Well, I missed my first class today. I didn't make that much of my second class either, which was at 2. I did get to buy some new socks. I've been wanting to buy some new socks for a while because my old ones have been getting more and more loose. I love the feel of new socks. Afterwards, I went to go play basketball at San Marco park at 5 with David, Ryan, and GP. I thought more people were coming, but it was alright because it was really windy and the windchill felt like 50 degrees. We played until the sun went down, and even a little bit after, despite the lack of any lighting. I actually drove left and finished a couple of times, even though my left handles basically suck. If we keep playing every week, we'll be in really good condition for the Days bball tournament in July. I want to redeem myself. I really stunk it up last year. I think two of my shots went over the backboard. I lifted the day before though, and my arms felt a little numb. No excuse this year. We're going to tear it up.

We all went to the driving range next, making plenty of noise for the other people to get distracted to. I've never had any golf experience before, so I really showed them what a true novice looks like. One of my shots hit the stupid golf ball tray (which is only 2 inches high) and ricocheted backwards into the parking lot... I think it hit a car, because there was a metallic thud, but I didn't see any dents in the cars, so I went back to hacking. The majority of the shots that I made contact with were line drives about 2 feet off the ground. I whiffed a couple of times too, just enough to put the gold ball a good 5 feet away. I actually had one (just one) good shot down the middle, about 175 or 200 yards. I was so proud, I lifted the golf club high with both hands and let everyone know. I don't think the other people appreciated it, but it's all good. Next destination: batting cages. I managed to hit one home run out of 36 pitches. I think I only hit 3 balls. That's on medium and slow pitching too. Man, I need to practice or something. That's definitely a shot to the ego. Feeling like more craziness, I went to the ARC afterwards just for the hell of it. That made 6 workouts in 7 days.

I went home, showered, and we went to Days First Friday vigil, late like always. It was wierd without Jei and Dorothy there, but then again I've only been to it three times. We left after 12 and I got in David's car, but Brian turned around and parked BaniBJ right in front of David's car, with the lights on. All you could see was the grill and the lights. Haha. I rode with Brian back home, cut my hair, and made my way to 25A Parkwatts at 4 am so Fran could wake me up on time. She suggested I sleep over because she said I might oversleep. Where did she ever get that idea? Next destination: SOL youth rally 2003.

HSO started at 7:30. I woke up at 8:45, even with my stereo blaring less than 12 inches from my face for a good hour. I got there and felt all disoriented, not knowing what was going on. On top of that, I left my facilitator folder at home, so I didn't know which kids I had and what time everything was taking place. I left for my history discussion, but got there twenty minutes late. I peeked in and only saw 10 people in the room. It was only first week, so I kicked myself and went back to the student center. Lunch was fun, with all the performances and things going on. I grabbed six slices of free Costco pizza (that's a whole half of a pizza!) and didn't waste a bite. We continued HSO, even though Solomon (my facilitator partner) and I were down to 2 kids. We ended with a tour of campus and then all the kids left. I started a ninja game in the student center, but Angie started tackling people and random people tried to make some dogpiles. PUSO had a big group picture, but while I was walking to it I tried to adjust my eyeglasses with the hand I was using to hold my uncapped water bottle. Not a good idea.

I fell asleep during cleanup and woke up to find my shoelaced tied to a water jug. I stayed behind while everyone left so I could watch some stuff while Brian moved BaniBJ ot the parking structure. I realized that my HSO Diamondbacks (our team mascot) poster was thrown away, so I dug it out of the trashcan. For some reason I get really sentimental about things I put work into, even if it's just a poster or something. Brian came back and somehow we got to talking with Mark about our parents and how restrictive they are. I felt less alone in my parent struggles... it seemed like I was the only one sometimes. They have wierd habits, like forcing us to go to sleep early even on the weekends and not letting us go out so that we can be home, even though they don't do anything with us at home. There's also our selectiveness in what we tell them, because they are so academically minded and don't know what it's like to be a college student now. Even doing things like homeless outreaches, they might make a big deal about how much time it takes away from studying or how dangerous it is. My parents tend to think that I'll be alright if I get through college without doing anything besides the coursework and research and volunteer work, but I don't think I'd be happy at all doing just that. My mind demands more than book knowledge and my heart can't function inside of a box. What use are you if everything you do is for yourself and your own future? Where does that put you when you're retired and have nobody to talk to outside or your family and you have no experiences to share that are different than what everyone else has been through? At a certain point you have to trust your own judgement, while your parents have to trust they raised you well enough to have good judgement. It's all part of growing up and learning to let go.

We left and Brian took the big bag of bagels to drop off at the mission. I went to the ARC later with my roommate. I was waiting for my roommate in the restroom and I saw a 40 year old white man walk past me and went about his business. Kindoba scurry... did I mention it was a butt naked 40 year old man? He wasn't even wearing slippers! I made it through all of high school and this far through college without having to see one naked man in the locker room. He had to walk right where my head was turned too... We had spirit rally practice until late. Angie commenced with the tackling and ninja stuff. She had pretty good form for the shoestring takcles. Ryan and Reg got into the action and pinned Angie. We all left for 25A Parkwatts to surprise Shelby on her birthday. Brian found her crying in the closet because she saw a sad movie. The cake was good, but I kept dropping frosting everywhere, even after I was done with it. I went home and crashed... exhausted...

One thing I forgot to write about last night: at the A-Phi-O meeting I attended late last night, they had little jello cups. Monica gave me some lemon jello, but I didn't really like it, so I grabbed some green jello and talked to some of the members and Ed. I had a mouthful of jello in my mouth, and I felt a cough coming up in my throat, but for some reason I couldn't hold it, and man... projectile lime jello!! It just shot out my mouth and hit a chair... maybe a couple of chairs... and Ed, in the head. My bad... at least there wasn't anyone directly in front of me. There had to be at least 100 people in Emerald Bay A, but only 4 people saw me. I think I took the embarassment pretty well too. Haha... just don't tell anybody!

I woke up to an empty house today. Lately I've been coming home after everyone sleeps and I wake up around the time people leave, so it seems like I live by myself sometimes. It makes me more sure that living alone sucks. I took a long time in the shower because A) the mosquito bite on my arm was seriously irking me and B) I ran out of soap, so I looked in my drawer (after I had already gotten my feet wet, like always) and found it completely devoid of soap. A quick check of my roommate's drawer revealed the same. Not feeling like searching under the bathroom sinks, I resorted to squeezing out bath gel into my hand and trying to lather. Needless to say, it wasn't easy. I got dressed and spread a big glob of ointment on my swollen forearm and headed off to school, already 5 minutes late. I flirted with the idea of not going because my arm was bugging me so much, but I went anyway. Leo, Flo, and Kathleen tried to suck me into their treacherous whirlpool of ditching class but I resisted and sat in for the last 20 minutes of math. Then I ate with Fran, Derrick, Leo, Flo, and Kathleen. Later, we made our way to Interfaith to grab flyers, but got held up because Fran had some business to speak of with Father Pat and Nancy. By the time they were done, it was almost time for my class, so I stuck flyers in car windows (ones with crosses on their rear view mirrors) around PSLH parking lot, walking into class 15 minutes late. I rushed home afterwards and bought some ice to wrap my arm in. I took my antibiotics and saran wrapped and bag of ice to my arm so I wouldn't have to hold it. Ice sure does wonders for insect bites. I realized I forgot I had to meet with my HSO partner Solomon to make our banner, but he called me anyway. I went over to his apartment near South Coast Plaza, a nice apartment building with a phat balcony, almost as big as my tiny little backyard at home. We watched the Washington Wizards almost come back from a 21 point deficit against the Sacramento Kings in the 4th quarter, only to come within 5 points. Man, it'd be nice to see Jordan in the playoffs one more time. I left to go to the Alpha Phi Omega (A-Phi-O) meeting, a co-ed service fraternity. I was surprised to see it was still going on, even though I was 2 hours late. I had business to take care of... Supposedly there's a $55 membership fee, which I don't feel like shelling out, but it seems like a really thing organization, which a lot of cool people. $55 to do thing with cool people. It's a "dry" fraternity, so that's appealing, but I have to see if I have time for it admidst one rest of the things I want to do. This figures to be a very busy quarter, but one of the best out of my four years, for sure. I went to YFC afterwards and watched their fast forward/rewind icebreaker. Makes a good party game, I would think. I went to work out to end my day and was happy to see Reg there. I don't think she was too happy to see me though, because I made her stop cheating on her sets. I also saw some dude lift almost three times what I do... that's 320 pounds on the pull down machine. Crazy. That's 100 more pounds than I usually squat! Reg and I grabbed some boba right before Tapioca Express closed and headed home... tomorrow is HSO and I have to be at school by 7:30. Great.

Good night. Don't be afraid to push yourself. Or be pushed.

It's been a great day so far. I woke up right when my stereo turned on at 8 am and sat up, letting the music stir my brain for a couple of minutes while Malcolm (the cat) ran up to me and licked my big toe. Silly cat. I took a shower later than I wanted to because my other roommate works at 9, and I thought someone was in the shower the whole time, but I was wrong. My other roommate, who got me to take a last class with him, since it's his last quarter, waited for me to get ready so I could give him a ride. I made him chill out so I could eat some yogurt. I really don't like to be rushed to go places unless I feel like getting ready quickly. Gotta take it easy...

We arrived at school about 8:45, 15 minutes late. On top of that, we had to hike up to Roland Hall, all the way across campus. First we bump into Matt, our old roommate. Then we see another of our old roommates, Jeremy. That's two white guys. Would there be a third? J-Lo was third. By the time we got to class, there were no seats left and we ended up sitting on the floor by an AC vent in the back. Fifteen minutes later, class was over. Students stormed to the front to ask questions so we waited five minutes to ask for a syllabus. On the walk back to the student center through the park, my roommate and I bumped into Linda (who has a propensity to forget my name), Charlene, and Matt (again). We sat on some benches and talked for a little bit, then Linda left and we all walked to towards the student center, bumping into people every 50 feet (literally). Inside the food court, even more people to bump into. I was talking to Josie and didn't realize Eileen had cut in front of me at Subway. Real sneaky. I ate outside with my roommate, Matt, and his girlfriend. At one point they were talking about having to sit next to really large people who end up encroaching on your personal space. I then went to two discussions in a row, even though I didn't think they would meet, but they did. I forced myself to take notes too. I think I'm going to keep this up. I feel much more accomplished when I actually do things...

I went to the student health center after class to get my mosquito bite (which was fairly HUGE by then) checked out, bumping into more and more people on the way. I got to the clinic thinking I'd only be paying maybe 15 bucks to see the doctor and get some ointment. Little did I know about the $100 deductible on the USHIP insurance thing which I forgot to cancel even though I'm under Kaiser. At least financial aid take care of that. According to my roommate, you can get $5 eye checkups with USHIP insurance. Too bad it didn't help me much. I paid $47 just to talk to the doctor and get ointment and antibiotics. Hard to justify, even with a nicely swollen arm. I have to take antiboitics now, and I don't really like taking medicine unless it's very necessary, and to me, an insect bite doesn't strike me as a great risk, but I think I'll just follow the doctor's orders. Besides, I paid $10 for the pills.

Walking back, I picked up a Vietnamese sandwich from Circle-K for $2. I made my way home and take my pills and apply my ointment, but the cream didn't seem to make the itching go away. Hopefully the stuff works on me. My roommate informed me that SBC called, so I check the phone bill I haven't opened, $66 overdue and the due date stated was April 2. Damn. I called them up and straightened things out, having to make two calls and sort though the whole freaking automated telephone answer system before being able to speak to a live person. I ended up paying $109 off my ATM card for three months of service. I guess it's time to collect. The antiboitics started to give me stomach pains, so I took a little nap on the couch for 2 hours. Maybe it wasn't such a small nap. I missed PUSO, but I left for Liwanag a little late. I put on a jacket and it really irritated my mosquito bite, so I yelled a little bit in the car while I drove off. It was good to see so many people at the meeting and watching them ham it up while we had our skit practice. I was supposed to work out with my roommate and play racquetball with Mel and GP at 11, but Reg and I left the meeting around 11:15, and when we parked she realized she left her wallet in her car. We finally get started around 11:30 and I map out a routine for Reg, but she refused to do the leg parts. Her and her superstitions. I walked over to the racquetball courts and start to play, and then the lights shut off. I had a good four swings. I drove Reg back to Interfaith, and met Brian there. We went to the copier room to make flyers to distribute for the spirit rally. Reg was being mean and didn't want to talk to Shelby and managed to mess up 26 sheets of paper. Brian and I restrained her while we dailed Mom to let her know. She just laughed, although Reg fought pretty hard to try and hang up the phone. We talked some more and then left, so Brian stuck some of her sheets in her windshield wipers. Reg then drove in front of BaniBJ and messed with his van, while I tried to move Reg's car with the nose of my car (not easy with a stick shift). She ended up throwing the sheets into my open window, so I left her a little surprise. April 1st may have been over, but April 2 was just beginning...

3:00 am now, time for bed. ARC tomorrow anyone?

It's been a great day so far. I woke up right when my stereo turned on at 8 am and sat up, letting the music stir my brain for a couple of minutes while Malcolm (the cat) ran up to me and licked my big toe. Silly cat. I took a shower later than I wanted to because my other roommate works at 9, and I thought someone was in the shower the whole time, but I was wrong. My other roommate, who got me to take a last class with him, since it's his last quarter, waited for me to get ready so I could give him a ride. I made him chill out so I could eat some yogurt. I really don't like to be rushed to go places unless I feel like getting ready quickly. Gotta take it easy...

We arrived at school about 8:45, 15 minutes late. On top of that, we had to hike up to Roland Hall, all the way across campus. First we bump into Matt, our old roommate. Then we see another of our old roommates, Jeremy. That's two white guys. Would there be a third? J-Lo was third. By the time we got to class, there were no seats left and we ended up sitting on the floor by an AC vent in the back. Fifteen minutes later, class was over. Students stormed to the front to ask questions so we waited five minutes to ask for a syllabus. On the walk back to the student center through the park, my roommate and I bumped into Linda (who has a propensity to forget my name), Charlene, and Matt (again). We sat on some benches and talked for a little bit, then Linda left and we all walked to towards the student center, bumping into people every 50 feet (literally). Inside the food court, even more people to bump into. I was talking to Josie and didn't realize Eileen had cut in front of me at Subway. Real sneaky. I ate outside with my roommate, Matt, and his girlfriend. At one point they were talking about having to sit next to really large people who end up encroaching on your personal space. I then went to two discussions in a row, even though I didn't think they would meet, but they did. I forced myself to take notes too. I think I'm going to keep this up. I feel much more accomplished when I actually do things...

I went to the student health center after class to get my mosquito bite (which was fairly HUGE by then) checked out, bumping into more and more people on the way. I got to the clinic thinking I'd only be paying maybe 15 bucks to see the doctor and get some ointment. Little did I know about the $100 deductible on the USHIP insurance thing which I forgot to cancel even though I'm under Kaiser. At least financial aid take care of that. According to my roommate, you can get $5 eye checkups with USHIP insurance. Too bad it didn't help me much. I paid $47 just to talk to the doctor and get ointment and antibiotics. Hard to justify, even with a nicely swollen arm. I have to take antiboitics now, and I don't really like taking medicine unless it's very necessary, and to me, an insect bite doesn't strike me as a great risk, but I think I'll just follow the doctor's orders. Besides, I paid $10 for the pills.

Walking back, I picked up a Vietnamese sandwich from Circle-K for $2. I made my way home and take my pills and apply my ointment, but the cream didn't seem to make the itching go away. Hopefully the stuff works on me. My roommate informed me that SBC called, so I check the phone bill I haven't opened, $66 overdue and the due date stated was April 2. Damn. I called them up and straightened things out, having to make two calls and sort though the whole freaking automated telephone answer system before being able to speak to a live person. I ended up paying $109 off my ATM card for three months of service. I guess it's time to collect. The antiboitics started to give me stomach pains, so I took a little nap on the couch for 2 hours. Maybe it wasn't such a small nap. I missed PUSO, but I left for Liwanag a little late.

Six hours of sleep and I wake up from the shove my roommate gives me before leaving for class. Right then the loudness of my stereo hits me, which was blasting for almost an hour in my left ear two feet from my head as I lay pretty much unconscious. I wanted to eat something before I left, but I didn't have time. Amazingly, I was able to make it early to my first class of spring quarter. Too bad it's a class I'm taking over... Math 2J. The first lecture was a review of stuff we learned junior year of high school. A review of a review. I don't know how I paid attention, but I forced myself. I'm not going to let myself slack off this early. I bumped into my brother's friend again, which makes 5 times in 6 days I think. It was so hot outside my thoughts kept drifting to sleep. Heat has that effect on me, so when I drive at night I either blast the AC or I open my window. I'd rather be a little cold than a little hot because you don't sweat when you're cold. My roommate called me and we talked for almost half an hour. I got to thinking about my minutes, but I realized that I have never really come close to using up my minutes, because I don't really call many people, and nobody really calls me. A little depressing to think about it, but at least I get to hang out with people most of the time.

I got my reserved parking permit ($147 bucks, but worth the convenience and time saved), then I drove to Rubios to get some fish tacos and the manager told me it's the final day of their 99 cent fish taco special. What am I going to do? Lent's only half over! I didn't get a drink because I felt like buying a bigger drink at Ralphs, but the drinks were even more expensive there. There were some nice stools in the deli area for people to eat at, and I was tempted just to grab a stool and eat, but I had no drink, and I really didn't feel like hitting up the water fountain between bites. I instead drove to Tapioca Express (which I wanted to get last night, but nobody else wanted any) and got a taro milk tea. I said taro ice tea when I ordered, and the cashier girl Hannah (if you've ever worked a job that requires you to wear a nametag, you probably get annoyed when customers use your name) though I ordered a taro icee. I asked for less ice, and she said it would be watery with less ice, so I asked for a regular one. Then she realized she put the order in wrong, and I asked for low ice again. What did I get? Lots of ice. I can't blame her though. It was a funky situation. I saw my friend Joo Lee there. That's her full name. Cool, no? I remember last year we had physiology lab together and she had a little study session for the final at her apartment. Two of my lab partners, Don and Lisa showed up besides me. We studied for about one hour, then Don broke out some New Castles and we ended up singing random songs while Don played the guitar... in the dark. They didn't drink that much though... it was more of a spontaneous concert/sing-along. Fun times.

By the time I was done eating, my two hours of break were up and I went to physics. Since I have reserve in the student center, the walk to PSLH was long, and for some reason I ended up taking the long way around, even when I realized I was planning on walking through the park... but didn't. I ended up being slightly late, but I only missed the introductions. Class ended early so I went home. My roommate tried to convince me to look for birds (pets for a friend). I declined because I wanted to cut my hair, but I ended up passing out on the couch until 6:30. I left for a High School Outreach prep meeting at 7. I always thought of HSO being so far away, but it's already this Thursday. I told Reg I'd meet her at the ARC later, but she didn't show up. It's alright though, because I had a good workout. The mobs of people kept me from doing my usual routine, so I changed it up and I think it felt better. I'm trying to get stronger and leaner for sports, and maintain my body weight above 160, but I think my eating habits aren't as good as they should be. I saw my friend Phebe from high school and her friends there too(they're cool people, really chill and whatnot), and she conned me into doing crunches, even though my abs were sore. She said she saw my sister Grace snowboarding at Snow Summit two weeks ago. Small world... I remember seeing one of my sister's friends when I went there three years ago (my first time). Then I saw Borrachi and Joe. Seeing all these random people made me realize that I haven't seen or hung out with a lot of people in a long time. Where are you guys?

I hope the rest of spring quarter is as productive as my first day was... not just in the sense of academically, but being able to stay active, work out, hang out, and still have free time. There go my naps...

Time for bed... only 1:18... soon though...

I woke up early (does noon count? it's a sunday) today determined to do something... I went to ARC and did my leg workout, which I haven't done for a while. It was nice to get back into things, but I developed that nauseous feeling, like the one you get when you run your hardest. As long as I stay consistent, I won't have to deal with that feeling anymore. After that, I ate and then went to mass, and then spirit rally practice. I haven't started filming anything for commercials, but then again, I didn't have a camera. We were fairly productive, but at one point we spent 15 minutes trying to determine a good hug for our skit. Afterwards, we went to In-and-Out where I saw my brother's friend Uriel (who I've seen 4 out of the last 6 days I think) and Rae, who's been MIA, but only because she's one the busiest people at UCI, besides being a computer engineering major. I joked that I had to sit next to Mom, so she sat at a different table, giving me evil looks. I guess it's a mom thing. A few of us left for Parkwatts 25A, and since I didn't want to deal with parking, I rode with David. You'd think they'd put in angle parking or something to remedy the horrendous parking situation, but I guess the revenues from towing are better for the Irvine Apartment Company than guest parking. We parked all the way on the far side of Parkwatts and walked for a good 5 minutes (uphill both ways, in the snow) to 25A. Cristina, Nim, Flo, Fran, and Shelby were there, chilling. I was tossing a hacky-sack to Cris and I accidentally hit the VCR (I was tossing with my left hand... limited coordination), and I got the look of death from Mom... I don't need to see that look ever again.

Dave drove me back to In-and-Out at 1 am to get my car, and he told me about how he fell asleep on the freeway and lost the front lip on his car when he hit something. On the way home, I took the long route, cutting through UCI so I could speed (safely of course) around campus and skip some stoplights. On the freeway, I played with the thought of testing my top speed (also safely, on long straights with no other traffic) again, but I figured there might be a cop around. Lucky for me I didn't, because right as I merged onto the 73, two police cars had pulled over some guy. I took my exit on Fair Dr and cruised down, but hit a red light on Fairview. I checked to see who triggered the red light because I don't like stopping on Fair Dr (the lights can take forever), but I didn't see any cars. The light changed quickly back to green and I check left and right before I cross, which isn't really a habit of mine, but when I was driving to the ARC I realized that I'd drive through crosswalks or make right turns without looking to the sides for pedestrians. I saw an eclipse come around from the left on Fairview (you can't see cars coming from that direction until they're almost in the intersection), going pretty fast, but I expected it to stop. I start to roll forward and then I look again at the eclipse, which proceeds to barrel through the red light. WHOA. I think He made me check that time. That eclipse had to have been going about 50, and I would have been T-boned. Check those intersections kids... they're dangerous. Drive safe!