week and a half of the century (back in the saddle again)
so the magic began a week and a half ago. at the last second i decide to go to the mae show at my school. of course it was awesome. mae is awesome. too bad yellowcard was the headliner though. mae didn't get to play hardly anything. i'm kinda worried, they didn't play any new songs... i did make my way into the "mosh pit" during mae and yellowcard. of course you can never qualify any group of dancing idiots as a mosh pit if they can all recite the words to every yellowcard song. just another generalization. i'm good with those. it was still fun. i had a bit of help from my buddy chuck shaw if you know what i mean. i stand by my previous beliefs that yellowcard sucks. i thought i'd at least give them a chance, but i couldn't get into it at all, it was all i could do to smash people around in circles.
last weekend was great. i gathered up my anchor and set sail for arizona. you know, arizona is pretty much exactly as you might imagine it. I would describe it as the central valley if it were all desert, and the towns were a hundred miles apart. and if it were 100 degrees year round. it was still a good time. I got the grand tour of the format's home town and surrounding cities that are all called phoenix on the map apparently. i got to chill with my buddy brianne with whom i hung out with at mission springs last summer. she showed me how the cool kids roll in pho-town. arizona drivers aren't too shabby. when you're on a two lane road, and you're going really fast, people get out of the way for you. not like in so cal where when someone sees someone driving at or above the speed limit, they immediately swerve in front of them to prevent normal speeds or having a good time of any kind. another thing that's kinda goofy is the light rotation in arizona. the left turn light is always after the regular green. It's almost always an unprotected left followed immediately by a protected left. i kinda like that better.
tucson was an interesting experience altogether. first when i got there, tyler was working out like the beast that he is, and jen, the girl i know in tucson changed her phone number since i last spoke to her. Apparently in arizona, it's cool to call wrong numbers wrong codes.: "the code you have dialed is an invalid code." what the crap does that mean. so i wandered around in tucson aimlessly for a few hours. Somehow there's four malls in that town, and after driving around for two hours, i didn't run into any remotely exciting places. finally i met up with tyler at the air force base to get my visitor/parking passes. pretty simple process, all you need is proof of valid insurance and registration for your vehicle and your drivers license. As it turns out, i've been driving without proof of insurance for like 8 months. good thing i chose to drive 110mph at some points out in the boonies of arizona. kinda glad i didn't get caught. so the adventure to get my insurance began. Tyler snuck me on base to see if my parents could maybe fax it to me. He borrowed a key to the shop he works in. i felt like i was on covert ops for some crazy military outfit. the first fax machine sucks, so we had to get like five more keys and get into like five more rooms until finally we got a working fax machine. Oh, and i guess i forgot to tell my parents that i wasn't staying with tyler the first night too... and i guess i never really told them that i was going to arizona at all, but they have their sources too.. never did tell them i stayed at a girls house. ooooooo scandalous. tyler showed me how the cool air force kids roll. we went up to this mountain that shoots up out of nowhere. arizona is nowhere, and this behemoth of wilderness sprouts out of nothingness. so we went up there, and hung out with some of his buddies. Everyone is there, the texan that talks kinda funny and has that slight i'm better than everyone vibe, the big goofy guy that can open a beer bottle with his teeth, and did on several occasions. a good time was had by all. we went down to the mysterious mountain lake and took a bunch of pictures in the dark, rescued some strangers from their lame friends, climbed random boulders, and lost people in the forest.
it turns out the drive back is like five times as long as the drive there. figure that one out.
the day after, the legendary jake bradley drove down to visit pomona. Of course his real purpose was to mac on a girl, but i know my place. I know i'm not going to be the main draw for a jacob bradley visit. turns out the chick is totally screwing with him. anyway, long story, but i won't get into that. the important thing is, i got to go to the cavil at rest/eisley show at biola. before that though, i had to take jake to fashion island. just the name of it sounds so jake bradleyesque. with the help of kent, jake got to see all of the fancy designer stores and other stuff. He's a huge fan of designing women's clothes... kinda weird idea for a straight guy, but jake is kinda weird. kent and i tried to shame jake into peeing into a trashcan out in front of one of the malls... it didn't work... but he did feel bad about wussing up, so he tried to make it up later... it wasn't quite as cool but it was still just as hilarious, maybe i'll tell you about it some time. anyway, you should check out cavil at rest if you have any interest in somewhat poppy music at all. listen to the old stuff. it's beautiful. the new stuff is a bit disappointing for how good the old stuff was. it was a really weird show though. i've never been to a show where everyone had to sit down. They wouldn't let anyone stand up until one guy got up and somehow got everyone to stand up and move forward in unison. it was a glorious move. it's too bad that didn't happen till eisley started to play, and they aren't the most dance-around-like-an-idiot type of band. they did play a good show though. their dad is their tour manager, i thought that was weird/kinda cool. cool that they don't feel like they have to get away from their family when they go on tour.
the amazingness is not over
so today, i'm kinda sad because my week of amazingness ended. then i realize that the ducks game is on tonight. game four against calgary. hockey is a big deal. right as i mention this to my roommate, he happens to mention that our other roommates are going to be working at the game. now i have a very important decision to make: write an essay and catch the game on tv, or don't write an essay and catch the game in person, i think we all know which one i chose. I was sooo excited about it. it's funny, you assume that ushers and people wearing ties and blazers at games know what they're doing, as it turns out, we're all a bunch of shmoes who don't care what we're doing. we just want to watch the game. So of course, being the only one who really wants to see the game, i get stuck outside checking bags for knives and guns... and then later watching a gap in the barriers to make sure no one wanders in past security... then, my roommate pulls through in a major way. as i'm staring at the hole in the barrier, my roommate walks up and says "hey adam, quick, let's trade. i know you want to watch the game." then before i could get too excited, my supervisor walks up to him and says something to the effect of "what are you doing? you can't just switch! you have to get the approval of your supervisor! why did you leave your post?!" so i'm thinking, i'm sunk, there's no way he left his post in any kind of legit manner. so christian walks back inside, and walks out a few moments later. he walks up to my supervisor and says "uhhh, yeah, um i talked to wayne.. and he talked to bill and said it was okay..." both of whom are entirely made up. so then my supervisor looked puzzled and said okay. Then christian says: i'm just going to show him what to do and then i'll come back." of course he never came back. we basically just stood and watched the entire game for free. in a pretty good spot too. the ducks won in overtime. it was amazing. there's probably much much more, but i'll get into that later. i just thought i'd squeeze out this short summary of my week and a half of amazingness.
last weekend was great. i gathered up my anchor and set sail for arizona. you know, arizona is pretty much exactly as you might imagine it. I would describe it as the central valley if it were all desert, and the towns were a hundred miles apart. and if it were 100 degrees year round. it was still a good time. I got the grand tour of the format's home town and surrounding cities that are all called phoenix on the map apparently. i got to chill with my buddy brianne with whom i hung out with at mission springs last summer. she showed me how the cool kids roll in pho-town. arizona drivers aren't too shabby. when you're on a two lane road, and you're going really fast, people get out of the way for you. not like in so cal where when someone sees someone driving at or above the speed limit, they immediately swerve in front of them to prevent normal speeds or having a good time of any kind. another thing that's kinda goofy is the light rotation in arizona. the left turn light is always after the regular green. It's almost always an unprotected left followed immediately by a protected left. i kinda like that better.
tucson was an interesting experience altogether. first when i got there, tyler was working out like the beast that he is, and jen, the girl i know in tucson changed her phone number since i last spoke to her. Apparently in arizona, it's cool to call wrong numbers wrong codes.: "the code you have dialed is an invalid code." what the crap does that mean. so i wandered around in tucson aimlessly for a few hours. Somehow there's four malls in that town, and after driving around for two hours, i didn't run into any remotely exciting places. finally i met up with tyler at the air force base to get my visitor/parking passes. pretty simple process, all you need is proof of valid insurance and registration for your vehicle and your drivers license. As it turns out, i've been driving without proof of insurance for like 8 months. good thing i chose to drive 110mph at some points out in the boonies of arizona. kinda glad i didn't get caught. so the adventure to get my insurance began. Tyler snuck me on base to see if my parents could maybe fax it to me. He borrowed a key to the shop he works in. i felt like i was on covert ops for some crazy military outfit. the first fax machine sucks, so we had to get like five more keys and get into like five more rooms until finally we got a working fax machine. Oh, and i guess i forgot to tell my parents that i wasn't staying with tyler the first night too... and i guess i never really told them that i was going to arizona at all, but they have their sources too.. never did tell them i stayed at a girls house. ooooooo scandalous. tyler showed me how the cool air force kids roll. we went up to this mountain that shoots up out of nowhere. arizona is nowhere, and this behemoth of wilderness sprouts out of nothingness. so we went up there, and hung out with some of his buddies. Everyone is there, the texan that talks kinda funny and has that slight i'm better than everyone vibe, the big goofy guy that can open a beer bottle with his teeth, and did on several occasions. a good time was had by all. we went down to the mysterious mountain lake and took a bunch of pictures in the dark, rescued some strangers from their lame friends, climbed random boulders, and lost people in the forest.
it turns out the drive back is like five times as long as the drive there. figure that one out.
the day after, the legendary jake bradley drove down to visit pomona. Of course his real purpose was to mac on a girl, but i know my place. I know i'm not going to be the main draw for a jacob bradley visit. turns out the chick is totally screwing with him. anyway, long story, but i won't get into that. the important thing is, i got to go to the cavil at rest/eisley show at biola. before that though, i had to take jake to fashion island. just the name of it sounds so jake bradleyesque. with the help of kent, jake got to see all of the fancy designer stores and other stuff. He's a huge fan of designing women's clothes... kinda weird idea for a straight guy, but jake is kinda weird. kent and i tried to shame jake into peeing into a trashcan out in front of one of the malls... it didn't work... but he did feel bad about wussing up, so he tried to make it up later... it wasn't quite as cool but it was still just as hilarious, maybe i'll tell you about it some time. anyway, you should check out cavil at rest if you have any interest in somewhat poppy music at all. listen to the old stuff. it's beautiful. the new stuff is a bit disappointing for how good the old stuff was. it was a really weird show though. i've never been to a show where everyone had to sit down. They wouldn't let anyone stand up until one guy got up and somehow got everyone to stand up and move forward in unison. it was a glorious move. it's too bad that didn't happen till eisley started to play, and they aren't the most dance-around-like-an-idiot type of band. they did play a good show though. their dad is their tour manager, i thought that was weird/kinda cool. cool that they don't feel like they have to get away from their family when they go on tour.
the amazingness is not over
so today, i'm kinda sad because my week of amazingness ended. then i realize that the ducks game is on tonight. game four against calgary. hockey is a big deal. right as i mention this to my roommate, he happens to mention that our other roommates are going to be working at the game. now i have a very important decision to make: write an essay and catch the game on tv, or don't write an essay and catch the game in person, i think we all know which one i chose. I was sooo excited about it. it's funny, you assume that ushers and people wearing ties and blazers at games know what they're doing, as it turns out, we're all a bunch of shmoes who don't care what we're doing. we just want to watch the game. So of course, being the only one who really wants to see the game, i get stuck outside checking bags for knives and guns... and then later watching a gap in the barriers to make sure no one wanders in past security... then, my roommate pulls through in a major way. as i'm staring at the hole in the barrier, my roommate walks up and says "hey adam, quick, let's trade. i know you want to watch the game." then before i could get too excited, my supervisor walks up to him and says something to the effect of "what are you doing? you can't just switch! you have to get the approval of your supervisor! why did you leave your post?!" so i'm thinking, i'm sunk, there's no way he left his post in any kind of legit manner. so christian walks back inside, and walks out a few moments later. he walks up to my supervisor and says "uhhh, yeah, um i talked to wayne.. and he talked to bill and said it was okay..." both of whom are entirely made up. so then my supervisor looked puzzled and said okay. Then christian says: i'm just going to show him what to do and then i'll come back." of course he never came back. we basically just stood and watched the entire game for free. in a pretty good spot too. the ducks won in overtime. it was amazing. there's probably much much more, but i'll get into that later. i just thought i'd squeeze out this short summary of my week and a half of amazingness.