Pauline, was one of a handful of ‘older’ people who worked in my cubicle farm of mostly 20-something geeky males fielding support calls for Apple’s top customers at the time (thank god, my first and last phone support job) in early 1997. She’s probably not unlike someone you’ve met before: about 45, single, quite overweight, long straight greasy hair, probably 6 or more cats at home, likely experimented in wicca at some point in her life, had the distinct possibility of getting into a lengthy uncomfortable conversation with you… Basically the talkative female equivalent of the “I believe you have my stapler” guy.
I usually avoided Pauline, but I was going around the office saying my goodbyes during my last week of employment, and stopped and talked to her for a few minutes. Said, “Yeah I’m moving to San Francisco, I can’t wait…” and she said “Oh that’s nice, good luck out there. But just so you know, California is going to be all underwater very soon. Have you seen my future map?”
Uhhh, what?
She turns and points to her cubicle wall! 
I shit you not, a full scale map of the United States with most of the west coast covered in the Pacific Ocean, on the wall of her cube. I remember her saying it was going to happen soon, like by 1999. I was pretty speechless, but probably managed to get out something like “oh, that’s really interesting.”
I remember Pauline and chuckle silently at this story every time I sit along the California coast and see something like this…
As I took this picture, took in the beauty, and thought about the “Pauline story” this weekend, I thought – I have GOT to look up this future map on the web and see where she got this crazy ass prediction from. Didn’t take long on google…
It kind of had to be ‘futurist’ Gordon-Michael Scallion’s bold prediction of the changes that will be occurring from 1998-2012. Of course earlier he predicted 1993-1998, then conveniently changed it. Nice work there modern-day Nostradamus! These future visions came to him while having near-death experiences, and while in a trance. Oh well, don’t despair Gordon-Michael, this happened a lot over the course of history to the Doomsday/Apocalypse/End Times prophets. Apocalyptic predictions go back 1000’s of years, and were all the rage in the 1970’s. We were surely going to hell because of all the hippies. The Jehovah’s witnesses have predicted the end of times nearly every decade for 100 years, until they finally gave up in 1995.
Comets, Earthquakes, 9/11, Tsunami’s, UFO’s, Rodney King riots, Four Horseman… ? Many variations, but a couple of things you can always count on: the return of Jesus, and lots and lots of earthquakes. 
Now another interesting twist this year, was my visit to Tikal and learning about the Mayans. 2012 is supposed to be a BIG year. It is the year they predicted would be “the completion of the thirteenth B’ak’tun cycle in the Long Count of the Maya calendar (December 21 to be exact) to mean there will be a major change in world order. Or possibly the end of times. Or aliens landing on earth. Or the end of the U.S. as a world power. We can’t be certain what they meant… but don’t panic. Interesting at least that 2012 will be an election year!
How was that for a digression?
I had another outdoor California excursion this weekend. I hiked 17 miles up the coast between Bolinas and Pt. Reyes, camping halfway in between, with an internet buddy and 2 of her friends – all 10 years my junior. This was actually the first time in my life I’ve hiked with camping gear, and I’ve camped a lot. I’ve always wanted to do that. But I’m not gonna lie, it was pretty tough, and I wasn’t even the worse off member of us four. Man am I hurting today!
We parked my friends car at Limantour camp (the end) and drove my car to Palomarin Beach, hiked through a lot of varied terrain, past lakes, through forest, until we got to Glen Camp. We made it just in time before dark to set up camp and eat. We had some laughs before getting to sleep. The sounds of the forest, especially early in the morning, were incredible. It sounded like the jungle, and reminded me of “why” we do something as ridiculous as carrying 30 pounds of crap 8 miles on your back only to freeze your ass off through the night.
I assure you, rest of the world, the California coast is still alive, well, and remarkable.
But check back with me in December 2012, because if the Mayans didn’t get it right, then no one ever will.