Lion Soup and Otter Water

School has begun!

Classes are good so far, although it's only the second day. Hopefully things remain good.

I spent my last week before school doing lots of brilliantly social things. Lots of hanging out. It's been great. Actually, I've spent a lot of my month before school doing that. Fun fact: last night was the third night in three weeks that I've spent the night in my own bed. I am a whore.

Well, no. Those nights weren't necessarily spent in other people's beds.

Some were.

Anyway, so I'm enjoying being a little socialite, and hope that I can maintain that. I've never spent a lot of time spending a lot of time with people, and I like it.

Meanwhile, I'm doing some things to try to figure out my semi-immediate future. We'll see how that goes.

Today I got some lunch and was hanging out outside the cafeteria where a taiko group from San Jose was performing. I sat right next to the stage to watch, and it was pretty neat. One of the guys on stage was actually one of the advanced folks involved with De Anza's karate, so I saw him last night and will see him again tomorrow. Their group is holding an open audition in October. Maybe a new pursuit? Maybe.

Speaking of karate, it's going again. Things are scarier now that I'm not a specifically-guided beginner, buuutttttt it's still good. I'm looking forward to this quarter.

So yeah. That's life right now. Peace Out.

Yup.

The final few days

School begins on Monday. Wooboy.

So I went with my mother down to Monterey and then up near Santa Rosa to visit with family and friends, as well as to check out a couple of schools. I ended up falling in love with Cal State Monterey Bay, and I'm applying there (applications open in like a week). Hopefully I can get in.

Twice I've been to the theater in the last week. While up north, we went to an annual production called Tapas, which is a series of new short plays by local playwrights. They were pretty good. Then, just a couple nights ago, I went to see Spring Awakening at the San Jose Rep. It's my favorite show, and they did a brilliant job with it. I was tearing up during most of the numbers, just because I was so excited to be there. Heh.

That show, and the dinner before it, was a gift to me from my great aunt and uncle for my birthday which you all missed last week. Assholes.

No, my birthday is actually two weeks from Monday. I've thrown around some ideas for what I'd like to do, but no solid plans yet. It'll turn out to be something badass, naturally.

Other than that, not a lot has been going on. I've been spending way too much time with Donald and Kyle (and Naamah and Marina). I'm cool like that. I've been trying to fix my sleep a little so I can get to class on time in a few days. I think I'll survive.

Heavy Rain is a beautiful fucking game.

Alright, then. Two more weeks.

I don't really know what all I can say. Stuff happened. I spent about five days hanging out at the apartment I discovered for the first time in the last post. That was chill.

I'm wasting my life right now.

My mother will be here tomorrow, and I'm hanging out with her for a while.

School is in two weeks.

Blargh.

Better Off Ted.

The last two weeks...

Have been great.

I'd be willing to give you just a tremendous amount of detail to satisfy your desperate need to know everything about me, and details there are, but I think I'll make those available only upon request, because otherwise it will take a long time to type and I'm lazy. Here's the summary, though:

The week with Michael was great. I wasn't entirely expecting that. It was, though. I really enjoyed his company and my time spent with him, more than I think I did when we were together. That might be a terrible thing to say, but it's true. The week was spent acting very couplish, which I didn't really want in the beginning, but I fell into it because I'm like that. An accusation (/observation) he made when we were together is that I'm always only interested in whatever's in front of me at the time. I think he's right. We've talked about it since the visit. All in all, I feel comfortable with my relationship with him, and enjoyed the visit.

The train ride home was great. I spent most of the day just watching scenery fly by, and I love it. I didn't get the chance to talk to lots of strangers. Well, I had the chance, but I was so caught up with the view, I didn't interact much. I was, during the night, assaulted by a drunk woman (not exclusively - she hit some other guy), and so we all had fun with that. Following the event, I did get to talk to people. I was also given a recommendation by a conductor after telling her that I'd be interested in doing her job (new dream, maybe?). That's cool.

I've spent the last week chilling out, doing a little business. I'm seeking out some jobs and info on transferring to SJSU, all of which are proving fruitful so far. Progress on setting up Merrillspace 2.0 is slow in going, but it is going, so...yeah.

There are two guys I met online. One, Kyle, months and months ago, one, Donald, a smaller number of months ago. I've been chatting with each of them since we met. I was talking to Donald on the train from my phone, and he offered to do dinner the next night when I got back. I said yes, we met, it was nice. Then, days later, I'm talking to Kyle and he says he's going to be playing nerdy board games with some friends, and invites me along. I accept. So he picks me up and we go to his friends' place, and I'm sitting there on the floor when the door opens up, and who should walk in but Donald. It broke my mind a little. Anyway, so that group all knows each other, and I spent the night hanging out with these four people who are pretty chill. I had a good time, and I hope to do it again (I am owed a trip to get froyo, so I'm holding them to that).

Also, Misfits, Merlin, Futurama...Netflix and Hulu own my life right now. I love those shows, though.

Railrider

Portland Union Station.

I love trains.

I love the high windows, the tall ceilings, the long benches, the clocks, the bustle, the calls for incoming and departing trains. Airports are nice, sure, but they're too sleek. All the train stations I've been in retain a sort of olden charm. They're so grand. This is probably my favorite form of transport. God-damned delightful.

So the wedding yesterday was great. My aunt and uncle's place is brilliant, and the two weddees are fun people who made sure they had a fun wedding (they met in an MMO). Here are some shots:

The bride and groom in a handfasting.

Each table's centerpiece was as such.

A LBP-themed cake.

Also worth noting is that the wedding was the first time in years and years that all six cousins from our branch of the family have been in the same place.

Joyous.

Also worth noting is there was a very good-looking guy with a camera sitting near me during the ceremony. That was nice.

Anyway, so following the festivities, I headed back to the hotel and slept until my parents left for the airport at around six in the morning. I didn't get back to sleep after that, so instead I hooked up my computer to the TV and watched Futurama on Netflix (I'm nerding out about this HDMI shit), stopping for breakfast, and then again around 10:30 so I could check out and go hang out at my aunt and uncle's again, where my grandparents were. Two and a half hours ago, my grandfather took me to the train station. I got situated and eventually boarded (while in line to board, I saw a really cute guy and left him a note telling him he's gorgeous. I dropped it on the bench beside him from behind and walked away, so I don't know what his reaction was.

Fun story: I was at the Mini-Gourmet in a group when a really good-looking guy came in and began dining alone beside us. I picked up his tab. Several weeks later I was all alone at 3:00 in the morning, and some stranger picked up my tab. I profited by about 14 bucks in that karmic transaction.

So now I'm on the train, heading towards Seattle. I'm an hour into three and a half hour trip. It's wonderful, and now I'm really looking forward to my full day's trip back to San Jose in a week.

That's all for now.

A wild Gazelle appears!

So today was my first day in Portland in years. I woke up very confused. I was having a dream involving Mr. Burns and Smithers, and a train falling through a trap door over a vine-covered wall, and me and some people crashing a wedding rehearsal, or possible a baby shower. Then there came a knocking, and I was just really confused, because I found myself a: on a very large, very comfortable surface; b: I was in total darkness; c: there was a knocking in the distance. Those things don't usually happen to me right after I wake up, especially not in conjunction. I trusted I was probably safe, though, and waited for something in my environment to explain itself to me. My mother going and telling housekeeping that we were all asleep, and I remembered.

The whole room was up and about shortly thereafter, and we headed down to breakfast, where we encountered several relatives. After hanging out for a while, my mother, father and I headed to Gazelle, which is a natural fiber clothing store my aunt (mother of the bride tomorrow) owns. My mother had the idea we should shop for our wedding clothes there, so we did. They have a limited mens' section, and even less in my size, but I found two shirts I'll be wearing together tomorrow, one of which, this corduroy button-up shirt, I might start wearing around just generally, 'cause it's pretty tight. I then spent a lot of time being my mother's shopping buddy, which turned out to be sort of fun.

Want to know a secret? I'm (as I will occasionally be) interested in reimaging, at least a little. I think I might try to take more of an interest in shopping, and appearance in general. We'll see how that goes.

After we left Gazelle, we headed over to my aunt and uncle's house, where the wedding will be held in the garden.

This shit if for serious, yo.

While there, my cousins and I devised Disaster Island Corporation, Extreme, which sounded like a fun business to own, and which one cousin then realized abbreviates to D.I.C.E., which just made it all the more awesome. I decided it should be a really classy American fare restaurant.

Then we helped do some miscellaneous setup and then stuck around for the rehearsal dinner, before finally heading back to the hotel, where I am now, hanging out with my two cousins and my aunt from California, one of whom I won't get to see again for a long time. Two of us are on computers, and two on portable gaming devices. It's really intense silent bonding.

So tomorrow the wedding will happen, and then I'll make my way north. I'm sure we'll talk soon, my dearest, loyal, very invested reader(s? Probably not plural). Goodnight.