ugh.

I forgot my headphones at home today. Not having them is so painful it's death inducing. Why? I share an office with an absolute tool. And when I say share I mean our desks face each other, nay touch each other, just like in elementary school. And when I say tool I mean a tool. I don't talk to him. I don't talk to people I don't like. It is always dead silent in our office.

For my birthday I would like 20 pairs of headphones please.

The One The Only

This my nephew Matthew Jordan. He turned 16 today. Yes you read that right 16!!! CRAZY! He is fantastic. I called him to wish him a happy birthday.
Here's a bit of the conversation.

M: "I took my girlfriend on a date Saturday night."
T: "That's great. You have a girlfriend?! What did you do?"*
*side note turns out she isn't actually his girlfriend this was their first date and his first date ever.
M: "Dinner and a movie."
T: "Were you nervous to ask her out? How did you do it?"
M: "No. I called her on the phone and said would you like to go on date with me Saturday night?"
T: "Wow. Good job. You are so brave. Are you going to ask her out again?"
M: "Yeah"
T: "When?"
M: "When I'm available."
T: "Well when are you going to be available?"
M: "I don't know. I'll have to check my calendar."

FANTASTIC!

If I were a rich man.

If I had more vacation time.

If I had someone willing to go with me?!

I just found round trip tickets to Moscow for $439. I want to go to there.

TO LIFE!

Videos for your pleasure.

I took both of these videos in Cambodia with the specific intent of sharing them with my friends and family.

The first is to give you an idea what it was like exploring the wats of Angkor in Cambodia.

The second is one of the many bands I saw that are comprised of survivors of land mines. I almost bought one of their CDs but it was $10! Come on, it was the end of my trip and I was short on cash! Apparently my level of charity does have a price.

My "Those Less Fortunate" soapbox

Today during an announcement someone made a comment about "helping those who are less fortunate than us." Which immediately set my blood to boiling. I find comments such as these to be extremely rude and condescending.

By saying you are blessed or fortunate simply because your life is not XYZ you are also saying that my life is better than yours or that I am more blessed than you. Why? Because you are counting your blessings or fortunes in life by looking at what another lacks. With comments such as these you are inherently making a comparison and I would argue that we are not meant to compare our lives with each others. In an article about the recent plane crash in Buffalo, NY they were interviewing a few individuals who were meant to be on that flight but for one reason or another missed it. For good reason these individuals were shaken by how close they came to death. One of them made the comment, "God was watching over me." My immediate thought was, "What a harsh comment to those you just lost their loved ones. How many of them will wonder why wasn't God watching over us?"

In Christopher Reeves book "Still Me" he talks about a role he played in which he was a paraplegic. He describes how after he was done filming he came home and felt so blessed that he wasn't in a wheelchair, that that wasn't his life. After his accident he was reflecting on that experience and realized how arrogant he had been. I didn't understand what he meant at first but now I fully agree with him.

In my opinion God is watching over all of us and blesses all of us. In one way or another all of us are fortunate. I feel it is our obligation to recognize and acknowledge the blessings in our lives because we all have them. It is complete arrogance to say I am so blessed because that is not my life. We should never look at someone and say I am fortunate because I am not homeless like you. What we should do is recognize that everyone faces hardships in life and some peoples experiences can be completely unimaginable to us which may lead us to feel that we are blessed because that wasn't/isn't our experience. I would argue that those aren't blessings and it doesn't make anyone less fortunate than you it's simply a different road traveled. Yes, use other people life stories and experiences to gain gratitude and perspective on life. But never never say or feel that someone is less fortunate than you because they may very well be thinking that same thing about you.

Confession

I often contemplate how superior I am to others. I'm slightly ashamed of this but it's true. More times than I care to admit I find myself scoffing and scorning others because they don't realize how lame they really are.

Case in point, I was in my good ol' home town of Visalia this weekend. My siblings and I went to see a few bands play at a local bar. First up a "folk" band from Seattle. They weren't folk. They lied. They were pure country which equals pure crap. Anyway, there were two men there decked out in full suites. One of whom I heard declare "I like this band." I swiveled my head shocked and appalled. Fast forward a few more songs and these dapper dan's were back and with increased DUI potential. Then the horrors of horrors began...they started dancing. It was like we were at a wedding being held in a double wide. Picture a greatly exaggerated form of the chicken dance mixed with chest bumps mixed with lots and lots of hugs. Feelings of superiority shooting through the roof.

Thankfully the evening picked up with a fantastic band called The Fruit Bats from Chicago.

All By Myself: In Conclusion, Thailand and Cambodia

November 2008: I found myself in Thailand and Cambodia all by myself. I was a little nervous to travel alone at first but I pounded myself on the chest, just as Ms. Dion taught me to and hopped on the plane.

My two main reasons for this trip were:
1) To fulfill several of my dreams
2) To get myself completely out of my element and challenge myself.

My flight landed past midnight in Bangkok and I began to wonder where I was going to sleep that night...I had absolutely nothing planned. Lack of planning is not my usual MO and believe me I attempted many many times but every time I sat down to put things in order nothing came of it. I believe it's the way things needed to be. I think I just needed to go and take whatever paths I chose to take as they arose along the way.

I still find myself struggling to find a way to describe this trip to people because it was unlike anything I've ever done before. It wasn't a vacation for one thing...a vacation is a break from life, whether you enjoyed it or not...this was not that. This was living my life while traveling. Evey day I had to scavenge for food, make sure I had a place to sleep that night, figure out how to get from here to there, experience discrimination, learn cultural differences, deal with grief, be alone every night, make new friends everyday and the hardest part, there is no escaping you when you are the only one there.

Yet at the same time I was living this adventurous fantasy! White water rafting, elephant riding, kayaking, island hopping, climbing amongst ancient ruins, exploring new cities, discount shopping that puts Ross to shame, plane rides, bus rides, train rides, tuk tuks, hoofing it, MASSAGES. The scenery was so varied and completely stunning. The people were amazing. I met people from all over the world and let me tell you this world is abounding with good people. People who care, who want to make a difference and leave the world a better place than how they found it. I love that I learned that.

Anyway, I didn't intend to go on and on I was just going to announce that I've finally pulled together all the pictures. There are a lot of pictures but I broke them down by catagory so they would be easier to go through and I'm not very good at editing pictures so they are all as they were taken...

Enjoy!
Tiffany

Bangkok:

Bangkok

Chiang Mai:

Chaing Mai

Pai:

Pai

Krabi:

Krabi, Southern Thailand

Angkor Wat:

Angkor Wat

The rest of the wats I visited in the Angkor area:

Wats in the Angkor area

Floating Village:

Floating Village, Cambodia

The People:

The People

Signs:

Signs