There was definitely a lesson to be learned this past week in my life. It's a common theme that everyone on the planet deals with at one point or another. Life is so fragile, and its here one minute and gone the next.
I didn't feel the need to write about Michael Jackson's death, because it was absolutely everywhere. You couldn't go out of your house without hearing about it. It definitely became one of those where were you when this happened moments. Just like the terrorist attacks on September 11th in New York 8 years ago, and the death of Princess Diana 12 years ago, that moment will live in my mind forever. What made me decide to finally log on and write a post however was the news that I received last night about a good friend of mine. You hear on the news all the time about the millions of people with HIV in the world. It all seems so far away, until it happens to someone you know. Out of respect I won't mention any names, but I will just say that when anything like this happens to a young person the feeling of sorrow grows 10 fold inside of me. I'm not a very emotional person, but when a young life is wasted, because of a few bad decisions, it gets me everytime.  ¶ 4:38 PM

  I've only lived in California for a year now, but I've already begun to see that I don't appreciate the nice weather, and the fact that I live in a paradise that most people only dream of. I find myself complaining that I miss having 4 seasons, I miss thunderstorms, and mostly about how I miss the cities of the northeast and Europe.
Since my friends have arrived, I think I have fully taken in my surroundings and began to relax a little bit. I have had the best nights out of my whole year of living here, in the past two weeks. Last week Paddy, Darren and myself went out different nights drinking at the various pubs around San Diego. They have about 10 weeks left here, and I think if we continue on the same pace, it will be the best summer of my entire life.
My friend Trish, booked her flight this week, to come out here for a week in August, which should be a lot of fun. Brad will also be arriving about a week and a half, to spend 10 days in Southern Cali, and as the summer goes on I think I will have a few more visitors coming out here.  ¶ 5:01 PM

  My friends Darren, Paddy, and Fergal arrived from Ireland on Monday afternoon, and we've been going from the moment they landed. We went out for drinks 2 out of the 3 nights, they have been here so far. Last night, we were on our way out to get a few drinks at the pub, and I was with the three lads from Ireland, and a few of the San Diegans that I have met since living here. The difference in the personalities can be summed up very easily. My Irish friends had the goal in mind of going out, getting drunk, and having as much fun as possible. My San Diegan friends, were looking for sex, sex, and more sex.
I know it's only a minuscule observation, made between 6 people, but to me it summed up the mindset in the two nations. When I lived in Ireland, I worked only to get by, now that I live here I feel like work is my life. At the pub last night, my American friends were very consumed with finding a hook-up and at times seemed stressed even during a time that is suppose to be relaxing and leisurely.  ¶ 10:23 PM

  It was a very disappointing week in sports for me. Manchester United lost the Champions League final to Barcelona, by a score of 2-0. It may as well have been 8-0, because Manchester played the worst I have ever seen them play.
In tennis Rafael Nadal lost at the French Open for the first time. Leaving the door wide open for Roger Federer, arguably the second best clay-court player in the world to finally complete his career grand slam.
The Toronto Blue Jays have fallen out of first place in the American League East, and those same two familiar faces. The Red Sox and Yankees are battling for first. I'm hoping that neither of them finishes first or second this year still.

Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to pick up my friends from Ireland at the airport. They will be here until August 19th, for what should be a very crazy 12 weeks. There is a lot of stuff planned, but in my experience the best stuff happens out of things that are unplanned.  ¶ 12:32 AM