Cause · of · Wonder

May I simply say that Paris was awesome? Recap: Pompidou - LA, Big Bang, Morphosis, escalators, amazing facades // San Chapelle - stained glass is WOW // San Michelle - area of Julie's bday and dinner with Casbarian // Chartres - best sculputural work of any church // Notre Dame - big // Versailles - endless gardens // Villa Savoye - I love Corbusier // Villa Rouche - I still love Corbusier // Paris Opera House - gorgeous // Musee d'Orsay - Degas, Monet, Manet, Delacroix, etc etc etc all AMAZING // Louvre - more amazing paintings and oh so humongous and cool IM Pei additions // Eiffel Tower - overrated but still nice // Arc de Triumphe - nice underneath // Arc de la Defense - ginormous, strange but cool elevator // Champs Elysees - nice area // Covered Walkways - so many so awesome so unique // Metropolitan - ahhh the subway // RER - ahhh the train

There are so many more places I went to. So many memories. When Rachel, Benjamin, Megan and I went to the basement of a hookah bar and started dancing and then everyone started dancing and Benjamin took these guys congos and was like insane at them. When a bunch of us went to Le Charming and saw that jazz concert in the basement even though the bill was a le ripoff. The hour and a half walk back from another hookah bar through the streets of Paris at like 3 AM. Monoprix. Smokin a cigar and going to a Cuban bar with Alice in Montparnasse. Listening to the Jean Louis cd I bought all the freakin time. Clubbin Rachel. Drunk Adam. Passportless Tim. Me and my Russian hat that I bought at the market. Picking out the perfect scarf. Oh and Marcus popped 3 of his car tires and hopped over a median, almost killing himself today. Ya. Spring break was full of memories. Cheers to life!

Wednesday: The Fray concert with Eva, Justin, and John - guy (a tool) won the girl with his singing - creepy man around Eva and I - Mat Kearney demo cd equals very good - Eva gets a Fray shirt in memory of her first real concert and I buy the cd and get the band to sign it

Thursday: softball game against grad students - I played second base, nervous at first, did well - saw sneak peak of Alpha Dog with Marcus, Eric, and John - apparently we're the first audience that has ever seen it - Justin Timberlake movie - not bad actually - about the life of drug dealing and kidnapping

Friday: lunch at Hunan Garden with Marcus, Rachel, Jon Harris, and John - tasty lunch includes soup, egg roll, and meal - hair cut with Alice at Hot Tops - awesome faux hawk - advice on gels and molding wax - dinner with Alice at Niko Niko's - tasty potatoes - too much food - idea of clubbing - Benjamin, Rachel, and Margaret decide to go with me - need black shoes to match outfit - Megan's friend Paul has some - Megan decides to go with us - super crowded downtown cuz it's NBA Allstar Weekend - hard to find parking - $5 parking for all night - Pink Monkey has RunDMC and Hush has Usher and Nelly - too expensive - go to Jones Bar after talking down $40 for guys and $10 for girls into $20 for guys and free for girls - no carding, thus we buy drinks for each other - lots of dancing, lots of fun - very ghetto all around - Rachel is dead drunk after only 2 drinks - go to Marcus's - chill for an hour - go home

Saturday: party planning - super crazy disorganized I am - Jessica and Benjamin help - Plane of Existence concert - $8 not worth the price since we were there for such a short time - sounded great though and awesome video I took - party at my place - around 30 or so people passed through - lots of beer (100+) and punch (Jessica made it) - Eva took great pics - 3 games of beer pong - I burp vomitted - Ali finished the last game for me and Julie drank for me - super drunk - everyone leaves and we watch video of band performing tonight's show - pass out

Sunday: Galleria with Marcus, Rachel, and Megan - Marcus loves girl jeans - I'm creeped out - Marcus gets awesome jeans from Express, yet their girl jeans - I pick out a sweatshirt for Marcus that I would buy for myself if I had darker skin, and he likes it so he buys it - Levi store and the Intelifit - proof that I am super slim - studio time - work til 3am - House of Pies with Rachel, Megan, and Ali - they talk about past experiences (mostly romance related), but I'm too tired to talk - dropped off back home and am here now

Marcus called up my mom, found out how to make a dairy free cake, and he and Caitlin made me one. Nick brought Soy Delicious. Casey called me and we talked it up. Eva bought a ticket to see the Fray. Today was fantastic. It was just right.

I love it when I get so many marshmellows in my Lucky Charms.

Forget about that last entry. It was a temporary state. I was just upset with things. Anyway I hope I find my headphones sometime soon. I could really use them. I think I may join a gym close to Rice that specializes in trainers. I'd go to the gym at Rice or the one at my apartment, but they don't have trainers and I really need one. Anyway, I'll talk to my parents. See if I can afford it. Terry got back to me and my guitar lessons are at 10:15 on Fridays. I'm happy that they're later than last year's. More sleep. All's goin' according to plan.

This journal is mine. I can complain in it if I want to. I'm just pissed about my ears. It's impossible for me to sleep with the damn ringing. It keeps me up. I can only fall asleep when I'm extremely tired, so every night I have to figure out a way to pass time until I can no longer keep my eyes open. Thing that sucks is that my options are limited for what I can do every night. I can't watch TV cuz my roommates always go to bed way earlier than me. I can't play guitar. I can listen to music, but it's gotta be super quiet. I'd work on a website, but I'm not motivated to. I'd surf the web, but there is nothing I wish to find. It's always "What am I gonna do for the next 5 hours?" I wanna chat with people, but often no one is on this late at night. I wanna watch TV or play NCAA with people, but no one is up. I'm so bored. Ever since that damn concert 2 years ago my ears have been fucked.

There are worse problems in the world. I could be deaf. I could be fighting in a war. I could be broke and homeless. Thing is there is somethin upsetting with lots of people's lives. You just gotta deal with it. But seriously folks. Sometimes it's enough. I have asthma. I'm allergic to dairy and other food products. I have bad eye sight. I'm allergic to nature (dogs, cats, grass, pollen, the works). And now this tinnitus drives me crazy every night. I'm seriously sick of it. I'm getting tired of people talking about boyfriend and girlfriend problems. I'm tired of people talking about how much work they have for a class. I have problems that have no cure.

Now don't pity me. Don't think I'm some depressed grump. I'm not out to get anyone's sympathy. I can deal with things on my own pretty well. I've done it forever. I don't want your responses. I don't care if you read or not. I write for me. It makes me feel better. It feels like I'm reducing the load on my back. I only make my journal available to the public because I have no reason to hide these thoughts of mine from you.

Today in my Huma class I made a completely fool of myself. Sometimes I have this great thought in my head, but when I try to speak it, I just fumble words around and end up saying something that is completely inane. I think I used the same verb 4 times in the same sentence when I spoke up today. I get nervous. I think to myself "Don't get nervous" and then I always do. My heart races when my hand is up, and I tell it to stop. I start sweating and I can feel my face glow red when I'm called on. As I deliver what I have to say, I keep trying to calm down which distracts me from my line of thought and thus I say something that makes no sense.

I wear a hat because I wish to hide the spot at which my hair spirals out from. My growth spot. Unfortunately it looks like a bald spot. It's grown larger, and thus more embarrassing. But I'm not an ugly person. I love how I look. I'm just not fully satisfied. I wish to be stronger. I'm tired of being skinny. I wish to have a better haircut. I wish to be rid of my acne. I'll fix myself up to my likings eventually. I don't care about impressing girls. I want to look good for me. I feel like good looks might outweigh some of the flaws that my body has, and thus make me feel better about myself.

At this point I would now like to talk about specific people I have issues with, but I fear that they may read this. Fear fear fear. I am too concerned with how people view me. I just wish to be the guy that makes everyone happy. When I die, I don't want to die unforgotten. I want to die missed. I want my death to bring such sadness that years after I am buried, people will think of me still and cry.

I refuse to be a temporary memory. Some faded pages in a long forgotten book. That is why I chose architecture. I feel like it is the profession that is the easiest to establish permanent fame in. I don't want my buildings to stand forever, but I want their influence to be eternal.

Too bad I can't live forever. I feel like I'd be much less worried about how people cared about me. As mortals, you can only meet so many people and you have a certain amount of opportunities to make close friends. College is one of those opportunities. If i fuck up this experience, then I fucked up perhaps my most opportune chance of strong friendships. If I were immortal I could go to college 1000 times. I could fuck up 100 experiences, and it'd be ok. You have chances for mistakes when you have immortality. You can do things over. But instead, I get only one chance. One shot to make the experience what I want it to be. It's stressful.

That's enough meditating for tonight. I think I'm tired enough to now pass out. It's funny how I hate to fall asleep, but once I'm in it, I love it. The best thing given to us was the opportunity to create a world of our own through dreams. It gives us the opportunity to see things the way we wish they were. Tonight I shall be a king.

Well winter break was fun, but I'm ready for this semester. I get bored easily and school gives me work that I enjoy. I've been back in Houston since Thursday and I've been showing my mom around the city.
Thursday night we ate at Katz's and I showed her River Oaks at night.
Friday we cleaned up my apartment. Lotta work it was. We had leftovers from Katz's for lunch, and then we picked up food from Whole Foods for dinner. She had never been in a Whole Foods before, and she loved it. She was thrilled to find out that they had soy ice cream. It tasted great.
Saturday we took the minivan to the dealer to get it worked on. While that was being done, they gave us a rental car which I illegally drove (you gotta be 21 to drive it). Anyway, we went to Whataburger where I introduced my mom to tasty chicken strips. Way better than McDonalds and BK. After our stomachs were full, we went to the Menil and saw some awesome art. They had a fantastic Calder exhibit that actually ended today (the 8th). In my opinion, the Menil is a thousand times better than the MFAH. It has tons of Modern and Surrealist work. 20th century art. Stuff I like. After this we went back to the dealer to learn that my car had a busted power steering tube. They didn't have the part there so they had ordered it and it'll arrive on Tuesday. They did do a temporary fix (taping the tube or something) so it'll work for a bit. Also, they did a state inspection since my state inspection sticker was outdated. We returned the rental car and got the minivan. After all of this, we had dinner. For dinner we had Azuma. My mom hadn't had sushi in more than 20 years, so she was excited. Food was great.
Today, Sunday, we went to Chuy's for lunch. Little did we know that today is Elvis's birthday. They had a big celebration at Chuy's in honor of him. Lots of fun. And they have Hatch green chile, which of course is the best. After Chuy's we went to the Aquarium, driving through River Oaks on the way there so I could show my mom what it looked like in the day. At the Aquarium we saw pretty fish. Big fish. Bright fish. Slimy fish. One fish. Two fish. Red fish. Blue fish. They're all very fun to watch. After that we went to the restaurant at the top. Tasty meal I had.
Tomorrow I take my mom to the airport. I had a great time with her, and now I'm all set for school to start. Woohoo!

well i'm back in houston and unpacked. spent the day cleaning up my room and the rest of my apartment. the bathroom was gross! i have never seen so much bacteria and filth. stuff was growing and it was nasty. anyway, it's spotless now.

mom is here so i'm showing her around houston. tomorrow we're goin to the menil. should be fun. today i introduced her to whole foods and the soy ice cream they have there (she's allergic to dairy as well). she loved it.

anyway. it's nice being back. kinda weird though. i'm used to being at home, but somehow, it feels normal sitting here and typing. kinda like i've been here for awhile. can't wait for my roommates to get here! then the apartment won't be so lonely.

So today is the day after New Year's, and now I finally have some resolutions.

1) Exercise. No more skinny!
2) Eat. I missed too many meals last semester. Work is important, but food is more.
3) Shower every day. I spent too many days in studio without leaving last semester. I smelled. No more of that.
4) Work in Ireland this summer. Or somewhere in Europe. Maybe Italy?
5) Make money. Lots and lots of money.
6) Make the Plane of Existence website amazing.
7) Make my photo site.
8) Take lots and lots of pictures with my new camera.
9) Rape someone. It's not as bad as you think.
10) Commit homicide. Maybe start a gang war? At least shoot someone.
11) Learn pick up lines. They might be handy.
12) The previous three resolutions are jokes. Just wanted to shock you.
13) Continue my sense of humor. I like myself.

Ok so I haven't updated in a looooong time. Lotsa stuff happened. Journey concert. Me crashing Marcus's car (damn ice). Slave labor at studio. Oh yes Thanksgiving. Fun time that was. Haha. Most recently, there was Christmas.

Gah I love Christmas. My dad got one of the new Powerbooks. Woohoo! I'm glad he switched to Apple. Mom got lotsa stuff. A gold bee that has an emerald body. A gold necklace from Tiffany's. An iPod video. She struck it rich. My dad made sure she did after she had a very disappointing Christmas last year. My sister got fantastic clothes and a silver necklace from Tiffany's. She also got the new portable Sirius satellite radio. It's awesome. I picked it out :). Me. What did i get? I got some great clothes. No more PacSun! I'll look older now. Yay! I also got the camera I've been wanting. The Canon S50. It's fantastic. This was a superb Christmas I should say. Dinner was great. Movie time with the fam was great. Everything about it.

Livejournal isn't really my thing anymore, so I'm just gonna end it now. I wrote quite a bit. I could write more and tell you other things I've been up to this month. There are tons of stories. But I'm lazy. If you wanna chat, gimme a call. I got a little over a week left here in Norfolk then it's back to Houston. Later!

This weekend has been great. I'll give you the run down.

Friday. Got drunk with John at the apartment. We then proceeded to watch Dave Chapelle, who is even funnier when you're drunk. We then went to Taco C, and on the way back John made this dash out of the car at a red light to go to a gas station for Dr. Pepper, only to find out that the gas station was closed and he had tons back at the apartment. It was kinda funny. He was really drunk.

Saturday was even better. I went to Arrowfest with Marcus, Liz, and Melody. Shit I saw some awesome bands. Arrowfest is an all day concert that the radio station, The Arrow, hosts. It's all classic rock bands from like the 70s and 80s, cuz that's the kinda music they play. Anywho, there were awesome bands so let me name them. First off my favorite. Foreigner. God I love Foreigner. They were so awesome. Other bands that were great included Little Riverband, Styx (although their voices are kinda high for me), Eddie Money, and Kansas (although honestly we missed Kansas. dangit). God what a great show. Then the night..... NOD. Night of Decadence. Biggest party on campus that consists of wearing as little clothes as possible. I got back to campus. Stripped down to my boxers (that's all I wore) and then proceeded to drink 6 or so drinks in like 20 minutes. Became completely drunk, and had an awesome good time. There are stories, but there are too many to tell and some are just way inappropriate for a journal entry. I did see boobs and butts, so you know. If you wanna know more, just ask me and I'll tell you sometime.

Sunday..... I don't remember anything about Sunday honestly. Oh wait! Ya I do! Sunday was Marcus's birthday. I hung out with him and 2 of his friends from Austin - Blake and Katie. Twus fun. We went to the Galleria and such. I bought a new hat and necklace. Then I worked in studio, but that's ok.

Monday was great. Monday night that is. Marcus had a party in honor of his birthday, but also in honor of Halloween. Everyone showed up in costumes. I dressed as a nun. Everyone got a kick out of it. Basically everyone thought I had the best costume. I had a giant cross around my neck and everything. God it was awesome. So anyhow, I attempted to party without drinking. That just doesn't work for me. After 2 hours I was like fuck it, and I got drunk. Jessica had offered to drive my car back to Rice multiple times, and finally I said sure. I ended up crashing at her place on her futon.

Tuesday, which is no longer today, began by Jess and I finding out that Structures class was cancelled. Then I drank soy milk with Adam and played Super Smash Bros with him in the Lovett Commons for like an hour and a half. He's damn good. Better than me. Then what else. Oh ya. Tonight I saw Attack of the Killer Tomatoes at Marcus's with Marcus, Charles, and Jessica. Jess and Charles fell asleep. They tend to do that. When the 4 of us saw Paradise Now, that's what happened. Anyway, Marcus and I stayed up for it. He had seen it before and loves it. This was my first time seeing it and wow. What a weird movie. But yet..... very funny. I liked it. I will never look at tomatoes the same way ever again.

So that's the scoop. Hope it tasted good. Later guys.

Dude. My title rocks eh? Makes you all excited and what not. Soooo. What have I been up to.... (I don't remember everything that well, but let's go with it). Last weekend. I saw Chicago at the Hobby Center, same place I saw Evita. Chicago was damn amazing though and practically sold out. God I love that broadway. So awesome. I also made dinner with Marcus and Caitlin. What else. Oh ya I did a fake Screw Your Roommate with Marcus and Dana. We basically hung out at the Galleria. It was only open for like 5 minutes of the 2 hours we were there, but it was fun walking by closed stores. There was an arcade place that was still open so we played some games there. The night ended with me backing into Eric's car. He was high at the time. It was all good.

What after that? Sunday. Studio. That night I got only 4 hours of sleep. Monday. Studio. Only 2 hours of sleep. Tuesday. Studio. 0 hours of sleep. Wednesday. Midterm Review for Studio. 14 hours of sleep.

I just got back from an extra credit tour at Bayou Bend. Lots of fun. I learned about etiquette and entertaining during 17th, 18th, and 19th century America. I enjoy that stuff. Sorry if you don't. It's always fun to hear random things like how cupboards in dining rooms used to have a miniature urinal bowl inside because after dinner parties, the men would get totally drunk and needed to pee, so to make it convenient there would be places for them to pee in the furniture.

This weekend is gonna be busy. I just wanna be back at Wiess kinda. I miss the people at Wiess. I haven't really seen them since that trip to New Braunfels. That was such an awesome trip. I wanna do something like that again.

On a positive note, this year I've been meeting a bunch of Will Rice people thru Marcus. Will Rice is like my second home I feel, because I know a good amount of them. I even met the masters. Actually scratch that. Will Rice is my third home. Wiess is my second home. Studio is my first home.

Note to everyone reading this. If you go to Rice and are not an archi, please visit me in studio. I want visitors. Visitors are nice.

Oh ya. I gotta practice more guitar. I should do that. Man, Friday felt like yesterday. How can it be Friday again? That's what happens when you're in studio so long. Your days just fly by. Later guys.

I'm too lazy to say everything that I've been up to, so I'll be brief. Tons and tons of studio work. I pulled an allnighter Thursday night. What do you expect. Friday was good. After studio I went back to the apartment and slept, then went to Black Walnut Cafe in The Village. Tasty. Then John and I met up with Nancy on campus. The 3 of us went to a party in the Hanszen 80s. Beer bliss. Then we went to Mardi Gras, but I had to pee and when I came back I couldn't find them, but ran into Elizabeth, Galina, and that gang. Saw the strip show with them. Strip show was mediocre. Still glad I saw it though. When the girls decided to leave, so did I. I went back to Wiess planning on heading to Scott and Rajen and them's room, but actually ended up stopping at the wine and cheese party nextdoor first cuz i knew the people there. Had a lotta wine. Not that tasty, but strong so 'twas good. Then I went next door and hung out with Scott, Tim, Frank, Hailey, Anthony, Laura, and Stam and her friend. This was true drunken bliss. Oh wow it was quite a party. Soooo much fun. Lots of dancing on the bar. A little homosexuality, but it's ok. When you're drunk you can do anything. It's funny. I ended up crashing on their couch. So that was my Friday. Saturday nothin much until Ellen's bday celebration. We went to Two Rows, which was tasty. Lots of people. Lots of fun. Then we went back to Wiess and saw half of Lagaan, a Bollywood movie that is super cheesy but it was still good. Nice dancing and singing. Now I'm here. Back on my bed after no sleeping in it for the past 2 days. Anywho I'm too tired to talk anymore. Not really tired. More like this new t.A.T.u. cd is badass and I wanna listen to it undistracted. No joking me on that. I love it. Now it's time to split. Later.

Images work better than stories when you have too many stories. I had too many this weekend, and rather than engulfing you with them all, I will shorten each event into one line.

::Friday::
1) Basketball with the guys. Frank overpowers us with his height.

::Saturday::
2) Sleep until 3:30 PM, then it's time to plan out a vacation.
3) Scott punts the giant ball onto the second floor, and we all reach out in all directions trying to catch it.
4) Crouched down on the bleacher stairs, I watch a Greek dance while shouting Oh-pa! and feeling the stomps of feet through my soon to be numb butt.
5) Dipping pancakes in syrup puddles to the sight of super-powered Chinese soccer players in Shaolin Soccer.

::Sunday::
6) Backseatless van, layered with cushions and blankets.
7) Skipping stones. Mindless fun.
8) Skipping sandals across Canyon Lake and throwing them like frisbees.
9) A hail storm of rocks fly out of a dozen hands and plop into the water.
10) Journey across the edge of the lake, attacking ducks and soaking my keys in the process.
11) Relaxing on a cliff's edge, scanning the entire lake.
12) Railing picture. Pillar picture. 5-4-3-Scott hurry up over here!-2-1-Flash.
13) River trek. Rock hopping. Giant rock catapults floating log into us.
14) River trek continues. Off with the shoes. Careful of the currents. Make it to tip of the dam.
15) Cooking burgers, playing with kittens, strumming the guitar.
16) Playing Crazy-8's, listening to my laptop, watching the stars.
17) Trash talking with Blears.
18) Sharing a bed with Frankypoo in the cabin.

::Monday::
19) San Antonio's Riverwalk. Like a hidden Paris or Venice. Below the level of the city.
20) Ruins of the Alamo.
21) Meet Justin to eat sushi, stuff myself with the largest size cup of mango sorbet from Da Vinci's, and to tour his house.
22) Dancing skeletons. Hilarious death jokes. Clay figures. The Corpse Bridge at the Angelica.
23) My hair dyed purple? No black? Oh, it's just dark brown.

::Tuesday::
24) Sleep until 2:00 AM, then it's time unpack my car.
25) More sleep. More relaxing. Midterm on Thursday? Who cares.

Saturday, October 1st...

I saw Evita with Sean today. It was done not as well as I would have liked, but I still like hearing the songs. Eva was an understudy for us. She didn't have the oopmh that the real singer probably has (I nodded off a few times and I never nod off in musicals). The person who normally is Eva had been Christine in Phantom, so you know she probably has talent. I wish I had gotten to see her and not the understudy, but it's ok. Like I said, the songs are still fun to hear.

Before the musical we went to The Aquarium which was cool. Lots of big fish. We ate lunch on the second floor restaurant. It was pretty cool, seeing as how there was a giant tank in the middle, so the whole time we were able to watch hundreds of fish. I gathered a lot of information regarding aquarium construction that I can use in the construction of my marine center for architecture studio. After the musical I went with my roommates, Nancy, Nancy's friend, Phil, and Andy and saw an orchestra concert at Rice. Apparently our student symphony is the best in the country. They definitely sounded like it.

The rest of the night consisted of laundry and Madden 05. Justin scored 32 in the first quarter and I scored 0. Somehow though, I managed to get out of my rut and defeat him, 47-44. I was proud of myself.

Sunday, October 2nd...

I went to Galveston with Megan today in order to examine the site that our marine center will be located at, and in order to see the various visual themes apparent on the island. We started the day by driving to the site, located on a tiny peninsula on Pelican Island, the location of A&M Galveston. The view from the island was amazing. Industrial oil rigs and boat docks. Dolphins tailing a fisherman's boat. A very rustique vibe.

After our exploration of the site, we crossed the bridge back to Galveston, and explored the nearby area..... the ghetto. Buildings that had collapsed inwards, as if they were imploded. Apartments with knocked out walls, reminiscent of bombed Iraqi buildings.

We then moved to The Strand, a small Victorian downtown type of area. Not a downtown like NYC, but more like old America. The atmosphere of this area made me think of Charleston, that is if it were abandoned. The only real sign of newness and life came out of the Carnival Cruise ship that was parked nearby. Apparently the Carnival Conquest was to leave that day.

We continued exploring and came upon the Segway man. We asked how much rentals were, and when he said $20, we were bummed. We said we didn't have the money, but he did offer to let us try them. My first ride on a Segway! It was exciting. I'm very impressed with them. We said goodbye, and mentioned that we were going to go get some lunch. He recommended a Mediterranean restaurant and told us to say hi to Mason, the guy that ran the place. We said we would, then left. Not too much long later we ran into Sean, Alice, and Jenny. We said hi real briefly, then parted ways. We were hungry.

We found the recommended restaurant and chowed down on our pita sandwiches. We did find Mason and told him hi, which led into a short but nice conversation. We then left the restaurant, having been wished to have a good rest of the day by our second new friend.

After lunch, I decided I could use some candy. We stopped in this old candy/ice cream shop that Megan goes to every summer, and I bought some rock candy. Somehow, we ended up becoming friends with another guy. We had a good conversation with one of the guys that worked there. Everybody in this city seems to be very talkative and friendly. This guy was awesome. Last night he was up until 5 am making out, and not to long ago he was getting it on with his friend's mom. It's strange how much strangers will tell you if you talk to them right.

Next up was looking at the Victorian houses. Everything in Galveston seems to have this abandoned/weathered feel to it. Hurricanes have obviously hit this place hard. You could easily tell this from the peeling paint and splintered wood that made up these houses. They were once great, but now they're falling apart. But there is a beauty in this falling apart. There is beauty in age. I personally find old buildings far more pleasing than new ones in some aspects. There is a certain serenity that they bring about. A quiet, tranquil atmosphere.

After the house tour, we traveled along the seawall where we spotted fisherman, boardwalks, and the beach. The beach isn't the greatest, but it's still a beach. I'm used to ginormously wide beaches. Galveston offered a beach probably only 30 feet wide. It was still fun to see.

The final excursion involved finding the house that Doug Oliver, one of our architecture teachers, designed. I called him and asked for directions. I did my best to find the house, but I thought I might have gone too far, so I called him again, finding out that I had indeed gone too far. He gave me a rehash on the directions, but I just couldn't find the house. What made the hunt more difficult was that the house had been modified since it was originally built, thus the pictures I had seen of it didn't match up with the current design. I ended up pulling into some beach community and asked some random guy that was washing his car where the Palms of Galveston was. The Palms of Galveston was where Doug had told me the house was. Bill, the man I was talking to, was extremely helpful, as was his wife. They tried their best to help me find the house. They brought out maps, called a local real estate company to find out where Palms of Galveston was, and we even followed them to what they thought the house might be. They offered us water and access to their restroom. Awesome people. But, nowhere could I find Doug's house. This excursion lasted about 2 or so hours, but in the process I met some awesome people and I have come to know the Jamaica Beach area of Galveston extraordinarily well.

Then came the drive home where I tailgated two amazing motorcyclists. Megan and I watched one of them pop awesome wheelies. He turned back a bunch to make sure we were watching. The guy even managed to hop his bike. It was tons of fun to watch. It definitely made the ride back interesting. If they weren't there, I might have fallen asleep while driving due to exhaustion, but they were able to grab my attention and keep me awake.

It's been a long two days. Lots of fun, but I'm exhausted. Time for a nap!

So I never really wrote an entry about Rita. I guess I should. Rita was a strong category 5 hurricane headed directly towards Houston. In preparation for it, I moved most of my stuff into the bathroom (no windows) and bought lots of water. I also took $200 out of the cashflow machine in case the electricity went out (credit card machine no worky when there's no power, but the registers do). Hurricane was supposed to hit Friday night. Anyway, that Wednesday night I tried to evacuate with Tait, a fellow archi. We tried getting to Austin, but after 4 hours of moving less than a mile an hour, we turned back. I didn't have the gas or the patience to keep going. Later we would find out that it took some people 26, 30, and even 36 hours to get to Austin. Normally it is a 2 and a half hour drive.

Seeing as how I couldn't evacuate, I would have to tough out the storm. I seized an empty room at Wiess (a third or more of the students at Rice had evacuated so many rooms were empty). I was ready for the storm. I knew Wiess would survive and I wanted to see what a powerful hurricane was like. But no storm came. The hurricane veered off to the right and we got basically nothing.

No hurricane doesn't equal no fun though. I drank tons of beer (some of my friends had purchased 150 beers). I ate a lot of poptarts (I brought 150 poptarts but not all were eaten). Football. Ultimate Frisbee. Beer Pong. Monopoly. Madden 05. Timesplitters Future Perfect. Junk food galore down in the Wiess Commons. I even scored a Wiess shirt that was printed 2 or 3 years ago for helping our college masters prepare for the hurricane. The weekend was not a loss. It was a blast. We had no classes on Thursday, Friday, and Monday. Essentially it was a 5 day weekend.

This week has been killer though. Lots and lots of work. Teachers are cramming in order to get back on schedule. Last night I crashed in Jacqui's room cuz it was too late to catch the metrorail back to the apartment. This is the 2nd time I've crashed on her couch. I doubt it'll be the last.

In full perspective though, things are going great. This weekend I'm seeing Evita (the broadway musical) with Sean, as well as going to Galveston with Megan and some other archis. I'll tell you all how that stuff goes later. I'm excited. Should be a great weekend.

Well if you've made it this far, thanks for reading. I know that I often just skim what people have typed. Sometimes I only read the first paragraph, having become too impatient and lazy to read more. Well gang, that's it with my thoughts and adventures. Hopefully you'll be hearing back from me before the end of the new month (October starts tomorrow). Now I'm off to bed. Later.

80s. The decade of Michael Jackson, The Police, The Cure, Journey, and of course, Wham! Every year, Sid Rich holds a party at Rice to commemorate this decade. It consists of drinking, dancing, dressing in 80s attire, and even a live band to play the era's music. I took part in this memorious Friday night event by wearing my pink female jumpsuit (which fit me amazingly well), drinking to the point of loosey goosey (even had ecto cooler - 80s drink at Jessica's party; a blend of Hi-C, Slime, and Everclear; radioactive according to Marcus), and I danced with god knows how many people. Lots of fun I had, and I woke up without a hangover.

Meanwhile in Marcusville... Marcus made a pot smoothie. How much pot did he use? Volume was equivalent to a Snickers. That's fuckin crazy. He split it with Eric from Will Rice. Man. Man oh man oh man. Marcus felt nothing that night...... but Saturday......

Saturday. Destination = Austin. Reason = John's concert, UT game, hangout. Driver = Marcus..... or so it seemed up until Saturday morning. Marcus. Marcus was a limp doll without a mind and without words. He was completely useless. Stoned out of his mind. We were planning on leaving at 11 AM. We ended up leaving at 3:45 PM and arriving at 6. We missed John's concert, which started at 4:30 and ended at 5 something. Marcus slept the entire ride. It was more passing out, rather than sleeping. But anyway, once we arrived we went to the UT game. Marcus had to take pics of the game for the Thresher, the Rice newspaper. That was a good challenge for him. After that we went to dinner with Lauren (Marcus's ex), her roommate Casey, and a bunch of their friends. On the ride there I got in a little car accident....

I'm driving the minivan. Marcus and Lauren are in the back with no seatbelts on (I have no backseat, so they're on the floor). Marcus is on the phone. I overhear the person on the other side asking what road we're on. Marcus is stoned. He won't be able to find a road sign, so I look. I find the sign, say MLK, then look back at the road only to find that my lane ends and there is a giant curb 15 feet in front of me. I swurve to the left! Screech! Kaboom! The right side of the van hits the curb. Lauren is sent flying into the side of the van. Boom! I pull over into a parking lot to see what the damage is. Car damage = none. Passenger damage = Lauren is hurt. Marcus's reaction = nonstop laughing. Lauren's reaction = pissed off at Marcus.

Oh wow. It was intense. We made it to dinner safely, but wow. Lauren wasn't happy. Lauren and Marcus ended up sitting right across the table from each other, but they said nothing the entire dinner. Not a good start to the weekend. I visited with them all somewhat. It was fun. We went to El Arroyo (I believe Sarah Coble worked there?). I had fish tacos. Don't order fish tacos. They're not good. Fish + beans = ewww.....

So! After dinner I dropped everyone off and went to meet John at a party. John was already there, and he ended up calling me, telling me not to go because it was lame and we should go do something else. So! We met up at a Walmart and went to a hookah bar. Now. I had been to a hookah bar before with John in Houston, but had never tried it. This time I tried it, and it wasn't that bad. Tobacco was very very weak. Strawberry flavor was excellent. Then. After that we went to this place called Kerby Lane. Awesome food. I had pita and hummus. Soooo tasty. Suuuuch a variety. Veeery crowded but short wait. Definitely a hit among UT students. It was like 3 AM or something when we were there. It's open 24 hours. I end the day with sleep.

Next day. Brunch with John's family. I get to meet them all, and they're all really nice. John's sister looks amazingly like him. It's crazy how alike they look. Anyway, brunch was tasty. Then I left them all and met up with Marcus. Marcus, Lauren, Casey, and I were gonna go to lunch. Lauren ended up not going, but Casey did. We had a lotta fun. He ate at Einstein's. I actually didn't eat anything. I was full from brunch. I did however get a chai tea at some coffee shop next door. It was tasty. At any rate, I gotta meet Casey more. Twas fun.

Then came the car ride home. Marcus spoke! Hurray! By about noon that day, he was no longer stoned. He could think again! He was back to his normal talkative self. We got to Rice around 5 or 6 PM or something. I don't really remember. But! I remember having to catch up on all my architecture work. Marcus and I were there until about 5 AM. Crazy!

I did take 2 breaks during my archi work though. One was a Chipotle break where I met up with John and had dinner. The other was a Laguna Beach / Real World break, where I caught up on those shows with Marcus, Caitlin, Meredith, and Melissa. Breaks are good. It was still a late night though.

So that was this weekend. Today we had our stupid archi review. Lame miniature project, thus a lame review. Whatever. I went to cheapdate night and saw Lord of War. Good movie. Very depressing, but good movie.

That's the update. There will be more later. Just wait. I'm back with updating somewhat frequently I think. Later kids.

Has it been long? I suppose it has. Ben thought I might be dead. I don't think I am, but you never know. So. Lots has happened, but I've probably forgotten most of it. Anywho, let's see what's left in the freezer and thaw it out. That was a horrible metaphor, but roll with it. Here's a list of happenings.

1. Trip to Austin. Saw John's band play.

2. Trip to Woodlands. Saw Foo Fighters and Weezer.

3. Archi Project Numero Uno. Subject Matter = Ice Sculpture Pavilion. Status = Complete.

4. Archi Project Numero Dos. Subject Matter = Marine Research Center Museum Thing. Status = In Progress.

5. Laundry. Still haven't done it. I have no more clothes left to wear. State = Peril.

6. Pirate Booty. It's a campus party at Lovett. Had lots of fun. Met lots of Will Rice people. Got drunk. Crashed on a couch in a room that wasn't mine with Marcus. I didn't know the room occupants, but Marcus did.

7. Papadeaux. Went with Marcus and other Will Rice people. 3 of the Will Ricers are going to Williamsburg during Fall Break. Should I go too and show them around?

8. Guitar lessons. Excellente.

9. Obtained new Coheed and Cambria CD via Ben. CD is awesome.

10. Went to pub twice. Once for free pool where I played with some Martel senior. Marcus was working. Other time because it was college night.

11. Crashed on a couch in Jacqui's room due to a late studio night. Couch was too short for me, but somehow it was really cozy, and quite comfy.

12. ________ (Whatever I forgot. Fill in the blank.)

That's it. I've been busy. Lots of work. Lots of fun. Time to split. Peace.