Random

Did you know that a 10 lbs. sack of potatoes costs less than a package of potato chips? Until I had Noel cook things from scratch, I had no idea how easy it was to make pretty much anything. Did you know that you could make cinnomon rolls from scratch? Or bread, or pancakes, or mashed potatoes, or anything? Seriously, it is so much cheaper to make your own stuff, and all you have to do is go to allrecipes.com and find something that sounds good. But, I guess many of you already knew this. I am a little dense in some places.

A few days ago Paul, Michael and I went to the beach to go surfing and boogie boarding. It was very crowded, and the water was cold. Most people were in the water sans protective clothing, but some had wetsuits.
(Sidenote) There is something that underlies the culture in California. You are either cool, or not. This cool/not thing actually matters to people. You either wear surf clothes like everyone else, or you are not cool. The current is so strong that it alters the way people think about each other. When Noel first met me I was wearing my yellow North Face rain jacket, a brown, polyester, pearlsnap, 2nd hand longsleeve shirt, jeans, and my hiking boots. She thought I was a total dork and my only redeaming quality was that I was reading a huge book (Les Miserables). Cool or not matters to people here.
(Continuing) So there Paul and I were... sitting on the beach because the waves were going too big for boogie boarders... when all of a sudden this looming 6'5" man and his matched and gangly 15 year son came sauntering down the beach at a brisk pace with their boogie boards under arm. No big deal, until the man, who was about 55, turns to his son and yells out, "Too bad we forgot our FULL LENGTH WETSUIT WHEN IT IS 70 OUTSIDE. BWAHAHAHA." He actually bwahahahaed at us. I turned to paul and said that I wouldn't need a wetsuit if my body did as good of a job at insulating itself as his did. Evidently in beach culture you always have to be cold (Full length in the winter, 3/4 in spring, and none in the summer) because cold is cool, which is better than being warm and not cool.
I love California.

Comments

  1. db12/7/07

    I have to admit...I would have bwahahaha'd at you if I saw you wearing a full wetsuit in the middle of the summer! That is freaking hilarious!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Caleb12/7/07

    I hope you havn't worn your dinosaur t-shirt while you are in California! :) They may not think that is as cool as we did in high school.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Derek12/7/07

    Since the water in Cali only gets up to 55F in the summer, I believe you always have an excuse to wear a wetsuit. Your choice is wear a suit and have fun or freeze your nipples off.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Staci13/7/07

    Did you factor in the hourly wage for peeling, sliceing, seasoning, and baking or frying 10 pounds of potatoes?

    Granted there are some things that are cheaper to make...but chips aren't worth the time! Now baby food on the other hand....

    ReplyDelete
  5. craigjames19/7/07

    no matter what you wear....you will always be a laowai to me!
    Who cares about those stinkin gay californians...i mean honestly...who cares what you wear....everyone should just be naked....ok..i take that back...wheres the backspace key...where is it...where is it....DAMN...

    well i say to all those who want to act as fashion police and criticise you for liking dinosaurs....LOOK AT MOI..LOOK AT MOI....i got one word to say to you...kath and kim...haha...GUM NUT EARINGS and shoulder pads!

    Its half past twelve....and i need to go to bed...going to kangaroo island tomorrow and will be enjoying some kangaroo steak

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Systematic Cooking and the evolution of phones

Image
I don't mind eating the same thing repeatedly. Egg sandwiches in the morning. Roast beef sandwiches for lunch. Bagel Bites for dinner. All have been eating phases that I have gone through. Now that we are settling into our surroundings a little more here in Orange County, we felt a little more comfortable to just take it easy on the weekends. So, we cooked. I decided that I wanted to make a lasagna (and Noel made a great chili at the same time), which meant finding the top rated recipe on allrecipes.com. Badda bing badda boom-- 'I got me a whole lot of lasagna'. Thus, I get to have lots of lasagna all week long and and all I have to do to cook is stick it in the microwave. In some respects it is like the widow and her miraculous lamp. And on to the evolution of phones. The iconic figure of Zack Morris using his gigantic mobile phone during class sticks out in my mind as the essence of cool. Swing forward to 2001 and you will find Derek Zoolander, the top male m...
Read more

Busy, busy, busy

Image
Memories and thoughts disappear if not stored, recorded, written, or memorialized somehow. Of course, this immediately makes me think of pre-literate societies and what it must have been like to have only a few recorded memories, thoughts, pictures, or keepsakes not yet even 50 years ago. Now, every moment of every day is recorded, synched, uploaded, stored, and searchable to myself (or others). What then is to be done? Shirk the norms? Embrace the present culture? Moderate between the two? And yet, I have digressed . . . Yesterday's trip down memory lane truly allowed me to see the types of thoughts that were retained and more importantly the frequency. What seemed regular and consistent in 2006 and early in China, understandably diminished once marrying Noël, moving back to the States, further diminishing once beginning at PCA, and almost disappearing in Long Beach, and continuing through early Yakima and teaching, until now. What types of memories were retained? Well, I have ...
Read more

Snake

Image
It will have been fifteen years ago this year that I got my first cell phone. It was a Nokia something that had interchangeable faceplates. The phone-brick called people, received calls, and had games buried deep within the OS. My favorite was a this little gem: snake. The game was occasionally played but never mastered. Well, because you always died. The snake would eat too many apples, get too long, become unwieldy, and then you would run into yourself. My score never topped 200 and it didn't even matter. Scores on games on my phone didn't matter, because it was irrelevant to life. The phone barely mattered because I would rarely use it. I had other things to worry about. About this same time, in high school I start playing console games. I can thank Mike Stork for subsidizing the purchase of my first--a N64. That summer Mike gave me to do work around his property. It kept me busy and allowed me to save, and when I had enough money, I purchased the golden goose egg of the...
Read more