April 2002 Archives

i had another great run tonight...slow, but long. 4.6 miles to be exact. go me! all day i'd been saying to myself: "i'm going running tonight..." and then during flute choir, i started thinking about where i wanted to run. i thought about just doing my 5k route, but then as i drove home i began to wonder how far it would be to run to mayfield, past roble, all the way to lyman, and then back via junipero serra and campus drive...so i watched my mileage, estimated 4.6 miles, and bam--i came home, changed clothes, and ran the route. about a mile and a half or two miles into the run, i hit a groove, and just felt great. it lasted for the rest of my way home, and has put me in a really good mood at the moment.

becca and i are discussing training plans to get us ready for either the disney world marathon (in january) or the motorola marathon in austin (in february). jen is thinking about trying to do the big sur marathon next april. wow, if i knew someone running the big sur race, i would be quite tempted to come back out here for it. jen would do it faster than me, of course, but still...

anyway. i must sound as if i am becoming a crazed runner. heh. i don't know about that, but i am starting to enjoy running more than i used to...i can see how some people call it "addictive."

i didn't do much in the way of "real" work today. went to class, had a yummy lunch at breakers (alberto got bagels, the good kind of turkey, and the good kind of yogurt, woohoo). went to my easy planetary exploration class for the first time in, um, a while, to hear about our midterm coming up on wednesday. it shouldn't be hard. after that class i goofed off, surfed the web, etc etc etc. dinner, flute, and running. and bedtime. pretty standard monday.

i need to do laundry.

most women want to look like models. they want straight hips and pouty lips and hair that makes the world move in slow motion so you can see it ripple with every head toss. i guess i must be an exception to the rule.

i have this dream. in it, i'm an athlete. i'm strong and tan and fit. i have muscles, not freakishly big like a body builder, just solid. i never let the ball get past me when i play defense in soccer. i can produce that "thok" sound of a baseball hitting the pocket of a glove. i can hit three-pointers with consistency. i can bike to the top of page mill road and back.

and i can run marathons.

i did my 6th road race this morning--my 5th 5k. i finished in 33:09, slower than i had hoped, but the course was also more hilly than any i have run before. it is discouraging that i'm not getting any faster, especially since my goal is sub-30:00 by june... but i still think it's reachable. heh. today i got lapped by dozens of elementary school kids, so that was a new low. ;) still, if you want to see my name, go here and follow the links to the 5k overall results. i'm finisher #791 (out of 2193). i get a kick out of seeing my name on the web, at least.

the amazing thing about this morning, though, was what happened about an hour and a half after i finished my race. i stuck around and claimed a good spot by the rails to watch the first marathoners come in. amazing. how do they run that fast, for that far?? the top male was jonathan ndambuki (he's kenyan) in 2:18:05. the top female was julieanne white in 2:51:10. the course is quite difficult, with many from sea level...it's not a course where any records are going to be broken. in fact, the second-place male was a full 7 minutes behind the winner.

still, it was so cool watching them finish. i'd never seen the end of a marathon before, and the speed and endurance of these people just blew my mind. i want to run a marathon. i'm thinking i could a january or february 2003 race...with an off-the-top-of-my-head goal of finishing in under 5:00:00 (maybe i could do it slightly faster, like 4:45:00). how cool would that be? i think i may just make that my goal.

i'm hungry, and have nothing in the cupboard. well, ok, that's not entirely true, but i guess i'm longing for a quizno's sandwich or something. and that is certainly not in my kitchen. instead, i have oatmeal, yogurt, and cereal. but no milk. in a funny way, i am sort of looking forward to having to learn how to cook when i get to houston and am on my own.

of course, there is a quizno's down the street. perhaps i'll take a little bike ride in the unusual april chill. (i miss the beautiful warm weather of the beginning of last week!) yet i'm feeling sort of poor these days, so i'll probably just go downstairs and eat oatmeal and yogurt and plain cereal. oh--i just remembered i have doritos too. gods, how un-balanced is that meal?

tomorrow i'm running in a 5k down in carmel. i'm going to have to get up really early to make it there on time (the race starts at 7:30), but the scenery should be great, and there will be lots of people. the bigger event of the day is actually the big sur marathon, so it's quite a huge thing. i hope i can find races to run in houston as easily as i can find them here. i'm worried that the road-race-every-weekend phenomenon is confined to these health-crazed californians...who happen to be a really great source of motivation for me. i don't want to lose that in texas.

so my proposed trip with becca to camp in yosemite and hike to the top of half dome is not going so well. never having been up there before (and not knowing for sure until today that becca was coming), i didn't even think about making campground reservations. the weekend we want to go? yeah, memorial day. we want to hike the coolest trail in yosemite on the most crowded weekend of the year. so surprise, surprise...there are no openings in any of the campgrounds. and all of the wilderness passes are gone as well.

so i'm not quite sure what we'll do. we obviously didn't think far enough ahead, but i have a feeling that in order to get a camping reservation for that weekend, we needed to try months ago. anyway, all i can do at the moment is call every day and hope i catch a cancellation at the right moment.

mmm. my bed is beckoning, telling me to come rest my tired feet and throbbing knees and aching back. yes, it's official, i am the mind of a 24-year-old college student trapped in the body of a 70-year-old woman. i need one of those med alert things. "i've fallen and i can't get up!" ;)

have you ever noticed that it's a lot easier to write negative, complaint-ridden entries that to write happy, smiley ones? seriously though, it has been a long day. i had class, went to the library to finish my homework for tomorrow, ate lunch. came home, went to target, ran late, rode furiously to yoga, worked up a good sweat there. rode my bike to wolf to drop off my roll of film, rode home, chilled for half an hour, then headed to dinner. from dinner, it was off to roble for three hours of dancing (that explains the tired feet).

the dancing was fun though. after dozens of tries, i have finally learned charleston, and can do it in all sorts of variations without stomping all over my partner's toes and kicking him in the shins. this is a very good thing, as most guys are wary about dancing with you again after you've maimed them the week before. there is this one small asian guy that i really like to dance with though, because he always makes me feel good. tonight he told me he was thoroughly confused by what we were learning and i said "oh you'll get it." and then we danced together, and he did get it, and he turned back to me and said "i think you're just a really good follow, it always works with you. i should dance with you every time." yay! that put a big smile on my face for the rest of class.

i had a great run tonight; jen would be so proud of me. i went 4.1 miles and enjoyed almost every minute of it. my legs were a bit sore, but it really didn't bother me all that much once i got going. also, i ran a new route along page mill road that i had never run before, which made things interesting. i like to sight-see while i'm running. :)

today was quite productive. after class, i had a lovely lunch of tuna fish and doritos at breakers (odd combination, but i learned it from nick and emily, and i like the way the doritos add crunch to my sandwiches). from there, i headed back to durand to meet with steve and paul about our rocket injector research, and steve and i have a much better idea of where we're going now. from there it was up to the library, where i knocked out this week's aa271 homework and shared some free cake. chocolate with raspberry stuff in the middle. mmmm.

i ate dinner, came home, watched dawson's, went running, and now here i am. i even have time to read before i go to bed, which is really nice. all week i've been waiting for a night when i have time to read, or a day when i have time to lounge in the sunshine, but my schedule hasn't been cooperative until now. i'm looking forward to the weekend, and hopefully going to a movie at some point.

i am becoming obsessed with fantasy baseball. but at least i'm not a fantasy elitist like some people i know...ahem...carter...

man, yoga was tough today. the combination of the warm weather outside and my general fatigue produced a lot of sweat and twitching muscles. my balance was off today, perhaps from being tired. i'm not totally sure why. my legs have been hurting lately, and my knee has been sore, so i think i'm gonna skip my run tonight and give my shins and calfs and achilles tendons a rest. i ran 3.4 miles last night, so that was good. and i'll go running tomorrow night again.

ooh. time for 24! only 4 hours left in the show...

love nintendo? check this out. awesome.

i think i've made a decision on what to do with my summer. that's a good thing, and making tentative plans makes me less stressed. i don't know why i'm stressed anyway. i shouldn't be. i am having quite a lovely spring so far, with many visitors and gorgeous weather.

i think my roommate kate has ears that are alternatively super-sensitive and deaf. she listens to the tv super loud (i'm talking rock concert in the living room loud), yet asks me to close my door when i'm talking on the phone at midnight because it's keeping her awake. it's really quite odd.

i'm looking forward to yoga tomorrow. i went running tonight and my legs were really tight, so it will be good to stretch them in class.

other than that, let's see... i'm in love with my new mp3 player; it is nice and tiny and great for running. my fantasy team had a good day and jumped back to within 1.5 points of first place.

the bursar's office is still giving me crap, but hopefully everything will be fixed tomorrow. the problem? my registration was on hold because my health insurance wasn't paid...my health insurance money hasn't been processed because my registration is on hold...my registration was on hold because my health insurance wasn't paid...my health insurance money hasn't been processed because my registration is on hold... yeah, you'd think these people could actually communicate with each other and fix problems like this, but apparently not. the bursar's office and financial aid operate on two different computer systems. {sigh} yeah, that was genius. ugh. i have to say, stanford has a better reputation than georgia tech, but at least at tech i never had logistical problems like this. in that sense, i really miss being at an engineering school.

well, alex and iffy and leila have all left, and i'm back to readjusting to school life. (translation: i need to do homework, but i'm procrastinating.) anyway, it was nice having visitors. i love being here in california...there is so much to do, and the area is so beautiful and scenic that it's impossible for anyone to be disappointed with their vacation here. :)

alex pointed out that i neglected to mention one of the fun parts of the baseball game yesterday--all the free stuff we got, including baseball cards, and a's car flags. the car flags were especially exciting, as they gave us something to wave and cheer with during the game.

this morning as i was speeding down 101 taking alex and iffy to the airport, we saw a duck and about 8 ducklings in the middle of the road. i was completely distraught. can you imagine something more evil than some adorable ducklings getting run over by a speeding car? i mean, yes, you have to wonder what the duck was thinking trying to lead its flock across 5 lanes of southbound traffic, but still... alex and iffy whipped their heads around and fortunately, the ducks were able to waddle like hell and escape to the side of the road. crisis avered. whew.

ok. i really should go finish this homework assignment.

(12:23 a.m.)

tonight we saw the stanford production of "the magic flute," and i have to say, i was thoroughly impressed. the quality of the set, the orchestra, and especially the singing was just amazing. i could hardly believe i was listening to college students, and not a professional opera. perhaps the highest praise i can give the performance is to say that it made me want to see more operas. that is a feat indeed. bravo to all involved.

kevin appier is the bane of my existence. 2.2 innings pitched, 20.5 earned run average, 3 walks and hits per inning pitched...and my fantasy team is no longer in first place. suck.

today was quite a lot of fun. we saw the a's beat the angels, wandered fisherman's wharf, and laughed hysterically after alex spilled his $9 beer in the bucket at joe's crab shack. i could never convey the humor in words, but i promise it was really really funny. we laughed for 5 minutes. oh, and our waiter was dressed like gambit from x-men. odd.

ok. that's about it...iffy and alex and leila all leave tomorrow, so we're about to head to the hotel for a final night of partying.

i'm sleepy. my relationship with the roommates is about to turn even more sour. that is all.

{sigh} i hate conflict. i think my roommates are developing a strong distaste for my visitors. i can understand their hesitance to keep dealing with people sleeping on the living room floor, but i also feel like it's a bit unfair of them to keep silent about their concern until the day before my friends arrive. ugh. what a mess.

i emailed alex and iffy asking if they wouldn't mind considering a hotel room for friday and saturday nights, and alex, it turns out, does mind. in fact, i think he's rather upset with me for even suggesting it. granted, he doesn't know that leila is also coming, and so that may make a difference, but i can also understand his frustration. he is completely right when he says that he checked with me multiple times to make sure this was a good weekend. and i told him multiple times that it was. and as far as i knew, i was telling the truth.

i told my roommates over a month ago that alex and iffy would be coming, so they knew there would be two people here this weekend. i told them last week that leila was also coming, so there would be a third. and yet unzi still waited until last night--a full week after i told them the situation and asked them to let me know if there was a problem--to tell me that she is also having a potential med school student stay on friday and saturday.

i don't understand why she didn't tell me this earlier, so that i could have worked out plans with alex, iffy, and leila in advance. i don't want my roommates to hate me, but i also don't want to force my friends to spend money on a hotel after i previously told them they could all stay here.

anyway. frustration. my roommates are decent people, but not exactly the most communicative pair in the world.

a cold front has come through and brought chilly weather again, though the sun has done a good job of staying out. : )

let's see, what is there to report about today... well first, the combination of bursar's office and financial aid frustrated me to the point of tears. i have been trying to get my accounts settled for three weeks now, with little success. hopefully i have things almost cleared up though. second, i made strawberry shortcake for dessert at breakers tonight, and it was quite a hit. i had never made it before, and was pleased with the way it turned out. the cake was a bit too crumbly, but that was easily disguised with whipped cream and strawberries. heh. i am so tricky.

last night i went running and found a pretty good route that is almost exactly a 5k. i think it's just a bit short--maybe by half a tenth of a mile or something. not much. in any case, it is the perfect length for a "normal" nightly run, so that made me happy. now i have good routes that are 2.2, 2.5, 3.1, 3.4 and 4.2 miles. i can pretty much pick and choose, depending on how i feel.

jen has decided to come to stanford next year! i'm excited for her, and glad that she was able to make a decision. i know that will relieve some of the stress she was feeling.

i forgot to mention one of the coolest parts of surfing on saturday--we saw a dolphin! a real, live dolphin. it was jumping through the waves about 100 feet away. very cool.

as if this diary entry isn't jumpy enough. time to go.

flute choir was nice tonight. i had been dreading going since it appeared that my parts this quarter would be quite boring, just like last quarter. i'm on bass flute for three different pieces, which usually equals dull parts. fortunately, not this time. we are playing a piece by louis moyse that actually features the bass and alto flutes in multiple places, which means you can actually hear me! and that my part is actually important! so that lifted my spirits a bit about my flute outlook this quarter.

carter called this morning about 15 minutes after i got up and played me a song he had just written. well, the words were from a poem he wrote a long time ago, but he just put them to guitar today. he sang it for me over the phone. it was a good song, and his call made me really happy.

this afternoon i walked to starbucks for a mocha frappuchino. mmm. i know, starbucks is so yuppie and cliched...but i love it. and i love walking there under green trees in the sunshine on cool beautiful days like today.

then i came home and filed paperwork. ugh.

this week i am looking forward to visitors, who get here on wednesday. :) more fun for me.

for the record, i don't recommend trying to run a 5k on the morning after you spent all afternoon learning how to surf. ow. i hurt in so many places right now. thankfully, typing doesn't involve moving my legs or lifting my arms. ;)

anyway, i ran in a 5k down in morgan hill this morning and was just awful, chalking up my worst time yet, even worse than my first 5k ever. i ran 34:41. and when i say "ran," i really mean "ran/walked" because i just couldn't keep my poor body going. the course was perfectly flat, but it was also completely unshielded from the sun, which beat down on us the entire race. i got quite sweaty and icky. so i ran really badly.

the odd kicker, however, is that i ended up getting a silver medal for finishing second among 19-29 year old females. obviously there weren't many girls 19-29 if i was able to finish second with my pathetic time, but still, it was neat to get a medal. also, i won a door prize--an opal gemstone. very random, but cool. so all in all, it was quite a nice time since my luck turned out to be great even if my legs weren't.

today i'm going surfing. hell, i figure i can try anything once, right? wish me luck.

(8:20 p.m.)

surfing was so much fun, and at the moment, i am so sore. steve, aaron, mike, howe, flo and i headed down to santa cruz, rented surfboards and wetsuits, and then drove a few more miles down to manresa beach, where the waves were 4-5 feet. i was worried about the temperature of the water being way too cold--it's at about 55 degrees--but with the wetsuits, i was completely comfortable. my feet got a bit numb, but i didn't notice. we waded out into the surf and paddled out to just beyond where the waves were breaking. that is tough work for arms. my biceps and triceps feel like jelly right now. i'm gonna go to the gym and start working out so that next time is easier.

it took me a while to figure out the best way to balance on the board, both laying down and sitting on it. i got caught and pulled under one really big wave and swallowed a bunch of sea water and was getting really discouraged, when the perfect wave came along and i caught it and just shot towards shore. i was so pumped merely to have caught a wave that i didn't think to try to stand up right away, and so i only had time to get to my knees. but i rode it in, whooping and hollering the whole way with the biggest grin on my face.

after that i was hooked, but unfortunately i didn't catch another wave that good all day. i caught a few smaller ones and managed to get to my knees again, but then i made the mistake of taking a break and sitting on the beach. after about 20 minutes i went back in the water, but my arms were pretty dead by then and as much as i paddled, i just wasn't going anywhere. i never really caught any more good waves during the second go-round.

when we left, i was really tired. but it was so much fun! we headed back to stanford and steve, mike and i had to run to the intramural soccer game. it was a good thing that soccer doesn't require the use of arms, because i felt like i could barely lift them. i played some good defense though, and since that was the first time i've played soccer in years, i was pretty proud of myself.

now i am exhausted, sweaty, salty, and happy. such a great day. i love california.

ah. i am tired and don't feel like writing much, but you know it's a good day when it involves 1) yummy lunch, 2) shopping at the mall, 3) 50 cent happy hour margaritas, and 4) seeing one of your best friends have the time of his life performing on opening night of a musical. nick was marvelous. i was really proud of him. :)

whew. i had every good intention of going running tonight, but after three hours of dance classes, i am completely pooped. and i've decided three hours of dancing is enough exercise for today. since i couldn't take a regular dance class this quarter because none of them fit into my schedule, i am taking three different classes for the next few thursday--cross-step waltz at 7, cha-cha and salsa at 8, and swing at 9.

i'm feeling quite good about it though. i missed last week's classes, but was able to keep up very well. in fact, when richard powers (the teacher) asked in the latin and swing classes for people who missed last week to raise their hands, he saw mine and said specifically to me, "oh, you'll be fine." this makes me happy because 1) he remembers me from social dance last quarter, 2) he remembers my dancing skill level, and 3) he thinks i am a good enough dancer to catch up very quickly. which i did. i really liked the classes tonight far better than social dance last quarter, mainly because the pace tonight was so much faster. it made things a lot less repetitive, and a lot more fun. i can't wait for jammix next week!

one of the songs richard played during the cross-step waltz class was "amy hit the atmosphere" by the counting crows. i was quite tickled to see that i can waltz to the counting crows. (yes, i just used the word "tickled.")

yoga was good today; i was able to keep up better than tuesday. i am looking forward to being more flexible. :)

i am trying to decide whether i want to go to atlanta for the first weekend in may to see everyone as they graduate. i really want to go, but i don't want to be in the way, and i know graduation is a busy and stressful time. but i really want to go.

yay! nick just called and is on his way over. i haven't seen him in days because of all his rehearsals.

please excuse me, i am about to rant.

i cannot believe the fucking drivers on this campus. i just came within a foot of being sprawled on the pavement after bouncing off the hood of a car that came roaring out of the rains parking lots as i was riding down escondido road. in the bike lane. and i had the right of way, i might add. and as required by law, i have a headlamp on my bike and it was turned on and shining quite brightly since i just replaced the batteries right before spring break. not to mention that the woman driving had a stop sign.

she appeared to be slowing down, but then hit the gas and came peeling out of the driveway. seeing that she wasn't stopping, i grabbed my rear brakes, hard. my rear tire began to skid and so i grabbed the front brakes, at this point deciding that given the choices of 1) falling spectacularly off my bike or 2) being nailed by this car, i'd rather go over the handlebars and take my chances of landing semi-safely on the asphalt. fortunately for me i guess, the idiot woman finally saw me straining to stop, and hit her brakes, coming to a stop within a foot of my front tire. all this happens within about three seconds, but at least i'm still in one piece.

the final straw? as i'm standing there clenching my brakes for dear life, heart pounding, mouth open, staring wide-eyed through the driver's window at the blonde moron inside, she has the nerve to shake her head and glare at me as if it were my fault! that's right. she shook her head impudently, glared, and then--still not realizing that she didn't and still doesn't have the right of way--accelerated past me.

what a bitch. what an idiot. if i had been thinking straight, i might have gotten her license plate number in hopes of at least reporting the incident. instead, i was just thankful to not be sprawled on the road bleeding.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! i am going to go attempt to calm down.

today was pretty good. it wasn't boring, but it wasn't filled to the brim either. perhaps i can adjust to a more relaxed pace this quarter, eh?

i got up, went to class, chatted with tyson for a while. made fun of canadians. ;) worked on homework. had lunch with valerie. played that addictive text twist game. talked baseball with john. went to yoga (more about that in a minute). cooked dinner at breakers with annica, david, and tibor, had a great time doing it, loved annica's yummy dessert, and decided that choosing to cook this quarter instead of clean was an excellent move. came home, went running, watched tv, showered, and now here i sit.

so yeah, i am taking yoga this quarter. of all random things. i went last tuesday with bree just to check it out, and because i had nothing better to do at the time. i skipped last thursday because carter was here, but i went again today, and i think i'm gonna stay in the class. funny, yoga always looked so easy. um....it turns out there are muscles i didn't know i had! i didn't know that i could work up a sweat just trying to hold myself in seemingly harmless positions. anyway, it should be interesting. if nothing else, i will end this quarter with a lot more flexibility than i have now, and that's cool.

carter didn't let me know when he got back to atlanta. poophead. oh, i know he got back safely because i'm pretty sure i would have heard something by now if he hadn't. sometimes it is hard to suppress the mom in me. heh. scary.

tomorrow i'm going to do all the annoying errand-y things that i've been putting off, because they really can't be put off any longer. taxes. doctor appointment. financial aid. yup.

after the non-stop action of carter's visit, today was...boring.

i fear boredom. literally fear it. i know that is strange, but it's true. boredom makes me introspective. boredom makes me sleepy. boredom makes me lonely. boredom makes me feel lazy and sluggish and ugly and generally unlikable. perhaps this makes me a freak. but still. i fear boredom, and go to great lengths to avoid it. like taking lots of classes, or overcommitting myself.

i am thinking about working at starbucks part-time. i have always had this random desire to work at starbucks. this quarter i might have time to do it.

i have lots more that i could write tonight, but i am pretty tired, and so i think sleep is going to be the victor. till tomorrow...

i don't want carter to leave. i don't want to go back to school life. i don't want to return to homework and tests and long hours in the library. i want to be a tourist forever, and have days filled with visits to islands, bridges, and big trees followed by european dinners and funny movies. please don't make me go back.

today was great. we toured alcatraz, and ate sourdough bread. we walked on the golden gate bridge, and wandered the shoreline. we hiked some trails among redwood trees and found great italian food at a small restaurant in sausalito.

tomorrow? tomorrow begins the second week of my third and final quarter at stanford. the countdown to graduation has begun.

i am going to need a vacation from carter's vacation. sheesh. he is asleep on the couch downstairs and i have to say, i'm completely pooped. today we got up early and got to the baseball park at 9:00 to wait in line for tickets. i jumped out of line to run park the car, which then turned into an hour-long ordeal of trying to get into the parking lot. carter probably thought i had accidentally driven into the bay or something. i have turned out to be quite the organizational failure this weekend. excepting the a's game on wednesday, we've had to run over some sort of hitch for every other ticketed event we've wanted to see. ah well. my organizational skills aren't what they used to be. however, i guess i have to admit that it's sort of funny that i'm so horribly bad at being spontaneous.

anyway, i finally got back to him after parking the car and he had bought season tickets that weren't being used today in the second row of the upper deck on the third base side. really nice seats. we went ahead into the park and had plenty of time to watch batting practice, wander the stadium, and even test our fastballs. (side note: i am pathetic. my "fastball" is 36 miles an hour. i throw like a freaking girl. sheesh.) my new favorite random baseball player is the padres' closer, trevor hoffman. we sat watching him stretch, and found him to be quite a cool and goofy guy. he signed autographs, talked to fans about fantasy baseball and new stadiums, took a picture with a kid, and when carter asked if his hat was made of mesh instead of wool, he responded by taking his hat off his head and tossing it to carter for a minute. later, in the outfield, he goofed off with the manager's kid and tried to catch a pop-up with his glove behind his back. he was very random. yes. very amusing. and now he is my new favorite random player.

the sun came out for the game, and everything was beautiful. i was happy carter finally got to see the sunny version of california. after the game we headed through golden gate park and to the ocean, then back to palo alto to meet up with nick, susan and jen for dinner.

so. i think we're doing pretty well in the mindless fun department. tomorrow is alcatraz, and the bridge, and muir woods. then my week in the twilight zone will end and carter goes home and i get my butt in gear for this final quarter of school. twilight zone indeed. one of these days, i will stop trying to figure out where my life is going and what every little thing means, and i will just live. there have been moments this week when i've seen glimpses of what "just living" might mean....

after getting up early and sitting all afternoon in the sun, i have been pretty zonked all evening. definitely time for bed.

hum dum. i wish the weather would get sunny. i feel like i am cheating carter out of a sunny california vacation since the sky has been filled with nothing but clouds. stupid weather.

i discovered today that people are dumb. see, while i was pumping gas, carter ran next door to jack-in-the-box and bought me a san francisco giants jack ball for my antenna. it was so cute and i was very excited until a mere four hours later, when we emerged from round table pizza and my jack ball was gone. who steals a jack ball?? i mean, really. you can go buy one of your own for a dollar fifty! i think i would actually be less upset if you stole my bike or something. at least that's valuable and worth stealing. why be a jerk and steal my giants jack ball??

anyway. i bought another one. and took it off my antenna when i parked my car. carter laughed at me but i don't care. i want to keep my jack ball. i refuse to lose more than one today.

as for activities, let's see. we had brunch at hobee's, hiked up to the dish, walked up and down university avenue, had dinner at round table, and then saw two cary grant movies at the old stanford theater. it was neat. tomorrow it's off to see the giants play the padres! woo.

yes. life is strange. i am wondering what will happen to me this spring. and after. today i have felt oddly like i am waiting for something. a nagging feeling. i don't know what. anyway. i have done a good job of dismissing the feeling, because while carter is here, i want to forget about school and the ever-ambiguous future. i just want to have lots of mindless fun.

today we made sammiches at breakers and then headed up into the city. it turns out that my instincts on tickets for things like giants games and alcatraz tours were quite wrong, so our day quickly deviated from the schedule. ;) we bought alcatraz tickets for sunday instead, and will be heading up to pac bell park bright and early on saturday to hopefully get a couple bleacher seats. after we took care of tickets, we wandered around fisherman's wharf for a while watching sea lions knock each other off piers into the water, and watching this entertainment guy hit an innocent volunteer in the head repeatedly with a paddleball. he was supposed to be hitting a cigar out of the guy's mouth. instead, he just hit him in the head a lot and finally the guy got annoyed and threw the cigar down on the ground and walked off stage. i don't blame him.

tonight we watched nick's musical rehearsal for a while. it was interesting because i liked watching nick perform, but the rehearsal moved so slowly it was almost painful. with opening night coming up in a week, i guess i expected things to be pretty much finished, only in need of polishing. and maybe they are and i just couldn't tell. i'm definitely not an expert in musical theater. anyway. i'm looking forward to going to opening night.

i didn't get into the other section of photo 1 either. i'm pretty disappointed about that. i'm going to talk to each of the teacher's though, and hopefully i can at least get access to the darkroom, even if i won't have anyone to help me actually learn how to take better pictures. i jokingly told carter, "well, there goes my big shot at being a world-famous photographer." or i said something along those lines. he sort of laughed. heh. i wish i had gotten in. oh well. some other time. i'll just pay money to take a photo class somewhere else someday. yup. things cost money.

{happy sigh} life is good. my spring quarter schedule is looking incredibly managable, baseball's back in season, and carter's here for the next four days! he arrived right on time this afternoon. we had lunch at the peninsula grill (mmm), toured campus, harassed nick and emily, and saw the a's defeat the rangers by a score of 9-6. the only disappointment was the the a's don't have any pennants in stock yet, so carter couldn't get one.

i don't know what we're doing tomorrow, but i'm sure it will be fun. anyway. bedtime.

so i just got back from photography, which i was really looking forward to taking this spring. what i didn't realize was that half of campus apparently wants to take it as well. yikes. so there were probably 100 people who showed up, and only 20 available spots in the class. we all filled out a form with our name, major, etc and our reason for wanting to take the class, and the professor is supposed to post a list tonight with the names of the people who make it in. i'm crossing my fingers. i will be really disappointed if i don't get to take it. once i'm out of school, where will i ever find photography classes?? i hope i hope i hope i get in.

other than that, the day has been uneventful. i had one class this morning--aa271, aircraft and spacecraft dynamics. the first half will be a repeat of dr. tsiotras's class from georgia tech, but the rest will be new material, so that sounds like a pretty good mix. tomorrow i start aa279, orbital mechanics and this random history class i'm taking as free elective. it's called "art, science, technology and the world of leonardo." it's about leonardo di vinci in particular, and also more broadly about renaissance art and architecture. it sounds interesting. i hope there is not too much reading, but i figure it will be interesting reading, at the least.

more importantly though...carter comes tomorrow to visit! i'm pumped. i love visitors. :)

baseball baseball baseball baseball baseball! yay! today i am in love with espn, because it means i get to watch my remodeled atlanta braves play the phillies. i know the ncaa championship is tonight and everything (go maryland), but seriously, how can anyone concentrate on that when there is so much baseball goodness in the world today?

(2:50 p.m.)

i am having issues today. we're going to the a's-rangers game tonight. joel has backed out because he's sick, but susan is taking his ticket. tyson has backed out because he'd rather watch the maryland-indiana game, but aaron is taking his ticket. (basketball over baseball? weird.) after half a dozen phone calls to various people, i finally figured out what sean's last name is so i could look up his number, but he didn't answer the phone, and i don't know if he even remembers that i was going to get him a ticket for the game. anyway. well no matter what, i will be at the game tonight!

the braves won, 7-2, with newcomers sheffield and castilla each knocking in three runs. a promising start for my braves. i'm quite happy about it. carter emailed to say he was there...ooooh, i wish i could have seen the braves on opening day. last year (or was it the year before?) courtney and alex and i went to braves opening day, and we were some of the only people in the upper deck because it had rained earlier in the day. i still have the picture of our empty section that was in the newspaper. good stuff, opening day.

(11:24 p.m.)

what a great monday! the braves won, the a's won, maryland won, and the yankees lost big. can't get much better than that. too bad i have to spoil it by getting up early for class tomorrow. ;)