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I was supposed to get together with Jeremy last week, but he had to cancel at the last second when his parents dropped by unexpectedly in town. We rescheduled to Wednesday evening, decided to meet at the Los Portales Mexican Restaurant in Mountain View. Los Portales is one of my favorite restaurants to eat in the area. It’s good food, great chips and salsa, and has a nice, homey atmosphere.

Jeremy and I had a lengthy discussion about maximizing one’s potential in life. Would we rather like a comfortable life, a safe life, or would we rather go 100% into achieving and realizing a particular goal? The two of us are similar in that we both have varied interests in which we’re both good at. Jeremy’s more musically inclined than I am and is an accomplished pianist and conductor. I, on the other hand, have leanings towards the visual arts. What does it take for someone to say, “This is all fine and good, but right now I want to concentrate on one sole thing to the exclusion of everything else.” We both have mutual friends who are at the top of their chosen fields, and it’s clear to see that these people are all passionate about what they are doing.

I don’t think that I have any one particular passion, unless you count life as a passion. I’m sometimes afraid that I’m stretching myself too thin with the interests that I have. You know the quote, “Jack of all trades, master of none.” This is something that I’m striving to avoid — being stretched so thin that all I have is a cursory knowledge of divers topics. I believe in breadth, yes, but I also realize the value of having depth. I used to use the analogy, “I’m like a giant sponge; I soak up everything.”

Well, even sponges get old and rigid, needing lots of time under the water to soften up. As we get older, we typically become more set in our ways. One of my goals is to try to avoid this process by constantly redefining myself and trying new things. It seems to work for me, and I highly recommend it to my friends and colleagues. Variety is, after all, the spice of life.

Jeremy’s hair is starting to get out of control. I thought that my hair was getting long, but his is just unreal! He really does look like the “This man wants to clean your clothes” guy from Pacific Beach in San Diego! People must have thought at the restaurant that we were the hair gang… a big fro on one guy and long hair on the other. Classic!

Amabelle, Rita, Bill, and John were at Lucy’s Teahouse this evening. Shortly before 9:00 pm, Jeremy and I drove over to downtown Palo Alto to see if they were there. When we peeked into Lucy’s Teahouse, we didn’t see a trace of that group, so we decided to help our digestive tracts by walking along Castro Street. All Stanford students at one point in their college careers have either driven to or carpooled to Castro Street in Mountain View. There are soooo many restaurants, most Asian, to choose from: Sue’s Kitchen, Kim’s Restaurant, Pho Hoa, Fibbar Maggee’s, Lucy’s Teahouse, and and many more. I’ve eaten at most of these restaurants, but the one’s that I keep coming back to involve Pho Hoa (open till 2am) and Lucy’s.

Jeremy and I walked down to wear the old Tung Kee Noodle House before heading back towards the CalTrain station. When we were standing at the crosswalk to the old Printer’s Inc. bookstore, I noticed across the street a group of people that looked familar. Their backs were turned to me, but I recognized the shape of one of the people. I yelled, “Amabelle!” to which one of those people turned around and waved. I was right, it was Amabelle that I had recognized!

We all hung out at the corner of the street to talk. I introduced Jeremy as someone whom I knew at Stanford… through Eric… you know, the usual! Amabelle and Jeremy, being fellow musicians, talked up a storm, while I showed Rita and the others my Leica M2 that I’ve been carrying with me for a while. The other day, I purchased some Kodak Tri-X 400 film into the camera. I’ve been using the Leica sparingly… it has this magical feel to it when I hold and use it. I understand what they mean when they talk about the Leica Mystique. I’m going to like using this camera in the future. It will probably never replace my digitals, but it will help me improve my skills! I shot a few pictures of Amabelle, Rita, John, and Bill, but because I shot them using my Leica, I don’t have the pictures yet! This is one thing where a quality digital camera really, really shines — the immediacy of the photos is key!

We talked for a little while before going our separate ways. It’s funny to think that if Jeremy and I had spent an extra minute talking at Los Portales or had stopped to admire the new buildings popping up in downtown Mountain View, we would have missed Amabelle and company. Life truly is about minutes and seconds… be observant, and you’ll notice many minor coincidences and miracles through the day.

After saying goodbye to Jeremy, I called up my friend, Leslie, who happens to live on the street where I parked my car. She was home and watching TV with her boyfriend, Will. I went up to her place and hung out there for about an hour. We watching this History Channel presentation on aircraft carriers (cool!) and looked at her pet geckos (not iguanas, sorry, Leslie!). Will and I traded some camera stories; he’s got an Elan 2 himself with the 50mm f/1.4 lens. We shot some pictures with the D30 and Leica… shooting manual on the Leica is both fun and exciting with thoughts like, “Oh my, did I get the exposure right??? Do I know what I’m doing or not?!?” running through my mind. I’m on 11 or a 24 shot roll of film. A few ore days, and I’ll see exactly what I shot over the past few days!

Three different groups of people in one night. I would have been satisfied hanging out with any one of them, but three in one night, that’s a bonus! I remember the days back at Stanford when I would call off the entire night to go wandering through the libraries, visiting people that I knew with an Adam 5-Minute Study Break. Those were the days, but the past was present tonight in Mountain View!