in venice beach

theres the dopeness and theres the wackness. which one do you see?

"Certain people you just can't trust, you know?

Never trust anyone who doesn't smoke pot or listen to Dylan.

Never trust anyone who doesn't like the beach"

-The Wackness

Embrace everything that comes your way, even if its shit, especially if its shit.

-Marina

I brought Chivalry to an Australian, and to myself

He is a wonderful boyfriend. But he was never taught to open the doors for the ladies. So it’s not his fault that he doesn’t, he said he just never thought about it. I had to tell him that I need that. In a nice way of course.

I thought he was going to open the door for me one night but he actually forgot which side of the car to enter because in Australia you drive on the other side of the car and the road. So when we got in the car I said

“aw, I thought you were opening the door for me. I would like that very much.”

That’s all it takes ladies, a simple reminder. And then another.

Then when we did the long 7 hour trip back to Long Beach from Santa Cruz I taught him what my parents taught me.

-Men always open the doors for their women. LADIES FIRST, duh.

I can not let that go.

I am special to him, that’s why I’m his girlfriend.

So, moral of the story, ladies speak up and don’t settle for anything less than what you want.

keep moving on

Good-bye San Francisco with your cloudy sky’s and your really harsh winds and your beautiful landscape and the way art is incorporated in every nook and cranny. Good-bye winter weather in July and hello Santa Cruz. On the drive to Santa Cruz, Fred driving, we stopped at the berry farm. We picked fresh strawberries and blackberries from a strawberry field. The things I do I can’t even believe. They are small but are very sweet and delicious. Then we made our way to Matt's house. He's about 38 years old, shorter than me but who isn’t and very kind. He met Fred when he was living on the top apartment from him in Perth. He lives in between these two big beautiful houses, in the back in a small one bedroom. But it’s so cute, even the white refrigerator is mini sized.

It was very sunny and like summer again when we drove in. we parked the car, said hi to matt, and went a exploring. Got some 24 oz Negro especials from the store and walked on the boardwalk and through town. The boardwalk is a carnival equips with rides and roller coasters, a stage, merry go rounds, an arcade, and stands along the boardwalk, so quite literally a carnival. The sand was so soft and warm and light. It was a perfect summers day with my love after 2 weeks of shitty weather.
We went to this restaurant on the boardwalk with matt, his friend Warren, who is Hawaiian and has black hair to his shoulders and was so awesome. Later on Jamie, his girlfriend who works in the city and fires people for UCSF medical school joined us. We had drinks there and quite the salsa for the chips. Warren ordered oysters and nobody at the table wanted any. They served him on small, weird looking one and so they brought him two more. He gave one to me, after my second attempt with those boogery things I won’t’ be coming back.

Then it got cold.

We went to a taquiria then got beers and went to Matt’s. One beer did me in then I was on the verge of falling asleep, probably did a few times. They were talking about the documentary the Cove and how its bullshit that eating dolphins is part of the Japanese culture. Jamie went to UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA also; she was admiring my cat card. It’s cool that people from my school are all over the US and I have a chance to meet them.

Fred and I took the cushions off the couch and made a bed on the floor. Every morning that I wake up next to him I’m so content and happy and think that this is what I have been waiting for. I have been waiting for someone to make me feel happier every day to be with him and someone to want to explore and have adventure after adventure with me. This morning he told me that I'm fascinating. He tells me he loves me. And I actually can freely say it back; nothing within me is holding the words back.

We drove back to Long Beach and watched Mallrats and went to bed. Now hes in San Diego with some friends while i catch up with my family and friends here for a week. Its my brothers birthday on Sunday, he will be 28. Im going to go to Venice beach and get him some awesome art and pictures to put in his new apartment. Then Fred and I will be off to Tucson, AZ.

I love it.

Chivalry is dead so I hear, so ok, I'll bring it back.

I was struggling with how to write this, if I should do it in first person because then everyone will know what is happening with me and I wont be mysterious anymore, or if I should do it and leave myself out but when I thought about how I would write it instead it just didn’t work out. I decided to write the truth because I have a question. Not exactly a question so much as when this happens I grunt to myself and I know why, now after many grunts and ‘what the fuck’ faces I decided to finally answer it on paper and get it out of my head.

I recently became a “girlfriend” for the first time in my life, I’m 22 years old. Of course I have dated and you know but to deem someone my “boyfriend” is quite a meaningful, kind of a big deal to me, it’s like a push away phrase of any guy friends. But have one and he is freakin amazing and always down to do fun things like me. One thing, he doesn’t pay for me most of the time, actually never, really.

There are two ways that I’m thinking about this.

Way #1 is we both are traveling. He lives in Australia and he has come to America to travel around with me for the whole summer. So he doesn’t have that much money at the moment and he needs to make it last the summer.

But…

Way #2 I is m your girlfriend. Doesn’t that mean you won over other guys A.K.A I could have not picked you, so shouldn’t I be like your princess. But is that old school of me to think that the boy is always trying to charm you and I guess one way to do that is paying for me, to make me feel protected or taken care of or some shit.

I can’t seem to let this go and I’m afraid that it will eventually come up, drunkenly or sober.

While writing the title of this article I thought of one more thing. The definition of chivalry is the qualifications of a knight, including courtesy, gentlemen, and generosity, especially toward a woman you want to be yours.

Open the door for me. Whether it be a door to enter a building, house, car and always let me go first into the door, where are your manners?

Wow, this piece is making my boo sound really bad. If he just opened the doors for me, the second part of that outburst would not exhist.

I should just ask / tell him what I want, its not that hard to ask or to open the doors for your lady, and we will both be happy.

The Green Tortoise

Fred told me about this hostel in San Francisco that he stayed at, he told me that it was one of the best, if not the best, hostels he had ever stayed at. It’s by north beach, by the Beat museum, and by the Garden of Eden and tons of XXX shops and clubs. Its located here, where it all began, where the hippies first made their marks. I thought we should stay for a night.

We checked into our room, 2 bunk beds and 4 beds. Fred and I were in the same room and in our room were 2 guys from Sydney. Tristan and Josh. Tristan was born in Australia then moved to New Jersey until he was 11 years old then moved back to Australia. His accent is not that deep. Josh had a stripped button down shirt, I think it was neatly ironed. Then we went down to the ballroom. It’s a large room with funky carpet with flowers and swirls and colors. A bunch of tables and booths like old school diner booths, a pool table, fooze ball table, a little risen stage with guitars, drums, bongos, stereos to hook up ipods. I have my ipod in right now listening to red hot chili peppers with my friend Chris playing a guitar next to me. I met him last night, he’s from Jersey and he just came from Portland. Fred and I met loads of people last night.

We all had a great time drinking beers and story telling. I had one of the funniest conversations of my life last night with my two Australian roommates and 2 Australian chicks. We were talking about head towels. You know you see some people with towels on their heads. I guess they don’t have a hat. Tristan had the idea of maybe openings up a head towel shop for those who need head towels. When we checked in the girl at the front desk told us that we can drink and smoke in the ballroom after 9pm. At 10pm Fred was rolling all of us a joint at a table in the middle of the ballroom. Some guy in crutches who had knee surgery and looked like a yeti with black hair and beard sold us an 8^th, he was just sitting at a booth smoking a spliff. No big deal.

That’s how it should be.

Pieces of the world come together at a hostel.

Different parts of the world come together and share memories, evenings, stories, and each others lives.