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December 30, 2003

Miami, FL "Just the Knicknacks"

Hi guys. I am alive and well in Miami. I am currently staying at a hostel (another name for dirt cheap hotel for travelers) on Miami Beach and at the public library using the internet. The bus trip was faster than I expected and I am doing very well. I have my health and, of course, the initial vigor that someone has when they are in a new city. Naturally, the weather is beautiful.

I have met three friends already. They are with me now at the library. Two Japanese, and one from Malaysia. I still have not hooked up a pager, so for the time being you can still leave me a message at the Austin number below, but I will not get it until I check my message box so pardon the delay. I am looking for work this week, so as soon as I hook that up (hopefully I'll get lucky) I will contact you again. Until then, bye bye comrades...(If I sent you this letter that means I love you)

December 26, 2003

East Coast Dreams

A short story of what I HOPE will happen for me traveling out East; a visualization exercise, so to speak:

anyhow...back to my blue...i know that i'll be in philly come whatever. i'm doing a bike tour...taking I-95 all the wall up for the 2nd quarter...spring...so wonderful..i think. beach life is the best of course...who doesn't like the beach...something about the ocean. i do searches...and from what i know spring is such a great time to bike...and then summer comes along and so you want to go up north, really really north, i was thinking new york for july aug and sept...pretty nice deal actually, and then getting outta there heading south again..haha...

I guess this living "freely" is really nice, it's a nice gig, so to speak. I'm saving up a lot of money. got 1200 from last i heard. Still it's small money...but still, it's money. i like showering my siblings with gifts...it makes me feel nice...stuff, i think they need of course and stuff that they need. so it's cool. so yea, it's a question of lifestyle. i know my pops doesn't like my lifestyle, but i do...like my lifestyle. it's great.. i'm learning alot about myself and about the world and how people live. i even am keeping a travelogue on xanga. things are not so bad. meeting alot of like minded people. Living very freely.

As far as safety. I have a van now. It's coo, i guess. except for when I move to another place..then i have to sell it. especially if it's overseas. well, then again, i can just leave it at my brother's seems like such a hassle sometimes. Then when to visit them is always a question. i always try to keep a relationship try my best a long distance one...it does involve skill and effort. I love them so much.. i wish the best for them. It's a good life. always learning. I like the challenge of adapting.

Well, i met someone. She is just really something special. I asked her if she'd like to come along with me. She says yes, but then her parents. Well, we decided to keep a long distance relationship, as friends...we're such good friends. I'd like to marry her someday, really. It turns out that i think about her more and more everyday. i mean, sure she's really special, and she thinks i'm special...and then these journeys are something else. I have all these different friends. but she stands out DEFINITELY

i want to see more of the world. south america for x-mas...i did it! it is just so wonderful! i had to buy a van and travel that way...my biking days wow...and so i keep on going this way...I keep on learning. When is enough enough dao? when do you want to "settle down" Ha. so funny. Not anytime soon, i don't believe. Alot of success...things are feeling good for me, a lot of new experiences...i am very safe...i take defense classes! haha. funny.

As it turns out...I am beginning to feel something. It's VERY special..of all the things that I like, as art...improvisation and traveling have become really key in my life and living freely. As it turns out...There is an opportunity for me to be a freelance photographer for national geographic. I've been taking all sorts of pictures...beginning to see why sage likes it so much...b/c i am getting better myself...and wrting has become SO much a center force...it's really something...and I've had some success with it!

My first book, being published, on living life alternatively...a travelogue more or less, a compilation...i've sold 60 copies so far! amazing! Things are looking up for me as a writer, reminds me of that time dad made a poke at my journal..haha, so funny how things work and that is the writing world. so I have become a writer and i'm gettting better and better. Ha, how funny, seriously.. I mean, it's boring and yet, i'm so good at it...it's really my love. and everything else, guitar, acting, all that..I write with harmony, I write with emotion, it leaps from the pages...I remember meeting writing at UT way back when, really beautiful stuff.

Now, in my life, it has taken precedence. I don't want to settle down with it just yet...i keep on continuing doing what i do. it's nice to be able to bring a pen with you. shit, i've been writing since high school and didn't even know it. Wonderful stories i write, wonderful books i have written. well, we will see how it all unfolds...as it turns out she wants to be with me regardless...wow, that's really wonderful, seriously, really wonderful. So now, a new spin on life, how can i do the two things I love, write and love Michelle? I can write wherever she goes. wisconsin? haha, how funny...how about miami? again? haha.

I love them all for different reasons...the best reason is family. the meaning of family, it took me four years. so she says, actually, my company may come with me to paris, france. Would you like to make a life in Paris? I dunno, about my family, my ma and pa, what about christmass and the sort? will we have money? it's always been about the money one way or another. Dun worry, we'll fly, no, i have too much pride about that stuff, i would like to be self sufficient. you will be lovely. I'm sorry. I can't. And so there and then the relationship falls apart...even something that I truly did love so damn much, and the writing is all we have left, of course that is the nature of love, we knew that from the beginning, self interest always outweighs benevolence, so there we are again, being self interested.

The pain brings about a new wave of writing like never before, we come out with the finest material. In search for meaing, more or less. the road less traveled. Wow, you know, I have found that I will always be traveling one way form or another, it will be my lifestyle. I celbrate my 24th birthday today, whoa...coming of age, i really feel like an independent man now...it is quite a nice feeling. and I celebrate it in miami.. damn, already? How interesting. and finally boston for the third quadrant, july aug sept, and then begin to take a greyhound back south, at this rate we are going, things are going well for us.

What a crazy adventure just because you heard someone else did it you wanted to try it. you never stick to anything like this in your life. It loses it's thrill does it not? Well the challenge is really the interesting part. The challenge never loses it's thrill because the challenge is stated: can you endure? of course it is an adventure in itself. Seriously? Do you mean it? you are going to do this? whoa. that is just pure madness. you leave early from miami on your birthday or so? and on your journey, whoa...and you don't get there until when?

what's the rush? there's no rush, it's a good, a very good lesson in life, you can do just abuot anything after you do a bike tour. And I can honestly say, that changed my life forever. what a beautiful story unraveling. yes, i can see it happening now. Not going to be easy. Lots and lots of challenges. of course, then we see it all unravel, all before our eyes. in Philadelphia for a little bit, in Hacketstown a little and then New York, lots and lots, it's all really close, really. Whoa, so you're actually traveling more in Florida than you had expected..to live in a town for no more than a month, our quadrants broken down by months, pick a town, and what about in transit?

All this traveling, what are we to make of it? what are we learning about ourselves? so much, and the occupation and financial progress, and social progress, and emotional progress. I learn that I don't want to bike all that much? really? well, I can approach it in a fun way, but, it's really a waste of time, to me anyhow, like, it's enough, the challenge is no longer there, the challenge now is how can I make money with my writing. So I decide to stay put in one place:San Diego. And I write. Who knows...follow your heart, I feel good about my long vision. Let's return to short term.

December 15, 2003

The Winding Road

Monday, December 15, 2003
Here are my current philosophies on life. I like to approach my life using analogies. Lately, I have been referencing my life to a roadtrip. It's funny, normally when you think of roadtrips, you are affected with excitement and a feelings of anticipation. However, lately i've been feelin' very reluctant to go anywhere. I don't know exactly what it is, but the motivation hasn't been with me lately. You know the feeling you get when you know you ought to get out of here but you don't exactly have any reason outside of the hope that once you get out you will encounter that reason.

California Dreamin'


Monday, December 15, 2003
I'm listening to Counting Crows "Long December" and doing research on life in California. I'm thinking about making a move out there by the ocean. I don't have any real reason to go: no job waiting for me, no long distance lover in L.A., no family in San Fran. Just the curiosity of how life would be experienced for me out there. It's terrible that I find myself writing my xanga's only when I am feeling out of whack. I actually don't feel this way the majority of the time, but is sure paves way for good, soulful writing. It's been difficult convincing myself that I will be leaving in a month's time. I know that I will be leaving but I do not know....?