Deja Vu in Vienna

Vienna likes to sleep in. At least most of the cafes I walked past this morning, perhaps it's only an american thing to go for coffee before ten. I did find this incredible whole grain/organic bakery on Mariahilferstrasse, though. Really great.

It is a humongeous city. Well, I suppose it is the captitol. The tall building and skinny streets remind me of San Francisco. It is an ancient city, but there is an energy to it and a youthful vibrancy to its artistic scene. I am sitting in front of Cafe Sperl in a small yard with a few flowerbeds along a moving street. The "Oma" Kaffee I ordered was very good, I wonder what it was exactly.

This reminds me of a story I started writing about two people with no names. The man was a traveller, and in the opening paragraph he is sitting on a bench contemplating the "Tasse von Himmel" he had had in Vienna. Or somewhere in Austria. Ironic. Perhaps this was one of my dreams I didn't realise, but now I'm living it. Having an amazing cup of coffee in the center of Vienna and writing a few notes down. Quite artistic and a bit on the romantic side. Oh well, as I once said to a friend, "I'm a sailor, a musician, a writer and an artist; I think I'm allowed to be romantic."

On one hand it's a little difficult to be traveling by myself. On the other, I feel a little more relaxed and the days lie before me. I can see what I want in whatever order, or even wander around in circles if I wish. I can follow in the footsteps of Fatty Goodlander and write for four hours a day, or sit and contemplate Viennese architecture. But ultimately, things are much more worthwhile when you have someone to share them with. There isn't anyone to tast this coffee and help me try to distinguish the ingredients to an OmaKaffee, or remark on the day's events. However, my pen is always here and he's currently quite willing to contribute to this experience.

Now it is four minutes past ten and Vienna seems to be stretching her arms and yawning.

The Last 12 Hours

Tomorrow the old things start again. Books, pencils, whiteboards, keyboards, skeptical professors taking role and combating waitlist problems... I like playing with the idea that this will be my last semester. I feel like there is only so much of this I can take before I implode. I like using my brain and analyzing things, but now I've realized that bending energy to school alone is completely futile. In the end it's just a scrap of paper you can push at people when you're begging on your knees for a job. Unless coupled with real experiences and creativity, schooling is hard to use by itself. But anyways...

Looking back, I can honestly say this was a good summer. Things were accomplished, I did travel a little, I made some new friends, some amazing experiences were had... Yeah, a success. I also worked a reasonable amount. Life without school was quite awesome indeed. I could definitely live without it now.

Ok, one thing I am looking forward to in school is Theory III. I can't be completely down on school, because I'm taking my last theory class with Fred. It's apparently the hardest, and there is much analyzing, but it is going to be great. More opportunities to witness Inevitability and Simultaneity in action!

The Enchanting Pacific

I had not been out on the bay in so long. It was fantastic. Heading back into the harbor, the ocean was the most intriguing purple color... it always amazes me how it changes while the sun sets. As you grow up, your perspectives change and you get new dreams and ideas about what you want to do with your life, but when it really comes down to it I think your heart's original intentions come back. There's so much out there, and so many chances to take a fork in the road, but sometimes there's this pull that tells you where you were meant to be.

Tuesday evening was extremely encouraging, and it reminded me "oh yeah, I can write." Sometimes I just dump whatever happens to be on my mind into this page of cyberspace, and don't even think about it. Some of it is good, and a lot of it belongs in the recycle bin. Now that I actually have time, it wouldn't be a bad idea to get back into the habit of writing...

This was my scribble during the 10minute prompt. I honestly have no idea where the scene came from or the characters, for that matter. The prompts were "Despite" and "Trust."

    "Despite the fact that I trust you, I'm still leaving."
    She looked into his eyes as she said this, and saw a piece of his soul shatter. Utter despair replaced his previous look of hopefulness, and he leaned against a post on the station as he caught his breath. He looked at the large station clock. It was 5:53.
     "But what about the commission they offered you? It would only take a couple weeks."
     She lifted her delicate fingers to her veil and laughed. "Like I would want to spend 2 weeks painting that family. Their faces have no symmetry. It's 1907, I have many better opportunities awaiting me in New York."
     There was a quiet confidence in the way she daintily lifted her bag to the train steward and raised her skirts to board the 2nd class car. But she turned around once, the red curls along her temples swished in the light wind. The sun was setting, and he once again was looking hopeful. It was 6 o'clock.
    "Will I see you again?" he asked.
     "Goodbye."

And yes, I invented the phrase "she saw a piece of his soul shatter." It was perhaps the best thing I got out of the whole deal. But it is still a nugget. There are some things I really like about it, and others I absolutely hate. It was completely spontaneous, I've never written about 1907 or had any ideas to. Perhaps someday it'll be useful for something.Till then it will float about in my subconscious ocean of unorganized imaginations.

The Other Side of the Hill

It's interesting going out of town for business trips, or "schooling" trips, as the case may be. I'm liking living in a new place with new things to do and a different style to try out, but I wish the workaholic mindset would go away. At least I know I'm doing my best to pass, though.

It's funny, things are faster down south, and more spread apart, and yet it doesn't take longer to get anywhere. Traffic is a given, but it's not stressful. It seems one could never get bored exploring the endless streets and suburbs, little hideaways you never knew existed. And obviously, the weather is much warmer.

New accquaintances always put an interesting spin on one's psychology. You realize patterns of thinking you didn't know you had; some good, some bad, and some that are just different. Some things stay the same, others move on. Thoughts still course through my mind... I don't believe dreams ever leave you completely.

One Particular Journey

The full feeling of summer has been breaking through this week, and it's a little strange but in a good way. It's the first June in four years that I haven't been summer staffing, and it feels new to have the next few months stretching before me and have to figure out what I'm going to do with it all. Quite wonderful, actually.

Yesterday we hiked about twenty-two miles through the park to a waterfall and back. As we got closer, we could hear the creek rushing, and the terrain changed and we were walking through these meadowish areas of clover and horsetails all covered by ancient redwood trees. It had a more open feel to it than just the closed redwood forest down at the entrance of the park. There was alot of anticipation right before we hit the waterfall as we scrambled up the creek. The waterfall itself was not that impressive. We thought we had got to the wrong one, and traveled further up the creek first, trying to see if there was a bigger one further up the canyon. To be honest, it was quite a nice waterfall, coming into the creek at a ninety-degree angle and surrounded by old pieces of an ancient railroad.

It reminded me of something that happened in theory class this past semester when we were studying preludes. We were trying to figure out the true return to the home key, and Fred was getting a little frustrated because we weren't seeing the obvious. The smart alec kid next to me said, "It's about the journey, Fred, it's about the journey." One of the more humorous parts of class I remember. Sometimes that statement has a lot of truth to it. 

New Experiences

One of the newer things in the last 6 monthsish is my joining the Santa Cruz Sea Scouts, which has been an interesting ride so far. There are some things I like about it, and other things I do not, which I will not be specific about. Last Thursday through this Monday I went on their summer cruise; this year it was to Monterey (we have a green crew, so they decided against going to Catalina/So. Cal).

The ride to Monterey was pretty nice; I'm the appointed Navigator, so I taught a couple of scouts about how plotting a course etc. works; we also saw a couple of Humpbacks and a pod of dolphins go by. Not so nice was the fact that the radar is not currently working (although it was only light fog, its still a good safety), and, once we got over to the anchorage, the doubts about whether the anchor windlass was functioning... AHHH! Anyways, Monterey was nice and cold an' foggy, like it usually is in June, July and August. Some of the crew went swimming, and I think I took a nap, I don't remember... Day #2 I spent about 6 hours (morning till after lunch) learning about taking apart outboard motors, and I actually learned alot, so it was a good learning opportunity. After that I went ashore with Andy, our executive officer, and Brent, junior officer, and we walked to Sand City to get parts for a water line that busted, and look for some fuses for the radar, and Trader Joe's (always good :). Next day we decided to head for Santa Cruz, trip over etc., which is not really noteworthy.

Our second day in Santa Cruz (we anchored right off the wharf, in front of the Boardwalk) we walked through the Boardwalk and went on the Big Dipper (woooot!), stood around watching the salt water taffy machine (wooot!) and walked along the railroad tracks and did a loop to avoid the Boardwalk on the way back. Hiked along West Cliff Drive to the lighthouse/surf museum where I found some awesome postcards (hey, I was on a trip, okay, we had to act like tourists...) and headed back to the ship. This was all very entertaining, as we were in a sarcasticly humorous way. Yes, "sarcasticly" is a word. As of... now.

Back on the ship, Brent and I decide we need to take the Lido 14 (sailboat) out. No big deal, I'm the person in charge of sailing anyways. It's a pretty breezy afternoon with no clouds overhead, and there's some boats from the harbor out scooting around by the mile bouy. Brent is newer at sailing, but I put him at the tiller anyways, because that's how you learn; sails up, we cast off the Steeves and head out for some fun.

I explain a little about how the steering for sailboats works, and what angle to aim for with the wind. We get going pretty fast, and heel a little; I'm trimming the sails for optimum speed... Then we're sailing really fast, and we're almost standing up on the windward side of the boat, so I tell Brent we might want to tack.

WHAP! We tack, but we're still blasting along like snot, so I say let's head downwind a bit, but we're already heeling way waaaay over, and then we're going up into the wind (which gets you going even faster); I'm thinking I should let out the sails (the last chance to avoid capsizing), but it's those self-locking cleats that suck to undo when you're in a hurry, and I can't get on the other side of the boat 'cause we're heeling so much, and it's slow motion as some water comes over the gunnel, and then WHAP - we tack; at that point Brent loses all rudder control as she rounds up again, and -slooow motion- we heel waaaaaaaaay over, and its so far over we can't keep balance, then all of a sudden we're in the air, and SPLOOSH!

Luckily, we're both wearing life jackets. The boat finishes flipping completely over as my head pops out of the water and Brent gets untangled from the main sheet. The water actually didn't feel very cold, because we were both so shocked about actually capsizing the boat. I'd never flipped a boat before, so I didn't have much of an idea about how to right one, but we definitely learned how. We hauled ourselves up on top of the hull and stood on one side, standing on the gunnel. Andy came by and helped us out with three other people, and we finally managed to right it. We realized that because the bow of the Lido is a big cubby, it's the heaviest part and is super full of water, so to right it you have to stand close to the bow and kinda roll it on the bow, which lets the stern come up and over first.

Some lifeguards came by and were a huge hassle, even though they meant well. We bailed some of the water (there was SO much water) before the lifeguard boat came up and told us we couldn't... anyways, we managed to tow it back to the ship, and I believe that's the closest either of us have come to the first stages of hypothermia. Big excitement of the trip, and a good learning experience to boot. At first it was a shock, and I felt really bad about it, but later it was pretty funny. There were a bunch of people on the wharf taking pics of us, and we kind of regretted not having a video of us going over (our faces must have been comical to see).

That's the latest, and I thought I should try and write that out in story form for the explanation and entertainment of those who weren't present. In other news, I'm contemplating rearranging the shed for at least a study area, and feeling like I should try and do some creative writing... It's summer, after all, and I have till the 31st, and it's going by way too fast.