This happened a while back, but today is New Year’s Day, the birthday of a year. I’m wishing all of my friends a happy birthday (ahead of time) and a happy new year. Merry 2009, everybody!
Yet another year has gone by, and another year will soon go by, but birthdays are very dear to most people. So, in the spirit of this long-lasting tradition, I’m writing about his birthday party… again.
It seems people really do grow up, as far as parties are concerned. You can find a whole lot more of the cursing, cussing, throwing, and all that good (not really) stuff.
The party started off decently. People played games, ran around, and when bored, went to the Legos over and over again. It was quite amazing how much fun people can find in Legos.
Dinner came, and we ate some pizza. Then my dad dropped by, for some crazy reason, and started chatting with Rocky’s mom. I snorted at Rocky, and said, “JUST checking, you know? Making sure we’re not doing anything bad.”
My mom was going to have a blue Christmas this year. Or so I hoped. Although she skied green all the time, I was hoping to have her ski a blue trail.
It would be a very hard time convincing her. At ski resorts, she generally spent most of her time on one part of a mountain. Parts she skied in generally took me around five minutes to complete.
But this year, it was going to be different. I wanted her to actually ski a blue trail.
In the sport of skiing, as well as all the other mountain sports, ski trails are labeled based on difficulty. The colors represent difficulty, from green circle, to blue square, to black diamond, to double-diamond, to extreme terrain.
I had the ability to ski a hard blue / easy black trail. That wasn’t to say my mom had the same ability. She skied easy green trails. That was it.
“Honey, I have great news for you,” my dad exclaimed to my mother, who was sitting in a chair, eyebrows raised. I knew what was going through her head. Not again.
She didn’t say it out loud, though, possibly because of a eager saleswomen standing right next to my dad. She was holding a clipboard and had a pen stuck behind her ear.
“What?” my mom finally asked.
“They said they would upgrade us to a SUV for only 100 dollars!” my dad smiled at my mom.
“Every day?”
“No, total!”
My mom stuttered for a moment, then said, “Your decision.” I didn’t know what it meant (and that was the whole point: zero percent liability), but my dad must have perceived it as a yes because he turned around and grinned at the salesperson. “Go ahead.”
It was morning at Copper Mountain, Colorado. I opened the window, taking a deep breath. I could feel the crispness of the air here, much more dry here than sticky Houston. I saw people walking towards the bus stations, getting ready for the day ahead.
The lifts had not opened yet. The sun was out. The mountains were pure white. It was a great day to ski.
Our airplane had touched down at Denver International Airport nearly a day ago. We had played around in Denver.
Around six in the afternoon yesterday, we had to pick up our skis. We had rented them at a ski rental office, and it was there that we picked them up.
Now, however, it was time to get on the mountain. It was time to run around. It was time… to ski. Continue reading
A little girl standing next to me was swaying with the music, holding on to her dad’s hands behind her. Families stood behind me, humming along with the music.
I was at San Antonio’s famous Riverwalk. It was the first day of the Christmas celebration, and the last day of our Thanksgiving trip.
When we had adopted him, I had promised my parents all sorts of things; I would wake up early everyday to walk the dog, I would give him a bath every single day, and I would love and love and love and love him.
Now let us fast forward to two months after I got the dog. My dad goes and walks the dog in the morning while I snore in my bed. My dad and I share the dog-washing, and my mom sometimes takes him out to a saloon to have a fur-cut.
It’s quite different now then what I imagined. My dad is doing most of the work, my mom is getting the most love, and I am getting the most fun playing with him when I want to.
My dog was supposed to sleep with me in my bed… instead, he sneaks up onto the master bedroom bed when my mom is taking a nap and not noticing.
Regardless, I still love my dog, so this is a tribute to him and all the great times I had with him. I hope you enjoy it.
I created this photo-video of my trip to the four locations, and here is the result: one four-minute long music video of our trip. A high-definition version of this video is available here.
More pictures below. This article was edited on 12/17/2008.
—-
Treasure the unexpected, a doctor said.
—-
There was nothing around for miles. The only thing we had, the only thing that pointed us towards the correct direction, were tiny red markers. Without them, we might be completely lost in the barren landscape.
Sand stretched for miles and miles. All you could see was dune after dune, of pure white dust on the ground, slowly building up and being layered by the powers of the wind. And in the far distance, mountains.
We were at White Sands National Monument. It was interestingly inside a United States missile range, and the old man at the visitor center had told us the US Department of Defense conducted frequent tests, firing missiles from one side of the range, over the park, to the other side.
I was expecting a mountain. I was expecting a few trails around the bottom of the mountain. I was also expecting a mountain trail to the top of the highest peak of Texas, for mountain climbers.
So when my dad and I walked into the visitor center, I wasn’t expecting much. I had agreed that I would hike to the top of the mountain if, and only if, there was a hiker accessible trail to the top.
When we walked out, however, I was stunned. The park ranger had explained to us that the trail would take a day. It was 8 miles round-trip, which normally wouldn’t freak me out, but the trail would climb 3000 feet. And then another 3000 feet down.
6000 feet was a bit more than a mile. Up. If somebody had asked me to climb half a mile straight up, I would have thought they were joking. But here I was, about to climb up half a mile, and then back down half a mile.
I snorted. The park ranger had told us there were little children who had climbed it. That hardly helped my self-pride. I turned around, looking up. The giant peaks loomed around me. They looked very tall. They were not, however, the highest one. Guadalupe Peak was. And it was behind all the other giant peaks. Continue reading
When my father told me we were going to a cavern, I imagined a dark lonely cave, with no one. Maybe there was one person to give out lanterns at the front, but no more than that. The long, winding road from the wide highway into the mountains just further pushed this suspicion.
So when I arrived at the visitor center, I took a look at the photos hanging in a room. There were two walls filled with pictures. On one side, there were all sorts of different formations in the pictures. On the other, there were a bunch of people, faces caulked with mud, waving at the camera.
It was the formations I was interested in. I loved taking photographs. I found the photos very interesting. When I once again strolled out of the room, I wasn’t thinking damp tunnels. I was thinking about the real Carlsbad Caverns National Park: the one that had the largest cavern room in the world. Continue reading
soul log is currently a work in progress, and massive changes may happen to it at any time for the next few months before it will finally stabilize. In the meantime, please bear with me if the site is broken suddenly, but it shouldn't last more than a few hours.
