Where I have been

Where have I been? You know where. Having another kid. Tying up loose ends as I get ready to hit the road for a few trips. Not answering my phone or my emails much. Its crazy that I've been sitting in San Diego for this long, going a bit stir crazy and not knowing when the new baby was going to come. Then a week ago today Happy was born. I'm sorry I haven't written more sooner, the effects of a second child on the household was an interesting one (in a good way). Otis has had to get used to the fact that he isn't the little guy any more, which trips me right the hell out as he's only 22 months old as it is. With Happy sleeping the most odd hours you could imagine, Holly recovering from being pregnant twice in three years, and Otis going through this transition, its finally settling in and getting normal. And me? Same as before, just getting back to trying to get this new WRSC website up for how long now?.... I thought I was going to have it up by the end of the day yesterday, but its a lot of work. This weekend it will be done, then you'll see it and see why I've been bitching about it for so long. Its awesome though, you'll like the direction we're going in for sure. I was super stoked to go through our photo archives and begin to post the photos to the new photo gallery. There are pics from WRSC over the years, tons of great waves and smiling faces. It brought back a lot of good memories. I'm so stoked. Its been a lot of work though. After Happy was born I was like "ok gotta get myself back in the game". Fortunately going to work includes flying to Costa Rica. Its been in the 40s here in San Diego and literally killing me. The back injury I'm still recovering from has improved a great deal, and the fact that I've spent 2 hours the last 30 out of 45 days at the gym strength training is preparing me for this year's south swells. 2008 is a big surfing year, didn't you hear? I'm planning my trips now, and between work in Tamarindo and the surf team trips we're planning to Panama and Peru (continuing the documentary), its going to be a lot of travel, working on the road, and surfing big waves. I'm hoping to put together some video for a project we started a few years ago called Witch's Rock Television. now what could that mean?.. you'll see soon enough. Holly and I are planning to bring Otis and Happy back down to CR by the end of next month, going to have Otis' 2 year birthday party at the surf camp. He is ready to surf, or at least he says, so we've been taking him to the pool at the YMCA and teaching him to swim. I took him a couple of days ago. Its so cool now that we have Happy because it has created more time for just Otis and I. I mean, don't get me wrong, hanging with the whole family is great. Its just been that in the past, with just Otis, and with Holly being the professional mom that she is, it was different. Now she needs to hang with Happy and feed him all of the time, and when she isn't she's always tired, so I'm trying to get Otis out of the house so that she can get some rest. Its funny because I see myself doing the same things my dad did with me when I was a little guy. I take Otis to this breakfast restaurant in Mission Valley called the Waffle Spot, just him and I. We eat waffles and color and talk. The place is ghetto but if you grew up in San Diego its an example of a place thats been around forever and a place you'll never have to worry about having to wait or seeing someone you know when you want to just chill out and eat a waffle. Then we cruise up the hill to the Presidio park and run around. It is so cool to work for yourself, spending time with your family when everyone else is working is just another reason. Being able to dictate when you need to work and when you can spend time with your family is awesome. I do turn my cell phone off and sometimes I don't listen to my messages for a week, but thats only because I have shit to do and when I'm not doing my shit, I want to chill with the family. Although....if you' go out in OB these days you might find me sipping down a sin panza at Pac Shores or the Sunshine Factory with Muzzy or Mr. Black. I'm super stoked, its like now my future can unravel again. I'm out of that holding pattern that comes along with not knowing what something is going to be like until it happens. Well, I had another kid, and it went great. He is happy and healthy, so mellow. I'm getting to spend tons of time with Otis and now that I'm getting work under wraps I'll get a few days off with the family and then fly back to Costa Rica to get rolling on some things. Larry finally moved down there this week and we're opening the Zephyr Eco Project headquarters at the surf camp. Its going to be a great way to help educate the community on environmental issues and a platform from which to lobby for positive change in Tamarindo. As I promised, here are some pics of baby Happy with my parents, one day old. That little boy has a full mop of hair, its crazy. He also has very blue eyes like his dad.
Besides having babies and working on building websites, I did manage to go to a concert with my uncle Cory on Wednesday. Cory is basically my brother since we grew up together in the same house. He just got out prison and is celebrating his one year sobriety, and I'm super happy for him. He just got a new job working for the same company my mom retired from and is working in a shipyard. We saw Pinback at House of Blues downtown, it was a pretty good show. They are from San Diego and another example of some of the good music this town turns out.
Since I'm just sitting here in San Diego and not surfing much and planning my return to the surf camp, I started thinking about how sweet it would be to have a beach concert towards the end of March. I'm I'm pretty stoked on Pinback and actually hit up the local radio station here 94.9 to talk to them about co-sponsoring it. The promotions assistant had just returned from a trip in Costa Rica, he spoke with the chief and they want me to send them a proper proposal. I think it would be pretty cool to have a Pinback show at the surf camp, but I'd also like Digital Underground to come down and hang out and play so I could smoke weed with Humpty Hump. That would be as cool as having Bob Saget as your uncle. I stayed up late last night and watched his HBO stand-up comedy special as it was the only thing on. That dude is so lame its not funny. I felt bad for the people who paid tickets to see him. The funniest thing happened to Holly and I today. Holly said she was taking Otis to the McDonald's on Midway near the Sports Arena, since they have an inside playground and with how cold it is she didn't want to have Happy chilling outside at the park. I decide to meet up with them for a coffee to hang with the family. Dude, what a dump that place is. I'm climbing inside of that two story plaything trying to show Otis how to climb up to the slides, and its all wet and smells like pee and is just so freaking nasty. It would be like sending your kids to roll around on the ground inside the OB beach public bathrooms. You think I would have noticed when I saw that you needed tokens to use the bathroom. A few hand sanitizer sessions later its funnier than hell.