Okay....back to back posts. I just couldn't resist after reading this on the Stanford football board:

Stanford fans on whether or not they will attend this year's Big Game:

"I'm struggling with the decision. I've atttended 40 of the past 44 Big Games but I'm not sure I want to fight the snow in the Sierras, the amazingly crude Berkeley crowd, and the 90% chance of a loss. I have two decent seats in section R and can be reached at --------"

to which someone replied:

"I am guessing that many of the season ticket holders will decide to sell or otherwise dispose of the seats they were required to buy as part of the season ticket package.

I know I am considering it. going to weenieville stinks. "

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stanford is actually looking decent this year. Yeah, Cal's team is lookin a helluva a lot better, but it should be a good game. Come on Stanford fans, show some passion for Pete's sake.

Freshman year our side of Stanford Stadium was full despite it being one of the worst seasons in Cal history....we were likely to loose, and we did. But the atmosphere was still electric. Enough to turn me into a fan.

Stanford's crowd at the last two Big Games (both at Stanford AND at Cal) was weak. Sounds like this year Memorial will be a sea of Blue and Gold with a few red blemishes.

Funny how their nickname for a Cal fan is a "weenie" when their fans are the ones that wont even show up to games in mass anymore. Most apathetic bunch I've encountered. Kind of like Saint Francis kids post 2001 and pre-Chris Perry. Sad, sad, sad.

Three years ago, THEY were the one's saying they needed a more worthy opponent for their big rivalry. [READ that Stanford Daily article. Pretentious back in 2001, quite hilarious now. Basic premise: Cal sucks so Stanford deserves a better rival, and/or Cal needs to step up so Stanford fans will stop being so apathetic and bored with their constantly winning teams. ] Well, we've stepped up. But apathy still reigns in Tree-land.

Eat crow Furds. Eat crow.

I'm done with the GRE. I know I could have done better. (you see the scores right after you take the test). Hopefully they're decent enough for me to get in on the basis of the rest of my application.

That said, Kat and I had a really nice day in San Francisco. It was a cold and rainy, but San Francisco is one of the few places that can make such weather beautiful. The color of the water behind the Ferry Building, the overcast sky, the hustle and bustle of shoppers in Union Square....gosh it feels like Christmas. I had "Silver Bells" running through my head.

Before the test Kat and I explored the Ferry Building, which was PACKED with people because of the Farmers Market. I love the Ferry Building. It's everything San Francisco is.... wrapped up in one great old building with a stunning setting.

...um...then we took the test...

But AFTER that, we decided to reward ourselves with dunch at Taylor's Refresher in the Ferry Building. Seriously, one of the best hamburgers....ever. Go there! Then we walked down Market to Union Square, I bought the new Jimmy Eat World CD and a pair of jeans.

So overall, it was actually a really nice day in the city...with an annoying test in the middle. Kat and I are quite proud of ourselves for turning a negative into a HUGE positive. Good job us!

Also.....next time your in the city look at for the "Fart Quake" sign on a construction wall near the Ferry Building. PURE genius! Graffiti can be hilarious. I'll take a picture next time I'm over there so you folks can understand why it's so great.

Also, for Kat and I to remember forever (obscure inside jokes): Your landlord is tooting your building's horn...and...the last puffin ever or inner-city school children? I vote for the puffin.

POST RANT RECAP:

<This weather f*ing sucks. It's too damn hot once again. Even worse, all the fires up in Marin have made me semi-asthmatic. >

It's gone from being super hot, to super wet and cold. Much better, thank you. Moving on...

<Ned's took down it's "Rose Bowl Bound" banner before I could take a picture. Chase Lyman is out for the season. I am concerned.>

We creamed UCLA. Keep winning (and if USC keeps winning) its Roses for Cal on New Years Day.

<And I think my voice is still sore from the USC game.>

Got sick. Getting better.

<I have the GRE in two weeks and have barely studied. Ack!>

Yeah....and I am currently procrastinating some more....right then....

<I have a midterm tomorrow and barely have time to study. Double Ack!>

I think I did okay.

<I have a midterm on Tuesday and barely have time to study. Premature Ack!>

I think I did all right.

< I haven't had time to send information to my letter writers for grad school, or work on a personal statement. I'm running out of time!>

Personal statement draft #1 was finished on Friday. Long way to go, but I've made a dent.

<I spent time I didn't have on BUSSA's homecoming banner. It looks great, but we didn't win. >

BUT I went to the Homecoming Rally last Friday, on our banner was hung quite prominantly next to the main Homecoming Banner. Yay BUSSA!

<My room/desk is always messy. >

Yes....still need to work on this. But the current number of empty cans/bottles on my desk is ZERO!

<I ate pizza and it burnt the top of my mouth.>

All better.

-END POST-RANT RECAP-

RANT:

This weather f*ing sucks. It's too damn hot once again. Even worse, all the fires up in Marin have made me semi-asthmatic.

Ned's took down it's "Rose Bowl Bound" banner before I could take a picture. Chase Lyman is out for the season. I am concerned. And I think my voice is still sore from the USC game.

I have the GRE in two weeks and have barely studied. Ack!

I have a midterm tomorrow and barely have time to study. Double Ack!

I have a midterm on Tuesday and barely have time to study. Premature Ack!

I haven't had time to send information to my letter writers for grad school, or work on a personal statement. I'm running out of time!

I spent time I didn't have on BUSSA's homecoming banner. It looks great, but we didn't win.

My room/desk is always messy.

I ate pizza and it burnt the top of my mouth.

-END RANT-

Greetings from Woodland Hills...

Well, what can I say? Of course its disappointing, we came so close! But on a scale of 1 to 10, how disapponted am I? I'd say.....maybe a 4 at most.

By all measures other than the score (which of course matters most) we were the better team. It was a hostile away environment, that obviously screwed with the minds of our special teams. Kudos to the Trojans for getting their whole crowd into the game, it was LOUD in there.

....but some of their fans were just as bad as my weeks-worth of trash talk posts from the SC boards would lead you to expect. Their alumni threw nasty insults as our band marched into the stadium pre-game. I personally was called a dirty hippie, a communist, and so on after the game. "Go back to NorCal Hippy!" (gladly! who wouldn't want to go back to the better half of the state...booya!) Of all the Pac10 teams, SC has some of the most vile I have encountered. Stanfurd fans never stoop to their level....too apathetic.

(of course, our student section's "f*ck the trojans" cheers probably didn't help the situation. Which btw, this catholic-school-kid never participated in. Way too unoriginal. Something I hope we can do away with as our team improves. Nevertheless, it's an instance of the pot calling the kettle black if Trojan fans think they're any "classier" than us. bull. there's a reason they're the most hated team in the Pac10...and it predates their current success.)

So in the end.....what did I expect out of this? I expected a hard fought, close game. A nail biter. And that's what we got. Cal played its heart out. I cheered my heart out. Victory was always within reach, and Cal never gave the Trojans a break. It came down to the last play, and Cal just couldn't pull it off. We beat them in every other aspect, and we should get due credit for that. Cal shouldn't drop from #7, in fact, some people are saying we should move up. As long as USC either stays at #1 (or screws up royally..not likely) the Rose Bowl is ours for the taking.

But what an exciting, awesome game.

Go Bears! Beat UCLA!

And finally, our last...
...Cocky Condom Comment.

from the www.wearesc.com football forum

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Smack a Bear
Remember High-School...

Remember how much fun it was to haze the Freshmen...

How would you like to rel-live your "Glory Days" again?

On Oct. 9th, I'd like to usher in "Smack a Bear"

To participate in this ritual, you must first identify a BearUse the below chart to identify your victim:

A) Bears are dirty hippies
B) Bears wear birkenstock sandles and drag their feet.
C) Bears can be found holding flowers, and flashing the "peace" sign.
D) Bears were Grateful Dead Tie-Dyed T-Shirts and dirty Levis

Now if you ID a Bear... "smack 'em" A smack is a light pimp slap/b!tch slap, and should be executed quickly, and upon an unsuspecting bear victim .

After pimp slap is applied - you must immediately act like another bear did it. This is done by pointing to another bear while saying "He did it"

So have fun, and smack a bear!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wow. Real classy. Grade A fans huh?

All I can say is GO BEARS! Beat the Trojans. Make the authors of these wonderful U$C posts eat a huge helping of crow for dinner on Saturday. Show the nation what your made of, and make our great university proud.

...and now, I'm off to LA.

Phew.....

Okay, a personal break before the last cocky condom comment.

This week has been nutts. I am officially burnt out, and what's sad is that I'm not burnt out so much from the huge jump in time commitment that BUSSA dealt me this week, but the thought of all the shit I have to do in the next few months.

First there's the biggie....grad school.

I have the GRE in two weeks. I have to move on my letters of recommendation, really soon! I have to write my personal statement. I have to meet with certain professors. It's driving me crazy to have this stuff hanging over me. I need a weekend to devote myself to it, but I won't get one...so I'll have to work it in when free time pops up.

Then there are classes.

Thank god I decided to stick to 12 units this semester. I can barely manage to keep up with the readings. I just can't get my heart into it. And now midterms and papers are starting to loom. Argh.

I never had Senioritis this bad in high school. I loved having studio last semester, it kept me on my toes. But this semester my mind has wandered elsewhere. This week, it's obviously been in LA.

I really want to ENJOY my last undergrad year here. I want to have fun with my friends. I want to take advantage of all the special Cal activities and events, and let myself get totally caught up in the spirit engulfing the campus this fall because of our football team. And by and large, I am letting myself do that. However, I need to draw the line somewhere and begin to crack down on the not-so-fun tasks that lay ahead.

Then there's Mountain View politics. The preservation debacle has finally wound down. My organization needs leadership now, or else it risks falling apart after over two years of heartache. I just don't have the time to devote myself to it like I used to. I haven't even had time to update the web page, and I feel really guilty about that. On the bright side...Cal is offering, for the first time....a class on historic preservation next semester. I hope it fits in my schedule.

And finally....my family. Wow. Going home to MV is such a mixed bag now. I love spending time with my parents, but a huge rain cloud looms over Pettis Avenue. My grandma is very depressed, and it can't help but get to me. It just wears me down and sucks the spirit out of me every time I see her cry. It makes me sad and angry at the same time. I need to learn to not let it affect me so much, but it does. Life is tough, things are changing, we're in a time of instability and transition. It's tough to hold it together, but I know we will.

So ya. That is an inside look behind what is floating around my head right now. I'll let it float there for another weekend, because THIS weekend, its about the Bears and the Trojans, and about me having a good time with my friends in La-la-land.

...and hey, maybe I'll get some reading done during the car ride.

Welcome to Thursday's...
...Cocky Condom Comment

from the www.wearesc.com football forum:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The bad thing about playing Cal...................

.....after the game, all the USC players will have to be de-loused.

I BELIEVE the Trojans will win…I hope they win BIG!

This will be the largest crowd I have ever been part of to watch any USC vs CAL game.I cannot stomach even thinking about dealing with the CAL fans…if they should win…The CAL fans are the absolute worst fans (win or lose) I’ve ever experienced, any place anytime.

Fight On Trojans…!
Beat the Bears…!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

De-loused. Get it! We're dirty...dirty hippies....yeah...

...this is all getting very predictable huh?

AND NOW, a brief interlude from this week's series of condom comments:

Cal-USC benefits Pac-10, Bay Area
Wednesday, October 06, 2004 BERKELEY --

This is the way it used to be, before NFL arrived by the Bay and transformed college football from an attraction into a curiosity.

This is the way it is in places such as Knoxville and Ann Arbor, where the bandwagon rolls and not infrequently so does some coach's head.

Welcome to 1950. Welcome to packed houses and thundering herds. Welcome to a game that for the University of California, for the Pac-10 Conference, for the Left Coast, given conditions and situations, couldn't have arrived at a more opportune moment.

Cal against Southern Cal, at the Coliseum, the one without any phony commercial labels, the one in Los Angeles, the one with 92,000 seats.

"I can't tell you what it's going to be like," said Jeff Tedford, the Golden Bears' coach. "Ninety-two thousand is bigger than I've ever seen. I've never been in front of that many people before."

Cal has, in the days of Pappy Waldorf and Johnny Olzewski, the days when college football around here was banner headline stuff, the way it is at this very moment in Lincoln and Baton Rouge.

Who imagined it could be that way again in Northern California, then again who imagined the A's and Giants wouldn't make the playoffs, and the Raiders would be average and the 49ers would be atrocious?

Who imagined Cal would be No.7 in the nation?

What we never had to imagine was USC again could be No.1. We simply dreaded it.

"They have blue chip players every single place on their team," said Tedford. The monster has returned.

The media, an agile group of front-runners, was packed in Tuesday for Tedford's weekly press conference, and the coach was hardly unaware.

"Important?" Tedford said rhetorically, referring to the game. "I think this room is evident of that. The first week I sat in here, I think we had maybe five or six people.

"I think the magnitude of this game probably has a lot to do with (the change)."

The magnitude of the game, unbeaten Cal against unbeaten USC, and the decline of everything and everybody else north of Monterey, a most propitious bit of timing.

It was the long-held belief of the late Leonard Koppett, an astute observer, that in virtually every city where the NFL played it squashed college football. There were and are exceptions, Miami, Seattle, Los Angeles -- where the NFL fled town, leaving it to USC and UCLA -- but the Bay Area was the rule.

Evidence? Last weekend, Stanford, now 3-1, drew only 27,000.

But Cal-USC matters, in Los Angeles, in Northern California, maybe in the rest of the country.

"I know since I've been here," said Pete Carroll, the Marin County guy who coaches USC, "the talk is the Pac-10 is underrated and overlooked because of the time frames when the games are shown on TV (in the East). But this is prime time."

He means daytime. He means a 12:30 p.m. PDT start Saturday, or 3:30 p.m. in New York and Atlanta, 2:30 p.m. in Norman and Austin. He means an hour when people are watching, not sleeping.

"I love it," said Carroll. "The state of California. So much excitement about the game. People who don't think Californians love their football better stay away from this college game."

Carroll is a Californian. Tedford is a Californian. But we're talking reality, not provincialism, here as if there's anything wrong with a bit of bias.

"This is a great moment for the Pac-10," said Carroll, "and for our programs. Two top 10 teams. A lot of people are going to know what we can do."

What Cal already has done is create a buzz, an "are these guys really that good?" sort of response. This is a big game, as opposed to the Big Game, and that became so irrelevant the last couple of years it didn't even sell out down at Stanford. But the L.A. Coliseum already is sold out.

"Our guys have been in enough big games," Tedford insisted, "the bowl game last year, Kansas State last year, that they understand what the big stage is all about. But I think there's a little extra this week ... playing against the defending national champs and the No. 1 team in the country.

"We'll be fine. We just have to continue doing what we've been doing."

What they've been doing is making us pay attention, and that is no small accomplishment.

-Art Spander

Link: http://www.timesstar.com/Stories/0,1413,125~1511~2449515,00.html#

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WOOHOO! Viva los osos!

....make the Bay Area, NorCal, heck, the whole state proud. This is going to be an epic game, regardless of the outcome.

Welcome to Wednesday's...
...Cocky Condom Comment.

Today's entery is a doozy. We not only have one post, but an entire thread of drivel from U$C! yay!

[Once again, these come from the Trojan's "Thundering Herd" message board]:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is your typical class schedule for a incoming Cal Freshman
*Civil Disobedience 101
*Communal living in the new millenium
*Modern Free Thinking
*Great Hippie leaders

Electives:*
Advanced Zig-Zag Rolling
*Rioting & Looting essentials

You Forgot
Anti-American History 101.

Wait until Saturday and observe this behavior. Cal fans are the only college students I've seen who shout anti-American slogans and obscenities during the national anthem.

I fear Cal and their students, they will be too much to overcome......
....they will wake up the ghosts of Marx and Mao this Saturday. Their peoples are too numerous, their body order too much to take. What will we ever do?

Another women's class
How to braid your underarm hair 101.

don't forget "The History of Woodstock"*
x
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ha...ha...h.....eh.....I'll spare you the rest.

[congrats to Erik for being the first to take advantage of the 'comment' feature. Feel free to follow his lead]

Welcome to Tuesday's...
...Cocky Condom Comment.

Today's post comes from the Trojan's "Thundering Herd" message board:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cal's campus is a disgrace to taxpayers...

...I spent a weekend at the Claremont Hotel in Oakland and spent an afternoon walking around and on the Cal campus. I never have witnessed a more sorry sight. Trash everywhere, "Lick Bush" signs on the campus and on the homes surrounding the campus, green hair and unshaven female armpits everywhere. What a dump. Telegraph Avenue (the main artery to the campus) was replete with urine odor and the shops and stores were largely filthy. No wonder USC has surpassed Cal in many academic areas. Who the hell would send their son or daughter to that hell hole. So much for the UC's and public education. We all know that public education at the grade and secondary school level has failed. Well it won't be long now for the demise of the CSU's and UC's. There...I feel better now. Kill the Bears.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, his Telegraph Avenue description isn't too far off, but hey, it's all part of the themeing. And heck....judging from what I've heard about U$C's neighborhood, I doubt they have much to brag about. At least Cal's campus is only surrounded by urban decay on just one of its borders.

As for the rest of the post.....hah:



What a dump!

[side note: how do you like the new template?]

Cocky Condoms...
....from the www.wearesc.com football board

(expect one of these each day this week)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Welcome to PAYBACK IS A BITCH week!

Bring on the bears!
Lead them in chains to the mighty Coliseum to face their peril and find their doom!

Bring on the Hippies!
Let them watch in collective, stinking horror as their season begins its Big Fade of Oregonian proportions!

Let blast the sound and fury!
Of four score thousand screaming, thundering fans in Coliseum stands!

Trumpet and blare Conquest!
Let it peal down from the heavens and roll through the unshowered, state-schooled heathens!

Unleash the Trojans!
Let them ride like horsemen of the apocalypse through the unholy four-legged beasts and smite down golden bears with golden swords as hell itself is thrown open and the battle is met!

FIGHT ON FOR TROY!
FIGHT ON FOR USC!
FIGHT ON TO VICTORY!
FIGHT ON!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


And they try to act like this game doesn't matter much to them...

Go Bears!

I don't have to be anyone other than a birth of two souls in one
Part of where I'm going is knowing where I'm coming from

I don't want to be anything other than what I've been trying to be lately
All I have to do is think of me and I have peace of mind
I'm tired of looking 'round rooms wondering what I gotta do
Or who I'm supposed to be
I don't want to be anything other than me.

I am a certified Cal leader again.

Thank you alumni!

In honor of this, I think I'll buy myself a new Cal sweater. Go Bears!

Drink up baby doll
Are you in or are you out
Leave your things behind
'Cos it's all going off without you

Excuse me too busy
Writing your your tragedy
These mishaps you bubble-wrap
When you've no idea what you're like

So let go, So let go jump in
Oh well what you waiting for
It's alright'
Cause there's beauty in the breakdown



(yay for the garden state soundtrack...)

Back from a weekend in Davis with my family. Weird to think my brother is out there and not back home.

We all went to the Davis versus Sacramento State football game on Saturday. SacState is Davis' big rival, and their football field was packed. (It only seats about 9,000 though). Only issue...way too many obnoxious drunk frat people. Ugh. They let students in for free, with in and out privileges. Which meant a good chunk of the students sitting in our section (outside the main student section) left after half-time already drunk, to get more drunk and return in the fourth quarter.

But other than that, the game was cool. Davis won. The atmosphere was pretty nice, a lot more laid back than Cal. With a great band, decent football program, good fanbase, and a new stadium in the works, things are on the up-and-up for Davis. All Chris needs to do is become a micman and make his mark.

...and jeeze, Chris's dorm room. That kid lucked out. It's almost as big as my house in Mountain View (two bedrooms (double and a single), one bath, living room, dining room, kitchen, balcony).

Maybe I'm still getting over that weird flu/cold I had last week...but I feel out of it and tired. So that's all for now.

Huh.....all right, I'll take that.

About three hours to the kick off of Cal's first home game of what could be our best season in almost 50 years.

You can feel the excitement.

Cal's been on the front page of the Sports section of the Chronicle every day this week. They're talking about us on ESPN, on Fox Sports, USA Today. A poll on the Chron's front page asked, who do you think will have a winning season, The Raiders or 49ers. Over 50% responded, "Can we just talk about Cal?!" You see a lot more people (and not just frosh) wearing Cal gear. People on the streets are talking. At the barber shop, the conversation isn't "So you go to Cal? Been in any protests lately?" it's "So you go to Cal, whadabout them Bears eh?!"

Nevertheless, I've had lots of explaining to do lately. Why, people ask, do I care so much about Cal football? Especially to the point where I'd postpone a trip to Europe by a week to go to a Rose Bowl (if we're so lucky)What's the big deal?

If you know me, you know that I am very rooted in California, very proud to live in this state, in the Bay Area, and to go to this school. Going here isn't just about me, it isn't just about the work that I've accomplished. I am the end result of the hard work of generations of my family, most especially my parents, who have sacrificed so much to give me the oppurtunities to go here. So......in that sense, Cal represents a lot to me.

Plus, I've had an excellent three years here, I have made great friends, and have lots of wonderful memories. For the first time in my life, I've been made to feel like I actually BELONG at my school. I did not feel that way at Saint Simons even though I went there for 10 years. And certaintly not at Saint Francis, which I never felt truly represented who I was or where I was coming from. Cal does. It's been the perfect fit.

And I do not want to wait untill graduation to celebrate that feeling of belonging, to celebrate Cal. Every football game gives me a chance to rub shoulders and exchange high-fives with students from all majors, from all backgrounds, from the EECS geek to the Sorority Girl, from the frosh to the grad student, heck even some professors.

This campus is HUGE. And as it has grown, the sense of unity that characterized it in the early years has waned. Traditions have died. A lot of people walk around disconnected, disenchanted, eager to get out and graduate because all they can get themselves to care about is grades, graduation, a job, money.

But when school spirit runs high, as it does this season, its easier to put all that aside once your in Memorial. It gives you a chance to cherish the fact that yes, you are making it. You are a student at one of the greatest school's in the world. It gives you a chance to show your pride by rooting for a team that's playing down there on the field, representing you, your school, and your state.

And plus, this is a golden era in Cal's history here folks. And you know me, I'm a sucker for history and tradition. It doesn't take a sports-genius to see that people will look back on our time at Cal and say how amazing its been for our football team. Our coach has engineered an unprecedented turn around. From being a 1-10 joke our frosh year, to be a nationally ranked powerhouse our senior year. That's amazing. If things keep going this way, there could be a statue of Tedford next to Pappy in Faculty Glade come our 25th reunion. Whether you like football or not, what happens on the field will come to be a major touchstone of how our time at Cal is remembered.

But like I said, it is more than about football. It's how football gives this big old university a chance to come together. A chance for us to put down the books, forget about the tests, the grades, the heart-ache, and scream our hearts out for California.

Go Bears!

Kim posted lots of great pics from summer. She said this one makes her laugh.



Yeah. Funny stuff. Good times.

In a few weeks, one of San Jose's greatest landmarks, the Fox California Theatre, will reopen its doors. Mr. David Packard (son of the P in HP and the owner of the theatre I worked at this summer and last) is the head donor.

Check out this great article from the San Jose Metro:

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/09.08.04/california-0437.html

I can't wait to visit this place!

So....our party.

By all accounts it was a huge success, and it went off without a hitch. My only regret? That 40.

Luckily, I didn't have much of a hang over the next day and made it to the beach with Lauren, her brother Chris, and Steph. We had a really nice time up in Point Reyes at a beach in the Tule Elk reserve. Leo, Lauren, and I had been there before. The beach is by far one of the nicest I've been to...it has mystical qualities to it.

I'm really glad I got out of the house and to the beach on Sunday. It's been damn hot here in Berkeley. You wake up in the morning and it's already pushing 80. That kind of puts me in a funk. I discussed this with Lauren, and she agrees....there's something about an overcast/foggy morning that eases you in from sleeping to getting ready for school. It's a smoother transition between night and day. When it's already 80 at 10:30, I get thrown off.

Today, we finally got somewhere with our Europe winter trip planning. However, I have quite a ridiculous dilemma to deal with: Do I go to Europe with Leo and Lauren on December 27th, or do I assume that Cal might make it to the Rose Bowl for the first time in a bijilion years and wait till January 2nd.

Yes....I know. The Rose Bowl or a week Europe....what an AWFUL decision to have to make. Haha. What an unbelievable decision to have to make! First of all, I'm planning on going to Europe. That's crazy. The number of people in my family that have been there can be counted on one hand. Secondly, Cal at the Rose Bowl. Three years ago this would have sent even the most devoted fan into hysterics. That I would care so much as to postpone a trip to Europe would have made the 2001 version of me laugh too.

Nevertheless, I'm leaning towards meeting up with Leo and Lauren after New Years. It's my senior year, our team is better than it's been in generations, and I could only be so lucky to be a member of the graduating class that sees our team go its first Rose Bowl since 1957. If I do schedule the trip before the Rose Bowl, I would be subconsciously rooting against the team so that they don't achieve that goal. That would suck, and it would put a damper on the whole season, a part of my Senior year I've really been looking forward to.

As long as I can figure out an itinerary with Leo and Lauren that still makes going to Europe feasible and affordable between the 2nd and the start of school, I think missing out on a week of travel will be tolerable. Plus, I might save some money.

....um but first. I need some money to save. Anyone care to donate?