I’m Working… I Swear

Oh why hello again Beijing airport, I felt like we just met and here I am again. Oh wait, probably because I was just here a few days ago. Is it sad that I’m getting so good at airports that I can spot a free power port that will accept an american power plug from 30 feet away?

Bryans’ mom died this weekend. The woman, although slightly crazy and not related to me directly, meant a lot to me. More importantly Bryan means a lot to me. My father was understandably unenthusiastic but understanding of my decision to catch the next flight to Denver to meet Bryan and Nick. It’ll mean 10 days alone in a hotel room, and for a man whose 74 and not in the best of health, it makes his son worry a bit. All I can say is he better not die while I’m doing this, or he’ll have me on his hands. On the plus side I’m pretty sure I’d never need to make the “god doesn’t exist” argument ever again.

So here I am, sitting on the increasingly hard granite floor at gate E30. I wonder if AT&T knows how much I appreciate their unlimited data plan that I can use to connect to the internet while in China. Porn anyone?

It’s also a great way to get around that pesky facebook ban China has. Yeah fuck you communists, you haven’t figured this out.

I’m really not looking forward to landing in Denver. I have absolutely no clue what to say to my best friend. Just a hug I guess. I’ll probably end up making some jackass comments about death or some fucked up joke. You know how I am.

I feel like some major life changes are in order. Not all of my ideas have been the best for my welfare. I’ve considered starting up an addiction. Drugs sound promising but I think it would interfere to much with my regular lifestyle. I was leaning towards sex addiction, the meetings would be more interesting. Also I’m just good looking enough to pull it off without spending too much money on hookers. I mean I’d have to drop my standards way down obviously but I definitely see some promise in sex addiction. I mean most STD’s are pretty treatable these days, atleast the ones I’d catch.

I probably already am a sex addict. You should see the conversations I have with my girlfriend, probably pretty disturbing to the average human being.

Another option that seems like a real blast is becoming a drug dealer. I don’t mean like one of those low level pushers and traders doing drug runs. I mean starting a very serious operation  catering to some people with some money unlikely to get busted. It’d be a fun hobby I think, plus I’d meet some interesting people. Ok, maybe, I have a few tendencies towards self destruction, but at least I’m honest about them. That has to count for something?

Alright so clearly I’m unable to focus on anything serious, like the death of someone I cared about. Add one more line to the list of character defects I suppose, I should ask my ex girlfriend for that complete list sometime, might be helpful when I want to knock my self esteem back down to -1000.

Anyway, book recommendation: God Hates Us All by Hank Moody

Beijing, E30

I don’t know why but for some reason I only have the desire to write here when I’m traveling.

I was reading a book Madison gave to me called “Naked” by David Sedaris. Funny book. There’s a chapter in there where he describes working on someones house and one of the former employees walks in one day after he had stopped working there and just goes through his bosses purse while he watches and takes 63 dollars out of her wallet. Unable to do anything about it he goes down to the bank and withdraws 63 dollars to put back into her purse rather than trying to explain to her what happened. Reading that I just realized my explanation for why I like training.

I remember a few weeks ago when I was having lunch with Madison’s aunt, a very intelligent woman who I gained a lot of respect for. When she asked me WHY I would want to do this fighting thing I didn’t really have a good answer but I realize something when reading today. It’s been a long time since I had to worry about something bad happen to someone I loved or myself and not being able to do anything about it. What happened to Dave in that chapter of that book will never happen to me again because of training. Yes I recognize that that sounds like I had a huge confidence issue that I had to cover up, and that’s probably because I do.

I don’t know why I’m enjoying myself so much sitting in my hotel room watching episodes of Californication and reading books. I definitely had the option to go out and get drunk tonight to. I’m odd.

Sit

Squat

Ray Getting a Foot Massage

Snooker

So here’s just a brief summary of what it took to get from London to Shenzhen. Tube to Heathrow airport, 1 hour. Heathrow to Beijing flight, 10 hours. Going through customs in Beijing and catching the plane to Hong Kong, 1 Hour. Flight to Hong Kong, 3  hours. Finding out I can’t stay in Hong Kong and getting through customs there, 2 hours. Bus to the boat terminal in Hong Kong, 40 minutes. Boat to Shenzhen, 40 minutes. Drive from Shenzhen harbor to the hotel, 1 hour. So what’s that… about 20 hours of travel? Not bad eh?

Anyways on the flight from Beijing to Hong Kong I sat next to a girl who was actually pretty cool. She was on her way home from Europe back to her home in Australia for the first time in TWO YEARS. Apparently some wedding or something. Anyway I

Yeah so basically I haven’t written much about the trip because well, it wasn’t really that much fun? Ok so its good I came and helped James get ready for his fight and whatever, got to see some cool English countryside and hangout with James and his family. Manchester was awesome, the UFC fights were pretty good (except obviously James lost) which was a big downer.

Manchester was definitely a fun town, especially with Danny and Erik. I definitely enjoyed talking with Erik and I’m going to feel good about going back to California and training at Eriks gym during the day with the fighters. After Manchester we spent one more day at James parents house and then came to London where I spent the rest of the trip. Its true I really could go the rest of my life without coming back to London. Way too posh for me.

I basically spent most of my time here trying to kill time everyday. I went to two movies, saw 2012 and Men Who Stare At Goats, both were pretty mediocre. I also watched Food Inc. and Gamer on my computer, also mediocre. Food was mediocre although I did have some very good Indian food at some point. The hostels here are overpriced and I never really met anyone I enjoyed talking to. I kind of felt disconnected from everything during this entire trip. It obviously didn’t help that I got so sick I spent 24 straight hours in bed at Shreenas house. Her family was very nice, god I got even more movie watching in there.

Ok so not only am I sick but the weather here SUCKS. Yes I know I’m spoiled and I’m coming from California but why do people choose to live here? I don’t understand, its so god damn cold ALL THE TIME. Anyways, I am actually looking forward to going to China and meeting my Dad and getting some work done… or something. Hopefully I can just recover from this cold and get some gym time in so I can be back in shape when I get home. I know I get depressed when I don’t workout for a while and that’s probably why I’m feeling a little off right now.