I Don't Take Orders From Anyone

DAY ONE: DOWN TOWN SAN FRANSISCO

I just ate a leorange. I don't know if this is really the name for it.. but it didn't taste like an orange or a lemon. It was a perfect combination of the two flavors, and it had grown about 3 feet from our front door! Wow. California.

I woke up at 6:47 this morning, and my eyelids weren't the least bit heavy. Jetlag is awesome, when traveling west. Heading home won't be as convenient, but that is a million days in the future. Anyways, my great uncle Frank took Phoebe and I out to get bagels for breakfast. I seldom see Uncle Frank, and when I do it is for tragic events like funerals where no one really has the energy to have a heart to heart bonding sesh. In result, this was my first time really meeting Uncle Frank. He is one of the few people from my mom's family who escaped the entrapment of Jacksonville, Florida. Once again, I was in total awe at how wise old(er) people are! He fired an endless series of questions at us, so I began to tell him about my dance life, since apparently that's what I am passionate about. He told me that it does not matter what the activity is, but if you stop having fun with something you partake in every day, then it becomes work and you need to stop. This seemed logical to me. But does it mean I never have to do anything that is not fun? Now wouldn't that be nice. I think the point was more to make the things you do fun, not just chose them because they are fun. I don't know. I have doubts about my choice to dance every single day.

Well anyways! San Francisco is such a foreign city compared to everything I have seen in my life. I don't know if I got an accurate feel for the city though, due to excess swarms of shoe-bee tourists thanks to stupid July 4th. Personally, I don't think there is any need to glorify our country anymore than we do on the d. (Shout out to the influence back on L.Woods) So yeah, despite the fumbling abundance of tourist, I really enjoyed the city. I somehow scored the prime spot on the cable car, and hung my sun-seeking self out the front of the car. As we hurtled up vertical cliffs of the city, I couldn't help but to have the reoccurring image of Full House flash into my mind. Regardless, it was a very pleasant time spent in the Fran.

There is a very logical reason to why I avoid the Sterling Fair, Six Flags, and Disney- ROLLARCOASTERS SUCK! Unwillingly, I took a little ride on one today in a taxi cab. At the end of the day, my oh so jolly family hops into a cab to relax our way back to the train station. The accented driver rebuffed every attempt my dad made to make small talk. My dad really enjoys talking to strangers, especially taxi drivers. He has heard real interesting stories from them in the past, and is always looking for more. This particular driver however, was in no mood at all to chit-chat. He had one plan only, and that was to get us to the BART station.. as fast as possible. If you don't know what the steep streets in San Francisco look like.. please look them up because that is a key factor to the scene of this story. This man pushed the ACCELERATOR while plummeting down a near-vertical, narrow avenue. As soon as we hit the bottom, the road turned directly back upward into a climb so high that my stomach was in my esophagus. At one point, my panicked mother (who was tightly gripping my thigh the entire time) asked him if he could slow down just a tad. He slyly, yet harshly replied, "I don't take orders from anyone." She kept her mouth shut the rest of the drive. We made it to the train station in 4 minutes, a time that was way way way way too quick for anyone wishing to live a little longer. Even though this man acted like he was living the unsatisfied life of a taxi driver, he was most certainly having fun. And this is why he was doing what he was doing. All about the fun.


The first step to achieving anything at all in life is having self-motivation. If you don't hold this quality then you will easily accept let down, and just wallow endlessly in self pity - Life Lesson of the Day.