Actually I do stuff

So I don't exactly do nothing, I just don't have a job. And for someone like myself that doesn't seem to pose any sort of problem of being boring. Some people will whine about not having something to keep them occupied, but those people are not as active as I am, nor as nerdy, nor creative. By no means do I need a job to keep me busy or entertained, because even though I am without responsibility I am still busy.

Surfing is probably the single largest consumption of my time. And not only just the act of surfing but everything involved. A typical surf session probably lasts between two and four hours dependent upon the quality of the surf, but there is so much preparation involved. At night I'm always planning where to surf the next day, so I'll be on the internet checking out the swell directions and the tide. I am always looking for the days when some of my favorite fickle surfspots (like Zuma, or Rights off Point) might awaken. I'm very prepared for everyday. I'm not one of those guys that shows up to the same beach every day at 8:30, I like to surf the best spot around. True, I never really become a local of any break, so I might not get the deferential treatment that some locals get. However I'm a good surfer and have a beard so it is very rare for me to get hassled at any spot, regardless of the protectiveness of the local crew.

The surf does go bad though, so that leaves days like today where the surf is really small or it could be stormy, which means that I have to do stuff other than just surf. Although some of it is surf inspired. A few weeks back I met Skip Frye, a famous surfer from North San Diego and on top of being excited to meet him I was taken aback by how rolled over his shoulders looked and I decided that I didn't want to turn out like that.

So, I've started to do yoga, which is a huge time commitment. It's insanely hard because my shoulders are unreasonably tight from surfing so much. I'm in these classes and all these beautiful, svelte girls and they have their arms perfectly over their heads in these acute isosceles triangles and I'm standing there, elbows bent looking like a pentagon. It's pretty routine for me to be the worst one in the room, but I gaurantee that I'm trying as hard as anybody in there. I can tell that it's helping me out a lot and it's turning out that I might actually do this for my life. I already feel the effects of surfing and other sports being corrected in the first month.

So yoga and surfing, but that is not all. I've been playing pick up hockey with my friends and if I get the rest of my equipment, we're going to be playing pick up ice hockey a few nights a week. It will be the first time I've played ice hockey since I was a preteen and I can't help but be incredibly excited about it. And there is the added advantage that this will help me prepare for my stay north of the border. I know I'm going to have to do something besides surf when I'm in Canada so I've already decided to pick hockey up while I'm up there. I'll just have to switch from Pacifico to Molson and start saying "eh" and my transition will be seamless.

But that's just my jock side. I'm also extraordinarily nerdy. I love books, but more than that, I love words. How weird some origins are (like surfing came from sailors saying that the ocean would sough or make a hushing noise and it eventually evolved into surf), semantics (I always tell my mom that I'm coordinated but not athletic, I can surf, play ping pong, shoot a basketball, but running and especially jumping I am not very good at), and just flat out fun words (i.e. shenanigans, curmudgeonly, tomfoolery, shindig, bamboozle, etc.). Combine my love of books and words with the fact that I am very competitive and love games, it is no surprise that one of my favorite things of all time is Scrabble. I have the deluxe edition with the turn table but I find that I play the most on Scrabulous. Scrabulous is an application added to a profile on facebook.com. It's different from normal scrabble because a normal game does not include challenges so an accepted word has to be played. However, with those rules you can place tiles on and check it out until you find a word that works. This is especially helpful for the two letter words to fit into little spaces. There are people, like my friend Dave, who cheat rampantly on scrabulous with using the dictionary and word generators so it is not as straight forward as normal scrabble but I think most people play honestly (I never, NEVER use the dictionary). So if you ever want to play me online just friend request me on Facebook (I'm Breene Murphy, in the UCLA network) and send me a message to play.

And then there is my loyalty to the UCLA Bruins, Lakers, and Dodgers so anytime a game is on I'm somewhere watching the game. So as you can see I hardly even have time for a job because I'm always busy. But once the money runs out (which is rapidly approaching) I'm going to have to squeeze in a job. Fingers crossed that my prospective job in Canada comes through so at least I can have my desire to muck around with words satisfied.