For as long as I can remember, nothing in my life excites me as much as the idea of an upcoming trip somewhere. I still remember, the night before I flew to England for the first time, I couldn't sleep, thats how excited I was. Today me and Joe are driving to Las Vegas, which is about 4 and a half hours from San Diego by car. This will be the first time I have ever driven through a desert, but my second time in Las Vegas. The first time it was only okay, and I remember writing that I don't think I would ever go back again. However , when you are living this close to it, why wouldn't you go back again?
When I was living in Ireland one of the girls I worked with Carole, introduced me to her best friends in Paris, Laura and Flavian, and it just so happens that Flavian is in Vegas this weekend. I'll try to meet up with him while I am there. Now its time to get going, see you when I get back!  ¶ 11:22 AM

  This past weekend was a pretty good one on the scale as far as weekends go. The English Premier League started, which marks the beginning of my saturday afternoons being tied up. I'm probably the only Manchester United fan in Southern California at the moment, who actually cares enough to watch them every week. As big a fan as I am, this season I'm actually not cheering for them to win the Premier League. For as long as I have been watching football only 3 teams have ever finished first in the Premier League, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Manchester United. I really want to see a different team win the league this year, to show me that it is even possible, that money doesn't dictate who will be crowned champion. Tottenham or Liverpool would be a nice surprise if one of them managed to win it, but onyl time and 36 matches will tell.
Damien's party was this past friday night in Clonmel, and I saw alot of the pictures from it, which made me sad that I missed it. However I am hoping to make the trip back over to Europe as soon as I can, and then the real party begins.  ¶ 6:29 PM

 
Another week gone by in the state of California, and I feel like every week I learn something new about this place. I forgot to mention a few weeks ago there was an earthquake out here near Los Angeles. Here in San Diego we were probably like 90 miles away from the epicenter of the quake but still our building at work shook. The size of that one was only a 5.4 out of 10, which makes me wonder what the hell would have happened if that was any bigger. I'm not sure I am ready for a major earthquake, it was one of my biggest fears when moving to the west coast. Hopefully by this small one happening, it has delayed a much bigger one for another 10 years or so, and I probably won't be living here then.
The Olympics have been going on for about a week now, and I have watched some of it. The swimming has been the main focus this time, with Michael Phelps winning 8 gold medals, the first time anyone has ever done that. The other thing I was really interested in was the 100 meter races, and yesterday the Jamaician runner Usain Bolt set a new world record running the race in 9.69, equally amazing in my book.  ¶ 4:20 PM

 
Last weekend John, Joe, Rachel and I went to a place called Cuyamaca, about an hour east of San Diego. It was a lake region within one of California's many state parks, and was a pretty interesting place. Right around lake Cuyamaca is one of the few places in the world that the California Condors live. I read afterward that there are only about 152 of them in the wild remaining, and that day we saw about 20 of them, circling the sky above the lake.
I hadn't been to a state park in America in about 3 years, maybe it has been even longer than that, because the last time was when I went to Lake Wawayanda in NJ, with Justin over the winter a few years back. During the time I was in Ireland, I did a lot of big scenic trips, like going hiking in Kilarney, or walking through the Wicklow mountains .
Last Sunday I shaved for the first time in nearly 6 weeks, I am not sure that I will ever try to grow facial hair again. It was itchy, and irritating and definitely one of the most uncomfortable feeling things to do, I'm sure once its gets past a certain stage you don't notice it anymore. I don't think I grow enough hair to ever get pasted that stage however. This picture is one that was taken last Friday night when I went up to LA for a few hours. I was pretty impressed by the Hollywood walk of fame, and if you look closely you can see the mustache.  ¶ 2:49 PM

  When I was in England I had a conversation with my aunt about my entire generation of cousins in the family on my mothers side. There are about 14 of us altogether, and more than half are into the arts in some form or another. I had never really sat down and thought about it, until that conversation. One of my oldest cousins Simon is an advertising artist during the day, and on his own time he write poetry, he has gone on a few different tours so far which his poetry group. There next trip is to the states in September, they are playing a few really good venus from Washington DC up to New York City. Another one of my cousins Tanya is a dancer, and has been involved in theatre either as a choreographer or on the stage since she was very young. Then there is my cousin Justin who is working day and night on getting his magazine off the ground, and seems to be getting closer and closer to his goal. There are a few more who are involved in one of these forms of art in one way or another as well. Then I look at myself, and although I got a degree in Journalism, I am much more of a business minded person than the artistic type, but sometimes I wonder. When I was a little kid, I rememeber wanting to sing, dance, or play the piano, unfortunately there wasn't the apropriate resources available in the town we lived in. I have a feeling things would have turned out a bit different if there were, and I had been given the chance to express myself artistically at a young age.
I always manage to go off on a rant and forget the real reason I posted a blog in the first place. I wanted to say congratulations to Damien for getting accepted in to one of the best College for Arts and Performance in the UK. I'm sure he will go on to do great things!  ¶ 9:56 AM