Le deuxieme weekend -- Partie un

You will hear about what went down the first weekend (6th and 7th) later. Though, it really is not too thrilling. Not that that is a criticism of it.

But my second weekend in California was a blast!

The end of the week found me going a little stir crazy so I was thrilled when chum and fellow Cornellian, Nadine (am changing names, mostly for fun), proposed a movie-night/sleep-over at her apartment Saturday evening. Only had to endure Friday night with the kind relatives who are generously putting me up, but were, I must admit, beginning to grate on the nerves.

But Friday evening looked like a promising prospect. They lured me in with an invitation to go out to eat with their daughter Michelle, whom I like, and their other daughter Tina who had just returned from vacation. Perhaps my sleep-deprivation and general exhaustion impaired my judgment, but for the rest of night I found myself trapped in one of Dante's circles of hell as I tried to keep from dropping dead from fatigue and feigned (less and less believably) polite interest in their generally inane and often not-really-appropriate-for-company conversation. They covered various topics usually kept off the dinner menu from Mormon underwear (which I am rather confident they were really wildly incorrect about) to uterine cancer surgery. Let's just say it was all I could do not to invite myself over Nadine's a night early!

Saturday, I waved encouragingly at the fam as it packed itself off to a party in the early afternoon reminding them I was going over a friend's for the evening--- I didn't even want to bother explaining I was staying the night elsewhere, and would just leave a note to avoid any obstacles that could possibly prevent me from escaping. I then threw my own bag in my car and fled the joint, stopping only to pick up dinner (Easy Mac! yummy, fast, and cheap.) and to test my credit card out for the first time. The paranoid person I am lived in fear that if I did not give it a test drive it would fail to work at the pump and prevent me from getting gas, which I was going to have to do in the very near future.

Made it to Burbank in just under an hour and a little hoarse from singing all the way--- with a broken radio I was forced to provide my own entertainment which doubled as a stress-reliever as in "I whistle a happy tune so no one will suspect I'm afraid" of the deadly and insane LA traffic. (Points if you can name that musical!) Nadine and I settled down to an evening of instant pasta, and after some deliberation A Few Good Men--- which I adored, more on this later perhaps, and The Shawshank Redemption--- which she adored and I enjoyed. By bedtime, life seemed slightly more worth living again.

Sunday morning we discovered the Cornell picnic we were going to be attending was very close to the apartment complex and that is would be foolish for me to drive all the way home and then all the way back if I could avoid it. Aw shucks! Guess I'll just have to push going home until the late afternoon! Phoned the relations when I knew they would be out and left them a message informing them such.

The local church I found nearby my friend's flat was actually quite nice. The music was lively and of top quality, people were friendly, and the congregation was very into the mass. All in all it was a very refreshing experience. Am considering return next week. I also thoroughly enjoyed it when, during his homily, the slightly weird priest managed to work in "In the script I'm writing about . . ."--- as I commented when recounting this later to my mom, everyone has a script here, literally everyone.

Nadine and I bummed a ride to the picnic off of compatriot Roma who conveniently lived in the same apartment complex. The three of us had a merry ride gossiping about Nadine's complicated love-life and creatively formulated how to divvy up credit for the fruit salad I'd made on behalf of our little party.

After only having to turn around once, we arrived.

Memo

K, so obviously, have not been so organized about getting these out on a regular basis. But I plan to cover everything.

I am now 3 wks into my summer, 4 if you count the trek--- which can probably spawn 5 or 6 posts on its own. So though I'd like to keep things in chronological order, in the interest of getting posts done on a more regular basis I'm going to just post on whatever and try and go back and fill in the missing days. I.e. I'm not going to post about the drive or first weeks yet but will later so though that happened first, it's going to appear randomly throughout most likely.

Hopefully this will not blow your mind.

Les vacances chez moi

This week, we find ourselves enjoying the cool post-thunderstorm breeze that rolls through the lush spring-green branches of the ash trees that throw patches of shade on the manicured lawns of a suburban New Jersey neighborhood. Birdsong mingles with the sound of the airplanes screeching overhead and the rumbling traffic on the highways, about 200 meters and 1400 meters away respectively. On our quarter of an acre square of this paradise, the flowers wear the fresh vestments of spring. Wildlife is diverse and plentiful on the dandelion-speckled patch of lawn, mainly due to the unique non-pesticide flavor of the plant life that we strive for here chez moi. Though furry friends, be warned, come summertime, the lord of the manor has been known to pelt bricks at or drown those who trespass into the vegetable gardens.

What has been going on inside?

A grueling Friday (June 29th) of packing until 5am culminated with my departure from Cornell on Saturday with much assistance from some very very kind and dedicated friends (you know who you are) and many a sad farewell. I spent the first hour or so of the drive boring my father to death with a lengthy summary of the movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine, complete with an in-depth analysis of the clichéd storyline, so as to clearly communicate how dreadful the film was. Rest assured he will not be watching that movie anytime soon. We also managed to discuss P.G. Wodehouse and Ogden Nash somehow. The evening concluded as I stumbled brain-dead into the bathroom to brush my teeth and promptly put hand-soap on my toothbrush. A sign to get some shut-eye if ever I saw one.


Sunday morning I am lovingly pummeled awake by a cherubic little sister who informed me disdainfully that it was 1 o’clock and to get up already. Only the strongest sisterly love kept me from blaming her for my poor night’s sleep in the spare room (see picture above of me putting on my penguin slippers), to which I was banished due to the uninhabitable state of our bedroom . Granted it was AP week, but let’s just say she gets low marks in tidiness, sanitation, and general domestic finesse (i.e. she had to sleep in the top bunk otherwise known as my bed due to the unsavory landscape of her own bunk). Mass in the evening is a shoddy affair due to a combination of our pastor’s exhaustion from dealing with the church carnival and the unpopular but zealous gospel choir. The deacon gives a simplistic but positive sermon about how “there are many types of love” (one of which is loving our parents, another example is loving a cold beer on a hot afternoon) but Fr. D kills the mood by reflecting on “this tear-stained world” during the prayers.

Monday: Sleeping and catching up on my favorite BBC shows online.


Tuesday was more exciting as I accompanied my mother to a lecture at Rutgers by none other than the infamous Phil Zimbardo speaking about the Psychology of Evil. Oh mother-daughter bonding! The event was in my dad’s building and his normal lecture hall so he ended up tagging along. Good thing he did as he was the one who finally managed to get ole Dr. Z’s powerpoint presentation to work (see picture above). The ‘Discovering Psychology’ creator’s lecture was interesting. Unfortunately, he spent too long discussing evil that he did not have time to give us the full scoop on his new interest: heroism. So we got a heavy dose of depressing and not quite an adequate dose of uplifting. The outing did however give me a change to debut the green sweater I stole from Mariana’s dump and run pile on Friday night. It went over very well especially with my matching socks. On the way home we stopped by to purchase me a new ipod (RIP old ipod where ever you are). The down side, I am the one who has to cough up the greenbacks this time. The up side, it can be purple!



Wednesday and Thursday were occupied with preparations for LA: packing, some minimal shopping for a GRE study book, car repairs, finalizing things with internship providers, trying to finalize things with the hell that is Career Services. Luckily managed to see a few great pals (Emily and Sumona) before hitting the road Friday.

Also saw Star Trek. Am not personally a huge fan of the movie but it had its really great moments. It also had its rather awful moments--- namely several lame plot points and the clichéd opening, though it did give me a fantastic opportunity to heckle Jennifer Morrison. Thoroughly enjoyed a lot of the winks to those familiar with the original series especially the classic red shirt whose parachute malfunctions. Right Abrams, it ‘malfunctioned.’

Best parts: hands-down Karl Urban as McCoy (I don’t think people appreciate how spot on he was. The guy must have put some serious serious work into that role) and Pegg as Scotty. Who cares about Pine and Quinto with either of those guys in the scene? Not me!
Side Note: I also really enjoyed mocking the Transformers trailer. “Megatron wants what’s in my mind!” Does he now LeBeouf? Really? Or “They’re symbols, they must mean something.” No way! Glad you’re there to state the obvious! Gosh, where would we be without you? (In a better movie maybe?)

Friday: driving to visit the grandparents in PA