Insult + Injury = Eggs

'Tisn't a mystery that the waves in Los Angeles are sub-par on the best of days and that I love to get to SB or SD whenever I for some good surf. Well, when that plan fails I enter a state of eggyness. Indulge:

I woke up with the slightest of hangovers yesterday ready to give thanks to Huey for some excellent surf courtesy of a new WNW swell to be hitting the coast of CA. I called my friend Scott, who insisted I bring a fish of mine for him to use. I did, along with my Pod and my shorty - because the waves were going to be good today. I sat in traffic for a couple hours and finally arrived at the reliable Grandview in Leucadia, CA. The waves were slow, crowded and closing out. Ok, thought I, on to the aunt and uncle's for a feast, and I will surf again tomorrow.

Today comes, everyone has the day off, Surfline said a swell was coming, I went surfing with the rest of North County. The wind was light and offshore, the tide was perfect for the region, I was ready to shreddy. 'Twasn't to be. I checked all the usual spots along with some unusual ones and ended up at a campground in Carlsbad. The waves looked ok and an old man told me it was getting better. Dumb dumb dumb old man. I was like the day before only bigger and maybe more closed out. It was crowded, I wasn't really getting waves and the eggyness was starting to solidify.


Sooo I made my way back to my coche, ready to get back to LA to finish some work before the weekend (and I usually work on weekends, so...). A kind and young-faced Mexican man standing next to his gardening truck, parked behind my car, looked at me and said "You 'ave a teeeeckit." "Fuck" was my first response, followed by "the city of Carlsbad." "cunt" and "balls." My paisa friend had one too, as did a kid a few cars away. Gotta pay the price for parking in a "No Parking Any Time" zone I suppose. Maybe I should have learned that a couple months ago at Trestles when I did THE EXACT SAME THING. Ahhhhh. Better now.

Rejection is Opportunity

In light of several recent events I have decided to re-enter the blogosphere, this time under a new name to protect the innocent and the guilty. The sermon today is on the lessons one can learn from rejection. Here I speak of rejection in the broadest sense. This can mean being fired from a job, having a male/female bar you, not getting into a school you wanted to go to or a variety of other seemingly negative outcomes. We have seen Americans across the country and Worldians across the world reacting to rejection by creating opportunity since the beginning of each, but especially in recent rough economic waters through the invention of new things - some progressive, some nefarious. Nobody likes to be rejected. We become accustomed to a certain position vis-a-vis others and do not want that to change. Dynamics of power are involved and rejection means losing.

The opportunity comes because rejection presents an opportunity to re-assess oneself to assert an even better position. The power dynamics allow us to become comfortable, but stagnant and inefficient. The proof of this is in the pudding -or lack thereof: when women are in relationships they tend to gain weight. I did not do research on this, but it is obvious, well-accounted for and has surely been studied vastly. When women are no longer in relationships they dust off their gym memberships, start jogging, pick up a new sport, eat less and start boning down with tons of men as exercise.

If we're talking about work, getting fired or laid off can be one of the greatest things that can happen to somebody. I was fired from a job a little less than two years ago. It was a job I hated, but was too lazy to quit for myself. Getting fired lit a fire under me to make something new happen. As of now things have never been better.

Rejection allows us to look at life's situations with fresh eyes, which makes me ask: what if we could do this all the time? What if instead of "thinking outside the box," people took the perspective that "there is no box?" It may cause some destruction, but it may cause some progress - I don't know. But I do think that the lessons learned from rejection can be a valuable model for how to operate regardless of circumstances.