the golden road ( i spent a lot of time putting these pictures together, so i hope you appreciate the effort)

Inspired, I suppose, by the accomplishments of the world's bestest and brightest, I took the longest walk of my walking career today, and it took me well over two hours. I traveled deep into the park, sticking to the asphalt path on the south side of the creek early on. I went far past the freeway overpass and the picnic areas until I came up to a small building that housed bathrooms. I wanted to get home before dark, since I was far away from the lighted sections of the park, and since there was a bridge to the north side of the creek, I thought it was a good enough place to turn around. I didn't want to pass out either, and I was just starting to feel all exerted. Before I turned around, though, I noticed a fenced in area behind the bathroom building and a couple of parking lots. I did a little bit of exploring and figured the fenced in area to be a dog park; there was a dispenser for dog waste bags at its entrance. Off to the left, I found a dirt path between two perfectly straight rows of poplars. It was something out of a movie, like that scene in Miller's Crossing when they take John Turturro out to the woods to kill him. I didn't go down the path, though. I thought I'd save it for tomorrow.

Across the foot bridge to the north side of the creek, I noticed a dirt path branching off the main, paved road. I took it, and in so doing blazed a path through about as much wilderness as I'm comfortable with. It was a narrow path; to my left, I saw the creek rushing by, and far to my right was the paved throughway, though that would disappear from time to time as road I was on dipped and winded. It was really nice, and I began to sweat and feel lightheaded, but I figured those were endorphins and my brain, having been without them for a while, was a little confused. Before the dirt path linked back up with the paved road, I found a circle of redwoods and a small picnic area. I love redwoods. These weren't as crazy big as the ones on the coast, but they still seemed to cast a shade different from all other trees. Also in the grove was a picnic table that if I wasn't so weirded out about eating outdoors, I'd like to take a bagged lunch to. I still may though, if I can get over it.

Both my roommates have pretty much moved out, so I've got the house to myself, but other than being able to watch porn with the sound on, being home alone is kinda beat. I get freaked out by every sound, and since I didn't go out drinking tonight, I won't be able to just pass out. The TV has been keeping me company today, and other than watching Murder at 1600 on On Demand, I've spent most of the time watching the Olympics. I was stoked to see four dudes from my motherland take the gold in the cross country relay. The race was pretty dope, and the hometown crowd was going apeshit the entire final leg. Italy had such a big lead that the team's anchor, Cristian "Zorro" Zorzi stopped racing, headed over to the frothing crowd, grabbed the Italian flag and marched to the finish line with the flag waving out of his shirt. It was pretty intense and at some point this week, I will have a plate of pasta in his honor.

After that, I watched ice dancing. I know. I'm loathe to call anything with a "twizzle section" a sport, but its easy to get suckered into watching something you normally wouldn't when your bundled up on your couch in your empty house with the heater off and a woman like Tanith Belbin is dangled before you like a shiny lure.

Tanith used to be a Canadian--like just three weeks ago. That's her there showing off her pearly whites and new citizenship. I'm pretty sure that if it were still in the Bronze Age, her defection to another kingdom would lead to troops being deployed and all kinds of bloody conflicts. Sorry, Canada. She's ours now.

I'd seen ice dancing once or twice in the past, and it put me to sleep. It was like regular figure skating without any element of danger. The ice dancers would smile and twizzle and move to some boring song and then take bows and people in the audience would lose their shit. This time around, however, a new scoring system (that hasn't been explained and I wouldn't understand it anyway) is in place. What it meant was the programs had to be more athletic, therefore more risky. And more risky translated into some of the more vicious collisions since the Super Bowl, and I'm totally cool with that. This one chick from Canada (not Tanith, she belongs to US) was dropped to the ice on her hip so hard, she bounced. Everyone there gasped, the commentators gasped, I was all "OOOOOO!"

I'm staying home from work tomorrow. I think it's Presidents Day or something. I don't care what it is, but it's supposed to be pay day, but since it's a holiday, we get paid on Tuesday. Therefore, I don't have to be there. I will be "working from home," but before I go to bed tonight, I'm going to make a bowl of Oriental flavored Top Ramen and watch Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Fun!