Posted May 29, 2010, 9:50 pm. Permalink
Week in the Hills
I’m sitting at the end of a row of identical plastic seats in the San Jose airport sipping free Internet from the air. Twenty minutes ago my mom and Stephen dropped me off with hugs and faretheewells. I am bound for a layover in Atlanta and an arrival in Boston late tomorrow morning.
I’ve spent the last week at my mom and stepdad’s house in Los Gatos. It’s up in the Santa Cruz mountains, quote disconnected. Cellular reception and the satellite internet connection are notably weak. I slept lots, read half of Peter Watts’ Rifters trilogy (available as epub books with a cc license), and fixed a car while I was there.
It was nice to see my my grandmother too, she lives with them up in the hills. Before I left she gave me twenty dollars to take my girlfriend out to lunch. She had trouble pronouncing Xue’s name.
“Shoe Lah? Sue? It sounds Chinese or something.”
“It is Grandma, Xue’s Chinese.”
“You never told me!”
“You never asked. Love you grandma, bye!”
Posted May 23, 2010, 12:54 am. Permalink
Tied In My Loose Ends
Things are wrapping up pretty well here in Chico. I had my last final exam on Wednesday, shipped my bike out to Boston, had my last day of work on Friday, bought a tiny guitar, and had a really enjoyable potluck dinner tonight.
About a dozen people came over. We ate curry and Spanish rice, pumpkin pie and ice cream cake. There was hugging.
My two housemates are moving out before I return to Chico in the fall, so this was also a kind of going away party for them too. Mica was accepted into UC Berkeley and Trenton’s moving to Sacramento for work. Either we’ll find someone rad to move in with me in the fall, or I’ll be looking for a new place to live when I get back. I rather dread having to deal with it.
Tomorrow I aim to finish clearing out my room (for Ben & Kyle, who are subletting over the summer) and to finish the last of my packing. My mom’s going to be driving up from the Bay and we’ll either drive back down there tomorrow night or Monday morning.
The end of this week felt so distant at one point, it feels strange that it’s finally here. Okay, here goes.
Posted May 11, 2010, 1:43 am. Permalink
Of Compression & Rarefaction
I’m leaving town in, let’s see, ten days? Very soon, and there is so much to do in that time!
Most importantly I need to focus on my final exams and the last assignments due this semester. This week is dead week, so it’s not really much of a week for sleep. Each day feels like it will never end but the number of days left in the week shrinks very rapidly if you are not looking.
Time gets peculiar when you’re looking at such densely populated to-do lists and calendars. I’ve been working on maths and drinking tea and eating cookies for about the past four hours so I am feeling a little strange myself. This may not be very well written. Let’s see. Nope.
I hope I can get in a nice ride with the boys this weekend. Maybe we could bring along some food? We haven’t been riding together much lately, and It would be really nice to get in some time before I’m gone.
I’m tempted to try to throw some kind of going away party for myself, but I’m not very good at that sort of thing. Dinners are easy, especially dinners out. A potluck could be a nice way of going about it, but I don’t know if I’ll have the time or energy to make anything edible. I haven’t been eating all that well. Too many fucking cookies.
If I do anything like that it’ll have to be after my finals end next Wednesday. That Thursday and Friday are my last days working for Paul, and then I’ll be leaving on Saturday with my mom.
Before then I still need to finish fabricating some fixtures for Brad’s frame jig. And I need to pack and ship my bike and bike tools to Boston. And I need to pack up my room so Ben & Kyle can sublet it (and I should verify this, oh shit). And I guess I need to find a new house mate(s) for the fall since Mica & Trenton are leaving Chico. And and and.
And then it will be done (or past the point of doing) and I will be with my mom in the Bay and I will sleep for days. For a week, in fact. I hope I get to see my cousin, I hope I get to take some walks and photos with my mom, I hope I eat well.
And then, you know, I’m flying across the country to be with Xue. And and and. This Summer I will burst into flames.
Posted May 4, 2010, 10:57 pm. Permalink
Bye Bye Facebook
I deleted my facebook account because I don’t like the way they deal with the privacy and ownership of my information.
Before jumping ship I sent out a message to about 40 people letting them know that I was finally pulling that big blue plug. I went through my contacts and decided who would and who wouldn’t receive the farewell.
That it felt it okay not to tell most people I was leaving kind of drove home the point of my departure.
Anyway, my internet just got bigger and smaller at the same time.