Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz with Peter, Grace, Santo and their friends Ginny and Chris this weekend for some volleyball at the beach






Oh and if you ever want a super cheap dinner, i recommend Jack in the Box tacos. 4 tacos for $2.14. Yum!!



I am so frustrated with my computer right now. i can't figure out how to make those pictures the right way. when i figure it out ill change it. for now just turn your head slightly to the right.

DinneR

mom would be so proud...



in other news i shaved my head again



before



i think i should have left it like that



im 15 again!!

Going Golfing

So i figured out how to get my pictures off dad's camera.







refer to previous post as to what we were doing.

Nate seems to always have friday afternoon's off, so after saying "screw off homework", I joined him for a round of 9 hole golf. Let it be said that this was my very first time golfing an actual hole. We have gone and hit at the range a few times but needless to say, it is a bit different on the actual course, where you are confined to a particular hole and hitting a ball incorrectly will leave you at the mercy of having to yell for others to watch their heads. (I would have inserted the word "FORE" at this time but i am not sure how it is spelled. "FOUR" "FORE" "FOR" i just don't know which one is the correct usage AAHHHHH!!!)

anyway, we made it to our 2:15 tee time. luckily we were able to go by ourselves since i was worried i would slow other people who actually knew what they were doing. surprisingly, i did quite well the first 2 holes. I was only +1 on the first par 3 and then i made par on the second hole, par 4. after that i think my beginner's luck wore off and i have erased said scores from my memory. Nate ended up beating me soundly.

oh well. i wasn't supposed to win anyway. it was my first time. but ill be back. ill try and get out there once a week or so.

now i just need to get some snazzy golf pants.

Nate already posted about our gun experience and he posted the only picture we took that afternoon. so refer to his post.

Home

I love going home.

I guess i just don't feel that Santa Clara is home yet. I just have not found my niche and have been going through a pretty tough time with issues that have followed me from LA. Its been a tough adjustment and i feel 100 times more homesick then i did when i left home for undergrad. I don't know why that is. My mind just is not taking to the adjustment very easily and it wanders constantly back to LA, back to memories and to happy days. its hard for me to understand why. I am in a great city, attending a fantastic university, studying something that truly interests me, close to my sisters and brother, meeting new and interesting people. Yet i am not focused on that. My mind is constantly thinking back, to days gone past, rather then forward.

The weekend was such a good time. Spent the day on Friday cleaning out my old apartment and catching up with a few friends for dinner. Drove home on Friday night to Mo Val where the family and my dogs were waiting for me. Saturday was exactly what home is supposed to be. I relaxed a bit, while mom and dad freaked out about what they were going to do about the car. In the evening Sean and I took Megan and Becca over to one of my HS friends house where we met his new wife and caught up with some old HS buddies. I was even told that Sean is funnier then me. Needless to say that is the last time i invite him to go with me to one of my friends places.

Sunday i had to study a bit while Mom and Dad went car shopping. We had dinner with grandma and then i headed down to Hermosa Beach and met up with Jeff and his roomate at a bar called the "Poopdeck". Monday consisted of Jeff and I hanging out at the beach and then meeting up with Stephen later in the afternoon where we proceeded to go on an impromptu pub crawl. Those kids are alot of fun and definitely always know how to have a good time.

Ok there is alot more details that i should write about, but i only got 4 hours of sleep last night and im tired. Hopefully pictures will follow if i can figure out how to upload pictures from dads camera to my computer.

Driving in the Dark

So i made the trek down from Nor Cal to LA last night so i could take care of some last minute apartment stuff as well as go home and visit with the parents. I have never made the drive at night before so was a little unsure of how it would go. After getting off class at 9, making a mug of coffee, and saying goodbye to George and his mom, i started off. All in all i would recommend the trip at night to anyone that feels comfortable driving at night. No traffic at all. No annoying sun to sunburn you while driving. And best of all, i was able to keep my windows down so i know that i saved money on gas. Thanks to MythBusters i know that you getter better gas millage when you have your windows rolled down then with the air conditioner on. But what was really interesting about driving at night is that you have no idea where you are. I have made that trek many times and it seems to go quicker when you don't see that for the next 300 miles all you have to look at are miles and miles of farmland.

It was a full moon so the shadows with the clouds were really beautiful. I wish i had a camera to take some of the shots of the moon refecting off hte resourvior off the 152. Also i think that i saw a UFO. seriously. it was this crazy flying thing that had 3 ligts on each of its wings and was turning in this crazy circular pattern. way to fast for any plane that i have seen. So after getting all excited about seeing a UFO i started to smell pesticide so it was prob just a some plan doing some crop dusting, but it could have been a UFO.

so i got down to LA in 4.5 hours. I think that is a record. If you got a faster time let me know and ill try and beat it on the way back up.

Life in the Bay

Has anyone ever felt the strange feeling of being afraid of leaving things behind, even though deep inside you know its the right thing to do. Or being uncertain of something new, excited and nervous, leaving a situation of comfort for one of hard work, discomfort and perhaps loneliness. Can one look forward and behind at the same time, unsure of which direction to go?

So i have started a new life in the Bay area--Santa Clara to be more accurate. This past week has been a bit rough but has also been exciting. I bought my first set of golf clubs, which i already dented through repeated mis swings, as well as dinner with the family on monday, wednesday and friday. Indian food on wednesday was quite tasty although my taste buds had some trouble with a few of the spices.

Orientation starts of Wednesday.

Where did May go?

So by the looks of this thing i have not updated in quite a while. Actually i did not updated for the entire month of May. Woops. Where did May go? Oh well. Here's the recap: I decided to go to Santa Clara in the Fall even though Golden Gate gave me a generous offer of 30,000 scholarship. I guess the better reputation and location of Santa Clara helped to make my decision a bit easier. I officially only have 6 days of UCLA left. Crazy! Although those last six days are filled with finals and studying. But come Thursday--ill be ready for a celebration. I finally found a subletter for my appt--worked out real well except i ended up getting into a fight with my roommates over it and have not talked to them in over a week. thats a great way to end college--ugh--but when i get called a "cheap bitch" and physically threatened, I don't have much respect for them anymore.

Last weekend I went to a party at cousin Jeff's place--theme was "G's up Ho's down". Heres a couple of quality pics.



With my friend Santo



Steve with his prison shank



Jeff and entourage

Weird fact learned--Jeff let me borrow this cheap gold ring for the night. In about 2 hours of wearing it, my finger had turned a dark shade of green around the area that was touching my skin. Who knew this actually happened? I just thought it was a local myth, told by gold producers to create a negative incentive stories for consumers of cheap jewelry. In the words of Mythbusters, this myth is "BUSTED"!