June 18, 2008 - Wednesday

• Started with breakfast @ Pete’s Cafe in Millbrae.  Got on the road by 11am.
• Took the 101 all the way up CA.  Stopped in Santa Rosa, Garberville, Eureka, Klamath, Crescent City and a few others that I can’t really remember.  It took us waaayy too long to get out of CA.
• Took 199 -> Grants Pass -> 5.  We stopped off at a Dairy Queen and Dutch Bros (Plentiful in Oregon!) before we arrived at the Red Lion Hotel @ 2am on Thursday!
• So basically it took us 15 hours to get to Portland when it should have only taken about 9.  Way too many stops in hicktowns that I can’t remember and the blasting of heavy metal music.  Thank God for earplugs.  Still absolutely sucky when the driving made me sick.  However, I finally got to see the big Redwood tree that you can drive through.  Twas cool for a couple of minutes. :]

June 19, 2008 - Thursday

• Red Lion Hotel messed up the reservation so we only had one King bed split between the three of us.  They said we could switch rooms in the morning.  I claimed the chair…which I ended up sleeping on the following night because we didn’t get to switch rooms… Again - suckage.
• Didn’t get into the city of Portland until about noon (half the day gone), and I drug the boys everywhere: Powell’s City of Books, Pearl District, Jamison Square, Tanner Springs Park, Chinatown, Chapman and Lownsdale Squares, City Hall, Portlandia, Cultural District, Pioneer Courthouse Square - walking.  We were out until about 11 or so, seeing all the neighborhoods, eating Pho for lunch, stopping at a Gelato place, and eating Mediterranian food for dinner.  We also went to the Blue Moon tavern up in Nob HIll, where I had the best Blue Moon ever.  I am now spoiled.

June 20, 2008 - Friday

• Hit up the Vista House that overlooks the Columbia River Gorge and drove to Multnomah Falls, the second largest waterfall in the nation, after Yosemite Falls.  You can feel the splash from yards away!  The lodge/restaurant was horrible however.  Waited an hour and a half to get terrible food.  They also ran out of clean glasses so we didn’t get served drinks until about 40 minutes in.  Rawr.
• Went back to downtown Portland and saw the most authentic Japanese Garden outside of Japan.  It was beautiful.
• Hit up Nob Hill again and had some happy hour sushi, then left at about 7ish to get to Seattle by 10pm.
• Drank out on Sky’s porch with the Ohio peeps and chilled the remainder of the night, meeting Mike and Grant later that evening (the roommates).

June 21, 2008 - Saturday

• Started the morning by heading to the Summer Solstice Parade, meeting a whole bunch of Carl and Sky’s friends in Fremont.  Watched naked bicyclists, floats, and political themed people going by.  Twas greatly entertaining for an hour and a half.  Afterwards, we walked to Carl’s place and we got the pig roasting and party going.  Over the course of the day we probably had over 60 people.  3 kegs, a yummy pig, and some good company made it a successful day!  Grant, Whitney, me and Carl ended up seeing Kung Fu Panda that same night — in which Grant was extreeeeemeely loud due to his intoxication.  Twas hilarious and embarassing at the same time.  He doesn’t remember anything… Afterwards we hit up Beth’s Diner, where they’re known for the 6 or 12-egg omelettes.  I did not have the stomach for that!

June 22, 2008 - Sunday

• Drove Grant and myself over to Carl’s to help clean up.  Walked around the festival and food booths.  Got a beef and cheese piroshky.  Hadn’t had one in over 10 years!  Afterwards, Carl, Crazy Arms, me, and Rorgy played some hearts and Tichu.  Then the four of us + Justin (soooo reminds me of Dirty Danny) went to go eat Sushi down the block.  Later that evening, we hit up Carl’s work for some Rockband and pool.  By 9pm Carl, Crazy Arms, Grant, and I were at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral for some Gregorian Chants.  We brought blankets and pillows and lied on the floor for a good hour!

June 23, 2008 - Monday

• Caught the bus to downtown Seattle and hit up Pike’s Place Market.  Had a salmon pate piroshky…sooo yummy!  Also splurged on some mediocre clam chowder.  Took the Underground Tour near Pioneer Square — best $12 spent on an attraction.  Guides were hilarious and I learned quite a bit about history that wouldn’t typically interest me.  Walked to the Seattle Public Library between Spring St and Madison.  Very cool building — saw very few books, considering it’s a library!  Then headed to Sky’s building (Municipal Tower) on Columbia and 6th.  Spectacular views from his floor!  We took the bus to Carl’s work where we met up with Grant as well.  Then we went to some Mexican restaurant for some good ole burritos and conversation.  Afterwards, we went to a cupcake store.  They were delicious but not worth $3!  It’s amazing how cupcake stores stay in business.  Grant bought a black ballerina to put on top of his cupcake.  He’s such a cool kid.  ;)  Hit up Karaoke later that night.  Jonathan is such a good singer.  He gets all up in it!

June 24, 2008 - Tuesday

• Bussed it to Pike’s Place for a Beecher’s sandwich.  Their cheese is handcrafted and amazingly delicious.  Walked all the way up to EMP and walked around the Sci-Fi museum and EMP for a bit…then walked all around the Seattle Center and took a nap on the grass for a good half hour, basking in the sun!  Me and my directions had me going everywhere.  But I loved it.  Finally found Olympic Sculpture park and chilled there for a bit.  Seattle’s hills seem to be a lot worse than SF.  Correct me if I’m wrong.
• Afterwards, I walked all the way down to the Westlake Center Mall to see the area.  Later, I walked to Carl’s on 5th and Blanchard so that we could go to Golden Gardens and get a bon fire going.  Was very successful.  I got to try some things I’ve never tried before: slacklining (gonna invest in this activity!) and working a whip.  The circus and hippies were in town!  Had an extremely entertaining night watching them juggle fired up pins and running around with butterfly fired wings!

June 25, 2008 - Wednesday

• Mike’s restaurant in the University District for lunch.  Tofu soup and Bulgogi!
• Top’s Coffee and Doughnuts; chatted with an older woman for a good half an hour.  Saw Sky arrive for a “meeting” as soon as I left.
• Carl, Ann, and I took the Bainbridge ferry to visit their folks.  Half an hour on the boat and an hour drive to their newly built house.  Had a spaghetti seafood dinner and spent the night in the lookout room.  Beautiful house.

June 26, 2008 - Thursday

• Returned to the city to catch the bus back to Sky, Grant, and Mike’s place.  Chilled and geeked the rest of the day.  Mike made me two ramon noodle bowls and fed me seaweed.  A boy knows how to get to my heart!  He calls me a puppy dog because I get excited when people feed me.  He said I looked like a very furry dog…so I looked up Pomeranian and showed him a picture.  We laughed our asses off because he smoked and I think I got it second-hand.
• This is the picture:
• 
• Later that night, Mike made curry for everyone.  Then I beat Grant at Rummy.  He had -2 points while I had 5 billion.  It was a good game. 

June 27, 2008 - Friday

• Had a gyro for lunch in the University District and got harassed and hugged by a crazy dude while waiting at the bus stop.  I got some pats on the back, “good job,” and “You handled that really well” comments later.  Twas the longest 5 minutes of my life.  Sighs.
• Walked around the University of Washington and took some touristy photos.
• Headed downtown and saw Wall-E.  Cute movie that made me tear up like three times!
• Then caught up with Carl, Sky, and Grant at Carl’s work to head to Brian’s (Carl’s co-worker) boat.
• Drank 4 or 5 beers and got to drive the boat!  Had a lot of fun and passed by Bill Gates’ house.  We were out on the water for a good 4 hours or so.  Returned to Carl’s work, played some pool while waiting for pizza.
• Didn’t get to sleep until 3am, chatting it up with Grant…  What a way to spend my last day!

June 28, 2008 - Saturday

• Went to Sunrise or Sunset Cafe.  I can’t remember what it’s called.  It’s Sky’s favorite.  It was really cool — everything was vegetarian.  I had tofu, tempeh, potatoes, peppers and onions.
• After breakfast we all chilled on the front porch until about 12, then Sky dropped me off at the airport.
• Flight was delayed and didn’t get back until 7pm.

Overall, my trip was amazing.  I couldn’t have done it any other way.  I walked everywhere and saw practically all of downtown.  It’s really not that big.  The weather was perfect and sunny everyday.  It never rained! zOMG!  CA’ians bring good weather!  Here’s my photoset… I cut out a lot of touristy photos of places and such, so hopefully these aren’t too boring! 

My highlights start with the Festival and pig roasting.  Mid week was the beach bon fire and slacklining. End of the week was boating on Lake Washington.

Everyone talks about how great Seattle is.  I don’t see the “greatness” in the city itself.  I just know that the friendships I made, made my trip.

I’ve learned that, yeah, I could move out of California.  That there are places very similar to California, or extremely different - and I could be happy for awhile (I get bored easily), wherever I end up.  But ultimately, it’s my lifestyle and how I choose to live that entitles (hate that word) me to happiness.  It’s not the location. 

It’s what I do.

Every good has its bad.

And every bad has some good.

The past week I’ve been trying to make my home comfy, cozy, and likable — for sanity’s sake.

If I were to try and renovate everything once I got settled in at home, it’d just be too hard to get the motivation to change things around.

So I painted my room, put together my own shelf of foods (organics, whole wheat, and healthy shit), got rid of clothes and things I just stored away for years.

I’m sentimental, what can I say?

I’ve also managed to shop around for quite a few material items… I just spent $260 on a freakin’ chair. The next thing I need to buy is a 1T External HDD, which will cost me around another $200. Because my computer, digital work, music, and games are-my-life, I need a bigger backup (and to install multiple OS’s!). I’ve also been looking at GPS systems (which I really can’t decide on because I don’t feel I have enough information on them). Lastly, I’m waiting for the new iPhone to come out. I want it because it’s a piece of technology that can do pretty much everything I need in one device: photos, phone calls, txt msgs, WiFi (the core), and an mp3 player. The only downside is the price and the AT&T service. I like Verizon and really don’t want to switch. I thought about getting the iPod Touch, and then hacking it so I can use Skype — but it’d be so ghetto. I dunno. I’m in a pickle. I want one of those two technologies because I think it’ll make my life easier when I travel. I feel like as long as I’ve got access to the Internet, I’m good to go.

Anyway, my main concerns are the price on all the items that I want to purchase. Yes, I’m very much in this materialistic state of mind right now, but it’s not often that I go and buy things. I tend to talk myself out of it. And I get really excited once I have new things ’cause it’s so infrequent! Anyway…

Take for example the chair that I still feel guilty about buying. I have wanted to purchase a new chair for two years now. I told myself, “I should buy one when I return home from college so that I won’t have to deal with taking it apart and lugging it back.” I also knew an approximate price of the type of chair I would be looking to purchase. So no surprises and it would give me time to accept what I would be having to dish out. But when I got back home last week, I was still hesitant to buy a chair. Only this time I couldn’t talk my way out of it or make an excuse. When I leaned back in my old chair, which finally just gave way and broke, I felt that it was a sign that I was being retarded and should just spend the money for a new one. I still can’t shake the feeling I just spent that much money on a freakin’ chair. I can think about all the other things I could do with that money… i.e. traveling.

I guess my point is that I have to truly know that I need a particular item — and it’s not just ’cause I want it. I’m all about functionality. Items that I purchase have to have a specific use and purpose. It cannot simply be because it “looks good” or “everyone’s getting it.”

…It looks like I’m justifying my materialism and all that really doesn’t matter in the bigger picture. But it’s like as soon as school was over and I returned to the bay area, everything got flipped. Where my room was one way for so many years, I tore it apart and redid it. When I typically don’t spend, I end up spending a lot. Where I once had a newfound peace and engaged in Yoga every week, I’ve become distracted, lazy, and dumb.

Ah, I guess that just means it’s summer!

Anyway, my last rant on my really kick-ass, low-key lifestyle is that I’m afraid I’m starting to dislike home a lot quicker than I had imagined.

I thought I could suck it up and deal with it. There’s no denying I’d get sick of it.

But it has already hit.

Not a good sign.

It means that I have to try really hard to not let things bother me, for a long period of time.

For the past 4 years I’ve been living on my own, without someone telling me to do the dishes or take out the trash. No one has asked me why I’m pouring milk in the living room, what I’m cooking, or where I’m going to be on Thursday and if I can stay at the house from 8-12 to wait for the repairman to come and fix the front-loading washer. While in college, I did not need to be courteous and call or txt anyone that I wouldn’t be back that night. I also hate that nothing is in walking distance. I live on a freakin’ hill with a pretty sweet view of the airport and the bay, but it’s a hill that doesn’t make me want to walk down it, in fear of the strenuous walk back up (me — complain about exercise, really?).

Anyway, it’s a different kind of freedom now. A very restricted one. The more I think about it, the more I feel like I’ll be looking for a place to live, a month after I start my job. I really don’t know where I’ll be working, so I would like to find a home that’s in relatively good/very little distance from the clients’ site. Not sure how many clients I would be advising for either. I’m so not well-informed. Sighs.

So that’s an update on me — all scatterbrained, not knowing the day of the week, what time it is, nor having to really think about anything in particular.

I have to admit, it’s harder for me to not have a set schedule. I like planning. But you already knew that. And it’s the spontaneous moments that happen within a schedule that get me excited. That’s how I work.

Alright, I’m done rambling.

Heh.

Teh Nerdery makes me high.

Getting to see my closest friends, cruisin’ in the NSX and listening to Daft Punk with WM, a little tipsy, and fucking graduating today! What more could I possibly want?

I’m on a natural high that I haven’t felt in a long time.

It’s only when these folks get together that I feel giddy.

I get excited and start hitting everyone. It’s a bad habit, what can I say?

Then there’s Mandaline and I communicating on a frequency that the boys can’t hear.

I start to giggle…and I can’t stop giggling!

I love my friends.

It’s been a great weekend.

I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight.

Going to Joe’s @ 6am… starting the drinking before the ceremony.

Life is good.

I can’t stop myself.

I can’t pass up an opportunity.

God, I hate myself!

What have I learned in the past 7 months?!

I sure as hell haven’t learned to cure myself from feeling like I’m missing out — that is for certain.

Stab me.

Make me stop.

I am weak-willed.

I am a slave to the slightest desire.

I have no foundation and nothing to hold onto.

Help me.

I am losing my way.

Every week it’s someone new.

I am a fucking whore.

I go through the motions,

expecting to get my drive back –

so that I can justify a craving.

I have no real cravings for it, strangely.

And I really don’t want it.

So why do I keep doing it?

Because I’m restless.

And when I’m restless, I become reckless.

Tired as fucking hell.

It’s 6am and I’m finally going to get to sleep.

I can’t say “no” when it comes to guilty pleasures or helping people out.

But thank god my body gets tired of me.

It says, “Alright, I’ve had enough! Let’s stop.”

and then I go, “okay. I’ll try,” in a quiet, inferior voice.

My mind takes a little longer to slow down than my body.

Because when my body is tired, it’s just going to give up.

So, I think I’m done with my effing spree.

I figured out that we’re both on the same page,

and as much as I’d like us to be on the same page and just keep having fun,

I’m a bit taken aback.

There’s no more chase.

No more seemingly uneven power balance

or unknown factor.

I’m bored and not as worked up as I used to be.

I am done.

I guess now I’m just going to really take it easy, chill, and do absolutely nothing for the next week and a half.

Watch me get restless.