DFW SLEEPERS

As usual today I was late ... or at least I thought so .... I thought I was going to miss my flight from DALLAS to LA ... so I left the office in a rush ... and I didn't even clean my desk and I forgot my phone charger there ... I speed up all the way ... I almost thought to return the rental car without filling the tank because I wasn't sure if I had enough time to find a gas station ... eventually I did stop in a gas station but I did an illegal U-Turn after I got gas ... I anxiously watched my watch when I realized that the car rental bus who was supposed to drive me to the terminal was late ... when I finally got to the terminal ... I rushed to the check-in ... and I found out that the AA2465 flight that I was supposed to catch was still somewhere else ... but definitely not at the gate ... the take off from 6.31PM has been now moved to 9.00PM ... probably we will board in something in 1 hour or so ... and probably I will have also to wake up this guy ... who apparently ... had a week more stressful then mine ...

... I am not sure, though, what happened to the owner of this cot ...

... probably like me he thought he was late to catch the flight and he lef there his cot ... :o ... definitely today DFW looks more like an hostel rather than an airport ...

A SOUL SWIMMING IN A FISH BOWL

I discovered FLICKR (http://www.flickr.com) few months back when smhyla ... a former blogger (http://smhyla.com) ... saw my pictures and suggested me to open a FLICKR ACCOUNT ... I never did it ... I thought it was going to be too much work ... I prefer to keep just my BLOG ... it gives me enough work ... at the sme time I started to browse into FLICKR ... and I discovered incredible pictures ... and I definitily fell in love with STONETH'S PHOTOS (http://www.flickr.com/photos/stoneth/) ... the title of his main gallery is POVERTY ... time to time I am sneaking into it ... to check if there are new pictures and new stories ... and I always find incredible gifts ... the gifts are the pictures and the stories of the homeless people ... I guess it is strange ... they are supposed to be stories of poverty and I find them incredibly rich ... rich of humanity ... they make me think that there is more humanity in these homeless people living in the street rather than in a lot of people that I am meeting everyday ... they look to me incredibly rich because I read about things I never lived and I neer saw ... in their stories I read about a part of the life I never lived ... I read about addiction, violence, instability, arrests, breakdowns, death, drugs, alcohol, rats, shooting up, meth, raping ... it is such a trip when I am reading these stories ... that I feel kidnapped ... I feel like in a tunnel ... but despite a tunnel when I am leaving it ... I wonder if the artificial light is inside or outside it ... and I ended up asking to myslef if the real life is the one these guys are living or is the one I am living everyday ... and pretty much everytime it pops in my mind the PINK FLOYD song ... I wish you were here ... in particular these 3 lines ...

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found? The same old fears.

... I define myself a traveler and a backpacker and a dreamer ... but after reading these stories ... I am not sure anymore if I am really a traveller and a backpacker and a dreamer ... probably I am not ... probably ... I am myself ... just a soul swimming in a fish bowl ...

BIRTHDAY CAKE

A birthday without a cake is not a real birthday ... and because everything is bigger in Texas ... you don't even need to order an entire cake to feed a table of hungry guys ... a slice is enough ...

... happy birthday Edric ... and don't worry ... we won't tell to anybody that you didn't refuse Budi's passionate kiss ... :o

TEARS

Today I cried ... strange to write about it in the BLOG ... I thought a couple of hours tonight if it was the case to write about it here ... this is supposed to be a blog about my WALK THE EARTH ... but in a way also this is part of the JOURNEY ... at the end I just decided that I had to write somewhere about it ... write about sad things always helped me to better understand myself ... today is happening the same ... and because since I have the BLOG, I don't have anymore a diary ... I decided to write about it here ... in my BLOG ... but again it is a kind of sad story ... so if don't want to read about sad stories ... don't read the rest of this post ...

Everything started this morning when I did open the webpage of an Italian newspaper and I read that a former Italian National Team Football Player tried to commit suicide ... he didn't die ... but he is still in the IC ... he is a guy of my age ... only 1 year difference ... and he tried to commit suicide ... I coudn't believe it ... apparently he was depressed ... or at least this is the story that I read on the paper ...

In my life I had very close friends who are / were suffering of depression and I also had some distant relative and a close friend who commited suicide ... someone who I truly loved ... and of course everytime I hear about a suicide my memory goes back to the moment when I picked up the phone and I was told about it ... it was such a shock ... not only dead ... but commited suicide ... of course the first question was ... WHY? ... and after WHAT COULD I HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY? ... a lot of things popped in my mind ... the last time I crossed the eyes of the person ... the strange feeling that something was different in those eyes ... the time that I spent in the office and you didn't spend listening to that close friend ... in my case, I have to admit, I didn't feel responsible for that event ... at the same time ... every time I hear about a person who commits suicide I feel like a punch in my stomach ... I can't eat ... and eventually it is something that makes me cry ... I have such a joy for life that I can't really think how a person can commit suicide ... but at the same time I know that life is strange ... everything can change ... what yesterday was happiness can become sadness ... and I know that this is true for everybody ... for me as well ... I just hope to never find myself in such a desperate situation where I will think to kill myself ... it is such a nonsense ... but at the same time I believe that people who is doing it ... wants really to do it ...

I am not sure why I am writing you this ... or probably I know ... it helps me to realize that I am lucky. I am lucky because I know what I want from my life ... and I realized it a couple of years ago ... it happened during my trip to THAILAND and CAMBODIA ... I was in the main square of CHIANG MAI in THAILAND and I was reading a book ... there I realized which is the scope of my life ... BE HAPPY AND MAKE PEOPLE AROUND ME HAPPY ... kind of childish in a way ... but believe me ... it isn't for me ... for me it was and it is a great achievement to be able to put on top of my priorities in life my happiness and the happiness of the people around me ... and since then my life truly changed ... I only hope it will continue like this ...

FORT WORTH, TX STOCK YARDS

The STOCK YARDS in FORT WORTH, TX is probably the most lively and interesting area I have seen so far here in the DALLAS area (didn't see much of the rest, though) ...

... apparently this stockyards made FORT WORTH, TX ... "the richest little town in the world" ... :D

Personally I think it is really worth while a visit ... actually more than one ... if you live here ... and you want a nice place to hang out ... basically it is just a road ... 10 blocks area ... 2 miles north of FORT WORTH, TX downtown ... without any parking hassle ...

... and with nice buildings ...

... I found a lot of things to see ... but mostly I liked the lively area ... I didn't really feel in a fake creation for "cowboys hungry tourists" ... real people comes here to spend the day ...

... and mostly to drink ... and from what I have seen today here you can drink in public ...

... of course if you like meat ... this is the place where you want to end up hungry ...
There are also touristic attractions ...

... but that's impossible to avoid ... :O

And if you area lucky enough you can also end end up in a bar with live music ... this is the WHITE ELEPHANT BEER GARDEN ...

... and meet some real cowgirl who likes Italian accent ...

... or if you like cowboys ... I guess there are also those ... I didn't pay much attention if they were cute or not ... sorry ... :o

WILDLIFE in FORT WORTH, TX

Despite the commonplace that the only animals in TEXAS are the COWS ... today in FORT WORTH, TX ... I discovered that it is not true ... there are also grasshoppers ...

... not sure, though, if there is anything else out there ... :D

TEXAS FRESCO

TEXAS is not really the place where you want to go if you are looking for masterpieces of art ... but look this picture I took today in FORT WORTH, TX ...

... also in TEXAS there are "old" fresco ... covered by "modern" paintings ... but they are coming out ... and I am sure than in few years we will find them in some museum ... :D

FORT WORTH, TX DOWNTOWN

FORTH WORTH, TX is so close to DALLAS that con be confused with a detached suburb of DALLAS (even the airport is called DALLAS FORT WORTH) ... at least this is what I thought until I check on my touring guide if there was anyhing interesting in FORT WORTH ... and what I found out is the two city are really different ... it has a different history (it was used to be much richer than DALLAS) ... a different attitude (FORT WORTH loves to be the COWTOWN ... while DALLAS wants to be more upscale) ... and it looks to me more "real" than DALLAS ... it has a downtown with a very nice area called SUNDANCE SQUARE ... full of restaurants, pub and coffee shops ... all surrounded by skyscprapers ...

In FORT WORTH there is also the STOCKYARDS AREA which is more than 2 miles out of downtown ... and there I spent most of my day ... really cool ... and apparently there is the CULTURAL DISTRICT where there are very good museums ... but today I didn't really have time to visit them ... next time I will do it ... so my suggestion is .... if you will ever come to DALLAS ... don't miss to visit FORT WORTH ... :D

DALLAS is HOT and UMID

In these days DALLAS is really HOT ... and on top of that it is getting also UMID because of some SHOWERS we are getting any now and then ... today after we visited the SIXTH FLOOR MUSEUM ... we went straight to a restaurant to get some drink ... NATAF took this picture of me ... while exhausted from the HEAT I am trying to get some refreshment ... with a glass of LEMONADE ...

... the rain came after that ...

... and transformed the rear window of my rental car in a mirror for an interesting picture of DALLAS downtown ...

SIXTH FLOOR MUSEUM

Would you ever name a museum after the floor where it is located? I wouldn't ... but if the floor is from where most likely ... on November 22nd 1963 ... OSWALD shot to death the US President JFK ... everything changes ... so there you go ... you have THE SIXTH FLOOR MUSEUM ... in DALLAS downtown ... and today I went, with BRIAN and NATAF, to visit it ...

... also because, honestly, it is one of the few tourstic attractions in DALLAS, TX ... so if you spend a weekend in DALLAS like I am doing ... we have to go to visit it ... we did follow the signs ... ad here I like very much the simple, but effective, museum logo ...

... and we got there ... the museum is of course in the SIXTH FLOOR and a nice thing about it ... is that the elevator has only two stops ... 1st floor and 6th floor (and 7th ... which contains temporary exbitions in a way realated to JFK and/or its asssasination) ... very fascinating ... the museum is really well done ... they kept the original interiors ... it is a fairly detailed and, I believe, balanced picture of the overall scenario before JFK visit to DALLAS ... the mechanic of the assasination ... and all the possible cospiracy theories ... it is really interesting ... you can easily spend 3 hours there ... I took only this picture inside ...

... before I saw the sign ... that you are not allowed to take pictures :D ... but of course you can take pictures from outside ... here a series of them ... the window from where most likely OSWALD shoot to JFK is the 2nd down from the top right corner of the brick building ... on the street there are a couple of X ... which corresponds to the points where JFK was hit by the bullets ...

... I guess you are curious what I think about the role of OSWALD in the JFK assassination after I visited the museum ... mmmmmmm ... I think that he really shot to JFK ... and most likely he did hit him ... but he wasn't alone ... but again ... I wasn't there on November 22nd 1963 ... so mine are just guessings ... but you have the chance to visit DALLAS ... don't miss to visit the MUSEUM ... it is really fascinating ... and well done ... and look to the window from where OSWALD shoot is fascinating ... after you have seen it so many times in TV ... or in movies .... you really feel like in a movie ... funny enough ... I saw a picture of the rifle OSWALD allegedly used ... and the viewfinder on it ... was built in HOLLYWOOD, CA ... to me ... that can explain a lot of things ... did all this really happened!? ... :D

CARROT BREAKFAST in DALLAS

Saturday in DALLAS, TX ... can be really boring ... but because I am a lucky guy ... I have a couple of very good friends who live here ... NATAF and BRIAN ... my Israeli / American friends who are taking care of me ... so today we planned a day together ... we met at their place ... and I got a really healthy start for breakfast ... ORANGE JUICE and a wonderful CARROT JUICE ...
... something I didn't have since I left ISRAEL more than 3 years ago ... it is supposed to be really healthy ... but today NATAF was telling us that if you drink too much of it you can have some serious side effects like impaired vision and orange spots on your skin ... Brian and I were not sure if she was teasing us or not ... but we didn't go beyond 1 glass of it ... :D

ITALY IN THE WORLD CUP

Nothing can be taken for granted in football ... everything can happen anytime ... that's why it is such a nice sport, I guess ... anyways today ITALY won an other match in the WORLD CUP ... this time against the CZECK REPUBLIC ... an other 2-0 for us ... we won our group and we moved to the next round ... if you look at the final result ... everything looks like a nice and simple RIDE ... like when you see a guy riding a wave ... ooooppppsss ... a double wave ...

... but believe me ... it isn't simple to ride a wave and it hasn't been simple to win this game ... next round will be against AUSTRALIA ... I believe it will be on Monday ... and again ... it is supposed to be easy ... but it won't be ... I have some AUSTALIAN colleague here in Dallas, TX and also some Austrlian friend spread around ... until Monday it will be nice to tease each other ... :o

It is funny how everytime there is the Football World Cup I am always approaching it with a kind of attitude like ... "mmmhhhh ... I don't really care too much about it" ... and actually along the way I ge really involved ... this time happened the same ... and I hope that the ITALIAN RIDE will be till the end ... :D

CHEAP NIGHT

I am still here in DALLAS, TX ... the work is going well ... but I am going back to the old bad habits ... I spend most of the day in the office ... leaving it not earlier than 9PM ... probably just the result of my slowness and my stupidity ... anyways ... until yesterday all the hotels in the area were superpacked ... probably because of NBA finals ... Sunday night I found a room ... but I had been kicked out Monday morning ... and for Monday night I really had a hard time to find a room ... I went through the travel web site of my company ... but the cheapest room I found was $295 + taxes ... which I thought it was too much ... for a night by myself (!) in DALLAS ... so I decided to look on INTERNET for a cheap solution ... and I ended up finding a room in a SUPER8 close to the DFW airport for $59.95 + taxes. During my personal trips throughout US I have been in a lot of SUPER8 ... but believe me ... this was the worst of the SUPER8 I have seen so far ... in the corridor in front of my room I found also parked a A/C system ...... but fortunately wasn't the one of my room ... :D

DREAMING of TRAVELING

Like anybody else, I guess, sometimes I asked to myself which are my best skills and my worst defects ... but few months ago I realized that I am really good in dreaming ... which I didn't decide yet if it is a SKILL or a DEFECT ... and dreaming about new trips is my speciality ... it is enough a map or a touring guide ... I am so into that, that some time ago ... in BALTIMORE, MD ... I took also these pictures in a book store ...

... silly isn't it? Probably yes to most of the people ... but not to me ... it really helps me to dream ... and to realize that dreaming is truly a blessing ... :D

LAS VEGAS AIRPORT

Yesterday on my way to DALLAS, TX I had a stop in the LAS VEGAS airport ... and of course like in other aiport ... there are aiplanes ...

... a control tower, terminals, gates, carousels ... but also something unique ... slot machines in the terminal ... here a picture for the ones of you who haven't been there yet ...

... my initial intention was to gamble but at the end I didn't do it ... I guess I saved some bucks ... but I ignored a call to become millionaire ... :O

USA Vs. ITALY

SATURDAY we had the 2nd match of the ITALIAN NATIONAL TEAM in the FOOTBALL WORLD CUP ... the match was USA Vs. ITALY ... and unfortunately ... despite all my bragging around that we were going to crash the US TEAM we miserily tied the match ... 1-1 ... actually we did score 2 goals ... one of them in our net though ... but the most impressive outcome of the match has been the 3 players that the referee kicked out of the field because of very bad faults ... here an other TShirt of mines (*) which perfectly pictures the thoughts of a lot of players and supporters had Saturday ...

... each of you can easily INSERT THE WORD THERE ... :D
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(*) This TShirt is for me a nice memory of Port Elizabeth (I bought it there) ... a very nice South African town famous in the surfing community ... for its perfect waves ... the founder of the city dedicated the city itself to his wife ELIZABETH ... and on the top of the hill which is dominating the town there is a pyramid with this wonderful dedication ...

... now ... I know that this note doesn't really match with the FOOTBALL WORLD CUP topic of the post ... but who cares ... it is so nice ... that it is worthwhile to post it ... :o

RE-LAX

RE-LAX ... an other episode of my life at the LAX (LA International Aiport) ... today was TERMINAL 1 ... US AIRWAYS flight to DALLAS, TX with 1 stop in LAS VEGAS, NV ... and this is the end of my weekend ... really a short one ... but WHAT A WEEKEND ... really great ... the perfect BACHELOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WEEKEND (AKA "Looks like a movie, but it is not") ... it started on Friday night with a very nice dinner in Santa Monica and after that ... of course FOOSBALL in the PITCHER HOUSE in HERMOSA. Saturday morning ... early VOLLEYBALL (only 1 set ... but we won, I believe ... :o) ... back to the ugly box (AKA Television) to watch with some friends the FOOTBALL WORLD CUP match USA Vs. ITALY ... had a great brunch at the Pier ... party at BLAIR's place ... where I managed to take this exclusive picture of PHIL ... who in my personal opinion is the only and unbeateable ... "LA RF KING" ... the only one who had the guts to tell us ... tha was useless to run around like chickens without head ... and that everything was going to be decided somewhere else ... and that is exaclty what happened ... (*) After that some very poor surfing in 2nd Street ... which confirmed my theory that it is not a good idea to try to catch waves when you are not completely sober ... a nice BBQ in our porch ... the BEST TAXI RIDE EVER ... dancing in BEACHES ... a great nite. Sunday ... today ... mostly laundry and packing ... but I managed also to go 10 minutes surfing ... really sweet waves ... caught some of them .. but again .. just 10 minutes ... before collecting the usual $35 PARKING TICKET in front of my place ... driving to LAX ... and here the ICE ON THE CAKE ... the celebrity at LAX ... in the terminal I met KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR ... he was seated in front of me ... he was with his wife, I guess ... a very short asian woman ... and what an impression ... I think she was 3 feet shorter than him ... he had gray LA LAKERS gym pants, gray TShirt, snickers ... like he just left the basketball court ... :O ... I didn't take any picture ... I don't like to bother celebrities. Funny enough when I was seated there I had to through away, in the trash bin, the paper bag of my STARBUCKS SNACK ... as usual I through it from few feet away from the bin ... and while I was doing it ... KAREEM looked at me ... I felt so strange ... really a cool feeling ... when I was a kid I was used to watch him on TV to through balls in a basket ... today he was in fornt of me ... watching me ... OK ... I know ... I know ... it is not the same ... but whatever ... I felt special ... :) ... forgot to say ... I did score!!!
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(*) Sorry if, for most of you, I am a little bit cryptic here ...

THE BEST TAXI RIDE EVER

Posting from the LAS VEGAS AIRPORT (1 stop flight on my way to DALLAS) ... power of the WIRELESS DATA CONNESTIONS ... anyways ... the story here is an other one ... this story happened last night ... saturday ... we decide to go to MANHATTAN BEACH to dance ... and when we go to a pub or a bar in MANHATTAN BEACH we normally call a CAB … doesn’t cost more than $10 … no parking hassles … and most important … there is no the ultimate hassle … the selection of the DESIGNATED DRIVER … so we did the same SATURDAY … destination is BEACHES a nice and not too crowded bar in MANHATTAN BEACH … JASON calls the TAXI … 9PM is the time … taxi is there ... JASON, YANN, LEIF, JENNIFER and I are ready … but we can't find DUSTIN ... we call him ... no answer ... so we decide to leave ...

As soon as we step into the VAN CAB … we understand that there is something great about it … the driver has a BLACK COWBOY HAT … all around there are AMERICAN FLAGS ... the interior of the VAN are decorated with a plastic IVY … on the METER there is a model of the ENTHERPRISE ... the STAR TREK SPACE SHIP (not an expert here … for sure LEIF knows better the model and the year) … all the way to MAHATTAN (actually almost to MANHATTAN, back to HERMOSA to pick up DUSTIN and again back to MANHATTAN) we have such a great time taking pictures and enjoying the STAR TREK THEME MUSIC ... which was playing really loud ... YANN and JENNIFER, who were seating in the back, almost got deaf for it ... LEIF is the HAPPIEST MAN ON EARTH during the ride ... at a certain point we think to continue with the TAXI and forget about BEACHES ... but at the end the running meter convinced us to stop ...

... here LEIF posing and radiating LIGHT in front of the CAB, ooopppsss ... THE ENTHERPRISE ... and in the back YANN smiling leaving the SHIP ...

... we asked to the TAXI DRIVER his name and phone number ... he told us he is THE COWBOY TAXI DRIVER ... he gave us also his phone number but now JASON can't find it anymore ... what a pity ... :O ... anyways ... here the TAXI ID ...
... if anybody out there knows him ... please give us his details ... from now on ... WE WANT ONLY THIS TAXI!!!!!!