a musing julius…

tonight, while at dinner with brian and naim, talking over hot sake and sushi, i met the most amazing and interesting couple in the world. they restored my faith in love, life and the pursuit of dreams far beyond my wildest.

susan and david, from seattle (one of my favorite cities in the world), are on their honeymoon. but not just any honeymoon. they left on their honeymoon in january….of 2007! they’re on month 21 of a 24 month honeymoon, travelling the world on an excursion they had dreamed of for their entire lives.

they started in hong kong in january of 2007, and spent months travelling to borneo, cambodia, vietnam, indonesia and so forth. eventually they went to nepal and india and spent many months there. from india, they had moved to amsterdam and spent 7 months living there, above a hash bar. aside from their ridiculous stories of treating schipol airport as their homebase travelling across europe, they eventually made a drastic move…

they are spending the rest of their honeymoon travelling from the eastern most part of the world they could reach, and travel on the ground for as long as they could. so starting in south korea, they’ve travelled by train, car and boat across asia, europe, iceland, greenland and canada until reaching the eastern seaboard. they have yet to get onto a plane since starting in south korea.

today, they were in detroit, visiting their cousin (who lives in my building) and while we were eating sushi in detroit, they shared the story of how they met and how their travels brought them together on the trip of a lifetime…of anyone’s life time. to me, it’s amazing a man from london and a woman from seattle could meet under interesting circumstances, get married, travel the world for 21 months and counting, and be just as in love as my parents are (which is saying a lot.)

they did what they wanted to do together. she hasn’t been back to seattle since january of 2007, and she said it was all possible because of dave, who lovingly calls himself “the grinch.” their passion for life and love was eye opening, and made me extraordinarily happy. they were open, honest and invited me to their home in seattle whenever i was next in town.

its proof positive that marriage and passion aren’t mutually exclusive, and being with someone exclusively doesn’t mean your life and passion and adventure end at “i do.” on the contrary, their belief was that their lives were just starting. what better way to continue on their adventure than meeting new people over sushi in a little bar called oslo in downtown detroit.

poland is less than 300 kilometers from where i’m sitting right now, and its the land of my ancestors, and my entire family outside of my parents. i haven’t been there in 15 years. so being in germany, this is the perfect opportunity to take advantage of the close proximity and visit for a short period of time. so i bit the bullet, bought a $500 ticket from munich to poznan, and will be flying there tomorrow morning.

i haven’t seen my grandfather in about 7 years. maybe longer. i haven’t seen grandma in nearly a year. i haven’t seen my aunt and uncle in 15 years, and i haven’t seen my cousins in nearly 18 years. its been forever. so tomorrow, i’ll wake up nice and early, drive 2 hours to munich, jump onto a prop plane that has 18 seats total, and land in my dad’s hometown at lunch time, when my grandmother (who drives a mean stick shift btw) will pick me up to take me to a home she built almost 10 years ago, but i have yet to see in person.

allegedly poland has changed immensely since i’ve been there last, and i’m interested in seeing some of the changes (though it has been so long, i probably won’t notice.) this time around, i’ll have a camera, so i can document my adventures.

aspiring radass and i agreed that 2008 was going to be a year of travel adventures. here’s another to add to my list.

after nearly 3 years in the state of michigan, i finally decided to apply for a state driver’s license. mainly because my illinois one was due to expire, but i figured its about time for me to cut free of my last illinois tie, and make the switch to michigan, and make a largely symbolic conservative vote in an area that’s consistently recognized as one of the more liberal in the country. (despite my year-over-year homer picks in fantasy football, it’s not happening in the general election) 

as everyone knows, the dmv secretary of state is the mecca of poor photographs. so imagine my surprise, that after 3 years of living in michigan, and nearly 5 years since my last photo was taken for the illinois license, i was shocked to see my new picture was actually…good. my old ID…well aside from looking nothing like me, contained an awkward and forced smile of an overweight college frat guy who went to the secretary of state to get a license that wasn’t covered in red “under 21″ reminders. 

my passport photo, which is less than a year old, needs to be changed too. i look like i stole some other passport to fly internationally. so shockingly crazy, that i bet airport security officials that have checked my passport have stayed up late at night thinking about how they let someone through the cracks, and it’s all their fault…ok, maybe not, but still.

anyway, i look at pictures just 12 months old, and i cannot recognize myself. pictures from college don’t appear to be me, and range from me looking like a 16 year old just learning to drive, to a 47 year old man who just got through a divorce.

it’s just amazing how a good driver’s license picture can make me think all of that.

each spring, a co-ed group of various ages and backgrounds gathers at a grassy field in old t-shirts, cleats and colorful nike shorts to play a game with a plastic disc. ultimate frisbee is ridiculous, a sport more closely aligned to basketball without dribbling, and football without downs.

i hadn’t seen the people i play frisbee with in nearly 5 months. but many of the people i play frisbee with are my good friends during the season. i trained for the detroit marathon with one girl who plays frisbee with us, one guy became a close friend of mine, and i mentor another in life and career advice (weird, i know, i’m so young.)

frisbee was the first social group i met in detroit after i moved here. its strangely exciting, because each tuesday, we talk about life, children, work, relationships, vacations, religion, politics, and more life. i know more about the people i play with than m neighbors. my fellow frisbee-ers were some of the first to know about my girlfriends, my breakups, promotions and stuggles at work. they were the first to know i decided to run a half-marathon. people announced pregnancies, engagements and new jobs. the group is incredibly unique and diverse.

come winter, we all split ways, and wait 5-6 months until we can see each other again. when we do start up, we say happy new year, and pick up where we left off. like nothing has changed. new people join the group, old people leave, but the pulse of the group is constant, positive and vibrant.

 so that all happened today. a happy new year to a number of people, and a start of a great season, on a sunny 70 degree day, with great field conditions, 7 on the line, and subs, my first day of the season set a great template for how the rest of the year will go. it’s gonna be a great season.

as i listen to the new justin timberlake and madonna sing their new song, “4 minutes” i wonder exactly what they’re singing about.

if i had 4 minutes to save the world, what the hell would i do?

here’s what i’m thinking. in order to save the world, i’d have to be fighting some catastrophic event. then i get to thinking what kind of events would end the world. so i list things that could cataclysmically end the world in such a manner where 4 minutes is all the time you could muster to save it. here’s my initial list:

1. the sun explodes (one could argue if this happened, we’d know in about 6 and a half minutes, and would have no warning. let us suspend belief and just say we knew about 2-3 minutes after the sun exploded, that we’d have 4 minutes)
2. the earth explodes
3. a giant meteor is discovered just in time (about 4 minutes) before it crashes to earth
4. chuck norris punches roundhouse kicks the earth into the sun. (he’s gentle this time, so it take 4 minutes for the earth to reach the sun. normally, 12 seconds.)

i get to thinking, if any of that shit actually happens…i’m probably gonna busy and won’t have 4 minutes to save the world. neither do madonna or justin timberlake. they’re probably going to be busy being too attractive and cool to save the world.

so back to the original question. if i had 4 minutes to save the world, i’d probably find the hottest girl i could in a 2 minute radius, spend 1 minute telling her that we should probably make out for the last minute of our lives because chuck norris is going to roundhouse kick the earth into the sun, and then i’d make out with her.

so i don’t really save the world. but neither does justin timberlake. and at least i tried.

each morning, my iphone vibrates itself to life at 6:30am to wake my ass up to goto work. it also happens to vibrate itself onto the floor if i don’t properly turn off the iphone when i’m in the shower. my iphone as fallen no less than 24 inches multiple times. it’s fallen out of my jacket pocket when getting out of my car, it’s hit the bar floor, and been jammed in the same pocket as my abnormally large set of keys.

imagine my surprise when i dropped my iphone just 6 inches from the floor of a friends apartment while playing with her cat, when the screen decides “now, i’m going to crack.” for a $400 piece of equipment, it breaks fairly easily i’d say. or rather, unexpectedly. furious, i went home, to change and blow off some steam on the track at the y.

so while i’m changing, i realize my suunto is missing. i search high and low, and eventually decide i left it at work. since theft at work is an all too common an occurance, i get pissed, jump into the car and drive back to work.

it’s at this point where i realize i’m speeding like a mad man, blaring music, staying in gear until i hit the redline on every shift, and recklessly shifting lanes, all in a drastic attempt to release the pressure of a day gone horribly awry between the last hour at work and coming home to drop my iphone.

and as i approached the exit to oakwood avenue, a strange thing happened: steve winwood came onto the radio. valerie was the song, with its amazing chorus, “Valerie, call on me-call on me, valerie/Come and see me-Im the same boy I used to be” and other portions of the uppity song like “Love songs fill the night, but they dont tell it all,  Not how lovers cry out just like they’re dying”

and here i am, listening to steve winwood, slowing down to sing the famous chorus along with him, realizing that, yeah, so what, my iphone is broken. i had to drive to work to get my watch and missed my workout. but here’s steve, begging valerie to come back to him. he’s praying that “some good wind may blow her back” to him. he’s waiting and desperate for her to come back some day. that’s much worse than having a broken iphone. or losing a watch for a couple of hours.

so thanks steve. you rock. and it certainly helps you can rock the synth.

*okay, slight exaggeration.

while out and about roaming the streets of chicago on a sunny 54 degree day, i realized that i miss chicago tremendously. i mean, i always knew i missed chicago, but never this much.

chicago is my home. as a city, it represents the place where i always felt like “settling down.” i want to treat chicago like my home base. coming back to chicago, would be a triumphant return. chicago represents a pinnacle point in my life where i feel like i accomplished everything i could on my own, in a new city, away from home. many of my friends (and my parents) asked me this weekend when i was coming back for good…the truth is, i don’t know, but i know i want to come back. i have to go back.

being in town with stephanie, and being close to friends and parents felt natural, “right”, and so desperately what i want in my life. it felt perfect. it was perfect (aside from trying to park my car) and leaving today left me with a heart that yearns for a girl, my family and a city that is my home.

but i don’t think i’m done here in detroit. i’m not ready to leave this place and i guess only time will tell when i feel ready…

two days ago, i celebrated my 25th birthday with my closest friends from detroit (and dc!) never have i ever felt so blessed or lucky or loved in my life. 20 of us celebrated at proof bar from 9pm to 3am, drinking, talking and laughing the night away. it felt amazing for all of my friends to come together, talk, gather, enjoy life in a place that was new to most of the individuals. people met, talked, danced, drank, and enjoyed life!!!

i got to thinking…how lucky i was to have my aspiring radass fly to detroit to spend my birthday with me (and bring an original radass card, which is now prominently displayed in my bedroom) and how lucky i was to have people come out to detroit (not a small feat for those coming from ann arbor.)

the next day, my parents called and sang happy birthday to me no less than 6 times. even today, the day after, my parents sang their favorite, “happy after-birthday” song (which is just happy birthday with “after” thrown before each time you’d sing birthday) 

it makes me tear up, thinking about how great my friends and family are. it was all just so memorable. i’ll never forget this weekend…for many reasons…but mostly because i felt so lucky to be around such wonderful people.

thanks again everyone!

i had a ridiculous trip to dc this past weekend. between wandering old town alexandria, examining the torpedo factory (which sadly doesn’t make torpedoes anymore) and u street jazz, eastern market and meeting stephanie’s friends, the trip was a colossal success. and the packing was well worth it.

when i returned home to detroit and talked to stephanie, i heard one of her friends called me “an old soul.” never hearing the term, i asked stephanie what it meant, and she responded, “it’s someone who is wise in a way that’s comforting for others.”

this surprised me. for one, it was an extraordinary compliment from someone that knew me less than 2 hours. i’m 25 years old (almost) and never thought in my day that someone married with kids and a few years older could ever think i was wise in a way that comforted her. as i scour the internet for more definitions of old soul, i see words like sound, stable and experienced.  as you can imagine, i’m nearly dumbfounded. i don’t ever feel sound or stable. while knowledgable or intelligent, i can only think of a handful of areas where i would consider myself “experienced” and most of those have to do with computer stuff.

as i slowly come to the end of 25 years of being around on earth, i find it fascinating that someone felt i was comforting, or experienced or that i looked like i had my act together. as i mentioned to stephanie a number of times this weekend, i have a plan, and i want so desperately to live without one. i appreciate stephanie’s ebb and flow approach to life, and it challenges me consistently, just as i know my plan challenges her to make her own and be a bit more structured.

i guess we compliment each other in that way. for now, this old soul needs to actually figure out if he’s got any experience under his belt.

looking back at my resolutions for 2007, i realize i did fairly well.

1) lose 10 pounds (i lost 25, but that was all in the last 4 months of the year)
2) save an extra $100 each month. (i averaged $150)
3) don’t challenge people so frequently (i needed to work on this a bit, but better than 06)

rating my year.
work: A+, such a good year there. 2008 looks so good here.
social: B, made some new friends, sadly lost others, a tough year, but i learned a lot about me.
intangibles: B+, rearranged apartment, stronger family relationship and 2007 travels

overall: A-/B+, 2007 is a great springboard into 2008. looking forward to the ‘08. lots of exciting things coming up.

happy new year everyone! lets have a good one!