20 Minutes = 3 hours

Now that I'm finally back from living abroad for the past 8 months I realize that I don't have much to do before I start the full court job hunting press. I do enjoy writing down thoughts. I enjoy just getting things out there...out where? I don't know. Just stream of blahhhh and not really having to know where anything is going. Not having to care about grammar, spelling, punctuation or making any sense.

I spent the better part of today unpacking a slew of boxes that i had kept garaged. In this unpacking it became apparent that I have way to many clothes. Most of which I don't wear. How I accumulated this many clothes blows my fucking mind.

Going thru the clothes each one holds a little story, a little nostalgia if you may. The T-shirt I got for doing community service or attending some holiday party, the pants I never got hemmed, the suit jacket from 10 years ago. This nostalgia coupled with my family history of chronic pack-rat-tism has kept me from throwing just about anything away.

Boxing everything up, driving 2 blocks and donating everything would take ohhhh about 20 minutes. Instead, having no "time crunch" and no where to be I got the idea to try and sell the stuff.

Sell to who?

First thought was to have a quaint yard sale! Get some color coded sticker dots, sit on my front porch in the sun, a big blanket spread out with "vintage" t-shirts, old socks, used novels, movie posters, and half working electronics.

This garage sale in my mind was going to be glorious. People handing me money while I sipped lemonade, meeting my neighbors neighbors seeing them inspect my old boxer shorts and test the like new "I sear it worked" toaster oven.

Well, it was Monday...

So, with my daydream shattered I loaded up one huge duffell bag and a large garbage bag that my roommate, Dan had been planning on donating for a couple months into my car and down to the "vintage" clothing store.

Arriving at the trendy Melrose avenue store it was empty (ahhh I love commerce in LA during normal daytime hours when the average suckers are at work) except for the 12 people waiting in line to sell their old clothes. Apparently this is what people in LA do who don't have jobs. Sell clothes instead of working.

When my name was finally called I stood at a counter and was greeted by a fashionably clothed girl wearing some kind of towel one piece shirt dress that was clearly "vintage" aka someone dropped it off yesterday and this chick scooped it up for herself.

She went about looking at all my clothes and putting them into two piles. One HUGE the other tiny. I assumed that since I was making funny small talk with her that she was buying all the clothes in the HUGE pile and leaving the odds and ends to be donated.

Well was I wrong...My small talk isn't funny...and worse yet she didn't want the HUGE pile.

Before purchasing my tiny pile (sounds dirty) she called over the other 3 store workers and had them each scrutinize her finds. The 2 co-workers, each with their own very unique "vintage" styles huddled around each other and whispered to the other talking about my precious clothing before unjustly discarding it to the HUGE pile.

So, after 2 hours I sold less than 5 percent of the 2 huge bags of clothes I had schleped in and still had to take the remainder of the clothes to goodwill. It was a big waste of time but I made out with $50.

So, today. Day 1 without a job I got paid $16.67 an hour. How am I going to make money tomorrow?

Qatar sucks

Qatar currently holds the distinction of being the richest (per captia) country in the entire world. With all these riches I expected a lovely time of my 6 hour layover however this is not the case. The airport is the worst.

There are several reasons:
1) I'm stuck here for 6 hours waiting for my plane and am too cheap to pay the $30 for a visa (being cheap isn't Qatar airport's fault but one of my own doings)
2) It's 125 degrees outside and there is some kind of sand storm, usually this doesn't make much of a difference inside a climate controlled bubble. However, I just went to the bathroom, number 2, and the water coming from the bowl was super heated, like crazy burning hot and you could feel the steam coming up...not pleasant.
3) Everything is super expensive and their are no places to change money. We just paid $10 US for 2 cups of chai tea and then sitting in the coffee store the waiter told us we were not allowed to play cards.
4) I'm super tired, we've already been travelling for 24 hours, been to 2 other airports and have one more to go (Bangkok, Delhi (overnight), Qatar, Amman (in 3 hours) and then overland to Israel the following morning. In all 5 countries in 2 days.
5) The Internet is free. BUT and this is a big "but". The machine kicks you off every 10 minutes and gives no warning or countdown timer.
6) The airport doesn't have gates, it's one of those places where you get on a little shuttle bus to and from the airplane. The ride is long too, it takes 10 min from gate to plane.
7) I like to complain.
8) I miss home and still have a couple more airports, cities, security checks, bus rides, borders to cross before I get there.
9( The VIP lounges won't let us in. We got the frequent flier card they made us fill out but turns out to be allowed in the VIP lounge I will have to take 10 more Qatar Airways flights till I accumulate enough points!! Why do they always want you to fill out those damm cards??

Engrish

Why is English the international languange? Boy oh boy did I get lucky that it's my first and more or less only language. I'm spoiled and so is every other American, Brit, Australian and Canadian that we don't really need to learn another language to be able to travel. What happens if you only spoke French?? Good luck trying to book a hotel room, take the bus or talk to any of your fellow travellers.

Travelling around the world you hear some damm funny conversations in chopped upped broken down Engrish. Everyone is trying thier best and most speak fairly well. I feel lucky that it isn't Spanish, Korean, Hindi or any other language needed to get by. Sometimes, actually a lot you can't help laughing when people are spending 20 minutes figuring out if the price is 17 or 72. If not first understood either one of the parties involved start raising thier voices thinking that yelling "17" or "72" will help them be understood...

Point of the rant is that more of us Americans should travel. It's easy, cheap(er than staying at home) and there are tons of things in the world to see, do and laugh at.

Political Unrest in Thailand

Once again crisis has followed me. This time to Thailand where there have been massive protests in Bangkok against the current government's policies. The prime minister has declared a state of emergency and several of the airports and train stations have been shut down.

So instead of joining the riots, protests and possible life threatening violence I have spent the last 4 days on a stretch of beach in southern Thailand without electricity for most of the day. The only way in is by boat and the only fighting being heard is between Westerners to play Jack Johnson or Bob Marley and which one of the 5 restaurants with the exact same menu they should eat at that night. Not to be naive...But I've lived in places with political unrest, riots, demonstrations and (knock on wood) as long as you steer clear of the few areas where the protests are happening things are ok.

Right now we are near Krabi in Southern Thailand and staying for a night or two then making our way slowly up to Bangkok to hopefully meet up with a couple friends...Linke? and Dorner?