So, what has been going on lately with me?

Nothing and everything at the same time. There's been so much happening I have no idea what to sort everything out into. Between my mom visiting and SUNY graduate school orientation, a little bit of everything has come and gone but I guess I'll try to say a couple of things.

My mom flew in from Seattle on the night of the 17th. That was a day after I finally had the webmotron hooked up. So that's why I uploaded a metric asston worth of updates on the 16th. I knew I wouldn't be able to get back to this for a while.

In the post featuring my apartment below, I've taken those pictures on the 15th. Just before I took those pictures, I did some hardcore cleaning of my apartment. I cleaned it in anticipation of my mom's visit and subsequent inspection. I managed to get her seal of approval. The pictures portray the pinnacle of my apartment's cleanliness. It only gets worse from there. Things have changed in the apartment already. I bought a ton of stuff for the kitchen (mostly stuff for cooking that's hidden in cupboards anyways). I picked up a 4-cup coffee maker for the study. Some other stuff has moved around. Yeah, dynamic apartment. I'm not even done yet. I want to buy four wall clocks and hang them in the study and underneath each clock would be a name of a city representing each different time zone. Yeah, it shows I mean business. I don't think I'll ever get done with the apartment. heh.

While my mom was here, we checked out a winery that's just south of here. They make wine out of apples. I was a little skeptical at first, but it was some pretty good stuff. I actually bought two bottles and at ten bucks a bottle, that's saying something. So, I guess I'll break it open for the first who wants to visit. Better hurry, Jhoana said she'll visit this Labor day weekend. Get crunk!

I also ran up to Toronto from the 20th to the 22nd with my mom. It was fun. I didn't have to pay for a single thing. Ha! Anyway, my mom got to see relatives and friends she hadn't seen since before I was born, so it was pretty emotional for her. I have a place to stay if I'm run out of the country. Toronto was fun. I didn't get a chance to check out the shopping. That was probably a good thing seeing how I'm not going to get paid until the end of September. That really sucks. Really, really.

It's a good thing my mom stocked the fridge as soon as she got here.

mom: ::going through fridge:: Where are your vegetables?
Rich: Vegetables?

And then we were off to the supermarket.

There are no Safeways, Albertson's, Fred Meyer's, QFCs or anything familiar to me in terms of grocery shopping. Instead, there's Wegman's, Green Hills, P&C, and Price Chopper in my area. Personally, I prefer Wegman's. It's huge! Syracuse needs a Costco. I should send an angry email someday.

I also went nuts at the local outlet mall which is about fourty or so miles west from here. That's where I completed my kitchen. With my own money, mind you. I need to revisit that once I have a trickle of money coming in.

I dropped my mom off at the airport Friday afternoon. Orientation for SUNY started on Wednesday, so I had orientation and my mom's visit overlapping a couple of days. I started to feel bad since I didn't really want her to stay at the apartment bored while I was out for 10-11 hours for orientation. I even carpooled and left my keys with her but she didn't want to run around the city not really knowing where she was going.

Orientation was intense. The first day, I signed so many papers it got to the point where I didn't want to read it anymore. I just signed it and moved on. I think SUNY owns me, my soul and my first born child. I'm not sure, I have to go over what I signed. heh.

There were some interesting aspects to orientation. Our graduate class (PhD) is about 20 students while the entering medical class (MD) is something around 150 students. We may be outnumbered, but never outclassed. It didn't take us too long to realize that medical school is for the optimists and graduate school is for the cynics. We're not optimistic enough to work on people and we fear the politics behind medicine. Something like that.

So, there was a dinner dance for the incoming class Friday night. After some outside encouragement to step onto the dance floor, I decided I wasn't drunk enough to 'dance'. I pounded a Long Island Iced Tea and chased it with a Tequila Sunrise. You should've seen everybody's faces when I told them I got to the dance on my motorcycle and intended to leave on it. Ha! Truth is, I've done worse. Don't worry about it.

Today was the first day of classes. It was basically review for me. I almost fell asleep since they turned off the lights for the overhead projector. Bleh.

I know this is a pretty dry and scattered update, I'll probably elaborate later when things calm down.

I made three more headers from the pictures I took while running around Toronto.
#27 is the Toronto skywalk
#28 is the entrance to Union Station
#29 is the view of downtown Toronto from Casa Loma

This is what happens when I don't have internet for three weeks, I still type up entries on my computer. I've also added a couple of headers: 16 through 26. Click on the numbers above to see them. The Bio is also alive if you dare read it.

I'll explain a couple of headers.

#16 was another picture of a Golden Gardens sunset. I was reluctant to make it into a header since I already have a Golden Gardens header. It was too sexy to resist.

#17-#24 are from the roadtrip.

#25-#26 are from a little hike I went on here in Syracuse. I'll talk about it later.

So scroll down and enjoy the Apartment, Roadtrip and Party pictures.
Pishout!

I'm not done with the pictures. If you're not sure what I'm referring to, just scroll down to the road trip pictures and the party pictures. This is going to be the crappiest version of Cribs evar. Oh well. I'll try to keep ya interested. CarLo left when I was about 2/3 done with putting my place together. All of the kitchen was still boxed up and a pile of broken down boxes stacked up in the hallway half a foot tall. Under construction, hard hat area.

I got done putting the place together a day after coming back from NYC. I still need a couple things, but it's livable. Anyway, onward with the tour. Here's the floorplan of my apartment. So you know.


I live in ths building, straight ahead. Building 111, Apartment 4. There are four apartments to each building and two apartments per floor. My apartment is on the second floor on the left side of the building.




Alright coming inside, make it up the stairs and look for a number '4'.




Come in, I have candy in the closet. You like candy, right? Yes, kids love candy...

I mean, welcome to my apartment. There's the '4' on the door. Make yourselves at home.




To the left is the living room. Let's check it out first.




So this is the living room. You like the carpet? I got it from Costco.

Anyway, The Xbox is temporarily housed here. Since I don't have cable or have a DVD or whatever player for the TV, taking away the Xbox would make the TV essentially useless. I still need to pick up a DVD surround sound system for the room... once I get some money. And that won't be for a while. Curses!




So I left a space behind the loveseat. I was going to put it against the wall, but it felt as though the couch was too far away from the TV. And besides, the Xbox controller cord isn't that long. Have to work around that problem.




I threw a magnetic dartboard behind the couches, so it looks like I meant to leave that space there. Yes, I am so smart. S-M-R-T! The darts are actually hard to throw. They're really front heavy. With normal darts, you can grip it at its center of gravity and throw them straight. These guys always look like you've lobbed them once they're airborne. Stupid stuff. Moving on...




My DVD/CD/Videogame collection of awesomeness. Rus kept saying that I had a lot, and here they are. I just had to get them out of my bookshelves. They were cluttering up the space. Here they are, in a rack of their own. I didn't even have space for my Trigun and Evangelion DVD boxed sets so they're sitting pretty on the TV stand right now.




Let's get out of here and into the kitchen across the hall.




Here's the dining table. I haven't used it for dining yet. I've been eating in the living room to Futurama or Family Guy DVDs. If I ate here, I would have to converse with myself. That's crazy stuff. I have some bottled water leftover from the road trip. There's quite a bit left.




I'll admit, the kitchen is a bit small. I believe they expected me to keep the microwave to the right of the sink since that's where the plugs are. Screw that. I bought a two foot long, four foot wide table to extend the counter. I put the microwave, toaster and rice cooker on a power strip. Ha! I have a counter again. And by the way, rice here in Syracuse is $11 for 20lbs of Jasmine. Holy crap. I'm going to eat every single grain.




Here's the other end of the kitchen. Pretty standard stuff. This is the business end of the kitchen. The Fridge and the range are all business. That's right.




The range is a little old, but it was built to last, I guess. It's a gas range but instead of an electronic clicker, there's a pilot light. It took a while to get used to. Basically you have to turn it on high until the gas hits the pilot light then FWOOSH, the burner's on. It seems dangerous. It probably is.




I got the lovely wooden drying rack from Ikea. The towel below it was stolen from the Minneapolis Mariott. Yeah, no shame. There's my pessimist's mug from despair.com. Love that thing.




What's in the fridge? Not much. There's a Gatorade, spaghetti sauce, Pitcher of Kool-Aid, Brita, sodas, milk, eggs and stuff. Guys, I can accept Paypal. Remember that.




Alright, out of the kitchen and into the hallway. The bathroom is a little down and to the right.




The bathroom is a bit small too. It seems the kitchen and the bathroom were once fighting for space long ago and this is the result. They both lost. My standard sized bathroom carpet is ramping up the toilet bowl. Great.




Welcome to the throne room. The toilet is of the low-flow variety. I made sure to pick up a plunger in case that low flow suddenly becomes a no flow.




I kept my bubbly shower curtain. It's awesome.




I don't really have a counter so I'm scratching for space to put stuff on. I managed fine, I don't need too much stuff in the bathroom.




Well, screw the bathroom. Let's get out and continue down the hallway. My bedroom is to the left.




And inside is a lot of empty space. I'm thinking about putting a carpet down betwen the bed and the TV. That requires money, however. Stupid money.




Here's the bed side of the room. I have the two rear speaker satellites screwed into the wall. I also have my reading lamp above my pillow. It's always gone there. I must have it there!

My bed is made. I need to pat myself on the back for that later.




I separated my two monolithic bookshelves. One is here, in my bedroom and the other is in the study. Only the kitchen, hallway and bathroom have light fixtures attached to the ceiling. In all the other rooms there's a socket in the wall that's operated by a light switch. The stupid thing is both sockets on the faceplate are operated by the switch, not just one. So, I can't have anything else plugged in unless I want it turning on and off with the lights.




Here's the entertainment center in my room. I've got the mini-system, Dreamcast, PS2 here. As well as the 8-port switch that connects the laptop to the tower in the study.




Here's the top of my dresser. It's candle city. There's a potential of four here. The tealight holders don't have anything in them. I don't really have a photo I could put in the photo frame. I want a sexy photo printer.




The top half of the bookshelf. Is it really appropriate to call it a bookshelf? It's not holding any books at all. It's exclusive to my junk. It's the ghetto version of a china cabinet. I still have some of that jug of Smirnoff Vodka leftover from the party. Helps on these lonely nights.




On top of the bookshelf, I have my foam disk-shooting turret gun of justice. I also have that keg of beer I brought to Star's house when I had dinner with her family. Classy. Then there's the Chia Pet Ygona gave me. I'll get back to it someday. It's on my 'to do' list.




Two shelves below, I have a pair of Master Cheifs yukking it up. CarLo got me these for Christmas a coulple of Christmases ago.




The bottom half of the bookshelf in my bedroom. I still hoard food in my bookshelf when I don't need to. I have my own kitchen, dammit! Well, old habits. I also have three containers of The Man Sauce sitting behind the Dentyne. Wonder who'll I'll get first...




It's my collection of fortunes from the cookies I've been collecting and stuff. That tub just may be the last batch of bulk fortune cookies I'll be able to buy. Then I'll have to collect fortunes the hard way. I got the Starbucks Barista mug from my brother. It's upside down so dust won't get in it. There's nothing as refreshing as a mouthful of dust water. I've learned my lesson. I got the bedbug from Kyoko just before I moved from Seattle. Like about thirty minutes before moving out. Then that white plushie is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or bread and beer yeast. It looks kinda surly with the eyes they gave it.




My collection of shot glasses is to the left. The blue, swirly one that's half cut-off is the latest to the collection. It's a Niagara Falls shot glass. Otherwise, I have two walkie-talkies, poison bottles, 52mm camera lenses, 32mm camera lenses and my old broken camera.




And around the light switch for my bedroom is the few personal pictures I've put on public display. I have a couple of pictures of my family and I taken together when we went on that cruise last year. In the center of it all, is the photo frame CarloR made for me.




Good times, good times. I've put it at eye level above the light switch so I'm sure to see it every day. And when I'm crying myself to sleep at night, this reminds me why.




Ok, out of the bedroom, past the hallway and into the study.




This is the study. I haven't done much in this room since I don't really have anything to study at the moment. And as of the time I'm typing this, I still don't have the webmotron set up yet. I'm typing this on my bed with the laptop. But let's not break the illusion. Ooh, looky here.




I threw an end table in the corner. I'm keeping my helmets on it as well as that magnet swingie thingie Thanh² got me for a gift a long time ago. I also have a bonzai tree. Tracy and Kris got it for me as I was moving out. I tried to keep it alive as best as I could during the road trip.




But as you can see, it's wilted. Hopefully, it'll come back to life. It better!




The computer is setup and functional. I just need the internet. The orientation of stuff on the desk hasn't changed much from what I had it like in Seattle.




Here's the stuff I have tacked to the wall next to the computer. There's a broken hard disk and minidisk to serve as a warning to future hard drives and minidisks. There's that monkey CarLo got me while he was in Japan. I still have it and it's still annoying. Then there's that Lupin figurine set serving as a constant reminder to never participate in Secret Santa. Ha!




Here's the second bookshelf. It's an actual bookshelf since it holds books. See?




The top half holds my pocket CD-Rs for the camera and regular CD-Rs for whatever. There's also folders from what I used to do at ISB and the smaller books.




The bottom half has all the textbooks, yearbooks and whatever. This is the bookshelf you see in Resident Evil, hit the button over it and the protagonist says "Nothing interesting." That's why it's in the study.




The desk again. I'll be spending a lot of time here once I get the internet... and again when classes start. But mostly when I get internet.




It's time for the obligatory 'kicking out the camera' portion of Cribs. So, uh.. get out.




Yeah, down the hallway. Out, out!




Y'all come back now, ya hear?


music: Weezer - Beverly Hills

Your apartment looks amazing. And huge. I'm definitely coming to visit.
-Kristi - 050817 - 2042EST
http://www.mykristi.com
kgovella@gmail.com

The place looks awesome! I'm definitely checking it out when I come by for a week and a half in October. Take care and miss you bro!!!
-Brian - 050818 - 0148EST



Dammit, I put those pictures up so you guys wouldn't have to come. Heh...

Ahem. It would be great if you guys could visit. I'll have some lemonade for you, ya know.. to make it worthwhile or something.
-Richard - 050819 - 1252EST

The New York roadtrip, aka. my move to Syracuse, aka. Wagons East.

I'm not putting all of the pictures up. If you want to see all of them, go hunt down CarLo. He has them all. Some pictures are duplicates, out of focus, or just something I don't really need to share. Besides, who wants to see a picture of Mei's ass? Good gawd.


This picture was actually taken a couple of days before we set out to NY. I was in Bremerton collecting some hand-me-down and some brand new furniture. Since milk crates are a little sub-standard, I was willing to accept some real furniture. The stupid U-Haul cost $40 to get on the ferry, each side. Holy crap. But I suppose $80 for several pieces of furniture (two loveseats, area rug, two end tables, and several chairs) is still cheap. That's my parents' dog next to the truck and this is in front of my parents' house. The stupid thing had Arizona plates.

I still can't believe I loaded the truck to capacity. The truck was so full, there was some overflow that went into the beetle. I had a TV stand in the car. I also put my cycle helmets and bonzai in there. The bonzai was a present from Tracy and Kris. Hopfully it would survive better in the car than the U-Haul. I even cracked the windows for a better chance at survivability.

On the night of the 27th, I had my last dinner in Seattle before heading out. I went to Shari's. Why? The truck didn't get fully loaded until pretty late. I think I forgot some stuff too. I hate that. Anyway, In addition to my parents, sister, CarLo and Auntie Rubee, Ben, Chan, Rus, Matt and Masato showed up. I got to enjoy my last minutes in Seattle with friends and family. However,it became time to leave Seattle soon afterwards.

The trip started at midnight, just as the calendar turned July 28. We loaded the beetle onto the trailer and sped out to I-90 east for days of driving goodness.

We got into our first situation before even leaving Washington. We were almost to Spokane when the low fuel light goes off. The problem was that there wasn't a gas station for quite some time. It was fifteen miles into the light when CarLo woke me up (The truck is 10mpg). The anticipation for a gas station was ass-grippingly tense. When we finally got to a station, we filled the tank up to 30.05 gallons. The tank has a 30 gallon capacity. So basically, we were running off of top-off. Sweet jeebus, that was close.




The next stop for gas was in Montana. I believe this was 8 in the morning or so. We thought these hills looked like hands.




This was also the start of our gas station food experience. An experience that didn't end until Minneapolis.




At each gas station, we took our sweet time. We'd spent at least 15 minutes just standing around, stretching and breathing and whatever.




Notice that the beetle is clean in this picture. It doesn't stay that way, however.




THe U-Haul is a bug killer. I think at one point we had a giant dragonfly plastered against the side of this thing.




Later we stopped at a rest area, still in Montana. I believe we switched drivers here.




We're 235 miles on I-90 into Montana in this picture. That's about as detailed into that location I can tell you. We crossed the Rockies in this state and the Dumb and Dumber quotes kept coming. "You expect the Rocky Mountains to be a little.. rockier." "It feels like you're running at an incredible rate." and "According to the map, we've only gone two inches."




This is the standard issue landscape of Montana. Later on it switched to dead grass and small hills. It took forever to drive through Montana, I swear we spent the entire day driving through it. I remember we hit North Dakota after dark. So yeah, we did take an entire day to get Montana behind us.




The hero shot. Yes, that is an outhouse. There was just a hole. A hole filled with poo. A smelly, poo-filled hole. Craptastic. Apparantly he couldn't wait to zip up his fly until he got outside. I wouldn't.

I drove though most of the expanse that is Montana. I remember passing a sign that read "Rocky Mountain Oysters next right" and "The Great Testicle Festival next right". I was tempted to wake up CarLo and Mei and take the exit, but I don't think we really needed to 'Fear Factor' this roadtrip.

I put the camera away until Minneapolis, Minnesota since there wasn't really much to take pictures of. I didn't need too many pictures of Carlo exiting outhouses or us eating junk food. The scenery in Montana stayed the same the entire way through and like I mentioned earlier, we drove through North Dakota at night.

We took the junction to I-94 east just past Billings, Montana. We also almost ran out of gas again, although not as bad. This time I was driving and underestimated the remaining miles we had on the tank of gas. It was after this we vowed to fill up as soon as we got down to a quarter tank.

However, there was something I wanted to get a picture of in North Dakota. There were these crazy lightning storms all around. The lightning flashed different colors. It was nuts. It would be pitch black, then the sky would light up in oranges, reds, and yellows. It was great.

We hit Minnesota in the night and got into Minneapolis by the morning of July 29. We checked into the Mariott across the street from Mall of America for two nights.

Finally we got to shower. It's been about a day and a half of living in the U-Haul. Some may call me a genius for scheduling a cross-country roadtrip during a heat wave. I felt sticky with filth and I'm not sure about the others, but I can bet they felt the same way.




There are freakin' roller coasters in the mall! It was pretty awesome. I guess that's what you do when you're snowed in for 5 months of the year, build fun stuff inside. Well, we didn't go on any rides that day.




Mei and CarLo.




Me and Mei.




Mei and CarLo on the third floor of the mall with the amusement park in the background.




The amusement park in the middle of the mall.




Mei and the shark promoting the AQUARUIM(?!?!) underneath the mall. What doesn't this mall have?




Three layers of shops and walkways in the mall.

I went shopping, but the funny thing is that I bought stuff from stores that were also in Seattle: Old Navy, Urban Outfitters and Macy's.




Walking out of Club Monaco with a big smile on her face.




After swimming around in the pool for a while, we decided to adventure out to find a White Castle. I expected an adventure out of this, but what happened was a little more than what I was hoping for.

To the left is a free map stolen from the lobby of the hotel. The circle is where we're located and the 'X's are where the supposed White Castle locations are. On the right is a map I printed out before leaving Seattle of White Castle locations in Minneapolis.




We're so ready to go. You could see our excitement in the way we're half asleep, tired from driving straight form Seattle.




Since I had my car in tow, I was banished to the far corner of the Mariott parking lot. I separated the trailer from the U-Haul so we could just leave the truck at the hotel and bomb around in the beetle.

We took off hoping we were headed in the general direction of the closest White Castle. After driving out then backtracking twice looking for a highway junction, we stopped at a gas station. I needed to buy a real map. Ya know, something that's to scale, like how the free maps aren't.

So I bought the map, took it back to the car and started looking for a way to get to a White Castle. Suddenly I heard a rapping on my window, I looked up and there was a cop. I rolled down the window and he asked if we were lost. The conversation went as follows:

officer: Hi, I was wondering if you guys were lost.
Richard: Yeah, we're kinda lost.
officer: So, what are you looking for?
Richard: uh,..
CarLo and Mei: WHITE CASTLE!!

I think he laughed to himself after Carlo and Mei yelled that out. I was going to try to give him an actual address, but that works.




After following his directions, we made it to White Castle. Carlo and Mei got out of the car excitedly.




"We're there!"




We ordered the 30 burger crave crate, two large drinks and a side of fries.




We were so nerding out. Everybody was treating it like it like their everyday McDonald's. We were all giggly and taking pictures as if it were some sort of celebrity. I didn't care, it's not like we're going to see these people again. Heh.




Oh yeah, those little oniony burgers melt in your mouth. So much better than the frozen variety.




We tore through those burgers. Here we have 11 left of 30 still boxed.




The battlefield.




Mei started building her pyramid of burger boxes.




Getting there...




Almost done...




Other White Castle patrons observing our nerdiness asked if we all wanted to be in a picture.




Building it with the swiftness.




All done, no hands!!

At one point these two old ladies were talking about us.

1: Are those kids high?
2: No, they're just really hungry.

We finished all of those burgers. CarLo and I were bursting about the time we had two or three left to devour for ourselves. Yet, they were sooo goood. Haha.

So that's out story. We got pretty lost. A cop got involved. Dicking around in the restaurant. Finishing 30 burgers. We didn't get the chance to run into Neil Patrick Harris or a tow truck driver named Freakshow but it was all still very fun, nonetheless.




After sleeping in through breakfast, we went to downtown Minneapolis to check out what goes on around there. It turns out there's nothing. It's mostly business. I assume all the shopping moved to the Mall of America once it was built. The buildings in this part of downtown are all connected with skybridges. It's another tactic to implement when snowed in for several months.




CarLo and Mei in front of some kind of balloon person thingie.




CarLo's ass.




Mei on the escalator.




The fountain in the plaza.




Back at the Mall of America. This time we went on rides.




Quick turn.




CarLo and I.




Mei and CarLo.




The Mighty Axe!




Chillin'.




We're trying out some Minneapolis sushi.




It was ok, but I still think it was too expensive for what we got.

Later that night, we checked out the Minneapolis club scene. First, we hit this place called First Avenue. They say Prince made it famous in the movie Purple Rain. It was all underground Hiphop. Nobody was really dancing, just lounging around in the dark with drinks in hand.

The next place we went to was this club called Bar-Fly. It had a Bada Lounge feel to it. I didn't really feel like dancing around. I just felt like I needed to sit down. This road trip was draining, if it wasn't the driving, it was figuring out what to do in a city I've never been in. I was zoning out. We went home when the club shut down, 2-3am ish.

On the way back to the car, there was a bloody t-shirt balled up on the sidewalk. Hmm... Yeah. The Minneapolis club scene is definitely different from Seattle's.

The next morning, CarLo and I woke up in time to get some breakfast downstairs. Mei was being lazy and told us to pick something up for her on the way back, then resumed sleeping. So we did.

After CarLo and I ate our breakfasts, I said it would be funny if we only brought some boiled eggs back to Mei. CarLo went into the line and came back with a bowl of three eggs. No, it's not funny unless it's at least five eggs. I grabbed two more. CarLo also put together a complete breakfast for her, then we went back to the room.

CarLo hid the real breakfast in the bathroom. We proceeded to wake up Mei and presented her with the five boiled eggs and a fork. Straight faced, we said that all they had was a tub full of boiled eggs. We got there late.

She thanked us and started working on the eggs. As she was finishing the first egg, CarLo went into the bathroom and gave her the real breakfast: cereal, toast, muffin, donut, fruit and juice. "You might want the rest of it."

I swear she was about to throw the rest of her eggs at us. Haha. Anyway...




Mei and her complete breakfast. (Morning, Sunshine)




The offending eggs.




The Mall of America from the parking lot of the Mariott we stayed at.




Again, wide angle.

Even though we were checked out of the hotel, we left the U-Haul and trailer there and checked out Valleyfair. It's an amusement park on par with Six Flags or something.

We went on nearly every ride, it was crazy. There were two rides really worth mentioning: The Wave and Ripcord.

The Wave was funny. It's a flume ride and CarLo didn't want to go on this one. He didn't want to get wet, he didn't want to go, but he went anyway since Mei and I were going. When you hit the water from coming down the hill there's an initial splash. It's alright. But then a second, larger, unexpected wave of water hits you a second after the first. It was then when CarLo lost his sunglasses. Oh man. Poor guy didn't want to get wet or go on the ride. Now he's wet and lost his sunglasses.

Oh, it's not over yet.

The way out requires you to walk over this bridge that gets soaked whenever the ride comes down the hill and hits the pool. I mean really soaked. But we figured that we had time before the next cart drenches the bridge and started looking into the water for CarLo's lost sunglasses. After looking around for 20 seconds, I noticed the next cart cresting over the hill. I told Mei to run and we started booking towards the exit. Carlo then noticed the ride coming and turned around to warn us, we were already running, we've been running. Sorry, CarLo. None of us made it in time anyway. The bridge soaks you even more than being on the ride itself. We were thoroughly soaked. We actually decided to take a break from everything to dry off a bit.

After drying off a little bit, we went to the RipCord. That ride is like the Superman ride. It's basically a giant swing that drops you from a hundred or so feet in the air. And it's skurry. So we put on the suits, get harnessed onto the lines and get winched up a hundred or so feet in the air. On our way up, I was getting scared. We were so far from the ground and we were going higher. I was also the one to pull the cord to let us fly. There was nowhere to look but down since we were attached to the contraption that way. Then we got to the top, Oh gawd. The coundown went "3.. 2.. 1.. FLY!!" A second later I said, "Uh, you guys ready?" CarLo and Mei were already ass-puckered and the dramatic pause didn't make things easier. Well, it wasn't that bad. The worst part is getting winched up to the tower, looking down all the way. Oh man.

Another thing was Mei trying to win the giant Stewie doll from the giant crane machine. She tried seven or eight times and couldn't get it. Once she gave up, the next guy gets on the machine and wins it on his first try. Ooh, BURRRN!!

Valleyfair was fun, yet also very tiring. The shitty thing was that we had to start driving for Niagara once we got back to the truck. We were all tired, sweaty and had nasty flume ride water drying on us.




Well, while driving around Minneapolis lost for White Castle we found something familiar. We decided to come back to Old Country Buffet for some well-earned dinner.




Yummy.




Nummy.

So then we reconnected the trailer to the U-Haul and attached the bug to the trailer then headed east on I-94 the evening of July 31st. I'm not sure who started driving from Minneapolis but I remember that I was the one driving through Chicago at two in the morning. Chicago is scary.

Chicago looks nice from a distance, though. So it was two in the morning and the I-94 to I-90 junction is in the city. There's some kind of construction project going and barrels were strewn about everywhere. I missed the exit to I-90 since there was just a tiny opening between the barrels to squeeze through. I took the next exit and stopped at a gas station. I was walking into the station to ask how to get back on I-90 when this muscle-bound guy stops me and says that it seems I'm not from around here. I ask him how to get back to I-90 and he tells me how. Then he continues on. He says that he has to be honest with me. He said he just got done serving seven years in jail and is trying to come clean and asks if I have cash so he could buy food. I was scared shitless at this point. Two in the morning, the Chicago ghettos, and obviously not from the area. Honestly I didn't have any cash on me. So I ask to borrow some money from either Mei or CarLo. Mei had two bucks. I passed it along to him and sped off. Shit, I didn't need this. His directions were crap too. Trying to make it back to I-94, we drove past a drug bust in progress. Dammit, I hate it here. So we got back on I-94, went down a mile or so, turned around at an exit and got onto I-90 east from the other direction.

That was scary.




We hit morning in Ohio. It was surreal. The field in the distance had some thick, low-lying fog. The bushes looked like trees poking out of a dense, foggy jungle. By now, we've hit several toll booths. Stupid piece of sucks. Indiana was tolled. The whole time along I-90 Indiana looked industrial. There was nothing natural looking about it. Well, that's why we weren't staying there.

Carlo took the wheel for most of Ohio. He got caught speeding. How do you speed in a U-Haul towing a car? I had trouble keeping the Speed Limit most of the time. Oh well.

The next thing we did was a little unexpected. We showered at a truck stop. It sounds gross but it was actually nice. The showers were clean since we were on the Ohio throughway. The tolls paid for the maintenance of the stops. It was all good. Besides, we were finally able to rid ourselves of the sweat and flume ride water we were soaked in the day we spent at Valleyfair. Showering is nice, don't take it for granted, kids.




We made it to Niagara Falls late in the afternoon of August 1st.




We were parked on Goat Island. That sits between the Canadian and the American Falls.




CarLo looking into Ontario. I thought this city back there was Toronto. Now I'm not so sure now that I've checked the maps. I wonder...




The Canadian side of Niagara Falls.




The Canadian Niagara Falls.




Mei and I.




Mei and CarLo.

Niagara Falls kicks up some majot mist and if the wind shifts and you're downwind, you're going to get soaked. My camera lens fell victim to the Niagara mist.




I took a lot of pictures while I was there. Bear with me.
















The Canadian Falls.




To the water's edge.








The Maid of the Mist boats.




The Rainbow Bridge connecting New York and Ontario with the American Niagara Falls to the right.




CarLo's thoroughly misted.








































Anybody going over the American Falls would meet the rocky bottom.




The Mist Cave tour.












Looks kind of like a sad picture.




So then we left Niagara Falls. At least we tried to. The roads leading out of Niagara Falls are really bumpy. Eventually we got pulled over by a guy who said the back was open. In disbelief, we went behind the truck to check it out. Lo and behold, the back was open. The strange thing was that the lock was still in the right place to keep the thing locked and the door was flung open. After doing a quick check, it turns out that only Mei's suitcase fell off the truck. After locking up the back again, we started backtracking, looking for Mei's suitcase on the side of the road hoping to find it. After searching until nightfall, we couldn't find it at all. We also asked the hotels we passed to see if anybody turned it in. No dice.




After eating dinner, we returned to the park. Mei changed her flight to fly out of Buffalo the next morning. We hung around the park for a couple of hours just talking. I don't remember what we talked about. After a while, we set out looking for the Buffalo, NY airport.

That airport looked deserted. It looked it hasn't been used in a while. The streetlights around the airport weren't working and there was no traffic at all. (Well, it was three in the morning.) It was really eerie. We dropped Mei off and continued towards Syracuse.

Carlo and I got to Syracuse on the morning of August 2nd, a day early. My lease starts on the 3rd, but the manager let me move in a day early. That was fun. Unpacking an entire U-Haul truck in ninety degree, humid weather.

The big, blue couch I have couldn't physically fit into the doorway. Good thing I get a basement, because it's down there right now.

Over the second and the third of August, I was feverishly putting my place together and got it mostly done. I only had the kitchen and minor touchups left waiting for me when I came back from NYC.

On the third, I went to the Carousel Mall with Carlo just to check it out. But first, we needed some food.

Rich: I'm so hungry, I could eat at Arby's...
CarLo: Let's eat someplace we haven't heard of.
R: How about here, 'Ruby Tuesday'?
C: What's that?
R: Dunno. Haven't heard about it.
C: Cool.

So we checked it out. I thought it was pretty good. I had the Surf and turf burger. It was a hamburger with prawns and some kind of sauce. Good stuff.

We checked out most of the stores. CarLo bought a 'Donkey Punch' shirt from Lord & Taylor. Hi-larious.

Back to the apartment. I continued to put it together while CarLo had liberty to my DVD and game collections.

We set out to NYC around 8 in the morning of August 4th. That was already late considering we agreed to have Lunch with Jamie Briones and it takes about three hours to get there and we have to check in and there are toll booths and there is traffic. Yeah, late we are.

It turned out pretty toll-free until we neared the city. I swear, we hit three toll booths in 20 miles. That's just not fair. Then once we got to Manhattan, the traffic was packed tight, yet it was still travelling near 70mph. CarLo was behind the wheel and he was getting real pissed off. I'd be driving but I was so sleepy from trying to get the apartment together until 4am. My bad. We found the long term parking garage, dropped off the car and trekked toward the hotel. I stayed there before for my NYU interviews, and I could've sworn it was on Lexington and 31st. It was more like Lexington and 30th and it took ten minutes to find it. Duh, I'm retarded. Anyway, we checked in and hailed a cab to take us to Citigroup on the lower west side, where Jamie works.




The big, red umbrella in front of the Citigroup building. We got there by 2:30 in the afternoon.




Jamie and Carlo








The view of Ground Zero from the raised walkway across from it. It's not too viewer friendly and even less camera friendly thanks to that metal mesh blocking everything. You have to keep moving to get a good look at the site. Good 'ol manual focus. I'm sure autofocus would be locked on that mesh.












The best view is from underneath the stairs.




Or from across the street where the mesh ends.




A blue man in Times Square.




In Times Square Toys 'R' Us. Superdeformed Teen Titan action figures!




A batmobile replica from Batman Begins.




The new batsuit. (Still in Toys 'R' Us.)




Radio City Music Hall.




NBC Studios Rainbow Room.




Rockefeller Center. It's not an ice rink today... since it's pushing 100 degrees outside.












Nintendo World




Inside Nintendo World




The limited edition Zelda Triforce GameBoy Advance SP autographed by Shigeru Miyamoto!! MY LEG-ARU!!




I didn't know what this building was, but there were trees on it. I had to get me a picture.




A fountain on the south end of Central Park.




A statue on the south end of Central park.




The horse-drawn carriages that run around Central Park. CarLo didn't want to rent a carriage for the two of us.. fear of horses? I dunno.




Stroll in the park.
















Some fountain in Central Park. Ha!

We continued to go on into the park. It became too dark to use the camera without the flash so I put it away. Landscapes don't come out so well that way. Central Park is huge. We turned around when we stumbled across an outdoor concert and we didn't want to pay. Making our way back it became obvious we've gone a long way and it'll be a while before we get out.

It actually got dark enough for the fireflies to start doing their thing.

CarLo: Are those fireflies?
Rich: Wow, yeah. That's neat.

What I should've said:

CarLo: Are those fireflies?
Rich: What? What're you talking about? There's nothing! You're crazy, man. Crazy!

Missed opportunity. Ah well. Once we got out of the park, we found some food just north of Times Square at a place called Applejacks'. I had a Buffalo Burger. Tastes like beef, no biggie.




Times Square looks a lot better at night than during the day. Hey, isn't that that P Diddy billboard I was complaining about in March?




Times Square electronics shop. Everything was a total rip-off. Go to Best Buy or something. I'm not spending $40 for a spindle of 50 CDRs.




The Virgin Megastore in Times Square.




The 'TKTS' stand in Times Square.




The back end of Times Square.




The front end of Times Square.




The Virgin Megastore again.




The back end again.




Hey, no stopping.




O SHI~!




The Swatch Store with the billboard over it proclaiming "Practice Safe Sex"




TRL.




Finally moving away from Times Square, we found Madison Square Garden. Then we got back to the hotel room to catch some sleep. Watching the local news, we found out that it actualy hit one hundred degrees that day. So that's why my jeans were stuck to my legs with sweat. Yeah, not pretty.




The view from our 10th floor hotel room the next morning. (August 5)




A tour bus runs past the Empire State Building. Ya know, the one the giant monkey climbed.




More of the Empire State Building.

We then walked up and down 5th Avenue to check out the department stores. I bought a 'Cleveland Steamer' and 'meat and two veg' shirt from Lord & Taylor. Ha! I forget what other stores we checked out, but we kept a tight grip on our wallets. We've already spent plenty on this trip since leaving.




We eventually found the giant Macy's building.








I'm not sure what goes on in here, but apparantly this is where they keep giant naked people.




I also don't know what goes on here, but the building was shiny and I wanted a picture.




Times Square from down the street.




Hey Look! TRL whores. Throw them some peanuts.




We then took a cab to Chinatown to check it out.




Chinatown was mostly markets and retaurants. We ate at McDonalds.




Hey, across the street is Sojo.




More Sojo.

We checked out the shops around Sojo. I walked away with a pair of Express jeans. Yayness. Mostly we were just window shopping.




We just kept running into Times Square. Can't really avoid it.




Andrea's school, I assume. Um, go SUNY!




The Chrystler building, better view.




Grand Central Station.
















I tried to be 'artsy' for these next two. Empty terminal? I could use it.








We headed back to the hotel room for a break from the crazy heat. This is the night view from the hotel room.




Stuff I bought that day.

Well, we were intending to check out a comedy club but then we got a call from Jamie to meet for dinner in the lower east side at a place called 'Lemongrass'. We hopped a cab to the restaurant.




Chris and Jamie.




Jamie and her friend whose name escapes me... ugh.




Me and CarLo.




Carlo, Chris, Jamie and um,.. uh...




Chris and Jamie.

So the food was good. Since it was a Thai place, I usually get the Phad Thai. Whenever I go to a Thai restaurant and not order a Phad Thai, I always end up thinking 'I should've gotten the Phad Thai' by the end of the dinner. I dunno, it's good stuff.

So the dinner conversation took a turn to the disgusting by the end. It's all good by the way. We talked about Donkey Punches, Cleveland Steamers, Spiderman, crispy noodles, angry dragons and whatnot. I swear we didn't leave for an hour after we got our bill. Oops. Well, we all wished each other farewells and CarLo and I got back to the hotel and crashed. We missed the last comedy show at the club we wanted to check out.




The next day, we checked out of the hotel, grabbed the car and checked out Carnegie Hall. On the way to Carnegie, I saw this car driving around with a sign reading "Student Driver". Holy crap, I wouldn't want to learn how to drive in NYC. That's horrible. So do they bypass the defensive driving lesson and go directly to jackass driving? How does that work?

Too bad Carnegie is undergoing renevation. The building with the scaffolding to the left is Carnegie Hall. There was some kind of Street Fair going on celebrating something for whatever. We were meaning to check it out after wandering the streets, but ran out of time.




Alright, front entrance!




So, it turns out that funky building with the trees on it was the Trump Tower. Since it was open to the public, we decided to check it out.




Inside it's tacky. What's this bronze and brown marble? And it was EVERYWHERE.




We escaped and took a breather in Central Park. There were three different softball games going on in the same field. I'm not sure how it works, but that's what was happening.




It's easier to take pictures of the park when there's actually some light out.




Fin~



I dropped off CarLo at JFK so he could catch his 8pm flight out to Seattle and that ended the road trip.

I got a little lost getting out of Manhattan back to Syracuse. Some directions a cop gave me made me go through New Jersey, they worked though. I got back to the apartment pretty late that night.

The road trip took us through Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wyoming, Illinios, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and finally New York. Most of these states I've never been in. It spanned nearly 3000 miles and was very energy draining. It was definitely fun. It was definitely expensive.

Driving a U-Haul with a car in tow is an interesting experience. Since the trailer's wider than the truck, we had to keep checking the side view mirrors to make sure we're actually in the lane.

Thanks to CarLo and Mei for starting out on this journey. I probably would've gone insane on my own.

Good times, good times.

music: Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc.

I would have to say that the last party I threw in Seattle would have to be a milestone in my lifetime. It's definitely something I'll never forget and the last, largest gathering of friends that I'll see in a long time. I would like to thank the ol' roommates, Tracy, Kris, Brian, and Roy for letting me have this last gathering. Another big 'thank you' to the Sound Ninjas, destined for fame, fortune, women and whatnot. CarloR on guitar, Ben^TM on bass and Brian on Drums. You guys rocked! And I would also like to thank everybody who came for the party. It wouldn't be a party if nobody showed up. It would've just been me sitting around the house alone with $60 of liquor. That could be a dangerous thing. Thank you everybody, love yous guys!!

This thing took place on the Saturday night of July 23, my last weekend in Seattle before the arduous (yet fun) road trip to Syracuse, NY. Anyway, I've already sent these pictures out to select people and I still need to send these out to a few more. However, here they are with commentary by yours truly.. That would me me. Anyway, onward to the pictures.





This is the first of 198 pictures. I'm sure I'll get tired of typing by this is through. Or you'll get tired of reading by the time this is through. It's you versus me and I tend to go overboard with these things.
Anyway, this is the calm before the storm. I've set up the couches in some sort of pseudo-ampitheatre arrangement. The Sound Ninjas were to set up their performance in front of this.




This is the table of spirits, sodas, cups and whatever. I take pride in that jug of Smirnoff Vodka. If you've noticed, some of it is missing. Chan bought a bag of Cherries and we made a batch of vodka cherries. How to make them is pretty much self-explanatory.




Evan, Heather and Ayame in the background. For those who missed them before they left, they're a couple of buddies from Microbiology. Somehow, we managed to survive three quarters of BioChem together amongst other classes.




Heather and Evan couldn't stick around for the whole thing. They had a wedding to run off to later in the day.




Ben's superhero burger pose.




Joy and her cameras of 1337-ness. I swear, she brought like seven of them.




the next couple of pictures are us hanging out. What can I say?




I was quite honored to have Lee make it to Seattle for the party. That was awesome.




The crowd thickens.




High noon on Roosevelt Way.




Beers and cheers.

Yeah, the bike moved. I made a run to Safeway with Heather riding two-up. With my carnivorous mindset, I neglected the vegetarian demographic when preparing for the BBQ. The funny thing about going to Safeway was that I missed my turn. I usually take turns fast when I'm by myself, but since I had Heather riding two-up I had to skip the turn. I was going too fast to take it with a passenger. I ended up going down an alleyway that ended on the sidewalk on the south side of Safeway. What I didn't know was that Evan was tailing us by car and there was no way he could've made it into the alley. We successfully 'lost him' without trying.








Mmm, veggielicious...
















Leslie brought the puppy.








Group Picture in the sun.

Me, Brian, Ben, CarloR, Rus, Chan, and Lee.




Same thing, just a couple of seconds into the future.

I bought that shirt at Hollister. Just in case anybody forgot. I didn't know there was a backside to it when I bought it. I thought the shirt was pointless. I took it home, unfolded it for the first time and read the back "BUT YOU CAN CALL ME DICK". Great... but I'm still going to wear it.




Same as above, plus Joe and Aron. Brian is still in the sun.




Aron's aura.




Umm, I guess this is what you'd see if Jesus gave you the finger or something... you wouldn't see it at all.












Now, that's just too cute.




Chow down! She's going to kill me for putting this up. But it gets better for pictures of me later. It turns out there's an inverse correlation between dignity versus alcohol consumed for me. So stay tuned, folks.
























Well, here's my sister in this shot. I wonder where she hid since she's missing from the pictures for a good long time.
















I noticed a couple of guys were missing so I ran inside. Turns out they were practicing their set.




















And so I run back outside again to find the grill on fire. That chicken wasn't there earlier. I forgot to tell my mom that the grill doesn't drain grease fast enough. It's like clogged with older grease and stuff or something. She loaded up the chicken and give or take a minute... grill afire! Fun for the whole party.




Once that fire took care of itself, we filed into the house in anticipation of a rockstar performance.




Love you guys, too!












CarloR's rocking hard, CarloR's playing hard. Ben and Brian are being the sexy. They're so sexy in fact, that it seems CarloR's catching some second-hand sexy. Now that's sexy.




The Ben^TM




The CarloR




The Brian




Always judging and watching and judging...




Um, cheese.




This picture is a set of freeze-frames 1/7th of a second apart from each-other. If you've played with Photostudio or a similar picture editor, you could make an animated gif out of it.
















































Is it jsut me or is Ben getting really sexy with the microphone in this one?




I really appreciate the Sound Ninjas performing that day. That officially made the party an event. T'was awesome.
















The ceremonial 'Now You're a Man' song. Yet alas, it wasn't as manly as Kris' manliest man evar at the Spaghetti Factory. ::sigh::




Megan!! My favorite drunk. ha!




Ben's calling for shots... I think... if I remember correctly.... maybe




I believe this argument settled on Rum.




These next four stills could be animated together, I guess.








I believe this is the first time I've ever taken shots with the sun still up. I've been drinking since 3 in the afternoon when the BBQ started. I'm so getting wasted.




Now that's a spicy meat-a-balla!




Methinks Brian wants in on this.




Carlo... need... chaser...




Grub.




Nina and Thanh²




PUPPY!!!








I'm not really sure what's going on here. Someting to do with the puppy, maybe? Perhaps? I dunno.




Back for more liquid confidence.
















Rus and his pimp juice.




Works instantly.




Another round of shots.









ALRIGHT!!




EVERYBODY, GET IN THERE!!




I'm not sure how many I've had at this point. More than one, less than 20... Maybe.








The only shot of the back of my shirt.




Cheers!
















Uh, hi.








I don't know what happened with CarLo. He showed up late, but got wasted first. Pay attention to the pictures with him in it.








Preparations for Kings, Waterfall,.. whatever you call it.












YOSH!




Pishout!




Group shot with the bros. At least the ones within shouting distance of the picture being taken.

Ben, me, Rus, Larry and Marco.




('Drink, drank, drunk' rule in effect)
Van: EAT your DRINK!!! ... CRAP!!




My homeboy, Bobby.




Bottoms up.





My sister resurfaces. And Rus has some 'Alfalfa cowlick' thing going.




Let's get freaky and nasty in that order.
















Power shots!!




Freakin' Kazar came in late and made me take four shots with him. I've been drinking since 3!! WTF?!?!




Luckily for him, I was already drunk enough to not care about taking more shots.




Chase it!




Another group...

Um.. Chan, Larry, Ben, Dianne, Kyoko, Georganne, Me, Kazar.
With Van smothered between Kazar and myself.




Peace and Thumbs up = good




Oh gawd, more shots. What number is this again? I don't remember.

Look out, CarLo's looking a little tired.








Pinkies up, bitches.








Goodnight... I guess?




Me, Nina, a faded CarLo, Thanh², and Van.








Larry, Kyoko and me




Nina and Carlo's armpits. Oh yeah!




Priscilla and me. Bunny ears courtesy of Larry,.. I think.




Larry, Kyoko and me again.




hotto dougu








Nina, CarLo, Van and Thanh².

.. goodnight CarLo








Stop fighting.




Better.




I really like this picture. I'm not sure why.
Anyway, Thanh², Ygona, Knira, me and Nina.




Night, Chan.




My sister and I.




Dianne and I again.




Me and my squeezable TT.




Karin and I








Van and I




Nina, Van, me and Thanh²








Kazar and I




Nina and Thanh²




Thanh² and Van. Ears courtesy of Nina.




Knira, Christina, and Marco. With me in the front.








Kazar and Rus.




Me and Chan.




Me and Priscilla.




Dianne on the guitar.




Rus, Knira, Ygona, Marco and Chan.




Kazar, Larry, Nina, Kyoko and me.




Us without Nina's ass on us.




Night, CarLo.




Van, CarLo, Thanh², and Chan.




Someone's ear. I'm guessing CarLo's.. Hard to tell. I wouldn't waste too much time thinking about it.




Lapdance time... from.. Chan...
















Kyoko looks traumatized... either that or she's in a Fiona Apple music video. Can't believe I still remember that... getting old..




Goodnight, CarLo. Prince of sleepovers... Shutting down..




Knira and I.




Ygona and I.




Um, self-sobriety test? I think? Do that all you want, they'll just whip out the breathalizer on you.




It looks like he got back on the couch safely somehow.




Nina and Knira.




Ygona and Chan.




I'm sooo passed out.




Thinking...




Hi, um. I like quiet strolls in the park...




Larry, Kyoko, Van and CarLo.








Same thing with extra TT.




Ygona, Van, Thanh², Nina, and Knira... with almost a shocker going.




Me and Kazar.




Kazar awake.




Chan out on the floor... umm.. let's put a chair on him.




Kazar and the aftermath.




The girls.




Big scary hug.




Dianne and clan.








Winding down.




Remember that chair?




This is so going to be my Christmas card.




Morning light.





That was fun. Once again, I'd like to thank everybody. It saddens me to think there won't be another one of these for a while... at least for me. So it seems I've managed to pass the torch to my sister who could duplicate these little shindigs that I throw. I say BRING IT! Anyway, love you guys and see you sometime!!

music: The Sound Ninjas - Take Me Out (Chan is a heavy sleeper extended version)

"I was quite honored to have Lee make it to Seattle for the party. That was awesome."

...haha and you put that caption on a picture that has me looking like I'm trying to escape.
-Lee - 050817 - 0302EST
http://rockcalypso.net


I know that's you.. can't run away. No siree Bob.

But seriously, thanks for making it. That was cool.
-Rich - 050817 - 0333EST