In the land of GIANTS!!

Posted 05:36 PM, May 08, 2007, by saerni

Okay, I didn't go to a baseball game (but I really wanted to)! But I had my cousins come visit, and, well, they are giants! My cousins Daniel and Adam came to town, and we all flew down to LA together, my mom's birthday was on Monday!

On Sunday I had a barbecue, which I think was quite fun. Alex (his roommate Sarah and friend Will), David, Noah, Mike, Sharon and Beth came. Also Kapil, who we met during interviews and is staying in the area came by with some DELICIOUS cookies he made! Our grill is really a little bit outrageous. It's this huge kitchen like contraption. But nothing like Stanford West (where David and Alain live) which is basically like a club house in the middle, with the most amazing kitchen, like in a luxury home. I'm in shock.

In any case we had a great time. Then Alex, in true Alex form, brought water guns, which I used effectively without getting too wet! At one point while we were in the jacuzzi, I was talking to Beth and suddenly heard Kapil laugh in shock. I turned around to him asking everyone "did you see that?!" And he looks at this little girl who's in the pool with us, who has a pretty pouty face. Noah was in shock as well. Then suddenly, she flips him off!!!! We were all in shock!!! Her parents eventually came over and picked her up.

I have to say, there are some pretty strange kids at our building. There was a group of them just hanging around acting like normal kids. When Kapil showed up they came over and kept asking for cookies. The same kid that dipped his crackers in the pool a few weeks back came over silently asking for cookies and grabbing a few at a time then eating them in the corner. But there was one girl who was pretty hyper. And when some of the parents were gone, she got up on the table and started dancing, at which point the other kids jumped up too!!!! One boy was dancing and she spanked him! It was crazy!!! When their parents came back they immediately shaped up, and Noah played handball against the wall again, like normal children! I was so confused.

Beth and I caught a super chick flick after that, and there was an excellent display at the theater with the Simpsons! We sat on their laps and took a great picture. The movie was called "In The Land Of Women". I barely get to see movies these days, so it better be a good one if I go. It was a major chick flick, and not so bad, but of course my need for high quality due to scarcity of time probably is what ultimately lowered it to a 4 out of 5 stars (for girls of course).

My cousins came to town on Tuesday, the same day that our first year talks began for journal club - with Alex. From the pictures he sent me, it was a pretty random talk! It featured a half-naked girl sitting with a steak covering her. It was....interesting. Apparently he featured inside jokes for every first year (except me since I wasn't there). I have to give a talk the week after next as well! I'm a bit nervous! So I picked my cousins (Adam and Daniel) up at the airport in San Jose! I hadn't seen them in so long! We drove them up to the city, walked around the Wharf, went to dinner with a friend of Daniel's at a delicious place in the Mission, then headed back home. They spent the night, and the next morning after breakfast at Noah's Bagels I dropped them at the train to head up to the city to hang with their other cousin.

On Thursday I had an interesting evening in the city. Ryan's brother, Peter(left), was in town (driving down through SF from Rossland, BC to San Diego). He slept in the trunk of his truck (where Beth and I are sitting in the picture above). We went out to a bar in SF with my cousins and him (he met us there) as well as Beth. We had a great time, until Ryan, Peter and I left early to head down to Palo Alto. When we walked back to Peter's car, someone had smashed the back window!!! At first glance Peter was completely confused and it appeared they had taken nothing. He even had a bunch of cash in the car that was untouched, along with a couple guitars and a surfboard. So we got in the car and drove off.

Peter dropped Ryan at his car, I was going to drive with him to PA. Along the way he realized someone took his cell phone, and his iPod charger. On the way to the freeway, he suddenly reached back and looked in the back of the car, and started erupting into a series of expletives! He realized that what they actually took, was his laptop!!!!! It was taken along with his camera that was in it that had all his pictures! How terrible is that!??! I felt so bad and had no idea what to say! I felt so horrible! I've lost my camera before, and all I wanted was my memory card back! But never my laptop.

The next day, after lab meeting, I had to leave early during a chat with Serafim, Andreas and Eugene to head to the airport. I felt really bad! I just up and left. I never know if I'm supposed to let others know that I'm going out of town! It was something I had scheduled months ago, since it is was my mom's birthday on Monday and my cousins were in town. I have to learn how the lab works. It seems so flexible overall, I'm just not quite sure! We met Adam and Daniel at the airport, and flew down together. Look at how tall we all are!

We stopped by my grandmother's house, headed over to the gallery opening for my aunt and uncle's gallery, Circus Gallery. Their art is very different. This time it was a guy who had written "I love you" in intricate shapes. It was pretty cool! After that we went to dinner and to Pinkberry! Unfortunately, the East Coasters were not up for going out so I met up with Shirley and a couple of her friends at Wocano (a sushi place near my house). She taught me that if I take two cell phones calling each other if I put the mouthpiece of one to the earphone of another, and vice versa, then it makes this weird noise. So I put it on speaker. If you spoke into it, there was a strange echo! CRAZY! Or may I was just hyper! Who knows?!?!

On Saturday we went out to dinner for my mom's pre-birthday at a Japanese barbecue place in Westwood. It was quite fun! You cook your own food! After this we went to the Saddleranch bar on Sunset, since Jacob, can come along, where Shirley joined us. He got pretty tired so he left, and we did too to go to Barney's Beanery, which is one of our favorite places. We spent the rest of the evening there, acting completely ridiculous. I have to say, in retrospect I feel like an idiot! I hope I don't get uninvited from visits to the east coast for my antics!!!

Look at how fancy our dinner is, I can sit back and hold my plate! Why do I have so much food on my plate!?

On Sunday we took it mostly easy, I got a chance to get in my Pinkberry fix (again). On Monday we had brunch for my mom's birthday (after I was tortured at the dentist) and headed home in the evening. It was a great little break, but unfortunately because it was during my 214 final, I have to take it at home with Ryan as a proctor. I told Russ that Ryan was my boyfriend, but I have to say I felt completely juvenile. Noah and I discussed how I could not say that he was my roommate, since this somehow might seem that I'm trying to conceal a relationship, but saying partner sounded more serious. I finally wrote boyfriend. I explained this to Russ on Tuesday, and he laughed (he was asking the guys how they thought it was and I pointed out they should not talk about it around me). He said that after they okay-ed my proctor, they basically said okay to everyone else!!!!