PowerCycle

Hanging out here in Boca at my Aunt Leigh Ann’s house. That was a nice surprise for her because she didn’t think I’d be staying here until tomorrow. Had a great week until some expected (major) expenses hit when I got here. Nothing crazy but I’ll have to arrange to get my mail more often that I was. I have a mailbox from UPS but the last time I had them forward anything to me was about 6 months ago. That ended up being a problem thanks to a speeding ticket that wasn’t as resolved as I thought it was before I left. Oops. Also paid a visit to my dentist since it’s been almost a year and I’ve been eating a lot of junk food (and drinking Coke which I never did before I left). Sure enough I had a cavity. Looks like I’ll have to step up flossing and brushing even more than I had been. I guess it was good that they could even see me on short notice. Not having any health/dental insurance really sucks. I decided not to renew it since it was pretty expensive and I was only covered for major accidents anyway; nothing preventative.

Went with my friend Ken over to the driving range by his house. This was my first time ever swinging a golf club. No one was injured and Ken said I was a natural. Still not a golf fan but smacking the golf ball a couple hundred yards was fun.

Tomorrow I get to see my friend Sarah who just had her first baby. A couple other folks I used to work with are stopping by too so I’m really looking forward to that. Then there’s a get together in the evening where I’ll get to see all my FTL peeps. Can’t wait. Sunday is the big family dinner where I’ll get to see my Aunt Leta from Tennessee (stayed there for a few days on my way to Alaska–she’s also a frequent commenter on my site). It’s at my cousin Nichole’s house so I get to see her and her family too. Being able to see people I know, especially family, has been a huge boost for me. I wish I could get some of them to move to Central/South America so I can visit them down there too.

I have to say how awesome my friend Paulo and his wife Marti are. I stayed there for the first few nights and in addition to letting me crash at his place he’s also been letting me drive his new Jeep around so I didn’t have to rent something. And Marti can cook like one of those chef’s on TV. I owe them big time. He was pretty brave letting me drive considering it was the first time in 8 months.

The flight out here went pretty smooth. Got stuck in the middle seat from LAX to Charlotte but on the way to FTL I had a bulkhead seat. Paulo picked me up when I landed and after getting used to the heat/humidity I felt right at home again. Also got screened at the airport for the first time. That was fun. It actually wasn’t bad. The 2 women doing the search were excited to hear about my trip so we chatted about that while they went through my stuff. They paused on my concealed weapons permit for a second but didn’t seem to care that I had 2 passports (Canada and USA). Not sure why they even went through my wallet now that I think about it. Maybe they were looking for ID’s in a different name? Would someone serious about doing something on a plane be that stupid?

The Halloween party in Los Angeles was a blast. People there don’t mess around when it comes to partying it up. The bar was packed and there were a tonne of great costumes. BIG thanks to my friend Jen for a great night out on the town and for letting me crash at her place for a couple nights. As promised, no pictures of my costume. I had to ditch the hippie costume and go with some army fatigues since the choices were slim and I was on a budget.

I had to change my flight by a day so I’ll be back in LA on the 10th. Then it’s down to Mexico.