It's Goin' down in China Town!

There comes a time in one's life....

  When they have to make changes based on how they live their lives. This week has seen me in quite a state with stressful situations, important meetings and even hospital visits (don't worry, I'm fine). But, the important thing to remember is that life is beautiful and it's such a sneaky, sneaky devil but in life, the one who makes mistakes, is the wisest of all.

  I haven't written in awhile and I wanted to fill some of you in on what's been going on these past weeks and to give you a funny story to start this off right. I hopped into a cab today and the driver is smoking. The first thing he says to me is “you want a smoke?” I tell him “no thank you” and he looks at me very gravely and says, “you really don't smoke?” to which I replied “no. Many Americans smoke, but I'm not one of them.” This prompted a question from him about American women and I couldn't understand him because he was smiling and laughing and all the while dragging on his cigarette and driving like a complete maniac! Every time we got cut off by someone, I could hear him yelling things in a dialect I couldn't understand but he would tell me about the old days 20 years ago when he first started driving a cab. He was looking at me and not the road but this guy was absolutely phenomenal. We slammed to a halt in front of my complex, he told me about his cab and why he's more legitimate than any of the other companies since he started 20 years ago and he offered me a cigarette one more time. I had to politely refuse but I left him a nice little tip telling him all the while he was the best cab driver I've ever had. He smiled and roared off like a black Spanish horse and it was then that I felt the happiest I have in the last couple days.

  Sorry in advance as there will be no pictures in this post because frankly, all of the pictures I have are quite bad. Some of you know and some of you don't that this week I got myself into a little bit of a jam. Well, 2 jams I should say. One regarding my visa and the other regarding my face.

  I got “checked up” on by the Chinese government because of the previous overstay that had me sent to Hong Kong for 11 days. They wanted to see what I was doing now and making sure that I'm doing what I'm supposed to be, yada yada. Well, needless to say with the wonderful help of my company, everything is going to be fine but I need to find a new job that will sponsor me for a year long work visa to make my problems disappear. So since then, I have been applying for lots of jobs and I'm very hopeful to see what opportunities I can come up with. However, this comes at a price. I've realized that I love living in China more than I really thought I did and I'm telling you all now that I may not be coming home in May as planned before. I will still try my best to come out because of a VERY important wedding that I plan to attend, but it won't be the end of my China journeys. I have become very accustomed to the place that I am now living and the people, the culture and the language have washed over me like a sea for thousands of years and have made my international views rounder than an ocean pebble. I made a promise to come back to many people very important in my life and that promise will be fulfilled! But not just yet.

  The other jam I got myself into was that of a bar brawl I guess one would say. Frankly I don't remember the events but I was told by a friend what happened and I definitely have the face to reflect it. I'll spare you all the details but it basically happened between me and 4 Chinese bouncers and once they couldn't get a handle on me they realized they needed backup. Enter 10 more (this is what my friend says so it's the only truth I know) and they finally got me down and then proceeded to keep going at it until my friends finally jumped on top of me and finally managed to drag me out and get me in a taxi and then home. Well needless to say, for 10-15 of them, they did a pretty poor job as I am actually in good shape and nothing was broken or seriously injured. I do have a nice black eye to show for it but that will heal quickly. The important thing here though is that I was very lucky and very fortunate to not have suffered worse.

  This brings me to my next point because I know many of you are worried about me, disgusted with me or maybe flabbergasted upon hearing this for the first time. Well I have come before all of you today to tell the truth as I always do. I'm not going to sugarcoat it and say it was a nice tea party where someone bumped my eye with a crumpet because we all know that's unfeasible. I am here before you guys to tell you that this was a big turning point in my life and I realize I am very fortunate to be in the state I am. I am very lucky to have gone through what I did. I am very happy that my life has turned out like this and I want to say a couple things about why.

  I am changing. Slowly. Deliberately. With direction. I am changing into a better person all the time by putting one foot in front of the other. Now, drinking has always been quite prominent in my social life ever since the tender age of 18 when I first stayed in the college dorms. I can recall some great nights, I can recall some horrendous nights. I can recall amazing conversations with friends and some friends, I can't recall. Alcohol has not always been a problem as I have had many a good time with it, but it seems that the worst of problems have always been caused by it. No one hasn't heard my collarbone story (you should have seen the mailbox!), many of you have heard about the story of me waking up in the dorm hallway in just my boxers without my keys (haha, that's a classic) and many of you have had those nights with me where we regretted it the next day and several days after. It's time for me to tell all of you that alcohol has had it's time and place in my life but I can't control it any longer. It's a beast that has turned on it's master. It's time for me to grow another step and have alcohol remain as a memory not only reminding me of the good times but of the pain and sorrow it can cause as my family has seen first hand. I think about my uncle all the time :'( and I know many of you do as well.

  I'm not saying that I'm going to remain sober for the rest of my life as we all know is a hard thing to actually put into practice. However, from now until the day I die, I will make it my creed to never get out of control again. My juvenile times are behind me. I live in a beautiful world so full of wondrous gifts that I can't even fathom, and I choose a generic alternative to life when I'm bored. To be honest, I'm a little upset with myself. It's time to take life by the cajones and really live it like it's meant to be lived. I don't want anyone to think that I look down on drinking as we all know it can be a lovely or hateful experience. I'm just saying I want to personally move past it and see what the next thing is that life has to offer.

  Well this is all quite dreary wouldn't ya say?! Don't worry, I'll use the sandwich method which takes my first story which was hopefully a bit entertaining and I'll throw another happy topic on the end here so that the dreary stuff is just to get your emotions flowing and then I end it with a happy ending! (I know I live in China but it's not THAT type of happy ending haha).

  The point is, I'm a better person. I can't make life choices for anyone but me and I'm making them. I want to live my life in the now and I'm not ready to die tomorrow. I have so much I still yearn for but if I do die tomorrow, I'll still have lived a hell of a life and known a hell of a lot of great times and people. I just want it to keep going.

  Many of you may be interested in this girl that I met at the wedding a few weeks ago and so am I! If you're not, skip down to the bottom 'cuz I'm going to talk about her!

  Well, we've been talking quite a lot and she is such a great person. She's funny, friendly, witty and is very honest and mature. Sounds like me right? Except the funny part... and the friendly part too. Ok, I'm not the MOST honest person I know and I act like a 5 year old.... Hmmmm, well damn, I thought we had something in common ;)

  She has been so sweet during my week of strife and she even called me long distance the other day just to ask “how are you doing?” How great is that?! I liked it. Anyway, we share silly stories and pictures with each other that really show our true nature and it's really fun to be talking with someone who just likes to be themselves all of the time. I think it's something everyone needs to strive to do. Her English is great and most of our conversations are in English but lots of times I like to speak Chinese with her because it's great practice and she teaches me lots of new words/phrases which is always great. Hopefully things will work out between us and regardless of the distance between us, I think that something good could come of this. I have to at least try otherwise I will always consider her as that “one that got away” which of course is just because I don't know whether or not it would've worked out so psychologically I tell myself it would have and she would have been the best woman I could have ever hoped for and all of this other psychological stress that I don't need now or in the future! So I'll do my darndest to at least give it a shot.

  Whew! Three pages of pure Tony G. right there. I don't know if that's a good thing or not but this is all a stream of conscience and will be printed as such. The holiday season is coming up and I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to be doing but I know that family and friends will be close by whether in person or in spirit. I sure am going to miss a lot of people though, that's for sure. To get the spirits high and the mood set, I would absolutely LOVE it if you would post a favorite holiday story in the comments below or maybe even send it to me in an email and then I will have a video blog in the next couple of weeks telling these favorite stories of friends and loved ones to get us all on the right track and in the right mindset for a loving holiday season. In my my eyes it's not about what you get, it's who you get to spend it with.

  There comes a time in everyone's life when they need to make decisions and when they need to make changes. I sure am glad that I have found my time (at least one of them) and I can't wait to live another day. I promise it will be a good one.

  On a side note, I've decided that it's about time to start collecting some revenue for these blogs I've been posting so since you've read this far, it's time for payment. Oh ya one more thing, the only currency I accept is a smile. Thank you for making me one of the wealthiest people I know =)

Tony G.