Europe, March-April 1998

Emily graduated from Cal in December of 1988 and her parents gave her a trip to Europe as a present.  She initially flew over and spent about 6 weeks gallivanting around with Liz, her friend from high school in Maryland.  About the time that Liz left I flew over and we did the whole thing again.  

To make cash for my trip I took a job as a construction laborer, in addition to working for Peter Isgro at his antique store on the weekends.  One day, the 10th of February to be exact, I was digging ditches in the rain at a house in the Santa Cruz mountains off of highway 17.  I was working for a Contractor who was adding onto a house and doing all of the tasks that he and his assistant didn't want to do, such as digging ditches.  A few days prior I had made the grave error of telling them that I had graduated in the summer from Berkeley with an engineering degree so they were already giving me a hard time.  Anyway, the boss called me away from the ditches to help him with something and I ended up kneeling over on the muddy ground.  Suddenly there was a shout and a ladder slid off of the post it was propped up against, along with the 220 pound assistant carpenter.  Both ladder and man crashed down directly onto my back, driving my face into the mud.  That day was my birthday.