Upon touching down, I calmly remained in my seat as I joyfully gazed at the overly anxious passengers rushing to their feet as soon as the seat belt sign had been extinguished and the well known “ding” was blared like a starting gun.  Glad to see everyone get up in such a rush so they can be rewarded with a 10 plus minute wait hunched over in front of their seat carefully bowing their heads as to make sure they don’t plow them into the bottom of the now empty overhead compartments.  Good work.  Last one off, I head to pick up my bag and finally step outside to take a deep breath of the air I had been longing for… I felt home.  Before you know it I’m off to the new site in which the majority of my friends had decided to relocate, Cardiff by the Sea.  I made a quick stop to see some past co-workers, always great to catch up, then one more stop to pick up my ride for the week (thanks Brian and Maureen).  Now I was officially on vacation.

I had one week to get it all in and I felt anxious to say the least.  I tried my best to relax, so we hit the beach volleyball courts to shake off the rust of a year long v-ball drought.  Simply amazing to be back on the beach with the smell of the ocean, the feel of the sand between my toes and the always beautiful sunsets that never cease to impress.  Life is amazing in the simplest ways.

Now it’s time to get down to business, Brandon’s birthday party was nearing and we wasted little time gettin’ at it.  The first night was started off the only way I know how, with a bare foot two mile run to the bars with my partner in crime Matt.  Don’t ask why, just accept it as a fact that we do stupid fun shit.   We danced the night away with a few drinks under our belt as we always do, they proceeded to trek back home, with shoes on this time.  Birthday night was here and we decided a pub crawl in Pacific Beach was the only way to go.  Crush some drinks at Cabo Cantina, then head to Moondoggies and flail around like a bunch of idiots.  I finally get a random girl to by me a drink,  then proceed to casually turn around and walk away… sweet redemption.  Great times only to be topped off with my favorite late night treat, Yogurtland.  You can’t force great times like these, they just kind of flow.

The rest of the trip essentially followed suit and I was more than ready to get back to this paradise on earth.  Great friends that you fall right back into sync with no matter how long you’ve been apart, beautiful scenery (both natural and unnatural in various ways), and an atmosphere that I just seem to fit into more snug than OJ’s black glove.  So the question now becomes, why the hell aren’t I there right now?  Part of me doesn’t really know the answer, while part of me see’s it crystal clear.  I’d be going back to a place where I went to escape a life I didn’t enjoy 3 years ago, only to be running back again.  I’d be starting over in 2007 with a hope and a prayer (cause God knows I sold all of my worldly possessions to get to Europe) when the rest of the world and my friends had moved on to 2010.  It’s great to rekindle past experiences and friendships, but the time had come for me to reminisce about the great times then move forward to new challenges instead of running from them.  Call it growing up, call it being responsible,  or just call it what it is… life, it doesn’t wait for you, so don’t wait for it.  I’ve stumbled across a challenging new adventure in Colorado and instead of looking everywhere except right in front of me for an opportunity, I’m going to take a chance, put all my baskets into one egg (that’s more fun than eggs in a basket) and aim to make it back to San Diego on my terms.  It’s easy to look at all the things you don’t have or all the places you aren’t at right now.  Every time that thought pops in the old noggin I remember one of my new favorite phrases: Wherever you go, there you are

It’s been roughly two months since landing back on American soil, and I couldn’t been more confused about who I was when I first landed.  Only now am I starting to find out more about myself.  The interesting thing is that it’s not the positive “self focused” qualities you would expect to uncover after a long journey on your own.   Such as, now I can travel and take on any task alone, now I’m more self-reliant, now I can do this and do that on my own.  My whole focus for those three months I was gone was how much I could accomplish by myself.   Looking back on it, that’s how the majority of my last 26 years on this planet have been.   If my foreshadowing hasn’t been obvious enough, the most important lesson I learned after thousands of dollars spent and 3 months of being away from home is that I AM SELF CENTERED.

Weird huh? After 13 countries, 2 continents, over 25 cities, a good size credit card balance and roughly 3 months I’ve come to this conclusion? If I had to be honest, that was the best time and money I have ever spent. It wasn’t obvious at the time, but life doesn’t care if you want to take a break and try to figure your life out, it’s an unstoppable force and by no means am I an immovable object.  I like that I can feel confident about myself and my abilities after going through such a incredible experience as a Europe backpacking trip, but there’s more to it…

My original intentions were to see the world, different cultures, unique architecture and expand my understanding of the world… which I feel as if I accomplished on some level. But those intentions quickly became muddled with an excuse to escape the challenges that were already present in my life.  So I wasn’t thrilled with my job, I was feeling stagnant in my living situation and the thought of settling down in one place for an extended period of time just freaked me out.  So I did what any self centered person would do, packed up and left, leaving not only my troubles, but loved ones behind.  I don’t regret going on my amazing trip, I just wish my intentions had remained pure, and the way I handled various situations before leaving would have been different.  Now I am living with the consequences that you never imagine would be so hard to live with.  I’m trying to regain focus, working on not talking so much and doing more.  Friendships and relationships change and it’s never too late to ask for forgiveness and make things right, so I’m swallowing a shit load of self-righteous pride and facing those challenges.  The bond you form with every person in your life is unique and I am finally realizing that it’s not everyone else’s fault when something goes wrong…  I’m just as big of an idiot as the next guy.  If you know me personally, then you know the relationship between my mom and I has never been Brady Bunch-esk, and if you didn’t then you do now.  That mother-son bond is one that is like no other and I have been holding on to teenage angst for way way too long.  It was all about me for such a long time that it’s easy to take for granted the unconditional love a family member supplies.  It’s been a long time coming, but I’m slowly learning to communicate, more importantly LISTEN, to what my mom and others I care about have to say.   I’m merely 1 of the 6.5 billion people on this planet, so if my trip wasn’t humbling enough that stat kind of puts things into perspective.

After all my rambling and personal stories, I guess all I wanted to say is that it’s not all about ME and it never will be.  No matter how much you plan for something, it’s your reaction and ability to adapt to the unexpected that creates all those small moments you will never forget.   Look back, were all of those moments by yourself, or with people that you encountered along the way? It’s great to be self-reliant and confident, but never forget about the people that genuinely love you and how they would do anything to make you happy.

Moving on to the East, let’s chat about the other useful guide I found pertaining to Florence, Italy.  As my favorite city in Italy you can imagine I was excited to find some more info on the sites, sounds and smells of the area.  Same as before, you have 8 weeks to return this puppy for a full refund.  That’s enough time to visit Florence, come back, soak it all in, then decide if you liked or disliked the ebook and return it.  The Ultimate Guide to Florence also comes with a nice little digital photo book of the major attractions around the city and a few other bonuses all for about $15.  Check this guy out to if you’re interested and as always feel free to let me know what you think: The Ultimate Guide to Florence

I hope these guides will be useful, and if you have any links or book ideas that you’d like to share just go ahead and leave a little comment and anyone can gain access to it through the comment link on the bottom right of all my posts.  Enjoy!

“Why hello young lady/sir, how is your day going?” says me to show I have a certain 1950’s class.

“Why just great sir, I love dealing with obnoxious and overbearing people all day that don’t appreciate the work I do” says the ticket counter attendant with a large teeth filled smile that stretches from ear to ear.

“Fantastic, glad to hear it, so could you be a kind soul and provide me with an extremely cheap ticket to any destination that your airline flies to in which you are looking to fill up the plane?” says me with a weak attempt at a wink immediately following (unless of course it’s a guy, I don’t want to give the wrong impression, oh what the hell if it’ll land me a cheap ticket.  Oh yeah, and I am a horrible winker so I’ll try my best).

“Of course you kind young gentleman, I would love to help out a strapping young buck like yourself” said with a returning wink, one that is much better than mine.

“Oh you, you’re making me blush… so where am I going and for how much?”

And that is where the story gets interesting, because you just don’t know where you might end up!  It’s what I like to call “aviation roulette”.  If you’ve made it this far, you must share my concept of time; it’s better when it feels as if it’s non-existent.   Now that we’ve established time is not an issue and are willing to spend the day in an airport trying to find a flight to any random location that costs you under $50 (it’s possible), let’s talk about that symbol in front of the 50.  Dollars are much like time to me, their importance is overvalued and often too much of that time thing is used trying to accumulate a large sum of them.  You can call me an idealist, say that I live in a fantasy world, but it seems simple to me; the less time I spend trying to make money, the more time I can spend traveling, training for triathlons, watching movies, enjoying beverages with friends,  or whatever else it is that I enjoy doing.  This brings into light my current project to fund my next adventure.   The details are uncertain at this point in time, I’m just striving to accomplish this so-called unrealistic goal within the next six months so I can quit washing cars for $4.26 and hour and get back out on the road listening to Ace of Base and providing you all with more pictures,videos and exciting experiences.  I’m here for the long haul, so bear with me and I promise some good times in the future.

(Oh yeah, check out the deconstruction of my beard on the photos page if you haven’t had the wonderful opportunity to do so already on facebook, it should give you a good chuckle)