Ren's Footprints

My decision to spend my 4th of July in Santa Cruz ended up being a very good one as I had a great time, and the weather was spectacular! Before I get into my experience down there, though, I feel I should touch on my interesting drive there from Humboldt County.

Having a very little income, and a million ideas how to spend the little cash I have saved, I am somewhat forced to look for money in creative ways (which usually end up working somehow). I have had some expediences posting in Craigslist's "rideshare" section so I decided up offer a ride to anyone needing to get anywhere between Redway and Santa Cruz. A woman ended up offering me twenty dollars to take her and her young child from Redway to the Oakland Coliseum Bart Station right off of Interstate 880.

I picked up the woman, two years older than me, and her son at 8AM at the Dean Creek Resort. She was very much what one might describe as a "hippie" with her very long dreadlocks and sarong-like attire. She and her son were very clean, which made me happy as I had just vacuumed my car.

At first we started taking about the lack of any public transportation in Humboldt County, including Greyhound. She mentioned that she takes Greyhound a lot, and that once in Oakland she would be taking it to Sacramento This prompted me to say, "Anyone who takes Greyhound a lot must have some wild stories." To which she quickly responded, "Yeah, I once was kicked off of Greyhound for having intercourse." I laughed and said something to prevent an awkward silence. She then continued to describe a story where on a bus from LA to Oakland the driver got lost for multiple hours on a detour as Interstate 5 was closed and everybody was really mad at the driver so he was afraid to stop the bus because they were threatening to kick him off. Passengers "needing" cigarette/marijuana breaks started even started smoking in the bus! (Which got me wondering how kids in high school were able to constantly get away with smoking weed on the school buses.)

This lady also talked a lot about how she is a recovered heroin addict. She also mentioned around five times that "they don't let me on planes." Hmmm.... Another awkward moment came when she mentioned how her son was conceived in the back of a semi truck! However, the one statement of hers that really blew my mind came as we crossed the Richmond Bridge and she said "This really reminds me of one of the times I was kidnapped..." She went on to tell me a story of how when she was a transient in Berkeley she was taken by some men. Anyway, we finally arrived in Oakland and I dropped them off so they could catch BART. I then got back on 880 and exited towards Santa Clara to go to a place to get my car smogged that I found a coupon for online.



The only place here in Southern Humboldt to get your car smogged at, Redwood Towing, wanted to charge seventy dollars to smog my Audi sedan. The place I went to in Santa Clara, a small business called Hiep, cost me only thirty dollars and it wasn't even out of my way at all. I was in and out in 20 minutes without an appointment, and my car passed!

Ｗａｔｃｈｉｎｇ the news yesterday morning in Japan I saw a story that really irritated me. The son of a Japanese actor was caught with 0.3 grams of marijuana (dimes weigh 2.27 grams), and so the actor went on TV to address the public regarding the incident. First of all, I have probably had more marijuana stuck to the bottom of my shoes walking around any Northern California music festival than what that guy was caught with. But the main point I want to address is the actor's outrageous response to the scenario. He is more upset than any person should ever be for their kid essentially lighting a plant on fire, and inhaling the smoke. What this story makes me ponder is what makes human beings so special that we have to apologize for partaking in utilizing what nature has provided us?

In this video the man says stuff like "I thought it was a lie, I wanted it to be a lie ... Even though he's my son I think this is an unforgivable offense for any human being ... I want him to be reborn, and change his life." One thing my friend Ryan and I chatted about was that the man says, "He was just like any kid." My response to that is, "Of course he was!!."
According to the Redwood Times, eighty-three percent of my high school class had been high by eleventh grade, and thirty-six percent of the state's eleventh graders had. This news out of Japan is quite insulting to all of the good people who my life has been surrounded with that have partaken in getting high. I guarantee that at least our last three presidents have used marijuana, and Al Gore's son mas been caught with it multiple times, yet, Japan has this brainwashed opinion, which, as the video I have posted demonstrates, brings out a reaction that you'd only expect to see if one had confessed to massacring children!
I am not going to get into Japan's laws and the points of view in their society because it is too complicated to understand and relate to. A Japanese user of marijuana I know from San Diego said before he tried it he would have called the police immediately if he suspected someone had it, because he was never taught what it was.
Check out the video, those of you who don't speak Japanese can just fast forward to 2'15" (coincidence?) to see the emotional outburst.



Time for some irony:

-The place I live is called "Chiba"

-I just got a friend request on a Japanese social networking sight from a guy who must have saw I was from San Francisco because he said "I like weeds"