Fro On Epic Shingled Roof

Blog No. 7a: Winter Dreamscapes Part I

Four part series of weird dreams/SPORs (Subconscious Personifications of Reality). Enjoy.

*Fro on Checkerboard Shingled Roof*

Fade in.

I brush my foot across an oddly beveled checkerboard, each black and white tile curved and angled upward. I walk up the checkerboard to the top, where the checkerboard is folded slightly at the center, where a long platform was at the crease, extending from end to end of the checkerboard, slightly curved upward at each end. It’s suddenly clear that every tile is actually a roof shingle.

I glance up and see a tall figure in a fencing uniform, raising his epée and widening his stance. I can hear the blood pulsing in my ears.

“Prepare to DIE!”

The fencer charges on his tip toes toward me as I, somehow, push the blade down with my hand and lift myself up to kick the fencer’s mask off. The mask rolls off his head, sliding down and off the roof. This was where I noticed that I couldn’t make out the ground below. We must’ve been on a tall pagoda-ish building.

I look up to see the fencer’s face, only there was no head. In fact, the fencer had completely disrobed, leaving the uniform idle in midair. The blade, clothes, and armor fell and slid off the roof. As I looked down, I saw a shadow darkening below me, which prompted me to quickly look up.

The sun blazed in my eyes as a tall, slender silhouette comes rushing into view. I dash out of the way as the silhouette lands on his right foot. JT was holding a katana behind him, his bare left leg up in the air like a flamingo, (flamingo came into mind because his very short robe was a bright pink).

“Draw your weapon and show me what Jew’s are made of!” JT writhed in fiery anger.

I look down at my waist and noticed I was wearing a belt and a sword holster. I grab the sheath in my left hand and the handle of the sword in my right, hesitating on drawing the weapon as I scanned for options.

My time grew short as JT charged again. I was trying to avoid hitting him, but I didn’t have a choice. It seems however, it didn’t take too much to make him fall as I pull the sword from its sheath and jam the handle into JT’s chest. I examined the sword as I pulled it; the wide-thin blade was a deep bluish-grey with designs of a golden crescent moon and golden Jewish stars. JT rebounds back up hit me, too, with the handle of his blade against my forehead.

“Cheap move… Even for you,” JT muttered as he rubbed his rib cage.

“I haven’t even the slightest idea what we are doing!” I yelled out, awaking from my stupor. I stood up, still feeling dizzy. JT was pointing the tip of his blade in my face. “What if we get hurt? I have no armor! What kind of man are you?”

JT drops his katana on the ground and opens up his pink robe, revealing a naked JT, (of course my reaction in the dream had blocked JT’s privates from my actual view).

“Apparently, that kind…”

JT ties up his robe and picks up his blade, pointing it back to my face. “FIGHT me.”

I raise my blade up to the same position his blade was. “BRING it.”

The battle begins with JT thrusting his katana blade forward. I jump to the right to avoid the attack, almost slipping on the roof shingles. I swing my blade at his feet, to which JT skillfully skipped and cartwheeled. I run up to the stable part of the roof to regain my stance. Then the both of us jumped forward and started swinging our blades in midair. Clanging and sparks of light fly from each blow as the duel got more and more intense.

The intensity of one blow threw us backward at either ends of the roof. We both stand up and, mirroring each other, we run toward the center readying a backhanded swing that clamored on impact. JT and I both stood our ground and kept pushing our blades forward, refusing to let our will power be broken, our stance unhindered.

Suddenly, JT bends his head forward and kisses me on the lips. I was taken aback by this act just enough for me to lower my guard and JT to continue his strike. My grip on my sword had loosened and, as a result, the blade flew in the distance toward the sun on the mountainous horizon.

“It’s the art of distraction, my friend!”

Then he readied a horizontal slash. I quickly bend down and, without missing a beat, punch him in the groin. JT cuts the slash off short as he drops his blade and sits down in a fetal position, squealing in pain.

“Distraction. Got it. What’s next?”

After a second, he gets up and says, “I guess a costume change is in order.” His outfit changed from the short pink robe to a blue and white garb with a conical straw hat. He raised a giant pole and swung it around his body to a fighting stance. I look down and my outfit has changed, too, to where I looked like Cid from FFVII, complete with goggles on my head and a pole of my own.

A spar ensues, where we both repeatedly try to trip and poke each other with our very large sticks. It got more interesting as it went on as we both started using our poles at higher speeds and in creative and unconventional ways. The roof, also, started shifting upwards in areas where he or I stood to prevent us from falling and then return to normal.

When my subconscious got bored with that, JT would do an outfit change as soon as he would knock my weapon out of my hands. Then I would get a random weapon to use thrown at me from below the roof shingles. Occasionally, JT gets a new weapon, but only after I was able to use my weapon to make JT lose a round in an embarrassing and hilarious way.

It went like this for awhile. Random weapons kept getting chucked onto the roof, (a tennis racket, a body pillow, a frying pan), as random articles of JT’s endless wardrobe kept sliding off, (a baseball uniform, a scuba suit, a Vegas showgirl outfit). It definitely showed the timeline in the background of the duel as the sun had gone from one end of the roof to the other, sunrise, sunset.

When the sun finally set, the sky filled up with stars and celestial clouds like I’ve never seen before. We both were breathing heavily after a huge day of fighting. I knew I had to end it here and now…

“I know now,” I said as streams of light circulate around my hands behind my back, “without a doubt,” JT raises his version of Cloud’s Buster Sword, “that Kingdom Hearts… is BRIGHT!”

I twirl two keyblades into existence in my hands and pulled them up as JT swung his blade down for the final blow. The impact of these blades caused a flash of bright light…

THE END.

Massive Thighs

Blog No. 6: A New Lifestyle

I've mentioned before that I was going to visit the Wellness Center at OPERS. Well, this week I did.

I started on a Saturday, feeling awkward as to what I was supposed to do. I walked into the front desk, where Kaylah works, and found a half-asleep Asian man, staring at the computer. I got his attention and offered him my student ID. He swiped it and I was signed in. Now, I didn't know what I had to do, but I realized, as I was walking out of the building to the actual Wellness Center, I had my stuff with me. I'm pretty sure I can't run with stuff in my pockets. So I walked back, said, "Hey I need a locker," to which the half-asleep Asian man handed me a lock with a slip of paper, as well as a towel. I offered him my ID card again, thinking that I needed to check out the lock, but he waved me on. So I walked back toward the lockers and put all of my stuff in, wallet, keys, iPod, and cell phone.

Then I walked across the land, passed the basketball court, the pool, the indoor basketball court, the tennis courts, the racket ball court, the dance rooms, and the dance room shack. The Wellness Center at the end of all this stuff had the exercise equipment, the weights, the treadmills, all of that. I walked in the sliding door and saw a sign that read: Check in with your Student ID at the front desk with an arrow pointing at the desk by the door. I had left my student ID in my wallet…

Wellness CenteràOPERS

I walk up to the locker and realize that the slip of paper that the half-asleep Asian man gave me had the locker combination, the same slip of paper that was now currently sitting on top of the stuff in the locker. CRAP. So I tried remembering the numbers in my head. 12… 22… 18? It had a lot of twos in it that was for sure. Then I realized that if I bent down to look in the little slits of the locker, I could see the last two numbers on the slip of paper. Certainly, it was affective. I opened up my wallet and got my student ID.

OPERSàWellness Center

I walked up to the front desk to hand them my card. The blonde chick said, "Oh, but you already have a towel!"

"Didn't I need to check in with my card?"

"What? No…"

That was productive…

Walking into the gym, I saw a bunch of people at the weight lifting machines. I tried looking at some of the machines, but some of them had these pads and numbers that I had to enter in. I wasn't certain of how it worked. So I just continued walking to the few cycling treadmills at the window. Thing is, I didn't know how exactly to work that machine either… Luckily, someone also just got on the same exact machine right next to me, so I watched her dial it in.

So I pedaled. As to be expected, I got pretty out of breath. I kept cycling though. I just tried thinking about the girl next to me, to see if she noticed that I was watching her, and not try and think about how sore my feet were getting. I outran her, because she stepped off ten minutes later in a sweat. I looked down I saw that I had ran 9ish minutes and I ran a complete mile. I was proud of myself! Why not continue on for some more? So the first day ended up being 2 miles, a record for me, seeing as I never really run even half a mile on a treadmill. XD

My pain assessment though… I was sore all over. My thighs, my calves, my arms, my rear… I had grabbed all of my stuff and gave the lock back to the half-asleep Asian man, who was joined by the peppy brown haired woman, who asked, "What's your last name?"

"Um… But I didn't give him my card." Kaylah had always asked last names when people returned stuff because there was a slot system behind the desk. The brown haired woman nodded slightly, but the half-Asian man perked up and slightly turned himself away from the woman…

Second day I was more prepared. Run to 2 miles… Finish this song… Slow down… Run faster… 4 miles! It was during "Simple and Clean," which drags on for a bit at the end, so it ended up being 4.08 miles. The pain was a little worse that day, seeing as I came in the following day. For some reason my arms had hurt the most, which was weird because I didn't work on them at all…

UPDATE: From this point on, I had tried out and added a few things other than running on the treadmill.

I remembered I liked rowing, for some reason. There were only a couple of rowing machines, but they didn't seem to be taking up a lot of occupation time as first thought. When I first tried it, there was one of the TA's from my Econ for Accounting class. He did recognize me, remarkably, and we got into a small conversation while we were rowing. I thought he was cool because he had an eyebrow ring which, on him, you really couldn't tell it was on until you looked up at him into his eyes. Honestly, I started a conversation with him because I was a little unsure as to how to set the machine up. I just followed his lead… XD

The weight lifting areas are sometimes weird. They are packed on the second floor, but there are hardly any on the first, even though both of these areas take up the same amount of space. You'd think that people would want to exercise in peace and not in front of everyone… Well at least that was how I felt. Again, I did some exercises after watching what other people did. To me, the various weird machines and chairs and benches looked weird, like each one was supposed to serve a purpose. I just really wasn't sure what because it wasn't strikingly clear…

What I end up doing is ignoring the machines altogether and use the hand weights for the various exercises the machines would've done anyway! XD

 

I'm definitely intent on seeing this through. It feels invigorating afterward. I have this feeling of self confidence and accomplishment that I don't ordinarily get on a day to day basis. I've looked up some articles online to see what I should and shouldn't be doing. I found on one cite that I should consider this, "my new lifestyle," that you should take immediate steps to adjusting your routine to that of something healthier.

So I developed a system. After classes are over and I change into my gym clothes, I'd go to the Wellness Center and start my routine. I'd run 2-4 miles on a treadmill or elliptical, then do some stretches outside on the balcony, then work on my arms in the weightlifting area, go rowing, and then if I'm not too tired I'd run some more. Hopefully I can get my tennis racket so that I can start practicing my tennis swings.

This whole, "new lifestyle" thing is a little bit scary. It feels like I'm redefining who I am to accommodate someone who I want to be. I am definitely starting to live like a college student in that regard. I've started tightening my belt on a few things, like no more coffee shops or fast food restaurants. The result of which is literally that, I'm able to tighten my belt a little more. I've also noticed that I'm more active during the day, and I'm able to grasp concepts of my classes easier. I'm not sure if that last one has a correlation with this or not, but I still thought it was mentionable. Either way, I finally feel I'm actually doing something right for once.

 

Heh, it's funny that, now that I sweat a lot more often, my clothes are starting to smell like JT… Ah nostalgia… XD

All About Me and PostSecret

Blog No. 5: Tell All but Tell No One

I picked up a book the other day at Border's. It was called All About Me but it had no story. It had questions and blanks. The description of this text is:

With questions you not only reveal your curiosity to others, you also invite others to express their feelings, wishes, and fears; you show a genuine interest in and respect for their lives. This book is a neutral tool that allows you to comfortably ask and answer questions with friends, partners, family, colleagues, chance acquaintances—or simply with yourself…

This book is dedicated to everyone who has not asked enough questions of others, and to those who have never been asked.

—Philipp Keel

So, I figured it might be useful to help me define some of my indecisions onto pen and paper.

When I got to doing this book, it really felt like an over glorified form of a Myspace bulletin survey. However, when I got past the basic questions, (name, where were you born, what color do you usually wear), I got to the more insightful ones. What would be the first step toward resolving poverty in your opinion? How would you describe God? Death? Those types of questions I left unanswered until I fully thought about the exact answer I would give.

Then I get to these personal ones:

If your father wasn't around, who would you want to be as your father?

Describe your most romantic experience.

Who is a friend you would like to be closer to?

I know the answers to these questions. Thing is, there is something about writing them on paper that makes it more real, more official, more alive. Granted, this was my point all along. I didn't think I had unintended consequences to writing in this book. I mulled it around in my head whether or not I would actually fill in the answer that was in my mind…

So I said, "SCREW IT!" and, immediately, the book became a diary.

My rationality: In the wrong hands, people will know how to screw with my head, but, in the right hands, anyone who was curious enough to read it would know a lot more about me.

This book has some real potential.

…

Then it got me thinking…

I was recently shown a video made by the author of PostSecret of basically random people on the street telling the video camera some of their secrets. Piper had taken a couple of quotes from that video and made it her status on Facebook. I looked on to see the website, which I got kind of confused because I thought each entry was supposed to be comedic. The blog consists of actual handmade postcards from anonymous people, each with a short description of a secret or a feeling they never said out loud. Only after I reread these posts as secrets did I appreciate how inspiring this idea is.

Here are a few that I noticed:

You've been dead and buried for months now. But social networking sites won't stop reminding me that your birthday is on Saturday. I'm sorry. I love you.

I've had two girlfriends I could bring to orgasm by just licking their ears. I've lost contact with both of them.

My best friend committed suicide 13 years ago because his wife cheated on him. My wife of 13 years cheated on me this year. I forgive you both.

So I want to submit a secret.

I'm now basically in the process of trying to come up with a little design for a postcard. I feel that it might be freeing to put a visual of something that's been on my mind into simple words and images. Who knows? Maybe people will find that reading my secret would help them in some way. Maybe some of you out there will want to do this with me…

Either way, I'm curious as to what will result because of this.

Here we go!

The Frozen Popsicle and The Bitch Seat

Blog No. 4: Jason Visits

My friend Jason from high school came by to visit us here in Santa Cruz. He came all the way from Sacramento on his motorcycle, which freaked Kaylah out a little bit. When he got here, he was as cold as an ice cube and he could barely even move. Kaylah and I had to take off his gloves for him. I'm always amazed of how people can drive long distances in a motorcycle, let alone drive one period. He had to drive two hours straight on a freeway and go up and down a hilly highway to get here.

Jason is a pretty cool guy. In high school, I generally hung out with him when we had music classes. I would put him under the category of "class clown," which only makes sense after you take into account that he emulated Jim Carey for his American Artist Project. Now, he does some programming for the Blackberry which he makes quite a substantial living off of.

He has a thing for red heads… and Hayley Williams. Apparently he would do anything to see and perhaps fondle the lead singer off of Paramore. We must've watched the "Brick by Boring Brick" music video at least a dozen times.

We also watched a lot Mythbusters when I slept over at Kaylah's with him. We pretty much went through the fifth season in that entire week. I already saw most of these episodes already, so it was that much more satisfying when I got Jason to see myths, like Fainting Goats, where Kari Byron, redhead, did something surprising, i.e. strip naked for science, and got to see his reaction.

 

We all went to see Sherlock Holmes one night. I was running late to go to the movie theater and he ended up buying my ticket for me. In exchange, despite his objections, I bought him a large soda, which I sipped a few drinks off of, and a box of sour patch kids. The girl at the counter seemed familiar, so I asked if I knew her from somewhere. Joline is a student, like me and about 70% of the town, at UCSC. What I hadn't realized was that I saw her just earlier that day, working at the Kresge College mailroom. She helped me finally get my mailbox open. XD;

The movie was great. It does have a lot of fist punching and action stuff, but somehow they kept it real, even though Sherlock Holmes tends to be this perfect-in-every-way character. As Sherlock does his recap of "how they did it" we see actual flashbacks of what he saw, not anything new, which was neat because the movie makes it as if we are totally engrossed in his crazy mind. It also introduces some modern aspects of the story, like it includes the crime scene analysis as one would see on an episode of CSI, as well as a "bromance" kind of relationship between Homes and Watson. It kept the spirit of mystery alive, as well as told the story from a different angle instead of trying to please the die-hards.

Overall, I'd give 4 Out of 5 Thumbs UpàGreat to see if you want to yell out "JUST KISS ALREADY!" like I wanted to do…

Also, Terry would most definitely have a fling with Rachel MacAdams.

 

Jason had mentioned that he brought a second helmet to see if any of us wanted to ride along with him. Terry sounded interested, but he didn't want the ride. Kaylah denied it the chance on the spot. I, however, was curious as to how riding a motorcycle would feel, so I took him up on his offer. Kaylah joked about being on the "Bitch Seat," but I didn't care. I wanted to ride the motorcycle with him!

The helmet was tight around the neck, so it took a little push to get the helmet to fit on my big head. I could hear Kaylah chuckle in the background, but again I shrugged it off. When I put it on, we found out that part of the visor was missing. The helmet was hanging near the tailpipe during the ride down, so that must've been the culprit.

Anyway, I hopped on, straddling the bike and grasping my arms around Jason's waist. He gave me one bit of instruction, "Whichever way I turn, lean along with me! I know it'll be scary to do, but trust me you'll be fine!"

In my head, I was thinking, well I wasn't worried until you mentioned that! All it made me do was hold on to Jason tighter.

The engine rumbled as he turned the motorcycle on. I curled up my legs into the bike while Jason prepared for launch. Once Kaylah drove Grace out of the parking lot, we followed. Being on the motorcycle felt like being on the water. It felt very free form and, surprisingly, freeing.

"The engine makes my crotch vibrate!"

Jason shrugged. He was probably used to it.

When we came upon our first turn, I tried following his directions, but I could feel myself hesitate. As the bike leaned, I wondered how the heck a motorcycle can keep its balance in the first place. It was very scary because we leaned to the point where I could have easily just pushed my hand against the pavement, which my hand started to do out of reflex. Once I realized it, I jolted in my seat and then leaned into Jason's back. Once the turn was over, we made a stop behind Grace. After that initial moment of fear, I felt like I could just as easily drive a motorcycle if I wanted to. XD

We rode from Kaylah's place to Gigi's, following Grace along the way. I had gotten the hang of leaning in close to Jason as he turned the motorcycle left or right. The ride was wonderful. It felt very natural, yet unsettling. I'm used to the comfortable and safe shell of a car's frame. It's definitely a weird feeling when you don't have the barrier of a car between you and the other cars.

I tried to sit myself up so that I wasn't totally leaning against Jason the entire ride. I could feel half of my face becoming frozen because of the broken visor. Being paranoid as I was, I fumbled through my pockets every once in awhile, like I'd normally do, one hand at a time to make sure I had everything, just in case nothing slipped out. I noticed that Jason was wondering what the heck I was doing as he turned his head behind him. I think from our entire ride, we must've topped at least 50 mph.

The House—(Motorcycle)àGigi's

Once we pulled into the parking lot and parked, I felt a huge rush of energy run through my body. I instantly regretted not raising my hands above my head during the trip like a roller coaster ride.

I definitely need to learn how to ride a motorcycle one of these days. XD

2 ½ x 3 Kaitlyns and Awesome Blogs

Blog No. 3: Actually Moving Into Kresge and First Day of Classes

Monday morning, we woke up very early to try and move everything in all at once with the first trip. The night before, we packed up almost everything into Kaylah's car. Only my laundry basket of clothes, piano, saxophone, and printer didn't fit, which is surprising because Grace, Kaylah's car, is very very very very small.

The first thing we did was drive to this little red kiosk at the base of campus, in order to purchase a parking permit that will allow Grace to be parked at a very close parking lot. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Apparently the lady at the booth said that the computers cannot bring up the information for undergraduates…

So we drove a little further to the TAPS office. Thing was, there was a line at that building that went out the door. The only close by, available parking was at the entrance, which was full. What we had to do was Kaylah had to stand in that cumbersome line, while I sat in the driver's seat, wait at the stop sign for anyone to pull out of a parking spot so that I can park Grace without getting a ticket. When I parked Grace, about 15 minutes of country music later, I walked to where Kaylah was in line. After we entered in the building, there was a person who said that they would help us because Kaylah has done this before. So we skipped ahead of the line to a door, where Kaylah was being processed on the computer. Thing is, Kaylah had already purchased her Remote parking pass and could not purchase a temporary one. We had to call the TAPS main office, leave a message with Grace's license plate number, and leave a little piece of paper saying "DO NOT CITE" on Kaylah's dashboard.

This part took all of an hour to do, all for a piece of paper. That was very much a time waster… DX

Then we ran to the Kresge housing office to pick up my dorm key and to actually see which room I was in. Joao, the housing director, is a pretty laid back guy. Let's just say that he would be the face of what UCSC's reputation would look like… Kaylah knew him through her job as a community assistant, so they were palling around. Usually, the new residents get a care package, like papers and stuff about the campus as well as the room keys. When I opened my folder up, all I got were the keys, which meant that I had to walk everywhere to get my ID, my mailbox, and any other helpful information. Way to be on the ball. XD

So, after we got the keys, Kaylah and I, as well as the compact car full of stuff, drove to Kresge East. Just as Audrey predicted, I got the third floor. Just as Kaylah predicted, I got the only single available, which happened to be in the apartment where one of Jackson's friends, Nicholas, lived.

When we walked into the apartment, I could feel my jaw just drop. The living room area was really big. Walking into this apartment, you get the living room on the right, which walks into a nice sized kitchen area. You also get the hallway of four rooms and a center sink divider, where the bathrooms split between shower and toilet. My room is the first one accessible from the front door. I walked in and I finally saw it. My room. My home away from home. My new home.

I figure the room ought to be around two and a half by three Kaitlyns big—that's right, I measure by Amazons. Screw you metric system! I'd think you could take Kaylah's old room at Kresge and double it and you'd get the size of my room. You walk in and there's a big sliding door closet to the right and a small desk to the left. The bed would be straight in front of you against the base of the window, right next to the bedside bookshelf. The dresser of three drawers sat at the foot of the bed. I couldn't have asked for a better space!

So we started unpacking. One by one, we carried the random bags up to my room, including the duffel, the more-than-16 lbs bag, the backpack, the basket of blankets, and many "green" bags full of random stuff. When we got to the storage bins, we figured we would try and take them both at the same time. They both weighed a lot. What we did was we took the little cart with the bungee cords and hooked the stacked bins to it. I pulled the cart, Kaylah pushed. We were only able to get up the hill when my hand started to hurt from the top bin scraping it. I decided to carry that up the stairs real quick just so that I wouldn't have that scraping my hand all the way up to the third floor.

Suddenly, I hear a big BOOM ka-chunk ka-chunk ka-chunk ka-chunk ka-chunk –slide- PICHUU! ka-chunk ka-chunk ka-chunk ka-chunk ka-chunk ka-chunk BAM! So I rushed outside to see what the noise was and to see if Kaylah was alright. Kaylah, the blonde that she is, had apparently rolled the large bin up to the second to last step to the second floor when she lost balance and clutched the cart, which in return released the bin from the bungee cords, making it slide down all those stairs and sprawl out its contents on the ground floor. Kaylah, other than nearly peeing her pants, suffered no harm, thankfully.

The rest of the unpacking and setting up went smoothly.

Meeting my roommates didn't take place until later that night. They weren't there when all the commotion was going on in my room. I wondered where they had been and I was nervous as to meeting them. When I walked in that night, they were circled around a table just talking. At first impressions, they were not all that mischievous looking, so I walked up and greeted them all with a handshake.

Tony and Nicholas are the gamers in this apartment. Nick was the one that helped me a little bit with trying to find my classes. Tony also took interest and would normally pop into my room if he felt inclined to ask something.

Alex and I are a lot alike. We're both musicians, trying to find our spot where our puzzle piece fits into in this world, we like the same music, we both talk about the same things. Thing is, he was also talking to me about a friend's party he went to, where he was pretty much drunk that entire night. The list pretty much ends there.

The next day, I also met my CA, Katherine. During a nap, I hear a knock on the door. So I woke up and walked to the living room, where I saw this curly haired chick. She was very peppy and inviting from what I could tell. The CA is basically a person I would turn to if I had any questions or if I had any problems. Katherine was very welcoming and basically gave her introduction. Apparently, Kaylah know Katherine from when Kaylah had the CA job. So, sometime in the coming weeks, I'm going to go and talk to her.

 

As far as classes go, I'm pretty psyched:

My Econ for Accounting class starts at 8 AM, right about when I really don't want to be awake. However, after the first day, I felt that I could handle it. The teacher, Mallory, is very into her job. She looks and talks very much like a butch lesbian with white hair. Her lectures are fun and are very easy to follow, even though she goes through them very quickly.

Two hours and a breakfast later, my Intermediate Macroeconomics starts. The teacher, I'll call Borscht, is also one of the teachers that loves his job. He has a thick, almost Russian accent and uses the words "awesome" and "blog" a lot. He also repeats himself, not to undermine us, but for clarification. So I giggled when I noticed the accent when he was trying to say "Mankiw's AWEsome Blog" a few times, or when it almost sounds like a parody impression of Arnold Schwarzenegger. XD

The Introduction to American Studies follows twenty minutes later, on the count of it being a big campus and I would have to sprint to class if it weren't. Our teacher, Kim Lau, would… to put it bluntly… be my idea of a PILF, and possibly Dustin's, too. She, too, is passionate about her subject, which is fine, but she also likes to try and open doors for people. She has us watching Michael Moore documentaries and read excerpts of Obama's book, so she'll have a unique take on this course that I can get involved with.

Discussions start this week, which are basically optional/required free tutoring/laboratory hours for each of the classes. All of my classes fall on a MWF pattern with two hour-long discussions on Tuesdays and one in the morning on Thursdays. Within all of this, I am going to work in a gym schedule. Our gym, or "Wellness Center", has the most gorgeous view of the ocean, so when I go on the treadmills I can bask in the ocean breeze.

So yeah… That's how it is so far.

Tumblr: The Small Moments

Blog No. TUMBLR: I Have a Tumblr

The Small Moments.

Yes.

I have cheated on you Blogger.

To you readers out there, I just would like to let you know that I started another blogging website. You can simply type [rabbiman.tumblr.com] or, you know, click any of the links you see on this blog.

(I'll warn you though, one of them is a fake. I'd go with the typing it in the search bar if I were you.)

Basically, I go to that blog for the small stuff. If there's something that stuck out during the day that needed to be blogged, but seemed to awkward to write it in this form, I go to my Tumblr and post on there. I've already started a few of those. Some photos, some videos, some quotes, some conversations, all that can now be found on there. I've also started posting some links on there whenever I update this blog.

Have fun!

Not Goodbye

Blog No. 2: Moving to Santa Cruz

It's official. I'm moved into my room.

I've decorated.

Sunday was a very emotional day, overall.

I stayed up until 3 AM, moving my bags and bins downstairs and compressing the amount of stuff I'm taking—granted I could've been done earlier if I wasn't trying to distract myself from my packing and my emotions by watching an NCIS marathon and talking to Taylor online. I've literally divided my room in half, taking only half of my instruments, half of my clothes, half of my books, etc. Here I'm thinking I'll have one or two bins and a few bags to carry along with me. Then I start looking down the list, adding some essentials that I haven't thought of, like hangers and boots. Before I know it, I end up packing two very full bins, a laundry basket of clothes, two "green" bags of bath towels and other miscellaneous stuff, a laundry basket of two blankets, a laundry bag of shoes, my formal wear in a hanger bag, a sleeping bag, my keyboard, Slanket, a trash can, a duffel bag of more miscellaneous stuff, two of mom's last minute bags, some new pillows, and Kaylah's care package from her mom. The van did not have much floor room once I packed everything in it.

As a result of staying up late, I woke up two hours later than I intended. Realizing this, I quickly ran into the shower and got ready, only to discover that only John and the baby were up downstairs, both still in their pajamas.

A few minutes later, Audrey woke up and walked downstairs to take care of the baby. She told me that she hasn't told Lennox that I was moving… That I had to tell him that I would be gone for awhile. I thought on it and tears already started welling up in my eyes. Seeing as I was in front of Audrey, I tried dismissing the tears and distract myself from them, but I knew she noticed them. She could always notice them.

She then walked upstairs, leaving me alone with the baby. I held him in my arms, almost hugging him. I stood with him in front of the bathroom mirror, like I usually do when he fusses, and saw the both of us in that glass. I saw my bloodshot eyes, my forced smile above my quivering chin trying to contain it all in. I leaned against the doorframe, making Lennox lean back a little to see my face. The little bugger stared at me for a second, gave me a super cute smile, and fell back on my chest, resting his arms on my shoulders.

John came downstairs and I handed Lennox off to him. I stood aside to recover from that moment and walked upstairs to tally up anything else that I needed. After Audrey got out of the shower, she, John, and Lennox left for the apartment in their red car. John drove back in the van for me to pack my stuff. Then we drove back to the apartment, where I saw my mom, still content with a brave face on.

My aunt had heard the door open and close to the apartment, taking that as my arrival. She walked into my mom's room where I stood. I bent lower as I embraced her for a few seconds. She gave me a few blueberry muffins that she made that morning, then left to go shopping. With this embrace, I felt only a small urge for tears, not because I would miss her less, but because I felt that we had this unspoken understanding. That embrace basically said, "Not goodbye. We will see each other later." I speak hug. XD

Later, when everything was packed and what not, we all took a trip to Panera, the bread place that Kaylah and I usually go to for our lunches. I got a chicken frontega panini, which was pretty good, (minus the onions). I also ventured next door to the It's A Grind, where I got myself a black cherry mocha. It was pretty tasty. The purpose of Panera was to have a one last time hangout before I left to be together as a family, the five of us enjoying a meal and casually chatting about mundane things. It was nice.

After that lunch, we all headed back to the apartment, where all the real emotion welled up.

Mom and I realized that it was finally getting to be goodbye, so I could feel the both of us trying to fight back our tears. We could barely speak. The both of us just mainly hugged each other, one last time, and just fought the urge to stay that way. After she hugged me, she took my face in her hands and landed a big motherly kiss on my cheek, followed by an even more tearful hug.

My mom grabbed Lennox from John. Then my mom held Lennox's hand up to wave goodbye. When she let go, he was still waving, not much, but just enough.

So much for staying strong through this…

John and Audrey headed to the van, where I followed, trying to hide my bloodshot eyes. The emotion was shrugged off as I tried joking around with John while he was getting ready to drive. In the van, we just basically remained quiet. All you could hear were the sounds of the annoying Tom Tom and mixed music mixes from Disney and emo bands blasting from the van stereo. I thought this was a good time as any to finish writing some of my blogs.

The drive went over pretty well. It only took about two and a half hours, where the last half hour consisted of a very swervy, hilly road. When we arrived off the exit, I started to recognize some of the Santa Cruz landmarks, like the big River Street sign where Gigi's was located. A few streets later, we arrived at the little village complex thing, where I knocked on the familiar door, for the first time as a Santa Cruz resident.

Terry answered the door and welcomed me. I beckoned him over to the van, where I introduced him to Audrey and John before we started moving my stuff into the house. Terry, John, and I moved all of my stuff back into the house, which only took about three trips to do. When you look at the sheer volume of stuff, however, it seems like a lot.

Audrey and John were looking at Kaylah's place for the first time, so they were observing random things I haven't pointed out before, like how there are quite a few pictures of cats on the walls. XD

After a phone call to mom and Lennox, the four of us decided to go on and venture Santa Cruz as a whole. Terry and I showed Audrey and John the view from the hill behind their housing complex. From that height, you could literally see the Santa Cruz Boardwalk "Drop-Zone" ride.

John then drove the four of us through campus by Terry's directions. We basically made a circle around campus to the main buildings, the gist of where I would be hanging out the most. We found our way to the Kresge East apartments, where we all hopped out and looked from outside. These apartments are NOT like the ones Kaylah had lived in. The buildings are of a different architecture. The dorms were taller, green, and had a log cabin feel to them. I wasn't exactly sure how I felt about that, but all I could care about was where I was going to sleep. I really wanted to sneak into my room to see what it looked like, but I still had no idea where I was bunking…

Audrey had commented that she never realized how woodsy the campus was, even though I tell people that the campus is on a hill in the middle of the woods. I shrug. Both Audrey and John liked the campus anyway. All the way around, John and Terry were talking about random video game and comic stuff, just like I predicted they would. XD

Then, John drove us to Kaylah's work at Gigi's. Kaylah came out from the kitchen to say hello. She seemed really overworked, like she usually did. She warned us that she still had about an hour or two left of work. Audrey and John still wanted something to eat, so I gave them the idea of Erik's Café, Piper's and my choice of restaurant.

John did not want to drive anymore, seeing as he had to drive all of those hills and roads all day. I wouldn't blame him, though I wondered whether or not Audrey would be up to the walking because we were really walking out of our way to the restaurant. They seemed fine with it… So, the four of us walked to downtown Santa Cruz. Audrey and John were gazing at all of the random shops down the one street.

When we arrived, I thought it had closed already. Fortunately, when I walked up to the door, it wasn't the case. I got my usual Abbot's Habit sandwich with tomato bisque soup. I remember John got this holiday sandwich that could only be described as Thanksgiving leftovers packed into a sandwich. Audrey liked her sandwich, but was a little disappointed with the chocolate "meltdown" cake as it wasn't gushing chocolate fudge like the picture showed us it would.

Afterwards, Terry got Kaylah something to go and then we walked back to Kaylah's work. This was where I said goodbye to Audrey and John. This goodbye wasn't at all emotional, probably because I was in front of company that haven't seen me in tears yet. Audrey did give me a hug, which I noticed I haven't really ever gotten in my adulthood. John gave me the awkward, "brother-in-law" hug as he called it. XD

All in all, it was a very emotional day. I did feel that Kaylah radiated a lot more excitement that day then I ever did. I kinda figured that was why she asked if I was genuinely excited to be moving in.

I am. I really am. I just feel that if I show some excitement, some sadness might've also escaped.

No More Del Taco

Blog No. 1: New Year’s Eve

My New Year's Eve was filled with the Burn Notice marathon and more packing. The only entertaining thing I've done was waste time posting some videos on some Facebook profiles, reminding them of their Rabbi Mission. New Year's Eve in the past has never really been eventful for me. The only time I actually celebrated was at Kaylah's New Year's party, which didn't happen in Sacramento this year.

So, Taylor, Susan Surrandon, and I planned to go to Old Sac to watch the fireworks. Taylor texted around 9 PM to warn me of his arrival. From there, Taylor and I ventured downtown, getting stuck in traffic along the way. Taylor really doesn't take traffic well, seeing as he drove intentionally slow after a taxi kept on honking from behind during a red light.

After we parked, we walked through the K street mall and Old Sac. We ventured into the sea of partying people to find Susan Surrandon and Phillip, sitting by the Delta King. Susan Surrandon had alerted me that Dustin, Patric, and their other friend, Patrick, was going to be there but backed out at the last minute. I’ve heard some stories about Patrick and I am indeed looking forward to the day I meet him. In the mean while, we were trying to come up with things to occupy ourselves until midnight…

Taylor decided he wanted some salt water taffy, so we ended up walking to find an open taffy shop. Unfortunately, both of the taffy shops had been closed. I was very disappointed because I was picturing myself having pomegranate taffy, for old time’s sake. Taylor had immediately moved on and dismissed the idea…

Near the railroad museum, there was a band playing, representing the Eagle radio station and all it’s glory. The four of us stayed on the outskirts of the little crowd, enjoying some jazz themed rock, watching the people in the front of the stage dancing their hearts out. Phillip and Susan Surrandon had danced a little bit while I was watching Taylor trying to take a picture of the band to no avail.

Taylor and Phillip decided that we needed to move inside, seeing as the evening was getting colder. I pulled everyone away from the band and walked back in the direction of the Delta King with the intention of finding an open shop. Instead, we got distracted by a group Fire dancers, swiveling their hips and fire sticks to a soundtrack of a very hypnotizing acoustic base.

Ten minutes before midnight, we made a coffee run. I got a Mocha freeze, Taylor some hot drink, and Phillip a lime Italian soda. Then we hit the road, walking the railroad tracks in the direction of the “golden colored” bridge. The crowd had grown bigger as we finally reached our destination. The bridge was raised in preparation of the fireworks show. Strong, green laser pointers danced in jagged shapes on the bridge. It was very chilly outside, according to Taylor. Both Susan Surrandon and I offered our coats to him, to which he firmly denied our acts of kindness… He’s very stubborn.

We found ourselves right outside a parking garage, where we saw people on the metal gates on every floor in couples gazing into the starless sky. This made me feel a little uneasy, feeling all of the romance in the air, how I was left out of it. It was then that I noticed that Phillip and Susan Surrandon had never really left each other’s arms. Then the crowd yelled out to the sky an inaudible countdown and explosions ensued in the sky as the firework show had begun. I looked around and saw a lot of the couples had begun that clichéd ritual of making out as the clock stroke midnight. Taylor and I commented on what each of the explosions had looked like—he apparently saw a plethora of penises in the sky that night. I recognized how some of them had tried to take the shape of hearts in the night sky. I looked up at him, saw he was maneuvering his coffee cup across his lip rings, and I wondered if he had felt this same uneasiness as I did.

A few minutes and many heart thumping explosions later, the four of us slowly walked back to the parking garage. We ended up having to try and link ourselves together because it was very easy to get separated from each other. It was also very easy to bump into the wrong person, hear her curse your ear off as your party continues to walk away. When we got in the parking garage, there had been a long line of cars honking, blasting their stereos, and just doing whatever their drunk passengers were doing at that moment. So, to not get caught up in that mess, we just sat on Phillip’s car, trying to decide our next move for that evening.

After awhile, we ended up going through Taylor's music on his Droid. Taylor’s song list basically consisted of artists like Lily Allen and Alanis Morisette and soundtracks from video games and the Phantom of the Opera. I had noticed that, after I took off my coat to hang on the hood of the car, Taylor had picked up the coat and put it on, tying up the strings of the hood and wearing it like a cloak. During some of the songs, Taylor and Susan Surrandon had decided to show off their jazz dancing prowess, taking up more space as the parking garage suddenly felt more open.

Taylor talked of Denny's, but I told him to consider all of the drunk partying people out and about tonight. We conversed by the parked car for what seemed like forever, talking about our options and about other random things. We got engrossed into our conversation to the point where we realize we were trying to find a location to go to only when drunk people return to their cars.

Taylor mentioned a craving for fish and chips when we were in Old Sac, so Taylor and I decided to walk back to Old Sac to see if any of the shops were open. The walk back was very exhilarating, most of the K Street Mall, the tunnel, and Old Sac was deserted. Taylor took a few pictures along the way, and that’s where I was prompted to take pictures of him taking pictures of the K Street Mall at night. I recreated one picture I took of Piper through the arch at Porter College at Santa Cruz with Taylor inside the tunnel where the walls on both sides were tiled with bright and blocky designs.

When we arrived, we started walking through the main street when a bicycle cop stopped in front of us. He had alerted us that they closed Old Sacramento in a sarcastic tone. We politely said thanks and turned ourselves around back through the tunnel… I wanted to push him off of his bike. XD

When we arrived back at the car, Susan Surrandon, Taylor, and I conversed some more while Phillip drifted back and forth between talking and sleeping. Somehow we got to a point where the three of us surrounded Phillip’s car during the conversation. It was at that point that I heard a couple of guys from behind me. I didn’t acknowledge the chatter, but I looked at Susan Surrandon’s face, which told me that the people were coming closer. Suddenly, one of the guys, clearly very high, proposed casually in my ear, “Do yooouu want some druuuuuuuugs?” Then he pulled out a ziplock bag out of his hemp style jacket, which contained what looked like a green owl pellet. I was scared at this point as I tried to smile and declined his offer, trying to avoid eye contact with him at all costs.

The other guy had got the Del Taco smelling guy away from me, recognizing that the three of us did not want anything to do with them. While the guys high off of green owl pellet were walking away, the three of us sighed in relief. Somehow, that sigh prompted this second guy to pause. He asked, “Wait, I’m getting mixed signals here!” He continued on about something about a club or something. Either way, we stood our ground until the two kites walked away. This, finally, became incentive for us to get in the car where it was safe. XD

After a little more conversation, we ended up just saying goodbye seeing as both Susan Surrandon and Taylor had to work early in the morning. When Taylor drove me back to the house, I realized that it was 3:30 AM. I was not tired. At all. I had thought about asking Taylor if he wanted to go somewhere, but I decided against it, thinking I could utilize some of the time to finish packing. I reached over to him to hug him goodbye, but when we released from that hug I saw his face. He had looked genuinely sad, on the brink of distraught. It was literally like D: kind of distraught. I quickly looked away, but I felt that moment being engraved into my brain. As I got out of the car, I casually waved back and quickly walked up my driveway.

I don’t know what it was, but that night I just looked and looked at that face, which I tried mimicking in the mirror. I didn’t sleep. I only fell asleep after 3 cups of coffee, 2 pages of typing, some Facebook trolling, 2 episodes of Scrubs, 5 infomercials, and half a playlist later…

This feeling is foreshadowing some more heartbreak in the future, isn’t it?

Rabbi Missions

Blog No. RABBI: Rabbi Missions

There is no question that 365MMIX failed as a daily blog project.

I got to thinking, well what would be easier to do EVERYDAY of a year? which led to a lot of cool and neat ideas.

Then I got to thinking, I want to do ALL of this, but I will not have the luxury time, to say the least which is true.

What I come up with can be fun if I get YOU, the readers of 365MMIX, (mainly the official members of Rabbi), to help me.

So, I declare the start of the Rabbi Missions for a new 365MMX project.

Basics:

1. No, I'm not asking you to blog, (unless you really want to).
2. The purpose of the project will be a sure fire way to frequently keep in touch.
3. A custom project will be assigned to a specific person. This will most likely involve taking photos of some part of the day that you would ordinarily be doing anyway. All photos would be sent to me.
4. For those with busy schedules, like me, "stockpiling" or waiting until the end of the week to send a weeks worth of photos, is allowed. A desired amount of items would end up being 365.
5. If there are official Rabbi participants wanting to do this, just let me know! If there are unofficial Rabbi participants, then an emergency Rabbi test will have to take place.
6. At the end of the year, I will either post them up online or make an album or whatever it may be, depending on the mission.
7. The mission you are assigned, either/both the mission itself and/or each daily result, would ideally be kept secret from other participants until the year is finished to add that much more excitement.
8. The general success of your projects will reflect in the amount of Rabbi points.
9. Also, try to cap it at one photo per day kind of idea. I say this in a case where someone different gets nosy and wants to be apart of the photo in some way, which might end up in a chain of photos resulting from retakes of this nature in a short time period.

I would also like to enact the Lomo Mission, which is basically a picture a day of where Lomo is, wherever he may be, in whoever's care he may be in. I would like this to happen because I realize that I may just get Lomo for a month in January and maybe a few weeks during the summer. With this, I'd also like to encourage more of a group custody agreement, where Piper, KT, and I agree to let someone else take care of Lomo for more interesting places and pictures.

So how about it?

Cupcakes and Chocobos

Blog No. SHIRT: Cupcakes and Chocobos

Hallelujah for sleep! Definitely needed to sleep in! XD

Unfortunately, I did not go to my Piano final that day. Taylor had apparently heard of this and texted a big, "QUIT FAILING." I replied to him the situation and he instantly forgave me... After a change in subject.

I emailed Heidi while I was texting Taylor. I had caught her before she went to class because she immediately replied back. Heidi's emails were very nice and reassuring, in that I was still on her good side. I had apologized, not just because I wasn't going to be there, but because I wasn't there to say goodbye in person. I hope to see her again soon...

Anyway, after a few hours, Taka, King, Abril, and Alyssa arrive at my house. The baby was sleeping, so we mainly talked in hushed tones. We set up all the shirts, all the foam stencils, and all the paint, along with my paint brushes, all downstairs.

Upstairs, King was in the loft, working on his Wii game... Or rather my Wii game. He decided to try out Chocobo's Dungeon for kicks. So he pretty much stayed in the loft upstairs the entire night.

Taka showed us the work she finished on the high five shirts. Mine was a black T-shirt with a green outline of Taka's hand, along with a face and the words "High Five" in big bold font. It's pretty awesome! I really hope she does pursue this as either a hobby or a side business. XD

Taka had asked for some hot chocolate, so I boiled some water on the stove. While I was mixing in the hot chocolate, Abril and I randomly sang some Family Guy referenced Xmas carols.

The main reason they were over at my place at all was because I needed to do the Coppertone Rabbiman shirt. It is technically Taka's Xmas gift to me, but I wanted to be part of the process to make it. So Taka made the foam paper stencil, and I painted the outline of the drawing. I added a few touches, like a Star of David tattoo on the shoulder and some minor lines here and there.

After awhile of painting, Abril, Alyssa, and I ended up playing catch, using Lomo as the ball. I was up on the second floor balcony while Abril and Alyssa were downstairs, failing to throw Lomo up to me.

After that night, we got all three shirts done, finishing touches and all. XD