a thorn in my side and kept me in the office from 8AM Wednesday until 6:30AM, the next morning (Thursday). (This was the Thursday before I flew out to Costa Rica, and I still had not packed.) Who needs sleep, right? Apparently, I did. Because I distinctly remember going home and leaving a message for the person I knew would come in first that morning - not very long after I left, actually - to call out IT guy, with a detailed description of what I had attempted. I also had Dell notate the case file.

The heart of the problem was that Windows was not restoring correctly and nothing we tried seemed to be working. I kept having to start from scratch each time, and that usually took about another 40 minutes or so, to get to the point where I could try to restore again and then that part took about an hour. All of this led to some interesting comments and Tweets in the middle of the night that night. So, for any of those people that received comments from me at around 3 or 4AM that night/morning, thanks for writing - you gave me something to read.

While this was going on, I was still on decongestants and antibiotics for whatever odd sinus thing that had infected my body right before my trip. I am guessing lack of sleep was not the best course of treatment for all of this, but.... I did refuse to go to work for the remainder of Thursday and left the rest of it up to our IT guy. I felt a little vindicated that it took him a long time to fix it, as well. He spent all of Thursday in our office and when I cam in Friday morning, it still was not completely working. In fact, he ended up having to take it back to his office and work on it there. While I was in Costa Rica, however, I received an email to let me know that the server finally came back up.

I am still not fully convinced that the server is operating at 100%, but it is definitely functioning. I have us calendared to buy a new server in the first half of next year. Heck, for the amount that we ended up having to pay the IT guy, we probably could have just bought a new server.

Given my ability to become completely consumed with IT, it has been suggested that I consider taking a class or two in it. So, I am considering it. That and Spanish. I am horrible at foreign languages, but I feel like in South Florida, I have a better chance of being able to practice it and use it on a more frequent basis, and I think it would help me in my future travels.

Takeoffs and Landings

As some of you know, I was in Costa Rica last week. However, in order to get to Costa Rica, I had to fly. I suppose I didn't have to fly. I could have taken and boat, but that would have gotten me there far too slowly and I would have missed all my other reservations. In an attempt to minimize any angst over possible hurricanes that might occur between the time I booked the flight and the time I actually took the flight, I acquired travel insurance from AIG. The insurance was also taken out to cover possible lost luggage (that never happens, right) and the potential need to be evacuated in the event my girlfriend or I developed some rare disease or had an injury and needed to be airlifted out. We were happy to learn how ridiculously cheap this insurance was. For all of that, covering lost luggage, all hotel and airline reservations that might be lost and getting airlifted out in the event of an emergency, and a whole bunch of other stuff I had never even considered, it was under $100 for both of us. Totally worth it. However, no insurance policy that I took out could have possibly protected me against the flight I had to Costa Rica.

It all started simply enough. The flight was in the afternoon and I was rushing to get to the airport after getting hung up at an estate plan signing because the couple failed to tell us that they had multiple aliases. Not only that, but as we revised the documents further, more and more names came out of them. For example, after revising them a second time, we were about to sign and the wife said, "Does it matter that I have a different name on my driver's license?" Nah, who cares about silly things like names. My girlfriend was worried that they would close our flight because we would not be getting there two hours in advance. Having never experienced anything like that, this thought had never occurred to me. Now, I was suddenly stressed and concerned that I would not even be able to get on my plane.

We dropped off the car and, eventually, got on our shuttle to the airport. Upon getting to the ticketing area, we learned something really cool. At the airport, we were able to self-check-in for our international flight with checked luggage. Brilliant. It was the coolest thing ever. We just scanned our credit cards and passports and the the luggage tags printed out at the counter and they would call us over, stick the luggage stuff on them and off we went. One hurdle cleared. Next we went through security and grabbed a quick sandwich before heading to the gate, where our flight had almost finished boarding - no waiting around for us.

My girlfriend was excited that we were to have a female pilot. I was excited to just be on the plane. As we took off, and the beautiful ocean spread out around us, and my girlfriend started snapping pictures of the Keys and Cuba, as we quickly wizzed past them.. Before we knew it, after some heavy turbulence, we were over San Jose. There was a slight problem, however, the airport was closed. What?!

See, that heavy turbulence we passed through on the way there was owing to heavy thunderstorms. Well, evidently, some were still lingering over the San Jose airport and the entire airport had closed. Worse still, the pilot could not raise the tower on the radio to determine how bad the conditions were on the ground. So, with 20 minutes of fuel left (the pilot provided frequent updates of such things), we began to circle the airport. About a half-hour later, the pilot explained that we would be attempting to land now, as the weather had slightly improved. If this did not work, we would have to divert to the other airport in Liberia.

As we broke through the clouds, on our final approach, just as we were able to see the earth below us, the pilot veered off and hauled ass to Liberia, explaining along the way that the landing was not going to work and we barely had any fuel left so we would have to fly through some storms, expect some turbulence, sorry for the inconvenience.

About 18 minutes later, we landed in Liberia. Go us. Several of the passengers were more than willing to simply get off here and arrange for transportation out from this airport, but they wouldn't let us deplane. They tried to blame it on the fact that the airport is not equipped with immigration. Unfortunately, for them, a few of the passengers knew better and voiced their displeasure with being lied to. Yes, I was one of those passengers, but it's not my fault. My book on Costa Rica clearly indicates that their airport in Liberia accepts international flights and that there is a massive effort underway to try to expand it to accommodate more direct flights. Not to mention the fact that I actually looked at booking a direct flight into Liberia when I bought the tickets to begin with, but the cost was too high.

They refueled our plane and about 30 to 45 minutes later, we were back on our way to San Jose. This time, we landed. Wooo! Not only that, we finally got to get off the plane. For reference, our flight was due in by 4PM (local time, that's 6 EDT). It is now around 6 their time. We are hungry. We hurry towards immigration and stand in-line. And stand in-line. The line seems to be moving, but we cannot tell where the people are going. It becomes clear that the line is only moving because they are changing the number of rows in the labyrinth that is the rope line. After about a half-hour, we learn that immigration is closed for everyone that is not a Costa Rican citizen because the electrical storm brought down their computer systems. They estimate that they will be restored in about 2 to 3 hours. Joy.

At about 9:30 (local time), immigration begins to show signs of activity again and we are all rushed through. We grab our luggage, which is fortunately, still sitting there in baggage claim and rush to find our ride to the hotel. After trying to make the phones work for a while, my girlfriend finds a man that has a sign with my name on it. He locates a shuttle for us and we are whisked off to our hotel, in the rain. We arrive at the hotel at 10PM (local time). We are starving and without any local currency. Plus, it's pouring rain, very dark, and San Jose is sort of a sketchy place to hang out in after-hours. Fortunately, we are just down the road from a 24 hour Shell gasoline station, with an ATM. Score one for the petroleum company. We go and get local currency, after taking some time to figure out that 10,000 colones basically equals $20, not a $200, and we dine on scrumptious peanuts and pretzels. Hence, ended our first day (and adventure) in Costa Rica.

Oh, one of you asked if I will be posting pictures of the trip. The answer is I already have, and you obviously do not keep up with my Flickr page, which is not surprising, as I do not think many people do. There are some photos of the trip over there. I have more that I am working on uploading to Picasa and once they are on Picasa, I will provide another link. For now, Flickr is what's available.

People Are Rude

This weekend, I finally dragged myself to go see the second Narnia installment. I am still not sure what to make of the movie, as a whole. I think the ending to the movie left me a little confused or disillusioned, I am not sure which. However, I do know that I am sort of getting tired of going to public events because people are just rude, and often the rudeness comes from directions I never would have expected. For example, I thought for sure the little children sitting down the row from us were not going to be able to sit quietly for a movie with a running time of over two hours. I was proven wrong, possibly owing to the vigilance their father. Although, the 20 or 30 something year old couple that sat at the other end of our row were incredibly annoying - talking and giggling throughout.

I, personally, do not care if you talk or laugh or do whatever you want to do during a movie, as long as I do not have to hear it. However, they were too loud to ignore and they had no sense of volume - they did not get quieter during the softer parts of the film or only try to speak when the louder parts came across the screen. I felt like demanding that they pay me back for my tickets. Apparently, they needed their parents to take them to the film.

I found that most of the theater audiences at the Orlando Fringe Festival were generally quiet and attentive, but there were still some tense moments at the production put on by the youth theater group. We got lucky enough to sit directly in front of some proud parents with every sort of recording device imaginable. I kept hearing one of their digital cameras make its "I just took a picture" sound, and my experience would not have been complete without the mother suddenly freaking out saying, "Oh no, I am out," of film or tape, I presumed.

I am all for people having a good time, but not when it comes at the expense of everyone else around them. If you really needed to talk to one another that badly, you should have rented a DVD.

Antibiotics Are Your Friend

So, the doctor decided that whatever I had was not getting better and that he may as well throw an antibiotic (Levaquin, a particular favorite of mine) at it. Right or not, his approach seemed to work, as I felt noticeably better yesterday and a little bit better today. I would still place myself at somewhere around 70% health, but much better than I was. However, the cost of health was still expensive, and I have insurance. I cannot imagine how much it would be for someone that didn't. I suppose, a good amount of the cost, spent in over-the-counter medications, was not even reduced by the health insurance factor. In any event, I am now medicated and on the road to what I hope is recovery. I sure hope recovery is like a kitchen with the smell of bacon, french toast, and maple syrup wafting through the air.

Fortunately, while I was sick, many bloggers were still writing and when I didn't have any of them to read, I still had my trustee book. Currently, I am reading a novel called Arthur and George. It is quite good, but it feels like I have been reading it for forever, as I so rarely get the chance to make any real progress in it. That all changed over the past couple of days and in-between my blog reading and serious napping, I was able to almost entirely finish it. I also have to select books that I want to bring to Costa Rica for the plane flight and shuttles. I figure one or two books should be sufficient. I would get a Kindle, but they are still far too expensive to be worth it. Even if I ruined the two books I brought and had to replace them, it would still be cheaper than the Kindle. Stupid technology, how you tempt me so, with your flashing lights and cool buttons.

Another Orlando Weekend

The trip began easily enough, but was quickly interrupted by a near-collision I experienced. This ended up requiring that I have all four of my tires replaced. Apparently, when you slam on your brakes, flat areas can be created on portions of the tires, which explained why my car was making funny sounds and additional vibration as I drove afterwards. I also had to locate my girlfriend when I arrived. She was at a Books-A-Million. So, the thought was she could ask the employees how I should get there, as it is located just off of I-4, which is the road I was on. As it turns out, no one at the store had the slightest clue how to get to their store. I ended up having to drive around for over an hour to find my way to the store. Absolutely insane.

I got to see several more plays while I was at the Fringe Festival this weekend. It was really cool. Some of the performances I found not so appealing but a lot of them were quite interesting. We also got to experience 5 Guys Burgers and Fries. It was really good. However, it was about 3 o'clock before I actually got to eat anything that day and that was it, so I may have been slightly biased and just overjoyed to be able to finally eat anything at all. However, I will go to another one soon and test this theory.

My girlfriend's final performance went quite well. Some of the audience members even stood when they applauded. One item I should probably clarify is my girlfriend's role in the play. I think some folks may think she is starring in it, but she is not. Instead, she wrote, produced and directed it. That probably does not make a huge difference to many of my readers, but it may make a difference to at least a few of you trying to get a clear picture of the whole setup.

While we were in Orlando, we went to the Dandelion Cafe, which was a new and exciting experience. Their menu had probably about two pages filled with different types of teas and the decor was very different - a little 70s-like or something exhibiting that laid-back and independent vibe. We got to try some hummus and some of their other culinary delights. It was probably the first healthy meal we were able to enjoy while we were there. Thank goodness for local kindness.

I also managed to get sick while I was in Orlando, which I am still trying to recover from. Hopefully, my doctor will quell everyone's fears today and say it is just a small cold with fever. I will be quite happy to be well again.

Online Presence

This morning, I remarked to my girlfriend that I was surprised no one had developed an online presence reporting agency. You may be thinking, what the hell are you talking about, and that would make a lot of sense because I do not think that title is accurate. I think I can better explain what I am talking about than give a title to it.

Every year, lots of people pay for someone to keep track of their three credit reports, which are known to often be filled with inaccuracies but that can meaningfully ruin your life. For example, I have had to remove incorrect information on my reports at least twice and it was a nightmare. If I didn't get it removed I couldn't do other important things, like get loans approved for college or something, and you had to jump through so many hoops to prove to the agencies that the data they had was wrong. Unfortunately, you usually did not learn that there was a problem with your credit report at all until you were suddenly denied for something. Now we have credit monitoring systems, some of them even marketed by the same credit reporting agencies that so often seem to be getting the information wrong. Doesn't it seem they should have to have this type of system in place (for free) before they are allowed to hold that much power? But, I digress.

Later in the morning, a news report came onto NPR discussing how many people are using MySpace and Facebook to find jobs, in this the 21st Century. However, they noted that a lot of people do not think about what they put out on the Internet before they begin applying for jobs and that most of today's employers now Google all of their applicants to see what it out there in cyberspace about them. Once again, there is this thing where your past could come back to haunt you - even if it is inaccurate or an ex-lover decided to post pictures or video of it after you two broke up, after he promised the images were destroyed. It really seems that someone with a bit of a grudge against you and a little free time could wreak some serious havoc on your life, and you may never know it before it was too late. Given all of this, I am surprised that no one has derived a method for ferreting out such derogatory details on the Net and charging folks a small fee to monitor their information and to help them get it removed.

I suppose, for all I know, someone has already derived a method for doing this. Although, I imagine it could be difficult. What if what you publish now belongs to someone else? How do you force that company to remove it? I am not really sure. In either event, at least three lessons should be taken from this: Google yourself ... often, be really careful about what you put out there because it might be out there for forever - those emails that you write back and forth can be discoverable in court, and can also easily be posted to a Website, later, and if you are crafty enough, there is probably money to be made upon other people's precarious positions.

Another Blog

I don't know how it happened, but somehow I got roped into becoming a member of the creative team for a new blog. It sounds exciting when I say "creative team" doesn't it? It sounds like I am working on some super-awesome thing doesn't it? Well, maybe I am. One never knows. In any event, the new blog is all non-fiction and wholly related to the arts and advertising (what a combination). We will have to see what develops from it.

One thing I have realized is that Blogger is the home for me, for now. Over the past few weeks, I have been thinking of switching over to Wordpress because I think their themes are snazzy - especially the three column ones that Blogger does not seem to offer. However, I learned while I was helping on this new project that Wordpress has some limitations as well. For example, embedding with iframes is so not happening there and do you see that new Creative Commons icon on my blog - in the left hand column? No? Well, trust me, it's there. It took me a half hour to figure out how to get it to appear in Wordpress.

Wordpress does have some cool stuff going for it. For example, integrating your domain name is fairly easy and you can easily create separate pages for your blog, which can make it a more multi-purpose portal, with some open ended growth potential. However, I think the restrictions were enough to keep me around on Blogger, at least for a little while longer.

In other news, American Airlines will now begin charging you to check any bags at all. No, I do not mean any bags after the first one. I mean all of your checked bags are going to cost you. Fly safely.

Weekend Review

So, as you (my loyal readers - all three of you) know, I went to Orlando this past weekend to attend the Fringe Festival and see my girlfriend's play, and maybe a couple others. Fortunately, I really liked her play. I thought it was funny and thoughtful and discussed things the way they often actually occur in relationships. Unfortunately, a 50-something year old critic with the Orlando Sentinel disagreed, but having been at her show, I think she may have also been deaf or ignoring all of the laughter from the entire audience. (Granted, the first showing had almost all younger people and maybe there is some sort of separation between what appeals to 20 and 30-something year olds and what appeals to a 50-something year old, but it was quite clear to everyone there that there was something funny happening on that stage.) See what I just did there - I just critiqued a critic. Although, it was not just her review of my girlfriend's play that I disagreed with. (So at least I am consistent.) I also tried to see other shows, but the first other show I tried was really not so good and rather disturbing. (Of course Ms. Maupin (that's the critic for those of you not following my links) seemed to almost kind of like it. I tried to comment and lend my opinion on her blog, but she would not accept it unless I gave her my full name. Perhaps I need a new pseudonym for my online presence.) I think that show turned me off from going to more, and I instead focused most of the rest of my trip on reading my book and food.

I am not well versed in theater. That's not an entirely true statement. I grew up going to lots of shows and have seen a variety of productions, but I often find that I am disappointed with the majority of them. I also feel the experience is overpriced ($40 to see a show or something), but I think that likely has to do with the production company trying to re-coupe its costs for renting out the hall and other various costs for sets and payroll. In any event, the Fringe Festival is definitely a great opportunity to get out there and see a lot of cool independent theater that you probably would not get to see elsewhere and it's amazingly inexpensive. I highly encourage everyone to go because I think art and theater are important and did I mention it is really cheap. Of course, lots of you probably do not live anywhere near Orlando and this all probably was a waste of words. However, there may be something like it in your area and I really think it can be a great experience and just because I hated something does not mean you will. (End of lecture on the importance of the arts.)

The food selection in Orlando is very impressive. It can be a little dizzying to take in all of the food options that one has in that city. When my friend and I first arrived on Saturday morning, we were pretty hungry and no one was at the venue yet. So, we happened to turn down the road and see a small eatery surrounded by people with signs proclaiming that they were now serving breakfast. Enter stage right: White Wolf Cafe, which started serving breakfast about a week and a half ago and has an awesome menu. The cinnamon roll really was delicious, but the sugar cured ham and french toast, not to mention the sweet potato home fries, were delightful. It turned out we had found a local spot completely on accident and it was good enough to bring everyone back to for lunch after the show.

Sunday was a little more difficult, as I was too busy reading and napping to make it over to the venue area of town during the day. As such, I was forced to venture out on my own closer to the hotel and stumble upon yet another local favorite, which I think was called Mulligan's Irish Pub. This place was great and completely empty, which made little sense. However, the waitress, Nicole, explained that Sundays generally had little or no turnout, unless there was a football game. So, I was forced - forced I tell you - to enjoy some delicious Guinness and watch an entire soccer game. It was horrible and I can barely bring myself to speak about it. *sniff* I will have to go back.

Of course, next week when I go up to Orlando to see my girlfriend's last show I intend to try out Five Guys Burgers and Fries, which I am told is supposed to be amazing. I am sure if it comes anywhere close to living up to the expectations I now have for it, you will all (all three of you) hear about it next week. However, they appear to be more of a chain that is springing up everywhere and less of a local dining experience, which is both good and bad.

On The Fringe

This weekend, I have to drive to Orlando. I remember when I was younger, I loved to drive and would take every opportunity to drive everywhere - as far and as much as possible. When you live at least a half-hour away from everything, it really is not too hard to find far away places to drive to. However, something happened between then and now. I do not know if it is because more people on the road scare me than ever before or the fact that I have to spend almost as much as I spend in week's worth of groceries for a tank gas, but it no longer holds the same allure it once did. I always find myself wishing I could take a train instead and read a book or something on the way. (Generally, Florida's Highway Patrol frowns on book reading while driving.) Unfortunately, Florida does not really have much of a mass transit system to speak of.

I have no choice this weekend, though. My girlfriend's play opens this weekend at the Orlando Fringe Festival and I cannot wait to see it. In a few months, I will need to go to New York (but I'll at least be flying there) to see it in the New York Fringe Festival. I am so proud of her for accomplishing all of this, all while working at her day job, writing a novel, and participating in all the other things that she does. I look forward to being able to go to the play and see at least some of the fruits of all of her labor. I also think it will be fun to be up there and check out some of the other shows that are happening.

Our trip to Costa Rica is fully planned and booked - even our airport parking. I guess we did not book activities in advance, but mostly because one cannot predict Costa Rican weather. So, it's easier to do all of that, we think, once we arrive. I am so excited, and I know my girlfriend is excited to have this to look forward to after all the stress of the Orlando show is over. This way she can de-stress and relax in-time for stressing out again over the New York show.

The Land of Blog

After being at this blogging thing for a couple of years, I have a few notes to make. First, a lot of people do not seem to keep at it for more than a year or two. I am not sure if they just run out of things to say or if they run out of time. For example, a lot of bloggers seem to be recently out of relationships or doing something similarly exciting, giving them frequent things to write about. Ahhh , drama. Others are just in college or not working or doing something that gives them a decent amount of time in which to stare into the misty haze of their brains and pluck something entertaining out and set it into words.

In either event, most of the bloggers, if not all of the bloggers, I was reading when I started are now gone (it's really easy to become old as a blogger), with the notable exceptions of Stephanie Klein and Chris Diclerico. The former being a writer, I sort of would expect her to continue blogging. Not that I have any real basis for this assumption; lots of authors do not maintain blogs, but I just sort of take it for granted that she will. Until she finally has a nervous break down and cannot take all the crap anymore and calls it quits. Chris is more a finder of stuff he finds cool and throwing it up there, which I feel, makes the blogging process somewhat easier for him, but it is still cool to see a familiar face in my rss feeds still updating.

Still, there are some cool fucking people blogging. For example, through blogging, I got to ask a former stripper tons of stupid questions I had always wanted to ask a stripper, and given that I have never even been to a strip club, I probably would have had to wait a lot longer to ask any of these questions without this thing we call Internet and these things we call blogs. Today, this was reaffirmed when I found the blog of a former circus performer. Oh, yes, you heard me correctly, a fucking circus performer, like on a flying trapeze and shit. How unbelievably cool is that? I just find that to be so awesome. Almost as cool as the day I found out (and then proceeded to forget over and over again as though I am some eighty year old suffering from Alzheimer's) Kevin Smith has a blog.

I always wonder if I am doing my blog correctly - whether I am writing blog-worthy items or things others would find interesting, or even things I find interesting. Sometimes I write serious posts about things I feel uniquely capable of speaking about or think I can offer a perspective that has not been expressed fifty-million times by other bloggers and random pundits out there, and sometimes I just write random fiction that some people seem to really enjoy but that others seem to lack any interest in whatsoever. To an extent, though, I always feel that if I am writing anything, it is probably better than not writing at all. It keeps the cobwebs from getting too thick, but some days I really wish it all would flow as well as it used to. Although, I am still not sure if it was ever *that* easy. Maybe blogging is easier when your life isn't - when things in your life are dramatic, you have a reality show to set down into words.

Recently, Janet said that I should write more about the past and the future. I am not sure if she meant I should start writing about dinosaurs and spaceships, but it sounded definitely interesting and broad.

Weddings

I hate weddings. There, I said it. Almost every wedding I have ever attended, I have done so under duress, or with significant peer pressure. "C'mon, you have to go - you are in the wedding party." As if that is some valid excuse to allow someone to make me suffer. I also learned that being in the wedding party can actually be its own form of hell because you do not just get to show up for the wedding. Oh, no. You're in it for the long haul when you are in the party. Also, the whole "party" portion of the title should be dropped because it is not a party, unless by party you mean an excruciating painful ordeal that will haunt you for years to come.

Many people approach weddings with a much rosier attitude. In fact, I know people that actually enjoy going to them. I, however, experience only dread. I, actually, maintain a mental list of my friends who are likely marital candidates, and whose weddings I would have to attend. Every time one of their weddings is over, I breathe a sigh of relief and cross that name off my invisible list. Fortunately, the list has been growing smaller. For while I know many people, most of them are married and I can probably find a good excuse for missing many of the others' blissful days.

I do not really understand the entire mindset behind the wedding. I know it is supposed to have something to do with having all the people that are important to you coming together to help celebrate the occasion and the bride and groom's new life together. However, I feel like they could easily accomplish all of that without me there. I do not really need to bear witness to the vows and endure the ceremony. Would it not be easier for the couple to go elope and then invite me to a big party at a later date so that we can celebrate then. I think it would save them a lot of money and angst that way. However, the rest of the world would probably not subscribe to my viewpoint.

I was recently invited to one of my good friend's weddings. (She is one of the few remaining people on my list.) She and I used to hang out quite a bit in college and I think her fiance is a pretty cool guy. This made receiving the invitation and deciding what to do with it a particular inner-struggle for me. (Think Superman III, but with much more mediocre special effects.) On the one hand, I am extremely happy that they are getting married to one another. I think they are a great match and I want to show my support and solidarity, but on the other, I hate weddings.

So, I asked my friend what she thought of my dilemma and she left it entirely up to me. In my heart, I am fairly sure I have to go to her wedding or I just will not feel right about it. However, I am still trying to work myself up to the requisite level of excitement that seems to be required for such a momentous day.

Another Year Older

Last week, for my birthday, my girlfriend took me to see This American Life. I know what you are all thinking, how could you see a radio show. (Alright, only the few of you that read this blog, who know what that show is, are thinking that.) Well, the show tried something experimental, which is often the case. They asked their listeners to vote online and tell them if they would be interested in attending a live performance of the This American Life radio show (and their Showtime television show) - this live performance would be held in New York but broadcast live to various movie theaters throughout the country. Evidently, demand was high, and we quickly acquired our tickets. It was really quite a lot of fun - once we located the movie theater it was at, and while the show was two hours, it really did not feel very long at all.

We also went to a restaurant/bar bar we had seen on a Food Network show. (This was after, of course, we got some of the best bagels you can get outside of New York and before we went to see Iron Man.) The restaurant is basically a sports bar that serves unexpected fare. For example, you would not expect to find brie wheels, escargot, and fresh encrusted grouper sandwiches at your everyday watering hole. I did not think the food lived up to the hype provided in the show, but none of it was bad. In fact, the garlic fries and flank steak sandwiches were, by all accounts, delightful. My girlfriend was also quite pleased to learn that morning that quality bagels are closer than New York. Granted, acquiring them requires a trip to Miami, but I think she would consider that a small price to pay.

Finally, we booked our tickets to Costa Rica and will be leaving in about a month. I am still coordinating some of the hotel details but almost all of that is finalized and with a little luck, will be completely sorted out by the end of the day. Then I just have to sort out our travelers insurance and medications and we should be good to go. It was expected that the trip would have to be delayed until November but it all came together at the last minute and the Internet helped make it all much easier to accomplish.

SP-1

As some of you might remember, I happen to have very strong opinions regarding Windows Vista, and just when I started getting used to many of its idiosyncrasies, which I had a Microsoft technical support person tell me, makes it a better operating system, I received the Service Pack 1 update from Microsoft. Oh, hooray, for me. My computer now does not seem to know if it really wants to start Windows or just sort of sit there in a listless state for a minute or two. This is an improvement, right? I am sure Microsoft would silently coo in my ear that it is all for the best and that this release makes everything better, but from where I sit, it has basically downgraded my OS.

The other day, I went to a training with a bunch of attorneys. It required everyone to have their own laptop. It was here that I saw my very first Macbook Air. I did not really realize that it was anything special at first glance, but it was being discussed by everyone else in the room and the technical support person in attendance offered his two cents of derision for all things Apple. A few minutes later, the presenter's computer had a significant error, bringing down several key features of Windows and the programs running in it. The attorney looked over to him and said, "Want to borrow my Mac?"

I still am not sold on the whole Mac concept. My girlfriend has one and whenever I want to do something on it, I feel like I have to complete extra steps to accomplish anything and I do not fully understand its architecture with the installation and removal of programs. I assume if I took the time to learn about it, I would figure it all out, but that seems time consuming. In college, I worked as technical support help desk guy. The Macs were always the worst, until they upgraded them all and then everyone wanted to use a Mac. I still, however, did not experience the same joy with them. For example, it still bothers me that when I close a program in a Mac, it does not close the program because I have to quit the program to close it.

It is little things like that that can bug me. However, the Mac OS is probably still a superior operating system. After all, they originated the entire concept of Windows. All Microsoft did was make Dos look really pretty.

Life Gets in the Way

I don't think I really have any excuse for not writing. Well, at least no new excuse for not writing.

The past few weeks have been incredibly busy in every aspect of my life. When I am not working, cooking, going to the gym, reading, updating my Flickr feed, or all of those other things one does with their days, I seem to be sleeping and commenting on other people's blogs - sometimes at the same time, which really can get confusing for everyone involved.

My best friend for the last two years stopped speaking to me. There was no explanation. No Earth shattering argument or anything else. One day, she was explaining how much she would miss me if she was forced to move and the next day, we were no longer speaking. I am sure there must have been more to it on her end, but that is all I got on mine. It was really sort of traumatic. Here was this person that I spoke to almost every day suddenly no longer returning my calls. I tried really hard to think of what I might have done, but I could not derive any answers from my too numerous hours staring blankly at the space that separates us.

I had a new client almost die during a "simple" out-patient procedure during the week of April 15th, which prompted a phone call to my office regarding estate planning documents that had not yet been updated. The problem was compounded when I looked at the woman's old documents and realized that the former attorney had botched several of the documents and it would not be a simple operation to undo their mistakes. Not to mention all the questions rolling in from the CPAs that suddenly needed all this additional data to finalize Returns. (CPAs can be just as bad as the rest of the population in putting off the preparation of Returns, it seems.)

I am officially on a diet after seeing my doctor and realizing that my weight has gotten a bit out of control. I have not been able to establish a standard gym routine since my surgery, but have decided to try and switch back to going in the evenings, as my body did not seem willing to cooperate with my desire of waking up at 5AM every day. I still would like to try and convince my body one more time, but I am not going to try and push my luck for a little while. Overall, I do not think I am really on a diet so much as reverting to what worked for me for the past decade - consistent exercise and a sensible intake of food. Sounds simple when you say it that way, right?

I have still been reading all the blogs I normally read. I have even added a new one to the mix, and I really need to update the list of blogs that I read on here. So many folks I used to read are no longer around or have moved, and some of the newer ones are not even mentioned. I will work on this in the coming days. I will also work on just plain writing more about something. Anything has go to be better than this deafening silence that seems to be occurring here. I think what often happens, for me at least, is you stop writing for a little while and you start to forget how you ever came up with topics to write about to begin with. It used to seem that you would just be out somewhere and you would think, "Oh, I am so totally going to blog this." However, now I go out and I never have those moments. Even when I saw the Paramount Church, it didn't leap out at me as something that I just needed to write about. Clearly, something has to be done about this.

Glory Days

The decision has been made and now my life can return to its normal boring routine. Thank goodness. I do not think I do well with big decisions like that. I end up losing sleep and worrying. Instead of getting lots of sleep and going to the gym. Not exactly my idea of a good time. In the end, I still do not know if I made the right decision, but I made the best decision I could at the time, based upon all the information I had. I am quite proud to say, however, that because of my decision, I will still be able to go to Chicago, Memphis, and Costa Rica this year, and that is almost priceless to me.

Seeing that I now had free time, I was goaded into joining Face Book. I do not know who thought this was a good idea. I hate Face Book almost as much as I hate My Space. I consider it a horribly designed site, but a few of my friends had joined and they all wanted me to join as well. I still do not know why. What the hell ever happened to emails and blogs? What is the attraction of these horribly designed personal pages on which we can all "keep in-touch". I never knew I required such a thing, but apparently I do.

It was through joining Face Book and adding friends from my high school years that I recalled how little I really enjoyed those years. Granted, there were some good times, with water gun fights and such, but a lot of it was just an excruciating experience. And while I feel that in many ways my parents lied to me and we never really get away from the high school mentality, with the cliques, the gossip, the jocks and the prom queens, we do get to move onto larger fish bowls. I still remember being accused and convicted over random stuff that I never did. For example, one of my friends stopped speaking to me because I was going through her locker, which would have been really solid grounds, I think, if I had ever actually done so. I think I even once experienced a breakup with a girl that I never dated.

To an extent, things were a little simpler. I had more time to do the things I loved and hang out with my friends. It seems the older that I get, the harder it is to make and keep friends. So many things seem to intersect into people's lives and they suddenly have new priorities and routines and you do not always continue to fit in them. They may get married and/or have children. They suddenly have to work more and have extra-curricular obligations for that new fundraising committee that is sure to help advance their career. This is not to say that I do not have friends. I still even have a few friends from high school, but everyone is so busy and scattered. One of my psychologists thought it would be cool if I mapped them all out, as they are all in so many different places.

I know that I somehow had a lot of good times in high school, but goodness, I do not think I would ever want to do it again. College is a completely different tale, however.