(This post is going to be written in an uncharacteristic style for me. But being as I’m talking about boost day, why take time to explain all the little personal jokes? Let it be crazy! I’ll care about my writing for the next adventure post! 9!!!!!!!!)
It’s 9/9/09, isn’t it? And it’s time to take advantage of the last Boost Day for 90 years.
What is Boost Day? Well, that’s a long story that starts, as so many great stories do, in Malaysia (or Zanzibar). It was on 6/6/06 that I and my adventure companions headed towards Malaysia and also whipped out of time.
We time-traveled because our flight over the Pacific allowed us to skip 6/6/06. Having leapt into the future, we were awake for hours I never bothered to count before the sun went down our first night in Southeast Asia.
Our time in Malaysia was long, packed full of adventure, and full of insight. We braved Panang island’s jungles, sleeper trains, snake temples, torrential rains, giant twin towers, anti-gravity chambers, murderous little Asian girls, cold showers, cheap hostels, bouts of sickness, jellyfish stings, armies of mosquitoes, Michael Bolton, Singapore’s cityscape, and a duck that shook its rump at us vehemently. ALL true. Before this post starts to sound too much like “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” I should draw sketches of three people.
ERIC DOBBS
Eric Dobbs, a.k.a. “crazy hands” or “Muffie” is an enigmatic character capable of mastering any skill within the span of about two weeks. His blog (and Boost Day post) is to be found at http://eric22222.wordpress.com/. I urge you to visit it. *URGE* Eric is a computer and mathematical whiz, excellent structural climber, poet, etc. His Indian numerology indicates that he is beyond prediction, being an enigma shrouded in mystery.
LORAINE ADAMO/TIPTON
Loraine was the namesake of Team Malaysia Adamo, as we were called, till she went and lost her last name to Mr. Joey Tipton. They now live in Indiana, though I think it is actually Michigan or Idaho or somewhere else weird and northern. Loraine has very tasty blood, and is therefore an attraction to mosquitoes and vampiric creatures. Her calm, meditative demeanor and quiet voice screen a heart capable of enormous compassion. She is a scholar, author (though she won’t let me read her book), and traveler, a good combination if you ask me. She has also come much closer to conquering her big fear than I have mine. She has stared hers in the face, whereas I have merely poked mine.
MEREDITH MARTIN/MCDERMOTT
If I had a pet dragon, I’d name it Meredith. That’s neither here nor there, but seriously, Meredith can travel through time. She has a History degree and a secret time machine left to her by UT’s Professor McGraw-Hill after his untimely death. By day she works at a publishing house in the Nashville area, which is foolishly wasting its time with authors other than me, and by short intervals of a minute or two she leaps backwards or forwards in time for days to unravel mysteries of time. Meredith is an excellent leader (it helps cause she’s tall), dancer, and bunko player … cause that game is all about skill and strategy.
THE DERIVATION OF “BOOST”
9 is the boost. It just is. If you want more details you can read it from Eric here.
If you don’t believe me, here are some examples:
1. “Echinacea” has 9 letters, which explains its boosting properties.
2. The greatest video game of all time, “Final Fantasy VIII” was released on Sept. 9, 1999. That’s right 9.9.99. I purchased it that day, and it has never been outdone, owing primarily to its boost.
3. My blog “Life of Adventure” and my name “Brad Williams” upon addition of syllables, has 9 (the “s” is its own syllable), which explains the awesomeness of the adventures.
4. Actor Hugh Grant was born on Sept. 9th, 1960. Due to his birthday and 9-letter name, he has possessed fame, despite sucking.
5. Jalapenos get the boost from their 9-letter name.
6. Babies are born after 9 months. It is actually 9 lunar months, because “lunar” and “moon” add up to 9.
7. A good “rock climb” will boost you up to the tops of cliffs, isn’t it?
8. Shopkeepers know that a pricetag ending in .99 will help their products boost off the shelves.
9. Caffeine’s molecular structure has 9 parts. Don’t believe me? See here.
NASHVILLE AND MORE TIME TRAVEL
As it was Boost Day, the Malaysian gang had to get together to see adventures done. The meeting point? Nashville, TN.
On the way to Nashville, Eric Dobbs and I boosted an hour into the past. Which means we could be an hour behind us or there could be another us an hour ahead of ourselves. In any case, we resolved not to be in one place for an hour or revisit a spot an hour after we’d been there, for fear we’d see ourselves and create time paradoxes. As a physicist once told me about time travel, “Don’t get caught doing it.”
INDIAN FOOD
We dined at Sitar Indian restaurant in the Vanderbilt area of downtown Nashville. Why? Because in Malaysia there was a lovely little restaurant called Restoran Al Awal Maju right across from our dwelling and church. We ate there ALL the time. Convenient? Yes. Cheap. Yes. But we went there because the roti chanai was delicious.
Bright sky by windows, a steaming buffet, and the expectation of a cold mango lassi were great, but it was the smiles of Meredith and Loraine that gave the restaurant an even cheerier interior. (Cheerier interior! I thought of that! I thought of that!)
I was given, for dessert of course, a donut with a big bite out of it. Now I know this may be hard to believe, but there was a time when I was a very selfish person and didn’t even know it. So like a few days ago. But in Malaysia, Meredith ordered a donut. So did I. I liked the look of her donut. So I asked her for bite. I took a huge gaping chomp out of it, and I decided I liked it. So I went and bought one … for myself. Then I ate all of the new one and left Meredith with a bitten donut. Like the dates of my adventures with these folk, this time everything was turned on its head, and I got the used donut this time.
Also, when I was 19, I didn’t get sick at all. That’s cause I had 1 boost!
OPRY MILLS
Just another mall? No, not really.
In our searching for an arcade, which we found, of course, we had first to try the oxygen bar.
For 15 minutes, Dobbs and I laid in reclined massage chairs, which wheeled over our backs and mechanically stroked calves, occasionally rattling and tapping. I had very sore legs, so this was a welcome relief. Into our noses flowed a stream of concentrated oxygen, flavored by passage through aromatherapy liquid. Each space-aged oxygen bar console had 4 scents to choose from. Mine were eucalyptis, timber, watermelon, and pure (unflavored). Dials allowed you to select one or any combination of the available scents. I closed my eyes, listened to the peaceful music in my headphones and then noticed Loraine had come to join the fun. The saleswoman allowed Dobbs and I a longer session so we could finish with her. The combination of massage, music, scent and oxygen was tranquilizing, and better than most similarly priced spa treatments.
Breathing deep
Sentosa
We then moved to an actual bar, as in a high station and four stools, for 5 more minutes with oxygen bars to hook our nose tubes into. I got a different assortment of flavors this time. We were given an energy shot, back rub, head massage, and Poweraid. Satisfied and refreshed, we went on to search farther for the arcade.
DANGER!
There were also random encounters with fierce villains.
Snake!
Shark!
Crabs!
The mall also had some other health hazards.
Smoking everywhere?
BACK TO THE JUNGLE
Back in Singapore (we went there too), Team Malaysia Adamo — commonly known as TMA — went on a night … safari, yeeees. So back into the wilds we went.
This blacklight jungle indoor golf place was notable because of its “recharging stations” which made your golf ball glow. The glow would fade, but a pass through the recharger and it would look celestial again, in a creepy green sort of way.
The gials
Dancing for Loraine
The dark jungle
DAVE AND BUSTERS
We found the arcade after we got past that shark. I know things are a little mixed up in the timeframe here, but that’s true of any good time travel story.
We entered the arcade and …
We cashed in our tickets for some sweet treats and a Chinese finger trap or two, then proceeded to our next destination, which was, in many ways, my first destination.
WHERE IT ALL STARTED
Dedicated readers of this blog: you have come upon, buried in this strange narrative, a most sentimental account. It will remain hidden here, a gem for the peruser, rather than under its own entry.
When I was in middle school, my social life and my life experiences were, well, limited. I was at school or I was at home. I had never been out of Chattanooga and knew only a small part of that small city. I rarely had friends over, and I believe to that point I had never in my life so much as slept over at a friends’ house. Video games, movies, books and the internet were windows to the wider world, and I was always indoors. I had never really hiked, or swam in a large body of water (I was so young), or climbed mountains or traveled.
But being a good student has its advantages. The Junior Beta Club convention was to be my first parent-free multi-day excursion. Going to Nashville’s Opryland Hotel meant more to me than going to the moon, and my destination felt just as far away.
It is plain, in retrospect, that I have always been an adventurer at heart, always hungry for a new place full of new experiences. To android hell with all the world’s riches and gadgets; give me the world’s sights and sounds, flavors and thrills, full of interesting people, interesting buildings, diverse geography, diverse challenges. Having now traveled quite a bit, I can still say that hotel is worth visiting.
Middle school Brad was enthralled beyond what I can now describe to be there, exploring every nook and cranny, hungrily drinking every sight, relishing the cool mist of the waterfalls on his skin. He, under that huge glass dome of a roof was in paradise, ever smiling, bewitched by the little garden paths and pedestrian ways that weaved into deserted corners or people-packed thoroughfares.
The convention was at Christmas time, both my seventh and eighth grade years. As the bitter cold outside was a contrast to the warm, tropical city enclosed by the hotel, so being there was warm and comfy compared to the bleak prospect of life between class and home in Chattanooga.
Eighth grade was the last time I’d been to Opryland Hotel, the place that will always represent to me my first taste of travel. It was then I knew that the desires of my heart, when brought to reality, were just as sweet as I imagined them to be. Having set my toe into the vast ocean of adventure, I was given the drive, there in that hotel, to plunge in whenever and wherever I could. And I still am.
Not so many years later, I would achieve my dream (that started by seeing a single photo) of rock climbing in Krabi, Thailand. I would study martial arts in the Far East, visit temples, volcanoes, and museums. I would make friends from the other side of the world, ride rollercoasters in untouristed Japanese cities, enter jungles, dance all night and adventure all day.
And to this day, to this very minute, I have been true to the dreams of the Brad who walked into Opryland hotel to see what pleasures adventure and travel held: I live free. I live, not to work, though work is part of my life, but to sustain myself for new adventures, more sights of the world, more insights into its people. I live comfortably enough, if a bit spartan, because I’m not living for wealth or accumulation or mastery of any domain or routine. I live, in short, to find what is to be found, to discover the truth that leads its seeker ever on in the quest of it. I want to know the truth, the real truth behind what there is in this world and in the human spirit. I want to follow the ever-winding path of truth, to see how close to it I can get, because you can’t leave this world with anything but the wisdom and the strength you’ve picked up while you were in it.
I explain in the video what it was like to be back in the place where it all started, after so many adventures I never could have dreamed of then.
TIME TRAVEL
So you see, I did travel through time, as we all can. I revisited my past and changed my perspective on it. I let myself feel again what I felt then and added new actions and knowledge. And now those memories have changed. I came back to myself at a much younger age, and I sent a message that has swept through the past and changed me as I am now. I did it, little Brad. I’m doing all the things you dreamed of but couldn’t at the time. The pining for adventure and truth is being satisfied, day by day. And the feeling of excitement, of hope, of expectation and the joy of the good things in life, small and large, that I felt then, is still burning in me. We’re going on with no regrets and the strength of all the good that we’ve experienced, that’s beaten the tough times, to see what else there is to enjoy.
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