2am, Emergency Room, All's Quiet
I've got to tell you, this weekend was one of the best vacation-esque releases I've had in a while. You are all aware of how much I love LA, but sometimes you've just got to go. And in this case, I just had to go to Sunny Santa Barbara. Just, had to.
Basically, Kev came down thursday afternoon, we hung with friends up in the Rieber hallway, sat on the floor, played darts-baseball, but more or less turned in early... for that wonderful 6.30 wakeup to move the car, get some breakfast in Santa Monica, then re-park (after a furiously frustrating encounter with new parking rules about who can sell SUnset Village parking tickets) in time to make it to class at 9. Love Actually was the name of the game in Theater class; great movies, sometimes a little trite, but makes you happy when all's said and done; then Prof Grean-Raia comes into history with a straw hat like vaudevillians would wear, and with a... well, a pug. A big ol' pug, which she had sitting with her during the whole lecture. Basically, she's amazing.
Cut to Kevin and I rocking the Civ up the coast listening to mixes and Sufjan, and just generally having a grand ol' time, then getting to his apartment in Isla Vista (the most densely populated area west of the Mississippi) and meeting his cadre of ridiculous friends and roommates who I got along with instantly, which doesn't usually happen with me and other guys. We wandered around the place, or rather longboarded around, played with fake guns, jammed, and generally just kicked it until maybe 7ish, when someone decided to bust out the liquor.
Now, if you know me, you know that I very rarely drink. I need an occasion. But this being my first time to SB, I thought it was warranted and I joined in. Very little of anything happened though, until I went out with Kevin to find the lovely Jessica Hollenbacher and her compadres. It was a nice meeting, even amidst the millions of milling college students flooding the streets and assorted back-front-and-side-yards. Only problem was, I felt like an idiot being drunk, which is not how I pictured reuniting with my pre-school best friend after 12 years. And it was sort of embarrassing that she had to dive into and cut through a random stranger's party to help me find a bathroom. But I survived my own self-deprication and kev and i turned in reeeally early. And by that I mean, he and the guys went to get buritos, while I sank into an abyss on the couch, only to wake up at 4 in the morning with my hat gone, a blanket over me, and my neck strained like Pete Townshend's ears.
Next day was one of the longest in memory. Up at 7 because I couldn't sleep. Several hours of the Halo 2 single player campaign which I got very far in (on easy mode). Sick stomach and head. Orange Juice and Apple Jacks run. Trip to SBCC to explore the surprisingly gorgoeus campus. Track meet where we rooted for SMC and some people ran ridiculously fast. Beach wanderings where we randomly ran into Kristen Savage (who I identified by her LACES leadership sweatshirt), and we reminisced about our recent trip to the Kherkoff open mic night and the sheer genius that in Nick-Justin. Met up with the Swedes, went to State Street, picked up an amazing Charlie Chaplain poster, something for Alison, and a vague impression of a very long Santa Monica promenade. Dropped the Swedes off, saw Sasan through his window with no shirt on and a video camera pointed at his bed... then Jonas popped up and we all laughed like crazy. then it was back to the apartment and shortly after arriving, Glen, Kevin and I went to UCSB to find Jess... her phone, however, failed to ring and we had to call Henry, have him use my facebook to find her dorm building, ask bewildered locals which one it was, sneak in, and try to bargain with the girl up front to tell us where Jess lived... but we saw her walking out and got to forego bribing the bitch, who was definitely NOT gonna let us know where to find her.
From there we proceded to the mall, made great use of the Discovery Store and all the wonderful toys inside (which is basically the best place to just play around and not buy anything sicne Brookstone), got a deeelish dinner at CPK, and meandered on back to the apartment for some Skim Boarding movies and some stand-up comedy. When that was done with, everyone else went for the alcohol again, but I skipped it because I remembered how much I dislike the aftereffects... and to some extent, the main effects. This was only helped when Philip came in saying we needed to take Ben to the hospital. That became my responsibility as the only sober one, so I left everyone, went with the other ben (one of Kevin's roommates) and the sick guy, plus his girlfriend, to the ER, where we hung around til 2am, looking at real estate, reading Highlights, and talking to strangers whose friends punched through lamps. Idiots. Anyways, then we got back to the dorm after finding out that Ben would be ok. Everyone, including Jess, was dancing and singing, and building pyramids out of, well, a rather large number of beer cans. After enjoying that scenario for a while and trying to start Office Space, we took Jess back to her dorm at 3.15... and then got our asses so lost at the UC, we looped the entire thing then wound up in front of her building again, exhausted from encounters with bike cops and racoons, and I swear, we didn't get back to the apartment, half a mile away, til 4.30. Ridiiiiculous.
The moral of the story is that Kevin can't seem to not fall for everyone I introduce him to, but that's just going to be subtly suggested.
Today... was all devoted to getting home. Cars, trains, subways, busses, feet, CPK (again) all propelled me back home, and I met this cool Indian guy on the way who I had dinner with and chatted it up with about politics, travel and such, and we're now def. homies.
But enough about my weekend. Tell me about yours?
Basically, Kev came down thursday afternoon, we hung with friends up in the Rieber hallway, sat on the floor, played darts-baseball, but more or less turned in early... for that wonderful 6.30 wakeup to move the car, get some breakfast in Santa Monica, then re-park (after a furiously frustrating encounter with new parking rules about who can sell SUnset Village parking tickets) in time to make it to class at 9. Love Actually was the name of the game in Theater class; great movies, sometimes a little trite, but makes you happy when all's said and done; then Prof Grean-Raia comes into history with a straw hat like vaudevillians would wear, and with a... well, a pug. A big ol' pug, which she had sitting with her during the whole lecture. Basically, she's amazing.
Cut to Kevin and I rocking the Civ up the coast listening to mixes and Sufjan, and just generally having a grand ol' time, then getting to his apartment in Isla Vista (the most densely populated area west of the Mississippi) and meeting his cadre of ridiculous friends and roommates who I got along with instantly, which doesn't usually happen with me and other guys. We wandered around the place, or rather longboarded around, played with fake guns, jammed, and generally just kicked it until maybe 7ish, when someone decided to bust out the liquor.
Now, if you know me, you know that I very rarely drink. I need an occasion. But this being my first time to SB, I thought it was warranted and I joined in. Very little of anything happened though, until I went out with Kevin to find the lovely Jessica Hollenbacher and her compadres. It was a nice meeting, even amidst the millions of milling college students flooding the streets and assorted back-front-and-side-yards. Only problem was, I felt like an idiot being drunk, which is not how I pictured reuniting with my pre-school best friend after 12 years. And it was sort of embarrassing that she had to dive into and cut through a random stranger's party to help me find a bathroom. But I survived my own self-deprication and kev and i turned in reeeally early. And by that I mean, he and the guys went to get buritos, while I sank into an abyss on the couch, only to wake up at 4 in the morning with my hat gone, a blanket over me, and my neck strained like Pete Townshend's ears.
Next day was one of the longest in memory. Up at 7 because I couldn't sleep. Several hours of the Halo 2 single player campaign which I got very far in (on easy mode). Sick stomach and head. Orange Juice and Apple Jacks run. Trip to SBCC to explore the surprisingly gorgoeus campus. Track meet where we rooted for SMC and some people ran ridiculously fast. Beach wanderings where we randomly ran into Kristen Savage (who I identified by her LACES leadership sweatshirt), and we reminisced about our recent trip to the Kherkoff open mic night and the sheer genius that in Nick-Justin. Met up with the Swedes, went to State Street, picked up an amazing Charlie Chaplain poster, something for Alison, and a vague impression of a very long Santa Monica promenade. Dropped the Swedes off, saw Sasan through his window with no shirt on and a video camera pointed at his bed... then Jonas popped up and we all laughed like crazy. then it was back to the apartment and shortly after arriving, Glen, Kevin and I went to UCSB to find Jess... her phone, however, failed to ring and we had to call Henry, have him use my facebook to find her dorm building, ask bewildered locals which one it was, sneak in, and try to bargain with the girl up front to tell us where Jess lived... but we saw her walking out and got to forego bribing the bitch, who was definitely NOT gonna let us know where to find her.
From there we proceded to the mall, made great use of the Discovery Store and all the wonderful toys inside (which is basically the best place to just play around and not buy anything sicne Brookstone), got a deeelish dinner at CPK, and meandered on back to the apartment for some Skim Boarding movies and some stand-up comedy. When that was done with, everyone else went for the alcohol again, but I skipped it because I remembered how much I dislike the aftereffects... and to some extent, the main effects. This was only helped when Philip came in saying we needed to take Ben to the hospital. That became my responsibility as the only sober one, so I left everyone, went with the other ben (one of Kevin's roommates) and the sick guy, plus his girlfriend, to the ER, where we hung around til 2am, looking at real estate, reading Highlights, and talking to strangers whose friends punched through lamps. Idiots. Anyways, then we got back to the dorm after finding out that Ben would be ok. Everyone, including Jess, was dancing and singing, and building pyramids out of, well, a rather large number of beer cans. After enjoying that scenario for a while and trying to start Office Space, we took Jess back to her dorm at 3.15... and then got our asses so lost at the UC, we looped the entire thing then wound up in front of her building again, exhausted from encounters with bike cops and racoons, and I swear, we didn't get back to the apartment, half a mile away, til 4.30. Ridiiiiculous.
The moral of the story is that Kevin can't seem to not fall for everyone I introduce him to, but that's just going to be subtly suggested.
Today... was all devoted to getting home. Cars, trains, subways, busses, feet, CPK (again) all propelled me back home, and I met this cool Indian guy on the way who I had dinner with and chatted it up with about politics, travel and such, and we're now def. homies.
But enough about my weekend. Tell me about yours?