Saying Goodbye.

The weather was perfect on my walk home and I feel a little bit lighter.  It hasn't sunk in yet, but there is no mistaking that this really is the end of this chapter.  Tomorrow I will load up everything I own, luckily it all fits in my luggage, and I will ride away from this place for the last time.  Its 64 degrees, it’s quiet, there are a gazillion stars in the sky, and my last day of work is over.

I would have never come to Oklahoma on purpose, and if you would have told me two and half years ago that this is where I would be, and would have been for the past two years, I would have laughed at you.  There were no plans I might have dreamed up that would have put me here, and I am the kind of person that dreams up plans.  But, as history can now indicate beyond dispute, this is where I called home since May 18^th, 2011.  I've made friends, I was lucky enough to have a job where I could help people, and I was a good employee.  I've left a lot of places, but this time is different because I leave knowing things are good and it’s just time to move on.  To say it is good I mean the experience was, I wouldn't just randomly move on if things at the job were good were like that.  I mean you have a goal and you accomplish it so when it is time to leave you have no regrets, or hard feelings about what you had just done.  You just don't slip out when no one is looking hoping not to have make eye contact or explain yourself.

Saying goodbye is always a let down.  I used to really get caught up with it though, never could get used to it.  Seems like everything should just stop and it could all last a little longer.  At this point with the way I've lived it is all too normal.  People and places come and go and I just try to remember the things worth remembering.   

I've met a lot of people here that I will remember and some I'm sure I will see again.  I can sleep OK, got a big trip tomorrow.

One of my favorite songs/performances that I've come across lately, unreally beautiful

"Is this Snoop Dogg?"

I was writing a different post with Letterman on in the background, and got distracted.  He had Snoop Dogg on who is now referred to as Snoop Lion and is in the process of working on becoming a Rastafarian.  It reminded me of a trip I took to Jamaica a long time ago with my girlfriend for like 10 days. We stayed at the Rock Cliffs Hotel in Negril, and I had hooked up with these young guys who had a little carving shop down the street from there.  Each day I would go hang out with them for a while in the morning and we would talk about random stuff.  Mostly they just asked me questions about whatever was on their minds or things they had heard of since I was obviously a traveler and they spent most of their time hanging around their shop hustling tourists.  I noticed that when I would see in the evenings, after I had spent some money on vacation supplies with them, that they would have brand new american style gear on.  I asked them about this and they told me that they spent all their profits on new clothes.  They also told me I should go back to America, fill up a bunch of suit cases, and fly back and we could all be rich.  This lead to many conversations where they would ask me what was cool for rappers like Snoop Dogg to wear and stuff like that.

Somehow, and I really don't remember how, I had found an NWA tape in the bag I had brought with me.  Can't really explain it since I definitely hadn't listened to it for years.  Anyways, I decided I would give the tape to them as a present on the day I left.  I walked down the street for the last time and put the tape in the main guy Squiggly's hand.

S: "Is this Snoop Dogg?"
Me: "No, it's Snoop Dogg's boys, it's better than Snoop Dogg"
(He looks noticeably upset that it isn't Snoop)
S: "Better than Snoop Dogg?  Snoop Dogg's friends?"
Me: "Yeah, his friends. This is the original, these guys are OG's"
S: "OG's?"
Me: "Original gangsters"
S: "Oh."
Me: "Yeah, OG's"
S: "Is Snoop Dogg OG's?"
Me: "Well no, but whatever just take the tape and listen to it, you'll like it, it's dope"
S: "Snoop Dogg's friends, OhhGee's, yaaah"

As I rode out of town I passed their shop and heard "Fuck the police...." blaring in the street and remembered why life is good.

#manhunt hangover

Yesterday was my day off and I had a lot of stuff today considering there are only a few weeks left until I leave for Las Vegas.  Like most days I had MSNBC on the t.v. while i was working at my desk, but this day was different.  Boston marathon bomber suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was on the loose and the entire city of Boston was locked down while the police searched for him.

This is one of those kind of news stories that you just can't stop watching, like the worst kind of being stuck because at any moment it might all come to an end.  At some point while looking through the twitter feed I found this link for the police scanner stream and following the news story was taken to a whole new level.  I am not sure who creates a stream that broadcasts a specific police scanner channel in real time, but holy hell this added to a complete inability to tear myself away from the desk.  The only thing I can compare this to in my lifetime is watching the footage of the beginning of Desert Storm on CNN in 1991.

The world changes everyday, even if it is only in little ways.  It almost always gives me a hangover on the day after.