JILAND ON YO FEET
Aug. 23rd, 2008 10:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
backupdump002Trip report! finally done with this jesus christ
I'm just using Photobucket's Ghetto Image Resizer to resize these, though if you want higher res versions of any of these for whatever reason then let me knooooowwww :O
Day 1
The trip started off with Melvin repeatedly sneezing on me, me realizing that I forgot my headphones, hitting a bird (just DONK off the windshield, it just came out of nowhere), and seeing a graveyard next to a playground (which is oddly poetic, when you think about it). I can already tell this trip will be awesome.
Anyway, we picked John up at the airport (the Dallas airport is like a city, man. It has highways) and drove over to the lake house, where we played board games and shot BB guns. BB guns are really fun; I kind of want some of my own, now |D WHO KNOWS WHAT I'D USE THEM FOR, BUT
Just a small taste of the firepower we had. We usually have more, actually, but my uncle David couldn't make it and he's the one who goes crazier than anyone :< Oh well.
We shot off fireworks on the 3rd, for... some reason, and it was really cool (the lake house is out in the country, so we can do that. Nothing like a group of wacky drunks setting off explosives eh guys). There were a couple of fairly sizable fires, but we put 'em out. There was also a never-ending sea of ball jokes coming from everyone lighting fireworks, myself included. It was pretty great. We called the duds "blue balls." I just thought you should know that.
Day 2
Today, we decided to ride a boat on the lake while pulling an inflatable raft behind us.
I rode on that raft.
I thought I was going to die
I had never done anything like that before, so I was pretty nervous about it, but I knew I'd just feel mad at myself if I didn't go for it. As it turns out, Sydney (cousin's friend; rode the raft with her) and I had the most intense ride out of everyone else's. There was a period of at least 30 seconds where we just hit huge wave after huge wave and bounced up and down nonstop, like we were a skipping stone or something. My dad said you could actually see daylight under the raft each time we went into the air. I WAS USING EVERY OUNCE OF STRENGTH IN MY WEAK, SKINNY ARMS TO HANG ON FOR DEAR LIFE
YOU CAN ONLY IMAGINE OUR TERRIFIED SCREAMING (and loling)
Not a whole lot happened after that. We watched UFC, which was very violent and disturbing, yet I couldn't look away during any of it. We played some more board games and stayed up late visiting. I couldn't get to sleep until 6 or 7 that night, and I could just feel myself getting gradually more sore from the raft ride. It was then I realized that tomorrow would be fun.
Day 3
Sweet backflipping Jesus I could not move
It hurt just to sit up because of the slight stress it put on my back. I could feel everything my body did, every shift and twitch and change of pressure because every tiny movement was agonizing. I told John how sore I was and he just rolled his eyes and called me a drama queen, and to John I say "Screw you." YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW, MAN
YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW
Anyway, we left that day, and rather than go to California or Seattle or anything, we decided to head home for a few days. On the way home we ate at a fantastic Italian restaurant called Pete's, which we haven't done in years. It brought back a lot of memories.
I finally took a muscle relaxer sometime before I went to bed, which helped a little, though I was still really sore. You have no idea, man
Day 4+5
Just visiting and hanging out, really. We went and saw Wall-E, which was the most adorable thing I've seen in a very long time. I think it just might be my favorite movie they've done, actually. :D
Anyway, after much drama and indecisiveness, we bought plane tickets and started packing. This was the start of an epic journey.
Day 6
John woke me up at 6 AM, and I was still sore from the raft dkfgjahfgkag. We hopped in the van and drove over to Denver, and arrive at the airport... what, two hours early?
Two hours.
I want you to remember this.
Anyway, we backtracked to get John's backpack which he forgot at the shuttle stop like a loser, and then we went through security, where I learned that my passport expired two years ago (Mom told me it was still good, okay :<). To our relief, the guy let me through anyway. TAKE THAT, IDENTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS! It was then that I went on to fumble around like a :B-faced idiot because I hadn't flown since I was six and didn't know what to do.
Security Guy: So is this your first time flying?
Me: Y-yeah. *embarrassed laugh* Is it that obvious?
Security Guy: Haha... yeeeeeaaaahh...
After that, we rode the ROCK TRAIN to the food court and ate at this restaurant and oh man you guys
they were so slow
We didn't order anything real special and it still took maybe an hour and a half or so, which wouldn't be a big deal if we didn't have a plane to catch or anything. We had about ten minutes to get to the plane by the time we were done. Not too bad, right?
Well, no, it's not, unless you have to stand around and wait for the TSA to come and investigate you since they apparently didn't do it during security, and even though they KNEW that they still needed to check you out they didn't wait for you by the gate or anything and instead have to walk all the way across the airport to get to you, and then your plane takes off while they're searching you because it can't wait two minutes, and so you get bumped to another flight that's an hour and a half later. ~*lol*~
Mom was so angry. I tried to point out a little puppy in hopes that it would cheer her up, and she just gave it a death glare and sighed at me for wasting her time. We waited at our new gate, and I was feeling extremely nervous, mainly because we were GOING to sit together on the last flight and then all of our seats were completely different on this one so I was going to be alone on what was essentially my first flight and akgjahdg. Everyone else got called on the plane before me, but John stayed behind because he felt bad leaving me alone. :3 He also lent me his DS flash card. Awwww, John.
For all my nervousness, though, it wasn't a big deal at all. Mom talked to the stewardess and told her our tragic tale, and she let all of us sit together. Pretty uneventful after that. When we landed, we found out that Mom's suitcase got torn around one of the edges, which just added to the whole experience. Went back to John's house and crashed.
Day 7
Haha, finally getting into the pictures. SORRY FOR THE WALL OF TEXT
We walked around the lake at Greenlake, and I took pictures with what little battery power I had left. I feel sorry for the poor people who just wanted to take a quiet walk and were instead subjected to some dork with a camera enthusiastically darting around and taking pictures of everything.
HEY A BIRD
THIS IS IMPORTANT I BETTER TAKE A PICTURE
There's always people sailing on every body of water in the city.
Everything else was pretty generic. By the way, if you ever find yourself in Seattle, make sure to go to a place called Duke's, and get the clam chowder in a bread bowl. I think their chowder is supposed to be famous or something. S-so good
Day 8
Today was a bit more busy. It started off with an eBay guy coming over to buy one of John's old things that I forgot about, and then we went to go see John's not-yet-his house and drool over it. I WHIPPED OUT MY CAMERA ON THE DRIVE OVER
These pictures are a little out of order, so I'm not sure if this was taken in the same area or even the same day. WHATEVER, JUST LOOK AT IT
Secret: I am completely fascinated by large quantities of wires.
I think this was taken at John's new house. Which is gorgeous, by the way. Three stories tall and it's so light and cozy 8D Completely different from the one he's in.
After that, we rushed over to Redmond to attend an open house at DigiPen, which is a game design college that I am heavily considering. After waiting for what felt like hours, this guy comes out and asks where we're from and blah blah blah, and then he mentions that Claude Comair, the former president of Nintendo (he resigned just last year) and the founder of DigiPen, was going to make an appearance for the open house. He said something like this was a "lucky honor," so we assumed he'd just show up for 20 minutes or so, say a few words, and leave. "Cool," we thought.
So we go into this room, and the guy starts talking and cracking jokes all "this is my gamer score lol let's see if i can remember the names of all the companies our students were hired at," and while he was in the middle of talking, Claude Comair walks in. Comair starts talking--about how the school was difficult, how the game industry was difficult, about his life--and the guy from before was just sort of awkwardly standing to the side and waiting for him to finish.
One thing led to another, and Comair wound up doing the whole open house for us. He took us around the school, showed us some of the work his students did, showed us a student project he did, had a student there show us a game demo some kid did in workshop, answered questions--all of it in great detail, and all of it completely honest. I don't know if the open house was supposed to last for two hours, but it sure did for us. And all of it was fascinating. I thought what he did spoke volumes of his dedication to the school and how much he cares about the industry, you know? I mean, he even said that the reason he retired from Nintendo was so he could spend all his time on the school. I think my dad put it best with something like "Going to DigiPen with Claude Comair there would be like working for Disney while Walt was still alive."
As soon as he was done, he had already totally moved on from the whole thing--Mom called out a "thank you" as we were leaving, and he just sort of held his hand up and mumbled a "you're welcome" before continuing to mess with the projector. This man is responsible for my childhood 8D
After that, we just went out for Indian and watched an obscure Korean movie called Memories of Murder, which ruled, even if the "true story" aspect made it pretty chilling. I RECOMMEND IT
Day 9 wow I need to stop rambling so much
Everyone else moved some of John's old furniture into the driveway, and I struggled to lift two couch cushions at the same time because I am the weakest person ever. After that we had some tasty gelato and went to the Asian part of town.
See "Pink Godzilla"? That's a real neat gaming store with all sorts of rare, imported goods :D Games, consoles, figurines, soundtracks, clothing--it was very awe-inspiring (I saw Gyakuten Saiban 2 there, which made me oddly excited for some reason. what). Right across from that was yet another awesome import gaming store (though there was some merchandise from things other than games), that didn't really have games or consoles but instead focused more on figurines and posters and the like. I liked that one better, personally. I-I kind of didn't buy anything from either store, though, because I didn't see anything that I really had to have.Secret: I am the pickiest, stingiest shopper ever
After thaaaaaat the adults wanted beer, so we went to some place in Capitol Hill to get some (as well as nachos) and talk about games and DigiPen and stuff. We then decided to drive around Redmond some more, where I got a few new books (like I need more dfkjgh what is wrong with me).
CRAAAAAAAANNNNEEEEESSSSSS
After THAT, we went home and watched Boom, which was terrible and probably the only movie we watched there that I didn't like. Elizabeth Taylor was so grating the whole time, I swear to God.
Day 10
Pretty average day. We watched an anime movie called Paprika, which was breathtaking. Just watch the opening credits and see if that doesn't totally blow you away and make you want to go out and buy the DVD right now. RECOMMENDED
Day 11
John started his game design job that day, and since he was gone and the van was getting repairs, we had to walk. We later caught a bus to the car place and picked up the van, though, so that didn't last long :V Not much other than that, though we did call Sarah and discuss 2 Girls 1 Cup and porn star names (I will forever maintain that "Luke Thighwalker" is the best porn name ever). This family, I swear.
Day 12
It got pretty boring whenever John was at work, so my parents and I took a ferry over to Bainbridge to entertain ourselves. WOO
so can you tell that i really love cityscapes yet, because
WENATCHEE
i don't know who these guys are, lol
I stood right on the front and it was completely freezing and really, really windy. There were these kids who actually made a game of walking up and down the paths and seeing who could fight against the wind. I don't know if I was wearing a jacket, either; just a t-shirt and pants. I didn't care that much, though, because it was very pretty and also I freaking love boats goddamn
MAN I LOVE BOATS
The beauty of this was slightly dampened by the two dudes next to me screaming "GET OUT OF THE WAY" to every boat that passed by.
And we landed!
Bainbridge is the most peaceful, pleasant town I have ever visited. Nice little shops, lovely scenery, no crime, and everyone there looks happy and healthy. I actually thought it'd be nice to live there in the future.
HELL YA
god dad get out of the way jeez
We had only been walking for about two minutes when I took this picture, if that long, and as I was taking this some middle-aged Japanese lady came up to us and asked where we were from. We told her, and she went into this huge, long ramble for... I'm guessing 10-30 minutes straight, just about the town, its history, stuff you can do, famous people who have been here (she said an episode of Grey's Anatomy was filmed on one of the ferries there or something), etc. She kept offering to like... I think to let us call her later so we could meet up and she could let us ride around in her car while she gave us a tour (she said she would've done it then, but she had to pick her daughter up from daycare, I think? fkghakg), and get us a map, and I think some other things, but I kept kind of drifting in and out of her whole spiel. I watched people enter shops and exit with bags in their hands. I watched birds peck at a small chunk of bread on the ground until it was completely gone. I watched some little kid with a ft. long sub sit down on a bench and slowly eat, taking one tiny bite at a time, pausing often to stare into space or kick his feet around, and eventually finish the whole thing and leave. I began to notice things I didn't really want to notice, like how the Japanese woman's hot pink shorts were riding up her legs and letting her ass hang out, which jiggled violently every time she shifted the weight on her legs. Which was constantly.
She eventually gave us her information and asked Dad (?) for ours, in case her impromptu tour-guiding left us hungering for more. This part is what makes me feel worse than taking the picture in the first place, because I really ought to have stepped in with some stupid excuse about why I should give her mine instead, and then lie and let us all move on with our lives, but I trusted Dad to give her false information.
After she left with our surnames, Dad's e-mail, and our home phone number, we went our separate ways. Mom was pissed. As in, even more so than she was in the airport. We went into this one place to have lunch, and she was so mad that she couldn't stand to be with either of us and ran off to go call John (apparently, Mom was convinced that this lady was going to find our home address through our phone number and that she was part of some burglary ring or something and was worried for Sarah's safety), leaving Dad and I with our over-seasoned fish sandwiches and awkward silence.
It wasn't until... maybe half an hour later that she came back to inform us that John did some Googling and the lady's name checked out, that she really DID have a family, and that she was part of some church or charity or something, meaning that while she was very eccentric, she wasn't lying about herself and most likely wasn't a criminal. Mom relaxed after that and we all had a good laugh, and then we went out and got some gigantic ice cream cones jesus christ
Anyway, the rest was just shopping and enjoying the town (I got ANOTHER book). We drove to the beach and hung out there for a while and it was pretty cool. Amazingly, I left my camera in the car.
AND THEN WE GOT BACK ON THE FERRY!
I love this picture so much.
Again, I stood up front, and it was even colder than it was before since it was later in the day. I didn't want to go inside, though, because HOLY CRAP BOATS I LOVE BOATS. Dad fussily came out and brought me a jacket later, though. Aww, Dad.
I really like this picture, I dunno why :B
I don't think these were even taken on the same day, but I don't know when they were, so have them now!
lol
We watched some game trailers when we got back. Fallout 3's trailer is officially my favorite game trailer to ever exist. Ever. 1:20-1:50 always gives me the greatest "oh shit" feeling whenever I see it. Also, that song really gets in your head.
We also watched Blade Runner, which I have never seen before and knew nothing about. As in, really nothing--I thought it was going to be this action flick with tons of explosions and was going to be about a superhero for some reason, and instead I got this sort of noir/sci fi movie, which is the best genre combination in the history of ever, by the way. And it was mind-blowing. Maybe my favorite out of all the movies we watched up there :> Freakin' see it if you haven't already; I promise it's worth your time.
Day 13
Today was my parents' 31st anniversary, so they went out to a nice restaurant while John and I ordered pizza and chatted about games and watched Wondershowzen and stuff. It was cool. I also followed a liveblog on Nintendo's E3 conference from start to finish, and I was really hyped up and excited, only to have my enthusiasm putter out as soon as they said that the games they were going to talk about were Wii Music and Wii Sports 2 and... whatever the other thing was. The only kinda neat thing was Pikmin 3, and I was gonna tell![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zarla about it but someone else beat me to the punch. DARN
Switched from the couch to the air mattress that night, since John was having trouble sleeping on that thing and he needed to be rested for work. I could see why he was having trouble.
Day 14
Went to Pike Market, which is a madhouse. I saw some guy with a cowboy hat, a flame shirt, and a raven on his arm. He showed it to everyone and told them about its tragic life story. I also saw a real skinny, guessing 30 or 40-year-old guy there with long, frizzy hair; a fedora; a blazer; some fruity shirt; skintight cyan capris with black tiger stripes; and combat boots. Just think about that for a minute.
Famous fish market! They throw fish around and yell at each other all day. You can even buy t-shirts!
We also ate at The Athenian, which is where a few scenes in Sleepless in Seattle were filmed, apparently (there were a couple of bar stools there with little plates above them saying "Tom Hanks sat here" and "Rob Reiner sat here") 8D I've never seen that movie BUT IT WAS STILL PRETTY COOL
You wouldn't believe how crowded the streets were. Someone was trying to drive through and honked, and everyone around just yelled at him to suck it up. Apparently "no honking" as actually a Pike Market rule, which I guess just goes to show you how crowded it is. :B.
HEY THAT GUY'S TAKING A LEAK I BETTER GET A PICTURE
So anyway, we went to the store, nearly got in a wreck, and then when we got to the house we realized we were locked out, so Dad hopped the fence and climbed through the bedroom window. After that we just chilled.
Day 15
Met John for lunch at a nice Italian place in Redmond (Spazzo's?). He showed us his new office real quick and we got to see super secret things that are secret. I then went back to DigiPen to tour the art department since we didn't do that at the open house (the art campus is two miles away from the main one or something). Wow, the student art there is seriously awesome, you guys should've seen it :O Those... what was it, 200,000 drawings per year sure do pay off. If I ever go to that school I can already tell the workload is going to eat me alive.
Day 16
Woke up to mom nagging me to wake up so we could take Dad to the airport. I forgot to mention, but while I was on the air mattress I kept getting really, really cold at night and would wake up shivering if my blankets were even slightly off, which I think finally caught up to me, because I felt pretty sick. I had to skip breakfast since we were in a hurry (John has pretty much no groceries), which also wasn't good, because I didn't get a whole lot to eat the past night. Anyway, had kind of a sad farewell with Dad, when we got to the airport. It's really too bad he had work :< I missed having him around as soon as he left.
I didn't feel too sick or anything on the ride over, but as we were going home I couldn't open my eyes because I was afraid the motion would make me hurl (though even with them closed, I still felt pretty miserable). Went home to eat craploads of grapes and rice, though I was still pretty hungry afterwards. GOD SO HUNGRY
AND YOU KNOW WHAT I DID IN THAT CONDITION
I WORKED IN THE BASEMENT
I think this was after we cleaned it up a little
God, that basement was a pig sty. Various bodily fluids from various cats, dust, mold (from a sewage backup), what might be lead paint, two million spiders, and god knows what else. We all wore gloves and dust masks before working down there, but even with the mask on I'd still feel kind of wheezy if I stayed for too long. Also, Julia broke the duct somehow, and John would leave the fan running constantly, which probably pulled crap in (before Mom made him turn it off, anyway). John said he actually had professional cleaners try to fix that place up, and even THEY couldn't clean it completely.
Anyway, I mostly just cut up this huge pile of boxes so we could fit them all in the recycling bin, and wound up really hurting my hands and wrists in the process. I had a boxcutter, too, which just makes that even more lame.
HRNGHRHGNRGH
PHYSICAL LABOR
SO THERE'S WHERE THE NES GAMES WENT MAN I'VE BEEN LOOKING EVERYWHERE FOR THOSE YOU HAVE NO IDEA
DID YOU KNOW THE ORIGINAL METAL GEAR WAS IN THERE I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WE HAD THAT I WONDER IF I PLAYED IT WHEN I WAS LITTLE AJKFDHGKADFHG
Day 17
Mom and I were starving, so we drove down to Pike Street looking for an Italian place I looked up for us. When I was eight, Mom and I stayed in this hotel on Pike Street while we helped John move to Seattle for the first time (it had whales painted on the side), and I remember feeling very intimidated and really disliking Seattle back then, and hahaha no wonder. That whole area of town is insane--loud, condensed, high energy, heavy traffic, can barely move at crosswalks because of all the people, lots of homeless, hard to navigate--and even now, as a teenager, I still felt a little tense. I can't remember much about going to Seattle as a kid, but I do remember never wanting to leave the hotel.
So anyway, we didn't find the Italian place :B We got fed up and decided to drive to Kirkland, which is much nicer and quieter, and just had some Italian there, instead. HA HA! IN YOUR FACE, PIKE STREET! After that, we just wandered around.
Kirkland is so pretty~
There were so many seagulls there. And I have no idea why the sky looks so dark in this one, wtf
(While looking for a Game Stop)
Mom: *points to a shop* Rocks and gems!
Me: I don't care about rocks and gems!
Mom: *lols and repeats in this whiny voice*
Me: You can't do anything with rocks and gems; you just put them on a shelf. Games will entertain you for hours and expand your mind...
Mom: Hmm, which way should we go?
Me: ... sit by your bedside...
Mom: Let's see... over there is where we came from...
Me: ... kiss away the tears...
Mom: Hey, there's ice cream over there.
Me: Yeah, I could go for ice cream.
(We didn't get ice cream.)
After having our fill of Kirkland, we went over to Redmond and continued our wandering over there. Met up with John after he got off work and went out for Indian, where I chugged chutney for five dollars. Went home.
Day 18
Pretty much just hung around for most of the day. Watched some thing about the sea on Planet Earth.
Announcer: (About some crabs) They have to work for their food.
Me: THEY HAVE TO WORK FOR THEIR FOOD
John: THEY DON'T JUST SIT AROUND ON THEIR FAT CRAB ASSES ALL DAY AND DO NOTHING
Also I was really craving strawberry milk all day for some reason, and then I got some from the store and just drank it straight out of the bottle, man. OH GOD STRAWBERRY MILK YES this is the worst trip recap ever
Anyway, we walked around the town.
I just like how ominous this looks.
HI
Some nice guy on the street took this picture for us :B He was pretty funny, too. What a cool guy.
Man, Photobucket killed this one.
OH BOY GOING TO SEE THE DARK KNIGHT AT A FAMOUS THEATER YES
The theater was awesome, though John's seat was broken and he and this guy behind us had to prop it up using John's shoes, though that was pretty much the only thing. The crowd there was real great--very young and eccentric--and we actually wound up talking and joking around with a lot of the people there, which I don't think I've ever done in a movie theater. IT WAS LIKE ONE BIG PARTY
Anyway, Dark Knight is great and Heath Ledger is an awesome Joker, and I feel like the only person in the world who didn't care for Harvey and/or Rachel. Also, Batman's gravelly voice is ridiculous. ASIDE FROM THAT IT WAS SURE GREAT AND I ENJOYED IT MUCHLY! everyone and their mom has done a dark knight review so i don't think i need to go into much more detail here
Day 19
We bought an entire flat of delicious blueberries and I tried my first espresso ever, straight up with no cream or sugar because I'm too macho for that. I wish I had pictures of my reaction.
And then I spent pretty much the rest of the day sorting through CDs (that little clear space in the middle is where I sat). THIS DOES NOT EVEN SCRATCH THE SURFACE OF THE CDS I HAD TO SORT
JOHN WHY DO YOU HAVE SO MUCH CRAP
OH YEAH and we watched the MST of Space Mutiny, and it wasn't long before all three of us were sobbing with painful amounts of laughter. NOW CHRISTMAS HAS COME TO SANTA
Day 20
Weren't sure if John was actually going to get the house or not, so we hung out instead of worked. Watched Rambo, which I very strongly recommend. Bed.
Day 21
Mom and I drove to Mukilteo, and we were going to ride the ferry to Whidbey Island but then we saw that the line went on for miles and decided that hanging around Mukilteo was better anyway.
chillin on the pier
WOOOOOOOO
why do i like this picture
whoa man rocks are awesome
why was this stump so cool
I put that stick there for the sole purpose of taking this picture. I HAVE A VISION
Jellyfish?
Taken while sitting on top of a huge pile of rocks.
DOX found a DONG ROCK!
That rock is sitting next to my Cloud figurine right now, fittingly enough.
These vaguely reminded me of Metal Gears for some reason. I think I was just tired at that point.
I FORGOT WHEN I TOOK THIS PICTURE
Day 22
Ate large quantities of raw fish at a sushi place. You know, I like how raw fish tastes, but I'm really not a big fan of the texture. I guess it's something you have to get used to.
Fixed van, cleaned basement, etc. Watched Rambo 2, which sucked compared to the first one. Bed.
Day 23
Can't remember anything we did this day other than watch Be Kind, Rewind. DEFINITELY watch it if you have the chance; it is completely hilarious and touching and very nearly made me cry at the end, which never happens. Just watch this trailer and see if you aren't intrigued.
Day 24
We hired a guy to haul away a driveway full of crap we cleaned out of John's basement, and at some point he started ranting about how he wrote Jumping Jack Flash and Penny Lane (lol) and various other classic songs and how the bands "stole" them from him, and he tried to hire a lawyer but nobody would take the case blah blah blah. We did not hire this guy again.
John treated us to a kickass Ethiopian restaurant, which was a nice cultural experience. Very small and quaint, had this nice old waitress, and the TV played this DVD full of low-budget Ethiopian music videos that I actually thought were very cute and interesting. We had no idea what to get so we just got the combo platter, and oh god so delicious. There was a sort of ceremony before we ate where the waitress brought out a sort of metal pitcher and a bowl, and we held our hands over the bowl while she poured warm water over them to wash them off, which is actually a good thing, because you eat Ethiopian with your hands. :B.
ANYWAY after we were done eating we had a coffee ceremony. You can read about it over here, because I'm lazy. We also had some sort of cake with our coffee (I think it was cake? I can't remember, now), which blended perfectly. EVERYTHING WAS SO GOOD and I wish I could remember the name of that place so I could recommend it aufhgihadfg
Talked about our distant relatives from England whose surnames were, coincidentally, "Wright." Hopefully nobody became cryptic hobos who play pianos in bars for money.Hopefully the "cryptic hobo" genes were not passed to me
Went home, and I started sealing up that broken duct using paper mache, which I would later spraypaint white so nobody would ever know it was broken in the first place. Tee hee
Persepolis is about the incredible coming-of-age tale of an Iranian girl during the Iranian Revolution and I highly recommend it to everyone. THAT IS MY MOVIE REVIEW FOR THIS DAY THANK YOU GOODNIGHT
Day 25
Probably the worst day we had here for reasons I choose to ignore rather than address because I RUN FROM MY PROBLEMS. Was feeling too sick to do anything other than watch Indiana Jones and eat instant mashed potatoes, so I didn't have to do any work. So that was kinda cool. John came home that day with FFIV DS and Soul Calibur IV, and we played the latter and completely cracked each other up the whole time ("Now do you remember who you are?!" "S...Sigfreid?"). Also speculated as to whether or not purchasing the PS3 version of SCIV with Darth Vader means that you've joined the Dark Side.
Day 26 + 27
Saw a place called "EW Funeral Home." The "EW" stood for something I can't remember, but even then, that has got to be the worst name for a funeral home ever. It's like how we have this place in our town called "Grimes Elementary School."
Mom and I went to a free art museum (we had to wait outside for a while due to a fire alarm, and as we were sitting there some weird, overweight lady in goth clothing screamed "YEEEAH FIGHT THE POWER" at us from across the street. wtf) and wandered. Went into a cafe where I drank like a million cups of coffee, and watched a homeless guy across the street asking for change outside of the "Lusty Lady" strip club. I love cities.
This was, like, the only time it rained while we were down there :B I WAS AMAZED
Day 28
I know I haven't touched on this much during this whole report, but the whole time we were up there we were dealing with John's crooked mortgage company jerking us around, asking for more cash, more time, more documentation, more of this and that, and we were never 100% sure if he was getting the house or if we would have to "wait and see" for a few more days (and a few more days, and a few more days). THIS is why the trip took weeks longer than we planned--because Mom and I wanted to help John move to his new house, and we were just waiting on these guys to get everything straightened out (there were several instances where John literally had to tell them how to do their job, and he's not even in the business. auighadifhug).
Anyway, yesterday we laid out this careful plan to wire money to John so he could close sooner, it worked, we thought that it was finally over and he was really going to get the house, and we had celebrated merrily. Today? We get another call from the mortgage company telling us that some guy didn't turn the paperwork in (he had until 11:45 AM), and so now we couldn't close for several more days. At this point they had already told us to "wait a few more days" so many times that we didn't know how much longer that really meant, and that's when Mom and I finally decided that we were going to go home the next day. I mean, even if we had stayed until closing, there really wasn't much else for us to do, you know? We had already packed up John's entire house, threw out literally several truckloads of junk, completely fixed up his horrible jungle of a yard (you don't want to know), given money, cleaned his house, and even sealed up his broken duct. All that was left was moving, and John was going to hire moving guys anyway, since none of us could lift any of the heavy stuff. The only thing is that it would've been great to stay in his new house, but whatever. We can always go back, I guess.
SO ANYWAY since this was our last day, it was time to party hard. We went to Wasabi Sushi where they had a 30 minute wait, so we gave them John's cell phone number and wandered down the street where we ran across Shiro's, which was another Japanese restaurant. So John turned off his cell phone and we went in there, lol
BUT THERE WAS A CATCH! Shiro's was completely full except for this one table, which was reserved for a group coming in at 8:30 (about an hour and a half from then, I think? Maybe less). They said we could sit there if we didn't mind being on a time limit. WE ACCEPTED THE CHALLENGE
... which wound up being much more anti-climactic that we thought, since no one rushed us and those people were late, if they ever even showed. Oh well. Anyway, John got this HUGE BEER seriously man you wouldn't believe how huge it was. He already had a glass of gin and wine at home, too, so he was starting to get boozed up. Mom got a dish with a raw shrimp head on it, and I started kind of poking at its eyeball because I don't know, and its legs moved. MOM SENT IT BACK TO BE FRIED, NEEDLESS TO SAY. I also ate a huge chunk of raw squid which was really rubbery and disgusting and I am never going to have it again
SO AFTER THAT we went to Game Works for a while, which is a huge, two story arcade. I only got to play for a little while, though, because they have some stupid rule where only people 18 and over can play after 10 or something. :/ Maybe it's a curfew thing? Whatever. I just gave John my card.
We then went home for champagne, to celebrate the new house since we weren't gonna be there for closing. Well, except it was just me and John sharing a whole bottle, since Mom thought it would upset her stomach. Anyway, yeah, John was already kind of drunk and I wound up having like four glasses, so we were both really giggly. We had this very involved conversation about handwriting (John: No, I like yours. It's very mature for your age, like you have more important things to worry about and don't have time to do stuff like make it all pretty and dot your I's with hearts. God I'm so drunk right now), and then we both wrote lists of game recommendations for each other. Aside from that, I think we just giggled and watched Curb Your Enthusiasm and went to bed. WOO, PARTY
Oh yeah, and I found out that I was actually sleeping on the wrong side of the air mattress, so instead of sleeping on the nice part I slept on like this... hard, uncomfortable plastic the whole time I was there. THANK YOU LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
Day 29-31
Drivan. Would've flown, but we were buying the van back from John, soooo (I don't have ID and we were taking a bunch of books (ALL FOR ME I HAVE A PROBLEM) and magazines and such, anyway). The van ran okay, but the thing is is that the air conditioner didn't work, and we were driving in 109°F heat. We had to just buy tons of bottled water and both chug it and drench ourselves in it and keep the windows rolled down the whole time. Also, guess who doesn't own a pair of shorts
Aside from that, the only points of interest were staying in an overpriced hotel that was hot, even with the AC at full blast, and also smelled like sewage when we woke up; Mom forgetting to take the gas nozzle out of the car and driving a few feet, breaking it, and thus having to pay a fine (that our insurance covered, thankfully); missing an exit that would've taken us to an Olive Garden, and instead go to a place called "Bear Town," where the history was printed both on the menu and on these sheets of paper they kept at each table, in case you missed it the first time (apparently these railroad workers kept getting drunk and it was slowing down their progress, so the liquor salesman refused to let them buy anything and they got all angry and started rioting and there was a big shootout and all the rioters died. TALK ABOUT SLOWING DOWN PROGRESS, D'OHHHHH); not being able to scrounge up enough change to pay a toll, thus having to pay another fine; and more Momdrama than you can handle. I didn't write anything down on the last day so there may have been more, but ehhhhh whatever
PICTURES which got all out of order but eh
It was real foggy around the mountains when we were exiting Seattle. I love fog so much. :D
This is pretty much all we saw for days.
The grass on these mountains had such a weird look to them. Almost fur-like.
STUPID CHILD SAFETY STICKER RUINING AN OTHERWISE LOVELY PHOTO
OH BOY WINDMILLS
GR
why is it so awesome to go through tunnels
AND I GUESS THAT'S IT. Oh yeah, and John's house closed without any hitches as soon as we left. lol
Haha, oh yeah, I did that gamer personality quiz thatzarla linked and got The Class Clown (Reckless Sociable Fun Veteran (RSFV)). Why does this not surprise me
I'm just using Photobucket's Ghetto Image Resizer to resize these, though if you want higher res versions of any of these for whatever reason then let me knooooowwww :O
Day 1
The trip started off with Melvin repeatedly sneezing on me, me realizing that I forgot my headphones, hitting a bird (just DONK off the windshield, it just came out of nowhere), and seeing a graveyard next to a playground (which is oddly poetic, when you think about it). I can already tell this trip will be awesome.
Anyway, we picked John up at the airport (the Dallas airport is like a city, man. It has highways) and drove over to the lake house, where we played board games and shot BB guns. BB guns are really fun; I kind of want some of my own, now |D WHO KNOWS WHAT I'D USE THEM FOR, BUT
Just a small taste of the firepower we had. We usually have more, actually, but my uncle David couldn't make it and he's the one who goes crazier than anyone :< Oh well.
We shot off fireworks on the 3rd, for... some reason, and it was really cool (the lake house is out in the country, so we can do that. Nothing like a group of wacky drunks setting off explosives eh guys). There were a couple of fairly sizable fires, but we put 'em out. There was also a never-ending sea of ball jokes coming from everyone lighting fireworks, myself included. It was pretty great. We called the duds "blue balls." I just thought you should know that.
Day 2
Today, we decided to ride a boat on the lake while pulling an inflatable raft behind us.
I rode on that raft.
I had never done anything like that before, so I was pretty nervous about it, but I knew I'd just feel mad at myself if I didn't go for it. As it turns out, Sydney (cousin's friend; rode the raft with her) and I had the most intense ride out of everyone else's. There was a period of at least 30 seconds where we just hit huge wave after huge wave and bounced up and down nonstop, like we were a skipping stone or something. My dad said you could actually see daylight under the raft each time we went into the air. I WAS USING EVERY OUNCE OF STRENGTH IN MY WEAK, SKINNY ARMS TO HANG ON FOR DEAR LIFE
YOU CAN ONLY IMAGINE OUR TERRIFIED SCREAMING (and loling)
Not a whole lot happened after that. We watched UFC, which was very violent and disturbing, yet I couldn't look away during any of it. We played some more board games and stayed up late visiting. I couldn't get to sleep until 6 or 7 that night, and I could just feel myself getting gradually more sore from the raft ride. It was then I realized that tomorrow would be fun.
Day 3
Sweet backflipping Jesus I could not move
It hurt just to sit up because of the slight stress it put on my back. I could feel everything my body did, every shift and twitch and change of pressure because every tiny movement was agonizing. I told John how sore I was and he just rolled his eyes and called me a drama queen, and to John I say "Screw you." YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW, MAN
YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW
Anyway, we left that day, and rather than go to California or Seattle or anything, we decided to head home for a few days. On the way home we ate at a fantastic Italian restaurant called Pete's, which we haven't done in years. It brought back a lot of memories.
I finally took a muscle relaxer sometime before I went to bed, which helped a little, though I was still really sore. You have no idea, man
Day 4+5
Just visiting and hanging out, really. We went and saw Wall-E, which was the most adorable thing I've seen in a very long time. I think it just might be my favorite movie they've done, actually. :D
Anyway, after much drama and indecisiveness, we bought plane tickets and started packing. This was the start of an epic journey.
Day 6
John woke me up at 6 AM, and I was still sore from the raft dkfgjahfgkag. We hopped in the van and drove over to Denver, and arrive at the airport... what, two hours early?
Two hours.
I want you to remember this.
Anyway, we backtracked to get John's backpack which he forgot at the shuttle stop like a loser, and then we went through security, where I learned that my passport expired two years ago (Mom told me it was still good, okay :<). To our relief, the guy let me through anyway. TAKE THAT, IDENTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS! It was then that I went on to fumble around like a :B-faced idiot because I hadn't flown since I was six and didn't know what to do.
Security Guy: So is this your first time flying?
Me: Y-yeah. *embarrassed laugh* Is it that obvious?
Security Guy: Haha... yeeeeeaaaahh...
After that, we rode the ROCK TRAIN to the food court and ate at this restaurant and oh man you guys
they were so slow
We didn't order anything real special and it still took maybe an hour and a half or so, which wouldn't be a big deal if we didn't have a plane to catch or anything. We had about ten minutes to get to the plane by the time we were done. Not too bad, right?
Well, no, it's not, unless you have to stand around and wait for the TSA to come and investigate you since they apparently didn't do it during security, and even though they KNEW that they still needed to check you out they didn't wait for you by the gate or anything and instead have to walk all the way across the airport to get to you, and then your plane takes off while they're searching you because it can't wait two minutes, and so you get bumped to another flight that's an hour and a half later. ~*lol*~
Mom was so angry. I tried to point out a little puppy in hopes that it would cheer her up, and she just gave it a death glare and sighed at me for wasting her time. We waited at our new gate, and I was feeling extremely nervous, mainly because we were GOING to sit together on the last flight and then all of our seats were completely different on this one so I was going to be alone on what was essentially my first flight and akgjahdg. Everyone else got called on the plane before me, but John stayed behind because he felt bad leaving me alone. :3 He also lent me his DS flash card. Awwww, John.
For all my nervousness, though, it wasn't a big deal at all. Mom talked to the stewardess and told her our tragic tale, and she let all of us sit together. Pretty uneventful after that. When we landed, we found out that Mom's suitcase got torn around one of the edges, which just added to the whole experience. Went back to John's house and crashed.
Day 7
Haha, finally getting into the pictures. SORRY FOR THE WALL OF TEXT
We walked around the lake at Greenlake, and I took pictures with what little battery power I had left. I feel sorry for the poor people who just wanted to take a quiet walk and were instead subjected to some dork with a camera enthusiastically darting around and taking pictures of everything.
HEY A BIRD
THIS IS IMPORTANT I BETTER TAKE A PICTURE
There's always people sailing on every body of water in the city.
Everything else was pretty generic. By the way, if you ever find yourself in Seattle, make sure to go to a place called Duke's, and get the clam chowder in a bread bowl. I think their chowder is supposed to be famous or something. S-so good
Day 8
Today was a bit more busy. It started off with an eBay guy coming over to buy one of John's old things that I forgot about, and then we went to go see John's not-yet-his house and drool over it. I WHIPPED OUT MY CAMERA ON THE DRIVE OVER
These pictures are a little out of order, so I'm not sure if this was taken in the same area or even the same day. WHATEVER, JUST LOOK AT IT
Secret: I am completely fascinated by large quantities of wires.
I think this was taken at John's new house. Which is gorgeous, by the way. Three stories tall and it's so light and cozy 8D Completely different from the one he's in.
After that, we rushed over to Redmond to attend an open house at DigiPen, which is a game design college that I am heavily considering. After waiting for what felt like hours, this guy comes out and asks where we're from and blah blah blah, and then he mentions that Claude Comair, the former president of Nintendo (he resigned just last year) and the founder of DigiPen, was going to make an appearance for the open house. He said something like this was a "lucky honor," so we assumed he'd just show up for 20 minutes or so, say a few words, and leave. "Cool," we thought.
So we go into this room, and the guy starts talking and cracking jokes all "this is my gamer score lol let's see if i can remember the names of all the companies our students were hired at," and while he was in the middle of talking, Claude Comair walks in. Comair starts talking--about how the school was difficult, how the game industry was difficult, about his life--and the guy from before was just sort of awkwardly standing to the side and waiting for him to finish.
One thing led to another, and Comair wound up doing the whole open house for us. He took us around the school, showed us some of the work his students did, showed us a student project he did, had a student there show us a game demo some kid did in workshop, answered questions--all of it in great detail, and all of it completely honest. I don't know if the open house was supposed to last for two hours, but it sure did for us. And all of it was fascinating. I thought what he did spoke volumes of his dedication to the school and how much he cares about the industry, you know? I mean, he even said that the reason he retired from Nintendo was so he could spend all his time on the school. I think my dad put it best with something like "Going to DigiPen with Claude Comair there would be like working for Disney while Walt was still alive."
As soon as he was done, he had already totally moved on from the whole thing--Mom called out a "thank you" as we were leaving, and he just sort of held his hand up and mumbled a "you're welcome" before continuing to mess with the projector. This man is responsible for my childhood 8D
After that, we just went out for Indian and watched an obscure Korean movie called Memories of Murder, which ruled, even if the "true story" aspect made it pretty chilling. I RECOMMEND IT
Day 9 wow I need to stop rambling so much
Everyone else moved some of John's old furniture into the driveway, and I struggled to lift two couch cushions at the same time because I am the weakest person ever. After that we had some tasty gelato and went to the Asian part of town.
See "Pink Godzilla"? That's a real neat gaming store with all sorts of rare, imported goods :D Games, consoles, figurines, soundtracks, clothing--it was very awe-inspiring (I saw Gyakuten Saiban 2 there, which made me oddly excited for some reason. what). Right across from that was yet another awesome import gaming store (though there was some merchandise from things other than games), that didn't really have games or consoles but instead focused more on figurines and posters and the like. I liked that one better, personally. I-I kind of didn't buy anything from either store, though, because I didn't see anything that I really had to have.
After thaaaaaat the adults wanted beer, so we went to some place in Capitol Hill to get some (as well as nachos) and talk about games and DigiPen and stuff. We then decided to drive around Redmond some more, where I got a few new books (like I need more dfkjgh what is wrong with me).
CRAAAAAAAANNNNEEEEESSSSSS
After THAT, we went home and watched Boom, which was terrible and probably the only movie we watched there that I didn't like. Elizabeth Taylor was so grating the whole time, I swear to God.
Day 10
Pretty average day. We watched an anime movie called Paprika, which was breathtaking. Just watch the opening credits and see if that doesn't totally blow you away and make you want to go out and buy the DVD right now. RECOMMENDED
Day 11
John started his game design job that day, and since he was gone and the van was getting repairs, we had to walk. We later caught a bus to the car place and picked up the van, though, so that didn't last long :V Not much other than that, though we did call Sarah and discuss 2 Girls 1 Cup and porn star names (I will forever maintain that "Luke Thighwalker" is the best porn name ever). This family, I swear.
Day 12
It got pretty boring whenever John was at work, so my parents and I took a ferry over to Bainbridge to entertain ourselves. WOO
so can you tell that i really love cityscapes yet, because
WENATCHEE
i don't know who these guys are, lol
I stood right on the front and it was completely freezing and really, really windy. There were these kids who actually made a game of walking up and down the paths and seeing who could fight against the wind. I don't know if I was wearing a jacket, either; just a t-shirt and pants. I didn't care that much, though, because it was very pretty and also I freaking love boats goddamn
MAN I LOVE BOATS
The beauty of this was slightly dampened by the two dudes next to me screaming "GET OUT OF THE WAY" to every boat that passed by.
And we landed!
Bainbridge is the most peaceful, pleasant town I have ever visited. Nice little shops, lovely scenery, no crime, and everyone there looks happy and healthy. I actually thought it'd be nice to live there in the future.
HELL YA
god dad get out of the way jeez
We had only been walking for about two minutes when I took this picture, if that long, and as I was taking this some middle-aged Japanese lady came up to us and asked where we were from. We told her, and she went into this huge, long ramble for... I'm guessing 10-30 minutes straight, just about the town, its history, stuff you can do, famous people who have been here (she said an episode of Grey's Anatomy was filmed on one of the ferries there or something), etc. She kept offering to like... I think to let us call her later so we could meet up and she could let us ride around in her car while she gave us a tour (she said she would've done it then, but she had to pick her daughter up from daycare, I think? fkghakg), and get us a map, and I think some other things, but I kept kind of drifting in and out of her whole spiel. I watched people enter shops and exit with bags in their hands. I watched birds peck at a small chunk of bread on the ground until it was completely gone. I watched some little kid with a ft. long sub sit down on a bench and slowly eat, taking one tiny bite at a time, pausing often to stare into space or kick his feet around, and eventually finish the whole thing and leave. I began to notice things I didn't really want to notice, like how the Japanese woman's hot pink shorts were riding up her legs and letting her ass hang out, which jiggled violently every time she shifted the weight on her legs. Which was constantly.
She eventually gave us her information and asked Dad (?) for ours, in case her impromptu tour-guiding left us hungering for more. This part is what makes me feel worse than taking the picture in the first place, because I really ought to have stepped in with some stupid excuse about why I should give her mine instead, and then lie and let us all move on with our lives, but I trusted Dad to give her false information.
After she left with our surnames, Dad's e-mail, and our home phone number, we went our separate ways. Mom was pissed. As in, even more so than she was in the airport. We went into this one place to have lunch, and she was so mad that she couldn't stand to be with either of us and ran off to go call John (apparently, Mom was convinced that this lady was going to find our home address through our phone number and that she was part of some burglary ring or something and was worried for Sarah's safety), leaving Dad and I with our over-seasoned fish sandwiches and awkward silence.
It wasn't until... maybe half an hour later that she came back to inform us that John did some Googling and the lady's name checked out, that she really DID have a family, and that she was part of some church or charity or something, meaning that while she was very eccentric, she wasn't lying about herself and most likely wasn't a criminal. Mom relaxed after that and we all had a good laugh, and then we went out and got some gigantic ice cream cones jesus christ
Anyway, the rest was just shopping and enjoying the town (I got ANOTHER book). We drove to the beach and hung out there for a while and it was pretty cool. Amazingly, I left my camera in the car.
AND THEN WE GOT BACK ON THE FERRY!
I love this picture so much.
Again, I stood up front, and it was even colder than it was before since it was later in the day. I didn't want to go inside, though, because HOLY CRAP BOATS I LOVE BOATS. Dad fussily came out and brought me a jacket later, though. Aww, Dad.
I really like this picture, I dunno why :B
I don't think these were even taken on the same day, but I don't know when they were, so have them now!
lol
We watched some game trailers when we got back. Fallout 3's trailer is officially my favorite game trailer to ever exist. Ever. 1:20-1:50 always gives me the greatest "oh shit" feeling whenever I see it. Also, that song really gets in your head.
We also watched Blade Runner, which I have never seen before and knew nothing about. As in, really nothing--I thought it was going to be this action flick with tons of explosions and was going to be about a superhero for some reason, and instead I got this sort of noir/sci fi movie, which is the best genre combination in the history of ever, by the way. And it was mind-blowing. Maybe my favorite out of all the movies we watched up there :> Freakin' see it if you haven't already; I promise it's worth your time.
Day 13
Today was my parents' 31st anniversary, so they went out to a nice restaurant while John and I ordered pizza and chatted about games and watched Wondershowzen and stuff. It was cool. I also followed a liveblog on Nintendo's E3 conference from start to finish, and I was really hyped up and excited, only to have my enthusiasm putter out as soon as they said that the games they were going to talk about were Wii Music and Wii Sports 2 and... whatever the other thing was. The only kinda neat thing was Pikmin 3, and I was gonna tell
zarla about it but someone else beat me to the punch. DARNSwitched from the couch to the air mattress that night, since John was having trouble sleeping on that thing and he needed to be rested for work. I could see why he was having trouble.
Day 14
Went to Pike Market, which is a madhouse. I saw some guy with a cowboy hat, a flame shirt, and a raven on his arm. He showed it to everyone and told them about its tragic life story. I also saw a real skinny, guessing 30 or 40-year-old guy there with long, frizzy hair; a fedora; a blazer; some fruity shirt; skintight cyan capris with black tiger stripes; and combat boots. Just think about that for a minute.
Famous fish market! They throw fish around and yell at each other all day. You can even buy t-shirts!
We also ate at The Athenian, which is where a few scenes in Sleepless in Seattle were filmed, apparently (there were a couple of bar stools there with little plates above them saying "Tom Hanks sat here" and "Rob Reiner sat here") 8D I've never seen that movie BUT IT WAS STILL PRETTY COOL
You wouldn't believe how crowded the streets were. Someone was trying to drive through and honked, and everyone around just yelled at him to suck it up. Apparently "no honking" as actually a Pike Market rule, which I guess just goes to show you how crowded it is. :B.
HEY THAT GUY'S TAKING A LEAK I BETTER GET A PICTURE
So anyway, we went to the store, nearly got in a wreck, and then when we got to the house we realized we were locked out, so Dad hopped the fence and climbed through the bedroom window. After that we just chilled.
Day 15
Met John for lunch at a nice Italian place in Redmond (Spazzo's?). He showed us his new office real quick and we got to see super secret things that are secret. I then went back to DigiPen to tour the art department since we didn't do that at the open house (the art campus is two miles away from the main one or something). Wow, the student art there is seriously awesome, you guys should've seen it :O Those... what was it, 200,000 drawings per year sure do pay off. If I ever go to that school I can already tell the workload is going to eat me alive.
Day 16
Woke up to mom nagging me to wake up so we could take Dad to the airport. I forgot to mention, but while I was on the air mattress I kept getting really, really cold at night and would wake up shivering if my blankets were even slightly off, which I think finally caught up to me, because I felt pretty sick. I had to skip breakfast since we were in a hurry (John has pretty much no groceries), which also wasn't good, because I didn't get a whole lot to eat the past night. Anyway, had kind of a sad farewell with Dad, when we got to the airport. It's really too bad he had work :< I missed having him around as soon as he left.
I didn't feel too sick or anything on the ride over, but as we were going home I couldn't open my eyes because I was afraid the motion would make me hurl (though even with them closed, I still felt pretty miserable). Went home to eat craploads of grapes and rice, though I was still pretty hungry afterwards. GOD SO HUNGRY
AND YOU KNOW WHAT I DID IN THAT CONDITION
I WORKED IN THE BASEMENT
I think this was after we cleaned it up a little
God, that basement was a pig sty. Various bodily fluids from various cats, dust, mold (from a sewage backup), what might be lead paint, two million spiders, and god knows what else. We all wore gloves and dust masks before working down there, but even with the mask on I'd still feel kind of wheezy if I stayed for too long. Also, Julia broke the duct somehow, and John would leave the fan running constantly, which probably pulled crap in (before Mom made him turn it off, anyway). John said he actually had professional cleaners try to fix that place up, and even THEY couldn't clean it completely.
Anyway, I mostly just cut up this huge pile of boxes so we could fit them all in the recycling bin, and wound up really hurting my hands and wrists in the process. I had a boxcutter, too, which just makes that even more lame.
HRNGHRHGNRGH
PHYSICAL LABOR
SO THERE'S WHERE THE NES GAMES WENT MAN I'VE BEEN LOOKING EVERYWHERE FOR THOSE YOU HAVE NO IDEA
DID YOU KNOW THE ORIGINAL METAL GEAR WAS IN THERE I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WE HAD THAT I WONDER IF I PLAYED IT WHEN I WAS LITTLE AJKFDHGKADFHG
Day 17
Mom and I were starving, so we drove down to Pike Street looking for an Italian place I looked up for us. When I was eight, Mom and I stayed in this hotel on Pike Street while we helped John move to Seattle for the first time (it had whales painted on the side), and I remember feeling very intimidated and really disliking Seattle back then, and hahaha no wonder. That whole area of town is insane--loud, condensed, high energy, heavy traffic, can barely move at crosswalks because of all the people, lots of homeless, hard to navigate--and even now, as a teenager, I still felt a little tense. I can't remember much about going to Seattle as a kid, but I do remember never wanting to leave the hotel.
So anyway, we didn't find the Italian place :B We got fed up and decided to drive to Kirkland, which is much nicer and quieter, and just had some Italian there, instead. HA HA! IN YOUR FACE, PIKE STREET! After that, we just wandered around.
Kirkland is so pretty~
There were so many seagulls there. And I have no idea why the sky looks so dark in this one, wtf
(While looking for a Game Stop)
Mom: *points to a shop* Rocks and gems!
Me: I don't care about rocks and gems!
Mom: *lols and repeats in this whiny voice*
Me: You can't do anything with rocks and gems; you just put them on a shelf. Games will entertain you for hours and expand your mind...
Mom: Hmm, which way should we go?
Me: ... sit by your bedside...
Mom: Let's see... over there is where we came from...
Me: ... kiss away the tears...
Mom: Hey, there's ice cream over there.
Me: Yeah, I could go for ice cream.
(We didn't get ice cream.)
After having our fill of Kirkland, we went over to Redmond and continued our wandering over there. Met up with John after he got off work and went out for Indian, where I chugged chutney for five dollars. Went home.
Day 18
Pretty much just hung around for most of the day. Watched some thing about the sea on Planet Earth.
Announcer: (About some crabs) They have to work for their food.
Me: THEY HAVE TO WORK FOR THEIR FOOD
John: THEY DON'T JUST SIT AROUND ON THEIR FAT CRAB ASSES ALL DAY AND DO NOTHING
Also I was really craving strawberry milk all day for some reason, and then I got some from the store and just drank it straight out of the bottle, man. OH GOD STRAWBERRY MILK YES this is the worst trip recap ever
Anyway, we walked around the town.
I just like how ominous this looks.
HI
Some nice guy on the street took this picture for us :B He was pretty funny, too. What a cool guy.
Man, Photobucket killed this one.
OH BOY GOING TO SEE THE DARK KNIGHT AT A FAMOUS THEATER YES
The theater was awesome, though John's seat was broken and he and this guy behind us had to prop it up using John's shoes, though that was pretty much the only thing. The crowd there was real great--very young and eccentric--and we actually wound up talking and joking around with a lot of the people there, which I don't think I've ever done in a movie theater. IT WAS LIKE ONE BIG PARTY
Anyway, Dark Knight is great and Heath Ledger is an awesome Joker, and I feel like the only person in the world who didn't care for Harvey and/or Rachel. Also, Batman's gravelly voice is ridiculous. ASIDE FROM THAT IT WAS SURE GREAT AND I ENJOYED IT MUCHLY! everyone and their mom has done a dark knight review so i don't think i need to go into much more detail here
Day 19
We bought an entire flat of delicious blueberries and I tried my first espresso ever, straight up with no cream or sugar because I'm too macho for that. I wish I had pictures of my reaction.
And then I spent pretty much the rest of the day sorting through CDs (that little clear space in the middle is where I sat). THIS DOES NOT EVEN SCRATCH THE SURFACE OF THE CDS I HAD TO SORT
JOHN WHY DO YOU HAVE SO MUCH CRAP
OH YEAH and we watched the MST of Space Mutiny, and it wasn't long before all three of us were sobbing with painful amounts of laughter. NOW CHRISTMAS HAS COME TO SANTA
Day 20
Weren't sure if John was actually going to get the house or not, so we hung out instead of worked. Watched Rambo, which I very strongly recommend. Bed.
Day 21
Mom and I drove to Mukilteo, and we were going to ride the ferry to Whidbey Island but then we saw that the line went on for miles and decided that hanging around Mukilteo was better anyway.
chillin on the pier
WOOOOOOOO
why do i like this picture
whoa man rocks are awesome
why was this stump so cool
I put that stick there for the sole purpose of taking this picture. I HAVE A VISION
Jellyfish?
Taken while sitting on top of a huge pile of rocks.
DOX found a DONG ROCK!
That rock is sitting next to my Cloud figurine right now, fittingly enough.
These vaguely reminded me of Metal Gears for some reason. I think I was just tired at that point.
I FORGOT WHEN I TOOK THIS PICTURE
Day 22
Ate large quantities of raw fish at a sushi place. You know, I like how raw fish tastes, but I'm really not a big fan of the texture. I guess it's something you have to get used to.
Fixed van, cleaned basement, etc. Watched Rambo 2, which sucked compared to the first one. Bed.
Day 23
Can't remember anything we did this day other than watch Be Kind, Rewind. DEFINITELY watch it if you have the chance; it is completely hilarious and touching and very nearly made me cry at the end, which never happens. Just watch this trailer and see if you aren't intrigued.
Day 24
We hired a guy to haul away a driveway full of crap we cleaned out of John's basement, and at some point he started ranting about how he wrote Jumping Jack Flash and Penny Lane (lol) and various other classic songs and how the bands "stole" them from him, and he tried to hire a lawyer but nobody would take the case blah blah blah. We did not hire this guy again.
John treated us to a kickass Ethiopian restaurant, which was a nice cultural experience. Very small and quaint, had this nice old waitress, and the TV played this DVD full of low-budget Ethiopian music videos that I actually thought were very cute and interesting. We had no idea what to get so we just got the combo platter, and oh god so delicious. There was a sort of ceremony before we ate where the waitress brought out a sort of metal pitcher and a bowl, and we held our hands over the bowl while she poured warm water over them to wash them off, which is actually a good thing, because you eat Ethiopian with your hands. :B.
ANYWAY after we were done eating we had a coffee ceremony. You can read about it over here, because I'm lazy. We also had some sort of cake with our coffee (I think it was cake? I can't remember, now), which blended perfectly. EVERYTHING WAS SO GOOD and I wish I could remember the name of that place so I could recommend it aufhgihadfg
Talked about our distant relatives from England whose surnames were, coincidentally, "Wright." Hopefully nobody became cryptic hobos who play pianos in bars for money.
Went home, and I started sealing up that broken duct using paper mache, which I would later spraypaint white so nobody would ever know it was broken in the first place. Tee hee
Persepolis is about the incredible coming-of-age tale of an Iranian girl during the Iranian Revolution and I highly recommend it to everyone. THAT IS MY MOVIE REVIEW FOR THIS DAY THANK YOU GOODNIGHT
Day 25
Probably the worst day we had here for reasons I choose to ignore rather than address because I RUN FROM MY PROBLEMS. Was feeling too sick to do anything other than watch Indiana Jones and eat instant mashed potatoes, so I didn't have to do any work. So that was kinda cool. John came home that day with FFIV DS and Soul Calibur IV, and we played the latter and completely cracked each other up the whole time ("Now do you remember who you are?!" "S...Sigfreid?"). Also speculated as to whether or not purchasing the PS3 version of SCIV with Darth Vader means that you've joined the Dark Side.
Day 26 + 27
Saw a place called "EW Funeral Home." The "EW" stood for something I can't remember, but even then, that has got to be the worst name for a funeral home ever. It's like how we have this place in our town called "Grimes Elementary School."
Mom and I went to a free art museum (we had to wait outside for a while due to a fire alarm, and as we were sitting there some weird, overweight lady in goth clothing screamed "YEEEAH FIGHT THE POWER" at us from across the street. wtf) and wandered. Went into a cafe where I drank like a million cups of coffee, and watched a homeless guy across the street asking for change outside of the "Lusty Lady" strip club. I love cities.
This was, like, the only time it rained while we were down there :B I WAS AMAZED
Day 28
I know I haven't touched on this much during this whole report, but the whole time we were up there we were dealing with John's crooked mortgage company jerking us around, asking for more cash, more time, more documentation, more of this and that, and we were never 100% sure if he was getting the house or if we would have to "wait and see" for a few more days (and a few more days, and a few more days). THIS is why the trip took weeks longer than we planned--because Mom and I wanted to help John move to his new house, and we were just waiting on these guys to get everything straightened out (there were several instances where John literally had to tell them how to do their job, and he's not even in the business. auighadifhug).
Anyway, yesterday we laid out this careful plan to wire money to John so he could close sooner, it worked, we thought that it was finally over and he was really going to get the house, and we had celebrated merrily. Today? We get another call from the mortgage company telling us that some guy didn't turn the paperwork in (he had until 11:45 AM), and so now we couldn't close for several more days. At this point they had already told us to "wait a few more days" so many times that we didn't know how much longer that really meant, and that's when Mom and I finally decided that we were going to go home the next day. I mean, even if we had stayed until closing, there really wasn't much else for us to do, you know? We had already packed up John's entire house, threw out literally several truckloads of junk, completely fixed up his horrible jungle of a yard (you don't want to know), given money, cleaned his house, and even sealed up his broken duct. All that was left was moving, and John was going to hire moving guys anyway, since none of us could lift any of the heavy stuff. The only thing is that it would've been great to stay in his new house, but whatever. We can always go back, I guess.
SO ANYWAY since this was our last day, it was time to party hard. We went to Wasabi Sushi where they had a 30 minute wait, so we gave them John's cell phone number and wandered down the street where we ran across Shiro's, which was another Japanese restaurant. So John turned off his cell phone and we went in there, lol
BUT THERE WAS A CATCH! Shiro's was completely full except for this one table, which was reserved for a group coming in at 8:30 (about an hour and a half from then, I think? Maybe less). They said we could sit there if we didn't mind being on a time limit. WE ACCEPTED THE CHALLENGE
... which wound up being much more anti-climactic that we thought, since no one rushed us and those people were late, if they ever even showed. Oh well. Anyway, John got this HUGE BEER seriously man you wouldn't believe how huge it was. He already had a glass of gin and wine at home, too, so he was starting to get boozed up. Mom got a dish with a raw shrimp head on it, and I started kind of poking at its eyeball because I don't know, and its legs moved. MOM SENT IT BACK TO BE FRIED, NEEDLESS TO SAY. I also ate a huge chunk of raw squid which was really rubbery and disgusting and I am never going to have it again
SO AFTER THAT we went to Game Works for a while, which is a huge, two story arcade. I only got to play for a little while, though, because they have some stupid rule where only people 18 and over can play after 10 or something. :/ Maybe it's a curfew thing? Whatever. I just gave John my card.
We then went home for champagne, to celebrate the new house since we weren't gonna be there for closing. Well, except it was just me and John sharing a whole bottle, since Mom thought it would upset her stomach. Anyway, yeah, John was already kind of drunk and I wound up having like four glasses, so we were both really giggly. We had this very involved conversation about handwriting (John: No, I like yours. It's very mature for your age, like you have more important things to worry about and don't have time to do stuff like make it all pretty and dot your I's with hearts. God I'm so drunk right now), and then we both wrote lists of game recommendations for each other. Aside from that, I think we just giggled and watched Curb Your Enthusiasm and went to bed. WOO, PARTY
Oh yeah, and I found out that I was actually sleeping on the wrong side of the air mattress, so instead of sleeping on the nice part I slept on like this... hard, uncomfortable plastic the whole time I was there. THANK YOU LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
Day 29-31
Drivan. Would've flown, but we were buying the van back from John, soooo (I don't have ID and we were taking a bunch of books (ALL FOR ME I HAVE A PROBLEM) and magazines and such, anyway). The van ran okay, but the thing is is that the air conditioner didn't work, and we were driving in 109°F heat. We had to just buy tons of bottled water and both chug it and drench ourselves in it and keep the windows rolled down the whole time. Also, guess who doesn't own a pair of shorts
Aside from that, the only points of interest were staying in an overpriced hotel that was hot, even with the AC at full blast, and also smelled like sewage when we woke up; Mom forgetting to take the gas nozzle out of the car and driving a few feet, breaking it, and thus having to pay a fine (that our insurance covered, thankfully); missing an exit that would've taken us to an Olive Garden, and instead go to a place called "Bear Town," where the history was printed both on the menu and on these sheets of paper they kept at each table, in case you missed it the first time (apparently these railroad workers kept getting drunk and it was slowing down their progress, so the liquor salesman refused to let them buy anything and they got all angry and started rioting and there was a big shootout and all the rioters died. TALK ABOUT SLOWING DOWN PROGRESS, D'OHHHHH); not being able to scrounge up enough change to pay a toll, thus having to pay another fine; and more Momdrama than you can handle. I didn't write anything down on the last day so there may have been more, but ehhhhh whatever
PICTURES which got all out of order but eh
It was real foggy around the mountains when we were exiting Seattle. I love fog so much. :D
This is pretty much all we saw for days.
The grass on these mountains had such a weird look to them. Almost fur-like.
STUPID CHILD SAFETY STICKER RUINING AN OTHERWISE LOVELY PHOTO
OH BOY WINDMILLS
GR
why is it so awesome to go through tunnels
AND I GUESS THAT'S IT. Oh yeah, and John's house closed without any hitches as soon as we left. lol
Haha, oh yeah, I did that gamer personality quiz that
zarla linked and got The Class Clown (Reckless Sociable Fun Veteran (RSFV)). Why does this not surprise me
