Hugs,
David Melia (Professional Free Hugger)
Sunday, February 2, 2014
The Power of a Moment
Moments stick into our minds. Moments sometimes have power over us. Moments of fear cripple us, moments of joy sustain us, moments of confusion confuse us. We live out our lives moment by moment. The importance of moments sometimes escape us, so it's always good to remember this:
Sometimes, the moment you are in contact with another person can stick with them for the rest of their life. This is the case with me as someone yelled to me "Keep it up, You're saving lives!" after I gave her a hug. It is this kind of presence in moments that I try to live my life. The impact of my momentary actions have lasting impacts on other persons. This blogpost is going to be short because I only have a couple free moments to work on it. I hope you enjoy it even with its momentary read.
Hugs,
David Melia (Professional Free Hugger)
Hugs,
David Melia (Professional Free Hugger)
Monday, January 20, 2014
The Future of Economic Equality
Hey there Friend!
What does economics have to do with Free Hugs you ask? Well the answer is really inherent in the mission of Free Hugs. One of the main reasons of giving away free hugs is the dent that it puts into the capitalist idea that we need money for everything. It is a daily reminder that some things are free. Some things we can't buy with money. Some things are priceless. This being said, money is an important part of any human's life. We do need money to survive. We need money to live in this capitalist world that we have created. Recently I have learned some off-the-wall facts about the distribution of wealth here in the United States have alarmed me.
Lets go over some crazy facts:
What does economics have to do with Free Hugs you ask? Well the answer is really inherent in the mission of Free Hugs. One of the main reasons of giving away free hugs is the dent that it puts into the capitalist idea that we need money for everything. It is a daily reminder that some things are free. Some things we can't buy with money. Some things are priceless. This being said, money is an important part of any human's life. We do need money to survive. We need money to live in this capitalist world that we have created. Recently I have learned some off-the-wall facts about the distribution of wealth here in the United States have alarmed me.
Lets go over some crazy facts:
- The top 1% of people in the United States have 40% of the total wealth of America
- The bottom 80% of people in the United States have 7% of the total wealth of America
I am just going to give you some time to contemplate those numbers. Just take a moment to read those facts over again. You may also want to take this time and watch this short video about the topic.
I have recently been seeing a lot of press and comments about Starbucks attempting to pay its employee's in a specific location, less than the law in that city allows. There has also been a lot of talk about the 'living wage' and minimum wage and what the best thing to do there is. As an entrepreneurship major, business owner/future business owner, I am fascinated by these questions as I am embarking on a couple of my entrepreneurial endeavors and my entrepreneurial studies.
The numbers are something that is hard to look past. The crazy disparity between the rich and the poor seems almost untouchable. It might seem like there is no hope. I want to say that there is hope. I don't know if you have ever heard of Moo Cluck Moo but this fast food startup company is an example of progress. With a starting salary of $12 an hour, assuming an $8 minimum wage, that is $4 above the minimum wage. And lets remember, Moo Cluck Moo is a startup company which means substantially less profit margin. Moo Cluck Moo is setting a precedent for our countries fast food chains. If a startup company can afford to pay their workers more than they are currently paying them. The process of creating change is happening right now. It is all of us as persons who have the power to help or hinder the cause in our daily life. The protests, boycotts, and actions of the people against the big corporations in-spite of the overwhelming odds in sense gives me hope.
As an entrepreneur, I think that through the increased interest in entrepreneurship and starting their own companies and implementing their own ideas, the distribution of wealth will come soon to follow. The more people who create their own business's the more economic stability more Americans will have. The increase in education opportunities and awareness of entrepreneurship as a career choice gives me hope for a more evenly spread distribution of wealth which will happen sooner than we realize. The increase in entrepreneurship is crucial to the redistribution of wealth in this country.
This quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. expresses all that I have been trying to convey throughout this whole post.
Therefore, I guess I didn't need to write it because this pretty much sums it up. I hope you enjoyed reading it anyway.
Hugs 'til Next Time,
David Melia (Professional Free Hugger)
P.S. Thanks to The Harry Potter Alliance for sharing this picture on their Facebook page. You should go check them out. They have some pretty cool stuff going on.
Friday, January 17, 2014
Daily Disciplines: What I am learning.
Starting a new year, almost all of us have things that we want to change about ourselves. We come up with grand ideas about how we are going to be better people in the year 2014, about how our lives will change, about how this will be our year. The new year brings about that longing for a new me. A new person. New year, new person. We all know the story. Once we get a couple months in, that new person resorts back to our old ways and 2014 is the same year as 2013. In order to fall out of this trap, daily disciplines. Daily disciplines allow us to reflect on the direction of our life on a daily basis. To make sure that the decisions which we make line up with our vision of the future. To understand that in order to achieve a goal, we need to make progress on that goal, no matter how small, everyday.
I just read a post by my friend Ali about the importance of the seemingly insignificant, small things and how each of those seemingly insignificant things are actually big things (click here to read her post). They are HUGE! I have never actually set aside time each day to consciously write down what I have done that day or reflect on my decisions to understand where I am right now and where I am going and if my decisions that day have helped or hindered that ultimate goal.
I am currently working on trying to design a worksheet for myself in order to have something to fill out daily which will be able to serve as a time for me to plan out my day, reflect on the daily activities, and allow me to have something concrete to look at and map out my thoughts and be able to see myself change throughout the process (hopefully changing for the better... I think that is the ultimate goal, right?) I have been a little bit spotty here at the beginning of the year in my filling out of these worksheets and am still in the process of creating something that will benefit me each day, but I think this will always be the case. It will always be something that changes from day to day, and so I hope that I will be able to sit down and focus everyday in an attempt to understand what kind of person my decisions are crafting me into.
It is the daily choices that we make that create our character. I am challenging myself to create daily disciplines for myself to follow. I challenge you to do the same. Do something small everyday in order to achieve a goal in your life. In addition to your everyday activities whether it be work, school, projects, dedicate 15 minutes a day to thinking, to dreaming about something that you want to make happen, and then another 15 minutes on writing, or planning different concrete steps to try and reach that goal. Good luck!!
Hugs,
David Melia (Professional Free Hugger)
I just read a post by my friend Ali about the importance of the seemingly insignificant, small things and how each of those seemingly insignificant things are actually big things (click here to read her post). They are HUGE! I have never actually set aside time each day to consciously write down what I have done that day or reflect on my decisions to understand where I am right now and where I am going and if my decisions that day have helped or hindered that ultimate goal.
I am currently working on trying to design a worksheet for myself in order to have something to fill out daily which will be able to serve as a time for me to plan out my day, reflect on the daily activities, and allow me to have something concrete to look at and map out my thoughts and be able to see myself change throughout the process (hopefully changing for the better... I think that is the ultimate goal, right?) I have been a little bit spotty here at the beginning of the year in my filling out of these worksheets and am still in the process of creating something that will benefit me each day, but I think this will always be the case. It will always be something that changes from day to day, and so I hope that I will be able to sit down and focus everyday in an attempt to understand what kind of person my decisions are crafting me into.
It is the daily choices that we make that create our character. I am challenging myself to create daily disciplines for myself to follow. I challenge you to do the same. Do something small everyday in order to achieve a goal in your life. In addition to your everyday activities whether it be work, school, projects, dedicate 15 minutes a day to thinking, to dreaming about something that you want to make happen, and then another 15 minutes on writing, or planning different concrete steps to try and reach that goal. Good luck!!
Hugs,
David Melia (Professional Free Hugger)
Saturday, January 4, 2014
A New Year's Resolution Post (Maybe, Maybe not)
Hey Friend,
Here are 2014 goals and projects that I will be working on starting a few days ago.
Penny Bet Goals
Here are 2014 goals and projects that I will be working on starting a few days ago.
Penny Bet Goals
- Get a working website and app available to start raising money for charities
- Raise $20,000 to be donated to charity.
- Write Penny Bet Business Plan
Free Hugs Goals
- Redesign a website that allows for Free Hugs merchandise to be sold
- Design an app that will allow for free huggers to log their hugging counts and share where they gave away those hugs in an attempt to find the most huggable city in the United States
- Create a list of Free Hug friendly organizations around the world
- Give away/ receive 20,000-30,000 hugs in 2014
Social Leadership Academy
- Create and craft and be a part of world changing projects including Free Hugs and Penny Bets.
Everyday People project with Megan
- It's going to happen! :) I am grateful to be a part of it.
Teaching Entrepreneurship
- Learn and Teach stuff.
- Have fun.
This is a general overview of my goals in 2014, the big goals. I am currently working on smaller stepping stone goals. 2014 sounds exciting to me. Let me know what you think!
Hugs,
:David Melia (Professional Free Hugger)
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Reflections on 2013
Hey Friends,
2013 was a year full of a lot of new and crazy rides. It was cool to be living it in my shoes. In the beginning of the year I was working on finishing writing the rough drafts of my Free Hugs: It's More Than A Campaign--It's A Lifestyle book. During my winter quarter at DePaul University, I went about the self publishing process with the help of Outskirts Press, a self publishing company. I spent more money getting the book published than I have made back from book sales so far, but I think that the process of getting a book published and distributed via Amazon and other outlets was well worth the investment. Having a book published about Free Hugs gives me a lifelong product to help generate information and revenue for my free hugs projects. It also shows my dedication to my free hugs projects.
I used the money that I did earn from book sales in order to go on a Free Hugs Tour during my summer break. I took public transportation to get to most of the places that I toured. This was a very new and different experience than traveling around the country via car. I had to depend a lot more on other people and met more people due to the increased amount of people that I came into contact with. My tour was planned for the whole summer (26 cities in just under 90 days- June 12-September 8), I only was able to complete about half of it (13 cities in about 45 days) before I was drained of money, and emotionally drained. On this trip I gave away about 2500 hugs and most of the trip is documented earlier in this blog. Near the end, I found it harder and harder to set aside the time and write about it. At the time I was really devastated that I couldn't muster up the strength to finish out the tour. After I thought about it for a while though, 90 days of straight traveling and Free Hugging without much rest time was a bad idea. I learned that smaller trips and planning free time not including Free Hugging as the prime motive is key for my Free Hugs tours. Even though I failed greatly in my original plan, I learned a lot on this tour, met a lot of new and amazing people. Each failure is a stepping stone on the road to success. As Robert F. Kennedy once said, "Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." I think I am in a good place.
I abruptly ended my tour the first couple days of August. This also allowed me to attend my brothers 18th birthday party with his and my long time friends at Medieval Times. At the end of August I found a job helping out at an after school program. It has been a blessing to be a part of the After School Care team. This next year I will actually be teaching an entrepreneurship class to some of the middle schoolers, sharing my passion for entrepreneurship and growing in my academic, entrepreneurship knowledge. This is my major at DePaul University so it will also fit right in with my classes and help me organize and build my entrepreneurial endeavors. More on this to be included in my next post about what 2014 brings with the new year.
Speaking of entrepreneurial endeavors... in October of this year I was fortunate enough to be a part of the Search 7 retreat brought about by Catholic Campus Ministry at DePaul University. This retreat was one of the greatest retreats that I have ever been on. It allowed me to search for what I was searching for, very specific i know, but that is all I can tell you. It was a great 'retreat' from the real world grind, and allowed me to refocus in a quarter full of writing and stress. From that experience, a friend of mine and I came up with an idea. This idea is named 'Penny Bets'. It's pretty self explanatory, you bet someone something for a penny. This can range from anything across the board, but just bet it for a penny. Once you have a lot of pennies, you donate the funds to a charity of ones choosing. I was talking with some friends about Penny Bets when they challenged me to create a website and an app for penny bets to increase its impact. Therefore, I am currently working on designing and developing a Penny Bet website and mobile application. More information to follow as well.
Stay tuned for an organized blog post with all of the projects and endeavors that I will be starting and working on in 2014 that I am aware of thus far into the year!
Hugs,
David Melia (Professional Free Hugger)
2013 was a year full of a lot of new and crazy rides. It was cool to be living it in my shoes. In the beginning of the year I was working on finishing writing the rough drafts of my Free Hugs: It's More Than A Campaign--It's A Lifestyle book. During my winter quarter at DePaul University, I went about the self publishing process with the help of Outskirts Press, a self publishing company. I spent more money getting the book published than I have made back from book sales so far, but I think that the process of getting a book published and distributed via Amazon and other outlets was well worth the investment. Having a book published about Free Hugs gives me a lifelong product to help generate information and revenue for my free hugs projects. It also shows my dedication to my free hugs projects.
I used the money that I did earn from book sales in order to go on a Free Hugs Tour during my summer break. I took public transportation to get to most of the places that I toured. This was a very new and different experience than traveling around the country via car. I had to depend a lot more on other people and met more people due to the increased amount of people that I came into contact with. My tour was planned for the whole summer (26 cities in just under 90 days- June 12-September 8), I only was able to complete about half of it (13 cities in about 45 days) before I was drained of money, and emotionally drained. On this trip I gave away about 2500 hugs and most of the trip is documented earlier in this blog. Near the end, I found it harder and harder to set aside the time and write about it. At the time I was really devastated that I couldn't muster up the strength to finish out the tour. After I thought about it for a while though, 90 days of straight traveling and Free Hugging without much rest time was a bad idea. I learned that smaller trips and planning free time not including Free Hugging as the prime motive is key for my Free Hugs tours. Even though I failed greatly in my original plan, I learned a lot on this tour, met a lot of new and amazing people. Each failure is a stepping stone on the road to success. As Robert F. Kennedy once said, "Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." I think I am in a good place.
I abruptly ended my tour the first couple days of August. This also allowed me to attend my brothers 18th birthday party with his and my long time friends at Medieval Times. At the end of August I found a job helping out at an after school program. It has been a blessing to be a part of the After School Care team. This next year I will actually be teaching an entrepreneurship class to some of the middle schoolers, sharing my passion for entrepreneurship and growing in my academic, entrepreneurship knowledge. This is my major at DePaul University so it will also fit right in with my classes and help me organize and build my entrepreneurial endeavors. More on this to be included in my next post about what 2014 brings with the new year.
Speaking of entrepreneurial endeavors... in October of this year I was fortunate enough to be a part of the Search 7 retreat brought about by Catholic Campus Ministry at DePaul University. This retreat was one of the greatest retreats that I have ever been on. It allowed me to search for what I was searching for, very specific i know, but that is all I can tell you. It was a great 'retreat' from the real world grind, and allowed me to refocus in a quarter full of writing and stress. From that experience, a friend of mine and I came up with an idea. This idea is named 'Penny Bets'. It's pretty self explanatory, you bet someone something for a penny. This can range from anything across the board, but just bet it for a penny. Once you have a lot of pennies, you donate the funds to a charity of ones choosing. I was talking with some friends about Penny Bets when they challenged me to create a website and an app for penny bets to increase its impact. Therefore, I am currently working on designing and developing a Penny Bet website and mobile application. More information to follow as well.
Stay tuned for an organized blog post with all of the projects and endeavors that I will be starting and working on in 2014 that I am aware of thus far into the year!
Hugs,
David Melia (Professional Free Hugger)
Sunday, December 29, 2013
2013, A Review.
Here is a month by month highlight happenings of 2013 for David Melia (Professional Free Hugger). 2013 was an exciting and rewarding year. I accomplished a lot including publishing a book, going on a Free Hugs Tour, gave away 10,000 hugs, met lots of cool people to work on future projects with, grew in my faith though Search 7 retreat and the Catholic Campus Ministries on the campus of DePaul, and
got accepted to the Social Leadership Academy for 2014.
January
May
June
got accepted to the Social Leadership Academy for 2014.
January
- Attended Urbana Conference in St Louis until January
- Finished writing Free Hugs: It’s More Than A Campaign—It’s A Lifestyle book
February
- Final edits to Free Hugs Book and Publication preparation
- 20th (Golden) Birthday
March
- Free Hugs: It’s More Than A Campaign—It’s A Lifestyle was officially published
- Free Hugs Tour 2013 Planning
April
- School work and Free Hugs tour planning
- School work and free hugs tour planning
- Start of Free Hugs Tour 2013
- Leaky Con
- Met Megan
- Met Bill Oldenburg
July
- Continuation of Free Hugs Tour
-
August
- Free Hugs Tour (abrupt end)
- Free Hugs Tour recovery
- Received job as an After School Care worker at Daystar School
September
- Started Fall quarter of Sophomore year at DePaul
October
- LaSalle Street Church Retreat
- Search 7 retreat
- Inception of Penny Bets
November
- Free Hugs Forum at LaSalle Street Church
December
- Reached 10,000 hugs given away in 2013
- Accepted to the Social Leadership Academy for 2014
- Penny Bets Expansion project idea created
Stay Tuned for 2014 projects, expectations, and happenings. I will go into more detail about each of the different projects as progress is made in the new year!! What a crazy year 2013 has been.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Delay's and Laziness
One thing I have learned more times than anything else is that trying to do too much turns out to be counterproductive and detrimental to the moral and ability to hit the streets to Free Hug. This being said, I have had a little bit of a break from some of the blog posts, I have most of the content written on paper but transporting that onto a blog post just seemed too much this past week. I am here to say that I am now working on typing those up and I owe you guys about 2-3 blog posts. I will try and get those up within the next few days. Thanks for your support. Stay Tuned..
Hugs,
David Melia
Professional Free Hugger
Hugs,
David Melia
Professional Free Hugger
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Day 36/37/38 (July 19/20/21)
Day 36 (July 19)
Summary:
Today was my first full day in Denver. I hugged at the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver from about noon until 5 and then headed over to Coors Field where the Colorado Rockies were playing the Chicago Cubs, in order to hug around the stadium in order to give away some hugs before the game. My host met me and took me to the stadium (he had a ticket for the game already) While giving away hugs there was an amazing guy who gave me a free ticket to the game so that I could go in and watch it! I headed into the game at about 7:30 around the 4th inning of play. I found my seat next to the people that gave me a free ticket and was greeted by lots of people giving me hugs and eager to hear about my Free Hugging tour.
Highlights:
1) Getting a free ticket to the Rockies vs. Cubs game.
2) Giving/Receiving 458 hugs.
Lowlights:
1) None
Learned:
1) Denver is a lot like Chicago.
2) I got the most amount of hugs outside of Chicago during today.
Day 37 (July 20)
Summary:
Today my host and I drove to Aurora to remember what happened there a year ago today. We left at 9:30 and arrived at about 10:00. Once we got there we walked around a little bit. I went over to the Healing Wall where people wrote things on a cut out of their hand for others to look at and see. Here are a couple of my favorites:
Highlights:
1) Meeting lots of people interested in my Free Hugging projects.
2) Going to the memorial for the victims of the theater shooting a year ago today.
3) Looking at the notes that people left on the Healing Wall.
Lowlights:
1) Bursting into tears while reading some of the hands on the healing wall due to the beauty of some of the messages while being interviewed about them.
Learned:
1) Being a Free Hugger is tough and some of the messages on the healing wall touched me in a way that I didn't know I needed to be touched. I am still working through some of the feelings that this experience brought up. Future updates to follow, sooner or later.
Day 38 (July 21)
Summary:
Today was mostly a chill day. My host drove me up to the top of Mount Evans in the morning and during the afternoon I Skyped with a couple of my friends Ryan and Adam from Chicago. I then took a shower and readied my belongings for my flight tomorrow to Wichita. I also watched some episodes of Burn Notice throughout the day.
Highlights:
1) It was really nice to have just a day of relaxing and enjoying Colorado and the scenery and mountains.
Lowlights:
1) I leave Denver tomorrow.
Learned:
1) Denver is a great city, almost as great as Chicago.
2) I really like Denver a lot, they give away lots of hugs!
Summary:
Today was my first full day in Denver. I hugged at the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver from about noon until 5 and then headed over to Coors Field where the Colorado Rockies were playing the Chicago Cubs, in order to hug around the stadium in order to give away some hugs before the game. My host met me and took me to the stadium (he had a ticket for the game already) While giving away hugs there was an amazing guy who gave me a free ticket to the game so that I could go in and watch it! I headed into the game at about 7:30 around the 4th inning of play. I found my seat next to the people that gave me a free ticket and was greeted by lots of people giving me hugs and eager to hear about my Free Hugging tour.
Highlights:
2) Giving/Receiving 458 hugs.
Lowlights:
1) None
Learned:
1) Denver is a lot like Chicago.
2) I got the most amount of hugs outside of Chicago during today.
Day 37 (July 20)
Summary:
Today my host and I drove to Aurora to remember what happened there a year ago today. We left at 9:30 and arrived at about 10:00. Once we got there we walked around a little bit. I went over to the Healing Wall where people wrote things on a cut out of their hand for others to look at and see. Here are a couple of my favorites:
Highlights:
1) Meeting lots of people interested in my Free Hugging projects.
2) Going to the memorial for the victims of the theater shooting a year ago today.
3) Looking at the notes that people left on the Healing Wall.
Lowlights:
1) Bursting into tears while reading some of the hands on the healing wall due to the beauty of some of the messages while being interviewed about them.
Learned:
1) Being a Free Hugger is tough and some of the messages on the healing wall touched me in a way that I didn't know I needed to be touched. I am still working through some of the feelings that this experience brought up. Future updates to follow, sooner or later.
Day 38 (July 21)
Summary:
Today was mostly a chill day. My host drove me up to the top of Mount Evans in the morning and during the afternoon I Skyped with a couple of my friends Ryan and Adam from Chicago. I then took a shower and readied my belongings for my flight tomorrow to Wichita. I also watched some episodes of Burn Notice throughout the day.
Highlights:
1) It was really nice to have just a day of relaxing and enjoying Colorado and the scenery and mountains.
Lowlights:
1) I leave Denver tomorrow.
Learned:
1) Denver is a great city, almost as great as Chicago.
2) I really like Denver a lot, they give away lots of hugs!
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Day 33/34/35 (July 16/17/18)
Day 33 (July 16)
Summary:
Today I went to pick up a bike I rented at a shop called The Bikesmith near Old Town in Albuquerque. I then went to Tim's Place which serves 'Breakfast, Lunch, and Hugs'. It was one of the greatest places to go while on a Free Hugs Tour!! It was awesome to meet with Tim, give him, as well as some of the customers hugs, and bond over the amazing love of hugs that we both share! It was one of the greatest experiences that I have had on tour so far.
Here are some pictures of the experience:
I then biked to Starbucks to work on some stuff on the computer. Lastly I went back to my hosts house and enjoyed a great nights rest.
Highlights:
1) Meeting Tim and giving him hugs and a complimentary copy of my book while bonding over our common love of hugs.
2) Biking around and getting back in shape.
Lowlights:
1) None
Learned:
1) Tim's Place really is one of the nicest places I have ever been to.
2) Biking up the mountains at such a high altitude is exhausting!
Day 34 (July 17)
Summary:
Today I visited Tim's Place again before biking back to my host's house. After I finished my last blog post, we went to the mall in Albuquerque's Uptown. I hugged there a little bit but the indoor mall atmosphere is a little bit different than what I am used to. After the mall I went back to my host's house and at 7:00 went over to a park where I met up with my friend Josh from school. He and some of his friends and I all hung out by playing some knockout and ultimate frisbee until about 10:00 pm. I then biked back to the host's house and got ready for the trip to Denver tomorrow.
Highlights:
1) Visiting Tim's place again and enjoying the hugging atmosphere of his restaurant.
2) Playing Ultimate Frisbee with some friends.
3) Winning our game of Ultimate Frisbee.
Lowlights:
1) Hugging in a mall is not my favorite place to hug, I am always scared of getting kicked out.. I don't know why I should care about getting kicked out, but I am.
Learned:
1) Friends are good to have and hangout with.
2) A hugs restaurant is one of the most magical places in the world.
Day 35 (July 18)
Summary:
Today I woke up at 6:00 and biked back to The Bikesmith shop where I rented my bike from. I arrived at 8:00 am, an hour and a half before they opened so I went to to eat breakfast at Starbucks. While I was sitting there I met a lot of people and gave away about 25 hugs just working on my computer in Starbucks (my computer has a Free Hugs patch on the back of it). It really brightened my day that in the everyday activity in our everyday lives people can interact and hug and create friendships. It warmed my heart and definitely made my day. Albuquerque, although really spread out, has a lot of some of the nicest people that I have met on this tour so far. At 9:30 am when The Bikesmith opened, I went and returned my bike and started my walk to the Amtrak station. On my way there a couple of people hugged me with my backpack on which was pretty cool. I got to the train station at 11:00 am for my 12:10 departing train. I boarded the train at about 11:30. Once the train was on its way it was about 4 hours to my stop at Raton, New Mexico where I transferred to a bus that would take me to Denver. I arrived in Denver at 10:00pm and my host picked me up from the Amtrak station. We talked for a little bit and he showed me around before we went to bed to get ready for tomorrow morning.
Highlights:
1) Meeting some inspiring and friendly people while I was at Albuquerque Starbucks.
2) Arriving in Denver.
3) Getting some work done while traveling.
Lowlights:
1) Traveling is really tiring and sometimes boring (the train part at least)
2) Riding a bike with my heavy backpacking pack.
Learned:
1) Anywhere you go, amazing and inspiring people are waiting to be met.
Summary:
Today I went to pick up a bike I rented at a shop called The Bikesmith near Old Town in Albuquerque. I then went to Tim's Place which serves 'Breakfast, Lunch, and Hugs'. It was one of the greatest places to go while on a Free Hugs Tour!! It was awesome to meet with Tim, give him, as well as some of the customers hugs, and bond over the amazing love of hugs that we both share! It was one of the greatest experiences that I have had on tour so far.
Here are some pictures of the experience:
Highlights:
1) Meeting Tim and giving him hugs and a complimentary copy of my book while bonding over our common love of hugs.
2) Biking around and getting back in shape.
Lowlights:
1) None
Learned:
1) Tim's Place really is one of the nicest places I have ever been to.
2) Biking up the mountains at such a high altitude is exhausting!
Day 34 (July 17)
Summary:
Today I visited Tim's Place again before biking back to my host's house. After I finished my last blog post, we went to the mall in Albuquerque's Uptown. I hugged there a little bit but the indoor mall atmosphere is a little bit different than what I am used to. After the mall I went back to my host's house and at 7:00 went over to a park where I met up with my friend Josh from school. He and some of his friends and I all hung out by playing some knockout and ultimate frisbee until about 10:00 pm. I then biked back to the host's house and got ready for the trip to Denver tomorrow.
Highlights:
1) Visiting Tim's place again and enjoying the hugging atmosphere of his restaurant.
2) Playing Ultimate Frisbee with some friends.
3) Winning our game of Ultimate Frisbee.
Lowlights:
1) Hugging in a mall is not my favorite place to hug, I am always scared of getting kicked out.. I don't know why I should care about getting kicked out, but I am.
Learned:
1) Friends are good to have and hangout with.
2) A hugs restaurant is one of the most magical places in the world.
Day 35 (July 18)
Summary:
Today I woke up at 6:00 and biked back to The Bikesmith shop where I rented my bike from. I arrived at 8:00 am, an hour and a half before they opened so I went to to eat breakfast at Starbucks. While I was sitting there I met a lot of people and gave away about 25 hugs just working on my computer in Starbucks (my computer has a Free Hugs patch on the back of it). It really brightened my day that in the everyday activity in our everyday lives people can interact and hug and create friendships. It warmed my heart and definitely made my day. Albuquerque, although really spread out, has a lot of some of the nicest people that I have met on this tour so far. At 9:30 am when The Bikesmith opened, I went and returned my bike and started my walk to the Amtrak station. On my way there a couple of people hugged me with my backpack on which was pretty cool. I got to the train station at 11:00 am for my 12:10 departing train. I boarded the train at about 11:30. Once the train was on its way it was about 4 hours to my stop at Raton, New Mexico where I transferred to a bus that would take me to Denver. I arrived in Denver at 10:00pm and my host picked me up from the Amtrak station. We talked for a little bit and he showed me around before we went to bed to get ready for tomorrow morning.
Highlights:
1) Meeting some inspiring and friendly people while I was at Albuquerque Starbucks.
2) Arriving in Denver.
3) Getting some work done while traveling.
Lowlights:
1) Traveling is really tiring and sometimes boring (the train part at least)
2) Riding a bike with my heavy backpacking pack.
Learned:
1) Anywhere you go, amazing and inspiring people are waiting to be met.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Day 30/31/32 (July 13/14/15)
Day 30 (July 13)
Summary:
Today was my last full day in San Diego. The plan was to go to the Pride Festival in Balboa Park. I made a pit stop at the Starbucks on the San Diego State University. Christian owns a website project where he wants to try and feature really cool projects that make the world a better place. I was his first project so we got some photo's for him at San Diego State University before I headed over to attempt to attend the Pride Festival. Once I almost got to the Pride Festival I met Nancy, Maegan, Charise, Yngvild, and Cheyenne. I gave them free hugs signs and we gave away some hugs while we traveled to get some food at Mission Beach. It was a go-with-the-flow kinda day. We ate at a mexican food place and gave away some hugs at the beach including a bunch of guys having their bachelor party! After hanging out a little bit I took the bus back to my host's house. Tomorrow I am traveling to Albuquerque!!
Highlights:
1) Meeting Steve and Christian at Starbucks before heading down to Pride.
2) Meeting up with Nancy, Maegan, Charise, Yngvild, and Cheyenne at Pride and going to Mission Beach for dinner with them.
3) Roller coaster ride.
4) Photo stuff with Christian.
Lowlights:
1) Being called a hug prostitute by someone following me..
Learned:
1) Giving away free hugs signs is really awesome, it allows people to start their own free hugs right away!
2) Crafting relationships is part of the Free Hugs Lifestyle and is as important as giving away lots of hugs
Day 31 (July 14)
Summary:
Today my host drove me down to the Amtrak station in San Diego for my 2:40 departure to Albuquerque. On the way we stopped to wash his car. I arrived at the train station at 10:00 and headed to Starbucks across the street to watch some Burn Notice and send out some emails/ organize my hugging time in Albuquerque. At 1:40 I went over to the train station to wait. We boarded the buses (train work was being done from the San Diego stop to the Oceanview stop so we had to take a bus to Oceanview before taking the train the rest of the way to Los Angeles where I would catch my train to Albuquerque. I boarded the train to Albuquerque and left at 6:15 and was seated at the very end of the train which allowed me to look out behind the train as we headed down the track. It was a really beautiful view and I had enough space to do some organizing while traveling. I will get into Albuquerque at about 12:00 pm tomorrow.
Highlights:
1) The view from the back of the train.
2) Getting a lot of my stuff organized for my time in Albuquerque.
3) Meeting a young girl who makes stuff out of duct tape.
Lowlights:
1) The train was on its way to Chicago. It made me a little bit homesick as a lot of the people that I met on the train were headed to Chicago, the greatest city on earth.
Learned:
1) This is how my mind works:
- I want to give away lots of hugs.
- Yeah but giving away few hugs is just as good and you have to explore each city to understand and be able to receive the maximum impact for all of your hugs!
- But it doesn't feel as if I am accomplishing as much!
- That is not the point
- Blah
- Blah
- We will talk about it later. I'm too tired to think about this right now.
- Night buddy.
2) Being organized is good.
3) Almost all of my belongings now fit in my Osprey backpacking pack.
Day 32 (July 15)
Summary:
Today I got to talk to a person I met who was on his way to Chicago. He is a pastor at a church in Chicago and I got to talk to him about my tour projects and my passion for giving away free hugs. I then arrived at Albuquerque at 11:00 am and walked to the post office to send a package of some extraneous stuff back to my house in order to lighten my load a little bit. I then took the bus to a Starbucks near my host's house in order to wait for them to get home so that I could meet them. I went over to the house at around 5:00 pm. It is a really nice house. I am staying in a guest bedroom and the bed is super comfortable. We ate dinner and talked a little bit and then I went to bed at about 10:00. Tomorrow I am planning to go pick up my bike rental and then visit Tim's Place and get some breakfast and hugs!!
Highlights:
1) Meeting David and Jenny, my Albuquerque hosts.
2) Sending off some unneeded weight and lightening my pack.
Lowlights:
1) None
Learned:
1) Albuquerque is a lot like Los Angeles in the fact that everything is really spread out, but the people here are a lot nicer. As I walked down the street anyone I met would say good morning or good afternoon. The people here are a lot more open than in Los Angeles.
2) The landscape of New Mexico is a lot different than what I am used to. It is amazingly beautiful and there are a lot of hills.
Summary:
Today was my last full day in San Diego. The plan was to go to the Pride Festival in Balboa Park. I made a pit stop at the Starbucks on the San Diego State University. Christian owns a website project where he wants to try and feature really cool projects that make the world a better place. I was his first project so we got some photo's for him at San Diego State University before I headed over to attempt to attend the Pride Festival. Once I almost got to the Pride Festival I met Nancy, Maegan, Charise, Yngvild, and Cheyenne. I gave them free hugs signs and we gave away some hugs while we traveled to get some food at Mission Beach. It was a go-with-the-flow kinda day. We ate at a mexican food place and gave away some hugs at the beach including a bunch of guys having their bachelor party! After hanging out a little bit I took the bus back to my host's house. Tomorrow I am traveling to Albuquerque!!
Highlights:
1) Meeting Steve and Christian at Starbucks before heading down to Pride.
2) Meeting up with Nancy, Maegan, Charise, Yngvild, and Cheyenne at Pride and going to Mission Beach for dinner with them.
3) Roller coaster ride.
4) Photo stuff with Christian.
Lowlights:
1) Being called a hug prostitute by someone following me..
Learned:
1) Giving away free hugs signs is really awesome, it allows people to start their own free hugs right away!
2) Crafting relationships is part of the Free Hugs Lifestyle and is as important as giving away lots of hugs
Day 31 (July 14)
Summary:
Today my host drove me down to the Amtrak station in San Diego for my 2:40 departure to Albuquerque. On the way we stopped to wash his car. I arrived at the train station at 10:00 and headed to Starbucks across the street to watch some Burn Notice and send out some emails/ organize my hugging time in Albuquerque. At 1:40 I went over to the train station to wait. We boarded the buses (train work was being done from the San Diego stop to the Oceanview stop so we had to take a bus to Oceanview before taking the train the rest of the way to Los Angeles where I would catch my train to Albuquerque. I boarded the train to Albuquerque and left at 6:15 and was seated at the very end of the train which allowed me to look out behind the train as we headed down the track. It was a really beautiful view and I had enough space to do some organizing while traveling. I will get into Albuquerque at about 12:00 pm tomorrow.
Highlights:
1) The view from the back of the train.
2) Getting a lot of my stuff organized for my time in Albuquerque.
3) Meeting a young girl who makes stuff out of duct tape.
Lowlights:
1) The train was on its way to Chicago. It made me a little bit homesick as a lot of the people that I met on the train were headed to Chicago, the greatest city on earth.
Learned:
1) This is how my mind works:
- I want to give away lots of hugs.
- Yeah but giving away few hugs is just as good and you have to explore each city to understand and be able to receive the maximum impact for all of your hugs!
- But it doesn't feel as if I am accomplishing as much!
- That is not the point
- Blah
- Blah
- We will talk about it later. I'm too tired to think about this right now.
- Night buddy.
2) Being organized is good.
3) Almost all of my belongings now fit in my Osprey backpacking pack.
Day 32 (July 15)
Summary:
Today I got to talk to a person I met who was on his way to Chicago. He is a pastor at a church in Chicago and I got to talk to him about my tour projects and my passion for giving away free hugs. I then arrived at Albuquerque at 11:00 am and walked to the post office to send a package of some extraneous stuff back to my house in order to lighten my load a little bit. I then took the bus to a Starbucks near my host's house in order to wait for them to get home so that I could meet them. I went over to the house at around 5:00 pm. It is a really nice house. I am staying in a guest bedroom and the bed is super comfortable. We ate dinner and talked a little bit and then I went to bed at about 10:00. Tomorrow I am planning to go pick up my bike rental and then visit Tim's Place and get some breakfast and hugs!!
Highlights:
1) Meeting David and Jenny, my Albuquerque hosts.
2) Sending off some unneeded weight and lightening my pack.
Lowlights:
1) None
Learned:
1) Albuquerque is a lot like Los Angeles in the fact that everything is really spread out, but the people here are a lot nicer. As I walked down the street anyone I met would say good morning or good afternoon. The people here are a lot more open than in Los Angeles.
2) The landscape of New Mexico is a lot different than what I am used to. It is amazingly beautiful and there are a lot of hills.
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