31, for what its worth

31
it was a hell of a ride
but i would also like to say sorry.
for a minute it seemed like i would never sleep on my own bed and i'll admit that it began to wear.
some beds were comfortable but others were slabs of cold porcelain. 
im not complaining.
i chose the life and i've given up alot to be missing the simple vanity of a comfy bed;
although its nice. 

the last breath i remember taking was back in february
when i hopped on a flight to kona, 
then galapagos, 
san blas islands came next and so on. 
i met some amazing people along the way, some that i'll probably catch up with later in life.

thats kind of how it works. i meet amazing people in crazy circumstances, bond over drink and travel and we say our "catch you on the next one"
at that the moment i find myself inside drinking tea in my beautiful los angeles and it feels strange.
i haven't been home for my birthday in years. 
the feeling is strange but feel good knowing that im going to see my family tonight. 
31
for what its worth, you made me into a stronger man. ive grown the courage and ability to say no to the wrong jobs, bad relationships and youve affirmed that i can do whatever i put my mind to. 
im going to miss you, for some reason 32 definitely feels so much serious. 
i guess we will have to see 

31 in bozeman

I can't remember the last time I spent a birthday in LA - I think I was in my mid-twenties - but the older I get the less important they seem to become. The importance of these yearly milestones have shifted to the people I've met in-between, which brings me to the cast & crew of the short film I worked on Willow Creek Road.

Last month I recorded sound in the beautiful state of Montana. The producer and AD, Jon and Josh picked me up from the airport and brought me to Lauri's. Lauri had kindly opened her beautiful house to the whole crew where I was lucky enough to have my own room. Sort of 

I really didn't mind my porcelain roommates partly because I was exhausted by the time I stepped into that room. Looking back now it seems crazy how we all managed fit in that house. Every member of our crew played a vital part in making the production a success. It didn't hurt that a lot of them were big game of thrones fans, which made for a great viewing of the season 6 finale. 

All of the good vibes made for a sad goodbye. 

On the last day everyone had early AM flights so by the time I woke up the house was empty with the exception of our 1st AC, Andy who I had worked with on a previous gig in LA. I can still remember the eerie calm of that morning as we sat in the living room and waited for Lauri to take us to the airport.

I'm 31 now. Nothing really has changed and I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Maybe it's a little bit of both? I don't know. I can't believe I still haven't finished this post. Adios 

brasov departures: bryson you're 30!

a few years ago back when bryson was still in his 20's, we took a trip and backpacked across two continents. we wanted to explore south america and western/eastern europe and so we hustled all summer of 2009 and saved enough cash and made our trip a reality. the plan was simple at the time: one month in south america and one month in europe.

things didn't pan out to be as easy as i thought. this 2-month odyssey had us in some interesting situations. we were stranded overnight inside a bus in the bitter-cold of the peruvian andes, abandoned by our tour guide in machu pichu, distressed and living in panama tocumen airport, detained at the argentinian/chilean border, lost in some sketchy malls in bogota, supported each other through painful dry heaving in barcelona, missed busses, trains and flights throughout spain and italy, navigated through shady bucharest trying to find housing in someone's makeshift hostel/living room, and avoided black bears on our hike through brasov's forrest. we flew to 8 different countries and our journey took us as east as romania and would've taken us south through bulgaria and finally to istanbul. sadly though one of us wouldn't make it that far.

i ended up taking a train north to budapest and continued to prague ending in dublin. being the coward that i was i didn't even say goodbye to bryson and i can still remember that morning as i nervously paced back & forth through the bathroom corridor. in the end i opted last minute to tell a new friend i'd met in our hostel to relay the message that i was leaving.

i used to look back at our trip and all i would see were the things that went wrong, the things that didn't go according to plan. the truth is that i was to blame for a lot that happened; the choice was mine and i chose wrongly. my childish anger and selfishness blinded me from seeing all of the beauty and kept me from remembering the amazing experiences we had during our trip.

the educational videos we made in machu pichu, the old man we saved on our bus ride to santiago, chilean independence day in valparaiso, being personally escorted to the correct bus stop by a concerned stranger in bogota, enjoying the gentle fall breeze in barcelona, wandering aimlessly through roman ruins, hanging from the side of a moving train and smelling the transylvanian countryside and countless other moments heavily outweighed what i deemed as "bad"

it took some time but we were finally able to hash things out. since then we've been solid and even though we don't work together anymore and happen to live thousands of miles away from each other, i know that he'll always be there; he's just that type of guy. friends like bryson are a rare breed and i can only thank God that i still have the privilege to call him a friend.

bryson, today you enter a new and strange chapter in your life. a time when you'll probably start wearing wrangler jeans, start hanging out with random cats, and pick up bird watching as a hobby. i just want to say that i had a blast getting to know you these past few years and i look forward to what our thirties have in store for us.

love you man,
feliz cumpleaños güey!