Living For The City

This is my hole. It’s better than Sean’s hole. K-Dog can’t dig holes worth a shit!

This is Luis; he took care of us all week, but getting taken care of here is no easy task. As I mentioned earlier, getting drunk at the resort was tough. Mexican beer, in general, has a lower alcohol content that wasn’t wasn’t the problem. Everything is watered down, we expected that, but what I didn’t expect was that at a 5 star resort that you’d need to grease the bar-tenders to get an actual alcoholic beverage.

See, for the first two days Kelsey swore that the vodka in her vodka tonics wasn’t Absolute vodka, and possibly not even vodka at all. She was right. They either have knock-off bottles or are pouring something else into empty Absolute bottles and that’s what gets served. Once you kick the bartenders a couple of bucks, you get a bottle of actual Absolute under the counter with your name literally written on it. It’s a horrible scam, it’s dishonest and disappointing but I don’t begrudge them. I suppose when you’re making $7 per day working a 12 hour shift serving mostly unappreciative gringos – little scams that boost your tip count are pretty easily self-justified.

“Excuse me. I hope you don’t mind me asking but are you in Sum 41?”
-Bobby Blyth, 2009

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I was ready to come home but ever since I’ve been home all I can think about is how badly I wish I could go back… C’est la vie.

Today we took a little trip down the coast to Tulum to check out the Mayan ruins. I don’t think that the ruins, themselves, are as impressive as those at Chichen Itza or the Inca ruins in Peru (not like I’ve seen either… yet) but the whole setting, right on the cliff-side down to the beach below, is really quite breathtaking and I’m really glad to have been there.

I wish we’d made our way into the actual town of Tulum which I think, in part, would have given us a more realistic glimpse into what life is like for a lot of Mexicans. Sean & Aidan went into town and definitely saw a dead dog, an exploding bird and a tiny, run down shack that is the town’s gynecologist.

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On the way back from the ruins we had the cab drop us off at the Dos Ojos Cenotes. Magically, Sean & Aidan who were supposed to be diving with turtles at the time had rented a car and randomly driven to Dos Ojos at the exact same time. Magic.

Filled with bats, narrow passageways and stalactites, stalagmites and columns formed by millions of years of natural evolution – snorkeling in the caves was a truly magical experience, one that I don’t expect to have again any time in the near future so I feel very fortunate to have been able to visit such an amazing place. Some real Planet Earth shit, right thurr.

Because none of us brought an underwater camera with us we weren’t able to document any of it, but every now and then it’s nice to just keep the memories ‘up here’ y’know? In any case, if any of you are ever on the Yucatan, which is apparently a virtual honeycomb of Cenotes like this one beneath the surface, I highly recommend doing this. It costs about $25, you can barely see a movie for that these days and I promise you that this is better than any movie you’ll ever see.

We were snorkeling, not scuba diving like folks in these pictures, but you get the gist…

This was our guide, Mosquito, he’s the man. He lives in a little hut like the ones that house the supplies at the dive site and has wicked stick n poke tattoos.

“Don’t worry; there aren’t any sharks, no crocodilo, no piranha… just these little sardines, or tetras like we call them in spanish… and gringos, lots of gringos.”

- Mosquito, 2009

It being Christmas Eve and all, we went back to the hotel, had a quick snack and got ready to head back into Playa Del Carmen for dinner. The plan was to go back to 100% Natural but apparently they were closed. Bummer.

Swings at the bar, folks… swings!!!

Sean & Aidan had a scorpion was in the room. Sean screamed and called the front desk, the vegan said to kill it and Aidan flicked the thing off the balcony… it scurried away and probably stung someone but good.

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On a side note; I’ve been playing with some of the settings on the LX3 trying to improve the (already drastically improved) quality of lower light photos… These aren’t perfect but you get the picture (see what I did, there?) – the first photo was taken without flash and just on regular “auto” setting / second photo also without flash but using the built in nighttime setting… Pretty fantastic.

Like most days; we got up relatively early, got some breakfast and then headed straight to the beach but on this day, after the beach, we made our way back over to the spa (where we’d done a water circuit a few days prior) for a nice massage on the beach. I can’t think of anything more relaxing than that was… Ok, maybe a thing or two, but it was pretty god damned relaxing and I won’t soon forget it.

I think this was the day that Robbie, Sean & I rented Jet Skis and it was pretty unreal; we’d hit the waves super hard and you’ve hear the engine spinning out of the water for at least a few seconds before the seacraft would slam back down on the water below. It was expensive, and I crushed my testicles, but it was well worth it! We don’t have any pictures but it was pretty much like this…

…ok, like not quite like that but at least that cool.

That’s just how he roll!

This is how I roll.

Kelsey rolls on giant man legs.

These kids rule; especially the 13 year old in the silver bedazzled FUCK ME I’M FAMOUS hoodie. These were the runts that fully ran the resort. I’m telling you, walking the wrong way in the lazy river talking about what a good workout it was, flossin’ serious sunglasses and chains indoors while stunin’ in hi-tops at the beach. Pretty Ricky, Mikey and Little Antony really know how to run shit!

I apparently didn’t take a lot of pictures that day which is probably a good thing; as with many things in life, you don’t have time to take pictures when you’re truly enjoying yourself. Budz.

The weather on day three still wasn’t co-operating with us but it was nice enough that we opted to hop in some cabs and head out to Playa Del Carmen for a day trip.

Priority number one; mow down. We had our first meal in Playa at a place that Sean & Aidan had eaten before and it was awesome. Not a vegetarian restaurant at all but tons of vegan / veggie options, cool atmosphere complete with a Bossa Nova CD full over awesome covers (you haven’t lived until you’ve heard Sweet Child like THIS!) and pretty inexpensive to boot. Probably the best meal of the trip.

After that we just kind of walked around Playa, doing a little shopping before grabbing some pops and heading down to the beach…

Sitting Robbie made his Mexican debut.

Kelso is impressed. Clearly.

This bar rules.

First of all; Girls + Dance on the bar = Free shot. So, that’s wicked, right?

Second of all; mountains of mountains in the men’s bathroom. Huge.

We’d made a deal with Diego, the driver for a round trip ride but we never gave him a time to meet and he said that there wasn’t a time limit (still haven’t figured how that works in their favor) but when we got back to the parking lot we were discussing how to find Diego he appeared, magically, and said “here I am!” He drove us back, doing 140 most of the time (in 60 zones) and at Kelsey’s request pumped up the jams the whole way. A Dance party ensued, totes obvi.

Robbie blew his load on the first song and passed out. Goodnight, sweetiepie.

I didn’t buy much while I was there but I did buy some scarves. My prediction; 5 scarves from Chiapas worn simultaneously is going to be this year’s Keffiyeh.

Banda Do Sul, Sweet Child O’ Mine:

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We spent our first night on the first floor in a room with two double beds – fortunately on day two, after some gentle convincing arm waving, they were able to move us into a nicer room on the third floor with a beautiful view and a proper (king) bed. The rooms are nice, big, clean and perfect for modeling things like the hat that Carly gave me to make sure that my thinning spot burned, thanks Carly!

Unfortunately the weather on the first full day there wasn’t fantastic. It was grey, a touch rainy and not generally awesome but the thought that it was late December and the weather back home would be awful coupled with the hope that the weather would quickly improve kept us in great spirits.

It may not have been wicked sunny and hot but it didn’t stop us from spending time at the beach!

If we weren’t at the beach or off the resort, we spent the bulk of our time here in the front lobby…

DJ Bobby B on the wheels of steel! Ladies & Gentlemen…

As a part of our package, on top of the buffet we each got three meals at one of the resort’s six “a la carte” restaurants… Mexican, Japanese, Italian, Cajun, Mediterranean, French… I think we each did two of them and then decided that it actually wasn’t any better than the buffet, which although I never went hungry, was about what you’d expect from a resort buffet in Mexico catering mostly to Gringos… We did Mexican the first night, it wasn’t fantastic but amongst friends it didn’t really matter – we weren’t lured there based on the resort’s culinary reputation.

So, a couple of months ago some of the budz, babez and I decided to duck out this holiday season and go somewhere hot… We really wanted to stay at a small villa in Costa Rica but the cost of the flight alone at Christmas was almost triple the usual fare… Aidan got to hunting and found a great deal on a place on the Mayan Riviera so we all jumped on it and it’s all I think any of us have thought about since.

The airport was fine; lots of waiting but nothing especially painful. Our new friend over there on the left didn’t seem to mind the holiday travel lines…

The flight, overall, was pretty miserable; I’ve had some shit flights in my day but this one was probably the worst. With all the stress of getting ready to leave, the least relaxing way to start your vacation is being completely flanked on all sides by screaming kids and moms that think tambourines and squeaky toys are the best way to pacify them.

I think the only thing that saved us in the end was Papertoss on Kelsey’s phone…

Once we landed, everything was golden! We’d booked a private shuttle in advance to avoid the bus to the resort, the people and the hours longer that it would have taken to get there which turned out to be brilliant! The driver pulled over, we picked up a case of Dos Equis and rolled out!

I turned my phone off, didn’t turn on a computer once (I even set that Christmas video to post before I left) and as much as I’m glad to have all my toys back, I’m glad to have disconnected for a week… felt great. My whole plan was to just be drunk in the lazy river the whole time but it just didn’t work out that way for a couple of reasons; one) the drinks are all watered down and in most cases aren’t even what they say they are on the bottle (more on that later) so it’s really hard to even get drunk and two) no, that’s really it, it just takes a lot of effort to get actually drunk there and hey, I’m on vacation, I don’t want to put forth an effort to do anything.

Just to get the mushy stuff out of the way on the first post; I’m sincerely bummed that I missed Christmas with my family this year but I am very fortunate to have spent it with a truly wonderful girl and four of the best friends a guy like me could hope to have. I love and appreciate all of you and was happy to have spent my holidays with you…

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Some truly beautiful photos from the trip have already shown up on Kelsey’s blog but some will probably show up in about 6 months on Killer Whale and there is a good chance that some will show up sooner on Systems Overloaded and Tami Noa.

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I grabbed some new jeans before I left – these aren’t really trip relevant at all but Kelsey holding them up to herself is funny.

Between the tree decorating and the Wham! Christmas single blasting out of my boss’ office on repeat, I know that the holidays are here & I’m trying to pack in as many holiday things as possible so that I don’t feel like I’ve missed out at all…

See, I’m not going to be here for Christmas this year which sucks because I do definitely enjoy the time that I get to spend with my family over the holidays. At the same time, the reason I’m not going to be here is that I’ll be in Mexico, drunk in the lazy river spending quality time with some of my favorites; Kelso, Tamo & Bobbert, Sean & Aidan.

Last week Tami had a couple of us over for a lovely meal in celebration of the first day of Hanukkah… I’ve been thinking of converting for a while so that in a couple of years when my hair gets wicked thin I can just wear a Yamaka and everything will be golden!

I spent the day on Saturday at my folks’ place with my sister, brother and law and my favorite nephew. Ok, he’s my only nephew but he’d still be my favorite.

I got back into the city in time for Spark & Rob’s Annual Christmas Extravaganza and like year’s past, this year did not disappoint!

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One of my favorite parts of going home, aside from seeing my family, is digging through my old stuff and finding things that I’ve squirelled away until they become relevant again later in my life.

Like this vest that I have been wearing all week…

They just don’t make ‘em like they used to…

This is a random sign that I probably stole in high school… I remember this one time my mom found my stash of stolen signs (I had a bit of a thing for them) and she asked “don’t you think you should return them?” to which I used the same response I gave my dad when he asked if I should clean up the eggs I’d gotten caught throwing on devil’s night… Ummm, nope.

I had a pretty sick sticker collection when I was young – I used to get some of these with my Bones Brigade intelligence reports, or with the pennies I’d saved at local shops and skate shops I’d visit on vacation and I’d usually buy two; one to stick and one to save. Here are a few pretty choice pieces…

Some things never change…

I don’t I know if I believe in “Karma” in a traditional sense but I do hope that trying to be a decent and honest person and surrounding yourself with more of the same will bring you good things in life. I mean, if Karma were real then why are kids in Kathmandu sleeping in sewers and huffing glue? Most of them haven’t even had time to do anything bad and their lives will be filled with so very little good. The idea that there are cosmic forces at work giving great things to the good while punishing the bad seems too far removed from reality to have any real faith in it.

All that said, every now and then someone reaches out and just does something nice for you, just because they can, and when they do you sincerely hope that somehow it’ll come back to them because their act of kindness warrants it. Sheeeeit, in writing this it now sounds like I’m talking about some epic and life changing event but it’s a much simpler gesture that is none the less appreciated.

So, a couple of months ago I posted up a bunch of random photos of things that I liked and one of those things was a Half-Mile Ray Search Light from Restoration Hardware. Expensive and completely out of reach, I didn’t have any actual hopes of having one, I just thought they were neat.

Well, a couple of weeks later I open my email and it’s from my new bestest bud in Portland saying, in short, that he noticed that I posted a picture of that lamp and he just might be able to score me one at an unimaginable discount. I don’t have much spare cash these days but I’d have been mental to pass it up. Like, fully and completely mental! Well, today it showed up and it’s spectacular!

I’ll post up some proper pictures soon & I’m still waiting to find the exact right spot in my place to put it (I’ve got to get rid of / rearrange a bunch of furniture) but for now, tharr she be, singing me lullabies when I lay my head to rest and waiting for me every morning when I wake up.

Thank you so much, Joshua, you have no idea just how much I truly appreciate this. There is a little something coming in the mail for you, it’s nowhere near as sweet as this lamp by any stretch, but I hope you’ll dig it.

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Not to sully an otherwise great story with a bum-out; UPS fucked up the delivery, as expected, so I had to leave work and shoot over to Liberty Village to meet the driver in a parking lot and try to lug these home on my bike!

Needless to say I couldn’t, so fortunately Bobbert came to pick me up and saved my ass big time! Also, fortunately, I’m really good at complaining so I now have a $100 shipping credit with UPS… Kind of a pain because I now have to find something to ship in the next few months to take advantage of it but I’ll take it, none the less! I didn’t even need to write a strongly worded letter!

Snow all night… rain all day…

Old Man Gloom, Deserts In Your Eyes:

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I may not always want to get up and go to work in the morning but facing the reality that I have to, I’m more than happy to wake up and come here. I’ve been in this building for over 5 years and in this particular space for at least 3 years and I love it. High ceilings, big windows, wood floors, exposed beams & brick… If you’re going to have an open concept office this one has been pretty fantastic.

Unfortunately we’re outgrowing the space and are going to have to move in the near future. Hopefully the new space that we move into is as nice and inviting as this one has been, or better yet as seriously fantastic as what I’m about to share…

While perusing IS050 earlier today I came across a studio tour of Parliament Design in Portland and my mind was blown. Especially having seen the before pictures, it’s really inspiring.

I’m not entirely sure what they do; the countdown on the main page of their site indicates some sort of site relaunch, but if I had to guess I’d say that they are a multi-faceted design studio focusing primarily on interior and furniture design using reclaimed materials. It’s probably safe to say that they also work in graphic arts, but that’s really just a hunch more than anything else…

I’ve seen a bunch of really awesome studio tours lately, but none have made me want to pack up, drive across the continent, show up on their door and just say “I work here now” as much as this one has. Concrete, steel & wood, Eames everywhere, a pool table, more reclaimed materials than you can shake a hand-hewn beam at and men being men with chopsaws and blow torches and eeeerythang!

Check it out HERE.

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Speaking of Portland & Office Spaces…

Via The World’s Best Ever