MAY-hem

My apologies for being absent for quite some time. May was an insane month for me. It was one adventure to the next. A few months ago my brother-n-law and I had kinda started doing a little running to get in shape. He had ran a 10k in southern utah and after we came back from that he suggested we train for a half marathon. My first reaction was laughing. Neither of us were runners nor pretended to be. After some thought on it, I decided i needed to challenge my body and myself mentally in a new way and this would be a good opportunity. Something completely out of my element. We checked out the training schedule and we're already a week behind but we put in the time and worked our way up to it. One day during my longest run, I got that runners high. It was such a good experience. I felt unstoppable. I was in a different frame of mind. So as the race approached we were still nervous since we still felt like we didn't know what we got ourselves into. We drove down the night before and pulled up at 11:30 and had to be up by 4:30. And if anyone knows me Im a night person and at that I don't like running or doing anything that early. The alarm rang and in a short bit we found ourselves stretching to run a race. It was CRAZO. So many things were going through my mind but i knew i was gonna finish. We all got lined up to run and it was such a weird experience. We were a herd of people all just going to run a course. Here is a pic i found on the internet that shows the herd im talking about. It was just such a different thing to be in. Once the gun shot and everyone started running, I just looked around and all you could see is heads everywhere just bobbing up and down. I kinda felt like a bunch of animals in a herd and we were all just following each other. The race was a real intense and challenging experience but was such a good growing opportunity for me physically and mentally. I challenged myself in new ways. I finished the race in good time and had such a good feeling once i crossed the finish line. I took myself to a new level in life. Its important i realized to challenge ourselves mentally and physically. Push the limits. Try new things. I never considered myself a runner but it happened.

So the next week to reward myself for doing that, I went on a last minute random cruise with a couple of my friends. We booked a weekend cruise to ensenada mexico but due to the swine flu, we were rerouted to catalina island. We barely made it to the airport in time. And when i mean barely, They had been calling our names and we were the last people to sit on the plane. It was so nice once we got to san diego to take off. The ocean breeze and smell felt like home again. I missed being close to the ocean. We had such a good time on the cruise even though it was a quick one. Being out on the open water is such a good feeling and catalina was a cool little town. Here's some pics of the adventures..... More MAYhem events to come shortly

COSTA RICA.. Discovering more then just epic sights

The beginning of march I was blessed and fortunate to go with my parents and brother and his wife to Costa RIca. It was kind of random how it happened. We had kinda been planning on going but with ticket prices being high and not being able to leave work when it was still snowing put everything on pause. Then my brother found these awesome deals on tickets and asked what i thought.... It was a done deal for me. About two weeks later we were boarding the plane. I couldn't wait to get out of the snow and back to the ocean. I couldn't even sleep on the plane. I was so excited too see what adventures were in store. We Arrived super late that night and stayed in a nearby hotel. When I go on a trip, I get into this kind of dream state mode where my eyes are glued to the window and im just trying to take it all in. People. Places. Buildings. Way of life. Its like a movie and the window is the screen. Its hard to realize that you are in a whole different world.

We tried to fit in as much as we could. Costa Rica is interesting because the central section is all mountains so when you have to drive from san jose the capital to the pacific coast your not driving tons of miles but its all through these up and down really windy two lane roads. Its one lane heading east and one west with the mountain and a cliff on both sides. So anything you do takes forever to get too but the drives are so beautiful.

I took a travel journal with me to write down things that I experienced or thoughts i had about their culture or way of life that I could learn from. Their were two major things I kept noticing. The first thing i realized was when we were driving the first day up to this active volcano driving out of the city into the country. A lot of people ride bikes or walk on the main two lane roads to get around. The houses their are very simple and small. Maybe two to three rooms total. Most houses just had a tin roof. I noticed a lot of the houses had furniture on the front porch and spent a lot of time visiting with people outside. On our way back from the volcano, we were heading back through the country and i was looking out my window and for some reason I had an awesome moment. We were passing this house that had the tin roof and was very poor in structure but met their needs. This lady was outside playing with her three kids on the porch. As i watched them, the mother and I made eye contact and she had the biggest smile on her face. A smile that said how happy and good life was and she seemed so content. It was the simple life and things that made her happy. Not the big screen tv or a new car. We were talking in the car and my sister n law posed the question if they were happier people than us. Without hesitating I said i had no doubt. We are too much caught up in the trivial and unimportant stuff in our lives. The news and the economy dominates our minds and thoughts. If we lived with what we had we wouldn't be in such a mess. it made me evaluate my life and to simplify my life. Doing so has made me so much more stoked. Im still trying to continue to do that. I thanked God for letting me have that five seconds of realization with that lady.

The Second thing I learned is about Pura Vida. A simple easy spanish translation is "Pure Life". Nothing to that really. But that isn't the translation for Costa Ricans. It has a deeper more meaningful translation. Its actually more of words to live by and a way of life then a phrase. Its much like "Aloha" for hawaiians. They say it all the time and its a greeting and also like if someone were to say "Hey how's life" you would say pura vida. I had heard this in some surf movies but wanted to experience it. One of our last days we went river rafting. It was with some local tour guides and it was a very small group. The guide and our raft was from there and we kept saying pura vida after each rapid we went down. Then him and I got talking and I asked him what pura vida really meant. He explained it like this. "WE'RE ONLY ON THIS EARTH FOR A SHORT TIME, SO SPREAD CHEER, AND THEN WE'RE GONE". I love that. It just struck home with me. Thats how i feel. We waste time and let our pride get in our way of really just feeling love and wanting to help people around us. I found pura vida and its true meaning. We need less blaming in this world and more love. It puts things into perspective as to what we are really suppose to learn down here. Slow down. Enjoy life. Realize what great things you are surrounded by.

Even as i was writing this blog its just mind blowing the things i was able to experience. It was complete unspoiled beauty. This trip was really unlike any other trip I had been on. I grew to love this place so much and the people. I felt like i was in my element which is such a pure good feeling. Just seeing and meeting the people told the story of Costa Rica. What they were about. One of the nicest things about the trip was not having my cell phone. It was nice to leave that behind and feel unattached and free. No one to call back. Exchanging my phone for my camera. I just felt such a sense of what life was like again without the conviences of technology and not being restricted or distracted. Pure freedom.
I can't say enough about my experience in Costa Rica. It really awakened my soul. Check out some more pictures I took and let me know which were your top three favorites. PURA VIDA!!!!

Simply Good Stuff

So a couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to go with a few of my good friends to go see Donavon Frankenreiter play. Crazy thing was is he was doing a radio show that i got invited to but last minute they cancelled cause he had the flu and was trying to get better for the show that night so i was a little bummed. BUT.....When we go to the show and the opening act came out we were blown away. His name is GARY JULES. He was so so good and had his own little styler and was just a funny guy. CHECK out his stuff. Try listening to the DEVIL KEEPS GRINNING. I think you'll be sold. He was such a nice guy and just a normal guy that loved playing good tunes. So then Donnie came out and played a great show. If you haven't checked out his music you missed the boat but should get on it. He just has a cool fun chill vibe. They did some songs together but the thing that blew my mind was this guy......
He plays piano in donavon's band. BUT.... Not only is he amazing on key board and piano.. and i mean amazing... He plays everything he can get his hand on. Next song he whips out the MELODICA which i play and was stoked to see, This mini piano thing, Accordian, and trumpet all extremely well. The thing that was mind blowing was that he played some of them at the same time. Donnie would be jamming and this guy was playing keyboard with one hand and piano with the other. the coolest thing was when he was playing piano and trumpet at the same time. I've never seen that done. It was such an amazing show with great talent. Check out there stuff for sure. ALSO, if your in NEED of some good music like that i have found tons of good stuff lately and would love to spread the love.

COSTA RICA blog coming real soon. Heres some pictures from the show.

Keep it real

Gary Jules jamming


Donavon


The Donnie "sick solo" face


Here he is playing the trumpet and piano at the same time


Donnie and Gary jamming


Kristi, Porter, Gary Jules, and me after the show

2-23-08

Mr. Aloha, Da Hui member,wave riding vehicles and good friend Bob Kaleikau. RIP 2/18/07 This day was one of the most INTERESTING days of my life. I can't believe how fast time has passed. I don't think i've had a day with so many mixed emotions. Such a good day turned into something somber slowly. A day I really reflected on my life and gave much thanks to God for what I had.Anyone who was with us that day will not forget this. It was a Saturday in Hawaii. My best friend drew and I woke up to go surf with some friends. We headed down to Haleiwa to surf Ali'i and it was such a clear day. I had just purchased my 5'10 retro fish and was still getting use to it. The waves were so fun that day. I was stoked cause I felt so good about my surfing. We all went out and took turns video taping. I had such a good day surfing and felt so comfortable on my board. There were some bombers coming through that day. I was surfing by this German kid who was about my age who kinda moved here for a couple months and was just starting to surf. We just started talking and getting each other pumped on each wave we charged. As the surf started to get choppy and all our friends got hungry, we all paddled in. This german kid ran up to us in the parking lot and asked if we could go surf again, so we told him just to come cruise and hang out with us for the day. After working up an apetite and being cheap college students, we went to McDonalds to eat off the dollar menu. After we ate, right next door is a surf shop called Wave Riding Vehicles. I had known these guys at the shop really well since we did stuff with our Ocean Appreciation Club. I always stop by and just say hi while I'm down there and get a few good laughs. When we walked in and there were some girls there working that dated the manager. I asked them where everyone was like LG and Bob. Then STRUCK the words... "Didn't you hear the news? Bob passed away two days ago!" I was in shock. It blew my mind. He was 46. Such an amazing happy guy. Always hooked me up with discounts. He was the one that got us going to the Da Hui beach clean up. What do you say. We were so taken back. We cruised on over to our new german friends house overlooking waimea. I was still just soaking it in. UNREAL. We drop our stuff off and head to the beach and play around and watched a beautiful sunset into the ocean. After we went back to that kids place he was renting a room and the guy and wife who lived in the rest of the house were out bbqing and cooked for us and were so hospitable. The guy then tells us of an experience he had. Easter 07 his outside house camera caught this so called phenomenon. He said he went outside and saw this egg-like-portal in the sky and all these spirits that he couldn't see faces all flew and entered into this egg and in the video that caught it you see the egg go up.He said the egg was like a portal going to heaven or something like that. He was super sincere about it. Not even a nutty guy. Didn't tell us to believe it but it was so crazy. Of course we didn't believe it but it was just so random even watching the video. You can see it at www.jesusvine.com. Just from hearing our friend pass away it was such a weird thing. So many different ideas out there of how people view life and what happens. So after we left there, Drew and I could not stop thinking about everything that happend and the emotions. We started jamming at home and Drew started playing this chord progression that he always messes around with. All of the sudden, both of us start getting these lines and ideas and thoughts for the song. We immediately grabbed a pen and started writing. It flowed so naturally and was exactly how we felt about this day. Here are the lyrics. We didn't finish the chorus but im working on that. Im currently sick or I was gonna video it. Bob will always be in my memories and his aloha spirit. Aloha Oi Bob! Tell me what ya think and REMEMBER the singing isn't that good as im getting over pneumonia:

Verse 1 Big balls of light, on the horizon angels take their flight Asking why, why we were born to die.
Verse 2 Trying to see, beyond this magical fantasy Dreams don't die, Until the next life we'll try
Verse 3 Its beautiful, this life we're living and days of mine Write it down, take a picture as the sun goes down
Verse 4 Rising sun, as another days begun Days like these, I won't forget your watching me
Verse 5 Take some time, to release your weary mind All my cares, broken up in the ocean clear

Nothing is as constant as CHANGE

For the past while, CHANGE has been a constant thing on my mind. It started back before I left Hawaii and has stayed around my head and for the last little bit has been something I've thought of and noticed. Its such an interesting thing. Change means so many different things. Change effects all of us constantly. We all look for change. Change of pace. Change of luck. Change of job. At the same time we have a love/hate relationship with change. We don't like change when it effects something that is going good for us or when we have things planned out for awhile. Change can be good or bad. Change occurs in everything. We may change names when we get married or change our perspective on something or someone or how we view life. The world wanted change which landed Obama a new job. My thoughts are changing as I gain new knowledge through experience and change. I have come to realize that change is really a natural part of life. Whether we want it or not, it will come as needed in good and bad times. Sometimes its hard to deal with change especially when we don't know why its coming but I believe that change is a positive good thing even when we don't see the benefits at first. It helps us grow and learn. We are who we are because of change really. Although it may seem like a bad thing at times, I don't believe change ends up as a negative thing. Its an inevitable thing that will follow us.
I've been trying to write music and focus on thoughts and experiences. Writing music is such a cool natural thing. I am writing a song about some of what i've said and need to finish another verse and tighten stuff up but thought I'd share it. Let me know what ya think. Be honest. Maybe I won't be shy and will record a video and put it up here with music.

Verse 1 Waiting, as life passes me by.
Changes, it all comes with time.
You live and you learn, but life don't come easy.
you gotta take it slow and change with the seasons.

Chorus You gotta move along
Cause time just don't stand still
You've got to free your mind, free your mind.

verse 2 Live for today, don't wait for tomorrow
Yesterdays gone and time we can't borrow.

Well im still throwing around a few different lyrics and stuff but that is pretty set in stone but still much work needed. Give me any thoughts you have about change or my lyrics. Always appreciated. Aloha

Sun+Camera= A happy soul

Lately I've been looking for an adventure and to get away from the cold air. Since it wasn't looking like it would snow which means no work I knew it was an opportunity for my to soothe my soul and clear my head. My dad and I took off to st george and stayed at our condo down there. I was stoked because I knew it was good weather and a perfect time for me to test out my camera skills on my new camera. My dad and I found some nice hikes to go on which felt nice to take it slow and easy and hang out with my dad. Here's some pictures I took.















It was fun just to try it out and see what i got. Let me know what one you liked the best. Its a skill in progress but if your looking for some cool photos to look at or need a photographer let me suggest some awesome talent of good friends....

If your in Utah, check out my buddy Clay's Photography who has a good eye at www.claytonhansenphotography.com or www.claytonhansenphotography.blogspot.com

OR... My good friend Malia in Hawaii who is such a cool girl at www.maliajohnsonphotography.blogspot.com

I hope to learn some from them as they have inspired me to be a better photographer. ALOHA!