4 posts tagged “happy”

    First of all for those of you that I don't exchange email or a little Instant Messaging with, I have officially re-entered the restaurant world and with it the life. I have been away from it for somewhere close to five years, and after a craigslist post, a few emails exchanged with the Chef I am enthusiastically jumping back into that world.
    I can't stress enough that before anything else you do in your life you must pick up a copy of Kitchen Confidential by one amazing man who goes by the name Chef Tony Bourdain. I will tell you one thing very honestly after reading this book roughly eight years ago, and that is that I felt that I was reading my own life and that this was the person I wanted to grow up to be. His intelligence and ability are unrivaled in my mind. His honesty about the world that all restaurant workers sink their teeth into it without parallel.
    That being said, I have joined back up into the union of the alcoholic, sex addicted, cuss every other word new pirates of this world. I can't wait to be burned, cut, bruised and have this world not know what I did to make their meal.  I understand that it's uncomfortable for some to think about the people hidden away behind those swinging doors, I personally am amazed by them and have missed everyone of them dearly since my departure.
    There is a comfort in a kitchen for me, there is a sense of being home. I become reborn there, I become what anyone whom has ever loved me has ever known, and somehow still can not tolerate.
    I see the world in a different black and white.

    These are your tools.
   

    These are mine
   

    Even through the simple events of watching this new restaurant come to life, I am watching parts of myself dormant for so long come back to the surface as well. I leered at the wait staff with lust, I figured out who in the kitchen I am better than, and who is better than me. I calculate what I have to do to procure the skills I need and the interest of things that interest me.
    No restaurant is different, everyone is always the same. I am the same again, and have given everyone I work with a different name. It interests me that my best friend in this world, someone whom I admire a great deal, when she heard me talking about my day and pouring over the details reached out and hugged me as if I had just been born. It interests me that I have been so stubborn to stay away from my passion for so long.
   
   

    Yesterday, while all of you were reading about penis and vagina sizes I was off into the greatest elevation I have been to in a number of years, excluding of course airplanes. Since I am starting my new job today, I figured I should get out and do something fun. I was mentally treating my last day off in my extended vacation as my last day on Earth. The last thing I wanted to do before is vanished back into the restaurant business was stand on top of a mountain. So the neighbor and I hopped in his pick up and headed to Mount Lemmon.
    It was wonderful, it's been a while since I looked down on the world and my ego wasn't involved... and well here are a few pictures to share. I won't bore you with geological history, or how this mountain has a lake at 7,000 feet. I will just share with you the pretty stuff, which of course will include a picture or two of me.
    Before I leave you to pleasant images, I would like to thank everyone who participated in the making of yesterdays post. While it may not have pulled in an enormous amount of page views, I relish in the reader participation. Comments and Emails are still coming in, and I hope to be able to reproduce yesterday again and again. Thank you to everyone.

Well it is the day after Earth Day, and I am sure a lot of education was shared, a lot of one day good intentions were had, and I am confident that a number of sapling trees were planted. Earth day is over though and we have 364 more days to go until the next so lets get going on fucking it up again so we can feel accomplished and self righteous next year.

    Here is a list of suggestions for re-ruining the planet

    1. Find that old can of aerosol hairspray and spray it liberally.
    2. Light your compost heap on fire.
    3. Instead of pruning your hedges for landscape, perform a slash and burn on your entire lawn.
    4. Write a letter to McDonald's asking for the styrofoam containers back.
    5. Buy a bottle of water, drink half, throw it away, and go buy another one.
    6. Insert a virus on freerice.com to help along that problem of global hunger.
    7. Light a bag full of dog poop on fire and leave it on Al Gore's stoop.
    8. Obtain a list of endangered species and a gun.
    9. While filling up your gas tank, spray a little fuel on the ground just for fun.
    10. Call Woody Harrelson and tell him the world is out of Hemp Pants.

I think that it is import that we reassert ourselves as dominant over our planet. I think that this is a good way to start. We can't let the Earth think that it can have more than one day. Mom gets breakfast in bed once a year, but the rest of the time when she speaks we roll our eyes. I believe that Earth Day should be handled exactly the same way. I have acknowledged your existence but know it is time for you to get the fuck out of my way.

Do you think that with a hair dryer I can accelerate glacial melting?

Or should we take the short route and just destroy the entire universe?

Have a wonderful, happy, earth destroying day!

    I have had the good fortune this weekend to rediscover a number of the things in this world that make me truly happy and I am again over joyed to be me. That may sound like some cheesy self affirmation, but I can not stress how much it is true. I have a new bicycle, and feel healthy beyond belief. This is only a frame of reference now that I see that I have been a caged animal for nearly a year. I am certain I am not perfectly healthy, my despondency has lured me into a soft existence, but rest assured that Lucas is now free.
    Through the previous year I was very much under lock and key. I was scrutinized and therefore began to scrutinize myself... to the point of self-loathing... but I can not stress enough the feeling to be free. I highly recommend it if you do not currently find yourself in such a state of mind.
    The first step I would recommend taking is to get on a bicycle and ride. Pedal and push with your legs. Roll down the road with reckless abandon. Wind and self powered movement, forget about traveling green... just feel freedom and joy.
Smile and forget those who try to destroy.
    The second step, well that is the beauty of finding happiness, the second step is entirely up to you.
    Go and do something nice, create something beautiful or just go get yourself laid.
    The third step comes naturally following what you have done. You sit back in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the night with nothing but a smile on your face.