If a door closes in the woods...

I've always said that our lives are generally in balance.

For every good and wonderful thing that happens to us, something bad is lurking around the corner to pull the cloud out from under us. For every stroke of ill luck suffered, there are good things that happen to us to lift us out of life's pitfalls. A certain area of life falls apart while in another, things coalesce into perfection. Opportunities slip away while others just fall into our laps. And sometimes, things come together so hard and fast that they start to break everything up; great wrecking balls of opportunity crashing into one another with you in between.

Ultimately, whichever side of the ever flipping coin we perceive is simply the one we focus on. There will always be forces pulling or pushing on us at different times and without opposing forces doing the same we'd probably just go crazy: lost in the euphoria that it doesn't get any better this, or crushed under the unbearable weight of knowing that it doesn't get any better than this.

All I can say is this: I won't let greed and insecurity ever be a force behind the decisions that I make. And that is liberating.

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I wrote the above in June 2009. It probably belongs at the beginning of this blog because it really was the seed that grew into this trip, but I was clearing out some old stuff and stumbled upon it now. It was a time in my life when something bad did happen, followed by quite a few good things. The good stuff was mainly in the job market. I had just been hired at my last job and I was receiving some juicy job offers from other places. I didn't know if I would have a job past October, but the idea for this trip was forming in my head, and while it may have seemed a little reckless I decided not to take any serious job offers where I would be expected to work more than a year. No, this was the time to hit the road. Being a consultant meant I was going to have a lot less money and could be let go any time a project was coming to a close, but it allowed me the freedom to get up and go. And while I didn't know for sure I was going to take this trip, and I didn't really know what kind of a trip it would be, I recognized that freedom.

The Adventures of Mr. Macevoy and Chad Chad in the Church of Scientology

No, that's not that title of a new children's book.



After the rain broke, I spent a couple of days closer to L.A. proper and took the time to visit a friend from college, who lives in the heart of L.A.

While we were driving around, we passed the Church of Scientology.

"You wanna go in there and take a personality test?" my friend half jokes at me.
"YES!"
"Ok but how do we get them to give us the test? We can't just go in and ask for one."
"We probably can, but I have to go to the bathroom. It's perfect. We go in and ask to use the bathroom and after we do, they won't let us leave without offering to test us."
"I dunno man, I don't want them having any of my information or anything."
"Dude, don't worry! Just give them nothing but misinformation and lies! We get to take the test, free of future hassle. Don't even give them your real name. Make one up."



And that's exactly what happened, and while we were hoping to hear some real crazy stuff in there, all they did was talk about dianetics as a way to better your life.

Meanwhile, I'm a socially awkward creature. Introductions for me are a complete knee-jerk reaction. Somebody I don't know says "Hi, I'm-" and my brain switches over to auto-pilot. I shake hands, say "Ian. Nice to meet you.", and am just relieved to be past the first part of any interaction. It's probably why I have such a hard time remembering people's names. So when the guy in the church said "Hi, I'm-" and offered his hand, I shook it and said "Ian. Nice to meet you."

Oops. So much for giving a completely fake name. So when filling out my "information" on our personality tests, I used a fake last name. My friend on the other hand stayed on top of things and said his name was "Chad". And when they asked him for his last name he just repeated "Chad."



"Chad Chad" still makes me laugh.

Anyway, after we dodged their probing questions for a while, took their 200 question personality test, watched some videos about people with "problems", and refused to buy books, we left the Church of Scientology behind.

He tells me a friend of his actually got stopped on the street and offered one of their personality tests and made a video about it. It's pretty funny and you can see it here.

Anyway, I said I wanted a picture of the Hollywood sign so we went to get a view.

Behold:


Turns out they don't light it up at night.

So we wandered closer:


Shame my camera does so poorly in low light conditions.

Anyway, thus concluded my night with Chad Chad. The next day (or around then) I rode up to Highway 1 to Paso Robles for a night, then continued up Highway 1 to San Jose. Now, Highway 1 is a gorgeous road with phenomenal views and it definitely has it's share of twisties.



It absolutely sucks in the rain. The vast majority of my ride I was getting rained on, conditions were dangerous, and visibility was about 1 mile at best.

I'm going to have to go back down on a sunny day so I can experience that road the way it should be.

I've been in San Jose for about a week. This blog is going to slow down a bit for a while. I'm done for now. I'm just about out of money and I need to get a job. I don't expect there will be too much to write about between working, working out, and well, whatever else I do in a "normal" day. But you never know. I'll let it flow however it will but come springtime, I'm back on the road.

The only adventure that I foresee in the near future is I'm going to try my hand at boat hitch hiking to Hawaii some time in the next week or so.