fuck fuck shit fuck

      time elapsed since i began curling my hair: 1 hr 45 min

      number of times i have watched matilda while curling said hair: 1

      number of youtube videos about puppies i have watched since finishing matilda: 5

      number of times i have burned my neck with the curling iron: 1

      number of times the curling iron has come unplugged, resulting in limp tendrils: 3

      number of times i have wanted to turn off said curling iron and just shave my head: 4584568456456745674564564564564756

i've got timbaland stuck in my head.

      upon returning from sacramento, i went to the x with my sister for their weekly gay night. armed with a bottle of andre and a bag of skittles, we drove to the city. after waiting in line for roughly 15 minutes, we stepped into this:


      highlight of the night: Justice - The Party came on and i was SO EXCITED to dance to it that i accidentally socked a girl in the face. no joke. i apologized profusely.

      the following day, my mother, sister and i made the 8 hour drive to san diego to visit relatives. it was fun, lots of ps3 action, planet earth, man vs. wild, failed wild animal park visits, dim sum, and dopplebock at the yardhouse. deliciousness.



      we just got back an hour or so ago, and driving for 5+ hours (i took over when mama needed a break) makes me very tired. buenas noches :)

a mastercard moment

      6 used games for gamecube... $53.35

      mcdonald's happy meal... $3.19

      spending 24 hours in sacramento playing said video games, consuming said food AND taquitos AND homemade coconut truffles AND a seegar, driving to (ultimately nonexistent) haunted houses, and watching madtv in bed with an 11 year old, incredibly affectionate jack russell terrier wedged between you and one of your good friends... priceless

*gurgles and rolls off the dinner table*

      as per usual, my mother, sister and i have cooked a disgusting amount of food. albeit delicious, it will surely rot in our fridge before we can consume it all.

      le menu:

         
• turkey
           
• ham
           
• potatoes au gratin
           
• mashed sweet potatoes
           
• stuffing         
• apple pie. that is cooked unevenly. because our oven hates life. my only contribution to the meal
       
• ... and 5 types of cookies that my sister baked. that's right. kai baked.
  

      now i'm just biding my time until the 10p vespers service. while listening to my sister's christmas mix, which includes mariah carey and patty loveless.

      ohhh what a useless entry. i blather when i'm full and tired. i'll write something that doesn't reflect my lethargy later.

hurray!

      received my passport with my student visa yesterday! *squeals and relaxes* that's the last of everything i needed for spain. now all i need to do is start packing. 19 days. ahsfjkashdjkasfdshj.

      i'm up much earlier than i've been up in a while. and it's sunny outside.

      nothing really to report. if you're looking for something to read, science daily has an interesting article up.

      this is sparky, or as my mother has dubbed him, "miming".  he belongs to our neighbor but comes around every day, at the oddest hours, for food.  at first mama put out milk but quickly realized that he was lactose intolerant (several frantic phone calls to me while i was in seattle followed: "there is!... shit!... all over!... in front of our door!... i am TIRED, anak ko, of hosing it!... down!...").  now she puts out some turkey mush she found at petco every morning.  i was awake at 7:44a today and he was perched atop our welcome mat like a little sphinx, ready to be served.  he's also deaf, so he meows VERY loudly.  ie, i can hear him through our closed front door and my closed bedroom door.  while i have water running in my tub behind my closed bathroom door.  it's comical.

      humphrey just sent me this. love the wave at the beginning. "HIIIIIIII i'm a prodigy!"

what i miss about seattle

• theo - peanut butter and jelly truffles
  
• fremont in general
  
• chocolati - iced chai. and all of their baked goods. and perfect atmosphere for homework
• nana's - caprese melt, oklahoma chili, caesar salad, cornbread muffin
  
• the quad in the spring - this was more of a freshman year necessity. but it's still nice to lay out and put on air - sexy boy on the ipod
  
• honey court dim sum - everything. and the fact that they recognize me now and remember what i want and bring it to me without asking
  
• shun sushi - unagi hand rolls, ebi tempura, green tea ice cream
  
• the japanese garden at the arboretum - mara and i promising ourselves we wouldn't smoke, and then we got here and sat atop that one bench.... ;)
  
• the arboretum in the summer - under the influence of lysergic acid diethylamide, my world here looked like robin williams' from what dreams may come. beauty.
  
• golden gardens in the summer - playing volleyball and having alejandro ask me when i stopped after twenty minutes, "wow! out of shape?" fish and chips.
  
• ravenna park - those swings...
• elliott's on the pier - i'm not a picky eater, but i'm not big on oysters. this is the only place where i'll eat them. oh, and they have amazing lobster.
  
• thaiger room - swimming rama with chicken. i've graduated to three stars of spiciness :)
  
• the rusty pelican - they make a mean monterey scramble. plus whoever i come with and i are always the youngest party by about 30 years. love it
  

      aaaand yes i realize that these are mainly restaurants, coffee shops, chocolate factories... i'm not kidding when i say i'm passionate about food!

      that, and my first meal (besides soup. copious amounts of soup) as a sicky was shitty, shitty dim sum from castro street. for $14. for one person. ludicrous. it was almost enough to put me off of siu mai for good. almost.

      so for those of you who'll be returning in the winter: take advantage of seattle. lord knows i'll be doing nothing but when i return in june.

      cadiz has been hitting me in small doses. i get the acceptance e-mail, squeal, and relax. i go to the orientation meetings and discuss cultural norms, squeal, and relax. i get my housing assignment, squeal, and relax. i guess i'm just waiting for my brain to finally process: "you will be in spain for 5 months. not speaking english. making travel plans on your own. taking the eurail alone to visit katie and nichole. not communicating with everyone you know in the us on a regular basis. being a 5 minute walk from campus and a 2 minute walk from the beach. managing money and time and myself IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY FOR 5 MONTHS. taking all of my classes in spanish. on the semester system. pushing myself out of my current comfort zone into something that, well, most people don't even CONSIDER to be their next comfort zone."

      i'm not nervous. yet. that's the strange thing. i'm just really ready for a change.  i mean, THIS is my bff while i'm bedridden:

      he gnaws on the screen door, so all of his front teeth are MIA.  completely gone.  and he broke both of his front legs, one of them twice, so it has a metal pole in it to prevent him from doing it again.  and i don't know if you can see it in the photo, but his tail is crooked.  because when we brought him to the hospital to get his legs fixed, they slammed the door to his recovery kennel on it. and broke it.

      and it was fairly normal for him to run head-first into our (glass) sliding door when i was in seattle. i would be on the phone with my mother and would hear a bump, and then silence on the other line. "what just happened?" "ohhh, buddy hit the door. again."

      plus she bought him a bright red raincoat made of the same reflective material that cyclists wear at night.

      he is the epitome of chic and intelligence. i love him, i really do. you just can't really be embarrassed by anyone or anything when you have a dog like mine.

      no but really i'm getting off of this. to go do something productive. like sleep more.

i'm really bad at intros.

      i'm home. and sick. ie, bronchitis and sinusitis sick. but i've been sleeping 20 hours a day and doped up on guanifesin for the week so my immune system should be kicking this thing's ass any day now :)

      i drove down from seattle last thursday with adri. we stayed in medford, OR for the night (and i fell asleep at ten), then made our way to mendocino, CA for camping and wandering the following night (and i fell asleep at ten). our trip was set to classic rock. it was glorious.

  this blog was set up to record my experiences and observations while studying at the university of cadiz in spain over the next 6 months. i’ll be leaving on january 10th and won’t be back in the us until may 29th, after which i’ll immediately pack up my things and make the trek up to seattle in my trusty volvo. until then, i’ll be bumming it at home, eating my weight in christmas food and seeing people whom i haven’t seen in lordknowshowlong. decorating christmas trees under the influence, maybe driving down to anaheim to see disneyland for the first time since i was, oh, seven.

      plus this'll keep me entertained until i'm out of bed and not hacking up a lung. stay tuned for more superfuncrazyyayohnoshedi'nt adventures.