Ryan's Journal

"My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?" — David Mitchell

Calling All Friends

Posted from 25,000 feet over the coast of California at 10:20 am, April 7th, 2007

A few things I’ve learned while traveling home to San Francisco today:

  • Oral hygiene is apparently of utmost importance to the terrorists, and anyone traveling with a full-sized tube of toothpaste is therefore suspect. When the security guy pulls a tube of Crest out of your bag, eyes you suspiciously, and says “What are you doing with this” the guilt and shame is tremendous. One can only wonder why I was still allowed to travel.
  • According to NPR, the most requested musician on the radio on Kenya isn’t Kanye West, P-Diddy, or even Beyonce. Who is it? Kenny Rogers. They love him. Dolly Parton tops the list of female artists. In Iraq the word is that Lionel Richie could play to packed stadiums if he wanted to.

In other news, Aaron took the victory in last night’s mini-golfing by double-digits (the rematch awaits), I’m back to requiring extreme-levels of caffeination to function, and there’s a high probability that I’ll be heading to Iceland with my dad in tow in the summer of 2008. Also, the Browns’ 2007 draft possibilities include numerous guys who are basically beasts capable of smashing people, and that’s always nice.

White Sands Yucca

Yucca in White Sands, New Mexico. Taken in 1999, and still one of my all-time favorite photos.

7 responses to “Calling All Friends”

  1. I highly recommend iceland.

    I also highly recommend seeing how many times you can blatantly disregard the liquids-on-planes rule without getting caught (but maybe not to you).

    Does this mean I should suspend my planned lobby for galapagos 2008?

    1. it actually takes a full year to get all of the permits, the boat, and everything else arranged for a galapagos trip (things book early), so it’s probably a bit late to put together a may 2008 galapagos trip (greg likes may). if we’ve got people interested, however, may 2009 would be a distinct possibility.

      i’ll try the liquids thing next time, although at the rate i’m going they’ll have me on the do-not-fly list before long…

      and i forgot that you’ve been to iceland. you’ll have to let me know which hot springs have the least pasty-white icelanders in them if the trip does end up happening. my experiences sharing hot springs in alaska with very pale and disturbingly large people were traumatic enough that i’d go to great extremes to avoid a repeat in europe.

        1. i’ll have to start putting the word out to see who might want to head to the equator in 2009. i’ve been debating a few other places, but it’s tough to beat the galapagos for a group trip – somewhere like the pribilof islands in alaska would be neat, but the weather is iffy and there’s a lot of travel involved. africa is pricey, and a bunch of other places aren’t as conducive to groups… anyhow, i’ll see what i can do about another galapagos trip. watch this space, and let me know if you find good people who might want to stowaway.

        2. I have 2 peeps that keep asking me about the Galapagos. I keep telling them to just “chill” because Ryan will get to it when he gets to it and that’s the end of it. I might be up to ruin someone else’s adventure in 2009 with my return to the islands. Also, I want more hammerhead!!

    1. caffeine is only part of the problem. subject matter is a bigger issue – it’s not a good sign when having homeland security take my toothpaste is the most interesting story of the month.

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