B-Day and Beyond
So what I want to do now is to make a bunch of different entries and post them separately. I haven’t journaled since a week before my birthday party... and its been about a month since I last journaled. So much has happened in that time.... I feel so different then I did a month ago. Not only with the fact that I’m 18 now, but I feel mature, relieved, happy, and confident.
Part A: B-day Fiesta!
My birthday party was a great turnout. Bunches of people came and I got lots of kick ass things. Speaking of which, I’m wearing one right now, the shirt Sarah gave me. Thank you everybody, by the way, for all the wonderful... everything that happened that night.
Over 15 people were invited and most of them could attend. The stage of the party was set at one of Moms’ friend’s houses way way North, more north than my house by about 8 miles. And unfortunately I wasn’t the first person to arrive. In all the flurry and hustle for what we were to do about food and whatnot earlier on, and with Kathy (my aunt) ‘s visit, time seemed to melt away until I looked at my watch and thought, oh shit. After a quick shower and grooming session, I was on my way to pick up Melissa. The ride over there was uneventful, other than me speeding to get there and up to Deb’s house before everybody else did. As what probably won’t come to a surprise to most people, I wasn’t the first one at Deb’s house, and neither were Mom and Kathy. And naturally (again, probably not a shock), I didn’t have the actual address to Deb’s house. I had directions, (which if you followed as they were written... you would have been fine!) all the way to her house, but not her address. And as I drove there, my cell rang so many times with people asking how to get there and what the address (that I still didn’t have) was. Alas, I got there and greeted people and was probably 8th overall to get to my own b-day party.... *headdesk*. But everybody got there eventually and the party turned out just how I wanted it. My only complaint is that I couldn’t spend as much time with everybody as I wanted to.
We set up the gamecube on Deb’s huge tv and got a smash brothers game going ^_^. That game is just too great... Maybe I’m just a guy to think that, but... ahh... it’s so fun to just go around beating each other up repeatedly. And you can laugh and have a good time too. ASIn the words of Alex Marty, “you whore”.
And all of my gifts were more than I expected. Thank you everybody who was there and came and for everything! ^_^. The huge bag of Target stuff wrapped in more Target stuff, the awesome shirts, FFX12 (<- sweet damn it’s addicting), movies, and all the other things I can’t thnk of off the top of my head. And the to my complete surprise, Saman, standing by my side for a little bit, called my name. I looked over and was met with a face full of green frosting in my face. ha ha ha. My goatee + green cake frosting = ahh! But thank you mimsy! The green cake finally came from eBay. Those damn e-Bay people with their late deliveries. I mean, come on, you ordered it like... Sophomore year! Jesus, no wonder its green! But the funfetti tasted freaking sweet.
It was exactly what I had hoped for for my 18th birthday party. Thanks to everybody who came, thanks to Mom for helping me get it all together, thanks for Deb for letting me use her house ^_^. With all these powers combined, (I am captain planet), and it turned out awesome.
p.s. my directions were fine if you used them verbatim!
Part 2: The Storm before the Calm
Every single senior I know always looks forward to spring break. it is the time you can leave school, take a break from life, go somewhere special, and do something they usually don’t. For me it was camping, but I’ll tak about that in a different entry. Of course, teachers can ruin the week before spring break with all the projects and crap we have to do beforehand. The biggest inhibiter and hinderance to my coasting through the week was the IB english oral. I signed up for the time I wanted and got to go wednesday during 3rd hour (my study hall... ). Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Soyinka’s The Burden of Memory, the Muse of Forgiveness, Shakespeare’s King Lear, and Margaret Atwood’s Morning in the Burned House. Four books that as of today, the 5th of April, I need not ever worry about those books or waste time thinking about them, but the week before spring break... I was stressed to high hell. I was up late studying the four books, not doing math homework, not reading history packets (like I would anyways?), reading sparknotes and memorizing themes, motifs, symbols, characters, plots, and thematic ideals. Oh god, it was bad. Then the day finally came, the wednesday, the day of my IB oral... ah!! I could’nt really sleep that morning past 4 for some reason... >_<... I hate big exam things like this... icky.
I studied and studied some more. Then the time came, and it was time to go to the special room Parker had set aside for us for the presentation. I entered and sat down at the desk. I drew from the stack of envelopes one single envelope and opened it very slowly... at first, I could only see that it had a big chunk of text. My spirits were raised a little bit because at that instant, I knew that I had not drawn a poetry excerpt. For whatever reason, I did not want to draw a poem... and I didn’t. Later after my presentation, I heard a horror story from a girl who drew a poetry excerpt and immediately presumed it was from the poetry book. And with about 2 more minutes of prep time, Ms Parker walked behind her and said something to the extent of, “oh, you got Beloved” which is not a poetry book but had random poems in it... Oh god, I’m so glad something like that didn’t happen to me. I had Soyinka... the most hardcore book I’ve ever read, and author with the most robust lexicon and diction I know... But nonetheless... I gave my presentation... I didn’t think it was that bad... I don’t think I got that high of a grade though... but I was done, and that’s all that mattered. While actually presenting... it seemed to go a bit faster than I had presumed and Parker’s questions seemed easy to respond to. I addressed literary techniques, talked about diction and that lot. And as of today, I can look back at that day and smile with the resounding assurance that I’ll never have to do an overly stressful prose analysis on the fly like that at least for a very long time, if ever again. ^_^
The rest of the week before spring break wasn’t altogether that horrible though. The very last day, friday, the very last period, math, we had a test. But it was on vectors... and that meant it was very easy... I actually got an A on the test! and somehow have an A in the class for the 1st quarter! ^_^ a 90.0... but still... an A! woot... anyways... from what I remember about the last week before break, I played a lot of Starcraft, watched a lot of movies, and didn’t do much work altogether (after my stupid presentation of course). And from then on, it was smooth sailing into spring break!
Part 3: Spring Break!!! :D
Spring break, oh spring break... the calm after the storm... the aspect oevery student looks forward to, a week’s lapse between studies, the breaking of a quarter, and just the time to sit back, relax, and catch up on whatever the hell you want to, if anything. Spring break, I had nothing to do, and that’s exactly what I did... nothing, for about 9 days. I procrastinated as usual and finally did my homework the night before it was due. I read the book Tracks the day before it was due (monday, the first day after we got back from spring break). But for 9 days... I sat back and breathed easy... It was just what I needed. I mean, I did things like camping, hanging out with melissa, poker... but nothing really strenuous.
The Ren Fair
I went to the renaissance fair with melissa, jackie, and neal on sunday. That was definitely worth the drive and the expense. It’s ways up the 101, past the 202, down the 60, and you keep on going, past the superstition mountains. So, Jackie lives very close to it... :-P. We took my car, with my music... and everybody loved everything I had. We rocked out to Freak a Leak - Lil John. We all were totally chilled out all through the traffic all the way to the ren fair. They need a sign that says to keep on going, because I had gone for a long ways, and thought this stupid sign that read “lot V” was parking for the ren fair... but it was totally some lame ass thing... a golf tournament or something. So... AFTER driving around the place that said Lot V for a while, I got back on track and found the actual fair. Admission was a bit pricey, but all the shows were free. People were all decked out in old style costumes and in traditional style dresses. Melissa and Jackie got henna tattoos, all of which turned out really well. Melissa got a lotus on her wrist and a kitty on her shoulder; Jackie got a rose with barbed wire around her ankle. Afterwards, we watched 2 shows: the Ded Bob show and the Tortuga Twins (the XXX / R version). Both of them are WELL worth seeing if you can... I don’t think I’ve laughed more for anything in a long while. :-) it was so great. After the shows, we split up into couples and walked around just the 2 of us. Melissa and I found the stick jugglers, the place I had really wanted to find there. My sticks are better at home, more sturdy and heavier... But they had buckets for people to play with the sticks. Apparently, I got a little crowd watching me, but I was just kind of oblivious to anything going on. Then the lady in charge of the place came out. We juggled together and had a blast. She pulled out a bigger stick from the back with longer handles and I got to play with that. Then she showed me how to juggle the stick around my neck (which I’m still having problem actually putting into application), and I showed her how to hold the sticks at half way, and snap back on the stick and catch it with your wrist. ^_^ We both learned something and I left feeling very giddy and happy. Melissa and I walked around looking at booths, looking at metalworkings, looking at leather bourn journals, swords, costume shoppes, jewelry stores... everything. And she bought me a necklace at one of the stores. ^_^ I have it on now
Canyon Lake
The first big thing I did was going camping with Saman, Jordan and Waseem. Just the four of us in Saman’s car, all they way south to Canyon Lake for about a day overall. We all divided everything between us and payed equal portions. We bought food together, spent money to rent a boat together, and all chipped in for gas money. ^_^ and the entirety of the trip didn’t amount to cost that much money.
The day we left, we left later than I thought, around 5 (coincidentally around rush hour too). Saman had his court appeal for his speeding ticket. He’s such a bad driver... he’s gotten into 3 accidents (he’s claim 2 aren’t his fault and he’ll play down the magnitude... whatever). But we headed out after buying a bunch of food and drinks and filling up my cooler. We bought everything except the firewood (which becomes important later). I don’t know why, but I can’t really sit in the backseat for too long; I get motion sick... :-(. The way to Canyon Lake took us the same way to get to the Renaissance fair, except with a slight detour to the left. From then, we took a road that eventually turned into a one lane mountain pass all around the mountains that grew under the car. Pretty soon thereafter, one turn led to the appearance of lights in the distance reflected by a strangely fluid ghostly image. We had arrived at the lake! The actual place where the campground was, was void of any people to attend to us (or later sell us firewood)... ugh... But we got to the the campground and set up the tent. Or rather, Jordan and I set up the tent ^_^.
Afterwards, we headed into town (and by town, I mean the 2 buildings that consisted of “tortilla flats”) to look around. Unfortunately, the entire town closed at about 5 and nothing was there at all... other than the unwelcoming light of a few houses further up the mountain. But as 4 guys, we were not going to be disappointed and turned away! Alas, Saman had brought a hatchet with us, but had also forgot to sharpen it... So we parked along the side of the road and were gathering sticks and pieces of wood. Thinking back on this, it was probably illegal, but whatever. And we took the (unsharpened) hatched and proceeded to cut (or rather smack) shrubs. Saman ended up laying on the ground, grabbing a road sign, and pushing a bush over with his feet. By that time we had amassed a small bundle of sticks that would last us probably about 10 minutes of actually burning... :-(... but it was better than nothing. I stood there and looked out and saw two beams of light penetrate the perfect darkness further up the road. “Car!” We all hopped in the car and started driving away, leaving some gathered twigs unclaimed. Alas... And we got back to the actual campsite, and asked the people next to us for some wood. They were very generous and gave us what was left of a bag (it wasn’t too much but it was still really nice of them). And I lit a fire! I actually can light a fire! ^_^ I’m so proud of myself. I figured when will I ever have another chance to do this again? I mean, 4 guys in the middle of the woods by a lake, most of the oblivious of any and all survival skills... So I lit the fire like I said... And we forged some metal hangers Saman had brought into skewers to cook some food on. Waseem was the first person to lose something to the hungry maw of the fire... his hot dog slipped off his hanger and fell in... Oh that dinner was so good... smokey flavored hot dogs with condiments so graciously taken from jack in the box when they weren’t looking.
After dinner, we were watching the embers of the fire die down and had an epiphany that we still brought smore ingredients... quickly as not to lose any of the precious heat we needed, we gathered stuff and began roasting marshmallows. The fire claimed more as Saman tried to heat his chocolate (that had been frozen solid from being at the bottom of a cooler full of ice) via his metal hanger. We set some marshmallows on fire nonetheless (except for Waseem because he can’t eat them from the gelatin in their ingredients... lame.... :-P). And pretty soon, after the fire died and our bellies full, we all retired to the tent after looking at the diagram as how the hell we would be able to fit 4 people inside it. So, four guys in a tent in the middle of nowhere, having not a thought or worry in the world, hanging with other guys. So, of course we talked about guy things... girls, chicks, females... and some other manly topics. But at sometime in the middle of the night, we just all fell asleep... pretty much at the same time. And it was at about that time that I realized my sleeping bag was too small for me... :-(... Oh well... I kept tossing and turning all night, but nobody else seemed to be having similar problems. I woke up one time to my face being very cold, but solved that by burring my head with my sweater...
After a restless night on the cold, rocky ground, I woke up at around 6 and wasn’t able to go back to sleep... But it’s ok, I got up and enjoyed the scenery anyways. I watched the sun rise over the placid and calm lake. I watched the first rays of light on the hilltops above me. I sat and watched the earth around me wake up for the day.
Saman and the others came out later. And after having some breakfast we decided to head out to the next lake over (because renting boats at the lake we were at was like $100 down payment per boat... icky...). On the way there we stopped at a rest point on the top of one of the mountains. It had a bathroom (which Saman had to inspect to see if it worked... which it did). There was a paved path that eventually turned into a dirt trodden path, that eventually ended. Waseem, Jordan, and I continued across the spine of the mountain, despite the lack of trail. And it was just us, the spine of the mountain, and the wind around us. I tried taking pictures, some of which turned out, some of which weren’t exactly to my liking. But nonetheless, some DID turn out ^_^. I think the most enjoyable scenery was when us three were sitting perched on the edge of the cliff, under us nothing but open air for at least 200 feet. It was such a picturesque moment, or minute, or hour... time lost its value at that place. But the bubble popped and we returned to reality with a feeling of renewal and rejuvenation as we headed back to meet Saman who had stayed behind.
The lake we went to wasn’t really anything to brag about. We all got decked out into our bathing suits (thank you Waseem for jumping into the unknown to retrieve stuff some of us lost). And we rented a little 8 horse power boat (image 8 horses tied together trying to swim through the water and you’ll envision how fast we were going...). And we kept giving Jordan crap about getting pulled over by the police the supposedly patrolled the lake (we never saw them once...). But eventually we found a cove and decided it was time to go swimming. And of course we had put our feet and hands in the water and found it to be quite chilly (we later found out it was 61 degrees... brr...). We pulled into an alcove and anchored (which was redundant because the anchor moved with us...), pulled up the engine, and I rowed in. Me, I, myself... possessed the only skills on boating among us. And rowing is for sure a 1 person job... not 2+ (*cough* saman...). And then an awkward silence filled the air... who would be the first one of us to go in? Ok, I’ll give saman this, and this only, he was the the first one of us to jump in. But that was his real, only claim to fame. He also fancies himself the bravest and whatnot saying he was the coldest because he went deepest. I counter this by saying heat rises and that only proves how much of a dumbass he is if he sinks down to the bottom with the colder waters.... Saman also screamed the loudest of us. I totally wished I had brought my camera for that exact moment. The moment of him jumping off the boat, the boat ricocheting from his acceleration off of it, the sailing through the air, the splash of the water and breaking of the surface, the eternal silence that followed, and the the emergence... and the screaming like a little girl. Out of the four of us, Saman definitely screamed the loudest. It went down as the next person went in until I was last, and didn’t bitch... even though it was still fucking cold. Saman couldn’t pull himself into the boat, alas we three could. And Saman’s entire comment about himself having bragging rights” if we didn’t go in definitely persuaded me to go in... swim around for a bit, sit on the rock Saman needed to get into the boat with, swim back and then get in... and then row us away from the rocks we were drifting towards (while drenched in the cold frigid waters of the lake). We motored over to another alcove, had some more guy time, and the motored back to the docks.
The rest of the time was spent going back to camp, packing it up, realizing how stupid we were for leaving food out, and heading out back home. We may have left Canyon Lake, but the memories would linger in our minds for some time yet to come.
Poker
The last real event out of the ordinary I’d say was the poker tournament at Alex’s house. This was the 2nd time I’d gone over to his place this break; the first time was the friday right as break started. Alex, his brother Max, and myself ended up having a Starcraft tournament late into midnight that night... :-) it kicked ass! But now I was back, and this time to play some poker. The turnout wasn’t particularly great. It was me, alex, max, sarah, justin, and elyse. Just 6 people, but it was still nonetheless great fun. Elyse had to leave early, but was experiencing some hardcore beginners luck... I ran her down some by the time she had to go and we split up the remainders of her chips among all of us evenly. But then the best thing in the world happened. I had a great hand, after the flop, or turn or something (it was a while ago and I don’t remember exactly what happened or how it happened), but it ended up being max and I, and we kept putting in more and more money into the pot. Pretty soon he went all in, and I called him. ... and I won! I got Max out, arguably the first player to be eliminated. ^_^. And Justin had his share of luck. Two times he had gone all in, two times, Alex Marty called him, and two time Justin had won. But in the end, I was the one who got him out. (This hand I actually do remember). With all the cards laid down on the table, it turned out to be a pretty damn good hand to be holding clubs, as there were many clubs out. I remember the king of clubs was on the table, and the ace of clubs would be the highest flush possible. It turned in to be just Justin and myself, as the pot kept on growing. He went all in, I called him, and we turned over our cards. He was holding the queen of clubs; I held the ace of clubs! :-D I was so amazingly happy! I had successfully eliminated two people from the tournament! *party dance*. And then I ended up losing to Marty when it turned to be 1 on 1... why? that it twice now. I kept telling myself how either he had a better hand, or I did... and I kept seeing him through to the end and he had the most amazing luck for the first bunch of hands... I was so mad... But second place is still pretty damn good ^_^ and I’m happy I got through to the end alright... I just really need to brush up on my 1 on 1 skillage...
The only break we had during the tournament was to eat pizza (which Marty ordered online...). I’m not entirely sure why, but I remember exactly what we had...: two medium pizzas, one meat lovers, one pepporoni, a x2 order of bread sticks, extra dipping sauce, and an order of cini-sticks with extra frosting. And I can’t particularly explain it... but we were all like in a trance while eating. There wasn’t that much communication, and the aura surrounding us was like... idk... it just WAS... I can’t explain it... and it’s weird trying to type it out because it sounds weird... idk, maybe it was just me.
And Marty had to drive me home later that night. Mom and I had gotten into a fight that morning because I had gotten home very late the night before and she took away my car. I was very bitter. Mimsy and Marty picked me up thought... and they didn’t even stop in for tea or to see my room... :-P. But yeah, I got to be chauffeured around. :-/ meh...
And thus concludes my spring break. I didn’t do anything stupid, or stupid in my own opinion, didn’t get drunk / have a hangover, get arrested, wake up next to a gay asian man with a lisp, wake up with a sore ass... or anything unpleasant like that. I had a good time, and it was overall a very, very enjoyable week to look back and recollect my thoughts over.
Part A: B-day Fiesta!
My birthday party was a great turnout. Bunches of people came and I got lots of kick ass things. Speaking of which, I’m wearing one right now, the shirt Sarah gave me. Thank you everybody, by the way, for all the wonderful... everything that happened that night.
Over 15 people were invited and most of them could attend. The stage of the party was set at one of Moms’ friend’s houses way way North, more north than my house by about 8 miles. And unfortunately I wasn’t the first person to arrive. In all the flurry and hustle for what we were to do about food and whatnot earlier on, and with Kathy (my aunt) ‘s visit, time seemed to melt away until I looked at my watch and thought, oh shit. After a quick shower and grooming session, I was on my way to pick up Melissa. The ride over there was uneventful, other than me speeding to get there and up to Deb’s house before everybody else did. As what probably won’t come to a surprise to most people, I wasn’t the first one at Deb’s house, and neither were Mom and Kathy. And naturally (again, probably not a shock), I didn’t have the actual address to Deb’s house. I had directions, (which if you followed as they were written... you would have been fine!) all the way to her house, but not her address. And as I drove there, my cell rang so many times with people asking how to get there and what the address (that I still didn’t have) was. Alas, I got there and greeted people and was probably 8th overall to get to my own b-day party.... *headdesk*. But everybody got there eventually and the party turned out just how I wanted it. My only complaint is that I couldn’t spend as much time with everybody as I wanted to.
We set up the gamecube on Deb’s huge tv and got a smash brothers game going ^_^. That game is just too great... Maybe I’m just a guy to think that, but... ahh... it’s so fun to just go around beating each other up repeatedly. And you can laugh and have a good time too. ASIn the words of Alex Marty, “you whore”.
And all of my gifts were more than I expected. Thank you everybody who was there and came and for everything! ^_^. The huge bag of Target stuff wrapped in more Target stuff, the awesome shirts, FFX12 (<- sweet damn it’s addicting), movies, and all the other things I can’t thnk of off the top of my head. And the to my complete surprise, Saman, standing by my side for a little bit, called my name. I looked over and was met with a face full of green frosting in my face. ha ha ha. My goatee + green cake frosting = ahh! But thank you mimsy! The green cake finally came from eBay. Those damn e-Bay people with their late deliveries. I mean, come on, you ordered it like... Sophomore year! Jesus, no wonder its green! But the funfetti tasted freaking sweet.
It was exactly what I had hoped for for my 18th birthday party. Thanks to everybody who came, thanks to Mom for helping me get it all together, thanks for Deb for letting me use her house ^_^. With all these powers combined, (I am captain planet), and it turned out awesome.
p.s. my directions were fine if you used them verbatim!
Part 2: The Storm before the Calm
Every single senior I know always looks forward to spring break. it is the time you can leave school, take a break from life, go somewhere special, and do something they usually don’t. For me it was camping, but I’ll tak about that in a different entry. Of course, teachers can ruin the week before spring break with all the projects and crap we have to do beforehand. The biggest inhibiter and hinderance to my coasting through the week was the IB english oral. I signed up for the time I wanted and got to go wednesday during 3rd hour (my study hall... ). Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Soyinka’s The Burden of Memory, the Muse of Forgiveness, Shakespeare’s King Lear, and Margaret Atwood’s Morning in the Burned House. Four books that as of today, the 5th of April, I need not ever worry about those books or waste time thinking about them, but the week before spring break... I was stressed to high hell. I was up late studying the four books, not doing math homework, not reading history packets (like I would anyways?), reading sparknotes and memorizing themes, motifs, symbols, characters, plots, and thematic ideals. Oh god, it was bad. Then the day finally came, the wednesday, the day of my IB oral... ah!! I could’nt really sleep that morning past 4 for some reason... >_<... I hate big exam things like this... icky.
I studied and studied some more. Then the time came, and it was time to go to the special room Parker had set aside for us for the presentation. I entered and sat down at the desk. I drew from the stack of envelopes one single envelope and opened it very slowly... at first, I could only see that it had a big chunk of text. My spirits were raised a little bit because at that instant, I knew that I had not drawn a poetry excerpt. For whatever reason, I did not want to draw a poem... and I didn’t. Later after my presentation, I heard a horror story from a girl who drew a poetry excerpt and immediately presumed it was from the poetry book. And with about 2 more minutes of prep time, Ms Parker walked behind her and said something to the extent of, “oh, you got Beloved” which is not a poetry book but had random poems in it... Oh god, I’m so glad something like that didn’t happen to me. I had Soyinka... the most hardcore book I’ve ever read, and author with the most robust lexicon and diction I know... But nonetheless... I gave my presentation... I didn’t think it was that bad... I don’t think I got that high of a grade though... but I was done, and that’s all that mattered. While actually presenting... it seemed to go a bit faster than I had presumed and Parker’s questions seemed easy to respond to. I addressed literary techniques, talked about diction and that lot. And as of today, I can look back at that day and smile with the resounding assurance that I’ll never have to do an overly stressful prose analysis on the fly like that at least for a very long time, if ever again. ^_^
The rest of the week before spring break wasn’t altogether that horrible though. The very last day, friday, the very last period, math, we had a test. But it was on vectors... and that meant it was very easy... I actually got an A on the test! and somehow have an A in the class for the 1st quarter! ^_^ a 90.0... but still... an A! woot... anyways... from what I remember about the last week before break, I played a lot of Starcraft, watched a lot of movies, and didn’t do much work altogether (after my stupid presentation of course). And from then on, it was smooth sailing into spring break!
Part 3: Spring Break!!! :D
Spring break, oh spring break... the calm after the storm... the aspect oevery student looks forward to, a week’s lapse between studies, the breaking of a quarter, and just the time to sit back, relax, and catch up on whatever the hell you want to, if anything. Spring break, I had nothing to do, and that’s exactly what I did... nothing, for about 9 days. I procrastinated as usual and finally did my homework the night before it was due. I read the book Tracks the day before it was due (monday, the first day after we got back from spring break). But for 9 days... I sat back and breathed easy... It was just what I needed. I mean, I did things like camping, hanging out with melissa, poker... but nothing really strenuous.
The Ren Fair
I went to the renaissance fair with melissa, jackie, and neal on sunday. That was definitely worth the drive and the expense. It’s ways up the 101, past the 202, down the 60, and you keep on going, past the superstition mountains. So, Jackie lives very close to it... :-P. We took my car, with my music... and everybody loved everything I had. We rocked out to Freak a Leak - Lil John. We all were totally chilled out all through the traffic all the way to the ren fair. They need a sign that says to keep on going, because I had gone for a long ways, and thought this stupid sign that read “lot V” was parking for the ren fair... but it was totally some lame ass thing... a golf tournament or something. So... AFTER driving around the place that said Lot V for a while, I got back on track and found the actual fair. Admission was a bit pricey, but all the shows were free. People were all decked out in old style costumes and in traditional style dresses. Melissa and Jackie got henna tattoos, all of which turned out really well. Melissa got a lotus on her wrist and a kitty on her shoulder; Jackie got a rose with barbed wire around her ankle. Afterwards, we watched 2 shows: the Ded Bob show and the Tortuga Twins (the XXX / R version). Both of them are WELL worth seeing if you can... I don’t think I’ve laughed more for anything in a long while. :-) it was so great. After the shows, we split up into couples and walked around just the 2 of us. Melissa and I found the stick jugglers, the place I had really wanted to find there. My sticks are better at home, more sturdy and heavier... But they had buckets for people to play with the sticks. Apparently, I got a little crowd watching me, but I was just kind of oblivious to anything going on. Then the lady in charge of the place came out. We juggled together and had a blast. She pulled out a bigger stick from the back with longer handles and I got to play with that. Then she showed me how to juggle the stick around my neck (which I’m still having problem actually putting into application), and I showed her how to hold the sticks at half way, and snap back on the stick and catch it with your wrist. ^_^ We both learned something and I left feeling very giddy and happy. Melissa and I walked around looking at booths, looking at metalworkings, looking at leather bourn journals, swords, costume shoppes, jewelry stores... everything. And she bought me a necklace at one of the stores. ^_^ I have it on now
Canyon Lake
The first big thing I did was going camping with Saman, Jordan and Waseem. Just the four of us in Saman’s car, all they way south to Canyon Lake for about a day overall. We all divided everything between us and payed equal portions. We bought food together, spent money to rent a boat together, and all chipped in for gas money. ^_^ and the entirety of the trip didn’t amount to cost that much money.
The day we left, we left later than I thought, around 5 (coincidentally around rush hour too). Saman had his court appeal for his speeding ticket. He’s such a bad driver... he’s gotten into 3 accidents (he’s claim 2 aren’t his fault and he’ll play down the magnitude... whatever). But we headed out after buying a bunch of food and drinks and filling up my cooler. We bought everything except the firewood (which becomes important later). I don’t know why, but I can’t really sit in the backseat for too long; I get motion sick... :-(. The way to Canyon Lake took us the same way to get to the Renaissance fair, except with a slight detour to the left. From then, we took a road that eventually turned into a one lane mountain pass all around the mountains that grew under the car. Pretty soon thereafter, one turn led to the appearance of lights in the distance reflected by a strangely fluid ghostly image. We had arrived at the lake! The actual place where the campground was, was void of any people to attend to us (or later sell us firewood)... ugh... But we got to the the campground and set up the tent. Or rather, Jordan and I set up the tent ^_^.
Afterwards, we headed into town (and by town, I mean the 2 buildings that consisted of “tortilla flats”) to look around. Unfortunately, the entire town closed at about 5 and nothing was there at all... other than the unwelcoming light of a few houses further up the mountain. But as 4 guys, we were not going to be disappointed and turned away! Alas, Saman had brought a hatchet with us, but had also forgot to sharpen it... So we parked along the side of the road and were gathering sticks and pieces of wood. Thinking back on this, it was probably illegal, but whatever. And we took the (unsharpened) hatched and proceeded to cut (or rather smack) shrubs. Saman ended up laying on the ground, grabbing a road sign, and pushing a bush over with his feet. By that time we had amassed a small bundle of sticks that would last us probably about 10 minutes of actually burning... :-(... but it was better than nothing. I stood there and looked out and saw two beams of light penetrate the perfect darkness further up the road. “Car!” We all hopped in the car and started driving away, leaving some gathered twigs unclaimed. Alas... And we got back to the actual campsite, and asked the people next to us for some wood. They were very generous and gave us what was left of a bag (it wasn’t too much but it was still really nice of them). And I lit a fire! I actually can light a fire! ^_^ I’m so proud of myself. I figured when will I ever have another chance to do this again? I mean, 4 guys in the middle of the woods by a lake, most of the oblivious of any and all survival skills... So I lit the fire like I said... And we forged some metal hangers Saman had brought into skewers to cook some food on. Waseem was the first person to lose something to the hungry maw of the fire... his hot dog slipped off his hanger and fell in... Oh that dinner was so good... smokey flavored hot dogs with condiments so graciously taken from jack in the box when they weren’t looking.
After dinner, we were watching the embers of the fire die down and had an epiphany that we still brought smore ingredients... quickly as not to lose any of the precious heat we needed, we gathered stuff and began roasting marshmallows. The fire claimed more as Saman tried to heat his chocolate (that had been frozen solid from being at the bottom of a cooler full of ice) via his metal hanger. We set some marshmallows on fire nonetheless (except for Waseem because he can’t eat them from the gelatin in their ingredients... lame.... :-P). And pretty soon, after the fire died and our bellies full, we all retired to the tent after looking at the diagram as how the hell we would be able to fit 4 people inside it. So, four guys in a tent in the middle of nowhere, having not a thought or worry in the world, hanging with other guys. So, of course we talked about guy things... girls, chicks, females... and some other manly topics. But at sometime in the middle of the night, we just all fell asleep... pretty much at the same time. And it was at about that time that I realized my sleeping bag was too small for me... :-(... Oh well... I kept tossing and turning all night, but nobody else seemed to be having similar problems. I woke up one time to my face being very cold, but solved that by burring my head with my sweater...
After a restless night on the cold, rocky ground, I woke up at around 6 and wasn’t able to go back to sleep... But it’s ok, I got up and enjoyed the scenery anyways. I watched the sun rise over the placid and calm lake. I watched the first rays of light on the hilltops above me. I sat and watched the earth around me wake up for the day.
Saman and the others came out later. And after having some breakfast we decided to head out to the next lake over (because renting boats at the lake we were at was like $100 down payment per boat... icky...). On the way there we stopped at a rest point on the top of one of the mountains. It had a bathroom (which Saman had to inspect to see if it worked... which it did). There was a paved path that eventually turned into a dirt trodden path, that eventually ended. Waseem, Jordan, and I continued across the spine of the mountain, despite the lack of trail. And it was just us, the spine of the mountain, and the wind around us. I tried taking pictures, some of which turned out, some of which weren’t exactly to my liking. But nonetheless, some DID turn out ^_^. I think the most enjoyable scenery was when us three were sitting perched on the edge of the cliff, under us nothing but open air for at least 200 feet. It was such a picturesque moment, or minute, or hour... time lost its value at that place. But the bubble popped and we returned to reality with a feeling of renewal and rejuvenation as we headed back to meet Saman who had stayed behind.
The lake we went to wasn’t really anything to brag about. We all got decked out into our bathing suits (thank you Waseem for jumping into the unknown to retrieve stuff some of us lost). And we rented a little 8 horse power boat (image 8 horses tied together trying to swim through the water and you’ll envision how fast we were going...). And we kept giving Jordan crap about getting pulled over by the police the supposedly patrolled the lake (we never saw them once...). But eventually we found a cove and decided it was time to go swimming. And of course we had put our feet and hands in the water and found it to be quite chilly (we later found out it was 61 degrees... brr...). We pulled into an alcove and anchored (which was redundant because the anchor moved with us...), pulled up the engine, and I rowed in. Me, I, myself... possessed the only skills on boating among us. And rowing is for sure a 1 person job... not 2+ (*cough* saman...). And then an awkward silence filled the air... who would be the first one of us to go in? Ok, I’ll give saman this, and this only, he was the the first one of us to jump in. But that was his real, only claim to fame. He also fancies himself the bravest and whatnot saying he was the coldest because he went deepest. I counter this by saying heat rises and that only proves how much of a dumbass he is if he sinks down to the bottom with the colder waters.... Saman also screamed the loudest of us. I totally wished I had brought my camera for that exact moment. The moment of him jumping off the boat, the boat ricocheting from his acceleration off of it, the sailing through the air, the splash of the water and breaking of the surface, the eternal silence that followed, and the the emergence... and the screaming like a little girl. Out of the four of us, Saman definitely screamed the loudest. It went down as the next person went in until I was last, and didn’t bitch... even though it was still fucking cold. Saman couldn’t pull himself into the boat, alas we three could. And Saman’s entire comment about himself having bragging rights” if we didn’t go in definitely persuaded me to go in... swim around for a bit, sit on the rock Saman needed to get into the boat with, swim back and then get in... and then row us away from the rocks we were drifting towards (while drenched in the cold frigid waters of the lake). We motored over to another alcove, had some more guy time, and the motored back to the docks.
The rest of the time was spent going back to camp, packing it up, realizing how stupid we were for leaving food out, and heading out back home. We may have left Canyon Lake, but the memories would linger in our minds for some time yet to come.
Poker
The last real event out of the ordinary I’d say was the poker tournament at Alex’s house. This was the 2nd time I’d gone over to his place this break; the first time was the friday right as break started. Alex, his brother Max, and myself ended up having a Starcraft tournament late into midnight that night... :-) it kicked ass! But now I was back, and this time to play some poker. The turnout wasn’t particularly great. It was me, alex, max, sarah, justin, and elyse. Just 6 people, but it was still nonetheless great fun. Elyse had to leave early, but was experiencing some hardcore beginners luck... I ran her down some by the time she had to go and we split up the remainders of her chips among all of us evenly. But then the best thing in the world happened. I had a great hand, after the flop, or turn or something (it was a while ago and I don’t remember exactly what happened or how it happened), but it ended up being max and I, and we kept putting in more and more money into the pot. Pretty soon he went all in, and I called him. ... and I won! I got Max out, arguably the first player to be eliminated. ^_^. And Justin had his share of luck. Two times he had gone all in, two times, Alex Marty called him, and two time Justin had won. But in the end, I was the one who got him out. (This hand I actually do remember). With all the cards laid down on the table, it turned out to be a pretty damn good hand to be holding clubs, as there were many clubs out. I remember the king of clubs was on the table, and the ace of clubs would be the highest flush possible. It turned in to be just Justin and myself, as the pot kept on growing. He went all in, I called him, and we turned over our cards. He was holding the queen of clubs; I held the ace of clubs! :-D I was so amazingly happy! I had successfully eliminated two people from the tournament! *party dance*. And then I ended up losing to Marty when it turned to be 1 on 1... why? that it twice now. I kept telling myself how either he had a better hand, or I did... and I kept seeing him through to the end and he had the most amazing luck for the first bunch of hands... I was so mad... But second place is still pretty damn good ^_^ and I’m happy I got through to the end alright... I just really need to brush up on my 1 on 1 skillage...
The only break we had during the tournament was to eat pizza (which Marty ordered online...). I’m not entirely sure why, but I remember exactly what we had...: two medium pizzas, one meat lovers, one pepporoni, a x2 order of bread sticks, extra dipping sauce, and an order of cini-sticks with extra frosting. And I can’t particularly explain it... but we were all like in a trance while eating. There wasn’t that much communication, and the aura surrounding us was like... idk... it just WAS... I can’t explain it... and it’s weird trying to type it out because it sounds weird... idk, maybe it was just me.
And Marty had to drive me home later that night. Mom and I had gotten into a fight that morning because I had gotten home very late the night before and she took away my car. I was very bitter. Mimsy and Marty picked me up thought... and they didn’t even stop in for tea or to see my room... :-P. But yeah, I got to be chauffeured around. :-/ meh...
And thus concludes my spring break. I didn’t do anything stupid, or stupid in my own opinion, didn’t get drunk / have a hangover, get arrested, wake up next to a gay asian man with a lisp, wake up with a sore ass... or anything unpleasant like that. I had a good time, and it was overall a very, very enjoyable week to look back and recollect my thoughts over.