Looking for God

Possibly in all the wrong places. I'll be the first to admit, I tried but failed to read the bible from cover to cover. I think I read all of Mathew, Luke and John in my teenage years but never quite progressed to anything beyond that. I was too afraid to read Revelation- it's more scary than watching The Exorcist in my head. I've read half of Genesis, but always seem to lose interest halfway. This does not bode well for the remaining chapters of the Old Testament. The Psalms are beautiful, but I can only do about 3 at a time.

Why all this God talk? I'm reading this book by Matthew Lickona called "Swimming with Scapulars, True Confessions of a Young Catholic". I think the title should read, "...True Confessions of an Atypical Young Catholic". This is someone whose parents prayed with him almost daily when he was growing up, and attended Thomas Aquinas College and is able to hold a debate about St. Thomas' fourth proof of the existence of God. I, on the other hand, can only claim going to church on Sunday and singing in the choir as my intimate relationship with God.

But we (the author) and I have one thing in common I think. I'm searching for God... and a deeper understanding of a faith/ culture/ religion that has been engraved in me since birth. He too is a cradle Catholic. But I think people look for God in different places... and more than likely find them in different places. I suppose most would start with the bible, but like I said, my eyes are half closed by the time I'm 20 minutes in. I don't suppose God would be offended if I tried another route. Most times, I find myself thinking about the divine when I meet other people who are much better Catholics or people than I am. You know how pregnant women have that glow? Well, I think divine people have it too... Something so ethereal about it, you can't help but want to be a better person at that moment, just because you met that person. And I think that's how I know that there's a God out there.

Cleaning the Office

I've beeb here 4.5 years, and it's amazing how I started out with a clean desk and nothing on it to... well, all this crap. The office is moving in January and I need to purge. Funny how hard it is to let go of something like... a 4 year old article or a 2 year old thank you card.

It's bright brilliant sunshine here in SF. Not quite rainy like the Northeast. I'm grateful for the weather. I suppose the downside of mild SF weather is the lack of a hot humid summer. Having grown up in the tropics, I'm a big fan of hot humid summers. What I don't like, which most other people seem to prefer is that dry desert heat that burns through your skin. Yuck.

This weekend

The housebuying frenzy has died down. I want to buy a place, but the more I think about it, the less affordable it becomes. I don't want to move to San Bruno or Emeryville either. There's something about the city that keeps me here. I mean, who wants to spend all day in the car when you're paying almost 2Gs for mortgage? I don't. Of course if I'm living in SF, I'll have to consider paying 3Gs for mortgage, which really is like buying that uber expensive black Prada purse which no one really needs.- especially since you can buy the knock off for about $45.

Instead of househunting, I went sailing. I can always sail my worries away. I entertained thoughts of buying a boat and living in it. Might not be a bad idea. I mean, you can get a pretty awesome live-aboard for about 100G. The best part about owning a boat, you can always take it on vacation to Hawaii and back!

The winds were howling on Saturday, but it made it all the more spectacular. The bay has these weird microclimates. From Sausalito, you couldn't even make out the city at all because it was shrouded in fog. And yet, the winds were crazy- we had some chop and white caps just around Hurricane Gulch and the entrance of Racoon Straits. I think the San Francisco YC or St Francis YC had to move their races onto the other side of the shipping channel because you couldn't see a thing closer to the SF side. I've always been in awe of some of these racers- I mean, you have to be pretty good at sailing to race right? At least know who has right of way etc. But on Saturday, this one boat nearly ran into us. We had stand on status (right of way) because we were on a starboard tack (always starboard over port). I kept my boat on course and the other boat was supposed to turn away. We missed them by about one boat length, and we yelled to the other boat that we had stand on status and they should know that. The skipper sheepishly said, she had no where else to go. That was totally retarded. They saw us at least 10 boat lengths away and they had time to turn away, but they didn't. I was a little shaken up by the near accident, but at the same time felt a lot better about my sailing understanding. And were I not female myself, I would have said something along the lines of female drivers being stupid.