03/28/2005: "Travelblogue"
Listening to: DJ Krush - KakuseiCurrent mood: undefined
Well it's monday night, and I feel alright. Or something. Really nothing to talk about for today, I've just worked, gotten coffee, went grocery shopping, and read some of The Diamond Age today. Have I ever mentioned how much fun Neil Stephenson is? Very very fun is the answer. Anyway, I did promise to post my travelblogue didn't I? Now keep in mind that I originally meant to post this stuff as I was writing, but since I didn't always have a net connection I just saved to the laptop and compiled it all together. So it's gonna be really really long. Feel free not to read it.
Travelblogue Day 1 Fremont, Ca 11:43pm
As you may or may not recall, the momentous spring break holiday started today. Which isn't to say that it didn't start off without big horrible bad omens, but it did start. The omen in queston was that when we got the Enterprise Rent-a-Car place where I had booked a car over a week before, and from whom I had received two email confirmations, they said they had never heard of me and had utterly no cars. Nor did any other rental place in town. Luckily I have very generous parents who were kind enough to loan me my dad's blue car for the week. And once we got on the road things weren't so bad. We only made it to Mt. Shasta before getting hungry, but we found this great little cafe there which brightened our previously damp spirits. And we put on Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency on tape and the drive wasn't too bad at all. So we're here in Fremont, staying with my friend Nate's family, and I'm completely exhausted. To the point of utter loopiness. As is usual before any trip I take I could of course not sleep last night and only managed about 6 hours total.
But anyway, yeah, I hadn't seen Nate in something like 5 years and it's been nice to see him so far. His family is really nice, and I got to meet his oft-mentioned girlfriend Irene, who Lynnea and I both liked a lot. And that's about all I know at the moment, except that we're heading into the city tomorrow for fun and excitement. And that I really need some sleep.
Travelblogue Day 2 Fremont, Ca 10:52pm
So, today was the day of our trip into San Francisco. We went to church in the morning with Nate first, which wasn't a bad time, got some lunch and some coffee afteward and then headed into the city sometime around 1:30 or so. The first stop I made was to drag Nate and Lynnea to Amoeba Music in Haight-Ashbury. I now know where I want to go when I die. I guess I knew in some vague theorhetical way that such record store could and somewhere probably did exist, but really I was vastly unprepared. Zac mentioned to me a couple weeks back that whenever he goes into Amoeba nowadays (I'm guessing he probably goes to the Berkeley store but I don't know) his brain just shuts down. I had that and more. After all, Zac's been there multiple times, and to other similar establishments. I've never been anyplace like that. Anyway I loaded up, got a couple Future Bible Heroes records (which I've been looking for for at least a year, probably more like 2), some of the older Magnetic Fields records, a DJ Krush record, Hefner, and a couple other odds and ends. It was definitely a successful trip.
Anyway, after that we went driving around the city and eventually ended up where all tourists end up, Fisherman's Wharf. So we walked around there a little bit (and saw some cool dub guys playing on the street) and eventually headed back to Fremont. Then we took Nate out to sushi in honor of his birthday in a few days which was also fun, then came back to his parents' house and chatted with his parents and his sister, who are really nice people and lots of fun to talk to. All in all it was a really fun day. But it's late and I've got to get to bed as the more serious driving begins tomorrow.
Travelblogue Day 3 San Diego, Ca 12:21am
So today was of course the long and boring drive from Fremont down to San Diego. Actually it didn't seem too bad this time. We got off around 8 this morning and made it into town by 4 which isn't too bad. Plus we continued the audiobook of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency which is a book I always enjoy, either in audio form or no. So anyway there's not too much to report from that portion of the trip as it mostly involved sitting and then more sitting.
Anyway after we got down here and got cleaned up, we out and grabbed some coffee with Matt and once Mia got home we headed out to the Country Kabob from some Greek food. It's really nice to see them again. I'm glad I get to hang out with them all week. Anyway, we met up with El Pat afterward at LeStat's and hung out there a bit then headed back. Which really doesn't make for the most interesting recounting of one's day ever told, but that's what happens when most of your day is driving and the remaineder is recovering. Go figure. I don't really know what's going on tomorrow. I'm planning on heading in to work for a little while at least, though I'm tired enough at the moment that I'm not feeling terribly keen on working for too long. Anyway, speaking of tired I'm fairly close to falling asleep at the moment so I think that's what I'll do.
Travelblogue Day 4- San Diego, Ca, 1:34am
Cripe, is it actually 1:34am? No wonder I'm about to fall asleep. Well, that and the rather large quantity of sake I ingested earilier. Today wasn't the most exciting day, really I just went to work (although I did see my good friend Cole there, whom I hardly recognized since he's lost so much weight which was somewhat amazing), came back here, went out to the venerable Sushi Deli with Matt, Mia, Pat, and of course Lynnea then came back here, had some more sake, and watched Shaun of the Dead, which was absolutely hilarious. Really there's very little to write about. Which doesn't suit me too badly at the moment since sleep is sounding better and better with each passing second. Basicallly it was a fun day, even including the working part since I haven't seen any of those blokes lately, but not terribly interesting to write about. And I need to do a bit of reading and get meself to bed. I'ma consider that enough writing for the day.
Travelblogue Day 5 San Diego, Ca 12:33am
This trip is blowing by so quick I can't even believe it. Tomorrow is our last full day in town, which seems ridiculous to me. I'm fairly sure we just got here. Anyway, today was a decent day. Work was a little annoying since they keep piling more and more stuff on me, not seeming to realize that I'm only in the office for one more day, not back in permanently. Nor the fact that I won't even be in on Friday. But at least I'm not going to go totally broke from taking an entire week off.
Speaking of totally broke though, we decided to do some shopping after I got back. Today was bookstore shopping day which went really successfully. I didn't find everything I was looking for but I found some stuff I wasn't at all expecting like a complete unabridged four volume set of The Thousand and One Nights for only $30, plus a single volume edition of The Faerie Queen by Spencer, which I've been wanting to read the last couple years (since it utterly thwarted me when I tried to read it in my English 220 class ever so long ago). And of course the usual contingent of scifi stuff that I don't really need was thrown in for good measure. But I'm happy that I picked up some more Neal Stephenson, if The Diamond Age is half as fun as Snow Crash it'll be great. We also went to the Sanrio store and loaded on the requisite cute stuff. I myself got a Chococat wallet, which is of the girl variety that only opens from the top and may drive me insane, but it's cool enough that I'll have to try it out for awhile at least.
Anyway, then we rounded off the evening by having dinner with my good friend Cole. We went to Afgani food at the Khyber Pass in Hillcrest, which is a quite tasty, albeit slightly pricey place. For those that haven't had it, Afgani food is sort of like Indian food if it had been switched at birth and lived a different life. It's really good. And of course so was chatting with Cole, he's just such an amazingly cool guy. Anyway, that's it for now. I've got to get my reading in and get to bed I told Lynnea to wake me up early tomorrow so that I could get to work, and consequently leave work, early.
Travelblogue Day 6 San Diego, Ca 12:54am
So, today was the last day in San Diego. Which is a little bit sad since it seems like we just got here, but I suppose that, once tomorrow's horribly long, painful, grueling, somewhere in the neighborhood of 12-hour long drive is over it'll be nice to be home again. Anyway, brief rundown of the day. I got up a little bit early and headed in to work at about 10:30, worked until 3:30 then came back here. After that Lynnea and I went out and got a bagel at LeStat's then went over to Grossmont to go to Cost Plus, Trader Joe's, and since Trader Joe's wasn't carrying Glenlivet for some inexplicable reason, BevMo. We had to pick up much needed, and generally unavailable in Oregon, supplies you see. Unfortunatly that didn't end up being quite as fun a shopping trip as we were hoping since we ended up being rushed for time, as we were going to a movie at 7:15.
The movie was Steamboy which is Katsuhiro Τtomo's first movie since a not terribly well-known anime of the 80s called Akira (of which the manga is probably at least 3-4 times as long and makes infinitely more sense and is a great read actually). It was uh, ok. Not great by any stretch of the imagination, but not really terrible either. I think would prefer the subbed version for sure. I mean, of course Patrick Stewart was good, but Anna Paquin? Or even worse whoever voiced Scarlett? Awful. Still, it seems like all these big budget anime movies coming out lately are high on the visual effects scale and low on the plot level. I mean, Metropolis... I don't even have the faintest idea what was going on in that movie. Ghost in the Shell: Innocence visuals... wow. Plot... huh? And so on.
Anyway, then we met up with Mary (who I guess has been hiding under a rock for most of the week) and went to a couple coffee shops. We started at LeStat's but the barista on duty was Troy, and he seems to have penchant for blasting hightly inappropriate music (both hair metal and, as was the case tonight, hardcore) so we left and went elsewhere. Then we came back here and played with Matt's new PSP, which is just way way cool and I'm afraid I'm going to have to get one of them before too long. And here I am, getting my day's writing in even though it's super late and I have a evilly long drive ahead tomorrow. So that's it for me.
Travelblogue Day 7 Hornbrook, CA 12:01am
Well, we're finally back home, or at my parents' house at least. I guess I'll be putting all this together tomorrow and editing it into a blog post. I wonder if I can count that as my writing for the day... Maybe if I do an introduction to the whole trip.
So anyway, I don't really have much to talk about tonight. The drive up wasn't too bad, although traffic was pretty much as bad as I've seen it through Orange County and LA. Which is not to say the slowest, I've been just stopped in the OC for like over an hour without moving before, but basically the freeway was just really slow and completely glutted with cars from Anaheim all the way past Burbank. But once we got through that it wasn't too bad and actually we made the entire trip in only a little over 12 hours, which is below par for the course, if you'll forgive the hanggliding metaphor.
Alright, I know I'm way too tired to be writing any more at this point if that was my idea of a joke.
Travelblogue Epilogue Ashland, Or, 6:48pm
I was thinking of editing and posting the whole Travelblogue today, but really I'm way too tired out. We got up fairly early this morning, at least considering how tired we were last night. After hanging about my parents' house for a few hours, Lynnea and I came up with my dad, who for some reason insisted that we put the new alternator in my car today, despite the fact that that was not even near anything I wanted to do today. But he didn't really seem to be about to take no for an answer so we went ahead and did it. And actually it turned out that the old alternator was fine, just that the wire that connects to the battery was barely connected. So we fixed that and everything seems to be fine now. Meaning that the mechanics' quote of $240-some dollars was about $240-some dollars too much. Which is cool. And I think we fixed the fuel leak too, which had been another $260 quote. I don't think I'm going back to those mechanics.
Anyway, so that was the afternoon and now I'm just sitting around reading some old Robin comics and finally listening to the records I bought at Amoeba. And other than breaking off and doing my requisite book reading, that's really all I'm planning to do for the evening, other than maybe drink some of my delicious delicious scotch.
Anyway so that's that. Now you know what I did on my spring break. And a riveting read it was I'll wager. But now it's time for MST3k and tasty beer.
