I came to an elevated realization today. As much as I love my job what I really love is not working at all. I always meet people who claim to love work and that they would not know what to do with themselves if they did not have a job. My response has always been “are you nuts what wouldn’t you do if you did not have to be some place for upwards of forty hours a week”. Do realize that I spend the bulk of my time inside of the Westmont College kitchen.
Don’t get me wrong I really do love my job, but I love having free time more then anything. There is an upside to working for a college, SPRING BREAK!!!!!:) Yep that’s right at thirty one years old I still get to enjoy spring break and it is amazing my friends. For the next six days I don’t have to work. Sure I don’t get paid for it, but what is money anyway but a giant inconvenience in this life. It has certainly inconvenienced my life more times then I would like to remember.
This is the most time off I have had since December. I know all of you work-aholic busy people out there are probaly thinking “so what I never get any time off”. Remember I was once a professional surfer followed by a professional slacker at one time. Translation: I got to enjoy a ton of quality free time. Over the years I had become accustomed to such. I learned to appreciate the art of nothingness. It is perfectly ok to spend two hours watching a flock of seagulls fight with a flock of crows over a trash can. When you have no commitments or obligations you learn really fast how to enjoy all of life’s stupidities.
I have spent entire days of accumulated hours of my life picking flowers, collecting sea glass, enjoying beach walks, sunsets, full moons, star gazing, stacking rocks and adventuring. I would not consider any minute of any of it a waste of time. On the contrary I think being cooped up in the work place for the bulk of my life so some rich asshole gets richer, while I am constantly under paid and under appreciated a waste of my time. Unfortunately to exist in our society I am forced to conform. These days I feel I have conformed to a point where I hardly recognize myself. I cut my hair. This is old news but my latest hair cut has me looking the way I should have for all those good jobs I turned down in the past because my hair was too long.
What happened to me? When did I become like everybody else? That is not entirely true. I am still far from that. As long as Lisanti Land is going strong I will never be like everybody else. What am I ranting about. Nothing actually. The point is for the next six days I don’t have to work and that means I am going to live every minute of it to its fullest and will chronicle it here at surfingruinedmylife.net.
Day 1 – The Hike
Last night I went out and got shit faced at the Wild Cat. I do not need spring break to do that. Its a rather regular occurrence. The beauty of spring break is that I got to sleep in till noon today minus being woken up by both my father and Lindsay. It was fine since both their business was pertinent. My dad finished doing my taxes and using his magic somehow managed to get me a fatty refund. Can you say new bedroom set, cause I can! Then Lindsay as a result of some friendly prodding from yours truly broke up with her boy friend and needed to get out of the house.
Don’t think less of me. The guy was not treating her right and needs a wake up call. She is too good for that type of bullshit. She is like a younger sister to me and I definitely was not going to sit by and watch what was happening and not get involved. She deserves better.
She got me through my Ades bull shit so I am now going to be there for her. I was going to go do something cool today anyway. If it was not for her waking me up I may have just slept the entire day. Maybe I should not buy a new bed. Mine is already too comfortable. If I step up to a queen size forget it I may never come out from under the covers. Sleep has become one of my new favorite activities for whatever reason.
The plan was to hike Gaviota Peak, but then we futzed around her house with her dog for too long causing us to get a late start. We set out for the Cold Springs trail in Montecito instead. I have hiked the many different trails that are in this region a number of times but have never made it to the actual top. Lindsay wanted to go on a gnarly hike as she put it. We took the expert trail where the entire time you are pretty much climbing at a 15% to 30% grade. It is the fastest way to the top.
It was a rather invigorating hike. We did not quite make it to the top but we did manage to get as close as I have ever gotten. It was getting late and the idea of getting stuck on the trail in the dark did not sit well with either of us. We did however make it to these two eucalyptus trees that were protruding. off the edge of the peak. I always forget how amazing the world around us is till I get some time to actually stop and take it all in. From up there I looked over the town, all the point breaks I regularly surf, the rich assholes and their million dollar estates and even my own shitty apartment that we have lovingly come to know as the Lisanti Palace and I realized no matter what our status is in this life we are all in it together existing the best we can.
That is all one can ask for out of life, do the best he can. I don’t know if this is the best I can do at the moment but I do know I am getting close. Its funny cause a year ago to this date I was on Spring Break and Kooky Kyle was out here for his very first Lisanti Adventure Tour (for more on that read Kooky Speaks Out) and I thought I was doing the best I could. I thought I had an amazing girl friend and that my life was finally taking shape. What I did not know was that the whole time I was showing Kooky the best time Santa Barbara had to offer some other guy was showing my girl friend a good time behind my back.
If it was not for that happening I would not have realized a lot about myself that I hated and would not have worked and am constantly working to change. I am not yet 100% there but I will venture to say I am maybe at 75%. Back then I did whatever I wanted regardless of the feelings of others. These days I find myself most times living on the up and up and holding myself to higher standard of class. Most days I go home proud of myself, who I am and what I am trying to become. Before enlightenment chop wood carry water, after enlightenment chop wood carry water.
As I sat there perched in one of the eucalyptus trees all of this became apparent to me. I looked out over all the beauty that is Santa Barbara and realized that this may be the first time in my life where I have not hated myself ever. A feeling of calm and peace came over me. I can’t say for certain, but I think everything is going to be alright. Stay tuned for more Lisanti Spring Break 2012 adventures soon. Here are some shitty photos I took on my cell phone. Enjoy….
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It did not take long of us not paying attention to our immediate route to realize we had lost the trail and been wondering about on this giant granite hillside. With out throngs of people all over the place our situation seemed a bit scary. Luckily a pack of foreigners came out of the trail head and up onto the granite hill we were meandering. Its a good thing they did because we were totally looking for the trail in the complete opposite direction of where the car was parked. At that moment it became apparent how easily it would have been for us to end as another national park statistic.
Surfing Ruined My Life 