Monday – 7th November
It was a pretty crappy day, but going for the Swing Dance class at night made it a little better.
Tuesday – 8th November
My usual long Tuesday and it was quiet at work for the most part, maybe a paper every other hour or so. The Avion meeting at night was quick and uneventful as well.
Wednesday – 9th November
I missed Yoga class when I really should have gone. I ended up attending the SGT meeting which while interesting, makes me wonder just how many things I want to be involved in. It’s days like this where I appreciate and envy Reggie’s carefree lifestyle of just sports and not having any major commitments. It’s one of those weeks, so I was having a bummed out day.
Thursday – 10th November
The aerodynamics lab in the morning got finished pretty quickly, so I went back home, got into my wetsuit, grabbed my shortboard and went to Frank Rendon Park. I met this really cool lifeguard named Art, who gave me a five minute analysis of the waves and the wind and where I should be headed. This was the first time I put my wetsuit on since early spring, and I am definitely not used to swimming with such constriction.
Rather than just fighting the water, I now have to fight the stretchiness of the suit, and breathing is slightly harder due to the chest constriction. I still put in a good effort, at least for the workout, and I caught a few waves, although having not ridden my shortboard for so long, I was very unstable. I really should figure out what board size I want to commit to and stick to it. The only problem is that it’s crazy difficult to take my 9’6″ when the waves are overhead, you need a shortboard to duck dive easily under those waves.
I didn’t even make it out to the lineup today, and just headed back to shore, and ended up listening to Art talk for the greater part of an hour maybe. He covered all sorts of topics like how the winds affect the waves, and what kind of winds gave the glassy waves that are good for surfing, and how the winds have a delayed effect on the water. He also talked about surfing in California, and how the cold water created calcium deposits inside the ears of surfers, which is why earplugs are important in cold water.
Some of the best advice he gave was about the mindset and attitude towards surfing, and from there to life. He told me about some people he’s seen, who come out with their boards on a flat day and they get the shakes, sitting there watching the water because they had not caught a wave in so long. Some people who go into the water angry, fail to catch that pipe and rip it up come out of the water even angrier, and he’s seen them punching the water and shouting.
He’s a longboarder, so that makes him pretty chilled out to begin with, and he told me how he takes the ocean for whatever it gives him. If it’s a flat day, he takes it as swim/paddle training, so that when the waves do come out, he’ll be fit enough to make it to the lineup. If the wave he’s riding on is going to carry him all the way to shore, he just let’s it go and follows the ride, rather than try to exit the wave and make it back out.
I particularly liked his little talk on negative energy. “The ocean is a great way to rid yourself of negative energy, but if you walk in with expectations, you’re going to leave with even more negative energy and that just ain’t cool.” A lot of what he said hit home for me, to just roll with life’s punches and take things as they come along. Fighting the flow too much is just going to leave you sucked under.
There was a party at our place, and the usual suspects came, Tilford, Derrika, Patel. I was quite tired and it was just a bad week to begin with, so I decided to turn in early, despite the party. I knew they would have fun and that they’d understand. It turns out everything happens for a reason, and a sober, well-rested me would be needed later.
Sometime around 1 a.m, when even more people were in the house having fun, Reggie woke me up and brought me into Navin’s room. He just found out Navin’s grandmother had passed away and we needed to get Navin back to Singapore ASAP. Together with Antoine, the three of us bought him an air ticket, packed his bag, settled all the passwords and other Daytona Beach issues, and we were on the road to Orlandon by 2:30 a.m., with me behind the wheel.
We had further problems in the airport, but between the four of us, we managed to settle them. By 5:30, Navin was behind the gates, and Antoine, Reggie and I headed to Denny’s to eat before going back. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to eat in Orlando because all three of us were a little sleepy by then. I had coffee and was still awake and aware enough to drive safe, but Reggie knocked out almost completely. Antoine was present enough to wake up every 10 minutes to make sure I was still okay.
I was in bed by 7:30 in the morning.
Friday – 11th November
I woke up at 12 and cleaned the house in record time. Turns out that there’s not much to clean if you don’t have chips causing crumbs. I spent the afternoon doing some work and got my lab reports done. It was a pretty quiet afternoon until Karissa called.
Apparently she had to call the cops on her roommate because he thrashed her room and she needed our boxes, so she could prepare to move out. She showed me the mess and her $300 formal dress that got totally crumpled and damaged. I would have stayed to help, but she’s the kind who needs to pack things herself, so I took the dress for safekeeping and dropped it off at the seamstress/cleaners near Publix for fixing.
I decided to stop by Gamestop to collect my copy of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, but somehow I did not order the collector’s edition! I canceled my reservation, immediately went home to Amazon and ordered one. The rest of the evening was spent making lasagna and vegetating in front of the TV.
Saturday – 12th November
I stayed at home mostly today and just watched TV shows and finished up all my school work. I took a break and surfed at Sunglow for a while, this time encountering much more success as I got used to the wetsuit. It’s been a good wave week, and I’m happy I managed to catch some.
Sunday – 13th November
I surfed before Avion at Main Street since I had to drop off my longboard to get that rail damage fixed. I should have been more careful with my rail saver. I didn’t adjust the length properly and the string kept cutting into the board. The sun was shining today and the overall temperature for both air and water was around 74, so I decided to risk it and go with just my rashguard and boardshorts. It wasn’t too cold, although you wouldn’t want to stay out long. The waves were really glassy and I caught a few nice rides.
We had a record number of people at production and even though I only reached around 2 p.m., most of us were leaving around 5 p.m. I tried to do some grading for Navin while waiting for mass, but it was difficult because of how many students that class has. I ended up looking at the plans for the Europe Trip and at least that was productive.
Mass was okay, but I’m thinking I really should wake up for early mass and make the effort because it passes so much faster. Even though it was a quick mass, by 7 p.m., I’m so sleepy that it just drags and drags. The rest of the evening was chilling at home with Jill and Reggie in front of the TV. I managed to do some studying for Aerodynamics before sleeping, but this has been quite a crappy week.
