Santa Cruzin

Santa Cruz, California. It consumes you.

I decided after the last couple posts of pointless drivel just regurgitating what I was doing with my life I would only post when I had something interesting, thought provoking, constructive to say along with the status updates, or at least a good story. Turns out I dont have that many thought provoking things to say these days, or maybe just not the time and motivation to put it to words. Santa Cruz has a way of taking up your time, what with things like surfing, biking, climbing, beaching, etc all at your immediate disposal, or really just sitting outside enjoying the sun is a common time taker.

Constructive thought for the post: I have started drinking dirty martinis and when I couldnt find a way to make your own olive juice, I decided to make it up. 8 olives and a small garlic clove, mush 'em, put them in a sauce pan with 2ish cups of water, add a splash of vinegar (I used balsamic, red wine vinegar might have been a better choice, or maybe just red wine for that matter...), add a bunch of salt, like 5 tablespoons, just do it to taste, bring to a boil and simmer for half an hour. I put it in a jar unfiltered, just made me a test tini and its pretty good. Really though, I have no idea what Im talking about, I mean, I have consumed like 8 martinis, but I know what tastes good to me, it feels good to order a martini and know what you want. Dirty, extra dry.

Whew, being constructive is difficult, anyway, back to me. Santa Cruz has just been a whirlwind of awesome, it is going to take much longer than the three months I planned on being here to really get a good grasp on the area. So... Im staying until September. I got a job at the Boardwalk, a seasonal deal, the summer season ending in September, so I am going to drive Kari back home and fly back out here. I applied for a few jobs out here, the ice cream shop didnt hire me, the tourist trap candy store didnt, the coffee shop didnt, so I changed something, I figure it was the degree in bio, why would a bio grad keep such a menial job for any significant length of time? For my application to a grunt job at a photo lab I tried to think of the most boring, useless degree possible, so I could just tell them I didnt like the possibilities in my field. Communications. I told them I was a communications major, and it was an easy task convincing them I would rather handle hot metal photo plates all day than do any job that a communications major would do. They were looking for a longer than September commitment though, and I couldnt convince them that I would stay for as long as they wanted me. Maybe even a communications degree was too much. I didnt tell the Boardwalk that I have a college degree at all. The Boardwalk hired me. Not only did they hire me, but after telling me that I probably would not be able to take off more than 4 days in a row, I explained that I would need to take 12 days to drive home with Kari, after a couple days deliberation, my future boss, who interviewed me, said that it would be ok... I guess I made a good impression. An intelligent, motivated worker without the worries of a college graduate, what more could you want? It looks like I am going to be the first line of defense for the tech services team at the boardwalk, troubleshooting sound, electrical, computer problems in the park. Seems like it will be an interesting job and the timing is great, I will finish up the job and head to Europe.

So now, after the first wave of guests have come through, my brother will be here soon, Karis friend, thencmy friends, then my family... then we drive back. We have a pretty full schedule for the next month, but a good kind of full. The best kind of full.

Topics to address in the future: West coast people, blood type diet, Na'vi boobs. Stay tuned.