My LA Experience

Well this last weekend I had the opportunity to go to Los Angeles. The school I volunteer for took the teachers to a Vincentian Symposium in LA.  They were flying us down so I took the opportunity and stayed in LA for the whole weekend (including Monday because there was no school on Columbus day). The best part is VSC West has another Volunteer house in LA, so I was able to stay with they and do a bit of exploring with them for free. So we left on Thursday evening and I am now flying back Monday night.

The Symposium

On Friday our keynote speaker was a lady (leave me alone I'm not good with names) that was currently in the process of transcribing these books of letters between Vincent De Paul and Luis De Marillac. The letters are in French because of their origins and she is making them available in English so that they can be translated into other languages, never really knew how important English is I guess. Nevertheless, there is a surprisingly large amount of letters between the two. They had worked together for 35 years before email, so I suppose it makes sense. The interesting part about this lady though is that she truly had a personal connection with St. Vincent and was able to really tell us about him and his interactions with De Marillac. 

He had such a strong love for the poor, but he wasn't always that way, in fact not until his 30s, almost 10 years after being ordained, did he find his true calling to the poor. Originally, Vincent wanted to be important, powerful, and be able to support his family at home. In his time, the easiest way to do all of this was to get into a solid career of the priesthood. Ironically though, during this time is when he first met Luis De Marillac.

Throughout the talk this lady pointed out that Vincent was the spiritual driving force and Luis was the one who would keep the hospital, shelter, or school running after it started. They truly were an unstoppable team that truly changed the face of poverty in France in the 1600s. Talk to me sometime about this awesome couple and their vision....because there is just too much to include in this blog tonight!

The LA House

At the Vincentian LA Volunteer house there are 10 volunteers. They are in the exact same program as me and we go on retreats with them every other month. The last time I saw them was when I first had retreat back in August. To say the least it was good to see them again and experience LA! While I was there I was able to talk to the LA house about their community, very different than mine. It was interesting though to talk to them and learn about the uniqueness of their community. 

Saturday they took me to Venice beach, the ironic part is the area actually had water canals! It was really cool to see.  At the beach we had a bonfire and roasted hot dogs and had s'mores. We then watched the sun set on the ocean, awesome. Once the sun went down we talked a bit more and then I went to play in the ocean. Since the tide was low I was running out and then back in with the waves, so much fun! 

Sunday we went to another beach and I ran a few miles on the beach which was great. Then we went to a street fair and listened to some live dubstep (currently one of my favorite genres). We also got free drink tickets for a bar so we decided to stop by (what do you expect we are volunteers!). The coupon was very vague... so I made a smart decision, asked for Gold Label Johnny Walker scotch... aged 18 years. That had to be the best glass of scotch I have ever had. After our drink, we went to the Hollywood sign. There is a path that you can hike to see the sign on the mountain. It was getting dark at that point so we climbed it n the pitch black.  This was by far my favorite moment in LA. Why? SILENCE! All you could hear on the mountain going up the trail was crickets. Crickets! I haven't had that type of silence since I was in Iowa, I truly loved it. It was also really cool to see all of LA on top of the mountain at night... there are sooooooooo many people in this world. Only one phrase could explain that sight, "beautifully organized chaos". The city's design was so beautifully organized, truly a work of art in a sense... but the second you get off the mountain and try and live/drive in it, it becomes the most chaotic feeling in the whole world. But I suppose you could say that about any micro vs. macro scaling.

Monday was a lazy day. I was able to chill out at the LA house and recharge my batteries a bit. I then left for "home" to San Francisco that night. 

On this trip, I learned one valuable lesson, I like my community here. No matter how much I struggle with it or feel like just being on my own, in its own weird way, it all works. I am grateful for my community and wouldn't trade them for anything right now. I guess sometimes it just takes time away from something to realize how much you really care for it. I won't forget that.

As always, pictures are below:

Two of my coworkers dancin' the night away!

Me and Snoopy having breakfast together, no big deal.

Beautiful beach day in LA!

This is what my students call me now.

Fire on the beach.. not quite Iowa but close... sorta.

Roasting weenies on the fire. mmm.

Watching a great sunset that seemed to last forever

Even in LA you can find Cycling events! 

Another nice day at the beach.

Look how the sun shines on the ocean. Awesome.

One of my VSC friends was wearing this hat and I figured it probably looks just as good on me too! right?

A free glass of scotch, aged 18 years. Yummy.

I know you can't see it but this is the Hollywood sign up on the mountain I'm about to climb

See! This is proof I saw the Hollywood sign! And yes I went right and not left!

LA with all it's light polution

The grid. This type of stuff you can only see in the movies.

Flying home... The sunsets are so beautiful in the sky!

What a Bike Week

What has been on your mind Kevin? Well let me tell you. This last week revolved around bikes, both the good and the bad. Last weekend I had the opportunity to go to Tour De Fat, which is a huge biker (cyclist) event in Golden Gate Park and see many different things with bikes. I saw a Velodrome,  unique mechanical bikes, machines made from bikes, bikers, bike clubs, valet bike parking, music and comedy about bikes, just everything was focused on the cycling community. I was like a kid in a candy store with all the different bikes and riders there. It was crazy awesome.

Another adventure I was able to partake in this last week was Critical Mass. Critical Mass is a huge cyclist event that happens the last Friday of every month all over the country. San Francisco had probably 5,000 riders on the streets when I was there. From what I understand is it starts at the same place every time, but then no one really knows where it will go and for how long. People jump in at anytime (like me) and jump out anytime, but for the most part it lasts about 2 hours. Now, imagine 5,000 bikers randomly coming together to take over the streets of downtown San Francisco. Chaos! Cars were backed up for blocks, everyone was honking, bikers were smiling while riding down the middle of the street in crazy cloths in a huge mob of cyclists, just absolutely ridiculous. It is cool though to see how many bikers are out there.

My last story is mostly a sad one, but one that is testing me day after day still. On Wednesday one of my coworkers took myself and the other volunteers I work with out to eat. That day I had road my tri bike (my nice bike) to work that day. Fortunately I had my lock with me, so I figured it would be no big deal. First mistake.  When I got there I decided that I could just lock it up outside because I didn't want to bother the manager at the restaurant about bringing my bike in. Second mistake. I locked up my frame and both my wheels because I have a cable lock that stretches through all of them. Third mistake. We got a table right next to the window so I could see my bike easily. One of my coworkers though, sat in my view of my bike, I was facing the window. So every so often I would move about a half a foot and look to see if I could still see my bike, yep still there. Then at one moment I decided to look up, and it wasn't there.... it wasn't there. I got up from my spot, went outside, looked around and it wasn't there... That. was hard for me. I came back in and thanked my coworker for dinner and  turned down the cab ride she wanted to give me. I just needed to be alone. I walked 2.5 miles back to my place, in bike shoes. It gave me a lot of time to think, but obviously thinking really wasn't going to help.

After a restless night, I started to question what the heck I'm even doing in San Francisco. I feel like I'm doing mediocre work, everyone I love is at home, I am missing great moments with my family, integrity does not seem to be present in this city, relationships here are superficial, I mean, am I even supposed to be here? Is this just a boys messed up dream? 

To say the least it has been a rough last few days. To me, and I know this sounds pathetic to most people but, it felt like that bike, what it stood for and what it reminded me of, kept me grounded. It was my home. It was the one thing I brought from home that I truly cared about, it reminded me of who I was and the great things I have done on my own, but also with my friends and family. That bike was my release. It was my escape to whatever crap life threw at me, I could get on and ride away, think, pray, and just release any emotion I had. But now that is gone and I have had to try and refocus myself.

Though it is extremely hard for me to think about all of this, I move forward. I continue on. Not because I don't care, but because I have to. There are much worse things in life than getting a bike stolen, no matter how sentimental. I still have my friends, I still have my family. I have a great life and I live extremely comfortably. Those I am helping here in San Francisco need me. As much as I think I am useless many days, I am needed and because of that I cannot give up.  I am learning quickly that sacrifices are required for anything worth pursuing. And as much as it pains me to say it, loosing my bike might be just the push I need to really start focusing out here. Because I still have no idea what I want to do. I think people are interested in me, but quickly loose interest when they realize I don't have a focus. They are right, I need to find focus. 

As always, here's my life as a pictorial:

Just a great picture. We need one of these for Iowa. Maybe of  the bridge connecting  Iowa and Wisconsin and Dubuque?

I saw this tent being set up. Openworld is this week and I expect you will hear about it in my next post!

The first day that I went to the beach in San Francisco and it wasn't foggy.  If you look close enough though, you can see it rolling in.

This first set is from Tour De Fat. Many crazy bikes there.

Look at all the bikes!

This is is from Critical Mass. There were bikers everywhere! Music and mass chaos, what more could you want from a evening in San Francisco?

General Colin Powell at Dreamforce

Have you heard of Saleforce? I had known about the company, but that was about it until this last week. I first wanted to know more when I realized the Red Hot Chilli Peppers were playing 2 blocks from where I volunteer last Wednesday night. At this point I figured I should see what this company is all about. I think it was an interesting conference, but I think I learned most from it by listening to a man by the name of General Colin Powell.

Colin Powell  was the first African American to serve as the Secretary of State under President Bush. Just knowing this, was enough to decide to listen in on his speech during the major keynote at Dreamforce. He was accompanied on stage by Jeff Immelt CEO of GE and of course Mark Benioff CEO of Salesforce. I found that Jeff had a lot of good ideas and thoughts, but I really felt like Colin Powell's thoughts were a lot more meaningful to the human condition.

First off Powell's thought on technology were extremely interesting to me. An older man that has done so much without the use of todays technologies. A man who has seen so much good, bad, and pathetic with technology. Powell's view was simple though, if it helps use it. He was not against technology at all, as long as it strictly was used at a catalyst for a bigger cause such as creating jobs, liberating people, or helping a team. He talked a bit about technology, but what really got me listening was he thoughts and views on leading, presenting, progress, life's purpose, and loyalty. Every thought that came from him was focused on one thing, people. It wasn't based on the US, money, culture, or even popularity; it was based on people and nothing else. Some of the quotes that really struck me when he was talking were:

• Think of people first
• Think about your audience before your presentation, before you even make your first slide
• Think, 'how can I help my team?'
• What is your purpose in life?
• Be ready to throw over your shoulder a great idea because it actual just sucks [for the greater cause]
• Pursue something bigger than you

He allowed me to really think about how important people are and how you go about your actions. "Pursue something bigger than you," he was talking about teamwork at this point and explaining that devotion to your team rather than you personal gains of the team is more important because your impact on the world will be much greater. 

General Colin Powell expressed that he has a favorite word and I couldn't agree more with his choice: Inspire

As always here a few pictures from my recent adventures!
You can find all the pictures Here.

 A great sight from the Golden Gate Bridge!

 Can you say great sunset??

 I went on my first "long" bike ride last weekend. I made it 33 mile and then got a flat tire and had to take public transportation back. But on my adventure I came across the San Francisco National Cemetery. It was an unbelievable sight to say the least.

 At the center, there was a huge flag that was just an amazing sight at the top of the hill.

 While riding back on my adventure I found a crazy awesome location where couples have weddings. Personally I would have mine in a church, but this sight was absolutely amazing!

 Wednesday I went to a Giants game for free. Pretty cool!

 Dreamforce. A conference focused on Salesforce. This was just cool advertising on these stairs if you ask me.

 There was a whole outside concert the whole day on a beautiful sunny day!

 Look its me! The board I am next to was a digital spray paint board.

 Did I mention I got into the conference for free? And then I found a beer garden.... for free.

 This was the major keynote that I went to. The room was packed, it was soo huge!!

 General Colin Powell speaking

So after the conference I asked a conference staff person if there was anything going on after the last keynote and he looked into his little guide and told me that there was a whole bunch of after parties around the area. So I went to a club close by the conference center and while waiting I realized this was a gathering for partners of Salesforce and VIPs only. I was tired and decided if they didn't let me in (I just had a generic free pass) I would just go home...... well friends they let me in! My guess is because I was one of the first people the the bounces weren't sure who to let in.  Nonetheless, they had free drinks, food, appetizers, and lots of networking. It was a enjoyable time to say the least. Below you will find some of the pictures of the food that was there. MMMMMMMMMMM