Sasha gave me some photos of Lauren from post-prom, because she wants me to give them to her.
They're rather unflattering though, so I'm hesitant. No one looks good in pictures.
Thursday, December 04, 2003
Tuesday, December 02, 2003
WTF, mate?
The End of the World Flash Movie
What half of us were cracking up over, at Malex's house.
The End of the World Flash Movie
What half of us were cracking up over, at Malex's house.
Well, it seems that Jeremy's room is now a bit cheerier, because we now have an 8 inch Christmas tree. He has a walnut in a pot, and hopes to grow a real tree, over the next 20 years or so. (I asked him what his long-term goals are; this is one of them. And then after twenty years he's going to tie a swing to it.)
He also has a new Browns blanket and matching pillows. I laugh at him; it's kind of funny being the fan of a football team that is A) not from your home state and B) is named after and has a mascot that is a color. It's like rooting for UPS!
XD
He also has a new Browns blanket and matching pillows. I laugh at him; it's kind of funny being the fan of a football team that is A) not from your home state and B) is named after and has a mascot that is a color. It's like rooting for UPS!
XD
Letters from Home
I am not depressed; I am actually quite upbeat these days. But aside from that, this is a list of things I was thinking about, though not at the same time and not all the time.
---
Going home for the holidays is really weird. It would seem that I have developed a plethora of child-like mannerisms at college. Also, I couldn't get used to sleeping by myself again, but now that I'm back I can't get used to sleeping with someone next to me, and suffer restless nights. And apparently my fractured family has a lot of issues; my mom has done very well of harboring me from them. I've always grown up believing I lived in a nice and normal American home. "Why did I tell you all this?" my mom says. I was wondering myself but I thought perhaps her telling it would make her feel better. I think as you get older you become overrun with disappointment and regret. And that's as much detail as I'm going to go into with that.
My mom reports that family friends say, "Why didn't she go to an Ivy League school where she can meet a nice Chinese boy?" I wonder this myself; I'm a bit self-conscious being like the only one in the Old Guard (so to speak) of high school who's going to a state college. I think it's slightly frowned upon. I'm not quite keeping up with the Joneses. Early senior year if you'd asked me what college I'd want to go to I'd tell you, "Feh, find me one and I'll be happy." Thinking upon this now (although there's really no use), I really should have specified, "Find me a small liberal arts college that has a strong humanities program, lots of tall, leafy, deciduous trees, cozy architecture, dorms with temperature control, co-ed housing, and no gang bathrooms, and is in a decent sized, crime-free college town, with access to reliable, convenient, public transportation." Well, too late for that.
I also wonder why all of my parents' friends are Chinese. It seems kind of dumb that they speak Chinese except for at work. It seems like a very insular way to live.
I was also thinking that role-playing is bad in that you live vicariously through other people. I told Jeremy that unlike even movies or books (where you also live vicariously through other people) there is no external stimulus, so you're drawing on all your old memories and experiences to try to imagine new things, like re-arranging furniture to make things look new. You're living your same experiences and emotions over and over again.
I want new furniture.
I am not depressed; I am actually quite upbeat these days. But aside from that, this is a list of things I was thinking about, though not at the same time and not all the time.
---
Going home for the holidays is really weird. It would seem that I have developed a plethora of child-like mannerisms at college. Also, I couldn't get used to sleeping by myself again, but now that I'm back I can't get used to sleeping with someone next to me, and suffer restless nights. And apparently my fractured family has a lot of issues; my mom has done very well of harboring me from them. I've always grown up believing I lived in a nice and normal American home. "Why did I tell you all this?" my mom says. I was wondering myself but I thought perhaps her telling it would make her feel better. I think as you get older you become overrun with disappointment and regret. And that's as much detail as I'm going to go into with that.
My mom reports that family friends say, "Why didn't she go to an Ivy League school where she can meet a nice Chinese boy?" I wonder this myself; I'm a bit self-conscious being like the only one in the Old Guard (so to speak) of high school who's going to a state college. I think it's slightly frowned upon. I'm not quite keeping up with the Joneses. Early senior year if you'd asked me what college I'd want to go to I'd tell you, "Feh, find me one and I'll be happy." Thinking upon this now (although there's really no use), I really should have specified, "Find me a small liberal arts college that has a strong humanities program, lots of tall, leafy, deciduous trees, cozy architecture, dorms with temperature control, co-ed housing, and no gang bathrooms, and is in a decent sized, crime-free college town, with access to reliable, convenient, public transportation." Well, too late for that.
I also wonder why all of my parents' friends are Chinese. It seems kind of dumb that they speak Chinese except for at work. It seems like a very insular way to live.
I was also thinking that role-playing is bad in that you live vicariously through other people. I told Jeremy that unlike even movies or books (where you also live vicariously through other people) there is no external stimulus, so you're drawing on all your old memories and experiences to try to imagine new things, like re-arranging furniture to make things look new. You're living your same experiences and emotions over and over again.
I want new furniture.
Monday, December 01, 2003
Poo, Metrosexuals, Illegal Activities, and Heavy Artillery
Thanksgiving was relaxing. Went to Maggie and Dongwoo's new house in Elkridge Wednesday night for Thanksgiving dinner. Jesse's boyfriend, Dan, is also a big gamer dork (I caught him loafing around kind of sheepishly with a Forgotten Realms campaign rulebook) which is exciting yet disturbing because there should only be one of us in each family. I can imagine D&D as a family activity at holiday dinners; I really don't want to. We played Street Fighter 3 for a while before I went to help out with dinner, and he kicked my ass. Stella and Jonathan brought baby Nathan and though they did have dinner with us, they were more preoccupied by his cranky crying and had to constantly run off to change his diapers or cajole him back to sleep midway through dinner. Nathan is a little over two months old now (he was born the 17th of September) and now looks more like a little boy and less like me. Stella is going back to work in a bit, but Jonathan can stay home to take care of Nathan, which is good. I've always liked the concept of one parent staying home, at least for the first few years of a kid's life.
Didn't actually do anything on Thursday, except go to John and Sharon's house (family friends) for Thanksgiving lunch. Spent the rest of my time reading and watching the Two Towers extended DVD. I keep forgetting how beautiful that movie is.
Friday, Malex came by. He's bristled his hair, and therefore, with one of those silly woven guys' necklaces, looks very Californian. Went with Malex to Josh's house to lend moral support, (with Dena and Hank also), to Yonni, Josh and Puffy (who has since grown out his Jewfro again) building a potato gun. It was made of PVC pipe but masterfully spray painted to a sleek chrome shine, and was very professional looking. Unlike the wussy UMBC one that used compressed air, this one had a combustion chamber (for highly volatile hair spray) and a sparker, which would give a jolting, if harmless shock to your hand if you held it an inch away. After sunset as the wind bent the trees, we went to test it by Potomac elementary, with the car headlights casting a little puddle of light on the rain, and a runny reflection on the asphalt like crayon. After fifteen minutes my hands were frozen and fur wet on my jacket. After trying to set up the gun against a chain fence and having it fall down and bash itself into the ground several times, Josh managed to hit the sparker without the gun falling out of its precarious propped position. There was a bright burst at the end of the barrel (a muzzleflash, I'm told it's called), and the gun rang and echoed like a howitzer*.
God knows where the spud went.
We wanted to try again, but apparently the sparker broke.
Took the Metro with Malex to Bethesda, where we waited at Barnes and Noble for Nick to meet up with us for dinner. We met Bivalve Debb and her girlfriend and a dozen red roses instead. Since they had also intended on going to the same restaurant (Delhi Dhaba) and were hungry, we asked them (probably nosily, in hindsight, since they were on a date) to reserve a table for five so we could catch up on old times. After finding Nick, in his ostentatious Vassar sweatshirt, we went to the restaurant and ordered food whose names we couldn't pronounce, and talked. Went afterwards to B&N again for coffee and overpriced desserts. Debb and Kayla left for their movie, and we sat on high stools eating pastries and taking Cosmo quizzes in a cozy womb of girliness. I observed, of Nick and Malex, that I'd missed them very much.
Saturday, studied for accounting, then went to Nick's party at Malex's house, which had already been decorated for Christmas. Josh had brought the spud gun; and told us stories, using regional dialects to great effect, of the crusty hardware store man who was apparently a great weathered potato gun veteran. We went out to Lake Frank (or Needwood) where there were no lights and the stars stood out like diamond dust strewn on the cold and brittle sky. There was no flash; there was a artillery-induced thunderclap that made several people scream (who weren't expecting it); then the woods were quiet again. We looked around at the houses nearby with their slumbering denizens inside, and then, simultaneously, ran for our cars.
We went back to Malex's house, where I gossiped with Janis and Lauren about Jeremy-pie. They were a very appreciative audience and went, "Awwww, how sweet!" at just the right times. I delivered messages from Sasha. Lots of gay flirting ensued along the Nick-Valex-Malex-Hank front. Alan, Lizzie's new boyfriend from Cornell, seemed slightly nervous. Yes, we are a very odd crew.
Sunday, went to Lake Forest Mall with my parents, in a very Christmassy mood, and got Jeremy a b-day gift, belatedly. Joy comes in cups of pepperming coffee. I love malls. I love looking at stuff. It's not so much shopping that's fun, as all the new sights and sounds.
*I've never heard a howitzer. But the grizzled potato gun veteran had, and says that spud guns sound like them. I certainly believe him.
Thanksgiving was relaxing. Went to Maggie and Dongwoo's new house in Elkridge Wednesday night for Thanksgiving dinner. Jesse's boyfriend, Dan, is also a big gamer dork (I caught him loafing around kind of sheepishly with a Forgotten Realms campaign rulebook) which is exciting yet disturbing because there should only be one of us in each family. I can imagine D&D as a family activity at holiday dinners; I really don't want to. We played Street Fighter 3 for a while before I went to help out with dinner, and he kicked my ass. Stella and Jonathan brought baby Nathan and though they did have dinner with us, they were more preoccupied by his cranky crying and had to constantly run off to change his diapers or cajole him back to sleep midway through dinner. Nathan is a little over two months old now (he was born the 17th of September) and now looks more like a little boy and less like me. Stella is going back to work in a bit, but Jonathan can stay home to take care of Nathan, which is good. I've always liked the concept of one parent staying home, at least for the first few years of a kid's life.
Didn't actually do anything on Thursday, except go to John and Sharon's house (family friends) for Thanksgiving lunch. Spent the rest of my time reading and watching the Two Towers extended DVD. I keep forgetting how beautiful that movie is.
Friday, Malex came by. He's bristled his hair, and therefore, with one of those silly woven guys' necklaces, looks very Californian. Went with Malex to Josh's house to lend moral support, (with Dena and Hank also), to Yonni, Josh and Puffy (who has since grown out his Jewfro again) building a potato gun. It was made of PVC pipe but masterfully spray painted to a sleek chrome shine, and was very professional looking. Unlike the wussy UMBC one that used compressed air, this one had a combustion chamber (for highly volatile hair spray) and a sparker, which would give a jolting, if harmless shock to your hand if you held it an inch away. After sunset as the wind bent the trees, we went to test it by Potomac elementary, with the car headlights casting a little puddle of light on the rain, and a runny reflection on the asphalt like crayon. After fifteen minutes my hands were frozen and fur wet on my jacket. After trying to set up the gun against a chain fence and having it fall down and bash itself into the ground several times, Josh managed to hit the sparker without the gun falling out of its precarious propped position. There was a bright burst at the end of the barrel (a muzzleflash, I'm told it's called), and the gun rang and echoed like a howitzer*.
God knows where the spud went.
We wanted to try again, but apparently the sparker broke.
Took the Metro with Malex to Bethesda, where we waited at Barnes and Noble for Nick to meet up with us for dinner. We met Bivalve Debb and her girlfriend and a dozen red roses instead. Since they had also intended on going to the same restaurant (Delhi Dhaba) and were hungry, we asked them (probably nosily, in hindsight, since they were on a date) to reserve a table for five so we could catch up on old times. After finding Nick, in his ostentatious Vassar sweatshirt, we went to the restaurant and ordered food whose names we couldn't pronounce, and talked. Went afterwards to B&N again for coffee and overpriced desserts. Debb and Kayla left for their movie, and we sat on high stools eating pastries and taking Cosmo quizzes in a cozy womb of girliness. I observed, of Nick and Malex, that I'd missed them very much.
Saturday, studied for accounting, then went to Nick's party at Malex's house, which had already been decorated for Christmas. Josh had brought the spud gun; and told us stories, using regional dialects to great effect, of the crusty hardware store man who was apparently a great weathered potato gun veteran. We went out to Lake Frank (or Needwood) where there were no lights and the stars stood out like diamond dust strewn on the cold and brittle sky. There was no flash; there was a artillery-induced thunderclap that made several people scream (who weren't expecting it); then the woods were quiet again. We looked around at the houses nearby with their slumbering denizens inside, and then, simultaneously, ran for our cars.
We went back to Malex's house, where I gossiped with Janis and Lauren about Jeremy-pie. They were a very appreciative audience and went, "Awwww, how sweet!" at just the right times. I delivered messages from Sasha. Lots of gay flirting ensued along the Nick-Valex-Malex-Hank front. Alan, Lizzie's new boyfriend from Cornell, seemed slightly nervous. Yes, we are a very odd crew.
Sunday, went to Lake Forest Mall with my parents, in a very Christmassy mood, and got Jeremy a b-day gift, belatedly. Joy comes in cups of pepperming coffee. I love malls. I love looking at stuff. It's not so much shopping that's fun, as all the new sights and sounds.
*I've never heard a howitzer. But the grizzled potato gun veteran had, and says that spud guns sound like them. I certainly believe him.
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