Yeah, I know. Finally...

Oh good journal of mine, it has been too long. Life it seems moves without you. Your pages once gilded with the trappings of adventurous youth now lie creased and undusted, waiting to be shelved into the ubliet of my personal library. Once cherished and adored, you now sit forgotten—a testament to the scratchless turnings of a mundane time, where automation – thoughtless and routine – becomes the sole mode and method of being.

Now, new frontiers lie ahead. New stories have yet to be written, and blank spaces filled. Where once there were palm trees, beaches, and all the beauty of the southerly cross, now sit mountains, present and looming, a different setting for a future tale. Faces and faculties have changed, new measures won, personal triumphs bested by smiling domesticity.

And in this…

…this present place.

You creak, you yearn, you finally open. With new stories to let loose upon the fluttering world.

* * *

Ah Boulder, Boulder, Boulder. So much and so fast. In all truth it is hard to complain about living here. You would really have to work at it. The city is so very rich and vibrant with life, a hot bed of culture and arts, and a maelstrom of unconventional practices and activities. Just the other day I was driving around in some unnamed neighborhood and saw an old lady walking her dog, a Great Dane, and just next to it a collared lama of all things. There they strolled, hairy beast and mountain spitter, walking the sidewalk side by side as if it was the most normal thing in the world. People slap bumper stickers on their hipped out Volkswagen vans with slogans like “Keep Boulder Weird”, and all eccentricities considering, they ain’t lying.

Take the annual “Naked Pumpkin Run” for instance, where “scores of strapping young lads and lasses take to the streets in a fine blend of artistry, harmless debauchery, and nudity”. “Why?” a Midwest church goer might ask. Well, because we’re Boulder, because we can.

We have quirky people, glorious shopping districts, and some of these:

Plus our town looks like this, and we channel your jealousy to powerful ends:

But anyhow, as far as my life goes, I could describe my experience here with one simple phrase: Rich transience. As with the last year and a half of my life, everything I touch seems to change, to waiver and disappear so fast—verification of the inconcrete nature of my little corner of reality. Thus far, in little over three months here, I have run through three jobs, three housing states, and three girlfriends funny enough. I worked first with my brother doing heavy landscaping, fitting rocks into nooks and generally making green places more pretty. Then came all hell of hell’s bells, work at a coffee shop where I had to arise at five in the morning to deal with scores of muttering grumble bunnies who had not YET had their coffee. Now, I work a full schedule picking and delivering organic and conventional goods for an Online grocery business that just started up in March. The crew I work with is fun, but the activity rather lean on the intellectual side of things. I have already started to critique general business practices, and am slowly working on a marketing plan for them, even though I am a simple minded peon and lowest on the ‘who’s the smartest monkey’ ladder.

The love agenda has been equally fleeting, with few worthy connections made. Ironic how my skills in meeting women have steadily increased, while the propensity for finding worthy one’s continues to fall. Not that I haven’t been dating good people, just that the time and place variables keep rolling me snake eyes, when a seven is the only thing that will do. It would be nice to meet someone that I really connect with again, but who am I to rush the unmovable. Taisa and I continue to talk over the phone and cherish the memory of one another, and I look forward to seeing her again soon (next year perhaps), but two thousand miles is a long way to bridge in this current moment of time.

Overall though, my life is definitely not all boohoo and humbug. The richness in my transience comes from so many areas. Except for my limited travels, no place I have lived can compare. First off, I live with my two brothers and two other great roommates. Our house, an ugly 60’s brick shelter off Yale road is a true compliment to good spirits and a fun lifestyle. We have a dog, “Stich”, who is the fattest piece of Doberman sausage I have ever seen. He is dopy bear like animal with a winning spirit and brings a lot of joy into our home. Our house is game madness, and we are now equipped with foosball, ping pong, horseshoes, disk golf baskets, and every manner of Nintendo and PlayStation hardware known to man. Our parties have become infamous, full of barbeque, good people and great times.

(Our house on left...ah the things we do for fun)

Aside from work and the thousand other circles I travel, a great deal of my friends here are fellow angoleiros, really good people that I have met playing Capoeira here in town.

There is Larry, our illustrious leader and capoeirista extraordinaire,

Michael, the acupuncturist,

Finnish fire child Henna…

…and so many more. Capoeira is a great outlet for me, and with the five groups currently playing in Boulder, the town truly provides. I am now doing both styles of Capoeira Regional and Angola, and am proficient in the art of back hand springs, hand stands, and am more flexible than you ever wished you could be. Sorry.

As usual Brazil continues to be of great fascination to me. I am joining up with a Portuguese language group out of Denver, and hope to start some university classes next year. I have opened a Brazilian savings account (right next to my motorcycle savings account hooraah!), and hope to travel there once a year if possible. On a vocational level, I have been studying a relatively new field called Cultural Heritage Tourism which might lead to some interesting opportunities in the States and perhaps someday in Brazil. Just sent my resume to the director of State Heritage Tourism last week so we’ll see what comes of it.

Other areas of richness include the inevitable work on personal spirituality and growth, which is really par for the course in this town (When in Boulder, do as the Boulderites as they say). To my greatest aggravation and fatigue I still remain plagued by extremely visceral dreams of my ex-wife, though the frequency has subsided quite a bit. Since childhood I have dealt with irregular sleep patterns and nightmarish dreams—as if my subconscious has a cyclical fascination with my inner demons. Not fun to say the least, and the emotional tug and pull of these particular dreams have been the worst yet. In response, I have put myself on the offensive with my brother Shem as encourager, and a form of Tibetan Dream Yoga as guide. Sounds hippy, yes, but it is actually one of the oldest exploratory forms of lucid dream training in documented history, and there is a lot I feel I can take from it (ah, well, sanity is overrated anyway…hurumph).

So all in all, life continues to move. There is a lot I continue to be thankful for, a bit I feel anger toward, a dollop I feel frustrated with, much I rapturously enjoy. All in all, the sweeps of my transience continue to carry me toward some unknown place. I hope to be back in school or dabbling in the professional world soon. I hope to continue growing in my passions and interests, make connections and building bridges along the way. I hope to find some measure of love yet again, whatever that means. All, I guess, in some great bid to call myself human.

Blah, blah, blah.

Leo out.