Thursday, December 18, 2003
Writing from Mexico--a lazy day after getting in at 3 am this morning. 10 pm was the only evening run from El Paso and Aunt Carmelita lives too far away from the airport to get to easily so after waiting for the public bus and trolleys, made my way to the station. Am so used to being able to hop on the train to get back and forth from the airport that forgot how expensive cabs are. Luckily Gloria picked me up from Chihuahua station. Surprisingly cold here--brrr! Packed for better weather than this.
While waiting for the bus, called Joe, whose mom is apparently dying in the hospital. Strange--didn't think lupus was that serious but guess it had been misdiagnosed. She and Bob's mom were both a lot younger than mine so now I'm a bit paranoid that I should take care of mine more. So think I'll skip mentioning this to her.
Got up a little early Wednesday and Jan had scheduled a "Lord of the Rings recovery meeting" at work so was able to take me for a final swing around the neighborhoods and his old haunts from Razorfish before taking me to the airport. Night before had gone to "Lord of the Rings:Return of the King" premiere at midnight with him and his friends,Brett and Dabney. We showed up at 10 to be able to get seats and there was already a huge line snaking around. Luckily it was inside rather than outside, so well heated and could sit on floor. Brett and Jan brought cards so tried to remember how to play poker and go fish but didn't quite succeed.
Was annoying because previews were all shown 2 or 3 times a piece. After one particularly onerous preview was being shown, a guy on my row shouted "If you show it again, I'm going to kill myself." So of course, they showed it again and the girl next to him asked "So are you going to kill yourself now?" to which he responded "I'm already dead inside". Everyone booed during the preview for the Mask sequel while cheering for the Spiderman and Harry Potter sequels (at least the first time).
During the movie itself there was a lot of cheering after the battle sequences and funny moments throughout, especially with the dwarf. Most bizarre moment--apparently mysterious villain could not be killed by man, but could be killed by women in a loophole. So of course when confronted with a woman in disguise, she took off her helmet and had a Pantene moment before finishing him off with her sword. Guess villains are chauvinist pigs. Luckily had seen Twin Towers with Jan Sunday night but still didn't completely follow all of details since hadn't read books. Fun near end when all characters piled in one by one into Frodo's room--Legolas and Aragorn got catcalls from the audience. Dabney and I both thought there were too many battle scenes (and I definitely could have skipped spider scene) but overall it was good.
Checked grades--managed to pull a 3.0 this semester, ironically thanks to Gromala's class and chorus which I almost dropped. So I'm off academic probation--yay!
Monday a little unorganized since got starting times confused. MOMA not open until 11, Alcatraz not interchangeable with Bay Cruise with the CityPass after all and Bay Cruise much less frequent and Chinatown tour almost 2 hours which didn't really feel like doing. So got ticket at Pier 39, went back to MOMA which wandered for an hour then went to Chinatown tour which left to do exploring on my own (mostly shops) and then back to MOMA for another half an hour of wandering before going back to Pier 39 for the 4 o'clock Bay Cruise. Ticket vendor who had asked to compare Bay Cruise with Alcatraz had said BC was better for sights while the other was just an old prison. Cruise cool since sun was setting, giving great view of bridge and sun. Also got history of Alcatraz,bridges, and Angel Island. Talked to a couple of women who turned out to be flight attendants visiting from Korea.
Then back to MOMA for a final 30 minutes of wandering. Surprisingly, found several paintings that had missed first two times around including several Frida Kahlos and Diego Rivera. Other cool exhibits included an exhibit by a photographer doing b&w scenes, most notably of a kid holding a hand grenade in the park and an ultra modern exhibit with several Japanese artists and paintings of a pregnant Mona Lisa among other things. Had arranged to meet Craig in gift shop at closing time and had already picked out Chinatown restaurant to eat at. So caught up for a while over peanut butter chicken and honey chili eggplant and headed back to Jan's place since he had to work later.
When we came, he was still logged on remotely trying to resolve an issue, but luckily his officemates found the problem. Jan and Craig didn't know each other at all since I know C from Lucent but they got along amazingly well. C plays keyboards in a progressive rock band while Jan was in a band which played a lot of electronic music in college. So they went off for quite a while about music and played Craig's, Kyler's and Jan's CDs to get a taste of everyone's music. Jan also showed off his web sites since he wants to be known for doing musician's web sites and Craig showed Maxwell Demon's site. They even made the connection that Jan's friend Matt wants to play bass while Craig's band needs a bass player. So looks like Friendster connections work much better in person, especially since Jan's new place is pretty close to Craig's. More late night chatting about NCSSM and NCSU with Jan after Craig left.
So Tuesday got out kind of late but was a little more laid back since had done so much on Monday. Took buses to Palace of Legion art museum so got cool view of neighborhoods and great vista of bridge and bay. Turns out Tuesday was free anyway except for Degas exhibit which wasn't that great. A little disappointed that the impressionist and postimpressionist wings were shut to prepare for a visiting exhibit so not as extensive as was expecting. From there, bus and walk to Golden Gate to check out Academy of Sciences. Fish and even penguins in aquarium, many skull fossils, and a special exhibit on earthquakes. Japanese tea garden open so wandered then took bus to Haight Ashbury for wandering and shopping. Most of the stores are on bottom floor of Victorian homes with a couple with psychedelic touches. Cool goodwill store where bought too many books and tried on colorful miniskirt with beads which was way too short. Encouraged by 40ish woman who told me she was the first girl at her high school to wear a mini skirt and was quite proud of it.
While waiting for the bus, called Joe, whose mom is apparently dying in the hospital. Strange--didn't think lupus was that serious but guess it had been misdiagnosed. She and Bob's mom were both a lot younger than mine so now I'm a bit paranoid that I should take care of mine more. So think I'll skip mentioning this to her.
Got up a little early Wednesday and Jan had scheduled a "Lord of the Rings recovery meeting" at work so was able to take me for a final swing around the neighborhoods and his old haunts from Razorfish before taking me to the airport. Night before had gone to "Lord of the Rings:Return of the King" premiere at midnight with him and his friends,Brett and Dabney. We showed up at 10 to be able to get seats and there was already a huge line snaking around. Luckily it was inside rather than outside, so well heated and could sit on floor. Brett and Jan brought cards so tried to remember how to play poker and go fish but didn't quite succeed.
Was annoying because previews were all shown 2 or 3 times a piece. After one particularly onerous preview was being shown, a guy on my row shouted "If you show it again, I'm going to kill myself." So of course, they showed it again and the girl next to him asked "So are you going to kill yourself now?" to which he responded "I'm already dead inside". Everyone booed during the preview for the Mask sequel while cheering for the Spiderman and Harry Potter sequels (at least the first time).
During the movie itself there was a lot of cheering after the battle sequences and funny moments throughout, especially with the dwarf. Most bizarre moment--apparently mysterious villain could not be killed by man, but could be killed by women in a loophole. So of course when confronted with a woman in disguise, she took off her helmet and had a Pantene moment before finishing him off with her sword. Guess villains are chauvinist pigs. Luckily had seen Twin Towers with Jan Sunday night but still didn't completely follow all of details since hadn't read books. Fun near end when all characters piled in one by one into Frodo's room--Legolas and Aragorn got catcalls from the audience. Dabney and I both thought there were too many battle scenes (and I definitely could have skipped spider scene) but overall it was good.
Checked grades--managed to pull a 3.0 this semester, ironically thanks to Gromala's class and chorus which I almost dropped. So I'm off academic probation--yay!
Monday a little unorganized since got starting times confused. MOMA not open until 11, Alcatraz not interchangeable with Bay Cruise with the CityPass after all and Bay Cruise much less frequent and Chinatown tour almost 2 hours which didn't really feel like doing. So got ticket at Pier 39, went back to MOMA which wandered for an hour then went to Chinatown tour which left to do exploring on my own (mostly shops) and then back to MOMA for another half an hour of wandering before going back to Pier 39 for the 4 o'clock Bay Cruise. Ticket vendor who had asked to compare Bay Cruise with Alcatraz had said BC was better for sights while the other was just an old prison. Cruise cool since sun was setting, giving great view of bridge and sun. Also got history of Alcatraz,bridges, and Angel Island. Talked to a couple of women who turned out to be flight attendants visiting from Korea.
Then back to MOMA for a final 30 minutes of wandering. Surprisingly, found several paintings that had missed first two times around including several Frida Kahlos and Diego Rivera. Other cool exhibits included an exhibit by a photographer doing b&w scenes, most notably of a kid holding a hand grenade in the park and an ultra modern exhibit with several Japanese artists and paintings of a pregnant Mona Lisa among other things. Had arranged to meet Craig in gift shop at closing time and had already picked out Chinatown restaurant to eat at. So caught up for a while over peanut butter chicken and honey chili eggplant and headed back to Jan's place since he had to work later.
When we came, he was still logged on remotely trying to resolve an issue, but luckily his officemates found the problem. Jan and Craig didn't know each other at all since I know C from Lucent but they got along amazingly well. C plays keyboards in a progressive rock band while Jan was in a band which played a lot of electronic music in college. So they went off for quite a while about music and played Craig's, Kyler's and Jan's CDs to get a taste of everyone's music. Jan also showed off his web sites since he wants to be known for doing musician's web sites and Craig showed Maxwell Demon's site. They even made the connection that Jan's friend Matt wants to play bass while Craig's band needs a bass player. So looks like Friendster connections work much better in person, especially since Jan's new place is pretty close to Craig's. More late night chatting about NCSSM and NCSU with Jan after Craig left.
So Tuesday got out kind of late but was a little more laid back since had done so much on Monday. Took buses to Palace of Legion art museum so got cool view of neighborhoods and great vista of bridge and bay. Turns out Tuesday was free anyway except for Degas exhibit which wasn't that great. A little disappointed that the impressionist and postimpressionist wings were shut to prepare for a visiting exhibit so not as extensive as was expecting. From there, bus and walk to Golden Gate to check out Academy of Sciences. Fish and even penguins in aquarium, many skull fossils, and a special exhibit on earthquakes. Japanese tea garden open so wandered then took bus to Haight Ashbury for wandering and shopping. Most of the stores are on bottom floor of Victorian homes with a couple with psychedelic touches. Cool goodwill store where bought too many books and tried on colorful miniskirt with beads which was way too short. Encouraged by 40ish woman who told me she was the first girl at her high school to wear a mini skirt and was quite proud of it.
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