To travel or not to travel that is the question

Life has a funny way of throwing curveballs. One minute your on top of the world eating caviar and drinking expensive wine planning your next move in life. The next your wondering where your going to live and how your going to manage to hold on to the remaning crumbs of your life. My life has been.....interesting over the past several years. From moments of "things are getting better" to "oh crap, another freaking loss!" One that just seemed to be going backwards faster then it was going forwards. From the loss of a home, finances, loved ones, jobs and a marriage. Over the last 10 years I have struggled to live what I believed was the American dream; The house, the marriage, the job. Thinking that if I just hold on a little bit longer things will be ok. Only to loose it all in the end. Now as I sit here writing this blog. I find my self wondering just what exactly I want to do in this life. Should I continue to pursue that once high and mighty American dream?....or try a different path? One that isn't so black and white. One that allows me a feeling of true freedom. Could I even take a step in that direction with out thinking I'm missing my chance at that American dream. You know what.... I don't know. I don't know if I could do something different. But, I know I can't stay where I'm at. Life is about moving forward, experiencing life, and living it to the fullest. So now I am in a place where my responsibility in very minimal. I am not tied to anything or anyone.

I remember taking a Geography class in Junior high. I remember the teacher showing slides of all the places he's visited and listening to all the stories and adventures he had had while living and traveling abroad. I would soak in every word and dream of what it would be like to do that to. I memorized every country I could because someday I would be there. But like I said at the beginning of this blog, life has a funny way of throwing curve balls. After high school I never got to do much of any traveling outside of the USA. I have traveled to other parts of America and even lived in a few states but, never outside the continental US. The farthest I ever traveled outside the US was Mexico and Canada. So now, I spend my down time thinking how great it would be to see the world and experience all the different cultures. But I wonder...Will I enjoy the experience of travel or will I be left with a feeling of wasted time?

Earlier this year I was bitten by the travel bug. Jennifer, one of my long time friends told me she was moving to China for a year or so to pursue her dream of being an action star. My first reaction I had was "So Cooool!!!!" The next thing was "I have to go. I have to go to China and support my friend." So since then I have been seriously thinking of how am I going to get there and can I afford it? I have searched online blogs, websites, and videos to get an idea of what it takes. And what I found was that it just takes a desire and initiative. So now, I just finished watching Departures (a nextflix show). And that just made that travel bug itch all the more. But I am nervous and scared wondering do I have what it takes to travel to a foreign country? Am I so Americanized that I won't be able to enjoy my time? I really hope not.

What a week

What a long and busy week.
This week I was scheduled to work at a draw station alone. This station sees about 40-60 patients a day. They mostly arrive early in the morning. When I first open the doors I usually have 4-8 patients waiting to be let in. Then for the first hour I will have 10 more patients arrive. After the first 2 hours new patients start to taper off giving me time to separate and transfer plasma and serum to their proper containers for shipping before noon. After lunch I see a lot less patients. There will be 10-15 more patients that come through. On monday when I arrived at work I was expecting about 5 patients in line. When i opened up the door to let them in, there were 10 patients which I was not ready for. The rest of the day was non-stop. Even after lunch when things generally slow down patients kept coming in. It would have been a decent day despite the volume of patients except that the computer kept crashing. With the computer crashing it slowed me down a lot.
Tuesday was better I only had 35 patients for the day. However it was rough because I woke up in a sour mood. I blame it on not having a good nights rest and bad dreams.
Wednesday went ok. It was a busy day. When I got home heather and I had a glass of wine with our dinner and went to bed about 8:30.
When I woke up Thursday I had the worst sinus headache. My nose felt stuffy, my ears were ringing, my sinuses were throbing in pain, and to top it off I had a dehydration headache. Not a good start to the day! I took a hot shower to help relieve some of the pain on my sinuses and drank a few glasses of water to alleviate my headache. My effort did pay off a bit but by the time I got to work my head was pounding again. Of course work was busy!! It started off mellow but as time went forward the waiting room kept filling up. By the end of the day I had seen 52 patients. My headache had lessened but I was left with a dull stuffy feeling in my sinuses and head. After work I went straight home and relaxed as best I could. I made myself a salad and vegged in front of the tv.
Today, Friday I am feeling much better! I had a good night sleep and pleasant dreams. I woke up at 4 ready to start my day but decided to sleep another 30 minutes. Work was really busy in the morning. I had 16 patients sign in the first hour. (9 before i opened the door.)Since I was feeling good I was able to get them in and out of the office in less the 35 minutes! I think that was my quickest time ever!
Aside from the good day today it was a long rough week.
I started some creative writing today before I started work. I have been wanting to film a short sketch but haven't been able to come up with anything. So today, I finally found a subject to write about. Right now I have just been writing down what the scene is and the back ground of my main characters. I think once I know who I'm writing about then the characters lines will be easier to write.
Tonight I plan on going for a bike ride with Heather. Maybe stop at starbucks for tea then relax at home with a glass of wine. Have a great weekend everyone!
Blog you later

What a great way to wake up on a Sunday morning.

     Today we are getting a bit of a summer storm: Clouds, light-heavy rain, hot muggy air. I love it!!  At least as long as it doesn't get to muggy. The only thing I wish we would get is a thunderstorm. The local news has put out a lightning storm and flood watch out for the mountain and desert areas. I keep looking out the window and hoping the lightning will come our way.
     I had a rough start to the weekend. I worked in Temecula on Saturday for what was supposed to be 4 hours. The lab I worked at was supposed to have 2 techs. The second tech never showed up to work. I ended up working almost 8 hours! It sucked to have to work alone but the patients that were there were very friendly and supportive of my efforts to get everyone taken care of quickly. That made a big difference for me emotionally. When I got home from work Heather came out of the house with a big glass of red wine for me and gave me a big hug to make me feel better...... and it did! :) I spent the rest of the day drinking wine and relaxing with my wife and dog.
    Today, Sunday, I have been reading my friends most recent blogs and found a great link from Nikki. It was one about how to ignite your passions. Which is something I have been really trying to do. They list 9 things you can do to get your creative juices flowing. My favorite one is #9 start a blog. Actually that one helped pushe me to write a blog today. If you want to check it out click here. Also Nikki has a cool blog page called lovenunwin. So thanks to Nikki for inspiring me to write this blog today.  :)
     This past week I finished my hiking video of Hellhole Canyon. Please check it out! click on the link---> www.youtube.com/themisch2  This video took me a long time to create. One reason was that I was only able to work on it a few hours at a time during the week. I learned how to add music and effects. I learned how to insert and overwrite video and I learned how to tweak each section of video to go along with the beat of the music. That was really fun to learn! For the sound I couldn't add copyrighted material so I had to learn how to use Garageband to create music that I wanted to feature. After creating this video and another hiking video I want to do more hiking videos. I think for the next video I am going to add more information about the trail we are hiking. Also if I can get into writing blogs regularly again it will help my creativity.

blog you later
   

New blog

     Well once again it has been some time since my last blog. Last time I blogged I had just bought a new Tacoma truck and made a couple of videos. My truck is great! It's running as well as expected. I don't think I have made anymore videos since then. I have been working on a video of a hike Heather and I went on on Valentines day. We went to Hell Hole Canyon trail located in Borrego Springs, CA. It has taken me a long time to put the video together because I have been learning how to do more advanced editing.  In the process of learning more about video editing I have learned how to use garage band. Learning how to use garage band is like having my own music studio in my bedroom.... so cool!
     I am still working at Lab Corp. Heather got a job at a local retirement center as a server a few months ago. She is doing really well there. Both the residents and staff love her there. In just 4 weeks of starting her job she was promoted to hostess! I am so proud of her! When Heather first started her job she kept on telling me she did not want to be a hostess. She felt that they had too much to do, but once she was asked she was more then happy to do it. Today I learned they want her to work more hours at work now. So Heather will be answering phones every day after her lunch shift is over. This will giver her an extra 15 minutes of work a day. I am proud of you babe!!!!
     Over the weekend Heather and I started looking for a place to rent. We have viewed a lot of homes over the past few days over the internet but have only gone to see one place in Oceanside. We found what sounded like a great deal.  A 1 bedroom 1 bath beach cottage in Oceanside about 2 blocks from the beach. Well on Saturday we took a look at it. ......... it turned out to be not so great. The place was slowly deteriorating. The moulding around the doors were coming off and the walls looked as though no one ever cleaned it in about 20 years. Then we found out that the owner is selling the place as a short sale and it was in the middle of selling it to a new buyer. That would of put us in a weird spot having not knowing who to pay rent to. So we nixed that home and are still looking. We are planning on looking at a few places this Saturday.
     Also this weekend I was able to catch up on my youtube subscriptions and read several blogs from friends and myself. Which has inspired me to write another blog. Today I harvested our first cucumber crop.... so excited!!! I also harvested a few banana peppers.
Well that is all I have for today
Blog you later,

    

Happy Memorial Day!!!

    Hey there! It's been a few months since my last post. I have been working a lot and have been helping out on the ranch. Heather and I are still living with her parents but are looking to move out really soon.... I hope.... Tami has been doing good. We bought a rear sling to help her walk. It's great because we can leave it on all day and it doesn't bother her. By having the sling we no longer have to stoop down to support her left leg stub while we are in the house. It has become so useful we are using it on her walks instead of her wheel chair!
    The last post I had I was talking about getting a new 4X4. Well I didn't get a 4X4 but I did get a new Truck. I bought a '08 V6 SRS Toyota Tacoma. It's really nice! I did a vlog about back in February. Click here to see the video of my truck
  
    So, this weekend was really good! On Saturday I had to work 'till noon up in Fallbrook. It was a slow day so I was able to get home at a reasonable time. Then I bought new planters and soil to replant our veggies. Made a video of it and then finished another video I made last week.Click here for the granola video.
     On Sunday I woke up at my normal time of 5am. I took care of the dog and did my usual things in the morning. I went to church at 10 and played with the worship team. After church I bought a video cable to connect my guitar to my computer so I can use Garage band. I was really excited to do that because this meant that I would be able to create my own music studio using only my computer and my guitar! So far I have recorded two music samples using my new tools. One sample I played redemption song by Bob Marley.

     Sorry to cut this blog short but it's getting late and I have to get to bed.  Until next time....
Blog you later.

Change is in the air

     The past few days have brought about new ideas and a new direction for me in life. I spent most of the day Saturday visiting my mom out in Salton City. We talked a lot about life and what's going on in the world but most importantly we talked about the ranch. Both her and my step dad are getting up in their age and are not able to run their business like they would like and need someone to help out. It is getting more difficult for them to drive back and forth from the desert to the ranch.
     It started with a small comment I made right after arriving at the Salton City house. I said "It really feels good to be up at the ranch again, I can't believe I forgot how quiet it is up there!". The conversation then moved into how she needs help up at the ranch. I don't remember if she asked or I commented but we quickly got on the topic of me going up there at least once a month to read meters and do all the property management that is required on the ranch. It will eventually lead me into taking over my mom's business entirely. I don't believe that will happen in the near term but maybe in a few years......
     I am very excited and nervous all at the same time. I am learning something new and I get to run a ranch!!! This is one of the many things I have dreamed of doing in my life and I get to do it! To prepare I am going to have to get a reliable 4x4. Right now my current Jeep 4x4 is giving me to many problems and I am nervous driving it because every time I take it out for a drive something brakes on it. So I have started looking at Wranglers and FJ Cruisers over the weekend. I am also considering the Escape. It's cool to get a new car but I am not looking forward to car payments. I haven't had to make car payments since 2003.
     In the next week I am going to have my Jeep looked at by a mutual friend of Berry and I. I hope that my current jeep doesn't really need all the repairs that I have been told and won't cost very much to fix. However, I think that is a pipe dream because every time I get the Jeep looked over and the problems are fixed something else pops up even more expensive to fix, ugh.
     In other news, I have been sick this weekend with a sore scratchy throat. It bothered me the most on Saturday. Sunday I felt a lot better. I even felt as though I was better. Now, Sunday night,  I feel like it is coming back. I'v got watery eyes scratchy throat and a runny nose. I have been popping vitamin C all day like it was candy. Come on vitamin C do your best!!! I am going to take some medicine ( don't know what I am going to take at the moment) and pray that it kicks this cold's ass and I feel better for work tomorrow.
     With all that said I have got to get some sleep in. Have a great night all!

Blog you later,

How I've Spent my time

     Hey everyone! Since the last blog things have been moving along. I had the Jeep looked at and it turns out that it is going to take about $4,000 to get it back up and running. Ugh!!! I don't exactly have that kinda of money laying around these days so I have had to make a decision on the Jeep. My choices are to save up the money and fix it, but in the mean time I will have to rely on my motorcycle and when it rains Heather's Celica; or I can trade the Jeep in for a new car. I think I have decided to just hold on to the Jeep for now and see if we are able to get a loan for a new house first.

     In December I am planning on doing what I can to further Heather and I into a new home and out of her parents house. The first thing I have going is to go to some sort of mortgage workshop to allow me to qualify for state and local governmental financial help. I am doing this because the city of Vista is helping new home buyers purchase a new home. They are loaning $60,000 as a silent down payment toward a townhouse or single family house so one of their prerequisites is to attend a mortgage workshop. Next, I need to find out how much mortgage I can get. I am hoping my cousin Jory will be able to help me on this one. Then I will need to find a home. Finally, move in to said home.  :)

     Work has still been really busy. I think I am averaging around 50 hours a week and more when I work on the weekends. It is a bit tiring leaving for work early and not coming back home 'till just in time to go to bed. The extra money has given us a little breathing room this month, which is nice. I don't mind it so much as we are able to have a decent social life with the extra income. We have gone out to dinner with friends almost every weekend and been able to buy real presents for family and friends this year. I know the extra money won't last but it is nice to be able to relax on the penny pinching for a bit.

     Today I finally uploaded a video to you tube. I learned how to make a light saber using Final Cut Express. Check out my video here. Let me know what you think comment, rate and or subscribe, please! I really would like to know what ya'll think of it and of all my blogs. 

     Also today I went and made food packages for the children in Haiti with my church Crossweave. It was a blast! The first time I have ever been involved in a large non profit event. We were there for an hour. I teamed up with Naila, Berry, their two boys and Sean. I don't know how much food we packed but it did seem like a lot! I ran into a friend and his daughter and also ran into a patient from work. I don't remember her name but she commented that I look like Ewen McGreggor with my motorcycle jacket on and beard. I thought that was cool. 

     Anyway it is getting really late now about 9:45 and I needed to be asleep 45 minutes ago so I am going to end here. Have a wonder full week every one and hopefully I will have another blog up in a few days or less.

Blog you later,