Wings, Ankles, Mending and Planning

Created on July 27, 2010
Location: Rio Rancho, New Mexico, United States ("Home")

Recently I went out with a few of my friends to Buffalo Wild Wings. If you aren't familiar with this restaurant, the service is simply terrible, the wing sauces are mediocre and the atmosphere is both loud and visually confusing. It's clearly designed for heterosexual men with no interpersonal or social skills to go out with their buddies, pretend like they are socializing, yet be mocked incessantly for what they say or feel by the same 'buddies' who should be supporting them. It's the classic straight male catch-22: being honest makes you weak yet not talking about a problem makes you appear stronger yet hurts more and doesn't solve the problem. The only reasons I go there is because the restaurant succeeds in winning the favor of some of the trainee's at Albuquerque's UFC fighting training center which make for fabulous man eye candy. The other reason is it's a great excuse to eat awful-for-you food, drink beer and not worry about six year olds listening in on a conversation because the place is so loud the other tables cannot hear the juicy conversation with tables that have non-hetero or mixed gender representation going on. That's actually 50X better than most other casual dining places in Albuquerque metro.

"You Realize You're Fucking Nuts, Right?" Was the expression on my friends faces when I first told them about my plans to travel the world by working my way through. It wasn't because my friends thought I wasn't capable, smart or dexterous enough to do this, it was because I was in crutches faithfully guarding my left leg and ankle with a completely serious stone face.

For those of you who haven't met me: Over the last two years I have been through some pretty significant bodily changes. I've dropped a tremendous amount of body weight. I regularly weight lifted, I did all kinds of cardio. I could be seen nightly with my trusty camelback water backpack and IPod touch walking the nature trail next to my house with my three Red Heelers. (Aka Australian Cattle Dogs). I really looked forward to this time on a nightly basis and found that lately the ongoing pain of walking just simply keeps getting worse.

I have suffered some pretty substantial ankle injuries recently. In fact, I've sprained my right ankle four times and my left ankle three times in the last two years. The left ankle continues to bother me and I finally broke down and went to see a foot and ankle specialist recently. It turns out I need to get some ankle surgery done and to have some ligaments rebuilt. At the moment it isn't clear how extensive the repairs need to be on my ankles, but for sure I know I will be out of commission for the month of August and I'm targeting a departure date sometime in September. I go into Surgery Thursday (July 29h, 2010).

I'm going to use this time constructively to plot a very basic outline of the journey and get needed supplies together to make it work. A huge whirlwind of thoughts now swirl around my head on a daily basis. I have no idea what country to head to first. I also have no idea what I am going to pack or what I should do first, besides heal up. But, I thought it would at least be a good idea to sit down and declare what I'm trying to achieve with this trip first.

Brad's Main Goals:
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1. Find a Skill I want to perfect and get really, really good at it while on the road.

2. Form an international group of friends ('minions') I can tap at a moment's notice to make money LEGALLY and FAIRLY. (I've read up on a lot of foreign scams. If I don't come up with the idea or don't have an idea of what I am investing in I won't do it).

3. Self sustain as much as possible while on the road to avoid abusing the state/fed unemployment insurance funds

4. Exercise. Have as much fun as possible while doing it. This might bean strapping on a backpack and walking the beaches of Nice as much as it could be Scuba Diving the Great Barrier Reef for a month.

5. Remain connected to current relationships while better trying to understand myself.

6. Have as much deep, passionate wild sex with foreign men as possible while not being arrested, executed, sick or deported. (Ideally: Finding Mr. Right Along the Way)