Thursday, December 13, 2001

Okay, so I haven't blogged in a few days. I've discovered something about myself... I like to write a lot. And if I have a lot to say (like I do about this past week) then I want to write even more. But I've also discovered that I don't have a great quantity of time. And so I just put it off... until I haven't blogged in forever and I'm so completely behind it's not funny.

I think that really stinks.

Okay, so I'm going to go through quick summaries of my days:

Saturday: I went to Disneyland... my roommate and I woke up at 8, got dressed, went to the ATM, and flexed out. We bought an awful lot of candy. For those who don't know, Flex is a meal plan option for USC... every day, you get $15.35 to spend at any eating establishment, but you can't carry that amount over to the next day. Every day, when the hordes of USC students realize that they're about to waste 6 bucks on their flex, they rush to Trojan Grounds, the campus coffeehouse, and spend every last dime on fast food. Well, we were ahead of the game... we realized that we would probably be returning at a late hour, thus avoiding the rush and evading the possibility of losing our money.

Then we went downstairs to meet the rest of the group. And that's when we realized that not everyone could go... there weren't enough cars! Nels and Phil couldn't find a ride, so the group shrunk down to just me, Nicole, and my roomie. And that's the group we stayed in throughout the day. (Except for that scary half hour when I was by myself, looking for my friends in Fantasyland while masses of people gathered for the Christmas parade. That was a little freaky.) We made many observations... Disneyland's a very trippy place. We've decided that in order to view the full majesty of the Disney experience, we would have to be on drugs. Wait, let me rephrase that... my friends would be on drugs, Jen would be sober, making sure that they wouldn't throw themselves off any rides. But anyway, Fantasyland = hallucinatory state. Space Mountain... a drug trip with a psychedelic background. Splash Mountain tells the story of how Brer Rabbit found his "laughing place," replete with mushrooms and black lights! And I won't even go into Alice in Wonderland or Mr. Toad's Wild Ride... it's just too easy.

Also, I want to mention that Fast Pass is an amazing invention. If you don't know what this is... well, find someone else to explain it. I'm a little tired, so I'll pass on the complicated ins and outs of best utilizing the Fast Pass option. However, it's a Good Thing. We saved a lot of time... plus we had a lot of fun trying to figure out the intricacies of the system. I enjoyed that part the most. (That's the dork in me talking)

Okay, so we decided to skip out of the park before the fireworks. So sue me. I didn't want to deal with the crowds (and there were a lot of them!) plus I had other things to do that night... like parties. I party-hopped between two places: The Blue House and the swimmer house. Personally, I enjoyed the Blue House party a lot more. Cool theater people, amazing music, a nice atmosphere... all in all, a really chill place. However, no liquor. So, I found myself at the swimmer house, partaking in possibly the worst Jungle Juice I've ever had. I don't drink a lot, and even I could tell it was horrible. I also ended up talking to a couple of girls from the band that I've never really had a conversation with... that was cool. Nicole got plastered and went home early, so Juan Carlos took care of me the rest of the night. He took me to Denny's, then he walked me back home. He's a very nice guy, and very considerate. I had my first experience getting drunk, and really, it's not that great. I don't think I'll be doing that much more. Normally I'm amazingly hyper, but when I've been drinking, I calm down a lot and get more introspective, a fact that shocked most of my friends. They were all taking bets on what kind of inebriated fool I'd be. And I disappointed. Oh, well. Glad that's over.

Sunday: Got up, worked on work, and that's about it. Oh, yeah, I went to Do Jump, "anti-gravitational theater." It was cool; a bit like a low budget Cirque Du Soleil, to quote my friend Alicia. The play showed at the Geffen Theater, right across the street from (f)ucla. Times like that, I wish that our surrounding area was anything like Westwood. There's nothing wrong with University Village... except for the fact that there's an inordinately high number of bums, which just doesn't promote a feeling of ease. Especially at night. I also learned that Andy's not coming back next year. He's going to Indiana University, a sad thing. :( I had words with Charles. I swear, sometimes I wonder about people's intentions, especially when they're so inanely counterproductive.

Not much truly exciting happened on Sunday night, after the play. I hung out with Brian and Vogue. I found out Vogue used to be a vegan... due to the restrictions of Flex, he's laxed into vegetarianism... Besides Ivan's extensive flatulence, nothing of importance happened.

Monday: Again, not much happened... studied a bit, talked to Drew for a bit, stayed up late. The norm. Oh, I studied for cinema with Nicole and Justin... they made a movie while I typed up cinema notes, attempting to study for my final. My favorite line: "Fuck the secret, evil organization. It's our anniversary!" Also saw a music video of a friend of Suzanne's... we watched it up in Jamie's room, after it took them twenty minutes to figure out how to turn on the VCR. I have to say, I thought it was a great piece of work... all about the kid's experience with making the B team in high school.

Tuesday: Woke up... worked on my paper, turned in my paper, went to my interview, took my cinema final, got mad at Josh and Megan, visited 2nd floor Trojan for the first time, came back, watched Desperado, took video of the band at Primal Scream, stayed up late talking, went to bed.

Wednesday: Woke up, studied for French final, took the French final, went to CPK downtown with Krissy and my roomie, and then went downstairs, bidding Ivan fairwell. Due to financial difficulties, he's forced to leave the wonderful world of USC and head back to Nebraska. He's finishing up high school. The wonders of RHP-ness. But at least he'll be with Marie, his girlfriend. That's the one high point, I believe. Brian really drives his roommates away... yeesh. Hopefully his next roommate will be cool.

Now I'm going to bed. I'm getting up insanely early... before I head back to Houston, I've got about six billion things to do, people to see, bags to pack... gotta love travel.

Maybe I'll actually blog a bit more during the break. ;)