Haul Out the Holly

My poor neglected blog.

I just deleted a whole entry I decided not to post. It was too whiney. Whining about my term paper due Tuesday and the book due in March ruining my Winter break.

Screw that mentality. I'm done with it. I'm going to accept that the book is going to be a huge part of my Winter Break, and try to have fun with it and remind myself that it's a dream come true. As for this weekend, I'm going to stop worrying about my school projects because I know that in the end, I'll get them done and do a kick-ass job too.

So tomorrow, I'm going to haul down the boxes of Christmas decorations and help my family start decking the halls. I'm going to work on my paper and get the first draft done. I'm going to edit the introduction to my book. I'm going to start putting up the Christmas lights at my grandparent's house.

And I'm going to enjoy every minute of it, or at least try.

Thanks!

Thanks for all the facebook messages and wall postings!

Thanks for all the e-mails!

Thanks for the IMs!

Thanks for the phone calls!

Thanks for dinner!

Thanks for enjoying cupcakes after dinner (and thanks to Julia for the cupcakes!)!

You all made my birthday. :-)

I'll be 23

I'm no longer living in my regrets.
I'm no longer waiting around for the right time.

I'm turning 23 tomorrow. And the lyrics to the song (which I've posted on this blog, at least once before) don't apply the way they used to.

And that, my friends, is a reason to celebrate.

Sing it to me Alicia

Round and round and round we go.
Will you ever know?

Lauren's funny

My away Message:
dengrove is getting ready to go to vegas
i'm getting ready to go to turlock, ca

[unfair!]

Lauren P's responce:

l p r o f e i t: but i hear turlock is beautiful this time of year
l p r o f e i t: and some call it the vegas of the central valley
l p r o f e i t: at least, that's what i hear.

Yay for Turlock.....Vegas with cows.

Halloween in MV

While everyone and there mom heads to the Castro for Halloween, I've always chosen to return to Mountain View to put together and help run my family's haunted house. It's hard to believe we've been doing it for 9 years now. It's gotten a little better each year too. This year we greatly enhanced the Haunted Mansion-inspired "pepper's ghost effect"...basically using mirrors and glass to create the optical illusion of a ghostly woman (we call her La Llarona) appearing and disappearing in a room.

The haunted house has really become a great tradition and something that not only my family but also a lot of the neighborhood families look forward to now. Each year it seems like more people come...this year we even had minivans of people pull up to our house to take a look, and at one point the line to get in went all the way down the driveway to the street.

And it's not like it's the only gig in town. Over on the other side of Old Mountain View are two far more elaborately decorated haunted houses. But what makes ours different is that it's more human...more friendly. We have things for little kids. We're not gory. We always ask people if they want to get scared or just look. Everyone that goes through it either exits screaming and laughing or just smiling. It feels really, really good to give my neighbors something special to enjoy every Halloween.

This year, was also impressive in terms of who showed up from my family and friends. 5 of my mom's six siblings were there. A whole bunch of cousins. Both of my dad's brothers, all three of my grandparents, and a lot of friends too: Lauren Berger, Jen, Eric, Dan, Julie, and Wycee! And there were enough of my mom's green enchiladas to go around for everyone!

So it was a great night, a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to next Halloween already :-)

Here are the photos:

Me and Jen and the remote-control rat.


My Auntie Elise and the cutest little monkey-baby ever, my cousin Peyton.

My Nina Lydia and my mom with the new baby cousin of the family, Carolyna

My Uncle Ric had a great sumo-wrestler costume, too bad this photo is blurry!

My cousins Lisa and Marisa


My brother Chris was nothing more than a Davis SID

Dan! Julie! Me! Jen! Lauren! Eric! Wycee! and baby Peyton!

The Berkeley crew + Jen


A long line of neighbors waits to get into the haunted house.


My cousin Lisa's kid Angelica, hiding behind the fence having a blast being the best talking tree ever (but not the Stanfurd tree because he's a very bad tree...her Cal alumni parents have trained her well).

And we'll close with this shot of Julie taking a turn at being the scary "chain saw" (leaf-blower) person that provides our haunted house with its grand finale.

November

It's the second day of November. Shit.

With all the stuff I have due by the end of this month, I kinda have an idea what a turkey must feel like right about now.

November is usually my favorite month, and no, not just because of the 9th. I love Thanksgiving and the anticipation of December and the holiday season. But if I don't focus and start getting my work done, it's just going to be one creeping deadline after another from here till the book is due in March.

I resolve to make today my last day of time-wasting. From now on I'm reverting back to the studious guy you all knew and loved as an undergrad. No more slacking off.

Weekends? They'll be spent not in the City but in Mountain View doing research for the book.
Thursday nights? Well that's prime time to work on my three projects...who needs happy hour anyway.
Facebook? Never heard of it.

Yeah right.

But seriously, it's time to crack down and chip away at this procrastination-induced guilt I've built up since school started. November might already be a lost cause, but if I start getting on top of things, I can at least save December and January. Wish me luck.

City Trip

On Saturday Kay, Dan, and I picked up Julie in the City and spent the afternoon in Union Square. It was a beautiful day and we had a really nice time. Here are some photos (I'm trying to be better about uploading photos...digital cameras are both a blessing and curse):

The fog rolls into the Bay but the sun shined on the City the whole time we were there. The view from the bridge was awesome, and traffic slowed down in just the right spot.
Kay enjoys the sunshine and the view from the back of Dan's car.

Kay and Julie in Union Square.

Group shot! Such tourists. Hehe.

Dan and I eagerly awaiting the burgers we're soon to eat...it's hard to go to the City and not stop at Taylor's Refresher in the Ferry Building. Yum!

...and see Julie, I didn't post the picture of you swinging your hair around all crazy-like that you wanted to delete of my camera. ;-)

Halloween-esque Shingdig Thing

So, at the last minute we decided to throw a little Halloween get together at our house on Friday night. Everything came together quite nicely, we had plenty of drinks, candy, and pizza and a cool mix of friends, both new and old gather round the TV to watch some ridiculous scary movies. Here are some photos:

Something gory must have just happened in the werewolf-puberty-menstruation (eric bohman would have loved it) movie "Ginger Snaps" judging from the looks on Preeti, Chris, Vicki, and Morgan's faces. Especially Vicki. Hehe.

..or on me and Jacob's face. We kind of got into a photo war trying to get snap shots of people when they were grimacing the most.
Dan caught me pointing the camera at him. Kay looks concerned. Jeremy isn't even looking.

Dan, Julia, and I concocted this vodka laced drink called "witches brew" that Dan found the recipe for off the food network website. A larger bowl filled with Dan's beloved dry ice surrounded the punch bowl, making for a pretty awesome effect that entertained us almost as much as the second movie...

The more Dan drank the witches brew, the more he loved his dry ice.

Eric finally made it home pretty late, but in time for us to hang out and take a 2614 Regent Roomie photo...awwwww. :-)

Keg Stand

I did a keg stand tonight. In the Wurster Hall courtyard of all places. I was challenged by Ian to beat him, which I did, by a second...after getting beer up my nose.

Grad School is weird.

Hoodie

Today on my way to Smart Alex's with Dan I saw someone in Rasputin wearing my hoodie. The brown and blue one which has become a staple of my wardrobe this semester. I wanted to jump them, strip them of the hoodie and run away with it. It is my hoodie and mine alone. I had to go to two freakin Ross-Dress-For-Lesses to find it (I had a gift certificate)and it was the only one on the rack, so that must mean it's the only one in the world...right? right?

Stupid people wearing my clothes.

...and now, to completely shift gears...

I guess I never wrote about the Saint Francis game in detail...well, it was a ton of fun. I went with Jen, Lauren Berger, Chris, Shirley, and my parents. We met up with some other people from our respective classes and took a seat in the aisle next to the band which, to our amazement, now has snazzy uniforms...with hats. (oh, and we now have a color guard, cheerleaders, a mascot, and the micmen that Chris started....it's like something out of the early 1960s!)

There were about 8,500 people there. For a high school game. In California. In the Bay Area. This is not typical, but this was not a typical game. It was my high school's homecoming, its 50th anniversary, and against are arch-rival, Bellarmine..an all boys Jesuit school in San Jose.

Saint Francis pulled off a come from behind victory with a touchdown in the last 27 seconds, it was a thrilling roller-coaster ride of a game. I guess my little brother has rubbed off on me, that and I've gained a lot of self-confidence lately...because I got up and coaxed the crowd of Saint Francis alumni and families to get up and make noise for the team multiple times while Chris reassumed his role as micman and did the same from the track during the last few minutes of the game. It worked, they got up and made noise, and I think it made a difference.

There's something extremely gratifying about going back to Saint Francis with enough self-confidence to put myself out there like that. It reminds me how much I've grown and changed since I was a student there. High school was fine, but it's nice to look back and be reminded how much I've changed, for the better.

Your Heart is an Empty Room

And all you see
Is where else you could be
When you're at home
Out on the street
Are so many possibilities
To not be alone

-Death Cab

Fingers Crossed

I think I need another come from behind victory. Two just wasn't enough :-).

Rain on Down

Friday night/early Saturday morning I found myself lying near the window of some executive's corner office on the 27th floor of one of the towers in the Embacadero Center. I was there for at least 15 minutes or so just watching the light rain fall on the bay and the Ferry Building below me. It was one of those absurd but beautiful moments when time kind of stands still and you just think, wow...I wouldn't want to be any place else right now.

How I got there is not that interesting of a story...after a few failed attempts to find a club that didn't charge a cover over on Broadway... Steph, Dan, Julie, Laurel and I decided to ditch Bobby and his friend in North Beach and head towards the Financial District to hang out in Julie's office. Original plan was to take some wine up there, but alas, Safeway was closed by then.

We were all wet, freezing, and *slightly* buzzed. The rain had caught us off guard that night. Sometimes getting caught in the rain is irritating or depressing. But usually for me it's funny, exciting, makes me feel like a kid again.

The rain made Friday night memorable. And the more I think about it, the more I realize how many of my most vivid memories involve rain.

When I was exploring Boston on my own I got caught in a massive thunderstorm and had to hide on the portico of Fanueli Hall. It was pouring when I ran out of the Disney-MGM Studios with my family in our newly bought rain ponchos, pushing my mom in a wheelchair as fast as we could(she had just had an emergency gallblader surgery)... we were soaking wet by the time we had packed into the rental car. I have a similar memory of the four of us laughing and running around Scottsdale, Arizona one night after being caught in the rain and seeking refuge in an ice cream palour.

It was raining on Mountain View's 100th birthday as I stood with hundreds of other die-hard Mountain Viewers to see the dedication of Centennial Plaza. I have lots of memories of rainy days in Mountain View when, as soon as the first drops fell I would run to the closet, put on my red galoshes and yellow rain coat and go stomp in the puddles that always filled the end of West Dana. I remember towards the end of the big drought in the late 1980s when it poured for the first time in ages, and realizing that my little brother had never really seen rain like this before that he could remember.

It was raining when Kat and I took the GREs in the City and first saw our beloved "Great Fart Quake of 1906" sign, and when Erik and I went to Taylor's refresher during Finals week to take a break from studying last semester. In fact, my earliest memory of being in the City is a rainy night around Christmas when my uncle still lived there. We got caught in a storm while visiting Union Square, I remember running down the street under the awnings and into the BART station soaking wet (hmm, also my first memory of BART).

The more I think about it, the more rainy memories pop up. I'll stop though..don't want to bore you anymore than I already have.

So, in conclusion: I've been a lot more appreciative of those wonderful perfect sunshiney days lately , but I think I'll always love the rain.

What's a Bruin Anyway?

For my update on the weekend in LA (along with a photo essay!), see my Cal gang's group blog:

http://calbears05.blogspot.com

So Who's Gonna?

Look, my blog has titles now! Fun.

So I just sent Dan all the songs from Death Cab for Cutie's new album "Plans" (which I ripped from Chris, who buys CDs much more often than I do). Anyhow this one song, "What Sara Said" is so sad. That said, me posting these has nothing to do with the way I feel right now. Quite happy actually, I just think these are really sad, beautiful lyrics. So read on:

What Sara Said
-Death Cab for Cutie

And it came to me then that every plan
Is a tiny prayer to father time
As I stared at my shoes in the ICU
That reeked of piss and 409
And I rationed my breaths as I said to myself
That I’ve already taken too much today
As each descending peak on the LCD
Took you a little farther away from me
Away from me

Amongst the vending machines and year-old magazines
In a place where we only say goodbye
It stung like a violent wind that our memories depend
On a faulty camera in our minds
And I knew that you were a truth I would rather lose
Than to have never lain beside at all
And I looked around at all the eyes on the ground
As the TV entertained itself

‘Cause there’s no comfort in the waiting room
Just nervous paces bracing for bad news
And then the nurse comes ‘round and everyone lift their heads
But I’m thinking of what Sara said
That love is watching someone die

So who’s gonna watch you die?

Starry Nights
City Lights
Coming Down over me

Tonight my dad came to Berkeley so my brother and I could celebrate his birthday with him (mom's on a business trip). We had Zachary's (yum) and then he had a special request...one of his "life goals"...go down the big stone slide at Cordonices Park.

So, we head up to Northside, where I haven't ventured too often since grad school started. It's dark, and warm, a pleasant evening. We take that drive up Euclid which I walked and was driven up countless times, and the weird feeling of knowing that we weren't heading "home" to the Pink House began to hit me. We get out and all slid down that crazy slide together a few times (even Shirley conquered her fear, haha). It was a lot of fun.

After though, we did something I've kind of avoided doing since May. We went down Scenic Avenue past the Pink House. And there it was, my home of two years. The first "home" I've ever had to leave behind.

It was hard to see it, with no party lights in the living room window. To glimpse inside its windows and not see the shadows of Lauren, or Ryan, or Erik, Eric and Dan. To not be able to park and head up that staircase and into a place that was not so long ago our home.

Hard to believe it's been about four months since I've seen the place. My last look was from the rear window of my parents car as they drove down Rose Street to drop me off at the airport to go to Lisbon. It was the day after graduation. I had stayed up all night with Erik...talking, looking at photos, and then sitting in silence in the living room as the sun slowly lit up the view of the Bay from our living room window and Candice pulled up the street to take him to the airport.

That last time I saw the house through the car's windows, I was crying. It hurt, it was like nothing I'd ever felt before. Of course, it wasn't just leaving the house that got to me, there was a lot more to it than that ugly pink box. It was everything that the pink box contained, especially that last semester. I grew up there, became proud of who I was and I solidified friendships that will last a lifetime within its walls. It felt terrible to leave knowing that I could never come back to it.

Tonight, being on Scenic brought back that feeling. As we drove past the house and down the street towards Cedar so many memories flew by all at once. All the times I walked down that street with my friends, especially the times at night. Going to bonfire singing Cal songs with Erik and Lauren, heading to a party already half-drunk with Lauren and Ryan, or with Erik and Dan on our way to meet Kat to go hike up the Big C one last time as Cal students....for a moment it felt like all of you were right there with me.

We hit Cedar, and I called Lauren in USC. We reminisced a little on the phone and she of course said something like "but you have your new friends now". I do have new friends, new experiences that are making this particular time in my life pretty special in its own way.

But Berkeley is a different place now and there was something down right magical about my first four years here that can't be replaced by what happens in the next two.

My ears are still ringing.

The Green Day/Jimmy Eat World concert was awesome. What a show. Jimmy though is much better in a smaller venue, but it was still fun to see them. Green Day rocked the place and Dan and I had so much fun down there near the stage on the field. No doubt one of the most impressive concerts I have ever been to.

It's kind of amazing how much I've been cramming into my weekends so far this semester. It makes me wonder what I was doing my whole time as an undergrad here. I didn't have that much homework. I guess I just spent a lot of time sitting around the house relaxing or going home to Mountain View. Both of which, I must say, can be equally enjoyable at times.

But the running joke with a few of the friends I've made in grad school is that I didn't do my undergrad here...because when they ask me "Oh Nick, have you heard about this place here in Berkeley" or "Hey Nick, have you been to this bar" or, "Hey Nick, what's your favorite place to go in Tilden Park"....I often don't have an answer. It's really strange, but kind of good in a way since it seems like it's gonna take more than another two years for me to ever get bored with this place.

But after a thursday of happy houring, a friday of partying, and a saturday of hiking/concert going...it's now time for a sunday of work. School, you know. It's the whole reason I'm here.

Right?

Right.

Hi there.

It's been a while since I updated this here blog, as my dear friend Miss Profeit has pointed out. I have my reasons.

So, how have I been doing? Quite well I suppose. There's been plenty more ups than downs to this first month of grad school. It's been much easier to make friends and connect with people than I ever had hoped. I'm pretty happy. I feel like I'm smiling a lot more, laughing a lot more, and have a more balanced mix of school and social life.

Some pressure was taken off my back with the book project. I got the submission deadline extended by a few months, so phew. But I need to keep myself from slacking, I want to treat things like it's still due January. School work hasn't been that bad yet...all though things are quickly starting to pile up. But I'm used to that. Berkeley is still Berkeley.

Cal had a really exciting game against Illinois this Saturday, and I had the pleasure of giving my dad's season tickets to two new foreign planning students who really appreciated and enjoyed the experience. It was a lot of fun to see the whole thing through their eyes.

And UC Davis, holy bejesus! They beat Stanfart...with a touchdown in the last 8 seconds of the game! Amazing! I'm so happy for Chris and those 10,000 Aggie fans that made it down to the farm. It's great that he was able to be a part of such a huge thing for his school. Poor Stanford though. Cal's rivalry with them is already one-sided enough. They need to do something to boost spirit at the farm....it's no fun to have a rival that just doesn't care anymore. Ha.

In other news, that job I was looking for? The one that would fit in my schedule and give me some spending money and not be very hard or involve working in retail? It fell from the sky and into my lap this morning. I've been offered a readership for an urban design class I took as an undergrad. Which...is just, perfect.

And today, well today I felt very productive. I did a fine job playing the role of a Feng Shui expert at my urban form theorist debate. I pretty much finished my letter of recommendation for my professor's tenure app. I spent a nice hour or so enjoying the sunshine on the lawn near Kroeber Fountain talking to Preeti. The two of us then rearranged my room, and I like the way it looks and feels now a lot better. Dan took me to the grocery and Long's and I bought lots of stuff I needed, and we both got RSF memberships. Preeti made us baked potatoes at her place for dinner. I finally updated this thing, and in a few minutes I'll be doing some late night studying with a friend.

So yeah. That's the laundry list of my life right now. It's going pretty well.

d i r t i candi: i would probably stay on the west coast
d i r t i candi: of africa
d i r t i candi: but if i lived there
d i r t i candi: you'd have to visit
Nap98: hehe
d i r t i candi: i'm not going to med school until like 2009
d i r t i candi: isn't that sad?
Nap98: will i get to see giraffes?
d i r t i candi: i'll buy one and name it after you
Nap98: yay!
d i r t i candi: and keep it on my giant african ranch
d i r t i candi: or name it whatever you want
Nap98: ooooooOhh
d i r t i candi: i dunno how you'd feel if i named a giraffe after you
Nap98: Steve
d i r t i candi: why steve?
Nap98: i like naming random things Steve
Nap98: it makes me laugh
Nap98: a dog named Steve
Nap98: hahahahah
Nap98: a giraffe named Steve is like 10x funnier
d i r t i candi: lol
d i r t i candi: okay, it's your giraffe
Nap98: i'd see the Giraffe and be like "hey whats up Steve"
Nap98: and he'd be chomping on some leaves all cool and shit
d i r t i candi: omg
d i r t i candi: this is so weird
Nap98: haha
d i r t i candi: i've entered your strange fantasy naming world
Nap98: lol
d i r t i candi: i actually imagined myself saying that to a giraffe
d i r t i candi: and being very impressed with myself
Nap98: LOL
d i r t i candi: as i am sure you are
Nap98: see? see?!
d i r t i candi: i'm definitely more convinced
d i r t i candi: but that was a strange moment
d i r t i candi: hahhaa
Nap98: hehe