Couch Surfing 2007

I had always heard of people who couch surfed. Usually I thought they were loozers, or boozers, or both. I always wondered how a person can just mooch off friends and stay on their couches without thinking it might be wise to look into employment or a hotel. I never thought I would be a person who couch-surfed. I worried about how I would brush my teeth, or how my hosts would react to my refusal to eat pretty much anything. Well, as I was trying to sleep last night, and failing, I decided to count sheep. When that didn't work, I started to realize that I couldn't sleep because of my bed. It's so hard. It's an asian bed. They really like to sleep on the floor, so if they do sleep on a bed, it usually feels like the floor. Hard as a, well, floor. I'm not knocking it, I'm just saying. So, when I ran out of sheep to count, I started thinking of all the different beds I slept in in 2007-my year of couch surfing. Thanks to all who let me crash at your pad, and to repay you, you can sleep of my floorbed in Seoul any time!

He're my couch surfing 2007 list. All the places I slept in a year (I think):

1. Mom’s and Dad's guestbed on Hawk Lane in Palmdale.
2. Brandon’s house in Toluca Lake.
3. Hedi and Michael Darchuck-Chick's guestbed in Echo Park.
4. Hostel El Firulete on Peron Street in Buenos Aires.
5. The wierd pad I yanked out of the sleeper sofa and put on the floor at Ramiro's apartment on Ave. Charcas in Buenos Aires.
6. When my sister vacated, I switched to the futon at Ramiro's. (this sounds sordid; it is not.)
7. Kevins’s loft thing in San Cristobal, Buenos Aires.
8. Hostel in Iguazu Falls, Argentina
9. Horrible bed in my apartment on Fitz Roy in Buenos Aires.
10. Hotel Faena in Buenos Aires.
11. Mom and Dad's guestbed on Eagle Lane in Palmdale
12. Oxford Inn in Palmdale
13. My sister's house in Lancaster.
14. Eduardo’s bed in Portland while he was in Chicago.
15. Eduardo’s floor in Portland while he was not in Chicago.
16. Random couch in Portland.
17. Mark Spencer Hotel in Portland
18. Oxford Inn, different room, in Palmdale
19. Keisha’s House in Lancaste.
20. Golden Nugget Hotel, Laughlin, Nevada.
21. Amtrak Coast Starlight.
21. My bed in Seoul!

If I missed one, don't remind me. I think this is enough.

For 2008, all I have is

1. My bed in Seoul.
2. The 6 line Subway in Seoul. (long story)

The Big Chill

I think colleges and universities should devote some attention to an amazing new trend in contemporary language. I’m talking about blog talk. I read a dozen or so blogs a day, and I have noticed something amazing that most of them have in common. The best way I can explain this phenomenon is by backing up a tick and saying: I don’t read a dozen blogs a day, I check a dozen blogs a day. I do this because at one time or another I remember having read something interesting, or more usually, funny, there, so I check back to see if the author has updated. More often than not, the answer is no. Whoever got me hooked on this or that blog has hopelessly let me down. No new posts, just that stale old one that I keep seeing every time I go back. Blogs worldwide are really lacking in overall updatedness. So, when a blogger finally updates his/her blog after a seemingly decade-long hiatus, the newest post usually goes something like this:

Hey all my faithful readers, (Or all four of you, haha) I know it’s been a while since my last post, but I had to take a second job because my cat got some sort of gastro-intestinal thing, and as you all know, I love my cat (check posts #’s 4, 19, 27 and 100.) So, yeah, I’ll be back to posting soon, I have some really great stuff I need to get off my chest.

I want someone to do a study about how many blog posts in the world are apology posts for not having posted. I’m going to ballpark it around 60%. But does it matter? No, I still check the same blogs day in and day out.

In case you’re wondering, no, this is not serving as my apology post for not having posted because I really have no good excuses. I have nothing but free time and I live in the world’s most internet-connected nation. (I would put up a Wikipedia reference here to back that fact up, but the article would probably just reference back to my blog. Or a porn site. Or both.)

So, no, this is not my apology for not posting. Don’t think you’re going to get out of here apology free, though. I do have to apologize for something. This one comes from the bottom, the passionate depths, that is, of my heart. I must apologize that this post is indeed about -- Tadah! The Weather. Yup, it’s at least my third post about the weather. No, I’m not a retiree. I’m not obsessed with the weather, I just happen to have had an interesting life weather-wise over the past twelve months.

I’m happy to say that for the first time since March 2007, I AM WARM! That’s a year. My year of winter.

I left my apartment this morning bracing, as usual, for the howling wind, the swirling snow and the tricky ice patches. There were none. I was greeted by glorious sunshine and I actually just stood there in it or about ten minutes. I had forgotten what vitamin D feels like. Spring has sprung in Korea and I am, without a doubt, the most appreciative person in the country for it. If not the world.

I found these two pictures in my I-photo library. They seem so similar that it made me realize that even though I have endured two separate winters this year in two different hemispheres, they were really just the same winter. The fist picture is from my bedroom window here in Seoul when it snowed last week. Notice the ramshackle corrugated steel roofs covered with snow. The second picture is from my bedroom window in Buenos Aires when it snowed in July. Notice the ramshackle corrugated steel roofs covered with snow. No matter how far you travel, you’re still on the same planet.

I’m going to go find my flip-flops. And trim my toe hair.