californication.

i've been too busy with beaches pleasantly consistent sunshine, great company, smooth sailing bike rides, and decision making to blog. but now, sitting in a friend's apartment in santa monica i have my chance. i spent a few days in ventura with a buddy from austin who lives four doors from the pacific, and though i was teetering before, took the leap to...veganism. yes, yes. its stereotypical, its make-funable, but its also pretty awesome. so i've been animal product free for a week or so and don't plan on turning back any time soon. i went on a painfully awkward, horrible, embarrassing blind date, but then had the chance to follow up on a second date that went really well. i made a friend at a bar, talked for a half hour or so about woody allen movies, and went to dinner with him and two friends the next night. i got quarantined in a bar in culver city where a friend of a friend was dj-ing because a homeless guy got stabbed out front. (don't worry, i snagged some la county police tape before leaving crossing the flare barricades) i walked the venice boardwalk, hovered around a flailing and massive drum circle, watched a man with only an American flag speedo and black fanny pack roller blade through the crowds, stuck my foot in the pacific, waved to my mother, reentered the throbbing scene of mid-nineties street vendors, listened to the sound of giggling girls and tattoo guns, ate great mexican, and applied for housing in oslo. so its been a whirlwind, and its too sunny to sit inside and update y'all, so i'm headed out to the beach for a bit more fun in the sun. i'm planning on heading to stockholm on thursday, and then training to oslo.