The Good Kind of Drag

Eeeee, what an incredibly good weekend! A weekend like that makes any variety of boring work during the week worth it. It was the sort of weekend which goes:
"Shall we do another fun thing?"
"Dare we?!"
"I think we do."
"Dash it all, let's!"
(Only possibly a little less English; sorry to any American readers.)

Friday had about 9 interesting things going on on campus, allowing a leisurely picking and choosing kind of process. One class to go to, and then we went for bubble tea, briefly stopping off at the j-dorm spring festival; went to the basketball game to cheer Garon and whoever else in the team we could remember the names of (they beat a visiting team full of priests-to-be); saw The Incredibles in the lecture hall (free donuts); finished up at the Holi-themed dance party in the SU, with some awesome bhangra-hip hop stuff.

Saturday was Drag Ball, an awesome time. All my male friends suddenly became a slightly more glamorous Women's Institute, and all my female friends looked as gorgeous as usual as blokes, with added drawn-on moustaches. Stayed in bed all morning Sunday, did a little reading out in the quad, then went to a Badly Drawn Boy concert at the Aladdin Theatre in the evening. Support by Lissie and Adem, both very good; had a small chat with Adem at the end: he seemed like a really nice bloke, but it must be tiring to be that emotionally articulate all the time. Badly Drawn Boy gave an amazing performance, despite being in a bad mood and having problems with the sound. This created a bond with the audience, as we thought he needed encouragement. We were right in front, and he shook our hands from the stage. In fact he kissed Alice's hand, both because she is very pretty and because she had yelled "You're doing very well!" earlier. He also took pictures of the audience, (in which I think I have some kind of Quasimodo thing going on with my face), and played a really long amazing set. Pretty great!

And, oh! The campus is so very beautiful right now. Everything is green and blooming; all the cherry blossom is out, and falls like snow in the breeze. Just so nice-looking as to become silly.

Sorry, this entry is a bit gushing. Also, I will write about the rest of the spring break California roadtrip soon.

Rollercoasters, and Snoopy!!

Yeah, so two days in LA have gone by. Wasn't really what I was expecting somehow, but then my expectations of LA have been formed solely by movies and the L Word, so that's not surprising. Day one in LA we went to the Getty Centre, which is a large complex of art museums and galleries up on a hill. The buildings had that calm futuristic style of white stone, fountains and gardens. It was so beautiful up there in the sunlight, I loved it. The galleries were free to get in, and had a few good exhibits on. I probably didn't make the most of my time there because I got hypnotised by a room of Gerhard Richter paintings and didn't move. The gorgeous sunlight and clear views up at the Getty totally disappeared when we went to Venice Beach in the afternoon. We did have some beach time as planned, we just had to huddle up in three towels to do it. There was a whole bunch of fog and cold air rolling in off the sea. Venice Beach had a long strip of cheesy stalls and shops alongside the beach. Lots of people wanting to sell you tat, tell your fortune or tattoo you. We got hennaed up.

Today we went to Knott's Berry Farm, a nearby theme park which is sponsored by the Peanuts characters or something; a couple of giant inflatable Snoopys around the place. We met up with Tim and James, which was nice, and there were very short lines, also nice. Went on some sweet rollercoasters and swapped spring break stories. I suspect Tim and James have gotten drunker than us (stupid 21 year olds). After the park we drove back via Hollywood, and drove along Sunset and Hollywood Blvds: a lot sleazier-looking than I anticipated, despite the stars of the Walk of Fame along the sidewalks. I think- don't hold your breath here- that Hollywood is overrated. Well, and now we drive to Santa Barbara...

My LA-ex

I don't really have an ex in LA, I was just reminded of that song by Rachel from S Club. For some reason it always makes me think she's singing about laxatives , and that she's just using an acronym to be tactful about her bowel problems.

Anyway, we've reached LA on the epic road trip. I have always been a little scared of LA, it seems like it would be too bright and huge and full of freeways and beautiful people. Well, I guess I'll see if my suspicions are true in the next couple of days; we only arrived this evening so right now we've only seen the local In & Out Burger.

Today we spent in San Diego, our destination after something like 9 hours of driving on Sunday. The huge drive was actually not so bad, despite having only one certified driver and, you know, 9 hours of driving. We didn't get lost, stuck in traffic, pulled over by cops, or murderous feelings towards one another. I see this last as a credit to both our excellent characters and the balanced complexity of our music-playing plan.

San Diego was just beautiful. The weather was in a genuine holiday style; I was a little unnerved by there being no need to wonder whether it would rain or not later. We met up with lovely Becca, a friend from home who is studying at UC San Diego this year, so we caught up and she acted as tourguide. Went to Balboa Park in the morning, which has museums, galleries, theatres, gardens and fountains. Such a cool thing to have in a city centre. At lunchtime we spent something like an hour driving around looking for a bloody In & Out Burger, which is some professedly miraculous burger chain run by mormons. We failed to find it, which was why this evening's dinner was such a pay-off. A little time on Mission Beach this aft, where Becca was immensely gratified to note my incredible whiteness compared with her tan.

San Diego was gorgoeous, so I wish we could have spent more time there. That's the trouble with a whirlwind trip I guess. Oh, and we also spent a day in San Francisco, but I can't be bothered to write about that. (We did some touristy stuff and ate sundaes, it was all good.) So: roadtrip going swimmingly so far.

SPRING BREAK WOOOHOOO!!!!11!!!1!!!!

Ahem. Yeah, so Spring break, pretty excited about that. I have just got zero sleep this week and I'm a little tired of school stuff, so the prospect of spring break is so pleasant right now. Plus: California roadtrip! Living the dream!!

Itinerary, anyone?:

I am taking this trip with Charlotte, Hannah and Asha, Asha being the vital member of the team because she's the only one on this roadtrip who can actually drive. This evening at 7pm ish we fly down to San Francisco, and the flight enough would be plenty to get me excited. I love planes, I love airports, the novelty has not yet worn off. I hope there will be those moving walkways. We stay in San Fran for a bit with Asha's folks, then on Sunday we drive down to San Diego. This is a really long effing way, I'm not sure this was entirely sensible of us, but never mind; we will have a lot of snacks and a strict rota of mix cds to get us through.

Then: San Diego, where we'll meet up with awesome Becca from back in Yorkshire; LA for a day or two, with mooching on the beach; Knott's Berry Farm, rollercoasters with Tim and James; Santa Barbara (maybe); Big Sur, as in the Thrills song; my third visit to Monteray Bay aquarium with the cute sea otters; San Fran again; then back home to Portland! Whereupon I will attend a war protest and write a paper due in for the Monday following break. Come to think of it, this whole plan doesn't seem like it will involve actually catching up on sleep...