June 2005 (or, another boring catch-up entry)

I’m sitting on a plane right now, from Dallas to San Jose. This is something I’ve done quite frequently in the past few months, between all the family events going on at home and flying back and forth for Teleios (the company I now work for–it’s the same one as before, we just got bored of our old name). I typically hate this particular leg, since it’s a decently long flight east-to-west (4 hrs), and since it consists primarily of businesspeople, who of course are all Platinum or Executive Platinum on American.

This latter fact means a few things: (1) when you pre-board Plat/E.Plat folks, the whole plane basically gets on at once, which defeats the whole point of the boarding-by-group system, (2) every time I try to upgrade to first class for free (something you can do occasionally as a Platinum), 50 or so other people have already put requests in, so it is inevitably impossible (I know, poor me, no first class…), (3) everyone’s the trendy on-the-go business traveler with a huge laptop bag or pack, along with an oversized roller bag. All of these things have to go into the overhead bins, of course, which means if you’re not cutthroat with your boarding procedure, you’ll end up with nowhere to put your own huge laptop bag and oversized luggage. Anyway, just some minor annoyances that you wouldn’t even notice if you aren’t a part of corporate traveling culture (which I suppose, ironically, I am a part of now).

The more important part about being on a plane is this: of all the places in the world that I typically go, I get the best meditating and thinking done on planes. Something about sitting by a window looking out onto invariably-beautiful scenes (unless we’re completely in a cloud), having my ears filled with white noise (or listening to good music really loud, which is more often the case), and having nowhere else to go… well, something about it makes my mind sink deep into my soul, where they can meet and hang out for a while.

Oftentimes they’ll invite my heart in as well, but this is generally only if I do get the first class upgrades and it’s late enough in the day for me to be drinking (as I am right now, incidentally. I always order the same drink on plane flights–vodka and coke. Today when I ordered it, and I suppose it was only about 10:30 in the morning, I got a funny look from the flight attendant. I suppose it’s not a common drink to begin with, and no doubt the whole AM thing had something to do with it. Well, that’s what I get for flying east-to-west, I suppose).

But I keep rambling; and, since I have roughly 3 more hours to write this entry, I will probably continue to do so. Reader, prepare yourself! Gird thy loins with the belt of blog-patience. Either that, or secure thy hands with the gloves of clicking-the-back-button! (Sorry, too much World of Warcraft recently…and the Bible, I guess. Breastplate of Righteousness: 600 armor, +8 agility, +7 stamina, +3 fire resistance)…

–break–

…actually, I didn’t keep writing this on the plane. I was sitting next to a young woman who looked about my age so we started up a conversation and ended up talking for the remainder of the flight. We talked about everything from philosophy to religion to ethics to family to love to relationships to truth to community…well, as much as you can talk about these things in 3 hours. Definitely the best random plane conversation I’ve ever had…

But enough of the hard-to-follow skips through time in this entry. My point was about airplanes and how they are for me a place of solace, rest, and meditation. I suppose it is ironic that I was writing about that just as I entered into a conversation, which by definition would make solace, rest, and meditation impossible–but irony or no, what transpired was much better than whatever I would have gained by a few hours’ solace.

Nyffy did a graphic design project a while ago that connected various people’s places or moments or experiences in which they tended to feel a sense of transcendence. Unfortunately I missed the cut-off date for submission to his project, but I was planning on writing about airplanes, how they are for me a place where transcendence is immanent, where life is (for the moment) pure and I can be honest with God and myself. So I cherish the times spent in the window seat, listening to music and pondering and looking out at the big world passing below, seeing memorable landmarks, like Half Dome or the Grand Canyon, or old or current residences of mine.

But all of the foregoing is merely a longwinded preamble (a pre-ramble, I should say) to the original point of this post, which has not yet been divulged to you but which I have had in my crafty mind from the beginning. Yes, the point is none other than to let you, my faithful reader, know what has been going on in my life! Do hold the applause till I am finished; I know all of you were awaiting this information whilst seeing who could hold her breath the longest.

In short, the last 5 weeks or so have been incredible, primarily because each weekend I’ve been able to do something reasonably awesome with close friends. First (and this may have been covered in my May update) there was a trip to Santa Barbara, which consisted of much outdoors time, bouldering and bushwacking and scrambling through rocky terrain, following rivers upstream and diving from heights into clearwater pools… Not to mention beach volleyball and Jack Daniels, cigars, and spiritual conversation in hot tubs. [Pictures]

Not to be outdone, weekend #2 took 8 others and myself to Pinnacles National Monument, a few hours away, for a day of climbing and hiking. Dan and I introduced some of our friends to outdoor sport climbing for most of the day, then we had an intense hike to the peak of a nearby mountain to catch sunset over a beautiful valley to the east. [Pictures]

The following week, my boss Pavi came to CA for the Apple Developer’s Conference, but we spent a lot of time hanging out in Palo Alto and San Francisco, coding, talking about life, talking about community, looking at the future, and generally having a good time. I’m hoping that that good experience will convince him and my other Teleios cronies to move out west.

That weekend (June 11-13) was Stanford’s 2005 graduation, and so there were a number of parties and events I went to to celebrate my friends’ successes. I was very graciously invited to Dan’s family graduation dinner, which was of epic proportions and quality. Yet even more exciting was the day of graduation itself, which went something like this: 5 or so of us guys went and rented a large moving truck, put on wifebeater undershirts with our codenames on the back and “Su Madre Movers” on the front, and headed to campus.

We were all accoutred for the task (which was soon to be at hand) in various garb. My uniform, apart from the shirt, consisted of a trucker beer hat, aviator sunglasses, headphones, and cigarettes, one of which I tried to keep lit and in the general vicinity of my person for the remainder of the day. Others sported the “gangsta beanie” or the classic 70s headband.

Thus prepared, we took our behemoth of a vehicle to campus and proceeded to scour various residences for booty. Not the rear-end kind, mind you, but that wonderful treasure coveted by pirates. In our piratey case: anything of value, but mostly furniture. We stopped at every dumpster on campus (which has a considerable area), finding gems here and there such as couches, mattresses, vacuum cleaners, breadmakers, unopened bottles of vodka, baseball bats, desks, and the like.

Encouraged by this success, we decided to start going into residences and ask those moving out if they had anything to donate. Often we were greeted by skepticism, but even more often people seemed happy to unload all the things they hadn’t been able to sell before moving out. This was no doubt due to the professional look of our “Su Madre Movers” shirts.

At the end of the day we had two truckfuls of items of various worth, which we may use in our new apartment, or which we may try and sell on craigslist. More importantly, we had a day of incredible fun, riding on the back of a moving truck over speedbumps and around corners, smoking cigarettes, stealing things from Stanford students… We even had one very brave female join us for most of the day, and she has accordingly now garnered almost enough cool points to be an honorary Su Madre.

[Pictures]

The next weekend (actually, the next Monday), I drove to Yosemite with Jenna, Emilee, and Em’s brother and dad. We were planning on doing a night hike of Half Dome, which is one of my favorite things to do in the world, and which I’ve written about on two other occasions. On our way, there was some doubt as to whether we would actually be able to do the night hike (as opposed to a day hike), because we needed to be back early on Tuesday. Thankfully, I was able to convince everyone that we would be OK doing it at night.

We spent the day eating lots of food and resting up, and then finally started on the trail around 11pm. The four of us made a good pace, but there was no hurry since we had a lot of time until sunrise. All the sections of the 8.5-mile uphill trail were familiar to me, having done it quite a few times before, and so we made our way with no more difficulty than the trail would have provided in the daytime.

As in previous times I’d done the night hike, we’d timed it well. The previous day had been a full moon, so she was still out and bright. In fact, it was the brightest and clearest I’d ever soon it on this hike, so I knew we were in for a treat at the top. It was, unfortunately, very cold, and though we’d brought many layers of the appropriate type of clothing, the extremely strong wind and at times sub-freezing temperatures were a little uncomfortable. Our early start time proved to be a disadvantage, as we got to the top long before sunrise and had nothing to do except sit and freeze. It is amazing how little you feel the cold when doing the hard aerobic workout that hiking half dome is, and amazing how much you feel it when you stop.

The sunrise came in due time, and actually earlier than on any other day of the year, for it was the summer solstice. The beauty moved me deeply, as it always does, and I felt at home in the alien granite landscape. Time was of the essence on this particular trip, however, so we had to be on our way, after firing up the stove and having some hot chocolate and oatmeal.

We made it back down by 8:30am, where Emilee’s dad was waiting to take us four weary hikers back to Palo Alto.

[Pictures]

Not to be tied down, I left a few days later for Orlando, along with my guitar. You see, I was flying home for a very special occasion–the creation of another Nyffy! That’s right, Nyffy was getting married and passing his very odd last name to a very awesome (and fortunate in all other respects) lady. As part of the specialness of the occasion, I’d tried to write a song for them, which they ended up wanting performed at their wedding.

I drove up to St. Augustine, on of our favorite places in Florida, on Thursday, along with Andy. We met up with Chris and his groomsmen and had an awesome night of hanging out at the pool, eating Pizzalley’s and drinking beer. Someone woke me up on Friday and told me we were going to the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Jacksonville, and so all of us ended up there around lunchtime. We took a tour of the facilities, which was capped off by some free beer and many A-B advertisements. An interesting expedition none the less, and good fresh beer.

Wedding rehearsals tend to happen on Friday, so we did that, and my brother Dav drove up with his new djembe to play along with me. There was a rehearsal dinner, much roasting and talking, good food, and all that should be there the day before two friends start their new life together. The 10 or 12 guys who’d come up to see Nyffy off stayed up late for a very awesome (and confidential) time of sharing and encouragement (and of course, Jack Daniels).

The next morning was a time of practicing the song I’d written, for the infamous Jason Killingsworth had arrived with his own acoustic axe, and I had to teach him the song we were to play. Long before we were really ready, the wedding actually happened, and it was a wonderful ceremony. Chris and Anne’s pastor from Gainesville gave a moving little homily on marriage, the old organ guy was right on, and there was much crying in the audience (even, I am glad to report, during my song…which seemed to be executed at the high standard which Chris and Anne deserved).

The reception was joyful and full of good food and drink, great conversation, and of course some crazy dancing. The young men did the customary deface-the-newlyweds-car thing, unfortunately in a not very clever and blatantly crude way…but what can you do? I drank way too much beer while staying mostly sober, and then all of a sudden we were lighting sparklers and chasing the bride and groom to their shockingly sexified chariot. We all said our goodbyes, and I gave Chris a slightly tearful hug, then they were off!

Luckily for me, I have just a few days to see Chris and Anne again, since they are moving to Palo Alto, of all places! Chris got an internship with Ideo here in town, so I am looking forward to living closer to him than I ever have before. World domination will be just a few steps away. That, and all the great beer that I am sure we will brew.

Driving home from St. Augustine was not in any particular way relaxing, however, since the next week in Orlando was to be full of work and unpacking. You see, my family had been building a house near the airport, and it had finally been completed just that weekend. So all of our free time was taken up moving boxes and unpacking them. The house is very exciting however, particularly for me and my brother, since we convinced my parents that it would be a good idea to make the upstairs bonus area studio-ready. That is, it consists of two rooms separated by a pane of glass, so we have a recording room and a control room. Dav and I also just bought a lot of new sound equipment, studio foam, etc… So we are looking forward to putting out some great new Splendour Hyaline music soon.

Anyway, the week was full of driving to and from Teleios downtown (which is a much longer commute from the new house, unfortunately), coding at work, hanging out with folks from work, and unpacking. I got very little sleep, up until the morning I got on the plane back to Palo Alto, which is where we began this story.

Well, I apologize for the play-by-play here…just some things I know I’ll be glad to have written later on. This truly was a string of awesome weekends and weeks in between, and here’s to hoping that I’ll wrote some more interesting things soon!