updates.

So it's been a minute since i last updated. I've been keeping pretty busy with school, but i suppose the greatest reason for the lag was the fact that Jesse Mason was up hanging out here for a week. Jesse's taking this crazy road trip all across the country. I was his first stop, and he made the drive up from LA in one shot, 18 hours or something close to it. Pretty nuts. He got in two Thursdays ago real late at night. He caught up on sleep and met me at school two Fridays (Halloween) ago. I gave him the tour, introduced him to the principal, then we headed down to the old shop to play around. Afterwards we ran up to Long Beach to deposit my check before driving on the beach down to check out Waikiki.
We were planning on Saturday to go for a surf at Waikiki, but after watching Darren and Travis try to fight the strong incoming tide, we decided against it, as did they. We went down to Astoria to explore the city and a few sights. A couple weeks ago i was shopping down in Astoria and heard an overwhelming noise off in the distance that sounded like a hundred sea lions barking. We decided to check out the piers and sure enough the lazy sea lions were hanging out on the docks.

Lazy Sea Lions.


Haaaaa


For those of you who know Sans well, you know that he would fit right in here... Cheeseburger Walrus...


Afterwards we headed down to Fort Stevens. As we were checking out the ship wreck the tide was going in and out. As the water drained out we went to check out the wreck. Jesse joked around and said if the water came back he was going to climb the thing. I didn't think it would fill back up as we had been safe for a couple minutes. Sure enough a wave was closing in. Jesse overestimated, or so i thought, and climbed like halfway up the thing. I laughed at him and thought i would be fine like 3 feet up. Then the water splashed up against the wreck and went up over my feet... Jesse looked down at me laughing his ass off...

Shipwreck as sun sets.


Neat.


Stupid wave that rolled in...

We stuck around town for the "nightlife" after checking out a few places we met up with a crew of people with similar interests and tagged along. Supposedly everyone was beat from Halloween the night before, so the city was a ghost town. Nonetheless it was still cool hanging with the people we met.

Sunday Waikiki was too big again to surf. We decided to head down to Portland to hang with Nate. We met up at Nate's house, picked up a few things at ikea, hung out on Hawthorne st. (equivalent of Coventry area in Cleveland), got some dinner at ChaChaCha's (super affordable, amazing authentic burritos) and headed back up north.

Monday after school Waikiki was going off! Chris, Darren, Travis, and a couple rangers were all out sessioning. Jesse was determined to give it a shot even though it was pouring rain and he had a 2mil wet suit (as opposed to our 4/5mil suits (twice as thick)). After staying out for about ten minutes he paddled in and attempted to shoot some film of us. The waves were big and heavy, and had good form. I was catching some of the better rides I've had, but Jesse was only able to stay out for a few minutes amidst the pouring rain.
Tuesday, Darren and I went back to Waikiki. This time Jesse decided to film. The waves were super small, and you really had to fight to catch a half ways decent ride. We both got a couple good rides on film. I'll have to throw them up on YouTube or something...

The rest of the week we pretty much hung out after school. During the day Jesse was going back and forth between Astoria and here interviewing a few people for his trip/documentary.


Rainbow in my backyard, cute, i know...


Oh yeah. I got a kitten a couple weekends ago. I figured Kiki has been super lonely not being able to hang out with Artemis (my old roommate/current sister's roommate's cat). I went to the humane society and picked up a little Hemingway kitten dude (they've got 6 fingers/claws which makes their paws look gigantic). At first the dude wanted nothing to do with us or my place. He hid behind the couch for almost two solid days. He slowly warmed up to us. Now, he annoys Kiki constantly, and it's hilarious. They hunt each other, Lazarus (that's his name) does all these sneak attack missions all the time, etc. They're good buds, and he's always down to hang with me.

On the prowl with Lazarus.


For those of you who know Kiki well, you'll find this next shot amusing, and know that Kiki is not very happy...


Poor Kiki, and poor Special Friend.


We've got the day off tomorrow for veterans day, which is nice because we never got it off back in Ohio, plus it doesn't hurt that it's my birthday. I think a bunch of us are planning on heading down to Oregon to surf, if Waikiki's no good. Probably hang out in Astoria for a little bit, and enjoy a nice relaxing day. Wednesday after school i head up to Seattle for a conference. I'll be able to hang with my brother and a few friends I've got in the city amidst the conferences in the morning. Should be a good time!