thanksgiving '06

Wanted to post about this right after my trip, but I'm all kinds of late on it:

I drove down to San Bernardino for what was supposed to be a mini family reunion with my cousins and my own family, but my family wound up not driving down for some reason or another.

On my way down Hwy 5, I told myself that I would not let myself get caught up in the madness of speed racing and stressing out and dreading the 300+ mile journey. So I did myself good by staying most of the time on the slow (right) lane and watched others go past me, but at some point I caught up with them anyway because everyone wanted to avoid the trucks on the right lane. just goes to show that slow and steady "wins the race," er whatever. It really depends on the final destination, but I would call the trip somewhat "enjoyable." I allowed as many stops necessary, just to stretch or use the potty. Great strategy indeed!

I had a hard time getting to sleep the first night, so I took pictures of the shadow on the ceiling created by the nightlight behind a desk where some fake flowers sat. I figured the image could be useful at some point for a design project.

This trip also served as part of my homework because my final (research) project's subject was designing a logo and redesigning Leila Florentino's website, so on two occasions I drove to LA and back to SB. Wow, those SoCal folks sure do drive fast. It dawned on me that I guess they're so used to getting stuck in really severe traffic all the time that every opportunity they get to drive super-fast, they take. I don't blame them, because on Thanksgiving eve, I got caught in the madness driving back to SB. The route also happened to be on the way to Vegas or Palm Springs, and lots of folks headed that way. What a frikkin nightmare that 3 hour crawl was. But again, I pat myself on the back for staying calm and making the best out of it, by concentrating on the tunes from the iPod, connected to the tape player.

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The bathroom at my cousin's house looks out to the neighbor's chimney and this owl. At first I was like, wow, that's sooo cool, to see a real owl! But then I realized that they're nocturnal animals and this one seemed to stay put for a very long time, a real long time, like not move at all. Fake or not, it looked cool.


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My drive home was a drive. I always thought there was something romantic about this long stretch of highway. I dreamed since I was a teenager of driving the long road by myself; it gave me a great feeling of independence. I caught some of that "childhood" innocence during this trip.

multiple convergence

The end of the semester.
The end of the year.
The end of my undergrad experience at SFSU.
The end of my stay at my studio apartment.
The end of homework with friends.
The realization that these changes are permanent.
The realization of a dream come true...now staring you in the face.
The broken heart.
The aching heart because I'll miss TOXIC oh so much. It really hurts. Makes it hard to sleep. "with the taste of your lips i'm on a ride, you're toxic, i'm slipping under, with a taste of poison paradise, i'm addicted to you" yes, it's cheesy and it's from a song. Who cares, I don't care, I totally slipped under.

All these things got me emotionally wound up. The three all-nighters in a row don't help keep my emotions in check also.

On a good note, I did really well (for myself) on my FINAL design presentation for the final project, the senior project.

It's really super-satisfying when you put in all the work and you stress out for days and hours and minutes finishing up right up to the last moments. And you go on to present, this time around not super-nervous because you're not drugged up with Entex. And to have the instructor comment on the grading sheet: "impressive." Glad that shit is finally over!

Let me go through this first, let me experience this pain, let me get over it, and then I'll open my arms up to Elk Grove.