Sleepless In Seattle

The last week at home was relaxing and well deserved.  Caught up on The Walking Dead from episode 1,  I got to see another side of TAbel,  Kotecki is single again,  Shane is still bald,  Serena still looks weird  with facial hair to me, I saw Katie drunk, Kerry still gives me a hard time for good reason,  Teleport is a grown-up, Steeeve is researching houses, Reynolds has lent me an "inspiring" book about living on a whale ship, and my family is still fun-sized.

Yesterday I flew into Seattle, WA and was shown the best hospitality I've ever experienced.  Levi skipped out early from work to pick me up from the airport, brought me to the famous Pike Place (including the gum wall, the salmon toss, and the first Starbucks EVER), the Fremont Troll, and the boat house from Sleepless In Seattle.  He did all of this without hesitation.  I had no idea what I was doing and Levi seemingly had all of this planned out,  I couldn't have asked for a better host.  Now I sit at a library writing this blog.

 Tomorrow I have to go see my employer and then I'll probably end up camping at the airport until my flight Saturday morning to Alaska.  While I'm on the boat I hope to post every week but who know's how the internet is set up on the boat.  They told me I'll at least have gmail and I might get internet reception whenever we dock at Dutch Harbor.  I doubt I'll be able to post anymore of my blogs on my facebook and possibly I won't be able to post anymore blogs but I hope I'm wrong.  I've packed a few books to keep me occupied during down time and I hope to be writing in my notebook whenever an idea pops into my head.  PLEASE feel free to comment on this post and future posts, it's always nice knowing that people read what I write.

AWESOME HOSTS CONTINUED...(3/29/14)
I now sit at the airport in Seattle because I find out at the meeting, I had Friday that we would be leaving Sunday morning instead of Saturday. After the meeting I put out some other messages to Fridays on Facebook to have me find a place to stay at last night. Fortunately to some great friends they found me a place to stay at Scott and Julie's (thanks Licious! And to Kwok, Alex, Chuck and anyone else that looked for a place for me to stay!) . Once again terrific hosts! They gave me a bed to sleep in, offered to pick me up wherever I was, gave me beer/food, cooked for me, drive me to te airport(just now) and let me play the xbox 1. Yea, I'm flippin' spoiled.  My flight leaves at 6am and I had to be at the airport at 4am so I figured it would be best to sleep over.

Don Macatangay

F/T REBECCA IRENE

c/o North Pacific Fuel

P.O. Box 920088

Dutch Harbor, AK  99692

(LETTERS AND POSTCARDS WOULD DEFINITELY BRING A SMILE TO MY FACE!... OR EVEN A FLASH DRIVE CONTAINING THE SERIES FINALE OF HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER!!!!!) 

Week in Palatine Then Seattle Bound

So driving through the Great Plains was fun... But seriously, it really wasn't that bad.  I just took two gas breaks and two other mini stops to take pictures with state signs in the 15 hour drive to get back to Illinios. If you look below i'm straddling the boundaries of Colorado and Nebraska... so I'm in two places at once.  I got back into Palatine, Illinois by 11pm Wednesday night.  I have learned 2 things:

-Truck drivers do not honk their horns when you signal them or I was giving them the wrong hand-signal 

-Don't trust Pandora on a cross-country road trip.

     During one of my breaks I got a call from Seattle to start tomorrow, Saturday, but I chose to take the extra week at home to spend time with the family and reset my batteries before I head to the boat.  Yesterday, I bought my ticket to Seattle for Wednesday morning and then I'll fly from Seattle to Dutch Harbor Alaska Friday morning.

       

Don Macatangay

F/T REBECCA IRENE

c/o North Pacific Fuel

P.O. Box 920088

Dutch Harbor, AK  99692

I will be aboard the F/T REBECCA IRENE (pictured above) and it operates largely in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands area.  If you send me anything expect it to be delayed but it'll get to me as long as you provide the address above.  Feel free to send me postcards and/or letter's at most!

On the boat my blog writing might come to a halt it sounds but hopefully I can work something out where I can try to post once a week still.  I definitely will be able to e-mail people though!

In case of emergencies, call the office for assistance in contacting me. The telephone number of Iquique U.S., LLC office is 206-286-1661.

 Next time on Don Macatangay and the Road to Sinehan:

Today I stop shaving for 3 months... notice the fading goggle tan...

When I make my Triumphant return from Seattle I have my highly anticipated tie/bow tie blog!  WHAT ARE THE STORIES TO THESE BOW TIES?!

The Eve of My New Adventure! PART 2

     The past week at Copper Mountain was great,  finally had a night of dancing and karaoke in the same weekend.  Yea, I rocked it.  If you watch The Voice, Beau Thomas performed during the blind auditions but unfortunately did not make it.  He performs every week at Stormking Lounge at Copper Mountain and I've seen him a few times and I think he's great and I'm positive things will work out for him.  Click here if you would like to see the performance. 

Anything is possible!

Beau Thomas

     I decided that I would start my travels back to Illinois yesterday after work. When 5:30pm hit I did some final shopping for the family and then picked up my car from the parking lot to start loading my car. 

     When I got to the lot my car was no where near where I parked it.  That's when I started freaking out because I was towed away.  I ran into a friend and I told her about my situation and she said that another one of her friends was towed but was towed to the other end of the parking lot.  At that moment I just started sprinting, and there she was.  I was so relieved that I laid on top of my car and gave her a big hug.

I drove back to the edge to pick up my stuff and I said my final goodbyes to some friends before I left.  Maybe I'll come back next season, who knows?

     I started driving and it started snowing.  I figured since it's only an hour and a half drive I would be fine.  I wanted to leave that night so I could avoid driving in the mountains during the morning where there would most likely be more traffic and the roads would have iced-over over night.  I soon realized that I made the wrong decision.  It started snowing harder and by the time I passed Frisco I was getting dumped on.  The wind was so strong that the snow was coming from the side and I could barely see the road lines.  I then started to slip to the side of the road.  I had to resort to following a trucks tracks in order to get traction.  Many cars and trucks I passed were having the same problem but worse.  Cars got stuck all over the road due to no traction leading to numerous close accidents.  Once I got out of the mountains the temperature jumped up another 10 degrees making snow melt when making contact with the ground. My worries subsided and I finally made it to Denver after a 2 hour and 40 minute drive.

     It was as if the universe was trying to keep me at Copper or it tested my resilience.  Interpret it however you'd like but I'll be back in Illinois by Thursday.  

      When I got to Dennis' place in Denver we went out to watch one of his friends play in a cigar bar downtown. I've never smoked a cigarette before I only smoke cigar's during special occasions and since I'm starting a new adventure it was a perfect time to have a celebratory cigar. I haven't had a cigar since my last days of working at Disneyland with Matt Shaff almost 2 years ago.  That night I also took pleasure in trying to wingman for Dennis, unfortunately I was not successful that night,  I shall wingman for you once again.  I also had free drink tickets that night but since we had to leave I had the opportunity to give them to a random person and I'm glad the guy was extremely appreciative.  We ended the night watching Pokemon and eating DP Dough, good times.

      Today I was supposed to start my drive back to Illinois but first I thought it would be best to get an oil change and to have my front passenger side tire checked since I've been refilling it every other week. I arrived at Walmart at 9am and  I find out that my tires have not been rotated since I got them.  Totally my fault,  I thought my tires were being rotated whenever I went in for an oil change.  I thought that's what someone told me at the Walmart Auto Center but apparently I was wrong.  So I had to get my tires realigned and then replace the front two tires because they were totally worn and get my oil changed adding up to around $300.  I'll take it as a blessing in disguise.  I could have been in the middle of Nebraska with a blown out tire or worse.   So here I am now sitting at a Starbucks in Denver writing this blog. I leave tomorrow morning so I get to see Elise Bucher tonight!

Don Out.

MY BIRTHDAY AND BACK TO PLAN A!!!!

      My Birthday started off AWESOME! During my lunch break I watched the Bulls game in the lobby of the building I live in.  My hour lunch was coming to a close barely into the 4th quarter when I decided to call into work and ask if I could extend my break to another hour and they gladly agreed.  So there I was in the lobby watching the bulls come back from a 12 point deficient on my feet cheering for every amazing defensive and offensive possession they had for the entire 4th quarter and OT.  My Birthday couldn't have started any better. Only the Bulls.

     
     That night I wanted to go to karaoke night in Frisco and I thought I got other people to go but we just ended up hanging out in Brooke's room when suddenly Brooke's roommate Georgie saw something ridiculous...  the rest of the story is quite disgusting but at the same time we couldn't stop laughing from the sheer awe we were experiencing. If you would like to hear the story in full detail do not hesitate to ask me personally.  And that pretty much sums up my birthday.

     Yesterday was an eventful day.  At work I received a call from Alaska for a job on a fishing boat. They asked if I could be ready as early as this Saturday but I asked if I could push it back until next week and they said yes and that I will MOST LIKELY have a spot.  I told my current employer weeks ago that I might be getting a job offer in Alaska so I told them about the offer and they asked if I could stay at least until Monday.  So that's when I plan on leaving.  Monday night after work i'll head to Denver and crash at an undecided friends place and then make the long drive starting Tuesday back to Palatine Illinois.  To top off the day our trivia team, "Butter's Bottom Bitches", got 4th at trivia!  You can look at the score board to the right.  The Final Jeopardy question was, "How much power did it take the Delorean in Back to the Future to go back in time?" I was extremely proud since I was the one who knew the answer on our team, "1.21 gigawatts!".

     Today I went snowboarding all day with friends and I finally went on my first black run which wasn't too bad.  Sure it wasn't the hardest black run since there were no mogul's on the run and it really wasn't that choppy.  But it was a great day of riding and I definitely feel pretty confident on my dominant foot.

    So I'm officially back onto my original plan to work on the fishing boat.  I have a few options.  Try to work into July or August on the boat but that would mean that I would miss two weddings.  I already know I am going to miss Trevor and Michelle's weddings on May 8th and  on June 29th is Kyle and Mallory's wedding.  The fishing boat job pays extremely well with ridiculous work hours so It is really dependent on how my state of mind is come June.  So I'll let time tell.

Don out.

On long day's I stuff my face.

Chair Art: PacMan getting chased!

It's all about the little things.

Maybe to Plan B

  I sit here on my Friday afternoon working on my taxes and looking up healthcare... UGH.  Well anyway that's exciting.

  This past weekend I was visited by a few friends.  Friday, Huber and Dennis came to Copper Mountain and we hit the slopes all day and Saturday, Billy stopped by since he flew into Colorado.  Thanks for visiting guys!

At work it's been slow so I've been looking to find things to keep me occupied before the spring breakers come next week.  I think my next peice will be some 8-bit nintendo characters. but for now let me leave you with this gem.

  I've been pondering about my future plans and things are still in the air.  I've called that fishing boat gig every other week and each phone conversation ends the same, "I might have a job for you in two weeks so call back then".  I might have to fall back onto plan B which is to live at my parents shindig and work for some production company in Chicago to save money up until August or September before I make the move back to LA.

  I've also been talking to friends here at the resort and they are trying to get me to stay in Colorado.  As dandy as that may sound I don't see it advancing my career in film at all.  I won't lie, watching the Oscars this past weekend really pumped me up hearing all the winners speeches and how some are trying to change the world which is what I want to do, "alright, alright, alright".  I want to create and to explore film.  Sure,  all my movies won't be life changing for everyone that watches them but I want to work toward projects that do.  Whether behind or in front of the camera.

Also good luck to the Fresh Pots this weekend at the LAOUT Winter League Tournament!!!

It's Batspork

Friend had trouble with a math problem so I figured I would try it. Fun stuff.