What happened in 2011

I haven't blogged in about a month. Why? Because I haven't had jack to blog about. Not to me anyway. Not in 'HOLY CRAP!' type of blogging, "unbelievable that eh?" stuff. Dont' get me wrong, I'm not superdramatic and feel like I must do something to entertain my huge crowd on this blog, nor unconfident and can't stand it if people aren't amazed by something I do or feel the need to brag, on the contrary. It's just that the last month has been SLOW. At least in terms of what I've gotten done for the upcoming trip and all. But the truth is a lot happened, whether I think it is big now or not. Even when things seem slow and I haven't had any real success in investments or with taking trips or it just seems like I don't have a ready answer to "What's the craziest thing you've done lately?" there is still stuff happening. Life goes on and I'm on the train and that's great. Not every day can be the superbowl, but you're still playin the game (unless you're a puss).

So - 2011. A look back. With a lot of thoughts randomly.

January started with me in Sudan, volunteering with E3. Africa is so wild, so fresh and untamed, that I've always been attracted to it. Call it what you want - foolish, man's attraction to trouble or the wild, a curiosity, all of the above, whatever. But I've never been able to stay away from there long. And I'm not talking about the nice resorts, the safe hotels and nice cushion seats on a camera taking safari through a fenced in game park. I'm talking ROUGH. sleeping on the hard ground without a mosquito net in a village with no lights and where no one under ten years of age has seen a white man. THAT is the Africa I like, or anywhere, any continent. Globalization has made the world very small and very fast in 60% of places, but there are still some untouched areas. If you're somewhere and there isn't a McDonalds 100 miles any direction, you're doing pretty well. McDonalds kind of sets the standard, albeit not the image they prefer, but my slogan is stay 100 miles away from one. Sudan, D.R. Congo, and now Somolia are my most wanted areas to go, primarily Sudan.

Anyway, I flew in with Karlis, Nikki, Katharine, Shelby, and Amy on the December 29th or so. I hadn't met anyone except Karlis (awesome dude) up in Dallas, although they insist it's Fort Worth or Coppola or whatever.

Let me just throw something out there to people who grew up in major cities from those of us who didn't. To me, growing up in a little town (not TOO little, I mean 15,000 is a lot of people ... right? can I get an Amen?) a town ends when you hit open country and the next town begins when you start going from country to city again. Dallas/Forth Worth and all these other "towns" inside is just one huge city to my eyes but they all refuse to see that and wouldn't begin to dream of being told they were living in the same city as those snobby people on the north side. Houston must have 20 different cities inside it's control but they remain fiercely independent of being called from Houston and got more than agitated when in College Station I'd ask "Hey John, you're from Houston right?" I'd get some incredilous look like I'd asked if his mother was a whore, a sniff, and then a response in a tone as if I was just some dumbass that "I'm from Sugar Land J'Michael, it's way different from Houston dude." Yeahhhhh I've seen maps and been through there, I don't see a damn bit of difference pal. Whatever.

Anyway me and Karlis met at one of these "towns" in the middle of Dallas late in the fall around October or November so I could hear the details and know what to expect, the cost, the agenda, ect. I cared only about one things - the cost.

What's funny about Africa, and I wouldn't be to surprised with many third world countries that are broke, starved, suffering and need help of any kind from any person, is that it takes some work just to be able to sign on with any body to get there. I remember looking for months this time around (just like when I was 17) to join a group going over to Africa to aid in ANY TYPE OF WAY. That said, there's about, oh, a million that go to the following 5 places - South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, or Mozambique. Not bad right? Actually more than you know. You see (for Africa) they AREN'T that bad. And that's the point. I wanted to go to Sudan, D.R. Congo, Somalia, where people are dying, in desperate, desperate need of help, where there are refugee camps that hold hundreds of thousands who need physical and psycological aid. These types of sitiuations exist in literally dozens of countries over there. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find an organization willing to take someone, with experience, who will pay their own way and all expenses, and doesn't care if his help means he'll shovel out latrines as long as he's over there helping SOMEBODY SOMEHOW?

Few.

I'm rambling now and have been for a while but I vowed, after being turned away by dozens upon dozens of organizations because I wasn't a doctor or investor or of some major field that I couldn't go hold a fucking rag to someones head or erect tents for camps or bust my ass doing any old thing to help, see, and learn (rambling again) that when I make a non-profit that if someones there saying "hey, I'll work for free and pay my own way I just want to help any way I can doing whatever ya'll tell me to" by God you better believe that person will not go away displeased. Hey Lisa, how's that for a run-on sentence?

Anyway, E3 is a Protestant Christian Organization that reaches out and has their hands in the pot with plenty of countries all over the world and happen to have a branch in Dallas. How I found out about them and the timing of it was truly an act of God, had to be. I had been looking unsuccessfully for weeks and kept getting turned down before I happen to mention my problem to an old friend of mine, Tabitha, over facebook. I'm not sure why, since we aren't very close any more and hardly ever see each other, but I love her family and make a point to stop and see her parents any time I'm in their area. Anyways, she casually replied I should just go to E3 in Dallas.

Oh yeah, right here in Texas, underneath my nose? pshhh please ... there's NO WAY I could've overlooked something like that, me talking with all these people on the east coast, England, and a scattering of other countries. But I'd certainly give this little organization a call, why not? A lead is a lead.

They were perfect. My dream to go to Sudan was going to happen.

At the same time, for Karlis, it so nearly didn't. The day before I called him, he was a hair's width away from cancelling the trip because the guys in the group all cancelled and he couldn't go alone to Sudan with a couple of girls for many reasons. He told me he contacted his pastor and explained the situation and that he'd run out of ideas and the timing was horrible and of the essence. The pastor calmly told him to pray, reflect, and wait for God to open up to you his plan or something of the like. The next day, boom. I call. I'm not saying I was God's gift to him or anything, more like they were a gift to me.
The cost for the trip was predictable, four grand before any kind of personal expenses like souveniers or whatever, but included airfair, food, water and most necessities. The meeting basically consisted of letting him finish so I could just say yes and if you cancel this trip I'm gonna be PISSED and then some. I briefly met Nikki the second time I drove to Dallas to meet Karlis again and hand him half the money to confirm I was serious and so he could reserve my flight.

I've learned, especially after friends telling me "Oh yeah I'm definitely down man! Count me in that sounds badass! Hell yeah this is gonna be awesome!" and then "Shit man, I'm not gonna be able to make it", that you don't believe a WORD until they put money on the table. Period. There will always be excuses, it will always be a bad time, ect. Guess what? It'll only get worse and more complicated. See my first post.

Anyway, Karlis was early forties, great guy, kind of hippy looking but he was from California originally so it's cool, long blonde hair and cool little mustache thing on his face. Normally I'd say not cool, but Karlis somehow pulled it off while still retaining a serious demeanor and leadership attitude. I don't know how he did it but the dude was one in a million. Amy was his second in command, middle aged and also from Cali but with some Asian descent and much more conservative. Nikki, Katharine and Shelby were all about my age and we got along great, that group was awesome. I took a notebook and scribbled notes. I'll attach them at the bottom but to say the least the trip was great. I couldn't have spent New Years in a better place to my frame of mind.

What made the trip even more spectacular was that we were there during such revolutionary times for the country. Sudan was on the verge of splitting in two, basically a line drawn horizontally across the middle of the country. We flew in to Juba, right near the southern tip of the country, that styled itself the "Southern Capital," and would indeed later become just that. We flew in on some tiny speck of plane from Uganda that was probably held together with duct tape and camel crap ( I'm never nervous on a plane but I know Africa to well not to suspect ) and as we came into Juba the place resembled less of a city and more our family ranch. Mostly, there were no roads. I knew this coming in, but to see a "city" and then just see dirt is truly mind opening. Nothing too new but even in Malawi and Zambia they had plenty of concrete on the ground, even if it was in Lousiana conidition. Anyways, that happened in January and if I kept talking about it I'd be here all day. Oh wait ...

I got back to God's Land around the 12th or so, a few days later than expected. We'd been held up in Amsterdam because Delta had screwed up our flights (not the first time, see notes) and so they comped us with a free nights stay at a nearby hotel.

Could be worse my friends!

I love Amsterdam. LOVE it. It's a fascinating, fascinating city that has plenty of action going on at all times. I'm all about atmosphere, always have been, and that's a hell of an atmosphere! Weed, booze, history, football, and of course the red light district. I spent a month there when I was younger and ... well i'm rambling again. And NO I'm not a pothead and never do weed in America. But when in Rome ...

When I got back Stateside I saw what all the fuss was about. Snow was everywhere, even in Texas. Well, North Texas, where I flew back in at Dallas. Not so uncommon for North Texas but for us southerners we stare wide eyed, laugh with glee and jump into it and throw it at each other for all of, oh, nine seconds before we say "Jesus it's freezing!" and start cursing the cold weather again (which we do any time it's under 60 degrees) and head indoors.

But seriously I need to start to sum up, this is a lot.

Okay, me and Nicole broke up for about 2-3 weeks in late January/ early February as we continued our trend of breaking up every six months for three years straight, only to get back together a few weeks after the breakup. I admit it was my fault and I was a moron and kept going back to her. This, too, is a multi-paragraph story/post in itself but I'm extremely happy to say that since I moved to San Antonio in June and we've lived in the same city we've had the best times of our lives with each other.

ANYWAY, we got back together February 15. At that point I decided I wanted to move from College Station and head on down to San Antonio for several reasons. One, it was time to stop screwing around and get serious with Nicole and really commit to it. Second, I still had mas o menos 3-4 semester of school after that spring and I didn't want to keep doing this long distance crap that drove us to the brink all the time. Third, real estate is a gigantic portion of my future career and frankly, there's not a lot happening rurally around C.S. Oh, there's PLENTY happening inside the city limits but it is cutthroat and not the game I wanted to keep chasing.
(Now here I am doing it in SA but I'd still choose this over that) The only real regret is that I won't get that aggie ring. It's a huge symbol down here, a club of sorts that let's you know you're a brother or a partner and only other aggies really understand it.

I began looking hard for a house to buy in SA and bought a nice HUD foreclosure on the east side, a place I knew very little about since I grew up in Uvalde and always spent my time on the west side with mom. I am completely in favor of buying over renting, it's financially SO much smarter if you just sit down and do the numbers.

In between I finished my semester at beautiful Blinn Junior College, the place of champions (i.e. horseshit) and was in a play. This is actually interesting. While taking my Fine Arts credit in the form of Drama, my professor asked if I'd like to earn some extra credit by being in a small role in the upcoming production "Diary of Anne Frank". Since I'm a history lover and had actually seen the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam and liked plays I said sure! Hell it was only two weeks of rehearsals and my lines would be miniscule he assured me, patting me on the shoulder and smiling.

I wasn't smiling when the time came around and I found out I was the Nazi who rounded them all up and shipped them to the concentration camps. Okay, I smiled a little after a while but I was like "Damn man, you could've said I'd be SS!" I will say, that uniform looked damn sharp. I had no idea Hugo Boss designed the Nazi uniforms back in the day and got a lot of compliments on it, oddly. My only demand was no pictures! The last thing I needed hitting facebook with me smiling in a Nazi uniform. Sheesh. Blue eyes and white skin, what did I expect to be in that stupid play?

In the summer, Dad and I took off on a monthlong trip he'd been wanting to go on for some time. We hit Mexico City, Peru, Argentina, South Africa, Namibia, and Turkey. My sister's husband Casey joined us for South Africa and Namibia. Again, way to much to report on that.

I'm flying now and skipping over alot because it's 12:15 in the morning and I just want to push this out and hit the sack, tomorrow's Monday and I've got a shitload to do.

To wrap it up, in school, signed on with Tio Jerry at JM Real Estate but just moved to Exit Realty, and started making a website called myland, a real estate website somewhat like trulia.com or zillow.com.

IF you got all the way here, give yourself a high five and sorry but I'm not uploading the notes from Sudan. Take it ez.

FIRST BLOG!

So, first blog, that probably no one will read for at least four months (except you baby). Well, countdown to takeoff began about 3 weeks ago when Nicole and I sat down and seriously began to set a date for when we'd get married. We've only been dating for, oh, you know, 5 years.
That's longer than most people STAY together.
Of course, it hasn't always been easy ... for her. I was young and stupid and we broke up several times because I'd either (a) take off for the other side of the world for several weeks or months (yes, I've done it before) or (b) ... I don't know, I was just stupid at the end of the day.
Anyway, we sat down and things got real. We always knew we'd get married and end up togther, shit we couldn't not stay away from each other. We're not those codependent type people who have to bomb the other one with phone calls and texts and are crazy. Conversley, we're EXTREMELY independent and have been long distance for about 95% of the relationship until just recently I moved to San Antonio, where we both now live, about 70 miles east of Uvalde where we grew up with each other.
Explaining the rest of our relationship and how great it's been and how we met, and grew up with each other, and how I was ugly as hell in 8th grade but she went out with me and was my first girlfriend (for a whole month), getting together after freshmen year of college, and all that is a book. And I'm not talking Dr. Seuss, I'm talking Tolkien.
POINT IS we decided that the best time would be about a year and half from now.
Shit.
That's close.
It's not that I'm not ready or am dreading living with her. No way, she's my best friend and I know we won't agree on everything but we'll be fine. Actually it's just that I want to take this trip. She's been with me long enough to know I start to get the the dancing feet and urge to get up and just go. And I'm not talking about some resort in the Bahamas. Screw that, those are for lameos. I'm talking JUNGLE, I'm talking DIFFERENT, UNEXPLORED, ect. Dangerous, wild, crazy. And sure, yes, I've seen Paris and Rome and loved it. I'm a history buff, comes from being a proud Texas history teachers son (i.e. best mom in the world).
Traveling isn't just great. It's a changing, evolving, learning experiment. I don't really know the best way to put it and it's pointless to try and explain unless you've done it, and not with your family or some crap like that I'm talking YOU, individual, maybe a friend or a few, going somewhere completely different. I fell in love with it when I was just 10 and was lucky enough to go to South Africa and Zimbabwe and hunt there. I've never looked back, through malaria in Malawi, knife fights in Morocco, being a broke bum on the streets of Paris, to running with the bulls in Spain. The world is a grand place and America is so consumed with PC, lawyers suing you, and laws on top of laws that we miss out on some good old wild craziness. We can't help it that we're developed but I think sometimes we're to damn developed.
I've been to Africa 5 times and I keep going back to that dirty craphole because I love it. I love it because it's so RAW. Jesus I love it. The people, completely poor just about the continent over, see clearer than most Americans. It's nothing really knew in a lesson of cultural geography, those who have nothing tend to see what's truly precious. Clean water, edible food and family values. I'm just blabbering now but I can't help it when I get started on the fascinating world we live in and how FEW people know jack about it.
So there it is - This August, I'm taking off to see the rest of it myself, at least as much as I can before I head home and marry the wifey. Don't misunderstand, it's not like this is one last hurrah before I go home and "die" (i.e. marry), Nicole is a traveling buddy who demands to run with the bulls and can't wait to go to the world cup (well, she'll go anyway, but more for the country and parties than the sport). But I can't deny looking at the fact than when I AM married I have more of a responsibility to be around my wife, I can't just leave for several months and live in a hut in India. Moreover, I don't think I'll want to. I'll WANT to stay at home, enjoy that time. And then how much longer before kids? I want to have a whole baseball team! You think I can just hop up and go with a bunch of screamers at the house? Nope. And again, I won't want to. But I WILL regret that I didn't take this trip.
Why not go now? Well because I'm in school and I need to get my finances in order. I went 6 months in Europe, Morocco and Israel before when I was 19 with 500 dollars, and I'm here to tell you that don't last long.
But in the mean time I'll regall the crowd with what's happening to plan it, my life in general, what I'm working on, ect. Take it easy and I'm crashing out.
Audios.