Cheddar soup

Brief post break between spring break 1 and 2.
Crispin made cheddar soup.
We went to whole foods last week and he saw the recipe, it stuck in his mind. Anyhow, I get to eat it now. I hope its good. My whole house smells like cheese =\

Spring break part 1

I had spring break last week, although it wasn't much a vacation. I spent most of my time catching up in school and writing my outlines. I still think I won't have much to show for my efforts, but I do it anyways. Last weekend we checked out PB to shoot some pool. We found all the bars completely packed. Our pool hall was empty. Pool isn't as popular as binge drinking I guess. I felt really left out, like I always do in clubs/bars, etc, like I don't even belong in this country. This country's emphasis on drinking culture, further emphasized by the law profession's endorsement of these areas as places to "network" makes me feel like I've chosen the wrong field, and indeed, perhaps been born into the wrong country. But that wasn't the point of the weekend, the point was PB is packed Friday nights, and we sucked at pool.

I tried pool part 2 on Wednesday at a Korean pool place where they don't serve alcohol and the lady serves milk to regulars, and allows them to smoke under the "do not smoke sign." Boy did I suck. And I got ripped off twice, once at dinner (never go to places that don't print prices on their menu), and again at the pool hall when she added on 30min of play time that did not occur. But how can you argue w/old Korean women...

Last weekend I went to LA and checked out the tar pits. You can't actually see the tar (sad) it's under water in this lake. But I saw this really cool display with 1600 dire wolf skulls. And we also went to the Museum of Tolerance, which is about the Holocaust. It's hypocritical in that by tolerance, they mean sticking you in a room and forcing you to watch videos about Jewish people and how they suffered. It's a complete video tour, but they pretend its not because you need to move from room to room to see the videos.

Tar pits w/ sculptures. The tar is under the water in the lake.


1600 dire wolf skulls.


This last week, and this weekend just plain sucks. Way too much schoolwork. And it'll continue into next week, even more schoolwork, plus the week after is the deadline for job hunting. So I've got my hands full. I wonder if I should have dropped out. If all this work, which takes up all my waking hours, doesn't amount to a decent job that I like, why not stop now?

All I've ever wanted was to be extraordinary. Now I find I'm nothing more than ordinary. And it kills me. The biggest lie you can tell your kids is that they can be anything they want to be, that they're special in their own way. Because neither one of those things is true.

Oh, and it's chinese new year.

Recently Vlad got a bubble ball, so he could really get some exercise outside of the cage. Muffy really likes this bubble ball. I think that's all I can say without getting into too much trouble. Both are alive and well, and both enjoy the ball.


I've decided to see something new every free weekend I have this semester. Kicked it off with a visit to the beach cities, Laguna, Newport, and Huntington. Laguna Beach's residential areas, where they film the tv show, are completely gated off. As a tourist what you can see are the many art galleries and antique dealers in their one street very small very rich downtown. In Newport we checked out Balboa Island, which has the beach bum type of feel, selling beach food complete with a mini carnival. We had lunch and this place that I thought was a dark biker bar, but actually served really good generous portions. From here we proceeded to Huntington Beach. It's really like a college town full of watering holes and beautiful people. All the houses look like fraternities, they've got school flags hanging from their balconies. The only real difference between this place and say, Santa Cruz, would be the very expensive exotic cars. It's a type of genetic lottery to live here, be rich, beautiful, and young, and not have to do any real type of labor to support the lifestyle. On the way back we stopped by Fashion Island, which has huge koi with flowing tails in its koi pond, and a pet store that sold cornish rex cats!

Oh, and of course I went to the beach. In the middle of January. You've gotta take advantage of the lack of winter, otherwise one day you'll be in Boston, and it'll be snowing outside, and you'll have all the things you could desire, except you can only watch the beach on television, because of all the snow outside.

I'm not really into working out, but I fear for my cardiac health. And people claim exercise gives them more energy and makes them happier. So with that in mind, I went for a jog in mission bay. It's not the beach, it's the bay. It's kind of green and smells like too many ducks. Oh, and it was low tide. And someone ran over a skunk. But I ran. I don't feel happier. I guess I expose my body to enough pain to produce happy endorphins. I had to stop when the fog started coming in at 430. It followed me home. Visibility outside my window is about 10 feet right now. Driving tonite would suck, I mean you couldn't see, and the odors of all those smashed skunks would be suspended in the air.

Bored

I'm bored today. I feel like I have nothing to look forward to, and that I'm trapped by a sticky cat, a needy boyfriend, and my own financial futility. I want to be saved.

So Las Vegas air dried out my lungs and caused severe dry air allergies (I know that doesn't exist, but it happened). Then I returned to San Diego, where it's only slightly more humid. So now my throat hurts and I can't breathe well =( It's a bit like the way last semester ended, sore throat. At the same time it's a bit like the way the last semester began, broken car. In good news, the students aren't as psycho as I had originally believed. I went to the bookstore today to get titles so I could order my books online. And the books were not completely sold out! In fact, hardly anybody was on campus!! Two of my classes didn't have books yet, so they either sold out or had yet to be stocked. I think it's a little much to suspect people buying the books back in December, and reading up through the holidays. But with law school students, you never know what they're doing behind your back.

Las Vegas!

Las Vegas is a 5 hour drive away from San Diego. It's a boring drive through dry scrubby wasteland, dotted with joshua trees and abandoned mining towns. Once you get to the city, there's plenty of non-traditional Las Vegas activities.

They've got a minor league hockey team in the Orleans casino.


Toured the various hotels. This time the Bellagio's all decked out for Chinese New Year!


Visited the fremont street experience, which is another less frequently visited collection of casinos, away from the strip.


And there's always hiking at Red Rock where I saw a wild burro, driving through the seedy strip club infested streets, and walking in and out of the "hip" bars. But remember, bars are really only fun if you're single. With someone watching you, you can't really be yourself, or interact with others.

I have some water leaks in my condo. I've uploaded some pix for the landlord and appropriate authorities to examine. We've been keeping notes and evidence, the leaks are getting worse and worse... More on this later.