Happy holidays everyone. The Brazil posts might be on hold for a day or two because of holiday festivities. I just wanted to post about the best holiday gift I've gotten. Well, I got myself two new pairs of cleats, a pair of Nike Mercurial Vapor III FG (I loved these cleats last time I had them, this time I got $70 off with the sale and $20 off with the over $100 purchase coupon, also, they weigh 8 o.z.) and a pair of Puma v1.06 SG ($110 off sale, they weigh 7.4 o.z., I guess now all I'm missing is a pair of turf shoes), but those weren't my favorite gifts.
The best gift I got this holiday season was my flick. For about a year I haven't been comfortable throwing flicks, and somehow that all changed in Brazil. In fact, I remember the exact moment it felt better, it was while I was tossing before warming up for the finals. Ever since I injured my right hand in November '06 my flick hasn't felt right. After the injury I took a month of from throwing forehands (that's when I learned to throw a lefty backhand), but when I started throwing again my grip was awkward, and I couldn't really settle on a comfortable way to throw. Anyway, it's all finally coming back to me and I no longer have to think really hard just to throw a flick while tossing. Man, this is awesome.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Friday, December 21, 2007
Brazil I - The Trip Down
I love Ultimate. I love the anonymity of it all. I love that the journey to a world championship event has humble beginnings for all the players who come from around the globe to play. That's not to say that the journeys themselves are small or easy, just that they aren't glamorous. What people will go through to get to an Ultimate tournament is immense, and it only magnifies their emotional investment in the outcome of the tournament. One story I heard was that a player from the Philippines flew to Tokyo, then to San Francisco, then Miami, then Sao Paulo, and finally to Maceió. Now, my trip wasn't as long or epic as his, but it'll have to do for now.
So, my journey started on an average Saturday morning in Santa Cruz, some fog, low 40s, you know, that horrible December weather. Sunya and my flight was at 11:30 so we met our friend Anna, who was giving us a ride, at 8:00 and got on the road. We got to the airport comfortably around 9:30 then went through the long an arduous process of checking in for an international flight. After waiting in line for like an hour we finally got to the check in counter. When the lady asked for our tickets Sunya handed over hers and I just gave my ID. She told me I'd need a ticket, at which point Sunya and I looked at each other with that "oh shit, is this really happening?!?" sort of look. Well, I just said "I was told by my travel agent that I'd only need an ID" and let it ride.
Five minuets went by with awkward silence and a lot of typing by the lady behind the counter, then out of the blue she hands us both our boarding passes and says "have a nice flight." What the fuck, right? She didn't say anything the whole time, and there was a lot she could have said. There wasn't a "You're right, the ID will do fine." No "I'll try and get you two seats next to one another." No, "Sorry, I can't get you guys adjacent seats." Nothing, just awkward silence and typing. I seriously thought I wasn't going to Brazil for those 5 minuets, and man, that sucked balls. Anyway, I guess it worked out. After getting our boarding basses we hit up an airport book store where I bought a Rolling Stone mag, and Empire by Orson Scott Card (I wouldn't recommend it, btw). After making our plane reading selections (Sunya bought a People mag) we made our way through security and got some food before boarding our flight.
The first leg of the trip was relatively uneventful, and the plane was empty enough that we could sit next to each other. Over all, it was nice, and I managed to resist listening to the iPod shuffle I had brought. I was really happy with the collection of music I put on the shuffle. It was really eclectic, and I found it all pretty jetset-y. I think I liked my selections because it was all good background music, but also great if you wanted to pay attention. Also, the music I chose isn't the greatest driving music, but it all does well for traveling (I'll post the list at some point). *
After landing in Chicago, Sunya and I garbed another quick bite to eat before boarding our long flight to São Paulo. I was expecting this ten and a half hour flight to be the real kicker, but it went by relatively quickly. I traded my isle seat for the easier-to-sleep-in window seat and the book I bought proved very readable, even if I didn't enjoy the politics it was plugging. Also, the music really carried me through on this one. Anyway, the flight became bearable, but I didn't get nearly enough sleep. I thought I might be able to get like 5 or 6 hours on the plane, but instead I got about three. Normally I could function enough to make it through the day on 3 hours, but after all that traveling, I was starting to fear the 12 hour layover in São Paulo.
After getting into Brazil (south of the equator for the first time ever!) we spent about 90 min in the airport figuring out details about our next flight, changing and brushing teeth, finding lockers and getting maps. After taking care of all our airport business we took a cab to down town to check out the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP). MASP was really cool. I dig museums, and this one was great. It had two floors of modern art below ground, an outdoor market at ground level, to go with floor of photography and a floor of fine art above ground. I think we spent about three hours looking around, but I could have used at least another hour (especially if I wasn't so tiered). Down town SP was pretty sweet, it was really hot and humid and there were Santas and Christmas decorations everywhere, like bizarre-o Christmas. Also, we went to the coolest public park I've ever been to, it was really jungle-y and there were kids play structures everywhere. I was exhausted the whole time and I tried to drink inordinate amounts of water to make up for it. It almost worked, then, in the museum, I fell asleep while walking and almost tripped into a priceless piece of modern art. Right then I knew the layover couldn't end soon enough.
Luckily that was toward the end of our stay and the museum, and it was dinner time. We found a restaurant at a hotel for some food, then after dinner we took a bus back to the airport. It was a nice charter type buss and we both got a good hour of sleep in, followed by the usual airport business and a nice two and a half hour flight to Maceió. Well, after sleeping on the bus and the plane I felt really energetic, and I was mentally prepared to stay up all night in the airport. See, our plane got in at 1:30 so we had our bags around two meaning we either had to get a cab to our hotel and wake people up around 2:30, or we could just stay up in the airport and save money by taking a bus in the morning. Well, it seemed to inconvenience the fewest people if we stayed up, also, saving money is always good on trips. So, after getting our bags we made our way up towards the airport eateries.
About a half hour into our airport all nighter we encountered a couple of fellow ultimate players who had the same plane. We had seen a few on our flight, but they all went off to grab cabs and meet up with teammates. Well, the two we met in the airport were predictable american college students who had been studying abroad in South America. When we met them, Trevor, captain of the University of Utah Zion Curtain, and Tyler, baller from Tufts, were wavering from there initial airport all night plan and were contemplating hitting up a hostel for the night, luckily the met us and found inspiration to stick it out in the airport.
I couldn't have been happier with how the airport thing worked out. First, the Bob's Burgers (I know, what a sweet name for a Brazilian fast food chain) stayed open all night, giving us a constant source of burgers, shakes, and fries, and second, Trevor and Tyler had tons of awesome stories from their semesters in south america. Basically, I remained energized all night, and the sun made an appearance at like 5:30 because of how far east in the time-zone Maceió is. At around 5:40 we asked some employees about busses/cabs into the city and they told us about a 6:00 am bus that'd get us where we needed to go. Jumping at the opportunity to save money we jumped on the public transportation and got a tour of both the outlying slums and some of the rougher neighborhoods that Maceió has to offer (the crazy thing is, the people who live in these neighborhoods all dress nicely to go to work in the touristy areas, also, all the women in Brazil wear high heels). We told the buss driver where we were going and they let us off where they said was really close. It just turned out to be about six blocks to far. Anyway, we had a nice little adventure figuring out where our hotel was, and eventually got there around 8:00 am. Just in time to hit up the breakfast buffet and chill with teammates. Meanwhile Trevor and Tyler walked the 4 additional blocks to their hotel, which turned out to be right across from the arena fields.
Okay, so that's the journey down. I'll try to get a post up about the pre tournament activities and the opening ceremony soon.
* I guess if you've also read my Road Trip posts you must think that I get really excited about any travel playlist I put together. This is partially true, I'm always excited about it right after I make it, but they don't always stand the test of time. In retrospect I really like the 1st, 2nd, and 5th I-5 playlists I made, and so far I'm still into my Brazil playlist. I could get into this whole thing more, but I really need to just organize my thoughts and devote a whole post to long playlists.
So, my journey started on an average Saturday morning in Santa Cruz, some fog, low 40s, you know, that horrible December weather. Sunya and my flight was at 11:30 so we met our friend Anna, who was giving us a ride, at 8:00 and got on the road. We got to the airport comfortably around 9:30 then went through the long an arduous process of checking in for an international flight. After waiting in line for like an hour we finally got to the check in counter. When the lady asked for our tickets Sunya handed over hers and I just gave my ID. She told me I'd need a ticket, at which point Sunya and I looked at each other with that "oh shit, is this really happening?!?" sort of look. Well, I just said "I was told by my travel agent that I'd only need an ID" and let it ride.
Five minuets went by with awkward silence and a lot of typing by the lady behind the counter, then out of the blue she hands us both our boarding passes and says "have a nice flight." What the fuck, right? She didn't say anything the whole time, and there was a lot she could have said. There wasn't a "You're right, the ID will do fine." No "I'll try and get you two seats next to one another." No, "Sorry, I can't get you guys adjacent seats." Nothing, just awkward silence and typing. I seriously thought I wasn't going to Brazil for those 5 minuets, and man, that sucked balls. Anyway, I guess it worked out. After getting our boarding basses we hit up an airport book store where I bought a Rolling Stone mag, and Empire by Orson Scott Card (I wouldn't recommend it, btw). After making our plane reading selections (Sunya bought a People mag) we made our way through security and got some food before boarding our flight.
The first leg of the trip was relatively uneventful, and the plane was empty enough that we could sit next to each other. Over all, it was nice, and I managed to resist listening to the iPod shuffle I had brought. I was really happy with the collection of music I put on the shuffle. It was really eclectic, and I found it all pretty jetset-y. I think I liked my selections because it was all good background music, but also great if you wanted to pay attention. Also, the music I chose isn't the greatest driving music, but it all does well for traveling (I'll post the list at some point). *
After landing in Chicago, Sunya and I garbed another quick bite to eat before boarding our long flight to São Paulo. I was expecting this ten and a half hour flight to be the real kicker, but it went by relatively quickly. I traded my isle seat for the easier-to-sleep-in window seat and the book I bought proved very readable, even if I didn't enjoy the politics it was plugging. Also, the music really carried me through on this one. Anyway, the flight became bearable, but I didn't get nearly enough sleep. I thought I might be able to get like 5 or 6 hours on the plane, but instead I got about three. Normally I could function enough to make it through the day on 3 hours, but after all that traveling, I was starting to fear the 12 hour layover in São Paulo.
After getting into Brazil (south of the equator for the first time ever!) we spent about 90 min in the airport figuring out details about our next flight, changing and brushing teeth, finding lockers and getting maps. After taking care of all our airport business we took a cab to down town to check out the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP). MASP was really cool. I dig museums, and this one was great. It had two floors of modern art below ground, an outdoor market at ground level, to go with floor of photography and a floor of fine art above ground. I think we spent about three hours looking around, but I could have used at least another hour (especially if I wasn't so tiered). Down town SP was pretty sweet, it was really hot and humid and there were Santas and Christmas decorations everywhere, like bizarre-o Christmas. Also, we went to the coolest public park I've ever been to, it was really jungle-y and there were kids play structures everywhere. I was exhausted the whole time and I tried to drink inordinate amounts of water to make up for it. It almost worked, then, in the museum, I fell asleep while walking and almost tripped into a priceless piece of modern art. Right then I knew the layover couldn't end soon enough.
Luckily that was toward the end of our stay and the museum, and it was dinner time. We found a restaurant at a hotel for some food, then after dinner we took a bus back to the airport. It was a nice charter type buss and we both got a good hour of sleep in, followed by the usual airport business and a nice two and a half hour flight to Maceió. Well, after sleeping on the bus and the plane I felt really energetic, and I was mentally prepared to stay up all night in the airport. See, our plane got in at 1:30 so we had our bags around two meaning we either had to get a cab to our hotel and wake people up around 2:30, or we could just stay up in the airport and save money by taking a bus in the morning. Well, it seemed to inconvenience the fewest people if we stayed up, also, saving money is always good on trips. So, after getting our bags we made our way up towards the airport eateries.
About a half hour into our airport all nighter we encountered a couple of fellow ultimate players who had the same plane. We had seen a few on our flight, but they all went off to grab cabs and meet up with teammates. Well, the two we met in the airport were predictable american college students who had been studying abroad in South America. When we met them, Trevor, captain of the University of Utah Zion Curtain, and Tyler, baller from Tufts, were wavering from there initial airport all night plan and were contemplating hitting up a hostel for the night, luckily the met us and found inspiration to stick it out in the airport.
I couldn't have been happier with how the airport thing worked out. First, the Bob's Burgers (I know, what a sweet name for a Brazilian fast food chain) stayed open all night, giving us a constant source of burgers, shakes, and fries, and second, Trevor and Tyler had tons of awesome stories from their semesters in south america. Basically, I remained energized all night, and the sun made an appearance at like 5:30 because of how far east in the time-zone Maceió is. At around 5:40 we asked some employees about busses/cabs into the city and they told us about a 6:00 am bus that'd get us where we needed to go. Jumping at the opportunity to save money we jumped on the public transportation and got a tour of both the outlying slums and some of the rougher neighborhoods that Maceió has to offer (the crazy thing is, the people who live in these neighborhoods all dress nicely to go to work in the touristy areas, also, all the women in Brazil wear high heels). We told the buss driver where we were going and they let us off where they said was really close. It just turned out to be about six blocks to far. Anyway, we had a nice little adventure figuring out where our hotel was, and eventually got there around 8:00 am. Just in time to hit up the breakfast buffet and chill with teammates. Meanwhile Trevor and Tyler walked the 4 additional blocks to their hotel, which turned out to be right across from the arena fields.
Okay, so that's the journey down. I'll try to get a post up about the pre tournament activities and the opening ceremony soon.
* I guess if you've also read my Road Trip posts you must think that I get really excited about any travel playlist I put together. This is partially true, I'm always excited about it right after I make it, but they don't always stand the test of time. In retrospect I really like the 1st, 2nd, and 5th I-5 playlists I made, and so far I'm still into my Brazil playlist. I could get into this whole thing more, but I really need to just organize my thoughts and devote a whole post to long playlists.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Quick Update (and thoughts on tonights Warriors game)
I've been plaining posting about Music, what I'm listening to and the art of making playlists (one of my favorite thing), but it's taking longer than I would like to motivate myself to write it. So, to at least get myself writing, here's a quick update about my ultimate life.
My club season hangover has finally worn off and I'm really feeling college disc again. We had a great practice last weekend and I finally felt comfortable as a teammate. Now it looks like I might be moving to O instead of staying with the D line. O has the potential to be a ton of fun, but I think it takes more chemistry than D does, or, more accurately, the chemistry O requires is harder to build. Also, it's easier to heckle as a D player than as an O player (calling your teammates brutes just isn't as fun as calling them prima-donnas). Either way I'll be happy, I just want to figure out my role soon.
In other news, I've also started a regimented workout, finally. Starting last week I've been working out before climbing on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Basically, I'm doing a winter workout day two, except climbing for an hour or two between the jumps and the core. It's pretty fun, and it's getting my ass in (better) shape before Brazil.
EDIT (this doesn't warrant a full post, but I want to put is somewhere, so here it goes): The Warriors win tonight was so awesome. If you don't know, the Warriors beet the Kings tonight 103-96, despite shooting 8-31 from three and having each of the teams three captains pick up a technical foul. In any of the seasons since I've been a Warriors fan, including last season, this would have turned into a big loss somewhere in the 2nd half, probably when either Baron or Jax picked up their tech. Basically, I was expecting them to loose because the Warriors have never really known how to win before, they've just been mentally week. That was also true of this team early in the season, but it's all changed since Stephen Jackson came back from suspention. The Warriors now have a swagger and mental toughness to them that's just a joy to watch. Seeing Jackson make back to back triples when the team had only made 6 of 29 to that point really drove it home that this year's Warriors team expects to and knows how to win. Also, the Warriors' D in the 4th was inspired and this is the first time I've seem them both be a high scoring team, and a good defensive team. Anyway, I'm trying not to get to excited about this recent spurt, because every team has it's ups and downs, but, needles to say, I'm really hyped on this year's team. GO WARRIORS!
My club season hangover has finally worn off and I'm really feeling college disc again. We had a great practice last weekend and I finally felt comfortable as a teammate. Now it looks like I might be moving to O instead of staying with the D line. O has the potential to be a ton of fun, but I think it takes more chemistry than D does, or, more accurately, the chemistry O requires is harder to build. Also, it's easier to heckle as a D player than as an O player (calling your teammates brutes just isn't as fun as calling them prima-donnas). Either way I'll be happy, I just want to figure out my role soon.
In other news, I've also started a regimented workout, finally. Starting last week I've been working out before climbing on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Basically, I'm doing a winter workout day two, except climbing for an hour or two between the jumps and the core. It's pretty fun, and it's getting my ass in (better) shape before Brazil.
EDIT (this doesn't warrant a full post, but I want to put is somewhere, so here it goes): The Warriors win tonight was so awesome. If you don't know, the Warriors beet the Kings tonight 103-96, despite shooting 8-31 from three and having each of the teams three captains pick up a technical foul. In any of the seasons since I've been a Warriors fan, including last season, this would have turned into a big loss somewhere in the 2nd half, probably when either Baron or Jax picked up their tech. Basically, I was expecting them to loose because the Warriors have never really known how to win before, they've just been mentally week. That was also true of this team early in the season, but it's all changed since Stephen Jackson came back from suspention. The Warriors now have a swagger and mental toughness to them that's just a joy to watch. Seeing Jackson make back to back triples when the team had only made 6 of 29 to that point really drove it home that this year's Warriors team expects to and knows how to win. Also, the Warriors' D in the 4th was inspired and this is the first time I've seem them both be a high scoring team, and a good defensive team. Anyway, I'm trying not to get to excited about this recent spurt, because every team has it's ups and downs, but, needles to say, I'm really hyped on this year's team. GO WARRIORS!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
State of the Blog
Moving from the club season to the college season, I find that it's harder to write about my team. With Family Style, I knew most, if not all, of my readers were not my opponents, and I feel like writing about club ultimate is not as personal. If I was with the Braineaters, I think I'd feel better about writing about the college season; but as a player on a new team, I don't feel like it fits my role to keep a blog about our play. I might still write about how I played, and I'll probably give a mid season report and such, but if I write about ultimate, it'll usually be about how Claremont gets no respect (well, I'm learning they get a little bit of respect, but I still say not enough!).
I can say I really like the Slugs. I'm finding a role I enjoy (even if I go back to being around the disc) and I'm having lots of fun. There might not be a week long trip to Mexico for fish tacos, Pacifico and a lac of working out right before the series, but it's still fun. I'll also say it's different not being in a leadership role on a college team, but I like being one of the players. I like getting to hear what everyone has to say about the captains, and I like not running practices. I also like having enough committed people and field space for separate A team and B team practices.
So I guess my Blog won't be as much about college ultimate as I initially anticipated it might be, but I will write about things like Lei-Out, Beach Worlds and club tryouts. Also, I've found I just enjoy writing, so it might be hard to resist the everyday life non-ultimate sort of things.
I can say I really like the Slugs. I'm finding a role I enjoy (even if I go back to being around the disc) and I'm having lots of fun. There might not be a week long trip to Mexico for fish tacos, Pacifico and a lac of working out right before the series, but it's still fun. I'll also say it's different not being in a leadership role on a college team, but I like being one of the players. I like getting to hear what everyone has to say about the captains, and I like not running practices. I also like having enough committed people and field space for separate A team and B team practices.
So I guess my Blog won't be as much about college ultimate as I initially anticipated it might be, but I will write about things like Lei-Out, Beach Worlds and club tryouts. Also, I've found I just enjoy writing, so it might be hard to resist the everyday life non-ultimate sort of things.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Life Update (Roadtrip: Visual Key)
Luckily for Robin, Miles, David, and I disposable cameras still exist. None of us are the I take my camera everywhere type, so being able to buy disposable cameras was essential to us chronicling our adventure. I didn't know that Robin was going to be so on top of things in this regard, but I am very happy it turned out that way. The following is a brief trip through our road trip:
The gas station where Miles paid $40 for $20 in gas:
The alleged thieves:
Miles and Robin at the first night's party:
Fatso and Robin:
The morning after at Fatso's (really, check the size of those calzones):
Our trip to the mountains (David, Robin, me, Miles, and Matt):
Matt's birthday party:
The trip home:
If you want more pictures, you should friend Robin on facebook and check it out.
The gas station where Miles paid $40 for $20 in gas:
The alleged thieves:
Miles and Robin at the first night's party:
Fatso and Robin:
The morning after at Fatso's (really, check the size of those calzones):
Our trip to the mountains (David, Robin, me, Miles, and Matt):
Matt's birthday party:
The trip home:
If you want more pictures, you should friend Robin on facebook and check it out.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Life Update (Road Trip Recap Pt. III)
Wow, so I got distracted by Scrubs and by real life. Well, back to the trip. We got to Matt's in Santa Fe around 7:30 P.M. MDT time after leaving Claremont around 6:15 A.M. PDT. Instead of feeling drained from a long day of driving we were all energized by the prospect of crazy parties and new people. When we got to Matt's we were greeted with some delicious bbq steak (first meal since Del Taco in Flagstaff) and some new faces. We met Matt's housemates, Rainer and Emily, along with some of his New Mexico homies, Amber and Katie. After eating it came to our attention that the party we were going to had some cover, $5 if you had a costume and $10 otherwise. As such, we went scouring through Matt's house for what to wear. Robin wound up with a gold shinny sweater and a pink boa, Miles got a female African ensemble going on, and I found a pick, a tie dye shirt, and two headbands. Everyone threw their costumes on and we all headed off to the party (after buying another disposable camera, thankfully).
The party was pretty sweet, the garage was set up for root (like almost every other college-house garage), the living room was clear for a dance floor, and there were three kegs in the back yard. What I didn't expect was how much the altitude would affect my tolerance (Robin also didn't see this coming, usually he's a tank, but he actually puked, although it was after two consecutive beer bongs). At the party I learned that one of Matt's friends had 5 visitors from Colorado, so Matt had a reel full house that night.
The next morning (around noon) we all went to a place called Fatso's for some ridiculously large portions of food and general hangover recovery. It wasn't until we drove around Santa Fe a little bit on Saturday that I really got a feel for the place. I realized on Friday that most of the people seemed strait out of the 90s, but Saturday I found that the place reminds me a lot of Beck, The Pixies, and Techno, so I guess, by association, lots of drugs. Santa Fe has this crazy combination of altitude, desert, and standardized architecture that all adds up to a drugged out feeling, like it couldn't make sense unless you were from there or were on drugs (or a crazy road trip, it was kind of the ideal place to find as a destination). I can't say my conclusions about the kind of place Santa Fe is were hurt by Matt's particular group of friends, but I still think it's a crazy environment.
Anyway, my conception of the craziness of New Mexico would only increase from this point. Later that afternoon we went up into the mountains to have a wilderness experience. We went up into the Aspens. It was sweet because I'd never been in a deciduous forest before. The idea that all of those Aspens share a root system was kind of too much for me to handle. We were only able to spend about an hour up there before we had to go back into town to set up for a house party at Matt's.
Man, Matt's house party was huge, we went through 2 handles of vodka, three 30 racks, and a 24 pack. Not to mention it was byob. There was a root room, an outdoor area, a smoking/lounging room, and a dance floor. A good time was had by all, and I think Matt had a great birthday party.
So, all the out-of-towners crashed at Matt's that night, but the Colorado kids left around 6:45 am so the morning had an exceptionally empty feeling. That next day flew by, we got some breakfast at a sweet local spot, we then cleaned some, watched the brains doc (shy gave it to me in Claremont and I was too stoked on it to wait), then went onto campus to see a crazy 25 piece alt-rocky band (think Weezer + Phil Spector, I guess). Matt then gave us a quick tour of his crazy campus (old military combined with art school combined with Santa Fe architecture), then we were out.
The ride back was went by surprisingly quickly, well, considering we drove pretty much strait through to Berkeley. We left Santa Fe around 5 pm MDT with me taking the first and Robin manning the tunes. I don't think I fully understood the magnitude of the drive we were leaving on. We were to have about 19 hours of drive time with only Robin and I able to take shifts driving (Miles was clearly not an option and I wanted to give David the chance to get some sleep before he had to drive from Claremont to San Diego at 4 am). This sort of deal may be common place to some of you cross country travelers, but I don't think anyone in their right mind does it leaving at 5 at night. So, I drove the first 6 hours from Santa Fe to Flagstaff, we had one stop for gas that somehow took over a half hour because Miles was looking for a cigarette to ac adapter so David could write a paper. Well, we eventually got out of there and made it to Flagstaff and back to the Del Taco.
The Del Taco wasn't exactly what we were looking forward to in Arizona. The real prize of making it back to the same gas station was the nick-nacks. Robin and David both got gifts for the girl friends, and miles bought like 4 shot glasses, but all that paled in comparison to the big purchase, a bull skull. That's right, a Georgia O'keefe status (but without a vagina like rose), bull skull. Well, David, Miles, and Robin went in three ways on the skull than guessed who was closer to a number from 1 to 100 that the gas station attendant chose to see who would get the prize. David won, and I hope it's chillin' on his wall in SD. With the skull ordeal out of the way Robin took over driving and I rode shotgun. Robin got us all the way to Barstow, before we had to stop for gas again (we didn't stop in NEEDLES!, and instead chose to drive on in hopes for more reasonable [$3.60 a gallon?] prices). Well, it was Miles's turn to rock the gas, so he put down the $18 he had left to his name (true story, maybe he shouldn't have spent like $40 in Flagstaff on a bull skull he didn't win and 4 shot glasses, but I guess that's Miles for ya). Anyway, I took over driving again due to familiarity with the LA area and such. We continued into Claremont and got there at 4 am.
We had a couple of missions to accomplish while in Claremont. First of, we had to get the original party cam (disposable camera 1) from 'Shwa's room in north quad CMC, and we wanted to score some adderall so Miles and Robin could stay awake for the drive. So, I parked by ducey so Miles and Robin would have a strait shot back from Josh's. Well, somehow, they didn't make the connection of where the room was in relation to the car and they took like a half hour to get the camera. I had no luck finding any adderall for them, and decided I wanted some Carl's, unfortunately I also decided that I would wait for them to get back first. As such, we had no time to get food and instead had to just refuel and leave (luckily Miles still had a couple of energy drinks to compliment the 2 1L Mountain Dues I had from Barstow, and the Fritos I was getting). Well, Miles put down both the energy drinks before we got on the highway, and we were off.
This last stretch of driving I did was the most taxing I've ever done. I went from about 4:45 to 7:00 (2 to 7 if you count from Barstow) and I hadn't slept since 11:30 the previous morning. Luckily for all of us, I stayed awake the whole time, although the last 20 min were getting dicy seeing as Robin was asleep in the back and Miles managed to dose off while ridding shotgun. Anyway, I pulled over on some random road north of Harris Ranch and let Robin take over the driving on his massive 2 hrs of sleep. He got us back to Berkeley at 10:30 am in one piece and got that great relief of being home. Miles and I took quick 1 hr naps and got back on the road to drive down to SC. Feeling rejuvenated, but knowing I couldn't eat on pain of falling fast asleep, we made it back to Miles's in about 90 min, he gathered his things and I made the final 20 min trek back home.
Somehow, we all made it back without harm, and I made it home safely. I was also able to stay up until like 7 pm allowing me to not completely fuck up my sleep cycle (I slept until 9 the next day, which is like really early for me). Well, I guess that's the tale of my grand road trip. I should probably have some final thoughts and such, but I'll save those for the next road trip post, a kind of wrap up // picture guide post (thank god for disposable cameras).
So, that's it for now kids. Maybe the next post will be more road tripin' maybe it'll be recapping Sean Ryan, maybe I will get caught up in TV and life and not post for far to long. However it turns out, writing this has been fun; I hope you liked it.
The party was pretty sweet, the garage was set up for root (like almost every other college-house garage), the living room was clear for a dance floor, and there were three kegs in the back yard. What I didn't expect was how much the altitude would affect my tolerance (Robin also didn't see this coming, usually he's a tank, but he actually puked, although it was after two consecutive beer bongs). At the party I learned that one of Matt's friends had 5 visitors from Colorado, so Matt had a reel full house that night.
The next morning (around noon) we all went to a place called Fatso's for some ridiculously large portions of food and general hangover recovery. It wasn't until we drove around Santa Fe a little bit on Saturday that I really got a feel for the place. I realized on Friday that most of the people seemed strait out of the 90s, but Saturday I found that the place reminds me a lot of Beck, The Pixies, and Techno, so I guess, by association, lots of drugs. Santa Fe has this crazy combination of altitude, desert, and standardized architecture that all adds up to a drugged out feeling, like it couldn't make sense unless you were from there or were on drugs (or a crazy road trip, it was kind of the ideal place to find as a destination). I can't say my conclusions about the kind of place Santa Fe is were hurt by Matt's particular group of friends, but I still think it's a crazy environment.
Anyway, my conception of the craziness of New Mexico would only increase from this point. Later that afternoon we went up into the mountains to have a wilderness experience. We went up into the Aspens. It was sweet because I'd never been in a deciduous forest before. The idea that all of those Aspens share a root system was kind of too much for me to handle. We were only able to spend about an hour up there before we had to go back into town to set up for a house party at Matt's.
Man, Matt's house party was huge, we went through 2 handles of vodka, three 30 racks, and a 24 pack. Not to mention it was byob. There was a root room, an outdoor area, a smoking/lounging room, and a dance floor. A good time was had by all, and I think Matt had a great birthday party.
So, all the out-of-towners crashed at Matt's that night, but the Colorado kids left around 6:45 am so the morning had an exceptionally empty feeling. That next day flew by, we got some breakfast at a sweet local spot, we then cleaned some, watched the brains doc (shy gave it to me in Claremont and I was too stoked on it to wait), then went onto campus to see a crazy 25 piece alt-rocky band (think Weezer + Phil Spector, I guess). Matt then gave us a quick tour of his crazy campus (old military combined with art school combined with Santa Fe architecture), then we were out.
The ride back was went by surprisingly quickly, well, considering we drove pretty much strait through to Berkeley. We left Santa Fe around 5 pm MDT with me taking the first and Robin manning the tunes. I don't think I fully understood the magnitude of the drive we were leaving on. We were to have about 19 hours of drive time with only Robin and I able to take shifts driving (Miles was clearly not an option and I wanted to give David the chance to get some sleep before he had to drive from Claremont to San Diego at 4 am). This sort of deal may be common place to some of you cross country travelers, but I don't think anyone in their right mind does it leaving at 5 at night. So, I drove the first 6 hours from Santa Fe to Flagstaff, we had one stop for gas that somehow took over a half hour because Miles was looking for a cigarette to ac adapter so David could write a paper. Well, we eventually got out of there and made it to Flagstaff and back to the Del Taco.
The Del Taco wasn't exactly what we were looking forward to in Arizona. The real prize of making it back to the same gas station was the nick-nacks. Robin and David both got gifts for the girl friends, and miles bought like 4 shot glasses, but all that paled in comparison to the big purchase, a bull skull. That's right, a Georgia O'keefe status (but without a vagina like rose), bull skull. Well, David, Miles, and Robin went in three ways on the skull than guessed who was closer to a number from 1 to 100 that the gas station attendant chose to see who would get the prize. David won, and I hope it's chillin' on his wall in SD. With the skull ordeal out of the way Robin took over driving and I rode shotgun. Robin got us all the way to Barstow, before we had to stop for gas again (we didn't stop in NEEDLES!, and instead chose to drive on in hopes for more reasonable [$3.60 a gallon?] prices). Well, it was Miles's turn to rock the gas, so he put down the $18 he had left to his name (true story, maybe he shouldn't have spent like $40 in Flagstaff on a bull skull he didn't win and 4 shot glasses, but I guess that's Miles for ya). Anyway, I took over driving again due to familiarity with the LA area and such. We continued into Claremont and got there at 4 am.
We had a couple of missions to accomplish while in Claremont. First of, we had to get the original party cam (disposable camera 1) from 'Shwa's room in north quad CMC, and we wanted to score some adderall so Miles and Robin could stay awake for the drive. So, I parked by ducey so Miles and Robin would have a strait shot back from Josh's. Well, somehow, they didn't make the connection of where the room was in relation to the car and they took like a half hour to get the camera. I had no luck finding any adderall for them, and decided I wanted some Carl's, unfortunately I also decided that I would wait for them to get back first. As such, we had no time to get food and instead had to just refuel and leave (luckily Miles still had a couple of energy drinks to compliment the 2 1L Mountain Dues I had from Barstow, and the Fritos I was getting). Well, Miles put down both the energy drinks before we got on the highway, and we were off.
This last stretch of driving I did was the most taxing I've ever done. I went from about 4:45 to 7:00 (2 to 7 if you count from Barstow) and I hadn't slept since 11:30 the previous morning. Luckily for all of us, I stayed awake the whole time, although the last 20 min were getting dicy seeing as Robin was asleep in the back and Miles managed to dose off while ridding shotgun. Anyway, I pulled over on some random road north of Harris Ranch and let Robin take over the driving on his massive 2 hrs of sleep. He got us back to Berkeley at 10:30 am in one piece and got that great relief of being home. Miles and I took quick 1 hr naps and got back on the road to drive down to SC. Feeling rejuvenated, but knowing I couldn't eat on pain of falling fast asleep, we made it back to Miles's in about 90 min, he gathered his things and I made the final 20 min trek back home.
Somehow, we all made it back without harm, and I made it home safely. I was also able to stay up until like 7 pm allowing me to not completely fuck up my sleep cycle (I slept until 9 the next day, which is like really early for me). Well, I guess that's the tale of my grand road trip. I should probably have some final thoughts and such, but I'll save those for the next road trip post, a kind of wrap up // picture guide post (thank god for disposable cameras).
So, that's it for now kids. Maybe the next post will be more road tripin' maybe it'll be recapping Sean Ryan, maybe I will get caught up in TV and life and not post for far to long. However it turns out, writing this has been fun; I hope you liked it.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Life Update (Road Trip Recap Pt. II)
The second long drive was much weirder and harder than the first. For one, nobody in a car slept more than like 4 hours, with Miles sleeping 4, Robin and David sleeping 2 and myself sleeping 30 min. Still, we were all surprisingly sober, apparently the concept of a 12 hour drive will sober you up when you've stayed out late drinking and partying (getting late night Carl's also helped). So, we were supposed to leave Claremont at 6 in the morning, and as such I left Never Land at about 5:40 and got to the car at about 5:50. Being the impatient type, and wanting to save some time I went to fill up on gas and buy some personal driving fuel. Seeing as this wasn't an all night drive we were about to embark on I decided on a 1L bottle of Coke instead of ramping all the way up to the Dew. I got back to the parking lot at about 6:05 to find Robin, Miles, and to my surprise David, waiting for me. Initially Thomas a.k.a. 'Jenga' was considering joining us, but that would have been 6 strain driving weekends for him (fall break, road trip, UCLA tournament, Sean Ryan, SoCal Warmup, something else) so he decided against it. Well, David is a free spirit and an awesome guy who realized that the San Diego wild fires afforded him a great opportunity for a sweet life experience (reading On the Road and writing a paper about the mystique of the road couldn't have hurt either). Robin, Miles, and David all got in the car, we then made a quick stop by David's car so he could get some things, then we hit the road at about 6:15.
I took the first driving shift because it was my car and I couldn't have slept with someone with less than 4 hours of sleep that was not me driving it (unless that person was Shaggy with a 2L of Mountain Due or an appropriate amount of physics homework and coffee). Robin took shotgun with the responsibility of staying awake and choosing the music seeing as none of us undertook the task of making a 12 hr playlist. Luckily for me, Robin had his laptop and thus a sweet assortment of music that I don't have. His musical choices combined with the post apocalyptic feel of the early morning I-15 were enough to easily keep me awake.
There were already a ton of cars on the road when we started our drive. False dawn came around 6:45, bringing with it a red haze through all the smoke that had drifted north with the wind along I-15. The early morning traffic (well, the flow was between 60 and 80 mph at all times) combined with the red haze and the still visible moon gave the drive a Mad Max sort of feel that really tripped David, Robin and I out in our sleep-deprived states. Unfortunately for Miles, he slept like a rock and never got to see the smoke, even though that was a big goal of his for the trip (he had even suggested that we take a detour to see the flames if it wouldn't take to long, in fact, on the way down he was almost insisting that we do so seeing as the flames were visible from the 5 and we were on it, but we got off at the 210 instead of driving through LA just to see the fucking fires).
We got off the 15 on the north side of Barstow and got on I-40, which apparently connects Wilmington, NC to, um, Barstow. When we got on the 40 we were greeted with a sign saying Needles 144 miles, Washington D.C. 2,556 miles. Somehow we decided that this meant needles was a very important destination, and that yelling NEEDLES! anytime we saw a sign for the place was a very funny and entertaining action. Well, it seemed logical that we should fill up in Needles because we'd be be at about a half tank then and we didn't want to spend a ton of money each time it was your turn to fill up (I couldn't convince everyone that we should go till just about empty then play credit card roulette for who pays). Little did we know that Needles is such an important destination that gas costs $3.70 a gallon there (luckily for me I payed for gas in Claremont and wasn't hit with the bill in NEEDLES!)
I traded off driving to Robin in Needles and decided to play captain iPod for a while. After about an hour of this we went to instrumentals and started freestyling, basically, we all sucked compared to Robin, but we all improved greatly during our first forte into freestyling on the roadtrip (except maybe Miles, he's kind of special when freestyling). I think my favorite part of freestyling was trying to get Miles to rhyme. Inevitably, when he did, he'd try and rap about Man Ferns, but he couldn't mess up without being to self conscious. I really liked "Man Fern, yeah, Man Fern, man fern, uh, man fern, fuck." as a rap. Anyway, the hours flew by and Robin drove until we got to Flagstaff, at which point I (unwisely) took over again.
After about a half hour of driving I realized I was far to tiered to drive, and that I should pass the torch again. Well, I started driving again for two reasons, first, Robin is a really good driver, he's just not that fast of a driver, and I wanted to get to Santa Fe pretty quickly, second, Miles is a crazy sob when it comes to driving, I am often legitimately scared when I'm in a car and he's behind the wheel. Somehow, in my drowsy state I forgot that I was so hesitant to let Miles drive. When I pulled over to hand over the driving responsibilities I foolishly let Miles drive thinking I'd just nap in the back and not get scared/stressed. Well, I should of known that this was a bad plan when Miles got up to 120 mph just getting back onto the highway. I was about to fall asleep when I heard my car fucking roaring so I looked up at the speedometer from the back seat and saw a new speed record for my car. I was like "what the fuck Miles, you're going 120!" He was like "oh my god, sorry, I was looking at the other meter and was wondering why I was going only 40." "Well, just slow the fuck down" I said. Miles responded "Okay, don't worry." Needless to say, I didn't sleep to well.
Eventually Miles's horrible driving lead me to become very aware and awake. I had him pull over at the first gas station and we switched back for driving duties. At this gas stop we lost all of the time that Miles's craziness might have gained us because he paid to put $20 in the tank then never actually did because he assumed one of us would pump the gas even though he didn't tell us he'd paid the $20. Anyway, we got back on the road and I noticed that we were still at half a tank so we turned around and had to go back to the gas station. This time we filled up with no hitch and were on our way. Thankfully that was our last stop before we finally got to Santa Fe. Wow, that took a while, still, I'll try and write about the weekend and the trip back for later tonight.
I took the first driving shift because it was my car and I couldn't have slept with someone with less than 4 hours of sleep that was not me driving it (unless that person was Shaggy with a 2L of Mountain Due or an appropriate amount of physics homework and coffee). Robin took shotgun with the responsibility of staying awake and choosing the music seeing as none of us undertook the task of making a 12 hr playlist. Luckily for me, Robin had his laptop and thus a sweet assortment of music that I don't have. His musical choices combined with the post apocalyptic feel of the early morning I-15 were enough to easily keep me awake.
There were already a ton of cars on the road when we started our drive. False dawn came around 6:45, bringing with it a red haze through all the smoke that had drifted north with the wind along I-15. The early morning traffic (well, the flow was between 60 and 80 mph at all times) combined with the red haze and the still visible moon gave the drive a Mad Max sort of feel that really tripped David, Robin and I out in our sleep-deprived states. Unfortunately for Miles, he slept like a rock and never got to see the smoke, even though that was a big goal of his for the trip (he had even suggested that we take a detour to see the flames if it wouldn't take to long, in fact, on the way down he was almost insisting that we do so seeing as the flames were visible from the 5 and we were on it, but we got off at the 210 instead of driving through LA just to see the fucking fires).
We got off the 15 on the north side of Barstow and got on I-40, which apparently connects Wilmington, NC to, um, Barstow. When we got on the 40 we were greeted with a sign saying Needles 144 miles, Washington D.C. 2,556 miles. Somehow we decided that this meant needles was a very important destination, and that yelling NEEDLES! anytime we saw a sign for the place was a very funny and entertaining action. Well, it seemed logical that we should fill up in Needles because we'd be be at about a half tank then and we didn't want to spend a ton of money each time it was your turn to fill up (I couldn't convince everyone that we should go till just about empty then play credit card roulette for who pays). Little did we know that Needles is such an important destination that gas costs $3.70 a gallon there (luckily for me I payed for gas in Claremont and wasn't hit with the bill in NEEDLES!)
I traded off driving to Robin in Needles and decided to play captain iPod for a while. After about an hour of this we went to instrumentals and started freestyling, basically, we all sucked compared to Robin, but we all improved greatly during our first forte into freestyling on the roadtrip (except maybe Miles, he's kind of special when freestyling). I think my favorite part of freestyling was trying to get Miles to rhyme. Inevitably, when he did, he'd try and rap about Man Ferns, but he couldn't mess up without being to self conscious. I really liked "Man Fern, yeah, Man Fern, man fern, uh, man fern, fuck." as a rap. Anyway, the hours flew by and Robin drove until we got to Flagstaff, at which point I (unwisely) took over again.
After about a half hour of driving I realized I was far to tiered to drive, and that I should pass the torch again. Well, I started driving again for two reasons, first, Robin is a really good driver, he's just not that fast of a driver, and I wanted to get to Santa Fe pretty quickly, second, Miles is a crazy sob when it comes to driving, I am often legitimately scared when I'm in a car and he's behind the wheel. Somehow, in my drowsy state I forgot that I was so hesitant to let Miles drive. When I pulled over to hand over the driving responsibilities I foolishly let Miles drive thinking I'd just nap in the back and not get scared/stressed. Well, I should of known that this was a bad plan when Miles got up to 120 mph just getting back onto the highway. I was about to fall asleep when I heard my car fucking roaring so I looked up at the speedometer from the back seat and saw a new speed record for my car. I was like "what the fuck Miles, you're going 120!" He was like "oh my god, sorry, I was looking at the other meter and was wondering why I was going only 40." "Well, just slow the fuck down" I said. Miles responded "Okay, don't worry." Needless to say, I didn't sleep to well.
Eventually Miles's horrible driving lead me to become very aware and awake. I had him pull over at the first gas station and we switched back for driving duties. At this gas stop we lost all of the time that Miles's craziness might have gained us because he paid to put $20 in the tank then never actually did because he assumed one of us would pump the gas even though he didn't tell us he'd paid the $20. Anyway, we got back on the road and I noticed that we were still at half a tank so we turned around and had to go back to the gas station. This time we filled up with no hitch and were on our way. Thankfully that was our last stop before we finally got to Santa Fe. Wow, that took a while, still, I'll try and write about the weekend and the trip back for later tonight.
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