I haven't shaven since last Friday, my last day at work. I don't think I'm intentionally growing a beard, mostly because I'm just not a beard kind of guy. It's partly out of laziness and also partly out of curiosity that I'm not shaving...just sort of wondering what it will look like. Perhaps it's part of my vision quest. I've come close to growing one twice before. The first was when I went camping at Lake Mead for a week in September 1998 with my friend Ryan Yingst, his dad, and some other people I didn't know. The other time was last summer when I went to Kosovo. I guess I'm going to keep this beard going until I return from Oktoberfest on October 8.

So, tomorrow I'll be leaving San Luis Obispo and driving northward. Honestly, I don't think I'll make it to Eureka, mostly just because I'm leaving for Germany on Monday. I'm thinking that I might just drive up to Big Sur for a couple days, since I've never been there. If I considered myself a deep person, I'd point out how "amazing" it would be to go to Big Sur and read some Kerouac. However, since I am not deep I will simply mention that I am currently reading Desolation Angels by Jack Kerouac, but I don't think that a visit to Big Sur will make the experience any more significant.

My visit with Shane and Erika is coming to an end. It has been fun...but as I said yesterday there is very little to do in San Luis Obispo. We've spent most of the time just around the house playing games that I have continually lost. I don't know what it is, but I suck at games. I'm not sure why- but very rarely do games go my way. For example, while we were playing Monopoly today, I kept landing on Go to Jail. I think that I probably only passed Go like three times the entire game and, two of those times, I landed on the income tax space. Perhaps there's some weird cosmic link between my game play and my current state of unemployment.

Well, if I happen to come across an internet connection somewhere along the California coast, then I'll post from there. If not, then you can expect to see an update on Saturday. See you then.