I just drove from San Francisco, CA to Boca Raton, FL in less than a week. I was in Orlando this morning, Atlanta yesterday morning, Dallas (Plano) TX the day before, Albuquerque NM the day before, and San Fran the day before. It was a long drive that involved a lot of cappuccinos, a nap on the side of the road under some gorgeous stars, and retracing my original route from the West Coast to the East Coast. I was surprised, quite pleasantly, at how excited people were to have me back at their places…. that people were excited in anticipation, and that other people in town were calling me up upset that I didn’t notify them I was heading into the area — despite that I was only going to drop by, and be gone again. Even animals remembered me. It was just great. The trip from West to East did not start so smoothly though…

After a wonderful dinner with my brother and his boyfriend, I had taken the train, ended up in the Ghetto area of San Fran, and dragged 80lbs of gear for a few miles. The next day I was going to take off, and make it to Albuquerque… hoping that my last minute voicemail to couch 22 would land me a couch there. I got a call returned to me just as I was getting on the road— after having had to wait an hour on Triple A to get there… see, the night before, I drove… from Yahoo Corporate to my brother’s place… parked my car, and we went to Massimo’s place in Barak’s car… somewhere between that time, and the time I wanted to leave, my keys were misplaced or lost… maybe they are in my tightly packed car.. who knows. I had a spare set stashed in my car though, after having lost my keys in Atlanta (I had had to have AAA get me into my car, so I can get my registration, so I can take that to the dealer to have a new key made, so I could get a ride back to my car and drive it.. not to mention the hassle of getting a new clicker made and programmed- which in turn deactivated my other 2 clickers, so I had to have a pair fedexed from florida, and then had all 3 reprogrammed). I called AAA, and after giving them all the info they needed, they’re like “Oh… you’re in California… we’re sorry, we need to transfer you to the California auto club” (where you’ll have to wait an additional 5 minutes of hold time, as well as spend the 5 minutes to give all your information again). They gave me an estimate of 20 minutes, and then called me up again to tell me that that was from the South California club, and they will transfer my information to this other service… so.. about an hour, hour and a half… and I get a robot calling me that my knight in shining armor has arrived. They let me into my car, I got my spare keys, and was able to get my clothes and toiletries bag… shower, yay!!!
My breakfast consisted of Canned Roast Beef (I had bought it for Burning Man, and wanted to try it out… it’s pretty tasty– definitely reminds you of canned Tuna), and Organic Asian Pears that Massimo had given me from his trees… those didn’t last long… they were so sweet! I got a call back from Maria Mango… a ukulele playing singer that I met at Burning Man. I was hoping to meet up with her in person, and video tape the song she wrote about Couch Surfing. I tell ya, I was bopping around when she was singing during that sunrise in the desert. What a moment. Well.. we chatted a bit, but with the AAA delay (that rhymes) I didn’t get to meet up with her.

I drove to New Mexico…Albuquerque… The original couch 22, Erika (who has an amazing blog) has now moved to Maine, so I called her roommates, and they were definitely down with me visiting. They even prepared an inflatable mattress for me this time. It was really fun, ’cause I am now going to take Couch 54’s suggestion, and name couches that have multiple people & locations 54A / 54B… make that letter distinction. This is because Couch 54 had a place in Tahoe, and a place in San Francisco. Mike & Tyler were awesome hosts, and extremely helpful, and amazing people, and they even let me use their garage. As I’ve been saying, this trip is how I meet the most amazing people. Mike’s situation about the multiple letter thing comes in handy since Erika now lives in Maine, while Jason and Tessa, and a new guy named Cole, are all living at the same house. So… that house will be 22A, and if I visit Erika in Maine, that’ll be 22B - unless I’m staying at someone else’s place…. I guess this can get a bit complicated. Jason, like a puppy dog, seemed so happy to see me. I couldn’t help but stay, as he requested.. initially I Though I’d get there in 1 fell swoop at like 4am, but with the whole AAA thing, I wouldn’t get there till 8am, and I ended up taking a nap on the side of the road in Arizona. The drive from San Francisco to Albuquerque, NM took me from 2pm to 11:30am, with a 2 hour nap in there. My neck and butt hurt from driving so long, but I got there, and had seen a wonderful terrain. The drive there takes you through very beautiful red desert sands… giant Mesas fill the backgrounds, like bails of hay along the sky. They are huge, and fade off as almost gassy blue shapes in the distance. Some mountains loom near by, I drove past Red Rocks national park. There were a lot of signs for free petrified wood, lots of Native American tents are used to advertise for souvenir shops. There are a lot of large plastic dinosaurs on the side of the road.. I guess there are all sorts of fossil reserves or something there. Sadly, I only stopped for cappuccino and gas. I had also seen the sunrise, and when I took a nap, it was pitch black… so.. I could see entire nebulae. Giant formations in the stars were just blinding… there was no other light but the moon and the stars. I slept easily… and when I got to Jason & Tessa’s, I processed this image for Mike, for the Afterburn: Burning Man after party. It was a picture of naked people running after the water truck.. most of them have our “Celestial Bodies” temporary tattoo (which I just finally scraped off my own ass the other day). I promised that photo, that’s why I processed it before passing out for a while (after saying hello to Tessa, of course). My initial plan was to just take a nap, then drive off again… but Jason had really wanted me to stay so we can hang out, so I did…. I went with him and his girl, Laurel, to adopt a kitty, or.. as I said “go get a little pussy!”

Adopting a kitten is not that easy. 1st part is that you have to find one that you like. They had discussed getting two kittens. Jason wasn’t sure, it seemed, of the decision… between allergy concerns, and care concerns, he was being iffy. Then it seemed the 2 cats they had initially planned on were really wanted by these 2 little kids that had come in to look at them. Jason said those kids should have them, so they looked at another kitten set… these looked cuter I thought… but… still.. you couldn’t feel the love. Then… this one cat just showed up– I guess a family had dropped him off just then. This cat was a tiny bit older - 3 months maybe - and adorable. His name was “Lil Tigger” He’s a white and orange tabby. Jason seemed to like this one… they both did. Laurel wasn’t sure, but was just happy to be getting a cat. It took a while for supplies to be purchased… a cat carrier is must, then a collar, then bowls, food, litter [If you're kind enough to be reading this far into the entry, here's a joke: What do you call the sand in the bottom of a bikini? Clitty litter! (a 4th grade teacher told me that one when we hung out in Mexico)], litter box, arrangements for shots… and much more.. so a “We’ll go for an hour” trip, turned into a 2.5 hour trip. I shot all sorts of other animals.. birds, reptiles, hamsters, rats, and mice.

At this point, is where Jason was being really cute.. but not to be cute.. this is how he acts. We went to a Mexican restaurant, and he requested a table that had a window so we can see the car. He kept leaving the restaurant to check on the cat and on his car. He was very concrned about everything. My “Get a little pussy joke” was a bit shocking for him.. he laughed, but warned that his girl, and her friend (that was also there the whole time) may be a bit conservative, and find that offensive. There was definitely a lot of shock value provided by many of my tamer jokes. We had some really good Mexican food, and Margaritas. The next morning, I developed their photos, and then Jason and I had spoken of how different we are… that I’m fearless, and I head in charging… while he hesitates on decisions, has allergies, and may shy away from some of the crazier things I do. We both asked at about the same time “Hey! How did your parents raise you?”

Seems Jason’s parents made a lot of decisions for him, and told him not to do a lot of things… this is dangerous… you’re not doing that. - and so on. Mine… they tried to raise me right and give me good values, but I don’t remember being prohibited from much. I got into some trouble, but I’m fearless and indestructible these days– just look at my journey :). I recommended some audio books, workshops, and other self-empowerment tools to get rid of the parental voice in one’s head. When I left, I called my folks and told them of this chat… Mom said that they tried to tell me what to do and what not to do, but I never listened. I always did what I wanted, and had to learn most things the hard way. The University of life… that’s my way to learn.

I tried calling Erika, but I kept losing signal… between Albuquerque and Texas is mostly desert. This same desert is where I fired my coach from SuccessTracs by T. Harv Ecker. They charged me, and would not work with me on the fact that I was out in the middle of the desert, had no reception, and couldn’t make my coaching call. I disputed that charge. My coach couldn’t keep up with me anyways. She’d even ask “Well… what can I help you with?” ’cause I was coming up with too many ideas too fast, and was collecting action on them right away. If your life has stagnated, perhaps you should get a success or life coach.

I bought Angela a black cowboy hat, with rhinestones all over it, at this one store in Texas. I thought it’d be cute for a singer… and cute on her cute face. I just said cute a lot, eh? That’s cute, huh? So… I finally got to Couch 23’s in Plano Texas. I know David from a photography workshop I was covering and he attending. It was so great to see everyone so excited to see me, even their dog. We hung out, ordered pizzas, and I gave some lessons on Automation and Watermarking in Photoshop. After that, DanKen showed up… he’s a couch surfer too! Also, he’s a hair stylist… so … I went and cut my hair with DanKen while showing David some photoshop. The hair-trimming was done the next day really.. I got a nice night’s sleep.

The next was a pretty long drive… from Dallas, TX to Atlanta, GA. I can tell the time of day by the color quality of the light.. I could feel that 6pm was arriving and fading. I drove past streams, trees, and gas stations, as I wound my way through Texas, Louisina, Mississippi, and Alabama… it was easy driving. It got difficult as I got into Georgia, and it was dark. Daniel had called me up the day before, surprised that I’m coming into town. He’s an awesome dude, so instead of going back to Couch 24 (Skizzy), I’d hit up Daniel, and he’d be couch 55. He said no problem, arrive at 5am, and call. I got in and 5:30am, and could not get a hold of him. This is by the way after my GPS told me to make a u-turn and go the wrong way… must’ve touched the screen accidentally. I was not amused when this happened. Anyways– no Daniel, it’s 5:30am, so I went to Couch 40’s place (I’m couch 40– it’s the place I bought on my journey), and crashed on my balcony again. In the morning I went to leave, stopped by Couch 28’s (AskJonathanOnline.com) and had lunch. I gave him many marketing concepts for his new business, and then drove off to Florida. Another long drive filled with cappuccinos.

I hung out with Couch 25 (Dave & Liz) and had some awesome discussions about sci-fi, time travel, life, travels, etc.. had a nice home cooked baked Ziti. The next day I finally made it home. That was a lot of drinking coffee, a lot of driving, and so I passed out for a bit. Upon waking, I color corrected Day 1 of Burning Man photos.

Yesterday I worked on a lot of business ideas with some of my partners… There’s a few things going on - I may be getting involved with a skateboarding company, model management, clothing distribution, and aftermarket car parts distribution… we’ll see what pans out. Last night was the Jewish New Year. I went with couch 26 (my folks) to their friends’ house to have a nice holiday dinner. I then went to my friend Johnny’s house, and hung out for a bit. They introduced me to a show that’s really funny, “It’s always sunny in Philadelphia” I left around midnight to try and finish up a few things before today. Why is today important?

Today is the day Angela (Couch 44) comes into town. I have so many surprises planned for her! I’d tell you about them, but she may read my blog from here… so… it’ll have to wait. Let’s just say that she’s going to walk away with a big smile. I can tell you that we are going skydiving on Sunday, then going to Kayak, then going to a Brazilian restaurant. It was funny- she got a Brazilian wax, so thought that’s what I meant when I said we’re eating Brazilian on Sunday :p

Stay tuned! This will be an awesome awesome week!

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