tired. dirty. and with a horrible raccoon tan.
at the end of the day, the most important thing is to come home alive, intact. more often than not, even the most mundane of things are left for granted. the beauty of our travels is found not only during the journey itself, but more importantly in the journeys we partake afterwards. to appreciate all once again, in our views, that have turned into the ordinary.
tent, check.
sleeping bag, check.
extra fuel, check.
armored jacket, check.
adventure, in process.
here comes another 500 miles of gorgeous california riding on the scoot!
i'm 4 hours late of my original planned departure, but the world will always wait on you to start chasing after the horizons.
From: Gopez, Lovine (10020)
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 2:31 PM
To: NA Protiviti - Los Angeles
Subject: Thank You
All,
It is with great regret that I inform you, today is my last day with Protiviti.
It is never an easy decision to transition away from a place that you consider to be your second home. I have decided to pursue other opportunities with my family, but look forward to hearing of the firm's success as it continues to evolve. The past 2 ½ years were filled with many shared accomplishments and forged friendships, and I continue to count my blessings for these opportunities that I cannot take for granted. I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude for being part of a wonderful and amazing team.
Please keep in touch! Thank you!
Lovine Gopez
time is spent searching for some sense of fulfillment across all levels of satisfaction, from temporary physical comforts to an intangible sense of well-being. whilst fulfillment can transcend even the conscious limits we imprison ourselves with, the beauty of our freedom is the ability to choose what we desire. from the simplicity of rendering yourself into a puddle of blubbering waste in front of the telly, through the spectrum of dedicating your life into a purposeful existence - you can only be who you choose to be. the world can slow you down, but the damage it can do is only what you allow it to become.
all this time spent asking, discovering, seeking. sometimes i wonder if the answer really matters as much as the question does.
tamar @ the hotel cafe, 09.11.07
hopped on the vespa and posted a grand total of 211 miles today! snaked my way down PCH all the way to costa mesa and into irvine to the canon service center to have one of my lenses repaired. one way (85 miles) took me a total of 3 hours to complete, mostly because of the stop and go nature of surface streets. there were some stretches of pulling 60-65mph beside the shimmering pacific ocean near huntington beach, but i really need to get some goggles, a face shield, or possibly a full-face. my eyes are always dried out. there was a stretch along sepulveda where trucks near the ports were belching soot into my face, and i literally had a stencil outline of my shades on my face by the time i made it back into the valley.
after making my way home to wash my gorgeous face, i hopped right back on the vespa to meet up with ex-co-worker peter pan who has the biggest crush on marie digby. the plan was to try and catch her at the hotel cafe, but the show sold out and peter's dreams of becoming a bona-fide fanboy were shattered. but only for tonight. fortunately, we were not ones to be deterred by a minor setback and had some damn good grub at huston's pit bbq. good stuff, holmes! eventually made our way back to hotel cafe and caught the next gig.
i'm dead tired, but am slowly getting back into the groove of placing myself in strangely amusing situations. i need to take more pictures. i don't want to jinx it, but i'm really looking forward to the coastal run up to san francisco...
kat and our favorite passenger, and my new best friend, nickel. perfect weather this weekend! one of the biggest factors that everyone pays a premium in cost of living here in socal, is definitely the weather. however, living in the valley can have its heated moments since we're sheltered from the ocean breeze - last weekend was an inferno, the mercury was hitting 112! felt like going through an industrial grade blow drier. can't wait to take the vespa out the next few days as the weather clears up.
taking it slow this week. been starting to make some pretty big decisions lately, as far as taking the first steps go. but the first few steps always opens the chance to go either the direction you thought you wanted, towards something totally unrelated, or stagnates you into a puddle of rot in your comfort zones. the realities are still beginning to sink in. we'll see how it unfolds, i have a weird knack of swaying between being troubled over nothing and having fun trying to keep my head above the water.
soon enough. watch out, for mclovine. haha!
distractions of the day-to-day grind are at rest during the late hours of the night. where we can listen to the mind's careless whispers, otherwise overrun by the noise of what we perceive as the 'real world'. another bout of meaningless mind calisthenics at the cube farm, watching the financial markets in another roil, your conscience yelling behind your shoulder. all of which are shut out, or at least dormant for the time being as the moon begins its nightly crawl through the stars. 'listen to me!' is what your heart silently screams.
and in the solace of silence we can begin to both ponder and get lost at the same time, allowing ourselves to be who we are in careless abandon, without regard for the knee-jerk impulses and soul-sapping commitments that burden our days when the alarm goes off at 5:30am.
each. and. every. day.
i risk my life every morning when i get on the freeways. i must've been asleep for at least half of the 1.5 hour commute to work today.
live fast. die faster.
hopped on the vespa last night to catch the magic numbers at the el rey in los angeles. awesome show! the surprise of the night for me was the little ones, who opened for them. i really enjoyed myself with their set, and am chalking them up on the must-see-again list.
alrighty. back to the hamster wheel, folks!
