2000-03-24 :: 01:04:48

i, jordan

Soundtrack: Velocity Girl, "Gilded Stars and Zealous Hearts"; Ozomatli, "Ozomatli"

Time for a delirious entry. None of this calculated nonsense.

Finally, a break. A well needed one, at that. My room is a pit and my resolutions have been all but abandoned for quite some time. I used Priceline for the first time and booked a ticket home for about $130 less than it would have been through the airline. Of course, I had a hop, but it worked out alright. It was my fault for not booking the ticket in time before rates jacked up. Note to self: Buy tickets within three week window.

Technically speaking, Spring Break starts on the 26^th, but I finished the last coding assignment (due this Friday) I had up at about 3:30AM this morning (and had bedtimes of 8AM, 6:30AM, and 4AM for the past few days). Yesterday (that would be Tuesday night), another student had held a small party for some of us (in the spirit of Spring Break and someone's birthday) up in one of the research labs. (Yikes. I have to cut down on these parentheses.) He spent a pretty penny on the drinks, too. The someone in question is a girl who has a Philippine suitemate that every male in the room was dazzled by (rightly so). I don't think she was impressed with the one word of Tagalag I know; the birthday girl has Tagalag phrases of the day in her .plan courtesy of this fluent suitemate. Here's the latest:

Plan:
Tagalag phrase of the day is back and better than ever:

(for women) PANGLAGLAG NG PANTI : [he's so hot that] my panties flew off
(for men) PANGLAGLAG NG BRIEF : [she's so hot that] my briefs flew off


binubuo mo ako

I don't even know what that bottom one means.

Upon completion, I headed out of the lab to go home, laundered my whites, showered and had the ceremonial shave, packed up, and hopped into a taxi at 8AM for a 9:37AM flight. The cabbie was a talkative Korean War veteran. He [somewhat] misinformed me about the Senate's passing a bill on elderly earnings and Social Security returns, but he was amusing. Told me about how Harry Truman should be in Hell for dropping the bomb and killing innocent women and children, about his brilliant computer engineer son, to stay with the computers, if I ever need a cab, ask for Bob, car number 5. He works from 5AM to 10AM because his body wakes him at 4AM. I can't even imagine. How the hell am I going to get up and drive to Roanoke tomorrow?

I had a green can in my jacket (courtesy of Nick), but I decided to lay off the caffeine and managed to get on the flight. In the opposite set of seats from me was a nun; she was elderly and had an overbite and a three inch cross. I had seen her in line when I was waiting to get my electronic ticket and decided I would ask her to tell me about Jesus if she was on my flight. I wanted to hear her spiel for some reason; maybe I was thinking about how she lives a life that few other people can comprehend or consider. When she sat down two seats from me, however, I stared at her somber sunken eyes and overbite for a moment and then put my seat back and promptly passed out. The flight attendants didn't ask me to raise it for takeoff, which was either exceedingly nice or exceedingly stupid (or both). I have flashbulb images of sipping a ginger ale and pain in my ears (from these $8 pressure-adjusting one-time-use earplugs doing their adjusting). Somehow I drank the can and a waitress took the empty from me, but I slept so deeply that the flight seems like it was 5 minutes long. I lost track of the nun when I got off. I wonder where she was going.

So I was now in Cleveland, which was a really drab place. Good thing I was only there for 30 minutes. I wouldn't be surprised if that is my first and last time in Ohio. I met a law student on my connection from there; he was looking for possible government work over the summer. We talked about famous cases that I'd been studying in polysci and must've sounded [rightfully?] pretentious to the stewardess that seemed to be hovering nearby. Dan, his name was -- a real eager beaver, outspoken type of guy. I told him he should read Courts on Trial. That's what I'm catching up on right now... plenty left to go, but it's really good. I read it instead of sleeping on the second flight, forcing down another can of ginger ale. I think Franks is right on.

There were a few nice points before all of these work/travel shenanigans, including a visit from Yuki and the corresponding convergence of CTY activity, as well as a Promise Ring show with Jeb. We lacked the skinny thrift store corduroy look, but got by somehow. It was my first time hearing them; I wasn't terribly into it. The happier stuff felt like it was artificially crusted in sugar, and they didn't do an encore (first show without an encore I've seen). Jeb informed me that the mopier sound on a few of the songs was more in keeping with what he remembered them being. Staying with the emo theme, there was some cute girl rubbing against my left side for half the show, and I didn't say a word to her. Oh well.

Walking home from the show, I said to Jeb: "There must be some happy medium between being mysteriously interesting but so mysterious that you are alone and being so out there that you are boring and no one cares." Jeb replied: "Yeah, two beers." That killed me. I was also amused when -- on the night of the aforementioned party -- Jeb was discussing online journals with me and a few other people. He apparently was a fan of some prostitute (or similarly employed individual) who journaled at Salon, but that's all he read. He said he was intrigued by what would make someone sit down and say "Okay, today I am going to sit down and start an online journal! My thoughts, for everyone to see!" The concept just seemed to fascinate him, despite his not having read many. I wonder how I'd answer that question. Little does Jeb know. Heh.

Well. All of that, and no meta-content. Incredible. I should do that more often. Anyway, I have a long drive ahead of me tomorrow. Time to pass out again.

i, jordan