Moon Dog's Musings

Tuesday, October 30, 2001:

Moons and star accessories + Me = Bad
There was a "Monster" (Halloween) sale in Ackerman today--20% off of everything, and I found a cute address book with moons and stars on it, so I HAD to buy it. Grr.
Well, my linguistics midterm yesterday wasn't so bad, and I've spent today preparing for my psych midterm tomorrow. Midterms, midterms, midterms. Blech.
And can you believe it? It RAINED today. I hate rain. Guess I'll have to go buy an umbrella...

moon // 10:28 PM

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Monday, October 29, 2001:

My apologies for not posting for so long (I'm sure all of you were sad). Here's what happened on my trip:
Friday, a little after midnight: the busses leave UCLA.
around 1 AM: We start watching the Princess Bride. I fall asleep in the middle of it.
Sometime in the middle of the night: We stop in Kettleman City so the bus drivers can take a break, everybody wakes up and cries, "Where are we?!!!"
Some other time in the middle of the night: Somebody crawls in the overhead compartment of the bus so that he can sleep better.
6:15 AM: We arrive in Cupertino, CA, where we stop for breakfast at Burger King, McDonalds, and Denny's. The workers at these restaurants are NOT prepared to serve 250 tired, hungry, cranky band members in pajamas, so the service takes forever.
Around 8: We arrive at a high school so that we can practice.
Around 9: During sectionals, the flute players take a break to do a "massage circle." All the other sections look on jealously.
Around 10: The high school band members are in awe of us big college people, but some of them sporadically shout out, "GO STANFORD!" just to piss us off. We threaten to kill them.
Around 11: We invade the high school gym to play Sons of Westwood at their pep rally.
Around 12: After a looong, exhausting practice, we head off to the hotel.
12:30 PM: A car hits our bus. We pull over to inspect the damage. Luckily, one of the other bus drivers was a police officer and had people fill out witness forms before we proceded to the hotel.
Around 1: We arrive at the hotel. We wait 20 minutes at the front desk for our keys, then get lost in the hotel looking for our room. When we finally get into our room, we take showers.
Around 2: We notice that the drummers in the adjoining room are asleep and that they stupidly left the door to their room open. We steal their cheese-its and leave a note in their room that says, "If you ever want to see your cheese-its again, talk to Gordon (our band director)."
Around 4: My roommates and I decide to walk to Sizzler, but stop halfway there because we're lazy and eat at a Taqueria/Deli where nobody spoke English.
Around 5: We return to our room, and the drummers next door are still asleep. We take their shoes and sunglasses and leave notes that say, "Gordan says, 'I am everywhere,'" and "Gordan says, 'I will survive.'"
Around 6: One of my roommates and I decide to go to downtown San Francisco.
6:30: We take the free shuttle from the hotel to the airport.
Around 7: We pay $1.10 to take a bus to the BART (subway) station.
Around 7:30: We try to figure out how we're suppose to get tickets for the train. While we are waiting in line, I meet a lady from Castaic (which is right next to my hometown). *"it's a small world" plays in background*
8: We arrive at Powell St., San Francisco. We wander aimlessly around the streets looking for a place to eat. We decide to eat at a fifties diner.
9:30: We decide to go back because we need sleep.
Around 10: We wander through an almost abandoned San Francisco airport to get back to the shuttle...how depressing.
10:30: We return to the hotel, where we find that our other two roommates have made friends with the now-awake drummers next door. We hang out in their room for about half an hour. (They thought our little prank was hilarious. Thank goodness they had a good sense of humor.)
Midnight: SLEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Saturday, 6:50 AM: We wake up.
Around 8: We leave for the game.
Around 9: We arrive at Stanford and practice for awhile.
Around 10:30: We go to a rally for Bruin fans.
Around 11:45: We head into the stadium. The Stanford fans are excited to see a "real" marching band.
12:10: I march the pregame show.
12:20: The Stanford band does their crazy pregame show. They are very strange. And their mascot is a tree. ?????
After halftime (I have absolutely no clue what time it was): We go to get concessions, and people compliment the band. Wow, people actually watch us.
Around 4: WE LOSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :( :( :( :( No more Rose parade. :( Oh, well, at least we might get to travel somewhere now for a bowl game.
Around 5: We get on the bus. We are depressed about the outcome of the game but cheer up when we think about how much better our band is than Stanford's. We play "bus foosball" with the balloons that we used to decorate our bus, and when all the balloons pop we crumple pieces of paper and throw them at each other. It was a full-out war.
Around 6: Back at the hotel, we find that the front desk has locked us out of our rooms. Once we get back in, we decide to be study geeks and stay in our room. We take showers, watch some strange movie on TV, order great Italian food from Mr. Pizza Man, and study for our upcoming midterms.
Around 11: We sleep.
Sunday, 2 AM: TIME CHANGE! FALL BACK! ONE EXTRA HOUR OF SLEEP, WOO HOO!
8: We wake up.
9: The bus ride back to LA begins. During the trip, we watch The Sandlot, So I Married an Axe Murderer, The Goonies, and Clueless.
12:15: We stop at Kettleman City for lunch. Once again, the place was not expecting 250 band members to descend upon it. (Where IS Kettleman City, anyway?)
4: We arrive at UCLA, exhausted, sick of busses, but happy that we had a free vacation. (We even got $40 spending money.)
Interesting trip, huh? Can't wait till the next one.



moon // 5:35 PM

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Thursday, October 25, 2001:

Less than 12 hours till I leave for San Francisco...I'm excited, but I hate packing! I have too much stuff to bring for a three day vacation. I'll be back on Sunday evening, but until then, there will be no more posts, unless somehow I can get to a computer. Watch the Stanford vs. UCLA game at 12:30 on Sat. on ABC...I'll be there!
moon // 1:04 PM

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Wednesday, October 24, 2001:

Today was a good day. They finally took down the ugly orange fence at the top of Bruin Walk...now I don't have to take a detour everytime I go to and from class (true, it was only an extra 50 feet or so, but you try walking up a big hill only to find out you have to go up more hill).
The Halloween party wasn't as great as I expected it to be. Although my building went all-out with the decorations, not many kids came. I heard something about our building being TOO elaborate; all of our decor scared the little kids away.
Ling word of the day: bu, a word meaning 'the sound a ghost makes' in English, a west Germanic language spoken in several countries.
I'm going to sleep now since it's likely I won't get any sleep tomorrow night.
moon // 10:55 PM

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Tuesday, October 23, 2001:

I'm posting this, but only because Kamille told me to. :) I enjoyed my restful Tuesday for the most part. I didn't have a single class, but I did have a meeting with somebody who is going to be doing a psych experiment on me (I felt like I was getting my head examined, like by the end of the meeting they were going to decide to treat me for depression or something). I also did some other constructive things, like went on errands and bought stuff that I need for my trip to San Francisco this weekend. Like I got a Mountain Dew and a Frappucino to help me stay awake on the long bus ride. Oh, and I also did laundry this morning--and one of the machines broke halfway through my load of whites. I ended up with a bunch of soapy clothes that I had to put in ANOTHER washer and pay ANOTHER dollar. The front desk says that they might refund my money, but it might be weeks before I know whether they are or not. How stupid. *sigh* To be a front desk clerk again (I worked at a hotel last summer).
Well, that's it for today. Gotta go finish my math homework, which I don't understand!
moon // 8:22 PM

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Monday, October 22, 2001:

Another day, and once again I'm tired. Why is that? Does it have something to do with the fact that I stayed up until 2:30 last night to watch When Harry Met Sally? Is it because I'm still exhausted from the game on Saturday? And yet, no matter what I do, I can't take a nap. I just don't have the willpower. I figure, I'm up, so I might as well stay up.
I've decided that it's not possible for me to walk through Ackerman (the book store) without buying something. Today I bought a journal, and I have no idea what I'm going to use it for, because I'm using this page as my journal, but it was so cute I had to buy it! It matched my room (blue and yellow, moons and stars).
I'm getting excited about Halloween already. On Wednesday they're going to bring elementary school kids to the dorms so that we can give them candy. Kamille and I have decided to be devil and angel, and she's insisting that I be the devil. Today she was walking around with both the angel wings and the devil horns on...I think she scared some people in the hall.
Linguistics word of the day: apid, which means "outrigger support" in some Polynesian language.
moon // 6:01 PM

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Sunday, October 21, 2001:

You know what the sad part is? I just got up! Well, I didn't go to sleep until 2:30, so I guess I'm entitled. We won yesterday! Woo-hoo! But Cal had us scared for awhile during the first half, but then during the second half there was no contest. We killed them 59-17. And now the Bruins are 6-0! Here's hoping that we make it to the national championship (knock on wood).
I marched the halftime show without making any big mistakes. And we are SO much better than the Cal band. (As one fan put it, "You guys made the Cal Band look like crap!) And I love my bus. On the way back from the game, we turned the bus into a club--we cranked up the radio and were dancing in the aisles. You haven't lived until you've danced on a bus in stop-and-go traffic on the 405 freeway in the middle of the night.
Well, I better go get dressed and eat brunch and stuff. And do my homework. :(
moon // 11:55 AM

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Saturday, October 20, 2001:

It just occurs to me that it looks like I didn't post anything yesterday...I clicked "post" at midnight last night. Oh, well, so much for making a post everyday. Knew I was going to have to break that sometime, I just didn't know it was going to have to be so soon.
moon // 10:40 AM

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Just a really quick posting before I go to bed...nothing highly unusual happened today, so not much to discuss. I don't even have a linguistics word-of-the-day (I don't have ling on Fri.). I am NOT looking forward to the massive amounts of homework I have to do this weekend. Yuck. And only a week and a half till my midterms start! (Watch the sweat dripping off my face already.) Well, at least the game should be fun tomorrow...and I actually can sleep in! Woo-hoo!
OK, my eyes are drooping now, that's gotta be a sign that I should get some sleep, but knowing me I'll probably be up for another half an hour before I finally crawl in bed.
moon // 12:00 AM

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Thursday, October 18, 2001:

What a long day!
I actually spent seven and a half hours down on campus today (as opposed to on "the hill," where the dorms are). This is unusual for me, since normally I come back up the hill for lunch and to take a break before my afternoon classes. But today I decided to go to my Math TA's office hours since I was TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY LOST in my math class (that's never happened to me before...maybe I shouldn't be a math major after all *sobs*). And then, after I had lunch, I went to the library. Believe it or not, I hadn't been to the school library until today. Me, the book geek--a month without a library? Can it be true? I think I just got sick of school libraries after spending EVERY SINGLE DAY during second period last year in my high school library. Well, at least here at the UCLA library, they have comfy chairs and couches. What a concept!
Then I went to Ling and then to band practice...I'm marching half time at this weekend's game. Apparently, we're going to do everything we can to prove that we're better than the Cal band. Fine with me, since Cal (Berkeley) gives me the creeps. (No offense to people that go there, but that campus gives me the heebie-jeebies).
And then, finally, I came back to dorm, sweet dorm. I was planning to start my homework, but of course, that didn't happen. I ended up wasting time talking to people and lurking around online.
Dinner was so cool; all the dining halls had themes tonight. I went to the Carribean-themed dining hall and was very pleased to find that they had Pina Coladas to drink (not the alcoholic kind; the dining halls here aren't THAT cool). And then I came back to my room and finally actually did some homework, but after I was halfway done, I found out that I had read the wrong pages. :( Oh, well, at least now I'm ahead for next week...
Strange Linguistics word of the day: dippo, which means 'to smash' in Lango, a language spoken in Uganda.
moon // 9:39 PM

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Wednesday, October 17, 2001:

Well, this is it: my online journal. Here I will post my innermost thoughts and feelings...or just random interesting things that happen in my life.
I am a college student (isn't that scary? I sound so old...). I go to UCLA (go Bruins!). I take strange classes. This is what I learned today in school: 1. In psych, I learned that some people actually study peoples' sex habits (in detail!) for a living. What kind of person decides to go into THAT for a career? 2. In calc, I learned "when in doubt, differentiate." 3. In linguistics, I learned how to say "intermarriage taboo" in Massai (an East African language) (if anybody's interested, the word is sarkin). And this is what they call an education! Well, at least it's better than high school, when all we did was busy work.
I live in a spiffy double room in DeNeve Plaza (the so-called antisocial dorms because we don't have community bathrooms) with my awesome roommate Kamille. We spend WAY too much time decorating our room. Like today we went to Ackerman (the book store/student union) to buy decorations for our bathroom. And then we went to Westwood (the town by UCLA) and hung out for awhile. I bought a sweater from the Gap, and we also found a really cute restaurant with DELICIOUS food. We didn't realize how sick we were of dorm food until today. Did you know it's been a month since I moved here? Doesn't seem like it's been that long...only nine months left, and then I get to go home.
Well, I think that's all for today. Thanks for reading!
P.S. Congratulations to my Mom and Dad, who are celebrating their 20th anniversary today. You guys are so cool! (most of the time)
moon // 9:11 PM

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