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when you are flying and the airport security takes away your mousse, you can just use the body lotion left in your hotel room. A generous application, worked in thoroughly will give body to the hair while leaving it silky smooth. Good two days in a row, though the third day it gets a bit sketchy.
-the beast
I will share a guilty pleasure I have…. cooking blogs. I have never in my life made a recipe from one, but I love to look at them and see the ideas and dream of owning a kitchen one day. How can you not with recipie’s like THIS!
oh pickypalate.blogspot.com how I love thee.
so the other day a buddy calls me up and we decide to go grab some dinner. We go cruising …. TO DISNEYLAND. That’s right, people here all have passes and stuff, so we just cruise into Disneyland, the magical kingdom of america, and eat some gumbo in a breadbowl, ride a few rides, watch the big show, then roll home, just a few hours you know. Who does that? Seriously, who goes to disneyland for dinner. That’s like going to the moon for a sale on sneaks. Very entertaining, but still. 
So a few years ago, shoot like seven years ago, a friend of mine while in Ukraine had recommended to me a book called Coming out of the Ice that he had read and said it was inspiring and thought provoking, and yada yada yada. Well at the time I didn’t think much of the recommendation, but as I came to respect this friend more, the book he mentioned stuck with me and I decided I would give it a read someday. Well, seven years later, I finally got around to it. The book is “Coming out of the Ice – An unexpected life by Victor Herman” which I picked up from amazon for around 50 bones (it’s out of print) and went to work.
After charging through this book in a matter of about a weeks worth of evenings I can say it is one of the most perspective changing books I’ve ever read. Well actually, I’m not sure if perspective is the right word, maybe inspiring, maybe gratitude inducing, I don’t know exactly what role it played in me these last few days, but I find myself oddly moved by this mans true story. He tells of struggles he faced in Russian prisons, wrongfully charged and committed and the story is how he lasted through an ungodly amount of time under these circumstances, and how he found his resolve to go on. It caused me to look at the struggles I face and realize how terribly easy it should be for me to just persever, to just suck it up and power through. It makes me much more grateful for the opportunities I have and life and freedoms I’ve enjoyed. I don’t know exactly why it stuck with me so, perhaps its the Russian politics, mentality, and mannerisms that he describes that can only really be understood through experience, or the fact that it’s just a good man book to read, but it is very profound to me.
Honestly I read a ton of books each year, many good ones, but I can’t tell you when I last read a book that gave such insight and actually moved me. I hope you all get the chance to read it at some point. Be forewarned though, it deals with issues that are a bit unsettling some of them, and theres about a dozen swearwords to watch out for through the course of his story, just so you know. But I would recommend this to anyone.
I don’t know why I’m on a review spree either, it won’t last, but enjoy it while you can.
Since I’ve been going through a spree of purchases lately, I thought I’d let you in on the experience a bit and ‘review’ if that’s the only word for it, some of my experiences. And since today was all about the car finishing up, lets start there.
So I bought my car recently from carmax as it was recommended to me by a good friend out here as a decent place to try. So I started by doing my online research, and honestly, everything online feels expensive, and since I’m used to the ole town country style of barter and haggle to get the price down to what we’d think is reasonable, carmax’s one price policy made me a bit apprehensive about the experience. I searched online and found a car that looked good, had a decent asking price, and low miles. The deal looked really good, and carmax has this great policy that says if you don’t like the car for any reason, you can return it within 5 days and the deal is dissolved, no questions asked, you get out of the sale quick. Which in California is very generous because the state has dissolved the 3 day cold feet law that most states still have in place. So with plans to take a monster road trip back to Missouri and back, I figured I would go get the car if I liked it, and take it through the mountains, through the desert, through the hills and back again, and try and load test it, cause if something were going to break I wanted it to break within that 5 day window.
So I went in and the guys there were great. No pressure, a couple of “have you been helped yet”s that stopped with a “yup” and away they went. I test drove the car, liked it, wanted to take it home. I’d lived here for 22 hours, and hadn’t yet started the job that was promising to provide money to make the payments, but they ran a credit check, pulled some strings to get me through the residence drama, and I signed away. They took care of all the checks and registration stuff for me, and I was outta there with plates on the car and then drove it 4000 miles in a week. The car was great, I really like it, a few quirks that I would do differently, but I wanted something modest and comfortable that didn’t run 20k+ to get. This was it.
Knowing that I was going to keep the car, I let the 5 day window close, and fell back on the 30 day “we’ll fix anything” warranty that came stock with the purchase. So after 4,000 miles, and a few potholes, the alignment was off, not bad, but it pulled to the right a bit, and my passenger side window wasn’t going up and down like it should. So I called them and they said they could fix it, just bring it in sometime before 6pm, well I countered with I work all day every day, what else you got, to which they countered bring it in anytime before 9pm, get a loaner, and we’ll fix it and get it back to you. Sweet! I cruised in, picked up a granny impala on saturday morning with the promise that my car would be taken care of first thing Monday morning. Monday came and I got about 4 calls from Ephraim, the mechanic, letting me know how the car was doing, that they ran into a bad part, and were reordering, but Tuesday it’d be ready he guessed. Well, it wasn’t fixed till today (wednesday) but it wasn’t too big of a deal, I had a car still, and they gave it to me with a full tank of gas and no obligation to refill it before I returned it, but it was a bit of an inconvenience.
So I went in today, returned the loaner, again with no questions or problems, and picked up my car. The window worked perfect, they balanced and rotated the tires and fixed the alignment. Great. They also refilled my gas tank (which was on empty) and washed the car (which after the road trip was noticable) and I drove outta there a day later than I wanted, but a huge fan of carmax. Seriously, with the extra 60 bones to fill the gas tank and 30 minutes to wash the outside and vacuum the inside of my car, they bought me for good. Best experience buying a car ever. It’s nice to buy something of that magnitude and be worry free. If somethings wrong, they’ll fix it, if somethings not just there, they take care of it. I love it. So sorry if this sounds testimonial ish, but the experience of buying has made the car. wtg carmax.
So in an effort to just reach out and touch someone, I will now touch you… all.
So here’s what I’ve learned in the last week:
It’s true. Sometimes we forget this as we wallow in poverty but hot dang if I wouldn’t trade it all to be up with my ole boy mifsud or back with the family. It’s really funny to me though, I’ve been through this move to a new place curve a number of times and it always surprises me what a pain it is to establish yourself in a new place, find friends, etc. I mean every aspect of your life needs rebuilding, my basketball crowd for weekday afternoons, mountainbiking buddies for the weekends, church friends, girl friends, and on and on. In your mind you just think I’ll need new buddies, well after three or four new ones, you realize the roster is not yet filled and you have to keep looking. But don’t get the wrong idea, we’re making friends, just new ones that fill new roles, it’s just some of the old ones I’m missing is all. Other things,
So I always imagined this would be much more glamorous than it is. I sleep in my office and work in my bedroom. That’s not the bad part, it’s kind of nice to wake up and sit in my chair, work on a few things that need attention, get up, take a shower, come back keep working, get up go eat breakfast. There’s no pressure to look busy, and so I get tons more done because everything is done as I find the need to do it, there’s no time wasting mentality which I love. However, I get so bored! I am home, but I still have to work. It’s not quite like I can goof off all day and work all night, I still have to keep hours, so I end up feeling very much like a shut in, while having none of the work place social drama that normally entertains throughout the day. I speak to no one, I am absolutely alone all the live long day, which some people would love, but find myself giddily waiting for unsuspecting people to login to their gmail and snag them for a quick chat of “hey, how you doing, what are you doing today? anything new, anything old, anything!?” And it’s been a week! I’m sure I’ll get used to it, but still.
So that’s all the gems so far. The job is good. It’s tough, but that’s because I’m coming into it all new and am having to work my tail off to keep up with the lingo and conference calls right now. Honestly though, I got nothing to complain about, life is good, work is solid and I’m getting tons of reading in (Currently reading “Coming out of the ice – an unexpected life by Victor Herman” and it’s great, I’ll tell more about it later) and enjoying the great food of Southern California.
whew.
Like many of you, life has been crazy lately for me. Last we spoke, I was sitting in a Chicago hotel room still relatively unsure where I’d be when Friday came and I either had to use my return ticket to Hawaii or go back to Missouri, with really no idea of where I’d end up after that. So let me catch you up from there…
Continue Reading…
So I’m sitting in a hotel room at 5 am in Chicago IL, and life is different now.
It’s been an interesting couple of weeks for me, finishing school, worked till the last day I was there, and spent my final weeks working with my SIFE team trying to ensure that the success I had built is sustainable, because to quote a very dear friend Steve Gibson, “there is no success without a successor” (I don’t suspect he was the originator of that, but that’s where I heard it)
So yeah, my last days were pretty introspective. I found it rather difficult to try and compartmentalize, or place feelings I have for a place whose influence permeates almost every facet of my life. From spiritual to secular, to work success and social life, Hawaii has played a huge role in where I stand today. I really wish I had time to sit on the beach and just be grateful to a place that had done so much for me. But such is my style, work till the last minute and leave wanting more. I find that takes pretty good care of me.
In other news, Chicago is looking really good, there’s something fantastic about riding an L train with people and have all 15 students (white kids included) staring out the windows looking at these ‘crazy buildings’ or getting nervous around black people, or hesitantly stepping on to a train/subway fearing the doors will get them. It’s like I have 15 huge children, it’s pretty fun and I have decided I am one lucky dude.
So I interview this morning with my corporate guys, and again later this week, I think my status is that if I get that job, I’ll take the return ticket to Hawaii and try and get some more stuff / rest for a week. If not, I’ll stay in Missouri and get my move on to Toronto or something of the like. I’ll certainly let you know.
But just in way of gratitude, I need to say thanks to the Tueller family, who so graciously took me in as I was living homeless on the shores of Oahu these last two weeks. I am especially grateful for the chance to be around kids again, to camp out in the back yard and have it be amazing, cook bacon over a fire on a tin can even though the stove just beyond the screen door works fine. I’m grateful for the example of family nightly scripture study, and especially for Sister Tuellers cooking. Further thanks go to Audi and Holli, we formed a sort of vagabond posse that looked like hippies and acted like college students, it was a nice way to spend the last two weeks of Hawaii, with some great friends. There’s one more I can think of at five am, and that’s Jared Hinton. We’ve played one on one basketball for almost 18 months, every time things got stressful, or so busy I wanted to cry, he’s been there to work it out with me on the court. We’ve played in the pouring rain, we’ve played in gale strength winds, we’ve played night games under stadium lights, and hours past that in the pitch black under the light of the moon. There have been times when that ball has saved my sanity, and Jared, thanks for being there buddy.
Anyway, there’s tons of other folks whom I love from Hawaii, professors, roomies, families, mentors, and friends, and I hope they understand that I appreciate them, and love them dearly. Here’s to Hawaii…. /me drinks a snapple
Now, standby for the next chapter in this Doan saga.
PS – pics will be up under the photo section, if they aren’t yet, here’s one for now.
well thanks for all the well wishing guys! I am now officially done, I just sent in my last paper, the finals are done, papers are written, I have proven I can do college. I am really excited to go do something besides school now, honestly, I think so much better on my own. Don’t get me wrong, it has been an absolute joy to have professors to work with as I’ve struggled to develop my own opinions on thinks I’ve never thought about before, but it’s a whole different ball game when I get to read a book because I’m interested in it, or write a paper because I think I have something to say, and not to satisfy a requirement.
My post grad plans are still up in the air, I suspect they will be as much for the rest of this week. The company I am talking to about working with right now is still developing the details of the position, so I am yet to get a firm commitment out of them, so the options are still vast. I’ll let you know when I know though. For now, I plan on being kicked out of my home on Friday, and living on the beach for two weeks so I can have a great ‘homeless’ story when I’m doing motivational speaking with Donald and Guy.
Besides that, all is well, much aloha to you all, and thanks for all the kind words and support. Uncle Jason, Darrell, Sarah, and Mom, you guys have been particularly terrific in throwing your support and love my way, thanks for all you do, without you guys, things would have been a lot more difficult.
Today, the 16th of April, I had my last day of classes, for maybe ever. I just had my last day of classes. It’s pretty crazy to be done, my body can’t fathom the idea of not feeling guilty when not constantly thinking about whats due in which class and when. Could be a nice change.
Here’s to the future though…. what’s next.