Beware of stupid people in large numbers
Jul. 25th, 2006 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azuriteAt last, the San Francisco recap post... assuming I can actually remember most of what happened.
Saturday, July 15th - Scott came over around noon, not long before our shuttle was supposed to have arrived. He was originally going to come over earlier, except his friend Brett got a job back down in San Diego, and since all of their other mutual friends were off partying, Scott decided to help him pack up, so he stayed the night in Burbank. It was weird for him to already be near the airport where WE needed to be, just to come 20 miles up north so he could take a shuttle BACK DOWN to Burbank, but oh well. :P
It was awkward at first, but the shuttle arrived soon enough and we were off. After wandering out the paltry selection of stores and restaurants (read: less than half of each) in the United/American Airlines terminal, we sat down and had some snacks, at which point it was silently "decided" that to hell with it, call us whatever you will, we are what we are and we feel the way we do, so screw it. So yes, I suppose we were acting like boyfriend and girlfriend, even if that "definition" hardly applied to us. He was very sweet and affectionate to me, and even though initially I was scared of that meaning I would have a harder time of saying goodbye to him when the time came (Peace Corps taking him to Central Asia, me going to Japan), I'm not stupid enough to deny affection and attention when it's offered and WANTED.
We managed to get to San Francisco just fine; the plane was horribly small and the drink selection terrible (Pepsi! EEEUCK!), but at least we made it on time. We took the BART (I got a little lost at the SFO station) to Daly City, and bought a 7-day passport at the airport for $24/each. Then we took the 28 to Fulton and met my mom at the house. :} We hung around for a while, got dressed, and then headed out to downtown, where we'd take another BART to West Oakland to go to the Fire Arts festival. Aside from the usual loonies hanging around at the BART station, there was no problem. We got off at our stop and, just as dad said, we knew immediately where to go-- right toward the pillar of fire.
*grin* The Fire Arts festival is something my dad raved about last year, hosted by The Crucible, a fire-arts school that focuses on things like metalwork, electric work, glass blowing, and the like. We had to work our way through a windy, twisty line, but at last we made it in -even though a group of snotty bitches cut us in line. I hate that! I really do! But anyway, we got in, met my dad at the bar, and then looked around. The first thing I noticed was DDR on a wide projection screen, so we headed over there-- and sure enough, they were doing something called "Dance Dance Immolation," a modified version of Stepmania with "fire" themes. The modes were renamed (Light was Burner, Standard was Raver, and Heavy became Asshole; the description of the latter was "Your arcade misses you") and the gauge became a danger thermometer-- you know, like you see on nuclear reactors, or on the modified DeLorean in Back to the Future part III?
We watched a few people in flame retardent suits attempt to DDR, but needless to say, they all sucked. No one seemed to know what DDR was or how to play it... so when the event coordinator walked around and asked for volunteers, I surprised myself by speaking up. I was wearing leather pants and a vinyl tube top and 3-4" Tommy Hilfiger leather boots, but I shimmied out of the tube top and into a red cotton sleeved shirt, and after much waiting and confusion about suit sizes, I was up there, an oxygen tube strapped to my back, a silver suit concealing my identity... and I DDRd while flames shot in my face.
I shit you not. FLAMES. IN MY FACE.
The guy I was playing with said he'd DDRd before, but we agreed to let each other pick songs. But they'd renamed all the submenus too, so I couldn't find the song I wanted, so I got stuck with Mobo*Moga or something for my first song. I aced it anyway. ;} I got Breakdown for the second song, and aced that, but by the third stage, I was so tired from the heaviness of the suit and my sore feet, I started to stumble while playing Butterfly. The guy controlling the game refused to let me do any speed or step modifiers, saying "This isn't DDR, this is Dance Dance IMMOLATION!" And immolation is right, because even though I still did okay on Butterfly, I got flames in my face plenty of times. It wasn't until the suit was off that I realized how grateful I was for the oxygen tube. I was sweating terribly but DAMN that felt good!
Not too many people can say they aced DDR while flames shot in their face. :D Boo yeah, baby.
We hung around the festival a bit longer, looking around and waiting in lines; the girl from the DDI booth gave us her meal ticket, but we were such obvious standouts over at the staff booth that even when Scott swiped a bad hot dog using the ticket (though they didn't take the ticket), we had to dash out of there before we got caught. The Crucible people at some booths were nice and cool, but the ones "guarding" the staff porto potty by Dad's bar had sticks up their asses, so I had to wait in an enormous line to use the public porto potties. Eew.
There were electrical Tessa (Tessla?) Coils zapping the ground with lightning, flame tornadoes, flame fountains, metal cacti, dragons, girls on stilts with flaming horns, the works. It wasn't "spectacular!" but it was pretty cool. I just wish I'd been able to get a funnel cake. :P~~~
Sunday was only booked for a few hours (or was supposed to be), for Lindsey (Lindsay?/![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fallenstar23)'s baby shower. I was shocked when she posted about being 8 mos. pregnant, but happy for her nonetheless; I've known her since preschool, and I'd met up with her and Stephanie (our mutual friend, surprisingly enough. But then, I've had reunions with stranger mutual friends), and I'd read a few of her LJ posts, but generally we'd fallen out of touch.
The problem was figuring out what to get for a baby shower; I thought they sold gift baskets or something like that to make it easier for those of us attendees who wouldn't know the first thing about baby showers or baby needs. I mean, I can hazard a guess, but I'm no mother (even if I'd like to be someday. Still, 2 of my old preschool friends -the other being Christine, who already had one child and has another on the way already- having kids just surprises me). Mom was too busy to pick anything up for me, so we (me and Scott; Scott actually helped me pick things out! I was having a mush moment)went to Mervyn's and got some cute clothes and headed over there. Stephanie and Sherrell were late, but we waited for them-- better to be late in a pack, right? Good thing Lindsey and Co. didn't leave without us; they were still there ready to order at the Taiwan Restaurant. I swore I'd been there before, but who knows? The food was okay, but I had to run and get cash from the BofA, and I paid an exorbitant $2 just to use their ATM. I should have walked to the WAMU on 9th, but... ugh, lazy! Scott had left to wander around Clement, and a few hours later after we were finished, we met up and went back to the house.
We ended up napping to catch up on the lack of sleep from Saturday night (we stayed at the festival till midnight or so), and later that night we had dinner with Mom and Gary.
Truth be told, I'm hard-pressed to remember the specifics, so for the rest of the week, I'll skim:
We did go shopping, and we met up with Crystal and Stephanie at the Metreon after Scott and I saw "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" (I took fervent notes this time). We headed to J-town to go eat at Mifune; I also scored a crepe, but the bookstore and stationery store were closed, but we did have fun taking some new-style Purikura (Print Club) stickers.schmollieollie, I have to send those to you and Crystal! On Saturday, I went back to J-town to get manga (vols. 4-13 of Skip Beat), a Japanese kanji learning book, and some pens. :)
What pissed me off is that 3/7 days that Scott and I paid for with our Muni Passport were Spare the Air days. Yes, free transportation is nice, but I didn't pay $24 for 4 days, I paid for 7, so when a STA day gets sprung on me, I want my days to have their value, not just based on the dates scratches out on a lame ticket! But I got bitched out on Saturday by a fat, ugly bus driver. Luckily, I still managed to get on another bus and get home, but I still should have bitched HIM out in return.
Speaking of STA day, the day of the bonfire (Thursday, July 20) ended up getting turned into one because of the "heat" (keep in mind that it's been 110 or so the past few days here in the Valley; up in San Francisco, people were whining because it was in the low 80s!). Needless to say, I wanted to cry. But after some thinking, I planned to go to Serra Bowl instead; I made reservations, text messaged everyone I could (you know I hate calling, and so many people either don't answer or don't listen to voicemail), and tried to be relaxed. Mom wanted me to clean my room (my "sole purpose in being there" -- argh), so I worked on that for a few hours before getting dressed and heading out to the beach with Scott. I made my annual journey to Land's End, but we really should have taken the 38 instead of the 5, so we got off at Point Lobos rather than Safeway. We had lots of extra walking to do because of that, plus we stopped to eat our sandwiches-- which later gave us both stomachaches. @_o weird. Slaveway karma, maybe?
We were supposed to meet Mom and Gary back at home or at the Beach Chalet for dinner, but we were both so exhausted and sweaty, and we hadn't even made it to Land's End yet. Frankly I didn't care for the nice dinner or looking and smelling all pretty; the 20th was my sister's 10th memorial (she died on 7/20/96), and I wanted to see Land's End with my own two eyes for once. "Closure," if you will. But even as we hiked -going pretty fast, really- when it finally came to the point Mom pointed out to me as the path to Land's End (the roped-off area by Painted Rock), I chickened out. I kept running up the wooden stairs. I really hated myself for that, and I wanted to run back, damn the rules, damn "possibility" and "danger." Damn my conscience and my better judgment is what happened. I did cut into a smaller roped off area, but you couldn't see Land's End -not really- from there. And Scott's right-- the only way to really know for sure, to know where it was and what really happened- is to contact the girl that was with my sister, the girl that survived-- Rayanna, I think her name was. But I don't know where she is or what she's doing now-- or if she even remembers me and my sister. I don't even remember if she was at the funeral.
I called my mom at Land's End, and she rescheduled our reservation for a half hour later; we headed out past the Land's End entrance after taking some nice pictures, and then we walked to the bus stop in front of GWHS (my old high school :P).
Dinner at the Beach Chalet was tasty, but the pasta/shrimp special was kind of spicy. And I got a bit tipsy after one Pacific Punch. No, I can't hold my liquor. I get drunk off two Smirnoff Ices. I AM A PANSY. :P
After that, we headed back home to change again, but during the ride, Jimbo called me-- surprisingly, he was one of the people that planned to meet me at my house before going to Serra; I thought only Crystal would, but she cancelled on me because despite the free transportation, she thought Daly City was too far. ^^; Vince and Co. ended up meeting Jimbo at the house just as we got there, and they even stuck around after Scott and I changed, but since the SUV was full and Gary had offered to drive us there (really, to the Daly City BART, but he ended up driving us to Serra anyway), we went with him. There were a bunch (16, I think) of people at Serra, which made me happy-- I saw Kenny again (saw him at the Metreon after PotC2; Mom called me just as I got out and bitched at me, so Scott and Kenny got to talking. Wonder what they said?), Christal, Richie, Anthony (who was in high spirits, which made me VERY happy), Vince, Jimbo, Erwin, Cris, PsyJoe, Joe, Tisha, Jenny, Sean, his girlfriend Ani, and who knows, I might even be forgetting some people. ^^; Only 11 people ended up bowling, but we had tons of fun, and for $12/each, we had hours upon hours of bowling and 50 cent drinks. So it wasn't a bonfire, but I still had fun. I wish Stephanie, Crystal, Katia, and some others had been able to make it; I'm glad Harry showed up when he did (good thing I checked my cell, but I could hardly hear him on the phone over the sounds of the alley, so when I called Richard's cell, I didn't know it was Harry that had picked up), and he even bowled a few frames. Cris even karaoked in the bar to the "I Like Big Butts" song, which made me laugh-- he did a great job!
All in all, it was a decent trip. Nice weather, good food, good friends, and a decent shopping excursion. The passport pouch I wanted to get at The Container Store I ended up getting at Borders, of all places, and I resisted buying Yu-Gi-Oh Duelist 16 and Millennium World 4 (with the Yu-Jyo Friendship and Pharaoh's Judgment promo cards) at Kinokuniya; instead I special-ordered them from the Borders here in Northridge. I splurged at Borders when I got back, though it didn't *feel* like a splurge. I just bought a new Ghost in the Shell novel and Duelist 14 and 15.
Mom owes me $160 and a huge shipment of stuff; I got a new file cabinet yesterday, but I need a new hanging system, because the one I bought yesterday won't work. I also need a new shelf unit or bookshelf, since my crappy corrugated cardboard one hardly holds anything, and I have sweaters and pants folded all over my floor, along with boxes of scrapbook supplies and paperwork. My room's in severe need of cleaning, and I still have much prepping for Japan to do.
I'm glad to be home, even if it's raging hot and plenty lonely here. I think I'll go back to SF before I go to Japan, for sure.
Saturday, July 15th - Scott came over around noon, not long before our shuttle was supposed to have arrived. He was originally going to come over earlier, except his friend Brett got a job back down in San Diego, and since all of their other mutual friends were off partying, Scott decided to help him pack up, so he stayed the night in Burbank. It was weird for him to already be near the airport where WE needed to be, just to come 20 miles up north so he could take a shuttle BACK DOWN to Burbank, but oh well. :P
It was awkward at first, but the shuttle arrived soon enough and we were off. After wandering out the paltry selection of stores and restaurants (read: less than half of each) in the United/American Airlines terminal, we sat down and had some snacks, at which point it was silently "decided" that to hell with it, call us whatever you will, we are what we are and we feel the way we do, so screw it. So yes, I suppose we were acting like boyfriend and girlfriend, even if that "definition" hardly applied to us. He was very sweet and affectionate to me, and even though initially I was scared of that meaning I would have a harder time of saying goodbye to him when the time came (Peace Corps taking him to Central Asia, me going to Japan), I'm not stupid enough to deny affection and attention when it's offered and WANTED.
We managed to get to San Francisco just fine; the plane was horribly small and the drink selection terrible (Pepsi! EEEUCK!), but at least we made it on time. We took the BART (I got a little lost at the SFO station) to Daly City, and bought a 7-day passport at the airport for $24/each. Then we took the 28 to Fulton and met my mom at the house. :} We hung around for a while, got dressed, and then headed out to downtown, where we'd take another BART to West Oakland to go to the Fire Arts festival. Aside from the usual loonies hanging around at the BART station, there was no problem. We got off at our stop and, just as dad said, we knew immediately where to go-- right toward the pillar of fire.
*grin* The Fire Arts festival is something my dad raved about last year, hosted by The Crucible, a fire-arts school that focuses on things like metalwork, electric work, glass blowing, and the like. We had to work our way through a windy, twisty line, but at last we made it in -even though a group of snotty bitches cut us in line. I hate that! I really do! But anyway, we got in, met my dad at the bar, and then looked around. The first thing I noticed was DDR on a wide projection screen, so we headed over there-- and sure enough, they were doing something called "Dance Dance Immolation," a modified version of Stepmania with "fire" themes. The modes were renamed (Light was Burner, Standard was Raver, and Heavy became Asshole; the description of the latter was "Your arcade misses you") and the gauge became a danger thermometer-- you know, like you see on nuclear reactors, or on the modified DeLorean in Back to the Future part III?
We watched a few people in flame retardent suits attempt to DDR, but needless to say, they all sucked. No one seemed to know what DDR was or how to play it... so when the event coordinator walked around and asked for volunteers, I surprised myself by speaking up. I was wearing leather pants and a vinyl tube top and 3-4" Tommy Hilfiger leather boots, but I shimmied out of the tube top and into a red cotton sleeved shirt, and after much waiting and confusion about suit sizes, I was up there, an oxygen tube strapped to my back, a silver suit concealing my identity... and I DDRd while flames shot in my face.
I shit you not. FLAMES. IN MY FACE.
The guy I was playing with said he'd DDRd before, but we agreed to let each other pick songs. But they'd renamed all the submenus too, so I couldn't find the song I wanted, so I got stuck with Mobo*Moga or something for my first song. I aced it anyway. ;} I got Breakdown for the second song, and aced that, but by the third stage, I was so tired from the heaviness of the suit and my sore feet, I started to stumble while playing Butterfly. The guy controlling the game refused to let me do any speed or step modifiers, saying "This isn't DDR, this is Dance Dance IMMOLATION!" And immolation is right, because even though I still did okay on Butterfly, I got flames in my face plenty of times. It wasn't until the suit was off that I realized how grateful I was for the oxygen tube. I was sweating terribly but DAMN that felt good!
Not too many people can say they aced DDR while flames shot in their face. :D Boo yeah, baby.
We hung around the festival a bit longer, looking around and waiting in lines; the girl from the DDI booth gave us her meal ticket, but we were such obvious standouts over at the staff booth that even when Scott swiped a bad hot dog using the ticket (though they didn't take the ticket), we had to dash out of there before we got caught. The Crucible people at some booths were nice and cool, but the ones "guarding" the staff porto potty by Dad's bar had sticks up their asses, so I had to wait in an enormous line to use the public porto potties. Eew.
There were electrical Tessa (Tessla?) Coils zapping the ground with lightning, flame tornadoes, flame fountains, metal cacti, dragons, girls on stilts with flaming horns, the works. It wasn't "spectacular!" but it was pretty cool. I just wish I'd been able to get a funnel cake. :P~~~
Sunday was only booked for a few hours (or was supposed to be), for Lindsey (Lindsay?/
fallenstar23)'s baby shower. I was shocked when she posted about being 8 mos. pregnant, but happy for her nonetheless; I've known her since preschool, and I'd met up with her and Stephanie (our mutual friend, surprisingly enough. But then, I've had reunions with stranger mutual friends), and I'd read a few of her LJ posts, but generally we'd fallen out of touch.The problem was figuring out what to get for a baby shower; I thought they sold gift baskets or something like that to make it easier for those of us attendees who wouldn't know the first thing about baby showers or baby needs. I mean, I can hazard a guess, but I'm no mother (even if I'd like to be someday. Still, 2 of my old preschool friends -the other being Christine, who already had one child and has another on the way already- having kids just surprises me). Mom was too busy to pick anything up for me, so we (me and Scott; Scott actually helped me pick things out! I was having a mush moment)went to Mervyn's and got some cute clothes and headed over there. Stephanie and Sherrell were late, but we waited for them-- better to be late in a pack, right? Good thing Lindsey and Co. didn't leave without us; they were still there ready to order at the Taiwan Restaurant. I swore I'd been there before, but who knows? The food was okay, but I had to run and get cash from the BofA, and I paid an exorbitant $2 just to use their ATM. I should have walked to the WAMU on 9th, but... ugh, lazy! Scott had left to wander around Clement, and a few hours later after we were finished, we met up and went back to the house.
We ended up napping to catch up on the lack of sleep from Saturday night (we stayed at the festival till midnight or so), and later that night we had dinner with Mom and Gary.
Truth be told, I'm hard-pressed to remember the specifics, so for the rest of the week, I'll skim:
We did go shopping, and we met up with Crystal and Stephanie at the Metreon after Scott and I saw "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" (I took fervent notes this time). We headed to J-town to go eat at Mifune; I also scored a crepe, but the bookstore and stationery store were closed, but we did have fun taking some new-style Purikura (Print Club) stickers.
schmollieollie, I have to send those to you and Crystal! On Saturday, I went back to J-town to get manga (vols. 4-13 of Skip Beat), a Japanese kanji learning book, and some pens. :)What pissed me off is that 3/7 days that Scott and I paid for with our Muni Passport were Spare the Air days. Yes, free transportation is nice, but I didn't pay $24 for 4 days, I paid for 7, so when a STA day gets sprung on me, I want my days to have their value, not just based on the dates scratches out on a lame ticket! But I got bitched out on Saturday by a fat, ugly bus driver. Luckily, I still managed to get on another bus and get home, but I still should have bitched HIM out in return.
Speaking of STA day, the day of the bonfire (Thursday, July 20) ended up getting turned into one because of the "heat" (keep in mind that it's been 110 or so the past few days here in the Valley; up in San Francisco, people were whining because it was in the low 80s!). Needless to say, I wanted to cry. But after some thinking, I planned to go to Serra Bowl instead; I made reservations, text messaged everyone I could (you know I hate calling, and so many people either don't answer or don't listen to voicemail), and tried to be relaxed. Mom wanted me to clean my room (my "sole purpose in being there" -- argh), so I worked on that for a few hours before getting dressed and heading out to the beach with Scott. I made my annual journey to Land's End, but we really should have taken the 38 instead of the 5, so we got off at Point Lobos rather than Safeway. We had lots of extra walking to do because of that, plus we stopped to eat our sandwiches-- which later gave us both stomachaches. @_o weird. Slaveway karma, maybe?
We were supposed to meet Mom and Gary back at home or at the Beach Chalet for dinner, but we were both so exhausted and sweaty, and we hadn't even made it to Land's End yet. Frankly I didn't care for the nice dinner or looking and smelling all pretty; the 20th was my sister's 10th memorial (she died on 7/20/96), and I wanted to see Land's End with my own two eyes for once. "Closure," if you will. But even as we hiked -going pretty fast, really- when it finally came to the point Mom pointed out to me as the path to Land's End (the roped-off area by Painted Rock), I chickened out. I kept running up the wooden stairs. I really hated myself for that, and I wanted to run back, damn the rules, damn "possibility" and "danger." Damn my conscience and my better judgment is what happened. I did cut into a smaller roped off area, but you couldn't see Land's End -not really- from there. And Scott's right-- the only way to really know for sure, to know where it was and what really happened- is to contact the girl that was with my sister, the girl that survived-- Rayanna, I think her name was. But I don't know where she is or what she's doing now-- or if she even remembers me and my sister. I don't even remember if she was at the funeral.
I called my mom at Land's End, and she rescheduled our reservation for a half hour later; we headed out past the Land's End entrance after taking some nice pictures, and then we walked to the bus stop in front of GWHS (my old high school :P).
Dinner at the Beach Chalet was tasty, but the pasta/shrimp special was kind of spicy. And I got a bit tipsy after one Pacific Punch. No, I can't hold my liquor. I get drunk off two Smirnoff Ices. I AM A PANSY. :P
After that, we headed back home to change again, but during the ride, Jimbo called me-- surprisingly, he was one of the people that planned to meet me at my house before going to Serra; I thought only Crystal would, but she cancelled on me because despite the free transportation, she thought Daly City was too far. ^^; Vince and Co. ended up meeting Jimbo at the house just as we got there, and they even stuck around after Scott and I changed, but since the SUV was full and Gary had offered to drive us there (really, to the Daly City BART, but he ended up driving us to Serra anyway), we went with him. There were a bunch (16, I think) of people at Serra, which made me happy-- I saw Kenny again (saw him at the Metreon after PotC2; Mom called me just as I got out and bitched at me, so Scott and Kenny got to talking. Wonder what they said?), Christal, Richie, Anthony (who was in high spirits, which made me VERY happy), Vince, Jimbo, Erwin, Cris, PsyJoe, Joe, Tisha, Jenny, Sean, his girlfriend Ani, and who knows, I might even be forgetting some people. ^^; Only 11 people ended up bowling, but we had tons of fun, and for $12/each, we had hours upon hours of bowling and 50 cent drinks. So it wasn't a bonfire, but I still had fun. I wish Stephanie, Crystal, Katia, and some others had been able to make it; I'm glad Harry showed up when he did (good thing I checked my cell, but I could hardly hear him on the phone over the sounds of the alley, so when I called Richard's cell, I didn't know it was Harry that had picked up), and he even bowled a few frames. Cris even karaoked in the bar to the "I Like Big Butts" song, which made me laugh-- he did a great job!
All in all, it was a decent trip. Nice weather, good food, good friends, and a decent shopping excursion. The passport pouch I wanted to get at The Container Store I ended up getting at Borders, of all places, and I resisted buying Yu-Gi-Oh Duelist 16 and Millennium World 4 (with the Yu-Jyo Friendship and Pharaoh's Judgment promo cards) at Kinokuniya; instead I special-ordered them from the Borders here in Northridge. I splurged at Borders when I got back, though it didn't *feel* like a splurge. I just bought a new Ghost in the Shell novel and Duelist 14 and 15.
Mom owes me $160 and a huge shipment of stuff; I got a new file cabinet yesterday, but I need a new hanging system, because the one I bought yesterday won't work. I also need a new shelf unit or bookshelf, since my crappy corrugated cardboard one hardly holds anything, and I have sweaters and pants folded all over my floor, along with boxes of scrapbook supplies and paperwork. My room's in severe need of cleaning, and I still have much prepping for Japan to do.
I'm glad to be home, even if it's raging hot and plenty lonely here. I think I'll go back to SF before I go to Japan, for sure.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-07-25 07:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-26 05:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-26 06:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-26 05:04 pm (UTC)Business of columbian cocaine routes, how to smuggle it into the states...
really nothing XD
no subject
Date: 2006-07-26 05:05 pm (UTC)