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.