The wedding

(Written May 25)

Weddings are not usually my thing, but this one was incredible! For starters, Melli and Matthias prepared so well for the day that the whole complicated affair went so smoothly as to seem nearly effortless. The wedding ceremony, reception, and arrangements for all of the family and guests must have required a HUGE amount of work to put together so beautifully, but Melli did so flawlessly (and let's be honest here, we all know that the wedding is the bride's affair, while everyone else simply serves to facilitate her dream day).
Aaron and I (the only non-German guests) enjoyed the ceremony despite having absolutely no idea of what anyone was saying. We simply smiled, stood up and sat down when everyone else did, and marvelled at the obvious effusion of love between the bride and groom, as well as all the guests for the newlyweds. The ceremony took place in the incredible Liebfrauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) in the main square in Nurnberg. Matthias and Melli lovingly involved their close friends and family in the event, and I was honored by them when asked (in advance) if I would participate in the wedding ceremony as well. I was amused to notice more than a few raised eyebrows while reading aloud in english in front of the entire church. Despite their surprise, and although most of the guests had no idea who Aaron or I were, we have been treated with nothing less than affection from everyone that we have had the pleasure to meet.
As for the reception afterwards, most who have known me for more than a minute will be surprised to hear that I, along with eveyone else, danced until the wee hours of the morning. It might not have been pretty, but it was too much fun to miss out on. And of course there was plenty of food and drink to facilitate the merrimaking. Altogether, it was a right perfect wedding and I will treasure it forever as one of the most enjoyable days of my life.

The long road to Germany

(Written May 21)

24 hours, 22 minutes after saying goodbye to John-Paul in Oakland, California, I was greeted cheerfully by Aaron, Melli, and Matthias in Nurnberg, Germany. It's rather exciting to think that I can walk out my front door in Monterey and travel all the way to their place in Nurnberg, and actually know exactly where I'm going and how to get there. It really is a small world.
It's hard to imagine that it's been nearly a year since I've seen M & M, and more than two years since parting ways with Aaron. After all that time though, not a thing has changed. It is absolutely fantastic spending time with these wonderful people again, especially in preparation for the upcoming wedding a few days hence. In between now and then, I imagine there will be some preparations for the wedding but also a fair bit of simply enjoying each others' company. Whoo hoo!

A Tip Earned

I've recently begun to have...difficulties with a woman who serves as the naturalist on the whale watching boat I work on during the week. For some reason, she is allowed to put out her own tip jar when she is on the boat, while we (ie, the two deckhands and the captain) must remove ours from sight. At the end of each trip, when customers choose to put money into the tip jar, they are in fact tipping her alone, rather than the entire crew. Furthermore, it is entirely up to her whether or not she shares the contents of the jar with the rest of us. Most of the time, based on criteria I have yet to understand, she chooses not to share it with the deckhands or the captain. This might not be a problem, except that I know for a fact that most customers assume that they are tipping the entire crew, and not just the naturalist, because that is the way it is on most boats. Traditionally, anything that is put into the tip jar is shared among the entire crew. To that end, whenever I'm handed cash directly (which occurs daily) and complimented/thanked for my efforts, I put it in the tip jar so that it can be shared with my crew mates.
Anyways, to make a long story short, I'm getting quite bloody fed up with this woman keeping the tips that I've earned. And today, I had an epiphany about why exactly this frustrates me so: if it was "just about the money", then I'd probably just keep the cash that was handed to me and be satisfied that I "got mine". But it's not about that. Of course, the money is important to me (after all, I'm working 7 days a week for a reason), but ultimately the tips are a reflection of the quality of service I'm offering. I'm no happier accepting tips that I didn't earn than I am working hard for none. There's pride at stake. If I didn't care about the quality of experience that the customers have, then why would I be working 6 days a week in the hospitality industry?
So anyways, I've pretty much decided that, if things don't improve soon with respect to equal distribution of tips (and by equal, I mean with the rest of the crew as well), then I'll have to leave the company. Without tips, I'm earning just $11 per hour, which is ridiculous when you figure that I'm making at least twice that with all my other jobs, plus the experience and education that I bring to the job.
Rant complete.

Firsts

Since moving to the Monterey Peninsula, I've had several interesting "first" experiences. These include:

-learning to identify a whale by it's smell
-commuting to work on a bike
-getting two pay raises in one day
-attending a wedding shower
-seeing a humpback breach
-scuba diving under an historical wharf
-sharing a house with not one, but two prostitutes
-capsizing a sea kayak
-collecting golf balls in the pitch-black bottom of a lake
-seeing transient Orcas attack a Gray Whale

I'm sure there are others but, regardless, I feel satisfied with the progress I've made towards being able to say, upon my deathbed, that I've led "An Interesting Life".