Here's the situation

*Written on August 5, 2011

I currently am, as I'm writing this, on a greyhound bus service from Los Angeles to Sacramento. The journey that got me to getting on this bus is nothing short of a modern day catastrophe,so I'll spare you the details. The contents of this bus ride will suffice for enough human drama anyhow. I'm 45 minutes from my destination, the destination being FAMILY and the most gorgeous girls I know alive on this planet.

Ellie, maile and chloe. ( I know other one's as well, one is Florida and unfortunately won't see her this trip)

My nieces who I never see have spurred me on through what is unarguably the most horrendous traveling experience I have ever had, which is a big statement considering my life to date. The past 5 days would best be described as a train-wreck similar to the one I recently saw in the delightful move "Super 8".

The past 12 hours have been a bit of a highlight though.

Today's journey began at 11 am in Santa Ana Orange County. I was nervous from the get go because anything that could of gone wrong literally had gone wrong up to that point. The bus that I was supposed to catch the night before at 10 PM decided it didn't want to show up, so I was a little skeptical to say the least that today was going to go swimmingly. The 11 am bus did show up but it was "FULL". They took 2 passengers on and left 30 FUMING angry Orange County passengers behind, I was number 29 I suppose. An hour later a bus arrives and takes us to the LA depot where I'm sure that the bus transfer to Sacramento I was meant to get on would of left, but much to my "surprise" (short lived) that bus was also running late and I didn't miss it.

I get on the bus and find out that there is power for laptops and free wi-fi! Cha ching. First real break all week. I have watched Colbert report on hulu, facebook chatted and skyped with friends on and off all day, pretty stinking cool actually.

About 3 hours into the journey we come to a slow death crawl and for the next 3 hours inch our way through the desert at 5 MPH. People on the bus start getting restless. I find myself sitting next to a latino young man, probably in his early twenties. In between playing dr. dre and t-pain on his phone (no, not through his head phones, straight up out of his speakers) I get to listen to him talk to his girlfriend and family about smoking weed and other unmentionable subject matter. We get to talking here and there and he tells me he lives in Oregon and has a medicinal marijuana card. He laughingly tells me how easy it was for him to get in his home state.

Liberal "freedom" working on all cylinders there.

The guy was a bit much really, but at the same time he was alright.

About 6 hours into this fiasco of a drive people start complaining that the driver is going too slow, not just murmuring though, straight up yelling from the back of the bus to the driver way up front so he could hear them. The driver at one point pulls over and says

"Does anyone want bottled water from under the bus?"

Everyone darts their hands up and says...

"Hell's yeah".

After driving 5 mph through the arid dry desert in the middle of the summer, it was more than understandable. He pops back on the bus a minute later and says...

"Sorry, false alarm. We ran out!"

Profanities in all sorts of accents are heaved his way. Latino, african american, straight up white dudes, even the nice quiet chinese couple sitting behind me chime in a little discontentment under their breaths. People would occasionally throughout the trip walk up to the front of the bus and express their anguish to the back of his head and he eventually got on the loud speaker and said...

"If one more person disturbs me while I'm driving... I'm gonna pull this bus over." Hilarious!

7 hours in and we finally stop for a food break. This particular stop was meant to be 3 hours into the ride, so everyone stampedes off. The town is called Coalinga and the smell of cow manure permeates your nostrils from the moment you step off the bus. I got some taco bell, the other passengers acquire their meals at the variety of other classy establishments you can find at a Coalinga rest area. I'm pretty sure that food wasn't the only goods procured during the pit stop. I'll let your imagination wander on that one.

Everyone hobbles back on for what will be my last leg, but for some just their halfwas as they go on to Portland, Seattle and even Vancouver...

UNIMAGINABLE torture for those ones.

I noticed a delightful older black man earlier in the trip and brushed by him at the food stop. Something stuck out to me about him from the moment I stepped on that bus. In the middle of the insanity he seemed to be able to just sit back and laugh at it all... nothing seemed to affect him too greatly. I was getting close to being able to finally do that and as I got back on the bus I looked at where he was sitting and I saw a little black book sitting on his seat. It was open and I could see where he was reading in this little black book.

One of the epistles written to the early church, probably challenging the reader to recognize what's important in this life, to not sweat the small stuff and to endure much harder circumstances than the ones I had just been through.

Its funny how things pile up and how quickly, when we take a deep breath and look around us, those things that are piled up kinda just topple over and become so... trivial and elementary.

Patience, family, gratitude, stability, joy.

These are all things that God is desperately wanting me to appreciate more and prioritize above other trivial things such as...
money, comfort, food, girlfriend/wife, entertainment, stimulation.

Really my life is like this bus ride in more ways than I'd like to admit to.

Slow, tiring, insane, humorous, exhausting, expensive.

But the thing is that this bus is taking me somewhere I know is good, it's taking me to people that I'd die for in a heartbeat. The destination is so worth the journey. Every inch I get closer to these people I love melts away the moments previous. Despising the journey is just so not worth it.

God have mercy on me.