I haven’t updated for almost 2 weeks now, and I really should… I feel like a lot has been going on and I don’t want to forget about it.
It was Tiffany’s birthday on the 17th. But since none of us relaly had the time that particular day, we decided to go out to the Sushi house on the 16th instead. Of course this meant that I couldn’t go to small group, but I couldn’t do it otherwise. Plus, I had a CIS test and an English paper due on Thursday so that gave me some time to study on Wednsday night. The sushi was good, not as good as the first time I went with my small group, but it was still better than any other sushi I’ve tasted before. Not that I’m a big sushi fan that tries out every sushi place there ever was, but the fact that I never even cared about sushi till now probably means something. So my Tuesday and Wendsday nights were busy with the birthday and the test and the essay. Thursday night was even worse. I found out that I had the Army reserve drill not for Saturday and Sunday as usual, but from Friday till Sunday. So Thursday night I packed and slept early, around 12.
That really sucked for me. I got up at 6AM to finish packing and bike down to Oakland Army base, about 6 miles away in Emeryville, up in the early Berkeley morning. It was freezing, but the worse part was the formation at 0730 and waiting till 1130 to actually take off from the base. Then instead of going to a place only a couple hours away, we decided to hit up Fort Hunter Liggett, just because all the other companies in the battalion from Arizona and down in LA were coming up, too. I felt sorry for them, but this battalion thing really wasn’t necessary. It was, frankly, ridiculous. We checked in our weapons at 1700 or so, ate, and I slept while others watched Ali G in da House on someone’s computer. The next day, we went shooting. One of the worst days ever in the Army. Not because I was physically or emotionally tired, but it was the biggest waste of my life (but so was the day before, which in its entirity was spent on getting to a base some 180 miles away from Oakland). I shot a total of 78 rounds, 18 rounds to zero, 40 rounds to qualify, and 20 rounds with the gas mask on. First of all, the gas mask is bullshit because no one uses it anymore, and if you’re using it, you’re probably nowhere near the combat zone. I shot horribly, only 23 out of 40, bare minimum. It was freezing cold, probably down to 40s, and most of us were only wearing 2 or max 3 layers of clothing. And I spent most of my afternoon sitting around wondering when everyone else will be done. It took forever to zero everyone, which shouldn’t have happened. The next day was spent entirely on getting back to the base, and doing absolutely nothing else afterwards. Biggest waste of an army drill weekend ever, 3 day weekend at that. I could have done something a lot more productive, like study for my Econ test on Monday and finish my Stat project which was also due.
But no, all that was done and over with around 7PM on Sunday. I biked back just in time for Thanksgiving dinner, which was the highlight of my weekend. The guys did an awesome job with the Turkey, and the girls did a wonderful job with the deserts and the side dishes as well. Then we played a couple games, and I took off a bit early (around 11 PM) because of the time I lost doing useless shit for the Army. At least I got paid for it, though… But I was still huffing and puffing from the bike ride back to Berkeley, and still in my camouflage uniform.
So Monday I got my new orthodontics for my jaw. It’s something entirely new, I’ve never had it before, and at first it hurt like a bitch. It’s kind of like getting your braces for the first time or the first couple times you get it tightened, except worse. Not only do your teeth hurt, you can’t bite into anything because now you got the orthodontics in between your teeth that make your eating and speech a tormenting experience. I did a half assed job with my Econ test and my Stat project (thanks Army!)
This year’s Thanksgiving is the most memorable, and probably will be for quite some time. It may not be the most fun I’ve ever had in my life, but it was pretty close to it.
I tried staying awake all night Monday night into Tuesday morning, but that didn’t happen. I flaked out at 3AM. I had called Bayporters to come pick me up at 4:30, but I overslept till 5 instead. And since the plane took off at 6:15, I was fairly devastated. On top of that, the internet was going up and down. I was able to barely get the taxi number, though, and called her to pick me up, for 30 dollars as opposed to 20 for bayporter. I only had 27 dollars, though, but the lady took me anyway. So as soon as I emptied my wallet, I checked in and boarded the plane just in time. I got to Colorado Springs around 11, and my dad greeted me at the airport. The entire day was spent eating, settling in, visiting the base of Pike’s Peak to get some natural running water, and shopping for snowboarding equipment. I thought it would be weird to be with my dad the whole day, or for 4 days of the Thanksgiving weekend at that, especially since we don’t have too much in common and I haven’t seen him for the past 3 years, but the day and the holidays passed by fine.
We took off Colorado Springs with some of my dad’s church members around 9AM on Wednsday. I drove my dad’s car, and it took us good 4 hours to Glenwood, way too late to do anything, really. We were gonna stay at Hotel Colordo, same place that President Taft and President Teddy Roosevelt stayed. Yeah, it’s really that old, over a 100 years, but it was way too luxurious and expensive for us, especially just for one night. So we stayed some cheap motel instead, which was fine and dandy cuz all I did after 7 was sleep. But I woke up in the middle of the night, and I didn’t wanna bother my dad so I read some in the restroom and went back to sleep. But before I went to sleep, we went to the hot springs. Instead of going to the pool, we went inside this one dungeon in off to the side somewhere. I would have never guessed it from the outside, but it was like those steam salons where you just sit and get skinny,except it was all heated natural water. They had these natural waters running off to the side with some buckets you could use, but they were hot enough to burn my feet off. I felt 5 pounds skinnier than before, but I felt really rejuvenated afterwards.
Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, is probably one of the most weird but memorable days of my life. We woke up early and took off to Aspen, about 45 minutes away. But to get the snowboarding equipment and to get to Snowmass, which actually had green lines (Aspen Mountain had no green lines at all), we started off around 10:30 AM. On the way there we were trying to figure out what the group in front of us were speaking. My dad thought Italian, I thought Scandinavian, so I tapped the guys in front and they weren’t part of their group, but they were wondering, too, they thought maybe Hungary, even. We finally asked and found out they were from Turkey. Well, the guys that I tapped earlier were from South Africa, on a working Visa (I guess the US still gives those out). Amazing, though. Brandon and Michael were their names, and they play drums, acoustic guitar and the piano. And they listened to the same music I do, too! It was really weird, having someone around the world listen to Radiohead, Interpol, and Keane.
As soon as we hit Snowmass (44 dollars discounted, it was the beginning of the boarding season, so it was a discount from 74 dollars). It was my first time boarding ever, but the classes got really expensive. And I had already cost my poor dad couple hundred for the clothes the day before, the gas bill, the lodging, and the board rental. So we started skiing and snowboarding right away. The first few hours, I was tumbling down the mountain. It was not a fun experience. My kneecaps felt like they were shattered, my wrists were worn out from breaking the fall, and my ass started to feel like a prisoner’s. The part after the lift was the worst. I couldn’t get off the lift fast enough, and when I did, I fell like 2 feet from it. But I kept going. Somehow I started to board down and I didn’t fall for like 3 seconds. Amazing! I had a pretty good time. I ran into my dad a couple times. He wasn’t having a great time skiing, though, cuz he couldn’t get used to it. I felt bad cuz he’s over 55 years old and this was his first time, and here I was having a decent time learning something new. I literally ran into a couple kids, though, like 8 or 9 years old at the most, and I felt really, really bad, but they were cool about it. One girl I ran into, her dad was right there and he looked like he wanted to beat the shit out of me. I beat the shit out of him, though, and carried on. Actually, I just said sorry a bunch of times and moved on. A lot of the people I talked to on the lifts and what not were from other states. One from Texas, another from Tennessee, and so on. I’m still feeling physically ill from so many wipeouts, and it must have looked real bad. The hill off the lift was the worst. Being the first hill I’ve ever been on, it was literally at least a 45, 50 degree slope down. I tumbled down a couple times, and got my hands and pants all wet. It was 6 PM by the time we were back in Glenwood and on our way back home.
We were on our way back when the entrance to the highway was closed off. Why? Well, apparently some boulders from the mountain ranges fell onto the I 70 east, and cratered it even, so it wasn’t gonna be fixed for quite some time. I called my trusty source Patrick and asked him how I can take a detour. He recommended back to Aspen then taking the 24 down, but later he called the Colorado Department of Transportation (yeah I know, go patrick!) and said I should go the 13 north, 40 east and 9 south instead, and back to 70 east, bypassing the cratered road altogether. But that meant going from central Colorado to northern Colorado’s borders, and coming back down to the center. But we lost no time and went on our way. At first it was ok, no snow or anything. But then things got interesting. It started to rain. The roads were narrow as hell and it was a bitch passing trucks left and right. Then it started to snow. It snowed so bad that I couldn’t see more than 10 feet in front of me, and high lights made it even worse. But I was getting tired from being up all day, snowboarding all afternoon, so I was still going 60 mph in the snow. It cleared up some later, so I started going at 95 mph. You know, one of the worst feeling is to know when you’re gonna get pulled over. The cop was facing my way when he decided to make a U turn behind me to pull me over. Officer Miller (or Mitchell, thereabouts) asked me for my license and registration, asked me how fast I was going, asked me if I knew what the speed limit is, and asked me if that was fair. I said no sir, I don’t know how fast I was going (he said I was going 90 when I got pulled over but I know I was going 95 at least). When he asked I said we’re on our way to Colorado Springs. He then replied, ok you’re taking the detour. I said yes sir, and he went to go get our license and registration checked out. He came back a little later and said “you know, it’s Thanksgiving, so I’m not going to give you a ticket. But I want you to know that it’s snowing up ahead, and it’s not even funny. So be careful and drive home safely.”
I was thinking, well you know, it really can’t be that bad. I just drove an hour through some intense snow, and it had just started, too, so the road wasn’t in that great of a condition either. Well, I was wrong. We drove past several ‘chains required ahead signs.’ I didn’t think much of it because the road condition till then wasn’t too bad. Then we drove past the final sign ‘It is unlawful to continue without chains’. I said, it’s a fine day to die! and continued without chains. It snowed even worse than before, and my visibility went to shits. Plus we were climbing past 10,000 ft (the car was really feeling it). I couldn’t even see the lanes! It got real dangerous when it was snowing, I couldn’t see, the lanes were invisible due to the snow, and there were only barrels on the side of the roads every 100 feet or so marking where the highway boundaries lie. Passing oncoming traffic was the worst. But we made it back, safe and sound. A couple trucks broke down on the way up, and Colorado sheriffs were busy trying to get them underway again. Pass that and 300 miles of trecherous roads, we were back in Colorado Springs around 3AM. I had driven for a full 10 hours from Aspen.
Thursday afternoon, I realized that I had forgotten my keys to Berkeley (later I found out that I lost them completely). Great, because Patrick and Tony were both in LA with their families and I didn’t know anyone but David Kim that stayed back in Berkeley. So I called him, thinking I need to crash at his place. I called Dennis, just in case he stayed home, or maybe he knows someone that did. But he didn’t answer the phone, and I gave up all hope in getting in the house. I tried changing my ticket to LA to at least see my mom and maybe catch a ride back up with some church people, but that didn’t work out because I bought my ticket through hotwire.com, plus it was really expensive. So I got to the airport, and asked them if I can go on an earlier flight out of Salt Lake City, instead of waiting for 3 hours for a flight out. So I transferred my ticket to the 8:45 flight instead of the 10:30 one. This way, maybe I can catch someone coming into the apartment and go through the front door, hop onto the roof and jump onto my balcony on the 3rd floor. But instead, I ran into Dennis, who lives right next door. He just happened to be on his way back from U Penn, just happened to have a layover at Salt Lake City, on the same flight that I had changed into. And his roommate just happened to be the manager of the apartment, so he had the keys to all the rooms. Plus he had a friend from church pick him up. So with some real random luck and coincidence, I got into the apartment without any trouble.