Hogwarts

Hello world,

So I haven't really posted since graduation and should probably fix that before I run off and start over somewhere else (with an awesome Italy trip in between). This summer has turned out nothing like I've expected. To begin with, right after graduation I ended up scoring a trip to Orlando, Florida to visit Universal Studio's and the new Harry Potter land in their Islands of Adventures theme park. I mean, I may have crashed my parents' 30th anniversary but hey, they asked (probably out of guilt) and you just can't say no to a free trip to Harry Potter land. or The Wizarding World of Harry Potter if you want to google it.

To begin with. that place is awesome, the only two problems were that walking outside in Florida in the summer is the equivalent of walking through a sauna, and the only lines in the park were to get into that specific land. There were even lines to get into the stores, people. The STORES. That bad. Not like it wasn't worth it though. You walk in and Hogwarts looms above you on the left. Inside the castle you have holograms, snow bubbles, talking portraits, and the Sorting Hat herself (himself?) giving you instructions for the ride located within the castle. They really went all out. The ride is appropriately scary and intriguing in its technology. Think Soaring over California at Disneyland but with about a billion more movable parts.



My bro and I exit the ride into a store that is always packed with people because the ride but we have to stay because the merchandise is more than awesome. Eventually we are pushed out to be confronted with a cart selling wands (but, I mean you can't buy your wands at the cart before you visit Ollivander's at least once, right?) so I moved on to a Hippogriff roller coaster (of the slowish non loop variety) which is still appropriately fun. Then you come to the cart selling Butterbeer.

Oh Butterbeer, how I miss you.



Butterbeer is heaven in a plastic cup, that's all I can say. I wish they sold that shit in bottles. Pumpkin Juice on the other hand they do sell in bottles but I could go without. After tasting the pure deliciousness you can walk down Hogsmeade which is fabulously and meticulously decked out. Stores line the street (unfortunately half are just mock fronts but really well designed mock fronts. And the town is decked out for winter. The fake snow mocks you the whole time. Among the various Hogwarts choir performances and Durmstrang and Beuxbaton students you have lines to get into Ollivander's, Honeydukes, and the Three Broomsticks. My parents got to eat at the Three Broomsticks but my little bro and I passed on the heavy English breakfast to ride on the dueling dragons ride. High speeds, multiple loops and another roller coaster flinging its riders' feet at you = high pitched screams and fun. Overall, except for the extreme overcrowding you should all make a trip to go. At least once in your life.



So...while we went out and did other things within Universal, it was pretty much the same things we would do at the Universal 20 minutes away from my house so I won't waste time explaining.

The plane ride home certainly provided the best kinds of douchebags though. Some beezey totally cut me off while we were trying to exit the plane, basically forcing me back into my seat with her over sized, horrifically designed purse after I was already half way into the aisle and had been standing there for a good 5 minutes. The guy she was flirting with watched it all and then cut me off too. How sweet of them.

sigh...Laker's won...

me: Did you hear all the rioting outside?

fav ginger: yeah I was gonna ask you about that

me: the Laker's won

fg: oh *sigh*

fg: I mean not like I care either way

me: I know right. it's just that now everyone's so fucking happy

fg: EXACTLY now all the Laker's fans are gonna be soo bitchy

me: right *sigh*

fg: sorry we just hate everyone else's happiness.

UCLA Commencement--I'm a graduate...shit.

So, I graduated today.

I mean, technically I graduated yesterday because I got to move my tassel from right to left for the last time in my life. Even if I DO end up going to grad school it gets to stay on the left. But today I went to the History department commencement ceremony and shook some fool's hand and got a piece of paper that says "Congratulations!" with a photocopied signature and a badly tied piece of ribbon. Ceremony was so not worth it. Although our keynote speaker kept it real. He works in real estate and most of us were like...wtf is a REAL ESTATE AGENT going to tell us about how to use our HISTORY degree, but he was pretty straightforward. He said becoming an academic wasn't even that much of an option in this economy and that there are a shit ton load of skills that we learned throughout. And while it's hard to not consider these skills as somewhat inherent, because there were a lot of idiots in my classes who just didn't get it, at least we now know what they are and can find a way to describe them. We were suppose to go to another ceremony after but I felt like I put my family through enough. We ended up only going to a small reception with the Classics department which was super intimate and nice. I managed to get by without making awkward conversations and got talked about in very general terms. Sorry I'm not going to humor people with bs about my life.
Anyway the 'rents enjoyed that and we got to go home and nap and see my pets before we went to dinner in which I had the MOST AMAZING DESSERT EVER! like f'reals guys it was amazing. Tiramasu covered in caramel.

Sigh. *Drool* mmm.

Although now that we've come to the graduated part I suppose we've come full circle in this blog. I've only got a real safety net for my pseudo independence for another month or two. After July I'm done with my job for good. After I get back from Italy I'm giving myself until October to get my shit together and move out of my parents house. It's gonna be scary no matter when I do it and no matter where I go. There's shit that's going to make it easier and there really shouldn't be. I'm almost 22 (will be 22 by then) and I need to get this shit started. I mocked the term commencement earlier this week. I felt like the ceremony should celebrate the END of my career at UCLA not a future no one knows anything about. I still sort of believe that. Right now I'm transitioning from the end of college, the end of it being ok to let my parents take care of it if I get tired and don't want to deal. From here on out I'm not obligated to live up to anyone else's dreams for me.

So right now, here's my dream.

Move to Seattle. Get an apartment that allows pets. Get pets. Find a bookstore to work in. Find a community center to volunteer at. Get tutoring experience. Work on getting credentials. Wait out the current economic crisis and become a high school history teacher that's super overworked and leader of like 3 clubs and the acadeca team. The first 5 I'm doing. If the road takes me on a different path after that then that's fine by me. I trust myself enough to know that, except in friendships, I have good instincts and an ability to take care of myself if necessary. If I end up alone with no prospects of a relash by 35/40ish (meaning whenever the hell I feel like it when I have enough finances to support this) I'm adopting/fostering/mentoring/wtv. I'm a kid person.

Grad school is only an option if I need it to further a career I already have experience in. I'm tired of education without a goal. I forget it. I barely remember what I've learned in the past 4 years because I have no reason to remember it. I'd like to have time to read whatever the hell I want to read whenever the hell I want to to.

As regards to ending my UCLA career (for now, but probably forever), I'm ok with that right now. I'm over it. And yeah I'll miss the football games, and brew co Karoke, and guitar hero, and that one card came I can't remember the name of, and the three or four classes a year that made me REALLY excited about the subject, but it wouldn't mean anything if it went on forever. I'm ready to move on.

For now, I'll have a summer of dealing with my normal work stuff and slowly saying goodbye to friends (hopefully not forever). A month of
gallivanting in Europe where every new town is filled with awesome potential, and then it begins.

Today I'm excited.

Seattle update

So googled Seattle teacher just to get a sense of the job market. Yeah 15 articles popped up about lay offs for next year. Sweet.

I think this will become a document about my findings.

Also tomorrow is my last day of classes and I'm still running into obstacles with administration. Double sweet. If your job is to help students, there's no reason to be a douchebag about it when they're super polite and nice to you. Just saying.

Oh and this ADORABLE kitty was hanging out on the corner, very interested in the people walking by, got picked up by some people who did a Found Cat facebook group that I mysteriously got invited to. So tempted to just say it was mine.

No puppies :(

So, as you may have noticed from the title of this post, I have seen no extraordinary puppies, kittens, or other adorable household pets in the last month. I've had to get my fix through TV and movies. As in I'm pretty sure I did my loud puppy gasp during a movie we watched in class as a dog frolicked in the snow in the distance.

I did however have a brief but tight relationship with a falcon that decided to hang out on my balcony. I named him Tobias and he was of the strong and silent disposition. I mean he didn't even say goodbye before he invaded a nearby tree and reenacted the scene from Jurassic Park when they feed the cows to the raptors before flying off into the sunset.

I wonder if he'll come back.

The past month has been filled with some pretty bittersweet moments. Graduation stuff ordered and picked up, materials for a farewell blanket for a coworker bought, studying for finals postponed, and then the Senior Sendoff event where I spent most of my time avoiding the other seniors.

I realized this week that I'm the last of the old crew to leave the office. If I get a goodbye party at all, let alone a gift, it will be attended mostly by people who don't know me and managers who are still in denial about me leaving. I was never much good at goodbye parties, although I don't think anyone is. But on the plus side, in about two months my posts should get a tad more interesting.

In August I'm off to Italy, to explore Pompeii, be introduced to relatives I don't have common language with, and have a brief fling with Felipe, who my grandmother has decided would be the perfect summer romance. (so I'll be spending most of my time avoiding said Felipe.)

Once I get back in September I'm planning on moving out of SoCal. Maybe even out of California entirely. I've been putting off thinking about where I'll settle down for awhile now but anything is better to ponder than finals. When discussing these vague plans with coworkers and friends, most changed the subject and don't believe I'll do it, and two people threw out Seattle and Washington as an option. I'm intrigued by the idea. I'll have to look into the job market and housing but I could see myself living in Seattle (I've been there too so it isn't some idealized Grey's Anatomy version of Seattle in my head.) Napa was also in the works but it's hasn't had the right feel for about a year now. I was also considering Austin but I really don't want to have to fight people in order to teach Thomas Jefferson and the Enlightenment in my class, or the civil rights movement, or pretend that homosexuality doesn't exist and in it's nonexistent state is also negative. Really religious right, get your act together 2,000 years of your bullshit is quite enough thank you.

While going off on my own like that does make my stomach tie itself into huge knots (which is so helping my anorexia) it's not like I have a lot going on for me here begging me to stick around and it's been over three years, it's time to cut loose.

I also plan on getting a dog and a cat for that so when my life gets super boring there's always them to fall back on. I intend on giving them really pretentious names from my Classics knowledge.

Oh...and I can't think of any douchebags really. There's always the Subway and Jersey Mike's sandwich makers who give me shit for my deliciously plain sandwiches but they aren't really new to the world.

German Shepherd!

Sorry it's been a while since I've last posted, a combination of school stress and a moodilious funk interfered but guess what! All of my midterms are done!!!! Now I just have have my emotions to deal with but I figure they're gonna stick around till graduation so I shouldn't let that stop me.

Fun product of this funk is a habit of not paying attention to where I'm going. Like yesterday when I found myself at an intersection that is no where near my home. Not only did I miss the turn I was supposed to make, I didn't realize it for 3 blocks. Oh, and for those drivers who think, "that's no big deal. I do that all the time," I should clarify that I was on foot which means a good 7 minutes of not recognizing my surroundings. That's a real safe habit there.

Once I came back to reality I figured I would enjoy this new wanderlust and see where it led me. But that's harder to do when you're focussed. I ended up just going to Starbucks to get a cup of coffee I didn't need (but yay for me for not letting it lead me to Chipotle!) and then trekking back home.

On the way though I saw THE perfect dog, a German Shepherd, and exactly the kind of puppy I would have gotten if I hadn't been a pansy and had actually got a dog in college. Our first dog was a German Shepherd, her name was Nike and my mom found her when she was in college. That dog was smarter than half her roommates and proved it by frequently finding her own way home when said roommates got distracted by hippie guys when out for a walk. She also had a habit of taking new pets out for "adventures" where they got to find "new families". Oh Nike, why have we always had stupid pets after you. (See 2nd post on description of the fambam's current pet situation).

And for those of you now currently rolling your eyes and saying geez girl get over your pet obsession then let me just refer you back to the name of this blog. Dbag.

Speaking of douchebags, I had a couple of fun encounters the past couple of weeks.

One Sunday for example, I locked myself out around 10 PM and had to hike up to my roommates work to borrow her keys. On the way back not only do I get harassed by some fool on a balcony ( I mean really freak, wtf do you THINK I'm doing speed walking down the sidewalk in the middle of the night?!) on my last block there I notice a non creepy looking rented Prius packed full of Asians coasting along the road at my pace. "Cool," I thought, "they're just looking for an address and will any second now be rolling down a window to ask me for directions. Nope...well that's cool figure it out yourselves then. Wait why are you stopping, and speeding up again, and now you're apace with me again and could you maybe stop staring at ME if you're looking for an address. Really, are we really doing this, if I was at all stupid I would angrily call you out right now. But lucky for me, I'm smart in a cowardly kind of way so I'll just be jogging back to my apartment now. Fucking dbags. Get a creepier car."

I think that's enough for now. I'll try to update more quickly.

OH! but final notes. you know that stupid Facebook application that goes so and so answered some questions about you. click here to see how they answered. I FUCKING HATE THAT THING. one because it's always by completely random people who I don't even know why I'm friends with them on Facebook. And two because once you click on it IT SPAM'S YOUR FRIENDS. so don't click on it. also...it won't tell you how anyone answered, if they actually answered so it's of no use anyway.

Good night internets, tomorrow I'm going to an all day classics conference hosted by my all time favorite Professor so forgive me if I start going on about books or art or music or whatever. I'll grow out of it soon enough.

Creepers

Welcome to a sunny Sunday in Westwood!

Here you have 4 movie theaters, numerous cheap restauraunts, and one comprehensive bookstore that overprices everything. Given that its a college area you'd think there would be more bookstores.

Oh and I mustn't forget the creepers. Lots and lots of creepers. And some puppies but they're all small enough to be carried in a purse and therefore of no concern to me.

My day, which was really 'my' day because I basically had a date with myself, began with me waking up around 11:00, finishing up The Zero - which had a really depressing sort of ending -and rolling out of bed at 12:40.

I was supposed to get my hair cut today but I spent more time trying to psych myself into it then it was worth so I just decided to bypass the experience. It's not that I'm afraid to lose my locks, believe me I've rocked some awkward dos. I'd rather spend 5 minutes freaking out about what my hair looks like then 30 minutes styling it. The problem is that I don't want to be stuck in a chair, imprisoned by that plastic cover, and forced to either make stilted conversation with the stylist or sit in sullen silence staring at myself.

But moving on to the creepers. After arriving at the theater with an hour to spare and not wanting to leave the block because of my fear of walking into a movie late, I decided to sit in Starbucks, people watch, and read Naive. Super because I'm a nerd and I felt like reading a book for class ahead of time. It's really good by the way. I plan on finishing that tonight.

While I was sitting there, the guy to my left kept staring off into space with his math/science book and computer open in front of him. Normally I wouldn't think that was too creepy, I mean I stare off into space a lot thinking about nothing, but because Starbucks was crowded it was little inevitable that he'd end up staring at someone instead of point in the wall, which led to numerous awkward glances and shifty eyes.

Let's not forget about the woman digging through the recylced newspapers because she couldn't afford the $1.50 to buy her own, waiting 25 minutes, and THEN buying a drink. The baggy striped polo, faded jeans, and awkardly fitted baseball cap didn't help dispell the generally creepy impression.

Surprisingly, I ended up almost late for the movie, Hot Tub Time Machine, which turned out to be a good thing because the moment I walked in I noticed that it was mostly middle-aged to butt ugly old men scattered about the theater sitting by themselves. There were also a couple of teenaged boys and a few scattered couples. I fit right in with that crowd.

Now apparently middle-aged to butt ugly old men don't have the same rules in movie theaters that normal people do. For them it's perfectly ok to get up three or four times during the movie, walk around a little, and then sit someplace else. It's also perfectly ok for them to completly violate the buffer zone while doing this which I thought was not ok when the theater is wide open like that. I guess they really needed to sit directly in front of someone when there were literally hundreds of other seats out there.

It's also perfectly acceptable for them to talk to random strangers during the movie. The douchebag who migrated over to the seat in front of me decided to inform me that the scantily clad woman about to screw two guys at once was his wife. This guy, in a too tight shirt that made his belly really pop, badly shaven, and balding would SO not be married to this woman. I don't care how 'progressive and free thinking' she might be.

Thank god he decided to drift after that although for awhile there I thought I was going to be molested by another creepy old man with a cane who wandered in for the last 20 minutes of the movie, stood in the aisle next to me for awhile, and then decided I wasn't worth the trouble and left.

Thinking I had had my fill of creepers for the day, I decided to walk to Borders, which is actually an unnecessarily long walk from campus. Given that this is a school, I feel there should be more than a mystery book store and the odd bible store for people to buy books. I mean I know we're kind of over reading these days but really, there are 5 (used to be 6) movie theaters closer to campus then Borders.

On the walk I got to deal with a group of about 7 16-year olds who stood in front of Chipotle and stared at people, got asked for money by 4 homeless people, got ogled by 3 more, and had to walk behind groups of slow-moving people who take up the whole sidewalk and glared at me whilst I squeezed my way past them.

To top it off, on the way back I got to witness the glory of a homeless woman on a mission to blind everyone in Westwood by wearing a mini t-shirt that showed her gloriously disproportionate stomach.

Also the guy at Subway gave me the wrong cheese.

Luckily, the books I've read today were good, the movie was adequate, and I'm pretty good company for myself, so I'd still classify this as a good day.