(no subject)
It's strange how I'm always more eager to record the small images in my life that write out epic prose like I did back in the old days, when I actually plunked down and stamped out a play-by-play account of an entire day for a single sitting. Amazing, young Kevin.
Anyway, an image that struck me today:
When I woke up on the bus ride home [I always take a nap on the bus; for once I'm glad I can sleep anywhere], we were in Alhambra, and a middle-aged woman was making the effort to stand at the front of the bus and make conversation with the bus driver, even though the bus was only half empty and there were more than enough seats. From what I could tell, they were talking about food [I heard "seasoned with sun-dried tomatoes" at one point], and both the woman and the bus driver were smiling so much. It was such a human scene; I'd never seen the woman before in my regular trips home, so she was probably a casual passenger. The bus driver was happy with the company that when I disembarked with the typical gratitude ["Thank you!"], he got a little flustered and said "Okay, bye!" instead of the usual "You're welcome!".
I also decided on the bus that in my farewell letter to the Raben Group, I'm going to not bore people with the boring stuff that I'd do when I get back to school. Mein gott, it's so painful reading people's contrived letters about how everyone was sooooo nice and how they learned sooooo much and the boring extracurriculars they'll go back to when they're in college. I think I'm going to litter mine with these silly little images, maybe write about Tyche [my dog], and somewhere include a sentence that goes "I'll refrain from pre-regaling you on what exploits I hope to accomplish during the school year, since I can't predict the future; instead, I hope you'll keep in contact so I can tell you what actually happened, in person."
The past couple of days have been pretty eventful too, in my quaintly complacent life. Tuesday night, I went to Nathan's house to go on a night swim with Andy, Johnny, Daniel, and Nathan; Koko and Nathan's two sisters watched from the poolside. Yesterday night, I met up with a bunch of people [Angela, Brian Hu, Jack, Donovan, Byron, Joyce, Monica, Hua, Jason Wang, some others I probably missed] at Tenju's. It's so nice talking to people you grew up with, I can't describe. At the same time, what Brian and Angela told me made me glad that I'd left the SGV bubble.
Oh yes, and yesterday night, before I got to Tenju's, I also went out with the LA Raben Group peeps plus Michael from DC to Perch, which is this schmancy open-air French-bistro-esque place on the 15th floor overlooking Pershing Square and across from the downtown skyscrapers. There, we met a few of the big names from a couple large nonprofits nearby [MALDEF, NCLR], and chatted until around 8, when I left to catch the second to last 78 bus of the night. As I went down that elevator, I essentially descended into another world; the Pershing Square of the 6 o'clock after work rush is vastly different, I found, from the 8 o'clock Square. I waited with mild anxiety for the 78 to come [it ended up being around 6 minutes late], but by the time it came I almost didn't care that it said "Main-Garfield/Alhambra" and that I'd have to call my parents to pick me up, because I'd had quite enough of jail talk coming from this group of about five old African American men, about how Martin was going to court for parole tomorrow, and how Sam did something mother-effing [my own watering down] stupid and deserved it.
Naturally, when I got on the 78 bus, the five followed me; not only that, but they yelled "OH, DAIN'T NO ONE GETTIN' ANY SLEEP ON DIS BUS!" and laughed really loudly [they were generally loud, if you didn't get that by now]. It was fun though, I guess, to experience other people's lives so peripherally; in a way, I learned as much from listening to the Raben principals, Congressional staffers, and nonprofit heads talking about government and life in DC as I did from the coarse dialogue of those men. Life is interesting.
Oh yes, and at Tenju's, Brian, Angela, and I set out a plan to help Brian [and maybe myself] get into writing [again, for me]. I really hope it works, and that in trying to motivate others I'll somehow motivate myself. Let's see how it goes. Not a bad start though, I think.
Anyway, an image that struck me today:
When I woke up on the bus ride home [I always take a nap on the bus; for once I'm glad I can sleep anywhere], we were in Alhambra, and a middle-aged woman was making the effort to stand at the front of the bus and make conversation with the bus driver, even though the bus was only half empty and there were more than enough seats. From what I could tell, they were talking about food [I heard "seasoned with sun-dried tomatoes" at one point], and both the woman and the bus driver were smiling so much. It was such a human scene; I'd never seen the woman before in my regular trips home, so she was probably a casual passenger. The bus driver was happy with the company that when I disembarked with the typical gratitude ["Thank you!"], he got a little flustered and said "Okay, bye!" instead of the usual "You're welcome!".
I also decided on the bus that in my farewell letter to the Raben Group, I'm going to not bore people with the boring stuff that I'd do when I get back to school. Mein gott, it's so painful reading people's contrived letters about how everyone was sooooo nice and how they learned sooooo much and the boring extracurriculars they'll go back to when they're in college. I think I'm going to litter mine with these silly little images, maybe write about Tyche [my dog], and somewhere include a sentence that goes "I'll refrain from pre-regaling you on what exploits I hope to accomplish during the school year, since I can't predict the future; instead, I hope you'll keep in contact so I can tell you what actually happened, in person."
The past couple of days have been pretty eventful too, in my quaintly complacent life. Tuesday night, I went to Nathan's house to go on a night swim with Andy, Johnny, Daniel, and Nathan; Koko and Nathan's two sisters watched from the poolside. Yesterday night, I met up with a bunch of people [Angela, Brian Hu, Jack, Donovan, Byron, Joyce, Monica, Hua, Jason Wang, some others I probably missed] at Tenju's. It's so nice talking to people you grew up with, I can't describe. At the same time, what Brian and Angela told me made me glad that I'd left the SGV bubble.
Oh yes, and yesterday night, before I got to Tenju's, I also went out with the LA Raben Group peeps plus Michael from DC to Perch, which is this schmancy open-air French-bistro-esque place on the 15th floor overlooking Pershing Square and across from the downtown skyscrapers. There, we met a few of the big names from a couple large nonprofits nearby [MALDEF, NCLR], and chatted until around 8, when I left to catch the second to last 78 bus of the night. As I went down that elevator, I essentially descended into another world; the Pershing Square of the 6 o'clock after work rush is vastly different, I found, from the 8 o'clock Square. I waited with mild anxiety for the 78 to come [it ended up being around 6 minutes late], but by the time it came I almost didn't care that it said "Main-Garfield/Alhambra" and that I'd have to call my parents to pick me up, because I'd had quite enough of jail talk coming from this group of about five old African American men, about how Martin was going to court for parole tomorrow, and how Sam did something mother-effing [my own watering down] stupid and deserved it.
Naturally, when I got on the 78 bus, the five followed me; not only that, but they yelled "OH, DAIN'T NO ONE GETTIN' ANY SLEEP ON DIS BUS!" and laughed really loudly [they were generally loud, if you didn't get that by now]. It was fun though, I guess, to experience other people's lives so peripherally; in a way, I learned as much from listening to the Raben principals, Congressional staffers, and nonprofit heads talking about government and life in DC as I did from the coarse dialogue of those men. Life is interesting.
Oh yes, and at Tenju's, Brian, Angela, and I set out a plan to help Brian [and maybe myself] get into writing [again, for me]. I really hope it works, and that in trying to motivate others I'll somehow motivate myself. Let's see how it goes. Not a bad start though, I think.