irianamistifi's Xanga

Monday, April 18, 2005

Mon, 18 Apr 2005 11:32:40 GMT

I haven't posted here in a very long while because I've pretty much made the jump over to LJ. Which I still find disgusting in its limitations, artistically speaking. Even so, all the people I'm at college with are on LJ, and it's nice because anyone can comment, not just people with LJs.

I just wanted to assure you all that even though I hardly ever post here, I still love you all dearly. Really. I'll probably still post a few things here.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/irianamistifi

Oh, for those of you who may actually care: I am now in a relationship with a really great guy. His name is Alex and he goes to Columbia. We met in (possibly) one of the geekiest ways possible: at the Harvard University Science Fiction Convention, Vericon. ok, it's not that bad. My friend Shawna met her boyfriend at a StarWars convention and they were both cosplaying (on opposite sides of the force, no less). And my friend Hope claims she's in a "proto-relationship" with her Saturday night DM. Those are pretty geeky too. He'll be visiting me at the shore house this summer, so maybe y'all can meet him then or at least at some point. Anyway... just letting you all know. I'm quite happy lately, despite my ridiculous amounts of work. I really am feeling that I might want to get work done... but it's not really happening. >.< Hope everyone's school year is going well.

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Tue, 01 Mar 2005 15:26:13 GMT

Current mood:	chipper
Current music:	Winter - Tori Amos

An Ode to a Massachusetts Winter
Even the fact that my algae presentation was waaaaay too short cannot dampen my spirits on this fine Tuesday. For it is snowing and all is right with the world. I'm glad I saved this entry, because I vaguely remember wanting to write something similar to it last year, around this time. I know you're all very pleased I saved you from needless repetition, you all get enough of it in your daily diets. Despite the enormous pressure I was under this weekend to finish innumberable projects and essays, and despite the fact that there was no room yesterday in the parking garage and had to move it to the stables, despite the fact that I hardly have any time to myself anymore and despite the fact that the only people who ever talk to me online anymore (with any sort of regularity) have a habit of IMing me anywhere between 3 and 5 in the morning, I am dreadfully cheerful today.

I think Barbara (from my Algae and Fungi class) wanted to hurt me when I came in so happy today. Because she's an ADA living off campus, she gets to class super early. Today, I left my room about a half an hour early so that, prior to my presentation on Algae, I could spend a sufficient amount of time frolicking in the snow. This has been done. The science quad now features 3 impromptu snow angels, one of which is surrounded by a foot print heart. I have plans for after Oceanography to do a "Charlie's Angels" series. They'll be the most dangerous-looking snow angels around.

I am always surprised by the relatively small number of people on this campus who have snowpants and good snowgear. For the love of God, you live in Massachusetts in the winter! Why wouldn't you have snowpants?! The most frequent answer to this question (oddly enough) has been "I live somewhere it doesn't snow." To which I feel inclined to reply, "You live HERE when it snows, and isn't that the important part?"

I feel sorry for international students from Australia. When we go home for summer break, it's snowing there too. They never get away from the cold weather. That must suck. Unless they really like snow.

What I love about MA in the winter is that everything is so busy looking normally, but when the snow comes, everything is wiped clean. You look out your window at 6am, and not a soul is around. The best is late December, early January, when you wake up in the morning and you think it's still night-time. You go outside and the snow is on the ground and the stars are twinkling ferociously (if it is at all possible to twinkle ferociously, that's what the stars here do in December), passionate little specks of light which the snow throws back at you. When there is snow on the ground and the stars are out, you can see clearly as if it were day, but the dark is upon you and the trees are waiting inspiration. When you pass by, their bark is cold and rough, like they're baring their souls to you. Walking in the fresh fallen snow on the dark mornings, and then coming in and knowing there's a fire burning in the fireplace. You'll never feel such intense joy, comfort or safety.

I love the fields a week after the snow has fallen. There's a thick crust of ice on top and if no one has walked on it since it's fallen, you can take a running start and glide a good 20 feet. I enjoy the uncertainty of walking on sidewalks covered in black ice. Will I fall now? How about now? Now? The feeling of joy you get for just an instant before the terrifying shock of hitting the ground when you do slip on the sidewalk. Admit it, you love being airborn with the same intensity I do. You only learn to be afraid of it when you realize that what goes up, must come down. You know it'll hurt, but there's a little thrill in your heart before you correct yourself and think, "My Goodness, I could have broken something!" You don't really care. For 2 miliseconds, you loved it.

I'm pleased how all the fire hydrants on the campus have a red pole and little red flag attached so they can be found in a four foot snowbank. I love the sound of the snowplows at 4am; the sound of people, trying valiantly to go to work -- why?! I don't know. They really want to get things done. Snow isn't meant for getting things done. That's why animals hibernate or migrate. They know a lot better than we do. Once, last year, they didn't get around to plowing until 10am! People walked on the streets and looked confused. There were no cars. Or if there were, they were covered enough that you couldn't find them, couldn't see them.

I hate shovelling snow. I'm lazy, but also, I want the world to remain in that pristine condition it attains through snow. Barren snowscapes, tinged with sun from the late sunrise fill me with joy. Houses covered in deadly icicles, gleaming from a frosted sunset? Please do. Yes to snow floating past the windows, yes to forging your own path to your next class. I try not to use the paths too frequently. They limit my creative genius of walking.

Trust exercises with snow: The preliminary snow angel pose - eyes to the skies, arms outstreched, feet shoulder width apart. An appeal to the weather gods: "more snow Please." And then, tilting backwards with your whole body and being, stiff as a board, froze solid. Trust the snow. It'll catch you. I can't do that with other people. They might not catch me. Snow will always catch you when you fall.

Snow men aren't a regularity around here. When there are snow sculptures, they tend to be animals, objects, or female. In one case, a giant snow penis, but that's about a male as it gets around here. I, personally, am a fan of the Picasso snowman. Your three basic sections arranged artfully in whatever form you think looks nicest. A carrot nose to go where the snow-person's shin might be. Stick some eyes on; maybe one on the torso, one on the head. You can have an arm coming out of the face, and another coming out of the snow person's butt. How's that for a message? We like to analyze things here. I can just imagine how people here would take that.

I too start hating snow by the end of the winter. I want spring. But not really. It's because it's getting warmer and we're dealing less with snow, and more with mud. I dislike rain. I dislike mud. If I had to get rid of one season, it would be spring. Summer is warm and toasty, and Winter is beautiful and dark and calm. The brooding season. Fall is the feeling of new, and change, and old, and death all at the same time. Fall is comforting. Fall smells like old leaves and woodsmoke. The damp and dry mix together to form that smell of both growth and decomposition. I enjoy the crinkly feeling of dried leaves as they fall apart in your hands. Fall is an inspiration.

I pose some questions to you, dear readers:
If you could get rid of one season, what would it be and why (this should go beyond: I would not get rid of summer because that's when we have break. None of that)? Why do you enjoy the other seasons more? And what are the textures, scents, feelings, tastes and other senses you associate with each season?

Saturday, February 26, 2005

Sat, 26 Feb 2005 15:50:01 GMT

Current mood:

hm. Enhancement. hm.

Spam Attacks: Spreadin' the love
Every once in a while (read, every 2 days), I take time out of my busy schedule to empty out my Yahoo Bulk Mail box. I vaguely remember the days prior to this magical place where spam goes to die, and I remember it wasn't fun. But then again, I was 13, and receiving mass mailings with advertisements for "Male Enlargement." There seemed to be a lot more of that kind of thing back then.

Of course, it could be because I don't give out my e-mail address now unless I absolutely have to. But back in the day, Pre-Bulk Box, I would spend about 5 minutes getting rid of smut that tried to invade my world, and being excessively cautious about viruses. This is not just for me, though, since, until I came to college, I never had my own computer, and everything I did was on Mom's or Dad's comp.

Do people actually ever look at the spam anymore? Why do the companies bother to continue sending it? The majority of people have wised up. Everytime I delete a letter from some African Ambassador who wants to give me 5.6 million dollars, I am both saddened and depressed. I want to believe that some man in Zimbabwe wants to give me his personal fortune, but I know it's probably not true. Who sends out these mysterious letters? What do they gain from people who hold stock in this? I coul come up with a wildly complex theory, but I'd really rather not.

Today, I checked my mailbox to find 5 items in my bulk folder. I only ever get spam in there now (with the excepetion of Xanga Updates from Dominik, because he is apparently one of the few people who continues to update), but it is widely varied. I get far more crap in my Quarantine box at Smith. Today, I deleted One letter from an African Millionaire, Two fake "flagged PayPal Account" letters, One letter claiming that two female Jedii (is this the appropriate pluralization of Jedi? Probably not) would be appearing in NYC, and One letter from an "Anna Bassett" which appeared to be a sort of pamphlet on becoming a "Homeowner with low Rates." In the day to day world, I really don't care about my Bulk Mail folder, but today, I would truly like to be a Homeowner with low Rates, one day. We usually delete without thinking. Is this because we've become so used to people trying to hurt us through our personal worlds (your email is indeed your personal world) that we fend off an attack before it even comes?

I would never open anything in my Quarantine Box without checking it in the Quarantine manager first (this allows us to open the mail through a different server, which separates it from our own systems and computers), but the stuffs which land in the Yahoo Bulk Mail are fairly benign. I think this is because, living on a campus, everyone is connected to everyone else, and with the amount of communication which takes place daily, it's so much easier for your computer to pick up ETD's (Electronically Transmitted Diseases. Moriah's computer is a ho and has more ETD's than it knows what to do with. It frequently reaches out and tries to share the love). So, it is with a sense of adventure that I open the email from Ms. Bassett and attempt to learn about how to become a Homeowner with low rates. The letter is sprinkled with oddly placed parentheses (more oddly placed than mine. They're all end brackets, and not an open one in the bunch) and commas (in the middle of words). Ultimately, this letter is a disappointment, as the whole thing is a paltry 6 lines along with 2 links to questionable websites, 1 line being an address to me, and 2 lines being "Best Regards, Regalio Hilton".

Who is this Regalio? Why is it not from Anna? The detail in the letter is limited to a tiny statistical fact that if they really cared to elaborate on, they could have done actual research.I remember the days when the crap that spewed into your mailbox was at least grammatically correct and the spelling was at least mediocre. Nowadays, because of Spam Filters, the only stuff that gets through is the mail that has numbers in the place of letters in the titles, or is imporoperly spelled. If anything I am less likely to open a letter titled "en1arg3 uR P3n1 S" than "Enlarge your penis," if I was at all inclined to open such things in the first place. I my mind, the first thing to get dumped is the crap with horrendous spelling.

So why is spam still so prevalent which the majority of it isn't affecting our computers, merely taking up our time in order to delete it? I don't believe there is a good answer to this question. However, I theorize that perhaps, a few spammers are simply reaching out to their human bretheren, attempting to make contact in an odd, antisocial manner, working to become adept at influencing other people. Maybe it's their way of making a difference in the world.

Maybe, spammers just need a little love. Next time you receive an email from a wealthy land-holder in Africa, I encourage you to e-mail them back with love, concern and thoughtfulness. Offer to send them brownies, or 2 rolls of wallpaper ( I urge you not to send animals or plants, because it could disrupt the delicate African ecosystem. Also, it would probably die. Who knows how long it takes pagkages to get to Africa?), or whatever. Be courteous and understanding. Reach out with love to the people who have reached out to you. When asked if you want your penis enlarged, even if you do not have the proper organs for such a procedure, email them back saying that you knew they really cared for you and ask them on a date. "I know it's not as big as you'd like, " you can say, "but I'm a good person, and I can tell you how to become a Homeowner with low Rates."

Monday, February 14, 2005

Mon, 14 Feb 2005 22:45:19 GMT

a half a year away from Being 20! Yay for me! oh yeah, and it's Valentine's day too. but who really cares about that? Half a year away from being 20!

Monday, February 07, 2005

Mon, 07 Feb 2005 19:06:20 GMT

I adore warm weather. Truly.

But this morning, at a hideous 5am, I awoke with force as 7 sneezes blew violently from my body in rapid succession. Damn the start of the spring allergy season! Claritin is making its way out of the boxes and to my bedside table. Runny nose . . . bleh.

Monday, January 31, 2005

Mon, 31 Jan 2005 00:43:21 GMT

For those of you not in "the Know," my laptop's name is "The i-Pod assassin." When people ask how it achieved that particular moniker, I give them a harsh glare and ask them back how THEY think it recieved the name. About a month after my i-Pod settled in, I had no more issues with it. Until now. My computer spontaneously decided that a gripping death-match with the i-Pod was the only thing to do to relieve the bordom of playing therapist to my whim. Sadly, the Assassin is winning. All the music on my i-Pod has disappeared. My battery life has dropped to approximately 20 minutes, and attempts at re-uploading music result in frustrated cries (from me) and still no music on the i-Pod. This being said, I've gone back to hating all my hardware. I return once more to utilizing my discman, and continue to scorn my computer.

Vericon was fantasmic. some highlights:

The Katamari Dance
Late night discussions with Columbians concerning the necessity of frosting in the building of gingerbread animal cracker houses
Soul Caliber Blisters
Big burgers at Bartley's
Perfect pasta at Bertucci's
Kurisu comes to visit!
Baldwin's Lauren has a stalker!
Misti looks up the stairs in a perplexed manner!
Lost in Chelsea!

Now I can't wait for ConBust because I'm really thinking that maybe, just maybe, ours will be a lot better than Vericon. Here's hoping.

Current Mood: groggy

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Wed, 26 Jan 2005 14:13:23 GMT

more snow, more frolicking. Lalala. This is getting dull.

Sunday, January 23, 2005

Sun, 23 Jan 2005 14:06:02 GMT

SNOW! Time to start frolicking!
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Saturday, January 22, 2005

Sat, 22 Jan 2005 14:43:50 GMT

Back at school. Let the craziness commence.

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Tue, 11 Jan 2005 12:18:24 GMT

Homecoming? or ruthless reminder that cold weather exists?
Just got back from AZ with Jackie. it was an interesting experience to say the least. We stayed at Abilash's house, got to know his parents and sister, met his friends from school, his THEM friends and his DDR friends. Earlier in the week, I might have had more to say, but now there is just too much and it floods my mind.

Abilash claims we broke his state. It rained 3 days out of the 6 we were there, it hailed once and they got hit by a tornado on the second day. I'm inclined to agree with him.

So since I'm not inclined to give you a blow by blow account of what happened, I stick to the basics...nevermind; I'm lying. You get all the gory details (less a few because my memory pretty much sucks). Or you can split up your reading by simply clicking by day.

Departure - Lack of sleep makes me hostile. 1/4/05 6:30am
Jackie's father picks me up at mom's house. a rather quiet drive finds us at EWR right on time. Quick goodbyes and swift check-in bring us to the terminal roughly an hour and half before our flight is scheduled to depart. In a move we now generally consider to be risky, we find a restaurant (and because this is Jersey, it's a diner--a diner in an airport!) and eat a breakfast of chicken strips. We return to the gate just in time for boarding. However, we soon find that there was no need to rush as some person in first class is in the process of a medical emergency. We sit on the runway for an hour before finally taking off. Jackie sleeps most of the way there, due to the fact that she had not slept at all the night prior. I read and watch bad in-flight movies. The airline raido is broken and I am depressed for the loss of entirely similar broadcasts of punkish pop music. I reason that if there's a barf-bag provided, I should have the opportunity to use it. The flight is entirely crowded, the 2 bathroom stalls in the rear of the plane are clearly not enough, as lines frequently reach all the way to first class. I'm inclined to think that the front portion of economy class has drunk their breakfast rather than eat the cold muffins, bananas, and tub of cereal provided. Arrival in Arizona is about an hour and a half late. Abilash looks exhausted, but has luckily brought a GBA with him. Jackie and I believe this is luck, until, 4 days later we realize how many GBA's are present in the house. Our arrival (roughly 1:45pm) coincides approximately with when Arizonans seem to eat lunch. Even now, I can't recall whether we ate or not. Jackie and I stowed our things in the guest bedroom (a minimalist affair), and wandered around the house while Jackie attempted to catch the cat, and I started to drowse. The rest of the day will remain hazy forever.

Day 2 - I want a Dagger . . . to take over the WORLD!!!! 1/5/05
As we are still on Arizona time, Jackie and I wake up really early. Something like 6 am. I force myself back to sleep and am up again by 7:30. Dressed, I head downstairs, where Abilash's mother and father are wearing suits and bustling (with no apparent affect to this flurry of activity. It was like they were doing things but nothign was actually getting done) around. Jackie and I gratefully ate cereal provided by the Mrs. Pulicken and watched as they left. At around 9:30, we woke Abilash and made plans to go to the Wildlife World Zoo. The drive there was uneventful, save the 8 mile stretch of road to the zoo which was perfectly straight and was near enough to an airforce base that jets were constantly seen zooming overhead. This stretch of road was marked regularly by signs such as "Maintained by the 6th Division 'DuckHunters'" and "Airbase nearby - Do not park vehicle at roadside." As Jackie and I had brought rain with us the previous day, the strip of road which might have regularly been unmarked had it not been for the odd pick-up truck amongst the dirt piles was intersected at some point by a marvelous pound of water which was impassable by foot and had to be driven through at such low speeds lest the cars going in the opposite direction be splashed, halt and be mired in the mud. The water came up to the top of the wheels.
Zoo Admission was pricey, but the woman at the ticket counter charged me as a child. Abilash and Jackie however were not so lucky; they each were charged full admission, but by the end of the day, we declared the price well-worth it. Although the zoo seemed fairly small on the map, it took all morning and most of the afternoon to make it through. And while one might think that such a large zoo would provide an interesting variety of animals, I would say that barring repititions in animals, the zoo might have been half its size. A veritable Noah's ark, each habitat and animal cage seemed to appear twice or more. They were particularly fond of the Crowned Crane, Emus, Antelope, parrots and (most notably) Turacos which actually are also a kind of parrot. I'd say we saw each species of Turaco available on the planet at least 3 times and some species oftener. We have yet to discern what makes the people of Arizona so fond of this bird.
The most interesting part of the zoo was definitely the parrots by the back walls, near the wild-dog cages. We spent about 20-25 minutes staring and listening to the two green-and-yellow birds carry on some sort of private conversation. Some English we managed to pick out was "OH NO!", "Whatever!" and "I want a dagger!" This last phrase of course being the most intersesting because, we probably projected ourselves onto the parrots. Afterall, don't we all want daggers? An hour-long visit to the gift-shop on the way out left Jackie and I about 40 cents poorer (collectively) not due to purchases but due to the contraption on the front counter at which you put a coin in the wooden giraffe's throat and watched it wiggle down to a collection jar in its belly. The girl at the cash register probably thought we were selflessly giving. In actuality, Jackie was doing it to watch the coins wiggle, I was doing it because I find the idea that you can ram metal discs down a giraffe's throat intriguing.
Attempts to get lost coming back to the house were thwarted by the fact that Abilash had actually written down directions.
Back at the house, Jackie and I watched an Indian movie with Abilash's father that was some odd mixture of a musical romantic comedy, dramatic action tragedy adventure enlightenment western. We delighted in costume changes of the lead girl whenever the scene split to randomized song we couldn't understand. Also in the variation of facial hair on men. We considered the various meanings of "dumb as a rock".
Dinner was suggested by his parents that we go to a buffet by their hotel. The hotel is in Surprise, AZ. Surprisingly, there is nothing surprising about Surprise. This lead us to ponder whether this lack of surprisingness made Surprise surprising by default. We managed to get to the buffet roughly an hour before it closed. This was nice, as there was just one other couple in the restaurant and it meant I didn't feel guilty taking all the wontons out of the wonton soup. Jackie and I got up to get food, leaving Abilash at the table. This is now widely considered to be a mistake, since our table was right next to that of the elderly couple. We'll take a moment to wonder how his parents ever kept him from talking to strangers when he was younger. Coming back to the table, we realize Abilash has struck up a conversation with the elderly lady at the next table over and he is discussing something mundane, like shoes, and his fondness for them. The old woman is nodding amicably and inquires whether we go to school nearby. This launches a discussion of New Jersey, Massachusetts, the weather and the general dreadfulness of planes. After the elderly couple leaves, We return to discussing the mundane. Jackie and I become suddenly aware of the general blandness of the Arizona landscape. In a thoughtful attempt to make AZ more colorfully aware, we begin hatching plans to introduce yellows, teals, greens and terra cotta to the general Taupe-ness of the state. Half-way through dinner, we realize someone is singing really badly in the background. It is then that we realize that the other part of the buffet is a karaoke bar. Finishing dinner, we stop in and are assaulted by smoke, drunk men in their 60's and more bad singing. Someone thinks they are Frank Sinatra. We leave after 2 minutes. Bad singing gets boring quickly. We return to the house and Jackie and I go to sleep rather quickly.

Day 3 - Cacti and THEM, THEM and Shoes 1/6/05
I don't even know what time we got up on our third day. It was early enough that Abilash's parents hadn't yet left for work, but later than the previous day. Once again, breakfast consisted of cheerios, and Jackie and I read until about noon, when we decided we had let Abilash sleep for long enough and woke him up by mercilessly turning on the lights. I believe lunch consisted of Wendy's and some altercation therein, consisting of Abilash's second-yet attempt to steal our shoes. The minimal amount of people at Wendy's looked nervous when we started throwing fries at one another. We were out of there by about 2 and in Phoenix by 3. We went to the botanical gardens and browsed the plants until after dark. I believe I may have actually seen every kind of thorny plant on Earth now.
From there we went to a THEM member's house in anticipation of some grand meeting. However, only one very anti-social one of THEM was there so we went to Target for a while, dragging Abilash through the lingerie section and buying candy, Pringles and Beef Jerky. Another stop and Wendy's provided us with dinner and we went back to the previously practically uninhabited house. This house was now a frenzy of activities as about 8 or 10 people sat by the TV, some watching basketball, some typing furiously on laptops (wireless connection!), 2 on desktop computers, and several more simply draped across the couch talking. I'd guess about 10 more were in the room in back (the kitchen and dining area) eating and talking. The place was like Geek Heaven between the wireless connection, the pictures on the wall (Paintings of space and vast purple nebulae), and the cases and cases of beanie babies and other collectibles, not to mention the fact that THEM's library seemed to be here. We pretty much didn't do anything but bask in the glow of our fellow geeks and their laptops. At one point, we found ourselves oddly entangled and Jackie sat on Abilash and I tied his shoes together in a series of knots that would have done Alexander the Great proud. This lead to 3 or 4 THEM members launching themselves at us and trying to tickle us so Abilash could untie his shoes. My will power lasted until one of THEM realized that my feet are really ticklish. We left around 10:30, made it back without incident and jumped around on Abilash's bed until we were too tired to do anything but sleep.

Day 4/Day 5 - DDR is NOT my thing, That dog is NOT Abilash's thing, Cheese is NOT Jackie's thing 1/7/05 - 1/8/05
I woke up late enough on the 4th day that I heard Abilash's parents leaving, but not early enough to actually be dressed when they did so. By the time Jackie and I were ready to go, it was past noon and we were pretty hungry. Abilash claimed it was time for breakfast. Since both Jackie and I craved an actual lunch, our typical Jersey response was that the only place which might serve both breakfast AND lunch and be moderately edible would be a diner. Arizona is not New Jersey. The closest thing Arizona has to a diner is IHOP. and also some place called The Village Inn. Having never heard of the place, Jackie and I decided that was the place we needed to be. We belatedly learned that The Village Inn is no better than an IHOP and is just as well-known in AZ.
We ordered 2 dishes to share between the three of us, and probably would have ordered less if we'd known Abilash wasn't going to eat much more than a few french fries. Nevertheless, the midst of the meal saw our table cluttered with 9 various serving dishes and plates, which we then artfully arranged into a pattern spanning half the table. When the waitress came to take the dishes away, we demanded that she first stop to admire the glorious artwork we had created. To her credit, she rolled with the punches (this is not to say that we hit or in any way assaulted our waitress, though we DID a-salt Abilash) and admired our creation. Jackie and I mused that that I could be paid a hefty sum of money for the creation if it contained a human skull on the center dish. For the rest of the day, we hail ourselves as geniuses.
We content ourselves in the afternoon with getting lost several times on the way to meet the people known for DDR. We make it in the evening to the house of "Jenny" and spend about an hour watching her boyfriend, Nick, play Soul Caliber and then spend an additional hour playing Risk 2121 A.D. with the newest arrival, Fly. At somepoint we manage to escape the Risk board and make it to the actual DDR location, the house of one "Brien", whose emminent departure had sparked the idea for this seemingly random get-together. I was pleased with the Cheese and Crackers being served. Jackie was not. Abilash got to play DDR and then was ferociously humped by Brien's dog, Ringo. After being at the DDR party for an hour, Jackie and I were bored of tying Abilash's shoes in knots and poking him, and he was probably getting tired of playing keep away with my own shoe. We went with Jenny, Nick, Fly, Some Alaskan Guy, Jenny's sister and her boyfriend to a Denny's, where we partook of the chicken fingers and other various offerings before heading back to Fly's apartment. At this point, it was generally considered too late to drive home, so we decided to spend the night at Fly's. Unfortunately, Nick had brought the Risk board with him and demanded another game. Jackie, prone to random bouts of decision making, decided to join Fly and Nick in their battle for Earth and the moon. Abilash and Jenny and I declined. Even so, we stayed on the armchair and watched bad tv until 4 am when Jenny left. Jackie decided to give up about 2 turns in (about an hour into the game), but Nick forced her to stay in. Abilash left the room at about 5 when he retired to the pull out bed. Jackie finally lost all her territories about a half-hour later and curled up on the couch while I curled up in the armchair. With the TV and lights still on, Fly and Nick continued to play Risk until 7:30 in the morning when Nick finally conquered all of earth and the entirety of the moon. The lights went off, Fly went to bed, and Nick stretched out on the floor with his coat over him. This was the point where I actually made some progress in sleeping. by 10 am I was restless and angry at the sofa. I woke Jackie and together we woke Abilash and asked to return home to get some real sleep. He agreed. I put my blanket on Nick, and embarked on a mission to find the shoe that had gone missing. By 10:30 we were out of there and by 11:30 we were back in bed in Peoria, sleeping much better, awakening at 4:30 or so.
By evening we were restless again and decided that the perfect way to spend the evening was to go to the mall and see a movie. We invited Abilash's sister and embarked.

What then followed is so convoluted and confusing and upsetting that I won't go into much detail. I'll give these facts:
We saw a 9:50pm showing of Blade Trinity
There was much running through the fountains and looking at puppies
Exiting the theater, we realized were were parked at the other end of the mall and the mall was closed
We returned to the house at roughly 12:30
The doors were locked and we were forced to make a call to Abilash's and Amy's father
Who through some rather rough exchange seemed to say that he was taking Abilash's car keys, phone, internet access, and computer away from him and would have to go to church the next day
No reasons were given.
Abilash was also told that when his keys and phone were taken when his father got to the door, Abilash was not to come inside, seeming to indicate that this forlorn son would be forced to wander the lonely, well-kept streets of the housing development until morning.
Somehow, Abilash was allowed back into the house
and after some argument downstairs with his father, he came back upstairs where we all told stories for hours about how awful our parents could be. Abilash's father was definitely worse. We think he might be clinically insane.

Day 6 - Miracles, Miracles, More DDR 1/9/05
By some grand Miracle, Abilash's father ignored his punishment on Day 6 (we think it was because Jackie and I were there and if we didn't go out with Abilash, we were stuck in the house all day), and his father told us to go to the Phoenix zoo. Also a first, Abilash's father explained why he had been punished. Apparently, the well-though-of Mall in a well-to-do area is simply packed with gun-toting teenagers the minute the clock hits 11. At which point, Abilash's father assumes that the guests, and more importantly his 16-year-old daugher have been shot. I can only guess that locking the door is either meant to encourage the children never to leave the house again, or for the police not to bother him with his dead-children's bodies at a bit past midnight. His hotile demeanor stayed but he demanded we go to the zoo. We invited Amy and we departed rather late. Our arrival at the zoo at around 3:30pm was a tad late as well, as it seemed the zoo closed at 5. Rather than spend 15 bucks admission to a place we wouldn't spend much time at, we went to ASU main to play in the arcade. Abilash soon left to pick up a friend name Nick ( a different one), who came to play DDR. at 6pm we were pretty much thrown out of the building. I'm pretty sure we ate at Wendy's thereafter, but I don't quite recall. maybe it was before departing for the zoo even. there was more french-fry throwing, more shoe tying, and more poking. Amy took it all in stride. She needs to learn to make fun of her brother a bit more.

Day 7 - Home again, Home again. But first, Soul Caliber! 1/10/05
What did we actually do today? Jackie and I woke up around 10 and packed. Abilash slept. We went to the dollar store to find a rubber snake. No rubber snake was found. The general taupe color of Arizona was once more remarked upon. Wendy's one last time and then back to the house to watch a French film with Jean Reno, and japanese people and play Soul Caliber afterwards.
Our Flight departed lated but arrived on time. There were hardly any people on the flight at all. A rough estimate of the number of people would bring it to about 30 passengers, maybe 40. It was a pleasant and quick flight back. at 11:55, we met up with mom who led us outside to the car where we were assaulted by the harsh cold winds of the Northeast. We are depressed to learn that the weather actually is cold in New Jersey, but I am relieved by the fact that in 2 days I will once again be departing for warmer weather.

Aruba, here I come!