Europe: Paris And Things

The last few days have been a lot of fun. On Thursday Emily had class the entire day so I spent most of the day wandering the sunny streets of Paris. My first trek took me to the Louvre museum (the largest museum on the planet!) where I had planned to spend most of the day inside touring around and looking at famous pieces of art such as the Mona Lisa, and ancient Greek statues and sculptures. However, when I got there I realized that it was the first day since I had arrived in France that it wasn't raining, and that maybe a day spent inside would be better spent on a typical rainy day. So instead of going into the museum I kept on walking and explored the Louvre Gardens and tried to get lost in the first district.

The following day, Emily had the day off from school so we decided to go and see the Arc de Triomphe and the famous Champs de Elysees which is basically the boulevard that Rodeo Drive aspires to be. The Arc was incredible. Check out a photo.


It's an amazing piece of art in and of itself, and looking at it from next to and underneath is incredible. The weather held out so nicely for us as well, no rain at all that day! Adjacent to this magnificent structure is the famous Champs De Elysees, which we walked down next.

If you're a big fashion person or just flat out rich than you'd probably enjoy this street a lot more than me, as it's home to a lot of Paris' big time stores like Louis Vitton, Cartier, ROLEX, etc. It was neat to window shop and I got to see a Peugeot F1 car in the official Peugeot store, but besides that it was more of just a nice place to walk through. We kept on down the boulevard and ended up at the next landmark known as the Obelisk of Luxor. A giant obelisk given to the French by the Egyptians in 1829. It's covered in crazy hieroglyphics too. Awesome. Check it out!


And yeah that's the Eiffel Tower in the background. This place is cool because you can see the Obelisk, Eiffel Tower, Arc De Triomphe, and the Louvre all from this one spot. After this we walked back home and prepared for what would be a fun night, as the following day was Emily's birthday! Emily invited a bunch of her friends over from her classes here, so we all hung out with some music, food, and good wine. It was indeed a fun night for all.

Today being Emily's birthday, we did some shopping and went out to dinner at a great Belgian seafood restaurant. It was awesome! We're off tonight to go drinking again, so I'm sure more stories will arise. Good times in Paris for sure.

Tomorrow I leave for Brussels, Belgium where I'm going on a five day epic beer tasting adventure. Fun, Awesome, and Win.

Europe: Venice, Italy - Part II

Today Emily taught me a bunch of things about my camera that I had no idea. I've been using it like a big noob for so long that there were some basic things I hadn't ever learned that are now leading to some great photos! I'm afraid I can't show any until I get a chance to sort them and get them "show" ready...but I trust anyone reading this will come back in a few days for some great Venezian imagery.

We've spent the majority of the trip here so far just walking around and exploring every nook and cranny of this amazing city. I'm not a religious person but you really don't have to be to appreciate the amazing churches and religious architecture held in this city. Considering you're standing in a giant stone cathedral that is probably upwards of 800 years old is breath taking. Every inch, or centimeter if you will, of the buildings is pure art. The walls, the pillars, the great shrines, even the floors are all brilliantly laid tile and ornate paintings and mosaics of all different kinds. Gold, silver, glass, marble, it's awesome! You aren't allowed to take photos within the cathedrals and churches so unfortunately there won't be much of those, but we got a few in some certain places that I can post later.

Just wandering through every little alley and observing the daily life of the local Venezians has been so interesting and fun. It reminds me so much of Cape Cod. The city survives on tourism and fishing. You see the locals who spends all of their time catering to tourists and serving food, baked goods, wine, beer, etc., as well as the fisherman and boatmen who spend their days on the canals and sailing the Mediterranean to keep the daily fish markets stocked for us visitors and locals alike. Lastly you've got the unsung heroes of the city who keep it's pipes flowing, it's buildings standing, and it's streets and canals safe. Watching the tourists react to the different facets of the city and it's life within constantly takes me back to being in Orleans or Brewster in the middle of July. I remember my sister was asked one time where she went during the Winter when the Cape "closed". I can definitely see the locals here being treated much the same by the myriad of people visiting from every corner of the Globe.

That's all for today. Don't forget to check out Emily's blog for another side to this interesting story.

http://parisonastudentsbudget.blogspot.com

Europe: Arrival In Paris

Hello! Officially my first journal entry since arriving in Europe. I arrived yesterday around 11am and after a two hour adventure trying to make way from the airport to the train station (Chatelet Les Halles) I met up with Emily for the first time in two months and gave her the largest hug the city of Paris has ever known. Seriously, French people surrounded us in awe at the sheer magnitude of this hug. Japanese tourists took many photos. I even heard a rumor that President Sarcozy was on his way to witness the scene but luckily we made it out of the station before he arrived. I can't confirm this rumor, but I'm pretty sure someone told me it's true.

Since then, I've spent most of my time sleeping I think. Jet lag is KILLING me. When I'm not passed out we've done quite a bit of walking around checking out sights and things. I've gotten a brief look at some amazing French sights such as Notre Dame, the Seine river, and the Louvre. I'll be spending a lot more time at both of these places eventually and getting many pictures. For now, it was more of a flyby just to check it out. Emily really knows her way around which is hugely helpful. She also speaks French, which is...yeah. I don't speak any French at all so this has been a bit intimidating so far.

Having grown up on Cape Cod and then moving to laid back Southern California...I'm really not use to their being so many people all walking so fast. Everyone is in a really big hurry and generally not looking where their going. To that, I say "wtf". Normally when I walk I try to be efficient about my path and make sure I'm walking swiftly, which makes up for me generally being a slow ass. However here, I'm constantly dodging people and being bumped into which makes planning a path difficult. Bleh! That'll take some getting use to.

Overall everything is incredible almost to the point of being overwhelming. I don't spend very much outside of my comfort zone, even though I often preach to people that they should try to do that very thing. It's going to take some serious adapting on my part. Life was too easy in SoCal anyway, time to grow up a bit!

Tonight we're off to dinner at Le Timbre and tomorrow we leave for a week in Venice, Italy. More to come as well as some pictures eventually when jet lag frees my brain from zombification.

Europe Trip Countdown - 5 Days

I've still got so much left to do! Tons of packing, gathering various items, tying up loose ends at home, work, all sorts of random things need to be done! I've got a schedule worked out though so it's all good.

I'll be living in Paris with Emily for 3 months.



We've got a couple of trips planned, first Venice, Italy soon after I get there, and then onto Munich, Germany for a week at Christmas time.

I'll keep this blog updated, as well as a Twitter (eww) account I just made.

http://twitter.com/jayonidas

Plenty of facebook updates I'm sure as well.

My Trip To Cape Cod: Day 4

A few weeks ago I got Google and T-Mobile's G1 Phone. I've been using it quite a bit on this trip as it's given me access to my personal and work emails literally anywhere I go. It's addicting having that at your finger tips any minute of the day. Though usually awesome, waking up in the middle of the night to an email from Victoria's Secret about their new sale or something similarly weird was a little ridiculous... Eventually I got use to it and now I wait until I wake up to check my email, but it's still the first thing I do when I'm getting up since it's right there for me.

This morning I woke up to an email from my Dad. He has been practicing typing and has been sending me emails every morning with just random things. It's really cool! Never thought I'd see the day that I'd get emails from my Dad...but I'm happy they are finally moving out of the stone age. Or at least trying to anyway!

A good amount of drinking was done last night...and I didn't get up and check email until about 11am. Not too late, but on vacation I was hoping not to sleep in so much. To hell with it though, I needed the rest so I got it. Today was going to be important, it was the day where I'd find out if my blue surfboard still existed or if it had been lost and traded somewhere in the past decade. I called my cousin Thad and asked him if he had heard anything about it, and he said he'd tracked it down to his Dad's basement in Chatham. I told him I'd be there to pick him up soon so we could head over and try to get it.

Thad lives at my Grandfather's house in Brewster, it's always cool to see that place again. I've expressed interest in buying it from my family when they sell it so that I can keep it in the family and not let it be lost into the grubby hands of some rich ass from Connecticut or something like that. We grew up in that house, it means a lot to us all. Anyway I picked up Thad from there and we drove down to Chatham where the board was supposedly being kept. Sure enough we found it in the basement with it's old board cover on and everything. Rats or something had eaten holes in the covering so it looked quite ratty, it was still hard to tell the overall condition of the board but things weren't looking all too good. It had been in storage for almost 15 years and who knew how many people had moved it or transported it without giving it the care it would need? I put it in the car, drove Thad home, and headed over to my Dad's for the unveiling.

When I arrived I brought it out into the yard and we pulled the board cover off. It was stunning...the board had no damage at all! It had been in it's cover and away from the sun all these years. The board looked exactly like it did when I left it all those years ago. A few dings here and there, but overall it lay in brilliant condition and just begging to be thrashed in some surf. This board was shaped by a well-known and world class board shaper named Michael Losorda. My Dad and him have been good friends since they were young and this particular board was shaped for my Dad in 1984. Underneath the glass along the stringer it reads, "Shaped for Darrell - Michael, 1984" It's 5'8”, three fins, swallow tailed, and big and wide. A little hard to describe it's greatness in words, here is the only picture I have right now:

The significance of this particular board, besides it being awesome and 25 years old, is that at the time when they made it, NOBODY had a board like this. It was a new shape that my Dad and Mike went through each step together talking about it's design and what it would do. Nowadays you can see boards like this all over the place, but this thing was a pioneer in it's day! To the world, this may just be another thruster...but to the guys who shaped it those fateful days back in 1984 this thing was a precious piece of history. The fact that 25 years later it reappeared in our possession with almost no damage whatsoever was like the stuff of dreams man! We hosed it down, cleaned off all the dust and grime that had accumulated over the years, and started getting ready to get it in the water.

My Dad really wanted to get in touch with Mike Losorda the shaper and show him the board. He knew after all these years he'd be really happy to see it so the first thing we did was to take a drive out to his house in South Orleans and see if he was around. He has a great house right on a lake that is waaaaay out in the woods. If you didn't know the way, you'd never find it. On a side note, apparently tradition says that if Mike ever made you a board, you had to paddle it around in his pond naked before you could take it home. I thought that was hilarious! Anyway, we arrived and he wasn't home but we were greeted by his wife Annie. (I think that was her name...) She was really nice and showed us around their newly remodeled house. Apparently we had just missed Mike, he had gone out surfing with a buddy down at Nauset Beach. We said thank you and headed out to see if we could find him.

A short drive later we were at Nauset Beach at a break called Poachett where we found them out surfing. The waves were not all that great, but who cares!? It was the first day since I arrived that it wasn't pouring rain, so we were going no matter what. We headed home to get suited up and get ready. I forgot my wet suit in California for some dumb reason so I had to rent one which kind of sucks...but it was worth it. The water is coooooooold! We were suiting up in the parking lot and out of nowhere, Mike and his friend drove up and saw us there. We showed him the board and man he was stoked! “Whoa man, it's almost like I knew what I was doin' back then!”. He offered to fix up the couple of dings on it and help me to pack it up for the trip to California which is great. He travels all over the world to surf and has packed up boards enough times to know exactly what we needed to do. He headed off and we headed out into the surf.

Surfing with my Dad is a lot of fun. He has decades of experience so he is the one I can always ask about stuff I'm either having trouble with or am just curious about. Often he has these great pearls of wisdom that I would never have even thought to ask about, but he'll mention some little thing and I'll improve a lot from it. Today wasn't the best day out there, I got a couple of small rides, but it was a lot of fun anyway. My Dad was trying to surf the shorty, while I was riding his 7'10”. He managed to get up on it a couple times and rip a bit, which was awesome! I've always ridden a long board so when I gave this super short board a try it was damn tough. On a long board you can stand up and then adjust your feet to where you want to be. On this board, you have to put your feet exactly where you want them the instant you stand up. I don't have really any experience doing that yet so I ate it hard a couple of times. Man....it is so much fun though. =) I'll be reporting in on my progress with this board in the coming weeks. We surfed for a couple of hours, headed back to the lot, dried off and packed up. When I checked my messages I had a call from Mike McNulty, my old roommate from out here in California. He was living in Brewster and wanted to hang. Called him, set up a plan, then my Dad and I drove over to Mike Losorda's house again to drop off the board.

At Mike's, we hung out awhile and talked, saw pictures of the remodeled house's construction, laughed, had fun, etc. He gave us a tour of his shaping and glassing rooms which was awesome. He had a lot of boards in the works so it was rad to see the various boards and blanks in their different stages of being built. Mike said he could have the board ready for us on Tuesday so we said thanks and headed out. He tossed me a bunch of stickers and a t-shirt as well...win!

After cleaning up and getting some dry clothes on I hopped in the Caddy and headed over to Mike McNulty's house for a few beers. Surprisingly two more guys from high school were there: Andy Grover and Caleb Portnoy. It was great to see them again and get caught up on various things. Andy was there with his girlfriend Mary who was very nice. He had been doing some work with Septic Design and apparently doing very well for himself, that was great to hear. Caleb lives in Taiwan as a teacher, and has been doing a lot of surfing over there. Shortly after, Dylan (who lives with Mike there) came home with Jill and we all started chatting about what we'd be doing that night.

A good friend of ours, Jesse Carnes, had gotten married today and we were hoping to see him somewhere before he left on his honeymoon to say congratulations. I called Genghis who was at the reception and he said it was okay for us to all stop by and say hi. Thirty minutes later we arrived and met Genghis and Paul Foley outside. When we went in, I saw Jesse right away and he looked so different! The guy use to have scraggly long hair and a sort of unkempt beard. Given, we were kids last we saw each other...but it was great to see him all cleaned up and looking great. Short hair, a clean cut beard, and all dressed in a tux. His wife Liz looked amazing in her dress. Jesse and I use to be in a band together in high-school, along with Lucas Ferrerria who was also there. We had a hell of a reunion, talked for as long as the other guests would allow (they all wanted to talk to him too), and exchanged numbers. One of the highlights of my trip right here, I was really proud to see my good friend taking such a great step forward in his life. My best wishes go out to him and his new wife Liz. I even got to talk to his mom Steph, and his sister Ally. It had been so long since I'd seen any of them. Today was such an absolutely awesome day.

Afterwards, some drinking happened at the Land Ho in Orleans where I ran into even more friends who I'd not seen in years. It was only halfway through my vacation and I already couldn't think of anyway this vacation could get any better. I wish Emily had been here to experience all of this with me. She is definitely coming next time!

Thanks for reading!

My Trip To Cape Cod: Day 2

Wow! This trip is already amazing. I spent last night at my Mom's place in Brewster, Massachusetts in the house where she has lived for the past ten years or so with her boyfriend Scott. They also have a nice dog named Baby who is always good and excited to see me when I visit. I woke up around 8am (somehow) and got myself ready for the day before heading off to Orleans to my favorite restaurant in the entire world.


The Hole-In-One is a small breakfast and lunch place in Orleans that is easily and by far my favorite place in the world to get food. When Emily and I visited last year I made a point to bring her here right away! I walked in and got lucky with a seat at the counter and ordered a cup of coffee and the same thing I always do, Eggs Benedict, or Eggs Benny as they like to call it. Eagerly awaiting my epic and glorious meal, I read the paper to see what was going to be happening this week and get a glimpse of the weather. Eight days in a row of rain and clouds....blah! Oh well, I'm not here for the weather anyway...

Less than five minutes later my food arrived and it was everything I could have ever hoped for. For some reason I am just hopelessly addicted to the Hole's Eggs Benny. Their hollandaise sauce is just so good, I can never get enough of it! A few minutes into my meal an older gentleman sat next to me and decided after a quick look that he would have the same thing I was having. Seemed like a good enough reason to chat, so I introduced myself and told him about how I traveled three thousand miles to eat the Hole's Eggs Benny and that he had made a good choice in it. He agreed about it's greatness and told me that he had been coming for years and had even been the one who built the very building we were eating in. This eighty-five year old man and I had a great conversation about his kids (who were old enough to be my grandparents) who lived in California and about his grandson who was a great artist and was interested in an animation career. It was a solid start to what was definitely going to be a great day.

After breakfast I drove over to my Dad's house to visit with him and my brother Jeff. My brother unfortunately had a spot of the flu and wasn't able to leave the house much but they had made an exception so that he could come to pick me up at the airport. After that he was on house arrest until he was healed up. We hung out and played some video games, talked about a great many things, and caught up on all the things that had been happening over the past year with his schooling and such.

A month or so ago my family had an unfortunate break in where their only laptop had been stolen. They'd only had it for about two months and it was a pretty devastating event as none of them had ever experienced any break ins or theft in their neighborhood. All of the sudden everyone was locking all of their doors and being a lot more cautious with everything, which you'd expect...but it's just sad that a single event like this can really alter their habits like that, but such is a life. Without a computer I hadn't had a whole lot of contact with them over the year besides the occasional phone call, so I started thinking of a plan on how I might be able to get them back online before I left. Everyone should be able to send emails!

Later that afternoon my Dad lent me his 7'10" surfboard and a wet suit and I drove out to Nauset Beach to hit the surf. The Cape had a really nice swell coming in from the east, but it was very windy and messy surf. I went out anyway and it might as well have been my first day surfing! I got totally thrashed out there. Head high waves were closing out the beach and definitely had their way with me and by big board. It was still fun though! The waves here are so much more powerful than at my local break. Even the smaller surf will push you all over the place, where as back at home I can go right through them like butter. It was a good eye opener though, I need to expand my local surfing a little. I love the Atlantic!

When I was about thirteen my Dad gave me a really nice gift. It was a surfboard that he had used when he was young and surfing competitively. In 1984 a good friend of my Dad's named Mike Losordo had shaped it for him at his house in Orleans. Designing it together, they concocted a wide 5'8" thruster with a swallow tail and a three inch rocker. Three glassed in fins, with a sick orange and blue paint job. This was the type of board that for the time was just ridiculous. It just absolutely rips. When I was a fledgling surfer at the age of thirteen my Dad gave me this board and sent me off to the beach to learn how to ride. I could barely use the thing! I don't think I ever once stood up on it it was so damn squirrely. Definitely not a board meant to learn on and definitely not for the faint of heart...but I loved it anyway. A year or so later I retired the board to the shed at my Grandfather's house in exchange for a longer slightly easier board and there it sat for about 15 years. When I came back this time I decided I wanted to find this board, fix it up if I could and bring it back to SoCal with me. I called my cousin who is living at the old house still and asked him to help me find it. Will we find it? And will it be in decent, ridable condition? To be continued!

Today was my sister Amanda's birthday, so that evening my Mom and I bought her some Chinese food and took it over to her place to surprise her. My 3 year old nephew Jordan met us at the door and brought us to see his 2 month old baby sister Neveah. She is really cute! It was great to see my sister and we got to catch up a little while Jordan told us all about Peter Parker and Spiderman's powers. He also made sure we knew that Spiderman loses his powers in the second movie, and that he later gets them back. He is such a great kid!

That night, I went out for a drink at a local bar called Mahoney's where I met up with my friend Tim Adams who worked there. Another friend Dylan McCoul (spelling?) stopped by with his girlfriend and we all spent the evening talking about old times and hanging out. Always a good time. It was an amazing day! Tune in tomorrow for what happens next. ;)

My Trip To Cape Cod: Day 1

For the first 23 years of my life I grew up in a quaint little town on Cape Cod called Brewster. Massachusetts's eastern most peninsula is filled with beautiful sandy beaches, great ice cream shops, and my family and friends. Once a year I visit for as long as life will allow and try to spend time with my family and say hello to as many people as I can in the (inevitable and always too) short time I have. 2009's trip begins on June 17th, the day after my 27th birthday. Usually Emily comes with me to visit, but her summer classes wouldn't allow it this time unfortunately. Next time though!

My trip began today with a flight leaving at 11am from LAX (Los Angeles) Airport. My friend Dan Edwards was nice enough to drive me from Emily's house to the Virgin America terminal around 9am and get me on my way. On the way into the airport we were stopped at a random vehicle search by the LAPD which was moderately interesting, but besides that my goings on at the airport were relatively uneventful. A quick self check-in at the Virgin booth, about 10 minutes through security and a ninety minute wait for take-off.

The plane ride itself was great! I fly back here once a year and this is by far both the fastest and most comfortable trip I've had in a while. With a swift tail wind the plane arrived almost a full hour ahead of schedule, about a four and a half hour trip. Virgin America is a great airline as they offer you lots of room, internet, plugs for all your gear, LCD screens on each seat, and all the drinks you could ever want. They even had real Absinthe on the flight. Very interesting!

I arrived at Logan International (Boston's Airport) around 7:30pm and my Dad, Step-mom, and brother were there waiting for me. My brother Jeff is thirteen and in the past year has grown I think three feet taller since I last saw him. I barely recognized him! It was so great to see them all again, sometimes once per year just doesn't seem like enough.

The drive home to Cape Cod is about an hour and a half or so, depending on how fast you like to drive. Massachusetts and California have very differing opinions on highway speeds, as all of the highways on and on the way to Cape Cod have a maximum speed of 55 mph. Some smaller highways on the Cape even have a 45 mph speed limit. Can you imagine a 45 mph speed limit on a freeway in California? Neither can I.

On the way home we all stopped at the Ninety-Nine restaurant where my Dad bought me a nice steak dinner for my birthday. We all sat around eating, drinking, and just being merry. Good times and great food.

An hour or so after the meal we arrived in Brewster where I was going to be dropped off. I had made plans to stay with my Mom at her place that night and when we arrived she was up and waiting for me. It was so nice to see her again. Another one of those moments were once a year just didn't seem like enough. We talked for awhile, catching up and just enjoying the time before I headed to the guest room to get some sleep. Traveling is always exhausting, so I hit the hay to prepare for whatever tomorrow was going to bring.

Munich and Venice

Last night Emily and I purchased tickets for two more places in Europe. If you can somehow not count the fact that we'll be in Paris, which is an amazing vacation in itself, we've planned and bought tickets for two (more) vacation spots. In late October we'll be spending a week in Venice, Italy, and then for the week of Christmas we'll be staying in Munich, Germany. We got things pretty cheap too...considering what we're doing.

Emily has created a new blog called, "Paris On A Student's Budget" where she'll be writing about our adventures. Check it often!

Today is my birthday, it was great.

Surfing Today

It was awesome.

Emily + Waves + RootBeer + Clam Chowder + Video Games + Sun + New Bike + Pirate Booty + Movies = Holy crap Jay had a good weekend.

Preparing For Paris: Part 1

In September, Emily is headed off to live in beautiful Paris, France for 4 months until mid-January. She is living there for a semester in an apartment, and I'll be flying out mid-October to stay there as well for 90 days. We've been planning the trip for a long time, and have finally started preparing for it this week.

One of the many things we need to do is get together some warm(er) clothes for the Winter in France. California's perpetual Summer has been amazing but for the first time in 4 years I'll be living in and around snow, so we'll need to prepare. Emily has never lived around snow before....crazy....so she needs a lot of things. I don't think she's ever worn any footwear besides dancing heels and flip flops.

We hit up the Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade and did some shopping today. Got a few shirts, a new sleeve-less rash guard for surfing, some new surf wax for my board, and some new flip flops. I ended up buying the opposite of what I needed. GG.

Emily on the other hand got some awesome stuff. A bunch of nice classy shirts and pants to keep her warm and keep her looking all stylish in Paris. Then we came home and ate some food and started drinking Spanish Coffee. Ever had that stuff? Holy cow is it good...

Spanish Coffee:

1/2 shot Bacardi® 151 rum
1 shot Kahlua® coffee liqueur
1 splash triple sec
coffee
whipped cream
sugar rim
cinnamon
nutmeg

Sugar the rim of a tempered Pinot glass. Pour 1/2 shot Bacardi 151 rum. Use candle lighter or match to flame the rum. Turn glass repeatedly to allow flame to caramelize the sugar on the rim. Don't melt it completely, just caramelize it. While rum is still flaming, sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg lightly into flame. Add Kahlua, a splash of triple-sec, fill with fresh coffee, a bit of real whipped cream (not the spray gunk), then sprinkle a bit more cinnamon on the top. The flame will probably go out when adding either the Kahlua or coffee, but if not, or if you are afraid the glass is becoming too hot, simply place a cocktail napkin over the glass for a second to smother the flame.

So....good.

Tonight...who knows. Something fun. Surfing tomorrow, come onnnn Sun!

Final Fantasy VII - I still love this game..

After all this time this game still rules. Emily and I are playing through it again. Such good fun.

Tifa imo!

Emily is here for a week!

Emily is on spring break and is here for like 10 days. Man this is AWESOME. P.S. Van Damne is about to unleash his Limit Break.

Weekend for the Win!

Friday rules. I'm headed up to Emily's college until Sunday night for a weekend of good food, good company, good soccer, and relaxation to the max.

You sirs, wish your weekends were as awesome as mine.

Comments? Followers? Anyone...?!

If you enjoy my blog, leave me some comments! I enjoy writing it a lot so if you're out there and you're liking the content leave a comment or two and help to keep my delicate ego afloat. Thanks!

P.S. Emily is really good at soccer.

Here is a new flower photo.

Took about 200 photos this weekend up at Emily's college. I've got quite a few to go through but this is something I put together quickly last night. Stay tuned for more!

The Ocean Got Me.

I think for the first time I've gotten sick from surfing in the ocean here. The waves have been really large the last couple of days, yesterday (Monday) there were a couple head high sets. It was awesome, a fun time was had, but I have a perfect memory of one of the waves forcing about 12 ounces of water down my throat against my will. I knew it was gross but I thought nothing of it, and now I am officially sick. I have no proof it's from the water, I can only guess. But, the timing is just too good. About an hour after I got out of the water my throat started hurting and today I am a mess.

It's no secret that the water here makes you sick, you're suppose to keep your mouth closed at all times while in the water. However head high waves have a way of not letting you do exactly what you want sometimes.

*sigh.....*

I miss Emily.

Photography and Voice Lessons

Since Emily got me this new camera I've been taking photos non-stop and managed to sneak in a few good ones here and there! I'm having so much fun with it, I knew I would but never imagined I'd like it this much. To check out all the stuff I've done so far and for further updates be sure to check out the official Jayonidas FLICKR page. (Link)

This past weekend was my first vocal lesson. It went extremely well and I'm very excited to learn more and get better with my singing. Eventually I'll start recording and maybe post up a piece or two but for now you'll just have to visualize. It's a lot of fun, can't wait to keep it going.

Oh yeah, new blog header, and the waves today destroyed me. Off to nurse my headache!

Cheese, Bread, Cheese, Wine, & Cheese. And Wine.

All of the above are awesome.

Today was spent eating cheese and bread, drinking a little bit of nouveau wine, animating on a new shot and hanging' with the Em. No complaints on today, in fact it was awesome! Tomorrow is shaping up for awesomeness as well, stay tuned!

P.S. Emily made a blogger finally, not sure what it is though. ^^

Image Metrics, Surfing, Halloween

Towards the end of October I started over at Image Metrics again for a stint until the end of this month. It's been so much fun! I was doing only at-home freelance work for a few months and it was really starting to be a drag. Sleeping in is always nice, but not having any reason to leave the house for days at a time can start to make anyone get bleh'd out. I was stir crazy and running out of money, so the new job has been a light in many dark places. Getting bills payed, things fixed, being able to eat, etc. It's awesome!

Since the studio is on Main Street, it's a one block walk down to the beach and we've been taking daily surfing breaks during lunch or whenever the tide is good. My old spot down by the Venice Pier is significantly less awesome than this new one for my personal taste. The water is nice and shallow and the larger breaks are quite a ways out so you've got plenty of room for variety in between. My buddy Jonas bought a 6 footer which we've been trying to shred and I've been on my body board until I get the cash for a new board. Ultimate fun though, so happy to be getting out in the water every day.

Halloween was pretty entertaining. We cruised down to Bill's house in Huntington Beach for his annual Halloween bash. He went all out this year with a full on Halloween decor that put Knott's to shame. It was an awesome time. Got to see some old friends and meet new ones, who could ask for more? Emily dressed as Tifa Lockhart from FF7, and I was Luffy again. Almost everyone knew who Emily was right away so that made her happy. =)

I finally beat Final Fantasy XII. It's been sitting at the final battle for like 4 months and I forgot about it until the other night where I plugged in, logged on, and proceeded to hand Vayne his ass in all 3 forms. Good times.

Back To Reality, Job Search!

I've returned from the East and have dug my heels back into reality. Sort of...

I've got one normal day to catch up on a few things, then tomorrow we leave for San Francisco for our Animation Mentor graduation, then it's right back here to LA for Siggraph and FJORG!.

The vacation was amazing. I got to spend a lot of time with Emily, my family and friends, do a lot of surfing, eat some great food, and overall just relax and have a really cool time. I'm totally refreshed and I'm looking forward to getting back into the game with some new animation work.

I'll update next week once FJORG! is finished with some hopefully really cool news. =)