I didn't have one class today, but it was the busiest first day of classes in my whole college career. I had my first bike ride to school today in more than two years. Luckily I still have some legs under me and didn't wear myself out too much. I helped out with the PUSO backpack check in for the bookstore. The strange thing is it felt like I didn't know anybody walking around anymore. That's the life of a 5th year.

I biked around a bit and downed 2 bobas (too bad they added ice to it as if the ice was more important than the boba). April stopped by and told me about her social dance class which she was taking for pass/non-pass and somehow convinced me to go, just so she'd know somebody in the class. When we got to the building she peeked in first... and it was all girls. It wouldn't have seemed that bad if it was at the ARC, but it was in the freaking dance school. We weren't even supposed to wear our shoes in there. Intimidating. Just a little. One other guy showed up, but he looked like he was a dancer. I was ready to leave when they had us sign in, but I stayed, planning to leave in an hour so I could pay my overdue gas bill (April never told me the class was THREE HOURS LONG!!). We learned the waltz and some salsa, and the instructor did some demonstrations of competitive type dances. I felt better that the dude didn't teach too much at a time and that I was actually picking everything up. My friend Phebe's friend Sharon was there and we introduced our selves... for the third time. At least she recognized me I guess. I ended up staying till the end of class because I didn't feel like biking 5 miles to pay my bill and it's due tomorrow anyway. I never would have pictured myself taking a class like social dance, but hey, it's great for single guys. We had a 10-1 girl to guy ratio or something like that. Now we just have to get some more people we know to show up just for kicks.

Afterwards, we headed over to Interfaith. Mark Anthony, Michael, Leo, and Nimz were prepping stuff for mass in the plaza, so I took the time to tune my bike up a little. Actually a lot. It took a while, but I got the squeek out of my brake and checked out the shifting and everything. I'm practically a freaking bike mechanic. Well, not really, but you never realize all the little parts on a bike that can get screwed up or rusted or just stuck. The difference is makes is worth the time too, but only if you care about that stuff. It's one of my pet peeves when people ride their bikes around campus and the brakes are squeeking while the chain sounds like it's slowly grinding the gears down into dusk. Silly kids. Get some oil.

Angie came by later. We got into the NoCal/SoCal thing and how Vallejo people are corrupt/dramatic/scandalous. April tried to counter, but she had nothing on Chino Hills. We got hungry, but April and Leo needed to move their cars, so I raced them to the parking structure, but got mixed up in traffic. I beat them to Mesa Court though. I thought I beat them back up to Interfaith, but they left right before I got there. Nimz left her car in the far lot (which was supposed to empty at 5:30, almost 2 hours late), so I biked up to check that it wasn't towed... then rode back again to move it to the lower lot, with my bike sticking out of the trunk. Mark Anthony footed for some Alejandros. They got back and we killed 2 carne asada nachos in 5 minutes. The burritos took a while though...

We finally started helping out with prep stuff and folded programs for mass in the plaza. April (Thumper) tried to elaborate on the virtues of Vallejo, while Leo, Mark Anthony and I enjoyed the entertainment. Marites (BNG fo life) came by and helped out too. Thumper started scaring some of the Mustard Seeds people... asking Anthony what group he was in, not like it said on his shirt on anything... Man, life of the party...

Nimz and Thumper went to get some clothes for the foam party. I went to go check it out for myself and my suspicions were right: there were too many freshmen. Crazy amounts of soapy freshies. I rode back and started working on the streamers with Cristina. Damn, it took two hours to finish those rolls, and it didn't let the finished side down the whole time, but now I'm feeling that repetitive stress symdrome-type stuff. Geez. Nimz and Janzel came back ready for the foam party, and April came a little later and just said "I'm sleepy." All that time just to come back and not want to go anymore. Hahaha. They went anyway and brought Leo. And they came back smelling like coconuts.

We felt like boba, so Mabobbers drove to Tapioca, but we got there 20 minutes late. Emptyhanded, we came back to Interfaith, only to head out again for Lollicup. Little did we know it was closed, as well as the other Tapioca out there in the boonies of Irvine. So we went to Carl's Jr and I got a spicy chicken. Again. Back again to Interfaith and we finally decided to call it a night. The bike ride home was nice, hardly any traffic to mess with. But damn, I'm tired.

Man, the past two days have been a blur...

wakeupearlydon'tgetupsnoozesomemorefinallygetuparound11dosomelaundry
finallygetbikeputittogetherheadofftocampuswhileeveryoneisalreadycleaningup
leavetogetsomebikepartstaketoomuchtimelookingatstuffi'llprobablyneverbuy
findoutanchorbluedoesn'thavetheniceblackanklesocksanymoredropbymartin'stopickupmorebikestuff
bringhisbikebacktotuneitupfixandcleanmybikeinthegaragewhiledodgingsuspiciousneighbors
allnighteratthearcwithgeepsbuttheycancelledtherelayswhichwerethemainreasoniwantedtogoanyway
sleepwakeupandmytoenailsarenotjustgreenbutalsopinktrytofinishthepusotshirtdesignbutdontheadofftocampus
checkoutnewuniversityorientationbutonlystayforfifteenminutesofftoworkagainpickupscott
endupscrewingaroundwithhisfriendsinsteadofdoinghomeworkmisshalfofhisbaseballpractice
it'skindofinterestingwatchinglittlekidsplayespeciallywhenthey'realotbetterthanyouexpect
justchillingthereinthedugoutwiththecoolnewportbreezewasawesomestayedlatetofinishsomehomework
finallygetpaidafteralmosteighteenmonthsofunemploymentdropbyschooltocatchkabasfirstmeeting
freakinsslhwaspackedleftearlytogotocostcoandbikeshopagainbutnoproteinatcostcoandnopulleygearsatbikeshop
soileftwithbananasandcarlsjrbeejstephanieandangiecameoverthenwegotbobawithleo
thencamebackandangieleoandjoycejammedsomesongstheywantedtoplay
atthepraiseandworshipnightthey'replanninginthefutureandtherestofussangalong
meanwhileallankeptcrackinattherubixcubewhilegpandiplayedchessfromelevenpmtilloneforthyfive
amalmostathreehourgamewhichiendeduplosingbecauseiplayedtooaggressiveatfirstbutitsallgood...

and that's how I ended my summer break.

The bike I bought on ebay hasn't come yet, and I've been checking about 10 times a day online to see exactly where it is. Stupid FedEx doesn't update their shipment progress for days, so from Friday until late today, all I knew was that my bike passed through Pennsylvania. I hate waiting when I don't know how long I'm waiting for. Well, maybe I don't hate waiting so much, because I see myself as a fairly patient guy, but I want to ride it to school instead of drive, and school starts Friday. Plus, the lock I got for it is coming too, and I don't have the slightest clue where it could be now.

Something's been getting do me. I was supposed to out at Ring Road today helping to setup and promote for PUSO and Liwanag, but for some reason I couldn't get out of bed until almost noon. Then I had no clean lauundry because my the rest of my clean underwear is still sitting in my little drawer in storage at Jon's apt. from when we had to move a bunch of our stuff last Thursday night.

By the time I got showered and dressed (after my laundry was done) it was already 2:45, so I rushed over to get Scott from his school. He's actually the same kid Seachelle, Boraccho, and now Gerald have been taking care of for the past few years. It was my first day, so I was a little anxious. His friend Brett came over, so I had to keep both of them in check. Geez.

First things first, they started calling me four-eyes. Then Scott told me I have crooked teeth... and why don't I get braces... and if I've ever been to the dentist... Damn, way to make a guy feel self conscious. I hate that little tooth that make all the other ones grow in crooked. I don't even remember when it grew in, because all I remember was that I had a loose tooth, but I didn't want to lose it so I didn't chew on that side of my mouth. Now the extra one pushed the old one out so that my top teeth got pushed whichever way... so now I'm self-conscious about my teeth... when I smile, when I talk, so I find myself keeping my mouth shut. Literally. To make things worse, sometimes if I bite wrong, the tooth that sticks out cuts up my lower lip. I don't know if my parents ever had dental insurance, but they never did take any of us to the dentist. I think having four kids really makes dental insurance necessary. For all I know, I could have all my wisdom teeth in. They're probably pushing all my teeth forward, which is only screwing things up. That would explain why my teeth ache once in a while. If braces weren't so damn expensive I've get in a second. Damn. If I just close my mouth, maybe I'll forget about them. Although I still deal with my sinuses every morning, loving the rare mornings I can wake up and not feel anything clogging up my sinuses, and the breakouts that still plague me, even though I stopped growing years ago. Sometimes I feel like pulling out my own teeth, or trying every new acne medication out there, or getting surgery to fix everything... Sometimes I feel like I'm broken or something.

90 minutes of keeping the peace and making Scott and Brett do their homework, then I head off to PUSO's ice cream social. We had a good turnout, for only advertising it that day. The Liwanag mass was a little while after that, but I went home first, and just kind of melted into my chair. I couldn't explain why I was so tired, but I didn't even feel like moving or laying on something. I kept telling myself to leave so I wouldn't be late, but 7:00 turned to 7:15 to 7:30 to 7:45... I finally got there around 8, expecting that I missed only half the mass, but as it turns out, it was just about over. Man, I felt out of it, more than I have in the longest time. The weird thing was that it was so sudden.

Though I'm sure my bad eating and sleeping habits have something to do with it, along with the sinus thing (one study showed 90% of people suffering from chronic fatigue had sinus problems), I think I'm hitting E on my spiritual and emotional gas tanks. It's strange though, just coming off the LOG retreat last week and the praise and worship thing Chris and Trisha held last Friday in San Diego (which was awesome)... all this positive energy doesn't seem to be soaking in. Or maybe I'm just shutting down somehow. It's not the easiest thing to diagnose the problem because there are so many possible reasons for it.

For the first time in a long time that I can remember, I didn't go to a birthday surprise/dinner/whatever that wasn't out of the way. I figure for at least one day out of the year you should be able to go out of your way for someone, especially their birthday. Even if it's just to drop by and make a guest appearance. I got so caught up with welcome week prep for PUSO that I just wanted to finish it. By the time we finished, it was already past midnight though.

And so I'm out of it. I can't go to sleep before 2, can't wake up before 11, and don't even feel like recruiting people during welcome week. What's going on with me? It's not that I need a break... I've been on break for the past 13 weeks already. Maybe longer. God help me. I'm taking on water, and part of me doesn't want to bail it out. The other part is getting tired...

Where did all these wankstas come from? They come out in flocks, I swear. Curses on those wankstas. Like the wanksta in the red Jag x-type who though he was hot stuff Mr. Mario Andretti on the 405 S Friday when we went to Chris and Tricia's praise and worship thing. He must have been thinking "even though I have the bottom of the barrell Jag none of these other drivers can take my wanksta title... fo life!!" GP gave chase. We weaved through almost 10 miles of traffic at 90 mph and this wanksta didn't signal once. Son of a mother. I wonder if his mother knows he drives like that. Finally we got next to him and stuck it to him good. Thanks to the slow driver in who-would-have-guessed--- the slow lane -- GP boxed him in. Just for kicks, Geeps braked a little to trap him. And the red Jag came back with a vengeance. He really had to push it to catch up to us, but came up on our left side. He even had the presence of mind to turn his head to us as he proceeded to cut us off... and stomp on the brakes. Damn, he coulda rolled right over that wanksta...

Driving downt he 91 W toward Irvine, I saw a few wanksta pretenders, none of them graduated yet. Still, horrible drivers though. Speed up to slow down, then race to fill a gap in traffic, and then go slow in the little curves. It all turns into a sea of red.

I guess it was better than sitting at home, sweating even with the window open, hoping to gather enough energy to make it past my parents and back to the coastal breezes of Irvine. I had planned to leave around 3, but 3 turned to 7:30. My mom is always rushing to do something, but she sure has a knack for stalling me when I feel like doing something. My parents say more to me in the 5 minutes before I leave the house than they do the whole rest of the time I'm home. My brother doesn't even say hi/goodbye to me when I visit. We have such strange family dynamics.

As I sit in the computer room in my house, with the fan keeping me company, I feel the need for a little bit more conversation. Of course, any conversation would be more than what I have right now with the fan, but in the grander scheme of things, it would be nice to have someone to talk to around 3 am every night before I go to sleep. I would even settle for someone to listen to, just as long as we could switch now and then and just talk. I've been a man of few words too long. I've never heard anybody say that I talk too much. That leaves me a little window of opportunity. Maybe I can get a whole 15 minute monolouge in someone's ear before they realize I've just been jabbering nonstop for a quarter of an hour. It's that element of surprise that would work in my favor, and the person will think, "Damn, maybe this guy isn't so quiet after all." And then I have to wonder how much of my seemingly endless runaway train of metaphorically twisted thoughts actually translated into something I could get a reply out of.

I don't think it did.

So this could be the part where I grab my cell phone and hit that speed dial button... but I just might leaving completely random 10 minute voice messages on random people's voice mailboxes.

I'm going to sleep.