Getting started...again.

Well...just over a year since my last blogging. Huh. Right on.

Life has really moved along since then, I don't even know where to begin! I now have the priveldge and responsibility of being a papa, our eight month old son is growing and changing every day! I came home from work yesterday to find Jayden could wave "hello" to me (and goodbye.) and he crawled right across the floor! Crawling, already! He really is amazing. On the topic of family, my wife is the most increadible mother I could have dreamed about marrying. She really is so amazing--it makes me that much more excited to see the possibilities Jayden will have!

I still build houses, I do remodeling now, instead of new construction. It's pretty fun, since there is a lot more random crap to take care of; you never know what you will be doing when you start a project! I am in fact just finishing a pretty cool job now, getting ready for a massive, increadible house we are starting in Seattle.

My boss is a pain in my ass.

When we moved to Washington a year and a half ago it was with the intentions that I pursue a career as a firefighter. Man, who knew this was such a hard thing to accomplish?! It is so hard, so draining, so frustrating! (I am waiting for it to become rewarding...) It's tough because there is a bunch of skill involved in testing, there is a bunch of luck involved, and a bit of being at the right place at the right time, especially when there are 2500 people applying for the same 30 jobs in one department. This is super hard for me because I have been pretty fortunate to be pretty good at most things I've done: I never had a problem with school--the work at least. I have never had to really struggle with my hobbies, like music or sports, I just did what I did in those arenas. I've always been a competent carpenter with good initiative.

I don't list those things to brag, but more to express how hard it's been doing this thing. I feel like I've put myself out there as best I can on some occations, just to be found wanting. It hurts! Let me clarify a bit: I just tested for a city, did pretty good in the first test, had what I thought was a great interview, and was ranked 53! That doesn't cut it! I need to be at least up in the 20's.

Anyway, dinner time...more later.

Journal Life

Well, I just had a revelation about myself. I suck at journaling. Several times in life I have decided how I want to record my thoughts and stories, I get really excited, buy a new notebook or whatever, and set down to journal my life. The first coupla weeks I love it, I make one or two entries a day and feel really good. Then I start running out of exciting or interesting topics (it seems like real life is full of redundancy and repitition to me sometimes...) and so I start making sort of cheesy entries. Then I slowly stop journaling. I see my journal sitting on a pile of books once in a while and think Man I should write something.

Electronic journaling apparently is no different. Crapola. I love reading what other people are up to, I am pretty consistant in checking friends and family blogs, just not motivated to do it myself. What's up? It's the same with pictures. I love to see pictures of trips people take or new family members, but I am the worst photographer. I lived in Mexico for almost three years, doing all sorts of cool photogenic stuff and I think I have maybe four rolls of film developed from that time. One of those rolls I took in the last two days in Mexico when I realized that I had no photos of my time there.

Well, I guess at least I know what I am and I'm content being who I am....

Working class hero

OK. Well. Work.

I'm looking forward to a lifelong, enriching carreer. No, actually I hate it. And I for sure do not want a lifelong job in construction (in Hawaii). It's hard to know what's the right thing to do with work...because my boss is kinda a hoser. I already mentioned my pay-scale situation; but also last week we had to get this wall finished, because "concrete comes tommorow and it needs to be done! I'll make it worthwile if you stay late, Ben." So I stayed (alone) till 6:00 on Friday evening. That means not just a promised extra something-something, but overtime....which he doesn't do. What?!? You don't do overtime? It's just regular hourly pay? Why the heck did I stay late, why did I come in on a Saturday to work?! C'mon!

Plus now I'm doing lots of babysitting with my co-workers. Oke (Oh-Kee)(my boss) wants me to clock everyone in and out, keep track of lunch hours, make sure everyone is doing just so... I just don't get it.

So don't tell Oke, but I might start looking for a job somewhere else. I think there is work closer to home, doing what I prefer to do (framing), that pays the same or better. Why not?

I'm still working on what kind of job would pay lots of money for doing something sweet. Like I wanna be one of those newspaper restraunt critics or something. Maybe I can still do the rock and roll thing. Well....ask me about this after I go back to college. We'll see where I'm at.

Dreams

I had a wacky dream last night. So I've been doing concrete work this last week or two, (I complained about it in the previous post if you've missed it...) and so I'm getting familiar with what I'm actually doing--which is nice when you're responsible for a couple crews working on several projects....

Last night I had this dream where all the guys I work with were at the job site together and we were in our work clothes, hard hats, power tools, etc. It was wierd, because we were all in the work mode, ready to rock, but we didn't do concrete form work. We made chocolate. We made chocolate products...our specialty was a kind of chocolate brittle with macadamia nuts and stuff in it. We still used power tools to do the work and all...in fact we mixed the chocolate brittle in a big concrete mixer.

It was funny, because we still had the same roles where I had to speak in spanish to tell the Mexican guys what to do, we all worked real hard and took breaks at the regular times. It was a wierd dream.

Also, my wife is making chicken parmegano tonight. I'm really stoked. She takes good care of me.

God Bless America

Well, tuesday I started my new job. It's alright. I am working for a masonry company doing form-work. That means that I'm building the forms that concrete is poured into, like for building foundations and retaining walls. It's not that exceptional of a job, but I took it because after talking to the owner I figured I'd give this a go, see what I can do. I needed to get a real job because it'll cost around $4000 just to move back to Seattle to go to school and we presently have about $17 in our savings account for that. (not to mention the cost of going to school...)

So I've got this new job, starting at $25/hour. Crazy, huh? This might sound selfish, but I'm actually underpaid in this market with the work I'm doing. I'm the forman for the crew doing all the form work, and in Hawaii the construction business can be profitable. This is wierd for me to know, because I am doing basically crummy work in a really hot place--I'm working in a lava field, so there's no shade or wind or anything. Scorching. So it's lame work, and I could actually find a job paying the same amount doing work I enjoy (house construction) in better environment...or think about asking for a raise (already?!). I'm conflicted because I am very loyal to my superiors--I just feel like I want to reciprocate the favor that they pay me by being a good employee. Plus since I'm the foreman it'd be next to impossible to just walk off to a better job; I really have to at least finish this big project which will take who-knows-how long.

When I think about that all in my head it seems fairly logical, no matter how greedy it sounds. Honestly, I am not a greedy person...I'm not motivated purely my cash and material wealth--I'm just looking at this objectivly, trying to get the most out of the next few months.

OK, here's the new kicker: I work with a bunch of Mexican laborers, which is great for me because I am having fun speaking Spanish with guys who are culturally very open and fun. The shitty part? All three of them work making $10/hour. So I left work today at 3:30, finishing my 8 hours a day...tired and dirty...and amazingly $200 richer! These guys tell me they work 10 hours a day! That is because they want to earn $100 a day. (by the way, I was bitching about my lame work...the work they do is really, really shitty.)

What a conundrum--honestly the work I do here could be paying me at least $1000 more a month, but can I really honestly gripe about that in comparison to these men? God bless America.

Drum roll please....!

Well, guess what? I've discovered what I'm doing with my life! (Well, at least for then next few years!) I don't know if I've blogged this new direction yet; if I have just disregard all this.

I've been contemplating a return to school for some time, but it's been overwhelming at times because I've had no clue what I'd study. I've found a degree that is super exciting and really important to me. I am planning to return to Seattle this spring to (first get a transfer degree from Seattle Central Community College) attend U.W. for a degree called Community, Environment, and Planning. The purpose of this degree is to study social issues (community development, human rights) and environmental issues (land use, preservation, agriculture etc.) and develop methods of addressing both groups of issues.

This degree is so powerful because I strongly believe that you can't develop a community without addressing the environment around it. And if you want to successfully protect and preserve the land you need to develop the mindset of the community. Example: I lived in Mexico for close to three years. Many times I organized huge garbage pick-up days, mobilizing 100-150 young people to fill up garbage bags with the garbage left on the beaches and around certain ghetto areas. I think this was a powerful thing to do, we normally carted somewhere between 200 and 300 garbage bags full of trash to the dump in one afternoon! The problem is that we didn't do anything for the neighborhood--they just saw less garbage for the next few days; three days later the beaches were looked like we never did anything! It is so important to work on preserving this planet, and while we do that we must help people develop a sense of self-worth and personal health. What does it matter, after all, if the streets are dirty if I can't feed my three children because I earn $50 a week?

So I'm really excited to go back to the North West. I'm jazzed to learn more about something that is already close to my heart. I hope that this will direct me to better ways to serve the people around me and this world in which I live.

Check this blog out:

Well, I just read my friend's blog...it kinda makes mine look a bit ridiculous. He's in Pakistan right now doing some serious relief work around the country. Check it out. He's a cool cat and I am proud to know him.

http://humanitarianman.blogspot.com/