Maji's blog: "Life shtuff..."

Sydney harbor proved to be all expected and more last night, with 13mil in attendance, and 7 tons/5mil$ in fireworks.

Stayed for both the 9pm show and the midnight finale. Camped down in Lady Macquarie's Chair and the royal botanical gardens. I couldnt get over these huge bats that just flutter around in the day just as birds in the park anywhere else. The cockatoos obviously were unnerved by the mass of ppl in their normally quiet haven, as their screeching their protest in the treetops...or perhaps they were just joining in the hoopla?? Im going with the latter.

Much to tell but no time. Its new years day here, and heading to Bondi to relax and recover. Everyone back stateside should be gearing up for their countdown in the coming hours. Be safe and have a blast whatever you may do.

Happy 2011 !

4 days, 2 canceled flights, 3 reroutes, a 24 hr layover, and 11500 miles later, I have made it to my siesta destination as of yesterday..

Im still having a bit of phone troubles, so this is basically to alert those that I promised I would inform when I got where I was going.

If you cant be fucked reading a blog then you can just stew on your unanswered text I suppose.

Its NYE here already, so I must continue getting ready and head out for the night.

I wish all the best when the the clock catches up where you are, cheers to friends made and friends continued, & I will see you all in 2011.

~Maji~

It couldnt be any other way. This almost defines me.

On the day that I am to embark on my compulsive hiatus, brings the biggest snowstorm of the year for my year.

After fulfilling tradition of dinner with dads family and then my brothers, I left and returned home instead of staying the night. 50 of the 75 miles were spent running 20-25 mph in half dollar size flurries which covered the road, no visible lines or detection of where the roads edge was at because it was too early on for the scrapers and salt trucks to make the rounds. So all us lucky souls just follows the ruts left by previous travelers, with the execption of a few anxious SUVs that wanted to speed past us all and spray us with their wake, only to trek on another mile or 2 and find them in the median ravine or skidded off into the woods.

I made it home only to awake to a foot of snow this morning, and incoming reports of closings and delays, but somehow my flight was still on, despite ones before and after being called off. I suppose they just wanted to wait until I was enroute before sending the text that it was canceled.

So I hobbled back home, and spend the day muddling thru a labyrinth of phone automation, to finally end up in very nice malaysian lady with very inexplicable english. I finally had to apologize and ask to speak to someone else. 3 transfers later I wound up with an exuberant young new englander named Elaine. Whom was very accomodating to my questions, and handled my frustration as well as my insistence on compensation like a champ. I launched, she countered, til we reached an agreement, and I held her on the phone until the voucher email arrived. We had some pleasant convo and even a few laughs during her hostage situation so it was all good.

So, my airport is closed out tomorrow as well, but I got another flight 72 mls away in the morning. I made arrangements for a friend to pick up my car and drive it to his place to avert the long term parking fees. Road condition website is looking like DOT has caught up a bit, unless theres another storm surge, so once I get out of the city and interstate bound hopefully wont be to trecherous.

Expediton resumed for now.

If you havent read the previous blog, this probably wont make much sense.

The time is here, and still Im embroiled in this swirl of thought about how to approach the holidays. And the more I dwell, the more compulsive I become.

Spontaneity seems to be the theme thats coming into focus. In fact, since last xmas, this year has been highlighted with many episodes of think/do. And I am yet to be unhappy that I did. It has become quite a part of my existence.

This time around however, there is a bit of escapism involved. But Im calling it vicarious tribute. Its my dilemma and I can call it whatever I want. This coupled with the fact that I dont think my father would be very happy with me knowing I spent the entire holidays in a lost, directionless murky cloud of regrieving.

Nevertheless, Ive decided that I will go home for xmas. I will baske in the love that radiates from my grandmother, and enjoy the pampering that only mom can provide. I will have a drink with my brother, and wear my niece like a little koala. I will visit my dads widow and face the echoes of his touch on everything. And finally I will go to his resting place, and say a few words, whilst I long for his response and his ever intriguing outlook of the world.

At that point, I think I will have done and contributed all the good that I can do. Anything past that will simply be an erosion of spirit and well being.

So Im thinking shortly thereafter, I am going to get as far away from this place as I possibly can. A total reset of sorts.

So stay tuned, as I fully believe if I am capable, and I think I am, that between now and the new year you will see me emerge in a drastically different setting.

Some may remember what happened last year, for those that dont and care to find out it can be found here... http://www.fubar.com/one-more-day/b327318-1093220

Ive felt the loom of the holiday approaching for some time,  and have done my best to occupy myself and my mind. But inevitably it is something I must face when I return home. Ive processed and rationalized it in my mind, maybe to burn myself out and just be numb so that I can muddle thru. But as the time draws nearer, I am consumed with this mixture of dread & loss, and things being out of place and incomplete. I feel...drastic.

The more I contemplate, the more I feel I must get away. A struggle between the part of me that feels I must pay homage,  the obligation to display and share your pain in the presense of your kindred, vs the rational need to represent &  be productive thru a life well lived, in tribute.

To understand this, you must know my father. We're talking about a guy that got up and left thanksgiving dinner after we finished eating, to quote "All ya do is talk about who died, who's gonna die, who's sick and has the most potential to die, and who is left in the wake and how bad it is for them. Bluhh, Im going home! Thank ya for the vittles!"

This makes me concede what his outlook would be about us all getting together and brooding over his absence. He would probably be livid. I mean this guy couldve had open heart surgery per se, and if there was anyway he could get away with not telling me about it, Id never know until I called one day or my grandmother told me..."Pop, I understand you were in the hospital?"..."Ehh, they just had to open my pipes up a bit, wuchu up to bud?"...."Well dude, throw me a bone, I would at least like to know if youre going under the knife"...."Wuchu gonna do, huh? Take off work and come down there and sit your ass and hem n haw bout shit you cant do nothing about?"..."Well thats up to me, I still wanna know whats going on with ya, just sayin."...."huhuhuh, whatever, its done."

He would have about the same to say about the current situation. I can hear him saying "Heres what your problem is, you think you have all this power, you think you can change things and make them better with your despair, when fact is you dont have any power at all, your anguish doesnt affect the outcome of things in the least. All youve accomplished is tick away a buncha time that coulda been spent living."

His voice has become increasingly clear and present in my head over the past months as you can tell. As much as I wanna skip going home, I have to consider my grandmother, and her loss as well, its not all just me. She has buried my grandpa, my father(her first born), and now the youngest (my uncle) has cancer. She will be struggling with her own feelings of loss as well. I need to be there to help keep her in touch with what she has left, and what I have left as well.

But I just dont know if I myself can endure a lengthy stay as in the past. Which brings me to where Im going with all this...which ironically is also the epic question...

See next entry

maji: wuchu doin?
maji: me nosy
prinny: playing online poker, watching football, and looking in at fubar for no apparent reason.
prinny: you?
maji:lookin in at fubar, yawning, and making chebacca noises when I exhale.
prinny: hahaha you so lie
maji: I so do not. Check your phone

prinny: OMGlmao!! Ive played it 5 times aready
maji: 10 bucks says your trying to do it right now
prinny: HAHAHA!!!.......maybe :@

(Player is in comments, as fubar stills lacks the ability to create a blog editor that does not shred html code.) :/

Well October marks the end of FY10, and with that comes time for performance evaluations in my profession.

My QAM gave me a great review, to which put me in for a raise. My score being 3.2 out of 4.

But what are accolades without a lil digg thrown in, right?

So the following is the category that kept me from getting a perfect score. I thought you guys might get a good laugh.

Here is the excerpt, verbatum....

*Communications: Ability to demonstrate effective communication (verbal and written) with coworkers and clients.* : 2

"I feel this may be his biggest weakness. He is a very intellectual individual, who sometimes tends to be wordy in his replies to people, which in turn sometimes leaves a person wondering what he just said."

lol, could be worse right? I'll take that.

Anyone thats a fan of the show, might have seen last nights episode Royals and Loyals.

When I was in California they shot this episode using the ship I was working on as a backdrop in a few scenes and some onboard footage. Some of our scaffolding and construction is in view at one point.

The irony here is, in the story the ship is a british vessel, and is portrayed being ported in Norfolk, which is pretty close to home, but was actually shot 3000 miles away, where I just happen to be at the time lol.

A little extra kicker, about 18:19 into the show, the door that the suspect walks out of (posed as a storage depot) is actually a vending machine area that I frequented several times a day.

I procrastinate grocery shopping, to the point of vapors in the fridge, echos in the cabinet.

But yet when  I do go, I get the biggest charge when I get home and put everything away.

I often do a strange celebratory dance after everything is stocked.

I have to fight the urge to sample everything, to avert subsequently makin myself naseous from the odd smorsgabord of things that dont necesarily go together.

But Im so excited! I mean I got this, and that, ohhh and those, ahhhh and these!! Ohh ok, maybe just a smidge..

Soo, to append my previous blog, I had bought tickets for zztop for the same day I was flying from cali.

I gave my friends my ticket just in case sumn happenned and I couldnt make it.

Usually when flying out of socal, I will go ahead and get to LA and bunk in by the airport.

This time I drove in from outta town, worked once before, thought it might again.

Left like 2am to catch a 615. Should have put me there like 4. Road's all mine right?...wrong.

4 bouts of night construction, with CHP zigzagging across 8 lanes in front of the pack 5 miles before the construction just to slow everyone down.

So this repeated scenario puts me in the morning LA crawl. Im still 15 miles out, and its 430am. I still have to turn in the rental, catch shuttle, offload, checkin bags, by 515. Im not seeing it.

So i figure its 730 back east, call the HR girl see if can catch the next. She didnt get in til nearbout 9.

Turns out theres a 0915, and its now 0645. Gonna be tight, but lets try it. Turns out was only a few cars pulling into Avis for return. The guy checks me pretty quick, prints reciept, and .......heres what never happens, the bus driver got off the shuttle and walked over and asked if I was goin to LAX, and that he would hold on a few mins so I didnt have to wait another 15 mins fro the next one. Fukin score...

Get checked in, & thru security. But this flight will put me home at 645pm, 77 mls from an 8pm show, so I call my buddy and let them know to go ahead and go, and i will drive myself.

Get to Detroit.....connecting flights delayed 1.5 hrs........fuk, well, nice try anyway right?

So now Im callin my bud again to break the news Im not gonna make it, when i see they have a flight goin to Richmond (where the show is at), but leaves in like 24 mins.

I run to the counter........guy looks it up "yea I got ya a seat, and I can get you there, but not your luggage". I procede to tell him my luggage needs to go on anwyay, and while Im talkin he's already printed the pass, and says "you have 4 mins, youre at B3, you need to be at B33"

So...shoooooooooooooooommm like a rocket thru the terminal, just in time...chic yellin down the tunnel "Hold up, we got one more!!".

So its back on again.....gonna make the show! Call my bud real quick "change of plans, pick me up at Richmond International"....."Cool! See ya there!"

Gate pulls away, we start backing up.......brakes.......................wtf *groans* Look out the left wondow, Five O everywhere. Now the doors coming down. They huddle for awhile, and three enormous cops come on and extract this guy. I hear the cargo door....fuk, theyre pulling his luggage.

Chic boards and gets on the com and tells us all that dude was observed dismantling/reassembling an electronic remote looking device in the terminal, and then again on the plane. I hear the grumbles of everyone sayin "wtf, why didnt ya confront him in the terminal? why wait til plane starts taxiing?" Cops get back on and tell everyone its all legit, dude was just tryin to fix his mp3 player or sumn while he was waiting. They let him back on.

Next thing ya hear is phones cueing up, ppl trying to call their rendevous to let them know we're late. Fukin gate manager chic barks at everyone to shut their phones down.

50 mins have passed. Im calculating I'll hit ground at 830, and my friends will be wondering what to do in the meantime.

Pilot comes on bout qtr way thru flight, says he's been given a shortcut over the mtns and clearance to (I swear he said "spank it"), and that we may hear the engines change sound etc, everythings cool, and he'd try his best to get us there close as possible to original 715 landing.

Touched down 735, call my friends, theyre still at baggage claim outside smokin, waitin. Turns out the theater is 7.2 mls away.

We hustle, get in, get drinks, and settled down bout 8 mins before showtime. Fuk yeaaaaaaa.

4 hr drive, 3000 ml flight, concert til midnight, 80 mls to pick up my car, 18 mls back to my house. 26 hrs awake........guess what I did Weds??? lol