Month: December 1999

Earlier tonight, I saw the movie, Man on the Moon, about Andy Kaufman. It’s hard to form an opinion about this guy. He was obviously on to something. He knew his audience so well — to a point. He was able to make them hate him. He was able to make them love. Andy knew exactly how to manipulate people. Everything was unexpected.

But he was on to something beyond that. The way he viewed life and existence really captured me. Everything Andy did was incredibly clever. He enjoyed what he did, and towards the end of the life, he enjoyed making everyone around him incredibly happy. There’s something very honorable in that.

On another note, the full moon tonight was incredibly bright, in fact it’s the brightest it has been ion a hundred years, due to the close positioning of the moon and the Earth. After I drove home from the movie, I was able to just look at it lighting up the sky for a minute or so. It made me think about the purpose of people on this planet. I had been convinced that there really is no purpose to life, and that it was okay to not have a purpose. Now I’m thinking that there’s more to it than that.

I grew up Jewish. It wasn’t necessarily in my household, except for Hanukkah (though we still received Christmas gifts as well as Hanukkah gifts). I did go to Hebrew School all the way up to the high school level, and I enjoyed it. I had a wonderful Bar-Mitzvah where I led the entire service. But if you were to ask me about my beliefs at this point, I would say that I don’t believe in a God the way it is presented in the Judeo-Christian tradition. I don’t think I believe in the concept of “body and soul.” I do believe in well-being and the need to be at peace with one’s self. However, I also don’t believe in Zen as it has been presented to me.

I do believe in meditation and other methods to attempt to achieve a different (not necessarily higher) level of “consciousness” (whatever consciousness is). I think that sometimes the world needs to slow down to really gain an understanding of the processes of life. I do believe that each person needs to enjoy what they do, otherwise do something else that’s more enjoyable.

Now, I’m not out on a mission to try to convince people to share my beliefs. Quite the contrary, actually, I’d like to hear other people’s thoughts, where they are similar or different. If you’ve got any thoughts on life, don’t hesitate to email them to me.

Wednesday, Dec. 1. Philadelphia Airport. Well, there was a little bit of smoke coming out of the engine. They called the airplane back after taxiing up to the runway so they could check it out. It wouldn’t start. So they threw all of us off the plane. After about a minute back inside the gate, they told us to get back on — the airplane was fine. I was a bit skeptical. We got back on, and sure enough, the engine started. It also started to give off a huge amount of smoke. No announcement from the pilot this time, we were clear to take off. Everyone was a bit nervous at this point. The captain eventually announced that there was a little excess fuel in the engine. The rest of the flight continued and we didn’t crash.

Alissa and I arrived in Los Angeles and Mom and Bill were there to greet us. We drove back to their house in Simi Valley. During the drive, Alissa and I were taught everything you need to know about California, including the phenomenon of slow car chases, and lots of information about O.J. When we got back to the house, we went out to eat at El Patio, a nice Mexican restaurant with Diego, a friendly waiter. We watched the sunset, went back to the house, and hung out together watching movies for the rest of the evening.

Thursday, Dec. 2. Simi Valley. We woke up, and got an early start for the day by getting out of the house at 1:00 pm. We went to Los Angeles to see some sights, including the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Mann’s Chinese Theater, and the Guitar Center. The next stop was the La Brea tar pits, which ended up being a pond with some methane bubbles and a bad stench. We looked for the mountain with “HOLLYWOOD” written on its side, but there were some buildings in the way. We did pass O.J.’s house, my mom thinks. We drove to Malibu, to catch the sunset on the beach, but missed it by five minutes. However, we were just in time to qualify for the fifteen minute early-bird special at a really good restaurant, the name of which escapes me. And after dinner, back home to Simi Valley. The area around there is quite beautiful, you’re in mountains and valleys… and nothing on the East Coast looks anything like it. Plus the weather there is great. After getting back, Alissa and I took off for San Diego to visit Heather. We arrived at Heather’s house about 10:45 or so, and spent the rest of the evening meeting her roommates and talking. Heather is on a one-year mission for the Mercy Corps, and shares living space with nuns.

Friday, Dec. 3. San Diego. Alissa, Heather and I started off the day going to Balboa Park. Some things were closed due to some Christmas Festival they were planning to have within the park, but we did see the Japanese Garden, an area full of exotic plants and flowers, and pretty much every other area of the park except for the zoo, which we were saving for Saturday. After walking around the park for quite a bit, we dropped Heather off at her rehearsal, and Alissa and I continued off to La Jolla. (For some reason, those wacky Californians call it La Hoya.) We found a vista point to have a good look at the seals on the rock and the sunset over the water. (Hopefully, the pictures will come out, and I’ll have some up here soon.) We then walked around the town, which was a very nice little place with lots of cute restaurants. After a few hours, we decided to head back to San Diego. When we arrived, we decided we were hungry, so we stopped off at the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown San Diego. This was the first time I had eaten at a Hard Rock Cafe. It was pretty good. After dinner, we headed back to Heather’s house for a bit of socialization and sleep.

Saturday, Dec. 4. San Diego. The three of us got a real early start and got over to the World-Famous San Diego Zoo at about 11:00 am. We saw hundreds of birds, a bunch of kangaroos, a lot of deer-like animals, some meerkats, some koalas, and a panda. No, we didn’t get to see the new baby panda, or her mother… since they won’t be let out into the public until January or February. However, you can take a live peek at Hua Mei my visiting the San Diego Zoo’s PandaCam. We also saw some elephants, more birds, a couple of zebras, and many, many other animals. By the time the zoo was closing, we still hadn’t seen everything we wanted to see. We headed back to Heather’s, then walked downtown to get some dinner. We stopped at the “Toungue Thai Foon” restaurant… and it was delicious. After dinner, we said our goodbyes, and by 8:00 pm., Alissa and I were back on the road to Simi Valley. We arrived at my mom’s house with just enough time for dessert, and for Alissa and I to start getting colds. We were informed by my mother that someone was murdered, and she thought it might have been O.J. But then someone on the news said that O.J. walked over to take a look at the crime scene, so it wasn’t him. Alissa and I then went to sleep in Bill’s son’s waterbed, which didn’t seem to want to heat up.

Sunday, Dec. 5. Simi Valley. Alissa and I woke up, both not feeling very well, but managed to eat breakfast with Bill and my mother. Then in the afternoon, they drove us to the Los Angeles airport where we caught our flight home. Same plane, no smoke.