So What's Been Going On?

Blog No. 1: So What's Been Going On?

So what has been going on during the hiatus? Well...

Santa Cruz Part V: The Blonde Strikes Back

Surprise, surprise. I went to Santa Cruz to visit Kaylah once again.

This time around, it felt like it was more independent. Since I last saw Kaylah in Santa Cruz, she was still in a single room in a dorm with about 8 other dormmates. Now, she lives in an apartment adjacent to UCSC with Terry, Beth, and Dan. She took Grace, her car which I so expertly named, with her so that she could drive us around instead of taking the buses. Hallelujah! We could go anywhere we want at any time! We went to a doughnut shop at midnight just because we could! XD

Kaylah, unfortunately, got a little under the weather. I was worried so I didn't push her to do too much. I believe she wanted to go to the beach at one point, but I knew that wouldn't happen. A lot of the time we just relaxed and slept on her bed. I didn't mind. I would never mind it at all so long as I spent my time with her! C:

It was the first time I went to visit Kaylah at her work at her new sous chef job at Gigi's! Both times I went to the restaurant, she served me these AMAZING ribs. I never really had ribs before, hence the few times I chewed on some cartilage... But still, she makes it with this super sauce that just turned the meat into a 5 star cuisine! Bellisimo! XD

Other than the new, we did a lot of the old. Lunch at Erik's, Coffee at Lulu's, souvenir shopping, ragging on Kaylah off and on. The usual! C:

Bonfires and Ninja.

The last few weeks of summer consisted of bonfires at JT's. There's something about fire that just soothes the soul... Up until it is 3 in the morning in the cold with no jacket. XD

Ninja... is a turn-based game in which the goal is to eliminate everyone around you by striking their hand with yours in fluid movements... It's easy to explain in demonstration. JT always ends up putting me in awkward positions, like putting his foot on my back as I was bent over. XD

There was a time of Epic Win that I'll never forget. After a few rounds of JT trying to get me out, I figure it was time to get on the offensive. I saw my only opening when I was behind him, when his hands were relaxed and his legs were open. So I scooped in between his legs and landed my hand on his crotch region where his hands were. He had moved out of the way in time, only to try and strike at my hand and miss. Then I bent my arm back to his crotch, again, only this time I finally eliminated him! XD

Rindy.

She is a friend from high school that tragically died in a car accident during the start of the semester.

Am I still grieving? Probably. I'm not fully over her loss, nor am I yet comfortable with talking about it too much. I think I have a process when I actually grieve.

I tend to withdraw myself. I couldn't go to Rindy's funeral service or Rindyfest at all because I felt like I couldn't deal with other people in a setting where we were grieving for the same person. I only went to one funeral in my life, for a distant baby cousin that had died drowning in a pool, but I didn't feel any real emotion until I was surrounded by people crying all around me.

It wasn't until the day after the accident that I actually felt like crying. What I ended up doing was I tried to distract myself on the internet. A part of my grieving process usually involves soft serve ice cream. It was usually what my mom gave me because the McDonald's by my house had a 24-hour drive thru. Taka was online and asked what was up. I told her that I was down and wanted some soft serve ice cream. I will always be grateful to her because she had sneaked out of her house to drive to my house with some McD's sundaes. She spent at least an hour with me as I looked through some of the old Youtube videos of her audition pieces. She did see some tears, but she comforted me. C:

Meeting New People/Seeing Old People.

With the new semester, I come across new people.

I finally met Susan Surrandon's "Boyfriend." After hearing about him for a semester from Susan Surrandon, I thought of what he was going to look like. Somehow, whenever I think of the name "Taylor," I always think of Taylor Lautner, (Jacob Black from the Twilight movie), turning into a wolf... Well, Susan Surrandon's Taylor is most definitely NOT a wolf. C:

I'm also continuing my Italian studies here at ARC. Professoressa Martinelli, my Italian teacher from last semester, teaches my class. It pretty much feels like last semester but more open. She either feels more loose around us, reminiscing about Italy or sharing music with us, or she feels tired of us, which only happens around test time. She's a really cool teacher and person to talk to. Her only fault in my opinion is that she always tries to get me to speak in Italian. She sometimes asks about Kaylah, only because I mention her on my temas. XD

The Italian class pretty much divides somewhat evenly into a seating arrangement. We have the old people near the door, the Sierra college people in the middle, and continuing ARC people by the window. Kaity, my Italian partner from last semester, sits next to me in this class now, the girls with the black hair sit in front of us, and Terri, the girl who always spaces out and asks stupid questions sits off to the side of us. I get the feeling that the four of them think of us as some sort of superhero club or something. It feels like I need some decoder ring or something with these folk. They always talk about meeting out of class but plans always fall through because I was unable to go to help them see if they were on the right track. Am I some sort of leader or something? XD

In my Statistics class, it always feels like a golf game, only less interesting. Always quiet, always staring intently on the one thing that's moving... There's this girl, Jenna, who does a lot of sports at AR apparently. I only talked to her that one time, "Can I see your calculator for a moment?" And it somehow turns into a weird friendship... She calls me her "Stats Buddy"... I'm not sure how I feel about that. I'm trying not to think about it too much because she helps me with whatever I missed for class. However, it always feels like only Jenna and I that talk during class so I sometimes feel twenty or so eyes look in our direction, eavesdropping...

That's it for now. Until next time!